Clinton suggests that taxing the rich is not anti wealth, but pro fairness.
Comments »Upside Down; What We are Discovering About America
The Super Committee Members Continue Traditional Politics
Worries Mount Over Italy Being Able to Form a Government That Can Implement Austerity
No leader has been found yet for the interim government in Italy. As yields soar the world waits to see if a stable enough government can be formed to implement harsh measures that Italy must face.
Comments »Late Afternoon Fun: Breathe in Deep
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbYVdeKwolc&feature=player_embedded#! 450 300]
Comments »North Carolina….The Eugenics State
Obama Health Care Reform Ruling: Appeals Court Upholds Law
A conservative-leaning panel of federal appellate judges on Tuesday upheld President Barack Obama’s health care law as constitutional, helping set up a Supreme Court fight.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a split opinion upholding the law. The court agreed to dismiss a Christian legal group’s lawsuit claiming the requirement that all Americans get health insurance is unconstitutional and violates religious freedom.
The requirement has been the subject of several lawsuits, with some judges across the country ruling it unconstitutional and others upholding the law. That means the Supreme Court is sure to decide the fate of Obama’s signature law. The high court is expected to decide soon, perhaps within days, whether to accept appeals from some of those earlier rulings.
The suit in Washington was brought by the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson. It claimed that the insurance mandate violates the religious freedom of those who choose not to have insurance because they rely on God to protect them from harm. But the court ruled that although the requirement is an encroachment on individual liberty, Congress had the power to pass it to ensure that all Americans can have health care coverage.
“The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems,” Judge Laurence Silberman, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, wrote in the 2-1 opinion. Silberman was joined by Judge Harry Edwards, a Carter appointee.
Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a former top aide to President George W. Bush who appointed him to the bench, disagreed with the conclusion without taking a position on the merits of the law. He wrote a lengthy opinion arguing the court doesn’t have jurisdiction to review the health care mandate until after it takes effect in 2014.
Comments »Congress looks to give more guarantees to farmers
Comments »WASHINGTON (AP) — Farm-state lawmakers are moving to create a whole new subsidy that would protect farmers when their revenue drops — an unprecedented program that critics say could pay billions of dollars to farmers now enjoying record-high crop prices.
The subsidy, free insurance that would cover farmers’ “shallow crop losses” before their paid insurance kicks in, has been pushed by corn and soybean farmers who could benefit the most from the program. It would replace for the most part several other subsidy programs, including direct payments preferred by Southern rice and cotton farmers. Growers get the direct payments regardless of crop yields or prices. They don’t even have to farm.
The income insurance plan has a diverse group of opponents — environmental groups that have long argued against farm subsidies, conservatives who say the plan won’t save the government much and even one of the nation’s largest farm groups. The American Farm Bureau Federation says the beefed-up insurance could encourage farmers to make riskier decisions and drive up the price of land.
Top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are looking at folding the new subsidy into a farm bill proposal they are quietly crafting as part of their charge by the deficit-cutting congressional supercommittee to cut farm spending.
The four lawmakers — Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas; House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla. and Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn. — have said they will shave $23 billion from farm and food aid programs over the next decade. The new revenue insurance program would be considered part of their effort to achieve that goal.
Italian Yields Spike as Berlusconi’s Government is Expected to Collapse
Papandreou To Step Down as National Unity Government Forms
Commentary: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Herman Cain Lynching
Herman Cain’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week ended on a discordantly high note. Addressing a packed ballroom in Washington’s Convention Centre, the former pizza mogul prompted whoops and cheers when he referred obliquely to the sexual harassment storm that had at times threatened to sweep away his White House candidacy.
“You know, I’ve been in Washington all week, and I’ve attracted a little bit of attention,” he boomed. “And there was an article in The New York Times today that has attempted to attract some more attention. You know, that’s kind of what happens when you start to show up near or at the top of the polls. It just happens that way.”
The article in question was one of the few that had not been about allegations that Cain, the unlikely Republican front runner in national polls, had behaved inappropriately with women while he was president of the National Restaurant Association.
Instead, the article sought to bracket Cain with the Koch brothers, the billionaire bogeymen for liberals who founded the Americans for Prosperity group and pump money into conservative and liberal causes. Rather than seek to wriggle out of the association, Cain embraced it, declaring, as the room erupted: “I am the Koch brothers’ brother from another mother.”
The address by the former motivational speaker, at the Americans for Prosperity annual conference, was vintage Cain – strong on rhetoric, short on policy detail, powerfully delivered and unashamedly politically incorrect.
Hours earlier, an ABC/Washington Post poll had found that Cain’s national popularity had improved during a week that, by any conventional standards, had been disastrous.
Mitt Romney, the best-funded, most-disciplined and most experienced candidate, was stuck on 25 percent while Cain was up six points from a month at 23 percent and breathing down his neck. As every student of American politics knows, national polls matter little in a primary race. But the surveys in early-voting states like Iowa and South Carolina are also indicating that Cain has not been damaged.
