It appears Mexico is dealing with its own "immigration" problem: Guns illegally crossing into the country from the US. As many as three out of four guns used in the bloodshed surrounding Mexico's drug gangs came from gun stores just across the US border. A report has documented 19,000 guns found in the Mexican drug war that came from stores in the United States, mostly in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. ABC News notes that Congress had initially tried to block the release of the ATF data on which the report was based. New ...

Any way you cut it, the numbers involved are not big enough to impact unemployment significantly by November, but these ideas – and the Republican rival suggestions currently on the table – are more about symbols, messages, and midterm votes than about accelerating the economic recovery. Seen in those terms, the president is still missing a key argument in both economic and political terms. The president’s point is simple. If you are arguing to keep the Bush tax breaks for upper income groups in order to support the economy, his pro...

Ever heard of a private security contractor name Paravant? XPG? No? Well, that's just as Blackwater, the parent company of Paravant, XPG and dozens of other "subsidiaries", would have it. As a former Paravant Vice President noted in Senate hearings earlier this year, Paravant and Blackwater were "one and the same," with Paravant created in 2008 to put aside Blackwater's "baggage". But then again, we probably shouldn't be calling Blackwater Blackwater, since the company itself changed its name to Xe in 2007, hoping to get a fresh start ...

Beyond the 15 million Americans who have no jobs at all, millions more are caught in part-time or limited jobs that don't pay them enough to maintain their standard of living. The latest Labor Department report shows there are nearly 9 million part-time people who want full-time jobs but can't find them. In some cases, their formerly full-time employers have reduced their hours because of a lack of business. The lack of full-time work is both a hardship for individuals and their families and a substantial drag on the still-feeble reco...

Wall Street-related political donations are bolstering Republicans' political fortunes this summer as financial interests have suddenly -- and dramatically -- shifted their contributions away from Democrats, who they largely favored last year. In both the first and second quarters of this year, the broad finance, insurance and real estate sector has favored Republican candidates and committees in its political giving, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis finds. The same holds true for both the more narrow commercial banking and s...

A number of different chemists are finding elevated levels of toxic hydrocarbons in the bloodstream of Gulf coast residents. What is most disturbing about these results is that people who simply live near the water are showing higher than normal levels of toxic chemicals. These are not fishermen, shrimpers, oil workers or others who work on the water. Jerry Cope recently wrote about his test results in a must-read essay at Huffington Post. Several Gulf coast residents described their test results in the following video. ...

The growing rivalry between the US and China in Asia was again expressed last week in the two countries’ conflicting approaches to North Korea. While Beijing pushed for Pyongyang to open up to foreign investors, Washington announced new sanctions that would inevitably impede such plans. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was in China for a five-day visit that ended on August 30. One purpose of the trip appears to have been to secure Chinese support for Kim to hand over power to his third son, Kim Jong-un. The North Korean leader, who is ...

Obama will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies. Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and end...

Obama on Wednesday will propose $300 billion in accelerated or expanded tax breaks for business, a jolt of cash that he says would jump-start hiring and help revive the nation’s economy. Speaking in Cleveland, Obama will ask Congress to send $200 billion in tax cuts to businesses by allowing them to write off more of their costs through 2011. He’ll also propose expanding and making permanent a tax credit for research and development. That would cost $100 billion over 10 years. The proposals are part of Obama’s weeklong pitch to show ...

Obama has until the beginning of next week to offer recess appointments to nominees or expected nominees to positions that typically require Senate confirmation. Highlighting the progressive angst about Obama's general unwillingness to exercise his recess appointment power are new website ads, produced by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, pressuring him to give Elizabeth Warren the top slot at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. PCCC has partnered with Credo mobile to petition the White House to let Warren head the CFP...

French strikers disrupted trains and planes, hospitals and mail delivery amid massive street protests over plans to raise the retirement age. The protests look like the prelude to a season of strikes in Europe, from Spain to the Czech Republic, as heavily indebted governments cut costs and chip away at some cherished but costly benefits that underpin the European good life — a scaling-back process that has gained urgency with Greece's euro110 billion ($140 billion) bailout. In France, where people poured into the streets in 220 cities...

