Mobile
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Boomer with Attitude Gut check time for Obama
Posted By John Grooms on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 2:20 PM
So now President Obama will address Congress next week about health care reform. Pardon my French, but it’s about damned time he did something to further what was supposed to be his top priority. His tactic, if it can be called that, of letting Congress figure out the details of health care reform, has created a colossal mess, with three different Congressional committees doing their usual slow-motion crawl to a deadlock. Obama’s increasingly annoying habit of reacting to conservatives’ over-the-top blustering and lies by delivering a professorial lecture has been unhelpful, to put it mildly. Dude, it’s politics, not a civics class. If health care reform really is your top priority, then fight back, for God’s sake. As longtime political writer Gene Lyons puts it in Salon, Obama “hasn't just brought a knife to a gunfight, he's brought a cake knife.”
White House aides are saying that although Obama will insist on a pubic option as part of the package, he may be willing to accept dumping proposals to have Medicare pay for counseling on end-of-life care — what top Republicans have misrepresented (i.e., lied through their teeth) as “death panels.” That would be an outrage. Politically, it won’t get Obama even one more Republican vote – how many times do they have to figuratively spit in his face before he understands their inflexibility? Moreover, it’s simply a terrible idea to give in to pure, raw ignorance, which is all the screaming about “death panels” amounts to. The speech next week will tell us a lot about Obama’s political savvy, and whether, as many of his supporters from the election are wondering, he has enough fire in the guts to get his agenda enacted.
News Pfizer's historic settlement
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Americans love to pop a pill, especially when their doctors are pushing them.
Here's some insight into who's pushing the doctors:
Pfizer will pay a record $2.3 billion penalty to settle an investigation into illegal prescription drug promotions.The settlement with the Justice Department includes a $1.2 billion criminal fine, the largest in U.S. history.
The case involves Pfizer's promotion of the painkiller Bexra and other medicines. Authorities said Pfizer's sales representatives created phony doctor requests for medical information in order to send unsolicited information to doctors about unapproved uses and dosages.
The world's largest drug company wined and dined doctors and sent them on exotic trips to induce them to prescribe its drugs including the impotence treatment Viagra and cholesterol medicine Lipitor, they said.
The overall settlement is the largest ever paid by a drug company for alleged violations of federal drug rules.
Of the civil penalty, $977,444 will go to North Carolina to resolve allegations that it improperly marketed the antipsychotic drug Geodon, Attorney General Roy Cooper said.
Read the entire News and Observer post here.
Arts / Today's Top Five / News Today's Top 5: Thursday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Sept. 3, 2009 — as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Shear Madness at Stage Door Theater
• The Charlotte City Comedy Tour at Upscale Restaurant and Lounge
• Author Ellen Crosby at Joseph-Beth Booksellers
• Subaru River Jam at US National Whitewater Center
• Karaoke at Irish Cue
News / Biz BofA, Wells Fargo flexing muscle
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Bank of America is still the biggest bank in America, for those who are counting.
A ranking released Wednesday by Virginia-based research firm SNL Financial shows that Charlotte-based BofA (NYSE:BAC) has total assets of $2.25 trillion and deposits of $971 billion.
And, Wells Fargo wants to give the U.S. their TARP money back ASAP.
Chief Executive John Stumpf says the San Francisco bank plans to repay “shortly” a government investment made in the bank during last fall’s financial crisis.Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) accepted $25 billion in taxpayer funds from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was designed to thaw the credit markets and boost the economy. So far, 10 banks have repaid the TARP money they received.
News Contract extended for Blackwater firm
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 8:54 AM
WTF? So, what our government is saying is that our own military can't handle these tasks -- that we need to outsource them to "The Shadow Army "crazies from North Cackalacky ... even though they're not licensed to operate in Iraq.
Is it April Fools Day? I mean, U.S. officials are kidding about this -- right?
The State Department said Wednesday it has extended a contract for protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq with a subsidiary of the security firm once known as Blackwater USA even though the company doesn't have a license to operate in the country.Spokesman Ian Kelly said the contract with Presidential Airways to provide air support for U.S. diplomats had been temporarily extended because the firm chosen to replace it is not yet ready to take over. The contract had been due to expire on Sept. 3 and be taken over a day later by DynCorp International, he said.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
News Can environmentalists handle the fight of their lives?
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 3:44 PM
You got your fight. You and your enemy are in the streets, everyone's got their fists up and you ... wanna talk?!
That's not going to cut it.
Here's a little cheer any high school sports fan can teach you: Be aggressive. B.E. Aggressive.
Try it with me now: Be aggressive. B.E. Aggressive.
