News
Goldman Plays, We Pay
The story of the financial debacle will end the way it began, with the super-hustlers from Goldman Sachs at the center of the action and profiting wildly. Never in U.S. history has one company wielded such destructive power over our political economy, irrespective of whether a Republican or a Democrat happened to be president.
HAITI EARTHQUAKE LIVE BLOG: Who to Follow and What to Read for Breaking Developments
Here is the link to Thursday's live blog. Please check the page regularly for updates.
7:45am PDT: The BBC has a disturbing first hand video report from a hospital in Port-au-Prince where, last night, injured people waiting for treatment slept amongst dead bodies.
I-19 Shutdown in Tucson- Spanish and English
*Partial justice is no justice at all! Despite Judge ruling to block parts of SB 1070, racial-profiling, raids, deportations and the militarization of the border will continue unchallenged. This is why today we shut down Interstate 19 (I-19)*
*Sigue en espa**ñol abajo:*
*DIRECT ACTION DISRUPTS ARIZONA RACISM!*
*Partial justice is no justice at all! Despite Judge ruling to block parts of SB 1070, racial-profiling, raids, deportations and the militarization of
the border will continue unchallenged. This is why today we shut down
Interstate 19 (I-19)*
[ Arizona Indymedia link: http://tinyurl.com/22n8vks ]
Dozens Arrested in Protests of AZ Immigration Law
PHOENIX - Opponents of Arizona's immigration crackdown went ahead with protests Thursday despite a judge's ruling that delayed enforcement of most the law, and dozens of people in Phoenix were arrested after peacefully confronting officers in riot gear.
Gov. Jan Brewer called U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton's Wednesday's decision halting the law "a bump in the road," and her spokesman said they'd appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco later Thursday.
What a Legal Pot Economy Would Look Like (Video)
How everyone stands to benefit from ending the war on weed.
BP & the Oil Spill Catastrophe: How Capitalism is Wrecking the Planet July 29th 7:30pm - PSU
Over two months have passed and there is yet to be any relief from the steady gush of oil destroying wildlife, coastline, jobs, and lives in the Gulf of Mexico. Following the onslaught of oil, BP execs have proven time and again that their main priority is restoring their image-and their profits-rather than the fragile environment they laid waste. Meanwhile, government officials have done little to oversee BP's "clean up" efforts or reform the corrupt Mineral Management Services. On top of this, offshore drilling continues with business as usual and no new regulations to prevent another blow out like the Deepwater Horizon from happening again. The crisis has put a spotlight on the way that capitalism sacrifices all other concerns for the sake of the bottom line, potentially producing even greater problems such as catastrophic climate change. Come to a presentation and discussion on the socialist alternative to unconstrained ecological devastation.
U.S. and Major Powers Urged to Join Cluster Munitions Pact
GENEVA - Activists called on the United States and other major powers on Thursday to join a global treaty banning cluster munitions that goes into force on August 1.
Dropped from aircraft or fired from artillery or rockets, the weapons scatter bomblets over a wide area, but have limited military impact today as they were designed to attack tanks on an open battlefield, an increasingly rare scenario, they said.
Are Our Oceans Dying?
Microscopic marine algae which form the basis of the ocean food chain are dying at a terrifying rate, scientists said today.
Phytoplankton, described as the 'fuel' on which marine ecosystems run, are experiencing declines of about 1 per cent of the average total a year.
According to the researchers from Dalhousie University in Canada the annual falls translate to a 40 per cent drop in phytoplankton since 1950.
The research into phytoplankton comes as a separate report today offered evidence that the world has been warming for the past 30 years.
House Votes to Eliminate Cocaine Sentencing Disparity
Washington - The House of Representatives passed a historic bill Wednesday that narrows sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine convictions, which civil rights and civil liberties experts say contributed to the disproportionate imprisonment of African-Americans in recent decades.
