Obama administration wants more warrantless surveillance of Americans, Daily Kos, July 29, 2010, by Joan McCarter, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

As Yglesias says, “The End of Probable Cause.” WaPo reports:

The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation.

The administration wants to add just four words — “electronic communication transactional records” — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user’s browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the “content” of e-mail or other Internet communication.

This power would be conferred upon the same FBI whose agents have “cheated on tests on how to legally conduct domestic surveillance cases.” Maybe this is just the administration’s way of making sure these people won’t have to cheat on future tests–not they won’t have to worry about the pesky details of conducting domestic surveillance legally, since they won’t have to worry about warrants.

Matt raises the question of “misused work resources . . . for personal purposes.” The larger concern, and anybody who lived through Nixon and is old enough to remember it will share it, is the very real potential for the systematic misuse of information for political purposes. It’s happened before and will happen again, and our government should at least have to go through the niceties of taking actual legal steps in order to spy on us. As Matt also points out, it’s not that hard. All it takes is “some kind of cause—probable cause, let’s say—to suspect someone of involvement in terrorism, [is to] just get a warrant.”

Probable cause and warrants. The stuff of democracy. The stuff, in fact, of the Constitution, the fourth amendment to be precise.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

See ‘Private’ Browsing Sessions Not As Private As You Think, The Huffington Post, July 29, 2010, by Catherine Smith, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Surfing the Internet with a web browser’s “private mode” enabled may not keep users’ information as safe as they think, Switched reports, citing research conducted at Carnegie Mellon University.

Carnegie Mellon’s Collin Jackson told New Scientist that some sites may leave data on a computer’s hard drive, even if they were accessed while private browsing was enabled, effectively providing traces of what sites you’ve visited.

As Jackson and his team note, “sites visited while browsing in private mode should leave no trace on the user’s computer.” And yet, Jackson tells New Scientist that a hacker could “guess what sites you’ve been to based on traces left behind.” Switched summarizes the dilemma: “when your average surfer turns on the private mode in a browser, they expect their tracks to be erased, and erased they’re not.”

See Breaking a Promise on Surveillance, N.Y. Times Editorial, July 29, 2010, excerpt quoted verbatim:

It is just a technical matter, the Obama administration says: We just need to make a slight change in a law to make clear that we have the right to see the names of anyone’s e-mail correspondents and their Web browsing history without the messy complication of asking a judge for permission.

It is far more than a technical change. The administration’s request, reported Thursday in The Washington Post, is an unnecessary and disappointing step backward toward more intrusive surveillance from a president who promised something very different during the 2008 campaign.

In a 1993 update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Congress said that Internet service providers have to turn over to the F.B.I., on request, “electronic communication transactional records.” The government says this includes the e-mail records of their subscribers, specifically the addresses to which e-mail messages were sent, and the times and dates. (The content of the messages can remain private.) It may also include Web browsing records. To get this information, the F.B.I. simply has to ask for it in the form of a national security letter, which is an administrative request that does not require a judge’s signature.

But there was an inconsistency in the writing of the 1993 law. One section said that Internet providers had to turn over this information, but the next section, which specified what the F.B.I. could request, left out electronic communication records. In 2008, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion saying this discrepancy meant the F.B.I. could no longer ask for the information. Many Internet providers stopped turning it over. Now the Obama administration has asked Congress to make clear that the F.B.I. can ask for it.

Jay Rockefeller — “It would have been better if the internet had never existed” – CSpan2 — 2:45 Amazing.

See Gates Assails WikiLeaks Over Release of Reports, July 29, 2010, by Charlie Savage.

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The Final Lesson of BP, Robert Reich.org, July 28, 2010, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

BP is starting over. It just named a new American president and its finances are looking up. BP’s second-quarter report showed surprisingly strong revenues of $75.9 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimates. (This includes a $32.2 billion writedown along with the $20 billion liability fund that the Obama Administration wanted.) The company has started to sell $30 billion of its assets to ensure it has all the money it needs to pay any liability claims. No wonder several Wall Street analysts are suggesting BP stock as a terrific buy.

It doesn’t seem to matter BP was responsible for the worst environmental disaster in American history. Consumers worldwide – including Americans – continue to slurp up its oil.

But wait a minute. If BP emerges from this debacle fatter and happier than anyone imagined a few months ago, whatever happened to the idea of corporate accountability? Does this mean any giant corporation can wreak havoc and then get back to business as usual?

Corporations aren’t people. They have no brains, no consciences, no capacity for intent or guilt. Every one of their moveable parts can be replaced, just like BP’s former CEO Tony Hayward was replaced. Corporate accountability and responsibility are meaningless concepts. Corporations exist for only one purpose: to make money.

If we want corporations to act differently, we have to force them to do so through laws that are fully enforced and through penalties higher than the economic benefits of thwarting the laws.

Here’s the real outrage: In the wake of the BP spill, essentially no laws have been changed – not even a ridiculously low cap on damages private parties can collect from oil companies. Senate Republican leaders said Wednesday they wouldn’t support a bill retroactively removing the liability cap; and not even Democrats Mary Landrieu (D-La) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) will support it.

Why isn’t Congress doing more – not only removing the cap on civil liability but also raising the level of penalties oil companies have to pay for violating safety and environmental regulations, permanently prohibiting deep-water drilling, and enacting a carbon tax?

Because of Big Oil’s political clout.

The same anthropomorphic fallacy that accords human attributes to giant corporations like BP distorts clear thinking about how to limit their political influence.

Consider the grotesque Supreme Court decision earlier this year in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which gave corporations the status of people with First Amendment rights to spend unlimited amounts of money on political ads. Citizens United ranks right up there with Bush v. Gore and Dred Scott as the most brainless and irresponsible Supreme Court decisions in history.

In March, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals decided that in light of Citizens United, there was no longer any basis for limiting contributions to so-called independent committees set up to support or oppose particular candidates. (Such committees are known as 527’s, after a loophole clause in the campaign finance laws.) The old contribution limit was $69,900 every two years. Now even that’s gone.

