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Making Sustainability Legal: 9 Zombie Laws That Keep Cities From Going Green
. Over half the homeowners’ associations in the US — including some in those 19 states — explicitly ban clotheslines in their neighborhoods. A gathering “right-to-dry” movement is rising up to challenge these rules.New York, is notoriously rigid about telling people who they can and can’t let stay in their houses, for how long, and under what terms.
Permalink5 Reasons You Should Never Agree to a Police Search (Even if You Have Nothing to Hide)
From the streets of the Bronx to the suburbs of the Nation's Capital, you never have to look hard to find victims of the bias and corruption delivered by the drug war. If laws made sense and public servants treated us as citizens first and suspects second. Thanks to the War on Drugs, nothing is that easy. When stopping people from possessing marijuana came to be law enforcement innocence ceased to protect people against harassment. victims of the bias, incompetence, and corruption the drug war delivers on a daily basis.. You can't count on officers to be careful with valuables or to put everything back where they found it.
Print Leaflet Feedback Share » Retired autoworker in Flint, Michigan dies after utilities are shut off
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/flin-f23.shtml
Early Monday morning neighbors found 86-year-old John Morgan, a retired Flint autoworker, dead in his truck parked outside in his driveway on Parkway Avenue. Morgan died a few days after the local utility company shut off his electricity for a bill of $291. There was widespread anger that another elderly worker has died trying to stay warm.Consumers Energy is earning the highest profits in history while record shutoffs of customers. CMS profits of $324 million in 2010, the same year that it shut off 148,000 households from gas ,electricity. In 2011, profit was higher—$374 million , it shut off 164,634 households.
VIDEO - Middle-East Tensions: 300 Nukes in Israel yet "Iran is the threat"
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29433
We’ve also pointed out that top American and Israeli experts say that Iran has not decided to build a nuclear bomb, and that – even if Iran ever does decide to build one – it would pose no real threat to the U.S. or Israel.Pat Buchanan echoes both facts, saying about Syria, “If its good for Al Qaeda, can it be good for us?”, noting Israel has 300 nukes, so Iran possessing a couple of nuclear bombs would pose no threat.
U.S. Trojan Horses In Venezuela
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29444
Washington had to learn as the 2002 anti-Chavez coup collapsed that the Venezuelan leader was a serious opponent who would not crack under pressure and at all times remained a clever strategist.Chavez described the unrest as an attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government and called the residents of low-income urban quarters and villages to resist what he termed a fascist offensive.The legitimacy of Venezuela's electoral procedure is being challenged.
Towards the Creation of the US-Canada Police State. "Counterterrorism" and War on Drugs used to Justify Sweeping Reforms
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29446
In a move that went largely unnoticed, the U.S. government unveiled a new counter-narcotics strategy for the northern border which will work towards closer cooperation with Canada in the war on drugs. This includes both countries strengthening integrated cross-border intelligence sharing and law enforcement operations. Canada has also released a comprehensive counter-terrorism plan aimed at combating the threats of domestic and international violent extremism. The separate U.S.-Canada undertakings are both tied to the Beyond the Border deal and efforts to establish a North American security perimeter.
How the government enables Wall Street parasites to cash in on the crisis
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/pers-f22.shtml
As the Obama administration concludes a settlement with five major banks, quashing state investigations into rampant fraud related to home foreclosures, speculation in the mortgage-backed securities that caused the 2008 meltdown is once again picking up.Saturday's New York Times reported that Greg Lippmann, a former Deutsche Bank trader who made millions of dollars personally and $1.5 billion for Deutsche Bank by betting against mortgage-backed securities, at the same time his bank was selling them to clients, is back in business buying and selling these toxic assets.
Greek deal: More pain for workers, no end to Europe’s crisis
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/gree-f22.shtml
The €130 billion-plus (US$172 billion) package of loans agreed by euro zone finance ministers will not protect Greece from bankruptcy. It merely postpones the inevitable, while European and international finance capital use Greece as a testing ground for their scorched-earth policy of savage austerity being rolled out across the continent.
