The war profiteers’ shady lobbying campaign took another hit to its credibility today, as an accounting firm on which they relied to support their bogus “military spending = jobs” argument was cited for severe audit deficiencies.

As our new War Costs short video shows, the war industry’s Second To None lobbying effort specifically cited numbers from Deloitte & Touche to claim an inflated importance of the military industrial sector to the U.S. economy. This claim was part of their larger effort, thoroughly debunked by our prior work, to try to convince Congress to protect their gravy train from budget cuts by tying war spending to job creation. Their entire narrative is false–military spending actually costs jobs compared to other ways of spending the money.

Why war profiteers would even bother to cite Deloitte is frankly beyond us. According to Reuters:

“Earlier this year, the [Public Company Accounting Oversight Board] released a separate report from 2007 inspections that documented deficiencies with Deloitte’s own internal procedures for how it conducts audits.

“Those findings have prompted a U.S. Senate panel to launch a probe into the auditing standards at Deloitte, which conducts some auditing work for the U.S. government, including the Federal Reserve.”

It’s obvious from the industry’s behavior, including citation of Deloitte numbers to support their bogus claims, that they are not used to having their outlandish claims scrutinized.

War Costs will make sure those accountability-free days for the war industry are over.

Please join our effort by liking us on Facebook.

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Are you feeling last minute holiday shopping stress?  If so, you are not alone.  This blog post can help.

The other day my sweet hubby emailed me two links. The first (”Shoppers Forgo Basics For Presents“) was a gut-wrenching read. It was a powerful reminder of how easy it is during the holiday season to go off base with our spending. The second (”All I Want For Christmas Is You“) was an uplifting song from Mariah Carey. It flipped my mood 180 degrees by reminding me that what most of us really want from the holidays is just to be happy and around the people we love.

So often personal finance can feel like it has absolutely nothing to do with personal fulfillment (or holiday joy). Managing our money can not only feel tedious and overwhelming, but pointless in the whole scope of life.

Enter Kimberly Palmer. A veteran journalist (at US News & World Report) and author (of the delightful book GENERATION EARN), Kimberly has launched a line of financial planners that I just love.  Not only are they affordable and effective but they address head on the whole point of money management… to help you live the life that makes your heart sing. Kimberly was kind enough to share with us the thought process behind her latest entrepreneurial venture.

(1) What inspired you to create Palmer’s Planners?

KIM: I love the creative aspect of managing money: Brainstorming about big money goals, coming up with new ways to earn money, and celebrating progress towards milestones. I created the planners to focus on that aspect of money management, instead of the pure number-crunching side, because I know other right-brainers like me feel the same way.

(2) How much time will it take to utilize them?

KIM: My 2012 Money Planner is organized as a month-by-month guide for next year, so it’s designed to be used throughout the twelve months. But my other planners, including the Debt-Free Planner, Money Planner, and Baby Planner, are organized around specific goals or events (such as paying off debt or affording a baby), so people can use them as they are navigating those things. The planners have plenty of space for personalization and customization, so people can take notes and track their own goals.

(3) What is the biggest upside that people will experience from using Palmer’s Planners?

KIM: My goal is to help people get organized as they tackle big life events and goals, because after writing about personal finance for five years, I’ve come to believe that getting organized is the single most important thing you can do for yourself financially. People who know what their goals are, have their paperwork in order, and pay their bills each month have a much easier time staying on top of our increasingly complicated financial world.

(4) From your years of interviewing – both as a reporter and an author - what is the biggest obstacle people face when it comes to acting on basic financial advice?

KIM: Dedicating time to getting on top of your financial life on a regular basis. So many of us know what we “should” do and maybe even what we want to do, but actually setting aside time to take concrete steps, whether it’s setting up bills for automatic payment or rebalancing our retirement portfolios, can be harder to schedule than an annual physical. That’s why I like the idea of making a date with yourself, say once a month, to sit down and take a few steps towards a healthier financial life.

Written by Eleanor J. Bader for RH Reality Check. This diary is cross-posted; commenters wishing to engage directly with the author should do so at the original post.

It’s a tried-and-true tactic: Any time anti-abortion activists are told that they can’t disrupt worship services, harass people entering or leaving reproductive healthcare facilities, or stand in front of schools with graphic placards and signs, they scream that their First Amendment rights have been violated. This claim has oft-times proved winning, simultaneously filling the anti’s coffers and boosting their morale.

Take the city of Wichita, Kansas as an example. Yes, the very same city in which Dr. George Tiller worked–and where he was assassinated–awarded Operation Save America’s Rev. Mark Holick $11,700 in 2009 after conceding that his right to free speech had been thwarted when he was arrested at a Gay Pride parade and festival two years earlier. To hear Holick tell it, he was simply trying to “communicate the gospel” to festival-goers, not badger them by predicting that they’d burn in hell for the sin of sodomy.

Now, Holick, OSA head Flip Benham, and longtime co-conspirators Chet Gallagher and Rusty Thomas are at it again, this time in Jackson, Wyoming.

Continue reading….

Jamie Dimon, the infamous CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is back to doing what he does best: defending the bankers of the 1% against the petulant 99%. “Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and because you’re rich you’re bad, I just don’t get it,” he said at a recent investors conference. “Sometimes there’s a bad apple, yet we denigrate the whole.”

Dimon says this as if he’s not one of the baddest apples in the barrel. Let’s review a few of his misdeeds:

• Under his leadership, JPMorgan Chase “misled” investors (that’s “defrauded,” in plain English) on mortgage sales to help spur the financial crisis. The company then successfully lobbied for a $25 billion bailout and $391 billion in virtually interest-free loans.
• He leaked false information about Washington Mutual’s finances so he could buy the company at a bargain price.
• JPMorgan Chase was part of the “robo-signing” scandal in which banks foreclosed on homes without verifying that such action was legal and justified.
• He hid the fact that one of JPMorgan Chase’s risky derivatives deals, known as “Squared,” was actually designed in part by a hedge fund that bet against a good chunk of the deal.
• JPMorgan Chase recently engaged in bid-rigging and made illegal payments to win bond deals from municipal governments across the country.

This staggering lack of self-awareness is not limited to Dimon. A spate of one-percenters have been defending their tarnished image by insisting that they’re the ones who create jobs and allow the economy to succeed. They’re calling their critics “imbeciles” and saying an attack on them is an attack on “the very productive.”

Let’s forget, for a moment, that jobs are actually created when middle-class and lower-income consumers have enough money in their pockets to drive up demand. Let’s just look at what some of worst of the 1% have done to exploit the 99% and make our economy worse, not better.

• Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs touted mortgage assets to clients while privately betting $10 billion they’d fail — fostering the kind of excessive risk-taking that caused the financial meltdown. Oh, and then he lied to Congress about it.
• Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial deceived investors into buying risky “subprime” mortgages, leading to thousands of foreclosures. He kept the law off his back by allowing key senators to take out mortgages for which the usual fees and rules didn’t apply.
• Brian Moynihan of Bank of America overcharged customers for overdraft fees and kicked up to 10,000 people out of their homes illegally.
• Darrell Issa, a Congressman from California who’s worth between $240-500 million, pressured federal regulators to back off a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs while holding millions in company assets. He also intervened in Congress on behalf of Merrill Lynch while being a major customer of the firm.
• Hugh Grant, CEO of Monsanto, has established a virtual monopoly on the food supply by putting his company’s patented, genetically modified seed in about 95% of U.S. soybeans, 80% of U.S. corn, and massive amounts of other crops. Indeed, his company is helping destroy the American heartland by intimidating small farmers with frivolous lawsuits and intense pressure not to work with Monsanto’s competitors. (The ideal of “competitive markets” is invoked only when a company is trying to avoid regulation.)

This list could go on, of course — and it does, at the Who Are the 1 Percent website, where people are voting to determine which corporate bad guys I’ll make videos exposing. We started this vote, which will close by Christmas, to fight those who are making their fortunes on the backs of the 99%. Jamie Dimon, of course, is one of our nominees, and those who visit the site can rate him and many others on a scale of “ho-hum” to “pure evil.”

After all, the so-called “bad apples” actually reflect a systemic problem: those who use their wealth for destructive purposes are rewarded instead of punished, even when their tactics are illegal. Wealth doesn’t always come from making products that people enjoy or investing in small companies à la George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. Things really are worse for the 99% because of a rigged system that allows certain rich people to play by different rules than everyone else.

So, Jamie Dimon, are you bad just because you’re successful? No. You’re bad because your success comes at everyone else’s expense. You’re right about one thing, though: you just don’t get it.

Written by Rev. Dr. Maria LaSala for RH Reality Check. This diary is cross-posted; commenters wishing to engage directly with the author should do so at the original post.

In my twenty-five years of ministry I have often been challenged about my pro-choice theological position. It happens during the Advent season especially, when those who oppose my position exclaim in loud and sometimes threatening tones, “What would have happened if Mary had had an abortion!”

I am always stunned by such a remark, of course. How did that person get from the Advent story of the Annunciation to abortion?

The Annunciation story, and for that matter, the remarkable story of God becoming human, says nothing about abortion. But it does say something about choice, and perhaps that is why it is a lightning rod text for those who seek to deny women the right to choose a safe and legal abortion.

Continue reading….

Amid prolonged, painfully high unemployment, ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer for the past year tirelessly advocated a simple solution – buy American-made products. She clearly explained the reasoning: every American dollar spent on an American-made product helps create an American job.

Defying Sawyer’s admonition to search for “Made in America” tags, California set a record for using government money to create jobs in China. The Golden State awarded a contract for the new Bay Bridge that created 3,000 jobs in China for five years – a period during which the state’s unemployment rate persisted at two percentage points above the nation’s already high average.

Now there’s an antidote for California’s stupidity. It is legislation called the Invest in American Jobs Act. Championed by U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall, (D-W.Va.) and Senators Sherrod Brown, (D-Ohio), Bob Casey, (D-Pa.), and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), it would strengthen existing requirements for buying American products when federal tax dollars pay for construction of highway, bridge, public transit, rail, water systems and aviation infrastructure equipment.

To create 200,000 American jobs, Sawyer has challenged Americans to spend just $64 of their $700 in holiday purchases on American-made gifts. Imagine the American jobs that would be created if “Made in America” were stamped on every single part of all $59 billion in infrastructure projects the federal government funds in a typical year.

That’s what Rahall, Brown, Casey and Stabenow want. Unless American-manufactured components aren’t available or would be outrageously more expensive, these lawmakers believe American tax dollars should buy American jobs while financing American infrastructure. So they propose to expand the existing “Buy American” requirements and close loopholes that allow governors like California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger to circumvent the rules.

Schwarzenegger contended that California would save $400 million on the $5.1 billion Bay Bridge if it hired a Chinese firm to build steel decking and a 52-story tall support tower and ship them 6,500 miles to San Francisco.

This turned out to be a “you get what you pay for” lesson for California. The state should have been forewarned by years of publicity about problems with Chinese-manufactured products. For example, toxic drywall imported from China sickened American homeowners, corroded pipes and resulted in hundreds of millions in successful damage claims against the Chinese firms that fabricated it. Or there was the tainted blood thinner Heparin from China that killed at least 81 Americans.

In the case of the Bay Bridge, inspectors failed up to 65 percent of welds on the bridge parts manufactured at the Shanghai plant – welds done workers paid $12 a day for laboring from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. As a result, the state of California and the two American companies it hired to arrange the work, including one ironically named American Bridge, had to send 250 engineers, inspectors and other experts to China to monitor the construction. That created American jobs, but imagine the extra cost.

In addition, the faulty construction delayed delivery by 15 months. Delays are costly. For example, when the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) received only one bid to perform the work, the agency said advertising the job again could delay the project by 18 months and add $200 million to the cost. Using Caltrans’ calculation, the 15-month delay added $167 million in extra costs.

The price tag on the bridge has risen now to $7.2 billion. The problems in China don’t explain all of that. But there’s no doubt that the $400 million that Schwarzenegger claimed would be saved by shipping the work and the jobs to China has long been overrun by hundreds of millions in extra costs. Organizations like the Alliance for American Manufacturing and the National Steel Bridge Alliance warned of potential problems from circumventing “Buy American” regulations. California ignored them.

Also, Schwarzenegger’s estimate that $400 million would be saved failed to account for the wages American workers lost, the taxes they would have paid, or the multiplier effect on the economy when workers spend their wages in their hometowns. In addition, Schwarzenegger’s estimate failed to account for the downside of hiring Chinese workers with American tax dollars, or in this case, bridge toll receipts. That includes unemployment compensation, Medicare fees and other costs borne by governments for joblessness.

The Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication included a story about the Bay Bridge project by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporters Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele in a series called What Went Wrong: the Betrayal of the American Dream.

In their report about California sending the bridge work to China, Bartlett and Steel quote Tom Hickman, vice president of Oregon Iron Works in Clackamas, Ore., one of the American companies that tried to form a consortium to perform the Bay Bridge work. Here’s what Hickman said about the jobs California denied American workers and the work California denied his America company:

“These jobs are living-wage jobs and family-wage jobs. They provide health and welfare benefits, 401(k)s and pensions. Our facilities meet all of the environmental requirements, and it just is a very, very difficult thing to compete with the Chinese when you are really competing with the Chinese government (which subsidizes Chinese industry).”

Caltrans argued that no American company had the facilities to perform the work. Hickman said the consortium could have done it. But if government agencies like Caltrans continue to ignore the real costs of shipping work to China, American factories will continue to close. America lost 55,000 manufacturers over the past decade. If that doesn’t stop, at some point, America will forfeit the capacity to perform this kind of work.

That would be tragic. It would undermine American strength. Rahall, Brown, Casey and Stabenow are right. American tax dollars should buy American-made products and jobs.

And Diane Sawyer is right. Americans should buy American. Here’s a link to her list of American-made gifts and a link to a list by American Rights at Work.

This is the antidote for lost factories and jobs.

Recently, the Obama Administration took a huge step against lgbt persecution worldwide:

Also, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a monumental speech in Geneva in which she basically broke it all down to the simple fact that gays rights are human rights.

The Obama Administration was no doubt spurred by acts of lgbt persecution in such places as Nigeria, Uganda, Russia, and South Africa. In Nigeria, Uganda, and Russia, the legislature is considering laws which would imprison lgbts and those who support them. In South Africa is a practice called “corrective rape” in which a lesbian would be sexually assaulted in hopes of turning her heterosexual.

Naturally, religious right groups and some of those on the right in general aren’t happy with the Obama Administration over this new policy or Clinton’s speech.

Amidst the usual whinings about the so-called radical gay agenda, two statements stand out.

One was from Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry:

“But there is a troubling trend here beyond the national security nonsense inherent in this silly idea. This is just the most recent example of an administration at war with people of faith in this country. Investing tax dollars promoting a lifestyle many Americas of faith find so deeply objectionable is wrong.

“President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake.”

Aside from the usual offensive “real Americans should tolerate gays like one tolerates a dog which wets on the rug” semantics coming Perry is the sad fact that he totally omitted the reason why the Obama policy is necessary, i.e. the persecution of the gay community in other countries.

Bear in mind that this is the same guy who led a prayer rally earlier this year while claiming that America needs to call upon Jesus to save the country from calamities.

Apparently Perry seems to have overlooked the statement by Jesus which said:

For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

And then there was this statement by Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel:

It is “frankly offensive” . . . that President Obama feels “compelled to export American culture’s decline in morality, and export that immorality to other nations that are trying to adhere to traditional principles relative to human sexuality.”

So in Barber’s world, is it a traditional principle to imprison a man simply because he is gay and his mother because she didn’t report him as being gay? Is it a moral thing to beat a woman within an inch of her life and violently rape her because she is a lesbian?

Barber statement is a cruel irony when one takes into account that earlier that morning, the Liberty Counsel was whining about a Macy’s employee who was fired for harassing a transgender customer in violation of the store’s policy.

It’s a strange world we live in when someone harassing a customer at a department store can be seen as a Christian martyr, but speaking out against injustice is seen as a evil plot to destroy values.

It’s a sad statement on what Christianity has become in America.

And with all of the statements and vigorous adjectives thrown out, not one of these so-called upstanding morality groups  or people has said one word about the true victims – the lgbts worldwide who are being victimized, who are being chased out of their homes and beaten, who are being persecuted and raped, who are being brutally murdered and disposed of in humiliating and devaluing ways.

Oh sure, some of those folks practically break their backs in their eagerness to rise and talk about the “evils of gay marriage.” They will clap their hands sore when some well-dressed charlatan gets them together in an expensive ballroom to wax about how they are being “stomped out” by the radical progressives. And they will practically raise blisters on their feet with their desires to march against their gay and lesbian neighbors being afforded the same protections under the law.