And the Federal Elections Commission has just interpreted these two court decisions to mean corporations, not just individuals, can now give unlimited amounts of money to 527’s.

To top it off, Tuesday the Senate failed (by only a few votes) to pass the “Disclose Act,” that would have forced corporate sponsors of campaign ads to reveal themselves and not hide behind innocuous sounding names like “Americans for America.” The bill also would have prohibited campaign ads run by U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies. (Think BP.)

Now all the limits are gone and the gloves are completely off. Even BP, incorporated in the UK, is officially free influence American politics to its heart’s content.

The will of the American people is being subordinated to the demands of giant money-making machines called global corporations that can now spend or threaten to spend unlimited amounts of money in support of any politician willing to help them make more and against any who might cause them to make less.

This is the final lesson of BP.

What should you do? As with the loophole-ridden finance reform law, and the new health law that richly rewards Big Pharma — get angry, not cynical. Commit to getting big money out of politics, even if it takes us years.

Robert Reich was the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the Ten Most Successful Cabinet Members of the century. He has written eleven books, including “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages. His latest book is “Supercapitalism.” For Professor Reich’s book page for Supercaptialism at Amazon, go here. The above article is from Reich’s new blog, and can be viewed here.

Thanks to Professor Reich for permission to publish his articles on an ongoing basis.

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Markets seem skittish and almost somewhat schizophrenic about the Fed’s pessimism versus growth in industry giants indicating the economy may move slowly forward after all.

Sputtering economy spreading new fears, Press Democrat.com, July 23, 2010, by Don Lee of The Chicago Tribune, excerpt quoted verbatim:

U.S. unemployment rate expected to remain high

WASHINGTON — Even with the extension of jobless benefits for millions of workers, a growing body of evidence suggests the U.S. is heading toward an economic netherworld, avoiding a slide back into recession but growing so slowly that unemployment will remain high, home prices low and incomes essentially stagnant.

Many Americans may continue to feel much as they did during the worst recession in half a century: Filled with insecurity, financial pressures and fading hopes for a quick return to better times.

“Extended unemployment benefits is helpful but hardly the booster rocket that’s needed to get out of the gravitational pull of this terrible economy,” said Robert Reich, a public policy professor at UC Berkeley.

The former secretary of labor during the Clinton administration painted a grim picture of what the continuing economic weakness will mean for large numbers of people, including those who have lost jobs.

“If they’re over age 55 (and unemployed), it’s unlikely they’ll ever be back in the workforce. Most families that depended on two wage earners will have to substantially tighten their belts for a long time. More young people will be living with their parents, and more families will be doubling up.”

Lonnie Kane, who makes fashionable women’s sportswear, has similar concerns.

“I’m more worried about not getting better than about having a double dip,” said Kane, president of Karen Kane Inc. in Los Angeles. “I see it as just staying flat — and that’s not healthy.”

Although not all economists and business leaders see a gray future, and long-term forecasts often have been wrong, concerns over signs of renewed weakness have intensified in the past few weeks.

Policymakers at the Federal Reserve recently lowered their economic outlook, as have many private economists. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke chilled markets Wednesday by saying the economic outlook is “unusually uncertain” and predicting unemployment would remain stubbornly high for several years.

The attitude reflects a broad range of indicators that have grown increasingly anemic or negative in recent weeks: Consumer spending is softening. The trade deficit is widening. Housing sales are faltering. And manufacturing is losing steam.

The slowdown prompted Kane last month to cut by half his budget for capital spending this year. He also put off hiring more product-development workers. As for his staff of 165, Kane had intended to give them raises later this year after a two-year wage freeze.

“But now we’re having second thoughts,” said Kane, whose business is in its 31st year. “I just don’t have the confidence to spend the cash.”

Some analysts said the recent economic retreat could be a pause in the economy as it shifts from one supported by government to one buoyed by the private sector. Business spending for equipment and software remains solid. And the $34 billion bill to extend jobless benefits, signed Thursday by President Barack Obama, also would have a positive effect on the broader economy.

Even so, economic growth of less than 3 percent this year is widely forecast because of recent setbacks. And that won’t create enough jobs to make a meaningful dent in the nation’s 9.5 percent unemployment rate, given increases in productivity and the population.

“What it means is that millions of people unemployed or underemployed (and forced to work part time) or too discouraged to look for work won’t find jobs,” said Martin Regalia, chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He said many of the remaining employed will face smaller wage increases and fewer opportunities to move into new jobs and boost their incomes.

Further economic stimulus by the federal government is one possible way out of the malaise, possibly including zero-interest loans to businesses and more infrastructure projects. But with deficit hawks in Congress and across the nation digging in their heels, the chances of passing major new stimulus programs anytime soon look slim.

Obama pushed through a $787 billion economic stimulus early last year, which many agree helped rescue the economy from recession. But that’s done little for Obama’s standing with the public, and he and his advisers don’t appear interested in fighting for another large-scale stimulus.

“I think they’ve decided it’s less risky to ride it out and presumably things will be better in 2012″ when Obama is up for re-election, said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

It’s not that corporate America doesn’t have the wherewithal either.

Although many small businesses lack funds and credit to invest and expand, larger companies are sitting on mountains of cash earned from sharply rebounding profits in recent quarters. Much of that cash came from layoffs and other cost-cutting moves.

The Federal Reserve tallied companies’ so-called liquid assets at more than $1.8 trillion at the end of March, up nearly $400 billion from a year earlier. That’s money that could be used for more plants, equipment and staff.

But without American consumers spending more freely, many companies are holding back. While some corporations, such as Boeing Co. and Intel Corp., are building new plants or upgrading facilities in the U.S., others are buying rival businesses, which often leads to consolidation and job cuts. Still others are investing more abroad to tap markets in faster-growing economies in Asia and South America.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s going to be any reason to spend (the cash hoard) in the next 12 to 18 months,” said Ken Goldstein, an economist at the Conference Board.

