As I entered the Borders Books & Music in the Detroit suburb of Birmingham today, I was greeted with a massive pyramid display of the Wasilla Wolf Killa's literary meisterwerk .
But a curious phenomenon developed - not one person who entered the store, and it was quite busy, even glanced at the pyramid stack of Going Rogues as they entered. So I asked the woman at the gift wrapping table, which was right next to the stack, if she'd seen anyone pick up a copy.
"Not one," she replied. "Nobody's even browsed through one."






Edited to replace "write" with "right".

Boeing picks South Carolina for 2nd 787 line
By DANIEL LOVERING and GEORGE TIBBITS, Associated Press Writers


SEATTLE – Boeing Co. will open a second assembly line for its long-delayed 787 jetliner in South Carolina, expanding beyond its longtime manufacturing base in Washington state to take advantage of economic incentives and a nonunion work force.

The Chicago-based airplane maker said Wednesday it chose the site in North Charleston over Everett, Wash., because it best suited plans to boost production of the highly anticipated jet, designed to carry up to 250 passengers.

The decision ended an interstate competition for the huge factory, with South Carolina prevailing over the state where Boeing has built airplanes for decades. It hands South Carolina production of a plane crucial to Boeing's future but one plagued by problems stemming partly from the company's reliance on suppliers spanning the globe.

South Carolina offered Boeing $170 million in incentives and relief from sales taxes on things like fuel used in test flights.

The move wasn't entirely unexpected. Boeing already operates a factory in North Charleston that makes 787 parts and owns a 50-percent stake in another plant that also produces sections of the plane, Boeing's best-selling new aircraft to date. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091029/ap_on_...

via AlterNet's PEEK:



Tea-Parties so Diverse, They Had to Use the Same Black Guy in 5 Different Scenes of Tea-Bagger Movie

Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com at 5:26 PM on November 20, 2009.

Really, you know a black tea-bagger named Nate?



So there’s this ludicrous trailer for a ridiculous movie about the Tea Party people that came out today, and when I watched it I noticed that it kept showing the same black guy. Now, I knew the Teabaggers weren’t the most diverse crowd, but it’s kind of hilarious that they used the same dude in five shots in their trailer: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/144105/... /

00:42


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The War on Soy: Why the 'Miracle Food' May Be a Health Risk and Environmental Nightmare

By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted November 21, 2009.

Vegetarians aren't the only ones who should be concerned; there's soy in just about everything you eat these days -- including hamburgers, mac 'n cheese and salad dressing.




These days, you can get soy versions of just about any meat -- from hot dogs to buffalo wings. If you're lactose-intolerant you can still enjoy soy ice-cream and soy milk on your cereal. If you're out for a hike and need a quick boost of energy, you can nibble on soy candy bars.

Soy is a lucrative industry. According to Soyfoods Association of North America, from 1992 to 2008, sales of soy foods have increased from $300 million to $4 billion. From sales numbers to medical endorsements, it would seem that soy has reached a kind of miracle food status.

In 2000 the American Heart Association gave soy the thumbs up and the FDA proclaimed: "Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol that include 25 grams of soy protein a day may reduce the risk of heart disease." Over the course of the last decade medical professionals have touted its benefits in fighting not just cardiovascular disease, but cancers, osteoporosis and diabetes.

But soy's glory days may be coming to an end. New research is questioning its health benefits and even pointing out some potential risks. Although definitive evidence may be many years down the road, the American Heart Association has quietly withdrawn its support. And some groups are waging an all-out war, warning that soy can lead to certain kinds of cancers, lowered testosterone levels, and early-onset puberty in girls.

Most of the soy eaten today is also genetically modified, which may pose another set of health risks. The environmental implications of soy production, including massive deforestation, increased use of pesticides and threats to water and soil, are providing more fodder for soy's detractors. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/water/144074/the_w...

via AlterNet:



Naomi Klein: 'No Logo' Revisited

By Naomi Klein, Picador Press. Posted November 21, 2009.

In the new introduction to the re-release of her classic book, 'No Logo,' Klein explores how ad culture has thrived and adapted in the past decade.




