Hurricane Sandy

[10/29/12] A superstorm threatening 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation gained strength Monday, packing winds of 90 mph just hours before it is expected to make landfall, forecasters said.

The National Hurricane Center said Monday morning that the Category 1 hurricane is moving north-northwest at 18 mph, and will soon turn northwestward. At 11:00 a.m. ET the storm was centered about 260 miles south-southeast of New York City. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 175 miles from the storm's center, with tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 485 miles.

Maximum sustained winds of 90 mph, with gusts of up to 115 mph, were measured.

Gale force winds were reported over coastal North Carolina, southeastern Virginia, the Delmarva Peninsula and coastal New Jersey.

Hours before the storm made landfall, high winds had already knocked out power to more than 67,000 customers in several states Monday morning.

Flooding will be a huge threat, with many areas potentially seeing rainfall amounts between 5 and 8 inches over a 48-hour period.

a computer for every student

The Department of Education wants to provide every public school student with a laptop or computer tablet  by 2015 as part of an initiative that would also include training teachers on the devices and buying digital materials that reflect new national Common Core standards for math and reading.

The department is asking for $42 million over the next two years to kick off the ambitious plan, aimed at standardizing curricula across the state, modernizing classroom instruction and phasing out printed textbooks.

income inequality

WASHINGTON >> Income inequality has soared to the highest levels since the Great Depression, and the recession has done little to reverse the trend, with the top 1 percent of earners taking 93 percent of the income gains in the first full year of the recovery.

The yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots — and the political questions that gap has raised about the plight of the middle class — has given rise to anti-Wall Street sentiment and animated the presidential campaign. Now, a growing body of economic research suggests that it might mean lower levels of economic growth and slower job creation in the years ahead, as well.

“Growth becomes more fragile” in countries with high levels of inequality like the United States, said Jonathan D. Ostry of the International Monetary Fund, whose research suggests that the widening disparity since the 1980s might shorten the nation’s economic expansions by as much as a third.

Reducing inequality and bolstering growth, in the long run, might be “two sides of the same coin,” research published last year by the IMF concluded.

-- By Annie Lowrey, New York Times

*** [10/26/12]

While median net worth for the middle-class dropped by 28% following a decade filled with two nasty recessions, the median net worth of the upper-tier actually rose by 1% based on Pew Research's study.

According to a report in The New York Times from March, 93% of the income generated in 2010 ($288 billion) went to the top 1% of earners, producing an 11.6% rise in their 2010 income over the previous year. As for the remaining 99% -- middle-class included -- income for the average worker increased by just $80 over the previous year.

With basically no wage growth, no avenues to meaningful saving, discouraging employment opportunities, a black hole in the housing sector, and the rich getting richer, it's very easy to see why middle-income America is feeling so poor these days.

***

[see also the income gap]

left-wing (and right-wing) news

There's zillions of right wing news sites on the internet (not even counting Fox).  For example, NewsMax which keeps popping up on the sidebars of various web sites.

But to counter that, there's a bunch of left wing news sites too (not even counting MS-NBC).

Here's a couple I came across while googling medicare voucher.  I didn't know they were left-wing at first, but after glancing at their headlines for a split-second...

Think Progress
MediaMatters For America

I don't want to look much further, as it gets too depressing..

I couldn't help myself.  And found this interesting.  rightwingnews.com calls thedailybeast a liberal website (ok I guess it is).  And here's their listing of the most popular conservative websites.  And John Hawkins rates his 15 best.

Didn't realize that The Daily Beast merged with Newsweek.  Does that mean Newsweek is liberal?  [Apparently, they're a "little liberal".]

[10/18/12 - Newsweek will end print edition]

How about Time, I wonder?  Wikipedia says they're moderate.

***

And back to Medicare, here's wikipedia on The Path to Prosperity which was the Republican budget proposal for 2012.

Republicans for ObamaCare

Perhaps no other election has posed such a difficult personal decision for some conservatives: How do you vote if you're ideologically conservative, but you're benefiting, or stand to benefit, from the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare"?

Several groups of people would fare very differently under Romney's health care plan than they do under Obamacare, such as those with preexisting conditions, which can range from anything from back pain to cancer. Between 20% and 50% of all Americans have a preexisting condition, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Obamacare tells insurance companies they can't say no to people with preexisting conditions, or charge them more because of their health issues. According to his website, Romney's health plan calls for "preventing discrimination" against people with preexisting conditions as long as they've maintained continuous insurance coverage in the past, but does not define what "continuous coverage" means.

Young Republicans could also fare differently under Romney's plan. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, some 3.1 million young adults now have health insurance because of Obamacare, which requires insurance companies to allow young adults to stay on their parents' policies up until the age of 26. Before Obamacare, insurance companies in many states took young people off their parents' policies at age 18 or 19.

Romney has vowed to repeal Obamacare. In the presidential debate, the former Massachusetts governor said the "private marketplace" is already taking care of young adults who want to stay on their parents' plans so the United States doesn't need a government mandate.

However, it's not clear that insurance companies will allow young adults to stay on their parents' insurance up until age 26 without a mandate. If Obamacare is reversed, insurance companies "will make their own decisions about the coverage options they provide," according to a statement from America's Health Insurance Plans.

Jon Campbell may become one of the Republican "defectors" Traugott says could make a difference in battleground states.

Campbell, 49, has voted Republican in nearly every presidential election since he cast his vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980, but this year might be different. For two years his 22-year-old stepdaughter, a self-employed dog trainer, didn't have health insurance. Then Obamacare kicked in and she was allowed onto her father's insurance.

"If something had happened to her during those two years it would have been a disaster," Campbell says.

The Olathe, Kansas, resident is leaning toward Obama, but not just because of his stepdaughter. Campbell's wife, Barbara, has diabetes and is in the final stages of breast cancer treatment. She's now on his insurance, but if he ever lost his job, his wife would be faced with trying to buy insurance on her own and would surely be rejected.

"I'm really torn," he said. "Because of Obama, I now have a wife who can get covered. But really, at heart, I'm a limited-government kind of guy."

unemployment

Stocks gave up most of a rally today, but buying very late in the session pushed the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU +0.26%) to their best close in nearly five years.

The initial buying was set off when the Labor Department said the U.S. unemployment rate had dropped to 7.8% in September, its lowest level since 2009. September payrolls grew by 114,000, the department said, a touch below the consensus estimate of 120,000 jobs. But estimates for payroll growth in July and August grew by 86,000, suggesting that the summer slowdown wasn't as bad as thought.

The news of the falling unemployment rate cheered the White House, reeling from President Obama's performance in Wednesday's debate against Mitt Romney. It dismayed Republicans. "This is not what a real recovery looks like," Romney said in a statement. Former General Electric (GE +0.74%) CEO Jack Welch went so far as to accuse the Labor Department of cooking the numbers. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said she was "insulted" by the idea.

The unemployment rate is derived from a telephone survey of about 50,000 households (often called the "household survey").

