Recommended Audio - Obama: No Corporate Takeover of Our Democracy
In his weekly address the President calls out Republicans for blocking campaign finance reforms that would address the Supreme Court decision opening the floodgates of corporate money into elections.
Transcript available at Truthout.org.
What Will Become of Us, of America, If We Continue on this Path?
Lorraine Berry writes for Common Dreams: "In 2006, David Grossman addressed a crowd that had gathered on November 4. November 4 is the date that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. It is important to note, if you read through the entire speech (and please, please do so), that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was in the crowd."
Housing Crisis a Symptom of Capitalism's Failure
Rick Wolff comments for Truthout: "This capitalist crisis resembles a certain kind of serious disease. Different symptoms keep flaring up at different locations. It began with subprime mortgages in residential housing. Then, sequential flare-ups hit the private banking system, forced millions out of their jobs and homes, drastically cut world trade, and undermined the public services and national debts of several European countries. Meanwhile, another symptom festered in the credit freeze crippling so much private borrowing. Now, yet another symptom matures, as government subsidies and supports to our crisis-ridden private housing industry add rising billions to the deficit." Photo: woodley wonderworks / Flickr
10 Common Sense Principles for a New Economy
David Korten writes for Yes! magazine: "I find hope in the fact that millions of people the world over are seeing through the moral and practical fallacies underlying the Wall Street economy and—by contributing to the creation of a New Economy—are taking charge of their economic lives."
Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business
Brittany Shoot reviews Gary Rivlin's book for Truthout: "If you're familiar with the Midwest, you'll likely recognize these names: Check Into Cash, Check 'n' Go, Advance America, National Cash Advance. Organizations less familiar to you may be the Home Defense Program and Center for Community Self-Help, two organizations dedicated to fighting predatory loans and high-interest subprime mortgages."
Five Years Later: How Katrina changed New Orleans and the way I think about my hometown.
Josh Levin writes for Slate.com: "It's been a long time since I thought about Katrina every day. As part of the New Orleans diaspora, I'm never confronted by visible reminders of the destruction—the abandoned buildings and the empty lots and the houses that still have death tolls spray painted across their front doors. When I put on my gold Saints cap, I think about the Super Bowl, not the team's near-departure for Los Angeles or San Antonio the year after the storm. But a fleur-de-lis isn't just a fleur-de-lis. A week ago, a man sitting by himself on the bus spotted my hat, took off his headphones, and told me he left New Orleans as the hurricane tore through—that he's desperate to move back but hasn't been able to make it happen. He thinks about Katrina every day."
Obama's Healthcare Achievements
Theda Skocpol comments for The Nation: "Eric Alterman is thoughtful and eloquent as he describes progressive disappointments with Obama's first eighteen months in the presidency and probes the huge obstacles to progressive change built into our divided and institutionally cumbersome system of governance. I don't disagree with many specific points he makes. But the bottom line he draws could not be more wrongheaded. Against huge counterwinds, President Obama and his unwieldy party have managed to enact major reforms: they took higher education loans away from bankers and enhanced funding for lower- and middle-income students; they created a regulatory framework that will start to rein in Wall Street financial shenanigans; they have used regulations where legislation was impossible to further workers' rights and prod environmental improvements; and they achieved comprehensive healthcare reforms that are the most far-reaching and economically redistributive social accomplishments since the New Deal."