How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29411
CDS are a form of derivative taken out by investors as insurance against default. According to the Comptroller of the Currency, nearly 95% of the banking industry’s total exposure to derivatives contracts is held by the nation’s five largest banks: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, HSBC, and Goldman Sachs. The CDS market is unregulated, and there is no requirement that the “insurer” actually have the funds to pay up. CDS are more like bets, and a massive loss at the casino could bring the house down.
Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, Why the Media Loves the Violence of Protesters and Not of Banks
n December 2001, 110 of 112 revelers at a wedding died, thanks to a B-52 and two B-1B bombers using precision-guided weapons to essentially wipe out a village in Eastern Afghanistan (and then, in a second strike, to take out Afghans digging in the rubble). The incident got no attention here. Yet, , “violence” within the Occupy movement , several sexual assaults in Occupy camps, a suicide, drug use, a small amount of property damage, bottles thrown, and the like has some how been enough to discredit the movement.
Tent camp reveals social inequality in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/camp-f20.shtml
Last week, a World Socialist Web Site reporting team visited Camp Take Notice, a homeless encampment in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to speak with residents and document conditions. The tent camp is home to about 35 people. It is located on a small triangle of wooded land, A steep, icy trail next to one of the freeway overpasses leads to the camp. This route is the only way supplies, donations, residents and visitors can enter. The collection of tents, tarps and shacks that constitute the residents’ shelter is hidden from view behind brush and trees. When the reporting team arrived at the camp at 9:30 in the morning, the temperature was in the mid-20s .
The Definition of Insanity: Deregulating Over and Over and Expecting Different Results
Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/20-9
A cynic might argue that business leaders and their friends in Congress weren't expecting different results. In either case, we've become a bipolar nation, 1% manic and 99% depressive. Our affliction is caused by a 30-year experiment in the dismal economics of delusion. Deregulation for corporations and tax cuts for the wealthy have defined conservative policy since the 1970s, when University of Chicago economist Arthur Laffer convinced Dick Cheney and other Republican officials that lowering taxes on the rich would generate more revenue.
Pakistan Vows To Stand with Iran if US, Israel Attack
Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/18-0
A clear message has been given to the United States through the tripartite summit of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan that Pakistan will support Iran in case of any possible aggression against it.Presidents from Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai (L), Pakistan's Asif Ali Zardari (C) and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad join hands as they pose for pictures after a news conference in the President House in Islamabad February 17, 2012. Ahmadinejad said on Friday foreign interference was the source of all problems in the region. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed Moreover, Pakistan has clearly affirmed that the US will not be allowed to set up any airbases in Pakistan with the purpose of attacking Iran. The joint declaration says: "Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan will ensure respect of territorial sovereignty of each other and would not allow any threat emanating from their respective territories against each other
25 Signs That America Is Rapidly Becoming More Like Nazi Germany
The United States of America is becoming more like Nazi Germany every single day. In fact, the Nazification of America is almost complete. The parallels between Nazi Germany and the United States of today are going to absolutely shock many of you.
Staring into the abyss: Inside a despairing Greek nation where families queue at soup kitchens and women threaten to jump to their deaths as job losses mount Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102864/Staring-abyss-Faced-losing-job-Greek-
Soup kitchens, beggars, homeless scavenging for food .children fainting from hunger, unemployment rate 20 per cent , homelessness and suicide , austerity , sudden new taxes, salary cuts, job losses, rising prices , falling demand , nation shattered , cooperative-type building society providing cheap mortgages ‘liquidated’ because it was seen as threat to banks, which charge higher interest ,corrupt politicians,rioting property tax tacked on to electric bills; those unable to pay are cut off .rent (£750) new tax (£790) quarter of Greek businesses have gone bust since 2009.
