Thursday, January 31, 2013

Jindal plans cuts for the poor

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is planning big cuts to Medicaid that would have a devastating impact on his state's poorest citizens. “Tha Hip Hop Doc” Dr. Rani Whitfield of the National Association of Free Clinics tells Ed Schultz what these cuts mean for Louisiana.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

'Dead-Eye Dick' Cheney Asked For Gun Control Advice

By David



Dick Cheney may have accidentally shot a man in the face while he was vice president, but that didn't stop Fox News from flying to Nevada to get his advice on recently-proposed gun control laws.

Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins caught up with Cheney over the week at the Safari Club International convention for gun owners and manufacturers, where the former vice president and his daughter, Liz, participated in a discussion about gun rights and the realism of torture in the film "Zero Dark Thirty."

Cheney told Jenkins he was "worried" about President Barack Obama's efforts to increase gun safety.

"We may end up in a situation where you get a proposal or a proposition that does, in fact, threaten the rights of law-abiding Americans, and at the same time, doesn't do anything with respect to the problem everybody's concerned about, such as the shooting that happened in Connecticut," the Wyoming Republican said.

"I find especially in groups like the group here and an awful lot of my folks in Wyoming who supported me all those years in Congress are very, very concerned that there isn't adequate regard for the rights of law-abiding citizens," he added. "We understand that there's clearly an effort underway, but one of the things we've done in Wyoming -- with respect to Jackson Hole, where I live, with respect to safety of schools -- we have a deputy sheriff, armed deputy sheriff at the schools in the city. And that's probably a more effective deterrent than anything that Congress seems to be debating at the present time."

"How worried are you the President Obama's gun control plan threatens the Second Amendment rights of every law-abiding American?" Jenkins asked.

"I think a lot of people are worried," Cheney said, pointing to a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which found that Obama had violated the Constitution by making recess appointments while lawmakers were using gimmick to keep Congress in session over the holidays.

"So I think the concern is very real and very legitimate, that the administration sometimes isn't as cautious or as precise, if you will," Cheney opined.

While on a 2006 hunting trip for quail in Texas, Cheney mistakenly shot 78 year old Harry Whittington in the face.

"I am the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend," he later told Fox News. "That is something I will never forget."

36 Republicans vote no on disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy

36 Republicans vote no on disaster aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy. Yet, most of those "no" votes voted "yes" when it came to disaster relief for their own constituents. Ed Schultz looks into the hypocrisy, and discusses it with Salon's Joan Walsh.

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Civil rights on the factory floor

Some employees in Canton, Miss., say they want a fair vote on whether or not to unionize. But several workers report feeling pressured to vote down a union. What are their rights?

Ed Schultz explains why this has become a serious civil rights issue and talks to Betty Jones, a worker from the Canton plant, as well as Derrick Johnson, the President of the Mississippi State NAACP.


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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Rewriting Sarah Palin's future

Sarah Palin has gone from being what MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell called "the most recent losing vice presidential candidate who will never be president" to someone who has "has lost even the slightest connection to political relevance" now that she's been dropped as a political pundit by FOX News. He explains in the Rewrite.

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Monday, January 28, 2013

How Not to Panic as Your Party Seems to Be Collapsing

By Garrett Epps

Rick Snyder, Scott Walker, John Kasich -- would you rather be remembered like John Jay or like Reince Priebus?
johnjay615.jpgPortrait of John Jay by Gilbert Stuart, 1794 (The National Gallery of Art)

Everyone in American politics wants to follow the example of the Founding Generation. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell seems to have done so over the weekend. The lesson came from John Jay, one of the co-authors of The Federalist. Here's hoping McDonnell introduces Jay to fellow Republican Governors Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Snyder of Michigan, and John Kasich of Ohio. 

Jay, then serving as Governor of New York, protected his own reputation by blocking a Federalist Party plan to rig the Electoral College in 1800. In so doing, he left a lesson for today's Republicans, which might be called "How Not to Panic as Your Party Seems to Be Collapsing."

In 1800, the Federalist Party -- which had governed the new nation since the Constitution took effect in 1789 -- found itself facing many of the same forces that seem to be undoing Republicans today: demographic changes, regional migration, immigration, and the memory of a failed administration. 

The Jeffersonian Republicans had the wind at their back, led by the terrifying Thomas Jefferson (whom Alexander Hamilton called "an atheist in religion and a fanatic in politics").

Jay enters the story when Hamilton had a nifty idea to hold onto power. On May 7, 1800, Hamilton wrote Governor Jay to warn that Federalists had lost control of the state legislature in the recent election. This disaster, he said, "will bring Jefferson into the Chief Magistracy, unless it be prevented by . . . the immediate calling together of the existing legislature." The old legislators, before they left office, could change New York's electoral-vote system. Instead of selection of a single statewide slate by the legislature, they could award electoral votes by the popular vote by Congressional district. "I am aware that there are weighty objections to the measure," Hamilton admitted; but "in times like these in which we live, it will not do to be overscrupulous." 

Jay, a better politician than Hamilton ever was, never committed an answer to paper. But on the back of the letter, he wrote, "Proposing a measure for party purposes which it would not become me to adopt." 

On Friday, Bob McDonnell seemed to doom a plan by Virginia legislators to use the old Hamilton scam -- awarding electoral votes by district -- in future elections in Virginia. The Governor, a spokesman declared, "believes Virginia's existing system works just fine as it is. He does not believe there is any need for a change."

Jay and McDonnell's words should warn other GOP governors of blue states, who are being urged to try to swing the next presidential election by congressional-district electoral-vote plans. Republican Chairman Reince Priebus, looking at the electoral map, is in a distinctly Hamiltonian mood. The congressional-district switcheroo, he said recently, is "something that a lot of states that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red ought to be looking at." 

As Nate Silver points out in Sunday's New York Times, the congressional-district plan, if implemented in 2012 by Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin -- all of which meet Priebus's "blue-but-red-controlled" criterion -- would have made Mitt Romney President, even if Obama still obtained, as he did, an absolute majority of the popular vote. 

McDonnell's decision may put the brakes on a congressional-district-vote stampede. But there is still enthusiasm in some GOP circles for this sort of trick. One can see why: It's a lot easier than confronting the long-term political trends that seem to be hustling the Republican Party into the Great Caucus Room above where the Federalists and the Whigs still hold their spectral meetings.  

But it has a number of problems. It is dishonorable. It would weaken our nation's commitment to principled application of the Constitution. It would produce a political backlash. And worst of all, considering this is politics, it probably wouldn't work. 

Hamilton's scheme -- "the most high-handed and undemocratic act of his career," according to biographer Ron Chernow -- is a permanent blot on the record of a distinguished Founder. Republican governors like McDonnell may be asking themselves whether history will judge them as more like Jay or more like Reince Priebus.  

The Republican Party may very well right itself without tricks or thuggery. Or it may disappear. That happened to the Federalists, who never won another national election. Hamilton, ever the hothead, followed his party into darkness; he provoked a fatal duel with Aaron Burr in 1804.   

Jay, on the other hand, retired to Westchester County, lived another three decades, and died, honored by all, at the age of 83. He is remembered as the man who signed the treaties that guaranteed American independence. He refused to pervert his constitutional power for "party purposes." 

