Archive for October, 2010

Divided We Fail

Barring a huge upset, Republicans will take control of at least one house of Congress next week. How worried should we be by that prospect?

Not very, say some pundits. After all, the last time Republicans controlled Congress while a Democrat lived in the White House was the period from the beginning of 1995 to the end of 2000. And people remember that era as a good time, a time of rapid job creation and responsible budgets. Can we hope for a similar experience now?

No, we can’t. This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness.

Start with the politics.

In the late-1990s, Republicans and Democrats were able to work together on some issues. President Obama seems to believe that the same thing can happen again today. In a recent interview with National Journal, he sounded a conciliatory note, saying that Democrats need to have an “appropriate sense of humility,” and that he would “spend more time building consensus.” Good luck with that.

Full Story: Divided We Fail – NYTimes.com.

US Military Leadership Acknowledge Peak Oil,…

Two reports this week clearly indicate that the U.S. military is aware of the peak oil threat and is seriously pursuing development of alternative fuel and energy sources. The immediate costs of transporting fuel on the battlefield as well as the long-term costs of foreign oil dependency (and oil scarcity) have prompted a pragmatic shift to synthetic and biofuel testing.

As The Guardian reported this week, the U.S. navy has successfully tested an algae-based biodiesel fuel mix in a 49-ft gunboat at its Norfolk, Virginia naval base. This is one of the first steps toward the navy’s goal of running half its fleet on non-petroleum sources by 2020. Today’s cost of a gallon of algae-diesel fuel mix is $424, not far from the estimated $400 it now costs to get a gallon of gasoline to a war zone. The navy has committed to purchasing 150,000 gallons of domestic algae-based fuel, the costs of which should scale down as production ramps up.

Full Story: US Military Leadership Acknowledge Peak Oil,… | Gather.

Krugman: If The GOP Wins, Historians Will Look Back At It As An Event That Led To Disaster

Not that the electorate will ever be swayed by a NYT op-ed (or any op-ed for that matter), but Paul Krugman is trying one more time to warn voters: DON’T DO IT! DON’T VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICANS!

It’s probably his most over-the-top, alarmist piece yet, and that’s saying something.

The gist is that this is not 1994 all over again. The economy is deflating, and gridlock means serious issues won’t be resolved.

…future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness.

He notes, convincingly actually, that the GOP is clearly focused on one thing, and that is to take down Obama in 2012, and so there’s absolutely no hope that we’ll get some kind of rejuvenated DC politics, and cooperation. Senator Mitch McConnell is quoted pretty damningly on this front.

And as for economics:

Full Story: Krugman: If The GOP Wins, Historians Will Look Back At It As An Event That Led To Disaster.

Detailed Pictures Of The Sun Let You Get Up Close And Personal With The Star

On October 20, amateur astronomer Alan Friedman got a little face time with the sun.

Using his own telescope, Friedman captured a highly detailed photograph of our solar system’s star using a filter to capture Hα (H-alpha) light waves, which Discover Magazine defines as “the light of Hydrogen.”

The images below might look like a swirling sea of fire, but what’s shown is actually light from the chromosphere, a thin layer that sits between the photosphere and the corona, the the sun’s outermost layer.

Discover Magazine explains how Friedman captured light from the chromosphere:

Full Story: Detailed Pictures Of The Sun Let You Get Up Close And Personal With The Star (PHOTOS).

A GOP-controlled House would attack the EPA and climate science

If Republicans win control of the House, they plan to go after the Obama administration’s environmental policies and the researchers who have offered evidence on global warming, whom they accuse of manipulating data.

If the GOP wins control of the House next week, senior congressional Republicans plan to launch a blistering attack on the Obama administration’s environmental policies, as well as on scientists who link air pollution to climate change.

The GOP’s fire will be concentrated especially on the administration’s efforts to use the Environmental Protection Agency‘s authority over air pollution to tighten emissions controls on coal, oil and other carbon fuels that scientists say contribute to global warming.

The attack, according to senior Republicans, will seek to portray the EPA as abusing its authority and damaging the economy with needless government regulations.

Full Story: A GOP-controlled House would attack the EPA and climate science – latimes.com.

Foreign Money, National Security, And The Midterm Elections

Campaign contributions by non-citizens are a huge issue lurking behind the midterm elections; they will be even more important in 2012. Think about the economic dynamics:

1. Americans have a long-standing and well-founded aversion to foreign involvement in their politics, and it is well-established that this can happen in part through corporate “commercial” structures. Thomas Jefferson objected to Alexander Hamilton’s plan for a national bank in part because he feared this would become a stalking horse for the British in some form (see Chapter 2 of 13 Bankers for the context). Dubai Ports World was not allowed to invest in the United States – for reasons of perceived national security. You may or may not think that case was handled well, but we have the CFIUS process to vet foreign direct investment for good reason.

2. The Supreme Court has determined that corporations can make political contributions virtually without limit, apparently not understanding or not caring that (a) management has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, (b) globalization means more foreign shareholders on average (for privately held companies and funds, as well as publicly traded companies), and (c) at the margin, key strategic shareholders – the people who provide extra capital when the chips are down – increasingly tend to be foreign. Think about the role of Sovereign Wealth Funds in providing funds to our banking system in 2007-08, or the fact that Citigroup goes cap-in-hand to Saudi Arabia every decade or so.

3. During the Reagan years and again, even more, under the Second President Bush, the US ran a large current account deficit – reaching 6 percent of GDP before the 2008 crisis (and still around 3 percent of GDP). You may think this a technical detail that is largely irrelevant to the political process, but you would be wrong. We finance our current account deficit with capital inflows from abroad or, to put that more plainly: Foreigners buy and hold financial assets in the United States. Some of those assets are US government obligations but traditionally and increasingly non-US people have also acquired claims on corporate entities – including common or preferred stock.

Full Story: Foreign Money, National Security, And The Midterm Elections « The Baseline Scenario.

DNA barcoding aims to protect species, food

Call it a DNA digital Dewey Decimal System for all life on Earth.

Every species, from extinct to thriving, is set to get its own DNA barcode in an attempt to better track the ones that are endangered, as well as those being shipped across international borders as food or consumer products.

Researchers hope handheld mobile devices will be able to one day read these digital strips of rainbow-colored barcodes — much like supermarket scanners — to identify different species by testing tissue samples on site and comparing them with a digital database.

The International Barcode of Life Project (iBOL), which says it is the world’s first reference library of DNA barcodes and the world’s largest biodiversity genomics project, is being built by scientists using fragments of DNA to create a database of all life forms.

Full Story: DNA barcoding aims to protect species, food | Reuters.

US Government: Naturally Occurring Genes Should Not Be Patentable

The U.S. federal government has declared in a recently issued brief that naturally occurring genes should not be subject to patents, backing up a District Court judge who in March had struck down several attempts to patent human genes associated with cancer.

While the impact of the government’s brief should not be exaggerated — it’s not clear whether it will be implemented as policy by the U.S. Patent Office, which would have a major impact on the pharmaceutical and biotech industries — it is a surprise. Law professor and patent watcher Dennis Crouch writes that “Last month, I heard a rumor that Obama administration science and legal advisors outside of the USPTO supported Judge Sweet’s ruling [invalidating the patents]. At the time I disregarded that suggestion as unlikely. I was wrong.”

NY Times:

“We acknowledge that this conclusion is contrary to the longstanding practice of the Patent and Trademark Office, as well as the practice of the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies that have in the past sought and obtained patents for isolated genomic DNA,” the brief said.

Full Story: Gene Patent Opposition – Federal Government | Geekosystem.

Fraud Caused the 1930s Depression and the Current Financial Crisis

Robert Shiller – one of the top housing experts in the United States – says that the mortgage fraud is a lot like the fraud which occurred during the Great Depression. As Fortune notes:

Shiller said the danger of foreclosuregate — the scandal in which it has come to light that the biggest banks have routinely mishandled homeownership documents, putting the legality of foreclosures and related sales in doubt — is a replay of the 1930s, when Americans lost faith that institutions such as business and government were dealing fairly.

The former chief accountant of the S.E.C., Lynn Turner, told the New York Times that fraud helped cause the Great Depression:

The amount of gimmickry and outright fraud dwarfs any period since the early 1970′s, when major accounting scams like Equity Funding surfaced, and the 1920′s, when rampant fraud helped cause the crash of 1929 and led to the creation of the S.E.C.

Economist Robert Kuttner writes:

In 1932 through 1934 the Senate Banking Committee, led by its Chief Counsel Ferdinand Pecora, ferreted out the deeper fraud and corruption that led to the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

Full Story: Fraud Caused the 1930s Depression and the Current Financial Crisis → Washington’s Blog.

The Grand Old Plot Against the Tea Party

ONE dirty little secret of the 2010 election is that it won’t be a political tragedy for Democrats if a Tea Party icon like Sharron Angle or Joe Miller ends up in the United States Senate. Angle, now synonymous with racist ads sliming Hispanics, and Miller, already on record threatening a government shutdown, are fired up and ready to go as symbols of G.O.P. extremism for 2012 and beyond.

What’s not so secret is that some Republicans will be just as happy if some of these characters lose, and for the same reason.

But whatever Tuesday’s results, this much is certain: The Tea Party’s hopes for actually affecting change in Washington will start being dashed the morning after. The ordinary Americans in this movement lack the numbers and financial clout to muscle their way into the back rooms of Republican power no matter how well their candidates perform.

Full Story: The Grand Old Plot Against the Tea Party – NYTimes.com.

Kentucky Stomper Charged With Fourth-Degree Assault

The Rand Paul supporter who was caught on camera stepping on the head of a MoveOn activist has been charged with fourth-degree assault, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

Timothy Mark Profitt, 53, is charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree assault after he stomped on Lauren Valle’s head and neck. Profitt “intentionally placed his foot on the shoulder/head region on the victim,” a criminal summons says. The newspaper reported that court records say Profitt will be arraigned Nov. 18. Such a charge carries a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail, a $500 fine, or a combination of both, the newspaper reported.

Earlier, Profitt went so far as to ask her for an apology. “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Profitt said. “I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest with you.”

Full Story: Kentucky Stomper Charged With Fourth-Degree Assault | TPMDC.

Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2010 Fight

Democratic voters are closely divided over whether President Barack Obama should be challenged within the party for a second term in 2012, an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks Poll finds.

That glum assessment carries over into the nation at large, which is similarly divided over whether Obama should be a one-term president.

A real Democratic challenge to Obama seems unlikely at this stage and his re-election bid is a long way off. But the findings underscore how disenchanted his party has grown heading into the congressional elections Tuesday.

Full Story: Obama Primary Challenge? Nearly Half Of Dems Want 2010 Fight.

Ohio McDonald’s Tells Employees To Vote Republican If They Want To Continue Receiving Raises And Benefits

McDonald’s sells itself as the ultimate happy place. But this election season, a local McDonald’s franchise in Canton, Ohio is telling employees how to keep the company happy: vote Republican.

Along with their recent paychecks, employees received a pamphlet from their employer on company letter head that stated “as the election season is here, we wanted you to know which candidates will help our business grow in the future.” While pointing out that the vote is the employee’s “personal decision,” the pamphlet explicitly states, “if the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels. If others are elected we will not”:

Full Story: ThinkProgress » Ohio McDonald’s Tells Employees To Vote Republican If They Want To Continue Receiving Raises And Benefits.

