skippy the bush kangaroo

Labels: birthday, hollywood, youtube

afghanistan's president, hamid karzai, has signed a law which "legalises" rape, women's groups and the united nations warn. critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in august.

in a massive blow for women's rights, the new shia family law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman's right to leave the home, according to un papers seen by the independent. - the independent

Labels: afghanistan, election, religion, womens issues

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back at the dawn of the automobile era, banks generally refused to loan money for such things as buying a car. it wasn't considered prudent. this was frustrating to companies such as general motors, which naturally wanted as many people as possible to have the wherewithal to purchase cadillacs and oldsmobiles and pontiacs and chevrolets. so gm decided to solve the problem by, in effect, becoming its own bank. in 1919 gm created the general motors acceptance corp., a financial arm of gm that specialized in offering credit to car buyers and allowing them to buy on installment plans.

gmac was a huge success. so much so that, over the years, it gradually expanded its operations, becoming a significant bottom-line contributor to gm's profits. in 1985, gm's execs decided, hey, if we're loaning money to our customers to buy cars, why not go ahead and loan them money to buy homes as well? gm promptly purchased two large mortgage lenders and instantly became the second largest mortgage bank in the u.s.

along the way gmac also became an early player in the world of "structured finance" or derivatives, by taking the income streams generated by all those car and mortgage payments and turning them into bonds, through the process known as "securitization," which it then sold off to investors. all very state-of-the-art, all very emblematic of the career arc of the modern american corporation.

...on thursday, gm shook up wall street by announced that it was delaying filing its 2006 annual report by a couple of weeks. the reason, said analysts, had to do with gmac's significant exposure to the ever-popular subprime lending debacle. like so many other players in the mortgage business in the last few years, gmac's home lending subsidiary, rescap, apparently got pretty deep into making risky loans to homeowners with bad credit, and now is paying the price. - salon.com

Labels: bailout, banking, bankruptcy, cars, foreclosure, gm, michigan

is the sun going down on my ability to get parts for my beloved saabi?

Labels: cars, gm, saab

as ibm was firing thousands of american workers last week, the u.s. patent and trademark office published big blue's application to copyright a computerized system that calculates how to offshore jobs while maximizing government tax breaks.

in their application to patent a "method and system for strategic global resource sourcing," five hudson valley ibmers describe how it weighs such plans as "50 percent of resources in china by 2010," against such factors as labor costs, infrastructure and the "minimum head count to qualify for incentives." - timesheraldrecord

Labels: china, class warfare, greed, ibm, made in america, workers

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just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks.

...now, they warn about a "perfect storm" scenario in which the agency's fund plummets in value just as more companies go into bankruptcy and pass their pension responsibilities onto the insurance fund. many analysts say it is inevitable that the agency will face significantly increased liabilities in coming months.

"the worst case scenario is coming to pass," said mark ruloff, a fellow at the pension finance institute, an independent group that monitors pensions. he said the agency leaders "fail to realize that they are an insurer of pension plans and therefore should be investing differently than the risk their participants are taking."

the pension benefit guaranty corporation may be little-known to most americans, but it serves as a lifeline for the 1.3 million people who receive retirement checks from it, and the 44 million others whose plans are backed by the agency. - boston.com

Labels: airlines, bankruptcy, depression, financial markets, wall street

Labels: bankruptcy, bees, climate change, environment, michigan, new hampshire, pollution, public health, recalls, toxins, water

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he's probably better known to you as the shamwow guy, the ubiquitous television pitchman who has been phenomenally successful peddling absorbent towels and food choppers. shlomi, 44, was arrested last month on a felony battery charge following a violent confrontation with a prostitute in his south beach hotel room. - smoking gun

Labels: advertising, teevee, violence

going organic in the white house was easy. both bubba's and w's kitchens did that with purchases from local farms and a nearby organic market. but homegrown fare, like what first lady michelle obama hopes to produce with her new spring vegetable garden on the south lawn—now, that's more complicated. and not just because crops have to be planted and tended. washington isn't really known for its population of
honeybees, the buzzy bugs needed for pollination. so—you guessed it—the first-ever white house beehive has been installed. - - usnews

Labels: bees, california, canada, environment, google, hospitals, lead, pesticide, pollution, public health, science, toxins

