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Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.
Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.
Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.
Monday, January 23, 2012 How Can Communities Defend Themselves From Corporate Interests?
In the new book, "Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community," Linzey and Anneke Campbell, an environmental justice documentary filmmaker, argue that it's time to stop begging the government and corporations to cause less harm. It's time to replace corporate minority decision-making with community self-government.
Linzey and Campbell write about people from all walks of life doing just that by leaving their comfort zones to become community leaders. Through his work with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and the Daniel Pennock Democracy School, Linzey and others are helping communities across the country learn how laws actually work and organize effective responses to corporations exploiting water, air, resources and land.
The Daniel Pennock Democracy School is named in honor of Danny Pennock, a 17-year-old from PA who died of sludge poisoning.
Thursday, January 19, 2012 Iowa Finally Has Definitive Winner: The Voters
Even the GOP establishment--which had long decided that Mitt Romney was their best hope to win back the White House in 2012 among those currently running --could not overcome the intent of the voters as transparently expressed on publicly hand-counted, hand-marked paper ballots. Nobody ever had to rest their faith on a single source, like a political party or a candidate or a voting machine company --though the media was all too happy to do so before moving on to New Hampshire. There was always a transparent, overseeable, system of checks and balances -just as our Constitution envisions for the nation's governance as a whole -there to assure that self-governance had a fighting chance to be more than a bumper sticker slogan hauled out when convenient, ignored when not.
Because the Iowa GOP allowed the people to oversee the counting of their own election, right then and there
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 Solar Bottle Lights a Bright Idea for the Developing World
Filipinos living in simple corrugated metal homes have had problems lighting their homes for generations. Even since the invention of electricity, electric lighting has been used sparingly by certain communities due to its cost. It is frustrating that Filipinos live in such a bright, tropical country and yet that some of them have been living mostly in the dark. But now a creative and entrepreneurial Filipino man has found a cheap, easy, electricity-free (and eco-friendly) way to light people’s homes and is installing his lighting system one home at a time.
Monday, January 2, 2012 Great (if Hypocritical) News! Iowa GOP Caucuses Will Vote on Publicly Hand-Counted Paper Ballots!
Voters in the GOP-run (not state-run) Iowa Caucuses next Tuesday will be able to register to vote right then and there,and then cast their vote on a paper ballot without having to show any form of Photo ID.Those paper ballots will then be counted publicly, at the "precinct", with the results of the voting at each site announced to everyone right then and there, before they are sent to a central clearing house to be compiled and announced to the media.Those are all among the best, most transparent, and most reliable election practices we're aware of, even while they are all things that Republicans have fought virulently against -for years -when it comes to elections in which Dem voters may be allowed to participate.Despite that great news for voters in Iowa (at least voters in the Repub caucuses,if not in their general elections), we are still left to conclude: Hypocrisy thy name is GOP.
Friday, December 23, 2011 Paul Krugman: The Post-Truth Campaign (1 comments)
Politifact, the project that is supposed to enforce truth in politics,has declared Dem claims that Republicans voted to end Medicare its “Lie of the Year.” It did so even though Repubs did indeed vote to dismantle Medicare as we know it and replace it with a voucher scheme that would still be called “Medicare,” but would look nothing like the current program — and would no longer guarantee affordable care.Here’s my forecast for next year: If Romney is in fact the Republican presidential nominee, he will make wildly false claims about Obama and,occasionally, get some flack for doing so. But news organizations will compensate by treating it as a comparable offense when, say, the president misstates the income share of the top 1 percent by a percentage point or two.The end result will be no real penalty for running an utterly fraudulent campaign. Welcome to post-truth politics.
Friday, December 23, 2011 Indiana's GOP SOS Ordered Removed From Ofice (1 comments)
Lots of irony here.Not just that White,a Repub,and the state's chief election officer is facing actual voter fraud charges,but also that it's all occurring in Indiana, where the nation's first polling place Photo ID restriction law was approved by the US Supreme Court in 2008.The approval of the IN law, with Repubs claiming that it was needed to prevent "voter fraud," has since been used as the model for similar laws passed by Repubs in nearly a dozen states since the GOP took over many state legislatures in 2010.That,despite the fact that none of those states has demonstrated a need for such a law,or a history of the type of "voter fraud", polling place impersonation,that would be prevented by such laws. Studies have shown that hundreds of thousands of disproportionately Dem-leaning voters are likely to be unconstitutionally disenfranchised entirely by such unnecessary restrictions.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 NYTimes.com: N.Y.P.D. Stops Reporters With Badges and Fists
Over several days, NY cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers.A majority of the city’s working reporters do not possess police passes. Levitt is a veteran reporter who writes the prodigiously well-sourced NYPD Confidential. “The police want to accredit as few reporters as possible, and they make it exceedingly hard for nonmainstream reporters to get press passes,” he said Levitt has tried to renew his pass for a year. “Needless to say,” he noted, “they are resisting.”
There is another problem: a police pass has become a ticket for a quick removal. Colin Moynihan stood on that darkened square last Tuesday morning when a police spokesman shouted, “Who has press credentials?”Many reporters and photographers dutifully raised their hands. With that, the police removed the “credentialed' reporters..
Sunday, November 20, 2011 How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools
Before he opened his education reform conference to the media recently,Bush hosted another education meeting.This event,a private affair in the Palace Hotel,was a reconvening of investors and strategists to plan the next leg of the privatization campaign.Michael Moe,Susan Patrick,Tom Vander Ark and other major players were invited.I waited outside the event,trying to get what information I could.I asked Mayor Fenty how I could get in.“Just crash in,come on in,”he laughed, adding,“so what company are you with?” When he learned that I was a reporter, he shook his head.“Oh, nah, you’re not welcome, then.”An invitation had billed the exclusive gathering as a chance for “philanthropists and venture capitalists” to figure out how to “leverage each other’s strengths”a concise way to describe how for-profit virtual school companies are using philanthropy as a Trojan horse
Tuesday, November 15, 2011 NYPD Cop Threatens Mother Jones Reporter Josh Harkinson Inside Zuccotti Park
Despite the (outrageous) ban on media at the park, as hundreds of NYPD cops in riot gear cleared the peaceful demonstrators for "health" reasons tossing them out of their tents, onto the streets and into the night -Mother Jones reporter Josh Harkinson was able to make his way under the barricades and back into the park.At the time he did so, there were a few dozen protesters left, holding firm around what had been the Kitchen Tent. It seems he may have been the only reporter in the park at that moment. Then, as he described this morning, the cops began "indiscriminately dousing the peaceful protesters with what looked like pepper spray or some sort of gas." He tweeted at the time that "Everyone I witnessed being arrested was resisting peacefully."But it was his incredible account of what had happened to him after that moment, as told in a series of tweets that he shared.
Monday, November 14, 2011 Plans to Sabotage 'Recall Walker' Effort, Destroy Petitions in WI Seen Discussed on Facebook
t won't be easy, as the initiative must succeed in gathering an average of more than 9,000 signatures each day between now and the 60-day deadline in January. To make matters worse, if indications on a number of Facebook pages are to be believed, some Walker supporters are planning to sabotage the effort with a number of dirty tricks, including collecting signatures under cover and then burning and shredding the petitions...With ardent supporters such as the Koch Brothers --- the obscenely wealthy oil and chemical barons who have become obscenely wealthier during the Presidency of Barack Obama, increasing their personal wealth by some $16 billion in the last three years, even as they've laid off thousands of workers at Koch Industries --- Walker will indeed have access to "unlimited amounts of money" to fend off the recall effort.
Saturday, November 12, 2011 WI Conservatives Plot to Burn, Shred, and Sabotage Scott Walker Recall Effort
These plans, discussed in Facebook posts that were first reported by the blog PolitiScoop, entail posing as recall supporters and gathering signatures, only to later destroy the petitions. They also include telling Wisconsinites that they can only sign one recall petition (which is false—they can sign different petitions as long as they each correspond to a different organization) and directing signature collectors to the homes of registered sex offenders. enkins' Facebook profile lists his profession as "UNION SLAVE LABORER" at the Kenosha Unified School District, located in southeast Wisconsin. His description reads, "Dealing with white trash, illegal immigrants, and criminal gang black kids isn't fun and games." Jenkins' interests are listed as "Greeting A Liberal," "Beating A Liberal," Strangling A Liberal," Burying a Dead Body," and "Having a Few Beers."
