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October 30, 2009 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
It’s a busy day as usual in the city-centre, with everyone moving about their daily business. Looking around, it seems that you will mostly find women and girls sitting by the roadside selling fruits and vegetables, while men are operating bigger businesses, like construction.
October 28, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Intellectual property rights are complicating and expanding at an unprecedented rate. Now, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, lawyers are writing contracts that require artists to sign over all potential distribution and marketing rights for their work, “across the universe” and “in perpetuity”.
October 28, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The European Union is expected to soon establish a full-term presidency for the European Council of heads of state, separating that post from the presidency of the Council of the European Union, replacing the current six-month rotation between member states, once the Czech president, Vačlav Klaus, signs the Lisbon Treaty. The change will mark a major transition for the multinational bloc, which has been gradually building up a stronger common government since the founding of the European Economic Community after World War II.
October 27, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The push to ensure full civil rights equality for gays marked a major milestone last week with the passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Though Republicans opposed the measure so aggressively they voted in large numbers against funding the national defense in order to deny the extension of federal hate crimes status to hate-based violent assaults on gay Americans, the bill passed in both houses of Congress and will be signed into law tomorrow by Pres. Obama.
October 27, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Healthcare Reform :: Two Senate Democrats have pledged not to aid Republicans in blocking a full Senate vote in healthcare reform legislation. That moves the Democratic majority closer to the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster and bring the bill to a floor vote that will require only 50 votes plus one. This means the public option is now far mor likely to enter into the final legislation, as majorities in both houses support it.
October 26, 2009 :: Evelyn Winston Perez :: Comments Off
The government of Ethiopia has issued an emergency appeal for food aid to prevent 6.2 million people from falling into chronic hunger. The collapse of harvests and prolonged severe drought conditions has made it near impossible for Ethiopia to provide food for its surging population. The new aid plea has international aid organizations and financial institutions scrambling to work out the real human need and arrange assistance.
October 26, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: One Comment
The Republican party has adopted one of the most mind-bending political stances seen in recent times: after decades of defaming every Democrat, every liberal of any kind, progressive politics in general and anyone who opposes their party’s line, as “weak on defense” or “soft on crime”, often using the most convoluted rhetoric to make the defamatory claims, 28 Republican senators and 131 Republican House members have now voted to cut off funding for the US military in order to give special rights to violent criminals driven by hate.
October 25, 2009 :: Eva Scherson :: 4 Comments
A coalition of nationally visible Republicans have chosen to abandon their own party and back a Conservative party candidate in a special election in upstate New York. The split reveals a growing tension between Republicans concerned about regaining power and those whose mission is to impose a hardline conservative agenda on the nation. These two groups are now engaged in an increasingly hostile struggle for the soul of the Republican party.
October 24, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
International efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate destabilization have been hampered by concerns that developing countries will not reduce their emissions aggressively enough, so leaving industrialized nations at a cost-competitive disadvantage. But evidence suggests a failure by developing nations to curb emissions expansion could pose the most significant threat to their political and economic stability.
October 23, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
John McCain, the Arizona Republican who ran against Barack Obama in last year’s presidential election, today introduced in the Senate the “Internet Freedom Act”, in a brazen bid to make the internet far less free for the average web surfer. The bill would bar the FCC from enacting regulations that would prevent internet service providers from interfering with users’ preferred content choices, penalizing small content producers and slowing the internet down broadly in order to collect fees for higher-speed services, which the providers would select.
October 23, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Even as momentum gathers for major collaborative climate-linked emissions regulatory policy, aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions like carbon dioxide (CO2), some in industry remain convinced of an outdated theory that assumes emissions reduction must be bad for business. The US Chamber of Commerce (CC), a leading business lobby, is devoting $150 million to fight regulation [...]
