Archive for December, 2011

After Signaling Support, John Boehner Calls Tax Break For Middle Class ‘Chicken-Shit’

Despite their stated opposition to tax increases, Republican lawmakers have been largely cool or even hostile to a proposed extension of the temporary payroll tax cut, pushed by President Obama and Democrats. Finally, this week, Republicans seemed to relent as GOP congressional leaders publicly urged their caucuses to vote for an extension of the plan. “The fact is that Republicans are doing everything we can to allow American families and small businesses to keep more of what they earn,” Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said this morning of efforts to whip GOP lawmakers to support an extension.

But in private, Boehner seems to hold a different view. Politico reports that in a closed-door GOP meeting this morning, Boehner referred to an extension of the payroll tax holiday as “chicken-shit,” saying he wanted to tack on unrelated legislation favored by Republicans to make it palatable:

Full Story Here: After Signaling Support, John Boehner Calls Tax Break For Middle Class ‘Chicken-Shit’ | ThinkProgress.

GOP Presidential Candidate Roemer: Romney Represents The 1 Percent And Gingrich Is Their Lobbyist

GOP presidential primary candidate and former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer has distinguished himself from the rest of the field by allying himself with the 99 Percent, visiting Occupy Wall Street and Occupy D.C., and running on a platform of attacking Big Money and special interest influence in politics.

This afternoon, during an appearance on MSNBC, Roemer took both the media and his opponents in the race to task. Roemer told MSNBC that he has yet to hear a single question from debate moderators about where the leading candidates are getting their money from. He also concluded that former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney represents the 1 Percent and that Newt Gingrich is their lobbyist:

Full Story Here: GOP Presidential Candidate Roemer: Romney Represents The 1 Percent And Gingrich Is Their Lobbyist | ThinkProgress.

Despite A 0.0002 Percent Rate Of Voter Fraud, Reince Priebus Claims Wisconsin Is ‘Riddled With Voter Fraud’

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus made a curious claim on MSNBC today, alleging that Wisconsin is a state “that was absolutely riddled with voter fraud.”

The problem? A recent study by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found just seven cases of voter fraud out of three million votes cast in Wisconsin during the 2004 election, a fraud rate of 0.0002 percent. All seven of these cases involved persons with felony convictions who weren’t eligible to vote after being released from prison.

Unfazed by the minuscule incidence of actual voter fraud – comedian Stephen Colbert joked that “our democracy is under siege from an enemy so small it could be hiding anywhere” – Priebus went on MSNBC to defend Wisconsin’s new photo ID requirement and yesterday’s anti-voting rights measure passed by the House GOP. When host Martin Bashir pushed the RNC Chair about his party’s motivations for restricting voting rights, Priebus pointed to his home state of Wisconsin and declared, “I come from a state in Wisconsin that was absolutely riddled with voter fraud, okay?”

Full Story Here: Despite A 0.0002 Percent Rate Of Voter Fraud, Reince Priebus Claims Wisconsin Is ‘Riddled With Voter Fraud’ | ThinkProgress.

Outsourcing Jobs, Offshoring Markets

Conventional economic wisdom teaches that it is not in the interests of employers to drive wages down to desperation levels, since most consumers are wage earners and consumption demand generates from 66 to 72 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. Were employers to drive wages too low they would at the same destroy their customer base, which is good for neither capital nor labor. This line of reasoning assumes that capitalism is organized such that each nation’s labor market is both entirely domestic and the sole source of the demand for its economy’s output. But capitalism is a global system and its sovereign components are not closed economies. The typical large corporations’ labor pool and customer base are now globally dispersed. In fact, the last few decades has seen the creation, for the first time in history, of a global labor market.

The outsourcing of jobs has become common knowledge, and is perceived by most working people as a significant source of the nation’s unemployment woes. The loss of jobs to cheaper labor markets is nothing new; it has been building since the 1960s. In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of domestic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent. This tendency has accelerated with the deregulation of cross-border capital flows. Since 2000 the United States has lost thousands of factories and a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs, representing a 32 percent decline. By the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time we saw those numbers was in 1941.

