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Alabama Immigration Law Ensnares Top Business Exec

Romney Admits Destroying Records To Hide Them From Political Opponents

Richest 0.1 Percent Of Americans Make Half Of All Capital Gains

Security

Despite Glenn Beck’s Slanders Of Israelis, Netanyahu Says He Is ‘Fearless In Defending Israel Against Slanders’

By Ali Gharib posted from ThinkProgress Security on Nov 21, 2011 at 6:20 pm

Glenn Beck’s conspiracy theories have made the right-wing commentator the darling of the Israeli right, even garnering him an invitation from Israeli parliamentarian Danny Danon to speak before the Knesset. That love-fest between Beck and the Israeli right reached new heights last night when, at a gala for an American Zionist group, right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Beck for “defending” Israel.

Netanyahu delivered taped comments to the crowd at the Zionist Organization of America’s (ZOA) gala after Beck received the Miriam & Sheldon Adelson Defender of Israel Award from right-wing billionaire (and Netanyahu supporter) Sheldon Adelson. Netanyahu said:

I also want to congratulate Glenn Beck for winning the Miriam and Sheldon Adelson award, the Defender of Israel award. Glenn, you can be sure that if Sheldon and Miri Adelson put their name to something, it must stand for a lot. You stand for a lot. You’ve been fearless in defending Israel against the slanders that are hurled against it. You’ve done that with considerable personal cost but you’ve never backed off, you’ve never flinched, you’ve walked away. And I want to tell you how deeply we appreciate this stand of courage and integrity.

Watch the video:

All Israelis might not view Beck the way Netanyahu does. This summer, when Israel saw its largest protests ever in the name of social justice, Beck denounced the gathering. Despite 88 percent approval for the protests among Israelis, Beck, in a typically conspiracy-laced tirade, derided the prostesters a leftist-Islamist-Nazi plot to bring Israel down.

Beck also launched an attack last year on liberal billionaire George Soros. Michelle Goldberg of the Daily Beast called the episode of Beck’s now-defunct Fox News Show “a symphony of anti-Semitic dog-whistles.” The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chided Beck’s remarks as “horrific.” Later, the ADL also criticized Beck for comparing Reform Judaism to radical Islam, this time eliciting an apology from the radio host.

The Los Angeles Times also rounded up some of Beck’s contrversial statements about Jews:

He has several times had to fend off allegations of anti-Semitism. Last year he appeared to endorse the notion that Jews killed Jesus Christ; his list of the world’s nine most “dangerous” people includes eight Jews…

An official from the liberal Israeli organization Peace Now told the paper: “If this is the only kind of friend Israel’s government can find around the world, that’s a very poor sign.”

Economy

How Republican Tax Intransigence Sank The Super Committee: A Timeline

By Guest Blogger posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Nov 21, 2011 at 5:20 pm

Our guest blogger is Sarah Ayres, a research associate at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

By now we have all heard the latest in the months-long debate over reducing the nation’s deficit — barring a last-minute miracle, the congressional super committee tasked with finding at least $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction will fail to come to an agreement. Cue handwringing by pundits lamenting the inability of both Democrats and Republicans to compromise.

The notion that both sides share in the blame is an easy line for commentators to repeat, but it isn’t true. Time and time again, the only thing preventing an agreement on long-term deficit reduction has been the Republicans’ absolute refusal to consider any tax increases on high-income households as part of the solution. Michael Linden and I created a timeline of major events in the past six months of deficit talks:

February 14, 2011: President Barack Obama submits budget for 2012 with about $2 trillion in deficit reduction, half of which come from spending cuts.

April 15, 2011: House passes Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget, which includes $5.8 trillion in spending cuts along with tax cuts for the richest Americans.

May 5, 2011: Vice President Joe Biden begins debt talks.

May 11, 2011: Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says he will not raise debt limit without spending cuts that match how much the limit is raised.

June 23, 2011: Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) walks away from debt ceiling talks with Biden after refusing to consider any tax increases. The administration had offered $2.4 trillion in spending cuts for $400 billion in taxes, an 83:17 split.

