Occupy Our Homes

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Occupy Our Homes
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "Yesterday, no one had lived in 702 Vermont Street for three years.... the Brooklyn neighborhood where foreclosures are five times more frequent than in the rest of the state. Today, Alfredo and Tasha and their son and daughter moved in, with the help of a number of friends whom they'd never met... brought together by Occupy Wall Street for a national day of action to promote foreclosure resistance, an event kicking off a project they call Occupy Our Homes."
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Sebelius Overrules FDA Decision to Widen Access to Morning-After Pill
Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: "Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) overruled a much-awaited decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make emergency contraception (EC) available over-the-counter (OTC) to women of all ages. According to the New York Times, 'no health secretary has ever [overruled an FDA decision] before.' EC has been available over-the-counter for women ages 18 and older for at least two years."
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Obama Appeals for a New Commitment to a Fair America
Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers: "President Obama gave an hour-long speech in the same small Kansas town where Theodore Roosevelt in 1910 laid out his vision for a 'new nationalism' in which a newly active government marshaled laws and taxes to help the working poor and pressured the rich to use their wealth for the good of society, particularly through higher taxes.... 'Roosevelt was called a radical, he was called a socialist, even a communist,' said Obama, who's been called many of the same things."
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Michael Moore | The Winter of Our Occupation
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "We are not even twelve weeks old, yet Occupy Wall Street has grown so fast, so big, none of us can keep up with the hundreds of towns who have joined the movement, or the thousands of actions ... that have happened. The national conversation has been irreversibly changed.... People are no longer paralyzed by despair or apathy.... The winter gives us an amazing opportunity to expand our actions against the captains of capitalism."
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Unemployed Confront Congress at Take Back the Capitol
Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: "Today thousands of unemployed people and others came to D.C. to tell Congress and 'K Street' that they need jobs not cuts; that we should tax the rich, and that unemployment benefits must be extended before they run out at the end of the year....This is not the OccupyDC group, but it is supportive and very much like the Occupy group, with 'Mic Check' and 'We are the 99%' and 'Banks got bailed out, we got sold out' chants going on everywhere."
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George Lakoff | Words That Don't Work: Frank Luntz's Trap for Progressives
George Lakoff, Truthout: "Words are defined by fixed frames we use in thinking; frames come in hierarchical systems; and political frames are defined in moral terms, where 'morality' is very different for conservatives and progressives.... Democracy is about citizens caring about each other and acting responsibly, both socially and personally.... What the Occupy movement can't stand is the opposite 'moral' view, that democracy provides the freedom to seek one's self-interest and ignore what is good for other Americans and others in the world."
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Merry Christmas: No More Insider Trading on Capitol Hill?
Michael Winship, Truthout: "Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin held a press conference on Capitol Hill to announce, 'There will be no Christmas for Congress unless there is an extension of unemployment insurance benefits.' He and some of his colleagues declared that they'll keep the House and Senate from adjourning for the holidays if action isn't taken.... 'I hate to inform my Republican colleagues,' Harkin said, 'but Wall Street did not build America. But when it comes to handing out hundreds of millions of dollars, Wall Street is up front. It's time for middle-class America to be up front.'"
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The Most Important Economic Speech of His Presidency
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "The President's speech today in Osawatomie, Kansas - where Teddy Roosevelt gave his 'New Nationalism' speech in 1910 - is the most important economic speech of his presidency in terms of connecting the dots, laying out the reasons behind our economic and political crises, and asserting a willingness to take on the powerful and the privileged that have gamed the system to their advantage."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: President Obama Denounces "Trickle-Down Economics," and More
In today's On the News segment: Republicans are blocking legislation to prevent another coal mining disaster, firefighters in Tennessee let a second uninsured home burn down, Los Angeles City Council supports abolishing corporate personhood, and more.
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Koch Political Group Brags About Bullying GOP Lawmakers Into Denying Climate Science
Marie Diamond, ThinkProgress: "While the science supporting climate change has only gotten stronger, the onetime Republican consensus on the issue has fallen apart. The reason, quite simply, is the right-wing polluter Koch Industries and its political front group Americans for Prosperity. They've become the unparalleled enforcer of far right-wing ideology, funneling millions of oil and coal industry dollars cash across the nation to spread their message of global warming denial."
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Kids Eating Rat Poison Is an "Acceptable Risk" for ALEC
Brendan Fischer, PRWatch: "An American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) member is defying Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules limiting the sale of rat poisons that pose dangers to children and the ecosystem. ALEC representatives say that kids eating rat poison is an 'acceptable risk' that does not justify government intervention in the market. For decades, tens of thousands of young children have become ill after touching or ingesting rat poison applied 'loose,' in pellet form."
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Alabama Agriculture Department Advances Plan to Replace Immigrant Workers With Prisoners
Marie Diamond, ThinkProgress: "Undocumented workers are the backbone of Alabama's agriculture industry, and their exodus has already created a labor shortage in the state.... GOP politicians have crowed that driving immigrants out of the state will reduce unemployment by letting native citizens fill those jobs. But ... Americans are simply unwilling to do the back-breaking labor of harvesting crops. To stave off the disastrous collapse of state agriculture, Alabama officials are seriously considering replacing immigrant workers with prison laborers who they could perhaps pay even less than immigrants."
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CELAC: Speaking for Latin America and the Caribbean
Alex Main, Center for Economic Policy and Research: "The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) ... includes every nation in the Western Hemisphere with the exception of the United States and Canada and is seen by many as a potential rival to the region's foremost multilateral organization, the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS).... The (resulting) Action Plan also commits the group to developing a 'strategy to design a new regional financial architecture ... based in the principles of justice, solidarity and transparency.'"
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Robert Reich: Hypocrisy and Taxes (Video)
Keith Olbermann, Countdown with Keith Olbermann: "Keith and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich evaluate President Obama's latest argument in the fight to extend payroll tax cuts as the year-end deadline to extend the cuts approaches. Reich points out the hypocrisy inherent in the Republican opposition to the extension: 'They don't want to raise taxes on rich, but acknowledge that may require raising taxes on everyone else."
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This Modern World: A Brief Guide to Class Conflict
Award-winning cartoonist Tom Tomorrow presents the dueling positions on the country's economic crisis.
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