This, that.....

Media Matters for America's photo.

 

The media should be held accountable for this.

 

President Obama is right – let’s make sure Republicans know we’re not giving up on fighting for America’s working families. ADD YOUR NAME right now to tell Republicans in Congress to increase the minimum wage >> https://www.dscc.org/-/minimumwage

 

In Norway, universities are publicly funded so students are not charged tuition or fees. This also applies to foreign students, no matter which country you come from. If you think the US should copy Norway, please SHARE this with your friends!http://bit.ly/1c7q0AQ

Last Chance for Animals (LCA)'s photo.

Time to evolve denmark!

 

SHAME ON DENMARK! In the name of tradition Denmark's Faroe Islands' waters are stained red. Why? So that young teens participating in this massacre can mature i...nto "adults". Spectators gather at the shoreline to celebrate while hundreds of dolphins are impaled with thick dull hooks over and over again. It sometimes takes hours for these friendly animals to die, suffocating in their own blood. Slaughter. That’s a strong word… but not strong enough. How else could one describe these images? WATCH, Graphic Video: http://www.protecttheocean.com/denmark-continues-dolphin-slaughter-warning-graphic-images/

 

France’s highest court has banned fracking on French soil, a a major victory for the global anti-fracking movement. Full story HERE: http://bit.ly/1hdClVi

 

This is a pretty sorry state of affairs... h/t Occupy Democrats

 

Not knowing what birth control actually does? Having the gall to say that the party whose *official platform* includes restricting women's rights is actually st...anding FOR women? There are so many outlandish things packed into Mike Huckabee's now-famous remarks yesterday, it's almost hard to pick the MOST absurd one. So we're letting you decide! What's your "favorite" line? Take the poll and tell us! --> http://bit.ly/1fj4hol

Christians for Michele Bachmann's photo.

God help us!

 

 

They don't even come from fossils. Dinosaur bones is near the surface, and the oil is way down deep. Sceintists think we are stupid. Like and share to debunk this leftist propogranda!!!

 

 

The voter fraud v voter suppression debate continues. Who benefits from this? ~Jeanene "On January 17, a Pennsylvania judge ruled that the state's voter ID l...aw was unconstitutional under the state constitution because "hundreds of thousands of qualified voters ... lack compliant ID," and that the state had failed to ease the burdens associated with obtaining one." MEAGAN HATCHER-MAYS, Media Matters http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/01/23/nros-john-fund-overly-burdensome-voter-id-laws/197718"Fraud is rare, but when it does occur, absentee ballots are often the method of choice," the report said, proposing expanded access to early voting as a measure to ease the sorts of long lines seen at the polls in the 2012 election. ".... A Justice Department study found that between 2002 and 2005, just 40 voters (out of 197 million votes cast for federal candidates) were indicted for voter fraud, and just 26 resulted in convictions or guilty pleas." SAHIL KAPUR, Talking Points Memo, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/voter-fraud-is-rare-presidential-election-commission

RSN: I Have Seen the Future of the GOP and it Is George W. Bush

FOCUS: Jonathan Chait | I Have Seen the Future of the GOP and it Is George W. Bush

Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
Chait writes: "Pundits hopefully posited that the twin shocks of the economic crisis and the 2008 election might prod the GOP back to reality...It got worse. Much worse."
READ MORE

Charles Pierce | There Is No Common Ground on Abortion

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "The customary trope was to argue that we should come to a consensus that abortion is bad, but that expanded access to birth control was something we can all agree on and then go to breakfast. Yeah, not so much."
READ MORE

David Remnick | On and Off the Road With Barack Obama
David Remnick, The New Yorker
Remnick writes: "I was along for the ride, sitting in a guest cabin with a couple of aides and a staffer who was tasked with keeping watch over a dark suit bag with a tag reading 'The President.'"
READ MORE

John Nichols | Four Years After 'Citizens United': Real Movement
John Nichols, The Nation
Nichols writes: "This is a coalition...boldly demanding that the US Constitution be amended - a reform sufficient to prevent the High Court from transforming American democracy into a dollarocracy."
READ MORE

Robert Parry | Human Rights Watch's Syria Dilemma
Robert Parry, Consortium News
Parry writes: "Human Rights Watch, which has pushed for a U.S. military intervention in Syria, continues to blame the Assad government for the Aug. 21 Sarin attack even though the group's high-profile map supposedly proving the case has been debunked."
READ MORE

Snowden to Ask for Russian Police Protection After US Death Threats
Vladimir Radyuhin, The Hindu
Radyuhin reports: "Whistleblower Edward Snowden will ask Russian authorities for extra protection over threats to his life from American military and intelligence officers."
READ MORE

Afghanistan Cracks Down on Commercials That Favour US Troops
Hamid Shalizi, Reuters
Shalizi reports: "The Afghan government, increasingly at odds with Washington, is cracking down on advertisements that promote keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014."
READ MORE

Japanese Officials Respond Quickly to Caroline Kennedy on Dolphin Slaughter
Justin McCurry, The Christian Science Monitor
McCurry reports: "Fishermen in Japan have begun slaughtering dozens of bottlenose dolphins, ignoring protesters' calls to spare the animals and a rare public show of concern by the US government."
READ MORE

 

 

FROM RSN:

Congressman Alan Grayson. (photo: Getty Images)

Peace: We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

By Alan Grayson, Reader Supported News

20 January 14

saac Newton, the great physicist and astronomer, said, "If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." And so it is with us, and our quest for peace.

 

When I was a child, I was so moved by the dedication, eloquence and integrity of giant leaders like Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy, who stood for peace. Clean Gene and Bobby took a stand against a brutal and deeply immoral war. On the central issue of the day, other elected officials shifted back and forth like weathervanes. But if you are a true leader, like they were, then as Bob Dylan said, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

 

In 2006 and 2008, long before it was popular, I honored the memories of Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy by running as an antiwar candidate. When reporters ask me when I thought that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should end, I said, "They should have ended a long time ago." And I said that in a district Republicans had represented that for 34 years in a row. I wasn't reading the polls when I said that. I was reading my heart.

 

I told my constituents that like them, I want America to be #1 in the world. But we don't need to be #1 in the category of "Number of Foreign Countries Occupied."

 

Last year, in the inspirational tradition of Senators McCarthy and Kennedy, we organized and mobilized against war with Syria. We not only found a peaceful solution, but we also established an important principle: In war, it's our blood, and it's our money, so it's our decision. We, The People decide for or against war.

 

But in Afghanistan today, history is repeating itself. We remain embroiled in another brutal war, one that has gone on even longer than the war in Vietnam. At the peak of the surge in Afghanistan, in 2010, we were spending more on war and the military than we ever did during the height of the war in Vietnam. And today, we continue to spend one million dollars each year for every soldier deployed in Afghanistan. Even though the latest polls show that the war in Afghanistan is less popular with the American People than the war in Vietnam ever was.

 

President Obama promised that the war in Afghanistan would end by 2014. We have to make sure that he keeps that promise.

 

This is how I look at it: the war in Iraq is over. One down, one to go.

 

Some of our supporters have been kind enough to refer to me as "America's Congressman." The media often refers to me "Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL)." I'm proud to represent my neighbors and friends in Central Florida. But if you ever want to refer to me as "Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Peace)," that's OK with me, too. In fact, I would be proud of that. And you can rest assured that in that regard, I represent you, no matter which congressional district you may call "home."

 

The cause of peace is older than history itself. It's up to each generation, including ours, to carry that torch, and pass it on. But in recognition that we don't have to start fresh, one of our supporters has created a variation on the very popular "McCarthy Daisy." This was the evocative symbol of Eugene McCarthy's effort to end the war in Vietnam. It also epitomized the spirit of political involvement in the Sixties. Here is the new daisy:

 

 

You can count on me to continue to fight for justice, equality and peace. Please join me in our crusade to make America again "indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Courage,
Rep. Alan Grayson

"Well, it's one-two-three, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn.
Next stop is Vietnam."

- Country Joe and the Fish, "The Fixin' to Die Rag" (1967).

 

US Ambassador, Caroline Kennedy "Deeply Concerned" About Japanese Dolphin Hunt
Ruairidh Villar, Reuters
Villar reports: "In an unusual move, U.S. ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy has expressed deep concern over the traditional dolphin hunt in western Japan, where local fisherman corral the mammals into a secluded bay before killing many for meat."
READ MORE

Wall Street Group Aggressively Lobbied a Federal Agency to Thwart Eminent Domain Plans
Alexis Goldstein, The Nation
Goldstein reports: "Despite Wall Street's recent gains, the foreclosure crisis that displaced 10 million Americans continues to wreak havoc on communities. One ongoing problem is that 10.7 million homeowners are stuck in underwater homes, in which the mortgage is more than the house is currently worth."
READ MORE

Iran Invited to Attend Syrian Peace Conference
Cara Anna, Associated Press
Anna reports: "Iran has been invited to attend a meeting of foreign ministers in the Swiss city of Montreux on Wednesday ahead of internationally brokered peace talks between Syria's warring factions, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Sunday."
READ MORE

Afghanistan Again Demands US Airstrikes End
Mirwais Khan, Patrick Quinn, Associated Press
Khan and Quinn report: "An assault by suicide bombers and gunmen against a NATO base in southern Afghanistan on Monday killed one service member, the coalition said."
READ MORE

Mexico Warns US Not to Execute Mexican National Held in Texas
Al Jazeera America
Excerpt: "Mexico has strongly objected to the scheduled execution in Texas of a Mexican convicted of killing a U.S. police officer, arguing that by executing him, the United States would be in 'clear violation' of international treaties."
READ MORE

