[“Operation Oil Freedom” by SHEPARD FAIREY] TREEHUGGER: World oil reserves are far lower than officially reported, the situation far more serious than publicly admitted, and we’re already past peak oil. That’s the word from two anonymous IEA whistleblowers, The Guardian reports. To add insult to industry, the figures were deliberately massaged, at least in part, to appease the United States: Apparently the IEA was concerned that reporting the true reserve numbers — and keep in mind that determining oil reserves is as much art as science — it would trigger a buying panic. The US enters the picture encouraging the […]
STUDY: 2,266 Vets Died Of No Insurance In 2008
PNHP: A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001. The researchers, who released their analysis today [Tuesday], pointedly say the health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not significantly affect this grim picture. […]
FIRST AMENDMENT: Fox News And Glenn Beck Lose Case Against GLENNBECKRAPEDAGIRLIN1990.COM
THR, ESQ: Fox News’ Glenn Beck has lost a claim that a website called glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com was registered in bad faith and in violation of his trademark rights. The website was founded by Isaac Eiland-Hall earlier this year in response to a joke on odd-news site Fark about Beck’s lack of denial for a non-existent murder/rape. Eiland-Hall argued to WIPO hat he registered the website as a satirical critique of Beck’s conspiratorial politics. WIPO’s arbitration panel agreed that the website appeared “to be engaged in a parody of the style or methodology that (Eiland-Hall) appears genuinely to believe is employed by […]
KUCINICH: Why I Voted Against Health Care Reform
DENNIS KUCINICH: We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing healthcare. Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care. Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by […]
MERCY: House Passes Sweeping Health Care Reform
NEW YORK TIMES: Handing President Obama a hard-fought victory, the House narrowly approved a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system on Saturday night, advancing legislation that Democrats said could stand as their defining social policy achievement.Democrats say the House measure — paid for through new fees and taxes, along with cuts in Medicare — would extend coverage to 36 million people now without insurance while creating a government health insurance program. It would end insurance company practices like not covering pre-existing conditions or dropping people when they become ill. Republicans condemned the vote and said they would oppose […]
GORACLE: Only You Can Prevent Climate Catastrophe
INQUIRER: During a daylong seminar today at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, former Vice president Al Gore finished an hour-long talk by issuing a challenge to the 500 attendees and students in the room “for each of you to become a part of the solution.” […] “We can build a consensus,” he said. “And we must. Because not too many years from now, the next generation will look back. And depending on what the world looks like at that point, they will ask either why this generation stood back and did nothing, or how they mustered the moral courage […]
BERSERKER: Army Shrink Massacres 12, Wounds 31
LOS ANGLES TMES: Reporting from Ft. Hood, Texas, Washington and Los Angeles — An Army psychiatrist who was about to be deployed to Iraq allegedly armed himself with two guns and opened fire Thursday afternoon on the grounds of Ft. Hood, the country’s largest military base, killing 12 people and injuring 31 others. Officials said that soldiers and civilians ripped apart their clothes to make bandages for fallen colleagues, many of whom were waiting at the base’s Soldier Readiness Center for medical and dental exams before deployment. The attack shocked the country and raised questions about base security. The suspected […]
Q&A: Ask The Yes Men
The Yes Men is a group of culture jamming activists who practice what they call “identity correction” by pretending to be powerful people and spokespersons for prominent organizations. From their offices in Milwaukee, they create and maintain fake websites similar to ones they want to spoof, and then they accept invitations received on their websites to appear at conferences, symposia, and TV shows. Their newfound, self-proclaimed authority to express the idea that corporations and governmental organizations often act in dehumanizing ways toward the public has met both positively and negatively with political overtones. Elaborate props are sometimes part of the […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR As manager of President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, David Plouffe stayed behind the scenes. Now, 10 months after Obama took office, Plouffe has written a memoir about the campaign, detailing the victory and the ways it changed the concept of campaigning. From the indecision surrounding Obama’s choice to run, to the Iowa caucus win, and through the final stages of the general election campaign against John McCain, Plouffe helped guide the campaign to a historic victory. His book offers an insider’s tale of a campaign that managed to harness — perhaps for the first time — the expansive […]
Italy Convicts 23 Americans In CIA ‘Rendition’ Trial
NEW YORK TIMES: MILAN — Twenty-three Americans, including a C.I.A. station chief, were convicted on Wednesday in a landmark case involving the seizure of a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan more than six years ago. But three of the higher-ranking Americans defendants were given diplomatic immunity, as were the two highest-ranking Italian defendants. And while the C.I.A. station chief in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, received an 8-year-term, and the other 22 Americans to 5 years each, all were tried in absentia and it is unlikely that any will serve. Still, the trial was an enormous symbolic victory for […]
1 STEP FORWARD 2 STEPS BACK: NJ Elects Karl Rove Stooge Guv; Philly Elects First Black District Attorney
INQUIRER: Christopher J. Christie, campaigning as an agent of change, overwhelmed a powerful Democratic advantage Tuesday to defeat Gov. Corzine and become New Jersey’s first Republican governor-elect in a dozen years. Portrayed by Corzine as a referendum on President Obama’s agenda, the campaign drew national scrutiny — and three visits from the president to support the incumbent. But Christie fought aggressively, campaigning in cities and other Democratic strongholds. Christie, 47, a former U.S. attorney from the North Jersey town of Mendham, turned back both Corzine and a vigorous campaign from independent Chris Daggett. Although New Jersey is a reliably blue […]
Q&A: With ACORN Founder Wade Rathke
BY JONATHAN VALANIA FOR THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY For all the bad press that ACORN has received in the media in recent years — according to Lexis Nexus, from 2007-2008 there were 4,468 newspaper and wire stories that mentioned ACORN — the general public remains largely uninformed about what ACORN is and what exactly it does, outside of signing up Mickey Mouse to vote every four years. In short, ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations For Reform Now, provides a voice for the voiceless, advocating, organizing and agitating on behalf of the poor and disenfranchised — registering them […]