Monday, September 28, 2009

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FDIC Expected To Ask Banks For $36B In Prepaid Insurance Fees Top
WASHINGTON (AP)-- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. may take the unprecedented step of ordering banks to prepay about $36 billion in premiums to replenish the deposit insurance fund that has been severely depleted by a rash of bank failures. The FDIC board likely will call for "prepaid" bank insurance premiums at its public meeting Tuesday to discuss the issue, three industry executives and a government official said. The banking industry prefers that option over a special emergency fee -- which would be the second this year. The executives and the official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has yet to be made public. It would be the first time the FDIC has required prepaid insurance fees. Under the plan, banks would have to pay in advance their insurance premiums for 2010-2012, bringing in about $12 billion for each of the three years, two of the executives said. That is the normal amount of insurance fees, though it could vary somewhat according to growth in total insured deposits -- the basis for determining the fees. Off the table, at least for now, are the options of tapping the agency's $500 billion credit line with the Treasury Department and the agency borrowing billions of dollars from healthy banks by issuing its own debt, the industry executives and the government official said. A spokesman for the FDIC declined to comment Monday afternoon. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said earlier this month that she was "considering all options, including borrowing from Treasury," to replenish the insurance fund. Yet she is generally perceived as considering that the most unpalatable approach. Borrowing from the Treasury could create the undesirable impression of another taxpayer-financed bailout, while borrowing from the banks might make the FDIC look as if it were beholden to the banking industry, experts say. Losses on commercial real estate and other soured loans have caused 95 bank failures so far this year amid the most severe financial climate in decades. The insurance fund fell 20 percent to $10.4 billion at the end of June, its lowest point since 1992, at the height of the savings-and-loan crisis. The fund has now slipped to 0.22 percent of insured deposits, below a congressionally mandated minimum of 1.15 percent. Some analysts expect hundreds more banks to fail in the coming years and the FDIC forecasts the fund will need $70 billion through 2013 to deal with those losses. But the FDIC is fully backed by the government, which means depositors' money is guaranteed up to $250,000 per account. Besides the prepayment plan, the agency could still later propose an emergency assessment, or a transfer of cash collected in fees from the FDIC's temporary rescue program that guarantees hundreds of billions of dollars of debt that banks issue to each other. The agency has collected about $9 billion in fees from banks issuing debt under the program, and $596.7 million of it already has gone into the deposit insurance fund. The first emergency fee, which took effect June 30, brought in an estimated $5.6 billion. Another one would allow the healthiest banks to keep more capital for investment, but could drive weaker banks toward failure, further depleting the insurance fund. "I think they will continue to levy (emergency) assessments on an ad hoc basis," said Bert Ely, a banking industry consultant in Alexandria, Va. Bair acknowledged earlier this month that the agency did not want to "stress the industry too much at this time, when they're still in the process of recovery." U.S. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, who with Bair is a member of the FDIC board, has said another emergency levy "could cause more stressful conditions." "We're pleased that they're looking at alternatives to another special assessment," said Karen Thomas, executive vice president of government relations at the Independent Community Bankers of America. In addition to the insurance fund, the FDIC has about $21 billion in cash available in reserve to cover losses at failed banks, down from $25 billion at the end of the first quarter. The independent agency likely wouldn't consider tapping its credit line at the Treasury unless that cash were depleted, FDIC officials have said. Treasury Department officials and regulators, meanwhile, are weighing a fresh round of bailouts for banks that were deemed too risky to qualify for earlier aid. Representatives from the Treasury, the FDIC and the House Financial Services Committee discussed the plan by phone last week. Small community banks are struggling, and officials and industry representatives are considering how to get money to those banks. The new program could force Treasury to postpone closing its $700 billion bailout fund, which is scheduled to expire this year. The money could go to banks whose ratings by examiners made them too weak to qualify for earlier rounds of rescue funding. The banks could be required to raise matching money in the private markets. More on Banks
 
Sydney Finkelstein, Ph.D.: Jeff Immelt: "Reflections on Leadership for Social Change" Top
Jeff Immelt has one of the toughest jobs in America. He's CEO of a company -- General Electric -- with operations around the world, in numerous industries, and with big business challenges that are still on the table. He's been named one of the "World's Best CEOs" three times by Barron's, and GE continues to win accolades in surveys in Fortune and the Financial Times as one of the most respect companies in the world. So when Jeff Immelt agreed to participate in new Dartmouth President Jim Kim's Panel on Leadership for Social Change in Hanover, NH September 21, it was a big deal. And he didn't disappoint. This clip from the panel discussion is a classic case in point. I asked Jeff about some of the pivotal events in his life that had a major impact on the direction of his career, and he jumped to his Dartmouth years. His conversations with former President John Kemeny, who he worked for as a grader of math assignments, would have made for fascinating listening to be sure. Kemeny was one of the greatest academic leaders and innovators of the 20th century, and I would have loved to be a fly on the wall as he quizzed Jeff about what was happening at the College. The lesson Jeff drew from those experiences should resonate with most anyone who stops to think about it: The smartest people ask more questions than they answer! I like that lesson because as a teacher, I am in the business of asking questions, both to students in the classroom and to executives I interact with as an advisor. But the lesson is more powerful than that because all of us, regardless of what we do for a living, can help ourselves by being open to new ideas and different points of view. It's all about the learning. The more we learn, the better we become, and the more we can do, for others and ourselves. So Lesson #1 ends, appropriately, with a question: How can we learn something new, today?
 