The following is from the new introduction to the 10th Anniversary Edition of Naomi Klein's classic book, "No Logo (Picador, 2009)"


As I write this introduction, thinking about how much branding has changed in ten years, a couple of developments seem worth mentioning off the top. In May of 2009, Absolut Vodka launched a limited-edition line called "Absolut No Label." The company's global public relations manager Kristina Hagbard explains that, "for the first time we dare to face the world completely naked. We launch a bottle with no label and no logo, to manifest the idea that no matter what's on the outside, it's the inside that really matters ... We encourage people to think twice about their prejudice, because in an Absolut world, there are no labels."

A few months later, Starbucks tried to avoid being judged by its own label by opening its first unbranded coffee shop in Seattle, called 15th Avenue E Coffee and Tea. This "stealth Starbucks" (as the anomalous outlet immediately became known) was decorated with "one-of-a-kind" fixtures and customers were invited to bring in their own music for the stereo system as well as their own pet social causes -- all to help develop what the company called "a community personality." Customers had to look hard to find the small print on the menus: "inspired by Starbucks." Tim Pfeiffer, a Starbucks senior vice president, explained that unlike the ordinary Starbucks outlet that used to occupy the very same piece of retail space, "This one is definitely a little neighborhood coffee shop." After spending two decades blasting its logo onto 16,000 stores worldwide, Starbucks was now trying to escape its own brand.

Clearly the techniques of branding have both thrived and adapted since I published No Logo. But in the past ten years I have written very little about developments like these. I realized why while reading William Gibson's 2003 novel Pattern Recognition. The book's protagonist, Cayce Pollard, is allergic to brands, particularly Tommy Hilfiger and the Michelin Man. So strong is this "morbid and sometimes violent reactivity to the semiotics of the marketplace" that she has the buttons on her Levi's jeans ground smooth so that there are no corporate markings. When I read those words, I immediately realized that I had a similar affliction. It was not one of those conditions that you are born with but one that develops, over time, due to prolonged overexposure. I didn't used to be allergic to brands. As I confess in the pages of this book, as a child and teenager I was almost obsessively drawn to them. But writing No Logo required four years of total immersion in ad culture -- four years of watching and rewatching Super Bowl ads, scouring Advertising Age for the latest innovations in corporate synergy, reading soul-destroying business books on how to get in touch with your personal brand values, attending corporate seminars on brand management, making excursions to Niketowns, to monster malls, to branded towns. And watching some of the worst movies ever made while taking notes in the dark on product placement. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/media/144106/naomi...

Just one now, but lately the lists have grown late into the evening.


Bank Closing Information - November 20, 2009
These links contain useful information for the customers and vendors of these closed banks.

Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida, Fort Myers, FL



www.fdic.gov

from HuffPost:



Bill Moyers Retiring From Weekly Television
First Posted: 11-20-09 06:28 PM | Updated: 11-20-09 06:35 PM



Bill Moyers is leaving weekly television.

The New York Times' Elizabeth Jensen reports that the PBS newscaster is retiring from his Friday night program, "Bill Moyers Journal," on April 30, 2010.

"Bill Moyers Journal" launched in April 2007.

Jensen reports that it was Moyers' intention to retire at Christmas this year, but PBS asked him to stay on through April to help raise funds.

"I am 75 years old," Moyers told Jensen. "I feel it's time."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/20/b...

from thinkprogress:



New Birther Billboard In Colorado Features Picture Of Obama And Asks ‘President Or Jihad?’

Today, a new birther billboard went up above Wolf Automotive off I-70 in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. The sign has a picture of President Obama wearing a turban, asking, “President or Jihad?” and exhorting, “Wake up America! Remember Fort Hood”: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/20/obama-... /



ThinkProgress spoke with Phil Wolf, the owner of the car dealership. He said that the billboard is his personal project because he believes the American people have a right to know the facts about the president:



Wolf added that he and the staff at his dealership have been receiving a significant number of death threats in response to the billboard. “I never expected people to threaten to kill us,” he told us. “I never expected people to harm my employees. … I’ve had people leave the office today — they’re terrified.”

Wolf also denied that the billboard is making a “racist comment,” calling such a notion “absolutely hilarious” and pointing out that in the presidential election, he wrote in the name of conservative Alan Keyes.

In the past, Wolf’s billboard has featured other birther designs, as well as regular advertisements for cars. Wolf denied that the billboard has any affiliation with WorldNetDaily, which has sponsored other birther signs around the country.


