Wednesday, April 28, 2010

At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business

April 21, 2010
 
So strong was the antibusiness sentiment for the first Earth Day in 1970 that organizers took no money from corporations and held teach-ins “to challenge corporate and government leaders.”
Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry.



For this year’s celebration, Bahama Umbrella is advertising a specially designed umbrella, with a drain so that water “can be stored, reused and recycled.” Gray Line, a New York City sightseeing company, will keep running its buses on fossil fuels, but it is promoting an “Earth Week” package of day trips to green spots like the botanical gardens and flower shopping at Chelsea Market.


...what the Fuck.

Noriega: US friend and US prisoner

 
Noriega was previously a close US ally and a paid CIA informant despite known ties to drug trafficking. The Reagan administration began turning against him in the mid-1980s after Noriega became less cooperative in the US war on the Nicaraguan government and on US plans to retain effective control over the Panama Canal.
 Drug History breif:

Sexists Charges Against Walmart Stick

Appeals Court Upholds Wal-Mart Discrimination Suit

And a federal appeals court has upheld a class action lawsuit against the retail giant Wal-Mart alleging gender discrimination against female employees. In a 6-to-5 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco ruled hundreds of thousands of female Wal-Mart employees can sue the company as a single class over allegations they received lower pay and less promotions than male co-workers. The case could mark the largest class action employment discrimination suit in US history. Wal-Mart has sought to have each case tried individually and says it will appeal to the Supreme Court (democracynow.org)

Wal-Mart to Face Massive Class-Action Law Suit

News

GOP Blocks Advance of Financial Reform Bill
Goldman Faces New Allegations Ahead of Senate Testimony
Abbas Signs Order Barring Palestinians from Working in Israeli Settlements
Calderón Denounces Arizona Immigration Law
Oil Spill Grows in Gulf of Mexico
Terror Trial Begins for Jailed US Citizen Held in Lengthy Solitary Confinemen

 

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Avatar



Andrarchy

 Androcracy or andrarchy is a form of government in which the government rulers are men. This term derives from the Greek root words andros, or "man", and kratos (as in democratic), or "ruled".

Monday, April 26, 2010

Mother Jones Magazine-- STOP BLAMING THE POOR




This Earth Day, Tell Mother Jones (and everyone else) to End the Population Panic
Mother Jones Cover
I want Earth Day to be a time for people to think and take action about the absurd global inequalities that force the poorest nations and the poorest people in all nations to carry the heaviest burden of pollution, food and water insecurity, and climate change-related disasters. I want people to think about what governments, industries, institutions, and systems are responsible for this mess.
Mother Jones, which I thought I could count on to support me in this view, decided to go a different route.  Their newest issue instead focuses on the "population crisis" and the dangerous myth that poor, brown people and their babies are the biggest threat to our planet.

I was in a bit of disbelief at first and was somewhat relieved to see quotes like "Mention population, and discussion goes straight to the teeming Third World masses--never mind that an American's carbon footprint is 23 times that of an Indian" in the Editors' Note.  You'd think that with a beginning like that the feature story might be about the disproportionate consumption levels of developed countries, right?


Article Availble Feministing.org

Jailed US Hikers Paradox?

When its western (white) people being held captive, and in dangerous health conditions, we care and think it is injustice without much debate, or skepticism. There's no country threatening not to take in these hiker into their society if they are released. No demand for thorough investigations. Why is this so cut and dry, where is the controversy of releasing captives.  Why are innocent captives in Gitmo more dangerous , and cause more of stir?

Jailed US Hikers in Poor Health in Iran

And three Americans jailed in Iran after mistakenly hiking in from Iraq are reportedly in declining health. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were detained in July after accidentally crossing into Iran while hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Swiss diplomats who visited the three last week say Shourd is suffering from a serious gynecological condition as well as depression. Bauer is said to have a stomach ailment. The diplomats said the three are considering launching a hunger strike to protest their imprisonment. The Iranian government has suggested it plans to prosecute the three on espionage charges, but no trial date has been set.




Irony of Coal, today.

Rough text more to come.

Today as  Predient obama describes his remorse for the tradegy at the big fork mine, and the irresponsible nature of Massey; activists who have been fighting Coal Mining in west virgina get out of jail.

The ones protesting the reckless and unrestrained charachter of Massey energy and their activities are jailed, and put at risk. While obama speaks of responsiblity. The value and "thanks" does not come tot he right people.

who was making noise about massey Energies saftey violations first? who was the loudest? Does anyone care? I bet you the activists didn't, here one bit of "well.... you were right" these violations, and blatent disregard for saftey and regulation is a problen, thank you. We are sorry for giving you such a hard time about this"....the answer is obvious, becuase you know we don't live in that kind of society, sadly.

