The new American job killer is Bank of America

Koch Brothers Are Buying Our Democracy... With $400 Million

How the Koch's make millions if Republicans crash the Gov?

Student Loan Debt Explodes, Climbing 275% Since 2003 | Common Dreams

Student Loan Debt Explodes, Climbing 275% Since 2003 | Common Dreams
"New data released today by the Federal Reserve shows, while general consumer debt has decreased in the first quarter of this year, student loan debt in particular continues to aggressively increase. Overall student loan debt has skyrocketed in the past 10 years, rising by 275%."

The Dark Truth Behind the Kochs' Struggle for Control of the Cato Institute | AlterNet

The Dark Truth Behind the Kochs' Struggle for Control of the Cato Institute | AlterNet
"As John Quiggin says, Cato is easily the most credible of the right-leaning think tanks. Given the board-packing with Republican hacks, the widely-respected staffers who have promised to resign if the Kochs end up winning, a Koch victory would probably be the end of Cato’s reputation. They’ll go into the “amoral hack” box with the American Enterprise Institute and its brethren."

Supreme Court Calendar Locks Citizens United In Place For Mitt Romney

Supreme Court Calendar Locks Citizens United In Place For Mitt Romney: The Supreme Court is presently considering whether to hear a Montana Supreme Court case holding that the Court’s election-buying decision in Citizens United does not prevent Montana from stemming the flow of corporate money into politics. Republican leaders and corporate interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce asked the justices to double down on Citizens [...]/p

Florida Republicans determined to expand voter purge

Florida Republicans determined to expand voter purge
"That's what they're doing with this purge. The state is in violation of the National Voting Rights Act, which prohibits purging voters from the rolls within 90 days of an election. Florida's primary is on August 14. Under that Act, the Department of Justice has the power to stop it."

Fox's Anti-Obama Attack Ad Is Nearly $100,000 In Free Advertising For GOP

Fox's Anti-Obama Attack Ad Is Nearly $100,000 In Free Advertising For GOP
"The four minute anti-Obama attack ad aired by Fox News this morning was the equivalent of $96,000 of free advertising for the Republican Party."

New Jersey Governor Is Latest To Divert Foreclosure Settlement Aid Away From Needy Homeowners

New Jersey Governor Is Latest To Divert Foreclosure Settlement Aid Away From Needy Homeowners: Several states across the country, from Vermont to Wisconsin to California, have been taking some of the money they received from the foreclosure fraud settlement signed with the nation’s biggest banks and diverting it away from its intended purpose of providing relief to desperate homeowners. According to ProPublica, the total amount of money taken from [...]/p

Romney Economic Adviser Says Romney Plans To Undermine Consumer Protections In Wall Street Reform Law

Romney Economic Adviser Says Romney Plans To Undermine Consumer Protections In Wall Street Reform Law: Mitt Romney, who last night secured the Republican presidential nomination with his win in Texas’ primary, has already made clear his desire to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, enacted in response to the financial crisis of 2008. But according to Glenn Hubbard, one of Romney’s economic advisers, even if Romney can’t get rid of [...]/p

GOP Opposes Expanding Small Business Tax Credits That They Supported In 2009

GOP Opposes Expanding Small Business Tax Credits That They Supported In 2009: Obamacare includes a small business tax credit to help employers provide health insurance coverage. The issue, however, is that only 170,300 businesses out of a possible 4 million have applied for the credit because of the time-consuming application procedure. Now, the Obama administration is asking Congress to improve the process so that more small businesses [...]/p

5 Reasons the 'Geezer Empire' of Billionaire Republicans Are Showering Romney With Cash | | AlterNet

5 Reasons the 'Geezer Empire' of Billionaire Republicans Are Showering Romney With Cash | | AlterNet
"What would the world be like if the Republican Party’s most influential billionaire backers got their way—if “the geezer empire struck back,” asNew York magazine writer Frank Rich put it in a recent piece about this posse of unbelievably wealthy white men who have written million-dollar checks to GOP super PACs and non-profits in 2012.

Beyond the usual GOP jeremiads—cutting taxes and government spending, shredding safety nets, eviscerating federal regulation and privatizing whatever remains—many of the GOP’s biggest moneymen have specific issues and goals, often business-related, and would expect a Romney presidency to advance those agendas."

CHARTS: How The Debt Ceiling Debacle Hurt The Economy

CHARTS: How The Debt Ceiling Debacle Hurt The Economy: House Republicans last year used the imminent approach of the nation’s credit limit to force Congress into enacting a series of spending cuts. The hostage scenario led to the nation’s first ever credit downgrade, with the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s repeatedly citing the GOP’s intransigence on revenue as a key justification. Speaker of [...]/p

Report: US Has One Of The Highest Child Poverty Rates In The Developed World

Report: US Has One Of The Highest Child Poverty Rates In The Developed World: According to a new report from the Office of Research at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the U.S. has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the developed world. Of the 35 wealthy countries studied by UNICEF, only Romania has a child poverty rate higher than the 23 percent rate in the [...]/p

How the "Job Creators" REALLY Spend Their Money | Common Dreams

How the "Job Creators" REALLY Spend Their Money | Common Dreams
"How do corporations spend their money? To a good extent, they don't. According to Moody's, cash holdings for U.S. non-financial firms rose 3 percent to $1.24 trillion in 2011. The corporate cash-to-assets ratio nearly tripled between 1980 and 2010. It has been estimated that the corporate stash of cash reserves held in America could employ 3.5 million more people for five years at an annual salary of $40,000."