Everything Must Go! The Great European Fire Sale
European nations have been looking for a quick way out of debt.The Portugal power grid is now part-owned by China and Oman Oil. €592m A bigger deal, worth €8bn, 21 per cent of the national energy company, bought by China.he Ireland selling assets, the gas utility, Aer Lingus airline,forestry company, National Stud (worth nearly €1bn). Netherlands F-16 fighter jets to Chile. UK Embassies, buildings, military equipment. Spain Infrastructure.: France real estate. Austria Government caused outcry when it put two mountains for sale.Italy buildings, beaches, forts, islands, right to advertise on Colosseum.Latvia An entire town.Greece Athens International Airport (and 38 other airports), state oil and gas companies, ports, Hellenic Post Bank, buildings,a strip of coastline three times larger than Monaco.
Conservatism Thrives on Low Intelligence and Poor Information
Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/154082/Conservatism_Thrives_on_Low_Intelligence_and_Poor_Information/
Low general intelligence in childhood predicts greater prejudice towards people of different ethnicity or sexuality in adulthood. hood. Open-mindedness, flexibility, trust ,Understanding and accepting others requires an enhanced capacity for abstract thinking. Conservatives have built aalternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics"
The 5 Stupidest Things GOP Presidential Candidates Said...In Just One Day
1. Rick Santorum: Wasting energy makes a nation great. At CPAC, Santorum suggested that in order to have a high standard of living, a nation should consume as much energy as possible.2. Rick Santorum: Health insurance shouldn’t pay for things that are inexpensive. 3. Newt Gingrich: Undocumented workers should be tracked through FedEx.4. Newt Gingrich: Unemployment insurance a violation of the Declaration of Independence.5.I was a severely conservative governor.
Banker Occupied Europe and America
Link: http://whatreallyhappened.com/content/banker-occupied-europe-and-america-0
Money power rules. Across Europe and America, governments follow banker diktats. They demand economies and people suffer to assure they’re paid.
Money power in private hands and democracy can’t co-exist. It buys what it wants at the expense of government of, by and for the people. It never was and isn’t now.Wall Street and major European banks usurped unprecedented money making power. With complicit politicians, they make it the old fashioned way. They steal it.
Detroit to cut early morning bus services
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/dbus-f18.shtml
Detroit’s Democratic Mayor David Bing announced Thursday that the city would end morning bus services on March 3. The cut will impact low-income residents dependent on public transportation to get to and from work in the early hours.
The mayor’s office said bus service would be eliminated between 1 and 4 a.m. across the city. The city estimates that 500 riders on nine routes during these hours will be affected.
I am a Patrioterrorist
Link: http://whatreallyhappened.com/content/i-am-patrioterrorist
I believe in acquiring goods and services in large quantities or small without having to answer to others.I believe the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution only asks that I demonstrate that I am sane, legally able to, and of age to acquire firearms and ammunition but not explain why I wish to purchase a firearm to a neighbor, stranger, or bureaucrat.
Print Leaflet Feedback Share » Portugal’s labour reforms provoke mass opposition
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/port-f18.shtml
Reform of Portugal’s labour laws and the right-wing coalition government’s austerity measures are provoking mass opposition.On February 11, 300,000 people took part in a demonstration in Lisbon to protest. These enable the slashing of holiday entitlement, redundancy pay, overtime rates and unemployment benefits, increase flexible working, make it easier for employers to sack workers and undermine collective bargaining. They comes on top of earlier austerity measures that cut wages and pensions, set about privatising remaining public companies, introduced payment for health care, increased fares in public transport and increased tuition fees.
UN vote seen as stepping stone toward military intervention in Syria
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/syri-f18.shtml
The support by the United Nations General Assembly for the Arab League call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down on “humanitarian” grounds brings military intervention one step closer. The 137-12 vote, with 17 abstentions, is non-binding, but it gives a UN imprimatur to the Arab League proposal for regime-change that was blocked on the Security Council by Russia and China.
German President Wulff resigns
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wulf-f18.shtml
German President Christian Wulff tendered his resignation on Friday. He justified his move by saying that he no longer “fully enjoyed the confidence of broad layers of the people,” which he needed to dedicate himself “to the huge national and international challenges.”
Wulff is only the tenth president since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, but the second to resign under the chancellorship of Angela Merkel. The first eight federal presidents all completed one or two full five-year terms of office.
