Archive for October, 2011

“Occupy Maine” Rally Coinciding with Nationwide Protests

The “Occupy Wall Street” protests have spread to cities across America.

Beyond the main demonstration around Wall Street in New York City, rallies against the über-rich have occurred in large cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago. In New England, “Occupy Wall Street”-styled protests are scheduled for today in Burlington, Providence and Hartford. In Boston, there was a “Take Back Boston” demonstration yesterday and another event is planned for this afternoon.

In Maine, activists are meeting right now (event is from 11am-2pm) in Portland’s Monument Square, as we have been reporting on the Exception.

Will you be attending the rally in Maine or one of the coinciding protests? Share your take on the events in our comments section below.

Full Story Here: “Occupy Maine” Rally Coinciding with Nationwide Protests | The Exception Magazine.

UPDATE: Cops Accused Of Trapping Wall Street Protesters On Brooklyn Bridge For Mass Arrests

We’re seeing reports on Twitter that protesters from Occupy Wall Street have marched down to the Brooklyn Bridge, and hundreds of people have begun to stream into traffic lanes, completely stopping traffic on the bridge. According to NY Times reporter Brian Stelter on the scene, “Scratch that: a LARGE # of protesters are in lanes of traffic. Traffic out of Manhattan is now completely stopped.” [Watch live video stream below]

Gawker’s Adrian Chen, who is also down there, wrote, “Shit, they’re shutting down the brooklyn bridge,” and also tweeted a picture of the Brooklyn-bound lane completely blocked. We’ll update as we hear more about what’s going on by the bridge.

Update 4:26 p.m.: Police have no arrived on the scene and have started arresting protesters en masse: “Police going to make mass arrest on Brooklyn bridge,” tweeted Jeff Rae. According to @jopauca, “Two white shirts just beat someone. Someone has video.” There are also reports that police have blockaded both sides of the bridge now and taken out the nets.

You can watch a live video stream of what’s going on below:

Full Story Here: UPDATE: Cops Accused Of Trapping Wall Street Protesters On Brooklyn Bridge For Mass Arrests: Gothamist.

What the Media Aren’t Telling You About American Protests

I AM LATELY REMINDED OF AN ASSIGNMENT when my metro editor sent me to cover a “gentle protest” over the Gulf War of the 1990s in Jackson, Mich. (Don’t remember that war – or what it was about? That’s OK – because it was probably “security” and “oil,” and George W. ultimately righted his dad’s failure to see that war action through to its completion: killing Saddam Hussein, or at least dismantling his government. But I digress.)

It was an after-hours event, likely on a weekend (as that was my beat). And when I arrived at the designated time, well after sundown, I found one lone woman walking the length of a wall at an armory or similar government-type outpost with, not a flashlight, but a real, flickering candle. Back and forth, in the dark, trudging in the snow.

No one else had shown up – except me, that is. The place was deserted and, as I recall, not on a busy road. I actually had to drive by twice before I even saw her candle and a small chair she set up for herself when she got tired. It occurred to me that, if I walked away, it would have been the same as if she’d never been there at all. Yet, incontrovertibly, there she was: protesting a war that, at the time, no one was particularly riled up about. It wasn’t a story, really.

Full Story Here: What the Media Aren’t Telling You About American Protests – Lisa Romero – Open Salon.

The GOP Can Kill Medicare This Year Without Even Casting a Vote. Here’s How

“Putting off reform of the SGR even for a year would result in implementation of a very significant decrease to Medicare physician fees in calendar year 2012, which would lead to reduced physician participation in Medicare, and therefore patients’ access to care.

Now, I know that the “sustainable growth rate” sounds really boring. So, how about we reframe this as “a life and death battle to save Medicare”. Is that more interesting?

You in the front row. You have a question? Why would anyone want to kill Medicare you ask?

Medicare is a thorn in the side of private health insurers. As long as Medicare exists, it would be pretty easy for the nation to expand the program to cover everyone. Instant socialized medicine. So, Medicare must die. In addition, most Medicare patients are not sick, and therefore privates would be more than happy to write them high cost policies with huge deductibles. The small percentage of Medicare recipients who actually cost the program money are poor (because of their massive health care costs) and they would be placed on Medicaid and would become the problem of state governments. In this way, the privates would suck up the Medicare premiums while dodging the financial risks.

Full Story Here: McCamy Taylor’s Journal – The GOP Can Kill Medicare This Year Without Even Casting a Vote. Here’s How.

24 Arrested As Protesters Pack Financial District

Foreclosed Families, Supporters March To Bank Of America

A group called Occupy Boston took over Dewey Square in Boston Friday night holding a 60s-style sit in.

“It doesn’t look like the politicians are serving the people any more,” said John, a protestor who would only give his first name. “They’re serving people with money.”This is part of nationwide movement that began with a large protest last week on Wall Street.”We’re talking about government reform. We’re talking about finance reform,” said Nadeem Mazen, from Occupy Boston. “And we’re opening up a national dialogue as part of a really big issue that’s on so many people’s minds.”

Full Story Here: 24 Arrested As Protesters Pack Financial District – Most Popular News Story – WCVB Boston.

Koch brothers spooked by forthcoming story

 Anonymous sources try to discredit Bloomberg article on Koch Industries before it’s even published

Here’s a rule of thumb about public relations: When P.R. pros begin furiously spinning a story before it has even come out, there’s a pretty good chance the story is going to be damaging to the reputation of said P.R. pros’ bosses.

And that’s exactly what we’re seeing right now, as an anonymous person or persons in the orbit of the billionaire conservative donors Charles and David Koch try to discredit a forthcoming story in Bloomberg Markets magazine.

Based on the prebuttal items appearing this week in the Washington Examiner, the Daily Caller, and U.S. News and World Report, the Bloomberg story focuses on alleged malfeasance and/or fraud and/or bad behavior by the conglomerate Koch Industries.

