This [the commission report] represents a 90-percent reduction in the nuclear arsenal but offers more than enough deterrent capability while providing flexibility to pragmatically implement the force structure cuts. In fact, the United States could address military utility concerns with only 311 nuclear weapons in its nuclear force structure while maintaining a stable deterrence… it does not matter if Russia, who is America’s biggest competitor in this arena, follows suit. The relative advantage the Russians might gain in theory does not exist in reality. Even if one were to assume the worst—a bolt from the blue that took out all of America’s ICBMs—the Russians would leave their cities at risk and therefore remain deterred from undertaking the first move.

As the Wonk Room notes, these are real insiders who are making these recommendations:

The article in Strategic Studies Quarterly is not an isolated ivory tower scholarly piece divorced from the actual strategic thinking taking place inside the Air Force. Two of the authors – James Forsyth and Gary Schaub – are professors at war colleges at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. The Air Force war colleges are not known for their independence and free-thinking, as they are generally seen as much less free wheeling than other services war colleges. But more surprising is the third author, Colonel B. Chance Saltzman, who is the chief of the Strategic Plans and Policy Division at Headquarters Air Force. Saltzman is therefore an integral figure in determining Air Force strategy and works closely with General Norton Schwartz the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. In short, this article is not by some Air Force outsiders, but from very influential insiders.

And all of this is coming while the White House is undergoing a review on nuclear weapons policy aimed at reducing the stockpile in accordance with President Obama’s campaign rhetoric and promises.

It’s a new day when Air Force influentials and decision makers are advocating an end to our expensive and overblown cold-war era nuclear strategy. Let’s hope Obama listens to the "commanders on the ground," so to speak.

Tags: Air Force, Nuclear Weapons, President obama

A few days ago, the New York Times reported this:

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, has brought most American Special Operations forces under his direct control for the first time, out of concern over continued civilian casualties and disorganization among units in the field.

Why’d he do that?

“In most of the cases of civilian casualties, special forces are involved,” said Mohammed Iqbal Safi, head of the defense committee in the Afghan Parliament, who participated in joint United States-Afghan investigations of civilian casualties last year. “We’re always finding out they are not obeying the rules that other forces have to in Afghanistan.”

“These forces often operate with little or no accountability and exacerbate the anger and resentment felt by communities,” the Human Rights Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan wrote in its report on protection of civilians for 2009.

So, right off the bat, relying on special forces is not going to drop the civilian casualties, since it’s not even the regular occupation troops doing the most killing.

And just what is meant by killing civilians? Is it some poor Afghan in the wrong place, at the wrong time, accidentally getting between our special forces and a mean old Taliban? Nope, all you have to do is sit at home and wait for death:

A few weeks ago, this journalist (who happens to be a friend) contacted me, asking if I had seen an ISAF press release,which stated that during the course of a night raid in Gardez, a Special Forces team made a ‘gruesome discovery’ when they came across three women who were bound and gagged and already dead. My friend asked if I knew anything about this, or whether I had more information (as I had been based in Gardez for the past year and a half, he felt I was an appropriate person to ask). He soon decided to head down there himself to investigate the incident further. It very soon transpired that this press release was a lie, as the women were in fact shot by the forces entering the house and left to die from their wounds. [emphasis added]

Not only can armed men burst into your home and shred you with machine-guns, they’ll lie about it afterward! That’s what we’re talking about when we say "offshoring" with special forces, only on a much bigger scale.

Maybe that’s unfair though, perhaps we could rely more on drone attacks instead of special forces. According to CIA Director Panetta, the airstrikes seem to be working:

So profound is Al Qaeda’s disarray that one of its lieutenants, in a recently intercepted message, pleaded with bin Laden to come to the group’s rescue and provide some leadership, Panetta said. He credited improved coordination with Pakistan’s government and what he called "the most aggressive operation that CIA has been involved in in our history," offering a near-acknowledgment of what is officially a secret war.

"Those operations are seriously disrupting Al Qaeda," Panetta said. "It’s pretty clear from all the intelligence we are getting that they are having a very difficult time putting together any kind of command and control, that they are scrambling. And that we really do have them on the run."

