WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama named Wall Street critic Elizabeth Warren a special adviser Friday and tasked her with setting up a new agency to look out for consumers in their dealings with banks, mortgage companies and other financial institutions.

Calling Warren “one of the country’s fiercest advocates for the middle class,” Obama said the new bureau would end abusive practices.

“Never again will folks be confused or misled by pages of barely understandable fine print that you find in agreements for credit cards or mortgages or student loans,” he said, standing alongside Warren and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in the Rose Garden.

Obama credited Warren with developing the concept of the consumer agency, and said, “It only makes sense that she should be the architect.”

But Obama is not nominating Warren to be the consumer bureau’s director, a move that allows her to avoid a lengthy fight with Senate Republicans who view her as too critical of Wall Street and big banks to be confirmed.

The business and banking community opposed Warren as director, believing that she would establish an aggressive agency.

Because she is not being named director, Warren can assume her duties immediately. Obama said Warren would eventually help him choose the agency’s chief.

Warren designed the advisory role during long conversations with White House officials, a person familiar with her thinking said. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Warren has spent the past two years running the Congressional Oversight Panel, charged with monitoring the Treasury Department’s handling of the $700 billion bank rescue fund known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Mark Shriver – Managing Director of U.S. Programs for Save the Children and Campaign Chair, k2kUSA

The Census Bureau made official what we’ve seen anecdotally for months: America is deeper in poverty today than it’s been in more than a decade. According to the Bureau’s report, 43 million Americans are now living in poverty, up from 39 million the year before.

Incredibly, the age group with the highest rates of poverty are children under 18; their ranks increased by 1.4 million kids this year to a total of more than 15 million American children.

We can have a robust debate about the role of government for adults living in poverty but children can’t work and they can’t vote. If we all agree that every child deserves a fair chance in life, our best hope for reversing this tragic trend is to make the kind of investment that gives every child a quality education and proper nutrition, providing a path to lifelong success.

Unfortunately, we simply haven’t made that investment and our kids are paying the price, threatening the future of America.

Four-year-old kids living in poverty are 18 months behind their peers and only 15 percent of fourth graders from poor homes are reading at levels considered proficient by the U.S. Department of Education.

These gaps in early childhood stay with these kids for rest of their lives, leading to increased high school dropout rates, teenage pregnancy and unemployment.

Equally alarming, almost half of kids living living in poverty — where one might think hunger is an issue — are in fact obese or overweight. Indeed, the obesity crisis puts kids at risk for “adult” diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, stunting their productivity and straining our health care system.

Now is the time to act. Congress should immediately work to pass the Child Nutrition bill and get it to the President’s desk. As Members of Congress continue working to finalize the FY2011 budget, they must ensure that essential funding for Head Start and Early Head Start, the Child Care and Development Block Grant and the Early Learning Challenge Fund is signed into law.

Unless we reverse these trends, the poverty crisis will continue to threaten American families today and America’s promise tomorrow.

Yesterday, I was proud to take part in the grand opening celebration for A123 Systems' 291,000 square foot lithium ion battery manufacturing facility in Livonia. The new Livonia plant will enable the complete battery production process to take place under one roof, from research and development to battery pack assembly. Best of all, the new facility has already created over 300 new Michigan jobs, and A123 Systems' production plans project another 3,000 clean technology jobs to follow.

It's great news for Michigan. It's great news for American manufacturing. And, perhaps most importantly, it's great news for our nation's energy future, helping to ensure that we don't replace our current dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on foreign batteries. No other place in the country is doing more to lead the advanced battery industry than Michigan -- and it's paying off, through innovative public-private partnerships like the one that caused A123 to center its U.S. manufacturing in Michigan.

We were the first state to target the advanced battery sector, implementing the most aggressive advanced battery incentives in the nation in December 2008 when I signed the bill into law. As a result, Michigan projects were awarded more in Recovery Act-funded grants from the Department of Energy than any other state: over $1.35 billion in grants. Today, Michigan is home to 16 advanced battery facilities that are expected to create over 63,000 new jobs for our workers over the next decade.