It may be now interesting to ask the orphans, the widows the parents of the mine workers, how radical and out of line, annoying disrespectful and dumb those anti-coal, Coal-watch, anti-massey environmentalists are, maybe their opinion should matter.




http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/23/us/20100423_MINE_VICTIMS.html?ref=us

Obama Honors Victims of W. Va. Mine Blast

President Obama was in West Virginia on Sunday for a memorial honoring the twenty-nine miners who died in the Massey Energy Upper Big Branch mine disaster earlier this month. A crowd of several thousand people was on hand to pay tribute to the dead workers. Obama has singled out Massey for failing to prevent the disaster, calling the explosion “a failure first and foremost of management.” On Sunday, Obama called for tightening safety standards at US mines.
President Obama: “How can we fail them? How can a nation that relies on its miners not do everything in its power to protect them? How can we let anyone in this country put their lives at risk by simply showing up to work, by simply pursuing the American dream? We cannot bring back the twenty-nine men we lost. They are with the Lord now. Our task, here on earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/us/26obama.html

Arizona Don't Care About Your Civil Rights


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/20/arizona-immigration-law-s_n_544864.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html

news



  • Rescue Effort Ends, Oil Leaking into Gulf
  • Arizona Governor Signs Immigrant Crackdown Bill
  • Obama Honors Victims of W. Va. Mine Blast
  • 72 Killed in Iraq Bombings
  • 3 Afghan Civilians Reportedly Killed in US Raid
  • Clashes Follow Israeli Settler March in Palestinian Neighborhood
  • Israeli Troops Shoot Protesters in Gaza
  • 90,000 Japanese Protest US Base on Okinawa
  • Rallies Held Worldwide for Spanish Human Rights Judge
  • Dems to Hold Cloture Vote on Financial Reform Bill
  • Goldman Sachs Execs Bragged of Profiting from Housing Crash

 


Sunday, April 25, 2010

Whose Global Food Security

By Raj Patel
 
  Food First report Why the Lugar-Casey Bill will Fail to Curb Hunger 
 
One of the most exclusive millionaire’s clubs is causing trouble again. The US Senate has used the language of food security to write a pork-filled manifesto for genetically modified agriculture. If you’ve got one, call your Senator and demand that they strip out their support for GM crops. Full press release from Food First below the fold.



A bill before the Senate would create a federal mandate for genetically modified crop research as part of U.S. foreign aid programs, against the recommendations of all major international assessments of agricultural development. A new report on the proposed legislation from Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy calls for urgent action to stop the bill.

The Global Food Security Act (SB 384) passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month. The legislation, also known as the Lugar-Casey Act, aims to reform aid programs to include a stronger focus on long-term agricultural development, and restructure aid agencies to better respond to crises. While this renewed attention is welcome, funding under the proposed law – some $7.7 billion worth of it – would be directed largely to genetically modified crop research.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Zambia's farming revolution poster boy


By Kieron Humphrey
Lusaka, Zambia




Elleman Mumba makes an unlikely celebrity. He is not a singer nor a footballer - he is a 54-year-old peasant farmer from southern Zambia.
Yet he has appeared on the front page of a national newspaper and been interviewed for numerous radio and television programmes.

What explains his fame?

Mr Mumba grows maize and groundnuts on his small plot of land in Shimabala, just south of Lusaka.
Feeding his family used to be a problem.
"The yield was very little. We were always looking for hand-outs; we had to rely on relief food."

Quiet agricultural revolution
Like many farmers, Mr Mumba had no oxen of his own to plough his field.
He had to wait in line to hire some, which meant he often failed to plant as soon as the first rains fell - with disastrous consequences.
Researchers say that for each day's delay, the potential yield shrinks by between 1% and 2%.
Then, in 1997, Mr Mumba suddenly found himself in the vanguard of a quiet agricultural revolution.
His wife had been given free training in a system called conservation farming, and persuaded him to try it.
Conservation farming is about doing less to get more. Instead of ploughing entire fields, farmers till and plant in evenly spaced basins.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Down With the Clown

As Wendi Gosliner, a Researcher at the Center for Weight and Health at UC Berkeley observes, “not one of the 24 Happy Meal combinations offered contains the foods and nutrients children need to meet the Dietary Guidelines. Now, they’re promoting processed fresh apples dipped in caramel sauce and sweetened milk as ‘healthy’ choices. Well, these meals and these choices are hurting our children’s health.”


 By Raj Patel


It was a seminal moment. For the first time, breaking all convention, Ronald turned to the TV cameras and addressed himself to his viewers directly. It had never been done before, and it set off a revolution the consequences of which we still struggle to fight. When Ronald Reagan ended his presidential debate with Jimmy Carter in 1979 with “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”, his media savvy changed mass politics forever.
But long before that, another Ronald messed with mass communications no less indelibly, paving the way for today’s politicians and pundits. Appropriately, the first Ronald was a clown. In 1963, sixteen years before Reagan’s fateful piece to camera, Ronald McDonald broke every rule in advertising when he turned to the lens and stunned children by speaking to them directly, saying:
“Here I am kids. Hey, isn’t watching TV fun? Especially when you got delicious McDonald’s hamburgers. I know we’re going to be friends too cause I like to do everything boys and girls like to do. Especially when it comes to eating those delicious McDonald’s hamburgers.”
(full article)



Friday, April 16, 2010

Use your Lenses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypIbTpnuNgg&feature=player_embedded