Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Why Chavez Won Again

Why Chavez Won Again

What Does Romney's Campaign of Lies Say About Our Country?

What Does Romney's Campaign of Lies Say About Our Country?

Frankenstorms and Climate Change: How the 1% Created a Monster

Frankenstorms and Climate Change: How the 1% Created a Monster

Which Fortune 500 Companies Are Sheltering Income in Overseas Tax Havens?

Which Fortune 500 Companies Are Sheltering Income in Overseas Tax Havens?

Romney's Latest Proposal to Pay for His Tax Cuts Would Offset Only a Fraction of Their Costs: National & State-by-State Figures | CTJReports

Romney's Latest Proposal to Pay for His Tax Cuts Would Offset Only a Fraction of Their Costs: National & State-by-State Figures | CTJReports

Storm provides Obama with a commander-in-chief moment

In a campaign notable mostly for its negativity, the historic storm provided Obama with a commander-in-chief moment a week before Election Day. The president gained a rare moment of bipartisan praise, with Democratic and Republican governors alike commending the performance of the federal government. And the storm put on pause, for now, the sense that rival Mitt Romney had all the momentum in the home stretch.

READ MORE;  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/storm-provides-obama-with-a-commander-in-chief-moment/2012/10/30/5e645952-22c2-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_print.html

Romney Refuses to Answer Questions on FEMA Stance

Romney Refuses to Answer Questions on FEMA Stance

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Republicans say climate change isn't real?

Perhaps, if you are in your 60s or 70s or 80s, Sandy’s destructive forces are a once in your lifetime event. But younger generations—those of us in our fifties, and our children—will likely be looking at flooded coastal cities, devastated infrastructure, blownout power, and storm surges for the rest of our lives.

Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/10/30/will-we-be-seeing-more-superstorms/#ixzz2ApMg3HR6

Election 2012 | Study: Half of us are bigots

In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last presidential election. In both tests, the share of Americans expressing pro-black attitudes fell.

read more;  http://www.courier-journal.com/viewart/20121027/NEWS0106/310270133/Election-2012-Study-Half-us-bigots

Monday, October 29, 2012

MITT'S PLAN FOR DISASTERS

It’s probably not a coincidence that record-breaking Sandy is here just after the warmest September recorded and in the midst of the warmest decade ever recorded. It almost certainly represents the “new normal” in this hostile-weather new world. Which makes how we as citizens respond to these “Franken-storms,” mile-long tornados, and levee-busting floods all the more important.

READ MORE;  http://truth-out.org/news/item/12398-why-republicans-are-turning-their-chainsaws-on-fema

Sunday, October 28, 2012

A Part-Time Life

While there have always been part-time workers, especially at restaurants and retailers, employers today rely on them far more than before as they seek to cut costs and align staffing to customer traffic. This trend has frustrated millions of Americans who want to work full-time, reducing their pay and benefits.

READ MORE; http://truth-out.org/news/item/12368-a-part-time-life-as-hours-shrink-and-shift

OUR BROKEN HEALHCARE

If anybody ever tells you we can't afford health care for everybody, consider the following: Every other wealthy country in the world provides health care for all at an average of about half the per-person cost in the United States.

READ MORE; http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12372-health-care-waste-deconstructed-patients-arent-the-problem

WELCOME TO WACKO WORLD


The safest city in America is rocked by news of a nanny who allegedly killed her young charges, ages 6 and 2, and a police officer accused of conspiring to kidnap, torture, roast alive, and eat women.

A HOME GROWN TERRORIST

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has donated more than $50 million to Republicans, is now pressuring his casino employees to vote for Mitt Romney

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/casino-mogul-tells-workers-voting-romney-would-protect-your-job-1351428811

WHAT MIDDLE CLASS?

America is big on fantasies. We savor staged reality shows and overhyped football games. We fawn over celebrities and video games. But perhaps our biggest fantasy is the persistent belief that nearly all of us are middle class. More than 80 percent of us think we're perched on one of its rungs.

