New Deal raised the top tax rates on income over $200,000 — about $2.5 million in today’s collars — to over 90 percent. current tax rate on oversized incomes sits at 35 percent, and the debate this summer in Congress will only consider whether or not we should let that 35 percent revert back to the 39.6 percent level in effect pre-George W. Bush.  The ultimate winners will be the wealthy.

"Coalition launches drive to fight Social Security cuts."  The irony is having to even launch this coalition or post the top five Social Security myths with a Democratic president and Democratic majority on Capitol Hill.  However, these mostly DINO Dems are an integral part of the problem.

Killing our oceans....."Microscopic marine algae which form the basis of the ocean food chain are dying at a terrifying rate, scientists said today."

You can fool some of the people some of the time....."Wetlands front groups funded by big oil uses celebrities (willing or duped?) "to spread the message that U.S. taxpayers should pay for the damage caused by BP to Gulf Coast wetlands, and that the reckless offshore oil industry should continue drilling for the "wholesale sustainability" of the region."

"Sean Smith's brutal, uncompromising film from the Helmand frontline shows the horrific chaos of a stalemate that is taking its toll in blood."

Secret spy agency known as the Pond, created by U.S. military intelligence as a counterweight to the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, it functioned as a semiautonomous agency for the State Department after World War II and ended its days as a contractor for the CIA with links to J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.....it became discredited because its pugnacious leader was too cozy with Sen. Joseph McCarthy and other radical anti-communists.

        

Insider trading by Moody's CEO....perish the thought even though timing of stock sales smells; Wall Street is only filled with Boy Scouts.

Warnings by progressive economists about unemployment crisis and deflation growing louder since the creation of Obama's anti-Social Security deficit commission, are now being echoed by some Fed members.

UN declares water and sanitation a basic human right.

Senate drilling accountability bill, like most Capitol Hill legislation falls short since it does not regulate hydraulic fracturing which poisons groundwater, a human rights violation.

Good for her.....Sherrod to sue Breitbart.

Michigan pipeline oil spill adds more woes to an already polluted river; it was also another episode in a series of oil spills by the pipeline company in other locations.

Temperatures in the first half of 2010 have been the hottest ever; "scientists have also released what they described as the "best evidence yet" of rising long-term temperatures".....global warming as a reality.

Federal judge blocks key provisions of Arizona's infamous immigration law.

Obama administration more like the Bushites....pushing for warrantless access to Internet records;  it's a hypocritical change for the worse from this administration as Obama's "embrace of the prior administration's policies has transformed Bush/Cheney radicalism into the "new normal."

        

The flawed and weak Senate bill, like most of the Senate's pathetic legislative efforts, deserved to be buried.

Time to go back to the drawing boards on a climate change bill, and this time to heed the following warnings.

I wrote this in FYII recently: "Greed and cowardice killed action on climate change; however, "if anything is deserving of blame, it is the cap and trade strategy itself."

Now EPA employees are raising their voices about the flawed climate bills in Congress.<< MORE >>

Nothing we didn't know, but it bears repeating: BP's oil spill economic damage could take years to identify, in addition, scientific uncertainties remain, like the effect on marine life, etc.....the question is, given BP's terrible track record of causing death and destruction, will the US hold the company's feet to the fire for accountability and true payment of damages during those years.

US needs to keep its distance and allow South American diplomacy to resolve the Columbia-Venezuela dispute.

Wikileaks war logs bear relentless and devastating witness to the ignorance of history, the folly and incompetence of US presence in Afghanistan.

Hoyer and Clyburn should retire or be stripped of their leadership positions.....no Dem worth her/his salt would mimic John Boehner, like these two.

Fallen soldiers' beneficiaries being defrauded by insurance companies "by inducing the policyholder’s beneficiary to let the life insurance company retain assets they’re not entitled to. It’s turning death claims into a profit center.”

The bizarre, waning imperial power, US mind set of making war in Afghanistan....surpasses Orwell.

War funding and Congress.... this latest passage of deficit war spending while ignoring the unemployment and economic crises at home illustrates the disconnect between Washington and regular Americans regarding Afghanistan.

        

Since the Reagan era and the GOP war against unions and working people, progressives have been warning about the US becoming a nation of fast food chains and financial industry fraudsters....that the US wasn't making things anymore.

That day arrived and with the addition of an economic meltdown caused by greedy Wall Street and jobs offshoring corporations, perpetrators bailed out by the Bush and Obama administrations at the expense of regular Main Street Americans, created increased economic injustice and massive unemployment for those on Main Street. << MORE >>

Arlington National Cemetery scandal of thousands of improperly marked graves involves $5.5 million spent on failed effort to computerize records and possible "contract mismanagement." 

21st century reality: "returning  to a 'real economy' [in the US]—one  in which we make things, rather than move around complex financial products..."

Trial of military contractor for massive fraud whose sole-source body armor company was an example, even back in 2004, of contracts awarded to contractors unequipped to fulfill their requirements for reasons that too often smack of political connections during the Bush era.