July 7, 2011: Obama and Boehner begin debt-ceiling negotiations.

July 9, 2011: Boehner walks away from Obama’s “grand bargain”: $4 trillion in debt reduction comprised of $1 trillion in revenue and $3 trillion in spending cuts, including entitlement reforms.

July 19, 2011: The Gang of Six proposes a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan, including $2 trillion in revenue.

July 22, 2011: Again, Boehner walks away from negotiations after Obama offers $1.2 trillion in revenues and $1.6 trillion in spending cuts, including entitlements.

July 31, 2011: Debt ceiling agreement is reached, cutting $1 trillion in spending immediately and establishing the super committee to reduce deficits by at least an additional $1.2 trillion.

October 26, 2011: Democrats first super committee offer is $3 trillion in deficit reduction comprised of about $1.3 trillion in revenues and $1.7 trillion in spending cuts, including cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Republicans immediately reject it. Republicans’ first super committee offer is $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction, which includes no new tax revenues.

November 8, 2011: Republicans’ second super committee offer is $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. It does include $300 billion in new tax revenue, but in exchange for extending the Bush tax cuts and lowering the top tax rate. The plan would ultimately cut taxes for the wealthy and raise them for everyone else.

November 10, 2011: Democrats’ second offer is $2.3 trillion in deficit reduction, consisting of $1.3 trillion in spending cuts and $1 trillion in revenue. The revenue would be split between $350 billion in concrete measures and $650 billion in future tax reform. Republicans reject it.

November 11, 2011: Democrats agree to Republicans’ top lines including just $400 billion in revenues and $875 billion in spending cuts, but refuse to accept the GOP’s tax cut for the rich. Republicans reject it and make their final offer: $640 billion in spending cuts and $3 billion in revenues.

What this timeline shows is just how much Democrats have been willing to bend, only to have Republicans reject very generous offers. Back in June, Democrats reportedly offered a mere $400 billion in tax increases as part of a $2.4 trillion deficit reduction package — a 83:17 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases. Republicans said no.

And they haven’t budged an inch since then, stubbornly insisting that any deficit reduction package consist entirely of spending cuts. Even after Democrats on the super committee agreed to the Republican top line of $400 billion in revenues, Republicans refused to make a deal.

Looking at all the offers rejected by Republicans, it comes as no surprise that the super committee will not reach a deal. By rejecting any mix of spending cuts and tax increases, Republicans ensured that there would be no agreement a deficit reduction package.


Justice

Brewer Prepares To Reimpeach Election Official Who Was Illegally Fired For Making Arizona Elections Too ‘Competitive’

By Ian Millhiser posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Nov 21, 2011 at 4:30 pm

Earlier this month, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) strongarmed the state legislature into impeaching and removing the chair of that state’s bipartisan redistricting commission. According to Brewer, by drawing many congressional districts where there would be competitive races between Democratic and Republican candidates, the election official, Colleen Mathis, somehow engaged in “neglect of duty and gross misconduct.” Just over two weeks later, the state supreme court struck down this impeachment, holding that Brewer failed to show the “substantial neglect of duty, gross misconduct in office or inability to discharge the duties of office” required to justify an impeachment. Apparently, not drawing maps that maximize GOP victories isn’t actually gross misconduct.

Never one to let a small thing like the Arizona Constitution get in the way of a good power grab, however, Brewer is now preparing for a second round:

Gov. Jan Brewer may make another attempt as early as this coming week to fire the chairwoman of the Independent Redistricting Commission.

The governor said Friday her attorneys are studying the brief order issued late Thursday by the Arizona Supreme Court voiding the governor’s Nov. 1 decision to fire Colleen Mathis. She said all options are on the table – including recrafting the letter she sent to Mathis firing her in a way that might pass court muster. [...] In their brief order, the justices said that Brewer’s Nov. 1 letter to Mathis, “does not demonstrate substantial neglect of duty, gross misconduct in office, or inability to discharge the duties of office.” Those are the only reasons in the constitution that a governor can fire a commissioner.

