September 2008
Bailout Round II: A New Shade of Lipstick
The House of Representatives voted down Paulson’s Plunder on Monday, 225 to 208. Here’s why: We demanded a No vote and for the first time in recent memory we were listened to. Thank you! Three cheers for the American people! Now is not the time, however, to rest on our laurels. Speaker Pelosi is almost [...]
No Bail Out For Wall Street Billionaires
Treasury Secretary Paulson and President Bush backed by the Democratic Congressional leadership have asked Congress for $700 billion dollars to bailout Wall Street financial institutions. Over the past several years these banks reaped billions of dollars borrowing and speculating on mortgages, securities and other financial paper with virtually no capital covering their bets. With the [...]
“Mortgage Fraud”: The Paulson Bail-Out Plan
The $750 billion banking system bailout proposed by Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson met with a cool reception on Capitol Hill this morning at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. Nevertheless, a bill is likely to pass both houses of Congress within the next couple of weeks. As Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) [...]
Newly discovered sharks swimming into troubled waters
Sydney, Australia: Indiscriminant fishing and the shark fin soup trade are key threats facing around 100 new shark and ray species discovered recently off the coasts of Australia. The discoveries, by Australia’s leading scientific research organization CSIRO, will be considered by 60 of the world’s leading shark experts in Sydney this week.
“It is a major [...]
National’s forestry policy ignores the obvious
Auckland, New Zealand - National needs to tackle corporate dairy farming’s role in deforestation if it wants to truly improve forestry in New Zealand, says Greenpeace. “Corporate dairy farming is driving current rates of deforestation,” said Greenpeace Senior Climate Campaigner Simon Boxer. “Tens of thousands of hectares of forests have already been felled to make [...]
Greenpeace calls on MPs to back Greens’ Fisheries Act amendment
Wellington, New Zealand - Greenpeace is calling on all MPs to back a Green Party initiative to amend the Fisheries Act, expected to be debated in Parliament today.
“New Zealand needs to bring its fisheries law into line with international best practice. The Fisheries Act and the Quota Management System is failing to ensure New Zealand’s [...]
Old Nuclear Cash Cows Exposed
The “nuclear renaissance” may be a convenient charade to distract people while industry milks the old nuclear cash cows to drain the public coffers and endanger the nation. As I was researching the present series of articles on nuclear energy, it began to dawn on me that the “nuclear renaissance” may be nothing more than [...]
NO Money for Wall Street & War - Bail Out the Workers and the Poor!
The same institutions that profit from endless war are now demanding that the entire U.S. Treasury to be placed at their disposal to bailout corrupt banks and mortgage institutions, a declaration of endless war against people at home. Even mainstream media is describing this as the “financial equivalent of the Patriot Act,” which will give [...]
Vets Occupy National Archives - “Arresting Bush and Cheney for war crimes will honor our oath to the Constitution,” vets say.
On Tuesday morning, September 23, 7:30am, at the front of the National Archives Building on Constitution Ave. in Washington, D.C., five military veterans will risk arrest as they climb a 9-foot retaining fence and occupy a 35-foot high ledge to raise a 22×8 foot banner stating, “DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION. ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY: WAR CRIMINALS!”
The [...]
Peter Gabriel Receives Ambassador of Conscience Award
On September 10, 2008 WITNESS co-founder Peter Gabriel was awarded Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award in recognition of his longtime activism and commitment to human rights. As you may know, it was Peter’s vision to put cameras in the hands of human rights activists around the world. Since then, WITNESS has trained hundreds of [...]
Japanese Farmer, Consumer and Public Interest Groups Reject GM Sugar Beet Imports
Washington, DC - The No! GMO Campaign, representing 53 of Japan’s leading farmer, consumer, and public interest groups, have joined the Center for Food Safety and a coalition of US NGOs in opposing the US cultivation of untested, genetically modified (GM) sugar beets. This week, members of the Seikatsu Club Consumer’s Cooperative (SCCC) have come [...]
Blood, Sweat, and Bailouts
Excerpted from remarks at an Augusta Coalition for Peace and Justice event at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, September 23, 2008. Have you heard the latest news? John McCain is now in favor of regulating Wall Street. But, of course, local son Woodrow Wilson was reelected as a peace candidate. And candidate George W. [...]