Most economists had expected the rate to rise to 8.2%. It fell because the number of workers estimated to be working rose by 873,000, the biggest gain since June 1983. The number of unemployed fell by 456,000.

The number is famously volatile, in part because it includes people who are self-employed. It is not clear how it will be revised in the next two months. The report -- like many government reports -- is revised twice after its initial release to reflect the inclusion of more data.

Still, the household survey suggests that unemployment fell among just about all groups the Labor Department tracks. The alternative unemployment measure, which amalgamates those unemployed with those not looking for work or taking part-time work, was unchanged from August at 14.7% but was down from 15% in July and 16.4% a year ago.

The payroll gains weren't nearly so gaudy and probably reflect the economy more clearly. Private-sector employment grew by 104,000. But that gain reflects the upward revisions in July and August.

The biggest gains came in the education component of state government. There were also gains in health care, transportation and professional and business services.

Manufacturing declined, including automobile manufacturing. Construction employment grew by 5,000.

Residential construction employment at 564,800 was up 1,100 as evidence builds of a small but real housing recovery. But that's still down 457,200 from the peak of the housing boom in April 2006.

Two other areas cheered economists: The average workweek increased to 34.5 hours from 34.4 hours last month, and the average hourly earnings rose 7 cents to $23.58.

***

WASHINGTON—The U.S. unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in more than 3½ years in September as the economy continued to add jobs, a potential boost for President Barack Obama's campaign to win a second term.

The politically important unemployment rate fell to 7.8% last month from 8.1% in August. That was the lowest level since January 2009.

[coincidence?]


Nevertheless, the Republican Party today stressed that a 7.8 percent unemployment rate is hardly something to brag about."This is not what a real recovery looks like," Mitt Romney said in a statement.

"The choice in this election is clear. Under President Obama, we'll get another four years like the last four years," he said. "If I'm elected, we will have a real recovery with pro-growth policies that will create 12 million new jobs and rising incomes for everyone."

***

Romney provides few specifics to back up his claim. And a white paper by his economic advisers shows that it would mean growth of between 200,000 and 300,000 jobs per month, less than the 500,000 Romney has said would occur monthly during a "normal recovery.

***

As he has been saying for months, Mitt Romney, during Wednesday's presidential debate, promised to create 12 million jobs during his first term in the White House. Of course, as with his pledge to close loopholes and deductions to offset his $5 trillion tax cut plan, Romney was silent about how he'll actually do it. Worse still, most economists predict Romney's draconian budget cuts will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, especially in his first two years on office.

As it turns out, Romney's secret plan to prime the job pump is a simple one: do nothing. As it turns out, Romney's lofty goal of 12 million new jobs over four years is what the Congressional Budget Office and other analysts have already been forecasting for the U.S. economy.

*** [ah, here's what I was looking for..]

Former General Electric Chief Executive Jack Welch charged Friday that the White House manipulated the sharp drop in the unemployment rate to help President Obama's reelection campaign.

Minutes after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the September unemployment rate had surprisingly plunged to 7.8% from 8.1%, Welch took to Twitter to say that the numbers were cooked to give Obama a boost following what many analysts said was a poor debate performance on Wednesday.

"Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can't debate so change number," Welch tweeted.

Former White House economic aide Austan Goolsbee responded that Welch didn't know what he was talking about. "love ya jack but here you've lost your mind," Goolsbee tweeted.

***

Jack Welch on Kudlow

war in Afghanistan

[10/1/12] KABUL, Afghanistan » A suicide bomber driving a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed his bike into a joint Afghan-American patrol this morning in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 14 people including three U.S. troops and their translator, officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which came a day after the U.S. death toll in the war in Afghanistan reached 2,000 troops. Such joint patrols are considered key to the training of Kabul's security forces but have been cut back by a string of insider shootings of international troops by their Afghan allies.

[8/21/10] A majority of Americans see no end in sight in Afghanistan, and nearly six in 10 oppose the nine-year-old war as President Barack Obama sends tens of thousands more troops to the fight, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

With just over 10 weeks before nationwide elections that could define the remainder of Obama's first term, only 38 percent say they support his expanded war effort in Afghanistan — a drop from 46 percent in March. Just 19 percent expect the situation to improve during the next year, while 29 percent think it will get worse. Some 49 percent think it will remain the same.

The numbers could be ominous for the president and his Democratic Party, already feeling the heat for high unemployment, a slow economic recovery and a $1.3 trillion federal deficit. Strong dissent — 58 percent oppose the war — could depress Democratic turnout when the party desperately needs to energize its supporters for midterm congressional elections.

A majority of Americans do welcome Obama's decision to end combat operations in Iraq. Some 68 percent approve, a number unchanged from earlier this year. The last American combat brigade began leaving Iraq on Thursday, ahead of Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending the U.S. combat role there.

Seven years after that conflict began, 65 percent oppose the war in Iraq and just 31 percent favor it.

[8/8/10] KABUL, Afghanistan — Their last meal was a picnic in the forest in the Sharrun Valley, high in the Hindu Kush mountains of northern Afghanistan.

Returning home from a three-week trek on foot to deliver free medical care to the remotest regions of the country, the aid workers — six Americans, a Briton, a German and four Afghans — had just finished eating when they were accosted by gunmen with long dyed-red beards, the police said.

The gunmen marched them into the forest, stood them in a line and shot 10 of them one by one.

The police found their bodies, seven men and three women, on Friday, the Badakhshan Province police chief, Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz, said Saturday.

The attack, the largest massacre in years of aid workers in Afghanistan, offered chilling evidence of the increasing insecurity in the northern part of the country and added to fears that the insurgency has turned even more vicious in recent months.

[7/8/10] KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO pilots mistakenly attacked Afghan soldiers who had laid a trap for Taliban militants and killed at least five of the soldiers on Wednesday, a devastating case of friendly fire in a conflict still troubled by miscommunication among allied forces, Afghan officials said.

The attack in the Andar district of Ghazni Province, about 100 miles southwest of Kabul, suggested a serious lack of coordination between NATO troops and Afghan forces battling militants who hold sway in part of the district known as Rahim Khiel.

The Afghan soldiers “had made an ambush for the enemy” when they were attacked early Wednesday morning, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense. He said the “air force” had “bombarded” the Afghan soldiers; a NATO official later said a helicopter had fired a single rocket into the formation of Afghan troops.

“We condemn this incident,” General Azimi said. “Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened, but we hope this would be the last one.”

***

[4/21/10] A NATO military convoy in eastern Afghanistan shot to death four unarmed civilians in a vehicle early Monday evening, including a police officer and a 12-year-old student, Afghan officials said Tuesday.

The killings in Khost Province, near the border with Pakistan, led to a dispute almost immediately between local Afghan leaders and NATO officials. Deaths of civilians from shootings by NATO forces near convoys and at checkpoints have emerged as a particular flash point with the Afghan public and government.

At least 35 civilians have been killed since last summer by NATO and American troops in such incidents — but military officials say that in no instance did the victims prove to be a danger to troops.