Ground Zero Mosque Iman
Brad Gooch writes for The Daily Beast: "Over the last decade, I occasionally experienced the trompe l’oeil kick of watching a familiar face (and voice) on TV. “I know that guy,” I’d think, catching Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf on Sunday morning talk shows. The tickle of recognition began to turn to shock, though, about a month ago, when Rauf, as imam of the proposed Cordoba House (also called the “ground zero mosque”), morphed from talking head to the hot topic itself. As the story popped from a page 3 item on a Community Board 1 meeting in The New York Times to the cover of the New York Post to the cover of Time, from Bloomberg’s comments to Obama’s (three times, and counting), Feisal Rauf is suddenly a household name. For once, everyone was debating about something I knew firsthand. But I have been having trouble connecting their dots with the dots I know." Photo:
Fallout of Hate Is Spreading Across America from "Ground Zero"
Joshua Holland writes for AlterNet: "Scientists building the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos referred to the coordinates where a test device was detonated as “point zero.” When the horror of nuclear warfare was unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the term “Ground Zero” entered our lexicon. The expression has come to mean the epicenter of a catastrophic event, be it a nuclear detonation, a disease epidemic or an earthquake. It is the point from which damage spreads, whether it’s radioactive fallout or a deadly contagion."
Fire Department Blocks Florida Church's Plan To Burn Korans
Evan McMorris-Santoro reports for Talking Points Memo: "Remember that Florida 'church' with the plan to torch a pile of Korans in commemoration of 9/11? Turns out there's one thing they weren't counting on: a local Fire Department that's stingy with outdoor fire permits. According to the Gainesville Sun, fire chief Gene Prince told the church 'that under the city's fire prevention ordinance, an open burning of books is not allowed.' Turns out town code 10-63, a 'General prohibition on outdoor burning and open burning,' specifically outlaws the burning of (section 6) 'Newspaper' and (7) 'Corrugated cardboard, container board, office paper.'" Photo: Nazi officials burning books in 1933; Illinois Holocaust Museum.
Troops Punished After Refusing to Attend Evangelical Concert
Mike Ludwig reports for Truthout.org: "Pvt. Anthony Smith is the type of guy who stands up for what he believes in. That's why he decided to hold his commanding officers accountable for punishing him and fellow soldiers after they refused to attend an evangelical Christian rock concert at the Fort Eustis military post in Virginia."
The Far Edge
The New York Times writes in an editorial: "For months, it has been clear that Republican Congressional candidates would benefit from independent voters’ dissatisfaction with President Obama. With the Republican field now largely in place, all voters might want to take a close look at who those candidates are."
History Does Not Lie - Unless It Is Being Invented by Republicans
Paul Krugman writes for Truthout.org: "When you consistently irritate the hard right in the United States as I do, you quickly get used to the steady stream of accusations that you’re lying, simply because you didn’t present the facts in a way that suits the commenter. If I write, 'The economy added 236,000 jobs a month under Bill Clinton,' the responses from conservatives will range from 'That’s a lie! Krugman doesn’t mention the dot-com bubble!' to 'That’s cherry-picking! What about Jimmy Carter?'"
How Kids Really Learn
Kevin Drum writes for Mother Jones: "Several years ago I was visiting with some friends and happened to get into a conversation with their four-year-old daughter. I don't remember why, but we got to talking about numbers, and as adults will do, I started quizzing her. Do you know what two plus two is? She did. How about four plus three. No problem. Six plus five? Nine plus four? Eight plus seven? Yes, yes, and yes. That was about as far as she could go, but I was pretty impressed. That's not bad for a four-year-old, is it?" Photo: Tom Gill/Flickr
Three Pillars of a Food Revolution
Anna Lappé writes for YES! Magazine: "A few years ago, I stumbled on a United Nations study that transformed how I think about the climate crisis. In the report, researchers pegged greenhouse gases from the livestock sector at 18 percent of total global emissions. Combine this with other aspects of our food chain-from agricultural chemical production to agribusiness driven deforestation to food waste rotting in landfills-and food and agriculture sector is responsible for nearly one third of the planet's manmade emissions. Move over Hummer; it's time to say hello to the hamburger."
Study Links Pesticide to ADHD in Children
Thomas H. Maugh II reports for the Los Angeles Times: "Children with higher levels of the pesticide malathion in their urine seem to be at an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, researchers reported Monday. Several previous studies have linked neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders such as ADHD to exposure to pesticides, but generally in children of farmworkers and others exposed to abnormally high levels of the chemicals."