Mitt Romney Embraces Republican Reverse Robin Hood Policy

Why It Should Terrify Us That Romney Was Head Of Bain Capital

Senate Republicans Filibuster Student Loan Bill Again

Senate Republicans Filibuster Student Loan Bill Again: Senate Republicans filibustered a bill to extend the current interest rate on federal student loans, blocking an extension from moving forward by a vote of 51-43 (with 60 votes needed to advance the bill). They blocked a similar effort earlier this month. Without an extension, interest rates will double in July from 3.4 percent to [...]/p

Amazon.com Becomes The Eighteenth Group To Drop ALEC

Amazon.com Becomes The Eighteenth Group To Drop ALEC: According to an email ThinkProgress received from the Center for Media and Democracy, one of the leaders of a progressive campaign to push corporations and other funders to break with the American Legislative Exchange Council, online retail giant Amazon.com just announced that it will part ways with ALEC. In the wake of this campaign, ALEC [...]/p

Chicago Cops are the Terrorists » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Chicago Cops are the Terrorists » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"It seems pretty clear by now that the three young “domestic terrorists” arrested by Chicago police in a warrantless house invasion reminiscent of what US military forces are doing on a daily basis in Afghanistan, are the victims of planted evidence — part of the police-state-style crackdown on anti-NATO protesters in Chicago last week."

Kucinich: US 'Sanction Warfare' Makes Real Iran War Inevitable : Information Clearing House

Kucinich: US 'Sanction Warfare' Makes Real Iran War Inevitable    : Information Clearing House
"War mentality has saturated Washington and arms merchants want to benefit"

This Is What Tyranny Looks Like : Information Clearing House

This Is What Tyranny Looks Like    : Information Clearing House
"While it hasn't yet taken over a major party, the Occupy movement has successfully exposed the oppressive,fascist police state that has reared its ugly head in the past year."

OWS Librarians Sue Mayor Bloomberg, NYPD, and City of New York Over November 15 Middle-of-the-Night Raid | AlterNet

OWS Librarians Sue Mayor Bloomberg, NYPD, and City of New York Over November 15 Middle-of-the-Night Raid | AlterNet
"Remember the November 15 NYPD raid of Zuccotti Park, when the occupation site was cleared, journalists were kept from the scene, and a large number of books from the Occupy Wall Street People's Library were trashed?"

Wall Street to Obama Campaign: 'You Hurt Our Feelings!' | AlterNet

Wall Street to Obama Campaign: 'You Hurt Our Feelings!' | AlterNet
"It seems that the Obama campaign's offensive against Mitt Romney's legacy at Bain Capital is ruffling a few feathers among the 1 percent."

Mitt Romney and his bold pledge for a higher unemployment rate

Mitt Romney and his bold pledge for a higher unemployment rate
"Those facts alone are enough to demonstrate the absurdity of Romney's claim, but it's also worth pointing out that under his policies, things would actually get worse. The core of Romney's economic plan is a dramatic $10 trillion tax cut for the wealthy coupled with enormous spending cuts and widespread regulatory rollbacks. Basically, he's proposing to double-down on Bush's trickle-down philosophy"

What Exactly is & is Not "Private Equity"

PERRspectives: Guilty as Charged: How the GOP Killed Washington

PERRspectives: Guilty as Charged: How the GOP Killed Washington
"when it came to their scorched-earth campaign of obstructionism to destroy the Obama presidency, GOP leaders weren't shy about their plans. While 15 top Republicans schemed in private on the night of Obama's inauguration to "challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign," conservative mouthpieces like Bill Kristol and Rush Limbaughpromised gridlock at every turn."

Congressional Budget Office Report Proves Spending Cuts Won’t Boost Economic Growth

Congressional Budget Office Report Proves Spending Cuts Won’t Boost Economic Growth: Republicans have argued for the last four years that cutting spending is the panacea that will spark a rapid recovery in the American economy, and it has stuck to that line even as the same policies have failed across Europe. Those policies will lead to failure in the United States too, according to a Congressional [...]/p

GOP Budget Cuts Leave Agencies Too Broke To Police Wall Street, Top Regulators Tell Congress

GOP Budget Cuts Leave Agencies Too Broke To Police Wall Street, Top Regulators Tell Congress: Two of the nation’s top financial regulatory agencies don’t have enough funding to competently regulate the Wall Street banks they oversee, top regulatory officials told the Senate Banking Committee yesterday. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) both took on new regulatory responsibilities under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform [...]/p

GOP Senator Worries JP Morgan’s Losses Will Lead To Efforts To Strengthen Financial Regulations

GOP Senator Worries JP Morgan’s Losses Will Lead To Efforts To Strengthen Financial Regulations: When JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon dropped a bomb on the financial world two weeks ago by announcing that the bank had lost at least $2 billion on a series of trades that went bad on a London-based investment desk, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker (R) was among the first lawmakers to call for investigations [...]/p

After Slashing Funds For Health And Education, Ohio Prepares To Cut Taxes For Banks

After Slashing Funds For Health And Education, Ohio Prepares To Cut Taxes For Banks: During the Great Recession, Ohio has cut its budget to ribbons, reducing funds for health services, higher education, and K-12 education. The budget cuts are so severe that some towns might officially cease to exist (due to disincorporation). However, it seems that Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) and the Republican legislature feel that the state has [...]/p

The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Educated Hope

The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Educated Hope
"American society has lost its claim on democracy. One indication of such a loss is that the crises produced on a daily basis by crony capitalism operate within a discourse of denial."

There Is a Way! Beyond the Big, Bad Corporation | Economy | AlterNet

There Is a Way! Beyond the Big, Bad Corporation | Economy | AlterNet
"To many, Massey is not simply one bad apple, but part of an economic system heavy with rotten fruit. Companies like Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, Countrywide, BP, and Walmart epitomize the relentless drive of corporations to maximize profit above everything else, including safety, fair working conditions, clean air and water, healthy communities, and common decency. In doing so, the very word "corporation" has become a dirty word.

Forget bad apples, perhaps we should just raze the entire orchard, right?"

Romney Economics: Job Loss and Bankruptcy at Ampad

Republicans intentionally sabotaging the economy? Why does this keep getting a question mark?

Republicans intentionally sabotaging the economy? Why does this keep getting a question mark?
"harles Babington asks that question in the first paragraph of his he said/she said pieceSaturday on whether Republicans are out to sabotage the economy in hopes of hurting Obama. The question keeps being asked against the clear evidence that this is precisely what's going on and against polling evidence that half the country, including a lot of Republicans, believe the GOP is doing just that."

