Obama declares war on auto workers
President Barack Obama's speech on the auto industry Monday was nothing less than a declaration of war against the working class. In a statement dripping with class arrogance and cynicism, he rejected the cost-cutting proposals of General Motors and Chrysler as insufficient and demanded more concessions from auto workers.
No one could be unaware of the blatant double standard that has governed the administration's response to the economic crisis. Up to $10 trillion has been handed over to the giant banks and hedge funds. These sums have been turned over, with no restrictions, to institutions whose reckless speculation was a critical factor in creating the economic crisis.
These vast funds are not going toward the production of socially useful goods and real value, but rather to bolster the bank accounts and investment portfolios of the financial aristocracy. Just this past week the administration came out in opposition to any attempt to reclaim bonuses to executives at AIG and other institutions bailed out by the government.
Link to con.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Socialism in a new era
Alan Maass examines a discussion about the relevance of socialism today taking place at the Nation magazine.
THE S-WORD is back.
You're still most likely to hear it as a term of abuse flung around by Republicans trying to smear a far-from-radical president with the lingering scare effects of McCarthyism. Or, alternatively, from media commentators grasping at the first handy label to attach to government policies that deviate, however slightly, from the neoliberal orthodoxies they preached for so long.
But beyond the fear-mongering and foolishness, a more serious discussion of socialism is reviving, as a consequence of the profound crisis of capitalism.
Several weeks ago, the hardest ticket to find in London was for a conference on "The Idea of Communism," with Slovenian Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek as the featured speaker. The event was organized not by some small radical group, but the University of London's Birkbeck College. Žižek got a full-page write-up in the Financial Times.
Link to con.
Alan Maass examines a discussion about the relevance of socialism today taking place at the Nation magazine.
THE S-WORD is back.
You're still most likely to hear it as a term of abuse flung around by Republicans trying to smear a far-from-radical president with the lingering scare effects of McCarthyism. Or, alternatively, from media commentators grasping at the first handy label to attach to government policies that deviate, however slightly, from the neoliberal orthodoxies they preached for so long.
But beyond the fear-mongering and foolishness, a more serious discussion of socialism is reviving, as a consequence of the profound crisis of capitalism.
Several weeks ago, the hardest ticket to find in London was for a conference on "The Idea of Communism," with Slovenian Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek as the featured speaker. The event was organized not by some small radical group, but the University of London's Birkbeck College. Žižek got a full-page write-up in the Financial Times.
Link to con.
A Scary Corporate Coup Is Under Way -- We've Got to Stop It
By William Greider, TheNation.com.
A reassuring new story line is emanating from our leaders. I heard Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Banking Committee, explain it. Then I read the same line in a Washington Post news story. That tells me people in high places are selling it.
Dynamic capitalism, they explain, invents ways to create greater wealth, but sometimes it goes a little too far. Then government has to step in to correct things. This need typically occurs every generation or so, all in a day's work.
The Obama administration is proposing "sweeping" new regulatory laws so capitalism can continue its good works.
The story makes disturbing current events sound practically normal. But what are the storytellers leaving out?
They aren't saying that this financial catastrophe was not merely an inevitable development of history but a manmade disaster. Greedheads on Wall Street did their part, but so did Washington. The reason we need new rules is that a generation of Democrats and Republicans systematically repealed or gutted the old ones -- the regulatory controls enacted 80 years ago to remedy the last breakdown of capitalism (better known as the Great Depression).
Link to con.
By William Greider, TheNation.com.
A reassuring new story line is emanating from our leaders. I heard Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Banking Committee, explain it. Then I read the same line in a Washington Post news story. That tells me people in high places are selling it.
Dynamic capitalism, they explain, invents ways to create greater wealth, but sometimes it goes a little too far. Then government has to step in to correct things. This need typically occurs every generation or so, all in a day's work.
The Obama administration is proposing "sweeping" new regulatory laws so capitalism can continue its good works.
The story makes disturbing current events sound practically normal. But what are the storytellers leaving out?
They aren't saying that this financial catastrophe was not merely an inevitable development of history but a manmade disaster. Greedheads on Wall Street did their part, but so did Washington. The reason we need new rules is that a generation of Democrats and Republicans systematically repealed or gutted the old ones -- the regulatory controls enacted 80 years ago to remedy the last breakdown of capitalism (better known as the Great Depression).
Link to con.
Monday, March 30, 2009
GOP Senator from Texas: It's "World War III" if the winner of the Minnesota Senate race, Al Franken, is seated
by Joe Sudbay (DC)
Republicans are desperate to keep Al Franken out of the Senate. How desperate? Threatening "World War III" desperate:
Texas Sen. John Cornyn is threatening “World War III” if Democrats try to seat Al Franken in the Senate before Norm Coleman can pursue his case through the federal courts.
Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledges that a federal challenge to November’s elections could take “years” to resolve. But he’s adamant that Coleman deserves that chance — even if it means Minnesota is short a senator for the duration.
A three-judge panel is expected to rule any day now on legal challenges to the November election.
Link to con.
by Joe Sudbay (DC)
Republicans are desperate to keep Al Franken out of the Senate. How desperate? Threatening "World War III" desperate:
Texas Sen. John Cornyn is threatening “World War III” if Democrats try to seat Al Franken in the Senate before Norm Coleman can pursue his case through the federal courts.
Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledges that a federal challenge to November’s elections could take “years” to resolve. But he’s adamant that Coleman deserves that chance — even if it means Minnesota is short a senator for the duration.
A three-judge panel is expected to rule any day now on legal challenges to the November election.
Link to con.
From Populist Rage to Revolution
Americans clearly are capable of being outraged. Missing, however, is a sustained, vibrant demand for deep reforms of our political and government system. You hear a lot about populist rage these days, especially connected to the AIG bonus debacle. But populist rage as a reflection of class conflict and anger about our economic meltdown does not necessarily make a political revolution. The saddest thing about Obama winning the presidency was that his change message drained what might have been sufficient national energy for true revolutionary political reforms.
With the Bush-corrosion of our Constitution and collapse of the economic system after it had been exploited by the rich and corrupt, what better time for revolution? Instead, we got a president with a glib tongue, a terrific smile and a deep commitment to the two-party plutocracy and corporate state. Obama is no populist, not even close. Nor is he a genuine reformer. At best, he is a master exploiter of populism.
Link to con.
Americans clearly are capable of being outraged. Missing, however, is a sustained, vibrant demand for deep reforms of our political and government system. You hear a lot about populist rage these days, especially connected to the AIG bonus debacle. But populist rage as a reflection of class conflict and anger about our economic meltdown does not necessarily make a political revolution. The saddest thing about Obama winning the presidency was that his change message drained what might have been sufficient national energy for true revolutionary political reforms.