Full Story Here: Koch brothers spooked by forthcoming story – Salon.com.

OPS: let’s not forget that these guys pay 2 PR firms to scrub their Wiki references on a daily basis

Mexican Trucks Could Compromise U.S. Safety

October will likely mark the start of Mexican trucks gaining full access to U.S. roadways. This influx of trucks could potentially bring new dangers to U.S. citizens and U.S. drivers, while costing the United States even more jobs.

Although the provision to give Mexican truckers access to U.S. roadways has been included in NAFTA since it was signed in 1994, the U.S. has not honored this part of the agreement so far for numerous reasons. One of the major reasons is that suppliers choose which shipping company to use based almost entirely by price, and the addition of Mexican trucking companies to the U.S. market will almost certainly drive down wages and profits for American trucking companies. With a finite amount of freight to be hauled, the Mexican trucks could also put some companies completely out of business.

But beyond the job concerns, the addition of new trucks raises safety and law enforcement issues. Taxpayer money from the Highway Trust Fund will be used to pay for electronic on-board recorders for Mexican trucks. According to Secretary of Transportation Ray Lahood, it became clear during negotiations that if the U.S. wanted to ensure regulatory compliance it would have to pay for it itself. These on-board recorders along with other measures to ensure compliance with U.S. laws will be expensive. A report by the Congressional Research Service showed that these costs would outweigh any cost savings U.S. businesses receive as a product of using Mexican truckers.

Full Story Here: Mexican Trucks Could Compromise U.S. Safety | Economy In Crisis.

U.S. Manufacturing Continues To Slip Away

As the debate around Trade Adjustment Assistance has ratcheted up, critics of the bill seem to be arguing that we don’t need it because manufacturing jobs in this country are outdated anyhow. Many argue that the U.S. should be focused on service sector jobs, but service sector jobs cannot replace the productivity of manufacturing.

Manufacturing does not have to mean the dirty, loud jobs that once filled our cities with soot. Modern manufacturing jobs, when they exist, generally offer more palatable working conditions, and wages that can support a family. These jobs are more desirable than those of the past, and could be found in growing industries if we weren’t allowing other countries to prey on our manufacturing sector through free trade agreements.

American manufacturers cannot compete with the low wages and lack of regulatory standards found in other countries, yet we continue to open our borders to more and more of them. Even while the U.S. is still debating job-killing trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, negotiations are already underway for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would include Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei, among other low-wage countries. This agreement would also serve as a template for agreements other countries could sign onto in the future.

Full Story Here: U.S. Manufacturing Continues To Slip Away | Economy In Crisis.

House Republicans’ Labor Budget Cuts Rules That Protect Rooftop Workers From Falling, Coal Miners From Coal Dust

In addition to blocking President Obama’s health care law and slashing funding for job training, the budget plan presented by House Republicans for health and labor programs this week would scuttle several worker safety protections put forth by the Department of Labor.

Among other anti-regulatory measures, the budget would block the department from moving forward with its Injury and Illness Prevention Program, which would require employers to develop written plans to address workplace hazards and reduce worker injuries. Under the Republican plan, no Labor Department funding could be devoted toward the program.

The budget also takes aim at an obscure but notable Labor Department rule intended to reduce the death and maiming of construction workers who labor on rooftops. The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration had planned to ramp up the enforcement of harness rules for roofers working on residential construction sites, but the Republican plan forbids the agency from doing so, as noted by the public-health blog The Pump Handle.

Full Story Here: House Republicans’ Labor Budget Cuts Rules That Protect Rooftop Workers From Falling, Coal Miners From Coal Dust.

Aurora Photos: The Best Pictures Of The Northern And Southern Lights

There have been some stunning photos (and videos) taken of the aurora this year, and we just can’t get enough of them.

So as the seasons change and the days grow shorter, it’s a good time not only to look back at some of our favorite images of this natural phenomenon, but check out some new pictures, too.

NASA says that more geomagnetic storms occur in the fall and spring, and this is a great time for viewing the aurora borealis or australis (if you’re lucky enough to be in an area where it’s visible!)

According to the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, an aurora is caused by the collision of electrons from space with atoms and molecules of gases (like oxygen and nitrogen) from the Earth’s atmosphere. This collision results in a transfer of energy to the oxygen’s electrons, and, as a result, quick bursts of light are emitted. A great number of these collisions create the light that’s visible to the naked eye.

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, is seen in the northern hemisphere, whereas the aurora australias, or southern lights, is visible in the southern latitudes.

Full Story Here: Aurora Photos: The Best Pictures Of The Northern And Southern Lights.

Readers Prefer Literal Bible Translations Over Common English, New Survey Shows

With several new English-language Bible translations that have been published in recent years — including ones that use gender-neutral and conversational language — it might be said that Americans are tired of reading the King James-style Bible of yore. But a survey of Bible readers released Friday says that Americans largely prefer literal translations of the books’ original Greek and Hebrew texts as opposed to ones that try to convey the intent of the original words.

The survey, conducted by Nashville-based Lifeway Research, found that when Bible readers were asked if they prefer “word-for-word translations, where the original words are translated as exactly as possible,” or “thought-for-thought translations, where the translators attempt to reproduce the intent of the original thought rather than translating the exact words,” 61 percent chose word-for-word.

In order to be part of the survey, the 2,000 readers, who were polled through an online panel that demographically represented the Christian population in the United States, had to already read the Bible at least once a month on their own or as part of a family activity, and not only in a church or worship setting.

Full Story Here: Readers Prefer Literal Bible Translations Over Common English, New Survey Shows

Democrats Reportedly Want Tax Hikes To Be First Item Negotiated In Deficit-Reduction Discussions

Democrats want tax hikes to be the first item negotiated in “super committee” deficit-reduction talks, trying to force Republicans to confront an issue at the heart of this year’s budget fights, sources told Reuters.