Several factors - war fatigue; a deep, lingering recession; and the presence of a Democratic president they helped elect - have drained the energy from organizations that led the fight against the Iraq war. Some of the most influential anti-war activist groups that once summoned half a million people to march against the Iraq war and the policies of former President George W. Bush are straining to raise the money and attention to fight what they see as Obama’s military entrenchment in Afghanistan." Tags: ...

Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators. The proposed rate hikes, according to filings, fall mostly on small business and individual insurance policies. About nine percent of Americans have individual policies. The bad news is that the one to nine percent is only part of the price hikes insurers are seeking. "Many carriers also are seeking additional rate inc...

The Obama administration is trying to jump-start its sputtering attempts to tackle the foreclosure crisis with an effort to assist homeowners who owe more on their properties than their homes are worth. The Federal Housing Administration will permit lenders to give these borrowers refinanced loans backed by the government. The lenders will be required to forgive at least 10 percent of the original mortgage amount. Investors who have control over the mortgages as part of their large portfolios will select which borrowers are invited to ...

New opinion polls Tuesday made painful reading for President Barack Obama's Democrats, cementing conventional wisdom that they face a pounding by Republicans in November's congressional elections. The surveys, published after the traditional campaign kick-off date of the Labor Day weekend, suggest voters have soured on Obama. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Republicans have a yawning 49 percent to 40 percent advantage among likely voters, which would probably be enough for them to grab back control of the House of Represent...

A US federal judge denied Tuesday the White House's request to drop his decision to temporarily block federal funding for embryonic stem cell research pending an appeal of the decision. "In this court's view, a stay would flout the will of Congress," Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in his order. "Congress remains perfectly free to amend or revise the statute. This court is not free to do so." Lamberth first issued his injunction on August 23, ruling in favor of a coalition that included several Christian organizations by saying that stem...

If the "massive and complex challenges" facing one of the world's most finite natural resources are not resolved soon, the future looks grimly devastating: scarcities, pollution, droughts, floods, desertification and diseases. "We share the frustration and despair of all those affected, and we share the concern with many over the fact that our leaders did not resume their responsibilities (at the last failed Climate Change conference) in Copenhagen." Tags: water Climate ...

Democracy Now: It’s the economy, stupid. As President Obama faces devastating unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates, with no end in sight, he’s begun a ten-week campaign around the country leading up the November midterm elections. We speak with John Nichols, the Washington correspondent for The Nation magazine, who says Obama should borrow a page from FDR and call for economic justice. Tags: Obama Illusion Unemployment foreclosures ...

Democracy Now: We speak with veteran journalist and Truthdig editor, Robert Scheer, about his latest book, The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street. Tags: Economic Death Squad Economic Reform Obama Illusion

If religion can be turned on its head like this - where the Invisible Hand of Wall Street (invisible to the Justice Department, at least) is elevated to a faux-Deist moral philosophy - is it any surprise that economic orthodoxy and formerly progressive tax policy are succumbing? The rentiers are fighting back - against the Enlightenment, against Progressive Era tax policy, and against hopes for U.S. economic recovery. Given today's florid emotionalism when it comes to discussing Wall Street finances, it hardly is surprising that the An...

From our partners at The Agonist Richard Norton-Taylor | September 7 Guardian UK – The threat posed by al-Qaida and the Taliban is exaggerated and the western-led counter-insurgency campaign in Afgha...

The Great Deluge in Pakistan passed almost unnoticed in the United States despite President Obama’s repeated assertions that the country is central to American security.  Now, with new evacuations a...

Yosemite Sam talks about his uncle, the Reverend Terry Jones, and Jones’ plans to burn Korans on September 11th, which he’s dubbing International Burn A Koran Day. He also talks about how Glenn Beck...