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/middle-class-fantasy-1351431448

BRINGING BACK THE BOOGEYMAN

“Bush and his neocon coterie recognized the glaring irrelevance of the Cold War era arsenal in the fight against terrorism, and that is why they invaded Iraq instead of focusing on al-Qaida and its supporters in Afghanistan.”

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/romney-s-cold-war-ponzi-scheme-1351437884


Friday, October 26, 2012

How the Ruling Class Rules


Money Talks in Many Ways: Election-Season Reflections on How the Ruling Class Rules


Lies of Plutocracy:


Exploding Five Myths that Dehumanize the Poor


If you believe that poverty is the domain of the comfortably poor, black, unemployed, unmotivated and uneducated among us, you have been sadly misled. Prepare to be astonished by numbers that tell a very different story.

ROMNEY HAS NO CLUE


Romney Unaware Who Creates Wealth

The Republican presidential nominee apparently has no idea that "apart from nature," it is workers who are the creators of all wealth.

Why Obama Will Win


Was it all a bluff? As Mitt Romney’s ‘surge’ erodes, the Republican nominee’s campaign faces reality. Across the swing states, the polls show the president holds the advantage.


THE ROMNEY-RYAN PLAN

“The United States isn't immune from contagion if Romney and Ryan enact a full-blown austerity program.”

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/europe-s-agony-could-become-our-future-under-mitt-romney-1351266242

"Who Owns the World?"

“The U.S. had been by far the richest country in the world even before the Second World War, although it wasn’t—was not yet the major global actor.”

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/who-owns-world-noam-chomsky-us-fueled-dangers-climate-change-nuclear-war-1351267061

REPUBLICANS HURT THE MIDDLE CLASS

After the Obama administration instituted the Home Affordable Refinancing Program (HARP) to help homeowners refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates, Freddie Mac placed heavy restrictions on the program out of fear that it would hurt the company’s bottom line and its ability to repay taxpayers. But two Republican appointees and one executive also held back the program, ProPublica’s Jesse Eisenger reports, because they thought it would help the economy under a Democratic president:

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/republican-housing-appointees-sabotaged-mortgage-assistance-programs-stop-backdoor-economic-stimulus

THE OVERSEAS JOB CREATOR


Romney’s defensive statement came in response to a remark by Obama noting that the Republican nominee is “familiar with jobs being shipped overseas because you invested in companies that were shipping jobs overseas.”


THE LAND OF FEAR

America is supposedly the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” as our unsingable national anthem puts it at its most unsingable point, but to tell the truth, it is no longer either of those things.

read more; http://www.nationofchange.org/nation-armed-teeth-living-fear-1351259603

BRILLIANT: A

BRILLIANT: A

A Hauntingly Beautiful Clip About What Is Happening To The Middle Class

A Hauntingly Beautiful Clip About What Is Happening To The Middle Class

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

A REAL PLAN FOR AMERICA

Obama Has Released A 27-Point Plan For His Second Term, And It's A Doozy

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obamas-plan-second-term-economy-jobs-election-2012-10?op=1#ixzz2AGiBCq66

HIDING THEIR LOOT


The new Gilded Age is roaring down on us – an uncaged tiger on a rampage. Walk out to the street in front of our office here in Manhattan, look to the right and you can see the symbol of it: a fancy new skyscraper going up two blocks away.  When finished, this high rise among high rises will tower a thousand feet, the tallest residential building in the city.
The New York Times has dubbed it “the global billionaires’ club” — and for good reason. At least of two of the apartments are under contract for more than 90 million dollars each. Others, more modest, range in price from 45 million dollars to more than 50 million dollars. The mega-rich have been buying these places “looking for a place to stash their cash,” a realtor from Sotheby’s explained to the Times. “A lot of what is happening,” she said, “… is about wealth preservation.”