How Europe builds better products for better lives; social democracies like Sweden, Germany, and France, have more industry than the US or UK that smashed their industrial base by wrecking unions.

And while the Pentagon keeps shoveling taxpayers' dollars and borrowed monies into defense contractors' sinkholes, because of lack of or ineffective oversight and accountability, the US military cannot properly account for 96% of the billions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction money.

White House excuse that it is was unable to reach Shirley Sherrod was lame and unworthy.

The Wikileaks Afghan Files: "will make it still harder in future for the US and British governments to explain why they are fighting to preserve an Afghan government so rotten with corruption and brutally uncaring towards its own people"

"Just because Obama has gotten comfy with the idea of endless funds [i.e. supplementals] for war doesn't mean that Congress and the rest of us need to mirror that inertia."

        

Sometimes, we all need a few minutes of distraction, especially in this economic climate.

This should bring a smile to your face.    Enjoy.

        

As we head towards August, the unemployment news continues to be terrible with no 21st New Deal jobs programs on the horizon.

And the Obama administration proves to be the antithesis of the FDR New Deal and continues to confirm that it is DINO through and through.

It's disappointing and depressing, especially with the following facts Danny Schecter includes in a recent article at Consortium News:<< MORE >>

The Wikileaks Afghanistan war logs provide a devastating portrait of that failing war; the documents shed light on that which has been hidden from the public eye; a bleaker picture than that painted by the government both under Bush and Obama; meanwhile the documents suggest Pakistan military spy service aids Afghan insurgents.

And the founder of Wilileaks "rebuts White House criticism."

War logs show "targeted killings" by US "commandos" are often unsuccessful and sometimes result in the killing of friendly forces and civilians; and "are increasingly being used far from any battle zone".

Greed and cowardice killed action on climate change; however, "if anything is deserving of blame, it is the cap and trade strategy itself."

15 hour DC power outage wouldn't have happened if government gave people work. but the power failure confirms the failure of power.

Red flags popping up in relationship between teachers and the Obama administration.

Tony Hayward's departure won't change much at BP; it's policy of secrecy and disinformation still reigns.

        

The Democrats in Washington need to be doing more, and more, and more of this. They're supposed to uphold Democratic Party values: the common good and general welfare of all, government of, by, and for all not just the few.

From the Washington Post: "President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress are setting the stage for a high-stakes battle over taxes in the final weeks before the November congressional elections, betting that their plan to eliminate tax breaks for the wealthy will resonate with voters who have lost houses and jobs to what many see as an era of Wall Street greed.

"Democrats, facing the potential loss of their majorities on Capitol Hill, believe that the strategy will both force Republicans to defend tax breaks for a tiny, wealthy minority and expose GOP hypocrisy on budget deficits. << MORE >>

There's a reason BP was dubbed "Blair's Petroleum"; Blair involved in trading Lockerbie terrorist for Libyan oil.

The wimpy Obama administration's obeisance to and fear of the punditocracy, especially of the right wing, only confirms that it is an administration filled with Washington insiders averse to any change.

GOP revisionist Bush history or polishing a turd.

The illogical, crazy yet powerfully influential corporate front groups in Washington are listened to by an illogical, tone deaf to the common good DINO administration.

"Unemployment extension won't help the ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Pentagon officials and contractors with high security clearances involved in child porn scandal, some of whom used government computers to obtain the illegal materials.

With "Democrats" like this......

Obama and the killed climate bill.

        

In case you haven't noticed, I very rarely post anything that comes from Politico. That is because the stupidity and unsound journalistic practices of Politico, which is unquestionably a biased source of news, can be traced to those who fund and run it....right wing, scandal ridden Reaganite Repugs and their flunkies.

As Glenn Greenwald wrote in 2007: "In the middle of an article by The Politico's Mike Allen regarding last night's GOP presidential debate, one finds this paragraph: << MORE >>

State Department to field corporate contractor mercenaries in Iraq.

"The major bills before Congress to regulate greenhouse gases to combat global climate change suffer from "multiple unfixable flaws" that undermine their effectiveness...."

"Obama to women: 'I am not your friend.' "

"Reputation assassination": Fixed Noise spewing 24 hours of feces, along with other right wing scum like Andrew Breitbart, that punked this wimpy administration. and the o-the-traditional-media-have-integrity-and-honor">lack of integrity of the rest of the lemming like media.

"Another audacious whitewash at the DOJ"

The realities of heroism and military service...."as our media and our culture seek to elevate our troops into the pantheon of demi-gods....simply want to survive and come home with their bodies, their minds, and their buddies intact..."

"The Tea Party is a protofascist movement."

BP and Transocean witnesses decline to appear at hearing;  interesting timing...just when NYT published story about workers voicing concerns about safety at Deepwater Horizon and feared reprisals. 

 Meanwhile, the revolving door is set at high speed:  three out of every four oil and gas lobbyists worked for the federal government.