275 Investors Demand U.S. Chamber Disclose Funds And Stop ‘Punitive Campaign’ Against Health Care Law

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has become a behemoth of political influence, making high-powered and well-funded attempts to reshape policies to fit its agenda. Thanks to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and its trade association designation, the Chamber can leverage significant funds from its 501(c)(6) account — which includes donations solicited from foreign corporations — in campaign attacks against Democrats without ever having to disclose its donors. Despite significant scrutiny and criticism, the Chamber refuses to disclose how dues and other contributions are being spent.

But not all of the Chamber’s members are happy about its opaque political activities. Last week, a coalition of 275 institutional shareholders with $100 billion in assets under management from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) sent a letter to company directors who are members of the Chamber to express deep concern over the Chamber’s “extremely antagonistic position” on the Affordable Care Act. Concerned that the Chamber’s pursuit of an anti-health care agenda — especially with the possible use of “foreign monies” — may damage their reputation, these investors are demanding the Chamber reveal whether company dues are being used in this “ill-conceived strategy,” and that company directors withhold all dues or withdraw membership “until the Chamber refrains from further investment in negative advertising”:

Full Story: ThinkProgress » 275 Investors Demand U.S. Chamber Disclose Funds And Stop ‘Punitive Campaign’ Against Health Care Law.

DOT Awards $2.4 Billion for High-speed Passenger Rail Corridors

Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced yesterday that $2.4 billion has been awarded to “54 projects in 23 States” to be used for “planning and construction of intercity passenger rail service”.

Nevada is getting a high-speed train from Las Vegas to Southern California thanks to Senator Harry Reid. A total of 23 States will be getting new train systems thanks to Senator Harry Reid. Tens of thousands of jobs will be created by this 25 year project, thanks to Senator Harry Reid.

Full Story: DOT Awards $2.4 Billion for High-speed Passenger Rail Corridors – Las Vegas Democrat | Examiner.com.

Bat disease threatens ecological catastrophe

A virulent and deadly pathogen in America is exterminating a predator that is vital to farmers for controlling insect pests

As a biologist with more than four decades of experience in the field, Thomas Kunz is not prone to over exaggeration. He likes the data to do the talking. But when it comes to describing the recent deaths of more than a million bats across the eastern United States he is unequivocal.

“I’ve worked with bats over 45 years and never have I seen, or even known about, any kind of mortality rate comparable to what we’ve seen,” he says. “The analysis that we’ve done here indicates that bats – in at least the north-eastern US – are going to die out within 20 years.”

Dr Kunz, a biology professor at Boston University and one of a handful of bat specialists in America, is describing the terrifying advance of white-nose syndrome. In just four years the virulent fungal infection has spread from a single cave in upstate New York to massacre more than a million bats across the North-east.

Full Story: Bat disease threatens ecological catastrophe – Nature, Environment – The Independent.

Fort McRae oil very toxic to humans

Lab results confirm that oil discovered in Pensacola Bay last month has extreme toxicity levels

Test results are in for oil material found in Pensacola Bay late last month, and the numbers are frightening.

A lab experienced in testing petroleum products determined that the oil’s toxicity levels are sky-high.

“In its natural state, the numbers are off the chart,” said Heather Reed, the environmental expert for the City of Gulf Breeze who made the discovery. “It’s extremely toxic to human health.”

Lab workers had to dilute the sample 20 times just to get a reading. Reed said samples are usually diluted only once.

“The oil is very well preserved,” Reed added. “It smells very strong when pulled out of the water. It made me nauseated.” Reed in late September discovered a significant amount of oil buried in submerged sediment near Fort McRae in Escambia County while conducting independent research.

Full Story: Fort McRae oil very toxic to humans | www.gulfbreezenews.com | Gulf Breeze News.

Tragedy and Consequences of Fascism

Len Hart:

want to turn over your social security to the big banks. Americans have not confronted the fact that ‘privatizing Social Security’ equals giving your money to big banksters, the same big banksters who engineered the last depression. Again -the GOP scheme to privatize Social Security is either a heist or a gift, depending upon whether your are for it or against it.

With this gift/booty, the big banksters will invest and/or speculate with your monies offshore and international money markets. Not a single job will be created. Not one! Rather –the effect will be the loss of U.S. jobs just as there has been a loss of U.S. jobs under every GOP President since World War II.

I am hard pressed to name a single instance in history when a GOP tax cut or big business tax cut benefiting only the upper classes has EVER created a single job. In fact, every GOP tax cut or other largesse has resulted declines of both GDP and jobs. To be perfectly clear that is not just a slow down in growth; it is a real decline in job creation itself. That any American believes the GOP line dumped on them by consolidated corporate media is proof that the American education system is a dismal and utter failure –especially with respect to economics.

Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: Tragedy and Consequences of Fascism.

Cheap Fluoride from China Leaves Unknown, Insoluble Residue in Municipal Water Systems

Town halts use in water supply, seeks solutions

Amesbury DPW no longer adding element to water supply

Citing problems with the quality of sodium fluoride flooding the American market, Department of Public Works director Rob Desmarais said Amesbury has no current plans to resume its practice of adding fluoride to the town’s water supply.

Though the health benefits to children in adding it to the water supply are well documented, the town discontinued fluoridating its water in April.

Desmarais said he is concerned that the material Amesbury had been getting in recent years did not dissolve as raw sodium fluoride should, leaving questions about the possibility it’s being mixed with something else.

Full Story: Town halts use in water supply, seeks solutions » Local News » NewburyportNews.com, Newburyport, MA.

Reversing the Slide in Manufacturing

Senator Bernie Sanders:

The manufacturing sector in Vermont and throughout the United States has eroded significantly in recent years and must be rebuilt to expand the middle class, Sen. Bernie Sanders said.

“During the Bush years, Vermont lost more than 14,000 manufacturing jobs, about one-third of all manufacturing jobs in the state. These were jobs that paid people a living wage often with health care and other benefits,” Sanders said Tuesday.

When Congress reconvenes, Sanders plans to introduce legislation that would prevent American companies that are outsourcing jobs oversees from receiving corporate welfare such as government grants and low-interest loans.

Not only is unfettered, free trade leading to the destruction of traditional manufacturing and blue collar jobs, it is also leading to the loss of hundreds of thousands of high-tech, information technology jobs, as well. During the Bush administration, the U.S. lost over 820,000 jobs in the information sector. “These are the jobs, we have been told for years, that our children would be inheriting,” Sanders said.

Full Story: Reversing the Slide in Manufacturing – Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont).

Halliburton and the Upcoming Election

Robert Reich:

Next Tuesday Americans will be deciding whether to hand over even more of our government to corporations that have been plundering America – such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Wellpoint insurance, Massey Energy, and Halliburton, the giant oil services company.

Not every large corporation is irresponsible, of course, but plunderers that get away with it gain a competitive advantage over the more responsible, and thereby lead a race to the bottom.

Case in point: The staff of the presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill has just revealed that Halliburton executives knew the cement it was using to seal BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well was likely to be unstable but didn’t tell BP or act on the information.

Full Story: Robert Reich (Halliburton and the Upcoming Election).

Loss of U.S. Industrial Base a Threat to National Security

The disintegration of the U.S.’s industrial base has transformed into a matter of national security. Experts told a congressional panel Sept. 22 that America’s dependence of foreign contractors is a direct threat to U.S. security.

Manufacturing industry experts appeared at a National Security Oversight Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in order to argue that the long and slow degradation of America’s manufacturing base has put control of technologies and industries vital to national security in the hands of America’s competitors.

“We have allowed our industrial base to deteriorate for the last two to three decades. As a result, just in national defense terms, our supply lines for strategic parts and materials have been stretched around the world,” said Jeff Faux of the Economic Policy Institute, according to CNN.

Full Story: Loss of U.S. Industrial Base a Threat to National Security | Economy In Crisis.

More Millionaires, Bigger Billionaires While the Middle Class is Evaporating

America is now a Plutocracy (no longer a democracy). A system controlled by the rich, for the rich.

America is heading down a dangerous path; from democracy to plutocracy.

With the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission, the nation’s highest court paved the way for the nation’s rich to consolidate their control over the political process, further marginalizing average Americans and their votes.

In Ohio, always a key battleground state during election season, the corporate cash has poured in, in record fashion.

Full Story: More Millionaires, Bigger Billionaires While the Middle Class is Evaporating | Economy In Crisis.

A new study shows that Americans are Idiots

Remember how Democrats always refuse to fight back against smears because “The American people are too smart to fall for that”?

No, they aren’t. In fact, Americans are no longer capable of arriving at opinions through actual thought:

Americans have a more negative view of government today than they did a decade ago, or even a few years ago. Most say it focuses on the wrong things and lack confidence that it can solve big domestic problems; this general anti-Washington sentiment is helping to fuel a potential Republican takeover of Congress next month.

But ask people what they expect the government to do for themselves and their families, and a more complicated picture emerges.

Full Story: Brilliant at Breakfast.

Koch Footprints Lead to Political Powder Keg

The Far Right’s Secret Slush Fund to Keep Fear Alive

By PAM MARTENS

A secretive libertarian nonprofit with ties to Charles Koch bankrolled what was widely perceived to be a fear mongering effort to throw the Presidential election to Senator John McCain in 2008. Until now, where the money came from has been a hotly debated mystery.

Seven weeks before the Presidential election of 2008, approximately 100 newspapers and magazines in the U.S., including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, and St. Petersburg Times, distributed millions of DVDs of the documentary, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.” The DVDs were included in the Sunday editions. Altogether, including a separate direct mail campaign, 28 million DVDs flooded households in the swing voter states.

The newspapers did not know who was funding this massive propaganda campaign and, apparently, did not care. They inserted the DVD in their Pulitzer properties with the casualness of throwing in a sample of suds free detergent. The nonprofit organization named on the packaging of the DVD as the entity behind the film, the Clarion Fund, Inc., had no known history of operations and had a virtual office address in New York City with no physical presence and no employees on site. Documents submitted to the IRS to obtain its tax-exempt status show the Clarion Fund demanded total secrecy from its vendors:

Full Story: CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

$1 Trillion in Reserves, But Not Hiring: Is Business ‘Anti-Jobs’?

amid a muddled outlook on economic recovery, rating agency Moody’s said Wednesday.

“Companies will hesitate to spend their cash hoards on expansion until there is greater certainty about the direction of the US economy,” said Steven Oman, senior vice president at Moody’s Investor Service.

A new Moody’s study of corporate cash balances found that US companies, excluding financial firms, had about 943 billion dollars of cash and short-term investments on their balance sheets at mid-year 2010. The 20 most cash-rich companies had a combined 346 billion dollars.

By comparison, Moody’s said, at the end of 2008, companies had 775 billion dollars of cash.

The economy contracted 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter that year; the worst recession since the Great Depression officially ended in June 2009.

Full Story: $1 Trillion in Reserves, But Not Hiring: Is Business ‘Anti-Jobs’? | CommonDreams.org.