Jesse Ventura interview

Charlotte was telling me that she saw Jesse Ventura on Piers Morgan and it was interesting.

Well I couldn't find the current interview, but came across this inteview [part 2 is here] from the Washington Times.

[What's the Washington Times?  It was a newspaper founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the church.

The Times was read every day by President Ronald Reagan during his terms in office.^[11] In 1997 he said: The American people know the truth. You, my friends at The Washington Times, have told it to them. It wasn't always the popular thing to do. But you were a loud and powerful voice. Like me, you arrived in Washington at the beginning of the most momentous decade of the century. Together, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. And—oh, yes—we won the Cold War.

In his 2003 book, Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, comedian, author, and later senator Al Franken devoted a chapter to criticizing the Times after executive editor Wesley Pruden re-wrote a reporter's story—without the reporter's knowledge—about Franken's performance at a White House party. According to Franken, the rewrite was made to appear as if Franken had received a negative reception, which he says was not the case.

The political views of The Washington Times are often described as conservative.^[48][49][50] The Washington Post reported: "the Times was established by Moon to combat communism and be a conservative alternative to what he perceived as the liberal bias of The Washington Post."

The Washington Times has lost money every year that it has been in business.  And with that...]

Ventura critiques both the Democrats and Republicans in his latest book DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans  [I suppose you could have guess that by the title].

Kelly: Getting into the book, you mention the damage the two parties have wrought on our country, and the fact that there is no major difference between them. In your opinion, is there anything that the two parties differ on?

Ventura: Well, certainly. They’ll differ on things like gay marriage and red herrings that they shouldn’t even be involved in, in the first place. Ultimately why I say that is because they’ve both sold out. Political corporations now control our government. Mussolini would be proud because that’s the loose definition of fascism. In light of the Supreme Court’s ridiculous decision where they stated that corporations have the same rights as you as an individual, and that money is free speech, we’re now getting inundated with all of these millions of dollars into our elections, and I’m not so much opposed to that as much but the fact is there is no open disclosure. They don’t even have to say who is giving the money.

Kevin Kelly: With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, many Americans expected a dramatic change in our political landscape. You chronicle in one chapter of your book how Obama has continued many of the same policies as his predecessor. Do you think that Obama is the third term of George W. Bush?

Jesse Ventura: I think it made “USA Today,” a quote that I had earlier this week, and I said that I can’t tell the difference between the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration except the two leaders’ only difference was the color of their skin. The wars are still going on, Gitmo is still there, the surveillance is still there, Bush suspended habeas corpus, Obama hasn’t returned it. What’s the difference? That leads to what I said earlier, there is no difference. When you vote, and if there is a third candidate or a third party candidate, they always like to tell you that you waste your vote if you vote for that candidate right? I’d like to reverse that and say: No, you waste your vote if you vote for a Democrat or a Republican because you’re going to get the same thing. That’s a wasted vote. Unless you like the same thing, but according to polls people are completely unhappy with our government. Why don’t they change it? The solution is a simple as the nose on your face, but it’s as difficult as climbing Mount Everest. You know what that is? Stop voting for them. It’s that simple, but the lemmings of the United States, they still do it.

[So he criticizes the Democrats, Republicans, and everybody who voted for either party?]

Kelly: Is there any individual currently in the media whom you feel does a good job reporting the facts?

Ventura: Of the organized media? No. It’s shameful that I have to say this. From my dealings, if we can steal the quote from FOX, “Fair and Balanced,” I would tell you that the closest to it is Al-Jazeera. Isn’t that shameful? I don’t say that with pride either. It’s from my dealings. I’m not allowed on FOX and I’m not allowed on MSNBC.

[I thought I saw him on Hannity not long ago? I dunno. Maybe it was an old interview?]

Kelly: Why is it in your opinion that you are not allowed on those networks? Is it because you speak truth to power? You make them uncomfortable? Are they physically intimidated by you?

Ventura: All of the above. You’d have to ask them. Every time I do a book tour, do anything, we attempt to get on every station we can, and FOX and MSNBC will not have me on, and trust me I get ratings.]

Kelly: I bet you do.

Ventura: (Laughs) So they’re willing to sacrifice ratings just to keep me off.

Kelly: Do you think another factor could be that you’ve served your country honorably, and some of the “chicken hawks” at some of the other networks are intimated by that?

Ventura: Absolutely. A lot of them, especially FOX are nothing but warmongers. All they want to do is go to war, and there ain’t one of them that have ever been in the military: Hannity, O’Reilly. None of them and you use the proper word “chicken hawks” you must have gotten it from me. (Laughs) You know the definition of a “chicken hawk?” That’s somebody who when it was their time to serve you couldn’t find them, and when they’re all safe all they want to do then is send young people to war.

[OK, I guess I see what she means that he was an interesting interview.]

From another interview

Also, you hear the Republicans claim about health care – "government-run health care." The veterans have government-run health care – why's it good for them? The congressmen and senators – they have government-run health care. What hypocrisy. In fact, I show in my book, they get five plans they can choose from on health care. We out in the civilian population are lucky if we get one.

You have a lot of facts and figures about individuals, corporations, lobbyists and political action committees that spend billions of dollars supporting candidates. One group you don't target is unions, who spend a lot of money on lobbying and candidates' campaigns, supporting mostly Democrats. Why do you spare them in your book?

You need to understand unions can be abusive also, but unions created the middle class. And as unions disappear in this country, so will the middle class. Because once the unions are gone, they'll go back to sweatshops where they can pay anything they want. We must have collective bargaining from the workers. The workers need some type of mechanism to battle the executive branch.

Can unions be corrupted? Of course they can, they're run by humans. Humans can always be corrupted by money and power.

[The book sells for only $8.89 at Amazon.com.  Gets only one one-star review.  From Tricky Nicky.  One thing you can say for Tricky Nicky, he's consistent..]

How to tell a Democrat from a Republican

Many of you have expressed great confusion, in these troubled times, in trying to tell a Republican from a Democrat. Sure, we know what they say they are; most of them have well displayed nameplates. But could you tell one from the other in a blind test? That is, without prior knowledge and access to his/her nameplate, could you determine which was which simply by his/her actions? Probably not. The purpose of this essay is to assist you in making such an identification. In the following paragraphs, I will list the major issues of our times and clearly identify the differences between the Republican and Democrat approaches to these issues.

[note: as this article is sure to rile up both sides, the author is Leon Felkins, not me]

U.S. ambassador to Libya killed

The U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other American diplomats were killed when suspected Libyan religious extremists stormed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi late Tuesday, sparking a security crisis across the North African country and raising tensions across the Middle East.

Libyan officials spent the night in a manhunt trying to find those responsible for the killings, which occurred when an angry armed mob attacked the diplomatic complex in an apparent protest against an anti-Islamic video created and produced by an American-Israeli real-estate developer.

