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Assistant Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle observes that they probably won't raise serious funds until they plaster the emblem on coke mirrors, bongs and crack pipes.A submarine exploring the ocean's depths recently returned with an unexpected visitor: a crablike critter that has left many readers startled and horrified...In a posting to social bookmarking site Reddit, a deep-sea technician detailed the finding, asking the site's readers to help identify what exactly the bizarre looking creature was.
A submarine exploring the ocean's depths recently returned with an unexpected visitor: a crablike critter that has left many readers startled and horrified.
The post reads, "I work for a Sub-sea Survey Company, recently this beast came up attached to one of our ROVs. It measures a wee bit over 2.5 feet head to tail, and we expect it latched onto the ROV at roughly 8,500 feet depth. Unfortunately, the e-mail that these pictures were attached to came from a contractor, and the ship he was operating from (and therefore location) is unknown, so I can't tell you what part of the Earth this beast was living."
The pictures reveal the creature to be a giant isopod, a large crustacean that dwells in deep Atlantic and Pacific waters. This particular creature is a Bathynomus giganteus, a deep-sea scavenger that feeds on dead whales, fish and squid.
Greenspan Calls Treasury Yields ‘Canary in the Mine’
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the recent rise in Treasury yields represents a “canary in the mine” that may signal further gains in interest rates... Higher yields reflect investor concerns over "this huge overhang of federal debt which we have never seen before," Greenspan said... "I’m very much concerned about the fiscal situation... [An increase in interest rates would] make the housing recovery very difficult to implement and put a dampening on capital investment as well."
...The U.S. budget deficit reached a record $1.4 trillion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 amid falling tax revenue from the recession, a bailout of the banking and auto industries, and the $787 billion economic stimulus package.
"I don’t like American politics and what’s happening," Greenspan said... Historically, there has been "a large buffer between the level of our federal debt and our capacity to borrow... That’s narrowing. And I’m finding it very difficult to look into the future and not worry about that."
Will White House dictate the content of textbooks?: RWN
In DC, however, the salaries are considerably richer.
In the real world, of course, the distribution of salaries is considerably -- uhmmm -- flatter.A security company has found holes in two-way meters that could allow a person with a laptop to tap into the communications between people's homes and utility companies.Security consulting company InGuardians was hired by three utilities to test the vulnerability of smart meters from five manufacturers and the systems used to manage them, according to an Associated Press report.
The results were that smart meters, which create a network link between customers and utilities, have a number of potential vulnerabilities that could lead to scenarios such as a criminal remotely turning someone's power on or off...
...The communications standard used by smart meters, in particular, was an area that was a cause for concern, said Joshua Wright, a senior security analyst with InGuardians. If criminals are able to tap into the network, they could potentially doctor another person's bills or even stage bigger attacks on the grid, according to the report.
InGuardians has published a number of research papers on vulnerabilities in power grid security. They cover topics such as the security of Zigbee, the wireless standard used by some smart meters for in-home communications, as well as an "attack methodology" for two-way meters.
Studying the security vulnerabilities of the power infrastructure has become more common as efforts to modernize the electric grid with digital communications take hold around the world. Security company IOActive, for example, published a report last year showing that smart meters could be manipulated to give a criminal control over many meters.
There have also been public disclosures of attempted cyberattacks on the U.S. power grid.
Let me get this straight: your company wants to prevent an out-of-control federal government from nationalizing your sector of the economy. So you hire a key lobbyist to represent your case. And -- of the thousands of connected lobbyists in DC -- you hire "the Mistress of Disaster"? FireDogLake explains:When President Obama signed the Student Lending and Fiscal Responsibility Act today, it dealt an enormous blow to Wall Street banks...
Sallie Mae spent $3 million on lobbyists last year, and got none of what they wanted. Zero, zip, nada (largely because lobbyists like Tony Podesta and Jamie Gorelick screwed up...).
In 2004, observers were "astonished" to discover that a key member of the 9/11 Commission had a fatal conflict-of-interest. Jamie Gorelick had served as a Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1997.
It was later revealed that Gorelick had established a pre-Patriot Act "wall" that prevented the foreign intelligence and criminal investigative communities from collaborating.
Her 1995 memo, entitled "Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations", stated explicitly that they would "go beyond what is legally required, [to] prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."
The result: shortly before 9/11, Gorelick's wall "specifically impeded the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui", the so-called "20th hijacker."
At the time, an enraged FBI investigator wrote a memo to headquarters which included the sentence, 'Whatever has happened to this -- someday someone will die -- and wall or not -- the public will not understand why we were not more effective..."