The drones work great supposedly, even for Taliban targets:

During the course of 14 months, the CIA used unmanned and heavily armed small aircraft known as drones to stage 15 strikes against the presumed locations of the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. On Aug. 5, 2009, on the 16th try, the drones finally managed to kill Baitullah Mehsud.

Yay! But?

But the hunt for Mehsud cost the lives of far more than 11 people. According to estimates, between 207 and 321 people died in the course of the 16 attempts to eliminate Mehsud — and it is certain that not all of them were Taliban fighters.

We only have to massacre a couple hundred people in order to "successfully" take out one target. That’s even worse than the special forces who only managed to kill 3 unarmed women in the anecdote above.

So, there’s your Offshore strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. We massacre human beings, literally by the houseful, and eventually we manage to kill one or two important guys who disagree with us. Oh, but you would succeed in drastically reducing the "footprint" of American forces in Afghanistan. Congratulations, you’re Donald Rumsfeld.

Let’s keep this in mind as we continue to talk about alternative solutions to Afghanistan. Simply "offshoring" the problem with special forces and drones is not a serious solution, and in some ways is even worse than our current escalation policy. When we talk about new ways to move forward, we have to avoid completely any options which rely on violence and military aggression of any kind.

If we want Afghanistan to be stable, uncorrupted, and free of violent extremism, we’re going to have to rely on non-violent methods that don’t involve slaughtering Afghan and Pakistani citizens. Anything else is just Diet War.

Had enough? Become a fan of the Rethink Afghanistan campaign on Facebook and join our fight to bring the Afghanistan war to an end.

I am the Afghanistan Blogging Fellow for The Seminal and Brave New Foundation. You can read my work on The Seminal or at Rethink Afghanistan.

Tags: Afghanistan, Civilian Casualties, Civilian Deaths, COIN, drones, McChrystal, Offshore, Pakistan, panetta, Special Forces

Three years later, they’ve only spent $6.2 million on their "comprehensive plan:"

In 2007, just as Democrats took control of Congress, WellPoint pledged that its charitable foundation would spend $30 million over three years as part of a "comprehensive plan to help address the growing ranks of the uninsured."

But according to tax filings, company promotional material and former executives familiar with the initiative, WellPoint never came close to fulfilling that pledge. A company spokeswoman disputed that Wednesday.

However, WellPoint’s public records indicate that from 2007 to 2009 the foundation gave less than $6.2 million in grants targeted specifically at helping uninsured Americans get access to coverage and care — barely one-fifth of what was promised and just 11% of the charity’s total giving over the last three years.

"It was just not something that the company really wanted to do," said one former executive, who, like others interviewed for this story, asked not to be identified out of concern that discussing WellPoint could have adverse career consequences. "So it went by the wayside."

Let’s put this all in perspective.

Over the three years from 2007-2009, WellPoint made $10 billion in profit, or $9 million per day, more than WellPoint has currently contributed to this "comprehensive plan," even though a week of profits would have covered the full amount they pledged.

Their CEO pay for 2007 and 2008 (2009 numbers are not available yet) was $28.5 million, just about the amount of their promise. In 2008, Angela Braley, WellPoint’s CEO, made $9.8 million, more than WellPoint actually spent on this "comprehensive plan" to date.

Over the past three years, WellPoint has bought back $12.1 billion dollars worth of its own stock, a technique that jacks up a stock’s price and is used to reward Wall Street investors. Just .2% of the money they spent rewarding Wall Street would have fulfilled their promise.

And, let’s not forget, this is the same WellPoint that jacked up rates 39% in California through its subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross, all the while cutting millions from its rolls.

This is WellPoint’s business model – reward Wall Street at the expense of customers by denying care and carving out benefit designs that save them money by making you pay more. It’s also the business model health reform – which according to the latest CBO numbers [pdf] will cover 95% of the population – is designed to end.

