Budgets, Priorities, and Cannon Fodder

By now, we’ve all been through the town meeting process. Difficult decisions about budgets have been thrashed out and voted on. New fire trucks, police cars, town garages – all have been dealt with, with a stern eye fixed upon our current economic situation.

The same kind of work is being done in every state. The bottom line is that tax revenues are down, all across the country. With a national unemployment rate somewhere in the 18-20% rate, one can see why. States are making difficult decisions. Indiana embraced a statewide tax cap. An increase in sales tax revenue was supposed to fill in the gap, but sales tax revenues have declined rather dramatically. That’s the thing about tax caps. They don’t cut costs, they just force cuts in spending, and those spending cuts almost always affect education and services for the most vulnerable amongst us. Muncie had to cut 32 firefighters, or 29% of their force.

This same work is being done in Concord. The DD waiting list is about to return. This is the list of people who have developmental disabilities or brain injuries, who need services. That we had a waiting list, ever, for these folks is mind boggling enough. The list was eliminated in 2007, but is likely to return. State Senator Lou “Slots” D’Allesandro would like to tie the DD waiting list to potential gaming revenues, but many families aren’t happy with the idea of gambling on their child ever getting services.

Also going under the ax are juvenile diversion programs, AIDS services, the state employee’s pension fund, and the court system. NH’s courts are already bogged down with backlog, and it’s about to get worse. No speedy trial for you in NH. The Dept. of Corrections is also going to take a hit. So are the state parks. Since some of our state parks are already in terrible shape, this isn’t good in a state that relies so heavily on tourist dollars.

States have been warned that there will be little help forthcoming from the federal government, which is facing the same problems. Tax revenues are down. The Bush tax cuts were supposed to create jobs, but that didn’t work out. Instead, they increased the deficit, and our revenue problems. Over 11 million jobs were lost during the last decade, and no one seems to have much of a plan for how to make them come back. Instead, more trade agreements are planned, meaning more jobs heading overseas. Tax cuts for the wealthy do not create jobs, no matter how many times the trickle-down Reaganistas tell us that it is so.

Our infrastructure is failing. Our health care system is a disaster. Our educational system is also failing. We’re lagging behind in technology and in access to the internet, which is still a huge problem in rural areas. The United States is a wealthy country – so where are our resources going? Simple. They’re going to war.

A look at our federal discretionary budget pie chart reveals what our national priority in spending is: defense. In 2009, 58% of the discretionary budget went to defense spending. According to the Pentagon, the US has 716 military bases overseas. This does not count the 400 bases we currently have in Afghanistan, or the 300 or so that we have in Iraq. There aren’t many countries that don’t have a US base or at least a US military presence. We are a global occupying force.

That’s been our choice, since the Cold War. Our defense spending is as much as the rest of the world combined. Other countries have enacted wonderful education and health care programs for their people. They have high-speed railways; they have Internet access for nearly everyone who wants it. These countries made their people their priority. The US has made killing people a priority.

From 1940 to 1996, the US spent $5 .5 trillion on nuclear weapons, and nuclear weapons programs. That’s a stack of dollar bills that would reach all the way to the moon, and partway back again. That’s a stack of money that did nothing for the people of this country. To justify it, fears were created. The Russians! The Communists! There’s always a reason found to keep on expanding US defense spending. Terrorism is the new Communism.

Terrorists are created most easily in places where there are no educational or job opportunities, where the quality of life is marginal at best. Terrorism is also created in places where there is a strong perceived sense of injustice. These are not conditions that we will rectify at gunpoint. We cannot ever kill “the terrorists” since the very act of our killing serves to create more of them. Still, we’re spending trillions on killing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Seven new bases are planned in Colombia.

At a time when things are so grim here at home, in February, Obama asked for an increase in defense spending. In 2009, the DoD base budget was $513 billion. In 2010 it leaped to $534 billion. For 2011, the DoD has requested $708 billion. That does not include the appropriations for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Presumably it covers the rest of the countries we are currently bombing: Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.

It’s difficult to imagine how we will be able to continue to afford this level of military spending, but cutting military spending is not up for discussion. Anyone who mentions it is automatically accused of being weak and unpatriotic. That’s what the culture of military imperialism has done for us – along with the 24-hour cable news cycle, and the shrieking idiots found therein.

As parents sit around the kitchen table wondering how to pay for college: fear not. There aren’t any jobs anyhow. The US military is our jobs program. There’s plenty of opportunity in the growing field of cannon fodder.


“The world cannot continue to wage war like physical giants and to seek peace like intellectual pygmies.” ~ Basil O’Connor

© sbruce 2010 published as an op-ed in the Conway NH Daily Sun 3-19-10

State Owned Banks

Given the slow pace of financial service reforms, some states are looking for ways to avoid the "too big to fail" syndrome. One approach being looked at is is state owned banking.

That's a question that a growing number of candidates and legislators across the country are answering with proposals to create state-owned banks. Though these initiatives borrow from an old model--North Dakota has run a successful state bank since 1919--they are a response to a new reality: the hundreds of billions of public dollars plowed into big banks by the federal bailout have done little to free credit for job creation or economic development in recession-ravaged communities. So, taking a cue from Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and other critics of private-bank bailouts, latter-day populists are proposing to put public money to work for the public good.

From the Bank of North Dakota history:

During the early 1900's, North Dakota's economy was based on agriculture. Serious in-state problems prevented cohesive efforts in buying and selling crops and financing farm operations. Grain dealers outside the state suppressed grain prices; farm suppliers increased their prices; and interest rates on farm loans climbed.

By 1919, popular consensus wanted state ownership and control of marketing and credit agencies. Thus, the state legislature established Bank of North Dakota and the North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association.

Bank of North Dakota (BND) was charged with the mission of "promoting agriculture, commerce and industry" in North Dakota. It was never intended for BND to compete with or replace existing banks. Instead, Bank of North Dakota was created to partner with other financial institutions and assist them in meeting the needs of the citizens of North Dakota.

Meeting the needs of the citizens used to be what banks did. As small, locally owned banks were bought out by larger banks, that were bought by too-big-to-fail conglomerates, the quaint concept of meeting the needs of the citizens fell by the wayside.

Back to John Nichols and how some states are thinking about going back to meeting the needs of their citizens:

Oregon Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Bradbury is calling for the creation of a Bank of Oregon, which would keep money in the state and invest in sustainable development. "It is time to declare economic sovereignty from the multinational banks that are responsible for much of our current economic crisis," says the former State Senate president and secretary of state. "Every year we ship over a billion dollars in Oregon taxpayer dollars to out-of-state and multinational banks in the form of deposits, only to see that money invested elsewhere. It's time to put our money to work for Oregonians."

Michigan's Virg Bernero, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor in that hard-hit state, is another public-banking proponent. "We can break the credit crunch and beat Wall Street at their own game by keeping our money right here in Michigan and investing it to retool our economy and create jobs," says the populist mayor of Lansing. In Illinois, Green Party gubernatorial nominee Rich Whitney, who won 10 percent of the statewide vote in 2006, proposes depositing all state tax revenues and pension contributions in a state bank. "Instead of using state funds as a means to further enrich private banks, a state-owned bank could earn additional revenue for the state while at the same time help spur economic development in Illinois," he argues.

This is a populist solution whose time may well have arrived - especially if we want to avoid what the Austin Lounge Lizards foretell:




cross posted at workingamerica.org/blog

Tapped

A reminder about Tapped, the movie

Tapped is going to be shown on Monday, March 22, 6 pm, at the Conway Public Library. This film takes a look at the social, economic, and environmental realities behind the bottled water industry, as well as how Poland Spring/Nestle has all but destroyed the town of Fryeburg, ME. Nestle worked awfully hard to make sure this film wouldn't be shown in Maine - so see it in New Hampshire! After the screening, there will be discussion and drinks at Cafe Noche. The film is free and open to the public. The drinks are on you!