President Barack Obama in Washington condemned in the "strongest possible terms" the attack, saying the U.S. will work with the Libyan government to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. "Make no mistake, justice will be done,'' the president said, but he didn't elaborate.

***

Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday assailed President Barack Obama anew over his administration's handling of foreign attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions, saying the president's team sent "mixed signals to the world" in the face of violence.

Obama, who earlier condemned "the outrageous attack" that killed U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three American members of his staff, planned a statement in the Rose Garden shortly after Romney defended his response to the violence before knowing the diplomats were dead.

"The president takes responsibility not just for the words that come from his mouth, but also for the words that come from his ambassadors , from his administration, form his embassies, from his state department," Romney said. "They clearly sent mixed messages to the world. The statement that came from the administration — and the embassy is the administration — the statement that came from the administration was a statement which is akin to apology. And I think was a severe miscalculation."

Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt responded Tuesday night that the campaign was "shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Gov. Romney would choose to launch a political attack." The president planned to make a statement Wednesday morning in a White House Rose Garden appearance with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Ron Paul

Thumping for Republican Ron Paul for even party nominee is a hopeless task. Paul’s deep in political purgatory with only 55 delegates. He’d need 1,144 to win. He’s toast.

But that “no Fed, no IRS” pitch resonates with a lot of young people and the long-in-the-tooth anti-taxers who’ve always claimed that paying federal income tax is voluntary, not mandatory. Of course the ones with taxable income who don’t volunteer generally go to prison. But did you know that last year 46 percent of Americans did not owe any federal income tax? Yep, we 54 percent are keeping the country going!
But listen to what Paul proposes:

“I want to abolish the income tax, but I don’t want to replace it with anything. About 45 percent of all federal revenue comes from the personal income tax. That means that about 55 percent – over half of all revenue – comes from other sources, like excise taxes, fees and corporate taxes. We could eliminate the income tax, replace it with nothing, and still fund the same level of big government we had in the late 1990s. We don’t need to replace the income tax at all. I see a consumption tax as being a little better than the personal income tax.”

Wow!! No income tax, no consumption tax and everything is hunky-dory. Obviously, we’d have to quit funding Medicare, most government offices and the military.

The American-Philippines War

I’m amazed that Filipinos generally march hand-in-hand with America on most diplomatic and military issues. The American-Philippines War of 1899-1902 should haunt them and us through history. It was not America’s finest hour.

Around 1890, we good Americans who had demanded freedom from England suddenly decided we needed colonies. So we took Hawaii, Cuba, Guam and the Philippines. We told the Filipinos we’d give them independence if they fought on our side against Spain. When we won, we told them they were too “uncivilized” to run themselves. We’d run them.

That started a new war: Us versus the Filipino insurrectos. First an ordinary war, then a guerrilla war we were losing. So we started indiscriminately killing Filipinos, burning villages and destroying food supplies on Samar and Leyte. To say there was a racial reason for that policy is an understatement.

Roosevelt wrote: “In a fight with savages, where the savages themselves perform deeds of hideous cruelty, a certain proportion of whites are sure to do the same thing.”

Gen. Jacob Smith’s orders to his officers on Samar were: “I wish you to kill and burn. The more you kill and burn the better you will please me.” He said every male over the age of 10 should be killed and the island turned into “a howling wilderness.”

Some Americans were appalled at the atrocities that came out in hearings, but most thought it wrong to impugn our fighting men – 2,446 died there. Filipino deaths have been estimated at anywhere from 34,000 to 1 million.

It’s where the “water cure” was invented, the antecedent to today’s waterboarding.

The Stars and Stripes would fly over the Philippines for 46 years.

-- Bob Jones, Midwee, April 18, 2012

12 killed in Colorado movie theater

AURORA, Colo. >> A gunman wearing a gas mask and black SWAT gear hurled a gas canister inside a crowded movie theater during a midnight showing of the new Batman movie and then opened fire, killing 12 people and wounding nearly 60 others in an attack so bizarre that some moviegoers at first thought they were watching Hollywood special effects.

As smoke from the canister spread, audience members watching "The Dark Knight Rises" at the suburban Denver theater saw the silhouette of a person materialize near the screen, point a gun at the crowd and begin shooting, apparently without a word.

It was one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history.

The suspected gunman, identified as James Holmes, a 24-year-old doctoral student in neuroscience who was about to drop out of the University of Colorado-Denver, was arrested near a car behind the theater.

America's broken health care system

Regardless of how you feel about last week's Supreme Court ruling upholding most of Obamacare, one thing is clear: America's health care system is broken, unsustainably expensive, and often embarrassing compared with the systems of other developed nations.

Here are 17 charts showing why.

***

Why does health care in the United States cost so much?

Obamacare upheld

WASHINGTON >> The Supreme Court upheld the vast majority of President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul, including the hotly debated core requirement that virtually all Americans have health insurance.

Today's 5-4 decision means the huge overhaul, still taking effect, will proceed and pick up momentum over the next several years, affecting the way that countless Americans receive and pay for their personal medical care.

The ruling hands Obama a campaign-season victory in rejecting arguments that Congress went too far in approving the plan. However, Republicans quickly indicated they will try to use the decision to rally their supporters against what they call "Obamacare."

Stocks of hospital companies rose sharply, and insurance companies fell immediately after the decision was announced that Americans must carry health insurance or pay a penalty.

Breaking with the court's other conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts announced the judgment that allows the law to go forward with its aim of covering more than 30 million uninsured Americans.

***

“We do not consider whether the Act embodies sound policies. That judgment is entrusted to the Nation’s elected leaders,” Roberts wrote. “We ask only whether Congress has the power under the Constitution to enact the challenged provisions.”

Although he answered that question in the affirmative, Roberts agreed with the law's conservative critics -- and the court’s four other conservatives -- who said Congress does not have the power to require people to buy a product such as health insurance.

But, he said, the law does not truly impose such a mandate on Americans. It simply requires those who do not have health insurance to pay a tax penalty. That tax requirement, he said, passes constitutional muster.

"The federal government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance," he wrote. "The federal government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance."

The justices also upheld a major expansion of the Medicaid program, which is one of the chief ways the law sought to expand coverage of the uninsured. But, they said, the federal government cannot force states to participate. Those states that do not want to expand Medicaid, even if the federal government pays for most of the expansion, will have to be given the right to opt out.

That part of the ruling could open the way for significant differences in healthcare coverage between liberal states, which already have said they welcome the additional federal money for expanded coverage, and conservative ones. Some Republican governors have indicated they want to reject the expanded coverage.

***


Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the health insurance mandate, most Americans must be insured starting in 2014 or pay a penalty.

The penalty will be assessed on your tax return and administered by the IRS. But exactly how is a big question.


The IRS has not issued its guidance yet. But IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman addressed the issue shortly after the law was enacted in 2010.

Based on his comments, a reading of the Affordable Care Act and information from the Kaiser Family Foundation, here's a look at just how the mandate will work and how it will be enforced.

budget surplus?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- For the first time in more than three years, Washington took in more money than it paid out last month.