Dean Pans Senate Health Care Bill: "This Is A Bill That George Bush Would Love" (VIDEO) Top
Howard Dean panned the health care reform bill currently in the Senate Finance Committee as one that "George Bush would love" because "it's a massive redistribution of government tax payers' money to the insurance industry": Exactly the same thing that was going in the banking industry and other industries on Wall Street. It is a bad bill, the Finance Committee bill. It doesn't insure people and it spends an awful lot of money and it gives it away to the insurance companies. So I do think ultimately the bill will have a public option because I don't think the Democratic party is going to stand for this. WATCH: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy Send us tips! Write us at tv@huffingtonpost.com if you see any newsworthy or notable TV moments. Read more about our media monitoring project here and click here to join the Media Monitors team. More on Health Care
 
North Korea Warns Against Sanctions, Says It Will Strengthen Arsenal If They're Imposed Top
UNITED NATIONS — North Korea says it will strengthen its nuclear arsenal if new sanctions are imposed because of its weapons program. Pak Kil Yon, the country's deputy foreign minister, told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday that his country would however "react to dialogue with a dialogue" with the United States. Washington had previously demanded the North first return to the six-nation negotiations before allowing bilateral talks. The U.S. now says it is considering direct talks if that would bring the North back to negotiations. Although the Obama administration is pursuing diplomacy with the North, U.S. officials are tightening sanctions and pushing Asian nations and others to implement punitive U.N. measures. More on North Korea
 
Trish Nelson: Demand Rational Radio! Top
Have you had enough of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dennis Miller, Michael Savage, Jan Mickelson, Steve Deace, Fred Thompson, and friends saturating the publicly owned radio airwaves across Iowa and across the nation? Here's what we're doing about it in eastern Iowa. Let's make it a statewide/nationwide effort. Please pass this on. Start a petition in your community. Get after your local station. If you live in eastern Iowa, sign our online petition Three years ago, approximately 500 citizens signed a petition to bring progressive talk programming to Iowa City Radio Station KXIC 800 AM. We made the case that it would be good business sense because of the high proportion of listeners in the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids corridor area who hold progressive views. The petition, accompanying letters, and public pressure were successful, resulting in KXIC adding two progressive programs, Thom Hartmann and The Randi Rhodes Show from Air America Radio. Shortly after these programs began airing, the 2006 mid-term elections occurred, which were disastrous for Republicans. Clear Channel subsequently pulled the plug on much of its progressive programming around the country, and Iowa lost what few progressive programs it had. Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes vanished from our local station, KXIC, and today, the most progressive geographic area in the state is forced to endure Sean Hannity from 2-5 daily in their place. In 2006 in the Quad Cities, a local station, WKBF 1270 AM, aired progressive talker Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, several Air America programs, and a locally produced progressive talk show. WKBF 1270 AM, also a casualty of Clear Channel's 2007 mass station-flipping, is now a 24-hour Christian station (www.truth1270 - that requires listeners (owners of the airwaves) to register and log in before you can even see the program schedule. Again, we find ourselves three years later, asking our local station, KXIC 800 AM, to broadcast more balanced programming, because the exclusive broadcasting of conservative opinion does not reflect or represent the range of political views of our diverse community. See Action steps below. [FYI: 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and 9 percent is progressive, according to a 2007 American Progress report. Arbitron, the national radio ratings company, reports that more than 90 percent of Americans ages 12 or older listen to radio each week, "a higher penetration than television, magazines, newspapers, or the Internet."] **ACTION** 1 - Please sign our online petition 2 - Please e-mail KXIC : JohnLaton@ClearChannel.com Send a brief note. Use your own words why you feel your local station should air more balanced programming. 3 - Please call KXIC Business Lines: (319) 354-9500 [Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.] Studio Lines: (319) 354-0800 866-609-TALK (8-2-5-5) Fax: (319) 354-9504 Snail Mail: 3365 NE Dubuque St, Iowa City, IA 52240 4 - Please write a letter to the editor Cedar Rapids Gazette: editorial@gazettecommunications.com Iowa City Press-Citizen: opinion@press-citizen.com Daily Iowan: diopletters@gmail.com or use their webform @ www.dailyiowan.com 5 - Please pass this on to all of your progressive friends and lists. Thanks, everybody! Iowa Rapid Response Action Team and PREIA (Progressive Radio for Eastern Iowa)
 
