Occupy the Corporation | Would You Blow the Whistle? | EPA

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Thursday 22 December 2011

Richard D. Wolff | Occupy the Corporation
Richard D. Wolff, Truthout: "Imagine a democratic alternative to police evictions of Occupy encampments across America's cities and towns. What if the decision to evict or not had been made by referendum? ... But that never happened in a society where private corporations own parks, lots and other possible Occupy sites. The corporate shareholders and boards of directors of those sites - a tiny minority of the population - could shut down Occupy encampments by invoking property rights."
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USDA Deregulates Two Monsanto Genetically Engineered Seeds
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its decision to deregulate two Monsanto genetically engineered (GE) seed varieties: a corn variety engineered to resist drought conditions and an herbicide-resistant soybean engineered to produce more fatty acids than regular soybeans ... Critics say such efforts could replace traditional and sustainable farming methods with American-style industrial agriculture and prevent African governments from effectively regulating GE crops."
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Would You Blow the Whistle? Many Say Yes, but Perils Abound
Dina Rasor, Truthout: "If you knew your employer was defrauding the public or the government, would you go outside the company to stop the fraud? A new survey by a law firm found that most of us, 78 percent, would do it, 'if it could be done anonymously, without retaliation and result in a monetary award.' The survey also found that one third of us knows about wrongdoing in our workplaces."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: President Obama to Issue a Signing Statement on National Defense Authorization Act, and More
In today's On the News segment: Karl Rove calls on House Republicans to extend the payroll tax cut extension, the US auto industry is making a comeback, science proves the 1 percent are less empathetic and more.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

EPA Caps Toxic Air Pollution From Power Plants After Years of Industry Opposition
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced ... new national standards that will limit the amount of mercury, cyanide, acid gas and other toxics emitted by America's coal- and oil-burning power plants ... The EPA estimates that ... the new standards will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year. The standards will also prevent 130,000 cases of childhood asthma and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis in children each year."
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Democrats Are Still Compromising Away Women's Rights - What's Wrong with the Pro-Choice Movement's Strategy?
Sarah Jaffe, AlterNet: "After the Obama administration's decision to overrule the FDA on the morning-after pill, activists are asking yet again, what went wrong? ... With a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic woman in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services, why are contraceptives and reproductive rights still a bargaining chip to be traded away for mythical swing voters who never seem to materialize?"
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Hearing in Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks Case Ends
Ginger Thompson, The New York Times News Service: "The military hearing against Pfc. Bradley Manning closed on Thursday, with lawyers and onlookers alternately portraying him as a premeditated traitor or an accidental hero with emotional troubles ... The investigating officer is expected to deliver his recommendations on whether to court-martial Private Manning on Jan. 16.... If he is court-martialed on the more serious charges, Mr. Manning could face the death penalty. But prosecutors have said they would seek life in prison instead."
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EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want
Frances Moore Lappe, Nation Books: "Here in the US ... the share of us who say we 'worry' about climate change has dropped in recent years, now to about half, and we seem too bitterly divided as a culture to act ... The real question is whether we each can move ahead creatively with our fear because we believe that, in this pivotal moment, we have it in us to make a planetwide turn toward life."
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Bomb Assaults Throughout Baghdad Kill at Least Sixty-Three
Sahar Issa, McClatchy Newspapers: "Four car bombs, one of them a suicide car bomb, and 11 roadside bombs, shook Baghdad Thursday morning, killing at least 63 and wounding 185 people, adding new tension during a growing national political crisis. The explosions occurred in a variety of locations around the Iraqi capital, some Shiite and others Sunni, giving no clear indication who was behind it. The casualties were believed to be almost entirely civilians."
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That $335 Million Bank of America Settlement: The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly
Richard (R.J.) Eskow, Campaign for America's Future: "The Obama Administration announced a $335 million settlement deal with Bank of America to settle charges of discriminatory lending practices ... The proposed agreement seems designed to do only the bare minimum its framers hoped would be needed to quell public outrage. While it will be sold as bold and decisive, it's not. In fact, this deal perpetuates some of the worst failings of past settlements the government's made with big banks."
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On Complaints Over Iran Nuclear Weapon Claims, Washington Post Ombud Rules for the Plaintiffs
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "Washington Post Ombudsman Patrick Pexton, responding to complaints over a Post headline treating the unproven allegation as a known fact, came down firmly on the side of the complainants ... The Post's exemplary intervention on behalf of honest and accurate journalism comes at an opportune time, because Congress is currently poised to approve two self-destructive measures purportedly justified by the alleged urgency of the threat that Iran could acquire a nuclear weapon."
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Rebecca Solnit | Compassion Is Our New Currency: Notes on 2011's Preoccupied Hearts and Minds
Rebecca Solnit, TomDispatch: "'Compassion is our new currency,' was the message scrawled on a pizza-box lid at Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park ... But what can you buy with compassion? A few days into Occupy Wall Street's surprise success, a call for pizza went out and $2,600 in pizzas came in within an hour, just as earlier this year the occupiers of Wisconsin's state house had been copiously supplied with pizza paid for and dispatched by Egyptian revolutionaries."
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Paul Krugman | Europe's Austerity Measures May Guarantee Recession
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "European leaders earlier this month announced a plan that, on the face of it, was pure nonsense. Faced with a crisis that is mainly about the balance of payments, with fiscal crisis as a secondary consequence, they supposedly committed everyone to severe fiscal austerity, which would guarantee a recession while leaving the real problem unaddressed."
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Thirty Thousand Chinese "Occupy" Highway to Protest Polluting Coal Plants
Stephen Lacey, ThinkProgress: "Tens of thousands of residents in China's southern Guandong Province gathered in the streets yesterday, occupying a highway to demonstrate against the development of a new coal plant near Shantou city. The residents say existing coal plants in the area are fouling local air and water, and are making people sick. Each year, protests spring up to counter the construction of dirty coal plants. But this appears to be the biggest yet."
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BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

