"Obama Proposes to Cut $467 Billion in Tax Breaks For Companies, Wealthy Americans" (with video)

Democracy Now! with video (14:24):

The White House said Monday President Obama is proposing cutting $467 billion in tax breaks for wealthier Americans and some companies to offset the cost of his job-creation plan. Obama is proposing limiting itemized deductions for Americans making $250,000 or more a year and ending tax breaks for oil companies, corporate-jet owners and investment-fund managers. Jack Lew is the White House Budget Director.

Jack Lew, White House budget director: "At it’s most simple level, what the President said on Thursday night stands and is profoundly true: we can’t afford everything. We have to make choices. And I think if the American people were asked to make a choice between tax breaks for investment fund managers who get preferential treatment for carried interest and oil and gas industry tax breaks that treat oil and gas more favorably than other investments and corporate jets that are treated more favorably than commercial, that is not a hard choice for most Americans. If the choice is creating economic growth and jobs or tolerating the results of many years of inequities in the tax code."

George Packer on Obama's Job Speech (with video)

George Packer (The New Yorker):

My guess is that the House will give him just enough of his plan—further cuts to payroll taxes paid by employers and employees—to be able to say, We’re not rank partisans and blind ideologues: we are doing something. But this wouldn’t be nearly enough to reverse the downward economic slide, allowing the opposition to go on playing the game it’s played since Obama’s inauguration—to lay the blame on him for the results of their own acts of legislative sabotage. Power without responsibility requires a high degree of self-restraint, something lacking in the contemporary Republican Party. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Greg Sargent says

Anyone who is still wondering whether Obama intends to go all in with his push to get his jobs plan passed as is — and not piecemeal — should be encouraged by the new ad the DNC has released today ratcheting up pressure on Congress to pass the bill. MORE...

“There’s definitely something going on here at Lewis-McChord that’s not being taken care of.”

Noah Hagemann, 6, holds a picture of his father, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, who was found dead on June 28 with a gunshot wound to his head. His wife, Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, left, believes he committed suicide., Elaine Thompson / AP Photo

Winston Ross (The Daily Beast):

At an Army base near Seattle, soldiers are committing suicide, murdering their families—and in one case, waterboarding their own kids. Winston Ross reports from a base on the brink.---

Hubert wound up at Coffee Strong, where she’s surrounded by folks who agree that the Army isn’t doing enough to help soldiers who come back from war. In the first year the shop was in business, there were about 170 soldiers coming in a month. Now, the number is up above 300, says Carter.

The group is now asking for an investigation at Lewis-McChord to find the root of the suicide problems, says Carter. But he’s already certain of one of them: “They’re sending soldiers on multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and when they come back they’re expected to be ready to deploy again in a year or 15 months. That’s not enough time to recover from trauma.” Nor do soldiers who know they’re going back to war really want to deal with their issues, he says. “I’ve had soldiers tell me ‘I don’t want to go to therapy. I’ve got to keep my edge.’”

So far, the military solution has been to throw money at the problem, says Carter. The Army recently built a $53-million barracks facility for a transition battalion, for example. “That makes for something you can put on the news, but it doesn’t fix the problem,” he says. “Soldiers are starting to catch on to the fact that if the military really cared about them, they’d be doing more to help.”

Champion wants to see counseling upon a soldier’s return—at least a month’s worth—not as an option but an order, so that there’s no stigma associated with getting help. When her son went into the Army, she told him she wasn’t worried he’d get physically hurt, but that “there are some things you never ever need to see in your entire life. I don’t want you to come back with your head all screwed up. That’s what happened.”

And for failing to help him, Champion blames the military.

“The Army failed my son. All they do is treat them like a damned number,” she says. “You’re not supposed to bury your children.” MORE...

"The President's Story and the Progressive Response"

Mike Lux (CROOKSANDLIARS):

President Obama's speech Thursday night was one of his best ever delivered, and thank goodness he is making a huge political push on the all-important jobs issue. It was a good night for him, and he needed this badly for his political standing. But progressive activists should neither fall into a posture of uncritical support, or just focus on the negative sides of the speech, policy, and political strategy, as sometimes is done by our more hardcore brethren. We should take a critical eye to what is good and bad about the policy, and enthusiastically support the good side while strongly opposing what is bad; we should applaud that he has gone bigger and bolder than conventional wisdom in DC said he would or should, while calling for even more boldness because this package isn't enough to get this economy out of the deep, deep hole it is in. The President needs to have a left flank, not just because of political positioning but because progressives have a moral imperative to stand strongly for what the right thing to do is.

We should not let the fact that we are conflicted on the President's proposal slow down our willingness to take action to fight for what we believe in, either. We need to be strong and clear in what we are calling for, and fight for everything we believe in with every muscle we have. MORE...

"Alamar Film Trailer" (video)

Alamarfilm, video (02:20):

A father and son return to the sea before their farewell.

"Fordson Extended Trailer" (video)

forsonthemovie, video (05:03):

Fordson" is a feature length documentary film that follows four talented high school football players from Dearborn Michigan as they gear up for their big senior year rivalry game during the last ten days of Ramadan, a month when Muslims traditionally fast every day from sunrise to sundown.

The story is set against the backdrop of the stunningly beautiful Fordson High School, a public high school built by Henry Ford in 1922, which was once all white, but now boasts a 98% Arab population. As our team readies itself to play its affluent, cross town rival, we unearth the adversity faced by a community that is desperately holding onto its Islamic faith and trying to gain acceptance from their fellow U.S. citizens in post 9-11 America.

