Politics
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We're being told by today's High Priests of Conventional Wisdom that everyone and everything in our economic cosmos necessarily revolves around one dazzling star: the corporation. This heavenly institution, the HPCW explain, has such financial and political mass that it is the optimal force for organizing and directing our society's economic affairs, including the terms of employment and production. While other forces are in play (workers, consumers, the environment, communities and so forth), they are subordinate to the superior gravitational pull of the corporate order. Profits, executive equanimity and a healthy Wall Street pulse rate are naturally the economy's foremost concerns.
Cooperatives Over Corporations | Truthout
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Opinion: Call to legalize marijuana goes beyond wanting a puff
HARRISBURG - The first part of the state government's efforts to collect Internet sales tax revenue is under way and it involves getting state income taxpayers to self-report what they owe on purchases made online, Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser told a Senate panel Tuesday. Taxpayers can use the newly added line 25 on their 2011 Pennsylvania Personal Income Tax Return to report sales taxes on purchases made online from out-of-state firms. Out-of-state companies that sell online to Pennsylvania consumers face a Sept. 1 deadline to obtain a license to collect the sales tax. The beginning of enforcement of sales-tax collections for online purchases could bring an estimated $40 million to $50 million to state coffers, said Meuser, a Shavertown resident. He faced skeptical questions from some members of the Appropriations Committee about the initiative. Sen.
Internet sales tax strategy outlined - News
Voters Choice: Ron Paul or Bibi Netanyahu
By William A. Cook | Pacific Free Press | January 14, 2012 A curious glance at the current crop of presidential candidates makes it clear that Ron Paul stands alone when it comes to the issue of US engagement in foreign wars. He stands with George Washington against foreign entanglements while the rest of the candidates stand with Teddy Roosevelt and the attempted creation of America’s first empire one hundred and twelve years ago. Mark Twain responded to that effort by creating the Anti-imperialist society while he caustically satirized the effort in his depiction of the massacre of the Moros in the Philippines. Now we have more massacres, using drones instead of canons, on equally hapless civilians who are caught unawares or hiding from the wrath of America’s righteousness as we drive to bring virtue to a primitive world.Montanans Launch Recall of Senators Who Approved NDAA Military Detention. Merry Christmas, US Senate
Dec-25-2011 17:57 Ralph Lopez Special to Salem-News.com Montana would be the first recall drive to be launched as a result of the vote for the NDAA military detentions provisions. (HELENA) - Moving quickly on Christmas Day after the US Senate voted 86 - 14 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA) which allows for the indefinite military detention of American citizens without charge or trial, Montanans have announced the launch of recall campaigns against Senators Max Baucus and Jonathan Tester, who voted for the bill. Montana is one of nine states with provisions that say that the right of recall extends to recalling members of its federal congressional delegation, pursuant to Montana Code 2-16-603, on the grounds of physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of certain felony offenses. Section 2 of Montana Code 2-16-603 reads:
Three myths about the detention bill
Condemnation of President Obama is intense, and growing, as a result of his announced intent to sign into law the indefinite detention bill embedded in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). These denunciations come not only from the nation’s leading civil liberties and human rights groups , but also from the pro-Obama New York Times Editorial Page, which today has a scathing Editorial describing Obama’s stance as “a complete political cave-in, one that reinforces the impression of a fumbling presidency” and lamenting that “the bill has so many other objectionable aspects that we can’t go into them all,” as well as from vocal Obama supporters such as Andrew Sullivan, who wrote yesterday that this episode is “another sign that his campaign pledge to be vigilant about civil liberties in the war on terror was a lie.” In damage control mode, White-House-allied groups are now trying to ride to the rescue with attacks on the ACLU and dismissive belittling of the bill’s dangers.Huge Victory In House -- Let's Slam The Senate UPDATE: WHEW. Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith tried to pull a fast one and call for a vote this week, after initially indicating that he wouldn't. But that hearing was just officially cancelled. As Congressman Darrell Issa just tweeted: # SOPA UPDATE: markup scheduled for tomorrow AM has been POSTPONED "due to House schedule" # stopSOPA # OPEN
Huge Victory In House -- Let's Slam The Senate
Dec 1, 2011 Tonight, Sen. Rand Paul prevented the passage of an amendment that would have further eroded Americans' constitutional rights.
Senate passes defense bill with Defeat of Detainee Amendment
Rep. Deutch Introduces OCCUPIED Constitutional Amendment To Ban Corporate Money In Politics
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) is tackling corporate money in politics head on. In one of the greatest signs yet that the 99 Percenters are having an impact, Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, today introduced an amendment that would ban corporate money in politics and end corporate personhood once and for all. Deutch’s amendment, called the Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Amendment, would overturn the Citizens United decision, re-establishing the right of Congress and the states to regulate campaign finance laws, and to effectively outlaw the ability of for-profit corporations to contribute to campaign spending.Today, Congress put politics aside and sent their first jobs bill to President Obama for his signature. VOW to Hire Heroes Act easily passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 422-0. We expect the President to sign this bill in to law as soon as possible, so that veterans can get back to work.
In Bipartisan Vote, House Passes Vow to Hire Heroes Act
i 82 Votes Our nation’s founding fathers understood well how governments can become coercive and self serving, so they were very careful to include a Bill of Rights into our constitution to prevent this. The most fundamental of these rights is the belief that holds that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
Symptoms of a Police State? « End the Illusion
Harper
Harper and Obama
Blatant Political Corruption and Undesirable Behavior
CHINA: It's Outrageous That The US Media Is Censoring The Wall Street Protests
Well, after decades of the U.S. media tut-tutting China on their airbrushed media and censorship policies, it's "back at ya." An editor at China Daily rails that the U.S. media "blackout" of the Wall Street protests is "shameful." Perhaps this is why the mainstream media suddenly got off their duffs and went down to the protests yesterday. (Another reason is that the protests suddenly got real visibility over the weekend, when the protestors blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.) For what it's worth, we've been covering the protests for weeks.A protest movement against the awarding of the Order of B.C. to former premier Gordon Campbell appears to be gaining momentum. Since the announcement on Friday of Campbell’s award, about 1,600 people have signed an online petition to deny the honour to the man who ruled the B.C. government for nearly 10 years. Others, like the woman behind a Facebook campaign, say Campbell should turn down the award on technical grounds, because elected officials currently in office cannot be nominated for the Order of B.C.
Protests grow against Gordon Campbell award - British Columbia
Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody.
Naomi Wolf: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | World news
America & China: Henry Kissinger Looks Back
AP Photo Chinese and American leaders have been sniping at each other in public again. This month Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, discussing political reform, told the Atlantic magazine that China’s leaders were “trying to stop history, which is a fool’s errand”. This may have been what provoked Wang Qishan, a Chinese deputy prime minister, to tell a television interviewer that Americans were “simple” (perhaps “innocent” conveys the Chinese word better), and have trouble understanding China, “because it is an ancient civilisation, and we are of the Oriental culture.” Mr Wang will applaud Henry Kissinger’s latest work, a distillation of more than 40 years of involvement with China and... Related Topics: ChinaPolitical Commentary
Carole James
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