With the Bush-corrosion of our Constitution and collapse of the economic system after it had been exploited by the rich and corrupt, what better time for revolution? Instead, we got a president with a glib tongue, a terrific smile and a deep commitment to the two-party plutocracy and corporate state. Obama is no populist, not even close. Nor is he a genuine reformer. At best, he is a master exploiter of populism.
Link to con.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
How the great AIG heist was pulled off
Alan Maass traces the rise and fall of insurance giant AIG--from the part it played in the mid-decade Wall Street financial boom, to its new incarnation as a government-backed conduit for transferring bailout money to the big banks.
IMAGINE YOURSELF at a casino where you start gambling on games of chance you don't understand, where the rules are being made up on the spot. You bet hundreds of times more money than you have, and you lose. You're not only broke yourself, but you're taking down other players who let you play with their money--and the casino itself, which didn't ask to see your chips when you made bets.
You'd consider yourself lucky to stay out of jail, right?
Ah, but you aren't a Wall Street executive!
In the world of high finance, the rules are a little different. When you lose, the federal government steps in to cover your losses. You get to keep paying yourself a nice bonus, more in a year than most people will see in a lifetime of work. And you--along with colleagues who've changed job descriptions and now work for the government--get to plan the "rescue" to your collective advantage.
Link to con.
Alan Maass traces the rise and fall of insurance giant AIG--from the part it played in the mid-decade Wall Street financial boom, to its new incarnation as a government-backed conduit for transferring bailout money to the big banks.
IMAGINE YOURSELF at a casino where you start gambling on games of chance you don't understand, where the rules are being made up on the spot. You bet hundreds of times more money than you have, and you lose. You're not only broke yourself, but you're taking down other players who let you play with their money--and the casino itself, which didn't ask to see your chips when you made bets.
You'd consider yourself lucky to stay out of jail, right?
Ah, but you aren't a Wall Street executive!
In the world of high finance, the rules are a little different. When you lose, the federal government steps in to cover your losses. You get to keep paying yourself a nice bonus, more in a year than most people will see in a lifetime of work. And you--along with colleagues who've changed job descriptions and now work for the government--get to plan the "rescue" to your collective advantage.
Link to con.
Forging a Hot Link to the Farmer Who Grows the Food
By BRAD STONE and MATT RICHTEL
America, meet your farmer.
The maker of Stone-Buhr flour, a popular brand in the western United States, is encouraging its customers to reconnect with their lost agrarian past, from the comfort of their computer screens. Its Find the Farmer Web site and special labels on the packages let buyers learn about and even contact the farmers who produced the wheat that went into their bag of flour.
The underlying idea, broadly called traceability, is in fashion in many food circles these days. Makers of bananas, chocolates and other foods are also using the Internet to create relationships between consumers and farmers, mimicking the once-close ties that were broken long ago by industrialized food manufacturing.
Link to con.
By BRAD STONE and MATT RICHTEL
America, meet your farmer.
The maker of Stone-Buhr flour, a popular brand in the western United States, is encouraging its customers to reconnect with their lost agrarian past, from the comfort of their computer screens. Its Find the Farmer Web site and special labels on the packages let buyers learn about and even contact the farmers who produced the wheat that went into their bag of flour.
The underlying idea, broadly called traceability, is in fashion in many food circles these days. Makers of bananas, chocolates and other foods are also using the Internet to create relationships between consumers and farmers, mimicking the once-close ties that were broken long ago by industrialized food manufacturing.
Link to con.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
America's union-busters on the warpath
Corporate America's anti-union crusaders have raised $200 million to combat the Employee Free Choice Act.
THE U.S. corporate class has always been notorious for its ferocious opposition to unions. And true to form, business leaders reacted with collective hysteria to the introduction of legislation in the House and Senate on March 10 that would make it just a bit easier for workers to unionize.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would allow unions to win recognition once a majority of workers at a given workplace signs union cards, rather than allowing managers to force their workers to suffer through a drawn-out union election by secret ballot.
Employers typically prefer to force a union election because it allows them to delay the decision by months while they fire union supporters and force their workers to endure "captive audience" meetings with managers, who threaten to close down the company or move elsewhere in the case of a union victory.
Link to con.
Corporate America's anti-union crusaders have raised $200 million to combat the Employee Free Choice Act.
THE U.S. corporate class has always been notorious for its ferocious opposition to unions. And true to form, business leaders reacted with collective hysteria to the introduction of legislation in the House and Senate on March 10 that would make it just a bit easier for workers to unionize.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would allow unions to win recognition once a majority of workers at a given workplace signs union cards, rather than allowing managers to force their workers to suffer through a drawn-out union election by secret ballot.
Employers typically prefer to force a union election because it allows them to delay the decision by months while they fire union supporters and force their workers to endure "captive audience" meetings with managers, who threaten to close down the company or move elsewhere in the case of a union victory.
Link to con.
Where imagination meets farming
Local-food pioneer Pete Johnson's movable greenhouses have yielded a lettuce harvest in the dead of a Vermont winter.
By Nancy Humphrey Case
When Pete Johnson, a leader among New England’s organic farmers, set out one day last fall to pull an 18,000-pound greenhouse, in fits and starts, over a field-grown plot of lettuce, he inched forward an idea that could help make fresh local produce available year-round, even in Vermont.It was late October. For most of his fellow farmers, harvest time was over until spring. But Mr. Johnson was just revving up his tractor – and his dream.
He wants to extend the growing season into winter, and to start spring crops in late winter, in ground protected temporarily by movable greenhouses. Johnson had seen this done experimentally elsewhere. But he was trying it on a commercial scale, with greenhouses 200 feet long – twice the length of a basketball court and two-thirds as wide.
He had been warned the project could be risky with such big structures. But Johnson – a young, well-educated trendsetter – was willing to take that risk.
Link to con.
Local-food pioneer Pete Johnson's movable greenhouses have yielded a lettuce harvest in the dead of a Vermont winter.
By Nancy Humphrey Case
When Pete Johnson, a leader among New England’s organic farmers, set out one day last fall to pull an 18,000-pound greenhouse, in fits and starts, over a field-grown plot of lettuce, he inched forward an idea that could help make fresh local produce available year-round, even in Vermont.It was late October. For most of his fellow farmers, harvest time was over until spring. But Mr. Johnson was just revving up his tractor – and his dream.
He wants to extend the growing season into winter, and to start spring crops in late winter, in ground protected temporarily by movable greenhouses. Johnson had seen this done experimentally elsewhere. But he was trying it on a commercial scale, with greenhouses 200 feet long – twice the length of a basketball court and two-thirds as wide.
He had been warned the project could be risky with such big structures. But Johnson – a young, well-educated trendsetter – was willing to take that risk.