Through the eyes of the team, their coaches, and their fans, we get an unprecedented glimpse inside the lives of a community that is home to the largest concentration of Arabs in any city outside of the Middle East, and their determination to hold on to the American Dream.

You can contact the producers at fordsonthemovie@gmail.com

Thom Hartmann & Ari Berman - "The GOP War on Voting" (video)

thomhartmann, with video (09:26):

Thom Hartmann and Ari Berman, Contributor-Rolling Stone Magazine; Political correspondent-The Nation Magazine; author "Herding Donkeys" discuss the dirty tricks Republicans will use to disenfranchise you.

Howie P.S.: Here's the link to the article Ari wrote for the Rolling Stone that is discussed in the interview. Tidbit:

In a campaign supported by the Koch brothers, Republicans are working to prevent millions of Democrats from voting next year.

Papantonio and Winstead On The ED Show on Obama and the Republicans (video)

golefttv, video (05:31):

Mike Papantonio talks with MSNBC's Ed Schultz and Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead about the pathetic "debate" among the Republican presidential hopefuls, as well as the ups and downs of President Obama's jobs speech.

"Congressional Black Caucus cheers Obama's speech" (video)

MSNBC-ED Show, video (07:56).

Howie P.S.: Reps. Donna Edwards, Keith Ellison and Emanuel Cleaver react to President Obama's job speech.

"The world after 9/11: Naomi Klein prevails again"

Gerald Kaplan (The Globe and Mail-CA):

Osama bin Laden inflicted a terrible crime on the American people. America’s elites and their allies have done the rest. MORE...

In Richmond (VA): "President Obama asks Americans to tell Congress to pass the American Jobs Act" (video)

DailyKosTv, video (01:49).

Democracy Now!: "Obama Jobs Plan Bolder than Expected, But Is It Enough?" (video)

Democracy Now, with video (13:00):

Before a joint session of Congress, President Obama laid out a $447 billion package of tax cuts and new government spending Thursday night to help stimulate the economy and create new jobs. His speech comes at a time when 14 million people are unemployed and another 8.8 million are working part-time but seeking full-time work. The official unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, and the White House is predicting the rate will not fall below six percent until 2017. The jobs crisis is particularly severe for African Americans, who face an unemployment rate that soared to 16.7 percent in August—the highest it’s been since 1984. We speak with Dedrick Muhammad, senior director for economic programs for the NAACP, and Scott Paul, founding executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. [includes rush transcript]

Fineman: "Obama Puts Passion Into Jobs Speech Rarely Seen In His Presidency" (with video)

Howard Fineman with video (05:49):

Most presidents kick off their re-election campaigns with a speech on the campaign trail somewhere, or from the Oval Office. President Obama did it in a novel, telling and shrewdly chosen place: in the middle of an address to Congress.

If people were wondering what template Barack Obama would choose for his re-election effort -- some had suggested FDR in 1936 or Ronald Reagan in 1984 -- we now have an answer:

Harry Truman in 1948, the "Give 'Em Hell Harry" who challenged Congress to tackle with the post-war nation's problems and castigated the Republican Congress for its obstinate failure to do so. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Some are not yet ready to celebrate:

Lee_Rosenberg:

Obama has given several great speeches in his presidency. And they've often been followed by legislative failures.

Photos: "GOP Debate from Simi Valley, Calif., on Sept. 7, 2011

The full set here.

Howie P.S.: Governor Rawhide reacts to Mitt.

"Obama Transition Team Member Explains Why Administration Chose Not to Prosecute Torture"

David Swanson:

So, who is the source of these belated explanations?

The Dean of the University of California at Berkeley Law School Christopher Edley, Jr. His comments will probably be showing up on video, but here is a report I was just sent by long-time peace and justice activist extraordinaire Susan Harman:
(SNIP)
"Then Dean Chris Edley volunteered that he'd been party to very high level discussions during Obama's transition about prosecuting the criminals. He said they decided against it. I asked why. Two reasons: 1) it was thought that the CIA, NSA, and military would revolt, and 2) it was thought the Repugnants would retaliate by blocking every piece of legislation they tried to move (which, of course, they've done anyhow)." MORE...

Ari Melber: "Who's really angry at Obama?" (video)

MSNBC-Dylan Ratigan, video (03:56).

"Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult"

Mike Lofgren:

The reader may think that I am attributing Svengali-like powers to GOP operatives able to manipulate a zombie base to do their bidding. It is more complicated than that. Historical circumstances produced the raw material: the deindustrialization and financialization of America since about 1970 has spawned an increasingly downscale white middle class - without job security (or even without jobs), with pensions and health benefits evaporating and with their principal asset deflating in the collapse of the housing bubble. Their fears are not imaginary; their standard of living is shrinking.

What do the Democrats offer these people? Essentially nothing. Democratic Leadership Council-style "centrist" Democrats were among the biggest promoters of disastrous trade deals in the 1990s that outsourced jobs abroad: NAFTA, World Trade Organization, permanent most-favored-nation status for China. At the same time, the identity politics/lifestyle wing of the Democratic Party was seen as a too illegal immigrant-friendly by downscaled and outsourced whites.[3]

While Democrats temporized, or even dismissed the fears of the white working class as racist or nativist, Republicans went to work. To be sure, the business wing of the Republican Party consists of the most energetic outsourcers, wage cutters and hirers of sub-minimum wage immigrant labor to be found anywhere on the globe. But the faux-populist wing of the party, knowing the mental compartmentalization that occurs in most low-information voters, played on the fears of that same white working class to focus their anger on scapegoats that do no damage to corporations' bottom lines: instead of raising the minimum wage, let's build a wall on the Southern border (then hire a defense contractor to incompetently manage it). Instead of predatory bankers, it's evil Muslims. Or evil gays. Or evil abortionists. How do they manage to do this? Because Democrats ceded the field. MORE...

