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Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Regional and sectarian realities make Assad secure in Syria - Fisk – Wednesday, February 08, 2012: From The Independent
President Bashar al-Assad is not about to go. Not yet. Not, maybe, for quite a long time. Newspapers in the Middle East are filled with stories about whether or not this is Assad's "Benghazi moment" – these reports are almost invariably written from Washington or London or Paris – but few in the region understand how we Westerners can get it so wrong. The old saw has to be repeated and repeated: Egypt was not Tunisia; Bahrain was not Egypt; Yemen was not Bahrain; Libya was not Yemen. And Syria is very definitely not Libya...
URL1: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-fro...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Harper photo op at Electro Motive comes back to haunt – Tuesday, February 07, 2012: From Maclean's
Article includes photo of Harper posing for photo in locomotive cab built by now closed plant given $5 million by the federal government.
..."Conservatives gave Caterpillar $5 million. The Prime Minister was willing to use the workers as an election prop for his photo op, and now that those same workers are out on the sidewalk he just drives right by in his limousine." - Peter Julian, NDP MP...
URL1: http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/02/06/the-commons-when-photo-ops-go-wrong...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Cost of Fantino's helicopter joyride to Petawawa: $5,900 – Tuesday, February 07, 2012: From The Ottawa Citizen
...July 17, 2011, and new associate defence minister Julian Fantino travelled aboard a Griffon helicopter between Ottawa and the Canadian Forces Base in Petawawa, Ontario...
URL1: http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/02/06/fantino-takes-5900-helicopte...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Federal equalization plan is unconstitutional - study – Tuesday, February 07, 2012: From The Toronto Star
Canada’s national wealth-sharing scheme violates the Constitution with a half-baked equalization formula that shortchanges provinces like Ontario, a major new study has found...
URL1: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1126602--canada-s-wealth-sharing-p...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Harsher sentences for pot growers than for pedophiles in C-10 – Tuesday, February 07, 2012: From Winnipeg Free Press
OTTAWA - Media reports that some pot growers will face harsher mandatory-minimum sentences than child rapists under the Conservative government's new crime bill were enough to catch the attention of Prime Minister Stephen Harper...
URL1: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/harsher-sentences...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Voices from inside Homs – Tuesday, February 07, 2012: From The Independent
Syrians trapped in the besieged city feeling the wrath of Assad's brutal regime reveal the full horror of his determination to destroy his enemies...
URL1: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/voices-from-inside...
Posted by: Staff
Lawmaker office duped by The Onion's Planned Parenthood satire – Monday, February 06, 2012: By Justin Sink
Rep John Fleming (R-La) fell victim to satirical news outlet The Onion on Friday, reposting a story facetiously reporting that Planned Parenthood had announced the opening "of its long-planned $8 billion Abortionplex" on his Facebook page.
The article, which is months old, was reposted on the paper's website last week amidst controversy over the Susan G. Komen Foundation's announcement — later retracted — that it wouldn't provide grants to Planned Parenthood because it was under congressional investigation. The breast cancer charity had previously provided funding for cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics. Ensuing criticism from abortion rights and women's health advocates led to a reversal of that decision. ...
URL1: http://thehill.com/blogs/twitter-room/other-news/208859-congressman-du...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Outspoken biologist in weird feud with manufacturer over herbicide that messes with sex hormones – Monday, February 06, 2012: From Mother Jones
Darnell lives deep in the basement of a life sciences building at the University of California-Berkeley, in a plastic tub on a row of stainless steel shelves. He is an African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, sometimes called the lab rat of amphibians. Like most of his species, he's hardy and long-lived, an adept swimmer, a poor crawler, and a voracious eater. He's a good breeder, too, having produced both children and grandchildren. There is, however, one unusual thing about Darnell.
He's female...
URL1: http://motherjones.com/environment/2011/11/tyrone-hayes-atrazine-synge...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Union restrictions in WI look "modest" compared to AZ bills – Monday, February 06, 2012: Gov. Jan Brewer distanced herself on Friday from a series of Republican proposals in the Arizona Senate that could devastate organized labor in her state, saying she was never consulted on them and has other priorities...
URL1: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/brewer_distances_her...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Suu Kyi given go-ahead to run in by-election – Monday, February 06, 2012: From Al Jazeera
Burma opposition leader granted permission by electoral commission to run in April's parliamentary poll...
URL1: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/02/2012267311774421.ht...
Posted by: Staff
Caterpillar absconds with Canadian know-how – Saturday, February 04, 2012: by Martin Regg Cohn
Ask yourself this: Why did Caterpillar buy a plant only to destroy it?
The labour dispute at a London locomotive factory was nasty, brutish and short — a depressingly Hobbesian scenario in which brute strength prevailed over civilized rules of conduct.
There were no strikebreakers wielding clubs at Electro-Motive Canada, because there was no strike to break — the union was locked out on New Year’s Day. There were no replacement workers to bust the union, because the union was merely invited to slit its own wrists " by halving most wages from $34 to $16.50 an hour.
The US-based owner, multinational giant Caterpillar Inc, didn't so much humiliate 460 skilled workers as ignore them. It started and ended this negotiation with a carefully choreographed plan to pack up, shut down and leave town.
Clever multinationals — and this is one cunning Caterpillar — don't spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy a factory only to shutter it. So what was the plan?
Never mind Caterpillar's cold-hearted tactics. Its clear-eyed strategy exposes our own blindness.
The big bad Americans saw past our myopia — beyond the cash value of the plant's physical property to size up and seize the company's intellectual property: the innovation, trade secrets, manufacturing processes and R&D residing in London. ...
URL1: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1126357--cohn-how-canada-let-cater...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Whistleblowers in public service face reprisal – Saturday, February 04, 2012: From The Ottawa Citizen
Fear of retaliation preventing staff from highlighting wrongdoing
Read more:
URL1: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Whistleblowers%2Bpublic%2Bservice%2...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Cdn taxpayers left holding the bag in London plant shutdown - CLC – Friday, February 03, 2012: Georgetti says Caterpillar should be forced to seek Canadian buyer
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 3, 2012) - The President of the Canadian Labour Congress says the federal government should force Caterpillar Inc. to put its London, Ontario diesel assembly plant up for sale to a Canadian buyer to keep jobs in this country.
Georgetti was commenting on an announcement by the U.S.-based Caterpillar that it will close its Electro-Motive Canada plant rather than negotiate a new contract with 450 workers who the company locked out on January 1st. "This is corporate thuggery and Caterpillar should not be allowed to get away with it," Georgetti says.
In 2010, the federal government approved Caterpillar's purchase of Electro-Motive through its wholly-owned subsidiary Progress Rail Services. The approval came under the Investment Canada Act. "The Investment Canada Act says these sales must be of net benefit to Canada," Georgetti says. "It is of no benefit when Caterpillar buys a plant only to close it down."
Caterpillar recently reported record revenues but the company demanded concessions from its London workers that would have seen their wages reduced by up to 50 per cent. The workers were locked out and now the company has announced that it will close the plant.
In 2008 Electro-Motive benefited from tax measures from the Harper government estimated to be worth $5 million. "Once again Canadian workers and taxpayers are left holding the bag," Georgetti says. "This is a ripoff and Ottawa should demand its money back."
The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.3 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada's national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils. Website: www.canadianlabour.ca. Follow us on Twitter: @CanadianLabour
Posted by: Staff
Planned Parenthood donations soar after Komen announcement – Friday, February 03, 2012: from The Young Turks
"Donations have poured into Planned Parenthood after Susan G Komen for the Cure, the largest and best-funded breast cancer organization in the United States, withdrew its funding on Tuesday...".* Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss on The Young Turks
URL1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw5iSCa-pPk&feature=share
URL2: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungTurks
Posted by: Staff
US won't back Israeli attack on Iran: General – Friday, February 03, 2012: by Gareth Porter
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told Israeli leaders January 20 that the United States would not participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel without prior agreement from Washington, according to accounts from well-placed senior military officers.
