California, a state, which, at $1.8 trillion, has the world's eighth largest economy, now finds itself at the edge of an economic abyss.

Despite Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's draconian cuts to health care and education of more than $15 billion, purportedly to close a $26.3 billion gap in the state's finances, despite a pending 32% increase in student tuition at all University of California campuses and three "furlough" days per month in which state employees are forced to stay home without pay, California now faces a 2010 budget deficit estimated to range from $21 billion to $25 billion.

As shocking as it may seem, this looming fiscal catastrophe did not arrive by accident. It is, according to a number of progressive policy experts, the intended product of a Republican-led privatization scheme...

Privatization Madness and The Shock Doctrine

During a Nov. 17 appearance on Democracy Now (video at end of article) George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, asserted the source of this looming economic disaster stems from a greed-based, Republican agenda which seeks to destroy government, replacing its public functions --- health, education, safety --- with a privatized, for profit system --- an agenda which has succeeded in large measure in California because it is the only state where a 2/3 majority approval is required on all revenue and budget legislation.

What Lakoff discusses is by no means limited to California.

In The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein refers to a form of "disaster capitalism" applied on a global scale, where disasters, both natural and man-made (war, deliberately engineered economic collapse), are utilized not merely to permit a tiny class of global economic elites to loot national treasuries but to radically alter national economies by placing everything, e.g., water, health, safety, prisons, even fire fighting, into private hands --- vastly increasing the cost of living for ordinary citizens while transferring enormous wealth to an already wealthy investor class.

In Wealth and Democracy historian Kevin Phillips underscored the obscene gap in wealth that already exists for that investor class, noting that by 1999 the net worth of just three individuals, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Warren Buffet, was larger than the gross domestic product of the world’s 41 poorest nations and their 550 million people. It was a point again underscored when a pair of government reports exposed the stark contrast between the four largest Wall Street firms reporting $22.5 billion in profits for the first three quarters of this year even as "50 million Americans—including a quarter of all children—struggled to get enough to eat...."

Both Klein and Phillips point to the hard-right economic theories of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, which Phillips refers to as a "vice-into-virtue" philosophy, noting:

It is this radical theory that is embodied in the infamous call by the right-wing anti-tax guru Grover Norquist, referenced by David Brock in Blinded by the Right, to create such a massive sea of red ink that the federal government “could be drown in a bathtub;” a perverted wish that metaphorically came to fruition when thousands of New Orleans' mostly African-American residents were left to sink or swim in a toxic soup of flood waters, petrochemicals and decaying bodies because they were too poor to own vehicles in which they could flee the path of Katrina.

In Moyers on America, Bill Moyers described the hard-right's agenda as a movement that is "systematically stripping government of its capacity...to do little more than reward the rich and wage war." And even the war-making function has been increasingly privatized, first with the logistics and support function turned over to private firms like KBR and then by increasing reliance on private mercenary firms like Blackwater/Xe, all at an enormously inflated, taxpayer-funded price.

California's Electric Shock

The telling blow to California's economy came shortly after the Bush/Cheney cabal seized power. California's energy market, deregulated under former Republican Governor Pete Wilson, was ripe for the picking. In swooped the Texas-based energy mafia.

What was thought at the time to be a series of rolling black-outs brought on by excessive consumer demand was ultimately exposed by the Robert Greenwald documentary, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room to be the product of deliberate manipulation. The market was scammed.

A hapless Democratic Governor Gray Davis, faced with soaring spot market prices and stonewalled when he sought federal price-control assistance from the Bush/Cheney cabal, was left with no alternative but to enter inflated long term contracts with the Texas-based energy traders.

The combination of lost revenue secondary to the collapse of the dot-com bubble and the Republican-aided scamming of the state's energy market produced what was then a record California budget deficit.

Enter Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who, with an estimated $251 million net worth, is the richest member of Congress and therefore wealthy enough to have bankrolled the Recall of Gray Davis. During the Recall, the Republican's slick media campaign blamed Davis for the fiscal crisis the Republican-allied and aided energy traders had engineered.

Ironically, at the height of this manufactured crisis, on May 17, 2001, Arnold Schwarzenegger took part in a private meeting at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills with Enron CEO Ken Lay and Michael Milken, the infamous "Junk Bond King" who, in 1989, was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and securities fraud. According to Greg Palast, a 34 page Enron internal memorandum revealed that the true purpose behind the meeting and subsequent Recall was Lay's desire to head off an unfair business practice lawsuit brought by then Democratic Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante. The suit sought to recoup some $9 billion from the rapacious energy traders.

While the deception and Schwarzenegger's celebrity status permitted the Republican Party to capture the governor's mansion, and while this permitted the Republicans to, for example, stack the U.C. Board of Regents with well-connected individuals bent on privatization of the U.C. system,* Democrats remained firmly in control of both the California Senate and Assembly, yet powerless to prevent Republicans from carrying out their radical privatization agenda due to the 2/3 rule which permitted the Party of No to simply stonewall, refusing to pass any budget that was not favored by wealthy corporations and individuals.

As the radical privatizing state legislative Republicans held out well beyond the last budget deadline, the state's ledgers were clogged with $470 million in IOUs as the state's credit dropped to near junk bond status.

The absurdity prompted Ronald M. George, Chief Justice of the CA Supreme Court and a moderate Republican to conclude that the 2/3 rule had placed elected officials inside "a fiscal straitjacket."

George Lakoff and the California Democracy Act

Absent another expensive Recall, California will be stuck with Schwarzenegger until January 2011. But it does not have to remain hostage to the insanity of the privatization agenda.

Lakoff's solution is the California Democracy Act, a proposed ballot measure which reads: “All legislative action on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.”

Unfortunately, this straightforward measure has already encountered an obstacle from an unexpected source.

Lakoff submitted the the proposed initiative to the office of CA Attorney General Jerry Brown, which, while not altering its content, erroneously described the Act as [emphasis added] one which “changes the vote requirement to pass a budget and to raise taxes.”

Per Lakoff, the CA Attorney General's description is misleading:

Hopefully, Lakoff can educate Brown on the importance of an accurate description of this vital measure so as to prevent the hard right from pointing to the Attorney General's description in support of a deceptive claim that a "yes" vote on the California Democracy Act equates to raising everyone's taxes.

Here is Amy Goodman’s 11/18/09 interview of Prof. George Lakoff on Democracy Now...

*In this second video, Bob Samuels, President of the U.C. American Federation of Teachers, explains how Schwarzenegger appointees to the U.C. Board of Regents have perverted the U.C. system, turning it from an institution devoted to undergraduate education to a profit-making and risk taking financial venture...

===

Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate (UCLA) and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968).

But now, as it turns out, Hoffman has also discovered that ACORN stole the election! Not a surprise, given that a new public opinion poll finds that a majority of Republicans think ACORN stole the Presidential election, too! [Hat-tip Digby]:

But NY-23 and the 2008 Presidential election is not all that ACORN did! You can learn more about their stunning crimes (e.g., "ACORN is behind the Eggo Waffle shortage!!!") via #AcornFacts, the new topic that's taking Twitter by storm today...

IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: Scientists warn while Americans yawn; Climate Thunder Down Under: it's fire season again in Australia, while their debate over climate change heats up ... PLUS: Sarah Palin 'goes rogue' on science ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': Robert Redford's Sundance Channel to Air Climate Denier Propaganda; Oliver North: Will Deny Climate Change for Money; More Reasons to Worry About Asia’s Clean-Tech Push; GE Fires Up Rail Deals in China, Eyes U.S. High-Speed Rail Projects; Intel sees opportunities in wind, electric cars; US, China Climate Talks: Getting Warmer ...PLUS: 1971 Predictions of Energy Use in 2000: Who Got It Right? ....

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• Scientists Warn: Natural Carbon Sinks Overwhelmed, Danger of 11 Degree Temperature Rise:
• Global temperatures could rise 6C by end of century, say scientists: Most comprehensive CO2 study to date is expected to give greater urgency to diplomatic manoeuvring before Copenhagen (Guardian UK) [emphasis added]:
  Global temperatures are on a path to rise by an average of 6C by the end of the century as CO2 emissions increase and the Earth's natural ability to absorb the gas declines, according to a major new study.

  Scientists said that CO2 emissions have risen by 29% in the past decade alone and called for urgent action by leaders at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen to agree drastic emissions cuts in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

• Carbon Sinks Losing Their Superpowers (The New Republic)
• Temperatures Set to Skyrocket (Mother Jones)
• Oceans' uptake of manmade carbon may be slowing: First year-by-year study, 1765-2008, shows proportion declining (Eureka Alert) [emphasis added]:
  
  The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions—a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate.
• Australia's Prime Minister Blasts Climate Change Deniers:
• Australia’s Rudd slams the “deniers” and the “gaggle” of “conspiracy theorists” opposing climate action (Climate Progress)
• TRANSCRIPT: Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, on 'Australia, the region and the world: the challenges ahead' (Address to the Lowy Institute, 11/06/09)
• WATCH: Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, on 'Australia, the region and the world: the challenges ahead' (Lowy Institute):
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• Make the kids pay: The economic effects of climate change on future generations (Grist)
• When Behavioral Economics Meets Climate Change, Guess What's Coming for Dinner? (Greenbiz)
• Australia Issues First-Ever 'Catastrophic' Fire Warning With Record Heat Wave:
• Australia issues 'catastrophic' fire warning (CNN)
• Australia: Fires rage in four states amid heatwave (New Zealand Herald)
• Extreme rating not alarmist: fire chief (The Australian)
• Australian Firefighters Urge Passage of Climate Bill (The Australian)
• Flashback: Australia's epic drought: The situation is grim (Independent UK, 4/20/2007)
• Americans Yawn: Climate Change Drops in U.S. Public Opinion:
• Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change (Yale 360):
  Even as the climate science becomes more definitive, polls show that public concern in the United States about global warming has been declining. What will it take to rally Americans behind the need to take strong action on cutting carbon emissions?
• Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming: Modest Support for "Cap and Trade" Policy (Pew Research Center)
• Sarah Palin to Rush Limbaugh: ‘Are we warming or are we cooling?’ (Think Progress)
• Palin’s book spreads falsehoods about clean energy legislation (Grist)
• Sarah Palin Makes Another Fraudulent Claim About Alaska (Environment) (Truthout)
• The Fire this Time: Copenhagen and the War for the Future (GOOD Magazine) [emphasis added]:
  
  The world looks dramatically different if the year 2050 is one you’re likely to be alive to see. To younger people, Copenhagen isn’t some do-gooder meeting; it’s the first major battle in a war for the future.
  ...
  To be young and aware is to suspect that, in the end, the debate about climate action isn’t about substance, but about rich old men trying to squeeze every last dollar, euro, and yen from their investments in outdated industries.

  It is to begin to see your elders as cannibals with golf clubs.

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report...

• Robert Redford's Sundance Channel to Air Climate Denier Propaganda (Huffington Post Green)
• Oliver North Goes Off the Climate Deep End (Mother Jones)
• Flying Tigers: More Reasons to Worry About Asia’s Clean-Tech Push (Wall St. Journal)
• GE Fires Up Rail Deals in China, Eyes U.S. High-Speed Rail Projects (Earth2Tech)
• Intel sees opportunities in wind, electric cars (Reuters)
• US, China Climate Talks: Getting Warmer (Mother Jones)
• 1971 Predictions for 2000: Who Got It Right?: Energy Predictions for the Year 2000: The Executive, The Analyst, and The Professor (GreenTech History)

As we noted at the time, had Keith Olbermann done the same thing, we can only imagine the organized wingnut campaign that would still be howling for his firing, boycotts of MSNBC and GE, CBS/Dan Rather-styled witch-hunt "internal investigations," and more. But, since Hannity's a "conservative" Republican, it's okay, and no sense of accountability or personal responsibility is necessary for such folks.

Well, that's good, because yesterday Fox did it again when "news" reporter Gregg Jarrett noted that Sarah Palin is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she’s promoting her brand new book."

"Take a look at --- these are some of the pictures just coming in to us," Jarrett told viewers as they rolled footage of Palin speaking at campaign rallies from last year's 2008 Presidential race. (See video above right.)

Fox has since issued a statement calling it all "a production error" and promising "an on-air explanation" during Thursday's broadcast of Jarrett's ironically named Happening Now "news" program on which the footage aired yesterday. Chicago Tribune's "The Swamp" blog reports that "serious disciplinary action will be taken for those responsible."

Sure it will. And how about for that whole Hannity thing? "Serious disciplinary action" there as well? How about for these "errors"? Don't hold your breath.

(Related Note: On Monday, the UK Guardian ran my opinion piece on the propaganda outlet that is Fox "News" and the Obama Administration's correct and long-overdue decision to call them out as such. The article certainly brought out the tea baggers on both sides of the pond, bringing in some 261 comments in reply.)

Frank Schaeffer, repentant former rightwing fundamentalist evangelical, and now a contributor here at The BRAD BLOG, was on her show last night to discuss that point, and where it seems to signal that things may be frighteningly headed.

He also raised another point, in condemnation of critics on the Left, with which I'll offer a slight quibble. The video of the full Maddow interview follows, along with a crucial excerpt from the text transcript, and my thoughts on where I disagree with one of Frank's now-repeated assertions...

Schaeffer has been a clarion voice on these issues for some time. Let's hope he doesn't some day turn out to be a prophetic one.

There is one point, however, which he also raised last night, about which he has written previously --- for example, in a quick graf in his post here yesterday on "Sarah Palin - America's Evita" --- on which I'd like to register a slight quibble, some constructive criticism, or at least an alternative viewpoint, in reply.