Today's Republicans might profit by his example.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Scientology Drags Out Old Playbook In Response To New Exposé

By Lorraine Devon Wilke

There are few organizations that elicit the combustible mix of disdain, curiosity, horror and sheer confusion quite like Scientology. A “church” whose methodology hews more closely to high-priced self-help seminars than the God-based spirituality of traditional churches, this brainchild of controversial “rainman,” L. Ron Hubbard, truly is the poster-child religion of our modern times.

Complete with salacious stories of its highest-profile celebrities, tabloid tit-for-tats in response to media dissention, mob-like retaliation against heretics and “apostates” (as they so often brand their former members), it relies on a response playbook that can always be counted on in the face of journalistic exposé.

The most recent brouhaha has erupted in response to the just released book, Going Clear – Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright, a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and was named one of Time’s Top 100 Books of all time.

Clearly a guy with some bona fides.

As the story goes, Wright, in his position as a staff writer for The New Yorker, wrote a piece called “The Apostate” on Oscar-winning writer/director Paul Haggis’ explosive exit from Scientology back in 2009; it won the 2012 National Magazine Award and became the basis of Wright’s new book.

Haggis, as you may know, is one of the most famous people to come out against Scientology; a top-line writer/director whose long career in Hollywood began in TV (most notably on the iconic 80s series, thirtysomething) and later moved in films. He won two screenplay Oscars (one for Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby, the other for Crash), as well as a directing Oscar for Crash. He is credible, smart, and very articulate on both his reasons for joining and leaving the organization, which he boldly labels a “cult.”

See his video interview with NBC’s Harry Smith:

 
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That’s the set-up: two intelligent, highly honored, very credible men taking on one of the most notorious churches in the world, and how does Scientology respond? As it always does: attacking the messengers.

The Daily Beast very graciously (in this writer’s opinion) ran an editorial from Scientology spokesperson, Karen Pouw, in which she runs the standard Scientology playbook: everyone’s lying, he’s lying, anyone with criticism is an “apostate” or a “disgruntled suppressive person”; small factual mistakes are blown up into evidence of larger “untruths,” and no one, NO ONE who has ever left the church could possibly be speaking the truth. It’s the usual litany typically spewed from various sources within the church when anyone writes anything negative about the organization, but with a book and author this high-profile, all wheels must be spinning. The Daily Beast did their own analysis of Pouw’s rebuttal to Wright’s facts in, “Scientology vs. Lawrence Wright” … see what you think.

Before I go any further, let me offer some disclosure: I was an active member of Scientology for 10 years, extending from my early to late 20s. While I had some significantly negative experiences while a member, I left without any particular fanfare or backlash (I apparently wasn’t high-profile enough!). I had many friends within the organization who are now also out, many of whom I’m still close with. Some had very negative experiences, others less dramatic. I knew many good people while there; I knew many not-so-good people. I left, quite simply, because it ultimately did not represent my worldview, it did not offer me what I was looking for, and in my personal experience, compassion for those outside the church was lacking. It took years to fully deprogram my thinking, as it did for everyone I knew, and I still find myself stunned by their antipathy towards many methods of human healing, talk therapy in particular. Their darker, more insidious abuses are known and documented and merit the exact kind of exposure offered by Lawrence Wright’s book.

And with that insider perspective, I view the imbroglio over Going Clear with no surprise. Beyond The Daily Beast, the church also got in touch with The Atlantic magazine in late 2012 to purchase advertising space to coincide with the release of Wright’s book. Clearly this was meant to counteract – or perhaps, lure – the attention of interested readers. The Atlantic agreed in good faith, but what was supposed to be advertising turned out to be a rather shamefaced editorial called “David Miscavige Leads Scientology to Milestone Year” (Miscavige is the group’s “ecclesiastical leader”), a journalistic embarrassment for The Atlantic that was widely mocked and ultimately taken down, as reported by The Huffington Post. The Atlantic further apologized with an unusually chagrined statement:
Regarding an advertisement from the Church of Scientology that appeared on TheAtlantic.com on January 14:

 We screwed up. It shouldn’t have taken a wave of constructive criticism — but it has — to alert us that we’ve made a mistake, possibly several mistakes. We now realize that as we explored new forms of digital advertising, we failed to update the policies that must govern the decisions we make along the way. It’s safe to say that we are thinking a lot more about these policies after running this ad than we did beforehand. In the meantime, we have decided to withdraw the ad until we figure all of this out. We remain committed to and enthusiastic about innovation in digital advertising, but acknowledge—sheepishly—that we got ahead of ourselves. We are sorry, and we’re working very hard to put things right.
Notwithstanding the mortifying snafu, one of Atlantic’s top writers, Jeffrey Goldberg, took to his own page in defense of his colleague:
Working with Lawrence Wright was one of the great pleasures of my journalism career. Even before I met Larry, at the New Yorker, I was a great admirer of his, and my admiration only grew as I got to know him personally, and as I watched him work. There is no more careful reporter in the world than Larry, and no one who is as thorough and as indefatigable.
That said, apparently Wright did get some dates wrong (damn that copy editor!), which gave Pouw and others their opening to editorially smear the writer. But the big facts, the salient points, the major issues? Like any good journalist, he put in his research work and has solid facts to back up his assertions. And while there’s plenty of material to cull (just Google “L. Ron Hubbard” or “Scientology” and the bombardment is biblical!), getting at the truth of Scientology, particularly from sources within the church is, frankly, impossible. Adherents are typically blind followers, mandated explicitly and implicitly to speak positively of the church under all circumstances. In my years of involvement, we were not only so thoroughly programmed to not have any criticisms, to express it publicly if we did was considered heresy and could result in all manner of undesirable consequences. Given that, unbiased, objective opinions from those still “inside” is literally not possible. Wright eludes to that in response to the criticism from church spokeswoman, Pouw:
Pouw’s overall complaint is that Wright refused assistance and never attempted to contact the church to confirm facts, other than asking “about a dozen esoteric and obtuse” fact-checking questions.
“I don’t know how many times she’s said that we only asked 12 fact-checking questions. We asked about 160! It’s just such a blatant lie that it makes me puzzled,” says Wright. He says the church provided little help, either responding to his inquiries after long delays, disputing the legitimacy of his questions, or not responding at all. “What they really wanted, again and again, was a list of my sources. And I wasn’t going to give that to them.”
Wright acknowledges Pouw’s point that his publishers in the U.K. and Canada have decided to pull the book because of legal concerns.
“It’s a big project to write, essentially, a history of a hostile organization that hides its data and tries to mislead you about its past. And if I’ve made mistakes they will be corrected,” says Wright. “But it is a monumental task to try to get at the truth of what goes on inside Scientology.” [Source. Emphasis added.]
Surely one of the most difficult things for the uninitiated to understand is how intelligent, well-meaning people ever end up in this organization in the first place. In a Salon interview with L. Ron Hubbard’s great-grandson, Jamie DeWolf, (L. Ron Hubbard’s great-grandson: Scientology is a brainwashing “cult”), the following points are made:
DeWolf said that Scientology leaders “prey on narcissism….[You’re] told you’re a God-like creature.”
DeWolf also explained how Scientology specifically tries to rope in celebrities, though they are often “insulated from the nastier aspects of it.” DeWolf said Elvis Presley turned down an offer to join Scientology.
But I and others have often found it gut-wrenching to watch any one of the famous who sit in judgment of others in service of their defense of the church; giggling in dismissal of questions about the “dark side” of Scientology, when I, as many do, personally know, have witnessed or, in some cases, experienced that “dark side.” And there’s your narcissism: “my experience has been fabulous so they must all be liars.” It’s akin to the sibling of an abused child dismissing that child’s experience by saying, “Daddy never touched me so you must be lying!” (and not such an extreme example.)

