Dean Baker of CEEP: Gang of Six is Blind to Information, Such as Elderly Spending Increases Exceed Rate of Inflation

July 21st, 2011 6:48 PM
The Drive to Cut Social Security: Why Are the Gang of Six Scared of Information?

By Dean Baker

Read the full opinion piece at OpenMike at MichaelMoore.com.

Jeff Cohen: Obama is not Caving into Corporate Interests; He already has Caved in

Jeff Cohen of Ithaca College makes a compelling argument at MichaelMoore.com against the corporate bias that President Barack Obama has demonstrated from the start of his presidency.

He wraps up by suggesting that a progressive candidate challenge him in the 2012 Democratic primaries for president.

July 25th, 2011 8:24 AM
Obama is NOT “Caving” to Corporate Interests

By Jeff Cohen

In a campaign almost as frenzied as the effort to get Barack Obama into the White House, liberal groups are now mobilizing against the White House and reported deals that would cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. They accuse President Obama of being weak and willing to “cave” to corporate and conservative forces bent on cutting the social safety net while protecting the wealthy.

Those accusations are wrong.

The accusations imply that Obama is on our side. Or was on our side. And that the right wing is pushing him around.

But the evidence is clear that Obama is an often-willing servant of corporate interests -- not someone reluctantly doing their bidding, or serving their interests only because Republicans forced him to.

Since coming to Washington, Obama has allied himself with Wall Street Democrats who put corporate deregulation and greed ahead of the needs of most Americans:

In 2006, a relatively new Senator Obama was the only senator to speak at the inaugural gathering of the Alexander Hamilton Project launched by Wall Street Democrats like Robert Rubin and Roger Altman, Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary and deputy secretary. Obama praised them as “innovative, thoughtful policymakers.” (It was Rubin’s crusade to deregulate Wall Street in the late ‘90s that led directly to the economic meltdown of 2008 and our current crisis.)
In early 2007, way before he was a presidential frontrunner, candidate Obama was raising more money from Wall Street interests than all other candidates, including New York presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.
In June 2008, as soon as Hillary ended her campaign, Obama went on CNBC, shunned the “populist” label and announced: “Look: I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market.” He packed his economic team with Wall Street friends -- choosing one of Bill Clinton’s Wall Street deregulators, Larry Summers, as his top economic advisor.
A year into his presidency, in a bizarre but revealing interview with Business Week, Obama was asked about huge bonuses just received by two CEOs of Wall Street firms bailed out by taxpayers. He responded that he didn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus to J.P. Mogan’s CEO or the $9 million to Goldman Sachs’ CEO: “I know both those guys, they are very savvy businessmen,” said Obama. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”

After any review of Obama’s corporatist ties and positions, the kneejerk response is: “Yes, but Obama was a community organizer!”

He WAS a community organizer. . .decades before he became president. Back when Nelson Mandela was in prison and the U.S. government declared him the leader of a “terrorist organization” while our government funded and armed Bin Laden and his allies to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. That’s a long time ago.

It’s worth remembering that decades before Reagan became president, the great communicator was a leftwing Democrat and advocate for the working class and big federal social programs.

The sad truth, as shown by Glenn Greenwald, is that Obama had arrived at the White House looking to make cuts in benefits to the elderly. Two weeks before his inauguration, Obama echoed conservative scares about Social Security and Medicare by talking of “red ink as far as the eye can see.” He opened his doors to Social Security/Medicare cutters -- first trying to get Republican Senator Judd Gregg (“a leading voice for reining in entitlement spending,” wrote Politico) into his cabinet, and later appointing entitlement-foe Alan Simpson to co-chair his “Deficit Commission.” Obama’s top economic advisor, Larry Summers, came to the White House publicly telling Time magazine of needed Social Security cuts.

At this late date, informed activists and voters who care about economic justice realize that President Obama is NOT “on our side.”

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- widely seen as “America’s Senator” -- is so disgusted by recent White House actions that he called Friday for a challenge to Obama in Democratic primaries: “I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.”

Although Sanders has said clearly that he’s running for reelection to the senate in 2012 – not for president -- his comment led instantly to a Draft Sanders for President website.