October 23, 2009 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
The annual Sakharov prize to honor efforts to promote democracy and human rights has been awarded to the Russia-based human rights organization Memorial, whose most crusading activist Natalya Estemirova was assassinated earlier this year. Conditions for human activists living and working in the Russian Federation have become increasingly desperate, after a series of brazen, high [...]
October 22, 2009 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
Ya se está viendo en todos los continentes cómo la desestabilización del clima está amenazando el sistema de cultivo y extracción de recursos, dejando a más de mil millones de seres humanos en estado de escasez crónica o de agua potable o de comida. La subida persistente del precio de combustibles fósiles, debido a la [...]
October 21, 2009 :: staff :: 2 Comments
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is facing questions about his responsibility for wrongfully executing Cameron Todd Willingham, convicted of arson for a fire that killed his daughters, despite new expert analysis showing there was in fact zero evidence of arson. An investigation into the execution has already found that Perry was given the new evidence to [...]
October 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Insurers campaign to kill healthcare may be helping renew support for the public option, as Congress prepares to vote. A shift in subsidies is driving a clean energy boom in the American west, and emissions legislation is likely to pass Congress this year. Financial regulatory reform will establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Immigration and gay-rights reform will likely wait till 2010.
October 20, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
ewsmax had in recent weeks tried to debunk Keith Olberman’s report that conservative blogs, political action committees and front groups were buying Sarah Palin’s book in massive quantities to rig book sales, by claiming they are doing the opposite, with the following claim: “But the truth is that Newsmax has not purchased one book from Amazon. In fact, we are offering the book both FREE and at an incredible discount to Amazon.”
October 19, 2009 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
A suicide bombing yesterday in Pishin killed at least 6 Revolutionary Guards commanders and 37 other people and appears to be an attempt to strike at the leadership of the nation’s premier security forces. Tehran attributes the bombing to what it alleges are “western” efforts to destabilize Iran. There are also concerns the bombing may [...]
October 18, 2009 :: Anjika Sridhar :: Comments Off
The fraud perpetrated in Afghanistan’s election was so pervasive, international monitors fear it may never be possible to determine the actual results. At least 1.5 million ballots are believed to be illegal or fake votes. Entire district tallies are reported to be possibly comprised of fake ballots. The report from the UN-backed electoral complaints commission [...]
October 18, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) used to insure one in fifty US mortgages; now FHA insures one in four. The financial crisis allowed the most reckless banks to shift their losses to the American taxpayer. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat of Toledo, Ohio, serving her 14th term in the House of Representatives, called the 2008 [...]
October 17, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Lou Dobbs, who used to paint himself as a well-to-do, rational and no-nonsense reporter interested in getting to the bottom of economic matters, has morphed into a pundit who nightly champions violent anti-immigrant groups and seeks to fit all Hispanic immigrants with the label “criminal illegal aliens”. He has lied about the number of undocumented immigrants in US jails and has failed to report that undocumented immigrants are responsible for far less violent crime than US citizens.
October 16, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Amazon Kindle 2 is ideally sized for one-handed reading. In this category, it beats the traditional book, because it’s single pane is more ergonomic for the purpose of reading with one hand and seeing the text clearly at a consistent angle, than struggling to balance a side-bound traditional book.
October 16, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
President Barack Obama was in New Orleans yesterday to survey Katrina recovery efforts 4 years after the hurricane ravaged the city, expelling most of its population. Obama toured the only school reopened to date in the Lower Ninth Ward, the area mist devastated by Katrina’s storm surge, and met with Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, a persistent critic of key Obama policies, discussing the best ways to ensure effective delivery of assistance to the ongoing rebuilding efforts.
October 16, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
There are rumors circulating that Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamene’i, is dead, or in a coma. The rumors are unconfirmed, which also means not proven false, and this has spurred still further speculation that the rumors might be true and Iran’s government struggling to determine how to see a smooth transition to a successor’s reign. The most prominent cleric after Khamene’i is a staunch opponent of the government of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
October 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
School taxes are soaring, but schools are losing funding. States are going bankrupt and teachers are being threatened with mass layoffs. Property taxes are high, but property values are falling, and banks won’t refinance and won’t make new loans. The federal government is working to foster economic recovery through targeted investment, lending and community-building projects. But states are dealing with the budget crisis by hiking property taxes and shifting more responsibility to municipalities.