Link to con.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
America Is in Need of a Moral Bailout
By Chris Hedges
In decaying societies, politics become theater. The elite, who have hollowed out the democratic system to serve the corporate state, rule through image and presentation. They express indignation at AIG bonuses and empathy with a working class they have spent the last few decades disenfranchising, and make promises to desperate families that they know will never be fulfilled. Once the spotlights go on they read their lines with appropriate emotion. Once the lights go off, they make sure Goldman Sachs and a host of other large corporations have the hundreds of billions of dollars in losses they incurred playing casino capitalism repaid with taxpayer money.
We live in an age of moral nihilism. We have trashed our universities, turning them into vocational factories that produce corporate drones and chase after defense-related grants and funding. The humanities, the discipline that forces us to stand back and ask the broad moral questions of meaning and purpose, that challenges the validity of structures, that trains us to be self-reflective and critical of all cultural assumptions, have withered. Our press, which should promote such intellectual and moral questioning, confuses bread and circus with news and refuses to give a voice to critics who challenge not this bonus payment or that bailout but the pernicious superstructure of the corporate state itself. We kneel before a cult of the self, elaborately constructed by the architects of our consumer society, which dismisses compassion, sacrifice for the less fortunate, and honesty. The methods used to attain what we want, we are told by reality television programs, business schools and self-help gurus, are irrelevant. Success, always defined in terms of money and power, is its own justification. The capacity for manipulation is what is most highly prized. And our moral collapse is as terrifying, and as dangerous, as our economic collapse.
Link to con.
By Chris Hedges
In decaying societies, politics become theater. The elite, who have hollowed out the democratic system to serve the corporate state, rule through image and presentation. They express indignation at AIG bonuses and empathy with a working class they have spent the last few decades disenfranchising, and make promises to desperate families that they know will never be fulfilled. Once the spotlights go on they read their lines with appropriate emotion. Once the lights go off, they make sure Goldman Sachs and a host of other large corporations have the hundreds of billions of dollars in losses they incurred playing casino capitalism repaid with taxpayer money.
We live in an age of moral nihilism. We have trashed our universities, turning them into vocational factories that produce corporate drones and chase after defense-related grants and funding. The humanities, the discipline that forces us to stand back and ask the broad moral questions of meaning and purpose, that challenges the validity of structures, that trains us to be self-reflective and critical of all cultural assumptions, have withered. Our press, which should promote such intellectual and moral questioning, confuses bread and circus with news and refuses to give a voice to critics who challenge not this bonus payment or that bailout but the pernicious superstructure of the corporate state itself. We kneel before a cult of the self, elaborately constructed by the architects of our consumer society, which dismisses compassion, sacrifice for the less fortunate, and honesty. The methods used to attain what we want, we are told by reality television programs, business schools and self-help gurus, are irrelevant. Success, always defined in terms of money and power, is its own justification. The capacity for manipulation is what is most highly prized. And our moral collapse is as terrifying, and as dangerous, as our economic collapse.
Link to con.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Least of These - Trailer
The Least of These explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention. As part of the Bush administration policy to end what they termed the catch and release of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum or deportation.
The Least of These explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention. As part of the Bush administration policy to end what they termed the catch and release of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum or deportation.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Israeli crisis deepens
In his bid to form a coalition government, Benyamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud Party, has signed an agreement with the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party that will give it five cabinet posts. Party leader Avigdor Lieberman is to become Israel's foreign secretary.
Likud won 27 seats in the elections in February, one less than Kadima. But Netanyahu was asked to form a government because the rightist parties together have 65 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
It will need further political horse trading to bring the smaller right-wing parties, Shas, Jewish Home and United Torah Judaism, on board. But if Netanyahu succeeds, then his will be the most right-wing government in Israel's history—beholden to parties based on the Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territories and with a racist advocate of ethnic cleansing as its international representative.
Link to con.
In his bid to form a coalition government, Benyamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud Party, has signed an agreement with the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party that will give it five cabinet posts. Party leader Avigdor Lieberman is to become Israel's foreign secretary.
Likud won 27 seats in the elections in February, one less than Kadima. But Netanyahu was asked to form a government because the rightist parties together have 65 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
It will need further political horse trading to bring the smaller right-wing parties, Shas, Jewish Home and United Torah Judaism, on board. But if Netanyahu succeeds, then his will be the most right-wing government in Israel's history—beholden to parties based on the Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territories and with a racist advocate of ethnic cleansing as its international representative.
Link to con.
Upset with AIG? How About Your Bailout Funds Supporting Tiger Woods and Europe's Soccer Stars?
James Warren
When Manchester United, the world's best and most famous soccer team, was creamed at home by arch-rival Liverpool the other day, neither diehards nor drunks packing my favorite Chicago sports tavern at 7:30 a.m. seemed to discern one reason "Man U" was an embarrassing sight.
Emblazoned across its red home jerseys, in letters fit for a NASCAR driver's fire-retardant suit, is "AIG." Yes, that's American International Group, the source of both $170 billion in U.S. government funds and Obama administration dismay, given belated public disclosure of hefty bonuses paid executives.
Of course, President Obama, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, acerbic Rep. Barney Frank and others could vent over Man U multi-millionaires Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand being assisted by our taxpayer dollars. But I suspect the elected officials may not even know their names, nor those of equally famous European athletes benefiting from a spanking new deal with Bank of America, another embattled bailout recipient.
Link to con.
James Warren
When Manchester United, the world's best and most famous soccer team, was creamed at home by arch-rival Liverpool the other day, neither diehards nor drunks packing my favorite Chicago sports tavern at 7:30 a.m. seemed to discern one reason "Man U" was an embarrassing sight.
Emblazoned across its red home jerseys, in letters fit for a NASCAR driver's fire-retardant suit, is "AIG." Yes, that's American International Group, the source of both $170 billion in U.S. government funds and Obama administration dismay, given belated public disclosure of hefty bonuses paid executives.
Of course, President Obama, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, acerbic Rep. Barney Frank and others could vent over Man U multi-millionaires Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand being assisted by our taxpayer dollars. But I suspect the elected officials may not even know their names, nor those of equally famous European athletes benefiting from a spanking new deal with Bank of America, another embattled bailout recipient.
Link to con.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Standing up for justice in the age of Obama
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE now to come to Washington, D.C., without being cognizant of how different the atmosphere is today--an amazing difference. When Obama's victory was announced, the overwhelming feeling was a sense of relief: Wow, they're gone. The only thing that remains is to put them in jail.
We're making this documentary based on Voices of a People's History of the United States, which Anthony Arnove and I put together, and we have these actors who are reading historical documents--a wonderful array of stars with social consciences, who are happy to do this, because they believe in it and are so glad not to be doing the usual Hollywood stuff. We've had a number of these events around the country, and of course, the point is that it's the people who are important. Not the people up there; it's the people down here. The point is resistance not acceptance, and disobedience not obedience.
Link to con.