The tough stance by Democratic members of the powerful 12-member congressional panel reflects the party’s wariness that Republicans might try to sideline the issue of revenue increases in the negotiations.

“They’ve raised the idea of doing taxes first,” a Republican aide involved in the discussions said Friday on condition of anonymity.

The panel has the task of finding ways of cutting the U.S. deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If it fails to agree on a plan by Nov. 23, automatic spending cuts will be triggered, beginning in 2013.

Full Story Here: Super Congress Talks: Democrats Reportedly Want Tax Hikes To Be First Item Negotiated In Deficit-Reduction Discussions.

You Can Get Laid Without Being a Jerk

There are a lot of ways to be a jerk when you’re trying to get laid. Emily Heist Moss writes a letter to her brother about how to make hook-up culture be about pleasure and consent, instead of “scoring.”

A letter to my brother, and all his college friends,

College is awesome, right? No parents, no curfew, no rules, and there are girls everywhere. It is an alcohol-fueled, school-spirit-enhanced buffet of ladies, and it’s hard not to want to sample everything on the menu. So you should! Seriously, I’m not going to rain on what could potentially be a literal parade, so just be safe and have fun.

You’re waiting for the “but,” because I’m your nagging big sister and that’s what I do. Here it is: Be safe, have fun, but don’t be a manipulative, coercive asshole about it. There’s story after story about on-campus sexual assaults, astoundingly high rates of date-rape, and even more terrifying estimates of unreported incidents. I’m not worried you’ll be that guy, but there are still dozens of tempting and legal ways to be a douche when you’re trying to get some action. Forgoing these “techniques” requires recalibrating your hook-up goals to emphasize consent, respect, and yes, pleasure, instead of “scoring.”

Full Story Here: You Can Get Laid Without Being a Jerk — The Good Men Project.

Why Aren’t Ayn Rand’s Wealthy “Job Creators” … Creating Jobs?

The myth of the wealthy “job creator” has been used for years to underscore a harmful vision of capitalism.

With the announcement last Monday of President Obama’s plan to pay for his jobs bill with, among other things, the so-called “Buffett Rule,” we’re going to be hearing a lot more about the “job creators.” Over the last year, Congressional Republicans have consistently invoked them as a hex of sorts against any proposal to raise new tax revenue. “I am not for raising taxes in a recession,” Eric Cantor declared last November, when the Bush tax cuts were a bargaining chip in the protracted budget debate, “especially when it comes to the job creators that we need so desperately to start creating jobs again.”

Ten months, no new taxes, and one debt ceiling crisis later, Cantor said the same thing last week in response to the president’s jobs bill: “I sure hope that the president is not suggesting that we pay for his proposals with a massive tax increase at the end of 2012 on job creators that we’re actually counting on to reduce unemployment.” Given that 44 percent of the nation’s unemployed have been without work for at least six months and more Americans are living below the poverty line than at any time in the last 50 years, one marvels at Cantor’s faith in the truant “job creators” as well as his forbearance in the face of human misery. To the jobless, he is counseling the patience of Job.

Full Story Here: Why Aren’t Ayn Rand’s Wealthy “Job Creators” … Creating Jobs? | Economy | AlterNet.

Religious-Right Homophobes Whine That They’re Being Oppressed

It’s important to remember that we are talking about people opposing core civil rights for American citizens.

Maggie Gallagher, who has devoted much of her professional life to maintaining separate but decidedly unequal accomodations for gays and lesbians, is very concerned about Americans’ individual rights. Mostly, she’s worried about the “right” of religious conservatives dwelling on the wrong side of history to express their bigotry openly, without having to face the scorn of more enlightened citizens.

Gallagher, a syndicated columnist, is the former president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and current head of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy (a group that lobbies against marriage equality). She is best known for writing favorably of the Bush administration’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative” without disclosing that she was receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the policy at the time.

Her latest effort for NOM is the Marriage Anti-Defamation Alliance, launched recently with some fanfare on the right. Gallagher told the National Review that the new group would combat, “an emerging trend we are hearing about: people losing jobs or other economic opportunities because they have written, spoken, donated, or otherwise peacefully exercised their core civil rights on behalf of marriage as the union of husband and wife.”

Full Story Here: Religious-Right Homophobes Whine That They’re Being Oppressed | Civil Liberties | AlterNet.

Rick Perry’s Hellfire: The GOP Candidate Continues to Deny the Climate Change Linked to the Fires Consuming His State

The Global warming-denying governor and presidential candidate can’t escape a major reckoning at home.

George Bush Park burst into flames on Sept. 13, one month to the day after Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his candidacy for president of the United States. In a summer of fierce wildfires across Texas, the George Bush Park blaze was the first big fire to erupt inside the city limits of a major metropolis — in this case, Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city and the headquarters of the oil and gas industry, a major contributor to the man-made global warming that Gov. Perry famously insists does not exist.

The national media overlooked the George Bush Park fire, just as they ignored the link between climate change and the hellish summer Texas experienced, but the fire was big news in Houston. Local TV stationsshowed trees burning like torches, unleashing orange flames and black smoke.No evacuations were ordered, but guests at nearby hotels were spooked. “The hallways in the hotel here, you can hardly breathe,” said hotel guest Shawn Porter. “It’s in all the rooms. They’re getting filled with smoke.”

Full Story Here: Rick Perry’s Hellfire: The GOP Candidate Continues to Deny the Climate Change Linked to the Fires Consuming His State | | AlterNet.

House Committee Censors Testimony of Appalachian Activists

The House Natural Resources Committee has some explaining to do.

