Archive for January, 2011

Statement on Comcast Takeover of NBC

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice approved Comcast’s bid to take control of NBC Universal from General Electric:

“The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice okayed the merger of Comcast, the nation’s largest distributor of video services, and NBC Universal, Inc., one of the nation’s largest producers of video content. In approving this merger, these agencies ignored their mandates to protect the public interest and preserve competition and, instead, caved to an all-out lobbying campaign by Comcast and its political allies. Commissioner Michael Copps, who has long warned against the dangers of media consolidation, was the lone dissenting voice at the FCC.

Full Story Here: Statement on Comcast Takeover of NBC | CommonDreams.org.

Sen. Sanders : Obama may cut Social Security,

One-year payroll tax holiday key to toppling seniors’ safety net, Sanders warns

berniesanders Exclusive: Obama may cut Social Security, Sen. Sanders tells RawSocial Security may be on the White House chopping block, a US Senator recently told Raw Story, expressing deep uneasiness about President Barack Obama’s noncommittal attitude toward staving off cuts to the cherished program.

“I have to tell you, I have been on the phone to the very, very, very highest levels of the Obama administration, and the responses that I am getting are not assuring,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said in an exclusive interview. “What I’m told is that no definitive decisions have been made on the issue of Social Security – I expect that is probably true.”

Progressive activists, fearing that the holy grail of American liberalism could fall prey to a bipartisan deal on Capitol Hill, have launched a campaign to pressure the White House and Congress to oppose cuts. And Sanders has stepped up as their champion in the Senate, confirming their concerns based on knowledge drawn from his relative proximity to the president.

Full Story Here: Exclusive: Obama may cut Social Security, Sen. Sanders tells Raw | Raw Story.

White House Plans to Launch Internet ID System, Further Eroding Civil and Political Rights

Urged by one and all to “tone down” what media pundits and political elites describe as “strident,” even “violent” rhetoric that has “poisoned” our “national conversation” and “sharply polarized” the population, the shooting rampage in Tucson which claimed six lives, including that of a nine-year-old girl is, in fact, emblematic of the moral bankruptcy and utter hypocrisy of those selfsame capitalist elites.

Faced with an unprecedented economic crisis that has destroyed the lives of tens of millions our fellow citizens, not to mention aggressive wars which have cratered entire societies and murdered hundreds of thousands of people who have done us no harm, when, pray tell, will the “conversation” turn to the unprecedented annihilation of democratic institutions and the rule of law which exonerates, even celebrates, those who murder, maim and torture on an industrial scale?

Just last week, the Obama administration announced plans to roll-out an “identity ecosystem” for the internet. Although passed over in silence by major media, at the risk of being accused of “incivility,” particularly when it comes to the “hope” fraudster and war criminal in the Oval Office, Americans need to focus — sharply — on the militarists, political bag men and corporate gangsters working to bring George Orwell’s dystopian world one step closer to reality.

Full Story Here: White House Plans to Launch Internet ID System, Further Eroding Civil and Political Rights | Dissident Voice.

Caligula’s tomb found after police arrest man trying to smuggle statue

Police arrest tomb raider loading part of 2.5 metre statue into lorry near Lake Nemi, south of Rome, where Caligula had a villa

The lost tomb of Caligula has been found, according to Italian police, after the arrest of a man trying to smuggle abroad a statue of the notorious Roman emperor recovered from the site.

After reportedly sleeping with his sisters, killing for pleasure and seeking to appoint his horse a consul during his rule from AD37 to 41, Caligula was described by contemporaries as insane.

With many of Caligula’s monuments destroyed after he was killed by his Praetorian guard at 28, archaeologists are eager to excavate for his remains.

Full Story Here: Caligula’s tomb found after police arrest man trying to smuggle statue | World news | The Guardian.

Wal-Mart Is Not a Person

Thom Hartmann:

The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

—John Stuart Mill

In 2003, after my book Unequal Protection was first published, I gave a talk at one of the larger law schools in Vermont. Around 300 people showed up, mostly students, with a few dozen faculty and some local lawyers. I started by asking, “Please raise your hand if you know that in 1886, in the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad case, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons and therefore entitled to rights under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

Almost everyone in the room raised their hand, and the few who didn’t probably were new enough to the law that they hadn’t gotten to study that case yet. Nobody questioned the basic premise of the statement.

And all of them were wrong.

Full Story Here: Wal-Mart Is Not a Person.

Facebook now sharing your address, number

How do you feel about the social networking giant sharing your home address and phone number with strangers?

Adding your home address and personal phone number feels risky. What if that stalker you used to have finds out where you live and pays a visit? What if some obnoxious hacker sells your phone number to telemarketers? What if Facebook just gives your info away to everyone?

Well, that last what if just came true — which means the first two may not be far behind.

According to a report in today’s Guardian, Facebook is now sharing your home address and phone number with third party developers. In a platform upgrade on Friday, Facebook announced that these “new user object fields” were free game for anyone and even gave detailed instructions on how to access users’ addresses and phone numbers.

Full Story Here: Facebook now sharing your address, number – Facebook – Salon.com.

Naomi Klein: Hunting the Ocean for BP’s Missing Millions of Barrels of Oil | Environment | AlterNet

As the gulf is declared “safe,” scientists look deep in the sea for evidence of lasting damage.

I race to the front of the WeatherBird II, a research vessel owned by the University of South Florida. There they are, doing their sleek silvery thing, weaving between translucent waves, disappearing under the boat, reappearing in perfect formation on the other side.

After taking my fill of phone video (and very pleased not to have dropped the device into the Gulf of Mexico), I bump into Gregory Ellis, one of the junior scientists aboard.

“Did you see them?” I ask excitedly.

Full Story Here: Naomi Klein: Hunting the Ocean for BP’s Missing Millions of Barrels of Oil | Environment | AlterNet.

How This Weight-Loss Skeptic Lost 60 Pounds and Kept it Off

How, exactly, do you lose weight while maintaining progressive ideals about body image?

In the last year and a half, I’ve lost 60 pounds. I’ve done a fair amount of writing about it, here on AlterNet and on my own blog: about the politics and cultural issues of weight loss, the psychological and sexual and weird emotional stuff connected with it, my changing and conflicted thoughts about the fat- acceptance movement and its ideals of accepting our bodies the way they are.

But I know that when it comes to weight loss, all that political and cultural crap is, for most people, only of moderate interest. When you’ve lost weight, what most people want to know is, “How did you do it?”

So here, for anyone who’s interested in losing weight or maintaining weight loss, are the nuts-and-bolts details: the specific “how-to” of my so-far successful effort to lose weight and maintain weight loss in an evidence- based manner, while retaining my feminist ideals and my resistance to body fascism. (And for anyone who’s not interested in losing weight — that’s totally cool. I’m not evangelizing for weight loss for everyone. The cost/ benefit analysis of weight loss is different for everyone, and I completely support fat people who are genuinely happy with their bodies and aren’t interested in losing weight. I just also happen to support fat people who do want to lose weight, and who want to do it in a healthy and sustainable way. Our bodies, our right to decide.)

Full Story Here: How This Weight-Loss Skeptic Lost 60 Pounds and Kept it Off | Personal Health | AlterNet.

Vision: 8 Reasons Global Capitalism Makes Our Lives Worse — And How We Can Create a New Kind of Economy

A new film explores how globalization has resulted in crises of the economy, the environment and the human spirit — and points the way to a new path.

To many of us, a society where no one goes hungry, where there is no unemployment, where people are happy and they have spacious homes and lots of leisure time seems like fantasy. But it’s not a fantasy for Helena Norberg-Hodge — she saw it firsthand in the tiny Himalayan region of Ladakh, a remote mountain community that borders Tibet.

During the course of 35 years there, she also saw what happened when Ladakh was suddenly thrown open to the outside world in the 1970s and subsidized roads brought subsidized goods to the region. The local economy was undermined, the cultural fabric was torn apart. Unemployment, pollution and divisiveness emerged for the first time.

“This was Ladakh’s introduction to globalization,” says Norberg-Hodge. The “story of Ladakh can shed light on the root causes of the crises now facing the planet.”

Full Story Here: Vision: 8 Reasons Global Capitalism Makes Our Lives Worse — And How We Can Create a New Kind of Economy | Environment | AlterNet.

Exclusive: DoJ veteran sees ‘dangerous precedent’ in letting Bush officials walk

In a rare blistering attack on the Department of Justice, a career veteran of the agency recently told Raw Story that the Obama administration handing Bush-era officials “a get out of jail free card” sets “a dangerous precedent” that could encourage other offenses by future leaders.

J. Gerald Hebert, a former acting Justice Department chief who served the government’s enforcement wing in various capacities between 1973 and 1994, said in an exclusive interview that the failure of federal prosecutors to charge former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) with even a single crime was indicative of a greater problem.

On the heels of the successful prosecution of DeLay for money laundering and conspiracy in Texas, Hebert said he hoped it was clear that the Department of Justice had nothing to do with that conviction.

Full Story Here: Exclusive: DoJ veteran sees ‘dangerous precedent’ in letting Bush officials walk | Raw Story.

Clarence Dupnik says he’s earned the right to speak his mind

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik was leaving a sheriffs convention in Palm Springs, Calif., a week ago Saturday when he got word of a shooting just outside Tucson.

“Seven people shot. That’s all we knew,” he said.

On the six-hour drive back, he heard more details on the radio. That it was at a town-hall meeting outside a supermarket. That U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot point-blank in the head and was clinging to life. That the gunman, young and possibly mentally unstable, kept firing and killing and wounding others before being tackled and disarmed.

“I just got angrier and angrier on my way back to Tucson,” said Dupnik, a longtime family friend of Giffords’ and her parents.

Full Story Here: Clarence Dupnik says he’s earned the right to speak his mind.

Darrell Issa Makes Life Difficult for Obama

Darrell Issa, the congressman about to make life more difficult for President Obama, has had some troubles of his own

A few days before Christmas, the mood in Representative Darrell Issa’s office was jovial. Outside, the hallways were filled with the House’s equivalent of scalps: wooden pallets piled high with shrink-wrapped boxes belonging to defeated or retiring Democrats. Inside, some of Issa’s closest advisers sat around talking trash. Issa, a six-term California Republican, had recently been elected chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which, according to House rules, “may at any time conduct investigations of any matter.” Now that he had been given the power to subpoena, investigate, and harass the Obama Administration, Issa was being described as a future leader of his party—and the man most likely to weaken the President before the 2012 election.

Issa’s chief of staff, Dale Neugebauer, was wedged into a chair before a semicircular desk. He turned to welcome Kurt Bardella, Issa’s spokesman. On a couch sat Jason Scism, the congressman’s longtime legislative director, who had recently left to become a lobbyist for Research in Motion, the manufacturer of the BlackBerry.

