Tea Party and Occupy protesters = the system is rigged against them in favor of a privileged few

Obama is your only hope for a renewed middle class.


Besides new policies, he will revive politically popular proposals from the $447 billion job-creation package that he announced after Labor Day, but that Congressional Republicans blocked. He will again call for subsidies to struggling states to keep teachers and first-responders in their jobs, for money for roads and other infrastructure projects, and for extending for the remainder of the year both the temporary payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and federal payments to the long-term unemployed.

Congressional Republicans’ resistance to that agenda last fall, because they oppose both government stimulus measures and Mr. Obama’s proposed taxes on the wealthy to pay for them, helped depress their already low poll ratings.

Romney and Gingrich straw dogs who can only at best make a straw man to fight Obama

A straw man is a component of an argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position.  

To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the "straw man"), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.

A letter from a Birmingham mother about her daughters being pepper sprayed by police!!! "Back in the USA..."

I once trusted the Birmingham Public Schools. I sent my children to school thinking they were safe and protected. I found out different.

My 17-year old-daughter Gloria was sprayed in the face with pepper spray by a Birmingham police officer assigned to protect students in the school.

She wasn’t being violent and she certainly wasn’t a threat to the officer. Gloria was upset because a boy had pushed her. While she was confronting the boy, the police officer grabbed her from behind, pulled out his canister of pepper spray, and sprayed her in the eyes, face, and mouth. My 15-year-old daughter Patrice saw her sister sprayed and ran to her side. As Patrice reached Gloria, the officer sprayed Gloria with a second burst of pepper spray. The second burst also hit Patrice in the face.

When I saw Gloria, I couldn’t believe how red and swollen her face was. She was crying out to me to help her and I couldn’t do anything. She had red welts all over her face and her eyes were red. Days later the welts turned to black scabs that took two weeks to go away. Every time she washed her face, she cried again because water only made the pain worse. For weeks she refused to come out of her room and fell into a deep depression. It was a nightmare knowing my child suffered physical pain and depression because she reacted emotionally at school. She’s a teenage girl, not a criminal.

After Gloria was sprayed, I was shocked to learn that this was not an isolated incident. Nearly 200 Birmingham high school students have been sprayed with pepper spray in just the last five years. The Southern Poverty Law Center hasn’t been able to find another school district that uses pepper spray on students for normal teenage behavior.

The Birmingham Board of Education and Superintendent know about the routine use of pepper spray in schools and have done nothing to stop it. Birmingham Mayor William Bell knows about and authorizes the use of pepper spray against our children. Birmingham’s elected officials, who are supposed to represent the interests of parents and residents, know this is happening and have done nothing to stop it.

We need to make it stop! Our children should attend schools without fear of being sprayed with dangerous chemicals and abused by police officers that should be protecting them. Help me tell Birmingham’s city officials that the police department needs to change the way it operates in schools. We want the Birmingham Police Department to:

1. Provide comprehensive and repeated training on dealing with young people and nonviolent conflict resolution to all officers stationed in Birmingham schools.
2. Adopt a specific policy on the use of pepper spray in schools, limiting when pepper spray can be used on children.
3. Institute screening procedures for officers before assigning them to schools.

Help me show my daughter that there are people willing to stand up for her.

USA 80 Mayors Support Same-Sex Marriage.......

Mayors of about 80 U.S. cities from New York to Los Angeles to Houston are backing a campaign to remove legal barriers to same-sex marriage nationwide.

Meanwhile, Salt Lake City, Utah is voted gayest city in the USA!!!

Any Republican who makes less than $150k a year better vote democrat; because Republican leadership is going to outsource you to China, Thailand, India, etc

Rick Santorum  invests in companies that ship much of their manufacturing work to factories in China, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries. 

Of 18 publicly traded stocks listed in the former Pennsylvania senator’s most recent financial disclosure, six companies sell fiber-optic equipment and outsource production to overseas factories-for-hire or operate their own plants abroad

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The payroll at one of Santorum’s investments, Fabrinet Inc. (FN), last year included 5,300 manufacturing workers in Thailand, 1,200 in China and 30 in the U.S., according to its latest annual report. 

