RUSS BAKER – Conventional journalism is increasingly irrelevant in a time of crisis. We find abundant proof in a recent column from the New York Times’ so-called “Public Editor,†who is supposed to somehow magically represent the public interest and rarefied ethical values to the rest of the paper.
Category: Archive
World Headed for Irreversible Climate Change in Five Years, IEA Warns
FIONA HARVEY – If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will ‘lose for ever’ the chance to avoid dangerous climate change.
The Curiosity Mission: Nukes in Space
KARL GROSSMAN – NASA intends in coming weeks to launch a rover to be deployed on Mars fueled with 10.6 pounds of plutonium. Opponents of the launch in Florida, concerned about an accident releasing deadly plutonium, such as the explosion of the rocket that’s to loft the rover, have created a Facebook page warning people not to visit Disney theme parks in Orlando during the November 25-to-December 15 launch window. “Don’t Do Disney brought to you by NASA,†the Facebook page is titled. Other actions are planned.
Can Occupy Open the Door to a Better World?
PETER BERGEL – The Occupy movement has opened space for a national – even international – dialogue on the kind of world we want to live in. It has empowered many citizens to find the audacity and courage to think outside the box – to consider sweeping solutions that were off the table a few short weeks ago.
Will Obama Take Us to War in Iran?
NICK HOPKINS – Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.
A 51st State for Armed Robotic Drones
DAVID SWANSON – Weaponized UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), also known as drones, have their own caucus in Congress, and the Pentagon’s plan is to give them their own state as well.
Worst Congress. Ever.
RT.COM BLOG – In the 34 years that an ongoing poll has asked Americans for their take on Congress, never in the three-decade span has that number dipped into the single digits. Never, at least, until now. The results of the latest survey from CBS News and The New York Times confirm that Congress’ job approval rating is at an all-time low.
Despite Bombings & Beheadings, Stats Show a Peaceful World
SETH BORENSTEIN – It seems as if violence is everywhere, but it’s really on the run. Yes, thousands of people have died in bloody unrest from Africa to Pakistan, while terrorists plot bombings and kidnappings. Wars drag on in Iraq and Afghanistan. In peaceful Norway, a man massacred 69 youths in July. In Mexico, headless bodies turn up, victims of drug cartels. This month eight people died in a shooting in a California hair salon. Yet, historically, we’ve never had it this peaceful.
The Meagerness of the Republican Debates, the Smallness of the President’s Solutions, and the Need for a Progessive Alternative
ROBERT REICH – Republicans are debating again tomorrow night. And once again, Americans will hear the standard regressive litany: government is bad, Medicare and Medicaid should be cut, “Obamacare†is killing the economy, undocumented immigrants are taking our jobs, the military should get more money, taxes should be lowered on corporations and the rich, and regulations should be gutted.
We the 99% Demand a Totally Different Federal Budget
DAVID SWANSON – We can fit our demands on a bumpersticker: “Majority Rule” or “People Over Profits” or “Love Not Greed.” But we don’t want to. Our government is doing everything wrong, and we should be allowed to present the full list of grievances. We can, however, give the world a thousand words’ worth in an image, a pie chart to be exact. Our federal budget funds the wrong things. We want it to fund the right things.
Selling Out Children to the Military
TERI SHOFNER – On Monday, October 17, a few concerned parents came to the business meeting of the Portland Public School Board of Education to ask that they turn away the military’s offer to take 5th graders out of school to a military base. We’ve been asking them very politely for several years, even though they have given us almost no notice of their intentions to vote on this military program called Starbase—and for the third year in a row they gave us less than one day’s notice, apparently hoping for minimal public turnout
Patagonia: Building A Strong Brand Out Of Old Clothes
MARC STOIBER – Every once in a while, a completely counterintuitive idea comes along, shakes up our assumptions, and becomes the new normal. I believe Patagonia Clothing’s Common Threads initiative is an idea like that. If you follow green business news, you’ll recall Common Threads making headlines a few weeks ago.
How Gas Cars Use More Electricity Than Electric Ones
SEBASTIAN BLANCO – EVangelist Peder Norby, who has been having more fun driving and writing about his Mini E than anyone at BMW probably thought possible, recently wrote a most interesting post comparing electricity usage to produce gasoline to the electricity needed to drive an electric car. The short version: “It takes more electricity to drive the average gasoline car 100 miles, than it does to drive an electric car 100 miles.”
