This evening's Rescue Rangers are Louisiana1976, ItsJessMe, Yatpundit, Grog, HansScholl, and joyful, with shayera editing.

• Giving an impassioned please for how we can create a better work environment and a better paycheck for women (really, for everyone), Elise advocates for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, in Feminisms: Women and Work (Action). (ItsJessMe)
• It hurts to learn that hard-working guys like Marcus Tullius get No breaks. (joyful)
• davidkc argues that as the government has been bailing out banks and the auto industry has been calling for a bail-out, an Ohio school district needs such help in School district submits request for TARP bailout money. (Louisiana 1976)
• The Arse takes a look at problems with the 1996 welfare reform act in the context of the current recession, in The Safety Net Will Not Catch the Poor This Time. (grog)
• China's food supply "safe" says U.S. Agriculture Secretary, but Deep Harm greets the news with skepticism. (joyful)
• Valtin gives a fascinating account of Dr. Joost Meerloo, a 1940s Dutch psychoanalyst who was probably very involved with U.S. intelligence, and advocates for the immediate closing of all Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) schools in Whence Torture? A SERE Critic, Circa 1956. (ItsJessMe)
• arthura tells how as the Indian subcontinent teeters on the brink of catching fire, Condi has been playing the piano in With Diplomacy, this is an Opportunity re Pakistan. (Louisiana 1976)
• illuminaupolis shares the travails of being a small business owner in the non-critical floral business in today's economy, in There's No Business... (ItsJessMe)
• Jeff Huber discusses "Long Bill Kristol" and his desire to fight piracy in Shiver Me Neocons. (YatPundit)

jotter has High Impact Diaries: December 3, 2008.

emeraldmaiden has Top Comments 12-4-08: Whateve.

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune just filed a pool report--complete with a touching speech by Barack Obama--on a reception that the president-elect for his early supporters in Chicago and members of his finance committee. Reading this, you get a sudden stunning sense of just how far the man has come and what a journey it has been.

After leaving his transition office in Chicago’s Loop at 5:55 p.m., the PEOTUS and his motorcade traveled approximately two blocks to The Standard Club.

The private club, located at 320 South Plymouth Court, played host to a thank you reception for many of Barack Obama’s fundraisers, mostly from Illinois. Obama entered the building at 5:56 p.m. and the pool was held in the van.

After holding at the base of a stairway inside, we were ushered into the room about 7:17 p.m. There were about 100 people in the small room and they all stood as he spoke.

In the back were the standard buffet tables and a bar (cheese, bread and crackers were some of the offerings).

Obama had spoken privately with people before we entered and also posed for photos. Michelle Obama was in the room as well, but did not speak as part of the brief program that we saw.

The president elect spoke for about seven minutes (a few quick quotes are below). He was introduced by John Rogers and James Crown, key members of his Illinois finance committee.

Penny Pritzker, the chairwoman of his national finance committee, was also in the room, although did not speak while we were there. Aides said the crowd was a mixture of Illinois finance committee members and national finance committee members.

"I could not have asked for better leadership," Obama said of his finance committee leaders.

Obama said he wanted to do the small event because of the long friendships in the room.

"This is a gathering of friends, and we wanted to do it precisely because all of you are friends. You know in politics, often times you say folks are friends, when what you really mean is they supported you and sometimes only after it became apparent you were winning. In this case, it’s absolutely true."

Obama looked out onto the crowd and said he saw classmates, friends, co-workers, past bosses and some of his earliest political supporters, including Bettylu Saltzman.

"I’m almost speechless here, which I don’t usually get, because this is really a tapestry of our lives. You know, we workout out at the East Bank Club. We worked on education stuff together. We’ve rabble-roused together. We’ve played basketball together. We have golfed, not so well, together. We’ve sat on foundation boards together. And we’ve seen frustrations, but also seen some dreams come true together. And so, I just want you to know that all of you had more to do with us being successful than just raising money. You helped shape Michelle and myself. Many of you have been part of our children’s lives. Many of you have helped to support us, through thick and through thin. And so, I’m just very grateful to all of you. Now, we’ve got a lot of work to do, and I don’t want to sugar-coat the amount of work there is to be done."

"We didn’t just win, but we ran and won in the right way," Obama said.

