Breaking: Senator Reid Triggers Nuclear Option To Change Senate Rules And Prohibit Post-Cloture Filibuster!!!

Update: Not so much...The other shoe drops (DKos) Dave Waldman writes -

I think that's way overstating the case, though. What happened in the Senate tonight bears some strong similarities to what observers have come to think of as the "nuclear option," but there have been no changes to the rules that would really eliminate or in any way seriously constrain the use of the filibuster.

...At any rate, the discussion on the floor has in fact wandered into rules reform territory, which is not altogether unfitting. If this really were the nuclear option, that would of course mean that the infamous "Gentleman's agreement" was now inoperative, since part of that deal was that neither party would use the "constitutional option" (which would under most definitions encompass the slightly different "nuclear option" as well) in this Congress or the next. Do Republicans really want that door open? We can do that, I guess. But we might as well go all the way, then.

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Whoo Hoo! May I say it's about time Senator!
(The Hill) Alexander Bolton reports ~ Reid triggers nuclear option to change Senate rules and prohibit post-cloture filibusters

In a shock development Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered a rarely-used procedural option informally called the “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules.
The surprise move stunned Republicans, who did not expect Reid to bring heavy artillery to what had appeared to have been a hum-drum legislative knife fight.

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Cash Wars?

Two posts from (MoJo) Kevin Drum ~

CEO Pay: Still Skyrocketing, Still Undeserved

- two things: (a) stagnating worker pay has made a much bigger pool of money available for executive compensation, and (b) peer group comparisons inexorably ratchet up CEO pay.
- The chart on the right tells the familiar tale. Adjusted for inflation, cash compensation for line workers has actually decreased over the past few decades, and even when you include healthcare compensation it's grown only about 30% or so. In contrast, executive compensation over the same period has more than quadrupled.

Political Mojo - Greg Sargent's Tax Policy Center chart - The question it answers is this: if you applied various tax policies to estimated 2013 income, how would different income groups fare? Here's the answer for the very tippy top of the income spectrum:

Greg Sargent - Washington Post: How Obama's tax hikes would really impact the rich, in three easy charts

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Save Our County Coalition Writes: Stop Rezoning At Barley Mill Plaza

From the inbox ~ Please attend the following important meetings: Barley Mill Plaza - We OPPOSE the Stoltz application to rezone 40% of Barley Mill Plaza to Commercial Regional for a strip mall and hope to have a large crowd in attendance at both meetings to support OPPOSITION.

Tuesday Oct. 4 from 3 to 5 p.m.
NCC Land Use Committee
800 N. French Street, Wilmington,
8th floor conference room (will likely be moved to Chambers, 1st Floor)
The public is allowed to speak briefly. Council will vote on Oct. 11.

Tuesday Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.
NCC Council meeting
Council Chambers, 1st Floor
800 N. French Street, Wilmington,
New Castle County Council will vote on the Barley Mill Plaza zoning application. The public has three minutes per person to address Council.

20 Montchanin Road - We OPPOSE the spot rezoning. Stoltz has applied to rezone a portion of the property to introduce commercial uses into the heart of the Brandywine Valley Scenic Byway, undermining decades of thoughtful land use planning in the area. Oct. 6 is the deadline to submit letters and comments to the Land Use Dept. and Planning Board regarding 20 Montchanin Road. Letters of opposition can be sent to LandUse@nccde.org

Plus, some highlights from (WNJ) Adam Taylor's story ~ Stoltz rezoning war hits final stretch

The THREAT...[Stoltz] lawyer has publicly stated that unless he gets approval for all of them [the four compromise agreements from February: one for Barley Mill; one for Greenville Center; one for the former Kirkwood Fitness Center property; and one for the former Columbia Gas site on Montchanin Road] as submitted, he will build even bigger projects that he already is entitled to build under current zoning laws.