(also posted at the NOW! blog)

I’m proud to work for Health Care for America Now

Tags: health reform, uninsured, wellpoint

When Sen. Jeff Sessions stood up on the Senate floor Wednesday, at 3:32 p.m., in support of his and Sen. McCaskill’s proposed legislation to begin a fight against the deficit that suddenly, after eight years of runaway spending, has become the greatest object of the profligate right wing, he castigated his countrymen for wanting "to live well now." Sen. Sessions wants to make your life, and of course, by extension, your children’s lives harder now.

Sure Sen. Sessions, your protection against living well now is pretty hilarious as a means to protect those ‘children and grandchildren’ that you claim you’re providing for. Making the grounds for depriving working people and their children – and by extension their grandchildren, the victims of untimely paring down the very programs that actually do protect them – is the ultimate betrayal of the public the right wing claims, falsely, to protect.

Americans are increasingly at risk of financial ruin due to illness and medical expenses, according to a new study released yesterday by the American Journal of Medicine. The researchers found that illness or medical bills contributed to nearly two thirds, or 62 percent, of all bankruptcies in 2007—before the major impact of the housing collapse and current economic downturn.

The fight to deprive our children and grandchildren of financial security has been a goal for the right wing. Cutting taxes on the very wealthy and deregulating protections for consumers of financial services – those are the great accomplishments of the eight years they spent in power. The deterioration of education and of our wage/salary structure is yet another result of right wing policy.

What incredible cynicism it takes to threaten your children and grandchildren – if you try to protect them from the financial ruin that the wingers think constitutes their best interests. This is a twisted view of the world, that the right wing spreads with the help of a compliant media.

To protect our children and our grandchildren we need to combat that attack on their interests that the right wants to portray as sound economics and protection, the exact opposite of what it has proved to be.

Suffer the children is right wing doctrine, and any claim that they will be better off for right wing policies was been irrefutably disproven by the extreme hardship they’re encountering now.

Tags: financial crisis, Healthcare Reform, our children and grandchildren, right wing ideology

Click through for many more.

What’s on your mind tonight?

Tags: paralympics, sport

As a sample, here are the first three paragraphs:

HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, has taken to calling itself "the world’s local bank." Starbucks is un-branding at least three of its Seattle outlets, the first of which just reopened as "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea." Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, recently launched a new ad campaign under the tagline, "Local flavor since 1956." The International Council of Shopping Centers, a global consortium of mall owners and developers, is pouring millions of dollars into television ads urging people to "Shop Local" – at their nearest mall. Even Wal-Mart is getting in on the act, hanging bright green banners over its produce aisles that simply say, "Local."

Hoping to capitalize on growing public enthusiasm for all things local, some of the world’s biggest corporations are brashly laying claim to the word "local."

This new variation on corporate greenwashing – local washing – is, like the buy-local movement itself, most advanced in the context of food. Hellmann’s, the mayonnaise brand owned by the processed-food giant Unilever, is test-driving a new "Eat Real, Eat Local," initiative in Canada. The ad campaign seems aimed partly at enhancing the brand by simply associating Hellmann’s with local food. But it also makes the a claim that Hellmann’s is local, because most of its ingredients come from North America.

It’s a longish piece, but well worth reading in its entirety. Apparently, the BIG corps. have taken a cue from one of our most basic necessities: FOOD… and they are trying to apply the local and home-grown branding to themselves.

We simply must try to stop them, while also convincing others that buying what is truly local or regional is desirable, even though this corporate branding campaign is not.

I also came across (again via Twitter) a new blog/campaign from Citi, in which they are trying to soften their image and persuade others that the have "listened" and "learned" from the recent past. I don’t buy any of it! You may wish to take a peek at it, but just for laughs. The (paid?) shills are SO OBVIOUS!

The most important thing we can do is to connect the dots between the outsourcing of jobs, the predatory banking & lending practices, the rapacious methods of health insurance [sic] providers, and what substantive financial industry and health care industry reforms would REALLY look like (Nothing like what we’re seeing so far, that’s for darn sure!) …as well as by being honest about the minimal impact our votes currently have. I’m not suggesting that we should no longer vote, but that voting is just one tiny action, among so many other more powerful actions that we can take, particularly when the corporations have bought our government lock, stock & barrel. Rather, we must reclaim our commerce.