Thursday, November 10, 2011 What To Do When They "Let" Us Win Elections
So, what do you think? Now that our elections are naught but a big guessing game, and we still enjoy the tattered illusion of a free country -- feel free to guess what actually happened yesterday in our elections!
But whatever you do, don't let your guard down. We can celebrate the occasional jackpot in this rigged slot-machine voting system, but remember -- the house always wins in the end.
Hand counted paper ballots -- because democracy is NOT faith based.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 Shocking New Evidence Republicans Have Been Stealing Elections
Spoonamore's affidavit documents how on the night of the 2004 election the results were sent to SmarTech even though there was no problem with the OH vote count.It is here that the vote changed from a four point lead and likely win for Kerry to a two point victory and the Presidency for Bush.Connell told Spoonamore that SmarTech had complete access to the results and had the capability to change the vote count.When you couple this with an affidavit from Hayes Phillips author of the book,Witness to a Crime, lso about the stolen OH election of 2004 a clear picture of an elaborate election theft scheme becomes clear.What about the election in OH over Proposition#2 with another highly partisan Republican Gov John Kasich? Will this be a practice run for the wholesale voter suppression and theft by Repubs of the 2012 election,because they will stop at nothing to make Obama a one-term president
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 James Kwak: Our Health Care System, Compared
ou can see that not only is the United States the outlier when it comes to spending, but we are moving in the wrong direction: we are becoming more of a spending outlier, and we are drifting down from the average life expectancy into the lower group (currently surpassing only Turkey, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, and Czech Republic).
The other thing you see is that our life expectancy gain was the absolute lowest of the whole group (and we weren’t starting from a particularly high level, as you can see in the previous chart).
Ordinarily, you would think there should be convergence across countries. Since other countries spend less and live longer, you would think that we would learn from them—global competition, you know. But instead we’re moving the wrong way on both dimensions.
Monday, November 7, 2011 NYT Editorial: The Next Fight Over Jobs
Unemployment benefits are the first line of defense against ruin from job loss that is beyond an individual’s control. In a time of historically elevated long-term unemployment, they are an important way to keep workers connected to the job-search market. They are also crucial to ensuring that the weak economy doesn’t weaken further.
They clearly need to be extended, though we have no illusion that it will happen without a fight.
Monday, November 7, 2011 Paul Krugman: Here Comes The Sun (1 comments)
Let’s face it: a large part of our political class, including essentially the entire G.O.P., is deeply invested in an energy sector dominated by fossil fuels, and actively hostile to alternatives. This political class will do everything it can to ensure subsidies for the extraction and use of fossil fuels, directly with taxpayers’ money and indirectly by letting the industry off the hook for environmental costs, while ridiculing technologies like solar.
So what you need to know is that nothing you hear from these people is true. Fracking is not a dream come true; solar is now cost-effective. Here comes the sun, if we’re willing to let it in.
Monday, October 31, 2011 Just Three Corporate Front Groups Spent 13 Times As Much As The Entire Labor Movement To Buy Judicial Elections
After the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate money in American elections,the decision’s defenders claimed this wasn’t such a big deal because unions could also take advantage of the decision.A new report by three leading voting rights and judicial independence groups gives the lie to this claim.Just three corporate interest groups -The Ohio Chamber of Commerce,the Business Council of Alabama and the Illinois Civil Justice League spent more than 13 times as much trying to influence state supreme court elections as the entire labor movement.The report focuses on the 2009-10 cycle, so it does not include the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court race where incumbent Justice Prosser narrowly defeated a progressive challenger after corporate front groups rode to his rescue with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of funds.
Sunday, October 30, 2011 Occupy Wall Street Protester, Arrested And Jailed For 30 Hours, Tells Her Story For The First Time
Police officers in white shirts seemed to swarm from everywhere. They rushed into the bank and told us we were being arrested. At no point was there a warning from anyone in authority offering a chance to leave without being arrested, As they handcuffed us, we did not anticipate the next 30 hours that was in store for us.even the young women were seriously exhausted, physically and mentally burnt out. Perhaps I and my older compatriot were better prepared, at least psychologically. But by and large these young women were very impressive. After this dismal experience no one even considered leaving the movement. No hues and cries. Society must be changed. They insist on it, and, I hope, will continue to insist -- and, not withstanding the difficulties ahead, fight for it.
Sunday, October 30, 2011 Ny Times, Charles M Blow: America's Exploding Pipe Dream
We sold ourselves a pipe dream that everyone could get rich and no one would get hurt — a pipe dream that exploded like a pipe bomb when the already-rich grabbed for all the gold; when they used their fortunes to influence government and gain favors and protection; when everyone else was left to scrounge around their ankles in hopes that a few coins would fall.This was underscored in a report released on Thursday by the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation of Germany entitled “Social Justice in the OECD — How Do the Member States Compare?” It analyzed some metrics of basic fairness and equality among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and ranked America among the ones at the bottom.
I could write (and have written) ad nauseam about our woeful state, but it might be more powerful to see it for yourself.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 Police Attack Peaceful 'occupy Oakland' Demonstrators, Veterans With Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas, Flash Grenades And Dishon
Once again, late last night, as is becoming a too-regular nightly ritual,after the 11pm news was over, police moved in again to violate the Constitutional 1st Amendment right "of the people peaceably to assemble".And, for the second night in a row,late last night in Oakland, it resembled a war zone as police in riot gear unleashed a punishing onslaught of flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas -hour after hour,round after round -injuring demonstrators, including women, the disabled and even Iraq War veterans...Unlike the police in Albany a few nights ago, where they defied orders from NY's Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo to arrest demonstrators, and more like Chicago where the police followed the advice of Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel to break down the demonstrations over the weekend and haul more than 175 in, the Oakland PD, with the approval of the Democratic Mayor Quan
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 1 Marine vs. 30 Cops at Occupy Times Square
This is an amazing confrontation caught on camera at the Occupy
Times Square protest recently in New York.
Angry at having seen his unarmed fellow citizens being abused by
the police, U.S. Marine Sgt. Shamar Thomas gives the NYPD an ear
full.
Brasscheck TV video: Sometimes the right person with the right words and motivation can
make a difference. Watch this video and if you can appreciate the message and the passion with which it is conveyed, make sure his words are spread far and wide.
Sunday, October 9, 2011 Alabama Law Makes It A Felony For Undocumented Immigrants To Have Water At Their Homes
There are no shortage of routine activities that are now felonies thanks to Alabama’s draconian law. Indeed, because the law defines unlawful “business transactions” very broadly to include “any transaction between a person and the state or a political subdivision of the state,” the mere act of paying income taxes might qualify. Thus, if an undocumented immigrant pays their taxes, they will be guilty of a felony, but if they don’t they will also be guilty of a felony because Alabama punishes tax evaders with up to five years in prison.
In other words, Alabama’s anti-immigrant law effectively makes it a crime to simply live as an undocumented immigrant in the state.
Monday, October 3, 2011 Mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge: Is this what civil disobedience looks like?
Today, hundreds of people were arrested, many surely for the first time. More seem likely to follow. The world was watching (including tens of thousands on the movement’s livestream TV channel), and what it saw were entirely peaceful protesters, in the streets to oppose an unjust economy and a corrupt political order, being arrested en masse while bringing their messages across one of New York’s greatest landmarks.