Mark Kirk Loses Endorsements To Giannoulias

Several Illinois advocacy groups that backed Republican Mark Kirk in past elections are endorsing his Democratic opponent in the race for President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat.

The groups held a news conference Thursday with Democrat Alexi Giannoulias (jeh-NOO’-lee-us).

Ken Swanson, president of the Illinois Education Association, says Kirk hasn’t been consistent in his support. His comments were echoed by representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club.

Full Story: Mark Kirk Loses Endorsements To Giannoulias.

Special Comment: A Tea Party America!

MSNBC Countdown w/ KEITH OLBERMANN – Oct. 27, 2010: Keith enumerates the extremist views of the Tea Party and right-wing candidates and gives a warning. This comment is a LONG one because there are so many Tea Party/Republican wacky beliefs and quotes for him to list. Some of the beliefs are just ignorant, some are absurd, many are despicable and indefensible.

Part 1

Part 2

German Unemployment Dips to 18-Year Low in October

German unemployment fell slightly in October, dropping to its lowest level in 18 years as the impact of persistently strong growth in Europe’s top economy continued to filter through to the jobs market.

The number of jobless fell by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.153 million, figures from the Labor Office showed on Thursday, while the headline level dipped to 2.945 million, confirming figures announced a day earlier.

The headline reading fell below the 3 million mark — a key political threshold — for the first time since November 2008, to its lowest point since October 1992.

On an adjusted basis, the jobless rate held steady at 7.5 percent, while economists had forecast 7.4 percent.

“Although October’s decline in unemployment turned out weaker than expected, the underlying trend in the German labor market clearly remains one of rapid improvement on the back of strong economic growth,” said Aline Schuiling from ABN Amro.

Full Story: German Unemployment Dips to 18-Year Low in October – CNBC.

OPS: This is what can happen when you don’t’ have INSANE Republicans to deal with.

ExxonMobil profit soars 55 percent in third quarter

ExxonMobil said Thursday its profit soared 55 percent in the third quarter, driven in part by higher energy prices and rising oil production in Qatar.

The US energy giant reported net earnings of $7.35 billion, a better- than-expected advance from the $4.73 billion posted in the 2009 third quarter.

Earnings per share of $1.44 in the July-September period topped the consensus forecast of $1.39.

Revenue surged 16 percent to $95.29 billion.

Full Story: ExxonMobil profit soars 55 percent in third quarter | Raw Story.

Total U.S. intelligence bill revealed for 1st time – $80 Billion

The annual cost of U.S. intelligence is public for the first time: just over $80 billion for 2010.

Figures released by the government Thursday show $27 billion goes to military intelligence and $53.1 billion covers the CIA and some of the other 16 intelligence agencies.

Steven Aftergood, a secrecy specialist at the Federation of American Scientists, says it’s “the most complete disclosure we have ever had.”

Full Story: Total U.S. intelligence bill revealed for 1st time – U.S. news – Security – msnbc.com.

BP, Halliburton knew Gulf oil rig cement was faulty: commission

The presidential commission investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil spill says BP and its cement contractor, Halliburton knew the cement mixture used in the construction of the well could allow oil leaks.

According to a letter from Fred Bartlit, Jr., the commission’s lead investigator, Halliburton carried out four tests of the cement mixture between February and April of this year, shortly before the rig exploded, and three of them showed the mixture to be faulty. A fourth, final one showed the mixture to work, but BP apparently only ever saw the results of one of the tests — one that failed.

CNN reports:

According to the letter, the cement was poured to stabilize the well on April 19 and 20, the day of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig above that killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

“Halliburton and BP both had results in March showing that a very similar foam slurry design to the one actually pumped at the Macondo well would be unstable, but neither acted upon that data,” the letter said.

Full Story: BP, Halliburton knew Gulf oil rig cement was faulty: commission | Raw Story.

Report: Bush thought United Flight 93 was shot down on 9/11

The first details about former President George W. Bush’s new book have begun to leak out.

According to a report at Matt Drudge’s website, The Drudge Report, the new book Decision Points talks about topics including alcoholism, his order to shoot down planes on 9/11, Katrina and the financial crisis.

According to Drudge, the book begins, “It was a simple question, ‘Can you remember the last day you didn’t have a drink?’”

The book also discusses the events of Sept. 11, 2001. That morning, Bush says he made the order to shoot down hijacked planes.

Full Story: Report: Bush thought United Flight 93 was shot down on 9/11 | Raw Story.

Foreign-Funded U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Advocates For Weakening Law Against Bribing Foreign Governments

As ThinkProgress has documented, the “U.S.” Chamber Of Commerce has for years received at least hundreds of thousands of dollars from foreign-owned corporations. While the Chamber claims that the foreign funds it receives do not fund its $75 million in partisan attack ads, it would be highly unusual for these foreign corporations to be donating to the organization without expecting some sort of political activity on their behalf. Now, a new Chamber paper advocating for a change in a U.S. law intended to crack down on American-based multinational corporations bribing foreign governments may provide an answer as to why these foreign firms are doling out cash to the right-wing lobbying group.

Yesterday, the Chamber kicked off its U.S. Chamber Institute For Legal Reform Legal Reform Summit 2010, where it is advocating for its pro-corporate “legal reform” agenda. As a part of the agenda, the Chamber is presenting a paper at its summit titled “Restoring Balance: Proposed Amendments to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”

Since 1977, when it was first enacted, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) has been the government’s main enforcement mechanism to stop American-based multinational firms from bribing foreign governments in order to win special business advantages. The anti-corruption law has been especially strong during the Obama Administration, during which FCPA-related fines collected by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dramatically increased — in just the first two months of 2010, they totaled $1.2 billion, far more than the measly $87 million collected in all of 2007 by the Bush Administration.

Full Story: ThinkProgress » Foreign-Funded U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Advocates For Weakening Law Against Bribing Foreign Governments.

REPORT: 111 Republican Incumbents And Candidates Want To Eliminate The Department Of Education

This is the third installment in a three-part series on legislation that may emerge from a GOP-controlled Congress. Click here for part one on ending birthright citizenship and here for part two on privatizing Social Security.

If Republicans win control of Congress on Tuesday, their anti-government zeal may soon focus on an old target: the Department of Education. As recently as 1996, the Republican Party platform declared, “The Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education.” However, after multiple bills attempting to do so were stymied by sensible members of Congress, the Department appeared to have been spared. Now, a new wave of Republicans (along with many old hardline conservatives) are trying to number its days once again.

The last time the Republicans made a concerted effort to eliminate the Department of Education in 1995, they ran into a strong public backlash. Polling conducted by Hart Research Associates found that 80 percent of respondents in June 1995 wanted the Department of Education to be maintained, while just 17% wanted it eliminated. With a new New York Times/CBS poll finding that education funding is the last area respondents would like to see spending cuts, it’s no stretch to imagine that a strong majority of Americans still support the Department of Education.

Full Story: ThinkProgress » REPORT: 111 Republican Incumbents And Candidates Want To Eliminate The Department Of Education.

How The ‘US’ Chamber Uses Its Money To Pay Pundits, Manipulate Google, And Create Fake News Outlets

Earlier this month, ThinkProgress published an exclusive series of investigative pieces into the fundraising program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the far right corporate lobbying juggernaut. We uncovered millions from corporations like Procter and Gamble, outsourcing giant CSC, and Microsoft, but also discovered that the Chamber has been actively fundraising from foreign corporations like the Bahrain Petroleum Company and the State Bank of India. We provided documentation for over 80 foreign corporations donating at least $885,000 to the same Chamber 501(c)(6) general account the Chamber is now using to run an unprecedented $75 million attack campaign against Democrats.

Responding to our posts, the Chamber launched a massive smear campaign using its large in-house communications staff and a network of well funded public relations firms:

Full Story: ThinkProgress » How The ‘US’ Chamber Uses Its Money To Pay Pundits, Manipulate Google, And Create Fake News Outlets.

Only $4.2 Billion To Buy This Election?

Robert Reich

This, from the Washington Post’s conservative pundit George Will:

Total spending by parties, campaigns and issue-advocacy groups concerning every office from county clerks to U.S. senators may reach a record $4.2 billion in this two-year cycle. That is about what Americans spend in one year on yogurt, but less than they spend on candy in two Halloween seasons. Proctor & Gamble spent $8.6 billion on advertising in its last fiscal year.

Those who are determined to reduce the quantity of political speech to what they consider the proper amount are the sort of people who know exactly how much water should come through our shower heads — no more than 2.5 gallons per minute, as stipulated by a 1992 law. Is it, however, worrisome that Americans spend on political advocacy — determining who should make and administer the laws — much less than they spend on potato chips, $7.1 billion a year?

In a word, Mr. Will, yes.

Full Story: Robert Reich (Only $4.2 Billion To Buy This Election?).

Prison companies’ profit motive sheds new light on Arizona’s immigration law

For months after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed off on the draconian immigration law, SB1070, protestors raged about the repercussions of a law that made it mandatory for police to stop and check the papers of anyone that they deemed “reasonably suspicious” of being undocumented. Human rights activists protested the inevitable implication of racial profiling that the law brought with it, while supporters of the law argued that it would be an effective solution to the immigration issue. When analyzing how the law came to be, the progressive media went to great lengths to highlight the direct links between those who drafted the law and “hate” groups the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FIRM) and white supremacist organizations. In all this, little was said about how the law came about in the first place.

A breaking investigation conducted by NPR and released today reveals that there is a more insidious motive behind the drafting of the Arizona law; one that leaves passionate rhetoric behind and focuses purely on profit. Based on the analysis of hundreds of thousands of campaign finance reports of people like Senator Russell Pearce, the legislator that was responsible for introducing SB1070 before the House of Representatives, as well as the corporate records of numerous prison companies, NPR has found deep financial ties between the drafting and introduction of the bill, and the private prison industry, that stands to benefit millions of dollars from increased immigrant detention.

The NPR investigation found that the seeds of the immigration bill were sown at a meeting of a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a semi-secret group that comprises of state legislators like Pearce, as well as the heads of big private corporations such as ExxonMobil and the National Rifle Association, and billion dollar companies like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the United States. All of the 50 members present for the meeting in December, 2009 where Pearce first presented his idea for SB1070, voted to support it, and the exact “model bill” that he presented at the meeting became the law that Jan Brewer passed in April, 2010.

Full Story: Prison companies’ profit motive sheds new light on Arizona’s immigration law « Restore Fairness.

The Tea Party Constitution Versus the Thomas Jefferson Constitution

The default position for Tea Party candidates such as Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Joe Miller in Alaska, Sharon Angle in Nevada, Ken Buck in Colorado and Ron Johnson in Wisconsin is to declare that—if elected—they will follow the dictates of the Constitution.

But that is a campaign slogan, not a serious commitment.

If O’Donnell, Johnson and their Tea’d-Off compatriots were even minimally serious about adhering to the founding document, they would all be thoughtful critics of the undeclared wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ardent foes of the Patriot Act and steady opponents of free trade deals that remove the authority of Congress to represent and serve the interests of American workers, farmers and communities. But then they would be Russ Feingold, and it goes against the Tea Party narrative—at least as it has been framed by the movement’s corporate paymasters and messaging consultants—to regard a progressive Democrat as the most ardent defender of the American experiment.