The Treasury Department on Thursday recorded a $59 billion surplus. Tax receipts were higher and spending lower than they were last April.

The government has been bedeviled by budget deficits. The last time federal coffers were in the black for a month was September 2008, when Treasury reported a $46 billion surplus.

Of course, a lot has happened since then: a historic financial crisis, a deep recession and a slow recovery.

To counteract the negative effects on the economy, lawmakers have passed at least $2 trillion in tax cuts and spending increases since 2008.

Even though a surplus after so much time is welcome news, it's not likely to be the start of a trend. Including the April surplus, Treasury forecasts a $1.33 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2012, which ends Sept. 30.

Obama declares support for gay marriage

WASHINGTON >> Equivocal no longer, President Barack Obama declared his support for gay marriage on Wednesday in a historic announcement that instantly elevated a polarizing social issue to a more prominent role in the 2012 race for the White House.

The announcement was the first by a sitting president, and Obama's Republican rival, Mitt Romney, swiftly disagreed with it. "I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman," Romney said from Oklahoma.

Gay rights advocates cheered Obama's declaration, which they had long urged him to make. Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said it "extends that message of hope" to gays and lesbians.

Obama announced his shift — he had said for years that his views on gay marriage were "evolving" — in an interview with ABC in which he cited a blend of the personal and the presidential.

He said "it wouldn't dawn" on his daughters, Sasha and Malia, that some of their friends' parents would be treated differently than others, and added that he had thought of aides "who are in incredibly committed monogamous same-sex relationships who are raising kids together."

He added he had also thought about "those soldiers or airmen or Marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf, and yet feel constrained even though now that 'don't ask, don't tell' is gone because they're not able to commit themselves in a marriage."

The president's decision to address the issue came on the heels of a pair of events that underscored the sensitivity of the issue.

Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview on Sunday that he is completely comfortable with gays marrying, a pronouncement that instantly raised the profile of the issue. White House aides insisted the vice president hadn't said anything particularly newsworthy, but gay rights groups cited Biden's comments in urging the president to announce his support.

On Tuesday, voters in North Carolina — a potential battleground in the fall election — approved an amendment to the state constitution affirming that marriage may only be a union of a man and a woman.

While the nation appears roughly divided on the issue, the political cross-currents are tricky.

Some top aides argued that gay marriage is toxic at the ballot box in competitive states like North Carolina and Virginia because, as Tuesday's vote demonstrated, the issue remains a reliable way to fire up rank-and-file Republicans. It also could open Obama up to Republican criticism that he is taking his eye off the economy, voters' No. 1 issue.

Other Democratic supporters claim Obama's decision could energize huge swaths of the party, including young people. He also could appeal to independent voters, many of whom back gay marriage, and he could create an area of clear contrast between himself and his Republican rival as he argues that he's delivered on the change he promised four years ago.

plastic bag ban

Oahu consumers will have until summer 2015 to get used to the idea of not getting a plastic bag when they shop at a grocery store or other retailer.

The City Council on Wednesday voted 7-1 to approve a bill that bans distribution of nonbiodegradable plastic bags at checkout counters, what's known in the retail industry as the "point of sale," effective July 1, 2015. Nonrecyclable paper bags will also be banned.

Council Chairman Ernie Martin, who co-authored the original bill, said the latest draft ensures retailers have ample time to use their existing inventories of bags.

Honolulu would be the last of Hawaii's counties to establish an islandwide ban on plastic bags. Maui and Kauai counties already have bans in place while Hawaii County passed a measure that will take effect next year.

North Korea agrees to stop nuclear tests

WASHINGTON, Feb 29 (Reuters) - North Korea agreed on Wednesday to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches, and to allow checks by nuclear inspectors, in an apparent policy shift that paves the way for resuming long-stalled disarmament talks.

The surprise breakthrough, announced simultaneously by the U.S. State Department and North Korea, also includes U.S. food aid for the impoverished state and makes possible the resumption of six-nation nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang. The news followed bilateral diplomatic talks in Beijing last week.

"These are concrete measures that we consider a positive first step toward complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Analysts cautioned that Pyongyang had backtracked repeatedly on past deals, but the moves by North Korea mark a sharp change in course, at least outwardly, by North Korea's reclusive leadership after the death in December of veteran leader Kim Jong-il.

Sears at Ala Moana to close

Sears said today it will sell its Ala Moana Center store to the mall’s owner and close the venerable retail establishment sometime next year.

The sale is part of a move by Sears to sell 11 stores in nine states to General Growth Properties for $270 million, the retailer said. The transactions are expected to close in 45 to 60 days, the company said.

Sears will continue to operate the stores into 2013. Final closing dates will be announced later this year.

The Sears store was one of the original tenants when Ala Moana opened in 1959.

The chain, led by billionaire Eddie Lampert, has faced slumping sales as consumers turn elsewhere for goods such as clothes and appliances. Investors have long speculated that Lampert’s long-range plan could be to unlock the value of the company’s massive real estate holdings. The company reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $2.4 billion.

Health care reforms kicking in

It will be a busy year for health care reform, as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as the Affordable Care Act, continues to reshape America's health care system. It became law in 2010.

"The broad consensus is that we need to move away from an outdated fee-for-service system that rewards volume and toward a system where doctors and hospitals are rewarded for improving quality, value and health outcomes," says Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, an industry trade group.

speech

President Obama gave a speech at the U.N. urging peace between Israelis and Palestinians...

Israelis and Palestinians then gave a speech urging...

Hawaii Medical Center Hospitals to close

Community leaders were working Friday on plans to revive the Hawaii Medical Center hospitals in Liliha and Ewa after the owners said they will shutter the bankrupt facilities within three weeks.

Closing the former St. Francis medical centers, which date back to the 1920s, will leave 990 workers unemployed and eliminate more than 340 hospital beds.

The loss will be felt throughout the health community. HMC provides critical dialysis services to a significant portion of Oahu's renal patients and operates the only organ transplant center in the Pacific. The Ewa facility is the only full-service emergency hospital in West Oahu. The 150 patients in the two hospitals will have to be moved or discharged.

To prevent a public health emergency, the state administration is hopeful that buyers can be found to operate one or both of the facilities.

The situation appears dire for HMC's employees since many Oahu health care facilities won't likely be able to absorb the significant number of workers who will be left without jobs.

"I don't think there's any one health system here that could absorb all those workers," said HPH spokeswoman Shawn Nakamoto.

HMC had a brief glimmer of hope in recent weeks that it could stave off a shutdown when an affiliate of California-based Prime Healthcare Services offered to pay a minimum of $25 million for the facilities. However, the deal fell apart this week because St. Francis, the former owner of the hospitals which is owed $39 million by the current owner, objected to the offer, according to Prime. Prime's offer would have paid the Catholic religious order $11.3 million.