A note to my regular readers - this has generated a lot of traffic to my blog. Nestle, and their PR firm have been regular visitors.

More Foreclosures Ahead

The Washington Post reports on what is expected to be a new round of home foreclosures:

About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale. Some economists project it could take nearly three years before all these homes have been put on the market and purchased by new owners. And the number of pending foreclosures could grow much bigger over the coming year as more distressed borrowers become delinquent and then, if they can't obtain mortgage relief, wade through the foreclosure process, which often takes more than a year to complete.

As these foreclosed properties add to the supply of homes for sale, they could undercut housing prices, which have increased modestly through December, according to the most recent figures in the S&P/Case-Shiller home prices index. That rise partly reflected a slowdown in the flow of foreclosed homes onto the market.

This affects a whole different group of homeowners/borrowers:


The borrowers in trouble now are, for the most part, people who have better credit and safer loans and have become delinquent because they've lost their jobs or are dealing with other economic setbacks, economists said. More than 75 percent of the borrowers who are now seriously delinquent -- meaning they have missed at least three monthly payments -- have traditional prime loans, according to First American CoreLogic. Most of these borrowers have not made a mortgage payment in six months.

These borrowers are among the most difficult to help. Homeowners with economic troubles such as extended unemployment often cannot make even reduced mortgage payments. And the longer borrowers stay delinquent, the more difficult it is to fashion a mortgage relief plan for them.

From CBS Moneywatch some rare media honesty about the real unemployment rate:

The real question is what happens to foreclosure projections if unemployment stays high. Right now, true unemployment is running close to 17 percent, but another 20 to 30 percent of Americans have experienced a decline in pay. Half the country has less income to spend, and Americans are still losing jobs.

This serves to underscore the need for the One Million Local Jobs bill.


cross posted at workingamerica.org/blog

States Facing Deeper Budget Cuts in 2011

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently released a report on state budget cuts caused by decreasing tax revenues. Over 45 states have already made deep cuts, and in 2011, another round of cuts is expected:

With tax revenue still declining as a result of the recession and budget reserves largely drained, the vast majority of states have made spending cuts that hurt families and reduce necessary services. These cuts, in turn, have deepened states’ economic problems because families and businesses have less to spend. Federal recovery act dollars and funds raised from tax increases are greatly reducing the extent, severity, and economic impact of these cuts, but only to a point.

The cuts enacted in at least 45 states plus the District of Columbia in 2008 and 2009 occurred in all major areas of state services, including health care (29 states), services to the elderly and disabled (24 states and the District of Columbia), K-12 education (29 states and the District of Columbia), higher education (39 states), and other areas. States made these cuts because revenues from income taxes, sales taxes, and other revenue sources used to pay for these services declined due to the recession. At the same time, the need for these services did not decline and, in fact, rose as the number of families facing economic difficulties increased.

These budget pressures have not abated and, in fact, are increasing. Because unemployment rates remain high — and are projected to stay high well into next year — revenues are likely to remain at or near their current depressed levels. This is likely to cause a new round of cuts. Based on new, gloomy revenue projections, governors have begun issuing their budget proposals for the 2011 fiscal year (which begins on July 1, 2010 in most states), and the proposed cuts go even further than those that states have enacted to date.

So, as the need for services increases, the budgets for programs that help those who are most vulnerable are cut.

This slideshow gives a brief and helpful overview of the situation, and an idea of how long its likely to take to dig out of this.

This website has a lot of useful information, including a look at the ABC's of State Budgets, an intro to the Federal Budget Process and some all round helpful information and definitions of terms that we hear all the time, (like Pay as You Go, Budget Reconciliation, or Earned Income Tax Credit) but may not fully understand unless we are budget geeks.

Bottom line - the news isn't good, and the only way out is to create jobs, as quickly as possible.


cross posted at workingamerica.org/blog

Goodbye Granny D

NH citizen activist Doris Haddock, known to all as Granny D, died this afternoon. Doris turned 100 in January.

She was a remarkable woman, who had a long and interesting life. She was no passive citizen - Doris took active citizenry to new heights at an advanced age. I want to be just like her.

The big news stories and accolades will be coming in tomorrow - but for now, this story from the Nashua Telegraph will do:

“I have nothing to leave behind for my … grandchildren and great-grandchildren but I can give them a legacy and a lesson they can carry through their own lives,” Haddock said in a recent interview.

The lesson is what Haddock calls the “power of one” and she most humbly thanks Bonnie Riley, a former teacher. During a 1996 meeting of women activists who got together weekly in Francestown, Riley dared Haddock to act on her outrage over a $50 billion congressional earmark for a tobacco company.

“She wouldn’t just let me complain about it. She changed my life,” Haddock declared

h/t to The Austin Chronicle for the great picture.

Our State is Broken

John Stephen, former Congressional candidate, is now running for governor of NH. Stephen ran for Congress in 2002, and again in 2008. He lost both times, in the primaries, to Jeb Bradley, who lost the Congressional seat in 2006. Bradley will co chair Stephen’s campaign.

It’s long been rumored that Bradley was going to run for governor, but apparently he’s decided to help throw his old foe to the wolves. The GOP hasn’t had much success in fielding candidates against the popular Governor John Lynch. The last human sacrifice was former District 3 state senator Joe Kenney. The best that can be said about that matchup is that in other parts of the state people are still asking, “Joe who?

The toughest gubernatorial race faced by John Lynch was his first. He ran against incumbent Craig Benson, a man who was almost universally hated. It’s interesting to note that his name is never fondly invoked by the NH GOP, nor are his accomplishments ever touted. Governor Hummer was indeed a real bummer. The GOP doesn’t want to brag about Benson’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) who was paid $150,000 a year to oversee and update the state’s information systems.

Robert Anderson was one of Benson’s Cabletron cronies, and was appointed in 2003. After doing nothing but picking up a paycheck, he quietly resigned in 2004. There were a lot of problems with Benson appointees. Another Cabletron crony, Linda Pepin was the focus of corruption charges. Pepin was one of Benson’s “volunteers” who were allegedly donating their time to the state of NH, to save us all money. Pepin was acting as an insurance broker for the state, negotiating health and dental contracts, even though she wasn’t licensed to do so. She did collect $187,000 for her “volunteer” efforts. Why am I bringing up Benson? Simple - John Stephen was a Benson appointee. There seems to be a common thread amongst all Benson appointees – dishonesty and/or incompetence.



Stephen is continually praised in the mainstream conservative press for being a “fiscal conservative.” Apparently, in order to be labeled a fiscal conservative, all one has to do is repeat the NH GOP mantra, “cut spending, no new taxes.” One doesn’t have to actually DO any such thing, only say it. Over and over. Earlier this week, Stephen announced his candidacy at a press conference in the Legislative Office Building in Concord. He told his supporters “our state is broken. “ I was surprised to hear this, given how often our state has been voted the best state to live in. Why would John Stephen willingly live in a broken state? Why aren’t we all moving out in droves? At this same press conference, Stephen cited a report by the Independent Tax Foundation. He claimed that the foundation ranked NH as coming in last in terms of the business tax climate. Oddly, on the foundation’s own website, there is a report ranking NH as seventh best in the nation. John Stephen showing, once again, why he was a Benson appointee.

It’s typical GOP rhetoric, and dates back to the golden years of St. Ronnie Reagan, who told us that “government is the problem,” a sentiment echoed by GOP candidates for the last 30 years or so. Government is bad they tell us, yet they keep running for bad, spending buckets of money to get into the bad, to become part of the problem. This is no different. New Hampshire isn’t broken. There are states having some serious problems – like California, where the Governor is having yard sales to scrape up cash for the government.