Full Story Here: Outsourcing Jobs, Offshoring Markets » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

Suddenly It’s Newt

Slapstick depends on repetition. The clown always slips in the pile of elephant crap, inevitably walks into the ladder. By such standards Mitt Romney is now the undisputed slapstick king of America. About every four to six weeks the pundits shout out in unison, “That’s it. Finally. It’s a wrap for Romney!” But then, a week later here’s the pile of elephant crap, there’s the ladder, and down goes Mitt.

Just when the Mormon millionaire thought he’d got the nomination sewn up, the polls showed him still stuck at about 23 per cent with huge numbers of Republicans saying they didn’t trust the former governor of Massachusetts, that Mormons are in league with Satan, that he took his dog on holiday, tied to the roof of his car, that he’s a flip flopper, that he made his money firing people, that…. On and on.

So there was the Rick Perry challenge. The governor of Texas soared in the polls. He was a cert. Romney raged. Then Perry turned out to be a moron. Romney was on his feet again. A cert. But did his polling numbers surge? Nope. Stuck at 23 per cent and then came another pile of elephant crap, in the form of Herman Cain. Yes, Republicans told pollsters they liked his style, his feistiness, his 9-9-9 tax plan, and above all his consummate skill in not being Mitt Romney.

Full Story Here: Suddenly It’s Newt » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

Rachel Maddow, Frank Rich Dissect Fox News, ‘Murdoch Primary’

Rachel Maddow and Frank Rich discussed what they called the most important part of the Republican race for president on Maddow’s Thursday show: the so-called “Murdoch primary.”

Maddow began by noting the power that Rupert Murdoch wields through his media outlets — beginning in Britain, where evidence of the blunt force of his newspapers is everywhere, and continuing in America through Fox News and papers like the Wall Street Journal.

Fox News, she said, had adopted the canny strategy of telling its viewers “not to trust anybody else” and to “deride and essentially wage war on all other media sources.” She also echoed the feelings of many others by saying that Murdoch and Fox News CEO Roger Ailes are as much active participants in Republican politics as they are observers of them — and that they are more than willing to use the influence of their network to shape electoral outcomes.

Full Story Here: Rachel Maddow, Frank Rich Dissect Fox News, ‘Murdoch Primary’ (VIDEO).

Jerry Brown And The Occupy Movement: Where Does The Governor Really Stand?

In mid-November, a group of demonstrators aligned with the Occupy movement held a rally outside a Sacramento loft building in an attempt to capture the attention of one of its residents: Jerry Brown. They were angry about the harsh tactics that police had been using against demonstrators throughout the state, and they wanted the governor to hear them out. But they weren’t there to excoriate him or to demand his resignation, as their counterparts in other cities and states have done with other elected officials from Oakland’s Mayor Jean Quan to New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“Gov. Brown, we challenge you to take up the fight with Occupy,” declared demonstrator Kevin Carter. “We occupy for the First Amendment, free speech, peaceful assembly and the redress of grievances against the government. As the governor, you should lead this fight.”

They were asking, it appeared, for the governor to join them.

Previously, Occupy demonstrators strenuously resisted attempts by politicians to use the movement as a platform, even to the point of turning away Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the revered Civil Rights activist, when he tried to speak out of turn at a general assembly in Atlanta.

Full Story Here: Jerry Brown And The Occupy Movement: Where Does The Governor Really Stand?.

Rick Santorum Defends Health Insurance Companies…

…For Denying Coverage To People With Pre-Existing Conditions

While speaking to a group of high school students in New Hampshire on Friday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum defended insurers for denying coverage or charging more to people with pre-existing conditions, using his own family as an example.

“We have a child who has a pre-existing condition and we went out and we said, we like this plan,” Santorum said, according to ThinkProgress. “We have to pay more because she has a pre-existing condition. Well, we should pay more. She’s going to be very expensive to the insurance company and, you know, that cost is passed along to us… I’m okay with that.”