"McGinn: Can this mayor be rescued?"

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):

It's funny, though. I'm still rooting for McGinn to catch his political sea legs, whatever the critical stuff I've written about him and in spite of the press conference set-to.

A hopeless mayor hurts a city. Grant money -- the taxpayers' dollars -- gets wasted if it is used to create a feast for interest groups. If government is keyed to specific groups' agendas (e.g. Cascade Bicycle Club, Transportation Choices, Sierra Club) those left out resist and we witness the kind of conflict seen on the tunnel.

So, here's hoping the "Green Economy" isn't a Potemkin promise, that competent contractors get brought in, workers trained and homes weatherized. Mayor McGinn has it in his powers to shut me up.

On the other hand, it's our duty to shake off the choreography and spin and demand an answer to the question immortalized by an old lady named Sarah Peller in those famous Wendy's ads: "WHERE'S THE BEEF?" MORE...

The Onion: "Obama Earns Money For U.S. By Appearing In Japanese Television Commercial"

A scene from the president's advertisement for Glico Pretz Ham & Cheese.

The Onion:

In an effort to obtain badly needed revenue for the ailing U.S. economy, President Barack Obama recently appeared in a 30-second television spot for the popular Japanese snack product Glico Pretz Ham & Cheese, White House sources reported Wednesday.

According to aides, the advertisement will air nationally throughout Japan and will feature the president endorsing a savory, stick-shaped cracker snack manufactured by the Ezaki Glico corporation, which agreed to pay Obama a one-time fee of $300,000 plus residuals, compensation to be used exclusively for U.S. economic stimulus purposes.

Glico executives say they hope consumers associate the president's face with Pretz Ham & Cheese from now on.

"While the president does not ordinarily endorse retail products, he was willing to make an exception for Glico Pretz Ham & Cheese as a way of easing the current financial burden on our country," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, stressing that the commercial's quick, two-day shoot outside of Yokohama took little time out of Obama's schedule and was of the highest production quality. "Also, we have been assured by Ezaki Glico CEO Katsuhisa Ezaki that the TV advertisement, and accompanying billboard and bus ads, will only be seen in Japan and will portray the president in a very flattering, elegant light befitting a world leader of his stature." MORE...

Ari Melber--"an essential liberal disconnect: The narrators are far angrier than the audience"

Ari Melber (Politico):

Has President Barack Obama hit bottom?

His approval ratings are at an all-time low. The president faced a summer of withering second-guessing from prominent supporters, who questioned his negotiating skills, economic priorities and liberal credentials. Obama seems impervious. Yet that is no surprise — if you do the math. MORE...

Matt Taibbi on "Obama and Jobs: Why I Don't Believe Him Anymore"

Matt Taibbi:

I was hours early for a flight and stuck in a relatively small terminal crammed with people. Only one area in the whole wing had empty seats; an unused gate that contained a TV blaring the CNN broadcast of Obama's Labor Day speech at full volume.

So it was either sit underneath a full-volume broadcast of our fearless president bellowing out his latest hollow promises, or the hellish alternative: retreat to gates full of screaming five year-old children, all of them jacked up on sugar and bawling their eyes out because it was the end of Labor Day weekend and their cruel parents were dragging them home from Disneyworld. MORE...

"Obama & the Left's Not So Magical Thinking" (video)

SamSeder, video (06:23):

Joined by Ari Berman of the Nation, Sam discusses the recent article by Jonathan Chait on "What the Left Doesn't Understand About Obama."

REPORT: "The American Middle Class Was Built By Unions And It Will Decline Without Them" (with chart)

Zaid Jilani (Think Progress):

...despite the many benefits unions have provided the United States, right-wing politicians and business interests have for years sought to undermine the ability of Americans to organize to demand better pay, benefits, and conditions. From the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act to the recent GOP-led efforts to kill public worker collective bargaining rights, these assaults have successfully decreased union membership over time. In the prosperous 1950′s, nearly one in three Americans was in a union. Today, it is closer to one in ten. MORE...

H/t to Marcia Kato.

"Tar Sands Action: Visit to Seattle Obama Campaign Office" (with video)

StopKeystoneXL, with video (03:51):

A group of citizens visit an Obama 2012 campaign office to make it clear that they will only donate and volunteer for the campaign when President Obama stands up to Big Oil and denies the permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Michael Moore: "30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died"

Michael Moore:

This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin) MORE...

"Teamsters President: ‘No Regrets’ After Fiery Speech Draws Right-Wing Criticism"

Evan McMorris-Santoro (TPMDC):

"How is that different than Mitch McConnell saying he wants to take out Barack Obama?" Hoffa said.

Progressive Fox News watchdog Media Matters For America charged that the clip had been deceptively edited in Fox's re-airing of it.

Hoffa said his tough tone reflects the nature of the forces massed against unions -- and tells the truth about the dangers faced by organized labor and their allies in the progressive movement during the Republican ascendancy.

"The right wing -- the tea party, backed by the Koch brothers, the Chamber of Commerce and the Walton family are underwriting, you know, bills to take away collective bargaining," Hoffa said. "Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor want to take away Social Security and Medicaid."

"The answer to that is, people that do that, is we're going to declare war on them," he added. MORE...

Fineman: "Obama Aide Discusses 2012 Campaign Strategy"

Howard Fineman:

...as he and the Republican field launch the active, above-ground phase of the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama’s strategists are planning to focus less on his record –- which is spotty at best -– than on what they regard as the frightening prospect of a Republican Party not only of wrong but medieval thinking.