Full Story Here: Darrell Issa Makes Life Difficult for Obama : The New Yorker.

The Fascist Attack on Obama Takes Another Step

House panel wants Homeland Security documents

A House committee has asked the Homeland Security Department to provide documents about an agency policy that required political appointees to review many Freedom of Information Act requests, according to a letter obtained Sunday by The Associated Press.

The letter to Homeland Security was sent late Friday by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It represents an early move by House Republicans who have vowed to launch numerous probes of President Barack Obama’s administration, ranging from its implementation of the new health care law to rules curbing air pollution to spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Associated Press reported in July that for at least a year, Homeland Security had sidetracked hundreds of requests for federal records to top political advisers to the department’s secretary, Janet Napolitano. The political appointees wanted information about those requesting the materials, and in some cases the release of documents considered politically sensitive was delayed, according to numerous e-mails that were obtained by the AP.

Full Story Here: House panel wants Homeland Security documents – Yahoo! News.

Sick Gulf Residents Beg Officials for Help

In an emotionally charged meeting this week sponsored by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, fishermen, Gulf residents and community leaders vented their increasingly grave concerns about the widespread health issues brought on by the three-month-long disaster.

“Today I’m talking to you about my life,” Cherri Foytlin told the two commissioners present at the Jan. 12 meeting. “My ethylbenzene levels are 2.5 times the 95th percentile, and there’s a very good chance now that I won’t get to see my grandbabies…What I’m asking you to do now, if possible, is to amend [your report]. Because we have got to get some health care.”

Ethylbenzene is a form of benzene present in the body when it begins to break down. It is also present in BP’s crude oil.

“I have seen small children with lesions all over their bodies,” Foytlin, co-founder of Gulf Change, a community organisation based in Grand Isle, Louisiana, continued.

Full Story Here: U.S.: Sick Gulf Residents Beg Officials for Help – IPS ipsnews.net.

Progressives to ‘uncloak’ the secret financers behind the Tea party

Progressive and liberal activists are planning at the end of the month to confront the secretive billionaire family that finances the so-called Tea party movement and a host of other right-wing causes and institutions.

“Our government is supposed to be of, by and for the people. So are you ready to take it back?” an invitation for the “Uncloaking the Kochs” event asked.

The Sunday, Jan. 30 event thrown by Common Cause, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization, aims to educate attendees in California on the Koch brothers who will be strategizing nearby with their mega-wealthy allies to win the 2012 elections. Afterwards, activists will rally in Rancho Mirage.

“We can’t sit back while a few billionaires destroy the fragile fabric of democracy and the protections that are so necessary for the health of our society,” Jodie Evans of CodePink told Alternet. “It is time for the progressive community to gather together and say no more, and what better place than where the Koch brothers are plotting their next moves.”

Full Story Here: Progressives to ‘uncloak’ the secret financers behind the Tea party | Raw Story.

GOP senator: Federal ban on child labor is unconstitutional

Newly minted Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said in a lecture posted to his YouTube channel that Congressional laws banning child labor are forbidden by the US Constitution.

Lee, a fierce advocate for the Tenth Amendment who replaced longtime Republican incumbent Bob Bennett in the Senate this month, argued that only states have the constitutional authority to create such laws.

“Congress decided it wanted to prohibit that practice, so it passed a law. No more child labor. The Supreme Court heard a challenge to that law, and the Supreme Court decided a case in 1918 called Hammer v. Dagenhardt,” Lee said. “In that case, the Supreme Court acknowledged something very interesting — that, as reprehensible as child labor is, and as much as it ought to be abandoned — that’s something that has to be done by state legislators, not by Members of Congress.”

Lee’s reasoning was that labor and manufacturing are “by their very nature, local activities” and not “interstate commercial transactions.” He added: “This may sound harsh, but it was designed to be that way. It was designed to be a little bit harsh.”

Full Story Here: GOP senator: Federal ban on child labor is unconstitutional | Raw Story.

WikiLeaks allegedly given details on thousands of Swiss bank accounts

A former banker behind a previous disclosure by secrets outlet WikiLeaks has turned over a second, larger set of data detailing thousands of Swiss bank accounts, according to claims made at a news conference in London on Monday.

Standing outside the Frontline Club where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was under house arrest, former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer released two optical discs he said carried files showing massive, unmitigated tax evasion by American, Asian and European individuals and corporations.

He said that many of the records dealt with accounts held by organized criminals, politicians and celebrities around the world.

Full Story Here: WikiLeaks allegedly given details on thousands of Swiss bank accounts | Raw Story.

Obama Agrees to Extend Republicans’ Custody of his Balls

(The Borowitz Report) –

In an effort to end what he called “the bickering and rancor in Washington,” President Barack Obama agreed today to extend Republicans’ custody of his balls for an additional two years.

“I know my critics are going to make a big deal out of this,” the President told reporters at the White House. “But all this does is formalize an arrangement that was already in place.”

Mr. Obama said that extending Republican custody of his balls through 2012 “was like the Holy Grail for them, but I’m keeping my eyes on the North Star,” adding, “I have no idea what any of that means.”

Full Story Here: Obama Agrees to Extend Republicans’ Custody of his Balls « Borowitz Report.

After Promising To ‘Repeal And Replace’ Obama’s Health Law, Republicans Have No Replacement

As the first major legislative act with their new majority, Republicans are planning to hold a futile vote next week to repeal President Obama’s health care law. The laughably named “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” has an equally laughable chance of becoming law, as the Democratic majority in the Senate will inevitably block it. President Obama has also confirmed that he’ll veto it.

Nonetheless, House Republicans are rushing headlong into inevitable defeat, insisting that their efforts aren’t doomed, and promising to “replace” Obama’s law with their own, better one. “Repeal and replace” has been a mantra for Republicans and their conservative allies since March of last year, though the repealers have been hazy on with what they would “replace” it with.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » After Promising To ‘Repeal And Replace’ Obama’s Health Law, Republicans Have No Replacement.

What’s in Fast Food? What’s in the Non-Chicken Half of the McNugget

Do you put dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent made of silicone, in your chicken dishes? How about tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a chemical preservative so deadly just five grams can kill you?

These are just two of the ingredients in a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget. Only 50 percent of a McNugget is actually chicken. The other half includes corn derivatives, sugars, leavening agents and completely synthetic ingredients.

There’s no doubt processed food like that from McDonald’s is not part of a healthful diet, and I’m grateful I’ve never had a chicken McNugget. But many Americans cannot say the same.

Full Story Here: Dr. Joseph Mercola: What’s in Fast Food? What’s in the Non-Chicken Half of the McNugget.

We’re conflating proper dissent and terrorism

It’s both misguided and distracting to direct our homeland security efforts against protesters.

A secretive, unaccountable, post-9/11 homeland security apparatus has increasingly turned inward on American citizens.

The evidence includes everything from controversial airport body scanners to the FBI’s raids last September on antiwar activists’ homes in Minneapolis and Chicago. A federal grand jury investigation in Chicago was recently expanded.

Unless the erosion of proper legal safeguards is halted, we risk a return to Vietnam-era abuses on the part of the FBI and other security agencies.

Full Story Here: Coleen Rowley: We’re conflating proper dissent and terrorism | StarTribune.com.

FDR: The Second Bill of Rights

How does America dig out of the hole we are in? Surely the focus must be on first principles: how do we recreate an economy that works for working people? With the right talking about a return to the principles of the Constitution, it is worth remembering how Americans thought about first principles coming out of the last great economic calamity.

January 11 is the 67th anniversary of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s historic 1944 State of the Union address that put forth an Economic Bill of Rights for all Americans. (Michael Moore presented it to modern audiences in his “Capitalism: A Love Story.”)

Roosevelt spoke as the Great War was drawing to a close. Attention was turning to the transition to peace, with widespread fears about whether the economy would revert to the depression that only the mobilization for war brought to an end. An entire nation had mobilized and sacrificed for war; what would peacetime bring?

Full Story Here: FDR: The Second Bill of Rights | OurFuture.org.

The Martin Luther King You Still Don’t See on TV

It’s become a TV ritual: Every year in mid-January, around the time of Martin Luther King’s birthday, we get perfunctory network news reports about “the slain civil rights leader.”

The remarkable thing about this annual review of King’s life is that several years–his last years–are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole.

What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968. Yet King didn’t take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact, he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever.

Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they’re not shown today on TV.

Why?

It’s because national news media have never come to terms with what Martin Luther King, Jr., stood for during his final years.

Full Story Here: FAIR Blog » Blog Archive » The Martin Luther King You Still Don’t See on TV.

The War on Logic

Paul Krugman:

My wife and I were thinking of going out for an inexpensive dinner tonight. But John Boehner, the speaker of the House, says that no matter how cheap the meal may seem, it will cost thousands of dollars once you take our monthly mortgage payments into account.

Wait a minute, you may say. How can our mortgage payments be a cost of going out to eat, when we’ll have to make the same payments even if we stay home? But Mr. Boehner is adamant: our mortgage is part of the cost of our meal, and to say otherwise is just a budget gimmick.

O.K., the speaker hasn’t actually weighed in on our plans for the evening. But he and his G.O.P. colleagues have lately been making exactly the nonsensical argument I’ve just described — not about tonight’s dinner, but about health care reform. And the nonsense wasn’t a slip of the tongue; it’s the official party position, laid out in charts and figures.

We are, I believe, witnessing something new in American politics. Last year, looking at claims that we can cut taxes, avoid cuts to any popular program and still balance the budget, I observed that Republicans seemed to have lost interest in the war on terror and shifted focus to the war on arithmetic. But now the G.O.P. has moved on to an even bigger project: the war on logic.

Full Story Here: The War on Logic – NYTimes.com.

US Army: Geotags and Location-Based Social Networking

Applications, OPSEC and protecting unit safety

• In August of 2010, Adam Savage, of “MythBusters,” took a photo of his vehicle using his smartphone. He then posted the photo to his Twitter account including the phrase “off to work.”
• Since the photo was taken by his smartphone, the image contained metadata reveling the exact geographical location the photo was taken.
• So by simply taking and posting a photo, Savage revealed the exact location of his home, the vehicle he drives and the time he leaves for work.

Full Document here: Military_Geotagging_Safety – PDF

Should Major US Pundits, Politicians be Prosecuted for Incitement to Murder, ‘Terrorist Threats’?

“I find it chilling to hear so many U.S. government officials calling for the leader of this organization, Julian Assange, to be labeled an ‘enemy combatant’ and jailed — or worse.”-Letter from Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) to Tom Hayden

Recently, a number of prominent politicians and pundits have called for the violent targeting of other individuals who have been neither accused nor charged with any crimes whatsoever, calling into the question the legality of such incitements to violence.

