GAIA AND HOMOSAPIENS

CBC Hourly News
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Worid News at Six
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Note-- The symbol ^ indicates that that article can be read in full at the link.

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Breaking News

UK | Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
The New York Times - By Julia Werdigier and Nicola Clark - April 15, 2010
- LINK ^

LONDON — British civil aviation authorities ordered the closing of the country’s airspace as of noon on Thursday to shield aircraft from a high-altitude cloud of ash drifting south and east from an erupting volcano in Iceland. The plume shut down airports and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in a wide arc from Ireland to Scandinavia.

US | Feingold, McGovern Introduce Bill to End Afghanistan War
Daily Kos - By Robert Naiman - April 15, 2010
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Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold, Representative Jim McGovern, and Representative Walter Jones announced the introduction of legislation that - if it attracts enough support - could end the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan, and bring the troops home.

US | Goldman Is Charged With Subprime Fraud
Wall Street Journal - By Fawn Johnson - April 16, 2010
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The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday charged Goldman Sachs Group Inc. with defrauding investors by allegedly marketing a financial product tied to subprime mortgages without telling them a big hedge fund was on the other side of the trade. The SEC's civil lawsuit is one of the biggest moves by authorities in response to the financial crisis of 2007-08, and it sent Goldman shares sharply lower. The firm's shares were down about 12% around midday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off more than 1%.

Quotes

”A Little Piece of Ground shows what life is like for Palestinians who see their homes destroyed by Israeli bulldozers or face road blocks, military check points, and embarrassing strip searches, simply while trying to get to work or school.” -- Lucine Kasbarian, IndyKids
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Entitlements and military spending force smaller government
Entitlements and military spending force smaller government. As Paul Krugman so succintly described it, we should think of the fed government as a humongous insurance company with a large army. All other programs are peanuts budget wise. But alarm over deficits always translates into cutting nonmilitary discretionary funding. So soon we will have a government which is ONLY a humongous insurance company with a large army. And we will have to raise taxes a lot to pay for it!
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International / Bi-National Issues

The Vatican | Pope Urges Repentance in Homily
Slate - By Rachel Donadio - April 15, 2010
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Pope Benedict XVI came as close as he ever has to publicly acknowledging the role of the Catholic Church in the clerical sex abuse scandal that is consuming the Vatican. At a homily delivered at Mass Thursday, the pope said Catholics need to do "penance" to atone for the Church's "sins." "I have to say that we Christians, even in recent times, have often avoided the word 'penance,' which seems too harsh," Benedict said. "We see that the ability to repent is a grace, and we see how it is necessary to repent, that is, to recognize what is wrong in our life." But even the pope's discourse on the benefits of penance was linked to criticism of outside criticism of the Vatican. He said the need for penance was revealed by "the attacks of the world, which speaks to us of our sins." Still, the New York Times says this is "a marked shift in tone" for the Vatican, whose top officials have been more likely to attack the media than address the clergy when talking about sex abuse.

United States Government

"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress." -- John Adams

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." -- Mark Twain

The Texas school of falsification
Socialist Worker - By Nicole - April 16, 2010
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Nicole Colson looks at the Stalin-style revision of historical events carried out by right-wing Republicans on the Board of Education in Texas. New education standards in Texas present a glowing view of conservatism, Christianity, capitalism and U.S. military might.

POP QUIZ: What do you get when you allow Texas right-wingers to rewrite social studies textbooks? By a 10-to-5 vote, the board voted for curriculum changes "stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light," according to the New York Times.

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Topical News

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Activism at the Ground Level

"The strength of a democracy is, as in nature, in the roots, not in the flamboyant leaves that wither and die after two seasons or so in public office." -- John Davidson Miller

Do something ! News about the latest progressive activism initiatives and ways you can get involved.

Take action | Say No to Mandate for GE Crop Research
Contact your Senators and tell them to oppose the Global Food Security Act until the clause mandating support for GE crop research is removed.
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Take action | Tell Discovery: Pull Sarah Palin's anti-environment "nature" show now
Credo ActIon -Current
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Take action | Keep the Internet open
Color of Change - Current
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Big telecom and cable companies want to fundamentally change the way the Internet works, so they can make millions by acting as a gatekeeper over what you see and do online. Our communities rely on the Internet to speak without a corporate filter, and to be able to organize and hold public officials and corporations accountable. But if these companies succeed, a few major corporations would control which voices are heard most easily, and it would be much harder for grassroots groups, individuals, and small businesses to compete with large corporations and well-funded special interests.

