February 2012
0 posts
11 tags
Activist Requests Her FBI File, Learns What Color... →
Last year, a blogger, activist, and “amateur pornographer” named Furry Girl requested her FBI file on a lark. Last month, she got it and posted some of its highlights online.
Among other details, Furry Girl learned that she and a few others were followed for several days several years ago while they planned and participated in a small, legal protest. (She doesn’t specify what it was ...
1 tag
USA.gov: Participate in the National Consumer... →
usagov:
We will host a National Consumer Protection Week question and answer session on Tuesday, March 6 at 2pm EST.
Experts from USA.gov and the Federal Trade Commission will be on hand to answer your consumer-related questions and and provide government resources that can help. So whether you have questions about how to file a complaint with a company or how to learn about the latest scams,...
People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to... →
infoneer-pulse:
The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and...
3 tags
3 tags
6 tags
A handy #AAJA media guide to reporting on Jeremy... →
Hmm… some good cultural/sensitivity/racist awareness. (Though some if it seems obvious enough that you have to marvel that it needs to be spelled out.)
sharonchan:
AAJA Media Advisory on Jeremy Lin News Coverage
Feb. 22, 2012 As NBA player Jeremy Lin’s prowess on the court continues to attract international attention and grab headlines, the Asian American Journalists Association...
7 tags
"50% of Americans don't pay taxes" is a myth
paxamericana:
Posting this again because I just turned on the TV to hear Neil Cavuto blathering on about everyone needing “skin in the game.” This is probably the dumbest, most disingenuous conservative meme I’ve seen in the past few years and it keeps showing up day after day.
“The truth is that the talking point that half of all Americans pay no taxes is a misrepresentation. Here is the full...
“It is time to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp in the United States. There...”
– Rocky Anderson (via rockyanderson2012)
'Pepper Spray Cop' Suit Filed - NPR →
brooklynmutt:
Some of those Occupy protesters who famously got face fulls of pepper spray last November on the campus of University of California Davis have now filed suit in federal court.
They allege “the university used excessive force to break up the demonstration,” The Sacramento Bee writes. “The Occupy UC Davis students were sprayed as they sat on the ground.”
The American Civil...
1 tag
“The president’s liberal friends in Hollywood [are] targeting a younger...”
–
Fox News’ Lou Dobbs, on the movie version of Dr. Suess’ The Lorax
I am 99.9999% sure that when Theodor Suess Gisel wrote The Lorax in 1971 he thought, “This will be really wonderful propaganda in the event that we eventually have a black president and he and his liberal friends are inspired...
“The Constitution makes it absolutely clear; the President is to execute federal...”
– Rocky Anderson (via rockyanderson2012)
“The rapidly deteriorating biophysical situation is more than bad enough, but it...”
–
‘Perpetual Growth Myth’ Leading World to Meltdown: Experts
UN-Sponsored Papers Predict Sustained Ecological and Social Meltdown
(via solitaryforager)
“This is the new Gilded Age. It hasn’t been like this since the 1920s. The top 1%...”
– Rocky Anderson,
Which Way Forward?
(via rockyanderson2012)
4 tags
Daily Show, Jan 24th →
Great episode. First scene (ripping Romney and his 14% tax rate!) and the interview with Elizabeth Warren are epic. Check it out on Hulu. I think it’s only up for another day or so.
P.s. extended interview.
3 tags
Fox News ' Xenophobic "Border Expert" Caught in... →
reallyfoxnews:
News story of the day.
Note - This article uses the term “illegal,” with which I take much issue.
It seems this story still needs confirmation. That said, I would not at all be surprised to find out it’s true. And while in some ways not as big of a deal as the Anthony Wiener scandal, in some ways more-so. I mean, he’s an immigration “expert” threatening...
3 tags
Secret climate denial documents suggest the... →
climateadaptation:
Coverage of “denialgate” is increasing. Reblog if you can…
“Heartland, which bills itself as anti-regulatory and libertarian, annually produces climate change “denier” conferences and pays expenses for elected officials to attend. For example, the budget shows that Heartland allocated $304,704 for scientists supporting its contrarian views in 2012.
One of these scientists is...
4 tags
“We have a government that says it’s okay to eat Twinkies and Cocoa Puffs and...”
–
From sustainable farmer Joel Salatin. Quote captured by Amy Eddings on WNYC Culture blog. (via newanddifferentsun)
I understand the need for regulation, but this quote pretty well sums up that we need to reevaluate our system because something is definitely wrong with this picture.
6 tags
#Thelast130 western gray whales are in trouble!... →
caringworld:
Save the last 130 Western Gray Whales The western gray whale is on the edge of extinction. There are probably fewer than 130 remaining with less than 26 breeding females. Every year, they come to feed off the coast of Sakhalin Island, Russia, but now a new oil platform threatens the survival of this critically endangered whale.
130 left?! That’s really, really, really bad...
Google Tracked iPhones, Bypassing Apple Browser... →
infoneer-pulse:
Google Inc. and other advertising companies have been bypassing the privacy settings of millions of people using Apple Inc.’s Web browser on their iPhones and computers—tracking the Web-browsing habits of people who intended for that kind of monitoring to be blocked.
The companies used special computer code that tricks Apple’s Safari Web-browsing software into letting them...
15 tags
Abbas: We'll remind world what peace process was... →
verbalresistance:
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – President Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority would send a message to the Israeli government and to the world reminding them of the bases and terms of reference on which the Middle East peace process was built.
“We will not accept continuation of the status quo, and will soon take the steps we have agreed on with the Arab...
3 tags
“The left is always looking for a way to control you. They’re always trying to...”
– - Rick Santorum, Feb 9 in Oklahoma (via climateadaptation)
What a douche.
5 tags
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and...”
– Alan Watts (via ikenbot)
2 tags
Update: Stop the Pipeline! Over 800,000 Messages...
This is pretty damn impressive. Personally, I’m proud of everyone who’s been involved with fighting this terrible pipeline, including the various organizations which teamed up, and every one of those over 800,000 people who took a minute to sign this petition. It’s sending a loud message and I’m psyched to shout it louder!
More info here.
3 tags
6 tags
Update: Stop the Pipeline! 500,000 signatures!
It seems they’ve reached their goal of half a million signatures! w00t! That’s pretty damn awesome! The real question is, what now? Will the Senate listen? I hope so, and not just for the pipeline, as big of a deal as it is, but bc it could show that democracy isn’t dead in the USA, that like the sopa/pipa fight, citizens can use the internet to spread awareness and share...
4 tags
Stop the Pipeline! Join The Massive Coalition... →
Dear friends,
When we started the Keystone fight there were just a few of us, and no one thought we had a chance.
But with hard work and lots of great organizing we scored an unlikely victory when the President eventually rejected the pipeline last month. However, the oil industry’s representatives in Congress are eager to undo that, and it looks like a deal could be coming together in the...
6 tags
NYPD Must Pay $15 Million for Illegally Arresting... →
For almost 30 years — from 1983 to 2012 — the New York Police Department went about arresting people under laws that state and federal courts had long declared unconstitutional, cuffing and booking almost 22,000 people. In 2010, federal judge Shira A. Scheindlin finally held them in contempt of court. Yesterday, she signed an order approving what is effectively their punishment: a $15 million...
Occupy vs. Monsanto: Activists, Farmers Fight the... →
6 tags
1 tag
“A strike against Syria or Iran is an indirect strike against Russia and its...”
– Russian Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov (via pieceinthepuzzlehumanity)
