Iris' Place

In tonight's installment of Countdown's "WTF Moment," Olbermann takes a realistic look at what would happen if Texas actually followed through on Governor Rick Perry's threat to secede if the federal government doesn't leave Texas alone. Well, between skyrocketing taxes, loss of military protection, sports teams crumbling, massive debt burdens, and the coming political crisis in 2020 (when the projected population of Texas will be 45 percent Hispanic and 38 percent Anglo, and the Hispanics win a ballot initiative to have the new republic join Mexico), the picture doesn't look good. [WATCH]

Gordon Brown’s efforts to broker an £80billion bailout for world trade on a trip to Brazil hit a stumbling block tonight when the country’s President lashed out at ‘white, blue-eyed’ bankers for bringing the world economy to its knees.

Mr Brown watched on uneasily as his host, President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, launched a bizarre tirade in which he warned that next week’s G20 summit in London would be a ‘spicy’ affair.

‘Now they have demonstrated that they don’t know anything about economics.’

President Lula, head of Brazil’s main left-wing party, said that ‘no black man or woman, no indigenous person, no poor person’ had been in any way culpable for the global banking crisis.

‘I’m not acquainted with any black banker,’ he said. ‘The part of humanity that’s responsible should pay for the crisis.

The rest of the article can be found at Mail Online.

President Lula have been saying what many of us have been thinking.

The Religious Right supply the kind of people who at McCain and Palin rallies were yelling things such as "kill him" about you. That's the constituency to which your hand was extended when looking for compromise on your financial bailout bill.

There's only one thing that makes sense for you now. Mr. President, you need to forget a bipartisan approach and get on with the business of governing by winning each battle. You will never be able to work with the Republicans because they hate you. Believe me, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are the norm not the exception. James Dobson and the rest are praying for you to fail. The neoconservatives are gnashing their teeth and waiting for you to "sell out Israel" or "show weakness" in Afghanistan, whatever, so they can declare you a traitor.

What those [Republican] senators and congressmen are telling you is not what their rabid core constituents are telling them. Their loyalty is to a fundamentalist Christian ideology on the one hand and American exceptionalism of perpetual warfare and hatred and fear of the "other" on the other hand. Between the neoconservatives and evangelical Religious Right Republicans you have no friends.

The good news is that most Americans support you. And if you will just get in the face of the Republican Party and call their bluff you'll be surprised how many individual ordinary Republicans will support you, not to mention the rest of us. America is sick of the Republicans.

The Democratic Party won for a reason: the Republicans failed and have taken us all down with them! You're doing your presidency and America no favor by extending an open hand to the perpetually knotted fist of what has become the embittered lunatic fringe of our country. They would rather go down in flames than "compromise" their ideology.

Yeah, Ideology that brought the "Dark Ages" and the "Salem Witch Trials".

As you showed us again at your press conference of Feb 9, you are a brilliant, articulate and decent man. Your Republican opponents are not decent people but ideologues bent on destroying you. To quote the biblical adage sir, don't cast your pearls before swine. 

This is not all of the letter.  You can read the rest at the Huffington Post.

There are many Republicans who are moderates (i.e. Colon Powell, Charlie Crist) but the NeoCons and the Religious Right are the party's center of power.  Unfortunately, most moderates seem to be afraid of (i.e. Judd Gregg) those guys to a point that they can't do what they know is right.  Senator Arlen Specter, who voted for the stimulus, said "that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences."  

I hope that Obama reads the letter and realize that this bipartianship fetish he has is going to do more harm than good.

GOP claim: $1.2 billion for “youth activities,” including youth summer job programs is a waste.
Reality: Keeping youth active and employed greatly reduces crime while building futures for these kids.

Seeking entertainment is a primary cause of petty crime amongst youth, which is why the adage “idle hands are the devil’s work shop” is so true. Any study conducted in this field shows that even impoverished people commit far less violent crimes if they have a job. This is because jobs not only provide income, but also give workers feelings of meaning, existence, and being part of a system that’s rewarding them for their work.

Not only does this help form the foundation to becoming a productive member of society, but incarceration costs go down (housing a criminal costs ~$20,000 per bed per year), but law enforcement costs go down as well.

Our guess: The GOP is the same party that fought against a minimum wage increase. Helping workers has never been their priority, to the point where they will fight against it when given the opportunity to help

The list continues for several dozen items, but they’re all pretty much the same. The GOP refuses to spend a dollar today if they can’t see that dollar today — even if it means saving a hundred dollars tomorrow.

When I was growing up, the Carter Adminstration started the CEDAR program in which each summer, underprivileged kids had an opportunity to work and make money. It kept them off the street, out of trouble and at the same they learned the value of work.  It ended when Regan came into office.

Like I have been saying before.  President Obama made a mistake by inviting the Republicans to meddle into the Stimlus Package because it has empowered them.  These guys in Washington are the most decietful, cold-blooded, hard-hearted people I have ever seen.  They lack empathy and compassion and no amount of charm or grace that the President can give will be able break through all that ice.  Republicans are using their vote as well as the economic condition in this country as leverage to get some of the same ideas that got us into this mess added into the stimlus which is going to reduce its impact to the economy.

Adriana Huffington at the Huffington Post talked with Bill Gates at the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference (TED) in Long Beach, CA.  They talked about many things.  One of them is about what most people are talking about lately -- the Economy.  Heres a portion of the discussion that I found interesting.