A Movement Too Big to Fail
CHRIS HEDGES – There is no danger that the protesters who have occupied squares, parks and plazas across the nation in defiance of the corporate state will be co-opted by the Democratic Party or groups like MoveOn. The faux liberal reformers, whose abject failure to stand up for the rights of the poor and the working class, have signed on to this movement because they fear becoming irrelevant. Union leaders, who pull down salaries five times that of the rank and file as they bargain away rights and benefits, know the foundations are shaking.
Does ‘Political Disobedience’ Describe the Occupy Movement?
BERNARD E. HARCOURT – Our language has not yet caught up with the political phenomenon that is emerging in Zuccotti Park and spreading across the nation, though it is clear that a political paradigm shift is taking place before our very eyes. It’s time to begin to name and in naming, to better understand this moment. So let me propose some words: “political disobedience.â€
5 Facts You Should Know About the Wealthiest One Percent of Americans
ZAID JILANI – It may shock you to learn exactly how wealthy this top 1 percent of Americans is.
As the ongoing occupation of Wall Street by hundreds of protesters enters its third week — and as protests spread to other cities such as Boston and Los Angeles — demonstrators have endorsed a new slogan: “We are the 99 percent.†This slogan refers to an economic struggle between 99 percent of Americans and the richest 1 percent of Americans, who are increasingly accumulating a greater share of the national wealth to the detriment of the middle class.
Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now
NAOMI KLEIN – I was honored to be invited to speak at Occupy Wall Street on Thursday night. Since amplification is (disgracefully) banned, and everything I say will have to be repeated by hundreds of people so others can hear (a k a “the human microphoneâ€), what I actually say at Liberty Plaza will have to be very short. With that in mind, here is the longer, uncut version of the speech.
Americans Finally Join the Wave of Healthy Global Protest
RANDALL AMSTER – “Hello, you’ve reached the people of the United States of America. We’re away from our desks right now, and perhaps for good — so instead of leaving a message for us, we encourage you to take your messages directly to the halls of power for their consideration. If you require immediate assistance, do not ask the agents of governments or corporations, but organize in your own communities instead. For directory assistance, get out in the streets and talk to others concerned about the direction of the nation and world. To be connected to an operator, follow the protest signs and/or the smell of teargas in the financial districts across the country. And if you should become disconnected … we are very happy to welcome you home to the movement!â€
Green Transition is on the Global Agenda
HAZEL HENDERSON – Every country in the world is actively participating in preparations for Rio+20, the follow-up Earth Summit in Brazil, June 2012, to stimulate the transition to a green economy. The powerful 34 countries of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) have a Green Growth Strategy; the EU views “a transition to a green economy is imperative;†the U.S. focuses on “elimination of fossil fuel subsidies;” and Switzerland calls for a “green economy roadmap.”
World Divided on New Plan to Combat Global Warming
DAVID FOGARTY – A new plan to curb global warming risks becoming a battleground between rich and poor nations and could struggle to get off the ground as negotiators battle over the fate of the ailing Kyoto climate pact.
Peace Lecturer Will Be Famed Palestinian Journalist
PETER BERGEL – Rami Khouri will deliver Salem’s annual Peace Lecture on October 19th at 7:30 p.m. at Willamette University’s Hudson Hall in the Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center. As this year’s Peace Lecturer, Khouri becomes the 22nd speaker in a series which has featured such luminaries as Daniel Ellsberg, Philip Berrigan, Helen Caldicott, Jonathan Schell, Dolores Huertaand many others. The lecture is free and open to the public. His topic is “The Arab Spring: Revolution or Evolution?â€
What Needs Changing?
JONATHAN WILLIAMS – How do we win? How do we get our demands met? We need power. But what is power? How do we get it? Simply put, power is the ability to act; the ability to end the wars, the ability to convert our economy, the ability to change the world. But how do we get that kind of power?
10 Myths That Keep Us From Creating The World We Want
FRANCES MOORE LAPPE – From Diet for a Small Planet exactly 40 years ago, it dawned on me that humans are actively creating the scarcity we say we are trying to escape. Whoa! Why would our bright species do such a thing? Researching my new book, EcoMind, Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want (Nation Books), I discovered that it is the power of ideas.
