Friday, October 12th, 2012
LEAH NELSON, - AlterNet (U.S.)
Stephan: I am always amused when readers write in, or post comments that SR is 'far left.' In fact SR is neither left nor right in a political sense. It is about facts. I am utterly bored with partisan politics per se. I only care about social outcomes. If you read my essay 'Social Values, Social Wellness' you will understand what I mean by this. Facts don't seem to mean much to the Right anymore. I know because I read a lot of Rightwing material, and the most notable thing about it is its disdain for actual facts while it trumpets made up facts based on fear, paranoia, hate, and a sense of self-righteousness. Here's what I mean.
WorldNetDaily (WND) describes itself as ‘an independent news company dedicated to uncompromising journalism, seeking truth and justice and revitalizing the role of the free press as a guardian of liberty.
No Comments
Friday, October 12th, 2012
THEO SPENCER, - National Resources Defense Council
Stephan: Some might call it poetic justice that the country playing the biggest role in blocking an effective international program to deal with climate change, is experiencing the greatest impact of climate change.
Today, the world’s largest reinsurance company released a report stating the number of weather catastrophes has risen dramatically across the globe since 1980.
‘North America is the continent with the largest increase in disasters,
No Comments
Friday, October 12th, 2012
TOM PHILPOTT, - Mother Jones
Stephan: The thing that Monsanto and others can never seem to answer is: If GMO foods are so good for us, why aren't you promoting labeling? Why are you trying to suppress something you'd think you'd want to trumpet from the hills... if it is as healthful and life-affirming as you claim. Or is there more to the story. And of course there is.
If you live in California please vote 'Yes' for Prop 37, and the rest of America will thank you.
You’d be forgiven for not noticing-unless you live in California, where you’ve likely been bombarded by geotargeted web ads and TV spots-but this election could spur a revolution in the way our food is made. Proposition 37 [1], a popular Golden State ballot initiative, would require the labeling of food containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients. The food and agriculture industries are spending millions to defeat it, and with good reason: As we’ve seen with auto emissions standards and workplace smoking bans, as California goes, so goes the nation.
At least 70 percent of processed food [2] in the United States contains GM ingredients. Eighty-eight percent of corn and 93 percent of soybeans grown domestically [3] are genetically modified. Soda and sweets are almost guaranteed to contain GM ingredients, either in the form of corn syrup or beet sugar. Canola and cottonseed oils also commonly come from GM crops. But if those stats make you want to run and examine the labels on the boxes and cans in your pantry, you’re out of luck. Unlike the European Union [4], the US government doesn’t require food manufacturers to disclose their use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Californians appear ready to change that: An August […]
No Comments
Thursday, October 11th, 2012
CHRISTOPHER PETRELLA, - truthout.org
Stephan: This is part of the new American Slavery trend that has created the largest gulag in world history. With only 5 per cent of the world's population the United States incarcerates 25 per cent of the world's prisoners. And the Right's drive to privatize prisons, as this report spells out, is just making a horrible situation worse. CCA is another example of corporate evil. There is no reason but profit that this company should even exist. It is nothing more than a scheme to take a governmental responsibility -- prisons -- and turn this government task into a profit center for a few insiders.
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)’s potential Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) conversion is not its first foray into this form: The last round resulted in prison speculation and huge financial losses for outsider investors.
Last spring, the nation’s largest private prison owner and operator, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), announced its plan to assess the feasibility of a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) conversion.
Over the last quarter, Tennessee-based CCA publicized its potential REIT conversion as a way to ‘increase long-term shareholder value’ by reducing both its federal and state corporate tax liability to zero. In exchange for such a handsome tax rate, CCA must meet REIT guidelines by distributing at least 90 percent of its taxable income to shareholders annually in the form of dividends.
Although an REIT conversion would likely benefit CCA’s shareholders – 7 percent of whom are insiders – it would undoubtedly harm small communities, and states in some cases, that rely on CCA for tax revenues. By converting the company to an REIT, CCA insiders would not only slash their company’s effective tax rate from 37.2 percent (equivalent to about $92 million in 2011) to zero, but would actually pay themselves an additional $7 million next year. […]
No Comments
Thursday, October 11th, 2012
STEPHEN C. WEBSTER, - The Raw Story
Stephan: There are certain corporations that I have come to see as essentially evil. Monsanto and Halliburton being two major examples. Halliburton particularly seems to all too frequently be at the center of death and disaster. It was part of the Gulf debacle. Its involvement in Iraq is a testament to greed, corner cutting, and disregard for human life and wellbeing. And now here is their latest jaw-dropping present disaster.
Texans can breathe easier: the radioactive waste Halliburton fracking surveyors lost last month has finally been found.
The United Arab Emirates-based oil services company told reporters this weekend that an oilfield worker found the rod of americium-241/beryllium alongside a highway near Pecos, Texas.
Halliburton reported it missing on September 11, and members of the Texas National Guard were ultimately called up to aid their search. Halliburton said it even deployed vehicles fitted with radiation detection equipment, but found nothing on three sweeps of the area.
Americium-241/beryllium is used for a variety of industrial and medical purposes, and in this case was needed for equipment used to identify potential sites for natural gas drilling. It is a ‘Category 3
No Comments
