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Why Austerity Kills: From Greece to U.S., Crippling Economic Policies Causing Global Health Crisis

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 21 (Interview) - In their new book, "The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills," economist David Stuckler and physician Sanjay Basu examine the health impacts of austerity across the globe. The authors estimate there have been more than 10,000 additional suicides and up to a million extra cases of depression across Europe and the United States since governments started introducing austerity programs in the aftermath of the economic crisis.

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GOPer Who Got Millions in Farm Subsidies Thinks the Poor Should Starve Rather Than Get Food Stamps

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Justin Doolittle - May. 21 (Opinion) - He fulminates about people who are allegedly "unwilling to work" sucking off the government teat with impunity. This is a patently dishonest representation of the SNAP program. Most people who receive food stamps cannot be dismissed as losers who are "unwilling to work." Nearly half (47%) of all food stamp recipients are children. Another 8% are 60 years of age or older. The "working poor" - people who live in a household with income from work - represent another 41%. Between children, the elderly, the working poor, and people who want a job but cannot find one - someone should tell Fincher that there are still more than 3 unemployed job seekers for every 1 opening

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Nuclear Weapons Will be Used -- If We Don't Do Something to Get Rid of the Damn Things

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Tom Engelhardt - May. 13 (Opinion) - Has a weapon ever been invented, no matter how terrible, and not used? The crossbow, the dreadnought, poison gas, the tank, the landmine, chemical weapons, napalm, the B-29, the drone: all had their day and for some that day remains now. Even the most terrible weapon of all, the atomic bomb, that city-buster, that potential civilization-destroyer, was used as soon as it was available. Depending on your historical interpretation, it was either responsible for ending World War II in the Pacific or rushed into action before that war could end. In either case, it launched the atomic age.

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Austerity Kills: How Harsh Budget Cuts Increase Suicide, Infant Mortality, HIV Infections

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Alex Kane - May. 13 (Review) - Austerity doesn’t just hurt economies--it contributes to rising suicide rates, infant mortality and H.I.V. infections. That’s the message of a New York Times Op-Ed written by David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, authors of a new book titled The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills.

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The Cancer-Stage Of Capitalism

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

talkradionews.com - By Thom Hartmann - May. 06 (Opinion) - Unregulated capitalism is cancer on our nation. Like tumors, greed has metastasized, strangling once-healthy parts of our economy, and our social safety net. A new piece on Alternet lists several ways this cancer capitalism has taken hold. For starters, the hoarding of wealth by the banksters and the 1% has diverted resources away from nutritional aid programs. Twenty people in our country collected a whopping $73 billion in investment income – all taxed at a lower rate than working Americans. Compare that with the fact that President Obama couldn’t even get $1 billion to improve childhood nutrition in our schools.

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U.S. Judges Admit to Jailing Children for Money

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

inquisitr.com - Apr. 30 (Opinion) -

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In Gasland sequel, fracking saga’s pressure ratchets up

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Grist - By Sarah Laskow - Apr. 27 (Review) - Gasland Part II shows how much higher the stakes have grown in the battle over fracking since Josh Fox made its predecessor.

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Not Every Republican Hates Obama's Progressive Labor Secretary Nominee

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Adam Serwer - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - Thomas Perez, the head of the Justice Department's civil rights division and President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Department of Labor, is getting some support from unexpected corners: Republicans, particularly in his home state of Maryland. "I think he's going to be a very fine secretary of labor for us," says Michael Steele, former chair of the Republican National Committee who first met Perez when he was a member of the Montgomery County Council and Steele was Lt. Governor of Maryland. "He's honest, direct, approachable and willing to work hard to get it right." Steele isn't the only Maryland Republican praising Perez. "He's just a trustworthy guy," says John Kane, a former chair of the Maryland GOP. "If I had to put a trust together to manage my affairs after I was gone, Tom would be one of the top three guys I would pick to do that, even though I disagree with him more than half the time." Monday, John R. Dunne, a Republican who was head of the civil rights division during the ...

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Saving Our Ravaged Planet ... and Ourselves

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By Jim Hightower - Apr. 17 (Opinion) - Earth Day cometh — the 43rd year of this national focus on the state of our globe. So, how is Earth doing? Should we be weeping ... or cheering? Both.

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How Science Can Predict Where You Stand on Keystone XL

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Chris Mooney - Apr. 17 (Comment) - On February 17, more than 40,000 climate change activists—many of them quite young—rallied in Washington, DC, to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, which will transport dirty tar sands oil from Canada across the heartland. The scornful response from media centrists was predictable. Joe Nocera of the New York Times , for one, quickly went on the attack.

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Poverty Expert Peter Edelman Explains How Low Wages and Racial Politics Line the Pockets of the Rich

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Adelle M. Stan - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - in 1996, Edelman resigned his post as an assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human services to protest President Bill Clinton's signing the Republicans' welfare-reform bill into law. Since then, Edelman has held fast not only to his critique of that law -- which, he says, has left some 6 million people with no income other than food stamps -- but to his assessment of why poverty in the world's richest nation has become so intractable.

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10 Facts Obama Doesn't Want You to Know About His Social Security Slashing Budget Plan

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Richard Eskow - Apr. 12 (Opinion) - Of course it’s a tax hike. Same goes for the tax impact of the chained CPI. Our tax brackets were designed to make sure that taxes didn’t go up inadvertently because inflation kicked them into a higher tax bracket. That was done to make sure that people who weren’t earning more in real dollars – which includes many (if not most) of the “99 percent” – weren’t hit with an unearned tax hike.