Thousands March With Veterans for Peace at Chicago NATO Summit; Police Respond With Brute Force

Thousands March With Veterans for Peace at Chicago NATO Summit; Police Respond With Brute Force
"Thousands of protesters marched beside Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans Sunday to accompany the vets as they marched, hoping to return their service medals to NATO's generals."

HOW BANKS BOUGHT THE TEA PARTY: Cash Transforms Populist Insurgents To Reliable Vote For Financial Industry

HOW BANKS BOUGHT THE TEA PARTY: Cash Transforms Populist Insurgents To Reliable Vote For Financial Industry: The 15 freshmen Republican representatives in the House Tea Party Caucus each ran in 2010 on a populist anti-Wall Street message, highlighting their opposition to bank bailouts like the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and criticizing Washington for enabling the banking sector as it became “Too Big to Fail.” After winning, all fifteen received [...]/p

Chamber To Spend Over $50 Million On 2012 Elections

Chamber To Spend Over $50 Million On 2012 Elections: According to USA Today reporter Susan Page, U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donahue announced this morning that his corporate lobbying group would spend even more than the $50 million previously reported to try to change the result of the 2012 election. The Chamber was one of the biggest exploiters of Citizens United during the [...]/p

Kivalina: A Climate Change Story

Kivalina: A Climate Change Story
"In December 2003, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) went on to report that most of Alaska's more than two hundred native villages were affected to some degree by flooding and erosion, with thirty-one facing imminent threats "due in part to rising temperatures that cause protective shore ice to form later in the year, leaving the villages vulnerable to storms."[56]"

Chicago Police Hold Occupy Activists on State Terrorism Charges With Dubious Evidence | Common Dreams

Chicago Police Hold Occupy Activists on State Terrorism Charges With Dubious Evidence | Common Dreams
"The City of Chicago has filed charges against three Occupy activists, Jared Chase, Brent Beterly, and Brian Jacob Church, including possession of explosives or incendiary devices, material support for terrorism, and conspiracy."

Recovery continues, led by strong manufacturing growth | Economic Policy Institute

Recovery continues, led by strong manufacturing growth | Economic Policy Institute
"Today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics release of state-level data shows slow but steady progress towards economic recovery in most states, though eight states, including every New England state except Massachusetts, experienced job loss in the preceding three-month period (January 2012 to April 2012)."

Private-sector jobs grew far more under Democratic than Republican presidents, 1961-2012

Private-sector jobs grew far more under Democratic than Republican presidents, 1961-2012
"chart showing that between 1961 and 2012, the United States added 42 million private-sector jobs under Democratic presidents and 23.9 million private-sector jobs under Republican presidents, despite Republicans holding the presidency for 28 years during that period compared with 23 years for Democrats"

Why is the FBI Manufacturing Reasons to Arrest Occupy Protesters While Ignoring White Supremacist Violence? | | AlterNet

Why is the FBI Manufacturing Reasons to Arrest Occupy Protesters While Ignoring White Supremacist Violence? | | AlterNet
A recent Rolling Stone article raises troubling questions about FBI entrapment schemes and their targets

In the Name of My Father: Requiem and Renewal in the Shadow of Wall Street | Common Dreams

In the Name of My Father: Requiem and Renewal in the Shadow of Wall Street | Common Dreams
"On May 1, after a day of May Day activities on the streets and avenues of Manhattan, my wife and I and a troop of other OWS celebrants marched into Zuccotti Park to jubilant exhortations of "welcome home" from a throng of fellow occupiers. The next day, my wife and I boarded a southbound Amtrak train to join family gathered at my dying father's bedside to bid him farewell."

Medical Students Embrace Medicare for All | Common Dreams

Medical Students Embrace Medicare for All | Common Dreams
'f you ever want to rekindle your hope for American medicine, spend time with medical students. These bright, energetic minds are going into medicine for all the right reasons — to help people, relieve suffering and find new ways to cure illness and eradicate disease."

'An Economy for the 99%': People's G8 Demands 'Robin Hood Tax' | Common Dreams

'An Economy for the 99%': People's G8 Demands 'Robin Hood Tax' | Common Dreams
National Nurses United protest in Chicago in shadow of G8 summit demands "our voices will be heard."

"Have you heard these stories in the Corporate News Media ?"

Venture capitalist, Nick Hanauer, on the negative impacts of income inequality on the economy

Meet Pete Peterson, Architect of Social Security and Medicare Cuts

Meet Pete Peterson, Architect of Social Security and Medicare Cuts
"ny lawmaker who thinks it's a good idea to raise the Social Security retirement age and erode Medicare should agree to relinquish their federal pension and health insurance retroactive to the day they take office. If they can't do that, then they recuse themselves from any vote concerning Medicare or Social Security. Seems like a fair deal to me."

Private Equity CEO Who Reneged On Pension Benefits To Host Fundraiser For Romney

Private Equity CEO Who Reneged On Pension Benefits To Host Fundraiser For Romney: 2012 presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is making a fundraising swing through Florida. Today, one of Romney’s events — a $50,000 a plate dinner — will be hosted by private equity guru Marc Leder. Leder, co-CEO of the private equity firm Sun Capital, was inspired to get into the private equity business during a [...]/p

Are JPMorgan's Losses A Canary in a Coal Mine? | Common Dreams

Are JPMorgan's Losses A Canary in a Coal Mine? | Common Dreams
"That sound of shattered glass you’ve been hearing is the iconic portrait of Jamie Dimon splintering as it hits the floor of JPMorgan Chase. As the Good Book says, “Pride goeth before a fall,” and the sleek silver-haired, too-smart-for-his-own-good CEO of America’s largest bank has been turning every television show within reach into a confessional booth. Barack Obama’s favorite banker faces losses of $2 billion and possibly more – all because of the complex, now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t trading in exotic financial instruments that he has so ardently lobbied Congress not to regulate."

Chris Hedges - Why OWS Frightens the Corporate Elite

Uncovering the Other ALECs

Uncovering the Other ALECs
"If Washington DC is the newVersailles, run by corporate overlords and their lobbyist-hired guns, then the 50 statehouses are its paternal twins. That is, while they look different in form, they share the same genetic function as avenues for the fulfillment of the corporate agenda."

