Monday Morning News and Views

Protests at the ABA annual meeting in Chicago

Good Morning Conflucians! I’ve been grading papers nonstop over the weekend, so I’m a little bit out of touch with what’s happening in the news. From what I can gather through my web surfing this morning, it looks to me like the two biggest stories on the domestic front are the protests late last night at the American Bankers Association annual meeting in Chicago and the health care reform battle, which seems to be building to a crescendo. In international news, violence has been increasing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BANKSTER BLOWBACK

In Chicago, protests rained on the bankers’ parade at the annual meeting of the American Bankers Association (ABA).

Besieged by activists from the Service Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO and Americans for Financial Reform, the leaders of America’s financial sector were interrupted Sunday night as a throng of protesters poured into the conference area and began to chant.

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“All we wanted to do was deliver a letter to the Wall Street bankers to let them know how much they’ve hurt our communities – and what they need to do to clean up their act,” the SEIU’s blog declared. “They wouldn’t listen to us. They kicked us out. But, the bad news for them is that we’ll be back. We’re not going to leave after tonight. In fact, more and more people are coming to Chicago in the next 48 hours. What started as a thousand people tonight will continue to grow up until Tuesday when more than 5,000 taxpayers march on the ABA and demand an end to Wall Street greed.”

Here’s the video:

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin spoke to the protesters, calling on the bankers to visit a local middle-class neighborhood where people are losing their homes right and left.

“I would like the bankers who come to Chicago … to visit 60629,” Durbin said, referring to the city’s Marquette Park neighborhood near Midway Airport. “Nice neat little brick bungalow homes well kept. Some swimming pools in the backyard. A lot of hardworking families. On every single block … know what you’re going to find? A foreclosed home.”

Marquette Park is no different from neighborhoods nationwide, he said. Durbin spoke in a downtown hotel conference room before about 500 protesters who traveled to Chicago to target the American Bankers Association’s annual meeting.

Durbin and protesters accuse the ABA of lobbying against banking reform despite the organization’s members receiving billions in federal bailout dollars.

Why wouldn’t it have been easier for Durbin to just support a Democrat for the Democratic nomination for President? I guess I’m and “idealist.”

I didn’t see many reports of this protest in the MSM. Huffpo has the Durbin speech posted.

Some of the planned speakers at the Bankster Ball are Newt Gingrich, Shiela Barr, and George Will.

The New York Times has a story on supposed government plans to “rein in” huge banks.

A senior administration official said on Sunday that after extensive consultations with Treasury Department officials, Representative Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would introduce legislation as early as this week. The measure would make it easier for the government to seize control of troubled financial institutions, throw out management, wipe out the shareholders and change the terms of existing loans held by the institution.

The official said the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, was planning to endorse the changes in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday.

The White House plan as outlined so far would already make it much more costly to be a large financial company whose failure would put the financial system and the economy at risk. It would force such institutions to hold more money in reserve and make it harder for them to borrow too heavily against their assets.

Setting up the equivalent of living wills for corporations, that plan would require that they come up with their own procedure to be disentangled in the event of a crisis, a plan that administration officials say ought to be made public in advance.

OK, that sounds good, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Sorry to be so cynical this morning.

HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL

Apparently, there have been rumors flying around that Obama doesn’t really support the public option and is working behind the scenes to undermine it. The White House posted a rebuttal of these “rumors” on the WH blog. It still reads like a non-denial denial to me, but it’s nice that Obama feels enough pressure to issue one of those anyway.

John Aravosis at Americablog is unimpressed.

The White House has issued yet another general statement saying how much it likes the public option. That’s nice. So what exactly has the President done to lobby individual Senators to get Harry Reid the remaining 1, 2, or 3 votes he needs to include the public option in the bill?

On Saturday, Sam Stein at Huffpo reported that

President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform. In its place, say multiple Democratic sources, Obama has indicated a preference for an alternative policy, favored by the insurance industry, which would see a public plan “triggered” into effect in the future by a failure of the industry to meet certain benchmarks.

The administration retreat runs counter to the letter and the spirit of Obama’s presidential campaign. The man who ran on the “Audacity of Hope” has now taken a more conservative stand than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), leaving progressives with a mix of confusion and outrage.

