ThinkFast: January 29, 2009
ThinkFast: January 29, 2009
The Iraqi government “will not allow Blackwater Worldwide to continue providing security protection for U.S. diplomats in the country, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Thursday, a move that would deprive U.S. officials of their primary protection force.”
New data from the Labor Department show that “the number of people receiving unemployment benefits has reached an all-time high.” For the week ending Jan. 17, the figure hit 4.78 million, the highest since the records began in 1967. The AP notes that the results “were worse than analysts expected.”
Unions across the U.S. grew by 428,000 members in 2008, the “largest amount in a quarter-century,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported yesterday. BLS said that “most of the new members were government employees and that the percentage of workers in unions rose to 12.4 percent of the overall work force last year, up from 12.1 percent in 2007.”
A report by the New York State comptroller revealed that Wall Street employees reaped an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year, “the sixth-largest haul on record.” Despite billions lost in revenue this year, “Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.”
The Senate is expected to approve SCHIP legislation today, “paving the way for President Obama to claim an early legislative victory.” The bill makes an additional 4 million eligible for discounted care but leaves Obama about 5 million children short of his promise to insure all kids.
“Officials of Barack Obama’s administration have drafted a letter to Iran from the president aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way for face-to-face talks,” according to the Guardian. The letter, addressed directly to the Iranian people, assures the Iranian government that the U.S. is not seeking to overthrow it but that merely a change in its behavior.
Defense officials say suicide among U.S. soldiers increased again last year, hitting a nearly three-decade high. The Army told the AP “that at least 128 soldiers killed themselves last year” and “the final count will likely be considerably higher.” Officials say “troops are under unprecedented stress because of repeated and long tours of duty due to the simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Former vice president Al Gore urged lawmakers on Capitol Hill yesterday “to adopt a binding carbon cap and push for a new international climate pact by the end of this year in order to avert catastrophic global warming.” Gore noted “that even if the world halted greenhouse gas emissions now, the world could experience a temperature rise of 2.5 to 7.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.”
The U.S. Postal Service may be forced to cut a day of service due to “massive deficits,” the postmaster general told Congress yesterday, requesting that lawmakers lift the requirement that mail be delivered six days a week.
And finally: Jessica Alba schools Bill O’Reilly. The actress recently told a Fox reporter that O’Reilly was “kind of an a-hole.” He then “retaliated by calling her a ‘pinhead’ for telling a reporter to ‘be Sweden about it,’ assuming she meant Switzerland.” However, it seems that Alba’s history knowledge is better than O’Reilly’s. “Last week, Mr. Bill O’Reilly and some really classy sites (i.e.TMZ) insinuated I was dumb by claiming Sweden was a neutral country,” Alba blogged, adding, “[S]eriously people…it’s so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland.”
Sign up here to receive our daily e-newsletter, The Progress Report.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Credit where it is due.
Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan CEO, on the housing crisis, “I don’t blame [borrowers], I blame the CEOs…”
[...]
“God knows, some really stupid things were done by American banks, and by American investments banks,”
January 29th, 2009 at 9:02 am“…a move that would deprive U.S. officials of their primary protection force.”
Why aren’t our officials being protected by our soldiers? Why are we relying on private sector mercenaries to protect our people? How much money are we paying Blackwater to do the same job that has traditionally been performed by our military?
January 29th, 2009 at 9:05 amA report by the New York State comptroller revealed that Wall Street employees reaped an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year
Greed has no limits.
Americans have watched the financial sector virtually rape them, monetarily. The Bushies lessened regulation, turned their back on corruption, ensured their BFF’s got ’some of it’, and then allowed Paulson to hand out billions with no accountability.
If we’ve learned anything here, it’s that the financial sector cannot be trusted. We need to implement close scrutiny and accountability with any new economic stimulus funding.
We also need to investigate, charge and convict any person or business that abused Federal funds.
