Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Journalism:
Eric W. Dolan: Glenn Greenwald: The New York Times ‘helped to kill journalism as a potent force for checking power’
"Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald appeared Monday on Democracy Now to discuss his latest project, a new media startup funded by billionaire philanthropist Pierre Omidyar. Greenwald said the new media outfit would practice 'adversarial journalism' and seek to challenge the powerful. He contrasted his view of journalism with the journalism of the New York Times, which he described as more traditional. Greenwald recently debated the 'future of news' with former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, who currently serves as a full-time writer for the newspaper..."
Russell Scott: There Aren’t Any Real Journalists in America Anymore w/ Greg Palast
"Greg Palast talks candidly about the state of journalism in America and Senate Bill 987; The Free Flow of Information Act..."
The National Surveillance State:
James Ball: NSA Monitored Calls of 35 World Leaders After US Official Handed Over Contacts
"The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden..."
Demand Progress: The NSA's Least Favorite Video (5 min.)
Law Enforcement Squashing Dissent:
Rod Bastanmehr: UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop Awarded $38,000 in Workers Comp
"The former University of California Davis police lieutenant who was caught on video brutally pepper-spraying a line of peaceful protestors in 2011 during the Occupy protests was awarded a sum of $38,000 in workman’s compensation in a settlement with the university last week..."
The Banksters Who Wrecked The Economy:
Landon Thomas Jr.: Jury Finds Bank of America Liable in Mortgage Case
"Bank of America, one of the nation’s largest banks, was found liable on Wednesday of having sold defective mortgages, a jury decision that will be seen as a victory for the government in its aggressive effort to hold banks accountable for their role in the housing crisis..."
Eric W. Dolan: Glenn Greenwald: The New York Times ‘helped to kill journalism as a potent force for checking power’
"Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald appeared Monday on Democracy Now to discuss his latest project, a new media startup funded by billionaire philanthropist Pierre Omidyar. Greenwald said the new media outfit would practice 'adversarial journalism' and seek to challenge the powerful. He contrasted his view of journalism with the journalism of the New York Times, which he described as more traditional. Greenwald recently debated the 'future of news' with former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, who currently serves as a full-time writer for the newspaper..."
Russell Scott: There Aren’t Any Real Journalists in America Anymore w/ Greg Palast
"Greg Palast talks candidly about the state of journalism in America and Senate Bill 987; The Free Flow of Information Act..."
The National Surveillance State:
James Ball: NSA Monitored Calls of 35 World Leaders After US Official Handed Over Contacts
"The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden..."
Demand Progress: The NSA's Least Favorite Video (5 min.)
Law Enforcement Squashing Dissent:
Rod Bastanmehr: UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop Awarded $38,000 in Workers Comp
"The former University of California Davis police lieutenant who was caught on video brutally pepper-spraying a line of peaceful protestors in 2011 during the Occupy protests was awarded a sum of $38,000 in workman’s compensation in a settlement with the university last week..."
The Banksters Who Wrecked The Economy:
Landon Thomas Jr.: Jury Finds Bank of America Liable in Mortgage Case
"Bank of America, one of the nation’s largest banks, was found liable on Wednesday of having sold defective mortgages, a jury decision that will be seen as a victory for the government in its aggressive effort to hold banks accountable for their role in the housing crisis..."
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Health Care:
Bill Keller: Obamacare: The Rest of the Story
"...Since the Affordable Care Act was signed three years ago, more than 370 innovative medical practices, called accountable care organizations, have sprung up across the country, with 150 more in the works. At these centers, Medicare or private insurers reward doctors financially when their patients require fewer hospital stays, emergency room visits and surgeries — exactly the opposite of what doctors have traditionally been paid to do. The more money the organization saves, the more money its participating providers share. And the best way to save costs (which is, happily, also the best way to keep patients alive) is to catch problems before they explode into emergencies. Thus the accountable care organizations have become the Silicon Valley of preventive care, laboratories of invention driven by the entrepreneurial energy of start-ups. These organizations have invested heavily in information technology so they can crunch patient records to identify those most at risk, those who are overdue for checkups, those who have not been filling their prescriptions and presumably have not been taking their meds. They then deploy new medical SWAT teams — including not just doctors but health coaches, care coordinators, nurse practitioners — to intervene and encourage patients to live healthier lives. Advocates of these reforms like to say that they are transforming medicine from the treatment of disease to the treatment of patients — and ultimately the treatment of populations..."
vlogbrothers: Why Are American Health Care Costs So High? (Video)
Eric Stern: Inside the Fox News lie machine: I fact-checked Sean Hannity on Obamacare
"...re-reported a Fox News segment on Obamacare -- it was appallingly easy to see how it misleads the audience..."
