The American Trial Lawyers Association

According to a new report, Goldman Sachs is set to make the largest bonus payouts in the firm’s 140-year history. After a very nice first quarter, the firm is set to payout almost $1 billion dollars worth of bonuses. The only problem with these bonuses and profits is that Goldman received more than $12 billion dollars from the federal government last year in Bush’s bailout package. Goldman has powerful allies in Washington — and perhaps the most powerful ally was Henry Paulson, President Bush’s Treasury Secretary and a former chief executive of the firm. With all of the outrage that erupted over AIG’s bonuses, Goldman is apparently under the assumption that no one will notice their greed and corruption, or that they’ve bought and paid for numerous high-powered politicians in Washington.


And speaking of corporate greed, a retired health insurance executive confessed this week that insurance companies deliberately confuse policyholders and attempt to dump sick patients to plump their profit margins. According to the executive, they look carefully to see if a sick policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, or a pre-existing condition when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy, even if the enrollee has never missed a premium payment. In addition to these revelations, an investigation by Democratic Senator John Rockefeller revealed this week that more than two-thirds of health insurance companies are using flawed database information on their patients, causing them to be overcharged for insurance. With all of these revelations, you’d think that Congress would want to reprimand the health insurance industry. But, as usual, they are being rewarded for their greed in the form of Max Baucus’s health reform plan, which would put more than $80 million dollars in the pockets of the insurance industry, and do little to help US citizens.


And while we’re talking about taxpayer’s being screwed, how about this one - It turns out that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford’s foray in South America was actually taxpayer funded. Sanford spent more than $21,000 dollars worth of taxpayers' money on international travel last year, at least part of which was spent on travel to Argentina, where his mistress is located. This guy needs to go ahead and resign before we find out anymore information. At this point, he’s just embarrassing himself.


In other news this week, Congressman Ron Paul, the favorite candidate of people who didn’t want to vote for a real candidate, said in a speech that the Obama administration’s goal is complete economic collapse. He added that Democrats who voted for the president’s war funding request, which gave an additional $106 billion to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, were actually voting in favor of the wars, not just authorization of the president’s agenda. All I can say is - The jig is up, guys. He found us out. All democrats secretly love these wars, and nothing would make us happier than for the entire economy to collapse. And we would have gotten away with it, too, had it not been for you meddling conservatives!

Labels: Affair, Bailout, Economy, Farron Cousins, Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, Insurance, Mark Sanford, Max Baucus, Politics, Raw Story, Recession, Ron Paul, Scandal, Sex, Stimulus

From Raw Story:



Help us help you: Support Raw Story, and give us your ideas
By Raw Story

As you’ve undoubtedly noticed, we’ve reverted to our previous front page design. But we’ve got some great news: a donor has generously said he’ll double any contributions up to $3,000 to help us get the current site up to speed!The project of redesigning the site was aimed at giving the site a more respectable feel to make our content go farther. Obviously, though, we should have built around the strengths of the current site. Now we want to hear from you.

Prefer to donate by check? Send to: Raw Story, PO Box 21050, Washington, DC 20009

Here’s where we’re in a bind, and how you can help. We began the redesign process in 2007 (!) and ultimately fell out with our original contractor, then hired another independent contractor to program the new site in mid-2008. I think he’s done an amazing job — most criticisms of the new site I saw were of design in nature, in which he was not involved. The back-end structure that cost about $35,000 to build is very, very solid compared to our existing site (which, if you saw the code that ran it, you’d want to cry).

This means we’re halfway there. We’ve exhausted, however, our programming and design budget after these two tries — $60,000 over two years. Any additional programming without your support would mean cutting investigative reporting, and frankly, to me personally, I’d rather stick with the old site and continue the hard-hitting reporting we’re known for until the day the old site crashes into the ground. Trouble is, the old site will crash into the ground — I can’t even really edit the template anymore without coding line by line.

So here’s where you come in. I’ve been loath to ask anyone for contributions over the past eighteen months as we got our new system done, because I felt I’d gone to the readers enough. So I paid for it out of our pocket as best I could. This put a drain on our investigative budget and, frankly, our ability to hire reporters and produce content.