Bernard ‘Madoff with the Money’ is just one example of greed on Wall St.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:09 amAnd the next time the USPS runs massive deficits we’ll reduce service to four, then, three, etc., days a week??? Here’s an idea: let each class of mail charge fees that actually pay for that service rather than trying to cover losses in other than first class out of first class which is declining due to email, texting, twittering, etc.!!!!!!!
January 29th, 2009 at 9:12 amjpopphan Says
January 29th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Why aren’t our officials being protected by our soldiers? Why are we relying on private sector mercenaries to protect our people? How much money are we paying Blackwater to do the same job that has traditionally been performed by our military?
____________________________________________________________
You would think that our military should be doing this job — it’s a no-brainer. I suspect that the cruel truth is that we don’t have enough military personnel to do the job, since our forces are stretched so thin.
When you have to hire a private firm such as Blackwater to do the military’s work, this is a red flag that your resources are unacceptably low. The solution is to either A) refrain from getting into wars you can’t staff, or B) reinstitute the draft.
And if you reinstitute the draft, you’re going to be limited to wars that have the enthusiastic support of the public.
Fortunately, Obama is working for Iraq withdrawal, which will solve the Blackwater problem AND the staffing problem (since he only wants to redeploy a portion of the troops to Afghanistan). It will have the added effect of saving us billions of dollars — money we can certainly use for other things.
Oh, and your question about how much we pay Blackwater? I don’t have an exact figure, but I’m pretty sure it’s a sh!tload.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:14 amForget the Iraqi govt., I think that Obama should eliminate Blackwater and ALL of Dick Cheney’s no bid contractors.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:14 amHow much of that $18.4 billion was paid out by firms that had to accept government hand-outs, supposedly because they didn’t have the money to keep operating without it? The government should just make a point of getting back every penny that was paid under those circumstances, because if these companies had the money to just hand out to their people, they didn’t need our help. It now looks like companies like Merrill went ahead and paid out huge sums in spite of massive losses, knowing that any shortfall would soon be made up with TARP money. I call that outright fraud.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:16 amAs I pay my taxes this year, it warms my heart to know that part of my hard-earned income will go towards these CEO’s who did so much for this country.
Oh, wait. That’s heartburn….
January 29th, 2009 at 9:16 amHe who lives by the Blackwater, . . .? This is another sad result of the flawed Rumsfeld, neo-Con vision of US forces downsized and supplemented by huge numbers of contractors, draining money from the Treasury into Republican crony capitalist pockets, which would help pay to maintain the idiocy of the party’s anti- middle and lower class policies through large contributions and lobbying fees, support for front organizations like the AEI, etc.!
January 29th, 2009 at 9:18 amMenehune Says
January 29th, 2009 at 9:16 am
The government should just make a point of getting back every penny that was paid under those circumstances, because if these companies had the money to just hand out to their people, they didn’t need our help.
__________________________________________________________
I agree with you when it comes to paying bonuses to company officers and executives — part of being an officer of a corporation means you sink or swim with it.
However, bonuses paid to rank and file employees to fulfill an agreement made at the beginning of the fiscal year (”meet these performance objectives and you will receive a bonus of such-and-such”) should be paid if the employee met the requirements for it. Such bonuses (performance pay) are considered to be part of an employee’s total compensation package, and if the employee worked his butt off and did a great job, he shouldn’t be penalized for something beyond his control because the company decision makers did a crappy job. Furthermore, you don’t want your best people leaving because you reneged on a deal.
I suspect that a significant portion of these bonuses have been paid to company officers, who can certainly get along without them. People who live in the top layer need to realize that it means more than a lot of fancy perqs when times are good. It also means having to suck it up when times are bad.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:27 amGood morning, campers
On Wall Street executive bonuses by those receiving TARP funds.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:28 amThis time, words just fail me.
A report by the New York State comptroller revealed that Wall Street employees reaped an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year
In normal people land, you ONLY get a bonus if
1) You did a good or excellent job that year
AND
2) The company made a profit.
BOTH are requisite, at least in any company that is being fiscally responsible.
ANY institution that accepted Wall Street Welfare money and paid out any bonuses to anyone should be audited and investigated AND, regardless of those outcomes, REQUIRED to return AT LEAST the amount of the paid out bonuses.