In a blatant disregard of the concerns of affected West Virginia coalfield residents who actually live under the fallout of devastating mountaintop removal operations, a press release summary from the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources’ field hearing on “Jobs at Risk: Community Impacts of the Obama Administration’s Effort to Rewrite the Stream Buffer Zone Rule” completely deleted any mention of the official testimonies by Appalachian coalfield leaders Maria Gunnoe and Bo Webb. The press release reported exclusively on testimony from coal industry representatives, Big Coal-bankrolled politicians and hired coal industry supporters.

“Yesterday a House Natural Resources subcommittee tried its very hardest not to hear West Virginians’ concerns about the destruction and heartbreak of mountaintop removal in their communities,” noted Natural Resources Defense Council staff Melissa Waage. “Now the subcommittee leadership is trying to pretend these people don’t even exist.”

Makes you wonder: Is such censorship in an official document released by the House committee a violation of Congressional rules? And will Democrats on the subcommittee or Natural Resources Committee follow up with an investigation and hold responsible committee staff and members accountable?

Full Story Here: House Committee Censors Testimony of Appalachian Activists | Common Dreams.

Plutonium ‘Detected Outside Fukushima Plant’

A limited amount of plutonium has been detected in soil outside Japan’s troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant which was crippled by the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster, the government said Friday.

It was the first time plutonium had been found in government tests outside the plant, presumably due to the nuclear accident, the worst since 1986 Chernobyl, the education and science ministry said in a statement.

Plutonium was detected in soil at six places in a survey which was conducted in June in an area within 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the ministry said.

Full Story Here: Plutonium ‘Detected Outside Fukushima Plant’ | Common Dreams.

America faces a jobs depression

 | Robert Reich |

Keynes was right: only government can get us out of this jobs slump. And only taxing wealth can restore US prosperity

The Reverend Al Sharpton and various labor unions announced Wednesday a March for Jobs. But I’m afraid we’ll need more than marches to get jobs back.

Since the start of the Great Recession at the end of 2007, the potential labor force of the United States – that is, working-age people who want jobs – has grown by over 7 million. But since then, the number of Americans who actually have jobs has shrunk by more than 300,000.

In other words, we’re in a deep hole – and the hole is deepening. In August, the United States created no jobs at all. Zero.

Full Story Here: America faces a jobs depression | Robert Reich | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk.

President Obama has been a disaster for civil liberties

He may prove the most disastrous president in our history in terms of civil liberties.

With the 2012 presidential election before us, the country is again caught up in debating national security issues, our ongoing wars and the threat of terrorism. There is one related subject, however, that is rarely mentioned: civil liberties.

Protecting individual rights and liberties — apart from the right to be tax-free — seems barely relevant to candidates or voters. One man is primarily responsible for the disappearance of civil liberties from the national debate, and he is Barack Obama. While many are reluctant to admit it, Obama has proved a disaster not just for specific civil liberties but the civil liberties cause in the United States.

Civil libertarians have long had a dysfunctional relationship with the Democratic Party, which treats them as a captive voting bloc with nowhere else to turn in elections. Not even this history, however, prepared civil libertarians for Obama. After the George W. Bush years, they were ready to fight to regain ground lost after Sept. 11. Historically, this country has tended to correct periods of heightened police powers with a pendulum swing back toward greater individual rights. Many were questioning the extreme measures taken by the Bush administration, especially after the disclosure of abuses and illegalities. Candidate Obama capitalized on this swing and portrayed himself as the champion of civil liberties.

Full Story Here: President Obama has been a disaster for civil liberties – latimes.com.

The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality

Glenn Greenwald :-:

It was first reported in January of last year that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens whom the President had ordered assassinated without any due process, and one of those Americans was Anwar al-Awlaki. No effort was made to indict him for any crimes (despite a report last October that the Obama administration was “considering” indicting him). Despite substantial doubt among Yemen experts about whether he even had any operational role in Al Qaeda, no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt. When Awlaki’s father sought a court order barring Obama from killing his son, the DOJ argued, among other things, that such decisions were “state secrets” and thus beyond the scrutiny of the courts. He was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner. When Awlaki’s inclusion on President Obama’s hit list was confirmed, The New York Times noted that “it is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing.”

After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the U.S. succeeded today (and it was the U.S.). It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the U.S. murder its. The U.S. thus transformed someone who was, at best, a marginal figure into a martyr, and again showed its true face to the world. The government and media search for The Next bin Laden has undoubtedly already commenced.

Full Story Here: The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is now reality – Salon.com.

Occupy Wall Street: “It Is a Revolution”

Since Sep. 17, hundreds of demonstrators in the Occupy Wall Street movement have transformed the quiet Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan from a place where Wall Street traders once relaxed during lunch breaks into a demonstration camp.

Participants from all over the United States have joined the movement that criticises the injustices of the capitalist system and calls for greater democracy and individual freedom.

Their base is right in front of the aptly named Liberty Plaza, former headquarters of NASDAQ and current office of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

“This is a democratic awakening,” Cornel West, a prominent activist and Princeton professor, told journalists prior to speaking before nearly 2,000 protestors at Occupy Wall Street’s General Assembly on Tuesday.

Full Story Here: Occupy Wall Street: “It Is a Revolution” | Common Dreams.

California breaks from 50-state probe into mortgage lenders .

California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris will no longer take part in a national foreclosure probe of some of the nation’s biggest banks, which are accused of pervasive misconduct in dealing with troubled homeowners.

Harris removed herself from talks by a coalition of state attorneys general and federal agencies investigating abusive foreclosure practices because the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers were not offering California homeowners relief commensurate to what people in the state had suffered, Harris told The Times on Friday.

The big banks were also demanding to be granted overly broad immunity from legal claims that could potentially derail further investigations into Wall Street’s role in the mortgage meltdown, Harris said.