 

 

 

Reader Supported News | 20 January 14 AM

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

*I DO NOT WANT GOOD JOURNALISM TO DIE: I contribute $10 a month to Reader Supported News for a very simple reason: I don't want good journalism to die. In After a 35-year career in the news business, I have a resume too loaded, and perhaps an age too high, to find a job, so I started a website and social media group called Displaced Journalists. I was overwhelmed at the talented people who follow it. This is serious. We are going to lose a pillar of our democracy if we don't keep fighting to keep the few great operations out there in business. I find Reader Supported News to be the best source of news and commentary. It's the site I always visit first. I don't have a job, but I can still find $10 a month to keep RSN going. If you read RSN, why can't you? Susan Older/Displaced Journalists - RSN Reader-Supporter*

 

 

 

Glenn Greenwald | Who Elected Them?

Glenn Greenwald, UT Documents
Greenwald writes: "Who elected Daniel Ellsberg and The New York Times to take it upon themselves to reveal thousands of pages of the top secret Pentagon Papers to the American public?"
READ MORE

Ralph Nader | Medical Price Gouging and Waste Are Skyrocketing
Ralph Nader, Reader Supported News
Nader writes: "An epidemic of sky-rocketing medical costs has afflicted our country and grown to obscene proportions. Medical bills are bloated with waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and outrageous over-billing. Much is wrong with the process of pricing and providing health care."
READ MORE

Judge Strikes Down North Carolina Ultrasound Abortion Law
Lateef Mungin, Joe Sutton, CNN
Mungin and Sutton report: "A North Carolina law that made women who wanted an abortion get an ultrasound, and then have the image described to them, is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Friday."
READ MORE

The War on Terror's Insane Abuses Continue
Alex Kane, AlterNet
Kane reports: "Today, the 33-year-old Hashmi remains under solitary confinement at the Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) near Florence, Colorado, a maximum security federal prison. In total, he's toiled under the harsh confines of solitary confinement for six years, doing untold damage to his mental health."
READ MORE

Alaska Mine Threatens Salmon, Native Cultures
Nicole Mordant, Reuters
Mordan reports: "Large-scale mining in the Bristol Bay watershed poses serious risks to salmon and native cultures in this pristine corner of southwest Alaska, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a report released on Wednesday."
READ MORE

Horse Slaughter Blocked by Federal Law (For Now)
Barry Massey, Associated Press
Massey reports: "The resumption of commercial horse slaughter in the U.S. was blocked Friday as President Barack Obama signed a budget measure that withholds money for required federal inspections of the slaughtering process."
READ MORE

FOCUS | A Major Victory for Snowden

Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker
Lizza writes: "It's reasonable to suspect that the modifications to the N.S.A.'s telephone-metadata program that Obama announced on Friday are simply cosmetic changes meant to short-circuit the pressure for substantive reform."
READ

Robert Reich hit the nail on the head!

Please consider subscribing to RSN and supporting independent media to provide the FACTS you need to make informed decisions.

Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)

David Brooks' Utter Ignorance About Inequality

By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog

19 January 14

ccasionally David Brooks, who personifies the oxymoron "conservative thinker" better than anyone I know, displays such profound ignorance that a rejoinder is necessary lest his illogic permanently pollute public debate. Such is the case with his New York Times column last Friday, arguing that we should be focusing on the "interrelated social problems of the poor" rather than on inequality, and that the two are fundamentally distinct.

Baloney.

 

First, when almost all the gains from growth go to the top, as they have for the last thirty years, the middle class doesn't have the purchasing power necessary for buoyant growth.

 

Once the middle class has exhausted all its coping mechanisms - wives and mothers surging into paid work (as they did in the 1970s and 1980s), longer working hours (which characterized the 1990s), and deep indebtedness (2002 to 2008) - the inevitable result is fewer jobs and slow growth, as we continue to experience.

 

Few jobs and slow growth hit the poor especially hard because they're the first to be fired, last to be hired, and most likely to bear the brunt of declining wages and benefits.

 

Second, when the middle class is stressed, it has a harder time being generous to those in need. The "interrelated social problems" of the poor presumably will require some money, but the fiscal cupboard is bare. And because the middle class is so financially insecure, it doesn't want to, nor does it feel it can afford to, pay more in taxes.

 

Third, America's shrinking middle class also hobbles upward mobility. Not only is there less money for good schools, job training, and social services, but the poor face a more difficult challenge moving upward because the income ladder is far longer than it used to be, and its middle rungs have disappeared.

 

Brooks also argues that we should not be talking about unequal political power, because such utterances cause divisiveness and make it harder to reach political consensus over what to do for the poor.

