Mountain gorilla population is up

Excellent news.

The number of mountain gorillas living in the Virunga Massif in central Africa has soared by 26.3% since 2003, according to a new census. The increase in numbers from 380 to 480 individuals is thanks to "immense" efforts to reduce poaching and disease, scientists said – but should not be read as a sign that the fight to save the highly endangered species is over.

The 450-square-kilometre Virunga Massif is composed of three national parks: the Volcanoes national park in Rwanda – made famous by the film about the conservationist Dian Fossey, Gorillas in the Mist – the Mgahinga gorilla national park in Uganda and Parc National des Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo. According to the census, which was conducted in March and April this year, its gorilla population is growing at a rate of 3.7% a year.

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Obama leaves out commuter tax break in deal with GOP

What buffoon negotiated this deal? Oh, that's right. Everyone knows the GOP hates public transportation and anything else that might help traffic or the environment. What other surprises will we discover have been left out in an effort to "compromise" with the Republicans? At least the GOP is happy because that's all that matters.

Edenred, the provider of the premier commuter benefits programs, Commuter Check and WiredCommute, urges Congress to take action on transit benefit parity. Workers nationwide who commute using public transportation and vanpools to their jobs and participate in an employer-sponsored pre-tax transit benefit will have less to celebrate on New Year's Day.

In February of 2009, the transit benefit pre-tax "cap" was increased as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) from $120 per month to $230 per month matching the amount allowed for parking expenses. This benefit, lead by Congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts (D), is set to expire at the end of 2010 and return to $120 per month. Thousands of commuters and employers will see a significant drop in their pre-tax savings. It is estimated that some commuters will see up to a 22 percent increase in the cost of commuting (assuming a national tax rate average of 31.6 percent).

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WikiLeaks: Shell has deep connections into Nigerian government

Again, this is not much of a surprise, but it's still interesting to see what many suspected confirmed. The part that was somewhat of a surprise was the alleged links between Shell and the US government. If you look back at the BP disaster though, it's clear that while we'd like to think the US is above such a death grip by Big Oil, we're kidding ourselves. The connections are not that different.

The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". She boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.

The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles.

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GOP filibusters health benefits for 9/11 heroes

From HuffPost Hill:

Because the "Bald Eagles Are Delicious Consumer Freedom Act" wasn't on the legislative calendar, the Senate today thought it'd be fun to screw individuals who were the first on the scene to the nation's greatest domestic tragedy since Pearl Harbor. Thanks to Republican opposition, the chamber failed 57-42 to overcome a filibuster on a bill that would have provided increased health benefits and other assistance to 9/11 responders. Seeing as how Republicans have never received any assistance from 9/11, this makes perfect sense. "The attacks of 9/11 were attacks on America," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement, "and we have a collective responsibility to care for the heroes - from all 50 states - who answered the call of duty, saved lives, and helped our nation recover." The New York delegation is pushing to include it as part of the tax-cut bill.

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New progressive ad quotes Obama — Bush tax cuts 'offend my conscience'

The newest ad by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee reminds Obama that at one time in his not-distant past, the Bush tax cuts offended his conscience.

Here's the ad (h/t commenter ezpz):



Interesting that Candidate Obama talks about how Bush's tax cuts "stopped offending" McCain's conscience. Interesting how the world folds back on itself.

More from Sam Stein at the Huffington Post. The ad is set to air on actual television. You can support PCCC by clicking here.

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BREAKING: Loss for DADT repeal as Senate fails to end filibuster of Defense bill

The Senate just failed to end the filibuster of the Defense Authorization bill. The vote was 57 - 40.

Great, we got Susan Collins. She's the only GOPer on our side, but didn't bring anyone with her. Thanks for nothing.

Also, thanks for nothing Scott Brown, Richard Lugar, Olympia Snowe and Lisa Murkowski. You voted for Senate process over equality -- again. Here's a concept: You can't say you support ending DADT if you won't vote for the legislation that could do it. Manchin voted with the Republicans.