“It has been a process of negotiating and sitting at a table in good faith, but ultimately I have decided that we have to go our own course and take an independent path. And that decision is because we need to bring relief to Californians that is equal to the pain California experienced, and what is being negotiated now is insufficient,” Harris told The Times in an interview.

Full Story Here: California breaks from 50-state probe into mortgage lenders [Updated] – latimes.com.

OPS: Broke because the negotiations are heading towards another capitulation to banking interests. Good for California!

Poll: Americans See Republicans As Only Interested In Helping The ‘Haves’ | ThinkProgress

Almost half of all respondents to a new Washington Post poll say Republicans in Congress are doing more to help the “haves” than “have nots,” with fewer than a third saying the GOP treats both sides equally. A tiny 7 percent say Republican lawmakers are helping the have-nots. For contrast, a plurality say President Obama treats society’s “haves” and “have-nots” about equally. The Post’s Peyton M. Craighill and Jon Cohen compiled this table:

Full Story Here: Poll: Americans See Republicans As Only Interested In Helping The ‘Haves’ | ThinkProgress.

Banks Successfully Lobbied For Weaker Bailout Repayment Rules So They Could Pay Bonuses

When the nation’s biggest banks were bailed out in 2008 via the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, the money came with a few (very loose) strings, including restrictions on executive compensation and some requirements for the amount of capital the banks would have to raise in order to escape from TARP.

But as a new report from the Special Inspector General for TARP shows, even these restrictions were too much for some of the nation’s biggest banks — including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and PNC — who lobbied for easier payback requirements so that they could be freed from restrictions on paying bonuses. And Treasury obliged their requests:

Federal banking regulators relaxed the November 2009 repayment criteria only weeks after they were established, bowing at least in part to a desire to ramp back the Government’s stake in financial institutions and to pressure by institutions seeking a swift TARP exit to avoid executive compensation restrictions and the stigma associated with TARP participation. The large financial institutions seeking to exit TARP were notably persistent in their efforts to resist regulatory demands to issue common stock, seeking instead morecreative, cheaper, and less sturdy alternatives that provide less short- or long-term loss protection than new common stock. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and PNC, for example, requested expedited repayment, but each institution balked at issuing the amount of common stock required by regulators.

Full Story Here: Banks Successfully Lobbied For Weaker Bailout Repayment Rules So They Could Pay Bonuses | ThinkProgress.

Mayor Bloomberg Claims ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters Are Targeting Bankers Who ‘Are Struggling To Make Ends Meet’

For 13 days, hundreds of demonstrators have encamped themselves on Wall Street in New York City, hoping to call attention to the financial sector’s greed and inequities in the American economic system.

This morning, while on local radio host John Gambling’s show, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked about the demonstrations on Wall Street. Bloomberg condemned the protests, claiming that the protesters are targeting people who making “$40-50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet.” He then went on to say people are focusing too much on the causes of the financial crisis and that we need to be nicer to the banking industry so that it starts lending again. He concluded by saying that we are “blaming the wrong people” by “blaming the banks” for the recession:

Full Story Here: Mayor Bloomberg Claims ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters Are Targeting Bankers Who ‘Are Struggling To Make Ends Meet’ | ThinkProgress.

Breaking Their Promise To Focus On Job Creation, House GOP Proposes Slashing Job Training Programs

House Republicans yesterday released their draft budget proposal for labor, health, and human service, which in one fell swoop revives the assault on all their favorite bugaboos, including Planned Parenthood, National Public Radio, the National Labor Relations Board, and President Obama’s health care reform law. The GOP also targeted heat subsidies that prevent low-income families from freezing in the winter, and slashed education funding by $2.4 billion. The bill also eliminates the Administration’s “Race to the Top” education reform program and reduces eligibility for Pell Grants for low-income college students.

Perhaps most surprisingly for a party that claims to be focused on job creation, the GOP budget reduces funding for job training programs that give the unemployed the skills they need to find work in an ailing economy:

Employment Training Administration (ETA) – The legislation provides the ETA with $7.5 billion in new discretionary budget authority – $2.2 billion (-23%) below last year’s level and $2.1 billion (-22%) below the President’s request. Much of this reduction is due to the transition of employment and training programs to a federal fiscal year and the elimination of $2.4 billion in advance appropriations for the 2013 fiscal year.

Full Story Here: Breaking Their Promise To Focus On Job Creation, House GOP Proposes Slashing Job Training Programs | ThinkProgress.

Gov. Brown To State Lawmakers: Thanks For Mountain Lion Taxidermy Bill, Now Please Pass Clean Energy Jobs Legislation

Today, Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed a bill to allow mountain lions to be stuffed and displayed. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, perhaps in a celebration of this recent viral video hit, overwhelmingly supported the measure. Brown thanked the legislature for this “presumably important bill,” but asked the state Senate extend the same “energetic bipartisan spirit” to passing clean energy jobs legislation. View a copy of the statement from the governor’s office below:

Full Story Here: Gov. Brown To State Lawmakers: Thanks For Mountain Lion Taxidermy Bill, Now Please Pass Clean Energy Jobs Legislation | ThinkProgress.

Before Bashing Clean Energy As Wasteful, Rep. Forbes (R-VA) Asked Secretary Chu For BioFuel Loans

Republicans have seized on the Solyndra controversy to go on a witch hunt against all clean energy programs authorized by the Department of Energy. For instance, Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) has pressed for an investigation of all clean energy programs. A post on his congressional website claims such spending is “wasteful” and boasts that Forbes has voted “against every bailout and stimulus plan.”

Republicans are on a war path to defund all clean energy programs, targeting not only the loan program tapped by Solyndra but all green jobs efforts by the federal government. As Climate Progress’ Stephen Lacey has reported, Republicans are now expanding their inquisition to include killing a program that employs veterans to install solar panels.

