Archive
Boing Boing – Feds forced to admit that it’s legal to take pictures of federal buildings
From Boing Boing:
Feds forced to admit that it’s legal to take pictures of federal buildings
Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:00 PM PDT
The New York Civil Liberties Union and Libertarian activist Antonio Musumeci just won a court case that affirms the right of photographers to take pictures and record video out front of federal courthouses. The US federal government settled the case by apologizing to Musumeci for his arrest, acknowledging that it is legal to record at courthouses, and promising to issue guidelines to federal officers explaining this fact to them.
“Not only will this settlement end harassment of photographers outside federal courthouses, it will free people to photograph and film outside of all federal buildings,” said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, lead counsel in the case. “The regulation at issue in this case applies to all federal buildings, not only courthouses, so this settlement should extend to photography near all federal buildings nationwide.
NYCLU Settlement Ends Restriction on Photography Outside Federal Courthouses (Thanks, Harkina, via Submitterator)
(Image: Federal Courthouse, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from seanmcgee’s photostream)
- NYPD’s enforcement of non-existent subway photo-ban costing …
- MUNI cops and SFPD enforce non-existent, unconstitutional …
- Writer who photographed HP Lovecraft’s headstone ordered to delete …
- Disney Family Museum’s sucky no-photos policy
- UK Police seize amateur photographer’s film
- DHS photography guidelines
Maggie Mahar – How Reform Law Funds Itself, Strengthens Medicare, and Cuts the Deficit: Part 1
From Health Beat:
How Reform Law Funds Itself, Strengthens Medicare, and Cuts the Deficit: Part 1
Maggie Mahar | October 20, 2010
Those who oppose health care reform continue to assert that the legislation is unaffordable. The only way to dispute this claim is first, to spell out the specific provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that trim spending and raise new revenues—without rationing care. These planks in the legislation provide substantial funding for the subsidies, employer tax credits, and Medicaid expansion needed to cover some 32 million Americans who are now uninsured—while simultaneously putting Medicare on the road to fiscal stability. Continue Reading.
Countdown w/ Cenk: God, O’Donnell & The Constitution
Countdown w/ Cenk: Tea Party Nuts
Countdown w/ Cenk: GOP Latino Voter Suppression Effort
Anderson Cooper Discusses Christine O’Donnell’s ‘Constitutional Scholarship’.
Mike Papantonio and Christ Setzer discuss U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Sam Stein – Justices Scalia And Thomas’s Attendance At Koch Event Sparks Judicial Ethics Debate
From HuffPost:
Justices Scalia And Thomas’s Attendance At Koch Event Sparks Judicial Ethics Debate
Reports that two Supreme Court Justices have attended seminars sponsored by the energy giant and conservative bankroller Koch Industries has sparked a mild debate over judicial ethics.
On Tuesday evening, the New York Times reported that an upcoming meeting in Palm Springs of “a secretive network of Republican donors” that was being organized by Koch Industries, “the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes.” Buried in the third to last graph was a note that previous guests at such meetings included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the more conservative members of the bench.
Bruce Carton – South Carolina Case Will Turn on Whether Poker Is a Game of Luck or Skill
From Legal Blog Watch:
South Carolina Case Will Turn on Whether Poker Is a Game of Luck or Skill
Yesterday, the South Carolina Supreme Court heard oral argument on an issue that my empty wallet and I already know the answer to: Is poker a game of luck or skill?
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports (via How Appealing) that if the answer is “skill,” then South Carolina residents will be permitted to hold poker games in their own homes without violating the state’s anti-gambling laws. This was the view taken by Charleston Circuit Judge Markley Dennis last year, who ruled that the poker game Texas Hold ’em was a game of skill, not chance. The state’s attorney general, Henry McMaster, is now challenging that ruling.
According to The Post and Courier, in April 2006 police raided a South Carolina home and arrested dozens of people after authorities discovered that two Texas Hold ’em tables were operating inside. Some of those arrested challenged the charge, and Judge Dennis’ ruling led to the cases being thrown out. Dennis found that the game of poker is determined more by “the relative skill of the player” than anything else and also that, as I have learned the hard way myself, “a more skilled player will consistently beat a less skilled player.”
In his appeal, McMaster argued that “In the General Assembly’s view, the ills resulting from games played for money does not depend upon the particular game or the nature in which it was played.” He added that if the case in question “does not violate (state law), few would.”
