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Friday, May 9th, 2008

Drive 800 Miles or Feed a Person for a Year? The Biofuels Dilemma

By , AlterNet
Water: Can the pumping of ethanol into American fuel tanks really make it harder for parents to feed their families?

NYC's Staggering Arrest Rate for Pot Achieved By Police Deception and Scams

By , AlterNet
DrugReporter: New study says New York's cannabis crackdown is both racist and fraudulent -- and that more have been arrested under Bloomberg than Giuliani.

Will the Mortgage Industry Pay for Its Crimes?

By , AlterNet
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Borrowers are being crushed under the credit crisis. Someone needs to pay.

Our Media Have Been So Wrong for So Long

By , AlterNet
War on Iraq: In his new book, E&P editor Greg Mitchell offers a stinging indictment of the media's complicity with Washington's war-marketing machine.

The Superdelegate Problem

By , Truthdig
The conflict between popularly chosen delegates and powerful, unelected "superdelegates" may seriously wound the Democratic Party.

Leader of al-Qa'ida in Iraq Reported "Captured" in Mosul Raid

By James Macintyre, Independent UK
War on Iraq: The Iraqi Defense Ministry claims Washington's prime target, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been arrested, but the White House is skeptical.

Who Are the Gitmo Prisoners Released With Sami al-Haj?

By Andy Worthington, Andy Worthington's Blog
Rights and Liberties: The release of al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj last week made headlines. But few have mentioned the others prisoners freed from Guantánamo.

Taxes and the Cult of Home Ownership

By Thomas Palley, AlterNet
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Home mortgage deductions and other bennies for homeowners are supposed to help the middle class, but they're actually burying it.

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

The Military's Pricey Restaurant Tastes: Gone Are the Days of Grunts Peeling Potatoes

By , Metropolitan Books
ForeignPolicy: Judging by the Pentagon's own accounting, the army, navy, air force and marines have been very hungry -- and they've been chowing down.

Are Immigration Authorities Going After School Children Now?

By , New American Media
Rights and Liberties: If true, then it's hard to imagine the cruelty that resides in these people's hearts.

VA Retreats on Voter Registration Efforts for Wounded Veterans

By , AlterNet
Democracy and Elections: The Department of Veterans Affairs says it will help ex-soldiers to register and vote, yet it won't allow registration drives on VA facilities.

The Iraq Supplemental: A Three-Ring Circus

By , AlterNet
War on Iraq: Congress thinks it's being cute in dealing with all of the funding for Iraq this year in one fell swoop.

Will Democracy Make You Happy?

By , Foreign Policy
Politicians have long clung to the notion that free nations breed happy people. Now, a new 'science of happiness' turns that equation on its head.

Satisfied Sex Worker or Domestic Trafficking Victim?

By , AlterNet
Reproductive Justice and Gender: New legislation could expand the definition of trafficking to treat many sex workers as crime victims instead of criminals.

Marketing Ethnic Cleansing: Israel Parties Like It's 1948 on its 60th Birthday

By , AlterNet
ForeignPolicy: The frenzy around Israel Independence Day is an attempt to freeze history in 1948 when public support of Israel was unequivocal.

Computer Makers Race to Create $100 Laptop

By , Christian Science Monitor
New lines of tiny PCs are small enough to fit in your purse and affordable enough for students in around the world.

How Should States Deal with Polygamous Sects?

By Faye Bowers, Christian Science Monitor
Rights and Liberties: Utah and Arizona have mostly ignored the FLDS since the infamous 1953 raid of Short Creek. Now, political pressure may force them to crack down.

Water Shortage Concerns: City Contemplates Going From Toilet to Tap

By Barbara L. Minton, Natural News
Water: Tuscon residents may soon be drinking treated wastewater as part of a growing national trend to offset diminishing freshwater sources.

Let's Talk About Sex

By Bonnie Zylbergold, American Sexuality Magazine
Reproductive Justice and Gender: A health educator uses hip-hop to talk to girls about gender and sexuality.

Organics May Soon Be Out of Reach for Many Consumers

By Tana Ganeva, AlterNet
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: As the economy worsens, fewer shoppers will be able to afford healthy, organic food.

America's War on Journalists

By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate
War on Iraq: The Bush administration has engaged in assault, intimidation, and imprisonment to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs.