IT'S IMPOSSIBLE now to come to Washington, D.C., without being cognizant of how different the atmosphere is today--an amazing difference. When Obama's victory was announced, the overwhelming feeling was a sense of relief: Wow, they're gone. The only thing that remains is to put them in jail.
We're making this documentary based on Voices of a People's History of the United States, which Anthony Arnove and I put together, and we have these actors who are reading historical documents--a wonderful array of stars with social consciences, who are happy to do this, because they believe in it and are so glad not to be doing the usual Hollywood stuff. We've had a number of these events around the country, and of course, the point is that it's the people who are important. Not the people up there; it's the people down here. The point is resistance not acceptance, and disobedience not obedience.
Link to con.
Why the left won in El Salvador
Mauricio Funes, a television journalist turned politician, became the symbol of another turn to the left in Latin American politics when he won El Salvador's presidential election March 15. Funes, who took 51 percent of the vote, was the candidate of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), which led an armed struggle against a conservative government from 1980 to 1992. While Funes didn't participate in the fighting, he was accused by the incumbent ARENA party of involvement with "terrorism."
In fact, it is the U.S.-backed ARENA party--which contains fascist elements and right-wing death squads--that is steeped in blood. Following a 1992 peace deal between ARENA and the FMLN, a UN-sponsored truth commission found that of the 75,000 people killed during the civil war, the government was responsible for 85 percent of human rights violations. The most infamous examples of the far right's violence include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 and the massacre of 1,000 people in the village of El Mozote the following year.
Link to con.
Mauricio Funes, a television journalist turned politician, became the symbol of another turn to the left in Latin American politics when he won El Salvador's presidential election March 15. Funes, who took 51 percent of the vote, was the candidate of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN), which led an armed struggle against a conservative government from 1980 to 1992. While Funes didn't participate in the fighting, he was accused by the incumbent ARENA party of involvement with "terrorism."
In fact, it is the U.S.-backed ARENA party--which contains fascist elements and right-wing death squads--that is steeped in blood. Following a 1992 peace deal between ARENA and the FMLN, a UN-sponsored truth commission found that of the 75,000 people killed during the civil war, the government was responsible for 85 percent of human rights violations. The most infamous examples of the far right's violence include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 and the massacre of 1,000 people in the village of El Mozote the following year.
Link to con.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
'Socialize' it? Oregon may grow, tax and sell medical marijuana
Stephen C. Webster
In most states, the issue of medical marijuana is not on any legislative docket.
In Oregon however, a state which already allows medical marijuana, socializing the weed is being pitched as a bipartisan cause célèbre. Maybe socializing is the wrong word. "House Bill 3247 would direct the state to establish and operate a marijuana production facility," reported Oregon's KGW-TV. "The state would control potency and pharmacy distribution." Okay, so maybe it isn't.
If the legislation, which is currently in committee review, becomes law, the state would take control of Oregon's booming cannabis industry, bringing growing and sales under the public domain.
Link to con.
Stephen C. Webster
In most states, the issue of medical marijuana is not on any legislative docket.
In Oregon however, a state which already allows medical marijuana, socializing the weed is being pitched as a bipartisan cause célèbre. Maybe socializing is the wrong word. "House Bill 3247 would direct the state to establish and operate a marijuana production facility," reported Oregon's KGW-TV. "The state would control potency and pharmacy distribution." Okay, so maybe it isn't.
If the legislation, which is currently in committee review, becomes law, the state would take control of Oregon's booming cannabis industry, bringing growing and sales under the public domain.
Link to con.
Let Me Chew My Coca Leaves
By EVO MORALES AYMA
THIS week in Vienna, a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs took place that will help shape international antidrug efforts for the next 10 years. I attended the meeting to reaffirm Bolivia’s commitment to this struggle but also to call for the reversal of a mistake made 48 years ago.
In 1961, the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs placed the coca leaf in the same category with cocaine — thus promoting the false notion that the coca leaf is a narcotic — and ordered that “coca leaf chewing must be abolished within 25 years from the coming into force of this convention.” Bolivia signed the convention in 1976, during the brutal dictatorship of Col. Hugo Banzer, and the 25-year deadline expired in 2001.
So for the past eight years, the millions of us who maintain the traditional practice of chewing coca have been, according to the convention, criminals who violate international law. This is an unacceptable and absurd state of affairs for Bolivians and other Andean peoples.
Link to con.
By EVO MORALES AYMA
THIS week in Vienna, a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs took place that will help shape international antidrug efforts for the next 10 years. I attended the meeting to reaffirm Bolivia’s commitment to this struggle but also to call for the reversal of a mistake made 48 years ago.
In 1961, the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs placed the coca leaf in the same category with cocaine — thus promoting the false notion that the coca leaf is a narcotic — and ordered that “coca leaf chewing must be abolished within 25 years from the coming into force of this convention.” Bolivia signed the convention in 1976, during the brutal dictatorship of Col. Hugo Banzer, and the 25-year deadline expired in 2001.
So for the past eight years, the millions of us who maintain the traditional practice of chewing coca have been, according to the convention, criminals who violate international law. This is an unacceptable and absurd state of affairs for Bolivians and other Andean peoples.
Link to con.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Socialism Without a Soul
By Robert Scheer
Newt Gingrich is right: “It is European socialism transplanted to Washington.” How else to describe an economy in which the government controls the entire financial center and is now supplying life support for the auto industry? That’s on top of the existing socialist economy run by the military-industrial complex, which, thanks to George W. Bush, now absorbs upward of 60 percent of the non-entitlement federal budget.
Although we still have a way to go to catch up with the good parts of the European system, including universal health care, high-quality public education and decent working conditions, we do have a system that is now as socialist in budget size as Europe’s. That part I get when I listen to the right-wingers on Fox News bemoaning the reversal of the Reagan Revolution. But what I don’t understand is how in the world they can blame this startling turn of events on Barack Obama.
The vast majority of money allocated so far on President Obama’s watch is an extension of Bush’s banking bailout, which has committed trillions to failed Wall Street conglomerates. I certainly don’t want to defend the bailout and personally think the banks and stockbrokers deserve to go belly up, but what does that mess have to do with Obama, who was in college when the Reagan Revolution launched the deregulation that allowed Wall Street to run wild?
Link to con.
By Robert Scheer
Newt Gingrich is right: “It is European socialism transplanted to Washington.” How else to describe an economy in which the government controls the entire financial center and is now supplying life support for the auto industry? That’s on top of the existing socialist economy run by the military-industrial complex, which, thanks to George W. Bush, now absorbs upward of 60 percent of the non-entitlement federal budget.
Although we still have a way to go to catch up with the good parts of the European system, including universal health care, high-quality public education and decent working conditions, we do have a system that is now as socialist in budget size as Europe’s. That part I get when I listen to the right-wingers on Fox News bemoaning the reversal of the Reagan Revolution. But what I don’t understand is how in the world they can blame this startling turn of events on Barack Obama.