After the comments quoted above, Schaeffer added, as the segment concluded:

I'm in full concurrence with Frank's points on the "maniacs" and the "insane path" they seem determined to be on. But I believe there is a nuance that he may either be missing, or glossing over, in his virulent chastisement of those Obama supporters who have been critical of him for "not moving towards change as fast as we'd like in every area."

Support for Obama, standing with him, wishing him the best and praying for his safety, is not mutually exclusive from the important civic duty of criticizing him, and applying pressure on him to do the right thing, by holding his feet to the fire when he does not.

Obama, while on the campaign trail, reportedly alluded to a comment from FDR purportedly said in response to a group of civil rights activists who met with him to argue their point. "You've convinced me," FDR supposedly told the activists, "Now go out and make me do it."

Whether FDR actually said that is a matter some dispute, and I was unable to find Obama's oft-referenced campaign allusion to it. Nonetheless, apocryphal or not, the point is an apt one. We do no favors to Obama, or anybody else, by holding our tongues when there is legitimate criticism to be offered. (Note I say legitimate criticism. The bulk of the nonsense offered by the wingnuts and tea baggers of late, sadly and shamefully, has no relationship whatsoever to fact-based legitimacy.)

There are, no doubt, many on the Left who "snipe" too quickly as they fail to fully appreciate the extent of the various Constitutional and bureaucratic hurdles Obama faces in driving his agenda, not the least of which is a Congressional Democratic caucus which is too-often maddeningly hypocritical, short-sighted and cowardly in addition to being the frequent stooges for their corporate benefactors. Moreover, there is something to be said for taking action in a way that does not echo, and thus legitimize, his predecessor's penchant for an Imperial Presidency wherein Congressional powers are usurped with the stroke of an Executive pen, even where such actions may have been established as "legitimate" and "legal" by his predecessor's horrible precedents.

But, at least so far, there remain many points where Obama has failed to bring the bold change he'd promised so fervently, about which legitimate critics are fully within bounds to 'make him do it'. Indeed, I believe it is every patriotic American's duty to do just that.

Frank's language, when he mentioned to Maddow that supporters "had better start speaking up in support of him" is uncomfortably close to Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer's infamous warning that "all Americans...need to watch what they say, watch what they do", in response to Bill Maher's criticism of the Bush Administration following 9/11. Yes, Fleischer's pulpit (the WH press room podium) and immediate audience (the WH press corps) were very different, but the underlying dark tone of "warming" from both men is equally troubling.

Yesterday, Frank expressed a similar sentiment to that mentioned on Maddow's show in his piece on Palin earlier in the day:

Where any "friends" of Obama would "trumpet" him as a "failure" at this still-early stage, I'd agree with Frank that such "friends" are indeed rather "juvenile", as well as short-sighted. But to paint such an overly-broad swath of an "impatient juvenile left" or to warn that "Obama supporters ... had better start speaking up in support of him, and not sniping at him all the time", in apparent disregard of the duty of all of us to do so legitimately --- Obama supporter or otherwise --- seems short-sighted on its own, and (dare I say it in the most respectful, constructive sense, if it's possible) even "unAmerican".

I suspect that sort of thinking and language could remain as a bit of a holdover from Schaeffer's "radical" days as a far-rightwing leader in a community where those who don't follow the word of the gospel are seen as a direct threat to the gospel itself. So I offer this well-intentioned criticism in hopes that it might spark either a fresh reflection from the good Mr. Schaeffer (who is, of course, welcome to respond in full here as he sees fit) and/or a spirited debate on these points, including discussion of the sometimes-overly critical and unfair attacks from some on the Left, which I also find to be cringe-worthy from time to time.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the corporate "mainstream" media make quite a pair. We're hearing a very "balanced" debate over whether KSM should be tried in New York City, and whether the most insane objections to that proposal are really insane or not. But what are we not hearing?

We're not hearing that trying criminals for the crime of 9/11 ought to have been what we did years ago, rather than waging wars in response to a crime. We're not discussing the possibility that had alleged 9/11 criminals been tried years ago rather than being imprisoned and tortured together with hundreds of innocents depicted as subhuman monsters, the "war on terror" might have been replaced with simply the wars on Iraqis and Afghans and Pakistanis. What effect might that have had on Americans' willingness to surrender their Bill of Rights? We aren't hearing about that.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg about what we're not hearing...

Aside from a column by my friend Ray McGovern, not of course published by the corporate media, what are we hearing or seeing about KSM's motive? Isn't motive a traditionally important element in a criminal investigation? We're told that putting KSM on trial would give him a platform for propaganda, but we're not told what that propaganda might be. If it were really so pernicious, why not expose it and refute it? Isn't that what societies that believe in free speech do with misguided speech? Don't they defeat it with more and better speech? Or is that only when it can be done without using the word "Israel"?

Outside of progressive blogs, we're not hearing that giving a somewhat fair, if less than speedy, trial to those most likely to plead guilty or be convicted, and a less fair military trial to others, and no trial at all to others still, reveals this show of justice to be a sham. If KSM were acquitted, President Obama would order him imprisoned outside the rule of law until he dies. If he is found guilty, as everyone universally expects, he may be officially murdered by the United States, motivating others to take up arms against a nation that wages and funds illegal wars, imprisons people without charge, tortures, kidnaps, renditions, and executes.

If the justice system is bent to ensure that KSM is convicted or permitted little opportunity to speak, will that bending have any permanent repercussions for our justice system? Or, to move in the other direction, having determined that "military justice" is not good enough for alleged mass murders, must we continue to pretend that it is good enough for members of the military? Can we not admit everyone into a single and improved justice system? We're not hearing that discussion.

An improved justice system would require the admission into court of videos of all confessions and interrogations. This would not include admissions made to a journalist prior to imprisonment, as in the case of KSM and Al Jazeera, but would include all interrogations since that time. And in KSM's case it might include video of the "interrogation" of his children. Years ago, allegations were made that the United States had tortured his children, including in little-heard-of manners, such as locking a child in a box with a supposedly deadly insect. More recently, secret memos emerged showing the United States to have authorized just those techniques.

If this were a story about missing sex tapes, the media would be all over it. A story about the possible torture of children is far less interesting. It might open up difficult questions, such as whether someone who has been endlessly tortured, and whose children may have been tortured, can --- while still in the custody of the torturers --- give an un-coerced confession. Questions might even have to be asked about leniency in sentencing for someone who has already served time and been horribly tortured.

If this were a story about a singer or actor or athlete, we'd see investigations of the time KSM spent attending college in North Carolina. Why didn't the Americans he lived among persuade him of how horrible it would be to murder people in this country? Our media pundits are completely incapable of asking such a question without either blaming KSM's American acquaintances for his crimes or declaring KSM to be an inscrutable monster whose thinking is of absolutely no interest.