Accidentally Released - and Incredibly Embarrassing - Documents Show How Goldman et al Engaged in 'Naked Short Selling' | Common Dreams

Accidentally Released - and Incredibly Embarrassing - Documents Show How Goldman et al Engaged in 'Naked Short Selling' | Common Dreams
"t doesn’t happen often, but sometimes God smiles on us. Last week, he smiled on investigative reporters everywhere, when the lawyers for Goldman, Sachs slipped on one whopper of a legal banana peel, inadvertently delivering some of the bank’s darker secrets into the hands of the public."

Wells Fargo Has Blood on Its Hands: Desperate Man Commits Suicide After Shocking Foreclosure Mistreatment | News & Politics | AlterNet

Wells Fargo Has Blood on Its Hands: Desperate Man Commits Suicide After Shocking Foreclosure Mistreatment | News & Politics | AlterNet
"This is the story of what happens when an average couple is up against a giant, wealthy, powerful bank."

CHART: Spending, Taxes, And Deficits Are All Lower Today Than When Obama Took Office

CHART: Spending, Taxes, And Deficits Are All Lower Today Than When Obama Took Office:  Federal spending is lower now than it was when President Obama took office. I’ll pause to let you absorb the news. In January 2009, before President Obama had even taken the oath of office, annual [...]/p

Morgan Stanley Shareholder Meeting Mic-Checked, Protesters Demand Accountability from MultiMillionaire CEO | AlterNet

Morgan Stanley Shareholder Meeting Mic-Checked, Protesters Demand Accountability from MultiMillionaire CEO | AlterNet
"As the shareholders asked questions, Gorman provided skillful non-answers or said that they should save their questions for after the vote, and a burly man with an earpiece circled the room, telling shareholders to put away their cell phones. Gorman did at one point acknowledge that the firm would not exist without bailouts from governments around the world, but seemed to take no responsibility for the bank's role in precipitating the economic crash."

RNC Chair Calls for Less Regulation of Wall Street After $2 Billion JPMorgan Loss

RNC Chair Calls for Less Regulation of Wall Street After $2 Billion JPMorgan Loss
"As Steve pointed out, this is Mitt Romney's position as well and they're counting on the public hating regulation as much or more than they hate Wall Street. That's the talking point they've been hammering home regardless of how reckless Wall Street and the bankers have been in the aftermath of the crash and ever since President Obama took office, so I don't expect them to change now. Forget about the fact that Wall Street took our economy down, regulations are terrible."

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Dimon To Resign From NY Fed Board

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Dimon To Resign From NY Fed Board
"It's unlikely that any of Wall Street's criminals will ever go to jail, but maybe if we kick up enough of a fuss, we can get Jamie Dimon kicked off the board of the NY Fed."

Deficit Reduction: The Great Distraction | Common Dreams

Deficit Reduction: The Great Distraction | Common Dreams
"when we hear Erskine Bowles and his friends rant about the deficit this week, we should remember that once again they are distracting the public from the country's real problems. And this crew is at the center of those problems; it is not the solution."

Elizabeth Warren on risk and regulation

Fox's Flawed Attempt To Deflect Attention From Romney's Leveraged Buyout Record

Fox's Flawed Attempt To Deflect Attention From Romney's Leveraged Buyout Record
"Fox News is pushing fatally flawed analogies to defend Mitt Romney from criticism over his jobs record at Bain Capital, pointing to the Obama administration's green energy loans and the successful rescue of the U.S. auto industry. These comparisons crumble under scrutiny, as leveraged buyouts are different from providing bankruptcy financing or loans."

Let's Put Jamie Dimon on Trial And Ask Him What the Hell JP Morgan Does for America | Economy | AlterNet

Let's Put Jamie Dimon on Trial And Ask Him What the Hell JP Morgan Does for America | Economy | AlterNet
"Let’s put JPMorgan Chase chairman, president and CEO James “Jamie” Dimon on trial. Mr. Dimon has a reputation for being the sagest guy on Wall Street and an expert at managing risk. JPMorgan emerged from the financial crisis not just unscathed but secure enough to step in and rescue Bear Stearns when the government asked it to. (He gets very mad when you say that his bank got bailed out by the government, and he insists that the government made him take all that free money.)"

Right-Wing Lauds Facebook Co-Founder’s Decision To Renounce US Citizenship: He’s ‘An American Hero’

Right-Wing Lauds Facebook Co-Founder’s Decision To Renounce US Citizenship: He’s ‘An American Hero’: Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook whose falling out with the company and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg was the subject of the 2010 blockbuster The Social Network, renounced his US citizenship last week, and the right has wasted no time labeling him a hero. Saverin, who owns a roughly four percent stake of Facebook, announced [...]/p

Why America is Doomed to One Disaster After Another » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Why America is Doomed to One Disaster After Another » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"America’s crisis is both military and economic; they are interrelated because America has a huge deficit, in large part because it has the chimerical ambition to be the world’s dominating military power, which costs it immense sums of money, which its deficit spending largely funds.  At the same time it has lost most of its major conflicts militarily, politically—or both."

Fox Finds The Villain Of JPMorgan Chase's $2 Billion Loss: Regulation

Fox Finds The Villain Of JPMorgan Chase's $2 Billion Loss: Regulation
"In the wake of a $2 billion trading loss sustained by the bank JPMorgan Chase, many economists have advocated for the strengthening of financial reform to prevent against reckless behavior. Not Fox, however, which has argued that the problem is too much regulation of Wall Street banks."

Corporate Media and the Austerity Campaign

JPMorgan's losses spark talk of new rules. Elizabeth Warren calls for Jamie Dimon to quit NY Fed

JPMorgan's losses spark talk of new rules. Elizabeth Warren calls for Jamie Dimon to quit NY Fed
"Anyone looking for silver linings in last week's announcement from JPMorgan that it had lost $2 billion with synthetic credit default swaps this quarter could be excused for thinking that now, finally, maybe there will be a real push to get banks regulated beyond a milquetoast way."