The strategy will be more accusatory, alarm-filled and defensive than the one used during the uplifting, even joyous campaign of 2008, symbolized as it was by depicting the first letter of the candidate's name as a rising sun.

Asked how President Obama could win reelection in the face of persistently high unemployment, a stagnant economy and restiveness in his own Democratic base, a top Obama strategist gave a three-part answer: MORE...

Obama Labor Day Speech" (video/transcript)

truthdig, with video (24:18) and transcript:

On Monday the president celebrated working people and the contributions of unions to our society and he previewed some of the proposals in his forthcoming jobs plan at an AFL-CIO-sponsored speech in a GM parking lot. MORE...

"Labor Day and the spirit of Joe Hill": Joan Baez At Woodstock (with video)

Huffington Post with video (01:47):

...a clip of Joan Baez singing a song for Joe Hill at Woodstock, 40 years ago...

Hill was a labor activist and member of the Wobblies executed in 1915.

Howie P.S.: "Labor Day and the spirit of Joe Hill" (Clancy Sigal-GuardianUK):

Anyone who is a fan of Billy Bragg, as I am, or Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie or the sixties protest singer Phil Ochs knows that radical America's greatest songwriter-educator Joe Hill is still alive in the young-in-heart on this besieged Labor Day. MORE...

"Rep. Maxine Waters: We Need To Spend A Trillion Or More On A Jobs Program" (with video)

Josh Feldman (MEDIAite) with video (01:33) from "Meet the Press":

On Meet the Press today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters called for President Obama to take a more forceful approach to a jobs program, and likely made Republicans drop their jaws with the amount of money she argued the United States should invest in such a plan.

David Gregory asked Waters if it would be possible for the president to take on an ambitious role in working on job creation in Congress, given the recent partisan fights over the debt ceiling. Waters put the impetus on Obama to take the first step.

“The president must be bold. I agree that he must have a jobs program, he must create jobs. I’m talking about a jobs program of a trillion dollars or more. We’ve got to put Americans to work. That’s the only way to revitalize this economy. When people work, they earn money, they spend that money, and that’s what gets the economy up and going.”

Waters insisted any kind of effective jobs plan could not “shrink” to the demands of Republicans or give tax breaks to those in the highest income tax brackets.

"U.S. Wasting Billions While Tripling No-Bid Contracts After Decade of War in Iraq, Afghanistan" (with video)

Democracy Now! with video (31:40):

As the war in Afghanistan approaches its 10th anniversary, a pair of new reports reveal how the Pentagon has squandered tens of billions of dollars while tripling the amount of no-bid contracts. The bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting concludes that between $31 billion and $60 billion spent on projects in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 10 years has been lost to waste and fraud. MORE...

"Obama’s Boeing Union Headache"

Chaplain Rob Dewey of the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy leads government officials and company workers in a prayer to bless Boeing Co.'s $750 million assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C. on Friday, June 10, 2011., Bruce Smith / AP Photo

Jill Lawrence (The Daily Beast):

Republicans are savaging the administration for opposing a non-union Dreamliner plant in South Carolina. Jill Lawrence on how the tag of jobs killer could be used against Obama in 2012. MORE...

AP: "Labor unions adjust to new reality under Obama"

In this March 5, 2011, file photo, people protest against legislative efforts to do away with teachers' collective bargaining rights in Nashville, Tenn. The measure passed in Tennessee this year and ended collective bargaining for teachers unions in the state. Photo: Mark Humphrey / AP

Sam Hananel (AP):

"Obama campaigned big, but he's governing small," said Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.Labor remains a core Democratic constituency and union leaders will stand with Obama in Detroit this Labor Day, where he will address thousands of rank-and-file members during the city's annual parade Monday.

But at the same time, unions have begun shifting money and resources out of Democratic congressional campaigns and back to the states in a furious effort to reverse or limit GOP measures that could wipe out union rolls.

The AFL-CIO's president, Richard Trumka, says it's part of a new strategy for labor to build an independent voice separate from the Democratic Party. MORE...

GRITtv: Bill McKibben: "Growing Global Movements" (video)

GRITtv, video (23:17).

Howie P.S.: Bill McKibben on the status of the politics of climate change and the price of energy.

"Olbermann Excoriates Obama's Reversal On Smog Regulation" (with video)

HuffPo with video (11:25):

Keith Olbermann excoriated President Obama on his Friday show for halting the impending toughening of environmental regulations against smog.

The announcement from the White House that it would keep widely criticized 2006 regulations in place until at least 2013 did not sit well with Olbermann. In the voiceover introduction to his show, he thundered, "what the hell is going on in the White House? MORE...

Robert Reich: "The Zero Economy"

Robert Reich:

Since this Depression began at the end of 2007, America’s potential labor force – working-age people who want jobs – has grown by over 7 million. But since then the number of Americans with jobs has shrunk by more than 300,000.

If this doesn’t prompt President Obama to unveil a bold jobs plan next Thursday, I don’t know what will. MORE...

Is the left too hard on Obama?

"Mistakes of the 2008 Democratic primary" (Joan Walsh-Salon):

I find myself wondering if progressives are over-focused on Obama's perceived shortcomings when it comes to dealing with Republicans, because we likewise don't want to deal with the amoral political savagery of the enemy he faces. MORE...

"Brunch with Bernie and Thom: Sept. 2, 2011 (with audio/video)

FreeSpeech TV, video (15:00):

Thom Hartmann hosts Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) every Friday to talk about important progressive issues of the day.

