Top Stories
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
By Tara Lohan, AlterNet
Chipotle has a great record when it comes to buying more sustainable ingredients, but it has done one thing that has human rights activists howling.
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
Starbucks has become a popular gathering spot for some Second Amendment crusaders, but the company is pretending it doesn't have the power to keep them out.
By Steve Clemons, The Washington Note
Rahm Emanuel, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod are the subject of a juicy report on what's gone wrong in the Obama White House,
By Lawrence Lessig, The Nation
At the center of our government lies a bankrupt institution: Congress. The US Congress has become the Fundraising Congress.
By Dean Baker, PoliPoint Press
An $8 trillion housing bubble fostered by the Federal Reserve has burst, and with it much of the wealth of America's middle class.
By Sonia Scherr, SPLC Intelligence Report
Researches have found that kids don't necessarily get their prejudice from their parents -- it is the community that fosters tolerance or prejudice.
By Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones
An obscure executive order has been misconstrued and now the blowback has reached all the way to Congress.
By Robyn O'Brien, AlterNet
Including the USDA in health discussions could lead to better subsidies for organic farms -- and healthier Americans.
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
In a bizarre fundraising appeal, James O'Keefe's co-conspirator Hannah Giles claims ACORN is trying to 'destroy' her -- and invites you to donate $35 to $5,000 to her legal fund.
Monday, February 8th, 2010
By John Nichols, TheNation.com
Palin is now moving front and center as a potential challenger to Obama. That may scare Republicans who worry about their party's prospects in 2012.
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
In a bizarre fundraising appeal, James O'Keefe's co-conspirator Hannah Giles claims ACORN is trying to 'destroy' her -- and invites you to donate $35 to $5,000 to her legal fund.
By Sarah Seltzer, AlterNet
A new show lets viewers weigh in on whether the characters have abortions. Is it a smart way to spark discussion about abortion, or tone deaf and callous?
By Pratap Chatterjee, Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com
As in the 1960s in Cambodia, U.S. air strikes are having a devastating effect in Pakistan, not just on the targeted communities, but on public consciousness throughout the region.
By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet
Palin's speech was her boilerplate of non sequiturs and cognitive disconnections, but in the interview that followed, she revealed her hand in a game for the presidency.
By Shannon Hayes, YES! Magazine
A glance into America’s past suggests that homemaking could play a big part in addressing the ecological, economic and social crises of our present time.
By Doug Kreeger, AlterNet
Let's hope the American people don't buy the propaganda of anti-government groups calling for the overthrow of the very institutions that protect all of us from tyranny.
Raw Story
Wall Street CEOs have formed a group to take advantage of new fundraising possibilities opened up by the Supreme Court decision to end the ban on corporate election spending.
By Sam Benjamin, SeXis Magazine
As a director of heterosexual porn, I came to learn that while my overt task was to make sure the girls got naked, my true responsibility was to make sure the girls got punished.
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
By Anneli Rufus, AlterNet
Whether you call it the Hallelujah Diet, the Maker's Diet or the Lord's Diet, the holy spirit is driving one of America's biggest weight-loss fads.
By Rich Benjamin, AlterNet
The simmering movement is the whitest phenomenon on the national scene, evident not just in its Caucasian numbers but in the bedrock beliefs stirring its anti-government contempt.
By Sara Robinson, Blog for Our Future
A poll commissioned by DailyKos shows just how far to the right the GOP has been dragged by its right wing...and how far out of step they are with the rest of America.
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig
Don’t blame the Internet. The bloodless and soulless journalism of the traditional media left newspapers on the wrong side of the growing class divide and their readers.
By Charlotte Dennett, AlterNet
Punishing the guilty for deeds they committed in the past is the only way to show the world that we are truly on a new path.
By Robert Lipsyte, Tomdispatch.com
Whatever happens, the Tim Tebow controversy has put the game’s spotlight back where it belongs -- on the advertising.
By Brad Jacobson, Raw Story
Gaping legal holes allow corporations to spend enormous sums on politics without leaving a paper trail.
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
Lobbyists aren't the only people working against financial reform. The lawmakers who accept their campaign cash deserve the same blame.
By Eric Alterman, Center for American Progress
As the he antics of O'Keefe and company demonstrate, the right has failed to train many genuine journalists. So why do mainstream journalists swallow their line?
Friday, February 5th, 2010
By Vanessa Richmond, AlterNet
The land of beer is a fun and raucous place. It's also filled with deeply sexist images.
By Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet
A new debate is raging over whether prolonged cell phone use poses serious health side effects.
By John Byrne, Raw Story
GOPer Tom Tancredo suggests "literacy test" to protect America from presidents like Obama -- a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.
By David Swanson, davidswanson.org
Assassinating non-Americans is just as illegal as assassinating Americans. The leap here is not to victims of a different citizenship but to the legalization of murder.
By Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet
The banking behemoths have used our dollars to destroy our economy. The Move Your Money campaign says we don't have to wait for financial reform to fight back.