But, this is also a failure of Democratic leadership on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. There is plenty of blame to go around. Let's start with Barack Obama. The President's cracker jack team of political experts put together this DADT repeal strategy. It's been a mess from the beginning. The White House never fought hard enough and waited way too long.

This is not the end. We know there are Senators who are still trying to fix this. But, we're running out of time.

And, we'll win in the courts if not in the Senate.

I've had the song, Uprising, by the Muse in my head all day:

They will not force us.They will stop degrading us. They will not control us. We will be victorious.

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Tax cut deal is going to save us from a double dip recession? Yeah right.

Not that we shouldn't have learned to ignore Larry Summers long ago, but this is absurd.

Senior White House officials significantly raised the stakes on congressional Democrats in their efforts to get a deal passed on the Bush tax cuts, warning on Wednesday that inaction would "significantly increase the risk" of a double dip recession.

It wasn't quite the metaphorical flare of mushroom cloud imagery, but outgoing senior economic adviser Larry Summers offered a fairly dire assessment of the stakes in the tax cut debate.

"If they [Democrats] don't pass this bill in the next couple weeks it will materially increase the risk that the economy would stall out and we would have a double dip," he told a gathering of reporters at an off camera briefing.

Funny, because there was no talk by the administration of an impending double dip recession when they were negotiating with the Republicans. But when it comes to time deal with Democrats, suddenly the administration is all doom and gloom. Sorry, not buying it. Read the rest of this post...

TSA offends India's ambassador with pat-down

Business as usual for the TSA. To be fair, they offend most people with any dignity or common sense so it's not as though they necessarily singled out the ambassador who was wearing a sari.

India's sari-clad ambassador was pulled from an airport security line and patted down by a TSA agent in Mississippi after attending a conference, an act one state agency official called "unfortunate."

The hands-on search last week also embarrassed the university officials who invited Meera Shankar, India's ambassador to the United States, to give a speech for an international studies program.

"It was a wonderful program, maybe the best we've had, (but) this stupid incident ruined the whole thing. She said, 'I will never come back here,'" said Janos Radvanyi, chair of Mississippi State University's international studies department. "We are sending her a letter of apology."

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BREAKING: House Dems reject tax cut deal

(Updated below.) According to Sam Stein at the Huffington Post, House Democrats have rejected the tax cut deal:

In a meeting on Thursday morning, the House Democratic caucus rejected the president's proposed deal on the Bush tax cuts but did not fully submarine the possibility of its passage, multiple sources tell The Huffington Post.

Members, by voice vote, passed a motion to reject the deal as currently written. The motion had been put forward by Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.) and was seconded, informally, by Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.).

"It was an indication of disapproval and a rejection of the deal as currently written," said one House Democratic aide.

Read for the details. Sounds like the Democrats want changes. The estate tax provision was one mentioned. I'm sure we'll get more info soon.

Here's hoping we don't get a compromise to the compromise that still feels bad.

UPDATE: More from Politico. It was a non-binding resolution in a Caucus meeting (my emphasis):

Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio offered a resolution in a closed Democratic Caucus meeting Thursday morning that said Democrats would oppose the bill in its current form. ... While this doesn’t necessarily scuttle the whole tax deal, it is “highly unlikely” that the tax-cut agreement will come to the floor as is, according to senior Democratic aides. A tax compromise could still pass if an overwhelming majority of Republicans voted for it alongside several dozen Democrats. But at this point, Democrats are making it clear they want changes before anything comes to the House floor.

Note those twin points: (1) This resolution attempts to prevent the bill from coming to the floor; (2) if it does come to the floor, it could pass if all Republicans and just a few Dems vote for it.

