Prometheus 6

I wonder who's going to pay the bills...

Palin to Resign as Governor of Alaska
By Mitchell L. Blumenthal

Update | 4:59 p.m. Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska announced Friday that she would step down by the end of the month and not seek a second term as governor, fueling speculation that she is seriously weighing whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012.

Ms. Palin, who was Senator John McCain’s vice presidential running mate last year and solidified the support of the party’s conservative base, explained her decision at a news conference at her home in Wasilla, Alaska, accompanied by her husband, Todd, and other family members.

“We know we can effect positive change outside of government,” she said in making the announcement.

DeParle profited from health care companies under scrutiny
By Fred Schulte
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

This story was co-published by the Investigative Reporting Workshop and msnbc.com .

Nancy-Ann DeParle, President Barack Obama’s health policy czar, served as a director of corporations that faced scores of federal investigations, whistleblower lawsuits and other regulatory actions, according to government records reviewed by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.

Several of the companies were investigated for alleged kickbacks or engaging in other illegal billing schemes, while others were accused of serious violations of federal quality standards, including one company that failed to warn patients of deadly problems with an implanted heart defibrillator. Several of the cases ended with substantial fines paid to the federal government, even though the companies admitted no wrongdoing.

In touting DeParle’s accomplishments when he appointed her in March, Obama didn’t mention the lucrative private-sector career she built since September 2000, when she left her government job running Medicare for the Clinton administration. Records show she earned more than $6.6 million since early 2001, according to a tally by the Investigative Reporting Workshop.

And the public wasn't told that much of that corporate career was built at companies that have frequently had to defend themselves against federal investigations. After leaving government, DeParle accepted director positions at half a dozen companies suspected of violating the very laws and regulations she had enforced for Medicare. Those companies got into further trouble on her watch as a director. Now she’s back in government as a leading voice in deciding the shape of health care reform. As director of the White House Office of Health Reform, DeParle is the point person in pushing for the administration's plans for changing health care and the ways Americans pay for it — changes in which her former companies have a great deal at stake.

"Part of our discussion as a country will be, 'What is urban?' " said Adolfo Carrión Jr., Office of Urban Affairs director. "We want to essentially tease out what the elements of a national agenda ought to be."

So...we're going to redefine "urban...

Now President Obama has created the Office of Urban Affairs, which seeks to redefine the word "urban."

But keep using it the same way.

In his most definitive statements laying out the office's work, Carrión said in an interview that he hopes to spark a national conversation about urban needs. He said he plans to bring agencies together to change urban growth patterns and foster opportunity, reduce sprawl, and jump-start the economy.

That usually works. Not.

I'm sorry, but if a bank won't accept it, you haven't been paid.

With the state preparing IOUs and anxiety mounting on Wall Street over the budget impasse, Steinberg said Democrats would back off on demands for tax hikes.

Blakeslee hailed that as a major breakthrough. "With that off the table, more meaningful progress will happen," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

...and that's exactly what got the state in the mess it's currently in. Maybe they need a barter system.

Unfortunately, the people of California vote like the state can get screwed without they themselves getting screwed, too.

Hope for California budget deal as IOUs planned
By Jim Christie
Reuters
Friday, July 3, 2009 12:42 AM

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Top California lawmakers raised hope on Thursday that an elusive budget deal could be at hand, as officials began issuing billions of dollars in "IOUs" to avoid a cash crisis on the second day of a new fiscal year without an agreement to balance the state's books.

"I think there is at least a 50-50 chance that we'll find a solution that is acceptable to all parties within a week," Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee said after the state Senate's top Democrat said Democrats would no longer hold out for tax increases as part of a budget agreement.

California faces a financial stranglehold after lawmakers failed to balance the budget by the start of the state's new fiscal year on Wednesday, leaving a $26.3 billion deficit and prompting Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a fiscal emergency.

He minced no words on Thursday in lambasting lawmakers for their failure.

"In four weeks, in the last four weeks, instead of negotiating and coming to a budget agreement, they decided to debate and to debate and to have hearings and more debates and more hearings and finger-pointing and assigning blame. At the end of the day, they haven't accomplished anything," Schwarzenegger said at a press conference in Los Angeles.

