David Cay Johnston - The Corporations That Occupy Congress

Published on Tuesday, December 20, 2011 by Reuters

http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-johnston/2011/12/20/the-corporations-that-occupy-congress/

by David Cay Johnston

Some of the biggest companies in the United States have been firing workers and in some cases lobbying for rules that depress wages at the very time that jobs are needed, pay is low, and the federal budget suffers from a lack of revenue.

Last month Citizens for Tax Justice and an affiliate issued “Corporate Taxpayers and Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008-10″. It showed that 30 brand-name companies paid a federal income tax rate of minus 6.7 percent on $160 billion of profit from 2008 through 2010 compared to a going corporate tax rate of 35 percent. All but one of those 30 companies reported lobbying expenses in Washington.

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Lauren Unger-Geoffroy - Dispatches From Cairo: The Worst So Far

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/dispatches_from_cairo_the_worst_so_far_20111220/

Posted on Dec 20, 2011

By Lauren Unger-Geoffroy

We asked Lauren Unger-Geoffroy, an Arabic-speaking American who lives in Cairo, to share her perspective of life in Egypt after the revolution. In this entry, she writes about a new surge in army brutality in suppressing protest.

CAIRO—Foreboding and warning. Egypt should have felt it coming. This was the worst so far. Hope is gone. The people are in despair. As our imam shouted Friday at noon prayer: Will it get worse before we have cleansed the land of Satan?

Authorities are now accusing 164 people of being involved in the new violence and interrogations have begun, with even injured people being questioned in hospitals. Many of the suspects are under 19 years old. Some are children, street kids accused of throwing Molotov cocktails. Some of the doctors at Omar Makram field hospital are being detained. At least one of the detainees has died from his injuries; activists accuse the army and security forces of torturing him in the headquarters of the national Cabinet.

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Ed Silverman - Should The FDA Be An Independent Agency?

PHARMALOT

By Ed Silverman // December 14th, 2011 // 8:58 am

http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/12/should-the-fda-be-an-independent-agency/

The outrage and hand-wringing continues over the unprecedented decision last week by US Human & Health Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to overrule the FDA and thwart a move to ease access to the Plan B pill, which is also known as the morning after pill. The move has generated intense debate that the White House politicized the FDA in favor of promoting sound science.

Those who supported approval of the pill saw the move as not only dangerous, but ironic, given that President Barack Obama had made a point, earlier in his administration, of insisting that decision making must favor science, not politics. Now, though, he is being widely criticized, by some, for pandering to conservatives as he campaigns for re-election. The FDA had favored making it possible for girls who are 17 and younger to get the pill without a prescription.

Yesterday, 14 US Senators wrote Sebelius for an explanation. “We ask that you share with us your specific rationale and the scientific data you relied on for the decision to overrule the FDA recommendation. On behalf of the millions of women we represent, we want to be assured that this and future decisions affecting women’s health will be based on medical and scientific evidence” (see here).

To opponents, Plan B is problematic because the pill prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb, which equate this with abortion. But supporters of greater access argue that nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended, and that preventing teenage girls from gaining easier access denies them a safe and effective way to prevent unintended pregnancies (see more here).

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GOI Monitor - The Indian Land Grab In Africa

http://countercurrents.org/goi201211.htm

By GOI Monitor

20 December, 2011
Goimonitor.com

Joining the neo-colonial bandwagon, Indian companies are taking over agricultural land in African nations and exporting produced food at the cost of locals

Indian companies venturing abroad is always regarded as a healthy trend, an indicator of India's new-found economic status. But little is known about how these companies are flexing their imperalistic muscles in poorer countries, grabbing the land and giving little in return. A report ‘India’s Role in the New Global Farmland Grab’ by researcher Rick Rowden brings forth these atrocities which are shockingly similar to what India used to blame rich western countires for.

Joiing the race with China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Korea and the European Union, Indian and Indian-owned companies are acquiring land in Africa at throwaway prices, indulging in enviornmental damange and exporting the food while locals continue to starve. The origin of this unhealthy practice can be traced back to the food crisis of 2008 when rich countries were forced to confront the reality of how fragile the global food scenario can be, especially for those without sufficient cultivable land. To ensure more direct control over food, these countries started acquiring land in poorer African countries and shipping the produce back home. A recent World Bank report found that 45 million hectares of large scale farmland deals had been announced between 2008 and 2009.

