Bachmann’s Jobs Plan: Corporate Tax
Giveaways, Deregulation, and Drill, Baby, Drill

post from ThinkProgress on 11 October 2011 07:00:03 PM. © ThinkProgress

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) today released her ?American Jobs, Right Now? Blueprint for Economic Prosperity and Job Creation, ahead of yet another GOP presidential primary debate tonight. The one-page plan, of course, contains many of the same tired ideas Bachmann has been promoting on the campaign trail. Here are the highlights:

– CORPORATE TAX GIVEAWAYS: Bachmann has consistently called for a corporate tax repatriation holiday which would cost billions but, if history is any indication, result in few job gains. The last time Congress approved such a holiday — which Bachmann calls “true stimulus” — the companies that benefited the most cut hundreds of thousands of jobs.
– REPEALING WALL STREET REFORM: Bachmann has loudly and proudly been calling for the repeal of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which she says is “killing the banking industry” (even as banks haul in record profits). The recession caused by Wall Street malfeasance has cost the country 14 million jobs, but Bachmann believes going back to that regulatory structure would lead to job growth.
– DRILL, BABY, DRILL: Bachmann plans to create more than 1 million jobs via more drilling for oil, using an oft-repeated statistic that “exaggerate[s] the effect that looser drilling policies would have on employment,” never mind ignoring the environmental destruction that could occur.
– REPEALING FANTASY REGULATIONS: Bachmann claims that “business owners have lost economic liberty under the weight of $1.8 billion annually in compliance costs with government regulations.” This number is pure fantasy, cooked up by right-wing business groups intent on allowing corporations to pollute at will and treat their workers however they see fit.
– CUTTING TAXES FOR THE RICH: Bachmann pays lip service to reforming both the corporate and personal income taxes, but the only concrete tax cut that she lays out is eliminating the estate tax, which would aid only the richest households in the country, while creating no jobs.

The rest of Bachmann’s plan consists of nothing but platitudes (like the bullet entitled PAVE A PATHWAY FOR INNOVATION that, quite literally, has no proposal in it). It almost would have been better if Bachmann had simply signed her name to the Romney campaign’s caricature of Rick Perry’s jobs plan.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/10/11/340976/bachmann-jobs-plan/

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Republicans Desperately Try Feeling the Pain of
Occupy Wall Street

post from Firedoglake on 11 October 2011 06:55:55 PM. © Firedoglake

It was just a week ago that Republicans tried to denigrate the Occupy Wall Street protesters as a "dangerous" "mob" who needed to "get a job" rather than "pit Americans against Americans." Then they must have gotten the polling. So now, they're changing[...]

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Occupy Wall Street has an important lesson for
protesters: keep at it

post from Daily Kos on 11 October 2011 06:38:56 PM. © Daily Kos

(@LesNews/Twitpic)This chart comparing the rate of traditional media mentions for the tea party protests and the Occupy Wall Street protests during their first three weeks of existence paints a revealing picture of two very different paths to national prominence:(Nate Silver/ New York Times)There was immediate national buy-in for tea party protests from traditional (newspaper and television) media outlets. Occupy Wall Street, by contrast, had to keep protesting for three weeks before it was able to achieve the level of coverage the tea party received just five days.

The traditional media outlets examined in this study have a reasonable defense for their different rate of coverage. Specifically, the original tea party protests were much larger than Occupy Wall Street's kickoff event. However, As Occupy Wall Street grew in both size (passing 1,000,000 Facebook "likes" earlier today) and drama (fueled by police), the level of coverage it received became comparable to the tea party's first effort. While attendance numbers alone do not fully explain the remarkable instantaneity of the national news obsession with the tea party, given Occupy Wall Street's relatively humble beginnings it would have been a stretch to justify an equivalent level of coverage from the get-go.

Perhaps a more important lesson for progressives to draw from the media ascent of Occupy Wall Street is the blueprint it offers for replication. Despite traditional news outlets being both influenced by conservative alternative media and also largely bought into the idea that conservatism dominates the American electorate, Occupy Wall Street has shown that a level of media coverage equivalent to the tea party is possible if there is real drama and if the protesters just keep it at.

The Wisconsin protests in February and March also demonstrated this point. While the Keystone XL protests in late August and early September never quite reached media critical mass, they did come close. The same can be said for the August jobs protests.

Large protests that stretch out over several days are demonstrating the ability to break through the institutional belief that progressive protests don't matter. As such, massive, single-day rallies may not cut it for progressives anymore. From now on, we're going to have to keep at it.

Don't forget to join an Occupy Wall Street group near you.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/MmyPZwq0eE4/-Occupy-Wall-Street-ha
s-an-important-lesson-for-protesters:-keep-at-it

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Debate preview: A handy guide to GOP jargon

post from Daily Kos on 11 October 2011 06:30:03 PM. © Daily Kos

GOP 2012 Debate Ooooh, it's another Republican ~~debate~~ hate rally. So exciting! What will get the audience all hot and bothered tonight? Soldiers? State-sponsored executions? People dying from lack of health care?

