November 22, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The spreading Occupy movement has seen one after another sit-in, protest camp or march brutally and inexcusably assaulted by paramilitary police actions, using chemical agents and other weapons of war, against unarmed, nonviolent citizens exercising their basic constitutional rights. The result has been a rash of unfettered violence across the world against pro-democracy advocates.
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November 22, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Robert Reich explains how big money is taking over the privileges of democratic rights, to the exclusion of ordinary people, and to the detriment of citizens who seek to exercise their basic civil liberties. The violence of police against unarmed civilians is absolutely inexcusable, and it is motivated in part by a systemic disregard for [...]
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September 20, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Today, the 20th of September, 2011, the discriminatory US military policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, which required thousands of gay personnel to serve their country while keeping their private life secret. Honorable people were discharged only because someone else found out they were not heterosexual. In some cases, the ideal military officer for a highly skilled, difficult-to-fill position were discharged despite being the most qualified person for operationally vital positions.
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August 27, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Across the eastern seaboard of the United States, from South Carolina to Maine, there is an intense and well-ordered preparation underway to brace against and limit the fallout from Hurricane Irene. In North Carolina, 300,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the Outer Banks and low-lying coastal areas. The mayor of New York City, Michael [...]
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August 23, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Two days after taking control of most of the capital, and a day after two of Qadhafi’s sons escaped house arrest as pro-Qadhafi forces staged a challenge to the rebel onslaught, Libya’s pro-democracy rebels swept into Qadhafi’s compound in Tripoli. Reports from the Libyan capital spoke of scenes of rebels destroying images of Qadhafi and [...]
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August 21, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
Reports from Tripoli, the capital of Libya, suggest rebel forces have taken territory inside the capital, and captured one of Qadhafi’s sons, after a top security official ordered troops to lay down arms and let the rebels in. There are reports of convoys of rebel soldiers moving into the capital, being welcomed and celebrated by unarmed civilians. Some news reports have talked of “uprisings” in the suburbs, and possibly within Tripoli itself.
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August 12, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Most of the Republican candidates for their party’s presidential nomination debated last night in Iowa, two days ahead of the crucial Ames Straw Poll, thought to be a leading indicator of which candidates are credible and which are less likely to win in January. Rick Perry, who has not yet announced his candidacy, was not in attendance, and Fred Karger—who met all the criteria for attendance—was not allowed to participate, some say because he is openly gay.
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August 9, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
As early as one day after the March 11 tsunami sparked the (still ongoing) nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan’s government had advanced radiation fallout and atmospheric modeling showing the area most likely to be hit by fallout from the explosions and the ongoing seepage. The government allegedly concealed this information, to prevent [...]
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August 9, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
After the shooting of an unarmed man by London’s Metropolitan Police force, in Tottenham, the community organized a peaceful protest, which through a series of events that remains difficult to trace, turned into clashes between police and youths. A rash of riots have now spread across greater London, with arson attacks, looting, and violent clashes between masked youth and armored police.
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August 8, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
It has become a standard of political and economic commentary that the stock market is a “reflection” of the general economic mood or of wider economic health and wellbeing. It is not. The stock market is not a mood ring and it was not designed to be. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow/DJIA) was not designed to stand alone as an economic indicator, but rather as part of a fabric of tools and analyses that would, taken together, give a more insightful, more complete picture of generalized economic balance.
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August 8, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
With the objectivity and commitment to fact of S&P now seriously in question, and allegations now revived that it and other rating agencies were paid to give AAA ratings to junk securities derivatives, it is clear that we need a 100% not-for-profit (NFP) cooperative bond rating agency. The independent NFP agency could be one of several, staffed by top economists, stakeholders and public servants, and standing somewhere between the public and the private sectors.
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August 3, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Allegations that the so-called Tea Party caucus has degenerated into little more than a lobby for the wealthy interests that back them gain credibility when they support tax hikes on the vulnerable, and which will have a direct negative impact on the middle class. It should be well understood by all: the House Tea Party Republicans have pushed for and supported—the anti-student provisions in the failed Republican-only House bills were far worse—tax hikes that will make college more expensive and eat way at middle class wealth.
