Archive for May, 2011

Single-Payer, Medicare-for-All Legislation Introduced – Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced today that he introduced legislation to provide health care for every American through a Medicare-for-all type single-payer system.

Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) filed a companion bill in the House to provide better care for more patients at less cost by eliminating the middle-man role played by private insurance companies that rake off billions of dollars in profits.

The twin measures, both called the American Health Security Act of 2011, would provide federal guidelines and strong minimum standards for states to administer single-payer health care programs.

Full Story Here: Release: Single-Payer, Medicare-for-All Legislation Introduced – Newsroom: U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont).

How our culture is ruining women’s health

A new study shows one in four women would rather be severely depressed than obese. We should be worried

Back in April, my Salon column pointed out that though women are far less likely to be overweight than men, they comprise 90 percent of customers in the commercial weight-loss industry.

The bottom line is both obvious and indisputable: Women may indeed be less overweight than men, but they are more socially persecuted for their weight, as evidenced by a hypocritical society that so often celebrates the Fat Guy while denigrating the Fat Lady. Because of this dynamic, women solicit weight-loss programs more frequently than men, and weight-loss companies target their advertising more aggressively toward women than men.

Now, two weeks after my column was published, a new Arizona State University study tells us just how successful that advertising and social stigmatization have been in making many women psychologically obsessed with weight — even to the detriment of other health priorities. As the study documented:

Full Story Here: How our culture is ruining women’s health – Body Wars – Salon.com.

In Fine Print, Banks Require Struggling Homeowners to Waive Rights

A few months ago, Bank of America offered Sergio Cortez of Staten Island, N.Y., the help he desperately needed to stay in his home: a break on his mortgage. Like millions of others, he was facing foreclosure. But there was a catch buried in the fine print. Cortez had to waive any possibility of ever suing the bank for anything relating to the loan.

Cortez isn’t alone. While regulators have banned the practice, some banks and others who handle mortgages have still been forcing homeowners into a corner: You want a chance at saving your home? Then you’ll have to waive your rights.

“It’s just unfair,” said Jane Azia, director of consumer protection for the New York State Banking Department. “It puts borrowers in a very vulnerable situation.”

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: In Fine Print, Banks Require Struggling Homeowners to Waive Rights.

How Do Wrong Economic Ideas Become Conventional Wisdom?

The ideas of Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992) are making a comeback, in large part due to Glenn Beck, who has touted the libertarian economist and philosopher’s views on his TV show. The essence of Hayek’s views — spelled out in his most well-known book, The Road to Serfdom — is that government stifles freedom and liberty. With a few exceptions, he viewed almost any governmental intervention in economic affairs as a slippery slope toward totalitarian socialism. No wonder that Beck has been hawking Hayek.

Now comes Francis Fukuyama, the neoconservative political scientist, who uses the pages of the New York Times Book Review to hawk his own version of government-bashing. Unfortunately, Fukuyama, who claims to be something of a student of Hayek’s ideas, hasn’t done his homework.

In his review of the new edition of Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty, published in the Review on Sunday (May 8), Fukuyama off-handedly comments that three of Hayek’s ideas “have become broadly accepted by economists.” But it so happens that economists don’t agree on these three ideas. Moreover, the policy conclusions that Fukuyama draws happen to be untrue

Full Story Here: How Do Wrong Economic Ideas Become Conventional Wisdom? | Common Dreams.

Homeless Middle Class

Simple luxuries like taking a family vacation or just taking the kids out to eat is nothing but a distant memory to many American families who once considered themselves middle class and are now just fighting to stay off the streets. After one of the worst economic downturns in our history, families who were breathing easy, just a couple of years ago, are now buried in a mountain of debt and being forced from their homes.

Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study

UN’s climate change science body says renewables supply, particularly solar power, can meet global demand

Renewable energy could account for almost 80% of the world’s energy supply within four decades – but only if governments pursue the policies needed to promote green power, according to a landmark report published on Monday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world’s leading climate scientists convened by the United Nations, said that if the full range of renewable technologies were deployed, the world could keep greenhouse gas concentrations to less than 450 parts per million, the level scientists have predicted will be the limit of safety beyond which climate change becomes catastrophic and irreversible.

Investing in renewables to the extent needed would cost only about 1% of global GDP annually, said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC.

Full Story Here: Renewable energy can power the world, says landmark IPCC study | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking

For the first time, a scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire.

The peer-reviewed study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stands to shape the contentious debate over whether drilling is safe and begins to fill an information gap that has made it difficult for lawmakers and the public to understand the risks.

The research was conducted by four scientists at Duke University. They found that levels of flammable methane gas in drinking water wells increased to dangerous levels when those water supplies were close to natural gas wells. They also found that the type of gas detected at high levels in the water was the same type of gas that energy companies were extracting from thousands of feet underground, strongly implying that the gas may be seeping underground through natural or manmade faults and fractures, or coming from cracks in the well structure itself.

Full Story Here: Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking – ProPublica.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Changed Nuclear Relicensing Rules

Critics of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the powerful industry it oversees continue to question its process for issuing license renewals at aging plants.

A single document from 1992 might well shed some light on how that process came to be.

It’s worth noting that the NRC’s staff has roughly doubled over the last decade, to some 4,000 employees today. Many have been hired to handle a wave of applications from nuclear power plant operators seeking permission to operate for 20 years beyond the 40 years granted by their original licenses.

A number of those original licenses will be expiring in the next 10 years.

Full Story Here: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Changed Nuclear Relicensing Rules.

With 56% of American Internet connections now capped, advocates ask FCC for probe

The practice of capping Internet bandwidth and selling it as a metered commodity has fully taken hold, to the point where 56 percent of U.S. internet connections are now on plans that restrict how much information users can access before triggering additional fees.

For an Internet landscape that’s been accustomed to unlimited access to information the world over, this represents a sea-change for many broadband subscribers. And to at least two prominent Washington, D.C. advocacy groups, it’s cause for immense concern.

That’s why the directors of Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Initiative — two Washington tech policy groups — have written to the Federal Communications Commission to request they investigate the potential for these practices encouraging anti-competitive activities.

Full Story Here: With 56% of American Internet connections now capped, advocates ask FCC for probe | The Raw Story.

Internet ‘Do Not Track’ bill introduced in Senate

Privacy and consumer groups welcomed a “Do Not Track” bill introduced in the US Senate on Monday that would let Internet users block companies from gathering information about their online activities.

The Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011 was introduced by Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

“Recent reports of privacy invasions have made it imperative that we do more to put consumers in the driver’s seat when it comes to their personal information,” Rockefeller said in a statement.

Full Story Here: Internet ‘Do Not Track’ bill introduced in Senate | The Raw Story.

Whirlpool Paid No Taxes Over The Past Three Years, Got A $64 Million Tax Refund In 2010

As ThinkProgress has been reporting, Main Street America’s services, investments, and jobs are under attack while many of the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations are getting away with paying little to nothing in federal income taxes. Today, BusinessWeek reports that Whirpool, the world’s largest appliance maker, has been a major tax dodger. The company had negative income tax rates over the past three years, and reported a $64 million income tax benefit last year. It expects similar results this year:

Sales at the appliance maker rose 7 percent to $18.4 billion last year after dropping during the housing slump of the previous two years. In the year-earlier quarter, the company attributed a rise in revenue to increased productivity.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Whirlpool Paid No Taxes Over The Past Three Years, Got A $64 Million Tax Refund In 2010.

OPS: Last time I buy one of their products – ever.

Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) Defends Fairness Of Giving Billions In Oil Subsidies To Exxon: ‘Fair Is A Relative Word’

After a wave of Republicans came out for ending billions in taxpayer subsidies to big oil companies, first quarter profits showed major oil companies like Shell and ExxonMobil made about $35 billion in profits. Although observers expected that news of record profits might mean the end of some $70 billion in taxpayer subsidies, fiscal conservatives were disappointed last week when the Republicans voted in lockstep to extend oil subsidies.

ThinkProgress spoke with Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC), a freshman Republican who voted to preserve the subsidies, at a Republican Party dinner in South Carolina on Friday. Asked if giving taxpayer money to massively profitable companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron is “fair,” Scott danced around the issue. “Fair is a relative word,” Scott claimed, before launching into a discussion about more domestic drilling:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) Defends Fairness Of Giving Billions In Oil Subsidies To Exxon: ‘Fair Is A Relative Word’.

Texas GOP Rams Koch-Backed ‘Loser Pays’ Bill Through House, Making It Harder To Sue Corporations

As ThinkProgress has reported, brothers Charles and David Koch and their corporate giant, Koch Industries, have played an extensive role in the corporate takeover of government, both at the state and federal level. This weekend, another of the Kochs’ projects surfaced in Texas, as the state’s Republican lawmakers rammed through a Koch-backed bill that would make it harder for consumers, workers, and small business owners to bring civil suits against corporations.

House Bill 274 — dubbed the “Loser Pays” bill — passed the state House Saturday with no amendments and no debate after Gov. Rick Perry (R) deemed it “emergency legislation,” rushing it to the top of the legislative agenda. Under the bill, those who sue corporations could be held responsible for the defendants’ legal fees if they lose the case — and in some instances, even if they win. If the court sides with the plaintiff, but awards a smaller amount than the defendant offered in a potential settlement, the plaintiff could be forced to pay the defendant’s court costs, even if those costs exceed the amount awarded to the plaintiff. For this reason, state Rep. Craig Eiland (D) wanted to rename the bill the “loser-pays-but-sometimes-the-winner pays-too” bill.

The law could intimidate potential plaintiffs into avoiding lawsuits against corporations, because they could be on the hook for massive legal fees if the court ultimately doesn’t side with them.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Texas GOP Rams Koch-Backed ‘Loser Pays’ Bill Through House, Making It Harder To Sue Corporations.

The Unwisdom of Elites

Paul Krugman :-:

The past three years have been a disaster for most Western economies. The United States has mass long-term unemployment for the first time since the 1930s. Meanwhile, Europe’s single currency is coming apart at the seams. How did it all go so wrong?

Well, what I’ve been hearing with growing frequency from members of the policy elite — self-appointed wise men, officials, and pundits in good standing — is the claim that it’s mostly the public’s fault. The idea is that we got into this mess because voters wanted something for nothing, and weak-minded politicians catered to the electorate’s foolishness.

So this seems like a good time to point out that this blame-the-public view isn’t just self-serving, it’s dead wrong.

Full Story Here: The Unwisdom of Elites – NYTimes.com.

Antiabortion bills: Measures flood state legislatures

After Republican gains in the fall election, a reliably antiabortion bloc has been reenergized. The bills seek to end federal funding for abortion providers and to shorten the window during which a woman may have the procedure.

