Posted on December 31st, 2008 by Jim
As the financial meltdown reaches historic proportions, free-market fundamentalism, or neoliberalism as it is called in some quarters, is losing both its claim to legitimacy and its claims on democracy. Once upon a time a perceived bastion of liberal democracy, the social state is being recalled from exile, as the decades-long conservative campaign against the [...]
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Filed under: Economics, Politics, Take Back America
Posted on December 31st, 2008 by Jim
There is something approaching a consensus that the Paulson Plan — also known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP — was a boondoggle of an intervention that’s flailed from one approach to the next, with little oversight and less effect on the financial meltdown.
But perhaps even more troubling than the ad hoc nature [...]
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Filed under: Economics, Politics, Take Back America
Posted on December 26th, 2008 by Jim
Amnesty International has said that industry claims that Taser stun guns are safe and non-lethal do not stand up to scrutiny. The organization called on governments to limit their deployment to life-threatening situations or to suspend their use.
The call came as the organization released one of the most detailed reports to date on the safety [...]
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Filed under: Take Back America
Posted on December 26th, 2008 by Jim
He didn’t know what they wanted, but obeyed when they told him to approach slowly. “I then had this incredible jolt of pain on the back of my head,” he explains. The electricity made him spasm; as he fell to the ground, he felt his teeth scatter on the tarmac and his bowels open. “Then [...]
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Filed under: Take Back America
Posted on December 25th, 2008 by Jim
Interphone researchers are conducting the largest-ever study investigating if cellphones cause cancer, examining studies from 6,400 tumors in patients from 13 countries. Final results are expected in early 2009, but the preliminary ones are badbadbad.
Cellphones: Early Results from Largest Ever Cellphone Cancer Study Are Horribly Depressing.
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Filed under: Take Back America
Posted on December 24th, 2008 by Jim
There are over 27,000 free books in the Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog.
A grand total of over 100,000 titles are available at Project Gutenberg Partners, Affiliates and Resources.
If you don’t live in the United States, please check the copyright laws of your country before downloading or redistributing a book.
Main Page – Gutenberg.
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Filed under: Take Back America
Posted on December 23rd, 2008 by Jim
New York faces a projected budget deficit of $15 billion in 2009-2010. Any solution will require shared sacrifice and cuts to popular programs, but working families shouldn’t bear the burden alone. Real shared sacrifice will require not just cuts, but Fair Share Tax Reform, which asks the wealthiest New Yorkers to pitch in and shoulder [...]
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Filed under: Economics, Take Back America
Posted on December 22nd, 2008 by Jim
Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.
AP Study Finds $1.6B Went to Bailed-Out Bank Execs – NYTimes.com.
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Filed under: Politics, Take Back America
Posted on December 21st, 2008 by Jim
For decades after its founding in 1935, the United Auto Workers stood as a powerful model for the American labor movement, an influential organization that historians credit with uplifting living standards for all working Americans.
But with the announcement of the federal loan deal yesterday, the union found itself being forced into concessions that some described [...]
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Filed under: Economics, Labor, Politics
Posted on December 21st, 2008 by Jim
The takeover of the Republic Doors & Windows factory in Chicago.
Melville House Publishing: Revolt on Goose Island
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Filed under: Economics, Labor, Politics, Take Back America