Save Kauai brings together current information about Kauai and web-based tools that allow you to take action. If we want to affect the future of Kauai in a pono way we must organize and begin implementing solutions, not just fighting the problems.
Aloha 'Aina, Imua Kakou!
http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/t/741/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2622...
You might think that after their controversial decision to allow cloned animals into the food supply, the Bush administration would take a break for while. But they're up against the clock, and trying to push genetically engineered animals onto your dinner plate. Can you help us make sure they don't get their way?
The Food and Drug Administration recently released its draft plan for how it will approve animals that are genetically engineered to grow faster, produce more milk, or even produce drugs in their meat or milk. The agency wants to use its drug approval process to approve new GE animals - a process that is flawed and wrapped in secrecy. This approval process would require the agency to review the effectiveness of the genetically engineered trait and any health impact on the animal, but not test the food that comes from these animals.
And this process does nothing to weigh any environmental damage caused by things like GE fish escaping from fish farms and breeding with wild fish, or the ethical considerations of altering the genes of animals in the first place. And to make matters worse, the FDA is not requiring that food from GE animals be labeled, so consumers won't know if the food they buy for their families was produced with this controversial technology.
Tell FDA to ban the use of genetically engineered animals for food. Take action.
Thanks for taking action,
Sarah Alexander, Senior Food Organizer
Food & Water Watch
Review of Navy contract award sought Nov. 16, 2008 Portland Press Herald - Maine
"...Keenan said there is concern that the Navy's latest decision 'will create more layoffs and there is fear that cost, quality, craftsmanship...not taken into consideration when contracts are awarded. I, like the 3,000 other shipbuilders, just want peace of mind that it was a fair competition with bids reflecting what it truly costs to build and deliver the final product (Joint High Speed Vessel) to the Navy,' he wrote."
Shipyard Workers Demand Investigation Into Navy Contract Nov. 15, 2008 WMTW ABC TV - Bath, Maine
Friday, November 14, 2008
From: http://www.rgemonitor.com/financemarkets-monitor/254332/we_interrupt_reg...
"We interrupt regular programming to announce that the United States of America has defaulted"
by Satyajit Das Nov 11, 2008
"On 30 October 1938, the American Radio Drama series Mercury Theatre aired “The War of the Worlds”, directed by Orson Welles. Adapted from H.G. Welles’ novel, the first half of the broadcast was scripted as a series of dramatic news bulletins of a Martian invasion. Listeners who had missed or ignored the opening credits assumed that the invasion was real. People fled their homes. Police were swamped by panicked phone calls. Today the financial equivalent of this broadcast would be the announcement: “we interrupt regular programming to announce that the United States of America has defaulted on its debt!”
Pay back in devalued dollars…
Default is the failure to honour contractual obligations; in the case of debt, non-payment of interest or principal payments due to the lender. The financial impact of default is the loss suffered by the lender.
Lenders to the United States (“US”) government have already suffered significant losses. The losses have not been from non-payment but because repayments have been in a constantly debased currency – the dollar.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
"Here is the Contract...for 1 ship with NAVY Option for 9 more"
Oh, that's pricey, $185,433,564, more than twice what HSV's have gone for in past and presumably will go for in the future. Notice the NAVY has the option of 9 more, or NOT.
Here is the 'scoop,' the first accurate media report:
From: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aq1LfQ6bI2Tg&refer=a...
"Austal Wins $185.4 Million Navy Award for High-Speed Vessel" By Gopal Ratnam November 13, 2008 17:53 EST
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- "Austal Ltd., the Perth, Australia- based shipbuilder, won a $185.4 million contract from the U.S. Navy to build a high-speed vessel that will transport troops and supplies, the Defense Department said.
The work will be performed by Austal's U.S. unit in Mobile, Alabama, the Pentagon said today on its Web site. The contract includes options to build as many as nine more ships..."