Maybe it got to his head when one of the GOP Tea Party caucus members referred to John Boenher as "William Wallace" in the House GOP's "'Braveheart' moment."

That may be heady praise for a political leader, but maybe Boehner should have looked at the unseemly nose dive the career of Mel Gibson - who played William Wallace in "Braveheart" - has taken. Gibson can't even get a gig nowadays in "Springtime for Hitler and Germany."

By preventing a continued tax cut for middle-class Americans, Boehner led the Tea Party caucus on a kamikaze mission that went one hypocrisy too far.

When you have Republicans from Mitch "Moneybags" McConnell to Karl Rove condemning your obstruction of continuing a tax-cut for working-class Americans as of January 1, you've got a problem, Mr. Boehner.

Think of it as "Boehner's Choice."

The Senate GOP had once again cornered the White House on an issue that the president was making headway on: becoming a voice for the middle class. By agreeing to only a two-month extension of the middle-class tax cut - an extension that, thanks to a provision by Senate Republicans, was tied to a thumbs up or thumbs down in February on the XL Keystone Pipeline - Obama was once again put in a no-win situation. Regarding the pipeline decision, he would anger an already disgruntled core base if he approved the project. On the other hand, if he didn't approve it, the GOP would start running ads that the White House was denying tens of thousands of jobs to Americans (not true, but lies matter) and increasing our energy dependence on Arab states (actually, the shale oil would be sold on world markets).

Just as the White House was getting some wind at its back in the polls and getting some of the working class back in its corner, McConnell had gotten Obama in the kind of negotiating corner that the president handles, in general, quite poorly. His normal gear in such time-sensitive situations is reverse.

But along comes Boehner, and Boehner's goals, in this particular skirmish, are a bit different than outmaneuvering President Obama or helping build toward a Republican victory in 2012. When it came to continuing the middle-class tax cut, Boehner has had only one concern: maintaining his speakership in the House.

Ever fearful of a Tea Party coup in his majority caucus - led by his second-in-command, Eric Cantor - Boehner chose to preserve his speakership over the political strategic interests of his party. He gave a Christmas gift to the White House that has allowed Obama to finally sustain an offensive campaign on behalf of the working class that has lasted more than a couple of weeks. On December 22, Obama again urged Boehner to accept the two-month transitional tax cut - knowing that, realistically, there is almost no chance that Congress logistically would be reconvened before the New Year.

Boehner may keep his House speakership for the moment as a result of giving in to the Tea Party extremists, but he may be out of that job as of 2013 due to his Mel Gibson moment. Boehner's interest in preserving his personal power base might just cost the Republicans the House of Representatives in the coming election.

Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

Soldiers Just Back From Iraq Get New Orders: Afghanistan
Read the Article at CNN

Occupy: Why "No Demands" Is the Right Demand
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Republicans Attempt to Remove President Obama From Georgia Ballot
Read the Article at The Georgia Democrat

Payroll Tax Backlash Follows GOP Home to Districts
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo

The Ongoing Republican Plan to Shame the Poor
Read the Article at The Nation

Speaker Cuts Off C-SPAN Cameras When Dems Attempt to Bring Vote on Payroll Tax Cut
Read the Article at ThinkProgress

Do Private Military Contractors Have Impunity to Torture?
Read the Article at Firedoglake

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