Brewer noted, though, the justices did not say what would be legal and how she could fire Mathis in a way to satisfy the court.

People who actually care about the rule of law can only hope that the state legislature would balk at such a transparent and obvious power grab, but they probably shouldn’t hold their breath. Every single one of the state senate’s 21 GOP senators voted with Brewer to illegally remove Mathis from the commission the first time around.

Green

Don Young Bullies Witness: ‘I Can Call You Anything I Want!’ ‘You Be Quiet!’ ‘Pontifigurds!’

By Brad Johnson posted from ThinkProgress Green on Nov 21, 2011 at 3:50 pm

At a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the dangers of drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) exploded with rage. The hearing, with witnesses requested by the Democratic minority, was scheduled by Republicans for Friday afternoon. “I call it garbage, Dr. Rice,” Young said, addressing his comments to Dr. Douglas Brinkley, a historian at Rice University. When Brinkley corrected his name, Young grew even more apoplectic, saying, “I can call you anything I want if you sit in that chair.”

YOUNG: If you ever want want to see an exercise in futility … That side has already made up its mind and this side has already made up its mind. I call it garbage, Dr. Rice, it comes from the mouth –

BRINKLEY: It’s Dr. Brinkley. Rice is a university –

YOUNG: Well, okay, I can call you anything I want if you sit in that chair. You just be quiet! You be quiet!

Watch it:

After Young’s irate outburst, Committee chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) castigated Dr. Brinkley for interrupting the Alaska congressman and disrupting the “comity” of the hearing.

“The Arctic plain is really nothing,” Young continued, calling Dr. Brinkley “elitist.” “You can go on all the pontifigurds you want . . . I’m really pissed.”

“Some people love money more than their homeland or where they live,” Dr. Brinkley said later, rebuking Young for his hatred of the undrilled Alaskan wilderness.

Subscribe to ThinkProgress Green.

Economy

The Richest 0.1 Percent Of Americans Make Half Of All Capital Gains

By Pat Garofalo posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Nov 21, 2011 at 3:00 pm

The preferable treatment that investment income receives in the tax code is one of the factors driving the income inequality and galvanizing the Occupy Wall Street movement. Because the capital gains tax is capped at 15 percent, “anyone making more than $34,500 a year in wages and salary is taxed at a higher rate than a billionaire is taxed on untold millions in capital gains.”

The reason this low rate helps create an income divide is that capital gains are made almost exclusively by the wealthy. In fact, “over the past 20 years, more than 80 percent of the capital gains income realized in the United States has gone to 5 percent of the people.” And the concentration is actually far greater than that, as half of all capital gains are made by the richest 0.1 percent of Americans:

Income and wealth disparities become even more absurd if we look at the top 0.1% of the nation’s earners– rather than the more common 1%. The top 0.1%– about 315,000 individuals out of 315 million– are making about half of all capital gains on the sale of shares or property after 1 year; and these capital gains make up 60% of the income made by the Forbes 400.

It’s crystal clear that the Bush tax reduction on capital gains and dividend income in 2003 was the cutting edge policy that has created the immense increase in net worth of corporate executives, Wall St. professionals and other entrepreneurs.

This is why the various Republican plans floated to reduce or eliminate the capital gains tax are folly. Doing so only benefits the very wealthy, who have already been the main beneficiaries of the tax cuts package enacted by the Bush administration. Remember, it was President Reagan — the patron saint of today’s conservatives — who completely equalized the tax treatment of capital gains and wages, taxing them at the same exact rate. Since then, the capital gains tax has been steadily eroded, as the richest Americans have steadily increased the gap between themselves and the rest of the country.

NEWS FLASH

Gingrich: ‘I Think I Will Probably Teach A Course When I’m President’ | During a campaign event today, 2012 GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said that, if he wins the election, he will hold an online course laying out the things that he expects to accomplish during his time in office. In announcing this idea, Gingrich poked fun at recent reports that he has received millions of dollars from, among others, mortgage giant Freddie Mac and the pharmaceutical drug industry:

By the way, I think I will probably teach a course when I’m president. I think I will probably try to do something that outlines for the whole country what we’re going to try to accomplish, and offer it online sort of like the University of Phoenix or Kaplan. So that way if the country wants, they can sign up. It would be free. Although given the news media’s assumptions about me, oh he’ll probably charge $100 a piece so I can get rich. No! It’ll be free. But the idea would be, why wouldn’t you want a president in the age of social media to methodically in an organized way share with you what they’re going to try to accomplish, so that those people who want to understand it can understand it.