Here is the actual DoD press release:
From: http://www.defenselink.mil/CONTRACTS/CONTRACT.ASPX?CONTRACTID=3903
U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
Contract On the Web: http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=3903
FOR RELEASE AT 5 p.m. ET
November 13, 2008
CONTRACTS
NAVY
Bush/Paulson are on a pace to spend all of the $700 billion TARP before Obama gets into office:
From: www.rgemonitor.com:
"American Express Gets Access to TARP: Are Monolines, Insurers, Automakers, Hedge Funds Next?"
"The U.S. government's financial-system rescue plans are coming under pressure as a growing array of distressed companies signal the need for assistance. The Treasury has committed all but $60 bn of the first $350 bn in funds granted by Congress under the TARP plan American Express won swift approval from Fed to become a bank-holding company; Fannie Mae said it is losing money so rapidly that it may need a cash infusion above the $100 bn accorded already; GM might violate the terms of some of its debt by the end of the year if it can't steady its finances; AIG's rescue package was amended and increased to $150 bn. Pressure rises on Secretary Paulson to request access to the remaining $350 bn TARP funds. Click Here For Full Analysis
From: www.rgemonitor.com
"Expanded $150 bn Bail-Out Package for AIG; Government Takes Over Toxic CDS and Mortgage-Backed Portfolios"
"Nov 9: AIG's new deal will increase government aid to the stricken insurer from $123bn to $150bn. Under the new plan between the insurer, New York Fed and U.S. Treasury, the government will swap the $85bn two-year loan for a $60bn five-year loan at a lower interest rate. The government will also use TARP to buy some $40bn in preferred shares in AIG (10% interest rate), and purchase $50bn of the company's distressed assets" Click Here For Full Analysis
Published on Saturday, November 8, 2008 by The Nation
Obama's Best Advice Will Come From Reich, Bonior
by John Nichols
Barack Obama appeared at his first press conference as the president-elect of the United States on a day of sobering economic news. Just hours earlier, the Department of Labor had reported that 240,000 American jobs were lost in October, bringing the unemployment rate to 6.5 percent -- the highest rate in 14 years. And General Motors, the hobbled giant of American manufacturing, was announcing that it might not have enough money to make it through the end of the year.
Though his 20-minute appearance offered few details regarding specific plans, Obama acknowledged the fact that, "We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime..." So it was not surprising that the president-to-be would surround himself with a few dozen economic wingmen and women, as well as his new chief of staff -- Clintonite neo-liberal Rahm Emanuel.
Most of the advisors who stood with the senator who on January 20 will assume responsibility for an economy in crisis were more in Emanuel's investment-banker, free-trader mold than that of the tens of millions of workers and farmers who elected Obama as an agent of change. Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin was to the side of the stage. Former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker was just behind Obama. Another former treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, was in the room and perhaps in the running for a top spot in the administration.
But not everyone on stage stands on the wrong side of the equation.
Published on Friday, November 7, 2008 by McClatchy Newspapers
Bush Officials Moving Fast to Cut Environmental Protections
by Renee Schoof
WASHINGTON - In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia.
[Not done making a mess of the world yet. US President George W. Bush walks away after discussing the transition with the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama with staff members, on the South Lawn of the White House, November 6, 2008. In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia. (REUTERS/Larry Downing)]Not done making a mess of the world yet. US President George W. Bush walks away after discussing the transition with the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama with staff members, on the South Lawn of the White House, November 6, 2008. In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia. (REUTERS/Larry Downing)
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/11/06/17903/fed-capitulates-the-central-bank-is-broken/
Fed capitulates: the central bank is brokenby Sam Jones - Financial Times November 6, 2008
"Or perhaps better, the entire banking system is broken.
For it appears that the US Federal Reserve has given up on the idea of easing stress on interbank and wholesale lending and is resigned to being the central bank-come-market-maker of last, first and every resort.
For some time now there’s been a debate about the direction of the Fed’s policy. Would we see target rates come down further? Quantitative easing? Massive T-Bill issuance in the open market?
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From the Fed yesterday:
