Exposing the secret corporate coup of our democratic elections

Posted by Jim Hightower

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A big surprise in this year's elections is that American politics has become dominated by the least likely of participants: Shy people. That's strange, since running for office is an ego game, attracting those at ease with self-promotion. But the hot new trend is to campaign anonymously, not even whispering your name to voters.

Of course, these are not the campaigns of actual candidates, nor are the campaigners even people. Rather, they are corporations, empowered by the Frankensteins on our Supreme Court to possess the political rights of us real human-type people. Using their shareholders' money, corporate entities are spending hundreds-of-millions of dollars to elect or defeat whomever they choose.

You would know these corporations, for they are major brand-names from Big Oil, Big Food, Big Pharma, etc. Normally, they are not at all bashful about promoting their corporate brands, but – shhhh – they want to be totally secretive about their massive spending to decide who holds office in America. They realize that their self-serving campaigns would alienate their customers, employees, and shareholders, so they're keeping their involvement hush-hush.

One agency could compel them to reveal their spending on what amounts to a corporate coup of our democratic elections: The Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC is supposed to guard the right of investors to know how corporate executives are spending their money. But this watchdog isn't barking, much less biting, thus allowing CEOs to take unlimited amounts of other people's money, without their permission, and secretly pour it down the darkest hole in American politics.

SEC's inaction is gutless, making it complicit in the corporate corruption of our governing system. To help make it do its duty, link up with Public Citizen: www.citizen.org.

"The S.E.C. and Political Spending," The New York Times, October 29, 2014.

Time to Get Even or Time to Get Over It?

By Taegan Goddard

Gerald Seib: “Republicans, of course, have taken control of the Senate after eight years of Democratic rule, and lawmakers from both parties are nursing serious grievances over how the other side behaved during that stretch.”

“Democrats endured a blizzard of Republican filibusters, shattering previous records and helping gum up the works. That’s the burden new Majority Leader Mitch McConnell carries when he says, as he did the day after the election, ‘This gridlock and dysfunction can be ended.'”

“Republicans chafed under the iron-fisted rule of Democratic leader Harry Reid , who regularly limited debate, blocked amendments and prevented votes. That’s the burden Mr. Reid now faces when he says, as he did last week, ‘This is not get-even time.'”

Mentally Ill Cleveland Woman Was Killed by Police In Front of Her Family, Brother Says

By Brandon Blackwell

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A 37 year old bipolar and schizophrenic woman died after police slammed her to the pavement outside her family's home, her brother said.

Tanesha Anderson was pronounced dead at Cleveland Clinic early Thursday after an altercation with officers nearly two hours earlier on the 1300 block of Ansel Road.

"They killed my sister," her 40-year-old brother Joell Anderson said with welling eyes in his living room Thursday night. "I watched it."

Officers were called to the home after a family member reported that Anderson was disturbing the peace.

Patrolmen had lengthy discussions with Tanesha Anderson and members of her family. Everyone agreed she should undergo an evaluation at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, police said.

The official police account of what happened next is at odds with what several members of Tanesha Anderson's family said they witnessed.

"As the officers escorted Anderson to the police vehicle, she began actively resisting the officers," police spokesman Sgt. Ali Pillow said in a press release.

Officers placed her in handcuffs and she began to resist officers' attempts to put her in a squad car, Pillow said.

"The woman began to kick at officers," he said. "A short time later the woman stopped struggling and appeared to go limp. Officers found a faint pulse on the victim and immediately called EMS."

Joell Anderson gave a different account.

"She was more of a danger to herself than others," he said.

Two male officers escorted Tanesha Anderson, who was prescribed medication for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, to the police cruiser. She sat herself in the backseat but became nervous about the confined space and tried to get out, Anderson said.

Police struggled to keep her in the car and an officer eventually drew a Taser. Joell Anderson said he begged the officer not to use the weapon on his sister.

Tanesha Anderson called out for her brother and mother while an officer repeatedly pressed down on her head to get her into the backseat. After several attempts, the officer used a takedown move to force her to the pavement, Joell Anderson said.

The officer placed his knee on Tanesha Anderson's back and handcuffed her. She never opened her eyes or spoke another word, her brother said.

Joell Anderson asked officers to help his unconscious sister. They refused to touch the East High School graduate until a female officer called to the scene arrived, Joell Anderson said.

His sister's sundress was lifted above her waist when the officer took her down. Joell Anderson used his jacket to cover her naked lower body.

The Anderson family watched Tanesha Anderson lie on the ground for about 20 minutes until an ambulance arrived, Joell Anderson said. The medical examiner has not determined what killed the woman.

"She was outgoing, silly, always joking," Joell Anderson said. "She just wasn't doing very well that day."

The Cleveland Division of Police Use of Deadly Force Investigation Team is examining the case.

Every Treasured Progressive Reform Since the Abolition of Slavery Has Been Called 'Socialism'

But there is evidence that the American public is warming up to the term. 

By Zaid Jilani

 Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Congress's longest-serving independent, is reportedly seriously considering running for the White House. This is significant because Sanders openly declares himself to be a democratic socialist – a label which has been a taboo in U.S. political culture for decades.

But while Sanders will likely be attacked for identifying with socialism, it has a long history of being used by the reactionary right as a smear. In fact, that history pre-dates the Civil War. History blogger Matt Karp searched the Congressional record and found the very first instance that the word “socialism” was uttered in Congress. He found that the first time anyone used the phrase was when a North Carolinian congressman used it to attack opponents of slavery:

As far as I can make out, the first reference to “socialism” on the floor of Congress came  from North Carolina representative Abraham Venable in July 1848. During a debate over the Wilmot Proviso, Venable indulged himself in a familiar litany of destructive Northern manias, which ranged from “the wicked schemes of Garrison” to “the wild excesses of  Millerism, and of Latter-Day Saints, the abominations of Socialism, and of Fourieriesm …  and all the numerous fanaticisms which spring up and flourish in their  free soil…” […] This kind of pro-slavery, anti-Northern rant was the context for most mentions of “socialism” in Congress during the next several years.

As Karp notes, the “socialism” smear continued to rear its head during the next year leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation, as pro-slavery advocates warned that if abolitionists succeeded in ending the South's ownership of human beings, they may soon also end private ownership of massive industries like banking.

After the end of slavery, conservatives continued to invoke socialism to oppose all kinds of progressive reforms. In the early 20th century, the Congress, prodded by what was indeed an independent socialist movement and various other labor forces, banned child labor. But after the Supreme Court struck down the ban, arguing it violated state's rights, Congress debated a constitutional amendment to ban the practice instead (which required a larger threshold of votes to pass). One senator who opposed to the ban claimed that the child labor amendment was really about placing socialism “into the flesh and blood of Americans.”

When Franklin Roosevelt (under whom the previously mentioned ban on child labor finally went through and was not struck down by a conservative Supreme Court) advocated for the Social Security system, the American Medical Association (AMA) opposed his push, saying that he was trying to enact a “compulsory socialistic tax.”

One of the most prominent uses of the socialism smear was when Lyndon Johnson was pushing for the enactment of Medicare, the single-payer health insurance system for the elderly. Ronald Reagan, then a prominent actor and not a politician, appeared in audio recordings for the AMA Operation Coffee Cup – which organized Americans to oppose the health care push. “One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people is by way of medicine,” warned Reagan in the advertisement.

All of this begs the question: if all of these major reforms that are today virtually uncontroversial – few ever call for the total abolition of Medicare and Social Security, or for re-instating child labor or slavery – were decried as socialism, maybe socialism isn't so bad after all?

There is evidence that American public opinion is starting to warm up to the term. In 2011, Pew conducted polling finding that, among Americans age 18-29, 49 percent of them had a positive view of socialism, whereas 43 percent had a negative view. Meanwhile, among the same age bracket, 46 percent had a positive view of capitalism, while 47 percent had a negative view of it. While the overall views of Americans remained decidedly negative – with 60 percent holding a negative view of socialism and just 30 percent holding a positive view – this generational difference may point to shifting attitudes among future generations.

It may be just that shift in perspective that Sanders can tap into if he decides to seek the presidency – and a legacy of “socialism” that gave America some of its most treasured social policy reforms.

Landrieu v Cassidy - How Liberals and Working Class Are Fooled By The Media Narrative

By TomCADem

The corporate media has repeatedly pushed the narratives:

1. That the President is unpopular and politically toxic.
2. That Democrats are running away from President Obama and his policies.

Only stories that fit in this narrative are portrayed. Stories that are inconsistent with this narrative are ignored. This narrative fulls the public, including liberals, into apathy with the meme that Democrats' only platform is that they are not President Obama. In the meantime, as Bernie Sanders explained issues of relevance to the people are ignored. This is why voters could manage to vote for Republicans who are against the minimum wage while also supporting propositions raising the minimum wage,

If you look at the Landrieu race, you see thread after thread on this Board calling Senator Landrieu a DINO based entirely on her position on the Keystone pipeline, which should not be surprising since LA is one of the States that would likely benefit from the pipeline even though most other states would not benefit.

However, there are issues beyond the pipeline, and it is clear that there is a world of difference between Landrieu and Cassidy. Many of folks have insisted, even on Democratic Underground, that it would not make a difference if Cassidy beats Landrieu. The ignorance of this line of argument is exposed by the summary below of the candidate's stated positions on the issues. Some will argue why haven't we hard this? Perhaps it is because it just does not fit the media narrative that (1) Democrats are running away from President Obama and Democratic priorities and (2) that there just isn't that much difference between Democrats and Republicans. Look at how the mainstream media largely ignored the extreme positions states by Joni Erst in the Iowa race.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/campus-election-engagement-project/mary-landrieu-vs-bill-cas_b_6014592.html

Budget: Did you support raising the Federal debt ceiling with no strings attached?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Campaign Finance: Do you support the DISCLOSE Act, which would require key funders of political ads to put their names on those ads?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Campaign Finance: Do you support the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which allowed unlimited independent political expenditures by corporations and unions?
Landrieu: No
Cassidy: Unknown

Economy: Do you support raising the minimum wage?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Economy: Do you support extending unemployment benefits beyond 26 weeks?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Economy: Do you support the Dodd-Frank Act, which established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and sought to increase regulation of Wall Street corporations and other financial institutions?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Economy: Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: Yes

Education: Do you support refinancing of student loans at lower rates, paid for by increasing taxes on income over a million dollars?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: Unknown

Environment: Do you believe that human activity is a major factor contributing to climate change?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Environment: Do you support government action to limit the levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Environment: Do you support government mandates and/or subsidies for renewable energy?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: Yes

Gay Marriage: Do you support gay marriage?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Gun Control: Do you support enacting more restrictive gun control legislation?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Healthcare: Do you support repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare?
Landrieu: No
Cassidy: Yes. Also authored bill permitting people to keep insurance policies that didn't meet the coverage standards of the law.

Healthcare: Did you support shutting down the federal government in order to defund Obamacare in 2013?
Landrieu: No
Cassidy: Yes

Immigration: Do you support the D.R.E.A.M. Act, which would allow children brought into the country illegally to achieve legal status if they've graduated from high school, have a clean legal record, and attend college or serve in the military?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Immigration: Do you support the comprehensive immigration plan passed by the Senate in 2013, which includes a pathway to citizenship and increased funding for border security?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Social Issues: Should abortion be highly restricted?
Landrieu: No, although supports ban on late-term abortions
Cassidy: Yes

Social Issues: Should employers be able to withhold contraceptive coverage from employees if they disagree with it morally?
Landrieu: No
Cassidy: Yes

Social Issues: Should Planned Parenthood receive public funds for non-abortion health services?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No

Social Security: Do you support partial privatization of Social Security?
Landrieu: No
Cassidy: Unknown

Taxes: Have you signed the Americans for Tax Reform Pledge to oppose any tax increases to raise revenue? (The answer to this question is taken from the database of signatories of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, created by Americans for Tax Reform. Signers to the pledge promise to oppose "any and all tax increases" meant to generate additional revenue.)
Landrieu: No
Cassidy: Yes

Taxes: Would you increase taxes on corporations and/or high-income individuals to pay for public services?
Landrieu: Yes
Cassidy: No. See above

Shut the Fuck Up, George W. Bush

HEY, GEORGE W. BUSH!

Posted By Rude One

Fuck you, George W. Bush. Go suck on some hairy rhino balls so that your mouth is so full of sack that you can't breathe, let alone talk. And fuck you to all the media outlets treating Bush like a long-lost beloved uncle who has finally come back from exploring the Congo with his Hottentot manservants.

Any interview with the former president should begin with "Shut the fuck up, you fucking America-wrecking imbecile" and end with "Why won't you shut the fuck up, you fucking torturing, murdering, war criminal motherfucker?"

Bush has been just about everywhere promoting his book on his fucking asshole father who everyone loves now because he's old and jumps out of planes and shit, but who was a shitty president who bobbed on Reagan's knob until he lost his own personality.

Here's W. on NPR when asked if his mission in Iraq was as clear as his father's during the Persian Gulf War: "Yes. I think in many ways it was. It was more complex because this decision was made in a post-9/11 world. In other words, the removal of Saddam from Kuwait was definitely in our national interest. But it didn't necessarily mean that the United States's homeland would be threatened or not threatened depending upon his actions. In our case, the 9/11 attacks changed the strategic equation for the United States, and we had to deal with threats before they fully materialized."

Wait. Yes, it was as clear as Dad's but it wasn't because it was more "complex"? Ah, there's that old logic. And, motherfucker, you are the fucking godfather of the post-9/11 world. And, motherfucker, are you still tying Saddam Hussein to 9/11? In less than 5 minutes, Bush mentions 9/11 four times. It's all he's got. So shut the fuck up already.

And then there's the softballs, like on Face Bob Schieffer's Face, Nation, when Schieffer's face asked Bush if politics has gotten "meaner." Bush actually said, "People were held to account for what they said. In other words, there was a pushback. Now there's just so much stuff out there--flotsam out there that people say what they feel like saying without any consequences." And Schieffer did not arthritically rise out of his chair and bitch slap Bush, screaming, "Motherfucker, that cocksucker Karl Rove ran your campaigns. You fucking made it meaner. Rove was never held accountable, even for outing a fucking CIA agent whose husband pissed him off. He should be skull fucked by bears. Shut the fuck up."

Let's not even talk about his Today show appearance, which should cause the set to be burned and the ground salted.

Why are we doing this? Why is Bush allowed to go anywhere without crowds pelting his car with shit and rotten tomatoes and eggs? Why aren't there riots at his book signings, demanding his arrest for crimes against humanity? Why hasn't he been run so far out of any town that he has to live in an underground bunker so that the angry masses don't tear him limb from limb? Are we that brain-damaged a nation that we've forgotten? Are we that delusional that we can't just say, endlessly, "Shut the fuck up," and mean that we never want to hear from him again until we all jubilantly join hands and do a crazy jig on his grave?

Oh, and, fuck you, W., you didn't write a fuckin' book.

Bernie Sanders Wants To Make Election Day A National Holiday

WASHINGTON - Frustrated with the historic number of voters who chose not to participate in this year's midterm elections, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday announced his intention to introduce legislation that would make Election Day a national holiday to give Americans more opportunity to vote.

"In America, we should be celebrating our democracy and doing everything possible to make it easier for people to participate in the political process. Election Day should be a national holiday so that everyone has the time and opportunity to vote. While this would not be a cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to create a more vibrant democracy," the progressive senator said in a statement.

Turnout in Tuesday's elections clocked in at a paltry 37 percent, compared to about 41 percent in 2010, according to data from the United States Elections Project. If that projection holds, it would be the lowest voter turnout since 1942.

The voters who did show up to vote largely skewed older, whiter and more male compared with other election cycles, and the results were obvious. Republicans picked up control of the Senate, gained seats in the House, won key gubernatorial posts and greatly expanded their hold on state legislatures.

Younger and minority voters, on the other hand, largely stayed at home. Voters in the 18-29 age range made up only 13 percent of the electorate, compared with nearly a quarter that were seniors, who tend to support Republicans.

President Barack Obama acknowledged the matter in a press conference on Wednesday, saying, "To the two-thirds of voters who chose not to participate in the process yesterday, I hear you, too."

But the number of people who vote in midterm elections isn't the only problem according to Sanders.

The Vermont independent also called typical levels of turnout in presidential elections "an international embarrassment." The number is higher in presidential years, but the U.S. still ranks behind 120 other countries in average turnout.

"We should not be satisfied with a 'democracy' in which more than 60 percent of our people don't vote and some 80 percent of young people and low-income Americans fail to vote," he added. "We can and must do better than that. While we must also focus on campaign finance reform and public funding of elections, establishing an Election Day holiday would be an important step forward."

Sanders said he would file the bill, titled ''Democracy Day Act of 2014," once Congress reconvenes next week.

Website Peeps Into 73,000 Unsecured Security Cameras Via Default Passwords

Posted by Soulskill

colinneagle writes:  

 

After coming across a Russian website that streams video from unsecured video cameras that employ default usernames and passwords (the site claims it's doing it to raise awareness of privacy risks), a blogger used the information available to try to contact the people who were unwittingly streamed on the site. It didn't go well. The owner of a pizza restaurant, for example, cursed her out over the phone and accused her of "hacking" the cameras herself. And whoever (finally) answered the phone at a military building whose cameras were streaming on the site told her to "call the Pentagon."

The most common location of the cameras was the U.S., but many others were accessed from South Korea, China, Mexico, the UK, Italy, and France, among others. Some are from businesses, and some are from personal residences. Particularly alarming was the number of camera feeds of sleeping babies, which people often set up to protect them, but, being unaware of the risks, don't change the username or password from the default options that came with the cameras.

It's not the first time this kind of issue has come to light. In September 2013, the FTC cracked down on TRENDnet after its unsecured cameras were found to be accessible online. But the Russian site accesses cameras from several manufacturers, raising some new questions — why are strong passwords not required for these cameras? And, once this becomes mandatory, what can be done about the millions of unsecured cameras that remain live in peoples' homes?

Progressives voting for GOP?

The results from midterms have people scratching their heads. Voters in four states chose to raise the minimum wage, but three of those states voted for GOP senators. Al Sharpton gets to the bottom of it all.

Obama seems numb to this latest ‘shellacking’ of Democrats

By Dana Milbank


US President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference in the East Room of the White House on November 5, 2014 in Washington, DC. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

“I hear you,” President Obama said to the voters who gave Democrats an electoral drubbing in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

But their message went in one presidential ear and out the other.

The Republican victory was a political earthquake, giving the opposition party control of the Senate, expanding its House majority to a level not seen in generations and burying Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

Yet when Obama fielded questions for an hour Wednesday afternoon, he spoke as if Tuesday had been but a minor irritation. He announced no changes in staff or policy, acknowledged no fault or error and expressed no contrition or regret. Though he had called Democrats’ 2010 losses a “shellacking,” he declined even to label Tuesday’s results.

Obama declared that he would continue with plans for executive orders to expand legal status to undocumented immigrants — even though, minutes before Obama’s news conference, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said that would be “like waving a red flag in front of a bull.”

Obama repeated a familiar list of priorities — a minimum-wage hike, infrastructure and education spending, climate-change action — and brushed off various Republican proposals.

About the closest Obama got to a concession was offering to have some Kentucky bourbon with McConnell (he had once joked about how unpleasant a drink with McConnell would be) and “letting John Boehner beat me again at golf.”

President George W. Bush was rarely one to admit error, but on the day after the midterm “thumpin’ ” Republicans received eight years ago, he responded dramatically. Bush announced the ouster of defense chief Donald Rumsfeld and set in motion a new Iraq policy. He also offered a frank acknowledgment that everything had changed: “The election’s over and the Democrats won, and now we’re going to work together for two years to accomplish big objectives for the country.”

Obama was blase by comparison. “Obviously, Republicans had a good night,” he said, but “beyond that, I’ll leave it to all of you and the professional pundits to pick through yesterday’s results.” The message that Obama took from the election, he said, was that Americans “want us to get the job done. All of us in both parties have a responsibility to address that sentiment.”

It’s true that voters are disgusted with both parties, but they were particularly unhappy with Obama.

In exit polls, 33 percent said their votes were to show disapproval of him (19 percent said they were showing support). In The Post, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid’s chief of staff all but blamed Obama for the loss.

But Obama wasn’t about to acknowledge fault, or the need for change. He allowed that, as president, he has “a unique responsibility to try and make this town work.” But his solution was to defer responsibility: “I look forward to Republicans putting forward their governing agenda.”

Indeed, Tuesday’s returns did not trouble him greatly, he said. “There are times when you’re a politician and you’re disappointed with election results,” he said. “But maybe I’m just getting older. I don’t know. It doesn’t make me mopey.”

Reporters tried, with little success, to elicit any hint of a new direction from Obama.

“Do you feel any responsibility to recalibrate your agenda?” asked Julie Pace of the Associated Press.
Obama leaned casually on the lectern, left toe touching right heel. “A minimum-wage increase, for example,” he said, is “something I talked about a lot during the campaign.”

But any changes? “Every single day, I’m looking for, ‘How can we do what we need to do better?’ ” was the vague reply.

ABC News’s Jon Karl asked whether it was “a mistake for you to do so little to develop relationships with Republicans in Congress.”

“Every day I’m asking myself, ‘Are there some things I can do better?’ ” Obama demurred.

Fox News’s Ed Henry pointed out the obvious: “I haven’t heard you say a specific thing during this news conference that you would do differently.”

Obama restated his passive stance, saying it would be “premature” to talk about changing personnel or policies. “What I’d like to do is to hear from the Republicans.”

NPR’s Scott Horsley gave a last try, asking Obama whether he saw “some shortcoming on your part” because Democratic policies fared better than Democratic candidates. (Minimum-wage increases passed in five states, and exit polls found support for Democratic views on climate change, immigration, abortion, same-sex marriage and health care.)

Obama replied in the conditional: “If the way we are talking about issues isn’t working, then I’m going to try some different things.”

But after Tuesday, it’s no longer a question of “if.”
 
Twitter: @Milbank
 
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That'll Teach That Negro to Be President

I am getting ready to take this blog down.  I am not going to waste my time trying to inform you zit nibbling, coupon clipping, Copenhagen snuff dipping, corn cob pipe smoking, biscuit and gravy sopping numbskulls who are repeatedly voting against your best interests. 

 

If you know that nothing has been done in the last 6 years, and the main reason that nothing has been done is because the trickster Republicans have said no to everything, then why do you keep electing these cocksuckers?  KICK THEIR ASSES OUT!  dlevere.

 

Posted by Rude One

1. Here's everything you need to know about the 2014 midterms in a single anecdote: Last week, as he's mentioned, the Rude Pundit convinced the Rude Brother to vote for the Democrat, Mary Landrieu, in the Louisiana Senate race. The Rude Brother has long been Republican, but he is also for raising taxes on the wealthy, doesn't care about gay marriage, thinks abortion should be safe and legal, and agrees that humans contribute to climate change, among other beliefs. By just about any measure of politics, the Rude Brother is moderate-left, a Democrat. When the conversation ended, RB had said he would vote for Landrieu.

Cut to Election Day morning. The Rude Pundit received a text from RB: "And, in the end, the kid couldn't pull the trigger for Mary." A little later, he got another message: "It felt dirty voting for Landrieu." RB went with Bill Cassidy, the Republican, who believes the opposite of everything RB believes in. In fact, Bill Cassidy will try to take health insurance away from our Rude Sister and her family. RB had said he has no problems with Obamacare. Well, he does now.

There you have election 2014. A voter goes into the booth believing the world should be a certain way and then pushes the buttons for the candidates who will do everything they can to stop the world from being that way.

2. And that was the pattern just about everywhere for the night. Citizens in Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota all hiked their state's minimum wage by huge margins while still voting in the Republican for Senate and/or governor. In Alaska, the minimum wage hike passed and Republican Dan Sullivan is leading incumbent Mark Begich. In Colorado, the voters defeated a personhood amendment while voting in for Senator a goddamn guy who sponsored a federal version of the thing.  
Fucking Kentucky fuckers are happy pigs in the Obamacare mud, but, fuck you, Alison Grimes. Kentuckians want the cockknob who wanted them to stay sick and toothless.

And this isn't just in what you consider red or reddish states. In fucking Illinois, voters said "yes" to raising the minimum wage, a constitutional amendment for the right to vote, a higher tax on millionaires to fund schools, and a birth control mandate for insurance plans. They elected the Republican for governor, and he opposes at least two of those measures - the tax and the minimum wage (Bruce Rauner has said he wasn't going to get involved in "social issues" like birth control).

It's not just inconsistency. It's fucking insanity and impossible to reconcile, except to say, as Michael Tomasky did, that it's easier to support progressive goals at the local level because the White House nigger doesn't support them. If the nigger wants it, you gotta be against it. 

Nobody wants that nigger around. How dare that nigger be our president? How the fuck did that happen? (Yeah, racism is to blame for the way the electorate has so virulently turned against President Obama. But we've been saying this since at least 2010. Mary Landrieu is right, but you get raked over the coals for speaking it aloud.)

3. Shut the fuck up if you're writing some think piece about how Republicans will work with President Obama now. Shut the fuck up if you're writing about how Republicans will have to govern now. Shut the fuck up if you're writing blindly optimistic fantasy fiction about all the amazing things Obama will do now that he's unshackled completely from Congress. Just shut the fuck up.

Here's what's gonna happen, as sure as you're reading this. Republicans ran on one simple message: We will do nothing. Oh, sure, they made a big deal about repealing the Affordable Care Act or whatever, but that ain't happening until Obama is gone. So they will do nothing. It's the easiest fucking goal to reach, almost beautiful in its sinister simplicity. Republicans in the Senate are going to block any nominee for anything. Legislation was never going to pass, even if they lost the Senate. So they will vote for an agenda that has no way of getting past Obama's veto. They will vote to overturn the vetoes and fail. They will hold useless hearings on useless topics like Benghazi and, oh, fuck, why not, Ebola. They will subpoena the White House endlessly, which will slow the work of the Executive Branch. There will be talk of impeachment, but that won't go anywhere because it would be doing something, which is not part of the GOP ethos now.

And people will praise them for being brave because courage comes cheap in this decadent age, wallowing in the slippery afterbirth of what the nation did last night. People will praise them, as they already are, for "moderating," when moderation is just a mask made of flesh that they put on to disguise the true horror heaving breath underneath.

4. The bottom line is this: People like Democratic ideas. They don't like Democrats. That's all. You can blame many things: useless consultants, failure to defend Obama's policies, failure by Obama to demonstrate how he has done good things for the vast majority of Americans, shitty DNC leadership, the Republicans ginning up fear in the last couple of weeks, failure to inspire young people and non-whites to get to the polls, on and on. But the Rude Pundit just gets back to what the Rude Brother said, that "it felt dirty" to vote for a Democrat. How do you overcome that?

You want this to end happily and hopefully. You need someone to tell you it's not that bad. You are desperate for columns and blog posts that relieve what ails you, whether its nausea, rage, or, most likely, disgusted exhaustion. This isn't going to do it. There needs to be some big time soul-searching. Hillary Clinton and 2016 ain't the cure for what ails you because, well, shit, after that is 2018 (and Clinton is problematic, but that's another riff for another time). We have to accept the obvious ignorance of the voting public. Mostly, people are stupid yahoos, hunched naked in ditches, picking at nits, looking for a shiny object they can worship. 

Democrats have to make that object. We have create a new narrative. Not a counter-narrative as a response to Republicans, but a narrative that Republicans must respond to. And we have to be willing to stick with that narrative, not abandon it like a hot boyfriend after one fuck, as happened after the 2008 election.

The Rude Pundit has said before, and he'll say again and again: We have to stop acting like the visiting team in our own country.

Electronic Voter ID System Failure Leads to Emergency Suit in Florida by Charlie Crist

By Ernest A. Canning

While we've been covering multiple cases of on-screen vote flipping by the 100% unverifiable Direct Recording Electronic (DRE, usually touch-screen) systems, another electronic vote-related system failure, relating to the state's Electronic Voter ID (EVID) system, has also emerged in the state of Florida.

The state Democratic Party filed an emergency Motion for Ex Parte Relief [PDF] earlier this evening seeking to compel Broward County election officials to keep polls open until 9:00 p.m. They alleged, among other issues, that an "EVID system throughout the day has prevented voters from being able to update their address on the day of the election, as they are permitted to do by law."

Instead of being allowed to vote, voters were "asked to present themselves at the Supervisor of Elections office in order to update their address and return to the polling place at a later time to vote a regular ballot." That and other issues may have prevented the lawful casting of ballots in an extraordinarily close Governor's race...

According to the Broward County Supervisor of Elections website, the EVID "is used to verify a voter’s address, status and signature information at Early Voting and the polls. The voter presents his (or her) Florida Driver’s License or Florida Motor Vehicle Identification Card (with the magnetic strip) to the clerk at the precinct and the card is swiped through the EVID unit, which accesses the voter database and displays the information for the voter so that it can be verified as to precinct, address, etc."

Miami Herald is reporting former Governor Charlie Crist (D) complained that there had been "individual and systemic breakdowns," which also entailed "a polling station that went offline for more than 90 minutes."

Crist, a former Republican Governor turned Democrat, is currently in a deadlocked battle with Florida's current Republican Gov. Rick Scott. If results are as close as pre-election polls have predicted, any problems at the polls on Election Day could become part of a potential legal contest by either candidate.

Republicans win control of the Senate

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29879340

I have to fucking get this off my chest

By Unknown Beatle

Fuck those lying, thieving, democracy destroying, psychopathic GOPers and the conservative SCOTUS and their citizens united, voting rights act, voter ID bullshit!

What the fuck is the matter with this nation? Things aren't getting better, they're getting worse, and as hard as we try and yell and cuss, no one is doing shit about all the criminality going on with the banks, politicians, and anyone that breaks the law as long as they're filthy rich.

I'm so fucking pissed off right now I can't see straight. My blood pressure is sky high. I need to take it easy.

I'm so sick and tired of being sick and tired! FUCK IT!!!

FBI secretly seeking legal power to hack any computer, anywhere

By Cory Doctorow

The Bureau is seeking a rule-change from the Administrative Office of the US Courts that would give it the power to distribute malware, hack, and trick any computer, anywhere in the world, in the course of investigations; it's the biggest expansion of FBI spying power in its history and they're hoping to grab it without an act of Congress or any public scrutiny or debate.

But under the proposed amendment, a judge can issue a warrant that would allow the FBI to hack into any computer, no matter where it is located. The change is designed specifically to help federal investigators carry out surveillance on computers that have been “anonymized” – that is, their location has been hidden using tools such as Tor.

The amendment inserts a clause that would allow a judge to issue warrants to gain “remote access” to computers “located within or outside that district” (emphasis added) in cases in which the “district where the media or information is located has been concealed through technological means”. The expanded powers to stray across district boundaries would apply to any criminal investigation, not just to terrorist cases as at present.

Were the amendment to be granted by the regulatory committee, the FBI would have the green light to unleash its capabilities – known as “network investigative techniques” – on computers across America and beyond. The techniques involve clandestinely installing malicious software, or malware, onto a computer that in turn allows federal agents effectively to control the machine, downloading all its digital contents, switching its camera or microphone on or off, and even taking over other computers in its network

FBI demands new powers to hack into computers and carry out surveillance [Ed Pilkington/The Guardian]

(Thanks, Melted_Crayons!)

Vita hack: the webkit exploit fully explained (+ more code for you to look at!)

By wololo · November 2, 2014

This was kind of out of the blue: Developer acez  just posted an article on his blog explaining all the details of the Webkit exploit that was recently revealed for the Vita, including how he and a group of friends leveraged it.

The read is extremely interesting, and I won’t pretend I’m able to summarize it in a way that would do it any justice, so I suggest you just read it.

A cynical summary for people like me who have been in the PSP hacking scene previously would be: “ha, the security on the PSP was a joke, now we’re talking”. The article truly shows that the exploit was not only about digging for CVE's and quickly and dirtily implement them on the Vita.

Between the absence of a debugger, ASLR, sandboxing, no JIT, and other bumps in the road, acez’s post clearly explains this was not easy. At all.

From the scene’s perspective, it’s interesting to see that the main people behind this work (freebot, acez, and John The Ropper) are – as far as I know – not people from the PSP or PS3 scene. They seem to be, however, very, very well seasoned hackers (at least acez seems to be a regular CTF – The hacking ones, not the Quake ones – contestant). The things they pulled off, which I understand where very helpful, behind the scene, to some of the releases we’ve seen over the past few days, were not an easy thing.

Credits

Johntheropper and freebot worked with acez directly on the exploit. In addition, he credits Yifanlu and Josh_Axey for their help on the Vita, as well as Acid_Snake and Codelion, and everyone else who “made this possible”.

Downloads

The exploit and all related work can be found on acez’s github. At this point I assume this is more or less the same work that has been released in CodeLion’s recent memtools_vita, but it is worth checking it.

What’s next?

Let’s hope that the interest of acez, JhonTheRopper, and freebot for the Vita will stay for a while. As mentioned in the blog article, there’s still a lot to do: Webkit is sandboxed, and without additional exploits, the scene will not be able to gain “full” native access to the Vita. From a personal point of view though, I would surely be happy to start seeing a simple SDK, and some simple homebrew, in the sandboxed Webkit exploit. Just for the sake of it.

Source: acez.re

Something I Agree With Rand Paul On: 'The GOP Sucks'

By John Amato



As our readers know, I'm no fan of Senator Rand Paul or his phony libertarian beliefs, but he did say something mildly entertaining and (at least partially) I can agree with.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) acknowledged Wednesday a problem that many Republicans admit only privately: their party brand “sucks.”

The weakness, Paul added, is particularly serious when it comes to appealing to black voters.

“Remember Domino’s Pizza? They admitted, ‘Hey, our pizza crust sucks.’ The Republican Party brand sucks and so people don’t want to be a Republican and for 80 years, African-Americans have had nothing to do with Republicans,” he said.

“Why? Because of a perception,” he said. “The problem is the perception is that no one in the Republican Party cares.”

“We’re also fighting 40 years of us doing a crappy job, of Republicans not trying at all for 40 years, so it’s a lot of overcoming,” he said. “You got to show up, you got to have something to say and really we just have to emphasize that we’re trying to do something different.”

Yes, the GOP brand sucks, on that we can agree, but it's always sucked much worse than Domino's Pizza every has and for a far longer time.

And blacks do not support the GOP, not because of a "perception problem," but a problem of reality staring them right in the face. Republicans need more than saying words that are not considered racist when talking with African Americans, but they also need real legislation that would improve their lives. Not "no new taxes" bullshit.

Look, he's entirely right that republicans need to reach out to minority communities, but that will never happen with the tea party xenophobes controlling the GOP.

I find it fascinating too that Rand Paul, the man who is against the Civil Right's Act and the ADA is trying to change Republican perception within the black community. Mostly he's just trying to make a pitch that sounds different to confused voters or others that don't focus on politics. Good luck with that.

Eric Frein Caught in Pennsylvania

Death penalty eyed for Eric Frein, suspect in Pa. trooper ambush, after arrest

Eric Frein, the suspect in the deadly ambush of a Pennsylvania state trooper, was taken into custody after a seven-week manhunt, the Pennsylvania State Police announced Thursday night.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Frein, as he is facing multiple capital offenses:  first-degree murder, murder of a law enforcement official and first-degree attempted murder. Frein is also facing various other charges including two counts of possession of weapons of mass destruction after police found pipe bombs during their search.

U.S. Marshals arrested Frein in an airport hangar near Buck Hill, the same general area where they had been searching for him. They called him out and he surrendered without an incident. Frein was taken in good physical condition, officials said in a press conference late Wednesday night.

Police saw an individual they thought was Frein and they ordered him to surrender.

"He did not just give up because he was tired," state police Commissioner Frank Noonan said. "He gave up because he was caught."

Frein was held in the handcuffs of Trooper Bryon Dickson, the officer he allegedly killed
He was on the run for more than two months, eluding police consistently in wooded areas, which he was very familiar with. He also had plenty of places to hide in the wood as well, Noonan said.

Frein, 31, allegedly opened fire outside the Blooming Grove state police barracks on Sept. 12, killing Dickson, 38, and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass, 31.

Frein belonged to a military re-enactor's group, playing the part of a Serbian solder. He had a small role in a 2007 movie about a concentration camp survivor and helped with props and historical references on a documentary about World War I.

The FBI named him to its 10 most wanted list.

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania State Police revealed information from a journal found in the woods in which Frein allegedly described shooting the state troopers. They also detailed campsites where Frein was believed to have hidden, cooking over small fires even as heavily armed police hunted him.

Police found pipe bomb booby traps and a gun resting against a tree, but had only had a handful of unconfirmed sightings of Frein.

"Got a shot around 11 p.m. and took it," Frein wrote on papers found by police. "He [Dickson] dropped. I was surprised at how quick."

Chris Christie is sitting on $800 million meant for disaster relief

By Arturo Garcia

James Keady (foreground) confronts New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) at a public appearance on Oct. 29, 2014 [MSNBC]

A New Jersey activist and Hurricane Sandy survivor filmed during a confrontation with Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Wednesday accused his administration of short-changing a $1.1 billion federal relief package meant to help residents.

“Only 20 percent of those dollars have gotten to the people,” James Keady told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “Of the $1.1 billion, $219 million has gone out. That means that the governor and his staff in Trenton are sitting on $800 million.”

According to Keady’s advocacy group, Finish The Job, Christie’s administration has mismanaged the Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, Elevation and Mitigation (RREM) while boasting about its success in the public eye.

“Photo ops, Christie, President Obama, everybody walking on the beach, kumbaya, giving the hugs,” he said.

Keady faced off with Christie as the governor gave a speech in Belmar commemorating two years since the hurricane devastated New Jersey. Video of the encounter shows Keady standing in front of Christie bearing a sign saying, “Get Sandy families back in their homes,” prompting Christie to berate him from the stage.

“I’m glad you had your day to show off, but we’re the ones who are here to actually do the work,” Christie told him. “So turn around and get your 15 minutes of fame and then maybe take your jacket off and roll up your sleeves and do something for the people of this state.”

Christie later added that if he had 1,000 things to do during the day, dinner with Keady “would be 1,001,” and told him to “sit down and shut up.”

But Keady, who grew up in Belmar, rebuked Christie’s accusation that he did not “do the work” in his community.

“When the hurricane happened, I actually took a month off from work, dropped everything and volunteered to help clean out peoples’ homes,” James Keady told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “It actually reached the point within a day or two [that] the borough gave me a borough dump truck running all the clean-up crews all over town.”

Keady also insisted his information was accurate as of Oct. 24.

“Unless $800 million went out the door in the last four days, it’s still sitting there,” he said of the RREM funds.

Philly Cop Is Caught on Video Threatening Teen for Looking at Him in the Eye

By David Edwards

The Philadelphia Police Department said over the weekend that it would discipline an officer who was caught on video threatening to “beat the shit” out of a teen.

In a video uploaded to Facebook earlier this month by Damaris Abercrombie, an officer is seen walking beside a group of teens.

“Hey, big man, you got a problem?” the officer asks one of the teens. “Because I notice you keep trying to make eye contact.”

“Keep fucking walking, and next time you look at me in my fucking eye, I’m going to beat the shit out of you,” the officer adds.

The video had been viewed over 85,000 times since being shared on Oct. 17.

A law enforcement source confirmed to WCAU that the officer was assigned to the 19th District.

“The video does not reflect well on the officer,” a police official who did not wish do be identified explained. “I have no doubt he had good reason to be exasperated but you have to maintain your professional demeanor.”

It was not immediately clear what disciplinary actions the officer would face.

Watch the video below from WCAU, broadcast Oct. 27, 2014.