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Saturday, July 5th, 2008

Memo to Obama: Moving to the Middle is for Losers

By , Huffington Post
Election 2008: Realpolitik is one thing. Realstupidpolitik is quite another.

U.S. Journalist Photographs Grisly Aftermath of Attack in Iraq, Gets Booted by Military

By , IPS News
War on Iraq: An embedded U.S. journalist said the military tried to censor him after he posted photos from Fallujah.

Big Pharma Is in a Frenzy to Bring Cannabis-Based Medicines to Market

By , AlterNet
DrugReporter: While the the American Medical Association claims pot has no medical value, Big Pharma is busy getting patents for marijuana products.

Even as Celebrities, Women Face a Double Standard

By , The Tyee
Reproductive Justice and Gender: There was little media introspection about Heath Ledger's overdose, while Amy Winehouse receives daily scrutiny for her drug habits. What gives?

Now Let's Talk About Populism for Real

By , Truthdig
Democracy and Elections: A new book explores the real populist vision that lies behind the shallow rhetoric to which we've been subjected during this election year.

Will Smith's 'Hancock' Fiasco

By Eileen Jones, AlterNet
Movie Mix: "Hancock" is supposed to be a wry commentary on the pressure of being Will Smith, but the meesage gets lost in a big-budget Hollywood train wreck.

Friday, July 4th, 2008

Bush-Led 'Disaster Capitalism' Exploits Worldwide Misery to Make a Buck

By , The Nation
The Iraq disaster and rising gas and food prices have people across the globe in a state of fear and shock. It's high times for Bush & Co.

Echoes of Vietnam: VA Stalls, Dissembles While Vets Suffer and Die

By , AlterNet
War on Iraq: The latest episode of the Department of Veterans Affairs' callous denial of veterans' suffering is a continuation of a long tradition.

The Science of Happiness: Is It All Bullshit?

By , AlterNet
Health and Wellness: Just because a Harvard academic says something is so, doesn't mean it is.

The U.S. Is Drowning in Pretend Patriotism

By , Truthdig
This Fourth of July, let's remember that it's not our God-given American right to reorder the world to our liking.

Surviving a Weekend with America's Premiere Pro-White Activist Group

By , AlterNet
Immigration: Meet the Council of Conservative Citizens -- a group that offers a biblical defense of slavery and laments the surivival of African babies.

Looking Back at Tom Paine's Radical Legacy

By Nick Penniman, American News Project
Democracy and Elections: An Independence Day look back at the radical influence of Thomas Paine, whose words helped spark the American Revolution.

Race-Baiting Former Senator Jesse Helms Has Died

By Chris Nolan, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: Conservative Republican railed against "Negro hoodlums", opposed the Voting Rights Act, backed terrorists, and died an unrepentant segregationist.

Sex From a Can

By Joyce McFadden, Huffington Post
Sex and Relationships: Most representations of sexuality in pop culture are not sexy or sexual, erotic or arousing; they're shallow and laughable.

Malthus Lives in Anti-Immigrant Ads

By César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández Immigration: An ad that ran in several major publications blames immigrants for the effects of urban sprawl and a creaky mass transit system.

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Google: Good or Evil When It Comes to the Environment?

By , AlterNet
Environment: Google's motto is "Don't be evil." But when it comes to its environmental impact, some think the company can't live up to its own hype.

Why Can't Women Sleep?

By , Ms. Magazine
Reproductive Justice and Gender: And why is the high level of insomnia among women ignored by researchers?

Christian Nation: Bush Moves Big Bucks to Religious Organizations

By , Beacon Press
Even worse, Bush wants to ensure that faith-based organizations receiving federal funds can discriminate in their hiring on the basis of religion.

It's About Time for Online Voting

By , Personal Democracy Forum
Media and Technology: Historians will undoubtedly consider our current era of voting machines the technological equivalent of the 8-track tape machine.

The Persecution of Political Prisoner Sami Al-Arian

By Ali Gharib, IPS News
Rights and Liberties: Years after he was found not guilty in a federal court, the Bush administration is keeping a Palestinian university professor jailed, in legal limbo.

Obama Runs to the Middle

By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate
Election 2008: What should progressives do about Obama's move to the center?

Watermelon is the New Viagra

By Chris Nolan, AlterNet
Sex and Relationships: USDA-funded research helps Americans put some pizazz in their picnic baskets this fourth of July.

Wal-Mart Broke MN Labor Laws Over 2 Million Times

By Chris Nolan, AlterNet
PEEK: Settlement will cost retail giant less than $3.25 per law-breaking incident.

Will Midwest Floods Be as Toxic as New Orleans?

By Peter N. Spotts, Christian Science Monitor
Water: Some of the most serious pollution problems may not lie outdoors, but in the home.

Is the Department of Justice Tracking Your Mobile Phone Without a Warrant?

By Chris Nolan, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: The ACLU sues the DOJ to learn more about warrantless triangulation.

Judge: President Can't Just Make Up His Own Wiretapping Rules

By Chris Nolan, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: Only FISA law can authorize wiretaps.