Old cars are often more valuable when sold off as parts than as a whole car. But when you're done you still have most of the car left, an immobile hulk that must be hauled away.

GM Bondholders Try To Block Firm's Sale
By Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 3, 2009

NEW YORK, July 2 -- One of the main challengers to the proposed sale of General Motors on Thursday urged a federal bankruptcy judge to act as a check on an "overbearing" government and reject the restructuring plan pursued by the Obama administration.

The government, pushing the limits of its power in stressful economic times, made a "conscious, strategic decision" to circumvent a traditional reorganization plan, said Michael Richman, an attorney for dissident GM bondholders.

His comments came during closing arguments on the third and final day of hearings to approve the sale of the automaker's profitable assets to a new, leaner GM to be 61 percent owned by the federal government.

Judge Robert Gerber adjourned the hearing late Thursday, after three days of marathon oral arguments and testimony. He did not indicate when he would render his decision.

Galloway was pressed to resign in June, two weeks after he incorporated a company, Applied Enterprise Solutions, in the name of his wife, Mary, a homemaker and self-employed photographer with no experience in the computer industry, the lawsuit says. Galloway and his wife did not reply to phone and e-mail messages.

"AES was a shell company with no employees (other than Mr. and Mrs. Galloway), no offices, and no contracts," the suit alleges.

The lawsuit says that the three men collaborated secretly for six months before the request to create the new center was ever released. It says they provided SAIC non-public information that was never released to other prospective bidders. Galloway's company became a subcontractor for SAIC, according to the suit.

U.S. Joins Whistleblower Suit Alleging SAIC Rigged Contract
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 3, 2009

SAIC, one of the Pentagon's largest contractors, conspired with federal officials to rig a $3.2 billion technology contract and tried to cover up the scheme by destroying documents and electronic records, federal prosecutors said in newly unsealed court documents.

The Justice Department announced yesterday that it had joined a whistleblower lawsuit filed in federal court in Mississippi asking for a monetary judgment against SAIC, which has already been paid $116 million under the contract.

"Those who do business with the government must act fairly and in accordance with the law," Assistant Attorney General Tony West said in a statement. "As this case illustrates, the Department of Justice will actively pursue legal action against both contractors and federal employees who seek to gain an unfair advantage in the procurement process."

Video could have been simpler to use online in HTML5

But the issue of what codec to use has been a hot potato. The codecs likely to have been recommended would have been Ogg Vorbis for audio and Ogg Theora for video, both of which can be implemented without paying royalties unlike with other formats.

Supporters for the use of those formats argue that no one company should profit or hold the power over a particular codec, which could influence its development and use depending on a company's business plans.

If browsers supported those codecs, Web developers could use open-source tools and encoders for those formats to put multimedia on their site for free, potentially striking a blow against vendors such as Adobe, Microsoft, RealNetworks and others that sell multimedia software tools.

Apple won't support Ogg Theora in QuickTime, the company's multimedia player, Hickson wrote. Apple has also expressed concern over patents associated with Ogg Theora. Even though the codec can be used royalty-free, Apple has been concerned that some party could make a claim if it ends up implemented in its products.

Opera and Mozilla oppose using the H.264 video compression standard for various reasons, including the cost of licensing the relevant patents as well distribution issues, Hickson wrote. Google uses H.264 and Ogg Theora in Chrome, but also has a problem in how it can distribute the browser through third parties due to licensing issues with H.264, he wrote. Microsoft hasn't made a commitment to support the video tag, he wrote.

"After an inordinate amount of discussions, both in public and privately, on the situation regarding codecs for <video> and <audio> in HTML 5, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that there is no suitable codec that all vendors are willing to implement and ship," Hickson wrote.

My only consolation is the sure knowledge that HTML5 wouldn't become universal until everyone replaced their old web development tools. Folks still have no idea how to write sites that validate in HTML 4...I keep my Web Develope toolbar active in Firefox...it is fascinating how few commercial sites validate (like I actually got room to talk about it...).