Imagine if a credible candidate immediately threatened a primary challenge unless Obama rejects any deal cutting the safety net while maintaining tax breaks for the rich. Team Obama knows that a serious primary challenger would cost the Obama campaign millions of dollars. And it may well be a powerful movement-building opportunity for activists tired of feeling hopeless with Obama.

It’s time for progressives to talk seriously about a challenge to Obama’s corporatism. Polls show most Americans support economic justice issues, and that goes double for Democratic primary voters.

If not Bernie, who? If not now, when?

GOP Further Burns its Bridges to the Latino Community

Republican Party or "Grand Old Party" (GOP) leaders have been alienating themselves from Latinos since the mid-1990s by supporting state and national legislation that is hostile to Latinos.

None of the top five GOP presidential candidates for the 2012 nomination for president have committed to appear at a La Raza conference.

"Republican Presidential Candidates Skip Latino Group Conference", by Elise Foley and Sam Stein in Huffington Post, July 25, 2011.

GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman were invited to the annual conference of National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino organization in the nation.

All five chose to skip the affair.

The absence isn't highly unexpected considering the crowded schedules that presidential aspirants often face. But in the context of an increasingly frayed relationship between Latino voters and the Republican party, it has provided another clear hint that the GOP sees this ever-expanding constituency group as a lost cause.

"To me, that sets a signal that we're not a priority," said National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia. "And quite frankly, when you look at the actions that have been occurring by the leaders of the Republican party, it is, I think, alarming for us in the Latino community."

The National Council of La Raza's annual conference is in progress, from July 23 to July 25, in Washington, DC.

ALEC -bolder than shadow government, Blatantly pull strings

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), after a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, has been exposed by John Nichols in the nation, in "ALEC Exposed".

One contributor at democraticunderground.com

Who are your state ALEC members? Maybe you have Billionaires that can thank them.

Find a list of who has been exposed so far.
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

What is ALEC ?
ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills.

More than 98% of ALEC's revenues come from sources other than legislative dues, such as corporations, corporate trade groups, and corporate foundations. Each corporate member pays an annual fee of between $7,000 and $25,000 a year, and if a corporation participates in any of the nine task forces, additional fees apply, from $2,500 to $10,000 each year. ALEC also receives direct grants from corporations, such as $1.4 million from ExxonMobil from 1998-2009.

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations. Through ALEC, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU?

Thanks to annm4peace at democraticunderground.com.

7.1 Richter scale earthquake hits NE Japan; tsunami alert called off

A 7.1 earthquake has struck northeast Japan. This comes just months after the quake in the same region a few months ago.

A tsunami alert was called. But authorities have called it off, TVNZ (New Zealand television) reports.

Area nuclear plants are on alert.

Avoid terrible Verizon service --online payment site sends user in a circular loop

Verizon, similar to many companies, has made their websites profoundly user-hostile.

Try to pay a bill? Pay online --they've closed down their brick and mortar offices, throwing thousands out of work. Time was that you could pay easily at the site. Now, they want you to merge your phone account with the Verizon email.
Of course, as you haven't used that Verizon mail, you have forgotten the password for that. So, you cannot pay your bill at their online payment site.

Circular loop with the web page that is ostensibly for online Verizon telephone bill payment:
https://signin.verizon.com/sso/STIDServlet?choice=continue

Verizon phone support loop: 2:13 spoke with some one and then put on hold. That was at 2:14 Verizon phone support loop: 2:13 spoke with some one and they’ve put me on hold.

Finally, someone picked up at 2:21. On hold at 2:22, :24, :25. And again at 2:23, 24.
Now onto a different recording.
and on and on 'til 2:33. Significant other came on the other line, so I interrupted the Verizon. They picked up at 2:35, back on hold at 2:38, because they were the FIOS department.
Giving up on them at 2:46. Paying a king's ransom of 30 cents per minute at Kinko's.
People, consider your other telephone and Internet options. You don't have to stay with Verizon. Look at the lousy service I got!

They are definitely going to be the subject of a complaint with the New York State Attorney General.
http://www3.dps.state.ny.us/ocs/itgate.nsf/%28webDPS_welcome%29?OpenForm

New York State Public Service Commission
Office of Consumer Services
Three Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12223-1350
Toll Free: 800-342-3377 Fax: 518-472-8502
www.dps.state.ny.us

Please contact your service provider before filing your complaint with the New York State Public Service Commission.