What would have more integrity is if one of the interviewed celebrities told Barbara Walters: “I have not personally experienced a dark side, but if someone else has, that’s horrible and I hope they and the church work together to make it right.”

Or how amazing would it be if the spokespeople of Scientology came out and sincerely and honestly said:
“There are many good people in the church doing their best to do create positive change in the world. As in many large organizations, mistakes have been made, policies have been poorly implemented, unethical people have perverted the intent of good rules, and people have been hurt. We are deeply sorry for any hurt or damage that has been inflicted upon any current or former member of this organization, and will do everything possible to rectify that hurt and damage. We move forward with a goal of transparency and compassion and welcome any questions or suggestions.”
Can you imagine?? But that will never happen. Because this organization is not built on the notion of transparency, compassion and truth. Its very DNA is subsumed in the secrecy of invention, built on the foundation of science fiction, fantasy and obfuscation and true spirituality cannot thrive in that atmosphere. In a fascinating piece in the Daily Beast that documents the “tall tales” told by Scientology’s L. Ron Hubbard while he was a member of the Explorers Club of New York City, his fantastical and highly creative “history” is explored in detailed text and compelling photographs. I urge you to take a look; it’s quite entertaining!

For many of us watching the rollout of Wright’s book from the sidelines, it’s interesting to see what “guns” the church pulls out this time in their exhaustive quest to shoot down criticism. Their predictable script, however, not only rings hollow after so many years of the same, it works to further alienate and create disdain. This is an organization that’s spent years in the practice of annihilating its enemies and is rife with written policy on just how to do that. Pre-Internet, that usually involved mob-like tactics of personal and professional harassment that often led to extreme duress and incendiary lawsuits. More recently, with the ubiquity of information available online, the church has been less successful in shutting down critical content; in fact, even its most mysterious and arcane spiritual philosophy regarding evil lords named Xenu and exploding volcanoes, once so secret it was considered deadly to reveal before a student was properly prepared, is now splattered all over the web in every permutation available. So far no one has died from reading.

The point is: like other controversial groups with zealot followers and blind allegiance as a mandate, the church of Scientology, as seen from the outside, is an extremist cult that dissembles for the sake of protecting its secrets. Transparency can only exist in an organization that has nothing to hide and a willingness to welcome and embrace all interested parties. But, as Lawrence Wright discovered, “…it is a monumental task to try to get at the truth of what goes on inside Scientology.” [Source]

As for Going Clear, perhaps the words of reviewer James Kirchick at The Daily Beast are the most instructive to conclude:
But it is precisely Wright’s measured tone, his use of a scalpel instead of a hammer to dissect Scientology and its manifold abuses, which renders his conclusions all the more damning. Acknowledging that members of a religion can “believe whatever they choose,” Wright adds the important caveat that “it is a different matter to use the protections afforded a religion by the First Amendment to falsify history, to propagate forgeries, and to cover up human rights abuses.” Scientology critics, myself included, have long argued that the U.S. government should follow the lead of other countries and at the very least revoke the Church’s tax-exempt status, if not take harsher measures against it for a variety of criminal activities. Lawrence Wright’s courageous investigation is a warrant to act.
A conclusion many of us – those who have been inside as well as those peering from the edges – share.

[For more information on this and other Scientology matters, visit Tony Ortega's The Underground Bunker.]

LDW_AI

Follow Lorraine Devon Wilke on Twitter, Facebook and Rock+Paper+Music; for her archive at Addicting info click here; details and links to her other work: www.lorrainedevonwilke.com.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Mitch McConnell brags about filibuster deal

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell brags about filibuster deal in a fundraising letter one day after getting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to Cave. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., joins Ed Schultz to talk about next steps.

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Republicans attempt to rig the electoral college

Democrats are moving to expand their electoral map and turn Texas blue, while Republican-controlled legislatures are trying to change the rules to disenfranchise Democratic voters in states that went for President Obama in 2012. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell discusses with Steve Kornacki.

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

How Senate Graybeards Killed Real Filibuster Reform

By David A. Graham

Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell have agreed to a set of rule changes, but the new regime falls far short of what young Democrats had demanded to fix the chamber.

Like Huey Long quoting his oyster recipe, Al D'Amato singing Gene Autry, and Bernie Sanders just plain speechifying,* the filibuster-reform push was fun while it lasted, but it's over now.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he's reached a deal with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on some procedural reforms that are intended to help cure the chronic, appalling dysfunction that's bedeviled the Senate since 2006 or so, when Democrats took over the body. Here's a quick list of the formal changes:
  • Shorten debate following a cloture vote on the motion to proceed from 30 hours to four.
  • Leave the ability to filibuster that cloture vote essentially intact.
  • Allow the minority to offer two amendments on every bill.
  • Shorten confirmation time for judicial nominees once cloture is invoked.
And two informal ones, which are to be executed without actually changing Senate rules:
  • Senators will have to actually be on the floor to threaten a filibuster.
  • Time allocated for debate will have to actually be spent on debate.
You can see the full proposals at the bottom of this post.
That's ... something. But the changes fall far short of what reformers had hoped for. In December, I wrote a primer on what the reformers wanted. Here's a list of those proposals and their fate:
  • End the filibuster altogether: As expected, Senator Tom Harkin's call for legislation to pass by a simple majority died. The idea was always fringe, even within the hardcore reform group.
  • Ban filibuster on the motion to proceed: Though debate after the vote is curtailed, the motion to proceed can still be filibustered.
  • Bring back the talking filibuster: This was probably the central tenet of a plan put forward by reform ringleaders Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Tom Udall of New Mexico. It won't be happening either. They wanted to force the minority to actually stay on the floor and speak, just like Long and D'Amato back in the day, in order to hold up business.
  • Ban filibusters on House-Senate conferences: No dice, although there will now be only one chance to filibuster bills after they've passed both chambers, rather than three.
  • Shift the burden on cloture: Al Franken's proposal to force the minority to come up with 41 votes rater than forcing the majority to produce 60, got nowhere.
So basically all of the major reform ideas came to naught.
What happened? The reformers had the wind at their backs. Everyone agreed that the Senate was grievously broken. Democrats had not only not lost seats in the Senate but had gained them. And Reid had publicly said that reform was needed and that he was willing to use the "nuclear option" -- changing the official Senate rules with a bare majority of 51 votes -- to get it done if he had to.

But the veterans got in the way. This was always the danger. Merkley and Udall are both freshman senators; neither one has ever been in the minority. While they agitated for changes, more senior Democratic senators eyed them warily, remembering when they'd been in the minority and used filibusters -- albeit less frequently than the current minority. Changing the rules with less than 60 votes seemed to them to set a dangerous precedent. Back in December, a Hill staffer told me that despite public reservations, those members would get in line when push came to shove. But it turned out Reid himself wasn't willing to use the 51-vote nuclear option to get the changes.

"I'm not personally, at this stage, ready to get rid of the 60-vote threshold," Reid told Ezra Klein Thursday. "With the history of the Senate, we have to understand the Senate isn't and shouldn't be like the House."

Advocates for major reform aren't delighted, but it looks like this plan will get through. (Progressive advocacy groups are less happy, and have been firing off angry missives all afternoon.) Democrats get at least some streamlining of the procedure, and Republicans get a chance to offer amendments, their major gripe.

