From Counter Currents: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170211.htm

By Dr Gideon Polya

17 February, 2011
Countercurrents.org

Equality and Science in the face of a worsening Climate Emergency and Climate Genocide dictate Eco-Socialism, Climate Socialism and  Green Socialism to save Humanity and the Biosphere. Unaddressed man-made climate change is set to kill 10 billion people this century. Already the extinction rate is 100-1000 times greater than normal. Sloppy, non-scientist arguments about the asserted greater efficiency of capitalism fall flat in the face of capitalism’s failure to address the acute problem of man-made climate change that is increasingly impacting a global avoidable mortality holocaust in which 18 million people die avoidably each year in the  Developing World (excluding China).

The purpose of a “society” is surely the common good, but capitalists justify the increasing proportion of the cake taken by the wealthy since the 1960s by the claim that capitalism is superior to socialism in wealth creation (for a discussion of the increasing proportion of the cake taken by the rich see Gavin Kelly, “Wanted: a new purpose for British capitalism”). [1].

However man-made climate change has radically changed the equation even if the politicians, media, voters and Capitalist Establishment of the Western Murdochracies and Lobbyocracies haven’t yet got the message due to Mainstream lying by omission, lying by commission and remorseless obfuscation (see “Mainstream media censorship”  and “Mainstream media lying” ). [2, 3]

Thus top climate scientists argue for drastic economic decarbonization if the world is to avoid a disastrous 2C temperature rise (EU policy). According to Professor Schellnhuber (Potsdam Institute, Germany ) the World must achieve zero (0) carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions by 2050 and (all men being equal with equal shares in atmospheric pollution) that means that high per capita polluters such as the US and Australia must reach zero by 2020 with India able to increase pollution before finally  ceasing by 2050.

Continue reading at:  http://www.countercurrents.org/polya170211.htm

You’ve seen the Ad now go to MoveOn.org and sign the petition in support of women’s right to control their own bodies. http://pol.moveon.org/backalley/

From Think Progress:  http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/17/chamberleaks-malware-hacking/

By Lee Fang

Feb 17th, 2011

Last Thursday, ThinkProgress revealed that lawyers representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the most powerful trade associations for large corporations like ExxonMobil and CitiGroup, had solicited a proposal from a set of military contractors to develop a surreptitious campaign to attack the Chamber’s political opponents, including ThinkProgress, the Change to Win labor coalition, SEIU, StopTheChamber.com, MoveOn.org and others. The lawyers from the Chamber’s longtime law firm Hunton and Williams had been compiling their own data set on some of these targets. However, the lawyers sought the military contractors for assistance.

As ThinkProgress has reported, the proposals — created by military contractors Palantir, Berico Technologies, and HBGary Federal, collectively known as “Team Themis” — were discussed at length with the Chamber’s lawyers over the course of several months starting in October of 2010. The core proposals called for snooping on the families of progressive activists, creating phony identities to penetrate progressive organizations, creating bots to “scrape” social media for information, and submitting fake documents to Chamber opponents as a false flag trick to discredit progressive organizations.

In addition to the Team Themis plans that ThinkProgress and other outlets have reported on, a closer look at the proposals show that the firms had planned to use exploits to steal information from the Chamber’s opponents, or worse. On November 2, HBGary Federal executive Aaron Barr sent John Woods, a lawyer at Hunton and Williams representing the Chamber, two documents discussing tactics for assisting the Chamber (view the e-mail here). One presentation (click here to download) boasted of HBGary Federal’s capabilities in “Information Operations,” a military contractor term for offensive data extraction techniques typically reserved for use against terrorist groups. The slide includes sections on “Vulnerability Research/Exploit Development” and “Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering.” View a screenshot below:

Continue reading at:  http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/17/chamberleaks-malware-hacking/

From Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/17/uk-climate-usa-cities-idUSLNE71G00R20110217

February 17, 2011

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rising seas spurred by climate change could threaten 180 U.S. coastal cities by 2100, a new study says, with Miami, New Orleans and Virginia Beach among those most severely affected.