"This is not goodbye," Obama said. "This is the start. This is not the end. This is the beginning."

In his introduction, Crown had called the group "the early investors in the campaign for change. And as you know, early investors, the ones that get in on the ground floor, are entitled to superior returns and I want you to know that you’ve been getting them."

Crown then talked about the pride and smiles he says he sees from people able to claim that they were part of Obama’s win. He said he and Rogers had earlier expressed their thanks to the Illinois finance committee members in an e-mail.

Crown talked about the weekend Obama announced his campaign in February 2007 and a gathering he had that weekend in his living room. "I think at that moment, we might have had 50 percent of all the people in the country that believed this could happen," he said.

Crown said that night at his home it "felt awkward, and maybe even a little silly," when he introduced Obama as the next president of the United States. "I can’t tell you how happy I am to introduce to you the next president," he said.

Obama aides said those gathered had received invitations. There was no admission, as with typical fundraisers, they said, although it seems a safe bet that some of those gathered will be hit up by the transition or inaugural committees.

Aides said Obama for America paid for the food and drink.

In September 2008, Obama attended a fundraiser at this same club. That event had a minimum admission of $1,500.

More departing gifts from the Bush administration as it continues its long goodbye:

Feds Set to Eliminate Water Regulations for Neurotoxin

By Brandon Keim

Among the Bush administration's final environmental legacies will be a decision to exempt perchlorate, a known neurotoxin found at unsafe levels in the drinking water of millions of Americans, from federal regulation.

The ruling, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in October, was supposed to be formalized on Monday. That deadline passed, but the agency expects to announce its decision by the year's end, before president-elect Barack Obama takes office. It could take years to reverse.

Critics accuse the EPA of ignoring expert advice and basing their decision on an abstract model of perchlorate exposure, rather than existing human data.

Hard to believe that the same people who brought you a deregulated financial market based on a pie-in-the-sky model of supposed perfect capitalism would ignore expert advice in the environmental arena, isn't it? The abstract is always so much more appealing than the "existing human data."

Since their crushing defeat at the polls on November 4, Republicans have spent the better part of the past month desperately trying avoid sinking into utter irrelevancy, with their latest move being to push the story that Democratic voters are angry at Barack Obama's "betrayal" of the message of change that got him elected, and that he is building an administration that only a Republican could love. But as is usually the case, their rhetoric doesn't match reality. From Media Matters:

A USA Today/Gallup poll released December 2 found that 94 percent of Democrats "approve of the way Obama is handling his presidential transition." The poll also found that 89 percent of Democrats approve of Sen. Hillary Clinton's nomination to be secretary of state and that 79 percent of Democrats approve of Obama's decision to reappoint Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Looks like we'll still have Ted Stevens to kick around a little more -- at least in the criminal justice system, according to Politico:

Stevens, who was defeated in a bid for a seventh full term, will ask Judge Emmet Sullivan to overturn his conviction on seven federal corruption counts for failing to disclose more than $250,000 in improper gifts.

Stevens' defense team raised numerous objections to the Justice Department's handling of his corruption trial, arguing that the government deliberately withheld potentially exculpatory information and witnesses during the proceedings.

In addition, a prosecution witness, David Anderson, said he was coached by prosecutors on his testimony prior to his appearance as the final government witness, and unofficially promised immunity for himself and his family and friends if he took the witness stand.

While the motion hasn't been filed yet, Stevens' legal team has submitted a motion that "exceeds local court rules on how long such document can be."

Maybe we'll just hold out for the Cliff Notes version.

I get the problem with DC residents not having representation in Congress. It's a travesty of democracy. And the partisan in me likes the idea of adding two guaranteed Democratic senators.

I also get that DC has a larger population than one other state:

That said, it would be weird to have a state essentially be a city, and a mid-sized one, at that. Is "weird" a reason to deny people the right of representation? Obviously not. But why then not make NYC its own state? Indeed, with a population of 8.3 million, it's larger than 39 other states. Same with Chicago, LA, Philadelphia, or whatever. Washington is only the 27th largest city in the US. Why should it enjoy more representation than any of those urban centers?

To me, the more obvious solution is to simply have DC annexed by either Maryland or Virginia. (Preferably Virginia, which would solidify it as a solid Blue state, and most of NOVA is a suburb of DC anyway.)

