Les Leopold - Five Ways that Financial Elites are Destroying Democracy

By Les Leopold, AlterNet

Posted on November 21, 2011, Printed on November 22, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153169/five_ways_that_financial_elites_are_destroying_democracy

Is democracy compatible with a financial system run by billionaires? Maybe not. Here are five ways that high finance is undermining democracy: 

1. Billionaires replace one person, one vote.

Ask any American what’s wrong with our country and they will say that money rules politics. And they are correct. It’s obvious that major political donors and lobbyists for the super-rich have more political influence than we do. As the top 1 percent gains more and more of the nation’s income, the 99 percent effectively become disenfranchised. And of course, the Citizens United Supreme Court decision makes it even easier for the rich to buy political power. Lopsided campaign contributions by and for the super-rich are making a mockery out of elections. In 2010, for example, business outspent labor by a factor of 14 to 1. 

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Public Citizen - Reform Groups Urge Congress to Prohibit Congressional Insider Trading

CONTACT: Public Citizen

Legislation to Rein in Abuse Is Moving Rapidly Through Both the House and Senate

WASHINGTON - November 18 - Seven reform groups sent letters today urging members of both the House of Representatives and Senate to join in the legislative drive to pass the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge” (STOCK) Act. The measures – one in the House sponsored by Reps. Timothy Walz (D-Minn.) and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and two similar versions in the Senate by Sens. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) – would prohibit members of Congress and their staffs from using information gleaned in the course of their official duties for insider trading in the stock market.

The Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Democracy 21, Public Citizen, the Sunlight Foundation and U.S. PIRG sent letters to Congress expressing dismay that congressional insider trading is not already illegal and encouraged passage of the reform measures.

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Lynn Parramore - Why the Super Committee is Super Illegitimate

By Lynn Parramore, AlterNet

Posted on November 21, 2011, Printed on November 22, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153152/why_the_super_committee_is_super_illegitimate

Another day, another tiresome piece of political theater come to an end.

This time the dog-and-pony show is the super committee, whose members were given the right to decide where government spending will be slashed over the next decade. Only they couldn’t seem to decide. So today, the committee is likely to throw in the towel, and its unfinished business will set up more battles to come over automatic cuts in defense and domestic programs scheduled to go into effect in 2013 in the absence of a deal.

Newt Gingrich recently said that the super committee was “the dumbest idea I've seen in a very long lifetime."

That might be the most intelligent thing Newt has said in a very long lifetime.

Let's start with the premise of even having a deficit super committee in the first place. Basic macroeconomics tells us that trying to reduce the deficit before you have tackled the jobs crisis is great recipe for making things worse, largely because the lack of tax revenue that comes with high unemployment is a primary contributor to the deficit, and slashing government spending does not create jobs—quite the opposite. The idea that you can slash-and-grow the economy is an economic fairy tale that has been thoroughly debunked and has demonstrably failed in places like the U.K. Sensible approaches to the deficit from reality-based economists like Joseph Stiglitz (i.e. reduce unemployment and tax the top) have been around for some time, but they can't seem to penetrate the bubble of economic delusion that is Washington, D.C.

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Martha Rosenberg - What Drugs Was Your Thanksgiving Turkey On?

By Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet

Posted on November 20, 2011, Printed on November 21, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153149/what_drugs_was_your_thanksgiving_turkey_on

 So far, 2011 has not been a great year for turkey producers. In May, an article in Clinical Infectious Diseases reported that half of U.S. meat from major grocery chains--turkey, beef, chicken and pork--harbors antibiotic resistant staph germs commonly called MRSA. Turkey had twice and even three times the MRSA of all other meats, in another study.

In June, Pfizer announced it was ending arsenic-containing chicken feed which no one realized they were eating anyway, but its arsenic-containing Histostat, fed to turkeys, continues. Poultry growers use inorganic arsenic, a recognized carcinogen, for "growth promotion, feed efficiency and improved pigmentation," says the FDA. Yum.

And in August, Cargill Value Added Meats, the nation's third-largest turkey processor, recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey because of a salmonella outbreak, linked to one death and 107 illnesses in 31 states. Even as it closed its Springdale, Arkansas plant, steam cleaned its machinery and added "two additional anti-bacterial washes" to its processing operations, 185,000 more pounds were recalled the next month from the same plant.

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Christine Dobby - Love your job? You might be Canadian

Christine Dobby, FINANCIAL POST Nov 17, 2011

http://business.financialpost.com/2011/11/17/love-your-job-you-might-be-canadian/

As with so many things, Canada comes in a rather unremarkable third place in a LinkedIn survey on global worker happiness.

But the fact that 69% of Canadians surveyed were either “happy” or “very happy” with their current job, is worth noting.

Only respondents from the Netherlands and Sweden are more content with their careers, with 80% and 71% of respondents from those countries, respectively, saying they were happy.

At the other end of the scale was Japan, where only 31% of those polled said they were content, well below the global average of 63%.

LinkedIn surveyed 12,548 professionals in 16 countries, including 797 workers in Canada, for its research on job happiness released Thursday.  (Not everyone polled responded to every question asked.)

Nicole Williams, connection director at the online professional network company, speculated that a tough economy might mean those with jobs appreciate them more than they would otherwise.

“Perhaps you didn’t get the raise you wanted this year, but you are appreciative of an amazing supportive manager who keeps an eye out for opportunities that will help you grow in your career,” she said.

Canadians were also fairly optimistic on the prospect of getting ahead in their career, with 53% of respondents saying they agree or strongly agree that there is a good chance of advancement “If I work hard and demonstrate results.”