The New York research group is projecting an anemic 1.5 percent to 2 percent growth rate in the second half of this year, a pace that would probably push the unemployment figure even higher.

Coming out of the last two deep recessions, in 1975 and 1982, the American economy gathered powerful steam at this stage of the recovery, and in both of those cases, all of the jobs lost during the downturns were recouped within a year.

By most accounts, the current recovery is already a year old. But apart from a brief burst of growth late last year, the recovery has been so tepid that the nation has recovered just 10 percent of the 8.4 million jobs erased in 2008 and 2009.

In one widely followed gauge, the University of Michigan said last week its index of consumer expectations fell last month to the lowest level since March 2009, when the nation still was mired in the recession.

“People focus on the double dip, but it’s sort of beside the point,” Baker said. “The main issue is we’re looking at a very weak growth. . . . It’s going to feel pretty bad even if it stays positive.”

See Foreclosure activity up across most US metro areas, AP on Yahoo News, July 29, 2010, by Alex Veiga.

See Fed eyes steps to bolster sputtering economy, © Evansville Courier and Press, July 14, 2010, by The Associated Press, excerpt quoted verbatim:

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials cut their forecasts for growth this year and signaled they stood ready to take new steps to keep the recovery alive if the economy worsens.

A new document, released Wednesday, revealed a more cautious mood among the Fed policymakers in light of Europe’s debt crisis, a volatile Wall Street, a stalled housing market and high unemployment.

With risks growing, Fed officials at their June 22-23 meeting saw the need to explore new options for bolstering the economy. That’s a turnaround from earlier this year when they were moving to wind down crisis-era supports.

No new specific steps were disclosed or agreed upon at that time.

However, if the recovery were to deteriorate, Fed policymakers have options. They could revive programs to buy mortgage securities or government debt. They could lower the rates banks pay for emergency Fed loans. The Fed also could create a new program to spark more lending to businesses and consumers in a bid to lure them to ratchet up spending and grow the economy.

The economic and political hurdles for taking such action would be high, economists said.

“If the economy takes a nasty spill, then yes, it would take new policy action. But if we continue to see kind of mediocre, ho-hum growth, then that won’t be enough for them to move,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase.

See Hope For Economy In Strong Manufacturing Reports, WSMV Channel 4.com, July 22, 2010, by ALAN ZIBEL, AP Business Writers, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Hope For Economy In Strong Manufacturing Reports

Leading People aren’t spending money like they used to. Unemployment is still flirting with double digits. And the housing market is still shaky. So the future looks bleak for the economy, right?

Not necessarily.

A handful of surprisingly good earnings reports Thursday suggested that some of the major U.S. companies that make things and move them around – including Caterpillar, 3M and UPS – could lead the way to an economic recovery.

It would be an unusual path back to better times. Consumer spending and housing usually lead the way.

But all three of those economic bellwether companies, plus AT&T and Union Pacific railroad, indicated business was picking up. And most said they expected it to get even stronger later this year.

Peter Buchanan, a senior economist at CIBC World Markets, said executives have taken pains lately not to raise hopes too high for big profits in future quarters. That spread fear among investors that the economy might stall.

But he says earnings results from UPS and Union Pacific should help ease such worries.

“If you’re moving stuff, it’s a broad indicator covering spending by both businesses and consumers,” Buchanan says. “Companies are erring on the side of caution in their forecasts … but on the ground the real results don’t look so bad.”

See Markets fall down after Fed economic report, AP on Kansas City.com, July 28, 2010, by Associated Press.

See Selfish and Stupid, Dubya’s Nightmare That Has Been Allowed to Continue, Daily Kos, July 28, 2010, by Badabing, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Nothing ever surprises me anymore….I am beyond the pale as they say, when I find out that Goldman Sachs, has gotten away with a bullsh*t $550 million dollar slap on the wrist, when I find out that now, according the MSM, that most ‘Americans’ think that the ‘Wars’ are ‘boring’ (so that they hope we do not pay attention to the new ‘Pentagon Papers’ of our century by WikiLeaks), or more recently, what the MSM has said: The BP Oil is now all ‘underwater’ where it does not ‘show’…you know..it must be………….wow……just ‘gone’ while BP just took $10 Billion of a subsidy paid by our own f**king government to pay off their $20 Billion so called ‘escrow account’……

Both parties, hope that if we can just ‘blame the Tea Baggers and the huge Right Swing’ in our own party’ (aka as the Blue Dogs) as being just another ‘strange beast’ that has shown up out of no where….we will all believe that same sh*t.

So I find it amazing, and hysterical that the Republicans are now calling the new Bio- Dubya’s New Book being called, ‘Selfish and Stupid’…….Let me tell you what ‘Selfish and Stupid’ really is: …

Read BP taking $10 billion tax credit from Gulf spill, a Discussion board over at Democratic Underground.

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Reid Leads in Nevada Senate Race – Democracy NOW! — 9:50.

Harry Reid to Bloggers at Netroots Nation: “I’m Proud of You for Taking On The Tea Party” — 9:29.

Uncertain Future for Reid Despite Rebound in Nev., ABC News Politics, July 25, 2010, by MICHAEL R. BLOOD AP Political Writer (Associated Press, quoted verbatim:

Despite Reid’s rebound in Nev. against GOP foe, Dems worry poor economy could drag him down.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid’s chances for six more years in Washington may be like tossing dice in a casino, even if he has made headway against Republican challenger Sharron Angle in a state with the nation’s highest rate of joblessness.

The four-term Reid holds a slight lead over Angle in the latest polling, thanks in part to her unsteady performance since winning the June primary and to Democratic ads portraying her as an extremist. Video of Angle scurrying away from reporters has mixed with television commercials of older voters upset about her call to phase out Social Security and Medicare.

But an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says Reid has a “a serious problem” with voters frustrated with the economy and “receives a great deal of blame.” The July 15 memo is based on polling research conducted for Patriot Majority, a union-funded group that is running TV ads against Angle.

How did Sharron Angle blow an 11-point lead on Harry Reid in seven weeks?

