from thinkprogress:



GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence Women Lawmakers With Screams, Shouts, And Delay Tactics

This morning, the House began consideration of the rule for debate of the House health care bill. As the Democratic Women’s Caucus took to the microphone on the House floor to offer their arguments for how the bill would benefit women, House Republicans — led by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) — repeatedly talked over, screamed, and shouted objections. “I object, I object, I object, I object, I object,” Price interjected as Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) tried to hold the floor.

In an effort to delay and derail the proceedings, the Republicans continually talked over the Democratic women for half an hour. They sought to prevent the debate by calling for unnecessary “parliamentary inquiries” and requests for “expanding the debate” by an hour.

After being repeatedly interrupted by Republican shouts, Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH) observed:



Watch a compilation: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/07/gop-go... /


The presiding chair of the House, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), tried to assuage the Republican ruckus, without much success. The debate must be conducted with “a measure of comity and grace and decency,” Dingell urged. “There’s no advantage to be achieved by making all this fuss,” he told the Republicans.

.........

Update: On The Wonk Room, Igor Volsky has coverage of the Stupak abortion amendment.

.........

Update: Media Matters Action Network has produced its own mash-up video highlighting the GOP's uncivilized tactics.


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/07/gop-go... /

California bank failure will cost FDIC $1.4 billion
By MarketWatch


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Five more banks, including a California-based institution that reportedly received federal bailout funds in 2008, were closed Friday by regulators, bringing the 2009 total to 120 failed banks.

The latest banks to be taken over were United Security Bank of Sparta, Ga.; Home Federal Savings Bank of Detroit; United Commercial Bank of San Francisco; Gateway Bank of St. Louis and Prosperan Bank of Oakdale, Minn., according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

United Commercial, which had branches across the U.S. and also in Hong Kong and Shanghai, focused on the Chinese-American market in the U.S. and had obtained a very difficult to get banking license in China, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times said United Commercial received $299 million in federal bailout funds last year.

The FDIC estimated United Commercial's failure would cost its insurance deposit fund $1.4 billion. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/another-b...

from the American Family Association's "news" service:



ACLU accused of promoting promiscuous lifestyle
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 11/7/2009 4:15:00 AM


Two girls are suing their high school in Indiana over punishment they received for posting suggestive photos of themselves on MySpace during summer vacation.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the suit claiming the school violated the girls' free-speech rights. Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University's law school, says the ACLU has gotten it wrong. He contends that if the school sets certain standards for behavior, they can enforce them. As a result of this stance, the students might pay a price in more than one way.

"Students must understand whenever they post these things on MySpace or Facebook, they will consequences," Staver explains. "Sometimes they may not get admitted to the college of their choice because these things are following them around. In fact, some bar associations right now are reviewing Facebook postings to determine character and fitness for people to practice law once they graduate from law school."

The attorney insists the Indianapolis school just wants to do the right thing, while the ACLU is working to promote a very radical, anti-family, sexually provocative and promiscuous lifestyle.


http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.as...

California bank failure will cost FDIC $1.4 billion
By MarketWatch


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Five more banks, including a California-based institution that reportedly received federal bailout funds in 2008, were closed Friday by regulators, bringing the 2009 total to 120 failed banks.

The latest banks to be taken over were United Security Bank of Sparta, Ga.; Home Federal Savings Bank of Detroit; United Commercial Bank of San Francisco; Gateway Bank of St. Louis and Prosperan Bank of Oakdale, Minn., according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

United Commercial, which had branches across the U.S. and also in Hong Kong and Shanghai, focused on the Chinese-American market in the U.S. and had obtained a very difficult to get banking license in China, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times said United Commercial received $299 million in federal bailout funds last year.

The FDIC estimated United Commercial's failure would cost its insurance deposit fund $1.4 billion. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/another-b...

Bank Closing Information - November 6, 2009


United Commercial Bank, San Francisco, CA
Gateway Bank of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Prosperan Bank, Oakdale, MN
Home Federal Savings Bank, Detroit, MI
United Security Bank, Sparta, GA


