As the planet’s economy keeps stumbling, the phrase “worst recession since the Great Depression” has become the new “global war on terror” — a term whose overuse has rendered it both meaningless and acronym-worthy. And just like that previously ubiquitous phrase, references to the WRSTGD are almost always followed by flimsy and contradictory explanations. Republicans [...]
The specter of 1937 is haunting the world again. This piece from the New York Times’ David Leonhardt, who warns that the global decision to cut government spending and tighten the austerity belt runs a very real risk of cutting short a shaky economic recovery — a repeat of the events that occurred in the [...]
War Is Making You Poor Act – HR5353 : Rep. Grayson introduces a bill to cut separate funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and uses the money to eliminate federal income taxes on every American’s first $35,000 of income. Cosponsors of this bill include Ron Paul, Walter Jones, John Conyers, Lynn Woolsey, and Dennis [...]
Filed in News Blurbs
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Also tagged Afghanistan War, Alan Grayson, Dennis Kucinich, Federal Debt, Federal Deficit, House, Iraq War, John Conyers, Lynn Woolsey, Pentagon, Ron Paul, Taxation, Walter Jones, War Spending
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Year over year, productivity growth was at its highest level in over 50 years last quarter, pushing corporate profits to record highs and helping the economy grow. But a huge group of people are being left out of the party. Millions of workers who have already been unemployed for months, if not years, will most [...]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0a6jyuxm1s[/youtube] “These guys on Wall Street, they don’t render any services at all. They don’t help the economy any except their own employees, their own little family.” — protester Paul Akers “Wall Street has taken so much money from the American people and haven’t given anything back, and it’s absolutely absurd.” — Jim Brown, operating [...]
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
One study after another purports to chronicle how much intellectual property piracy hurts the economy, and contributes to every societal ill from terrorism to child porn and slavery. A new study unveiled Tuesday sets out to examine intellectual property in a different light: How fair use — which doesn’t require permission from the copyright holder — actually benefits [...]
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
About 40% of freelancers had trouble getting paid in 2009, according to a survey released in mid-April by the New York-based Freelancers Union, a 135,000-member organization for independent contractors across the country in fields such as media, technology, and advertising. It was the first year the group asked the question on its member survey. And [...]
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
“How does that differ from going out to Caesar’s Palace, the sports book, and making a wager on the outcome of an athletic contest?” Senator John McCain of Arizona asked C.E.O. Lloyd Blankfein. But the Republicans’ whacking of Wall Street’s wise guys lost a little of its punch when you knew that they were ducking [...]
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Who Wants to Beat a Millionaire www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party Even though the Senate is too paralyzed by partisan politics to impact the financial crisis, it can still express good old-fashioned impotent rage. Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., was [...]
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
We speak with investigative journalist, filmmaker, and author Danny Schechter, ‘the News Dissector.’ His latest film features interviews with industry insiders to reveal how the financial crisis was built on a foundation of criminal activity. It’s called “Plunder: The Crime Of Our Time.” via Democracy Now!
One evening last month, the mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, took to the podium at a downtown theater. The occasion was the state of the city address, and despite the mayor’s best effort to project optimism, the truths facing America’s 11th largest city are grim. The budget deficit is at least $85 million. The police [...]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o1R16juyQ4[/youtube] whitehouse — April 22, 2010 — Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, answers your questions about the clean energy economy. WhiteHouse.gov/earthday
Filed in Green Living, News Blurbs
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Also tagged Air Quality, Automotive Sector, Batteries, Carbon Cap, CEQ, China, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Congress, Copenhagen, DOE, DOT, Earth Day 2010, Ecology, Ecosystems, Education, Employment, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Energy Star, Environment, EPA, Everglades, Fuel Economy Standards, Funding, Green Energy, Green Tech, Greenhouse Gases, Homeowners, HomeStar, India, Investments, Jobs, Legislation, National Security, Nuclear Power, Pentagon, Rapid Mass Transit, Rebates, Recovery Act, Regulations, Renewable Energy, Research and Development, Retrofitting, Smart Grid, Solar Power, Tax Credits, Technology, Transportation, Universities, Water, Wind Power
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On Monday, February 22, the Seattle City Council announced that a carbon neutral Seattle was one of our 2010 priorities. We knew this was about as ambitious a goal as you could imagine. But we also knew that reality demands no less. It’s exciting and challenging—and on the cutting edge for a City government. And [...]
