Page Text: Posted on October 02, 2010 at 01:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: campaign finance, corruption, democrats, politics, republicans
October 01, 2010
Protecting Yourself from Investment Fraud
by Chris | Recently, residents of Gainesville and St. Augustine were victims of investment fraud. While neither of these incidents was of the scale and complexity of the Madoff case, with a little homework and some healthy skepticism, they may have been avoided.
How do you protect yourself from investment fraud?
Posted on October 01, 2010 at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: financial advisors, investment fraud, protection
September 15, 2010
by D. Cupples | Via Memeorandum , the New York Times tells us:
The Tea Party movement scored another victory on Tuesday, helping to propel a dissident Republican, Christine O’Donnell, to an upset win over Representative Michael N. Castle in the race for the United States Senate nomination in Delaware.
Mr. Castle, a moderate Republican who served two terms as governor and had been reliably winning elections for the last four decades, became the latest establishment Republican casualty of the primary election season. Republican leaders said the victory by Ms. O’Donnell complicated the party’s chances of winning control of the Senate.
Who am I to criticize another state's voters? I'm from Gainesville, Florida--home of the (thankfully) abandoned Koran-burning plot that got as much national media attention as our Fighting Gator football team gets when it wins a championship game.
According to Chris Cilliza , Ms. O'Donnell's victory gives Delaware Democrats a better shot at taking that senate seat during the general election. I guess we'll see.
Posted on September 15, 2010 at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: christine o'donnell, delaware, florida, gainesville, koran, michael castle, senate, tea party, teabaggers
August 20, 2010
by D. Cupples | We pay the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) billions each year. In exchange, the FDA is supposed to protect us consumer-taxpayers from unsafe food, drugs, cosmetics, etc.
I didn't dream that up: the duty is stated on the FDA's Website .
Despite that clearly articulated duty, the FDA's performance has been spotty for years--some would say due to over-friendliness with drug companies.
Maybe I'm putting it too nicely. I'll try again. For some years, the FDA seems to have promoted drug companies' interests over our interests.
Still too watered down? Okay. Last try: evidence suggests that some of FDA's decision-makers have been downright corrupt.
This month's Time Magazine has an article entitled, After Avandia: Does the FDA Have a Drug Problem ?
In May 2007, we at Buck Naked Politics did a blog post entitled The FDA's Latest Pharma-Friendly Sins . It addressed the FDA's highly questionable actions regarding the drugs Avandia, Vioxx, Ketek, and Viagra.
The FDA approved Ketek for public sale despite allegedly knowing that clinical-study results were fraudulent. Despite studies linking Vioxx to heart attacks, the FDA waited two years before requiring a stronger warning label.
Then there's the wildly popular Viagra, which was linked to a strange form of blindness: the FDA waited a whole year to require a stronger warning label.
Then there was our blog post in November 2008, which cited a Washington Post article stating that the FDA had learned about traces of melamine and cyanuric acid ( toxic chemicals) in baby food, yet the FDA inexplicably delayed informing the baby-feeding public about it.
I'm glad that after three-plus years, major media is again spotlighting the FDA's questionable reliability. The health and safety of us consumer-taxpayers is, after all, in the FDA's hands.
Posted on August 20, 2010 at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: avandia, baby food, corrupt, corruption, drug companies, drugs, fda, foods, ketek, money, viagra, vioxx
August 17, 2010
New York Divorce Laws Enter the New Millennium
Deb Cupples | New Yorkers are celebrating (except certain religious leaders) because their governor finnnally signed into law a bill that provides for no-fault divorce.
The State Assembly had passed the bill more than a month ago, and Governor David Paterson took his time signing it.
According to the New York Law Journal , the new law will take effect in October.
Apparently, a divorce in New York was even more torturous than in the other 49 states because couples had a choice between 1) filing for an uncontested divorce, which took a year; or 2) having to prove that one spouse was at fault (e.g., adultery, cruelty, abandonment, or imprisonment).
Reportedly, Catholic leaders are not happy. It's not their business anyway: they aren't married and, therefore, will not be subject to divorce laws.
