Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

A Tale Told By McCain, Full Of Sound And Fury, Signifying Nothing

• Yesterday, Sen. John McCain gave a 1,655-word speech to the Orange County Hispanic Small Business Roundtable in California about his “plan” to fix the mortgage crisis which is currently crippling the American economy. (For audio clips, see today’s “Eavesdrop.") [Mic Check]
• His “plan,” however, turned out to be a plan to plan to make a plan. A full year after other leaders began calling for action on the mortgage crisis, Sen. McCain instead gave a speech the New York Times said “did not provide specifics about any immediate plans to deal with the crisis.”
• Meanwhile, CAP’s new Wonk Room took a hard look at what McCain actually has done to help the credit crisis. (This is taken straight from the Wonk Room site. You may want to have your children leave the room…it ain’t purty.) [Wonk Room]
• McCain voted against discouraging predatory lending practices. In 2005, McCain voted against an amendment prohibiting law-breaking high-cost predatory mortgage lenders from collecting funds from homeowners who are forced into bankruptcy court. [S. 256, 3/03/05]
• McCain failed to vote on bill to overhaul mortgage lending practices of FHA. In 2007, McCain failed to vote on passage of a bill that would overhaul the mortgage lending practices of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The bill would reduce the required minimum down payment for an FHA-insured loan and simplify its calculation, requiring a flat 1.5 percent of the appraised value of the home. [S. 2338, 12/14/07]
• McCain failed to sign on to the Predatory Lending Consumer Protection Act. In 2003, McCain failed to add his name to this legislation, which was intended to “protect consumers against predatory practices.” The bill, which was endorsed by a host of civil rights and housing advocates, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, ACORN, and the Consumer Federation of America. [S. 1928, 11/21/03]
• McCain failed to sign on to Truth in Lending Act. Less than four months ago, McCain failed to sign on to this bipartisan initiative providing protection to consumers taking out home mortgage loans. Among other measures, it was designed to “establish new lending standards to ensure that loans are affordable and fair.” McCain also refused to co-sponsor this legislation in the 107th Congress as well. [S. 2452, 12/12/2007]

“Waiting it out” isn’t exactly the bold economic strategy we had in mind.

America Asks, Why Bear Stearns And Not Me?

• Last week, the Federal Reserve used our tax dollars to “essentially finance the takeover of collapsing investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.” at $2/share. [American Progress]
• Over the weekend, facing irate shareholders and Bear employees, the price quintupled to $10/share. [NY Times]
• The American people? Not too impressed.
• According to a new poll by Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen, 61% of Americans oppose “moves by the Federal Reserve...to provide cash, low interest, short-term loans and other assistance to investment banks and a troubled mortgage industry.” [Washington Times]
• The Bush Administration? Totally out of step.
• After spending weeks berating victims of predatory lenders and refusing to offer a lifeline to families struggling with plummeting home prices and foreclosures, the Bush administration turned right around and bailed out Wall Street.
• As David M. Abromowitz writes, “Bear Stearns is too important to allow to fail, but millions of homeowners can end up on the street when home prices plummet sharply. The Wall Street holders of overvalued mortgage pools are too important to fail, but homeowners drowning in debt are told to keep paying not matter what.”
• Read CAP’s plan to stabilize America’s neighborhoods and throw homeowners a lifeline here: [American Progress] [American Progress]

What about our street?

Look Who’s Snooping At Your Passport File

• Flashback: Over the weekend, it was reported that three private contractors working at the State Department were caught snooping at the private passport files of Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). Last summer, a State Department trainee also looked at the file of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). [Washington Post]
• The three snoopers in this most recent scandal were caught because they accessed files secretly flagged as belonging to a high-profile person, triggering a notice to a supervisor.
• And from the looks of it, your privacy could be breached next.
• See, nearly two decades ago, the State Department began farming out work to private contractors, but the ratio of contracted employees to actual employees stayed relatively low.
• During the past year, however, that ratio has exploded. From 2001 to 2007, 40 to 45 percent of the workers handling passports were contractors, but now 60 percent of the 4,400 passport employees work for private firms.
• Naturally, all this talk about privacy got us thinking: What is it about this administration and our own, private lives? The Bush White House has, since September 11th, 2001, made a full-court press to monitor our phone calls, read our emails, and shuffle through our letters. [Mic Check]
• And even when the President isn’t trying to snoop, he still manages to air our laundry. Two days ago, it was reported that someone had stolen a laptop from the NIH, leaving a couple thousand patients at risk for identity theft. Almost the exact same thing happened when a laptop was stolen from the car of a VA official a couple of years ago, putting thousands of veterans at risk of ID theft.