And there will be ample chances to see whether it works soon. Will Richard Cordray, the recess-appointed director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now up for confirmation, get a vote? Will judicial nominees? Will the pace of business speed up? Time will tell.
__
* Yes, all of those are real filibusters of yore.

Filibuster Reform (1) by tpmdocs
Filibuster Reform (2) by tpmdocs
 

Leon Panetta Lifts Ban on Women in Combat

By Ernesto Londoño, Published: January 23

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta plans to announce Thursday a lifting of the ban on female service members in combat roles, a watershed policy change that was informed by women’s valor in Iraq and Afghanistan and that removes the remaining barrier to a fully inclusive military, defense officials said.

Panetta made the decision “upon the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” a senior defense official said Wednesday, an assertion that stunned female veteran activists who said they assumed that the brass was still uneasy about opening the most physically arduous positions to women. The Army and the Marines, which make up the bulk of the military’s ground combat force, will present plans to open most jobs to women by May 15.

The Army, by far the largest fighting force, currently excludes women from nearly 25 percent of active-duty roles. A senior defense official said the Pentagon expects to open “many positions” to women this year; senior commanders will have until January 2016 to ask for exceptions.

“The onus is going to be on them to justify why a woman can’t serve in a particular role,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plan before the official announcement.

The decision comes after a decade of counterinsurgency missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, where women demonstrated heroism on battlefields with no front lines. It dovetails with another seismic policy change in the military that has been implemented relatively smoothly: the repeal of the ban on openly gay service members.

Lawmakers and female veterans applauded Wednesday’s news, saying the ban on women in combat roles is obsolete.

“This is monumental,” said Anu Bhagwati, a former Marine captain and executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, which has advocated for the full inclusion of women. “Every time equality is recognized and meritocracy is enforced, it helps everyone, and it will help professionalize the force.”

Critics of opening combat positions to women have argued for years that integration during deployments could create a distracting, sexually charged atmosphere in the force and that women are unable to perform some of the more physically demanding jobs.

Advocates and experts say women are unlikely to flock to those positions, such as roles in light infantry and tank units and Special Forces — although some may. More substantively, they say, lifting the ban will go a long way toward changing the culture of a male-dominated institution in which women have long complained about discrimination and a high incidence of sexual assault.
 
Changes long sought

Lawmakers and advocates have long pressed the Pentagon to create a more inclusive force, yielding incremental changes. The American Civil Liberties Union recently sued the Pentagon over its policy, calling it discriminatory.

Last year, military officials opened numerous job categories to women after a study concluded that the Defense Department was ready for greater inclusion in combat units. That made it easier for women to be assigned, for example, to combat brigades as radio operators. It also gave commanders a sense of how a broader integration process could work, said an Army general who played a key role in last year’s effort to open new positions for women.

“The average professional will say, ‘I’ve served with women at all levels, and based on my experience, women have done a phenomenal job,’ ” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the change had not been formally announced.

The debate over the supposed pitfalls of women and men sharing close quarters has been rendered moot by the recent wars, he said, adding: “If you were having this debate in peacetime, it might be more emotional.”

The fact that women have excelled in de facto front-line roles in Iraq and Afghanistan has proved such concerns unwarranted, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

“The reality is that so many women have been, in effect, in combat or quasi-combat,” he said. “This is catching up with reality.”

In a statement, Sen. James M. Inhofe (Okla.), the leading Republican on the Armed Services Committee, voiced a measure of concern, saying last year’s study raised “serious practical barriers” that, if ignored, could jeopardize the “safety and privacy” of service members.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), another member of the panel, said he supports the decision, but he alluded to some of the thorny implementation issues that have yet to be addressed.

“It is critical that we maintain the same high standards that have made the American military the most feared and admired fighting force in the world — particularly the rigorous physical standards for our elite special forces units,” he said.

The senior defense official said the Pentagon expects to have gender-neutral standards for combat jobs.
 
‘The time has come’

Overall, women make up about 14 percent of the active-duty military. According to the Defense Department, 152 female troops have been killed in the Iraq and Afghan wars.

The Pentagon announced last February that it would open about 14,000 combat-related positions to female troops. But an estimated 238,000 other jobs — about one-fifth of the regular active-duty military — were kept off limits to women. Virtually all of those jobs were in the Army and Marine Corps.

Panetta, who is expected to step down soon, has long favored a more inclusive military, and after last year’s review, the senior defense official said, the Joint Chiefs and service chiefs began seeing eye to eye on the issue.

In a Jan. 9 letter to Panetta, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote that the chiefs “unanimously” supported his goal of integrating women into “occupational fields to the maximum extent possible.”

“The time has come to rescind the direct combat exclusion rule for women and to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to service,” he wrote.

“It is a paradigm shift for the military,” the senior defense official said, “one that everyone is ready to make.”

Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Coward Ted Nugent Ready For Armed Revolt

Rocker-turned-gun rights provocateur Ted Nugent is willing to say just about anything to attack President Barack Obama and his administration for what he believes is an imminent effort by the government to snatch up guns.

During a recent interview, Nugent again raised the bar, invoking a Revolutionary war milestone to suggest that he and his "buddies" were prepared to fight such an effort at all costs...".* Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur break it down on The Young Turks.



Elder Scrolls Online beta applications

By - Jan 22 2013, 12:15 P.M. EST

Bethesda Softworks announced today that it has started taking beta applications for the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online MMO based on its popular single-player RPG series.

The beta signup page features a live update of your chances of selection for the limited beta as you fill out information like previous MMO and RPG experience, play style, and system information for your computer. "Completing all the optional sections will significantly increase your chances of being selected for beta participation," the site advises.

Bethesda also used the beta signups as an opportunity to release a new five-minute CGI video promoting the game, shown below. The video is suitably epic—it would serve as an excellent trailer for a fantasy movie—but it bears only a passing resemblance to what actual gameplay will look like.

I got a short preview of the game back at E3, where the creators stressed that quests would all factor into an epic storyline, without any of the pointless "kill ten rats"-style chores that plague other games. The developers went into more detail about their goals in a November preview trailer.

It's hard to get a real feel for this type of game without fully inhabiting it for a while. And it might be a while before we get that chance; the beta is still undated, and the game is only set for a vague "2013" release. Still, the Elder Scrolls series has definitely already put in the requisite world-building effort, and it has a suitably developed mythos to build an MMO on top of already. Then again, so did BioWare's The Old Republic universe, and that MMO has been struggling a bit to live up to its lofty WoW-killer ambitions.



Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.

Monday, January 21, 2013

News flash: The President's speech was not about the Republicans

The President spoke today about protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Some Republicans thought he didn't extend the olive branch.

Ed Schultz explains why this speech was meant for the Americans who got President Obama re-elected, and not for the handful of feuding Republicans behind him. John Nichols of The Nation Magazine talks about the President's mandate, and what today's speech could mean for all Americans.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Unemployable At 50 - Fate Of Present And Future Workers

By TheMastersNemesis

Forget working until you are 70 in any kind of meaningful job as you age. The CEO and corporate culture looks at 50 as the unemployable age in the new age economy. In Logan's Run people were supposed to be trashed at 30. Today your corporate CEO will trash you by 50 because a of new business attitude that has shred the social contract.

Fifty somethings are already finding out in great numbers what being unemployable means. In the past by the time you reached 50 in most jobs you had maximum vacation and numerous benefits for being a senior employee. Today you are considered a liability and drag on the company at a time when you need higher income for your retirement and to support getting your kids started in life with a good education.

