We wish you the best of everything in 2008.

Unbossed is conducting its annual talent search for new contributing writers.

We offer a unique blend of politics and policy discussions, a haven for progressive muckrakers, and, of course, what's a blog without free-flowing snark.

Think you've got what it takes?

Submit a maximum 500-word essay, manifesto, or link-filled treatise (subject of your choice) to to be reviewed by the secret Unbossed junta. Bonus points awarded to those who share our passion for great writing, excellent analysis, and wonky research.

And if that's not high praise enough for you we're unofficially known as the Daily Kos farm team. Three talented Unbossed writers — mcjoan, Armando and now Smintheus — have been plucked from our ranks to enjoy front page contributing editor status at dKos.

Deadline for entries is December 31.

Quoth the SEC:

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox today launched the first-ever online tool that enables investors to easily and instantly compare what 500 of the largest American companies are paying their top executives. The new database highlights the power of interactive data to transform financial disclosure.

The December 8 Science News includes a troubling story about the future of farming - Lettuce Liability: Programs to keep salads germfree raise wildlife and conservation concerns (Subscription Only).

A new industry program to self-regulate most salad producers is forcing affected farmers to choose between adopting measures unfriendly to wildlife and a loss of major markets for their greens.

We often hear the claim that there is no difference between milk produced with or without rBST and that those nonetheless concerned should get with reality.

Say you were a medical researcher and wanted to study tropical diseases. Which of these places would be a site where you could do groundbreaking research, an geographic area where the plight of those suffering from massive infections and infestations of parasites has been totally neglected, a country where we see the very wealthy living next to those who live in squalor and filth, a country where 14 percent of the population is infected with Toxocara roundworms, Cysticercosis caused by the tapeworm Taenia solium, resulting in seizures and other neurological manifestations?

Would you choose Belize? Samoa? Los Angeles?

On Christmas day my old friend Milo came for a visit. He watches the Sunday blabfests so that I don't have to, and usually sends me the good bits right away. But what with one thing and another, he didn't think until this afternoon to mention that the Great Man himself made an appearance on Fox News Sunday. He made some startling predictions for 2008, Milo told me. From Milo's description I knew the interview would make good material, so I went and reviewed the video.

The November revelation that Pennsylvania was censoring milk labels seemed to come from nowhere. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Monsanto and its allies and front groups have been at this a long time. How long? Well . ..

This whole issue of milk labeling has been bubbling under the surface for years. Monsanto has been the driving force, for obvious reasons. But along the way it has turned over a few rocks and found some friends and allies.

The Monsanto milk labeling band wagon, now playing in Ohio and Pennsylvania . . . and New Jersey. New Jersey has announced a meeting in January to examine milk labeling in the state. Be there or be . . . . Gosh, where are the milk puns when I need them?

I am a big fan of this show and occasionally try to draw attention to their good work by posting a list of recent topics. In recent weeks, we have had insightful shows on reporting on politics and so much more.

Unbeknownst to us at Colorado Confidential, our science and environmental reporter got one of the few sneak peaks at the new Intelligent Design movie, Expelled, featuring former Nixon speechwriter and game show host Ben Stein when it was screened locally at the Archdiocese of Denver ahead of its April 2008 release date.

Read his review and ponder with us at Unbossed why a film that devotes 105 minutes of celluloid to bash evolution never quite gets around to defining what intelligent design actually is.

Whoops. Those pesky facts must have been dropped on the cutting room floor.

This new book might make a good present for the unbossed on your gift-giving list. In addition to dissecting the Bush Administration's rhetoric, it provides the warning signs that your government may have been taken over by fascists.

I wish I had the smoking gun, but what is the likelihood that two adjacent states within the same time period would both create a Your State's Name Here Dairy / Food Labeling Advisory Committee show purpose is to ban labeling milk in connection with rBST / rBGH? Both with faux "consumer advocates" on the panel and both dedicated to doing Monsanto's bidding? Coincidence?

Pennsylvanians today woke up to read that the state Auditor General issued two reports finding serious problems related to the use of contractors by Penn-DOT, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. New story reports assure us that there is no problem.

I am an evangelist.

No, no. Not that kind of evangelist. I simply don't have the hair for it. Or the religious fervor.

Rather, I am an evangelist for government transparency.

You will already have heard the bad news on real average earnings. But perhaps you'd like to see the Bureau of Labor Statistics press release that those news stories are drawn on. You can find it here. This one figure captures the report for me. For November 2006 average real weekly earnings in constant 1982 dollars were $282.47. And for November 2007, they were 280.11.

Your Bush Administration at work.

A new GAO report finds massive under-reporting of improper travel payments by DOD.

