STUNNING: Comparing U.S. & World Covers for TIME Magazine. The Elizabeth Warren Quote Every American Needs To See. Vice President Joe Biden Visits Japan. Vice President Biden arrived In Tokyo late Monday evening -- the final leg of his trip through Asia. The Vice President met with Prime Minister Naoto Kan where he expressed both sympathy and support to the Japanese people in the wake of the March 11 disaster, as well as emphasized the strong ties between the U.S. and Japan.
Later, Vice President Biden traveled north to the Sendai region where he delivered remarks at the Sendai Airport on Japan’s recovery and reconstruction efforts. He also met with survivors of the tsunami at a temporary housing center in Natori, Japan. Vice President Biden concluded his trip to Japan by delivering remarks to U.S. service members and their families at Yokota Air Base, headquarters of U.S.
Forces Japan. In his speech, the Vice President thanked the troops for their quick and decisive efforts to help the Japanese people and provide critical assistance in the aftermath of the disaster. 1 of 14. The Front Runners. What Can Be Done About the Somalia Famine? Hint: It’s not a problem than can be droned away. Everyday brings grim new figures from the famine in Somalia. The latest is this: according to nutrition and mortality surveys by USAID 29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the last 90 days in southern Somalia.
And it’s going from bad to worse. On Wednesday, the UN announced that the famine has spread beyond the regions in Southern Somalia to three other areas—including parts of Mogadishu. How did it get this bad? The Horn of Africa, which includes parts of Kenya and Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. This caused crop failures, livestock deaths and massive displacement. But it is not causing a famine in in Djbouti, Ethiopia, or Eritrea. The centrality of an al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group to this crisis has tempted pundits one into thinking that there is a military solution to this crisis. In fact, we do not need to invade and occupy Somalia in order to fight this famine. Money. Diplomacy.
That would be a good start. The Centrist Cop-Out. The Billionaire Koch Brothers. On May 17th, a black-tie audience at the Metropolitan Opera House applauded as a tall, jovial-looking billionaire took the stage. It was the seventieth annual spring gala of American Ballet Theatre, and David H. Koch was being celebrated for his generosity as a member of the board of trustees; he had recently donated $2.5 million toward the company’s upcoming season, and had given many millions before that.
Koch received an award while flanked by two of the gala’s co-chairs, Blaine Trump, in a peach-colored gown, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, in emerald green. Kennedy’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had been a patron of the ballet and, coincidentally, the previous owner of a Fifth Avenue apartment that Koch had bought, in 1995, and then sold, eleven years later, for thirty-two million dollars, having found it too small. The gala marked the social ascent of Koch, who, at the age of seventy, has become one of the city’s most prominent philanthropists.
This Is Called ‘Small’ Government - NYTimes.com. The painful price of deficit hysteria - History. Regardless of the outcome of the debt ceiling debate, conservatives have already scored a major victory over liberalism. Even if President Obama emerges from the struggle in stronger political shape than the GOP, the fiscalization of American politics — meaning the focus of debate on deficits and debt — constitutes a powerful blow to liberal Democrats who once hoped that President Obama’s election would herald a new era for their cause. Liberals were wrong. Conservatives, who have a mediocre field of presidential candidates and who don’t control the Senate, have been able to stand their ground. Perhaps one of their most lasting accomplishments since the midterm elections has been their ability to shift national debate toward the problem of deficit reduction. While there has been disagreement among politicians and economists about whether this is the correct time to deal with this issue given the laggard state of the economy, conservatives have won the battle.
A taxpayer-supported campaign against Big Government - War Room. Taxpayer dollars in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Kansas are being spent to fund state lawmakers’ memberships in the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which provides model state legislation drafted with the help of big business. In some of the states, public money has gone to travel and food expenses as well, including in Pennsylvania, whose taxpayers spent $50,000 to cater ALEC’s 2007 conference in Philadelphia. The public money is helping to fund the activities of an organization dedicated to drastically cutting government spending and whose non-profit status is currently being challenged by Common Cause, which contends that ALEC is essentially a lobbying organization. Corporations are given a direct role in drafting the model legislation that ALEC urges states to adopt — legislation that, if enacted, often benefits the same corporations.
