Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
May 27, 2012
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the 99% knocking on Timmy Geithner's door looking for 'reform' of criminal behavior. In the second half of the show Max talks to independent video journalist, Luke Rudkowski, about livestreaming to the world from a smartphone and his recent work covering the NATO summit in Chicago.
Max Keiser: Reform = Crime To Favor Wall St. Crooks
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the 99% knocking on Timmy Geithner's door looking for 'reform' of criminal behavior. In the second half of the show Max talks to independent video journalist, Luke Rudkowski, about livestreaming to the world from a smartphone and his recent work covering the NATO summit in Chicago.
May 27, 2012
Published on May 25, 2012 by RussiaToday
Student protests in Canada escalate as nearly 700 people were arrested on Wednesday night alone. The rallies against the proposed tuition fee increases have been going on for over a 100 days in Quebec. Many of those detained were carted off in public buses, which police converted into temporary holding pens. The demonstrations swelled after Quebec's government passed emergency laws last week to make the protests more difficult to organize. For more on the situation RT talks to Corey Pool, news editor of Concordia University's The Link, newspaper.
Montreal Mayhem: 'Protests grow beyond just student issue'
Published on May 25, 2012 by RussiaToday
Student protests in Canada escalate as nearly 700 people were arrested on Wednesday night alone. The rallies against the proposed tuition fee increases have been going on for over a 100 days in Quebec. Many of those detained were carted off in public buses, which police converted into temporary holding pens. The demonstrations swelled after Quebec's government passed emergency laws last week to make the protests more difficult to organize. For more on the situation RT talks to Corey Pool, news editor of Concordia University's The Link, newspaper.
May 27, 2012
from the Toronto Star:
A lonely stray dog from the heart of China has won thousands of fans – and a new life – after following a cross-country bike race for 24 days.
The China Daily reports that Zhang Heng, 22, took up a grueling, mountainous bike race as a graduation trip to see if he could make it alone.
On a stop in Sichuan province, he encountered a ratty white dog that looked hungry.
“She was lying, tired, on the street,” Heng told reporters. “So we fed her, and then she followed our team.” ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/1194920--stray-dog-joins-china-mountain-bike-race-travels-2-000-kilometres?bn=1
Stray dog joins China mountain bike race, travels 2,000 kilometres
from the Toronto Star:
A lonely stray dog from the heart of China has won thousands of fans – and a new life – after following a cross-country bike race for 24 days.
The China Daily reports that Zhang Heng, 22, took up a grueling, mountainous bike race as a graduation trip to see if he could make it alone.
On a stop in Sichuan province, he encountered a ratty white dog that looked hungry.
“She was lying, tired, on the street,” Heng told reporters. “So we fed her, and then she followed our team.” ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/1194920--stray-dog-joins-china-mountain-bike-race-travels-2-000-kilometres?bn=1
May 27, 2012
Published on Saturday, May 26, 2012 by Common Dreams
Quebec Labor Unions Join Students in Historic Fight Against 'Bill 78'
'Biggest constitutional challenge in Quebec history” say students, labor
- Common Dreams staff
Not lightning, not heavy rain, nor threat of police arrest kept protesters off the streets of Montreal and other Quebec cities on Friday night, as violent rainstorm was met only with another rowdy demonstrations as students and citizens banged on pots and pans to continue their promise to hold nightly events until what they call is a 'draconian law' is overturned.
Friday nights rally culminated a week that saw over 2,500 arrests by Montreal police.
Earlier on Friday, three main student groups, who organized a march of over 400,000 Montreal students and citizens earlier this week and have been the driving force behind a protest movement that has only grown since it began in February, joined with over a hundred labor unions to file legal action against the Quebec government's Bill 78 -- a piece of emergency legislation that the groups claim suppresses dissent, restricts the right to peaceably assemble and, according to some, have the real intention of splitting up the student associations who have been so effective in challenging the government.
Lawyers worked through the night to complete their challenge, said Léo Bureau-Blouin, president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, at a press conference outside the Montreal courthouse on Friday. “It’s the biggest constitutional challenge in Quebec history.” ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/26-4
Quebec Labor Unions Join Students in Historic Fight Against 'Bill 78'
Published on Saturday, May 26, 2012 by Common Dreams
Quebec Labor Unions Join Students in Historic Fight Against 'Bill 78'
'Biggest constitutional challenge in Quebec history” say students, labor
- Common Dreams staff
Not lightning, not heavy rain, nor threat of police arrest kept protesters off the streets of Montreal and other Quebec cities on Friday night, as violent rainstorm was met only with another rowdy demonstrations as students and citizens banged on pots and pans to continue their promise to hold nightly events until what they call is a 'draconian law' is overturned.