Energized by Republican gains in the last election and still stinging from the passage of President Obama‘s healthcare overhaul, conservative lawmakers in statehouses around the country have put forward a torrent of measures aimed at restricting abortion.

The measures now under consideration in dozens of states reflect advances in technology and a political cycle that has reempowered a reliably antiabortion bloc — conservative Republicans — on the state and federal levels.

Some proposed laws, drawing upon improvements in medical imaging, seek to shorten the window during which women may have an abortion, though states may not impose restrictions in the first trimester.

Full Story Here: Antiabortion bills: Measures flood state legislatures – latimes.com.

Safety Reviewers Raise Questions About Construction of New Nuclear Fuel Plant

In the late 1990s, U.S. policymakers approved a plan to turn plutonium from nuclear weapons into fuel for commercial reactors. The first-of-its kind plant, now being built in South Carolina, was intended to reduce the Cold War stockpile and the threat of nuclear material theft while supplying the country’s energy needs.

More than a decade later, the mixed oxide fuel (MOX) plant is running into mounting troubles, including long delays, soaring costs and the lack of utilities committed to use the new fuel in their reactors.

But there’s another aspect of the story that has received little attention. Two of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s safety reviewers for the project say the NRC has taken shortcuts on safety to avoid delaying the construction. Work on the facility was allowed to begin, they say, before some of the most essential questions were fully answered. They have been particularly concerned about the danger of chemical explosions, the adequacy of the ventilation and radioactive waste disposal systems and the way the plutonium will be tracked as it is processed.

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: Safety Reviewers Raise Questions About Construction of New Nuclear Fuel Plant.

Economist: U.S. Job Market ‘Remains Depressed,’ Debt Ceiling Uncertainty Unhelpful

The U.S. economy added 244,000 jobs in April, but the nation’s unemployment rate ticked back up to 9 percent, indicating an overall job market “remains depressed,” according to one Washington economist.

The Labor Department on Friday released its latest employment data for April.

“Today’s employment report provides mixed signals on the jobs market,” says Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank. “The survey of employers shows they added jobs at a solid pace in April. Yet the jobs deficit from the recession remains very large and, even more discouraging, the survey of households shows that unemployment is still high, with too many people remaining on the sidelines rather than returning to the labor force believing they can find work. As a result, the percentage of the population with a job remains depressed.”

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: Economist: U.S. Job Market ‘Remains Depressed,’ Debt Ceiling Uncertainty Unhelpful.

Climate shifts ‘hit global wheat yields’

Shifts in the climate over the past three decades have been linked to a 5.5% decline in global wheat production, a study has suggested.

A team of US scientists assessed the impact of changes to rainfall and temperature on four major food crops: wheat, rice, corn and soybeans.

Climate trends in some countries were big enough to wipe out gains from other factors, such as technology, they said.

The findings have been published in the online edition of the journal Science.

Full Story Here: BBC News – Climate shifts ‘hit global wheat yields’.

House GOP tries to weaken financial reforms

Two congressional committees led by Republicans approved measures on Wednesday to delay and weaken key provisions of last year’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms, but they were expected to fizzle in the Senate.

With Democrats in control of the upper chamber of Congress and President Barack Obama able to defend Dodd-Frank with his veto pen, efforts by Republicans to water down and postpone the reforms seemed unlikely to succeed, analysts said.

That is not stopping Republicans from pressing their rollback agenda, however, especially in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Full Story Here: House GOP tries to weaken financial reforms – Business – US business – msnbc.com.

Welcome to the McJobs Recovery

Think of it as a parable for these grim economic times. On April 19th, McDonald’s launched its first-ever national hiring day, signing up 62,000 new workers at stores throughout the country. For some context, that’s more jobs created by one company in a single day than the net job creation of the entire U.S. economy in 2009. And if that boggles the mind, consider how many workers applied to local McDonald’s franchises that day and left empty-handed: 938,000 of them. With a 6.2% acceptance rate in its spring hiring blitz, McDonald’s was more selective than the Princeton, Stanford, or Yale University admission offices.

It shouldn’t be surprising that a million souls flocked to McDonald’s hoping for a steady paycheck, when nearly 14 million Americans are out of work and nearly a million more are too discouraged even to look for a job. At this point, it apparently made no difference to them that the fast-food industry pays some of the lowest wages around: on average, $8.89 an hour, or barely half the $15.95 hourly average across all American industries.

On an annual basis, the average fast-food worker takes home $20,800, less than half the national average of $43,400. McDonald’s appears to pay even worse, at least with its newest hires. In the press release for its national hiring day, the multi-billion-dollar company said it would spend $518 million on the newest round of hires, or $8,354 a head. Hence the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “McJob” as “a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement.”

Full Story Here: Tomgram: Andy Kroll, Welcome to the McJobs Recovery | TomDispatch.

EXCLUSIVE: CITY OF BROOKFIELD BALLOT BAGS FOUND ‘WIDE OPEN’ IN WAUKESHA COUNTY, WI

Chain of custody violations continue to emerge, particularly in Waukesha, during state Supreme Court election ‘recount‘

ALSO: $25,000 reward offered for evidence of WI election tampering..

Five out of six bags of ballots from first batch to be counted out of the City of Brookfield in Waukesha County, WI, today were discovered “almost wide open” during Day 9 of the statewide Supreme Court election “recount.” The bags were open and unsealed, according to both photographic evidence and an eye-witnesses account from the counting room. (Many more exclusive photos posted below.)

“When the ballot bags were taken out and placed upon the counting table, we were literally stunned,” one of the citizen observers, Mary Magnuson, a Kloppenburg volunteer, told The BRAD BLOG this morning. “5 out of the 6 ballot bags were almost literally wide open, and ballots could be clearly seen.”

The ballots in those bags were among the 14,000 said to have been cast in the April 5th election, but left off of Waukesha County’s tally as reported to the media on Election Night.

Full Story Here: The BRAD BLOG : EXCLUSIVE: CITY OF BROOKFIELD BALLOT BAGS FOUND ‘WIDE OPEN’ IN WAUKESHA COUNTY, WI.

Beyond Foreclosuregate – It Gets Uglier

The Forec­losureGate scand­al poses a threat to Wall Street, the big banks, and the polit­ical es­tablish­ment. If the pub­lic ever gets a com­plete pic­ture of the per­son­al, fin­an­ci­al, and legal as­sault on citizens at their most vul­ner­able, the out­rage will be end­less.

Forec­losure prac­tices lift the veil on a broad­er set of in­ter­lock­ing ef­forts to ex­ploit those har­dest hit by the end­less economic hard times, citizens who be­come fin­an­cial­ly de­sperate due med­ical con­di­tions. A 2007 study found that med­ical ex­pen­ses or in­come los­ses re­lated to med­ical crises among bankrupt­cy fil­ers or fami­ly mem­b­ers tri­ggered 62% of bankrupt­cies. There is no un­derground con­spira­cy. The facts are in plain sight.

Forec­losureGate re­presents the sum total il­leg­al and un­eth­ical lend­ing and col­lec­tions ac­tivit­ies dur­ing the real es­tate bubble. It con­tinues today. Law pro­fes­sor and law school dean Chris­toph­er L. Peter­son de­scribes the contra­ctu­al lan­guage for the sixty mill­ion contra­cts bet­ween bor­row­ers and lend­ers as fic­tion­al since the boilerplate lan­guage names a uni­vers­al sur­rogate as creditor (Mortgage Electronic Re­gistra­tion Sys­tem), not the ac­tu­al creditor. Other as­pects of Forec­losureGate har­med homeown­ers but the contra­ctu­al pro­blems that the lend­ers created on their own pose the greatest threats.

Full Story Here: Beyond Foreclosuregate – It Gets Uglier | Truthout.

Genetically Engineered Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation

The central question that dominated the minds of the ruling clique was population reduction in resource rich countries but the question was how to engineer mass culling all over the world without generating powerful backlash as it was bound to happen. When the US oil reserves peaked in 1972 and it became a net oil importer, the situation became alarming and the agenda took the centre stage. Kissinger, one of the key strategists of Nixon, nurtured by the Rockefellers, prepared what is known as National Security Study Memo (NSSM#200), in which he elaborated his plan for population reduction. In this Memo he specifically targets thirteen countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Thailand, and The Phillipines.

The weapon to be used was food; even if there was a famine food would be used to leverage population reduction. Kissinger is on record for stating, “Control oil, you control nations; control food and you control the people.” How a small group of key people transformed the elitist philosophy, of controlling food to control people, into realistic operational possibility within a short time is the backdrop of Engdahl’s book, the central theme running from the beginning till the end with the Rockefellers and Kissinger, among others, as the key dramatis personae.

[Engdahl] describes how the Rockefellers guided the US agriculture policy, used their powerful tax-free foundations worldwide to train an army of bright young scientists in hitherto unknown field of microbiology. He traces how the field of Eugenics was renamed “genetics” to make it more acceptable and also to hide the real purpose. Through incremental strategic adjustments within a handful of chemical, food and seed corporations, ably supported by the key persons in key departments of the US Government, behemoths were created that could re-write the regulatory framework in nearly every country. And these seeds of destruction of carefully constructed regulatory framework- to protect the environment and human health- were sown back in the 1920s.

Full Story Here: Genetically Engineered Destruction.

World’s Farmers Feel The Effects Of A Hotter Planet

Scientists have long predicted that — eventually — temperatures and altered rainfall caused by global climate change will take a toll on four of the most important crops in the world: rice, wheat soy and corn.

Now, as world grain prices hover near record highs, a new study finds that the effects are already starting to be felt.

“For two crops, maize (corn) and wheat, there has actually been a decline in yields, if you account for the trend in climate — especially the warming trend that we’ve observed over the last 30 years,” says Wolfram Schlenker, who teaches environmental economics at Columbia University. He’s a co-author of the study, along with David Lobell and Justin Costa-Roberts at Stanford University.

Full Story Here: World’s Farmers Feel The Effects Of A Hotter Planet : NPR.

World’s Farmers Feel The Effects Of A Hotter Planet

Scientists have long predicted that — eventually — temperatures and altered rainfall caused by global climate change will take a toll on four of the most important crops in the world: rice, wheat soy and corn.

Now, as world grain prices hover near record highs, a new study finds that the effects are already starting to be felt.

“For two crops, maize (corn) and wheat, there has actually been a decline in yields, if you account for the trend in climate — especially the warming trend that we’ve observed over the last 30 years,” says Wolfram Schlenker, who teaches environmental economics at Columbia University. He’s a co-author of the study, along with David Lobell and Justin Costa-Roberts at Stanford University.

Full Story Here: World’s Farmers Feel The Effects Of A Hotter Planet : NPR.