If that happens (passage with all Repubs and few Dems), this will clearly be a Republican bill, championed by Obama. If Pelosi surrenders down the line, watch the maneuvering of vote counts to make sure those appearances don't match that reality.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Senate tables DREAM Act, putting vote off again

The Senate just voted, 59 to 40, to table their version of the DREAM Act and vote on the version passed in the House yesterday next week. For those throwing C-SPAN-watching parties to watch to vote, it must be frustrating to have to wait more, but that's sort of how passing laws works -- as in court proceedings, procedural maneuvers often delay the big event.

UPDATE: There is some confusion over whether the DREAM Act is "dead" now. The answer, technically, is "no" -- only the Senate version of the bill is dead. Maegan at VivirLatino has a good explanation:

Senator Reid twice asked to vitiate the vote on cloture which means to set it aside. This was objected to, twice. So then Reid moved to table the vote, which means killing the Senate version of the DREAM Act so that the House version, which passed last night, CAN be voted on later. This motion to table passed, 59-40. We are not sure when vote on the House version of DREAM in the Senate will happen. Most likely it will be next week.

Some advocates are hoping that the extra time -- and the fact that any vote on DREAM will take place after the Senate votes on the Bush tax cuts -- will buy some time to round up votes and give Republicans an incentive to compromise. But given the stiff opposition from conservatives this go-around, it's unlikely the DREAM Act will pass. Then again -- and perhaps this is overly cynical -- it seems the act was moribund the minute it reached the Senate. That's what happens when the rules let an intransigent minority run the show. Read the rest of this post...

Galbraith: Where progressives go from here

In a powerful and well-reasoned speech, economist James Galbraith (son of John Kenneth Galbraith, by the way) has strong words for President Obama. He also offers his thoughts on "where progressives go from here" (h/t Digby). It's a strong piece, well worth your careful read (my emphasis throughout).

On Obama, he says "one could say he has betrayed [our] hopes." Please check the paragraphs that lead to that sentence; they don't contain a rant, but a list.

On the future and the Democratic Party, his analysis is excellent:

What happens next? Let's again not kid ourselves, we have lost a great many seats in the House of Representatives and the House of Representatives isn't coming back into a Democratic majority in the near future. Simply because of the balance of exposures -- the larger numbers of Democratic Senators exposed to reelection in the next cycle, the greatest likelihood is that the Senate will also go Republican in two years time. President Obama has set his course. He has surrounded himself with the advisers of his choice and as he moves to replace President Summers we hear from the press that the priority is to "repair the rift with his investors on Wall Street." What does that tell you? It tells me that he does not have President Clinton's fighting and survival instincts. I've not heard one good reason all day to believe that we are going to see from this White House the fight that we want, that he could win in two years, or any reason we should be backing him now.

The Democratic Party has become too associated with Wall Street. This is a fact. It is a structural problem. It seems to me that we as progressives need -- this is my personal position -- we need to draw a line and decide that we would be better off with an under-funded, fighting progressive minority party than a party marked by obvious duplicity and constant losses on every policy front as a result of the reversals in our own leadership.

What should progressives do? He offers a list, including:

it seems to me that we as progressives need to make an honorable defense of the great legacies of the New Deal and Great Society -- programs and institutions that brought America out of the Great Depression and bought us through the Second World War, brought us to our period of greatest prosperity, and the greatest advances in social justice. Social Security, Medicare, housing finance -- the front-line right now is the foreclosure crisis, the crisis, I should say, of foreclosure fraud -- the progressive tax code, anti-poverty policy, public investment, public safety, and human and civil rights. We are going to lose these battles– get used to it. But we need to make an honorable fight, to state clearly what our principles are and to lay down a record which is trustworthy for the future. ... We are not going to get these things, but we should have a clearly defined program so that people know what they are.

Why work to do all this? Because "in the long run we need to recognize that the fate of the entire country is at stake. Its governance can't be entrusted indefinitely to incompetents, hacks, and lobbyists. Large countries can and do fail, they have done so in our own time."

And finally, about hope (a concern I hear constantly):

We need to lose our fear, our hesitation, and our unwillingness to face the facts. If we thereby lose some of our hopes, let's remember the dictum of William of Orange that "it is not necessary to hope in order to persevere."

