Robert Becker - President Everything To Nearly Everybody -- The Hero With 1000 Faces

http://www.opednews.com/articles/President-Everything-To-Ne-by-Robert-S-Becker-111102-975.html

November 2, 2011 By Robert S. Becker Is it such a mystery why we campaigned sharply against Bush rights violations, but in office had to match, even outdo him? Talk left, go right, and never look back. Doesn't the left appreciate that knocking off a few bad guys shows how tough we are? And terminating our own untried citizens, like a western film shootout, shows we're as tough as Cheney. Let's talk politics today and re-election, no holds barred. I arrive here every morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, flush with my perpetual audacity of hope, but lately my dander is up. Maybe no one could preside over this warring country. But only 40% approval -- with our wave of legislative triumphs second in modern times to LBJ -- and under greater duress? Who'd predict only a year ago our re-election would be in doubt -- especially against this gang of has-beens, misfits, clowns, losers and wannabes? If I lacked my formidable self-esteem, I'd feel insulted [smiles, boyishly]. Look, I appreciate how staff plays to every audience -- Tea Party aside -- with a scattergun as wide as anything since Reagan. That's what made the Gipper impressive, capturing men and women, old and young, the right, the center, and blue collar Democrats. Chockablock with anti-government fanatics Reagan never knew, we must firmly stay the course we set from Day One -- talk Democratic, rule Republican.

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Guardian.co.uk - Greenhouse Gases Rise by Record Amount

Published on Friday, November 4, 2011 The Guardian UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/04/greenhouse-gases-rise-record-levels

Levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has jumped by a record amount, according to the US department of energy, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.

The figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.

"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, the co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The world pumped about 564m more tons (512m metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009, an increase of 6%. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries, China, the US and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases.

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Moments With Baxter

Daniel Denvir - Why the GOP Presidential Hopefuls Desperately Need Sex Ed

By Daniel Denvir, Comment Is Free

Posted on November 3, 2011, Printed on November 4, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152961/why_the_gop_presidential_hopefuls_desperately_need_sex_ed

Though most American youth continue to learn about sex most everywhere but in school, there is some good news:according to a recent report from the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States(SIECUS), the Obama administration and Congress in 2010 eliminated two thirds of federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage education, and, in a historic shift, allocated close to $190m for comprehensivesex education

At the local level, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the implementation of a comprehensive citywide sex ed program this spring. Previously, whether a child received science-based sex ed or nothing at all was an enrollment roll of the dice: some principals ran good programs; others did not.

The proposed curriculum has sparked a rightwing backlash (flames fanned, in part, by the New York Post). Some parents are apparently angry that one approved website discusses pornography, swinger clubs and (dear Jesus) foot fetishes.

Bloomberg, for good policy and for ill, is a steamroller. But other cities lag far behind, including school districts that don't preach abstinence-only.

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Gareth Porter - ISAF Data Show Night Raids Killed over 1,500 Afghan Civilians

Published on Friday, November 4, 2011 by Inter Press Service

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/11/04-0

by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) killed well over 1,500 civilians in night raids in less than 10 months in 2010 and early 2011, analysis of official statistics on the raids released by the U.S.-NATO command reveals.

That number would make U.S. night raids by far the largest cause of civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan. The report by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on civilian casualties in 2010 had said the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by insurgents was the leading cause of civilian deaths, with 904.

Except for a relatively few women and children killed by accident, the civilians who died in the raids were all adult males who were counted as insurgents in press releases and official data released by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

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Chris Giles - Overview: Dark outlook piles pressure on leaders

Financial Times, November 2, 2011 2:24 pm

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a85142c4-ffef-11e0-ba79-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1cfDufkdf

By Chris Giles

It is crunch time for the Group of 20. If things go well, the Cannes summit will mark the moment the “premier global economic forum” acts to defuse the economic risks being run in the world. The alternative is to allow them to fester, contributing towards another destructive financial and economic crisis.