"Seize BP"...."Obama could have demanded seizure of BP’s assets, but he didn’t. He could have dispatched Department of Justice lawyers to charge into court to collect the tens of billions of dollars of fines and penalties already accrued to date under the Clean Water Act and other legislation, but he opted not. The U.S. Congress could have, by now, enacted legislation lifting BP’s immunity for economic damages under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, but they have merely fiddled about."

Frugal minded consumers charging less on credit cards should beware: issuers punishing them by increasing non-penalty fees.

        

We have an unemployment crisis of massive proportions with tragic consequences. The people of the United States desperately need a 21st century New Deal. But instead of Democrats fighting to put people to work, we have spineless DINOs acting like Republicans and/or in cahoots with the GOP. << MORE >>

Gutless Washington Democrats scared of the prevaricating, right wing media...first time it was ACORN, this time a USDA employee. What a bunch of sniveling cowards.

Even though warned that the Massachusetts health care plan was a failure, Obama and crew used it as a model for its Rube Goldberg "reform" which will also turn out to be a failure as the private for profit health insurers will make out like bandits at the expense of regular people. 

Dem leadership forcing Dems on Capitol Hill to vote for Obama's Rube Goldberg health care bill may cost some swing district Dems their seats this November.

As President Obama signs a loopholed filled financial "reform" bill that polishes a turd and does nothing to stop Wall Street casino business as usual, much of what needed to be done will be conveniently forgotten in deference to Washington's financial industry controllers.

Washington at its best...Republican senators who share the blame for an economic collapse, drawing healthy salaries and generous health care and pension benefits, telling the unemployed workers who were victims of their incompetence, that they can't get $300 a week in benefits....."  These Senate Repugs "continue to file a bunch of motions that could delay the vote on extending unemployment benefits for as long as another day."

".....any serious discussion about immigration must address the reasons why people are obliged to emigrate," such as misguided US economic policies like NAFTA.

News outlets close to suing Obama administration over Gitmo rules, some Kafkaesque.....not much has changed under the new administration.

        

Those conservative Republicans continue to beat the drum about high taxes and the need to continue tax cuts for the rich. Well, as usual, when these GOP right wing nuts move their mouths, they're lying.

David Cay Johnston writes at Tax.com: "The incomes of the top 400 American households soared to a new record high in dollars and as a share of all income in 2007, while the income tax rates they paid fell to a record low, newly disclosed tax data show.

"Since 1992, the bottom 90 percent of Americans have seen their incomes rise by 13 percent in 2009 dollars, compared with an increase of 399 percent for the top 400.<< MORE >>

A word to those GOP hypocrites still blocking unemployment benefits for millions of people...

GOP estate tax lies continue as Republicans keep taxes low for the very rich.

"The economy desperately needs action on job creation.....assuming the trend rate of growth in the labor force, the unemployment rate will not fall back to the pre-recession level until April 2021."

BP has poisoned the Gulf's food chain   

"U.S. workers have been forced to bear the brunt of the current economic crisis, though they had no part in causing it."

How DINOs like Dodd and Geithner keep corruption alive and well in Washington.

Bushite hypocrites keep rolling along spreading their lies.

        

The privatization of government is almost complete, especially when it comes to national security.

Frighteningly, it operates without accountability to we the people,

And it should cause the utmost concern among this country's citizens.<< MORE >>

For many older Americans, their golden years won't be: the retirement years.

The US government has become a secret, surveillance state hiding behind the cloak of national security.

"Obama isn’t a socialist. Not even close....But we’d be a lot better of in this country if he were."

Pesky facts bothering some media types that emerge in Oliver Stone's new film documentary, "South of the Border," such as "the American government and media have both been kind to dictators who allowed the United States to get cheap deals on resources in their country at the expense of the natives there."

The people speak and don't follow the right wing, corporate funded script.

Why the surprise that the political class doesn't listen to ordinary citizens.

        

This is not your grandparents' Democratic Party. It is certainly not the 21st century New Deal. This current "Democratic" Party led by Obama and the so called leadership on Capitol Hill is not just a shadow of its former self, but more a shadow of the GOP rather than the populist, common good people's party it was formerly known for and proud of.<< MORE >>

Social and economic justice principles means no sweatshop at this garment factory.

Since Obama's policy to help homeowners relies on the flow of money from taxpayers to banks – and unsurprisingly, it isn't working, maybe we should just end the discussion and make the banks work for their money instead of relying on taxpayer handouts.

The myth of retraining in the 21st century and this economy: still unemployed

"US leadership is clearly divided on the merits of staying in Afghanistan, but cannot work out how to withdraw without too great a loss of face....Dressing up a withdrawal as some sort of success will be far more difficult" than in Iraq.

Right wing Netanyahu said US was easy to manipulate and discussed how to undermine the Oslo Accords.

Obama & failed with Chicago charter schools Arnie Duncan's worse that Bush education fiasco....WH suggest cutting food stamps to pay for it, which is absolutely unconscionable and/or states and localities must fire administrators and teachers to qualify for funds which is stupid.

After Bush's illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, the pull-out of US combat troops leaves behind a country that is a barely floating, dysfunctional wreck,  with no US objectives achieved.