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Bishop Thomas Gumbleton Speaks Out For Sexual Abuse Victims; Reflects on Lifetime of Activism

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - Apr. 12 (Interview) - As newly elected Pope Francis orders the Vatican to act more decisively on sexual abuse cases, we speak to retired Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit. A survivor of sexual abuse himself, Gumbleton was forced to resign in 2007 after he spoke out publicly in favor of an Ohio bill to extend the statute of limitations for cases of sexual abuse by clergy. Gumbleton spoke here in New York City last night at a benefit for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Bishop Gumbleton has also been a leading voice for peace, justice and civil rights for decades. He helped found Pax Christi and Bread for the World. We also speak to him about poverty in Detroit, Lori Berenson, war tax resistance, why he challenges the church's position on gay marriage, the anti-nuke movement and liberation theology. [includes rush transcript - partial. More to come. Check back soon.]

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Obama’s Budget: A Bad Bargain

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Tim Carpenter, Mike Hersh - Apr. 10 (Opinion) - The White House dismisses COLA cuts as “technical changes,” but the president knows better. In 2008, candidate Obama accused his opponent, John McCain, of planning to “cut cost-of-living adjustments or raise the retirement age” for Social Security, and vowed that he would do neither. He also said, “When you look at how we should approach Social Security, I believe that cutting the benefits is not the right answer. I meet too many seniors across the country who are struggling with the limited Social Security benefits that they have.” Candidate Obama was right; President Obama is wrong.

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7 Chilling Facts About Retirement in America That Should Make Obama Tremble Before Cutting Social Security and Medicare

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lynn Stuart Parramore - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - We are headed for a catastrophic retirement train wreck. A Wall Street-driven financial crisis has stripped millions of people of things like jobs, pensions and home equity that were supposed to deliver a dignified retirement after a lifetime of hard work. The crisis has also provided certain interests the opportunity to make false claims about the “unaffordability” of vital social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare that help the 99% make it. These opportunistic “ Raiders of Your Lost Retirement” do not give a hoot if you starve in your golden years – this is about money to them

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SCOTUS Hearings on Gay Marriage Day Two: Good News, Bad News and Really Good News

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - Mar. 30 () -

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My doctor doesn't think I'm going to die today

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Daily Kos - By JohnnyRook - Mar. 27 (Opinion) - news can depress. At times it depresses me but, more than anything else, it has filled my life with meaning. I have a mission. Before I die, I want to have some sense that this beautiful planet that has provided the context for my life, will have some chance of enduring. I want to die with hope, believing that my teenage son and his children and your children and their children will live in a world that is reasonably hospitable to human beings. I don't know how that can happen if people will not face the reality of what is taking place in the world. So, I continue to sound the alarm, even though I know that most of what I write is discounted as alarmist or simply ignored as too uncomfortable to deal with.

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Dying Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young Explains Decision to End His Life

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez, Tomas Young - Mar. 21 (Interview) - In the week marking the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we spend the hour looking at the remarkable life and imminent death of Iraq War veteran Tomas Young. Citing his overwhelming physical pain from wounds that left him paralyzed in Iraq, Young recently announced he has decided to end his life by discontinuing his medicine and nourishment, which comes in the form of liquid through a feeding tube

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Bill Maher Takes On Horse Meat Scandal, Slams California Vote Against GMO Label Prop (VIDEO)

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Bill Maher - Mar. 03 (Comedy News) - video

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How High Is Too High to Drive?

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Josh Harkinson - Feb. 11 (Comment) - On the evening of February 23, 2010, Rodney Koon was pulled over for doing 83 in a 55 zone outside Traverse City, Michigan. The deputy who stopped Koon noticed that the inside of his Toyota RAV4 smelled funny , and the middle-aged carpenter admitted that he'd taken a few hits of marijuana six hours earlier.

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Industry Outlook Panel Yields Words to Thrive By

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

siia.net - By Ronn Levine - Feb. 06 (Review) - “How far can companies go before they annoy their users?” asked Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings, at last week’s Breakthrough: IIS 2013 Conference in New York. With Facebook’s new Search Graph, Google’s deeper searches and other initiatives based on user data, will the time come where people say the loss of privacy is not worth the enhanced information they can get?

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What's Wrong With Immigration Reform, Rubio Style

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New America Media - By Raúl A. Reyes - Jan. 27 (Opinion) - Lately Marco Rubio has been busy laying out the Republican Party’s framework for immigration reform to anyone who will listen. “We’re for legal immigration and for enforcing our laws,” the U.S. Senator from Florida explained to Telemundo.

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Obama Oratory vs. Obama Reality

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Norman Solomon - Jan. 23 (Opinion) - With President Obama's second term underway and huge decisions looming on Capitol Hill, consider this statement from Howard Zinn: "When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them." With so much at stake, we can't afford to forget our role. For starters, it must include public clarity. Let's face it: despite often nice-sounding rhetoric from the president, this administration has continued with a wide range of policies antithetical to progressive values.

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Steve Stockman is the Nuttiest Freshman in Congress—Again

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Mother Jones - By Tim Murphy - Jan. 23 (Opinion) - On Monday of last week, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) announced that if President Barack Obama attempted to enact new gun violence prevention measures through executive order, he would have no choice but to file articles of impeachment. By Tuesday, he was comparing Obama to Saddam Hussein for using children as props at a speech introducing a gun control package. By Wednesday, he had stepped back from the precipice, asserting that "impeachment is not something to be taken lightly." After all, where did anyone get that idea? This is the way it has always been with Steve Stockman: Light a fire; add some potassium nitrate; then stand back and gawk at the crater.

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An Enduring Wrong

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

National Review - By The Editors - Jan. 22 (Editorial) - The New York Times got the story wrong from the very beginning. “The Supreme Court overruled today all state laws that prohibit or restrict a woman’s right to obtain an abortion during her first three months of pregnancy,” its front page reported on January 23, 1973. “The vote was 7–2,” the Times continued.

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