Not just any person, but a large person.  A big fat court jester and presidential wannabe who can provide them endless hours of entertainment and unwavering support for Israel.

 Newtron Gingrich had a price tag it seems, and $10 million hit the mark. All Newt had to do to put the sparkle in the Adelson’s eye was declare that the Palestinians were an “invented people” and POOF!  Just like magic, checkbooks appear and money rains on him like proverbial (literally) manna from Heaven.  Casino magnate Sheldon provided an initial $5 million to pad the SuperPAC Newt uses to fund his campaign, if not his cheeseburger habit.  Shelly’s wife Miriam tossed in another $5 million following his win in South Carolina. 

Why can’t they buy a white tiger or endangered panda or something?  But I digress . . .

$10 billion to his personal PAC.  That’s a lotta Tiffany’s bling for Callie, enough to keep his shrink-wrapped and shellacked bride clear-coated in diamonds for years to come.  She might just survive that nuclear explosion a Gingrich presidency could likely provoke. 

Play-by-Play State of the Union coverage, followed by your calls and commentary, call 877-996-2556 LIVE at 9PM ET

In a similar move, Ford is building again in Louisville KY, announcing a plan to bring hundreds of new jobs to the troubled area.  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Big corporations realizing their mistakes, returning jobs to America.  It isn’t all altruism, of course, the fact is that as we’ve exported jobs to China, the Chinese have demanded higher wages.  That’s cow capitalism works.  So now it’s just as cheap to return the jobs here . . .as long as the American worker doesn’t expect the kind of middle-class wage s/he enjoyed before the jobs left for China in the first place.

With the near-perfect destruction of the labor unions, the corporatists feel safe retuning home, to generously allow Americans to build their stuff once more – for half-wages. Aren’t they wonderful?

God Bless Us Everyone. 

Read the rest of this article from the NY Times and get ready for the New American Century:

H5N1 avian flu rarely infects humans, but it is deadly when it does. Since the virus first emerged in humans in Hong Kong in 1997, nearly 600 people have been infected worldwide and almost 60% have died.

The virus isn’t very transmissible, but scientists have long worried that it might mutate, perhaps through reassortment with a human flu strain, and gain the ability to pass easily from person to person. . . .   But just because nature hasn’t figured out a way to create an easily transmissible H5N1 doesn’t mean that scientists can’t.  In experiments conducted at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, researchers engineered a strain of H5N1that spread easily between ferrets — which means it can probably spread easily between people.

And now there are the obvious ethical concerns over whether or not these researchers should publish their findings because, y’know, the “new and improved” airborne strain easily could be turned into a killer biological weapon.  Forget the issue of why the $#@! these scientists engineered a lethal, easily transmissible form of avian flu and then decided to shoot it into a bunch of ferrets.  Sounds like some bizarro new smartphone game designed to rival Angry Birds.  Call it Rabid Ferrets.

They claim they wanted to better study the virus in a “controlled” or “protected” environment, or something. Anybody who’s seen a sci-fi “killer virus on the loose” flick in the last 50 years knows that this scenario usually ends with Will Smith hunting a wild deer through the abandoned streets of a post-apocalyptic New York City.   The Time articles addresses that nasty little possibility as well:

The work on the new H5N1 so far has been done in BSL-3 enhanced labs, which have high-efficiency air filters and which require scientists to shower and change clothes when leaving the lab — in other words, safe, but perhaps not safe enough. Worse, there’s little real oversight, with safety left largely to individual researchers. . . . And the rapid spread of an escaped flu virus would make it more dangerous than other deadly pathogens. “When SARS or BSL-4 agents get out, their potential for transmission on a global basis is quite limited,” says Michael Osterholm, who heads the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy in Minneapolis, and is a member of the NSABB. “Influenza presents a very difficult challenge because if it ever were to escape, it is one that would quickly go round the world.”

