CLIMATE CRUSADERS “UNDER ATTACK.“ Bill Mckibben writes in Grist of the recent travails facing two of the globe’s most ardent and respected leaders of the movement to take aggressive action against climate change. NASA scientist James Hansen, arrested last month for his dogged opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, a project he says will [...]
FIRST THE SENTENCE, THEN THE VERDICT: THE WAR ON TERRORISM IN WONDERLAND. Lewis Carroll’s classic depiction of a trial of Alice evokes the kind of “legal procedure” in which people are convicted and punished before or even instead of being found guilty after presentation of the evidence of their crimes. A legal memorandum from the Office [...]
FORGET A “SLIPPER SLOPE.” THE LEAKED JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MEMO ON KILLING AMERICAN CITIZENS IS DOWNRIGHT TERRIFYING. Reaction has been strong to news of a leaked Justice Department memo that bluntly lays out the Obama administration’s justification for its highly controversial and legally questionable use of drone strikes to kill suspected “terrorists.” Language in [...]
Rounds of new laws and legislation introducing controversial restrictions aimed at tackling non-existent “voter fraud” in dozens of states since the last presidential election threaten this Election Day with chaos and the possibility that millions of Americans will lose their right to cast a ballot this fall. Potentially more disruptive is the building tide of [...]
RAISING THE JIHADIST FLAG OVER THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION. While the world’s mainstream press continues to demonize the Syrian government and idolize the opposition to same, two New York Times reporters tell a story that seldom enters that “stream.” An increasing factor in the rebel opposition is the rise of involvement of jihadist Muslim groups [...]
ETCHING THE TOMBSTONE OF EUROPEAN-STYLE AUSTERITY: “THE STRATEGY OF AUSTERITY HAS…BEEN COUNTERPRODUCTIVE…” (The Globe & Mail) ` A new report from the International Labor Organization lays out in raw statistics the destruction and “devastating consequences” of the austerity programs imposed on most of Europe and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the United States. The [...]
TRUST BUT DON’T VERIFY. (Salon) Glenn Greenwald stands on its head Ronald Reagon’s famous admonition to demand evidence of Soviet nuclear disarmament, not to “take their word for it.” Kevin Drum of Mother Jones says—and countless trusting followers of Barack Obama apparently agree—that only a “sociopath” would insist, as did Obama, on the continued imprisonment in [...]
“TOTAL INFORMATION AWARENESS.” IT’S GROWING AGAIN IN THE UTAH DESERT. (Alternet) “Democracy Now!” interviews a columnist for Wired magazine who wrote an expose article on a massive “eye in the sky” facility being built at Bluffdale UT. This piece of cyperspace surveillance will give the government almost unlimited power to record and preserve virtually every [...]
THE “ONE PERCENT” IS DOING BETTER THAN WE THOUGHT. MUCH BETTER… (Wall Street Journal) Between the rise of “Occupy Wall Street” and a nationwide surge in discussion over income inequality, most Americans are aware that the fabled “one percent” — the very top of the country’s economic food chain — are doing far better than the “99 [...]
From presidential politics to the halls of Congress to state legislatures across the nation, scores of lawmakers and politicians have made the curious decision to launch an assault on women’s rights. Despite an incumbent president vulnerable thanks to persistent economic worries and states faced with ills ranging from budget deficits to foreclosure crises, America’s current [...]
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