May 17, 2010
AABR Business Bulletin (Vol. 118/No. 236)
I. General
. Many innocent people have been hurt in Afghanistan. They have endured three decades of warfare; their land
ravaged that it would cost, according to noted researcher Alfred McCoy, $34 billion to restore their agricultural
infrastructure. The recent request of $33 billion supplemental funding by the Obama administration to pay for US
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could be directed toward helping Afghanistan replant its orchards, replenish its
flocks and rebuild its irrigation system.
. The rate of bankruptcy filings among those 65 and older has more than doubled since 1999, according to a 2008
study by AARP.
. Facts—Many more children are born to women older than 35, a change born of medical science, later marriages
and evolving attitudes about motherhood, according to the Pew Research Center.
*A child with syphilis is born in China every minute;
*There is a correlation between insomnia and a rise in diabetes;
*40% of children born in the US in 2008 were of women who were unmarried;
*The greatest threat to American national security today is not al Quaeda, terrorism, Wall Street corruption,
budget deficit, national debt, GOP obstruction to governance, two foreign wars, but obesity;
*We‟ve $429 billion to date in the Middle East to fight terrorism since 9/11 while we‟ve spent only $40 billion
to fight same at home; it now costs $6.7 billion in Afghanistan and $5.5 billion Iraq monthly;
* Activist judge is one who rendered a decision that the individual GOP or Democrat, conservative or liberal,
doesn‟t like.
. Israel is a democracy without defined borders, encompassing parts of a foreign territory (West Bank) in which
ethnic/religious group (Jewish settlers), had been given the vote while another (Palestinians) has not. Those
settlers who are living outside the internationally recognized borders of Israel actually put Benjamin Netanyahu
and Avigdor Lieberman into power.
. It is a democracy that has transferred control over 13% of its sovereign territory (and a large portion of its
inhabited land) to an external organization (Jewish National Fund) which prevents a significant portion of Israel‟s
own citizenry (20% who are Palestinians) from having access to the land, again based on ethnic/religious criteria.
. It is a democracy that historically gerrymandered its electoral constituency by expelling most of the
indigenous population outside its borders (now referred to as Palestinian refugees) to ensure a Jewish majority. It
has continued to gerrymander its voting base by giving one ethnic group (Jews around the world) an automatic
right to become citizens while denying the same right to another ethnic group (Palestinian Arabs).
. This is a democracy that, despite a plethora of parties and the necessity of creating a coalition governments,
has consistently ensured that one set of parties (the Palestinian and anti-Zionist ones) has been excluded from
government. The fact that Israel‟s democracy is not a competition between different visions of society as you
would expect, but a country driven by a single ideology (Zionism). In that sense, there has been one-party rule in
Israel since its birth.
. The vote of the 20% of the electorate that is Palestinian is no proof of democracy if Israeli Jews have
“rigged” their democracy beforehand through ethnic cleansing (1948 war). Through its discriminatory
immigration policies (Law of Return) and the manipulation of its borders to include settlers, they exclude the
occupied Palestinians, even though both live in the same territory. (Interview with Jonathan Cook)
. The Wall Street Journal had a lead story about Israeli planning to “possibly go it alone” in an attack on Iran if
the US failed in its diplomatic efforts to get Iran to stop its alleged attempts to develop a nuclear weapon
capability.
. There is no hard evidence that Iran is trying to make a nuclear bomb, or even to refine uranium and obtain
nuclear-grade material. Let‟s make one thing clear—no Israeli military can go forward without the full backing of
the US. To say otherwise is to simply perpetuate a fraud on the American public, implying that Israel is an
independent actor in the world stage. It is not!
. Before the first election of Ahmadinejad to the presidency, Iran made an offer to the US to recognize Israel,
help broker a 2-state peace solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and end Iran‟s support of armed groups in
the Middle East in return for accepting Iran as a legitimate power in the region. Bush/Cheney administration
rejected it because it was antithetical to its goal to occupy and control Iraq. Since the Iraq invasion, it is the US
that finances and helps a terror campaign inside Iran that has led to so many deaths by bombings. If any country
is acting towards another in an aggressive and warlike fashion, it is the US towards Iran, and not vice-versa.
. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is erroneously named because its people are taught only one thing—Kill, kill,
kill; that is the only thing expected of them. This is the crux of an ideology that is spiced with hatred or
demagoguery, disguised thinly as the implementation of Divine Providence made up over a meal of dry matzo
bread. This is a killing squad supported with American money, guns and tractors/shovels doing all the dirty work
of Zionist demagoguery. (Hassan Al-Haifi, Yemen Times)
. What is happening to my Republican Party? It is spinning itself to extinction for listening to the GOP court fool
Sarah Palin and terrorist loudmouth Michelle Bachmann who demonstrate their Republican corporate greed. They
are responsible for lies, deceitful propaganda, e.g., death panels, endless spin to contaminate and mislead the
public‟s mind to encourage use of brute force and homeland terrorism.
. We are looking at their true color--when they don‟t get their way, they fan the violent urges of their base.
They believe in the use of threat and order their constituents to “shoot „em between the eyes” (SP) and “be armed
and dangerous‟ (MB). This is the party that introduced homeland spying, the Patriot Act and the end to personal
privacy. Is it any wonder that they are inciting their followers to another Civil War? (Caroline Myss, Sacred
Contracts)
. More than 1.6 million college graduates are about to emerge into a cutthroat job market, one where last year‟s
graduates are still scrambling to land entry-level positions. The youth voters who helped propel the Democrats in
2006 and 2008 show signs of waning enthusiasm amid their economic travails. The GOP won‟t be able to help
them either, when one looks at the economy worldwide.
. A U-VA study found that although non-Hispanic whites living in immigrant-heavy neighborhood now feel safer,
the policy has resulted in lower levels of trust in government among Hispanics and African-Americans.
