My partners at Newshoggers John and BJ have covered the latest developments in the OWS movement.  I’m going to give a slightly different take.  We learned today that public support for the OWS movement is falling.  It’s easy to blame the media for this but I think that’s simplistic. I am 65 years old and remember the the protests against the war in Vietnam.  The protests of the flower children/hippies...

Yahoo cancelled its membership in the U. S. Chamber of Commerce last month. Google and the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents 2200 companies, are threatening to do the same. The rift has been caused by the Chamber’s support of, and high tech’s opposition to, the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA. SOPA has backing from expected sources, many also members of the Chamber, including Hollywood...

Department of Homeland Security officers roust Occupy Wall Street protesters in Portland. Have the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies been helping the NYPD and other police forces to evict Occupy Wall Street protesters? That is very much the case according to a Justice Department official who spoke to a Minneapolis publication. The official said that the feds have...

If Barack Obama is as awful a president as the Republican presidential wannabes claim, then why is he leading all of them in the polls despite the fact that three out of every four voters believe that American is on the wrong track? That’s easy: People are starting to pay attention to what these candidates are saying and they don’t like what they’re hearing, which may account for the meteoric...

Britain and Germany are headed for a major clash on Friday when Prime Minister David Cameron travels to Berlin to tell Germany’s Angela Merkel that his country will not pay to bailout countries that use the euro currency. Britain is not part of the Eurozone and does not see why it should be penalized for the fiscal follies of others. The spat is the latest in the crises of government debt in the US and Europe,...

The Lacey Act has been around since 1900 when it was signed into law by President William McKinley. It has been amended and expanded since including once under Ronald Reagan and, most recently, under George W. Bush in 2008. Simply put, the Act prohibits trading in wildlife, fish or plants that have been illegally taken, transported or sold. Penalties include confiscation and criminal prosecution. Among...

The time for euphemisms is running out. What we are seeing is more like a social meltdown. A Pulitzer Prize-winning economic journalist writes about “The epic global leadership fail,” but the symptoms he cites, along with so many others, add up to a loss of the moral responsibility that used to be taken for granted as common decency: “The global financial system teeters on the edge of collapse because...

WASHINGTON — Unemployment is at 9 percent, the housing market is moribund, “consumer confidence” is an oxymoron and three-fourths of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. So how is it that President Obama leads each of his likely Republican opponents in the polls? And why on earth is the gap widening rather than closing? It’s simple: Voters are paying attention to...

WASHINGTON — Conservatives need to contemplate what the Rick Perry and Herman Cain stories say about the state of their movement and the health of their creed. Perry’s debate gaffe last week was about something more important than “brain freeze.” Memory lapses can strike anyone, even if they are more awkward when they occur during a presidential debate. What really matters...

Speculation is growing that the Supercommittee will fail. Heres today’s discussion from’ This Week: video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

New International Report Shreds Japan’s Carefully Constructed Fukushima Scenario by John C.K. Daly Japan’s six reactor Fukushima Daichi nuclear complex has inadvertently become the world’s bell-weather poster child for the inherent risks of nuclear power ever since the 11 March Tohoku offshore earthquake, measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, triggered a devastating tsunami that effectively...

We know Rove lost in Ohio. Now, economist Simon Johnson is saying, Rove is going to lose his battle with Elizabeth Warren. Americans for Prosperity has sunk some bucks into a political ad condemning Senate candidate Warren. “This ad is not a big surprise,” Johnson writes, ” but the line that Mr. Rove takes could well backfire.” Mr. Rove is opening the blame game and this is going...

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Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

Hopes are being raised a bit in Europe and the United States: Greece has sworn in a new Prime Minister as Lucas Papademos replaces George Papandreou: Alexis Papachelas writes that perhaps it’ll be different this time: Clearly people’s rage won’t just die down overnight. Unemployment, high taxes and the incessant attack on the middle classes’ quality of life make this anger justifiable. Maybe, though,...

It used to be that the drums of war would boost the economy.  When that war would involve the Strait of Hormuz not so much. To get the WTI oil price, please enable Javascript. Why? This: “every $1 per barrel rise in oil decreases U.S. GDP by $100 billion per year and every 1 cent increase in gasoline decreases U.S. consumer disposable income by about $600 million per year.” The rumors of an...

There have been 63 (not a typo) governments in Italy since World War II, an astonishing number unless you consider that governments to Italians are what potato chips are to Americans: Bags full of empty calories that bloat the tummy and ruin their appetite for more nourishing fare. But few Italian governments have been more hapless that that led by Silvio “Bunga Bunga” Berlusconi, who regularly...

by WALTER BRASCH For a few hours on the afternoon of Nov. 1, the people of southern California were scared by initial reports of an alert at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. An “alert” is the second of four warning levels. Workers first detected an ammonia leak in a water purification system about 3 p.m. Ammonia, when mixed into air, is toxic. The 30 gallons of ammonia were caught in a holding...

In news that is likely to have an impact on the world economic situation, Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi has announced he will resign as PM once key economic votes are cast later this month. The votes will be on austerity packages demanded by other European nations. In the short term the news has seemed to have a positive impact on US markets (the news came after European markets closed). Berlusconi has been...

I’ve just spent a week in that earlier America you love so much and, while the absence of politicians was a blessing, I would not recommend living in cold semi-darkness, feebly powered by an emergency generator that eats $100 a day of propane and engine oil (if you can get a delivery) without providing Internet, cable or phone service and, in many cases, enough juice to run an electric range. Even this weekend,...

With the remaining 33,000 US troops in Iraq preparing to leave, bomb blasts and a gasoline blaze in a market on this Muslim festival Sunday killed another 10 innocent persons and injured many others. The troop withdrawal was always known to be fraught with menace but things seems to be going from bad to worse. Bombings and killings occur daily as Sunni insurgents probably linked to al Qaeda and Shi’ite...

Kurt Cobb reminds us that world oil production has been flat for six years. And yes he has graphs and numbers to back it up.  Even with the sorry shape of the world economy the price of oil remains stuck in the mid $90 bbl range.  Any economic expansion will drive it even higher.  For those who think this could all be fixed with more domestic drilling Cobb has some data for you too. The media loves to announce...

A year from today, Americans vote for a president again. Three years after the last ballot, even ardent Democrats and entranced Independents no longer have stars in their eyes. With no time for a honeymoon back then, how can voters be enthusiastic about renewing their vows with Barack Obama? For some, “consider the alternative” may be answer enough, but in fairness to the President—-and ourselves—-he...

Some Disturbing Truths about Rick Perry’s Texas Local reports reveal how the governor turned a blind eye to civil rights violations and a crumbling infrastructure by Michael Winship I’m at sea this week — literally, for once — and learning helpful nautical stuff. For example, the old, three-mile limit for territorial waters was established in 1702 as the maximum distance a cannon ball could...

Sometimes so much can be said with so few words. How about with 29 words: “Homeless veteran” should be a cultural oxymoron. The mere thought of it is profane. What kind of civil society leaves its defenders on winter streets, even for one night? * Just 29 little words. What a powerful, poignant message. Think about it this Veterans Day. * A November 5, 2011, Letter to the New York Times Editor by Mark...