I live in a pretty small community (near an urban area), but it has an active progressive community, who first spent years working at winning local elections, and whose members are responsible for a seasonal farmer’s market that is going on four years now, and a local (i.e., independent) coffee & bake shop, an independent video store with a small screening room, and many more plans simmering in development…

That is how these kinds of community building activities are accomplished, not with national campaigns, but at home, with our friends and neighbors, gathering together to create something new out of whole cloth, which is something that most of the BIG corps. know nothing about. They only understand numbers, and those they understand in a fairly limited manner. And, organizing our communities is how we can beat these corps., not by following their rules, but by following our own, and not in a hurry, but deliberately and methodically.

Tags: BIG corps’ local and home-grown branding is BS, Citi tries a blog as PR, conflating global and local

By pegging the renminbi (RMB) to the U.S. dollar at a fixed exchange rate, China unfairly subsidizes its exports and disadvantages foreign imports. As we work to promote a robust U.S. economic recovery, it is imperative that we address this paramount trade issue with all available resources. We urge your agencies to respond to China’s currency manipulation with the actions outlined in this letter. Doing so will allow American companies and workers to compete fairly against their Chinese counterparts and will boost U.S. economic recovery and growth.

The impact of China’s currency manipulation on the U.S. economy cannot be overstated. Maintaining its currency at a devalued exchange rate provides a subsidy to Chinese companies and unfairly disadvantages foreign competitors. U.S. exports to the country cannot compete with the low-priced Chinese equivalents, and domestic American producers are similarly disadvantaged in the face of subsidized Chinese imports. The devaluation of the RMB also exacerbates the already severe U.S-China trade deficit. Statistics show that between January 2000 and May 2009, China’s share of the U.S. trade deficit for non-oil goods grew from 26% to 83% — an untenable pattern for American manufacturers.

The crisis with China is accelerating quickly, and is so severe that economists from all over the political spectrum are calling for the U.S. to take drastic action against China currency manipulation. Economists such as Paul Krugman, who was long a champion of free trade and opponent of tariffs, are saying that what China is doing isn’t free trade, but cheating. Writing Monday in the New York Times Paul Krugman reversed positions on tariffs, saying:

Some still argue that we must reason gently with China, not confront it. But we’ve been reasoning with China for years, as its surplus ballooned, and gotten nowhere: on Sunday Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, declared — absurdly — that his nation’s currency is not undervalued. (The Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that the renminbi is undervalued by between 20 and 40 percent.) And Mr. Wen accused other nations of doing what China actually does, seeking to weaken their currencies "just for the purposes of increasing their own exports."

But if sweet reason won’t work, what’s the alternative? In 1971 the United States dealt with a similar but much less severe problem of foreign undervaluation by imposing a temporary 10 percent surcharge on imports, which was removed a few months later after Germany, Japan and other nations raised the dollar value of their currencies. At this point, it’s hard to see China changing its policies unless faced with the threat of similar action — except that this time the surcharge would have to be much larger, say 25 percent

This follows similar sentiments echoed last month by free trade loving, tariff hating Robert Samuelson.

Samuelson writing in the Washington Post said:

Greater conflicts and a collision of national egos seem inevitable. No longer should we sit passively while China’s trade and currency policies jeopardize jobs here and elsewhere. Political differences between the countries are increasingly hard to ignore.

The crisis has gotten so severe that economists who have long fought for conservative ideology and against tariffs are saying we need them to correct the imbalance. Last week, progressive economist Rob Scott of EPI and C. Fred Bergsten, director of the conservative Peterson Institute for International Economics as well as Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman. Bergsten heads the Peterson Institute for International Economics – which has called for cuts in Social Security in order to save our economy – while Rob Scott works for an organization, EPI, which has fought such cuts and stated deficit spending is the key to saving our economy.