Now, though, in recognizing how many people are so passionate about Raw Story, I’m eager to give you a chance to help. Underlying the idea of the new site was an effort to make selecting stories a collaborative process. What I didn’t convey well was that it wasn’t intended to be a purely voting based model — the votes would be edited by editors — and the stories vetted. I still believe a synergy in content generation that gives some say to the readers ultimately will be greatly beneficial to our readership. But the way we presented it didn’t work.

I promise you this: Before making any other changes, we will give you a chance to comment on them in detail. What I foresee instead of wholescale change is sort of a “fusion” of the two sites, where the new features on the new site (voting, user registration, diaries) are added on to the existing site structure to enhance the user experience.

Here’s how you can help:

One: Consider making a generous contribution in whatever amount you can afford. Donations of $50 or more will be paired with an ad-free account. To make a subscription donation, please email me at publisher@rawstory.com.

To donate by mail, send checks to: Raw Story, PO Box 21050, Washington, DC 20009

Two: Leave suggestions for enhancing the current (old site) on the comment thread at the end of this post (I’ll leave it up for awhile and definitely get into exchanges with those who do to get more specifics). Include criticisms of the new site you didn’t get to air, and compliments on parts of the new site that you think actually worked better.

Three: Support our advertisers, and encourage those who are in a position to advertise to do so — we have a great, educated, opinion-making political audience — and we occupy a niche that most advertisers simply cannot reach. If you’re a local business owner, we can run ads for you targeted to your local market, down to the zip code, for any budget. Or, if you’re wanting to promote an activist campaign, we can target any region you like.

Four: If you have design/CSS skills and want to help redesign the site on a part-time volunteer basis, email me at publisher@rawstory.com. Email me also if you’re able to give us a discounted hourly rate, and what that discount might be. I think Raw Story will make a great portfolio piece once we’re done.

Five: If you want to volunteer to design an iPhone app for Raw, or a mobile site, we’d be positively thrilled. Email me at publisher@rawstory.com.

What have we done since our last fundraiser? Well, of course, there’s the new system, which we’ll polish up to your liking. But we’re also made, I think, major investigative strides and delivered dozens of awesome stories. Here are a few:

A governor leaves jail: After a series of Raw Story Investigates pieces on former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and subsequent media followup, Siegelman was released from prison on bail on March 29, 2009. Since his release, judges have struck down two of his convictions and he awaits sentencing on other charges. Raw Story was nominated for the Online News Award for Investigative journalism (the top online news award), small site, ranking among the top five pieces in the country for 2008. We proudly attended with major MSM outlets (where the New York Times’ Editor Bill Keller spoke after winning an award for their Spitzer expose).

Raw challenges White House on wiretaps: On month ago, on April 9, Raw Story’s Eric Brewer posed a question to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs about the White House’s defense of secrecy in a warrantless wiretapping case. “Before he was elected, the President said that the Bush administration had abused the state secrets privilege,” Brewer asked. “Has he changed his mind?” “No,” Gibbs replied. “I mean, obviously, we’re dealing with some suits, and the President will — and the Justice Department will make determinations based on protecting our national security.”
Raw exposes state secrets abuses: We’ve consistently tracked the Obama administration’s use of the state secrets privilege, be it with Stephen Webster’s piece on Obama using state secrets to keep the CIA’s secret rendition program quiet; and my piece, Following Bush lead, Obama moves to block challenge to wiretapping program,” about a little-noticed Justice Department filing that employed new tactics to try to have suits seeking disclosure about the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. This battle continues.

Acquired secret Abramoff email: Raw’s Larisa Alexandrovna acquired a secret email sent by fallen powerlobbyist Jack Abramoff in which he said that he had an agreement with an aide in Rove’s office — just a month after Bush took office. We have an “agreement with her as to what we are going to ask her and when,” Abramoff wrote.

Delivered constant, high-end video coverage: We’ve added depth to our discussions of popular issues by bringing our Video Editor, Dave Edwards, into a bigger role in helping us identify the news. While also providing videos that demonstrate the ridiculousness of the media, Dave’s been instrumental in our coverage of torture. Among my recent favorites: “Constitutional scholar says ‘God Help US‘ if US only gets 9/11 torture commission,” “Pentagon may have been ordered to cover up investigations” and “Senator: Bush officials in torture probe ought to be pursued.”