. The talk about being predisposed because of one‟s race is pure bunk and has to be de-bunked a few years ago.
History has taught us a lasting lesson (I thought) that noxious musings about race and IQ have been used to justify
genocide, segregation, eugenics, forced sterilization and discrimination in everything from housing to schools to
employment.
. You go to some top-notch schools, e.g., Harvard, and the verdict is always the same—the belief in the innate
superiority may not make sense but it absolutely confirms the certainty of those on top that they deserve
absolutely everything they get—and money and opportunity and connections and luck have nothing to do with it.
This argument of inferior intelligence is not a surprise that it‟s still with us.
. The National Council of La Raza, along with 19 other labor and civil rights groups will pull money and meetings
out of the state of AZ and is asking all companies and organizations to move major events and conferences
planned there to other venues. Potential loss of revenues to date: $100 million.
. Supporters of NCLR have agreed to pull the Puerto Rican Day Festival‟s regional meeting out of Phoenix;
the National Urban League struck the city from a short list of places to host its 2012 conference. According to a
tally of the state‟s hotel and lodging association, 23 meetings scheduled there have already been canceled
resulting in the loss of up to $10 million.
. NCLR has already been joined by the Major League Baseball Players Assn. About 30% of its players are
Latinos, and civil rights groups are hoping to pressure baseball owners to punish AZ. Ouch!
. George Rekkers is co-founder of the Family Research Council and is an anti-gay activist who recently took a
male companion on a 10-day trip to Europe to give him his daily massage in the nude. The anti-gay activist
George turns out to be gay (in the closet) when the masseur told a Miami newspaper about what happened.
. Afghanistan has now around 5.7 million children in schools, of which 35% are girls. There are 8k schools,
including several hundreds just for girls. Under the Taliban rule, women had no access to schools. Now they have
access as well to healthcare and hold 25% of the nation‟s parliament. (Sananda Sahoo, McClatchy Newspapers)
. A new report shows that US soldiers tampered with the scene of the deaths of 3 women, including digging
bullets out of the bodies to cover up their involvement. Are the new procedures in the war under Gen. McChrystal
really minimizing civilian casualties, as they are supposed to be? (Laura Flanders, GRITtv)
. From Los Angeles to New York, Chicago to Houston, hundreds of thousands of protesters in dozens of cities
marched, chanted and in some cases engaged in civil disobedience, mostly in opposition to Arizona‟s tough new
law aimed at stopping illegal immigration.
. While Europe is considered the “old world,” it is the United States that is actually far older. The EU in its
current configuration of 27 member states and 500 million people dates back only to 2004.
. Is Greece going to be the next Lehman? No, it isn‟t either big enough or interconnected enough to cause global
financial markets to freeze up the way they did in 2008.
. The incumbent Labor Party in the UK appeared to have suffered its biggest loss of seats since 1931, while the
insurgence of a dark horse party, the Liberal Democrats, had apparently fizzled.
. Multiple studies suggest our world‟s oceans are being over-fished. While alarming, such studies often eclipse
successful examples of sustainable fishing practices, such as OR‟s Port Oxford Ocean Resource Team (POORT).
. Over 200 million additional people have been pushed into hunger in the past 3 years as a result of the food and
financial crises. The UN estimates that some 1 billion people now go hungry. Empowering women small scale
farmers through financial support and technology is the key to sustainable agricultural development and case
work toward the Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by 2015. (Nixon Otieno, Global Post)
. The most important concern for Pakistan today is the economy and energy; the military is willing to forego its
request for hardware to ensure that the above-needs are met.
II. Private Sector
. Despite all the tea party protests and crazy talk from Republicans, the truth is that 98% of us are getting more
from the government than we‟re giving to it. You probably got a tax cut this year. Before, unless you bought
yourself a senator, a tax cut was a prerogative of the moneyed few who don‟t pay their fair share of the taxes.
. We are witnessing an era of corporate irresponsibility, e.g., BP‟s lack of accountability as it tries to shift the
blame for the spill, Goldman Sachs‟ declaration in Congress of not being responsible for the mortgage-market
meltdown and the resulting collapse of the world economy, the auto industry “demanding” government money
when their executives flew to Washington on corporate jets.
. BP (Lamar McKay, president) blamed Trans Ocean as owner and operator of Deepwater Horizon drilling rig,
as responsible for the drilling operation. Its CEO (Steven Newman), in turn, blamed a catastrophic failure of the
cement, the casing or both, provided by Halliburton. A Halliburton official (Tim Probert) pointed back at BP as
having the authority for being the owner of the well.
. We‟re not hemorrhaging jobs as we did in 2008 and 2009, but the bleeding hasn‟t stopped. The economy added
162k jobs in March. That‟s impressive until you look more closely that a third of jobs are temporary government
hires to take the census. The 112k jobs are fewer than the 150k needed to keep up with the growth of the US
population.
. The economic and environmental damage resulting from the exploding fireball compromise of the Deepwater
Horizon oil platform may be unprecedented, with the potential to emit up to 4 Exxon Valdez breakups per week
with no good plan to stop it. There will be a lot of finger-pointing among BP, Trans-ocean and Halliburton while
it appears that corporatist Congress put the screws to the individual citizens and small businesses by drastically
limiting their potential for economic recovery to insure that big oil producers, like BP, have effectively no damage
liability for such losses.
. How did it happen? There are a lot of pertinent factors but the one constant theme underlying all is the
mendacious corporate servitude of the GOP, their leaders and policies. And for them to try to pin the blame on the
Obama administration goes beyond human decency. The arrogance and recklessness of BP and its oil partners
gestated wildly under the Bush/Cheney administration. It’s time to be serious about alternate energy and to be
free from the strangled hold of the oil companies.
