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.
The Socialist Equality Party calls on all its supporters in the US to cast a vote for SEP candidates Jerry White for president and Phyllis Scherrer for vice president in today’s election. A vote for the SEP is a class-conscious statement of support for the socialist, working-class alternative to the two parties of big business, the Democrats and Republicans.
The 2012 election has been one of the most hyped in history. We’ve been hearing about both these candidate for years now, so at this point you probably know everything there is to know about them. But what do you know about the house they are battling to inhabit: the White House? Probably less than you think.
Supporters of Mitt Romney Are Pushing Ultra-Conservative Christian Agendas in Africa That Criminalize Gays and Threaten Women's Health
Jay and Jordan Sekulow are only the most recent Christian Right figures who manage to maintain credible reputations in the United States while taking actions overseas that would not be acceptable at home.
According to election polls, the presidential race is neck and neck. According to election polls, our country is split right down the middle. According to election polls, it's anyone's guess who will be the next president of the United States.
Voters increasingly post their ballot outcomes on social media
Americans going to the polls increasingly let others know the outcome of their vote by announcing it through social media, the Pew Research Center finds.
week has passed since Hurricane Sandy struck, and the short subway ride uptown this morning almost seemed normal, except for the bigger crowds getting on at Penn Station and Times Square - commuters from outside Manhattan where wind and storm surge water damage were so much worse and all too often deadly. Overheard conversations were filled with stories of how people had coped.
How Did You Vote? and Election Day Open Thread It's the big day. It'll be interesting to see how you voted-- how Opednews readers voted. We don't tie votes to individuals, so your vote in this poll is confidential. It's an Opednews reader exit poll. Please add your comments http://www.opednews.com/Poll/How-Did-You-Vote-by-Rob-Kall-121106-258.html
Displaced New Yorkers can vote Governor Cuomo is signing an Executive Order which provides that a voter who is a resident in the federally-declared disaster counties of Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, Westchester and of New York City who have been displaced by Hurricane Sandy can vote an affadavit ballot at any poll site in New York State. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Displaced-New-Yorkers-can-by-Allegra-Dengler-121105-964.html
What Would Jesus Do? Sex, Hell and Christianity in the Noose of the Presidential Election According to ABC News, Paul Ryan offered a voting advisory during a conference call with evangelical voters on Sunday evening, Nov. 4, issuing "a warning about a second Obama term saying the president is putting the country on a "dangerous path' that compromises 'Judeo-Christian, western civilization values.'" http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-Would-Jesus-Do-Sex--by-Meryl-Ann-Butler-121105-67.html
The movement generally referred to in the United States as the Religious Right came of age in the late 1970s. While the Religious Right is extremely diverse and shouldn't be characterized in simple terms, the movement as we have come to know it is an ultraconservative religious response to the sexual revolution and other events that are seen, by Religious Right proponents, as being connected to the sexual revolution--and an attempt to effect this religious response as public policy.
The Dogs of War Are Barking, Mitt Romney’s Team Wants to Let ‘Em Loose in Iran
It’s the consensus among the pundits: foreign policy doesn’t matter in this presidential election. They point to the ways Republican candidate Mitt Romney has more or less parroted President Barack Obama on just about everything other than military spending and tough talk about another “American century.” The consensus is wrong. There is an issue that matters: Iran.
Why Do Both Major Parties Suck So Badly On Civil Liberties?
Over the weekend, I saw an article on Salon about how shameful it is that supporters of President Obama, who were loud in their condemnation of attacks on civil liberties by George W. Bush, seemed to ignore that President Obama has been worse in many ways (despite many public promises to the contrary). We've already noted that the Democratic Party -- which had fixing civil liberties abuses in its 2008 platform -- has removed all traces of that from the new platform. You would think that, for those who believe strongly in civil liberties, this would be a major concern. Rather than fix them, President Obama continued or expanded many of the very questionable policies of his predecessor, and then added a number of terrifying new ones.
The US 2012 Election and China: why a real dialogue about human rights will never happen
Despite a prominent presence in the campaign, US policy towards China is very unlikely to change - especially on the hyper-sensitive topic of human rights.
The Best (And Worst) Of The 2012 CampaignElection Day is finally here and after a year and a half of non-stop campaigning it can’t come fast enough. But before today’s race becomes yesterday’s news and we move on to the transition or the fiscal cliff or (God forbid) the recount, we at TPM wanted to take one last look back at just how far we’ve come. http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/best-worst-2012-election.php
Which Prez candidate should a single-issue, federal-sentencing-reform voter support?
I ask this question with a serious interest in encouraging a serious (and respectful) discussion of whether folks think either of the two fellows seeking to be the US President over the next four years is likely to get behind and seek to move forward with federal sentencing reforms. If time permits late tonight, I will update this post to explain why I truly am not sure if there is an obvious answer to which candidate is more likely over the next four years to be interested and able to engender serious federal sentencing reform. In the meantime, let me hear readers thoughts only hours before the final day for voting begins.
Swing States that Will Decide the Presidential Election If you haven't seen any political ads for President Obama or Mitt Romney, then you're probably (a) somewhat thankful and (b) not living in a "swing state," which will most likely help "swing" the election. Here is a quick analysis of the swing states and how Obama and Romney look so far, from the NY Daily News and the New York Times' polling predictor Nate Silver. http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/swing-states-will-decide-presidential-election
Most Mormon Men are Also the Mormon Priests and BishopsIn the Mormon church, all power flows through the all-male priesthood which consists of all Mormon men above a certain age. Priests hold all of the religious authority for sealing, binding, and loosing — the central sacred acts of the Mormon Church which serve to determine every Mormon's eternal destiny. These priests hold all of the keys to eternal life and are themselves the key to the claim of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that it is the only legitimate Christian church on earth.