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August 2, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
In a triumphant and surprise return to the House of Representatives, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords received a 10-minute standing ovation from her colleagues, before casting her first vote since surviving an assassination attempt in January. Giffords voted for the debt-ceiling deal, effectively making her return to the House a show of leadership and a commitment to [...]
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July 30, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
List of Legislative Riders on H.R.2584, The Interior & Environment Approps bill for FY12 39 provisions in the bill specifically eliminate environmental protections in service of big polluters and GOP campaign donors *In order as they appear in the bill, with section numbers cited. Blocks Endangered Species Act Designations [Language on page 8]: Prohibits funding for [...]
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July 26, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
While House and Senate leaders are now moving away from Pres. Obama’s $4 trillion debt deal, proposing far less in real long-term debt and deficit reduction, Standard and Poors is threatening to downgrade the nation’s credit rating for bond sales. The rating agency is demanding $4 trillion in deficit reduction, calling for a plan that will put the debt trajectory on a “sustainable path”.
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July 24, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
In a bizarre interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, House Speaker John Boehner appeared embattled, distracted and without a firm grip on any solution to the debt ceiling crisis. He seemed to be unable to speak about the debt ceiling crisis in any truthful manner, repeatedly attacking Pres. Obama for not being willing to make a deal, despite Obama offering far more than any president, Democratic or Republican, in debt and deficit reduction, in fact offering far more than Boehner himself was seeking.
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July 23, 2011 :: The Editors :: 16 Comments
Ron Paul gave Fox News’ Neil Cavuto the latest in a series of Republican presidential campaign advertisements, posing as interview, today as the nation waited to see Congressional leaders gather with Pres. Obama in the White House Cabinet Room. While Cavuto labored to spin the issue toward a Tea Party interpretation of reality, Mr. Paul made the astonishing claim that the least damaging outcome of the debt ceiling negotiations would be a national default.
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July 22, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Today, the Speaker of the House of representatives abandoned debt ceiling negotiations, while putting the entire House on recess for the weekend. He did not return White House phone calls until after 5 pm, only to explain that he was now rejecting any plan of any kind that would raise taxes by any amount. After moving toward a credible compromise that would involve serious debt and deficit reduction, Boehner suddenly returned to the radical “starve the beast” anti-tax policy of Grover Norquist.
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July 21, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Borders Books and Music was a place of pilgrimage for book lovers, music lovers and people who loved to sit with coffee and read, chat or peruse magazines they might or might not buy. It has played a vital role in the distribution of books of both wide and narrow market interest, and has driven the cathedral-warehouse paradigm of big bookstore chains. Its failure, however, opens the field for more innovative, more reader-friendly experiments in book selling.
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July 21, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
When comedians are keeping watch over the deliberate falsehoods dispensed by “mainstream media”, there is something rotten in the culture of our free press. Not because comedians shouldn’t do that work—all citizens should—but because the mainstream media should be committed, at every level, to truth-telling and citizenship. Fox News, in light of the bribery, spying and coercion, scandal engulfing its parent company, has definitively shown how far from that mission its news operation is.
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July 20, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Cafe Sentido has gone through various incarnations—first ContourNews, then Sentido.tv, including two supplements: CafeSentido.com, an art and exhibits forum, and The Global Intercept, a headline-linking and rapid-review forum—before taking on its current format as the broadsheet online magazine CafeSentido.com, which combines all of the prior incarnations in one forum. On Tuesday, July 19, we reached [...]
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July 19, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Gordon Brown, the former UK prime minister and chancellor of the Exchequer denounces “the systematic criminality of News International”, accusing the media conglomerate of “lawbreaking on an industrial scale” and of abusing the rights of citizens, crime victims and the families of soldiers who lost their lives in war, for financial gain by the most [...]
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July 19, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Rupert Murdoch has, today, told a Parliamentary committee in London that he was “clearly” misled by unknown persons within News Corp. Several of the committee members have sought to clarify who may have been responsible for misleading him. His son James told the committee that “What happened at News of the World was wrong”, adding that [...]
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July 18, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
In a shocking development, a former News of the World reporter and key whistleblower in the phone-hacking scandal now sweeping the News Corp. media empire and British political landscape has been found dead at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. Sean Hoare was the first named journalist to have alleged that Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor and top media officer for Prime Minister David Cameron, knew of and openly encouraged illegal phone hacking and other corrupt practices.