How about we make some work for accountants, and audit every single company who received bailout money to determine how it was used?
January 29th, 2009 at 9:30 amIf Jessica Alba won’t appear on Billdo’s show, maybe he could just get her on the phone!…
January 29th, 2009 at 9:36 amHidden Bonuses Enrich Government Contractors at Taxpayer Cost
Federal departments, including Treasury itself, routinely squander tens of billions of dollars a year in taxpayer money as they farm out public business to private corporations.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aYYHKPn4DOe8&refer=news
January 29th, 2009 at 9:37 amAnd remember, Republicans are threatening to block any economic stimulus package which taxes these bonuses….
January 29th, 2009 at 9:38 amComing to TP?
Pro-Israel media: Bloggers join media war
Some 1,000 new immigrants and foreign-language-speaking Jews volunteer to army of bloggers set up by Absorption Ministry and Foreign Ministry with the stated objective of flooding blogs with pro-Israel opinions
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3663679,00.html
January 29th, 2009 at 9:41 amBriseadh na Faire Says:
And remember, Republicans are threatening to block any economic stimulus package which taxes these bonuses….
The obstructionist party plans to block anything that they did not draft themselves.
Remember the 100% lockstep vote against the stimulus bill based purely on the commands of their leaders.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:43 amSuch a welcome change from the bush administration. I’m sleeping better at night now.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:43 am> The Iraqi government “will not allow
> Blackwater Worldwide to continue
> providing security protection for
> U.S. diplomats in the country
Wow. Pretty ineffective gesture meant for public show. The company essentially uses nothing but independent contractors, so all the principal forces behind blackwater have to do is form a new corporation with a different name and hire the same steroid addled killers. Better yet, those folks could form a corporation outside american so the wouldnt be subject to those pesky american laws and pesky american lawsuits that bloodmerchant like eric prince hate so much…oh wait? whats that? they already did that?
Greystone baby…
http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2008/03/greystone-chris-burgess-interview.html
January 29th, 2009 at 9:48 ammisshusseinmolly…# 11
that’s the theory (fulfill the agreement, retain the best employees, but look at the situation:
(by the way top execs may also get paid to LEAVE a company too).
There’s no reason to believe any of the companies are retaining their best employees.
The top execs who created their own crisis ( and in general) clearly aren’t “the best” but have kept their jobs.
Mass layoffs aren’t made on an employee merit basis, but on cost calculations ( which themselves may not be particularly merit based in terms of cost—keep the travel coordinators ( even though we can book our own flights) but get rid of 30% pg customer service people. for example.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:48 amSo the Post Office wants to cut service and raise first class rates by 2 cents in May. Volumes are down, costs are up at the U.S. government’s second largest employer (the largest is the military). Maybe they could realistically look at costs, i.e. it takes the same carrier and the same gas and vehicle cost to deliver 1st class as well as so-called charity requests, grocery fliers, etc.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:50 amThe charities are egregious in their abuse of public trust with many of their executives hauling in 500k per year, yet they can only afford 9 cents to flood the mailboxes. Wow. Looks like the lobbyists have done a great job at the expense of reason. I think it’s time for a change. Maybe the government can also cut down the wars by one or two days a week to save money.
Repugniscum philosophy can be summed up in two words – Grover Norquist.
Allow fatcats to take home millions while their companies flounder. At the same time, reduce taxes those fatcats may have to pay on those millions.
And, as a result of those reduced revenues to the fed, programs designed to shore up families, employees, and ordinary citizens around the country will have to be eliminated or drastically cut.
Do they ever sing a different song? I am sick of their repetitive caterwauling.
Their policies were followed during Reagan years and Bush years — all through out our history, when this philosophy has been applied, it has failed — Americans suffered while the rich got richer.
I will continue to repeat myself here: When the news media rewards those who have brought us repeated failures by validating them on TV, radio and print, they have aided and abetted those who have brought us to this precipice.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:54 amjpopphan Says:
Why aren’t our officials being protected by our soldiers? Why are we relying on private sector mercenaries to protect our people? How much money are we paying Blackwater to do the same job that has traditionally been performed by our military?
