Senator Obama talks about the plan here:
Rather than explain it, you can read the actual plan and it's words here:
President George W. Bush, whose approval ratings are at historic lows as the U.S. veers toward a recession or worse, got yet another thumb in the eye when one of his most vociferous critics was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics.
While Princeton University Professor Paul Krugman was honored ``for his analysis of trade patterns of and locations of economic activity,'' he's more widely known for twice-weekly columns in the New York Times and appearances on television, in which he regularly attacks the president on the war in Iraq, his tax cuts and other issues.
Krugman, 55, doesn't mince words. He has accused Bush of leading the country into ``strategic disaster and moral squalor,'' and his columns and Times blog entries carry headlines with such blunt entreaties as ``Please Go Away.''
Even though Krugman's award was for his economic theories and not his criticism of Bush, the prize elevates the profile of an already-prominent Bush critic, said Jim Davis, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
``People will just see that a well-informed economist who has been critical of the Bush administration got the Nobel Prize, that's the take-away here,'' Davis said.
Of the more than 800 Krugman pieces listed on the Times Web site since he
became a columnist in 1999, almost 600 of them mention ``Bush,'' a search of the
site shows.
`Takes the Food'
On Feb. 11, 2005, he referred to Bush as someone who takes food from the mouth of babes and gives the proceeds to his millionaire friends.'' On Jan. 22, 2007, Bush, with his plan to use tax credits to buy health insurance, is ``not even trying to hide his fundamental indifference to the plight of the less- fortunate,'' Krugman wrote.Krugman is a fierce critic of Bush's foreign policy and was an early opponent of the war in Iraq. Of the president's case for removing Saddam Hussein, Krugman
wrote on Feb. 11, 2003, ``Mr. Bush's America does not look like a regime whose
promises you can trust.''``People claim to be shocked by the Bush administration's general incompetence,'' Krugman wrote on Oct. 8 last year. ``But disinterest in good government has long been a principle of modern conservatism.''
Krugman is not the first Bush critic to win a Nobel Prize. Former President Jimmy Carter's Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 ``was more of a slap in the face,'' said Stephen Hess, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Krugman's award could bring Bush face-to-face with his antagonist. The president typically invites Nobel Prize winners to the White House in November or December.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment on the award.
Ecuador president names fourth finance minister, slams predecessors for low public spending
Associated Press Newswires, September 17, 2008
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Ecuador has a new finance minister after the unexpected resignation of Wilma Salgado.
President Rafael Correa criticized Salgado Tuesday, accusing her of blocking his efforts to boost government spending on roads, hydroelectric and oil projects during her 10 weeks in office.
Correa said a "mafia" has run the finance ministry, "demonizing" public spending in order to use Ecuador's cash to service its foreign debt.
Ecuador has US$6 billion in foreign currency reserves, and Correa wants new finance minister Maria Elsa Viteri to tap that cash to triple public spending to US$300 million a month.
Viteri is Ecuador's fourth finance minister since Correa took office 20 months ago.
California-based oil major Chevron (NYSE: CVX) has filed a written response to a court-ordered report in a trial related to alleged environmental damage in Ecuador.
The superior court in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, asked Richard Cabrera to write the report after the plaintiffs aborted a judicial inspection process of the alleged pollution in Ecuador, Chevron said in a statement.
"The findings of the Cabrera report are clearly fraudulent and intended to cause damage to this US company and its shareholders," Chevron general counsel Charles James told reporters in a conference call.
"This report would not withstand scrutiny - be it technical, scientific or legal - in any responsible independent court anywhere in the world," he said.
Chevron believes Cabrera, helped by the plaintiffs, "manipulated" findings to justify false conclusions. Cabrera failed to present evidence for a number of claims and did not look at drinking water samples to prove contamination, according to the Chevron statement.
"It is hard to read Mr Cabrera's report and find a single table, page, assertion or data point that we wouldn't take issue with," James said when asked whether there was any truth to the Cabrera report. "He did put his name on the report and I presume that's correct."
The Cabrera report estimates damages of US$7bn-16bn - a "reasonable" amount that actually "underestimated the number of deaths from cancer due to the oil contamination," the Amazon Defense Coalition, a NGO that supports the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
In fact, plaintiffs have submitted papers to the court asking Cabrera to calculate how much it would cost to remediate groundwater and surface water not included in the assessment.
"There is significant evidence of groundwater and surface water contamination in the record yet no damages to remediate the impacts," Pablo Fajardo, the Ecuadorian lawyer for "dozens" of Amazon communities and five indigenous groups suing Chevron, said in the NGO's statement.
The trial stems back decades, when Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador led an E&P project with partner Texaco Petroleum (Texpet), which years later merged into Chevron. The Petroecuador-Texpet partnership resulted in total crude production of 1.7Mb, with Texpet - which stopped operating in the country in 1992 - taking 5% of the financial proceeds, according to Chevron figures.
Ecuador's government in 1999 enacted a new environmental statute that allows any Ecuadorian resident to file a collective suit for environmental reparations. As a result, plaintiffs filed suit against Chevron in 2003, alleging environmental damage under the Texpet project.
Although Texpet had a minority stake in the project, plaintiffs allege it did substandard work and made major decisions about project technology and methodology.
Chevron denies the allegations and says it performed a US$40mn remediation project that gave it final immunity from claims resulting from its participation in the consortium.
I live in Mountain Home AR and there are many of us here that support Obama. But you will not find a sign any where. The reason for this is the blatant racism and threats that have occurred against Obama and his supporters. We are all afraid of being attacked in some way for putting up a sign. Are you hearing this around the country? Any thoughts? I pray for his life and safety every day. One of my friends told me that I was not standing up for my convictions because I did not have a sign. I told him that now was not the time to put my safety and life on the line, but after he is elected and the attacks on him begin, it will then be time to fight to protect our President.
JP