Said leaders might benefit from refraining from intruding into people's personal lives and instead tending to their own housekeeping issues (e.g., the sex scandals -- which, according to CNN , have gone global).
Coming from a Catholic family, I mean no disrespect to people of that faith generally.
Posted on August 17, 2010 at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: david paterson, divorce, law, marriage, new york, no-fault
August 16, 2010
Another Massively Distracting "Issue"
by Deb Cupples | Paying close attention to the news can be downright dispiriting. For me, time to recharge was a must, so I took some weeks off from blogging.
Easing back into it, my first stop today was Memeorandum , a site reflecting topics folks find important enough to blog about. At 5:40 pm (EST) the top story (and numerous stories below it) was about the Cordoba House Project (a Muslim community center that people wanted to build near Ground Zero in New York).
If the placement and number of stories on Memorandum's front page indicate what has attracted people's focus, then it's safe to say that the Cordoba House is utmost on tonnns of people's minds.
This reminds me of a quote from Charlie Wilson's War. The character Gust Avrakotos (exquisitely played by Philip Seymour Hoffman ) says this :
“As long as the press sees sex and drugs behind the left hand, you can park a battle carrier behind the right hand and no one's gonna … notice.
I edited out the gerund form of the F-word, but the point still remains: some political operatives and media execs are hell-bent on distracting us ordinary folks from serious issues that affect our daily lives and our nation's future. Several come to mind:
- Children who aren't well fed, cared for, and educated.
- People who can't face a health problem without bankruptcy.
- Adults who still need decent-paying jobs, despite stimulus packages.
- Corporate players who still routinely rob us taxpayers.
- All the people who will suffer due to BP's oil problem.
- The government players who repeatedly failed to protect us citizen-taxpayers from the fallout of bad corporate decision-making.
Is the Cordoba House yet another issue of mass distraction? (It's not my phrase, but I forgot who generated it). If airtime and column inches are being given to this so-called issue, then you can bet that some people are putting serious money into it.
And this makes me wonder: just how many "battle carriers" are hiding behind the right hand?
Posted on August 16, 2010 at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: cordoba house, democrats, distraction, ground zero, issues, media, muslims, politics, politics, republicans
July 22, 2010
Hosie Miller: Shirley Sherrod's Father
posted by Bill: Philadelphia blogger Will Bunch adds context to Shirley Sherrod's civil rights work. How much more amazing that she struggles for understanding and reconciliation after her father was murdered in a racially-tinged dispute... and no authority even opened a case to redress it.
Steve Clemons also suggests Sherrod "kick the tires" of Tom Vilsak's new job offer.
(Kavanagh cross-posts at Bill's Big Diamond .)
Posted on July 22, 2010 at 06:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
July 16, 2010
When Alan Greenspan Opposes a Tax Cut...
by Bill Kavanagh: As opposed to cutting back on aid to the unemployed or going soft on stimulating the economy, there are ways to begin changing the skew of who pays for the programs the country needs. From the looks of it, even some of the most ardent supporters of trickle-down economics are beginning to see this particular light.
Apparently, even Alan Greenspan has had a change of heart about the wisdom of exempting the wealthiest Americans from paying their share. In a Bloomberg News interview with Judy Woodruff, the former deregulator-in-chief said the following about what to do about the Bush Administration's 2001 tax cut:
WOODRUFF: On those tax cuts, they are due to expire at the end of this year. Should they be extended? What should Congress do?
GREENSPAN: I should say they should follow the law and let them lapse.
WOODRUFF: Meaning what happens?
GREENSPAN: Taxes go up. The problem is, unless we start to come to grips with this long-term outlook, we are going to have major problems. I think we misunderstand the momentum of this deficit going forward.
(Kavanagh cross-posts at Bill's Big Diamond .)
Posted on July 16, 2010 at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
June 22, 2010
Protect Your Wallet: Support the Re-Appointment of Skop & Argenziano to the PSC
Why should you care about appointments to Florida's Public Service Commission (PSC)? Because who gets appointed will directly affect your wallet for years to come (if you live in Florida, that is).