Labor Lobby Melee: Union Rivalry Gets Physical

By Bennett Baumer, Indypendent
Rights and Liberties: Things turn ugly as SEIU and CNA trade accusations and wage war over the direction of the labor movement.

With House Poised to Spend $163 Billion, More Argue Iraq Should Use Oil Money to Pay for Reconstruction

By Jim Lobe, IPS News
War on Iraq: "The argument that Iraq should use its oil revenues to pay the U.S. sounds like the ultimate proof that we invaded Iraq for mercenary reasons."

Farm Radio Broadcaster Gets the Boot After Exposing Monsanto's 'Goon Squads'

By Russell Mokhiber, Corporate Crime Reporter
MediaCulture: Derry Brownfield was a veteran of farm radio reports, until he went after Big Ag and its Mafia.

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

The Pentagon vs. the U.S.: How Americans Have Become Targets of Their Own Military

By , Truthdig
America is a country at war with itself.

Empty Wallet? Not to Worry -- Poor Is the New Rich!

By , The Nation
As waves of poverty wash over the once-affluent, it's nice to know that you can share the pain.

Clinton: Damn the Pundits, Full Speed Ahead

By , MotherJones.com
Election 2008: The Clinton campaign has signaled it will fight on. But her only real option is going nuclear.

Obama Wins NC Decisively, Clinton Hangs on by Thread

By , Huffington Post
Election 2008: In a nutshell, the Reverend Wright strategy backfired.

Anti-Choice Zealots Chase After Patients' Private Medical Records

By , Ms. Magazine
Reproductive Justice and Gender: With anti-abortion forces bearing down on him, Dr. George Tiller fights for his patients' privacy -- and their lives.

New Food Safety Rules May Do More Harm Than Good

By , Earth Island Journal
Environment: The food safety regulations established in response to the spinach E. coli outbreak are threatening environmentally friendly farming practices.

Selling Tap Water in New York to Help Provide Clean Water in Developing Countries

By Brita Belli, E Magazine
Water: An initiative to charge diners $1 for tap water and donate it to UNICEF to provide clean drinking water is taking off.

Psst... Government-Supplied Marijuana Program Turns 30

By Bruce Mirken, AlterNet
DrugReporter: That's right, our government has been supplying medical marijuana to some patients for three full decades.

Hollywood's Selective Outrage

By Dennis Perrin, Huffington Post
Movie Mix: The air-brushed Hollywood stars that populate PSAs aren't likely to tackle truly controversial issues any time soon.

Battle of the Hawks

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig
Election 2008: Both McCain and Clinton have shown a dangerously cavalier attitude towards the option of a nuclear strike against Iran.

Obama's Triumph Over Media Frivolity

By Norman Solomon, AlterNet
MediaCulture: Obama's Tuesday win represents a victory over a press corps fixated on fluff over substance.

Tom Friedman Blames the Victim for Subprime Values

By Chris Nolan, Majikthise
PEEK: The New York Times columnist is completely out of touch with the reality of ordinary Americans.

Did Limbaugh Try to Incite Violence?

By Marc Savlov, Frameshop
PEEK: Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" is a call for political violence.

Sinking Without Trace: Australia's Unknown Climate Change Victims

Independent UK Environment: The islands of the Torres Strait are slowly being submerged and the plight of their inhabitants is being overlooked.

Becoming a Smug Married

The Frisky Sex and Relationships: I used to hate boring, smug married people -- until I began to suspect that I had turned into one of them.

Big Oil Strike in Brazil has Tongues Wagging, but We Continue Towards Peak Oil

By Pedro Prieto, Tlaxcala
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Since the 1980's, the world has discovered less oil than it has consumed every year.

Pentagon Releases Propaganda Documents -- Will the Media Pay Attention?

By John Stauber, PR Watch
War on Iraq: With 8,000 pages of documents online for the world to see, will the networks continue their media blackout?

Is Burger King Spying on Labor Activists?

By Tiffany Ten Eyck, Labor Notes
Rights and Liberties: "If you're a student in Virginia, how do you get access to a Burger King internal document?"

Lawsuit: Del Monte Ripping Off Migrant Workers

Southern Poverty Law Center Immigration: Court rules the ag-giant can't hide behind middle-men.