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July 18, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and his recently arrested protégée, Rebekah Brooks, are scheduled to testify before Parliament, tomorrow. With more than ten people now arrested on allegations of corruption and illegal hacking into private files, the scandal that closed the 168-year-old News of the World tabloid is now threatening to metastasize to the rest of the News Corp. news media properties, and to high-ranking public officials. For the second time in as many days, a top-ranking police official has stepped down, due to alleged connections to the News Corp. scandal.
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July 17, 2011 :: The Editors :: One Comment
The Wall Street Journal is an historic and storied publication, known for top-quality journalism and meticulous reporting of facts relevant to financial markets and economic activity more broadly. It is a mainstay of American print media, and has long been known for honoring the bright line that must be drawn between editorial viewpoints and news reporting. Since 2007, however, it is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., and not all of that legacy remains certain to everyone.
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July 17, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The downward spiral of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has deepened, as Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World tabloid, accused of bribery and illegal hacking of private phone messages and other documents, has now been arrested. Now, the multinational News Corp., which owns not only the now closed News of the World, [...]
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July 15, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
News Corp., the New York-based multinational media conglomerate whose majority shareholder is the controversial billionaire Rupert Murdoch, is now facing an FBI investigation for illegal activity in news gathering. Long maligned by press advocacy groups as a leading source of abusive media activity, and even of attacks on genuine news sources, News Corp. is now being accused of having authorized bribery and/or hacking activity to gain illegal access to the private files of victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
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July 15, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The House majority leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) recently published an op-ed, in which he argued that “If Washington actually had the discipline to live within its means over the long term, every American citizen would not owe $46,000 toward the national debt.” The rhetoric is effective, but the logic is flawed; not every American “owes” an equal share of the national debt.
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July 15, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Just as we have a right to clean drinking water, we have a right to unobstructed access to information. This should be the aim of any regime of national cyber-security, not the application, or projection, of centuries old military force doctrine to the world of digital information and communication. In the atmosphere of true hyper-convergence, the web beyond Facebook and gMail, the integrated freedom of the individual depends on the integrated civil liberty of the world wide web.
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July 15, 2011 :: The Editors :: 3 Comments
The Libya Contact Group held its most recent diplomatic summit today in Istanbul, to discuss how best to deal with the exigencies of the security crisis there, and possible political solutions. Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, of the United States, now fully recognizes the Transitional National Council, based in Benghazi, as the legitimate government [...]
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July 15, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The mounting protest movement in Jordan is organizing massive new demonstrations, calling for constitutional reform that will maintain the monarchy, but establish a fully elected, democratic government. The protests were reportedly sparked by high and rapidly escalating food prices. There are reports that riot police today attacked demonstrators, though protest organizers say they do not [...]
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July 15, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
The protest movement that ousted Hosni Mubarak, after three decades of authoritarian rule has returned tens of thousands of people from all walks of Egyptian life to Tahrir Square, to demand significant democratic reform. Protesters say the military governing council has been slow to prosecute former regime figures guilty of corruption and/or crimes against humanity, [...]
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July 11, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
Newspapers in the UK and TV networks around the world are reporting that UK prime minister Gordon Brown says his bank accounts, property records, his children’s medical accounts and other private accounts, were illegally accessed by the Sun tabloid and/or the Sunday Times, another of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers in Great Britain. The allegation appears to implicate one or more journalists in gaining private, privileged information relating to the personal health of at least one of Brown’s children, along with other private information.
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July 6, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Today, at the White House, at 2pm EDT, Pres. Barack Obama became the first American president to “live tweet”, posting to his Twitter account the question, “in order to reduce the deficit,what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep”, signing it, simply “- bo”. The president then answered questions, selected by “curators” across the country, who sorted through tens of thousands of questions from Twitter users. He had no prior knowledge of the questions, nor did the moderator, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
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May 27, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
An effort by the Catalan state police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, to remove protesters from the Plaça Catalunya, by use of force, has ended with at least 125 people reported injured, the demonstrators retaking the square, and the Mossos forced to retreat. Protests have now spread to other parts of the city, as students have reportedly closed la Avinguda Diagonal, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, “in solidarity with the protesters in Plaça Catalunya”.
