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Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Hightower: Obscenely Rich Bankers Claim to Do God's Work -- They Can Go to Hell

By Jim Hightower, AlterNet
Top executives were initially hurt by the public's moral outrage. But their sense of entitlement quickly kicked in, and now they claim they're the good guys.

For 12-Year-Old Without an Arm, Insurance Has Run Out

By Danielle Ivory, The Huffington Post Investigative Fund
Health and Wellness: 12 year old Benjamin French lives in one of 33 states where insurance companies are allowed to set annual and lifetime caps on prosthetic coverage.

Stupak Amendment Could End Abortion Coverage -- For Everyone

By Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: An independent study predicts that the Stupak amendment could end insurance coverage of abortions -- for everyone -- in the long-run.

Anti-Abortion Group to Protest Palin

By Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones Online
Rights and Liberties: To liberals, she epitomizes the anti-choice far right of the GOP. But to American Right to Life, Sarah Palin is not pure enough.

Pick the Most Influential Progressives. Fill Out Our Survey. Maybe Win a Prize!

By Don Hazen, AlterNet
We're eager to hear what you love, and what you might want to change about AlterNet.

When It’s Crunch Time at College, Students Turn to Adderall

By Erik Hayden, Miller-McCune.com
DrugReporter: Can ADHD stimulants like Adderall be the answer for college students looking to increase academic performance? They think so.

How Far Right Must GOPers Lean to Please a Crazy Base?

By Steve Benen, Washington Monthly
PEEK: Far enough to completely contradict themselves, apparently.

A Year After the 2008 Election Galvanized Young Voters and Organizers, Where Are They Now?

By Elizabeth Méndez Berry, The Nation
Politics: Getting to the bottom of who the "Yes We Can" generation really is.

Still No Justice for Priests in Notorious El Salvador Massacre 20 Years Later

By Norman Stockwell, AlterNet
World: In 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, were brutally murdered in El Salvador. Two decades later, the extent of U.S. complicity remains largely unspoken.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Why Won't Obama Give You a Job?

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Politics: Wall Street's raking in massive profits and paying its execs and traders record bonuses, thanks in part to government cash. What about ordinary Americans?

Sarah Palin's Poison: The Secret of Her Right-Wing Success

By Richard Kim , Betsy Reed, The Nation
Politics: Some may secretly relish the embarrassing spectacle that is Sarah Palin. But she's dangerous; the more we chuckle, the more indignant her army becomes.

What Makes a Young Person Embrace Death and Murder? Former Jihadists Speak Out

By Johann Hari, Independent UK
World: Former radical Islamists share their tales of why they turned to extremism, and why they repented.

Why I'll Never Buy a Kindle

By Benjamin Dangl, AlterNet
Media and Technology: Fancy new book readers save lots of trees, yes, but I'll pass.

Christian Bootcamp Seeks to Arm Home-Schooled Youths for "Spiritual Warfare"

By Eleanor Bader, RH Reality Check
Rights and Liberties: "Life is not a playground," says Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas in The Kingdom Leadership Institute Manual. "It is a war zone."

Does Racism Drive Opposition to Health Reform?

By Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune.com
Rights and Liberties: In a recent study, prejudiced people were more likely to support the health plan when it was linked to Bill Clinton, than when it was linked to Obama.

Is BPA, a Chemical Commonly Found in Food Containers, Ruining Your Sex Life?

By Elaine Shannon, AlterNet
Food: Erectile dysfunction and ejaculation problems were two side effects in a recent study of men exposed to high levels of bisphenol A, or BPA.

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Sarah Palin Rules the GOP -- And She Will Destroy It

By Max Blumenthal, Tomdispatch.com
Palin's influence on a party largely devoid of leadership is expanding. If she doesn't become the GOP's future queen, she may be its future king-maker -- and its destroyer.

Catholic Bishops Put Sex Obsession Ahead of Mission to the Sick and the Poor

By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet
Sex and Relationships: First they threatened to take down health-care reform over abortion coverage. Now they're threatening services to the sick and poor of Washington, D.C., over same-sex marriage.