The vast majority of money allocated so far on President Obama’s watch is an extension of Bush’s banking bailout, which has committed trillions to failed Wall Street conglomerates. I certainly don’t want to defend the bailout and personally think the banks and stockbrokers deserve to go belly up, but what does that mess have to do with Obama, who was in college when the Reagan Revolution launched the deregulation that allowed Wall Street to run wild?
Link to con.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Michelle Obama’s Agenda Includes Healthful Eating
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
THE television cameras were rolling, the journalists were scribbling and the first lady, Michelle Obama, was standing in a soup kitchen rhapsodizing about steamed broccoli. And homemade mushroom risotto. And freshly baked apple-carrot muffins.
Mrs. Obama was praising the menu last week at Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit drop-in center serving this city’s homeless. And she seized the moment to urge Americans to provide fresh, unprocessed and locally grown foods to their families and to the neediest in their communities.
“You know, we want to make sure our guests here and across the nation are eating nutritious items,” said Mrs. Obama, who served lunch to several homeless men and women and delivered eight cases of fresh fruit to the soup kitchen, all donated by White House employees.
Link to con.
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
THE television cameras were rolling, the journalists were scribbling and the first lady, Michelle Obama, was standing in a soup kitchen rhapsodizing about steamed broccoli. And homemade mushroom risotto. And freshly baked apple-carrot muffins.
Mrs. Obama was praising the menu last week at Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit drop-in center serving this city’s homeless. And she seized the moment to urge Americans to provide fresh, unprocessed and locally grown foods to their families and to the neediest in their communities.
“You know, we want to make sure our guests here and across the nation are eating nutritious items,” said Mrs. Obama, who served lunch to several homeless men and women and delivered eight cases of fresh fruit to the soup kitchen, all donated by White House employees.
Link to con.
Monday, March 09, 2009
What Would It Look Like?
What if the world embodied our highest potential? What would it look like? As the structures of modern society crumble, is it enough to respond with the same tired solutions? Or are we being called to question a set of unexamined assumptions that form the very basis of our civilization?
This 25-minute retrospective asks us to reflect on the state of the world and ourselves, and to listen more closely to what is being asked of us at this time of unprecedented global transformation.
What if the world embodied our highest potential? What would it look like? As the structures of modern society crumble, is it enough to respond with the same tired solutions? Or are we being called to question a set of unexamined assumptions that form the very basis of our civilization?
This 25-minute retrospective asks us to reflect on the state of the world and ourselves, and to listen more closely to what is being asked of us at this time of unprecedented global transformation.
A specter haunts the ruling elite
The specter of socialism is haunting the American ruling elite.
One finds in the media increasing references to the prospect of socialism. The different factions of the bourgeoisie accuse each other of socialistic tendencies, while insisting on their own absolute commitment to the principles of free enterprise.
One of the central topics for discussion on the Sunday talk shows yesterday was Republican charges that Obama's policy is somehow socialistic. On ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," the assembled panel of regular columnists—E.J. Dionne, David Brooks, George Will and Cokie Roberts—debated the issue.
On NBC's "Meet the Press," Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham discussed the possibility of government ownership of the banks. Schumer and Graham both supported some form of nationalization. However, they both hastened to distinguish between "bad nationalization," where the government actually takes the banks out of the hands of private individuals, and "good nationalization"—which they said would be better called "receivership"—in which the government would clean up the balance sheets of the banks and quickly resell them to private investors.
Link to con.
The specter of socialism is haunting the American ruling elite.
One finds in the media increasing references to the prospect of socialism. The different factions of the bourgeoisie accuse each other of socialistic tendencies, while insisting on their own absolute commitment to the principles of free enterprise.
One of the central topics for discussion on the Sunday talk shows yesterday was Republican charges that Obama's policy is somehow socialistic. On ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," the assembled panel of regular columnists—E.J. Dionne, David Brooks, George Will and Cokie Roberts—debated the issue.
On NBC's "Meet the Press," Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham discussed the possibility of government ownership of the banks. Schumer and Graham both supported some form of nationalization. However, they both hastened to distinguish between "bad nationalization," where the government actually takes the banks out of the hands of private individuals, and "good nationalization"—which they said would be better called "receivership"—in which the government would clean up the balance sheets of the banks and quickly resell them to private investors.
Link to con.
The policy that keeps on failing
Marlene Martin, national director of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, looks at a study that exposes the consequences of the politicians' "tough on crime" hysteria.
ONE IN every 31 adults in the U.S. is in prison or jail or on parole or probation. That's 7.3 million people--or more than the populations of Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego and Dallas put together.
These statistics--from a study released by the Pew Center on the States titled "One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections"--are the consequence of this country's 30 years of tough-on-crime policies.
Not surprisingly, the "long reach" doesn't reach everybody evenly--African Americans suffer the brunt of the system. According to Pew study, one in 11 African American adults are under the control of the corrections system, compared with one in 27 Latinos and one in 45 whites. Southern states continue to have the highest incarceration rates.
Link to con.
Marlene Martin, national director of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, looks at a study that exposes the consequences of the politicians' "tough on crime" hysteria.
ONE IN every 31 adults in the U.S. is in prison or jail or on parole or probation. That's 7.3 million people--or more than the populations of Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego and Dallas put together.
These statistics--from a study released by the Pew Center on the States titled "One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections"--are the consequence of this country's 30 years of tough-on-crime policies.
Not surprisingly, the "long reach" doesn't reach everybody evenly--African Americans suffer the brunt of the system. According to Pew study, one in 11 African American adults are under the control of the corrections system, compared with one in 27 Latinos and one in 45 whites. Southern states continue to have the highest incarceration rates.
Link to con.
Victory gardens
Digging their way out of recession
Allotments by any other name
IN 1943 Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged a return to the “victory gardens” that had become popular during the first world war, when the country faced food shortages. Mrs Roosevelt planted a garden at the White House; some 20m Americans followed her lead, and by the end of the war grew 40% of the nation’s vegetables.
Now a grassroots movement wants Barack Obama to plant another White House victory garden. The new secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, announced recently that his department would create “The People’s Garden” out of a paved area outside their building. And he won’t stop there. Mr Vilsack wants there to be a community garden at each of the department’s offices around the world.
Link to con.
Digging their way out of recession
Allotments by any other name
IN 1943 Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged a return to the “victory gardens” that had become popular during the first world war, when the country faced food shortages. Mrs Roosevelt planted a garden at the White House; some 20m Americans followed her lead, and by the end of the war grew 40% of the nation’s vegetables.
Now a grassroots movement wants Barack Obama to plant another White House victory garden. The new secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, announced recently that his department would create “The People’s Garden” out of a paved area outside their building. And he won’t stop there. Mr Vilsack wants there to be a community garden at each of the department’s offices around the world.
Link to con.