Despite seepage, unexplained by Cmdr. Thad Allen, government allows BP to test, and keep Gulf well shut.

It bears repeating that Obama's selection and retention of the Wall Street protector, Tim Geithner, says a lot about Obama, none of it flattering.

        

Tim Geithner, Wall Street's pal, opposes Elizabeth Warren to head new consumer protection agency.

Hold off on applauding BP's well cap...a lot could go wrong and BPs lies and greed haven't suddenly evaporated,no matter how much the government acquiesces to BP.

"The solution to our fiscal situation is: end the wars, allow the tax cuts to expire and restore robust growth. Our long-term structural deficits will require us to control healthcare inflation the way countries with single-payer systems do.....Conservatives and their neoliberal allies don't really care about deficits; they care about austerity—about gutting the welfare state and redistributing wealth upward.

The "staggering gap" between CEO and workers' pay has resulted in workplaces that are "nasty, brutish and short."

"Self-pitying sociopaths": Jay Bybee, Bushite torture authorizer, and Tony Hayward, BP, environmental killer.

Photographic evidence, objective polling, public statements by leaders, "show that a majority — not some tiny minority — of Teabaggers have serious issues with race."

As Greenspan calls for Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire, those he helped create, don't forget the terrible things Alan Greenspan did.

        

No reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, but Congress and Obama will make much ado about a financial reform bill that substantively changes very little on Wall Street.

They've succeeded in protecting their financial industry controllers at the expense of Main Street. Casino business as usual on Wall Street....defrauding and robbing the American people.

Robert Reich comments: "Thursday the President pronounced that “because of this [financial reform] bill the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes.”<< MORE >>

"A severe shortage of jobs...job seekers face intolerable odds."

The Obama administration loves the revolving door politics that it scorned during his campaign: it almost employs more Goldman Sachs officials in financial and regulatory positions than Goldman Sachs itself does.  One of the first acts of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was to hire a BP executive to serve as a deputy administrator for land and minerals management.

"Austerity: Why and For Whom?  A capitalist system that generates so massive a crisis, spreads it globally, and then proposes mass austerity to "overcome" it has lost the right to continue unchallenged."

"When will greedy, corrupt BP plug the damn hole?"  Too busy recovering from its intense, successful lobbying/bribing for UK government release of the Lockerbie bomber to protect a $900 million offshore oil-and-gas exploration deal off Libya’s Mediterranean coast.

Democrats have failed to govern, instead, they've wallowed in filibuster fantasies.

Watered down financial "reform" bill passes without any reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. 

"....common-sense immigration reform could 'raise the floor' for the whole workforce, provided that it is supported with rigorous labor standards and protections for all."

Wal-Mart isn't the answer: "solution to food security in America must come through a revitalized food economy...."

        

Anyone who doubts that the Democratic base has been scammed by Obama and his administration, anyone who doubts that he is a corporatist, anyone who doubts that he is a DINO surrounding himself with other corrupt DINOs read on:

The Obama administration has hired former Wellpoint executive who helped draft the Orwellian Rube Goldberg "health care bill" that will give billions to the profit making private health insurance insurance crooks taking it from the pockets of struggling, regular Americans.

No wonder US health care continues to miserably fail when compared to most other industrialized nations whose inhabitants are covered by universal, quality health care.<< MORE >>

"U.S. casualties throughout 2010 have been the worst in the war’s history.  U.S. casualty rates have actually increased steadily every year since 2001, a sign of the increasing toll the war is exacting on the American people."

"Wall Street is laundering drug money and getting away with it."

Another corporate caused environmental disaster drilling for natural gas.

David Axelrod, Obama senior advisor, another ignorant DINO hurting the American people

Those whistleblower prosecutions: "government concern over leaks is about avoiding embarrassment and other accountability...revealing what the intelligence analyst quoted by the BBC calls "the unvarnished truth" about the illegal, corrupt, and embarrassing acts it undertakes....exposure of high-level government wrongdoing..."

Tax aversion, tax cuts for the wealthy, kowtowing to privileged elites all have roots in the legacy of slavery."   h/t Dave Johnson "...Citizens at 'the help' "

Phillip Morris exploits migrant tobacco workers and child labor; they are tobacco slaves.

House Minority Whip Eric "the Liar & Hypocrite" Cantor (R-VA) says federal spending doesn't create jobs "at a job fair with companies funded by the stimulus"

Just as NOAA initially stonewalled other scientists evidence of oil plumes, it continues its hoarding of information except for sharing with its apparent controller and minder, BP.  It's obvious that the Obama administration tolerates and apparently encourages the NOAA and the Coast Guard's Thad "I trust Tony Harward" Allen to believe they work for BP, not the American people.  

Another article on wage inequality and the enormous gap between the wealthy few and the rest of us.....but the elected millionaires in Washington and their elite side kicks aren't  listening to the people.... they're planning to screw the people, again.

        

Gee, ain't this country wonderful or what!