So it should be understood that O’Donnell, Miller, Angle, Buck, Johnson and the rest of the Tea Partisans who might be senators are not talking about the Constitution as it was written or as the founders intended it. Rather, they are talking about the Constitution as they would like to see it rewritten and reinterpreted—with the help of the most activist Supreme Court in American history. While their intents are radical, their prospects must be seen in light of the fact that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative majority have already reinterpreted the First Amendment’s free speech protection in a manner that extends the natural rights that the founders reserved for human beings to multinational corporations.

Full Story: The Tea Party Constitution Versus the Thomas Jefferson Constitution | The Nation.

Q&A: Leaked War Logs Raise Questions of Accountability for Military Contractors

When WikiLeaks released a trove of nearly 400,000 military field reports from Iraq last week, much of the initial focus was on civilian deaths and the abuse of detainees in Iraqi custody.

The New York Times pulled out another part of the story—multiple accounts of questionable shootings by private military contractors. One incident report for a July 2009 shooting involving contractors noted, “It is assessed that this drunken group of individuals were out having a good time and firing their weapons.”

Given the big accountability questions that remain regarding the use of private contractors, we contacted David Isenberg, an independent analyst and author of the book “Shadow Force: Private Security Contractors in Iraq.” Isenberg, who also blogs on private contractors for The Huffington Post, gave his take on what the WikiLeaks documents reveal, what the current situation with contractors is in both Iraq and Afghanistan and why he’s often irked by media coverage of the subject.

Full Story: On The Hill: Q&A: Leaked War Logs Raise Questions of Accountability for Military Contractors.

Fox News viewership numbers plunge as audiences wise-up

The right wing GOP propaganda channel Fox “News” has seen a dramatic drop in their number of viewers since last year. Fox third quarter numbers for 2010 have decreased by 21 percent over the same period last year, and they have dropped 26 percent with younger viewers (25-54), and since this is an election year expectations would be that the numbers would increase, not decrease.

Fox “News” which is still the number one “News” channel on Cable (off-air channels ABC, CBS and NBC average between 11-13 million viewers per night) is now averaging 1.831 million prime time viewers a day, and only 443,000 viewers in the age demographic of 25-54. MSNBC which is second in viewership on cable news is seeing their primetime numbers increase. MSNBC is now averaging 687,000 viewers per day in the third quarter of this year compared to last year.

The top 11 cable news programs are still on the Fox network with Bill O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor” still at number one, but his show has seen the largest decrease in viewership with a loss of 12 percent of his total viewers and 21 percent of his young viewers. Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bret Baier, and Greta Van Susteren round out the top five cable news shows, and they each posted double digit declines.

Full Story: Fox News viewership numbers plunge as audiences wise-up – Las Vegas Democrat | Examiner.com.

Conservative Economic Policies Likely To Lead To New Recession, Reich Says

If tea party adherents get the chance to implement conservative economic policies they favor, the result is that the U.S. economy would probably fall back into recession, according to a prominent liberal economist who served in the Clinton administration.

Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary during President Bill Clinton’s first term, also blames Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and former top Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers for helping turn the financial bailout into such a toxic political issue.

Asked during a Thursday online chat held on washingtonpost.com whether the policies advocated by tea party activists would cause a “double-dip recession” — higher unemployment, more home foreclosures, lower wages, more bankruptcies due to uninsured medical bills, and other negative consequences, Reich replied, “Better than 50 percent.”

Full Story: On The Hill: Conservative Economic Policies Likely To Lead To New Recession, Reich Says.

Man who stomped on woman’s head identified and served with summons

This past Monday night prior to a US Senate debate between Tea Party backed candidate Rand Paul and Democrat Jack Conway in Lexington Ky, the Rand Paul Bourbon County coordinator became violent, attacked a woman and stomped on her head as she was being held on the ground by another Rand Paul supporter, and its all caught on tape. (You can watch the video on the left.)

The Lexington Police Department (LPD) have identified Tim Profitt as the man who stomped on the head of Lauren Valle the victim. The LPD have served Profitt with a criminal summons ordering him to appear before a Fayette County District Court Judge.

Lauren Valle who was brought to a hospital afterwards was diagnosed with mild sprains and a concussion from the foot stomping she received.

Full Story: Man who stomped on woman’s head identified and served with summons – Las Vegas Democrat | Examiner.com.

American Job Loss Is Permanent

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS:

Now that a few Democrats and the remnants of the AFL-CIO are waking up to the destructive impact of jobs offshoring on the U.S. economy and millions of American lives, globalism’s advocates have resurrected Dartmouth economist Matthew Slaughter’s discredited finding of several years ago that jobs offshoring by U.S. corporations increases employment and wages in the U.S.

At the time I exposed Slaughter’s mistakes, but economists dependent on corporate largess understood that it was more profitable to drink Slaughter’s Kool-Aid than to tell the truth. Recently the U.S. Chamber of Commerce rolled out Slaughter’s false argument as a weapon against House Democrats Sandy Levin and Tim Ryan, and the Wall Street Journal had Bill Clinton’s Defense Secretary, William S. Cohen, regurgitate Slaughter’s claim on its op-ed page on October 12.

I sent a letter to the Wall Street Journal, but the editors were not interested in what a former associate editor and columnist for the paper and President Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy had to say. The facade of lies has to be maintained at all costs. There can be no questioning that globalism is good for us.

Full Story: PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: American Job Loss Is Permanent « Inteltrends.

Campaign Cash, Corruption, Corporate Power.

Laura Flanders: (Video)

Campaign cash — we’re drowning in a flood of it. As Katrina vanden Heuvel noted yesterday on GRITtv, this is on track to be a $5 billion election—and it’s not over.

We used to have words for spending like that on politicians: bribery. Remember all that quaint anti-colonial talk about “Independence”? As Zephyr Teachout commented in a meeting I was part of, hosted by the Coffee Party, those founding fathers were all about independence from corruption and prosecuting bribery. Remember the phrase “anti-Trust”?

Full Story: GRITtv » Blog Archive » The F Word: Campaign Cash, Corruption, Corporate Power..

Vote Anyway: Our Families Can’t Afford to Stay Home on Election Day

Sure, lots of us are frustrated by the economy, the war, and lack of progress in Washington, D.C. But there’s too much at stake to stay home on election day.

If you’re like me, this election doesn’t feel anything like 2008. The excitement and hope of that historic election have been replaced by worry and disappointment. The 2008 campaigns at least occasionally addressed our country’s serious problems.

This year it’s all noise, attacks, and accusations. Little actual policy makes it through. Meanwhile, billionaires, big oil, and Wall Street corporations unleashed by the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United are able to spend unlimited amounts of money to flood the airwaves with anonymous attack ads.

It’s a tough election season, and many Americans say they’ll be voting with their feet by staying home.

But not voting is a huge mistake. Things could get much worse, and if enough of us stay home, they almost certainly will.

Full Story: Vote Anyway: Our Families Can’t Afford to Stay Home on Election Day.

Feds create ‘no-go zone’ around Deepwater Horizon wreckage

A federal judge at the U.S. District Court in New Orleans has ordered the site of the Deepwater Horizon wreckage and its surrounding areas off limits to companies, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday.

The security zone extends in a 750-foot radius from the center of the drilling rig’s wreckage, which rests 41 miles off the Louisiana coast in 5,000 feet of water.

In a statement, the Justice Department said it was “in the public interest to protect the search area and any evidence located in the area against intentional and unintentional loss.”

Full Story: Feds create ‘no-go zone’ around Deepwater Horizon wreckage | Houston Business Journal.

Kentucky Police Consider More Arrests in Rand Paul Activist ‘Assault’ – ABC News

Cops Investigate Others Involved in Scuffle, Stomping of MoveOn’s Lauren Valle

Kentucky cops are considering charges against at least two more Rand Paul supporters caught on tape wrestling a political heckler to the ground while another man stomped on her head.

“At this point, the investigation is still ongoing,” Lexington Police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts told ABC News. “We’re looking into other individuals who may have been involved in the assault and could get charged.”

A short, 50-second video clip of the scuffle shows a handful of people surrounding Lauren Valle, 23, a paid activist for the liberal group MoveOn.org, as she is pushed to the ground Monday.

Full Story: Kentucky Police Consider More Arrests in Rand Paul Activist ‘Assault’ – ABC News.

In Gulf Of Mexico, ‘They Are Literally Shrimping In Oil’

Earlier this week, we made note of BP CEO Bob Dudley’s complaint that the media, in their routine efforts to document the truth about what was happening in the Gulf of Mexico, had created such a gigantic “climate of fear” that he had no other choice but to wage a widespread campaign to harass and intimidate reporters. Because of the fear, you see! Such as, the “fear” that the correct oil spill rate might get reported, for example.

Well, if there’s one thing Dudley can do, right now, to bring a renewed sense of peace and calm to the Gulf Coast region, it’s this: he could roll on down to the bayou and tuck in to a heaping plate of freshly-caught shrimp. There’s only one little thing to be concerned about, however, according to the Inter Press Service:

Massive slicks of weathered oil were clearly visible near Louisiana’s fragile marshlands in both the East and West Bays of the Mississippi River Delta during an overflight that included an IPS reporter on Oct. 23. The problem is that, despite this, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has left much of the area open for fishing.

Full Story: In Gulf Of Mexico, ‘They Are Literally Shrimping In Oil’.

What Does Early Voting Tell Us About the State of the Election?

Where are we on early voting and what does it tell us about possible election outcomes?

It’s a mixed bag, which is opening the door to both sides claiming that the numbers show they are ahead in the early vote. That said, there are some interesting developments within key states that provide clues as to who is currently ahead in some races — and where the candidates are in tightly locked battles.

First, the overall numbers on early voting and what we might typically expect. Between 2004 and 2008, the percentage of votes cast prior to Election Day increased from 20% to 30%, according to the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. In-between, in 2006, the percentage dropped to 18.5%. So far, we are on track to see early voting numbers comparable to 2008. In previous elections, the pace of early voting picks up as Election Day nears. Consistent with that, the most people voted on Tuesday than any other day so far in many states and localities. It ain’t over until it’s over, so early voting could still sputter to a halt. Past performance suggests otherwise.

Full Story: Michael P. McDonald: What Does Early Voting Tell Us About the State of the Election?.

Senate Procures Influx of Millionaires

The Senate’s famed “millionaires club” is becoming a little crowded.

According to a Roll Call analysis of Senate financial disclosure forms filed in 2010, more than half of the chamber’s membership, 54 lawmakers, reported a minimum net worth of more than $1 million. Another four Senators fell short of that mark by less than $100,000.

In addition, more than half of the Senate’s membership saw their individual fortunes grow in 2009, the period covered by their most recent disclosure reports.

Those increases are reflected in the chamber’s combined minimum wealth, which increased to about $680 million in 2009, or more than 4 percent higher than the previous year.

Roll Call’s analysis of Senators’ wealth is based solely on the information lawmakers provide in their annual reports. The minimum value of all liabilities is subtracted from the minimum value for all assets.

Full Story: Senate Procures Influx of Millionaires – Roll Call.