Does Stephen really have street cred as a fiscal conservative? In 2005, there was a $70 million shortfall in the state budget because DHHS Commissioner John Stephen double counted that amount in the DHHS budget. In 2006, Stephen was called to testify before the legislature, as to why he discounted the state’s share of nursing home costs for a few years. Stephen claimed that his practice of “budget neutrality” was the reason that nursing homes were underpaid by about $20 million. The term “budget neutrality” as used by Commissioner Stephen could be replaced correctly by the term “cost shifting.”

The NH Supreme Court ruled that Stephen’s budget neutrality was invalid, because it was unauthorized by law or by department rules. Commissioner Stephen appealed that finding. He lost.

Commissioner Stephen then filed for an emergency rule to continue budget neutrality. In response, the NH legislature passed HB 721, which blocked his ability to engage in cost shifting hijinks. They ordered him to repay the nursing homes approximately $9 million in shifted costs. He never did. When he resigned from DHHS to run for Congress in 2007, that bill was unpaid.

John Stephen’s record shows he lacks any credibility as a fiscal conservative. He just knows how to repeat the mantra, which is, apparently all that is needed to win that coveted title from the NH GOP. He proposes nothing new – it’s the same old “cut spending, no new taxes” that we’ve heard from every Republican candidate to run for office in our state. Lather, rinse, and repeat.


“As long as the governor stays at 50 percent or above, it's clear that voters aren't in the mood to fire him, at least the majority ... And that's the key thing for John Stephen. He's got to make this race all about John Lynch. Every day that it's a story about John Lynch, about taxes and so forth, is a good day for John Stephen. Every day the story is about John Stephen is a bad day for John Stephen.” ~ Dante Scala



© 2010 sbruce published as an op-ed in the March 5, 2010 edition of the Conway Daily Sun

Worried About Jobs Being Outsourced?

Well, here's one way to solve the problem of the depressing numbers of US jobs that are lost to overseas competitors.

Close down the office that tracks the statistics:

President Obama's budget would eliminate the International Labor Comparisons office and transfer its 16 economists to expand the bureau's work tracking inflation and occupational trends. The White House says the cut, estimated to save $2 million, is one of many difficult decisions the president was forced to make to control spending.

It sure is hard not to be cynical about this. In fact, it's impossible not to be. Obama has called for NAFTA style trade agreements expanding into Panama, Columbia, and South Korea. These sorts of trade agreements have proven deadly for US workers. But, hey, if they close down the office that tracks the data - we'll never know just how deadly.

In related news, a small group of legislators have filed a bill that would cause the US to withdraw from NAFTA.

The bill spearheaded by Rep. Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat, would require President Barack Obama to give Mexico and Canada six months notice that the United States will no longer be part of the 16-year-old trade pact.

"At a time when 10 to 12 percent of the American people are unemployed, I think Congress has an obligation to put people back to work," Taylor said.

He argued NAFTA has cost the United States millions of manufacturing jobs and hurt national security by encouraging companies to move production to Mexico.

The high unemployment rate makes it the "perfect" time to push for repeal even though past efforts have failed, he said.

It will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere.

cross posted at workingamerica.org/blog

Not Enough Primary Care Doctors

A piece of the health care reform issue we don't hear much about is the very serious shortage of primary care physicians

The annual number of American medical students who go into primary care has dropped by more than half since 1997. It's hard to get an appointment with the doctors who remain. In some surveys, as many as half of primary-care providers have stopped taking new patients. The other half are increasingly overworked and harried. Clearly we need to find a way to increase their ranks, and both the congressional health-care bills and President Obama's reform proposal make moves in that direction. But those efforts are somewhat limited, and a more comprehensive solution could be thwarted by the same thing that's stalled the rest of health-care reform so far: politics.

The reason behind America's doctor gap is a matter of money. The average income in primary care is somewhere in the mid-$100,000s, which sounds like a lot but is less than half what specialists such as radiologists and dermatologists make. Given that doctors may graduate with as much as $200,000 in med-school debt, it's easy to see why primary care started hemorrhaging recruits more than a decade ago and why radiology and other well-paid, high-tech specialties took off in popularity.

The field has since entered a vicious cycle. As fewer people have entered primary care, the doctors who are left have been forced by tight schedules to shortchange some patients, forgoing the long, meandering chats that used to be a big part of checkups in favor of 15-minute, checklist-style appointments. The close relationships that general practitioners once had with patients drew many idealistic students into the field. Now recruiters face an extra-tough sell: they have to convince bright young would-be docs to pursue a career that won't pay very well and won't be as emotionally fulfilling as it once was.

Some medical schools around the country now have programs that pay a portion of the med student's tuition, in exchange for them doing their training in rural areas. There is also the National Health Service Corps where scholarships and loan repayment are available to medical professionals who go to work in an underserved area. Programs like this are especially important in rural areas. From their website:

About the National Health Service Corps
Since 1972, more than 30,000 clinicians have served in the Corps, bringing high quality health care to places and people without access to even basic services.

Nearly 80 percent stay in the underserved area after fulfilling the NHSC service commitment; more than half make a career of caring for underserved people.

Last year, about 3,500 NHSC providers cared for 4 million people — changing their own and their patients' lives.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association doctors are working fewer hours than they used to:

Average hours dropped from about 55 to 51 hours per week from 1996 to 2008, according to the analysis, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

That's the equivalent of losing 36,000 doctors in a decade, according to the researchers. And it raises policy questions amid a looming primary care doctor shortage and Congress considering an expansion of health insurance coverage that would mean more patients.

One can certainly suppose (correctly) that overwork and burnout may be reasons why doctors are working fewer hours, but money also seems to be a big motivator:

Payment issues may have played more of a role. The overall decrease in hours coincided with a 25% decline in pay for doctors' services, adjusted for inflation. And when the researchers looked closely at U.S. cities with the lowest and highest doctor fees, they found doctors working shorter hours in the low-fee cities and longer hours in the high-fee cities.

One way to address the problem of doctor shortages is to have patients see nurses, physician's assistants, and nurse practitioners for routine care - all of whom can detect a serious problem and pass it on to a doctor. In some rural areas this is already happening, out of necessity.

The American Medical Association and doctors groups don't like this. Even though there is a serious shortage of primary care docs, the AMA is opposed to letting nurse practioners have a greater role in primary care.

The American Medical Association sparked harsh criticism from nursing groups when it released a report in October bluntly questioning whether nurse practitioners "are adequately trained to provide appropriate care." To back up its claims, the report cites recent studies that question the prescription methods of some nurse practitioners, as well as a survey that reported only 10 percent of nurse practitioners questioned felt well prepared to practice primary care.

The nurses are fighting back:
Responding to the AMA in December, the American Nurses Association and more than two dozen other nurses' organizations termed the report "misleading," saying it "contains numerous factual misrepresentations." Their letter rebuked the AMA for its "attempt to change the perceptions of NP practice as anything other than fully qualified professionals working within a legally established scope of practice."

In addition to the common sense aspect, using nurse practitioners also saves money:
In September, the nonpartisan Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform issued a report by 10 experts that said one way to curb health care spending is to encourage states to permit "greater use of nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physician assistants, and community health workers." Meanwhile, a blue-ribbon committee working under the aegis of the Institute of Medicine and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is planning to make extensive recommendations later this year on the future of nursing.

Instead of big, howling egos, it would be nice to see more creative solutions. A small town in northern NH was fortunate enough to have one solution given to them. A wealthy summer resident of Tamworth, NH started the Tamworth Community Nurses Association. Mrs. Elizabeth Whittemore left behind an endowment, so that all residents of Tamworth could have access to health care. That was over 80 years ago. The town of Tamworth still has a nurse that sees patients in her office or makes house calls. Free.

In the interest of full disclosure, I know JoAnn Rainville, the Tamworth Community Nurse. I live in a nearby town. The kind of care she provides, saves money. In rural areas, duplicating this kind of service makes sense, especially as we face a shortage of primary care doctors and the possibility of millions of Americans becoming insured.