"The problem here was that St. Francis basically conveyed that they wouldn't support a sale unless we paid (them) off," said Prime's attorney Mark Bradshaw. "It's clearly about money for St. Francis. Given that the hospitals are not worth $40 million, it didn't make sense for anybody. We were basically discouraged from bidding."

***

[1/5/12] Hawaii Medical Center said today it has closed its Liliha campus, after transferring the last few patients to area hospitals and long-term care facilities late Wednesday.

"With the cessation of patient care, HMC will lay off a significant majority of its nearly 1,000 employees by this weekend," said Maria Kostylo, HMC's CEO. "Today is a sad day for all of us at Hawaii Medical Center. We've been a part of the community for 85 years, first as St. Francis Medical Center and then as Hawaii Medical Center. Despite our many challenges in recent years, the employees of HMC never wavered in their commitment to provide quality care for patients."

Hawaii Medical Center's Ewa hospital shut down last week after transferring the last of its patients to the Liliha campus. The hospital said it had a difficult time placing its last remaining patients with complex, chronic medical conditions that require long-term care, which is scarce in the community.

HMC's administration and billing departments will remain open as the hospitals wind down business operations.

*** [2/10/12]

House Health Committee lawmakers advanced today two measures intended to help St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii reopen the now defunct Hawaii Medical Centers.

The first, House Bill 2345, would provide St. Francis up to $80 million in special-purpose revenue bonds to renovate the HMC-West and HMC-East campuses and "reopen the now-closed hospital in Ewa Beach," said state Rep. Rida Cabanilla (D, Waipahu-Honouliuli-West Loch-Ewa), who introduced the measure.

Meanwhile, the committee passed another measure, House Bill 609, which would allow the public hospital system known as Hawaii Health Systems Corp. to negotiate with St. Francis to operate Liliha's HMC-East facility.

Both bills now head to the House Finance Committee.

The Franciscan sisters sold the hospitals in January 2007 for $68 million to HMC LLC, then a for-profit joint venture between Hawaii Physician Group LLC, composed of 130 local doctors, and Kansas-based Cardiovascular Hospitals of America. St. Francis provided the bulk of the financing for the sale, $40.2 million.

HMC first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 2008. It emerged in August 2010 and became a nonprofit organization before filing its second bankruptcy in June. HMC began closing the hospitals in December.

*** [5/17/12]

The effort by St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii to sell two shuttered medical facilities on Oahu that it recently took back in bankruptcy has attracted an offer from a partnership led by someone very familiar with the properties in Liliha and Ewa.

Eugene Tiwanak, a former St. Francis official, is leading a bid to buy the two former Hawaii Medical Center hospitals in partnership with a San Francisco-based physicians group, Hampton Health Ltd.

Tiwanak’s group hand-delivered a letter of intent Tuesday to St. Francis, offering to buy and reopen both facilities. A proposed purchase price was included but isn’t being made public. The partnership said it has necessary financing from investors to complete the acquisition.

The offer follows an expression of intent announced last week by the parent company of The Queen’s Medical Center to explore the feasibility of reopening the Ewa hospital.

Separately, the state’s Hawaii Health Systems Corp. won legislative approval earlier this month to buy the Liliha facility, though there haven’t been discussions with St. Francis and no funds were appropriated for such an acquisition.

Kim Jong-il

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died of a heart attack at the age of 69, state media have announced.

Millions of North Koreans were "engulfed in indescribable sadness", the KCNA state news agency said, as people wept openly in Pyongyang.

KNCA described one of his sons, Kim Jong-un, as the "great successor" whom North Koreans should unite behind.

Pyongyang's neighbours are on alert amid fears of instability in the poor and isolated nuclear-armed nation.

Fears were compounded by unconfirmed reports from South Korean news agency Yonhap that the North had test-fired a missile off its eastern coast before the announcement of Kim Jong-il's death was made.

Unnamed government officials in Seoul were quoted as saying they did not believe the launch was linked to the announcement. The South Korean defence ministry has declined to comment.

Following news of Mr Kim's death, South Korea put its armed forces on high alert and said the country was on a crisis footing. Japan's government convened a special security meeting.

China - North Korea's closest ally and biggest trading partner - expressed shock at the news of his death and pledged to continue making "active contributions to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in this region".

taxing the rich

Despite the flaws in the parties' strategies -- Democrats always reach first to tax the rich and Republicans always rush to protect them even at the expense of everyone else -- each contains a bit of truth the other side will have to accept sooner or later.

Both the rich and the middle class eventually will have to contribute to efforts to spur the economy and stabilize the federal budget.

"Democrats today can't solve our nation's many budgetary woes primarily by taxing the rich, and Republicans risk alienating the middle class when they try to spare the rich from sharing the additional burdens most Americans soon must bear," former Treasury official Eugene Steuerle wrote in his public policy column "The Government We Deserve."

The rich will have to pay more in taxes, he notes, because even if spending is cut across the board, they won't feel the pinch since they don't rely on government spending to get by.

And the middle class will eventually need to accept some spending cuts and tax increases, Steuerle said, "not because the rich can't pay more, but because most income in the economy resides with that 80 percent of the population that is neither poor nor rich."

War in Iraq declared over

AGHDAD >> There was no "Mission Accomplished" banner. No victory parade down the center of this capital scarred and rearranged by nearly nine years of war. No crowds of cheering Iraqis grateful for liberation from Saddam Hussein.

Instead, the U.S. military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq on Thursday with a businesslike closing ceremony behind blast walls in a fortified compound at Baghdad airport. The flag used by U.S. forces in Iraq was lowered and boxed up in a 45-minute ceremony. No senior Iraqi political figures attended.

With that, and brief words from top American officials who flew in under tight security still necessary because of the ongoing violence in Iraq, the U.S. drew the curtain on a war that left 4,500 Americans and more than 100,000 Iraqis dead.

The conflict also left another 32,000 Americans and far more Iraqis wounded, drained more than $800 billion from America's treasury and soured a majority of Americans on a war many initially supported as a just extension of the fight against terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.

As the last troops withdraw from Iraq, they leave behind a nation free of Saddam's tyranny but fractured by violence and fearful of the future. Bombings and gun battles are still common. And experts are concerned about the Iraqi security forces' ability to defend the nation against foreign threats.

"You will leave with great pride — lasting pride," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the troops seated in front of a small domed building in the airport complex. "Secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to begin a new chapter in history."

Many Iraqis, however, are uncertain of how that chapter will unfold. Their relief at the end of Saddam, who was hanged on the last day of 2006, was tempered by a long and vicious war that was launched to find non-existent weapons of mass destruction and nearly plunged the nation into full-scale sectarian civil war.

"With this withdrawal, the Americans are leaving behind a destroyed country," said Mariam Khazim, a Shiite whose father was killed when a mortar shell struck his home in Sadr City. "The Americans did not leave modern schools or big factories behind them. Instead, they left thousands of widows and orphans. The Americans did not leave a free people and country behind them, in fact they left a ruined country and a divided nation."

Some Iraqis celebrated the exit of what they called American occupiers, neither invited not welcome in a proud country.