Nevada Secretary Of State Says No Evidence Of Vote Fraud

Secretary of State Ross Miller said today there have been no complaints filed with his office about suspicious voter activity despite email rumors and media accounts that at least some electronic voting machines are pre-programmed to support U.S. Senate candidate Harry Reid, D-NV.

Miller, holding the first of two media briefings on the allegations, urged anyone seeing a violation of election or voting law to file a formal complaint with his office so it can be investigated.

“I know that tensions are running high this election and that emotions are running very strong, but I want to set the record straight,” he said. “This is the entire reason that we have formed the Election Integrity Task Force in 2008. I’m not going to stand for any fraud or intimidation at the polling place, but nor will I stand idly by and listen to rumors and innuendos undermine the integrity of our electoral process.”

Full Story: Nevada Secretary Of State Says No Evidence Of Vote Fraud « Nevada News Bureau.

U.S. military campaign to topple resilient Taliban hasn’t succeeded

An intense military campaign aimed at crippling the Taliban has so far failed to inflict more than fleeting setbacks on the insurgency or put meaningful pressure on its leaders to seek peace, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials citing the latest assessments of the war in Afghanistan.

Escalated airstrikes and special operations raids have disrupted Taliban movements and damaged local cells. But officials said that insurgents have been adept at absorbing the blows and that they appear confident that they can outlast an American troop buildup set to subside beginning next July.

“The insurgency seems to be maintaining its resilience,” said a senior Defense Department official involved in assessments of the war. Taliban elements have consistently shown an ability to “reestablish and rejuvenate,” often within days of routed by U.S. forces, the official said, adding that if there is a sign that momentum has shifted, “I don’t see it.”

Full Story: U.S. military campaign to topple resilient Taliban hasn’t succeeded.

Shadow groups have spent nearly a quarter billion dollars on 2010 election: analysis

Karl Rove’s American Crossroads has drawn a lot of attention for its high-profile fundraising and lavish spending on congressional races. But Rove’s group, it turns out, isn’t the only one at the plate. A detailed analysis of campaign spending by cloak-and-dagger “shadow groups” — who are able to shift vast sums of money into campaign advertising and affect the outcome of competitive races — show that the groups collectively have spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in the 2010 cycle.

Money has already ruled the roost in American politics for years. But a recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, cleared the way for independent special interests groups to raise unlimited amounts of cash from companies, unions and individuals to run ads expressly supporting or opposing federal candidates for office.

So far this year, according to an ABC News report Wednesday, more than 230 independent groups have shelled out at least $227 million in 2010 federal election spending.

Full Story: Shadow groups have spent nearly a quarter billion dollars on 2010 election: analysis | Raw Story.

REPORT: 104 Republicans In Congress Want To Privatize Social Security

This is the second installment in a three-part series on legislation that may emerge from a GOP-controlled Congress. Click here for part one on ending birthright citizenship.

After their attempt to privatize Social Security in 2005 was met with widespread public outcry, the GOP’s strategy on Social Security has been two-fold. First, Republicans deny they are interested in privatization. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) recently told the Wall Street Journal that “no one has a proposal up to cut Social Security,” (his own book proposes doing so), while conservatives in the media have tried to argue that Republicans don’t actually want to privatize Social Security.

The second tactic has been to obfuscate their privatization plans by sugarcoating them in flowery, palatable language. President Bush’s privatization plan is a prime example. In his 2005 State of the Union, President Bush said we needed to “save” Social Security and give younger workers a “better deal” by having “voluntary personal retirement accounts,” the poll-tested language for privatization. Bush now says his greatest failure was not privatizing Social Security.

Full Story: ThinkProgress » REPORT: 104 Republicans In Congress Want To Privatize Social Security.

Latest GMO fiasco: Mad Soy Disease Strikes Brazil

Senior scientists in the United States, who have studied glyphosate and glyphosate-tolerant GM crops for decades, identified more than 40 diseases linked to glyphosate, and the list is growing.

No cure for mad soy disease

They call it “mad soy disease” in Brazil, where it has been spreading from the north, causing yield losses of up to 40 percent, most notably in the states of Mato Grosso, Tocantins and Goias.

Like its namesake, mad cow disease, it is incurable [1, 2, 3].

This is the latest GMO fiasco to surface since our report on the meltdown in the USA [4] (GM Crops Facing Meltdown in the USA, SiS 46), China [5] (GM-Spin Meltdown in China, SiS 47), and Argentina [6] (Argentina’s Roundup Human Tragedy, SiS 48).

Mad soy disease has afflicted soybeans sporadically in the hot northern regions of Brazil in the past years, but is now spreading to more temperate regions in the south “with increased prevalence overall”, according to a US Department of Agriculture scientist.

Full Story: Latest GMO fiasco: Mad Soy Disease Strikes Brazil « Wake-up Call.

A European Lynch Mob Is Coming For Bank of America

I pity CEO Brian Moynihan and the 284,000 other employees of Bank of America Corp (BAC). That includes 15,000 Merrill Lynch brokers who are still recovering from the financial crisis and now have to explain to their clients why they work for a firm that is at the epicenter of America’s housing crisis.

Not only have they seen $80 billion in stock market value evaporate since April but they also have to suffer the humiliation of having a parent company bone-headed enough to pay $4 billion for Countrywide, the financial firm created by subprime mortgage pimp Angelo Mozilo. That mess could wind up costing BAC $50 billion, excluding legal fees and brand value deterioration. Remember Countrywide originated $1.4 trillion in mortgages from 2005 to 2007 alone.

The latest ugly news for Bank of America is actually coming from Europe, where big institutional money managers and other mortgage securities buyers are now beginning to organize for an assault. This information comes from John Mauldin’s, Thoughts from the Frontline Weekly Newsletter. His e-letter is a must-read for many money managers and serious investors.

Full Story: A European Lynch Mob Is Coming For Bank of America – Matt Schifrin – Buffetts Next Door – Forbes.

THE CORPORATE ASSAULT ON AN HONEST SENATOR

Jim Hightower:

If you look at the whole flock of 535 congress critters, it’s hard not to giggle – or break out in uncontrollable sobs at the thought that – oh my God! – this is the United States Congress. As Peggy Lee sang years ago: “Is that all there is?”

Well, no – within the manure pile, there are quite a few genuine gems, and one of the finest is a fellow who consistently stands for common sense and the common good. He’s Russ Feingold, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin.

He’s a Democrat – but really he’s a populist maverick who has refused to go along to get along, even when that means going against his own party and against what the political consultants tell him is his own best interests. For example, he was the lone senate vote against the autocratic, liberty-busting Patriot Act in 2001. Feingold also had the stuff to vote against Obama’s escalation of the misguided war in Afghanistan, and not only did he oppose the 2008 bailout of Wall Street banksters, but he also said “no” this year to Obama’s Wall Street regulatory reforms, blasting them as too week and meek.

Full Story: Jim Hightower | THE CORPORATE ASSAULT ON AN HONEST SENATOR.

Scary New Wage Data

David Cay Johnston:

Now for some really scary breaking news, from the latest payroll tax data.

Every 34th wage earner in America in 2008 went all of 2009 without earning a single dollar, new data from the Social Security Administration show. Total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined, but at the very top, salaries grew more than fivefold.

Not a single news organization reported this data when it was released October 15, searches of Google and the Nexis databases show. Nor did any blog, so the citizen journalists and professional economists did no better than the newsroom pros in reporting this basic information about our economy.

The new data hold important lessons for economic growth and tax policy and take on added meaning when examined in light of tax return data back to 1950.

Full Story: tax.com: Scary New Wage Data.

Whoa: GOP State Senate candidate calls Hitler ‘strong leader’

A Republican state Senate candidate in Wisconsin called Adolf Hitler a “strong leader” in a tweet, and the action is garnering criticism from Democrats. Reports AP:

Dane Deutsch of Rice Lake posted a message on his campaign Twitter account in March that read, “Hitler and Lincoln were both strong leaders. Lincoln’s character made him the greater leader whose legacy and leadership still lives on!”

Deutsch says he meant that while both men influenced many people, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln had a “righteous character” while Hitler did not.

Full Story: Whoa: GOP State Senate candidate calls Hitler ‘strong leader’ | Raw Story.

Billionaire George Soros gives $1 million to Calif. marijuana legalization campaign | Raw Story

Billionaire financier George Soros has thrown his money behind California’s marijuana legalization measure with a $1 million donation a week before the vote.

The contribution reported Tuesday by The Sacramento Bee is the single biggest donation from an individual other than Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee, the main sponsor of Proposition 19.

Soros, a high-profile liberal, was one of the top financial backers of the 1996 measure that made California the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana for medical use.

Full Story: Billionaire George Soros gives $1 million to Calif. marijuana legalization campaign | Raw Story.

Study Documents Chamber of Commerce Takeover Of Supreme Court

A new study by the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center compares how the Chamber of Commerce fared before the Supreme Court in the early 1980s (the last time that none of the Court’s present members were justices) to their record before the Roberts Court — and the results are quite stark. While the Court’s moderates are about as likely to favor the powerful corporate lobby’s position as conservative Justice William Rehnquist was in the early 1980s, the conservative majority is now significantly more likely to favor corporate interests than the most pro-corporate member of the Court twenty-five years ago (the study did not include the Court’s two newest members because of an insufficiently large data sample):

Full Story: ThinkProgress » Study Documents Chamber of Commerce Takeover Of Supreme Court.

US to build super base on Pacific island of Guam

The US is building an £8 billion super military base on the Pacific island of Guam in an attempt to contain China’s military build-up.

Full Story: US to build £8bn super base on Pacific island of Guam – Telegraph.

Rand Paul Supporter Stomps On MoveOn Member’s Head (VIDEO) (UPDATED)

An ugly scene took place outside the Kentucky Senatorial debate Monday night as what appeared to be a supporter of Republican candidate Rand Paul was captured by a local news affiliate literally stomping the head of a member of the progressive-activist organization MoveOn.org.

The MoveOn volunteer, Lauren Valle, went to the hospital after explaining what had happened to local press. As of 11:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time she remained there, according to another MoveOn official. According to a local Fox station, Valle had attempted to approach Paul before the debate took place, dressed in a blonde wig and with a “RepublicanCorp” sign mocking him as a stooge of special interests.

Attendees around Valle are heard screaming, “get the cops” as cameras captured her being dragged to the pavement by her red sweater. Once on the ground a man wearing white sneakers pushed the sole of his shoe down on her head.

Full Story: Rand Paul Supporter Stomps On MoveOn Member’s Head (VIDEO) (UPDATED).

Rand Paul Supporter Stomps On MoveOn Member’s Head (VIDEO) (UPDATED)

An ugly scene took place outside the Kentucky Senatorial debate Monday night as what appeared to be a supporter of Republican candidate Rand Paul was captured by a local news affiliate literally stomping the head of a member of the progressive-activist organization MoveOn.org.

The MoveOn volunteer, Lauren Valle, went to the hospital after explaining what had happened to local press. As of 11:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time she remained there, according to another MoveOn official. According to a local Fox station, Valle had attempted to approach Paul before the debate took place, dressed in a blonde wig and with a “RepublicanCorp” sign mocking him as a stooge of special interests.