. BP had a relatively decent safety environmental record compared to others similarly situated. Then it merged
with American giant Amoco and started playing their soft regulated underbelly of GOP rule in the US under oil
men GWB and Dick Cheney. From the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) is an excellent list of BP
misconduct almost all occurring with/or whitewashed under Bush/Cheney administration.
. The economic crisis is taking its tool on innovation. Venture capital‟s involvement in the US for the first three
quarters of 2009 was $12 billion. Over the first 3 quarters of 2008, it was $22 billion. The trend is not a good one.
. Many of our big bankers who ran their banks into the rocks think they are indispensable. Charles de Gaulle blew
up this myth a long time ago when he said, “cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.” We did not
hold these bastards accountable. The top management and boards of directors at failed banks, rescued by the
government, should have been fired.
. All those people should have had their contracts thrown out and their bonuses clawed back to the full extent
possible. Losing personal money is the only thing that modern American financial executives ultimately
understand. If that is a breach of contract—let them sue and good luck to them in court. Just think of extra
evidence from wrongdoing that would be uncovered. (Simon Johnson, MIT Professor)
. What do oil giant BP, mining company Massey Energy and Goldman Sachs have in common? They‟re all big
firms involved in massive plunder. BP‟s oil spill is already one of the biggest and most damaging in American
history. Goldman‟s alleged fraud is but a part of the largest financial meltdown in 75 years. (Robert Reich)
. In the wake of the Gulf oil spill, BP has produced an apology, jobs for local fishermen to aid in recovery efforts
and a promise to pay all cleaning costs. But it hasn‟t produced an answer to why the explosion happened, how it
plans exactly to compensate local fishermen, how to make up for lost tax revenue to state and local governments,
how to reimburse small firms for lost business, how far are they willing to go to clean up the pollution it caused
the environment, inter alia.
. In the midst of all the corruption and greed, not just from Wall Street and large companies, one man shines for
doing his job right—US District Judge Jed Rakoff who has become the terror of lying and sleazy banks. He called
JP Morgan’s handling of a major client, improper at the very least, “if not downright sham.” He also lambasted
regulators (SEC), in the case of BoA for “not comporting with the most elementary notions of justice and
morality.” We need more Rakoffs!
. Goldman Sachs claims great risk-management skills, while it shirks responsibility for its role in the near collapse
of the US economy. The former is a myth, the latter a dodge. As taxpayer wealth was destroyed, Goldman
exploited the financial crisis it helped create, while the US was (and remains) at war.
. It just released its 2009 annual report showing it made net revenues of $45.17 billion with net earnings of
$13.39 billion. In its shareholder letter, Goldman says it repaid TARP money but did not mention the massive new
taxpayer subsidies it continues to enjoy.
. Goldman grabbed new status as a financial holing company, FDIC debt guarantees, access to near-zero cost
taxpayer-subsidized borrowing, lax accounting standards and more. It is making a killing as the Fed Reserve
keeps interest rates near zero. Goldman reaped windfall profits to replenish its capital and paid bonuses of over
$16 billion to its employees. (Janet Tavakoli, President of Tavakoli Structured Finance)
. It was Cheney‟s energy task force—the secretive one that he wouldn‟t say much publicly—that decided that the
mistakes which cost $500k, were too much of a burden on the oil industry. What a Dick! When you look into the
root of the Gulf oil spill disaster, finding Halliburton near the source isn‟t surprising.
. The genius of Mother‟s Day in the US began when Anne Jarvis, an Appalachian homemaker, organized a day to
raise awareness of poor health conditions in her community. Fifteen years later, Julie Ward Howe, a Boston poet,
pacifist, suffragist and author of the lyrics to the “Battle hymn of the Republic” organized a day encouraging
mothers to rally for peace.” (Eileen Fleming, Truthout)
. A growing number of veteran journalists are readying books about BHO and his administration and seeking
inside information from the White House. The blitz of upcoming books has generated complications for
presidential aides who have a country to run, and frustrations for the authors who are clamoring for face time with
their sources.
. NJ-based Deepwater Wind proposed to build an 8-turbine wind farm and sell the electricity it produced to the
National Grid, which supplies power to RI residents. The 3-member commission voted against the agreement
saying the price of power agreed to by the two sides was too high, the Providence Journal reported.
. At least 8 states are considering proposals to start state-run banks in the wake of an economic crisis where many
private banks ceased or greatly decreased their lending, literally shrinking the money pool available in the state
economy. (Matthew Cardinale, Inter Press Service)
. The basic problem in Greece and in other struggling European countries is that government debts have grown as
large or nearly as large as the GNP, making the government‟s repayment difficult, if not impossible. The
countries‟ imperiled finances push up the rates at which they can borrow.
. Insurers agree that to provide insurance for a child they must cover pre-existing conditions. But sleazy as they
are, they say the law does not require them to write insurance for the child and it does not guarantee “availability
of coverage” until 2014. Now you know why we need healthcare reform, and drive these insurers out of business!
. Katherine Harris, FL former Secretary of State stole the election for GWB in 2000. Caroline Hunter, a Bush-
appointed Fed Election commissioner, who remains in office, provided misleading statements under oath in an
effort to hide RNC involvement in vote-suppression activities in the 2004 presidential elections, a Raw story
investigation has found.
. It was in Chicago in 1886 that a largely immigrant workforce fought and won the battle for an 8-hour workday.