This article will transcend the issue of “moral responsibility” on the part of those politicians and pundits for the horrific consequences that may, and often do, ensue as the result of their deliberate appeals to fear, prejudice and hate so as to examine when such rhetoric actually amounts to an actual crime under the laws of our land.

Full Story Here: The BRAD BLOG : Should Major US Pundits, Politicians be Prosecuted for Incitement to Murder, ‘Terrorist Threats’?.

In jail for being in debt

You committed no crime, but an officer is knocking on your door. More Minnesotans are surprised to find themselves being locked up over debts.

As a sheriff’s deputy dumped the contents of Joy Uhlmeyer’s purse into a sealed bag, she begged to know why she had just been arrested while driving home to Richfield after an Easter visit with her elderly mother.

No one had an answer. Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense — missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt. “They have no right to do this to me,” said the 57-year-old patient care advocate, her voice as soft as a whisper. “Not for a stupid credit card.”

It’s not a crime to owe money, and debtors’ prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.

Full Story Here: In jail for being in debt | StarTribune.com.

Who’s the Emotional Vampire in Your Life?

As a physician, I’ve found that the biggest energy drain on my patients is relationships. Some relationships are positive and mood elevating. Others can suck optimism and serenity right out of you. I call these draining people “emotional vampires.” They do more than drain your physical energy. The malignant ones can make you believe you’re unworthy and unlovable. Others inflict damage with smaller digs to make you feel bad about yourself. For instance, “Dear, I see you’ve put on a few pounds” or “You’re overly sensitive!” Suddenly they’ve thrown you off-center by prodding areas of shaky self-worth.

To protect your energy it’s important to combat draining people. The following strategies from my book “Emotional Freedom” will help you identify and combat emotional vampires from an empowered place.

Signs That You’ve Encountered an Emotional Vampire

* Your eyelids are heavy — you’re ready for a nap

* Your mood takes a nosedive

* You want to binge on carbs or comfort foods

* You feel anxious, depressed or negative

* You feel put down

Types of Emotional Vampires

Full Story Here: Judith Orloff MD: Who’s the Emotional Vampire in Your Life?.

The Fed has Spoken: There will be no bailout of Main St

Ellen Brown:

The Federal Reserve was set up by bankers for bankers, and it has served them well. Out of the blue, it came up with $12.3 trillion in nearly interest-free credit to bail the banks out of a credit crunch they created. That same credit crisis has plunged state and local governments into insolvency, but the Fed has now delivered its ultimatum: there will be no “quantitative easing” for municipal governments.

On January 7, according to the Wall Street Journal, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that the Fed had ruled out a central bank bailout of state and local governments. “We have no expectation or intention to get involved in state and local finance,” he said in testimony before the Senate Budget Committee. The states “should not expect loans from the Fed.”

So much for the proposal of President Barack Obama, reported in Reuters a year ago, to have the Fed buy municipal bonds to cut the heavy borrowing costs of cash-strapped cities and states.

The credit woes of state and municipal governments are a direct result of Wall Street’s malfeasance. Their borrowing costs first shot up in 2008, when the “monoline” bond insurers lost their own credit ratings after gambling in derivatives. The Fed’s low-interest facilities could have been used to restore local government credit, just as it was used to restore the credit of the banks. But Chairman Bernanke has now vetoed that plan.

Full Story Here: OpEdNews – Article: The Fed has Spoken: There will be no bailout of Main St.

Liberals warn of Democratic schism if Obama backs Social Security cut

The battle lines are forming within the Democratic Party over the charged question of reforming Social Security in the days leading up to President Obama’s State of the Union address.

Liberals, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and labor unions, such as the AFL-CIO, AFSCME and SEIU, have taken a firm stand against cutting Social Security benefits.

They are still reeling over the deal Obama struck with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in December to extend almost all of the Bush tax cuts and chop the Social Security payroll tax for one year by 2 percentage points.

Some worry that the cut to the payroll tax could set a precedent that is difficult to erase. They expect Republicans will campaign vigorously against allowing the rate to reset from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent, characterizing it as a tax increase.

Sanders told The Hill on Friday that a group of Senate Democrats may support raising the retirement age. But he said there is also a faction of the caucus, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), staunchly opposed to benefits cuts.

Full Story Here: Liberals warn of Democratic schism if Obama backs Social Security cut – TheHill.com.

No One Listened to Gabrielle Giffords

Frank Rich:

OF the many truths in President Obama’s powerful Tucson speech, none was more indisputable than his statement that no one can know what is in a killer’s mind. So why have we spent so much time debating exactly that?

The answer is classic American denial. It was easier to endlessly parse Jared Lee Loughner’s lunatic library — did he favor “The Communist Manifesto” or Ayn Rand? — than confront the larger and harsher snapshot of our current landscape that emerged after his massacre. A week on, that denial is becoming even more entrenched. As soon as the president left the podium Wednesday night, we started shifting into our familiar spin-dry post-tragedy cycle of the modern era — speedy “closure,” followed by a return to business as usual, followed by national amnesia.

If we learn nothing from this tragedy, we are back where we started. And where we started was with two years of accelerating political violence — actual violence, not to be confused with violent language — that struck fear into many, not the least of whom was Gabrielle Giffords.

Full Story Here: No One Listened to Gabrielle Giffords – NYTimes.com.

How Lack of U.S. Manufacturing Capacity Can Threaten our National Security

The perceived lack of U.S. manufacturing capability manifests itself in key areas: First, the potential inability to procure vital parts in time of national emergencies from abroad; Second, its effect on our trade balance and the resulting indebtedness to foreign countries. The first could lead to shortages of vital parts in the production of ammunition and avionics, to mention two areas, especially since normal suppliers may be allied to a potential adversary, or if an adversary blocks vital shipping lanes in time of war.

Secondly, the lack of exports due to insufficient manufacturing capacity in turn can and has a profound influence on our foreign policy, since countries such as China, having U.S. dollar deposits in form of bonds and other forms in excess of $1.2 trillion can and will exert pressure to influence our foreign policy. This causes an overhanging threat to U.S. interest rates, inflation, and a general detriment to our economy and trade policy that cannot be ignored.

There is a substantial decrease in R&D activity in the machinery sector of our economy, which bodes ill to our future competitiveness, as we already see in the automobile and aircraft sectors.

Full Story Here: How Lack of U.S. Manufacturing Capacity Can Threaten our National Security | Economy In Crisis.

Mass. Solar Factory Closing Shop, Heading to China

America is set to lose a key cog in the clean energy machine this year as a Massachusetts solar panel factory moves production to China in order to take advantage of cheaper labor costs and government subsidies.

Evergreen Solar, located in Devon, Mass., plans to close its American facility and shift production to China, the company said. The closure will result in the loss of about 800 manufacturing jobs.

“Solar manufacturers in China have received considerable government and financial support and, together with their low manufacturing costs, have become price leaders within the industry,” the company said in a statement.

Full Story Here: Mass. Solar Factory Closing Shop, Heading to China | Economy In Crisis.

Lasting Legacy of Recession? Lower Wages

Those suffering from long-term unemployment are likely to emerge from the recession making considerably less money than before after returning to work.

One of the most lasting legacies of the current recession will be a major loss in wages for those suffering through long-term unemployment, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

There are currently 14.6 million unemployed Americans. Around 6 million of those have been out of work for six months or longer, which could prove to have a devastating effect on their future earning potential.

“The deeper the recession, the lower the wage you’re going to get in the next job and the lower the quality of your next job,” Columbia University labor economist Till von Wachter, told The Journal.

Full Story Here: Lasting Legacy of Recession? Lower Wages | Economy In Crisis.

Toxic Chemicals in Seafood

NBC Nightly News reports on the presence of toxic chemicals present in seafood supplied to the United States – 80% of which is imported from other countries, fish raised in unsafe waters & with high-levels of antibiotics administered just for them to survive. What’s not mentioned? Seafood from the Gulf of Mexico can no longer be considered safe to eat, either…

Meet Newly-Elected RNC Chair Reince Priebus

Reince Priebus just became the 65th Chairman of the RNC by garnering 97 votes in the seventh round of voting. After the fourth vote, Michael Steele dropped out of the running and said, “It’s very clear that the party wants to do something different.” Saul Anuzis obtained 43 votes and Maria Cino 28 votes. Here is what you need to know about the new RNC chairman:

– Priebus’s law firm sought funds from Obama’s stimulus package: Connecticut GOP chairman Chris Healy noted that Priebus’s Wisconsin law firm helped its clients obtain federal stimulus funds, citing the fact that Priebus’s name was attached to the “Stimulus and Economic Recovery Group.” Priebus immediately responded to the story, claiming he had never worked with his firm’s “Stimulus and Economic Recovery” group.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Meet Newly-Elected RNC Chair Reince Priebus.

Fearing High Gas Prices, Sean Hannity Proposes Re-Invading Iraq and Kuwait To ‘Take All Their Oil’

Tonight’s Hannity on Fox News featured a discussion by the Great American Panel about high gas prices, which host Sean Hannity claimed are “now gonna go up to three, four, five dollars a gallon again.” The panel ruefully noted that Arab sheiks possess great amounts of oil, and pointed out a recent statement by Kuwait’s oil minister that he believes the market can withstand $100-per-barrel oil. After noting that Kuwait is a country that “would not exist [but] for us,” Hannity angrily offered his remedy:

HANNITY: There’s two things I said. I say why isn’t Iraq paying us back with oil, and paying every American family and their soldiers that lost loved ones or have injured soldiers — and why didn’t they pay for their own liberation? For the Kuwait oil minister — how short his memory is. You know, we have every right to go in there and frankly take all their oil and make them pay for the liberation, as these sheiks, etcetera etcetera, you know were living in hotels in London and New York, as Trump pointed out, and now they’re gouging us and saying ‘oh of course we can withstand [these prices].’”

Watch it:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Fearing High Gas Prices, Sean Hannity Proposes Re-Invading Iraq and Kuwait To ‘Take All Their Oil’.

Congress quietly prepares to renew Patriot Act

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) has introduced a little-noticed bill that intends to once again renew controversial provisions of the Bush administration’s USA Patriot Act that are due to expire this year.

When the act was first signed into law, Congress put in some “sunset” provisions to quiet the concerns of civil libertarians, but they were ignored by successive extensions. Unfortunately, those concerns proved to be well founded, and a 2008 Justice Department report confirmed that the FBI regularly abused their ability to obtain personal records of Americans without a warrant.

The only real sign of strong opposition to the act was in 2005, when a Democratic threat to filibuster its first renewal was overcome by Senate Republicans.

Full Story Here: Congress quietly prepares to renew Patriot Act | Raw Story.