The initial support to such forays was based on the belief that the world is facing scarce food supply because of long-term under-investment in the agricultural sectors of many developing countries. However, as stressed by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, "the diagnosis and remedy are incorrect…Hunger and malnutrition are not primarily the result of insufficient food production; they are the result of poverty and inequality, particularly in rural areas, where 75 per cent of the world’s poor still reside.”

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www.coburn.senate.gov - Dr. Coburn Releases New Report on Wasteful Government Spending in 2011: "Wastebook 2011"

Dec 20 2011

http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/6946d43b-bccf-4579-990e-15a763532b40.html

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released a new oversight report, “Wastebook 2011” that highlights over $6.5 billion in examples of some of the most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted. This report details 100 of the countless unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects spread throughout the federal government.

“Video games, robot dragons, Christmas trees, and magic museums. This is not a Christmas wish list, these are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars. Over the past 12 months, politicians argued, debated and lamented about how to reign in the federal government’s out of control spending. All the while, Washington was on a shopping binge, spending money we do not have on things we do not absolutely need. Instead of cutting wasteful spending, nearly $2.5 billion was added each day in 2011 to our national debt, which now exceeds $15 trillion,” Dr. Coburn said.

“Congress cannot even agree on a plan to pay for the costs of extending jobless benefits to the millions of Americans who are still out of work. Yet, thousands of millionaires are receiving unemployment benefits and billions of dollars of improper payments of unemployment insurance are being made to individuals with jobs and others who do not qualify. And remember those infamous bridges to nowhere in Alaska that became symbols of government waste years ago? The bridges were never built, yet the federal government still spent more than a million dollars just this year to pay for staff to promote one of the bridges.”

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Stephen Lendman - Growing Hunger and Homelessness in America

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Growing-Hunger-and-Homeles-by-Stephen-Lendman-111220-842.html

December 20, 2011 By Stephen Lendman Millions of Americans now endure protracted Depression conditions at a time half the population is either poor or low income. Long-term unemployment is unprecedented, and federal aid is being cut, not increased. Growing Hunger and Homelessness in America - by Stephen Lendman America's most needy are largely abandoned by Washington. Millions of Americans now endure protracted Depression conditions at a time half the population is either poor or low income. Long-term unemployment is unprecedented, and federal aid is being cut, not increased.  Two new reports highlight enormous depravation levels and human suffering, getting little or no major media attention. Many affected families used to be middle class. They're now low-income or impoverished by unemployment or spotty low-pay part-time work. Most important is that much worse conditions are coming during America's greatest ever Depression to last years and devastate many more households than already.

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Ari Shavit - Israel has never been so ugly

Netanyahu's weak leadership and moral laxity are what unleashed this frenzy. The fact that he has not put a stop to the dark forces that have always oozed from our depths is what brought us to this situation, but it is not yet too late.

By Ari Shavit

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/israel-has-never-been-so-ugly-1.401501?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.225%2C2.227%2C

We have never been so ugly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu seeks to silence the call to prayer over the loudspeakers of the country's mosques, and to shut down Channel 10 television. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman expresses support for the Russian "democtator" who has just rigged elections. Defense Minister Ehud Barak stands by while Jewish settlers victimize Palestinians and ultra-Orthodox religious nationalists victimize female soldiers.

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman is trying to turn the Supreme Court into other one of his subsidiaries. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is working to prevent the media from reporting on investigations against public figures. Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman excludes women from participation in an official award ceremony.

Coalition chairman Zeev Elkin undermines and neuters civil society. Religious fanatics exclude women, tyrannize secular citizens and spit at priests. Jewish terrorists burn Muslim houses of worship, invade Israel Defense Force bases and attack soldiers.