Labels: "vote earth", environment

california congressman darrell issa has introduced a bill to restore honor to the white house by prohibiting michelle obama from doing any substantive work. - jezebel and think progress

Labels: congress, obama, womens issues

Labels: climate change, global warming, hurricane, texas

our 100-year-old food inspection system is not aging gracefully. despite a century of improvements, consumers are still playing russian roulette when it comes to the food they eat. even today, one in four americans —- 76 million people —- endures a food-borne illness and 5,000 people die each year.

this year’s peanut meltdown alone has killed nine people, sickened thousands and shaken consumer confidence in food safety. reports of the filthy conditions at peanut corporation of america sound more like upton sinclair’s 1905 “the jungle” than a 21st-century food facility. health inspectors and former employees described roaches, mold-covered walls and a rat dry-roasting in the peanuts. - ajc

the food safety system is "plagued with problems," said jeff levi, executive director of trust for america's health, which released the report in conjunction with the robert wood johnson foundation. - latte times

Labels: fda, food safety, recalls

ralph reese, 57, of queens, new york, set aside one tuna fish sandwich from 30 unsold ones, that he tossed into the trash. when a supervisor asked him why the sandwich was on the counter, reese said he planned on eating it. the supervisor threw the sandwich in the trash and two days later reese was fired for misconduct, meaning reese couldn't apply for unemployment benefits. - walletpop

at a time when record numbers of people are losing their homes, unemployment is rising and a growing number of families are in need, california caterers, hotels and restaurants throw out roughly 1.5 million tons of perfectly good food every year, according to the state integrated waste management board.

...state sen. jenny oropeza (d-long beach) tried to take a small step toward remedying this last year with legislation that would have imposed the modest requirement that caterers inform clients they have the option of donating uneaten food to charity.

that bill, sb 1443, was shot down by the california restaurant assn., which argued that any such requirement would be troublesome for its members.

so now oropeza is back with a new bill, sb 35, that she says is once again intended to remedy the problem of all that food going to waste. - latte times

Labels: california, food, hunger, restaurants, unemployment, whole foods

north dakota is in a race against time as residents try to shore up huge sandbag levees ahead of massive flooding expected to hit this weekend. forecasters predict the red river's waters will crest at 41 feet by early saturday, exceeding record levels set in 1997. - abc

the blustery, bitter cold weather wednesday may have hampered traffic, but it didn’t seem to slow down flood-fighting efforts.

“it’s a typical north dakota spring day,” said fargo resident lee hoedl
as he took a break from sandbagging to warm his hands by an outdoor fireplace. “green grass one day, snow the next.” - grand forks herald

Labels: america, climate change, disasters, fema, water

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Labels: drought, water

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alaska's mt. redoubt volcano, which had been in a tempestuous mood for two months, erupted sunday night at 10:38 p.m., sending an ash cloud 50,000 feet above sea level.

the alaska volcano observatory recorded four more large explosions during the night. tina neal, a geologist with the us geological survey, said that "so far the major population centers in south-central alaska have been spared any kind of dusting of ash." - latimes

the avo staff also warned authorities at the drift river oil terminal -- on the western shore of cook inlet downriver from the volcano -- that mud flows and flooding from melting glaciers might be headed their way.

cook inlet pipe line company, which operates the terminal, said early this morning that it had begun shutting the facility down. - adn

Labels: alaska, jindal, volcano

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vandals set loose 15 kangaroos from an australian theme park in southern france, sparking a major search operation, with three marsupials still on the loose on sunday. - afp

Labels: france, kangaroo

there’s a word out there getting a lot of use, and it’s not “bailout.” in case you missed the news or you’ve just forgotten, the word is “drought.” and like our sagging economy, many hydrologists say we should just get used to it, because it might be sticking around for a while. - ventura county star

Labels: drought, water

in an exclusive interview, eliot spitzer talks to fareed zakaria about the economic crisis and the scandal that led to his own resignation as governor of new york state. spitzer conducted his own in-depth investigation of aig when he was attorney general of new york state and says that while so much attention is focused on the aig bonuses, we might be missing even bigger problems. - cnn

Labels: aig, cnn, scandals, spitzer

Labels: agriculture, ecology, energy, environment, farmers, fish, food safety, nuclear power, public health, water

washington mutual's holding company is suing federal regulators for billions of dollars, saying the fire sale of the bank's assets to jpmorgan chase violated its rights. - ap

Labels: bailout, banking, corporations

...people are pissed off about this financial crisis, and about this bailout, but they're not pissed off enough. the reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. they cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations. - rolling stone.