However these two economists from different sides of the political spectrum both agree that fighting Chinese currency manipulation is the key to fixing our economy. Bergsten stated that 2-3 million jobs could be created by addressing Chinese Currency Manipulation. Bergsten told the forum that:

If there is going to be a serious jobs program, the exchange rate of the dollar must be at the center of the debate

Even right wing nut Pat Buchanan, representing of the angry white men of the Tea Party movement, says we have to do something about Chinese currency manipulation:

Even a (Milton) Friedmanite free-trader should be able to see the disaster all around us and ask: What benefit does America receive from these mountains of imported goods to justify the terrible damage done to our country and countrymen?

Indeed,a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll showed that Americans viewed protecting manufacturing as the best way to create jobs. Americans across the political spectrum agree that best way to deal with the jobs crisis is to protect manufacturing.

The question is will President Obama listen? On April 15th, the Administration is releasing a list of currency manipulators around the world. The U.S. in the past has failed to declare China a currency manipulator despite the fact that President Obama called China a currency manipulator during the campaign. Labeling China a currency manipulator would be a first step in confronting China on unfair trade. If China refuses to take action to correct this problem then the U.S. would be forced to do what Paul Krugman is advocating and place tariffs on China.

The people have spoken. President Obama must now listen to Americans from across the political spectrum and confront China – labeling them a currency manipulator and if that doesn’t work placing tariffs on China.

Tags: China, currency, Obama, tariffs

This week we continue to get confirmation that unfettered free enterprise and market deregulation lead inevitably to economic disaster and massive human suffering, while the nation’s inability to reverse course is a sign of its political and moral decline.

So, which lesson iz r kids learning?

If we think our government elites have advanced much beyond the delusion that humans walked with dinosaurs, how do we explain our government’s deference to too-big-to-fail banks and the continued belief by nearly half of Congress that government shouldn’t intervene in the economy to reduce unemployment?

We have an Administration that meekly announced on Wednesday that there isn’t much they can do about the fact unemployment will remain about 10 percent through the rest of year. It seems we just have to wait for the labor market to self-correct, which, we are promised, it will do after a predictable "lag" and after the bailed out and restored banking system deems it suitable to do less looting and more lending.

Last night, our Treasury Secretary told Rachel Maddow (as he’s told others) that the previous Administration and its regulators made egregious mistakes in overseeing financial giants. No kidding. But this is the same Tim Geithner who publically undermined even a modest Volker rule designed to encourge too-big-to-fail banks to become smaller. And it’s the same Tim Geithner who headed the New York Federal Reserve while it was watching, even helping, Lehman commit Enron-style accounting fraud by hiding its excessive leverage.

Just as the Texas Board is rewriting history, so our government is in the process of forgetting that its disastrous deregulation of the financial sector created the breeding grounds for a massive financial meltdown.

The worst financial collapse in 75 years occurred within the last 3-4 years, but that history seems to be having little effect on Congress. We aren’t planning to break up the big banks, don’t know how to wind down international mega-banks, can’t figure out how to change compensation incentives and have no better plan to avoid systemic risks than to ask a "council" composed of the same people who denied we had a problem last time to be more careful next time. Can we have a fully independent consumer protection agency to make lenders think twice before bilking consumers? You must be kidding.

Allen Greenspan, the previously infallible pope of unfettered markets, told Henry Waxman last year that his entire philosophical premise about self-correcting markets had just been shattered by the market’s collapse. That should have been the end of this free market nonsense, but that speech will likely not make it into the next text books. The current chairman fears the Fed’s credibility might slip if it raised the inflation target to spur more growth and employment.

Instead, we’ll all be reading about how everything would have been just fine if the government hadn’t indulged in reckless tax and spend policies, unfunded entitlements, government controlled health plans, and deficit spending that couldn’t possibly create a single job, except maybe the ones in your local Congressman’s district.

The Texas School Board isn’t rewriting history; it’s just revealing what our elites have come to believe and are still using as their guidebook. Welcome to Texas. Please bow your heads to say, "thank you, Jesus, and watch out for the dinosaurs."