Fabrinet, which makes products under outsourcing contracts with other manufacturers, got almost 60 percent of its fiscal 2011 revenue from four Silicon Valley corporations: JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU), Oclaro Inc. (OCLR), Finisar Corp. (FNSR) and Opnext Inc. (OPXT) Santorum owned shares in all of them, according to the financial disclosure form he filed last year. 

Santorum was asked last night during a South Carolina debate about encouraging the use of U.S. manufacturing workers by companies such as Apple Inc., (AAPL) which said in its latest annual report that “substantially all of the company’s hardware products” are made by contractors “primarily” based in Asia.

He didn’t mention that he owned between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of Apple stock, according to his most recent disclosure filing. 

Santorum’s holdings stand out because one-third of his publicly traded stocks are concentrated in a single industry that makes a significant share of its products overseas.

Mutant Fish don't require labels in the USA but in Europe they do.....

A coalition of 11 food safety, environmental, consumer and fisheries organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) calling for a halt to its approval of a genetically engineered (GE) salmon after learning that the company’s – AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. – research site was contaminated with a new strain of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA), the deadly fish flu that is devastating fish stocks around the world.

“This new information calls into question the reliability of AquaBounty’s data and the validity of its claims that their fish are safe for the environment” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. “The FDA must respond appropriately and conduct their own environmental impact statement that looks at a broad range of environmental risks from these genetically engineered salmon, including the risk of spreading diseases such as ISA and antibiotic use for other diseases.”

AquaBounty has claimed that the company’s process for raising GE fish is safer than traditional aquaculture. However, documents that were revealed last week indicate that their production site was found by Canadian Authorities to have been contaminated in Nov. 2009. This information was hidden from the public and potentially FDA and other Federal agencies consulting on the GE salmon application. ISA is a deadly disease and is classified as a ‘Listed’ disease by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) – alongside diseases such as Anthrax, Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Foot and mouth disease, rabies, sheep pox, swine fever, avian influenza, West Nile fever, scrapie, fowl cholera, bovine tuberculosis and myxomatosis.

“Infectious Salmon Anaemia threatens wild fisheries around the world and the communities whose livelihood depend on those fish” said Erich Pica, President of Friends of the Earth US. “ISA infections in Chile cost the industry around two billion dollars. A similar infection in Canada and the U.S. could be the last blow to wild Atlantic salmon populations and bring a collapse in wild salmon fisheries.”

The December 19 letter urged FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to release all health data on AquaBounty’s GE salmon and to suspend any approval actions until all the data is disclosed and the public has an opportunity to review the data. Additionally, the coalition asked the FDA to conduct a full environmental impact statement that includes review of the effect of fish diseases, like ISA, on wild fish populations that might come into contact with the AquaBounty fish. Currently, the FDA has only performed a less comprehensive environmental risk assessment.

JOBS kinda what good govt is all about....creating a vibrant middle class!!!

Fewer Americans than forecast filed first-time applications for unemployment benefits last week, easing concern that post-holiday firings were on the rise.

Claims plunged by 50,000 to 352,000 in the week ended Jan. 14, the lowest level since April 2008, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 41 economists in a Bloomberg News survey projected 384,000. A Labor Department spokesman said the decrease reflected volatility seen during this time of year. The four-week average, which smoothes out fluctuations, decreased to 379,000 last week from 382,500.

a score late but better late than never = Mercury and Air Toxin Regulation

Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, will address about 2,000 delegates at EUEC 2012, the USA’s largest energy, utility and environment conference to be held at the Phoenix Convention Center from January 30 to February 2, 2012.

McCarthy’s keynote address will include the EPA’s new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) issued on December 21, 2011. These are the first national standards to regulate power plant emissions of mercury and toxic air pollution that directly impact 1,400 coal-fired and oil-fired power plants and are estimated to cost $10 billion.
These rules were issued after 20 years of study and litigation that included participation by experts presenting at the EUEC 2012 and at past EUEC conferences.