Terry Krepel: WorldNetDaily Red-Baits Obama Top
Aaron Klein seems not to be aware that the 2008 presidential election is over. The WorldNetDaily Jerusalem bureau chief as repeatedly endeavored to tie Barack Obama to assorted nefarious folks, from getting a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas to endorse Obama (the circumstances of which Klein has yet to fully explain) to tying him to Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi (even though Obama's Republican opponent, John McCain, had similar ties that Klein mostly ignored). Obama handily defeated McCain in November 2008 -- arguably a public repudiation of the kind of tactics Klein engaged in -- but Klein seems not to have noticed. In fact, Klein redoubled his guilt-by-association methods, but with a new focus: communism and socialism. As ConWebWatch previously reported , a Dec. 5, 2008, article by Klein mined a blog post by former Weatherman member Jeff Jones to baselessly present speculation that Obama "is 'feigning' a centrist position on some issues so he can ultimately push through a radical agenda" as indisputable fact. But Jones has no connection whatsoever to Obama, despite Klein's attempt to suggest otherwise. On Dec. 21, 2008, Klein tarred labor secretary-designee Rep. Hilda Solis as having "close ties to U.S. communist and socialist organizations" because ... she once sent a representative to a gathering of socialists 12 years ago, and because socialists have allegedly said nice things about her. Klein used a Jan. 19 article to once again raise the specter of "anti-Israel professor Rashid Khalidi" and his alleged connections to Obama. But nowhere did Klein mention that Khalidi has ties to prominent Republicans including McCain. In a Feb. 11 article , Klein cited "the leader of the Communist Party USA" as claiming that Obama is "considering" a "radical agenda to nationalize the U.S. financial system, the Federal Reserve Bank, and private industries." Klein somehow fails to mention that the leader of the Communist Party USA is not a member of the Obama administration and cannot be plausibly portrayed as speaking for Obama. That sparked a Pavlovian response from WND columnist Janet Porter, who immediately cited Klein's article as evidence that Obama is not just a communist but a sleeper agent, which she further illustrated with an unsubstantiated claim purportedly made by an unidentified Russian that Obama "is one of us, a Soviet." Misleadingly presenting such guilt-by-association evidence, though, is Klein's stock in trade: -- A March 1 article cited a speech "a gathering sponsored by the official newspaper of the Community Party USA" that Obama represents "one of the best opportunities that Americans have had in decades" on the issue of civil rights. Klein doesn't explain why he apparently considers civil rights to be a communist concept. -- In an April 5 article , Klein published the musings of "one of the founders of the Weathermen terrorist organization," Mark Rudd, as an attempt to paint Obama as a radical, even though Klein has never presented evidence that Obama has ever been in the same room as Rudd or even knows the man's name. This was an apparent follow-up to a guilt-by-association article Klein published the previous September asserting that Rudd "is a signatory to an independent organization acting to ensure the election of" Obama. -- Klein complained in April 20 article that Rosa Brooks, a former newspaper columnist who is now an adviser to an undersecretary of defense, once "claimed the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel arguments for prosecuting the war on terrorism were similar to tactics used by Hitler." At no point does Klein acknowledge, let alone object to, the numerous smears of Obama-as-Nazi his employer has published. The headline for Klein's article misleadingly asserts, "Pentagon official blames U.S. for al-Qaida attacks." Brooks claimed no such thing, and Klein himself doesn't make that specific claim; he writes that Brooks' statement that "Today, the chickens are coming home to roost" is evidence that Brooks "inferred attacks against the U.S. were a result of torture policies." Of course, WND itself published a similar blame-America column after the 9/11 attacks that it later deleted from its website without explanation. Klein got even more tangental in a June 19 article whose headline shouts: "Obama tied to Ayers ... at age 11." That's the first clue we're in for yet another desperate smear job. Klein's story is about a the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, "where President Obama attended Sunday school," which apparently has a history of "political activism." Klein then slips into screed territory, declaring that church as "a far-left activist church that may have helped provide the president's initial political education" -- specifically, that the church "served as a sanctuary for draft dodgers and was strongly tied to the Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, during the time Weatherman radical Bill Ayers was a leader in that organization. The Weathermen was an offshoot of the SDS." And therein lies Klein's desperate Obama smear: The SDS connection to Obama's boyhood church is instrumental. During last year's presidential campaign, Obama notoriously brushed off Ayers' extremism as irrelevant since most of the Weathermen radical's violent actions were carried out when Obama was a kid. Klein offered no evidence that the SDS carried out any "violent actions" when Ayers "was a leader in that organization" -- or any violent actions at all, for that matter, let alone did any of that at the church Obama attended. Nor did Klein offer any evidence that Obama was actually exposed to any SDS activities as a child, though he ominously asserted that Obama "likely learned values during his Sunday school days at the First Unitarian in the early 1970s." Klein then went completely off the conspiratorial rails. Among the evidence he cited for the church's activities as "a hotbed of far-leftist activism," Klein states that the church was "instrumental in founding the League of Women Voters." The League of Women Voters is a "far-leftist activist" organization? In July, following an incident involving Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and local police -- and, specifically, after President Obama commented on it -- Klein engaged in a near-constant effort to smear and discredit Gates as an extremist and tie him around Obama's neck, penning at least five articles on Gates that attempt to link him to various "radical black activists" and even denigrating pioneering black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, whose namesake institute at Harvard Gates heads, as little more than "an avowed communist and also a socialist sympathizer." Klein even dredged up a 1996 speech in which Gates "uses the N-word." Such smear jobs are what WorldNetDaily does to people who run afoul of its far-right, anti-Obama ideology. Klein continued to go far afield in an Aug. 23 article asserting that Obama "participated in a controversial 1990s political party with a socialist agenda." But Klein's assertion of "participation" is way overstated: He reports that he was listed in "the party's official newspaper" as a member of the New Party, which seems to be contradicted by his quoting of a New Party official that Obama met with a party subcommittee "to see if his stand on the living wage and similar reforms was the same as ours," and that Obama was not a member of the New Party "in any practical way." But Klein insisted there was "qualifying language" involved, because while Obama never signed a contract to become an official member of the party, the party official said "we simply affirmed there was no need to do so, because on all the key points, the stand of his campaign and the New Party reform planks were practically the same." The only real victim of Klein's re-baiting crusade thus far has been Van Jones, appointed by the Obama White House as a "green jobs czar." Klein reported in April -- based on a claim made by a right-wing New Zealand blogger -- that Jones was an "admitted radical communist and black nationalist leader." Klein continued to hammer away at Jones, but it wasn't until Fox News host Glenn Beck started repeating the allegations that they gained any traction. After an organization Jones cofounded, Color of Change, launched an advertiser boycott of Beck's show, causing dozens of advertisers to flee, Beck's attacks intensified. Jones ultimately resigned his position shortly after it was revealed that he signed a petition asking for an investigation of whether the Bush administration "deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war." Unsurprisingly, WND rushed to take credit; editor and CEO Joseph Farah gloated that WND "first broke the Van Jones story in April and relentlessly pursued it for five months to the bitter end." No, actually, it was a blog in New Zealand that "broke" the Jones story; Klein merely copied it, and even then it was mostly ignored until Beck latched onto it. But Farah's not one to let facts get in the way of his gloating. He went on to absurdly add, "Once there was a story of a blue dress. Now there's the story of a red czar," as if a presidential sex scandal and the controversial beliefs of a low-level administration official could ever be considered equal. By then, Klein was off constructing a grand unification theory of red-baiting. As he wrote in a Sept. 8 article : Was Valerie Jarrett, one of President Obama's closest advisers, introduced to the president's political circles by her father-in-law, a communist sympathizer who worked with the radical Obama mentor Frank Marshall Davis? Jarrett reportedly interviewed Obama's former environmental adviser Van Jones for his White House position from which he resigned this past weekend. Davis is the "controversial labor movement activist" whom WND's Jerome Corsi thinks is Obama's real father. Klein has reverted to some of his old anti-Muslim smears from time to time to attack the Obama administration. A Jan. 27 article asserted that Obama "hailed a so-called 'Saudi Peace Initiative,' which offers normalization of ties with the Jewish state in exchange for extreme Israeli concessions." But the Obama excerpt Klein included in his article clearly demonstrates that Obama did not "hail" or "trumpet" it in the way Klein has portrayed it. In the quote Klein includes from Obama's "interview with an Arab television network," which Klein bizarrely can't bring himself to identify by name -- it's al-Arabiya -- Obama stated that "I might not agree with every aspect of the proposal." Further, it's clear from the full transcript of the interview, which Klein did not include in his article, that Obama was speaking in terms of a peace process that would cover the entire Middle East region, not the narrow endorsement of every aspect of the Saudi Peace Initiative that Klein suggests. Further, Klein also ignored the fact that Obama stated his support for Israel. After Klein cut off Obama's remarks, Obama said: Now, Israel is a strong ally of the United States. They will not stop being a strong ally of the United States. And I will continue to believe that Israel's security is paramount. But I also believe that there are Israelis who recognize that it is important to achieve peace. They will be willing to make sacrifices if the time is appropriate and if there is serious partnership on the other side. And so what we want to do is to listen, set aside some of the preconceptions that have existed and have built up over the last several years. And I think if we do that, then there's a possibility at least of achieving some breakthroughs. Klein also asserted that "Defenders of Israel warn the plan would leave the Jewish state with truncated, difficult-to-defend borders and could threaten Israel's Jewish character by compelling it to accept millions of foreign Arabs." But Klein quotes no one making such claims, nor does he explain why he makes the assumption that a supporter of the plan, or peace in the Middle East as a whole, equals not being a "defender of Israel." A Feb. 24 article attacked Chas Freeman, nominated by Obama to head the National Intelligence Council, as once having "business ties to Osama bin Laden's family." But in baselessly suggesting that Freeman is tied to Osama bin Laden, Klein fails to report relevant details showing the lack of connection between Osama's terrorism and the bin Laden family's business interests. In fact, Osama's brother Bakr bin Laden, chairman of the family construction firm, publicly renounced Osama bin Laden in a statement released to the media in February 1994. Instead, Klein claimed that "some bin Laden factions have not disowned Osama" -- but never bothers to prove his implication that Freeman is in any way associated with those "factions." Klein's fellow conservatives denounced such tactics. Newsmax's Ronald Kessler, for example, wrote on March 11 that tying Freeman to bin Laden was "unfair" and a "non sequitur," pointing out where Klein wouldn't that "Years before bin Laden began attacking American interests, his family severed ties with him when Saudi Arabia expelled him and confiscated his assets." Yet Klein didn't give up his tangental smears. Klein claimed in a Feb. 25 article that Freeman "once peddled a book to U.S. public schools that falsely claims Muslims inhabited North America far before European explorers." But Klein offers no evidence at Freeman personally "peddled" this book, as he states. Rather, all Klein offers is that the organization Freeman heads, the Middle East Policy Council, once promoted it. (Freeman later withdrew his nomination.) Ultimately, this particular
 