Underlining the urgency, the International Monetary Fund declared in mid October: “The immediate risk is that the global economy tips into a downward spiral of increased uncertainty and risk aversion, dysfunctional financial markets, unsustainable debt dynamics, falling demand, and rising unemployment”.

Three challenges stalk the global economy.

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Ismail Salami - An Israel Attack on Iran Would be Military Suicide

By Ismail Salami

Global Research, November 3, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27440

There is a strong speculation that Israel is bound to mount an attack on Iranian nuclear sites, a threat which the Zionist regime has frequently repeated and an idea which, if translated into action, will bring about apocalyptic consequences for the Zionist entity.

Reportedly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently sought to drum up cabinet support for a military strike against the nuclear sites of the Islamic republic of Iran. In joint efforts with the defense minister Ehud Barak, Netanyahu has succeeded in wringing support for such a reckless act from the skeptics who were already opposed to launching an attack on Iran. Among those he managed to convince was Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

There are still those in the Israeli cabinet who are against such a move including Interior Minister Eli Yishai of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor, Strategic Affairs Minister and Netanyahu confidant Moshe Yaalon, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, army chief Benny Gantz, the head of Israel's intelligence agency Tamir Pardo, the chief of military intelligence Aviv Kochavi and the head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency Yoram Cohen.

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Alex Seitz-Wald - Glenn Beck-Approved Goldline Charged With 19 Criminal Counts Of Fraud And Theft

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Nov 2, 2011 at 10:30 am

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/02/359156/goldline-international-fraud/#

Goldline International, the precious metal retailer that has capitalized on conservatives’ anxiety about the economy by forging synergistic relationships with right wing TV and radio hosts, is facing a new series of legal challenges after authorities filed criminal charges against the company and its executives yesterday. Several major conservative talkers — including two former GOP presidential candidates — have endorsed and recommended Goldine, which critics have long contended is little more than a scam.

After more than a year of investigating, the city attorney in Santa Monica, California, where the company is based, has filed 19 criminal charges of fraud and theft against the company, in addition to charges against top executives and salesmen, ABC News reports:

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Chris Hedges - Arrested in Front of Goldman Sachs

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/chris_hedges_arrested_in_front_of_goldman_sachs_20111103/

Posted on Nov 3, 2011

Chris Hedges made this statement in New York City’s Zuccotti Park on Thursday morning during the People’s Hearing on Goldman Sachs, which he chaired with Dr. Cornel West. The activist and Truthdig columnist then joined a march of several hundred protesters to the nearby corporate headquarters of Goldman Sachs, where he was arrested with 16 others.

Goldman Sachs, which received more subsidies and bailout-related funds than any other investment bank because the Federal Reserve permitted it to become a bank holding company under its “emergency situation,” has used billions in taxpayer money to enrich itself and reward its top executives. It handed its senior employees a staggering $18 billion in 2009, $16 billion in 2010 and $10 billion in 2011 in mega-bonuses. This massive transfer of wealth upwards by the Bush and Obama administrations, now estimated at $13 trillion to $14 trillion, went into the pockets of those who carried out fraud and criminal activity rather than the victims who lost their jobs, their savings and often their homes.

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Andrew Leonard - America’s corporate tax obscenity

SALON.com  Thursday, Nov 3, 2011

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=140672

A new report about companies' finances won't just enrage you -- it'll make you run to the nearest protest

By Andrew Leonard

In 2010, Verizon reported an annual profit of nearly $12 billion. The statutory federal corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, so theoretically, Verizon should have owed the IRS around $4.2 billlion. Instead, according to figures compiled by the Center for Tax Justice, the company actually boasted a negative tax liability of $703 million. Verizon ended up making even more money after it calculated its taxes.

Verizon is hardly alone, and isn’t even close to being the worst offender. Perhaps most famously, General Electric raked in $10.5 billion in profit in 2010, yet ended up reporting $4.7billion worth of negative taxes. The worst offender in 2010, as measured by its overall negative tax rate, was Pepco, the electricity utility that serves Washington, D.C. Pepco reported profits of $882 million in 2010, and negative taxes of $508 million — a negative tax rate of 57.6 percent.

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