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
December 19, 2011
ColorLines / By Shani O. Hilton
Why (Very White) Iowa and New Hampshire Matter So Much in US Politics
The two earliest primary states' lack of diversity has an effect on who gets initial attention from the media as the electoral process begins.
December 18, 2011 |
Right now the presidential candidate race is all about New Hampshire and Iowa. More specifically, the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses. Conventional wisdom holds that losing in one of these states can damage a candidate severely, while a win all but cements their candidacy.
But the media frenzy around these two states—which aren’t exactly representative of the country’s class and racial diversity—has drawbacks.
“You’re hard pressed to find two whiter states,” says Matt Barreto, professor of political science and pollster for Latino Decisions, a polling firm that tracks the political leanings of Latinos.
.......(snip).......
“The prominence and first-in-nation position of Iowa and New Hampshire do elevate white primary voters over non-white ones, and in both parties,” says Thomas Schaller, a professor of political science at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/153486/why_%28very_white%29_iowa_and_new_hampshire_matter_so_much_in_us_politics/
Why (Very White) Iowa and New Hampshire Matter So Much in US Politics
ColorLines / By Shani O. Hilton
Why (Very White) Iowa and New Hampshire Matter So Much in US Politics
The two earliest primary states' lack of diversity has an effect on who gets initial attention from the media as the electoral process begins.
December 18, 2011 |
Right now the presidential candidate race is all about New Hampshire and Iowa. More specifically, the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses. Conventional wisdom holds that losing in one of these states can damage a candidate severely, while a win all but cements their candidacy.
But the media frenzy around these two states—which aren’t exactly representative of the country’s class and racial diversity—has drawbacks.
“You’re hard pressed to find two whiter states,” says Matt Barreto, professor of political science and pollster for Latino Decisions, a polling firm that tracks the political leanings of Latinos.
.......(snip).......
“The prominence and first-in-nation position of Iowa and New Hampshire do elevate white primary voters over non-white ones, and in both parties,” says Thomas Schaller, a professor of political science at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/153486/why_%28very_white%29_iowa_and_new_hampshire_matter_so_much_in_us_politics/
December 19, 2011
AlterNet / By Simon Waxman
How Pay-Pal Squeezes Merchants with Unfair and Likely Illegal Business Practices
A class-action suit charges Pay-Pal with some shady practices that leave small businesses in a jam.
December 18, 2011 |
When Andrew Sauter decided to start taking online credit card payments for his small business, he didn’t think twice about PayPal, the dominant Web-based money transmitter in the United States.
A subsidiary of the auction giant eBay, PayPal bills itself as “the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online” and “the world’s most loved way to pay and get paid.” There are 103 million active PayPal accounts, and in the third quarter of 2011 alone the company processed $29.3 billion in payments. According to a February Reuters report, 59 of the top-100 American e-commerce sites use PayPal.
With PayPal, Sauter was able to process credit card transactions quickly and at reasonable rates. And it was easy to sign up for, perfect for his growing company, which designs Facebook marketing campaigns. More importantly, customers demanded it.
In exchange for the service, Sauter paid 2.2 percent of each transaction to PayPal, along with a $30-per-month fee, totaling about $5,400 over the life of the account. For four years, everything worked. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/investigations/153474/how_pay-pal_squeezes_merchants_with_unfair_and_likely_illegal_business_practices/
How Pay-Pal Squeezes Merchants with Unfair and Likely Illegal Business Practices
AlterNet / By Simon Waxman
How Pay-Pal Squeezes Merchants with Unfair and Likely Illegal Business Practices
A class-action suit charges Pay-Pal with some shady practices that leave small businesses in a jam.
December 18, 2011 |
When Andrew Sauter decided to start taking online credit card payments for his small business, he didn’t think twice about PayPal, the dominant Web-based money transmitter in the United States.
A subsidiary of the auction giant eBay, PayPal bills itself as “the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online” and “the world’s most loved way to pay and get paid.” There are 103 million active PayPal accounts, and in the third quarter of 2011 alone the company processed $29.3 billion in payments. According to a February Reuters report, 59 of the top-100 American e-commerce sites use PayPal.
With PayPal, Sauter was able to process credit card transactions quickly and at reasonable rates. And it was easy to sign up for, perfect for his growing company, which designs Facebook marketing campaigns. More importantly, customers demanded it.
In exchange for the service, Sauter paid 2.2 percent of each transaction to PayPal, along with a $30-per-month fee, totaling about $5,400 over the life of the account. For four years, everything worked. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/investigations/153474/how_pay-pal_squeezes_merchants_with_unfair_and_likely_illegal_business_practices/
December 19, 2011
from truthdig:
Three Supreme Court Cases That Should Worry You
Posted on Dec 18, 2011
By Bill Blum
At his 2005 Senate confirmation hearing, John Roberts, the nominee of President George W. Bush to become the 17th chief justice of the United States, promised to serve in the neutral fashion of a baseball umpire and lead the Supreme Court away from all manner of judicial activism. “It’s my job to call balls and strikes,” he testified, “and not to pitch or bat.”
Few, if any, observers took Roberts at his word, given his track record as a Republican warhorse, including stints as a clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist and as deputy solicitor general under the first President Bush. But even the skeptics were not prepared for the judicial counterrevolution that Roberts and his conservative high court brethren have engineered since.
