US: Outraged Popular Movement Occupies Iowa Caucus

What we should do is present our people's platform and then demand the politicians/candidates abide by these principles or keep them from getting (re)elected to office:

 The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement on Tuesday will begin in Iowa a popular election assembly, a week before the first GOP primaries.

  The Occupy Iowa Caucus planned a meeting on Tuesday night in Des Moines, the state capital, some days ahead of the Republican party which on January 3 will hold its primaries, the group said on its website.

According to the Occupy Des Moines call, in the celebration also known as the People's Caucus, the organizers will present and discuss complaints made for months by the OWS movement and for 99 percent of the population, said a spokesperson.

Then, instead of indicating a preference for a possible presidential candidate, the participants will declare their support for the group that plans to occupy the venue for the next three days, in a peaceful action.

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Gingrich Supported Romney Health Care Plan in 2006 Newsletter

Gingrich gives Romney a run for his money when it comes to flip-flops:

Newt Gingrich voiced enthusiasm for Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health care law when it was passed five years ago, the same plan he has been denouncing over the past few months as he campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination.

"The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system," said an April 2006 newsletter published by Gingrich's former consulting company, the Center for Health Transformation.

The two-page "Newt Notes" analysis, found online by The Wall Street Journal even though it no longer appears on the center's website, continued, "We agree entirely with Governor Romney and Massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100 percent insurance coverage for all Americans."

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Report: "Wealth Gap between" Members of Congress and Americans "Growing Quickly"

Congress might not be solving the nation's problems but at least they are using their time to enrich themselves at our expense. So it isn't just greedy Wall St. bankers and CEOs that are seeing their wealth skyrocket, so are politicians. Which makes since they are all tied together. We think that we are electing leaders to serve us but they are in fact looking out for themselves. Public service has become a country club. And it ain't limited to Congress, Presidents are using their positions to become millionaires. The Clintons and Barack Obama have become millionaires after occupying the White House. The reason they can get away with it is because money rules politics, not ideas or ability. Additionally, someone elected to Congress is essentially in office for life. They are almost guaranteed re-election. So, in other words, they don't give a damn about what you and I think. The politicians know they can get away with it because we don't do anything about it:

Capitol Hill millionaires. That group has grown in recent years to include nearly half of all members of Congress — 250 in all — and the wealth gap between lawmakers and their constituents appears to be growing quickly, even as Congress debates unemployment benefits, possible cuts in food stamps and a “millionaire’s tax.”

[...]Largely insulated from the country’s economic downturn since 2008, members of Congress — many of them among the “1 percenters” denounced by Occupy Wall Street protesters — have gotten much richer even as most of the country has become much poorer in the last six years, according to an analysis by The New York Times based on data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group.

[...]What is clear is that members of Congress are getting richer compared not only with the average American worker, but also with other very rich Americans.

While the median net worth of members of Congress jumped 15 percent from 2004 to 2010, the net worth of the richest 10 percent of Americans remained essentially flat. For all Americans, median net worth dropped 8 percent during that period, based on inflation-adjusted data from Moody’s Analytics.

Going back further, the median wealth of House members grew some two and a half times between 1984 and 2009 in inflation-adjusted dollars, while the wealth of the average American family has actually declined slightly in that same time period, according to data cited by The Washington Post in an article published Monday on its Web site.

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Obama NDAA OK Draws OccupyMN Protest At Obama Reelection HQ

Obama NDAA OK Draws OccupyMN Protest At Obama Reelection HQ | Occupy Cyberspace – American Autumn

Gingrich: First Wife Not "Young and Pretty Enough" to Be First Lady

Gingrich is a pig.

Gingrich: First Wife Not "Young and Pretty Enough" to Be First Lady - Forbes

Report: 11 Mass. Convicts Serving Life Sentences To Be Paroled

The criminal justice system in America is farce. Life should mean life.
Report: 11 Mass. Convicts Serving Life Sentences To Be Paroled « CBS Boston

NYPD Blocks Food for Occupy Christmas Celebration

It is fitting. The NYPD has been behaving like scrooges for the last 3 months:

Occupy Wall Street protesters convened for a Christmas celebration in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan yesterday, but when volunteers showed up with bags of cookies and food, New York City police officers prevented them from entering.

An NYPD spokesperson offered no comment on why the volunteers, who instead distributed the food along the sidewalk outside the park, were not allowed in.

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ThinkProgress: Let's Invade the USA then Maybe we Can Rebuild America

Great idea. The U.S. government likes to invade countries and then rebuild them. So why don't we invade the USA to try and do something about a crumbling infrastructure and economy. But instead of using bombs and soldiers, we use bulldozers and workers.

The link to this article includes a list of your representatives in Congress (they should have included President Obama) to where you send the pre-entered suggestion. First, you enter your zip code. Maybe we can give Congress an idea for solving some of the nation's problems. They can't seem to come up with any of their own.

