08.Dec.2012 - Police State Laboratory, Housing Crisis, Fast Food Strike, Palestine and the Intifada, Speechless in Gaza, Big Media Shouldn't Get Bigger, NO to Drones, Stop Those Israeli Settlements, Global Warming Failure, Another Drone Captured, Manning Treatment a Blemish on America's History, Are Nativity Displays Constitutional? (and much more!) PLUS: "Coca-Cola Case" Documentary

Police State Laboratory

One victim among many more
Danny Katch talked to Rockaways resident Kizzy Parsons about the hardships she and her children have had to endure in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
http://socialistworker.org/2012/12/05/one-victim-among-many-more

Making an affordable housing crisis worse
Don Lash looks at the impact of the Sandy disaster on New York's public housing.
http://socialistworker.org/2012/12/04/making-a-housing-crisis-worse

Striking the fast-food giants
Peter Rugh reports from New York City on a day of walkouts at fast-food restaurants--another step in what organizers call the largest union drive in fast-food history.
http://socialistworker.org/2012/12/03/striking-the-fast-food-giants

Palestine and the Intifada
Anthony Arnove, author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, tells the story of the Palestinian uprising that shook Middle East politics starting 25 years ago this month.
http://socialistworker.org/2012/12/06/palestine-and-the-intifada

An Economy That Works for the Middle Class Won’t Happen on Its Own

A vital goal of economic policy should be to raise the living standards of the millions of American households who have seen their wages and living standards stagnate or decline over the last few decades. Fundamental to this is an economy that produces good, well-paying jobs. The biggest obstacle to this, currently, is the jobs crisis driven by a shortfall in aggregate demand. Additional factors though, written into our current policies, mean that even when the economy does recover, there is no reason to believe that the jobs it produces will actually be well-paying jobs.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/06-4

Speechless in Gaza

Gazans in the medical field have been working in unimaginable circumstances for years.  During Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, “17 health personnel were killed and 26 injured. In total, 29 ambulances were damaged or destroyed by bombs or crushed by armoured vehicles, while 48 per cent of Gaza’s 122 health facilities were either directly or indirectly hit by shelling.” 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/06-1

A Letter To Chevron’s CEO:
Your Business Is Creating A Climate ‘Incompatible With An Organized Global Community’

From: David Fenton
To: John Watson, CEO of Chevron

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/06-2

Bernie Sanders on Why Big Media Shouldn’t Get Bigger

Watch the full interview this weekend on Moyers & Company. Click here to find show times and channels in your area.

Sleeping Giant Says No To Crowd Control Drones

Coal Export Threatens the Northwest

How Obama Could Stop Those Israeli Settlements
Olmert may be overstating things, but not by much. Certainly Netanyahu's settlement surprise isn't the show of gratitude Obama had reason to expect after the US voted with Israel against Palestine's bid for nonmember observer status at the UN--a bid so reasonable and innocuous that Israel and the US, in opposing it, were in a minority of 9 out of 147 voting nations. And some of those 9 were on our side only because of American arm twisting.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33240.htm

U.S. Failure To Act Swiftly On Global Warming Imperils The U.S. And The World
http://www.countercurrents.org/ross061212.htm

Another Drone Captured: Washington Feels Trepid
http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari061212.htm

Israel And Palestine: Man In Search Of Humanity
http://www.countercurrents.org/khawaja051212.htm

‘Meshnet’ the new ‘parallel Internet’? Or are more extreme measures needed?

Israel’s Lesson to Palestinians: Build More Rockets?
“We want them to know that when they attack us mercilessly, when they treat us like animals, we will fight back,” says one young Palestinian.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/israels-lesson-palestinians-build-more-rockets

Bradley Manning Lawyer: Soldier's Treatment a Blemish on Nation's History

avid Coombs, the civilian lawyer representing Bradley Manning at his court martial for supplying WikiLeaks with a trove of US state secrets, has described the soldier's treatment in solitary confinement at Quantico marine base as criminal and a blot on the nation's history.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/323-95/14865-bradley-manning-lawyer-soldiers-treatment-a-blemish-on-nations-history

ARE NATIVITY DISPLAYS CONSTITUTIONAL?
Although the First Amendment forbids the government from establishing religion, once again this holiday season, cities and counties across the country will be displaying nativity scenes to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on government property. Nativity scenes (also known as crèches) have no place on government property. Indeed, the Supreme Court has held that stand-alone religious holiday displays violate the Establishment Clause. That much is clear.

http://www.americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2012-12-are-nativity-displays-constitutional

Elizabeth Warren Finally Gets Her Shot to Fight Wall Street, Head-On

fter making her name defending the little guy from the greedy clutches of Wall Street's worst villains, Elizabeth Warren will finally have the chance to grill the country's top bankers face-to-face. The new Senator-elect from Massachusetts will get a seat on the Senate Banking Committee after all,reports Ryan Grim at The Huffington Post. Warren served as a civilian on Congress' TARP oversight panel, but was denied the chance to be the first director of the agency she created-the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-because her nomination wasn't going to make it through the Senate. Now she'll be the one blocking appointments and scolding witnesses from the other side of the hearing room once the new Congressional term begins in January.

