Day: December 2, 2008

Will There Be A WMD Attack?

This is from a report in the WaPo written by Joby Warrick.

The odds that terrorists will soon strike a major city with weapons of mass destruction are now better than even, a bipartisan congressionally mandated task force concludes in a draft study that warns of growing threats from rogue states, nuclear smuggling networks and the spread of atomic know-how in the developing world.

The sobering assessment of such threats, due for release as early as today, singled out Pakistan as a grave concern because of its terrorist networks, history of instability and arsenal of several dozen nuclear warheads. The report urged the incoming Obama administration to take “decisive action” to reduce the likelihood of a devastating attack.

The report, ordered by Congress last year, concludes that terrorists are more likely to obtain materials for a biological attack than to buy or steal nuclear weapons. But it says the nuclear threat is growing rapidly, in part because of the increasing global supply of nuclear material and technology

While the panel found the risk of an attack with such weapons to be increasingly serious, “nuclear terrorism is still a preventable catastrophe,” the report says. It calls for aggressive steps to secure unguarded stockpiles of nuclear weapons material such as uranium and plutonium, as well as coordinated international efforts to discover and disrupt smuggling rings that traffic in atomic technology.

It also urges a dramatic overhaul of the international institutions and treaties that have sought to slow the spread of nuclear weapons since the 1950s. The landmark Non-Proliferation Treaty should be dramatically toughened, the report recommends, with the addition of real penalties for violators and a more robust International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out inspections and enforce the rules.

Okay, this report sounds more like an attempt to justify some upcoming debate in the Congress.

Meet The National Security Team

The formal introduction of the incoming Obama administration’s national security team at a Chicago hotel on Monday provided a definitive exposure not merely of the fraudulent character of the “change you can believe in” mantra of the Democratic presidential campaign, but more importantly of the failure of American democracy itself.

There on the platform with the president-elect was Senator Hillary Clinton, his nominee for secretary of state, and Robert Gates, whom Obama has asked to remain at the post of secretary of defense to which George W. Bush appointed him. Rounding out the nominees for the key national security positions was retired Marine Gen. James Jones, tapped to serve as national security adviser.

The significance of these choices is unmistakable. They represent an open and contemptuous repudiation of the will of the voters expressed just last month. While millions turned out at the polls in November with the aim of putting an end to eight years of war and repression under the Bush administration, Monday’s announcement signaled there will be no such change.

I have heard from other sources that this is just a ploy to keep the media and the Repubs off balance while he tries an end run to the Left.  I think that analysis is just wrong.  He, Obama, once the nomination was his, he ran to the center and that is where he is today, if not a bit right of center.  Sorry guys change is not in the cards.

New UAW Concessions

United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger gave his most open pledge yet Sunday that the union would work to impose further sharp concessions on US auto workers.

Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “Late Edition,” Gettelfinger said the union is “prepared to go back to the bargaining table” and reopen the four-year labor agreements signed in 2007.

The UAW president’s remarks came as Detroit’s Big Three automakers were readying proposals to present to Congress on Tuesday that will include outlines for further downsizing and cost-cutting in the attempt to return the companies to profitability. According to a report in the New York Times Monday, these plans include a “significant shrinking” of GM’s North American operations, including shutting more factories, eliminating brands and delaying or reneging on billions the company pledged to pay into a newly-established union-controlled fund for retiree health care benefits.

Both Democrats and Republicans have demanded concessions in return for any government loan to avert bankruptcy. The UAW bureaucracy completely accepts the consensus of the American political and media establishment, and is working behind the backs of its membership to negotiate cuts.

The contracts signed by the union last year imposed historic concessions on auto workers, including a fifty percent cut in wages for new-hires and so-called non-assembly workers, and the ending of employer-paid retiree health care benefits. But this was considered inadequate by the most powerful financial and political interests, which are using the crisis in the auto industry to destroy the conditions of auto workers and set a precedent for an attack on the entire working class.

Finally, It Is A Recession!

For months now the Bush boyz have been denying that there is a recession.  They say stuff like,  “the economy is sound” or “it is just a slowdown” or “it is all in our minds” and “we are just whiners”.

Finally let the truth be known.

The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .

The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures.

The NBER said that the deterioration in the labor market throughout 2008 was one key reason why it decided to state that the recession began last year.

The NBER also looks at real personal income, industrial production as well as wholesale and retail sales. All those measures reached a peak between November 2007 and June 2008, the NBER said.

In addition, the NBER also considers the gross domestic product, which is the reading most typically associated with a recession in the general public.

Many people erroneously believe that a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of economic activity declining. That has yet to take place during this recession.

Yes Irene, it is official–WE ARE IN A RECESSION!

States Have Hand Out Too

Obama and congressional Democrats have promised that soon after Inauguration Day he will sign an economic stimulus bill that could exceed $500 billion. The governors intend to request about $176 billion of that — $136 billion for infrastructure projects and $40 billion to bolster Medicaid health programs that serve the poor and disabled.

As the economic downturn has swept from the housing market to financial institutions to the automobile industry, Obama has begun sketching out plans to address a recession that most experts project will be deep and long lasting. At the heart of his approach is a massive infusion of federal tax dollars.

Unlike the federal government, which can run a deficit, most states are required to balance their budgets. In tough financial times, Medicaid often faces a double squeeze, said Diane Rowland, executive director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Just as the money is drying up, more people are in need of assistance.

It appears there is growing support for a sizable federal investment in infrastructure, which Rendell and Douglas said goes beyond the traditional road and bridge repairs to include public transit, water and sewer projects and even broadband Internet. The two governors said states have $136 billion worth of “ready-to-go” projects.