By Julia Landau, East Bay Express
The Bay Area is a hub for new doctors who want to practice family medicine and help the poor, yet had to leave the country to learn how to do it.
By Devona Walker, AlterNet
Would the Baptists accused of taking Haitian kids out of the country illegally have tried to pull this off in a predominantly white country? Doubtful.
By Lance Williams, California Watch
A company won a $54 million contract to build new structures for the Napa Valley Wine Train tourist attraction. The result? 12 new jobs and "pork barrel" accusations.
By Frankie Colmane, AlterNet
Every time we're subjected to more dramatic predictions of global warming without being given solutions, a seed of helplessness is planted in our souls.
By David Sirota, AlterNet
Plagued by deficits, communities everywhere must now decide between tax reform and public spending cuts -- between economic life and death.
By Tim Lockette, Teaching Tolerance
In 1990 over 40 percent of black students in the South attended majority-white schools. Now less than 30 percent of students do — 1960s numbers.
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
By Janine Wedel, AlterNet
Wedel argues in her new book that a group of corrupted elites are destroying the principles that define modern states, free markets and democracy itself.
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet
With Super Bowl Sunday only a few days away, the fight over Focus on the Family's overtly anti-choice ad featuring University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow is raging.
By John Byrne, Raw Story
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced Wednesday that the U.S. may target its own citizens for death if it believes they are associated with terrorist groups.
By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
The Americans accused of smuggling Haitian children out of the country illegally have been charged and face up to 15 years in prison
By Robert Parry, Consortium News
For years, the Right's media infrastructure had only one weak spot, the Internet, but now that has changed.
By John Nichols, TheNation.com
Rep. Edwards: "The Supreme Court has left us with no choice but to change the Constitution and make sure that people own our government and our elections."
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet
Where else can raw ignorance rise to such high places -- and then flaunt itself shamelessly for all to see?
By Dean Baker, Boston Review
Big bank CEOs like to trumpet free-market ideology, but they depend on the government for survival in good times and bad.
By Sara Ost, EcoSalon
"Wearing fur may be more viscerally offensive, but I don't think it's any worse than strapping yourself into a leather belt. In fact, it's possibly better."
By Brian Merchant, TreeHugger
And this despite the fact that such bagged salads often display claims of 'prewashed' or 'triple-washed' and attract customers who consider them cleaner and safer.
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet
At a press conference where a gay Ugandan was too frightened to show his face to the media, a member of Obama's religion council and other clergy threw down the gauntlet.
By Christopher Hayes, The Nation
As welcome as it was, the removal of George W. Bush was not enough to cure what ails us. It goes to the root of our political system.
By Don Hazen, AlterNet
Could CBS have picked a more dated (and less diverse) musical act?
By Nathanael Johnson, California Watch
Pregnancy-related deaths rise in California, but state officials have held onto report.
By Mitu Sengupta, AlterNet
James Cameron’s science fiction blockbuster Avatar is nominated for nine Academy Awards. But should we worry about its controversial racial politics?
By Michael Schwartz, Tomdispatch.com
Dick Cheney thought the US occupation would see a quadrupling of Iraq's capacity to pump oil, and a privatization of its production. Not quite.
By Martha Rosenberg, CounterPunch
There's a good chance you may be eating a livestock drug banned in 160 nations.
By Sara Novak, Planet Green
Backyard birds are just another way to enjoy the best in local foods. But it's important to realize the task that you're taking on, especially in an urban environment.
By Sheri Fink, ProPublica
The U.S. has brought medical services to thousands of Haitians. But a bureaucratic tangle has left some struggling to find loved ones who were taken away for treatment.
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
By Scott Thill, AlterNet
Everything from handy gadgets like cell phones and iPods to user-friendly weaponry like Tasers have changed the way we work, play and police.
By Harriet Fraad, Tikkun
Society-wide depression has struck America. Why it's happened and what we can do about it.
By Daniel Tencer, Raw Story
The US's two highest-ranking defense officials have thrown their weight behind President Barack Obama's call to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
"It seems as if more and more decisions that should be made democratically are being shunted off somewhere to a few people who make them in back rooms."
By Dr. Susan Block, CounterPunch
A team of British "scientists" at King's College London claims to have determined "fairly conclusively" that the G-spot does not exist. And their evidence?
By Michael Grabell, ProPublica
Federal air marshals have long whispered about their complaints relating to a culture of discrimination, but now two recent cases are bringing public attention to the issue.
By Howard Zinn, ZNet
Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society.
By David Sirota, AlterNet
We can thank the likes of Sanjay Gupta, Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper -- disaster porn stars with visions of Peabodys and Pulitzers dancing in their heads.
By Graham Hillard, Killing the Buddha
The problem is that a program whose guiding principle has been the introduction and prolonging of suspense cannot easily lay suspense aside -- and it shouldn't.
By Rob Boston, Church and State
The North Carolina constitution bars state office to "any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God." An Asheville councilman is prepared to put that clause to the test.