Santorum’s three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Isabella has a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18, a condition that often results in death within a year of birth. He recently began opening up about “Bella” on the campaign trail.

Full Story Here: Rick Santorum Defends Health Insurance Companies For Denying Coverage To People With Pre-Existing Conditions.

The Budget Wedge: How Republicans’ Approach To The Budget Could Split Their Party

Republicans may win the power to impose major entitlement cuts only through the support of voters who dislike the idea.

One reason that the congressional deficit-reduction committee failed is that many Republicans believe time is on their side. That optimism is rooted in the widespread conviction among the party that it has a strong chance of holding the House in 2012 while recapturing both the Senate and the White House. On paper, such unified control would give Republicans the leverage in 2013 to shrink the federal deficit solely by cutting spending without accepting the tax increases that Democrats are demanding as the price for big reductions, especially in Social Security and Medicare

As electoral analysis, that’s hardly unreasonable. But as a legislative forecast, it could prove much more problematic. Even with unified control, passing a deficit plan that relies solely on spending reductions (particularly in entitlements) while preserving tax cuts for the affluent could strain the Republican electoral coalition much more violently than most GOP leaders now assume. In fact, the GOP faces a conundrum: It may gain enough power next year to impose a just-cuts solution only by placating the voters most skeptical of that approach.

The reason is the changing nature of the Republican coalition. Over the past several decades, Republicans have run increasingly well in the overlapping circles of older and blue-collar whites. Those trends have dramatically accelerated under President Obama: In 2010, exit polls showed that GOP House candidates carried a crushing 63 percent both among white seniors and whites without a four-year college degree. Those groups are now at least as integral to Republican success as the corporate managers, small-business owners, and college-educated suburbanites who once anchored their vote.

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Full Story Here: The Budget Wedge – Ronald Brownstein – NationalJournal.com.

Giant Weta, World’s Largest Insect, Photographed In New Zealand

This is the world’s largest insect.

The giant weta is a cricket-like creature with a wingspan of close to seven inches. The one in the picture (full image below), isn’t just the largest weta, it’s the world’s largest insect ever photographed.

Renowned entomologist Mark Moffett found the amazing bug after two days of searching New Zealand’s Little Barrier Island. The species was previously found on the New Zealand mainland, but had been virtually annihilated by rats introduced by Europeans.

Moffett, 53, located the weta in a tree and proceeded to feed her a carrot.

Full Story Here: Giant Weta, World’s Largest Insect, Photographed In New Zealand (PHOTO).

White House Threatens Veto Of Indefinite Detention Bill

Accusing the Senate of “political micromanagement” of national security, the White House Friday stood by its threat to veto a defense bill over controversial military detention provisions.

The National Defense Authorization Act passed Thursday by the Senate contains a section that spells out the military’s power to detain Americans indefinitely without trial and mandates military detention for some terrorism suspects.

The White House warned last month that senior advisers would recommend a veto, saying the detainee provisions could restrict the ability of law enforcement to combat terrorism and “make the job of preventing terrorist attacks more difficult.”

Full Story Here: White House Threatens Veto Of Indefinite Detention Bill.

Cedars-Sinai refuses liver transplant to medical marijuana patient

Medical marijuana jeopardizes liver transplant

A cancer patient is removed from the transplant list at Cedars-Sinai for using medical marijuana and for failing to show up for a drug test. He is hoping the hospital will reconsider.

Norman Smith, who has liver cancer, was placed on the transplant list at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last year.

But early this year, doctors removed him because he was using medical marijuana and failed to show up for a drug test.

To get back on the list, Smith, 63, has to spend six months avoiding medical marijuana, submitting to random drug tests and receiving counseling. He is still undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for the cancer, which recently returned after being in remission. Smith has aske

Full Story Here: Medical marijuana jeopardizes liver transplant – latimes.com.

Sears reverses ‘sneaky’ up-sell policy

Did Sears.com pad the bill for major appliance orders by automatically tacking on a service contract even when it is not requested?

