A bill to extend the payroll tax holiday failed in the Senate this afternoon after Republicans filibustered the extension for a third time, preventing it from getting the 60 votes needed to begin debate or receive an up-or-down vote. The latest bill would have paid for the extension of the holiday, which primarily affects middle and low income Americans, by assessing … Read More
CFPB Nominee Filibustered
I don't know how the Republicans think they can possibly benefit from things like this: Earlier today, 53 percent of the Senate voted to move forward with Richard Cordray’s nomination to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — depriving him of thesupermajority he needs in order to be confirmed. One of the senators joining this filibuster, Sen. Mike Lee … Read More
Good Economic News
The November jobs report is out, and the unemployment rate has dropped from from 9% to 8.6%. That's the lowest rate since March 2009. As is always the case, there was a significant gap between the private and public sectors. Businesses added 140,000 jobs last month, while budget cuts forced the public sector to shed 20,000 jobs, which continues to be … Read More
OWS vs Tea Party
Fun infographic (click to enlarge). I think it oversimplifies both movements, and adds to the notion that they are competing movements (in my view, the two movements overlap in many important respects), but it's still interesting:
A Judge Uses Common Sense
The New York Times is reporting that federal judge Jed Rakoff has thrown out a proposed settlement between Citigroup and the SEC. The SEC had agreed to $285 million in exchange for no admission of wrongdoing in a complaint about Citigroup defrauding investors in a 2007 residential mortgage backed security. Citigroup had told the investors a third party was picking what assets … Read More
More Lies At Patterico
Aaron Worthing again, making things up as he goes along, writes: And the founders clearly always contemplated corporations and similar business organizations having an outsized say in the political process. Whaaaa?!? This is demonstrably untrue. First, let’s state the obvious. In the Constitution, it says “We the people…”, not “We the corporations…”. The founding fathers never addressed corporations in the … Read More
Sunday In The Park With Pepper Spray
Making the Internet rounds… Of course, the actual pepper spraying was atrocious…. And today, we learn something even more horrific: a pregnant protester named Jennifer Fox has miscarried after being pepper sprayed and hit in the stomach by Seattle police officers during a peaceful protest last week. Here she is: Seattle's The Stranger newspaper is currently waiting for Jennifer's medical records … Read More
Baum Law Firm Closes
Never heard of the law firm of Steven J. Baum? Well, that law firm, located near Buffalo, represents banks and mortgage servicers when they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes. It is the biggest law firm of its type in the State of New York. The firm has been denounced by consumers and consumer advocates for participating … Read More
Occupy Wall Street “Bat Signal”
Last night, tens of thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched throughout New York City, many making their way on to the Brooklyn Bridge, carrying LED candles and chanting. As Occupiers took the bridge in a seemingly endless sea of people, words in light appeared projected on the iconic Verizon Building nearby: "99% / MIC CHECK! / LOOK AROUND / YOU ARE … Read More
When Right Wing Media Spin Meets Reality
The conservative Daily Caller, yesterday, continuing its ongoing demonization of Occupy Wall Street protesters: It took a huge media push to convince people the Tea Party was dangerous, but the huge media push to convince them OWS isn’t dangerous has failed. Occupiers are really nice until you get to know them. And again, the Daily Caller, earlier today: Here’s a live feed … Read More
Occupy Anniversary
Today marks the second month of the Occupy Wall Street campaign. Of course, the protesters have been evicted from Zuccotti Park, but hundreds of demonstrators are marching on Wall Street in a "Day of Action", taking over the Financial District with mass protests. There's a live video feed from the protesters, which I've put in the right hand column. As I … Read More
Debt Passes $15 Trillion: Who’s To Blame?
Conservatives will tell you that Obama is to blame for the fact that the national debt is now passing $15 trillion dollars. To be sure, Obama has added to the debt. But if you want to know how we got here, let's really look at the whole history of how we got here. Steven Benen helps with the history: 1980: Ronald Reagan … Read More
Tweet Of The Day
Salmon Rushdie, who knows from book burning and desecration, weighs in: Indeed. Whatever you might think about the rightness or wrongness of the eviction, destroying the "People's Library", which was comprised of 5,500 donated books, was an act of extreme dickish-ness.
Occupy Wall Street Popularity Fading Bigtime
These numbers from Public Policy Polling were taken before the big OWS eviction in New York (and other places): The Occupy Wall Street movement is not wearing well with voters across the country. Only 33% now say that they are supportive of its goals, compared to 45% who say they oppose them. That represents an 11 point shift in the … Read More