Since 9/11, right-wing extremists including neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have been involved in 63 domestic terror plots.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Israel Approves New Jewish Settler Homes in West Bank
Officials said the decision was agreed by a ministerial committee on Saturday.
The announcement comes a day after the murder of five members of a family in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
An Israeli government official said the construction would take place in settlements that Israel expects to retain control of in any possible peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Palestinian officials condemned the move.
Wisconsin Protesters Refuse To Quit
Clogging the Wisconsin Capitol grounds and screaming angry chants, tens of thousands of undaunted pro-labor protesters descended on Madison again Saturday and vowed to focus on future elections now that contentious cuts to public worker union rights have become law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/12/wisconsin-protesters-refu_n_834927.html
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Is The Republican Party Becoming Fascist? |
Fascism is the ultimate manifestation of social change and moral revolution, and glorifies nationalism. Sound familiar? It should. Republicans are all about culture wars and preach morality and how great America is. Fascists, like Republicans today, reject democracy and liberalism. Many Republicans called for violently overthrowing the government if the 2010 midterm elections didn’t go their way and have viciously attacked liberalism. Fascists also reject internationalism and pacifism and support militarism and war. Republicans have been calling for the United States to pull out of the United Nations since the 1950′s and have since 2001, been the party of war as evidenced by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the calls to attack Iran, North Korea, and most recently Libya. Fascists also promote heroism, vitalism and violence. Ever notice how Republicans promote themselves by chopping wood or firing guns or some other “manly” activity? They are trying to prove how tough they are. And the examples of violence are aplenty. Just look at the shooting in Arizona and the calls to shoot liberals in the forehead and the threats of “second amendment remedies” among many others. Republicans have ALL of these traits.
The GOP's Bizarro Economics
The party's plan is to find some way to take credit if prosperity takes hold — or find a way to make sure it doesn't
http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/213027/the-gops-bizarro-economics
Only 18% of Americans approve of Congress
A Gallop Poll released March 11 indicated a mere 18 percent of Americans approve of the job their congress is doing. Results indicated independents are the most displeased with their leaders – just 15 percent of those identified as independent approve of Congress, a decline of 7 percent since February.
GOP's Continuing Resolution Cuts Funding for National Weather Service, FEMA
Back in February 2009, Republicans found a lot of risible spending in the stimulus bill. In his response to the State of the Union, Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., derided the stimulus for including "$140 million for something called volcano monitoring." The gripe was mostly that the funding, mostly for U.S. Geological Survey upkeep, wasn't stimulative. (This is a pretty good argument.) But Democrats honed in on that comment to decide that Republicans were going to try to cut funding for natural disaster monitoring.
This isn't wrong. The continuing resolution passed by the GOP House, the one that just failed in the Senate, reduces funding for the federal agencies that monitor and react to disasters.
NASA Data Strengthens Reports of Toxic Rain on the Gulf Coast From BP Spill
Along the Gulf Coast, the marketing blitz for spring break is rolling out as the oil from the BP blowout 11 months ago continues to roll in along with increasing numbers of dead infant dolphins, in numbers completely without precedent. The beaches remain polluted with toxic oil and dispersant even as local politicians and government officials insist everything is fine and the oil miraculously gone. Thousands of pounds are collected each day from the few areas that remain under scrutiny, all of those being in highly visible resort areas. In one zone on Ft. Morgan beach in Alabama, a record 17,000 lbs was collected in one day after a winter storm rolled through. Along the beaches of Alabama in areas not frequented by media or guests, dead infant dolphins are left uncollected in the sand. Current plans by mayors of resort communities along the Gulf Coast will have thousands of vacationers, including at-risk populations, once again making sandcastles and sunbathing on toxic, polluted beaches.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Japan Earthquake: Hawaii Braces for Tsunamis
Thousands of people have been evacuated from the coast in Hawaii as it braces for a series of tsunamis in the wake of the Japanese earthquake.
Wisconsin Dispute Could Mobilize Democratic Base
There is no guarantee that the risk to Republicans will be confined to Wisconsin; national polls also suggest that the Republicans’ position is somewhat unpopular.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/wisconsin-dispute-could-mobilize-democratic-base
The Nonsense Argument That is White People are Oppressed in the Age of Obama
Premise: White people in America are oppressed. Problem: If white folks are losing, I can’t even begin to imagine who is winning.
Boehner Decides House will Defend DOMA in Court
Speaker John Boehner's laser-like focus on anything other than creating jobs continues, as he's decided to open up yet another front on the culture wars.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/07/953632/-Boehner-decides-House-will-defend-DOMA-in-court
Stripped Naked Every Night, Bradley Manning Tells of Prison Ordeal
US soldier held on suspicion of leaking state secrets speaks out for first time about experience
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/stripped-naked-bradley-manning-prison
Massive 8.9 Quake Triggers Tsunami in Japan
Authorities said at least 40 people were killed and 39 missing after the magnitude 8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami. The quake was followed by more than 20 aftershocks for hours, most of them of more than magnitude 6.0. The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of the disaster.
http://www.wfaa.com/news/world/79-magnitude-quake-strikes-Japan-117783718.html
Thursday, March 10, 2011
US Muslim 'Radicalisation' Hearings Spark Unease
A series of controversial hearings into the "radicalisation of the American Muslim community" is starting in the US. The Republican congressman holding the hearings says some Muslim leaders are not co-operating enough with the police and FBI. But many US Muslims say they are being unfairly singled out, and some fear the hearings will only increase Islamophobia in the US.
Afghanistan: 2010 Bloodiest Year for a Decade, UN Says
There has been a large increase in the number of civilians killed in the war in Afghanistan for the second year in a row, according to a UN report. More than 2,700 civilians were killed in 2010 - up 15% on the year before.
The UN blamed the Taliban and other insurgents for the rise, saying 75% of all deaths were down to them. The Taliban called the report "one-sided". The numbers killed by Afghan and Nato forces fell, accounting for 16% of civilian deaths, the UN found.
Welcome to the Shari'ah Conspiracy Theory Industry
At last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a student from the group Youth for Western Civilization at Liberty University asked members of a panel titled “The Shari'ah Challenge to the West”: “Are we going to see a rise of Islamic Europe, and America just sits there on its own... are we actually going to win?” Another audience member asked, “what recourse does America have as a country... to deal with that problem with a completely won Islamist population? What recourse do we have at home and abroad?”
That these questions were treated as legitimate lines of inquiry at a conference that serves as a dog and pony show for Republican presidential candidates demonstrates the success of a cottage industry of anti-Muslim fearmongers—politicians, religious groups, ministers, self-styled national security experts, former government officials, retired military officers, pundits, and writers—who have cultivated a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that totalitarian Islamic radicals are bent on infiltrating America, displacing the Constitution, and subverting Western-style democracy in the U.S. and around the globe.
Dalai Lama to Relinquish Political Role
The Dalai Lama announced Thursday on his website that he plans to relinquish his power as the head of the exiled spiritual movement. "Tibetans need a leader, elected freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power," he wrote. "Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this into effect." He said he would work with the government in exile to begin the process of ceding authority.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/10/breaking-dalai-lama-to-relinquish-political-role
Why Climate Change is So Threatening to Right-Wing Ideologues
something very different is going on on the right, and I think we need to understand what that is. Why is climate change seen as such a threat? I don't believe it's an unreasonable fear. I think it's unreasonable to believe that scientists are making up the science. They're not. It's not a hoax. But actually, climate change really is a profound threat to a great many things that right-wing ideologues believe in.
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