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May 27, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
In Spain’s capital, Madrid, in the heart of the city, at the Puerta del Sol, from which major roads radiate out toward all corners of the country, thousands of protesters, of all ages and social classes, young and old, have set up camp, literally, in what is now a Europe-wide demand for economic democracy. The [...]
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May 21, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Tens of thousands of youth protesters are occupying la Puerta del Sol, the central square in Madrid, the capital of Spain. They have been occupying the square for a week, and last night camped overnight, despite a new government ban. The protesters are calling themselves “los Indignados”, the indignant.
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May 3, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
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May 2, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari, whose late wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by extremists shortly after returning to her homeland to seek the presidency, said he was not informed prior to the operation that it was taking place, but that his government, and all of Pakistan should celebrate Bin Laden’s demise. Bin Laden had repeatedly tried to kill Bhutto, and was suspected of plotting to assassinate Pres. Zardari.
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May 1, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
Tonight, the news is breaking across global television and online media that the president of the United States will be making a special televised address to announce that Osama bin Laden has been confirmed killed. NBC News’ Chuck Todd is reporting the news began to leak out after Pres. Obama began informing, by telephone, the key leaders in Congress, that he would be making this announcement.
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April 28, 2011 :: staff :: No Comment Yet
In his weekly address, President Obama laid out his plans to address rising gas prices over the short and the long term. While there is no silver bullet to bring down prices right away, there are a few things we can do. This week, the Attorney General launched a task force dedicated to rooting out fraud or manipulations in the oil markets. The President called for finally ending the $4 billion in taxpayer money that the oil and gas companies receive annually. And, we need to continue safe, responsible production of oil at home. But in the long term, we need to invest in clean, renewable energy. That is why the President strongly disagrees with a proposal in Congress that cuts our investments in clean energy by 70 percent.
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April 22, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Syria’s authoritarian ruler Bashar al-Assad has lifted a notorious emergency law, after 50 years during which his family has used it to stamp out dissent and democratic process. It was the boldest and most significant concession to date, in the political response to ongoing protests in Syria, but it has not quelled the pro-democracy protests, [...]
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March 27, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
Reports from Tokyo today have authorities telling residents water is now safe for infant consumption, even as reports from Fukushima show radiation levels may have surged to 10 million times the normal level. Readings taken 30 miles out to sea have found radiation levels in seawater at 1,850 times the normal level. More nations around the Pacific Ocean are expressing concern about the handling of the disaster.
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March 23, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
The royal family ruling Bahrain has taken a military approach to its people’s demand for more democracy. The royal family, increasingly desperate to hold onto power by any means necessary, first called in foreign mercenaries, then the Saudi army, which now effectively occupies the capital, Manama. Reports coming from Manama say doctors and demonstrators gave told the press that Bahraini and/or Saudi forces surrounded the city’s largest hospital to prevent people attacked by gunfire and teargas from getting treatment.
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March 19, 2011 :: staff :: One Comment
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously this week to authorize the enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya, and gave member nations the power to take “all necessary measures” to protect civilians. NATO and an alliance of Arab countries are now orchestrating airstrikes against Libyan military positions, to clear the ground for a secure [...]
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March 17, 2011 :: The Editors :: 3 Comments
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously today —with five abstentions— to support the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya, authorizing military action against Muammar Qadhafi, to halt his war against the people of his own country. Qadhafi and his sons have been waging a full-scale military assault against civilians and rebel forces supporting [...]
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March 17, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
The regime in Bahrain is now officially killing civilians in order to halt what is increasingly a demand for full democratic rights. At first, the democracy movement in Bahrain was not calling for the removal of the king or the al-Khalifa family. But once security forces began cracking down violently on peaceful demonstrators in central [...]
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March 17, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
National Public Radio is a resource that belongs to the American people. It is not government controlled, has no editorial bias in terms of ideology or party, and is the nation’s most extensive network of committed professional journalists delivering reliable information to American citizens, via the radio. Federal funding is a commitment to enabling the American people to benefit from the founding principle that a free and independent press makes us freer and more resilient to the challenges a democracy faces.
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March 16, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
A report from the American Medical Association finds the US is not prepared to deal with the public health crisis that would ensue from a major nuclear accident. There is also evidence suggesting that aging nuclear plants are less stable and less secure than the public is led to believe. Indeed, radiation releases are surprisingly and disturbingly common.
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