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Thursday 5 April 2012

The Fashion Industry's Perfect Storm: Collapsing Workers and Hyperactive Buyers
Anne Elizabeth Moore, Truthout: "About a year ago, record numbers of garment laborers in factories across Cambodia - which exports 70 percent of the garments manufactured there to the US - were reported to be suddenly and mysteriously falling to the ground, unconscious. Hundreds at a time - sometimes less, although sometimes more. Workers at many scenes reported foul smells, difficulty breathing. Halting investigations took place at select plants by various parties involved: government officials; labor unions; human rights groups; business associations; monitoring organizations; and, weirdly, the international big-name brands that sell the clothes being made."
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Permit for NATO Protest Granted, but Fight Not Over, Say Organizers
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "'Within sight and sound of the summit' was the demand of a coalition of anti-war activists, Occupiers and union members ready to protest the enforcers of the global 1 percent when they come to Chicago for the NATO summit. After a weeks-long back and forth with the city, the protesters finally won their permit Wednesday. The march, as stated by the newly received permit, will be on Sunday, May 20, from downtown Chicago, past a military recruiting office and to a rally only blocks away from the McCormick Center where the summits will be held."
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Bill McKibben: Why Taxpayers Shouldn't Stand for Subsidies to Big Oil
Bill McKibben, TomDispatch: "By some estimates, getting rid of all the planet's fossil-fuel subsidies could get us halfway to ending the threat of climate change. Many of those subsidies, however, take the form of cheap, subsidized gas in petro-states, often with impoverished populations - as in Nigeria, where popular protests forced the government to back down on a decision to cut such subsidies earlier this year. In the U.S., though, they're simply straightforward presents to rich companies, gifts from the 99% to the 1%."
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Violence Worsening in Syria in Spite of Pledge, UN Says
Alan Cowell, Anne Barnard, The New York Times News Service: "Spasms of fierce new fighting, some just miles from Syria's capital, were reported on Thursday, and the leader of the United Nations said the conflict was getting worse - contradicting assurances by the Syrian government to a special diplomatic envoy that it was complying with his cease-fire plan. The violence came as the Security Council issued a statement requesting Syria's compliance with the plan, particularly its April 10 deadline for a military pullback from major population centers. The statement itself reflected the deep doubts harbored among many nations that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria intends to keep his word."
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Paul Krugman: Beware of Austerity's Vicious Circle
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "One of the key arguments made by the proponents of fiscal austerity, even in a deeply depressed economy, has involved a sort of macroeconomic version of Pascal's wager. Yes, the more open-minded admit, borrowing costs are very low in the United States and Britain. Yes, the arithmetic suggests that cutting spending now will do very little to improve long-run fiscal prospects. But you never know - maybe the last trillion dollars of spending will be what causes a sudden loss of market confidence, turning you into Greeeeeeece. (Cue scary noises.)"
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Self-Dealing and the War Service Industry: KBR Held the Government Hostage
Dina Rasor, Truthout: "This is the first part of a three-part series that will show self-dealing by leaders in the Army, who arranged for this favorable treatment of KBR, at the time a subsidiary of Halliburton. We will lead you through the actions and the consequences of these actions and the effects on the troops and the Army budget."
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Joseph E. Stiglitz: Whose World Bank?
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Project Syndicate: "US President Barack Obama's nomination of Jim Yong Kim for the presidency of the World Bank has been well received - and rightly so, especially given some of the other names that were bandied about. In Kim, a public-health professor who is now President of Dartmouth University and previously led the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS department, the United States has put forward a good candidate. But the candidate's nationality, and the nominating country - whether small and poor or large and rich - should play no role in determining who gets the job."
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Drones Flying Under the Radar
Tom Barry, Truthout: "These 'eyes in the skies,' also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPA), may soon be inescapable. For the most part, however, drones fly outside the radar of public scrutiny, Congressional oversight or international control. In the seven years that the CIA and US military have deployed killer drones, the US Congress has never once debated the new commitment to drone operations. Although the CIA and the US military now routinely direct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations that enter foreign airspace, these interventions haven't been subject to serious Congressional review."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Federal Ban on Same-Sex Marriage Is Being Challenged in a US Appeals Court, and More
In today's On the News segment: Banksters and technocrats pushing austerity in Greece now have blood on their hands, the corruption of American capitalism by Reaganomic deregulation is on full display at Hostess Brands company, the federal ban on same-sex marriage is being challenged in a US appeals court, the death penalty is on the way out in Connecticut, and more.
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"No Contact" Is the Keystone XL of Iran Policy
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "When Bill McKibben drew a line in the sand over the State Department's plans to approve a permit for the climate-mangling Keystone XL pipeline, I rallied to the flag right away. I was immediately smitten with McKibben's strategic argument. He drew a line in the sand over Keystone XL in part because the decision to approve the permit was clearly President Obama's. It wasn't a question of getting 218 votes in the House or 60 votes in the Senate."
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The Fracking Frenzy's Impact on Women
Sara Jerving, PR Watch: "But little has been reported on the ways in which fracking may have unique impacts on women. Chemicals used in fracking have been linked to breast cancer and reproductive health problems and there have been reports of rises in crimes against women in some fracking 'boom' towns, which have attracted itinerant workers with few ties to the community."
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Iran's Revolution and the Global Politics of Resistance
Vinay Lal, Economic & Political Weekly: "In the euphoria over the 'Arab Spring,' which has brought revolutions to the doorsteps of autocratic regimes that only last year seemed unflappable in their resolve to keep the aspirations of their peoples suppressed, it becomes imperative to recall that the first sustained signs of change in west Asia in recent years appeared in Iran."
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Bees: The Threatened Link in Food Security
Esther Manilla, National Radio Project: "Honey bees help pollinate 1 in every 3 bites that we eat ... They are vital in our agricultural industry and essential for the survival of the almost 7 billion people who inhabit this planet. And, as the world's population continues to grow, so does our reliance on honey bees. Unfortunately, most pollinating insects throughout the world are endangered today, including the honey bee."
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Former Chief Anti-Drug Adviser to Mexican President Paid $450,000 a Month by Cartels
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "Mexican President Felipe Calderon has turned a US-motivated war on drugs into a bloodbath for the citizens of his nation. Despite his public fervor to 'cleanse' Mexico of the cartels, his key anti-drug adviser from 2006 to 2008 received $450,000 a month in bribes from drug kingpins. That's more than $5 million a year."
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The Bush Administration Threw Us a Curveball on Iraq
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Progressive Movement Compels Coca-Cola to Pull Support From ALEC Over Voter Suppression Efforts
Read the Article at ThinkProgress

The "Voter Fraud" Fraud
Read the Article at The Nation

This April, Send a Message to President Obama: It's Time to Tax Wall Street
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Drone Use in the US Raises Privacy Concerns
Read the Article at CBS News

The Torture Memo Bush Tried to Destroy
Read the Article at Salon

Mitt Romney Doubles Down on Medicare Distortions
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo

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