CHART OF THE DAY: If Congress Does Nothing, The Deficit Will Disappear

Brian Beutler | June 24, 2011, 6:20AM

On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office released its updated long-term budget forecast, which looked surprisingly like the previous version of its long-term budget forecast.

It showed, as one might expect, that if the Bush tax-cuts remain in effect and Medicare and Medicaid spending isn't constrained in some way, the country will topple into a genuine fiscal crisis -- not the fake one the Congress is pretending the country's in right now.

Republicans, of course, seized on that particular projection, and claimed (a bit ridiculously) that it proved the government must adopt their precise policy views: major spending cuts, particularly to entitlement programs.

Study: Lab-grown meat could help save the world

By Stephen C. Webster
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 -- 11:02 am

Artificial, lab-grown meat requires about 96 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than raising cattle, a recently published study shows.

If produced on a large scale, scientists say it could ease deforestation and pressure on food and water supplies, ensure more people are eating well and abate the concerns of animal rights activists everywhere.

How Free Trade Made Democracy A Disadvantage

by Dave Johnson

Created 06/24/2011 - 1:14am

This is my presentation from last week's Netroots Nation panel session: Revitalizing Manufacturing: The Road to Renewed Job Growth [1]. Click through [1] for panel details and other panelists, here [2] for a pdf of slides, including Jared Bernstein's. See below for video -- and be sure to watch Beri Fox!!!

Four Stories

I want to share four quick stories:

1. Democracy

The story of America

We fought a wealthy powerful few who had all the say and didn’t let us have a say, and made a country where We, the People made the decisions and share the benefits.

So because we had a say we built up a country with good schools, good infrastructure, good courts, and we made rules that said workers had to be safe, get a minimum wage… we protect the environment, we give out social security. We take care of each other.

Tax Repatriation: You Can’t Turn This into A Good Idea

My experience in policy making has led me to try to strictly obey a couple of basic precepts. First, keep it simple. Unintended consequences abound, and the more tweaks you have to build in to get the policy to do what you really want it to do, the more likely something will go wrong.

Second, it’s better not to pass a bad policy than to try to make it a good one. Why not? See rule #1 above.

These caveats come to mind in thinking about the tax repatriation holiday that’s getting some buzz these days. This is where you let multinational corporations who’ve been “deferring” taxes they owe to the Treasury—holding them overseas—get a time-limited break to bring them back (to “repatriate” them) at a much reduced rate (5%!!). See here and here.

The core of the critique is that while the corporations who take advantage of this tax break claim that they’ll invest the tax windfall and create more jobs, the evidence shows otherwise (we tried this before, back in 2004).

Ezra Klein Should Stick to Being Wrong About Health Care

A recent post by Ezra Klein, “What ‘Inside Job’ got wrong,” manages the impressive feat of being spectacularly off base, rhetorically dishonest, and embarrassingly revealing of the lack of a moral compass all at once.

Since being off base is a major part of Klein’s brand, I suppose one should not be surprised; those who’ve had the good fortune to have limited contact with his output can read Jon Walker’s “Ezra Klein: Insurance Exchanges Don’t Work and Must be Expanded Dramatically,” or Physicians for a National Health Care Program’s “Does Ezra Klein really think ‘managed care didn’t kill anyone’?” for two of many examples.

Blognote in Honor of Thomas Friedman: Spending on the Commerce Department Is Going to Bankrupt the Country

By Dean Baker

Created 06/22/2011 - 3:37pm

The United States has to cut back spending on the Commerce Department or it will bankrupt the country. Okay, I have no evidence for this and it really doesn't make any sense. The Commerce Department's budget is about $10 billion a year, less than 0.3 percent of total spending, but this note is written in the spirit of Thomas Friedman.

Just as Thomas Friedman can tell readers [1] that Social Security and Medicare are bankrupting the country with no evidence, in my blognote I get to blame the Commerce Department. The reality of course is that Social Security is fully funded by its own dedicated tax revenue through the year 2036, meaning the program on net imposes no burden on the government.

Surprise oil release targets speculators

Weakened demand, ample supplies send crude prices tumbling

By John W. Schoen Senior producer

msnbc.com

updated 6/23/2011 5:51:49 PM ET

ANALYSIS

Thursday’s surprise release of 60 million barrels of crude reserves is not about keeping oil consumers well supplied. It’s about chasing oil speculators out of the market.