Girl Threatens to Kill Santa and Cook Reindeer if He Doesn’t Deliver Justin Bieber

Thief Steals Salvation Army Kettle

North Miami Beach officer fired for Santeria Birdseed Plot

Store sells out of canned reindeer after protest

Man Stuck in Own Chimney for Hours

Police issue gift cards instead of tickets

Santa sacked in bed racing event

Teacher Tosses Back Food At McDonald’s Drive-Thru

Family Values Mayor Bills Citizenry for Gay Sex Toy

Portland police arrest man after alleged ‘Star Wars’ light saber assault at Toys R Us

Wal*Mart Prompts Mass Bird Suicide

Newt Gingrich’s EMP Doomsday Fantasy

Woman called emergency services to report theft of snowman

Giant mound of tires in SC visible from space

Read this article and consider what is at stake, and why we’re not hearing more about this in American media:

Fukushima 45 tonne radioactive leak ‘reaches ocean’

Experts warn Japan faces more danger from radioactive particles in consumer food, after reports of a new toxic water leak from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

­Some 45 tons of radioactive toxic water has reportedly leaked out of the shattered plant and may have found its way into the ocean during the weekend, according to David Wagner from Country Risk Solutions in Tokyo.

The nuclear station’s reactor hot zones melted down after a 11 March quake, and the tsunami which followed devastated the site altogether.

Wagner found the new leak is small compared to previous leaks: 80 per cent of all the radiation contamination occurred back in March.

There have been reports of radioactive substances being found in Japanese food in recent weeks. But the real problem according to Wagner, is that less than one per cent of the food is being tested for radioactive nuclide particles. Plus, food is only tested for Cesium-134 and Cesium-137, but not for other types of radionuclides, such as Strontium and Plutonium.

“Those are very dangerous radionuclides. Once they get into food and are absorbed with it – this could lead to bone cancer,” he says.

Japanese specialists are working to bring the nuclear fission in the destroyed reactors under control – but this is only expected by 2016. Later this month, Japan may declare the reactors in “cold shutdown”, meaning water used to cool the fuel rods would stay under boiling point. This is considered an important milestone in stabilizing the plant.

“That remains to be seen. But it is clear that they feel they’ve got it under control. But there is always a threat there could be another earthquake – and that is something most people do not talk about. It is possible,” David Wagner said.

But Dr. Robert Jacobs, an associate research professor at Hiroshima Peace Institute, says plans for a cold shutdown are nothing but “a publicity mode.”

“A cold shutdown is when a normally-operating reactor is brought off-line and the heat is reduced. We don’t have nuclear rods inside a nuclear reactor core. What we have is corium – nuclear fuel which has melted and is now pooled at the bottom of the reactor. So it is not really possible to call it a shut down in a controllable manner,” Dr. Jacobs told RT.

“What they can do is try to bring the temperature down to a level where it will no longer form a threat of melting through the containment of the reactor. This is far from a cold shutdown. The fuel will remain hot for quite a long time and they will need to put effort into containing it within the containment structure. It can take decades to bring it to a point when it is no longer a threat to the eco-system,” he added.

Tom Weis has written more about this back-burner’d issue for the Boulder Daily Camera.  It’s worth your time:

Everyone who helped slow down TransCanada’s “Keystone XL” tar sands juggernaut — rural farmers and ranchers, Native Nations, organized labor, elders, faith leaders, youth, environmentalists and others who protested at the White House this summer and fall — should be proud of what we have accomplished. By bravely standing together and uniting our voices against Big Oil, we forced President Obama to react to our demands. His decision to delay a decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 election is a testament to the power of the people.

But let’s not kid ourselves: opponents of Keystone XL have “won” nothing, save more time to organize. Now is not the time for victory celebrations, but for redoubling our efforts to beat back this lethal energy scheme. When you have your opponent staggered and against the ropes, you don’t back off and let them recover their strength. You keep on coming until you’ve landed the knock out punch.

President Obama’s punt on Keystone XL needs to be called out for what it is: an act of political cowardice. This deeply cynical political ploy was designed to placate both his environmental base and the oil lobby. He shrewdly calculated that throwing environmental groups a bone in the form of more studies would be enough to win back their support. Since when did we start giving presidents a pass on making tough decisions until after Election Day?

