Video: Jedi Squirrels

No wonder my dog Sasha hates them. Read the rest of this post...

IMF warns on banks in China

When they fail, it's not going to be pretty.

China's biggest commercial banks face systemic risks if a combination of credit, property, currency and yield curve shocks that could be withstood in isolation were to occur together, the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday.

But China can contain these dangers by freeing up financial markets to give investors, commercial banks and the central bank greater autonomy from government control, the fund said in its first-ever review of the Chinese financial system.

While not predicting an imminent disaster, the IMF made clear China needed to act quickly because it is vulnerable to destabilizing asset price booms.

Read the rest of this post...

Top GOPer on Super Committee: No new revenue and will try to exempt DOD from cuts

So the Republican strategy is once again to take America hostage.  Either give them what they demand, no compromise, or they'll change the rules of the game and permit no defense cuts, even though the deal was 50-50 cuts to domestic and defense if the Super Committee couldn't reach a deal.  This is what many of us said they'd do, they would refuse to compromise and then find a way to exempt the military and put all the cuts on domestic programs the Democrats care about.  And as Brian Beutler, that's exactly their strategy. Read the rest of this post...

Is the birth control pill linked to prostate cancer?

There's more research to do, but the initial results are interesting. The pharmaceutical products have had negative impacts once the chemicals get into the water, so it wouldn't be a complete surprise if there's a link. BBC News:

But experts stress this is not proof that one causes the other and it might be a fluke finding.

The researchers believe oestrogen by-products excreted in the urine of pill-users may have contaminated the food chain and drinking water.

The hormone is known to feed the growth of certain cancers.

The latest investigation looked at data from 2007 for individual nations and continents worldwide to see if there was any link.

The researchers found a significant association between contraceptive pill use in the population as a whole with both the number of new cases of, and deaths from, prostate cancer.

On a related subject, we are now in the middle of Movember. There is still time to grow a mustache for charity or find someone you know that is participating in the charity and donate for a good cause. I'm not a facial hair person so am going nuts with the scratchiness of growing it, but the charity is about raising money for men's health issues including prostate cancer. Read the rest of this post...

Video: NYC security detail at Zuccotti Park calls someone a "f*ggot"

Wow. Read the rest of this post...

Japanese calorie-burning underwear

There's an ad. And here's the back story. Read the rest of this post...

SF Fed: Over 50% chance of a recession early in 2012

It's a complicated little paper from the SF Fed, so I'm happy for someone to tell me I'm reading this paragraph wrong. But I don't think so.

The combination of these two recession coins, shown in the combined risks line of Figure 2, is quite disconcerting. It indicates that the odds are greater than 50% that we will experience a recession sometime early in 2012. Because the international odds of recession are more imprecisely estimated, one must be careful with a strict interpretation of this result. But the message is clear. Prudence suggests that the fragile state of the U.S. economy would not easily withstand turbulence coming across the Atlantic. A European sovereign debt default may well sink the United States back into recession. However, if we navigate the storm through the second half of 2012, it appears that danger will recede rapidly in 2013.

Read the rest of this post...

Video surfaces of NYPD clearing Zuccotti park last night, cops pepper-sprayed OWS

Another banner day for the NYPD.  More from Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones via Digby - go and read Josh's stuff, it's infuriating.  Here's a longer report on what happened last night, Josh was there. Read the rest of this post...

GOP wants tomato paste on pizza classified as a "vegetable" for school lunches

This brings back memories of the miserable Reagan years when he declared ketchup a vegetable. Back then it was about being a jerk but now it's all about the junk food lobby who can't stand the idea of healthy eating. Maybe this is why so many people in the US have such poor eating habits.

Congress wants to keep pizza and french fries on school lunch lines, fighting back against an Obama administration proposal to make school lunches healthier.

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year, which included limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line and delaying limits on sodium and delaying a requirement to boost whole grains.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to prevent that.

Note from JOHN: Senate Democrats, who apparently don't want to come back in 2013, agreed to this nonsense. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Guy in loin cloth, holding torch, interrupts Hillary Clinton event in Hawaii

Hillary's reaction is priceless. (h/t Towleroad)

Read the rest of this post...

Dallas cops support then suspend cop filmed attacking protester

One of the issues I keep raising here is the right to film cops while they are working. A recent incident during the Occupy Dallas protest, that John first wrote about late last night, shows how important this is.