Attendees around Valle are heard screaming, “get the cops” as cameras captured her being dragged to the pavement by her red sweater. Once on the ground a man wearing white sneakers pushed the sole of his shoe down on her head.

Full Story: Rand Paul Supporter Stomps On MoveOn Member’s Head (VIDEO) (UPDATED).

Furious Growth and Cost Cuts Led To BP Accidents Past and Present

Jeanne Pascal turned on her TV April 21 to see a towering spindle of black smoke slithering into the sky from an oil platform on the oceanic expanse of the Gulf of Mexico. For hours she sat, transfixed on an overstuffed couch in her Seattle home, her feelings shifting from shock to anger.

Pascal, a career Environmental Protection Agency attorney only seven weeks into her retirement, knew as much as anyone in the federal government about BP, the company that owned the well. She understood in an instant what it would take others months to grasp: In BP’s 15-year quest to compete with the world’s biggest oil companies, its managers had become deaf to risk and systematically gambled with safety at hundreds of facilities and with thousands of employees’ lives.

“God, they just don’t learn,” she remembers thinking.

Full Story: On The Hill: Furious Growth and Cost Cuts Led To BP Accidents Past and Present.

Blue Dogs Face Sharp Losses in Midterms

More than half the members of the Blue Dog Coalition—the organization of moderate to conservative Democrats in the House—are in peril in next week’s election, a stark indicator of how the balloting could produce a Congress even more polarized than the current one.

The Blue Dogs are often seen as a kind of human bridge, connecting left and right in the House. But that bridge is imperiled by the coming Republican wave in midterm elections, the most stark example of how the midterms are likely to weaken Capitol Hill’s political center.

Of 54 Blue Dogs in the House, six already have retired or decided to seek other offices. Of those trying to stay, 39 are in competitive races, according to the Cook Political Report, and 22 of those are in pure toss-ups.

Full Story: Capital Journal: Blue Dogs Face Sharp Losses in Midterms – WSJ.com.

William Black Calls On FDIC To Seize Bank Of America – Home – The Daily Bail

Bill Black says that the FASB 157 Hour Of Power, and delusion, is over. Banks are still insolvent. The Fed is complicit. Put the banks with the most fraud into government receivership, sack management teams, investigate, find the hidden balance sheet secrets, then prosecute.

* “Foreclosure fraud is the only thing standing between banks and Armageddon. The financial media treats Bank of America as if it were a legitimate bank rather than a “vector” spreading the mortgage fraud epidemic throughout much of the Western world.”

—

By William K. Black

Foreclose on the Fraudsters, Part 1: Put Bank of America in Receivership

The lenders, officers, and professional that directed, participated in, and profited from the fraudulent loans and securities should be prevented from causing further damage to the victims of their frauds, through fraudulent foreclosures.

Full Story: William Black Calls On FDIC To Seize Bank Of America – Home – The Daily Bail.

Sovereign Wealth Funds Buying Up Infrastructure

Not content to sit on the trillions in profits they have made selling overpriced oil to the Western world, Middle Eastern governments from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates are using their massive reserves of dollars to purchase U.S. assets across the country

Not content to sit on the trillions in profits they have made selling overpriced oil to the Western world, Middle Eastern governments from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates are using their massive reserves of dollars to purchase U.S. assets across the country, according to Matt Taibbi’s new book Griftopia, which is previewed in this month’s Rolling Stone Magazine.

“There are now highways, airports, parking garages, toll roads — almost everything you can think of that isn’t nailed down and some things that are — for sale, to bidders unknown, around the world,” Taibbi writes.

Middle Eastern countries have taken their oil profits and created sovereign wealth funds, which Taibbi compares to the most aggressive Wall Street hedge fund on steroids. Those funds, armed with trillions in cash reserves, have sought to stake a claim in America through investments in infrastructure.

Full Story: Sovereign Wealth Funds Buying Up Infrastructure | Economy In Crisis.

5 years after indictments, DeLay’s trial begins

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, one of the most polarizing politicians of the Bush years, is finally getting his day in court, five years after being charged with illegally funneling corporate money to help elect Republicans to the Texas Legislature.

Jury selection begins Tuesday, but it’s at neither the time nor the place that DeLay sought. The trial will be in Austin, the most Democratic city in one of the nation’s most Republican states, and testimony is set to start on the eve of Election Day.

DeLay was once one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress. As the No. 2 leader in the House, he earned the nickname “the Hammer” for his heavy-handed style in bringing recalcitrant members of the GOP into line for votes.

Full Story: 5 years after indictments, DeLay’s trial begins – Yahoo! News.

Wikileaks Shows Rumsfeld and Casey Lied about the Iraq War

Recent revelations by WikiLeaks show how top American leaders lied, knowingly, to the American public, to American troops, and to the world. Ellen Knickmeyer on the carnage she saw as Baghdad bureau chief.

In the dark morning hours of Feb. 22, 2006, a group of unknown attackers detonated bombs in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra, bringing down the golden dome of a revered Shia Muslim shrine.

A few hours later, I drove through Baghdad and watched the country descend into civil war. Then the Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post, I drove with Iraqi and American colleagues to Sadr City, the sprawling slum on the outskirts of the city. We watched hundreds of black-clad religious militiamen, waving their AK 47s in the air and calling for revenge, in what would be the start to a campaign of sectarian killing and torture.

During visits to Baghdad’s morgue over the next two days, I saw Sunni families thronging to find

Full Story: Wikileaks Shows Rumsfeld and Casey Lied about the Iraq War – The Daily Beast.

The Tea Party Movement: Deluded and Inspired by Billionaires

By funding numerous rightwing organisations, the mega-rich Koch brothers have duped millions into supporting big business

The Tea Party movement is remarkable in two respects. It is one of the biggest exercises in false consciousness the world has seen – and the biggest Astroturf operation in history. These accomplishments are closely related.

An Astroturf campaign is a fake grassroots movement: it purports to be a spontaneous uprising of concerned citizens, but in reality it is founded and funded by elite interests. Some Astroturf campaigns have no grassroots component at all. Others catalyse and direct real mobilisations. The Tea Party belongs in the second category. It is mostly composed of passionate, well-meaning people who think they are fighting elite power, unaware that they have been organised by the very interests they believe they are confronting. We now have powerful evidence that the movement was established and has been guided with the help of money from billionaires and big business. Much of this money, as well as much of the strategy and staffing, were provided by two brothers who run what they call “the biggest company you’ve never heard of”.

Charles and David Koch own 84% of Koch Industries, the second-largest private company in the United States. It runs oil refineries, coal suppliers, chemical plants and logging firms, and turns over roughly $100bn a year; the brothers are each worth $21bn. The company has had to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines and settlements for oil and chemical spills and other industrial accidents. The Kochs want to pay less tax, keep more profits and be restrained by less regulation. Their challenge has been to persuade the people harmed by this agenda that it’s good for them.

Full Story: The Tea Party Movement: Deluded and Inspired by Billionaires | CommonDreams.org.

Socialism? The Rich Are Winning the US Class War: Facts Show Rich Getting Richer, Everyone Else Poorer

The rich and their paid false prophets are doing a bang up job deceiving the poor and middle class. They have convinced many that an evil socialism is alive in the land and it is taking their fair share. But the deception cannot last – facts say otherwise.

Yes, there is a class war – the war of the rich on the poor and the middle class – and the rich are winning. That war has been going on for years. Look at the facts – facts the rich and their false paid prophets do not want people to know.

Let Glen Beck go on about socialists descending on Washington. Allow Rush Limbaugh to rail about “class warfare for a leftist agenda that will destroy our society.” They are well compensated false prophets for the rich.

The truth is that for the several decades the rich in the US have been getting richer and the poor and middle class have been getting poorer. Look at the facts then make up your own mind.

Full Story: Socialism? The Rich Are Winning the US Class War: Facts Show Rich Getting Richer, Everyone Else Poorer | CommonDreams.org.

Global food crisis forecast as prices reach record highs

Cost of meat, sugar, rice, wheat and maize soars as World Bank predicts five years of price volatility

Rising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the cost of staple foods and vegetables reached their highest levels in two years, with scientists predicting further widespread droughts and floods.

Although food stocks are generally good despite much of this year’s harvests being wiped out in Pakistan and Russia, sugar and rice remain at a record price.

Global wheat and maize prices recently jumped nearly 30% in a few weeks while meat prices are at 20-year highs, according to the key Reuters-Jefferies commodity price indicator. Last week, the US predicted that global wheat harvests would be 30m tonnes lower than last year, a 5.5% fall. Meanwhile, the price of tomatoes in Egypt, garlic in China and bread in Pakistan are at near-record levels.

Full Story: Global food crisis forecast as prices reach record highs | Environment | The Guardian.

Job-Creation Idea No. 12: Let The Old Folks Retire Early And Make Way For Young Workers

Looking ahead fearfully to something that may or may not be a problem decades from now, President Obama’s deficit-obsessed fiscal commission is widely expected to recommend some form of reduction in Social Security expenditures in a few weeks, with the mostly likely scenario being a benefit cut disguised as an increase in the retirement age.

By contrast, looking realistically at the massive unemployment crisis facing the nation right this minute, University of Texas economist and outspoken progressive James Galbraith comes to precisely the opposite conclusion. He says it’s time to lower the Social Security retirement age sharply for a few years, until the labor market rebalances itself.

“We’ve lost a huge number of jobs. No matter how effective a program we enact — and the fact is we’re going nowhere fast — we’re not going to recreate good jobs for everyone’s who’s lost them,” Galbraith said. “So it makes sense to have some priorities.”

Full Story: Job-Creation Idea No. 12: Let The Old Folks Retire Early And Make Way For Young Workers.

Joseph McNamara: Let’s Be Honest: The War Against Marijuana Has Failed

I’ve worked in law enforcement for 35 years, including 15 years as the police chief in San Jose, California. Over my career, I have seen firsthand how misguided our marijuana policies are for our state and our country. That’s why I narrated the Yes on 19 campaign’s new TV ad.

For 70 years, we have prohibited marijuana in this country, each day expecting different results. But as William F. Buckley once said: “Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”

We spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year arresting people for marijuana possession, sending them to trial, and incarcerating small-time offenders.

And yet, despite our war against it, marijuana is so freely available that anyone who wants it in California can get it.

Full Story: Joseph McNamara: Let’s Be Honest: The War Against Marijuana Has Failed.

New Figures Detail Depth Of Unemployment Misery, Lower Earnings For All But Super Wealthy (VIDEO)

One out of every 34 Americans who earned wages in 2008 earned absolutely nothing — not one cent — in 2009.

The stunning figure was released earlier this month by the Social Security Administration, but apparently went unreported until it appeared today on Tax.com in a column by Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter David Cay Johnston.

It’s not just every 34th earner whose financial situation has been upended by the financial crisis. Average wages, median wages, and total wages have all declined — except at the very top, where they leaped dramatically, increasing five-fold.

Full Story: New Figures Detail Depth Of Unemployment Misery, Lower Earnings For All But Super Wealthy (VIDEO).

Study alleges cordless, cellular phones can cause heart irregularities

Amount of radiation emitted by phone in study was far below US, Canadian limits

Microwave radiation produced by digital cordless phones and other cordless devices, such as cellular phones, can cause irregular heartbeats and other symptoms, according to a little-noticed study published Friday in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Oncology.

