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Fox Host Apologizes For Calling Muppets ‘Anti-Capitalist’ | As ThinkProgress noted earlier this week, Fox News Business went on tear against the new Muppets movie for supposedly “brain washing” children to be Communists. The moment was so absurd that it bordered on self-parody, but it seems the conservative network was serious, as host Eric Bolling apologized today for calling The Muppets “anti-capitalist.” Watch it, via Media Matters:

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Dec 7, 2011 at 7:45 pm

Climate Progress

NOAA Chief: U.S. Record of a Dozen Billion-Dollar Weather Disasters in One Year Is “a Harbinger of Things to Come”

By Joe Romm on Dec 7, 2011 at 7:04 pm

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released an analysis, “U.S. sets record with a dozen billion-dollar weather disasters in one year.”  They report:

  • To date, the United States set a record with 12 separate billion dollar weather/climate disasters in 2011, with an aggregate damage total of approximately $52 billion. This record year breaks the previous record of nine billion-dollar weather/climate disasters in one year, which occurred in 2008.
  • These twelve disasters alone resulted in the tragic loss of 646 lives, with the National Weather Service reporting over 1,000 deaths across all weather categories for the year.
  • Previously only 10 events were reported; the two new billion-dollar weather and climate events added to the 2011 total include:
    • The Texas, New Mexico, Arizona wildfires event, now exceeding $1 billion, had been previously accounted for in the larger Southern Plains drought and heatwave event. This is in line with how NOAA has traditionally accounted for large wildfire events as separate events.
    • The June 18-22 Midwest/Southeast Tornadoes and Severe Weather event, which just recently exceeded the $1 billion threshold

UPDATE:  ClimateWire (subs. req’d) reported on Thursday:

… this year was not an aberration, NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said during a speech here yesterday.

The seemingly endless onslaught of floods, droughts, wildfires, windstorms, blizzards and tornadoes that have marked 2011 fit within an ongoing increase in the number of natural disasters recorded in the United States, she said, citing statistics maintained by reinsurer Munich Re.

And at least some of that increase appears to be driven by climate change, Lubchenco said, citing a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“What we are seeing this year is not just an anomalous year, but a harbinger of things to come for at least a subset of those extreme events that we are tallying,” the NOAA chief told attendees of the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting.

In September 2010, Munich Re one of the world’s leading reinsurers, wrote “the only plausible explanation for the rise in weather-related catastrophes is climate change.”  Here is the chart on their statistics:

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Alyssa

Elizabeth Warren And The Red Sox

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Dec 7, 2011 at 6:38 pm

Paul Waldman is upset by the idea that Elizabeth Warren might get in trouble for misstating one of the years that the Boston Red Sox won the World Series:

Reporters, I beg you: If you’re going to discuss this “gaffe” and others like it, do your audience a service and explain why this is supposed to matter. And I don’t mean just by saying, “This reminds people of when Martha Coakley called Curt Schilling a Yankee fan, damaging her candidacy.” I mean explain specifically what exactly misremembering the Sox series victories as 2004 and 2008 instead of 2004 and 2007 tells us about the kind of senator Elizabeth Warren would be. Does it mean that despite all the other evidence to the contrary, she really doesn’t care about ordinary people and will upon taking office immediately introduce legislation to make the purchase of brandy snifters and riding crops tax-deductible? Then what?

First, I think as long as Warren handles this with good humor and with a characteristic display of smarts on the issue, it will be fine. Martha Coakley seemed out of touch even before she botched the basics on one of the most popular athletes in the state, and had the same kind of work ethic problem that got Ned Lamont in trouble back in the day in Connecticut. Elizabeth Warren has neither of those problems. Second, I don’t actually think it’s irrational to expect that politicians have some knowledge of the big, defining cultural interests of their constituencies. We may want to believe that voters make decisions for entirely noble, upstanding, and substantive decisions. But I’d much rather have smart politicians who recognize the gap between the ideal and reality, and respond to it not by being condescending, but by pairing trivia with intelligent and well-thought-out policy positions. That’s a vastly superior recipe for long-term organizing that just asserting that high culture’s better than low culture, or that people should make decisions in a different way than they currently do. And at the end of the day, sports aren’t removed from the realm of public policy. The Red Sox are looking for $40 million in historic preservation tax credits right now.