Alternatively, the President’s announcement gives hope to TransCanada that he will deliver their tar sands pipeline if they will just wait until after the election, when the political pressure is off. Of course, the other message to Big Oil is that should he lose the election, the next Republican president will almost certainly approve Keystone XL. If I’m TransCanada, I like my odds.

We must demand a decision from President Obama on Keystone XL before the 2012 election.

On the day of President Obama’s announcement, CNNMoney reported TransCanada’s CEO remained confident Keystone XL would ultimately be approved. Here in Lincoln, where the Nebraska Unicameral convened a special session in response to deep concerns over threats to the Ogallala Aquifer, the legislature used President Obama’s announcement to craft a deal with TransCanada that may end up fast tracking the pipeline through Nebraska, the one place in the country where resistance to Keystone XL was the strongest. The smiles on the faces of TransCanada representatives at a press conference last week telegraphed their heady confidence that they will ultimately get their pipeline. Now they’re saying they think it is “definitely doable” to start laying pipe from Oklahoma to Texas as early as January.

During the past five weeks, the Keystone XL “Tour of Resistance” has traversed 1,000 miles of the proposed pipeline route, meeting with farmers, ranchers and indigenous leaders along the way. The people on the front lines of this fight want TransCanada’s presidential permit denied, not delayed. The other message we are hearing is the urgent need for America to begin the transition away from polluting fossil fuels and towards green, renewable energy.

Ironically, the day before President Obama’s delay announcement, the International Energy Agency warned that humanity will lose the chance to halt irreversible climate change if we don’t take bold action to cut fossil fuel emissions in the next five years. Yes, Keystone XL must be blocked, and tar sands exploitation must be halted. But that is not enough. President Obama needs to develop a green energy plan that puts unemployed Americans back to work leading a worldwide green industrial revolution. It is time to turn the rust belt into the green belt by building the solar panels, wind turbines and electric cars needed to power the 21st Century. A president with the vision to call for a green energy moon shot for America is a president worthy of our support.

This calls for all sectors of society, not just the President, to lead boldly and courageously. Turning the tide of the climate and economic crises will require all hands on deck, from Capitol Hill to City Hall, from CEOs to NGOs, from Main Street to Occupy Wall Street. The American people have shown they are ready to take back their power. Now who is ready to lead?

Hundreds of police officers, many wearing riot helmets, marched into lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park early Tuesday morning to clear out the Occupy Wall Street protesters. The operation required boroughwide task forces and “scores of mobile officers who are usually used to flood high-crime neighborhoods.” According to the police, 142 people were arrested, largely for “disorderly conduct and resisting arrest,” though it turned out that according to a judge’s ruling, the police did not have the right to clear the park at all, but merely to dispose of its tents and sleeping bags.

The first thing the police did was clear out the journalists so that they could not see what was going on—just as they routinely do in totalitarian nations. At least 10 reporters were arrested. Ironically, the owners of at least three New York newspapers could not have been happier. Of course, all three are not merely members of “the one percent” but the 1 percent of the 1 percent.

Billionaire NYC Mayor Bloomberg and billionaire pals, Rupert Murdoch and Mort ZuckermanThe Daily News, owned by billionaire real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, cheered “Bravo to Bloomberg’s Occupy Wall Street eviction from Zuccotti Park, [for] finally reclaiming public space from unsanitary shantytown.” He added: “What they [the protesters] need to overcome is a sense that they occupy a higher moral ground than everyone else and are entitled to the privilege of behaving obnoxiously.”

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post claimed: “Lunatics had taken over the asylum, as if the right to use a park as a public outhouse was in the Constitution,” and called the Occupiers “silver-spoon sickos.” The editorial page credited the crowd at Zucotti Park with being made up of “criminals, vagrants and other loons.”

Another New York newspaper, this one owned by Jared Kushner, the socialite son of another real estate scion (who is currently in prison), also embraced the “law and order” arguments of the mayor. His New York Observer worried, without evidence of problems, that the protests could hypothetically “lead to public health issues, especially with winter approaching.”