Watch it:

Of course, if Gingrich were truly basing his course on the models set by the University of Phoenix and Kaplan, it wouldn’t be free, but would cost participants an arm-and-a-leg while leaving them with a subpar education.

Justice

German Mercedes-Benz Executive Arrested Under Alabama’s Immigration Law

By Amanda Peterson Beadle posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Nov 21, 2011 at 2:00 pm

Alabama’s economy is suffering because of HB 56, the state’s draconian immigration law, as workers flee out of fear. State Sen. Scott Beason (R), who sponsored the anti-immigrant bill in the Alabama legislature, once called it a “jobs bill,” but the state’s immigration law is leaving entire industries without enough workers instead.

And the extreme law, which legislators are now reconsidering, could seriously damage the state’s reputation as well after police arrested a German Mercedes-Benz executive last week under the immigration law. Mercedes opened its first American manufacturing plant in Vance, Alabama in 1993, spurring a trend of foreign car makers and suppliers opening factories in the state. They may be rethinking that decision, however, after one of their German executives was arrested for simply not having his passport with him:

Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson told The Associated Press an officer stopped a rental vehicle for not having a tag Wednesday night and asked the driver for his license. The man only had a German identification card, so he was arrested and taken to police headquarters, Anderson said.

The 46-year-old executive was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification, but he was released after an associate retrieved his passport, visa and German driver’s license from the hotel where he was staying, Anderson said.

The length of his detainment and the status of his court case weren’t immediately known.

Bentley…called the state’s homeland security director, Spencer Collier, after hearing of the arrest to get details about what had happened, Collier said in an interview.

“Initially I didn’t have them, so I called Chief Anderson to find out what happened,” Collier said. “It sounds like the officer followed the statute correctly.”

Before Gov. Robert Bentley (R) signed HB 56, drivers who did not have a license were given a ticket and court summons, Collier said. “If it were not for the immigration law, a person without a license in their possession wouldn’t be arrested like this,” he told the AP.

In October, the New York Times speculated in an editorial that despite best efforts to recruit foreign automakers to Alabama, the state was now “infamous as a regional capital of xenophobia.” And if the immigration law scared away a manufacturer like Mercedes, which employs about 2,800 Alabamians, or Hyundai, which announced an expansion at its Montgomery, Alabama plant in May, would only compound the state’s economic woes. The unfortunate arrest of a visiting Mercedes executive only underscores the damage Alabama’s harmful anti-immigrant law will continue to do to the state’s economy — and its reputation.

Politics

Romney Admits He Destroyed Government Records To Keep Them From Political Opponents

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Nov 21, 2011 at 1:10 pm

Last week, a Boston Globe investigation uncovered that former Gov. Mitt Romney’s administration destroyed emails, purchased hard drives, and otherwise obliterated all digital records of his time as governor of Massachusetts. This happened as Romney was leaving the state to campaign for president (the first time), and observers immediately speculated that the systematic destruction was politically motivated to hide embarrassing data.

Romney and his campaign have so far denied this, with the candidate saying this weekend in New Hampshire that his staff took the highly unusual step of purchasing their work hard drives because they might contain “confidential and private” information. Meanwhile, he’s made calls for greater White House transparency a part of his campaign message.

But in a fairly stunning admission today during an interview with the editorial board of the Nashua Telegraph in New Hampshire, Romney suggested that his administration deleted emails because they didn’t want “opposition research teams” to have access to them:

ROMNEY: Well, I think in government we should follow the law. And there has never been an administration that has provided to the opposition research team, or to the public, electronic communications. So ours would have been the first.