The study (.pdf) found that microwave radiation from cordless phones could nearly double the heart rate of those with a condition referred to as “electrohypersensitivity.”

Full Story: Study alleges cordless, cellular phones can cause heart irregularities | Raw Story.

Revealed: FBI investigated claim that group threatened de-icing equipment when probing crash that killed Senator Wellstone

FBI files obtained by Minnesota Public Radio published Monday shed new light — and perhaps shadows — onto the life and death of former Democratic Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, who was killed when his twin-engine plane crashed in 2002.

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) published dozens of FBI files they obtained on Monday. Their series, titled “The Wellstone Files,” tracks the bureau’s documentation on the onetime senator from his college days through the investigation of his death. Wellstone was killed along with his wife and six others 175 miles north of Minneapolis in the crash.

“The U.S. Department of Justice released 88 of the 125 pages in Sen. Wellstone’s FBI file, and 131 of the 227 pages in his wife’s file,” MPR reporter Madeleine Baran wrote Monday. “All of the documents included in Sheila Wellstone’s file are related to the plane crash that killed the couple and their daughter Marcia.

Full Story: Revealed: FBI investigated claim that group threatened de-icing equipment when probing crash that killed Senator Wellstone | Raw Story.

European Polluters Funding Senate Candidates Who Oppose Action On Global Warming

As the Wonk Room has extensively documented, nearly all of the Republican candidates for Senate — both incumbents and challengers — dispute that the United States must take action to fight global warming pollution, while many of them deny that global warming exists in the first place. “There is much debate in the scientific community as to the precise sources of global warming,” claims Pat Toomey, the GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania. “Global warming is ‘the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,’” says Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK).

It remains to be seen if that stance will pay off at the polls, but for many of these global warming deniers, it already has paid off in the form of sizeable donations from overseas polluters. A new analysis by Climate Action Network Europe has found that large European companies that are among the continent’s biggest greenhouse gas polluters have been dumping large amounts of money into U.S. Senate races, almost exclusively to candidates that oppose the idea of taking action to stop global warming.

ThinkProgress has already documented how money from foreign oil companies is being directed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is running a $75 million ad campaign against Democratic candidates, and these direct candidate contributions from European polluters exceed the amount that oil billionaires Charles and David Koch have donated to Senate campaigns.

Full Story: ThinkProgress » European Polluters Funding Senate Candidates Who Oppose Action On Global Warming.

GOP House Nominee Keith Rothfus Defends Unlimited Corporate Spending In Elections As Free Speech

In the wake of ThinkProgress’s report detailing how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is accepting foreign money into the same general account that it uses to fund partisan attack ads, candidates from across the political spectrum are stepping out and calling on the business lobby to disclose its funding. An increasing number of politicians are also calling for an FEC investigation into the Chamber’s actions.

However, for the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania’s 4th congressional district, those calls for transparency are falling on deaf ears. ThinkProgress spoke with Keith Rothfus, a Tea Party favorite, during a meet-and-greet in western Pennsylvania last week. We asked him if he would like to see groups like the U.S. Chamber forced to disclose where their funding comes from. He refused to endorse the idea, arguing instead that such requirements would likely breach the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech:

TP: I know you’d mentioned that you were opposed to the DISCLOSE Act, but would you like to see outside groups like the Chamber be forced to disclose where their money’s coming from?

Full Story: ThinkProgress » GOP House Nominee Keith Rothfus Defends Unlimited Corporate Spending In Elections As Free Speech.

Falling Into the Economic Chasm

Paul Krugman:

This is what happens when you need to leap over an economic chasm — but either can’t or won’t jump far enough, so that you only get part of the way across.

If Democrats do as badly as expected in next week’s elections, pundits will rush to interpret the results as a referendum on ideology. President Obama moved too far to the left, most will say, even though his actual program — a health care plan very similar to past Republican proposals, a fiscal stimulus that consisted mainly of tax cuts, help for the unemployed and aid to hard-pressed states — was more conservative than his election platform.

A few commentators will point out, with much more justice, that Mr. Obama never made a full-throated case for progressive policies, that he consistently stepped on his own message, that he was so worried about making bankers nervous that he ended up ceding populist anger to the right.

But the truth is that if the economic situation were better — if unemployment had fallen substantially over the past year — we wouldn’t be having this discussion. We would, instead, be talking about modest Democratic losses, no more than is usual in midterm elections.

Full Story: Falling Into the Economic Chasm – NYTimes.com.

The New Democrats: The Coalition Pharma and Wall Street Love

As Congress entered the final weeks of its struggle to overhaul regulation of Wall Street in May, several hundred friends and colleagues slipped out of Washington for a private weekend on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Most were lobbyists for large banks, pharmaceutical firms, insurance companies, and big-ticket trade groups. However, 28 were members of Congress, and 29 were legislative staffers, all part of a coalition of House Democrats with a business-friendly agenda.

The retreat was held in honor of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of 69 lawmakers whose close relationship with several hundred Washington lobbyists has made their organization one of the most successful political money machines since the Republican K Street Project collapsed in 2007. In the past year and a half, New Democrats have pulled in more than $18 million in campaign contributions from their lobbyist fundraising network. The lobbyists, in turn, have mingled with lawmakers and their staffers at least 850 times during fundraising events and informal get-togethers.

Full Story: On The Hill: The New Democrats: The Coalition Pharma and Wall Street Love.

Hemp Is the Far Bigger Economic Issue Hiding Behind Legal Marijuana

Prop 19 will open up California to hemp, a multi-billion-dollar crop that has been a staple of human agriculture for thousands of years.

If the upcoming pot legalization ballot in California were decided by hemp farmers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, it would be no contest. For purely economic reasons, if you told the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that the nation they were founding would someday make hemp illegal, they would have laughed you out of the room.

If California legalizes pot, it will save the state millions in avoided legal and imprisonment costs, while raising it millions in taxes.

But with legal marijuana will come legal hemp. That will open up the Golden State to a multi-billion-dollar crop that has been a staple of human agriculture for thousands of years, and that could save the farms of thousands of American families.

Full Story: Hemp Is the Far Bigger Economic Issue Hiding Behind Legal Marijuana | Drugs | AlterNet.

Gen. Hugh Shelton: Bush Officials Pushed For Iraq War ‘Almost To The Point Of Insubordination’ (VIDEO)

Former Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton says that, during the Bush administration, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, and other Pentagon officials pushed to go to war with Iraq “almost to the point of insubordination.”

“There was a very strong push in those days for us to go into Iraq, and there was absolutely no intelligence, zero, that pointed toward the Iraqis.,” he told Christiane Amanpour on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday. “It was all Al Qaida, Osama bin Laden. And yet there was an element there that was — that was pushing to go into Iraq at the same time.”

George Bush was focused on Afghanistan and initially resisted the pressure to invade Iraq, Shelton says. But he was eventually convinced.

“Afghanistan, remember, was going very, very well,” Shelton said. “The drumbeat back here in Washington was still pushing, coming out of the Pentagon, let’s go to Iraq, let’s get — take him out. And he finally said, let’s go.”

Full Story: Gen. Hugh Shelton: Bush Officials Pushed For Iraq War ‘Almost To The Point Of Insubordination’ (VIDEO).

G20 finance ministers agree to global economic regulations

G20 finance ministers Saturday agreed tougher rules for big financial firms blamed for the global economic crisis as they tackled the problem of companies deemed “too big to fail”.

After a two-day meeting in South Korea, G20 ministers and central bankers said in a statement that the 2008-09 crisis laid bare the need for global cooperation on banking regulation.

“We are committed to take action at the national and international level to raise standards, so that our national authorities implement global standards consistently, in a way that ensures a level playing field and avoids fragmentation of markets, protectionism and regulatory arbitrage,” they said.

The rules, known as Basel III, will raise the minimum capital reserves that banks must hold as insurance against any new financial tumult.

Full Story: G20 finance ministers agree to global economic regulations | Raw Story.

What Happened to Change We Can Believe In?

Frank Rich

PRESIDENT Obama, the Rodney Dangerfield of 2010, gets no respect for averting another Great Depression, for saving 3.3 million jobs with stimulus spending, or for salvaging GM and Chrysler from the junkyard. And none of these good deeds, no matter how substantial, will go unpunished if the projected Democratic bloodbath materializes on Election Day. Some are even going unremembered. For Obama, the ultimate indignity is the Times/CBS News poll in September showing that only 8 percent of Americans know that he gave 95 percent of American taxpayers a tax cut.

The reasons for his failure to reap credit for any economic accomplishments are a catechism by now: the dark cloud cast by undiminished unemployment, the relentless disinformation campaign of his political opponents, and the White House’s surprising ineptitude at selling its own achievements. But the most relentless drag on a chief executive who promised change we can believe in is even more ominous. It’s the country’s fatalistic sense that the stacked economic order that gave us the Great Recession remains not just in place but more entrenched and powerful than ever.

No matter how much Obama talks about his “tough” new financial regulatory reforms or offers rote condemnations of Wall Street greed, few believe there’s been real change. That’s not just because so many have lost their jobs, their savings and their homes. It’s also because so many know that the loftiest perpetrators of this national devastation got get-out-of-jail-free cards, that too-big-to-fail banks have grown bigger and that the rich are still the only Americans getting richer.

Full Story: What Happened to Change We Can Believe In? – NYTimes.com.

Chart: National Debt Goes Up under GOP Presidents, Down Under Democrats

So simple even Republicans can understand it!

Click through to the source article for a full sized image of this graph

Full Story: Pensito Review » Chart: National Debt Goes Up under GOP Presidents, Down Under Democrats.

A Perjurer on the US Supreme Court

By Robert Parry:

In late 1998, when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying under oath about a sexual affair, many on the Right insisted that the issue wasn’t the sex but the perjury. They are now confronted with a parallel case in which U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas quite clearly perjured himself to get his seat on the bench.

On Friday, former federal prosecutor Lillian McEwen, one of Thomas’s girlfriends in the 1980s, broke a long silence and confirmed that Thomas did engage in sexual harassment of women at work and did discuss pornography in the way that Anita Hill and other women described to the Senate during Thomas’s confirmation hearings in 1991.

During those hearings, Thomas angrily denied the allegations, calling them “a high-tech lynching.” Simultaneously, his right-wing allies mounted an aggressive campaign to destroy the credibility of Hill and other accusers.

The tactics worked. Thomas narrowly won Senate confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he has remained a reliable vote for every right-wing position that the justices consider.

Full Story: Consortiumnews.com.

Poll: Obama Approval Jumps, Dems More Fired Up

As the president’s numbers climb sharply, results suggest that Democrats may be succeeding in firing up their base.