 

Hogwash. The concentration of power at the top - which flows largely from the concentration of income and wealth there - has prevented Washington from dealing with the problems of the poor and the middle class.

 

To the contrary, as wealth has accumulated at the top, Washington has reduced taxes on the wealthy, expanded tax loopholes that disproportionately benefit the rich, deregulated Wall Street, and provided ever larger subsidies, bailouts, and tax breaks for large corporations. The only things that have trickled down to the middle and poor besides fewer jobs and smaller paychecks are public services that are increasingly inadequate because they're starved for money.

 

Unequal political power is the endgame of widening inequality - its most noxious and nefarious consequence, and the most fundamental threat to our democracy. Big money has now all but engulfed Washington and many state capitals - drowning out the voices of average Americans, filling the campaign chests of candidates who will do their bidding, financing attacks on organized labor, and bankrolling a vast empire of right-wing think-tanks and publicists that fill the airwaves with half-truths and distortions.

 

That David Brooks, among the most thoughtful of all conservative pundits, doesn't see or acknowledge any of this is a sign of how far the right has moved away from the reality most Americans live in every day.

The President on Mass Surveillance
The New York Times | Editorial
Excerpt: "Even as Mr. Obama spoke eloquently of the need to balance the nation's security with personal privacy and civil liberties, many of his reforms were frustratingly short on specifics and vague on implementation."
READ MORE

Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Warrantless Cellphone Searches
Al Jazeera America
Excerpt: "At issue is a 40-year-old high court ruling allowing warrantless searches of items people are carrying when they are arrested. Lower federal and state courts have differed over whether the ruling should apply to increasingly sophisticated cellphones and smartphones."
READ MORE

A Mexican Revolution Against Drug Trafficking
Agence France-Presse
Excerpt: "Self-defense groups made up of Mexican farmers and other local people have taken over another town that had been overrun by drug traffickers in the restive state of Michoacan."
READ MORE

250 Bottlenose Dolphins Captured, Prepared for Slaughter in Japan
Hawaii Reporter
Excerpt: "Five separate pods of Bottlenose dolphins were driven into Taiji's infamous killing cove yesterday and held overnight."
READ MORE

Many Remain Wary of W. Va. Water as Smell Lingers
Ben Nuckols, Associated Press
Nuckols reports: "The smell lingers - the slightly sweet, slightly bitter odor of a chemical that contaminated the water supply of West Virginia's capital more than a week ago. It creeps out of faucets and shower heads."
READ MORE

Charles Pierce | Blue Dog Blues

Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "Is there something about actual progressive populism that simply won't sell in rural districts? Most of the progressive ideas the last time we had a Gilded Age came out of rural districts. Bob LaFollette didn't grow up in Queens, after all. I believe the time for selling out principles is probably over."
READ MORE

A Major Victory for Snowden and NSA Reformers
Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker
Lizza reports: "It's reasonable to suspect that the modifications to the N.S.A.'s telephone-metadata program that Obama announced on Friday are simply cosmetic changes meant to short-circuit the pressure for substantive reform."
READ MORE

What Obama Didn't Say in His Speech on NSA Spying
Zoe Carpenter, The Nation
Carpenter writes: "The really significant parts of Obama's speech were the things he did not mention. He did not call for a full stop to the bulk collection of communication records, only a transfer of ownership. Instead, he endorsed the idea that data about millions of Americans should be stored and made available to intelligence analysts."
READ MORE

Elizabeth Kucinich | Calls Intensify for Obama to Fulfill Campaign Promise on GMO Labeling
Elizabeth Kucinich, Common Dreams
Kucinich reports: "A morning press conference offered a beacon of hope for farmers and activists on Capitol Hill today as members of Congress and 200 organizations demanded Obama fulfill his 2007 campaign promises to label GMOs."
READ MORE

Sometimes 'Nazi' Is the Right Word
Etgar Keret, The New York Times
Keret writes: "People in Israel use 'Nazi' when they want the most vicious curse possible, and it's usually directed at someone they perceive as belligerent. ... As the son of Holocaust survivors, I find it particularly rankling."
READ MORE

Senator Wants to Force Low-Income Americans to Show ID for Their Food
Alan Pyke, ThinkProgress
Pyke reports: "Food stamp recipients will have their grocery store humiliation compounded by having to show a photo ID in order to buy food if Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) gets his way."
READ MORE

Reader Supported News | 19 January 14 AM

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

A BRIGHT SPOT ON FUNDING: While donations have been difficult to come by recently our core of "Sustainer Subscribers" is actually growing nicely. A Sustainer Subscriber is a monthly donor of $10. or more. As a Sustainer Subscriber you get no fundraising emails. It's easy to become a Sustainer Subscriber, just go to the RSN Donation page and sign up for a monthly donation of $10. or more and we do the rest. We look forward to having you on board. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

Okay, I'll make a donation.