Kansas City Here It Comes: A New Nuclear Weapons Plant
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – Should the U.S. government be building more nuclear weapons? Residents of Kansas City, Missouri don’t appear to think so, for they are engaged in a bitter fight against the construction of a new nuclear weapons plant in their community.
New Database of Nonviolent Campaigns Now Available
GEORGE LAKEY – I am happy to announce that a four-year project is now ready for release to you: 430 cases (and growing) of campaigns from around the world that used nonviolent direct action.
Coral Reefs ‘Will Be Gone By End of the Century’
ANDREW MARSZAL – Coral reefs are on course to become the first ecosystem that human activity will eliminate entirely from the Earth, a leading United Nations scientist claims. He says this event will occur before the end of the present century, which means that there are children already born who will live to see a world without coral.
Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult
MIKE LOFGREN – Both parties are rotten – how could they not be, given the complete infestation of the political system by corporate money on a scale that now requires a presidential candidate to raise upwards of a billion dollars to be competitive in the general election? Both parties are captives to corporate loot.
Progressives Propose to Challenge Obama in Primaries
SINGLE PAYER ACTION BLOG – Progressive leaders, led by Ralph Nader and Cornel West unveiled a proposal this week to challenge President Obama in the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries in 2012.
Don’t Cut International Humanitarian Assistance
CORY MCMAHON & RICHARD CLARK – Genocide expert Daniel Goldhagen has shown that genocide — which includes deliberate famine and other silent killing campaigns — has occurred more than 70 times since 1900 with a death toll of at least 127 million, outnumbering the casualties of all of mankind’s 20th century wars. It is no wonder that Goldhagen calls genocide an “urgent first order global problem.â€
Do We Have Our Priorities Straight?
BETSY CRITES – What do Durham and Afghanistan have in common? We are worlds apart, but we both have people who need jobs, health care, schools, transportation and sewers, and help for our homeless, elderly and hungry. Neither of us is getting our critical needs met in part because a war neither of us really wants is draining our economies, killing and injuring our young people, and depleting our spirits.
Our Future Is Not Being Televised
PETER BERGEL – On Tuesday night a reported 100,000 Americans joined Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz for a national conversation about breaking the partisan gridlock in Washington DC. It was another great example of the growing willingness of ordinary people to reclaim their power from those to whom they have delegated it, only to see it abused.
North Dakota’s Economic “Miracle” – It’s Not Oil
ELLEN BROWN – The state-owned Bank of North Dakota is credited with the state’s relatively healthy economy.
Your Taxes Fund Anti-Muslim Hatred
CHRIS HEDGES – News personalities, politicians, self-appointed experts on the Muslim world, and law enforcement and intelligence officials, as well as the Christian right, have successfully demonized Muslims in the United States since the attacks of 2001. It is acceptable to say things openly about Muslims that could never be said about any other ethnic group.
Ten Years After 9/11: The Dollars and Sense of War
NATIONAL PRIORITIES PROJECT – Friday, October 7, 2011 will mark ten years since the beginning of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. In light of an already increasing level of interest, the National Priorities Project (NPP) has released new numbers, analysis and tools around the costs of a decade at war.
Green Sectors Top $2.4 Trillion at Midyear
ETHICAL MARKETS MEDIA – Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil) has released its August 2011 update of the Green Transition Scoreboard® which tracks private sector investments since 2007 in green companies and technologies globally. These investments now totalmore than $2.4 trillion.
Fund Our Communities – Bring Our War Dollars Home
PEACE ACTION – U.S. military spending is higher than it has been since World War II, at a level difficult to justify by any threats to the American people. A close look at U.S. military spending shows that it is directed toward threats posed by conventional opponents such as the Soviet Union. That is, we are preparing to fight the last war.
Eight Alternatives to Hitting Children
KERBY T. ALVY – Another tragic example of parental corporal punishment that spiraled out of control occurred recently in Phoenix, AZ, when a six-year-old boy named Jacob was beaten severely by his parents. Because of the extent of his injuries (which were likely caused by a belt buckle and possibly a wire hanger according to the police), Jacob isn’t expected to survive.
The Future of Food – The Global South Shows the Way
JAMES O’NIONS – Last week in the town of Krems in Austria, 400 people met to discuss the future of our food system. Delegates from around 40 countries met to discuss how to progress towards “food sovereignty” in Europe. Food sovereignty is a radical proposal for the production and distribution of food that is sustainable, healthy, fair to producers and, above all, democratic.