The 2004 disclosure that Gorelick's service as a 9/11 Commissioner was the archetypical conflict-of-interest should have triggered a cacophony of complaints and demands for a new investigation. Instead, the mainstream media turned deaf and dumb and the controversy faded into the background.
Gorelick's "wall" wrapped a blindfold around America just when it needed its vision to stop the attacks that killed thousands and which sucked a half a trillion dollars out of the economy.
Where did Gorelick turn up next?
Though she had no training or experience in finance, Gorelick was appointed the Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae and served in the role from 1997 to 2003. During that six-year period, she earned over $26 million.
During Gorelick's tenure, FNMA suffered a $10 billion accounting scandal, an ominous harbinger of the firm's looming troubles. One of the falsified transactions helped FNMA hit earnings targets for 1998, which triggered bonuses for top executives including nearly $800,000 to Gorelick.
Put simply "Jamie Gorelick was one of the Fannie executives who benefited from inflated bonuses based on Enron-style accounting."
In 2002 Business Week interviewed Gorelick concerning the health of FNMA. She responded, "We believe we are managed safely. We are very pleased that Moody's gave us an A-minus in the area of bank financial strength -- without a reference to the government in any way. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions."
Today, of course, FNMA is on taxpayer-funded life support, hundreds of billions in the red. And because it was thought to have been "managed safely" (Gorelick's words), many top-flight financial services companies held its stock. That's how Fannie helped take out AIG, Lehman Brothers, and other financial institutions that had assumed the GSE was a sound investment. Put simply, mismanagement at Fannie played an indisputable role in the mortgage meltdown.I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.
Arabs have always supported the dismantling of this racist government. In 1962, African-Arab Sudan granted Mandela a passport to travel with to gain international support in his struggle to free his people. Libya, among other Arab states, provided Mandela and other African liberation movements, political as well as material support. As a result, Libya was designated by the White House as a terrorist rogue state...
Middle East advisor to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad the founder of the Nation of Islam, as well as Minister Louis Farrakhan; visited more than 80 countries throughout the world and met with many of their leaders, including ...Castro, Saddam Hussein, Hafez Assad, Qathafi, Abdallah ibn Abdel-Aziz, Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Khamenei...
The death of an Arizon rancher: MalkinToday, a two-count complaint and warrant was filed charging Norman Leboon with threatening to kill United States Congressman Eric Cantor and his family
"Funny how there hasn't been a single arrest resulting from any of the alleged acts of violence against Democrats of late but here we have a real incident resulting in an arrest....
WaPo reports the story. No mention that he's 1) a Muslim or 2) an Obama donor. Recall after that nutjob flew a plane into the IRS building in Austin last month a WaPo columnist immediately insinuated he sounded like a Tea Partier. Now we have evidence he's a Muslim Obama donor and pfft, nothing. Same at MSNBC. Same at CNN. Same at Politico.
Just imagine if a Sarah Palin donor was arrested for threatening a Democrat. You suppose that would make it into the story?" -- Jammie Wearing Fool
House Minority Leader Boehner today accused Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman of using intimidation-like tactics in demanding congressional testimony from employers to back their claims the new healthcare law will be costly and undercut job creation."Instead of interrogating America's private-sector job creators, Congress should be listening to them, heeding their warnings about the effects of this deeply flawed new law, and replacing it with reforms that will help them get back to creating jobs," Boehner said in a statement. He said American employers have been warning that the new healthcare policies being promoted by President Obama and Democrats in Congress would damage the economy and hurt efforts to create jobs.
"Yet now that those policies have become law over the objections of the American people, congressional Democrats such as Chairman Waxman profess shock and surprise at hearing American employers announce that they will have no choice but to make painful changes to comply with it," said Boehner.
Boehner's comments referred to letters dated Friday from Waxman and Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to the heads of AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co., requesting that they back up their claims in April 21 appearances before the subcommittee.
Company officials were also asked to provide documents to the panel by April 9.
Waxman's call for hearings came after Speaker Pelosi urged members last week to go on the "offensive" in defending and soothing public doubts the new law. Boehner's reaction shows Republicans are just as intent on pressing the case that the law carries negative implications for businesses.
Waxman's office did not comment by press time.
Although legacy media published roughly 24,000 stories alleging that Tea Party activists had spat upon Democrat representatives -- without evidence of any kind -- Spackle's calls to the Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and Andy Rooney were not returned.
