BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Over the past few months, there have been hunks of bad news about Groupon, the original "Deal of the Day" web site, which currently has 16 million users. According to Reuters, the once innovative company "has lost more than half its market value this year on concern about waning demand for its daily deals and the company's accounting troubles."

Now, a Christian conservative organization is adding to the Groupon's problems by launching a nationwide boycott of the company, claiming that Groupon is shamelessly offering discounts to businesses involved in hardcore pornography.

STEPHEN PIZZO FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

You know that something is seriously out of whack when those who made a bundle, and then some, with financial black magic, nearly bringing down the entire industrial world, insist they be allowed to not only keep their booty but that the 99% who ate it in the shorts thanks to their skullduggery, should be forced to go on a fiscal diet. ("You want more porridge?!)

That, in a nutshell, describes the so-called "austerity" programs sweeping western economies.

Even liberal politicians are caving into this mind-bending logic. Give less to those who already have less, while making sure those with the most are allowed to keep more of whatever they can milk out of the system in the future.

I gotta tell ya folks, this stuff ranks right up there with other conservative nostrums such as:

• To reduce the deficit, slash taxes.

HARVEY WASSERMAN FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

There are zero commercial reactors operating in Japan today. On March 10, 2011, there were 54 licensed to operate, well over 10% percent of the global fleet.

But for the first time in 42 years, a country at the core of global reactor electricity is producing none of its own.

Worldwide, there are fewer than 400 operating reactors for the first time since Chernobyl, a quarter-century ago.

DEE EVANS FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Okay, we know it's political silly season but sorry I still don't see the reason for the outrage! When there is an addition to the number of jobs added and a subtraction to the unemployment number...how is that a bad thing! And by the way for those not clued in to the "real America", not everyone who falls off of the unemployment rolls is a hard luck story.

Many statistics show that some people who were unemployed are now starting their own businesses, in fact I have two friends who have been out of work for over 9 months who teamed up to start their own event planning company about 8 weeks ago and both are doing just fine. But for those who say those 115,000 jobs added mean nothing, again I say, ask those 115,000 people who finally got a job last month just how much it means!

JOHN LOGAN FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Since taking control of the House in January 2011, Hill Republicans have mounted a relentless assault on the National Labor Relations Board. The agency normally has a low public profile -- until, that is, Republicans attempted to transform it into a symbol of President Obama's "job destroying regulatory agenda." As part of their anti-NLRB campaign, Hill Republicans have introduced legislation, organized hearings, subpoenaed documents, supported lawsuits, and railed against "unelected government bureaucrats."

BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

He was on his school's tennis team and the student-athlete honor roll, but now Kevin Forts, rather than preparing for his college graduation, is banned from campus for the foreseeable future. Forts' banning is due to either or both the fact that he was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend on campus, and, to the astonishment of friends and family, he recently acknowledged that he is a pen pal and admirer of Anders Behring Breivik, the self-confessed Norwegian mass murderer. Breivik is now on trial in Norway for last July's bombing in central Oslo that killed eight people, and a shooting rampage at a political youth camp on the island of Utoya that killed 69 others, most of whom were teenagers.

PAUL BUCHHEIT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

A remarkable story appeared in Newsweek recently, a celebration by author Daniel Gross of America's re-emergence as the strongest economy and best darn nation in the world. An underlying theme in the article, implicit in the grandiose descriptions of our post-recession growth, is that all American lives must be improving because of the magic of our "resilient and nimble private sector." The Newsweek reader might have been reminded of the wisdom of Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein: "Everybody should be, frankly, happy...the financial system led us into the crisis and it will lead us out."

It sure is nice to feel good about ourselves. But it's more important to be thorough with the facts. Only a small percentage of Americans have benefited from the economic resurgence. The people with money are congratulating themselves while remaining disdainfully isolated from the real world all around them.

The article starts with the prideful assertion that "The stock market has doubled since March 2009, while corporate profits and exports have surged to records." That's all good for about 1% of us. The Americans in this elite group captured a stunning 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery.

STEVEN JONAS, MD, MPH FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Central to the Presidential election are the issues of the role of the Federal government in our society and what should be the future of such Federal government programs as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Central also is what the role of the Federal government should be in the regulation of personal behavior, especially in the realm of sex and sexual relations.

Closely related to the latter is the matter of the place of organized religion in public life, and the matter of whether or not particular religious views on such matters should be embedded in the law, both civil and criminal. Central also are the economic issues of the concentration of wealth, what is taxation for, and given the unsustainable Federal budgetary deficit, the role of government in dealing with these problems. As well as others, such as whether being fed dog meat as a child in a country where such a practice is common equilibrates with transporting your dog in a dog carrier strapped to the top of your car.

STEPHEN PIZZO FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

How rich is this? The GOP is all upset that Obama is "politicizing the killing of bin Laden."

This from the party that spent almost seven years politicizing the 9/11 attacks that killed 3000 on American soil and then politicizing terrorism -- real and imagined -- at every opportunity.

They will, of course, deny that they politicized 9/11 or terrorism. But they forget, we have the video tapes. And, if the cable "news" media fails to dig out those tapes and run them every time the Republicans bash Obama for succeeding where they failed, then we should get our hands on them and flood YouTube with them.