Exposed the plight of the forgotten: Running where the media has failed to walk, I highlighted a Human Rights First report which reveals that as many as several dozen detainees captured by the US may have been tortured to death — with eight of them proven. We also explored the possibility that insect torture may have been used on the children of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Thanks again for bearing with us through the redesign process and for giving such helpful feedback. And thanks for continuing to support us these many years — we’re now in our fifth year, if you can believe that, and still growing strong. Consider showing your support with whatever generous contribution you can afford.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

Today’s top story - A veteran of the Iraq War, along with the mothers of two other soldiers, have taken their fight against the war to court. The lawsuit filed last May claims that, despite being authorized by Congress in fall 2002 to deploy armed forces against Iraq as he deemed necessary, President George W. Bush overstepped his constitutional authority by invading the country six months later without formally declaring war. Yesterday, the case was presented before a federal judge, where the defense was attempting to get the case thrown out, on the grounds that the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the matter. However, the plaintiffs have found an unlikely ally in Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia isn’t actually on their side, but a ruling he made last year is coming back into play. Plaintiffs pointed to Scalia’s strict interpretation of the Constitution in a decision last year that affirmed the right of homeowners to own guns for self-defense, and said that it's all about the original intent of the founders. When this country was founded, it was made clear that only Congress could declare war. In the case of Iraq, Congress authorized force, but never declared war. The plaintiffs said that they aren’t seeking to change current policy, but that they do hope to set a precedent for the future.


In other news, if you live in the Western part of the US and you like drinking water here’s a bit of advice - Get it while you still can. According to a new report by the National Academy of Sciences, if future predictions of climate change are correct, water delivery for at least 7 US states will be severely hindered. The threat comes from the Colorado River, which supplies drinking water to numerous states. As the climate continues to shift, scientists predict that parts of the river, as well as many other bodies of water that feed into it, could dry up to a point where water delivery is no longer an option. The study found that, with a 20 percent reduction in runoff, by 2050 nearly 9 of every 10 scheduled deliveries would be missed. Scientists believe that there are a few options, such as water reuse and conservation that could curtail this problem, but so far there have been no suggestions on how to prevent this problem altogether.


And finally today, if you’re having a hard time finding a job in this economy, the adult entertainment industry has an idea for you - Come to one of their career fairs. In heavily populated areas like Dallas, Texas, the jobless rate has risen so high and people are getting so desperate that many strip clubs are now flooded with applications. This has led them to announce a job fair for those who are seeking any kind of employment. According to one strip joint, even corporate managers who’ve found themselves without work are applying for jobs ranging from strippers to bouncers, which are needless to say, well below their skill level. The Jobless to Topless Job Fair - which is the actual name of the one in Dallas - will be accepting applications for management, entertainers, waitresses, beer bar girls, door girls, bar back, bartenders, kitchen staff, DJs and hair and makeup specialists. So if you happen to be in Dallas today, make sure you check it out. And if you do, please email us and let us know how it goes.

Labels: Climate Change, Colorado River, Constitution, Dancing, Farron Cousins, Global Warming, Iraq War, Lawsuit, Legal, Strip Club, Stripper, Topless, Veteran

We’ll kick things off today with some depressing news for those of you who are fans of justice. According to Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, has said unequivocally that there will be absolutely no prosecutions of former Bush Administration officials. This news comes on the heels of the release of the former administration’s torture memos, which made most of us believe that prosecutions were just around the corner. But the statement from Obama released with those shocking memos included this sentence: "In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution." Obama has made it clear since he took office that he had no intention of prosecuting the former administration, but some of us were still hopeful. Unfortunately, like Bill Clinton before him, Obama is ready to allow the crimes of the Republicans go unpunished, leaving America with a bruised reputation and no remedies.

And speaking of the leftover problems from the Bush Administration, the sour economy has actually had a positive effect on the military. For years the military has been forced to allow below-average recruits to join, thanks to declining numbers of worthy applicants. But due to the recent economic downturn, the Army is seeing an uptick in what it calls “quality” recruits and has halted the practice of giving recruitment waivers to convicted felons and recent drug offenders. Since the Army started handing out numerous waivers to felons and drug offenders, officials say there has been an increase in drug abuse among soldiers in Iraq and afghanistan. There have also been reports that members of US gangs are signing up for the Army and leaving identifying graffiti in the streets of Iraq. Afghanistan’s abundent heroin crops are a particular spot of concern for the Army, as any soldier so inclined could easily procure doses of that and other substances. Hopefully, this surge in recruits is the beginning of a new trend. Studies have shown that when the military allows in people who required waivers, morale goes down, and incidents increase. With a new crop of able recruits, soldiers can once again be sure that the guys watching their backs are capable of keeping them safe, which will keep the rest of us safe as well.