The oil lobby was sponsoring rallies with free lunches, free concerts and speeches warning that a climate-change bill could ravage the U.S. economy.Professional "campaigners" hired by the coal industry were giving away T-shirts praising coal-fired power.
But when environmentalists showed up in this college town -- closer than ever to congressional passage of a climate-change bill, in the middle of the green movement's biggest political test in a generation -- they provided . . . a sedate panel discussion.
And they gave away stickers.
Even now, these groups differ on whether to scare the public with predictions of heat waves or woo it with promises of green jobs. And they are facing an opposition with tycoon money and a gift for political stagecraft.
"Progressives and clean-energy types . . . made a mistake and slacked off" after the House of Representatives passed its version of a climate-change bill in June, said Joseph Romm, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who blogs on climate issues. "And the other side really kept making its case."
Read more from The Washington Post.
Here are a couple of environmentalists who aren't happy with the Obama administration's progress:
Film / Film News / News Box Office Top 10
Posted By Matt Brunson on Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 3:28 PM
1. The Final Destination - $27.4 million ($27.4 million)
2. Inglourious Basterds - $19.3 million ($73.0 million)
3. Halloween II - $16.3 million ($16.3 million)
4. District 9 - $10.2 million ($90.3 million)
5. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - $7.7 million ($132.1 million)
6. Julie & Julia - $7.0 million ($70.6 million)
7. The Time Traveler's Wife - $6.4 million ($47.9 million)
8. Shorts - $4.5 million ($13.2 million)
9. Taking Woodstock - $3.4 million ($3.4 million)
10. G-Force - $2.8 million ($111.7 million)
(Gross for weekend of Aug. 28-30. Figure in parentheses is total gross to date. Source: www.boxofficemojo.com.)
Boomer with Attitude / News Duke Energy quits right-wing coal group
Posted By John Grooms on Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 3:14 PM
Here's some good news regarding Duke Energy. You can gripe all you want, and we do, about the Cliffside plant or the company’s plan to raise rates to pay for a new nuke plant, but give credit where it’s due.
The National Journal reports that Duke Energy quit the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity yesterday because of the group’s virulent opposition to efforts to reduce global warming. Duke spokespersons said Duke Energy left the ACCCE over differences with “influential member companies who will not support passing climate change legislation in 2009 or 2010.”
In a similar move, Duke Energy left the ultra-conservative National Association of Manufacturers in May. Good for them. Now, if Duke’s CEO Jim Rogers would just leave the national board of the Chamber of Commerce, which has turned increasingly right-wing and strongly opposes both health care reform and efforts to create clean energy jobs.
Boomer with Attitude / News McCain: Help! Slow this thing down!
Posted By John Grooms on Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 2:44 PM
Sen. John McCain, in Charlotte yesterday with Sens. Richard Burr and Mitch “Turtle” McConnell for an invitation-only GOP health care discussion, said Congress needs to “slow down” in its quest for an improved health care system. But of course he did. McCain is 73 years old — he probably thinks everything should slow down: Congress, drivers, his heart rate, those spots that keep zooming in and out of his vision, you name it. It’s ridiculous, but that seems to be the sum total of congressional Republicans’ insight into health care reform now: slow down.
No, senators, let’s not slow down. In fact, let’s speed this thing up. That way, perhaps not too many more people will die from lack of health insurance before a bill is enacted. Pres. Truman brought up national health insurance in 1948, and the GOP’s reaction was, “Whoa, slow down!” That was more than 60 years ago, and it’s the same old story. Sixty years is long enough to “slow down” the drive to universal health care. McCain, McConnell and — um, who’s the guy from North Carolina again? — oh yeah, Burr, those guys just need to get out of the way.
News LEED: Lacking Energy Efficient Details
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Builders and companies love to shout about their LEED status, but is it bunkus?
LEED, by the way, actually stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Here's more on the topic from The New York Times:
The Federal Building in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, features an extensive use of natural light to illuminate offices and a white roof to reflect heat.It has LEED certification, the country’s most recognized seal of approval for green buildings.
But the building is hardly a model of energy efficiency. According to an environmental assessment last year, it did not score high enough to qualify for the Energy Star label granted by the Environmental Protection Agency, which ranks buildings after looking at a year’s worth of utility bills.
The building’s cooling system, a major gas guzzler, was one culprit. Another was its design: to get its LEED label, it racked up points for things like native landscaping rather than structural energy-saving features, according to a study by the General Services Administration, which owns the building.
Read the rest of this article here.
Want to know more about LEED ratings?
-
Meghan McCain's dating woes revealed
The girl is hard up and in need of help. Volunteers?
-
One-night-only art show at Hart Witzen
-
5 Reasons To Buy Home Insurance Policy
