Why you don't want Jane Harman as CIA director

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Jeff Stein - Even in a town with memory holes as deep as dark space, the persistence of Jane Harman’s name near the top of lists for CIA director is a mystery.

Apparently, Harman’s role in an Israeli intelligence influence operation has been forgotten by Washington's Great Mentioners.
As I reported in 2009:

“Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

“Harman was recorded saying she would ‘waddle into’ the AIPAC case ‘if you think it’ll make a difference,’ according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript. In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

“Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, ‘This conversation doesn’t exist.’

No hard evidence emerged that Harman did, in fact, lobby Bush administration officials on behalf of the AIPAC defendants, although The Washington Post reported that she called the White House on their behalf.

The New York Times and other media organizations corroborated my original reporting.

If that weren’t enough, California Democrat’s administrative record should be.  Harman has never run anything bigger than the Woodrow Wilson Institute, and during her eight terms in Congress, her office churned with turnovers.
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Word: The deficit

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Dean Baker,  Counterpunch - The leadership of both parties has elevated the budget deficit to be the top and virtually only issue in national economic policy. This means ignoring the downturn that continues to cause enormous amount of unnecessary suffering for tens of millions of people. But fears of big deficits are preventing us from giving the same sort of boost to the economy that got us out of the Great Depression.

The explanation is simple: Profits have returned to pre-recession levels. This means that from the standpoint of the people who own and run American businesses, everything is pretty much fine. Moreover, they see the deficits created by the downturn as providing an opportunity to go after Social Security and Medicare.

The Campaign to Fix the Debt, a nonpartisan organization involving many of the country’s richest and most powerful CEOs, sets out to do just that. It has become standard practice in Washington for Wall Street types and other wealthy interests to finance groups to push their agenda. The Campaign to Fix the Debt involves the CEOs themselves directly stepping up to the plate and pushing the case for cutting Social Security and Medicare as well as lowering the corporate income tax rate.

...There is no easy way for the private sector to replace this demand. Businesses don’t invest unless they see demand for their products, regardless of how much love we might shower on the “job creators.” In fact, if anything, investment is surprisingly strong given the large amount of excess capacity in the economy. Measured as a share of GDP, investment in equipment and software is almost back to its pre-recession level. It is hard to envision investment getting much higher, absent a major boost in demand from some other sector.

This is why it is necessary for the government to run large deficits. Ideally, the money would be spent in areas that will make us richer in the future: education, infrastructure, research and development in clean energy, etc. There is just no way around a large role for the government given the economy’s current weakness.

Robert Reich, Truth Out -  In fact, federal deficits are dropping as a percent of the total economy.

For the fiscal year ending in September 2009, the deficit was 10.1 percent of the gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in America. In 2010, it was 9 percent. In 2011, 8.7 percent. In the 2012 fiscal year, it was down to 7 percent.

The deficit ballooned in 2009 because of the Great Recession. It knocked so many people out of work that tax revenues dropped to the lowest share of the economy in over sixty years. (The Bush tax cuts on the rich also reduced revenues.) The recession also boosted government spending on a stimulus program and on safety nets like unemployment insurance and food stamps.

But as the nation slowly emerges from recession, more people are employed — generating more tax revenues, and requiring less spending on safety nets and stimulus. That’s why the deficit is shrinking.

Yes, deficits are projected to rise again in coming years as a percent of GDP. But that’s mainly due to the rising costs of health care, along with aging baby boomers who are expected to need more medical treatment.

United Kingdom and Ireland Records

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Uncover the different generations of your family in census records from England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, covering every decade from 1841 to 1901. Plus, see their original records in our high-quality scans. The exact information varies from year-to-year, but you’ll discover fascinating details such as names of all the family, their ages, birthplaces, occupations and relationships. You can use these facts to delve further into their lives, using birth, marriage and death indexes, immigration records, occupation documents and much more. Our latest addition is the 1911 England & Wales Census Summary Books — we’ll be adding the rest of the 1911 Census over the next few months...

