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Hissyspit

Hissyspit's Journal
Hissyspit's Journal
September 9, 2012

NASA Explains How We Caused the Hottest Decade and Are Generally Screwing Ourselves Over (VIDEO)

From Juan Cole's site:

http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/nasa-explains-how-we-caused-the-hottest-decade-are-are-generally-screwing-ourselves-over-video.html

NASA Explains how We Caused the Hottest Decade and are generally screwing ourselves over (Video)

Posted on 09/08/2012 by Juan

NASA’s 5-minute video explains why the last decade has been the hottest ever (we did it) and what climate change means for our hot, thirsty future. It is entitled “Piecing together the Puzzle” and is narrated in a slow, calm voice. But it should be entitled “Run for the Hills!” and should have been narrated by Jennifer Granholm.

September 8, 2012

Suicide Bomber Kills Four Near NATO Headquarter in Kabul

Source: Reuters

Suicide bomber kills four near NATO headquarter in Kabul

Sat Sep 8, 2012 4:03am EDT

KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber detonated explosives near the heavily barricaded NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday, killing four civilians, NATO and local officials said.

The bomber, who was riding an explosives-laden motorcycle, blew himself up near the entrance of Camp Eggers, a NATO spokeswoman said, referring to a sprawling base that is home to 2,500 coalition trainers.

At least four civilians were killed and two more wounded, Kabul Police Chief Ayoub Salangi told Reuters.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE88703L20120908?irpc=932

September 8, 2012

Mitt Romney Congratulates The Corporate Tax Cheats (MUST-READ OP-ED)

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kleinbard-tax-cheats-20120907,0,6526020.story

Hat-tip: @nickshaxson

OP-ED

Tax planning? Or tax cheating?

Laws that encourage corporate tax havens are bad for America.


Mitt Romney speaks with the news media after making a stop at the "New Hampshire Veterans and Military Families for Mitt" event in Concord, N.H. Romney recently announced that big businesses "know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low-tax havens around the world for their businesses." (Evan Vucci / Associated Press / September 6, 2012)

By Edward D. Kleinbard

September 7, 2012

- snip -

The other party inhabits a realm of fantasy akin to Erewhon, the fictional land created by the 19th century satirist Samuel Butler. In Erewhon, Butler wrote, "If a man has made a fortune … they exempt him from all taxation, considering him as a work of art, and too precious to be meddled with; they say, 'How very much he must have done for society before society could have been prevailed upon to give him so much money.'"

It is a pity that Republicans do not appreciate that Butler was writing ironically.

- snip -

The U.S. tax principle, and the principle at work in every other major economy, is that corporate income should be taxed in the country where it is earned. If that principle were scrupulously followed, very little income would be reported in tax havens, which generally have relatively small populations and in most cases modest manufacturing bases. But instead we find that U.S.-based multinationals claim that an extraordinary percentage of their income is "earned" in tax havens.

- snip -

The answer is that when we countenance a tax system that rewards such a tax strategy, we implicitly encourage U.S. firms to invest overseas — not necessarily in tax havens but in other major economies. Once a U.S.-based multinational's income is treated as earned outside the United States, the firm then can easily migrate its income from the high-tax foreign countries in which the income is earned to tax havens.

- snip -

When Romney endorses the idea that U.S. firms are doing right by reporting their profits overwhelmingly in tax havens, he shows contempt for a basic principle of tax law. This encourages still more aggressive profit shifting and stateless income tax planning. The missing tax revenue must be made up by domestic firms and individual Americans.

MORE AT LINK

Edward D. Kleinbard is a law professor at USC, a fellow at the Century Foundation and a former chief of the nonpartisan staff of the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

September 7, 2012

Jobs Rise 96,000 in August, Below Expectations; Unemployment Rate Falls to 8.1

Source: Reuters

Jobs growth brakes in August, seen forcing Fed's hand

By Lucia Mutikani

Fri Sep 7, 2012 8:50am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jobs growth slowed more than expected in August, setting the stage for the Federal Reserve to pump additional money into the sluggish economy next week and dealing a blow to President Obama as he seeks reelection in November.

Nonfarm payrolls increased only 96,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July, it was largely due to Americans giving up the search for work.

The report's weak tenor was also underscored by revisions to June and July data to show 41,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported. The labor force participation rate, or the percentage of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one, fell to 63.5 percent -- the lowest since September 1981.

The lackluster report keeps the pressure on Obama ahead of the November vote in which the health of the economy looms large.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE88604Y20120907?irpc=932

September 7, 2012

Joshua Holland: Obama's Big DNC Finale - Dems Are More Agressive, United Than We've Seen in Years

http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/obamas-big-finale-dnc-dems-are-more-agressive-united-weve-seen-years?akid=9354.24869.OiPXks&rd=1&src=newsletter706089&t=1&paging=off

ELECTION 2012

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland

Obama's Big Finale at the DNC -- Dems Are More Agressive, United Than We've Seen in Years
Progressives had much to savor this week in Charlotte.
September 6, 2012 |

On Thursday night, Barack Obama strode to the podium and met all of our expectations, capping a week that may have marked a transition for the Democratic Party. But the defining moment of the convention – Obama's official nomination -- wasn't what stood out.