And it seems to be working.

Rwanda: Ex-women's minister guilty of genocide, rape

A former Rwandan women's minister has been sentenced to life in prison for her role in the genocide and the rape of Tutsi women and girls.

Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, 65, is the first woman to be convicted of genocide by an international court.

She was found guilty, along with her son and four other former officials, after a 10-year trial.

8 Reasons Justice Clarence Thomas Must Step Down

Plagued by ethical breaches and links to groups calling for armed insurrection against the U.S. government, Clarence Thomas must resign his seat on the Supreme Court.

June 23, 2011 | Time was when, at any right-wing gathering, chances were that you'd hear the justices of the Supreme Court derided as black-robed usurpers of democracy. Today, not so much. Ever since the seating of the Roberts court, the right has been pretty happy with high court's decisions, especially the outcome of Citizens United v. FEC, the case through which the court, in a decision handed down last year, opened the floodgates of corporate money into the electoral system.

No single justice has been more stalwart for the causes of the right -- indeed, even the far right -- than Justice Clarence Thomas, who, notes ThinkProgress, may just be the most ethically challenged justice since Abe Fortas was forced to step down from the court in 1969 for accepting tens of thousands of dollars from wealthy benefactors.

Corporations Lose Love Of "Secret Ballot" After NLRB Proposal For Fair Union Elections

By Dave Johnson
June 22, 2011 - 1:07pm ET

The NLRB proposes streamlining union elections. Companies that were for secret ballots last year are now against it. Conservatives say removing barriers to elections "rams elections through" and " foist unions on workers" and that We, the People (government) shouldn't be allowed to tell companies what to do -- instead companies ("job-creators") should be telling us what to do.

Yesterday the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" proposing modest rule changes for union certification elections. These rules would strengthen a basic right for workers to vote. The new rules eliminate voting delays and modernize an outdated system, removing unfair obstacles so workers can vote on whether to form a union if they want to. These new rules would be a step in the right direction toward giving more workers a voice on the job, rebalancing our economy and rebuilding the middle class.

Bill Gross: Bond Vigilante, Minsky Convert

Cross-posted from Credit Writedowns

In the end, I hearken back to revered economist Hyman Minsky – a modern-day economic godfather who predicted the subprime crisis. “Big Government,” he wrote, should become the “employer of last resort” in a crisis, offering a job to anyone who wants one – for health care, street cleaning, or slum renovation. FDR had a program for it – the CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, and Barack Obama can do the same. Economist David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff sums up my feelings rather well. “I’d have a shovel in the hands of the long-term unemployed from 8am to noon, and from 1pm to 5pm I’d have them studying algebra, physics, and geometry.” Deficits are important, but their immediate reduction can wait for a stronger economy and lower unemployment. Jobs are today’s and tomorrow’s immediate problem.

Florida sold citizens’ driver’s license information for $62 million

By Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 -- 6:04 pm

The State of Florida made $62,968,946 from the sale of Floridians driver's license information in the last fiscal year, a practice that has been occurring almost unknown for years.

I-Team investigator Michael George reported that the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles sells drivers' license information, including Floridians full name, date of birth, address, and driver’s license number, to ten different companies.

Victims of state's eugenics program win sympathy

By Regina Wang | Raleigh News & Observer

RALEIGH, N.C. — For more than 40 years, Charles Holt swallowed the shame and anger of being sterilized by the state of North Carolina.

He thought he was the only one.

On Wednesday, Holt, 61, heard story after story of people who also know the pain of being denied the ability to bear children.

High technology, not low taxes, may drive states' economic growth

High-tech training may trump tax breaks for creating more jobs and improving a state's economy, according to a team of economists.

"We found that lower state taxes were not statistically associated with a state's economic performance," said Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and regional economics, Penn State. "The tax climate was not linked to either growth or income distribution."

Stocks Of Socialized Countries Have Outperformed U.S. Since Reagan Era

First Posted: 06/22/11 02:49 PM ET Updated: 06/22/11 03:35 PM ET

American traders aren't likely to take kindly to the suggestion that big government might be good for the stock market. But data from a paper on the job- and income-growth of top earners shows that stock prices in some socialized countries, relative to themselves and adjusted for inflation, have done considerably better than those in the U.S over the last two and a half decades.