NEWS FLASH

The Daily Show Asks Gov. Rick Scott To Urinate In A Cup To Prove He’s Not On Drugs | Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed a likely unconstitutional law requiring the state’s welfare recipients to take a drug test before they could receive benefits. An effort to save money in a tight budget situation, test runs of the law failed when only 2 percent of the state’s recipients failed the drug test. If those results hold true, the state would save between $40,000 and $60,000 on a program that cost $178 million to implement. During a Scott press conference today, however, The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi asked Scott to pass a drug test of his own — by presenting him with a cup to urinate in. Unfortunately, Scott didn’t accede to Mandvi’s demand. Watch it, courtesy of The Shark Tank:

Economy

Corporate Tax Dodging Has Cost States More Than $42 Billion In Revenue Over The Last Three Years

By Travis Waldron on Dec 7, 2011 at 6:30 pm

DuPont would rather sponsor race cars than pay taxes

ThinkProgress has documented the repeated tax dodging of large corporations, some of which, like GE, have gone entire years without paying taxes despite hauling in massive profits. Now, that phenomenon has spread to the states, where many corporations have largely avoided paying state corporate income taxes despite growing profits. Some companies, like DuPont, avoided state taxes altogether, paying nothing from 2008 to 2010 even as its profits piled up.

But DuPont wasn’t alone. According to a study from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 68 corporations avoided state taxes entirely for at least one year from 2008 to 2010, costing state governments at least $42.7 billion, as the New York Times reports:

To gauge how much Fortune 500 companies are paying in corporate income taxes, the study looked at the 265 of them that are both profitable and disclose their state tax payments. It found that 68 reported paying no state corporate taxes in at least one year between 2008 and 2010. All together, the study found that the companies reported $1.33 trillion in domestic profits from 2008 to 2010, but paid states only about half of what they would have if they had paid at the average corporate income tax rate of all states — reducing their state taxes by some $42.7 billion.

As the Times notes, the share of state revenues coming from corporate taxes has steadily declined since 1980, from about 10 percent then to less than 6 percent now. And despite Republican rhetoric calling for lower corporate taxes on the national level, America’s rate there remains low as well. Corporations continue to sit on huge amounts of cash without investing in job creation, but GOP politicians and corporate leaders have called for even larger tax giveaways.

Meanwhile, the lost tax revenue would have gone a long way toward plugging budget holes that were instead filled by cutting education, social services, and programs that helped states’ most vulnerable and needy residents.

Security

Rick Perry: Israeli Settlements Are Legal ‘And I Support Them’

By Ali Gharib on Dec 7, 2011 at 6:15 pm

Republican Presidential hopeful Texas Gov. Rick Perry broke with more than 40 years of bipartisan U.S. policy and issued a statement of blanket support for Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Perry also broke with more than 60 years of U.S. policy and declared that, among his first acts as president, he would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Perry about the topics during an interview:

BLITZER: Since ’67, every U.S. president, Democrat and Republican, have called Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories, in the West Bank, illegal under international law. Would you continue that activity?

PERRY: …No I wouldn’t. I consider the Israeli settlements to be legal, from my perspective, and I support them.

BLITZER: Even if they’re in the West Bank?

PERRY: Where there is arrangements that have been made, where the Israeli’s are clearly on Israel’s land that they have hard fought to win and to keep, absolutely.

Watch the video:

It’s not the first time Perry has endorsed the settlements. In September, he said Israel should build more. His views put Perry out of step with every administration from both parties since the occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, who unanimously viewed the settlements as a violation of the Geneva Conventions’ provisions against moving civilians into occupied territories.

Blitzer also asked if Perry would move the U.S. embassy in Israel, which is currently located in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem. “Absolutely,” replied Perry. “As soon as I could. I would clearly say, if you want to work for the State Department of the United States, you need to be packing your bags and move to Jerusalem as soon as you can.”

The CNN host accurately pointed out that, since 1948, no administration has agreed to move the embassy. In 1995, Congress passed a law forcing the embassy move, but every president since then has exercised a waiver to keep the mission in Tel Aviv. Palestinians want to have East Jerusalem, which was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War, as the capital of their future state — a move that could be imperiled by the presence of an embassy in the city, which is technically internationalized according to international law. The embassy’s presence would be tantamount to recognizing Israel’s disputed sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.

Another GOP candidate, Mitt Romney, also said he would move the embassy. At that time, ThinkProgress interviewed Jerusalem expert Daniel Siedemann, who expounded on the pitfalls of moving the embassy:

Were an American President be actually so irresponsible as to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem outside of the context of a comprehensive permanent status agreement, such a President would contribute nothing to legitimizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Instead he would be following Israel into abject isolation, and the United States into an weakened and marginal regional and global role.

When Blitzer pointed out that all presidents had avoided the move, Perry responded, “There may not have been a president of the United States that feels as strongly about Israel as I do.” In the past, Perry has said, “My faith requires me to support Israel.”

