Noam Chomsky on the Shredding of Our Fundamental Rights and the Common Good | Civil Liberties | AlterNet

Noam Chomsky on the Shredding of Our Fundamental Rights and the Common Good | Civil Liberties | AlterNet
"Recent events trace a threatening trajectory, sufficiently so that it may be worthwhile to look ahead a few generations to the millennium anniversary of one of the great events in the establishment of civil and human rights: the issuance of Magna Carta, the charter of English liberties imposed on King John in 1215.

What we do right now, or fail to do, will determine what kind of world will greet that anniversary. It is not an attractive prospect – not least because the Great Charter is being shredded before our eyes. The first scholarly edition of the Magna Carta was published in 1759 by the English jurist William Blackstone, whose work was a source for U.S. constitutional law. It was entitled “The Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest,” following earlier practice. Both charters are highly significant today."

Romney taxing supporters with transparency dodge

Workers ask Mitt Romney to keep Bain from sending their jobs to China

Workers ask Mitt Romney to keep Bain from sending their jobs to China
"Romney's campaign's answer is, of course, that he knows nothing about any of this, because he's retired, blind trust, blah blah blah, others lies and excuses"

Study: Medicare Beneficiaries Receive Higher Quality, More Affordable Care

Study: Medicare Beneficiaries Receive Higher Quality, More Affordable Care: A study from the Commonwealth Fund found that adults receiving health care through Medicare receive higher quality care than those who have insurance through their employers or purchase their own coverage. The report concluded that Medicare beneficiaries are both the most satisfied with their insurance, and also the least likely to have problems paying medical [...]/p

3 Ways The House GOP’s Labor, Health, and Education Funding Bill Hurts The Poor And Disadvantaged

3 Ways The House GOP’s Labor, Health, and Education Funding Bill Hurts The Poor And Disadvantaged:  a Research Associate with the Half in Ten campaign at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Today, the House Republican bill that funds labor, health and education programs for the next fiscal year was considered by an appropriations subcommittee. Unfortunately, like the House Republican budget that it’s based [...]/p

HuffPost: Romney's 2010 tax return disclosure excluded key document on Swiss bank account

HuffPost: Romney's 2010 tax return disclosure excluded key document on Swiss bank account
"Well, there goes another Romney talking point. But I'm sure he'll come up with something brilliant to defend his right to a secret Swiss bank account."

'Mitt Romney's Not A Crook, Right?'

Bush Recalls 'Awesome' Presidency: 'I Was Famous and Powerful'

Bush Recalls 'Awesome' Presidency: 'I Was Famous and Powerful'
"Bush left office in 2009 with a 22 percent approval rate, making him one of history's least-liked presidents,according to CBS News. In all, 73 percent said they did not approve of the way he ran the country for eight years."

Conservatives’ New Legal Attack On Health Care Reform: Opposition To Middle-Class Tax Credits

Conservatives’ New Legal Attack On Health Care Reform: Opposition To Middle-Class Tax Credits: Our guest blogger is Billy Corriher, associate director of research for Legal Progress. Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the health insurance mandate in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), two conservative scholars have come up with another legal argument for attacking health care reform. In a paper released Monday, Jonathan Adler and Michael Cannon [...]/p

Republicans fight bill designed to bring jobs back to the US

Report: The Stimulus Successfully Saved Teaching Jobs

Report: The Stimulus Successfully Saved Teaching Jobs: To hear conservatives tell it, the 2009 Recovery Act (known as the stimulus) was a failure. However, that is not the view of independent analysts, who credit the stimulus with saving or creating millions of jobs. According to a new report from the Center on Education Policy, the stimulus was successful at saving education jobs [...]/p

Consumer Agency Orders Credit Card Company To Refund $140 Million To Customers Due To Deceptive Practices

Consumer Agency Orders Credit Card Company To Refund $140 Million To Customers Due To Deceptive Practices: The first public enforcement action handed down by the newly-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will result in $140 million in consumer refunds from credit card company Capital One, the agency announced in a release Tuesday. Capital One will pay $140 million in refunds to two million customers and an additional $25 million fine to the [...]/p

Your applications go unanswered because 'job creators' aren't really trying to fill job openings

Your applications go unanswered because 'job creators' aren't really trying to fill job openings
"Meanwhile, people who really do need jobs are left hanging, waiting for interviews, waiting to hear about jobs for which they've interviewed, wondering why the jobs that are out there pay so little considering the qualifications required. They're waiting, struggling, hoping to hear. But the owners of the companies are too busy explaining that their homework was eaten by dogs to actually hire anyone."