“We’re fortunate to have Assistant Administrator McCarthy return as a keynote speaker. This year she will discuss the newly issued mercury standards as a follow up to her presentation last year on the proposed rules. Senior executives from the Department of Energy and Southern Company will also speak in the keynote session on how the utility industry plans to comply with these new regulations and how it impacts 1,400 power plants identified by the EPA.” said Dr. Prabhu Dayal, EUEC Chairman.

EUEC 2012 is the 15th annual energy, utility and environment conference, making it the largest and longest running professional networking and educational event of its kind in the United States. EUEC provides an educational forum with 600 expert speakers in 12 tracks and networking events in the exhibit hall to facilitate the collaboration between government, industry and stakeholders for the protection of our environment and energy security.

Ohhh Fracking Workers what do you think about all that radioactive waste you're being exposed to???

New York's emerging plan to regulate natural gas drilling in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale needs to go further to safeguard drinking water, environmentally sensitive areas and gas industry workers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has informed state officials.



The EPA's comments, in a series of letters this week to the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, are significant because they suggest the agency will be watching closely as states in the Northeast and Midwest embrace new drilling technologies to tap vast reserves of shale gas.


New York is in the forefront of the shale gas boom and has been working on regulations for more than three years. Judith Enck, the EPA regional administrator who issued the agency comments, noted that New York "will help set the pace for improved safeguards across the country."


The EPA's comments are among 20,000 the state has received on its proposed plan to regulate the environmental effects of drilling. Many of the EPA's comments focus on how the state DEC will handle the chemically tainted wastewater from the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.


To free the gas trapped in the Marcellus and other shale formations, drillers pump millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals deep underground under pressure. The wastewater can get into drinking water by being disposed of at sewage treatment plants, the EPA wrote.


As ProPublica first reported in 2009, these plants don't typically have the equipment necessary to detect and treat the chemicals in drilling wastewater. Plant operators who accept drilling wastewater simply dilute it with regular sewage and then discharge it into water bodies. DEC wastewater samples had levels of radioactive elements thousands of times higher than drinking water limits, ProPublica reported.


In its comments, the EPA pointed out that New York's current permitting system for water treatment plants doesn't include limits on pollutants frequently contained in drilling wastewater, such as radionuclides, which can cause cancer at high levels.


The EPA said it needs to be more closely involved in analyzing and approving any treatment plant's application to accept drilling wastewater. And while the DEC's proposed rules suggest limits on radioactive elements such as radium, the EPA said it's not clear who would be "responsible for addressing the potential health and safety issues" related to radiation exposure.


The EPA also flagged health risks to workers close to wastewater and other potentially radioactive materials, like the large amounts of soil and mud unearthed by drilling. "At a minimum, the human health risks to the site workers from radon and its decay products should be assessed along with the associated treatment technologies such as aeration systems or holding for decay," the agency wrote.


ProPublica reported that neighboring Pennsylvania became overwhelmed by drilling wastewater after the state embraced the industry. The Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people, became contaminated with drilling salts and minerals.


The EPA letters are the latest in a series of federal moves to tighten oversight of gas drilling. In December, the agency scientifically linked  underground water pollution to hydraulic fracturing for the first time. Last August, the EPA announced that it would develop its own rules on wastewater disposal instead of leaving it up to states.

Black, Hispanic, or other and poor in the USA = you might be just less than a citizen if you don't wake the *&$! UP!!!

Protesting voter ID laws


Thousands gathering outside South Carolina's capitol Monday heard a message that wouldn't have been out of place during the halcyon days of the civil rights movement a half-century ago: the need to protect all citizens' right to vote.

A similar tone was struck at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached from 1960 until his death. There and in South Carolina, speakers condemned the voter identification laws they said are meant to suppress black voter turnout.

For most of 13 years in South Carolina, the attention at the NAACP's annual rally has been on the Confederate flag that still waves outside the Statehouse. But on Monday, the civil rights group shifted the focus to laws requiring voters to show photo identification before they can cast ballots, which the group and many other critics say is especially discriminatory toward African-Americans and the poor.


South Carolina's new law was rejected last month by the U.S. Justice Department, but Gov. Nikki Haley vowed to fight the federal government in court. At least a half-dozen other states passed similar voter ID laws in 2011.