Thousands Rally in Japan Against Nuclear Power

Thousands of people rallied in Japan Saturday to demand a shift away from nuclear power after an earthquake and tsunami sparked the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl a quarter-century ago.

Braving spring drizzle, thousands of demonstrators gathered at a park in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, many holding hand-made banners reading: “Nuclear is old!” and “We want a shift in energy policy!”

The protest came a day after Prime Minister Naoto Kan called a halt to operations at a nuclear plant southwest of Tokyo because it is near a tectonic faultline, fearing a disaster like that which hit the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March.

Full Story Here: Thousands Rally in Japan Against Nuclear Power | Common Dreams.

“I Know Why Cheney Went Into Iraq!” Colonel Wilkerson

May 06, 2011 MSNBC

U.S. tax burden at lowest level since ’58

Americans are paying the smallest share of their income for taxes since 1958, a reflection of tax cuts and a weak economy, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

The total tax burden — for all federal, state and local taxes — dropped to 23.6% of income in the first quarter, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

By contrast, individuals spent roughly 27% of income on taxes in the 1970s, 1980s and the 1990s — a rate that would mean $500 billion of extra taxes annually today, one-third of the estimated $1.5 trillion federal deficit this year.

The analysis comes as President Obama and Congress debate whether to cut federal spending, raise taxes or both.

Full Story Here: U.S. tax burden at lowest level since ’58 – USATODAY.com.

Japan Nuclear Crisis: Government Official Says Country Will Not Abandon Nuclear Power

A top Japanese official says Japan will maintain atomic power as part of its energy policy despite the country’s ongoing nuclear crisis.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said Sunday that Japan will “stick to nuclear power as a national energy policy.” He made the comment on a talk show on public broadcaster NHK.

Full Story Here: Japan Nuclear Crisis: Government Official Says Country Will Not Abandon Nuclear Power.

OPS:  Suicidal.  We’ll, Banzi kids

Revealed: CIA agents lived next door to Osama bin Laden 

In a startling revelation this morning, reporters were told that in the months leading up to the violent raid that ended Osama bin Laden’s life, CIA agents had taken up residence next door, in an attempt to verify the identity of a tall, mysterious man they knew simply as “Pacer.”

Even with a satellite hovering overhead and the use of infrared cameras, agents couldn’t pin down who the strange figure was, or why he never left the compound and the mission was ultimately called a failure.

With Osama now allegedly dead, his widow has admitted to reporters that they stayed in the home every day for over five years, which might help explain why he was so difficult to locate for so long.

This video was broadcast by ABC News on Friday, May 6, 2011.

Full Story Here: Revealed: CIA agents lived next door to Osama bin Laden | Raw Replay.

Grayson: Bush has probably been ‘passed out drunk’ since Osama bin Laden kill  

Alan Grayson appeared on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, where host Ed Schultz asked him if he thought former President George W. Bush deserved more credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden than he has been given, in response to a report that Bush felt he hadn’t been paid his due.

Grayson gave Bush credit for high gas prices and widespread lack of health insurance among other societal ills, calling him “the worst president of my lifetime.” Then he said that former alcoholic Bush “might’ve been passed out drunk for the last three or four days.”

Watch the clip below, which originally aired on MSNBC’s The Ed Show on May 6, 2011.

Full Story Here: Grayson: Bush has probably been ‘passed out drunk’ since Osama bin Laden kill  | Raw Replay.

Two Muslim Men Kicked Off Airplane, Were Going To Conference About Tolerance

Last night, two Muslim men were removed from a plane departing from Tennessee and set to arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both the men were dressed in traditional Muslim garb, which made the pilot uncomfortable and caused him to refuse to fly them to their destination:

Two Muslim men were removed from a plane headed to North Carolina…the Council on American-Islamic Relations said. The incident occurred Friday on a flight from Tennessee to North Carolina.

Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul were wearing the traditional Muslim attire, CNN affiliate WCNC reported.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Two Muslim Men Kicked Off Airplane, Were Going To Conference About Tolerance.

U.S. tries to assassinate U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki

Glenn Greenwald :-:

That Barack Obama has continued the essence of the Bush/Cheney Terrorism architecture was once a provocative proposition but is now so self-evident that few dispute it (watch here as arch-neoconservative David Frum — Richard Perle’s co-author for the supreme 2004 neocon treatise — waxes admiringly about Obama’s Terrorism and foreign policies in the Muslim world and specifically its “continuity” with Bush/Cheney). But one policy where Obama has gone further than Bush/Cheney in terms of unfettered executive authority and radical war powers is the attempt to target American citizens for assassination without a whiff of due process. As The New York Times put it last April:

It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing, officials said. A former senior legal official in the administration of George W. Bush said he did not know of any American who was approved for targeted killing under the former president. . . .

That Obama was compiling a hit list of American citizens was first revealed in January of last year when The Washington Post’s Dana Priest mentioned in passing at the end of a long article that at least four American citizens had been approved for assassinations; several months later, the Obama administration anonymously confirmed to both the NYT and the Post that American-born, U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was one of the Americans on the hit list.

Full Story Here: U.S. tries to assassinate U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com.

Wis. Dems Alleging GOP Fraud In Recalls

Wisconsin Democrats, who are seeking to win a majority in the state Senate through recalls against six incumbent Republicans, have filed a challenge to Republican efforts to recall three Dems, alleging that vast levels of fraud will disqualify the Republican recall efforts against Democrats.

The Dems had previously announced that they would file such a challenge, citing stories of voters being misled into signing petitions. The Dems also alleged that Republican signature-gatherers were brought in from out of state and paid on a per-signature basis.

The Dems rolled rolled out their official complaint on Thursday, after making phone calls to almost 1,800 petition-signers, and acquiring affidavits from signers who say they were falsely told that the petitions were for other things — such as supporting a local park, recalling a Republican state senator in a different district, or recalling Gov. Scott Walker.

Full Story Here: Wis. Dems Alleging GOP Fraud In Recalls | TPMDC.

Republicans Push Back On Obama Plan To Force Disclosure Of Political Contributions

Republicans are predictably pushing back against President Obama’s proposed executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political donations to third-party groups.

House GOP leaders and 19 other Republicans sent a letter to Obama Friday urging him not to issue the executive order, arguing it would introduce politics into the federal-government contracting practice and stifle political speech.

“This proposed EO seems like a blatant attempt to intimidate, and potentially silence certain speakers who are engaged in their constitutionally protected right to free speech,” the House Republicans wrote.

Full Story Here: Republicans Push Back On Obama Plan To Force Disclosure Of Political Contributions | TPMDC.

Thanks to Decades of Conservative Spin, Americans Are Hopelessly Confused About Taxes, Spending and the Deficit

Conservatives have spent 30 years divorcing the taxes we pay from the services they finance — no wonder the public doesn’t know where their tax dollars go.

A few weeks back, Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, felt compelled to take time out of what is presumably a busy schedule to explain that “taxes are, first and foremost, about paying for what the government buys.” That he felt compelled to do so is a sad reflection of the state of our economic discourse.

A good number of Americans are hopelessly confused about taxes, deficits and the debt. And it’s no mystery why – conservatives have spent 30 years divorcing the taxes we pay from the services they finance. They’ve bent themselves into intellectual pretzels arguing that cutting taxes – on the wealthy – leads to more revenues in the coffers. They’ve invented narratives about taxes driving “producers” to sunnier climes, killing jobs by the bushel, and relentlessly spun the wholly false notion that we’re facing “runaway spending” and are “taxed to death.”

And they’ve had great success. But they haven’t done it alone – credit the media with an assist for muddying the waters around our fiscal situation. Consider a poll released this week by the highly respected Gallup organization. Their headline reads, “Americans Blame Wasteful Government Spending for Deficit.” Is that true? Well, here were the options – the only options – that respondents were offered:

Full Story Here: Thanks to Decades of Conservative Spin, Americans Are Hopelessly Confused About Taxes, Spending and the Deficit | Economy | AlterNet.

Wisconsin Republicans rush agenda before recalls

Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker and GOP leaders have launched a push to ram several years’ worth of conservative agenda items through the Legislature this spring before recall elections threaten to end the party’s control of state government.

Republicans, in a rapid sequence of votes over the next eight weeks, plan to legalize concealed weapons, deregulate the telephone industry, require voters to show photo identification at the polls, expand school vouchers and undo an early release for prisoners.

Lawmakers may also act again on Walker’s controversial plan stripping public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights. An earlier version, which led to massive protest demonstrations at the Capitol, has been left in limbo by legal challenges.

Full Story Here: Wisconsin Republicans rush agenda before recalls.

Shock doctrine: “Shock Doctrine” economics ruining America

WARNING: Reading Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” will disturb your sleep and haunt your waking hours. If you’re a real American, it will make you want to scream — and do something to put “the bad guys” in their place. Everyone — especially Milton-Friedman, free-market lovers like Kingsley Guy — should read “Shock.” If enough people do so, it could save the country. If they don’t, our democratic/representative government and capitalism will be permanently replaced by the un-American, corporate-socialist state that has already taken hold — and it will be our own fault.

For 50 years, laissez-faire economist Friedman and his apostles at the University of Chicago have spread a doctrine based upon “the elimination of the public sphere, total liberation for corporations and skeletal social spending,” according to Klein. Even worse is how they do it: For Friedman and his minions, widespread disasters (natural and man-made) are opportunities to make money. While victims are really or figuratively bleeding, too shocked to realize what’s happening, in cahoots with lapdog governments, they impose “deregulation, privatization, and cutbacks” on economies as the formula for recovery. Promising prosperity for all, they deliver widespread poverty and oppression.

From Chile in 1973 to Sri Lanka after the 2005 tsunami, Russia after the Soviet Union collapse, South Africa after apartheid — in country after country, Klein “rips away the ‘free-trade’ and globalization ideologies that disguise a conspiracy to privatize war and disaster and grab public property for the rich few,” says Chalmers Johnson.

Full Story Here: Shock doctrine: “Shock Doctrine” economics ruining America – South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com.

Do Red State Republicans Want More Divorces, STDs and Abortions? Their Policies Suggest “Yes”

At the state level, the GOP’s attacks on reproductive rights may widen the already huge gulf between red and blue states in health, family stability, and education.

Republicans lost the first battle in their newly invigorated war on contraception and other health services for sexually active people, such as STD testing and treatment, when the Democrats called their bluff in the federal budget standoff. Planned Parenthood avoided the ax, but that doesn’t mean that Republicans are prepared to give up on doing everything in their power to separate women, especially low-income women, from access to contraception services. In lieu of cutting family planning subsidies on the federal level, Republicans have devised a plan to cut them on the state level, where they face fewer meddling pro-choice Democrats.

