Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
TRUTHOUT
Sunday 19 February 2012
Delusions of the Corporate State
Evaggelos Vallianatos, Truthout: "The citizens of America must push the servants of oligarchy out of office, the very people who made a killing with their 2008 financial disaster. Americans must return to the Greek-inspired path of Thomas Jefferson: reinvigorate democracy while bringing the military-industrial complex under control."
Read the Article
Mortgage-Backed Securities Make a Comeback, Despite Similar Risks
Azam Ahmed, The New York Times News Service: "Some Wall Street investors made money as the mortgage market boomed; others profited when it fell apart.... Mr. Lippmann is joined by other big-money investors — mutual funds like Fidelity as well as hedge funds — in riding a wave of interest in the same complex loan pools that nearly washed away the financial system."
Read the Article
Industry Plan to Save Us From Global Warming a Nightmare, Not a Dream
Peter Montague, AlterNet: "By ignoring global warming, the U.S. is painting itself (and the world) into a corner. But now the fossil fuel industry has prepared an escape for us. You may not have heard of it, but the escape is called 'carbon capture and storage' or CCS for short. It has never been tried on anything like the scale needed to limit global warming, so it's a colossal experiment with the future of civilization at stake."
Read the Article
Frustrated Protesters Fill the Streets in Syria's Capital
Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times News Service: "Hundreds and hundreds of antigovernment protesters braved scattered gunfire from Syrian soldiers to march through a middle-class neighborhood in Damascus on Saturday, the biggest demonstration witnessed close to the heart of the capital since the country's uprising started 11 months ago."
Read the Article
Disaster Capitalism: Profiting From Crisis in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Deepa Panchang, Beverly Bell and Tory Field, Other Worlds Are Possible: "Below are a few examples of post-earthquake contracts and grants, selected to show just some of the problems at play. They offer a small glimpse into a much larger, secretive world of disaster deals. We're grateful to our investigative journalist colleagues who, alongside us, have kept heavy on the scent of these corporations and brought buried information to light."
Read the Article
Perfect Storm Threatens Long-Term Unemployed
Greg Kaufmann, The Nation: "In December, there were more than 13 million unemployed workers and about four people looking for work for every available job. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), 5.5 million people have been unemployed for more than half a year, up from 1.2 million in 2007, and the average duration for an unemployed person is over nine months.... So it's particularly alarming to see Congress playing games with an extension of unemployment benefits that are set to expire at the end of the month."
Read the Article
How the Ohio GOP's Attempts to Game Voting Rules Backfired
Jennifer Brunner, AlterNet: "In Ohio, the GOP-controlled legislature - without a fight from my predecessor, the Republican secretary of state, Ken Blackwell - began a systematic effort to tinker with Ohio's voting rules, from requiring people to take a training session before they could register voters, to requiring naturalized citizens to show their papers at the polling place (all of which were struck down by federal courts in 2005 and 2006).... Nearly every time the GOP in Ohio has succeeded in implementing an unfair 'reform,' it has backfired on them."
Read the Article
Andrew Bacevich | Uncle Sam, Global Gangster
Andrew Bacevich, TomDispatch: "With the United States now well into the second decade of what the Pentagon has styled an 'era of persistent conflict,' the war formerly known as the global war on terrorism (unofficial acronym WFKATGWOT) appears increasingly fragmented and diffuse. Without achieving victory, yet unwilling to acknowledge failure, the United States military has withdrawn from Iraq. It is trying to leave Afghanistan, where events seem equally unlikely to yield a happy outcome."
Read the Article
Human Safaris: When Does Tourism Become Unethical?
Joanna Eede, Survival International: "In principle, there is little harm in tourists visiting tribal peoples who have been in routine contact with outsiders for some time. But as natural social sensitivity and respect would dictate, this only applies to tribal peoples who are happy to receive visitors, have proper control over where the tourists go and what they do in their communities, and receive a fair share of the profits."
Read the Article
It's Up to Us to Protect the First Amendment
Josh Stearns, Save the News: "What happens when a journalist is arrested? How do we account for the stories that don't get told, or the issues that don't get covered because the press was restricted or behind bars? How do we measure the intimidation journalists feel, and the chill that police intervention places on freedom of the press? One gauge might be the U.S.'s recent drop in global press freedom rankings, down to number 47 worldwide."
Read the Article
Subsidize This: US Eyes Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels, But What Gets Protected?
