Atheists are Better For Politics Than Believers. Here's Why.
The Abrahamic faiths, with their disgust for sex and women, still exert deep cultural influence. When David Cameron claimed "we are a Christian country", there are certainly enough cultural relics in attitudes towards women and gays. Baroness Warsi's letter expressing alarm that schools might teach gay marriage equality causes tremors of that sexual disgust branded into the souls of all three major monotheistic faiths. Are there many gay couples perverse enough to yearn to be married inside religions that abhor them? Humanists can offer them heartfelt celebrations.
Conference Committee Drops Ban on Indefinite Detention of Americans
Congressional conference committee has dropped a provision the Senate passed earlier this yearwhich proponents said would keep American citizens arrested on U.S. soil from being detained indefinitely under the laws of war.
According to a recent report, “F as in Fat” by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “The number of obese adults…are on course to increase dramatically in every state in the country over the next 20 years.” According to their analysis of government data, “If obesity rates continue on their current trajectories, by 2030, 13 states could have adult obesity rates above 60 percent, 39 states could have rates above 50 percent, and all 50 states could have rates above 44 percent.”
Like millions of other Americans over Thanksgiving weekend, I went to see Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, Lincoln. I was mesmerized by Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of the great statesman. I was also deeply moved by the thrilling depiction of the moral awakening at the film’s climax, in which the 13th Amendmentfor the abolition of slavery was passed by the House of Representatives. But there was something else about the film that struck me even more. And that was a powerful recognition of how much progress we have made since those tumultuous days in the middle of the 19th century.
The world of V for Vendetta is both dystopia and the inevitable outcome of the Thatcher period Moore and artist David Lloyd worked in. As the Guardian points out, “there's no doubt that the evils of the British Tory party and Thatcherism were preying on Moore's and Lloyd's minds when they created the book” – this despite the fact that “Moore actually assumed the Tories were going to lose the 1983 election, and that Labour would remove nuclear weapons from British soil.”
Israel moves to further seal off Jerusalem from West Bank
Israeli officials approved plans for 2,612 homes on Givat HaMatos, a hill between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Critics say the move would so fragment Palestinian areas that drawing borders of a future state would be unworkable.
Two faces of the U.S. labor movement were on display in 2012. On the one hand, teachers in Chicago showed unionists everywhere that the strike weapon could succeed in turning back employer attacks, and workers at Wal-Mart took a stand at the world's largest private employer. On the other, organized labor endured historic defeats with the passage of anti-union "right-to-work" legislation in Indiana and Michigan--with labor failing to mobilize more than token opposition, even in Michigan, its one-time greatest stronghold. http://socialistworker.org/2012/12/19/source-of-union-power
Senate Wants To Sneak Warrantless Spying Bill Extension Into Law Without Debate; Let's Call Them and Tell Them No
The Senate is about to vote on an extension of the controversial FISA Amendments Act—the unconstitutional law that allows the NSA to warrantless spy on Americans speaking to people abroad. Yet you wouldn't know it by watching CSPAN because the Senate isn't debating it.
Warrantless Surveillance 101: Introducing EFF's New NSA Domestic Spying Guide
On December 14th, EFF is back in federal court challenging the NSA’s domestic spying program in our long-running case Jewel v. NSA. In anticipation of our court appearance, we’ve launched a new section of our website to give everyone a clear understanding how the NSA warrantless wiretapping program works and why we’re challenging it as unconstitutional.
Last year, on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks by Al Qaeda on the United States, I posted a column arguing that the U.S. overreacted to these horrific acts of terrorism. Today, on the eve of 9/11, I’m posting an edited version of that column, the gist of which remains all too relevant.
The Other 9/11 -- Never Forget the Anniversary of U.S. Orchestrated Terror and Murder
In 1973, the Government of Chile was working on creating a society that took care of its poor. That country had a government that actually tried to leave no child or adult for that matter, behind, unfed, unclothed or without a roof over his or her head.
