those tax cuts for his base, the haves and have-mores: Reuters
Health experts denounced President George W. Bush’s 2009 federal budget request on Monday, calling it a disaster for the health of Americans and saying they would look to Congress to change it.
Bush’s $3.1 trillion spending plan proposes a 7 percent cut in funds for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as less money for Medicare and Medicaid — the joint federal-state health insurance programs for the poor and elderly.
The budget for the fiscal year starting October 1, 2009 would reduce spending on Medicare by $12.8 billion and lower federal funds for Medicaid by $18.2 billion over five years.
The National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration would receive more funds, but critics said the increases were too small to counteract rising costs.
and keeping the military-industrial complex humming along…the military [defense] budget is up 11%:
Bush’s Defense Budget Biggest Since Reagan Era
Iraq, Afghanistan Spending Top Vietnam War
President Bush’s defense budget request of $481.4 billion — an 11 percent boost over last year — pushes U.S. defense spending to levels not seen since the Reagan-era buildup of the 1980s.
In addition, the president is seeking a projected $141.7 billion in emergency supplemental funding for 2008 for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for broader anti-terrorism efforts — bringing the total spent in those arenas since 2001 to $661 billion, eclipsing in real terms the cost of the Vietnam War.
Britney Spears’ father was granted control of her finances until Valentine’s Day by a judge who also barred the troubled pop star from contacting her friend and sometime manager, Sam Lutfi.
Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz also appointed a physician Monday to evaluate whether Spears, who is in a psychiatric ward, is competent to make decisions.
Her father, James Spears, and an attorney were granted conservatorship last week after the 26-year-old was hospitalized for the second time in two months following increasingly bizarre behavior.
The commissioner extended that conservatorship until Feb. 14. It allows Spears’ father, and attorney Andrew Wallet, to make decisions involving the singer’s assets and even who enters her home.
Only 26 years old and her life is that big a mess.
Just imagine what happens to people with mental health issues and no money or insurance. Oh wait, I’ve seen them on city sidewalks.
Can someone at ET post a diary on your initiative to give it better visibility than this link. I only happened to see it this morning (IS’ diary at kos) and have not had a chance to read the full background.
I thought a separate diary entry here (in addition to links) would help.
There are not too many signatures from the US at the moment; I’m sure a recommended diary at this site would contribute quite a bit to the current total (it’s up to 399 as this comment is written).
The Bush administration has failed to nominate any candidates to a newly empowered privacy and civil-liberties commission. This leaves the board without any members, even as Congress prepares to give the Bush administration extraordinary powers to wiretap without warrants inside the United States.
The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people’s physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists.
But it’s an issue that raises major privacy concerns — what one civil liberties expert says should concern all Americans.
The bureau is expected to announce in coming days the awarding of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to help create the database that will compile an array of biometric information — from palm prints to eye scans.
when the cats are away, the mice will take advantage.
LONDON (IHT) Feb. 5, 2008 – In a rare Buckingham Palace interview ahead of his departure for a 10-day U.S. trip to support British business, the prince described the United States as Britain’s No. 1 ally but conceded that relations were in a trough. There are, he added, “occasions when people in the U.K. would wish that those in responsible positions in the U.S. might listen and learn from our experiences.”
The prince has a full-time role as a trade envoy for Britain but for 22 years he was in the Royal Navy, serving as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands conflict, and Iraq is a preoccupation.
Because of its imperial history, Britain has experienced much of what the United States is going through, Prince Andrew said.
“If you are looking at colonialism, if you are looking at operations on an international scale, if you are looking at understanding each other’s culture, understanding how to operate in a military insurgency campaign – we have been through them all,” he said. “We’ve won some, lost some, drawn some. The fact is there is quite a lot of experience over here which is valid and should be listened to.”