The strategy remains the same: Say the word “abortion” a lot, and use it to cut funding for contraception and other reproductive health services that aren’t abortion. Indiana kicked off the state-by-state strategy by banning Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding, using the usual abortion excuse, though none of the funding goes to abortion. Despite knowing that anti-discrimination laws would mean that this bill would end all family planning subsidies to the state, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed it anyway. Even though Republicans pretend to be cutting family planning spending more in sorrow than in joy, they still produce results for a right wing fringe that opposes not just abortion, but contraception, STD treatment, and preventing cervical cancer, all in the service of a religious belief that these are holy punishments for fornication.

Full Story Here: Do Red State Republicans Want More Divorces, STDs and Abortions? Their Policies Suggest “Yes” | Gender | AlterNet.

Healthy Herbs: Springtime Picks

Spring is the perfect time of year to enjoy the wonderful freshness of parsley and cilantro.

Not only do these traditional fresh herbs add flavor and color, but they also have special health benefits. While there are endless ways to enjoy these beautiful herbs, I have included a recipe and some easy tips below that take the mystery out of shopping for, cooking with and even growing fresh herbs.

As more people seek out a natural and organic lifestyle, fresh herbs have become a major food trend. Fresh parsley and cilantro are more available than ever, at the supermarket, the farmers market, and the natural food store.

Parsley and Cilantro Add Flavor and Beauty

And these two fresh herbs play a starring role on restaurant menus in Italian, Asian and Latin cuisine.

Full Story Here: Leo Galland, M.D.: Healthy Herbs: Springtime Picks.

Nearly Half Of Detroit’s Adults Are Functionally Illiterate, Report Finds

Detroit’s population fell by 25 percent in the last decade. And of those that stuck around, nearly half of them are functionally illiterate, a new report finds.

According to estimates by The National Institute for Literacy, roughly 47 percent of adults in Detroit, Michigan — 200,000 total — are “functionally illiterate,” meaning they have trouble with reading, speaking, writing and computational skills. Even more surprisingly, the Detroit Regional Workforce finds half of that illiterate population has obtained a high school degree.

The DRWF report places particular focus on the lack of resources available to those hoping to better educate themselves, with fewer than 10 percent of those in need of help actually receiving it. Only 18 percent of the programs surveyed serve English-language learners, despite 10 percent of the adult population of Detroit speaking English “less than very well.”

Full Story Here: Nearly Half Of Detroit’s Adults Are Functionally Illiterate, Report Finds.

Chinese-made Pharmaceuticals Pose Risks

Each day, tens of millions of Americans take medication to treat ailments and keep them healthy, but with more and more active pharmaceutical ingredients coming from China, some medicines could be having the opposite effect.

“With little realistic oversight, and more importantly, little ethos of business integrity in China, a major tragedy in the U.S. from a Chinese export is likely in the near future,” Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute writes.

In fact, Chinese authorities inspect each production facility once about every 13 years, according to Bate.

The lack of oversight poses a major problem for Americans that are required to take medicine. U.S. officials do not have the proper number of inspectors or the time to inspect and test all drugs entering the U.S. market. Oftentimes, they must take the word of suppliers that the drugs have been properly tested.

Full Story Here: Chinese-made Pharmaceuticals Pose Risks | Economy In Crisis.

The Real Cost of Gasoline

The American people are up in arms, rightly so, about the ever-increasing cost of gasoline in this country. In these tough economic times most people find themselves worrying more about how they will make it to the next fill-up.

According to CNNMoney.com, the price of gas nationwide now stands above $4 per gallon. Americans should not expect that to change any time in the near future.

In light of these facts we could all benefit from a bit of perspective. Oil prices are now well above $100 per barrel worldwide. Gasoline prices are now well above $4.00 per gallon here in the United States. However, both gas and oil are still very “cheap” when compared to any other commodity on this planet.

Oil is quite literally the most important resource on the planet. It has been the deciding factor in international military and diplomatic policy making for more than 100 years. The First World War was decided by oil. The Second World War was fought for oil. Most of the jockeying between the U.S. and the USSR during the Cold War was centered on gaining access to oil-rich partners.

Full Story Here: The Real Cost of Gasoline | Economy In Crisis.

America is Shutting Down

 

 

“When people lose everything, and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” – Gerald Celente

Publisher’s Preface: I urgently suggest that you meet with your friends, neighbors and congressional representatives to discuss this article. It is obvious that we cannot continue like this. Ask your representatives what he or she can do to work in the best interest of the country and right our current wrongs.

America is shutting down. Our political system is flawed and no longer benefits Americans. Our priorities have been completely displaced.

How could we be so careless as to let the the U.S. descend in so short a time from being a wealthy and productive nation to one controlled by lobbyists, living on imports, selling our companies to our foreign competitors and living on ever increasing debt.

Full Story Here: America is Shutting Down | Economy In Crisis.

Why Washington Should Pay Attention to the Economy Here and Now

Robert Reich :- :

After a week of non-stop Osama Bin Laden, Washington is now returning to the battle of the budget deficit and debt ceiling.

All over Capitol Hill Republicans and Democrats are debating spending caps and automatic triggers, and whether to begin them before or after Election Day.

But if you don’t mind my asking, what about the economy? I’m not talking about the economy five or ten years from now, when projections show the federal budget wildly out of control or when foreigners might start dumping dollars.

I’m talking about the here and now economy – the one Americans are living in day to day.

Full Story Here: Robert Reich (Why Washington Should Pay Attention to the Economy Here and Now).

Billionaires Against Bull, Going from Charity to Justice

Ralph Nader :-:

On the evening of May 4, a day before he was to join dozens of billionaires convened by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in Phoenix, Arizona to discuss how they might spend over half their wealth for “good works,” media entrepreneur, peace advocate and environmentalist, Ted Turner joined another billionaire, Peter B. Lewis (chairman of Progressive Insurance) and me at the New York Public Library to discuss a similar topic. C-SPAN covered the event.

The event was titled “Billionaires Against Bull, Going from Charity to Justice.” It was a far-ranging exchange before an audience as civically committed as some of the notables who were there, including Lewis Lapham of Lapham’s Quarterly, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Victor Navasky (Columbia Journalism School), Patti Smith (singer, poet and author), Mark Green (author of Losing Our Democracy), and Eugene Jarecki, (documentary film maker (“Why We Fight) and author of The American Way of War.

The launching point for our discourse was my work of political fiction “Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!” Turner and Lewis were two of seventeen real, very rich persons, led by Warren Buffett, who in fictional roles decided to put their money, contacts and facilities behind a mass mobilization of the people to effect long-overdue redirections.

Full Story Here: Billionaires Against Bull, Going from Charity to Justice | Common Dreams.

Unlimited Secret Money Is Drowning democratic Elections

Corporate interests are flouting election law by using anonymous donations, which are drowning out the voices and votes of working Americans.

The 2012 presidential election year promises to be the most expensive ever and unless the Department of Justice does its job, it also promises to be have the most anonymous campaign donations in U.S. history. Unknown corporate interests will fund massive advertising campaigns against and for candidates but the voters will not know who they are or their real agenda. The Obama administration can prevent this further corruption of U.S. democracy by enforcing existing laws.

In the last mid-term elections we saw the evolution of a new form of campaign funding that avoided the disclosure requirements of the Federal Election campaign Law (FECA). The new approach was masterminded by Karl Rove and former Republican Party leaders through American Crossroads GPS. They created a non-profit organization under 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code — organizations that are not supposed to be primarily involved in elections — and used it to raise tens of millions in secret donations. In total, nearly $150 million was spent by these (c)(4) groups leaving voters in the dark as to the personal interests of the donors. We can expect that to more than double in 2012 if existing laws are not enforced. Indeed Rove has announced his group alone intends to raise $120 million for 2012.

Full Story Here: Unlimited Secret Money Is Drowning Democratic Elections | | AlterNet.

Cancer stage of Reaganomics?

Thom Hartmann’s daily take.

Memphis, Tennessee Floods 2011: Nearly 1,000 Homes Urged To Evacuate

The Coast Guard closed a section of the swollen Mississippi to barge traffic to protect a Missouri town from floodwaters Friday as police in Memphis went door to door urging residents to leave nearly 1,000 homes that could be swamped by the mighty river.

Emergency workers handed out bright yellow fliers in English and Spanish that read, “Evacuate!!! Your property is in danger right now.”

All the way south into the Mississippi Delta, people faced the question of whether to stay or go as high water kept on rolling down the Mississippi and its tributaries, threatening to soak communities over the next week or two. The flooding has already broken high-water records that have stood since the 1930s.

Full Story Here: Memphis, Tennessee Floods 2011: Nearly 1,000 Homes Urged To Evacuate.

Liberal Group’s Video Campaign Assails Koch Brothers

The liberal guerrilla video group Brave New Foundation on Wednesday began what it says will be a prolonged political attack against the industrialist Koch family, which has become synonymous with the anti-Obama conservative movement.

The campaign marks yet another step toward conspicuousness for a family whose political activity was largely in the shadows until last year, when a New Yorker article outlined the support David H. Koch and his brother Charles ave given to various conservative research institutes and groups, including some associated with the Tea Party movement.

The campaign is going right to where the Kochs live, literally. A Brave New Foundation crew filmed outside five of the Kochs’ multimillion-dollar homes: in Manhattan; Southampton, N.Y.; Aspen, Colo; Palm Beach, Fla.; and Wichita, Kan.

Full Story Here: Liberal Group’s Video Campaign Assails Koch Brothers – NYTimes.com.

Shark Fin Ban Proposal Stirs Controversy In San Francisco

A California proposal to outlaw the title ingredient in shark fin soup, a traditional Chinese delicacy, has turned into a recipe for controversy in San Francisco, a city that is nearly one-third Asian and home to the nation’s oldest Chinatown.

A bill moving through the state Legislature would ban the sale, distribution and possession of shark fins. State and federal laws prohibit shark finning in U.S. waters but do not address the importation of fins from other countries.

Supporters say shark finning is inhumane and a threat to the ocean ecosystem. They say an estimated 73 million sharks a year are slaughtered, mainly for shark fin soup, which can sell for more than $80 a bowl and is often served at weddings and banquets.

Full Story Here: Shark Fin Ban Proposal Stirs Controversy In San Francisco.

Eric Holder To Fraud Squad: Oil Price Plunge Should Benefit Consumers

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent a memo to the federal agencies involved in the president’s new Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group on Friday, urging them to take close look at the recent plunge in oil prices. The crude oil market fell 10 percent Thursday in a record sell-off.

The sharp drop came amid concerns from several experts that excessive speculation in commodities markets was driving up gas prices for consumers. As Bart Chilton, a top regulator at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has repeatedly noted, the number of speculative bets on oil and food are at record levels.