Egg Recall: Supplier Austin 'Jack' DeCoster Has History Of Health, Safety Violations
MARY CLARE JALONICK writes for the Associated Press via the Huffington Post: "Two Iowa farms that recalled more than a half-billion eggs linked to as many as 1,300 cases of salmonella poisoning share suppliers of chickens and feed as well as ties to an Iowa business routinely cited for violating state and federal law. Food and Drug Administration investigators have yet to determine the cause of the salmonella outbreaks at Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. The FDA investigation could take months, and sources of contamination are often difficult to find." Photo: Associated Press
Gulf Oil Spill Plume Stretches 21 Miles, Not Breaking Down Much
Pete Spotts reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "A plume of oil some 700 feet thick and at least 21 miles long has been detected deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico. It originated at the Deepwater Horizon blowout and consists of hydrocarbons from the well, according to measurements released Thursday. The survey, conducted by US and Australian scientists during a 10-day research cruise in late June, represents the most detailed picture yet of undersea plumes of oil and methane from the Gulf oil spill. The researchers were surprised by the plume's relative stability as well as by an apparent lack of activity on the part of microbes to break down the oil."
Gov't Admits There's A Lot More Oil Left In The Gulf Than They Initially Said
Rachel Slajda reports for Talking Points Memo: "Earlier this month, as BP pumped cement into the ruined blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf, the government released a four-page, scant-on-details report that claimed that only a quarter of the 4.9 millions of barrels of oil was left in the Gulf. The rest, they said, had been cleaned up, evaporated or dispersed into nonexistence. And so the government essentially declared 'Mission Accomplished!' in the Gulf."
Shifting Attitudes Take Gay Rights Fight Across Globe, Experts Say
Eliott C. McLaughlin writes for CNN: "In signing Argentina's same-sex marriage law, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said debate over the issue would be 'absolutely anachronistic' -- archaic, out of date -- within a few years. Striking down California's Proposition 8 two weeks later, Judge Vaughn Walker was more specific, saying there was no evidence for old-fashioned stereotypes that painted gays 'as disease vectors or as child molesters who recruit young children into homosexuality.' Banning people from marrying based on sexual orientation, the President Reagan appointee explained, is 'irrational.'" Photo: Agency French Press
Verizon and Google Want to Kill the Open Internet -- Media Mogul Confirms Their Bad Intentions
Rep. Alan Grayson writes for AlterNet: "The Verizon-Google Net Neutrality Proposal begins by stating that "Google and Verizon have been working together to find ways to preserve the open Internet." Well, that's nice. Imagine what they would have come up with if they had been trying to kill off the open Internet. Actually, you don't have to imagine it. Because that's what this is. An effort to kill off the open Internet."
An Open Internet for All
MIGNON CLYBURN and MICHAEL J. COPPS write for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune: "The Internet was born on openness, has flourished on openness and depends on openness for its future potential. This incredible technology intersects with just about every great challenge confronting our nation -- jobs, education, energy, the environment, news, international competitiveness, health care, equal opportunity."
Heads Knocking On Net Neutrality
Mike Magner writes for the National Journal: "While telecom lobbyists are brainstorming in Washington on strategies for preserving Internet openness, two members of the FCC are headed to Minnesota today to get some public input on the mushrooming issue of net neutrality. Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn were invited by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to attend a public forum in Minneapolis this evening on the future of the Internet. Franken's office pointedly noted that the hearing "comes in the wake of Google's pact with Verizon to build toll lanes on the Internet," a reference to a legislative proposal floated by the two companies last week offering an alternative to stronger FCC regulation of the Internet.
New Facebook Location Feature Sparks Privacy Concerns
Jenna Worthman writes for the New York Times: "Moments after Facebook introduced a new feature called Facebook Places on Wednesday that allows its users to share their location and find their friends, advocates raised flags over online privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California cited concerns over the new product, saying Facebook neglected to include several crucial privacy features."