Sunil Adam: Does Karzai Really Approve McChrystal's Plan? Top
Does the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul really favor additional American troops build-up in Afghanistan as Gen. Stanley McChrystal has sought in his "Commander's Initial Assessment"? CNN's Christiane Amanpour was the first to get President Karzai on record on the subject when she interviewed him on Sunday and asked him specifically if he supported the general's call for more American troops in Afghanistan. The Afghan president parsed his answer very carefully saying he supported some aspects of the general's recommendations. "I found some very important elements in the report that I fully back ... where General McChrystal is asking for more resources in all aspects to boost the effort against terrorism he has our support there, too, full," he told Amanpour. But one can see that he clinically avoided specific mention of more American troops, although Amanpour, with the impatience typical of a television journalist, jumped the gun to conclude that he supports additional troops build up as well. She failed to ask him if there are some other elements that he didn't support in the general's plan. There is, however, another source that betrays the fact that the Afghan president's views on deepening American military involvement in his country are a lot more nuanced than what are apparent. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, India's Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said there is no military solution to the Afghan crisis and the United States would be better off seeking a political solution to the conflict. Of course, Mr. Krishna was not speaking for the Afghan government, but it is safe to assume he wouldn't have commented on such a sensitive issue involving the U.S., without authentic knowledge of the Afghan government's perspective on the matter. India is a very close ally of the Karzai government, next only to what the Bush administration has been. "If there are internal differences within Afghanistan I think the people of Afghanistan, the leaders of Afghanistan, will sort it out by themselves," Mr. Krishna told the Journal . That is a very authoritative statement coming from a representative of a third country, which is a stickler for not commenting on internal affairs of other countries. It is unlikely that the Indian foreign minister would have said so unless he has at the least an inkling of the Karzai government's intent and capability to negotiate deals with forces that are fighting the government and international forces in Afghanistan. Mr. Krishna reiterated similar points in an interview with this blogger on Friday when I approached him about Gen. McChrystal's contention that increased Indian influence in Afghanistan may be exacerbating the situation and might provoke Pakistan to take countermeasures in Afghanistan. He played down Gen. McChrystal's concerns. When asked if India would be willing to scale back its activities in Afghanistan to assuage Pakistan, he said, India has no designs beyond "nation building" efforts in that country, and underscored the fact that India was out there at the invitation of the Afghan government. He however added that India would be willing to cooperate with any country including the United States to stabilize the situation there. More on Afghanistan
 