The CFTC and Justice Department have had authority to monitor fraud and manipulation in the oil markets for decades. But President Barack Obama created the new oil market fraud squad in April to provide enhanced regulatory scrutiny of potential fraud and manipulation in the oil futures and derivatives markets.

Full Story Here: Eric Holder To Fraud Squad: Oil Price Plunge Should Benefit Consumers.

Study: Global warming has already reduced harvests

Climate change has stunted the worldwide increase in corn and wheat yields since 1980 by 3.8 and 5.5 percent respectively, according to a new study in the journal Science.

Without global warming, total harvests of both crops would have been significantly larger than they were, the statistical analysis found.

The shortfall equals the annual yield of corn in Mexico, some 23 metric tonnes, and wheat in France, about 33 metric tonnes.

Full Story Here: Study: Global warming has already reduced harvests | The Raw Story.

Lawrence O’Donnell and Condi Rice at loggerheads in testy interview

On last night’s “Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell”, Condoleezza Rice stood firm on the Bush administration’s actions in Iraq. The discussion got quite heated at points with Rice repeatedly threatening to end the interview and O’Donnell accusing her of evading his questions.

Watch the video, from MSNBC, below:

Full Story Here: Lawrence O’Donnell and Condi Rice at loggerheads in testy interview | Raw Replay.

U.S. Taxes At Lowest Level Since 1958

According to congressional Republicans and Tea Partiers, Americans are already overtaxed and contemplating any increase in government revenue, even from the richest Americans, would be unfair. “How high do taxes have to go to satisfy the appetite of people in this Congress to spend money?” asked Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) this week. However, the numbers show that the economic recession and a decade of tax cuts have resulted in some of the lowest taxes of the post-war period. According to a new USA Today analysis, personal taxes — including federal and local — are at their lowest level since 1958:

Americans are paying the smallest share of their income for taxes since 1958, a reflection of tax cuts and a weak economy, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

The total tax burden — for all federal, state and local taxes — dropped to 23.6% of income in the first quarter, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » U.S. Taxes At Lowest Level Since 1958.

Senate Republicans Introduce Bill To Abolish The EPA

Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, established 40 years ago by President Richard Nixon to give Americans clean air and water. The bill, introduced by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), would merge the EPA, which enforces environmental laws, with the Department of Energy, which manages nuclear energy and energy research, into one department.

Burr’s statement announcing his bill to eliminate the EPA argues that “duplicative functions” can be eliminated, even though the two departments are completely different:

U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) introduced a bill that would consolidate the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency into a single, new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). The bill would provide cost savings by combining duplicative functions while improving the administration of energy and environmental policies by ensuring a coordinated approach.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Senate Republicans Introduce Bill To Abolish The EPA.

OPS:  Let’s not forget that it was Nixon that created the EPA (with some push from the Democrats at the time)

Huckabee: Reagan Would Have A ‘Very Difficult, If Not Impossible Time’ Getting Nominated Today

ThinkProgress has spent the past two years documenting the GOP’s ideological lurch to the right under President Obama, as evidenced most recently by last night’s GOP presidential debate featuring mostly fringe candidates and a pre-debate rally sponsored by extremist groups like the Oath Keepers militia and the paranoid anti-communist John Birch Society. Meanwhile, a heightened demand for ideological purity has forced GOP leaders to kowtow to an increasingly relevant and legitimized fringe. The result is a conservative agenda that is far more radical today than it was decades ago.

Potential presidential candidate Mike Huckabee acknowledged this shift on Fox News today, telling host Bill Hemmer that even former President Reagan, the great conservative icon, would likely be unable to win a GOP primary in the current Republican “atmosphere”:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Huckabee: Reagan Would Have A ‘Very Difficult, If Not Impossible Time’ Getting Nominated Today.

After Citizens United, Conservative Undisclosed Donors Spent 8 Times As Much As Liberal Ones In 2010 Election

Last year, in perhaps the “most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades,” the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) invalidated a sixty-three year-old ban on corporate and union money directly funding individual candidates in federal elections. The SCOTUS decision sent shockwaves throughout our democracy, with many fearing that it would lead to an overwhelming amount of corporate money flooding out the voices of ordinary people.

Now, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has put out a comprehensive analysis to assess the flood of campaign money in last year’s election. One of the most shocking results of the analysis finds that the decision appeared to have a sharply partisan and ideological result. The group found that spending by Super PACs and all outside spending strongly tilted towards conservatives, and that spending by undisclosed donors actually was eight times higher for conservatives than liberals, with conservatives spending $119.6 million to liberals’ $15.7 million:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » After Citizens United, Conservative Undisclosed Donors Spent 8 Times As Much As Liberal Ones In 2010 Election.

After Subprime Schools Fundraised For Chairman Kline, They Gave Him Another $21,200 Before Crucial Vote

The for-profit higher education industry, known as subprime schools for their rampant abuses and systematic fraud, is fighting back aggressively against proposed regulations from the Department of Education. The rules call for schools to show that a higher percentage of their students actually gain employment after graduation in order for for-profit school companies to qualify for taxpayer money. As we have reported extensively, subprime colleges have hired an army of lobbyists and have declared “war” against reform advocates.

House Education Committee Chairman Rep. John Kline (R-MN) has been the industry’s best friend. Kline repeatedly slipped provisions into House spending bills to restrict the Department of Education from implementing more oversight over subprime schools. Kline pushed the effort, essentially a bailout to a multi-billion dollar industry that receives ninety percent of its money from the government, while industry lobbyists astroturfed support on Capitol Hill.

With the release of first quarter campaign donations, an examination of Federal Elections Commission disclosures by the Wonk Room has found that Kline received nearly $50,000 from for-profit colleges so far this year. Notably, on March 15, 2011, two days before the House passed his amendment against the Department of Education, Kline received $21,200 from the same companies:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » After Subprime Schools Fundraised For Chairman Kline, They Gave Him Another $21,200 Before Crucial Vote.

Texas Passes ‘Emergency’ Anti-Abortion Bill Requiring Women To See Sonogram 24 Hours Before An Abortion

Yesterday, the Texas Legislature passed legislation requiring doctors to perform a sonogram at least 24 hours before an abortion and to describe what the sonogram shows. Only in cases of rape, incest, or fetal abnormality is a woman allowed to bypass that requirement. Texas is facing it’s worst budget crisis since World War II. But apparently, with the nation racing to restrict women’s rights as much as humanly possible, Gov. Texas Perry (R) dubbed this anti-abortion bill as an “emergency priority” to fast-track its passage:

Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, stands behind the controversial measure. While different versions of the proposal were under debate earlier this year, Perry regarded the legislation as an emergency priority.

“Ensuring Texans have access to all the information when making such an important decision is a critical step in our efforts to protect life, and I look forward to this legislation reaching my desk very soon,” said Perry in a statement earlier this week, lauding the state legislature for advancing the measure.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Texas Passes ‘Emergency’ Anti-Abortion Bill Requiring Women To See Sonogram 24 Hours Before An Abortion.

Obama Administration Plans Corporate Tax Cut in Year of Record Profits

As nationwide budget protests continue this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is prepared to unveil the Obama administration’s plan to lower the top corporate tax rate from the current 35 percent to less than 30 percent, and as low as 26 percent.

n order to pay for the cuts, the proposal calls for closing loopholes and slashing exemptions. Politico reports that Geithner has already begun meeting privately with CEOs, academics, labor unions, and liberal and conservative think tanks, and his aides say he is “encouraged by the response.”

Part of that optimism stems from the fact that Democrats and Republicans are both allies of the business world.

One top business lobbyist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said corporate tax reform should be “the easiest piece” of a complex fiscal bargain “because you have people in both parties in the business community.”

Meanwhile, the number of people who filed new applications for jobless benefits leaped 43,000 last week to 474,000, the highest level in almost nine months.

Full Story Here: Obama Administration Plans Corporate Tax Cut in Year of Record Profits | The Nation.

The Right Wing Renews its Ongoing War on a Fair and Free Media

Len Hart,

The U.S. right wing will not be happy until every American is reduced to a mere ‘consuming’ machine, a unit, into which is fed the most absurd lies, the most outrageous right-wing rewrites of history, the most transparent pre-texts for war, aggression, oil theft, ongoing deprivations of civil liberties. As wealth is transferred upward to what is now a ruling elite of just one percent of the entire population, we are expected to concede our last redoubt: ‘our’ media!

Krasnow: “The spectrum is there whether it is used or not; only when it is enhanced by the use of broadcasters and others does it have any value at all to the public.”

–Former FCC Counsel Erwin Krasnow Calls For End To ‘Public Ownership Of Airwaves’ Standard

The latest outrage is the more recent reprise of the right wing’s ongoing attack on what had been the people’s airwaves, the people’s media, the people’s right to know and its implicit corollary: the people’s right to be told the truth!

Full Story Here: The Existentialist Cowboy: The Right Wing Renews its Ongoing War on a Fair and Free Media.

Top Government Insider: Bin Laden Died In 2001, 9/11 A False Flag

Top US government insider Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik, a man who held numerous different influential positions under three different Presidents and still works with the Defense Department, shockingly told The Alex Jones Show yesterday that Osama Bin Laden died in 2001 and that he was prepared to testify in front of a grand jury how a top general told him directly that 9/11 was a false flag inside job.

Pieczenik cannot be dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist”. He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under three different administrations, Nixon, Ford and Carter, while also working under Reagan and Bush senior, and still works as a consultant for the Department of Defense. A former US Navy Captain, Pieczenik achieved two prestigious Harry C. Solomon Awards at the Harvard Medical School as he simultaneously completed a PhD at MIT.

Recruited by Lawrence Eagleburger as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Management, Pieczenik went on to develop, “the basic tenets for psychological warfare, counter terrorism, strategy and tactics for transcultural negotiations for the US State Department, military and intelligence communities and other agencies of the US Government,” while also developing foundational strategies for hostage rescue that were later employed around the world.

Full Story Here: » Top Government Insider: Bin Laden Died In 2001, 9/11 A False Flag Alex Jones’ Infowars: There’s a war on for your mind!.

The International Assault on Labor

Noam Chomsky : – :

In most of the world, May Day is an in­ter­nation­al work­ers’ holiday, bound up with the bi­tt­er 19th-century struggle of American work­ers for an eight-hour day. The May Day just past leads to somb­er re­flec­tion.

A de­cade ago, a use­ful word was co­ined in honor of May Day by rad­ical Italian labor ac­tiv­ists: “pre­car­ity.” It re­fer­red at first to the in­creasing­ly pre­cari­ous ex­ist­ence of work­ing peo­ple “at the mar­gins” – women, youth, mig­rants. Then it ex­pan­ded to apply to the grow­ing “pre­cariat” of the core labor force, the “pre­cari­ous pro­letariat” suf­fer­ing from the pro­grams of de­unioniza­tion, flexibiliza­tion and de­regula­tion that are part of the as­sault on labor throug­hout the world.