Dempsey's warning, conveyed to both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, represents the strongest move yet by President Barack Obama to deter an Israeli attack and ensure that the United States is not caught up in a regional conflagration with Iran.
But the Israeli government remains defiant about maintaining its freedom of action to make war on Iran, and it is counting on the influence of right-wing extremist views in U.S. politics to bring pressure to bear on Obama to fall into line with a possible Israeli attack during the election campaign this fall. ...
URL1: http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2012/02/01/dempsey-told-israelis-us...
Posted by: Staff
Study links low intelligence with right-wing beliefs – Friday, February 03, 2012: by Wency Leung
Researchers have found a possible explanation for why certain people are prejudiced: they're less intelligent.
Children with lower general intelligence are more likely to become prejudiced as adults, according to a Brock University study.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, examined data from two large-scale British studies, and found lower intelligence scores in childhood were predictors of greater racism in adulthood, which the researchers controversially explain is brought about by adopting right-wing ideologies.
A secondary analysis of data from a US study also showed those with poor abstract-reasoning skills were more likely to have anti-homosexual prejudice, partially linked to authoritarian attitudes.
Lead researcher Gordon Hodson told LiveScience that the results of the study indicate a vicious cycle, in which people with low intelligence are drawn to socially conservative ideologies. In turn, those ideologies can contribute to prejudices. ...
URL1: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/study-links-low-int...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Breaking the silence over Hama atrocities – Friday, February 03, 2012: From Al Jazeera
Witnesses of the bloody events in the Syrian city in 1982 speak as protests force open the veil of fear and secrecy...
URL1: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/02/20122232155715210.ht...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Right wingers force US breast cancer charity Komen to drop Planned Parenthood funding – Friday, February 03, 2012: From Democracy Now
The nation's leading breast cancer charity is under intense scrutiny for its decision to cut off funding for breast cancer screening programs run by Planned Parenthood.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure has confirmed it is withdrawing support for 19 of Planned Parenthood’s 83 affiliates, citing a new policy barring funding for any groups under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. Planned Parenthood’s finances are currently the subject of a probe led by anti-abortion Republican Rep Cliff Stearns of Florida.
"If you look at all the government reports which have already been done on Planned Parenthood, they're completely cleared of any of the charges that Cliff Stearns claims he’s looking for. So this is a witch hunt," says Jodi Jacobson, the editor-in-chief of RH Reality Check, who recently wrote the article, "The Cancerous Politics and Ideology of the Susan G Komen Foundation.
" We also speak with Patrick Hurd, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia and a recipient of a 2010 grant from Komen, and his wife, Betsi Hurd, who has participated in several Komen fundraising events and is currently battling breast cancer. "This isn't about fundraising," says Patrick Hurd. "This is about making sure that we provide access to women, that we continue to provide education to women, that we continue to serve the women in the communities where Planned Parenthoods are located." ...
URL1: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/2/after_right_wing_campaign_leading...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
"Gasland" director arrested at Congressional fracking hearing – Friday, February 03, 2012: From Democracy Now
The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox was handcuffed and arrested Wednesday as he attempted to film a congressional hearing on the controversial natural gas drilling technique known as fracking, which the Environmental Protection Agency recently reported caused water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming. Fox directed the award-winning film, "Gasland," which documents the impact of fracking on communities across the United States, and is now working on a sequel. Fox says he was arrested after Republicans refused to allow him to film because he did not have the proper credentials. "We wanted to report on what happened [at the hearing]. I was not interested in disrupting that hearing. It was not a protest action," says Fox. "I was simply trying to do my job as a journalist and go in there and show to the American people what was transpiring in that hearing, so that down the line, as we know there will be a lot of challenges mounted to that [Pavillion, Wyoming] EPA report—and frankly, to the people in Pavillion, who have been sticking up for themselves and demanding an investigation into the groundwater contamination—and to make sure that people could view that in a larger forum than usually happens."