The DEAL... [Former County Executive Chris Coons] worked out the deal with Stoltz in private, without CRG...........The Sept. 2010 deal got rid of the proposed tower at Greenville Center and reduced the size of the development plan at Barley Mill Plaza by 1.2 million square feet............ In addition to the smaller plan for Barley Mill, CRG negotiated deed restrictions with Stoltz -- restrictions that would be privately enforced. The group says those deed restrictions offer long-term protections -- including no more expansion on the site and prohibitions on big-box stores, convenience stores, gas stations and a four-story cap on the height of office buildings. Save Our County, which includes former CRG supporters, emerged after the compromises were announced because so many community members thought the deals favored Stoltz too much............There is a master agreement between CRG and Stoltz that says all four projects must get approved by the county in order for any of the deed restrictions in the private agreements to go into effect............ SOC remains concerned that the Coons-Stoltz deal was crafted when Pam Scott was still Stoltz's attorney. Scott's husband, Paul Clark, succeeded Coons as county executive and Scott resigned from Saul Ewing to avoid a conflict of interest for her husband............ "The compromise plan is a sweetheart deal because it gives him the commercial rezoning he needs and got him out of building a residential component in a bad housing market," SOC leader Tom Dewson said............Greenville resident Pete Shannon backs Save Our County. "What the county government is doing here is taking a shot for a few jobs, but what the plan will really do is allow an out-of-state, multimillionaire to make even more money," Shannon said. "And the plan that will do it will create a lot of traffic and other problems for people in New Castle County".............."It is the most significant decision to take place since the state decided to not widen the Tyler-McConnell Bridge based on a planning study that 141 should remain a commuter, not a commercial, corridor," said Christine Whitehead.

The Comments
NancyWilling - The NCC Planning Board rejected this rezoning. Read through their report (it is on the county web site under Boards - rezoning recommendations) http://www2.nccde.org/landuse/PlanningBoard/Rezonings/default.aspx If Mr. Beck chooses to deride Save Our County members as naive and inexperienced in "big land use decisions", he surely won't depict the Planning Board with such contempt...oh wait.....and I don't find it useful to suggest that Pam Scott's original set of plans were a bluff. That may have been true but it doesn't help garner public understanding of the issues. Certainly, the Pre-Compromise plan for BMP was not code compliant according to some. The towers didn't have the offset necessary according to NCC Land Use Code and there were never stormwater plan submissions.

The worst of all - and Adam Taylor didn't even bother to mention it- is that Del Code states that no resoning shall be approved without a traffic impact study. Between Pam Scott-Paul Clarky, Mr. Coons and Mr. Culver's dirty work with new growth models, NCC is now attempting to decree that their newly streamlined 2-step land use review process --which forces a council vote on rezonings BEFORE Traffic Studies Are Available-- is legal. It is not legal under State Law.

DoubleDensity - County Council must see there is no Community agreement with Stoltz, just a backroom deal. The vitality of our County depends on rejecting an Instant Mall with Commercial Regional zoning along Route 141. The current and correct OR zoning promotes buildings for technical jobs, not redundant shopping in our County, already commercially saturated.If Council doesn't hold the line, the Developer says he would not have County restrictions on a 90 acre site at our key crossroads. Maintaining County control over a development of this size is imperative and this should be the Council's only priority. Due to Coon's ambiguous Redevelopment agenda, public aid perks were offered to Developers to increase the maximum density of a site. This aid ~should not~ apply to BMP, but makes defeating Commercial rezoning there unquestionable.Council must insist no Commercial, except the 3 acres Stoltz could build, if it builds out a full 80 acres of offices, in a 22 to 1 ratio. Interstate shopping would force us to build 4 lane bridges at Thompson and McConnell. Also, a cloverleaf intersection at 141 and 48 would be needed to allow traffic to move. Give away 37 acres of unjustified Commercial and destroy our Community by giving in to BLACKMAIL? ~ No spot zoning, Council stand strong!

HelpNCC - Lets call this for what it is--highway robbery. Stoltz is trying to steal something that doesn't belong to them--OUR way of life. BOTH of the plans on the table will destroy our community...without question. And who is willing to bet the farm that KPA and Greenways can/will defend the limited deed restrictions proposed. Why not give the community a chance for a better outcome...STOP THE REZONING.

standupjoe - "He worked out the deal with Stoltz in private, without CRG."Stoltz is coming off as a big bully. He's forcing his plans down the throat of county officials and the residents that live there. How he even got that far is questionable, given that "the deal" was done in private. He's bound and determined to change the landscape and environment, and the very lives of the residents that live within an ear's shot of his mega facility. The majority used to rule, and if that were still the case, he'd never even get close to the drawing board. Don't you hate it when these big developers with grandiose ideas shove their way into neighborhoods that don't want them? LIke Toll Brothers building their mini-mansions on the former Hercules Golf Course...nobody wanted them either, but unfortunately, those of us who actually pay our taxes and cast our votes, don't have a say in what happens to our communities.