Posted by Bruce Carton on October 20, 2010 at 12:29 PM
Robert Sheer – Obama Hires a Hustler
From HuffPost:
Obama Hires a Hustler
Huffington Post – by Robert Sheer – Oct. 20 (Opinion)
Why in the world would President Obama, whose legacy has been sabotaged by a housing crisis that Donilon helped create and conceal, have hired him to run the most sensitive position of public…
Lee Fang – Memo: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met With Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck to Plot 2010 Election
From Truthout:
Memo: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met With Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck to Plot 2010 Election
Lee Fang, ThinkProgress: “While the Koch brothers – each worth over $21.5 billion – have certainly underwritten much of the right, their hidden coordination with other big business money has gone largely unnoticed. ThinkProgress has obtained a memo outlining the details of the last Koch gathering held in June of this year. The memo, along with an attendee list of about 210 people, shows the titans of industry – from health insurance companies, oil executives, Wall Street investors, and real estate tycoons – working together with conservative journalists and Republican operatives to plan the 2010 election, as well as ongoing conservative efforts through 2012.”
Related…
From ThinkProgress:
By Lee Fang at 9:50 am
In 2006, Koch Industries owner Charles Koch revealed to the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore that he coordinates the funding of the conservative infrastructure of front groups, political campaigns, think tanks, media outlets and other anti-government efforts through a twice annual meeting of wealthy right-wing donors. He also confided to Moore, who is funded through several of Koch’s ventures, that his true goal is to strengthen the “culture of prosperity” by eliminating “90%” of all laws and government regulations. Although it is difficult to quantify the exact amount Koch alone has funneled to right-wing fronts, some studies have pointed toward $50 million he has given alone to anti-environmental groups. Recently, fronts funded by Charles and his brother David have received scrutiny because they have played a pivotal role in the organizing of the anti-Obama Tea Parties and the promotion of virulent far right lawmakers like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). (David Koch praised DeMint and gave him a “Washington Award” shortly after the senator promised to “break” Obama by making health reform his “Waterloo.”)
Greg Palast – SarahPAC Candidate “Should Be in Jail”
From Truthout:
Greg Palast | SarahPAC Candidate “Should Be in Jail”
Greg Palast, Truthout: “‘What he [Griffin] did was absolutely illegal and he should be in jail.’ That’s hardly the kind of endorsement a candidate for Congress expects. But that is the conclusion of voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after digging into the evidence of Congressional candidate Tim Griffin’s role in directing the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) racially biased attack on voters known as ‘caging.’ A brutal mano-a-mano race in Arkansas’ Second District has become a showdown between Sarah Palin’s banner carrier Griffin (funded by SarahPAC) and Democrat Joyce Elliott, who has drawn homeboy Bill Clinton back to Little Rock.”
Austin James of American Majority training tea party activists on guerrilla internet tactics
From astroturfwars | October 20, 2010
This clip shows Austin James of American Majority [http://americanmajority.org/] training tea party activists on guerrilla Internet tactics to “control the online dialog”. The footage was shot at the 2009 American Liberty Tour [http://americanlibertytour.com/], run by a group of libertarian groups tied to real-estate mogul and Koch associate Howie Rich. The clip is taken from a section of the film showing how libertarian/free-market groups are recruiting tea party protesters into their cause.
From SourceWatch:
American Majority is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit political training group established in January, 2008 that “trains and equips a national network of leadership committed to individual freedom through limited government and the free market.” The goal of the American Majority is to “build a national network of leaders and grassroots advocates who aspire to increase freedom for individuals and freedom in the marketplace.” Its headquarters are in Purcellville, Virginia, the organization has state affiliates in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas, and intends to open offices in more states in 2009.[1]
American Majority is involved in organizing protest and the health care “Recess Rallies” occurring in August 2009 in House districts.
They work with Michelle Malkin, RedState.com, American Liberty Alliance, Smart Girl Politics, Americans for Limited Government, FreedomWorks, the Sam Adams Alliance and other groups to organize opposition to health care reform. [2]
AlterNet – Corporate Cash Secretly Funneled to Extremist Tea Party Candidates Who Want to Outlaw Abortion — Even Contraception
From AlterNet:
RH Reality Check / By Jodi Jacobson
Thanks to the disastrous Citizens United decision, corporate interests are funding candidates that support ultra-right wing causes without having to disclose.
October 16, 2010
What’s the connection between the personhood of a fertilized egg and the personhood of corporations?
Both can and will undermine the fundamental rights of women.
On January 21st of this year, perhaps in some cosmically ironic sense a day before the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court handed down a decision on the Citizens United case.
In the 5 to 4 opinion, the Court held that:
Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections. While corporations or unions may not give money directly to campaigns, they may seek to persuade the voting public through other means, including ads, especially where these ads were not broadcast.