Lost among this tone of self-congratulation by the millionaires and billionaires who are lucky enough to buy their ink by the barrel are not only their alleged commitment to the protection of the first amendment but the facts themselves that inspired the protests.

So let’s recall just a few of them. For instance

• In 1974 the top 0.1 percent of American families earned 2.7 percent of all income in the country. By 2007 this same tiny slice of the population had increased its holdings to fully 12.3 percent, roughly five times as great a piece of the pie as it had enjoyed just three decades earlier. (see here and here)
• Half the U.S. population now owns barely 2 percent of the country’s wealth, putting the United States near Rwanda and Uganda and below such nations as pre-Arab spring Tunisia and Egypt when measured by degrees of income inequality.
• By the end of 2010, as corporate profits rose to 15 percent of national income—their biggest share of the economy since such statistics became available nearly 70 years earlier—the share going to workers’ wages fell to its lowest level in the same period.

These numbers have consequences. Wednesday morning’s New York Times publicized the release of a new report documenting the slow-motion destruction of the American middle class “as rising income inequality left a growing share of families in neighborhoods that are mostly low-income or mostly affluent.”

The study, conducted by Stanford University and released Wednesday morning by the Russell Sage Foundation and Brown University, employs census data to illuminate what has happened to family income in the country’s 117 most populous metropolitan areas.

According to the data, “In 2007, the last year captured by the data, 44 percent of families lived in neighborhoods the study defined as middle-income, down from 65 percent of families in 1970. At the same time, a third of American families lived in areas of either affluence or poverty, up from just 15 percent of families in 1970.”

The report also demonstrates a pattern of escape, or at least attempted escape, by the well-to-do of the neighborhood, a consequences of this epidemic of increased inequality with “the rich flocking together in new exurbs and gentrifying pockets where lower- and middle-income families cannot afford to live.”

As a result, according to the study’s authors, “Children in mostly poor neighborhoods tend to have less access to high-quality schools, child care and preschool, as well as to support networks or educated and economically stable neighbors who might serve as role models.”

The results may be evident in any number of outcomes, such as “the growing gap in standardized test scores between rich and poor children, now 40 percent bigger than it was in 1970. That is double the testing gap between black and white children.”

What’s more, the gap between the rich and poor in college completion—one of the single most important predictors of economic success—has grown by more than 50 percent since the 1990s. Today, over half of children from high-income families finish college while less than 10 percent of low-income children do.

As the noted sociologist William Julius Wilson told The Times, the study offers further evidence that “rising inequality is beginning to produce a two-tiered society in America in which the more affluent citizens live fundamentally different from the middle- and lower-income groups. This divide decreases a sense of community.”

This study confirms much of the data discussed in a recent Time magazine cover story, described in this post, entitled “Why the U.S. is No Longer the Land of Opportunity.”

The Time story discussed a recent study from the Pew Charitable Trust finding that “Americans born in a family that was one of the bottom fifth in terms of wealth, only had a 17% chance of making into the top two-fifths as an adult.” It turns out that for all of Europe’s problems, “it is now easier to move up the income ladder in Europe than it is in America.”

Time attributes the causes of inequality to “two mega trends that have been reshaping the global economy since the 1970s: the effects of technology and the rise of the emerging markets.”

And these are indeed important. But during one week in the autumn of 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the number of Americans living in poverty had reached its highest level in 15 years. (For a single adult in 2009, the poverty line was $10,830 in pretax cash income. For a family of four, it was $22,050.)

Economic inequality was also soaring. A few days after the census report, Forbes magazine released its annual list of the 400 richest Americans and their combined net worth, which had climbed 8 percent to $1.37 trillion.

That’s not the whole story, however. Another report, this one from the Corporation for Enterprise Development and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, found that the U.S. government had spent nearly $400 billion during fiscal year 2009 to fund tax breaks and programs aimed at helping Americans build wealth. More than half the benefits in question went to the wealthiest 5 percent of taxpayers, individuals, and households making more than $167,000. The top 1 percent of taxpayers—those making more than $1 million—received an average of $95,000 in assistance. Meanwhile, families making $50,000 received less than $500 in benefits.