Cross posted at workingamerica.org/blog

Who is the Middle Class?

Have you been wondering about the lack of serious coverage by the media of the financial crisis facing the middle class? As David Sirota shows us, the media doesn't seem to understand who the middle class are:

Last year, the New York Times told us it's difficult for people to make ends meet on $500,000 a year, and the Washington Post insisted that it's hard to "squeak by" on $300,000 a year. Now the Denver Post insists that if you make $250,000 a year, you may only be "middle class"

Where does utter disconnect with reality come from? And why does it exist?

Media voices perpetuate these myths of the impoverished wealthy, in part, because many media voices are themselves wealthy -- and there's no more powerful class solidarity than that which exists among the rich.

Indeed, the wealthy don't just convince themselves they aren't wealthy, they try to create the perception among themselves, politicians and the public at large that they are "middle class" and thus persecuted by taxes. Put another way, the real danger of the New York Times, Washington Post and Denver Post article floating the idea of the wealthy as not wealthy is in skewing our political debate over economics. If someone making $500,000 is just "getting by," and someone making $300,000 is barely "squeaking by" and someone making $250,000 is in the persecuted "middle class," then having any fact-based discussion about tax inequities becomes that much harder.

The Wall St. Journal sings a slightly different tune:

For those wondering why luxury spending is back even as unemployment hovers close to 10%, consider this: unemployment among the affluent is only 3%.

According to a study from Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Studies, unemployment for those in the top income decile–individuals earning more than $150,000 a year–was 3% in the fourth quarter of 2009.


According to the WSJ, those in the top income bracket are earning $150,000+ a year, which flies in the face of the assertions that $250,00 is middle class.

The income gap in the US has been increasing since the 1970's when wages began to stagnate.

So, either the media is engaging in some misdirection in order to help the wealthy keep from paying their fair share of taxes, OR, the definition of the middle class is changing dramatically, and a whole lot of folks are finding out that they are the new poor.


cross posted at workingamerica.org/blog

Wondering Why Obama is Pushing Nukes?

It's sad but simple. The industry owns him.

NY Times

The history of the bill shows Mr. Obama navigating a home-state controversy that pitted two important constituencies against each other and tested his skills as a legislative infighter. On one side were neighbors of several nuclear plants upset that low-level radioactive leaks had gone unreported for years; on the other was Exelon, the country’s largest nuclear plant operator and one of Mr. Obama’s largest sources of campaign money.

Since 2003, executives and employees of Exelon, which is based in Illinois, have contributed at least $227,000 to Mr. Obama’s campaigns for the United States Senate and for president. Two top Exelon officials, Frank M. Clark, executive vice president, and John W. Rogers Jr., a director, are among his largest fund-raisers.

Another Obama donor, John W. Rowe, chairman of Exelon, is also chairman of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry’s lobbying group, based in Washington. Exelon’s support for Mr. Obama far exceeds its support for any other presidential candidate.

In addition, Mr. Obama’s chief political strategist, David Axelrod, has worked as a consultant to Exelon. A spokeswoman for Exelon said Mr. Axelrod’s company had helped an Exelon subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison, with communications strategy periodically since 2002, but had no involvement in the leak controversy or other nuclear issues.

Read the whole thing. It's depressing as hell - but vitally important to know this. We have to fight this.

What's a Little Radioactive Waste Between Neighbors?

Vernon is a small town located in the very south-easternmost corner of Vermont. Vernon is just across the Connecticut River from NH, and was once part of the NH town of Hinsdale. Vernon, VT is best known for being the home of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. VT Yankee has been making news recently, because of radioactive tritium leaking from the plant. Tritium is leaking into the Connecticut River, which is a source for drinking water in the area. Five NH towns are included within the ten mile evacuation zone surrounding the plant. They are: Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Richmond, Swanzey, and Winchester. The entire towns of Chesterfield, Hinsdale, and Winchester are within that 10 mile zone.

Vermont Yankee is no stranger to problems. The plant went online in 1973. During its first 17 months of operation, the plant was shut down 19 times. In the 70’s there were problems with faulty fuel rods, a cracked torus, and there was the accidental dumping of 83,000 gallons of tritium contaminated water into the Connecticut River in 1976.

The plant was given a 40 year license, which expires in 2012. At that time, the plant is supposed to close down and be decommissioned. VT Yankee is owned by Entergy Corporation, a company that owns a number of nuclear plants, and has been quite successful in extending the licensing of old, unsafe plants that could not be built today. They’re trying to do the same in VT. Entergy is trying to extend the license of VT Yankee for another 20 years. They’re also planning to unload 5 old nuke plants on a subsidiary called Enexus. Enexus seems to be comprised solely of debt and antique nuclear power plants, which sounds like a sure fire recipe for success, in an Enron sort of way.

Over the last decade, Vermont Yankee’s problems have increased. In July of 2003, a drill revealed that the emergency alert system wasn’t working. In the event of an accident at the plant, the sirens would not have gone off. In June of 2004, a fire shut down the plant. The fire was caused by a part of an expansion joint that fell off into a duct, and created electrical shorts that started the fire. The duct conducts electricity from the generator to the transformer, and was part of the original construction of the plant, which was 32 years old at the time.

In 2005, Entergy hired a company to do an inspection of the plant (notably the cooling towers), and the company gave VT Yankee a glowing report, which Entergy presented to the NRC. In 2007, one of the cooling towers collapsed. The cause of the collapse was rotting beams inside the tower. Entergy used robotic cameras to perform inspections, and the cameras weren’t able to reach the areas where the rot was greatest. Entergy promised to be more vigilant. Federal and state regulators were pleased. The NRC performed an inspection in 2008 and found only 3 minor faults. The plant got high marks. Then more beams collapsed in a cooling tower. Entergy promised an improved quality assurance program that would include new hiring. In 2009, Entergy announced a hiring freeze.



In May of 2009, Jay Thayer (then) Vice President of Operations at VT Yankee told the Vermont Public Service Board that there was no underground piping at VT Yankee. On January 7, 2010, Vermont Yankee reported that the plant was leaking radioactive tritium into several groundwater monitoring wells. It turns out that the tritium is probably coming from underground pipes. The same underground pipes that Entergy said didn’t exist, only last year. Turns out there are several thousand feet of underground pipes. You may be discerning a pattern here, on the part of Entergy. It goes like this, lie, promise, and lie some more. Jay Thayer was outed as a liar, and has been placed on “administrative leave” pending investigation, which could be interpreted as “he’ll be back when the furor dies down.” Until his return, Entergy has practiced fibber Rob Williams as their spokesperson for VT Yankee. Rob Williams was the spokesliar for Seabrook Station back in the good old days of the junk-bond bail-out.

Vermont is the only state that gives its legislature a say in the licensing of nuclear plants. Other states leave it up to the state utility regulators and the NRC. As we know from the FairPoint debacle, state utility regulators are certainly not infallible. The NRC has never been an effective regulatory body. They prefer to cheer lead for the industry, as opposed to ensuring safety. Vermont’s decision to give the legislature a say ensures that the people of VT will have a voice for their concerns about the safety of this plant. The legislature must agree to extend that license, and the likelihood of that extension being granted isn’t looking good.

In NH, the reporting on this issue has been pretty negligent. The Keene Sentinel is the only paper I’ve found that’s done a responsible job of covering VT Yankee. Keene, of course, is mighty close to the 10 mile evacuation zone. The rest of the media has been quite selective in their coverage. Congressman Paul Hodes, who is running for Judd Gregg’s US Senate seat has been vocal in his concerns about VT Yankee and its impact on NH. I spoke with Congressman Hodes earlier in the week, and he said that NH should have a voice in the oversight of VT Yankee, since leaks do not respect state borders, and that those leaks have an impact on the people of our state and the Connecticut River. Hodes intends to introduce legislation in Congress that would give states that would be affected by neighboring nuclear power plants more authority over them.