From Laura Bassett at Huffington Post:

"When Laurie-Ellen Shumaker, 59, was laid off from her job as a lawyer for a shopping center in January of 2009, she assumed she would be hired again in no time. In addition to her impressive resume, which includes a degree from a top-tier law school and 23 years of legal experience, she has always been actively recruited for positions.<< MORE >>

So, who did Obama pick to replace Orzag at OMB?  A Clintonite, Rubinite, Citigroup hedge fund honcho...and a lawyer.  More oligarchic corporatocracy from this DINO administration.

UK released Lockerbie bomber for BP drilling rights in Libya.

The lies of Simpson and Bowles on the Debt/Cat Food Commission are entirely Obama's fault....it was his decision to create the commission.

BP's oil/dispersants mix causing severe symptoms: muscle spasms, heart palpitations, liver, kidney damage, etc.

Many of the frustrations of scientists under the Bush administration continue under Obama....pitiful.

80% of Americans want government to spend more to create jobs; unfortunately the DINO Obama administration and spineless Dem majority Congress don't give a damn what the majority of people want.

Two failed CEO's, now GOP candidates,  try and hoodwink California voters....but you can fool some of the voters all of the time.

Butt biting GOP operative follows in the footsteps of Segretti, Atwater and Rove.

        

Another chapter in the tale of our DINO president as he enters the realm of NAFTA redux.

Remember Clinton and NAFTA rammed through Congress by Rahm Emanuel? NAFTA caused the loss of 1 million American jobs. It has been so terrible a trade policy that Hillary Clinton and even Emanuel lied about it during her presidential campaign saying she never supported it.

Well, Obama wants to continue that NAFTA trend that he obviously disingenuously campaigned against. Flip-flopper extraordinaire.<< MORE >>

The IMF has a history of inflicting suffering and cruelty on countries it is supposed to help. It created a bloody crisis in Bolivia, and caused havoc in the emerging countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

It almost killed Argentina which, in 2004 blamed the IMF for its decade long crisis that impoverished tens of millions; while even an internal IMF report said that the organization had exacerbated the crisis in that country.

The IMF continues to hurt poor countries....it's MO is horrific. It should be completely ignored. However, like those corrupt, malicious, demented geezers, Alan Greenspan and Henry Kissinger, the IMF is given a podium on the Potomac, the land of the deficit hawks, and it is screeching for Social Security cuts.<< MORE >>

You expect this stupid garbage to come from the mouth of a Republican, but not from a Democratic vice-president!  With so called Democrats like these.......

"The feckless Fed"....question is why did Obama re-appoint Bernanke?

Obama's health care bill neither protects patients nor leads to affordable health care.  This Orwellian Rube Goldberg fiasco holds the people of this country hostage to the profit motive of private insurers.

Social Security did not contribute to the deficit, tax giveaways to the wealthy and corporations and military spending did.
"Get the money from where the money went."

The tragic consequences of torture for US soldiers.

As BP continues killing the Gulf, given their lies, why would anyone believe these corporate thieves and why is the government allowing BP police state carte blanche?   Why shouldn't these execs, like those at Massey Energy and Goldman Sachs face the prospect of jail time to force responsibility?

The sophisticated cephalopod retires with its record intact....."World Cup: Defeat for Van Diver, Van Whiner and Van Thug"

Afghanistan getting worse, not better.  Just as almost 50 years ago the question was why are we in Afghanistan....Why are we in Afghanistan?  Why is our treasure being wasted there when it’s needed here? 

The slimy GOP mantra: extend tax cuts for the rich, but not unemployment benefits for those who actually worked.

        

Poll after poll indicates that the majority of people in the US are concerned about jobs and the economy....not the deficit. However, the tone deaf administration and an almost 50% millionaire Congress composed of obstructionist minority GOP and spineless majority Democrats are deliberately ignoring the majority's concerns to focus on inflicting more suffering on regular Americans while coddling the wealthy few.

Two excellent, brief articles shine a spotlight on this. Here are some excerpts: << MORE >>

Income gap between the wealthy few and the rest of us at an eighty year high.

Tainted federal judiciary: Not only is the Supreme Court controlled by corporations, "oil industry connections and financial conflicts among many, if not most, Fifth and Eleventh Circuit judges..." which is why you get this.

The ruthless rich: the biggest mortgage defaulters are the wealthy.

European authorities---- including the European commission, the European central bank and the IMF----are using the economy to push right wing polity changes.

Petraeus' successor at Centcom.

The Obama administration disease: talking out of both sides of the mouth, e.g. "saying that China manipulates currency, Treasury Dept. declines to say that China manipulates currency.

That this idiot is even a candidate speaks volumes about the GOP; that she could garner any votes from women and workers also speaks volumes...about some members of the electorate.

        

In its ongoing effort to please their corporate controllers and Wall Street masters, the Obama administration reaches new heights of stupidity and deliberate historical ignorance.

