News and Information // Current

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2 months ago

Internet retailer gives exotic leathers the boot

Overstock.com Inc. has stopped selling watchbands, shoes and luggage made from the skins of exotic animals. The Salt Lake... more

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2 months ago

REPORT: Challenges To Constitutionality Of Health Reform Funded By Health Industry Money

Since Democrats secured 60 votes to pass health care reform legislation — and passage became inevitable — prominent conservatives relaunched an under-the-radar campaign to invalidate reform through the legal system. On the eve of the final health care vote in the Senate, Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and John Ensign (R-NV) invoked a “constitutional point of order” to allow the Senate to rule by majority vote on whether the “Democrat health care takeover bill” is unconstitutional. Legislatures in approximately 14 states — organized by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a “business-friendly conservative group that coordinates activity among statehouses — have also introduced initiatives to ratify constitutional amendments that would repeal all or parts of the pending health care reform legislation, and Attorney Generals in at least 13 states are challenging a deal secured by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) to fund Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion for perpetuity.

In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the attorneys generals from South Carolina, Washington, Michigan, Texas, Colorado, Alabama, North Dakota, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Utah, Florida, Idaho and South Dakota “wrote that they consider the [Nebraska] provision ‘constitutionally flawed’ and demanded that it be stricken from the final bill.”

Yesterday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal explaining “Why the Health-Care Bills Are Unconstitutional.” “The policy issues may be coming to an end, but the legal issues are certain to continue because key provisions of this dangerous legislation are unconstitutional,” he wrote, and went on to challenge the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the so-called sweet heart deal for Nebraska, and the requirements for states to establish health insurance exchanges and insurance regulations.

The effort may prove a strong political organizing tool for conservative activists, but the legal reasoning has little support beyond the right fringe of the Republican party and the health care industry. Several weeks ago, the New York Times reported, “The states where the [constitutional] amendment has been introduced are also places where the health care industry has spent heavily on political contributions.” The industry has also contributed heavily to the campaigns of at least 7 of the 13 attorney generals threatening to sue the federal government over the Nebraska provision. (Campaign finance data was not readily accessible for the other 6 attorneys generals.)

An analysis conducted by the Wonk Room of available campaign finance disclosures for AGs from South Carolina, Washington, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah and Idaho reveals that the health industry contributed heavily to their campaigns. For instance, Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett (who is also running for Governor) accepted some $24,300 from the health care industry for his campaigns, including $10,300 from Pfizer PAC, $3,500 from Aetna Inc. PAC, and $2,500 from United Health Group Inc. Read the full analysis here.Since Democrats secured 60 votes to pass health care reform legislation — and passage became inevitable — prominent... more

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2 months ago

Judge Dismisses All Charges Against Blackwater In Iraq Massacre

A federal judge in Washington DC has given Erik Prince’s Blackwater mercenaries a huge New Year’s gift. Judge Ricardo... more

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3 months ago

Extinction Countdown: Man convicted for killing and eating China's last Indochinese tiger

The Indochinese tiger (also known as Corbett's tiger or Panthera tigris corbetti) is an endangered tiger subspecies that used... more

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3 months ago

Drug-resistant HIV emerging in South Africa

Dr. Theresa Rossouw Rossouw is on the front lines of a new battle in the fight against HIV: The drugs that once worked so well are... more

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3 months ago

CT Scans May Cause Cancer

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/1241716.html Two studies in the United States have found that radiation from computed... more

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3 months ago

Fewer law enforcement officers died on job in 2009

Law enforcement deaths this year dropped to their lowest level since 1959, while the decade of the 2000s was among the safest for... more

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3 months ago

Strict Air Travel Rules Changed

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34601479/ns/travel-news/ You are now free to move about the cabin. Or not. After a two-day security... more

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3 months ago

US Politics Group Featured Member - cztheday

Hello my fellow Currentteers,

Below is an interview with the first US Politics Group featured member - cztheday ( http://current.com/users/cztheday.htm ). Mr. Cz was kind enough to field a wide range of questions that I posed to him.

This interview is only the beginning of a series of interviews with other group members. Some of the questions will stay the same, others will change. I hope to interview members from all over the political spectrum.

