Noam Chomsky: Marching Off the Cliff

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Noam Chomsky | Marching Off the Cliff
Noam Chomsky, Truthout: "It's no secret that the US government is lagging on climate issues.... To gain perspective on what's happening in the world, it's sometimes useful to adopt the stance of intelligent extraterrestrial observers viewing the strange doings on Earth. They would be watching in wonder as the richest and most powerful country in world history now leads the lemmings cheerfully off the cliff."
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Cuomo Strikes Deal to Raise Taxes on the Wealthiest
Thomas Kaplan, The New York Times News Service: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders on Tuesday announced that they had reached an agreement to raise taxes on New York State's wealthiest residents as part of a deal to overhaul the tax rates."
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Families Join the Occupy Movement as the 99 Percent Takes On the Housing Crisis
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "On Tuesday, the Occupy Our Homes national day of action against foreclosure saw home occupations, civil disobedience actions and community events in more than 20 cities, reflecting a shift in focus from tent cities to local neighborhoods."
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Unions and Immigrants Join Occupy Movements
David Bacon, Truthout: "When Occupy Seattle called its tent camp 'Planton Seattle,' camp organizers were laying a local claim to a set of tactics used for decades by social movements in Mexico, Central America and the Philippines."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Los Angeles City Council to Vote on Corporate Personhood Today, and More
In today's On the News segment: From 2009 to 2010, carbon emissions took the largest one-year jump since the Industrial Revolution started three centuries ago; European summit plans to hash out a solution to the ongoing euro zone debt crisis alters this week; Occupy Wall Street to focus on foreclosed homes today; corporate personhood comes to Los Angeles today; and more.
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License to Profit: Legalized Corruption in the US Congress
Dave Johnson, Truthout: "Are members of Congress corrupt? Perhaps we should define the term. There is the terrible, 'legal' corruption of pay-for-play campaign contributions, with wealthy donors and big corporations paying to get tax cuts, subsidies, special laws and 'access.' This is part of why our government is responsive to the agenda of the 1 percent and their corporations only."
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How to Draw Comics the New 52 Way: Women Get "Fridged" Again
Anne Elizabeth Moore and Mardou, Truthout: "Earlier this year, DC Comics announced it would 're-boot' its entire spate of 52 monthly superhero books and start all storylines from scratch, with all new creators. The radical move was intended to attract new readers, sure, but it also attracted immediate criticism."
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New Petition on White House Web Site to Enforce Whistleblower Protections
Peter Handel, Truthout: "Joe Carson is a professional engineer (PE) employed as a nuclear safety engineer with the Department of Energy (DOE).... He recently created a formal petition on the White House web site in an effort to persuade the president to ensure that existing laws to protect concerned federal employees from reprisal are being properly interpreted and applied."
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Carriers Admit to Installing Hidden App
Josh Levy, Save the Internet: "The cellphone spying saga is heating up. On Friday, Rep. Ed Markey joined Sen. Al Franken in demanding answers from Carrier IQ, the company that has worked with mobile carriers to install a hidden application that has the ability to secretly track nearly everything users do - including the keys they press, the numbers they dial and the websites they visit - on more than 140 million cellphones. Researcher Trevor Eckhart uncovered the secret app."
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Paul Krugman | Lionizing Wealthy Americans, Rather Than Taxing Them
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "Even if you believe that the top 1 percent, or better yet the top 0.1 percent, are actually earning the money they make, what they contribute is what they get, and they deserve no special solicitude."
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Playing With Fire: Obama's Risky Oil Threat to China
Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch: "When it comes to China policy, is the Obama administration leaping from the frying pan directly into the fire? In an attempt to turn the page on two disastrous wars in the Greater Middle East, it may have just launched a new Cold War in Asia - once again, viewing oil as the key to global supremacy."
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New York City Police Maligned Paradegoers on Facebook
William Glaberson, The New York Times News Service: "They called people 'animals' and 'savages.' One comment said, 'Drop a bomb and wipe them all out.'... The subject was officers' loathing of being assigned to the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn, an annual multiday event that unfolds over the Labor Day weekend and that has been marred by episodes of violence, including deaths of paradegoers."
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Nonprofit Journalism and the Need for Policy Solutions
Josh Stearns, SaveTheNews.org: "For decades, some of the best journalism in America has been produced by nonprofit news organizations. Consider, for example, National Public Radio, National Geographic, the Associated Press, Consumer Reports, the American Spectator, Mother Jones and the Center for Public Integrity. But now, thanks to a strange intersection of tax law and media policy, nonprofit news has hit a roadblock."
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