Corporations can take money, funnel money, and use money to their political advantage in campaigns for U.S. elected offices and…they do not have to disclose a dime.
Democracy NOW! – NAACP Report Ties Tea Party to Militia and Racist Groups
From Democracy NOW!:
NAACP Report Ties Tea Party to Militia and Racist Groups
Less than two weeks before the midterms elections, the NAACP has published a new report that exposes what is calls links between various Tea Party organizations and racist hate groups in the United States. The report, Tea Party Nationalism, analyzes each of the six most active Tea Party organizations in the country and describes links between Tea Party factions and various white supremacist groups, anti-immigrant organizations and militias. We speak with Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and CEO of the NAACP; and one of the authors of the report, Leonard Zeskind, the president of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights.
Democracy NOW! – Headline News – October 20, 2010
From Democracy NOW!:
Democracy NOW! – Sinking of World Economy
From Democracy NOW!:
As the Obama administration rejects a foreclosure moratorium and austerity protests grip Europe, we assess the state of the US and global economy with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, author of Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy. Stiglitz backs calls for a foreclosure moratorium and says opponents of a new government stimulus “don’t understand basic economics.” On war, Stiglitz says Iraq and Afghanistan are “the first wars in America’s history financed totally on the credit card.” [includes rush transcript–partial]
Climate Progress – How carbon dioxide controls earth’s temperature
From Climate Progress:
How carbon dioxide controls earth’s temperature
NASA’s Lacis: “There is no viable alternative to counteract global warming except through direct human effort to reduce the atmospheric CO2 level.”
October 18, 2010
A study by GISS climate scientists recently published in the journal Science shows that atmospheric CO2 operates as a thermostat to control the temperature of Earth….
CO2 is the key atmospheric gas that exerts principal control (80% of the non-condensing GHG forcing) over the strength of the terrestrial greenhouse effect. Water vapor and clouds are fast-acting feedback effects, and as such, they are controlled by the radiative forcing supplied by the non-condensing GHGs….
There is no viable alternative to counteract global warming except through direct human effort to reduce the atmospheric CO2 level.
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has posted three articles on their website explaining two important new studies, “Atmospheric CO2: Principal control knob governing Earth’s temperature” (subs. req’d) in Science by Andrew Lacis et al. and “The attribution of the present-day total greenhouse effect” (subs. req’d) in JGR by Gavin Schmidt et al. Together they make a terrific tutorial on the critical role human-caused CO2 plays in climate change.
Schmidt is best known as a key contributor to the must-read blog, Real Climate. Lacis may be best known as the NASA climatologist whose 2005 critique of the IPCC Fourth Assessment draft — “There is no scientific merit to be found in the Executive Summary” — was embraced by the anti-science disinformers until it was revealed he thought the IPCC consensus was in fact some watered down, least-common denominator piece of wishy-washiness that understates our scientific understanding, which it is (see “Disputing the ‘consensus’ on global warming“).
FAIR – Taking the Public Out of Public TV
From FAIR:
Taking the Public Out of Public TV
PBS fare differs little from commercial TV
10/19/10
A multi-part FAIR exposé of PBS’s most prominent news and public affairs programs demonstrates that public television is failing to live up to its mission to provide an alternative to commercial television, to give voice to those “who would otherwise go unheard” and help viewers to “see America whole, in all its diversity,” in the words of public TV’s founding document.
In a special November issue of studies and analyses of PBS’s major public affairs shows, FAIR’s magazine Extra! shows that “public television” features guestlists strongly dominated by white, male and elite sources, who are far more likely to represent corporations and war makers than environmentalists or peace advocates. And both funding and ownership of these shows is increasingly corporate, further eroding the distinction between “public” and corporate television. There is precious little “public” left in “public television.”
FAIR undertook the examination following news last fall that PBS was canceling Now and that Bill Moyers was retiring from Bill Moyers Journal. PBS announced that it was replacing the two shows, which exemplified the public broadcasting mission, with Need to Know, a news magazine launched in May and anchored by two journalists from the corporate media world.