"Secretary Of Labor: On Getting Americans Back To Work" (NPR-audio)

Tell me More (NPR), with audio (11:55):

August job numbers are showing a stagnant 9.1 percent unemployment rate. Concern is growing over whether the government could do more to boost job growth. Host Michel Martin speaks with U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis about the administration's efforts to create new jobs and what can be expected from President Obama's jobs plan next week.

"Jim Hansen: Call to President Obama" (video)

StopKeystoneXL, with video (01:08):

Jim Hansen, NASA's leading climatologist, addresses Tar Sands protesters shortly before his arrest. Video produced by Dahlman Cook Productions.

"Obama Halts EPA Regulation On Smog Standards"

Julie Pace and Dina Capiello (HufPo):

The withdrawal of the proposed regulation marks the latest in a string of retreats by Obama in the face of Republican opposition. Last December, he shelved, at least until the end of 2012, his insistence that Bush-era tax cuts should no longer apply to the wealthy. Earlier this year he avoided a government shutdown by agreeing to Republican demands for budget cuts. And this summer he acceded to more than a $1 trillion in spending reductions, with more to come, as the price for an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling. MORE...

Daily Mail (UK)--"Cheney fears trial as war criminal': Colin Powell aide hits out at former VP"

Daily Mail (UK):

An aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell has hit out at Dick Cheney, saying the former Vice President s fears being 'tried as a war criminal'

Powell's long-time aide and chief of staff, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson told ABC news Cheney, 'Was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration,' adding, '[He] fears being tried as a war criminal.' MORE...

Valerie Plame Wilson on The Stephanie Miller Show (audio)

The Stephanie Miller Show (podcast-audio):

To listen to an audio podcast (CLICK ON #1), mouse over the title and click Play.

Howie P.S.: The discussion covers Cheney, Plamegate and the use of torture, among other topics.

"Howard Dean responds to Salon"

Justin Elliott (Salon):

Howard Dean's spokeswoman, Karen Finney, has responded to my story on Dean's turn into paid advocacy work, accusing me of engaging in "lazy journalism." I think the adjective is not accurate.

Salon has nothing personal against Dean. But we felt that a liberal champion's reliance on paid advocacy work reveals something significant about our political culture, and possibly about Dean himself. Finney’s statement is presented here in its entirety, along with my responses. MORE...

Inequality in Household Income (chart)

H/t to Shaun.

NPR: "Afghanistan Future Uncertain As US Drawdown Looms" (with audio/text)

Talk of the Nation (NPR), with audio (30:14) and text:

The first phase of withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan began in July, in preparation for a full transition of power to Afghan forces in 2014. While some welcome the beginning of the end of the war, others worry that hard-fought progress will be lost as troops leave.

Guests-Rajiv Chandrasekaran, senior correspondent, The Washington Post
Jonathan Landay, national security & intelligence correspondent, McClatchy newspapers

Attention Seattle drivers---"SR 99 construction bypass: Keeping traffic moving through SODO" (video)

wsdot, with video (03:44):

On Oct. 21, we will close SR 99 and begin demolishing part of the viaduct. When SR 99 reopens to traffic on Oct. 31, both north and southbound traffic will be traveling on the first of two new bridges currently being built to the west of the existing viaduct. Drivers will pass through a large bypass located between South King Street and South Royal Brougham Way. The bypass will connect the new SR 99 bridge to the existing viaduct at South King Street. It also keeps traffic on SR 99 moving while giving central waterfront viaduct replacement crews enough space to work.

South of South King Street, SR 99 will have two lanes in each direction. North of South King Street the viaduct will remain in its current configuration with three lanes in each direction.

Howie P.S.: Is this a "temporary" viaduct?

Frank Rich: "Day’s End-The 9/11 decade is now over. The terrorists lost. But who won?"

Frank Rich (New York Magazine):

In retrospect, the most consequential event of the past ten years may not have been 9/11 or the Iraq War but the looting of the American economy by those in power in Washington and on Wall Street. This was happening in plain sight—or so we can now see from a distance. At the time, we were so caught up in Al ­Qaeda’s external threat to America that we didn’t pay proper attention to the more prosaic threats within.
(SNIP)
It was only a month after 9/11 that the Enron scandal erupted, kicking off a larger narrative that would persist for the rest of the decade. The Houston energy company was a corporate Ponzi scheme that anticipated the antics at financial institutions, mortgage mills, and credit-rating agencies during the subprime scam. Enron had also been the biggest patron of Bush’s political career, and so the president dutifully promised a crackdown, with a new “financial crimes SWAT team” and “tough new criminal penalties for corporate fraud.” But this propaganda campaign was no more reality-based than the one that would promote Saddam’s weapons of mass ­destruction. Once the Enron collapse became old news, federal regulatory agencies and law enforcement were encouraged to go fishing as the housing bubble inflated and banks manufactured toxic paper that would send America and the world into a ruinous dive rivaling bin Laden’s cruelest fantasies.

It is that America—the country where rampaging greed usurped the common good in wartime, the country that crashed just as Bush fled the White House—that we live in today. It has little or no resemblance to the generous and heroic America we glimpsed on 9/11 and the days that followed. Our economy and our politics are broken. We remain in hock to jihadist oil producers as well as to China. Our longest war stretches into an infinite horizon. After watching huge ­expenditures of American blood and ­treasure install an Iran-allied “democracy” in a still-fratricidal Iraq, Americans have understandably resumed their holiday from history where it left off, turning their backs on the Arab Spring.