Previous studies have looked at where rising waters might go by the end of this century, assuming various levels of sea level rise, but this latest research focused on municipalities in the contiguous 48 states with population of 50,000 or more.

Cities along the southern Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico will likely be hardest hit if global sea levels rise, as projected, by about 3 feet (1 meter) by 2100, researchers reported in the journal Climate Change Letters.

Sea level rise is expected to be one result of global warming as ice on land melts and flows toward the world’s oceans.

Using data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the scientists were able to calculate in detail how much land could be lost as seas rise, said study author Jeremy Weiss of the University of Arizona.

Rising coastal waters threaten an average of nine percent of the land in the 180 coastal cities in the study.

Continue reading at:   http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/17/uk-climate-usa-cities-idUSLNE71G00R20110217

From Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/16/us-soda-caramel-idUSTRE71F71S20110216

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some chemically enhanced caramel food colorings used in widely consumed cola drinks could cause cancer and should be banned, a U.S. consumer advocacy group urged the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.

Pure caramel is made from melted sugar; but two other versions approved to color food products include the chemical ammonia and produce compounds shown to cause various cancers in studies of animals, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) said in a statement.

The group is petitioning the FDA to ban the ammonia-containing caramels, which are also used in other dark-colored soft drinks.

Coca-Cola Co, the world’s top soft drink maker, said the caramel it uses does not cause cancer. It said its cola only contains one of the compounds cited by CSPI, and that the compound — formed in the “browning reaction” while cooking — is found in trace amounts in a variety of food and drinks.

PepsiCo Inc referred a call to the American Beverage Association, while Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc was not immediately available to comment.

Obesity is still a greater health threat from soda, the CSPI said. But the chemical reaction between sugar and ammonia can form carcinogens and “still may be causing thousands of cancers in the U.S. population,” the group said, citing animal studies conducted by government researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s National Toxicology Program.

Continue reading at:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/16/us-soda-caramel-idUSTRE71F71S20110216

Not from the Onion…

Tea Party Nation: Mother Jones Is Right!

From Mother Jones Magazine: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/tea-party-nation-mother-jones-right

By Stephanie Mencimer

It’s rare that a tea party group ever has good things to say about Mother Jones, which most grassroots conservatives seem to view as the leading voice of pot-smoking godless communists. But Wednesday, the founder of the Nashville-based Tea Party Nation, Judson Phillips, sent out an email responding to a 3-part Mother Jones investigation of a rival tea party group, Tea Party Patriots, noting that we had uncovered some “unpleasant details” about TPP’s financial management. While many other conservative outfits and TPP loyalists have dismissed the allegations raised in the story as the work of the liberal media, Phillips takes them seriously, saying, “Just because they are liberal does not mean they are not right.” That’s about as close to a compliment as we’re ever likely to get from him.

The reason for the semi-kind words is that Phillips has also heard some of the “rumblings of dissatisfaction” from local tea party activists about problems with TPP management and has found them to be legitimate. He acknowledges that there is no love lost between the two groups, writing, “We have never appreciated their arrogance, their claim they are the ‘official home of the Tea Party movement’, nor the way they have treated people.” Phillips says that his group decided initially not to create its own local chapters for fear of causing more dissension in the movement by competing with TPP, suspecting that the tea party movement could only handle so many local grassroots groups….

Continue reading at:   http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/tea-party-nation-mother-jones-right

From Libcom.org: http://libcom.org/library/union-busters-analysis-iww

3. IWW’s Union Organizing Campaign against Jimmy John’s: The End or a Beginning for More Fast Food and Restaurant Organizing?

Many restaurant employers, in particular owners of fast-food restaurants, rarely think about the possibility of unionization these days. While the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is using rulemaking and case precedent to make it easier for employees to organize, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) legislation is basically dead. UNITE HERE, the big player in the restaurant arena, is coming off of a difficult divorce between warring factions, is mired in never-ending hotel negotiations, and seems more focused on organizing larger locations pursuant to neutrality/card check agreements. The percentage of the workforce that is unionized in the private sector is at an all-time low, and while the number of representation petitions against restaurants has increased in the past few years, the numbers are still extremely low in any given year. That being said, fast food restaurant owners and operators should take heed of the recent organizing campaign in Minneapolis against ten Jimmy John’s locations. The Wobblies are at it again.