Survey Finds Large Majorities In GOP Districts Support Reducing Military Spending

Survey Finds Large Majorities In GOP Districts Support Reducing Military Spending: A poll conducted by the Center for Public integrity, the Program for Public Consultation (PPC) and the Stimson Center released back in May found that Americans support cutting military spending but a new analysis of the poll’s results shows that overwhelming majorities in both Republican (74 percent) and Democratic (80 percent) congressional districts support drastically [...]/p

Campaign finance transparency? Not on our watch, Republicans reiterate

Campaign finance transparency? Not on our watch, Republicans reiterate
"Just like democracy. Once upon a time conservatives supported the full disclosure of campaign contributors. Now they oppose it with their might -- and magic, especially when it comes to unlimited cash from corporations."

Walmart Heirs Have As Much Wealth As Bottom 40 Percent Of Americans Combined

Walmart Heirs Have As Much Wealth As Bottom 40 Percent Of Americans Combined: Last year, Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist at the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics, found that as of 2007, the Walton family — heirs to the Walmart fortune — had a net worth equal to that of the bottom 30 percent of Americans. And due to the effects of the Great Recession that ratio [...]/p

Top Romney surrogate calls Obama a socialist stoner who needs to 'learn how to be an American'

Top Romney surrogate calls Obama a socialist stoner who needs to 'learn how to be an American'
"I'll spare you the details of how Obama actually has created more private sector jobs in the last two and a half years than George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush in their 12 combined years (data here) because this really doesn't have anything to do with substance. Instead, it has everything to do with Romneyland doing everything in its power to distract from the Bain and tax return questions swirling around their candidate."

What Everyone Should Know About The DISCLOSE Act Of 2012

What Everyone Should Know About The DISCLOSE Act Of 2012: A day after 43 Senate Republicans unanimously voted to block the DISCLOSE Act from receiving an up-or-down vote, Democrats will try again for cloture at 3pm on Tuesday. The measure, which lawmakers drafted in response to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, “would require independent groups to disclose the names of contributors who give [...]/p

Romney Says He Sympathizes With Struggling Middle Class Workers, But His Policies Would Make Them Worse Off

Romney Says He Sympathizes With Struggling Middle Class Workers, But His Policies Would Make Them Worse Off: Mitt Romney, who has long battled perceptions that his immense wealth renders him out of touch with voters, tried to prove his sympathies with the middle class at a fundraiser in Jackson, Mississippi last night. To an audience that paid $2,500, $10,000 or $50,000 a ticket, Romney pointed out the waitstaff in the room, saying [...]/p

U.S. companies sitting on $5 trillion

Republicans vote to protect billionaires, hide campaign funding

Senate Republicans Filibuster DISCLOSE Act

Senate Republicans Filibuster DISCLOSE Act: Two years after filibustering the DISCLOSE Act of 2010 to death and blocking any disclosure for who is funding the the independent expenditures enabled by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United ruling, Republicans have again blocked transparency. While the 2010 version included other campaign finance reforms, the DISCLOSE Act of 2012 was pared down to [...]/p

How Public Sector Layoffs Killed 750,000 Private Sector Jobs

How Public Sector Layoffs Killed 750,000 Private Sector Jobs: As ThinkProgress has noted time and again, the unemployment rate would be up to a percentage point lower if all levels of government hadn’t engaged in severe austerity, shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs. The last three years have been the worst for public employment on record. As a recent study by the Economic Policy [...]/p

US Drought Disaster Worst In Over 50 Years | Common Dreams

US Drought Disaster Worst In Over 50 Years | Common Dreams
"he 2012 drought disaster is now the largest in over 50 years, and among the ten largest of the past century, according to a new report released by the National Climatic Data Center today.

The current drought actually covers more area than the famous 1936 drought, though other droughts in the Dust Bowl years – particularly the extreme drought of 1934 – still rank higher."

Fox Covers for Romney With Softball Interview on Bain Capital | AlterNet

Fox Covers for Romney With Softball Interview on Bain Capital | AlterNet
"Fox News is helping Mitt Romney cover up discrepancies in his account of when he left Bain Capital by hosting the Republican presidential candidate for a softball interview that completely whitewashed the substance of the growing controversy."