Please enjoy the interview! -

Cz's Bio: I was born and raised in Eastern Montana. I was an OK student until about the sixth grade when it just seemed like some kind switch was flipped in my head, and I surged forward. By the eighth grade, the teachers and administration of my junior high (middle school) recommended to my folks that I skip the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades and start at the local university. I was 13, and my Mom said she didn’t want to turn me into a social sideshow. So they created a special curriculum for me, and I just sort of did independent study from then on.

I graduated from Cornell and the U of Washington School of Law. I was in private law practice for three years and had a bizarre day in which I was offered a partnership in the firm and the opportunity to be the founding CEO and General Counsel of a telecom industry association. I chose the latter and built IMHO a successful organization. I started up two other successful corporations on the side during those 12 years. I had done one before that during a leave of absence from Cornell and have done one since. I had my own law and consulting firm for three years and just started as a principal at a large law firm last month after they made an offer I couldn’t turn down. I have always secretly wanted to be novelist (whoops, secret out, I guess) and am currently working on a novel called “Mick Jagger Stole My Life”).

I have a wife who is intelligent, does NOT put up with any crap from me, and who is even more lovely than the day I met her. I love her very much. I have two children: a daughter (16) and a son (10). My daughter is perennial honor roll. My son is scary smart…WAY smarter than I. But I try to act casual. They are not fooled. I love them so much it (literally) hurts. My daughter isn’t leaving for college for two years, and I think I have misted up about it like four times. This is not going to be good.

Q: Do you have any favorite US Political leaders (past and/or present)?

My favorite political leaders were Thomas Jefferson, who was an extraordinarily intelligent and creative man who was willing to sacrifice his fortune to serve the public. He won the Presidency by the thinnest of margins but despite what we today would call a “lack of public mandate,” he acted boldly on so many fronts including, of course, doubling the size of our country with the Louisiana Purchase.

The other is, predictably, Abraham Lincoln, who struggled with serial depressions and a wife who was…difficult, and who had almost no staff and yet rose above his already prodigious talents to lead the effort to save our country. Had we remained divided, for example, I have to wonder how the periods surrounding the two world wars would have turned out. Badly, I suspect. He combined the qualities of high intellect and genuine compassion and empathy. I believe that to be a rare combination, especially in a successful politician, if I may be so bold.

img: http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/ed/2009/12/22/513255.jpgHello my fellow Currentteers, Below is an interview with the first US Politics Group featured member - cztheday (... more

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3 months ago

FLASHBACK: Ben Bernanke Blew Off Warnings About Housing Crisis

In the Washington Post, Binyam Applebaum and David Cho took a long look at the Federal Reserve’s complete failure to take... more

Future_America
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3 months ago

The 10 Worst Things About the Worst Decade Ever

1. The contested election of 2000 2. 9/11 3. The invasion of Afghanistan 4. The invasion of Iraq 5. The Tsunami in Indonesia... more

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3 months ago

Progressives to Senate: Kill the Bill

The Senate health care bill is an ungodly mess of errors, loopholes, and massive giveaways. When the American people find out... more

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3 months ago

L.A. synagogue attack may be organized crime, police say

JTA) -- The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating whether Israeli organized crime is connected to an attack at a local... more

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3 months ago

Stunning Statistics About the War Every American Should Know

A hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Contract Oversight subcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has highlighted some important statistics that provide a window into the extent to which the Obama administration has picked up the Bush-era war privatization baton and sprinted with it. Overall, contractors now comprise a whopping 69% of the Department of Defense’s total workforce, “the highest ratio of contractors to military personnel in US history.” That’s not in one war zone—that’s the Pentagon in its entirety.

In Afghanistan, the Obama administration blows the Bush administration out of the privatized water. According to a memo [PDF] released by McCaskill’s staff, “From June 2009 to September 2009, there was a 40% increase in Defense Department contractors in Afghanistan. During the same period, the number of armed private security contractors working for the Defense Department in Afghanistan doubled, increasing from approximately 5,000 to more than 10,000.”

At present, there are 104,000 Department of Defense contractors in Afghanistan. According to a report this week from the Congressional Research Service, as a result of the coming surge of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, there may be up to 56,000 additional contractors deployed. But here is another group of contractors that often goes unmentioned: 3,600 State Department contractors and 14,000 USAID contractors. That means that the current total US force in Afghanistan is approximately 189,000 personnel (68,000 US troops and 121,000 contractors). And remember, that’s right now. And that, according to McCaskill, is a conservative estimate. A year from now, we will likely see more than 220,000 US-funded personnel on the ground in Afghanistan.

