A "major fraud investigation" into the life insurance industry.

Although it was good to see that the New York Attorney General is going to investigate the shady and inmoral actions of the life insurance industry, it is disturbing that the investigation by the AG of New York was only after the story was reported on by the press. This reveals both the power and value of a free and independant press and the lack of oversight and regulation by elected leaders in office.

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo says his office has opened a "major fraud investigation" into the life insurance industry.

Cuomo announced Thursday that his office had served subpoenas on Prudential Financial, Inc. and MetLife, Inc. as part of the probe.

The attorney general's office is investigating whether insurers are profiting off of grieving families by placing funds from life insurance policies into potentially risky accounts that the companies control. The office says it appears companies are earning interest off the accounts, while paying out low yields to beneficiaries.

MetLife said it had not received the subpoena and therefore could not comment.

Prudential Financial says it will fully cooperate with the attorney general's investigation.

Corporations Profit from veteran death benefits

I first heard about this story on NPR. Please see the below news story that was posted from Bloomberg News.

The story is just the latest example of why there needs to be more government regulation of the financial industry. However, as the story highlights, the recent financial regulation bill recently signed by President Obama did not address this issue.

Veterans Affairs to Probe Soldiers’ Death Benefits

By Tony Capaccio and David Evans

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said it is conducting a “full investigation” into a report that life insurance companies are putting veterans’ death benefits in corporate accounts and keeping most of the investment profits instead of paying the survivors.

The agency was responding today to a report in Bloomberg Markets magazine on what has become a standard practice for life insurance policies issued by companies including Prudential Financial Inc. and MetLife Inc.

Instead of paying a lump sum to survivors when a policyholder dies, insurers keep the money in their own accounts, pay uncompetitive interest rates to survivors and give them misleading guarantees about the safety of the funds.

“The possibility that life insurance companies are profiting inappropriately from these service members’ sacrifice is completely unacceptable,” Mike Walcoff, acting undersecretary for the agency’s Veterans Benefit Administration, said in an e-mailed statement. “The VA is conducting a full investigation into the life insurance companies and their procedures in this program.”

Prudential, the second-largest life insurer, handles life insurance policies for U.S. military personnel and veterans. New York-based MetLife, the largest life insurer in the U.S., provides insurance for nonmilitary federal employees.

‘Outraged’

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner said he was “outraged” that insurance practices appear to result in “corporations retaining the assets in corporate accounts, profiting from the interest, and failing to pass accrued interest to surviving families.” The California Democrat said VA officials should “demand answers” about the program.

The White House “supports the VA’s immediate investigation into these unacceptable insurance companies’ practices,” spokesman Nick Shapiro said in a statement today. President Barack Obama “is committed to fulfilling America’s responsibility to our armed forces and their families,” Shapiro said.

“The purpose of these benefits is to assist grieving survivors -- not to improve insurance company profits,” said Senator Daniel Akaka, a Hawaii Democrat and chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The New York State Insurance Department will review the legality of the practice, Deputy Superintendent Matthew Gaul said in an interview today.

Survivors are told the death benefit is being placed in a secure interest-bearing account, and they are given what the company calls a “checkbook” to spend the money when they want.

Retained-Asset Accounts

In fact, insurers place the so-called retained-asset accounts in their own general corporate accounts and keep most of the investment earnings. The money isn’t guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and the “checks” are IOUs for money in the insurer’s account.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said he had no immediate comment on the article.

“It’s disgusting, particularly in the case of dead soldiers, for insurance companies to be holding back” money from survivors, Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, said in a telephone interview.

State insurance commissioners “should outlaw this practice. They have the power to do it -- they can say this is an unfair trade practice,” said Hunter, a former Texas insurance commissioner.

The American Council of Life Insurers released a statement saying retained-asset accounts help survivors.

‘Significant Benefit’

“Retained-asset accounts provide a significant benefit to family members who are dealing with the emotional loss of a loved one,” the council said. “Financial matters may not be the first thing on their minds and retained-asset accounts provide a secure place for life insurance policy proceeds to be held until the money is needed.”

Insurers are holding onto at least $28 billion owed to survivors, according to three firms that handle the retained- asset accounts for about 130 life insurance companies.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, said U.S. troops’ survivors must be provided more information about how to handle death benefits. He said insurance companies should be examined to “make sure they aren’t misrepresenting the options being offered to surviving family members.”

Committee Help

Skelton said his committee will “assist in finding a remedy for this problem.”

Since 1999, the Veterans Administration has allowed Newark, New Jersey-based Prudential to use this procedure in providing benefits to survivors of fallen soldiers. In 2009, the families of U.S. soldiers and veterans were supposed to be paid death benefits totaling $1 billion immediately, according to their insurance policies. They weren’t.

In 2008, Prudential paid survivors 1 percent interest on their accounts, while it earned a 4.8 percent return on its corporate funds, according to regulatory filings.

Prudential spokesman Bob DeFillippo said the company’s Alliance Account is lawful and is an aid to soldiers’ families. MetLife spokesman Joseph Madden said customers are happy with the Total Control Account.

“The TCA affords beneficiaries security, peace of mind and time to make an informed decision -- while earning interest in the interim,” Madden said.