Five years after a gay advocacy group was told that it could no longer use the e-mail, bulletin boards and meeting rooms at the Justice Department, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey has reversed that decision and issued a revised equal-employment-opportunity policy barring discrimination against any group.
Mukasey informed leaders of DOJ Pride last week that the department would give it the same rights as all other DOJ employee organizations, said the group’s president, Chris Hook. In a statement, Mukasey said the department will “foster an environment in which diversity is valued, understood and sought” and maintain “an environment that’s free of discrimination.”
DOJ Pride and its 110 members had been barred from holding an annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Month celebration since 2003, when then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told the group that the Bush administration observed an unwritten policy of not sponsoring events without a presidential proclamation, Hook said. The group also was told it could not post notices of general meetings and events on department bulletin boards, he said.
The policy continued under Ashcroft’s successor, Alberto R. Gonzales, Hook said.
Here’s some inside insight from my daughter who just sent this:
This week I prepared over a hundred tax returns and spoke to more than 150+ taxpayers. Boy, does that kind of interaction really put things in focus. Thought you’d be interested in some of the things I saw and heard over the last week. I work in a blue collar/low income area.
First of all filings in general. The last few days of January and first few of February are our busy period due to the socioeconomic area I work in. Our numbers are collapsing this year and we’re twiddling our thumbs during what is normally an extremely busy time. IRS filings are down 20% over the same time last year. Some of this is because the AMT patch is causing delays for taxpayers with education credits or residential energy credits, but not all of it.
Second, construction. Most of my clients with construction related jobs — general construction, concrete, carpentry, masonry, building supplies & materials, truck drivers — are reporting cut hours, lost jobs and many have unemployment forms in hand. I thought the feds were reporting job creation in the construction category…
Third retail. Retail workers are reporting smaller employer profits and cut hours. One night stocker told me they are using their entire shift nightly to jump up prices on literally everything in Wal-Mart. I verified this when I did my “needs” shopping and noted most grocery items and paper items I used to buy there had jumped 25-27% since last month. The store was also only using two open registers on a Sunday, backing the cut hours statements.
Last item is taxpayer’s perceptions. In almost every single case when I got to the “bottom line” and showed them what they had earned during the year the client would exclaim “it couldn’t be that much”. Other variations included “No way!”, “It didn’t feel like we made that much” and “I thought we made way less than last year”. Out of 100 returns, I had to work with two families who had a foreclosure in January. People are feeling pinched, and it’s showing in the tax office.”
Dutch economic growth is expected to grow by 3% in 2007. Next year, this figure will probably weaken to 2¼%. Labour market tensions will rise further. This will lead to substantially higher contractual wage rises and accelerating inflation in 2008. The government budget in 2007 is in balance, while a surplus of 0.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) is foreseen for 2008.
In the euro area, the economy will grow by 2¾% in 2007. After the outbreak of the financial crisis, producer confidence has deteriorated and the euro has appreciated substantially compared to the US dollar. This forecast assumes the average exchange rate to amount to 1.44 dollars per euro in 2008 and the oil price to come out at 82 dollars per barrel Brent, on average. The headwind of the financial crisis, the strong euro and the high oil price will lead to flagging growth in the euro area, coming out at an estimated 2% next year.
Labour market continues to tighten
The number of vacancies reached an all-time high in the third quarter of 2007, while unemployment steadily decreased. In short, labour market tensions have further increased in 2007; this trend is expected to continue next year. Although an increasing number of people are entering the labour market, influenced by the favourable cyclical circumstances, employment is growing even faster. This year, employment will probably increase by 2½%, the highest figure in nine years. Partly due to a less favourable profitability, employment growth will probably fall back to 1¼%. On average, employment will come out at 4% of the labour force, or 310,000 persons- amply short of the estimated level of equilibrium unemployment.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch water experts met to look at ways of protecting the nation’s fragile coast from rising sea levels, including one proposal to build man-made islands — one in the shape of a massive tulip. “We will discuss plans that can change the Netherlands forever,” Economy Minister Maria van der Hoeven told the meeting at a seaside hotel in Scheveningen overlooking the North Sea.