Full Story Here: Before Bashing Clean Energy As Wasteful, Rep. Forbes (R-VA) Asked Secretary Chu For BioFuel Loans | ThinkProgress.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is out of order for hiding payout to wife: House Democrats

Congressional Democrats demanded an ethics investigation Thursday into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for allegedly failing to disclose that his wife was paid $700,000 by a conservative think tank.

They say Thomas marked off the “none” box on his annual financial disclosure form while his wife, Virginia, was raking in the dough working for the Heritage Foundation.

Between 2003 and 2007, she was paid $700,000, they claim.

“To believe that Justice Thomas didn’t know how to fill out a basic disclosure form is absurd,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat from Rochester, N.Y.

Slaughter has asked the Judicial Conference of the United States to decide whether Thomas’ disclosure mess should be passed on to the Justice Department for review. The question is whether Thomas has failed to comply with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.

It requires all federal judges to disclose their spouse’s employer.

Full Story Here: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is out of order for hiding payout to wife: House Democrats.

Draft House Appropriations Bill Removes Planned Parenthood Funding

Earlier this week Congressman Cliff Stearns, the Florida Republican who chairs a House oversight subcommittee, announced a witch hunt on Planned Parenthood demanding reams of documents for a politically motivated fishing expedition. Now House Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rehberg has gone even further with drafted legislation that prohibits any funds going to Planned Parenthood unless they stop providing abortions entirely.

EMILY’s List alum, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3),Ranking Member on the Labor, Education, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, blew the whistle on this sneaky tactic and issued the following response to the draft legislation.

Full Story Here: EMILY’s List: BREAKING NEWS: Draft House Appropriations Bill Removes Planned Parenthood Funding.

Occupy Wall Street protest hits San Francisco’s Market Street

San Francisco may not have a Wall Street but it has a Market Street, which is where protesters are currently taking their cause.

Occupy Wall Street — the organization behind the ongoing protests in New York City — has officially spread to The City, with people gathering Thursday in the Financial District to rally against big banks.

Full Story Here: Occupy Wall Street protest hits San Francisco’s Market Street | Julia Chan | Local | San Francisco Examiner.

Red money, blue money: The making of the 2012 campaign

Two wealthy tribes will decide the political messages we hear — and the ones we won’t

The hidden infrastructure of the 2012 campaign has already been built.

A handful of so-called Super PACs, enabled to collect unlimited donations by the continued erosion of campaign finance regulations, are expected to rival the official campaign organizations in importance this election. In many cases, these groups are acting essentially as outside arms of the campaigns.

These are America’s best-funded political factions, their war chests filled by some of the richest men (and almost all are men) in the country.

More than 80 percent of giving to Super PACs so far has come from just 58 donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics analysis of the latest data, which covers the first half of 2011. The Republican groups have raised $17.6 million and the Democratic groups $7.6 million. Those numbers will balloon, with American Crossroads, the main Republican Super PAC, aiming to raise $240 million.)

Full Story Here: Red money, blue money: The making of the 2012 campaign – 2012 Elections – Salon.com.

How Conservative Politicians Wait for God to Fix the Economy, With Frightening Results

The theology embraced by American religious conservatives may render them immune to evidence and reason when it comes to economic management.

s it merely partisan politics and the misguided ideology of “austerity” that leads conservatives to reject commonsense fixes for this miserable economy? Or is something else going on?

It may well be the latter. A study released last fall suggests that the theology embraced by American religious conservatives may render them immune to evidence and reason when it comes to economic management. The study found that a sizable minority share a uniquely faith-based view of how the economy functions, believing that both good and bad outcomes are an expression of God’s will, and are therefore beyond the reach of mere mortals.

This may help explain the disconnect between the gravity of our economic crisis and lawmakers’ – especially conservative lawmakers’ — decided lack of a sense of urgency in addressing it. Consider for a moment three related facts that, taken together, cast what appears to be the sheer madness of our nation’s economic stewardship in sharp relief.

Full Story Here: How Conservative Politicians Wait for God to Fix the Economy, With Frightening Results | Belief | AlterNet.

The Moral Question

Robert Reich :-:

We dodged another shut-down bullet, but the next temporary bill to keep the government going will run out November 18. House Republicans want more budget cuts as their price for another stopgap spending bill.

Among other items, Republicans are demanding major cuts in a nutrition program for low-income women and children. The appropriation bill the House passed June 16 would deny benefits to more than 700,000 eligible low-income women and young children next year.

What kind of country are we living in?

More than one in three families with young children is now living in poverty (37 percent, to be exact) according to a recent analysis of Census data by Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies. That’s the highest percent on record. The Agriculture Department says nearly one in four young children (23.6) lives in a family that had difficulty affording sufficient food at some point last year.

Full Story Here: Robert Reich (The Moral Question).

Phony Fear Factor

Paul Krugman :-:

The good news: After spending a year and a half talking about deficits, deficits, deficits when we should have been talking about jobs, job, jobs we’re finally back to discussing the right issue.

The bad news: Republicans, aided and abetted by many conservative policy intellectuals, are fixated on a view about what’s blocking job creation that fits their prejudices and serves the interests of their wealthy backers, but bears no relationship to reality.

Listen to just about any speech by a Republican presidential hopeful, and you’ll hear assertions that the Obama administration is responsible for weak job growth. How so? The answer, repeated again and again, is that businesses are afraid to expand and create jobs because they fear costly regulations and higher taxes. Nor are politicians the only people saying this. Conservative economists repeat the claim in op-ed articles, and Federal Reserve officials repeat it to justify their opposition to even modest efforts to aid the economy.

The first thing you need to know, then, is that there’s no evidence supporting this claim and a lot of evidence showing that it’s false.

Full Story Here: Phony Fear Factor – NYTimes.com.

The Best Among Us

By Chris Hedges

There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.