And finally today, a new report shows that the government has consistently overlooked massive amounts of waterway contamination stemming from 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals that were legally released into waterways. According to an AP investigation, government and industry officials don't know how many pharmaceutical ingredients - like lithium and nitroglycerin - are released into lakes and rivers that feed into drinking water, because they don't track those chemicals as drugs. But the AP found that 22 pharmaceutical compounds do show up in EPA and Food and Drug Administration records. Drugmakers and federal regulators both say that the manufacturing of these kinds of chemicals doesn't impact water quality. However, the investigation revealed that the release of these chemicals is similar to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, where the government looks the other way, while the pharmaceutical industry dumps chemicals into our water. Studies have shown that exposure to lithium can cause fluid to build up in the lungs, and that the side effects of the drug become more severe when it is exposed to moisture. That sounds like just the thing we want in our water supply.

Labels: Barack Obama, Economy, Farron Cousins, George Bush, Memo, Military, Pharmaceutical, Poison, Prosecution, Rahm Emanuel, Recruit, Torture, Waiver, Water

We've all heard someone tell us that line before. And back in World War II days, it actually meant something. Unfortunately, bed bugs have made an astounding recovery, and parts of the world are now infested with these little blood-sucking creatures. The Associated Press has more:


Bedbugs live in the crevices and folds of mattresses, sofas and sheets. Then, most often before dawn, they emerge to feed on human blood.


Faced with rising numbers of complaints to city information lines and increasingly frustrated landlords, hotel chains and housing authorities, the Environmental Protection Agency hosted its first-ever bedbug summit Tuesday.


Organized by one of the agency's advisory committees, the two-day conference drew about 300 participants to a hotel in Arlington, just across the Potomac River from Washington. An Internet site notes that the hotel in question has had no reports of bedbugs.


One of the problems with controlling the reddish-brown insects, according to researchers and the pest control industry, is that there are few chemicals on the market approved for use on mattresses and other household items that are effective at controlling bedbug infestations.


Unlike roaches and ants, bedbugs are blood feeders and can't be lured by bait. It's also difficult for pesticides to reach them in every crack and crevice they hide out in.


For the rest of the story, click here.

Labels: Bed Bugs, Disease, EPA, Farron Cousins, Infestation, Insect

After months of waiting, the unthinkable has finally happened. Spanish prosecutors have announced that they will seek criminal charges against Alberto Gonzales and five other high-ranking Bush administration officials for the sanctioning of torture at Guantánamo Bay. The six defendants—who in addition to Gonzales, include former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, John Yoo, William Haynes, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff David Addington, and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith—are accused of having given the green light to the torture and mistreatment of prisoners held in U.S. detention in “the war on terror.” A group of human-rights lawyers originally filed a criminal complaint asking the court to look at the possibility of charges against the six American lawyers. Baltasar Garzón Real, the investigating judge, accepted the complaint and referred it to Spanish prosecutors for a view as to whether they would accept the case and press it forward. “The evidence provided was more than sufficient to justify a more comprehensive investigation,” one of the lawyers associated with the prosecution stated.

But with that good news today, its important to not forget about the war that’s currently taking place. And no, I’m not talking about the Middle East, I’m talking about the war occurring in the United States within the ranks of the Republican Party. The infighting among conservatives has been notched up another degree, with Rush Limbaugh attempting to blast Jonah Goldberg out of the water for daring to suggest that President Obama deserves congratulations for the successful rescue of an American captain from Somali pirates. Goldberg wrote on his blog at the National Review on Sunday evening, "Good For President Obama. He approved the rescue. It was the right thing to do, with no small amount of risk. And God bless the SEALs." Goldberg said that within a few short hours, his inbox was full of hate mail from his fellow conservatives, angry that he would ever offer the president a congratulatory line. Goldberg said that the thought of having to be critical of the president no matter what he does is exhaustingly unappealing. Limbaugh began his Monday show by saying -- every word dripping with extreme sarcasm -- "I want to single out today, Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online for being the first that I saw to have the proper reaction to the rescue of Captain Phillips from the merchant marine organizers, and that was to congratulate President Obama for a job well done.” Limbaugh's assault might be considered ill-natured, given that Goldberg had defended him just last month -- when Limbaugh came under fire for saying he wanted to see Obama fail -- and had condemned the attacks on Limbaugh as "a tired rehash." The betting window is still open for wagers on how long it will take before Goldberg is forced to issue an active apology.

