One of the themes of people like Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo as well as many other mayors and governors around the country is how things are so bad economically that the states must cut back in so many services, laying off teachers, first responders, cutting Medicaid eligibility, rolling back unemployment benefits, and generally destroying both the social safety net and wages and benefits for state workers. Yet here it is, New York City can incur millions of dollars in overtime costs going after unarmed, mostly peaceful protestors (according to this from WNYC it was over $5M by late October), yet city agencies are scrambling for funds:

Enbridge, a competitor to TransCanada, announced plans to purchase a controlling interest in an existing pipeline that runs from the Gulf of Mexico to Cushing, Oklahoma, and to reverse it, in an effort to transport tar sands oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

Official unemployment is at 9 percent. According to Pew, President Obama’s overall job approval rating is an anemic 46% approve – 46% disapprove, and his job approval on the economy is a dreadful 35% approve – 58% disapprove. These are terrible fundamentals that should make an incumbent President vulnerable, but according to Pew, Obama holds a two-point lead against Mitt Romney and is beating Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich by double digits.

We did it! With your help we’ve now raised over $104,000 to purchase and distribute supplies to the occupations! Thanks to everyone who has supported the fund – this was all you.

John Broder looks back today at the Obama Administration’s decision to delay ozone standards. As has been reported several times before, he finds the meddling hands of Cass Sunstein and Chief of Staff Bill Daley. At least Sunstein, the head of OIRA, has some tenuous connection to regulations, if not science and the environment. But if you thought that it makes no sense for a White House Chief of Staff to be involved in ozone regulation, well, you’re right.

From early this morning to now, Occupy Wall Street has been out demonstrating as close to the New York Stock Exchange as they could get and then in Liberty Square later in the morning. The action has been a part of November 17, a massive day of international action. In Los Angeles, Dallas, Portland and Athens, Greece, there has been major activity.

This morning, the CA Supreme Court ruled that the proponents of Prop 8 do have standing under state law to appeal the decision in Perry v. Brown.

If I’ve been a bit AWOL from the front page lately, it’s because everyone at the FDL Membership Program has been workingnon-stop to secure OccupySupply goods and training members to be liaisons to distribute them. Glenn Greenwald has a great piece up on OccupySupply this morning, featuring Ryan Cook in his OccupySupply shack (with great photos by Jon Walker).

From early this morning to now, Occupy Wall Street has been out demonstrating as close to the New York Stock Exchange as they could get and then in Liberty Square later in the morning. The action has been a part of November 17, a massive day of international action. In Los Angeles, Dallas, Portland and Athens, Greece, there has been major activity.

Every hour there have been arrests. Every hour it seems like there has been some kind of police scuffle with protesters. Every police scuffle it seems force has been used and brutality has happened.

We’re seeing a kind of bank run happening in Europe. The bond markets recognize that the European Central Bank is unwilling to save sovereign countries that cannot create their own money. So they’re just moving away from one country to the next, causing the cost of bond yields to rise to unsustainable levels. First it was Greece and Ireland and Portugal. Then it was Italy. Now it’s Spain.