The US has spent more than $23 billion on contracts in Afghanistan since 2002. By next year, the number of contractors will have doubled since 2008 when taxpayers funded over $8 billion in Afghanistan-related contracts.

The Obama administration is continuing the Bush-era policy of hiring contractors to oversee contractors.

More @ linkA hearing in Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Contract Oversight subcommittee on contracting in Afghanistan has highlighted some... more

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3 months ago

BBC deletes important story on toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast after legal threats

This file contains a deleted BBC news article on the toxic-waste dumping of commodities giant Trafigura. According to a September... more

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3 months ago

Sex slaves often victimized twice in U.S. trafficking war

When the United States took a global stand on human trafficking in 2000, lawmakers wanted to rescue foreign-born women turned into American sex slaves. In too many cases, though, that hasn’t happened.

In its six-month investigation into America's effectiveness in the war on human trafficking, The Kansas City Star found that the system orginally designed with sex trafficking in mind is often unsuccessful in reaching those victims.

Some are mistakenly identified as prostitutes and end up either lost in the criminal justice bureaucracy or back on the streets. Even when victims are identified by law enforcement, some are reluctant to go through the gantlet that accompanies the prosecution of their trafficker, too untrusting or scared to reveal the horrible things that happened to them. Critics complain that the U.S. law is inherently flawed because it connects victims’ aid with their willingness to help make cases.

“No one is seeing the situation for what it is,” said Karen Stauss, an attorney with Polaris Project, an anti-trafficking organization based in Washington, D.C. “It’s like we’re saying, ‘We blame you for what you are suffering.’ ”

The government also has been slow to recognize an emerging class of new victims: young American girls. While millions are spent each year to combat international sex trafficking, lawmakers have yet to approve funding for domestic victims — perhaps the fastest-growing class of those trafficked in the United States.

Anti-trafficking experts say that the current federal and state laws are blunt legal instruments in trying to address the complexity of an ever-evolving global criminal enterprise and do not account for the trauma of women forced into sexual abuse. Of all human trafficking crimes, The Star found, the ones involving sex slavery have proved to be the most difficult when it comes to catching and prosecuting the traffickers.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act “is not creating the legal environment we worked so hard to create so we can prevent human trafficking,” said Norma Ramos, of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. “It’s a federal law that’s really not that useful for what it was supposed to do — end human trafficking.”When the United States took a global stand on human trafficking in 2000, lawmakers wanted to rescue foreign-born women turned into... more

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3 months ago

Bush's birth control policies helped fuel Africa's baby boom

At age 45, after giving birth to 13 children in her village of thatch roofs and bare feet, Beatrice Adongo made a discovery that startled her: birth control.

"I delivered all these children because I didn't know there was another way," said Adongo, who started on a free quarterly contraceptive injection last year. Surrounded by her weary-faced brood, her 21-month-old boy clutching at her faded blue dress, she added glumly: "I fear we are already too many in this family."

On a continent where fewer than one in five married women use modern contraception, an explosion of unplanned pregnancies is threatening to bury Adongo's family and a generation of Africans under a mountain of poverty.

Promoting birth control in Africa faces a host of obstacles — patriarchal customs, religious taboos, ill-equipped public health systems — but experts also blame a powerful, more distant force: the U.S. government.

Under President George W. Bush, the United States withdrew from its decades-long role as a global leader in supporting family planning, driven by a conservative ideology that favored abstinence and shied away from providing contraceptive devices in developing countries, even to married women.

Bush's mammoth global anti-AIDS initiative, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, poured billions of dollars into Africa but prohibited groups from spending any of it on family planning services or counseling programs, whose budgets flat-lined.

The restrictions flew in the face of research by international aid agencies, the U.N. World Health Organization and the U.S. government's own experts, all of whom touted contraception as a crucial method of preventing births of babies being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The Bush program is widely hailed as a success, having supplied lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs to more than 2 million HIV patients worldwide.

However, researchers, Africa experts and veteran U.S. health officials now think that PEPFAR also contributed to Africa's epidemic population growth by undermining efforts to help women in some of the world's poorest countries exercise greater control over their fertility.At age 45, after giving birth to 13 children in her village of thatch roofs and bare feet, Beatrice Adongo made a discovery that... more