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Early Quaker Records in Virginia

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This is an exact transcription of genealogical data in the oldest Quaker records in Virginia, the so-called Chuckatuck Record. It is mainly birth, marriage, and death records in Nansemond and Isle of Wight counties, beginning in 1673, although a few entries relate to events of an earlier date. The birth and death records provide the usual names and dates, while the marriage records have the names of the parties to the marriage, the date, parents' names, and the lists of witnesses, many of whom were relatives of the bride and groom...

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Pallot's Marriage Index for England: 1780 - 1837

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Pallot's Index to Marriages is essential for researchers with London ancestry, as it covers all but two of the 103 parishes in the old City of London. The dates span the time from 1780 to the onset of General Registration in 1837. The more than 1.5 million marriage entries come mainly from London and Middlesex, but also include entries from 2500 parishes in 38 counties outside of London-many not available in other sources. 

Also included are several records from counties in Wales. With indexing begun in 1813, several of the registers transcribed in Pallot's index no longer exist, having been destroyed or lost in the time since.The index slips were handwritten on paper, and indexing continued regularly over a period of more than 150 years. Each slip identifies the church or chapel in which the marriage was celebrated, the names of bride and of groom, whether spinster, bachelor, widow or widower and sometimes other detail along with the date of the event. 

The original paper slips of the Pallot Index are owned and held at The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, Canterbury, England. The Institute may have access to fuller details that may have survived among the original parish records. (www.ihgs.ac.uk) The Institute is a not-for-profit educational organization and researches in the records themselves can be arranged. Please visit their website for additional information about the services they provide...

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Family Reunion Idea

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Looking for a great family reunion idea? Use that shared time with relatives to do some research on your family tree. Gather facts, tell stories, and share your research with your family members. Uncles, aunts, and cousins will all agree that it's a great way to spend time together at a family reunion.

To make the best use of your genealogy research time, share the family reunion idea with your relatives beforehand. Six to eight weeks before the reunion, send them a letter or email outlining your ideas. Here's a sample:

Since we'll all be together, let's work on building our family tree. Please bring all your favorite stories of our family, along with copies of any old pictures or documents you may have. With your help, I can put together one great family history. Next year at the family reunion, I'll share the results of my new research. I hope you like my family reunion idea.

Then list the various specific items you need:

• dates and places for family events such as birth, marriages, divorces, and deaths 
• family pictures, letters, and memorabilia 
• any remembered details of ancestors' lives 
• family Bibles or other treasured records 
• family customs, games, recipes, or other things that make your family specialA week or so ahead of time, you may want to send a reminder email. You could even include a form to be photocopied and filled out, or downloaded and printed.

If you're looking for an even broader family reunion, go to OneGreatFamily.com. Home of the original online global family tree, OneGreatFamily.com can help you find your family's place in the world. A single new link can help you discover thousands of ancestors and entire new lines.

Family Reunion

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Today more than ever, American families are scattered to the wind. Yet perhaps for this very reason, families have also been getting together for reunions in unprecedented numbers. 

Planning a reunion is a pleasurable but complicated undertaking that requires foresight and planning, and here to assist is Family Reuinion, an indispensable guide and sourcebook that shows how to organize and conduct four basic reunions: a Backyard Barbecue for siblings and cousins, a Homecoming Weekend, an Extended Family Reunion, and a Family Camp, which typically lasts a week and gathers up to 100 participants. 

Accessible and packed with ideas and information, the book shows how to create a workable timetable (18 months before a large reunion is not too soon to start planning), organize a committee, and set up a fund for expenses (and to help less-well-off members attend). There are chapters on location, including little-known church camps and family resorts; on scheduling activities for kids and adults, day and evening; on genealogy; on recording the event; and even on etiquette, including how to handle black sheep, in-laws, and stepchildren. With case studies of real-life reunions and duotone photographs throughout, this is the book that helps us connect...

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