Specifically, during the twenty five years after Ronald Reagan took office -- a pro-market honeymoon that Ryan Chittum of the Columbia Journalism Review this week termed "the ascent of laissez-faire economic policies" -- French stock prices have performed significantly better than Americans ones, according to the report by Jon Bakija, Adam Cole, and Bradley Heim.

Ex-IMF Chief Economist: Debt Ceiling Default Would Be “A Calamity”

Benjy Sarlin | June 22, 2011, 5:45AM

With a number of Republicans musing that failing to pass a debt increase might not be so bad after all, TPM floated the idea by someone who knows a thing or two about countries facing default: former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson.

"It would be very damaging, there's no question about that," Johnson said of a debt ceiling default. "It would really destabilize financial markets and lead to all sorts of unpleasant repercussions in the United States and around the world."

PIMCO Founder To Deficit-Obsessed Congress: Get Back To Reality

Brian Beutler | June 21, 2011, 11:00AM

One of the most influential investors in the world of finance has a message for lawmakers -- particularly conservative lawmakers -- on Capitol Hill: rejoin the real world.

In a prospectus for clients, Bill Gross, a co-founder of investment management giant PIMCO, says members' of Congress incessant focus on deficit -- and in particular, the manner in which they obsess about deficits -- is foolhardy, and a recipe for disaster. What the country needs, Gross said, is real stimulus now, and a measured return toward fiscal balance in the years ahead.

Bhidé Cites “Rampant, Extensive Criminality” As Proof That Bank Reform Has Gone Down the Wrong Path

I though readers might welcome an antidote from the nonsense that bank industry touts like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s John Walsh routinely puts forth.

I’ve known Amar Bhidé, who is now a professor at Tufts, for thirty years; we both worked on the Citibank account at McKinsey (although never on the same study). He’s long had a reputation for being incredibly smart and iconoclastic.

Republican Lynch Mob Looking Awfully Hard to Find Rope With Which to Hang Elizabeth Warren

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Elizabeth Warren beat, although my expectation is that the skirmishes now will pale in significance compared to whatever does or does not happen on what the Republican hope will be her ritual execution at the full committee hearing of the House Oversight committee on July 14.

This situation has become an intriguing bit of political theater. The Republican have increasing become one-trick ponies. Their strategy has been to take an extreme position, scream like bloody murder, act like they have no intention of negotiating, and watch the Dems capitulate. But particularly with Obama, capitulation is tantamount to throwing Br’er Rabbit in the briar patch: it’s exactly where the Democrats like to go, but they need political cover for selling out their badly abused “base”.

Bill Clinton’s Legacy of Denial

by Robert Scheer

Does Bill Clinton still not grasp that the current economic crisis is in large measure his legacy? Obviously that’s the case, or he wouldn’t have had the temerity to write a 14-point memo for Newsweek on how to fix the economy that never once refers to the home mortgage collapse and other manifestations of Wall Street greed that he enabled as president.

Endorsing the Republican agenda of financial industry deregulation, reversing New Deal safeguards, President Clinton pursued policies that in the long run created more damage to the American economy than any other president since Herbert Hoover, whose tenure is linked to the Great Depression. Now, in his Newsweek piece, Clinton has the effrontery to once again revive his 1992 campaign mantra, “It’s the economy, stupid,” as the article’s title without any sense of irony, let alone accountability. But that has always been the man’s special gift—to rise above, and indeed benefit from, the messes he created.

The supreme court's free pass on sexism for Walmart

The Roberts court decision to block the class action lawsuit for sex discrimination effectively defines Walmart as 'too big to sue'

Laura Flanders
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 June 2011 17.00 BST

Let's get this right: the world's biggest boss, supported by companies as diverse as Altria, Bank of America, Microsoft and General Electric and backed up by the godfather of big business (the US Chamber of Commerce) has persuaded the US supreme court that thousands of women workers can't possibly share enough of an interest to constitute a class?

It's hard to know which part of the court's decision in Dukes v Walmart hurts equity most: the assault on class-action jurisprudence generally, at a time of shrinking tools for workers seeking redress, or the defeat of history's biggest gender-based claim before a court that, for the first time, includes two women, one of whom (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) made her reputation in sex discrimination law.

Michele Bachmann's Holy War

The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter

By Matt Taibbi
June 22, 2011 8:00 AM ET

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing. Don't laugh.

It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children's show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.