House Republicans having a hard time defending Ryan budget vote

House Republicans having a hard time defending Ryan budget vote
"Rep. Paul Ryan's budget and his kinder, gentler approach to ending Medicare as we know it is no more popular in 2012 than it was in 2011."

So-Called ‘Moderate’ Justice Anthony Kennedy Was The Driving Force Behind Citizens United

So-Called ‘Moderate’ Justice Anthony Kennedy Was The Driving Force Behind Citizens United: Over at the New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin has a lengthy and excellent piece recounting the history the Supreme Court’s election-buying decision in Citizens United. Toobin frames the piece at the tale of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts’ strategic triumph over more than a hundred years of regulation limiting big money’s influence on politics. Nevertheless, the [...]/p

Occupy Isn't About Electing Democrats--It's About Exposing a Broken System | | AlterNet

Occupy Isn't About Electing Democrats--It's About Exposing a Broken System | | AlterNet
"The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party didn't succeed by electing candidates--it succeeded showing the limitations of the electoral system. Occupy should do the same.'

Hedges: How Our Demented Capitalist System Made America Insane | Economy | AlterNet

Hedges: How Our Demented Capitalist System Made America Insane | Economy | AlterNet
"When civilizations start to die they go insane. Let the ice sheets in the Arctic melt. Let the temperatures rise. Let the air, soil and water be poisoned. Let the forests die. Let the seas be emptied of life. Let one useless war after another be waged. Let the masses be thrust into extreme poverty and left without jobs while the elites, drunk on hedonism, accumulate vast fortunes through exploitation, speculation, fraud and theft. Reality, at the end, gets unplugged."

Five Facts That Put America to Shame | Common Dreams

Five Facts That Put America to Shame | Common Dreams
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These words, from poet Emma Lazarus, were inscribed on the Statue of Liberty over 100 years ago. Today the golden door has a lock on it, paid for with record profits from the health care, education, and financial industries."

What Jamie Dimon's $2 Billion Dollar Fail Reveals About Our Banking System | Economy | AlterNet

What Jamie Dimon's $2 Billion Dollar Fail Reveals About Our Banking System | Economy | AlterNet
"What just happened at J.P. Morgan – along with its leader’s cavalier dismissal – reveals how fragile, opaque and dangerous the banking system continues to be"

Republicans, the Anti-Stimulus

Republicans, the Anti-Stimulus
"But while the U.S. economy under President Obama continues to outperform the austerians in Europe, American growth and employment numbers could have been much better. Better, that is, if steep cuts by state and local governments hadn't undone the indisputable job creation benefits of the federal stimulus. Thanks to intransigent Republican governors and their obstructionist GOP allies in Congress, the shrinking American public sector has slowed the recovery from the Bush recession and added a full point to the U.S. unemployment rate."

CEOs Of Tax Dodging Corpotations Want To Cut Their Own Taxes Too

CEOs Of Tax Dodging Corpotations Want To Cut Their Own Taxes Too: Earlier this week, the CEOs of 18 corporations wrote an open letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner opining that it would be a mistake to increase the tax rate on dividends and capital gains as called for in the Obama administration’s budget. The budget treats investment income the same as ordinary wage income for households [...]/p

How Huge Paychecks For CEOs And Wall Street Traders Increase Income Inequality

How Huge Paychecks For CEOs And Wall Street Traders Increase Income Inequality: Over the last few decades, the gap between the richest Americans and everybody else has grown substantially. According to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute, one of the driving factors has been the growth in pay going to executives and employees of financial firms: The significant income growth at the very top of [...]/p

Insurers Will Pay $1.3 Billion In Rebates To 16 Million Consumers Because Of Obamacare

Insurers Will Pay $1.3 Billion In Rebates To 16 Million Consumers Because Of Obamacare: Thanks to a provision of the Affordable Care Act, 16 million consumers and businesses are expected to receive about $1.3 billion in rebates from health insurance companies, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The medical loss ratio rule requires insurers to spend at least 80 to 85 percent of premiums on patient care; if not, [...]/p

Super PAC Spending Teeters at $100 Million Mark | Common Dreams

Super PAC Spending Teeters at $100 Million Mark | Common Dreams
"Expenditures by super PACs were expected to hit the $100 million mark today, further proof that outside spending will far outstrip anything seen in previous election cycles."

Occupy Keeps Up the Momentum With an Anti-Austerity Week of Actions in NYC | AlterNet

Occupy Keeps Up the Momentum With an Anti-Austerity Week of Actions in NYC | AlterNet
"Occupy Wall Street isn't wasting any time post- Spring Awakening and May Day. It is geared up for a full week of actions addressing different issues each day from May 10 to May 15. It is clear that Occupy is working very hard not to lose its spring momentum."

JP Morgan's $2 Billion Tumble Renews Call: 'Break Up the Big Banks' | Common Dreams

JP Morgan's $2 Billion Tumble Renews Call: 'Break Up the Big Banks' | Common Dreams
"Wall Street titan JPMorgan Chase on Thursday admitted that poorly positioned trades cost the bank $2 billion in losses. The news sent stocks of other big banks tumbling and raised the alarm once again over the tenuous nature of the financial system and the role of 'too big to fail' banks in the world economy."

How the Corporate Right Hijacked America's Courts to Enrich the Top 1 Percent | News & Politics | AlterNet

How the Corporate Right Hijacked America's Courts to Enrich the Top 1 Percent | News & Politics | AlterNet
"It's the result of years of institutional investments by the corporate Right to advance a reactionary legal regime in America's courts. In the process, the richest Americans now have their hands in both our legislative and judicial branches, while working America has become a voiceless stepping stone."

We’re All Greeks Now » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

We’re All Greeks Now » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"If your goal is loot nations while putting their populations into permanent debt servitude, austerity is a real winner."