But what about true cases of persecution? True cases of people being forced out of their homes by an evil agenda of intolerance? True incidents of mothers losing their sons, fathers losing their daughters, and children losing their parents to hate wrapped up in a religious cloth?

Where are these Christians then?

The next time any of these folks get together in one of their silly rallies whining about persecution and godless homosexuals, I don’t think they should expect Jesus to be there.

He will be in Nigeria. He will be in Uganda. He will be in South Africa. And He will be in Russia.

How about some real reality TV?

While their citizenship fates still remain mired in political debates, immigrant youth and artists with Dreamers Adrift, a groundbreaking creative arts project, is producing a brilliant series of videos and theatrical works on the reality of daily life — from working, dating, studying, driving, among other aspects — for undocumented youth today.

“A creative project ABOUT undocumented youth BY undocumented youth FOR undocumented youth,” Dreamers Adrift notes, “We are trying to document the undocumented through videos, art, music, spoken word, prose and poetry. Four lives. Four college grads. Representing one DREAM for countless others.”

Check out a few sample videos here:

Undocumented and Awkward: Episode 6

Undocumented and Awkward: Episode 1

A new study out today estimates that one-third of US young people will be arrested or taken into custody for illegal or delinquent offenses (excluding arrests for minor traffic violations) by the age of 23.

CBS News/Web MD reports on the findings here:

Study: Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. youths will be arrested by age 23

Parents and non-parents alike might be shocked to learn a new study estimates that roughly 1 in 3 U.S. youths will be arrested for a non-traffic offense by age 23 – a “substantively higher” proportion than predicted in the 1960s.

The study, posted online by the journal Pediatrics, shows that between about 25% to 41% of 23-year-olds have been arrested or taken into police custody at least once for a non-traffic offense. If you factor in missing cases, that percentage could lie between about 30% and 41%.

What was learned was that the risk was greatest during late adolescence or emerging adulthood. The study also shows that by age 18, about 16% to 27% have been arrested.

… The researchers base their conclusion on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, ages 8 to 23. Data analyzed in the new study came from national surveys of youth conducted annually from 1997 to 2008.

Their finding contrasts with a 1965 study that predicted 22% of U.S. youths would be arrested for an offense other than a minor traffic violation by age 23.

Why the Rise in Arrests?

The researchers cite some “compelling reasons” for the increase.

“The criminal justice system has clearly become more aggressive in dealing with offenders (particularly those who commit drug offenses and violent crimes) since the 1960s,” the authors, all criminologists, write. In addition, “there is some evidence that the transition from adolescence to adulthood has become a longer process.”

From the 1920s through the 1960s, the proportion of the population that was incarcerated remained remarkably stable at about 100 inmates per 100,000 people, researcher Robert Brame, PhD, of the department of criminal justice and criminology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, tells WebMD. Today, Brame says, that figure has soared to 500 inmates per 100,000 people.

While it is commendable that CBS is highlighting the findings of this troubling data, it’s frustrating that the network’s editors appear blissfully unaware
of what is one of the most painfully obvious drivers of this surge in juvenile arrests: the ever-increasing enforcement of marijuana prohibition.

As I stated from the stage at the 2008 NORML national conference, “It’s Not Your Parents’ Prohibition,” the so-called ‘war’ on pot is largely a criminal crackdown on young people.

Young people, in many cases those under 18-years-of-age, disproportionately bear the brunt of marijuana law enforcement.

… According to a 2005 study commissioned by the NORML Foundation, 74 percent of all Americans busted for pot are under age 30, and 1 out of 4 are age 18 or younger. That’s nearly a quarter of a million teenagers arrested for marijuana violations each year.

… [I]f we ever want the marijuana laws to change, that we as a community have to better represent the interests of young people, and we must do a better job speaking on their — and their parent’s — behalf.

(Read my entire remarks here.)

Since 1965, police have made an estimated 21.5 million arrests for marijuana-related offense, according to cumulative data published by the FBI. Some 8 million of these arrests have occurred since 2000.

Assuming that nearly three out of four of those arrested in the past decade were under age 30, that equates to the arrest of some 6 million young people — including 2 million teenagers — for marijuana-related offenses since the year 2000.

In short, marijuana prohibition isn’t protecting kids; its endangering them. We now have an entire generation that has been alienated to believe that the police and their civic leaders are instruments of their oppression rather than their protection.