Meanwhile, the excavation of the formerly non-existent underground pipes at VT Yankee continues, in an effort to learn where, exactly, that radioactive tritium is coming from, as it continues to leech into the Connecticut River.


“In essence, a nuclear reactor is a very dangerous, expensive way to boil water – analogous to cutting a pound of butter with a chain saw.” Dr. Helen Caldicott



© sbruce 2010 published as an op-ed in the February 19, 2010 edition of the Conway Daily Sun

NH House Votes Down HB 1590

The NH House voted today on HB 1590, a bill that would have repealed the marriage equality law passed last year in NH. Since the beginning of the year, gay and lesbian couples have been allowed to wed, and the sky has not fallen - nor have plagues of locusts attacked our state. Instead, what we've seen is more couples making a serious commitment to one another, and more families being formed.

In Carroll County District One where I live, there are 4 state reps, 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans. Reps Buco, Butler, and Umberger voted this bill down. Buco and Butler are Dems, and Rep. Umberger a Republican. Thank you all.

Only Representative Gene Chandler of Bartlett was enough of an ideologue to vote against Representative Butler's upcoming marriage to his partner of 30+ years.

Here's a link to the roll call.

Mississippians Turn to Iran for Health Care Help

This is a special guest blog post by Barbara O'Brien of The Mahablog

Recently I wrote here that Mississippi has the worst health care in the nation. Now I want to tell the story about how desperate Mississippians, abandoned by their government, turned to Iran for help.

But first, I want to tell you about Mississippi’s infant mortality rate. The rate of infant mortality is the number of infants who are born alive but die before their first birthday, per 1,000 live births. In other words, if infant mortality is 5, that means that 5 of every 1,000 babies in that population will not survive the first year of life.

According to the CIA World Factbook, the estimated infant mortality rate in the United States for 2009 is 6.22, which is high for an industrialized democracy. But according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the infant mortality rate in Mississippi is 11.4. Only Florida is worse, at 14.1. By contrast, the infant mortality rate for Washington and Minnesota is 5.1.

Now, here’s where Iran comes in — according to the Times of London, last October “five top Iranian doctors, including a senior official at the health ministry in Tehran, were quietly brought to Mississippi” to advise Mississippians how to lower their infant mortality rate.

This exchange came about when James Miller, managing director of Oxford International Development Group, was consulting in a rural Mississippi hospital. “He was shocked to find that the state had the third highest medical expenditure per capita, but came last in terms of outcome,” the Times article said.

Miller remembered a conference presentation on how Iran radically lowered its infant mortality rates. Facing a shortage of doctors and hospitals, the government launched a program of “health houses” staffed by local people trained to be health workers. The health workers are authorized to provide basic medical services such as diabetes monitoring as well as prenatal and obstetric care. Infant and maternal mortality rates both fell dramatically as a result.

James Miller contacted Iranian doctors to find out if their program might be applied to Mississippi. So the Iranian doctors came to Mississippi to give advice. Although the idea of following an Iranian model was a hard sell in Mississippi, at least one community has begun work on an Iranian style “health house” to provide better care for pregnant women abandoned by Mississippi’s health care system

Dr Aaron Shirley, who worked with James Miller on the Iranian project, admitted they were staying under the radar. Mississippi government officials, including Governor Haley Barbour, were not involved or informed.

This takes us back to the issue identified in the earlier post — Mississippi has the worst health care in the nation, but as far as Gov. Barbour is concerned, this is not a problem. The governor is perfectly clear, on his website and in public pronouncements, that Mississippi fixed its health care problems by passing a comprehensive tort reform bill in 2004. The 2004 law affected all kinds of personal injury lawsuits in Mississippi.

In the U.S., state after state has passed “tort reform” laws that make it harder for citizens to file personal injury suits and also limit the amount of damages they can receive. This is a critical issue for people with asbestos-related disease such as mesothelioma cancer, who so often need damage awards to care for themselves and their families. “Tort reform” also is being pushed by conservatives nationwide as the way to fix the nation’s health care crisis.

But Mississippi reformed tort in 2004, and it still has the worst health care in the nation. What did Governor Barbour “fix,” exactly?

-Barbara O’Brien

You Knew He Was a Pest...

but he can kill pests, too!

Imagine you had a beetle infestation problem and you needed a non-toxic way to deter their invasion into your home. Researchers at Northern Arizona University have determined that playing Rush Limbaugh, and other “loud and annoying noises” are a remarkably effective deterrent to beetles’ livelihood.

It's hard to imagine a louder, more annoying noise than Limbaugh. Bye beetles!

The Short Answer? NO

h/t to the Minnesota Star Tribune

Tom Tancredo - Racist Piece of Shit

Tom Tancredo opens the Tea Bagger Fest by showing us that he's not just anti-immigration, he's out of the closet now as a full-fledged public racist.

It's an Election Year

Economists are quick to tell us that our economy is showing signs of recovery. This seems to mean that Wall St. is doing well. Main St. doesn’t seem to be ready to tap dance just yet. The unemployment rate for New Hampshire was seven percent in January. Those statistics are skewed to be lower than the real numbers of unemployed. They don’t count folks who haven’t been able to find a job long after their unemployment benefits ended, or those who weren’t eligible in the first place. The real number is perhaps as high as 14%. More NH families are using food stamps than ever before. Our homes aren’t worth what they used to be, though foreclosures seem to be slowing down. In other words, for the most part, the news isn’t good. NH folks are having a tough time, and tough times always seem even tougher in the north country.

In response to these tough times, the Republicans of our legislature spent last summer coming up with legislation aimed at solving NH’s economic woes. Apparently the cure for a bad economy is forcing women and girls to bear unwanted babies, and to deprive gay folks of the right to marry. Another important piece of legislation is being developed by local Representative Gene Chandler, who is working on a bill that would repeal an earlier decision by the Legislative Facilities Committee to ban guns in the State House. This is being presented as an issue of Great Importance, one that gets to the very heart of our freedoms in NH! This is being presented as a partisan issue – those evil Democrats would deprive you of your right to bring your gun to a state building!

What Representative Chandler isn’t telling us, is that guns were banned from the State House from 1996 to 2006. Chandler has served 12 terms in the NH legislature. He was speaker of the House from 2000 to 2004. He was the ranking House member on the Legislative Facilities Committee for 4 years during the original ban. During this time, Representative Chandler never filed a repeal bill. The oft-touted concerns for the safety of the staff and other legislators took a long time to develop. Fourteen years is a very long time.

In other news, Representative David Bates of Windham launched a campaign called Let the People Vote. In response to our state’s economic woes, Rep. Bates has chosen to attack marriage equality. He’s pushing to get a petition to get a warrant article on every ballot of SB2 towns, and put before every town meeting. This is aimed at pressuring the legislature to pass CACR 28, an amendment to the NH Constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. At the recent CACR 28 hearing in Concord, Representative Bates dismissed the suggestion that he’s taking any money for this, and said that he’s paid for all of this out of his own pocket. It is interesting to note that the PAC created for the Let the People Vote campaign is registered to Rep. Bates, and at the website, there’s a convenient button to push to make donations. Representative Bates also seems to be involved with the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) an out-of-state group based in New Jersey. NOM was heavily involved in the California and Maine anti-marriage equality campaigns. They’re rather secretive about where all their money comes from. There are deep suspicions that NOM is a front for the Mormon Church, and its very deep pockets. In any case, most of the towns that have dealt with this petition so far have voted it down. Rindge, Rindge, Rye, Winchester, Alstead, Deerfield, Bethlehem, Goffstown, Wolfeboro, and Londonderry all voted against discrimination.