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies, a union you may have read about in history class, has never gone away. In 2004, they started organizing baristas at Starbucks, created the IWW Starbucks Workers Union, and have had run-ins with Starbucks at locations in places such as New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Grand Rapids, Maryland, and even Omaha. The Wobblies have filed representation petitions and do represent employees in bargaining units in other industries, but usually claim that, because the election system is flawed, they prefer a solidarity unionism model in order to represent its members.

What is “solidarity unionism?” The IWW defines it as a model of labor organizing in which the workers themselves formulate strategy and take action against the company directly without mediation from government or paid union representatives. That is certainly part of it, but based on the IWW’s writings, their approach is much broader. Most notably, the Wobblies are in favor of actively practicing minority unionism and addressing issues from a broader, more global perspective. They see solidarity as drawing the boundary of the “struggle” of the working class as widely as possible. Moreover, the IWW is not a fan of the National Labor Relations Act, traditional organizing or bargaining. They do not care for traditional collective bargaining agreements because they purportedly cede too much power to employers in the form of no-strike provisions and management rights clauses.

Continue reading at:  http://libcom.org/library/union-busters-analysis-iww

From Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/media/149943/%27anonymous%27_hacker_group_teaches_shady_cyber-security_companies_a_lesson_they%27ll_never_forget_/

An apparent coalition of hackers is hitting targets with surprising speed and accuracy — and it looks like it’s just the beginning.

By Scott Thill

February 17, 2011

Aaron Barr must feel like he’s wearing clown shoes.

Shortly after the overreaching CEO of Sacramento’s so-called cybersecurity outfit, HBGary Federal, assembled an online attack plan against pro-Wikileaks supporters like Salon journalist Glenn Greenwald and prematurely bragged about “pwning” the upstart hacker collective Anonymous privately to his employees and publicly to the Financial Times, Anonymous quickly retaliated by raiding his drives, releasing 40,000 HBGary Federal emails, remotely wiping his iPad and engendering a scathing public disconnection from those who have known and employed him. Evidently, if you fuck with the Internet bull, you still get the real-time horns.

“Rarely in the history of the cybersecurity industry has a company become so toxic so quickly as HBGary Federal,” Andy Greenberg blogged Feb. 15 for Forbes‘ Firewall column. “Over the last week, many of the firm’s closest partners and largest clients have cut ties with the Sacramento start-up. And now it’s canceled all public appearances by its executives at the industry’s biggest conference in the hopes of ducking a scandal that seems to grow daily as more of its questionable practices come to light.”

Competitive Intelligence, Rampant Idiocy

Of course, HBGary and Barr are tiny potatoes, especially for the code-savvy web heads of Anonymous, which is why his shamed mug has lately been making the media rounds. In fact, the finest breakdown of Barr and HBGary’s conspiratorial plan has taken shape in Ars Technica’s exhaustive spook farce, “Spy Games: Inside the Convoluted Plot to Bring Down Wikileaks,” which pegged Barr as “The Man Who Knew Too Little” as a parting pop-cult stab.

Continue reading at:  http://www.alternet.org/media/149943/%27anonymous%27_hacker_group_teaches_shady_cyber-security_companies_a_lesson_they%27ll_never_forget_/

From Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/16/gop-women-kids/

By Pat Garofalo

Feb 16th, 2011

As ThinkProgress has reported, the right wing has been undertaking a war on women, both at the national and state level. House Republicans, for instance, want to cut funding for a variety of programs affecting women’s health and reproductive rights, while Republican legislatures across the country are trying to legislatively restrict choice.

In yet another example, the Frederick County, Maryland, Board of County Commissioners voted to end the county’s contribution to its Head Start program, cutting overall funding for the program by more than 50 percent. Two of the Republican officials justified their decision to cut Head Start — which provides early childhood education to the children of low-income parents — by saying that women should really be married and home with their kids, thus rendering the program unnecessary:

COMMISSIONER C. PAUL SMITH (R): I think its very significant that we did make this marriage week announcement today, because that is the best long-term way to help our children, as marriage is strengthened in our community. As many of you know, I had a lot of kids, and my wife stayed home, at significant sacrifice, during those early years, because she knew she had to be with those kids at that critical age. I know everybody isn’t able to survive doing that, but clearly, as we can strengthen marriage we can decrease the children that we have to reach.