(WNJ image)

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Thousands In Boston Protest BoA's Unfair Foreclosure Practices

(Boston Herald) John Zaremba reports ~ Hub police arrest 24 in protest vs. Bank of America

Two dozen trespassing protesters were happily hauled off from Bank of America’s downtown offices last night in a gesture of civil disobedience against what they say are the leading lender’s unfair foreclosure practices.
“They wanted to be arrested, and we obliged,” Boston police Commissioner Edward F. Davis told the Herald last night as he stood on the outskirts of Dewey Square, observing hundreds gathered in a rush-hour protest. The crowd grew to an estimated 3,000 by nightfall.
None of those arrested at Bank of America resisted, Davis said. “No trouble at all. It’s a great group.”

...“We had to set a stand to let Bank of America know they cannot foreclose on families and put them out on the street,” Grant of Roxbury said as her cohorts in the holding unit cheered in the background.
Bank of America spokesman T.J. Crawford dismissed last night’s trespass and protest as a public-relations ploy.
“These individuals choose to ignore the facts and instead focus on increasingly aggressive PR stunts,” Crawford said. “Bank of America has a lot to be proud of in Massachusetts, from modifying 18,000 mortgages since 2008, to lending nearly $400 million to small businesses that are fueling the local economy in the first half of 2011.”

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Occupy Wall Street: Restive American Youth Vs The Banks Or The Cops?

(AP Canadian Press) Colleen Long reports ~ 700 arrested after swarming Brooklyn Bridge, shutting down traffic

NEW YORK, N.Y. - More than 700 protesters demonstrating against corporate greed, global warming and social inequality, among other grievances, were arrested Saturday after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down a lane of traffic for several hours in a tense confrontation with police.
The group Occupy Wall Street has been camped out in a plaza in Manhattan's Financial District for nearly two weeks staging various marches, and had orchestrated an impromptu trek to Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon. They walked in thick rows on the sidewalk up to the bridge, where some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway, police said.
...Earlier Saturday, thousands who joined two other marches crossed the Brooklyn Bridge without problems. One was from Brooklyn to Manhattan by a group opposed to genetically modified food. Another in the opposite direction marched against poverty organized by United Way.
..."I don't think we're asking for much, just to wake up every morning not worrying whether we can pay the rent, or whether our next meal will be rice and beans again," [Erin] Larkins wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "No one is expecting immediate change. I think everyone is just hopeful that people will wake up a bit and realize that the more we speak up, the more the people that do have the authority to make changes in this world listen."

(image: NYT; Naked Captitalism Update 5:00 AM: Debra C, via e-mail, points to FreakOut Nation, which has screen shots to show how the New York Times edited the OccupyWallStreet story after it went live to make it less protestor friendly)

(Suburban Guerrilla) Susie writes ~ Setup on the Brooklyn Bridge

From the descriptions of the people who were there, it sounds as though Mayor Bloomberg’s strategy is to thin the ranks of protesters with police set-ups like this. They probably don’t understand how many more people are waiting in line to support the Occupy Wall Street actions:

(Naked Captitalism) Yves writes ~ Is JP Morgan Getting a Good Return on $4.6 Million “Gift” to NYC Police? (Like Special Protection from OccupyWallStreet?)

No matter how you look at this development, it does not smell right. From JP Morgan’s website, hat tip Lisa Epstein:
JPMorgan Chase recently donated an unprecedented $4.6 million to the New York City Police Foundation. The gift was the largest in the history of the foundation and will enable the New York City Police Department to strengthen security in the Big Apple. The money will pay for 1,000 new patrol car laptops, as well as security monitoring software in the NYPD’s main data center.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly sent CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon a note expressing “profound gratitude” for the company’s donation.
“These officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe,” Dimon said. “We’re incredibly proud to help them build this program and let them know how much we value their hard work.”

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Daily Kos: GOP Seething Over Elizabeth Warren

From the inbox ~ Chris Bowers, Campaign Director, Daily Kos writes:

Please take a few seconds to sign the Daily Kos and CREDO Action petition thanking Elizabeth Warren for her powerful words on class warfare and the social contract: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/warren_thankyou/index2.html

Elizabeth Warren has quickly moved ahead in the polls in the Massachusetts Senate race using a populist economic message, and it's really making Republicans angry. Here's a sampling of the offensive comments conservative pundits made in response to her epic speech on class warfare and the social contract:

Rush Limbaugh called her "a parasite."
Right-wing blog Wizbang wrote "I reach for my revolver."
Conservatives are now distributing a parody of Warren's speech that equates all taxes with rape.

Please, take a few seconds to sign the Daily Kos and CREDO Action petition thanking Elizabeth Warren for her gutsy words. She needs to know—and Democrats who might start echoing her need to know—that we will stand with those who tell the truth in the face of Republican attacks. Keep fighting.

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Frieda Berryhill Writes: Rally For A Nuke-Free World!