Edgar Dworsky, a nationally-respected consumer advocate and founder of the website ConsumerWorld.org, made that claim Thursday. Sears said on Friday that it will change the way its website operates.

Dworsky says he went on the site on Black Friday weekend looking for a refrigerator. He found a model he liked, put it in his cart and noticed that a five-year service contract for $469 had been added without his consent.

“I’m really upset and I think it’s a very sneaky practice,” Dworsky tells me. “A consumer should not have to opt-out of buying something they never asked for to start with.”

Full Story Here: Life Inc. – Sears reverses ‘sneaky’ up-sell policy.

Euro doomed from start, says Jacques Delors

The euro project was flawed from the start and the current generation of European leaders has failed to address its fundamental problems, Jacques Delors, the architect of the single currency, declares today.

Full Story Here: Euro doomed from start, says Jacques Delors – Telegraph.

Fukushima disaster’s marine fallout

A new report shows the March 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan is now also responsible for the world’s worst nuclear sea contamination.

During the peak of Ukraine’s Chernobyl cataclysm of 1986, the Black Sea was registering 1,000 becquerels per cubic metre of water; this appears miniscule in comparison to nuclear levels at Fukushima’s peak recorded at 100,000 becquerels.

Scientists first believed the ocean would dilute the radioactivity, but Al Jazeera has learned that dangerous concentrations of radioactive caesium remain.

Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao reports from Fukushima, Japan.

Full Story Here: Fukushima disaster’s marine fallout.flv – YouTube.

The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah!

I have long argued that the impact of the Affordable Care Act is not nearly as big of a deal as opponents would have you believe. At the end of the day, the law is – in the main – little more than a successful effort to put an end to some of the more egregious health insurer abuses while creating an environment that should bring more Americans into programs that will give them at least some of the health care coverage they need.

There is, however, one notable exception – and it’s one that should have a long lasting and powerful impact on the future of health care in our country.

That would be the provision of the law, called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80% of the consumers’ premium dollars they collect—85% for large group insurers—on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit. Failure on the part of insurers to meet this requirement will result in the insurers having to send their customers a rebate check representing the amount in which they underspend on actual medical care.

Full Story Here: The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah! – Forbes.

Suskind’s Confidence Men Raises Questions About Obama’s Credibility

Barack Obama is heading back onto the campaign trail, running as a champion of the middle class and even hoping to harness the Occupy movement’s public anger at Wall Street.

But the higher he soars with his populist rhetoric, the more he calls attention to the enormous gap between the promise of hope and change that he campaigned on in 2008 and the actions he has taken as president — especially regarding the economy, which is still stagnating, and Wall Street, which remains unpunished and unbowed even after causing the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

As a result, voters will inevitably be asking themselves: Who is this guy, really? Does he mean what he says? Will he do what he says? And would a second-term Obama be different?

One answer to why Obama underperformed is laid out in searing detail in Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Ron Suskind’s latest book, Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President.

Full Story Here: Dan Froomkin: Suskind’s Confidence Men Raises Questions About Obama’s Credibility.

After Fukushima – Enough Is Enough

 The nuclear power industry has been resurrected over the past decade by a lobbying campaign that has left many people believing it to be a clean, green, emission-free alternative to fossil fuels. These beliefs pose an extraordinary threat to global public health and encourage a major financial drain on national economies and taxpayers. The commitment to nuclear power as an environmentally safe energy source has also stifled the mass development of alternative technologies that are far cheaper, safer and almost emission free — the future for global energy.

When the Fukushima Daiichi reactors suffered meltdowns in March, literally in the backyard of an unsuspecting public, the stark reality that the risks of nuclear power far outweigh any benefits should have become clear to the world. As the old quip states, “Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water.”

Instead, the nuclear industry has used the disaster to increase its already extensive lobbying efforts. A few nations vowed to phase out nuclear energy after the disaster. But many others have remained steadfast in their commitment. That has left millions of innocent people unaware that they — all of us — may face a medical catastrophe beyond all proportions in the wake of Fukushima and through the continued widespread use of nuclear energy.