Bold Civil Disobedience Actions Blockade Entrance to Site of TPP Negotiations in VA
Two people were detained this morning after a tense stand off with police while blockading international trade negotiators from entering the Lansdowne Resort, site of the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations takingplace this week. Other activists greeted the arriving international negotiators with a 75-foot high banner suspended by weather balloons shaped like giant buttocks that read "Free Trade My Ass: Flush the TPP."
Survivor of US Military Rape in Japan Allowed to Pursue Perpetrator in US Courts
In a landmark case, on September 6, 2012, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Circuit Court Judge gave standing to an Australian woman to collect a Japanese civil judgment against a former US Navy sailor for raping her in Japan 10 years ago.
The conservative network of viral emails has been buzzing about a short video done by a retired accountant that shows our revenue to be insufficient to support any of the Federal discretionary budget once our obligations for debt service and entitlements are paid. Evidently this is news to many people and the video is presented in a context of shock, fear and great urgency. My spouse, Marguerite, emailed one of our mutual friends to allay his fears and put the matter in perspective.
Of course farmers and flea markets are real, as are the corporate malls where millions enter with credit desire and leave in debt frustration. But the global financial market whose minority controllers run the planet is a vast electronic church sustained by a congregation of mentally and physically brutalized parishioners. A political clergy of rabbis, priests and ministers operate its banking cathedrals as an international casino whose minority profits accrue on the loss of billions of people forced to gamble their existence on its success, and their failure.
These are indications of the real state of affairs in this country 11 years after they attacked us because they “hated our freedoms.” Now, on September 11, 2012, the national security complex is, as Van Buren indicates, beyond accountability for any crimes it may commit. It exists in a post-legal America not available to 99% of us.
Public Security – The Greatest Casualty of the Drug War
In stops all around the country, the Caravan for Peace has found that convincing people that the war on drugs is destructive and wasteful is not the problem. The polls show the public came to this conclusion long ago and now close to a majority favor what used to be considered “radical” solutions like legalizing and regulating marijuana. Although most people weren’t aware of the impact of the violence in Mexico, it’s immediately obvious to them that the drug war—trying to block supply in places like Mexico and stop consumption by criminalizing drugs in the U.S.– is not working. Anywhere.
Why Obama wants Chicago teachers strike to go away – fast
The Chicago teachers strike, which exposes a Democratic Party rift between support for unions and for the education reforms backed by Obama, could hardly come at a worse time for the president.
Congressional report warns drones could track faces, never leave sky
The use of drones in American skies raises new questions about the value of privacy and the extent of government surveillance, according to areport released last week by the Congressional Research Service.
Former CIA Chief: Obama’s War on Terror Same as Bush’s, But With More Killing
President Barack Obama has closely followed the policy of his predecessor, President George W. Bush, when it comes to tactics used in the “war on terror” — from rendition, targeted killings, state secrets, Guantanamo Bay to domestic spying, according to Michael Hayden, Bush’s former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
More Evidence That Bush & Co. Ignored 9/11 Warnings
leven years to the day after September 11 and more than seven years after the release of the government's 9/11 Commission Report, newly public intelligence documents reveal just how much the George W. Bush White House knew in the lead-up to the attacks. In a New York Times op-ed, reporter Kurt Eichenwald writes of the presidential briefings that came before the well-known August 6 warning "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," concluding that "the administration's reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed." That included a warning from the CIA on May 1 that "a group presently in the United States" was planning to strike and one on June 22 that an attack could be "imminent."
ere, to my mind, was one strange aspect of the political convention season just past: since the great meltdown of 2008, brilliantly engineered by various giant financial institutions gone wild, we've seen a collapse in the wealth of middle-class African Americans and Hispanics, and a significant drop in the wealth of middle-class whites. Only the rich have benefitted. Though the draining of wealth from the middle and its fortification at the top have been a long time coming, the near collapse of the economy four years ago was a disaster whether you look at the rise in unemployment figures, poverty, the use of food stamps, gauges ofupward mobility, or just about any other grim measure you'd care to employ.
Louisiana Keeps Getting Busted for Teaching Creationism
People have the right to believe what they want about human origins, but they have no right to use the public school system to propagate religion. Insanity, it has been said, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Occupy Homes, Others Demand Foreclosure Action at Freddie Mac Chicago Headquarters
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have gotten about $150 billion in taxpayer support to stay afloat since the financial crisis--so why do they continue to throw homeowners (and taxpayers) out of their homes?
