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Robert Reich: Obama Has to Explain Why Fairness Is Essential to Growth
Published May 24, 2012 - 8:26:10 AM
The Cory Booker imbroglio has ignited a silly but potentially pernicious debate in the Democratic Party between so-called "pro-growth centrists" who want the President to focus on how well he's done getting the economy back on its feet after the Bush administration almost knocked it out, and "pro-fairness populists" who want him to focus on the nation's widening inequality and Wall Street's (and Romney's) continuing role in generating profits for a few at the expense of almost everyone else.
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Jeanne Devon: EPA Warns Pebble Mine Could Affect Sustainability of Bristol Bay Fishery
Published May 23, 2012 - 7:22:01 AM
On Friday, the EPA released the results of their long-awaited draft environmental impact statement on potential large scale mining operations in the Bristol Bay watershed. Their conclusion was not a surprise to anyone who has gone beyond a superficial look at the controversial issue of mining in this sensitive and highly seismic region.
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Edwin Lyman: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Must Replace Chairman Jaczko with Someone with a Proven Track Record that Puts Safety First
Published May 23, 2012 - 7:11:23 AM
After nearly eight years—and at least a year of bureaucratic infighting—at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Gregory Jaczko has resigned from his current post as chairman. Below is a statement by Edwin Lyman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
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Tina Dupuy | Trust Me: You Believe in Gun Control
Published May 23, 2012 - 6:48:52 AM
The United States is number one in the world in civilian gun ownership. And since we're not last in gun violence (we're the 14th highest in deaths—way higher in just injuries) it's safe to assume that increasing the number of guns doesn't decrease the number of gun deaths. Just like cutting taxes doesn't increase revenue—making gun ownership unlimited doesn't make us safer. It's a lie. A fairy tale of the gun lobby. Completely unsupported by data or logic. A falsehood.
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Dr. Sammy Almashat: Pharmaceutical Companies Must Be Held Fully Accountable for Defrauding the Government
Published May 22, 2012 - 10:10:44 AM
Public Citizen strongly supports a measure proposed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would more effectively curb fraudulent activity committed by the pharmaceutical industry against the federal and state governments.
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Donald Kaul: Remembering Charles Colson
Published May 22, 2012 - 7:38:00 AM
One of the great villains of Richard Nixon's villainous administration went to his final reward last month. Charles Colson, Tricky Dick's master of dirty tricks, died of complications after suffering a brain hemorrhage at the age of 80.
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Jason Salzman: The Truth's Liberal Tilt
Published May 22, 2012 - 7:34:35 AM
When you ask conservatives for proof of the "liberal media bias" they are so concerned about, you often get a response along the lines of, "The media are liberal because we say so! It's obvious."
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Margot McMillen: Let's Resist Herbicide-Resistant Crops
Published May 22, 2012 - 7:32:39 AM
A Pioneer seed saleswoman introduced the first genetically modified crop to my central Missouri county in the winter of 1996 at a University Extension Soils and Crop Council meeting. She told us that if a farmer planted this genetically engineered soybean, then sprayed the herbicide Roundup all over his field, weeds would die but the soybeans would survive.
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David Schulman: Israel in Peril
Full story: NY Books
Adele Stan: Why Obama's Attack on Bain Capital is Good for America
Full story: AlterNet
Food & Water Watch | Pickens Dumps Chesapeake, Showing that Natural Gas "Boom" Is a Bust
Published May 21, 2012 - 1:28:03 PM
T. Boone Pickens's recent divestment from Chesapeake Energy shows that natural gas is a house of cards, and that even one of its biggest cheerleaders has grown wise to this fact.
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Robert Reich: The Commencement Address That Won't Be Given
Published May 21, 2012 - 6:29:26 AM
Members of the Class of 2012,
As a former secretary of labor and current professor, I feel I owe it to you to tell you the truth about the pieces of parchment you're picking up today.
You're f*cked.
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Jim Hightower: Feeding Obesity
Published May 21, 2012 - 6:27:39 AM
Attention foodies: There's a new craze in Cuisine World, and it's going 180 degrees in the opposite direction from the much-publicized healthy-eating movement.
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Ryan Alexder: We Can't Afford Energy Subsidies and Tax Breaksan
Published May 21, 2012 - 6:26:28 AM
Last year, the top six U.S. oil companies made $148.7 billion in profits. That works out to about $407 million a day, $17 million an hour, or $283,000 per minute. At that pace, in roughly the amount of time it will take to read this commentary, just these six oil companies will have earned about $3 million in profits. Not revenues, profits.
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Marc Morial: Crushing College Dreams
Published May 21, 2012 - 6:14:56 AM
As graduation season swings into high gear, a new economic crisis confronts thousands of this year's high school and college grads — crushing college student loan debt.
America's student loan debt recently reached the $1-trillion mark. That's more than our total credit card and other consumer debt.
