ThinkFast: July 10, 2009
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on July 11th, 2009 4:33 am by HL
ThinkFast: July 10, 2009
American International Group (AIG), the insurance giant that has received tens of billions of dollars in government bailouts, “is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor.” AIG “has been pressing the federal government […]
American International Group (AIG), the insurance giant that has received tens of billions of dollars in government bailouts, “is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor.” AIG “has been pressing the federal government to bless the payments in hopes of shielding itself from renewed public outrage.”
Thousands of Iranian anti-government protesters commemorating an attack on students at Tehran University in 1999 “were attacked with batons and tear gas by security forces” yesterday as they tried to gather “for the first protests in about two weeks.” Demonstrators are also gearing up to protest “the second-term inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which is expected next month.”
Confidential Pentagon test results reveal that the F-22 requires “more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000.” Despite such shortcomings and Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s stated desire to end the F-22 program, committees in both houses Congress voted to continue funding the program last month after being lobbied by the manufacturer.
CIA Director Leon Panetta “has ordered an internal inquiry into the agency’s handling of a contentious and still highly classified intelligence program that has caused a heated dispute” between the CIA and Congress. The move “appears to be an implicit acknowledgment by the agency that it should have disclosed information about the post-9/11 secret program to Congress much earlier than it did.”
Sen. John Ensign’s (R-NV) lawyer revealed yesterday that Ensign’s parents gave $96,000 to the family of the former staffer with whom he had an affair. The lawyer, Paul Coggins, described the payments as two separate $12,000 gifts to each family member. Under U.S. tax laws, gifts of up to $12,000 are tax-exempt.
A new General Motors emerged from bankruptcy this morning “as lawyers finished an all-night paperwork session transferring the automaker’s good assets to a brand-new company controlled by the U.S. government.”
The Senate has postponed action on clean energy legislation until later this fall. “There are a number of committees that need a little more time,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said. “Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer said Reid’s decision allowed her to push off a self-imposed deadline of passing climate legislation until mid-September. “
The G8 summit pledged $20 billion over three years, $5 billion more than initially expected, to boost agricultural investment and fight hunger. “UN food agencies say more than 1bn people in the world are going hungry. A downward trend over last decades in the proportion of the world’s population suffering from hunger has been reversed, in part because of soaring food prices.”
Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) will reportedly not seek election to the seat that he was appointed to by disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D). “Almost two months after his appointment, a Tribune poll found only 37 percent of voters wanted Burris to run. As of the spring, he raised $845 with more than $111,000 in debt, a campaign filing showed.”
And finally: Politico profiles the culinary prowess of John Podesta. “I consult cookbooks for ideas,” the Center for American Progress President and CEO explained. “Cooking is what I do to relax. … It’s much easier to see the fruits of your labor. It’s fun.” As for his specialties, Podesta said, “I make a pretty mean moussaka, pastitsio, baklava and spanakopita,” reeling off Greek dishes that are complicated.
Sign up here to receive our daily e-newsletter, The Progress Report.
Dr. King?s SCLC moves to oust L.A. chapter president over his support for gay rights.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) — the civil rights group founded by Dr. Martin Luther King — is “seeking to remove the president of its Los Angeles chapter,” Rev. Eric P. Lee, in response to his role in organizing opposition to California’s same-sex marriage ban, Prop. 8, last fall. Lee believed his public opposition […]
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) — the civil rights group founded by Dr. Martin Luther King — is “seeking to remove the president of its Los Angeles chapter,” Rev. Eric P. Lee, in response to his role in organizing opposition to California’s same-sex marriage ban, Prop. 8, last fall. Lee believed his public opposition to Prop. 8 would acceptable because the SCLC informed him that the organization was taking a publicly neutral position on the measure. The New York Times explains:
In April, Mr. Lee attended a board meeting of the civil rights organization in Kansas City, Mo., and found himself once again in the minority position among his colleagues on the issue of same-sex marriage, but was told, he said, by the interim president of the civil rights organization, Byron Clay, that the group publicly had a neutral position on the issue.
Explaining that he was unable to come to Atlanta on such short notice, Mr. Lee then received two letters from the organization’s lawyer, Dexter M. Wimbish, threatening him with suspension or removal as president of the Los Angeles chapter if he did not come soon to explain himself.
Lee explained that his opposition to Prop. 8 “created tension in my life I had never experienced with black clergy. But it was clear to me that any time you deny one group of people the same right that other groups have that is a clear violation of civil rights and I have to speak up on that.” The SCLC refused to comment on the matter.