Despite doom-saying about Democrats’ chances in the midterms, the latest NEWSWEEK Poll (full results) shows that they remain in a close race with Republicans 12 days before Election Day, while the president’s approval ratings have climbed sharply. The poll finds that 48 percent of registered voters would be more likely to vote for Democrats, compared with 42 percent who lean Republican (those numbers are similar to those in the last NEWSWEEK Poll, which found Democrats favored 48 percent to 43 percent). President Obama’s approval ratings have jumped substantially, crossing the magic halfway threshold to 54 percent, up from 48 percent in late September, while the portion of respondents who disapprove of the president dropped to 40 percent, the lowest disapproval rating in a NEWSWEEK Poll since February 2010. However, his approval rating, which is notably higher than many recent polls of the president’s popularity, may be evidence of a closing “enthusiasm gap” more than a sea change in voter attitudes, and may not substantially affect Democrats’ fortunes come Election Day. In 1994, NEWSWEEK Polls showed a similar steep climb in President Clinton’s approval between late September and late October, but Democrats still suffered a rout in the midterms.

Full Story: Poll: Obama Approval Jumps, Dems More Fired Up – Newsweek.

A Party of Panic and Depression

by Len Hart:

The administration of Ronald Reagan ushered in a depression of some two years, the longest and deepest since Hoover’s Great Depression of the 1930s. Millions were put out of work. Many businesses, entire industries never recovered. The Reagan depression followed a GOP tax cut benefiting only the upper quintile. As a stimulus, it was an obvious failure, yet that’s how it had been sold. It’s how they are always sold.

The real world results: a depression of some two years, a contraction of the economy, a transfer of wealth upward to the upper quintile, the nation’s richest 20 percent. A windfall of this nature is not stimulus to invest but, rather, to transfer the gains offshore. There were no net gains in jobs. There was no Reagan-recovery. There were, rather, net losses, declines in employment. The government’s own stats prove it. They are available the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and the U.S. Commerce Department -B.E.A.

Our Major Exports: Death and Destruction

Check the CIA’s ‘World Fact Book’ where you will find listed on the very bottom the United States with the world’s largest NEGATIVE Current Account Balance. China is on top with the world’s largest POSITIVE Current Account Balance. The downside for China is this: it must prop up the worthless U.S. dollar if it wishes to survive by dumping its product on our shores. The downside for us is this: we are now a vassal state of China. Anyone reduced to shopping at Wal-Mart should know this. If not, I suggest you search the shelves and aisles for goods manufactured in the United States and exported abroad. I doubt you will find any.

Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: A Party of Panic and Depression.

Retired and broke: Why retirees are declaring bankruptcy

For more and more seniors, retirement doesn’t mean a debt-free life of leisure. An increasing number of Americans aged 65 and older are declaring bankruptcy, according to a recent study by John Pottow, professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School.

Those aged 65 and older represented seven percent of bankruptcy filers in 2007, a mind-boggling jump from 1991. They are the “fastest-growing age demographic,” according to Pottow’s study.

What’s the culprit for so much debt? Credit cards. Two-thirds of Americans who filed for bankruptcy said credit cards were the key reason for their financial problems, according to Pottow’s research. Besides having more credit card debt compared with younger bankruptcy filers, 44.8 percent of those aged 65 and older also had more plastic in their wallets. “They’re using credit cards as a maladaptive coping mechanism,” Pottow says.

Stephanie Osterland, a supervisor in the bankruptcy department at GreenPath debt solutions, sees an increasing number of seniors living beyond their means. Says Osterland: “They’re just trying to live off of a fixed income, and that’s usually Social Security. Maybe they have a small pension. We find they’ve used credit cards to supplement that income and expenses or they just end up getting into a lot of medical debt.”

Full Story: Retired and broke: Why retirees are declaring bankruptcy | Analysis & Opinion |.

1 in 8 Americans Now Relying On Food Stamps

Food Stamp Usage Soars Among Working Families

Lillie Gonzales does whatever it takes to provide for three ravenous sons who live under her roof. She grows her own vegetables at home on Kauai, runs her own small business and like a record 42 million other Americans, she relies on food stamps.

Gonzales and her husband consistently qualify for food stamps now that Hawaii and other states are quietly expanding eligibility and offering the benefit to more working, moderate income families.

Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reviewed by The Associated Press shows that 30 states have adopted rules making it easier to qualify for food stamps since 2007. In all, 38 states have loosened eligibility standards.

Hawaii has gone farther than most, allowing a family like Gonzales’ to earn up to $59,328 and still get food stamps.

Full Story: Food Stamp Usage Soars Among Working Families.

Massive stretches of weathered oil spotted in Gulf of Mexico

Just three days after the U.S. Coast Guard admiral in charge of the BP oil spill cleanup declared little recoverable surface oil remained in the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana fishers Friday found miles-long strings of weathered oil floating toward fragile marshes on the Mississippi River delta.

The discovery, which comes as millions of birds begin moving toward the region in the fall migration, gave ammunition to groups that have insisted the government has overstated clean-up progress, and could force reclosure of key fishing areas only recently reopened.

The oil was sighted in West Bay, which covers approximately 35 square miles of open water between Southwest Pass, the main shipping channel of the river, and Tiger Pass near Venice. Boat captains working the BP clean-up effort said they have been reporting large areas of surface oil off the delta for more than a week but have seen little response from BP or the Coast Guard, which is in charge of the clean-up. The captains said most of their sightings have occurred during stretches of calm weather, similar to what the area has experienced most of this week.

Full Story: Massive stretches of weathered oil spotted in Gulf of Mexico | NOLA.com.

Rep. Peter DeFazio Investigating Impeachment For Chief Justice John Roberts

With Democrats increasingly outraged over the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that allowed unlimited corporate spending in elections — a change conservatives have been more successful at taking advantage of — a Democratic congressman is raising the prospect of impeaching the Supreme Court’s chief justice over the issue.

“I mean, the Supreme Court has done a tremendous disservice to the United States of America,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. “They have done more to undermine our democracy with their Citizens United decision than all of the Republican operatives in the world in this campaign. They’ve opened the floodgates, and personally, I’m investigating articles of impeachment against Justice Roberts for perjuring during his Senate hearings, where he said he wouldn’t be a judicial activist, and he wouldn’t overturn precedents.”

In his 2005 confirmation hearings, Roberts famously said, “Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire.”

Full Story: Rep. Peter DeFazio Investigating Impeachment For Chief Justice John Roberts.

Republican House Candidate Calls For Violent Government Overthrow If GOP Loses Election

Stephen Broden, a “constitutionalist pastor” from Texas who won the Republican nomination for Texas’ 30th Congressional District, made a vaguely threatening statement at a Tea Party event last year. He described the federal government as “tyrannical” and said that “we have a constitutional remedy. And the Framers say if that don’t work, revolution.”

Yesterday, a political reporter for WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth asked Broden to explain whether he was actually calling for violence against the federal government. After a “prolonged back-and-forth,” Broden said a violent overthrow is “on the table”:

“If the government is not producing the results or has become destructive to the ends of our liberties, we have a right to get rid of that government and to get rid of it by any means necessary,” Broden said, adding the nation was founded on a violent revolt against Britain’s King George III.

Watson asked if violence would be in option in 2010, under the current government.

“The option is on the table. I don’t think that we should remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms,” Broden said, without elaborating. “However, it is not the first option.”

Watch it:

Full Story: ThinkProgress » Republican House Candidate Calls For Violent Government Overthrow If GOP Loses Election.

After Chamber Spends Big On His Behalf, Mike Kelly Announces Support For Corporate Tax Loopholes

Last night, Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D) and Mike Kelly (R) sparred for 70 minutes in a debate held at Allegheny College. One of the major issues raised was the abundance of outside expenditures in Pennsylvania’s third congressional district, largely in support of Kelly and against Dahlkemper. Indeed, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent approximately $250,000 attacking Dahlkemper on Kelly’s behalf.

It is little surprise then that when asked about his vision for the role of government, Kelly vehemently defended tax loopholes for corporations that outsource American jobs, an issue near-and-dear to the Chamber’s heart. Despite the fact that over 12,000 jobs in PA-03 have been shipped overseas since 1994, Kelly gave his full-throated support for corporate tax loopholes that encourage outsourcing:

Full Story: ThinkProgress » After Chamber Spends Big On His Behalf, Mike Kelly Announces Support For Corporate Tax Loopholes.

Right After Calling For Social Security Privatization, GOP Senate Candidate Claims To Oppose Privatization

A slew of Republican Senate candidates have recently tried to dress up their support for Social Security privatization as something else entirely, denying that they support privatization while continuing to advocate for the creation of private Social Security accounts that could be invested in the markets. Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey, Ohio Republican Rob Portman, Arkansas Republican John Boozman, and Colorado Republican Ken Buck have all said they oppose privatization, while simultaneously advocating for private accounts. Oregon’s Republican Senate nominee, law professor Jim Huffman, became the latest to join this club during a debate last night with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), asserting that he hasn’t argued for privatizing Social Security, literally one sentence after calling for the creation of private accounts:

I have argued for allowing newcomers to the Social Security system to have the option of private accounts. I have not argued for privatizing the Social Security system. There’s nothing in the record that would uphold that argument.

Watch it:

Full Story: ThinkProgress » Right After Calling For Social Security Privatization, GOP Senate Candidate Claims To Oppose Privatization.

Revealed: More Corporate Donations To The U.S. Chamber’s Partisan Attack Fund

Today, the New York Times builds on research published by ThinkProgress by noting that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is mostly funded by a small group of large corporations. The Chamber has tried to lie about its identity for years, absurdly telling the media that it represents 3 million businesses. Then after being caught with no proof of such membership, it modified that number to 300,000 — but then claimed small businesses were the true driver of the Chamber’s member rolls. But the Times correctly points out that in 2008, the Chamber received the bulk of its donations from only 45 companies, including firms like Goldman Sachs, Edward Jones, Alpha Technologies, Chevron Texaco and Aegon.

Many corporations pay regular dues to the Chamber, but pitch in more during election cycles or particular lobbying campaigns. For instance, on top of its regular $100,000 commitment of yearly dues, health insurance giant Aetna joined other health insurers to funnel $20 million to the Chamber to kill health reform. Similarly, Fox News parent company News Corporation gave an additional $1 million to the Chamber for its attack campaign this midterm election. While ThinkProgress forced the Chamber to acknowledge that it receives foreign funds to its 501(c)(6) account used for attack ads, the Chamber refuses to disclose any of its other donors or how exactly it funds its nasty attack ads. Using public corporate records, ThinkProgress has found more dues-paying members of the Chamber. The numbers below reflect a bare minimum, and in many cases these corporations have paid ten times the amount of their regular dues to the Chamber in the past two years:

Full Story: ThinkProgress » Revealed: More Corporate Donations To The U.S. Chamber’s Partisan Attack Fund.

Support For Veterans Shows Sharp Partisan Divide

According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America Action Fund, Republicans in Congress have dramatically failed to support our troops after they come home. IAVA’s 2010 Veteran Report Card, based on the key veterans’ legislation that came to a vote during the 111th Congress, exposed a sharp partisan divide on the level of support for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, as MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow tabulated yesterday. Of the 94 elected officials that earned an A or A+ rating from IAVA, 91 were Democrats. Of the 154 officials who received a D or F, 142 were Republicans:

Maddow also noted that U.S. Senate candidates Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Ken Buck (R-CO) have called for the privatization of the Veterans Affairs hospital system, even though it provides the best quality of care in America, as our veterans deserve. Watch the segment:

Full Story: ThinkProgress » Support For Veterans Shows Sharp Partisan Divide.