From Adam Bink at Open Left: ".....one problem with the White House's handling of BP has been the message that is "we're in charge here, we will stop this" on one day, then "only BP can clean up the spill, they have the technology, we're powerless to stop it, no we're not going to nationalize them". << MORE >>

When Obama selected Rahm Emauel as chief of staff and David Axelrod as senior adviser (Summers and Geithner were icing on the corporatist cake), those warnings about his being a political chameleon DINO were confirmed....Obama's GOP fiscal policy driven by politics.

Big oil says no to union...refuses to negotiate safety bargain despite deadly accidents.

Meanwhile, "Big Oil, the most profitable and richest industry in America, also gets the most taxpayer subsidies-- at least $45 billion a year... right out of our pockets and into theirs."

OECD criticizes Congress for allowing unemployment extension to collapse.

"Washington, which was comfortable with dictators and oligarchs who ran the show for decades, still has problems with democracy in its former 'backyard.' "

Solar powered experimental plane flies for 26 hours

Right wing Washington Post tries to do a number on president of AFL-CIO.

"Ever since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, Israel has been ruled by one of the stupidest and least responsible leaderships in the world.Their failings have been masked by propaganda and by Israel's American insurance policy, but nothing else can explain Israel's record of repeated failure in military and security operations."

"Teacher's unions fed up with Obama"

The incredible stupidity of the corporate controlled media...its hypocrisy, and dominance by right wing conservatives.

On the way to the saving face meeting between Obama and Netanyahu, Israeli bodyguards' guns go missing en route to Washington, end up in Los Angeles.  Despite the luggage snafu, Netanyahu and his right wing cohorts are happy that they're dealing with such a weak president.

NASA experts say World Cup ball deserves the red card its getting from goalies and other players.

WSJ editorial board member calls for raising taxes on the poor to pay for tax cuts to the rich.

        

Last month in one of my blog pieces I highlighted the danger of armed private contractors performing inherently governmental functions.

But it's not just the Pentagon that relies on private contractors.....intelligence gathering agencies, like the CIA, depend on private contractors. What does that say about national security when the government depends not on career Civil Service employees, but on profit making corporate contractors, especially when there is a constant revolving door between these contractors and government.

Mike McConnell, Dubya's Director of National Intelligence, was the personification of the dangers of the privatization of intelligence. << MORE >>

DOJ sues Arizona over its anti-immigrant law.

"The country can’t afford having more incompetents in positions of responsibility. It’s time to shut down the deficit commission and save the taxpayers a few dollars."  But this also speaks volumes about President Obama who created the commission and put these incompetents there.

Harry Reid and the rest of his Seante "leadership" team are DINOs to the core, kowtowing to their corporate masters.

Good riddance: McChrystal's lackluster probe of SOF killing of Afghans as hypocritical and full of holes as his Tillman prevarication.

Child poverty, which shouldn't even exist in the US in the 21st century, has increased.

"Jewish settlers, who claim a divine right to the whole of Israel, now control more than 42 per cent of the occupied West Bank..."
while " domestic constraints on any American political or military leader constraining or even criticising Israel."

Hypocrisy: Secret docs affirm US-Israel nuclear partnership "despite the fact that Israel is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."

        

Working class, middle class are terms currently tossed about interchangeably, but these days also could be called the have less and have not's.

Meanwhile, there are the super rich described to perfection by Sam Pizzigati as "These "ultra-high-net worth" households make up less than 1 percent of the global millionaire total, yet in 2009 and 2008 they held more than a third of combined global millionaire wealth. In other words, the global financial crash that mega-millionaire speculation triggered has ended up concentrating even more wealth in mega millionaire pockets."

Then there is the Wall Street looting class who also belong in the ultra rich category above.<< MORE >>

The Republican Party is the party of unemployment.

"....diplomatic fallout from Israel's flotilla attack grows."

The super rich are splurging again as the rest of us struggle in the Great Recession.

"None of us can thrive in a nation divided between a small number of people receiving an ever larger share of the nation's income and wealth, and everyone else receiving a declining share."

DINOs in White House turn hard right.

As BP continue to lie about its clean-up efforts, It seems that the American people are now facing a BP/government police state

Meanwhile, BP, in addition to causing the Gulf oil disaster, continues to ignore safety at its Texas City refinery that killed 15 people in 2005.

Why all the teacher bashing?

Wall Street and money-laundering.

        

In a piece at In These Times Working titled "Obama in the Heartland: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly" Roger Bybee writes about the elements of President Obama's recent visit to Racine, Wisconsin.

The good---Obama's creating a bond of trust with the crowd, for example--- to the bad: his evasiveness and weaseling on trade, not challenging any aspect of globalization, and the very ugly, which is an eye-opener and unconscienable: bailout money used to move jobs out of the US.<< MORE >>

Whenever it is pointed out that there is definitely income inequality in this country, Republicans, the party of keep working people unemployed, and some of their DINO parrots (mainly millionaires) in their usual kneejerk prevaricating reaction scream class warfare.