OBAMA vs THE BULLY

This has been Romney’s problem all along, of course, but in the first debate he managed to disguise his vacuousness with a surprisingly combative, well-rehearsed performance.”

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/obama-commander-chief-romney-banal-bully-1351087653

MESSY AND UNPLEASANT

President Barack Obama laid out an astoundingly ambitious second-term agenda in an interview published Wednesday, vowing to forge a "grand bargain" with Republicans to reduce the national debt and achieve comprehensive immigration reform — all in 2013.

read more; http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-vows-debt-cutting-grand-bargain-immigration-reform-142348400--election.html

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

THE ROMENSIA EFFECT

In the race to analyze polls and money raised, the media has lost the basic narrative of identity and character. Willard “Mitt” Romney personifies the mentality of a cheating athlete, the habits of a religious sinner, and a life story that is anti-American.

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/many-problems-romnesia-and-why-it-still-works-1350996943

CONGRESS IS A BROTHEL

The One Percent is not only increasing their share of wealth — they're using it to spread millions among political candidates who serve their interests. 

READ MORE; http://truth-out.org/news/item/12268-matt-taibbi-and-chrystia-freeland-on-the-one-percents-power-and-privileges

MIIT'S BONANZA

"Mitt Romney's Bail-out Bonanza," the Romneys are in a special partnership with the vulture fund that bought Delphi, the former GM auto parts division.

read more;  http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/12273-romney-company-shipped-every-single-delphi-uaw-job-to-china

Monday, October 22, 2012

MITT'S 2 FACES

Mitt Romney's religious hypocrisy and lack of moral scruples are most tellingly exemplified by his personal involvement in Bain Capital's work for big tobacco - which included hooking millions of Russians on the drug that is anathema to Mormons.

read more;  http://truth-out.org/news/item/12219-mormon-mitt-in-bed-with-big-tobacco

Saturday, October 20, 2012

SPIRITUAL SCIENCE

When it comes to other beings on planet Earth, scientists must do more than articulate their observations of other organisms as if with objectivity. Elephants and whales, along with other marine mammals, are more than "stocks" of resources, as some governments would have us believe. They are living beings with systems of communications and social relations to whom we are connected. Recognition of such connection puts us in touch with the fact that, in Berry's words, "the universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects."

READ MORE; http://truth-out.org/speakout/item/12199-militaries-mammals-and-spiritual-science

MITT'S BARBARIANS AT THE GATE

Mitt Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout has haunted him on the campaign trail, especially in Rust Belt states like Ohio. There, in September, the Obama campaign launched television ads blasting Romney’s November 2008New York Times op-ed, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” But Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout—and a few of Romney’s most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys’, were astronomical—more than 3,000 percent on their investment.

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/mitt-romney-s-bailout-bonanza-1350741777

MITT CREATES JOBS IN CHINA


Last week, three protesters were arrested for blocking the path of trucks leaving the plant in an effort to stop the removal of equipment from their workplace.

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/six-arrested-illinois-protesting-bain-capital-s-plan-close-plant-move-jobs-china-1350746812

MITT'S HIT MAN

Hubbard is the ideological hit man instrumental in justifying the mortgage derivatives bubble that caused the Great Recession during the George W. Bush years.

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/meet-romney-s-economic-hit-man-1350743782

PRIVATIZING AMERICA

“Ordinarily if I’ve overpaid my local tax, for example by paying too much in the four required estimated tax payments, the township simply applies the overpayment to my next tax year’s estimated payment. Not so this year.”

READ MORE;  http://www.nationofchange.org/privatization-madness-now-private-companies-are-collecting-our-taxes-1350742812

Dog Survives After Being Poisoned and Buried Alive

Dog Survives After Being Poisoned and Buried Alive

DO U WANT A BOSS OR A PRESIDENT?


