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The Republican Party Has Failed–And That’s Not Good For Anyone

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - By Chris Edelson - Nov. 07 (Opinion) - The Republican party's failure has me thinking of a Seinfeld episode, the one where Kramer is upset about a Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant featuring a bright neon sign that lights up his apartment at night. Jerry has an old college friend who winds up working as an assistant manager at the restaurant, and when Kramer hangs a banner from his restaurant protesting the chicken establishment, Jerry's friend remarks "that's not going to be good for business." Jerry responds "that's nread more

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Free Press Calls on Obama Administration to Resist Extremism in the Media

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Josh Silver - Sep. 08 (Press Release) - "Beck has a First Amendment right to stoke prejudice, and we do not and will not support efforts to silence him. This is not about censorship; it’s about sanity. Our leaders have a responsibility to condemn fear mongering in all its forms, defend those who are unfairly attacked, and support a more diverse media system that provides alternative voices to the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and other extremists. The lesson from the shameful McCarthy era that culminated in 1954 is that we must confront the politics of personal attack with decency, reason and a commitment to more political speech, not less.

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Death Bonds: Wall Street Teams Up With Insurance Companies to Kill People, Reap Profits

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Sally Kohn - Sep. 08 (News Analysis) - Wall Street's latest scam is to bundle life insurance policies purchased from the sick and the elderly into securitized death bonds and funds. The earlier the group of policyholders die, the bigger the return.

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Healthcare vs. Warfare: The Future Costs of the Afghanistan War

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Jeff Leys - Sep. 08 (Opinion) - On Wednesday, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress on health care. Later this year he will decide whether to deploy additional troops to the war in Afghanistan, in addition to the 69,000 troops already deployed. The struggle for health care and the struggle to end warfare are inextricably linked. The cost for substantive (though imperfect) health care reform as envisioned in the House of Representatives approach (with the public option) is projected to average $100 billion per year for the next 10 years. The cost to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are projected to cost anywhere from $55 to $100 billion a year. Make a few modest reductions to the baseline military budget and the difference is paid.

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Israel Authorizes 455 New Settlement Units

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - Sep. 07 (News) - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has authorized the construction of more than 450 new housing units in settlements in the occupied West Bank, his ministry said in a statement on Monday.

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Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Thom Hartmann - Aug. 17 (Opinion) - I understand you're thinking of dumping your "public option" because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact. Instead, let's make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.

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Where our defense money goes

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Boston Globe - By Bob Edgar, Bill Goodfellow - Aug. 05 (Opinion) - The same week the Senate voted to cut funding for additional F-22s, for a savings of $1.75 billion, the Senate Armed Services Committee added another $9 billion in earmarks to the 2010 defense authorization bill. Earmarks direct money to a specific program or company in a member’s district for something that has not been requested by the Pentagon and has not been subject to any public review or hearing. It is a gift from a member to a constituent, a gesture that usually is repaid with a generous campaign contribution.

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Hey, Did You Hear That Democrats Won The Election?

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By David Michael Green - Aug. 05 (Opinion) - I don't know about you, but I think maybe all those government officials and media reporters who say Democrats won the last election (actually, the last two of them) have just been having a great big ol' laugh at our expense! Whataya think? This is change from the last eight years?? This is the party that opposed the horrors of the Bush administration and the Republican Congress?? This is out-of-control liberalism? And let's not even talk about the things they aren't doing...

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Kucinich Calls for Debate on National Priorities, Speaks Against Military Funding Bill

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Dennis Kucinich - Jul. 30 (Press Release) - "We need to have a serious debate about the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan and the priorities of this nation. We need to discuss our options and we must immediately withdraw U.S. troops and contractors, not just combat troops, but all of our troops. It is time for this body to rethink the validity of funding military operations throughout the world when we have so many priorities that need to be addressed at home.

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Dow Pitching New Pesticide That Doubles As an Extraordinarily Potent Greenhouse Gas

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - Jul. 13 (Press Release) - "The hazards of using sulfuryl fluoride in agriculture have not been evaluated. It is also 4,780 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide," said Dr. Brian Hill, a staff scientist at the Pesticide Action Network. "Either one of those facts makes permitting these tests a major mistake."

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Action at State Department on Tar Sands - World's Dirtiest Oil

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - Jun. 26 (Press Release) - The Canadian Tar Sands are located a day’s drive from Glacier National Park and are one of the most destructive projects on Earth. Already visible from space, the Tar Sands, - a lunar landscape of 'sacrifice zone' -are scheduled to grow to the size of Michigan. Tar Sands oil production generates 3-5 times the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil. Production of Tar Sands oil destroys fresh drinking water, pollutes the air, and razes some of the world’s last remaining endangered forests. Dirty Tar Sands oil cannot be made clean by technological solutions.

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Now Is the Time to Unleash the Power of Clean Energy

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - Jun. 26 (Press Release) - “While the dramatic shift we need in our energy policy and the dire scientific predictions regarding global warming demand that we do much more, the first step is always the hardest and Congress will be applauded for taking it today. We learn to walk before we can run; this historic act by Congress gets us up on our feet and heading toward a clean energy economy.