You may have lost your right to sue your employer for violating your workplace rights and not even know it. And you may not realize that when you buy a product you may have consented - without your knowing - to give up your right to sue in court, even if you are grossly injured. Now Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy are fighting to get you rights back.

We all know that millions are not covered, those that potentially are don't have full coverage, some that are can't afford their share of employment-based coverage and therefore forego it. In the post-Sicko world in which we live, the common wisdom seems to be that we are at the point where universal health care is inevitable.

Is that the case, though?

Page 38 of the latest semi-annual report by the Department of Labor Inspector General says a lot about how privatization under the Bush administration (dis)functions.

Just when you thought you've lost all hope following the latest grisly report of car bombs in Algeria, Iraq, and now Lebanon, our girl Shirley brings it home in this 1985 Quest for Peace interview.

Click to play

Man has to be productive in order to feel that he warrants his existence..."

TO THE EDITOR:

Bovine growth hormone is brought to you by Monsanto, a leading proponent of dangerous genetic modifications to the nation's food supply. This same huge company brought us the Terminator seed, designed to resist the highly toxic pesticide, Roundup, and has no ability to reproduce, and is now spreading to pure corn crops, contaminating crops with its genetic deviations. The European Union, which boasts much less corporate influence in policy-making, banned this threat to their food supply along with other genetically modified food.

continued on the flip ...

I am the yin to Douglas Bruce's yang.

Because if you can't convince Latino voters to support a conservative GOP candidate then just insult the hell out of them with a Cuban version of "Step 'n Fetchit."

This attack ad against Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colorado) is being broadcast widely across Colorado courtesy of Common Sense Issues, a GOP political advocacy group, on behalf of ex-Congressman Bob Schaffer. Udall and Schaffer are in a pitched battle to replace the retiring Wayne Allard in the U.S. Senate.

Read more to find out why this approach isn't just simply a repugnant attack on the ethnicity of an important and growing voter bloc by mocking their Spanish-inflected speech, it's really, really dumb.

A horrifying investigative report by Erin Rosa, cross-posted from Colorado Confidential.com — em

Souvenir medallions bearing the Colorado State University logo are being made in a Chinese sweatshop where workers are forced to work long hours and are paid "starvation wages," according to a recent report by the National Labor Committee, an international watchdog group. University of Colorado merchandise is also connected to a company mentioned in the report.

GAO issued a report this week that calls into question any claims that the Iraqi Security Forces have the capacity to carry out the stated role and mission.

The UAW has been racking up the wins to represent Casino workers. The most recent is at the Foxwoods Casino. The other is the Aztar Casino, both discussed in that link. Here is the new news.

Unbossed is conducting its annual talent search for new contributing writers.

We offer a unique blend of politics and policy discussions, a haven for progressive muckrakers, and, of course, what's a blog without free-flowing snark.

Think you've got what it takes?

Submit a maximum 500-word essay, manifesto, or link-filled treatise (subject of your choice) to to be reviewed by the secret Unbossed junta. Bonus points awarded to those who share our passion for great writing, excellent analysis, and wonky research.

And if that's not high praise enough for you we're unofficially known as the Daily Kos farm team. Three talented Unbossed writers — mcjoan, Armando and now Smintheus — have been plucked from our ranks to enjoy front page contributing editor status at dKos.

Deadline for entries is December 31.

In a GAO report released to the public last week but written October 31, GAO finds that safety and oversight at the nuclear weapons laboratories, including Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia, is very poor. These laboratories are overseen by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Contractors have historically carried out the majority of the work. Making the problem far more serious is "A recent change to oversight policy would result in NNSA’s relying more on contractors’ own management controls, including those for assuring safety."

Mary Bach, Consumer Advocate, one of the FLAC group set up to make decisions about milk labeling is so much of a consumer advocate that her email adress is "mbadvocate". But do you feel assured that the safety of the milk you and your family drinks is being protected by this "consumer advocate"?

When the Pennsylvania Milk Labeling scandal broke a couple weeks ago, unbossed could not find the names of the Food Labeling Advisory Committee (FLAC) that Ag Secretary Wolff claimed made the labeling decision, a group supposed composed of consumer advocates, dietitians, food industry representatives. Now that we have that list, just how correct was that claim?

More on the Pennsylvania Milk Labeling Scandal - This time, we are digging into the identities of the people on the Food Labeling Advisory Committee who are supposed to have decided to ban milk labels that reveal information the use of rBST or rBGH.

Bonnie McCarthy is the first name on the Food Labeling Advisory Committee 10/5/07 meeting list. Who is she? Why is she there?

So just who was on Wolff’s anonymous Food Labeling Advisory Committee? Who are the FLACs?

Two weeks ago, unbossed went on a quest looking for the members of the committee Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture claimed made the decisions about milk labeling. Link Then we came up with zilch.

Now we can name names.