5 WikiLeaks Revelations Exposing the Rapidly Growing Corporatism Dominating American Diplomacy Abroad

One of WikiLeaks' greatest achievements has been to expose the exorbitant amount of influence that multinational corporations have over Washington's diplomacy.

June 21, 2011 | One of the most significant scourges paralyzing our democracy is the merger of corporate power with elected and appointed government officials at the highest levels of office. Influence has a steep price-tag in American politics where politicians are bought and paid for with ever increasing campaign contributions from big business, essentially drowning out any and all voices advocating on behalf of the public interest.

Millions of dollars in campaign funding flooding Washington's halls of power combined with tens of thousands of high-paid corporate lobbyists and a never-ending revolving door that allows corporate executives to shuffle between the public and private sectors has blurred the line between government agencies and private corporations.

Smaller companies hit hardest during emerging market crises

6-21-11

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A study of the reaction by the United States stock market to international financial crises shows that small companies are often hit hardest, and the impact is above and beyond what would be expected given their exposure to global market factors.

This unexpected result suggests the significant impact that investors’ actions can have during emerging market crises. During these crises, investors flee to the perceived safety of big companies and shed stocks of smaller companies, despite comparable levels of international exposure during normal periods.

How Robert Gates' Lies and Cover-Ups Earned Him a Long, Prestigious Career -- At the Expense of the American People

Two decades ago, U.S. history could have taken a very different course if Gates and his cohorts had faced real accountability and their secrets had been exposed.

June 19, 2011 | On Wednesday, Sen. Patrick Leahy asked departing Defense Secretary Robert Gates about future U.S. relations with Pakistan and other "governments that lie to us." Gates responded, in his flat Kansas twang, that "most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done."

Gates' Realpolitik answer before the Senate Appropriations Committee drew appreciative laughter from the audience and the usual press kudos for his "refreshing candor," but Gates's response could also be a reminder about his own dubious honesty regarding his role in major government scandals.

Right-Wing Smear Machine At It Again, Attacking Progressive California Policy Group

First they came for ACORN, then it was Planned Parenthood and NPR. Now, the right-wing smear machine is at it again, targeting a local group that has had a strong impact in advancing important progressive causes. The group is LAANE or the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and the provenance of persecutor is unknown, and mysterious.

From an extensive Jim Newton column in the the LA Times, here's a description of the kind of work LANE does:

LAANE, as it's known, is an 18-year-old advocacy organization that seeks to fashion and influence public policy relating to jobs, the environment and community development. The group, widely perceived as having a strong liberal slant, has a staff of 45 people and an annual budget of $4 million, and it is headed by a shrewd executive director, Madeline Janis. Housed in a tiny suite of offices just west of downtown (LAANE rents the space from the union UNITE-HERE), its modest quarters give little evidence of its impact, which is profound. In project after project -- from winning passage of the city's Living Wage Ordinance to revamping the way the Los Angeles port handles truck traffic to reimagining the region's approach to recycling -- LAANE has shown itself to be one of Southern California's most potent political organizations.

Shame Of America: Desperate Man Robs Store For One Dollar In Order To Go To Jail To Get Health Coverage

By Zaid Jilani on Jun 20, 2011 at 6:00 pm

James Richard Verone of North Carolina spent his whole life playing by the rules and staying out of trouble. Having worked as a delivery man for Coca Cola for 17 years, Verone was known as a hard worker and honest man.

Yet when he was laid off from Coca Cola three years ago, Verone was desperate to find work. He eventually found employment as a convenience clerk, yet he began to notice a protrusion in his chest. He developed arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome, and soon the pain became too much for him to bear. He filed for disability, but he was denied any sort of coverage by the federal government.

Close Encounters of the Tax Myth Kind

David Cay Johnston | Jun. 20, 2011 10:48 AM EDT

Two men approached me in the hotel hallway at a Florida convention the other day, eager to talk tax policy. The difference in their approaches to the issues highlights a crucial aspect of our national tax policy debate. So, too, do a conversation that a former IRS auditor had the same day with a former boss and a series of e-mail exchanges I had with a British journalist who writes about Formula One economics.

The two men had just sat through an hourlong panel I moderated on whether tax incentives actually create jobs and how to measure the costs and benefits of economic development. The panel drew nearly a hundred journalists attending the annual conference of Investigative Reporters and Editors, the nonprofit training organization for which I serve as a board member and treasurer.