Journalists Continue to Be Killed With Impunity Across the Globe

By Mirela Xanthaki, IPS News
MediaCulture: Murder is the ultimate form of censorship. The more killings of media workers go unpunished, the more the press is silenced.

Maternal Profiling

By Anita Sarah Jackson, Huffington Post
Reproductive Justice and Gender: Moms across the country face workplace discrimination, but the media has been largely silent on the issue.

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

The Violent Language of Right-Wing Pundits Poisons Our Democracy

By , Ig Publishing
MediaCulture: On TV and the radio, conservative pundits infuse violence into their arguments, destroying our precious culture of civil debate.

Private Prison Litigator Gus Puryear's Rise to the Top

By , AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: Part II of an investigative report on the unsolved homicide that haunts a Bush nominee for a U.S. District Court seat.

Immigration Hardliners Pushing Pointless SAVE Act Through Congress

By , AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: A perfect example of short-sighted public policy.

Endless War: Is the U.S. Trying to Set Whole World on Fire?

By , Tomdispatch.com
War on Iraq: The Iraq war won't end, but in the Pentagon they're already arguing about the next one.

It's the Obscene Profits, Stupid! Exxon's Enormous Gains from the U.S. Keep Growing

By , The Wip
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Exxon is working to assure that whoever gets into the Oval Office doesn't try to tax some of their profits away.

A Nuclear Energy Renaissance Wouldn't Solve Our Problems, But It Would Rip Us Off

By , The Nation
Environment: Talk of a nuclear renaissance is a dangerous distraction from the real changes we need to make to wean ourselves off oil.

Young at Heart

By Sue Katz, Consenting Adult
Movie Mix: Young@heart, a film about a choir of elders whose repertoire includes the Ramones and the Clash, proves that rock n' roll will never die.

A Return to the Tap: Why Bottled Water Is on the Way Out

By Melissa Knopper, E Magazine
Water: Environmental concerns are sending people back to their taps and putting bottled water companies on the defensive.

Congress Probes Child Abuse Under Guise of Treatment

By Chris Nolan, Majikthise
PEEK: Congress begins to investigate "wilderness programs" and other "treatment" centers that dispense physical and psychological abuse.

Evangelical Doctor Touts Better Health Care Plan Than Clinton, Obama

By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Health and Wellness: Unlike Clinton or Obama, Dr. Rocky White, an Evangelical from a conservative background, is promoting a single-payer health care system.

Shareholders Revolt Against Bloated CEO Pay

By Sam Pizzigati, Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: How much higher can executive pay rise? Corporate shareholders may not have the patience to wait and see.

Executions Resume Today, Death Penalty Still Cruel and Unusual

By Billy Sothern, The Nation
Rights and Liberties: Barring a last-minute stay of execution, death row prisoner William Lynd will be murdered by the state of Georgia tonight.

International Crisis Group: "There Is Reason to Fear This Is Only a Temporary Salve"

By Ali Gharib, IPS News
War on Iraq: Two new ICG reports show that, at best, the "surge" was a temporary solution and that, in Iraq, "underlying issues will again come to the fore."

"Pro-Lifers" Protest Contraception

By Cristina Page, RH Reality Check
Rights and Liberties: Birth control is the best way to lower the abortion rate. So why are anti-choicers rallying against it and claiming that "the pill kills babies"?

A NJ Town Illustrates the Unintended Consequences of Harsh Immigration "Crackdowns"

By Cristina Jimenez, Drum Major Institute
Immigration: The Suffolk County legislature refuses to learn from Riverside, NJ's experience.

Our Great 'Secretocracy'

By Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet
Column: Government secrecy does not make us safer; it undermines the Constitution.

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Meet Gus Puryear: Bush's Latest Villainous Nominee for a Lifetime Judgeship

By , AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: The unsolved murder of Estelle Richardson in her prison cell haunts the nation's top private prison litigator as he vies for a judgeship.

An Atheist Goes Undercover to Join the Flock of Mad Pastor John Hagee

By , RollingStone.com
Rights and Liberties: In this excerpt from his new book, Matt Taibbi shares his experiences at a Hagee's boot camp for new converts.

Democratic Congress to Voters: What Election Problems?

By , AlterNet
Democracy and Elections: A Democratic-majority Congress is unlikely to pass needed election reforms.

