Ten Reasons Why You Should not Support the NRA
1. The NRA is a terrorist’s best friend. Technology is making it increasingly possible to manufacture handguns made primarily of plastic and other non-metal materials which cannot be discovered by metal detectors. This gun would be a terrorist’s dream but a nightmare for airport security. In the 1980s Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General proposed a ban on the manufacture of plastic guns, but the NRA opposed this legislation and it was withdrawn. Over the years, similar attempts to prohibit the manufacture of plastic guns have been killed by the NRA. Of course, no law-abiding person needs a handgun that can evade…
Marketing Secrets of USA Politics
An acquaintance and I were discussing an issue on why sensationalism and negativity seems to be so popular in USA politics, and is there a difference in reaching people of opposing political persuasions. My friend sent a link to an article that reflects her opinion that I can summarize: Liberals are ruining America because they are answering conservative talk propaganda, which further enables conservatives by giving them even more attention. The article used the example of Sandra Fluke and Rush Limbaugh concerning the issue – Should insurance companies and employers who offer health insurance benefits be required to offer birth control to…
Tea Party Protests We Can Believe In
On this Monday, April 15th, we will enjoy both the benefits and detriments of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution which has permitted income taxation by Congress for the last 100 years. Also on this day in all 50 states, “grass roots” tax protests of varying authenticity will occur outside post offices, government buildings and town squares as tens of thousands bemoan the annual freedom killing duty that is the timely filing of our returns. Notwithstanding that these protest folks are in apoplexy over the lowest marginal tax rates since Reagan, that the last GOP POTUS turned a $200 billion…
Secret Global Offshore Banking Scheme Exposed!
Former chief economist, and a board member of the Tax Justice Network, James S. Henry’s research reveals that an estimated $21 trillion to $32 trillion in private financial wealth is tucked away in offshore havens, roughly equivalent to the size of the U.S. and Japanese economies combined. These offshore havens are managed by the world’s 50 largest “private banks” –considered legal and legitimate-, and their coffers grew from $5.4 trillion in 2005 to more than $12 trillion in 2010. Now, twelve diligent and patient journalists of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) organization, and 86 journalists from 46 countries, sifting…
Former DOJ Chief Rehired by Big Bank Law Firm
Watch The Untouchables on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
Former Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Lanny Breuer, is returning to his roots. According to the New York Times article titled “Once More Through the Revolving Door for Justice’s Breuer”, Breuer is rehired by the Covington & Burling, a law firm known for defending financial clients facing Federal scrutiny such as Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co. Prior to joining to DoJ, Breuer was a partner and co- chairman at the Covington & Burling, from 1989 until 1997. Breuer who failed to criminally prosecute any Wall Street…
War on Terror or Corporate Global Domination
Written by guest author: Pat Grayson It’s a fact that the USA has military bases in hundreds of countries around the world that do not need military protection, and many no longer want American military presence. But powerful corporations want our international presence to continue because they are making loads of cash. The USA has the capacity to blow up the Earth many times over. Is there any need to have such a multitude of nuclear weapons? The answer is corporations made loads of profits when they manufactured over 5,000 nuclear war heads and the missiles to deliver them. Do…
Momentum Building for Paid Sick Leave Laws in U.S. Cities.
The United States of America is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not guarantee any paid sick leave to its workers. Worldwide, over 145 countries guarantee all workers paid time off for illnesses. In the absence of any federal policy on mandated sick leave in the near future, American cities like Portland, Seattle, Washington D.C., and San Francisco have taken action requiring all workers have access to paid time off for sicknesses. The pressure is growing on more cities, and even some states to look at enacting similar legislation. New York and Philadelphia could be close to…
Immigrant Detainees Held in Solitary Confinement for Weeks (Video)
According to a New York Times report, new federal data shows that about 300 immigrants are held in solitary confinement each day at detention facilities overseen by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, throughout the country. Half are held in isolation for 15 days, and about 10 percent are held for up to 75 days, a period which psychiatric experts say can cause serious mental damage. The report says the US has the highest rates of solitary confinement out of all democratic states. There were varying reports for why these immigrants were held, usually because of violation of facility…
The Postal Service Is Not a GOP Target
Congressional Republicans Just Want You to Think It Is. Unlike most Americans, many members of Congress have actually read the United States Constitution. They know what it would take to abolish the postal service and they do not intend to do it.
Drowning in Student Debt: Who Should You Thank?