I've written about how Michigan is leading the green industrial revolution here before -- but I haven't shared the stories of some of the workers who are leading the charge. Take a look at the video below with some of the great, clean energy workers now hired at A123's Livonia plant:

You can see the pride in the faces of A123's workers and hear it in their voices. They know they're helping shape our nation's clean energy future, and leading Michigan's economic recovery. Half of the new hires at A123's Livonia facility were previously unemployed.  This is a powerful demonstration of the job-creating potential of clean energy.

A123 Systems' new Livonia facility is a Recovery Act success story.  And another example of how Michigan is transforming the Rust Belt into the Green Belt.

A frank discussion about science-based targets (like reducing the concentration of C02 in our atmosphere below 350 parts per million) is key not only to summoning the necessary ambition to tackle global warming, but also to maintain the credibility of the UN climate negotiations. Big polluters cannot be allowed to perpetuate the idea that weak targets will avert catastrophe. There is currently 392 ppm C02 in our atmosphere and this year we've seen Pakistan underwater, Russia on fire, and, most recently, tens of thousands of walruses are forced to shore by melting sea ice. Can anyone really claim that 450 ppm of C02 is safe for our planet?

Yvo de Boer dismisses the importance of targets because he feels that first, big polluters won't increase their level of ambition and second, that the debates over targets contributed to the failure to reach an agreement in Copenhagen.

Sure, it's going to be tough to push countries like the US to take action, but letting them off the hook guarantees failure. Instead, we need to build a movement that can push our countries to summon the courage and leadership necessary to take on climate change. On 10/10/10, we'll be getting to work on climate solutions in thousands of communities around the world and pressuring our leaders to get to work, as well. Speaking clearly and strongly about what the world needs to do to stop the climate crisis -- lowering C02 below 350 ppm -- helps build that movement and keep up the pressure on countries to increase their ambition to meet what science says is necessary.

As for the failure in Copenhagen, it wasn't the push for strong targets that stalled progress: it was the refusal of rich countries like the US to show anything resembling leadership. As the world's largest historic emitter, the US should have arrived in Copenhagen ready to make strong commitments. Instead, it repeatedly blocked progress and worked to undermine the credibility of the UN by entering into secretive side negotiations with other large polluters. If the push for strong targets blocked anything, it blocked the passage of the weak, compromised Copenhagen Accord that contained no serious commitments from big emitters.

Together, we've made incredible progress building a movement behind the real solutions that science and justice demand. Last October 24, you organized over 5,200 events in more than 180 countries to build support for the 350 ppm target. Thanks to your hard work, the number "350" made it onto the front pages of newspapers around the world -- CNN called October 24 the "most widespread day of political action in the planet's history." That publicity payed off: in Copenhagen, 112 countries adopted the 350 ppm C02 target, many of them for the first time. Just as important, targets like 550 or 700 parts per million disappeared from the negotiations completely. By building a movement around strong targets, we were able to turn the talks back towards what science says is necessary.

If last year we set the target, this year we're showing how to get there. There are already 10/10/10 work parties planned in more than 130 countries. We're making the future visible today: showing the types of solutions necessary to get us back to 350 ppm as quickly as possible.

The more successful are, the more the forces of the status-quo are going to push back. Over the coming months, you'll see big polluters and bored bureaucrats trying to downplay expectations for international climate negotiations. You'll see more talk about the declining importance of, you know, doing what's necessary. The tough part is: science and chemistry don't negotiate. They've set the target at 350 ppm and we need to figure out how to get there.

Yvo de Boer may be tired of pushing countries to raise their ambition, but we're just getting started here at 350.org. We're not going to give up on what science and justice demand. We're going to get to work.