Now corporations and CEO's are saying that you should wait until 70 or longer to get your Social Security and Medicare. And they REALLY WANT TO ABOLISH THAT AS WELL. So senior workers will face 20 years of part time and minimum wage jobs if they can get any job at all.

And if you are disabled or ill you are royally screwed if you CAN'T WORK. Any sensible person knows that you cannot save for retirement at today's wages when pay is essentially capped at 30K. And you cannot build a future when most jobs are being reduced to part time, temporary, seasonal and less in the new Reagan revolution economy.

By the time the GOP and its allies have their way only 30% or less of the job market will support a person or family and 70% of the work force will be stuck in the "service economy". What you are seeing in this recovery is what the GOP and Reagan has wrought since 1980. Yet we still elect them. Obama himself cannot change this corporate model. Only the business community and corporations can. And only government policy can force them. FDR was right and knew what he was doing.

Look at the handwriting on the wall. THE CONVERSATION has to change and the business community has be to be challenged to change its ways and its attitude that only gets worse by the day. The prevalent anti union and anti labor and anti government attitude has given us this SUICIDAL situation.

I worked in the DOL for 24 years and could see what was coming. I am really puzzled at why the American worker embraced all of this mayhem. Now the next generation seems to be doomed to a life of low wages and virtual poverty. 

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Republicans surrender on debt ceiling

Congressional Republicans concede the debt ceiling must be increased. Now they're linking it to the passage of a Senate budget. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz joins Ed Schultz to explain whether the new Republican plan is serious, or a shallow gimmick.

 
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Friday, January 18, 2013

Whole Foods CEO calls Health Care Act 'fascist'

Three years after getting Whole Foods in hot water for labeling Obamacare "socialist" CEO John Mackey has changed his mind. During an NPR interview he called it "fascist". Mackey is already walking it back, but he's just the latest in a long line of CEOS who have publicly come out against Obamacare, despite ramifications. Jonathan Alter joins Ed Schultz for the discussion.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Let’s All Pretend This Manti Te’o Story Is Somehow Related To Politics So We Can Write About How Deadspin Just Sent THE GREATEST TWEET IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE To Donald Trump

By Linda the Dolt

So, you know how Notre Dame is a Catholic school, and religion is relevant to politics?  And… and…  you know how Donald Trump often involves himself in politics, even though he’s never technically run for public office?

Yes? Ok, good.  So we’ve established that this Manti Te’o/Donald Trump anecdote we’re about to tell you is super-relevant to politics, and therefore we’re not being completely unprofessional by writing about something off-topic, which is definitely not something we would ever do, because we are a classy and well-respected publication. (Seriously, click on that “classy” hyperlink. Amazing boner joke there. One of our best, if we do say so ourselves.)

Anyway, now that we have that out of the way…

Sports Illustrated apparently published a heart-wrenching story about how this Te’o guy, who is a Notre Dame football star (or a basketball star or an American Idol contestant or something? We don’t really follow sports), learned that he had lost both his grandmother and his cancer-stricken girlfriend on the very same day this September. People who watch sports were deeply affected by this story and it was a big deal or something.

But then the website Deadspin achieved a major journalistic coup on Wednesday with their bombshell investigative report uncovering that the cancer-stricken girlfriend never even existed.  Some person either duped Te’o by posting fake pictures to Twitter and then carrying on a fake long-distance relationship with him, or Te’o was in on it the whole time for the publicity and sympathy.

Anyway, the important thing to remember here is that Deadspin achieved a major WIN for uncovering the hoax …  which then led politics-related person Donald Trump to tweet a congratulations to the Deadspin writers … which then led the Deadspin writers to post THE GREATEST TWEET THAT HAS EVER EXISTED IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE in reply:  


The “official” story (aggresive quotation marks there) is that the Deadspin reply had something to do with Trump not crediting the correct author. However, we choose not to believe this. We prefer instead to believe that the reason Deadspin replied to Donald Trump’s sincere congratulations by telling him to go fuck himself was simply because Donald Trump is a tremendous wad-of-dick.

**Please help support the Daily Dolt by making all your Amazon purchases through this link right here.  You know you’re going to buy a bunch of crap on there eventually, so you might as well just go ahead and bookmark that thang.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Right-wingers howling in protest

By T. Steelman

President Obama imposed some sweeping reforms in the form of Executive Orders earlier today.

Twenty-three of them, in fact, which has the right-wingers howling in protest. Even though Obama has signed the fewest EOs in Presidential history, we’re going to be hearing the screeches from the right for a long while. So, exactly what was in those Executive Orders? Let’s see…

1. Making relevant data available to the federal background check system. All federal agencies will be required to do this.

2. Addressing unnecessary barriers to making information available to the background check system.

3. Improving incentives for cooperation with the previous two orders.

4. The Attorney General will be required to review the categories of people who are currently prohibited from buying guns, so as to make sure they are all up-to-date and accounted for.

5. Allowing law enforcement to run a full background check on any individual before they return a gun that has been legally confiscated.

6. Send out a guidance letter from the ATF to federally licensed dealers on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launching a national campaign promoting safe and responsible gun ownership

8. A review of safety standards for gun locks and safes (falling under the auspices of the Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Requite federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered during criminal investigations.

10. A Department of Justice report that analyzes information on lost and stolen guns and making that easily available to law enforcement.

11. Get an ATF director (that position has been empty for seven years!).

12. Providing law enforcement, school officials, first responders with training for situations involving active shooters.

13. Boost enforcement efforts and prosecutions of gun crime.

14. Lifting the moratorium on the Centers For Disease Control research on gun violence and directing them to do so.

15. Directing the Attorney General to create a report on the most effective use of new safety technologies and their availability. Encouraging the private sector to develop new ones.

16. Clarification of the Affordable Care Act provision that deals with doctors asking about the presence of guns in a patient’s home. It is NOT part of the ACA.

17. Clarify that health care providers will not be prohibited from reporting threats of violence to authorities.

18. Incentives for schools to hire resource officers.

19. Develop emergency response plans for schools (including higher learning) and houses of worship.

20. Send out a letter to state health officials explaining the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalizing regulations in the ACA involving essential benefits and requirements in the health care exchanges.

22. A committment to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

23. launching a national dialogue on mental health issues, led by Secretary Sibeluis and Secretary Duncan.

None of the orders will affect current gun ownership. Proposals regarding military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines will be left up to Congressional action. So, no, NRA – the President has not overstepped any bounds. There is no crisis here, save the one created by the lack of oversight that we had until this morning.