Occupy Wall Street

What are they and why? Here's some quick googling..

Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #ows is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future.

***

What do they expect to accomplish?

Well, here's what they want.

Or do they know what they want?

inspired by Egyptian protesters

How did it get started? Adbusters

The 99%

pepper spray

Fox News commentator Megyn Kelly appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s show Monday night and seemed to downplay the impact of pepper spray while commenting on the UC Davis protests. She said of the substance, “it’s like a derivative of real pepper. It’s a food product essentially.”

Now, a petition is calling for Kelly to test her theory by ingesting pepper spray on television. More than 11,000 people have signed the pledge.

It’s a road other newscasters have trod before. Rick Sanchez and Erich “Mancow” Muller both took it upon themselves to demonstrate the effects of the police crowd control. Sanchez allowed himself to be Tasered, while Mancow opted to be waterboarded.

***

The active ingredient in pepper spray is capsaicin, which is a chemical derived from the fruit of plants in the Capsicum genus, including chilis.

Super-Committee agrees

that they cannot agree..

The congressional supercommittee charged with coming up with $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions gave up the task this afternoon, saying it could not resolve ideological differences to find common ground.

The committee's statement came after stocks had another miserable session, with the Dow Jones industrials ($INDU -2.11%) falling as many as 342 points in the morning before recovering to finish down 249 points.

"After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee's deadline," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said in a statement. The committee ended their deliberations firm in the belief that the "nation's fiscal crisis must be addressed."

The committee's failure sets up a year of uncertainty on taxes and spending that could further rattle investors.

Congress is likely to engage in another round of brinksmanship over the coming weeks as Democrats scramble to extend economy-boosting measures like a payroll tax cut and enhanced jobless benefits that are due to expire at the end of the year.

Republicans have vowed to shield the military from the automatic spending cuts and will also try to lock in low tax rates for the wealthy before they rise at the end of 2012.

Republicans were blaming Democrats on Sunday for stubbornness on cutting entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. Democrats have blamed Republicans for demanding that the Bush administration tax cuts be made permanent.

The committee's failure, however, will not trigger another downgrade from Standard & Poor's Corp. S&P downgraded U.S. debt on Aug. 5, setting off a market sell-off the next week.

Doing nothing at all, as Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne noted last week, would actually result in $7.1 trillion in deficit reduction. The Bush tax cuts would expire at the end of next year. Estate-tax cuts would expire.

So would tax extenders, like allowing residents of Washington state, Texas and others to deduct sales taxes, which would also boost revenue. There will be a move to extend those tax breaks.

Congress can and likely will try to override triggers designed to impose $1.2 trillion in cuts if Congress won't act. The triggers would impose half the cuts on defense spending and the balance elsewhere in the federal budget. However, President Obama said late today that he would veto any attempt to change those formulas and exempt defense.

The supercommittee did manage before today's close to suggest that it might try one more time to find a deal. Stocks trimmed their losses substantially when Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said, "There's always hope," as he joined a meeting of committee members in the office of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

But the statement that came out at around 4:50 p.m. ET ended those hopes.

Job Creators?

Congressional Republicans recently passed on President Barack Obama’s offer of $4 trillion in cuts in federal spending over the next decade, including changes in expensive entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Why? Because Republicans across the land have signed anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist’s pledge never to vote for a tax increase. From South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint to former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, those who call themselves “Rs” have gone dry on taxes, even taxes on the richest among us who can most easily afford to pay them.

People like Phillipi Dauman, the CEO of Viacom, who received $84.5 million in compensation in 2010, a 149 percent raise over his previous year’s salary. And Occidental Petroleum’s Ray Irani, who was paid $76.1 million for his labors, a 142 percent raise from 2009. And Leslie Moonves of CBS, who took home $56.9 million, a pay raise of 265 percent.

So why do congressional Republicans insist that these exorbitantly compensated CEOs should not pay more in taxes to deal with the nation’s growing national debt?

Because, Republicans argue, they are “job creators” and should not be discouraged in a bad economy.

Nonsense and balderdash.

“Job destroyers” is the proper term. According to Marketwatch.com, “The CEOs of the 50 firms that laid off the most employees in the past two (recession) years earned 42 percent more in salary and perks than the average boss of an S+P 500 company.”

In other words, it pays to fire people.

How well did these job destroyers do? Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg fired 21,308 workers in 2009; his board of directors paid him $17.5 million for his job-destroying skills.

Frank Hassan of Schering-Plough couldn’t match Seidenberg in distributing pink slips. He only reduced his work force by 16,000, but it was enough to earn him $49.5 million from his shareholders’ compensation committee.

The top 10 job-destroying CEOs in the country fired a total of 107,448 workers in 2008-2009. Their companies rewarded their knifewielding CEOs with an average compensation of $23.4 million per year.

The nation’s CEOs have, in short, made out fabulously while the rest of us not so well. As a nation, we’ve compensated our CEOs two times as much as comparable industrial nations. Our median executive income has risen 430 percent since 1970. Our corporate profits have grown 250 percent. The wage of the average American worker since 1970? Try a meager 26 percent.

In 1975 the top 0.1 percent of the population who earned $1.7 million or more held 2.6 percent of the nation’s earnings. Today it’s 10.4 percent and growing.

-- Dan Boylan, Midweek

***

That sort of makes sense. If more and more money is going into their pocket, there would be less money to pay for more jobs.

And WTH needs that much money anyway?

Abercrombie sinks to new low

Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s job approval rating has plummeted since March, a new survey shows.

The Hawaii Democrat’s job approval is just 30 percent, down from 48 percent in March, according to Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh, N.C., firm. The firm found that he had the dubious distinction of the worst job approval rating among governors.

Most significantly, Abercrombie’s support has fallen among Democrats, the poll shows. Just 43 percent of Democrats approve of the governor’s job performance, down from 66 percent in March.

"Polls are not our focus," Donalyn Dela Cruz, an Abercrombie spokeswoman, said in an email. "The governor's focus is on looking at all avenues to boost our economy. We're making progress in education and energy and we will continue to build upon that momentum."

Obama declares end to war in Iraq

President Barack Obama on Friday declared an end to the Iraq war, one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in U.S. history, announcing that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from the country by year's end.

Obama's statement put an end to months of wrangling over whether the U.S. would maintain a force in Iraq beyond 2011.

"After nearly nine years," the president, "America's war in Iraq will be over."

He spoke at the White House after a private video conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and he offered assurances that the two leaders agreed on the decision.

The American withdrawal by the end of 2011 was sealed in a deal between the two countries when George W. Bush was president. Obama declared the end of the combat mission earlier this year.

Hurricane Irene batters East Coast

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. » Hurricane-force winds and drenching rains from Irene battered the North Carolina coast early Saturday as the storm began its potentially catastrophic run up the Eastern Seaboard. More than 2 million people were told to move to safer places, and New York City ordered the nation's biggest subway system shut down for the first time because of a natural disaster.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Irene's maximum sustained winds were around 85 mph on Saturday morning, down from about 100 mph a day earlier. But they warned the hurricane would remain a large and powerful one throughout the day as it trekked toward the mid-Atlantic.