If the vaccine is given the go-ahead to enter into human clinical trials, it will be at least four years before Kang expects to have statistically significant analysis, and possibly allow the vaccine to be marketed.

Through Western, Sumagen Canada has secured patents for the vaccine in over 70 countries in the world, including the United States, the European Union and Korea. According to the firm, animal testing has resulted in good antibody reactions in immunology tests, with no adverse effects or safety risks. 

Sumagen says it is prepared to begin the clinical trial in the U.S. as soon as approval is granted.

HIV/AIDS vaccine reaches milestone
By Communications Staff
Thursday, July 2, 2009

An HIV/AIDS vaccine developed by University of Western Ontario professor Chil-Yong Kang has reached "an important milestone" as it pushes towards the first phase of human trials.

Japanese scientists to breed 'super tuna'
Japanese scientists will have bred a new "super-tuna" within a decade that will be stronger, more resistant to disease and taste better than the bluefin presently in the oceans.
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Published: 10:53AM BST 02 Jul 2009

The tuna - stocks of which are in global decline - would be raised in farms to meet surging demand around the world for the traditional Japanese delicacy.

A team from Japan’s Fisheries Research Agency, The University of Tokyo and Kyushu University is close to completing the genome sequence of the bluefin tuna to unravel the secrets of the chemical building blocks of the fish and expects to be able to start a breeding programme next year.

“We have already completed two computer sequencing runs and have around 60 per cent of the tuna genome,” said Dr. Kazumasa Ikuta, director of research at the Yokohama-based Fisheries Research Agency.

“We expect to have the entire sequence in the next couple of months.

"Enter the water without raising a ripple, walk on the grass without bending a blade.

The difficult challenge now for the United States and other major powers is to come up with policies that give hope to the opposition and reinforce the doubts of Iran’s political elites — without provoking a backlash.

Our next trick will be to step off a cliff without hitting the ground.

There's this journal called Social Problems that published this article in February. Here's an abstract of the article, which I find seriously intriguing.

Negotiating White Power Activist Stigma

Pete Simi‌
University of Nebraska, Omaha
Robert Futrell‌
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

This article uses extensive ethnographic data on the U.S. white power movement (WPM) to describe the interactional aspects of managing activist stigma in everyday settings. We describe their stigma management as a form of everyday resistance. In the face of strong cultural codes against extreme racism, they conceal their Aryan identity to avoid the constant ire, indignation, and conflict they face from others. But, concealing their activist identity creates dissonance, which they work out by exploiting opportunities to selectively disclose features of their racist self. Disclosing aspects of their Aryan self while covering the more extreme aspects creates some expressive balance, which activists experience as resistance to social constraints on identity and self-expression that they perceive. We explain variances in the degree to which WPM members conceal and disclose their identity by focusing on structural differences in the common, everyday settings of family, work, school, and other public contexts.

It would cost me $12.00 to buy a copy of it. Or I can spend $4.00 and some relaxing time going to the library, which has a subscription, and snarf a copy there.

Maybe some day it will be public access terminals that serve the purpose, but libraries give you access to things you'd otherwise never even know existed. Libraries are where you find the memories of our collective mind.

Since Spence is twittering links I have to give the hat tip to his Twitter page. He says "Got to love them black class politics"...

Black and White on Martha’s Vineyard
If the Obamas join the Clintons and Caroline Kennedy on the island this August, they’ll be visiting a vacationland known for its liberal politics and for its self-imposed racial segregation.
By Touré

I take it more as liberal class politics than specifically Black.

“There’s not a lot of overlap between black and white,” says radio executive Skip Finley, who started vacationing in Oak Bluffs in 1954 and has been living there full-time for the past decade. “I don’t think anybody’s insulted by it. I’m certainly not.” It’s an arrangement that springs largely from the self-segregating impulse among black Vineyarders, who have come to the island to connect with each other. “We have people here who are black and upscale and racist,” Finley continues. “They don’t want to be around white folks, and they don’t have to.”

I can certainly understand why HE isn't insulted.