Who’s Really Writing States’ Legislation?
David Ball – Republican legislators picked up 680 seats in state house and senate chambers in the 2010 elections. “They now hold more state legislative seats than at any time since 1928, the year that Herbert Hoover came to the presidency,” says reporter John Nichols. “They control 25 states [with] both houses of the legislature. There are also 21 states where Republicans control both houses of the legislature and the governorship.
Libya and Beyond: How Did We Get There and What Happens Next?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH – Libyan rebels have entered Tripoli. As gun battles break out across the city, it is timely to enter into a discussion as to how the rebels arrived there. It is time to review the curious role of NATO and the future of U.S. interventionism.
Are We On the Brink of a New Great Awakening?
WINSLOW MYERS – The brilliance of the “Mad Men†television series lies in the crackerjack acting and script, but even more in the way the series dramatizes the paradigm shift of American women from gross subjugation to rough equality.
The Post-Western World is Coming On Fast
KENNETH RAPOZA – The economic crisis in advanced economies is accelerating the timeline in which big emerging nations like China rule the global economy. Instead of the market focusing on American shopping habits, they’ll be focused on consumers in Shanghai and Mumbai. Unless the US can recover the 8.5 million jobs it lost in the recession, and unless incomes begin rising, the US will be knocked off its pedestal within a generation. The post-Western world is coming faster than we think.
The Middle East and the Debt Ceiling Conflict — The Similarities and Challenges of Ideological Conflicts
DOUGLAS E. NOLL – Those of us outside of Washington D.C. are faced with potential disaster if our elected representatives cannot compromise on debt ceiling limits. The conflict has spiraled into pure ideology. As a mediator and peacemaker, I deal with this type of conflict frequently.
Our Biggest Security Threat Is Global Warming-Induced Extreme Weather
SCOTT THILL – Scientists have been predicting for years that global warming would produce record-breaking extremes on either side of the thermometer. This past winter, America survived its so-called snowpocalypse, and now that summer has arrived, we’ve got a heat dome.
Climate Change Movement Initiates Civil Resistance
BILL MCKIBBEN – Ain’t eBay grand? For $10 you can buy a sack of 50 assorted Obama ’08 buttons, and that’s what I’ve been doing. If you look closely, you might see them this weekend on the lapels of some of the global warming protesters holding a sit-in outside the White House.
Want to Slash the Debt? Here’s a Quarter Trillion
LAWRENCE WITTNER – In the midst of the current stampede to slash federal spending, Congress might want to take a look at two unnecessary (and dangerous) “national security” programs that, if cut, would save the United States over a quarter of a trillion dollars over the next decade.
UCS Scientist Separates Electric Car Fact from Hype
DAVID FRIEDMAN – With the battery-electric Nissan Leaf and the gas-electric, plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt now on the showroom floor, and with plans by most major car companies to offer at least one model driven partially or completely by batteries or fuel cells in the next few years, we stand at the cusp of an exciting—even electrifying (forgive the pun)—transition in the auto industry.
Debt Deal Will Increase Economic Inequality, Devastate American Workers, Communities
BRIAN J. TRAUTMAN – The debt deal cuts roughly $2.4 trillion in federal spending over the next decade without any new revenue streams. It slashes social services like education and health, and threatens to weaken the vital entitlement programs of our frayed social safety net. It is far from representing the shared sacrifice that an overwhelming majority of the American people had demanded of their elected officials in the days and weeks leading up to the debate and negotiation.
Rioting for ‘Justice’ in London
JESSE STRAUSS – On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered outside the Tottenham police station, peacefully calling for “justice” for Mark Duggan, a man killed by officers three days prior. Police stood in formation, separating the community members from the station they were guarding, until a 16-year-old woman reportedly approached an officer to find out what was going on. According to a witness account, some officers pushed the young woman and drew their batons. “And that’s when the people started to retaliate. Now I think in all circumstances, having seen that, most people retaliate,” said the witness.
Congress Needs Basic Reform
DAVID BALL – I am writing to you today to pass on some information that I came upon recently that I thought you at Oregon PeaceWorks might be interested in. This is bipartisan in nature and is aimed at both Democrats and Republicans.