Hunter said the Department of Veterans Affairs and Pentagon should provide accurate information on the accounts to military personnel and should “outlaw any insurance company that uses this practice” from using any military facilities to sell the product.

The quasi-banking system operated by insurers has none of the protections of the actual banking system, and the financial regulation overhaul signed by President Barack Obama on July 21 didn’t address it.

A bit of comedy to explain the leak of 90,000 classified documents

Jon Stewart uses a bit of comedy and the media itself to show how the war is being managed by our nearly trillion dollar national security apparatus. Perhaps most disturbing is the way the media is used to manipulate and control the discussion by saying on multiply media outlets that the news about Afghanistan is nothing new.
Stewart responds by saying, "I'm not responding to the 'newness' of the reports - I'm responding to the 'fuc***-upedness' of it!"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Best Leak Ever
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Why War is Considered the Great Auditor of Institutions

The recent publication of thousands of classified Pentagon documents and the public debate over the release of the information is the latest example of how war infringes upon the republic principals the country was founded and why the founding members of the country warned against getting involved in foreign entanglements. The release of the formerly classified documents will add to the already extensive amount of proof political scholars who believe that the pursuit of expansionist and imperial conquest agenda favored by Alexander Hamilton, Robert Kagan, and other neoconservatives, infringe and undermine the Republic principals of American democracy and limited isolationalism advocated by James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the contemporary political scholar Paul Kennedy.

Beginning with the Iraq War, exposing the inept management of civilians back in Washington D.C such as Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials, the Af-Pak war is now auditing all the institutions that a part of the national security state apparatus.

Whether policy members who believe in the neoconservative Leo Strauss and Robert Kagan belief that projecting American power will provide the best security for America, or the notion of limited isolationalism advocated by Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, empirical evidence supports that the United States can not afford to remain on its current course for very much longer.

For the supporters of power projection and federal fiscal policy that increases military expenditures, it is important to remember that James Madison and several of the framers of the Constitution were all men who studied history and previous world powers like the Roman Empire. The framers of the Constitution were well aware of history and were determined not to repeat the tragedy of Rome, a republic that had fallen through military expansion and an army of professional soldiers following the political ambitions of their leader, rather than the government.

The framers of the Constitution were so wary of war and a powerful executive power, that they designed the Constitution to give the power to declare war and raise an Army, to the more representative and populous legislative branch, rather than the executive branch. Influenced greatly by living under a monarch, the framers of the Constitution like James Madison wrote that the history of all governments demonstrates that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war and most prone to it.

Although the military is the only remaining institution in American government that is looked favorably upon by the American people, the continuing pursuit of perpetual war and all the negative aspects that war brings to a society at war, is proving that even the highly respected institution of the military is now succumbing to the dangers that James Madison warned about in 1795. In the memorable quote, Madison wrote:

“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes, and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many the under the domination of the few.”

Since the birth of the new nation in 1776, and the rise of a powerful executive branch that many political scholars identify as an Imperial Presidency, the United States has only formally declared war eleven times, yet she has deployed her military and used military force over a hundred times.

The political rhetoric of White House officials trying to claim that most of the documents were during the period of the Bush administration this kind of rhetoric only reinforces the power of the imperial presidency. The fact remains that the Afghanistan war, Iraq War and all the other wars the United States has embarked upon since the end of World War II have never been declared by the Congress, as required in the U.S. Constitution.

Although many Americans continue to think of their country as an exceptional country and not prone to the same demise of other world powers that have pursued an imperialistic agenda, the recent economic recession and small wars declining world empires fight for domestic gain, prove that America may not be as exceptional as many people believe.

The release of the classified documents gives evidence why war is considered the great auditor of institutions by many political scholars and historians.

The recent public debate about the release of classified documents associated to a war that six out of tem Americans do not support will soon fade from the relative few Americans who are paying attention, but the perpetual war and continual decline of the American republic will continue unabated.

Religious liberty in any society is essential for democracy and freedom

...Freedom arises from the multiplicity of sects, which pervades America and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest.

[James Madison, spoken at the Virginia convention on ratifying the Constitution, June 1778]

UN aid institutions enable and support corrupt third world governments

There is a memorable quote from a prominent American republican, John Bolton, who served a brief stint as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. In the famous statement, John Bolton said in 2003, “The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference”. While the comments from the former United States ambassador were made in reaction to resistance the Bush administration was running into at the United Nations during its run up to the invasion of Iraq, the remarks by John Bolton on the United Nations were fairly accurate.

If the problem of world hunger and poverty was not so serious for the nearly one billion people who are hungry and malnourished in the world, recent statements about budgetary shortfalls by Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, would be almost laughable.

It is disgraceful how the leaders of UN agencies like Josette Sheeran at the World Food Program and Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, can continue to plead to the world for donations for the poor ,while they earn six figure incomes with generous fringe benefits and other perks. Like any bureaucracy and government run institution, these institutions are poorly run, over staffed with politically connected people, and will pursue their own interests first while in the process denying help to the very people, these organizations are supposed to help.

