[Infographic] Combating Mass Incarceration - The Facts

Huxley Vs. Orwell: Infinite Distraction Or Government Oppression? Posted on August 24, 2010 in Images The Huxley vs Orwell comic is originally from Recombinant Records: Amusing Ourselves to Death, adapted from Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman. When I read this comic, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Brave New World: “It’s curious,” he went on after a little pause, “to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. And: There was something called liberalism.

8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance.Bruce E. LevineAlterNet Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination. Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it. How exactly has American society subdued young Americans? 1. There was no tuition at the City University of New York when I attended one of its colleges in the 1970s, a time when tuition at many U.S. public universities was so affordable that it was easy to get a B.A. and even a graduate degree without accruing any student-loan debt. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The fear of being surveilled makes a population easier to control. 7. 8.

The Most Humane Prison in the World - All That Is Interesting - StumbleUpon When one thinks of prisons and prison life, thoughts often drift to depictions found in Oz or the Wire: full of hard living and sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. However, there is one prison is Norway that has been called the most humane prison in the world: Halden Prison. Halden Prison opened early in 2010 with a capacity of 252 prisoners. Revolutionary Spirit In May 1968, the Situationist-inspired Paris riots set off a chain reaction of refusal against consumer capitalism. First students, then workers, then professors, nurses, doctors, bus drivers and a piecemeal league of artists and anarchists took to the streets. They erected barricades, fought with police, occupied offices, factories, railway depots, theaters and university campuses, sang songs, issued manifestoes, sprayed slogans like “Live Without Dead Time” and “Down with the Spectacular-Commodity Culture” all over Paris. The first wildcat general strike in history spread rapidly, first around Paris, then France and then to hundreds of cities and campuses around the world. But the moment passed. But now the embers of insurgency are beginning to smolder again. Young people in the West are pissed off as they stare into an increasingly empty and precarious future. The recent food riots may also be a harbinger of things to come. Kalle Lasn

Starting over: Ultimate democracy - life - 31 March 2011 Didn't vote for the bozos who are running the country? Join the club. Thanks to the competitive nature of electoral democracies, many - often most - citizens end up being governed by a party they didn't vote for. But there is a way to ensure that every single voter is satisfied by the results of an election: simply have each voter governed by the political party he or she picked at the polls. The idea is not as far-fetched as it might sound, says Olivier Ledoit, an economist at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, who proposes this so-called "choice democracy". It could work like this: before an election, each political party would lay out its governing principles - what services it will provide, how its taxes will be structured, what social policies it will pursue, and so forth. The idea might reduce demagoguery, says Ledoit, because a party that campaigned on an appealing-sounding but impractical platform would be forced to deliver after the election. More From New Scientist

National Budget Simulation National Budget Simulation Use the pop-up menus to increase or decrease as many of the budget items as you'd like. When you're finished, click the button at the end of the document. Spending Military Spending Iraq War Veterans and Military Retirement International affairs General science, space, and technology Non-Defense Energy Spending Natural resources and environment Agriculture Transportation Community and regional development Education, training, employment, and social services Non-Medicare Health Spending Medicare Non-SS Retirement & Unemployment Compensation Social Welfare Spending Social security Administration of justice General government administration Net interest Undistributed offsetting receipts Commerce Promotion 2001 Tax Cut 2001 Tax Cut Total 2003 Tax Cut 2003 Tax Cut Total Tax Expenditures Corporate Tax Breaks Personal Business & Investment Benefits Pension & Retirement Deductions Employer-paid Health Insurance Itemized Deductions Other personal tax expenditures Play the Game Don't Print Chart

Consumable Youth Rebellion Over the past 30 or so years, most people have chosen to pursue the rewards of conformity instead of the fruits of revolt. What they have been left with are ugly and stupid lives, ugly and stupid places and a planet pushed to the very edge of destruction by capitalism’s efforts to keep feeding them new promises of consumable happiness. But the thought that one is wasting one’s life is not a cheerful one, and respectable citizens everywhere have gone to considerable lengths to avoid it. They cling to these illusions with ferocious desperation; but the whole house of lying ghosts and grim parodies is a fragile one, and it is threatened by the depredations of delinquency. Since the Second World War, advanced capitalism – and the quest for contentment through consumption that it fosters – has generated a long series of consumable youth rebellions. “It probably had a little to do with the gangster films we saw. Wayne Spencer, significantfailure.blogspot.com

