by Rich Herschlag

Iraq got you down? Plummeting real estate values? Bad credit? Soaring fuel prices? Impending recession? Fear not. Your six-hundred dollar or so tax rebate check is on its way. Time to pay off the bogus internet charges on your cell phone bill. Time to finish decorating the trailer. Time to get that Fender Strat out of hock. Don’t spend it all in one pawn shop.

Six big ones will keep us in our overleveraged homes for weeks and our kids in college for days. It may even cover a lab fee or two, which will come in handy when you and Junior open that crystal meth factory you’ve been dreaming about.

Six hundred dollars will get you a few minutes with Ashley Alexandra Dupree. And not even prime minutes. Speaking of which, Eliot Spitzer never got full credit for his own stimulus package. A new independent study says idle hookers are bad for the economy. Full Story »

by Josh Nelson

In what will perhaps become Chris Wallace’s proudest moment, yesterday’s interview of Barack Obama offers a glimpse into the subtle efforts FOX makes to frame the debate.

In the first 9 minutes all of Wallace’s questions and comments were about race.

9:03 A.M EST: WALLACE: But some observers, and some liberal observers say is that part of your problem is you come off as a former law professor who talks about transforming politics when the lunch bucket crowd really wants to know what youre going to do for them. Bob Herbert, columnist for the New York Times, happens to be a black man, says that Hillary Clinton seems tougher than you do. Full Story »

Last week AT&T exec Jim Cicconi did his part to spread FUD by claiming that the Internet will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010, bolstering this doomsday notion with absurd claims that three households could conceivably consume as much bandwidth as the entire existing Internet, or that the entirety of existing networks built today came from private-sector innovation, a claim I’m sure everyone from Vint Cerf to Al Gore can dispute. Full Story »

Is the answer to the above question “No?”

Well, that’s part of the problem–millions of Americans are in the same boat, and they are equally unaware of the situation

The basic gist is this: On February 17, 2009, “over-the-air” (OTA) broadcast television stations that use analog signals (which you pick up through the familiar “rabbit-ear” antennae) are switching to digital signals, which means that unless you have a strong enough antenna set and a special set-top converter box, your television will not be able to pick up the new signals. The government’s official DTV site gives a concise description of the whole event.

Full Story »

I was deeply amused to read the breathless news coverage of Hammerin’ Hank Paulson’s “ambitious” and “sweeping” plans to restructure the federal financial regulatory structure. It says something about how far the goalposts of this country’s discourse have been moved towards rampant, unchecked, unbridled “law of the jungle” financial pillaging that modest reforms like these are considered a major move.

If these pathetic hot-flashing stenographers that call themselves “reporters” would actually take a closer look at the plan itself–hell, even just the fact sheet–they would see that not only is Paulson’s reform agenda miniscule at best, but that it’s a shell game, a distraction designed to accomplish the long-held mantra of the Bush administration–centralizing federal power and weakening consumer protections at the state level. Full Story »

Right now the Clinton campaign carnage is focused on whether or not falsely claiming to be shot at on a Bosnian tarmac qualifies you to be ready to answer the red phone at 3 am. But there are other, subtler issues surrounding her that give me serious pause when considering whether or not she can truly be a progressive, or even Democratic president.

Her approach to dealing with the mortgage meltdown and resultant economic crisis is generally sound, especially in terms of endorsing the plans put forth by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, both of whom have been doing some serious heavy lifting on this issue for the past few years.  But Clinton runs the risk of sabotaging the plan in a major way by putting none other than Alan “Irrational Exuberance” Greenspan himself in charge of the working group handling the initiative. Full Story »

The accessing of private passport-based travel data of all three Presidential candidates by contractors working for the State Department has finally galvanized Capitol Hill to address the issue of privacy–something we’ve been begging them to do for years. Ron Wyden sums it up succinctly:

“The Government Accountability Office has been warning about this problem for a decade. And it seems to me in this administration, there’s been pretty much a culture of disregard for privacy, and that’s part of the problem,” he said.

Wyden may have been referring to a 2006 report from the GAO documenting the lack of oversight in sharing Social Security Numbers with contractors working for various federal agencies, including the IRS and the FBI, as well as within the private sector. It is but one of many reports the investigative agency has issued documenting the serious vulnerabilities our government’s mad drive to outsource its functions to the private sector has wrought–but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. Full Story »

I’m looking at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s comments in the wake of her primary victories yesterday in Texas and Ohio, and I’m wondering if I now have even more reason to be worried than I did before. From CNN:

Clinton attributed her wins to the belief of voters that she would be the best candidate to protect the nation.

“For me, this election has always been about who can be the best president, and, you know, that includes who can be the best commander in chief,” she told CNN Wednesday. Full Story »

Joe Brewer and George Lakoff have published a new analysis that looks at the importance of “cognitive policy” - the process of constructing the assumptions that underlie actual material policy decisions.

For instance:

Conservative cognitive policy over many years has resulted in the following ideas being promulgated to the public:

1. Successful wealthy people merit their success. Those who are not successful and wealthy don’t deserve to be. Full Story »

On February 14 Silvestre Reyes, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, crawled up in Dubya’s grille and dropped some righteous nard-stomping pro-democracy rhetoric on his punk ass. We were as happy as we were stunned to see a Democratic leader swinging an actual set of cojones in the face of Mr. President’s fragrantly anti-liberty pro-corporate full-monty assault on our freedoms.

Talk, as they say, is cheap. Full Story »

So by now you’ve probably heard that Ralph Nader is once again making a third run for the presidency. It pains me to have to say it, but Nader is making a terrible mistake and further tarnishing his legacy. He should not run.