How did Sharron Angle blow an 11-point lead on Harry Reid in seven weeks?, Christian Science Monitor, July 28, 2010, by Brad Knickerbocker, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Just a few weeks ago, Senate majority leader Harry Reid seemed headed for political flameout.

Nevadans were down on their senior senator, according to the polls. The “tea party” movement was zeroing in on him as representative of all that’s wrong with big-government politics back in Washington. And it looked like any of his likely GOP opponents could beat the four-term incumbent in November.

Shortly after Nevada Republicans chose former state assemblywoman Sharron Angle to run against Reid, the beleaguered Democrat was trailing his opponent by 11 percentage points in a Rasmussen Reports poll of likely Nevada voters.

But things can change in a hurry.

Reid has moved ahead of Ms. Angle in the polls – by as much as seven points in the latest Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Angle campaign – with help from an increasingly worried national party – is having to beef up its campaign staff with outside professionals. And Angle is scrambling to change the subject regarding her earlier controversial positions and assertions.

“Reid has gone from being a very heavy underdog to being a slight favorite,” says Ted Jelen, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “The fact that Sharron Angle won the primary was a major break for him.”

Meanwhile, Republicans “are growing increasingly frustrated with Sharron Angle and her lackluster campaign … fearing she is jeopardizing what they had long viewed as a sure pickup and costing them a chance to reclaim the majority,” reports CQ Politics.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), acknowledges the challenge his party faces in Nevada.

“While running for election is not rocket science, it does require knowledgeable people, it does require some discipline, and that’s always a struggle for every first-time candidate,” Senator Cornyn told CQ Politics.

See and watch Majority Leader Reid, live from Netroots Nation, Daily Kos, July 24, 2010, by Jed Lewison, video and transcript with updates. (we gave you the audio of Reid’s comments at Netroots Nation, above.

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Evans Liberal Politics, July 29, 2010, by Paul Evans with sources from The Raw Story. Thanks to The Raw Story for permission to republish their content on an ongoing basis:

Ariz. sheriff: I’ll jail immigration protesters

Listen to Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio as he says nothing will change for the new immigration law and it will be enforced. AP News – 1:45.

Ariz. Sheriff: I’ll Jail Immigration Protestors, Associated Press on the Raw Story, July 28, 2010, by The Associated Press:

The sheriff of the most populous county in Arizona says he’s “not going to put up with any civil disobedience” when the state’s new immigration law takes effect.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says that if protesters want to block his jail, he’ll put them in it.

The Arizona law, which takes effect Thursday, requires officers enforcing other laws to check a person’s immigration status if they suspect the person is in the country illegally.

Arpaio told ABC’s “Good Morning America” he doesn’t know “what the big hype is.”

He says it’s “a crime to be here illegally and everyone should enforce” the law.

Watch video on this from ABC’s Good Morning America, broadcast July 28, 2010.

Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law

Judge blocks parts of Arizona immigration law, Associated Press on The Raw Story, July 28, 2010, by The Associated Press:

Judge blocks controversial sections of Arizona’s new immigration law

A federal judge dealt a serious blow to Arizona’s immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation’s toughtest-in-the-nation law. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge’s order overturned.

But for now, opponents of the law have prevailed: The provisions that angered opponents will not take effect, including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.

The judge also delayed parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places. In addition, the judge blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.

“Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully-present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked,” U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, a Clinton appointee, said in her decision.

She said the controversial sections should be put on hold until the courts resolve the issues. Other provisions of the law, many of them procedural and slight revisions to existing Arizona immigration statute, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

The law was signed by Brewer in April and immediately revived the national debate on immigration, making it a hot-button issue in the midterm elections. The law has inspired similar law elsewhere (21 other states, I believe — Paul Evans), prompted a boycott against the state and led an unknown number of illegal immigrants to leave the state. (About 400,000 illegal immigrants have been widely expected to flee Arizona. What the court ruling does is to possibly slow or diminish this flood of illegals from going to other, more friendly states. There are 46.9 million Latinos living in the United States plus 4 million who live in Puerto Rico. California is home to 13.5 million Hispanics, and Texas is home to 8.9 million. Hispanics also made up at least one fifth of the population in California and Texas, at 37% each, Arizona (30%t), Nevada (26%), Florida (21%) and Colorado (20%). If Republicans want 95 percent of these voting Democrat, I guess that’s their choice. — Paul Evans)

Read the full article, here.

UPDATE: Brewer: Fight over AZ law ‘far from over’

See Brewer: Fight over AZ law ‘far from over’, The Raw Story, July 28, 2010, by Agence France-Presse, excerpt quoted verbatim:

PHOENIX, Arizona — Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said Wednesday she would swiftly appeal a judge’s ruling blocking key parts of a new state immigration law, vowing to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.

“This fight is far from over. In fact, it is just the beginning, and at the end of what is certain to be a long legal struggle, Arizona will prevail in its right to protect our citizens,” Brewer said in a statement.

Opponents to take to streets against Arizona immigration law

Opponents to take to streets against Arizona immigration law, Agence France-Presse on The Raw Story, July 28m 2010, by Agence France-Presse.

Thousands are expected to march Thursday when an Arizona law making illegal immigration a crime goes into effect over government objections and amid fears it will lead to ethnic profiling.

Passed by the Arizona state legislature in April, the law has been challenged by the federal government with a possibility that a judge might delay its implementation. (now the judge’s ruling is a reality – Paul Evans)

But that will not placate its opponents.

“We are waiting for the court to decide, but even if it issues a temporary injunction… we’re still going ahead with our protests, because 21 other states want to follow Arizona’s footsteps with racist laws” of their own, Paulina Gonzalez, spokeswoman for the “We Are All Arizona” group told AFP.

The protest movement has come alive in Arizona, where one third of the 6.6 million population is foreign born and an estimated 460,000 are illegal immigrants.

The eyes of the entire nation are fixed on this southwestern state, as the issue of immigration has grown in national scope both due to the recent economic downturn and the upcoming November legislative elections.