As all conversations do these days, ours turned to the economy and his take on the stimulus debate.

After telling me that when it comes to the economy, he takes his lead from Warren Buffett, he added, "We have to be careful with how we deal with things, so we don't produce nonlinear consequences. I don't think, for example, the government should try to manage CEO behavior via the embarrassing headlines approach." He was also concerned that "free trade might be part of the collateral damage of the meltdown" and that once the government takes a more involved role in things it "might be hard to pull back."

Since education is one of the main domestic focuses of his Foundation, he expressed hope that the education portions of the stimulus package would survive in the final bill.

Sorry Bill.  Thanks to the Repugs, it didn't survive.

I asked him whether he thought the stimulus package is bold enough and big enough. "The problem," he told me, "is that anytime you talk about doing Big Things, there are thousands of ideas about what those Big Things should be. 'Let's cancel capitalism' is somebody's Big Idea. 'Let's introduce the flat tax' is somebody else's Big Idea. There are many people waiting for an opportunity to do a Big Thing -- and a crisis such as ours brings them all out."

Gates' biggest ideas these days are focused on the work being done by The Gates Foundation, which he has "maniacally" thrown himself into since removing himself from his full-time commitment to Microsoft this summer. He is devoting his considerable passion, intellect, and finances to global health initiatives (in particular the eradication of malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea diseases such as rotavirus; combined, these three cause over half the childhood deaths in the world), and to improving the U.S. educational system.

He recently released a lengthy letter in which he talks about his work at the foundation. It is a remarkable document (read it here) - both in its candor (he talks about what hasn't worked with his philanthropy as forthrightly as what has) and in the peek it offers at his conviction that if you apply all the IQ you can to a problem, you'll solve it.

It is especially intriguing to see how he applies the scientific and mathematical approach he used at Microsoft to problems such as feeding the world, attacking childhood diseases, and figuring out how to improve educational opportunities for all Americans.

The most important leit motif of our conversation was the need for all of us to step up and give whatever we can of our money and time. He's certainly setting an example for that. Even though his foundation's assets lost 20 percent of their value in 2008, Gates has decided to increase the amount they will spend this year -- going from $3.3 billion in 2008 to $3.8 billion in 2009.

"I believe that the wealthy have a responsibility to invest in addressing inequity even in these difficult times," he said. "Otherwise, we will come out of the economic downturn in a world that is even more unequal, with greater inequities in health and education, and fewer opportunities for people to improve their lives. There is no reason to accept that, when we know how to make huge gains over the long term."

Besides Oprah and Warren Buffet,  Bill you are the only billionaires who feels that way.

According to Gates, it isn't a question of scale. It's a question of intent.

"I would encourage people to give or volunteer at whatever level they can," he told me. "I can't tell you how much joy it has given me to see the results at some of the schools we have worked with here at home or at some of the most faraway places devastated by malaria. It's hard not to be affected."

Indeed, Gates ends his foundation letter with a moving example about how making a difference doesn't have to mean developing a vaccine for malaria -- it can boil down to changing one person's life

(CNN) -- A coalition of Democrats and some Republicans reached a compromise that trimmed billions in spending from an earlier version of the Senate economic stimulus bill.

CNN obtained, from a Democratic leadership aide, a list of some programs that have been cut -- either entirely or partially:

Partially cut:

• $3.5 billion for energy-efficient federal buildings (original bill $7 billion)

• $75 million from Smithsonian (original bill $150 million)

• $200 million from Environmental Protection Agency Superfund (original bill $800 million)

• $100 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (original bill $427 million)

• $100 million from law enforcement wireless (original bill $200 million)

• $300 million from federal fleet of hybrid vehicles (original bill $600 million)

• $100 million from FBI construction (original bill $400 million)

Fully eliminated

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $122 million for new Coast Guard polar icebreaker/cutters

• $100 million for Farm Service Agency modernization

• $50 million for CSERES research

• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation

• $30 million for SD salaries

• $100 million for distance learning

• $98 million for school nutrition

• $50 million for aquaculture

• $2 billion for broadband

• $100 million for NIST

• $50 million for detention trustee

• $25 million for Marshalls Construction

• $300 million for federal prisons

• $300 million for BYRNE Formula

• $140 million for BYRNE Competitive

• $10 million state and local law enforcement

• $50 million for NASA

• $50 million for aeronautics

• $50 million for exploration

• $50 million for Cross Agency Support

• $200 million for National Science Foundation

• $100 million for science

• $1 billion for Energy Loan Guarantees

• $4.5 billion for GSA

• $89 million GSA operations

• $50 million from DHS

• $200 million TSA

• $122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use

• $25 million for Fish and Wildlife

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $20 million for working capital fund

• $165 million for Forest Service capital improvement

• $90 million for State and Private Wildlife Fire Management

• $1 billion for Head Start/Early Start

• $5.8 billion for Health Prevention Activity

• $2 billion for HIT Grants

• $600 million for Title I (NCLB)

• $16 billion for school construction

• $3.5 billion for higher education construction

• $1.25 billion for project based rental

• $2.25 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization

• $1.2 billion for retrofitting Project 8 housing • $40 billion for state fiscal stabilization (includes $7.5 billion of state incentive grants