Sen. Fritz Hollings: Industrial Policy

Sen. Fritz Hollings: Industrial Policy: "Two years ago, Alan Blinder, the Princeton economist, estimated that in ten years the United States would lose thirty to forty million jobs to offshoring. That's an average of four million a year. And losing two million jobs in the last three months, Blinder's estimate is on target. The economists' plan, the Obama plan, the House plan, the Senate plan, all plans create at best four million jobs in two years, with less jobs created than are lost."

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Rep. John Conyers: Our Responsibility

Rep. John Conyers: Our Responsibility: " If we move on now without fully documenting what occurred, without acknowledging the betrayal of our values, and without determining whether or not any laws have been broken, we cannot help but validate all that has gone on before. If we look at the Bush record and conclude that the book should simply be closed, we will be tacitly approving both the documented abuses and the additional misdeeds we will have chosen to leave uncovered.

That is why there is nothing partisan about the call for further review. In the end, these acts were not taken by George Bush, or by John Yoo, or even by Dick Cheney - they were taken by the United States of America. By all of us. There is no avoiding the responsibility we all bear for what has been done, and for what we choose to do next.

Our country has never been perfect. This would not be the first time we were forced to take a hard look at difficult choices made in times of peril. But when we have done so before, it has made us stronger, both by improving our policies and our practices and, more fundamentally, by strengthening our moral core and by breathing new life into the principles of our founding.

The responsible way forward requires us to look back as we go.

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Elayne Boosler: Jews Agree with Holocaust-Denying Bishop, We Can't Believe the Holocaust Happened Either

Elayne Boosler: Jews Agree with Holocaust-Denying Bishop, We Can't Believe the Holocaust Happened Either: "A decision this past Saturday by Pope Benedict XVI to reinstate four bishops has sparked controversy in the Catholic Church and beyond.

One of the clergymen, Bishop Richard Williamson, is a Holocaust denier. Last week, he spoke to Swedish television.

BISHOP RICHARD WILLIAMSON: I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I believe there were no gas chambers."

(Via Huffington Blog.)

400 richest Americans’ incomes doubled under Bush.

400 richest Americans’ incomes doubled under Bush.: "

Bloomberg reports that, according to recently released IRS data, ‘the average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2 percent through the first six years of the Bush administration and their average income doubled to $263.3 million.’ Much of their income came from capital gains resulting from the Bush tax cuts:

The drop from 2001’s tax rate of 22.9 percent was due largely to ex-President George W. Bush’s push to cut tax rates on most capital gains to 15 percent in 2003.

Capital gains made up 63 percent of the richest 400 Americans’ adjusted gross income in 2006, or a combined $66.1 billion, according to the data. In all, the 400 wealthiest Americans reported a combined $105.3 billion of adjusted gross income in 2006, the most recent year for which the IRS has data.

The Wonk Room has noted how ‘the conservative approach of putting big corporations and the very wealthy ahead of the middle class has failed to create prosperity that can be shared by all Americans.’

(Via Think Progress.)

The Ugly Truth: America’s Economy is Not Coming Back

The Ugly Truth: America’s Economy is Not Coming Back: "

What we are now seeing is the beginning of an inevitable downward adjustment in American living standards to conform with our actual place in the world. As a nation of consumers, and not producers, with little to offer to the rest of the world except raw materials, food crops, military hardware and bad films (none of which industries employ many people), we are headed to a recovery that will not feel like a recovery at all.   FULL ARTICLE

(Via Populist Party .)

David Latt: Bush Punk'd Us Again

David Latt: Bush Punk'd Us Again: "Michael Isikoff reported for Newsweek that while many of us were fomenting about Bush preemptively pardoning at-risk members of his administration, he and his lawyer Fred Fielding (White House Counsel) were concocting one last expansion of executive privilege. Four days before he left office, Mr. Bush authorized Fielding to write letters to Harriet Miers and Karl Rove giving them 'absolute immunity' from Congressional inquiry and prosecution. Preemptively. In perpetuity. Absolute and irrevocable."

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Stimulus for Who? - Ron Paul

Stimulus for Who? - Ron Paul: "This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package.  In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess.   As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate.  So much for change.  This is déjà vu.  We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. 