To be declared innocent in a country where the rule of law means nothing, where we have undergone a corporate coup, where the poor and working men and women are reduced to joblessness and hunger, where war, financial speculation and internal surveillance are the only real business of the state, where even habeas corpus no longer exists, where you, as a citizen, are nothing more than a commodity to corporate systems of power, one to be used and discarded, is to be complicit in this radical evil. To stand on the sidelines and say “I am innocent” is to bear the mark of Cain; it is to do nothing to reach out and help the weak, the oppressed and the suffering, to save the planet. To be innocent in times like these is to be a criminal. Ask Tim DeChristopher.

Full Story Here: Chris Hedges: The Best Among Us – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.

Walker’s Special Session for Private Companies

By signing Executive Order #45 this morning, Scott Walker called a special session of the legislature beginning tomorrow. Entitled “Back to Work Special Session,” the proposals to be taken up by the legislature concern “Access to Capital, Regulatory Streamlining, Workforce Development, Tax Relief, Transportation and Infrastructure, Litigation Certainty.”

Or in plain English: Public money for private companies, gutting environmental protections, dumbing down public education, tax breaks for the wealthy, lax regulations for the trucking industry, and gutting consumer protections in the court system. Many of these bills resemble ALEC templates crafted at the group’s New Orleans conference this past August.

Just like Walker is doing with education reform initiatives, he’s getting some of the more conservative Democrats’ proposals in the mix as the pretext for saying that it is a bipartisan effort.

Full Story Here: Walker’s Special Session for Private Companies | The Progressive.

World’s Millionaires Support ‘Buffet Tax’ – Except Greedy American Millionaires

Investors Back Obama’s Buffett Rule

Global investors overwhelmingly support President Barack Obama’s proposed tax increase for those earning annual incomes of $1 million or more in an effort to reduce the deficit.

By a margin of 63 percent to 32 percent, respondents in a Bloomberg Global Poll approved of the president’s proposal, known as the “Buffett rule” in a nod to Warren Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., who has said it is wrong that he pays a smaller share of his income in taxes than does his secretary.

Obama said Sept. 19 that making sure that the wealthy pay at least the same tax rate as the middle class was “just the right thing to do.” House Speaker John Boehner accused the president of practicing “class warfare,” saying any new tax would hurt job creation and Buffett’s situation was not typical.

Full Story Here: Investors Back Obama’s Buffett Rule – Bloomberg.

October2011 protest, one week and counting

“October 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and the beginning of the 2012 federal austerity budget. It is time to light the spark that sets off a true democratic, nonviolent transition to a world in which people are freed to create just and sustainable solutions.”

These words describe the mission behind a “Human Needs, Not Corporate Greed” protest beginning October 6th in Washington, D.C.’s Freedom Plaza. One week from today, I will be participating in this protest with a small group of students and faculty from Tulane’s School of Social Work.

I have joined several committees and coalition meetings since starting my Master’s program one month ago, but this will be my first “hands-on” experience as a social worker in training. While my knowledge of protests until now has involved little more than taking pictures from the sidelines, I feel both fortunate and excited about being involved in this experience. Our group has the opportunity to represent our school and mission as social workers, while also gaining new insights from the many leaders and organizations who will also be involved in the event nationwide.

Below are 15 core issues that ultimately represent the “October2011” vision toward creating a peaceful, just and sustainable world:

Full Story Here: October2011 protest, one week and counting | Scholars and Rogues.

Canadian Arctic loses most of huge ice shelf

Two ice shelves that existed before Canada was settled by Europeans diminished significantly this northern summer, one nearly disappearing altogether, Canadian scientists say in newly published research.

The loss is important as a marker of global warming, returning the Canadian Arctic to conditions that date back thousands of years, scientists say. Floating icebergs that have broken free as a result pose a risk to offshore oil facilities and potentially to shipping lanes. The breaking apart of the ice shelves also reduces the environment that supports microbial life and changes the look of Canada’s coastline.

Luke Copland is an associate professor in the geography department at the University of Ottawa who co-authored the research published on Carleton University’s website. He said the Serson Ice Shelf shrank from 205 square kilometres to two remnant sections five years ago, and was further diminished this past summer.

Full Story Here: Canadian Arctic loses most of huge ice shelf – World – NZ Herald News.

Wall Street Protests: Which Side Are You On?

The crisis of American democracy did not start with the financial collapse. For at least 30 years, the system has been rigged by the wealthy to acquire more wealth and privilege.

Wall Street has long been the home of the biggest threat to American Democracy. Now it has become home to what may be our best hope for rescuing it.

For everyone who loves this country, for everyone whose heart is breaking for the growing ranks of the poor, for everyone who is seething at the unopposed demolition of America’s working and middle class: the time has come to get off the fence.

A new generation has gone to the scene of the crimes committed against our future. The time has come for all people of good will to give our full-throated backing to the young people of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The young heroes on Wall Street today baffle the world because they have issued no demands. The villains of Wall Street had their demands — insisting upon a massive bailout for themselves in 2008, while they pocketed million dollar bonuses. The Wall Street protesters are not seeking a bailout for themselves; they are working to bail out democracy.

Full Story Here: Wall Street Protests: Which Side Are You On? | Economy | AlterNet.

Obama Assassinates U.S. Citizen

Mother Jones :-:

Up until now, the Obama administration’s policy of sanctioning the assassination of U.S. citizens has been more theoretical than real. Not any longer:

A missile fired from an American drone aircraft in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric who was a leading figure in Al Qaeda’s affiliate in this country, according to an official in Washington.

….Yemen’s official news agency, Saba, reported that the attack also killed Samir Khan, an American citizen of Pakistani origin and the editor of Inspire, Al Qaeda’s English-language Internet magazine. Mr. Khan proclaimed in the magazine last year that he was “proud to be a traitor to America.”