“Let the people vote” has become the new slogan of those who would enshrine bigotry in our state constitution. The supporters of this effort will bellow at length about the Constitution – both state and federal. These people don’t understand the concept of representative democracy at all – and feel that somehow they’ve been treated unfairly by not being allowed to vote on this particular issue. I heard Rep. Bates say he was not opposed to putting slavery and interracial marriage to the popular vote. The Bill of Rights was never put to a popular vote. A number of the same folks who wail about their right to carry a gun into the NH State House are the same ones who want desperately to vote to discriminate against gay people. The Second Amendment was never put to a popular vote. Funny how those who go on about the Constitution are perfectly okay with that piece of representative democracy, considering that some of them would have been denied the right to vote at the time the US Constitution was ratified. Should we let the people vote on the Second Amendment? Ending slavery was never put to a popular vote, nor was desegregation, the voting rights act, or the 19th Amendment, for that matter. Catholics were banned from holding office or teaching school in NH until 1877. The framers of the Constitution understood the tyranny of the majority.

Meanwhile, the sky has not fallen since January 1, when gay couples began to marry. Those who would discriminate tell us of the need to “protect” heterosexual marriage. I haven’t heard a single story of a heterosexual couple divorcing because of gay folks getting married. The sky didn’t fall when slavery ended, when women stopped being male property, when integration came to pass, or when the laws against interracial marriage were overturned. This is just another step forward into a less discriminatory world. We will all have the chance to vote against going backwards – something NH has so far refused to do.

At a time when so many are jobless, when cities and towns are facing drastic budget cuts -one would hope that both parties could come together to work on solving the very real problems facing our state. Instead, the minority party is choosing to grandstand on hyper-partisan ideological issues. Yep, it’s an election year.


© 2010 sbruce

Published as an op-ed in the 2-5-10 edition of the Conway Daily Sun.
h/t to Ben Sargent for the cartoon

Just in case you thought I was joking

Talking Points Memo

Democrats are calling on New Hampshire State Rep. Alfred Baldasaro (R) to resign over his remarks that the state "sold" children for $10,000 each when "they said that homosexual couples, not married, can adopt."

but wait - there's more!

He elaborated with some choice metaphors:

So because I disagree on something that's pushed down my throat, I'm supposed to roll over because, representative, you think it's normal? I'm sorry you got the wrong person.

Then things got really bad: "I wanted to make sure everyone understood here, that this legislature sold the rights of $10,000 per kid under title four, when they said that homosexual couples, not married, can adopt."

And even more - there's video! The first guy you see is Rep. David Bates, who is in favor of putting slavery and interracial marriage to a public vote. Crazy Al kicks in at about the 20 second mark:



You can hear him talk about how his constituents didn't even know that marriage bill had passed - as if that were somehow the fault of the legislature. What he's really saying is that his constituents are not very bright - and since he's in his second term, that may well be true.

Now that we've abandoned democracy

in favor of corporatocracy, we might consider adopting this form of government:

The REAL Size of the Bailout

Mother Jones gives us a look at the REAL size of the bailout.

The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is often put at $700 billion—the size of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets. To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see our charts here.

Granted, not all of these funds have been used – but they could have been. Imagine if even a quarter of this money had been spent on job creation and helping small business entrepreneurs get loans? Instead, billions were shoveled into banks who responded by refusing to loan the rest of us money, while handing out bonuses to the same guys who drove the financial bus over the cliff.

MOJO also takes a look at the behavior of the banks in: Too Big to Jail?

MAYBE WALL STREET should open a casino right there on the corner of Broad, because these guys simply cannot lose. After kneecapping the global economy, costing millions their homes and livelihoods, and saddling our grandchildren with massive debt—after all that, they're cashing in their bonuses from 2008. That's right, 2008—when amid the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the $700 billion TARP legislation (a mere 5 percent of a $14 trillion bailout; see "The Real Size of the Bailout"), humiliated banks rolled back executive bonuses. Or so we thought: In fact, those bonuses were simply reconfigured to have a higher proportion of company stock. Those shares weren't worth so much at the time, as the execs made a point of telling Congress, but that meant they could only go up, and by the time they did, the public (suckers!) would have forgotten the whole exercise. It worked out beautifully: The value of JPMorgan Chase's 2008 bonuses has increased 20 percent to $10.5 billion, an average of nearly $6 million for the top 200 execs. Goldman's 2008 bonuses are worth $7.8 billion.

And why are bank stocks worth more now? Because of the bailout, of course. Bankers aren't being rewarded for pulling the economy out of the doldrums. Nope, they're simply skimming from the trillions we've shoveled at them. The house always wins. Indeed, 2009 bonuses are expected to be 30 to 40 percent higher than 2008's.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate creeps higher and higher, as does the number of home foreclosures. It sure is nice of us working folks to go broke, so the bankers don’t have to.

This is cross-posted at workingamerica.org/blog

A Visit to the People's House

I attended two legislative hearings in Concord this week. I was at the judiciary committee hearing of the bill to repeal marriage equality (HB 1590) and the hearing of the proposed amendment (CACR 28) to the NH Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. It was, to put it mildly, an interesting day.

As we all know, NH legislators are volunteers – citizens who earn the princely sum of $100 a year for the privilege and headaches of representing us in Concord. This is how it works in representative democracy. When I first became a community organizer, and began spending time at the State House, my boss schooled me on how to dress and how to behave at a hearing. Respectful was one of the key words in those instructions. These are our representatives, acting on our behalf, in the people’s house. That means that no matter how we might feel about individual legislators or issues, we use good manners when we’re in that house, just as (presumably) we would when visiting any house.

This is a lesson that the tea bagger crowd is not being taught. At both hearings I attended, there were disruptive people making ugly comments, and in one case, a man bellowing at Rep. David Cote, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. This is what the tea party movement and Fox News has given us: rude, uninformed individuals, with no respect for the process, who just want to shout everyone down. After watching some of the sponsors of the legislation, it was even more understandable.

Representative Al Baldasaro from Londonderry is the sponsor of HB 1590. Baldasaro is a transplant from Massachusetts (giving lie to the GOP libruls from MA moving to NH theory) who is serving his second term. When asked by the chair to keep his remarks to the point, since there were so many waiting to testify, he responded by talking about what a long day he had ahead of him. Representative Baldasaro seems to suffer from a serious lack of impulse control, bellowing at the chair during the CACR 28 hearing. He went on at length about “people with agendas” stealthily pushing marriage equality through, while declaring that some of his best friends were “on the other side” which appeared to be his euphemism for gay. Even though he thinks they’re degenerates undeserving of equality, I’m sure he’s a great pal to his “best friends.” Perhaps the single most astounding statement made by Rep. Baldasaro was “some of my constituents didn’t even know this bill had passed, until gay people started getting married,” while people in the audience nodded approvingly. Is that the fault of the legislature? As a NH voter, it's my job to be informed about what is going on in my state. That this bunch couldn't be bothered to pay attention - and now they're angry about it, shows a sense of entitlement that I find befuddling at best.

But - entitled, they are. They are angry that the issue of marriage equality wasn’t on a ballot. They are frightened, angry people who hate gay folks, and believe they shouldn’t be treated as equal citizens, but rather than say that, they say, “we should have the right to vote.” Representative David Bates of Windham went as far as to say that interracial marriage and ending slavery ought to have been put to a vote. These people shout about the constitution, while seeming to have little understanding of what is in either the US or the state versions. I earned some dirty looks from a group when I pointed out that the Bill of Rights was never put to a popular vote. The few wives who were present (following a few steps behind their bellicose spouses) are unaware that if the 19th Amendment had been put to the popular vote, they wouldn’t be voting – or that if it were voted on today, their husbands would vote against it. One guy spoke about how marriage equality isn’t a civil rights issue because it doesn’t have anything to do with black people.

In contrast, the married gay couples who testified before the committee did so quietly, respectfully, and briefly. One gay couple made a point of thanking the legislature for giving them equality. Couple after couple testified about their very normal lives; paying taxes, running businesses, and community involvement. They were very dignified in the presence of the angry thugs who would treat them as second class citizens.