Print Leaflet Feedback Share » 29,500 long-term unemployed Michigan workers lose benefits
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/mich-f18.shtml
Nearly 30,000 “long-term” unemployed workers in Michigan—those out of work for more than 6 months—had their Extended Benefits (EB) assistance abruptly disqualified as of February 18. The EB assistance is the last extension program available for workers who have exhausted all other forms of emergency unemployment compensation. The disqualification comes as a result of new federal thresholds established in the bipartisan unemployment extension legislation passed by Congress and the Obama administration in December 2011.
America's Poorest States
Link: http://www.loop21.com/politics/americas-poorest-states-cities-economy
1. Mississippi
> Median income: $36,850
> Poverty rate: 21.3% (the highest)
> Without health insurance: 18.7% (8th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 10.4% (7th highest)2. Arkansas
> Median income: $38,600
> Poverty rate: 16.5% (8th highest)
> Without health insurance: 18.5% (9th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 8.2% (25th highest)
3. Tennessee
> Median income: $40,026
> Poverty rate: 16.1% (11th highest)
> Without health insurance: 14.7% (20th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 9.8% (11th highest)
4. West Virginia
> Median income: $40,824
> Poverty rate: 15.7% (12th highest)
> Without health insurance: 13.9% (25th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 8.1% (tied for 24th lowest)5. Louisiana
> Median income: $41,896
> Poverty rate: 18% (4th highest)
> Without health insurance: 18% (11th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 7.6% (17th lowest)
Orthodox Economics Gone Mad
Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2012/02/17/orthodox-economics-gone-mad#more14706
If economies must grow for poor people to have the basics and we know that little wealth created trickles down, we will devour the whole planet.Can this growth be achieved If most wealth finds its way to the top 10 % (UK figures: the top 1% own 21% of wealth, the top 10% own 53%), where is the demand going to come from? Capitalism is grinding to a halt because the rich, are over indulged and cannot consume any more.(in the UK , the top 50% own 93% of the wealth)
How a Filthy Rich 196 People Will Buy Our Election
Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/154172/how_a_filthy_rich_196_people_will_buy_our_election/
In 2011, 196 individual donors provided nearly 80 percent of the money raised by super PACs. At a time when it’s become a cliché to say that Occupy Wall Street has changed the nation’s political conversation -- drawing long overdue attention to the struggles of the 99% -- electoral politics and the 2012 presidential election have become almost exclusively defined by the 1%. Or, to be more precise, the .0000063%. Those are the 196 individual donors who have provided nearly 80% of the money raised by super PACs in 2011 by giving $100,000 or more each.
Obama, Democrats hail deal to slash unemployment benefits
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/unem-f16.shtml
In the midst of the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, with long-term unemployment at record highs, the Obama administration has forged a bipartisan agreement with the Republicans that will sharply reduce the duration of jobless benefits.The deal reached Tuesday by members of a House-Senate committee would extend through December a payroll tax cut and continue emergency unemployment benefits. It includes provisions that will cut off the financial lifeline for hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers and their families.
Detroit residents speak out on utility shutoffs
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/uti2-f16.shtml
Evelyn Walker, 53 is on disability and receives Social Security and Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI) benefits. Her benefits are too low, however, to allow her to pay rent, food and utilities.The bill grew to over $4,000 when they shutme off, and I have a lot of disabilities.
Fisherman killed as Sri Lankan police fire on protest
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/sril-f16.shtml
One fisherman was killed yesterday, and three others were wounded, when police deployed by the Sri Lankan government fired at protesting fishermen at Chilaw-Wella in the country’s north-western province.Fishermen were protesting for the third day against fuel price increases of up to 50 percent announced by the government on Saturday as part of an International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity package.
Euro zone ministers tighten screws on Greece
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/euro-f16.shtml
The Greek government has accused “forces in Europe” of seeking to drive it out of the common currency, as leading euro zone countries issued further demands that must be met before bailout funds are released.Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said the terms of the €130 billion bailout were being continually changed because key countries wanted Greece out of the euro zone. “There are many in the euro zone who don’t want us anymore,” he said during a meeting with President Karolos Papoulias. “We are constantly being given new terms and conditions.”