After the WH issued Obama’s non-denial denial, Stein posted an update at Huffpo in which he says that “sources on the Hill and off remain skeptical,” and that Obama still backs the Olympia Snowe plan to have a public option “triggered” only if private insurance plans fail to lower costs.

Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, one of the few remaining liberals in the Senate, hinted on “Face the Nation” yesterday he might not vote for a bill without a public option. You can watch Feingold’s appearance here. He talks quite a bit about Afghanistan first, and that is interesting.

Big Tent Democrat has it just about right on the fake Obama support of the public option {snort}. He does argue that issuing the non-denial denial “makes it tougher for Obama to publically support triggers. That’s a good thing.” I guess, but I think Obama will keep trying to sabotage real reform as long as he possibly can.

At Raw Story, there is a report that the Senate bill may “drop the employer mandate.”

Businesses would not be required to provide health insurance under legislation being readied for Senate debate, but large firms would owe significant penalties if any worker needed government subsidies to buy coverage on their own, according to Democratic officials familiar with talks on the bill.

For firms with more than 50 employees, the fee could be as high as $750 multiplied by the total size of the work force if only a few workers needed federal aid, these officials said. That is a more stringent penalty than in a bill that recently cleared the Senate Finance Committee, which said companies should face penalties on a per-employee basis.

These officials also said individuals would generally be required to purchase affordable insurance if it were available, and face penalties if they defied the requirement.

All these threats of penalties give me the willies. I don’t know if there is going to be any real effort to provide help for people and small business who can’t afford to pay the cost of private health insurance.

MIDDLE EAST

Iraq

Iraq car bombings kill 147 people

The midmorning explosions, in a closely guarded area packed with government buildings, served as a fresh reminder that although U.S. attention has shifted in large part to Afghanistan, Iraq remains a highly volatile place. Some fear it could disintegrate into chaos again even before U.S. forces finish their planned departure.

The car bombings, which occurred within minutes of each other, also indicated that militants appear to have the capacity to strike at will against key targets, despite repeated claims of progress by Iraqi security forces, who have been in charge since June, when U.S. troops withdrew from Iraqi cities.

The explosions ripped through traffic and buildings a block apart, hurling vehicles through the air, incinerating drivers and burning office workers at their desks. Blast walls erected for protection were pulverized. Mangled bodies and pieces of flesh lay strewn around the streets. Water spewed from a destroyed main and collected in blood-tinged pools.

Bagdad casualties are still increasing 155 now dead, 500 injured.

Afghanistan

Afghans protest rumored desecration of Koran by U.S. troops

Hundreds of angry protesters in Afghanistan’s capital burned an effigy of President Obama on Sunday, acting on rumors that American troops had desecrated the Koran.

U.S. military officials emphatically denied that any copies of the Muslim holy book had been mishandled, and they accused the Taliban of spreading falsehoods to incite hatred against Western forces.

The protest — reminiscent of similar demonstrations in Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world in recent years — showed how easily passions involving religious sensitivities can be stirred up even with a dearth of evidence.

The incident also pointed to a strong undercurrent of anti-American sentiment at a politically fraught time in Afghanistan, less than two weeks before a runoff to settle a divisive, fraud-tainted presidential election. The Nov. 7 face-off between President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah was agreed to only after heavy U.S. pressure on Karzai to accept the results of an international audit.

Two Afghan helicopter crashes kill 14 Americans

807 U.S. Military deaths so far in Afghanistan

Obama holding another security meeting on Afghanistan today

Chinese, Indian, and Russian foreign ministers meet today in India to discuss Afghanistan

Pakistan

Pakistan attack kills four troops

About 20 militants, armed with rockets and guns, attacked the Matak post in Bajaur district near the Afghan border overnight, officials said.

“First they lobbed several rockets and then approached the post and opened fire with automatic weapons,” AFP news agency quoted local administration official Ghulam Saidullah as saying.

The “sudden assault” killed four troops and left two wounded, he added.

Officials said soldiers retaliated, killing six Taliban militants and wounding four others.