Time’s cover story also notes that European nations with higher levels of mobility also provide much stronger safety nets for the lower classes “such as universal healthcare.” They also “have fewer corporate loopholes, longer tax codes and generally higher rates, and at least on an equality and mobility standpoint their nations’ economies seem to be performing better.” Moreover, in these countries, “Unions get seats on corporate boards in order to help balance out worker pay and CEO pay.”

Some conservatives simply reject the idea that the government should do anything about inequality. Matthew Continetti, writing in the November 14 Weekly Standard, advises his fellow right-wingers, “The way out is to reject the assumption that government’s purpose is to redress inequalities of income. Inequalities of condition are a fact of life.”

This of course ignores the fact that, unlike pretty much every other liberal democracy in the world, government policy in the United States has been designed by conservatives to promote inequality and ensure that billionaire hedge fund managers are taxed at a far less confiscatory rate than their secretaries or even their janitors.

It also ignores the deleterious effects that inequality has on democracy—the Koch brothers can buy a great deal more from Congress and state legislators than the rest of us—and America’s historic formula for economic success.

As former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich puts it, “Pump-priming works only when a well contains enough water.”

He explains:

During periods when the very rich took home a much smaller proportion of total income—as in the Great Prosperity between 1947 and 1977—the nation as a whole grew faster and median wages surged. We created a virtuous cycle in which an ever growing middle class had the ability to consume more goods and services, which created more and better jobs, thereby stoking demand. The rising tide did in fact lift all boats.

During periods when the very rich took home a larger proportion—as between 1918 and 1933, and in the Great Regression from 1981 to the present day—growth slowed, median wages stagnated and we suffered giant downturns. It’s no mere coincidence that over the last century the top earners’ share of the nation’s total income peaked in 1928 and 2007—the two years just preceding the biggest downturns.

In that respect, as well as many others, the Occupy Wall Street folks are demonstrating not only for democracy but for the very economy they are accused by the local billionaire newspaper owners of undermining.

The Occupy movement really is an exciting development. In fact, it’s spectacular. It’s unprecedented; there’s never been anything like it that I can think of. If the bonds and associations that are being established at these remarkable events can be sustained through a long, hard period ahead — because victories don’t come quickly– this could turn out to be a very significant moment in American history.

The fact that the demonstrations are unprecedented is quite appropriate. It is an unprecedented era — not just this moment — but actually since the 1970s. The 1970s began a major turning point in American history. For centuries, since the country began, it had been a developing society with ups and downs. But the general progress was toward wealth and industrialization and development — even in dark and hope — there was a pretty constant expectation that it’s going to go on like this. That was true even in very dark times.

The Teabaggers and other misguided ‘Mericans who believe FOX “News” exemplifies Upstanding American values and Patriotism and Exceptionalism and Apple Pie and all that, somehow overlook the fact that the “news” channel fosters and foments terrorism of the homegrown Timothy McVeigh type.

The latest group of dangerous dimwits Fox inspired to violence is a group of elderly Georgia Militia members who were further deranged by a Fox “News” contributor’s writings which led them to formulate a terrorist plot in Metro Atlanta.

Frederick Thomas, 73, Dan Roberts, 67, Ray H. Adams, 65, and Samuel J. Crump, 68 – all residents of the North Georgia mountain area – came up with the clever moniker “Covert Group” and started plotting to kill people.  Their meetings were likely held in a closed room with a  door marked . . . “secret door.”

Media Matters reports it this way:

Four alleged members of a Georgia militia group were arrested yesterday relating to their alleged plot to kill numerous government officials. According to the complaint, one of the arrested repeatedly cited as the source of their plan the novel Absolved, authored by Fox News expert Mike Vanderboegh, the former militia member famous for urging his blog readers to hurl bricks through the windows of Democratic offices. In the introduction to Absolved, Vanderboegh calls the book “a cautionary tale for the out-of-control gun cops of the ATF” and “a combination field manual, technical manual and call to arms for my beloved gunnies of the armed citizenry.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

In a meeting secretly recorded by an informant, Crump said he wanted to make 10 pounds of ricin and disperse it in various U.S. cities, including Washington, Newark and Atlanta, the affidavits said. Crump said ricin could be blown from a car traveling on the interstates, the affidavit said.