“Thursday will be our national civil disobedience day, when we’ll stand up to a racist, discriminatory and hypocritical measure that targets the very people who work for those who speak against undocumented workers,” National Day Laborer Organizing Network director, Pablo Alvarado, told AFP.

Signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23, law SB1070 includes a provision especially rankling for civil rights group that allows police to ask for documents verifying a person’s immigration status while checking for any violation, such as during a traffic stop.

For the first time in the United States, the law makes illegal immigration a crime and penalizes anybody helping or giving work to undocumented workers.

Civil rights leaders fear the law will lead to widespread ethnic profiling.

Last week, federal judge Susan Bolton heard arguments for and against the law. (and the current ruling temporarily stays the most egregious parts of the law… Paul Evans)

White House lawyers argued in a packed court room that immigration policy is exclusively the government’s responsibility and that state laws cannot trump federal rules or the US Constitution.

Read the full article, here.

See Hating Hispanics: Has Arizona Ignited Firestorm After Decade of Simmering Tension?, ABC News, July 19, 2010, by Sarah Netter.

Visit the National Immigration Law Center.

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BP fails to put money in promised escrow account, Think Progress, July 24, 2010, by Nina Bhattacharya, quoted verbatim:

LISTEN to "BP defaults on $20 billion escrow account." – from GoLeftTV – 9:07

In a deal negotiated last month, President Obama and BP officials agreed the company would pay $5 billion annually over the next four years into an escrow account for damage its oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused. Ken Feinberg, who was appointed to administer oil spill claims out of the escrow fund, has said he “hasn’t been able to start writing claims checks” because BP PLC has failed to deposit any money into the $20 billion fund it promised to create:

Feinberg, who was appointed to administer oil spill claims out of the fund, said he doesn’t have the authority to force BP to deposit the money, but his hands are tied until it does. “I don’t want the checks to bounce,” he said.

The day after the escrow account’s establishment in June, BP CEO Tony Hayward told Congress that BP is “unwavering in our commitment to fulfill all our responsibilities” and the company “won’t stop spending until the job is done.”

See BP misses deadline to fund $20 billion escrow account, Las Vegas Democrat Examiner, July 25, 2010, by David Phillips.

Maybe they ARE thinking of paying this money though: See BP replaces CEO and posts $17 billion quarterly loss, Reuters, July 27, 2010, by Tim Bergin, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Reuters) – Oil giant BP Plc launched a plan to repair its battered image in the United States on Tuesday, ditching its gaffe-prone chief executive and promising to slim down by trebling an asset sale target to $30 billion.

However, the company, the target of public anger over its Gulf of Mexico oil spill, tempted further ire by denying it needed cultural change and by offsetting the costs of the spill, including expected fines, against its taxes.

The tax move will cost the U.S. taxpayer almost $10 billion.

BP said Tony Hayward would stand down in October, to be replaced by American Bob Dudley, as it unveiled a $17 billion quarterly loss due to the costs of the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

“I believe that it is not possible for the company to move on in the United States with me remaining as the face to BP,” Hayward told reporters on a conference call.”

…SNIP….

BP shares traded up down 0.6 percent at 1247 GMT, against a 0.68 percent rise in the oil sector. Investors had cheered reports of Hayward’s imminent departure on Monday, sending BP shares up nearly 5 percent in London and New York.

Around $70 billion has been wiped off the London-based company’s market value since the rig blast.

UPDATE: See BP Envisions a Leaner Future Under Its New Chief Executive, The New York Times, July 27, 2010, by Julia Werdigier and Jad Mouawad.

UPDATE: See On the Surface, Gulf Oil Spill Is Vanishing Fast; Concerns Stay, The New York Times, July 27, 2010, by Justin Gillis and Campbell Robertson, excerpt quoted verbatim:

The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Comment by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: Yeah, I’m sure the plumes at depth are disappearing fast. And on the surface of it, a 17 billion quarterly loss seems to imply that BP is planning on paying its money into the escrow account. It would be hard to rack up that kind of losses otherwise…. Time will tell.

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The Great Decoupling of Corporate Profits from Jobs, Robert Reich.org, July 26, 2010, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

Second-quarter earnings reports are coming in, and they’re making Wall Street smile. Corporate profits are up. And big American companies are sitting on a gigantic pile of money. The 500 largest non-financial firms held almost a trillion dollars in the second quarter, and that money pile is growing larger this quarter. Profits that plummeted in the recession have bounced back. Big businesses have recovered almost 90 percent of what they lost.

So with all this money and profit, they’ll start hiring again, right? Wrong – for three reasons.

First, lots of their profits are coming from their overseas operations. So that’s where they’re investing and expanding production.

GM now sells more cars in China than it does in the US, but makes most of them there. The company now employs 32,000 hourly workers in China. But only 52,000 GM hourly workers remain in the United States – down from 468,000 in 1970.

GM isn’t just hiring low-tech assembly workers in China. Last week the firm broke ground there on a $250 million advanced technology center to develop batteries and other alternative energy sources.

You and I and other American taxpayers still own over 60 percent of GM. We bought GM to save GM jobs, remember?

GM officials say no American taxpayer money is being used to expand in China. But money is fungible. Because of our generosity, GM can now use the dollars it doesn’t have to spend in the United States meeting its American payrolls and repaying its creditors, for new investments in China.

Second, big U.S. businesses are investing their cash in labor-saving technologies. This boosts their productivity, but not their payrolls.

Last Friday, for example, Ford reported a $2.6 billion second-quarter profit. The firm is already more than two-thirds the way to equaling its record 1999 profits. But due to labor-saving technologies, Ford now has half as many employees as it did a decade ago.

Wall Street analysts are happy with Ford’s “commitment to keeping capacity in check,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Ford shares rose 5.2 percent Friday. “Keeping capacity in check” is the Street’s way of saying “no new hiring.” In fact, the Street is advising investors to sell the stocks of companies that talk openly of expanding capacity.

