This Is What Runaway Global Warming Looks Like

post from TheGreenMiles.com on 10 December 2010 04:42:00 PM. © TheGreenMiles.com

December 2009 to November 2010 was the hottest climate year on record & 2010 stands poised to become the hottest calendar year on record. Each of the last ten years features in the top 11 hottest years recorded & the 20 hottest years on record have all come since 1983.

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Coburn: We don't need to pay for tax cuts. You
do.

post from Daily Kos on 10 December 2010 04:30:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Apparently saying things like this gets you elected to the United States Senate -- at least if you're Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn:

I'd issue this challenge: anyone who thinks we oughta pay for tax cuts, oughta have to put up a list of programs that we oughta eliminate to pay for them.

Uh, isn't it supposed to be the other way around? I mean, Coburn is the one who wants to spend $700 billion on tax cuts for the wealthy. Shouldn't he explain how he's going to pay for it?

I mean, we're not opposing these tax cuts for shits and giggles. We oppose them precisely because we don't want to offset the lost revenue with spending cuts or massive borrowing. We don't think it makes sense to make the rich richer while simultaneously cutting back on programs that benefit all Americans or adding to our national debt. And it's kind of weird that he doesn't understand that.

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to-pay-for-tax-cuts.-You-do.

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Beware Of Gift Bearing Libertarians

post from Open Left - Front Page on 10 December 2010 04:30:00 PM. © Open Left - Front Page

Imagine, if you will, an amusement park set to open in the not-too-distant future. But instead of[...]

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Sanders Long Senate Floor Speech Brings Attention
to Details of Tax Cut Deal

post from Firedoglake on 10 December 2010 04:25:39 PM. © Firedoglake

There's a set vote on the tax cut bill on Monday. Nothing else has been scheduled to move today. Bernie is not really blocking anything. This puts Sanders' speech into the Congressional record; I'm not sure there's an additional purpose.But that's not to[...]

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Newly Elected Minnesota Legislators Announce
Intent to make Voting More Difficult

post from MyDD on 10 December 2010 04:11:13 PM. © MyDD

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting MattersMinnesota has some of the most progressive voter registration laws in the country, laws like same day registration and vouching, that are designed to maximize turnout and get as many voices as possible[...]

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ators-announce-intent-to-make-voting-more-difficult

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WikiLeaks Cable: Pfizer Pharmaceutical Tried To
Blackmail Nigerian Attorney General Into Dropping Expensive Case Against Them

post from Crooks and Liars on 10 December 2010 04:00:14 PM. © Crooks and Liars

This is the third story I've seen this week about criminal activity by major pharmaceutical companies. (See here and here.) Aren't you glad that our new healthcare bill will permit them to stay profitable?

The world's biggest pharmaceutical company hired investigators to unearth evidence of corruption against the Nigerian attorney general in order to persuade him to drop legal action over a controversial drug trial involving children with meningitis, according to a leaked US embassy cable.
Pfizer was sued by the Nigerian state and federal authorities, who claimed that children were harmed by a new antibiotic, Trovan, during the trial, which took place in the middle of a meningitis epidemic of unprecedented scale in Kano in the north of Nigeria in 1996.
Last year, the company came to a tentative settlement with the Kano state government which was to cost it $75m.
But the cable suggests that the US drug giant did not want to pay out to settle the two cases ? one civil and one criminal ? brought by the Nigerian federal government.
The cable reports a meeting between Pfizer's country manager, Enrico Liggeri, and US officials at the Abuja embassy on 9 April 2009. It states: "According to Liggeri, Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to federal attorney general Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put pressure on him to drop the federal cases. He said Pfizer's investigators were passing this information to local media."
The cable, classified confidential by economic counsellor Robert Tansey, continues: "A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa's 'alleged' corruption ties were published in February and March. Liggeri contended that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that Aondoakaa's cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles."

