Everything

This is how a centrally planned (ha!) economy does it:

“Interest rates as low as 2 percent for bank loans — the result of a savings rate of 40 percent and a government policy of steering loans to renewable energy”

“The Chinese government charges a renewable energy fee to all electricity users. The fee increases residential electricity bills by 0.25 percent to 0.4 percent. For industrial users of electricity, the fee doubled in November to roughly 0.8 percent of the electricity bill. ”

“The fee revenue goes to companies that operate the electricity grid, to make up the cost difference between renewable energy and coal-fired power.”

“Under legislation passed by the Chinese legislature on Dec. 26, a grid operator that does not connect a renewable energy operation to the grid must pay that operation twice the value of the electricity that cannot be distributed.”

Read all about it:China eats your green lunch

The right thing for the wrong reasons. The USA is hated in the Middle East, and this emotion is exacerbated by the presence of US troops in Iraq. Should have happened years ago. In fact, should never have been there in the first place. The US dropped the ball in Afghanistan, went off sideways to opportunistic war in Iraq, one that it did not need and could not afford.Time to Leave

Free speech means unlimited campaign contributions. So step right up, which politician do you want to buy today ? The Supreme Court of the USA is now unabashedly right wing, and decisions like these are why campaign reforms die stillborn.

Sold!

For some more detail:Supreme Court Unleashes Corporate Campaign Cash

No, not the aliens. Asian carp have reached the Great Lakes.

DNA of an Invasion

“Clearly this is not good news” says the US Army Corps of Engineers.

So wepoison the water…

For years the FBI circumvented laws in order to eavesdrop on citizens of the USA. Including reporters. Including phone calls twice and three times removed from the original suspect. Including making up nonexistent cases. Including blanket justifications with no specifics available.

All your calls are mediated by Big Brother and the Ministry of Love.

Color me unsurprised.

Read all about it:
All Your Phone Calls

The bankers own Washington. The politicians wear knee pads.

“Deregulation would help Rubin earn over $100 million in the following decade. ”

“If you get Chuck Schumer on your side, you are okay,”
“so much money from Wall Street over the years—more than $14 million”

And that’s just small change.

“Not even the Mafia has a vig like that.”

No… the bankers are worse than the Mob.

Who owns your representatives ?

“The defense lobby? Pikers. They contributed $24 million to individuals and PACs during the last election cycle. The farm lobby? $65 million. Health care? We’re getting warmer. Health care was the No. 2 industry, at $167 million.”

“And the finance lobby? They’re No. 1, with a very, very big bullet. They contributed an astonishing $475 million during the 2008 election cycle. That’s up from $60 million almost two decades ago.”

“$500 million on political contributions in just a single election”

“the financial industry spent $402 million in the first 10 months of 2009″

The government of the USA is bought and paid for. If you are not too big to fail, you don’t exist. Of course, you could try buying a local politician or three.

This Land is Their Land

“the only intellectually respectable support for the death penalty system” in the USA has “pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it.” citing “intractable institutional and structural obstacles”

The article continues:
“What the institute was saying is that the capital justice system in the United States is irretrievably broken.”

After all those exonerations based on shoddy police and presecutorial work, and DNA evidence, the deep and evident racial disparity in the recipients of death penalties, they only now have the courage to say this ?

“capital punishment is plagued by racial disparities; is enormously expensive even as many defense lawyers are underpaid and some are incompetent; risks executing innocent people; and is undermined by the politics that come with judicial elections”

If judges are elected, they will pander to the electorate. Is any of this so hard to understand ” I suppose so, for hidebound and vindictive creatures exemplified here:

“Mr. Scheidegger expressed satisfaction that an effort to have the institute come out against the death penalty as such was defeated.”

Have such men no shame ? And worse, have they no compassion ? No mercy in their souls ?

I suppose not.

From the article:

“the death penalty in the United States is a moral and practical failure.”

Killing Grounds