Take the following example where the head of the World Food Programme gave a press conference on how the world is falling far short in feeding its most critically hungry by only pledging 3.7 billion dollars of the 6.7 billion dollars needed to fund the World Food Programme (WFP) for 2009. In a press conference on 29 July 2009, the head of the United Nations leading humanitarian agency said that the agency had only received 1.8 billion dollars in funding, was forced to cut back programs, and rations to the 108 million people it serves. The Executive director went on to claim that the cutbacks would have a "destabilizing" impact in parts of the world still reeling from dramatically higher food prices and less income due to the global financial crisis.

Instead of asking the world for more money, perhaps Ms. Sheeran and Mr. Diouf could actually be leaders of their respective organizations and make decisions aimed at helping the people they were hired to help, instead of just taking care of their own self serving interests. One of the most practical steps that any donor would greatly appreciate would to relocate the organizations to an African country, instead of being based in a high cost Euro zone city, and to implement new oversight and accountability mechanisms cutting down on waste and unproductive employees.

Any first year economic development student would agree how practical it would be to have the headquarters of the UN Agencies responsible for food aid and development to be located in an African country with a large agricultural industry like Uganda. Ideally, the new headquarters would be located in the countryside and next to a working farm, which would show farmers from developing countries all the different ways to grow and harvest crops.

Along with showing new farmers the latest technological advances in farming, another element of the new location should have an area where private companies selling farm related machinery can display their products. Any successful venture to alleviate hunger and poverty has to involve the participation of the private sector.

There is no problem with food scarcity in the world; there is a problem with wealth distribution and economic opportunities.

A first hand example of jobs within the national security state

The founders of the American Republic were all against a large standing army and a large central government. The framers of the Constitution all knew about the negative drag a large standing army would have on the economy and that it would require taxation from the private sector. However, as a result of a political establishment corrupted by money, the republic principals our country was founded on, have been superseded by the needs and demands of an imperial aristocracy.

As follow up to a previous blog posting on the booming intelligence industry, the following is just one of the thousands of jobs with the national security state apparatus and the military industrial complex that Dwight D Eisenhower warned about in 1961.

This job is a classic example of why the founders of the American republic had warned against a large standing army and a large central government.

MIBU is in need of experienced all source intelligence analysts who are extremely comfortable in mining and exploiting the contents of multiple, sometimes very sensitive, databases for the purpose of creating a more comprehensive "portrait" of a terrorist identity. Essentially, this is bringing together a bunch of "pixels" to create a "dot" for others to begin connecting with other dots. An extensive CI background has also proven helpful in doing the kind of "digging" required for this analytic work, which is far closer to "targeting analysis" (not the kinetic kind) than traditional analysis.

Education/Level of Experience: Possess a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration or equivalent relevant experience. Possess 8-10 years of relevant experience and possess demonstrated performance in similar positions.

Professional Traits: Be a self-starter with ability to work independently and possess a strong customer service focus. Possess the following: ability to develop and nurture partnerships, individual and organizational, across organizational boundaries and at all levels; strong research, writing, and analytical skills; excellent organization, interpersonal, and teamwork skills; sound judgment, flexibility, and creative problem solving skills; demonstrated strong customer service focus; effective communication skills, both written and oral; ability to interact successfully with all organizational levels, from junior employees to senior managers; prior work in interagency or joint command environment; independent working skills, demonstrated capability to deal with personnel at all levels in government, industry, and academia; and Critical Traits: experience at handling and delegating competing priorities; ability to quickly assess the significance of current developments, and capability to brief senior consumers in a dynamically changing environment are crucial.


SAIC is a FORTUNE 500® scientific, engineering and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. The company’s approximately 45,000 employees serve customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. Government civil agencies and selected commercial markets. SAIC had annual revenues of $10.1 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2009. For more information, visit www.saic.com. SAIC: From Science to Solutions®

The booming corporate intelligence industry

A classic example of how the infotainment driven mass media keeps the American electorate ignorant of more important issues, was the prominence it gave the infotainment news story of a USDA career bureaucrat being forced to resign by the White House, while under reporting or ignoring the more important issue of the ever escalating privatization of national security by politically connected private corporations by reporters from the Washington Post.

While the Washington Post investigative report by Dana Priest and William Arkin is merely only a regurgitation of what several experts on national security have been writing about for the last 10 years, such as Jeremy Scahill, author of the bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, or Pratap Chatterjee and his best selling book, Halliburton's Army, the failure of the main stream mass media to pick up on the story is the most fundemental reason why most politicans can support the perpetual state of war the country has reamined in since late 2001 and possibly since the end of the Cold War.

Political scientists suggest that about 20 percent of the U.S. public pays attention to international affairs and American foreign policy. This percentage closely matches the percentage of American citizens who own a passport and may explain why a majority of Americans do not understand the negative consequences of a nation in a semi permanent state of war and the continued pursuit of maintaining its hegemonic global position.

In case your news outlet was too busy reporting on the Mel Gibson or Lindsey Lohan story, here are some highlights of the article that is vastly more important to your family's well being and security. Perhaps after you read that the Secretary of Defense, who is in charge of protecting America from the next major terrorist attack, doesn't even know how many defense contrators are employed in his department, you may say that being ignorant about the true condition of our government is not such a bad thing.