Smoking causes gene damage in minutes

Those first few puffs on a cigarette can within minutes cause genetic damage linked to cancer, US scientists said in a study released Saturday.

In fact, researchers said the “effect is so fast that it’s equivalent to injecting the substance directly into the bloodstream,” in findings described as a “stark warning” to those who smoke.

The study is the first on humans to track how substances in tobacco cause DNA damage, and appears in the peer-reviewed journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, issued by the American Chemical Society.

Full Story Here: Smoking causes gene damage in minutes | Raw Story.

Mike Lee: Federal Child Labor Laws Are Unconstitutional

Freshman Tea Party-backed Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) recently offered an provocative interpretation of the Constitution he holds so dear, arguing that federal child labor laws go beyond the bounds of the document.

Here’s what Lee, a constitutional lawyer, had to say in a recent lecture about his view that the nation’s founding political text had been fundamentally breached by (transcript via ThinkProgress):

Congress decided it wanted to prohibit [child labor], so it passed a law–no more child labor. The Supreme Court heard a challenge to that and the Supreme Court decided a case in 1918 called Hammer v. Dagenhardt. In that case, the Supreme Court acknowledged something very interesting — that, as reprehensible as child labor is, and as much as it ought to be abandoned — that’s something that has to be done by state legislators, not by Members of Congress. [...]

This may sound harsh, but it was designed to be that way. It was designed to be a little bit harsh. Not because we like harshness for the sake of harshness, but because we like a clean division of power, so that everybody understands whose job it is to regulate what.

Now, we got rid of child labor, notwithstanding this case. So the entire world did not implode as a result of that ruling.

As ThinkProgress notes, Lee appears to ignore some other constitutional precedents on the matter:

Full Story Here: Mike Lee: Federal Child Labor Laws Are Unconstitutional (VIDEO).

Climate change could happen much faster than previously thought

Humans are in danger of making large parts of the Earth uninhabitable for thousands of years because of man made climate change, according to new evidence based on geological records.

Full Story Here: Climate change could happen much faster than previously thought – Telegraph.

Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks

He will disclose the details of ‘massive potential tax evasion’ before he flies home to stand trial over his actions

The offshore bank account details of 2,000 “high net worth individuals” and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland.

British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, “approximately 40 politicians”.

Elmer, who after his press conference will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial, is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information.

Full Story Here: Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks | Media | The Observer.

The Anti-Regulators Are the “Job Killers”

The new mantra of the Republican Party is the old mantra — regulation is a “job killer.” It is certainly possible to have regulations kill jobs, and when I was a financial regulator I was a leader in cutting away many dumb requirements. But we have just experienced the epic ability of the anti-regulators to kill well over ten million jobs. Why then is there not a single word from the new House leadership about investigations to determine how the anti-regulators did their damage? Why is there no plan to investigate the fields in which inadequate regulation most endangers jobs? While we’re at it, why not investigate the areas in which inadequate regulation allows firms to maim and kill. This column addresses only financial regulation.

Deregulation, desupervision, and de facto decriminalization (the three “des”) created the criminogenic environment that drove the modern U.S. financial crises. The three “des” were essential to create the epidemics of accounting control fraud that hyper-inflated the bubble that triggered the Great Recession. “Job killing” is a combination of two factors — increased job losses and decreased job creation. I’ll focus solely on private sector jobs — but the recession has also been devastating in terms of the loss of state and local governmental jobs.

From 1996-2000, for example, annual private sector gross job increases rose from roughly 14 million to 16 million while annual private sector gross job losses increased from 12 to 13 million. The annual net job increases in those years, therefore, rose from two million to three million. Over that five year period, the net increase in private sector jobs was over 10 million. One common rule of thumb is that the economy needs to produce an annual net increase of about 1.5 million jobs to employ new entrants to our workforce, so the growth rate in this era was large enough to make the unemployment and poverty rates fall significantly.

Full Story Here: William K. Black: The Anti-Regulators Are the “Job Killers”.

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism (“Fascism Anyone?,” Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine’s policy.

The 14 characteristics are:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

Full Story Here: The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, by Lawrence Britt, Spring 2003.

Tucson Survivor Blames Shooting On Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Sharron Angle

Eric Fuller, 63, who was struck by a bullet in the hail of gunfire in Tucson that killed six and wounded 13 on Saturday, claimed Thursday that conservative figureheads such as Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Sharron Angle were to blame for the violence in Arizona.

“How many more demented people are out there? It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target,” Fuller, a former campaigner for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), told Democracy Now.

“Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled — senseless hatred leading to murder, lunatic-fringe anarchism, subscribed to by John Boehner, mainstream rebels with vengeance for all, even nine-year-old girls,” he added, reading from comments he said he had written down while being treated for his wounds.

Full Story Here: Tucson Survivor Blames Shooting On Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Sharron Angle (VIDEO).

What Being Religious Really Means To Young People

Are you religious? What criteria come to mind in answering that question? When evaluating how “religious” someone is, social scientists and the general public tend to rely on the frequency of religious activities, strength or type of religious beliefs, relative importance of religion in one’s life, or some average of these aspects of religious life.

However, in reality it is very difficult to measure someone’s overall religiousness, religiosity or how religious she is on some sort of scale. Although it is common to hear one person describe another as “religious” or “not religious,” what exactly does that mean?

Certainly, some people are highly religious in all three of the above aspects and some are not religious at all. In our study of young people in the United States (The National Study of Youth and Religion), we find that 20 percent are highly religious in all aspects and only five percent are not religious at all. This leaves 75 percent of the population as more difficult to classify.

Full Story Here: Lisa D. Pearce: What Being Religious Really Means To Young People.

Our Future Planes? NASA Reveals The Airplanes Of 2025

Get ready for the next generation of passenger airplanes.

NASA has taken the wraps off three concept designs for quiet, energy efficient aircraft that could potentially be ready to fly as soon as 2025. The designs come from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and The Boeing Company. In the final months of 2010, each of these companies won a contract from NASA to research and test their concepts during 2011.

According to NASA,

Full Story Here: Our Future Planes? NASA Reveals The Airplanes Of 2025 (PICTURES).

Bill Maher – the Tea Party vs the Founders

Bill tears them up, as always.

Sanders warns Obama not to agree with GOP on Social Security benefit cuts

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Independent from Vermont, is pressing President Obama to keep his campaign promise not to cut Social Security benefits in a possible deal with Republicans.

Sanders has joined a lobbying campaign by more than 200 labor unions and liberal groups pressing Obama to make a strong statement against cutting Social Security benefits in his State of the Union address, scheduled for Jan. 25.

These groups fear that Obama may agree to cuts to Social Security in exchange for Republican support for raising the debt ceiling later this winter or as part of a broad agreement to reduce the deficit.

Full Story Here: Sanders warns Obama not to agree with GOP on Social Security benefit cuts – TheHill.com.

Is There A Threat of Fascism in the USA?

IS THE PAST PROLOGUE?

Does Fascism Lurk Around The Corner In The USA?

By Danny Schechter

Fascism is one of those words that sounds like it belongs in the past, conjuring up, as it does, marching jack boots in the streets, charismatic demagogues like Italy’s Mussolini or Spain’s Franco and armed crackdowns on dissent and freedom of expression.

It is a term we are used to reading in histories about World War 2—not in news stories from present day America.

And yet the word, and the dark reality behind it, is creeping into popular contemporary usage.

Radical activists on the left have never been hesitant to label their opponents with this “F word” whenever governments support laws that limit opposition or overdo national security or abuse human rights. Government paranoia turns critics paranoid.

One example: writer Naomi Wolf forecast fascism creeping into America during the Bush years accelerated by the erosion of democracy, writing:

“It is my argument that, beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable – as the author and political journalist Joe Conason, has put it, that it can happen here.”

Full Story Here: OpEdNews – Article: Is There A Threat of Fascism in the USA?.

The ‘new normal’ of unemployment

Dean Baker: :

Mainstream economists are preaching a decade of pain and historically high joblessness – as if no alternative policy existed

The American Economics Association held its annual meeting in Denver last weekend. Most attendees appeared to be in a very forgiving mood. While the economists in Denver recognised the severity of the economic slump hitting the United States and much of the world, there were few who seemed to view this as a serious failure of the economics profession.

The fact that the overwhelming majority of economists in policy positions failed to see the signs of this disaster coming, and supported the policies that brought it on, did not seem to be a major concern for most of the economists at the convention. Instead, they seemed more intent on finding ways in which they could get ordinary workers to accept lower pay and reduced public benefits in the years ahead. This would lead to better outcomes in their models.

The conventional wisdom among economists is that the economy will be forced to go through a long adjustment process before it can get back to more normal rates of unemployment. The optimists put the return to normal at 2015, while the pessimists would put the year as 2018, and possibly, even later.

Full Story Here: The ‘new normal’ of unemployment | Dean Baker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

FDA System Approves Nonexistent Product from Nonexistent Company for Human Testing

The FDA describes themselves as being in place to protect the American public. Most people these days know better, especially when reports like the following display to citizens the sort of malicious folly carried out on the daily by the agency. In stings set up by Congress with the General Accountability Office (GAO), the FDA displayed its lack of attention to obvious dangers and fraud by approving medical testing for a ridiculous device and approving a company with laughingly phony names as one of its Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) which are the for-profit companies that really do the testing of products.

The medical device that was approved by one of these established IRBs of the FDA? Adhesiabloc was presented by a nonexistent company, Device Med-Systems, and described as a gel that would be poured into a patient’s stomach after surgery to collect the bits and pieces left over from the operation; the instructions were to pour more than a liter into the wound. Even though there was no record of the company and the doctor who was supposed to be leading development was fake, the item was approved to be tested on humans.

Yikes, and now the FDA is poised to gain more money and power with legislation passed by the current administration. Where is the line drawn when it comes to gross neglect of duties? Why is the administration, instead of going through an intensive review process, allowed even more jurisdiction over the health of the American people when they have already been clearly neglecting their proposed responsibilities?

Full Story Here: FDA System Approves Nonexistent Product from Nonexistent Company for Human Testing | Health Freedom Alliance.

NLRB threatens to sue state

The National Labor Relations Board on Friday threatened to sue South Carolina and three other states over constitutional amendments guaranteeing workers the right to a secret ballot in union elections.

The agency’s acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, said the amendments in South Carolina, Arizona, South Dakota and Utah conflict with federal law, which gives employers the option of recognizing a union if a majority of workers sign cards that support unionizing.

The amendments, approved Nov. 2, have taken effect in South Dakota and Utah and will do so soon in Arizona and South Carolina.

Full Story Here: NLRB threatens to sue state | The Post and Courier, Charleston SC – News, Sports, Entertainment.

In Arizona, two wrongs might kill the right.