URL1: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/2/gasland_director_josh_fox_arreste...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Northern Gateway will create oil 'price shock,' hurt Cdn economy - report – Friday, February 03, 2012: From Edmonton Journal
Former ICBC boss says predicted rise in cost of oil serious risk to economy...
URL1: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Report%2Bsays%2BNorthern%2BGat...
Posted by: Staff
Asbestos exporter Roshi Chadha takes leave from McGill, St. Mary's Hospital – Thursday, February 02, 2012: MONTREAL - Asbestos exporter Roshi Chadha announced Wednesday she is taking a leave of absence from her positions on McGill University's board of governors and on the St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation’s board of directors, in response to pressure from anti-asbestos activists.
"While a great deal of support has been expressed, I do not want the focus of these important causes to be distracted or diluted by issues that are unrelated to them," Chadha said in a written statement released by her spokesperson, John Aylen.
The move follows Chadha's resignation from the governing body of the Canadian Red Cross just over two weeks ago.
Chadha is a director with an export company called Seja Trade Ltd., which exported asbestos from the Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos to developing countries for many years, until the mine suspended operations last fall. ...
Read more at URL below:
URL1: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Asbestos+exporter+Roshi+Chadha+ta...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Feds posed as immigrants in Sun Media photo op – Thursday, February 02, 2012: From The Globe and Mail
URL1: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/federal-bureaucrats-posed...
Posted by: Staff
Federal bureaucrats posed as "new Canadians" for Sun News event – Thursday, February 02, 2012: by Jennifer Ditchburn
Six federal bureaucrats were drafted to pose as new Canadians for a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony broadcast on the Sun News network, an event requested by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's office.
The bureaucrats smiled and held Canadian flags as the TV hosts referred to a group of 10 people as "new Canadians" that had "finally" received their citizenship. ...
URL1: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/federal-bureaucrats-posed...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Israel Police is committing crimes against the people – Thursday, February 02, 2012: From Haaratz
Citizens should be allowed to try the police officers who broke the law, pass the findings on to the State Prosecution and investigate the police and ensure it listens to the people and protects their life and property...
URL1: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-police-is-committi...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Assange makes last legal stand – Thursday, February 02, 2012: From The Guardian
WikiLeaks founder enters final stage of battle to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sex allegations...
URL1: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2012/feb/01/julian-assange-extrad...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Feds should've made information on gun registry available during debates on C-19 - NDP – Thursday, February 02, 2012: From The Hill Times
"He can't hide behind the fact, making arguments about dates for this and dates for that. This is a live issue before Parliament. The information should have been made available,' says NDP MP Jack Harris about the delay of making a report on the long-gun registry public....
URL1: http://www.hilltimes.com/news/politics/2012/02/01/feds-shouldve-made-i...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Gateway pipeline unsustainable - oil workers' union – Wednesday, February 01, 2012: OTTAWA -- In its submission to the National Energy Board, Canada’s largest energy union says the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline is being built to export more bitumen than we could even produce by 2025...
URL1: http://cep.ca/en/news/media-releases/gateway-pipeline-unsustainable-en...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Writers ditch Huff Post Quebec, protest working for free – Wednesday, February 01, 2012: From PostmediaNews
MONTREAL — A week before launch, Huffington Post Quebec has lost at least nine high-profile contributors — intellectuals, leftist activists and politicians — who'd agreed to blog but have now pulled out over concerns they'd be writing for free...
URL1: http://www.canada.com/news/Leaving+Huff+Huffington+writers+work+free/6...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Govt research disproves Harper's claims on OAS – Tuesday, January 31, 2012: From The Globe and Mail
Expert advice commissioned by the federal government contradicts warnings from Stephen Harper that Canada cannot afford the looming bill for Old Age Security payments...