October 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Google Voice, an ingenious use of web-based voice communications service, allows users to combine a range of phone numbers under one standard, permanent Google phone number. Any linked phone number can be removed or replaced, and the service is free. All domestic calls inside the US are free, and sms is free. The service even converts voicemail to readable transcripts in an online inbox.
October 14, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
The National Association of Free Clinics (NAFC) —online at freeclinics.us— is seeking donations to help fund a campaign of massive free health clinics around the country. The organization represents and supports a network of free health clinics of varying types around the country. But to help spur support for much-needed healthcare reform legislation, the organization wants to set up much-needed mass free clinic events in states where Democratic senators have not yet promised to stop a Republican filibuster.
October 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign demonstrated an unprecedented level of achievement for organizing new voters and winning donations from lower-income voters, then mobilizing millions of supporters to fan out across the country and disseminate the campaign’s message of positive change. Republican opponents of healthcare reform are engaged in a high-stakes political gamble, banking on the [...]
October 14, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) joined every Democrat on the Senate finance committee in passing healthcare reform through to the full Senate in a 14 to 9 vote. Snowe said before the vote that “when history calls, history calls”, indicating that her vote for passage was motivated by an awareness of the historical call to make [...]
October 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The health insurance industry has released a sponsored “study” to show that if the Senate finance committee’s version of healthcare reform were to pass, they would explode costs over the next few years by as much as 40%. The report is being greeted with outrage, as the insurance firms, which stand to reap possibly hundreds of billions in new business from expanded coverage, appear to be trying to extort a strict universal mandate with harsh penalties for noncompliance.
October 13, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
An attractive woman, 34-ish, drives a compact station-wagon, late model, over a still-cobblestone side street in the center of Madrid. She advances slowly, toward a red light, and talks on her cell phone. She seems equally concentrated on both activities. Driving an automobile is a potentially dangerous activity, in which one’s own life or the lives of others may be at risk, while a casual conversation is not so much that. Yet she seemed to give equal weight, her body, her manner, seemed to give equal weight to both activities.
October 13, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Today the nation’s capital will be the scene of another round of massive demonstrations, as the National Faith and Family Procession holds a “lobby day and rally for comprehensive immigration reform”. The rally is motivated by the unmanageable, desperate crisis conditions being faced by millions of people in the US —many of them innocent asylum seekers, working families with American-born children or workers whose employers failed to properly update or establish their documentation— affected by immigration laws that allow detention without hearing and other constitutionally questionable abuses.
October 12, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
For nearly 30 years, you’ve advocated on behalf of those without a voice. That’s not easy. For despite the real gains that we’ve made, there’s still laws to change and there’s still hearts to open. There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors, even loved ones — good and decent people — who hold fast to outworn arguments and old attitudes; who fail to see your families like their families; who would deny you the rights most Americans take for granted. And that’s painful and it’s heartbreaking. (Applause.) And yet you continue, leading by the force of the arguments you make, and by the power of the example that you set in your own lives — as parents and friends, as PTA members and church members, as advocates and leaders in your communities. And you’re making a difference.
October 12, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: Comments Off
Between 200,000 and 250,000 people are estimated to have gathered in Washington, DC, to demand action to ensure equal rights for homosexual Americans and other groups. The march was organized to demand full equal rights for same-sex couples and hate-crimes protection for homosexual victims. The rally came just after passage of historic hate-crimes legislation and a pledge from the president to end the military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
October 11, 2009 :: Eva Scherson :: Comments Off
We are watching the national media backslide into the irresponsible primordial ooze of the “culture wars”, where the false caricatures of “family values conservatives” and “promiscuous progressives” (read ‘progressive’ into sexuality, social policy and spending) are pitted against each other in a nostalgic bid to recapture the oversimplified false stereotypes of the 1960s hotbed moment.
