Don't forget to go to dustcircle.com and VOTE for which book we'll be giving away in December. There's also a Donation button, if you're inclined to give toward this site. Also, have you written a book? We'd like to read and review it. :)
How Super PACs Mutated the 2012 Election
American democracy's downhill slide continued in 2012.
Climate Change: Food Crisis And Future Hunger Wars In a recent post I wrote about Overpopulation: Food Crisis and future Hunger Wars. The article focused on the impact of the population explosion on food supplies – will there be enough food for a population of 9 billion in 2050? There are many interrelated and complex factors affecting worldwide food production. Climate change is singularly the most critical factor. http://www.countercurrents.org/montpellier091112.htm
Why are Sandy victims waiting for help?
Danny Katch describes the failure of official relief operations following Hurricane Sandy--and the grassroots infrastructure that has sprung up to try to fill the vacuum. http://socialistworker.org/2012/11/08/why-are-sandy-victims-waiting
Iran Fired On U.S. Drone Because It Violated Airspace, Says Iranian Official
A prominent Iranian parliament member said Friday that a U.S. drone violated Iran's airspace a week ago, when the Pentagon says it was fired on. The U.S. maintains the pilotless craft was over international waters.
American Muslims celebrate defeat of congressional critics
(RNS) American Muslims are celebrating the ouster of two congressmen known for their anti-Islamic rhetoric, and heralding the outcomes as a sign that Muslim voters, at least in some districts, are a political force to be reckoned with.
E-books are tracking your reading habits More and more people are reading e-books - most of them on the train or the bus. But few readers realize that e-book providers know more about them than they think. http://www.dw.de/e-books-are-tracking-your-reading-habits/a-16352783
Obama's second term filled with challenges at home and abroad
The immediate priority is the fiscal cliff facing the the US. Faced with gridlock in Washington, the debt ceiling talks almost 18 months ago invoked an assurance for reducing the national debt and deficit. In order to raise the debt ceiling, the opposing parties agreed to sequestration of a $1 trillion across the board cut, half of which would come from defense spending.
FAIR's new alert takes aim at the Sunday morning chat shows (Meet the Press, This Week, Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday) for ignoring climate change this weekend– right after "superstorm" Sandy devastated the East Coast.
The attempts at voter suppression turned out to be no match for civil-rights lawyers and grassroots volunteers. But that hardly means the fight is over.
With a more than comfortable margin of 332 to 206 electoral votes, President Barack Obama held onto office last Tuesday. Now the big question for foreign policy is whether Legacy Obama will be a bolder advocate for peace than the disappointing Campaign Obama.
Yes, Companies Are Harvesting and Selling Your Facebook Profile
Yesterday, we got a rare look at how information on your public social media profiles—including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn—is being harvested and resold by large consumer data companies.
Hugo Chavez to Obama: Stop Invading Countries, Focus on Your Country's Social Woes
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez on Thursday urged newly re-elected President Obama to "stop invading" other countries and "think about his own country" which suffers from social and economic problems.
Yes We Can, We Did, and Now Obama’s Second Term Is Our Responsibility
Yes, election night was a heck of a party and it’s great that the really bad guys lost. Karl Rove and his reactionary ilk were defeated by a new American majority that is younger, more tolerant, rainbow colored and multilingual and one in which women now trump the depressing ignorance of so many older white men. But morning in America already feels too much like a hangover. The house is still a wreck, the family is dysfunctional and there are enormous bills to pay that are not about to go away.
Elizabeth Warren Could Tackle Wall Street Through Senate Banking Seat
Newly elected Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose career and recent campaign incorporated a vigorous critique of Wall Street misdeeds and power in Washington, stands a good chance of securing a seat on the Senate Banking Committee, according to Senior Senate Democratic aides who spoke anonymously to Reuters.
The Supreme Court announced Friday that it would decide whether an historic portion of the Voting Rights Act protecting against racial discrimination is constitutional.
An important lesson that politicians can learn from the American election "The Religious Right is dead" announced the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday morning after the defeat of the Republican Party in the US election. The headline was over a blog by the paper's rather wacky blogs editor Damian Thompson, but Mr Thompson seems to be first to have acknowledged that for all the hype about the power and influence of America's religious conservatives, in the end they failed dismally to swing the election. http://www.secularism.org.uk/blog/2012/11/an-important-lesson-that-politicians-can-learn-from-the-american-election
Who Is Watching You? Drones Used To Track Crime, Weather
We call on Pakistan to agree a plan to deliver education for every child. We call on all countries to outlaw discrimination against girls. We call on international organizations to ensure the world’s 61 million out of school children are in education by the end of 2015.
Don't forget to go to dustcircle.com and VOTE for which book we'll be giving away in December. There's also a Donation button, if you're inclined to give toward this site. Also, have you written a book? We'd like to read and review it. :)
How Obama Won Four More Years
He became a street fighter. And he had a better team that ran a first-rate campaign.
POST-ELECTION ANALYSIS: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN FOR HUMANISTS?