And just which candidate will be the one to watch tonight? Michele Bachmann, winner of the Iowa Straw Poll? Herman Cain, winner of the Florida Straw poll? Ron Paul, winner of the Values Voter Summit straw poll? Jon Huntsman, whose support is now clocking in at a nice round zero percent? Such suspense!

And just what kind of incoherent nonsense can we expect? Maybe Rick Santorum will further decry the oppression of homosexuals?in the Middle East. Maybe Newt Gingrich will further elaborate on all those moon bases we'd have by now if he'd been president. Perhaps Rick Perry will manage to insult the Mittster without tripping over his tongue. Maybe Bachmann can further explain how vaccines cause instant retardation.

Thankfully, Bloomberg has provided us with a handy jargon guide to help us follow along with the Washington Post/Bloomberg-sponsored debate. For example, in case you missed it the first 10 billion times Herman Cain mentioned it:

9-9-9: Cain?s 9-9-9 Plan calls for replacing the current U.S. tax code with a 9 percent levy on sales transactions and gross income for individuals and businesses, after limited deductions. The plan would [...]

Blah blah blah. Who the hell cares what the plan would do? The beauty of the 9-9-9 plan is that you only have to remember one number three times. Really, what more do you need to know?

There's a long explanation for "MANDATES" too, but Bloomberg helpfully provides the bottom line on that:

Romney instituted a coverage mandate when he was governor of Massachusetts.

And here's a helpful definition:

PERMITORIUM: This phrase represents the Republican contention that Obama is standing in the way of oil and gas development, costing jobs and maintaining U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The administration banned all deepwater drilling after the BP spill in April 2010. It lifted the ban in October. Republicans say the administration has delayed new drilling permits ever since, hence the new word ?permitorium.?

Yes, the Obama administration lifted its ban, but that won't stop Republicans from complaining about it anyway!

Ponzi scheme. Quantitative easing. Repeal. Tax holiday. Bloomberg has all the basic Republican definitions for you so you can try to follow along. And as always, Jed will be liveblogging the hilarity right here at Daily Kos, starting at 8 PM ET.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/zArpVYqUphY/-Debate-preview:-A-han
dy-guide-to-GOPÂ jargon

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We Need To Dump Congress & Start From Scratch

post from They gave us a republic... - Front Page on 11 October 2011 06:19:52 PM. © They gave us a republic... - Front Page

My suggestion? Get rid of the senate altogether and thoroughly clean and fumigate the House of Representatives with heavy emphasis on the fumigate part.

Why? Because for whatever reason, these people are simply not doing their jobs. To you and me, it doesn't make any difference whether they've sold us out for personal gain (and I truly believe the majority of them have done exactly that)... or whether they are simply ignorant and in way over their heads... the outcome for 99% of us is exactly the same. We flipping lose and the Wall Street parasites win.

In this piece at Raw Story by Stephen Webster Poll: Huge majority of Americans support taxing the rich you can see the disconnect between our representatives and ourselves in all its shining glory.

As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote down legislation that would raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans to pay for a jobs plan that most economists believe would stop the recession, a new poll has surfaced showing just how out of touch those Senators are with mainstream America.
According to figures released by Bloomberg and The Washington Post on Tuesday, eight in 10 Americans, including a majority of Republicans, support raising taxes on households earning over $250,000 a year. A full 81 percent of Democrats were behind the plan, along with 67 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republicans.
That's a huge leap in support from December 2010, when a Bloomberg poll found that just 59 percent favored extending the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy Americans. President Obama has since vowed to normalize tax rates between the upper and middle classes, highlighting the disparity in the percentage paid by lower income people as compared to the top earners.

Dear Senator/Congressperson:

Nobody remains that oblivious... nobody is that ignorant of the desires and indeed the demands... of the people they still depend on to keep another slickster from getting their jobs. You are WELL aware of what the majority of the people in this country want done and your refusal to do so will be something to be dealt with the next time each one of you comes up for reelection. Scores are being kept and votes are being tabulated and when you only have two excuses to offer... "I'm corrupt" or "I'm stupid"... neither of them qualifies you to ever serve in any capacity at any level of government again.

The only thing that's gonna keep your sorry asses in office is the stupidity of your constituencies (not to be underestimated by any means given the control your lords and masters exercise over any and all sources of information) or Diebold voting machines and we'll flipping know it this time.

There's also this though:

Overall, 81 percent of American adults said they believe that even the middle class will be forced to make sacrifices to reduce the nation's deficit. However, 83 percent of Americans agreed that cutting Social Security should not be an option. Another 82 percent said cutting Medicare should be off the table.
The majority's views are largely in-line with President Barack Obama's proposals, which are likely be under-cut by the "super committee" Congress agreed to form in the midst of a budget standoff earlier this year. The committee of 12 will be tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings over the next 10 years: a feat nearly impossible without raising government revenues or making massive cuts to social safety nets.
Unfortunately for Democrats, Americans are evenly divided on whether re-electing President Obama, or replacing him with any of the Republican candidates, will even make a difference.
Just 24 percent said their families finances would be better if Obama wins the 2012 election, versus 24 percent who believe things will improve with a Republican in office. Nearly half, 44 percent, said either outcome would "not make much difference," according to the poll.
Full Poll Results Here:

So with the moribund economy being the biggest concern to the vast majority of voters, the Democrats and Republicans are tied for a distant second behind the huge majority of people who feel that neither of them is worth the powder it would take to blow 'em all to hell as far as fixing the economy is concerned? Damn Congress, you just don't get that damned sorry and still have the rights to call yourselves representatives of the people.