And finally today, if you’re one of the millions of college kids addicted to Facebook, your grades are probably slipping. Facebook users have lower overall grades than non-users, according to a survey of college students who also ironically said the social networking site does not interfere with studying. Facebook user GPAs were in the 3.0 to 3.5 range on average, compared to 3.5 to 4.0 for non-users. Facebook users also studied anywhere from one to five hours per week, compared to non-users who studied 11 to 15 or more hours per week. The study did show that students who work more hours at jobs spend less time on Facebook, while students involved in more extracurricular activities were also more likely to use Facebook. And in a related story, make sure you keep checking Facebook as we will soon have our very own GoLeft TV page.

Labels: alberto gonzalez, Civil War, College, Facebook, Farron Cousins, GOP, Indictment, Infighting, IQ, Jonah Goldberg, rush limbaugh, Spain, War Crimes

In their frenzied drive to crack down on illegal immigrants, the US government over the last 8 years has actually been deporting legal US citizens. A monthlong investigation by the Associated Press revealed at least 55 cases where legal citizens were rounded up by immigration officials and held in custody anywhere from one day to five years. According to immigration lawyers, the number of people who have been victims of this dragnet reaches into the hundreds. It is illegal to deport U.S. citizens or detain them for immigration violations. Yet citizens still end up in detention because the system is overwhelmed. The number of detentions overall is expected to rise by about 17 percent this year to more than 400,000, putting a severe strain on the enforcement network and legal system. The result is the detention of citizens with the fewest resources: the mentally ill, minorities, the poor, children and those with outstanding criminal warrants, ranging from unpaid traffic tickets to failure to show up for probation hearings. Most at risk are Hispanics, who made up the majority of the cases.


In other news, the Center for Disease Control has been withholding evidence of the dangerously high levels of lead found in tap water in Washington, D.C. 8 Years ago, the city decided to remove chlorine from their water, and replace it with a similar chemical. However, they didn’t realize that the chlorine actually helped prevent lead from breaking off inside of lead pipes, and the new chemical allowed high levels of lead to pour out. Numerous studies confirm that very low levels of lead in blood are linked to short attention spans and reading problems in children. In adults, low levels are linked to high blood pressure and an increased risk of death from heart disease and stroke. If not detected early, children with high levels of lead in their bodies can suffer from brain and nervous system damage, stunted growth, and hearing problems. The CDC discovered in 2007 that many young children living in D.C. homes with lead pipes were poisoned by drinking water and suffered ill effects. Yet the health agency did not publicize the new findings or alert public health authorities in D.C. or other federal agencies that regulate lead.


And finally today, it looks like president Obama was correct when he claimed last year that bitter Americans would cling to their guns in times of desperation. Firearms sales have surged in the six months since Obama's election as millions of Americans have gone on a buying spree that has stripped gun shops in some parts of the country almost bare of assault weapons and led to a national ammunition shortage. The FBI says that since November more than seven million people applied for criminal background checks in order to buy weapons. Gun-shop owners and the National Rifle Association say the surge is driven by worries that Obama is planning to ban many types of firearms and that the deepening economic crisis will fuel a crime wave. Control groups pressing for greater control on firearms accuse the NRA of funding a massive scare campaign to portray Obama as a gun owner's worst nightmare and to argue that tighter restrictions on weapons ownership are a threat to broader liberties and a step toward tyranny. Here’s what we know right now - People are scared, they are depressed, and they are angry. When you combine those national sentiments with an increase in the number of firearm purchases, the results will not be pretty, as we’ve basically been seeing over the last few months.

Labels: 2nd Amendment, Ammunition, Barack Obama, CDC, Deportation, Dragnet, Farron Cousins, Guns, Illegal Immigrant, Lead, Water