"This has been quite a faith-testing year. We have seen the greatest attack on voting rights since segregation," said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The shift in tactics was also noted by the keynote speaker, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Last month, Holder said the Justice Department was committed to fighting any laws that keep people from the ballot box. He told the crowd he was keenly aware he couldn't have become the nation's first African-American attorney general without the blood shed by King and other civil rights pioneers.

"The right to vote is not only the cornerstone of our governance, it is the lifeblood of our democracy. And no force has proved more powerful, or more integral to the success of the great American experiment, than efforts to expand the franchise," Holder said. "Let me be very, very clear — the arc of American history has bent toward the inclusion, not the exclusion, of more of our fellow citizens in the electoral process. We must ensure that this continues."

Texas' new voter ID law is currently before the Justice Department, which reviews changes in voting laws in nine mostly Southern states because of their history of discriminatory voting practices. Other states that passed such laws in 2011 included Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Similar laws already were on the books in Georgia and Indiana, and they were approved by President George W. Bush's Justice Department. Indiana's law, passed in 2005, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008.

Critics have likened the laws to the poll taxes and tests used to prevent blacks from voting during the civil rights era. Republicans, say such laws are needed to prevent fraud.

At the Atlanta church where King once preached, the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock said some in America disrespect King's legacy by "cutting off those for whom he died and the principles for which he fought."

He called voter ID laws an affront to the memory of the civil rights leader.

"You cannot celebrate Dr. King on Monday, and undermine people's ability to vote on Super Tuesday," Warnock said.

Natural gas prices in the USA will drop to $2.40 per million Btu, and perhaps below $2, as gas overflows storage caverns and clogs pipelines

Hedge funds turned bearish on U.S. natural gas for the first time in eight weeks as a surplus and warmer-than-normal weather pushed the price of the heating fuel to the lowest level in more than two years.



The funds and other large speculators switched from bets that futures will rise to a bearish, or “short,” position of a net 10,344 futures equivalents in the week ended Jan. 10, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Commitments of Traders report on Jan. 13.

Natural gas plunged 13 percent last week on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the biggest decline since August 2009, after forecasts showed above-average temperatures through January. Stockpiles in the week ended Jan. 6 stood at 3.377 trillion cubic feet, 17 percent above the five-year average, the U.S. Energy Department reported on Jan. 12.

“The funds that got short are feeling good right now,” Kyle Cooper, director of research for IAF Advisors in Houston, said in a telephone interview on Jan. 13. “As long as it stays this warm, prices have to go lower. With this type of weather, the storage surplus becomes catastrophic.”

Natural gas for February delivery fell 5.2 cents to $2.941 per million British thermal units on the Nymex in the week covered by the report and dropped another 9.2 percent to $2.67 on Jan. 13, the lowest settlement price since Sept. 3, 2009.

The contract fell for sixth day today, dropping 12.2 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $2.548 at 10:59 a.m. in New York.

Canadian Fraud case: Former Chief Executive Officer Frank Dunn, former Chief Financial Officer Douglas Beatty and former Controller Michael Gollogly misstated financial results!!

Three former Nortel Networks Corp. (NRTLQ) executives face trial in a Canadian criminal court accused of a C$5 million ($4.9 million) fraud at what was once North America’s largest telephone-equipment maker before its bankruptcy and dissolution.



Former Chief Executive Officer Frank Dunn, former Chief Financial Officer Douglas Beatty and former Controller Michael Gollogly allegedly misstated financial results between 2000 and 2004, allowing them to pocket millions in bonuses. Their trial is to begin today at Ontario Superior Court in Toronto.


Prosecutors “will be proceeding on two counts of fraud against each accused” in a trial that is expected to last six to nine months, Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, said in an e-mail.


Prosecutors will set out their “case in court on the record, and won’t be making any comment before then,” Crawley said.

The accused opted for a trial without a jury and they could face maximum sentences of 14 years. The judge in this case will be Frank Marrocco, the former prosecuting attorney in Canada’s biggest stock-market scandal, the Bre-X Minerals Ltd. (BXM) gold- discovery hoax. In that case, the only executive brought to trial was acquitted in 2007.