Let me begin by emphasizing how much I admire Nader and all he has done. As a consumer advocate myself, I probably would not have the career I do if it wasn’t for him. His work on everything from auto safety to the corporate takeover of modern politics should be an inspiration to anyone who wants to stand up for the little guy. I read his book, supported his presidency, and when compared to the stiff mannequin that was Al Gore in 2000 and the incipient stupidity of Dubya, I pulled the lever for him.

But this isn’t 2000. It’s a very different world, and Nader simply refuses to recognize that.

Full Story »

In order for a disparate group of individuals to band together into a workable community, there have to be rules, both implicit and explicit. There are laws that people agree to follow to preserve the good of the whole, and there are social constructs developed that the members adhere to. “Don’t screw your friends.” “Play fair.” “You get what you pay for.” Basic principles that everyone (at least overtly) respects, thus maintaining the even keel of the group.

But we’ve seen over the last thirty years a slow, deliberate erosion of those sort of rules, replaced with the glorification of the individual self as paramount. Nothing else matters but you and what you get for yourself. As long as you profit and make out okay, fuck everyone else. This has led to deliberately hostile, antagonistic moves between the buyer and seller in almost every kind of financial transaction imaginable, and many other social obligations besides. The name of the game is to screw the other guy, before he screws you. Full Story »

President Bush yesterday took as harsh a one-two beatdown as he has endured in the entire seven cynical, corrupt years of his doomed presidency.

First Silvestre Reyes, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, sent him a damning letter on his stubborn and hypocritical position on FISA. The letter not only outlines the facts of the law and the circumstances surrounding it for those who might only be familiar with the overt lie that Bush has been pandering to the American public, it concludes with a statement of intent that every single Member of Congress would do well to adopt: Full Story »

I live in Washington, D.C. For those who don’t know, that means I have no Senator or official Representative to speak for me in Congress. I have a shadow delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who does an admirable job of fighting for our rights, but she has no vote. I’ve supported and fought hard for the right of the citizens of the nation’s capitol to have a voice in deciding legislation that affects us as it would a resident of any other state.

Today, however, after seeing a travesty such as this, I am glad that I don’t have a Senator to speak for me, for that means I’d be spared the morbid embarrassment of someone I voted for doing their part to eradicate the fundamental right to privacy and justify egregious corporate lawbreaking.

The battle now shifts to the House, and it looks like (contrary to my earlier concerns) the will to fight is much greater. At the risk of being dramatic, this is where we draw the line in the sand–where we stand up and say “No more abuses of power. No more spying. No more breaking the law. No More.”

We’ve lost a major battle, but the greater struggle is still ahead. And we can win it.

Right now the Senate is embroiled in debate over whether or not to grant the major telecom companies (chiefly AT&T and Verizon) retroactive immunity for their participation in the NSA’s illegal surveillance program, in addition to legitimizing vast new surveillance powers over Americans with almost no oversight. You already know my feelings about that, so I won’t belabor the point.

On this issue, as with many others (such as their opposition to net neutrality), the two giants of the telecom industry have been largely buddy-buddy. Both of them stand to lose millions in damages from lawsuits brought against them for their actions, before even getting into the bad publicity the case has already caused. It’s easy to forget that these two companies are (at least in a technical sense) competitors, and don’t always pursue the same goals in the same way.

Case in point: Full Story »

Following up on my post from a little while back discussing Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell’s desire to police the Internet, the Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima confirmed last weekend that the Decider had signed a classified directive authorizing the NSA to more expansively monitor intrusions on federal networks for signs of cyberattacks:

Until now, the government’s efforts to protect itself from cyber-attacks — which run the gamut from hackers to organized crime to foreign governments trying to steal sensitive data — have been piecemeal. Under the new initiative, a task force headed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will coordinate efforts to identify the source of cyber-attacks against government computer systems. As part of that effort, the Department of Homeland Security will work to protect the systems and the Pentagon will devise strategies for counterattacks against the intruders. Full Story »

I warned you last month that although Chris Dodd and a grassroots push from the blogosphere succeeded in stopping the reauthorization of laws that grant the government vast new spying powers (and immunity from prosecution for telecoms that abet and provide them), this bill would be back, and the fight would come again.

Well, it’s here. Bush is pushing for permanent authorization of the odious Protect America Act, and the extraordinary incompetence of Harry Reid is poised to let him have it. Full Story »

That Bush and his inner circle of neocon zealots lied and cooked the books to get us into a war we never should have fought is not news, of course. But to see the number of lies told and analyzed in such a fashion as Lewis and Reading-Smith have done beggars the imagination–the sheer amount of bullshit spewed by this cabal is astonishing. Consider: Full Story »

The World Future Energy Summit is taking place this week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Conference topics include solar and wind power, clean transportation, carbon, waste-to-fuel conversion, biofuels, geothermal and other energy sources. There’s also an exhibition where 214 corporations, NGOs, media groups, financial institutions, and government organizations are showing off their latest “future energy” options. Included are five national pavilions where national governments are hosting even more of their local companies, and exhibitions range from new energy generation techniques to energy efficiency technologies to carbon offsets (the conference itself is being billed as carbon neutral, via the CarbonNeutral Company). This conference and exhibition is being paid for and hosted by Abu Dhabi, an emirate that is wealthy precisely because of the vast reserves of carbon - in the form of oil - beneath its desert and coast. Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced that his government would offer a $2.2 million prize “to three individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions in the global response to the future of energy”, to be judged by an international panel of environmental and energy experts. Other information to come out of the conference already include and agreement between Iceland and Djibouti to supply Djibouti with geothermal energy and subsequently displace of the diesel generators that currently power most of the small nation’s electricity. Full Story »

Today’s guest post is from our friend Natasha Chart.

Ezra Klein wrote recently about how the ‘best’ health care in the world has allowed between 75,000-100,000 preve