[Growth] had been dropping precipitously in part because of a sudden and significant weakening of our [composite index], which reached a level reflecting a 4.8% year-over-year contraction on February 27th. This was the lowest level recorded for the index since the middle of November, 2008. Although every one of our ten sector indexes weakened over the prior 10 days, our Housing Index retreated the most, again reaching readings representing a 9.5% year-over-year decline in consumer demand.
The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is actually making headlines this week by switching the font it uses in its emails. The school says that printing out documents in Century Gothic rather than its old font, Arial, uses 30% less ink.
The move is part of the school's five-year plan to go green -- and save money. Printer ink costs about $10,000 per gallon. But there's just one problem: Who prints emails from colleges? It's possible that if everyone in America were to start using Century Gothic instead of Arial for all correspondence that is printed, meaningful savings could be achieved. And perhaps this is a start to that. News websites could start by making all print versions of stories appear in a green-friendly font, and readers would appreciate the savings in ink...
A Word to the Weary: Doc ZeroUS 'may not veto UN resolution on Jerusalem'
Israel considers areas within the Jerusalem municipality as its territory
The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, sources suggest to the BBC.The possibility surfaced at talks in Paris last week between a senior US official and Qatar's foreign minister... The official said the US would "seriously consider abstaining" if the issue of Israeli settlements was put to the vote, a diplomat told the BBC.
The US usually blocks Security Council resolutions criticising Israel... But relations between the allies have been severely strained by the announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes in an East Jerusalem settlement during a recent visit to Israel by US Vice-President Joe Biden.
The move prompted the Palestinians to pull out of the US-brokered indirect "proximity talks" that had only just been agreed in a bid to revive the peace process, which has been stalled for more than a year.
2009
• Medicare cuts to hospitals begin (long‐term care (7/1/09) and inpatient and rehabilitation facilities (FY10))
2010• Provide income exclusion for specified Indian tribe health benefits provided after 3/23/10
• Temporary high‐risk pool and high‐cost union retiree reinsurance ($5 B each for 3.5 years) (6/23/10)
• Impose 10% tax on indoor UV tanning (7/1/10)
• Medicare cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/10)
• Prohibits lifetime and annual benefit for private insurers spending limits (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Prohibits non‐group private insurance plans from canceling coverage (rescissions) (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Requires private insurance plans to cover, at no charge, most preventive care (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Requires private insurance plans to allow dependents to stay on parents’ policies through age 26 (plan years
beginning 9/23/10)
• Hospitals in "Frontier States" (ND, MT, WY, SD, UT ) receive higher Medicare payments (FY11)
2011
• Hospitals in “low‐cost” areas receive higher Medicare payments for 2 yrs ($400 million, FY11)
• Medicare Advantage cuts begin
• No longer allowed to use FSA, HSA, HRA, Archer MSA distributions for over‐the-counter medicines
• Medicare cuts to home health begin
• Medicare cuts for wealthier seniors ($85k/$170k), who are forced to pay higher Part D premiums (not indexed for inflation in Parts B/D)
• Medicare reimbursement cuts when seniors use diagnostic imaging like MRIs, CT scans, etc.
• Medicare cuts begin to ambulance services, ASCs, diagnostic labs, and durable
medical equipment
• Impose new annual tax on brand name pharmaceutical companies
• Americans begin paying premiums for federal long‐term care insurance (the CLASS Act, which analysis indicates is a ticking fiscal time-bomb)
• Private insurance plans required to spend a minimum of 80% of premiums on medical claims (where 65% is considered the maximum "safe" amount to cover claims). Prior experience at the state level will indisputably harm private health insurance business.