Craig Hockmeyer, who owns a bicycle shop in nearby Vineyard Haven, says he spent many nights at Lola’s, which was, until its recent closing, a central part of the Vineyard black universe. “A bald white honky like me could go in there and feel totally comfortable and dance the night away with all the rich black folks, not a problem at all.”

Him too.

The article is totally on point as regards Black folks there, too.

U.S. Marines Try to Retake Afghan Valley From Taliban
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Almost 4,000 United States Marines, backed by helicopter gunships, pushed into the volatile Helmand River valley in southwestern Afghanistan Thursday morning to try to take back the region from Taliban fighters whose control of poppy harvests and opium smuggling in Helmand provides major financing for the Afghan insurgency.

Pakistan, meanwhile, said it deployed troops to a stretch of its largely porous and mountainous 1,600-mile border with Afghanistan to seal off a potential escape route for insurgents fleeing the American advance, The Associated Press reported. Both Pakistani and American officials had expressed worries that the American offensive could push militants into Pakistan, which is already confronting Taliban insurgents in several areas.

Remember that

"This is what many of us feared about a law that didn't take effect right away," Schumer said. "It was never going to take this long for the credit card companies to get ready for the new reforms. Instead, issuers are using the delay in the effective date to wring more dollars out of their customers. It is against the spirit of the law, and it is just plain wrong."

...during the health care discussion.

Credit Card Issuers Raising Rates Ahead of New Law
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Credit card companies are raising interest rates and fees seven months before new rules go into effect that will limit their ability to do so, much to the irritation of Congress and consumer advocates.

Chase, for instance, will raise the minimum payment required of some of its customers from 2 percent to 5 percent of the statement balance starting in August. Chase and Discover have increased the maximum fee charged for transferring a balance to the card to 5 percent of the amount, up from 3 and 4 percent, respectively. Bank of America last month raised the transaction fee for balance transfers and cash advances from 3 to 4 percent. Card issuers including Bank of America and Citi also continue to cut limits and hike up rates, which they have been doing with more frequency since January.

"This is a common practice and will continue to be common, because issuers can do these things for really no reason until February," said John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Credit.com, which tracks the industry. "It's what I call the Credit Card Trifecta -- lower limits, higher rates, higher minimum payments."

It's not just the top card issuers making changes. Atlanta-based InfiBank, for example, will raise the minimum annual percentage rate it charges nearly all of its customers in September "in order to more effectively manage the profitability of our credit card account portfolio in a very challenging economic environment," said spokesman Kevin C. Langin.

The flurry of activity, which the banks say is necessary to shore up their revenue losses, has irked members of Congress, who passed a new credit card law, which was signed by President Obama in May. The law, among other things, would prevent card companies from raising rates on existing balances unless the borrower was at least 60 days late and would require the original rate to be restored if payments are received on time for six months. The law would also require banks to get customers' permission before allowing them to go over their limits, for which they would have to pay a fee.

Health economists once made the harsh financial calculation that the obese would save money by dying sooner. But more recent research instead suggests that better treatments are keeping them alive nearly as long - but they're much sicker for longer, requiring such costly interventions as knee replacements and diabetes care and dialysis. Medicare spends anywhere from $1,400 to $6,000 more annually on health care for an obese senior than for the non-obese, Levi said.

"There isn't a magic bullet. We don't have a pill for it," said Levi. "It's not going to be solved in the doctor's office but in the community, where we change norms."

Obesity rates rising, Mississippi's still fattest
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 8:44 PM

WASHINGTON -- Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers.

It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news. In 31 states, more than one in four adults are obese, says a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year, and no state experienced a significant decline.

"The obesity epidemic clearly goes beyond being an individual problem," said Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust, a nonprofit public health group.

I have a friend in San Francisco that I may have to visit soon...but California is getting to be as crazy as Texas.

BART 'N-word' bombshell waiting to go off
Phillip Matier,Andrew Ross, Chronicle Columnists
Monday, June 29, 2009

(06-28) 17:20 PDT -- Overlooked in the court hearing that ended in former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle being ordered tried for murder in the slaying of Oscar Grant was testimony about another officer's explosive outburst just 30 seconds before Grant was shot.