However, the facts speak for themselves, and the economic injustice of income inequality has become a destructive reality. Income inequality is usually a harbinger of economic catastrophes.<< MORE >>

And topping off this Fourth of July are the following:

From Noah at Down With Tyranny:

"The phrase used to be "truth, justice, and the American way"; not anymore. Now, these days, I walk around muttering, fuming, and seething in anger and frustration. I guess it's just my sense of justice and the concepts of right and wrong that are so alien to corporate thugs, bankster scum, and their politician and media "frontmen." Today, I feel that the late, great George Carlin speaks for me when virtually no one in the cesspool of Washington will. May they all slowly turn on a spit in Hell for eternity."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q  George Carlin: The American Dream

And from Peter Rothberg, Act Now at The Nation, his picks for the Top Twelve Most Patriotic Songs Ever.....with accompanying videos.

        

What's to celebrate this July 4th, the first in the second decade of the 21st century?

This?   (From McClatchy Newspapers): "As an unprecedented amount of oil fouls the Gulf of Mexico, research scientists and ocean experts say the Obama administration's efforts to discover the magnitude of the damage are surprisingly uncoordinated.

"Despite a spill that may already total more than 150 million gallons of oil, however, neither federal officials nor BP has mounted a speedy, focused inquiry to understand its impact.

"That so much about the spill remains unknown is "kind of mind-boggling," said Frank Muller-Karger, a professor of biological oceanography at the University of South Florida. He said that one of the biggest problems he sees is the lack of a "war-room-type scenario" to coordinate all the research."

Or this: (From Down With Tyranny}: "....Obama's austerity commission, stacked (by him) with men and women fully committed to keeping taxes on the rich unfairly low, will give a lame duck Congress the opportunity to do what the ruling elite never accomplished with Bush-- the destruction of the program that has made FDR #1 forever: Social Security.

"Yes, Obama inherited a horrible economic mess-- among other things-- from Bush and from almost 3 decades of conservative rule. It looks like people who voted for that Hope and Change thing are seeing little or either in his first year and a half in office-- nor many impulses in those directions. He seems as reliable a handmaiden of the ruling elite or Military Industrial Complex as the Bushes, Clinton, Reagan, etc. He didn't seem to have the instinct to really go in for the kinds of systemic changes needed to save the economy or even prevent a double-dip recession (or worse),,,,"

Definitely none of the above.

But it is this: (From Jim Hightower)

"Are you an agitator? You know, one of those people who won't leave well enough alone, who's always questioning authority and trying to stir things up.

"If so, the Powers That Be detest you — you ... you ... "agitator!" They spit the term out as a pejorative to brand anyone who dares to challenge the established order. "Oh," they scoff, "our people didn't mind living next to that toxic waste dump until those environmental got them upset." Corporate chieftains routinely wail that "our workers were perfectly happy until those union agitators started messing with their minds." agitators

"Were it not for agitators, we wouldn't even have an America. The Fourth of July would be just another hot day, we'd be singing "God Save the Queen," and our government officials would be wearing white-powdered wigs.

"America's great rebellion didn't end with the British surrender at Yorktown.

"It was only getting started — and the rebellion has moved through such great forces of agitation as the abolitionists and suffragists, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, the Populists and the Wobblies, Fighting Bob La Follette and Huey Long, the Square Deal and New Deal, Mother Jones and Woodie Guthrie, Rachel Carson and Ralph Nader, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez — and on into today's continuing fight for economic fairness, social justice and equal opportunity for all.

"Without agitators battling in politics, on the job, in the marketplace, for the environment, on Wall Street, in education, for civil liberties and rights, and all across our society, democratic progress doesn't just stall, it falls back.

"The Powers That Be — especially America's overarching corporate and political forces (often the same) — give lip service to democracy, but tend toward plutocracy, autocracy and kleptocracy. They prefer (and often demand) that We the People be passive consumers of their economic and political policies. Don't rock the boat, stay in your place, go along to get along — be quiet, they urge.

"Be quiet? Holy Thomas Paine! How could freedom-loving, democratic citizens shrink into quietude, especially when the Powers That Be feel so entitled to run roughshod over us? Even a dead fish can go with the flow. We've got to be livelier than that.

"July Fourth is a time to enjoy fireworks, flags, hotdogs, ballgames and such — but it's also a time to remember who we are: agitators!"

        

On this July 4th, the majority of us who are the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of immigrants know that bigotry against immigrants continues to exist...look at Arizona.  That must change.  We need comprehensive immigration reform which the GOP continues to obstruct; it is a civil right crisis due to federal inaction on immigration reform; as the president of the AFL-CIO said: "I hear from working people who should know better that immigrants are taking our jobs, ruining our country. When I hear that kind of talk, I want to say, did an immigrant move your plant overseas? Or take away your pension? Or cut your health care? Did an immigrant crash the financial system? Did immigrant workers write the trade laws that have destroyed so many jobs and industries?"

OMG:  26% of Americans don't know who the US declared independence from in 1776.  What has happened to this country?  We are seriously screwed!

And speaking of getting screwed...regular Americans are by their elected officials "groveling the gods of Wall Street....reducing what is often called the "social wage" for working people in every way possible: increasing the retirement age and cutting Social Security benefits, government employment and benefits, funds for public education, defined benefit pensions, and health care expenditures....and of course, extended unemployment benefits as well."