Other questions might be asked as well, such as why Dick Cheney and his supporters never talk about the two memos anymore. Remember the two memos that Cheney claimed would show that the torture of KSM and others revealed important information that saved lives? The memos are now public and show nothing of the sort. Nor was torture needed in order to prosecute KSM himself. In fact, as Marcy Wheeler has pointed out, the ability of the government to prosecute him without using evidence obtained through torture demonstrates that torture was not needed for that purpose. But why are we not talking about the two purposes torture actually serves? We know it does not produce useful information, but we also know that it produces desired lies, such as agreement to false rationales for war. And we know that it scares people, both people who fear they might be tortured and people who fear the wild beasts depicted as reachable only through torture.

As Glenn Greenwald has touched on, behaving as though terrorized, irrationally unable to believe an alleged terrorist can be held in a cell and tried in a court, is to give in to the terrorism. Worse, it is to advance it. More Americans are more terrorized following TV discussions of KSM's possible prosecution than were beforehand, because the voices on the TV promote the terror rather than the prosecution.

We are hearing about the need to avoid evidence obtained through torture. But at the same time we are hearing absolutely nothing about the need to prosecute the torturers and the creators of the torture program, at least one of whom, John Yoo, is given a platform as one of the disinterested media commentators in the MSM. This failure is an ideal way to create more KSMs. Why don't we talk about it?

David Swanson is the author of the new book Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union by Seven Stories Press. You can order it and find out when tour will be in your town: http://davidswanson.org/book.

Cross-posted at AfterDowningStreet.org...

Sarah Palin's memoir is a perfect metaphor for what ails America and the Republican Party. Her book is published by the Zondervan publishing house, formerly an evangelical family-run religious publishing powerhouse now owned by Rupert Murdoch. (Back in the day my family's and many evangelical leader friend's books helped put Zondervan on the map, this was when I was a young religious nut activist in the 70s). Palin's book was ghostwritten by the editor of the far, far loony right fundamentalist World magazine founded by Marvin Olasky (of which more in a moment). The book will get a big boost from ratings-seeking Oprah. Murdoch... Oprah... far right politics... The advance was paid out of the huge profits Murdoch made off Rick-stop-gays-prop-8-Warren's Purpose Driven Life.

The chief characteristic of Palin's book is her trashing of the old cautious and respectable William F. Buckley-style Republican Party in general and John McCain and his campaign in particular, an act of backstabbing right up there with the "Et tu Brute" assassination of Caesar. I should say it is actually the second characteristic, that comes a distant second to the building of a Sarah Palin cult of personality, wherein Jesus and Sarah will "take America back for God."

As a former Republican, religious right activist who saw the light, re-registered as an independent voter and then, in the last election cycle, worked hard to get then Senator Obama elected, and having been one of the instigators of what is now becoming the bomb-throwing wing of the former Republican Party --- now a far right fundamentalist cult --- I understand better than most that Palin's book is her bid to take over the Republican Party, something like Oprah's positioning herself as the doyen of publishing.

It's personality cult time, personality cult with an agenda. The agenda isn't about politics at all. This is about naked power. Welcome to the world of our home grown very own Evita Perón. Welcome to Act II of the American "Reconstructionist" movement to establish a theocracy. The theocrats now have their Joan of Arc...

What is Sarah --- Evita --- Palin/Jesus about? Let's just call her the new face of Lipstick Fascism.

And who is standing between us and Sarah's burning desire to BE somebody? President Obama, that's who.

Problem is President Obama has "friends" who seem more like enemies every day: the impatient juvenile left is already trumpeting his "failure" because he hasn't fixed everything in one whole year!

But back to Palin: If the results in upstate New York are any indication she's all about eliminating the Republican Party to replace it with a disjointed hard right cult of personality/theocracy.

This is the "party" of "Obama must fail" ideology and "Jesus saves!" everyone but gays, blacks and other "Not Real Americans."

Here's a woman whose husband associated closely with the Alaska secessionist party, which itself associates with lunatic fringe secessionist groups and far right militias nationwide. Here's a woman who stabs John McCain in the back, the man who brought this small town mayor and one time Alaska Governor to national prominence. Here's a woman who quit the job of governor to become a full-time rabblerouser in the style of a Munich 1930s of beer hall putsch.

And what's her backing? The Rupert Murdoch/Reconstructionist Empire, the marriage of hard right capitalism with harder right Old Testament would-be theocracy.

Without Fox News she'd be nothing. Without the 5 million Murdoch paid her for her book she'd be stuck scraping by on $100,000 speaking fees. Without the millions of evangelicals who are Fox News' audience Fox would not exist. And who ghosted the book for her?

Lynn Vincent, the features editor of World, a fundamentalist flagship magazine. Vincent also ghost wrote the memoir of Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, the former head of the Army's Special Forces Command, who believes that his job in the U.S. military was to defeat Satan for the Christian nation of America.

Of our enemies in Somalia, Boykin said, "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol." And why does the world hate us? "We are hated because we are a nation of believers." And how do we defeat terrorism? "[W]e come against them in the name of Jesus."

Vincent has authored several columns bashing gay men and lesbians as "abnormal" and "devian[t]." Vincent laments the American Psychiatric Association's decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. Vincent also co-authored Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current, 2006) with Robert Stacy McCain, a book that; "documents the tragic story of how the nation's oldest political party has inspired, then cruelly betrayed, the hopes of millions of Americans, including many of our friends and dear members of our own families --- as well as sincere and honest officials within the party itself."

On Page 100, Vincent and McCain wrote:

And what about the founder of World magazine? Marvin Olasky the editor in chief is a far right Reconstructionist who has been working to more or less turn America into a theocracy ever since the late 1980s and early 1990s. The 16-book Turning Point Christian Worldview series was largely funded by far right banker-fortune Howard Ahmanson, Jr.'s Fieldstead Institute, which champions the cause of "total integration of Biblical law into our lives." (Ahmanson once donated 150,000 to one of my far right projects in the early 80s).

Ahmanson funded four of Olasky's 30 books, and Michelle Goldberg, author of the book Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, places Olasky in a crucial role to Christian reconstructionism and dominionism, saying "I’m not sure whether he actually identifies himself as a Christian reconstructionist, but he’s very close to Christian reconstructionism."

Olasky --- someone who used to be a big fan of mine and my late father and quoted Dad and me often when I was a religious right leader --- was an adviser on Bush’s first Presidential campaign, influencing Bush and the Republican Party.

Christian Reconstructionism as a movement is something philosophically like Bible-inspired totalitarianism/theocratic neofascism. Karen Armstrong sees this potential for fascism in Christian Reconstructionism, as does Max Blumeanthal. The system of dominion envisaged by Christian Reconstructionist theologians R. J. Rushdoony and Gary North is totalitarian. Many others put my late father in the same camp, though I don't.

So now we have it: a far right operative who --- with the help of a ghost writer who believes that Roosevelt was a secret communist and that gays will burn in Hell --- trashes the Republican Party for her own personality cult agenda, was "blessed" by a preacher who cast out "witches" before she ran for governor, who claims in her book the "God's hand" has been on her "every step in the way", and that she's going to "fulfill" destiny. She's funded directly via the huge advance by Murdoch and is coached by the Olasky/reconstructonist wing of the hard right.