Full Story Here: After Fukushima – Enough Is Enough – NYTimes.com.

Lawmakers Push Disastrous Legislation on Keystone XL

Lawmakers Push Disastrous Legislation on Keystone XL

Law Would Force Presidential Decision on Controversial, Destructive Pipeline in 60 Days

WASHINGTON – December 2 – The House Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a hearing today on legislation called the “North American Energy Security Act,” which would require President Barack Obama to issue a permit on the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline within 60 days of the law’s enactment or determine the pipeline is not in the national interest. The legislation comes on the heels of a decision by the State Department to delay the pipeline’s approval to allow for more study of its environmental impacts on our land, air, water and climate.

“Once again congressional Republicans are paying more attention to their deep-pocketed campaign contributors in oil and gas than to the American public, which overwhelmingly opposes more tar-sands development, including the Keystone pipeline,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “If it passes, this law will end careful consideration of the devastating impacts of Keystone, doing terrible damag

Full Story Here: Lawmakers Push Disastrous Legislation on Keystone XL | Common Dreams.

Norquist Tells GOP That Raising Taxes On The Middle Class Doesn’t Count As A Tax Increase

Anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist, the president of Americans For Tax Reform and author of the radical anti-tax pledge that has played a significant role in hamstringing budget and deficit-reduction negotiations, has said that it is unacceptable for those who have signed his pledge to vote in favor of any tax increase. But now that President Obama and congressional Democrats are backing a tax cut aimed at stimulating economic growth, Norquist has changed his tune.

Norquist met with Republican members today to let them know that opposing the extension of the payroll tax cut — which would provide many families an extra $1,000 a year — would not amount to supporting a tax increase, National Journal’s Billy House reported today:

Full Story Here: Norquist Tells GOP That Raising Taxes On The Middle Class Doesn’t Count As A Tax Increase | ThinkProgress.

Fukushima Backlash: Radiation Lobby Sees Upside to Reactor Disasters

Since Fukushima’s triple meltdown and radiation disaster began in Japan in March, a sophisticated backlash against nuclear power critics has begun. Public discussion of heavy, widespread contamination of Japan’s food, water, soil and incinerator ash clogs the newspapers, TV, radio talk shows and the blogosphere there. Questions about the increased risks of death, disease and birth abnormalities stemming from internal contamination are on everyone’s lips. In reaction, the nuclear lobby has trotted out good old balderdash to help distract, confuse, save money and dodge responsibility.

“Best Case” scenario predicts fewer deaths from U.S. meltdown

Here in the U.S., the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) declared in a July report that a reactor meltdown in this country would result in far fewer deaths than it earlier estimated. Using new computer studies and engineering analyses updated projection is based on the supposition that a core meltdown would disperse only 1 or 2 percent of its ferociously radioactive cesium-137 and -134. Earlier projections estimated that a meltdown here would spew up to 60 percent of the core’s cesium.

The NRC now estimates that one person in every 4,348 living within 10 miles would be expected to develop a “latent cancer” as a result of radiation exposure following a meltdown, compared with one in 167 in previous estimates.

Full Story Here: Fukushima Backlash: Radiation Lobby Sees Upside to Reactor Disasters | Common Dreams.

7-7-7: Jobless? Face It. Obama’s Not That Into You

Forget Herman Cain’s 9-9-9. The battle cry for every American ought to be 7-7-7.

7-7-7: for the $7.7 trillion the Bush and Obama Administrations secretly funneled to the banksters.

Remember the $700 billion bailout that prompted rage from right to left? Which inspired millions to join the Tea Party and the Occupy movements? Turns out that that was a mere drop in the bucket, less than a tenth of what the Federal Reserve Bank doled out to the big banks.

Bloomberg Markets Magazine reports a shocking story that emerged from tens of thousands of documents released under the Freedom of Information Act: by March 2009, the Fed shelled out $7.77 trillion “to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.”