These promises are worthless. "

(Via ThePopulistParty)

Sex, Campaign Money, and Cleaning Up Politics - Robert Schlesinger (usnews.com)

Sex, Campaign Money, and Cleaning Up Politics - Robert Schlesinger (usnews.com): "Don't like how our politics are paid for? Some people who agree are pushing what I can only call the Lysistrata campaign finance reform plan. In the ancient Greek comedy, women withheld sex from their soldier husbands until they agreed to end an ongoing war. Substitute sex for money and you have what the folks over at Change Congress are pushing: that donors go 'on strike,' refusing to give their money to pols until a campaign finance overhaul is passed (specifically, they favor a system whereby people limiting themselves to small donations would get matching government funds)."

(Via USNews.)

Lawrence Lessig: HuffPost Breaks Huge Corruption Story -- And We Must Do Something About It

Lawrence Lessig: HuffPost Breaks Huge Corruption Story -- And We Must Do Something About It: "You can't make this stuff up. Breaking news from The Huffington Post:

Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community's top legislative priority.

Participants on the October 17 call -- including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG -- were urged to persuade their clients to send 'large contributions' to groups working against the Employee Free Trade Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.

...Donations of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to Republican senatorial campaigns were needed, they argued...'If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Sen.] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out their goddamn jobs,' Marcus declared.

Not only are some of the most non-trusted companies in America blatantly trying to buy off Congress, but they're using our bailout money to do it. Enough!"

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Dean Baker: The Banks Have Stolen Enough; It's Time to Take Them Over

Dean Baker: The Banks Have Stolen Enough; It's Time to Take Them Over: "Hold onto your wallets. The bankers are coming bank for more money. They burned through the $350 billion that we gave them in the first round of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and they are worried that even the second $350 billion will not be enough money to keep them solvent. The selective leaks from Treasury tell us that the banks will need far more money to cover their bad debts."

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Robert Kuttner: It's Show Time for Obama

Robert Kuttner: It's Show Time for Obama: "One of the most coyly ambiguous lines in President Obama's Inaugural Address was his pledge to 'end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.'

That sounds high-minded, but you can read the promise two ways. Some heard it as a reproach to Republican ideology and to President Bush, who was seated nearby. Others heard it the latest reiteration of Obama's desire to move beyond dogma per se and to achieve a new synthesis.

We will soon learn which it was. Obama, the president who would be post-ideological, is at last having his first encounters with the realities of polarized politics. Exhibit A is the stimulus package.

Obama has been more than generous in offering the Republicans far more tax-cutting as part of the recovery program than sound policy warrants. Will they reciprocate and support the rest of the package?

At Obama's meeting last Friday with Congressional Republican and Democratic leaders, Republican Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia was making the case that more tax cuts would be more stimulative than public spending. Obama replied in a jocular way according to those present, that the issue had been settled by the election, and 'I won.'"

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Will the Government Turn to the Printing Press?

Will the Government Turn to the Printing Press?: "Who is going to lend to a bankrupt government that is ruled by financial crooks, the military-security complex, and the Israel Lobby?  How long will the world finance US aggression that disrupts energy prices, keeps the world on edge, and makes America's creditors complicit in war crimes?"

(Via ThePopulistParty)

This Miracle Brought to You by America’s Unions

Emptywheel » This Miracle Brought to You by America’s Unions: "They're calling it a miracle--the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They're detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they're not telling you is that just about every single one of these heros is a union member."

(Via Emptywheel)

Why the U.S. has already lost in Afghanistan

Why the U.S. has already lost in Afghanistan: "Rampant corruption by U.S. contractors has left the country in shambles.

Going into Afghanistan, the Bush administration called for a political campaign to reconstruct the country and thereby establish the authority of a stable, democratic Afghan central government. It was understood that the two campaigns -- military and political/economic -- had to go forward together; the success of each depended on the other. But the vision of a reconstructed, peaceful, stable, democratically governed Afghanistan faded fast. Most Afghans now believe that it was nothing but a cover story for the Bush administration's real goal -- to set up permanent bases in Afghanistan and occupy the country forever.

(Via Salon.)