Please join Color of Change in calling on the FCC to keep the Internet open and democratic.

Arts & Culture

Musicians mix Coldplay and Taylor Swift together - Enjoy
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Music Video | "Democracy Is Coming to the USA" - Leonard Cohen
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Corruption and Criminality in the Corpocracy

US joins bribery investgation of Hewlett-Packard in Russia
Wall Street Journal - By David Crawford and Dionne and Searcy - April16. 2010
The U.S. has joined German and Russian authorities in investigating whether Hewlett-Packard Co. executives paid millions of dollars in bribes to Russian officials to win a contract in Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Economy and Finance

"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." -- Winston Churchill

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan (1986)

Bloomberg Economic News
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Bloomberg Current Worldwide Financial News
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The Closers - How the pros shut down a failing bank
The Atlantic - By Maria Streshinsky - May, 2010
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Environment

Book Review | Globalization and the Environment
Haymarket Books - Edited by Andrew Jorgenson and Edward Kick - Current
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Complete here. Interested? Order now. ^
What is missing in the mounting literature on globalization is a focused theoretical foundation with parallel empirical examinations of global structures and their environmental consequences. The articles in this volume examine how the world-economy and related non-economic forms of global structuring impact the natural environment and the living conditions of human populations living across the globe. Environmental dynamics in areas as diverse as Ancient Egypt and the Modern Amazon are presented for readers who are new to the world-systems approach and for others interested in recent efforts to link environmental outcomes and antecedents to global processes.

Global Warming

Video | Global warming could do more than just melt polar ice.
It could change our maps, and displace people from cities and tropical islands.
National Geographiic -January 2010
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Humor and Satire

Video | "Gotcha" - Tina Fey Debuts on the Sarah Palin Network
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Media and Journalism

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed." -- Mark Twain

Book Review | Exception to the Rulers
Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them
Haymarket Books - By Amy Goodman and David Goodman - Current
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In The Exception to the Rulers, award-winning journalists Amy and David Goodman expose the lies, corruption, and crimes of the power elite, an elite bolstered by large media conglomerates. Their goal is “to go where the silence is, to give voice to the silenced majority.”

Politcal Issues

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." -- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Real clear Politics Daily Rundown
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Tea Partiers Release Document of Principles
The Atlantic - By Chris Good - April 14, 2010
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Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated
The New York Times - By Kate Zernike andMegan Thee-Brenan - April 14, 2010
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Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.

India | Book Review | Field Notes for Democracy - Listening to Grasshoppers
Hatmarket Books - By Arundhati Roy - Current
Combining fierce conviction, deft political analysis, and beautiful writing, this is the essential new book from Arundhati Roy
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This series of essays examines the dark side of democracy in contemporary India. It looks closely at how religious majoritarianism, cultural nationalism, and neo-fascism simmer just under the surface of a country that projects itself as the world’s largest democracy.

Russia | Book Review | History of the Russian Revolution
Haymarket Books - By Leon Trotsky - Current
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“During the first two months of 1917 Russia was still a Romanov monarchy. Eight months later the Bolsheviks stood at the helm. They were little known to anybody when the year began, and their leaders were still under indictment for state treason when they came to power. You will not find another such sharp turn in history especially if you remember that it involves a nation of 150 million people. It is clear that the events of 1917, whatever you think of them, deserve study.” --Leon Trotsky, from History of the Russian Revolution

Regarded by many as among the most powerful works of history ever written, this book offers an unparalleled account of one of the most pivotal and hotly debated events in world history. This book reveals, from the perspective of one of its central actors, the Russian Revolution’s profoundly democratic, emancipatory character. Originally published in three parts, Trotsky’s masterpiece is collected here in a single volume. It serves as the most vital and inspiring record of the Russian Revolution to date.