America Is One Big Clunker and No Amount of Cash Will Buy Us a New One

By James Howard Kunstler, Kunstler.com
Environment: We continue to be childishly delusional about our dark economic and environmental prospects. Unfortunately, reality isn't amenable to lies and spin.

The New York Times Embraces 'Douche' as the Television Dirty Word of the Moment

By Don Hazen, AlterNet
The NY Times has just discovered that "douche" is used as an insult in mainstream media. Why do they seem to see the spread of a term derogatory to women as progress?

Obama's Strongest Supporters Suffering the Most in Recession, While Elites Thrive

By Bob Herbert, The New York Times
The young, the black and the poor are among those who are being hammered unmercifully in this long and cruel economic downturn that the financial elites are telling us is over.

Why We Need Bees and More People Becoming Organic Beekeepers

By Makenna Goodman, Chelsea Green Publishing
Environment: Bees teach us how to live our life in a way that by taking what we need from the world around us, we leave the world better than we found it.

Decision to Try Terror Suspects in New York Draws Praise from Human Rights Activists

By Willam Fisher, IPS News
Rights and Liberties: At the same time, the Justice Department is being strongly criticized for keeping the military commissions in place to try some suspects.

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Those Stories About Religious Groups Taking Over the World with Birth Rates Are for Suckers

By Scott Thill, AlterNet
World: Many have fallen sway to demographically data about cultural or religious birth rates -- here's why it's a fool's game.

Stealing Money, Selling Heroin and Raping Boys -- The Very Dark Side of the Afghan Occupation

By Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch
World: One reason Afghan villagers prefer dealing with the Taliban than govt. security forces is that the latter have a habit of seizing their sons at checkpoints and sodomizing them.

Don't You Think It's Time to Reinstate the Laws That Would Have Prevented the Financial Crash?

By Nomi Prins, AlterNet
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: It's been 10 years since Washington repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, the moment we got royally screwed by the banking system -- and we're still paying the price.

Did Big Oil Win the War in Iraq?

By Antonia Juhasz, AlterNet
World: As U.S. and British oil companies sign contracts with the Iraqi government, is it time to declare Big Oil the "victor" in the bloody venture?

The Relentless War on Drug Users Is Escalating Violence in the US: It's Time for Harm Reduction

By Don Hazen, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: Hundreds gather in Albuquerque to celebrate a new dawn of wider acceptance of drug reform, while still feeling a little nervous about the path ahead.

What Should a Feminist Man Look Like?

By Courtney E. Martin, The American Prospect
Reproductive Justice and Gender: Many young men reject the trappings of traditional, sexist masculinity. But what's the alternative?

The Democratic Party: Whose Team Is It, Anyway?

By Katha Pollitt, The Nation
Reproductive Justice and Gender: In the wake of the passage by Democrats of a radical anti-abortion measure, Democratic women are asking, "Whose party is this?"

Memo to the Tea-Baggers: God and Country Aren't with You

By Glynn Wilson, Locust Forks News-Journal
Politics: You don't appear to know what "freedom" means.

Friday, November 13th, 2009

How the U.S. Funds the Taliban

By Aram Roston, The Nation
World: The U.S. government is funding the very forces its troops are fighting -- funds that add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban.

Lab-Grown Meat: The Answer to Animal Cruelty and Environmental Ruin From Feedlots?

By Ari LeVaux, AlterNet
Health and Wellness: If and when lab-grown meat begins filling the processed-food troughs of the masses, will the Oscar Mayer wiener-eaters of the world even notice?

15 Awful Things Republicans Would Do If They Had the Chance

By Dennis Rahkonen, The Smirking Chimp
The GOP's agenda, if fully implemented, would prove catastrophic. Here's what an unfettered Republican Party would do "for" America.

The Top One Reason Religion Is Harmful

By Greta Christina, AlterNet
Belief: Religion is uniquely armored against anything that might stop it from spinning into extreme absurdity, extreme denial of reality and extreme, grotesque immorality.

How Right-Wing Cult Leader Sun Myung Moon Bought Washington

By Rory O'Connor, RoryOConnor.org
Media and Technology: With money, media and promotion of a conservative political agenda, a self-styled Messiah and convicted felon became a frequent guest at the White House.