Durbin Bill Designed to Throw Wrench in Wall Street Infrastructure Heist

Since we so seldom have positive news to report on NC, we thought it was important to highlight a promising development. Senator Richard Durbin has introduced legislation that would considerably complicate the effort of Wall Street players to pillage privatize state and government assets for fun and profit.

It is key to understand what a bad deal these transactions are for ordinary citizens. In addition to having sizeable up front fees, the return requirements are well in excess of the government entities’ borrowing rates, typically just under 20%. That means after you allow for the up front charges, the effective cost of funding is likely to be 20% or even higher. How does it make the remotest iota of sense for governments to fund at rates comparable to that of credit card borrowers? (Note this 20% figure applies only to a large portion of the funding, the equity slice, but given that these deals, involve aggressive rate hikes, and deals like the Chicago parking meter deal have NPVs for the deal of roughly 2x, if not more, than the sellers received, the extraction via user charge increases is extremely aggressive, and calls the attractiveness of the funding into question).

Time to break up the communications trusts?

COMMENTARY | June 17, 2011

Telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick says Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast are dragging down the nation’s economy and bilking millions of Americans. The chief firms in the communications oligopoly got $340 billion to upgrade telephone and broadband systems but have almost totally reneged. Instead, they manipulate data and buy support from experts and citizens groups. In response, regulators on the federal and state levels…well, there is just about no response.

By Bruce Kushnick
bruce@newnetworks.com

In 1992, I stood at the podium of the National Press Club and suggested ”Divestiture II”. Simply put, in 1984 AT&T, a company that once controlled almost all telecommunications in the U.S., was broken up, its monopoly over local, long distance and even telecom equipment ended. A federal judge ordered the first divestiture, separating the local phone companies, which became seven new “Baby Bells,” from the long distance part of the business, which went to AT&T.

Another Layer of the Mortgage Mess: “Zombie Notes”

One of the claims we’ve heard throughout the mortgage crisis is that all the systems and records are fine, that the banks have just made a few “mistakes” and when they find out about them, they correct them promptly and cheerfully.

If you believe that, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. Not only is evidence of widespread, and very likely systematic abuses piling up in courtrooms all over the US, but even at this late date, new types of misconduct are coming to light.

Lisa Epstein and April Charney pointed out the latest version, that of “zombie notes”.

The 'most consistently misinformed media viewers'

By Steve Benen

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also flag this gem from Jon Stewart’s appearance on “Fox News Sunday” this morning. He was explaining that he, as a comedian, doesn’t deserve credibility in political media, and it’s ultimately the result of “the disappointment the public has in what the news media does.”

Chris Wallace rejected the premise, arguing that Fox News viewers “aren’t the least bit disappointed” with what their preferred network does. Stewart’s response was an important one.

The Endgame on the Debt Ceiling

Monday 20 June 2011
by: Dean Baker, Truthout | News Analysis

As we know, President Obama and his team do not appear to be very effective negotiators when it comes to dealing with the Republicans in Congress. Last December, the Republicans forced the president to renew the Bush tax cuts for the rich. More recently, they got him to make $38 billion in cuts to the 2011 budget even though all his economists know that the economy actually needs more stimulus, which more means spending.

Since the president is having so much trouble dealing with the Republicans, the rest of us should lend him a hand. One way we can do this is by etching out what the end game looks like in the battle over raising the debt ceiling.

As it stands now, we are being told that the Republicans are insisting that there will be no increase in the debt ceiling without large cuts to the budget. Since the Republicans won't go along with any major cuts to the military budget, this means big cuts to the rest of the budget.

The Three Wings of the Republican Party

Posted: 06/19/11 11:00 PM ET

Why Washington is Talking about Deficits While the Rest of the Country is Talking About Jobs and the Shrinking Middle Class

Today's Republican Party has three wings: the psychiatric wing, the corporate wing, and the Democrats.