The circle of power, money, loony theology and greed closes. McCain is thrown to the dogs. Oprah cashes in. Welcome to America.

Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back and the forthcoming Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism).

IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: Obama in China with Hu... (and how and when); Decelerating on the Road to Copenhagen; Dirty Diaper Power! ... PLUS: Are your balls a danger to the environment? ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': Minnesota Governor backtracks on climate change; Texas plant exceeds new limit on lead levels; No ‘Choice of Evils’ Defense in Oil Lease Case, Judge Rules; Nanosilver in consumer products is no silver lining for fish; Group Warns of Failing Effort to Manage Tuna and Sharks; Pesticide-Soaked 'Wallpaper' Cuts Malaria Exposure, Safer Than Spraying ...PLUS: Cap-And-Trade: Is Europe Really On Track To Meet Its Kyoto Goals?....

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• Obama in China for Asia Economic Summit:
• Obama says world urgently watching US-China talks (AP)
• World Leaders Punt on Climate Pact (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones)
• It ain't over yet: Rumors of Copenhagen’s demise have been greatly exaggerated (Grist)
• Leaders Will Delay Deal on Climate Change (NY Times)
• Delaying an international climate treaty: not as bad as it looks? (Grist)
• Obama Hobbled in Fight Against Global Warming (NY Times)
• Text of Obama's town hall --- in China (Not a word on healthcare) (LA Times)
• U.S., China vow action on climate change (CNN) [emphasis added]:
  
  Instead of reaching a final deal in Copenhagen, a strategy dubbed "one agreement, two steps" was unveiled at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit over the weekend in Singapore. The aim is to produce a pact over a longer period.

  The first step would be to have all 191 countries involved in the Copenhagen summit signing on to a framework that includes key ingredients, such as how to finance the coordinated effort to battle climate change. The second step, a binding deal on cutting carbon emissions, would be hashed out in further negotiations.

• China, US agree transition to green, low-carbon economy essential (China Global Times)
• US and China Strike a Deal On Renewable Energy Information Sharing (Treehugger)
• WATCH IT: Obama-Hu Joint Press Conference (C-SPAN)
• APEC leaders douse hopes on climate pact (AFP)
• Obama calls for climate pact with 'immediate' effect (AFP)
• Africa agrees on secret climate damages demand: African leaders agreed on Tuesday on how much cash to demand from the rich world to compensate for the impact of climate change on the continent but kept the figure secret ahead of next month's Copenhagen talks. (Reuters)
• APEC Concedes Copenhagen Climate Treaty Out of Reach (Bloomberg)
• U.S.-China Clean Energy Announcements (White House)
• Dirty Diaper Power!:
• New Recycling Plant to be Powered 100% by Dirty Diapers (Treehugger)
• Baby Power! U.K. Companies Convert Diapers to Energy (Clean Technica)
• A Brief History of the Disposable Diaper (Mother Jones)
• Are Golf Balls a Danger to the Environment?:
• Golf balls: An environmental hazard? (Golf Digest)
• Golf balls: 'Humanity's signature litter' (CNN):
  
  It seems the simple plastic golf ball is increasingly becoming a major litter problem.

  The scale of the dilemma was underlined recently in Scotland, where scientists --- who scoured the watery depths in a submarine hoping to discover evidence of the prehistoric Loch Ness monster --- were surprised to find hundreds of thousands of golf balls lining the bed of the loch.

• Biodegradable Golf Balls and Tees Offer Best Options (Green Woman)
• America's 18,000 Golf Courses Are Devastating the Environment (Organic Consumer)
• Search for Loch Ness Monster nets 100,000 golf balls: Scottish scientists searching for evidence of Nessie find a bevy of golf balls at the bottom of the famous lake. (Mother Nature News)

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report...

• Pawlenty Completes Science-Denying Metamorphosis, Now Refutes That Human Activity Causes Climate Change (Think Progress)
• Frisco, TX plant exceeds new limit on lead levels (Dallas Morning News)
• No Tuna Surprise: International Group Fails to Agree on Limits to Save Bluefin From Extinction (Dot Earth)
• Group Warns of Failing Effort to Manage Tuna and Sharks (Dot Earth)
• No ‘Choice of Evils’ Defense in Oil Lease Case, Judge Rules (NY Times)
• Nanosilver in consumer products: No silver lining for fish (Environmental Health News)
• Pesticide-Soaked 'Wallpaper' Cuts Malaria Exposure, Safer Than Spraying (Treehugger)
• Cap-And-Trade: Is Europe Really On Track To Meet Its Kyoto Goals (The New Republic)

I always love the commenters on columns I do at the Guardian. My favorite exchange there so far this morning begins with commenter "Zounds" objecting to my points with: "Active discourse also requires a wider range of intellectual influences than all the American news channels offer."

To which "jcpenny", apparently an American, replied: "I've never seen British Tellie to provide the variety the American Tellie does. Perhaps our forebarers had a reason for leaving?"

To which "Zounds" replied hilariously in turn: "I believe the lack of variety on British TV was indeed the primary reason the Pilgrim Fathers gave."

:-) Add your own two cents and read the full column here...

On Nov. 12, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court alleging that separate House and Senate Resolutions to bar all funds to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) were unconstitutional Bills of Attainder, which violated ACORN's Fifth Amendment right to due process of law and First Amendment right to freedom of association. (See Rachel Maddow's excellent coverage and explanation of a "Bill of Attainder" here.)

The CCR suit "seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent the government from reallocating funds designated for the organization and its affiliates and a preliminary injunction to stop Congress from singling out a single organization for punishment without proper investigation or due process."

During his Nov. 13 appearance on Democracy Now, CCR Attorney Bill Quigley (video below) warned that if constitutionality of the legislation is not legally challenged, ACORN could be but the first of numerous groups seen as supportive of Democrats whose funding will be challenged, as that rightwing blogs are already looking to target the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) as well.

While the suit presents a significant legal challenge, and while there is little doubt that ACORN has been the victim of a GOP witch hunt which, as Brad Friedman and others have reported, included the "phony 'voter fraud' charges" that were at the "heart of the U.S. Attorney purge scandal," the willingness of so many Congressional Democrats to jump at the chance to punish ACORN via this Bill of Attainder may also entail something more subtly insidious...

Appearing on Democracy Now in the wake of an 83-to-7 Senate vote to bar the group from receiving any federal funds from the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, ACORN's CEO, Bertha Lewis, revealed that the video, which depicted a handful of ACORN's 700 employees giving advice to two rightwing activists dressed as a pimp and a prostitute, was but the latest in a series of Republican efforts to smear the organization, and that past efforts, such as other alleging voter fraud, failed "because all of those people...were turned in by us."

Lewis noted that the rightwing "sting" videos were presented out of context; that the rightwing group engaged in the sting had not only been asked to leave several ACORN offices but that, in several instances, the police had to be called to force them to leave.