One of the videos made by riders at the Fruitvale Station in Oakland early New Year's Day caught Officer Tony Pirone standing over the prone Grant and yelling, "Bitch-ass n-."

Pirone and his attorney say he was parroting an epithet that Grant first hurled at him - though Grant's voice is not audible on the tape.

The sound-enhanced tape shows Pirone delivering a shoulder chop to Grant and bringing him to the ground. Pirone can be heard saying twice, "Bitch-ass n-, right?"

Prosecutors showed the tape in court on the last day of Mehserle's preliminary hearing, but the headlines went to the judge's decree hours later that there was enough evidence to send Mehserle to trial for murder.

Under questioning from Mehserle's attorney Michael Rains, Pirone insisted it was Grant who had first "called me a bitch-ass n-."

Asked if he had repeated the slur to Grant, Pirone testified: "I don't remember, but it very well may have happened."

"Is that something you would have initiated on your own, calling him names?" Rains asked.

"No, I don't talk like that," Pirone said.

Oakland attorney John Burris, who is representing Grant's family in a lawsuit against BART, called Pirone's words "shocking and disturbing."

"Pirone was out of control," Burris said, "assaulting Oscar Grant and taunting him with racial slurs, and none of the other officers seemed to put him in check."

A number credit self-belief in their success, while some also cite their reliance on the classic American virtues of hard work and self-reliance.

...which means they're typical mainstream Americans. Judge accordingly.

New book spotlights black America in Obama era
Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:09pm EDT
By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters Life!) - A new book attempts to dig beneath the euphoria that swept black America when Barack Obama became president to ask the question: what, if anything, actually changed?

"Family Affair: What it Means to be African American Today" is a collection of short, autobiographical essays in which 76 black professionals detail how their families played a role in their success, either as springboards, or barriers to be overcome.

It's one of a slew of books published since the November election in which authors examine the changes in U.S. society that allowed Obama, the first African American president, to run successfully.

CNN is going to try it again, July 22 and 23rd. As I recall, Soledad was more upfront in the online discussion that followed Black in America last time. They shipped me links to a couple of previews.

There's actually a lot of stuff up on the site already. It will remind you a lot of Ebony Magazine.

“For myself, this is very much about the rules changes,” said Senator Tom Libous, a Binghamton Republican who directed the coup last month from the Senate floor. “These rule changes will make every senator relevant and effective so he or she can pass legislation and have equitable resources for their district in the future.”

Of course, Mr. Libous acknowledged that his party was asking for an equality that it never contemplated when it controlled the Senate, which it did for more than four decades until last November’s election changed that.

“I’m not justifying the way we ran the house,” Mr. Libous said. “I’m telling you it’s wrong and we should change it. What we did to the Democrats all those years was not right.”

Blame Panic in G.O.P. for Standoff in Albany
By DANNY HAKIM

ALBANY — Why can’t New York’s feuding senators act like grown-ups?

Nearly a month into the Senate’s bitter leadership struggle, there are few signs that the Republican and Democratic voting blocs, deadlocked in a 31-to-31 tie, are close to a deal to get back to work.

To outsiders, it is hard to imagine why the Senate cannot come together in the face of rising public criticism, withering news coverage and a schedule that has Gov. David A. Paterson forcing them to spend summer weekends in the capital.

But inside the Capitol, interviews with lawmakers on both sides reveal deeper reasons for the standoff, and the stubbornness that has accompanied it. Senate Republicans know the state’s voters, demographically speaking, are moving away from them. The electorate is growing more diverse in New York City and its suburbs, a trend that is likely to favor the Democrats, while the upstate region, a Republican base, has suffered a population drain. At the same time, the Republican caucus is all white and almost entirely male, with half its members 62 or older.

Republicans privately acknowledge that they face an uphill battle in regaining control of the Senate in the election next year. They are claiming that they should lead the Senate for the next year and a half. But they are also trying to take steps now — during what may turn out to be a fleeting moment of power — to undo the worst of what life in the minority party means in Albany.