Saturday, October 1, 2011 On the News With Thom Hartmann: MT Follows VT's Lead on Path to State-Level Single-Payer Health Care
Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana said he plans to ask the federal government to exempt his state from requirements in the Affordable Care Act – so that he can set up a universal, single-payer system like in Canada. Earlier this year – the state of Vermont started moving in the same direction too. Governor Schweitzer said he wants to create a system modeled after the Canadian province of Saskatchewan – where less is spent on healthcare – but there are better results and people live longer. Today – Canada has a nationwide single-payer system – but it started with one province – Saskatchewan – and spread across the rest of the nation. Let's hope we see the same thing sweep across America.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control
Exclusive: A laboratory shows how an e-voting machine used by a third of all voters can be easily manipulated.It could be one of the most disturbing e-voting machine hacks to date.
Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind. "The really nice thing about this attack, the man-in-the-middle, is that there's no soldering or destruction of the circuit board of any kind," Warner says. "You can remove this attack and leave no forensic evidence that we've been there."
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 Small Fixes: Brewing Up Double-Edged Delicacies for Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes subsist on modest sips of nectar from flowers or from ripe or rotting fruit.
And that, according to scientists from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is an Achilles’ heel — or Achilles’ proboscis — through which the pests can also be poisoned.“You can’t move flowering trees around,” said Yosef Schlein, a parasitologist at the university’s medical school. “So you have to use movable bait. That’s how we came up with fruit juice.”upported by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Schlein and his research partner Günter C. Müller concocted an array of nectar poisons known as Attractive Toxic Sugar Baits that are easy to make, environmentally friendly and inexpensive.More than one scientist noted that the idea of toxic nectar seemed so simple that it was surprising it hadn’t been thought of before.
Monday, September 26, 2011 Distinctive Mission for Muslims’ Conference: Remembering the Holocaust
One afternoon this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran addressed the United Nations General Assembly, once again casting doubt that the Holocaust had occurred. Almost exactly 24 hours earlier, an otherwise obscure college student in Morocco named Elmehdi Boudra was convening a conference devoted not to denying the Holocaust but to remembering it. While Holocaust denial or denigration in the Muslim world is a sadly familiar phenomenon, hardly news at all, the conference put together by Mr. Boudra and several dozen classmates, all of them Muslim, may well have been the first of its kind in an Arab or Muslim nation, and a sign of historical truth triumphing over conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic dogma.
Sunday, September 25, 2011 The Koch Brothers: Very Rich Job Killers (1 comments)
As Rachel Maddow discussed last week, for some odd reason, all that increased personal wealth for the "job creators" at Koch Industries, the country's 2nd largest private company, doesn't seem to have translated into the actual creation of, ya know, jobs for some odd reason...
"Weird. Even though their personal wealth has increased by some 40% during the worst economy in nearly a century, even though they now personally are worth more than the GDP of some 48 different countries, they keep killing jobs by firing thousands of Americans.
It's almost as if that whole "job creator" thing --- the notion that people who already have a whole lot of money will simply create more jobs, out of the kindness of their wallets, if only they have still more money --- is a crock of shit that only the dumbest, most brainwashed, misinformed, incurious jackasses could possibly fall for... or something."
Thursday, September 1, 2011 Rolling Stone Details Latest Fronts (& Successes) in 'The GOP War on Voting'
Ari Berman's fine new article "The GOP War on Voting" at Rolling Stone today, it's great to have a summary of all of the latest state-based assaults on voting rights instituted to date, in the wake of last year's Republican wave election, all in one place.Berman covers all of these and more in his piece on the "unprecedented, centrally coordinated campaign to suppress the elements of the Democratic vote that elected Barack Obama in 2008," described by one civil rights advocate as "the most significant setback to voting rights in this country in a century"...
In a systematic campaign orchestrated by the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] - and funded in part by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who bankrolled the Tea Party-38 states introduced legislation this year designed to impede voters at every step of the electoral process.
Sunday, August 21, 2011 The US Government Won't be Charged With Perjury Even When It's Caught in a Lie (1 comments)
That our government, four decades after the Pentagon Papers, is able to lie in a federal court, get caught and have no price to pay speaks volumes about the state of justice in the United States right now. While there are many things that shock the conscience about how this case played itself out, what might be most shocking is how it reveals the U.S. government's current understanding of the rule of law. As President Nixon once did, the current administration appears to see itself above the law. And despite issuing a strong rebuke in his decision, Judge Carney has given a green light both for the government's lying and for its invasive surveillance.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Talk to Paul Ryan? It'll cost you (1 comments)
It will cost $15 to ask Rep. Ryan (R-WI) a question in person during the August congressional recess.By outsourcing the events to third parties that charge an entry fee to raise money, members of Congress can eliminate most of the riffraff while still—in some cases—allowing reporters and TV cameras for a positive local news story.The host of Quayle’s event, Lawyers Association Pres Jonathan Brinson, said his group previously had paid luncheons featuring Sens. McCain and Kyl and most of Arizona’s GOP congressional delegation.But those events didn’t come in the absence of an open-to-the-public town hall like one McCain held last week, at which he faced angry tea party constituents.“After Republicans voted to gut Medicare and other vital programs while protecting tax breaks for millionaires and corporations, it’s not surprising that they would not want to face constituents
Monday, August 15, 2011 Former Counterterrorism Czar Accuses Tenet, Other CIA Officials of Cover-Up
a little-known military intelligence unit, unbeknownst to the various investigative bodies probing the terrorist attacks, was ordered by senior government officials to stop tracking Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda's movements prior to 9/11.Clarke suggests that if the CIA had shared intelligence about al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar with him, the FBI, and others, then perhaps the attack on the Pentagon could have been thwarted.
Sunday, August 14, 2011 Shall We Make That 'US Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts'?
When Barack Obama decided not to appoint Elizabeth Warren as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that Warren had conceived and developed, the president confirmed that what was already agonizingly evident: he’s a hoper and a changer, not a fighter.
Warren, on the other hand, is more than ready to stir things up.
“I leave this agency, but not this fight,” Warren declared. “[The] issues we deal with—a middle class that has been squeezed and business models built on tricks and traps—are deeply personal to me, and they always will be.”
Sunday, August 14, 2011 Is Your Printer Spying On You?
Imagine that every time you printed a document, it automatically included a secret code that could be used to identify the printer - and potentially, the person who used it. Sounds like something from an episode of "Alias," right?
Unfortunately, the scenario isn't fictional. In a purported effort to identify counterfeiters, the US government has succeeded in persuading some color laser printer manufacturers to encode each page with identifying information. That means that without your knowledge or consent, an act you assume is private could become public. A communication tool you're using in everyday life could become a tool for government surveillance. And what's worse, there are no laws to prevent abuse.
Sunday, August 14, 2011 News Corp.’s Soft Power in the U.S.
Over the last month, many Americans watched from a distance in horror or amusement as it became evident that the News Corporation regarded Britain’s legal and political institutions as its own private club.
That could never happen in the United States, right?
As it turns out, a News Corporation division has twice come under significant civil and criminal investigations in the United States, but neither inquiry went anywhere. Given what has happened in Britain with the growing phone-hacking scandal, it is worth wondering why.
Sunday, August 14, 2011 MIT's new drug could cure nearly any viral infection (1 comments)
In a paper published July 27 in the journal PLoSOne, the researchers tested their drug against 15 viruses, and found it was effective against all of them — including rhinoviruses that cause the common cold, H1N1 influenza, a stomach virus, a polio virus, dengue fever and several other types of hemorrhagic fever.
The drug works by targeting a type of RNA produced only in cells that have been infected by viruses. “In theory, it should work against all viruses,” says Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist in Lincoln Laboratory’s Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group who invented the new technology.
Because the technology is so broad-spectrum, it could potentially also be used to combat outbreaks of new viruses, such as the 2003 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, Rider says.