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Robert Reich: How Odd that Mitt's Smitten with Clinton
Published May 18, 2012 - 1:17:12 PM
Mitt Romney is full of praise for Bill Clinton even as he heaps scorn on Obama.
"Almost a generation ago, Bill Clinton announced that the era of big government was over," says Romney, "Clinton was signaling to his own party that Democrats should no longer try to govern by proposing a new program for every problem." By contrast, President Obama has "tucked away the Clinton doctrine in his large drawer of discarded ideas."
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Cliff Schecter: Plutocracy Democracy
Published May 18, 2012 - 9:23:41 AM
Another week, another plutocrat steps into the spotlight in the pursuit of possessing their very own American politician. This time it was Joe Ricketts (what a perfect name for a gazillionaire infecting our political system with his financial clout), founder of brokerage house TD Ameritrade and owner of the Chicago Cubs.
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Eleanor Smeal: House GOP VAWA Must Be Defeated
Published May 18, 2012 - 6:07:29 AM
The Feminist Majority, as well as the massive coalition supporting the real VAWA, is determined to defeat the outrageous and dangerous GOP Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization which passed the House yesterday. For the first time in history, the House GOP passed a VAWA reauthorization that rolls back rather than expands protections for victims of domestic and workplace violence. The House VAWA reveals the depth of the GOP war on women's rights and subverts VAWA itself.
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Pablo Alvarado: Groundbreaking Report Contradicts Homeland Security Departments' Claims About Jail Deportation Program
Published May 18, 2012 - 6:02:17 AM
Yesterday, WBEZ released a report on recidivism of individuals released under Cook County's progressive immigration detainer policy, passed in response to dragnet federal immigration programs. The study "finds no evidence that inmates freed from jail against the wishes of immigration authorities reoffend or jump bail more than other freed inmates do." In response, Pablo Alvarado of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network issued the following statement:
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Gerard Wynn: Rising costs argue against new nuclear
Full story: Reuters
C.W. Nevius: USS Harvey Milk would be a fitting tribute
Full story: SF Chronicle
John Feffer: America the Serial Killer
Published May 17, 2012 - 2:12:25 PM
Everybody loves Dexter. He's handsome. He's helpful. He works at the Miami Metro Police Department, and he's very good at his job as a blood-splatter analyst. Oh, did I mention that he moonlights as a serial killer? Don't worry: he only kills bad guys. That's part of the code that Dexter's adoptive father, himself a police officer, passed down to his son. As a child who had watched his mother die a horrendous death, Dexter couldn't overcome the murderous impulses that surged within him. His father, channeling those impulses in the only constructive way he could think of, created a better monster of his son's nature: a serial killer of serial killers.
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Catherine Scott: Misogynistic Ads and the Oxygen of Publicity
Published May 17, 2012 - 9:28:22 AM
Retro-sexist advertising may be presented as ironic, but it features the same, familiar images feminists rallied against decades ago, argues the author. What to do?
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Terry O'Neill: NOW Condemns House for Passage of H.R. 4970
Published May 17, 2012 - 9:16:15 AM
The National Organization for Women condemns today's passage of H.R. 4970, the House Republican version of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization bill. Sponsored by Representative Sandy Adams (R-Fla.), H.R. 4970 not only strips important provisions that were passed by a bipartisan Senate vote of 68-31, but also changes and weakens many initiatives and preventive provisions that have been included in VAWA by both Republicans and Democrats over the past 18 years.
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Andy Borowitz: A Letter from Mark Zuckerberg
Published May 17, 2012 - 8:39:30 AM
Dear Potential Investor:
For years, you've wasted your time on Facebook. Now here's your chance to waste your money on it, too.
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Jan Ting | What To Make Of Romney The Bully
Published May 17, 2012 - 7:04:43 AM
The media have given Mitt Romney a pass he does not deserve on his explanation for bullying gay boarding school classmates as an 18-year-old senior. Romney was fortunate that the bullying story broke in the wake of President Obama's declaration of support for same-sex marriage, which the media concluded was the bigger political story and more deserving of follow-up and commentary.
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Matt Taibbi: Accidentally Released - and Incredibly Embarrassing - Documents Show How Goldman et al Engaged in 'Naked Short Selling'
Full story: Rolling Stone
Robert Reich: Romney Has Public and Private Morality Upside Down
Published May 16, 2012 - 11:40:08 AM
Mitt Romney's reaction to J.P. Morgan Chase's mounting losses from reckless trades is "the market will take care of it." His spokesman says "no taxpayer money was at risk" so we don't need more financial regulation. Romney has even promised to repeal Dodd-Frank if he's elected president.
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David Weigel: Nobody for President: The inevitable, glorious, $35 million failure of Americans Elect
Full story: Slate
Jim Hightower: Coddling the 10 Percent
Published May 15, 2012 - 9:27:33 AM
Another way that the rich are different from you and me is that their bankers serve them freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies.
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