Take Action on Oct. 24: Join One of the Largest Global Protests in the Fight Against Climate Change by Tim Kingston, AlterNet.
On Oct. 24, tens of thousands of people will be in the streets and on mountains, rivers and glaciers around the world demanding action to reduce CO2 emissions.
What started out a couple of years ago as a idea promoted by author/climate-change activist Bill McKibben and a few students at Vermont’s Middlebury College has morphed into the biggest environmental, and possibly the most extensive worldwide protest, ever.
On Oct. 24, tens of thousands of people will be in the streets and on mountains, rivers and glaciers around the world demanding action to reduce CO2 emissions to 350 parts per million (ppm).
With just five days to go, 3,422 events are planned or under way in 160 nations on every continent, including Antarctica. More are coming online daily at 350.org, a small (seven staffers) organization based in Berkeley, Calif., that is coordinating the international day of action.
Organizers of the event are targeting the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. They hope the international day of action will apply pressure on the assembled heads of state and governments to reduce global greenhouse gas CO2 emissions to below 350 ppm, the number that scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. READ MORE:
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) Humbles Hudson Institute Dilettante Over Health Care Bankruptcies AlterNet.
Franken drove home the point that medical bankruptcies are unheard of in countries with viable heath care systems.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/#143452
Dept of Homeland Security Expands Controversial Program Empowering Local Police By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
The 287(g) program gives local law enforcement authority to enforce federal immigration laws, which has led to accusations of racial profiling.
AMY GOODMAN: The immigration debate is heating up on Capitol Hill, and the Department of Homeland Security said Friday it plans to enter into new agreements with sixty-seven state and local law enforcement agencies. These agreements expand the existing 287(g) program, which delegates some federal immigration enforcement authority to certain state and local agencies. The announcement comes shortly after DHS released a report on immigrant detention noting the vast majority of those detained under the 287(g) agreements were never charged with a criminal offense. The 287(g) program has come under intense criticism in recent months from over 500 organizations, including the ACLU, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, calling on the government to end the program. Many of the agencies involved have been accused of racial profiling, and the Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio in Phoenix, Arizona, is being investigated by the Justice Department.
On Friday the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, said it would go forward with a new jails agreement with Sheriff Arpaio but remove his field authority to enforce federal immigration laws on the street. Well, that didn’t stop the Sheriff, and he conducted his twelfth so-called immigration sweep Friday, arresting some sixty people. The Sheriff defended his stance on Fox’s Glenn Beck Show earlier last week. READ MORE:
The Battle Against Letting Wall Street Continue to Make a Killing on Derivatives By Art Levine, AlterNet.
Protections for consumers and Wall Street’s skullduggery are at stake in an obscure series of hearings going on in Congress right now.
Early in the morning, outside the House Financial Services Committee hearing room in the Rayburn office building last week, there were scruffy ex-homeless and other low-income folks, wearing their dreadlocks or sloppy jeans, mixed in with the pinstriped reps for the financial industry.
They all seemed to be lining up to see what $223 million in financial lobbying in the first six months of this year could buy in thwarting real reform on Capitol Hill. And they were hoping to get the few dozen of the public seats available inside the room, for a critical 10 a.m. hearing marking up a bill that was supposed to regulate the now-private market in complex “derivatives.”
Those derivatives are nominally worth at least $450 trillion worldwide, with $555 billion in credit at risk in the U.S. banking industry. (Derivatives are forms of insurance or bets on underlying assets, such as now-toxic subprime mortgages, supposedly designed to manage risk.) No wonder Warren Buffett called them “financial weapons of mass destruction.” READ MORE:
This Year’s Biggest Hoax Is Tim Geithner’s ‘Solution’ for the Economy, Not the Balloon Boy By Robert Scheer, Truthdig.
If we could get one of the banking lobbyists to float a duct-taped flying saucer balloon, Wolf Blitzer might cover the real hoax.
Who are these people? I am not referring to the pathetic parents of “Balloon Boy,” whose fake drama I have been unable to escape while on the treadmill this week, thanks to my gym’s insistence on tuning its flat-screen TVs to Wolf Blitzer’s nonstop self-parody.
The Colorado incident was significant only in the tawdriness of those who perpetrated the made-for-TV scam and their allies in the mindless media who covered this sham “reality” so relentlessly. But even so, it was enough to push aside most consideration of the true hoax reported last week with far less fervor: the obscene rewards that Wall Street bankers bestowed upon themselves for ripping off our economy.
The people I want to know more about are the superrich who expect to be rewarded for their failures, like the folks at Goldman Sachs who will receive $16.71 billion in bonuses—an average of $530,000 per employee—this year after their company did as much as any to bring the world economy to the brink of disaster.
“The Guys from Government Sachs” is what The New York Times once called them in recognition of their chokehold on the federal government. Their power is marked by the two treasury secretaries who led the fight to legally enable and then reward Wall Street for its obscene excesses. Why wasn’t there a CNN stakeout at the homes of former Goldman-execs-turned-treasury-chiefs Robert Rubin and Henry Paulson aimed at finding out how they feel about the almost $7 billion profit that Goldman Sachs made in the last two quarters in the wake of the government’s bailout of the firm?