DO YOU WANT A PRESIDENT THAT BELIEVES IN "COMMUNITY" who has experience in organizing communities and looking out for everyone in our community of Americans. Or DO YOU WANT A PRESIDENT who is best known as a CAPITALIST VULTURE with lot's of experience in manipulating and exploiting people for his own personal gain and the elite few who profit from him? Someone who believes that those who work hard and struggle (who he refers to as the 47%) are freeloaders and losers and none of his concern.
The choice is up to you. 

THE TEA PARTY 10

Take
Down the Tea Party Ten! CREDO Action | more than a network, a movement.


These nut jobs are dangerous, not only to us and this country,  but to themselves and should not be in positions of power.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

NUT JOBS IN CONGRESS


DesJarlais suggested abortion to mistress

Woman a patient of congressman


MITT CAN'T COUNT

Describing the deficiencies of the Republican program, a famous man once said, “it‘s arithmetic” — and as usual, the Romney campaign can‘t seem to add or subtract without cheating.

READ MORE; http://www.nationofchange.org/bad-arithmetic-top-romney-economist-admits-jobs-plan-numbers-don-t-compute-1350567409

MITT"S 1%

“Estimates show that Wall Street pay is going to be near record highs for 2012, and the biggest banks are back to making pre-recession profits, while most of the rest of the country is still struggling with the effects of the Great Recession.”

read more; http://www.nationofchange.org/former-wall-street-ceo-banker-pay-unbelievably-generous-and-needs-be-cut-1350574904


THE REPUBLICAN LEGACY

This is the result of 8 years of Republican leadership.

People lining up for food has become a common sight in many major U.S. cities.

read more; http://www.nationofchange.org/record-number-seeks-food-aid-us-1350568419

We need a President - NOT - a CEO

Tonight our president was articulate and forceful — in sharp contrast to his performance in the first presidential debate. He stated his beliefs. He defended his record. He told America where he wanted to take the nation in his second term. 

read more; http://www.nationofchange.org/obama-back-1350567861

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

James Lipton nails the essence of Romney

James Lipton nails the essence of Romney

Do we want a President or a Boss?

James Lipton (the Actor's Studio head) has finally figured out who Romney is. Watching the debate last night. Romney is "that boss." The boss who tells lame jokes and waits for everyone to laugh, and they better. The one who keeps you on edge all the time. The CEO. 

So, James Lipton surmises that the people have a clear choice. They either want a President, or they want a Boss. And Romney would have no problem being characterized as a Boss, since that's how he presents himself. 

Me....I want a President. A country is not the same as a business. You don't "fire" elderly sick people in a country, because they are no longer economically viable. Because they don't bring in the profit. No, a country is not the same as a business.

Lewis Black On Lance Armstrong: 'Why Aren't We ALL Doping?'


Lewis Black On Lance Armstrong: 'Why Aren't We ALL Doping?' 


Like many, Lewis Black is quite disappointed to learn that Lance Armstrong likely has been using steroids throughout much of his career. But unlike most, Black is taking a different lesson from this -- namely, that if Armstrong was able to accomplish so much using them, "why aren't we all doping?"
Also, Lewis Black may be the only man in the world who can connect Lance Armstrong's steroid use to "butt chugging" and some dude who got caught having sex with farm animals. Watch the clip above to see Lewis explore if honesty is at an all-time low in our society.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

"Global Noise"


"Global Noise" Protests Against Austerity and Debt Spread Worldwide


A Global Meltdown

The amount of damage being inflicted on countries around the world by bad economic policy is astounding.

read more; http://www.nationofchange.org/wrecking-society-economics-today-1350397134

The Republican Dream

“The lack of regulation in the financial industry allowed hedge fund manager John Paulson to conspire with Goldman Sachs in a plan to create packages of risky subprime mortgages and then short-sell (bet against) the sure-to-fail financial instruments.”

read more;  http://www.nationofchange.org/five-ways-deregulation-ripping-america-apart-1350308251

Sunday, October 14, 2012

look out for the vultures


The “unseen drone” is more than a missile but a metaphor for widespread predation, decimating innocent civilians along with shadowy combatants.