www.fdic.gov

Santa Needs Extended Benefits, Too
by Dollars and Sense


The October employment reports were released today, and the unemployment rate zoomed above 10%, to 10.2%, to be exact, earlier than most economists expected. The number of jobs lost in October also surprised on the negative side, at 190,000 (v. the projected 175,000). The unemployment rate is the highest it's been since the dreadful winter of 1982-83, when it hit 10.8% for two months running. The so-called "underemployment rate," which covers part-time workers looking for full-time work and suchlike, rose at an even higher clip, to 17.5% from 17.0%. The average workweek was unchanged at 33.0 hours, which matches readings in August and October for the lowest recording ever. Manufacturing production actually increased its average workweek length, to 40.0 hours (but lost net jobs for the month), but this is a small consolation given the heroic increases in GDP, and especially productivity, that have been reported in the past week. Oh, and lest we forget, the amout of workers unemployed more than 26 weeks rose to a stunning 3.6% of the entire workforce, which is the highest it's been since records began in 1948. All told, some 8.2 million jobs have been destroyed during this downturn--whatever name you want to give it--began some two years ago and change. It'll take 3 1/2 years of continuous, strong job growth to make that up, and that in an atmosphere starved of capital and averse to debt (unless you're the government or a big bank, and neither of them are going to be chalking up stellar jobs growth numbers anytime soon).

Some are arguing that the truly remarkable productivity statistics announced yesterday (an increase of over 9% annualized), most certainly presage an uptick in employment: you simply can't work the plebs much harder than this. But this comes off a series of strong performances for this year after which analysts said essentially the same thing. And there's still room to cut unit labor costs without cutting hours: by cutting or eliminating benefits. And there is anecdotal evidence to the effect that a good number of workers are actually accepting cuts in pay.

But it may not come to this: the vast inventory restocking that took place once the executive committee of the world bourgeoisie made it clear that governmets would guarantee all major financial institutions no matter what, may be overshooting future demand. You may be able to reestablish a global supply network in a relative jiffy, but recreating bloated living and investing standards may be a more arduous, or even impossible task. But stock markets, commodity markets and, strangely, bond markets (well, not so strangely: governments are buying heaps of their own bonds to keep interest rates down) are all way up since the near-death expereince of March. But one other employment indiccator shows how flimsy this tidal wave of risk-taking has been: holiday retail sales for October are languishing at last year's low levels, which were the lowest since, well, 1987: the month of the 1987 stock market crash. Santa's worried, too.


http://www.dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/1...

10 of the Nuttiest Statements Elected Officials Have Made in the Health Care Battle

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted November 7, 2009.

Wild, over-the-top rhetoric and bizarre conspiracy theories about health reform aren't just coming from the right-wing blogs and talk-radio loudmouths.




Even by the standards of our typically debased public discourse, one has to step back and marvel for a moment at the sheer, unmitigated craziness the debate over health care reform has elicited from the right wing.

It hasn't been the usual conservative boilerplate -- blather about "tort reform" or dubious "analyses" predicting the latest proposal would break the budget and blow up the national debt. We've been treated to some truly extreme, and sometimes bizarre, arguments about American health care and even lied to about what the proposed health reform bills contained.

We're accustomed to that kind of hyperbole from hate-radio and the conservative bloggers, but this summer it hasn't been limited to Rush Limbaugh fulminating about socialism or Glenn Beck weepily warning that the Dems' health care legislation are stealthy reparations for slavery.

What makes the ocean of crazy surrounding this debate truly remarkable is that the overheated, ill-informed spew is also coming from the mouths of actual public officials, people tasked with creating legislation. National office holders -- not loopy local GOP party chairs, but people who supposedly represent the interests of entire congressional districts and earn a public salary -- have offered up months of bizarre tales about our health care system and the effort to reform it that are every bit as outlandish as anything scribbled on an overheated right-wing blog.

The most charitable view is that some of the lawmakers who oppose reform most vehemently just have no clue what they're talking about. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., whom some have dubbed "the dumbest senator of them all," suggested as much when asked what he didn't like about the reform bill. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/politics/143790/10...

from thinkprogress:



Bachmann Claims Anti-Health Reform Rally Was ‘Organic,’ ‘Nothing That We Planned’

Last Friday on Fox News, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announced that she was organizing an anti-health reform rally on Capitol Hill, calling on Americans “literally by the busload to come to Washington D.C.” to protest reform. The next day, Bachmann summoned everyone to “get off the couch, get in your car, get a van together, get a bus together, but get here!” “We’re going to have a big party,” she said.

Around 4,000 right-wing activists showed up on Capitol Hill yesterday to protest reform. Last night on Fox News, Bachmann inflated the attendance numbers drastically. She also tried to paint the event as entirely grassroots, despite admitting that she had organized it:



Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/06/bachma... /


Bachmann’s claim is laughable. Aside from her leadership in organizing the protest, the corporate front group Americans For Prosperity helped coordinate. AFP mobilized about 40 buses to bring activists to DC, with AFP staffers standing at their designated bus drop off point near the Capitol, handing out signs, directions, talking points, petitions, and donuts to protesters. Moreover, notorious astroturf group FreedomWorks got involved in the action as well:



Moreover, AFP hosted Bachmann on a conference call the day before the rally to discuss their “House Call.”

