Senators Continue To Jam Right To Work Movement

Madison – They're all camped out across the border in Illinois, and Winsconsin's Democratic State Senators don't appear to have any plans to come home soon.

The way things stand, Governor Scott Walker's plan to bust the unions and make Wisconsin a right to work state is stymied by the lack of one member to make a quorum in the upper chamber.

The Republican-controlled Assembly intended to debate the measure and vote on it today, but it's a no go the way things stand.

Teachers, firefighters and police officers have agreed to compromise on pay cuts that average 8 percent, but the Governor has refused to hear their entreaties.

That's not what he's after. He wants to make the state open to all comers and not a closed shop, unionized state in which collective bargaining under the law is the only way to go.

More than 68,000 people jammed the rotunda of the state capitol building on Saturday, a spectacle that has riveted the nation and polarized the political camps to left and right.

On the left, Democrats and independents want to preserve the status quo in unionized labor, believing there is strength in numbers and such issues as health care, pay, environmental and safety regulations are best handled at the negotiating table come contract time.

On the right, Tea Parties, Republicans and Libertarians demand an end to union control over employer-worker relations. They say it's wrecking the economy.

Government accountability studies dispute that logic.

Where the Governor says his state is facing a multibillion dollar budget deficit, the liberals and working people say economic studies prove it would have been a budget surplus had he not moved to lower taxes for corporations and the very wealthy population of this populist prairie state.

Right wingers cite unconfirmed reports that teachers' health care insurance packages average about $1,000 per month. Left wingers point out the fact that all insurance rates must be approved by a state regulatory agency, something which usually favors insurance carriers.

No matter which route you may go, the Wisconsites have something in common with old East Texas county boys like Jimmy Caughron. They know you can fix just about anything with duct tape. Witnesseth.

Credit Consumers Facing Fewer Rate Hikes, Fees

A new government watchdog agency and a consumer advocacy group agree that banking regulations enacted a year ago have reduced the rate hikes and hidden “gotcha” user fees with which banks saddled credit card holders in the past.

A spokesman for the American Banking Association disagrees.

It's the economy. It's the fact that people with bad credit are not using cards, or they are using cards they pay a much higher rate to use, he says.

Either way, the numbers indicate that penalty charges are down, according to the newly formed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

January 2010 late fees cost cardholders $901 million. This year, the amount was less than half at $427 million.

The biggest reason: a $25 cap on penalty charges written into Credit Card (CARD) Act of 2009.

Before the new regulations took effect, about 15% of accounts saw rate hikes over the course of a year. That figure fell to a slim 2% during the past year.

Another big plus is that lenders can no longer boost rates within the first year of a cardholder opening an account or without giving 45 days notice before the rate is hiked on new purchases.

Over the limit fees have been eliminated. Before the new law took effect, banks would sometimes approve purchases that put consumers over the limit – for a fee of as much as $39.

According to ABA spokesman Peter Garuccio, “Overall it has been a net positive for consumers, but there have been tradeoffs.

“...The difficult part is teasing out jus thow much of these changes attribute the CARD Act and how much to attribute to the economic downturn. We think they are attributable to both.”

According to the Center for Responsible Lending, “An estimated $12.1 billion in previously obscure yearly charges are now stated more clearly in credit card offers.”

Qadafi Appears On State TV - "I'm Not In Venezuela"

Colonel Muammar Qadafi appeared briefly on Libyan state television this morning. "I'm not in Venezuela," he said. "Don't believe those dog stations."

Some earlier televised reports had speculated that the 68-year-old Colonel had fled for asylum in that nation.

Worldwide repercussions have opened deep rifts in the Libyan regime, which has been in power for 40-plus years. Libyan UN mission diplomats have resigned in protest over the killing of hundreds of protesters in the streets of Benghazi and Tripoli.

Air Force officers have resigned their commissions and are urging fellow officers to "Join with the people."

Graphic Footage Of Protesters Shot Dead In Bahrain

Bahraini security police fired on protesters, leaving the streets littered with their bodies.