• Physicians in "Frontier States" (ND, MT, WY, SD, UT ) receive higher Medicare payments
• Prohibition on Medicare payments to new physician‐owned hospitals (which will dramatically reduce access to senior care)
• Penalties for non‐qualified HSA and Archer MSA distributions double (to 20%)
• Seniors prohibited from purchasing power wheelchairs unless they first rent for 13 months
• New Medicare cuts to long‐term care hospitals begin (7/1/11)
• Additional Medicare cuts to hospitals and cuts to nursing homes and inpatient rehab facilities begin (FY12)
• New taxes on all private health insurance policies to pay for comparative effectivness research (plan
years beginning FY12)
2012
• Medicare cuts to dialysis treatment begins
• Medicare to cut spending by using an HMO‐like coordinated care model (Accountable Care Organizations)
• New Medicare cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/12)
• Medicare cuts to hospitals with high readmission rates begin (FY13)
• Medicare cuts to hospice begin (FY13)
2013
• Impose $2,500 annual cap on FSA contributions (indexed to CPI)
• Increase Medicare wage tax by 0.9% and impose a new 3.8% tax on unearned , nonactive
business income for those earning over $200k/$250k (not indexed to inflation)
• Generally increases (7.5% to 10%) threshold at which medical expenses, as a % of income, can be deductible
• Eliminate deduction for Part D retiree drug subsidy employers receive
• Impose 2.3% excise tax on medical devices
• Medicare cuts to hospitals who treat low‐income seniors begin
• $500,000 deduction cap on compensation paid to insurance company employees and officers
2014
• Unconstitutional personal mandate begins: Individuals without government‐approved coverage are subject to a tax of the greater of $695 or 2.5% of income
• Employers who fail to offer "affordable" coverage would pay a $3,000 penalty for every employee that receives a subsidy through the Exchange
• Employers who do not offer insurance must pay a tax penalty of $2,000 for every fulltime employee
• More Medicare cuts to home health begin
• All non‐grandfathered and Exchange health plans required to meet federally mandated levels of coverage
• States must cover parents /childless adults up to 138% of poverty on Medicaid, receive increased FMAP
• Tax credits available for Exchange‐based coverage, amount varies by income up to 400% of poverty
• Private insurers cannot impose any coverage restrictions on pre‐existing conditions (guaranteed issue/renewability, which will bankrupt insurance providers)
• Private insurers must offer coverage to anyone wanting a policy and every policy has to be renewed (which will bankrupt insurance providers)
• Insurance plans must include government‐defined "essential benefits " and coverage levels
• Government board (IPAB) begins submitting proposals to cut Medicare
• Impose tax on nearly all private health insurance plans
• Medicare payment cuts for hospital‐acquired infections begin (FY15)
2015
• More Medicare cuts to home health begin
2016
• Impose "Cadillac tax on “high cost” plans, 40% tax on the benefit value above a certain threshold: ($10,200 individual coverage, $27,500 family or self‐only union multiemployer coverage)
Say, if you just look at the disapproval tracking plot, I think we finally have a contender for a legitimate hockey-stick!
And polling in the swing state of Florida makes Gallup's data look positively rosy by comparison.Florida poll: Healthcare law hurts Obama, Democrats
A new poll shows the healthcare law is bad political medicine for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, President Barack Obama and his domestic agenda.
Only 34 percent of Florida voters support the new law while 54 percent are against it, according to the poll. Opposition is significantly strong among two crucial blocs: those older than 65 and voters with no party affiliation. Seniors disfavor the bill by a 65-25 percent margin, while independents oppose the law 62-34.
The poll, conducted last week, is the first to be taken in Florida since Obama signed the healthcare reform bill into law.
It shows that Floridians have a more negative than positive view of Obama by a margin of 15 percentage points. And they oppose his so-called ``cap-and-trade'' global warming legislation as well as the new healthcare law... The negative sentiment for Nelson was especially ``eye-popping,'' Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker said.
...Because Florida is such a crucial swing state with so many seniors, Nelson's troubles are a shot across the bow for Democrats everywhere, Coker said. The poll shows Nelson would lose his seat in theoretical match-ups against Bob Saget, Vanilla Ice and Corey Feldman.
Now you don't ("Health overhaul likely to strain doctor shortage"):
Chalk this up as reason #48,204 that the Associated Press is a laughingstock.Amid the ongoing — and occasionally tense — debate over how to clean up California's budget mess, lawmakers have taken time out to tidy something else almost as unmanageable: our language. This morning, the Assembly approved a ceremonial resolution turning the first week of March into "Cuss Free Week."...To keep folks honest, Portantino is handing out no-cuss jars to all 120 legislative offices in the Capitol — and to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Every time a naughty word slips out, a few coins get dropped in.
That leaves $18.5 billion to go... Almost all the savings resulted from one bill that replaced the state’s existing tax on gasoline with a new one. The new tax siphons a bit more than $1 billion in revenues that used to go to local transportation.
Just in case you still trusted the state-run media... CNN [calls this] "At least dozens of people." This is dozens?"Hundreds of people, at least dozens of people - we haven’t gotten a count of how many people turned out there. We heard Sarah Palin talk about everything about the campaign, to unseat Sen. Reid to what she calls ObamaCare, on the heels of that health care vote and even talking about her definition of her love of America."
Conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart disputed accounts that tea party activists in Washington shouted racial epithets at black members of Congress amid the health care debate, although he didn't provide any evidence.
Not one of them captured any sort of epithet.
Legacy media has yet to report upon the documented death threats received by Sarah Palin, because said events do not align with the state's agenda.
