Elizabeth Warren And Consumer Protection

by Stuart Shapiro

One of the most progressive elements of the recently passed financial reform bill is the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency.  The agency would be charged with policing the honesty and transparency of banks, credit card companies, and brokerage houses in their dealings with consumers.

One of the fiercest advocates for the creation of the agency and a candidate to lead it is Elizabeth Warren.  The first leader of a new agency is critical.  He/she will put the structure of the agency in place and be crucial in both defining the agency mission and inculcating …

ACLU Helps Man Recover Handguns From Police Custody

By JT Orlando

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the organization conservatives love to hate, never has been a “liberal” group per sé; it just so happens that the typical incursions on the rights of Americans (e.g. restrictions on free speech, violations of the separation of church and state, open and invidious discrimination, etc.) occur because of governmental policies that conservatives (and, usually, Republicans) wholeheartedly support.

So when the ACLU steps in to protect a gun owner’s rights to his weapons, that’s bound to confuse any right-wing types who actually may be paying attention. Robert Weinstein (pictured) …

Global Warming And The Senate — The Heat Needs To Be Turned On

by Stuart Shapiro

The bad economy has dampened interest in climate change legislation.  David Leonhardt writes today that there are three options remaining in this session.  The first is a utility-only cap and trade.

With a comprehensive cap off the table, Senate leaders began thinking instead about a narrower version that would apply only to power plants, not to emissions from vehicles or factories. This utility-only cap has two advantages.

One, it goes after the emissions that energy experts think will be among the cheapest to reduce. Two, it involves another layer of political disguise. The cap would apply …

Get Ready For Full Body Scanners At New York Area Airports

They will see you even in places where the sun don’t shine, courtesy of machines like the one in the UK’s Manchester airport, pictured. The TSA will say only that it will happen sometime in the “coming months.”

No plans have been announced yet to install the machines at Newark. Right now, 142 are deployed at US airports, and the TSA plans to install another 450 before the year’s end.

At least you won’t have to take it all off before you take off, says the TSA, which believes the machines, costing up to $170,000 apiece, will screen passengers …

Shirley Sherrod Not Sure She Wants Her Job Back

Ousted USDA official Shirley Sherrod says she’s not sure she’d take her job back.

“I am just not sure how I would be treated there,” Shirley Sherrod said in a nationally broadcast interview. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday he would reconsider the department’s decision to oust Sherrod over her comments that she didn’t give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago.

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Appearing in a nationally broadcast interview Wednesday morning, Sherrod said she “couldn’t get the people I was working with” to listen to her explanation.

She said the tone of her …

USDA To Reconsider Ouster Of Shirley Sherrod (UPDATED)

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he will reconsider the decision to oust Shirley Sherrod because of remarks she made to the NAACP.

Vilsack said in a statement early Wednesday morning that he will “conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts” about his decision to ask Shirley Sherrod to resign.

Sherrod, who was the Agriculture Department’s director of rural development in Georgia, criticized the administration for pushing her to resign Monday after a blogger posted an edited video of her saying that she didn’t give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago.

Sherrod …

Ben Stein: The Unemployed Have “Unpleasant Personalities” And “Do Not Know How To Do A Day’s Work”

Former Nixon speechwriter, actor and television personality Ben Stein attacked the unemployed in an American Spectator article. (h/t Think Progress)

The people who have been laid off and cannot find work are generally people with poor work habits and poor personalities. I say “generally” because there are exceptions. But in general, as I survey the ranks of those who are unemployed, I see people who have overbearing and unpleasant personalities and/or who do not know how to do a day’s work. They are people who create either little utility or negative utility on the job.…

The Complete Shirley Sherrod Video

It would have been nice if the Obama administration, who Shirley Sherrod praises at the top of this video, had seen this before its knee-jerk, reactionary decision to fire her. (h/t The Political Carnival)  Sherrod begins by talking about how her father was murdered by a white man, and how that shaped her thinking, and then, how her thinking evolved.

I hope the administration does the right thing and gives Sherrod her job back.

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Oksana To Mel On Tape 6: “You’re A Monster!”

Yet another tape of Mel Gibson going crazy has been released by RadarOnline.

Oksana: You cannot raise the child with these symptoms.

Mel: What?

Oksana: You’re acting as a crazy man right now and you have been for many, many months. And you hit me, and you hit her (Lucia) while she was in my hands! Mel, you’re losing your mind. You need medication.”

Mel: You need a f*cking kick up the a** for being a b*tch, c*nt, gold digging whore! With a p*ssy son! And I want my child, and no one will believe …

Another Take On The Sherrod/Breitbart Affair

By James Frye

This may not be a popular position here, but as a former union local president there’s something that’s sticking in my craw with this Sherrod thing.

Alan’s covered the to-do nicely today, especially with how the Breitbart Big Liar tale is quickly unraveling.  Even the NAACP has backed off their denunciation of Sherrod as more facts emerge. The Obama White House has been a Profile in Cowardice in this too, demanding that Sherrod resign.  And that is the keyword here: resign.

Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve never been one of the “special people” that judge …

NAACP: “We Were Snookered”

The NAACP admits it was “snookered” into believing that Shirley Sherrod, the now-fired Obama administration official, had harmed farmers because of racial bias.

Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.

The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers mentioned in her speech. They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.…