REPORT: Biggest Donor To Romney And GOP Did Business With Chinese Mob

REPORT: Biggest Donor To Romney And GOP Did Business With Chinese Mob: Things are getting awkward for Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who pledged to spend a “limitless” amount of money to get Mitt Romney elected. Adelson’s latest woes stem from business practices surrounding his lucrative casino in Macau, the only Chinese city with legalized gambling. The Macau operation has long been under scrutiny but a new [...]/p

Sheila Bair on Libor and the Challenge of Keeping Banks Honest

CHART: Employers Aren’t Trying Hard To Find New Employees

CHART: Employers Aren’t Trying Hard To Find New Employees: Republicans have repeatedly claimed that unemployed Americans aren’t looking hard enough for work — usually implicating unemployment benefits as a discincentive — but Mike Konczal at Next New Deal just pointed to recent studies suggesting the GOP is laying the accusation on the wrong suspect. It turns out that the amount of effort employers have [...]/p

Conservatives Selectively Edit Obama’s Speech To Claim He Hates Small Businesses

Conservatives Selectively Edit Obama’s Speech To Claim He Hates Small Businesses: Attempting to change the subject from the latest scandal over Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, conservatives have seized on new fodder for the narrative that Obama is secretly out to destroy small businesses. Fox and Friends on Monday morning aired a clip from an Obama campaign speech in Roanoke, Virginia, in which he says, “If [...]/p

Republican Senator Calls Creator Of GOP Anti-Tax Pledge ‘Isolated Politically’

Republican Senator Calls Creator Of GOP Anti-Tax Pledge ‘Isolated Politically’: Last week, former President George H.W. Bush was asked about the anti-tax pledge circulated by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform — a pledge which nearly all Congressional Republicans have signed — and replied, “who the hell is Grover Norquist, anyway?” Today, in the New York Times, another long-time Norquist foe took a similar [...]/p

Papantonio: Repeal Citizens' United To Save Democracy

The Makers vs The Takers?

Chris Hayes On How The Republicans Intend To Prevent Millions From Voting

Chris Hayes On How The Republicans Intend To Prevent Millions From Voting
"he awkward truth is that when a party gets essentially zero support from a sub-demographic of people, it's strategically sensible, though morally bankrupt, to attempt to reduce their participation in voting. Which means it's entirely possible that Romney's fellow Republicans want to make it harder for poor people of color to vote because they're likely to vote for Demcorats rather than because they aren't white.

But as the Voting Rights Act wisely says: the intent doesn't matter. It's the effect. And either way it's wrong."

Romney Suggests Releasing Additional Tax Returns Could Be Politically Damaging

Romney Suggests Releasing Additional Tax Returns Could Be Politically Damaging: Mitt Romney appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning to respond to the growing number of conservatives who are calling on the former Massachusetts governor to release more of his tax returns. At least eight Republicans have urged Romney to publicize the records and put the issue behind him, but the candidate is sticking to [...]/p

PERRspectives: Taxpayers and Patriots

PERRspectives: Taxpayers and Patriots
"when the United States is fighting a war with an all-volunteer military, the very least Americans can do is vote and pay taxes. For those who want to be real patriots, that's a good place to start."

The Battle of Blair Mountain | Common Dreams

The Battle of Blair Mountain | Common Dreams
"All the gains, often paid for with the lives of working men and women, have now been reversed. We are back where we started. We must organize, resist and build movements. We must embrace radical politics and remain perpetually alienated from power or become a subjugated herd. I do not call for an emulation of this violence. But I do call for direct and sustained confrontation with all formal mechanisms of power, including the Democratic Party. The corporate state, for its part, should also remember the lesson from Blair Mountain. There are limits to how far a people can be pushed. And if violence continues to be the preferred mechanism for control, if the state refuses to institute rational economic and political reforms to address the growing misery that corporations inflict on the citizens, it will, as at Blair Mountain, engender a violent response."

How to Get People to Go After Bankers and Financiers and Stop Attacking Public Employees | | AlterNet

How to Get People to Go After Bankers and Financiers and Stop Attacking Public Employees | | AlterNet
"The Supreme Court’s doubling down on Citizens United wasn’t the only decision this session that seemed designed to strengthen the grip of corporate America and the superrich. Another one – Knox versus SEIU Local 1000 – the Service Employees International Union – would diminish the financial power of organized labor by restricting union dues used for political action. The Knox decision is just the latest attack in the ongoing battle against labor. And like the fight in Wisconsin and other states, it focuses on public sector unions – in part because they’re the greatest remaining bastion of labor’s power."

The New Totalitarianism: How American Corporations Have Made America Like the Soviet Union | Visions | AlterNet

The New Totalitarianism: How American Corporations Have Made America Like the Soviet Union | Visions | AlterNet
"The great power struggle of the 20th century was the competition between Soviet-style communism and "free-market" corporatism for domination of the world's resources. In America, it's taken for granted that Soviet communism lost (though China's more capitalist variant seems to be doing well), and the superiority of neo-liberal economics -- as epitomized by the great multinational corporations -- was thus affirmed for all time and eternity.