The U.S. national debt is currently a record $14 trillion.

Full Story Here: 7-7-7: Jobless? Face It. Obama’s Not That Into You | Common Dreams.

Carrier IQ On iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone: Which Devices Have Controversial ‘Tracking’ Software?

You might have heard about Carrier IQ, software that comes pre-installed on millions of smartphones that has the capability to record and store your keystrokes, the text messages you send and receive, the Internet websites you visit and more. If you own a smartphone — a BlackBerry, an iPhone, an Android, a Windows Phone, whatever — you are probably wondering whether or not Carrier IQ is on your smartphone, and if it is, how you can remove it.

Here is a rundown of everything we know about Carrier IQ, OS by OS. For a full background on Carrier IQ, what it does and why it has so many people nervous, read my colleague Gerry Smith’s thorough piece from earlier.

ANDROID

The furor over Carrier IQ started with the discovery of the nosy software on Android smartphones and is only getting noisier (Senator Al Franken recently asked Carrier IQ for an explanation of its practices).

Unless you have a rooted Android device, you won’t be able to see if your phone is running Carrier IQ. But here’s what we know:

Full Story Here: Carrier IQ On iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone: Which Devices Have Controversial ‘Tracking’ Software?.

Massachusetts AG Lawsuit: Five Major U.S. Banks Accused Of Deceptive Foreclosure Practices

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is suing five of the nation’s biggest banks for deceptive foreclosure and mortgage modification practices, her office announced Thursday. Coakley’s suit signals her formal departure from ongoing settlement negotiations between those banks, the Obama administration and a coalition of other state AGs over faulty foreclosure procedures.

“The single most important thing we can do to return to a healthy economy is to address this foreclosure crisis,” Coakley said in a statement Thursday. “Our suit alleges that the banks have charted a destructive path by cutting corners and rushing to foreclose on homeowners without following the rule of law. Our action today seeks real accountability for the banks illegal behavior and real relief for homeowners.”

The lawsuit, filed against Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Ally Financial and the Mortgage Electronic Registration System in Suffolk Superior Court, targets banks’ using fraudulent paperwork in the foreclosure process, foreclosing without actually holding the mortgage, corrupting the local land recording system and failing to uphold promises of loan modifications.

Full Story Here: Massachusetts AG Lawsuit: Five Major U.S. Banks Accused Of Deceptive Foreclosure Practices.

House Votes To End Public Funding Of Presidential Campaigns

House Republicans pushed through legislation on Thursday that would end public financing of presidential campaigns and terminate the Election Assistance Commission, the agency charged with helping states carry out fair elections.

The vote, 235 to 190, went right down the party line, with just one Republican — Rep. Walter Jones (N.C.) — joining with all Democrats in opposition.

The bill doesn’t have much of a future: It isn’t likely to come up in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and the White House released a strongly worded statement against it. But that didn’t stop the House from spending hours on it anyway — and it led to Democrats charging Republicans with trying to chip away at voter protections for disenfranchised groups.

Full Story Here: House Votes To End Public Funding Of Presidential Campaigns.

OPS: More proof that the republican are fascist. This is a blatant attempt to kill ‘We The People”

Al Franken Calls On Carrier IQ To Explain Mobile Tracking Software

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is calling on a developer to provide details of hidden software installed on smartphones that logs numerous details about users’ activities.

In a letter sent Thursday to Carrier IQ president Larry Lenhart, Franken asked for an explanation of what the company’s software records, whether it transmits data to a third party and whether the data presents any security or privacy risks. Franken said the software’s capabilities may violate federal laws.

Earlier this week, security researcher Trevor Eckhart posted a video detailing how Carrier IQ’s software — which has the same name — logs every text message, web search and phone number typed on a wide variety of smartphones and reports them to the mobile phone carrier.

Full Story Here: Al Franken Calls On Carrier IQ To Explain Mobile Tracking Software.