Labels: aig, criminal, financial markets, government, wall street

one-third of us birds are endangered, says conservation report, - energy production deriving from wind, ethanol and mountain-top coal mining is contributing to steep drops in bird populations, a u.s. government report found- ap via the guardian

birds are a priceless part of america’s heritage. they are beautiful, they are economically important—and they reflect the health of our environment. this state of the birds report reveals troubling declines of bird populations during the past 40 years—a warning signal of the failing health of our ecosystems. - state of the birds report

Labels: birds, ecology, environment, pollution

While you are at the store, pick up a bag of kangaroo
Originally uploaded by alumroot

Labels: flickr, kangaroo blogging friday

NORTH READING - Marilyn Coyne survived the Depression with little food and no heat in her parents' flat in Portland, Maine. She married and sent four kids to college. She saw her husband and one of their children die. And, in November, after three years of fighting breast cancer, she was told by a doctor that she had months to live.

In hospice care and losing weight in recent weeks as the cancer crept through her body, she confided to a hospice volunteer that she had a last wish, something that recalled summer nights of her childhood and joy with her husband. She wanted a final square dance.

Yesterday, her wish came true. Coyne donned a floral skirt, a crimson petticoat, and a red peasant shirt, and walked to the center of a nursing room social hall, where nine professional square-dancers, dressed in cowboy shirts and calico, waited for her.

It had been a decade since she last clasped hands with a partner, but as music played, the elfin Coyne deftly followed the dance caller's instructions of allemande left, promenade, and do-si-do. After five minutes of swinging her partner, and singing along with "She'll Be Com ing 'Round the Mountain," Coyne let her thin, 82-year-old frame fall into a padded wooden chair and took a deep breath.

"That," she sighed, "was wonderful."

Labels: elderly issues, generations, history

while the american international group comes under fire from congress over executive bonuses, it is quietly fighting the federal government for the return of $306 million in tax payments, some related to deals that were conducted through offshore tax havens. -nytimes

Labels: aig, corporations, financial markets, greed, terrorists

baghdad's water still undrinkable 6 years after invasion. ihsan jaafar, iraq's director of public health, said the water had been bad for years, but that it now carried cholera, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis and other diseases. - mcclatchy newspapers.

Labels: iraq, iraq war

citigroup inc. plans to spend about $10 million on new offices for chief executive officer vikram pandit and his lieutenants, after the u.s. government injected $45 billion of cash into the bank. - bloomberg

Labels: bailout, banking, lawlessness, liars

on a day when aig remained the no. 1 target of populist wrath from both parties, 43 house democrats dashed off a letter to jp morgan chase ceo jamie dimon, blasting the bank's plan to spend $400 million on expanding its indian it workforce. - talking points memo

Labels: bailout, banking, ceo, congress, greed, india

Labels: australia, climate change, ecology, energy, environment, global warming, ocean, water

fannie mae plans to pay retention bonuses of at least $1 million to four key executives as part of a plan to keep hundreds of employees from leaving the government-controlled company.

rival mortgage finance company freddie mac is planning similar awards, but has not yet reported on which executives will benefit. - ap

Labels: bailout, greed

...new york attorney general andrew cuomo confirmed in a letter to congress that this year, after receiving federal bailout money, aig paid 73 employees bonuses of more than $1 million each.

cuomo also wrote that 11 of the employees no longer work for the company. the largest bonus paid was $6.4 million; seven other people also received more than $4 million each. - cnn

Labels: aig, bailout, greed, lawlessness, wall street

the apparently insatiable demands of the world for viagra has brought a rare prosperity to ringaskiddy - population 370 - for it is here that a key ingredient of the drug is made in the town's pfizer plant.

most of the farmland around ringaskiddy was handed over to american chemical companies some time ago. pfizer was the first, in 1969, and now dominates the village's skyline as much as the cork-to-swansea car ferryport. - the independent

Labels: congress, drug war, holiday