Related:
Yves Smith, Lehman: Regulators chose to deny extend, and pretend; also, Geithner Implicated in Lehman Accounting Fraud Allegation
HuffPo/Ryan McCarthy, Lehman’s Bizarro World
Bloomberg, Geither says unemployment may peak in second half of 2010
Paul Krugman, Alexander Hamilton was always at war with EastAsia
BaseLine Scenario/Simon Johnson, Enron and Merrill, Greece and Goldman
Tula Connell, Texas may bar students from learning about Cesare Chavez, Thurgood Marshall

Tags: Congress, Economy, Federal Reserve Board, Texas School Board, Tim Geithner, unemployment

First, from Pennsylvania, the New York Times headlines "Big Insurance Rate Increase for Pennsylvania Poor":

Facing a sharp rise in costs, Pennsylvania has almost doubled the monthly bill for a state health insurance program for poor people who do not qualify for Medicaid and are on a waiting list for a less costly option.

On March 1, the cost of the plan rose to about $600 a month, up from $313 a month, for the roughly 2,400 state residents on the waiting list.

…

Established in 2002, Pennsylvania’s state insurance program, called AdultBasic, covers adults ages 19 to 65 with incomes lower than twice the federal poverty level, or about $21,672 for a single person, at a cost to participants of about $36 per month. About 39,000 people are enrolled in AdultBasic.

About 390,000 other people are on a waiting list to join the AdultBasic program. While they wait, the state gives them the option to pay for the same insurance at a higher rate. It is the cost for members of the waiting list that rose on March 1 to about $600 a month.

Health reform solves this problem.

For families who make 133% of the Federal Poverty Level or less – about $24,000 per year – health reform would allow them to get on Medicaid. Those families who make more than that – up to 400% of the FPL or about $73,000 per year – will be able to purchase heavily subsidized insurance in the Exchanges.

For families making between 133% FPL and 200% FPL ($24,000 – $36,000 per year) – the people affected by Pennsylvania’s rate increase above – their average cost for insurance, both premiums and out of pocket, will be [pdf] around $63 per month for families at 133% up to $244 per month for families at 200%.

The next headline is from Kaiser Health News, "Drug Prices Rise For Seniors Who Reach Medicare Part D Coverage Gap":

Seniors who hit the coverage gap in their Medicare prescription drug plans and must use their own money to buy drugs are facing price increases that are far outpacing inflation, a new study finds.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, prices paid by enrollees in standalone Part D plans who enter the coverage gap increased 5 percent or more since January 2009 for half of 10 brand-name drugs most commonly used by seniors. That’s almost twice the rate of inflation over the same period.

For example, the price of Actonel, a treatment for osteoporosis, increased 8 percent, from $91 per month in 2009 to $98 per month in 2010. Meanwhile, the prices for both Aricept, an Alzheimer’s medication, and Plavix, a drug used to prevent blood clots, both increased by 7 percent during the same period. Aricept’s prices rose from $184 to $198 while Plavix’s rose from $142 to $152. Lipitor, a cholesterol medication, was the only drug surveyed that decreased in price, from slightly more than $86 to just under $86 per month.

The rising prices are part of a longer is sufficient longer-term trend. Between January 2006 and January 2010, the analysis showed, prices of drugs bought by seniors who hit the coverage gap increased 20 to 25 percent for Lipitor, Plavix, Nexium, a drug for acid-reflux, and Lexapro, a medication for depression and anxiety; 39 percent for Actonel, and 41 percent for Aricept. Over the same period, inflation has increased 9.2 percent while prices for medical care have surged 16.1 percent.

Health reform solves this problem, too. Immediately after passage of the bill, seniors will get immediate relief that starts closing that coverage gap. The gap will be completely closed as health reform is implemented.

There are a few more noteworthy immediate affects of reform as well:

• Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
• Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool; (this will help with the Pennsylvania situation as well)
• Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
• Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
• Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
• Require plans to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26;
• Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
• Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
• Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

Reform will also help people like 11-year-old Marcelas Owens, who’s mother died because she didn’t have insurance:

And Matt Masterson’s son, who’s pre-existing condition makes him virtually uninsurable, a near death sentence as soon as he’s kicked of his father’s insurance plan in a few years:

Finally, today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee came out with numbers on how reform will help people in every Congressional district.

The vote is coming in the House. It’s likely to take place this weekend. Without reform, none of these problems get solved, and the insurance companies will get to continue their business practices of denying care and carving out coverage while making record profits.