It was in Chicago in 2010 that a modern-day workforce, made of immigrants and descendants of immigrants,
came to fight for their latest demand: comprehensive immigration reform. (Yana Kunichoff)
III. Federal Government
. The nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court poses a grave challenge to Senate Republicans whether
they can recognize BHO‟s conciliatory gestures and move beyond reflexive opposition. Conservative interest
groups have already begun their “political” maneuvering by attacking Kagan as “reshaping the Court” with a
“leftist legacy”
. The product of two Ivy League universities (Princeton and Harvard) and Oxford, she clerked for a leading
appellate judge and a Supreme Court Justice (Thurgood Marshall), worked briefly for a blue-chip Washington law
firm (Williams & Connolly) alternating between the nation‟s foremost law schools (Harvard and Chicago).
. Republicans are again caught in their hypocrisy in their opposition to Kagan‟s nomination to the Supreme Court
because she was never a sitting judge, even though she is considered by the legal community as a brilliant lawyer
and is eminently qualified for the Supreme Court. The same hypocrites heaped effusive praises on Harriet Meiers,
White House counsel under GWB who did not have judicial experience and withdrew her name from
consideration after 3 weeks in 2005.
. There will be no surprise in the confirmation hearings of Elena Kagan. Why waste precious time? We know she
is going to be confirmed. It will be a repeat of Judge Sotomayor‟s hearing—boringly uninformative. Not that
Sotomayor wanted it to be so, but it is structured as such. If she is candid and honest in her response, she may kiss
the nomination good-bye. As she put it during her confirmation hearing for Solicitor General, this is another
“vapid and hollow charade, in which repetition of platitudes has replaced discussion of viewpoints and personal
anecdotes have supplanted legal analysis.” Confirm her and save us the fear-mongering and political
maneuverings.
. Most of our Justices are graduates of two Ivy-League schools—Harvard and Yale. So much for public education!
In the past 50 years, 64% of the Justices (18 out of 28) were educated at an Ivy League school. If Kagan is
confirmed, the trend might as well become law.
. Has the NRA become an advocate for terrorists regarding purchase of a gun? Are they so absolute about the
Second Amendment that they‟d risk national security by fighting for the right of would-be terrorists to own a
gun? What is this stupid argument that to deny them to buy guns is part of a conspiracy by politicians who “hate
the Second Amendment” and think that more gun owners can be placed on the list over time? The problem with
the NRA is that it is insecure and loaded with conspiracy theorists.
. The absence of pro-gun senators, e.g. Coburn, McCain, Ensign (all Republicans) and Tester (Democrat) was
conspicuous evidence of their cowardice to address the issue and their hypocrisy to cower from a probable
withdrawal of political contributions from the NRA if they were even present at the Congressional hearing.
. Sen. Graham‟s (R-SC) defense of the right to buy a gun was too enabling in view of the data available from
the GAO that people on the terrorist watch lists had bought guns or explosives from US dealers 1,119x over the
past 6 years, largely because the federal government has no power to stop them.
. Congress, where 44% are millionaires, freezes pay. Facing election-year pressure to keep a lid on heir salaries,
lawmakers have agreed quietly not to increase their pay next year. Consequently, they‟ll receive $174k in 2011
under legislation awaiting BHO‟s signature, the same amount they receive this year.
. The US Senate rejected the single most important element of Wall Street reform by a vote of 33 to 61. The
SAFE Banking Act could have forced the bank break-up of the nation‟s six largest banks and dramatically reduced
the political clout of America‟s financial elite.
. No surprise there at all when these senators are owned by the big banks and kowtow to them. That‟s why—
regardless of their party—they should be booted out at the earliest possible time. The 61 votes is a slap in the face
of the American people in favor of Wall Street‟s strange-hold on our economy. No matter what else is enacted
ultimately in the Wall Street reform, Congress has declared it will not confront the greatest problem in the US
economy—too big to fail! (Zach Carter, The Campaign for America‟s Future)
. Democrats have also become the same kind of servile lackeys to big corporate interests as the Republicans. The
Obama DOJ has continued the Bush/Cheney policy of coddling corporate criminals with civil treatment as
opposed to have criminal prosecution and conviction of both corporations and their leaders. If BHO follows
through with his determination to appoint “a moderate consensus builder” like Elena Kagan to replace John Paul
Stevens, you can expect even more corporatist decisions from the Supreme Court.
. The current drumbeat of commentary on the right that the Obama administration was too slow in responding to
the BP oil spill in the Gulf raises 2 obvious questions—one: is it true? The answer is No! Second, who on the
right was ahead of BHO on calling the spill a disaster? On the search of major right-wing Web sites, No one, e.g.,
RedState .com, WorldNet Daily, National Review Online, Townhall.com and Human Events.
. While it was evident that the “Right” was slower than the Obama administration on the disaster, that doesn‟t
matter to the “Tea Party and other right-wing crazies.” As far as the tea baggers are concerned, all that matters is
that someone says the Obama administration was slow to respond. That makes it true? Facts don’t matter to them.
. Just like when RWR was president, he doubled the national deficit. The same thing happened when GWB
was president (we are not going to debate his legacy) and he too doubled the deficit. BHO barely warmed his seat
at the White House, these right-wing nuts were already clamoring for his head because of the deficit. Not only can
they not govern; their incompetence is made worse by their racism.
. DOI Secretary Ken Salazar will divide the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to separate its apparently
conflicting missions. The section that ensures energy companies comply with federal safety and environmental
laws will be separated from the part that reaps billions in drilling royalties each year.
. EPA will be legally bound to clean the soiled waters of the Chesapeake Bay after reaching an agreement to
enforce tough new standards for pollution reduction.
. The State Dept decided to fund Global Internet Freedom Consortium, a group run mainly by practitioners of the
Falun Gong, considered Enemy #1 by the Chinese government to provide software to skirt Internet censorship
across the globe. The amount sought originally was $15 million, but brought it down to $4 million, and was
awarded $1.5 million, after politics and the media got into the picture.