Can someone explain why that option is either ignored or a non-starter?  

Say what you will about the crass commercialization of the holidays, this is not good news for the economy:

The holiday shopping season is getting off to a rocky start as many retailers this morning posted dismal sales figures for November.

Though several said traffic and sales on Black Friday were solid, it was not enough to turn the month around for retailers. Industry experts are predicting that this could be the worst Christmas for retail in decades.

With Wal-Mart one of the few "bright" spots in retail, I guess a race to the bottom is in order -- which means cheap stuff to be had for all of us!

"It’s a terrible story for retailers and their margins," said Michael Unger, a principal with Archstone Consulting, "but if you’re a consumer looking for a good deal, you will find it."

That should definitely make up for a 26-year high in workers collecting jobless benefits.

So sad. From an email from the campaign of Democratic candidate Charlie Brown:

Thanks to the extraordinary work of our local elections officials, I am pleased to report that the high standards of fairness, accuracy, and transparency have been met.  And with the counts and recounts across district four complete, and more than 370,000 votes tallied, the outcome of this election is no longer in question.  Unfortunately, we've come up less than one half of one percent---just under 1,800 votes---short of victory.  

So a short time ago, I called Senator Tom McClintock to congratulate him on a hard fought victory, and to wish him well in Congress.

This is a tough loss. It's a race we've been following since 2006, a race which featured a remarkable candidate who came achingly close to pulling off a stunning upset in an R+11 district not once, but twice.

Brown lost by just three points in 2006, against an incumbent Republican, John Doolittle, who was seemingly drowning in scandal. Brown filed again to run this year; with Doolittle's ethical problems not going away, he retired rather than face Brown.

Many people assumed that without Doolittle to kick around anymore, Brown's goose was cooked in a district like this one; even Brown's supporters knew it would be a difficult race. Yet he led in polling for much of the cycle, and came within 1800 votes of taking out Conservative Icon Tom McClintock.

It's awfully tough to lose races like these. Brown was a really excellent candidate who ran two historically strong campaigns in one of the reddest districts in the state of California. And the netroots put so much effort and passion into this race - donating money, phonebanking, volunteering.

But think about this: when Charlie Brown filed to run for Congress in 2005, a bid considered hopeless at the time, this was a nation run by Tom DeLay, George W. Bush, and Bill Frist.

Thanks to the efforts of Charlie Brown, and millions of patriotic Democrats like him, the nation is being run by adults again.

Rasmussen. 12/2. Likely voters. MoE 4.5% (No trend lines)

Quinnipiac. 11/19-24. Likely voters. MoE 2.5% (8/5 results)

PPP (PDF). 10/31-11/2. Likely voters. MoE 2.5% (No trend lines)

The big news here is that Specter clocks in the mid-40s, and facing a possible primary rematch with Club for Growth chief Pat Toomey, will have two tough contests ahead. Given his ill health, I give better than even odds that Specter decides to retire instead.

As for Matthews, all indications are that despite his serious man crushes on George W. Bush (and his codpiece), he's serious -- even if some think it's all one big contract negotiating ploy with MSNBC.

As for more serious potential candidates, Rep. Joe Sestak's office issued a statement saying that he wouldn't run for the seat. Reps. Allyson Schwartz and Patrick Murphy are likely considering runs. Murphy, while originally supported by this site in the 2006 Netroots Candidates ActBlue fundraising list, headed over to the dark side by joining the Blue Dogs. Bad move. Schwartz, on the other hand, would be awesome.

I'm looking at polling this race next week.

• Email press release:

  In keeping with its pledge to make the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama one of the most open and accessible in history, the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) announced today that, for the first time, the entire length of the National Mall will be opened to the public so that more people than ever before will be able to witness the swearing-in of the President from a vantage point in sight of the Capitol.

  The PIC has worked closely with officials from the District of Columbia government, the National Park Service, the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee (AFIC), and the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) to make space at this historic location available to members of the public who are unable to obtain tickets to the swearing-in. Those who come to witness the swearing-in on the Mall will be able to watch and listen to the ceremony on large screens that will be provided by the PIC along the Mall.