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?

By , Tomdispatch.com
Democracy and Elections: Millions of Americans are embarrassingly ill-informed and they do not care that they are.

Bringing Ireland to Baghdad: How the Resistance Will Eventually Kick the Americans Out

By , AlterNet
War on Iraq: One thing the United States doesn't get about guerrilla warfare: It's not over until the guerrillas win.

Inside Obama's Christian Crusade

By , TheNation.com
Election 2008: Obama has made a major effort to woo evangelicals, but at what cost to church-state separation?

Republican Campaign Against Likely Democratic Voters Begins

By , AlterNet
Election 2008: The GOP’s latest accusations are long on rhetoric but short on facts.

Iraqis Want the U.S. Out; This is How it Should Happen

By Adil E. Shamoo, Foreign Policy in Focus
War on Iraq: Instead of negotiating a long-term presence in Iraq, the United States should be negotiating a withdrawal.

The World Health Organization Documents Failure of U.S. Drug Policies

By Bruce Mirken, AlterNet
DrugReporter: WHO survey of 17 countries finds that we have the highest rates of marijuana and cocaine use.

Hitchens Gets Waterboarded, Withdraws from Iraq in 11 Seconds

By John Dolan, AlterNet
War on Iraq: Warmongerer and neocon Christopher Hitchens just noticed that waterboarding is torture!

Our Government: Powerless to Outlaw Guns, Able to Outlaw Sexual Expression

By Dr. Marty Klein, Sexual Intelligence
Sex and Relationships: Why is the government allowed to jail people for selling videos of adults having (consensual) sex?

My Last Column

By Annalee Newitz, AlterNet
Media and Technology: After 9 long years, it's time to move on. One final thought: don't ever stop ruthlessly criticizing everything that exists.

The Protest that Turned the Tide of Global Green Opinion

By Kathy Marks, The Independent UK
Water: Twenty five years ago a band of protesters blocked the construction of a dam and their success inspired a generation of environmentalists.

Gulf States: If Western Countries Won't Take Our Money, We'll Invest in the East

By Meena Janardhan, IPS News
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Western governments need to remember that access to markets is not a one-way street.

Progressive Journalist, AlterNet Contributor, Shot Three Times in Attempted Mugging

By Chris Nolan PEEK: Brian Beutler recovering in D.C. hospital, expected to make full recovery.

We Are Through the Looking Glass: Guantánamo as Alice in Wonderland

By Andy Worthington, Andy Worthington's Blog
Rights and Liberties: The ruling in Parhat v. Gates invokes Lewis Carroll: "the fact the government has 'said it thrice' does not make an allegation true."

World Yawns at McCain's Coalition of Democracies

By Melinda Brouwer, AlterNet
ForeignPolicy: Creating a "League of Democracies" is a central tenet of John McCain's foreign policy "vision," but in other democracies, the idea's a non-starter.

Olbermann: Obama Makes a Play for Evangelical Support

By Chris Nolan, AlterNet
Video: Interview with Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency

By , AlterNet
Election 2008: A shorter version of our long national nightmare.

Sy Hersh: Congress Is Funding Major Escalation in Secret Operations Against Iran

By , Democracy Now!
ForeignPolicy: Hersh reports on a secret Congress-approved plan for activities ranging from supporting dissident groups to spying on Iran's nuclear program.

The Strange Journey of Larry Johnson

By , The American Prospect
Media and Technology: The former CIA officer has morphed from defender of Valerie Plame to crazed purveyor of a debunked Michelle Obama rumor. What happened?

McCain the Reformer? You've Got to Be Joking

By , The Nation
Election 2008: The level of John McCain's ties to lobbyists has reached dizzying proportions.

Fighting Against Radio's Hate-Spreading Shock Jocks

By , AlterNet Books
Media and Technology: Right-wing radio shock jocks are filling the airwaves with racist and sexist hate speech. Our new book takes the issue head on. With video.

Revisiting the Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder and the Search for Justice

By , Public Eye
Reproductive Justice and Gender: It took two trips to the electric chair to kill murder suspect Francis, whose unfair trial catapulted racial justice into public consciousness.

The New Face of Sex on Television

By Greta Christina, The Blowfish Blog
Sex and Relationships: Two new shows present people with alternative sexualities as ... actual people.

Cuba Cancels Gay Pride Parade

By Sue Katz, Consenting Adult
Sex and Relationships: Organizers of the parade intended to demand a government apology for past and present repression of LGBT people.

WALL-E: A World Without Us

By Michael Dudley, City States
Movie Mix: Stores are overfilling with WALL-E merchandise that will soon clog our landfills. Yet this new Disney movie bills itself as pro-environment.

Is a Big Hunk of Steak Worth Almost 2,000 Gallons of Water?

By Collin Dunn, Huffington Post
Water: Sometimes the kick we need to green our lives is a hard look at the numbers.

The Intolerant States of America -- Why My Middle Name Is Now 'Hussein'

By Kyle de Beausset, AlterNet
Rights and Liberties: Intolerance isn't just popular among the ignorant. It is within every one of us.

