Compassionless Conservatives - Jon Bauman

Remember when George W. Bush ran as a "Compassionate Conservative?" Nice slogan. The problem was that "Compassionate Conservatives" never actually seemed compassionate.

But at least the Bushies bothered to pretend. With the rise of the Tea Party, those good old days of feeling the need to fake some sense of humanity are far behind us, and a new breed of openly Compassionless Conservatives has come to the fore, both among politicians and the general public. Their undue level of influence in today's "dialogue" makes us wonder what kind of country America is actually becoming.

During the 2008 campaign when some nutcase yelled "Kill him" at a Sarah Palin rally while she was attacking then-candidate Barack Obama. Palin clearly heard him, and just smiled, making no comment.

Fast forward to last week's Republican "debate" (all of them are more like fawn-offs to the far, far right) and the crowd reaction to the question of whether a hospital should treat an uninsured patient in an emergency. "Let him die?" "YEAH!!!" And all the candidates stood silent again, just as Palin did before.

Finally, in their most authentic moment of this Florida "debate," all the Compassionless Conservative candidates performed in perfect lockstep by standing silent once again when the audience booed a soldier for serving his country while being gay.

That was Compassionless Conservatism at its clearest, a chorus of bigoted haters safely unleashing their loathing in a friendly room where none would dare risk losing all those hate-filled votes.


The full article is available here

Pearl Jam: Twenty - by Joshua Kloke

Pearl Jam have continued to exist for 20 years not because of fortune, fame, or even hit records, but for a reason much more elemental altogether: their fans. Pearl Jam owes a lot to their fans. Which is why it’s fitting that the soundtrack to PJ20 was chosen not by the band or their record label, but by director Cameron Crowe, who has been a Pearl Jam fan since its inception.

There is an element of faith when it comes to exchanges between the band and its fans, and PJ20 provides as prime an example as one will ever hear. The band trusted Crowe to choose the tracks for the soundtrack, and Crowe came through in spades. What you hear on PJ20 are the highs, the lows, and the kind of honesty which has become a Pearl Jam trademark.

Spread over two discs (and eventually, two vinyl LPs), the first disc features tracks taken directly from the film, while the second is a collection of rarities and demos. Some tracks recognizable by even the most casual Pearl Jam fan are represented, but even then, Crowe went to great lengths to ensure these tracks stand out.

The full article is available here

How Many Slaves Work For You? - Cathleen Falsani

While major brands continue to address issues like sweatshops in developing nations, many companies still do not know where the supplies come from for their products.

There are more people living in slavery today — an estimated 27 million people, more than at any other time in human history — but until now it’s been hard to comprehend just how many aspects of our everyday lives are dependent upon forced labor.

While major brands continue to address issues like sweatshops in developing nations, many companies still do not know where the supplies come from for their products — for instance, the cotton used to make a t-shirt or the beans in that grande soy latte.

The Slavery Footprint campaign launched Thursday (Sept. 22), which also happened to have been the 149th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, with the goal of personalizing “the issue of modern slavery by providing people with an assessment of just how much their lifestyle depends on forced labor — and the steps they can immediately take to help end it.”

The full article is available here

Obama Isn't Waging 'Class Warfare,' He Wants to End Republican War on Middle Class - Robert Creamer

If I were a Republican, the last thing I'd want to talk about is "class warfare."   For 30 years -- whenever they have been in power -- Republicans and their Wall Street/CEO allies have conducted a sustained, effective war on the American middle class.

Much of the success of their war has resulted from their insistence that it didn't exist. They have talked instead about how the economy needs to reward all those "job creators" whose beneficence will rain down economic prosperity on the rest of us.

American workers have become more and more productive -- but they haven't shared in the income generated by that increased productivity, so now they can't afford to buy the products and services they produce.

The success of the Wall Street/CEO/Republican war on the middle class rests, in part, in the old frog in boiling water story. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, they say, the frog will jump right out. But if you put a frog in a pot and gradually turn up the heat until it boils you end up with a cooked frog.

Republican policies have gradually shifted wealth, income and power from the middle class -- and those who aspire to be middle class -- into their own hands and for obvious reasons they haven't wanted to focus too much attention on "class warfare."

The full article is available here

What Nirvana's 'Nevermind' Means to Me - Spin Magazine

40 Artists Reflect on a Classic ... In case you're just joining us: On September 24, 1991, the Seattle-based band Nirvana -- singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and new drummer Dave Grohl -- released their second album, Nevermind, their first for major label DGC Records. And while the ensuing maelstrom has hardly gone undocumented, the effect the record had on music fans and artists alike is as raw and personal now as it was 20 years ago.

The full article is available here

The New GOP: Anti-Kids, Anti-Jobs, Anti-Business... And Anti-Republican - Richard Eskow

This is not your father's (or mother's) GOP. During a time of national crisis, the president has submitted an urgently-needed jobs bill that is well within the mainstream for Republicans as well as Democrats. But today's Republicans are a new breed, dedicated not to their country or even an ideology.