COMMISSIONER KIRBY DELAUTER (R): My wife, college educated, could go out and get a very good job. She gave that up for 18 years so she could stay home with our kids, we had to give up a lot to do that. I agree again with Commissioner Smith, you know, the marriage thing is very important. I mean, education of your kids starts at home, okay? I never relied on anyone else to guarantee the education of my kids.

Continue reading at:  http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/16/gop-women-kids/

Quote from Paul Krugman’s Blog:  http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/the-new-obama-budget/

The New Obama Budget

Paul Krugman

February 14, 2011, 8:27 am

There was an old Washingtoon, probably from the mid-1980s, in which Democrats meet to plan their new centrist strategy — which consists of tax cuts for the rich, reduced spending on the needy, and big defense budgets. “But how is this different from the Republicans?” asks one member of the group. “Compassion,” replies the leader. “We care about the victims of our policies.”

That’s pretty much my initial reaction to what we know so far about the Obama budget. It’s much less awful than the Republican proposal, but it moves in the same direction: listening to the administration, you’d think that discretionary spending, not health care, is at the heart of our long-run deficit problems — and you’d also think that the job of rescuing the economy was done, with unemployment still at 9 percent.

It could be worse — the GOP proposal is — but it’s hardly something to cheer about.

From World Socialist Web Site:  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/wisc-f17.shtml

By Tom Eley
17 February 2011

On Wednesday a crowd estimated at about 30,000 demonstrated in Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, against attacks on the wages and conditions of public sector workers launched by Governor Scott Walker. The demonstrations, which continued throughout the day and peaked at noon and again in the early evening, followed a Tuesday protest estimated at between 13,000 and 20,000 and a series of rallies, demonstrations, and school walk-outs across the state.

Officials ordered the closures of Madison’s public school system after 40 percent of teachers had called in before Wednesday morning to declare a sick day in order to attend the rally. Busloads of demonstrators continued to arrive in the capital from throughout the state. Near Milwaukee, a crowd estimated at 1,500 marched on Walker’s suburban home. About 1,000 high school students staged a walkout in the city of Appleton.

In an effort inspired by Egyptian demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, dozens of workers and youth camped out in the Statehouse overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday. They have promised to continue the occupation until Walker’s bill is defeated.

It is anticipated that the protests will continue Thursday and Friday. Schools throughout the state are bracing for teacher absences and student walkouts. A large walkout of University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduates and graduate students is expected Thursday.

Continue reading at:  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/wisc-f17.shtml

From Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/17/jobless-claims-rise-25000-last-week/

By Reuters
Thursday, February 17th, 2011

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, according to a government report on Thursday that still pointed at gradual labor market recovery.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 410,000, the Labor Department said, partially reversing the prior week’s hefty decline.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 400,000. The previous week’s figure was revised slightly up to 385,000, from the previously reported 383,000.

The claims data covers the survey period for part of the government’s employment report for February. But the correlation between claims and nonfarm payrolls has weakened somewhat. Claims have been hovering above the 400,000 mark, a sustained breach of which is regarded by economists as signaling strong jobs growth.

A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state-level data, adding that two states had been estimated.

Continue reading at:  http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/17/jobless-claims-rise-25000-last-week/

From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/nyregion/16about.html?_r=1

By JIM DWYER
Published: February 15, 2011

On Tuesday afternoon, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke in Washington about the Internet and human liberty, a Columbia law professor in Manhattan, Eben Moglen, was putting together a shopping list to rebuild the Internet — this time, without governments and big companies able to watch every twitch of our fingers.

The list begins with “cheap, small, low-power plug servers,” Mr. Moglen said. “A small device the size of a cellphone charger, running on a low-power chip. You plug it into the wall and forget about it.”