Finally, corporations are using their pile of money to pay dividends to their shareholders and buy back their own stock – thereby pushing up share prices.

Last Friday, GE announced it would raise its dividend by 20 percent and reinstate its share-buyback plan. It’s GE’s first dividend increase since the company cut its dividend in early 2009. As a result, GE shares are up more than 5% in the past few days.

Bottom line: Higher corporate profits no longer lead to higher employment. We’re witnessing a great decoupling of company profits from jobs.

The next supply-side economist who tells you companies need more incentive (i.e. lower taxes) before they’ll hire is living on another planet.

The reality is this: Big American companies may never rehire large numbers of workers. And they won’t even begin to think about hiring until they know American consumers will buy their products. The problem is, American consumers won’t start buying against until they know they have reliable paychecks.

Watch Foreclosures on Pace for Record, AP Video on YouTube — 1:01

Robert Reich was the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the Ten Most Successful Cabinet Members of the century. He has written eleven books, including “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages. His latest book is “Supercapitalism.” For Professor Reich’s book page for Supercaptialism at Amazon, go here. The above article is from Reich’s new blog, and can be viewed here.

Thanks to Professor Reich for permission to publish his articles on an ongoing basis.

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Tea Parties Racked By Infighting, Confusion and Dissent, Mother Jones on AlterNet, July 25, 2010, by Stephanie Mencimer, quoted verbtim:

A series of rallies meant to help unify the movement have actually sired confusion and dissent.

The tea party movement is not just a political juggernaut — it’s also become a big business. That quickly became clear following last September’s unexpectedly enormous rally in Washington organized by Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, the event that helped put the movement on the map. With crowd estimates ranging from 75,000 to 2 million, the rally was such a hit that conservative activists are planning a sequel this year. A bunch of them actually. And these competing events have led to confusion and infighting among the tea party faithful. The conflict has reached such a pitch that Glenn Beck weighed in with a plea for unity on his radio show Thursday. “I don’t care who started it,” he lectured. “We must come together.”

If nothing else, conservative activists will have plenty of opportunities this summer to publicly vent their frustrations with the Obama administration. On the afternoon of September 12, FreedomWorks plans a repeat of last year’s march on the National Mall. Another group with ties to Beck’s National 9.12 Project has decided to get in on the action as well, putting together a three-day extravaganza that weekend that includes a “liberty XPO” at a swank DC hotel and a march on the Mall on the 9th anniversary of 9/11. Then there’s the “Restoring Honor” spectacle planned by Beck himself for the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the same spot. That rally will be followed the next day by yet another protest march, this one sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots.

Despite the many offerings in the works, this may be one case where competition won’t lead to a better product. Some activists fear that the smorgasbord of events — and the fighting about them — will dilute the impact of a single rally and divert precious resources away from where they need to be: in local elections. Bemoaning all the dissention, Darla Dawald, director of ResistNet, a social networking site for “patriots” recently lamented that “the movement is caught up in a tsunami of egos, nasty attitudes, manipulation, criticism, and pseudo leaders.”

The march controversy got its start last year, when tea party groups stunned the Washington establishment by arriving en masse for FreedomWorks’ mega rally on the Capitol lawn. The event landed with such impact that a couple of days after the march, FreedomWorks’ state and federal campaign director Brendan Steinhauser applied to the US Park Service for a permit to do it all over again in 2010. What he didn’t know was that other people had the same idea, namely activists associated with the 9.12 Project Beck started last year, when he called on viewers to launch a new conservative movement. (Hundreds of local 9.12 groups sprung up as a result.)

Among those activists was Beck’s ex-sister-in-law and the administrator of his 9.12 Project, Yvonne Donnelly. She made a beeline to the Park Service on the first business day after last year’s March to apply for a Mall permit for the entire weekend of Sept. 11, 2010. Then, in November, Patrick Jenkins, the president of the National 9.12 Project, created a new organization called Unite in Action to manage the newly christened “March on DC” and related events. UIA claims to be an umbrella group for a host of “liberty” organizations, including the militant Oath Keepers, Beck’s 9.12 Project, ResistNet, and others.

Its plans for the “March on DC” weekend are grand. The three-day extravaganza “by the people and for the people” has all the trappings of a corporate trade show, and for good reason. Among the organizers is Christine Drawdy, who owns a Florida-based company called One-Step Promotions & Incentives, which specializes in trade shows and travel promotions. According to UIA, its show is “modeled after conservative political conferences but with a purely grassroots flare.” Yet the group is hardly charging grassroots prices. The cost to host an event during the expo starts at $30,000. Renting a booth goes for anywhere from $1500 to $7700. Entry to the event itself runs $50, though a premium package allowing access to VIP receptions and banquets is a steep $250.

For all its corporate veneer, the fledgling UIA nonprofit appears to be on rather shaky footing. Jenkins incorporated UIA in Florida as a 501 (c)(4), a tax-exempt political organization, meaning that donations to the group aren’t tax deductible. The group missed the May 1 filing deadline for its annual report. According to the state division of corporations, it’s in jeopardy of losing its incorporation status as a result.

Even as the group has been heavily soliciting donations (“donate” buttons dominate the “March on DC” homepage), an IRS spokesman said he could not confirm its nonprofit status, meaning that UIA may have applied for 501 (c) (4) status, but that it has either not been granted or is still being reviewed. “We have made all filings required by the IRS consistent with 501(c)(4) status,” insisted Jerry Thompson, UIA’s treasurer, in an email. Meanwhile, the group’s president, Stephani Scruggs, declined to say how much money UIA has raised so far.

Particularly problematic for UIA, and potentially troubling to donors and would-be “March on DC” attendees, is the fact that the group does not yet have an official permit for its march. While anyone can apply to hold an event on the Mall, and the Park Service doesn’t charge much beyond a $50 application fee if organizers can show that the event has a First Amendment component, arranging a march on the Mall is no easy — or cheap — feat. Organizers still have to present the Park Service with comprehensive site plan and demonstrate they have the considerable finances to pay for all the logistics: Porta Potties, emergency medical tents, sound systems, etc. When told UIA is actively promoting its event and encouraging people to make travel arrangements to come to DC, without a valid permit in hand, a Park Service spokesman told me, “That’s a pretty big gamble.”