Jill Vialet: School's Out for...Never? Top
President Barack Obama just made an education proposal even he admitted will spur virulent protest among his closest supporters: Sasha and Malia. Tongue in cheek? Yes. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan's proposal to lengthen school days and shorten summer vacation won't lead to 8-year-olds protesting at town hall meetings any time soon. But their proposal speaks to a fundamental issue our country must confront: whether or not our schools adequately prepare our children for the increasingly competitive global economy. It might ultimately be the right decision to lengthen the school year. But just as the president has identified inefficiencies in our health care system, we also have inefficiencies in our education system. Classrooms are leaking minutes every day because teachers are using precious time resolving conflicts from the playground. And the slow drip, drip, drip every day is adding up -- in some cases to the tune of 18 minutes or more per classroom daily. So before we tack additional hours onto the school day, what if we could find a way to recapture those lost minutes? In fact, there's a way to recapture an entire week for each classroom every year that already exists. It's recess. And it can pay hefty dividends. We can save up to $150,000 per school each year when we reclaim that class time. That's money our schools desperately need. Quality, healthy play can drastically improve the learning environment. When you repair recess, you eliminate many of the distractions that get in the way of learning and free up teachers and principals to do more of what they do best. And when kids have positive, active experiences on the playground, they come back to class more focused and ready to learn. Alanna Lim, principal of Horace Mann Elementary School in Oakland, California, was recently featured on PBS' News Hour for her success in turning recess around. "The teachers spend less time dealing with the problems on the playground in the classroom, so that means more instructional minutes right off the bat. The kids come back more refreshed," she explained. The return on recess can be measured not just by reclaimed class time, but also fewer suspensions or disciplinary problems, better relationships between students and teachers, and improved focus and attention in the classroom. Earlier this year, a study published in Pediatrics by Dr. Romina Barros of Columbia University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine showed that children behave better in the classroom when they have recess -- and students in our urban, low-income schools aren't getting enough of it. The beauty of leveraging recess as a strategy for improving learning is that it is already part of the school day. Take an underutilized time that is a headache for most schools, and turn it into something that helps the entire school day go more smoothly for teachers and students alike. All of these benefits explain why groups like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative , not to mention principals around the nation, are taking recess seriously. So before they add more days to the school calendar, President Obama and Secretary Duncan should help schools subtract the behavioral problems that bog down the school day by deploying training and other resources to improve the quality of recess. That's a solution Sasha and Malia could get behind. Learn more about safe, healthy play and how to repair recess at www.playworks.org . More on Barack Obama
 
Michael Seitzman: And the Best Child Rapist Award Goes To... Top
Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland. Poland is outraged. France is shocked. And Germany? Well, Germany doesn't understand how you can hold someone accountable for something that happened decades ago. Really, Germany? So, let's say you're a parent of a thirteen-year-old girl. A famous Hollywood director, 44 years old, wants to photograph her. He takes her to a big fancy house, but instead of a photo shoot, the 44-year-old man gives your kid drugs and alcohol, then he takes off her clothes, and puts his penis in her mouth. He puts his penis in her vagina. And if that's not enough to turn your stomach, he shoves his penis into her thirteen year old anus. This man is arrested. He makes a deal. Two months in jail. Time already served. Let's stop there for a second. It gets wonky after this and I want to be clear about something. If that kid is my daughter and someone raped her in her mouth, her vagina and her anus and then made a plea bargain for two months time served? I WOULD LOSE MY FUCKING MIND! Half the crowd freaking out about this are saying that the reason he should be free is because the judge back then was going to somehow renege on the plea bargain. Does that make it okay to get on a plane and flee the country? Is that the new rule, we don't like the system so we break more of its laws? Are we a civilized society that believes in the rule of law or aren't we? Or should we just leave the law up to every criminal who claims to have been mistreated by the courts? Some of the get-out-of-jail-free crowd thinks that the reason Polanski should go free is because he's a gifted artist. Okay, I'll accept the premise. Maybe you're right. Instead of an Oscar we should let the Best Director fuck your kids. Yes, Polanski was in a concentration camp. His mother was slaughtered by the Nazis. His wife was horribly murdered with their unborn child inside of her by the Manson Family. All of this is true, all of it is unfathomable and unspeakable. However, if we are going to let rapists off the hook because of their tragic histories we should open the prison doors right now. We don't have an "awful life" defense. We have self-defense and insanity. Neither seems to fit here. There is a victim in this. And it's not the girl-turned-grown-up woman who now forgives her rapist and wants to move on. The victim is the 13-year-old girl she was when this 44-year-old man took advantage of her, got her drunk, and then pushed himself into every available and unavailable orifice he could. We owe that kid something, don't we? We owe every kid like her, past and future, our vigilance and dedication to punishing their attackers, regardless of the rapist's talent and fame. I understand how the world might be confused by America's conflicting moral compass when it comes to sex. But, make no mistake, this wasn't sex. By any civilized country's laws and basic morality, this was rape. He raped her and he ran away. And now he's been arrested. You'll excuse me if I don't really give a shit that France, Poland and Germany don't like it.
 