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/20/obama-... /

Asian carp may have breached barrier for lake

BY TINA LAM
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


Great Lakes advocates said today they’ve been told that DNA evidence of one species of Asian carp has been detected above the electric barrier intended to keep the fish out of Lake Michigan.

The DNA was detected in a channel that splits off the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal below Chicago, and leads to Lake Michigan, known as the Cal-Sag channel.

“That is what we understand,” said Jennifer Nalbone, director of Great Lakes United’s campaign against invasive species.

DNA testing of water samples near the electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal taken beyond the barrier and Lake Michigan on Sept. 23 and Oct. 1 shows the presence of Asian carp about 1 mile south of the O’Brien Lock, about 8 miles from Lake Michigan, the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies said today.

Previously, DNA of Asian carp has been found a mile below the barrier. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20091120/NEWS...

Christian leaders issue 'call of conscience'
By The Associated Press (AP) – 8 hours ago

WASHINGTON — More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration Friday reaffirming their opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious freedoms.

The 4,700-word document, called "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience," sounds familiar themes from political and social debates over the health care overhaul and gay marriage battles.

While acknowledging that "Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage," the group rejects same-sex marriage. The declaration states that opening a legal door for gay marriage would do the same for "polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships."

President Barack Obama's desire to reduce the need for abortion is "a commendable goal," but his proposals are likely to increase the number of elective abortions, the document contends.

"The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense," it says. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...

from ThinkProgress:



Rep. King Reminisces About The Days When Football Players Could ‘Get A Job Because They Knew Someone’

Yesterday, Republican members of the House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC) dedicated a three and a half hour long pseudo-hearing in a nearly empty room in the Rayburn building to spewing their “well-worn rhetoric about the hordes of illegal aliens destroying the American way of life.” During the event, “American Jobs in Peril: The Impact of Uncontrolled Immigration,” Rep. Steve King (R-IA) seemed to suggest that the U.S. should rid itself of its immigrant workers because, back in the good ‘ol days, high school “football stars” could get good-paying jobs not because they were qualified to work at them, but rather, because “they knew someone”:



Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/20/steve-... /


King attributes the end of cronyism in the meatpacking industry and the deterioration of wages and working conditions to undocumented immigrants. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which has represented meatpackers for almost a hundred years, has a different take about the sequence of events.

Back in March, Center for Immigration Studies Senior Fellow Jerry Kammer — who was also a panelist at the event — offered an interpretation of the industry’s history similar to King’s, minus the football players. The UFCW was quick to point out that Kammer’s misinterpreted and manipulated “data to reach a totally biased and flawed conclusion” and demonstrated a “complete lack of understanding about the history of the meatpacking industry.” They also provided their own account of what happened:



In direct reference to yesterday’s event, UFCW’s Director of Civil Rights and Community Action, Esther Lopez, commented, “Given their (King and his allies) terrible track record on worker issues, it really is the height of hypocrisy that they are now trying to portray themselves as champions of workers.”

The House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC) is a group of (mostly Republican) representatives founded by former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) with the mission of stopping “the explosive growth in illegal immigration,” “reversing the growth in legal immigration,” and halting “amnesties.” The forum featured panelists from two of the three organization which “stand at the nexus of the American nativist movement,” and are often referred to as part of the “Nativist Lobby.”


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/20/steve-... /

from the New Yorker:



The Debt Economy
by James Surowiecki

November 23, 2009


John Kenneth Galbraith wrote that all financial crises are the result of “debt that, in one fashion or another, has become dangerously out of scale.” The recent financial crisis was no exception, with everyone—homeowners, private-equity investors, our biggest banks—taking on enormous amounts of debt. If it’s frustrating that the government is footing the bill to clean up the mess, it’s even worse that the government helped pay for the debt binge that created the mess in the first place, thanks to a tax system that actually subsidizes borrowing. Debt didn’t get dangerously out of scale because the system was broken. It got out of scale, in part, because the system worked.

The government doesn’t make people go into debt, of course. It just nudges them in that direction. Individuals are able to write off all their mortgage interest, up to a million dollars, and companies can write off all the interest on their debt, but not things like dividend payments. This gives the system what economists call a “debt bias.” It encourages people to make smaller down payments and to borrow more money than they otherwise would, and to tie up more of their wealth in housing than in other investments. Likewise, the system skews the decisions that companies make about how to fund themselves. Companies can raise money by reinvesting profits, raising equity (selling shares), or borrowing. But only when they borrow do they get the benefit of a “tax shield.” Jason Furman, of the National Economic Council, has estimated that tax breaks make corporate debt as much as forty-two per cent cheaper than corporate equity. So it’s not surprising that many companies prefer to pile on the leverage.