Conservatives as usual continue to miss the point over the debate on their violent rhetoric as a result of the Arizona shootings.

It makes not the slightest difference if Jared Loughner’s shooting rampage in Arizona had no direct connection to any of the violence rhetoric that has been the hallmark of conservative politics for the last two years. It makes no difference ( though we will probably never know) if Sharon Angle’s “2nd amendment solution”, or Palin’s ” don’t retreat, reload”, or the shooting of the offices of Democratic members of congress over healthcare or Palin’s cross hairs map in any way influenced or put ideas in Loughner’s mind, though it’s hard to believe that if he was exposed to it, given his already deranged mind, that it wouldn’t have had an influence.We will probably never know.

But what the shooting has done, and which the right has been oblivious to, is it has created an increased national revulsion to their customary rhetoric, imagery and tactics. At the same time it has created an opportunity to bring the right wing’s penchant for violent brownshirt rhetoric disguised as patriotism to the forefront and possibly bring it to and end. But instead the right, from Palin to Limbaugh have been ready to fight to defend it. The rhetoric and imagery was their first wrong. But what might actually kill them ( does anyone have a problem with that metaphor) is their second wrong — their attempts now at trying to defending it.

Full Story Here: Tom In Paine: In Arizona, two wrongs might kill the right..

Why The Euro Could Be Doomed

Paul Krugman:

Call it the curse of the single currency.

In this week’s New York Times Magazine, Paul Krugman argues that the pace of recovery in Europe is being slowed because each country is tied to using the euro as a currency, but lacks the benefits of a single government.

While the human cost of the economic crisis is lower in Europe — thanks to social welfare programs — Krugman argues that Europe’s economic crisis is deeper than America’s. The culprit, he says, is none other than the euro currency.

Ireland’s economy, formerly dubbed the “Celtic Tiger,” is now toothless with bankruptcy looming, and Spain’s once booming economy is struggling with 20 percent unemployment and deflation. As part of the euro, neither have the power to adjust the currency to deal with the crisis, he says.

Full Story Here: Paul Krugman: Why The Euro Could Be Doomed.

Chinese Rating Agency Says U.S. As Creditworthy As COSTCO, Pegs U.S. GDP At $5 Trillion (NOT $14T), And Downgrades Bernanke

Bernanke was reportedly downgraded From Triple FFF To ‘Unmeasurable’ on worries over his sanity in the face of worldwide criticism.

The Chinese rating agency, which hit headlines earlier this year for its AA-view on the United States, is back, with another US downgrade.

From the 10-Page Downgrade Report

The serious defects in the United States economic development and management model will lead to the long-term recession of its national economy, fundamentally lowering the national solvency.  The new round of quantitative easing monetary policy adopted by the Federal Reserve has brought about an obvious trend of depreciation of the U.S. dollar, and the continuation and deepening of credit crisis in the U.S.

Such a move entirely encroaches on the interests of the creditors, indicating the decline of the U.S. government’s intention of debt repayment.  Analysis shows that the crisis confronting the U.S. cannot be ultimately resolved through currency depreciation.  On the contrary, it is likely that an overall crisis might be triggered by the U.S. government’s policy to continuously depreciate the U.S. dollar against the will of creditors.

The total output value of the U.S. financial services industry is composed of two major parts: one is the transferred production value, most of which comes from value distribution of participating in international production.  Another part is the inflated value originated from credit innovation, which belongs to bubble value.

Full Story Here: Chinese Rating Agency Says U.S. As Creditworthy As COSTCO, Pegs U.S. GDP At $5 Trillion (NOT $14T), And Downgrades Bernanke – Home – The Daily Bail.

What Does Wikileaks Have on Bank of America?

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is promising to unleash a cache of secret documents from the hard drive of a U.S. megabank executive. In 2009, he told Computer World that the bank was Bank of America (BofA). In 2010 he told Forbes that the information was significant enough to “take down a bank or two,” but that he needed time to lay out the information in a more user-friendly format.

Recent new reports suggest that BofA is now moving into high gear on damage control, creating a “war room” and buying up hundreds of derogatory Internet domain names including BankofAmericaSucks.com and BrianMoynihanblows.com (referring to BofA’s Chief Executive Officer).

Before the big banks start calling for Assange’s internment at Guantanamo, the question worth considering is what does Wikileaks have on America’s largest bank?

Full Story Here: What Does Wikileaks Have on Bank of America? | CommonDreams.org.

Paul Krugmann: : A Tale of Two Moralities

Paul Krugman:

On Wednesday, President Obama called on Americans to “expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.” Those were beautiful words; they spoke to our desire for reconciliation.

But the truth is that we are a deeply divided nation and are likely to remain one for a long time. By all means, let’s listen to each other more carefully; but what we’ll discover, I fear, is how far apart we are. For the great divide in our politics isn’t really about pragmatic issues, about which policies work best; it’s about differences in those very moral imaginations Mr. Obama urges us to expand, about divergent beliefs over what constitutes justice.

And the real challenge we face is not how to resolve our differences — something that won’t happen any time soon — but how to keep the expression of those differences within bounds.

What are the differences I’m talking about?

Full Story Here: A Tale of Two Moralities – NYTimes.com.

EPA Protects America From Coal Mine

You can expect some major howling from Republicans and Blue Dogs over an EPA decision to forbid the largest mountaintop removal mine in WV history. At the same time it is cause for celebration by environmentalists, tired of seeing government look the other way criminal corporations despoil our planet and threaten the health and quality of life of Americans within range.

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency vetoed the largest mountaintop removal mining permit in the history of West Virginia, and one that has been at the heart of these new coalfield wars for a decade.

As usual, Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette is the go-to guy here:

The move is part of an Obama administration crackdown aimed at reducing the effects of mountaintop removal coal-mining on the environment and on coalfield communities in Appalachian — impacts that scientists are increasingly finding to be pervasive and irreversible…

…EPA officials this morning were alerting West Virginia’s congressional delegation to their action, and undoubtedly preparing for a huge backlash from the mining industry and its friends among coalfield political leaders.

Full Story Here: EPA Protects America From Coal Mine » Politics Plus.

Defense Contractors Insulated From Budget Cuts

In one of U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower’s most remembered speeches, he warned against “the acquisition of unwarranted influence” resulting from the close brotherhood between the country’s defence agencies, Capitol Hill and private business interests.

Fifty years later, the Republican leader’s Jan. 17, 1961 admonition of the military-industrial–Congressional complex is as relevant as ever, argues William D. Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation based here.

Despite U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates’s announcement last week of a 78-billion-dollar reduction in Pentagon spending by 2016, analysts predict that defence contractors – the “industry” leg of the so-called “iron triangle” alluded to in Eisenhower’s speech – will come away largely unscathed.

Full Story Here:Defense Contractors Insulated From Budget Cuts.

Quinnipaiac Poll shows something horribly wrong in Gun America

A few years ago I noticed most Republican commentators, talk show hosts, politicians and pundits would be always citing “The Rasmussen Poll” to make whatever conservative point they wished to make. This past year that has changed with them now moving to “Quinnipaiac Poll” to make their conservative points.

I am a firm believer in polls and accept them in their time, place and wording. I also believe that smart people do not spend billions of dollars a year on polls that are either crap or don’t mean anything. With that said I tend to believe what Quinnipaiac comes up with no matter how depressing it may be.

Two numbers ring out loudly this week from a Quinnpaiac poll that tell the story of not only of a very ill informed American public, but one irrevocably lost to a gungoonery matched no where else in the world other than Yemen.

When asked which side is more responsible for using heated political rhetoric, 36 percent said that liberals are, while 32 percent blamed conservatives. Quinnpaiac poll

My God, there are are literally thousands of Right-wing pundits who are in total control of “hate talk” shortwave radio and near total control of AM radio.

Full Story Here: Quinnipaiac Poll shows something horribly wrong in Gun America – Kick! Making Politics Fun – A liberal dose of political humor.

Holiday Spending ‘Record’ Not as Good as It Looks

Holiday spending reached the highest level on record last year, but that news isn’t as good as it sounds.

The $462 billion in holiday spending reported by a trade group on Friday handily tops the $453 billion peak reached in 2007, before the economy took a nosedive. Take a closer look, though, and you’ll find these figures don’t tell the whole story.

Just because Americans spent more this holiday season doesn’t mean they bought more. That button-down shirt you bought your father in 2010 probably cost more than it would have three years ago. But the government figures on which the National Retail Federation bases its holiday sum do not take into account rising prices. Although inflation has been tame over the past few years, holiday spending would have had to clear $478 billion to signify spending was back to pre-recession levels.

That’s not all.

Full Story Here: Holiday Spending ‘Record’ Not as Good as It Looks – NYTimes.com.

Norway says it will be first EU nation to recognise Palestine

Norway announced on Wednesday that it will be the first EU country to recognise a Palestinian state once the Palestinian institutions are set in place.

Jonas Gahr Stoere, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway said at a joined press conference with the Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad in Ramallah that his country will be a leading country in recognising the Palestinian state once the Palestinian institutions are set up as per the schedules and plans announced by the Palestinian National Authority.

“I have already informed the Palestinian officials that Norway will a leading country in recognising the Palestinian state once the new state’s institutions and infrastructure are created and set up as per the programmes announced by the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

Full Story Here: Norway says it will be first EU nation to recognise Palestine 14Jan11.

Let’s Get This Straight: There Is No Progressive Equivalent to the Right’s Violent Rhetoric

The shooting in Tucson was not an anomaly. It was an inevitability, and as long as we play this foolish game of “both sides are just as bad,” it will be inevitable again.

Trigger warning for violent rhetoric of many different stripes.]

Both sides are, in fact, not “just as bad,” when it comes to institutionally sanctioned violent and eliminationist rhetoric.

An anonymous commenter at Daily Kos and the last Republican vice presidential nominee are not equivalent, no matter how many ridiculously irresponsible members of the media would have us believe otherwise.

There is, demonstrably, no leftist equivalent to Sarah Palin, former veep candidate and presumed future presidential candidate, who uses gun imagery (rifle sights) and language (“Don’t Retreat, RELOAD”) to exhort her followers to action.

Full Story Here: Let’s Get This Straight: There Is No Progressive Equivalent to the Right’s Violent Rhetoric | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet.

Billionaire Koch Brothers Fulfill Father’s Campaign to Segregate Public Schools, End Successful Integration Program in NC

Today in the Washington Post, reporter Stephanie McCrummen detailed how a right-wing campaign in the Wake County area of North Carolina has taken over the school board with a pledge to end a very successful socio-economic integration plan. The integration plan, which created thriving schools in poor African-American parts of the school district along with achieving diversity in schools located in wealthy white enclaves, was a model for the nation. However, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the Tea Party group founded and funded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, worked with local right-wing financier (and AFP board member) Art Pope to fundamentally change Wake County’s school board:

“I don’t want us to go back to racially isolated schools,” said Shila Nordone, who is biracial and has two children in county schools. “But right now, it’s as if the best we can do is dilute these kids out so they don’t cause problems. It sickens me.”