Friday nights rally culminated a week that saw over 2,500 arrests by Montreal police.
Earlier on Friday, three main student groups, who organized a march of over 400,000 Montreal students and citizens earlier this week and have been the driving force behind a protest movement that has only grown since it began in February, joined with over a hundred labor unions to file legal action against the Quebec government's Bill 78 -- a piece of emergency legislation that the groups claim suppresses dissent, restricts the right to peaceably assemble and, according to some, have the real intention of splitting up the student associations who have been so effective in challenging the government.
Lawyers worked through the night to complete their challenge, said Léo Bureau-Blouin, president of the Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec, at a press conference outside the Montreal courthouse on Friday. “It’s the biggest constitutional challenge in Quebec history.” ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/26-4
May 26, 2012
Published on Friday, May 25, 2012 by Common Dreams
On Memorial Day Weekend, America Reckons with Torture
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
Facing the truth is hard to do, especially the truth about ourselves. So Americans have been sorely pressed to come to terms with the fact that after 9/11 our government began to torture people, and did so in defiance of domestic and international law. Most of us haven’t come to terms with what that meant, or means today, but we must reckon with torture, the torture done in our name, allegedly for our safety.
It’s no secret such cruelty occurred; it’s just the truth we’d rather not think about. But Memorial Day is a good time to make the effort. Because if we really want to honor the Americans in uniform who gave their lives fighting for their country, we’ll redouble our efforts to make sure we’re worthy of their sacrifice; we’ll renew our commitment to the rule of law, for the rule of law is essential to any civilization worth dying for.
After 9/11, our government turned to torture, seeking information about the terrorists who committed the atrocity and others who might follow after them. Senior officials ordered the torture of men at military bases and detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq, in secret CIA prisons set up across the globe, and in other countries – including Libya and Egypt — where abusive regimes were asked to do Washington’s dirty work.
The best known of all the prisons remains Guantanamo on the southeast coast of Cuba. For years, the United States naval base there seemed like an isolated vestige of the Cold War – defying the occasional threat from Fidel Castro to shut it down. But since 9/11, Guantanamo – Gitmo – has been a detention center, an extraterritorial island jail considered outside the jurisdiction of U.S. civilian courts and rules of evidence. Like the notorious Room 101 of George Orwell’s 1984, the chamber that contains the thing each victim fears the most to make them confess, Guantanamo’s name has become synonymous with torture. Nearly 800 people have been held there. George W. Bush eventually released 500 of them, sometimes after years of confinement and cruelty. Barack Obama has freed 67, but 169 remain, even though the president pledged to close the Guantanamo prison within a year of his inauguration. Now, forty-six are so dangerous, our government says, they will be held indefinitely, without trial. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/25
Bill Moyers/Michael Winship: On Memorial Day Weekend, America Reckons with Torture
Published on Friday, May 25, 2012 by Common Dreams
On Memorial Day Weekend, America Reckons with Torture
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
Facing the truth is hard to do, especially the truth about ourselves. So Americans have been sorely pressed to come to terms with the fact that after 9/11 our government began to torture people, and did so in defiance of domestic and international law. Most of us haven’t come to terms with what that meant, or means today, but we must reckon with torture, the torture done in our name, allegedly for our safety.
It’s no secret such cruelty occurred; it’s just the truth we’d rather not think about. But Memorial Day is a good time to make the effort. Because if we really want to honor the Americans in uniform who gave their lives fighting for their country, we’ll redouble our efforts to make sure we’re worthy of their sacrifice; we’ll renew our commitment to the rule of law, for the rule of law is essential to any civilization worth dying for.
After 9/11, our government turned to torture, seeking information about the terrorists who committed the atrocity and others who might follow after them. Senior officials ordered the torture of men at military bases and detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq, in secret CIA prisons set up across the globe, and in other countries – including Libya and Egypt — where abusive regimes were asked to do Washington’s dirty work.
The best known of all the prisons remains Guantanamo on the southeast coast of Cuba. For years, the United States naval base there seemed like an isolated vestige of the Cold War – defying the occasional threat from Fidel Castro to shut it down. But since 9/11, Guantanamo – Gitmo – has been a detention center, an extraterritorial island jail considered outside the jurisdiction of U.S. civilian courts and rules of evidence. Like the notorious Room 101 of George Orwell’s 1984, the chamber that contains the thing each victim fears the most to make them confess, Guantanamo’s name has become synonymous with torture. Nearly 800 people have been held there. George W. Bush eventually released 500 of them, sometimes after years of confinement and cruelty. Barack Obama has freed 67, but 169 remain, even though the president pledged to close the Guantanamo prison within a year of his inauguration. Now, forty-six are so dangerous, our government says, they will be held indefinitely, without trial. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/25
May 25, 2012
A Last (Chemical) Gasp for Bees?
from YES! Magazine:
A Last (Chemical) Gasp for Bees?
