War has broken out between West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania over who can give away more tax dollars to Shell Oil.

The city of Detroit used to have two million people. Today, the population is around 900,000. Seventy-two thousand homes are vacant. It is the poorest large city in the country with over thirty percent of the city’s population living in poverty. Given those statistics, one might expect the Occupy movement would thrive here, but it’s struggling just like the city.

Today is Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) awareness day!

Occupy Buffalo like all occupations has been concerned with, as John Washington says, “enabling them” to continue to be a drug addict by offering a place where they can “continue that behavior in a more comfortable way.” They have have tried to deal with people and empower them so they can stay here at the site and help build the movement in Buffalo.

Newt Gingrich has repeatedly made comment that denigrate poor people but are little more than racist and classist stereotypes and dog whistles. This open letter by Joi Ruth Orr, Director of Organizing, Faith Leaders for Community Change, calling for an apology from Mr. Gingrich, needs to be spread far and wide.

A variety of links to articles/interviews on current topics that may, or may not, be of interest.

In a ceremony known as “Casing the Colors,” the US military formally ended their mission in Iraq, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on hand to make things official. The location of the ceremony gives away exactly how this war is ending, and it doesn’t read “triumphantly.”

More than two and a half million Americans slipped into poverty this year bringing the total number of Americans in poverty to 46.2 million. There are millions more Americans near or in danger of going into poverty because they could lose their job, their home to bank foreclosure, or contract a disease or illness that leads to a medical bill they will be unable to pay.

The Census Bureau’s revised way of measuring poverty takes into account changing costs and the offsetting effects of support programs. Importantly, it reveals that rising drug costs and health have left millions more seniors in poverty that previously thought.

I caught the last half of Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels explaining his new budget math to CNN’s Candy Crowley. Daniels is trying to pitch himself and his book with the idea that the federal deficits and long-run debt pose an existential threat to the Republic. It’s just arithmetic, he says. But which numbers matter?

Math can be hard, but it’s impossible for those who ignore the relevant numbers.