The president should know that, as Lincoln said to the Congress in the dark winter of 1862, he "cannot escape history." And we are heading now into a very dark time, so let's face it with eyes open. And if we must, let's seek leadership that shares our values, fights for our principles, and deserves our trust.

I present this as one well-reasoned contribution to a discussion we must be having, starting now, if we are ever climb our way — together — out of this mess.

I understand that Iowa is 14 months away, give or take. That's not much time. I'm not making a recommendation yet; but I am saying that whatever progressives decide to do, we need to decide it soon. I offer this speech as one voice in that discussion.

Yours in perseverance,

GP Read the rest of this post...

Senator Collins, why are tax cuts for the rich more important than pay raises for the troops?

The Defense bill includes a pay raise for the troops. Those would be the people risking their lives for our freedom. Senator Collins doesn't seem terribly concerned about our patriotic American service members getting their pay raises. She is, however, terribly concerned that the richest Americans get a tax cut.

Let's revisit that one more time. Senator Collins is adamant that the richest Americans must get a tax cut. She's undecided on whether our troops deserve a pay raise.

Let's have a small look at exactly what Susan Collins is in the process of killing (in addition to preparing to go down in history as the next Bull Connor). Stars and Stripes:

If the measure is held up by Senate Republicans, it could stall the military's annual pay raise (which would be either 1.4 percent or 1.9 percent in January) and a host of recruiting and enlistment bonuses. The 2011 NDAA also includes language extending Tricare coverage to dependent children of troops until age 26, increases hostile fire and imminent danger pay, and provides millions in impact aid to schools with a high enrollment of military children.

I'd like to believe that Senator Collins is being honest when she says she wants to reach a deal on the Defense bill. But she didn't agonize nearly this long and hard when she signed a letter saying the tax cuts for the rich were more important than the pay raises for our trips. Perhaps in a few hours we'll find out that Senator Collins cares as much about our troops as she does the filthy rich. But if past is prologue, don't count on it.

PS to our friends in the White House and the Senate. This is how you draw lines in the sand. This is how you save the hostages. Put Collins, and all the Rs, on the spot and tell the country that they're holding our troops hostage, right before Christmas, because they think tax cuts for the rich are more important than pay raises and health care for our troops and their families. Invite the spouses and kids of troops to the White House, let them tell their stories of what a pay raise would mean to their families, of what they're going to do if they can't get their kids health insurance. Those hostages, Mr. President, were our brave fighting service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why didn't you bother mentioning that?

Look at what the President said the other day:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me use a couple of analogies. I've said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it's tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people and I was not willing to see them get harmed.

Again, this not an abstract political fight. This is not isolated here in Washington. There are people right now who, when their unemployment insurance runs out, will not be able to pay the bills. There are folks right now who are just barely making it on the paycheck that they've got, and when that paycheck gets smaller on January 1st, they're going to have to scramble to figure out, how am I going to pay all my bills? How am I going to keep on making the payments for my child's college tuition? What am I going to do exactly?

Now imagine had he said "the hostages are American service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. The hostage takers are Susan Collins and every other Republican and Democrat who think tax cuts for the rich are more important than pay raises for the troops."

I know, it's not the President's style. Good luck explaining that to the millions of Pentagon employees who won't be getting a pay raise. I'm not sure they'll understand that their families have to take a pay cut during a recession because fighting isn't their commander in chief's "style." Read the rest of this post...

Poll: Obama's tax cave unpopular

Best strategy ever. What will the smartest people in the world think of next to tick off Democrats and Independents? Winning over the middle and the left probably isn't that important anyway come 2012.

Americans don’t approve of keeping the breaks for upper-income taxpayers that are part of the deal President Barack Obama brokered with congressional Republicans, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.

The survey, conducted before, during and after the tax negotiations, shows that only a third of Americans support keeping the lower rates for the highest earners. Even among backers of the cuts for the wealthy, fewer than half say they should be made permanent.