To your average educated careful consumer of U.S. news media, our militarism looks like ad hoc reactionary responses. A crisis flairs up here. We "intervene" there. An irrational foreign dictator threatens the peace over yonder. We get into wars because we have no choice, and then continue them because ending them would be somehow even worse than continuing them.
Obama Says One Thing Under The Spotlight; Does Another Behind Closed Doors
Jobs. That is the issue in the election – at least that is the issue Obama and Romney are focused on – who will create more jobs for a country in desperate need of them. During his convention speech, President Obama mentioned jobs 19 times, Romney did so 16 times. Obama promised a future where the U.S. will “outsource fewer jobs.” Of course, Romney is known as someone who made hundreds of millions by outsourcing jobs. Former President Clinton put forth a job scorecard, arguing Obama and the Democrats will create more jobs.
Police Seizure of Text Messages Nothing to LOL About: Court
The idea of police seizing your text messages may seem funny if all you have is some attempts to make happy hour plans and a cute note from your significant other. But it's a much bigger deal if that seizure results in an arrest.
More than a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the tragedy haunts Washingtonpolicymakers who are deadlocked over how to protect the country against cyber attacks.
Meet John Kiriakou. He’s a former CIA officer who publicly acknowledged that waterboarding constituted torture. And he’s another whistleblower GAP represents who the Obama administration has charged in its unprecedented use of the Espionage Act.
EFF Sues for Answers About Illegal Government Email and Phone Call Surveillance
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Justice (DOJ) today, demanding answers about illegal email and telephone call surveillance at the National Security Agency (NSA).
Members of Congress Demand Answers for Homeland Security’s Unjust Domain Name Seizures
This morning, a bipartisan group of Representatives, led by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), sent a pointed letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano protesting the recent spat of domain name seizures—executed on dubious copyright grounds—that have been censoring websites with no due process.
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine plans to examine not only Israel's crimes against Palestinians, but the complicity of the U.S. and other countries, writes Sherry Wolf.
Sexist remarks and wolf-whistles could become criminal offences
Salacious whistles and sexist comments may fall foul of new laws against sexual harassment to which Britain is signing up, the prime minister will announce on Thursday.
Last week, an interview with Cardinal Caro Maria Martini was published in the Corriere della Sera and included a scathing rebuke of the policies of the Catholic Church. The cardinal said that the Church is “200 years out of date.” Which got me thinking what, specifically, the Catholic Church is out of date on. It didn’t take long to think of several. http://www.care2.com/causes/4-ways-the-catholic-church-is-out-of-date.html
White House Preparing Executive Order As A Stand-In For CISPA
This isn't a huge surprise -- and last month we even discussed the possibility, but it sounds as though the White House has decided that, with the failure of Congress to pass a comprehensive cybersecurity bill (CISPA passed in the House, but the rather different Cybersecurity Act failed in the Senate), it is going to issue some sort of executive order to deal with "cybersecurity issues."
Symptoms of crisis? Religion and women’s rights in Israel
Women are being increasingly targeted as the accommodation between religious and secular Israelis crumbles, heralding a profound systemic crisis in Israeli society
Larry Flynt offers $1M for Mitt Romney's tax returns
Hustler Magazine founder Larry Flynt is offering up to $1 million for Mitt Romney's tax returns or any other information about the candidate's personal finances
IRS awards $104 million to Swiss bank tax whistleblower
An attorney for former UBS [corporate website] banker Bradley Birkenfeld announced on Tuesday that the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) [official website] awarded Birkenfeld $104 million for information leading to an agreement between UBS and the IRS for $740 million in fines and penalties for its role in helping US clients shelter assets from US tax liability.
rotecting the freedom to vote for all eligible Americans is of fundamental importance in a democracy founded upon the consent of the governed. One of the most serious threats to the protection of that essential right is the increase in organized efforts, led by groups such as the Tea Party affiliated True the Vote and others, to challenge voters' eligibility at the polls and through pre-election challenges. Eligible Americans have a civic duty to vote, and government at the federal, state, and local level has a responsibility to protect voters from illegal interference and intimidation.