It’s time to for the House to decide, and you should pick up the phone and help them.

(also posted at the NOW! blog)

I’m proud to work for Health Care for America Now

Tags: donut hole, Health care, health reform, medicaid

On Saturday Art, cuddlefish brought us an ink drawing:

Lisa Derrick discussed the tensions involved in public art:

In Los Angeles, public art requires a city permit to be on private property. Local Los Angeles blog The Eastsider reports:

Silver Lake residents Amy Seidenwurm and Russell Bates were so charmed by the bears and other critters that they commissioned the artist, Phil Lumbang, to paint a mural on the approximately 30-foot long by 10-foot high wall in front of their home. Most people loved it, stopping to have their photos taken in front of the colorful scene painted last April. More than 35,000 people viewed a YouTube video Bates shot of Lumbang painting the happy forest creatures. But one neighbor objected, complaining that the mural would make their Silver Lake street "seem ghetto" and attract taggers and other street artists, Bates said.

Los Angeles Building and Safety ordered the mural painted over by March 1, but the couple have been granted a one month extension while city officials–prompted by Councilman Eric Garcetti–try to figure out if there is a legal way to keep the mural up.

Adam Tolland had an original print:

Bill Egnor had more local public art from Denver:

This week’s public art from Denver is two statues from Colombian artist Fernando Botero. They sit outside the main theater entrance of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. The pieces are called Man and Woman respectively. Botero is known for the his disproportional style. He paints and sculpts “fat people” from an aesthetic point of view, rather than a representational one.

Art Threat looked at Michael Moore’s marketing:

Michael Moore’s latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story takes aim at the elite bankers and CEOs who are steering America’s economy into the gutter, and among the bad guys he goes after is none other than the world’s largest and most brutal retailer, Wal-Mart (now re-branded as Walmart). Moore exposes Walmart’s dirty practice of taking out insurance claims on its employees and cashing in on their deaths without telling their families.

So it may come as a bit of a surprise that Moore’s anti-capitalism, anti-Walmart documentary goes on sale today…in Walmart.

dakine01 discussed a favorite read:

When I was ten years old, my great aunt gave me a copy of Palgrave’s The Golden Treasury for my birthday with the inscription "A lifetime of good wishes to you."

Now, I was a standard ten year old boy, so I was probably barely, begrudgingly gracious to Edie after this gift. I don’t remember exactly but would guess I would have preferred receiving a sports biography (if I had to get a book) or some sports equipment. So I put the book on the shelf and forgot about it.

Fast forward to the time when my sister and I are cleaning out our parents place after they had died. I picked up the book once again, having completely forgotten about it. In fact, it still didn’t really register to me that it was mine until I checked the inscription. Since I’m the only one in the family with a June birthday, I realized that it was mine.

Mitchell Frye brought us a photograph:

masaccio had a discussion of a famous wedding portrait:

This portrait hangs at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, along with dozens of other portraits by the Dutch Masters. So many of the subjects are frozen faced, miserable looking people, like Frans Snyder, who was a still life painter and a buddy of Hals. Hals was different, a jolly sort, the kind of guy who hoisted a few, and knew people like The Merry Drunkard.

Portraits focus on the person, but there is usually a lot to see in the rest of the painting, the clothes, the jewelry, the hats, and the background. Both are used to tell us about the person pictured. In the Marriage Portrait, there is a thistle at the feet of Isaac, a symbol of male fidelity. The ivy at the feet of Beatrix and in the tree above her is a symbol of the attachment of the wife to the husband. Both wear nice clothes and lace decorations, and Beatrix has the usual neck ruff. I always wonder if that was unpleasant. I don’t know how to describe the detail in her dress, but it is lovely, and her scarf gives a nice bit of color to relieve the black cloth.

And Jake Remington brought us a sculpture:

On Food Sunday, demi told a personal story:

I had planned the nicest dinner for last night, but, alas, like the best laid plans of mice and me, it ended in a disaster. Well, not a disaster like a hurricane or another earthquake, just not what I was looking forward to. The menu included rib eye steak, green salad, red potatoes and garlic bread. I had taken the steak off the broiler and put in on a nice serving dish on top of the stove and had put the garlic bread in when the phone rang. It was my sister. We got talking about my dear Aunt Ginny who has been in the hospital all week, basically dying.