Tea Partiers Say Net Neutrality Hurts Freedom
Evan McMorris-Santoro writes for Talking Points Memo: "The tea party, a movement whose success on the grassroots level is in many ways attributable to the power of free and open Internet communications, is joining the growing conservative crusade against the FCC's plan to enforce net neutrality on internet service providers. According to one tea partier involved in the effort, the movement is opposing net neutrality because 'it's an affront to free speech and free markets.'"
Transcript available at Truthout.org.
What Will Become of Us, of America, If We Continue on this Path?
Lorraine Berry writes for Common Dreams: "In 2006, David Grossman addressed a crowd that had gathered on November 4. November 4 is the date that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. It is important to note, if you read through the entire speech (and please, please do so), that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was in the crowd."
Housing Crisis a Symptom of Capitalism's Failure
10 Common Sense Principles for a New Economy
David Korten writes for Yes! magazine: "I find hope in the fact that millions of people the world over are seeing through the moral and practical fallacies underlying the Wall Street economy and—by contributing to the creation of a New Economy—are taking charge of their economic lives."
Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business
Five Years Later: How Katrina changed New Orleans and the way I think about my hometown.
Josh Levin writes for Slate.com: "It's been a long time since I thought about Katrina every day. As part of the New Orleans diaspora, I'm never confronted by visible reminders of the destruction—the abandoned buildings and the empty lots and the houses that still have death tolls spray painted across their front doors. When I put on my gold Saints cap, I think about the Super Bowl, not the team's near-departure for Los Angeles or San Antonio the year after the storm. But a fleur-de-lis isn't just a fleur-de-lis. A week ago, a man sitting by himself on the bus spotted my hat, took off his headphones, and told me he left New Orleans as the hurricane tore through—that he's desperate to move back but hasn't been able to make it happen. He thinks about Katrina every day."
Obama's Healthcare Achievements
Ground Zero Mosque Iman
Fallout of Hate Is Spreading Across America from "Ground Zero"
Joshua Holland writes for AlterNet: "Scientists building the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos referred to the coordinates where a test device was detonated as “point zero.” When the horror of nuclear warfare was unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the term “Ground Zero” entered our lexicon. The expression has come to mean the epicenter of a catastrophic event, be it a nuclear detonation, a disease epidemic or an earthquake. It is the point from which damage spreads, whether it’s radioactive fallout or a deadly contagion."
Fire Department Blocks Florida Church's Plan To Burn Korans
Troops Punished After Refusing to Attend Evangelical Concert
Mike Ludwig reports for Truthout.org: "Pvt. Anthony Smith is the type of guy who stands up for what he believes in. That's why he decided to hold his commanding officers accountable for punishing him and fellow soldiers after they refused to attend an evangelical Christian rock concert at the Fort Eustis military post in Virginia."
The Far Edge
The New York Times writes in an editorial: "For months, it has been clear that Republican Congressional candidates would benefit from independent voters’ dissatisfaction with President Obama. With the Republican field now largely in place, all voters might want to take a close look at who those candidates are."
History Does Not Lie - Unless It Is Being Invented by Republicans
Paul Krugman writes for Truthout.org: "When you consistently irritate the hard right in the United States as I do, you quickly get used to the steady stream of accusations that you’re lying, simply because you didn’t present the facts in a way that suits the commenter. If I write, 'The economy added 236,000 jobs a month under Bill Clinton,' the responses from conservatives will range from 'That’s a lie! Krugman doesn’t mention the dot-com bubble!' to 'That’s cherry-picking! What about Jimmy Carter?'"
How Kids Really Learn
Three Pillars of a Food Revolution
Anna Lappé writes for YES! Magazine: "A few years ago, I stumbled on a United Nations study that transformed how I think about the climate crisis. In the report, researchers pegged greenhouse gases from the livestock sector at 18 percent of total global emissions. Combine this with other aspects of our food chain-from agricultural chemical production to agribusiness driven deforestation to food waste rotting in landfills-and food and agriculture sector is responsible for nearly one third of the planet's manmade emissions. Move over Hummer; it's time to say hello to the hamburger."