Senate Kills Effort To Ban Indefinite Military Detentions Of U.S. Citizens

Senators compromised Thursday on a bill that attempts to spell out the military’s right to detain Americans indefinitely, killing a bid to bar the practice but passing an amendment that says current laws on the matter stand.

The provision in the National Defense Authorization Act aimed to codify a string of court cases and current anti-terrorism practices involved in the capture and treatment of terrorism suspects. It initially opened what opponents saw as the prospect of letting the military haul away any citizen about whom it had suspicions.

The new amendment specifies that the current practices may not change, although it also says explicitly that the military can pursue Americans at home.

“Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States,” says the compromise amendment, which passed 99 to 1.

Full Story Here: Senate Kills Effort To Ban Indefinite Military Detentions Of U.S. Citizens.

Elizabeth Warren Is Pulling Ahead Of Scott Brown: Poll

Democrats’ bet that former consumer finance watchdog Elizabeth Warren could take down Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) appears to be paying off, as a new poll suggests she is pulling ahead.

The survey by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst finds Warren leading Brown 43 percent to 39 percent — just within the poll’s 4.4 percent margin of error.

“These numbers could mean trouble for Scott Brown,” said UMass political scientist Brian Schaffner. “The race is a dead heat and his support is well under 50 percent, which usually means difficulty for an incumbent, especially this far out from Election Day.”

Full Story Here: Elizabeth Warren Is Pulling Ahead Of Scott Brown: Poll.

A Banker Speaks, With Regret

If you want to understand why the Occupy movement has found such traction, it helps to listen to a former banker like James Theckston. He fully acknowledges that he and other bankers are mostly responsible for the country’s housing mess.

As a regional vice president for Chase Home Finance in southern Florida, Theckston shoveled money at home borrowers. In 2007, his team wrote $2 billion in mortgages, he says. Sometimes those were “no documentation” mortgages.

“On the application, you don’t put down a job; you don’t show income; you don’t show assets,” he said. “But you still got a nod.”

“If you had some old bag lady walking down the street and she had a decent credit score, she got a loan,” he added.

Theckston says that borrowers made harebrained decisions and exaggerated their resources but that bankers were far more culpable — and that all this was driven by pressure from the top.

Full Story Here: A Banker Speaks, With Regret – NYTimes.com.

The Spy Files: WikiLeaks releases surveillance docs

WikiLeaks has released the first portion of sensitive data revealing a new global surveillance and interception industry spanning 25 countries.

Site founder Julian Assange has held a press conference, revealing the secrets of the industry.­

The whistleblowing site has published some 287 documents from its huge database, collected from 160 international intelligence contractors. The database includes internal documents of such companies like Gamma corporation in the UK, Ipoque of Germany, Amesys and Vupen in France, VASTech in South Africa, ZTE Corp in China, Phoenexia in the Czech Republic, SS8 and Blue Coat in the US, among others.

And this was only the first step of the WikiLeaks Spy Files project, established to expose companies, which are making billions of dollars selling sophisticated tracking and surveillance tools. They published an interactive map of surveillance companies operating around the globe.

Full Story Here: The Spy Files: WikiLeaks releases surveillance docs — RT.

Representative Schakowsky Receives Letter of Intimidation From Former Blackwater CEO

Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Illinois) attempt to end the multimillion dollar business of outsourcing in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn’t sit well with the former CEO of the notorious Blackwater company, Erik Prince, who sent a hand-delivered cease-and-desist letter to the Congresswoman threatening legal action if she continued to make “false and defamatory” statements about him.

The Stop Outsourcing Security Act, introduced in 2007 by Schakowsky, would target numerous companies like the former Blackwater, now XE Services, to be eventually phased out to end the misappropriation of government functions and unaccountable abuses by contractors.

Though Schakowsky recognizes that this decision would impact numerous companies, she singled out Blackwater’s bloody record as a “company that has become synonymous with misconduct” in a speech on the House floor Wednesday, and said that the letter constituted “attempted intimidation” by Prince.

Full Story Here: Representative Schakowsky Receives Letter of Intimidation From Former Blackwater CEO | Truthout.