British Foreign Secretary says "war on terror" is a "mistake"

British Foreign Secretary says "war on terror" is a "mistake": ""

The idea of a "war on terror" is a "mistake", putting too much emphasis on military force, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said.
Writing in the Guardian, Mr Miliband said the idea had unified disparate "terrorist groups" against the West.

(Via BBC.)

What the Hell Just Happened?

George W Bush Timeline - Facts About George W Bush - Esquire: "You know 9/11, Iraq, and all the rest. Almost. Come on, did you remember that Google only went public in 2004?! Before we consider what's next, an abbreviated history of the last eight years of our lives."

(Via Esquire.)

U.S. Surveillance Society Running Rampant

U.S. Surveillance Society Running Rampant: "The U.S. government has doled out about $300 million in grants to local governments that have used the money to create a nationwide surveillance society filled with electronic cameras. The American Civil Liberties Union asks: 'Do we want a society where people are comfortable with constant surveillance?'

(Via Wired.)

Think Progress » Progressive Bloggers Launch ‘Get Afghanistan Right’ Campaign Opposing Troop Escalation

Think Progress » Progressive Bloggers Launch ‘Get Afghanistan Right’ Campaign Opposing Troop Escalation: "President-elect Obama campaigned on a plan to deploy up to 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But the ‘incoming administration does not anticipate that the Iraq-like ’surge’ of forces will significantly change the direction’ of the conflict. Instead, it hopes that the troops will ‘buy enough time for the new administration to reappraise the entire Afghanistan war effort and develop a comprehensive new strategy,’ the Washington Post reports today."

(Via Think Progress.)

The Truthiest New Show on Television

The Truthiest New Show on Television: "The strongest case against the Department of Homeland Security is that it's not really about homeland security at all. Rather than catch terrorists, DHS officers at the border spend most of their time arresting people for drug and immigration offenses instead. So it's not exactly surprising--even though it's surely unintentional--that ABC's new primetime show, 'Homeland Security USA,' confirms the false promise of DHS. Billed as 'the new hit series about the heroes who keep us safe at home,' the show, which airs again tonight, promises that 'no job is more important--or more dangerous' than the one performed by the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security. But the first episode last week turned out to be a glorified version of 'COPS' at the border, and every segment inadvertently reminded us why DHS officers spend so little time protecting the homeland against violent threats: Investigations that begin by looking for terrorists come up short, so officers have no alternative but to snag people for non-violent crimes."

(Via The Plank.)

Robert Kuttner: Memo to Obama: Think Bigger

Robert Kuttner: Memo to Obama: Think Bigger: "There are three serious dangers in the debate about the stimulus package. The first is that President Obama will think too small. The second is that he will think too bipartisan. The third is that the public will be swayed by myths, such as the claim that infrastructure spending just takes too long to gear up, or that the deficit is the paramount problem."

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Krugman & Galbraith: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. - The Plank

Krugman & Galbraith: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid. - The Plank: "On Saturday morning, the Obama transition team released a memo outlining its calculations about the economic recovery package. The memo's authors are Christina Romer, who will chair the new president's council of economic advisers, and Jared Bernstein, who will be chief economic advisor to Vice President Biden.

The report suggests the package President-elect Obama has sketched out would create three to four million new jobs by the end of 2010. It reaffirms the belief that, dollar for dollar, public investment generates more jobs than either tax cuts or direct assistance to the states; but it also states that, in effect, the team ran out of good, shovel-ready projects to fund. In the absence of such alterantives, the report says, it makes sense to pour money into tax cuts and state fiscal relief, as well.

And, in a direct rebuff to conservatives complaining that the package would fatten the rolls of government employees, the report suggests that nine out of every ten new jobs will be in the private sector.  "

(Via The Plank.)

The Cult Of Reagan

The Cult Of Reagan: "

Massie opines:

...it is an iron truth of politics that prolonged success sows the seeds of future downfall. Revolutions run out of steam. They cannot be permanent. More damagingly still, what begins as an unorthodox and surprisingly successful approach calcifies into a stubborn orthodoxy that brooks no dissent, even as times and circumstances change.