Gregg Levine, Capitoilette: "While trade is often a bone of contention between the United States and China, this week's visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping threw the spotlight on one subset of that battle that could have far-reaching effects well in excess of the raw dollar amounts at stake. At issue is a complaint filed by a solar industry trade group, the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, or CASM, asking that the US government impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels. CASM wants the duties for what it claims are unfair subsidies by China that make Chinese solar products substantially cheaper than those offered by many US competitors."
Read the Article
Click here for more Truthout articles
Delusions of the Corporate State
Evaggelos Vallianatos, Truthout: "The citizens of America must push the servants of oligarchy out of office, the very people who made a killing with their 2008 financial disaster. Americans must return to the Greek-inspired path of Thomas Jefferson: reinvigorate democracy while bringing the military-industrial complex under control."
Read the Article
Mortgage-Backed Securities Make a Comeback, Despite Similar Risks
Azam Ahmed, The New York Times News Service: "Some Wall Street investors made money as the mortgage market boomed; others profited when it fell apart.... Mr. Lippmann is joined by other big-money investors — mutual funds like Fidelity as well as hedge funds — in riding a wave of interest in the same complex loan pools that nearly washed away the financial system."
Read the Article
Industry Plan to Save Us From Global Warming a Nightmare, Not a Dream
Peter Montague, AlterNet: "By ignoring global warming, the U.S. is painting itself (and the world) into a corner. But now the fossil fuel industry has prepared an escape for us. You may not have heard of it, but the escape is called 'carbon capture and storage' or CCS for short. It has never been tried on anything like the scale needed to limit global warming, so it's a colossal experiment with the future of civilization at stake."
Read the Article
Frustrated Protesters Fill the Streets in Syria's Capital
Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times News Service: "Hundreds and hundreds of antigovernment protesters braved scattered gunfire from Syrian soldiers to march through a middle-class neighborhood in Damascus on Saturday, the biggest demonstration witnessed close to the heart of the capital since the country's uprising started 11 months ago."
Read the Article
Disaster Capitalism: Profiting From Crisis in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Deepa Panchang, Beverly Bell and Tory Field, Other Worlds Are Possible: "Below are a few examples of post-earthquake contracts and grants, selected to show just some of the problems at play. They offer a small glimpse into a much larger, secretive world of disaster deals. We're grateful to our investigative journalist colleagues who, alongside us, have kept heavy on the scent of these corporations and brought buried information to light."
Read the Article
Perfect Storm Threatens Long-Term Unemployed
Greg Kaufmann, The Nation: "In December, there were more than 13 million unemployed workers and about four people looking for work for every available job. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), 5.5 million people have been unemployed for more than half a year, up from 1.2 million in 2007, and the average duration for an unemployed person is over nine months.... So it's particularly alarming to see Congress playing games with an extension of unemployment benefits that are set to expire at the end of the month."
Read the Article
How the Ohio GOP's Attempts to Game Voting Rules Backfired
Jennifer Brunner, AlterNet: "In Ohio, the GOP-controlled legislature - without a fight from my predecessor, the Republican secretary of state, Ken Blackwell - began a systematic effort to tinker with Ohio's voting rules, from requiring people to take a training session before they could register voters, to requiring naturalized citizens to show their papers at the polling place (all of which were struck down by federal courts in 2005 and 2006).... Nearly every time the GOP in Ohio has succeeded in implementing an unfair 'reform,' it has backfired on them."
Read the Article
Andrew Bacevich | Uncle Sam, Global Gangster
Andrew Bacevich, TomDispatch: "With the United States now well into the second decade of what the Pentagon has styled an 'era of persistent conflict,' the war formerly known as the global war on terrorism (unofficial acronym WFKATGWOT) appears increasingly fragmented and diffuse. Without achieving victory, yet unwilling to acknowledge failure, the United States military has withdrawn from Iraq. It is trying to leave Afghanistan, where events seem equally unlikely to yield a happy outcome."
Read the Article
Human Safaris: When Does Tourism Become Unethical?
Joanna Eede, Survival International: "In principle, there is little harm in tourists visiting tribal peoples who have been in routine contact with outsiders for some time. But as natural social sensitivity and respect would dictate, this only applies to tribal peoples who are happy to receive visitors, have proper control over where the tourists go and what they do in their communities, and receive a fair share of the profits."
Read the Article
It's Up to Us to Protect the First Amendment
Josh Stearns, Save the News: "What happens when a journalist is arrested? How do we account for the stories that don't get told, or the issues that don't get covered because the press was restricted or behind bars? How do we measure the intimidation journalists feel, and the chill that police intervention places on freedom of the press? One gauge might be the U.S.'s recent drop in global press freedom rankings, down to number 47 worldwide."
