I remember when we were debating campaign finance laws around the turn of the millennium and the standard right-of-center view was that these were unfair restrictions on free speech and disclosure alone would be good enough. Then came Citizens United and the DISCLOSE Act and suddenly disclosure itself was an unbearable curtailment of free speech. Now I’m reading about this story where a McDonald’s in Ohio is sending notes in its employees’ paychecks telling them who to vote for:
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/voterintimidatation-1.jpg
I LIED ABOUT ACCESSING ALL OF THE COMPUTERS. I THEN ADMITTED ABOUT ACCESSING THE COMPUTERS, BUT LIED ABOUT WHAT I WAS DOING. FINALLY, I ADMITTED WHAT I DID.
As former Army I’m embarrassed that Joe Miller was in the Army.
That may seem the takeaway from this year's Corruption Perceptions Index from Berlin-based Transparency International, which saw the U.S. 2010 ranking slip to 22nd out of 178 nations from 19th last year -- the first time the United States has missed inclusion in the top 20 least-corrupt countries since the index was launched 15 years ago. http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results
Rising past the U.S. over the year were the tiny Caribbean island nation of Barbados (now 17th), the Persian Gulf emirate Qatar (19th) and Chile (21st). New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore -- ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 last year -- tied for first place in 2010.
Smug future-Chinese will own us, attack ad claims
Stupid future-Chinese people owning us! If only we hadn't attempted stimulus spending -- we could've been as prosperous and successful as the communist nation that spent vast sums of money on massive infrastructure projects as part of their $586 billion stimulus.
![md_horiz[1]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ALApqaSqg0s/TMLZO33Qm8I/AAAAAAAAAjs/WXBxd_WT8q8/s1600-h/md_horiz%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg "md_horiz[1]")
Virginia - District 7
Grade: D
1 = voted with IAVA Action
Cut to VA Budget (Vote #1): 1
Homeless Veterans (Vote #2): 1
Stop Loss Payments (Vote #3): 0
Advance Approps (Vote #4): 1
Female Veterans (Vote #5): 1
Funding the VA (Vote #6): 1
Disabled Veterans (Vote #7): 1
Mandatory Screenings (Vote #8): 0
Deployment Protections (Vote #9): 1
Homeless Veterans (Vote #10): 1
USERRA for NG (Vote # 11): 1
Caregiver Support (Vote #12): 1
Military Sexual Trauma (Vote #13): 0
Fully Fund the VA (Vote #14): 1
Advance Approps (CoSpon #1): 0
Disability Reform (CoSpon #2): 0
New GI Bill 2.0 (CoSpon #3): 0
Jobs for Vets (CoSpon #4): 0
111th Total Score: 11
110th Congress Grade (2008 Report Card): B
U.S. House of Representatives
(out of a possible 18 points)
18 Points
A+
16-17 Points
A
14-15 Points
B
12-13 Points
C
10-11 Points
D
9 Points & Below
F
Caterpillar digs in
Cat's third-quarter profit increases by 96% from the year-ago period, as sales advance 53%. Investors' initial reaction is a positive one.
AIRLINES
• United, Continental post profits - the post-merger entity of Continental and United airlines, said its two carrier units rang up profits during their last quarter as independent operators.
• JetBlue profit climbs
• Southwest's quarterly profit up
Wireless keys AT&T profit pop
Earnings leap to $12.3 billion from $3.19 billion as 5.2 million iPhones are activated.
Earnings lift McDonald's higher
UPS proift rises 81%
Xerox profit up; view brightens
Philip Morris profit, outlook up
A third-party group headed by a GOP operative is out with a new Nevada ad spot encouraging Latinos in the state not to cast votes in this year's midterm elections.
It’s an understatement to say that being in a sniper team is a high-pressure job. You’ve got to calculate wind resistance, distance, bullet trajectory and other physics obstacles in a few instants.Then you’ve got to squeeze off the shot — sometimes from hundreds of yards away. So the futurists at Darpa figure the sharpshooters could use some “smart” bullets to help the snipers out.
On Thursday, Teledyne Technologies received a $25.45 million contract from Darpa to design a .50 caliber bullet that can better hit moving targets while the wind swells. It’s part of the next stage of the EXtreme ACcuracy Tasked Ordnance project, or Exacto, begun in 2007 to give the military what Teledyne chairman Robert Mehrabian termed “ultra-high precision and affordable guided weapons” in a prepared statement. It’s show-and-prove time: Teledyne’s got to deliver its prototype bullets by September 2012.
More jobs lost. More Private sector jobs. The underline trend is good especially since there is $2 trillion on the side.
In the one-two punch many had long been fearing, hiring by businesses has slowed significantly while government jobs are disappearing at a record pace.
Companies added 64,000 jobs last month, after having added 93,000 jobs in August, the Labor Department reported Friday. But over all, the economy shed 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September, the result of a 159,000 decline in government jobs at all levels. Local governments in particular cut jobs at the fastest rate in almost 30 years.
“We need to wake up to the fact that the end of the stimulus has really hit hard on local governments,” said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. “There is much more of a slide in the job market than what we really need to clearly turn around.”
Survivors'
stories
Meet three soldiers and two Marines with
traumatic brain injury, hear their stories and see how their recoveries are progressing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/metro/traumatic-brain-injury/#/home/
![china_flag_2[1]](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ALApqaSqg0s/TKiaJxxUvAI/AAAAAAAAAig/3NPl9-Dy4o8/s1600-h/china_flag_2%5B1%5D%5B2%5D.jpg "china_flag_2[1]")
' target=_blank>China to the Rescue! Wen Offers to Buy Greek Debt - CNBC
China offered on Saturday to buy Greek government bonds in a show of support for the country whose debt burden triggered a crisis for the euro zone and required an international bailout.
Premier Wen Jiabao made the offer at the start of a two-day visit to the crisis-hit country where he says he expects to expand ties in all areas.
![md_horiz[1]](http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ALApqaSqg0s/TMiolHr5mGI/AAAAAAAAAkM/EvDALWSNxh4/s1600-h/md_horiz%5B1%5D%5B2%5D.jpg "md_horiz[1]")
![TIM-PROFITT[1]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQMTLXVktsITzRWbVMu19jRddIWmxy_hyQDHIZKY3HZokYsrKSt0y8XXCdV0oaFZMDMmq6uTd9lkLMmoQHptp-YERkg-cxidt9WlSrkISSqYRaS1DF9nmaWMHV9__0zaBj-5gqE6HS-g/s1600-h/TIM-PROFITT%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg "TIM-PROFITT[1]")
![climatechange_enl[1]](http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ALApqaSqg0s/TMQfhbWhm2I/AAAAAAAAAj4/ABObFx0rHws/s1600-h/climatechange_enl%5B1%5D%5B1%5D.png "climatechange_enl[1]")
![snipers[1]](http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ALApqaSqg0s/TL4c0SfZipI/AAAAAAAAAjk/h9tEJBuZWeY/s1600-h/snipers%5B1%5D%5B3%5D.jpg "snipers[1]")