The President affirmed his support of the Second Amendment, stressing the responsibility that ought to accompany the right to bear arms:
I also believe most gun owners agree that we can respect the Second Amendment while keeping an irresponsible, law-breaking few from inflicting harm on a massive scale. I believe most of them agree that if America worked harder to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be fewer atrocities like the one that occurred in Newtown.  That’s what these reforms are designed to do. They’re common-sense measures. They have the support of the majority of the American people. (WH.gov)

Photobucket      T. Steelman is a life-long Liberal. She has been writing online about politics since 2007. She lives in Western Washington with her husband, daughter, 2 cats and a small herd of alpacas. How can anybody be enlightened? Truth is, after all, so poorly lit…

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

100 Things You Can Say To Irritate A Republican

By

Conservatives are so easy to anger these days. Even the most insignificant statement can set off their tempers. If you want to enrage a conservative, I suggest saying the following:

1. A Socialist wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
2. Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor, for free.
3. Joseph McCarthy was an un-American, witch hunting sissy.
4. Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were traitors.
5. The South lost the Civil War, get over it.
6. The Founding Fathers were liberals.
7. Fascism is a right-wing trait.
8. Sarah Palin is an idiot.
9. The Earth is round.
10. Reagan raised taxes eleven times as President.
11. Reagan legalized abortion as Governor of California.
12. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency.
13. Ronald Reagan supported gun control.
14. Global warming is real.
15. Republicans hate illegal immigrants, unless they need their lawns mowed or their houses cleaned.
16. The military is a government-run institution, so why do Republicans approve the defense budget?
17. The Cold War is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists.
18. Paying taxes is patriotic.
19. Republicans: Peddling the same failed economic policies since 1880.
20. The Republican Party began as a liberal party.
21. The Presidents’ full name is Barack Hussein Obama and he was born in the United States of America.
22. George W. Bush held hands with the King of Saudi Arabia.
23. President Obama saved the American auto industry, while Republicans wanted to destroy it.
24. Hate is not a Christian virtue.
25. Jesus was a liberal.
26. Republicans spend MORE money than Democrats.
27. Tea parties are for little girls.
28. Public schools educate all children; private schools are for indoctrinating children.
29. The Constitution is the law, NOT the Bible.
30. Sharia law doesn’t exist in America.
31. The President is NOT a Muslim.
32. Corporations are NOT people. People are people.
33. Fox News isn’t real news, it’s just a racist, sexist, hateful, right-wing propaganda machine.
34. The Federal Reserve was a Republican idea.
35. Women are equal citizens who deserve equal rights.
36. Women control their own bodies.
37. Abortion is a relevant medical procedure, just ask Rick Santorum.
38. Please use spell-check.
39. It’s “pundit”, not “pundint”.
40. Social Security is solvent through 2038.
41. Health care is a right, not a product.
42. Roe v. Wade was a bipartisan ruling made by a conservative leaning Supreme Court.
43. G.O.P also stands for Gross Old Perverts.
44. The donkey shouldn’t be the Democratic mascot because Republicans are the real jackasses.
45. Barack Obama ordered the killing of Osama Bin Laden. It took him two and half years to do what Bush couldn’t do in eight.
46. Waterboarding IS torture.
47. 9/11 happened on George W. Bush’s watch, therefore he did NOT keep America safe.
48. Republicans invaded Iraq for oil, so Iraq should be allowed to invade Texas to get it back.
49. Separation of church and state is in the Constitution, it’s called the First Amendment.
50. Muslims are protected by the Constitution, just as much as Christians.
51. Barack Obama is the first African-American President, get over it.
52. The Oval Office is NOT a “whites only” office.
53. America is a nation of immigrants, therefore we are all anchor babies.
54. The white race isn’t disappearing, it’s evolving.
55. God is a particle.
56. Evolution is real.
57. The Earth is 4.54 billion years old, not 6,000.
58. The Founding Fathers did not free the slaves.
59. The Revolution was NOT fought over slavery.
60. Paul Revere warned the Americans, NOT the British.
61. Federal law trumps state law.
62. The Civil War was about slavery, NOT state’s rights.
63. Corporations care more about profits than they do about people.
64. Getting out of a recession requires government spending.
65. Glenn Beck is a nut-job.
66. Republicans: Paranoid since 1932.
67. Republicans don’t want to pay for your birth control, but they want you to pay for their Viagra.
68. Republicans actually NEED Viagra.
69. Fox News is owned by an Australian and has a Saudi prince as an investor.
70. Republicans complain about immigrants taking American jobs, then freely give American jobs to foreigners overseas.
71. Republicans hate communism, so why do they refer to themselves as red states?
72. Labor unions built this country.
73. Republicans hold America hostage as a political strategy; the temper tantrum throwing kind of political strategy.
74. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian.
75. When Republicans see black, they attack.
76. Inside every Republican is a Klansman or a Nazi waiting to bloom.
77. Republicans only care about children BEFORE they are born.
78. Republicans are hypocrites, they’re just too stupid to know it.
79. The Christian-Right boycotts movies that have violence, and then promotes guns and insurrection.
80. I think, therefore I am NOT a Republican.
81. Republicans that oppose gay marriage are most likely in the closet themselves.
82. Churches should stay out of politics, or be taxed.
83. People are too poor to vote Republican.
84. Democrats think for themselves, Republicans form think tanks to do it for them.
85. Republicans hate education because they couldn’t hack it in school.
86. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins and Republicans wallow in it.
87. A little socialism on the Left is better than a little fascism on the Right.
88. The current corporate tax rate is the lowest in 60 years, so stop whining about it being too high.
89. Republicans: Anti-Gay Marriage, Pro-Lesbian sex.
90. Republicans: Terrorizing the American people since 1981.
91. Republicans have their own terrorists, just look up Timothy McVeigh.
92. Republicans love outsourcing, just ask the Chinese Communists.
93. The Republican answer to the oil spill was to apologize to BP, a foreign oil company.
94. Democrats will be working hard to bring jobs to Americans, while the Republicans tea bag each other in the middle of the aisles.
95. Voter disenfranchisement is immoral and un-American, that’s why Republicans do it.
96. Republicans would let your house burn down unless you pay them to put it out.
97. Democrats want to take care of the sick. Republicans take their credit cards and then deny them medical attention.
98. Republicans say teachers are union thugs, then proceed to rape and mug the entire middle class on behalf of corporations.
99. Republicans think rape isn’t a crime, but miscarriages are.
100. Republicans are idiots and arguing with them is a waste of time!

Bottom line? If you want to anger a conservative, tell them the truth.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

CD Projekt Announces Cyberpunk 2077

By  Guild McCommunist

CD Projekt, the developers behind The Witcher franchise, have announced and released the teaser trailer for their new game, Cyberpunk 2077.

The game follows the Maximum Force Tactical Division (MAX-TC), nicknamed the "Psycho Squad", a special law enforcement division tasked with taking down those who have overused implants and substances. These psychos have augmented themselves to the point of rebelling against their own organic self, as well as all organic beings around them.

The trailer shows off the police firing on a woman psycho after her rampage, and the Psycho Squad coming in to finish her off. Later, it appears, she actually joins the Psycho Squad. 



CD Projekt has also stated that the game will be released in 2015 the earliest, as well as hinting a 2014 release date for The Witcher 3. More info can be found at the source.

No consoles were announced for the title, but presumably it will be for the next generation.

Source

Cyberpunk 2077

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Bachmann Hasn't Paid Staffers

Posted by rcade at 03:03 PM

Over a year after she dropped out, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has refused to pay five staffers from her failed presidential bid, according to a former top campaign official.

Peter Waldron, her former national field coordinator, told Salon the dispute started when former Iowa straw poll staffers refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement that would bar them from discussing any "unethical, immoral, or criminal activity" they witnessed on the campaign with police or reporters.

Waldron said the nondisclosure agreement stems from the campaign's alleged misuse of an email list. A home-schooling group accused the Bachmann campaign of stealing the list, which was contained on a volunteer's laptop, and then using it to fund raise for the campaign. Police have spoken to Waldron about the incident "several times," he said.

Friday, January 11, 2013

"He's dying, he needs his name off this house."

Real estate horror continues with 'Zombie Foreclosures'


 Real estate Foreclosure: Joseph Keller stands outside the kitchen door of his abandoned house in Columbus, Ohio, September 30, 2012. IMAGE


COLUMBUS, Ohio — Joseph Keller doesn't expect he'll live to see the end of 2013. He blames the three story house at 190 Avondale Avenue.