Almost anyone could have one of these tiny servers, which are now produced for limited purposes but could be adapted to a full range of Internet applications, he said.

“They will get very cheap, very quick,” Mr. Moglen said. “They’re $99; they will go to $69. Once everyone is getting them, they will cost $29.”

The missing ingredients are software packages, which are available at no cost but have to be made easy to use. “You would have a whole system with privacy and security built in for the civil world we are living in,” he said. “It stores everything you care about.”

Put free software into the little plug server in the wall, and you would have a Freedom Box that would decentralize information and power, Mr. Moglen said. This month, he created the Freedom Box Foundation to organize the software.

“We have to aim our engineering more directly at politics now,” he said. “What has happened in Egypt is enormously inspiring, but the Egyptian state was late to the attempt to control the Net and not ready to be as remorseless as it could have been.”

Not many law professors have Mr. Moglen’s credentials as lawyer and geek, or, for that matter, his record as an early advocate for what looked like very long shots.

Continue reading at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/nyregion/16about.html?_r=1

Go Also To:  The Freedom Box Foundation

From The Star Advertiser: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/116352634.html

By B.J. Reyes

Feb 16, 2011
The Hawaii Senate took its final step in clearing the way to grant same-sex couples virtually the same rights and privileges of traditional marriage, giving approval today to a bill legalizing civil unions.

Senate Bill 232 was approved by a 18-5 vote.

It now goes to Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who supports civil unions and has promised to sign the bill into law.

“I have always believed that civil unions respect our diversity, protect people’s privacy, and reinforce our core values of equality and aloha,” Abercrombie said in a statement after the vote.

“I appreciate all the time and effort invested by those who shared their thoughts and concerns regarding civil unions in Hawaii. This has been an emotional process for everyone involved, but that process is now ended.  Everyone has been heard; all points of view respected.

“For me, this bill represents equal rights for all the people of Hawaii,” Abercrombie said.

Continue reading at:  http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/116352634.html

I couldn’t believe the filth I heard spew from Conservacunt and hate monger, Debbie Schlussel.

There really are two Americas and I want my country back from scum like Schlussel and the rest of the ultra right wing Confederacy loving neo-Nazi scum bags like her that make up the right wing propaganda machine.

From Salon: http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/15/lara_logan_rape_reaction

As news of Logan’s assault in Egypt broke, the victim-blaming machine kicked in

By Mary Elizabeth Williams

Tuesday, Feb 15, 2011

On Feb. 11, CBS reporter Lara Logan was sexually assaulted and beaten in the crush of a Tahrir Square mob. She was subsequently rescued by a group of women and Egyptian soldiers, flew home the next day, and is currently recovering in a hospital. All of which is a horrendous, sickening crime. And when the news of the attack broke Tuesday afternoon, it took all of minutes before somebody decided to hinge the story on the blond reporter’s looks.

In a stunningly offensive blog post titled “Lara Logan, CBS Reporter and Warzone ‘It Girl,’ Raped Repeatedly Amid Egypt Celebration” for LA Weekly, writer Simone Wilson managed to mention Logan’s “shocking good looks and ballsy knack for pushing her way to the heart of the action” before getting to the assault itself. She then went on to imagine how it happened: “In a rush of frenzied excitement, some Egyptian protestors apparently consummated their newfound independence by sexually assaulting the blonde reporter.” Well, sure, what other motive for an assault could there be, given that Logan is, in Wilson’s words, a “gutsy stunner” with “Hollywood good looks”? And how else do Egyptians celebrate anyway but with a gang assault?  It’s not like she deserved it, but well, she is hot, right?

Perhaps Wilson was going for some postmodern commentary on the media’s obsession with attractive reporters. She did cite in her post how Mofo Politics commented, when Logan was detained in Egypt earlier this month, that  “I would totally rape her,” and she noted the New York Post’s chronicling of Logan’s robust sex life. That’s the kindest explanation for a hideously twisted bit of commentary on an assault victim, one that repulsively mingles the woman’s attractiveness and sexual history with a violent crime, and ends with the brutally off-key observation that “nobody’s invincible.”

Continue reading at: http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/02/15/lara_logan_rape_reaction