Read The Full Article:
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Inside/Outside Occupy Philly

post from Firedoglake on 11 October 2011 06:17:08 PM. © Firedoglake

I went into downtown Philly today with Mr. Rev. to see with my own eyes and listen with my ears and my heart to what is happening here and all over the country. Mixed feelings?despair and hope, humor and sadness, expressions of peace alongside[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/_FbqI122X6A/

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IRS Should Investigate Dallas Church For
Endorsing Rick Perry

post from The Politics of Jamie Sanderson on 11 October 2011 06:01:03 PM. © The Politics of Jamie Sanderson

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate a Dallas church whose pastor has been posting videos of himself endorsing Texas Gov. Rick Perry on the church?s website.

Americans United says Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church has run afoul of federal tax law. AU notes that Jeffress has the right to offer a personal endorsement of Perry but that he may not put these endorsements on his tax-exempt church?s website.

?Pastor Jeffress is trying to do an end-run around the law,? said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. ?The IRS should put a stop to it.?

On Oct. 8, Jeffress appeared at a Religious Right gathering in Washington, D.C., called the Values Voter Summit to introduce Perry. During the introduction, Jeffress praised Perry as the best GOP candidate and explained why he believes Perry deserves support.

Read the rest of this press release at au.org »

Read The Full Article:
http://thepoliticsofjamiesanderson.blogspot.com/2011/10/irs-should-investigate-da
llas-church.html

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End of the Affair

With Herman Cain rocketing in the polls, could the Cain-Romney bromance officially end tonight? The numerical logic is strong. But I actually wonder if Mitt's going to go down that path. In some ways, Cain could be useful to Romney. I don't think[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/10/end_of_the_affair.php

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'Vulture Capitalist' Funding Two Orgs Attacking
Occupy Wall Street

enlarge Paul Singer, a hedge fund manager who made his money by kicking nations when they're down.

A predatory hedge fund multimillionaire is a major funder of the right-wing attack machine on Occupy Wall Street. Ironically, this "Swift Vote Veterans" and "Crossroads GPS" funder was also one of the top donors in the movement to legalize gay marriage in New York (his son is gay):

As the New York Times has documented, Paul Singer, a Republican activist and hedge fund manager worth over $900 million, has emerged as one of the most important power brokers within the GOP. Now, it appears that the reporters financed by Singer are at the forefront of efforts to tarnish the reputation of 99 Percent Movement demonstrators:
Journalist Who Admitted To Infiltrating Protests To ?Mock And Undermine? The Movement Works For A Singer-Supported Right-Wing Magazine. In a column posted last night, reporter Patrick Howley admitted that he had surreptitiously joined an anti-war spin-off group from the OccupyDC protests that planned to demonstrate at a military drone exhibit at the Smithsonian?s Air and Space museum. Howley wrote that he ?infiltrated? the action and sprinted into the police along with a few protesters in order to ?mock and undermine? the movement. Singer is a major donor to the Spectator, a right-wing magazine known for its role in the ?Arkansas Project,? a well-funded effort to invent stories with the goal of eventually impeaching President Clinton.
Journalist Pushing To Discredit Occupy Wall Street Is Funded By Singer?s Think Tank. Josh Barro, a journalist who has attacked the 99 Percent Movement in theNational Review and the New York Daily News, draws a salary from the Wriston Fellowship at the Manhattan Institute, a big business advocacy think tank in New York. Barro makes the same tired arguments, that anti-Wall Street protesters are too inarticulate and ?extreme? to be taken seriously. Singer is the chairman of the Manhattan Institute, and even oversees the Wriston annual fundraiser.
As Singer-funded journalists make their best effort to diminish the Occupy Wall Street protesters as confused idiots unable to articulate a clear goal, it so happens that these journalists are funded by a man who epitomizes the crony capitalist behavior of the greedy one percent.
Singer, manager of a $17 billion hedge fund, earned the moniker ?vulture capitalist? for buying the debt of Third World countries for pennies on the dollar, then using his political and legal connections to extract massive judgements to force collection ? even from nations suffering from starvation and violent conflicts. Singer and his partners have used such tactics in Panama, Ecuador, Poland, Cote d?Ivoire, Turkmenistan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition to squeezing impoverished countries with sovereign debt schemes, Singer speculates in the oil markets, a practice which can lead to gasoline price hikes here in the United States. The revelation that Singer engages in oil speculation, and also funds Republican lawmakers opposed to oil speculation regulations, was exposed by ThinkProgress using leaked government documents.