Using Higher Ed.'s $340 Billion in Endowments to Make the World a Better Place

By , AlterNet
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Morgan Simon of the Responsible Endowment Coalition is helping student activists across the U.S. leverage their school endowments.

Peace Activists Occupy General Dynamics Weapons Plant

By , AlterNet
War on Iraq: Vermont activists entered General Dynamics and locked themselves together in the firm's lobby to protest the company's war profiteering.

Profiteers Squeeze Billions Out of Growing Global Food Crisis

By , Independent UK
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Speculators blamed for driving up price of basic foods as 100 million face severe hunger.

McCain's Preacher Pal Calls Catholic Church the 'Great Whore' -- Where's the Outrage?

By , The New York Times
Election 2008: If the hypocrisy whipped up over Jeremiah Wright proves anything, it's that this nation's candid conversation on race has yet to begin.

What the Pentagon Pundits Were Selling on the Side

By , Center for Media and Democracy
MediaCulture: The Pentagon pundit scandal was not only a corrupt marriage of propaganda and corporate lobbying -- it was completely illegal.

Hey Coffee Drinker, Ditch That Paper Cup

By , The Tyee
Environment: North America consumes 50 million trees a year for paper cups. Buy a travel mug already!

There Is No 'Nuclear Option' for Hillary to Seize the Nomination at the Dem Convention

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Election 2008: The speculation that Hillary's campaign might try to override the voting process to get the nomination ignores DNC rules.

Poll: Americans Don't Like Our Current Trade Policy

By Holly Shulman, Eyes on Trade
ForeignPolicy: As people's economic pain grows, their trust in U.S. trade policy shrinks.

Child Care Gets a Special Mother's Day Promotion

By Jill Hindenach, Women's eNews
Reproductive Justice and Gender: Child care is a long-neglected political issue. But this Mother's Day, a handful of advocates are putting it back on the radar screen.

Death Toll After Myanmar Cyclone Could Reach 10,000

By Ginna Green, Shakesville
PEEK: The UN and Red Cross are working to provide relief to hundreds of thousands affected by the cyclone.

Courageous Gay Bishop Weathers Storm

By Deb Price, Creators Syndicate
Column: Bishop Gene Robinson calls on religious gays and lesbians to fight for acceptance within their spiritual communities.

What is Next for Muqtada al Sadr?

By Sami Moubayed, Asia Times
War on Iraq: While U.S. casualties continue to mount -- and many Iraqi troops lay down their arms -- the Mahdi Army is waging a war of survival.

Instead of Scapegoating Immigrants, Wage and Workplace Enforcement for Everyone

By Joe Bolkcom, AlterNet
Immigration: Immigrants don't work jobs Americans won't take -- they work side by side together so let's help both prosper.

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Whatever Happened to American Longevity?

By Maggie Mahar, Niko Karvounis, Health Beat
Health and Wellness: In the past 20 years, the U.S. has sunk from ranking No. 11 in life expectancy to No. 42. What gives?

'Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantánamo Bay' Is Funny -- Nothing About the Real Place Is

By Shayana Kadidal, The Nation
Rights and Liberties: Guantánamo can be treated as a punch line because Americans see it as an abstract issue rather than a real place with real prisoners.

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

America's Chemically Modified 21st Century Soldiers

By , Adbusters
Armed with potent drugs and new technology, a dangerous breed of soldiers are being trained to fight America's future wars.

Real Furniture Isn't for People with College Loans

By , The Smart Set
It's people like me buying IKEA furniture that put my father's mill out of business.

Was It Really What Jeremiah Wright Said, Or Was It Because He's Black?

By , Bill Moyers Journal
Election 2008: White preachers are given leeway in politics that Jeremiah Wright wasn't.

Sexless in the City: A Frigid Evangelical Can't Find Love in the Big Apple

By , AlterNet
Sex and Relationships: Author Anna Broadway shares her odd tale about the men who wander in and out of her life -- but never into her bed.

Why We Need to Rise up Against Industrial Agriculture (Again)

By , AlterNet
Health and Wellness: Much of our food supply is based on entrepreneurial gambling that relies on chemical pesticides and fertilizers to make huge profits.

Iraqi Army: Nowhere Near Ready

By Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor
War on Iraq: Reports of the Iraqi Army's performance range from good, with British military officers describing it as an "unmitigated disaster at every level."

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