No wonder why America never found Osama Bin Laden, the Pentagon can't even find its own ass.

1. Contractors are not supposed to perform what federal rules define as "inherently government functions," but they do. In every single intelligence agency, contractors are performing the same functions as federal employees, and often for higher pay. Contractors for the CIA "have recruited spies in Iraq, paid bribes for information in Afghanistan and protected CIA directors visiting world capitals."

2. Out of the 854,000 people who have top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. That's about a third of the total workforce in the nation's intelligence agencies. About 2,000 small to midsize private companies do top-secret work.

3. The booming corporate intelligence industry is siphoning off the most skilled workers from the government with better pay and shiny bonuses. Contractors can offer twice as much money to experienced federal employees as the government can, and at least one corporate executive was spotted recruiting in the CIA's cafeteria during working hours.

4. Hiring contractors is also really expensive for the government, despite the Bush administration's hopes it would be cheaper than hiring more federal employees. "Contractors made up 29 percent of the workforce in the intelligence agencies but cost the equivalent of 49 percent of their personnel budgets," the Post says. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that federal workers are 25 percent cheaper than contractors.

5. The federal government doesn't know how many contractors are on the payroll, making it tough for them to scale down their numbers. "This is a terrible confession," Gates told the Post. "I can't get a number on how many contractors work for the Office of the Secretary of Defense."

Paolo Borsellino murdered and then forgotten in Italy

19 July, marks a somber and disturbing anniversary for Italy. It was on this day in 1992 that an anti-mafia prosecutor from Palermo, Sicily was blown up by a car bomb planted by the Cosa Nostra mafia clan, while he went to visit his mother. His name was Paolo Borsellino and he was one of two of the most famous and well-known Italian magistrates who was battling the scourge of the Mafia clan Cosa Nostra in Sicily during the 1980s and early 1990s. Like is often the case in contemporary Italian history, the killing of Paolo Borsellino and his close friend Giovanni Falcone just two months earlier, were killed for their efforts to challenge the status quo and help make Italy a better place to live. Contemporary Italian history has revealed that while more honest and noble men are assassinated like Aldo Moro, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the more immoral and contemptible members of Italian society like Silvio Berlusconi and Marcello Dell’Utri with links to the mafia rise to power.

Not to take away any credit or praise from the scores of other innocent Italian citizens who stood up to the mafia in Sicily or the scores of police and judges killed by the mafia, the killing of Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone highlight the true evil and dark facet of Italian politics in Italy. The sheer magnitude of the corruption and collusion of the mafia with the political leaders in Italy was demonstrated when both of its best-known citizens fighting the mafia were killed. The state failed to protect its own servants trying to bring the rule of law and justice to the people of Sicily.

Since the time of the killings of Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone, the power of the Mafia has grown ever more powerful and the progress that both of these men made against the mafia has been reversed. It is now estimated that the mafia clans of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Naples Gomorrah, and the Calabria area Ndrangheta have a combined net income of 70 billion euros last year, producing a 54 percent profit margin. According to Rome-based research institute Eurispes, Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company, had a profit of about half that at $45.2 billion.

As Alexander Stille skillfully explains in his book Excellent Cadavers, The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, at the same time the mafia was being pressured in Sicily, the political corruption so rampant in Italian politics was bringing down the entire political class. Just a few days before the assassination of Paolo Borsellino, the Foreign Minister, Giovanni De Michelis a member of the Christian Democratic Party, was found to have skimmed a percentage of the humanitarian aid that Italy was distributing to the Third World.

This only highlights why the UN agencies located in Rome should be relocated to an African country due to all the corruption in Italy. Perhaps fitting, on the day the Foreign Minister was indicted, the American ambassador Peter Secchia was co-hosting a going away party for the Italian Foreign Minister, Giovanni De Michelis, which was planned weeks earlier. While the American ambassador was heading back to Washington, it appeared his Italian counterpart would be heading to jail. This was a major embarrassment for the United States but is also symbolized the warm embrace American leaders gave to people like De Michelis, while undermining people like Aldo Moro.

Instead of showing fortitude and resolve against the Mafia, the Italian political class and most Italians have opted instead for collusion and spineless behavior towards fighting the power of the mafia. One only has to look at the killings of Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone to see this is evident. The state and its servants like the macho acting Carabinieri forces are all but a joke and are not taken seriously by the Mafia.

If Silvio Berlusconi were truly a man who cared for Italy, than he would deploy all his power and authority to battle and defeat the mafia. However, with the entire island of Sicily and the entire southern region of Italy voting for his political party, there does not seem much chance of this happening.

Army suicides hit record number in June

While most of the weapons of mass distraction media has been focused on the capping of the ruptrured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico over the last 48 hour news cycle, the more important story of the high rate of Army suicides passes without notice. This is another example of the disasterious consequences perpetual war has on a society and how morally bankrupt the United States has become.

The high rate of Army suicides repeats a familair pattern in recent years with more members of the US Armed forces taking thier own lives. Some of the common factors that contribute to US service members taking their own lives were trouble with relationships, work problems and legal and financial difficulties. While each suicide case is different, it is interesting to note that one of the factors contributing to the high rate of Army suicides is troubles related to legal and financial difficulties.