• Help us out by taking the Blogads survey. The more ads we sell, the more cool shit like polling (at least 150 next year) and the Electoral Scoreboard we can do.
• LA-Sen: The subscription-only Roll Call is reporting that GOP family values exhibit A, David Vitter, will be running for reelection.
• AK-Sen: I hope Berkowitz does run again. While the people of Alaska definitely have a predilection for felons and freaks, they made progress by electing Begich (however narrowly) to the Senate. Hopefully that's their version of baby steps, and they can get rid of the other soon-to-be-felon in their congressional delegation.
• Jesus, it's economic armageddon out there.
• How adorable. The WSJ has rediscovered the Constitution. Apparently, it applies to Democrats, but not Republicans. Huh!
• Cool tool ranks Google searches by states. So searching for Daily Kos tells me that Vermont loves this site, and Utah not so much.

Promoted by Devilstower. After all the bad news I've brought you on mountaintop removal, it's wonderful to see some success.

This summer, after months of conversations, some top executives from Bank of America agreed to accompany NRDC staff on a fact-finding trip to Appalachia. In July we flew them over moonscaped mine sites in West Virginia, took them to Kayford Mountain for a closer look at mountaintop mining, and introduced them to several local residents/activists who are fighting to save their beloved homeland from reckless coal mining companies.

Today, BofA released its revised coal policy, which will have the immediate effect of curtailing commercial lending to companies that mine coal by blowing off the top of mountains in Appalachia. The policy states, in part:

Bank of America is particularly concerned about surface mining conducted through mountain top removal in locations such as central Appalachia. We therefore will phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal. While we acknowledge that surface mining is economically efficient and creates jobs, it can be conducted in a way that minimizes environmental impacts in certain geographies.

Why is this so important? Bank of America still stands as a pillar of our country's shaky financial system. In fact, the trying economic crisis has only served to strengthen this behemoth bank unlike other once proud and stable institutions. All the more reason to engage BofA in using its investment power and influence to affect positive environmental change.

That's also why Rainforest Action identified BofA as the right company for a public campaign, hoping to convince the bank that investing in companies that practice mountaintop removal mining is a bad thing.

NRDC decided to get involved in a different way: By talking to the bank's executives directly and explaining the great opportunity available to them as responsible corporate citizens to help end this travesty. That's when they agreed to the West Virginia trip and saw first and what their investments in mining companies had been supporting.

Is BofA’s policy perfect? No. Is the policy as strong as we'd like? Not really. Will this shut down mountaintop mining operations? Of course not.

But BofA's bold step forward sends an unequivocal signal to the mining industry that business as usual is no longer acceptable. And for the worst offenders of mountaintop mining, like Massey, the bank's actions will effectively shut down the funding flow for this activity from one of the nation's largest lenders.

Make no mistake, this is a big step from a big player. And it marks a turning point in the campaign to end the war on Appalachia being waged by the coal industry. NRDC is pleased to be working with both our grassroots allies and leading corporations like Bank of America to stop mountaintop mining.

This Diary was originally posted at NRDC Switchboard

Once upon a time, we used to wait until the end of the year before adding new voices to the front page. This year, we retired the old way of adding contributing editors. We're now moving to rolling admissions.

We started with Jed, who joined us a couple of months ago. And today, we're adding Lithium Cola. From the bio I'll soon be adding to our About page:

LithiumCola, 37, grew up in Ohio and after bumbling about in Las Vegas and New York in his 20's 30's, ended up back in Ohio, which he is sure is indicative of something. He has worked in academia, technical construction sales, and on factory floors. The only thing he knows for sure is: never match.

Moving forward, we'll be more aggressive adding new voices that catch our fancy anytime during the year.

Also, we're launching several new initiatives to make sure our existing important voices get more "airtime", so to speak.

For those who want to keep a closer eye on what happens in our nation's Capitol, Kagro X is ruling the roost over at Congress Matters -- where we hope to do for the legislative process what we've been doing to the electoral one: democratizing it. Remember, once legislation hits the floor of the Senate or House, it's usually too late for us to do anything about. That's why the lobbyists hang out in the committee rooms, not the floor. Our goal with Congress Matters will be to keep a better eye on what's happening in those committee rooms, identify pressure points, so we can direct our activism at the right time and place. The site should prove immensely important in 2009.  