Read the Article
Subsidize This: US Eyes Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels, But What Gets Protected?
Gregg Levine, Capitoilette: "While trade is often a bone of contention between the United States and China, this week's visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping threw the spotlight on one subset of that battle that could have far-reaching effects well in excess of the raw dollar amounts at stake. At issue is a complaint filed by a solar industry trade group, the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, or CASM, asking that the US government impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels. CASM wants the duties for what it claims are unfair subsidies by China that make Chinese solar products substantially cheaper than those offered by many US competitors."
Read the Article
Click here for more Truthout articles
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES |
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Truthout
NYPD Muslim Spy Scandal Grows With Newly Revealed Plan to Target Shiite Mosques (Video)
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales, Democracy NOW!: "New revelations have emerged about the New York City Police Department's secret program to spy on Muslim communities. The Associated Press has just uncovered a confidential NYPD plan from 2006 to engage in targeted surveillance of Shiite mosques following increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran; the latest revelation on its secret intelligence operations focused on Muslim neighborhoods."
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript
On the News With Thom Hartmann: China and Russia Veto Resolution Condemning Syrian Violence, and More
In today's On the News segment: 600 Canadian activists rallied to protest tar sands on Saturday, Komen enlists former Bush press secretary for "crisis communications," DC's Park Police raid Occupy encampment there, and more.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript
The Deal That Saved Detroit (and Banned Strikes)
Laura Flanders, The Nation: "You're going to be hearing a lot about the deal that saved Detroit in the next few months, not least because likely opponent Mitt Romney was against it. Then Governor Romney wrote in the fall of 2008 that if the big three auto companies received a bailout, 'we can kiss the American auto industry goodbye.' Romney bad; Obama good; Big Three back. The Deal with Detroit is gold dust for Democrats. Reality is a bit more complicated."
Read the Article
Army Officer Turned Whistleblower: How Many More Must Die?
Scott Shane, The New York Times News Service: "On his second yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis traveled 9,000 miles, patrolled with American troops in eight provinces and returned in October of last year with a fervent conviction that the war was going disastrously and that senior military leaders had not leveled with the American public."
Read the Article
Dean Baker | Debt, Toll Roads and Patents
Dean Baker, Truthout: "It's budget time, again. This means that the deficit hawks will be out in force warning us about the devastating debt burden that we are passing on to our children. So that this Halloween fright gang doesn't needlessly cause any kids to lose sleep, here's what parents can tell their children."
Read the Article
Egypt Defies US by Setting Trial for 19 Americans on Criminal Charges
David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times News Service: "Egypt's military-led government said Sunday that it would put 19 Americans and two dozen others on trial in a politically charged criminal investigation into the foreign financing of nonprofit groups that has shaken the 30-year alliance between the United States and Egypt. The decision raises tensions between the two allies to a new peak at a decisive moment in Egypt's political transition after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak a year ago."
Read the Article
Six Things You Should Know About Arizona's Worse-Than-Wisconsin Attack on Public Workers
Sarah Jaffe, AlterNet: "Along with South Carolina's Nikki Haley and Indiana's Mitch Daniels, Arizona's Jan Brewer, not content with making her state the least friendly to immigrants and people of color, has decided to get in on the union-busting action as well, introducing a bill that makes Walker's and Kasich's attacks on public workers look mild."
Read the Article
E.J. Dionne | The Citizens United Catastrophe
E.J. Dionne, The Washington Post Writers Group: "The strongest case against judicial activism - against 'legislating from the bench,' is that judges are not accountable for the new systems they put in place, whether by accident or design. The Citizens United justices were not required to think through the practical consequences of sweeping aside decades of work by legislators, going back to the passage of the landmark Tillman Act in 1907, who sought to prevent untoward influence-peddling and indirect bribery."
Read the Article
Click here for more Truthout articles
|
TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
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Last week, BuzzFlash at Truthout pointed out the GOP leanings of Nancy Brinker and her tightly held governance of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. We provided evidence of Brinker's strong Republican donation ties, and the domination of the small (nine member) Komen board by Brinker's friends, Republican donors - and even her son.
In essence, the Komen Planned Parenthood debacle should not have been unexpected, as detailed in our exposes, since Brinker's return in late 2009.
Aside from leaning to the right since Brinker's return as CEO, there has been a long-standing complaint that Komen indulges in rampant "pinkwashing." This is the use of corporate "cause marketing" relationships with Komen, in return for donations to the foundation. (The Bank of America "pink ribbon" credit card is one such example.)