The question needs to be raised to political leaders, who habitally proclaim their support of the troops and the warfighters, and ask why the men and women they support are taking their lives over financial difficulites. Surely the political establishment that gave nearly a trilion dollars to Wall Street institutions and their financial employees, who later received yearly bonuses averaging over $ 500K, could spare a few billion dollars and pay off some of the debts incurred by Army service members.

Ironically, most of the private debts that the serivce members might be facing, are related to the unscrupulous actions of Wall Street financial institutions, that contributed to the current and on-going financial crisis. The same flag that is on the flag covered coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is also used with shallow displays of patroitism by businesses in more of a marketing tool than for respect of the county. It is morally offensive that the same symbol of American sacrifice and hard work is wrapped around the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.

The citizen soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, are all victims of the greedy actions of the Wall Street financial institutions, that are facing most Americans.

The notion of a country supporting a never ending war and the privatization of that war with a profit motive, demostrates how morally bankrupt the country has become. Making the political support even more appauling is the fact that many people believe the United States is a Christrian nation.

This political analyst does not believe Jesus Christ would support a government or a political establishment that supports and has put a profit motive onto war.

Another reason why Fox News is such a joke

Documentary Emmy Awards were announced today by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). With not one single award nomination for Fox News, it is no wonder why most Fox viewers are so ignorant and easily manipulated. Although most right wing partisans will defend the exclusion of Fox News as a sign that Fox news is not a part of the liberal mass media, academic research of the mass media in America negates that assumption and proved that all the media is influenced by political and corporate power in America. The book, When the Press Fails by several University of Chicago professors documents that beyond a doubt. The more accurate and candid truth behind the lack of any Fox News program or documentary getting any kind of nomination is because Fox News is not balanced, objective, or unbiased. Fox News is sheer infotainment and a propaganda arm of the conservative establishment in America.

The failure of Fox News not to get at least one nomination for its reporting is one of the main reasons why most Americans are ignorant and is another example of the power the media has in shaping and influencing the political process. Just because a program is popular and is the most watched cable news outlets, does not mean it is the most accurate or informative. This political analyst will stick with books written by accredited authors like Andrew Bacevich and leave the infotainment programs to the easily manipulated and mislead viewers of Fox News.


Congratulations to PBS, CBS, and an honorable mention to Current TV, which broadcasts the documentary show Vanguard.

Here is a list of media outlets who recently got nominated for a Documentary Emmy Award.

PBS (37)
CBS (31)
HBO (20)
National Geographic (19)
NBC (17)
ABC (9)
CNN (6)
History Channel (6)
CNBC (4)
Animal Planet (3)
HDNet (3)
BBC America (2)
Discovery Channel (2)
NYTimes.com (2)
Planet Green (2)
Sundance Channel (2)
VH1 (2)
Boston.com (Boston Globe) (1)
CHOW.com (1)
Current TV (1)
Globeandmail.com (1)
LATimes.com (1)
MediaStorm.com (1)
Mercurynews.com (1)
MSNBC (1)
Reuters.com (1)
Soulofathens.com (1)
TIME.com (1)
Travel Channel (1)
Tsunamitrust.org (1)
Univision (1)

An important milestone in American history that needs to be recognized

July 15 marks the thirty-first anniversary of President Jimmy Carter’s “crisis of confidence" speech in which the former President discussed the numerous challenges facing America in the financially difficult times of the late 1970s. While the economic recession of 1979 pales in comparison to the Great Recession of 2008, the warnings of America’s dependence on foreign oil and the federal government “an island” isolated from its people were never heeded and now millions of unemployed Americans are suffering the price.

Although President Carter had originally intended to give another speech about the energy crisis, the crisis of confidence speech by Jimmy Carter declared that the energy crisis of 1973 and subsequent oil crisis in 1979 were symptoms of a far greater crisis facing America.

The “crisis of confidence" speech which was to become better known as the “malaise speech” was the fifth speech is a series of speeches President Carter gave to the nation discussing the energy crisis and the economic recession America was battling in 1979. Compared to the speeches given by today’s politicians, the “crisis of confidence" speech given by Jimmy Carter on July 15, 1979 was the result of a truthful and candor conversation with the American public on the moral decay in America and the harmful association Americans were putting with consumer consumption and freedom. In his Oval Office speech, President Carter warned that Americans were beginning to worship self-indulgence and consumption and had strayed from the path of righteousness that hard work offers. The speech by President Carter was a bold warning that more Americans had begun to identify freedom and liberty through a quantitative perspective rather than a qualitative perspective.

Demonstrating the sort of complexity and humility that Carter tried to inject into the political debate at the time, Jimmy Carter described the major political institutions in Washington D.C., as a paralyzed and corrupt system and “a system of government that seems incapable of action”. President Carter candidly discussed the crisis of confidence that most Americans had in the political institutions in Washington D.C. and how the federal government had become “an island” isolated from the people. The recent decision of Congress to deny extending unemployment benefits to millions of unemployed workers and members of congress enjoying six figure incomes best illustrates this today.