Student loans are one of the few exceptions that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy in the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which was passed by the Bush administration in 2005. Student loans fall under the same category as child support payments and criminal fines. Almost any other kind of debt including medical bills, mortgage, credit cards and car loans, even gambling losses can be discharged under this law. Critics of the law say it is a giant giveaway to the banking industry that provides protections for lenders as opposed to students. The average loan balance for U.S. college…
New Hampshire House Votes to Ban Private Prison Option
New Hampshire’s Democratic controlled House of Representatives vote to prohibit the executive branch from privatizing the state’s prison system by a 197 to 136 vote, yesterday. The House Bill 443 is sent to the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim 13-11 majority. Although the bill prohibits prison privatization, it gives the governor the right to enter into a temporary contract with a private provider during times of a “corrections emergency”, but this can be done only with the approval of the Executive Council. Private prison industry had its eye on New Hampshire for a while. In January 2012, more than…
The Tree of Liberty and The Roots of All Evil
And liberty and justice…for those who can afford it… Corruption. It’s one of the few issues that everyone, on every “side” simply detests. Regardless of the spin put on it or the arguments and justifications for its practice, most will agree there is simply no excuse for it. And while generally bandied like a partisan beach ball, with each side trying desperately to condemn the other for their influences and complicity, while bending over backwards to justify their own, so much is lost in the process. Despite this endless noise and outrage, the roots of corruption, the very mechanics of…
HSBC Settlement Case Raises Legal Hackles
In December, U.S. Federal Authorities stirred controversy for having reached a financial settlement deal with British bank HSBC, allowing the bank to avoid criminal prosecution for taking part in money laundering operations for Latin American drug cartels, suspected terrorist networks and rogue states such as Iran. As a means to avoid prosecution, the bank agreed to pay $1.9 billion in fines, after having reached the arrangement with the Department of Justice. However regardless of their agreement and written arguments by both federal prosecutors and HSBC filed in January arguing in favor of the deal , U.S. District Court Judge John…
Standardized Testing: More Harm Than Good
Early in 2013, Seattle high school teachers boycotted their annual standardized test. This brave and necessary move has reignited public debate about the place of standardized testing. School reform has gone back and forth for over a century and a half, between the 19th century, Prussian military-industrial model to Dewey’s individualized, “special snowflake” philosophy and back again to factory- and business-preparedness treatment of children. Because neoliberalism is the winning philosophy at the moment, the worth of schools is tied to how well they can churn out identical cogs to plug in to the economic machine. Schools around the country have…
The First Truly Global Empire: John Perkins’ Interview with Progressive Press
“I thinks it’s fair to say that economic hit-men have produced the world’s first truly global empire…” Such was the response of author and activist John Perkins when defining what an economic hitman is in an interview with the Progressive Press on Tuesday. Perkins, an internationally acclaimed writer and advocate for global sustainability, goes on to point out that in the modern age of economic colonialism (in which empires are established through economic force as opposed to military domination) that the modern empires are not those of governments, but corporations. Under the auspices of supporting and developing infrastructure, Perkins claims the…
Honeywell CEO Taken By Surprise By Anti-Austerity Activists
When Honeywell CEO David Cote arrived at Saint Anselm College, he had expected a warmer reception. As the host of Monday’s “Fix The Debt” campaign event, Cote, whose company has come under heavy scrutiny by corporate watchdogs and tax advocates for its use of offshore tax havens, spoke only for three minutes before activists from the “Flip The Debt” campaign interrupted him with a message of protest, before being escorted out by police. “Fix the Debt claims to seek bipartisan solutions to reduce the deficit, but Fix the Debt is nothing more than a CEO lobby whose real objective is…
State Legislatures Question Corporate Personhood
This Valentine’s Day, some members of the New Hampshire house likely won’t be receiving much in the way of candies or cards from corporate interests. Next Thursday, members of the statehouse committee on State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs will meet to discuss House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 2, which calls for the state congressional delegation to “encourage and expedite” a Constitutional amendment to address the highly contentious “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision. Calling for a constitutional differentiation between people and corporations, the bill goes on to encourage that the proposed amendment declare once and for all, that: “…money is not speech,…
Africa is Not Poor, It is Being Robbed (Video)
What is Zambia’s (a poverty-stricken Southern African country) connection to a small village in Switzerland, the Iran hostage crisis, apartheid, President Clinton, and the biggest tax fraud in US history? Zambia has the 3rd largest copper reserves in the world, yet 64% of the Zambians live below the poverty line, 80% of people living on less than $2 a day. When Zambia’s economy was crashing under debt from the previous World Bank loans that were given to the country to build roads and power grids for the mining companies’ business operation needs; The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the same…
Oregon and Colorado House Reps to Introduce Marijuana Decriminalization Bill in Congress
To some, it’s been just around the corner for decades. For others, its probably too good to be true. For a slim, outdated minority, the end is near and we’re all destined to hit the skids. Whatever the reaction, news spread quickly today about Oregon Congressman Blumenauer and Colorado Congressman Polis’s plan to introduce a bill to dramatically change the way the government handles marijuana. Dubbed The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013, the bill calls for the federal government to decriminalize marijuana and leave enforcement and prohibition matters to the states respectively. Marijuana advocates, both from the medical…
Karl Rove Returns: The Quest For Party Unity
Karl Rove launches new American Crossroads Project – Conservatives and Republicans Cringe There is increasing talk regarding the “true conservative” as an endangered species. Now on the left, the talk is more centered on the Republican Party, as to many liberals and progressives, the GOP serves as the big tent under which the right wing gathers. However if that is the case, it would seem some groups are threatening to pull up the stakes and go home. Enter; The Conservative Victory Project. Ex Bush era Rasputin impersonator, Karl Rove has returned, again, and much like any bad b-movie horror franchise,…
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