Shep Smith: Was That Canadian Health Care Story We Just Ran Fair? (VIDEO) Top
"The Fox Report" on Fox News, hosted by anchor Shepard Smith, ran a piece by reporter Dan Springer on how Canada's single-payer health care system is forcing Canadians to come to the United States for care because the waiting period for treatment is too long. The report was intended to contrast negatively with proposals in the U.S. to include a public option in health care reform, however Smith questioned whether the report they just ran was actually fair: Of course you wonder if it's really a fair comparison when no one has introduced a single-payer system here. In fact a government-run option has barely been suggested, at least isn't included at the moment. We'd still have private health insurance here. So, I mean, it's different. Springer defended the comparison by saying that some critics of a public option say it would inevitably lead to a single-payer system because despite their still being private insurers, there is no way they could compete with a plan funded by the government. Smith replied, "Of course the government says, they compete with FedEx and they compete with UPS, and you have options, and that's what they're suggesting here." WATCH: ( H/t Jon) Send us tips! Write us at tv@huffingtonpost.com if you see any newsworthy or notable TV moments. Read more about our media monitoring project here and click here to join the Media Monitors team. More on Health Care
 
Lanny Davis: The Healthy Americans Act - A Health Plan to Please Liberals and Conservatives Top
Last week I described the political riddle of a national health care proposal, called the Healthy Americans Act (HAA), which mandates universal health care insurance for all Americans, pleasing liberals; which empowers individual choices and private market competition, which pleases conservatives; and which fundamentally restructures our health care system substantially to reduce costs, which pleases liberals and conservatives. And it is the only plan among all that has breathtakingly broad bipartisan support. Senate co-sponsors range from Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan to Republicans Bob Bennett of Utah and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the No. 3 in the party's Senate leadership. In the House, co-sponsors ranging from Democrats Anna Eshoo of California, a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee to Republicans Mike Castle of Delaware and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri. This week, as promised, I will explain briefly how this bill works to achieve these goals. And next week I will explain how this act will be paid for -- according to the Congressional Budget Office, producing a revenue-neutral result in the first two years and then a surplus thereafter. That remarkable conclusion was confirmed in a May 2008 letter signed by then CBO-Director Peter Orszag, now President Obama's Office of Management and Budget. The HAA achieves the liberal goal of 100 percent coverage by requiring all Americans and eligible residents to purchase insurance on a public state-administered exchange. Every such exchange must offer, at a minimum, the same Blue Cross plan available to all federal employees and members of Congress (called the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan or "FEHBP") or its "actuarial equivalent." Those workers whose employers provide them with health insurance (estimated by CBO to number about 150 million) would receive an immediate salary increase -- probably their biggest ever in a single year. But they would be required to use the extra cash and given the choice of either (a) purchasing an insurance policy among many listed on the exchange, including the FEHBP-type plan, or if they wish, (b) continuing to be covered under their employer's policy, with the premiums deducted from their paychecks. Each worker would get a standard deduction each year (or, in the House version, a smaller tax credit), meaning virtually all the extra salary for health insurance would not result in any additional income tax liability. Employers would also get to deduct the cash payments to the workers. For the rest of the uninsured, the HAA would provide sufficient cash equivalents from the standard tax deduction (and/or tax credit) for them to afford at least the basic plan available on the state public exchange. And for the poor at the poverty level ($11,000 per year or less), the government would provide a 100 percent subsidy to purchase the same or similar policy. Reduced subsidies would be available on a sliding scale up to 400% of the poverty level, i.e., individuals earning up to approximately $43,000 per year and families earning up to $88,000 per year would receive some cash subsidy. Thus, under the HAA, there would no need further for Medicaid and SCHIP. Here's a revolutionary concept for my fellow liberals: Poor people would be treated like everyone else. In other words, the HAA if enacted would be the death knell of the current dual system of health care, where those with private insurance too often get better medical care than those poor people under Medicaid or poor children under SCHIP, who are too often rejected by private medicine and forced into public clinics and public hospital emergency rooms. Now under the HAA, the second goal can be achieved that conservatives should love -- the unleashing of the power of the private market and competition to keep private insurers sensitive to premium pricing, benefits, and treatment of their customers, rather than a government- takeover and mandates. If under the HAA system private insurance companies don't sharpen their pencils and chase consumers for business on the state exchanges, they will lose out -- or go out of business. And to repeat the baseline concept of the HAA: At a minimum private insurers will be chasing the relatively lower premiums and satisfactory benefits under a Blue Cross FEHBP-type program currently available to all federal employees, from janitors to members of Congress. For those who demand a "public option," one hopes they can get past what seems at times like a robotic mantra and do what President Obama has asked them to do -- consider supporting a surrogate that achieves the same objective of keeping private insurance companies honest through vigorous competition. Blue Cross's FEHBP would arguably perform that function under HAA. Its premiums are affordable, since the base of people in the plan is so large. The Blue Cross FEHBP is regulated, requiring that all will be covered, regardless of pre-existing conditions. And, a little known fact: most state Blue Cross companies enjoy significant federal tax subsidies, estimated to be over $1 billion in a special earmark from the federal treasury. Affordability, regulation, strict requirements for universal and guaranteed coverage for all who wish to be insured, taxpayer subsidies: sure seems like it walks, talks, looks, and achieves the competitive benefits of a pure government-run "public option" plan. The fact is, no other Democratic plan in the Senate or House achieves the HAA's two core objectives: both universal coverage and free choice for all -- including poor people being treated the same as rich people. For example, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the three- committee-approved House bill, H.R. 3200, is estimated to leave out about 9 million non-elderly citizens and legal residents (not counting undocumented aliens), several million of whom are the poor who don't know how to take advantage of Medicaid. Under the HAA, poor people can more easily be brought into the system, since they would be automatically enrolled and receive their wholly subsidized health insurance whenever they have any contact with the government, such as applying for Social Security, a driver's license, or car registration. And no Democratic proposal offers everybody the choice of purchasing a better policy on a public exchange than they have from their employers -- indeed, being able to pocket in cash the difference, if any, between what the employer was paying vs. the price on the state public exchange. In short, under the current Democratic committee plans, very few people could take advantage of a purely public option even if there was one. As Mr. Wyden recently wrote: The problem with these [Democratic] bills, however, is that they would not make the exchanges available to all Americans. Only very small companies and those individuals who can't get insurance outside the exchange -- 25 million people -- would be allowed to shop there....This would leave more than 200 million Americans with no more options, private or public, than they have today. Next week I will explain how HAA also manages to be the only proposal that is immediately deficit-neutral and then, two years later, begins producing a revenue surplus. Lanny J. Davis, a Washington lawyer and former special counsel to President Clinton, served as a member of President George W. Bush's Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. He is the author of "Scandal: How 'Gotcha' Politics is Destroying America." This piece is also published at http://pundits.thehill.com . This piece appeared on Monday, September 28, 2009, in the Washington Times in Mr. Davis regular column, "Purple Nation." Mr. Davis is also interviewed most Mondays about his column for that day on Sirius/XM's POTUS Press Pool, with Joe Mathieu, usually between 12-1 pm. More on Barack Obama
 