By that time, even in Europe there was mount­ing con­cern about what labor his­torian Ronal­do Munck, cit­ing Ul­rich Beck, calls the “Brazilianiza­tion of the West – the spread of tem­pora­ry and in­secure em­ploy­ment, dis­con­tinu­ity and loose in­for­mal­ity into Wes­tern societ­ies that have hit­herto been the bas­tions of full em­ploy­ment.”

Full Story Here: The International Assault on Labor | Truthout.

McCain: Waterboarding didn’t help

Sen. John McCain denounced “advanced interrogation” methods like waterboarding Wednesday amid a growing debate over its effectiveness reopened by the killing of Osama bin Laden.

McCain told reporters leaving an intelligence briefing for senators by CIA director Leon Panetta that he has seen no information so far to indicate that techniques like waterboarding factored significantly in the information gathering that led to bin Laden’s death.

“So far I know of no information that was obtained, that would have been useful, by ‘advanced interrogation.’ In fact, according to published reports … some of the key people who knew about this courrier denied it,” McCain said, careful to note that he was not relaying information from Panetta’s classified session with Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committee members.

Full Story Here: McCain: Waterboarding didn’t help – Meredith Shiner – POLITICO.com.

Fears and Failure

Paul Krugman: – :

From G.D.P. to private-sector payrolls, from business surveys to new claims for unemployment insurance, key economic indicators suggest that the recovery may be sputtering.

And it wasn’t much of a recovery to start with. Employment has risen from its low point, but it has grown no faster than the adult population. And the plight of the unemployed continues to worsen: more than six million Americans have been out of work for six months or longer, and more than four million have been jobless for more than a year.

It would be nice if someone in Washington actually cared.

It’s not as if our political class is feeling complacent. On the contrary, D.C. economic discourse is saturated with fear: fear of a debt crisis, of runaway inflation, of a disastrous plunge in the dollar. Scare stories are very much on politicians’ minds.

Full Story Here: Fears and Failure – NYTimes.com.

Expert Panel Calls For ‘Transforming US Agriculture’

A group of leading scientists, economists and farmers is calling for a broad shift in federal policies to speed the development of farm practices that are more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.

Writing in the journal Science, they say current policies focus on the production of a few crops and a minority of farmers while failing to address farming’s contribution to global warming, biodiversity loss, natural resource degradation, and public health problems.

“We have the technology and the science right now to grow food in sustainable ways, but we lack the policies and markets to make it happen,” says John Reganold, a Washington State University soil scientist and the Science paper’s lead author. Starting in the late 1980s, Reganold pioneered several widely cited side-by-side comparisons showing organic farming systems were more earth-friendly than conventional systems while producing more nutritious and sometimes tastier food. His Science co-authors include more than a dozen other leading soil, plant, and animal scientists, economists, sociologists, agroecologists and farmers.

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: Expert Panel Calls For ‘Transforming US Agriculture’.

The Assassination of Osama Bin Laden

Fueling Hatred and Revenge

By FIDEL CASTRO

Those persons who deal with these issues know that on September 11 of 2001 our people expressed its solidarity to the US people and offered the modest cooperation that in the area of health we could have offered to the victims of the brutal attack against the Twin Towers in New York.

We also immediately opened our country’s airports to the American airplanes that were unable to land anywhere, given the chaos that came about soon after the strike.

The traditional stand adopted by the Cuban Revolution, which was always opposed to any action that could jeopardize the life of civilians, is well known.

Although we resolutely supported the armed struggle against Batista’s tyranny, we were, on principle, opposed to any terrorist action that could cause the death of innocent people. Such behavior, which has been maintained for more than half a century, gives us the right to express our views about such a sensitive matter.

Full Story Here: Fidel Castro: The Assassination of Osama Bin Laden.

FBI says, it has “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”

This article is from 2006:

This past weekend, a thought provoking e-mail circulated through Internet news groups, and was sent to the Muckraker Report by Mr. Paul V. Sheridan (Winner of the 2005 Civil Justice Foundation Award), bringing attention to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist web page for Usama Bin Laden.[1] In the e-mail, the question is asked, “Why doesn’t Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted poster make any direct connection with the events of September 11, 2001?” The FBI says on its Bin Laden web page that Usama Bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998 bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. According to the FBI, these attacks killed over 200 people. The FBI concludes its reason for “wanting” Bin Laden by saying, “In addition, Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorists attacks throughout the world.”

On June 5, 2006, the Muckraker Report contacted the FBI Headquarters, (202) 324-3000, to learn why Bin Laden’s Most Wanted poster did not indicate that Usama was also wanted in connection with 9/11. The Muckraker Report spoke with Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on Bin Laden’s Most Wanted web page, Tomb said, “The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden’s Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.”

Surprised by the ease in which this FBI spokesman made such an astonishing statement, I asked, “How this was possible?” Tomb continued, “Bin Laden has not been formally charged in connection to 9/11.” I asked, “How does that work?” Tomb continued, “The FBI gathers evidence. Once evidence is gathered, it is turned over to the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice than decides whether it has enough evidence to present to a federal grand jury. In the case of the 1998 United States Embassies being bombed, Bin Laden has been formally indicted and charged by a grand jury. He has not been formally indicted and charged in connection with 9/11 because the FBI has no hard evidence connected Bin Laden to 9/11.”

Full Story Here: FBI says, it has “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11”.

Mexico Prepares for Massive National Protest on May 8

Next Sunday May 8, 2011, Mexican citizens will march to demand the end to the “War on Drugs” and the removal of all government officials responsible for more than 35,000 deaths and the increase of insecurity and corruption.

Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, who became the leading voice of the discontent towards the government’s method of tackling the drug trafficking problem after his son Juan Francisco was killed, is inviting all those who want ‘peace and justice’ to join the protests next Sunday.

Here is Javier Sicilia’s message in English:

Full Story Here: Mexico Prepares for Massive National Protest on May 8 · Global Voices.

The Christian Right Extremists Behind the GOP’s War on Women

Religious zealotry plays an equal if not more significant role in Tea Party politics than its obsession with budget deficits and government spending.

Last fall, when then-Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida aired a campaign ad calling his Republican opponent Daniel Webster “Taliban Dan,” a collective, dismissive groan rumbled from the political commentariat. “Has Alan Grayson gone too far?” pondered Politico. But the question, despite the ad’s shortcomings, should have been: Is Dan Webster, an evangelical Christian and staunch social conservative, too radical for the United States Congress?

Whatever the wisdom of using the term “Taliban Dan,” Grayson was onto something that should have, if properly examined, provided clues to the Republican-controlled Congress’ fixation with cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood. That such a question doesn’t get asked is a function of how Congress has already gone too far — and not in Grayson’s direction. The Webster campaign should have given ample evidence that the Tea Party was full of religious zealots bent on undermining the rights of women. By failing to fully interrogate so-called social conservatism and understand its religious motivations, the press and pundits continue to provide cover for candidates with an extreme agenda, which they’re far from finished carrying out.

Full Story Here: The Christian Right Extremists Behind the GOP’s War on Women | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet.

Both France and England may recognize Palestinian state

The French and British Prime Ministers both gave interviews Thursday morning that indicated their willingness to recognize a Palestinian state if peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians result in failure. The statements came in the midst of a diplomatic visit to both countries by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told Netanyahu that unless Israel engages in a real and meaningful peace process with the Palestinians, Britain would consider backing the declaration of a Palestinian state that the Palestinian President plans to make at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Nicholas Sarkozy, the French Prime Minister, spoke to reporters with the French weekly L’Express in advance of a meeting with the Israeli leader. Sarkozy told the reporters that he hoped the peace process would resume over the summer, but added that, “If, conversely, the peace process remains stalled in September, France will take responsibility on the central question of recognizing a Palestinian state.”

Full Story Here: Both France and England may recognize Palestinian state – International Middle East Media Center.

FDA Begins Unveiling New Food Safety Regs

Preparing to assert its new authority to protect the safety of the nation’s food supply, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rolled out two new regulations that will take effect this summer.

The new rules stem from greater power given the agency by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law by President Obama in January. The legislation is designed to up-date a U.S. food safety system which was decades old in the face of repeated outbreaks of e. coli, salmonella, and other pathogens found in a variety of foods in recent years.

Foodborne pathogens cause 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths annually, and may contribute to long-term disease in more than 1 million Americans, according to estimates by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Furthermore, the total economic impact of foodborne illness across the nation is estimated to be $152 billion annually, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: FDA Begins Unveiling New Food Safety Regs.

251 Members of Congress voted to “redefine rape.” Was yours one of them?

Extremists in House of Representatives voted to approve an anti-choice bill that would significantly restrict women’s access to abortion services and even “redefine rape.” The final vote was 251 – 175.

Before the vote, Mother Jones1 reported that even though Republicans removed controversial language from the bill which would have “redefined rape,” the House executed a backdoor maneuver that would allow them to deny federal funding for abortion even in a case involving incest and statutory rape.

Extremists were able to pass this bill in the House, but it is unlikely even to make it to the floor in the Senate. What’s more, President Obama has indicated he would veto the bill should it get to his desk.

Full Story Here: 251 Members of Congress voted to “redefine rape.” Was yours one of them?.

Small Business Owners Demand Repeal Of Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich

Michael Teahan, like his father, mother, and uncles before him, is a small business owner. The 52-year-old has spent most of his adult life running his own businesses: a restaurant, a coffee bar and various companies involved in the espresso machine business.

“I was the only person in my family to go to college, because that’s not what we did — we all opened up businesses,” Teahan says. “For some people, that’s a big hurdle … for us, it was like having lunch.”

Teahan currently operates Espresso Resource, a company that imports espresso machine parts from Europe to sell to U.S. restaurants and coffee shops. And he’s doing very well for himself: The two-man operation clears about $1 million a year in total sales, Teahan says — enough to secure himself annual income in excess of $250,000.

Full Story Here: Small Business Owners Demand Repeal Of Bush Tax Cuts For The Rich.

Your Medical Record is Likely for Sale, Doctors Warn

A national group of physicians says it’s fighting to allow patients to keep their medical records out of the hands of corporations who would use them for profit.

At issue is the case Sorrell v. IMS Health concerning the sale of patients’ prescription records by data mining companies. In challenging a Vermont statute that limits the sale of data for marketing purposes, IMS Health argues that there is a First Amendment right to harvest and sell medical records data. The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on April 26.

In a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the state of Vermont, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) argues that data mining is not speech, but rather conduct. It requires “heavy lifting” to analyze data and extract useful information. The right to profit from such activity is not protected by the First Amendment, the doctors’ organization contends

Full Story Here: The Washington Current: Your Medical Record is Likely for Sale, Doctors Warn.