We're also going to launch, sometime early next year, a weekly email political newsletter, covering both legislative and electoral developments. It will feature original content (so few-to-none site reprints) from me, brownsox, and Kagro.

And we've got yet another site on the drawing board slated for a late Q1 launch. More details on that one when it's closer to reality. Right now it'd be too much vaporware for any announcement.

So lots of exciting things ahead for the site. No rest for those seeking to foster change.

KBR and Halliburton are the targets of a new class-action lawsuit alleging that U.S. troops have been sickened by water, food and fumes produced by the two massive private contractors, according to the Army Times:

Joshua Eller, who worked as a civilian computer-aided drafting technician with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, said military personnel, contractors and third-country nationals may have been sickened by contamination at the largest U.S. installation in Iraq, home to more than 30,000 service members, Defense Department civilians and contractor personnel.

The details of the charges laid out in the lawsuit are macabre:

The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that "still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces."

Eller also accuses KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator at Joint Base Balad, which has been confirmed by two surgeons in interviews with Military Times about the Balad burn pit. Instead, according to the lawsuit and the physicians, medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned in the open-air pit.

"Wild dogs in the area raided the burn pit and carried off human remains," the lawsuit states. "The wild dogs could be seen roaming the base with body parts in their mouths, to the great distress of the U.S. forces."

The troops that the contractors so love to claim to support are not only being exposed to toxic fumes and scenes of wild dogs dragging off body parts. No, they're getting extra treats in their rotten food as well:

Eller also accused KBR of serving spoiled, expired and rotten food to the troops, as well as dishes that may have been contaminated with shrapnel.

"Defendants knowingly and intentionally supplied and served food that was well past its expiration date, in some cases over a year past its expiration date," the lawsuit states. "Even when it was called to the attention of the KBR food service managers that the food was expired, KBR still served the food to U.S. forces."

In a separate incident reported by McClatchy, we learn that as bad as the military base-dwellers have it, workers "employed" by KBR sub-contractors are treated even worse:

BAGHDAD — About 1,000 Asian men who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport without money or a place to work.

Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to KBR, an engineering, construction and services company, hired the men, who're from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. On Tuesday, they staged a march outside their compound to protest their living conditions.

And that's how we spread American values around the world during the Bush administration: poison our own to save a buck and virtually enslave the poor from other countries.

When the GOP brags about winning the run-off in Georgia, it's worth remembering that through early October, most mainstream political analysts (with the notable exceptions of brownsox and Swing State Project) thought Saxby Chambliss had his re-election campaign locked up.

Take, for example, Stu Rothenberg on September 14 or Charlie Cook on October 2. Both said that Georgia was a safe Republican senate seat:

So when the GOP crows about their 'big victory,' they should keep in mind that they won where they were supposed to win, and that the flip-side of denying Democrats a 60-vote majority is that with Georgia in the bag, Republicans now hold just 41 seats.

Here's a potentially bloody primary fight that I'd like to see:

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has some Republican-to-Republican advice for Gov. Sarah Palin: If you want to make a run at the White House, keep your hands off my Senate seat.

Murkowski, up for reelection in 2010, is nervously awaiting word on whether John McCain’s former running mate will run against her in the GOP primary. But she says Palin is the one who should be nervous.

"I can guarantee it would be a very tough election," Murkowski said in an interview.   [...]

Asked Monday to respond to Murkowski’s comments, Palin’s communications coordinator, Kate Morgan, said only, "The governor has never stated her intention or desire to run for that office."

Nice non-denial there, eh?

And while some, including Murkowski, say that a Senator Palin would cost Alaska senate seniority, a Democratic pollster says that:

Sarah is interested in what is best for Sarah, and she is not necessarily going to get sidetracked by party loyalties.

Darn right!

Nate Silver's favorite punching bag makes fun of himself again, telling Alan Colmes that he thinks it's "rational" to believe Barack Obama is a Muslim.

We all know Barack Obama is Christian, but it's important to also say that it wouldn't matter if he were Muslim, or Jewish, or any other religion, because in this country, we don't impose religious tests.

At the same time, it's a smear to maliciously claim someone holds a religious faith other than their own, and to defend believing those smears as "rational" says more about how McCain nearly managed to get 46% of the vote than it does about anything else John Ziegler might choose to whine about.