This election cycle was an important one for nonreligious Americans, not only because we faced two candidates and parties that have drastically different positions on church-state separation issues, but also because we are starting to be recognized as an important voting bloc. We now make up 20% of the population, and the media is beginning to figure out just how politically powerful we are. Nonreligious Americans should expect in the near future to be courted by candidates for elected office in the same manner that many religious voters are. http://www.americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2012-11-post-election-analysis-what-does-it-all-mean-for-hum
DISSING DEMOCRACY: NO MORE “WE THE PEOPLE”
For the United States, the drive to spread democracy can be traced at least as far back as the 19th century’s concept ofManifest Destiny which was used to try and justify the country's growth across the hemisphere, grabbing land while killing and displacing people with little, if any, remorse. Even the United Nations tells the world that “democracy is a universally recognized ideal” and is one of its “core values.” In the wake of World War II, the UN adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 which stated “the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government.” Driven by the example and the power of the United States, democratic forms of government naturally grew in popularity and have continued to be seen by some as so virtuous that we will use itas ajustification for war. http://www.americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2012-11-dissing-democracy-no-more-we-the-people
Why We Should All Be Talking About Global Sharing
Today, it seems that the idea of sharing is being discussed in almost any context except the political economy. This may be understandable, but if we're serious about ending poverty and healing the environment perhaps it's about time that we all start talking about global sharing http://www.countercurrents.org/parsons071112.htm
The Great Transition, Part I: From Fossil Fuels To Renewable Energy
CNN is publishing the exit polls, which provide some early information on the religious makeup of the electorate in the criticals states. Note that voters who were in line as polls closed are still voting, so final results, and final exits, are still some time off.
40 Thousand Homeless as Second Storm Descends on Northeast
As a new storm barrels up the east coast, relief efforts scramble to secure heat and housing for over tens of thousands of people left homeless after Hurricane Sandy.
he vitriol is worse than I ever recall. Worse than the Palin-induced smarm pf 2008. Worse than the swift-boat lies of 2004. Worse, even, than the anything-goes craziness of 2000 and its ensuing bitterness.
Big Agriculture Bankrolls Defeat of California's Proposition 37
California's landmark Proposition 37 was soundly and sadly defeated on Tuesday by corporate interests and big money politics. As of Wednesday morning, with more than 94 percent of the precincts reporting, news outlets reported that the measure has been rejected.
President Obama may soon face a three-headed monster. Though a tepid recovery is underway in the United States, unemployment remains high and some of the tools used to promote recovery carry significant risks of their own. Worse still, the specter of a Eurozone bankruptcy haunts the world economy. Finally a Eurozone collapse itself may trigger the worst political crises since the height of the Cold War. On both sides of the Atlantic, political leaders are beholden to investment bankers, who in turn are operating in a predatory fashion.
ACLU urges Obama to close Guantanamo, ground drones
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/07/4394103/aclu-urges-obama-to-close-guantanamo.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy
The American Civil Liberties Union chief congratulated President Barack Obama, and in the same breath early Wednesday called on him to make good on his first-term promise to shut down the prison camps at Guantánamo.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/07/4394103/aclu-urges-obama-to-close-guantanamo.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy
The American Civil Liberties Union chief congratulated President Barack Obama, and in the same breath early Wednesday called on him to make good on his first-term promise to shut down the prison camps at Guantánamo.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/07/4394103/aclu-urges-obama-to-close-guantanamo.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy
The Lesser Evil Won, Now Get to Work, Set an Intention and Deal with The Cancer On Democracy We Are Living WithIt's not all your fault, having participated in the process. It's a dirty, ugly, broken system. Now, famous people, like Churchill, have made remarks, like, "it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." The problem is, there are all kinds of flavors of democracy. The system in the US is over 200 years old. The US constitution used to be the one other nations imitated. But that's no longer the case. It is archaic and worse, it has been enfeebled, corrupted and diseased-- malignant with corporatist cancer. http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Lesser-Evil-Won-Now-G-by-Rob-Kall-121107-239.html
Proposition 37 appears to have failed in California, but GMO labeling awareness achieves victory Proposition 37 appears to have failed at the ballot box in California, according to the California Secretary of State ballot measures results. The GMO labeling ballot measure, which would have required food companies to label the GM content of foods, was defeated with the use of over $45 million in fraudulent advertising and dirty tricks funded by Monsanto, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Kellogg, General Mills, DuPont, Bayer and other food and pesticide companies. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Proposition-37-appears-to-by-Mike-Adams-121107-875.html
Even a single night in jail is enough to give a taste of what it means to be under the total control of some external force. And it hardly takes more than a day in Gaza to begin to appreciate what it must be like to try to survive in the world’s largest open-air prison, where a million and a half people, in the most densely populated area of the world, are constantly subject to random and often savage terror and arbitrary punishment, with no purpose other than to humiliate and degrade, and with the further goal of ensuring that Palestinian hopes for a decent future will be crushed and that the overwhelming global support for a diplomatic settlement that will grant these rights will be nullified.
The Morning After: Nation Spends $2.5 Billion on Nothing
NEWS ANALYSIS (The Borowitz Report)—One day after the costliest Presidential election in U.S. history, Americans awoke to the ugly realization that the nation had spent $2.5 billion with absolutely nothing to show for it. “Four years ago, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, and that is still the case,” says Professor Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota. “The only difference is that we as a nation are out $2.5 billion.”
The Permanent Militarization of America Like all institutions, the military works to enhance its public image, but this is just one element of militarization. Most of the political discourse on military matters comes from civilians, who are more vocal about “supporting our troops” than the troops themselves. It doesn’t help that there are fewer veterans in Congress today than at any previous point since World War II. Those who have served are less likely to offer unvarnished praise for the military, for it, like all institutions, has its own frustrations and failings. But for non-veterans — including about four-fifths of all members of Congress — there is only unequivocal, unhesitating adulation. The political costs of anything else are just too high. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32957.htm
Yes, election night was a heck of a party and it’s great that the really bad guys lost. Karl Rove and his reactionary ilk were defeated by a new American majority that is younger, more tolerant, rainbow colored and multilingual and one in which women now trump the depressing ignorance of so many older white men. But morning in America already feels too much like a hangover. The house is still a wreck, the family is dysfunctional and there are enormous bills to pay that are not about to go away.
Voting Rights Act To Go Before Supreme Court