Saturday, August 13, 2011 WHAT HAPPENED IN WISCONSIN? WE DON’T KNOW, AND THAT’S NOT GOOD (3 comments)
The results of our exit polling are presented below.In every case there are sizeable disparities between the computer-tabulated votecount percentages and the percentages indicated by our exit polls respondents.And in every case the disparity is a “red shift,” the votecount percentages more favorable to the Repub candidate than are the exit poll percentages. the disparities indicated below may be considered "orange flags," suggestive of at least the possibility of widespread computerized mistabulation, and indicative that follow-up voter canvassing is warranted. In addition, analysis of prior voting patterns,turnout anomalies,and other data is being undertaken.We hope to continue to build the awareness and involvement on the part of citizens of WI and America that will be needed to preserve our democracy through the restoration of observable vote counting and honest elections.
Saturday, August 13, 2011 Dem spokesman accuses GOP of dirty tricks in Waukesha vote count
Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski said, "We believe the election in this contest has been tampered with by Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.
"She’s sitting on votes. We believe that right now, there are severe irregularities in Waukesha County once again. We believe the very fate of the Wisconsin Senate hangs in the balance and is in the hands of a woman who has already shown extreme incompetence.”
“We believe there’s dirty tricks afoot.”
Friday, August 12, 2011 Paul Krugman: The Hijacked Crisis
What would a real response to our problems involve? First of all, it would involve more, not less, government spending for the time being — with mass unemployment and incredibly low borrowing costs, we should be rebuilding our schools, our roads, our water systems and more. It would involve aggressive moves to reduce household debt via mortgage forgiveness and refinancing. And it would involve an all-out effort by the Federal Reserve to get the economy moving, with the deliberate goal of generating higher inflation to help alleviate debt problems.
The usual suspects will, of course, denounce such ideas as irresponsible. But you know what’s really irresponsible? Hijacking the debate over a crisis to push for the same things you were advocating before the crisis, and letting the economy continue to bleed.
Thursday, August 11, 2011 Democrats Voted On Wednesday: Only Two Seats Flip in WI Recall (2 comments)
In the historical recall elections in the WI state senate, two seats held by Repubs turned blue on Tuesday. While not enough to place a bipartisan check on ALEC‘s corporate agenda favored by Gov. Walker and the conservatives,the elections were mired in dirty tricks that included election fraud and flooding of out of state money from hidden donors.The entire recall process has seen a lot of dirty tricks being played.This started early when conservatives tried to flood the recall process with fake candidates to force Democrats to devote time and energy to getting real candidates on the recall ballot, give more time to ram through the anti-worker,far-right agenda by the corporate front group the American Legislative Exchange Council(ALEC),and allow more time for GOP incumbents to distance themselves from controversy.The entire corporate agenda of ALEC can be found on ALECexposed.
Monday, August 8, 2011 Longtime Employee of Koch's 'Americans for Prosperity' Created Mysterious WI 'Gun Group', Coordinated on Misleading Abse
So, the voters of Wisconsin are now being bombarded by a virtually anonymous group being bankrolled to the tune of perhaps a million dollars or more to run ads which are demonstrably misleading. There is no physical office a voter can go to in order to complain or demand the group's tax filings. And even if those filings were available, they would not disclose who CSA's major financial backers are. CSA is exploiting the fact that
Justice Prosser and a narrow majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court enjoined the state from enforcing rules to require key disclosures by groups like CSA running so-called "issue" ads to influence elections.
Monday, August 8, 2011 Armed Federal Agents Raid a Health Food Club, Drag Volunteer to Jail
August 3rd was a telling day for the US government's role in controlling our food safety and food security.The bail for volunteer James Stewart,64,was set at $121,000-higher than the bail amounts assessed to narcotics dealers and domestic abusers in the courtroom that day. And, in a rare move,he was denied the right to use a bondsman.It was almost comical."We'd been watching child molesters and wife-beaters get [their bail set at] half that amount. James is accused of things like 'processing milk without pasteurization' and gets such a high bail amount...the felons in court burst out laughing."
Cargill issued a voluntary recall, 4 months after people began getting sick, of 36 million pounds of ground turkey traceable to its AR plant.Cargill has a history of deadly outbreaks,is a major supplier to the nation's public school meal programs.Nobody at the plant or at Cargill has been charged
Saturday, August 6, 2011 Dems predicted to win in Wisconsin, IF there's no election fraud (1 comments)
The Democrats need to win 3 of 8 GOP seats in the recall elections to gain control of the Wisconsin senate.
Assuming the Wisconsin 2008 presidential election
1) Recorded vote shares and election fraud (expected) in the recall elections, the Democrats will win 1 or 2 GOP seats.
2) Recorded vote shares and zero election fraud in the recalls, the Democrats will likely win 3 GOP seats.
3) True Vote shares and zero fraud in the recalls, the Democrats would likely win 6 GOP seats.
Friday, August 5, 2011 David Sirota: The Bizarro FDR (2 comments)
Considering this, and further considering Obama’s early congressional majorities, it is silly to insist that the national political events during Obama’s term represent a lack of presidential strength or will. And it’s more than just silly -- it’s a narcissistic form of wishful thinking coming primarily from liberals who desperately want to believe “their” president is with them.
Such apologism, of course, allows liberals to avoid the more painful truth that Obama is one of America’s strongest presidents ever and is achieving exactly what he wants.
Friday, August 5, 2011 Gulf Coast Activists Arrested in Front of BP Headquarters in New Orleans
"The time has come" says Foytlin. "We have exhausted our options, collected the facts, tried negotiation, gone from meeting to meeting. The oil is still here. We are still here, and we will not wait! Take care of my people on the coast!"
Since last summer,when she reached out to Obama (to no avail), she said in a press release. She has attended countless town hall meetings, community forums, and has walked from New Orleans to DC in order to be sure federal officials are aware of the unresolved economic, environmental, and health devastation caused by the BP disaster. Foytlin is one of several dozen Gulf Coast fishermen, BP clean-up workers, residents and community organizers who gathered in front of BP Headquarters in New Orleans to mark the one year anniversary of the date when the White House falsely claimed that 75% of the oil was gone from the Gulf of Mexico.
Thursday, August 4, 2011 NYTimes Editorial: The FAA After Republicans
Here is what has happened since the FAA lost its authorization on July 23,courtesy of House Republicans.The agency has not collected more than $300 million in taxes (money the airlines have mostly pocketed).It has had to furlough some 4,000 workers and halt construction projects worth $11 billion in 241 airports, putting 70,000 more people out of work.Before leaving Washington on Tuesday, Senate Democrats tried to find a way to extend the F.A.A.’s authority until Sept. 30 — including proposing an extension bill that included a broader plan to trim subsidies to rural airports. They were blocked by Senate Republicans. Unless the vacationing Congress takes extraordinary action, nothing will change until after Labor Day, at the very least.By then, the extortion will have cost the government around $1 billion. Critical repairs at airports will not have been made. There is no excuse.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 The Tea Party, the debt ceiling, and white Southern extremism
he mainstream media have completely missed the story, by portraying the Tea Party movement in ideological rather than regional terms. Whether by accident or design,the public faces of the Tea Party in the House are Midwesterners -MN's Michele Bachmann and Joe Walsh of IL.But while there may be Tea Party sympathizers throughout the country, in the House of Representatives the Tea Party faction that has used the debt ceiling issue to plunge the nation into crisis is overwhelmingly Southern in its origins:The four states with the most Tea Party representatives in Congress are all former members of the Confederate States. The states with the greatest number of members of the House Tea Party caucus are TX (12), FL (7), LA(5) and GA (5).While CA is in fifth place with four House Tea Party members, the 6th,7th and 8th places on the list are taken by two former Southern slave states, SC &TN.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 Koch Group Mails Suspicious Absentee Ballot Letters In Wisconsin
Mailers have now turned up from Americans For Prosperity Wisconsin, addressed to voters in two of the Republican-held recall districts, where the elections will be held on August 9. The mailers ask recipients to fill out an absentee ballot application, and send it in--by August 11, after Election Day for the majority of these races.The mailing address for the applications is listed as "Absentee Ballot Application Processing Center, P.O. Box 1327, Madison WI 53701-1327." A Google search shows that this address is not any sort of government office, but has been used by the conservative group WI Family Action.In addition, WI Right To Life previously used the same address for absentee ballot application letters and phone calls that were sent out shortly before the July 12 Democratic primaries, but after the official deadlines for the applications.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 A President in Reverse
America is different today,in a fundamental and dramatic way,and is a better place now only for a few thousand people who are rich enough to remain above the effect of this transformation. For the rest of us,the 99% who stay up nights worrying about health care bills,retirement, finding a job,keeping a job,and aging parents who now dangle above a deliberately frayed safety net,it is a colder and more dangerous country we call home.This was not a case of two steps forward and one step back,but was instead no steps forward and two steps back.The kind of cuts included in this bill are exactly,precisely the wrong medicine for an ailing economy,and for the people who make up that economy.We now stare down the yawning barrel of a double-dip recession, and that's only if we're lucky.You really think they won't try this again at the first opportunity? Of course they will.It worked like a charm.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 Tea Party's War on America
Much of the country has watched in horror as the Tea Party Repubs have waged jihad on the American people.Their intransigent demands for deep spending cuts, coupled with their almost gleeful willingness to destroy one of America’s most invaluable assets, its full faith and credit, were incredibly irresponsible.But they didn’t care. Their goal, they believed, was worth blowing up the country for, if that’s what it took.As has been explained ad nauseam, the threat of defense cuts is supposed to give the Republicans an incentive to play fair with the Democrats in the negotiations. But with our soldiers still fighting in Afghanistan, which side is going to blink if the proposed cuts threaten to damage national security? Just as they did with the much-loathed bank bailout, which most Republicans spurned even though financial calamity loomed, the Democrats will do the responsible thing.