October 11, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Dick Armey is the latest Republican to use language of incitement to promote lies about Pres. Obama’s health reform agenda. Armey says proposed reforms are “ruthless” in their treatment of healthcare recipients. But just about the only truths in his comments are that there are in fact health reforms being proposed and that they have something to do with healthcare recipients.
October 10, 2009 :: Riga Listin :: Comments Off
One day after the world was shocked by the surprise award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the United States’ young first-term president, Barack Obama, statements of dismay and/or congratulation have given way to more cogent analysis of the important new direction Obama has brought to international relations of all kinds. Here are just a few meaningful examples…
October 9, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Pres. Barack Obama, in office just under 9 months, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The award announcement has sent a ripple through world opinion, as critics and supporters clash over whether the award is premature, or whether Obama’s collaborative diplomatic method has achieved important gains for world peace. The prize could signal an endorsement of Obama’s work on comprehensive nuclear disarmament or on achieving climate consensus this fall, or it could be oriented toward affirming the gains made in international cooperation.
October 8, 2009 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
Milton Friedman predicts that “Obama’s reckless monetary policies” will spur uncontrollable hyperinflation, leading to the collapse of the dollar and the destruction of the United States as a super-power and a democracy. So says a new report from the illustrious Newsmax propaganda group. This is either very funny, or very scary, because either this interpretation [...]
October 7, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
One in 91 American children is now reported to be afflicted with autism spectrum disorder. A number of potential culprits has been suggested over the years, as autism figures have steadily risen, including vaccines, antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, coal waste and radiation.
October 6, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
John Stossel today published an opinion piece in Real Clear Politics, in which he proclaims the very original regressive tax argument that the wealthy are carrying “too much of the burden” and literally funding the lives of the lazier half of society. He alleges that half the American population will pay no taxes this year, because essentially they are living off the overburdened wealthy. Mr. Stossel neglects to mention that the reason nearly half of all households will pay no income tax is because they are too poor.
October 5, 2009 :: Webb Tisch :: 2 Comments
Something seems very wrong with Max Baucus. The Democratic senator whose party placed him in the chairmanship of the Senate finance committee, charged by Pres. Obama with crafting legislation that could achieve the president’s stated goals, while bringing centrist Republicans on board, has become one of the chief proponents of the very arguments entrenched corporate-interest Republicans are making to try to kill the Democratic reforms.
October 4, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The American people have to start taking back the process of healthcare provision from the dysfunctional private insurance industry. If private, not-for-profit healthcare insurance cooperatives can meet some of the standards of existing charitable health organizations, they may be able to launch a coordinated regional and even national network of institutions able to rival and compete with private for-profit insurers, without having to match the massive wealth insurers have amassed.
October 3, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Water resource depletion leads not only to chronic scarcity of clean, safe drinking water for increasing numbers of people, but means arable land is harder to cultivate and to maintain. Persistent drought and accelerated desertification (the expansion of deserts into the farmed and/or built environment) are results of water resource depletion.
October 2, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Clean, safe drinking water is scarce for over 3 billion people across the world. At least 1 billion literally never have access to clean, safe drinking water, putting them at constant risk of severe thirst-related ill health effects, infectious diseases or toxic contamination. Over 100 countries face either sporadic or chronic crisis-level problems related to clean water scarcity.
October 2, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The phenomenon of “re-tweeting”, reposting and linking back to items already posted on the real-time updated short-message feed site Twitter, has allowed for the emergence of what sometimes turns into a global roundtable discussion, made up of short, sometimes superfluous, sometimes provocative ideas, and in many cases links to surprising but potentially effective online sources that spread a message or expand and deepen awareness of an issue.
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