Meanwhile, it’s unclear how many people are likely to show up. UIA’s weekend lineup is decidedly short on the kind of big-name VIPs who help draw a crowd. While attendees of the FreedomWorks march will get a pep talk from tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and hear from potential GOP presidential candidate Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), UIA has yet to book any marquee speakers. So far on the agenda for the weekend is a seminar by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a group founded by Beck’s favorite Mormon constitutional historian, Cleon Skousen, author of The 5,000 Year Leap. There’s also a talk dubbed “Foreign Aid: Enslaving Nations” by Tatiana Milne, a former student at George Wythe University, the unaccredited Utah college founded by Skousen’s Mormon acolytes, who did a stint as a Mormon missionary in Latvia. UIA also says its event will feature a ton of “conservative moms.”

Conspicuously absent from the lineup is anyone or any organization representing the families and victims of 9/11, despite the fact that the march will take place on the anniversary of the attacks. Scruggs, the UIA president, said in an email:

“We are in communication with a lot of these families and to protect their privacy and respect the sacred nature of this event, we have not yet decided whether we will publically release the names of the victim’s families who are participating until the day of the event. We appreciate you respecting their privacy as well.”

The existence of two different organizations planning two different marches in DC the weekend of September 12 has left many tea party activists — many of whom attended last year’s march — scratching their heads. Andrew Ian Dodge, the Maine coordinator and advisor to the board of the Tea Party Patriots, which is co-sponsoring the 9/12 march with FreedomWorks, says that many tea party activists have been complaining. “They’re asking, ‘why are there two? Why are they not working together?’ I’m involved and I’m confused,” he says with a laugh.

The confusion has only been enhanced by UIA, whose website and communications have been vague about who is in charge. “There are huge fights going on in the ‘tea party’ universe on who got which permit when, who is funded by whom, who is sponsoring what,” Iris Scheibl, a member of the South Florida 9-12 group, wrote on the group’s site this spring. She noted that the “March on DC” site “shows pictures from last year’s event — altho’ as far as I know — “Unite in Action” had no part in that event.”

Indeed, few of UIA’s leaders had any involvement in organizing last year’s 9/12 march, according to Steinhauser. Yet that hasn’t stopped UIA from leading people to believe it was the group behind the rally. In February, UIA issued a press release saying, “While few can logically deny that the September 12th 2009 ‘Taxpayers March on DC’ was a huge success, organizers for the 2010 event are redesigning the format, planning early and this year they promise to deliver a message to Washington DC that both houses of Congress and the Administration, Democrat, Republican or Independent, will not be able to ignore.” Such comments have only lent credence to suspicions among tea partiers that UIA is trying to stealthily capitalize on last year’s march success to boost its own fortunes (and perhaps finances as well).

None of this bodes well for the prospects of another huge tea party march in DC this fall. Nor does the evidence that tea partiers may be rallied out. Tea Party Nation, which made headlines earlier this year for landing Sarah Palin as a keynote speaker for a convention in Tennessee, was supposed to hold another “unity” event in Las Vegas this month. The event was canceled at the last minute, presumably for lack of interest. But there’s another reason to believe turnout for the September rallies could be underwhelming.

Part of last year’s success stemmed from heavy promotion by Glenn Beck. This year, though, he’s lending his star power to promote his “Restoring Honor” show with Sarah Palin . Rather than working with the group he helped spawn, he may well help suck the wind out of the “March on DC” weekend. “Some folks just can’t afford to go [to DC] twice,” says South Florida 9.12 Project member Fred Scheibl. Many conservative activists may have to choose: Dick Armey, UIA, and a bunch of conservative moms or Beck and Sarah Palin? That seems like an easy one.

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Bernie Sanders: they are “Hell bent on destroying the middle class and creating an Oligarchy”, Daily Kos, July 26, 2010, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

Class War 101. Bernie Sanders is THE MAN.

Senator Bernie Sanders calls it what it is, fabulously wealthy families and their multinational corporations are hell-bent on destroying the middle class and determined to create an Oligarchy.

. . . While the middle class disappears and poverty increases the wealthiest people in our country are not only doing extremely well, they are using their wealth and political power to protect and expand their very privileged status at the expense of everyone else. This upper-crust of extremely wealthy families are hell-bent on destroying the democratic vision of a strong middle-class which has made the United States the envy of the world. In its place they are determined to create an oligarchy in which a small number of families control the economic and political life of our country.

TheNation.com

Bold text and italics added by the diarist

Crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com

More from Bernie Sanders . . .

The truth is that working families have been experiencing a decline for decades. During the Bush years alone, from 2000-2008, median family income dropped by nearly $2,200 and millions lost their health insurance.

Today, because of stagnating wages and higher costs for basic necessities, the average two-wage-earner family has less disposable income than a one-wage-earner family did a generation ago. The average American today is underpaid, overworked and stressed out as to what the future will bring for his or her children. For many, the American dream has become a nightmare.

TheNation.com

Bold text and italics added by the diarist

The average two-wage-earner family has less disposable income than a one-wage-earner family did a generation ago. And the rich are richer than ever. Anyone guess why? Because when the rich get richer, the EVERYBODY ELSE gets poorer. There is only so many ways you can slice a pie, and if a few people get most of it, everyone else must go hungry.

And, as Bernie Sanders so points out, the richest 400 families in America are richer than ever. Under Bush they raked in the cash while the average media American family saw their income drop by nearly $2,200 a year while the social safety net was slashed and defunded. And why? So very rich people could pay less in taxes and shirk their civic duty to their nation.

Now, I would argue that we already have an Oligarchy now, but certainly Bernie Sanders is already aware of that. I think Senator Sanders is alluding to something worse, like an Oligarchy on steroids. Citizens United fueled, out of control, a Too Big to Fail Oligarchy that would recall to my mind these words written by George Orwell.