The PSC is charged with protecting consumers from unreasonable prices and bad service from the utility companies that we depend on.
As I've blogged about repeatedly over the past two years, most members of the PSC have been suspiciously cozy with the utility industry--an industry whose interests are sort of at odds with the interests of us consumers.
The two welcome exceptions are consumer-friendly Commissioners Nancy Argenziano and Nathan Skop, whom Gov. Charlie Crist appointed in 2007.
Not only have Argenziano and Skop actively sought to protect consumers' interests, but they also made a point of spotlighting ethically questionable things that have been going on at the PSC over the past few years. (Examples are linked at the end of this post.)
Unfortunately, Argenziano's and Skop's terms are almost up. Both commissioners are seeking reappointment by Gov. Crist.
All sorts of people who pay attention to the PSC support the re-appointment of Argenziano and Skop--precisely because they've proven to be pro-consumer and anti-corruption.
Here's part of the Miami Herald's endorsement:
Posted on June 22, 2010 at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: charlie crist, consumer protection, consumers, corruption, florida politics, florida public service commission, florida utilities, nancy argenziano, nathan skop, psc
June 21, 2010
Why Are Gas Prices Going Down?
by Deb Cupples | It make no sense. In my North Florida town, gasoline prices were in the $2.90s in April; now, gas is in the $2.70s. What happened?
Back in 2007, gas prices were near or above $4 a gallon nationwide. The public-relations people paid by oil companies habitually blamed it on "supply and demand" (i.e., lower supply or higher demand automatically caused higher prices).
Fast forward to 2010: on or about April 20, a BP oil well exploded and started spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of barrels of oil have been flowing into the Gulf each day, but the estimates vary.
According to McClatchy (May 19), BP's oil spill was causing a loss of about 95,000 barrels or 4 million gallons of crude oil each day. According to the New York Times (June 10), the flow of oil into the Gulf was 25,000 to 30,000 barrels (1+ million gallons) per day. According to the New York Times (June 15), the flow of oil was "as much as 60,000 barrels" (or 2.5 million gallons) per day. According to Reuters , an internal BP company document states that the worst case scenario (depending on whether a piece of equipment malfunctions) is that up to 100,000 barrels (or 4.5 million gallons) of oil may flow into the Gulf.
As late as June 18, BP's own estimate was that the flow of oil into the Gulf was under 5,000 barrels per day.
Whichever estimate is more accurate, the fact remains that our nation's oil supply will decrease because of BP's massive oil spill. Thus, according to notions of "supply and demand," oil and gas prices should be going up (even if only due to market speculators' anticipation of the decreasing supply). Yet, gas prices in my area have been going down.
What gives? Again, Oil company executives have habitually attributed climbing gas prices to "supply and demand," implying that price hikes are caused by some natural force beyond their control -- the way physicists might attribute a falling satellite to gravity.
Recent declines in gas prices make one wonder whether oil companies have always been forthright about what causes gas prices to increase.
Perhaps "supply and demand" played a significant part in some gas price fluctuations. Perhaps a stronger factor was oil executives' fundamental desire to funnel more consumer dollars into their own pockets.
How can we know what to believe?
Posted on June 21, 2010 at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: bp, gas prices, gasoline prices, oil spill, political corruption
June 12, 2010
Long Term Debt vs. Unemployment—False Choices
by Bill Kavanagh: The Republican focus on the federal deficit as a primary issue in this year's Congressional election cycle makes little sense in the context of our real economic problems. Economist Brad DeLong uses a good metaphor in a response to Henry Blodget's questions about long-term federal debt:
Think of it this way: our natural gas pipes are corroding, and there is a good chance that tomorrow ten years from now we will have a gas leak and if we do not fix it the house will explode. And Henry Blodget is using that danger to argue that we shouldn't turn on the heat tonight even though it is snowing outside...
Here's the false warning that's being promulgated: "There's a crisis coming in federal spending and if we don't start dealing with the pain now by cutting programs and spending by the government to alleviate unemployment, we'll be overwhelmed later by the mountain of debt we're accumulating."