Health Insurers Owe Millions In Rebates To Floridians Thanks To Obamacare Regulations

Health Insurers Owe Millions In Rebates To Floridians Thanks To Obamacare Regulations: Health insurance companies owe tens of millions to Florida policy holders after they failed to meet an Affordable Care Act provision that limits the amount of premium dollars that insurers can spend on overhead. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, Floridians could receive up to $149 million in rebates this summer, even though political [...]/p

PHOTOS: Thousands Turn Out To Protest Bank Of America’s Annual Meeting In Charlotte

PHOTOS: Thousands Turn Out To Protest Bank Of America’s Annual Meeting In Charlotte: Thousands of protesters gathered outside Bank of America’s Charlotte, North Carolina headquarters throughout the day today, protesting the bank’s involvement in the financial crisis, its shady foreclosure practices, and its financing of destructive environmental projects. At least four protesters were arrested for crossing police lines during the protests, which otherwise remained largely peaceful, according to [...]/p

Top Five Reasons Why Bank Of America Is Being Occupied

Top Five Reasons Why Bank Of America Is Being Occupied: North Carolina is in the news for its new ban on marriage equality, but there’s something else happening in the Tarheel state today: The Bank of America shareholders meeting is being occupied. In the recession’s fallout, Bank of America has been a primary target, and the demonstrations at its shareholder meeting are just another in [...]/p

Nearly Two-Thirds Of Private-Sector Jobs Added In Last 50 Years Came Under Democratic Presidents

Nearly Two-Thirds Of Private-Sector Jobs Added In Last 50 Years Came Under Democratic Presidents: Republicans have made a show of their supposed job creation efforts over the past three years, decrying “job killing” regulations and taxes on “job creators.” They have a web site — 4jobs.gov — devoted to their job creation agenda and have even named legislation the JOBS Act. They have also slammed President Obama, saying that [...]/p

Fox's Bolling Is Oblivious To Positive Changes In Economy Under Obama

Fox's Bolling Is Oblivious To Positive Changes In Economy Under Obama
"Fox's Eric Bolling said that "there isn't one" economic metric that has improved since President Obama took office. In fact, the economy stopped shrinking and started growing since Obama's inauguration, private-sector jobs and exports have increased, and employment turned from sharp declines to growth."

Paul Ryan Defends Cutting Food Stamps For The Poor: ‘You Have To Get Savings In Some Of These Areas’

Paul Ryan Defends Cutting Food Stamps For The Poor: ‘You Have To Get Savings In Some Of These Areas’: JANESVILLE, Wisconsin — Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) defended his budget’s major cuts to food stamps outside a town hall on Friday, telling ThinkProgress that “we think you have to get savings in some of these areas where you’ve had a huge increase in spending.” Food stamps were a hot topic at his town hall meetings [...]/p

Catholic Bishops Send Letter Criticizing House GOP’s Cuts To Food Assistance, Other Safety Net Programs

Catholic Bishops Send Letter Criticizing House GOP’s Cuts To Food Assistance, Other Safety Net Programs: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent letters to various Congressional committees last month criticizing the “unjustified and wrong” cuts to food stamps, health care, and other safety net programs contained in the House GOP’s budget, authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), a practicing Catholic. Today, the Bishops sent another letter to members [...]/p

On the History of the U.S. Economy in Decline » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

On the History of the U.S. Economy in Decline » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
"The Occupy movement has been an extremely exciting development. Unprecedented, in fact. There’s never been anything like it that I can think of.  If the bonds and associations it has established can be sustained through a long, dark period ahead — because victory won’t come quickly — it could prove a significant moment in American history."

The Tea Party - A front group for Banksters & Billionaires

House GOP Would Slash Billions In Benefits For Low-Income Disabled Kids

House GOP Would Slash Billions In Benefits For Low-Income Disabled Kids: House Republicans recently proposed billions of dollars in cuts to Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a critical income support for kids with severe disabilities who live in households with very low-income and assets. While the proposed cuts amount to just one 1/100th [...]/p

Arsonists Posing As Firemen: US Austerity and the Destruction of a Nation | Common Dreams

Arsonists Posing As Firemen: US Austerity and the Destruction of a Nation | Common Dreams
"By now, it should be official: austerity in the midst of a jobs crisis doesn’t work."

The New Wall Street Racket Looting Your City, One Block at a Time | Economy | AlterNet

The New Wall Street Racket Looting Your City, One Block at a Time | Economy | AlterNet
"New schemes hold the public hostage to private finance."

Federal Judges Toss Out 76 Class Actions Thanks To Last Year’s Biggest SCOTUS Giveaway To Corporate America

Federal Judges Toss Out 76 Class Actions Thanks To Last Year’s Biggest SCOTUS Giveaway To Corporate America: About one year ago, the Supreme Court handed down its most significant pro-corporate decision since Citizens United — a decision which empowered corporations to force their workers and consumers to completely sign away their ability to hold the corporation accountable in a class action lawsuit. As the New York Times reports, this case, AT&T v. [...]/p

None of the Poor Children Matter | Common Dreams

None of the Poor Children Matter | Common Dreams
"Officials in Clearwater, Fla., are working diligently to put the hungry in their place. In this case that place is eight miles out of town at a facility near the county jail. The St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen is -- according to the well fed elitists running the town -- "enabling" the handout taking behavior of those just looking for a meal."

INFOGRAPHIC: House GOP’s Deficit Reduction Efforts Dwarfed By Cost Of Tax Cuts For The Rich

INFOGRAPHIC: House GOP’s Deficit Reduction Efforts Dwarfed By Cost Of Tax Cuts For The Rich: House Republicans will today finalize their deficit reduction plans as required under the Budget Control Act, the deal reached last August to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. The deal required cuts to both domestic discretionary and military spending, but the GOP quickly reneged on that plan, choosing to cut more from programs for the poor [...]/p

Occupy the PGA To Protest Selling Off of Benton Harbor, Michigan

Occupy the PGA To Protest Selling Off of Benton Harbor, Michigan
"Rallies are planned for the Professional Golfer's Association Senior Tour Event in Benton Harbor, Michigan, from May 23-27, in protest of Whirlpool Corporation, the Cornerstone Alliance, the Harbor Shores development, Gov. Rick Snyder, Emergency Manager Joseph Harris, State Rep. Al Pscholka, and Rep. Fred Upton. All are part of an effort to take property from the residents of Benton Harbor and sell it to the Harbor Shores development."