Justice Department will monitor Election Day votes in 23 states
Justice notes that state and local governments are primarily responsible for administering and monitoring elections, but its Civil Rights Division enforces federal voting rights laws that give citizens the right to access the ballot. Ten years ago the Justice Department established a nationwide Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative and since has run yearly election day programs to monitor polls and boost public confidence in the voting process. http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/justice-department-will-monitor-election-day-votes-23-states/2012-11-05
How to Steal an Election (Again)
Operations Plan:
1 – Step 1A: You, Mitt Romney, make millions of dollars by buying troubled companies, increasing their debt and then allowing them to go bankrupt, all with the result of reaping millions of dollars (and parking your plundered earnings in offshore tax havens)
hat will the United States look like in 2016 if Mitt Romney wins? While predicting the future is of course impossible, actually my experience is that if you play out known possible scenarios in your mind, you can often get a fair idea of the likely course of events.
In a conference call on Sunday, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan warned tens of thousands of Evangelical Christians that President Barack Obama would jeopardize "Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values" if he is re-elected.
With all the attention being paid this election to millionaire campaign donors and the importance of helping the middle class, candidates on both sides are overlooking one critical segment of our society. And it’s not a small segment – in fact it numbers over 46 million people and potential voters.
The massive storm that ravaged Haiti, Cuba, and much of the east coast of the United States may be the ‘shock and awe’ of climate change’s permanent war against the U.S. (it attacked the rest of the world much earlier). Some argued that the storm’s ferocity was the great equalizer, that rich as well as poor were left without power, that luxury townhouses were swept aside along with seaside shacks. But that ignores the stark reality of the wealth-poverty divide in this country – laid newly bare by the storm.
A Vote for the Republicans is a Vote Against Yourself: 5 Reasons Why
To be more precise, it's a vote against yourself as long as you're making less than $250,000 a year, which includes about 99% of us. The Republicans have repeatedlyturned against middle-class and low-income Americans in their legislative proposals over the past two years. Here are some of the sordid details.
Police drones prompt privacy concerns Drones are well-known for their ability to hunt down suspected terrorists abroad, but they have also increasingly become a popular tool of police departments around the country. Drones are cheaper to build and fly than helicopters, making them a cost-effective option for police departments looking to gain a bird's eye view of a scene. But privacy groups are sounding alarm that there aren't enough legal safeguards in place to prevent drones from being used for mass surveillance. http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/265693-police-drone-use-prompts-privacy-concerns
What if the government was tapping your phone unconstitutionally, and there was nothing you could do about it? That’s just life in the United States of America, at least according to the Justice Department. On Monday, October 29, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. argued in the Supreme Court that, for all practical purposes, the most expansive authority Congress has ever given the government to intercept Americans’ international phone calls and e-mails could not be challenged in court, even by the very people most likely to be harmed by it.
Food companies Monsanto, Dupont, Pepsico and Nestle spend $45 million to defeat California GM label bill Prop 37
If it passes, it would require labels on GM food sold in supermarkets, but would not cover restaurants. It also has a number of gaping loopholes. For example, the law would not require labels on meat from animals that were fed GM corn.
No matter the outcome of the 2012 presidential election, we must eventually face the fact that our political system is broken. As such, our future struggle will be about whether we are able to fix it our not. And we must realize that the "it" we need to fix inheres not in our laws, our constitution or even some other arcane program. The "it" we need to fix is ourselves.
The Deafening Silence On Climate ChangeGlobal warming has seldom been mentioned this year on the campaign trail, despite Obama's promise to the contrary http://www.countercurrents.org/hertsgaard051112.htm
People Have Changed: A Legacy Of The U.S. War In Iraq Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day in Baghdad . As I was visiting two families in widely different neighborhoods, I was able to traverse a large part of the city. I looked with eyes that have not seen Baghdad for nine years. Today, it is a city of stark contrasts. Bright new autos wherever one looks. I saw them up close as we waited endlessly in gridlocks due to checkpoints. http://www.countercurrents.org/breen051112.htm
Portland Anti-Austerity Protest Draws 1,000 Despite Police Violence It's difficult to build a pre-election protest with so many labor and community groups busy campaigning for Democrats. Nevertheless, over 1,000 people marched the streets in Portland, Oregon on November 3rd against austerity cuts to education and other public services and the consequent debt accumulated by students. http://www.countercurrents.org/cooke051112.htm
12 Ways You Can Safeguard Your Vote
ill it happen again? On November 6, we may see voters waiting in long lines, only to find they're not on the voter rolls or because they now need to show ID to vote. In a new twist, some people may refrain from voting because they think they need ID, even when they actually don't.
get it - and I don't blame you. You're fed up and you could care less whether Tweedledee or Tweedledumber wins on Tuesday - because on Wednesday, your life will be the same, unchanged, regardless who is president. Your mortgage will still be underwater. You will still owe $50,000 on your student loan. Your son will still be in Afghanistan. Your daughter will still be working two jobs to make ends meet. And gas will still be at $4.
n Florida, Ohio and North Carolina , a majority of Republicans believe that Democrats will steal this election and a majority of Dems are convinced that the GOP's going to do the same. It's a sign of how deeply compromised our democracy has become.
ew York City officials said on Sunday that they faced the daunting challenge of finding homes for as many as 40,000 people who were left homeless after the devastation of last week's storm, a situation that the city's mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, compared to New Orleans's after Hurricane Katrina.
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