Study Links Pesticide to ADHD in Children
Thomas H. Maugh II reports for the Los Angeles Times: "Children with higher levels of the pesticide malathion in their urine seem to be at an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, researchers reported Monday. Several previous studies have linked neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders such as ADHD to exposure to pesticides, but generally in children of farmworkers and others exposed to abnormally high levels of the chemicals."
Egg Recall: Supplier Austin 'Jack' DeCoster Has History Of Health, Safety Violations
Gulf Oil Spill Plume Stretches 21 Miles, Not Breaking Down Much
Pete Spotts reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "A plume of oil some 700 feet thick and at least 21 miles long has been detected deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico. It originated at the Deepwater Horizon blowout and consists of hydrocarbons from the well, according to measurements released Thursday. The survey, conducted by US and Australian scientists during a 10-day research cruise in late June, represents the most detailed picture yet of undersea plumes of oil and methane from the Gulf oil spill. The researchers were surprised by the plume's relative stability as well as by an apparent lack of activity on the part of microbes to break down the oil."
Gov't Admits There's A Lot More Oil Left In The Gulf Than They Initially Said
Rachel Slajda reports for Talking Points Memo: "Earlier this month, as BP pumped cement into the ruined blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf, the government released a four-page, scant-on-details report that claimed that only a quarter of the 4.9 millions of barrels of oil was left in the Gulf. The rest, they said, had been cleaned up, evaporated or dispersed into nonexistence. And so the government essentially declared 'Mission Accomplished!' in the Gulf."
Shifting Attitudes Take Gay Rights Fight Across Globe, Experts Say
Verizon and Google Want to Kill the Open Internet -- Media Mogul Confirms Their Bad Intentions
Rep. Alan Grayson writes for AlterNet: "The Verizon-Google Net Neutrality Proposal begins by stating that "Google and Verizon have been working together to find ways to preserve the open Internet." Well, that's nice. Imagine what they would have come up with if they had been trying to kill off the open Internet. Actually, you don't have to imagine it. Because that's what this is. An effort to kill off the open Internet."
An Open Internet for All
Heads Knocking On Net Neutrality
Mike Magner writes for the National Journal: "While telecom lobbyists are brainstorming in Washington on strategies for preserving Internet openness, two members of the FCC are headed to Minnesota today to get some public input on the mushrooming issue of net neutrality. Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn were invited by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to attend a public forum in Minneapolis this evening on the future of the Internet. Franken's office pointedly noted that the hearing "comes in the wake of Google's pact with Verizon to build toll lanes on the Internet," a reference to a legislative proposal floated by the two companies last week offering an alternative to stronger FCC regulation of the Internet.
New Facebook Location Feature Sparks Privacy Concerns
Recommended Audio: Watch Obama's Net Neutrality Promises, Promises, Promises
Bianca Boske writes for the Huffington Post: "President Obama campaigned on net neutrality, and yet the White House has been surprisingly quiet on the issue since the breakdown of FCC negotiations and in the wake of Google and Verizon's joint policy proposal. By contrast, as the video below highlights, we heard a great deal about net neutrality from Senator Obama while he was on the campaign trail. Both before and after taking office, Obama repeatedly expressed his unwavering commitment to maintaining an open Internet."Tea Partiers Say Net Neutrality Hurts Freedom
Evan McMorris-Santoro writes for Talking Points Memo: "The tea party, a movement whose success on the grassroots level is in many ways attributable to the power of free and open Internet communications, is joining the growing conservative crusade against the FCC's plan to enforce net neutrality on internet service providers. According to one tea partier involved in the effort, the movement is opposing net neutrality because 'it's an affront to free speech and free markets.'"
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