. GIFC‟s software works well but there were two problems: 1) It was required to share its code with other
researchers, raising the possibility that China and other governments could crack it and use it to monitor people
they believe have evaded government detection. 2) The tools used by GFIC are employed by at most 5% of
Internet users, even in China or Iran where the Web is tightly controlled.
. The Obama administration has sent Congress a proposal to create a $30 billion support program to unfreeze
credit for the nation‟s small businesses by tapping leftover funds in the financial bailout program. The new
program has nothing to do with TARP.
. In 1994, the median sales price of a house in Detroit was about $41k. The housing bubble pushed it up to about
$98k in 2003. In March 2009, the price was $13,600. Today, the price is $7k. There has never been a collapse of
residential real estate values in this magnitude in peacetime history anywhere.
. This does not happen in a normal environment. Even with the mania, Detroit is a dying city. Created by
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in conjunction with Alan Greenspan‟s Federal Reserve, nothing like this
happened anywhere else. The city planners, the federal government‟s subsidy defenders, and the welfare state
aficionados are all discreetly silent about Detroit. The school board announced the closing of one-fourth of its
schools. The city is out of money.,
. Freddie Mac continues to lose money and is asking for an additional $10 billion in assistance from US
taxpayers, mostly because of a change in accounting. Revised rules require it to move all guarantees they assure,
but don‟t own, onto their books. This shift also caused the company‟s equity to drop by $11.7 billion, helping to
plunge its net worth into the red.
. Lawmakers voted on an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to expand oversight of the Federal Reserve
to give GAO the power to audit it and compel the central bank to disclose details about the firms that received
emergency aid during the financial crisis.
. Under pressure from the Obama administration, Sanders agreed earlier to scale back his initial proposal
which would have required the Fed to undergo regular audits. The new language prevents investigators from
peering into the agency‟s deliberations on setting interest rates and other elements of monetary policy.
. Still the Fed would have to submit to a one-time examination of its massive emergency lending programs and
would have to post details on its Web site about firms that benefited from its lending during the crisis. (Brady
Dennis, WP)
. The Pentagon’s “base budget” request for FY 2011 (beginning Oct. 1) calls for about $549 billion, an increase
of $18 billion over the appropriations for the current fiscal year. That’s not the whole story!
. The administration is also requesting about $160 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) that
goes to pay for wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. There‟s another $25 billion or more
in military spending outside DOD, much of it for nuclear weapons included in DOE‟s budget. It could be much
larger, depending on what is included. Our government is not honest with us in this area of spending.
. DOD figures show that that 160 active-duty Army personnel committed suicide in 2009—up from 140 in 2008
and more than double the 77 suicides reported in 2003. The Army suicide rate is now higher than that of civilians.
There is no single explanation, Pentagon officials say, but the wear and tear of repeated deployment appears to be
a major factor. Suicides among 18- to 29-year old veterans have increased considerably, up 26% from 2005 to
2007.
. Robert Rubin is a threat to national security for what he and his lapdogs have done to our economy, and he has
no regrets. If he were in China, he would have been condemned to death by firing squad. But this is America
where the rich have and expect a different system of justice. The Obama administration frequently calls him for
advice because his lapdogs dominate the White House economic team. This coziness contributed to the poor
oversight of Citigroup while Tim Geithner was at the New York Fed.
. Some of my GOP friends find my statement harsh and provocative regarding Republicans‟ inability to govern,
but no one ever called it untrue. Let me go one step further and use MN as an example of this disingenuous modus
operandi. The legacy of MN as a progressive state has been systematically demolished by Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R)
who creates deficits by cutting taxes and insists on solving them with spending cuts.
. While WP columnist Michael Gerson (what do you expect?) favors Pawlenty as “Reagan of MN,” he is blind
to those hurt by his budget-slashing, e.g., 36k poor who stand to lose their only source of non-emergency medical
care, the 19k disabled or chronically ill people who will lose their only source of income, the mentally ill adults
and children about to lose millions of dollars of services.
. MA Sen. Scott Brown (R) is a typical politician—he says one thing and does another. In short, he is a hypocrite.
He opposes unnecessary government spending but fights to fund a multi-billion weapons program (to build a
back-up engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter) that the Pentagon says it doesn‟t need, sparking criticism that he
is breaking his campaign vow to rein in wasteful spending. He turns out to be a big-spender, a big-time porker.
GE owns him. It‟s amazing how the big-spenders of taxpayer money always justify their pork as critical to
national security. How many times have the American people heard that song before?
. GOP Sen. Bob Bennett of UT was thrown out of office 5/8 in the GOP primary. It makes him the first
Congressional incumbent to be ousted this year and demonstrates the challenges candidates face from the right
this year. He came in 3rd taking only 27% of the votes. The GOP has moved farther and fastest to the right
because of their opposition to BHO. Anyone who sees any of them shaking hands with BHO or any Democrat is
demonized.
. The defeat of Bob Bennett in the GOP primary by the Tea Party candidates, Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee,
as stunning for several reasons--Sitting senators are rarely ousted in intra-party races before the November
elections. Sen. Bennett won his 3rd term in 2004 with 69% of the votes. He also earned top grades from
conservative advocacy groups. Not conservative enough?
. Federal immigration authorities have pressured one of San Francisco‟s major building services companies
(ABM) into firing hundreds of its workers (some 475) for failing to show legal immigration status. ABM has been
a union company for decades and many of the workers have been there for years.
. KBR was selected for a no-bid contract worth as much as $568 million through 2011. On the same day, DOJ
sued them for kickbacks in Iraq. The Army awarded KBR the contract over objections from members of Congress
who have pushed the Pentagon to seek bids for further logistics contracts. With a 4-year option, it will be worth as
much as $2.77 billion.
. Much has been said the Senate Republicans’ abuse of the filibuster which has skyrocketed in recent years.