CBS News Video: Occupy Wall Street Inspire World Protest Movement

This report was supposed to be about the top 5 international stories of 2011. It started out as a discussion about how Occupy Wall Street is inspired by Tehrir Square and in turn inspire the protesters in Egypt:

Are You Better Off Today Than You Were Four Years Ago?

The answer is a resounding--no. It's still bad. But would a Republican elected in 2012 be any better? The answer is still--no. Every election cycle we go through this same pointless exercise. The Democrats would say that if we get a majority in both houses of Congress we get things done with President Obama. They wouldn't have to deal with the do-nothing Republicans. Well they had just such a majority in 2009 and the Donkeys failed. The American people did what they do every election now, give the majority back to the other party. When will we wise-up and stop playing musical chairs. It is as clear as it has ever been. The problem is a two-party system that gives us no choice, just the same nonsense masquerading as something different:

 Back in the 1980 presidential race, Republican candidate Ronald Reagan set the modern standard for gauging the economic mood of voters when he defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter by asking the simple question: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

In 2012, President Barack Obama will try to win re-election in the face of what is likely to be the highest unemployment rate for any president seeking a second term in 76 years. Not since Franklin Roosevelt won re-election in 1936 has a president faced a worse economic situation. Obama's job approval stands at 46% – below George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan a year before they were re-elected – and approval of Obama's handling of the economy is a dismal 39%.

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Ron Paul Took Credit For Controversial Newsletters In 1995 Interview (VIDEO)

Oops. Just admit it.

Ron Paul may now be backing away from controversial newsletters published in the 80s and 90s, but he took a different tone in a 1995 interview.

Buzzfeed's Andrew Kaczynski unearthed this video of Paul taking credit for the newsletters.

Romney: If I'm President, All College Grads Will Have A Job

Really?! What was Romney's employment record while Governor of Massachusetts?

Romney: If I'm President, All College Grads Will Have A Job; If Obama Wins, They Won't | ThinkProgress

California Soldier Shot at his Homecoming Party

America is a war zone just Afghanistan. And it's made that way by the proliferation of guns, drugs and a violent culture. Seems to me that we need to win the war at home before we can win any wars abroad:

An Army soldier recovering from injuries suffered in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan has been shot at his homecoming party, and family members say he's paralyzed and in critical condition.

Christopher Sullivan, 22, was shot late Friday while trying to break up a fight between his brother and another man at a San Bernardino, Calif., residence.

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Iran Stoning: Woman To Be Executed For Adultery

This monstrosity of a regime would not have happened had it not been for the U.S. government overthrowing the Iranian democracy in the 1950s. Now they are totally impotent in dealing with the Tehranian rulers:

Authorities in Iran said Sunday they are again moving ahead with plans to execute a woman sentenced to death by stoning on an adultery conviction in a case that sparked an international outcry, but are considering whether to carry out the punishment by hanging instead.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is already behind bars, serving a 10-year sentence on a separate conviction in the murder of her husband. Amid the international outrage her case generated, Iran in July 2010 suspended plans to carry out her death sentence on the adultery conviction.

On Sunday, a senior judiciary official said experts were studying whether the punishment of stoning could be changed to hanging.

There is some question whether she's guilty at all. This from 2008:

A lawyer for an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning has told a British newspaper she was tortured for two days before confessing on state TV to being an accomplice to her husband's death.

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani's lawyer told the Guardian on Thursday that his client, a 43-year-old mother of two, was forced to give the interview, which was recorded in Tabriz prison where she has been held for the past four years.

"She was severely beaten up and tortured until she accepted to appear in front of camera. Her 22-year-old son Sajad and her 17-year-old daughter Saeedeh are completely traumatised by watching this programme," lawyer Houtan Kian said on the newspaper's website.

Video: Russia Protests are Reminiscent of 20 Years Ago

Raising the Minimum Wage

Despite the propaganda from free marketeers, raising the minimum wage benefits the economy. It also keeps us from being a third world nation. It is certainly no substitute for the higher paying manufacturing jobs that have been outsourced by companies wanting to take advantage of cheap labor abroad. The problem has been that businesses have tried to get around the raising of the minimum wage by hiring illegal aliens or outsourcing. Therefore the solution to the problem is a government that isn't beholden to the lobbyists of business interests. And that ain't happening with the current two-party system. We must begin the struggle to defeat the anti-labor argument by making the case that a well paid work force fuels the consumption that makes an economy grow. And that's good for business:

When low-wage workers have more money in their pockets, they have little choice but to spend it immediately on basic necessities like groceries, clothing and school supplies. And as demand for goods and services grows, businesses expand and hire; the increased spending resulting from the minimum-wage bumps in eight states on Jan. 1 will lead to an additional $366 million in economic output and create the equivalent of more than 3,000 jobs, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. That's a shot in the arm our economy needs.