There's a small problem with this, though. An old bit of wisdom says: choose your enemies carefully, because over time, you will tend to become the very thing you most strongly resist. One of the most striking things about our victorious corporations now is the degree to which they've taken on some of the most noxious and Kafkaesque attributes of the Soviet system"

The Republicans' killer lies on health care

The Republicans' killer lies on health care
"If Mitt Romney and his right-wing allies get their way in Washington, D.C. and in the states, today's horrifying health care statistics will only grow worse in the GOP's future nightmare for America. That's just the sad truth."

The 1% Connection: Mexico and the United States, Crony Capitalism and the Exploitation of Labor Through NAFTA

The 1% Connection: Mexico and the United States, Crony Capitalism and the Exploitation of Labor Through NAFTA
"Free Trade Agreements Mean That There Are No National Boundaries for Corporations, Just People"

Don’t Hate Just One Player, Hate the Game: 26 Corporations Have Dumped ALEC, 21 Still Dating Other ALECs | Common Dreams

Don’t Hate Just One Player, Hate the Game: 26 Corporations Have Dumped ALEC, 21 Still Dating Other ALECs | Common Dreams
"The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) -- described by some observers as a “Trojan Horse” for the corporate agenda in statehouses -- might have been dumped by 26 corporations and four non-profit organizations. That, though, hasn’t stopped 21 of these corporations and two of the non-profits from continuing to promote the corporate agenda via “The Other ALECs"."

Alabama’s GOP Governor Calls On Romney To Release More Tax Returns: ‘Release Everything To The American People’

Alabama’s GOP Governor Calls On Romney To Release More Tax Returns: ‘Release Everything To The American People’: In a series of interviews yesterday, Mitt Romney mainatined he would only release tax returns dating back two years. Romney told CNN, “that’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances.” Robert Bently, the Republican Governor of Alabama, isn’t satisfied. The AP has the story: Pressure was building on Romney from within [...]/p

California Billionaires Want to Stamp Out Democracy, What's Left of It

California Billionaires Want to Stamp Out Democracy, What's Left of It
"Proposition 32 would stop unions from engaging in political activity while letting corporations do as much of it as their little hearts desire."

‘Mitt Romney is unworthy of the role of president of the United States’

Economic Hitmen

Michelle Obama, the Secret Service, and the Cops | The Progressive

Michelle Obama, the Secret Service, and the Cops | The Progressive
"Ever since Barack Obama decided to run for the Presidency the first time, I’ve been worried about his safety. Evidently, I should have been worried about Michelle’s, too."

Republicans filibuster small business bill, block job creation

CA's 'Stop Special Interest Money' Prop 32 Is An Attempt By ... Special Interests To Crush Union's Voices

CA's 'Stop Special Interest Money' Prop 32 Is An Attempt By ... Special Interests To Crush Union's Voices
"It's more than a little ironic that fund managers, bankers and venture capitalists using a fake front group are whining about teachers using ... a fake front group to fight an initiative meant to neuter unions."

Alabama Judge Rebukes Private Correctional Company For Running ‘Debtors Prison’

Alabama Judge Rebukes Private Correctional Company For Running ‘Debtors Prison’: In 2010, four residents of Harpersville, Alabama filed suit against several local officials and private prison company Judicial Corrections Services, alleging that they were illegally imprisoned in the Shelby County jail. The charges were alarming: the four inmates claim low income defendants are routinely denied adequate counsel, are not advised on their constitutional rights and [...]/p

Bain: Romney caught Lying Again & Again & Again...

What's STILL The Matter With Kansas?

Obama campaign: 'Severe Consequences' if Romney Committed Felony with Bain Lies

Obama campaign: 'Severe Consequences' if Romney Committed Felony with Bain Lies
"Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney may be guilty of federal felony if he lied to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) about when he ceded control of Bain Capital"

Rush Limbaugh Thinks the Unemployed Need to Suffer More | Media | AlterNet

Rush Limbaugh Thinks the Unemployed Need to Suffer More | Media | AlterNet
"According to multimillionaire Rush, the unemployed would go back to work if their unemployment benefits weren't so posh. Here's a reality check."

10 Most Outrageously Overpaid CEOs | Economy | AlterNet

10 Most Outrageously Overpaid CEOs | Economy | AlterNet
"In 2010, people cheered when Congress gave shareholders the right to vote on the pay of corporate CEOs. Too bad those nonbinding votes haven't embarrassed the greed out of the chief executives. In fact, CEO pay crept up another 5 percent last year, once again far outstripping wage gains for middle-class workers."