(Check out the video interview as well....it's on the same page)
Open Letter to the Republican Traitors (From a Former Republican)
You Republicans are the arsonists who burned down our national home. You combined the failed ideologies of the Religious Right, so-called free market deregulation and the Neoconservative love of war to light a fire that has consumed America. Now you have the nerve to criticize the "architect" America just hired -- President Obama -- to rebuild from the ashes. You do nothing constructive, just try to hinder the one person willing and able to fix the mess you created.
I used to be one of you. As recently as 2000 I worked to get Senator McCain elected in that year's primary. (McCain and Gen. Tommy Franks wrote glowing endorsements regarding my book about military service, AWOL.). I have a file of handwritten thank you notes from Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush I and II. In the 1970s and early 80s I hung out with Jack Kemp and bought into his "supply side" myth and even wrote a book he endorsed pushing his ideas.) There's more, but take it from me; my parents (evangelical leaders Francis and Edith Schaeffer) and I were about as tight with -- and useful to -- the Republican Party as anyone. We played a big part creating the Religious Right
Link to con.
Open Letter to the Republican Traitors (From a Former Republican)
You Republicans are the arsonists who burned down our national home. You combined the failed ideologies of the Religious Right, so-called free market deregulation and the Neoconservative love of war to light a fire that has consumed America. Now you have the nerve to criticize the "architect" America just hired -- President Obama -- to rebuild from the ashes. You do nothing constructive, just try to hinder the one person willing and able to fix the mess you created.
I used to be one of you. As recently as 2000 I worked to get Senator McCain elected in that year's primary. (McCain and Gen. Tommy Franks wrote glowing endorsements regarding my book about military service, AWOL.). I have a file of handwritten thank you notes from Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush I and II. In the 1970s and early 80s I hung out with Jack Kemp and bought into his "supply side" myth and even wrote a book he endorsed pushing his ideas.) There's more, but take it from me; my parents (evangelical leaders Francis and Edith Schaeffer) and I were about as tight with -- and useful to -- the Republican Party as anyone. We played a big part creating the Religious Right
Link to con.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Miracles Take Time
By BOB HERBERT
Barack Obama has only been president for six weeks, but there is a surprising amount of ire, anger, even outrage that he hasn’t yet solved the problems of the U.S. economy, that he hasn’t saved us from the increasingly tragic devastation wrought by the clownish ideas of right-wing conservatives and the many long years of radical Republican misrule.
This intense, impatient, often self-righteous, frequently wrongheaded and at times willfully destructive criticism has come in waves, and not just from the right. Mr. Obama is as legitimate a target for criticism as any president. But there is a weird hysterical quality to some of the recent attacks that suggests an underlying fear or barely suppressed rage. It’s a quality that seems not just unhelpful but unhealthy.
Mr. Obama is being hammered — depending on the point of view of the critics — for the continuing collapse of the stock market, for not moving fast enough to revive the suicidal financial industry, for trying to stem the flood tide of home foreclosures, for trying to bring health insurance coverage to some of the millions of Americans who don’t have any, for running up huge budget deficits as he tries to fend off the worst economic emergency since World War II and for not taking time out from all of the above to deal with — get this — earmarks.
Link to con.
By BOB HERBERT
Barack Obama has only been president for six weeks, but there is a surprising amount of ire, anger, even outrage that he hasn’t yet solved the problems of the U.S. economy, that he hasn’t saved us from the increasingly tragic devastation wrought by the clownish ideas of right-wing conservatives and the many long years of radical Republican misrule.
This intense, impatient, often self-righteous, frequently wrongheaded and at times willfully destructive criticism has come in waves, and not just from the right. Mr. Obama is as legitimate a target for criticism as any president. But there is a weird hysterical quality to some of the recent attacks that suggests an underlying fear or barely suppressed rage. It’s a quality that seems not just unhelpful but unhealthy.
Mr. Obama is being hammered — depending on the point of view of the critics — for the continuing collapse of the stock market, for not moving fast enough to revive the suicidal financial industry, for trying to stem the flood tide of home foreclosures, for trying to bring health insurance coverage to some of the millions of Americans who don’t have any, for running up huge budget deficits as he tries to fend off the worst economic emergency since World War II and for not taking time out from all of the above to deal with — get this — earmarks.
Link to con.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
The Yoo-Bybee Memoranda
Blueprints for a Police State
By MARJORIE COHN
Seven newly released memos from the Bush Justice Department reveal a concerted strategy to cloak the President with power to override the Constitution. The memos provide “legal” rationales for the President to suspend freedom of speech and press; order warrantless searches and seizures, including wiretaps of U.S. citizens; lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely in the United States without criminal charges; send suspected terrorists to other countries where they will likely be tortured; and unilaterally abrogate treaties. According to the reasoning in the memos, Congress has no role to check and balance the executive. That is the definition of a police state.
Who wrote these memos? All but one were crafted in whole or in part by the infamous John Yoo and Jay Bybee, authors of the so-called “torture memos” that redefined torture much more narrowly than the U.S. definition of torture, and counseled the President how to torture and get away with it. In one memo, Yoo said the Justice Department would not enforce U.S. laws against torture, assault, maiming and stalking, in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.
Link to con.
Blueprints for a Police State
By MARJORIE COHN
Seven newly released memos from the Bush Justice Department reveal a concerted strategy to cloak the President with power to override the Constitution. The memos provide “legal” rationales for the President to suspend freedom of speech and press; order warrantless searches and seizures, including wiretaps of U.S. citizens; lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely in the United States without criminal charges; send suspected terrorists to other countries where they will likely be tortured; and unilaterally abrogate treaties. According to the reasoning in the memos, Congress has no role to check and balance the executive. That is the definition of a police state.
Who wrote these memos? All but one were crafted in whole or in part by the infamous John Yoo and Jay Bybee, authors of the so-called “torture memos” that redefined torture much more narrowly than the U.S. definition of torture, and counseled the President how to torture and get away with it. In one memo, Yoo said the Justice Department would not enforce U.S. laws against torture, assault, maiming and stalking, in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants.
Link to con.
Fear and paranoia TV
Victor Fernandez explains why there's nothing heroic about the stars of Homeland Security U.S.A.
THE PAST eight years are a testament to the bankruptcy of the "war on terror" and the government's use of fear, paranoia and xenophobia to accomplish U.S. imperial aims abroad and a crackdown of civil rights at home.
Whether it be human rights abuses in immigration detention centers or the jailing of Muslim and Arab citizens without any charges in the U.S. and Guantánamo Bay, the broader U.S. public, with the help of activists who bring these abuses to light, is beginning to question the reasons behind this war on terror. This of course has been helped by President Barack Obama's willingness to close down Guantánamo.
Yet along comes this show Homeland Security U.S.A., which plays off racist stereotypes in order to justify these abuses. The reality show follows the supposed day-to-day activities of law Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents at borders and airports.