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VIDEO: Sens. Sanders, Brown, And Landrieu Conduct
Mock Filibuster To Voice Criticism Of Tax Deal

post from ThinkProgress on 10 December 2010 04:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

This morning at approximately 10:30 am, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) began what he referred to on his Twitter account as a “filibuster” or “very long speech” making the case against President Obama’s tax deal, which would prolong the Bush tax cuts for all Americans for two years, extend unemployment benefits for 13 months, and instate a temporary 2 percent reduction in the payroll tax.

While Sanders’ stand is not technically a “filibuster” — there are no votes scheduled for today that he is delaying, so it does not meet the procedural requirement for being one — the senator has stayed on the Senate floor all day today, using his time to educate the public about why he feels the tax deal should be defeated. The senator has not been alone in his efforts. Progressive Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and, surprisingly, conservative Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) joined Sanders’ effort, using their time on the floor to attack the tax deal and make the case to the public about why it should be defeated.

“What this agreement says is, we’re going to provide huge tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. That is insane,” argued Sanders. “It blows a hole in our budget deficit,” said Brown. “I cannot remember a time when we were asked to vote on an appropriations deal of this magnitude or a tax bill of this magnitude that we’ve been asked to vote on something this reckless, this in-your-face to the poor, in-your-face to the middle class,” roared Landrieu.

ThinkProgress has assembled a compilation of the senators’ remarks criticizing the proposed tax deal and urging their colleagues to vote it down. Watch it:

video details and more

As of the time of this publishing, Sanders is still on the floor. He has been engaging in his “long speech” for more than four hours and is currently the fifth trending topic on Twitter worldwide.

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PolitiFact: Sanders telling the truth on vast
income inequality

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has been holding a mock filibuster today (mock, because he's not actually blocking a measure scheduled for a vote on the floor), with welcome help from Sens. Sherrod Brown and Mary Landrieu. It might not be the real thing, but it's been powerful in laying out the progressive case against this tax deal. He's particularly strong when he's talking about income inequality, points he made in this video:

video details and more

"Mr. President, in the year 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income," Sanders said. "The top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income--more than the entire bottom 50 percent. That is apparently not enough. The percentage of income going to the top 1 percent has nearly tripled since the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, the top 1 percent earned about 8 percent of all income. In the 1980s, that figure jumped to 14 percent. In the late 1990s, that 1 percent earned about 19 percent."

PolitiFact got requests to fact-check Sander's claim. They did, and found it's true.

So, we're left with three studies that vary slightly but which all point in the same general direction -- showing the top 1 percent earning between 21.4 and 23.5 percent of the national income in 2007. The studies also show that this share exceeds what the entire bottom 50 percent of the United States earns. So we rate Sanders' statement True.

Whether it's 21.4 or 23.5 percent is of much less importance than the fact that the top one percent earns more than the entire bottom 50 percent. That's obscene, and Democrats should not be lining up to perpetuate that status quo.

(The Kossack livebloggers will be following Bernie as long as he goes.)

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elling-the-truth-on-vast-income-inequality

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How Obama Alienated His Base: Let Me Count the
Ways

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 10 December 2010 03:39:41 PM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

JACQUELINE MARCUS FOR BUZZFLASH

Like Bush, never signed the Kyoto Treaty

Fearing GOP, kept Bush's polluting emission standards

Never prosecuted Bush war crimes of practicing torture, never so much as investigated those crimes; holding detainees indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay

Never altered the Patriot Act, to our chagrin, increased more spyware and violations of privacy, the worst being the TSA Image Scanner Machines

Allowed insurance lawyers to write the medical insurance reform, and although
read more

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A Christmas Miracle: Hawks Clamor for Deficit
Spending as Special Tax Breaks Near Scheduled End

For most of the year, Washington is overrun with deficit hysteria, but right now is that special, magical time of the year. No I'm not talking about Christmas! I'm talking about the joyous season of the January 1 scheduled end of temporary tax provisions[...]

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