Obama Celebrates Press Freedom but Refuses to Let
Yemen Free Journalist

post from Firedoglake on 04 May 2012 11:30:59 AM. © Firedoglake

Abdulelah Haider Shaye, a journalist whose reporting focused on issues of terrorism, has been in a Yemeni jail since 2010.Shaye was picked up, detained and convicted on "terrorism-related" charges by a client regime of the United States because he was[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/8T9QAO9pCLM/

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!

Forget Coca-Cola: Buy This Stock Instead

post from Jutia Group on 04 May 2012 11:30:00 AM. © Jutia Group

Editor's note: The following article was originally published on Mar. 5.

My job as chief investment strategist for Game-Changing Stocks requires me to look for "the next big thing." Sometimes that means I'm looking through obscure government reports to learn about the latest technology … [visit site to read . . . → Read More: Forget Coca-Cola: Buy This Stock Instead

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20120504-forget-coca-cola-buy-this-stock-instead/

Digg this

It's Not "Sex." It's "Rape."

post from The American Prospect on 04 May 2012 11:18:23 AM. © The American Prospect

I know you're shocked, shocked to learn that there are more allegations of sexual assault against our good pal Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a.k.a. DSK. The experts on sex crimes tell us that most men behave well?but very small number are serial offenders, assaulting regularly. The latest allegations, according to The New York Times, come from his involvement in that pimping ring in Lille. According to one of the women prostituted there, DSK wasn't content to just pay for sex; he also had to force her into "certain sexual acts without her consent.?

Gosh, that sure doesn't sound like someone who would force himself on a powerless housekeeper desperate to keep her job, does it?

I have two good friends who, back when they were drug addicts (they're in "the programs" now), were prostituted by their boyfriends, more or less with their consent; drugs were expensive, they couldn't hold down jobs, and their self-respect was already in the toilet. But they've each, separately, mentioned that they were always terrified at the moment of entering a strange hotel room. The fear was that, this time, some man would decide that, just because they were already whores and beyond the social pale, he could do anything he wanted to them, however violent. And who would care? The police weren't exactly their friends. If it's true, I have only admiration for the Belgian woman who is taking the tremendous risk of reporting her experience.

But here's what rankles me about The New York Times article: as I write this, the headline reads, "New Sex Allegations Against Strauss-Kahn."

Sexual assault isn't a "sex allegation." It's a rape allegation. No one cares if DSK is alleged to have had sex. Many, if not most, adult human beings have had sex. What we care about is whether he assaulted someone, sexually or otherwise. If someone is arrested for allegedly breaking into a jewelry store and stealing a Rolex, we don't call it a "shopping allegation." Sex is good. Assault is bad. Very, very bad.

Sometimes accurate language is extremely important. Please, NYT copyeditors, get this right.

Read The Full Article:
http://prospect.org/article/its-not-sex-its-rape

Digg this

Cartnoon

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 04 May 2012 11:14:55 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Two Scent's Worth [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.docudharma.com/diary/29787/cartnoon-by-ek-hornbeck

Digg this

Silly Season in Full Swing... Who Can Hurt Who
More

post from DemConWatch on 04 May 2012 11:10:25 AM. © DemConWatch

Mitt Romney, his son Tagg, and Romney’s chief fundraiser, Spencer Zwick, have extensive financial and political ties to three men who allegedly participated in an $8.5 billion Ponzi scheme. A few months after the Ponzi scheme collapsed, a firm financed by Mitt Romney and run by his son and chief fundraiser partnered with the three men and created a new “wealth management business” as a subsidiary.
In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress, Tagg Romney confirmed their business relationship, but falsely claimed that the men were cleared of any wrongdoing associated with the Ponzi scheme. Tagg Romney told ThinkProgress that his three partners collected about $15,000 from their involvement in the Ponzi scheme. Court documents obtained by ThinkProgress show that the legal proceedings are ongoing and the men made over $1.6 million selling fraudulent CDs to investors. - Think Progress

I'm in no way saying this is a game changer. It's probably one of many things that will come out about unethical business practices by Romney and his spawn. What I do want to point out is what the right is trying to damage Obama with. He dated a white woman!!! GASP!!! Dog whistle racism has never been this blatant.

Meanwhile... in the real world:

Read The Full Article:
http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com/diary/5308/silly-season-in-full-swing-wh
o-can-hurt-who-more

Digg this

COMMON CAUSE/PA CALLS ON STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL
KELLY TO INVESTIGATE ALEC COMPLIANCE WITH STATE TAX AND LOBBYING LAWS

post from Keystone Progress Blog on 04 May 2012 11:02:13 AM. © Keystone Progress Blog

PENNSYLVANIA-On the heels of filing a whistleblower complaint with the IRS charging abuse of federal tax laws, Common Cause/PA today asked Attorney General Linda Kelly to look into the tax status of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Pennsylvania.

ALEC is registered in Pennsylvania with the Bureau of Charitable Organizations, and at the federal level, where it enjoys tax-exempt status under section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. A letter delivered to Attorney General Kelly today charges that ALEC is primarily a lobbying organization and may therefore be in violation of its tax exempt status. Common Cause/PA is calling on the Attorney General to review ALEC?s 990 form and investigate their activities to ensure that they are in compliance with state tax and lobbying laws.