Have i got a scam for you

Romney's latest outsourcing problem

Mitt Romney's Offer of Government of Billionaires, for Billionaires, by Billionaires | Common Dreams

Mitt Romney's Offer of Government of Billionaires, for Billionaires, by Billionaires | Common Dreams
"How else can one explain the allegiance of the Republican party to the profoundly unpopular Ryan tax plan, which would eviscerate Medicare and Medicaid while delivering more tax cuts to the rich? What is the future of a party in a democracy when the powers-that-be can no longer even understand, much less address, the welfare of the vast majority of its citizens?"

I Did Not Have Economic Relations with That Company

I Did Not Have Economic Relations with That Company
"There's something weird about Bain Capital. It seems that the company was going along doing what ordinary private-equity firms do—buying and selling companies, making lots of money—until about 1999 or so, when things took a sinister turn. At that point, terrible things began to happen. The firms they backed went into bankruptcy, costing thousands of people their jobs, while Bain still walked away with millions in management fees. They invested in companies that profited from outsourcing and offshoring."

SEE 2012 CLEARLY: Robert Reich Puts Things In Perspective In Under 3 Minutes

Mitch McConnell takes your tax cut hostage, again

Mitch McConnell takes your tax cut hostage, again
"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is taking on hostage-taking duty for the Republicans this week, and as always, it's in order to protect the rich and powerful from paying their fair share of taxes."

Exposing How Donald Trump Really Made His Fortune: Inheritance from Dad and the Government's Protection Mostly Did the Trick | Economy | AlterNet

Exposing How Donald Trump Really Made His Fortune: Inheritance from Dad and the Government's Protection Mostly Did the Trick | Economy | AlterNet
"This excerpt from "The Self-Made Myth: The Truth About How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed" tells the real story about how Trump got so obscenely rich."

As 'Statute of Limitations' Approaches, Wall Street Crimes of 2008 Go Unpunished | Common Dreams

As 'Statute of Limitations' Approaches, Wall Street Crimes of 2008 Go Unpunished | Common Dreams
"The US Securities and Exchange Commission is quickly running out of time to file charges against financial firms and high-level executives involved in fraud and other crimes leading up to the 2008 financial crisis."

California Governor Signs Homeowners’ Bill Of Rights Into Law

California Governor Signs Homeowners’ Bill Of Rights Into Law: California lawmakers earlier this month passed a series of foreclosure reforms known as the “Homeowners’ Bill of Rights” that are meant to protect borrowers from wrongful foreclosures. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed the legislation into law Wednesday, giving California homeowners “some of the nation’s strongest protections from foreclosure and aggressive bank practices.” Under the law, [...]/p

Kucinich Explains the LIBOR Scandal

Kucinich Explains the LIBOR Scandal
"Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released a video on YouTube explaining the “LIBOR scandal” and why it is important to everyone who participates in the economy. Kucinich explained in easily understandable language what the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is, how it affects world markets, and why the Barclay’s scandal is important."

Republicans create Obamacare repeal money pit, $50 million and counting

Republicans create Obamacare repeal money pit, $50 million and counting
"Republicans flushing more and more taxpayer dollars down the toilet. And that's just on the House side. Senate Minority Leader is promising to gum up the Senate works more in an attempt to get a repeal vote onto the floor in that chamber. They've got to cost us at least as much as the House.These are the people who care so much about the deficit? Right."

Romney's Exit from Bain: Lying Then or Lying Now? | Common Dreams

Romney's Exit from Bain: Lying Then or Lying Now? | Common Dreams
"In other words, Romney lied to the federal government either way. Either to the SEC, or in his more recent financial dislocure forms.  And either one appears to be a felony."

Refusing ACA funding is a zero-sum game

Debunking the Obama tax myth

The Bain Job Losses Mitt Romney Doesn’t Want You To Know About

The Bain Job Losses Mitt Romney Doesn’t Want You To Know About: Today’s report that Mitt Romney remained at the head of Bain Capital for as many as three years longer than his campaign claimed calls into question the Romney’s past defense of Bain Capital’s job-killing business practices. Critics have highlighted a number of businesses that were bought by Bain Capital and then reorganized to maximize profit [...]/p

Mitt Romney sure picked a bad day to call the president a liar

Mitt Romney sure picked a bad day to call the president a liar
"Second, David Corn of Mother Jones reports that in 1998—during which time even Romney admits he was still running Bain—Romney invested millions in a Chinese company whose business model was to help U.S. companies outsource manufacturing. And not only that, Romney used his Bermuda shell corporation to handle a portion of the investment. So he invested in outsourcing ... while using an offshore company domiciled in an international tax haven."