Live Video Streaming "The Coalition Against Nukes National Day of Action" - NYC Saturday, October 1, 2011 12 Noon – 3:30 PM

Rally co-sponsors: Friends of the Earth, NYC Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Ralph Nader, New York Physicians for Social Responsibility, NYPIRG, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Helen Caldicott Foundation, IPSEC, Beyond Nuclear, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, Westchester Citizens Awareness Network, Shut Down Indian Point Now!, Time’s Up, ECOFEST, Rock the Reactors, Peace Action of NY, Haymarket Books, Manhattan Local of the Green Party, Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, International Socialist Organization, Radiation and Public Health Project

GREEN ECONOMY - JOBS - NATIONWIDE RALLY FOR NUCLEAR-FREE FUTURE
Coalition Against Nukes Rally October 1, 2011 in NYC
Across the US, a National Day of Action events for America’s Nuclear Free Future (New York, NY, September 30, 2011) The Coalition Against Nukes National Day of Action
flagship rally is Saturday, October 1, 2011 at Pier 95, Hudson River Park in NYC, from Noon to 3:30 PM. More events are also happening throughout the United States. Visit http://www.coalitionagainstnukes.org/

And the good news is: People all over the globe had had enough. No Nukes is the mantra now !!!! More than six months on, the impact of Fukushima on the global appetite for nuclear energy is beginning to become clear
And according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) six developing countries which were interested in developing a civil nuclear program have notified it that they have abandoned their plans
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), the UK’s second-biggest energy generator, also threw in the towel and said it would devote itself to producing more electricity from renewable.

Is nuclear power still a viable force?
Fukushima shocking truths: Historical radiation dump, cover-up, the unborn - Thousands of Japan's nuclear energy refugees battle to face reality, especially women confronted with these new reports who worry about their children and their unborn.
Swiss Parliament approves nuclear plant phase out! GENEVA - The Swiss parliament's upper house on Wednesday approved plans to phase out the country's nuclear plants over the next two decades in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Swiss plan to phase out use of nuclear power gains full backing in parliament By Associated Press ( Germany has already decided to close them down) The U.S. has one active proposal to build a nuclear power plant. It's projected completion date and the ensuing cost overruns may well stop this project. I will keep you posted.

Interesting video: Tsunami video, taken from inside an automobile and recovered
http://www.wimp.com/japanesetsunami/

Scottish and Southern Energy ends nuclear power plan - NuGen has an option to purchase land for a new nuclear power station near SellafieldScottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has announced it is pulling out of a deal to develop a new nuclear power station http://www.allgov.com/US_and_the_World/ViewNews/17_Tons_of_US_Supplied_Weapons_Grade_Nuclear_Material_Missing_110915
Radioactivity in Japan Rice raises worries By HIROKO TABUCHI TOKYO — Government officials on Saturday ordered more tests after detecting elevated levels of radiation in rice crops near the crippled nuclear power plant at Fukushima. Radioactive substances have already been discovered in beef, milk, spinach and tea leaves, leading to recalls and bans on shipments. But officials have been especially worried about rice, a staple that makes up a significant part of the Japanese diet

People’s power vs nuke policy
Kudankulam (TN) project site Deccan Herald correspondent M R Venkatesh reports in the backdrop of recent protests in some parts of the country against under-construction and planned nuclear plants, mainly over issues concerning their safety.
The people of Japan are in full swing against nuclear power - Massive Protests

Very interesting !!!!!
Please visit this site read the extraordinary list of failures but you are not privileged to know.....ALL HAVE BEEN CLEARED ( Your Government at work)
Emergency Evacuation

This is not "cool"
Please review opening minute of this Webinar on Fukushima which took place Wednesday.
The mikes were hot and NRC did not realize it.
One member of 'Ad Hoc' committee on Fukushima asks 'How will we handle questions' another responds 'Just refuse to answer anything, no serious'. .....
http://video.nrc.gov/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=445
I think we deserve better !!!! The state of Delaware is moving in the right direction by the creation of a Radiological Emergency Plan, which has been updated as recently as 2008. With the current plans in place there is aneed for continual revisions and updating. Officials have a good idea of how many cones and barrierswill be needed and the magnitude of such an evacuation.....

If you would like to examine Delaware's plan go here (long but interesting)
http://www.ce.udel.edu/UTC/Mitchell_Summer08.pdf

And (FireDogLake) Gregg Levine writes ~ The Party Line – September 30, 2011: No Will, No Way: Nuclear Problems Persist, But US Fails to Seize Fukushima Moment

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