Issues pertaining to Cellular Telephone, Satellite Television, Internet, Home Heating Oil, and Propane should be directed to the NYS Attorney General.

If you have a complaint concerning long distance telephone calls made to locations outside New York State you should contact the Federal Communications Commission.

TSA workers citing body scans for rash of cancers

NOW CHECK THIS ON TSA BODY SCANNERS AND CANCERS AFFLICTING TSA WORKERS.

And you wondered why it might be a good idea to have unions representing TSA workers?

Hmm: Russian & Pakistani Media are Needed for Us to Know of News Blackout on (Nearly) Flooded Nuclear Plant

Something is dead wrong when the nuclear-promoting Barack Obama presidency is succeeding in making us rely first and foremost on media reports from Russia and Pakistan to learn about the near-flooding of Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant in Nebraska.
Another case showing that we need a Green Party to advocate clean, renewable energy, instead of risky nuclear plants as the corporate president Obama does.

Here's the news thumbnail from Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" on the near-disastrous nuke plant flooding:

Massive flooding along the Missouri River has put two nuclear plants in Nebraska on alert. On Sunday, the Cooper Nuclear Station declared a low-level emergency as the Missouri River threatened to flood the nuclear power facility. Authorities say the plant, which is about 70 miles south of Omaha, will have to close down if the river rises another three inches. Meanwhile, the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant, located about 20 miles north of Omaha, has been shut down since April 9, in part due to flooding.

Here's the lead material from the Huntington, WV story, itself relying on Russian sources:

US Accused of News Blackout on Nebraska Nuke Plant

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 20:53 Special to HuntingtonNews.Net

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers (from a Russian Agency Report)

A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant [photo top left] located in Nebraska.

According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area.

Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a “Level 4” emergency by stating: “This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.”

Russian atomic scientists in this FAAE report, however, say that this OPPD statement is an “outright falsehood” as all nuclear plants in the world operate under the guidelines of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) which clearly states the “events” occurring at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant do, indeed, put it in the “Level 4” emergency category of an “accident with local consequences” thus making this one of the worst nuclear accidents in US history.

Though this report confirms independent readings in the United States of “negligible release of nuclear gasses” related to this accident it warns that by the Obama regimes censoring of this event for “political purposes” it risks a “serious blowback” from the American public should they gain knowledge of this being hidden from them.

Interesting to note about this event was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief, Gregory B. Jaczko, blasting the Obama regime just days before the near meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant by declaring that “the policy of not enforcing most fire code violations at dozens of nuclear plants is “unacceptable” and has tied the hands of NRC inspectors.”

Read more at the Huntington News source page:
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/5415

And watch Thom Hartmann's report on his "The Big Picture" TV show at Russia Today at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NidxieeUl4&feature=player_embedded#at=208
(Evoking Gil Scott-Heron ["We Almost Lost Detroit"], someone linked this video at DemocraticUnderground.com with the phrase, "We Almost Lost Nebraska." The plant is near the borders of Missouri and Kansas as well.)

Pakistan's "The Nation" first broke this story, June 18, last Saturday, at
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/18-Jun-2011/US-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-Nebraska-Nuclear-Plant-report.

Thank you, Pakistani and Russian media, for leading us out of the dark.

In Democratic-Republican Obama's America: nearly all of Las Vegas' school-children are homeless

An East Las Vegas, Nevada elementary school, Whitney Elementary School (where majority of students are homeless) --and a valiant principal's (Sherrie Gahn) efforts to feed and clothe the children: Byron Pitts, "Homeless students find hope in their principal" CBS Evening News, June 9, 2011.

And at a high school:
Homeless Student Population Jumps at Vegas High School, Jan 28, 2010:
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/11898474/homeless-student-population-jumps-at-vegas-high-school?redirected=truejavascript:void(0)

In election turmoil in Spain red-green left nearly doubles its vote

In Spanish local and regional elections of May 22, 2011, the Popular Party (PP) trounced the Socialists (PSOE):
37,56 percent of the vote for PP to 27,81 of the vote for the PSOE.
The red-green alliance of Greens, Communists and other leftists took 6,32 percent of the vote, a higher percentage than the alliance received in national elections since 2000.
(You can see additional details in this wikipedia article (English)).