Why the Catholic Bishops Who Pushed Through the Stupak Amendment Are Hypocrites

By Jon O'Brien and Nancy Keenan, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: The same language the bishops thought too weak to truly ban public funding for abortion maintains their charities' own access to public money.

What Obama Can Learn from Gorbachev

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig
World: On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it's worthwhile to remember that ending a stupid, harmful war is the most admirable thing a great leader can do.

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

How Catholic Bishops Threw the Health Care Debate into Turmoil with Anti-Abortion Maneuver

By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: It took a virulently anti-choice measure to pass the House's health care reform legislation. Progressives are strategizing how to keep it from the final bill.

Rachel Maddow: Corporations Are "Child Labor-Endorsing, Pro-Slavery Freaks" for Trying to Skirt Trade Laws

AlterNet Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: "How will the corporations save themselves from that onerous rule that you can‘t use slaves and prisoners and children to make your products"?

Relentless Pressure from Progressive Groups Pushes Hatemonger Lou Dobbs Out of CNN

By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
Media and Technology: Groups like BastaDobbs have done in Dobbs, who used his media platform to stir up racist, anti-immigrant hysteria for years.

Introducing ChristianChirp, the Evangelical Right's Alternative to Twitter

By Allison Kilkenny, AlterNet
Media and Technology: ChristianChirp.com, which promises to be a "family friendly" site, was founded by a man who claims to have been banned from Twitter for defending Rush Limbaugh.

Drug Policy Alliance Conference Comes at a Crucial Moment for Drug Reform

By Anthony Papa, AlterNet
DrugReporter: More people than ever grasp the need to shift from criminalization to a public health model -- the Drug Policy Alliance's conference leads the way on this discussion.

Whistleblowers Say Oil Reserve Numbers Deliberately Inflated to Avoid Panic, Appease the US

By Matthew McDermott, TreeHugger
Environment: Apparently the IEA was concerned that reporting the true reserve numbers would trigger a buying panic.

The Ft. Hood Massacre Is George Bush's Fault

By Thom Hartmann, The Smirking Chimp
World: If Al Gore (or even Ralph Nader) had been President in 2001, the Ft. Hood massacre almost certainly wouldn't have happened. Because George W. Bush was president, it did.

Quitting Meat Is a Process -- Almost Impossible to Do All at Once

By Jonathan Safran Foer, AlterNet
Food: When it comes to meat, change is almost always cast as an absolute. You are a vegetarian or you are not. It's a strange formulation, and it's distracting.

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

Ugly Truth: Most U.S. Kids Sentenced to Die In Prison Are Black

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: The U.S. stands alone in the world in condemning thousands of juveniles to life without parole. And race is a huge factor. Will the Supreme Court even consider it?

Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh Stoking GOP Civil War

By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America
Media and Technology: The right-wing media are trying to play "king-maker." But they are incapable of picking winners and stand poised to rip the Republican Party apart.

Why Are We Locking Up Traumatized Veterans for Their Addictions Instead of Offering Them Treatment?

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet
World: This Veterans Day, let's get past the bunting and ribbons and look at our returning troops' real needs.

AlterNet Audience Breaks Funding Records, Again: Continues to Buck the Trend

By Don Hazen, AlterNet
We broke all of our fundraising records. Thank you for showing us you care about strong, independent journalism.

Feds Wanted Private Data on All Visitors to Liberal News Site

By Daniel Tencer, Raw Story
Rights and Liberties: A Justice Department subpoena requesting information on visitors to an independent news site is raising serious privacy concerns.

Afghanistan Is Worse Off Than Ever, Thanks to the Sham Army We're Propping Up

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig
World: Cultural barriers and naked corruption have rendered the Afghan National Army completely inept.

Who's Paying for the Recession Most of All? Young Workers

By Lizzy Ratner, The Nation
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Young people have lost 2.5 million jobs to the crisis, making them the hardest-hit age group.

Does the House Bill's Public Option Kill Off the Senate's?

By Booman, Booman Tribune
Health and Wellness: Why the health care reform act has a very long and very difficult road ahead.