Five years ago, Keller, 10 months behind on his mortgage payments, received notice of a foreclosure judgment from JP Morgan Chase. In a few weeks, the house would be put up for auction at a sheriff's sale.

The 58-year-old former social worker and his wife, Jennifer, packed up their home and moved. Joseph thought he would never have anything to do with the house again. And for about a year, he didn't. Then it started to stalk him.

He had become caught up in a little-known horror of the U.S. housing bust: the zombie title. Six years in, thousands of homeowners are finding themselves legally liable for houses they didn't know they still owned after banks decided it wasn't worth their while to complete foreclosures on them. With impunity, banks have been walking away from foreclosures much the way some homeowners walked away from their mortgages when the housing market first crashed.

First, in 2010, the county sued Keller because the house, already picked clean by scavengers, was in a shambles, its hanging gutters and collapsed garage in violation of local housing code. Then the tax collector started sending Keller notices about mounting back taxes, sewer fees and bills for weed and waste removal. And last year, Chase's debt collector began pressing Keller to pay his mortgage, which had swollen, with penalties and fees, from $62,100.27 to $84,194.69.

The worst news came last January, when the Social Security Administration rejected Keller's application for disability benefits; the "asset" on Avondale Avenue rendered him ineligible. Keller's medical problems include advanced liver disease, hepatitis C and inactive tuberculosis. Without disability coverage, he can't get the liver transplant he needs to stay alive.

Real estate Foreclosure: Joseph Keller and his wife Jennifer stand on the porch of their abandoned house in Columbus, Ohio, September 30, 2012. IMAGE
"I can't make it end," says Keller. "This house, I can't get out."

Keller continues to bear responsibility for the house because on Dec. 23, 2008 — about two months after he received Chase's notice of sale — the bank filed to dismiss the foreclosure judgment and the order of sale. Chase said it sent Keller a copy of its court filing on Dec. 9, 2008. Keller says he never received any notification. Either way, his name remained on the property title.

WITH IMPUNITY

"The banks are just deciding not to foreclose, even though the homeowners never caught up with their payments," says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, a real-estate information company in Irvine, Calif.

Since 2006, 10 million homes have fallen into foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, a number that in earlier, more stable times would have taken nearly two decades to reach. Of those foreclosures, more than 2 million have never come out. Some may be occupied by owners who have been living gratis. Others have been caught up in what is now known as the robo-signing scandal, when banks spun out reams of fraudulent documents to foreclose quickly on as many homeowners as they could.

No national databases track zombie titles. But dozens of housing court judges, code enforcement officials, lawyers and other professionals involved in foreclosures across the country tell Reuters that these titles number in the many thousands, and that the problem is worsening.

"There are thousands of foreclosures in limbo, just hanging out there, just sitting, with nothing being done," says Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka, whose pending court cases tied to derelict properties have doubled in the past two years, to 1,000. He says the surge is due largely to homes vacated by people who fled before an imminent foreclosure sale, only to learn later that they remain legally responsible for their house.

When people move out after receiving a notice of a planned foreclosure sale and the bank then cancels, municipalities are left to deal with the mess. Some spend public funds on securing, cleaning and stabilizing houses that generate no tax revenue. Others let the houses rot. In at least three states in recent months, houses abandoned by owners and banks alike have exploded because the gas was never shut off.

Real estate foreclosure: Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka looks on during court sessions in Cleveland, Ohio October 4, 2012. IMAGE

THREAT OF JAIL

Unsuspecting homeowners have had their wages garnished, their credit destroyed and their tax refunds seized. They've opened their mail to find bills for back taxes, graffiti-scrubbing services, demolition crews, trash removal, gutter repair, exterior cleaning and lawn clipping. At their front doors they've encountered bailiffs brandishing summonses to appear in court.

In some cities, people with zombie titles can be sentenced to probation — with the threat of jail if they don't bring their houses into compliance.

"These people have become like indentured serfs, with all of the responsibilities for the properties but none of the rights," says retired Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Professor Kermit Lind.

Banks used to almost always follow through with foreclosures, either repossessing a house outright — known in industry parlance as REO, for real estate owned — or putting it up for auction at a sheriff's sale. The bank sent a letter notifying the homeowner of an impending foreclosure sale, the homeowner moved out, the house was sold, and the bank applied the proceeds toward the unpaid portion of the original mortgage.

That has changed since the housing crash. Financial institutions have realized that following through on sales of decaying houses in markets swamped with foreclosures may not yield anything close to what is owed on them.

By walking away, banks can at least reap the insurance, tax and accounting benefits from documenting the loss — without having to take on any of the costs and responsibilities of ownership, according to a 2010 Federal Reserve paper. A walk-away also enables them to "sell the unpaid debt to debt collectors, sometimes noting to the court that the loan has been charged off," according to a Case Western Reserve University study released in 2011.

No regulations require that banks let homeowners know when they change their minds about a foreclosure. So they rarely do, according to housing court judges, homeowners' lawyers and academics who study foreclosure problems. "The banks do not answer inquiries, they do not answer phone calls, they do not answer letters," says Judge Patrick Carney of the Buffalo, New York, Housing Court. His zombie-title caseload has swollen in the past few years to well into the hundreds. "The whole situation is surreal," he says.

Real estate Foreclosure: The trashed and damaged dining room of Joseph and Jennifer Keller's abandoned house is pictured in Columbus, Ohio, September 30, 2012. IMAGE

CLEAN UP OR ELSE

Marlon Sheafe, a 55-year-old who drove trucks for Sara Lee Corp for 25 years, was sentenced to probation in May. The citation from the Cleveland Housing Court says that if he doesn't fix the problems with the investment property he bought in 2005, the grandfather of three, who suffers from advanced cancer, will go to jail in May 2014.

Ocwen Financial Corp., the servicer of Sheafe's mortgage, foreclosed on the house in 2008, when Sheafe was hospitalized with congestive heart failure and later lost his job, forcing him into default. That was the last he heard about the house until a year and a half ago, when he received a summons to appear in Cleveland Housing Court for code infractions on the property: cracked steps, shredded siding, weeds as tall as the doors. There was also a $300 lawn-mowing bill.

A few weeks later, Sheafe appeared at the drab, brown-paneled chambers of the Cleveland Housing Court, packed, as it is every Tuesday and Thursday lately, with other people in his situation. Sheafe expected his appearance that day would clear up what he thought was a big mistake. Instead he left with the order to get the house up to code.

Sheafe started visiting the tall, crooked house every week. Looters had stripped the place bare. The "dope boys" had left their sneakers on the porch and their empty cans of sausages strewn around inside. Sheafe repaired the steps and spray-painted patches of the exterior where the vinyl siding had been ripped off. He returned every week to check on the house and mow the lawn.

While Sheafe worked on the house, Judge Pianka worked on the mortgage servicer, subpoenaing Ocwen to appear in court. In February, Ocwen released its lien on the house, which Sheafe hoped would enable him to donate it to the local land bank — one of many set up by local governments in recent years to manage abandoned properties.

But Sheafe still can't shake free of the house. The county sold his tax lien to a debt collector, which is now suing Sheafe for foreclosure. He also faces $4,185 for code violations, $185 for court costs and up to $10,000 if the city is forced to tear down the house.

"There's no end to this," Sheafe says. "I can't win."