The minimum-wage increase is especially important when so many better-paying jobs in sectors like construction, manufacturing and finance have disappeared, and many families are left supporting themselves with lower-paid service-sector jobs. An analysis by the National Employment Law Project finds that while the majority of jobs lost during and after the recession were in mid-wage occupations, roughly three-quarters of the jobs added since job growth resumed are in low-wage occupations.

And things aren't going to improve any time soon: The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that seven of the 10 occupations with the most job growth between 2008 and 2018 will be low-paying positions. While we know our economy will have an increasing number of positions in home health care, food preparation and customer service, these jobs don't have to pay poverty wages. At one time, the manufacturing jobs that we now yearn for were dangerous, low-wage and undesirable. But we turned them into good jobs, with safer work places, higher pay, and a voice for workers.

Eight states will take a step in the right direction on Jan. 1 when they raise minimum wage rates to keep pace with inflation. But while more than 1.4 million workers will see their wages increase Jan. 1, millions more must depend on the stagnant federal minimum wage of just $7.25, or $15,000 a year for full-time work. The American people know this isn't right: A national poll conducted in November found that more than two-thirds of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. It's a deeply popular idea that can help boost the economy while not adding to state or federal budget deficits.

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Feed America's hungry (and their pets), says nonprofit group

Food banks across...

the country kicked into high gear for the holiday season this week in an effort to feed America's hungry people. But a few instead homed in on an often overlooked casualty of hard times -- the family pet.

"It's the forgotten pets that go by the wayside," said Ann King, founder of an Atlanta-based nonprofit group called Save Our Pets Food Bank.

Appalled by tales of pet owners compelled to hand over their cats and dogs to shelters, King formed her organization in 2008 in an effort to provide cash-strapped owners a way to keep their canine and feline friends.

Mentally ill Flood ER as States Cut Services

Shameful. So much for healthcare reform. Well at least we have a payroll tax cut extension for two months. That should solve the problem. Or maybe we should listen to the Conservatives and Tea Partyers. They would say people flooding emergency rooms are lazy good for nothings. It's their fault they don't have a job. Suck it up. They should follow the example of Wall St. bankers. Look how well they're doing. You don't hear them complaining:

Across the country, doctors like Sullivan are facing a spike in psychiatric emergencies - attempted suicide, severe depression, psychosis - as states slash mental health services and the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression takes its toll.

This trend is taxing emergency rooms already overburdened by uninsured patients who wait until ailments become acute before seeking treatment.

"These are people without a previous psychiatric history who are coming in and telling us they've lost their jobs, they've lost sometimes their homes, they can't provide for their families, and they are becoming severely depressed," said Dr. Felicia Smith, director of the acute psychiatric service at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

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United States Once with World's Largest Percentage of College Graduates, Now we Rank 14th

Fareed Zakaria is one of the very few in the mainstream press that not only criticizes what's going on in our society but has solutions:

The answer is pretty clear. Only five years ago, American infrastructure used to be ranked in the top 10 by the World Economic Forum. Now we're 24th. U.S. air infrastructure has gone from 12th in the world to 31st - roads from eighth to 20th.

The drop in human capital is even greater than the drop in physical capital. The United States used to have the world's largest percentage of college graduates. We're now number 14, according to the most recent OECD data, and American students routinely rank toward the bottom of the developed world in international tests.

The situation in science education is more drastic. Even with the increase in college attendance over the past two decades, there were fewer engineering and engineering technologies graduates in 2009 (84,636) than in 1989 (85,002). Research and development spending has risen under Obama, but the basic trend has been downward for two decades. In percentage terms, the federal share of research spending - which funds basic science - is half of what it was in the 1950s.

In other words, the big shift in the United States over the past two decades is not a rise in regulations and taxation but a decline in investment - in physical and human capital. And investment is the crucial locomotive of long-term growth. In our interview, Michael Spence, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, pointed out that the United States got out of the Great Depression because of the spending associated with World War II but also because during the war, the U.S. dramatically reduced its consumption and expanded investments. People spent less; they saved more and bought war bonds. That surge in investment - by people and government - produced a generation of growth after the war.

If we want the next generation of growth, we need a similarly serious strategy of investment.

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Synagogue Welcomes Homeless with Christmas Tree

Christmas isn't about material things. It's spiritual:

Congregation Beth Shalom is continuing its annual practice of placing a Christmas tree inside the Oak Park synagogue to welcome the homeless of various faiths.

The Detroit Free Press reports (http://on.freep.com/uj4KGk ) Saturday that the synagogue allows clients of the South Oakland Shelter to use its kitchen, classrooms and Youth Lodge through Monday as churches that participate throughout the year in the program are busy with their own activities over the Christmas holiday.

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