US Knew Where Osama Was Since 2005

Cross and Double Cross With Gitmo Files

By ISRAEL SHAMIR

The unredacted Guantanamo files show clearly that the trail to Abbottabad was known to the US intelligence services at least since 2005, when al-Libi, another Abbottabad dweller, was captured.

Timing is everything. The US President announced killing of Osama bin Laden just as Wikileaks completed its publication of Guantanamo files. Was it coincidence? If not, what was the connection?

An answer to this question is directly connected with the cross and double cross accusations exchanged in the murky world where the intelligence services meet mainstream media.

Publication of the US secret papers, the Guantanamo Files, was done almost simultaneously by two competing media groups.

* One was the Wikileaks of Julian Assange and their partners The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, the French Le Monde.

*

Another one was The New York Times, The Guardian, the Israeli Haaretz.

The Guardian said of the files: “They were obtained by the New York Times, who shared them with the Guardian, which is publishing extracts today, having redacted information which might identify informants. The New York Times says the files were made available to it not by Wikileaks, but “by another source on the condition of anonymity”.

Full Story Here: Israel Shamir: US Knew Where Osama Was Since 2005.

The Right Wing Renews its Ongoing War on a Fair and Free Media

Len Hart,

The U.S. right wing will not be happy until every American is reduced to a mere ‘consuming’ machine, a unit, into which is fed the most absurd lies, the most outrageous right-wing rewrites of history, the most transparent pre-texts for war, aggression, oil theft, ongoing deprivations of civil liberties. As wealth is transferred upward to what is now a ruling elite of just one percent of the entire population, we are expected to concede our last redoubt: ‘our’ media!

Krasnow: “The spectrum is there whether it is used or not; only when it is enhanced by the use of broadcasters and others does it have any value at all to the public.”

–Former FCC Counsel Erwin Krasnow Calls For End To ‘Public Ownership Of Airwaves’ Standard

The latest outrage is the more recent reprise of the right wing’s ongoing attack on what had been the people’s airwaves, the people’s media, the people’s right to know and its implicit corollary: the people’s right to be told the truth!

Full Story Here: The Existentialist Cowboy: The Right Wing Renews its Ongoing War on a Fair and Free Media.

Seminar on Major Issues that Affect Our Economy and Country, Todays Issue: America is Shutting Down Part 1

America is shutting down. Our flawed political system no longer benefits Americans, and our priorities seem to have become completely displaced.

In a very short amount of time, we have allowed the U.S. to descend from being a wealthy and productive nation to the state we find ourselves today: living on imports, selling our companies to foreign competitors and crippled by our ever-increasing debt.

Our decline has been the result of decades of failed policies that are still running rampant:

Full Story Here: Seminar on Major Issues that Affect Our Economy and Country, Todays Issue: America is Shutting Down Part 1 | Economy In Crisis.

Can you pass an 8th grade civics test?

Only 20 percent of students who took last year’s NAEP were “proficient” in civics. See how you’d have done

“Responsible citizens of a constitutional democracy such as the United States should have adequate knowledge of the country’s principles and institutions, skills in applying this knowledge to civic life, and dispositions to protect individual rights and promote the common good.”

So begins the introduction to the summary report for 2010′s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which was released this morning. However, it turns out that, where civic knowledge is concerned, “the nation’s report card” does not actually look very encouraging. In fact, the average score for 8th graders on the NAEP was 151 out of 300 points — and only around 20 percent of students performed at or above the “proficient” level.

How well would you do if you took the test yourself? We’ve chosen 10 sample questions from the 8th-grade section of the NAEP’s website — some harder than others. Grab a pencil and get going! (Answers are below.)

Full Story Here: Can you pass an 8th grade civics test? – Education – Salon.com.

WI’s Supreme Court Election ‘Recount’ is a Mess

Wisconsin is no Minnesota.

Where Minnesota’s post-election hand count of the 2008 U.S. Senate election between then Sen. Norm Coleman and now Sen. Al Franken was, as we wrote at the UK’s Guardian at the time, “one of the longest and most transparent election hand-counts in the history of the US,” Wisconsin has made it extremely difficult (putting it nicely) to know what the hell is actually going on in their statewide “recount” of the April 5th, 2011 state Supreme Court election between Justice David Prosser and Asst. Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Where Minnesota’s chief election official, Sec. of State Mark Ritchie, oversaw a process to ensure that updated and accurate numbers were easily tracked and transparently shared with the media on a daily basis, Wisconsin’s chief election authority, their Government Accountability Board (G.A.B.), has posted (and even sometimes removed) confusing, misleading, and unclear updates, often with inaccurate information, on various schedules, and frequently with little or no explanation for wholesale changes and deletion of data.

Where Minnesota counted every vote by hand with full public scrutiny, including photographs and video cameras, Wisconsin is tabulating ballots, often by the same oft-failed, easily-manipulated computer systems that counted them in the first place, behind barriers that preclude broad public oversight, under an agreement between both campaigns which disallows the use of video cameras by observers.

Full Story Here: The BRAD BLOG : WI’s Supreme Court Election ‘Recount’ is a Mess.

Goldman Sachs ‘Totally Freaked Out’ About Volcker Rule, Lobbying Hard

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc has just a few more months to put its stamp on the Volcker rule, and it is not wasting any time.

The rule, designed to limit banks from speculating with their own money, will cost Goldman at least $3.7 billion in annual revenue, by one estimate. And billions more could be at stake if regulations now being drawn up are extra-tough.

The Volcker rule was one of the main topics on the agenda when Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein met recently with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro.

Full Story Here: Goldman Sachs ‘Totally Freaked Out’ About Volcker Rule, Lobbying Hard.

Dems To Force Vote On Oil Subsidies

Eager to prove that Republicans don’t want to end oil subsidies despite public GOP opposition, House Democrats plan to force a vote Thursday on a measure that would block a major tax break for the five largest oil companies.

As Republicans call for major cuts to domestic spending, Democrats are pushing for tax code changes that would allow the government to bring in more money, particularly from high-profit industries Democrats say do not pay their fair share. President Barack Obama and key Democrats have called for an end to some oil and gas subsidies, arguing gas prices are high enough to sustain industry investment in the United States.

John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell Oil, said in February that major oil companies do not need government help given the high price of gas.

Full Story Here: Dems To Force Vote On Oil Subsidies.

EXCLUSIVE: DOJ plan to arrest state licensers, tax dispensaries could doom medical marijuana industry

A recent letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ), threatening state employees in charge of implmenting medical marijuana laws with prosecution, has forced some governors to re-evaluate and even veto popular legislation — all seemingly in violation of what the medical marijauana community thought was a cease-fire with the federal government.

Facing the threat of seeing otherwise innocent state employees thrown in jail, lawmakers are responding in an entirely human fashion: what Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), called “the old need to CYA — cover your ass.”

Ultimately, the administration’s confusing legal position has led to a stagnation of medical marijuana reform efforts, with some states simply deciding it’s not worth the risk.

Full Story Here: EXCLUSIVE: DOJ plan to arrest state licensers, tax dispensaries could doom medical marijuana industry | The Raw Story.

Income Inequality In U.S. Worse Than Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Ethiopia

As ThinkProgress has repeatedly noted, crucial services and public investments for Main Street America are being gutted as taxes on the richest Americans are the lowest they’ve been in a generation. Yet many Americans may not know exactly how unfair this is, as the country has grown increasingly unequal at the same time. Using data from the CIA Factbook based on the Gini coefficient — a measure of income inequality within a society — ThinkProgress has assembled the following graph, which demonstrates that the United States is now about as economically unequal as Uganda and more unequal than countries like Pakistan or the Ivory Coast:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » GRAPH: Income Inequality In U.S. Worse Than Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Ethiopia.

Report: States’ War On Planned Parenthood Guts Other Health And Nutrition Programs For Women And Children

The 2010 conservative tidal wave has thrust the nation into an open era of anti-choice zealotry. Nearly 1,000 anti-choice bills are advancing through GOP-led state houses nationwide — their absurdity matched only by the House GOP’s No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion bill which will be voted on later today. At the epicenter of this anti-choice maelstrom is Planned Parenthood, a women’s health organization that provides vital services like STD tests and treatment, cancer screenings, and contraception to low-income women. Only 3 percent of their work is abortion services and, per federal law, no public funds go towards that service.

But the mere idea of abortions has been enough to spur an all out campaign to gut the organization by any means necessary. Indeed, picking up where the House GOP left off, Indiana is set to become the first state to defund Planned Parenthood with Kansas and several other states not too far behind. But, in their crusade to eviscerate Planned Parenthood, states like Indiana, Texas, and Oklahoma are willing to accept a great number of low-income women and children as collateral damage:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Report: States’ War On Planned Parenthood Guts Other Health And Nutrition Programs For Women And Children.

Former CIA Interrogator: Painstaking Intelligence Work, Not Torture, Responsible For Bin Laden Capture

Shortly after President Obama announced that U.S. military forces killed Osama bin Laden, right-wing torture apologists seized the opportunity, stating, without any definitive evidence whatsoever, that information gleaned from torturing Al Qaeda detainees led to bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan. While reliable sources, such as Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said this week that the information did not come from torture (or to use the Bush administration’s term “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”), at this point it is at best unclear how this information was obtained.

What if a tiny piece of information that led to bin Laden came from torture or EITs? Today, Glenn Carle — who served 23 years in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and for a time led the interrogation of a high value detainee — told ThinkProgress that if it the answer is yes, the right-wing will use that and say, “See torture works.” While Carle said it’s possible that EITs might provide information, that doesn’t mean they should ever be used:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Former CIA Interrogator: Painstaking Intelligence Work, Not Torture, Responsible For Bin Laden Capture.

House GOP Unanimously Passes Anti-Abortion Bill

In a 251 to 175 vote this evening, 16 anti-choice Democrats joined every House Republican present in passing H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act. A chief weapon in the House GOP’s “comprehensive assault” on women this bill proposes some of the most radical and draconian restrictions on women’s rights. They include:

– Redefinition Of Rape: The bill sponsor Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) faced serious backlash after he tried to narrow the definition rape to “forcible rape.” By narrowing the rape and incest exception in the Hyde Amendment, Smith sought to prevent the following situations from consideration: Women who say no but do not physically fight off the perpetrator, women who are drugged or verbally threatened and raped, and minors impregnated by adults.

Smith promised to remove the language and while it is not technically in the bill, Mother Jones reports that House Republicans used “a sly legislative maneuver” to insert a “backdoor reintroduction” of redefinition language. Essentially, if the bill is challenged in court, judges will look at the congressional committee report to determine intent. The committee report for H.R. 3 says the bill will “not allow the Federal Government to subsidize abortions in cases of statutory rape” — thus excluding statutory rape-related abortions from Medicaid coverage.