Russia | Book Review | Lenin's Political Thought
Theory and Practice in the Democratic and Socialist Revolution

Haymarket Books - By Neil Harding - Current
Order ^
- LINK ^
complete here >
Caricatured as a superhuman idol in the former Communist states, the Russian revolutionary socialist V. I. Lenin has long been reversely caricatured in the West as an authoritarian elitist. In this brilliant, carefully researched analysis, Neil Harding upends these traditional Cold War interpretations of Lenin’s thought and activity. Harding shows how Lenin’s flexible and continuously changing theoretical, strategic, and tactical insights were firmly grounded in the emancipatory potential for working-class revolution in Russia and globally.

While many scholars of Lenin have debated the merits of his organizational politics in great detail, lost in most assessments of Lenin’s legacy and leadership style is a critical appreciation of his theoretical contributions. Where his engagement with Marxism is considered, Lenin is frequently accused of manipulating or distorting Marx’s principles. Yet, to assume Marxism to be an orthodoxy impervious to adaptation to the complex and changing world is to misunderstand Marxism altogether.

This book engages with the full trajectory of Lenin’s political philosophy from 1893 to the 1920s. Throughout his career, Lenin employed Marxist philosophy as a guide to understanding class relations, consciousness, and the revolutionary process. His insights into the nature of imperialism, the class character of movements for national liberation, and the role of the modern state remain central to understanding capitalist economic and political developments today.

No sincere study of Lenin’s activity as a revolutionary leader can be undertaken without a thorough understanding of his theoretical perspectives. Harding masterfully addresses both these critical aspects of the life and work of one of history’s most controversial and misunderstood figures.

US | Book Review | Independent Politics: The Green Party Strategy Debate
Haymarket books - Edited by Howie Hawkins - Current
- LINK ^

“If the history of popular insurgencies against old regimes teaches us anything, it is that they are based on hope, not fear; rising expectations, not a demoralizing resignation to the lesser evil; a positive program for a better world, not business as usual to protect us against something worse. It is time for the Greens to declare their unequivocal independence, democratize their party’s internal structures, organize the majority that is already with the Greens on immediate demands, and build a self-confident Green movement and party that is ready and able to take power and resolve the very solvable social, political, economic, and ecological problems of our society.” -- From Independent Politics

Leading independent and Green Party activists ask: Can we break the two party stranglehold on U.S. politics? Ralph Nader, Peter Camejo, and other Green Party members and allies assess the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, and debate strategy for how to build a challenge to the Republicans and an increasingly corporate Democratic Party.

Science and Technology

Bloomberg Index of Current Science News
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Social Issues

"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." -- Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Book Review | The Case for Socialism
PlaymarkeyBooks - By Alan Maass, Afterword by Howard Zinn - Current
- LINK ^

Complete here > - Order ^
We live in a world of poverty, war, and environmental devastation. A world where living standards for working people plummet while an elite few enjoy lives of unbelievable wealth and power. Something different—an alternative to capitalism—is desperately needed. But what should replace it?

"This book proposes socialism. A society built from the bottom up through the struggles of ordinary people against exploitation, oppression, and injustice—one in which people come before profit. A society based on the principles of equality, democracy, and freedom. This is a vivid, fluent, and rare book about socialism for those uninterested in tracts and excited by new prospects" — John Pilger, author of Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire

"Is socialism an impossible, discredited dream or the only realistic path for human survival? If you're not sure of the answer, or are just curious about what the left really believes in, you need to read Maass. He's the Tom Paine of the contemporary American left." — Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums.

Book Review | Hopes and Prospects
Globalization & Imperialism
Haymarket Bools - By Noam Chomsky - Current
- LINK ^ Order ^

In this urgent new book, Noam Chomsky surveys the dangers and prospects of our early twenty-first century. Exploring challenges such as the growing gap between North and South, American exceptionalism (including under President Barack Obama), the fiascos of Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.-Israeli assault on Gaza, and the recent financial bailouts, he also sees hope for the future and a way to move forward - in the democratic wave in Latin America and in the global solidarity movements that suggest “real progress toward freedom and justice.”

Hopes and Prospects is essential reading for anyone who is concerned about the primary challenges still facing the human race.

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