FAIR’s findings reveal:
More…
When Limbaugh Demonizes Obama, Some Listeners Take Him Literally
Posted by Jim Naureckas on 10/20/10 at 10:31 am
Rush Limbaugh (10/18/10), holding a photo montage from Drudge up to the “Dittocam,” went off on a bizarre rant that suggested that Obama was possessed by supernatural evil (Mediaite, 10/19/10): Folks, these pictures, they look demonic. And I don’t say this lightly. There are a couple pictures, and the eyes, I’m not saying anything here, but […] Read more»
NewsHour Fails French Public, Too
Posted by Peter Hart on 10/20/10 at 10:17 am
In the coverage of French retirement protests, you often hear U.S. reporters state the debate is over raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. As Dean Baker has pointed out (as did Amitabh Pal from the Progressive, when he appeared on CounterSpin) this is incorrect; the retirement age for most French workers is 65; they are pushing to raise it to 67. Early retirement for some workers would shift from 60 to 62.Last night (10/19/10) the PBS NewsHour had two discussions on this topic, and both made the same error. A live report by Channel 4 reporter Jonathan Rugman included this John Stosselesque exchange:
RUGMAN: In England, I have to work until 65.
WOMAN: Yes?
RUGMAN: Why shouldn’t you in France work until 62?
[…] Read more»
UTNE – United States v. Corporate Greed
From UTNE Reader:
United States v. Corporate Greed
by Staff, Utne Reader – September-October 2010
When the Supreme Court ruled in January that restricting corporate campaign contributions is unconstitutional, expressions of outrage reverberated across the country. President Obama used his State of the Union bully pulpit to scold the justices for the outcome of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and a February poll found that 80 percent of Americans oppose the decision. The outrage is so deep, in fact, that Yes! magazine editor Doug Pibel writes in the Summer 2010 issue that the case may be a “game changer—a decision that is so clearly wrong that it becomes a rallying point” for a broad spectrum of citizens.
The Glenn Beck Apocalypse: Supernews!
AlterNet – Wall Street Is the New Tax Collector? Governments Relinquish Taxation Powers to Big Banks
From AlterNet:
Wall Street Is the New Tax Collector? Governments Relinquish Taxation Powers to Big Banks
Wall Street titans have found a new way to screw over the poor and middle class — as surrogate tax collectors. Continue Reading…
Counterpunch – Sarkozy Under Siege
From Counterpunch:
By PHILIPPE MARLIÈRE
When he entered the Elysée palace in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy dreamed of a glorious destiny. Enthusiastic commentators predicted that his casual populism would revamp the Bonapartist right, and that his Gallic brand of neoliberal policies would sell the “American dream” to a mistrustful population. Things have not gone according to plan. Sarkozy wanted to be the French JFK; today he looks more like Louis XVI awaiting trial in 1793. He may escape the guillotine, but his presidency is now under siege.
The French are deeply unhappy with the way they have been governed, but their main grievance is about pension reform, which is seen as a cynical ploy to make ordinary people work more for inferior entitlements, while bailed-out bankers and the rich get tax rebates and continue to enjoy the high life. Over the past month, six national demonstrations have gathered together an estimated average of 3.5 million per action day. The latest, on Tuesday, was again a big success.
The movement is popular: 69% of the nation back the strikes and demonstrations; 73% want the government to withdraw the reform. And high school pupils have now joined the fray. Over 1,000 high schools are on strike as the youngsters take to the streets to protest against mass unemployment and the raising of the retirement age. The government has patronisingly labelled them as “manipulated kids”, but these comments have backfired and served only to galvanise the young, who have hardened their resistance and taken further interest in the reform. When interviewed by the media, pupils come across as articulate and knowledgable. Parents worry about their children’s future, so they will not stop them from striking.
Other…
By TARIQ ALI
France is grinding to a standstill as millions of workers and students erupt in the streets at the government’s prposal to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. Across the Channel, the new Tory Chancellor has announced savage cuts in public expenditures that will slice away more than a million jobs, drive workers out of south east England and doom the country to years of austerity (unequally imposed, bien sur.) Yet the response has been muted.
A few years ago, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy told an interviewer that he knew the French better than most. Today, he confided, they were admiring the good looks of his wife; tomorrow they would cut his throat. It hasn’t quite come to that just yet, but the French – students and workers, men and women, citizens all – are out on the streets again. A rise in the pension age? Impossible. The barricades are up, oil supplies running out, trains and planes on a skeleton schedule and the protests are still escalating. More than three million people a week ago. Hundreds of thousands out this week, a million yesterday, and more expected this weekend. And what a joyous sight: school students marching in defense of old people’s rights. Were there a Michelin Great Protest guide, France would still be top with three stars, with Greece a close second with two stars.
What a contrast with the miserable, measly actions being planned by the lily-livered English trade unions. There is growing anger and bitterness here too, but it is being recuperated by a petrified bureaucracy. A ritual protest has been planned, largely to demonstrate that they are doing something. But is this something better than nothing?
The Independent – France burns as strike descends into violence
From The Independent:
France burns as strike descends into violence
John Lichfield: President Sarkozy vows to crush petrol blockades crippling country.