“All ya gotta do is lay it in the damn road, the cars are gonna spread it,” Crump told the group at the Sept. 17 meeting.

Crump then suggested a way to disperse the ricin: “Ya get on the trunk of Atlanta, you get up on the north side, ya get on 41, ya throw it out there right on 285, ya go up 41 or 75, go up 75 to get away from it,” he said, according to the affidavits. “Keep the heater on, that way it keeps the pressure out. Don’t roll your window down.”

The absurd plot by these rapidly-aging rednecks would be laughable if it weren’t indicative of a pattern of domestic terror inspired by Right-Wing rhetoric that dominates our various media outlets.

How much more Fox-inspired massacre plotting by the lunatic fringe must we suffer, Truthseekers?

Bill O’Reilly’s rantings inspired one of his brainwashed zombie followers to kill a physician who provided abortion as one of his medical services. Scott Roeder murdered Dr. George Tiller with a point-blank head-shot in Tiller’s Wichita church because “Mr. Loofa” convinced him that Tiller posed an “immediate danger” to “unborn” children.

Jim David Adkisson made it a personal mission to kill as many liberals as he could, so he opened fire in a Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church. He managed to kill two and wound six before being tackled by other church-goers. Police found his home filled with books and newsletters penned by Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and other right-wing hate talkers. Adkisson left a note stating: “I hate the damn left-wing liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country & these liberals are working together to attack every decent & honorable institution in the nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them….” Sound familiar? It does if you tune into Fox.

Fox “News” contributor and dim-bulb darling Sarah Palin puts Gabrielle Giffords on her “don’t retreat – reload” hit list with a gun sight target gif over her district; armed maniac Jared Lee Loughner hunts her down at a rally and she and 18 others are killed or wounded. While there was no actual Fox “News” related material found with Loughner, it’s a reasonable assumption that he wasn’t influenced by the actions of PETA or Habitat for Humanity.

Self-proclaimed “progressive hunter” Byron Williams cited the rabid ravings of then-Fox “News” star Glenn Beck’s as ultimate inspiration to arm up and start killing people at the ACLU and the Tides Foundation, a small San Francisco-based organization that gives money to human rights groups, environmentalists and other progressive causes.  The Tides Foundation, another obscure target of Beck’s paranoid fantasies of armies of Liberal revolutionaries poised to take over the planet and lock up all the rich people and take their cars and stuff and then force them to get socialized health care.

Richard Poplawski, the man who ambushed and murdered three Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, police officers after listening to Beck’s deranged diatribes about an Obama-directed FEMA plan to build concentration camps for Conservatives is yet another example in a seemingly unending list of perpetrators inspired by Rupert Murdoch’s terror organization. 

Even after all the killing and maiming by Neocon maniacs, Fox “News” poster boy Sean “The Baby Jesus” Hannity jokingly calls his followers “Timothy McVeigh wannabes” and nobody bats an eye. That’s how accepted the rhetoric of this insidious propaganda machine has become.

Have you ever heard of a Liberal or Progressive armed lunatic, inspired perhaps by MSNBC or The Nation magazine or Huffington Post to take up a gun or build a bomb or devise a chemical weapon to express presumed political outrage by murdering innocent people? Anybody? Hello . . . . ??????

Isn’t it written somewhere in the Constitution, that “goddam piece of paper” as Raisin Brain Bush once put it, that discusses the extreme crime of aiding and abetting terrorists, both foreign and domestic?

Inciting domestic terrorists against our own innocent population. Kinds matches up nicely with Murdoch’s other numerous crimes against innocent citizens, like criminal invasion of privacy and illegal wiretapping.

What a great group of Patriots, eh?