There’s no way this should be happening. The 65-year-old grandfather’s response to the sexual harassment claims that have emerged out of the woodwork after a dozen years has been miserable. At least two cases were settled for a total of $80,000 after allegations were made against him.
Rather than being prepared for the inevitable disclosure of the cases, he was caught flat-footed, claiming at first not to remember what had happened and then dribbling out details and shifting explanations over the ensuing days. He fuelled more controversy by blaming Governor Rick Perry’s campaign for planting the story, lost his temper with the press and was barely able to talk about the US economy until his speech on Friday.
By any normal rules of politics, Cain should be toast. So what’s going on?
Simply put, the media and Cain’s detractors have over-played their hand. By Friday night, Politico, which broke the original story, had published 94 articles on the allegations in under six days. Every other major publication had followed suit. Every time he stepped out of a room, Cain was mobbed by reporters.
Yet despite the maelstrom, Cain’s accusers remain anonymous and the details of the allegations oddly vague. With many conservatives believing that sexual harassment lawsuits are an industry and that frivolous cases are often settled to avoid more expensive litigation, there was a growing sense that Cain was being treated unfairly.
Cain’s very amateurishness became almost endearing. Rather than mouthing slick talking points, Cain got angry with the journalists (a profession loathed by most Republican activists) and claimed that he was the victim of a “high-tech lynching”.
That was the phrase used by Clarence Thomas during the ugly confirmation hearings for his seat on the Supreme Court in 1991. Thomas had been accused by Anita Hill, a former subordinate, of making crude sexual comments.
Vilified and mocked by the Left, Thomas’s righteous anger boiled over as he condemned the hearings as “a circus” and “a national disgrace” in which “uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves” would be destroyed. “You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate rather than hung from a tree.”
Cain, of course, is also a black conservative. As such, he sends many on the Left crazy because he defies the standard categories of politics. White conservatives are eager to support conservatives of colour partly to combat allegations of racism but also because they appreciate the courage it takes for blacks to break out of the Democratic party straitjacket.
Despite his anti-politician message and his campaign gaffes (he did not know China had nuclear weapons, had not heard of the Palestinian right of return and suggested he would free Guantanamo Bay prisoners if terrorist hostage-takers demanded it, to name but three) Cain is a shrewd operator.
While decrying race-based politics, Cain has been happy to compare himself to Haagen Dazs black walnut ice cream, joke that he’s a “dark horse” or quip that his Secret Service codename should be “Cornbread” . By Friday, a Cain Super PAC had cut a television ad entitled: “High-tech lynching”.
Just as Barack Obama’s race was a key part of his appeal in 2008, Cain is a more attractive candidate for Republicans because he is black. Obama’s supporters responded with fury and lobbed accusations of racism when their candidate came under legitimate attack from the Clintons. Cain backers have been similarly vehement.
Sexual allegations against a black man are rightly treated with great suspicion by many Americans because they play on the kind of fears and taboos examined in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird. With the case against him thin and the accusation so incendiary, Cain’s predicament is prompting more sympathy than opprobrium.
Those who leaked the details of the 1990s sexual harassment cases might have thought that they’d destroy Herman Cain and leave his campaign dangling from a tree. But, as befits this strange and unpredictable election campaign, a funny thing happened on the way to the lynching.
Comments »One-Term Obama? A Year Until US Election Day
bama could be a one-term president.
The election in 2008 may have been the most exciting for years culminating in the country’s first black president but three years on, most Americans believe he will not be re-elected, according to some polls.
We followed Mr Obama’s route through North Carolina last month to gauge his chances.
Winning the state, albeit with the slimmest majority, was a crucial part of his election strategy in 2008.
Asheville builder Brad Rice, whose company Bellwether Design and Build has contracted in the Obama economy and laid off workers, remembers Obamamania well.
“It was just exciting. Just something new. He had a lot of good ideas and it just seemed after eight years of George Bush everybody was ready for a change.”
But he says the excitement has “worn off” and America has come down to reality: “He said some things and he just hasn’t been able to get them done.”
In February 2009 Mr Obama himself doubted his chances of re-election if he could not get the economy back in shape.
“A year from now I think that people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress,” he told NBC News.
“But there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years then there’s going to be a one term proposition.”
So far the economy President Obama inherited from George Bush, already in poor shape, has not improved on his watch.
Growth is a sluggish 2.5%, unemployment a politically radioactive 9% at least.
Local banker David Wooten met the President at the barbecue restaurant he dropped in on in North Carolina and reckons Mr Obama should be worried.
“This area has been hit by unemployment, factories closing. We’ve had 10% unemployment for a long time and it’s the economy in a lot of cases that affects the election. He’ll probably have an uphill battle here.”
Since Mr Obama toured the state, economic figures have improved but only marginally and, more worryingly, the long-term outlook is equally depressing.
A few days after he swept through the mountain town of Boone, we talked to Philip Ardoin, politics professor at the Appalachia State University.