Full Story Here: Billionaire Koch Brothers Fulfill Father’s Campaign to Segregate Public Schools, End Successful Integration Program in NC | AlterNet.

One Year After Haiti Earthquake, Corporations Profit While People Suffer

One year after an earthquake devastated Haiti, much of the promised relief and reconstruction aid has not reached those most in need. In fact, the nation’s tragedy has served as an opportunity to further enrich corporate interests.

The details of a recent lawsuit, as reported by Business Week, highlights the ways in which contractors – including some of the same players who profited from Hurricane Katrina-related reconstruction – have continued to use their political connections to gain profits from others’ suffering, receiving contacts worth tens of millions of dollars while the Haitian people receive pennies, at best. It also demonstrates ways in which charity and development efforts have mirrored and contributed to corporate abuses.

Lewis Lucke, a 27-year veteran of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was named US special coordinator for relief and reconstruction after the earthquake. He worked this job for a few months, then immediately moved to the private sector, where he could sell his contacts and connections to the highest bidder. He quickly got a $30,000-a-month (plus bonuses) contract with the Haiti Recovery Group (HRG).

Full Story Here: One Year After Haiti Earthquake, Corporations Profit While People Suffer.

US banks ‘foreclosed on record 1m homes in 2010′

Banks repossessed a record one million US homes in 2010, and could surpass that number this year, figures show.

Foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac said about five million homeowners were at least two months behind on their mortgage payments.

Foreclosures are likely to remain numerous while unemployment remains stubbornly high, the group said.

Among the worst hit states were Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California, once at the heart of the housing boom.

Full Story Here: BBC News – US banks ‘foreclosed on record 1m homes in 2010′.

Cost of War: Breaking It Down

Monday (January 17) is the 50th anniversary of President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address, in which he warned of the rise of a “military-industrial complex.”

Martin Luther King Day is also Monday. He said: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

On Tuesday, the LA Times reported, Vice President Biden “backed away from his own recent promise that the U.S. would pull out of the country ‘come hell or high water’ by 2014.” Instead “conceding that the U.S. might retain a presence in Afghanistan when the 2014 deadline hits and beyond.”

JO COMERFORD, CHRIS HELLMAN

Comerford is executive director of the National Priorities Project; Hellman is budget analyst for the group, which as part of the re-launch of its website, CostofWar.com, has just issued “What’s at Stake?” — 50 state-level briefs focused on the impact of war spending.

Hellman said today: “In state after state, tough decisions are being made about critical programs that touch people’s lives. It’s imperative that we examine the locally-based opportunity costs of federal spending decisions. NPP’s numbers will help people assess the magnitude of war spending and draw their own important conclusions. This is especially important as Vice President Biden signals open-ended war plans.”

Highlights of “What’s at Stake?” include a gap analysis focused on Head Start, health insurance, renewable energy and higher education with findings such as:

Full Story Here: Cost of War: Breaking It Down | CommonDreams.org.

The reflexive call for fewer liberties

- Glenn Greenwald: :

William Galston — former Clinton adviser and current Brookings Institution Senior Fellow — has a column in The New Republic about the Gabrielle Giffords shooting that illustrates the mentality endlessly eroding basic American liberty: namely, the belief that every tragedy must lead to new government powers and new restrictions on core liberties. The lesson of the Arizona tragedy, he argues, is that it’s too difficult to force citizens into mental institutions against their will. This, he says, is the fault of “civil libertarians,” who began working in the 1970s on legal reforms to require a higher burden of proof for involuntary commitment (generally: it must be proven that the person is a danger to himself or to others). As a result, Galston wants strict new laws imposing a litany of legal obligations on the mentally ill, their friends and family, and even acquaintances, as well as dramatically expanded powers to lock away those with mental illness (with broader definitions of what that means).

Listen to what he proposes: “first, those who acquire credible evidence of an individual’s mental disturbance should be required to report it to both law enforcement authorities and the courts, and the legal jeopardy for failing to do so should be tough enough to ensure compliance”; those reporting obligations should apply not only to family and friends, but extend to “school authorities and other involved parties.” And “second, the law should no longer require, as a condition of involuntary incarceration, that seriously disturbed individuals constitute a danger to themselves or others”; instead, involuntary commitment should be imposed whenever there is “delusional loss of contact with reality.” He concludes on this melodramatic note: ‘How many more mass murders and assassinations do we need before we understand that the rights-based hyper-individualism of our laws governing mental illness is endangering the security of our community and the functioning of our democracy?”

Full Story Here: The reflexive call for fewer liberties – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Mystery Green Blob In Space Captured By Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope got its first peek at a mysterious giant green blob in outer space and found that it’s strangely alive. The bizarre glowing blob is giving birth to new stars, some only a couple million years old, in remote areas of the universe where stars don’t normally form.

The blob of gas was first discovered by a Dutch school teacher in 2007 and is named Hanny’s Voorwerp (HAN’-nee’s-FOR’-vehrp). Voorwerp is Dutch for object.

NASA released the new Hubble photo Monday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.

Parts of the green blob are collapsing and the resulting pressure from that is creating the stars. The stellar nurseries are outside of a normal galaxy, which is usually where stars live.

That makes these “very lonely newborn stars” that are “in the middle of nowhere,” said Bill Keel, the University of Alabama astronomer who examined the blob.

The blob is the size of our own Milky Way galaxy and it is 650 million light years away. Each light year is about 6 trillion miles.

The blob is mostly hydrogen gas swirling from a close encounter of two galaxies and it glows because it is illuminated by a quasar in one of the galaxies. A quasar is a bright object full of energy powered by a black hole.

Full Story Here: Mystery Green Blob In Space Captured By Hubble (PICTURE).

Half of Worlds Small Glaciers Will Be Entirely Melted by 2100 – But There’s Good News For The Himalayas

A new study in Nature Geoscience examining glaciers melting due to climate change forecasts tough times for the world’s small glaciers, but offers a more hopeful outlook for Himalayan glaciers.

The research, the most comprehensive of its kind carried out so far, shows that about half of glaciers under 5 square kilometers in area will disappear entirely by 2100, in the process contributing during that time period the same amount of water to global sea level rise as the melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, about 12 centimeters. Glaciers of this size comprise about 40% of the world’s total glaciers.

Report co-author Valentina Radic, from the University of British Columbia, comments, “While the overall sea level increase projections in our study are on par with IPCC studies, our results are more detailed and regionally resolved. This allows us to get a better picture of projected regional ice volume change and potential impacts on local water supplies, and changes in glacier size distribution” (Science Codex).

Full Story Here: Half of Worlds Small Glaciers Will Be Entirely Melted by 2100 – But There’s Good News For The Himalayas : TreeHugger.

Latest Food Crisis Brewing for Months

The United Nations, which is trying to reach out to nearly a billion undernourished people, some living in perpetual hunger, is anticipating another food crisis later this year.

And the signs of impending trouble have been there for some time.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned last week that world market prices for rice, wheat, sugar, barley and meat will remain high or register significant rises in 2011 – perhaps replicating the crisis of 2007-2008.

Rob Vos, director of development policy and analysis at the U.N.’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), told IPS that higher food prices are already affecting many developing countries.

Full Story Here: Latest Food Crisis Brewing for Months – IPS ipsnews.net.

Illinois Weighs 66 Percent Tax Increase

Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday set in motion a politically risky Democratic plan to fill the state’s massive budget hole with an equally massive tax increase.

The proposal would temporarily boost the personal income tax rate by 66 percent, from 3 percent to 5 percent. That’s a slightly smaller increase than Democratic leaders originally proposed and would be lowered after four years.

“Time to act like grownups. Time to face the consequences of the actual recession that all the states face,” House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie told a committee before it voted to advance the tax increase to the full House.

Full Story Here: Illinois Weighs 66 Percent Tax Increase : NPR.

US military’s presence in Afghanistan may extend after 2014, Biden says

US Vice President Joe Biden stressed Tuesday that his country’s troops could stay in Afghanistan after 2014 if Afghans want them to, on day two of a surprise visit to the war-torn nation.

Speaking after talks with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Biden said: “We’re not leaving if you (Afghans) don’t want us to leave”.

But he also emphasised that the planned handover of responsibility for security from international troops to Afghan forces in four years, agreed at a NATO summit in November, was on track.

Full Story Here: US military’s presence in Afghanistan may extend after 2014, Biden says | Raw Story.

Top U.S. Chamber Official: The Minimum Wage Is ‘Counterproductive’ And ‘Doesn’t Help’

David Chavern, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the right-wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce, appeared on C-Span’s Washington Journal this morning to discuss his organization and the state of the economy. At one point, a caller with a “pet peeve” against the minimum wage dialed in on the Republican line and laid out a typical far right stance about how the minimum wage hurts employment. Asked to respond to the caller, Chavern said the Chamber would “agree with you.” Chavern explained that the minimum wage is “counterproductive” to employment, but acknowledged that its political popularity made it something that “we are going to have to get used to living with it”:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Top U.S. Chamber Official: The Minimum Wage Is ‘Counterproductive’ And ‘Doesn’t Help’.

OPS: This is one to send to all of you redneck republican friends

Ken Blackwell Whitewashes Slavery Out Of Original Constitution

Last week, when the House of Representatives read the Constitution on the House floor, the body’s new GOP leadership elected to replace the actual Constitution with a censored document that erased many of America’s original sins. Yesterday, in response to widespread and bipartisan criticism of this censorship, GOP voter suppression guru Ken Blackwell doubles down:

The idea that our Constitution “condoned” slavery and was therefore an immoral document unworthy of being viewed with reverence is a stock liberal claim. It is false.

Most of the Founders wanted to abolish the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Jefferson had denounced that “execrable traffic” in his first draft of the Declaration of Independence.

But South Carolina and Georgia delegates would not go along and, significantly, some in New England recognized the powerful influence of merchants whose ships included slavers.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Ken Blackwell Whitewashes Slavery Out Of Original Constitution.

US forced to import bullets from Israel as troops use 250,000 for every rebel killed –

US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan – an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed – that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.

US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan – an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed – that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand.

A government report says that US forces are now using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five years, largely as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as changes in military doctrine.

Full Story Here: US forced to import bullets from Israel as troops use 250,000 for every rebel killed – World news, News – Belfasttelegraph.co.uk.