Keep this in mind the next time the government says “yeah...trust us...” and wants to read your e-mails or record your phone calls.

Good News, Bad News

Your Therapist Is A Robot

Need psychological help, but too cheap (or embarrassed) to seek a human professional? Scientists have a solution: a robot. Well, at least a web site. At MindMentor.com, Dutch psychologists, Jaap Hollander and Jeffrey Wijnberg have created a “‘robot psychologist’ that mimics a patient-therapist interaction by restating the user’s replies into grammatically correct responses.” And it seems to be working. Here’s the trade-off: [Wired]

GOOD NEWS

An astonishing 47% of users reported their problems “solved” after just a one hour session.

BAD NEWS

When robots take over the earth, do you really want them to know what you really think of your mom?

BONUS QUESTION

If you could pick any robot from any science fiction universe to be your therapist who would it be? We hear R2-D2 is a great listener.

Quote Of The Day

“I think this was a brutal, deliberate policy to ignore a wide range of written laws and constitutional principles and the legitimate powers of Congress…It’s different than anything we’ve seen in American history and I think it ought to be seen...as a dramatic challenge to American’s system of government.”

—Former Vice President Walter Mondale, on the vice presidency of Dick Cheney [Minnesota Post]

Speed Round

AUDIO: SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM MISPEAKS

Fresh from his Iraq trip with Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham shows off his stellar expertise of the Iraq war with an overly optimistic troop level prediction. When Gen. Petraeus point blank contradicts him, the Senator claims “misspeaking” as an excuse. Listen to the booboo yourself:

AUDIO: RUSH LIMBAUGH CLAIMS HE HAS “OPERATIVES”

If you had any doubts as to whether this man was sane or not, here is your final answer:

AUDIO: CHENEY CALLS CLINTON, OBAMA “WANNABES”

Maybe the Vice President’s been listening to the Spice Girls a little too much? We’re just saying. [Think Progress]

F-I-R-E I-N C-A-I-R-O

“An American cargo ship under contract to the U.S. Navy fired warning shots at a small Egyptian boat while passing through the Suez Canal, the U.S. military said Tuesday. Egyptian authorities said at least one man was killed, but the U.S. said an investigation was underway and it had no reports of casualties.” [Fox News]

WHOOPS

Instead of sending Taiwan the batteries they ordered in 2005, the Pentagon accidentally shipped them components to make intercontinental ballistic missiles. [CBS News]

GUNS IN THE SKY

A new CNN report charges that, out of 28,000 commercial airline flights a day in the U.S., fewer than 1% are protected by federal air marshals, leading many to ask how the heck the government is spending its $720 million annual federal air marshal budget. [CNN]

OVERDRAWN AT THE FOOD BANK

The UN’s World Food Program is pleading for new donations, as food contributions from the United States have fallen 43% since 2002 (in large part due to increased transportation costs and the faltering U.S. economy.) [USAT]

THE ECONOMY

New reports are showing that consumer confidence fell to a five-year low in March as countless economic indicators show that the country has slipped into recession. [AP]

MUST WATCH

Frontline’s “Bush’s War.” Reminds us how we got into the mess in Iraq, and who was responsible. [Front Line]

SHIA VS. SHIA

“Tensions between Iraq’s major Shiite Muslim factions erupted...as Iraqi security forces launched a major crackdown against militiamen in the southern oil hub of Basra.” [LA Times]

GLOBAL WARMING

Say so long, farewell 220-square-mile chunk of ice in western Antarctica. Or, as we like to call it, global warming’s latest victim. To give you a bit of context: 220-square-miles is about seven times the size of Manhattan. [AP]

GUNS IN THE SKY PART DEUX

Bang bang…thank goodness no one’s dead! The gun of a U.S. Airways pilot accidentally discharges as the plane is about to land.

TEXAN V. TEXAS

The Supreme Court gives the go ahead to the execution of a Mexican death row prisoner by ruling against Bush who tried to overstep his authority by ordering a Texas court to reopen the case. [FOX NEWS]

RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT

The FAA has requested that stop lights be added to runways...which begs the question: Shouldn’t pilots know when to stop? [NY Times]

TRAGEDY

Two people are killed during a crane accident in Miami. [NY Times]

LEVEE SCARES

Floods in Arkansas are straining levees to dangerous points. [Washington Post]

250

The number of people who have been sickened by contaminated water in Colorado. [USA Today]