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Endangered Species Act Fell Into Disuse Under Nominee

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Carol Goldberg - Jun. 22 (Press Release) - The man named by the Obama administration to administer the Endangered Species Act almost never invoked it to protect wildlife, according to agency statistics released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In fact, Sam Hamilton, whose nomination to head the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is now pending, had by far the weakest record on Endangered Species Act enforcement of any comparable official in the country.

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Who Can We Bank On, Who Who Can We Trust, as Crisis Sharpens?

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Danny Schechter - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - Wall Street may be down but by more means out. It is "clawing back" its influence with a new lobbying surge which is allowing Goldman and the big banks to pay back their TARP Money and get out from under the specter of new regulations, compensation limits and the like.

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Industrialised Countries Sabotaging Talks Through Inertia

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - Jun. 12 (Press Release) - Rich countries' inertia is sabotaging a climate deal and abandoning millions of the worlds poorest people to a desperate future said Oxfam on the final day of international climate talks in Bonn today. Together with over 450 development, environmental and social organisations from across the world the international agency called for world leaders, meeting at the G8 Summit in Italy next month, to come to Copenhagen ready to strike a deal that will prevent a human catastrophe.

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Hamas Letter to Obama

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Dr. Ahmed Yousef - Jun. 08 (News Report) - We in the Hamas Government are committed to pursuing a just resolution to the conflict not in contradiction with the international community and enlightened opinion as expressed in the International Court of Justice, the United Nations General Assembly, and leading human rights organizations. We are prepared to engage all parties on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions.

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Safety of Shredded Tires in Playgrounds Under Question

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Peer - Jun. 04 (Special Report) - Every year millions of pounds of tires are recycled into ground rubber, (called "tire crumb") and placed on playgrounds to reduce injuries from falls. Both EPA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have endorsed the use of tire crumb for years but neither agency ever investigated the potential toxicity to children from direct contact with tire ingredients, such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, mercury and a number of dangerous hydrocarbons.

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Supreme Court Nominee Should Be Closely Questioned on Church-State Views, Says Americans United

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - May. 26 (Press Release) - It appears that Sotomayor has not written widely on church-state issues, meaning the committee has an obligation to ascertain her views. "We hope Judge Sotomayor turns out to be in the mold of retiring Justice David H. Souter - a strong champion of separation of church and state," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "The American people deserve no less."

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Concern Mounts Over US Predator Covert Killings

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Times - By Tom Baldwin - May. 23 (News Report) - The CIA is said to have carried out at least 16 Predator strikes in Pakistan during the first four months of this year. America has stepped up the covert targeted killing policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan despite the concern of security experts about its effectiveness and complaints by human rights groups about civilian casualties.

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Drinking from Plastic Bottles 'Increases Exposure to Gender-Bending Chemical'

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Telegraph - By Murray Wardrop - May. 22 (News Report) - Scientists have demonstrated for the first time that polycarbonate containers release the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) into liquid stored in them. BPA has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans.

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Rx and the Single Payer

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - By Bill Moyers, Michael Winship - May. 22 (News Analysis) - In 2003, a young Illinois state senator named Barack Obama told an AFL-CIO meeting, "I am a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program."

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What Was I Fighting For?

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Rick Reyes - May. 21 (Opinion) - I never detained or arrested anyone guilty of a crime. I witnessed firsthand the ineffectiveness of US military strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, I didn't fully grasp the extent of these failed foreign policies or our government's deception until I returned home from war. Realizing there never were weapons of mass destruction, and that we would have difficulty tracking terrorists even if we had committed all the troops in our military, I felt as though my patriotism had been exploited for political gain. A select few were profiting from these wars, while the majority of Americans shouldered the enormous tax burden.

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Amnesty International Responds to President Obama’s Major Address on National Security

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Common Dreams - May. 21 (Press Release) - "Revising the military commissions is a mistake. It is a system so broken, so discredited, that it cannot be saved by any amount of administrative or legislative duct tape. Americans have put faith in their federal court systems for more than 200 years. All detainees can be tried in these courts and brought to justice. The rule of law must be our guide as the nation seeks to close Guantanamo and reclaim its moral authority.

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US-Russian Team Deems Missile Shield in Europe Ineffective

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Joby Warrick, R. Jeffrey Smith - May. 18 (News Report) - A planned U.S. missile shield to protect Europe from a possible Iranian attack would be ineffective against the kinds of missiles Iran is likely to deploy, according to a joint analysis by top U.S. and Russian scientists. The U.S.-Russian team also judged that it would be more than five years before Iran is capable of building both a nuclear warhead and a missile capable of carrying it over long distances. And if Iran attempted such an attack, the experts say, it would ensure its own destruction. "The missile threat from Iran to Europe is thus not imminent," the 12-member technical panel concludes in a report produced by the EastWest Institute, an independent think tank based in Moscow, New York and Belgium.

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A Case For Economic Democracy

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

stwr.org - By Gary Dorrien - May. 18 (Opinion) - Rather than continuing to pay off the very people who created this financial crisis, it's time to bite the bullet and start building an economic democracy featuring public banks and mutual funded holding companies

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