Is this the first targeted assassination of a U.S. citizen as part of the war on terror? Probably. The Bush administration killed Buffalo-born Kamal Derwish in 2002, but at least for public consumption, quickly claimed that they had been targeting someone else and Derwish was simply collateral damage. You can take that for what it’s worth, but in any case, even that fig leaf is gone now: no one’s even bothering to pretend that al-Awlaki’s killing was anything other than deliberately planned and executed.

No one is likely to mourn al-Awlaki himself — which is what made his assassination so safe in the first place — but we sure ought be mourning the fact that it happened, and that it’s likely to happen routinely from now on. The Obama administration has demonstrated once again, as it did in Libya and as it’s done in a variety of surveillance cases, that its view of executive power in the arena of national security is hardly any less expansive than Dick Cheney’s was. The fact that this was predictable makes it no less alarming. Regardless of how any of us feels about warmaking in general, there are very good reasons that national governments are more constrained in their ability to kill their own citizens than in their ability to kill foreigners, constraints enshrined in both the explicit rules and longstanding traditions of due process. That bright line has grown a lot dimmer today.

Full Story Here: Obama Assassinates U.S. Citizen | Mother Jones.

Walker’s Chief Of Staff Resigns

Gov. Scott Walker’s chief of staff who helped guide the administration during the tumult over public-employee unions and passage of his first state budget is stepping down.

Keith Gilkes said he’ll leave the $112,000-per-year job as of Oct. 8 to return to his one-man business as a political consultant. Gilkes, 34, hinted the timing was linked to promised efforts to recall Walker over his push for sweeping changes that stripped away almost all public union collective bargain rights.

“What my responsibility will be is dusting off the old playbook. A little less than a year ago, I was working with the campaign as a campaign manager and now it gives me an opportunity to go back there, reconfigure some things, and put the team back together and be prepared for whatever may lay ahead, whether it be a year from now or three years from now,” Gilkes told 12 News reporter Kent Wainscott Friday afternoon.

Full Story Here: Walker’s Chief Of Staff Resigns – Politics News Story – WISN Milwaukee.

Outsize Severance Continues for Executives, Even After Failed Tenures

The golden goodbye has not gone away.

Just last week, Léo Apotheker was shown the door after a tumultuous 11-month run atop Hewlett-Packard. His reward? $13.2 million in cash and stock severance, in addition to a sign-on package worth about $10 million, according to a corporate filing on Thursday.

At the end of August, Robert P. Kelly was handed severance worth $17.2 million in cash and stock when he was ousted as chief executive of Bank of New York Mellon after clashing with board members and senior managers. A few days later, Carol A. Bartz took home nearly $10 million from Yahoo after being fired from the troubled search giant.

Full Story Here: Outsize Severance Continues for Executives, Even After Failed Tenures – NYTimes.com.

Rick Perry and the New Apostolic Reformation

A threat to American liberties:

Rick Perry and the New Apostolic Reformation

Two years ago, two NAR ministers explained to Perry that Texas had been anointed by God to bring America to Godly rule.

The most vigorous branch of Dominionism is the New Apostolic Reformation. Rev. Dr. C. Peter Wagner of Global Harvest Ministries in Colorado Springs, is the “convening Apostle” or leading light in New Apostolic Reformation, and he says the reformation or New Apostolic Age began in 2001.

A former professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Wagner is famous for helping develop the “growth model” that was to produce the huge megachurches that now dot the land. He and his followers aim for a post-denominational Christianity shaped by them. Their leaders are God’s new apostles and prophets who have greater power than the original apostles and prophets.

Spiritual warriors must convert adherents of other churches and seek political power. They think the end times will see the perfection of Christianity and they will have a perfected religion to turn over to Christ, when he returns. They will be given great power and crush evil with a “rod of iron.”

Full Story Here: The Rag Blog: Don Swift : Rick Perry and the New Apostolic Reformation.

Rick Perry, Conservative? or Corporatist?

Ian Fletcher :=:

 Disappointment is a bipartisan game. Most conservatives realized by the end of George W. Bush’s term that he was a political faker. Sure, he put on a nice conservative act, but his record in office –on spending, immigration, and other issues dear to the conservative heart—made clear that he was really a water boy for multinational corporate interests that care little for the United States. As Jefferson observed, “Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”

But that cowboy hat vaudeville act was so successful in gulling the Republican electorate that the corporate-dominated Republican establishment seems to have decided to give it another try.  They don’t seem to have quite settled on Rick Perry yet, and indeed there are reports they have serious reservations, but he’s definitely been auditioning.

Now this man must be not only conservative, but a real hard-core right wing patriot! We have photographic proof because he waved a gun over his head in public! Gosh. That proves he’s no liberal. Liberals can’t stand the man! And didn’t he even mention the word “secession” once or twice?

Sorry, folks. It’s all posturing, posturing, and more posturing.

If it makes conservative readers feel any better, liberals fell for the same trick, albeit from the other direction, when they elected President Obama.  I mean, a black person—even one who got more money from Goldman Sachs and its employees than John McCain—must be different, right? He couldn’t possibly be the same old stuff in a new package, could he?  Our rulers aren’t cynical people who would stoop to such a trick, after all.

The best way to get a handle on where Rick Perry’s real political heart lies is to look at his list of $100,000-plus donors (courtesy of the Texas Ethics Commission, collated by the liberal group Texans for Public Justice).  These are the footprints of crony capitalism, also known as corporatism.  No comment on the following list is needed; just peruse it and see what impression it leaves you with.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…

Ian Fletcher is Senior Economist of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a nationwide grass-roots organization dedicated to fixing America’s trade policies and comprising representatives from business, agriculture, and labor. He was previously Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a Washington think tank, and before that, an economist in private practice serving mainly hedge funds and private equity firms. Educated at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, he lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why.