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What Kind of Spending Creates the Most Jobs?
HEIDI GARRETT-PELTIER, hpeltier at econs.umass.edu Assistant research professor at the Political Economy Research Institute, Garrett-Peltier is author of several reports on employment impacts of spending including “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities” (with Robert Pollin) and “Pedestrian and Bicycle Infrastructure: A National Study of Employment Impacts.” She said today: “Many people say that we need military spending because that creates jobs. That’s certainly true, military spending creates military-related jobs. But the question we asked is if we’re spending $1 billion in public funds, what kind of spending creates the most jobs?…
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Left-Right Coalition Urges $380 Billion in Cuts to “Polluting Technologies”
McClatchy reports that “the bipartisan ‘super-committee’ of six Democrats and six Republicans has a goal of finding at least $1.5 trillion more in deficit reduction by Thanksgiving … will hold its first meeting on Sept. 8 [Thursday].” A coalition of organizations from both sides of the political spectrum recently released Green Scissors 2011, a report urging in $380 billion in cuts to what it sees as environmentally and economically harmful government spending. The group presents the cuts as a way to “protect our natural resources, reduce the growth of government spending, and make a significant dent in the national debt…
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Who Will be Hurt by Obama Administration Ditching Clean Air Plans?
Reuters reports: “President Barack Obama unexpectedly asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to withdraw a plan to limit smog pollution, handing a big win to business and Republicans…” BILL GALLEGOS, via Bobbi Murray, murratus at earthlink.net Gallegos is executive director of Communities for a Better Environment, which “organizes in working class communities of color because those communities suffer the most from environmental pollution and toxics.”
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Jobs Numbers, Labor Day
MAX FRAAD WOLFF, mfwolff at aol.com Wolff is an instructor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University and senior analyst with Greencrest Capital. He just wrote a blog entry analyzing jobs numbers released this morning: “For the second time in monthly jobs report history we have created no new jobs. … The broad U-6 measure of unemployment rose to 16.2 percent in August. This measure includes people who have stopped looking and who are involuntarily part-time.
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U.S. Massacre and Cover-up in Iraq Exposed by WikiLeaks
RAED JARRAR, jarrar.raed at gmail.com An Iraqi-American blogger and political analyst based in Washington D.C., Jarrar was in recently in Iraq. He said today: “This week, a U.S. diplomatic cable that was made public by WikiLeaks confirmed the news that in March 2006 U.S. troops handcuffed then executed eleven Iraqi civilians in Al-Ishaqi, north of Baghdad, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence. The eleven victims were Mr. Faiz Khratt Khalaf (age 28), his wife Sumay’ya Abdul Razzaq Khuther (22), their three children Hawra’a (5) Aisha (3) and Husam (5 months old), Faiz’s mother Ms. Turkiya Majeed Ali…
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Disaster Management Funding: “Cut Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Subsidies to Pay for Disaster Clean-Up”
AIMEE ALLISON, aimee at rootsaction.org Allison, co-executive director of Roots Action, said today, “Let big oil/coal pay for hurricane damage. Government welfare for oil, gas, coal, and nuclear should be eliminated. If cuts are to be made to reduce the national debt, they should begin with these kinds of subsidies, rather than in useful programs that serve people.
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* 25 CEOs’ Pay Exceeding Corporate Taxes Paid * Nurses Protest Wall Street
SARAH ANDERSON, CHUCK COLLINS, via Lacy MacAuley, lacy at ips-dc.org Anderson and Collins are among the authors of an Institute for Policy Studies report released today titled “Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging.” Among the findings: “The 25 tax-dodging CEOs the IPS report spotlights averaged $16.7 million in pay last year, well above the $10.8 million S&P 500 CEO average. Most of their companies registered substantial profits. Yet these same companies actually came out ahead at tax time. They collected, on average, $413 million in refunds from the IRS.”
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40 Years Since “Powell Memo” Laid out Corporate Agenda
In 1971, Lewis F. Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of eleven corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, titled “Attack of [sic] American Free Enterprise System.” The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Hurricanes, Climate Disruption and “Canada’s Dirtiest Needle”: 140 Arrested at White House
Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont stated this morning: “I find it extraordinary that so many political leaders won’t actually talk about the relationship between climate change, fossil fuels, our continuing irrational exuberance about burning fossil fuels, in light of these storm patterns that we’ve been experiencing.” For over a week, people from across the country have been gathering in Washington D.C. to oppose the Keystone XL, a 1,700 mile pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Canada to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. The group Tar Sands Action estimates about 140 people have been arrested so far today…
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Rick Perry: “I’m Proud of Texas Schools,” Cuts $4 Billion
ABBY RAPOPORT, rapoport at texasobserver.org Rapoport is a reporter with the Texas Observer. She said today: “Once upon a time, Rick Perry was all about public education. In his 2006 re-election campaign, he devoted an entire ad to his commitment. ‘I’m proud of Texas schools,’ he says to the camera as he wanders through a classroom. ‘Since I became governor education funding has increased $9 billion.’ He beams and stops next to a teacher. ‘Education is our future and my highest priority.’
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“With a tiny staff, it has managed to place on the air and in newspapers, points of view otherwise excluded from the national debate.”
Howard Zinn