Lanceurs d'alerte : Corinne Lepage doute de la motivation du ministre de l'Environnement Jean-Louis Borloo Lors du colloque organisé jeudi dernier au Sénat par la fondation Sciences Citoyennes, Corinne Lepage s'est inquiétée des silences de Jean-Louis Borloo à qui elle a remis un rapport sur les lanceurs d'alerte. Une loi est-elle encore d'actualité ? Au terme d'une journée de débats, ponctuée de témoignages parfois émouvants, Corinne Lepage a clôturé jeudi dernier le colloque de la fondation Sciences Citoyennes, intitulé Lanceurs d'alerte et système d'expertise : vers une législation exemplaire en 2008 ?, sur une note assez pessimiste. Aux nombreux participants venus débattre jeudi, la Présidente de Cap21 a exprimé son inquiétude : Je devais remettre le rapport début janvier. Qui sont les lanceurs d'alertes ? La matinée leur fut consacrée. Le rapport Lepage Aux Etats-Unis et en Grande Bretagne, des lois spécifiques relatives au statut juridique des lanceurs d'alerte existent depuis plusieurs années.

How Working Outside the Law Helped Labor Win on the West Coast February 26, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. This story was originally published at Salon. Earlier this month longshore workers in Washington state reached a contract with a boss that has spent the past year fighting to keep their union out. The Longview struggle began last March when, after initial discussions with ILWU Local 21, EGT announced its intention to run its new grain terminal without them. Rather than putting all their faith in the law while EGT did its work without them, ILWU members chose to get in the company’s way. Pre-planned arrests for blocking traffic have become a common, and sometimes effective, tactic for unions seeking to embarrass employers or draw attention to their struggles. Indeed, when ILWU members moved from protesting EGT to blocking the tracks, a judge slapped the union with fines and injunctions. That’s where Occupy came in.

FBI: If We Told You, You Might Sue Often when the government tries to suppress information about its surveillance programs, it cites national-security concerns. But not always. In 2008, a few years after the Bush administration's warrantless-wiretapping program was revealed for the first time by the New York Times, Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act. That act authorizes the government to engage in dragnet surveillance of Americans' international communications without meaningful oversight. In 2009, we also filed a Freedom of Information Act request to learn more about the government's interpretation and implementation of the FISA Amendments Act. Two weeks ago, as part of our FOIA lawsuit over those documents, the government gave us several declarations attempting to justify the redaction of the documents. There you have it.

Devenir lanceur d'alerte pour SOS-planète. Actualités environnementales. Vous disposez chaque jour d'une trentaine de minutes de bénévolat durable pour surveiller 5 à 10 mots clefs, choisis dans une liste que nous vous enverrons, parmi ceux qui vous interpellent le plus. Enregistrer les mots clefs choisis sur Google alertes Il faut juste avoir du bon sens, savoir surfer sur Internet, être familiarisé avec le clavier et surtout vouloir faire quelque chose pour le salut de la Vie sur Terre. Pourquoi ne pas devenir colibri-lanceur d'alerte (c'est possible même en free-lance intégral) ou rédacteur durable en ralliant notre équipe opérative? Un peu rebutant au départ, ça devient vite une passion! Qu'est-ce qu'un lanceur d'alerte ? Le nom est évocateur mais la définition reste floue pour beaucoup d'entre nous. C'est une personne ou un groupe ayant découvert des éléments susceptibles de révéler une menace pour la société ou l'environnement, et qui décide de le dévoiler au public, a des associations ou des médias entre autres. Faire la part du colibri Source Help!

'Why I care for 52 children' 3 March 2012Last updated at 08:45 Rachel Gichia is an ordinary Kenyan wife and mother who has risen to an extraordinary challenge. In the past six years, she has opened her home - which she shares with her husband Stephen and their three children - to 49 orphaned youngsters. Rachel and Stephen, who live in the Ngong Hills just outside Nairobi, are not rich - but the local community has rallied round. But perhaps the biggest challenge of all is knowing when to turn away a child in need - something which Rachel finds very difficult, even though she knows there is a limit to how far her love can stretch. Continue reading the main story The Your World documentary - Dream Home - can be heard on the BBC World Service at 19:06 GMT on Saturday 3 March. Audio by Catherine Fellows. Slideshow production by Paul Kerley. Related: BBC World Service - Your World BBC World Service - homepage Rachel Gichia - Dream Children's Home Kate Holt photography More audio slideshows: Could Africa save China's tigers?