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/14867-elizabeth-warren-finally-gets-her-shot-to-fight-wall-street-head-on

G4S equips the apartheid wall, Israel confirms

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/g4s-equips-apartheid-wall-israel-confirms

Too Embarrassing For Fox News

Tensions mount as UN climate talks near end

A Sign That Obama Will Repeat Economic Mistakes

A woman who would be an excellent choice as the most experienced as well as principled candidate to head the SEC or Treasury is Sheila Bair, former head of the FDIC, who labored to protect consumers rather than undermine them. Indeed, her outstanding book “Bull by the Horns,” chronicling her fight in the last two administrations to hold the banksters accountable, should be required reading for the president and those who are advising him on selecting his new economic team. 

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_sign_that_obama_will_repeat_economic_mistakes_20121207/

Fox News Host Tells Female Victims of Violence to ‘Make Better Decisions’

Former Bush administration White House press secretary Dana Perino has some advice for female victims of violence: In order to avoid getting hurt, “make better decisions.” The co-host of Fox News’ “The Five” made the eyebrow-raising, victim-blaming remark Wednesday during a segment about Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Javon Belcher, the NFL player who allegedly murdered his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, before driving to Arrowhead Stadium and killing himself last weekend.

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/fox_news_host_tells_female_victims_of_violence_to_make_better_decision_2012/

New study of blasphemy law around the world
According to a Pew Forum study released last week, eight out of 45 European countries have blasphemy laws on their books while 35 of them have laws against the defamation of religion in general or hate speech against members of a faith. The eight countries with blasphemy laws are Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Poland. A blasphemy law in England and Wales was scrapped in 2008.
http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2012/12/new-study-of-blasphemy-law-around-the-world

Israeli Soldiers Kidnap Four Children In Hebron

Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Thursday evening, four children in Ash-Shuhada’ Street, in the center of Hebron city, and the nearby Beit Ummar town, in the southern part of the West Bank, and released two of them later on, but refuse to release the remaining two.

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/israeli-soldiers-kidnap-four-children-in-hebron-dci_palestine-unicef-amnesty/

‘Israel disrespects international community’

What Living On $7 An Hour Actually Means For Working People 

Comparing Conservative and Progressive Investment in America’s Youth

The Millennial generation is the largest, most diverse, and most progressive generation in American history. Young Americans between the ages 12 and 29 comprise the Millennial generation and, as of this year, represent a full quarter of the voting-age American public; in total, 46 million Americans are considered Millennials. In 2012 they surpassed the 39-million-strong bloc of voters older than 65, and by the 2020 election, when all Millennials will have reached voting age, they will total 90 million eligible voters—or 40 percent of the electorate. In the 2012 elections the group’s national turnout of roughly 50 percent meant their 18-percent share of the electorate surpassed the 16-percent share of the electorate for those voters older than 65. This also demonstrates the significant work that remains to be done to ensure more than half of Millennials vote in the future.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/progressive-movement/report/2012/12/06/47100/comparing-conservative-and-progressive-investment-in-americas-youth/

8 Ways Police Can Spy on You Without a Warrant

There are plenty of ways for law enforcement, from the local sheriff to the FBI, to snoop on the digital trails you create every day.

http://www.alternet.org/8-ways-police-can-spy -you-without-warrant

DOCUMENTARY OF THE DAY:

The Coca-Cola Case

Social|02 Dec, 2012|Buy the DVD|No Comments|Add to Playlist|90 mins

Exactly how companies treat people, especially the third world. In this feature documentary, German directors and Carmen García Gutiérrez present a sharp indictment of Coca-Cola empire and torture alleged abduction and murder of union leaders trying to improve working conditions in Colombia, Guatemala and Turkey. The filmmakers are labor rights lawyers Daniel Kovalik and Terry Collingsworth and activist of the Stop Killer Coke! campaign, Ray Rogers, in his attempt to keep the giant U.S. company beverage multinationals responsible in this battle, the legal and human rights. Many union leaders in the Colombian bottlers of Coca-Cola have been killed. Hundreds of other Coke workers have been tortured, kidnapped and / or illegally detained by violent paramilitaries, often working in close collaboration with the addresses of the sites.