Thanks to the killing of the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and the scattering of Al Qaeda, at least no one can say, ten years later, that the terrorists won. But if there’s anything certain about the new decade ahead, it’s that sooner or later we will have to address the question of exactly who did. MORE...

Chris Gregoire on Thom Hartmann on Green Energy (video)

thomhartmann, video (07:14).

H/t to Darryl.

"Army Ranger Widow Confronts Rumsfeld Over His Lies That Convinced Her Husband to Join the Military" (with video)

Democracy Now! with video:

We speak with the widow of a U.S. Army Ranger who confronted former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about her husband’s suicide on Saturday. Ashley Joppa-Hagemann introduced herself to Rumsfeld during a book-signing by handing him a copy of her husband’s funeral program at a base south of Tacoma, Washington. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Ashley Joppa-Hagemann spoke to Amy Goodman from a studio in Seattle. Her husband was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma.

Fox Contributor To Bill Nye: You're 'Confusing Our Viewers' On Climate Change" (with video)

David Taintor (TPM) with video (06:23):

Just days after Hurricane Irene swept up the East Coast, causing massive flooding in Vermont and leading to almost 40 deaths, Fox Business Network personality Charles Payne just had to ask, is global warming really to blame?

His guest, Bill Nye "The Science Guy," said there is evidence to suggest it is a result of global warming, but that climatologists will need more time to fully connect the dots. Nye went on to lay out in plain terms some of the facts of climate change, including rising temperatures in the Pacific ocean. The two debated a Newsweek story claiming radical weather is the "new normal," with Payne asking Nye if that was "irresponsible, or is there any science behind it?"

Well, Nye said, "there's a lot more science behind it than saying it's not. MORE...

UNLESS HE CAN END THE BUSH TAX CUTS: "Obama faces tight restraints in crafting jobs plan"

AP:

Hamstrung by budget cuts and a tight debt ceiling, President Barack Obama is preparing a September jobs package with limited tools at his disposal to prime the economy and crank up employment.

At a minimum, the president's plan will call on Congress to extend current payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits, spend money for new construction projects and offer incentives to businesses to hire more workers. But economists say that while that would eliminate some drag on the economy and maintain the status quo, it won't be enough to propel it to new heights. MORE...

John Nichols on Olbermann: "Get With the Program, Obama" (with video)

Anna Lekas Miller (The Nation) with video (05:07) from MSNBC-Countdown:

In battleground states—states where there have been special elections, and in the case of Wisconsin, recall elections—Democrats who run on a clear platform of standing with the workers, defending public education and taxing corporations and the wealthy have been doing as much as twenty percent better than Democrats who ran on more moderate platforms in the 2000 elections.

John Nichols joins Keith Olbermann on Countdown to discuss how Barack Obama needs to wake up and notice just how concretely these numbers reflect the progressive needs of the swing states. Read John Nichols's recent article on former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold's decision to leave politics for progressive campaigning here.

"Confusion You Can Believe In" (cartoon)

(CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

"Confusion You Can Believe In" (Darrin Bell-CANDORVILLE).

Howie P.S.: I'm hoping Obama will give us a peek behind the curtain during the 2012 election to help clear up this "confusion."

H/t to Marcia Kato.

"Al Gore Compares Climate Change Skeptics To 20th Century Racists" (with video)

Josh Feldman (MEDIAite) with video (06:20):

Al Gore pushed the rhetorical envelope yesterday when he compared skeptics of climate change to racists during the Civil Rights Movement. Gore was sitting down for an interview with Alex Bogusky of the Climate Reality Project, and suggested that young people today whose parents do not believe in climate change are asking the same questions now that race-conscious young people in the 60s asked their parents. MORE...

Howie P.S.: I believe Al knows what he's talking about on these subjects.

Dominic Holden: "Walk into the Light McGinn---Why the Mayor Is Weaker Than Ever, Even with His Base"

Dominic Holden (The Stranger):

Let's not be contrarians just for the sake of being contrary. Mayor Mike McGinn was the indisputable loser of the August election. Face-plant. In the mud. Limbs hog-tied and floundering. He's in a far worse place now, even with the toxic tunnel issue off his plate, than ever before.

It wasn't only that voters approved the tunnel on August 16 (a tunnel that McGinn campaigned to stop) by a 16-point margin. And it wasn't just the brute strength of business lobbies that funded the pro-tunnel vote and cast it as a referendum to reject the mayor.

It was also the parade of McGinn's self-created losses that culminated on August 16. That date marked the deadline for McGinn to fulfill promises he made when he ran for office and after he was elected. That is, deadlines that he missed. MORE...

Howie P.S.: I guess the The Stranger has been liberated from its relentless cheer-leading of the mayor, at least until it's time for the re-election campaign. Goldy is still there, however.

Bill McKibben on Tarsands: "The Next Environmental Disaster" (video)

MSNBC-The Last Word, video (05:17).

Howie P.S.: AMERICAblog and the GuardianUK have stories up. From the GuardianUK:

Bill McKibben, who helped organise the protests at the White House, said the approval from the State Department had been expected. The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, indicated last year that she favoured the pipeline.

"Everyone has known exactly what they would say all along. And everyone knows that they've valiantly ignored the elephant in the room - the fact that this would go a long ways towards opening up the world's second-largest pool of carbon," he wrote in an email.

However, McKibben held out hope that Obama - who still has final authority over the project - might step in to stop the pipeline.

Watch: "Live Streaming Local News Coverage Of Hurricane Irene"

WAVYTV 10 via MSNBC, streaming video.

