Molstly Good News for a Change

Too Big to Jail
Robert Scheer, Truthdig: "Can we all agree that a $1 billion swindle represents a lot of money, and the fact that Citigroup agreed last week to pay a $285 million fine to settle SEC charges for 'misleading investors' demonstrates a damning admission of culpability? So why has Robert Rubin, the onetime treasury secretary who went on to become Citigroup chairman during the time of the corporation's financial shenanigans, never been held accountable for this and other deep damage done to the U.S. economy on his watch? Rubin's destructive impact on the economy in enabling these giant corporate banks to run amok was far greater than that of swindler Bernard Madoff, who sits in prison under a 150-year sentence."
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650,000 Americans Joined Credit Unions Last Month - More Than in All of 2010 Combined
Zaid Jilani, ThinkProgress: "One of the tactics the 99 Percenters are using to take back the country from the 1 percent is to move their money from big banks to credit unions, community banks, and other smaller financial unions that aren't gambling with our nation's future. Now, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) reports that a whopping 650,000 Americans have joined credit unions since Sept. 29 ... To put that in perspective, there were only 600,000 new members for credit unions in all of 2010."
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Robin Hood Tax Gains Ground at the G-20
Mary Bottari, PRWatch: "The G-20 meeting in Cannes got underway this week. As President Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner touched down in Air Force One, the Greek government was on the verge of collapse, austerity was sweeping Europe and the future of the Eurozone in doubt ... But the first day of talks offered a ray of hope for the entire global economy. For the first time, the 20 most powerful countries in the world sat down to discuss taxing the financial service industry. And for the first time, the U.S. blinked."
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Economy Generates 80,000 Jobs in October, Employment-to-Population Ratio Edges Higher
Dean Baker, The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "There is no reason to expect much of a drop in unemployment anytime soon. The economy added just 80,000 jobs in October, continuing a pattern of weak job growth ... In sum, there is very little positive news in this report. There is zero evidence in this report of anything to suggest a boost to the labor market is on the horizon."
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Romney's Estate Tax Cut Would Save the Koch Brothers Up to $8.7 Billion Each
Pat Garofalo, ThinkProgress: "Tomorrow, 2012 GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is slated to give a 'major spending policy speech' at Americans For Prosperity's Defending the American Dream Summit. Both the conference and AFP itself are funded by money from the billionaire Koch brothers. Leaving aside that Romney intends to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, he has proposed a huge giveaway to the very rich by suggesting the complete elimination of the estate tax ... Currently, more than half of the estate tax is paid by the richest 0.1 percent of households. And according to a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, the Koch brothers heirs' would save a combined $17.4 billion in estate taxes thanks to Romney's plan."
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Congressional Democrats Seek to Curb Tough State Voter-Screening Laws
William Douglas, McClatchy Newspapers: "Thirteen states last year approved changes to their election laws and another 24 states are weighing measures that proponents say are needed to protect against voter fraud and to prevent illegal immigrants from casting ballots ... Members of the House Democratic leadership, the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus unveiled the letter they're sending to election officials urging them to oppose new voting measures that a recent study said would adversely impact the ability of more than 5 million people to register or vote."
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Activists Fight to Hold Exxon Mobil Accountable in Valdez Oil Spill
Britney Schultz, Truthout: "Activists are attempting to compel Exxon Mobil to pay a remaining $100 million in cleanup costs for damages from the Exxon Valdez oil spill ... Curiously, even though both the Department of Justice and the State of Alaska sought the additional funds back in 2006, five years later, they are not holding Exxon Mobil accountable to its promise to pay."
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US Deports 46,000 Parents With Citizen Kids in Just Six Months
Seth Freed Wessler, ColorLines: "Between January and June of 2011, the United States carried out more than 46,000 deportations of the parents of U.S.-citizen children ... The Applied Research Center has also found a disturbing number of children languishing in foster care and separated from their parents for long periods. After a year-long national investigation, we estimate there are at least 5,100 children in foster care who face barriers to family reunification because their mother or father is detained or deported."
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Bill Gates Champions a Financial Transactions Tax: "This Money Could Be Well Spent and Make a Difference"
Tanya Somanader, ThinkProgress: "While Republicans resist any attempt to address growing income inequality, more and more of America's wealthy are asking to pay their fair share. Joining billionaire Warren Buffet, Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently issued his support for 'millionaires and billionaires' paying more in taxes. Now, Gates is taking it a step further and traveling to the G-20 meeting in Cannes, France today to champion the 'Robin Hood tax' - a small financial transaction tax on each stock and bond trade - in order to help financially strapped developed nations meet their global aid pledges to the poor."
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Tunisia Elections: The Real Thing This Time
Rob Prince, Foreign Policy in Focus: "It was only 2005 - not all that long ago - that Zine Ben Ali won his third term as Tunisia's president with 99 percent of the vote. At the time, critics dismissed the results as farcical, yet another attempt to put perfume on a police state known virtually universally for smothering any independent voice or democratic sentiment ... Six years and one national rebellion after the fraudulent 2005 election, Tunisia has just completed the first truly democratic election in its history. It was also the first election of the Arab Spring. The election was held to create a legislative body that will govern the country while it writes a new constitution."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Occupy Wall Street Is Bringing Down the Big Banks, and More
In today's On the News Segment: Occupy Wall Street is bringing down the big banks, 80,000 new jobs were added last month, 75 percent of Americans support the president's decision to withdraw American troops from Iraq, voters in Ohio may repeal radical anti-union law next week, and more.
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International Security Assistance Force Data Shows Night Raids Killed Over 1,500 Afghan Civilians
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) killed well over 1,500 civilians in night raids in less than 10 months in 2010 and early 2011, analysis of official statistics on the raids released by the U.S.-NATO command reveals. That number would make U.S. night raids by far the largest cause of civilian casualties in the war in Afghanistan ... Although a large proportion of those targeted in the estimated 1,256 lethal raids were undoubtedly Taliban insurgents, a very substantial proportion were civilians."
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There's Many a Gray Head in Occupy Wall Street Crowd
Gianna Palmer and Kate Howard, McClatchy Newspapers: "Vince Taylor doesn't fit the stereotype of unkempt twenty something protesters at the Occupy Wall Street site in Manhattan, which was clear from the homemade canvas sign he held there. It read: '75 AND DISGUSTED' ... Though he was on the older end of the protesters, seniors and middle-aged adults are hardly uncommon at Zuccotti Park ... Like the younger protesters, the older crowd at Zuccotti Park offers a variety of reasons for being there, but all fit under the broad umbrella of being fed up with the status quo."
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