The path to power is built upon compromise and flexibility: Thatcher
always knew what she wanted to do, but she was also aware, in her early
years, of how limited her room for manoevre was - not least because not
everyone in her cabinet was on board. If progress was slower than she
liked, it was also steadier than when, after 1987, she reigned supreme
and hubris began to take its fatal grip. Similarly, Reagan was a vastly
more adaptable President than current conservative folklore might have
you believe.

In that sense, then. the troubles of Republicanism now and of the
Tories in the last 15 years, were built upon their previous successes.
The difficulty is that the second (or third) generation is rarely as
talented or adaptable as the trailblazers who won power in the first
place. Instead of finding fresh ideas and solutions, they inherit
positions and prejudices that, because they worked once before, are
assumed to be eternal truths rather than particular answers to
particular problems at a particular time.

(Via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.)

The Bush Administration's Most Despicable Act -- Printout -- TIME

The Bush Administration's Most Despicable Act -- Printout -- TIME: "'This is not the America I know,' President George W. Bush said after the first, horrifying pictures of U.S. troops torturing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq surfaced in April 2004. The President was not telling the truth. 'This' was the America he had authorized on Feb. 7, 2002, when he signed a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention — the one regarding the treatment of enemy prisoners taken in wartime — did not apply to members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban. That signature led directly to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. It was his single most callous and despicable act. It stands at the heart of the national embarrassment that was his presidency."

(Via Time.com.)

Why Obama Should Channel the Gipper

Why Obama Should Channel the Gipper: "Forget FDR. Reagan is the presidential role model Obama needs now."

As Obama prepped for his presidency, many among the politerati suggested he study the opening months of Bill Clinton's first term, in part to avoid Clinton's early errors. But the new president might do better to look at the last time someone rode a grassroots movement into town and promised wholesale change. Reagan both wowed Washington and bent it to his will—at least at first—and he did so in a manner that veteran Reaganites say Obama can emulate and even improve upon.

(Via MotherJones.com.)

Tom Engelhardt: The Ponzi Scheme Presidency

Tom Engelhardt: The Ponzi Scheme Presidency: "If all roads once led to Rome, all acts of the Bush administration have led to destruction, and remarkably regularly to piles of dead or tortured bodies, counted or not. In fact, it's reasonable to say that every Bush administration foreign policy dream, including its first term fantasy about a pacified 'Greater Middle East' and its late second term vision of a facilitated 'peace process' between the Israelis and Palestinians, has ended in piles of bodies and in failure. Consider this a count all its own.

Looked at another way, the Bush administration's Global War on Terror and its subsidiary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have, in effect, been a giant Ponzi scheme. At a cost of nearly one trillion taxpayer dollars to date (but sure to be in the multi-trillions when all is said and done), Bush's mad 'global war' simply sucked needed money out of our world at levels that made Bernie Madoff seem like a small fry. "

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Robert Scheer: Why Do So Few Speak Up for Gaza?

Robert Scheer: Why Do So Few Speak Up for Gaza?: "Why are we so indifferent to the death and destruction in Gaza?

The major news outlets meekly accepted Israel's banning of journalists from entering Gaza as an excuse for downplaying collateral civilian casualties, our president-elect, Barack Obama, has had little to say about an invasion that will much complicate his future Mideast peace efforts, and most commentators easily rationalize Israel's many-more-eyes-for-an-eye killings.

Why is it that there is such widespread acceptance, beginning with the apologetic arguments of President Bush, that whatever Israel does is always justified as necessary to the survival of the Jewish state?

It is not."

(Via Huffington Blog.)

Why Ike Was Right

Why Ike Was Right: "

Stephen Walt and Matt Yglesias explain.

(Via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.)

Obama’s OLC nominee: ‘We must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly.’

Obama’s OLC nominee: ‘We must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly.’: "

President-elect Barack Obama announced today that Dawn Johnsen will serve as the next Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Salon’s Glenn Greenwald calls the pick ‘Obama’s best yet, perhaps by far.’ As evidence, Greenwald highlights an article in Slate that Johnsen authored last year, in which she excoriated John Yoo’s infamous torture memo: I want to second Dahlia’s frustration with those who don’t see the newly released Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) torture memo as a big deal. Where is the outrage, the public outcry?! The shockingly flawed content of this memo, the deficient processes that led to its issuance, the horrific acts it encouraged, the fact that it was kept secret for years and that the Bush administration continues to withhold other memos like it — all demand our outrage.