None of this was considered before Congress acted to bar funds to an entire organization for the inappropriate, if not particularly illegal, remarks of a few employees. That's because, despite an awareness of the Republican's near continuous partisan assault on ACORN, Democrats in Congress did not bother to hold hearings before rushing to judgment.

By contrast, as Brad Friedman previously reported, citing Jeremy Scahill's piece in The Nation, the top 100 government contractors, who made "nearly $300 billion from federal contracts in 2007 alone" paid some "$26 billion in fines to settle cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse;" KBR was not merely been charged with such abuse but with poisoning as many as 100,000 people, including U.S. troops, yet these same Democratic members of Congress who defunded ACORN have ignored a bill [PDF] offered by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) which would prohibit "the Federal Government from awarding contracts, grants, or other agreements to, providing any other Federal funds to, or engaging in activities that promote certain corporations or companies guilty of certain felony convictions."

(Note: Unlike the measures used to defund ACORN, McCullum's bill would not amount to a "Bill of Attainder" because it does not single-out one group for punishment, but instead applies across-the-board to all corporations which are "convicted" of the specified felonies.)

So why the rush to judgment by Congressional Democrats? Was it a case of Democrats simply rolling over in the face of another rightwing onslaught?

During the above-cited appearance on Democracy Now, Ms. Lewis explained what ACORN does besides voter registration:

CCR's fact sheet [PDF] notes that ACORN:

Thus, while ACORN may help register millions of voters who predominantly vote for Democrats, ACORN also shields those same voters from the excesses carried out by the true constituency of the corporate sector of the Democratic Party --- banks, Wall Street, corporate America.

ACORN's constituency has little in common with many of the members of Congress their registration drives have helped to elect.

As Jim Hightower observed in Thieves in High Places less than one percent of U.S. citizens are millionaires. Nearly half the members of Congress elected in 2002 were millionaires. As Hightower notes:

A more recent study by the Center for Responsive Politics revealed that, at present, 237 members of Congress are millionaires.

In "Nader was Right: Liberals are Going Nowhere with Obama," Chris Hedges observed at TruthDig:

We have experienced repeated examples --- the Wall Street bailout, an inadequate stimulus, health care legislation designed to extend more money and more power to the insurance cartel and pharmaceutical industries accompanied by the elimination of the "Kucinich Amendment" which would have permitted states and their citizens to adopt single-payer legislation if they so choose; endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the benefit of the military-industrial complex, which now includes well-paid, allegedly murderous mercenaries like Blackwater/Xe.

While the desire to deflect criticism from the rightwing echo chamber helps to explain the occasions in which the Democratic leadership willingly abandons long-time allies, as occurred when candidate Obama threw Reverend Wright under the bus or when the President stood by silently in the face of the McCarthy-like assault on Van Jones, class as well as cowardice may help to explain the willingness of so many corporate Congressional Democrats to slam ACORN with an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder. Their actions are consistent with what Noam Chomsky describes as an "elite consensus;" as an extension of the class war that the wealthy in this nation have waged against working class Americans over the past forty years.

On 11/12/09, the day CCR's ACORN lawsuit was filed, CCR's Executive Director Vince Warren discussed the suit on Angie Coiro's Live From the Left Coast. The audio, appx. 16 minutes, can be heard here...
[See post to listen to audio]

And here is the 11/13/09 appearance by CCR's attorney Bill Quigley on Democracy Now...

===

Ernest A. Canning has been an active member of the California state bar since 1977. Mr. Canning has received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science as well as a juris doctor. He is also a Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central Highlands 1968).

Well, so much for that self-delusion.

In any case, now that the wingers own both the Wall Street Journal and the bulk of the Washington Post, they can probably get by without the Washington Times if it comes to that.

A few selected on-point comments from the TPM story linked above, in which they post the first public statement from the Moon family (which also now owns UPI), about the ongoing, whacked-out internecine family battle over the newspaper most-frequently quoted by Limbaugh, Hannity and all the rest...

NowhereMan:

JohnGorenfeld:

Kinkistyle:

JohnGorenfeld:

Druidity:

We talked e-voting, including "open source" secret vote-counting machines (the latest ill-considered fad sweeping the nation), Internet voting schemes (the other latest ill-considered fad) and transparently overseeable hand-counting ("Democracy's Gold Standard"), DieboldReturnOurMoney.com, the Rise of the Tea Bags, Muppets, Glenn Beck (about whom questions are being asked as to whether he raped and murdered a young girl in 1990), and much more...

Download MP3 or listen online below [appx. 28 mins]...
[See post to listen to audio]

According to Syracuse's Post-Standard, the post-election canvass shows the race between Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, who conceded on Election Night, and Democratic candidate Bill Owens, who was sworn in as the district's new U.S. Congressman last Friday, to be tightening as results are double-checked, errors are being found, and a few thousand absentee ballots are still uncounted.

The race, regarded by many as a a bellwether contest before next year's full Congressional elections, appeared to have swung in the Democrat's favor on Election Night, following the suspension of the campaign of Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava who threw her support to Owens after she'd dropped out just days prior to the election.

On Election Night, Owens was reported to be the "winner" by just over 5,000 votes, with 93 percent of the votes tallied, leading to Hoffman's concession. Since then, various errors have been discovered in at least two different counties, resulting in a gain of some 2,000 votes for the Conservative Party's Hoffman, bringing the latest tally to 66,698 to 63,672. Closer, now a 3,000 vote margin, but still favoring Rep. Owens.

There were, however, some 10,200 absentee ballots requested and distributed. And, as we understand New York's state election laws, none of them have yet been counted. Many of those ballots were purportedly cast when Scozzafava was still in the race. At that time, according to Hoffman's campaign at least, they might have had an edge in the then-three-way contest. So it's possible, though believed to be a long shot, that Hoffman could gain enough votes in absentees to eclipse Owens.

This scenario --- a Congressional candidate quickly sworn in, based on unofficial results shortly after a bellwether Special Election before all votes have been properly counted --- should be a familiar one to long-time readers of The BRAD BLOG. A very similar situation occurred in the 2006 race to replace the jailed Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in California's 50th Congressional district.

While Republicans who stood in support of the Conservative Party's Hoffman this year --- he was endorsed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and the Republican Party itself (only after Scozzafava was pressured to drop out) --- are finding some cause for optimism in the still-narrowing margin. Limbaugh certainly has, at least according to his breathless reporting of the goings-on in NY-23 on his show this morning.

But the legal maneuvering and judicial precedent that the then-Republican-led House pulled in the Summer of 2006, in order to keep votes from being counted in the CA-50 Special Election and, indeed, to keep the voters of California from even being able to contest their own election, should ensure that Hoffman can no longer, legally, take possession of the House seat via any challenge in New York --- even if he's eventually found to have received more votes than Owens!...

Following the 2006 Special Election between Republican Brian Bilbray and Democrat Francine Busby, serious questions were originally raised by The BRAD BLOG about the legality of the electronic voting systems used in the race. The Diebold machines used, as we'd discovered, had been sent home with pollworkers for days prior to the election in what became known as "sleepovers". Those sleepovers effectively decertified those particular systems for use, given several findings and pronouncements by both state and federal officials following the discovery that the optical-scan systems in question contained computer code in violation of federal standards and state law.