The islands could be used for sporting facilities, housing, agriculture or a nature reserve to relieve space constraints in one of Europe’s most densely-populated countries.
Other ideas include equipping flood defences with sensors to monitor sudden changes in water levels due to climate change and how best to use the ecosystem of the North Sea, such as natural sand flows, for flood protection.
In the Netherlands, a quarter of which lies below sea level, people have a long history of clawing back land from the sea and fighting floods. In 1953 a massive North Sea storm breached the country’s dikes and resulted in about 1,800 casualties.
Design tulip island, similar to palm island of the U.A.E.
A Border Patrol agent found the remains of an illegal entrant Monday night about 16 miles north of Sasabe, an official said.
The agent found the remains of a 37-year-old Mexican woman about four miles west of Arizona 286 about 7 p.m., said Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Jose Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Tucson Sector. – linkage
LA ROCHELLE (IHT) Feb. 5, 2008 – France is ready to launch a military operation in Chad against rebels if necessary, President Nicolas Sarkozy said. But the government stressed that France had no immediate plans to step up its military involvement, saying the fighting appeared to be abating.
France has about 1,900 troops already based in Chad, a former French colony in central Africa where rebels and government troops have been clashing in and near the capital for three days.
A French military spokesman, Christophe Prazuck, speaking on i-Tele television, said the French forces had not “participated in combat” or used aircraft, but had fired shots as convoys sought to bring civilians to camps and airfields. “We were regularly engaged. We passed under crossfire. We deflected stray bullets, we immediately returned fire, with commensurate force, with infantry weapons.”
KHARTOUM, Sudan (M&G) Feb. 5, 2008 – Rebels from Sudan’s Darfur region said that their fighters were engaged in Chad, but they were fighting Sudanese army forces that were backing rebels trying to oust Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno. “Some troops of JEM [Justice and Equality Movement] are there in eastern Chad because troops of the government of Sudan are also there and attacked Adre,” JEM commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr told Reuters.
The Chad army earlier said it repulsed an attack by Sudanese forces and rebels on Adre, a frontier town on the Chad-Sudan border, on Sunday. Sudan denies attacking Adre and having any involvement in the Chadian conflict.
taking a page from the BushCo™ manual, the canadian government of mr. harper has clamped the lid down on scientist at Environment Canada:
Environment Canada has “muzzled” its scientists around the country, ordering them to refer all media queries to Ottawa where communications officers will help them respond with “approved lines.”
The new policy, which went into force in recent weeks and sent a chill through the department research divisions, is designed to control the department’s media message and ensure there are no surprises for Environment Minister John Baird and senior management when they open the newspaper or turn on the television, according to documents obtained by Canwest News Service.
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.
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Environment Canada scientists, many of them world leaders in their fields, have long been encouraged to discuss their work on everything from migratory birds to melting Arctic ice with the media and public. Several of them were co-authors of the United Nations report on climate change that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
“It’s insulting,” says one senior staff member, who asked not to be named. She says researchers can no longer even discuss or confirm science facts without approval from the highest level.
Until now, Environment Canada has been one of most open and accessible departments in the federal government, which the executive committee says is a problem that needs to be remedied.
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. link
think the canadians aren’t concerned about our elections and watching closely?
81% think it matters:
15% of Canadians would rather vote in U.S. election: survey
Fifteen per cent of Canadians would give up their ballot in Canada’s next federal election to vote in the U.S. election, a new poll co-sponsored by the CBC has found.
The poll, done by the Canadian polling company Environics, asked 2,001 Canadians over the age of 15 questions about how they perceive their role, and Canada’s role, in the world.
Forty-six per cent of those surveyed in January by telephone said it matters a great deal to Canada who wins the November 2008 U.S. presidential election. Another 35 per cent said it mattered somewhat, while only eight per cent said it doesn’t matter at all.