But it comes at a significant price, according to many observers. Take for instance a Mother Jones article that charges that Komen underplays the likely impact of toxic chemicals in causing breast cancer and other cancers. Why would Komen adopt such policies? Allegedly, according to Mother Jones, because many of its corporate sponsors would have their profits and images negatively affected by Komen recognizing the likely causal relationship.
Mother Jones gets to the specific issue, for example, of Komen having downplayed a relationship between BPA in plastics and cancer:
In April 2010 Komen posted an online statement saying that BPA had been "deemed safe." And a more recent statement on Komen's website about BPA, from February 2011, begins, "Links between plastics and cancer are often reported by the media and in email hoaxes." Komen acknowledges in its older statement that the Food and Drug Administration is doing more studies on BPA, but also says that there is currently "no evidence to suggest a link between BPA and risk of breast cancer."And how about Komen promoting another corporate "sponsor" by asking people to chow down on Kentucky Fried Chicken? Not so good for preventing breast cancer, according to one critic quoted in The New York Daily News:
"I think that's at best, misleading, and at worst, demonstrating really significant ignorance by whoever at the Komen Foundation wrote that," said University of Missouri biology professor and BPA expert Dr. Frederick vom Saal in a telephone interview, reacting to Komen's 2011 BPA statement. "When you think of this as a foundation that's out there supposedly protecting women from factors that are involved in breast cancer, I find that statement to be just astounding."
With the KFC and Susan G. Komen collaboration, as blogger Yoni Freedhoff of Weighty Matters points out, consumers who buy the buckets of chicken are likely to also buy fries, gravy and soda, too. "So, in effect, Susan G. Komen for the Cure is helping to sell deep-fried fast food and, in so doing, help fuel unhealthy diet and obesity across America, an odd plan given that diet and obesity certainly impact on both the incidence and recurrence of breast cancer," Freedhoff wrote. And suggested that a possible alternative would have been for KFC to just hand over a check for breast cancer research to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.And there are the flat out intimidation and scams that Komen is party to, according to Jezebel:
In 2010, they spent more than $1 million suing smaller charities that used the phrase "for the Cure" in their names or in their events. The organization said that this was to prevent donor confusion. One fundraising program encouraged socially mobile cancer fighters to battle cancer themselves by mailing in Yoplait tops in order to prompt the company to make a 10-cent donation. Postage at the time was 37 cents; Yoplait prices varied.A Minnesota Post article gets to the heart of pinkwashing:
Pinkwashing is the term used to describe when corporations claim to care about breast cancer by promoting "pink" products or a "pink ribbon" campaign (especially each October during "Breast Cancer Awareness Month") while continuing to sell products that are linked to the disease. (One notorious example from a few Octobers ago was a company that promoted "Pinky" vodka to women. Alcohol consumption is generally considered a risk factor for breast cancer....)There is no doubt that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has done some positive things for women with breast cancer, research and prevention.
For several years, Komen - with the help of TPR Holdings, a New York-based company that makes many colognes and cosmetics and which donates $1 million a year to the charity - has marketed its own perfume, "Promise Me." It turns out, however, that the perfume contains several toxic chemicals (not listed on the label), including ones suspected of being carcinogenic. (Confronted with these findings, Komen said last fall that it is reformulating the perfume.)
But "Promise Me" has another problem. Like so many of the other pinkwashing products hawked by companies, not much of the perfume's purchase price actually goes to breast cancer research.
But there is also little doubt that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has turned into a corporate branding machine that has, at times, by its very "cause marketing structure" valued enhancing the corporate profits of its sponsors over the negative impact on the development of breast cancer.
As one source noted in a Daily Beast column: "Komen plays hardball and is determined to stay on top," says a member of another cancer organization, who declined to be identified. "Let's be honest about all this: people think of breast cancer as a charity, but it's really a major business."
Mark Karlin
Editor BuzzFlash at Truthout
US Embassy in Syria Halts Operations as Violence Flares
Read the Article at The New York Times
Glenn Greenwald: US Drones Targeting Rescuers and Mourners
Read the Article at Salon
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Facebook’s New Timeline Feature: Will It Increase Users’ Risk of Identity Theft?
Facebook bills its new
Timeline feature as a virtual scrapbook—a chronology of your postings,
photos, and activity that allows you to remember what you were doing way
back when. But others view this new feature as an intrusion upon
users’ privacy. Previously, old Facebook postings seemed to vanish; you
had to work hard to find something you had posted years ago. But now,
Timeline will make it much easier for you or your “friends” to scroll
through a new biography of your online life—a digital dossier and
electronic archive of many of your best and worst memories and musings.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
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