URL1: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/research-belies-pms-warni...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
US says Assad's fall 'inevitable' – Tuesday, January 31, 2012: From Al Jazeera
White House says Syria's leadership has lost control of the country, as Western and Arab nations push for UN resolution...
URL1: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/01/201213144956880720.ht...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Japan's population to fall by third in 50 years – Tuesday, January 31, 2012: From The Independent
Unprecedented threat to economy, healthcare and culture as numbers plummet by 41 million...
URL1: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japans-population-to-fall...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
CUPW victory: federal court throws out govt-appointed arbitrator – Monday, January 30, 2012: OTTAWA January 27, 2012 – The union representing the majority of postal workers across the country has notched up another win in its battle against the Harper government’s back-to-work legislation of last summer.
A federal court in Montreal has overturned Minister of Labour Lisa Raitt’s appointment of retired judge Coulter Osbourne to arbitrate the labour dispute and ordered Raitt to appoint a bilingual arbitrator with labour relations experience. Osbourne, a unilingual judge with no previous labour experience, resigned in November; had he not done so, this decision, handed down by Judge Martineau, would have cancelled his appointment. In a prior victory, the courts ordered a stay of arbitration proceedings until this matter could be settled.
"The courts are recognizing the injustice of Harper’s treatment of working people," said Denis Lemelin, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. In June 2011, thousands of urban postal workers went on rotating strikes and were then locked out in a massive shutdown of the country’s postal system by Canada Post management.
The Conservatives used the shutdown to legislate the postal workers back-to-work, imposing punitive measures that blatantly tipped the scale in favour of their employer. The CUPW is challenging the back-to-work legislation as unjust interference in free collective bargaining. "We'll continue to fight this government's attack on workers using all the means at our disposal," said Lemelin.
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Freddie Mac bets against American homeowners – Monday, January 30, 2012: From ProPublica.org
Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, has placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates...
URL1: http://www.propublica.org/article/freddy-mac-mortgage-eisinger-arnold
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Investigate privacy breaches at Veterans' Affairs - NDP – Monday, January 30, 2012: OTTAWA – In light of more revelations of privacy breaches at Veterans Affairs, Official Opposition Critic for Veterans Peter Stoffer (Sackville—Eastern Shore) has again called for an inquiry into the department.
"More veterans' advocates have come forward with documents that demonstrate the Department has violated their privacy and that briefing notes were prepared for use by the previous Minister and his staff. It's time for a full public inquiry into how this Department handles veterans' records.
"My constituent, Dennis Manuge, is now posting documents online that he uncovered through an Access to Information Request," said Stoffer. "It is shocking to see that departmental staff prepared a briefing note for the Minister with information related to his pensioned conditions and advocacy work, just because the veteran wished to join a local client advisory committee."
"It boggles the mind that with over 215,000 clients to serve, the department is spending a lot of its time preparing briefing notes for the Minister on certain veterans. Why? The whole thing seems Orwellian."
Stoffer noted that the audit being completed by the Privacy Commissioners’ office into how Veterans Affairs Canada handles its clients’ privacy protection cannot come soon enough.
"The Minister said he took action over a year ago to strengthen controls for veterans' privacy but these revelations really cloud his commitment. I call on the department to get to the bottom of this issue now and launch an inquiry into departmental procedures and practices."
Posted by: Staff
Advertisers' dream — your digital fingerprint on Google – Monday, January 30, 2012: By Sara Marie Watson for The Atlantic
Search, browser, email. These are the most essential tools of an Internet-connected life, and for many of us, Google offers the best of breed. Aside from sharing a common log-in, it hasn't been clear how complete Google's consolidated view of any given user might be across its suite of products — until yesterday. Now it is patently clear: Going forward, Google is compiling its user data across all of its products, resulting in an omniscient, informed, one-true profile of you, all in the name of serving you more relevant information — and, of course, ads. ...
URL1: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/use-google-time-...