She collapsed a week ago and was rushed by ambulance to the medical center. After several days of tests, the doctors announced that she was suffering from heart failure. When I saw her on Tuesday, she was semi-conscious and could nod or shake her head and when I saw her on Thursday, she could still squeeze my hand back in response to the things I was telling her. I told her just how much I love her and reminisced about the fun times I had at her house. I gave her a head and neck massage during that visit.

Kelly Canfield taught us how to make naan:

I am a huge fan of Indian food. I just love all the inventive combinations of spices, vegetables, fruits, curries, relishes, everything!

Mr. B and I make a lot of Hindi inspired food at home, and regardless of what the main and side dishes might be, we just can’t get enough Naan.

This recipe is from Manjula’s Kitchen. (I just love her! She’s so generous.)

Jim Moss discussed ways to fight corporate power, including local food:

Sadly, it appears that Barack Obama is unwilling or unable to take on corporate America. He talks tough, but accommodates when the chips are really on the table – as the health care debate has conveniently demonstrated. More and more Americans are waking up to the fact that with a few notable exceptions, both Republicans and Democrats in Washington are basically employees of corporate lobbyists.

Perhaps one of the best ways to counter the stranglehold large corporations have on our economy and our government is to go underground. We can take the legs out from under the Wal-Marts, Exxons, Monsantos, and Coca-Colas of the world by finding alternatives to the corporate-consumer culture we have been raised in. Here’s a quick list of 5 ways we can get started.

Jessica Glasscoe had a recipe for peach cobbler:

When I come home from the farmer’s market, toting a basket of fruit, the inevitable chain of events that follows goes something like this: I place the fruit on the counter, walk over to my recipe binders to grab the blue dessert binder, then go stand in front of my cookbook cabinet, scanning titles, mentally flipping the pages I know so well, grab a few books for inspiration, then plop myself on the couch, preferrably with a cup of coffee in hand, to decide what fate my little fruits will meet.

A perfect piece of fruit sometimes needs no accompaniment at all, but usually I can’t resist an opportunity to pull out the flour and sugar, so that perfect piece of fruit becomes a perfect little dessert. In the world of desserts, there is terrain I’ve yet to explore…treats and goodies that have never emerged from my oven, such as madeleines and canneles. But when it comes to fruit, I always ponder the classic options first – will it be a pie this time, or a tart? A cobbler or a buckle? A crisp or a slump? Or, a cake, with tender pieces of fruit tucked inside?

Bill Egnor had a recipe for grain bread:

Happy Sunday everyone! This week I had a request for a multi-grain bread, but one that was not too heavy on the rye. The Dark Grains bread is a perfect fit. The loaves come out a nice dark color and give a rich and complex taste. Liz does not love this loaf, so I am just going to give you the recipe, no pictures this time around. Sorry, but you don’t really need pictures to make this bread. There are only one set of instructions, as it can not really be made in stand mixer, this bread is old school all the way.

This makes two medium loaves

This dough has to be kneaded by hand; it is way too heavy for a stand mixer.

And Toby Wollin had the news, all the dirt that’s fit to print:

And, good food and good day to everyone! To the News!!

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had a confirmed case of BSE in a cow but the news was not released for several weeks. The ‘money quote’ here is at the end of the article: Rates of testing are down on cow populations being brought into the US. Mad Cow Disease Case Hidden

Looking for a list of foods which have been recalled due to the hydrolyzed vegetable protein case? Here’s one: http://efoodalert.blogspot.com/2010/03/wheres-hvp-check-this-list-of-recalled.html

Organic and sustainable food advocates hit Capital Hill this week against S.510 and (gasp!) served RAW MILK! http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/03/libertarian-farmers-push-back-against-s510/

Head over, check out the posts, leave us a comment, and we’ll see you next weekend for more art and food!

Tags: Culture, Food Sunday, Saturday Art