And this was leaving out the traditional bases of strongest voter support in Spain for the left, Andalusia and Catalonia, which will have their elections later due to a different election cycle.

Strauss Kahn accuser at HIV/AIDS building, "Manh. Madam" Davis: Strauss Kahn a client

DSK HOTEL ASSAULT ACCUSER IN HIV / AIDS HOUSE
In some lesser-known developments about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the (now-former) head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who is accused sexually assaulting a maid at the Sofitel Hotel in New York, New York (Manhattan), his accuser has been living in a building exclusively for survivors of HIV or AIDS.
See this article in the Telegraph of the UK (United Kingdom), "Dominique Strauss-Kahn maid lives in apartment block for HIV sufferers: The hotel chambermaid who alleges she was sexually attacked by Dominique Strauss-Kahn lives in an apartment block used exclusively for people with HIV or Aids, it emerged on Wednesday." John Swain, May 18, 2011.
On the other hand, as reported the same day in "New York Daily News," her lawyer publicly denied that she has tested positive for HIV.

MORE ACCUSERS AT THE HOTEL
David Randall in the UK Independent reports that on Friday (May 20) two additional staff at the Manhattan Sofitel have come forward to claim that they were also propositioned with sexual advances, "Strauss-Kahn: More hotel staff 'propositioned': The former IMF chief leaves prison amid a storm of sexual allegations."

"MANHATTAN MADAM" DAVIS, OF GOV. ELIOT SPITZER CASE, CLAIMS STRAUSS KAHN A CLIENT; CLAIMS A MEAN CLIENT
Kristin Davis, who served jail time in connection with the case of procuring a prostitute, claimed that Strauss Kahn was a client of her business.
She spoke to the press because (as reported by CBS TV News, "'Manhattan Madam' Kristin Davis claims IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn mistreated escort, reports say"):

Davis, 35, said she decided to speak out against Strauss-Kahn because of the allegations against him. She said she doesn't feel the need to protect her clients that are abusive, reports The Daily Mail.

"The girl said he was pushy, overly grabby and forceful. He did not rape anyone. However, at $1,000 or more an hour, we expected the clients to behave like gentlemen, not animals," said Davis to The Daily Mail.

Founder of MadeinUSAForever.com Lipscomb's book on importance of buying American

As told on the Thom Hartmann radio show,
you can read the first chapter of Todd Lipscomb's book, "Re-Made in The USA," online at:
MadeinUSAForever.com's page "Preview of Todd's Book

Protestors pay $5,000 and sing Pvt. Bradley Manning song at Obama fundraiser

Barack Obama fundraiser party guests surprise Obama with song in sympathy for Pvt. Bradley Manning of wiki-leaks fame.
(They paid $5,000 a piece for privilege of being close to Obama and raising a mild ruckus.)
Lyrics of ditty that they sang [from Atlantic Wire and Yahoo News:

Dear Mr. President we honor you today sir
Each of us brought you $5,000
It takes a lot of Benjamins to run a campaign
I paid my dues, where's our change?
We'll vote for you in 2012, yes that's true
Look at the Republicans - what else can we do
Even though we don't know if we'll retain our liberties
In what you seem content to call a free society
Yes it's true that Terry Jones is legally free
To burn a people's holy book in shameful effigy
But at another location in this country
Alone in a 6x12 cell sits Bradley
23 hours a day is night
The 5th and 8th Amendments say this kind of thing ain't right
We paid our dues, where's our change?

Why rude Trump is actually right on China, tariffs and trade

Sure, billionaire real estate tycoon Donald Trump is an obnoxious silly birther.

But we should take Trump's suggestion of a 25 percent tariff on Chinese imports as a welcome opportunity to side-step the hysterical Smoot-Hawley invoking and trade war invoking reactions. We should welcome an open public discussion and debate that questions our nation's unusual hewing to free trade orthodoxy in a market that East Asian and European successes do not follow free trade.

First off, America's dynamic time of growth, 1890 to 1920 was in a period of high tariffs.