Here's why it's a false warning: The long-term debt service on government spending to stimulate the economy pales in comparison to another problem. That looming issue is the long-term (and societally draining) economic damage done to the country if we let a decade be lost to high unemployment and lost productive labor, thereby creating additional drains on both the public and private sectors. In the current employment crisis environment, job one should be getting the country back to work— in order to create the conditions in which we dig ourselves out of this critical situation limiting the economy's stability and resilience.
It's myopic to look at debt due to federal domestic spending only, rather than the total situation the US economy is currently facing. Yet this single-minded approach seems to be crowding out discussion about solving the growing long-term unemployment crisis and its drain on the housing market, the demand for goods and services, and on the country's sense of hope that the future is something to invest in, rather than horde against.
I hope we can keep talking sense about dealing with the real problems in front of us, rather than being distracted by fears that a stronger America won't ever make sacrifices or hard choices to deal with paying our bills. Right now, the sacrifices being made are focused incredibly unevenly on those least equipped to cope with the losses: namely the poor and those becoming poorer daily.
Dean Baker responds to those voices crying out about an American "debt crisis" in the following way:
We can point to a debt crisis in Greece, and arguably Portugal and Spain, but it is not clear what that has to do with the argument for stimulus in the United States. There were debt crises in Latin America in the 80s, no one ever raised these in the context of the Reagan era budget deficits.
There needs to be more coverage of reasonable plans to revisit the unemployment issue during this election year, not less of it.
(Kavanagh cross posts at Bill's Big Diamond Blog .)
Posted on June 12, 2010 at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
June 11, 2010
The 99ers— Over a Million and Growing
posted by Bill: As if we had to ask, here's how bad it is (according to Annie Lowrie's piece in the Washington Independent):
The joblessness crisis — in the average duration of unemployment, if not the absolute unemployment rate — is unprecedented in the postwar United States. Of the 15 million unemployed in America, over 7 million have been out of work for more than six months, nearly 5 million for a year and over 1 million for two years — the worst statistics since the government started keeping count in 1948.
Posted on June 11, 2010 at 07:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
June 04, 2010
Souter Speaks on How the Court Decides
posted by Bill: Linda Greenhouse hopes that retired SC Justice David Souter will continue to share his thoughts in public as a guide to his thinking on the bench. His recent Harvard commencement address included the following statement on why the court does more than parse the Constitution for a "fair reading:"
The reasons that constitutional judging is not a mere combination of fair reading and simple facts extend way beyond the recognition that constitutions have to have a lot of general language in order to be useful over long stretches of time. Another reason is that the Constitution contains values that may well exist in tension with each other, not in harmony. Yet another reason is that the facts that determine whether a constitutional provision applies may be very different from facts like a person’s age or the amount of the grocery bill; constitutional facts may require judges to understand the meaning that the facts may bear before the judges can figure out what to make of them.
Posted on June 04, 2010 at 04:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
April 30, 2010
Florida's GOP Governor Leaves GOP
Florida Governor Charlie Crist has announced that he is leaving the Republican party and running for U.S. Senate as an independent. A New York Times blog-post title says it all: "Crist to GOP: Drop Dead." Many Republicans, including Ex-Gov. Bush, don't seem too happy about it.
This should be interesting. One thing that many of us Floridians agree on is that Gov. Crist was nowhere near as atrociously Republican as his predecessor Jeb Bush.
The St. Pete Times suspects that Gov. Crist will be "tapping an unusually wide pool of potential donors that includes Democrats and liberal special interest groups like trial lawyers and the teachers union."
One thing that might help Gov. Crist with the teachers is his vetoing a GOP bill a couple weeks ago that had Florida's teachers and parents up in arms:
Crist's verdict [on the controversial bill]: "We must start over. This bill has deeply and negatively affected the morale of our teachers, our parents and our students. They are not confident in our system because they do not believe their voices were heard."
Another thing that might help Gov. Crist with angry teachers and parents would be if he did more to roll back ex-Gov. Bush's education policies.
Posted on April 30, 2010 at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: charlie crist, education, florida, gop, governor, independent, jeb bush, republicans