“This was something that was hidden from members and no one knew anything about this,” former State Rep. When the super-rich cry "class warfare!" - Wall Street. I ran into my friend Jeff Madrick a few weeks ago. Like a rabbit out of a hat, or so it seemed, he whipped from his coat a copy of his new book, “Age of Greed.” He gave the book to me and I’m grateful. It’s a compelling and worthy read. Jeff’s an able journalist; an excellent and cogent storyteller in a field that often defies the straightforward plot or easy explanation — economics. The book’s subtitle says it all: “The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present”; an ongoing saga of avarice told through profiles of the men who confidently strode forth and marched us smack into the middle of our current fiscal nightmare.
Milton Friedman, Richard Nixon, Ivan Boesky, Ronald Reagan, Michael Milken, Alan Greenspan, Ken Lay, Walter Wriston of Citicorp and Sandy Weill of Citigroup, Lehman Brothers’ Richard Fuld — they’re all here and more, presidents and economists, CEOs and masters of the universe, a veritable Murderers’ Row of the rich and frequently reckless. Yikes. Hardball: Bruce Bartlett desroys every Republican fiscal talking point in 5 minutes. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy They were discussing the infamous chart. On to the dirty little secret. Because I'm sure some will mention it. Bruce Bartlett >> no, i think the dirty secret is that Obama is a moderate conservative. if i were a liberal democrat, i probably would be upset. Hopefully this doesn't dominate the conversation.
Transcript. . CM: Bruce Bartlett is former Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary under the first George Bush and a policy adviser to Ronald Reagan. BB: That's right. CM: Some of these clowns, not all of them, running around saying Barack Obama is a Socialist, he drove up the national debt to $14 trillion and dance around in a circle and congratulate each other.
BB: No, i think the dirty secret is that Obama is a moderate conservative. CM: The point is a $1 trillion debt, and another poring (?) BB: That's right. CM: What is the argument against the kind of tax policy-- let's just say it again. If Pretend Debt Ceiling Negotiations Lead To Downgrade, Credit Card Users Get Hit First. For most of the 21st century thus far, Americans spent well beyond their means, purchasing the life they wanted on credit, incurring debts that always looked as if they could be paid off later. And it's understandable why they'd do that -- while most of our 20th century wars were fought at home by a populace that rationed and sacrificed for the greater good, the Global War On Terror enjoined us to spend money, and go on vacation. So spend we did. And then, in 2008, the economy collapsed after all of the bets Wall Street had made on our debts collapsed.
The good news: To the American people's enduring credit, they've modified their behavior and adapted to new realities and are now living more within their means. Per Chris Morran, at the Consumerist: According to TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus, consumers actually spent $72 billion more paying down their credit cards than making actual purchases in 2009 and 2010. Let's go back to the Consumerist: Blame Republicans for the Debt Ceiling Crisis - Peter Fenn. Are you watching your 401(k) drop? Are you seeing your retirement tank? Are you waiting for higher interest rates on your credit cards and mortgages? Are you nervous about another recession? Well, thank the Republicans. This debt crisis is totally of the Republicans' making. From the beginning we should have had a clean vote—up or down—on the debt ceiling, just as Ronald Reagan and other presidents have done. If Speaker John Boehner and the Republicans allow a default with their last minute antics things are only going to get worse.
[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.] And the very notion of revisiting this silly scenario in six months is absurd. The sad truth is that without the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, without the oil and gas loopholes and, most important, without two wars that the Republicans and Bush failed to pay for, we would be in the black right now, or close to it. [See a collection of political cartoons on the Tea Party.] Religious Leaders Arrested At Capitol For Budget Protest. Update: Upon further investigation The Huffington Post has confirmed that Rabbi Arthur Waskow was arrested along with the rest of the group.
WASHINGTON -- Capitol Hill police arrested 11 people -- many of them members of the clergy -- protesting the Republican House budget-cutting plan, a police spokeswoman said. The group, organized by Common Cause's president, the Rev. Bob Edgar, occupied the center of the historic Rotunda for more than a half hour Thursday, praying and singing until police closed the massive chamber and arrested the group, one by one. Before officers closed the Rotunda, many visitors sang along, clapped, and filmed the prayers, although it was not clear that passersby understood what the group was protesting. Common Cause spokeswoman Mary Boyle said they were trying to make a simple point. "They were trying to send the message to Congress that the budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the poor, the middle class, or the neediest in society," Boyle said.