Howard Dean calls FOX News 'absolutely racist' for handling of Shirley Sherrod affair

HuffPo:

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean took direct aim at Fox News for its involvement in the Shirley Sherrod racism flap, calling their coverage "absolutely racist."

Dean, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, offered his candid assessment in an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" in which he criticized the cable network for being complicit in the controversy.

"Fox News did something that was absolutely racist," Dean said. "They had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip. They had been pushing a theme of black racism with this phony Black Panther crap and this business and this Sotomayor and all this other stuff."

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Stats show shrinking middle class

From the Business Insider via Yahoo:

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

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When anti-gay bigots meet superheroes, hilarity ensues

Fred Phelps at Comic-Con. Read the rest of this post...

Video — Sarah takes Taiwan

Courtesy of Next Media Animation from Taiwan, who offers the following self-advert:

Liven up your video news with animated graphics from Next Media Animation. We create colorful, eye-catching and informative animated graphics each day for TV news and websites around the world.

Comes this delightful Chinese-language piece entitled "Is Palin Gunning for 2012?" (莎拉裴琳準備2012年選總統? — heh.) Be sure to read the corners and edges, like what's written on her hand, or the Fox News crawl (h/t Tbogg).



If you watch the vid at the YouTube site, you can click a box in the upper-right corner for English subtitles. Not needed though, in my opinion.

Enjoy,

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Weekend thoughts on the Unemployed

The unemployed — and underemployed — are not things, but people, despite the impression you may get from your local mainstream news-blond(e). One of the great paeans to down-and-out and unemployed Americans occurs in the film Gold Diggers of 1933. "Remember My Forgotten Man" — one of Busby Berkeley's finest:



We forget, even today.

The only full-length version I could find contains a few French subtitles — sorry, or you're welcome, as the case may be. Two things to note:

At 3:07 in, the scene with the policeman still brings tears to the eyes. The look she gives the cop is withering. (It's the scene in the preview image.)

Starting at 5:10, I think there's a subtle visual reference to Metropolis, the silent film classic about man and machine, recreated in the final set.

For some Rooseveltian context, click here.

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Sunday morning open thread - Leaving Las Vegas

Joe and I are heading back to DC today from the Netroots Nation blog conference in Vegas. Has been really fascinating, overall a great trip. Met a lot of new people, like some of the crew at Media Matters and the Courage Campaign, the bloggers from Bilerico, Joe Jervis (who I'd never met in person), Jillian Weiss, and saw a number of old friends and colleagues I hadn't seen in a long while, like Andy Cobb of Second City, Chase and Erick of New Left Media, and got to scheme with them about the future. We also got to meet a slew of House and Senate candidates, and Joe and I had good discussions with all of them, emphasizing the need to prove to Democrats that they'll follow through on their promises (we also quizzed them about their positions on gay marriage, DADT and ENDA, among other issues).



One of the people I got to catch up with was Gloria Feldt, the former president of Planned Parenthood. I'd met Gloria earlier in the decade, when I was doing some consulting for PPFA, and I'd always been impressed by her willingness to fight and pull no punches. So it was great to be able to snag her for a coffee and talk about the similarities between the problems the women's movement is having, and the problems gays, enviros, immigration reformers, and everyone else is facing with this Congress and this administration. Gloria also penned an op ed in today's Washington Post that I suggest you check out.

I find Vegas an odd town. I enjoy the energy in short bursts, and do find the architecture breathtaking and fun. But it can be overwhelming. Joe and I are both glad to be heading home.

I'll leave you with a view of the strip from atop the Eiffel Tower at the Paris hotel (a very cool view). Just stunning (especially when you're not in the middle of all those people.) Click the photo to see a larger version.

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Anti-Net Neutrality Senators wading in anti-competition funding

How long before the Republicans apologize to AT&T; for the FCC promoting net neutrality which will help consumers? There's a great comment inside the link about the idea of politicians wearing "sponsorship patches" to highlight who gave them money. Wouldn't that be interesting to see? The "sponsorship patch" should be larger or smaller depending on the size of the contributions from particular interest groups.

Senate Republicans are attempting to promote a bill that is completely dishonest in its name. The "Freedom for Consumer Choice Act (FCC Act)" has nothing to do with protecting consumers. It's all about protecting AT&T; and other corporate powerhouses from competition. What's with the GOP and their love affair with screwing consumers? By doing so they are killing real competition which used to be a cornerstone of the US economy.

Just sayin' from TechDirt.

So, let's see. The bill's main sponsor is Senator Jim DeMint. Over the course of his career... AT&T; is the second largest contributor to his campaigns. Ditto for Senator Tom Coburn. John Cornryn no doubt knows that AT&T; is the 4th biggest contributor to his campaigns over the years, and Orrin Hatch must be happy that AT&T; is the fifth largest contributor to his campaigns over the years (amusingly, AT&T; is the only non-healthcare company in the top 8 on Hatch's list).

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Poisoning the well — BP buys the professors (and their research too)

Chris in Paris had a piece on this last week, with good coverage from CBS News:

BP has been trying to hire marine scientists from universities around the Gulf Coast in an apparent move to bolster the company's legal defense against anticipated lawsuits related to the Gulf oil spill, according to a report from The Press-Register in Mobile, Ala.

Scientists from Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University and Texas A&M; have reportedly accepted BP's offer, according to the paper.

Now Lawrence O'Donnell, subbing for Keith Olbermann on Countdown, is on it. His interviewee is Dr. Russ Lee, Vice-President for Research at the University of South Alabama in Mobile.

A rather shocking segment — for two reasons, as I'll try to explain. First the interview:



That's the "poisoning the well" part of the story — BP buying academic experts and their courtroom silence. Rachel Maddow on Monday likened it to Tony Soprano's tactic of "contaminating" lawyers.

But what about that other part, the request for two contracts?

It was all in one contract, and it really should have been separated out.

The university was willing to allow BP to "buy" (rent?) the university — AND its grad students' free labor — to do research, so long as the academics could benefit too, by publishing. This is apparently what they do, the other business the university is in.

This may not be news, but I'll say it explicitly. Universities regularly sell (or rent) themselves — their profs, their students, and their facilities — to corporations to further the corporate interest. (In the same way, part of the "business" of a medical practice is to rent their patients to drug companies for research — again, for a fee. I've known nurses for whom selling these patients is full-time work.)

The "school" (at this point they're not purely schools, but some kind of hybrid) gets something — money for sure, and the bennies of doing research. The corp gets a labor force, much of it free, and technical facilities they don't have to build or completely fund. They probably split the proceeds — patent rights, etc. — according to some formula. Corporate "campus" indeed.

So — any doubt who gets the better end of the deal? With all of society starved for money, including universities — and corporations swimming in it — who's got the upper hand?

And for good measure, if it's a state university handing stuff over at a discount, where does part of what's given away come from? Your tax dollars at work.

When the whole town is thirsty, and one guy owns the water — imagine the possibilities, especially if that one guy is conscienceless, a money-driven monomaniac.

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