Tags: 350 parts per million, 350 ppm, al franken, amy goodman, balloon boy, carbon dioxide, climate change, cnn, CO2, controversial programs, copenhagen, derivatives, derivatives swindles, environment, fight against climate change, financial lobbying, financial weapons of mass destruction, global protest, goldman sachs, health care, henry paulson, hispanic caucus, hoaxes, homeland security, hudson institute, immigration debate, joe arpaio, justice department, local police, medical bankruptcies, New York Times, racial profiling, robert rubin, robert scheer, security swindles, senator al franken, stock scandal, stock swindles, tim geithner, treasury chiefs, united nations, Wall Street, wall street thieves, wolf blitzer
John Legry's Blog 
October 23, 2009 at 12:59 am |
Our government needs to prove to the American workers that they mean what they say? That means secure borders and interior immigration enforcement. E-Verify is part of nationwide enforcement, a tool that has caused hysteria amongst the open border demagogues. E-verify was nearly sold out by Sen. Harry Reid , Nancy Pelosi , Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) and even Janet Napolitano. But this time they failed to arrest it’s capability to remove E-Verify from the Parthenon of tools, that addresses the illegal immigration invasion. Brought into the spotlight by Senator Sessions, they Democratic leadership were unable to sink it beyond the enlightened eyes of the attentive public. As with the 1986 Immigration control and reform bill, those anti-sovereignty organizations have–NEVER–tried to–ENFORCE–the law. THROW ALL THESE ANTI-SOVEREIGNTY LAWMAKERS OUT WHEN RUNNING FOR OFFICE AGAIN.
So now those catering to big business are repeatedly saying its broken. like any immigration enforcement laws, Democrats and Republicans alike over decades have refused to enforce the border. A new survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports reveals that 56% of Americans say that federal immigration policies encourage illegal immigration, and 64% believe that local law enforcement should conduct raids in places where illegal aliens gather to find work. Only 19% opposed the raids compared to 24% who opposed such raids back in April. Another condemnation by faith groups is Sen. Chuck Schumer’s attempt to claim overwhelming evangelical Christian support for his pending amnesty legislation has crumbled. His master plan was to use the staff and leadership of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) to give the impression of near unanimity.
The NAE tried. But after the members in the pew erupted, only 11 of the 40 NAE member denominations have been willing to sign on to endorse amnesty and Schumer’s “comprehensive immigration reform” agenda. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) offered an amendment to the Commerce, Justice and Science (CSJ) appropriations bill that would have prevented CSJ funds from going to cities or localities with “sanctuary” policies (i.e., those cities that prohibit their police officers from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, refuse to report criminal illegal aliens, and act as safe havens for illegal aliens). The paranoid Senators voted 61-38 to table the amendment (effectively killing it), with at least one of your Senators voting against the amendment. Unfortunately these are SANCTUARY STATES such as California that is now submerged under massive financial debt, a large portion caused by the millions of illegal families living of state welfare. Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA) yesterday introduced a bill that would ensure all citizens and U.S. residents–INCLUDING–illegals immigrants — are counted in the US Census.
This included Sen. DeMint amendment to construct the original–DOUBLE LAYER–fence, authored originally by Rep.Duncan Hunter, which like most approved laws are hastily thrashed in cloaked conferences pandering to corporate cartels and pro-illegal immigrant lobbyists. Thanks to the open border groups our border defenses comprises of a single layer barrier, with large areas of nothing to halt illegal criminals, drug peddlers, uninhibited terrorists and scores of illegal aliens with families from entering America. Sanctuary policies encourage illegal immigration by sending a signal across the world that anyone who manages to enter the United States will be able to stay here as long as they wish – regardless of their status – because our government lacks the will to enforce its own laws. These illegal policies have contributed to our current illegal immigration debacle and are an embarrassment to the country.
Call and blast your Senators and Representative at 202-224-3121 in Washington. Overwhelming the switchboard with your calls, as it is having an outstanding effect of–MILLIONS of angry voters. INFORM THEM DO YOUR DUTY OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES ON RE-ELECTION DAY? Tell them you want a PERMANENT E-Verify for–EVERY WORKER, a secure double layer fence and–REAL–enforcement against sanctuary state policies. Read undisclosed facts at NUMBERSUSA. UNEARTH the corruption at JUDICIAL WATCH. Your voice is needed to halt OVERPOPULATION and American Worker survival. Demand NO-MORE-AMNESTIES. Go home and come through the front door, like millions of legal immigrants?
October 23, 2009 at 5:32 pm |
Fascism unfolds in five stages.
In the first stage, a rural movement emerges to effect some kind of nationalist renewal. They come together to restore a broken social order, always drawing on themes of unity, order, and purity. Reason is rejected in favor of passionate emotion, rooted in the promise of restoring lost national pride by resurrecting the culture’s traditional myths and values, and purging society of the toxic influence of outsiders and intellectuals blamed for current misery.
Modern American conservatism was built on these themes. From “Morning in America” to the Rapture-ready religious right to the white nationalism promoted by the GOP through various racist groups, American proto-fascism offers redemption by promising to restore the innocence of a traditional, white, Christian, male-dominated America. The entire Republican party now openly defines itself along these lines. It is blatantly racist, sexist, repressed, exclusionary, and permanently addicted to the politics of fear and rage. It has no shame, no apologies. These same threads weave through every fascist movement in history.
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REPUBLICAN INSURANCE NAZIS under “Pages”