Paul Ryan Challenged By Town Hall Constituents Over Previous Praise Of Ayn Rand

Paul Ryan Challenged By Town Hall Constituents Over Previous Praise Of Ayn Rand: JANESVILLE, Wisconsin — Last month, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) disavowed his one-time political muse, Ayn Rand, because of her “atheist philosophy.” Some of his constituents, however, aren’t buying it. Ryan praised Rand’s ideas at length during a 2005 gathering in her honor and declared that “the reason I got involved in public service, by and [...]/p

America’s Corporations Made A Record $824 Billion Last Year, As Conservatives Claim Obama Is Anti-Business

America’s Corporations Made A Record $824 Billion Last Year, As Conservatives Claim Obama Is Anti-Business: A favorite conservative attack on President Obama is that his policies — and even his personality — amount to an assault on American businesses. “President Obama himself is the most anti-business president in my lifetime. With rhetoric not befitting a president he has attacked oil companies, banks, airplane users, Wall Street and anyone who makes [...]/p

Epistle to the Ecotopians: Last Words to an America in Decline | Common Dreams

Epistle to the Ecotopians: Last Words to an America in Decline | Common Dreams
"[This document was found on the computer of Ecotopia author Ernest Callenbach (1929-2012) after his death.]"

Social Security Is Not Going Broke | Common Dreams

Social Security Is Not Going Broke | Common Dreams
"Which federal program took in more than it spent last year, added $95 billion to its surplus and lifted 20 million Americans of all ages out of poverty?"

The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time-Bomb | Environment | AlterNet

The Worst Yet to Come? Why Nuclear Experts Are Calling Fukushima a Ticking Time-Bomb | Environment | AlterNet
"Experts say acknowledging the threat would call into question the safety of dozens of identically designed nuclear power plants in the U.S."

Noam Chomsky on America's Economic Suicide | Economy | AlterNet

Noam Chomsky on America's Economic Suicide | Economy | AlterNet
"We’re a nation whose leaders are pursuing policies that amount to economic “suicide” Chomsky says. But there are glimmers of possibility"

CHART: Under Obama, Economy Has Recovered All Private Sector Jobs Lost During Bush Recession

CHART: Under Obama, Economy Has Recovered All Private Sector Jobs Lost During Bush Recession: Our guest blogger is Michael Linden, the Director of Tax and Budget Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. As of April, there are now more private sector jobs in the United States than there were in January 2009, when President Obama took office. You read that right. We have now replaced all [...]/p

AZ House Candidate Jesse Kelly Etch A Sketches Earlier Plans To Privatize, Phase Out Entitlements

AZ House Candidate Jesse Kelly Etch A Sketches Earlier Plans To Privatize, Phase Out Entitlements: With the June 12 special election to fill the Arizona House seat left open by the resignation of Rep. Gabby Giffords (D) fast approaching, the Republican nominee Jesse Kelly has just launched a new attack ad against his Democratic opponent Ron Barber. In the ad and a newly revised section of his campaign website, Kelly [...]/p

The Crushing Burden of Student Debt

The Crushing Burden of Student Debt
"A panel discussion held at the Occupy! Gazette‘s Occupy Onward Conference, December 18, 2011, at the New School for Social Research, New York City. Transcript from Occupy! Gazette Issue 4."

Romney Claims Economy Should Be Adding 500,000 Jobs A Month, Which It Has Done Only Four Times In 50 Years

Romney Claims Economy Should Be Adding 500,000 Jobs A Month, Which It Has Done Only Four Times In 50 Years: The American economy added 115,000 jobs in April, and while that number fell well short of expectations, it represents the 26th consecutive month of private sector job growth. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was quick to harp on the report, appearing on Fox & Friends just minutes after the release to say that the [...]/pPublish Post

Latest Batch of DHS Occupy Documents Contains New Details About Monitoring of Protest Movement

Latest Batch of DHS Occupy Documents Contains New Details About Monitoring of Protest Movement
"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released another batch of documentsThursday morning in response to Truthout's wide-ranging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request pertaining to the agency's role in monitoring the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest movement."

First Bankers In Hell | Common Dreams

First Bankers In Hell | Common Dreams
"A disabled woman in California facing eviction - and offering a good-faith mortgage payment to prevent it - was arrested"

What It's Like When the NYPD Raids Your Apartment At Dawn-- Because Your Roommate is in Occupy | AlterNet

What It's Like When the NYPD Raids Your Apartment At Dawn-- Because Your Roommate is in Occupy | AlterNet
"I chatted briefly with musician Justin Remer, whose Brooklyn apartment was raided by the NYPD on Monday morning in an incident that was first reported on Gawker and sure looks from all angles like a pre May Day intimidation tactic. I was curious about how the experience felt."

Is Your Stuff Falling Apart? Thank Wal-Mart | Visions | AlterNet

Is Your Stuff Falling Apart? Thank Wal-Mart | Visions | AlterNet
"As Walmart takes over an ever-larger share of the global economy, companies that favor a more durable and sustainable model of production are squeezed to the margins."

Sheriff Attempts To Avoid Occupy Protests By Evicting Atlanta Family Fighting Foreclosure At 3 AM

Sheriff Attempts To Avoid Occupy Protests By Evicting Atlanta Family Fighting Foreclosure At 3 AM: An Atlanta-area family facing foreclosure was evicted early Wednesday morning as sheriff’s deputies attempted to avoid activists affiliated with the Occupy Our Homes movement. Christine Frazer received a foreclosure notice on her home from One Corporation in October 2011 and has been fighting it in federal court ever since. Protesters set up camp outside her [...]/p

CEO pay and the top 1%: How executive compensation and financial-sector pay have fueled income inequality | Economic Policy Institute

CEO pay and the top 1%: How executive compensation and financial-sector pay have fueled income inequality | Economic Policy Institute
"Growing income inequality has a number of sources, but a distinct aspect of rising inequality in the United States is the wage gap between the very highest earners—those in the upper 1.0 percent or even upper 0.1 percent—and other earners, including other high-wage earners. Driving this ever-widening gap is the unequal growth in earnings enjoyed by those at the top."