Asked to comment, Ocwen issued a statement saying: "It is Ocwen's policy not to disclose details about specific customers. In this case, Ocwen has attempted to work with the borrower over a four-year period. Ocwen offered to settle the account with the borrower but never received a response to the offer."

Sheafe says he couldn't afford the amount Ocwen proposed in its settlement offer.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency established in the wake of the financial crisis to guard against predatory lending and other abuses, declined to comment for this article.

Joe Smith is the monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement, the agreement struck a year ago between major banks and state attorneys general to, in part, address foreclosure abuses. In a statement responding to a request for comment, he said: "To my knowledge, the servicers' behavior in the situation... is not covered by any standards in the settlement." He added: "However, it does sound like there are problems with this type of treatment. I recommend the borrowers contact their state's attorney general and remember that the settlement does not preclude borrowers from taking their own legal action."

Patrick Madigan, Iowa's assistant attorney general, was instrumental in crafting the National Mortgage Settlement. He said that he thought the consent decree would attempt to address the issue of foreclosure limbo, but that in the end, the language in the order was ambiguous. "It's a very difficult situation," Madigan said.

NO RESPONSIBILITY

Banks say that because they are not the legal owners of these homes, they aren't required to maintain them, pay taxes on them, or take any legal responsibility for them. Homeowners legally own their properties until the day of sale. And it's not until that day, the banks point out, that a homeowner's name vanishes from the title.

David Volker found that out the hard way. When the housing market crashed, so did Volker's contractor business, and he was unable to keep up with payments on his barn-like two-story house in Buffalo, N.Y. His mortgage servicer, HSBC, foreclosed on the home in 2009. A few months later, while he was staying with his girlfriend, he stopped by the house to find an HSBC padlock on the doorknob and bank stickers plastered across the door.

Shattered glass covered his front steps. When he crawled through a broken window, he found the place trashed — by whom, he doesn't know. Even the toilets were gone. Hearing nothing more from the bank, he figured the house was no longer his.

The place continued to decay. Gutters tore loose from the eaves. The yard turned into a dump for balding tires. Volker's neighbors started complaining to the Buffalo Housing Court, which eventually tracked down Volker at the rental where the 49-year-old was living and ordered him to appear in court. That's when Judge Carney told him that he was still the owner.

"I was stunned," Volker says. "I never for a moment thought I still owned this house."

Volker worked with a realtor to try to get HSBC to take several short-sale offers — deals under which the bank would allow Volker to sell the house for less than the amount owed on it — but he says HSBC turned them down. Since then, he's been asking the bank to agree to a deed in lieu, whereby he would give the house back to the bank. So far, he hasn't been able to make that happen.

He has $1,000 in water and trash bills and faces up to $30,000 in demolition fees if the city decides his house is a safety hazard and must be torn down.

HSBC declined to comment on Volker's case, citing privacy concerns. In a statement, the bank said it "has a strong commitment to home preservation and regards foreclosure as a last resort, only after alternatives have been exhausted and the borrower is seriously delinquent."

Cases against zombie-title holders are rising due to everything from sewer bills to tilting chimneys, and they are clogging the courts. In Milwaukee, Wis., about 900 cases in the foreclosure process involve zombie titles. In South Bend, Ind., the number is 1,275, up from 600 in 2006. In Memphis, Tenn., cases have doubled in the past two years to 1,500.

In Cleveland, 15 percent of foreclosures between 2005 and 2009 stalled out in foreclosure limbo, more than a third of them involving homeowners who had fled foreclosure notices, according to the Case Western Reserve study.

STATE ACTION

State tax authorities are getting into the game, too. When IndyMac foreclosed on Richard Chavarry's house in Victorville, Calif., in 2008, he had already relocated to Los Angeles to escape the 80-mile commute to his job. The renters he had initially relied on to help him keep up payments on the Victorville house were long gone, too. But he had no idea that IndyMac canceled the sale in October 2009. "They never notified me," Chavarry said.

Nearly two years passed before Chavarry started getting citations in the mail for code violations from the city of Victorville. In February, the California Tax Board seized his $631 tax refund to pay the city back for the costs of scrubbing graffiti, removing tumbleweeds and boarding up the windows of Chavarry's house.

In March, Chavarry filed a deed in lieu to try to get IndyMac, now owned by OneWest Bank, to take back the house. The bank rejected it. Chavarry still owes the county $5,731 in back taxes and fees for housing-code violations.

IndyMac declined to comment.

Once a bank walks away from a foreclosure, the real rot begins. Living rooms turn into meth labs. Falling shingles menace passers-by. Squatters' cooking fires turn into infernos. The latest iteration of the trend: gas explosions.

Electric companies usually shut off the juice when homeowners tell the utility they are moving. But natural-gas companies usually don't. In recent months, abandoned homes have exploded in Chicago, Cleveland and Bridgeport, Conn.. In all cases, foreclosed homeowners had moved out. With no one home to smell the gas, it went undetected — until the houses blew up.

"We are seeing more and more close calls," says Mark McDonald, a former natural gas public safety worker who now runs the New England Gas Workers Association. "These houses are a formula for disaster."

Cities are struggling to find ways to cope with growing numbers of blighted properties. Miami, Detroit and Las Vegas have created registries intended to force banks to take more responsibility for vacant houses.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has opposed these measures. Placing "unreasonable" and "onerous" requests upon servicers will only hurt the already ailing mortgage-lending business, the association says on its website.

The association did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Registry advocates say the banking industry's opposition has helped water down some of those actions, such as a recently enacted Georgia law that requires banks to register vacant properties only after a foreclosure has been completed.

A vacant-property ordinance in Los Angeles requires banks to register a house as soon as they file a default notice. Failure to do so could result in a $1,000-a-day fee. However, "it's not being enforced," says Los Angeles Assistant City Attorney Tina Hess. "Part of the problem in L.A. is the building and safety departments have been cut so severely they don't have the inspection staff to monitor these properties."

Real estate Foreclosure: Joseph Keller looks at the trash and damage in the attic of his abandoned house in Columbus, Ohio, September 30, 2012. IMAGE

"TO HELL AND BACK"

In Columbus, Ohio, Joseph Keller recently paid a visit to the empty house on Avondale Avenue. In the living room, the floor was littered with dirty diapers, pill bottles, condoms, sooty mattresses and soda cans. In the kitchen, squatters had hung pink curtains.

"They tore it to hell and back," Keller said, kicking at a dirty mattress. "We never would have left the home if we weren't told to get out."

The Kellers live in their daughter's dining room, where their queen-size bed leaves little room to maneuver. Joseph can't sit, stand or sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time. He can't take pain medication because of his diseased liver. Every few months, he makes a trip to the emergency room, where doctors drain his abdomen of excess fluid.

Last May, Chase's debt collector, Professional Recovery Services, sent Keller a letter: "At this time," it said, "we are able to offer you a settlement of $25,258.41 on this account to be paid within 15 days." He lacks that kind of money, as well as the $11,759.08 he owes to the county in back taxes.

Professional Recovery Services declined to comment.

At a hearing in early December, a Social Security administrative judge told the Kellers that he would review their appeal of the original denial of benefits, a process that he said could take two months.

Joseph Keller responded that he might not be around that long. Earlier this month, the judge sent the case back to the local office after it determined that the house was virtually worthless. Keller still has no benefits.

A Social Security Administration spokesperson declined to comment on the case.

"He's dying," says Keller's daughter, Barbara. "He needs his name off this house."