Join me at News Dissector Radio on ProgressiveRadioNetwork.com 10 AM to 11 AM EDT. Guests: Howie Klein, co-founder Act Blue and blogger at DownWithTyranny.com, and Marvin Bing, political organizer. We will be d...

Ever heard of a private security contractor name Paravant? XPG? No? Well, that's just as Blackwater, the parent company of Paravant, XPG and dozens of other "subsidiaries", would have it. As a former Paravant ...

Stacy Summary: We look at the scandals of no fiscal or monetary bullets left in the bankrupt warfare states of America. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Huffington Post blogger, Mike Jensen, about h...

Government policies to prop up the housing market not only have failed to fix the problem, they are prolonging the agony A sure sign of a dysfunctional market economy is the persistence of unemployment. In...

By Simon Johnson President Obama is finally attempting to cut through some of the disinformation and confusion that surrounds US fiscal policy in general and taxes in particular.  His suggestion this week is: l...

Stacy Summary: Teaser for today’s show.

Stacy Summary: Debate on the economy on Peter Lavelle’s Crosstalk with William Engdahl, Peter Cohan & Martin Hennecke.

From our partners at Newshoggers.com By Steve Hynd Here's the panel discussion for the launch of the Afghanistan Study Group's new "Plan B" report on Afghanistan. What's clear from the panel...

The Fed is proposing another round of “quantitative easing,” although the first round failed to reverse deflation. It failed because the money went into the coffers of banks, which failed to lend it on. To reve...

From our partners at The Agonist Tim Gaynor | Kabul | Sept 8 Reuters – * Angry customers demand their money * Run on funds ahead of three-day holiday * Central bank orders all but one Kabulbank ...

There's a sewer outside Azza Suleiman's office, a hot ditch in which the filth of one of Cairo's worst slums has been reduced to a slowly moving swamp of black liquid. A blue mist of exhaust f...

The Obama/Bush weapon for shielding presidential lawbreaking from judicial review becomes stronger

Word from the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, summarized in the Fed’s so-called ”Beige Book,” shows the economy slowing in July and August. Duh. But the Fed is quick to point out the economy overall is still...

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., responds to President Barack Obama’s economic speech and explains his call for bipartisan support for House Minority Leader John Boehner’s plan. (Other)

Daily Rant: The Washington Post’s Matt Miller explains the solution to the country’s economic problems – a cut in payroll taxes – and why the Obama administration won’t acknowledge it. (Other)

If a Florida pastor proceeds with his plans to publically burn Qurans on Saturday, what effect will the actions have on the country’s relationship with Afghanistan and the rest of the world. Matt Hoh of the...

Economist Peter Morici talks about the pros and cons of the White House’s economic plan. (Other)

White House economist Austan Goolsbee explains the White House’s plan to fix the economy – put more money into it though $180 billion in tax breaks and transportation projects. (Other)

The Tea Party has several heroes – Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh – and all of these “heroes” have something in common – They are all spreading hate and intolerance across ...

On Friday September 3, in the District Court in Washington D.C., Judge John D. Bates handed another victory to the government in its ongoing effort to continue holding insignificant prisoners at Guantánamo, whe...

On Friday September 3, in the District Court in Washington D.C., Judge John D. Bates handed another victory to the government in its ongoing effort to continue holding insignificant prisoners at Guantánamo, whe...

Chris Hedges: "When you have bankrupt liberalism you descend into moral nihilism"

September 8th, 2010 Posted on Jubilee USA Network Washington, D.C. – Jubilee USA joins global advocacy groups in an outcry against the new debt that Pakistan has been forced to borrow in light of the w...

El-Natour: Palestinian resistance more than Fatah and Hama

September 8th, 2010 Published in YES! Magazine As the world comes to terms with the mind-boggling scale of the tragedy in Pakistan, many Americans are asking what we can do to aid the flood victims. ...

If the progressives don’t start getting active and getting organized, the “hate merchants” on the Right are going to once again become the dominant party in Washington, which, as Ed Schultz po...