Evergreen Solar to close new plant at Devens

Evergreen Solar Inc., which received $58 million in state aid to open a factory in 2008 at the former military base in Devens, announced today it would shut the plant and let go 800 workers by the end of this quarter.

The solar-panel plant is a cornerstone of Governor Deval Patrick’s efforts to make Massachusetts a hub for the emerging clean-energy industry.

But Evergreen has been struggling in face of weak prices and competition from cheaper operations in China, where the government has offered solar companies generous subsidies to locate there. Evergreen itself has a partnership with a company based in China and previously announced plans to shift some work to the overseas location.

Massachusetts officials noted the state may have the opportunity to recover some of the funds Evergreen received.

Full Story Here: Evergreen Solar to close new plant at Devens.

Few foreclosures, no bank failures: Canada offers lessons

Maybe Canada has something to teach the U.S. about housing finance.

One in 4 U.S. homes is thought to be worth less that the mortgage being paid on it. One in every 492 U.S. homes received a foreclosure notice in November. For the fourth year running, analysts are speculating on where the bottom is for U.S. real estate.

No such worries up here in Canada — yet its system of mortgage finance gets little attention in the U.S.

Full Story Here: Few foreclosures, no bank failures: Canada offers lessons | McClatchy.

The five worldviews that define American politics

Does it often seem that many American politicians and pundits are talking past each other? That is because they really are. The frustrating nature of public debate arises in large part from the fact that Americans do not share a single worldview.

A worldview is a more or less coherent understanding of the nature of reality, which permits its holders to interpret new information in light of their preconceptions. Clashes among worldviews cannot be ended by a simple appeal to facts. Even if rival sides agree on the facts, people may disagree on conclusions because of their different premises.

Both the conservative and liberal camps include people with different and sometimes incompatible worldviews. American public debate is arguably dominated by five significant political worldviews: neoliberal globalism, social democratic liberalism, populist nationalism, libertarian isolationism and Green Malthusianism.

Full Story Here: The five worldviews that define American politics – History – Salon.com.

Spinning Unemployment in a Collapsing Empire

America on the Rocks

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday that the economy gained only 103,000 new jobs in December–not enough to keep up with population growth–but the rate of unemployment (U.3) fell from 9.8 per cent to 9.4 per cent. If you are confused by the report, you are among the many.

In truth, what fell was not the number of unemployed people but the number of unemployed people who are actively looking for work. Those who have become discouraged and have ceased looking for work are not considered to be in the work force and are not counted as unemployed in the U.3 measure. The unemployment rate fell because discouraged workers increased, not because employment rose.

The BLS counts short-term discouraged workers (less than one year) in its U.6 measure of unemployment. That unemployment rate is 16.7 per cent. When statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) adds the long-term discouraged, the US unemployment rate as of December 2010 was 22.4 per cent.

Full Story Here: Paul Craig Roberts: Spinning Unemployment in a Collapsing Empire.

Coup d’état – The Historical Framework of Globalization

Our era is largely defined by two highly interlinked concepts: globalization and the so-called “war on terrorism.” As geopolitical-economic operatives, both concepts complement each other as significant means to specific ends; both shape important aspects of our daily lives and determine form and content of much that passes for public discourse. Particularly in Europe and in the United States, populations are kept vigilant to the “clear and present dangers” ostensibly posed by “international terrorism” through mnemonic icons of troop movements in Central Asia and/or strategically deployed bomb plots that are purportedly thwarted “just in time” by our intelligence services. As if copied from the lecture notes of Carl Schmitt, a totalitarian “enemy” has been constructed which can conveniently be called back into service at a moment’s notice should public memory begin to fade.

Globalization has proceeded by means of three distinct but clearly interwoven interpretations and representations of the world in toto: as the sociopolitical “cosmopolitan moment” [1] (to borrow a term coined by Seyla Benhabib) of the globe as the embodiment of our lifeworld; as the stage of operations for multinational corporate/financial interests; and as the battlefield on which incited conflicts are seen as requiring comprehensive, global solutions which are to be achieved through a New World Order. In its current development, the construct of a unified world is largely synonymous with the ideal world government as envisioned in the Sociocracy of French philosopher Auguste Comte in the 19th century [2], in which international bankers and elitest think tanks determine and execute public policies.

Implied in this global ideal is of course the complete dissolution of the nationstate as such through the gradual but de facto irreversible integration of individual nations into the totalitarian framework of the political, economic, and chief judicial/juridical entities operating on a global scale (most significantly the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, and the World Trade Organization).

Full Story Here: Coup d’état – The Historical Framework of Globalization.

Calculated Political Lies Are Violence !

Much of this talk about “violent rhetoric” misses the larger point. Yes, there is much violent talk, but do not allow the focus on the specific calls to violence, ie, sharron angle’a disgusting and fascistic reference to “2nd amendment solutions” to divert your attention from the real thing that inspires fascist assassins, which is the manipulation of their audiences via the unyielding stream of inflammatory outright lies that would get the average listener riled up, let alone a mental case !

I mean, consider that zillions of low information and childishly gullible Americans actually believed the swill about “Death Panels”. Well I ask you, if you had been dumb enough to think that “government “Death Panels” were a true impending reality, and if you heard that horseshit night and day from limbaugh, hannity, mark levin, frank luntz, over and over again, would you not feel that you and your loved ones were in immediate danger ……and what might some people do in response to what they think is an imminent mass murder committed by a “liberal” federal government !?

So, my feeling is that it is the relentless daily outright lying; lying that never stops !……that, absent any specific call to violence, but always telling the uninformed and gullible “citizens” that “liberals” want to kill them, that is the true call to violence !

Full Story Here: Calculated Political Lies Are Violence ! – Jay Diamond – Open Salon.

Sicko Westboro Hate Cult Says It Will Picket Funerals of Arizona Shooting Victims!

In Video Posted on GodHatesFags.com, Cult Leader Fred Phelps Denounces Giffords as ‘Avid Supporter of Sin and Baby-Killing’ and Blasts Palin as ‘Cowardly Brute’ for Taking Down Controversial Crosshairs Map From Her Web Site — Even Nine-Year-Old Girl Slain By Gunman Draws Westboro’s Wrath

IS THERE NO LIMIT TO THIS HATEMONGER’S SICKO CONTEMPT FOR GRIEVING FAMILIES? — In a video message posted Monday on the Web site of the rabidly gay-hating cult Westboro Baptist Church, cult leader Fred Phelps announced that he and his followers will picket the upcoming funerals of the six victims who lost their lives in Saturday’s shooting rampage in Tucson — even targeting that of nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green. “That child was not innocent,” the cult said in a press release. “That child is better off dead, so the cup of her iniquity will not overflow!” The Supreme Court is due to rule by spring on a lawsuit brought against Westboro over its picketing of military funerals. (Image: GodHatesFags.com)

Full Story Here: The ‘Skeeter Bites Report: Sicko Westboro Hate Cult Says It Will Picket Funerals of Arizona Shooting Victims!.

Lockheed Martin’s Shadow Government

As a boy in the 1950s, I can remember my father, a World War II vet, becoming livid while insisting that our family not shop at a local grocery store.  Its owners, he swore, had been “war profiteers” and he would never forgive them.  He practically spat the phrase out.  I have no idea whether it was true.  All I know is that, for him, “war profiteer” was the worst of curses, the most horrifying of sins.  In 1947, Arthur Miller wrote a wrenching play on the subject of war profiteering, All My Sons, based on a news story about a woman who turned her father in for selling faulty parts to the U.S. military during my father’s war. It was a hit and, in 1948, was made into a movie starring Edward G. Robinson.

Now, skip 42 years.  In September 1990, I wrote an op-ed for the New York Times with the title “Privatize the Pentagon,” a distinctly tongue-in-cheek column suggesting that it was time for the U.S. to develop what I termed a “free-enterprise-oriented military.”  “Looking back,” I wrote then, “isn’t it odd that unlike the environment, the post office, the poor, and Eastern Europe, the military has experienced no privatizing pressures?”

Full Story Here: Tomgram: William Hartung, Lockheed Martin’s Shadow Government | TomDispatch.

Economics and Morality

Paul Krugman:

Mark Thoma directs me to Eric Schoeneberg, who argues that the right is winning economic debates because people believe, wrongly, that there’s something inherently moral about free-market outcomes. My guess is that this is only part of the story; there’s more than a bit of Ayn Randism on the right, but there’s also the appeal of simplicity: goldbuggism is intellectually easy, Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it.

Still, Schoeneberg is right about the tendency to ascribe moral value to market values, and the need for a counter-narrative. I’m going to think about that; but right now, let me describe how I see the US income distribution in terms of justice or the lack thereof.

The first thing one should say is that our system does reward hard work, up to a point. Other things equal, those who put more in will earn more.

But a lot of other things are, in fact, not remotely equal. These days, America is the advanced nation with the least social mobility (pdf), except possibly for Britain. Access to good schools, good health care, and job opportunities depends on lot on choosing the right parents.

Full Story Here: Economics and Morality – NYTimes.com.

Heritage Foundation whines, “It all started when he hit me back!”

Conservatives never take responsibility for anything: slavery, segregation, racism, coddling Hitler, Central American death squads, pollution, mass incarceration, three decades of budget-busting deficits, 9/11, Katrina, the Iraq War, the Wall Street meltdown & the Great Recession–the list goes on and on. So why would their reaction to the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords be any different? And it’s not, as the Heritage Foundation whines, “It all started when he hit me back!”

Libel is No Path to a Civil SocietyAll of us at The Heritage Foundation were profoundly saddened by the tragedy that occurred this past Saturday morning in Tucson, Arizona. We mourn all of those who lost their lives and are praying for a full recovery by all of the surviving victims. As Speaker John Boehner said Saturday, “An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve.”

Unfortunately, some have chosen to use this tragedy for political gain. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, the Democrat who refused to enforce SB 1070, told FOX News’ Megyn Kelly this weekend that the shooting was caused by an “atmosphere” created when “one party trying to block the attempts of another party to make this country better. ” In case there is any doubt in your mind who Sheriff Dupnik was talking about, one veteran Democratic operative, who, like Sheriff Dupnik, blamed overheated rhetoric for the shooting, told Politico that President Barack Obama should “deftly pin this on the tea partiers.”

Pressed by Kelly to identify ANY evidence linking the shooter to the tea party, Sheriff Dupnik admitted he had zero: “That is my opinion. Period.”

Full Story Here: Open Left:: Heritage Foundation whines, “It all started when he hit me back!”.

Assange: We’re stepping up release of leaked docs – WikiLeaks – Salon.com

The Wikileaks founder promises more revelations based on the group’s stash of confidential U.S. embassy cables

WikiLeaks will step up its publication schedule of secret documents, founder Julian Assange announced Tuesday, promising more revelations based on the group’s stash of confidential U.S. embassy cables and other leaks.