National attention has been focused on how GOP obstruction has held up hundreds of other important pieces of
legislation many of which passed the House with overwhelming majorities and strong legislative support, e.g.,
TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act (HR 1242) to require financial institutions to be more transparent and
hold them accountable; A Child’s Missing Alert and Recovery Center Act (HR 1133) to help federal, state and
local law enforcement agencies‟ find missing children; COPS Improvement Act (HR 1139); to put more police
officers on the street to keep us safe; Small Business Financing and Investment Act (HR 3854) to get small
businesses credit they need to obtain loans to make payroll and expand; Homes for Heroes Act (HR 403) to
expand and improve housing to homeless veterans, to mention a few.
. GOP obstruction has not held up the immediate bills in question. It holds up every other piece of legislation
waiting to be considered and prevents the Senate from considering legislation that it would otherwise be inclined
to pass. At the end of February, there were 290 bills passed by the House that the Senate had yet to consider.
Since then the Senate has passed a total of 8 more bills. These delaying tactics are not surprising when Senate
Minority Leader (Mitch McConnell) made it clear to his colleagues at the start of this administration that
Republicans must not cooperate with it, because if Obama loses, we win. There is only word to describe his
injunction: EVIL. (Tony Clark, Center for American Progress Action Fund and Media Matters Action)
. Gov. Bobby Jindal of LA is alleged to “have blackmailed or bribed” his Democrat Attorney-General (Buddy
Caldwell) into joining a multi-state lawsuit challenging the healthcare overhaul. An article in Eunice Today
alleges that Caldwell did not want to be the “token Democrat” joining the lawsuit but was “backed into a corner”
by Jindal. If he didn‟t join Jindal, his budget would be cut.
. Is Gov. Haley Barbour of MS losing his mind or just want to scare average Americans? Is their recent fundraiser
“Remember November” from the GOP Governors Assn appropriate when they mix ominous images of Pres.
Obama with the story of a 17-century terrorist who tried to blow up Parliament and assassinate King James I? It is
bad enough for Republicans to glorify a terrorist to raise a few bucks. But invoking references to Terrorist Gary
Fawkes is reprehensible.
. This ad comes at a time when members of Congress are having their lives threatened, the FBI is breaking up
militias and planes are being flown into federal offices. “Remember November” throws fuel into the fire. It is
politics at its worst and most cynical. Doing anything just to win has become the standard GOP brand. No
wonder many are leaving the party or have become RINOs (Republican in name only).
. Sarah Palin is the female ayatollah who cannot distinguish between the Bible and the Constitution, wanting a
society based on the Bible and the Ten Commandments. Please—how long are you going to defraud the
American people, Sarah?
. Today it‟s the law in AZ to persecute people who look like they are illegal immigrants. Tomorrow it will be
federal law to persecute people who look like they are not Christian whites (or white Christians). The parallels to
Nazi Germany grow more eerie every day.
. Sarah needs to review some history, particularly why our ancestors fled to America in the first place. It is to
escape people like her. I don‟t think she has read the Bible in toto or the Constitution. (read the 1st amendment).
That would be asking too much of a shallow cheat who carries her notes in the palm of one hand. She is a liar.
She should be thankful that our laws are not based on the Ten Commandments, or she will be in jail.
. The ranks of boomers expecting to kick back and retire soon are shrinking fast. A lifetime of poor savings habits,
coupled with devastating impact on retirement portfolios of two bear markets in 8 years, have convinced many
boomer that they‟ll have to put in more time at the office. This should reduce the demands on Social Security and
Medicare.
. Shell may not drill in the Arctic Ocean this summer after a coalition of environmentalists and Native Alaska
groups challenged the drilling plan. It told the court that the federal Minerals Management Service failed to
consider the potential threat to wildlife and the risk for disaster before it approved the Shell project.
IV. International
. Asia has led the world out of a recession. Its economies are integrating further than expected, with an abundance
of projects and new trade agreements promising to accelerate the process. Economists, businessmen and
politicians say the US risks being a step behind in a region increasingly able to turn raw materials into consumer
and capital goods that it sells to itself.
. Metros are high capacity, high frequency, urban electric transport railway systems. Also known as subway,
underground and tube, they are distinguished by being separated from all other types of traffic. When it comes to
energy consumption and space occupancy, metros are among the most efficient means of transportation. In 2006,
155 million people traveled by metro every day. Two of the top 9 metros in the world are in Asia—Tokyo and
Seoul. The others are in Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Sao Paolo, New York City, Montreal and Paris.
. A man charged into a kindergarten in central China with a cleaver and hacked to death 7 children and 2 adults—
the fifth such rampage in a school less than 2 months. The attacker then went home and killed himself.
. South Korea said that an international investigation has found overwhelming evidence that one of its warships
was sunk by a torpedo made in North Korea killing 46 sailors, and that the weapon was fired by a North Korean
submarine. It was based on the findings of 50 experts from South Korea who worked with 24 investigators from
the US, Australia, UK and Sweden.
. At an academic conference, one writer warned against Taiwan tying itself to Beijing through an ECFA
(Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement) when economic bubbles in China are set to burst. A large group
of Taiwanese-Americans attacked ECFA as a fast track toward the annexation of Taiwan by China.
. P.M. Yukio Hatoyama of Japan condemned North Korea for sinking the South Korean ship Cheonan and
promised to back Seoul in its escalating confrontation with the Communist regime.
. The economic recovery that rocked through Asia starting last year has been felt in the usual ways—a thickening
parade of cargo ships around Singapore: rising real estate and stock prices—but it was demand for personal
computers in Indonesia that caught the attention of executives at computer memory maker Showa Denko.
. Sen. Benigno Aquino III (son of former president Corazon Aquino) of the Philippines was elected
overwhelmingly and convincingly by the people waiting long hours in the heat of the sun to cast their votes.