January 29th, 2009 at 9:05 am
___________
We don’t have enough troops in theater. That’s the fact. If we were to have troops performing all the DipSec duties currently performed by mercenaries, there’d have to be 250,000 troops in Iraq.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:56 am#21 Exactly.
The Financial Services Industry cannot be allowed to continue where the “bonus” is an entitlement rather than a reward. And, of course, it should be tied to the performance of the corporation as a whole and not just an employee’s particular limited job description. Many employees equals many pairs of eyes. Those pairs of eyes should be trained on what everybody in the corporation is doing, not just at the stack of papers on their desk. And shared success with vigilant oversight to limit failure is what we expect for the country as a whole, so why not for corporations too?
January 29th, 2009 at 9:57 am‘Unions Across The US Grew By 428,000 Members In 2008′
January 29th, 2009 at 10:01 am———-
That is making Republicans and their leaders very nervous,and that’s why Senator Shelby and company in the Senate want to dismantle Auto workers unions by not giving any kind of financial aid to automobile companies hoping to see these companies instead filing for bankruptcy,so workers unions will disappear.
jpopphan Says:
“…a move that would deprive U.S. officials of their primary protection force.”
Why aren’t our officials being protected by our soldiers? Why are we relying on private sector mercenaries to protect our people? How much money are we paying Blackwater to do the same job that has traditionally been performed by our military?
Exactly the questions we need to be asking our elected officials. I personally think that not only have these contractors been a huge waste of money, that they have done a lot to bring MORE harm our soldiers’ way NOT less. It is a rip-off and those countries need to be sent home.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:11 amoops…send those companies home and then get the soldiers back to our country…
January 29th, 2009 at 10:12 amMenehune Says:
#21 Exactly.
The Financial Services Industry cannot be allowed to continue where the “bonus” is an entitlement rather than a reward.
Yeah, “bonus” totally loses its meaning when people get rewarded for running their company into the ground and laying off workers. It is criminal.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:12 amMarie: I will continue to repeat myself here: When the news media rewards those who have brought us repeated failures by validating them on TV, radio and print, they have aided and abetted those who have brought us to this precipice.
Look at the owners of the media conglomerates and follow where they give their money. I haven’t researched it thoroughly, but I have a pretty solid theory as to who gets exposure and why…
January 29th, 2009 at 10:16 am#30. Takes one to know one!
January 29th, 2009 at 10:17 amDynamo Says: What a pathetic piece of human garbage!
You described yourself perfectly, Dynamo!
January 29th, 2009 at 10:18 amMr. Gore has a Nobel Peace Prize, Dynamo. What’s your latest award? Wait, let me guess…Human Garbage Man of the Year?
Dynamo: What a pathetic piece of human garbage!
We realize you are Dynamo.
Now again, please defend your position as a global warming/climate change denier and why you are supposed to being ecologically responsible?
DO you have children?
Any friends or family with kids?
Do you assume that maybe those children will have children of their own, etc. etc.?
Do you not care what condition the planet will be left in for future generations?
Do you have vested interest in pollution by consumption of fossil fuels?
Why do you fear change?
January 29th, 2009 at 10:21 amDynamo quotes an inhofe blog….ha, ha, ha…..
inhofe is a caveman who is really just about as irrelivant as you are dynochurn.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:22 amRussia Drops Kaliningrad Missile Plans
\-
MOSCOW – Russia has shelved plans to install missiles on central Europe’s doorstep after detecting a cooling by the
Obama administration towards a controversial US shield project, a military official said on Wednesday.
Moscow had warned it would deploy Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave wedged between NATO and EU members Poland and Lithuania, if Washington did not withdraw its controversial European missile shield plan.
-
Russian officials have repeatedly said in recent weeks that they have heard “positive signals” from Obama and hope that relations will recover from the post-Cold War lows reached during the last year of the Bush presidency.
