January 13, 2010 Breaking News

THE HILL: U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue warned the U.S. faces a double-dip recession because of the taxes and regulations under consideration by the Democratic Congress and President Barack Obama. “Congress, the administration and states must recognize that our weak economy

simply could not sustain all the new taxes, regulations and mandates now under consideration. It’s a sure-fire recipe for a double-dip recession, or worse,” Donohue said in a speech providing the Chamber’s outlook for 2010.

Donohue said the lawmakers should not let former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts expire at the end of year and lambasted Democratic efforts on healthcare and financial regulatory reform as well as climate change.

He also faulted Obama and Democratic lawmakers for not doing more to create jobs.

THE GUARDIAN-UK–Stone announced yesterday that a 10-hour crash course in the history of the 20th century he is putting together for American TV is designed as an antidote to the inaccuracies and biases he believes exist in the conventional historical narrative dished out in American schools and mainstream media. The title alone gives an inkling of what lies ahead: Oliver Stone’s Secret History of America.

The thrice-Oscar winning director gave a further glimpse into his thinking at a gathering of TV critics in Pasadena on Saturday, when he didn’t so much open up a can of worms as unleash an entire supermarket shelf-load. He began by startling the panel by bringing up the H word.

“Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it’s been used cheaply,” he said. Then he mentioned the S word. “Stalin has a complete other story. Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any person.”

Then he went on to mention two M words – Chairman Mao and Joseph McCarthy, architect of the 1950s anti-communist purges in Washington, and the T word – Harry Truman’s dropping of the atom bomb in 1945.

Of the many potential storms that could be brewing over his Secret History, which will be broadcast by the cable channel Showtime later this year, Hitler promises to be the most incendiary. Stone told the Television Critics Association that “we can’t judge people as only ‘bad’ or ‘good’. [Hitler] is the product of a series of actions. It’s cause and effect. People in America don’t know the connection between WWI and WWII.”

The implication that Stone is seeking to put forward a good side of the German dictator hitherto not seen by Americans is, even by Stone’s own accomplished record of stirring up stinks, pretty radical.

CNBC: Health care reform is “hanging on by a thread,” and one or two votes could determine the outcome of the heavily-debated bill, Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd told CNBC Monday.

“Everyone feels, I guess, to some degree who has been for this, that they would have liked something different…” Dodd said.

President Obama’s administration has come under fire lately for putting too much emphasis on health care reform, causing many to question whether Democrats will retain their majority control come November. But Dodd, who is retiring this year, said it’s an issue that needed to be dealt with — otherwise it would “strangle our economy,” he said.

By Leo W. Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers

THE HILL: A screwy thing happened after the United Steelworkers and eight domestic steel producers won their trade case late in December against Chinese manufacturers of the steel pipe used for oil and gas drilling. Instead of describing it as an important victory for U.S. industry and workers, one in which they proved to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that China violated international trade rules, the media characterized it as Americans unnecessarily picking a fight with the Chinese. What’s particularly disturbing about this stance from the media is that it occurs

only when a trade case involves manufactured goods. The media strongly supports protections for copyrighted material – movies, music etc. The media have made clear they oppose Chinese piracy of intellectual property – you know, like the written and filmed products that media members produce. But their reaction is completely different when the Chinese violate international rules regarding manufactured goods. Then, the media blame the victims — the U.S. industries and workers – the same way defense attorneys accuse rape victims. Here, for example, is the Washington Post contending that the ITC decision to impose duties of between 10.4 and 15.8 percent on Chinese pipe heightened trade hostilities between the U.S. and China: “The current tensions began in September, when the United States imposed a staggering 35 percent import fee on tires from China.” The Dow Jones Newswire in a story by Henry J. Pulizzi also blamed the U.S. with provoking a fight with the Chinese by imposing duties, beginning with a reference to the steel pipe decision:…

A lawyer boarded an airplane in New Orleans with a box of frozen crabs and asked a blonde flight attendant to take care of them for him. She took the box and promised to put it in the crew’s refrigerator. He advised her that he was holding her personally responsible for them staying frozen, mentioning (in a very haughty manner) that he was a lawyer, and proceeded to rant at her about what would happen if she let them thaw out.