There are a couple of peculiar things about these tax breaks—which have been around as long as the federal income tax. The first is that they’re unnecessary. Few people, after all, can save enough to buy a home with cash, so home buyers naturally gravitate toward mortgages. And businesses like debt because it offers them tremendous leverage, making it possible to put down a little money and potentially reap a huge gain. Even in the absence of the deductions, then, there would be plenty of borrowing. The second thing about these breaks is that their social benefits are pretty much nonexistent. Advocates of the mortgage-interest deduction, for instance, claim that it increases homeownership rates. But it doesn’t: in countries where mortgage deductions have been eliminated, homeownership rates haven’t dropped. Instead, the deduction simply inflates house prices. The business-interest deduction, meanwhile, may lower an individual company’s taxes, but it also means that the over-all corporate tax rate is higher, so its real impact is to give companies with lots of debt an unjustified advantage. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/20...

Alleged burglar warms up bottle for crying baby
Thu Nov 19, 9:27 pm ET


INDIANAPOLIS – An 18-year-old is in police custody after he warmed up a bottle for a crying baby inside the house he was allegedly robbing. Indianapolis police arrested the suspect at Arlington High School on Tuesday after receiving a tip from a television viewer saw surveillance video on a newscast.

Detectives said two suspects forced their way into a home on Friday morning and began ransacking the house. Police said that when a baby started crying, one of them warmed a bottle in a microwave oven and gave it to a child to feed the baby.

The suspect was being held on charges of burglary, robbery, criminal confinement and pointing a firearm.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091120/ap_on_... ;_ylt=AseaZ3pTRm6vbQya4K3WqHHtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJ0MGo2ZmlhBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTIwL3VzX29kZF9ib3R0bGVfd2FybWVyX3JvYmJlcnkEY3BvcwMzBHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2FsbGVnZWRidXJnbA--

The 2010 elections will hit moderate, conservative House Democrats hardest
by: Chris Bowers

Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 16:33


Which House Democrats are in danger in 2010? According to the Cook Political Report, mainly it appears to be Blue Dogs and New Dems, and unaffiliated Democrats:

Cook Political Report's 34 most endangered Democratic incumbents
http://www.cookpolitical.com/charts/house/...


Given how few Progressives are in danger, in the extended entry I discuss how the 2010 elections are likely to increase Progressive power in the House Democratic caucus.

For hypothetical purposes, if all of these Democrats lost to Republicans, and there was no other switch in the partisan control of any seat in Congress, the power balance within the Democratic House caucus would shift as follows: ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.openleft.com/diary/16118/the-20...

Published on Friday, November 20, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Health Care, Essential to Democracy
by Katie Robbins & Andy Coates


Two weekends ago, after the bait and switch of a vote on single-payer for a vote on an anti-abortion amendment, we felt wizened to the possibility of unknown threats in the legislative churn on health reform. As insurance and pharmaceutical companies, Catholic bishops, and the right wing throw in dollars, lobbyists, and pressure for no votes on the final bill, it is clear we who are in the business of protecting and improving our rights to access to health care, including abortion, must remain vigilant and ready to challenge these threats.

First, a little history is in order. In mid-July Rep. Kucinich passed in the Education and Labor Committee an amendment to the House bill for health insurance reform that would make single-payer easier to enact at the state level. On July 31st Rep. Weiner and 6 other members of Energy and Commerce Committee brought to committee an amendment to that would substitute the text of HR 676, the national single-payer bill, for the House bill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a floor vote on single payer — if Rep. Weiner would withdraw the amendment from committee.

Single-payer advocates embraced these efforts wholeheartedly. And we counted upon our champions in the House of Representatives to stand with us.

Vigorous activity ensued, a fourteen week campaign involving millions of people in phone calls, petitions, forums, local protests and vigils, emails and faxes, op-eds and letters-to-the-editor and personal visits. There were conscientious objectors. 158 single-payer supporters were arrested performing acts of civil disobedience, peaceful sit-ins to register their outrage in the offices of health insurance companies and Congress across the nation. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/2...