Additionally, more than 50,000 votes had yet to be counted at all when the CA Sec. of State's office, then run by Republicans, hastily faxed a "certification" of the election, of sorts, to Congress, asserting that were no challenges to the election. That, despite the issues we'd very loudly raised about the unofficial results, and despite the fact that CA voters are allowed, by state law, to file a contest to any election in the days following official certification of any race.

A number of election integrity groups had issued statements of "no confidence" in those election results, the story was picked up by a number of print and broadcast MSM outlets --- the Washington Post asked "How could this be allowed to happen", CNN's Lou Dobbs called it "a threat to American Democracy," the Sacramento Bee reported the election showed "the threat to democracy is very real," among many others --- and the DNC's Voting Rights Institute itself even called for a full "manual count" of all ballots in the race. That count would never be allowed.

Then, as now, the candidate believed to be the "loser" --- Busby in that case, Hoffman in this one --- had conceded before all the votes had been counted. Then, as now, the state sent notice to the U.S. House Clerk based on unofficial election results before all votes were counted, attesting to the name of the "winner" and that the race had not been contested. Then, as now, the "winning" candidate --- Republican Bilbray in that case, Democrat Owens in this one --- was quickly shuttled to D.C. to be sworn in by the Speaker of the House. Back then it was Republican Dennis Hastert. This time it's Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Owens vote in favor of the House Democrats' Health Care legislation proved vital on Saturday, following his swearing-in just one day earlier.

The bad news, however, for now-hopeful Republicans/Conservatives is that when the results of the Busby/Bilbray race were contested by a California voter, the Republican-leadership of the U.S. House Administration Committee sent a letter [PDF] to the CA judge in the case, arguing that neither CA voters nor the state courts had jurisdiction to contest the election any longer, once the candidate had already been sworn into the U.S. House.

"The Court should dismiss this action," Paul Vinovich, Republican counsel to the House Admin Committee wrote to Superior Court Judge Yuri Hoffman. "State courts do not have jurisdiction to decide an action contesting the election of a member of the United States House of Representatives. That power is textually committed to the House of Representatives itself by the Constitution, a commitment that has been recognized by the Supreme Court."

"The United States Constitution unambiguously states that 'Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns, and Qualifications of its Members,'" Vinovich argued, quoting article I, section 5 of the Constitution. "As a result, the Constitution gives the House of Representatives 'the authority 'to determine the facts and apply the appropriate rules of law, and, finally, to render a judgment which is beyond the authority of any other tribunal to review.'"

"When plaintiff asks this court to decree following a recount '[t]hat the candidate with the most votes be judged elected,' plaintiff is asking the Court to issue an order that the House of Representatives is bound by the FCEA [Federal Contested Elections Act] not to honor," Vinovich instructed the judge in his letter.

On the House Republicans' assertion of the Constitutional argument that it was the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives --- not the CA courts and not the voters in the state --- who had jurisdiction over the results of the election at that point, the judge accepted the argument and dismissed the case. Democracy was denied. The argument withstood appeal to a higher court, essentially, as time wore on and the court found the complaint to be moot.

Of course, we were outraged at the time that any candidate would be sworn in before all votes had been counted, that the House of Representatives would argue that neither the people of California's 50th district in San Diego, nor the courts of this state, would be allowed to determine their own Representative in Congress, and that the court was willing to accept what seemed such a patently absurd argument.

Nonetheless, the Republicans were successful in shutting down any and all state challenges and contests to that election --- simply through a speedy swearing-in ceremony. An appeal to Congress itself, under the FCEA would have been decided by the Republican majority, just as such a contest today would be decided by the Democrats who now enjoy the majority. The Republican candidate from 2006, Rep. Brian Bilbray, elected on illegal voting systems, installed under an official vote count, with results that were never allowed to be challenged with a manual count, still sits in the U.S. House today.

Given where the New York race could be headed, Democrats would be wise to remember that 2006 precedent so strongly argued by Republicans, and Republicans would be wise to remember it's never a good idea --- no matter how much it appears to be politically advantageous in the short-term --- to put partisan politics ahead of the small-d democracy of we the people.

• 2006 Republican House Committee Letter to CA Judge [PDF]

She's been kind enough to set up a BRAD BLOG page over there. So please, if you're a Facebooker, become a fan today and help spread the good word!

(And if you're not already following us on Twitter, where we were dragged kicking and screaming some time ago, but enjoy it much anyway, you can follow us at Twitter.com/TheBradBlog where I sometimes include a few additional thoughts not posted here at the blog.)

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IN TODAY'S AUDIO REPORT: Lights out for Brazil; the Brown Pelican is saved!; America's lakes, not so much; A new threat to your sex life ... PLUS: Clean Coal lies --- about veterans --- on Veteran's Day! ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

Got comments, tips, love letters, hate mail? Drop us a line at GreenNews@BradBlog.com or right here at the comments link below. All GNRs are always archived at GreenNews.BradBlog.com.

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': Senate intensifies climate bill efforts; U.N. Secretary General urges Senate to pass climate legislation; Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) Censured for Sensible Climate Stance; A Battle in Canada Over Drive-Through Idling; How Much Will $37 Trillion Buy Us?; Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power?; USGBC jobs finds “Green building to support nearly 8 million U.S. jobs over next 4 years”...PLUS: Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash ....

Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today's episode follow below...

• Brazil Blackout:
• Brazil Blackout Sparks Infrastructure Concerns (Wall St. Journal)
• ANALYSIS-Brazil blackout a glitch, but shows investment needed (Reuters)
• Brazil Agency Says Power Grid Vulnerable to Outages (Bloomberg)
• Success! Brown Pelican Off the Endangered Species List:
• De-listed: Brown pelican removed from endangered species list: A century-long effort to protect the bird is no longer necessary, federal officials say. The population, once imperiled by hunters and DDT, has reached more than 650,000 in North and Central America. (LA Times)
• Brown pelican no longer endangered: U.S. (Reuters)
• BACKGROUNDER: The History of DDT (Wikipedia)
• EPA: Toxic Fish in America's Lakes:
• EPA study finds toxic chemicals in fish tissue in all 50 states (Great Falls Tribune)
• EPA: Toxic chemicals in freshwater fish widespread (AP)
• EPA study says mercury-tainted fish found in 49% of U.S. lakes and reservoirs (Chicago Tribune) [emphasis added]:
  
  Fish with potentially harmful levels of mercury were found in 49 percent of U.S. lakes and reservoirs studied, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

  Lakes in almost half of the states had fish contaminated by toxic chemicals such as mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls or pesticides, the EPA said in a statement Tuesday on a study conducted from 2000 to 2003.