Other problems included brown-outs, technical glitches, violence, vote-buying, harassment which were not
pervasive this time around. The people have spoken—Aquino was their choice.
. Authorities in Thailand prepared to cut water, electricity and food supplies to anti-government demonstrators
camped in central Bangkok, turning to siege tactics after a compromise offer failed to end their protest. A state of
emergency in 17 of the 76 provinces kept more protesters from traveling to Bangkok.
. Indonesia turns the tide against extremists. Detachment 88 is an anti-terrorism police unit with US funds and
training. Case in point is Joko Pitmo, an al-Quaeda-trained bomb maker, better known as Dulmatis, an architect of
the 2002 Bali bombings and other outrages that the US had put a $10-million bounty on his head. Indonesian
security forces have killed or arrested a host of key figures in an Islamist network that once looked as if it might
tip the world‟s most populous nation into chaos.
. Petrolian Nasional Bhd (Petronas) plans to list shares of Malaysia Marine Heavy Engineering Stm Bhd
(MMHE) on Bursa Malaysia in September, sources said. Its ringgit has the worst week since 1998 and regional
stocks slumped and traders paid bet on future appreciation of the Chinese yuan.
. Huaphan province in Laos is developing 400 hectares of land and facilities to accommodate about 1,000 farmers
who previously engaged in shifting slash and burn cultivation, a provincial official said.
. Pres. Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine, who is chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization and president of the Palestinian National Authority will visit Vietnam on May 24-26 at the
invitation of Pres. Nguyen Minh Triet.
. Emerging evidence points to the Pakistani Taliban regarding the Times Square bomber, though it remains
unclear whether it was the organization or Faisal Shahzad who conceived the plot. But one thing is clear—al
Quaeda affiliates have demonstrated a new ability to tailor a plot to a new recruit.
. The current flood situation will cause a big damage to the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka. According to official
statistics, over 8,000 acres of crops on farming land were destroyed, Agrarian Services Development
Commissioner General Ravindra Hewavetharana said.
V. Miscellaneous
. Victoria Morales Graves, the first woman to win two gold medals in diving in the 1948 Olympics in London in
the 3-meter springboard and the 10-meter platform competitions and the first Asian-American woman to win an
Olympic gold, has died. She was 85. She was a native of San Francisco; her father was Filipino and her mother
was English. Life magazine named her and decathlon gold winner Bob Mathias the top two US athletes at the
1948 Olympics.
. Never has there been a greater champion of US workers than former Secretary Willard Wirtz who died 4/24 at
98. He was dedicated and effective in winning and preserving vital protections for working people.
. “We‟ve shot an amazing number of people and killed a number, and to my knowledge, none has proven to have
been a real threat to the force. To my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I‟ve been here, not a single case when
we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a
suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it.” (Gen. McChrystal, Afghanistan)
. “In March 2006, a major pipeline leak went undetected for days, spilling a quarter million gallons of oil on the
Alaskan tundra. The spill occurred because the pipeline operator, British Petroleum (BP), ignored its own workers
warning by neglecting critical maintenance to cut costs. The spill sparked Congressional hearings and a large
federal-state investigation. Despite the outcry, in a settlement announced in late October 2007, BP agreed to one
misdemeanor charge carrying three-year probation and a total of only $20 million in penalties ($12 million fine
with $8 million in restitution) and compensatory payments.” (Scott West, former special agent-in-charge for the
EPA Criminal Investigation Division) The fines proposed by DOJ (to which BP immediately agreed) were only a
fraction of what was legally required under the Alternative Fines Act. EPA had calculated the appropriate fine
levels as several times what DOJ offered BP—ranging from $58 million to $672 million, depending upon the
economic assumptions and the BP Alaska settlement is part of a pattern of “lowball” corporate public safety and
pollution settlement engineered by the Bush DOJ. In that October 2007 settlement package, DOJ asked for only
$50 million in fines for the BP Texas refinery explosion in which 15 people died—penalties not carrying strong
deterrent values for a big multinational corporation.
. “Never… have I had a significant environmental minimal case shut down by the political arm of the Department
of Justice, nor have I had a case declined by the Department of Justice before I had been fully able to investigate
the case. This is unprecedented in my experience.” (A formal complaint filed with the IG of DOJ, Glen Fine, by
Scott West and a group known as Public employees for Environmental Responsibility [PEER]
. “In a major shift of policy, the Justice Department, once known for taking on giant corporations, including the
accounting firm Arthur Anderson, has been put off prosecuting more than 50 companies suspected of wrongdoing
over the last three years. Instead, many companies, from boutique outfits to insurance corporations, like American
Express, have avoided the cost and stigma of defending themselves against criminal charges with the so-called
deferred prosecution agreement, which allows the government to collect fines and appoint an outside monitor to
impose internal reforms without going through a trial. In many cases, the name of this monitor and details of the
agreement are kept secret.” (Eric Lichblow, New York Times) But critics of the agreement question that
assertion. Charles Intriago, a former federal prosecutor in Miami who specialized in money laundering issues
said the huge penalties, like the $65 million fine to American Express Bank International in 2007, were “peanuts”
compared with the damage paid by a criminal conviction.
. “… a nakedly activist decision that pulls its standard for limiting damages out of thin air, demonstrates hostility
to the role of Congress, and continues a pattern of ignoring the Framers‟ views on the importance of civil juries.
Progressives would do well to treat this decision with resounding scorn, and highlight it as a textbook example of
why the Supreme Court matters.” (2008 decision in Exxon Shipping Co. vs. Baker) It is who the Republicans are
and what they do. When they cannot accomplish their goals by legislating in service to corporate masters, they
pack the Supreme Court with corporatist ideologues like Roberts, Alito and Thomas as is shown in this case.