Rep. Bates is fighting hard for discrimination. He’s part of a campaign to put bigotry on our warrants at town meeting this year. His presentation included a big map of all of the states that don’t have marriage equality – saying that NH should fall in line with all 85% of the other states. I couldn’t help but notice that those states also have state income and/or sales taxes. Rep. Bates should be careful what he wishes for.

There was really nothing new presented at either hearing. The members of the far right fringe are aware that this is an election year, and they’re very cynically using these uninformed, angry people, in the hopes of getting their dirty paws on out-of-state hate money. It seems unlikely that HB 1590 will go anywhere. So far, the NH legislature has voted down identical constitutional amendments twice. We do not frivolously amend our state constitution, and we have never amended it to enshrine discrimination, or take away rights from a minority group.

“I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.” Alice Paul

© sbruce 2010

This was printed as an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun on January 22, 2010

h/t to patriotboy for Republican Jesus

Killing for Christ

ABC - US Military Weapons Inscribed with Secret Jesus Bible Codes

Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.

At the end of the serial number on Trijicon's ACOG gun sight, you can read "JN8:12", a reference to the New Testament book of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12, which reads: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The ACOG is widely used by the U.S. military.

The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

Yet another way to win hearts and minds in the middle east. Or anywhere else. This is where our tax dollars are going, people.

Hyde, Health Care, and Your Money

To answer their question - I don't want a dime of my tax dollars going to the Pentagon or funding US global empire building. If these aging white patriarchs really gave a damn about life, they'd oppose war, too. We all know that their concern extends to the not yet conceived. Once the unborn is in fact, born, all concern evaporates, and the little sprout is on his/her own, to pull his/herself up by her bootie straps.

Scamming

The bad economy is giving new life to an old, dishonorable trade – the scam artists. Scammers are coming out of the woodwork these days. The days when all we had to worry about was the Nigerian investment email scams are over.

An Oregon couple was recently duped by a “mystery shopper” scam that involved being sent money orders they were to use for making mystery shopper purchases, and for being paid. They were told to send the rest of the funds back, via Western Union. The money orders turned out to have been forged, so they actually sent their own money to the scammers.

The Better Business Bureau is seeing an increase in all kinds of scams:

Lottery and sweepstakes scam — Victims get a letter in the mail pretending to be from Reader’s Digest, Publisher’s Clearing House or a phony foreign lottery, claiming that they won millions. The letter comes with a check that represents some of the winnings. To get the rest, the victim has to deposit the check and then wire money back to the scam artists supposedly to cover taxes or some other fee. The victim wires the money, but the prize never arrives.

Job hunter scams — Scam artists offer job hunters fake job applications in exchange for personal information, such as bank account numbers.

Google work-from-home scam — Scam artists offer victims materials to work from home using Google or Twitter, but, after the victims pay for the materials, they discover the at-home job is a hoax.

Given the current job market, it’s easy to see why folks would check out those “earn big bucks at home” ads that seem to be a staple in every newspaper and magazine. This Site gives helpful advice on how not to get scammed by work at home offers. One important piece of advice:
Do not pay anything. If you encounter a website or someone asking you to pay money to them for membership or other purposes before you can work, then it is most likely to be a scam. No one should ask for money just for you to be able to work. Most likely than not, they only want your money and you will not have the job you want. You will be just wasting your money.

Phishing Scams are another thing to watch out for. An email claiming to be from your bank, credit card company, or brokerage house may well be a phony. Don’t give out any personal information without checking first. The idea behind this sort of scam is to get your personal information for the purposes of identity theft.

Tech Republic tells us about 10 email scams to watch out for, including the Census scam:

Another recent email scam also involves the federal government, but instead of accusing you of a crime, it uses your knowledge of real, routine government activities against you. Everyone knows that the U.S. government conducts a census every 10 years, and 2010 is the year. Citizens are required by law to answer the census-takers’ questions. Most people also know that many government-related tasks can now be done online.
Scammers are taking advantage of this to send phishing emails that claim to be from the Census Bureau, making it “convenient and easy” for you to fulfill your census obligation, either by filling out an attached form and emailing it back or by visiting a Web site to fill in a form. The form asks for all sorts of personal information, including the social security number and date of birth of everyone in your household, which can be used for identity theft.

These scams involve either identity theft, or infecting your computer with malware or viruses.

The bottom line is – if an offer comes to you, it’s probably a scam. If it seems too good to be true, it’s definitely a scam! If you encounter a scam, or get caught up in one, contact your local Better Business Bureau, and your state’s Attorney General’s office. The BBB keeps a list of updated scams on their web page for your state, and many state AG’s offices keep a list online as well. In looking at my state’s BBB website, I found a warning to beware Haitian earthquake charity scams. Be sure to carefully check out any charity you are thinking about donating to in advance.


cross posted at workingamerica.org blog

Pat Robertson is a lunatic

Listen to ole "I can divert hurricanes" Pat speak about how Haiti made a pact with the devil, and that's why they had the earthquake. Can anyone explain to me why in the world this man is taken seriously?

Too Big to Fail - the Fallout

The Credit Card Act of 2009 has been touted as a successful bit of legislation that will force credit card companies to engage in more disclosure. Card companies will no longer be able to arbitrarily raise interest rates on customers who pay on time – just because they can. The bad news is that the banks are going to make up the losses in other ways.
From the WSJ:
Credit-card companies already have been racing to slip new fees and practices into customer contracts ahead of the law. Issuers are closing accounts, switching cards with fixed interest rates to variable rates and introducing cards that have an annual fee.
Christopher Moss, who regularly shops at sporting-goods chain Gander Mountain, recently was notified that he will be charged a $1 "processing fee" each time he receives a printed statement of his Gander credit-card account rather than an electronic one. The 50-year-old paralegal said he is prepared to cut up the credit card even though he likes the loyalty rewards that come with it."It's not like I can't afford it, but it's another little stick in the consumer's eye," Mr. Moss said.
Banks will be also be changing their practices, to make up for the fact that they now have to receive customer consent before charging overdraft fees.

Other banks are expected to eliminate free checking completely, raise fees on safe-deposit boxes and charge customers more for issuing a stop-payment on a check.

"There may be some areas of opportunity that banks really haven't focused on because they had the engine of overdraft fees," said Chris Gill, who specializes in the community-banking industry at SNL Financial in Charlottesville, Va.

The cost of accessing our money continues to rise. The Federal Reserve
will be looking into regulating ATM fees.
For those who want to stop paying ATM fees, a number of phone apps are now available to tell us where ATMs for our banks are, so that we can save the fees.

Arianna Huffington and other folks involved with the Huffpo blog, have launched a
campaign called Move Your Money.

The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster. In a slap in the face to taxpayers, they have also cut back on the money they are lending, even though the need to get credit flowing again was one of the main points used in selling the public the bank bailout. But since April, JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- all of which took billions in taxpayer money -- have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion.

Meanwhile, America's Main Street community banks -- the vast majority of which avoided the banquet of greed and corruption that created the toxic economic swamp we are still fighting to get ourselves out of -- are struggling. Many of them have closed down (or been taken over by the FDIC) over the last 12 months. The government policy of protecting the Too Big and Politically Connected to Fail is badly hurting the small banks, which are having a much harder time competing in the financial marketplace. As a result, a system which was already dangerously concentrated at the top has only become more so.

The folks at Move Your Money urge us to put our money in local banks and credit unions. They have a tool on their website: moveyourmoney.info to help you discover what your local banking options are. Investing in local banks keeps the money in our communities, where it can do the most good. It’s a simple, beautiful, concept. Your local bank is less likely to add all manner of new, egregious charges. They want your business – because unlike the giant corporate banks, they are not too big to fail.




cross posted at workingamerica.blog

The NH GOP Nanny State

During last year’s NH legislative session, the minority party frequently
accused the majority party of wasting time on unimportant issues, instead of
focusing on jobs and the economy. They wailed and gnashed their teeth over
the time spent on the issue of marriage equality - even though that was an issue of
justice and civil rights. In looking over the bills ready to be worked on this year, it seems that the minority party has chosen to actually do exactly what they whined
the other guys were doing all last year.