Contrary to the failure of leadership President Obama displayed when he delivered his Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil disaster, the leadership of Jimmy Carter was demonstrated when he presented the American public with a six point plan for action to try to reduce the amount of oil the United States has to import from increasingly unstable regions of the world. Unlike President Obama, who could have seized on the Gulf oil disaster to discuss innovative ideas like recycling plastic back into petroleum, or the need to reduce our oil consumption with more mass transit, some of the points in President Carter’s overall strategy included creating a new energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, would cut through the red tape in government and help businesses create alternate energy markets. In addition to the new energy mobilization board proposal, the former President also wanted to set import quotas on oil, invest in alternative energy and set a goal of having 20 percent of American energy coming from solar power by the year 2000. By 2009, America only received about 0.7 percent of its electricity from solar energy.

While the speech was given over thirty years ago, the same problems facing the American people in 1979 such as high unemployment, over dependence on imported oil, and a political establishment isolated from its people, are again causing more Americans to have a crisis of confidence in their government and the economy. Unfortunately for the American people, thanks to decisions made by both political parties over the last thirty years and the increased amount of money influencing the political process, the future now looks more bleak than it did in the summer of 1979.

Almost all Americans have detectable levels of the cancer causing chemical BPA in their bodies.

Perhaps influenced by the recent ban in Canada or the several states and municipalities* that regulate the chemical additive bisphenol A, also known as BPA, the California state Assembly recently approved a bill to ban BPA in feeding products for children under three years of age. This positive and progressive step is in response to growing evidence that BPA exposure in infants may lead to problems with brain development, early puberty, breast cancer and prostate cancer. Research also suggests that BPA can interfere with metabolism of young children, increasing the risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. With the growing rates of obesity and diabetes in today’s younger generation and obesity in the general population growing into a public-health problem, it appears that is would be prudent to refrain from using products with the plastic additive bisphenol A.

More widely known as BPA, the chemical additive bisphenol A is used to create a resin for lining cans, which helps preserve the food and keep it from acquiring a metallic taste, as well making plastic bottles more durable and resilient. U.S. manufacturers produce more than 6 billion pounds annually.

While many uses pose no risk to consumers, some scientists have worried about the health effects of ingesting low doses of the chemical, over a long period of time. Research by the Environmental Working Group in 2007 found BPA in 57 percent of the 97 cans they tested, with the highest levels in canned soup, pastas and infant formula. The California bill , which was recently passed by the State Assembly, would ban the chemical by January 2012 in feeding products designed for children aged 3 and under, such as sippy cups, bottles and baby food jars. It also bans BPA in all infant formula starting July 2012.

Almost all Americans have detectable levels of BPA. In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found it in 93 percent of 2,500 subjects, with children showing the highest levels. In 1996, the FDA wrote that adults on average consume 11 micrograms of BPA daily, while infants consume 7 micrograms per day.

The chemical has also been detected in amniotic fluid, breast milk and umbilical cord blood, said Urvashi Rangan, director of technical policy for Consumers Union, which publishes "Consumer Reports."

"It"s a bit perplexing, frankly, that we haven"t taken action on this substance," Rangan said. "We don"t think consumers should have to be continually eating this stuff while everybody sorts out the exact level of safety or harm.

Though the recent passage of the bill in the California state Assembly is a step in the right direction, the opposition to regulate the chemical additive from various business associations proves yet again how businesses and corporations undermine the public good and try to defeat legislation under the fear that any new regulations would cost jobs and force some manufacturers to shut down. Highlighting yet again how representatives from both political parties will favor business interests over the individual, the recent California bill in a predominantly liberal state was still opposed by several democrats and a majority of republicans.

Although the bill still has to be sent back to the California state Senate for reconciliation and final approval by the governor, the initial passing of the bill in the State Assembly is a positive step forward for the health and well being of children in California.

* States regulating the use of BPA include- Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington and the municipality of Chicago

The Political Power of the Mafia in Italy explained by Antonino Calderone

Press freedom, the rule of the law, and democracy continue to decline in Italy as the center-right government coalition of Silvio Berlusconi is in the final stages of passing a law that will curtail police wiretapping and limit media coverage of criminal probes. Like most of the laws passed in Italy, the real aim of the law is to protect the financial interests of Silvio Berlusconi, members of Parliament, and the people who have helped Berlusconi and his political allies remain in power for the last eight out of ten years. This latest development in Italy is an indication of what happens when a political system gets corrupted by money and acts more to protect the minority interests of people with wealth and power, rather than act on behalf of the majority of the people they are supposed to represent in a liberal democracy.

One of the most powerful segments of Italian society, who has helped Silvio Berlusconi get into and consequently enabled him to remain in power, is from the political and financial power of the four-mafia clans in Italy. Controlling over ten percent of the entire $1.5 trillion dollar Italian economy, the four-mafia clans can easily influence, intimidate, and corrupt both the members of the political establishment as well as the people who live in the territories they control. For anyone naïve enough to think that the $130 billion dollar financial empire the mafia controls in Italy does not influence the political process, these same people probably still believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause, and The Tooth Fairy.