More than 6,000 of the victims of Exxon Valdez have died during the course of this litigation which Exxon has
tenaciously prolonged for 16 years with appeal after appeal. In 2006, the North Circuit Court of Appeals cut what
originally was a $5 billion jury verdict down to $2.5 billion. Today, the court cut this again for Exxon to a
maximum of $500 million.
. “According to OSHA, BP has not only failed to comply with the terms of its settlement agreement, it has
knowingly committed hundreds of new violations that continue to endanger the lives of its refinery workers…
Still as highlighted in a January 2007 report aired by a panel chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker
III, systematic issues related to process safety were not limited to the firm‟s Texas City refinery. In fact, they
were widespread.” (Jason Leopold, Truthout, who followed up the literally dirty details of just how repeatedly
bully BP has wantonly isolated their probation) By the way, npr.org had a graph/video on their site that showed
the extent of the spill from day to day. The graph also shows a red tide of little dots offshore of Texas,
California, Mississippi & Alabama)
. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than our programs of social
uplift is approaching spiritual death.” (MLK, Jr.) How right he was, but his position angered LBJ, many of his
fellow civil rights allies (pseudo-prophets) and influential newspapers (cowards to speak or report the truth).
The Washington Post charged that King “had diminished his usefulness to his country and to his people.” Now,
we know it’s the other way around.
. “During their working life, undocumented immigrants in the US will pay, on average, approximately $80k
more in taxes per capita than they use in government services, owing to the fact that they are not eligible to take
advantage of almost all of the social service programs offered by the government.” (Recent study by released by
the National Council of La Raza)
. What most people don‟t know is that under a poorly drafted law in the 1990s, oil companies [that] received
leases between 1996 and 2000 in the Gulf of Mexico are now drilling in public land for free. As oil prices are
high and rising, this is an outrage and something that is completely unjustifiable.” (Rep. Edward Markey, D-
MA who introduced legislation to force companies like Exxon Mobil and Shell to begin paying on their existing
leases as a condition for obtaining new ones. The payments could add up to $50 billion)
. “Looking back on them, with one or two minor exceptions, I wouldn‟t have cast any of them differently even
if I had known at the time they were going to cost me my career.” (Sen. Bob Bennett, R-UT)
. „The Army has a big burden to demonstrate that a decision [for KBR] to not compete is in the best interest of
the military and American taxpayers… We will hold their feet to the fire and continue to demand accountability
on this decision.” (Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO; Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME wants Secretary DOD Gates to
urge the Army against continued reliance on KBR in light of DOJ‟s lawsuit). KBR is a part of the larger
umbrella-- Halliburton. Cheney is former CEO of Halliburton. It’s funny that people weren’t outraged when
Bush-Cheney regime was in power to charge them with war crimes and for disregarding the Constitution.
People voted for the status quo and swallowed the GOP lies—hook, line and sinker. Follow the money trail. Say
hello to the shadow government. The war machine is making too much money for its stakeholders and is far too
big to fail. To do business with KBR shows that our government is as brutally and incorrigibly corrupt as KBR.
. “Sometimes I think there is an emphasis on immigrants who came from Mexico as if they represent the whole
family of the immigrant population in this country or the whole problem. We have people here in MA who have
come from Ireland and have overstayed heir visas and came from other parts of Europe and overstayed their
visas and somehow that isn‟t the face of the immigration problem. And that worries me…. Let me be clear. As
long as I have anything to say about it, there‟s not going to be an AZ law in MA. I can‟t see such a thing
passing our Legislature. But if it did, I would veto it.” (MA Gov. Deval Patrick accused his political opponents-
-Timothy Baker and Charles Baker--of grandstanding and said that supporters of such crackdown were trying to
invest a villain for political purposes)
. “In Prince William Country [VA], we had people moving out, we had property values going down. The county
paid $1 million to mow the lawns of people leaving the county.” (Nancy Lyall, legal coordinator for Mexicanos
Sin Fronteras) Opponents of the ordinance say it caused immigrants to flee the county, leaving neighborhoods
dotted with vacant homes and sowing distrust of authorities without making much difference in crime.
. “Collector Car Appreciation Day—While people out there are looking for a job, trying to save their homes, we
are doing what Republicans let us do. Collector Car Appreciation Day—that is the extent of our work because
the Republicans have objected to everything we have tried to do on trying to reform to reform Wall Street.”
(Sen. Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader) Republicans are at their best in stifling legislation by warning (or
scare-mongering), employing the same delay tactics they used in opposing minimum wage that it would result
in the loss of jobs if passed, which never happened; that pushing ahead too quickly with the far-reaching
legislation (like Wall Street reform) could only lead to unintended consequences that harm the very people that
lawmakers are trying to help. Hogwash!
. “She [Elena Kagan] is much more comfortable examining something and analyzing something given to her,
and should be brilliant at it, and she will see it from different angles… In many ways, being a judge is a better
fit for her than being a scholar, where the emphasis is… preventing a particular intellectual signature. She really
is a deep intellectual. She is not married. And although she has many friends, the world of books and ideas is
her world.” (Senior State Department official D. Slaughter who helped recruit her to the University of Chicago)
. “Fannie and Freddie are synonymous with mismanagement and waste and have become the face of too big to
fail. The time has come to end Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac‟s taxpayer-backed free ride and require them to
operate on a level playing field.” (Sen. John McCain, R-AZ) If the proposal by McCain, Shelby (AL) and Gregg
(NH) calls for the government to end its control of the companies within 2 years, Fannie and Freddie would
have to reduce the size of their mortgage portfolios and begin paying state and local sales taxes.
Rawlein G. Soberano, Ph.D.
President
Asian American Business Roundtable