There are 834 items for the legislature to deal with in 2010, including bills, 13 constitutional amendments, and approximately 20 resolutions. At least 4 of the
proposed constitutional amendments deal with taxation, including amendments
for and against a broad based tax. There are two amendments that deal with
marriage equality in our state. One calls for an amendment to definite marriage
as between a man and a woman, and CACR 25 would amend the constitution of
our state to provide that the voters can veto laws by referendum. We saw how the
referendum process worked last year in Maine, when out of state hate groups
spent millions to ensure that gay Mainers would continue to be treated as lesser
citizens. The referendum process has pretty much destroyed the economy of the
state of California. This is what Representatives Boyce, Howard, Rodeschin,
Elliot, Hickel, and State Senator Jeb Bradley would like to unleash upon NH. This
is, of course, a response to the marriage equality bill that went into law on
January first. The far right Republicans would love to have all of that out of state
money come in from hate groups, to fund their own version of the nanny state,
and undoubtedly fund their own campaigns as well.

Among the resolutions, a number of gems stand out. HCR 22 calls upon
Congress to audit ACORN funding. ACORN is a community organization that
helps low income folks with issues like housing, and voter registration. They’ve
been demonized by the far right and their media mouthpieces - and apparently
Representatives Ulery, Haefner, Renzulo, Hogan, and Villeneuve aren’t aware
that ACORN has been absolved of any wrong doing.

HCR 26 affirms the state’s religious heritage and the constitutional right to
practice religion and free speech. Since none of this is under assault, this
resolution is redundant - other than to affirm the views of the religious right, as
deemed necessary by Representatives Hinckle, Bates, Palmer, Groen, and Ulery.

Now we move on to some of the highlights (or lowlights, if you prefer) amongst
the bills. HB 1683 is “An act requiring random drug testing of public assistance
recipients.” This bill would require anyone receiving TANF benefits, or food
stamps to undergo random urine tests. If a recipient failed a test, there would be
a mandatory second test. If that test were failed, the recipient would be denied
further benefits, and would not be able to reapply for 2 years. This bill was
written by the same people who abhor abortion, yet think robbing children of
food or shelter because their parent might smoke a joint now and then is a good
idea. I think we should be drug testing all members of the NH legislature. This
obscenity is brought to us by Representatives Baldasaro, Itse, Hinkle, Hogan, and
Swinford.

HB1666 calls for the licensing of outpatient abortion facilities. This is a long and
odious bill, that seems intended, not only to make abortions harder to get, but to
get access to womens health records. In this bill, any woman having 3 or more
abortions would have to be reported to law enforcement for “human trafficking.”
The language of the bill is couched in a lot of faux wording regarding how very
much the State of NH is concerned with “protecting the health of women.”
Clearly, we need men to do this for us, since we’re such silly little ninnies on our
own. This bill is sponsored by Representatives Baldasaro, Hogan, Dumaine, and
Roberge. The same Baldasaro and Hogan who want to randomly drug test food
stamp recipients. No hypocrisy there. It’s also unnecessary, stir-up-the-far-right
nutjob contingent, Big Brother legislation.

And speaking of Big Brother, the minority party also wants to get involved in your
divorce. HB 510 permits no fault divorce, only if there are no minor children
involved. Representatives Hopper, Boyce, Groen, Bates, and O’Brien would like to
make it even more difficult and painful for you to get a divorce, which by all
accounts, would seem to be difficult and painful enough.

By now, you’ve seen a number of the same names repeated, over and over. You
can count on a bill being far right nannyism if it’s sponsored by Itse, Baldasaro,
Groen, Ulery, or O’Brien. These are the same kind of Republicans who were
positively enraged by a proposed seat-belt law a couple of years ago, loudly
decrying the “nanny state.” They love to make stentorian speeches about how the
GOP is against gummint interference in people’s lives. That is, as long as the
people are wealthy, white, heterosexual men. If you’re a woman, your uterus is
public property.

There is a law against adultery in NH - it’s been on the books for 200 years. Some
legislators are trying to repeal it. I’d like to suggest that in the spirit of the GOP nanny state, we keep that bill, AND we add a new one. I propose a panel that
would oversee all Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis prescriptions in our state. The men
who are prescribed this type of drug would have to go before the panel, to make a
case as to why they need this prescription, and to prove that they aren’t going to
be use for adulterous purposes. Itse? Ulery? Baldasaro? Which one of the nannies
wants to write this up and sponsor it?

“Although, he feels pretty confident that New Hampshire will return Republicans
back to state government now that New Hampshire is becoming a nanny state.”
Howie Carr, right wing talk radio host, speaking about former Senator John
Sununu in 2008.



© sbruce 2010 published as an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun 1-8-10

More fun and games from the Fetus Fetishists

Antis outside Louisville, KY clinic start wearing fake escort vests

Anti-choicers have taken to wearing orange vests outside Louisville, KY clinics - the same kind of vests that clinic escorts wear. Clinic escorts are needed, of course, because of harassers like these who are allowed to stand outside clinics and browbeat women as they go into clinics.

A look at what it's like:



h/t to feministing for bringing this to our attention.

Americans Unhappy at Work

Americans unhappy at work

Even Americans who are lucky enough to have work in this economy are becoming more unhappy with their jobs, according to a new survey that found only 45 percent of Americans are satisfied with their work.

That was the lowest level ever recorded by the Conference Board research group in more than 22 years of studying the issue. In 2008, 49 percent of those surveyed reported satisfaction with their jobs.

Certainly a large part of this has to do with the fact that people feel stuck in their jobs. The normal process of moving up or moving on has been dramatically affected by the deep recession and skyrocketing unemployment.

That isn't the whole picture. This study finds that employee unhappiness has been increasing for the last 20 years.

Workers have grown steadily more unhappy for a variety of reasons:

-- Fewer workers consider their jobs to be interesting.

-- Incomes have not kept up with inflation.

-- The soaring cost of health insurance has eaten into workers' take-home pay.

If the job satisfaction trend is not reversed, economists say, it could stifle innovation and hurt America's competitiveness and productivity. And it could make unhappy older workers less inclined to take the time to share their knowledge and skills with younger workers.

In other depressing employment news there were zero net jobs created in the last decade.

There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 -- and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade of falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s.

In other words, the US created more jobs during the Great Depression than we have in the last decade. This is grim news, especially when the economists are focused more on Wall St. than Main St. Without working Americans, our economy will continue to founder.

cross posted at workingamerica.org/blog

An Update on the Company My Husband Kept

Well, it seems that my last contact at NY Life truly was wonderful.(The check really was in the mail!) Her name is Donna Shoop, and I hope that if you ever have to call them, that you get to speak to her. Donna was incredibly helpful - and she actually followed up with me, something no one else I'd spoken to at this giant corporation had bothered to do. Donna - thank you! I praised you to your boss - so I hope you hear about it.

That's one part of the story - here's the rest.

On New Year's Eve (last Thursday) I had a call from a higher up in the claims department. We finally connected today. She told me that in the course of reviewing recent claims, she realized that I'd had a pretty crappy NY Life experience. I don't buy it. Last Thursday there were 4 visits to my blog from NY Life. Somehow, someone became aware that I was blogging about them, and they decided that I was important enough to respond to. Given that I'm a small town yokel, with a pretty limited audience, this really is kind of amusing.

As always, I'm grateful for the power that I have as a result of being an op-ed writer and a blogger - but as always I am aware of the people who don't have that kind of power, and it is deeply disturbing.