Not too much to celebrate this July 4th as BP has fouled the water, land, and air for generations.

"How the telecoms plan to take over the Internet in four easy steps."

BP scamming; not cleaning the Gulf, not stopping the spill, killing the Gulf with government acquiescence and Cmdr. Thad "I trust Tony Hayward" Allen still the government point man....WTF.  Meanwhile, OSHA seems to have Bushite holdovers like the MMS....saying most oil cleanup workers don't need respirators and dispersants not a big problem.

As if it's a surprise: most Tea Partiers are right wing Republicans. 

With DINOs like Nancy Pelosi, who needs the GOP.  Millionaire Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, handed responsibility for cutting budget to corporate CEOs.... she and Harry Reid are DINO chickensh**s

The cowardice of the mainstream media: afraid to call torture....torture.

        

Obama's "fiscal commission doesn't serve the American people at all....the best place in history (for this commission) would be no place at all."

Myths of austerity or the stupidity of Serious People.

And millionaire Nancy Pelosi, scheming hypocrite, sneaked approval of this Social Security cutting Obama debt commission recommendations into war funding rule. to deflect responsibility from herself when it comes to the floor for a vote during a lame duck session, since without her approval that could never happen.

Kagan confirmation hearings: missing the point with "judicial impartiality."

President's own party losing patience with his misguided war strategies.

Petraeus' smoke and mirrors "surge" success in Iraq follows him to AfPak.

Did you know Goldman Sachs which deserves raw loathing helped cause the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world?

Obama administration defends its assassination program.

Iraq looks to its "super-giant" oil fields, some of the biggest in the world,  to revive political fortune...."Not that money alone will solve all of Iraq's problems. Government administration is dysfunctional and corrupt. Basic needs can often only be acquired by bribery."

        

As we head into the July 4th weekend, some awful news that should put a damper on celebrations.....the economic crisis is not in recovery and jobless rates are still in double digits.

And, for the first time since the 1950's , the government, especially the GOP and their Democratic enablers, have turned their backs on the unemployed, regular Americans struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table.

Tens of millions are jobless (with five applicants for every available job) through no fault of their own but because of corporate greed and fraud, aided and abetted by corporate controlled Washington puppets, federal elected officials.<< MORE >>

GOP House minority leader, John Boehner, says seniors should sacrifice their Social Security to pay for the Afghanistan war.   

Why are these dangerous, banned  Katrina formaldehyde trailers still out there being sold during the Gulf oil crisis?  The sellers should be in the slammer.

"Welcome to the surveillance society".....e.g. "At a California State University, Fresno lecture on veganism, six of the 60 in attendance were undercover officers from the local and campus police."

With all the Wall Streeters in both the Bush and Obama administrations this should be no surprise: the Treasury Department's "point man" on AIG, Don Jester, was a former Goldman Sachs employee who owned stock in the bank even as he was making decisions on the bailout that ultimately channeled billions of taxpayer dollars to Goldman.

This is also no surprise: presidential scholars rate George W. Bush worst president of the modern era and one of the bottom five of all time (another of whom is Franklin Pierce, Bush's mother's ancestor). 

What's wrong with the Democrats?  When Dubya was in office, he got just about everything he asked for.

China and Germany the winners as the US corporate elite offshored and practically killed manufacturing in US with the help of GOP and triangulating Dem administrations.

        

Economic inequality is the reason for the latest depression/recession economic debacle. And that inequality was created by the Reagan administration and reinforced and increased by subsequent Bush administrations and triangulating Democratic administrations.

The greed of the wealthy few haves and have mores, aided and abetted by the GOP and DINO GOP wannabes have served to keep wages stagnant or decreased for regular Americans who have become the have less and have nots.<< MORE >>

The hypocrites on Capitol Hill; heaping misery on the unemployed while these elected freeloaders get a six figure salary, top quality health benefits, retirement, and other perks courtesy of the taxpayers.

"We can't afford war....war budget is killing this country."

One year later, US still fighting to legitimize a repressive Honduran regime, rather than supporting the rights of Hondurans who are fighting for democracy.

The EPA is the MMS of mountain coal removal....supposed to be protecting the public and environment but working for the corporate pillagers.

Another GOP idiot running for US Senate.

Body scanner radiation 20 times greater than previously believed.

BP-law enforcement collusion.....ACLU has put Louisiana law enforcement on notice.

These are not Democrats!  "....the 16 Democrats who disgraced themselves by joining 139 Republicans in voting against unemployed workers...

        

If there is any question that the Democratic leadership and many of their lemming DINO followers continue to be spineless invertebrates, especially those who retain a minority mind set from their 1995-2006 years on Capitol Hill, the diluted, caving to the GOP, ineffective legislation that is coming out of both chambers should put that to rest.

Jim Hightower's description of these DINOs hits the nail on the head. This is how they consistently mishandle legislation and screw regular Americans.

"Should bank robbery be legal, as long as the robbers wear name tags?<< MORE >>