In the space of a few short years, the Roberts court has transformed American law with its miscarriages of justice. Among its dubious lowlights, the court has invented a Second Amendment individual right to bear arms, erected new barriers to age and sex discrimination lawsuits, undercut environmental protection, and, in the Citizens United case—its crowning glory to date—it has recognized corporations as people under the First Amendment with the constitutional right to spend without restraint on political attack ads.
Anyone hoping the pace of the counterrevolution might slow is apt to be disappointed by the time the court completes its current term. If present trends persist, and there is little reason to believe they won’t, 2012 will be remembered as the year the court rewrote the constitutional boundaries between federal and state authority, severely curtailing federal initiatives on behalf of working people, minorities and the poor. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/three_supreme_court_cases_that_should_worry_you_20111218/
Three Supreme Court Cases That Should Worry You
from truthdig:
Three Supreme Court Cases That Should Worry You
Posted on Dec 18, 2011
By Bill Blum
At his 2005 Senate confirmation hearing, John Roberts, the nominee of President George W. Bush to become the 17th chief justice of the United States, promised to serve in the neutral fashion of a baseball umpire and lead the Supreme Court away from all manner of judicial activism. “It’s my job to call balls and strikes,” he testified, “and not to pitch or bat.”
Few, if any, observers took Roberts at his word, given his track record as a Republican warhorse, including stints as a clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist and as deputy solicitor general under the first President Bush. But even the skeptics were not prepared for the judicial counterrevolution that Roberts and his conservative high court brethren have engineered since.
In the space of a few short years, the Roberts court has transformed American law with its miscarriages of justice. Among its dubious lowlights, the court has invented a Second Amendment individual right to bear arms, erected new barriers to age and sex discrimination lawsuits, undercut environmental protection, and, in the Citizens United case—its crowning glory to date—it has recognized corporations as people under the First Amendment with the constitutional right to spend without restraint on political attack ads.
Anyone hoping the pace of the counterrevolution might slow is apt to be disappointed by the time the court completes its current term. If present trends persist, and there is little reason to believe they won’t, 2012 will be remembered as the year the court rewrote the constitutional boundaries between federal and state authority, severely curtailing federal initiatives on behalf of working people, minorities and the poor. ...............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/three_supreme_court_cases_that_should_worry_you_20111218/
December 18, 2011
Ron Paul Takes Swipes at GOP Rivals, Says Michele Bachmann ‘Hates Muslims’
Ron Paul has gone Hollywood.
Appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” Friday, the presidential hopeful took a swipe at his GOP rivals telling the crowd that Michele Bachmann “hates Muslims.”
When asked by host Jay Leno what he thought of his rivals, Paul shook his head, slowed his voice and said, “she doesn’t like Muslims, she hates them, she wants to go get ‘em” — in reference to the comments Bachmann has made on the campaign trail over her willingness to attack Iran over its suspected nuclear program.
Bachmann, who is campaigning today in Iowa, rejected Paul’s comments. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/ron-paul-takes-swipes-at-gop-rivals-says-michele-bachmann-hates-muslims/
Bigot accuses bigots of being bigoted -- just another day on the Repug campaign trail
Ron Paul Takes Swipes at GOP Rivals, Says Michele Bachmann ‘Hates Muslims’
Ron Paul has gone Hollywood.
Appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” Friday, the presidential hopeful took a swipe at his GOP rivals telling the crowd that Michele Bachmann “hates Muslims.”
When asked by host Jay Leno what he thought of his rivals, Paul shook his head, slowed his voice and said, “she doesn’t like Muslims, she hates them, she wants to go get ‘em” — in reference to the comments Bachmann has made on the campaign trail over her willingness to attack Iran over its suspected nuclear program.
Bachmann, who is campaigning today in Iowa, rejected Paul’s comments. ..............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/ron-paul-takes-swipes-at-gop-rivals-says-michele-bachmann-hates-muslims/
December 18, 2011
ILIGAN, PHILIPPINES — As a storm that killed more than 650 in the southern Philippines raged outside the store where she works, Amor Limbago worriedly called home to check on her parents, but their cellphones just kept ringing and later went dead.
Limbago, 21, rushed home as soon as the flash floods receded and confirmed her worst fear: Her parents and seven other relatives were gone, swept away from their hut by the river. They had eagerly planned a small Christmas dinner in that hut just days earlier.
“I returned and saw that our house was completely gone,” a weeping Limbago told the Associated Press from Cagayan de Oro city. “There was nothing but mud all over and knee-deep flood waters.”
Tropical Storm Washi blew away Sunday after devastating a wide swath of the mountainous region on Mindanao island, which is unaccustomed to major storms. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1103818--flash-floods-kill-at-least-650-in-philippines-800-still-missing?bn=1
Flash floods kill at least 650 in Philippines; 800 still missing
ILIGAN, PHILIPPINES — As a storm that killed more than 650 in the southern Philippines raged outside the store where she works, Amor Limbago worriedly called home to check on her parents, but their cellphones just kept ringing and later went dead.
Limbago, 21, rushed home as soon as the flash floods receded and confirmed her worst fear: Her parents and seven other relatives were gone, swept away from their hut by the river. They had eagerly planned a small Christmas dinner in that hut just days earlier.
“I returned and saw that our house was completely gone,” a weeping Limbago told the Associated Press from Cagayan de Oro city. “There was nothing but mud all over and knee-deep flood waters.”
Tropical Storm Washi blew away Sunday after devastating a wide swath of the mountainous region on Mindanao island, which is unaccustomed to major storms. .............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1103818--flash-floods-kill-at-least-650-in-philippines-800-still-missing?bn=1
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,091