Watch it:

While Romney’s claim that no previous administration had kept emails may be true, that’s hardly a strong precedent given that emailing was not commonplace for very many years before Romney took office.

Meanwhile, Romney clearly broke precedent with the hard drive buybacks, as staffers for previous administration called the purchases “unheard of.” Terry Dolan, who worked in six previous administrations in the state, told the Globe, “That had not happened prior to the end of the Romney administration.” “I don’t remember anybody buying their hard drives. I don’t remember anybody buying anything,’’ said Stephen Crosby, who worked for Romney’s two predecessors.

NEWS FLASH

Bank Lobbying On Track To Reach Record High This Year | As the Occupy Wall Street protests have highlighted the outsize influence financial institutions wield in politics, banks’ spending on lobbying is on track to reach an all-time high this year. Lobbying expenditures by the five biggest spenders among commercial banks are up 12 percent so far this year compared to 2010, according to an analysis by the Charlotte Observer. Wells Fargo has been particularly profligate in its lobbying, with expenditures up 80 percent in the first three quarters of the year compared to last year. “Should this year’s pace continue, 2011 will be the sixth straight year that commercial bank lobbying has set a record,” according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks federal lobbying. Much of the lobbying has focused curbing the impact of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, which passed last year, and the Federal Reserve’s dealing with debit card swipe fees.

NEWS FLASH

Mitt Romney Goes Glenn Beck: ‘I Exhale Carbon Dioxide’ | Two years ago, the Tea Party shock jock Glenn Beck mocked the idea of carbon dioxide pollution, exhaling and pronouncing, “Look at how much pollution I just put out.” Last Friday, former Massachusetts governor and Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney joined Beck’s anti-science crusade, confusing the burning of fossil fuels with human respiration. “Now I know there is also a movement to say that carbon dioxide should be guided or should be managed by the Environmental Protection Agency. I disagree with that,” he said at a Manchester, New Hampshire event, furthering his descent into denial. “I exhale carbon dioxide,” he continued. “I don’t want those guys following me around with a meter to see if I’m breathing too hard.”

Related Posts

Health

Romney Calls On Obama To Undo Triggered Military Cuts, Reduce Funding To Medicaid

By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress Health on Nov 21, 2011 at 11:30 am

During a campaign appearance at BAE Systems this morning — a mega defense contractor — Mitt Romney accused President Obama of trapping the super committee into failure in order to reduce defense spending by $600 billion. The former Massachusetts governor criticized Obama for not personally involving himself in the committee’s negotiations and called on the president to introduce legislation that would undo the triggered cuts to military spending and instead target health care funding for the poor:

ROMNEY: In a setting like this, the idea that we’re going to devastate our military is simply unacceptable. I would call on the president and do call on the president to immediately introduce legislation which says we will not have a $600 billion cut to America’s military. We should not cut any funding from our base defense budget, that should not occur. And I would apply the $600 billion that were anticipated on being imposed upon the military, I would take those and apply them into other parts of the federal budget. And there are a number of candidates for that, one of course would be to take something like Medicaid, which is our health care program to the poor and return that program to the states…by doing that you more than compensate for the $600 billion that would be restored to the defense budget.

Watch it:

But Romney has it backwards: cuts to the military would likely have almost zero impact on national security — as they would target the many wasteful, costly weapons programs, many of which are barely even used. Defense contractors like BAE sometimes overcharge and bilk taxpayers, billing the government far more than the “fair and reasonable” price for parts and services. In 2010, BAE Systems pleaded “guilty to one charge of conspiring to make false statements to the U.S. government over regulatory filings.”

Reductions to Medicaid, on the other hand, would significantly increase costs for beneficiaries and the nation and undermine care for lower-income Americans who need it most. As the Congressional Budget Office concluded, if Romney implemented his proposal to “return” Medicaid “to the states” and significantly reduced federal funding, governors would have to cope with the shortfall by “cutting payment rates for doctors, hospitals or nursing homes; reducing the scope of benefits covered; or limiting eligibility,” the budget office concluded. As a result, enrollees could “face more limited access to care,” higher out-of-pocket costs, and “providers could face more uncompensated care as beneficiaries lost coverage for certain benefits or lost coverage altogether.”