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Sam Smith - America’s Silent Collapse

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/12/20/americas-silent-collapse/

December 20, 2011

by SAM SMITH

One of the curiosities of being chronically ahead of the mainstream is that periodically you suddenly discover that you’re not. For example, over the past decade I’ve putting forth the notion, seemingly bizarre to many, that the First American Republic was over and that we had moved into a post constitutional adhocracy. Lately, however, the idea seems to be becoming increasingly mundane, almost like saying, “Geez, that was a lot of rain we had.”

But when did it shift from being a radical thought to becoming so inevitable? I don’t remember people debating it on corporate TV, writing about it in the NY Times, arguing it in a campaign speech, or analyzing it in a professorial paper. It just happened. The most important development in our nation’s history since the Civil War crept into the room like a shy new guest. And somewhere in between, radical conjecture transformed itself into the norm.

We have moved into a time in which the Bill of Rights is being routinely trashed, the true unemployment rate is higher than anything we’ve seen since the thirties, our corporations are out of control, no one in power seems to care about climate change, and the only presidential candidate in either major party who won’t send you to Gitmo without an indictment and trial is Ron Paul.

What’s critical about this is not just that the new reality has been recognized but that it has been accepted as inevitable without debate, anger, or strong protest.

Some years ago I wrote about such a time:

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Mitchell J. Rabin - Can & Will America Get Behind a 3rd Party Candidate in 2012?

By Mitchell Rabin

When the U.S. government was established, there was no provision in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights stating, or even suggesting that there should be just two political parties controlling political office on local, state or federal levels. In fact, for most of U.S. history, there were numerous parties andparty-switching was fairly frequent. Now it's nearly non-existent.

The idea that there are only two parties and that loyalty to one's party is seemingly more sacred than Congress' commitment to their vow of upholding the Constitution and serving the People of the Land. No one likes to use the word treason, but, isn't this some form of it? If a Party's platform undermines the health and well-being of the government and the People at large, no matter their party, well, what do we call this, business-as-usual? Life without integrity or heart?

Why should two parties dominate our Body Politic when our People are so diverse and the parties don't begin to represent every citizen's view? The only change they seem to come up with over time is to become more and more like one another.

While I am no fan of the Democrats, the Republicans seem, like a fraternity just short of the special handshakes. They put their party's importance above the interests of the nation, and this is patently in violation of their oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the U.S. This violation should have legal consequences besides the obvious moral decay and emotional immaturity, sad as it is to say, that it expresses.

It is due, not to strong Democratic values but to the lowest end of politics and sheer manipulation, that has kept worthy 3rd Party candidates from gaining a foothold. In terms of qualifications, 3rd Party candidates have, in my opinion, far outshone those Presidential candidates of the two main parties, now dinosaur-like, self-interested, both of which are paid-out by the same corporate interests. Strong as it may sound, it's hard for intelligent, self-respecting Americans, cultural creatives, progressive thinkers who actually care for others, a humanitarian type of individual, to take either of these two parties seriously, so quick are they to let the children, elderly and those disadvantaged suffer. Even the middle class! Didn't Jesus say " "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers that you do unto me also"..."? Do not most members of Congress consider themselves Christian? So, what has happened to the dignity of brotherly love? Surely there are members of each Party who are good men and women with a strong drive to improve the country and the lot of people, but they are overridden by the lower common denominators of their respective parties. All the more reason that we re-join American history's precedents and give attention and power to viable independent parties. The time is "so here" it isn't funny!

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Nick Turse - The Drone That Fell From the Sky

Posted on December 20, 2011, Printed on December 20, 2011
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175482/ 

What a Busted Robot Airplane Tells Us About the American Empire in 2012 and Beyond 
By Nick Turse

The drone had been in the air for close to five hours before its mission crew realized that something was wrong.  The oil temperature in the plane’s turbocharger, they noticed, had risen into the “cautionary” range. An hour later, it was worse, and it just kept rising as the minutes wore on.  While the crew desperately ran through its “engine overheat” checklist trying to figure out the problem, the engine oil temperature, too, began skyrocketing.

By now, they had a full-blown in-flight emergency on their hands.  “We still have control of the engine, but engine failure is imminent,” the pilot announced over the radio.

Almost two hours after the first signs of distress, the engine indeed failed.  Traveling at 712 feet per minute, the drone clipped a fence before crashing.

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