“So you’re organizing and asking people to come meet you on the steps of the capital,” Fox host Sean Hannity asked Bachmann last Friday after her announcement. “Thursday at noon,” she said, “You can go to MicheleBachmann.com for more information.”


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/06/bachma... /

via CommonDreams:



Published on Friday, November 6, 2009 by The Huffington Post

Sanders Tackles Too Big to Fail in Two Pages
by Sam Stein


Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced new legislation on Friday that should, he claims, solve the phenomenon of massive and failing financial institutions holding the nation's economy captive.

It's all of two pages long.

The Vermont Democrat-Socialist unveiled the "Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act" -- which he billed as a succinct remedy for tackling financial risk and avoiding a repeat of the taxpayer-funded bailouts that occurred just one year ago.

The act is straightforward. It would require that 90 days after its passage, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner "submit to Congress a list of all commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds and insurance companies that the Secretary believes are too big to fail."

Subsequently, one year after the law is enacted, the Treasury Secretary would be required to "break up entities included on the Too Big To Fail List, so that their failure would no longer cause a catastrophic effect on the United States or global economy without a taxpayer bailout." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/...

from the Financial Times:



Citi to relaunch troubled hedge fund unit
By Henny Sender and Francesco Guerrera in New York

Published: November 6 2009 00:01 | Last updated: November 6 2009 00:01


Citigroup is poised to relaunch the unit containing its troubled hedge fund operations after nearly two years of poor performance, internal strife and investor unrest.

People close to the situation said that the company wanted to change the name of the unit – which has $14bn under management and also includes private equity operations – from Citi Alternative Investments (CAI) to Citi Capital Advisors.

The move follows months of wrangling between CAI’s management and some top bank executives about what to do with the unit, underlining the strategic dilemmas facing banks with hedge fund businesses that fell victim to the crisis.

The fate of CAI is particularly sensitive because the unit is closely associated with Citi’s chief executive, Vikram Pandit. The former Morgan Stanley executive joined Citi as head of CAI in 2007 when the bank paid about $800m for Old Lane, a hedge fund that has since folded. John Havens, another veteran of Morgan Stanley and Old Lane, now heads Citi’s securities business and oversees CAI. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d832b1dc-ca52-11...

U.S. Consumer Credit Fell More Than Forecast in September
By Vincent Del Giudice


Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. consumer credit fell in September for an eighth straight month, the longest series of declines on record, as thousands of Americans lost their jobs and banks tightened access to loans.

Borrowing fell more than economists predicted, declining by $14.8 billion, or 7.2 percent at an annual rate, to $2.46 trillion, according to a Federal Reserve report released today in Washington. Credit dropped by $9.86 billion in August, less than previously estimated. The consecutive declines were the most since records began in 1943.

A labor market that kept losing jobs in October threatens to limit consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the world’s largest economy. More than 100 banks have failed this year, and lenders are requiring tougher conditions for the credit they extend to consumers and businesses.

“Consumers are ratcheting back their purchases of goods and services made with credit cards as mounting job losses have made them very cautious about what the future holds,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, before the report. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...

The Tea Party's Takeover of the GOP

The anti-health care reform rally in Washington indicates the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement are increasingly one and the same.
—By Stephanie Mencimer

Thu November 5, 2009 2:51 PM PST


You have to hand it to Michele Bachmann: She has succeeded in turning the GOP into one big Tea Party.

This past weekend, the Minnesota Republican went on Fox News and called on viewers to show up on the Capitol lawn on Thursday at noon for a press conference and a last ditch attempt to kill health care reform. The gathering that resulted was marked by the now-routine extremism of the Tea Party conservatives. "I'm a bitter gun owner who votes," read one sign. Others questioned President Obama’s citizenship, portrayed him as Sambo, or called him a traitor. One said, "Obama takes his orders from the Rothschilds." Old ladies wore red T-shirts decrying "Obamao care." The crowd also took spirited swipes at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At one point someone yelled, "Put down your Botox and show yourself."

But what was most noteworthy was that the entire House Republican leadership was also in attendance—and their rhetoric was just as over-the-top as some of the protesters. House Minority Leader John Boehner declared the health care bill the "greatest threat to freedom I have seen." In essence, Congressional Republicans were merging with a movement that gives open expression to racist and anti-Semitic sentiments.