California’s current budget gap may be large at $20 billion, but it is not unique, and the outcome will be closely watched. The National Governors Association says the recession will not end in some states until 2012. As California moves closer to a vote on legalizing marijuana, which most states banned in the 1930s, the [...]
Filed in Cannabis, News Blurbs
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Also tagged California, Cannabis, Hemp, Legalization, Marijuana, Massachusetts, Medical Marijuana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, State Budgets, Virginia, Washington
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Some background: Economic liberalism has typically focused on using the government’s treasury as a means to ends, whether those ends are better healthcare (Medicare/Medicaid), stronger job growth (tax credits) or more robust export businesses (corporate subsidies). The idea is that taxpayer dollars can help individuals afford bare necessities and entice institutions to support the common [...]
Capitalism and socialism. Imagine if we just got some clarity on these basic terms alone. First, capitalism. To most of us, it’s quintessentially American. Many of us assume it’s democracy’s essential partner. But what is it? Capitalism is an economic system in which the person or body owning capital—productive resources like raw material and labor—has [...]
Filed in News Blurbs, Notable
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Also tagged Capitalism, Civic Accountability, Democratic Socialism, Disparity, Exports, Frances Moore Lappe, Freedom, Power Distribution, Social Democracy, Socialism, Trade, Wealth, Wealth Concentration
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Activists estimate that California could earn 1.5 billion dollars in excise taxes, and save another billion dollars currently spent on law enforcement and prisons by legalizing cannabis. They also point to earnings for marijuana-linked businesses. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in California estimated the total economic impact of such a move [...]
“A fiscal Frankenstein”; so said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) about the health care bill just passed by the Congress. Soulmate Republicans echoed his warning, predicting budgetary doom. But GOP legislators who cry fiscal wolf are twice trapped. For eight years, they aided and abetted as President Bush turned a budget surplus into a $1.2 trillion deficit. [...]
Far from being a war between hippies and police, the fight to legalize marijuana in California centers on whether decriminalizing and taxing cannabis can help fill the state’s fiscal hole. Using the drug for medical purposes has been legal for 14 years in the western state. But a new initiative that will appear on the [...]
You will have noticed that this is not, at heart, a drugs story. It’s a money story. More and more young professional Britons are turning to cannabis cultivation as a profit-making venture. They are teachers, lawyers, designers, property developers and plumbers. They should be thriving in the legitimate success of their careers but, somehow, they [...]
Imagine, for a moment, if Pentagon officials, supposedly toiling in our name, actually condescended to ask us for our thoughts. What do we think about global military strategy, garrisoning the planet, the ways in which our forces are structured, and how, where, and for what they should be deployed abroad? Sound crazy? Here in the U.S.A. [...]
Filed in Essays, News Blurbs
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Also tagged Afghanistan War, Contractors, DOD, Homeless, Homeless Veterans, Homelessness, Housing, Iraq War, Jobs, Military, Military Spending, Pentagon, Poverty, Unemployment, VA, Veterans, Veterans Administration
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During the glory days of the 1950s, Detroit was a booming metropolis of approximately 2 million people, but now young people have left in droves and the current population is less than a million. The true unemployment rate for those still living in Detroit is estimated to be somewhere around 45 to 50 percent, and [...]
One day, Obama is saying he will sign no health care bill without a government-run “public option”; the next, he all but drops it. One day, he is bashing the “shameful” bonuses for “fat-cat bankers” at bailed-out firms, the next he is serving dinner to corporate titans at the White House and saying he does [...]
About half the states in the US require that a woman seeking an abortion be told certain things before she can obtain the medical procedure. In South Dakota, for example, until a few months ago, staff was required to tell women: “The abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being”; [...]
“I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” – Rebecca West March, as many of you know, is Women’s History Month. But today is the 100th International Women’s Day. One of the themes for this year’s International Women’s Day celebration is “equal rights, [...]
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