Note the cop's hand about to
shove protester off the ledge.

Here is the first news report:

After being directed to get down, one of of the protesters became aggressive and assaulted a police officer.

And here is the update that the Dallas Chief of Police made via Facebook:

Last night, the Dallas Police Department discovered a new video of the Occupy Dallas demonstration that occurred on November 5, 2011. The video shows a Dallas Police Officer, who was working off-duty for Bank of America, push a demonstrator off a planter in front of the building.

Chief David Brown has ordered the officer placed on restricted duty and initiated a formal investigation into the officer's actions. The restricted duty assignment will also prohibit the officer from working off-duty employment until the departmental investigation is complete.

H/T to Carlos Miller who has more details on his site.

It is the video that makes the difference. Without the video the attacker would be back on the beat and the victim would be facing a court hearing and a likely prison sentence.

One of the most important facts that Occupy Wall Street has brought to light is just how poorly trained and ill disciplined many US local police forces are and the indifference of many public officials to cases of abuse.

Major Bloomberg has had over a month now to condemn Anthony Bologna's pepper spray attack on an unarmed protester. He has not even recognized the need to comment when the officer said he would do it again. Now we know where Bloomberg stands. Read the rest of this post...

Bloomberg, NYPD ignoring court order permitting protesters back into Zuccotti park

UPDATE: 12:22 PM - Via Karen McVeigh, a reporter with the Guardian:

#OWS lawyer says a high court judge signed emergency order at 6.30am within an hour they had served all lawyers involved but police refused

OWS claims 5,000 books were destroyed in park overnight by NYPD.

UPDATE: 12:20PM - Police putting away barricades at Zuccotti Park, because of court order?

UPDATE: NYPD arrests NPR reporter, with press badge visible.

Julie Walker, a freelance radio reporter for National Public Radio, said she was arrested while trying to report on the protests overnight, while wearing her NYPD-issued press identification. Walker said she spent three to four hours in custody before she was released around 7 a.m. She was given a desk appearance ticket.

"When I was let out I just went straight back to work," Walker said.

This seems a coordinated strategy to usurp media coverage of the raid last night.  As we note below, Mayor Bloomberg gave a quote worthy of Mao or Stalin (or Orwell), about restricting freedom of the press in order to protect the press.

UPDATE: NYPD threw NY Post reporter in a choke hold:

At a news conference after the park was cleared Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg defended the police behavior, saying that the media was kept away “to prevent a situation from getting worse and to protect members of the press.”

Some members of the media said they were shoved by the police. As the police approached the park they did not distinguish between protesters and members of the press, said Lindsey Christ, a reporter for NY1, a local cable news channel. “Those 20 minutes were some of the scariest of my life,” she said.

Ms. Christ said that police officers took a New York Post reporter standing near her and “threw him in a choke-hold.”

Watch the confrontation between NYPD and OWS protesters live, right now, on UStream. Here's a second stream if that one conks out.

A bit of a mess in NYC. Protesters won a temporary restraining order last night, permitting them back into the park, but so far the NYPD and the city have been refusing to obey it. Reports on Twitter, at the scene, confirm that people are being arrested for going back into the park, which the TRO permits them to do. So the police, and the city, are ignoring a lawful order of a court. Here's a snapshot of the court order. And here's a picture of police cordoning off the park, and another. Read the rest of this post...

NBC hires Chelsea Clinton

From Michael Calderone at HuffPost:

Chelsea Clinton may have officially joined the media on Monday, but several journalists who covered the 2008 election remain skeptical about the press-averse former First Daughter entering their ranks.

"The supreme irony of Chelsea Clinton becoming an NBC reporter: I'm pretty sure she's never granted an interview," tweeted The New York Times' Jodi Kantor.

The New York Times' Amy Chozick, who covered the 2008 election for the Wall Street Journal, responded that not only did Clinton refuse to give interviews, but "seemed to absolutely hate us on [Clinton's campaign] plane." In another tweet, Chozick wrote that Clinton "disdained reporters." (Chozick, reached by phone, declined to elaborate.)

Politico's Ken Vogel tweeted that Clinton gave reporters the "total cold shoulder" during the previous election cycle. And Glenn Thrush echoed his Politico colleague's experience on Twitter: "In '08, Chelsea Clinton (in NH) told me 'Sorry, I don't talk to the media.' I said, 'But you are all grown up now.' Now she IS the media."

