Author: Source

By Robert Reich / Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Americans are deeply confused about why the economy is so bad – and their President isn’t telling them. In fact, the White House apparently has decided to join with Republicans and blame it on the long-term budget deficit.

Before I turn to the President, though, let’s be clear: The lousy economy is due to insufficient demand. Consumers – who are 70 percent of the economy — can’t and won’t buy because they’re running out of cash. They can’t borrow against homes that are worth a third less than they were five years ago, and most consumers are bad credit risks anyway because they’re losing their jobs and their wages are dropping. They also have to start saving for the kids’ college or for retirement, which will cut their spending even more.

Obama is a willful player in an epic drama of faux-politics.

By James K. Galbraith / AlterNet – Deutsche Welle / August 8, 2011

Political news travels slowly, and in my casual observation progressive Europeans have held on to the myth of Barack Obama as a good man much longer than most progressive Americans did. How could a young black American from Chicago and Harvard be otherwise?

By Monty Kroopkin / Special to the OB Rag

On August 3, 2011, thousands of County employees were amazed to see an email sent out by the County’s Human Resources Department “on behalf of” their union. The workers are members of Service Employees International Union Local 221 (SEIU 221).

That same day, paid union representatives appeared inside the Mission Valley Family Resource Center and at the County Administration Building…

Dishonest Use of Gas Prices and Gay Marriage As Advertisement Should Spur An Investigation

SAN DIEGO – The Fair Political Practices Commission was notified of potentially fraudulent activity by the Comprehensive Pension Reform for San Diego campaign committee on August 3rd, including the video documentation of paid-signature gatherers using a phony petition to supposedly “lower gas prices” as a bait-and-switch that resulted in voters signing petitions for ballot measures that eliminate a retirement safety net for city employees.

Group hacks mostly rural sheriff sites, steals data for international arrests of its members

LONDON (AP) — The group known as Anonymous said Saturday it has hacked into some 70 mostly rural law enforcement websites in the United States, a breach that one local police chief said had leaked information about an ongoing investigation.

By Thom Hartmann / OpEdNews / August 6, 2011

Have you seen, anywhere, in any media, or even heard reported or repeated on NPR, the following sentence?

“We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”

By Michael Moore / MichaelMoore.com / August 5, 2011

From time to time, someone under 30 will ask me, “When did this all begin, America’s downward slide?” They say they’ve heard of a time when working people could raise a family and send the kids to college on just one parent’s income (and that college in states like California and New York was almost free).

That anyone who wanted a decent paying job could get one. That people only worked five days a week, eight hours a day, got the whole weekend off and had a paid vacation every summer.

Editor: San Diego billionaire Irwin Jacob wants to redevelop Balboa Park, and the City of San Diego gave tentative approval recently in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). In response, SOHO -the Save Our Heritage group – has sued the City. Then in reaction to the suit, the City Attorney has immediately moved to have it dismissed as “frivolous”.

SOHO Files Suit Over City of San Diego’s Approval of the Plaza de Panama Circulation & Parking Structure Project
On August 2, 2011, Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO) sued the City of San Diego regarding its failure to comply with state environmental laws …

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City Attorney Moves to Dismiss SOHO Lawsuit

Preservation group declines, vows to press forward on overturning Plaza de Panama memo

City Attorney Jan Goldsmith struck back Wednesday against SOHO over the group’s challenge to proposed changes to the center of Balboa Park.

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One thing about statistics associated with the Great Recession is the sheer number of times you can say we’re experiencing the “biggest rise” or the “steepest decline” since the Great Depression or since the government has collected data for a particular economic measurement. A record number of people collecting unemployment benefits. A record number of people out of work for more than six months. A record number of home foreclosures. A record number of bank failures. A record number of people using food stamps.

Indeed, the record on food stamps has been going on for well over two years now. In March 2009, that record was 31 million people. Now, according to the U.S. Department of Agric

Editor: Here are two articles from Europe about the state of America today – since the so-called “debt crisis” was resolved. One is from Der Spiegel – one of the most well-respected German newspapers -, and the other from the Guardian in Britain. The pictures of our country that these articles paint is extremely terrible : the German believes that the U.S. is no longer part of the “West”, and the British view is that there’s been a “billionaires’ coup” in America.

Once Upon a Time in the West

by Jakob Augstein / Der Spiegel (Germany) / August 4, 2011

This week, the United States nearly allowed itself to succumb to economic disaster. Increasingly, the divided country has more in common with a failed state than a democracy.

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Anger, Deceit and a Billionaires’ Coup

By George Monbiot/ Guardian UK (Britain) / August 2, 2011

Anger and deceit has led the US into a billionaires’ coup. The debt deal will hurt the poorest Americans, convinced by Fox and the Tea Party to act against their own welfare.

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By Jim Bell

The ecology of our planet is the foundation of everything we do, including what we do under the heading of economy. When we damage our planet’s life-support system through inappropriate economic activities, we undercut the potential for economic activities in the future.

By Miriam Rafferty / East County Magazine / August 1, 2011

Sempra Energy has asked the U.S. Department of Energy for a presidential permit to construct a cross-border transmission line called Energia Sierra Juarez to import electricity from Sempra facilities in Mexico. The line would cross the border near Jacumba in San Diego’s East County.