Link to con.
Victor Fernandez explains why there's nothing heroic about the stars of Homeland Security U.S.A.
THE PAST eight years are a testament to the bankruptcy of the "war on terror" and the government's use of fear, paranoia and xenophobia to accomplish U.S. imperial aims abroad and a crackdown of civil rights at home.
Whether it be human rights abuses in immigration detention centers or the jailing of Muslim and Arab citizens without any charges in the U.S. and Guantánamo Bay, the broader U.S. public, with the help of activists who bring these abuses to light, is beginning to question the reasons behind this war on terror. This of course has been helped by President Barack Obama's willingness to close down Guantánamo.
Yet along comes this show Homeland Security U.S.A., which plays off racist stereotypes in order to justify these abuses. The reality show follows the supposed day-to-day activities of law Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents at borders and airports.
Link to con.
The Republican march toward oblivion
The Republican Party is hoping its screeds against "big government" will catch fire as patience with Obama's attempts to fix the crisis runs out. But that strategy may not work out the way the GOP hopes.
PERHAPS ALL we need to know about modern conservatism and its party, the Republicans, was captured in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's nationally televised response to President Barack Obama's February 24 address to a joint session of Congress.
While Obama made one of the most forceful appeals in generations for government action to address economic crisis and declining working-class living standards, Jindal centered his response on a folksy story about government bungling during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.
As he told the story, he and Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee bravely risked arrest to back down boneheaded government bureaucrats who were refusing permission for private-citizen boaters to rescue hurricane survivors.
Link to con.
The Republican Party is hoping its screeds against "big government" will catch fire as patience with Obama's attempts to fix the crisis runs out. But that strategy may not work out the way the GOP hopes.
PERHAPS ALL we need to know about modern conservatism and its party, the Republicans, was captured in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's nationally televised response to President Barack Obama's February 24 address to a joint session of Congress.
While Obama made one of the most forceful appeals in generations for government action to address economic crisis and declining working-class living standards, Jindal centered his response on a folksy story about government bungling during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.
As he told the story, he and Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee bravely risked arrest to back down boneheaded government bureaucrats who were refusing permission for private-citizen boaters to rescue hurricane survivors.
Link to con.
A global retreat as economies dry up
As trade plummets, ports stand idle and foreign workers track back home
By Anthony Faiola
This shimmering city-state was the house globalization built. When world trade boomed, Singapore's seaport at the crossroads of East and West became the Chicago O'Hare of freighters and supertankers. Singapore Airlines took off despite serving a country with no domestic air routes. Nearly everything manufactured here is made for export. One out of every three workers is a foreigner.
But as the world enters a period of deglobalization, Singapore is a window into the reversal of the forces that brought unprecedented global mobility to goods, services, investment and labor. With world trade plummeting for the first time since 1982, the long-bustling port has become a maritime parking lot in recent weeks, with rows of idled freighters from Asia, Europe, the United States, South America, Africa and the Middle East stretching for miles along the coast. "We're running out of space to park them," said Ron Widdows, chief executive of Singapore-based NOL, one of the world's largest container lines.
Thousands of foreign workers, including London School of Economics graduates with six-digit salaries and desperately poor Bangladeshi factory workers, are streaming home as the economy here suffers the worst of the recessions in Southeast Asia. Singapore is an epicenter of what analysts call a new flow of reverse migration away from hard-hit, globalized economies, including Dubai and Britain, that were once beacons for foreign labor. Economists from Credit Suisse predict an exodus of 200,000 foreigners -- or one in every 15 workers here -- by the end of 2010.
Link to con.
As trade plummets, ports stand idle and foreign workers track back home
By Anthony Faiola
This shimmering city-state was the house globalization built. When world trade boomed, Singapore's seaport at the crossroads of East and West became the Chicago O'Hare of freighters and supertankers. Singapore Airlines took off despite serving a country with no domestic air routes. Nearly everything manufactured here is made for export. One out of every three workers is a foreigner.
But as the world enters a period of deglobalization, Singapore is a window into the reversal of the forces that brought unprecedented global mobility to goods, services, investment and labor. With world trade plummeting for the first time since 1982, the long-bustling port has become a maritime parking lot in recent weeks, with rows of idled freighters from Asia, Europe, the United States, South America, Africa and the Middle East stretching for miles along the coast. "We're running out of space to park them," said Ron Widdows, chief executive of Singapore-based NOL, one of the world's largest container lines.
Thousands of foreign workers, including London School of Economics graduates with six-digit salaries and desperately poor Bangladeshi factory workers, are streaming home as the economy here suffers the worst of the recessions in Southeast Asia. Singapore is an epicenter of what analysts call a new flow of reverse migration away from hard-hit, globalized economies, including Dubai and Britain, that were once beacons for foreign labor. Economists from Credit Suisse predict an exodus of 200,000 foreigners -- or one in every 15 workers here -- by the end of 2010.
Link to con.
The Proceeds of Crime
By George Monbiot
It’s a staggering case; more staggering still that it has scarcely been mentioned on this side of the ocean. Last week two judges in Pennsylvania were convicted of jailing some 2000 children in exchange for bribes from private prison companies.
Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan sent children to jail for offences so trivial that some of them weren’t even crimes. A 15 year-old called Hillary Transue got three months for creating a spoof web page ridiculing her school’s assistant principal. Mr Ciavarella sent Shane Bly, then 13, to boot camp for trespassing in a vacant building. He gave a 14 year-old, Jamie Quinn, 11 months in prison for slapping a friend during an argument, after the friend slapped her. The judges were paid $2.6 million by companies belonging to the Mid Atlantic Youth Services Corp for helping to fill its jails(1,2,3). This is what happens when public services are run for profit.
It’s an extreme example, but it hints at the wider consequences of the trade in human lives created by private prisons. In the US and the UK they have a powerful incentive to ensure that the number of prisoners keeps rising.
Link to con.
By George Monbiot
It’s a staggering case; more staggering still that it has scarcely been mentioned on this side of the ocean. Last week two judges in Pennsylvania were convicted of jailing some 2000 children in exchange for bribes from private prison companies.
Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan sent children to jail for offences so trivial that some of them weren’t even crimes. A 15 year-old called Hillary Transue got three months for creating a spoof web page ridiculing her school’s assistant principal. Mr Ciavarella sent Shane Bly, then 13, to boot camp for trespassing in a vacant building. He gave a 14 year-old, Jamie Quinn, 11 months in prison for slapping a friend during an argument, after the friend slapped her. The judges were paid $2.6 million by companies belonging to the Mid Atlantic Youth Services Corp for helping to fill its jails(1,2,3). This is what happens when public services are run for profit.
It’s an extreme example, but it hints at the wider consequences of the trade in human lives created by private prisons. In the US and the UK they have a powerful incentive to ensure that the number of prisoners keeps rising.