Well, she could have disdain for the reporters she's dealt with and still not have disdain for the profession. Maybe she's going to make journalism reputable, kind of like what gay Republicans claim they're going to do to the Republican party but then never do. Read the rest of this post...

PPP: Gingrich takes the lead (among GOP voters)

PPP is the polling source that a lot of people trust.

Newt Gingrich has taken the lead in PPP's national polling. He's at 28% to 25% for Herman Cain and 18% for Mitt Romney. The rest of the Republican field is increasingly looking like a bunch of also rans: Rick Perry is at 6%, Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul at 5%, Jon Huntsman at 3%, and Gary Johnson and Rick Santorum each at 1%.

Compared to a month ago Gingrich is up 13 points, while Cain has dropped by 5 points and Romney has gone down by 4. Although a fair amount of skepticism remains about the recent allegations against Cain there is no doubt they are taking a toll on his image- his net favorability is down 25 points over the last month from +51 (66/15) to only +26 (57/31). What is perhaps a little more surprising is that Romney's favorability is at a 6 month low in our polling too with only 48% of voters seeing him favorably to 39% with a negative opinion.

It is interesting that Romney seems unable, among primary voters known for their family values affinity, to beat a guy accused of serial sexual harassment and sexual assault, or a guy with a fondness for serial adultery and serial marriage.

As for Romney he has not shown any ability to take advantage of the trouble his fellow candidates keep getting themselves into. In July Romney was at 20%, in August at 20%, in September at 18%, October at 22%, and now in November at 18%.

Granted, in his favor, he's the only GOP candidate that isn't going up and down all the time. But these numbers also suggest that Romney is having a hard time convincing anyone beyond a core group of voters. Read the rest of this post...

NYPD clears out Occupy camp - 70 arrested

Mayor Bloomberg is saying that people can return after the park has been cleaned and restored. Many are complaining that the police provided no notice and discarded personal belongings during the process. This will be a story to follow today to see if the NYPD and city of New York can keep their word. NY Times:

The protesters, about 200 of whom have been staying in the park overnight, resisted with chants of “Whose park? Our park!” as officers began moving in and tearing down tents. The protesters rallied around an area known as the kitchen, near the middle of the park and began building barricades with tables and pieces of scrap wood.

The officers, who had gathered between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and then rode in vans along Broadway, moved into the one-square-block park shortly after 1 a.m.

As they did, dozens of protesters linked arms and shouted “No retreat, no surrender,” “This is our home” and “Barricade!” At least a couple of arrests were reported just outside the park, but details were not immediately available.

It wouldn't be an NYPD event without mass arrests. The excuse is "health and safety" but of course, the NYPD continues to create health and safety issues with their one-sided handling of the events. Read the rest of this post...

Immigration waived for private jets in UK

It's good to be da' king. To be fair, the rich did buy the government so it's not shocking that they make the rules.

Thousands of passengers from all over the world arriving on private jets were allowed into Britain this summer without any passport checks as a matter of official policy, according to leaked UK Border Agency emails.

The internal reports show that immigration and customs staff were instructed not to meet passengers on private charter flights, including executive jets, as part of the "light touch" targeted approach secretly adopted this summer.

The emails also reveal the extent that full passport checks on European passengers were scaled back under the "limited pilot scheme" authorised by the home secretary, Theresa May, on 28 July confirmed that the "limited" pilot scheme had in fact applied to all ports and airports in Britain.

Working slobs, please get in the queue and keep your mouths shut while processing. Read the rest of this post...

Animal shelter euthanizes dog 3 hours after owner loses it

Wow. Read the rest of this post...

Gingrich surges in two new polls of GOP voters

They really are a mess.

A survey of Republicans conducted by CNN and ORC International shows Gingrich supporters increasing from 8 percent in mid-October to 22 percent over the weekend, just 2 points behind Romney supporters (at 24 percent, although the small gap between the two is not statistically significant). Meanwhile, Cain's support in the CNN polls has fallen 11 points (from 25 to 14 percent).

A new automated telephone poll of likely Republican primary voters from the Democratic-affiliated firm Public Policy Polling similarly shows Gingrich gaining 13 points (from 15 to 28 percent), but its results for Cain and Romney are different. PPP shows a smaller decline for Cain (from 30 to 25 percent) and puts Romney well behind (at 18 percent).

Read the rest of this post...