NEWS FLASH

Bachmann: I Don’t Let My Daughters Ask Out Boys, ‘They Have To Wait For The Boys To Call’ | While promoting her new book on Sean Hannity’s radio show this afternoon, Rep, Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said she doesn’t let her daughters ask boys out on dates. Apparently embracing antiquated notions of sexuality and gender relations, Bachmann suggested women should have to wait to be asked out. Otherwise, they’re out of luck if they never are. No word on Sadie Hawkins exceptions:

BACHMANN: People do find out [in my book] that I did not get asked to my senior prom.

HANNITY: Well, neither did I. And nobody would go with me.

BACHMANN: Well, in my time, girls didn’t ask boys to prom. If you didn’t get asked, you didn’t go.

HANNITY: Yeah, well let me tell you, I have a 13-year-old son. Those days have changed big time.

BACHMANN: And our girls are not allowed to do that in our house. They have to wait for the boys to call.

Listen here:

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Dec 7, 2011 at 6:10 pm

NEWS FLASH

In Response To Proposal To Drug-Test Welfare Recipients, GA State Rep. Introduces Bill To Drug-Test State Lawmakers | Lawmakers in a number of states, including Georgia and Maine, are considering following Florida’s lead and requiring all recipients of federal financial assistance to submit to a drug test. In response, one Georgia state representative introduced a bill last week that would require all state lawmakers to be drug-tested as well. State Rep. Holcomb (D) explained his proposal: “if required for the poor, we [lawmakers] need to do it, too.”

Special Topic

Top Ten Quirky Quotes From Judge McIntyre’s Occupy Boston Eviction Order

By Brad Johnson on Dec 7, 2011 at 6:00 pm

Occupy Boston in front of the Federal Reserve, on October 2.

Suffolk Superior Court Frances A. McIntyre has lifted her temporary restraining order against the eviction of Occupy Boston from Dewey Square. Her decision rests on her conclusion that the occupation of Dewey Square in the shadow of the Boston Federal Reserve is not a symbolic act of speech worthy of First Amendment protection. Here are the top ten quirkiest quotes from the judge’s ruling:

10. “The act of occupation, this court has determined as a matter of law, is not speech”

9. “The plaintiffs’ occupation of Dewey Square to the effective exclusion of others is the very antithesis of their message that a more just and egalitarian society is possible”

8. “While it is surely true that any person who chooses to make a speech or carry a placard at Dewey Square would find a hospitable audience, parents with young children, vendors, and wheelchair-bound people cannot access this space as presently used.”

7. “The Conservancy in enacting and enforcing rules is effectively acting as a governmental agency”

6. “Municipalities across the country have responded in kind to the act of occupation, frequently by police force. I take that as showing that the act of occupation is not understood to communicate plaintiffs’ intended message of egalitarian democracy”

5. “There is little likelihood that Occupy Boston’s professed message can be understood by their act of occupation, either. It has not generally been perceived as benign by those occupied”

4. “The media has clearly understood the plaintiffs’ contribution to the national conversation”

3. “The court has been informed that the plaintiffs wish to import a stainless steel sink and fireproof tent onto the site. As should be clear from this opinion, they are not entitled to do so.”

2. “Here, the Federal Reserve Bank is not the intended audience”

1. “The plaintiffs are permitted to camp on the Harbor Islands in Boston”

Although not as bizarre as some of the other quotations, the judge’s finding about the Conservancy is telling. The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy is a private corporation run by a board of Boston’s one percent — wealthy financiers, corporate lawyers, and real estate investors. The judge has explicitly found that the control of public space has been explicitly transferred to this private corporation, which makes rules and regulations in place of a democratic government.

Update

The Boston Phoenix finds the most chilling sentence in the decision: “Little in the way of expression is outlawed under the United States Constitution, but an act which incites a lawful forceful response is unlikely to pass as expressive speech.”

NEWS FLASH

Nigerians Toughen Gay Criminalization Bill To Spite Obama | Last week the Nigerian Senate approved a bill that would provide criminal sanctions for witnesses and participants in same-sex commitment ceremonies, and today the House of Representatives has taken up the bill as well. Lawmaker Zakari Mohammed boasted the House might even increase the penalties from the 14-year imprisonment prescribed in the Senate’s bill to spite the Obama administration’s efforts to promote LGBT freedom abroad, saying “to hell with the super powers if they are for gay marriages.” In fact, the latest version of the bill also punishes anyone who “registers, operates, or participates in gay clubs, societies, and organizations, or directly or indirectly makes a public show of same-sex amorous relationship.” This bill has the potential to make Nigeria an even more dangerous place for LGBT people than it already is.

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