Americans overwhelmingly oppose additional cuts to the Medicaid program — which states are already curtailing during a period of heightened eligibility — but 51 percent of voters support reducing the bloated military budget.

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Economy

Super Committee Member Sen. Kerry: Grover Norquist Is ‘The 13th Member Of This Committee’

By Tanya Somanader posted from ThinkProgress Economy on Nov 21, 2011 at 10:40 am

Today, the 12-member congressional super committee is expected to announce failure to reach an agreement to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal budget. One of major “sticking divides,” as Democratic co-chair Sen. Patty Murray (WA) noted, has been Republicans refusal to consider a widely supported tax increase on America’s wealthy.

This intransigence is largely motivated by the shadowy influence of lobbyist Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, who threatens to serve any Republican who breaks his anti-tax pledge with electoral defeat. Today on CNN, super committee member Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) noted that Norquist’s handcuffs on his GOP colleagues essentially makes him the “13th member of this committee without being there“:

KERRY: We Democrats put a $4 trillion dollar plan on the table. We had $1.3 trillion of cuts, and we had $1.3 trillion in revenue. Now, some of that revenue, we’re not asking that to happen tomorrow or the next day, it could happen in a year. This is a ten-year plan and longer. So we have the ability here to do something that’s fair for all Americans. But unfortunately, this thing about the Bush tax cuts and the pledge to Grover Norquist keeps coming up. Grover Norquist has been the 13th member of this committee without being there. I can’t tell you how many times we hear about ‘the pledge, the pledge.’ Well all of us took a pledge to uphold the Constitution and to full and faithfully and well-execute our duties and I think that requires us to try and reach an agreement. So we have to compromise.

Watch it:

Despite Norquist’s desire to “crush the other team,” it seems that more and more members of his own team are starting to agree with Kerry. GOP Rep. Mike Simpson (ID) said regarding Norquist’s anti-tax pledge, “I didn’t know I was signing a marriage agreement.” Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) blasted Norquist for “paralyzing Congress.” Freshman Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) vowed to never sign another pledge, noting the last straw came when Norquist wouldn’t let Republicans close tax loopholes that subsidize ethanol production. Former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson simply said, “If Grover Norquist is the most powerful person in America, he should run for president” rather than peddle his influence backstage.

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Special Topic

Washington Lobbyists Crafted $850,000 Secret Plan For Bank Lobbyists To Undermine Occupy Wall Street

By Zaid Jilani posted from ThinkProgress Special Topic on Nov 21, 2011 at 10:00 am

This firm wanted $850,000 to kill Occupy Wall Street

This weekend, the MSNBC show Up! With Chris Hayes broke a stunning story about how Washington lobbyists are scrambling to undermine the protesters on Wall Street and across the country.

Hayes’ report, which can be viewed here, details how the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford (CLGC) compiled a secret plan to undermine Occupy Wall Street for the American Bankers Association (ABA).

The plan, which CLGC was demanding $850,000 to implement, was presented in a secret memo that was leaked to Hayes’ staff. The memo warns that Occupy Wall Street, particularly if it is embraced by the Democratic Party, threatens to “have very long-lasting political, policy, and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”

Interestingly, the memo also cautioned that Tea Party protesters may join forces with Occupy Wall Street because “well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where [Occupy Wall Street] protesters and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism. [...] This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”

In order to combat Occupy Wall Street’s growing movement, the firm offered to engage in research and advocacy to “undermine their credibility in a profound way.” This included researching activists’ financial histories and civil and criminal information, and monitoring social media. The goal of this research was to “create negative narratives of the [Occupy Wall Street] for high impact media placement to expose the backers of this movement”:

“Our Government Relations staff did receive the proposal – it was unsolicited and we chose not to act on it in any way,” said ABA spokesperson Jeff Sigmund to Hayes’ show. However, CLGC admits on its website that it has had ABA as a client before in the past, in addition to the Financial Services Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fidelity Investments, and other financial players.