Papantonio: "The Ugly Life of Dick Cheney" (video)

Ring of Fire Radio, video (06:43)

Mike Papantonio joins Lizz Winstead and Ed Schultz on The Ed Show on MSNBC to talk about Dick Cheney’s forthcoming “memoir.” Mike talks about what he hopes Cheney will disclose in his new book, including the truth behind his secret energy meetings and maybe even some disclosure on how he destroyed Valerie Plame’s career.

"Ziggy Marley | Free Download | Don't You Kill Love" (audio/video)

ziggymarleycom, with audio/video (06:23):

From Ziggy: We have a new free download for you taken from our 2004 USA tour, a VERY rare live version of "DYKL". The only year I did that song live haven't played it since so yes, it's pretty rare even for me. This song is on the Dragonfly album the live version is from Santa Cruz, USA, 2004. Enjoy and share. Love.

"Dr. King Weeps From His Grave"

Cornel West (NY Times, op-ed):

The age of Obama has fallen tragically short of fulfilling King’s prophetic legacy. Instead of articulating a radical democratic vision and fighting for homeowners, workers and poor people in the form of mortgage relief, jobs and investment in education, infrastructure and housing, the administration gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable.

As the talk show host Tavis Smiley and I have said in our national tour against poverty, the recent budget deal is only the latest phase of a 30-year, top-down, one-sided war against the poor and working people in the name of a morally bankrupt policy of deregulating markets, lowering taxes and cutting spending for those already socially neglected and economically abandoned. Our two main political parties, each beholden to big money, offer merely alternative versions of oligarchic rule. MORE...

GREENWOOD GOTHIC: "At Mayor Mike McGinn's Backyard BBQ" (with photos)

Eli Sanders (The Stranger):

"Mayor McGinn, taking questions from a constituent yesterday evening."

The light in Mayor Mike McGinn's back yard yesterday evening was so perfect it felt like we were at a staged shoot for some future campaign mailer. It was just a lucky, late-summer fluke, this tree-filtered golden light, but McGinn and his guests soaked it up.

He was kicking off his re-election effort with a low-key, homey fundraiser that drew about 100 supporters, each asked to pay $50 to get behind the white picket fence at the McGinn family's modest Greenwood house.

There was an open bar; a nice spread (including veggie burgers, raspberries in yogurt, orzo salad, and homemade chocolate chip cookies); and of course a speech in which McGinn, dressed in Tevas, camping shorts, and a red polo shirt, reminded his donors how things went in his underdog 2009 campaign.

"I didn't get a lot of money from the people who normally hand out money," McGinn told the crowd. "But there's a flip side to that: I don't answer to them."

There, standing between a McGinn family rain barrel and the McGinn family vegetable garden, were the people McGinn said he answers to:

• E.S.
• Greenwood Gothic.

MORE...

Howie P.S.: I have previously opined about how the The Stranger is McGinn's "BFF" and this story about his campaign roll-out, Seattle-style, fits my story line.

"Trumka Tells Obama to Stop 'Nibbling Around the Edge' on Jobs"

Jake Tapper (ABC News):

AFL/CIO President Richard Trumka today urged President Obama to put forth “bold solutions” to the nation’s unemployment crisis in his post-Labor Day jobs speech, warning of political peril if he’s seen as merely “nibbling around the edge” of the issue.

“History will judge him and I think working people will judge him,” Trumka told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in Washington, according to video of the event.

Trumka said Obama made a “strategic mistake” in trying to address both the unemployment situation and deficit crisis at the same time over recent weeks and must now focus solely and aggressively on creating jobs. MORE...

Taibbi: : "Obama Goes All Out For Dirty Banker Deal"

President Barack Obama

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Matt Taibbi:

The Times story claims that HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and various Justice Department officials have been leaning on the New York AG to cave, which tells you that reining in this last rogue cop is now an urgent priority for Barack Obama.

Why? My theory is that the Obama administration is trying to secure its 2012 campaign war chest with this settlement deal. If Barry can make this foreclosure thing go away for the banks, you can bet he’ll win the contributions battle against the Republicans next summer.

Which is good for him, I guess. But it seems to me that it might be time to wonder if is this the most disappointing president we’ve ever had. MORE...

Greenwald: "A progressive case for Obama's foreign policy greatness?"

Glenn Greenwald:

Reuters

At The Daily Beast, Michael Tomasky today says that while President Obama "hasn’t been much of a domestic-policy president from nearly anyone’s point of view" (he apparently hasn't read Steve Benen or Ezra Klein lately), the war in Libya highlights how "one can see how he might become not just a good but a great foreign-policy president." Tomasky's argument is somewhat cautious and expressly contingent on unknown, future events, but is nonetheless revealing -- both in what it says and what it omits -- about how some influential progressives conceive of the Obama presidency. MORE...

GREEN TEA SPILL UPDATE

Howie in Seattle is back online, due to the wisdom and patience of his beloved wife. We are off (and probably offline until the weekend) to take our daughter to college later this morning.

(Updated) Offline Awhile: Spilt Green Tea and Daughter Goes to College

UPDATE: OCD post---"We'll Be Voting on $60 Car Tabs"--How the City Council Outfoxed the Mayor on Transit Funding-- by Dominic Holden in The Stranger.


Coincidentally, Howie spilt some green tea on his modem and we are delivering our daughter to a college down the road this week, so you are granted a respite from my posts until we get our house in order--hopefully by next week.

Howie P.S.: In case you're wondering how I posted this, thanks to the Hotwire Cafe!

"Exclusive: Matt Taibbi on SEC covering up Wall Street crimes" (with video)

Countdown, video (04:07):

In this "Countdown" exclusive interview, Keith sits down with Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi to discuss breaking the story about the Securities and Exchange Commission destroying the records of promising cases in the years leading up to the financial meltdown.