Posted by: Staff
How Swedes and Norwegians broke the power of the "1 percent" – Sunday, January 29, 2012: by George Lakey
While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it's worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They "fired" the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different.
Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn't find oil, but that didn't stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls "an enviable standard of living."
Neither country is a utopia, as readers of the crime novels by Stieg Larsson, Kurt Wallender and Jo Nesbro will know. Critical left-wing authors such as these try to push Sweden and Norway to continue on the path toward more fully just societies. However, as an American activist who first encountered Norway as a student in 1959 and learned some of its language and culture, the achievements I found amazed me. I remember, for example, bicycling for hours through a small industrial city, looking in vain for substandard housing. Sometimes resisting the evidence of my eyes, I made up stories that "accounted for" the differences I saw: "small country," "homogeneous," "a value consensus." I finally gave up imposing my frameworks on these countries and learned the real reason: their own [labour] histories. ...
URL1: http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/01/how-swedes-and-norwegians-broke-t...
Posted by: Staff
Occupy Wall Street builds momentum for spring resurgence – Saturday, January 28, 2012: from Occupy Wall Street
NEW YORK — January 26 — Early Wednesday morning, nearly two dozen occupiers boarded a 24 seat conversion bus in Brooklyn. For the next five weeks, members of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) from New York City will be touring the Northeast to connect with other occupations. "Interoccupy communications and face to face community building is a key step in growing solidarity in a global movement,— says Austin Guest, member of the OWS Direct Action group. At each stop along the trip, occupiers will share skills and knowledge with each other. By building relationships between occupations, occupiers are setting the stage for nationally coordinated actions. The Occutrip will touch base in 16 northeastern cities including Providence, Boston, Albany, Buffalo, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, and Newark. Overall, 80 members of OWS are expected to participate. To follow the trip visit the Occupy Bus Trip Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Wall-Street-Bus-Trip/155444994569669 ###
Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to more than 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally.
URL1: http://occupywallst.org
Posted by: Staff
How Fox News is destroying the Republican party – Saturday, January 28, 2012: by Eric Boehlert
Wannabe kingmaker Roger Ailes is facing an open revolt.
More and more despondent conservatives are expressing alarm over the unfolding Republican primary season and what they see as the party's dwindling chances of defeating President Obama in November. Spooked at the general elections prospects facing frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich (especially Gingrich), members of the so-called Republican Establishment seem to want to reboot the election season and try their nominating luck again.
Sorry, it's too late.
If the current state of concern transforms into a larger, enveloping blame game, Fox News chairman Ailes ought be a looming target. True, conservatives in recent years have shown virtually no interest in critiquing, let alone trying to reign in, Ailes' empire. Still, it's becoming increasingly clear that Fox's programming and the radical, fear-based agenda it's setting for Republicans is now doing lasting damage to the Grand Old Party.
That's because Fox News isn't simply offering a rightward take on the day's events, or innocently providing Republican-friendly commentary, of course. It's leading an exhausting, day-in, day-out attack campaign against Obama, Democrats and all their liberal allies. (Real or imagined.) Its relentless, paranoid crusade falls well outside the mainstream of American politics, which is why the Republican primary season, so proudly sponsored by Fox News, is shaping up to be such an embarrassment. ...
URL1: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201201260009
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Dow and Monsanto team up on the mother of all herbicide marketing plans – Friday, January 27, 2012: From Mother Jones
During the late December media lull, the USDA didn't satisfy itself with green-lighting Monsanto's useless, PR-centric "drought-tolerant" corn. It also prepped the way for approving a product from Monsanto's rival Dow Agrosciences—one that industrial-scale corn farmers will likely find all too useful...
URL1: http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/01/dows-new-gmo-seed-puts-us-...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Apple supply chain exposed – Friday, January 27, 2012: From Mother Jones
App tells where your phone's electronic components really came from....