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Health

Personhood Proponents To Rebrand, Revamp Effort

By Igor Volsky posted from ThinkProgress Health on Nov 21, 2011 at 9:30 am

Anti-abortion forces are pushing ahead with the so-called personhood initiatives, despite suffering defeat in Mississippi, where a mostly conservative electorate soundly rejected the notion that life should begin at conception. The group, Personhood USA, plans to hold a press conference later today to announce their renewed efforts to pursue personhood amendments in Colorado, Oregon, and Montana:

Organizers said Saturday they are banking on broad grassroots support, with volunteers circulating petitions at grocery stores, and a new game plan. The new version of the measure “will protect every child, no matter their size, level of development, gender, age or race,” said Jennifer Mason, spokeswoman for Personhood USA.

New language “will explain again that every human being is a person from their earliest moments,” Mason said. “And it will include some extra information that hopefully will prohibit lies of our opponents. … It will be a departure from what we’ve done before.”

Personhood initiatives have failed twice before in Colorado by a 3-1 margin, as the medical community and women’s groups used public forums to “cast the measure as misguided, arguing that, beyond ending abortion, declaring fertilization as the starting point for life would lead to a prohibition of emergency contraception in rape cases and limit treatment for miscarriages, tubal pregnancies and infertility.” The same arguments succeeded in Mississippi, where doctors, national conservatives, and even religious leaders all came out against the measure. Mississippi’s Governor-Elect Phil Bryant (R), however, predicts that the personhood proposal or something similar may “resurface in the 2012 legislature” and conservatives are still advancing the initiative in states across the country.

The GOP presidential candidates have mostly avoided taking a position on the issue, although Newt Gingrich suggested on Saturday that he would support a national personhood amendment.

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Politics

Morning Briefing: November 21, 2011

By ThinkProgress on Nov 21, 2011 at 9:00 am

The congressional super committee is expected to announce failure today in its goal of reaching a compromise to cut $1.2 trillion from the budget. Democratic committee co-chair Sen. Patty Murray (WA) cited the influence of anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist “whose name has come up in meetings time and time again” as a reason behind the committee’s failure to reach an agreement.

New York City police arrested “27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer” Jose Pimentel for plotting to bomb New York City police officers, post offices, and U.S. troops returning home. Though Pimentel was allegedly inspired by late al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is acting as “a total lone wolf” and “was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad.”

The National Labor Relations Board is considering a proposal to speed up union elections. The proposal, which would defer some types of litigation, is expected to pass with the support of the panel’s two Democratic members.

Despite wide-ranging support, congressional Republicans have killed a proposal to create a National Climate Service that was pitched as a one-stop shop for climate information. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposed the agency, which would have required no new funding, and would have been similar to the National Weather Service.

During a raid Sunday morning, police cleared out protesters from an Occupy Oakland encampment. Police in San Francisco also removed tents from a protest site that morning, but protesters quickly rallied and held a peaceful assembly later in the afternoon.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum said his competitor in the GOP presidential primary Mitt Romney would not have been “comfortable” at a Christian forum the Iowa FAMiLY Leader held on Saturday. Santorum said he did not think Romney, who is a Mormon, would be at ease in a setting that explores “why you believe what you believe and where that came from.”

A third day of violent clashes between anti-military protesters and law enforcement officials in Cairo has raised questions about whether Egypt will be able to proceed with national parliamentary elections seven days from now as planned. Key political parties have stopped campaigning, but the military government has pledged not to cancel the elections.

Pakistan’s Taliban movement is holding exploratory peace talks with Pakistan’s government, Reuters reports. Pakistan has been criticized as a capricious ally in fighting militants and the U.S. is unlikely to support any peace talks with the terrorist group.

And finally: Heavy D is now “up in the limousine” of heaven with Notorious B.I.G., and even President Obama offered his condolences. “He will be remembered for his infectious optimism and many contributions to American music,” read a letter from the president to Heavy D’s, born Dwight Myers, family.

For breaking news and updates throughout the day, follow ThinkProgress on Facebook and Twitter.

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