This was above the global average of 52% who thought they would get ahead through hard work and good results.

But beyond getting promoted, Canadians’ professional aspirations seem a bit modest.

Out of options that included working abroad, starting a business and changing industries or careers, the top career ambitions for Canadian professionals were:

1. Get promoted
2. I’m happy where I am
3. Retire early

Dana Ullman - The Magician Who Could Not Make Homeopathy Disappear

Dana Ullman

http://www.naturalnews.com/034208_homeopathy_James_Randi.html

(NaturalNews) A campaign of disinformation on homeopathic medicine has been very active in United Kingdom and in the United States, and my previous article at this website provided some detail about this effort.

Perhaps the leading opponent to homeopathy in the United States is the magician James Randi. Magicians use various tricks to make things disappear, and Mr. Randi is working hard at making homeopathy disappear... however, to be a successful magician one must learn to fool and deceive people, and Mr. Randi is performing his tricks to try to make homeopathy disappear. Thankfully, he has not been successful.

This short article is not meant to be exhaustive on Randi's disinformation campaign against homeopathy but providing some overview of who he is and what he has said and done will hopefully shed light on the nature of his information and how trustworthy he may or may not be.

Please know that this review and critique of Mr. Randi is not an ad hominem attack on him. I have a great amount of respect for Mr. Randi as an entertainer and magician, and I'm sure that he is a quite lovely person to his friends, but whether he is nice or lovely or entertaining or competent is not the point of this article. Instead, this article reviews his actions, his priorities, and the causes that he has supported, all of which are reasonable and appropriate areas for critique and are not personal attacks on who he is.

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Michael Grabell - TSA Puts Off Safety Study of X-ray Body Scanners

Michael Grabell

ProPublica, Nov. 16, 2011, 12:37 p.m.

http://www.propublica.org/article/tsa-puts-off-safety-study-of-x-ray-body-scanners

The head of the Transportation Security Administration has backed off a public commitment to conduct a new independent study of X-ray body scanners used at airport security lanes around the country.

Earlier this month, a ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation found that the TSA had glossed over research that the X-ray scanners could lead to a small number of cancer cases. The scanners emit low levels of ionizing radiation, which has been shown to damage DNA. In addition, several safety reviewers who initially advised the government on the scanners said they had concerns about the machines being used, as they are today, on millions of airline passengers.

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The Nepal Times - Going to seed

Hybrid and genetically-modified seeds may create more problems than they solve 

The Nepal Times 10 NOV 2011

http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2011/11/8/Nation/18676 

A US-government supported pilot project to introduce into Nepal hybrid maize seeds produced by the multinational, Monsanto, has set off alarm bells over its potential harm.

USAID's Nepal Economic, Agriculture, and Trade Activity (NEAT) has got the Department of Agriculture and Monsanto to set up test plots to promote the new seeds in Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Kavre districts. This pilot plan will train 20,000 farmers in hybrid maize production methods and help in marketing the seeds.

Last month, Monsanto India's Amitabh Jaipuria was in Kathmandu for a promotional launch in which he said the project would improve Nepal's food security and enhance income of Nepali farmers. USAID Mission Director in Nepal, David C Atteberry also said: "Most maize farmers are unaware of the health and financial benefits that high-yielding hybrid seeds can provide. Improved seeds and targeted capacity building on crop management will allow maize producers in Nepal to reap the full benefit of their labour."

Nepal only grows half its current annual requirement of 270,000 tons of maize for human and animal consumption, the rest is imported. USAID says the project will help make Nepal self-sufficient and save Rs 200 million in imports.

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ScienceDaily - Great Plains River Basins Threatened by Pumping of Aquifers

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111118151416.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2011) — Suitable habitat for native fishes in many Great Plains streams has been significantly reduced by the pumping of groundwater from the High Plains aquifer -- and scientists analyzing the water loss say ecological futures for these fishes are "bleak."

Results of their study have been published in the journal Ecohydrology.

Unlike alluvial aquifers, which can be replenished seasonally with rain and snow, these regional aquifers were filled by melting glaciers during the last Ice Age, the researchers say. When that water is gone, it won't come back -- at least, until another Ice Age comes along.

"It is a finite resource that is not being recharged," said Jeffrey Falke, a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University and lead author on the study. "That water has been there for thousands of years, and it is rapidly being depleted. Already, streams that used to run year-round are becoming seasonal, and refuge habitats for native fishes are drying up and becoming increasingly fragmented."

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Richard Heinberg - What We Are For

By Richard Heinberg

19 November, 2011

Post Carbon Institute

http://countercurrents.org/heinberg191111.htm

Every activist engaged in combating human-caused climate change or specific elements of the current energy economy knows that the work is primarily oppositional. It could hardly be otherwise; for citizens who care about ecological integrity, a sustainable economy, and the health of nature and people, there is plenty to oppose—biomass logging in Massachusetts, mountaintop-removal coal mining in West Virginia, natural gas drilling in Wyoming, poorly sited solar developments in California, river-killing dams in Chile and Brazil, and new nuclear and coal plants around the globe.

These and many other fights against destructive energy projects are crucial, but they can be draining and tend to focus the conversation in negative terms. Sometimes it’s useful to reframe the discourse about ecological limits and economic restructuring in positive terms, that is, about what we’re for. The following list is not comprehensive, but beauty and biodiversity are fundamentals that the energy economy must not diminish. And energy literacy, conservation, relocalization of economic systems, and family planning are necessary tools to achieve our vision of a day when resilient human communities are imbedded in healthy ecosystems, and all members of the land community have space enough to flourish.

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