?ALEC is a corporate lobby front group masquerading as a public charity on the taxpayers? dime. Pennsylvanians shouldn?t have to subsidize ALEC?s agenda to limit voting rights, undermine our public schools, spread Stand Your Ground gun laws, and weaken laws protecting our environment. Tax fraud is illegal, which is why Common Cause/PA is calling on the Attorney General to review ALEC?s registration as a charity and whether its lobbying activities in Pennsylvania are being properly disclosed,? said Common Cause/PA Executive Director, Barry Kauffman.

ALEC was also the beneficiary of a $50,000 Pennsylvania tax-payer subsidy to its 2007 convention in Philadelphia. The funds appear to have been used for food at a reception at the Philadelphia Marriott, including $3,600 for crab cakes, $3,000 for cheesecake lollipops, $4,000 for cheesesstakes, and much more. Questions have been raised as to whether Pennsylvania lawmakers ?double-dipped?; taking ALEC scholarships and submitting for reimbursement from the state.

Common Cause/PA?s letter comes just days after the national organization of Common Cause filed a whistleblower complaint with the IRS on the grounds that ALEC is flouting federal tax laws by posing as a tax-exempt charity while spending millions of dollars to lobby for hundreds of bills each year in state legislatures across the country. The complaint was filed on Common Cause?s behalf, pro bono, by the prominent whistleblower law firm Phillips & Cohen LLP, under the Tax Whistleblower Act of 2006.

ALEC is an organization of nearly 2,000 state legislators, including a number of members of the Pennsylvania legislature, and more than 140 corporations including the following based in Pennsylvania ? Crown Cork & Seal; Endo Pharmaceuticals; SAP America, Inc.; and TEVA Pharmaceuticals. Representatives Kate Harper, Sandra Major, Mark Mustio, Harry Readshaw, and Senator John Pippy have indicated that they have dropped their ALEC memberships.

Corporate membership in ALEC ranges from $7,000 to $25,000 which is currently tax deductable under ALEC?s 501 (c) (3) status. ALEC also spends thousands on junkets and conferences to bring corporations and lawmakers together to propose and draft legislation. ALEC model legislation introduced in Pennsylvania includes the onerous and expensive photo Voter ID law, and the dangerous Stand Your Ground law.

The IRS classifies ALEC as a 501 (C)(3) organization, which means that it is tax exempt and that donations to it are tax deductible. The law limits lobbying by groups with that designation, specifying that ?no substantial part? of their activity can be devoted to influencing legislation. ALEC has declared under oath in several tax returns that it does no lobbying. Evidence in the Common Cause filing shreds that claim; it includes several thousand pages of ALEC records, detailing extensive efforts to influence a wide range of state legislation.

Read the full complaint here: www.CommonCause.org/IRSWhistleblower

In recent weeks, ALEC has faced scrutiny for its role in the spreading ?Stand Your Ground? laws like the one that for weeks shielded the killer of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin from prosecution. Since then, at least a dozen major companies, including McDonald?s, Wendy?s Kraft Foods, Mars Inc., and Coca-Cola, have abandoned ALEC.

Read The Full Article:
http://keystoneprogress.blogspot.com/2012/05/common-causepa-calls-on-state-attorn
ey.html

Digg this

'Chensanity'

post from Talking Points Memo on 04 May 2012 11:02:05 AM. © Talking Points Memo

Jon Stewart on the case of Chen Guangcheng. Watch. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/CBNlCBiUQZ4/chensanity.php

Digg this

More Trouble For DSK

post from Talking Points Memo on 04 May 2012 11:02:05 AM. © Talking Points Memo

The French have announced that they're investigating new rape allegations involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn and an incident at the W Hotel in Washington, D.C., in December 2010. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/ipK4FrDi8Ew/more_trouble_fo
r_dsk.php

Digg this

Another Critical 2012 Constituency

Obama trying to make deeper inroads into military voters. [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/64HC3pyJPPY/another_critica
l_2012_constituency.php

Digg this

Jobs Numbers Reveal 24.9% Unemployment Among
Teens

In April, teenagers had a 24.9 percent unemployment rate, compared with a 7.5 percent for adult men and 7.4 percent among adult women. – ABC News

Labor Force Participation Rate Lowest Since 1981

Partisans, start your engines, though no one can spin the teen unemployment numbers, which are disastrous.

The unemployment rate is down to 8.1%.

Only 115,000 jobs were added.

There’s also reports revealing large numbers of people have left the workforce, revealing the reason behind lower unemployment number, which is reportedly the lowest since 1981.

You’re not going to change that with the Ryan plan, which is Mitt Romney’s biggest problem. Just ask David Cameron how well austerity has worked for him and you get the nut of just how disastrous Paul Ryan has been politically for Republicans.

With Chuck Todd this morning, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics said that unemployment insurance running out for older Americans means these people are likely to retire, causing part of the exodus from the workforce. Zandi said manufacturing is going “great guns” and, for what it’s worth, he predicted that by the end of the year unemployment would be “definitively below 8%.”

The psychological impact of unemployment dipping below 8% or the mere fact it’s going in the right direction is very good news for Obama’s reelection chances, while giving Romney a real problem spinning can’t counter. When this subject hits the fall presidential debates it will make it even harder for voters to take a chance on Republicans.

Read The Full Article:
http://taylormarsh.com/blog/2012/05/jobs-numbers-reveal-24-9-unemployment-among-t
eens/

Digg this