• READ THE STUDY: National Lake Fish Tissue Study (EPA.gov)
• FDA ADVISORY on Fish for Women & Children: What You Need to Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish (FDA.gov)
• New Study Links BPA to Erectile Dysfunction:
• High BPA levels linked to male sexual problems: Study in China is likely to bring further scrutiny of the common chemical (Washington Post)
• Watch BPA get taken seriously now (ZDNet)
• Concern over canned foods: Our tests find wide range of Bisphenol A in soups, juice, and more (Consumer Reports)
• The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A : How a handful of consultants used Big Tobacco's tactics to sow doubt about science and hold off regulation of BPA, a chemical in hundreds of products that could be harming an entire generation. (Fast Company)
• While scientists fight over BPA studies, Congress could just act (Grist)
• OP-ED: Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies (NY Times)
• 'Clean Coal' Group Misrepresents Veterans:
• Coal Group Misrepresents Veterans (Mother Jones)
• Countdown: ACCCE 'Worst Persons In The World'!:
• VoteVets.org: The Voice of America's 21st Century Patriots
• Statement from OPERATION FREE:: ACCCE Dishonors Veterans Day [emphasis in original]:
  
  Barely months after they forged letters from veterans in Virginia, the dishonorable front groups of the dirty energy lobby are at it again. In a move that should offend every American, they’re using Veterans’ day to oppose carbon pollution legislation – an agenda that threatens to put more brave men and women into harm’s way in the future.
  ...
  This is insulting to all of the Veterans who are fighting to protect America’s national security by supporting clean, American power.

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA': More green news not covered in today's audio report...

• Senate intensifies climate bill efforts (Talking Points Memo)
• Sen. Lindsay Graham Censured for Sensible Climate Stance (Mother Jones)
• U.N. chief pushes Senate on climate (Politico)
• A Battle in Canada Over Drive-Through Idling (Green Inc.)
• How Much Will $37 Trillion Buy Us? (The New Republic)
• Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power? (Grist)
• USGBC jobs finds “Green building to support nearly 8 million U.S. jobs over next 4 years” (Climate Progress)
• Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash (NY Tiems)

The Daily Show still offers just about the best news coverage on cable...

UPDATE: Media Matters documents how Hannity's phony video is only "the tip of Fox News' video-doctoring iceberg"...

UPDATE, 7:48pm PT: Having no choice but to cop to it, Hannity admits getting busted, though claims it was "an inadvertent mistake". How one can inadvertently go fetch footage from two months ago, and "inadvertently" edit it into a report on an event that took place earlier on the same day is not entirely clear.

He failed to explain to his viewers the context in which the "incorrect video" actually was shown. Neither did he run Stewart's report from last night explaining clearly how Hannity had attempted to fool them. So, as usual, Hannity's viewers remain largely both in the dark and misinformed.

Here's the transcript and the video of Hannity's statement, which came at the very end of his show tonight, about an hour ago...

Can you imagine what the wingnuts would have done, the boycotts of GE and MSNBC, and the size of the DRUDGE REPORT's screaming headlines had Keith Olbermann falsified footage in a report as Hannity did? Such as it is, however, the wingnuts won't raise a peep about any of this. Unlike with Dan Rather, who didn't intentionally deceive anybody, there will be no cries for investigations, nobody will be held accountable for anything, Hannity will get to keep his job, and the entire matter will be forgotten by the weekend.

UPDATE 11/13/09: On Thursday night's show, Stewart responded to Hannity's "apology", here's that response...

All amusing enough. Though I remain dumbfounded as I ponder, still, the outrage --- not titters and jokes --- that we'd be hearing from the wingnuts had Olbermann knowingly falsified video during a news report!.

Apparently there will be no investigation, nobody will be held accountable, Sean Hannity takes personal responsible for nothing on his shameful, manipulative, dishonest program. His face should be put on the Fox "News" logo.

Gawker's John Cook takes apart Ross' big "scoop" yesterday, which swept both the wingnut and non-wingnut media alike --- cooking up the alleged Fort Hood shooter Army Major Nidal Malik "Hasan's Contacts with al Qaeda".

Those "contacts with al Qaeda"? Um, not so much, as Cook details. Turns out that Hasan's "attempt to reach out to al Qaeda" were, in actuality, three emails sent to the imam of the mosque that Hasan attended in Virginia in 2001, back when two of the 9/11 hijackers, reportedly, also attended the same mosque. The cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, has since moved to Yemen where he has reportedly spoken out in favor of al-Qaeda.

The emails sent to him by Hasan? Whatever they were about, Ross doesn't know, and the FBI, who reportedly did know, apparently didn't find they warranted any action be taken.

Oh, and the "people" connected to al-Qaeda who Hasan allegedly "attempt[ed] to reach out to"? Ross now admits there was just one --- singular, not plural --- and it was al-Awlaki.

Here's our favorite passage from Cook's excellent evisceration of Ross' yet-again irresponsible coverage, proving (by ABC News' own standards) that Ross himself may well be an al-Qaeda terrorist!...

The sub-header to Ross' story, by the way --- which the sub-header to this article is meant to mirror --- is "Army Major in Fort Hood Massacre Used 'Electronic Means' to Connect with Terrorists".

Ross, it must be noted, is also the one who similarly stirred up the wingnuts and non-wingnuts alike with his completely incorrect report that the 2001 anthrax attacks --- terrorist attacks on American soil, after 9/11, which killed four people, despite widespread, deluded, misinformed wingnut amnesia --- were tied to Iraq. Ross reported at the time, during the build-up to a war in Iraq based wholly on similar lies, that the strain of anthrax used in those attacks, according to "four well-placed and separate sources," contained a "potent additive...known to have been used by only one country in producing biochemical weapons - Iraq."

He was wrong.

His unnamed sources for that report, likely the same unnamed sources he used for his cooked up "Hasan's Contacts with al Qaeda" report, were wrong then and he's never either bothered to retract the story, or named the "unnamed sources" who misled him, to our knowledge. Glen Greenwald appropriately took both Ross and ABC News apart last year for that incredibly irresponsible and inaccurate report, as the media, in the summer of 2008, was similarly misreporting the facts behind the suicide of the FBI's dubiously alleged anthrax killer, U.S. scientist Bruce E. Ivins.

As Cook notes, in describing a litany of stories which Ross has also gotten wrong:

Please go read John Cook's full report and help spread the word about it before conventional wisdom fully sets in, despite the fact that it likely already has, thanks once again to ABC News and their atrocious, continuing --- though profitable --- embarrassment, Brian Ross.

Well that'll certainly teach any future snipers from doing same. I guess Nidal Hasan and all the other mass shooters since 2002 didn't get the memo.

CNN has more.

And now this: Pfizer broke the law by promoting drugs for unapparoved uses...

We must stop those those fuckers from ACORN immediately! It's an outrage!

UPDATE: Just in: Blackwater attempted to bribe Iraq with $1 million (tax-payer dollars!) after Nisour Square Massacre and owner Erik Prince knew about it. How much more evidence do you need? ACORN's behavior is atrocious and must be stopped!