According to a recent Bloomberg News Report,

the country’s main mafia groups, including the ‘Ndrangheta, boosted their profit 12 percent to more than 78 billion euros ($98 billion) in 2009, according to a January report by Rome- based anti-racketeering group SOS Impresa. Estimated revenue by Italy’s main mob groups rose 4 percent to 135 billion euros last year, SOS Impresa said. That exceeds the revenue of oil company Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest company by market value, and is almost 9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

The ‘Ndrangheta (pronounced en-DRANG-eta), traditionally based in the region that forms the toe of Italy’s boot-shaped peninsula, is made up of clans called ‘ndrine. Authorities now consider the group to be Italy’s most dangerous mafia, rivaling Sicily’s Cosa Nostra, due to rising wealth from its intermediary role in smuggling South American cocaine to Europe.

As documented in the investigative book by Alexander Stille, Excellent Cadavers, a major mafia member turned state witness, Antonino Calderone explained the political power a “man of honor” or a mafia member could wield in elections.

“Politicians would always come to us, because we control lots and lots of votes. To give you an idea, figure that each man of honor, between friends and relatives, disposes of at least 40 to 50 votes. There are about 1,500 to 2,000 men of honor in Palermo. Multiply by fifty and you get a nice block of 75,000 to 100,000 votes to steer toward friendly candidates and parties”

Alexander Stille then goes on to explain how the Italian Parliament is organized and how the relatively small number of votes a mafia boss could help get candidates and political parties sympathetic to the mafia into power.

“The large number of seats in the Italian parliament (945-one for roughly every 40,000 voters) has meant that a candidate can win with only several thousand votes. The existence of at least twelve major parties and Italy’s old propositional system make it even easier to manipulate results with well-placed blocks of votes.”

Considering that the mafia was started and has remained the dominant political power in southern Italy for the last 150 years, it is not improbable to infer that the political base of power Berlusconi has in southern Italy is derived from the political support of the four mafia clans operating in southern Italy. While the Christian Democrat party was able to remain in power for the entire time of the Italian First Republic due to the help of the mafia in southern Italy, the same can now be said of the political support the mafia has thrown behind the political party of Silvio Berlusconi. This declaration or analysis is not merely based on opinion or rumor, but on a recent court conviction of Marcello Dell’Utri for collusion with the mafia.

Marcello Dell’Utri is one of the key figures in mafia controlled Sicily, who helped Silvio Berlusconi attain the political support of the people and the institutions of organized crime in Sicily by becoming the leader of Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia political party in Sicily.

Just as the Roman born Giulio Andreotti relied on the Sicilian politician Salvatore Lima who had ties to the mafia to keep Sicily loyal to the Christian Democratic Party during the Italian First Republic, it now appears that Silvio Berlusconi has used the same tactic with his partner ship with Marcello Dell’Utri. Protecting both his own reign on power and political control of Sicily, Silvio Berlusconi has helped Marcello Dell’Utri avoid any prison time by appointing him Senator for life. In Italy, when you are a member of the Parliament and have been convicted of a crime, you are allowed to remain out of prison and still receive a government salary for your position as a Senator.

The recent wire tapping law working its way through the corrupt corridors of the Italian Parliament, will allow the mafia clans in Italy as well as the political establishment continue their mockery of justice and the rule of law in Italy.

Best Political Cartoons for the week of July 5

Independent and progressive blogs are the modern day equivalent of The Federalist Papers.

Similar to Andrew Bacevich, the political analysis offered by William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) who has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, offers a stinging indictment of the perpetual war Americans have been indoctrinated to support. In a recent article on TomDispatch, an article that should have been published in all the major newspapers, William Astore intuitively explains how the American public is duped into believing that any downsize of our military forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Italy, England, Japan, Germany, Turkey, South Korea, and the dozens of other countries where US military forces are permanently deployed, "will invariably be seen as cut-and-run appeasement and discounted as weakness".

Unlike the morally bankrupt politicians and their media sponsors, informed citizens, retired members of the officer corps, and experts on national security like Andrew Bacevich and William Astore, see right through the lies and deceptive sound bites offered up by a corrupt political establishment. To independent bloggers like TomDispatch, Opinione, and War in Context, political rhetoric like “support our troops” or “support our war fighters”, are clearly seen as euphemisms for “support our defense contractors” or “support the defense corporations who give us campaign contributions”.

In the recent comparison and contrast article by William Astore, that I like to call Seven and Seven, the retired military officer lists seven examples of why our political elites so readily and regularly give war, and not peace, a chance. William Astore than goes on to give seven reasons why the American public needs to put a stop to the current privatization and profit motive behind war in America and how to better utilize our limited resources. Opinione especially liked the following:

Let’s retool our economy and reinvest our money, moving it out of the military-industrial complex and into strengthening our anemic system of mass transit, our crumbling infrastructure, and alternative energy technology. We need high-speed rail, safer roads and bridges, and more wind turbines, not more overpriced jet fighters.

After reading informed articles like the one from William Astore, who actually had the integrity and courage to serve his country, the political rhetoric coming from chicken hawk political strategists like Karl Rove and media spin doctors like Glen Beck, expose them to be nothing more than shallow egotistical media personalities and care more about their own wealth than the wealth of their country that they declare to love and support. Aided by an easily deceived public who is unwilling to put the time and effort into understanding the important issues such as supporting the negative consequences of a perpetual state of war, these chicken hawk politicians and political pundits have betrayed the American people in favor of private corporations who care more for a short term profit than the long term prosperity and security of our country.