Republicans from Taft to Bush Sr. used spending and new taxes to do the right thing for their country in times of economic downturn. But today's Republicans are a nihilistic pack who would turn against everything their predecessors believed in, in the name of selfishness and greed.

I have one yardstick by which I test every major problem," said Dwight D. Eisenhower, "and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?"

Where are the Republicans of yesteryear?

The full article is available here

Exxon Makes Billion-Dollar Bet Climate Change is Real, Here Now and Going to Get Worse; But Keeps Funding Deniers - Joe Romm

This just in: Exxon Mobil has made a multi-billion dollar acknowledgement that climate change is real and is happening now.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for them to admit this, though. Exxon would like you to believe that climate change is neither real nor urgent. That is why they have spent millions of dollars over the last several years funding climate skeptics and fighting legislation that would regulate the emissions of greenhouse gases. When you hear climate skeptics speak, there’s a good chance that Exxon money is in their pocket.

Actions, however, speak louder than words. And Exxon’s most recent action was a thunderclap. According to reports, Exxon has just signed an extensive deal with Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, to develop promising offshore oil and gas deposits in the Arctic Ocean. The companies will begin by investing $3.2 billion to explore in the Kara Sea, with the potential of increasing the investment to $500 billion in the future. Exxon is so convinced of the potential of these sites that it is giving Rosneft ownership rights in several of its global properties to complete the deal.

Full article is available here

10 Years On, Sick Ground Zero Workers Still Without Proper Care - Michelle Chen

This week, 9/11 firefighters and police chiefs rallied to demand changes to the rules governing compensation for health problems tied to poisonous air and debris at Ground Zero.

They want federal funds to support treatment for cancer, which is currently omitted from the primary legislation covering Ground Zero-related medical needs.

The outrage among Ground Zero emergency responders and volunteers is stoked by the belief—recently affirmed by a ProPublica investigation—that the government failed utterly to warn people in the area about the risks of the pollution, or to implement essential safety measures for workers at the site, like enforcing rules about protective gear.

The full article is available here

Getting Those Republican Attacks Right - Dean Baker

At this point, Republicans are beginning to sound almost like wind-up toys when they complain about job-killing taxes and regulations that keep businesses from hiring. The media should at least do the Republicans and the public the courtesy of attempting to discern if these complaints make any sense.

If the charges are true, then there are logical implications that can be explored. The media should be taking the time to see whether the evidence is consistent with Republican claims.

The tax side of the story is pretty simple. The Republicans are making things up.

We still have the Bush-era tax rates in effect. The wealthy are paying a smaller share of their income in taxes than at any point since the Great Depression. The tax rate on corporate profits is also hovering near a post-Depression low.

Some of the more inventive Republicans may claim that it is fear of higher taxes in the future that discourages hiring, but this doesn't fly either. There is a huge amount of turnover in the labor market, especially in sectors like health care, retail and restaurants.

Even if employers were convinced that higher tax rates in 2013 and beyond would make it unprofitable to have more workers; that would hardly be a reason not to hire workers today. Its a safe bet that ordinary turnover would allow them to reduce their workforce to the desired level long before the tax rates returned to their Clinton-era levels.

Of course we created 3 million jobs a year from 1996-2000. This makes it difficult to claim the Clinton-era tax rates would destroy jobs.

The full article is available here

U.N. Study: Austerity Measures Pushing World Economy Toward Disaster - Reuters

The pursuit of austerity measures and deficit cuts is pushing the world economy toward disaster in a misguided attempt to please global financial markets, the annual report of the United Nations economic thinktank UNCTAD said on Tuesday.

The report, entitled "Post-crisis policy challenges in the world economy," savaged U.S. and European economic policies and called for wage increases, stricter regulation of financial markets, including a return to a system of managed exchange rates, and a conscious break with market-led thinking.

"The message here is very pragmatic: we need to reverse our course quickly," said UNCTAD Secretary General Supachai Panitchpakdi.

Supachai, a former head of the World Trade Organization, said the policy response to the crisis, with an emphasis on fiscal tightening, was misconceived and inept.

The report's lead author Heiner Flassbeck said the global economic situation was extremely dangerous and, without more stimulus, a decade of stagnation was the best-case scenario.

In 200+ Days The House GOP Has Voted To Kill 1.9 Million Jobs And Created 0 - Jason Easley

The day after the GOP took base the House, John Boehner said, “As you heard me say last night, we are humbled by the trust that the American people have placed in us and we recognize this is a time for us to roll up our sleeves and go to work on the people’s priorities: creating jobs, cutting spending and reforming the way Congress does its business. It’s not just what the American people are demanding — it’s what they are expecting from us.”

We are a little past the 200 day mark and the House GOP have yet to pass a bill that would create a single job. The only spending they are willing to slash is related to the poor, the disabled, women, Social Security and Medicare, but they have changed the way that the Congress does business by being so hardline that House of Representatives is irrelevant as a policy making body and has become an obstacle to agreement on even the most basic of legislation.

House Republicans have pulled a bait and switch on the American electorate. They ran a campaign based on job creation, but once elected set out to implement a corporatist and socially conservative agenda.