More…
Fear and loathing in the nastiest campaign ever
From Barack Obama as the Angel of Death to accusations of Tea Party witchcraft – the midterm election propaganda battle has stooped to new lows
By David Usborne
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Video nasties: Political campaign groups go to extreme measures to discredit their rivals
With two weeks until midterm elections that promise to leave the Democrats battered and probably deprived of their majority in the House of Representatives, voters are yearning for the return of TV ads about cars and cat food. That’s because the blizzard of political spots they are seeing now is arguably the most consistently nasty ever.
It seems especially relentless in this election year because of recent relaxation by the US Supreme Court of funding rules, giving corporations free range to donate money to issue advocacy groups – and to do so anonymously. With that money those groups can run ads favoring one or another candidate in races.
A record $3bn (£2bn) will have been spent on advertising by the time voters enter the booths on 2 November by candidates and by outside organizations. By a 5 to 1 ratio, they have been funding spots that favor Republicans over Democrats.
TaxProf Blog – Sullivan: Microsoft Moving Profits, Not Jobs, Out of the U.S.
From the TaxProf Blog:
Sullivan: Microsoft Moving Profits, Not Jobs, Out of the U.S.
Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts) has published Microsoft Moving Profits, Not Jobs, Out of the U.S., 129 Tax Notes 271 (Oct. 18, 2010):
Figure 4 shows that from 2002 through 2007, the profitability (measured as a percentage of sales) of foreign and U.S. operations was about equal. Given the greater value added in the United States, this is not easy to explain. Even more puzzling are the last three years, when the rate of domestic profit dropped sharply while foreign profit rose — leaving the rate of foreign profitability higher than the domestic rate.
Without more detailed information it is impossible to reach absolute conclusions, but the publicly available information from Microsoft strongly suggests that during the last three years, the company has dramatically stepped up its efforts to take advantage of lax U.S. transfer pricing rules. It is hard to pin down an exact number, but we are talking lost revenue to the treasury of billions of dollars each year.All Tax Analysts content is available through the LexisNexis® services.
AMERICAblog – Insurance companies may not be able to reduce internal costs enough
From AMERICAblog:
Insurance companies may not be able to reduce internal costs enough
by Chris in Paris on 10/19/2010 06:30:00 PM
Wow, private industry really can be much more efficient than the government. Somehow giving the insurance industry new customers isn’t enough for them. They only want the right kind of customers, as in those who are happy to be ripped off with high internal costs. Maybe there will be no other choice but to bring back the public option if the industry can’t manage to control their excessive internal costs.
The Obama administration is awaiting the recommendation of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, meeting in Orlando this week, for how and when to implement key changes to the “Medical Loss Ratio” rule.
Under health reform, beginning 2011, insurance companies will have to spend 80% to 85% of the premiums they collect on care instead of toward their own profits and overhead costs.
Prior to reform, requirements varied from state to state. In some cases, insurers didn’t have to meet any minimum requirements.
For example, some plans have a 40% loss ratio. That means individuals could be paying $1 for 40 cents of care.
ProPublica – Dollars for Docs: What Drug Companies are Paying Your Doctor
From ProPublica:
What Drug Companies are Paying Your Doctor
How Patients Can Use This Data
by Nicholas Kusnetz
ProPublica, Oct. 18, 11:46 p.m.We created our Dollars for Docs database partly as an educational tool. How can patients use it? We interviewed medical and academic experts to ask for advice.
Doctors on Pharma Payroll: What Our Partners Found
by Marian Wang
ProPublica, Yesterday, 3:13 p.m.While it’s not illegal for doctors to promote prescription drugs and accept payments from drug companies, such arrangements do raise ethical questions that some institutions have found concerning enough to try and limit.
Lawsuits Say Pharma Illegally Paid Doctors to Push Their Drugs
by Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, ProPublica Oct. 18, 11:55 p.m.In lawsuits, former drug reps say that doctors were paid to push off-label uses of drugs.
Docs on Pharma Payroll Have Blemished Records, Limited Credentials
by Charles Ornstein , Tracy Weber and Dan Nguyen
ProPublica, Oct. 18, 11:52 p.m.Hundreds of doctors paid to promote companies’ drugs have been accused of professional misconduct, disciplined by state boards or lacked credentials, ProPublica has found.
Consumer Reports: Most Patients Worry About Pharma Payments to Doctors
by Nicholas Kusnetz
ProPublica, Oct. 18, 11:42 p.m.Patients worry that a doctor who gets paid to promote a drug could impact the care they get, a survey shows.
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