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » House GOP Unanimously Passes Anti-Abortion Bill That Redefines Rape, Raises Taxes, And Creates Rape Audits.

– Redefinition Of Rape:

– Tax Increase On Women And Small Businesses:

– Rape Audits:

The 12 Worst (and Most Powerful) Christian Right Groups

The Religious Right in America is lavishly funded and politically well connected. These groups raise more than three-quarters of a billion dollars annually, mostly tax-exempt.

The Religious Right in America is lavishly funded and politically well connected. While the men who lead the fundamentalist Christian political movement hold different opinions about theology, they share a deep and abiding hostility to the separation of church and state. They seek to inject religion into public schools, obtain taxpayer funding for religious schools and other ministries, roll back reproductive choice and deny civil rights to gay people. And they enjoy extraordinary influence in Washington, D.C., and in many state legislatures.

What follows is a survey of some of the nation’s leading Religious Right organizations. Collectively, these groups raise more than three-quarters of a billion dollars annually, the bulk of it tax-exempt. Budget figures are from public tax documents and are the most recent available, in most cases from 2009 and 2010.

Full Story Here: The 12 Worst (and Most Powerful) Christian Right Groups | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet.

Photo ID bill advances in Wisconsin Capitol

Republicans on an Assembly committee approved a bill Tuesday to require people to show photo ID to vote, but Democrats ripped the measure because few if any existing college IDs could be used for voting.

Republicans who control the Legislature plan to pass the measure as early as next week. GOP Gov. Scott Walker supports requiring photo ID to vote.

To make its IDs compliant with the requirements of the Assembly bill, the University of Wisconsin-Madison would have to put addresses on them. UW officials are reluctant to do that because the IDs include magnetic strips that open doors to dorm rooms, and students would be at risk of break-ins if they lost them.

Full Story Here: Photo ID bill advances in Capitol – JSOnline.

United States Ranks At The Bottom In Total Taxation

The statistics in this article creates a problem for Republicans who consistently blame taxes going up as a reason for job loss and credit taxes going down as a reason for job creation. It turns out that out of all 34 OECD countries, the United States ranks 32nd out of 34 in the world, only 2 countries have lower taxes than the United States, and they are Mexico and Chile. The highest taxed country in Denmark at 48.2% but has an unemployment rate of 4.3% in 2009

The United States citizens’ total tax bill equals 24% of GDP in 2009. The 2009 statistics is still relevant today, because the US tax code has not really changed overall. In fact the GDP of the United States has actually grown since 2009, thus today’s percentage of taxation to GDP ratio is even smaller.

Measuring taxation in parallel to GDP is a good analogy because the Republican and conservative argument that every dollar that is taxed is dollar taken out of circulation in the economy, thus halts job growth. This of course is a false premise to begin with, but we will use their own logic in this article.

Full Story Here: United States Ranks At The Bottom In Total Taxation.

Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. Bring the Troops Home.

After 10 years of war and the death of Osama bin Laden, it’s time to bring the troops home from Afghanistan. With al-Qaeda driven from the country and Bin Laden now dead, the rationale for war has evaporated. It’s time to stop now.

The swift withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan must begin immediately.

Bring them home.

Sign our petition and we’ll deliver it to the White House this week.

We’ve received tens of thousands of signatures in just 24 hours, and we’ve caught the attention of Washington, D.C. Here’s what U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) had to say about it on Democracy Now! today:

“[T]his petition…really does give us the wind beneath our wings that we need here in Congress to begin to exercise our leadership responsibilities and to say no more combat operation in Afghanistan. And so, I really want to commend Robert and all those who have begun this.”

With Bin Laden dead and al-Qaeda driven from Afghanistan, there’s no good reason to continue spending $2 billion a week on this war.

Please join the tens of thousands of others calling for the return of our troops to the U.S. after the death of Osama Bin Laden. Sign our petition today.

Sincerely,

Derrick Crowe, Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team

Full Story Here: Osama Bin Laden Is Dead. Bring the Troops Home..

Why Ayn Rand and Her Legion of Followers Are Hopelessly Wrong

The entire story of America’s 19th-century railroad boom was the exact opposite of what Rand’s ideology imagines.

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.” – John Rogers, Kung Fu Monkey

The reviews of Atlas Shrugged (Part 1) are in, and “brutal” doesn’t begin to describe them. Phrases like “barely professional,” “sterile and lifeless” and “watered-down, uninspired bilge” abound in reviews that often say, “I don’t much care for Ayn Rand’s ideas, but even she doesn’t deserve this!” Even a positive review in Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post called the film, “a bit stiff in the joints and acted by an undistinguished cast amid TV-movie trappings.”

But sheer incompetence is what we’ve come to expect from ideologues, and a close look at how the book’s (and movie’s) premise stacks up against reality can help remind us why. Atlas Shrugged‘s rugged Randian individualist heroine, Dagny Taggert, is a determined builder of super-trains who faces an endless parade of corrupt bureaucrats, politicians and unions standing in her way. In reality, supertrains were part of Obama’s undersized stimulus package, which the Randian right savaged with a vengeance. Republican governors across the land turned down billions of federal construction dollars, with high-speed trains one of their favorite targets for destruction. Even before taking office, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker killed an $800 million high-speed rail grant, a move estimated to cost the state around $100 million in preexisting commitments. They really don’t like supertrains.

Full Story Here: Why Ayn Rand and Her Legion of Followers Are Hopelessly Wrong | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet.

Salmonella fears spark grape tomato recall

Salmonella fears have sparked the recall of grape tomatoes used in prepared foods sold in 13 states.

The tomatoes – used in salads and other products – were sold by Albertson’s, Raley’s, Safeway, Savemart, Sam’s Club, and Walmart stores in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Utah, according to the FDA.

Full Story Here: Salmonella fears spark grape tomato recall (complete details) – HealthPop – CBS News.

Eating less salt doesn’t cut heart risks: study

People who ate lots of salt were not more likely to get high blood pressure, and were less likely to die of heart disease than those with a low salt intake, in a new European study.

The findings “certainly do not support the current recommendation to lower salt intake in the general population,” study author Dr. Jan Staessen, of the University of Leuven in Belgium, told Reuters Health.

Current salt guidelines, including those released by the U.S. government in January, are based on data from short-term studies of people who volunteered to be assigned to a low-salt or high-salt diet, Staessen said.

The U.S. guidelines recommend that Americans consume less than 2,300 milligrams of salt daily – 1,500 mg in certain people who are more at risk for high blood pressure or heart disease.

Full Story Here: Eating less salt doesn’t cut heart risks: study | Reuters.

Missouri seniors may lose prescription drug program

A showdown today between Missouri House and Senate budget negotiators could determine whether 226,000 elderly and disabled Missourians keep a state subsidy that helps them buy medicine.

On the chopping block is a program known as Missouri RX.

It pays half the cost of deductibles and co-payments for prescription drugs for low-income people enrolled in a Medicare Part D plan.

Missouri RX will expire this August unless legislators renew it. The House voted 151-0 last week to extend it for five years. The House also budgeted $19.6 million for the program, with most of the money coming from tobacco settlement funds.

The Senate, however, has buried the bill extending the program and slashed its funding. A conference committee will try to resolve the dispute this week; legislators must send the $23 billion state operating budget for the coming fi

Full Story Here: Missouri seniors may lose prescription drug program.

Sen. Bernie Sanders Speaks to the CA Democratic Convention

Bernie Sanders: ‘We Are Engaged, Right Now, in an Unprecedented Degree of Class Warfare, and the Wrong Class is Winning!’

Sen. Sanders (I-VT) addresses the delegates at the 2011 California Democratic Convention in Sacramento, CA, April 30, 2011.

Bush Refusal of 2001 Taliban Offer Gave bin Laden a Free Pass

When George W. Bush rejected a Taliban offer to have Osama bin Laden tried by a moderate group of Islamic states in mid- October 2001, he gave up the only opportunity the United States would have to end bin Laden’s terrorist career for the next nine years.

The al Qaeda leader was able to escape into Pakistan a few weeks later, because the Bush administration had no military plan to capture him.

The last Taliban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, offered at a secret meeting in Islamabad Oct. 15, 2001 to put bin Laden in the custody of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), to be tried for the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States, Muttawakil told IPS in an interview in Kabul last year.

Full Story Here: U.S. Refusal of 2001 Taliban Offer Gave bin Laden a Free Pass | Common Dreams.

Palin And Rep. Lankford Defend Wasteful Oil Subsidies: They’re ‘A Drop In The Bucket,’ ‘Only’ 4 Billion Dollars

While conservative lawmakers continue to demand more and more from Main Street Americans in the form of cuts to crucial services and public investment, they have continued to defend subsidies for the oil industry. In March, the House Republicans voted unanimously to defend subsidies for Big Oil.

Appearing on Fox News last week, former GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin downplayed the billions of dollars of subsidies the oil industry gets from taxpayers. Asked about the subsidies by Fox Host Bret Baier, Palin responded that we shouldn’t worry too much about them because they only cost four billion dollars:

BAIER: What about ending oil subsidies? Subsidies for oil companies. Where do you stand on that?

PALIN: Here’s where we need to go there nationally, what I did as Governor of Alaska, which is obviously an energy-producing state. As for the government subsidies that we’re hearing Obama flirting with right now, and wanting to decrease those or eliminate those, we’re only talking about four billion dollars. Compare that to the 14 trillion dollar debt that he our president has certainly contributed to.

Watch it:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » Palin And Rep. Lankford Defend Wasteful Oil Subsidies: They’re ‘A Drop In The Bucket,’ ‘Only’ 4 Billion Dollars.

GOP Presidential Hopeful Rick Santorum Endorses Plan To End Medicare, Calls For Quicker Implementation

In an interview with ThinkProgress, Republican presidential aspirant Rick Santorum endorsed Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) plan to end Medicare and extend tax breaks for the wealthy. The former Pennsylvania senator praised “what he wants to do with Medicare [and] Medicaid,” but also called for Ryan’s budget to be implemented “sooner than what he’s suggesting”:

KEYES: The Ryan budget plan. If you were president, would you sign that?

SANTORUM: Yeah, I support the Ryan budget plan. I think it’s the right direction on the major points. I can’t say I’ve read all of it, but on the major thrust of what he’s doing, I support what he wants to do with Medicare, Medicaid. The only thing I would do, frankly, as I’ve said publicly many times, I think we should implement a lot of these things sooner than what he’s suggesting.

Watch it:

Full Story Here: ThinkProgress » GOP Presidential Hopeful Rick Santorum Endorses Plan To End Medicare, Calls For Quicker Implementation.