Friday, July 29, 2011 Robert Reich: The Empty Bully Pulpit
A president can be forgiven for compromising, if his supporters understand why he is doing so. A more disturbing explanation is that he simply lacks the courage to tell the truth. He wants most of all to be seen as a responsible adult rather than a fighter. As such, he allows himself to be trapped by situations -- the debt-ceiling imbroglio most recently -- within which he tries to offer reasonable responses, rather than be the leader who shapes the circumstances from the start.
Obama cannot mobilize America around the truth, in other words, because he is continuously adapting to the prevailing view. This is not leadership.
Friday, July 29, 2011 Paul Krugman: The Centrist Cop-Out (5 comments)
Some of us have long complained about the cult of “balance.”...So what’s with the buzz about a centrist uprising? As I see it, it’s coming from people who recognize the dysfunctional nature of modern American politics, but refuse, for whatever reason, to acknowledge the one-sided role of Republican extremists in making our system dysfunctional. And it’s not hard to guess at their motivation. After all, pointing out the obvious truth gets you labeled as a shrill partisan, not just from the right, but from the ranks of self-proclaimed centrists.Making nebulous calls for centrism, like writing news reports that always place equal blame on both parties, is a big cop-out — a cop-out that only encourages more bad behavior. The problem with American politics right now is Republican extremism, and if you’re not willing to say that, you’re helping make that problem worse.
Thursday, July 28, 2011 Dead Men Do Tell Tales (Of Rigged Elections)
Arnebeck consulted with IT security expert Stephen Spoonamore about the network setup. Specifically,Arnebeck asked whether or not SmarTech had the ability to alter the results of the election. “Yes. They would have had data input capacities. The system might have been set up to log which source generated the data but probably did not,” Spoonamore responded, further explaining that SmarTech would have had “full access and could change things when and if they want.The SmarTech system was set up precisely as a King Pin computer used in criminal acts against banking or credit card processes and had the needed level of access to both county tabulators and Secretary of State computers to allow whoever was running SmarTech computers to decide the output of the county tabulators under its control,” and that “…the architecture confirms how this election was stolen."
Thursday, July 28, 2011 Forget Anonymous: Evidence Suggests GOP Hacked, Stole 2004 Election
Three generations from now, when our great-grandchildren are sitting barefoot in their shanties and wondering how in the hell America turned from the high-point of civilization to a third-world banana republic,they will shake their fists and mutter one name: George Effin' Bush.Ironically, it won't be for any of the things that liberals have been harping on the Bush Administration,either during or after his term in office. Sure, misguided tax cuts that destroyed the surplus, and lax regulations that doomed the economy, and two amazingly awful wars in deserts half a world away are all terrible, empire-sapping events. But they pale in comparison to what it appears the Republican Party did to get President Bush re-elected in 2004.Evidence from the filing suggests that Republican operatives—including the private computer firms hired to manage the electronic voting data—were compromised.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 Florida Looks for the Lowest Bidder as It Privatizes 30 State Prisons
FL is seeking bids from private companies to take over management of 30 state prisons in an 18-country area in South FL. The 'fastest privatization venture ever undertaken by the state of FL' is an effort by Gov. Rick Scott (R) to save the state money by outsourcing prison oversight to the lowest bidder.CCA, the nation's largest corrections company,also has close connections to GOP statehouses across the country. The company has spent $373,000 in political contributions in FL since 2003,over 60% of which have gone to Republicans.And the private prison industry isn't just lobbying to take over state prisons; it's also "working to make money through harsh policies and longer sentences." According to a report by the JPI, private prisons spend millions on lobbying to put more people in jail, which translates to more profits for them.Last year, CCA made $2.9 billion in revenue.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 White House Pact With Industry To Push Genetically Engineered Plants (1 comments)
Recent successful lawsuits brought by PEER with the Center for Food Safety have underlined the The Biotechnology Industry Association, whose most prominent member is Monsanto, the world’s biggest source of GE crops, approached the Obama White House for assistance. In late 2010, the White House formed an interagency “Agriculture Biotech Working Group” consisting of more than 35 officials from ten agencies to promote GE agriculture.“With all the environmental challenges facing this country, why is the White House priority putting wildlife refuges under the thumb of Monsanto?” asked PEER Staff Counsel Kathryn Douglass, who filed today’s Freedom of Information Act suits. “It is frankly depressing that the top White House official for ecosystem recovery is hustling genetically altered soybeans on slivers of land set aside for wildlife.”
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 This is Considered Punishment?
Last Wednesday,nearly lost in the furor over Rupert-gate and the debt ceiling crisis, came the surprising news that the Federal Reserve has issued a cease-and-desist order against a Too-Big-to-Fail bank.The bank was Wells Fargo, which was also fined $85 million and ordered to compensate customers it had unfairly—indeed, illegally—taken advantage of during the subprime bubble.What made the news surprising, of course, was that the Federal Reserve has rarely, if ever, taken action against a bank for making predatory loans. Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, didn’t believe in regulation and turned a blind eye to subprime abuses. His successor, Ben Bernanke, is not the ideologue that Greenspan is, but, as an institution, the Fed prefers to coddle banks rather than punish them. That the Fed would crack down on Wells Fargo would seem to suggest a long-overdue awakening.
Yet...
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 Smash the Ceiling!
One argument you hear for having a debt ceiling is that it’s useful as what the political theorist Jon Elster calls a “precommitment device”—a way of keeping ourselves from acting recklessly in the future, like Ulysses protecting himself from the Sirens by having himself bound to the mast. As precommitment devices go, however, the debt limit is both too weak and too strong. It’s too weak because Congress can simply vote to lift it, as it has done more than seventy times in the past fifty years. But it’s too strong because its negative consequences (default, higher interest rates, financial turmoil) are disastrously out of proportion to the behavior it’s trying to regulate. For the U.S. to default now, when investors are happily lending it money at exceedingly reasonable rates, would be akin to shooting yourself in the head for failing to follow your diet.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 Wisconsin sees dramatic prison-based gerrymandering in new state, county, city districts
The Wisconsin legislature is rushing through a redistricting plan so they can lock in the maps before the scheduled recall elections can change who has the power to draw district lines. In that rush, prison-based gerrymandering is poised to have an even greater impact on state, county and municipal districts than it did a decade ago.