The first wing, the psychiatric wing, is defined by severe psychological and intellectual impairments, exemplified by the inability to read a birth certificate. Sarah Palin's recent foray into American history, replete with her description of Paul Revere as the man who rang alarms, bells, and buzzers to signal his support for the Second Amendment years before there was either a United States or a Bill of Rights, provides an example of the kind of "gaffe" that is, in fact, psychologically meaningful. This level of intellectual dysfunction, equally common in the pronouncements of Michelle Bachmann, once disqualified a candidate for high office. That was until the "lamestream media" decided to turn elections into reality shows, where the only real criterion is celebrity (defined as the state of being or becoming famous), and where commentators may poke occasional fun but no longer communicate to the public the seriousness of intellectual deficits in someone running for high office who would actually have to make decisions in which "facts" occasionally matter. (The dangerousness of that level of media indifference to reality should have been a lesson of George W. Bush's tenure in office, but things have sadly only gotten worse since then.)

Get Radical: Raise Social Security

By THOMAS GEOGHEGAN

Chicago

AS a labor lawyer I cringe when Democrats talk of “saving” Social Security. We should not “save” it but raise it. Right now Social Security pays out 39 percent of the average worker’s preretirement earnings. While jaws may drop inside the Beltway, we could raise that to 50 percent. We’d still be near the bottom of the league of the world’s richest countries — but at least it would be a basement with some food and air. We have elderly people living on less than $10,000 a year. Is that what Democrats want to “save”?

“But we can’t afford it!” Oh, come on: We have a federal tax rate equal to nearly 15 percent of our G.D.P. — far below the take in most wealthy countries. Let’s wake up: the biggest crisis we face is that most of us have nothing meaningful saved for retirement. I know. I started my career wanting to be a pension lawyer. In the 1970s, lawyers like me expected there to be big pots of private pensions for hourly workers. By the 1980s, as factories closed, I was filing hopeless lawsuits to claw back bits and pieces of benefits. Now there are even fewer bits and pieces to get.

World's oceans in 'shocking' decline

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News

The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists.

In a new report, they warn that ocean life is "at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history".

They conclude that issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change are acting together in ways that have not previously been recognised.

The Secret $8 Billion Wireless Scam: How AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Game the System

By David Rosen and Bruce Kushnick, AlterNet
Posted on June 16, 2011, Printed on June 20, 2011

On May 11, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing astutely titled, "The AT&T/T-Mobile Merger: Is Humpty Dumpty Being Put Back Together Again?"

At the hearing, Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, raised a fundamental challenge: “At present, four companies control nearly 90 percent of the national wireless market. The proposed acquisition would further consolidate an already concentrated market for wireless communication.”

Whistleblower Protections for Scientists Sidelined

— Science Integrity Initiative Allows Agencies to Certify Current Practices as Sufficient

Washington, DC — A vaunted effort by the Obama White House to outlaw political manipulation of science has become mired in official resistance and inertia, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). After more than two years, most federal science-based agencies have yet to even draft policies. Now the White House is urging them to adopt boilerplate language on key provisions, such as whistleblower protections for scientists, which provide no additional safeguards.

America for Sale…and Goldman Sachs is Buying

Thursday, 06/16/2011 - 2:27 pm by Dylan Ratigan

Piece by piece, the country’s public assets are being sold to big banks and other bidders. Is our government next?

In Chicago, it’s the sale of parking meters to the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. In Indiana, it’s the sale of the northern toll road to a Spanish and Australian joint venture. In Wisconsin it’s public health and food programs, in California it’s libraries. It’s water treatment plants, schools, toll roads, airports, and power plants. It’s Amtrak. There are revolving doors of corrupt politicians, big banks, and rating agencies. There are conflicts of interest. It’s bipartisan.

Press Release: POE Calls for Investigations Into Justice Thomas in Light of New Financial Disclosures

By CD - Posted on 01 June 2011

New Information Reveals Thomas Invested In Lobbying Firm Tied To Tea Party and Engaged In "Judicial Insider Trading" To Enrich His Wife

WASHINGTON, June 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ProtectOurElections.org, a campaign finance watchdog, has asked the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia (Ginni) Thomas for financial and judicial corruption partly based on the Justice's newest financial disclosures.

First, the organization alleges, Justice Thomas falsified 20 years of judicial financial disclosure forms by denying that his wife had income sources; second, he engaged in judicial corruption by receiving $100,000 in support from Citizens United during his nomination and then ruling in favor of Citizens United in 2010 without disclosing that fact or disqualifying himself; and third, he apparently conspired with his wife in a form of "judicial insider trading" by providing her with information about the result of the Court's decision in Citizens United prior to its issuance, which she then used to launch a new company to take financial advantage of that decision to benefit her and her husband.