Cross posted from Itsgettinghotinhere.org

"Instead of resorting to tired old class warfare rhetoric, pitting one working American against another, the president and the Democratic leadership should start working with us this week to ensure a fair and open debate to pass legislation to cut spending and freeze tax rates without any further delay," said House Republican Leader John Boehner on Sunday.

And Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) reportedly also used the term during a Tea Party rally in Washington Sunday: "We will not compromise our economy to accommodate the class warfare rhetoric of this administration."

On Monday, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate elaborated: "I don't think Americans should be pitting Americans against each other," said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on the Senate floor. "Americans agree with President Kennedy's formulation that a rising tide lifts all boats. And Americans believe -- it's our basic idea of a country -- that we want everyone here to succeed, to do well and not to pit one group of us against another group.

"We all aspire to be in the very top groups of whatever we're talking about. And because of the kind of country we have, we have that opportunity and people do move from one income tax bracket up to the next one for example, as we increase our incomes," Kyl continued. "So we don't want to punish anyone for being successful. That class warfare went out of style when the Cold War ended."

Who's been waging war against whom? Democrats might say it's the other way around. Over the summer, when Senate Republicans filibustered a bill to reauthorize unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) characterized the obstruction as a "class warfare issue," as Kyl led his caucus in suggesting that unemployment benefits actually discourage people from looking for work.

"The Social Security Act of 1935 made these entitlements, Social Security and unemployment insurance and welfare," McDermott said. "The Republicans have been after all three of those programs ever since 1935. They got welfare a few years ago, because that's poor people. They could jump on them. But unemployment and Social Security is middle-class people -- they haven't been able to get them, but it isn't because they're not willing to try."

Extended unemployment benefits lapsed for more than a month, affecting 2.5 million people, and a half as Republicans and some Democrats insisted that the cost of the benefits not be added to the deficit -- though the GOP has abonded talk of deficit discipline for the proposed tax hike, which is worth nearly $700 billion over 10 years.

"It's ironic, to say the least, that less than two months ago, Senator Kyl fought so hard to block extending a meager $300 a week in unemployment benefits to those hardest hit by the recession because it would increase the deficit by $30 billion in the short term," wrote Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project, in an email to HuffPost. "Yet today, he and other anti-deficit hawks are more than willing to increase the deficit in a long-term and structural manner that would result in $700 billion in non-offset spending... The tax cuts were set to expire for a reason -- because we might not be able to afford them any longer. We have reached that point and recognizing the reality of the situation isn't class warfare; it's just good common sense."

In the ad, directed by Ladd Ehlinger, Jr., the mind behind Dale Peterson's rapid rise to fame, a motley crew of Frank Baumian characters -- a John Boehner-hued scarecrow, a lion (we guess), a chubby tin man, and of course the innocent young Dorothy -- lament the current state of political parties and the heavy taxes brought on by former treasury secretary and "Wizard of Oz" Hank Paulson.

In comes Nancy Pelosi, the "Wicked Witch of the West," mounted on what appears to be a flaming airliner, making the innocent "pretties" pay for her expensive San Francisco offices, throwing debt around with "Wall Street bailouts" and sicking her flying IRS tax monkeys on the American taxpayers.

Don't despair however, John Dennis, a tea party-backed Republican candidate running against Pelosi in 8th Congressional District, enters stage-left to throw a melting bucket of "freedom" all over the Witch's face.

She melts. The end.

Watch John Dennis's "Wicked Witch of the West" Ad:

Scientists on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico are finding a substantial layer of oily sediment stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Their discovery suggests that a lot of oil from the Deepwater Horizon didn't simply evaporate or dissipate into the water -- it has settled to the seafloor.

The Research Vessel Oceanus sailed on Aug. 21 on a mission to figure out what happened to the more than 4 million barrels of oil that gushed into the water. Onboard, Samantha Joye, a professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, says she suddenly has a pretty good idea about where a lot of it ended up. It's showing up in samples of the seafloor, between the well site and the coast.