Calling attention to the Smoot-Haley trade act is deceptive. As one blogger at Market Oracle notes in "Why Donald Turmp is right on trade," reputable economists, even free traders, from liberal Paul Krugman to conservative Milton Friedman, dispute Smoot-Hawley's role in the Great Depression.
Read further, this important blog post. (Of course, I am not endorsing Trump or all opinions in the politics of the referenced site.), Ian Fletcher, "Why Donald Trump is Right on Trade" at marketoracle.co.uk.

The usual suspects are racing to debunk Donald Trump’s foray into the most serious protectionism—a 25% tariff on China—proposed by a major presidential candidate since Patrick Buchanan ran in 1992.

They know this is big. Our long-delayed national trade debate has begun.
I have expressed reservations about getting obsessed with just China before. But broadly speaking, Trump is right on the money here. Nothing less than an actual tariff or the equivalent is ever going to get Beijing to stop gaming the international trading system to America’s disadvantage.

This matters, big-time. Because until we sort out America’s trade mess—which must start by zeroing out, or close to it, our $600 billion-a-year trade deficit—our economy will never truly be healthy again.

Jobs are the aspect of this everyone understands. But what a lot of people miss is that the current budget fight, and the angst over our mounting national debt, are also intimately connected to trade.

So Trump is onto something even bigger than people realize.

The budget fight ultimately comes down to the fact that we don’t have an economy large enough to generate tax revenue commensurate with the spending we have voted for. But why isn’t our economy big enough? Start with the fact that, as economist William Bahr has estimated, America’s accumulated trade deficits since 1991 alone have caused our economy to be 13 percent smaller than it otherwise would be. The trade deficit costs us about one percent in GDP growth every year, and that compounds over time.

As for our national debt, or, more properly, our bloating public and private indebtedness? As I explained at length in another article, borrowing money (and selling off existing wealth, which has the same net effect) is a mathematically inevitable result of running trade deficits. The only way this can not happen is if a) the aforementioned $600 billion isn’t real money, or b) America is trading with Santa’s elves.

So, Mr. Trump… How do we rebalance America’s trade, starting with China?

Forget about doing it by playing nice. China will only give up one-way free trade (free for America, protectionist for them) when they are coerced into doing so. They are making far too much money to ever give up this sweet racket voluntarily.

We are constantly warned that imposing a tariff on China would trigger a trade war. But the curious thing about the concept of trade war is that, unlike actual shooting war, it has no actual historical precedent. In fact, the reality is that there has never been a significant trade war.

Anyone who knows otherwise, please name one.

The usual example free traders give is America's Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, which supposedly either caused the Great Depression or caused it to spread around the world. But this canard does not survive serious examination, and has actually been denied by almost every economist who has actually researched the question in depth—including many free traders and ranging from Paul Krugman on the left to Milton Friedman on the right. (I debunked this myth at length in this article.)

There is, in fact, a basic unresolved paradox at the bottom of the very concept of trade war. If, as free traders insist, free trade is beneficial whether or not one's trading partners reciprocate, then why would any rational nation start one, no matter how provoked? Wouldn’t they just keep lapping up the benefits of one-way free trade, if it’s so good for them?

Furthermore, if the moneymen in Beijing, Tokyo, Berlin, and the other nations currently running trade surpluses against the U.S. start to ponder exaggerated retaliation against the U.S., they will soon discover the advantage is with us, not them. Because they are the ones with the trade surpluses to lose, not us. What exactly does the U.S. have to lose in a trade war? The only way a deficit nation can “lose” a trade war is by having its trade balance get even worse. Given that the U.S. trade balance is already outlandish, it is hard to see how this could happen.

Supposedly, China could suddenly stop buying our Treasury Debt.

Indeed they could, but this would immediately reduce the value of the $1.15 trillion or so they already hold. Furthermore, this would depress the value of the dollar—exactly the opposite of their currency manipulation strategy.

Then there is the awkward problem of what China would do with all the money it would get by selling off its dollars. There just aren't that many good alternatives for parking that much money. Japan doesn't want its currency used as an international reserve currency, and the Euro has huge problems. Assets like gold and minor currencies are volatile or in limited supply. Others, like real estate or corporate stocks, are still denominated in those pesky dollars and euros.