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. cbc
(CBS/AP) CIA Director Michael Hayden publicly confirmed Tuesday for the first time the names of three suspected al Qaeda terrorists who were subjected to a particularly harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding, and why.
“We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time,” Hayden said during a Senate hearing. “There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al Qaeda and its workings. Those two realities have changed.”
Hayden said that Khalid Sheik Mohammed – the purported mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States – and Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were subject to the harsh interrogations in 2002 and 2003. Waterboarding is an interrogation technique that critics call torture.
those tax cuts for his base, the haves and have-mores: Reuters
and keeping the military-industrial complex humming along…the military [defense] budget is up 11%:
hard to keep keep up with the demand for weapons of destruction.
lTMF’sA
so here’s a Britney update: Yahoo
Only 26 years old and her life is that big a mess.
Just imagine what happens to people with mental health issues and no money or insurance. Oh wait, I’ve seen them on city sidewalks.
I’d check her toxicology – and I don’t mean for recreational drugs..
Stop Blair!
Head over to European Tribune and help stop Tony’s candidature for President of the European Union.
They were not quite ready for the campaign yet, but an article in the Financial Times let the cat out of the bag a bit prematurely.
And while you’re at it, give some love to IdiotSavant’s diary entry at dKos.
It’s working now!
http://stopblair.eu/indexen.html
allready over 350 signatures! 🙂
Oh, and in the meantime it has also been picked up by the Telegraph:
Stop Blair campaign gathers pace in Europe and the pedition has now been translated into 9 or more languages.
Good to ‘see’ you, Fran!
Can someone at ET post a diary on your initiative to give it better visibility than this link. I only happened to see it this morning (IS’ diary at kos) and have not had a chance to read the full background.
You? Melanchthon? Someone!
this is the current FPstory: Stop Blair!
and here the diary that started it: Updated: Petition against a Tony Blair presidency of the European Union and its sequel: Phase 2: Petition against a Tony Blair presidency.
Just skimming through these diaries might give you a better impression of what happened than a new diary. A great group effort!
Thanks.
I thought a separate diary entry here (in addition to links) would help.
There are not too many signatures from the US at the moment; I’m sure a recommended diary at this site would contribute quite a bit to the current total (it’s up to 399 as this comment is written).
I put your demand for a diary also into the Stop Blair! story, hopefully somebody will pick it up. 🙂
thanks fran…signed it.
lTMF’sA
There they go – whatever is left of civil liberties!
when the cats are away, the mice will take advantage.
.
LONDON (IHT) Feb. 5, 2008 – In a rare Buckingham Palace interview ahead of his departure for a 10-day U.S. trip to support British business, the prince described the United States as Britain’s No. 1 ally but conceded that relations were in a trough. There are, he added, “occasions when people in the U.K. would wish that those in responsible positions in the U.S. might listen and learn from our experiences.”
The prince has a full-time role as a trade envoy for Britain but for 22 years he was in the Royal Navy, serving as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands conflict, and Iraq is a preoccupation.
Because of its imperial history, Britain has experienced much of what the United States is going through, Prince Andrew said.
“If you are looking at colonialism, if you are looking at operations on an international scale, if you are looking at understanding each other’s culture, understanding how to operate in a military insurgency campaign – we have been through them all,” he said. “We’ve won some, lost some, drawn some. The fact is there is quite a lot of experience over here which is valid and should be listened to.”
British Colonialism and Middle East – Pakistan – India – BanglaDesh
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Good news for a change:
US service sector in sharp fall
Here’s some inside insight from my daughter who just sent this:
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Dutch economic growth is expected to grow by 3% in 2007. Next year, this figure will probably weaken to 2¼%. Labour market tensions will rise further. This will lead to substantially higher contractual wage rises and accelerating inflation in 2008. The government budget in 2007 is in balance, while a surplus of 0.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) is foreseen for 2008.