The Census Bureau counts Wisconsin prisoners as if they were residents of the communities where they are incarcerated, even though they can’t vote and remain legal residents of the places they lived prior to incarceration. Crediting thousands of people to other communities has staggering implications for Wisconsin’s democracy, which uses the Census to apportion political power on the basis of equally-sized state and county legislative districts.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 WI: Senate Republicans Make Taxpayers Finance Corporate ALEC Group
Senators like Dan Kapanke and Alberta Darling claim the state is broke, but they use our tax dollars to pay for their private membership in a corporate special interest group,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “The American Legislative Exchange Council is nothing more than a corporate propaganda machine and Kapanke, Darling and the other 10 Senate Republicans should immediate return the taxpayers’ money and apologize for this improper use of our tax dollars.”ALEC was founded nearly 40 years ago to create pro-corporate legislation at the expense of the middle class. Among the many corporate and conservative interests to finance the group is the Koch Foundation and Milwaukee’s Bradley Foundation. All 23 members of its public board are identified Republicans and 71 of its 73 state legislative chairs are Republicans.
Monday, July 25, 2011 VIDEO: Stephen Colbert Slams GOP Photo ID Restrictions
Brad "BradBlog" Friedman: Prepping for tonight's Malloy Show, so very quickly, this from Wednesday night's Colbert Report. Can't tell you how nice it is, after so many years, that I'm no longer one of the very few yelling and screaming about this shit...
Monday, July 25, 2011 Paul Krugman: Clive Cook is Drowning America
Crook accurately describes the destructive behavior of the GOP and how it’s making the country ungovernable. But does he then condemn the perpetrators? Not exactly. Instead, he calls a plague on both houses.And look at what this does to incentives: no matter how badly Republicans behave, they don’t draw condemnation from the Very Serious People. All you get is tut-tutting about how politics is awful, and if only we had a third party to install Mike Bloomberg as dictator president all would be well.
Pundits who won’t call out extremism without pretending that it’s symmetric aren’t a big part of our problem, but they are a part of our problem.
Monday, July 25, 2011 Paul Krugman: Messing With Medicare
The crucial thing to remember is that our goal isn’t,or at least shouldn’t be,defined in terms of some arbitrary number.Our goal should be, instead, to give Americans the health care they need at a price the country can afford.And throwing Americans in their mid-60s off Medicare moves us away from that goal, not toward it.For Medicare, with all its flaws, works better than private insurance. It has less bureaucracy and, hence, lower administrative costs than private insurers.It has been more successful in controlling costs.While Medicare expenses per beneficiary have soared over the past 40 years,they’ve risen significantly less than private insurance premiums.And since Medicare-type systems in other advanced countries have much lower costs than the uniquely privatized US system,there’s good reason to believe that Medicare reform can do a lot to control costs in the future.
Monday, July 25, 2011 WI: This is What Voter Suppression Looks Like (1 comments)
YouTube of a Wisconsin voter going to obtain a Voter ID from the local DMV. WI used to have very permissive voter registration which yielded high voter turnout. The Walker regime has passed strict voter ID laws which will end up effectively disenfranchise many of the elderly, minorities, disabled and students. Watch this short video to see how the process actually works and how the System can be stacked to mitigate against maximal voter participation. This is going on in state after state and will affect millions of people who are entitled to vote. You should be aware of this attempt to thwart the democratic process. It affects all of us, regardless of where we live or whether we, personally, have the documentation now required to execute our constitutional right to vote for those who represent us.
Sunday, July 24, 2011 They want to end America
The Repub "Gang of 6" is making a demand that will actually increase the deficit-enormously. Trying to sell this proposal as a debt-reduction measure is like calling a proposal to lace breakfast cereal with arsenic the "Healthy Children Initiative.I see no indication that Obama will fight this measureThe Repub plan will make it even more enticing for American corporations to outsource jobs.Actually,"enticing" may be the wrong word.The new tax plan will make it economically mandatory to move jobs outside this country.Foreign governments collect twice as much corporate tax as we do when those revenues are computed as a percentage of GDP.The deficit reduction plan will not only eliminate much corporate tax revenue, it will put many Americans out of work.This is how America ends:With the silent passage of a job-killer proposal that nobody even knows is there.
Sunday, July 24, 2011 Nicholas D. Kristof: Republicans, Zealots and Our Security
IF China or Iran threatened our national credit rating and tried to drive up our interest rates, or if they sought to damage our education system, we would erupt in outrage.Well,wake up to the national security threat. Only it’s not coming from abroad, but from our own domestic extremists.Republican zeal to lower debts could result in increased interest expenses and higher debts. Their mania to save taxpayers could cost taxpayers. That suggests not governance so much as fanaticism.More broadly, a default would leave America a global laughingstock. Our “soft power,” our promotion of democracy around the world, and our influence would all take a hit. The spectacle of paralysis in the world’s largest economy is already bewildering to many countries. If there is awe for our military prowess and delight in our movies and music, there is scorn for our political/economic management.
Friday, July 22, 2011 Matt Taibbi: Corporate Tax Holiday in Debt Ceiling Deal: Where's the Uproar? (1 comments)
The companies did not use the savings to create jobs.They mostly just turned it into executive bonuses & ate the extra cash.Some of those companies promising waves of new hires have already committed to massive layoffs.It was bad enough when lobbyists managed to pull this trick off once,in 2004.But in one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington, companies immediately started to systematically “offshore” their profits right after the 2004 holiday with the expectation that somewhere down the road,and probably sooner rather than later, they would get another holiday.Companies used dozens of fiendish methods to keep profits overseas, including such scams as “transfer pricing,” a technique in which profits are shifted to overseas subsidiariesAnd the whole thing is predicated on that dirty little secret – the notion,that there would come a day when there would be another tax holiday.
Friday, July 22, 2011 Glenn Greenwald: Obama Gutting Core Principles of Democratic Party (1 comments)
In many crucial areas, he has done more to subvert and weaken the left's political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party's leader endorses - even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe.This dynamic has repeatedly emerged in numerous contexts. Obama has continued Bush/Cheney terrorism policies - once viciously denounced by Democrats - of indefinite detention, renditions, secret prisons by proxy, and sweeping secrecy doctrines.He has gone further than his predecessor by waging an unprecedented war on whistleblowersAnd now he is devoting all of his presidential power to cutting the entitlement programmes that have been the defining hallmark of the Democratic party since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
Friday, July 22, 2011 New Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Support Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is open for business and despite its main creator, Elizabeth Warren, prevented from heading it, the Bureau still enjoys a 74% support from Americans. President Obama appointed Ohio Attorney General, Richard Cordray amid threats that Senate Republicans would not approve anyone to head the Bureau, lest their demands be met. However, a new poll from Center For Responsible Lending (pdf) shows that across partisan lines, Americans support financial reform in some form and want the consumer protection that the CFPB specifically offers. Also today, the House is scheduled to vote on a GOP backed measure that would lessen the influence of the Bureau by replacing a director with a board of directors.
Friday, July 22, 2011 Fed audit tells the awful truth: It's socialism for the rich, and dog-eat-dog for all the rest of us (Bernie Sanders) (3 comments)
The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the US provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study."As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world," said Sanders."This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.The Federal Reserve must be reformed to serve the needs of working families, not just CEOs on Wall Street."
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Why the AT&T Merger Is a Joke
Free Press just released four new videos that expose the more ridiculous side of AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile.
We think they're funny, and we think you'll agree. Watch them, and then vote for your favorite by clicking the Facebook "like" button below the video. We’ll use the winner in an ad campaign to spread the word about this crazy merger.
Each video has a different angle: The jobs that will be lost, the rates that will go up, the choices we’ll all lose, and the new wireless duopoly that will form if AT&T takes over T-Mobile.