Their first act after staging a coup on June 8 was to institute rules changes to guarantee that administrative budgets be divided equitably. They have also said they want to guarantee that member items, the earmarks that are perhaps Albany’s most precious commodity, are split equally.

Legitimizing those rules changes is seen as critical to giving Republicans a voice in a future Senate that most believe will be ruled by Democrats. Democrats could always rewrite the rules if they claimed a clear majority, but reversing changes meant to establish fairness would be a controversial step for a party that bills itself as progressive.

There's only one reality, and if you actually learn stuff about it, it doesn't matter where you learned it. People want to attend one school or another for social reasons...connections made, reputation attached to oneself, stuff like that. So there's no real need to assess the efficiency of colleges.

Assessing Accountability
July 1, 2009

Most states don’t have systems in place to measure college students’ learning outcomes, and rare is the state that actually uses accountability data to drive policy decisions, a new report says.

Education Sector, a think tank promoting education reform, analyzed accountability systems across the nation and found varied results in its report, "Ready to Assemble: Grading State Higher Education Accountability Systems." The group’s survey determined that 38 states have little if any system for measuring learning outcomes, adding that 36 states have yet to develop a method for linking college funding to performance.

Courts face new challenges in faith healing cases
By ROSE FRENCH
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 8:19 AM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Most states have child abuse laws allowing some religious exemptions for parents who shun medicine for their sick children, but a few recent cases highlight thorny legal issues for parents following less-recognized faiths.

Existing laws have gradually accounted for more well-known and established faiths, such as Pentecostalism, Christian Science and Jehovah's Witnesses.

But recent cases in the news have judges and child care advocates dealing with parents who claim adherence to lesser-known faiths, such as the Minnesota family following an Internet-based group's American Indian beliefs, and an independent Oregon church that has been investigated in the past for the deaths of members' sick children.

I'm starting to think of medical insurance as a RICO-eligible criminal enterprise.

Insured, but Bankrupted by Health Crises
By REED ABELSON

Last week, a former Cigna executive warned at a Senate hearing on health insurance that lawmakers should be careful about the role they gave private insurers in any new system, saying the companies were too prone to “confuse their customers and dump the sick.”

“The number of uninsured people has increased as more have fallen victim to deceptive marketing practices and bought what essentially is fake insurance,” Wendell Potter, the former Cigna executive, testified...

At St. David’s Medical Center in Austin, where he went for two separate heart procedures last year, the hospital’s admitting office looked at Mr. Yurdin’s coverage and talked to Aetna. St. David’s estimated that his share of the payments would be only a few thousand dollars per procedure.

He and the hospital say they were surprised to eventually learn that the $150,000 hospital coverage in the Aetna policy was mainly for room and board. Coverage was capped at $10,000 for “other hospital services,” which turned out to include nearly all routine hospital care — the expenses incurred in the operating room, for example, and the cost of any medication he received.

In other words, Aetna would have paid for Mr. Yurdin to stay in the hospital for more than five months — as long as he did not need an operation or any lab tests or drugs while he was there....

Although Mr. Mann acknowledged that the plan Mr. Yurdin purchased excluded routine hospital care, he said he thought it still provided value to employees who wanted “peace of mind.”

...or has the news returned to all repetition of stuff reported last week?

Shall I hae to become creative?

Those unsure of own ideas more resistant to views of others

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — We swim in a sea of information, but filter out most of what we see and hear. A new analysis of data from dozens of studies sheds new light on how we choose what we do and do not hear. The study found that while people tend to avoid information that contradicts what they already think or believe, certain factors can cause them to seek out, or at least consider, other points of view.

Now that Al Franken's travails are over, Republicans are saying the economy and national policy belongs to Democrats. They sound rather gleeful about it.

So be it.

Republicans were obstructive back when they admittedly had some ownership of our collective problems. Now that they think the repercussions of the decisions and actions to come, given their strategy of opposing every statement any Democrat makes and pursuit of the most extreme fraction of their party membership, it strikes me Republicans have just declared there is no reason to consider their positions anymore.