Media Get Bored With Occupy—and Inequality | Common Dreams

Media Get Bored With Occupy—and Inequality | Common Dreams
"Occupy Wall Street is rightly credited with helping to shift the economic debate in America from a fixation on deficits to issues of income inequality, corporate greed and the centralization of wealth among the richest 1 percent."

How Wall Street Drives Up Gas Prices -- Ripping Us Off and Killing Jobs | News & Politics | AlterNet

How Wall Street Drives Up Gas Prices -- Ripping Us Off and Killing Jobs | News & Politics | AlterNet
"Wall Street is financializing the commodities markets – especially oil – as it seeks new ways to pick our pockets. The same greedy swindlers who puffed up the housing bubble and then milked it dry are now hard at work doing the same with gasoline."

ALEC’s Top Five Anti-Environment ‘Model’ Laws

ALEC’s Top Five Anti-Environment ‘Model’ Laws: by Stephen Lacey and Jessica Goad The American Legislative Exchange Council, a “stealth business lobbyist” that helps corporations write state and federal legislation supporting their interests, has taken major heat for its backing of controversial laws. More than a dozen companies — including Coca Cola and Procter & Gamble — have pulled out of the [...]/p

IN Sen. Candidate Mourdock Fueled With Contributions From Oil & Gas Industry, Investors, And ‘Slumlord’

IN Sen. Candidate Mourdock Fueled With Contributions From Oil & Gas Industry, Investors, And ‘Slumlord’: Federal election law requires candidates to disclose not just the names and addresses of all donors contributing more than $200 to a candidate, but also (where possible) the donor’s employer and occupation. Of the more than 750 donations received by Richard Mourdock’s primary campaign for Indiana Senate to date, one stands out. Earl Pendleton Holt, [...]/p

Activists Occupy the Justice Department to Demand an End to Racist Mass Incarceration

Activists Occupy the Justice Department to Demand an End to Racist Mass Incarceration
"On Tuesday, April 24, several hundred activists from around the country gathered outside the Justice Department (DOJ) in Washington, DC, to call for an end to mass incarceration."

The Current Business Paradigm Is Toxic to Business and Society. Here's How We Change It

The Current Business Paradigm Is Toxic to Business and Society. Here's How We Change It
"The current business paradigm can be summed up in its four flawed principles:

• The business of business is business

• A business exists to maximize value for its shareholders

• Short-term profits are maximized even at the expense of a company's long-term financial health

• Compliance can be equated with business ethics"

As The Richest Americans Get Richer, The Rest Are Drowning In Debt

As The Richest Americans Get Richer, The Rest Are Drowning In Debt: Income inequality surged onto the national political radar in 2011, as the 99 Percent Movement focused America on the fact that while the richest Americans’ incomes were skyrocketing, wages remained relatively stagnant for the lower and middle classes. American income inequality is now worse than it is in countries like Ivory Coast and Pakistan, and [...]/p

Scott Brown double dips on massive Wall Street campaign donations

Scott Brown double dips on massive Wall Street campaign donations
"No wonder Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) is working so hard to distract Massachusetts voters with non-issues. That's so they don't pay attention to just how much he is owned by Wall Street."

Move Your Money: Faith Leaders, Activists To Target Wall Street Banks Throughout Month Of May

Move Your Money: Faith Leaders, Activists To Target Wall Street Banks Throughout Month Of May: Activists from the 99 Percent Movement took to the streets across America to mark May Day on Tuesday, but their campaign against Wall Street is just beginning. In the month of May, activist groups and religious leaders will again turn their focus to urging customers to move their money from Wall Street banks. Last week, [...]/p

Rightwing ALEC Puts Wisconsin Anti-Labor Laws On May Agenda | | AlterNet

Rightwing ALEC Puts Wisconsin Anti-Labor Laws On May Agenda | | AlterNet
Michigan's Koch-Funded Mackinac Center Is Bringing Wisconsin Act 10 Provisions to ALEC's spring meeting.

House GOP Would Slash Billions in Benefits for Low-Income Disabled Kids

House GOP Would Slash Billions in Benefits for Low-Income Disabled Kids: Our guest blogger is Rebecca Vallas from the SSI Coalition for Children and Families. House Republicans recently proposed billions of dollars in cuts to Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a critical income support for kids with severe disabilities who live in households with very low-income and assets. While the proposed cuts amount to just one 1/100th [...]/p

May Day 2012, New York City

Why Republicans Love Citizens United, In One Chart

Why Republicans Love Citizens United, In One Chart: The following chart from the Center for Responsive Politics represents outside spending by non-candidate and party groups seeking to influence elections in every election cycle going back to 1990. As it demonstrates, such spending was on the rise even before the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate influence on elections in the Citizens [...]/p

Occupy General Strike In Over 135 Cities | OccupyWallSt.org

May Day Directory: Occupy General Strike In Over 135 Cities | OccupyWallSt.org

Fox Uses Misleading Numbers To Attack Obama's Economic Record

Fox Uses Misleading Numbers To Attack Obama's Economic Record
"Fox News displayed a graphic purporting to show that the economy has worsened under President Obama. But the data in the graphic hide the economic recovery under Obama and ignore the effect of the economic downturn and fiscal policies that started under President Bush."

Oakland Police Used ‘An Overwhelming Military-Type Response’ Against Occupy Protests, Offical Report Says

Oakland Police Used ‘An Overwhelming Military-Type Response’ Against Occupy Protests, Offical Report Says: Oakland police used “an overwhelming military-type response” to deal with Occupy protesters that took to city streets last fall, according to a new report from an outside monitor released early this week. The report also confirmed for the first time that it was police who fired a beanbag round that hit Iraq War veteran Scott [...]/p

Why I Had to Get Out: Confessions of a Wall Street Insider | Occupy Wall Street | AlterNet

Why I Had to Get Out: Confessions of a Wall Street Insider | Occupy Wall Street | AlterNet
"The culture of Wall Street is pervasive and contagious. While there are Wall Street employees who are able to ignore or block it out, I was not one of them. I drank the Kool Aid. I'm out of it now. But I'd like to tell you what it was like."