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Bookseller Borders Group to liquidate, eliminating over 10,000 jobs
Borders had hoped to sell its assets to the Arizona buyout firm Najafi Companies, owner of the Book-of-the-Month-Club. However, Borders creditors objected to the terms of the sale. Borders had set a Sunday deadline to find a new buyer. The company will present its plan for liquidation to a bankruptcy judge on Thursday.The liquidation of the popular Borders bookstore chain will be felt by communities across the United States. Borders has some 270 superstores and 130 small store locations. The store closures will leave shopping centers with hundreds of thousands of square feet of vacant space. The closings will increase the vacancy rate at shopping centers with a Borders store to 18.8 percent, according to one real estate analyst.“When you lose literally miles of bookshelves, its going to have an impact,” said a spokesman for Hachette Book Group.
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Freshman House Republicans: Cost-Cutters, Except When the Spending Is Back Home
Freshman House Republicans who rode a wave of voter discontent into office last year vowed to stop out-of-control spending, but that has not stopped several of them from quietly trying to funnel millions of federal dollars into projects back home.They have pushed for dozens of projects in their districts,including military programs opposed by the president, replenishing beach sand lost to erosion,a $700 million bridge in MN and a harbor dredging project in SC.Some of their projects were once earmarks, political shorthand for pet projects penciled into spending bills, which Repubs banned when they took over the House.An examination of spending bills, news releases & communications with federal agencies obtained under FoIA shows that nearly two dozen freshmen have sought money for projects that could ultimately cost billions of dollars while calling for less spending& banning pork projects
Thursday, July 21, 2011 Kathy Nickolaus' Got a Brand New Bag (& Investigator) and Other WI Election-related News
If the state Dems are able to pick up just three of the Republican seats, out of the six in contention next month --- without losing either of the two remaining recall elections that the Dems still face --- they'll take the majority back from the Republicans to effectively neuter the hard Right Republican Gov. Scott Walker agenda until he too is likely to be up for his own recall election next year.
In Wisconsin, however, as in all of our states at this point, the wild cards are always the electronic voting systems and access to them. To that end, there are a few more recently-related items of note to make sure you have on your radar. At least two of them involve "our old friend" and transparent democracy's enemy, Kathy Nickolaus, the now-infamous Republican County Clerk of Waukesha County...
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 Now Two Murdoch Whistleblowers Dead (2 comments)
First it was Big George Webley who relayed a fear of the Murdoch machine and wound up dead. Now it’s Sean Hoare. Two British media whistleblowers. Two untimely deaths.
Let’s assume that neither was killed by Rupert Murdoch (toxicology reports haven’t been made available; foul play isn’t suspected by British authorities in either case), but something happened that put the fear of God into both men. Neither was known as a lunatic before their demise, both simply told the truth to British authorities about what they knew of Mr. Murdoch’s enterprises and died afterward at a relatively young age.The Murdoch empire is fighting for its life, but let’s not forget both Sean Hoare and Big George Webley, two men that it would seem either directly or indirectly are collateral damage in the whole affair. Someone needs to speak for them.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011 30 Years in Prison For Saying the Wrong Thing? How The FBI Entraps US Citizens To Feign Success Against Terror
Tracing Crowder and McKay's saga from its very origins, the 2011 documentary Better this World cunningly unveils the intricacies of the two protestors' federal trials, as well as the media sensation they precipitated. The film, which is scheduled to air nationally on PBS's "POV" series, not only provides a nuanced perspective of two alleged cases of domestic terrorism but also cuts to the heart of the "war on terror" and its effect upon civil liberties.For those convicted on dubious charges of domestic terrorism, the probability of mounting a successful entrapment defense is slim to nil. In an effort to "better this world," a phrase taken from Darby himself, government informants are taking suspects to the edge of the pool and pushing them in.
Monday, July 18, 2011 Paul Krugman: Letting the Banks Walk
Why the rush to settle? There are two principal arguments being made for letting the banks off easy.The first is the claim that resolving the mortgage mess quickly is the key to getting the housing market back on its feet.The second, ess explicitly stated,is the claim that getting tough with the banks would undermine broader prospects for recovery.Neither of these arguments makes much sense.The big drag on the economy now is the overhang of household debt, largely created by the $5.6 trillion in mortgage debt that households took on during the bubble years.Serious mortgage relief could make a dent in that problem;a $30 billion settlement from the banks,even if it proved more effective than the government’s modification program, would not.So when officials tell you that we must rush to settle with the banks for the sake of the economy, don’t believe them. We should do this right
Monday, July 18, 2011 Robert Kuttner: The End Game: Saving Obama From Himself
The stakes are so high that Obama can probably win this one without giving away the store. As the deadline comes closer, the Republicans will have to shift ground. The question is whether he will needlessly give up much of Social Security, Medicare, and the resources he needs to pull the country out of recession, along the way. If 2012 is not to be a blowout, Congressional Democrats and base progressive organizations will need to be even firmer with their president. We need to get this budget fight behind us, so that the President and other Democrats can begin talking seriously about jobs, economic recovery, and saving the middle class. The more fiscal resources Obama gives away as part of a budget deal, the harder that shift will be.
Sunday, July 17, 2011 Our Broken Escalator By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
We nation-build in Afghanistan and scrimp at home. How is it that we can afford to double our military budget since 9/11, can afford the carried-interest tax loophole for billionaires, can afford billions of dollars in givebacks to oil and gas companies, yet can’t afford to invest in our kids’ futures?
Sometimes I hear people endorse education cuts by arguing that “school isn’t for everybody,” which usually means something like “education isn’t for other people’s children” — or that farm kids in places like Yamhill really don’t need schools that double as rocket ships. I can’t think of any view that is more un-American.
Saturday, July 16, 2011 OH Gov. Kasich urges public school graduating class to serve “The Creator” (1 comments)
His advice to the reported 2,000+ students and their family members was a Christian message encouraging these public school graduates to find the personal gift bestowed upon them by the Creator (Lord) and to use that to fulfill their purpose for existence, which is to help heal this world.And in case you were confused, Kasich declared:I don’t wear a collar and I’m not a preacher. I’m just a public servant right now. But you know what, more important than being a public servant, I’m a servant of the Lord.Can someone please explain to me how the Governor of Ohio, a clearly defined authority figure, spent six entire minutes in full revival mode in front of a captive audience at the graduation ceremony of one of the largest public schools in Ohio and AND NO ONE MENTIONS IT?
Thursday, July 14, 2011 Robert Reich: The President's Jobs Plan (Not)
What did the president do in response to last week's horrendous jobs report -- unemployment rising to 9.2 percent in June, with only 18,000 new jobs (125,000 are needed each month just to keep up with the growth in the potential labor force)?
He said the economy continues to be in a deep hole, and he urged Congress to extend the temporary reduction in the employee part of the payroll tax, approve pending free-trade agreements, and pass a measure to streamline patent procedures.
To call this inadequate would be a gross understatement.
Here's what the president should have said:
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 WI, Beware: It's Recall Election Day, and Right-Wingers Are Reportedly Robocalling Voters to Tell Them to Stay Home
The blog WI Voices published a post this morning warning WI voters to beware of robocalls telling them not to vote in today's recall election.Registered Dems from all over the district are reporting the same thing. They are receiving a robocall from a group claiming to be a Right to Life group explaining that they don’t have to go to the polling station to vote, “You don’t need to worry. Your absentee ballot is in the mail.”This is NOT true. Today,Tuesday July 12, is the last day to vote in the Dem Primary. You DO NOT have time to mail in your ballot at this point. If you intend to vote, go to your nearest polling station today to vote or to deliver your absentee ballot in person. This robocall is illegal activity and election fraud at its worst. If you receive this call from phone number 703-410-3201, or any other number with area code “703″ (VA) – RECORD it and report it.
Monday, July 11, 2011 Paul Krugman: No, We Can’t? Or Won’t?
So let’s summarize: The economy isn’t fixing itself. Nor are there real obstacles to government action: both the bond vigilantes and structural unemployment exist only in the imaginations of pundits. And if stimulus seems to have failed, it’s because it was never actually tried.
Listening to what supposedly serious people say about the economy, you’d think the problem was “no, we can’t.” But the reality is “no, we won’t.” And every pundit who reinforces that destructive passivity is part of the problem.