"I've collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I've never seen anything like this," she said in an interview via satellite phone from the boat.

Scientists describe the oil they've found as "fluffy" and "porous" and "more than 2 inches thick" and "all over the place" and containing "recently dead shrimp, worms and other invertebrates." Says Samantha Joye, of the University of Georgia's Marine Sciences Department, "It's starting to sound like a tremendous amount of oil. And we haven't even sampled close to the wellhead yet."

[Hat Tip: The Washington Independent]

MORE:
Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor [NPR]

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WASHINGTON - Amid an atmosphere of unease, President Barack Obama wants Americans to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by recapturing the sense of common purpose felt on that dreadful day.

"If there is a lesson to be drawn on this anniversary, it is this: We are one nation -- one people -- bound not only by grief, but by a set of common ideals," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

"By giving back to our communities, by serving people in need, we reaffirm our ideals -- in defiance of those who would do us grave harm."

Obama himself was marking the day nearly 3,000 people died in terrorist jetliner attacks with a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City. The president also planned to attend a memorial service at the Pentagon and participate in a service project in the Washington area.

First lady Michelle Obama was to join former first lady Laura Bush in Shanksville, Pa., where the fourth plane crashed after passengers rushed the cockpit. Vice President Joe Biden is in New York for the service at ground zero.

But this year's remembrances take place in an unusually tense environment, amid growing public suspicion of Muslims and controversies over an Islamic community center and mosque planned near ground zero and a Florida pastor's threat to burn Qurans on Saturday.

By late Friday, it appeared the Rev. Terry Jones had backed off his plan to burn the Muslim holy book, following international condemnation. In New York, protests were planned for Saturday by supporters and opponents of the proposed mosque.

Obama alluded in his radio address to the contentious atmosphere, though without specifically addressing either controversy.

"This is a time of difficulty for our country," Obama said. "And it is often in such moments that some try to stoke bitterness -- to divide us based on our differences, to blind us to what we have in common.

"But on this day, we are reminded that at our best, we do not give in to this temptation," Obama said. "We stand with one another. We fight alongside one another. We do not allow ourselves to be defined by fear, but by the hopes we have for our families, for our nation, and for a brighter future."

At a White House news conference Friday Obama denounced the threatened Quran burning, said Muslims have the same right as any other religion to build near ground zero and issued a full-throated appeal for religious tolerance, reminding Americans: "We are not at war against Islam."

In the GOP's weekly address, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., echoed Obama's plea for a common purpose. Kyl called for the country to "recapture the unity that allowed us to come together as a nation to confront a determined enemy."

But without mentioning the president by name, Kyl seemed to question the Obama administration's commitment to the war on terror begun by his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama recently declared an end to combat missions in Iraq even as he pledged to renew efforts to prosecute the war in Afghanistan and pursue al-Qaida terrorists.

"The fact that none of the subsequent attempts to attack us have succeeded seems to have removed some of the urgency and commitment so necessary to succeed in war," Kyl said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a statement honoring the victims of "that terrible day," said memories of the attacks "remain searingly vivid."

"We remember the pain of loss, but also the pride in our people and our country," she said.

Courts have held that Internet subscribers do not have an expectation of privacy once they convey subscriber information to their Internet service providers, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled.

Collyer denied motions by some computer users to quash subpoenas for subscriber information.

The decision came in the case of a German limited partnership which is suing some Internet users for copyright infringement of the movie "Far Cry," a video game adaptation.

Achte/Neunte Boll Kino Beteiligungs Gmbh & Co KG, a creator and distributor of motion pictures, holds an exclusive license to the copyright of "Far Cry" in which two reporters investigate the deaths of mercenaries on an island off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

The partnership identified the Internet protocol addresses of computers associated with the alleged infringement. It then subpoenaed the Internet service providers seeking names of individuals associated with those addresses. Notified by their provider, some of the customers challenged the subpoenas.