Mr Obama will not want to hear his analysis.
“I would give him a less than 10% chance of re-election right now.
“Because of the dire situation America is in, and the American people, and that is not necessarily justified, hold the President responsible for the economic situation. And as a result they’re going to look for an alternative.”
Comments »{VIDEO} Violent OWS Protesters Prevent Woman in Wheelchair From Leaving Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1K1r_w8u38
Comments »ECB May End Italy Bond Buys if No Reforms Come
The European Central Bank often discusses the possibility ending the purchase of Italian government bonds if it concludes Italy is not adopting promised reforms, ECB Governing Council Member Yves Mersch said.
“If we observe that our interventions are undermined by a lack of efforts by national governments then we have to pose ourselves the problem of the incentive effect,” Mersch said according to extracts of an interview with Italian daily La Stampa to be published on Sunday.
Asked if this meant the ECB would stop buying Italy’s bonds if it did not adopt reforms it has promised to the European Union, Mersch, who heads Luxembourg’s central bank, replied:
“If the ECB board reaches the conclusion that the conditions that led it to take a decision no longer exist, it is free to change that decision at any moment. We discuss this all the time.”
Since the ECB resumed its bond buying programme (SMP) around three months ago it has purchased some 100 billion euros of government bonds, a majority of which are thought to be Italian BTPs.
Mersch said the ECB did not want to become a lender of last resort to help the euro zone solve its debt crisis and said it was concerned that its job could be made more difficult by governments that “don’t meet their responsibilities.”
“Our job is not to remedy the errors of politicians,” he said.
Mersch also defended the right of Italian Lorenzo Bini Smaghi to remain on the ECB board even though this means Italy now has two members and France has none, much to the annoyance of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
“He (Bini Smaghi) has an eight year mandate, the treaties do not say that if someone comes from a specific Treasury ministry he has a right to a place on the ECB board,” he said.
“The spirit of the treaties is that everyone leaves his passport in the wardrobe when he participates in ECB meetings.”
Comments »REVENGE AGAINST WOODSHEDDER! Obama Snubs World Series Champs
Due to iBankCoin’s own @Woodshedder being both an ardent political conservative/libertarian and St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan, President Obama has sought and carried out revenge.
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Was President Barack Obama too busy watching the “Operation Repo” marathon or something else last Friday night?
When KMOX host Charlie Brennan asked now-retired St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa how the traditional call of congratulations from the White House went, La Russa suddenly realized that…it never happened.
“That’s a good point, I hadn’t really even thought about that,” replied a surprised-sounding La Russa, who can be forgiven for having a few other things on his mind over the past week. “As we were getting into the World Series we had a call from the White House to make sure they had the correct number for my office.”
But as the wild, champagne-drenched celebration of the team’s 11th World Series title was going on in the locker room, that phone never rang.
“We never did get a call,” La Russa said.
And all this despite the fact that the First Lady, Michelle Obama, was in town for Game 1 of the World Series.
“Very impressive, too.” La Russa recalled of his meeting with the First Lady.
Obama didn’t immediately phone last year’s World Series champions, either. But the San Francisco Giants did hear from him eventually:
And the President also hosted the Giants at the White House this summer, where he congratulated them personally.
Whether or not President Obama picks up the phone, or invites him and his team to Washington, TLR doesn’t seem too worried about the apparent slip in postgame protocol.
He’s packing up his things and getting ready to “head west” for the next phase of his life.
La Russa will vacate his office at Busch Stadium as of Friday.
He’s contemplating his next step, which could be buying a minor league ballclub, writing his memoirs, or simply pursuing one of his passions…reading.
He’s currently checking out “The Affair” by Lee Child.
La Russa also said that if asked, he would come back to manage the National League squad during next summer’s All-Star Game, which he earned by guiding the Cardinals to the NL pennant.
Comments »FLASH: Papandreou Wins His Confidence Vote
11/5/11 Is Dump Your Bank Day
Gridlock Continues as Senate Blocks Infrastructure Bill
China says they’ll stop manipulating renminbi…again…
Comments »China will make new commitments on its exchange rate policy Friday as part of the official Group of 20 communiqué, according to a U.S. official close to the matter.
“There will be some slightly new language on China and the exchange rate,” the official said, adding that the move “will not be the be-all-end-all.”
The United States has been pushing China to move toward a “market-based” exchange rate for its currency, the yuan, since at least 2008.
“This is an issue that has involved a lot of hard work on our part,” the official said.
China has allowed its currency to appreciate somewhat, but many economists say it remains significantly undervalued.
Critics say China manipulates its currency to give its export-driven economy an advantage in global trade. China has argued that its currency policy is necessary to maintain “social stability.”
A New Grecian Formula: Drop Plans of a Referendum
Papandreou told his cabinet that he would drop plans for the referendum as democracy is not worth getting screwed in the ass by Merkel while Sarkozy watches with video recorder in hand.
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