Monday, July 11, 2011 Iceland, a country that wants to punish the bankers responsible for the crisis
Since 2008 the vast majority of the Western population dream about saying "no" to the banks, but no one has dared to do so. No one except the Icelanders, who have carried out a peaceful revolution that has managed not only to overthrow a government and draft a new constitution, but also seeks to jail those responsible for the country's economic debacle.Among other developments, this constitution will call for the protection, like no other, of freedom of information and expression in the so-called Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, in a bill that aims to make the country a safe haven for investigative journalism and freedom of information, where sources, journalists and Internet providers that host news reporting are protected.
The people, for once, will decide the future of the country while bankers and politicians witness the transformation of a nation from the sidelines.
Monday, July 11, 2011 Reagan Mythology is Leading US Off a Cliff (2 comments)
Entirely forgetting the real history of how Franklin D Roosevelt used activist government to save American capitalism from itself, the entire US political establishment is instead hypnotized by the false history woven around its most over-hyped president of all time: Ronald Reagan. Idolatry of Reagan's supposed tax-cutting wonders propels the now widespread economic belief that up is down, that cutting government spending is the way out of - rather than into - a severe recession. At the same time, idolatry of Reagan's supposed political wonders propels GOP extremists to ignore all other considerations.
Because of this hypnotism, America's political establishment has barely even begun to notice two unconventional possible ways out that remain, neither of which require anything from Congress, but both of which need bold presidential leadership ala FDR.
Monday, July 11, 2011 Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath
ep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), a leading advocate of shrinking entitlement spending and the architect of the plan to privatize Medicare, spent Wednesday evening sipping $350 wine with two like-minded conservative economists at the swanky Capitol Hill eatery Bistro Bis.
It was the same night reports started trickling out about President Obama pressing Congressional leaders to consider changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for GOP support for targeted tax increases.
Monday, July 11, 2011 Tax the Rich. Problem Solved
By passing laws like Sen. Carl Levin’s Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, we could generate over $100 billion in new revenue from closing loopholes that allow corporations to shift profits to overseas bank accounts. Through modest taxation of speculative Wall Street trading, we could bring in another $150 billion per year. With higher income tax brackets for households earning over $1 million annually, as Rep. Jan Schakowsky has proposed, we would gain another $100 billion. And progressively taxing estates worth $5 million or more would mean an extra $45 billion in tax revenue.A truly principled leader would refuse to negotiate with terrorists, and allow them to turn the gun on themselves. Our President needs to stand firmly behind these common-sense proposals, and remove from the table any cuts to the programs we’ve spent our lives funding from our own paychecks. No exceptions.
Monday, July 11, 2011 Corporate Take Over in Wisconsin
Governor Walker has an agenda with intricate detail on how to sell off our state assets to the highest bidder, defund our public schools, remove pesky regulations protecting our land & environment, & segregate the wealthy from the poor further by removing the middle class.Sounds like a conspiracy theory at first glance, but the insurmountable evidence uncovered by the people fighting back against the corporate takeover of our state has shown that ignoring it & discounting it is what our illustrious Gov is counting on.How much more clear can you get than Walker's own words?Then Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker is “teasing” the audience about things to come including transferring assets from the county to the state, privatizing services & eliminating county government.He needed Repubs to fulfill his plan/instill the means to seize the assets for his corporate elite.
Sunday, July 10, 2011 Why Water is the New Oil
We take water for granted. And why not? We turn a tap and out it comes. But that's going to have to change, says author Alex Prud'homme. As he explains in a new book, The Ripple Effect, the basic problem is this: the quantity of water in the world is finite, but demand is everywhere on the rise. As oil was in the 20th century – the key resource, a focus of tension, even conflict – so water will be of the 21st, as states, countries, and industries compete over the ever-more-precious resource. So we need to figure out how to use it more sustainably. But that's not all. In the United States fresh water is under threat from new kinds of barely understood pollutants, from pesticides to pharmaceuticals, and from a last-century infrastructure of pipes, dams, levees, sewage plants that urgently needs upgrading.
Sunday, July 10, 2011 Tea Partiers And GOP Christians Respond To Criticism With Death Threats (2 comments)
The 1st Amendment guarantees religious freedom,free speech,and freedom of the press and yet there are a great number of people who deny those rights to all Americans because they disagree with a message or an individual’s failure to follow the Christian religion.Many people who claim to be ardent supporters of America and its guarantee of freedom and liberty are the first to protest when another citizen exercises any of the 1st Amendment’s guarantees,and they make every attempt to silence free speech through intimidation,threats, and acts of violence.There are documented cases over the past year-and-a-half of journalists who have been threatened with death,dismemberment,firebombing,and beheading that originate with uber-patriots and religious fanatics that are intended to intimidate and silence free speech & religious freedom, and they demonstrate how conservatives really feel about
Sunday, July 10, 2011 Wisconsin Repubs "make dramatic changes" in electoral maps to keep themselves on top for years to come
A quick vote would allow GOP lawmakers to approve the maps and lock down advantages for themselves at the ballot box for the next 10 years by drawing district lines in their favor. Republicans' schedule would allow them to sign off on maps to their liking even if they lose control of the Senate in the coming weeks.
Republicans have been working on the maps for months, but Democrats and the general public saw them for the first time Friday, a week and a half before lawmakers are expected to approve them.Democrats are in the minority in both houses and will have little to no say in what the maps look like. But a lawsuit has already been filed over redistricting, meaning a federal court could still weigh in on the process.
Sunday, July 10, 2011 Sixteen Senators Ask DOJ To Investigate Potentially Illegal State Voter Disenfranchisement Laws
It is difficult to see how many of the voter ID laws being pushed in GOP-controlled states could survive scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act, which not only forbids laws that are passed specifically to target minority voters but also strikes down state laws that have a greater impact on minority voters than on others.
There is, however, reason to fear that the Supreme Court could simply strike down parts of the VRA if the DOJ attempted to make Repub-controlled states follow the law. The Court’s conservatives strongly hinted that they may strike down the provision of the VRA requiring many stakes to preclear new voting laws, and another recent case dealing with race discrimination in the workplace raises the — albeit less likely — possibility that they could also invalidate the VRA’s ban on laws that have a disproportionate impact on minorities.
Friday, July 8, 2011 Paul Krugman: What Obama Wants (1 comments)
I don’t believe that it’s all political calculation. Watching Mr. Obama and listening to his recent statements, it’s hard not to get the impression that he is now turning for advice to people who really believe that the deficit, not unemployment, is the top issue facing America right now, and who also believe that the great bulk of deficit reduction should come from spending cuts. It’s worth noting that even Republicans weren’t suggesting cuts to Social Security; this is something Mr. Obama and those he listens to apparently want for its own sake.Which raises the big question: If a debt deal does emerge, and it overwhelmingly reflects conservative priorities and ideology, should Democrats in Congress vote for it. It’s hard to see why a president who has gone out of his way to echo Republican rhetoric and endorse false conservative views deserves that kind of trust.
Monday, July 4, 2011 Hacker Dumps Details of the Internal Florida Voting Database Online
Election fraud and accusations of rigged voting might be as old as US election systems themselves, but some may wonder, if a hacker can gain access to the election voting system, how secure are elections anyway?
Friday, July 1, 2011 WI Supreme Court Justice David Prosser Angrily Snatches Microphone From Local TV Reporter
Good lord. What next? Does WI Supreme Court Justice David Prosser need to strangle a baby on camera before members of all political parties in the state fully realize how absolutely inappropriate this man is for holding a seat on their highest court?Following on the recently reported allegations that he placed a fellow justice into a chokehold during a contentious debate about the legality of the controversial anti-union legislation of Prosser's former colleague, Gov. Scott Walker, a local news team --this time on camera -caught another glimpse at Prosser's long-reported anger management problems.The Waukesha County minutes have only now, this week, well over a month since the "recount" completed, been received by the GAB and published to their website. All long after Kloppenburg, citing a "cascade" of "widespread irregularities" and thousands of mis-tallied votes, was forced to the
