ANTHONY GUCCIARDI, - Natural Society
Stephan: One way to stop critics is to buy the company they work for. Could Monsanto get any more brazen? Nothing that comes out of Beelogic henceforth, I think, can be deemed reliable.
Monsanto, the massive biotechnology company being blamed for contributing to the dwindling bee population, has bought up one of the leading bee collapse research organizations. Recently banned from Poland with one of the primary reasons being that the company’s genetically modified corn may be devastating the dying bee population, it is evident that Monsanto is under serious fire for their role in the downfall of the vital insects. It is therefore quite apparent why Monsanto bought one of the largest bee research firms on the planet.
It can be found in public company reports hosted on mainstream media that Monsanto scooped up the Beeologics firm back in September 2011. During this time the correlation between Monsanto’s GM crops and the bee decline was not explored in the mainstream, and in fact it was hardly touched upon until Polish officials addressed the serious concern amid the monumental ban. Owning a major organization that focuses heavily on the bee collapse and is recognized by the USDA for their mission statement of ‘restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination
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MARKOS MOULITSAS, Editor - Daily Kos
Stephan: We are now beginning to get some actual data by which we can compare the programs of the Theocratic Rightist Governors with their socially progressive counterparts. As with most social outcomes comparing red and blue states the Rightist governors have produced notably inferior outcomes.
As I’ve noted before, Republicans had a great deal of fun back in early 2011 taunting Illinois for (surprisingly) electing a Democratic governor, Pat Quinn. The theory was that Quinn’s tax increases, designed to close a huge budget gap, would lead to a business exodus to Gov. Scott Walker’s Wisconsin conservative utopia.
‘Years ago Wisconsin had a tourism advertising campaign targeted to Illinois with the motto, `Escape to Wisconsin,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement. ‘Today we renew that call to Illinois businesses, `Escape to Wisconsin.’ You are welcome here.’
At CPAC this year, Walker continued that theme:
Last year, Governor Quinn proudly proclaimed that they were not going to do things like Wisconsin. Clearly, they did not. Their actions only made matters worse.
They raised taxes by 67% on individuals and 46% on businesses. That might explain why they dropped 40 spots during the past five years on the same poll that showed Wisconsin up 17 spots in one year alone.
In reality, turns out that Wisconsin was the only state in the entire country to lose jobs in 2011, while Illinois had better than average growth. The Federal Reserve […]
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GLENN GREENWALD, - The Cato Institute
Stephan: The Cato Institute, as you probably know, is a very conservative operation. I mention this to give some context into what they have said here. I was in Portugal a few months ago, and I can vouchsafe everything in this report. Our drug policies, by comparison are... well, insane, evil, and toxic to our entire society.
Glenn Greenwald is a constitutional lawyer and a contributing writer at Salon.
On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal took effect that decriminalized all drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal framework, all drugs were ‘decriminalized,’ not ‘legalized.’ Thus, drug possession for personal use and drug usage itself are still legally prohibited, but violations of those prohibitions are deemed to be exclusively administrative violations and are removed completely from the criminal realm. Drug trafficking continues to be prosecuted as a criminal offense.
While other states in the European Union have developed various forms of de facto decriminalization - whereby substances perceived to be less serious (such as cannabis) rarely lead to criminal prosecution - Portugal remains the only EU member state with a law explicitly declaring drugs to be ‘decriminalized.’ Because more than seven years have now elapsed since enactment of Portugal’s decriminalization system, there are ample data enabling its effects to be assessed.
Notably, decriminalization has become increasingly popular in Portugal since 2001. Except for some far-right politicians, very few domestic political factions are agitating for a repeal of the 2001 law. And while there is a widespread perception that bureaucratic changes need to be made to Portugal’s decriminalization framework to make it more efficient and effective, there is […]
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Saturday, April 21st, 2012
SHERRY JACOBSON, Staff Reporter - The Dallas Morning News - ArcaMax
Stephan: This is what is happening in Texas, where Theocratic Rightists rule. It is happening because large numbers of Texas women voted against their own health and self-interest and elected Governor Rick Perry. This is going on in many of the red states in this country, all part of the war on women. Voting matters.
DALLAS — She loves her two young daughters, really she does, says Obdulia Yanez, but there cannot be another baby anytime soon.
‘I want another one, but not right now,’ said the 29-year-old Allen woman. ‘We don’t have the money for a new baby.’
So Yanez goes to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Plano for a prescription for birth control pills. And for the first time, she must pay $60 for the visit, instead of making a modest contribution.
It’s a lot of money for someone who works a minimum-wage job as a cashier.
‘It could have helped me get new tires or take my mother out to dinner on Mother’s Day,’ she said.
But these are tough times for Texas women who rely on low-cost birth control, said Kelly Hart, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of North Texas.
As the state prepares to terminate its popular Women’s Health Program at the end of the month, more than 130,000 low-income women will be paying for their own family planning services — or simply going without.
Since 2006, the program has provided cancer screening, diabetes testing and contraceptive services for women ages 18 to 45 who met certain income requirements and showed proof of U.S. citizenship.
‘A lot of […]
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Saturday, April 21st, 2012
MATT TAIBBI, - Rolling Stone
Stephan: The best thing to be said for Obama is that he isn't Mitt Romney. It isn't much I admit, certainly far less than we were led to expect, but it does make a difference. Romney would be much worse, which is why I support Obama's re-election.
Boy, do I feel like an idiot. I’ve been out there on radio and TV in the last few months saying that I thought there was a chance Barack Obama was listening to the popular anger against Wall Street that drove the Occupy movement, that decisions like putting a for-real law enforcement guy like New York AG Eric Schneiderman in charge of a mortgage fraud task force meant he was at least willing to pay lip service to public outrage against the banks.
Then the JOBS Act happened.
The ‘Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act’ (in addition to everything else, the Act has an annoying, redundant title) will very nearly legalize fraud in the stock market.
In fact, one could say this law is not just a sweeping piece of deregulation that will have an increase in securities fraud as an accidental, ancillary consequence. No, this law actually appears to have been specifically written to encourage fraud in the stock markets.
Ostensibly, the law makes it easier for startup companies (particularly tech companies, whose lobbyists were a driving force behind its passage) to attract capital by, among other things, exempting them from independent accounting requirements for up to five years after they first begin selling […]
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