Iran

Iran ‘could export some uranium’

Iran has said it may agree to send some of its existing stock of low-enriched uranium abroad for further processing.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki’s comments are the first official sign Iran could accept parts of a UN proposal for its nuclear programme.

Under the draft UN plan, Iran would send its enriched uranium to Russia and France to be turned into fuel.

Mr Mottaki told state media Tehran was considering whether to buy enriched uranium instead, but would decide soon.

West treating Iran “unfairly” on nuclear issue – Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has accused the West of treating Iran unfairly over its nuclear programme, in comments that come as world powers await Tehran’s response to a U.N.-drafted plan.

“We are not in favour of there being weapons of mass destruction in Iran and in our region”, Erdogan told Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera, state-run Anatolian news agency said on Monday.

Erdogan, who starts a two day visit to Tehran on Monday, also said in the interview broadcast on Sunday it was “unfair and unjust” to pressure Iran when other countries have such weapons. He did not mention any particular country, but Israel is believed to be the only nuclear-armed Middle East state.

Call to Sack Afghan Election Head

OTHER NEWS

Balloon Boy

Balloon boy’s mom admits the whole thing was a hoax

Mayumi Heene told investigators two days after the incident that she and her husband “had lied to authorities,” according to a copy of a search warrant affidavit published Saturday in The Coloradoan, a Fort Collins newspaper.

“The motive for the fabricated story was to make the Heene family more marketable for future media interest,” the affidavit stated.

The Heenes will face felony charges.

Meanwhile Frank Rich defends Richard Heene. WTF?!

Richard Heene is the inevitable product of this reigning culture, where “news,” “reality” television and reality itself are hopelessly scrambled and the warp-speed imperatives of cable-Internet competition allow no time for fact checking. Norman Lear, about the only prominent American to express any empathy for little Falcon’s father, vented on The Huffington Post, calling out CNN, MSNBC, Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS alike for their role in “creating a climate that mistakes entertainment for news.” This climate, he argued, “all but seduces a Richard and Mayumi Heene into believing they are — even if what they dream up to qualify is a hoax — entitled to their 15 minutes.”

None of this absolves Heene of blame for the damage he may have inflicted on the children he grotesquely used as a supporting cast in his schemes. But stupid he’s not. He knew how easy it would be to float “balloon boy” when the demarcation between truth and fiction has been obliterated.

Misogynist Rich expresses no concern for Mrs. Heene, who may be an abused wife.

Balloon boy’s mother leaves home with victim’s advocate, sheriff’s deputy

Is the Mother of ‘Balloon Boy’ in Danger?

Is the mother of “Balloon Boy” in danger from her husband, Richard Heene? A former colleague of Mayumi Heene’s, comedienne Sunda Croonquist…[told Entertainment Tonight] “I was always afraid for Mayumi,”…getting emotional. “I could tell there was something amiss or out of place. … I said to myself, if this kid fell out [of the balloon], I should have done something years ago.”

Sunda has been close with the Heene family since 1999, when they started working together….
“I think they’re all in danger,” she says. “I have no idea what’s on Richard’s mind. … If he goes down, they’re all going down with him — that’s how I feel; that’s just my opinion.”

Sunda adds that she feels there is something “unbalanced” about Richard and advises Mayumi to take their children back to Japan if she has to in order to avoid having them being taken away by child protective services.

I know some people think I shouldn’t focus on this story, but I tend to react strongly when I see kids being exploited or abused. I’ve felt all along there had to be abuse in the Heene family, and now it seems my intuition was probably on target.

White House War with Fox News

Fox News relishes Obama administration scorn

“This Week” roundtable discusses the issue. They think it’s time for a “JFK moment.” A bunch of conservative pundits rant about Obama, ACORN, etc.

Sarah Palin

Ideology trumps party for Palin

NYT Editorial: Torching the Big Tent

Podcasts

Nobel Prize winner Eleanor Ostrom checks in at NPR’s Planet Money

Study: Bears Know Minivans Are Their Meal Ticket

“Saw” writers on horror punchlines

Fresh Air with Terri Gross: Looking Back On ‘Wild Things’ With Maurice Sendak

HAVE A MARVELOUS MONDAY!!!!!!

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