-/
What? No WWIII? Josh Bolton is not pleased. Our “enemies” seem more willing to work with Obama than the GOP.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:23 amDynamo dons his bronzbootz. I bet they are on the wrong feet.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:24 amI think I posted impulsively. On second look, bronzbootz’s content isn’t Dyanamo-material. My apologies, bronzbootz.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:26 amDynamo Says:
James Hansen “embarrassed NASA,” says former supervisor
Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist Dr. John S. Theon, the former supervisor of James Hansen, NASA’s vocal man-made global warming fears soothsayer, has now publicly declared himself a skeptic and declared that Hansen “embarrassed NASA” with his alarming climate claims and said Hansen was “was never muzzled.”
January 29th, 2009 at 10:13 am
___________
Right. Theon retired from NASA in 1994. In case you haven’t noticed, technology has changed a bit since then, as has the quality of climate models.
And as for the assertion that Hansen was never muzzled, reality disagrees with you.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:27 amIf any of y’all missed Washington Journal on C-Span today, you ought to go to the website and watch Senator Bernie Sanders at the start of the third hour. After Bernie is Ron Paul, who is also entertaining if not quite as lucid.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:29 amDynamo has his barn boots on.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:32 am39
Nice work Hussein…I tried to find better bio on Theon through other sources than Dynamo’s crackpot link. The guy said he puts no credibility at all in climate modeling. Effectively, saying that what he was doing while at NASA was basically useless. Theon is another dinosaur who is out of touch, and one wonders why he is coming out NOW, and not when controversies around the anti-science attitude at NASA was in the headlines?
January 29th, 2009 at 10:36 amHouse of Roberts Says:
If any of y’all missed Washington Journal on C-Span today, you ought to go to the website and watch Senator Bernie Sanders at the start of the third hour. After Bernie is Ron Paul, who is also entertaining if not quite as lucid.
Sen. Sanders makes me proud to reside in VT.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:36 amDynamo
January 29th, 2009 at 10:37 amYou need a new stupid picture
Tweedster at 10:36 am
Thom Hartmann calls Bernie “America’s Senator”, and I claim him because I’m in Alabama, and I’ve got nothing down here.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:43 amNo PCL, irregulars can be hard to gauge.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:58 amObviously, Dynasaur thinks that it serves a useful function here, probably believes he’ll cram the “truth” down the throats of us godless libs.
Do you guys think he’d be traumatized if it ever sunk in that he’s just a source of entertainment around here?
January 29th, 2009 at 10:58 amNo problem PLC, irregulars can be hard to gauge.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:59 amHouse of Roberts Says:
Tweedster at 10:36 am
Thom Hartmann calls Bernie “America’s Senator”, and I claim him because I’m in Alabama, and I’ve got nothing down here.
Brunch With Bernie on Thom’s Friday show is one of the highlights of my week. It’s great!
January 29th, 2009 at 11:18 ambronzbootz Says:
No PCL, irregulars can be hard to gauge.
______________
Oh… I don’t know… I’d say they’re a 12EEE.
Just the right size for kicking GOOPers in the Cheney.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:37 amMorning, all – I got nuttin’.
Except, well, I’m very proud of our new President this morning for signing the Lily Ledbetter act.
Bravo!!!
January 29th, 2009 at 11:38 amLeaders Say Obama Has Tapped Pastor for Outreach Office
President Obama plans to name Joshua DuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal pastor and political strategist who handled religious outreach for the Obama campaign, to direct a revamped office of faith-based initiatives, according to religious leaders who have been informed about the choice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29faith.html?ref=politics
January 29th, 2009 at 11:42 amState, you make it sound like a negative. From the article you linked to:
Do you have a point????
January 29th, 2009 at 11:59 am“the number of people receiving unemployment benefits has reached an all-time high.”
Several sources now claim that the unemployment rate is closer to 17%…
…welcome to the Great Bush Depression.
January 29th, 2009 at 12:17 pmFred, I posted the title and first paragraph of the piece. All the words came from the NYT. This thread is for news. Congratulations for posting more of the piece.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:28 pm