Colony collapse disorder threatens food crops valued at $15 billion a year. New research says farm chemicals put our food system at risk.
by Shannan Stoll
posted May 24, 2012
Newly published scientific evidence is bolstering calls for greater regulation of some of the world’s most widely used pesticides and genetically modified crops.
Earlier this year, three independent studies linked agricultural insecticides to colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that leads honeybees to abandon their hives.
Beekeepers have reported alarming losses in their hives over the last six years. The USDA reports the loss in the United States was about 30 percent in the winter of 2010-2011.
Bees are crucial pollinators in the ecosystem. Their loss also impacts the estimated $15 billion worth of fruit and vegetable crops that are pollinated by bees in the United States. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/making-it-home/bee-decline-blamed-on-pesticides
May 25, 2012
from truthdig:
A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else
Posted on May 25, 2012
By David Sirota
Headlines transmit information in its rawest form—and the best of headlines crystallize indelible truths. Such was the case this week when the New York Daily News blared this simple but iconic headline: “Cuomo: Minimum Wage Harder to Get Than Gay Marriage.”
The story quoted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, claiming that the effort to raise wages for the poorest of his constituents represents a “broader and deeper” divide than the recent successful fight to legalize same-sex matrimony in the Empire State. Though the piece quickly dissolved into the ether, it should have received more attention because it is an important Rosetta Stone—one that translates this era’s inscrutable political rhetoric into a clear admission that money trumps everything else.
Decoding this Rosetta Stone requires just a bit of contextual information from Siena College. According to the school’s surveys, only 58 percent of New Yorkers support legalizing gay marriage, while a whopping 78 percent support raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50.
Put Cuomo’s declaration next to those numbers, and the revelation emerges: In a political arena dominated by corporate money, the governor is acknowledging that politicians will champion initiatives that don’t challenge corporate power, but will avoid promoting those that do. Not only that, Cuomo is admitting this is the case regardless of public opinion. .......(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_rare_admission_that_money_trumps_everything_else_20120525/
David Sirota: A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else
from truthdig:
A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else
Posted on May 25, 2012
By David Sirota
Headlines transmit information in its rawest form—and the best of headlines crystallize indelible truths. Such was the case this week when the New York Daily News blared this simple but iconic headline: “Cuomo: Minimum Wage Harder to Get Than Gay Marriage.”
The story quoted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, claiming that the effort to raise wages for the poorest of his constituents represents a “broader and deeper” divide than the recent successful fight to legalize same-sex matrimony in the Empire State. Though the piece quickly dissolved into the ether, it should have received more attention because it is an important Rosetta Stone—one that translates this era’s inscrutable political rhetoric into a clear admission that money trumps everything else.
Decoding this Rosetta Stone requires just a bit of contextual information from Siena College. According to the school’s surveys, only 58 percent of New Yorkers support legalizing gay marriage, while a whopping 78 percent support raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.50.
Put Cuomo’s declaration next to those numbers, and the revelation emerges: In a political arena dominated by corporate money, the governor is acknowledging that politicians will champion initiatives that don’t challenge corporate power, but will avoid promoting those that do. Not only that, Cuomo is admitting this is the case regardless of public opinion. .......(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_rare_admission_that_money_trumps_everything_else_20120525/
May 24, 2012
Toronto cycling by the numbers
from NOW Toronto:
http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=186904
May 24, 2012
from Dissent magazine:
Losing One Generation After Another: When Will We Stop the Carnage?
Peter Edelman - May 22, 2012
The overincarceration of African American and Latino young men is a national scandal. Low-income young men of color—especially those growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods—are fated under current circumstances to end up in prison in percentages that far exceed their share of the population. We are losing generation after generation.
Check the boxes: father in and out of prison or whereabouts unknown or never known. Mother struggling to find steady work and often not succeeding. Drugs or alcohol in the parental picture somewhere. Violence in the home. Early childhood inattention or worse. Terrible schools. No caring adult other than the mother or grandmother in the boy’s life. Street culture that valorizes defiance and denigrates educational achievement. Police all too willing to arrest.
