Interpol issues warrants for Assange and Cheney

	Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, after having released the third of a series of "megaleaks", has had a red alert issued on him by Interpol for allegedly having sex without a condom with two women in Sweden. The megaleaks include publication of the full Afghanistan War Logs, Iraq War Logs, and most recently, Cablegate, a series of secret cables sent by the US State Department.
Meanwhile, Dick Cheney, former vice president during the Bush administration, and former CEO of Haliburton, had the same red alert issued on him for allegedly bribing the Nigerian governement with $180 million for preferred energy contracts.

Chris Hedges foresees doom

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent, columnist, human rights activist, and overall brilliantly eloquent speaker and writer. He writes a weekly column at TruthDig. He spent 20 years working as chief war correspondent for the New York Times, including a long stint as bureau chief in the Middle East, only to be fired in 2003 for his vocal opposition to the Iraq invasion. His assessments of the US political environment being an inverse totalitarian state of corporate control, and of illiterate Americans living in an infantile illusion are quite interesting, albeit disheartening in that finding any solution for the fundamental issues he outlines appears so hopeless.

Republican vandals slash tires of the Senate

Most americans know that majority vote exceeding 50% can pass a bill. And some know that a bill can be filibustered indefinitely by the minority. Some know about cloture, in which a supermajority vote of 60% can end a filibuster. Very few people however are aware that some of the most basic procedures within the Senate require unanimous consent. To simply allow a bill to be debated requires that 100% of the senate are willing to let the process of debate commence. The process is usually simple, and a long history of courteousness usually makes it look like this:

mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business and senators allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered.

Individual Republicans have increasingly started leveraging this ancient parliamentary formality as the ultimate power play. Why work together with your caucus to create a unified NO during a formal vote, when you can take matters into your own hands, 'hold' formal progress of the underlying proceedings process, and gum up the lawmaking machinery of the entire country all by your lonesome? Classic game theory applies, and by taking such a non-cooperative role, a single individual can often walk away with many rich spoils at the expense of the rest of the population.

Jim Bunning, Senator from Kentucky, used a senate unanimous consent hold for 4 straight days to obstruct a one month extension of unemployment benefits. Bunning sought Pay-Go principles be upheld and that the benefits be paid for with Recovery Act funds rather than increase the deficit. Bunning ultimately folded amidst lack of support from his own party only after causing a 1 day furlough of 2000 government transportation workers and squandering nearly a week of Senate time.

Richard Shelby, Senator from Alabama, invented the unprecedented 'blanket hold' in which he vowed to obstruct all procedural requests to proceed on debate and discussion of the confirmation 70 nominees by the Obama administration a meer week after Obama was inaugurated. Shelby sought over $35 billion in pork for his state in the form of military contracts in exchange for lifting his hold.

Democratic Congress Struggles with Majority; Drop Like Flies

Despite holding a supermajority in both houses for nearly a year, Democratic congressmen have struggling to pen a compelling story of their accomplishments. With only one major bill to point to, the massive $800 billion Recovery Act, and having squandered much time spinelessly placating to a completely obstructionist Republican minority, the Democrats are anticipating a slew of ferocious voters in November ready to axe incumbents on both sides en masse. In recent weeks, many senior Democrats have taken matters into their own hands by simply raising their hands and giving up all together.

Charles B. Rangel, Chairman of the tax-policy-writing Ways and Means Committee. Taking leave due to ethics panel inquiries regarding corporate sponsored trips to the Caribbean, and accusations of impropriety involving Manhattan real estate.

Evan Bayh, Indiana Senator. "I love working for the people of Indiana," he said. "But I do not love Congress."

Christopher J. Dodd, Chairman of the senate Banking Committee. Retired after long tenure in the face of weak polling numbers.

Byron L. Dorgan, Senator for North Dakota. Grew skeptical of his reelection prospects, blaming congressional emphasis on health care rather than job creation.

Parker Griffith, Representative from Alabama, switched to become a Republican to clarify his opposition against large spending measures including the stimulus, cap and trade, and health care.

Obama announces HomeStar program

Designed to drive energy efficiency and to spur job growth and the economy, President Obama announced the HomeStar program yesterday. The idea is to subsidize efforts to make home improvements such as weather proofing, adding insulation, upgrading to new windows, improving heating systems, and the like. The logic is that such improvements typically rely on local contractors and suppliers that are based in the United States, thus driving domestic job growth in industries that are currently suffering from higher than average (22% cited) unemployment. Also, the increases in efficiency are seen as a motion towards lowering dependance on foreign oil and saving households on energy costs over time.

Details:

• Direct rebates for energy-saving investments
• 50 percent rebates for the cost of each upgrade up to $1500
• Rebates up to $3000 for those who choose to retrofit their whole homes
• Guaranteed quality installations through quality assurance providers who would conduct field audits after work is completed
• Support for financing through State and local governments

Obama stems job losses after a year

Madoff proves SEC is incompetent

After the financial meltdown in late 2008 forced large redemptions to expose the $68 billion dollar ponzii scheme by Bernard L. Madoff, the criminal has been sentenced to 150 years of federal prison.



There are many questions however that are unanswered. The first is how the SEC didn't catch on sooner, and why were the 6 previous investigations in 1992, 2005, and 2007 dropped? The U.S. government is somewhat liable as well through the SPIC, which guarantees $500,000 per victim in protection on accounts that have holdings in actual securities and cash. So the second question is how much of the $420,000,000 that the SIPC trustee will pay to victims will be from tax payer dollars? It seems like it'd be more efficient to regulate responsibly rather than to pay out such insurance claims after the fact.

Interview with a Madoff victim


Madoff speaks about how Wall Street works in 2007 - portrait of a smooth, trusted, con artist