The Senate passed its version of the bill in March. President Barack Obama, who during the 2008 presidential campaign said the current legal disparity "cannot be justified and should be eliminated," is expected to sign the legislation.
Breakthrough? Abbas Gets Arab Backing to Enter Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
Jerusalem - Setting the stage for the Palestinians to negotiate directly with Israel, the Arab League agreed in principle today to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas holding face-to-face peace talks with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The decision of the Arab League's forum on Israeli-Palestinian talks is significant because it provides political cover for Mr. Abbas, who has been locked in a battle for legitimacy with Islamists from Hamas who oppose negotiations with Israel.
Tea Partyers in Wonderland
The mythmongers in Tea Party land and millions more Americans seem to prefer fiction to fact.
Based on a mid-April New York Times/CBS News poll of about 1,600 adults, we learned that 52 percent of Tea Party supporters believe "too much has been made of the problems facing black people." Could it be because 89 percent of the Partyers polled are white? They also have above-average incomes: 31 percent of Tea Partyers earn more than $75,000 a year, as opposed to 26 percent of all poll respondents. A cool 68 percent of Tea Partyers consider themselves middle-class or above.
Zach Carter | Four Bogus Attacks Bankers and Their Political Puppets Are Using to Attack Elizabeth Warren
No reformers question whether Elizabeth Warren is the best candidate to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She's a lauded scholar, an inspiring advocate who will draw talented and dedicated reformers to the new agency and she came up with the whole idea for creating the CFPB in the first place. Nominating a dedicated reformer like Warren will send a clear signal to the entire world that the U.S. government is serious about regulating the banks that drove the global economy off a cliff.
Shirley Sherrod, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and American Racial Hysteria
The recent firing of Shirley Sherrod by the secretary of agriculture after an excerpt of a video of her speech at an NAACP event was used to portray her as a poster child for anti-white racism by Andrew Breibart, the conservative media personality, provoked a firestorm of controversy about race and its legacies in American life. The unseemly rush to escape the fallout from the video excerpt by the Department of Agriculture leadership and which invoked unverified White House pressure
Dave Lindorff | National Insecurity: Afraid of the Truth
The White House’s initial response to the release of 92,000 pages of raw reports from the field by US forces in Afghanistan for a period from 2004-2009--that it was a threat to national security and to the lives of American troops--was as predictable as it was farcical.
News in Brief: Migrant Bodies Piling Up in Arizona Heat, and More ...
Recent heat waves made July a deadly month for immigrants crossing the Arizona-Mexico border, with 57 bodies recovered from the deserts south of Tucson on the American side, according to a New York Times report on Tucson's morgue. Tougher enforcement measures and increased border security have forced migrants to take their chances in the dry, mountainous landscape of south of Tucson, where roaming helicopters and frequent checkpoint stops create a scene reminiscent of a war zone.
White House Pushes for Warrantless Access to Internet Records
The White House has asked Congress to make it possible for the FBI to demand that Internet service providers turn over customers' records in cases involving terrorism or other intelligence issues without first obtaining a court order.
Democrats Take on Supreme Court's Giant Sell-Out of Our Democracy to Corporations
Democrats in Congress are fighting to undo, or at least mitigate, the potential damage wrought by the Supreme Court in its Citizens United decision, an example of right-wing judicial activism that has the potential to put the final nail in the coffin of American self-governance and turn over our elections to multinational corporations.
Safety First!
The number of serious on-the-job accidents this year have yet again made very clear the urgent need for expanded and tightened government safety regulation. The toll on workers has been high, as President Cecil Roberts of the United Mine Workers union told the House Education and Labor Committee in mid-July.
Barry Eisler | The Ministry of Truth
Recently, I had the good fortune to be invited by NPR to submit an essay on a favorite thriller of mine. I decided to write about George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is both an excellent thriller and an increasingly powerful and relevant political warning - a combination readers of my latest novel, Inside Out, will know I find appealing.