Result: time in prison, likely fathering children and not marrying the mother, and difficulty in finding work for the rest of his life. Poverty in childhood makes these young men strong candidates for getting into trouble with the law in the first place, and time in prison makes them even stronger candidates for lives of poverty and disenfranchisement from the democratic process, pushing the arithmetic of politics to the right and shrinking the constituency for support of low-income communities.
Not all boxes apply to each young man, of course, but enough do. Whether the underlying facts are George W. Bush’s “soft bigotry of low expectations” or Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, which brilliantly describes the targeting of young black men in the criminal justice system—and both ideas are operative—the situation is truly dire. Comprehensive reform of the juvenile and criminal justice systems, including our misbegotten “war on drugs,” is a must. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=606
Peter Edelman: Losing One Generation After Another: When Will We Stop the Carnage?
from Dissent magazine:
Losing One Generation After Another: When Will We Stop the Carnage?
Peter Edelman - May 22, 2012
The overincarceration of African American and Latino young men is a national scandal. Low-income young men of color—especially those growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods—are fated under current circumstances to end up in prison in percentages that far exceed their share of the population. We are losing generation after generation.
Check the boxes: father in and out of prison or whereabouts unknown or never known. Mother struggling to find steady work and often not succeeding. Drugs or alcohol in the parental picture somewhere. Violence in the home. Early childhood inattention or worse. Terrible schools. No caring adult other than the mother or grandmother in the boy’s life. Street culture that valorizes defiance and denigrates educational achievement. Police all too willing to arrest.
Result: time in prison, likely fathering children and not marrying the mother, and difficulty in finding work for the rest of his life. Poverty in childhood makes these young men strong candidates for getting into trouble with the law in the first place, and time in prison makes them even stronger candidates for lives of poverty and disenfranchisement from the democratic process, pushing the arithmetic of politics to the right and shrinking the constituency for support of low-income communities.
Not all boxes apply to each young man, of course, but enough do. Whether the underlying facts are George W. Bush’s “soft bigotry of low expectations” or Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, which brilliantly describes the targeting of young black men in the criminal justice system—and both ideas are operative—the situation is truly dire. Comprehensive reform of the juvenile and criminal justice systems, including our misbegotten “war on drugs,” is a must. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=606
May 24, 2012
from Consortium News:
The Politics of Mythology
May 23, 2012
Fighting for real journalism – or even caring that political comments connect to actual facts – often seems a fool’s errand, given how big money especially on the Right has overwhelmed the democratic process with distortions and lies, a problem that Danny Schechter dissects.
By Danny Schechter
Increasingly, politics is a game driven by often-invented beliefs and myths that are firmly detached from facts and their interpretation. The parties and their factions live not only in parallel universes but in different worlds of information.
Even as progressives complain that Barack Obama has moved Right even if he occasionally talks Left, the hard-core right-wing see him a black revolutionary shaped by Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s black liberation theology with allusions to Malcolm X and Kenyan communists thrown into the mix to “prove” their case.
Never mind that Obama threw his one-time religious mentor Wright under the bus in 2008, or that his policies rarely speak of the needs of a black community suffering under the burden of high joblessness, foreclosures and growing poverty.
In fact, real black revolutionaries like Cornell West and so many others find the President a sell-out and an embarrassment even if their community embraces him more as an identity issue or on the basis of shared pigmentation, ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/05/23/the-politics-of-mythology/
The Politics of Mythology
from Consortium News:
The Politics of Mythology
May 23, 2012
Fighting for real journalism – or even caring that political comments connect to actual facts – often seems a fool’s errand, given how big money especially on the Right has overwhelmed the democratic process with distortions and lies, a problem that Danny Schechter dissects.
By Danny Schechter
Increasingly, politics is a game driven by often-invented beliefs and myths that are firmly detached from facts and their interpretation. The parties and their factions live not only in parallel universes but in different worlds of information.
Even as progressives complain that Barack Obama has moved Right even if he occasionally talks Left, the hard-core right-wing see him a black revolutionary shaped by Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s black liberation theology with allusions to Malcolm X and Kenyan communists thrown into the mix to “prove” their case.
Never mind that Obama threw his one-time religious mentor Wright under the bus in 2008, or that his policies rarely speak of the needs of a black community suffering under the burden of high joblessness, foreclosures and growing poverty.
In fact, real black revolutionaries like Cornell West and so many others find the President a sell-out and an embarrassment even if their community embraces him more as an identity issue or on the basis of shared pigmentation, ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/05/23/the-politics-of-mythology/
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,073