While most people who read the New York Times, Washington Post, or Wall Street Journal may consider themselves knowledgably in world affairs, these readers are merely only regurgitating opinion based Op-Ed editorials and journalist reporting from increasingly ideologically driven publications. Newspapers and their cable TV news brethren merely only perform stenographic reporting from what the powers inside Washington DC want them to report on, and are too afraid to upset their corporate owners or the corporations who may pay for advertising in their papers and on their networks.

Since gaining an enlightened understanding of how the press is manipulated and used by political parties in America to influence and manage public opinion, the only real hope for a grass roots movement to take hold and reverse the demise of America, is for more people to stop watching cable news outlets and get their news from independent blogs from accredited sources.

The articles written by William Astore, Andrew Bacevich, and the dozens of other experts on American foreign policy and military affairs are like the modern day equivalent of The Federalist Papers.

Transparency and accountability vs abuse of power and secrecy

In Great Britain, a refreshing story has emerged about the new British Prime Minister, David Cameron, launching an unprecedented inquiry into whether British security services were involved in the torture of terrorism suspects. Although most of the American media outlets will index the story as a test of British-American relations, the more important aspect of the story reflects a country more concerned about transparency in government and the pursuit of the law rather than the abuse of power and secrecy under the guise of national security and the fighting terrorism.

While the American owned media outlet Time Magazine classified the inquiry as “unprecedented” and could cause British and American relations to be strained, the decision by the new Cameron British government was most likely influenced from members of the progressive liberal democrats, which make up the other half of the British coalition government. Comparable to the Republican Party in America having to form a coalition government with a far left political group in America, this latest announcement by the Cameron government is further proof why a pluralistic multi-political party Parliamentary based system is the best form of democratic government.

The decision by the new Tory-Liberal Democratic government reflects why Great Britain is considered to have a better democracy than America and is further proof why American democracy is on the decline as a result of a corporate political complex that has put a profit motive behind the quest for perpetual war. The decision by the new British government is truly refreshing as it is evidence of a country more concerned about the rule of law and transparency than secrecy, the violation of human rights, and the abuse of power.

Contrary to conventional wisdom in America, the British inquiry will help diminish the threat of terrorism against its citizens in England by demonstrating that Great Britain is a democratic country governed by the rule of law. The inquiry will also help to restore the British people’s faith in their intelligence services and reassure British citizens that their intelligence agencies are not above the law and can be held accountable for their actions.

Highly indebted national economies, inflation, and probably outcomes for American entitlement programs

In less than a generation, the United States has gone from being the world’s greatest creditor nation to being the world’s greatest debtor nation . With trillion dollar deficits predicted for the next few years and the cost of servicing the debt increasing more and more every fiscal year, the political will and leadership needed to thwart the American government from defaulting on social security and Medicare appear all but unavailable in the next decade.

The cuts to Social Security and Medicaid will only be the first defaults by the American government as it continues on a doomed policy of sustaining its national economy by appeasing the international bond market, instead of putting its own financial house in order by dismantling its vast empire of bases, decreasing the size of the Federal government and investing more in its national infrastructure. Handicapped by a political system controlled by corporations and wealthy individuals, inept and clueless politicians in the near future in America will be forced to sell off infrastructure projects like the New Jersey Turnpike and other national assets to foreign sovereign wealth funds in China and Singapore to satisfy the international bond market and pay off America's mountainous debt. The highly indebted countries of Greece and Portugal offer a glimpse of what will happen in America in the near future.

According to the Guardian article,

In its battle to raise funds, the country (Greece) is also planning to sell its rail and water companies. Chinese investors are understood to be interested in the Greek train system, as they already control some of the ports. In a deal announced earlier this month, the Greek government also agreed to export olive oil to China.

After the socialist government of prime minister Geórgios Papandreou responded to the IMF bailout with draconian budget cuts, rioters took to the streets, costing three lives in May.

In the midst of the crisis, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, delayed her support as she faced local elections and popular opposition to any public-funded help to Greece.
As strikes almost paralysed the country and hedge funds bet against the economy, German politicians called for Greece to start selling islands, historic buildings and artworks. It now appears that the Greek government has heeded their demands.

With no national rail lines in America, with the exception of Amtrak, by the end of the decade, corporate controlled politicians will begin selling American infrastructure projects like the New Jersey Turnpike to raise revenue in order to pay off the debt it has incurred.

In Italy the pattern is already taking place with that the government there has labeled as federalismo demaniale or federalism owned. Thanks to the blog of Beppe Grillo, a recent posting detailed how the corrupt political establishment in Italy is beginning to sell and lease some of its national treasures to the highest bidder ( or politically connected client).

Undoubtedly Americans in the near future will be told by the corporate controlled political class that private corporations can manage the parks and infrastructure projects more effectively than the government. While this is true due to the fact that the government is corrupted from above by the corporate controlled politicians, it is an affront to the American people and the framers of the US Constitution that the corporations in America and the corrupted political establishment have vilified the republic principals America was founded on.