CommonDreams.org

Today the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, rabid global warming deniers, reversed itself and announced it was throwing its weight behind strong climate legislation. Not. But the Yes Men, anti-corporate pranksters, did. Teaming with the Avaaz Action Factory, they punked Reuters, the Times, the Post and others. You'd think they'd figure out something was up if they bothered to read the "Chamber's" full statement on their "momentous decision."

"In business, as in life, we sometimes don't look ahead. We seize the day while forgetting the year...Let's remember Lehman Brothers, a committed, solid member of this Chamber, who in the interest of short-term gain scuttled a century. They ate lamb, but were left without wool when the cold, hard winter set in."

First Steele, now a Halloween Illegal Alien costume selling - and offending -  for $39.99: "He didn't just cross a border, he crossed a galaxy!" Target took it off their website after complaints; it's still at Toys 'R Us, Walgreens, Amazon and elsewhere. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles is campaigning against it. Which is creepier: the interview with the kids where a guy says he thinks it's racist and a giggling girl says, "Who cares?" or the guys on Fox who found it so hilarious?

Brian Kilmeade: "If you're here illegally, go to your local police station and tell them how outraged you are because you're an illegal alien and this costume offends you!"

At the time, perhaps it seemed a good idea. The GOP would hire an ostensibly black man, one Michael Steele, to reach beyond the base to attract what were rumored to be the many people in this country who are not old rich white men. But that was before Steele opened his mouth. On the "hot politics" of immigration:

"There are rules that you need to get into the country, go the right door, fill out the right form, have some apple pie, hum a few bars of the Star Spangle Banner and get to work, God bless you. And I think that that begins to set us on the right road to dealing with this issue."

To document the drastic effects of global warming produced by the world's richest people on the world's poorest people, British punk artist Jamie Hewlett went with Oxfam members to Bangladesh - which is 80% floodplain,  makes up 10% of south Asia but sees 90% of its water pass through to the sea. Hewlett drew the island flood villages of Char Atra, where people are learning to survive ever-worse monsoons and floods. Pictures and photos  here. Hewlett says we in the West cannot know what it's like, but he's trying.

"The flood's their bogeyman. But they deal with it. It's part of their lives. How would we react if we knew you could lose a child every time you open the front door?" 

Whoah: Sick. In the Japanese video game RapeLay, the player stalks, gropes, handcuffs and repeatedly rapes a mother and her two young daughters until they "enjoy" it. He rapes the youngest girl in her bed while her teddy bears watch – she cries – and invites friends to join the "fun." Equality Now has launched a campaign against the game and its maker, Illusion Software, whose spokesmen said they were "bewildered" by the action. Figures.

This is a painful story from Gaza. Its pain is slightly mitigated by the actions of some truly good guys, but still. It's about three-year-old Farah Abu Halima, badly burned in an Israeli white phosphorus attack that killed her mother and much of her family. Steve Sosebee, the head of Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, hopes he can get her to the U.S. for treatment, and maybe educate people about the suffering of Gazan children. He is a hopeful guy.

All you naysayers worried about the will of Wall Street to turn things around in an ethical fashion, take heart. The Securities Exchange Commission has named Adam Storch to the newly created post of CEO of its enforcement unit. He's 29 years old and he used to work at Goldman Sachs, so there's clearly no conflict of interest here. Gosh, and we thought we couldn't trust the kingpins.

House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio can no longer claim ignorance on health insurance matters, though we're not sure about stupidity or greed. He earlier claimed his constituents were "overwhelmingly opposed" to a public option, a concept he called "about as unpopular as a garlic milkshake" - this, in a state where 1.2 million people are uninsured and rates have risen seven times faster than wages. Activists have now set him straight. Here's a video telling him what he should know and here's one of SEIU members visiting his office, courteously, to do the same.