URL1: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/01/apple-factories-ipad-labor
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Perestroika - 25 years later – Friday, January 27, 2012: From RT News
It is 25 years since Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the USSR and the world to perestroika, or restructuring. His attempt to breathe fresh air into a stale system which later fell apart, still draws an ambiguous response from Russians today...
URL1: http://rt.com/news/soviet-union-gorbachev-perestroika-799/
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Twitter to enable country-specific censorship – Friday, January 27, 2012: From Al Jazeera
Micro-blogging service unveils shift in policy as it seeks to expand into new territories and expand its user base...
URL1: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/01/201212755630649123.html
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Arab states plan move away from US dollar - Fisk – Friday, January 27, 2012: By Robert Fisk, Independent UK
26 January 12
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning - along with China, Russia, Japan and France - to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar....
URL1: http://www.readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/9635-focus-the...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Prisoners being tortured in Libya - UN – Thursday, January 26, 2012: From Al Jazeera
Human-rights chief Navi Pillay "extremely concerned" about detainees accused by fighters of being Gaddafi loyalists...
URL1: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/2012126601863986.html
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Google to track users... like never before – Thursday, January 26, 2012: From RT News
In a move that has triggered outrage, Google has announced plans to bring all data collected from users’ separate accounts on its sites into a combined profile. Besides raising dubious questions about privacy, this offer is one you… cannot refuse.
URL1: http://rt.com/news/google-privacy-policy-tracking-671/
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world - Davos chair – Thursday, January 26, 2012: From CBC News
The deep snow in Davos this year is no surprise — but the deep doubts about capitalism certainly are. What is Stephen Harper getting himself into?
URL1: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/01/25/pol-vp-milewski-davos...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Top bureaucrat contradicts Clement pver G8 pork-barrel contracts – Tuesday, January 24, 2012: From The Globe and Mail
A senior federal bureaucrat has contradicted Tony Clement's insistence that he was not involved in dividing a $50-million fund to spruce up his riding before the 2010 G8 summit...
URL1: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ndp-calls-on-clement-to-t...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Shannen's Dream is now a powerful movement, led by children and for children – Tuesday, January 24, 2012: From netnewsledger.com
ATTAWAPISKAT – “Shannen’s Dream is now a powerful movement, led by children and for children,” shares Chelsea Jane Edwards. The United Nations will hear about Shannen’s Dream from the Grade 11 student from Attawapiskat. Chelsea leaves from the First Nations community on James Bay on February 1st. She is headed out of the community to continue her education. As well she will make a speech to the United Nations in Geneva, she leaves on her journey to Switzerland on Febrary 3rd...
URL1: http://netnewsledger.com/2012/01/23/shannens-dream-is-now-a-powerful-m...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Escape Fire: The fight to rescue American health care – Tuesday, January 24, 2012: From Democracy Now
As the Republican presidential candidates propose to dismantle President Obama’s 2010 healthcare reform package, we speak to Dr. Steven Nissen, one of the nation’s leading cardiologists. His research into Vioxx and Avandia led to severe restrictions by the Food and Drug Administration, reducing the use of both drugs. Nissen is profiled in the documentary, "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare," which is being featured this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film tackles the powerful forces behind the battle over heathcare costs and access. "Healthcare has become such a huge business that the forces that don’t want change—the insurance industry, the hospital industry, even physician professional societies—have so aligned to keep the system as it is that it’s very hard to overcome that," said Dr. Nissen, who chairs the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. "My fear in this election, because of the Citizens United ruling, is massive amounts of money from people with a huge stake in making a profit from healthcare are going to influence the electorate with just an amazing amount of money."...
URL1: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/23/medical_whistleblower_dr_steven_...
Posted by: Ish Theilheimer
Romney tax returns show $45 million 2-year income – Tuesday, January 24, 2012: From The New York Times
Mitt Romney’s campaign released details of his federal tax returns on Tuesday morning, showing that he will most likely pay $6.2 million in taxes on $45 million in income over the two tax years of 2010 and 2011...
URL1: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/romney-tax-returns-to-gi...
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