Yes, we’ve seen much of it before. And yes, we are counting down the remaining months. But we must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly and devises bogus constitutional arguments for outlandishly expansive presidential power. Otherwise, our own deep cynicism, about the possibility for a President and presidential lawyers to respect legal constraints, itself will threaten the rule of law — and not just for the remaining nine months of this administration, but for years and administrations to come.

Johnsen also criticized the Democratic Congress for legalizing Bush’s surveillance program. She also wrote passionately about restoring our ‘nation’s honor’ by condemning ‘our nation’s past transgressions’ and rejecting ‘Bush’s corruption of our American ideals.’

(Via Think Progress.)

My, My, Those Tax Cuts Look Big

My, My, Those Tax Cuts Look Big: "Obama's team is so focused on getting a big bipartisan majority for their stimulus legislation that they're negotiating their goals down even before they actually start negotiating. I'm reluctant to critique Obama's political instincts, since they've proven shrewd so often in the past, but I gotta say: this isn't going to work. Obviously Obama needs a modest level of Republican support just to get the bill passed, but he doesn't need 80 votes, and straining to get there will just produce a watered-down plan without getting anything in return. The American public really doesn't know or care if this bill passes by one vote or thirty votes. So why waste time on this? It's just a gold-embossed invitation for Republicans to obstruct and posture endlessly, something they hardly need any encouragement for."

(Via The Plank.)

Someone Else's Problem?

Someone Else's Problem?: "

Juan Cole has a long historical post on the origins of the Gaza conflict:

I was on the radio recently with John Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN, and he expressed the hope that Egypt would take back Gaza and Jordan what is left of the West Bank. You may as well dream of pink unicorns on Venus. It isn't going to happen. The Palestinians are Israel's problem.

War on them, circumscribe them, colonize them all you like. They aren't
going anywhere, and you can't keep them stateless and virtually
enslaved forever, occasionally exterminating some of them as though
they were vermin when they make too much trouble. That, sooner or
later, will lead to boycotts by rising economic powers and by Europe
that could be extremely damaging to Israel's long-term prospects as a
state.

It may still be 10 or 20 years in the future. But because of Israel's
economic and demographic vulnerabilities, for it to lose the war of
global public opinion may ultimately be more consequential than either
macro-war or micro-war.

(Via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.)

Magda Abu-Fadil: Shoe and Awe: From Bush in Iraq to Gaza Fury

Magda Abu-Fadil: Shoe and Awe: From Bush in Iraq to Gaza Fury: "

It was bound to continue. The shoe has been transformed into a weapon of protest and fury at Israel's onslaught on Gaza, and by extension George W. Bush's unconditional support for the Jewish state.

London protest (MacGregor - Reuters)

(Via Huffington Blog.)

The Missiles They Used

The Missiles They Used: "The attack on Gaza may be a test-run for Iran's nuclear sites. In that case, what we may be witnessing is Israel's initiation of full-scale war with Iran. That would certainly make as much sense as the current stated rationale for invading Gaza."

(Via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.)

MEMO FOR OBAMA

MEMO FOR OBAMA: From: Uri Avnery, Israel. The following humble suggestions are based on my 70 years of experience as an underground fighter, special forces soldier in the 1948 war, editor-in-chief of a newsmagazine, member of the Knesset and founding member of a peace movement. .

(Via Gush-Shalom.)

Rusty superpower in need of careful driver | Matthew Parris - Times Online

Rusty superpower in need of careful driver | Matthew Parris - Times Online: "Though he may not yet know it, the role for which the US President-elect has been chosen is the management of national decline. He will be the first US president in history to accept, and (if he has the gift) to teach, not the possibilities but the constraints of power."

(Via .)

Many More Madoffs?

Many More Madoffs?: "

From Bloomberg ...

U.S. regulators working to untangle Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme are probing other money managers suspected of using similar tactics, two people with knowledge of the inquiries said.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing at least one case in which investors may have been cheated out of as much as $1 billion, according to one person, who declined to name the manager and asked not to be identified because the probe isn't public.

(Via Talking Points Memo.)