Another third say they want only the tax cuts for the middle class to be extended, while more than a fourth say all the tax cuts should be allowed to expire Dec. 31, as scheduled.

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Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Yesterday was a real roller coaster in the Senate. Seemed like every hour, there was new information about whether there was going to be a vote -- and whether Susan Collins was in or out. It's stunning that the lives of the gay and lesbian servicemembers, who are willing to put their lives on the line for our democracy, are subject to the procedural whims of Susan Collins and her colleagues. They'll sacrifice equality in a fight over ten amendments or fifteen amendments? What's happened to the people who are supposed to be our leaders?

The big concern I have is whether Susan Collins even has the authority to cut a deal. Her leader, Mitch McConnell, runs a tight ship. He has the ultimate control. Over the summer, I remember one vote last June on ending the filibuster on extending unemployment. Democratic leaders were convinced they had the votes of Snowe and Collins. But, Mitch McConnell intervened.

So, today should be interesting. Looks like the Senate will vote around 12:15 PM ET. But, it's the Senate, so anything could happen.

Also, if we don't prevail on ending DADT, Susan Collins will get a share of the blame -- but she's won't have been the only culprit. There's a list. And, they'll all get their share of the blame.

Congrats to the DREAM Activists for their win in the House yesterday. I've met many of the DREAMers -- and they are very impressive. I watched the debate in the House last night. It's really hard to tell who the GOPers hate more: Immigrants or Gays. The vitriol spewed last night against immigrants sounded remarkably similar to the language used against the LGBT community. Read the rest of this post...

Irish bank to pay out $53 million for bonuses

The stories of failed banks isn't new for any of us these days. So why did those in government not make insolvency part of the process, so that the bonus money wasn't there to be handed out? It's so painfully obvious at this point that the only option to protect everyone else is to force the banks into bankruptcy and re-write everything from scratch. (Think about what was done to GM.) Once again, the bankers win and everyone else pays the price.

Stricken Allied Irish Banks is preparing to hand out €40m (£34m) of bonuses next week – despite being on the brink of receiving another emergency bailout from the Irish government.

As many as 2,400 bankers in its Dublin capital markets division are to receive the payments on 17 December under agreements struck with the bank in 2008.

The bank, 19% owned by Ireland's taxpayers but expected to reach 95% state-ownership, had originally been blocked from making the payments under one of the government's bailout programmes.

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Chinese official says US economy worse off than Europe

And he may be right. So far we've been lucky enough to be able to hide some severe problems by pushing them out to the state level. That will start to fade next year and many of the troubled pension funds start to run out of money in a few years. What happens then? The embarrassing and irresponsible failure by the Democrats to raise taxes (thus, their choice to crush the deficit) is going to be a costly mistake. If a Democrat can't make that argument to the public who somehow now cares about the deficit, then we're in big trouble. It's only going to get worse and the Democrats are very much a part of this problem.

The U.S. dollar will be safe for the next six to 12 months, because global markets are focused on the euro zone's troubles, Chinese central bank adviser Li Daokui said on Wednesday when asked about U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to extend tax cuts for all Americans.

But Li, an academic adviser on the People's Bank of China monetary policy committee, said the fiscal health of the United States was in fact worse than Europe's, and that U.S. bond prices and the dollar would fall when the European economic situation stabilizes.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a financial forum in Beijing.

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Lieberman wants NY Times investigated for publishing WikiLeaks

Why does Joe Lieberman hate America? And no, this is not even close to being a joke.

Senator Joe Lieberman continues to expand his desire to p--- all over the First Amendment and the very concept of a free press. He's already been pressuring companies to stop working with Wikileaks and has already introduced an anti-Wikileaks bill that appears to be pure censorship, but he's now extending his lack of understanding of the First Amendment to the press: stating that the NY Times should be investigated for criminal activity in publishing the Wikileaks documents.

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