Iran to stop oil exports to six EU countries causing prices to rise
The price of a barrel of Brent crude jumped by $1.76 to $119 after Iran decided to halt sales to the biggest European customers. Last year, the EU bought almost 600,000 barrels of Iranian crude every day, 24 per cent of the country's oil exports, the majority going to Greece, Italy and Spain. sales to those three countries had been "cut", along with France, Portugal and the Netherland.Greece, Italy and Spain will have to scramble for an alternative source of supplies. This could have serious consequences, for the Greek economy. any alternative supplies will probably be more costly.
NYPD’s ‘stop-and-frisk’ searches increased over 600 percent under BloombergNYPD’s ‘stop-and-frisk’ searches increased over 600 percent under Bloomberg
Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/tag/bloomberg-the-new-york-civil-liberties-union/
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) revealed Tuesday the New York Police Department (NYPD) stopped and interrogated more people under Mayor Bloomberg in 2011 than ever before, with minorities being a regular target.The NYPD detained 684,330 people under a stop-and-frisk procedure, a 600 percent increase from Bloomberg’s first year in office. At least nine out of 10 people stopped were innocent, with 87 percent of them either black or Latino.“These numbers make clear that illegal stops-and-frisks have become an epidemic in New York City,”
European Union, U.S. sign organic food deal
Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/15/european-union-u-s-sign-organic-food-deal/
NUREMBERG, Germany — Food products classified as organic in the European Union or the United States can be sold as such in either region after a deal struck on Wednesday between the two major trading blocs.Before the deal, which comes into effect in June this year, companies producing organic food had to conform to two different sets of standards on both sides of the Atlantic.
Is Western Democracy Real or a Facade?
Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2012/02/16/is-western-democracy-real-or-a-facade
The United States and its NATO puppets have been killing Muslims for a decade in the name of democracy. But is the West itself a democracy? President George W. Bush was put in office by the Supreme Court. A number of other elections have been decided by electronic voting machines that leave no paper trail. Elected officials represent the special interests not the voters. The bailout of the banks and Washington’s failure to indict any banksters for fraud are evidence that the US government represents money not the voters.
Print Leaflet Feedback Share » West Virginia targets Medicaid for “fundamental adjustments”
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/wvir-f15.shtml
The Democratic administration of Governor Earl Ray Tomblin is preparing budget cuts to programs upon which hundreds of thousands of West Virginians depend. The administration has in particular singled out Medicaid. The state’s health care program provides medical care for 415,000 poor, elderly, and disabled West Virginians, one in four residents.
Tens of thousands in Germany protest against ACTA’s attack on the Internet
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/acta-f15.shtml
Last Saturday, thousands took to the streets in about 60 German cities to protest against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which threatens freedom of expression on the Internet. The largest protests were held in Munich and Berlin. There were protests in Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Leipzig and Hanover. Protests were held worldwide in 150 countries.
Greece heads toward a revolutionary explosion
Link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/pers-f15.shtml
Austerity measures demanded by the the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank) are driving Greece toward revolution. Rioting broke out after the police violently attacked the demonstration marked a sharp turn in the mood of the Greek population.No one believes that the austerity measures will lead Greece out of crisis. The government’s claim the only alternative to cuts is economic disaster no longer has impact because the austerity measures are already a catastrophe.
Dumping the Dollar? Towards a Regional Currency in Latin America? ALBA Bloc Advances towards “Alternative Economic Model”
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29257
The heads of state discussed the sucre, the bloc's virtual currency. The sucre is used for direct trading between the ALBA countries, to circumvent the U.S dollar and minimise foreign-exchange risk. 431 financial transactions using the sucre were carried out between ALBA countries last year, amounting to over $216-million (U.S.) worth of trade. However, Ecuadorean president called for use of the currency to be increased. Those free trade agreements that's suicide for our countries...We encourage fair trade; unite in the Bank of the Alba and avoid using foreign currencies. The president of Nicaragua expressed his desire to the use the bloc's currency.
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