Pizza Hut Donates Food For Tweets Top
Pizza Hut, the company that consistently finds new and innovative ways to hide cheese in a pizza, is now putting that cheese to good use by feeding the world's hungry. The pizza chain has pledged to donate four meals (up to 100,000) via World Hunger Relief for every person that retweets a message with a link to their Pay Pal donation page and the hashtag #pizzahut. Check out the original tweet : The 100,000 meal donation is part of a larger campaign by Yum! Brands (the nutritional dynamos who also own KFC and Taco Bell) heralded by spokesperson Christina Aguilera . Since the World Hunger Relief project began in 2007, the group has donated more than $37 million dollars to the UN's World Food Programme, which helps deliver food to those in need around the globe. We've got until October 31 to get 25,000 retweets of this message. Tweet on! P.S. If you still hate Twitter and refuse to sign up, you can always go ahead and donate directly to World Hunger Relief . More on Twitter
 
AKMuckraker: The Ugly Irony of Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue." Top
"Going Rogue," is the title of Sarah Palin's soon-to-be released memoir. It's cute, it's catchy and it will sell some books. The 400-page tome will hit the shelves on November 17th, with a massive first printing of 1.5 million copies. And each one of those book jackets is another jab at two of the many casualties of the Palin administration in Alaska. Politico reports that the phrase has its roots in an Oct. 20 story by Slate's John Dickerson, with the lead: "Has Sarah Palin "gone rogue"?" But those of us who live in Alaska, and who have been following this story from the beginning know the real root of that phrase, and will understand the ugly irony of Palin's title. During the ethics investigation of Sarah Palin now known as "Troopergate," that phrase became seared into the collective consciousness of Alaskans. Palin's spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton used that word referring not to Palin, but to the former Commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan. Palin had pressured Monegan to fire her ex-brother in law Trooper Mike Wooten whose nasty divorce from Palin's sister had left bitter feelings. Monegan refused to fire him, and was subsequently dismissed by the governor, leaving the Department of Public Safety without leadership, and leaving many Alaskans with a bad taste in their mouths. In a stinging press conference, Stapleton said that Monegan, a particularly well-liked and respected public servant, former police chief and ex-Marine had displayed "egregious rogue behavior." Stapleton, who had been a respected news anchor before her association with Palin, suffered withering criticism from Alaskans on both sides of the political spectrum. Alaska is a small town. Monegan was no "rogue," everyone knew it, and the use of the term disgraced her. What had Monegan done, according to the governor, that earned him this brand? He had planned a trip to Washington D.C. to seek funding to help combat sexual assault in a state that leads the nation in that category. Rogue, indeed. In September of 2008, Alaskans for Truth held a rally in downtown Anchorage . More than 1500 Alaskans showed up to protest the administration's handling of "Troopergate," the insinuation of the McCain campaign's attorneys into Alaska's Department of Law, and the outrageous behavior of Meg Stapleton, then Attorney General Talis Colberg, and Palin herself. One of the speakers at the rally was Betty Monegan, the mother of Walt Monegan, who carried a sign referencing the outrageous accusations made by the Palin administration. http://www.themudflats.net/wp-content/uploads/bettymonegan.jpg But Monegan was not the only one to stand accused of being a "rogue." Mike Wooten, the infamous ex-brother-in-law was called a "rogue trooper" and Palin said he was a danger to her family and to the public. She made it clear that in no uncertain terms that being a "rogue" was not a good thing. These accusations were soundly refuted by Steven Branchflower, an independent investigator hired by the bipartisan Legislative Council to investigate Troopergate. "I conclude that such claims of fear were not bona fide and were offered to provide cover for the Palins' real motivation: to get Trooper Wooten fired for personal family reasons," Branchflower wrote. The Branchflower report states Todd Palin used his wife's office and its resources to press for Wooten's removal, and the governor "failed to act" to stop it. But because Todd Palin is not a state employee, the report makes no finding regarding his conduct. The bipartisan Legislative Council, which commissioned the investigation after Monegan was fired, unanimously adopted the 263-page public report... The Branchflower Report was to find Governor Palin guilty of abusing her power as governor under the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Attorney General Talis Colberg would ultimately resign his position , and Todd Palin and several administration officials would be found guilty of contempt of the Legislature for ignoring subpoenas. Trooper Mike Wooten ended up with a desk job because Palin's accusations that he was a "rogue" and a danger to the public had brought about threats that made it impossible for him to work out in the open as a trooper, despite the findings of the Branchflower Report. Walt Monegan was denied a request for a due process hearing before the governor-appointed Alaska Personnel Board to address reputational harm because of the insults he endured from an administration who chose to call him a "rogue." That's the same board to which Palin filed a complaint against herself, and was subsequently cleared of wrongdoing. And now Sarah Palin apparently hopes to make the term "rogue" impish and endearing, and hopes it will help her sell a lot of books. But that term is no such thing to many Alaskans. It wasn't "cute" when it was used as a finely sharpened tool in the Palin toolbox, used to malign the characters of those who stood in the way of her power scramble to become the Vice President of the United States. She may have fooled her ghost writer, and the folks at Harper-Collins, and she may fool many of those in the Lower 48 who will wait on line for their copy of "Going Rogue," but she will not fool Alaskans.
 
