Friday, February 13, 2009
Conyers subpoenas Rove a third time.........
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. D-MI) has subpoenaed Karl Rove a third time, asking him to appear Monday, Feb. 23 for a deposition to testify about his knowledge about the US Attorney firings and the alleged political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. "Pursuant to my letter to you of Jan. 29, 2009, and your agreement to accept service on behalf of Karl Rove, I am enclosing a subpoena for Mr. Rove to appear and provide testimony by deposition on Feb. 23, 2009, at 10:00am in room 2138 of the Rayburn House Office Building," Conyers wrote Robert Luskin, Rove's D.C. Attorney....Link
Blackwater to change name to 'Xe'.....
RALEIGH, N.C. - Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning its tarnished brand name. Blackwater officials said Friday its family of two dozen business will now operate under the name Xe (zee), pronounced like the letter "z." The decision comes as part of an ongoing rebranding effort that grew more urgent following a September 2007 shooting in Iraq that left at least a dozen civilians dead. Blackwater president Gary Jackson said in a memo to employees the new name reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security...Link
Passed..........
WASHINGTON – In a major victory for President Barack Obama, Democrats muscled a huge, $787 billion stimulus bill to the brink of final passage Friday night in hopes of combating the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Republican opposition was nearly unanimous. The vote in the House was 246-183 for the package of tax cuts and federal spending that Obama made the centerpiece of his plan for economic recovery.Link
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Latin America and the Drug War............
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The war against drugs is failing and the U.S. government should break with "prohibition" policies that have achieved little more than cram its prisons and stoke violence, three former Latin American presidents said on Wednesday. The respected former presidents urged the United States and Latin American governments to move away from jailing drug users to debate the legalization of marijuana and place more emphasis on the treatment of addicts. Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria said there was no meaningful debate over drugs policy in the United States, despite a broad consensus that current policies had failed...Link
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
U.S. stimulus bill pushes e-health records for all.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved an $838 billion "stimulus" bill by a 61-37 vote, capping more than a week of political sparring between critics of the measure and President Obama, who claimed during a press conference that an "economic emergency" made it necessary. What didn't come up during the president's first press conference was how one section of the convoluted legislation--it's approximately 800 pages total--is intended to radically reshape the nation's medical system by having the government establish computerized medical records that would follow each American from birth to death. Billions will be handed to companies creating these databases. Billions will be handed to universities to incorporate patient databases "into the initial and ongoing training of health professionals." There's a mention of future "smart card functionality." Yet nowhere in this 140-page portion of the legislation does the government anticipate that some Americans may not want their medical histories electronically stored, shared, and searchable. Although a single paragraph promises that data-sharing will "be voluntary," there's no obvious way to opt out....Link
Maybe we Don't want a Bailout...........
Wall Street banks have taken billions of taxpayer dollars. Now some of them are starting to wonder if they should give the money back. Even before the government announced its latest efforts to fix the troubled banking industry on Tuesday, executives at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley said they wanted to repay the money quickly. Both banks received $10 billion under the first rescue plan last fall. Paying back all those funds would be difficult in this tough economic environment. But banking executives worry that the government may intrude further into their businesses as long as they are beholden to Washington.....Link
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