Link to con.
(A little corny and propagandish, but non the less interesting)
BIOGAS Digester
or if you prefer to read:
Link to article on the same farmer
BIOGAS Digester
or if you prefer to read:
Link to article on the same farmer
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
(Another reason to know your farmer!)
It’s Organic, but Does That Mean It’s Safer?
By KIM SEVERSON and ANDREW MARTIN
MOST of the chicken, fruit and vegetables in Ellen Devlin-Sample’s kitchen are organic. She thinks those foods taste better than their conventional counterparts. And she hopes they are healthier for her children. Lately, though, she is not so sure. The national outbreak of salmonella in products with peanuts has been particularly unsettling for shoppers like her who think organic food is safer.
The plants in Texas and Georgia that were sending out contaminated peanut butter and ground peanut products had something else besides rodent infestation, mold and bird droppings. They also had federal organic certification. “Why is organic peanut butter better than Jif?” said Ms. Devlin-Sample, a nurse practitioner from Pelham, N.Y. “I have no idea. If we’re getting salmonella from peanut butter, all bets are off.” Although the rules governing organic food require health inspections and pest-management plans, organic certification technically has nothing to do with food safety.
Link to con.
It’s Organic, but Does That Mean It’s Safer?
By KIM SEVERSON and ANDREW MARTIN
MOST of the chicken, fruit and vegetables in Ellen Devlin-Sample’s kitchen are organic. She thinks those foods taste better than their conventional counterparts. And she hopes they are healthier for her children. Lately, though, she is not so sure. The national outbreak of salmonella in products with peanuts has been particularly unsettling for shoppers like her who think organic food is safer.
The plants in Texas and Georgia that were sending out contaminated peanut butter and ground peanut products had something else besides rodent infestation, mold and bird droppings. They also had federal organic certification. “Why is organic peanut butter better than Jif?” said Ms. Devlin-Sample, a nurse practitioner from Pelham, N.Y. “I have no idea. If we’re getting salmonella from peanut butter, all bets are off.” Although the rules governing organic food require health inspections and pest-management plans, organic certification technically has nothing to do with food safety.
Link to con.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Monday, March 02, 2009
The plan to not end the occupation of Iraq
Ashley Smith examines the situation of the U.S. occupation of Iraq with a review of a book that focuses on the Pentagon's "surge" strategy.
PRESIDENT BARACK Obama--who won last November's election with millions of votes from people who saw him as the antiwar candidate--has decided on a plan for "withdrawing" from Iraq that has more support from Republicans in Congress than from Democrats.
Obama extended his promised timeframe for withdrawing "combat troops" to 19 months. But even more telling is the aspect of Obama's policy that remained vague during the campaign--plans for a "residual force" of up to 50,000 soldiers to remain in Iraq through at least 2011.
This isn't a plan to end the occupation of Iraq, but to continue it in another form.
"You cannot leave combat troops in a foreign country to conduct combat operations and call it the end of the war," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. "You can't be in and out at the same time. We must bring a conclusion to this sorry chapter in American history."
Link to con.
Ashley Smith examines the situation of the U.S. occupation of Iraq with a review of a book that focuses on the Pentagon's "surge" strategy.
PRESIDENT BARACK Obama--who won last November's election with millions of votes from people who saw him as the antiwar candidate--has decided on a plan for "withdrawing" from Iraq that has more support from Republicans in Congress than from Democrats.
Obama extended his promised timeframe for withdrawing "combat troops" to 19 months. But even more telling is the aspect of Obama's policy that remained vague during the campaign--plans for a "residual force" of up to 50,000 soldiers to remain in Iraq through at least 2011.
This isn't a plan to end the occupation of Iraq, but to continue it in another form.
"You cannot leave combat troops in a foreign country to conduct combat operations and call it the end of the war," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. "You can't be in and out at the same time. We must bring a conclusion to this sorry chapter in American history."
Link to con.
With Iraq plan, Obama embraces US militarism
In extending the full-scale US occupation of Iraq for another 18 months, and acceding to the timetable already adopted by the Bush administration for a tentative pullout by the end of 2011, President Barack Obama has done more than betray the hopes of the millions of antiwar voters who supported his candidacy in 2008.
He has fully identified the incoming Democratic Party administration with the fraudulent arguments employed by the Bush White House to justify the ongoing war in Iraq, after its initial claims about "weapons of mass destruction" and ties between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorist attacks had been proven to be lies.
Obama's speech to thousands of Marines at Camp Lejeune was an effort to legitimize the US conquest and occupation of Iraq and present the American military as an instrument of liberation rather than imperialist war and oppression.
Link to con.
In extending the full-scale US occupation of Iraq for another 18 months, and acceding to the timetable already adopted by the Bush administration for a tentative pullout by the end of 2011, President Barack Obama has done more than betray the hopes of the millions of antiwar voters who supported his candidacy in 2008.
He has fully identified the incoming Democratic Party administration with the fraudulent arguments employed by the Bush White House to justify the ongoing war in Iraq, after its initial claims about "weapons of mass destruction" and ties between Iraq and the 9/11 terrorist attacks had been proven to be lies.
Obama's speech to thousands of Marines at Camp Lejeune was an effort to legitimize the US conquest and occupation of Iraq and present the American military as an instrument of liberation rather than imperialist war and oppression.
Link to con.
Despite Layoffs, Bailed-Out Banks Hire Contractors on Visas
The Banks' War on Workers
By MISCHA GAUS
As hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars flow into rickety U.S. banks, public outrage has followed revelations that executives planned to spend the money on Vegas getaways, $35,000 toilets, and fat bonuses.
Less attention has been paid to how these bailed-out banks are driving down tech workers’ wages–and stoking anti-immigrant hostilities—while laying off tens of thousands of workers.
Banks that took public money sought about 4,200 visas for skilled workers from abroad in the 2008 fiscal year, according to an Associated Press investigation. In response, Senators Bernie Sanders and Charles Grassley attached to the latest round of bailout funds a requirement that banks must try to find U.S. workers first, and not displace them three months before or after taking public funds.
Link to con.
The Banks' War on Workers
By MISCHA GAUS
As hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars flow into rickety U.S. banks, public outrage has followed revelations that executives planned to spend the money on Vegas getaways, $35,000 toilets, and fat bonuses.
Less attention has been paid to how these bailed-out banks are driving down tech workers’ wages–and stoking anti-immigrant hostilities—while laying off tens of thousands of workers.
Banks that took public money sought about 4,200 visas for skilled workers from abroad in the 2008 fiscal year, according to an Associated Press investigation. In response, Senators Bernie Sanders and Charles Grassley attached to the latest round of bailout funds a requirement that banks must try to find U.S. workers first, and not displace them three months before or after taking public funds.
Link to con.
Sunday, March 01, 2009
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