So what happens when a few people have more money than medium sized countries? I mean that literally, what happens? Or better, what is happening?

From Forbes.com, where Billionaires are applauded as the Randian heroes they imagine themselves to be.

George Lucas, the famed Hollywood director behind the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises and ILM, the world’s most bankable special effects shop, has a $3 billion fortune, making him worth as much as the GDP of Guyana.

Forbes 400 members with net worths just under $1 billion still possess fortunes that could operate the economies of significant fractions of the globe. Gary Magness, who owns water rights in Colorado through his ranch holdings, has a net worth of $990 million, which barely exceeds Vanuatu’s GDP ($988.5 million).

If this year’s three poorest Forbes 400 members were to combine their wealth (a combined $2.9 billion), their amassed fortune would be worth more than the workings of Belize’s entire economy.

George Lucas? WOW! But George Lucas is a storyteller who brings joy to the world, where as investor John Paulson is worth twice as much as Lucas (6.8 Billion) and all he had to do is profit off the real estate bubble and then short sell the subprime market. John Paulson’s wealth equals all the wealth in Montenegro. And these guys aren’t even in the Top Ten wealthiest people in America. If a few people have wealth equivalent to entire nations is it not possible that a few wealthy people can bribe and manipulate entire nations, thus circumventing and overthrowing the Democratic process? Of course! Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Here is yourTop Ten wealthiest plutocrats in America circa 2009

1   William Gates III 50,000 Million   (Microsoft)
2   Warren Buffett        40,000 Million   (Birkshire Hathaway)
3   Lawrence Ellison 27,000 Million   (Oracle)
4   Christy Walton & family 21,500 Million   (Wal-Mart)
5   Jim C. Walton        19,600 Million    (Wal-Mart)
6   Alice Walton        19,300 Million    (Wal-Mart)
7   S. Robson Walton 19,000 Million    (Wal-Mart)
8   Michael Bloomberg 17,500 Million    (Bloomberg)
9   Charles Koch        16,000 Million    (Energy, FreedomWorks, finances Tea Parties)
9   David Koch         16,000 Million   (Energy, FreedomWorks, finances Tea Parties)
11   Sergey Brin         15,300 Million    (Google)

Did anyone notice that the owners of WALMART are 4 of the top 10 richest people in America? Did Walmart eat the middle class? Is Walmart Too Big To Fail? Looks like it.

And as for the people who work for Walmart and earn just enough to go into debt for the rest of their lives, well, it doesn’t seem that anyone is worried about them does it? If they lose their jobs they are called lazy by rich people who never break a sweat or worry about homelessness, if they keep their jobs and struggle to survive and ask for help they are chided for wanting “handouts”.

For the people who work for Walmart and other huge Corporations the American dream has become a nightmare according to Bernie Sanders, and as someone who has lived that nightmare all my life, I entirely agree with him. The game is rigged, rigged for rich people, and if rich people NEVER lose money, everyone else can never earn enough to prosper.

We must level the paying field and STOP giving a huge advantage to the super rich and multi-national corporations. One way our Democratically elected officials can do this is by progressive taxation. And Bernie Sanders has a plan.

That is why I have introduced the Responsible Estate Tax Act (S.3533). This legislation would raise $318 billion over the next decade by establishing a graduated inheritance tax on estates over $3.5 million retroactive to this year. This bill ensures that the wealthiest 0.3 percent of Americans pays their fair share of estate taxes, while making sure that 99.7 percent of Americans never have to pay a dime when they lose a loved one. It also makes certain that the overwhelming majority of family farmers and small businesses never have to pay an estate tax.

This legislation must be passed because, with a $13 trillion national debt and huge unmet needs, we cannot afford more tax breaks for millionaire and billionaire families. But even more importantly, it must be passed because the United States must not become an oligarchy in which a handful of wealthy and powerful families control the destiny of our nation. Too many people, from the inception of this country, have struggled and died to maintain our democratic vision. We owe it to them and to our children to maintain it.

TheNation.com

Bold text and italics added by the diarist

So who is lazy? The person struggling to find a job after free market corporatists shipped their jobs overseas? Or the person who inherits millions of dollars from a dead relative without earning that money and then refuses to pay taxes on it?

The Responsible Estate Tax proposed by Senator Sanders may not seem much, but it is a start. More importantly, it frames the debate in a way that Progressives can win. Because the truth is, billionaires and all of their wealth are the cause of our societies economic problems, not immigrants or unemployed people or Government spending. All of that is a strawman, they shrieks of anguish over “socialism” is a red herring, designed to shift the conversation away from the fact that this form of multi-national corporate capitalism is driving 95% of the world’s population into poverty, and the few who prosper have enough wealth to corrupt the Democratic process in such a way that they are, in reality, an Oligarchy.

Whether we can curb their absolute power and preserve the notion of a Democracy of a majority of The People, and not a Oligarchy based on who controls the majority of the wealth, is what is at stake. Will we starve and exploit our fellow man for profit, or allow all people to prosper? That is the question. What is your answer?

Because I know what the Billionaires, the “Economic Royalty” as F.D.R. named them, I know what they want. It is obvious if you know where to look, and look hard enough.

Greed is NOT good. Greed is destroying America.

Listen to the Chilling words of Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko:

Gordon Gekko: "Greed is Good!"

And Greed is all the Conservative movement has, greed and hate and lies and fear.

Because they serve the Oligarchy and themselves and no one else.

“Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”

~ George Orwell, 1984

And so we must FIGHT BACK, and the truth is your greatest weapon.

Peace and love to all.

You can follow me on Twitter @JesseLaGreca Thanks to Ministry of Truth for allowing Evans Liberal Politics to republish his works on an ongoing basis.

See Pres. Obama: On issue after issue, we try to move forward and they try to take us back, Daily Kos, July 26, 2010, by Blackwaterdog: about the DISCLOSE Act vote in the Senate tomorrow. Watch President Obama: Limiting the Influence of Special Interests.

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