"Kucinich joins local pro-pot pols at Seattle Hempfest"

Jim Brunner (Seattle Times):

Of course, Kucinich wasn't the only pro-legalization politician to take the Hempfest stage. Also speaking were Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, City Attorney Pete Holmes, City Councilman Nick Licata and state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle.

So did state Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, who might wind up competing with Kucinich in 2012.

Goodman has filed to run for the 1st Congressional District seat being vacated by Jay Inslee, who is running for governor. That's one of two open seats Kucinich is thought to be eyeing in Washington (the state's new 10th District is the other.)

Goodman is an attorney who has long championed marijuana legalization. His reputation is so strong in the pro-legalization community that one fellow Hempfest speaker said Kucinich would be wrong to run against him.

"He (Kucinich) can do anything he wants and this movement will be 100 percent behind him -- except run against Roger Goodman," said Don E. Wirtshafter, a longtime Hempfest activist from Ohio, in an interview. MORE...

"The 6th Annual AM1090 Forum" (with audio and video)

AM1090 with audio and video:

Click Here For Pictures, Audio And Video!

The 6th Annual AM1090 Forum “Progressive Values: Protecting The Social Safety Net” brings the biggest nationally syndicated progressive talk radio hosts together on one stage to discuss the major political and public policy issues facing our country and what we as citizens must do to put our nation on a path toward progress and prosperity.

With federal budget woes and the ever growing corporate influence on politics and policy, the very fabric of our American way of life is wearing thin. Join us as we discuss the essence of Progressive thought; the need to fight back against attacks on Social Security and Medicare; against the erosion of our country’s manufacturing base and the outsourcing of American jobs; against the war on the middle class; and why bigger and bolder government action may be the only hope to fix the mounting problems we face today.

This year’s lineup includes US Representative Dennis Kucinich, Stephanie Miller, Mike Papantonio, Norman Goldman, Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, and special guest Ron Reagan. Questions from the audience will guide the discussion, moderated by former Seattle Times Chief Political Reporter David Postman.

Howie P.S.: Parts 1-9 on YouTube here. If you want the short course, go to Parts 8-9 where the panelists present their summary statements.

"How Washington Could Create Jobs Right Now"

Michael Winship (Truthout-Op-Ed):

"We currently need about 8.2 million more jobs to reduce the nation's unemployment rate to 4.5%. Creating that many jobs in a program like the one described... would require a net increase in federal spending of about $235 billion during the first year... If the Bush-era tax cuts had been allowed to expire at the end of 2010, the federal government would have collected about $295 billion in additional revenue during 2011. This would have been more than enough to cover the cost of the job program." MORE...

"Countdown with Keith ...": Markos Moulitsas on the top GOP contenders" (with video)

Current, with video from Countdown (04:26):

Keith Olbermann discusses the latest on the top Republican presidential hopefuls with Markos Moulitsas, founder and publisher of "Daily Kos," and a "Countdown" Contributor.

Howie P.S.: If you want some dish on Governor Rawhide and the others, this one's for you.

"The Wrong Idea: austerity on autopilot"

NY Times (editorial):

Stocks on Wall Street dropped sharply on Thursday, with investors spooked, again, about the euro-zone debt crisis and the sputtering United States economy.

Yet, even at this hour, leaders on both sides of the Atlantic seem determined to handcuff fiscal policies — the main tools that can increase jobs, consumer demand and economic growth — with an unquestioning devotion to rigid austerity. MORE...

"Bob Marley & The Wailers 'High Tide Or Low Tide' (Save The Children's East Africa Appeal)" (with video)

bobmarley, with video (02:64):

Raising awareness for the Save the Children Campaign in East Africa
Donations Link: http://www.imgonnabeyourfriend.org

The devastating food crisis in Somalia and across East Africa is the worst in decades. Over 12 million people are affected -- many have no food, no water and have lost all their livestock. Millions of children face starvation if help is not delivered now. Save the Children and other aid agencies have launched a huge emergency response across the region and are on the ground delivering life-saving aid. MORE...

"A Tale of Two Michel(l)es: Bachmann and Obama" (with video)

Anna Lekas Miller (The Nation) with video from MSNBC (06:09):

On the campaign trail in 2008, Michelle Obama spoke at a rally and told the American people that for the first time in her adult life, "I am proud of my country." The backlash was swift, as news commentators and politicians of all creeds and colors—black, white, male and female—implied that she was Barack Obama's angry, bitter wife. In other words, they could not understand Michelle Obama outside of the angry, Black woman stereotype.

Before winning the Iowa Straw poll this past weekend, however, Michele Bachmann made a similar statement. But instead of being lambasted for not appreciating her country, the media has ignored her almost identical comment.

On MSNBC's The Last Word last night, Melissa Harris-Perry offered a comparison of the two responses, and her own definition of equality: "We will be an equal society when we can all celebrate and criticize our country together."

"Rep. Waters Pushes Back At Obama During Black Caucus Talk": ‘We’re Getting Tired’ (with video)

MEDIAite, with video (13:10):

It’s town hall season, and the Congressional Black Caucus is the first this year to get a mouthful from frustrated constituents on the economy. In a clip that quickly made the rounds in the news cycle, the panel meeting the Detroit crowd yesterday defended the President’s work, but with a bit of malaise, as Rep. Maxine Waters argued they were “getting tired” and “don’t know why on this trip… he’s not in any black community.” That the President is having trouble with his most loyal constituency is already being touted as a sign that 2012 isn’t going to be a Democratic cakewalk. MORE...