Former NSA employees Thomas Drake, Kirk Wiebe and William Binney warn of widespread gov't surveillance
- Common Dreams staff
The National Security Agency (NSA) has created a "pernicious, persistent and permanent" database since 9/11 and is spying on "the entire country" according to NSA whistleblowers Thomas Drake, Kirk Wiebe and William Binney.(photo: clarkk via Flickr)
Drake said the widespread domestic spying was due to a “key decision made shortly after 9/11 which began to rapidly turn the United States of America into the equivalent of a foreign nation for dragnet blanket electronic surveillance,” putting touted efforts at national security above all else, including constitutional rights.
Referring to an NSA facility in Bluffdale, Utah which will hold communications collected by the agency, Binney said, "That facility alone can probably hold somewhere close to a hundred years’ worth of the communications of the world.” Binney continues, “Once you accumulate that kind of data — they’re accumulating against everybody — [it's] resident in programs that can pull it together in timelines and things like that and let them see into your life.”
Binney said the NSA was developing automated algorithms that would allow the NSA to easily sort through everyone's data. "Everybody will be a part of this," he stated.
Asked by Spitzer if anyone at the NSA worried of 4th amendment implications and raised questions, Wiebe said, "No."
"For years, government lawyers have been arguing that our case is too secret for the courts to consider, despite the mounting confirmation of widespread mass illegal surveillance of ordinary people," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Now we have three former NSA officials confirming the basic facts. Neither the Constitution nor federal law allow the government to collect massive amounts of communications and data of innocent Americans and fish around in it in case it might find something interesting. This kind of power is too easily abused. We're extremely pleased that more whistleblowers have come forward to help end this massive spying program."
"The NSA warrantless surveillance programs have been the subject of widespread reporting and debate for more than six years now. They are just not a secret," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. "Yet the government keeps making the same 'state secrets' claims again and again. It's time for Americans to have their day in court and for a judge to rule on the legality of this massive surveillance."
Congressional conference committee has dropped a provision the Senate passed earlier this yearwhich proponents said would keep American citizens arrested on U.S. soil from being detained indefinitely under the laws of war.
According to a recent report, “F as in Fat” by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “The number of obese adults…are on course to increase dramatically in every state in the country over the next 20 years.” According to their analysis of government data, “If obesity rates continue on their current trajectories, by 2030, 13 states could have adult obesity rates above 60 percent, 39 states could have rates above 50 percent, and all 50 states could have rates above 44 percent.”
he US is the world's largest prison state, imprisoning more of its citizens than any nation on earth, both in absolute numbers andproportionally. It imprisons people for longer periods of time, more mercilessly, and for more trivial transgressions than any nation in the west. This sprawling penal state has been constructed over decades, by both political parties, and it punishes the poor and racial minorities at overwhelmingly disproportionate rates.
Like millions of other Americans over Thanksgiving weekend, I went to see Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, Lincoln. I was mesmerized by Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of the great statesman. I was also deeply moved by the thrilling depiction of the moral awakening at the film’s climax, in which the 13th Amendment for the abolition of slavery was passed by the House of Representatives. But there was something else about the film that struck me even more. And that was a powerful recognition of how much progress we have made since those tumultuous days in the middle of the 19th century. 
The world of V for Vendetta is both dystopia and the inevitable outcome of the Thatcher period Moore and artist David Lloyd worked in. As the Guardian points out, “there's no doubt that the evils of the British Tory party and Thatcherism were preying on Moore's and Lloyd's minds when they created the book” – this despite the fact that “Moore actually assumed the Tories were going to lose the 1983 election, and that Labour would remove nuclear weapons from British soil.”
Israeli officials approved plans for 2,612 homes on Givat HaMatos, a hill between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Critics say the move would so fragment Palestinian areas that drawing borders of a future state would be unworkable.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/1219/Israel-moves-to-further-seal-off-Jerusalem-from-West-Bank
The source of union power