The capital of the U.S. Navy's 5th fleet, this emirate is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a 6-member coalition of Persian Gulf oil-rich emirates and principalities that have banded together to issue their own currencie, a unit known as the "khaliji" on the worldwide currency exchanges.

Yemen and Egypt have been rejected for full membership in the council.

$4 Gas Sure Thing As Libyan Unrest Sets Crude Climbing

Crude oil for April delivery gained $5.69, or 6.3%, to $95.40 a barrel over the past two days of Libyan unrest and military attacks on hundreds of civilians.

Colonel Muammar Gadafi set off the first round of skyrocketing American fuel prices in 1970 when he nationalized the foreign oil fields of his nation following the Congressional action of crimping the oil depletion tax allowance by another significant percentage increment in 1969.

Muslim Brotherhood actions against his 40-plus year regime over the weekend sent crude prices sailing every higher and higher on thermals of trepidation and uncertainty over supplies.

BBC, Al Jazeera Say Gadhafi's Air Force, Navy Firing On Protesters

BULLETIN: A Libyan journalist who appeared as a guest on PBS Newshour's evening broadcast painted a picture of sheer horror as she related eyewitness reports of security forces invading hospitals and shooting victims of Air Force and Navy attacks directed against citizens who had protested in the streets.

Other elements of the Libyan security forces scoured medical records in the admitting offices of hospitals, "...presumably to get information with which to direct attacks against the families of victims."

Hundreds have fallen dead in aerial attacks on highways, public streets and squares and private residences carried out by Libyan Air Force planes, onshore naval bombardment and small arms fire from security police who chased protesters through the streets, firing at will.

One of Gadafi's sons told television viewers that there will be civil war to rival anything ever seen in the history of the nation. "We have petroleum and it has united Libyan," he said, in reference to recent revolutions and uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Algeria and Tunisia.

Many foreign intelligence services believe Colonel Gadafi to have fled the country. Government radio and television stations are announcing that he will made a broadcast statement to the world later tonight. Border guards in Egypt say that Libyan border forces have withdrawn from their posts. They are believed to be fighting insurgency in the nation's cities.

- A Stratfor Red Alert -

Tripoli - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has ordered the Libyan air force to fire on military installations in Libya, according to what the BBC has characterized as a reliable source. Al Jazeera has suggested that air force fighters have opened fire on crowds of protesters.


Though the latter would be particularly draconian, the more important question is whether these signs reflect a split within the regime and Gadhafi using military force to crush opposition to his regime emerging from the military or other security forces. Similar reports the Libyan navy firing on targets onshore also are emerging, as well as reports that Gadhafi has given execution orders to soldiers who have refused to fire on Libyan protesters...

As of noon, Al Jazeera was reporting more than 300 dead in Tripoli. - The Legendary

Red Alert: Clashes In Tripoli - 61 Dead - Al Jazeera

A Stratfor Red Alert

Tripoli - Emerging reports early Feb. 21 indicate the unrest in Libya might have spread from eastern Libya to the capital of Tripoli. According to initial reports, heavy gunfire was heard in central Tripoli and in other districts with Al Jazeera reporting 61 people killed in Tripoli on Feb. 21.

Other unconfirmed reports say that protesters attacked the headquarters of Al-Jamahiriya Two television and Al-Shababia as well as other government buildings in Tripoli overnight. According to Saudi-owned al-Arabiya, the government-owned People’s Conference Centre where the General People’s Congress (parliament) meets when it is in session in Tripoli was set on fire.

U.K. energy firm British Petroleum reportedly said it would evacuate its personnel from Libya and suspend its activities due to massive unrest. Spain’s Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez said on Feb. 21 that the EU member states are coordinating possible evacuations of European nationals from Libya. A Turkish Airlines flight was arranged to evacuate Turkish citizens from Benghazi but was denied the opportunity to land by Libyan authorities and returned to Turkey...