Fake Federal Agent Fought Own Private Drug War

By Chris Nolan, Majikthise
PEEK: Sgt. Bill said he didn't need a warrant because he worked for the federal government. Turns out, he was just some random guy.

Exercising Ballot Power to Push Back Attacks on Immigrant Communities

By Jackie Mahendra, AlterNet
Immigration: The message has never been clearer: Become a citizen and then vote… before it’s too late.

TSA Recovers Over $1 Million in Loose Change From Airport Security Bins

By Chris Nolan PEEK: Small windfall for TSA, like finding lunch money in the couch cushions...

In Case of Extraordinary Rendition Victim Maher Arar, U.S. Gets Away with Torture

Center for Constitutional Rights Rights and Liberties: Citing national security, a federal court rules that Maher Arar, who was kidnapped at JFK and sent to Syria by the U.S., had no due process rights.

Expending Diplomacy: How Much of the Pentagon Budget Goes to Foreign Militaries?

By Allen McDuffee, AlterNet
War on Iraq: The U.S. government is putting more and more of its budget for foreign military funding in the hands of the Pentagon. Where is the money going?

Are Obama's Supporters Getting a Centrist Candidate They Never Bargained for?

By Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Election 2008: We could -- and still might -- do a lot worse than a rerun of the Clinton years. But Mr. Obama’s most fervent supporters expect much more.

Monday, June 30th, 2008

U.S. Continues to Brutalize Iraqis in the Cause of the 'Surge'

By , Tomdispatch.com
War on Iraq: Five years after the invasion, to speak of this urge to surge and its results as "success" or as "good news" is essentially obscene.

Pretending That Bush is Not a Tyrant

By , Consortium News
Rights and Liberties: If you listen to Bush's legal advisors, questions about the limits of his authority might not be hypothetical anymore.

The 'Mortgage Meltdown' Was No Accident

By , The Nation
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: How the mortgage industry stole black America's hard-won wealth.

10 Things You Should Know About McCain Advisor Charlie Black

By , Pensito Review
Election 2008: Black was an early innovator of the GOP attack machine, and a very successful lobbyist and political strategist in the Reagan and Bush eras.

Women Have the Voting Power to Control This Election

By , Ms. Magazine
Reproductive Justice and Gender: The economy, war, the health care crisis and tax policies all affect women differently than men. And women have the power to change them all.

How Long Does Drug Prohibition Need to Continue Before It's Declared a Failure?

By , Drug War Chronicle
DrugReporter: The day we legalize drugs is the day we can begin to clean up the mess that the drug prohibition experiment has created.

Why We Need to Put Science Back in Government

By Chris Mooney, Yale Environment 360
Environment: The Bush administration has been widely criticized for placing politics over science. The next president must act to reverse that trend.

Is the Water Privatization Trend Ending?

By Julio Godoy, IPS News
Water: Paris is the latest city to take action to put water back into public hands, and they may be part of a new trend.

Virginia Is for Coal Lovers

By Glenn Hurowitz, Huffington Post
Environment: Virginia announced that it's going to permit the construction of a new coal-fired power plant, even though doing so clearly violates the law.

Nader Plays the Race Card

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, AlterNet
Election 2008: Nader holds Obama to a different standard than he holds McCain or any other white mainstream politician; a standard based solely on his color.

Seeking the Hairless Porn Star Ideal

By Heather Wood, Sirens Magazine
Sex and Relationships: The temptations and hype surrounding the Brazilian wax turn into a case of buyer's remorse for this author.

Global Warming's Twin Evil: Wildfires and Drought

By Dr. Reese Halter, AlterNet
Water: The 850 fires burning in California alone should be a wake up call that we're unprepared for rapid climate change.

GOP Internal Memo: "No Republican Seat is Safe"

By Digby, The Young Turks
Video: Leaked memo shows self-doubt in the Republican Party.

Democrats Are Blowing Our Best Chance for Clean Energy

By Kelpie Wilson, AlterNet
Environment: How the Dems sacked one of the most important opportunities to turn around our energy future.

Congress Learns About Transgender Bias

By Deb Price, Creators Syndicate
Rights and Liberties: The June 26th hearing was an important first step in educating Congress about why a federal law protecting transgender employees is sorely needed.

New York Times Salutes Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films

By Andrea Adleman, AlterNet
PEEK: Progressive filmmaker making major splash with anti-McCain videos, Sunday NYT reports.

Pentagon Ramps Up Drug War in West Africa

By Chris Nolan, AlterNet
PEEK: Schools of the Africas to replace School of the Americas?

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

L.A. Judge OKs Cops' not Asking Crime Victims, Witnesses About Immigration Status

By Kenneth Kim, New America Media
Rights and Liberties: Pragmatism prevails amid anti-immigrant fervor.

Would President Obama Keep Bush's Secretary of Defense?

By Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation
Election 2008: Raising eyebrows over his Iraq approach, a new report suggests Obama could recruit none other than Robert Gates if he becomes commander-in-chief.

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