The crowd was several thousand strong, many bused in by Americans for Prosperity, a group created by the owners of Koch Industries, a huge oil and gas conglomerate. The AFP chapter from New Jersey reportedly sent 29 buses. Four AFP buses came from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and more came from Richmond and North Carolina. Lots of people in the crowd carried AFP signs or stickers warning "Hands off my health care." ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/1...

from OurFuture.org:



New Unemployment, Old Solutions
By Eric Lotke

November 6, 2009 - 12:09pm ET


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Today’s unemployment data contain gloomy news. Gloomy, but expected. The interpretation of the data is even worse.

First, the data. Unemployment rose to 10.2 percent last month, breaking the double digit barrier. Most people expected it to happen, though the job loss (190,000) was a bit worse than most economic forecasts (175,000). We can maybe be happy that the October job loss wasn’t as high as September (263,000), but this modest deceleration doesn’t mean much to the 15.7 million people without work, the 9.3 million people working part-time but looking for full-time, or the 3.2 million people who are discouraged or marginally attached to the work force and barely even looking anymore. Nearly 20 percent of the workforce isn’t where it wants to be.

In other words, it’s bad. You don’t need me or the Bureau of Labor Statistics to tell you that.

The interesting part is where it’s bad and what to do about it.

The biggest job losses in October were in construction (62,000) and manufacturing (61,000). In the last year, these sectors have lost over 2.5 million jobs between them. Job losses in these sectors hurt worse than most other sectors. Manufacturing jobs have a bigger economic “multiplier” than other sectors, creating more jobs and more economic activity around them. Manufacturing creates jobs “downstream,” as production workers buy sandwiches from restaurants; and “upstream,” as steelworkers and coal miners work to provide raw material. The benefits of construction obviously count for more and last longer than just the construction itself. Anybody who doesn't live in a cave knows that. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/200911...

....(snip)....

More ominously, a man standing just beyond the TV cameras apparently suffered a heart attack 20 minutes after event began. Medical personnel from the Capitol physician's office -- an entity that could, quite accurately, be labeled government-run health care -- rushed over, attaching electrodes to his chest and giving him oxygen and an IV drip.

This turned into an unwanted visual for the speakers, as a D.C. ambulance and firetruck, lights flashing, pulled in just behind the lawmakers. A path was made through the media section, and the patient, attended to by about 10 government medical personnel, was being wheeled away on a stretcher just as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) stepped to the microphone. "Join us in defeating Pelosi care!" he exhorted. A few members stole a glance at the stretcher. Boehner may have been distracted as well. He told the crowd he would read from the Constitution, then read the "we hold these truths" bit from the Declaration of Independence.

As you'd expect at a political protest, the messages on signs and buttons were provocative: "Waterboard Congress," "A Commie Is in the House." .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...

from the MSP Star-Tribune:



More heated rhetoric from the Bachmann brigades
By Doug Stone

Last update: November 5, 2009 - 9:39 PM


With the vote on health care reform looming this weekend in the U.S. House, our own Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann brought her “Hands Off Our Health Care” rally to Washington, D.C., Thursday to protest the Democratic proposal.

She promoted the rally on Fox television and talk radio to rail against what she and her supporters consider a government takeover of health care leading to socialized medicine. One of her conservative colleagues, Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who was at the rally, recently said she found the health care proposal more frightening to her than terrorists.

And House Minority Leader John Boehner told the rally that the health reform measure “is the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in 19 years.”

I have no problem with a good old-fashioned political protest. That’s what America is all about. But the overheated, and false, rhetoric from Bachmann and her political and media cronies is a bit much.

Their position on health reform is premised on the belief that there isn’t much wrong with our current system that a few tinkers here and there can’t fix.

But 46 million uninsured is more than a little problem. And spending that is thousands of dollars per patient higher than any other country is not a small issue. Nor is out of control growth of health care spending. Nor is the problem that people with preexisting conditions have getting covered. Nor is the fact that America ranks 37th in health care outcomes.

And as anyone who is an independent contractor or between jobs can tell you, it’s not easy to obtain reasonably priced health insurance. Unlike our counterparts in Europe, Japan, Canada and Israel, we have yet to reach the consensus in this country that access to health care is a right. Just this afternoon, I heard one of our local talk radio hosts refer to health care reform as just another unnecessary entitlement.

We have great doctors and nurses and research centers, but we have a defective health care delivery system and a problematic coverage system. No amount of shouting about socialized medicine and how “they” are going to take our freedom away will change those facts. And neither will the status quo. The reason that insurance companies, which haven’t fixed the system all these years, are willing to go along with many reforms this year is because they will have millions of new customers to spread the cost and the risk. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.startribune.com/yourvoices/6934...