We are still a nuclear power, so at the end of the day, China cannot force us to do anything that we don't want to. We could—a grossly irresponsible but not impossible hypothetical—repudiate our debt to them (or stop paying the interest) as the ultimate countermove.

More plausibly, we might simply restore the tax on the interest on foreign-held bonds that was repealed in 1984 thanks to Treasury Secretary Donald Regan. We have lots of little cards like that up our sleeve.

So an understanding will, most likely, be reached. A deal (one of Mr. Trump’s favorite words!) will be struck. I think Mr. Trump understands this better than anyone else. That’s one of the things I like about him.

The reality is that the United States is already in a trade war with China. Kowtowing to China today is economic appeasement, with the same result as political appeasement in the 1930s: a few more years of relative quiet with a bigger explosion at the end.

At some point, America's ability to run gigantic deficits must end, due to a prolonged slide or sudden crash in the value of the dollar. The longer we wait, the greater the likelihood that it will come as a sudden and destabilizing shock, rather than a managed, more gradual adjustment.

This issue is bigger than China alone. How America deals with China will set the precedent, and establish or destroy America's credibility, for dealing with a long list of other nations.

Believe me, they’re watching Trump now in Tokyo, Berlin, and Brussels.
Ian Fletcher is the author of the new book Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why (USBIC, $24.95) He is an Adjunct Fellow at the San Francisco office of the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank founded in 1933. He was previously an economist in private practice, mostly serving hedge funds and private equity firms. He may be contacted at ian.fletcher@usbic.net.

Secure your hard drive Before you donate / dispose electronics

Eventually your $500 computer will go kaput; your $200 copier/ printer will do the same.

The green / politically green / politically correct / verdantally correct thing to do is to recycle your electronics.
DON'T PUT THEM IN THE SIDEWALK FOR TRASH. THERE ARE SENSITIVE METALS IN THERE!!!
A N D ! ! ! :
DON'T PUT THEM ON THE SIDEWALK WITH THE GARBAGE, SINCE IDENTITY THIEVES CAN EXPLOIT YOUR HARD DRIVE (which is on any printer, as well).

From the New York City government website on proper disposal ... the following is for SECURE disposal:

BEFORE I RECYCLE OR DONATE MY COMPUTER, HOW CAN I SAFEGUARD MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Before disposing, recycling, or donating your computer, it is a good idea to remove all personal information from your hard drive to protect yourself from identity theft. At past DSNY e-waste events, our electronics recycling vendor was required to follow a Department of Defense standard to wipe everything from the hard drive three times to ensure that all data is fully erased. Other programs may have different requirements. Contact programs individually to inquire about their data destruction techniques.

Data wiping software is also available to help you erase your hard drive prior to recycling it. Another option is to remove the hard drive before recycling your computer. This way, you can still recycle the computer without having concerns about the data on the drive.

The problem for printers is that there are hard drives for data, and these are not as easy to clean data from as they are for computers. So REMOVE them.

Towns in close proximity to Indian Point nuclear complex, Buchanan, New York

In this period of attention to the evacuation from the area of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, in Okuma, in Fukushima Prefecture in northeast Japan,

It is instructive to look at cities in the radius of lower Hudson Valley New York State's Indian Point nuclear plant (whose name obscures things: Indian Point energy center):

Distance from Buchanan (where the plant lies; the town is immediately south of Peekskill, New York, in Westchester County; the plant is between the Hudson River eastern shore rail line and the Hudson River itselt):

within 12 miles: small villages:
Jefferson Valley; Ossining, and city of Peekskill.

within 25 miles:
Tarrytown; Yonkers,White Plains, Port Chester, in the lower half of Westchester County, New York
Greenwich, Connecticut
all the population centers of Rockland County, New York: New City, Spring Valley;
Ridgewood, New Jersey

Just beyond 25 mile mark:
Poughkeepsie, New York
Danbury, Norwalk, Stamford, Connecticut
northern stretches of the Bronx,
Teaneck, Hackensack, Garfield, Paterson, New Jersey
Middletown, New York

Three other nuclear plants are operating in New York State, all of them on Lake Ontario: Ginna Nuclear Power Generating Station, James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear and Nine Mile Point.