In the euro area, the economy will grow by 2¾% in 2007. After the outbreak of the financial crisis, producer confidence has deteriorated and the euro has appreciated substantially compared to the US dollar. This forecast assumes the average exchange rate to amount to 1.44 dollars per euro in 2008 and the oil price to come out at 82 dollars per barrel Brent, on average. The headwind of the financial crisis, the strong euro and the high oil price will lead to flagging growth in the euro area, coming out at an estimated 2% next year.
Labour market continues to tighten
The number of vacancies reached an all-time high in the third quarter of 2007, while unemployment steadily decreased. In short, labour market tensions have further increased in 2007; this trend is expected to continue next year. Although an increasing number of people are entering the labour market, influenced by the favourable cyclical circumstances, employment is growing even faster. This year, employment will probably increase by 2½%, the highest figure in nine years. Partly due to a less favourable profitability, employment growth will probably fall back to 1¼%. On average, employment will come out at 4% of the labour force, or 310,000 persons- amply short of the estimated level of equilibrium unemployment.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Justice Department also schilling for big oil..
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN0462651920080205?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch water experts met to look at ways of protecting the nation’s fragile coast from rising sea levels, including one proposal to build man-made islands — one in the shape of a massive tulip. “We will discuss plans that can change the Netherlands forever,” Economy Minister Maria van der Hoeven told the meeting at a seaside hotel in Scheveningen overlooking the North Sea.
The islands could be used for sporting facilities, housing, agriculture or a nature reserve to relieve space constraints in one of Europe’s most densely-populated countries.
Other ideas include equipping flood defences with sensors to monitor sudden changes in water levels due to climate change and how best to use the ecosystem of the North Sea, such as natural sand flows, for flood protection.
In the Netherlands, a quarter of which lies below sea level, people have a long history of clawing back land from the sea and fighting floods. In 1953 a massive North Sea storm breached the country’s dikes and resulted in about 1,800 casualties.
Design tulip island, similar to palm island of the U.A.E.Dutch debate building Tulip Island in North Sea
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."The human rights crisis continues…
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LA ROCHELLE (IHT) Feb. 5, 2008 – France is ready to launch a military operation in Chad against rebels if necessary, President Nicolas Sarkozy said. But the government stressed that France had no immediate plans to step up its military involvement, saying the fighting appeared to be abating.
France has about 1,900 troops already based in Chad, a former French colony in central Africa where rebels and government troops have been clashing in and near the capital for three days.
A French military spokesman, Christophe Prazuck, speaking on i-Tele television, said the French forces had not “participated in combat” or used aircraft, but had fired shots as convoys sought to bring civilians to camps and airfields. “We were regularly engaged. We passed under crossfire. We deflected stray bullets, we immediately returned fire, with commensurate force, with infantry weapons.”
KHARTOUM, Sudan (M&G) Feb. 5, 2008 – Rebels from Sudan’s Darfur region said that their fighters were engaged in Chad, but they were fighting Sudanese army forces that were backing rebels trying to oust Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno. “Some troops of JEM [Justice and Equality Movement] are there in eastern Chad because troops of the government of Sudan are also there and attacked Adre,” JEM commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr told Reuters.
The Chad army earlier said it repulsed an attack by Sudanese forces and rebels on Adre, a frontier town on the Chad-Sudan border, on Sunday. Sudan denies attacking Adre and having any involvement in the Chadian conflict.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."taking a page from the BushCo™ manual, the canadian government of mr. harper has clamped the lid down on scientist at Environment Canada:
“open and accessible” are “problems”…who knew?
lTMF’sA
think the canadians aren’t concerned about our elections and watching closely?
81% think it matters:
interesting comments as well.
lTMF’sA
CIA Head Names Waterboarded Detainees
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See also my diary: Terror Threat or Global Market Economy
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."