Derrion Albert Beating Death: 3 Teens Charged With Murder Top
CHICAGO — Cell phone footage showing a group of teens viciously kicking and striking a 16-year-old honors student with splintered railroad ties has ramped up pressure on Chicago officials to address chronic violence that has led to dozens of deaths of city teens each year. The graphic video of the afternoon melee emerged on local news stations over the weekend, showing the fatal beating of Derrion Albert, a sophomore honor roll student at Christian Fenger Academy High School. His death was the latest addition to a rising toll: More than 30 students were killed last school year, and the city could exceed that number this year. Prosecutors charged four teenagers Monday with fatally beating Albert, who was walking to a bus stop when he got caught up in the mob street fighting, authorities said. The violence stemmed from a shooting early Thursday morning involving two groups of students from different neighborhoods, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor's office. When school ended, members of the groups began fighting near the Agape Community Center. During the attack, captured in part on a bystander's cell phone video, Albert is struck on the head by one of several young men wielding wooden planks. After he falls to the ground and appears to try to get up, he is struck again and then kicked. Simonton said Albert was a bystander and not part of either group. Prosecutors charged Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, Eric Carson, 16, and Eugene Bailey, 18, with first-degree murder, Simonton said. Shannon, Riley and Carson were ordered held without bond Monday. The Cook County Public Defender's Office, which represented the three teenagers in court, had no immediate comment. Bailey was due in bond court Tuesday, Simonton said. Chicago police said they were looking for at least three more suspects, but would not discuss a possible motive for the attack. Simonton said Albert was knocked unconscious when Carson struck him in the head with a board and a second person punched him in the face. Albert regained consciousness and was trying to get up when he was attacked a second time by five people, struck in the head with a board by Riley and stomped in the head by Shannon, Simonton said. Desiyan Bacon, Bailey's aunt, said her nephew didn't have anything to do with the beating and was a friend of the victim. "They need to stop the crime, but when they do it, they need to get the right person," Bacon said. Fenger students said Albert's death intensified tensions at the school, with arguments about him breaking out in hallways all day Monday. Several blocks away, a memorial erected on the spot where he was beaten was burned down. Police also increased patrols before and after school and in the neighborhood. "They're still trying to retaliate," said sophomore Toni Gardner, 15. She did not elaborate. For Chicago, a sharp rise in violent student deaths during the past three school years – most from shootings off school property – have been a tragedy and an embarrassment. Before 2006, an average of 10-15 students were fatally shot each year. That climbed to 24 fatal shootings in the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year and 34 deaths and 290 shootings last school year. At a Monday vigil at the school, some community members said the solution lies with parents. "It is our problem. We have to take control of our children," said Dawn Allen, who attended the vigil where a group of residents tried to force their way into the school before being turned back by police. This month, the city announced a $30 million project that targets 1,200 high school pupils identified as most at risk to become victims of gun violence, giving them full-time mentors and part-time jobs to keep them off the streets. Some money also will pay for more security guards and to provide safe passage for students forced to travel through areas with active street gangs. Albert's family attended a news conference Monday with school district leaders and police, but did not speak. They wore T-shirts with a picture of him in a cap and gown, with the words, "Gone too soon, too young." But Annette Holt, mother of Blair Holt, a Chicago Public Schools student who was shot on a city bus two years ago, said Albert represented "another promising future, just snuffed out because of violence." "Someone said he (Derrion) was in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said. "No, he wasn't. He was in the right place. He was coming from school." (This version CORRECTS that Desiyan Bacon is aunt of newly charged Eugene Bailey, not previously charged Eugene Riley.)
 

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