A Fox News poll found the largest deficit, with Romney trailing by nine points (49 percent to 40 percent) That’s the widest gap Fox has reported all year. Its July survey had Obama up by four points (45 percent to 41 percent). Fox found that Obama’s increasing advantage comes mainly on the strength of a big bump from independents, who now support the president by 11 points, up from four points in July.
Twenty-six percent of voters described themselves “extremely” or “very” comfortable with the prospect of a Romney presidency, while 71 percent said they were either “somewhat” or “not at all” comfortable. Forty-one percent were extremely or very comfortable with a second Obama term, while 59 percent fell into the somewhat or not-at -all categories.
Here's a bit of curating and snippeting of Lessig's latest article - click the link and read the rest.
Summary - a call for a constitutional convention to get the corrupting influence of election financing under control. A call for public funding of elections, because "“The public ... had no lobbyists. The ideas of the public domain weren’t even on the table because there was no infrastructure for putting them there.”"
"Lessig cites the example of Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana), chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, whose position gave him a critical role in the debate over President Obama’s healthcare proposal. Between 2003 and 2008, Baucus received $5 million in campaign contributions from the financial, insurance, and health industries. But Lessig also cites similar examples from both sides of the aisle, blaming neither political party in particular. The corruption, he says, is systemic and systematic: in 2009 alone, lobbyists spent $3.5 billion, or about $6.5 million per each elected member in Congress." Read more »
As always Barry Ritholtz is one of the few econ experts willing to state the obvious. This recent post is totally worth a click and a read, and some exploration of his support links.
And for your froth files - referring to the link in the paragraph snippet below. Wow those republicans sure hate science - or maybe they just love the 5 trillion a year made by the fossil carbon corps. Read more »
"The world's super-rich have taken advantage of lax tax rules to siphon off at least $21 trillion, and possibly as much as $32tn, from their home countries and hide it abroad – a sum larger than the entire American economy.
James Henry, a former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has conducted groundbreaking new research for the Tax Justice Network campaign group – sifting through data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and private sector analysts to construct an alarming picture that shows capital flooding out of countries across the world and disappearing into the cracks in the financial system."
"A satirical video short that lacerates Mitt Romney and his advisors as they prepare for his speech to the NAACP convention in Houston on Wednesday, July 11, 2012. This is the first original production by The Message, a new progressive online media hub."
Probably not many of you remember Neo-Psuedo and the Invisible Band - an original music phenom here in State College Pa back in the day, with Mike Biddison as lead vocals and guitarist and Dave Biddison on percussion and vocals, Kevin Slick on base, often with Beth Williams and a flow of other local music legends playing and singing along. Neo-Psuedo was famous for doing benefits and wild venues that other bands couldn't arrange, due to the groups social wizardry. Crazy wild times. The neo-pseudo tunes are still some of the best originals to come out of state college, in my completly biased opinion.
Well, the Biddison brothers have formed a new band, the Llama Dalis...
Lets see, how would I describe it - it's a mix of jam band, rockin folk band, with splashes of Dave Matthews and the Talking Heads - and somethin else, can't quite put my finger on it. I'm only on my first serious listen thru tho - i'll figure it out.
He said trials in countries such as Portugal showed decriminalisation of some drugs could prove "useful and efficient".
He described his frequent arrests for possession of drugs as an "administrative blip" and said resources should be shifted away from the policing of drugs to education and treatment.
"As a drug addict, the legal status (of a drug) is an irrelevance," he told MPs. "At best it is an inconvenience."
He added: "There is a degree of cowardice and wilful ignorance about this condition. There needs to be honesty and authenticity on this issue so Parliament does not look out of touch."