The American Nightmare

“What we are currently witnessing looks worryingly like the end of the American Dream for most of us and, in a real sense, the last act in the America Revolution.”

read more; http://www.nationofchange.org/who-hijacked-world-s-greatest-economy-1350221836

Friday, October 12, 2012

Inequality Report Card:


We evaluate how well members of congress do in supporting legislation and measures to narrow America's widening economic divide.


WHAT WOULD JESUS SAY?

The neoliberal utopianism that caused the financial crisis has been repackaged for the 2012 election, where it masks a giant swindle that transfers wealth from low- and middle-income citizens to bankers, defense contractors, real estate speculators and the wealthiest 1%.

READ MORE; http://truth-out.org/news/item/12044-blind-faith-as-profit-engine-how-free-market-worshipers-use-christian-utopianism-to-bilk-the-middle-class

REPORT CARDS ARE IN

How do your representatives stack up when it comes to voting on policy that helps - or hinders - economic equality? Before you go to the polls, check out the Congressional Report Card for the 99%

read more; http://truth-out.org/news/item/12067-lawmakers-get-graded-on-equality-record

MITT LIKES TO LIE

Mitt Romney gave a rousing speech about how his foreign policy would be much more muscular than President Obama’s. But Romney displayed again his proclivity to lie on specifics and distort the broader reality

read more; http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12080-mitt-romney-lies-to-the-world

Cannonball Joe

Vice President Joseph Biden of Delaware dropped the hammer on Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan on Thursday, and it was a powerful thing to see.

read more; http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12075-big-joe-and-the-joyful-noise

Ryan's "zero" score in TheMiddleClass.org 2012 Voter Guide,

That opposition is reflected in Ryan's "zero" score in TheMiddleClass.org 2012 Voter Guide, released earlier this month. That voter guide looks at 10 votes during the 112th Congress that are symbolic of the kitchen-table concerns of middle-class and low-income families. Ryan is among 181 members of the House who received a score of zero, but of course Ryan stands out not only because he is the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate but because he is the intellectual leader of that band of 181 members who never sided with the middle class on a significant vote during this congressional session.

read more; http://www.nationofchange.org/why-paul-ryan-zero-middle-class-1350051124

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Killing the kids that don’t need to die. Let those words sink in

“After eleven years, more than four hundred billion dollars spent and two thousand Americans dead, this is what we’ve built: a deeply dysfunctional, predatory Afghan state that seems incapable of standing on its own — even when we’re there.”

read more;  http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12022-bill-moyers-killing-the-kids-that-dont-need-to-die

Why the Obscenely Wealthy Whine

Romney's 47% comments are exactly what wealthy conservatives think: that they are the true victims.

read more;  http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12026-why-the-obscenely-wealthy-whine-when-they-have-it-so-good

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Romney's "47 Percent" Blunder

Obama may have failed to nail him for calling nearly half the nation parasites, and Romney may have beat a hasty retreat from the beans he spilled in a private moment among rich friends, but Americans should heed the core truth it revealed.  

read more; http://truth-out.org/news/item/12012-romneys-47-percent-blunder-reveals-the-hidden-heart-of-his-agenda

It's not easy to debate a liar

It's not easy to debate a liar,” complained an email from one observer of the first presidential debate — and there was no question about which candidate he meant. Prevarication, falsification, fabrication are all familiar tactics that have been employed by Mitt Romney without much consequence to him ever since he entered public life, thanks to the inviolable taboo in the mainstream media against calling out a liar (unless, of course, he lies about sex).

read more:  http://www.nationofchange.org/highly-debatable-big-liar-s-biggest-lies-1349788797

Monday, October 8, 2012

#1 in GREED!

Author Howard Steven Friedman compared the US with 13 competing countries on health, education, infant mortality, life expectancy and other critical social and economic indicators. He found only one in which America excels: producing billionaires.

read more;  http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11924-the-measure-of-a-nation-challenges-illusions-of-american-superiority