Japan's Prime Minister Resigns

TOKYO >> Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced Friday he was resigning after almost 15 months in office amid plunging approval ratings over his government's handling of the tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis.

In a nationally televised speech, Kan said he was stepping down as chief of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, effectively ending his tenure as leader of the country. The decision was widely expected because in June, Kan had promised to quit once lawmakers passed three key pieces of legislation. The final two bills cleared the parliament earlier Friday.

The Democrats will vote Monday for a new leader, who will almost certainly become Japan's next prime minister — the sixth since 2006.

Looking back on his year and three months in office, Kan said he did all he could given difficulties he faced, including the disasters and a major election defeat in upper house elections last summer that left the parliament in gridlock.

"Under the severe circumstances, I feel I've done everything that I had to do," he said. "Now I would like to see you choose someone respectable as a new prime minister."

The 64-year-old Kan has seen his approval ratings tumble amid a perceived lack of leadership after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis. Survivors complain about slow recovery efforts, and radiation from the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant has spread into the air, water and food supply.

Political infighting between the ruling and opposition parties also have discouraged the public. Recent polls show that his public support has fallen under 20 percent.

President and Congressional leaders reach agreement on debt limit

Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. House on Monday passed the debt-ceiling deal worked out by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders, sending it to the Senate for consideration a day before the deadline for the government to face possible default.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced his chamber will take up the measure at noon on Tuesday. No amendments will be allowed, and approval will require a super-majority of 60 votes in the 100-member Senate, Reid said.

On Monday, the House overcame opposition from liberal Democrats and tea party conservatives for ideologically different reasons to pass the measure by a 269-161 vote.

One of those supporting the plan was Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, who cast her first House vote since being shot in the head in an assassination attempt in January.

In an emotional moment, Giffords entered the chamber during the vote and received a prolonged standing ovation from her colleagues. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi hugged Giffords as other House members mobbed her, and the commotion diverted attention from the ongoing vote total showing the measure would pass.

The agreement reached Sunday by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders from both parties calls for up to $2.4 trillion in savings over the next decade, raises the debt ceiling through the end of 2012 and establishes a special congressional committee to recommend long-term fiscal reforms.

The legislation needs to reach Obama's desk by Tuesday at the latest. If the current $14.3 trillion debt limit is not increased by that point, Americans could face rapidly rising interest rates, a falling dollar and shakier financial markets, among other problems.

A number of Republicans worried about cuts in defense spending and the lack of a required balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. Progressive Democrats were livid over the extent of the deal's domestic spending cuts, as well as the absence of any immediate tax hikes on wealthier Americans.


July 31 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said tonight that leaders of both parties in the U.S. House and Senate had approved an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling and cut the federal deficit.

"The leaders of both parties in both chambers have reached an agreement that will reduce the deficit and avoid default," Obama said at the White House.

Congressional leaders are sifting through the details of the tentative bipartisan agreement to raise the debt ceiling, preparing to sell the deal to skeptical Republicans and Democrats ahead of possible votes tomorrow.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid endorsed the emerging accord among Republican leaders and the Obama administration even as negotiators were working out the final details. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told senators tonight that the U.S. will not default on its obligations

The framework would raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling through 2012, cut spending by about $1 trillion and call for enactment of a law shaving another $1.5 trillion from long-term debt by 2021 -- or institute punishing reductions across all government areas, including Medicare and defense programs, according to congressional officials.

Across the Capitol, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said she was reserving judgment on the plan until she could see details and discuss them with fellow Democrats, some of whom were already voicing concern that the package calls for steep spending cuts with no tax increases to help shrink the deficit.

"We all may not may able to support it -- or none of us may be able to support it," she told reporters at the Capitol.

***

Boehner and Obama had a deal: a $4 trillion cut in the national debt that included cuts in Medicare a program Democrats and almost every American over the age of 60 like very much. But the Obama-Boehner compromise called for elimination of some tax loopholes. That’s called compromise.

The Tea Partyers would have none of it. Said Minnesota congresswoman and Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann: “I am not fooled by President Obama’s math ... I refuse to be a party to deceiving the American people yet again. I won’t do it. I will vote against any proposal that includes tax increases or raises the debt ceiling.”

So ideological purity was maintained. The Tea Partyers and their leader, Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, forced Boehner to pull out of a $4 trillion cut in the national debt in exchange for a lastminute, $2.1 trillion cut. Go figure. No, for your sanity’s sake, dear reader, don’t. -- Dan Boylan

[Pat Buchanan responds]

The Cooties Option

Washington DC -- The political theatre surrounding debt talks took a strange twist this weekend at the White House when Republicans stormed out of the meeting, accusing President Obama of having the cooties.

With both the broad outlines and specifics of the debt ceiling negotiations having been settled for weeks, both Republicans and Democrats faced a common challenge: how to sustain audience interest until the last minute when the deal would be signed.

The original script for "Epic Clash" (as the mini-series became known inside the The White House) called for increasing levels of acrimony with a series of strident accusations and "disconnects" leading to dramatic break offs in the talks. But when Republican House Speaker John Boehner stormed out of talks last Friday, and ratings of the series plummeted, a script rewrite was the only real option, especially with the unfolding News Corp hacking scandal diverting audience attention. Even the carefully choreographed performance of a "visibly angry" Obama at his "hastily called press conference" failed to engage viewers who already had started settling into their weekend rituals of beer and baseball. Suddenly, the White House script writers knew they needed a game changer to revive audience interest.

Focus groups made clear their disgust with the political process describing it in terms that had leaders of both parties concerned. "Boring" was the most damning indictment and the White House scriptwriters worst fears were confirmed when it became clear that the tired themes of "increased taxes vs spending cuts" were not sufficiently entertaining to keep the audience involved in the unfolding drama. Their market research report tellingly concluded, "Viewers need a character based subplot with a more visceral appeal and personal hook to sustain their level of interest, although the solvency of the U. S. government is at stake."

According to informed sources that requested anonymity, the so-called Cooties Option (Code Name: CO) had been on the table since the talks began months ago, but President Obama had initially dismissed it as "silly" and "demeaning of the political process." One well placed source was even more blunt, saying "neither party wanted anything to do with it."

But when Obama faced a revolt from fellow Democrats for caving into Republican demands, suddenly the "Cooties Option" came into play again. It presented Obama with the ability to box Republicans into a corner as not only unreasonable, but also completely "off their rocker." Obama harbored reservations about latent "racist overtones" of the Cooties Option, but those concerns were blunted when research showed that the "Cooties Theme" had been used effectively in comic strips such as Calvin and Hobbes and Dilbert as well as popular movies like Grease, and Pulp Fiction and several episodes of The Simpsons, all with significant ratings boost and no significant racist backlash.