Assange, 39, spoke to reporters outside London’s high-security Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court, where he and his lawyers appeared for a hearing in his fight against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted in a sex-crimes inquiry.

WikiLeaks sparked an international uproar with the publication of hundreds of classified U.S. diplomatic cables late last year, revelations that caused weeks worth of embarrassing news stories for the U.S. and its allies. But the flow of leaks, published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and El Pais, has slowed recently amid a barrage of online attacks, financial difficulties and the Swedish prosecution of Assange.

Full Story Here: Assange: We’re stepping up release of leaked docs – WikiLeaks – Salon.com.

National Home Prices Won’t Reach 2007 Levels Until 2021

The national average for home prices isn’t expected to recover to its nominal 2007 peak until 2021. Inflation-adjusted price recovery will take indefinitely longer, threatening economic stability.

Statistics produced by Moody’s Analytics show the slow recovery of housing prices, following the bubble burst a few years ago. Moody’s Analytics housing market analyst Celia Chen said, “The bubble caused a lot of over-investment in these markets. Now, housing is over-supplied and that part of the economy will not come back for a long time.”

Devastated markets such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salinas, Calif., and Naples, Fla. won’t return until 2032 at the earliest. While Chen concedes it is impossible to be exact with such long-term forecasts, these numbers show how dire the situation is.

Full Story Here: National Home Prices Won’t Reach 2007 Levels Until 2021 | Economy In Crisis.

America’s Backward Thinking

The most significant flaw with free trade agreements is that they are impossible to enforce, making competition impossible

Theoretically, free trade sounds like a great idea. Consumers get the benefit of increased competition for their buying dollars, manufacturers get to locate or source from the lowest cost labor pool and exporters have the opportunity to sell into new markets with no tariffs. Unfortunately, there are fundamental real-world flaws that exist with free trade that have led to the most massive wealth transfer in the history of the world. The United States has not witnessed a trade surplus since 1975, and since then $4 Trillion has been lost through trade deficits caused by elimination of tariffs.

The most significant flaw with free trade agreements is that they are impossible to enforce, making competition impossible. Free trade depends on the premise that all countries will play by the same rules. However, in the real world assuring that this occurs is incredibly expensive, time consuming, and inefficient to contest. The reality is, tariffs are not the only barrier to fair trade. Trade is impacted by much more intangible state-sponsored “trade weapons” such as currency manipulation, technology transfer requirements, joint-venture policies, selective customs policies, underhanded government subsidies and countless other tools. Under free trade agreements, the U.S. essentially relies on faith-based economic policy with other countries.

Full Story Here: America’s Backward Thinking | Economy In Crisis.

Government Needs to Abandon Free Trade with South Korea

Our poor economic conditions are the result of a flawed trade policy that current free trade agreements exacerbate. The current Korean FTA fails to address many non-tariff trade issues, that are a result of Korea’s state capitalist economic system.

Washington’s view of trade agreements, where shrewd negotiating will result in gains for specific sectors of the economy, with formerly closed markets, fails to account for the state capitalism system of our trading partners and rivals.

International trade is important to domestic growth, but more importantly something must be done to allow American producers to reach American consumers. It sounds like a crazy idea, but one so crazy it might just work. Last year, American companies made a larger share of their profits overseas than at home.

The issue is not one of individual blunders or poor decisions, it is a systemic failure on the part of our leaders to recognize the nature of state capitalist systems, where the government directly supports and protects its domestic industry. Such economic policy is incompatible with the ideals of free trade as espoused in this nation, and has led to record trade deficits, long-term unemployment and economic stagnation.

Full Story Here: Government Needs to Abandon Free Trade with South Korea | Economy In Crisis.

Cape Wind Gets Permit For Offshore Wind Farm Clean Water Act Compliance

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has granted a long-sought permit to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, moving it a step closer to starting construction.

The decision wasn’t a surprise, but the permit was needed for Cape Wind to begin building a planned 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound. It clears Cape Wind to work in navigable federal waters and ensures it’s complying with the Clean Water Act.

Cape Wind is still waiting for one more permit, from the U.S. Environmental Protection agency for air emissions during construction. Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said he was confident they would receive it shortly.

Full Story Here: Cape Wind Gets Permit For Offshore Wind Farm Clean Water Act Compliance.

How To Lower Cholesterol: Which Supplements Work?

If you’re looking for a natural way to lower your cholesterol — in addition to watching what you eat and exercising — there are plenty of dietary supplements on the market that claim to do the trick.

These claims aren’t always backed up by research, however. Though not always perfect, scientific studies are the best way to determine if an alternative remedy really works. Below, we break down what the research does — and doesn’t — say about the benefits of the most popular supplements for lowering cholesterol.

Full Story Here: How To Lower Cholesterol: Which Supplements Work? (PHOTOS).

The Bill Daley Problem

Bill Daley, President Obama’s newly appointed chief of staff, is an experienced business executive. By all accounts, he is decisive, well-organized, and a skilled negotiator. His appointment, combined with other elements of the White House reshuffle, provides insight into how the president understands our economy — and what is likely to happen over the next couple of years. This is a serious problem.

This is not a critique from the left or from the right. The Bill Daley Problem is completely bipartisan — it shows us the White House fails to understand that, at the heart of our economy, we have a huge time bomb.

Until this week, Bill Daley was on the top operating committee at JP Morgan Chase. His bank — along with the other largest U.S. banks — have far too little equity and far too much debt relative to that thin level of equity; this makes them highly dangerous from a social point of view. These banks have captured the hearts and minds of top regulators and most of the political class (across the spectrum), most recently with completely specious arguments about why banks cannot be compelled to operate more safely. Top bankers, like Mr. Daley’s former colleagues, are intent of becoming more global — despite the fact that (or perhaps because) we cannot handle the failure of massive global banks.

Full Story Here: Simon Johnson: The Bill Daley Problem.

Banks lose key foreclosure ruling in Massachusetts high court

In a decision that may slow foreclosures nationwide, Massachusetts’ highest court voided the seizure of two homes by Wells Fargo & Co and US Bancorp after the banks failed to show they held the mortgages at the time they foreclosed.

Bank shares fell, weighing on broader stock indexes, on fears the decision could threaten lenders’ ability to work through hundreds of thousands of pending foreclosures.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts’ unanimous decision on Friday upheld a lower court ruling. It is among the earliest cases to address the validity of foreclosures done without proper documentation.

That issue, including the use of “robo-signers” who approved foreclosure documents without reviewing them, last year prompted an uproar that led lenders such as Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Ally Financial Inc to temporarily stop seizing homes.

“A ruling like this will slow down the foreclosure process” for lenders, said Marty Mosby, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities in Memphis, Tennessee. “They’re going to have to be really precise and get everything in order. It doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room.”

Full Story Here: Banks lose key foreclosure ruling in Massachusetts high court | Raw Story.

Sheriff: ‘Not Convinced Gunman Acted Alone’ – Phoenix News Story – KPHO Phoenix

The investigation into the shooting deaths of six people and the wounding of 13 others including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords continues in Tucson and the FBI director has been sent by President Barack Obama to oversee the probe. The shootings took place as Giffords met with a group of constituents at a Tucson Safeway Saturday.

The sheriff says Giffords was the intended target. She’s in critical condition after being shot in the head.

The Pima County sheriff’s office identified the dead as 63-year-old U.S. District Judge John Roll, 76-year-old Dorthy Murray, 76-year-old Dorwin Stoddard, 9-year-old Christina Greene, 79-year-old Phyllis Scheck and 30-year-old Giffords’ staffer Gabe Zimmerman.

Full Story Here: Sheriff: ‘Not Convinced Gunman Acted Alone’ – Phoenix News Story – KPHO Phoenix.

Why Are Birds Falling From the Sky?

The ground truth about this week’s bird deaths in Arkansas and elsewhere.

A mysterious rain of thousands of dead birds darkened New Year’s Eve in Arkansas, and this week similar reports streamed in from Louisiana, Sweden, and elsewhere. (See pictures of the Arkansas bird die-off.)

But the in-air bird deaths aren’t due to some apocalyptic plague or insidious experiment—they happen all the time, scientists say. The recent buzz, it seems, was mainly hatched by media hype.

At any given time there are “at least ten billion birds in North America … and there could be as much as 20 billion—and almost half die each year due to natural causes,” said ornithologist Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society in Washington, D.C.

But what causes dead birds to fall from the sky en masse? The Arkansas case points to two common culprits: loud noises and crashes.

Beginning at roughly 11:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve Arkansas wildlife officers started hearing reports of birds falling from the sky in a square-mile area of the city of Beebe. Officials estimate that up to 5,000 red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, common grackles, and brown-headed cowbirds fell before midnight.

Full Story Here: Why Are Birds Falling From the Sky?.

OPS: “… —they happen all the time, scientists say. The recent buzz, it seems, was mainly hatched by media hype.”  Really? Why have I never heard of this before,… and so many,,,and so wide spread?  The “MEDIA’, just decided THIS time to report it?  BS.

Eating carrots ‘makes you more attractive’: study

Eating strongly coloured vegetables and fruit such as carrots and plums makes people more attractive, according to a new British study.

Researchers at St Andrews and Bristol universities studied the relationship between skin colour and attractiveness, and found people with a yellow skin hue were perceived as particularly healthy and attractive, the Grocer magazine reported.

They also established for the first time that yellow pigments, or carotenoids, from certain fruit and vegetables played a key role in producing yellowness in skin.

Full Story Here: Eating carrots ‘makes you more attractive’: study | Raw Story.

Hong Kong researchers store data in bacteria

A group of students at Hong Kong’s Chinese University are making strides towards storing such vast amounts of information in an unexpected home: the E.coli bacterium better known as a potential source of serious food poisoning.

“This means you will be able to keep large datasets for the long term in a box of bacteria in the refrigerator,” said Aldrin Yim, a student instructor on the university’s biostorage project, a 2010 gold medallist in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s prestigious iGEM competition.

Biostorage — the art of storing and encrypting information in living organisms — is a young field, having existed for about a decade.

Full Story Here: Hong Kong researchers store data in bacteria | Raw Story.

Secret US court subpoenaed four WikiLeaks supporters for espionage

Update: WikiLeaks confirms US secret court subpoenaed four supporters on espionage charges

STOCKHOLM – WikiLeaks said Saturday the Twitter accounts of four supporters have been subpoenaed in connection with an espionage investigation into the whistleblowing website led by a secret US grand jury.

WikiLeaks, which began releasing 251,287 US diplomatic cables in November, added it had reason to believe Facebook and Google had also received court orders requesting details on users.

Full Story Here: US orders Twitter to divulge personal info on Icelandic MP with ties to WikiLeaks | Raw Story.