op-ed by Beverly Mann Political Opportunity (Not)   The link at the end of Steve Roth’s post yesterday, “American Exceptionalism #238: Opportunity (Not),” is to a post on Sunday by Paul Krugman on his NYT blog, in which he discusses Alan Krueger’s speech last week.  Krugman’s blog entry says:   “Alan Krueger, the chairman of the […]

Repeat as needed to avoid cognitive dissonance. “Trust” percentage minus “Distrust” percentage: Via: Chart of the Day: Republicans Don’t Trust Anyone (Except Fox News) | Mother Jones. Cross-posted at Asymptosis.

by Beverly Mann Comments on Journalist Chris Hedges’ article, “Why I’m Suing Barack Obama”(reformatted for easier reading) Dan asked me if I could comment on an article published yesterday on Truthdig, republished on Truthout, by veteran foreign correspondent and current Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges. The article is titled, “Why I’m Suing Barack Obama.” Hedges’ Truthdig […]

This post will not describe any actual non fictional events. My aim is to understand whether there are gaps in the law which can make bankruptcy profitable. I know virtually nothing about the law, so I am typing in almost complete ignorance. I do this, because I know nothing about CDS either and my effort […]

by Mike Kimel A Tale From Our Libertarian Present I’ve been getting a lot of calls on my cell phone from telemarketers lately. So has my wife. Our numbers on the do not call registry, but just to be safe, we registered them again. I’ve had random conversations with people about this, and found that […]

Christopher Dodd ruins his reputation: Go read about [SOPA and PIPA], if you haven’t, because it’s pretty insidious stuff, not just because of the governmental control, but because of the corporate power behind it…. Former Senator Chris Dodd, now head of the Motion Picture Association of America (motto: “You can only be our leader if […]

by Linda Beale Romney Reveals His Tax Rate Is ‘Probably Closer to 15 Percent Source for this article:  Emily Friedman, Romney Reveals His Tax Rate Is ‘Probably Closer to 15 Percent’”, ABC News, Jan. 17, 2012. At a press conference following the GOP debate last night, GOP presumed favored candidate Mitt Romney acknowledged for the first […]

by Linda Beale Offshored Assets still in IRS cross-hairs but new disclosure program available As most who follow the issues are aware, the IRS has been focusing for some time on the foreign bank accounts of US taxpayers.  The big break came when the IRS was able to get some data from UBS, including information […]

Arctic Sea Ice measurements are still being reported by the National Snow and Ice Data Center but are not much noted in the national press. Arctic sea ice extent in December 2011 averaged 12.38 million square kilometers (4.78 million square miles). This is the third lowest December ice extent in the 1979 to 2011 satellite […]

by Dale Coberly SOCIAL SECURITY AND BRAIN DAMAGE Liberals Destroy Social Security While Claiming Victory Republicans Cry “Please Not the Briar Patch, Br’er ‘Bama, please, please!” Robert Kuttner, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/obama-social-security_b_1178904.html tells us that Obama has won a great victory by getting the Republicans to extend the payroll tax cut; SS “will be made whole from transfers […]