- snip -

But while Obama's talk offered few surprises, the convention did – and not just for the fact that (by my reckoning) he gave only the fourth best speech of the three-day event. Whereas twelve years ago, many progressives rightly saw little difference between the two parties, today that is only remotely true of 'national security' policy, broadly defined. On the domestic side -- on the economy, and a host of social issues -- the differences have become stark. This was the first time a major party adopted a plank calling for marriage equality. It was the first convention addressed by an undocumented immigrant. Despite the stupidity with the platform language about Israel, Democrats seemed more comfortable in being Democrats than they have in the recent past.

Perhaps as a result, there was far more excitement in Charlotte than there had been in Tampa, and that was visible from the first day. The best speeches offered unabashed defenses of a woman's right to control her body and full-throated populist attacks on the GOP's creepy cult of wealth. Several speakers talked of liberal policy ideas as a manifestation of “economic patriotism,” suggesting in less-than-subtle terms that their opponents care less about the republic than they do. We saw real diversity not just on the podium, as was the case in Tampa, but in the audience. There was a sense that while the Democrats were certainly reaching out toward “swing” voters, they were also unafraid of what the dopes at Fox News would say about their party.

In part, that's a reflection of the growth of an independent progressive movement that was largely nonexistent during the 1990s, when the hangover of Mondale's 1984 thrashing was still fresh and triangulation was all the rage. But it's also a reaction to the GOP's growing extremism – according to Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker, since 1975, “Senate Republicans moved roughly twice as far to the right as Senate Democrats moved to the left” and “House Republicans moved roughly six times as far to the right as House Democrats moved to the left.”

It's easy to be confident in your position on abortion when your opponents want to outlaw it without exceptions. There's no reason to be sheepish in calling for progressive taxation when your opponents want to effectively gut the federal government in order to pay for deep tax cuts for those who don't need them. And it's easy to openly embrace diversity when your opposition is a party made up of white, married Christians – a declining demographic – who throw peanuts at a black woman while yelling, “this is how we feed the animals!”

In a sense, the roles Democrats and Republicans have long played are now being reversed. We live in a liberal democracy, and today the Democrats are defenders of the status quo -- "conservatives" in the true sense -- while the right wants to roll back the last century, and that may ultimately end up strengthening the Democrats' spine.

We saw a party in the middle of a gradual transition in Charlotte. We still live in the only industrialized country without a party of labor. We still face the seemingly unkillable zombie of austerity lurking in both major parties. We still don't have a party that seems up to the challenge of truly addressing our environmental crises. Democrats still feel the need to embrace a hyper-masculine discourse on war and peace. They still use too much of Frank Luntz' poll-tested conservative frames.

But progress isn't made overnight, and for those of us who have been fighting to push the Democratic Party into closer alignment with the views of its progressive base, this convention ought to give progressives a moment savor.

MORE
September 7, 2012

5 Brilliant Things Barack Obama Did in His Convention Speech

http://www.politicususa.com/5-brilliant-barack-obama-convention-speech.html

5 Brilliant Things Barack Obama Did In His Convention Speech

By: Jason Easley September 7th, 2012

President Obama did a lot of good things in his convention speech, but here are the five brilliant points in his acceptance speech.

1). The Republican Obsession With Tax Cuts

What Obama Said, “Now, our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn’t have much to say about how they’d make it right. They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan. And that’s because all they have to offer is the same prescription they’ve had for the last thirty years: “Have a surplus? Try a tax cut.” “Deficit too high? Try another.” “Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning!”"

Why it was Brilliant: The President could have made some dry argument about tax cuts, but instead he made a joke that was completely true. No matter what the problem is, the first Republican and sometimes only Republican solution proposed is tax cuts. Obama’s tax cut humor was not only true. It is going to be replayed and repeated for the next 24 hours on every newscast.

2). Mitt Romney the Blustering Bumbler a.k.a George W. Bush

What Obama Said, “So now we face a choice. My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy, but from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly. After all, you don’t call Russia our number one enemy – and not al Qaeda – unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War time warp. You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally. My opponent said it was “tragic” to end the war in Iraq, and he won’t tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan. I have, and I will. And while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware that our Joint Chiefs don’t even want, I’ll use the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work – rebuilding roads and bridges; schools and runways. After two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it’s time to do some nation-building right here at home.”

Why it was Brilliant: President Obama used his Commander in Chief status to remind viewers of George W. Bush, the Republican pro-business president who blustered and bumbled the nation into two wars. The characterization of Romney as stuck in a time warp also plays into the idea that on the world stage he will be another George W. Bush, and the last thing roughly two thirds of the American people want to see is a return to the days of W.

- snip -

4). Obama Takes Back the Flag

REST AT LINK[p]

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