McCain Hid Information About POWs Left In Viet Nam
Senator John McCain, whose rise to the highest levels in politics is literally built on his POW experience in Vietnam, has “worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn’t return home,” The Nation magazine disclosed.
“Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed [...]
Mushroom Cloud over Wall Street as US Constitution Burns - “All Hail Caesar!” The days of the republic are over.
These are dark times. While you were sleeping the cockroaches were busy about their work, rummaging through the US Constitution, and putting the finishing touches on a scheme to assert absolute power over the nation’s financial markets and the country’s economic future. Industry representative Henry Paulson has submitted legislation to congress that will finally end [...]
NO To The Paulson-Bernanke Derivatives Scam Bailout!
WASHINGTON — The grand theft bailout now being rammed through Congress by Treasury Secretary Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and other officials of the Bush regime with the help of accomplices Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid, and other parliamentarians is a monstrosity for the ages, combining every hideous feature of monetarism, elitism, oligarchism, and sheer [...]
Nuremberg and Iraq
Sixty-two years ago this month, four judges met to deliberate the fate of the first men ever tried for war crimes in an international court of law. After Nazi Germany was defeated in 1945, the major victorious allies (the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and France) convened a trial of 21 of the [...]
Psychologists Reject the Dark Side: American Psychological Association Members Reject Participation in Bush Detention Centers
The movement against U.S. torture experienced a significant victory last week. The members of the American Psychological Association [APA] rejected the policies of their leadership, policies that abetted the Bush administration’s program of torture and detainee abuse. By a vote of 59%, the members passed a referendum stating that APA members may not work in [...]
The Paulson-Bernanke Bank Bailout: Will the Cure be Worse than the Disease?
Saturday’s $700 billion junk mortgage bailout is the largest and worst giveaway since a corrupt Congress gave land grants to the railroad barons a century and a half ago. If it goes through, it will shape the coming century by giving finance unprecedented power over debtors - homebuyers, industry, state and local government, and the [...]
Aussie Clean Coal Council misleads on renewables
Queensland, Australia - A confidential document showing the Queensland state government’s plans to target school children and energy consumers with inaccurate information about clean coal technology has been criticised by Greenpeace. Climate and energy campaigner Simon Roz said: “The Queensland Clean Coal Council’s communications strategy, which was reported in today’s Sunday Mail as ‘propaganda’, says [...]
International day against monoculture tree plantations
Large-scale monoculture tree plantations cause serious environmental, social and economic impacts on local communities. These impacts have been amply documented around the world, and include the depletion of water sources due to changes in the hydrological cycle; deterioration of rivers and streams; air and water pollution due to the use of pesticides and other agrochemicals; [...]
Starbuck’s Delivers 100% Responsibly Grown, Ethically Traded Espresso To Customers In Europe, Middle East And Africa
UNITED KINGDOM - Starbucks Coffee Company (NASDAQ: SBUX) today introduces customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa to the company’s 100% responsibly grown, ethically traded espresso. Part of StarbucksTM Shared PlanetTM, the company’s global commitment to doing business responsibly, the espresso comes from farmers and suppliers who follow the company’s exacting sourcing standards and guidelines [...]
Arms Trade Treaty could fail without human rights
Every year,more than 300,000 people are killed with conventional weapons. Millions more are injured, abused, forcibly displaced and bereaved as a result of armed violence. Many of the weapons used to commit these violations are sourced on the poorly regulated international arms market.
Amnesty International’s new report, Blood at the Crossroads: Making the case for a [...]
Voodoo economics dooms nuclear renaissance
A devastating new report exposes UK’s unfolding nuclear catastrophe. Paul Brown, environmental correspondent of The Guardian newspaper in Britain, has produced a detailed report documenting why it is not possible to achieve what the UK Government says it will do, build a new generation of nuclear stations without public subsidy [1]. New build will not [...]
“No Blank Check” or “No %$#!*@ Check”
There does not seem to be any way we are going to avoid shelling out a major amount of money to save banks from the unregulated greed of bankers. Dean Baker and Doug Henwood and every person with any economic expertise whom I find credible predicts disaster if we don’t.
But, as Baker pointed out on [...]
When Refusing to Kill Has a Higher Sentence Than Murder
From the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States military has come under intense criticism and scrutiny for the deaths of civilians. This week, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff made trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan to “acknowledge” the deaths of innocent civilians in [...]
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