The Environment:
FishOutofWater (DailyKos) - The Kochs Dirty Secret is Out in Chicago
"Detroit found out the Kocks dirty secret first. Now south Chicago knows. What happens in Alberta doesn't stay in Alberta. Petcoke, the dirty high carbon residue of Canadian tar sands refining, fouled Detroit. Detroit ordered the petcoke piles out. Now petcoke piles are covering south Chicago with black dust laced with toxic vanadium. Petcoke, the tar sands residue that is worse for the climate than burning coal, has been piled up near midwest refineries awaiting export to countries that allow it to be burned. Because it's a waste product of oil refining the Kochs sell it for prices cheaper than coal to poor nations willing the accept pollution as a trade off for cheap energy. Petcoke is the carbon cost ignored in the State department analysis that falsely claimed that Keystone XL tar sands oil will not significantly increase greenhouse gas pollution compared with conventional oil..."
Bill Keller: Obamacare: The Rest of the Story
"...Since the Affordable Care Act was signed three years ago, more than 370 innovative medical practices, called accountable care organizations, have sprung up across the country, with 150 more in the works. At these centers, Medicare or private insurers reward doctors financially when their patients require fewer hospital stays, emergency room visits and surgeries — exactly the opposite of what doctors have traditionally been paid to do. The more money the organization saves, the more money its participating providers share. And the best way to save costs (which is, happily, also the best way to keep patients alive) is to catch problems before they explode into emergencies. Thus the accountable care organizations have become the Silicon Valley of preventive care, laboratories of invention driven by the entrepreneurial energy of start-ups. These organizations have invested heavily in information technology so they can crunch patient records to identify those most at risk, those who are overdue for checkups, those who have not been filling their prescriptions and presumably have not been taking their meds. They then deploy new medical SWAT teams — including not just doctors but health coaches, care coordinators, nurse practitioners — to intervene and encourage patients to live healthier lives. Advocates of these reforms like to say that they are transforming medicine from the treatment of disease to the treatment of patients — and ultimately the treatment of populations..."
vlogbrothers: Why Are American Health Care Costs So High? (Video)
Eric Stern: Inside the Fox News lie machine: I fact-checked Sean Hannity on Obamacare
"...re-reported a Fox News segment on Obamacare -- it was appallingly easy to see how it misleads the audience..."
The Environment:
FishOutofWater (DailyKos) - The Kochs Dirty Secret is Out in Chicago
"Detroit found out the Kocks dirty secret first. Now south Chicago knows. What happens in Alberta doesn't stay in Alberta. Petcoke, the dirty high carbon residue of Canadian tar sands refining, fouled Detroit. Detroit ordered the petcoke piles out. Now petcoke piles are covering south Chicago with black dust laced with toxic vanadium. Petcoke, the tar sands residue that is worse for the climate than burning coal, has been piled up near midwest refineries awaiting export to countries that allow it to be burned. Because it's a waste product of oil refining the Kochs sell it for prices cheaper than coal to poor nations willing the accept pollution as a trade off for cheap energy. Petcoke is the carbon cost ignored in the State department analysis that falsely claimed that Keystone XL tar sands oil will not significantly increase greenhouse gas pollution compared with conventional oil..."
Monday, October 07, 2013
This Is What Passes For GOP 'Strategy' These Days:
NY Times: A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning
"Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan. Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed 'blueprint to defunding Obamacare,' signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups. It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government..."
Energy vs The Environment:
Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke Univ.: Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania
"The safe disposal of liquid wastes associated with oil and gas production in the United States is a major challenge given their large volumes and typically high levels of contaminants. In Pennsylvania, oil and gas wastewater is sometimes treated at brine treatment facilities and discharged to local streams. This study examined the water quality and isotopic compositions of discharged effluents, surface waters, and stream sediments associated with a treatment facility site in western Pennsylvania. The elevated levels of chloride and bromide, combined with the strontium, radium, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic compositions of the effluents reflect the composition of Marcellus Shale produced waters. The discharge of the effluent from the treatment facility increased downstream concentrations of chloride and bromide above background levels. Barium and radium were substantially (>90%) reduced in the treated effluents compared to concentrations in Marcellus Shale produced waters. Nonetheless, 226Ra levels in stream sediments (544–8759 Bq/kg) at the point of discharge were 200 times greater than upstream and background sediments (22–44 Bq/kg) and above radioactive waste disposal threshold regulations, posing potential environmental risks of radium bioaccumulation in localized areas of shale gas wastewater disposal."
(Not) Taxing The Rich or Big Businesses:
Joshua Holland, Moyers & Co. - America has low taxes …so why do people feel ripped off?
"Today is the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax, which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on October 3, 1913. To mark the occasion, Moyers & Company caught up with David Cay Johnston, who has probably forgotten more about our tax code than most economic experts ever knew. Johnston won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his comprehensive reporting on taxes and tax avoidance in The New York Times, and then authored a best-selling book on the subject, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else..."
NY Times: A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning
"Shortly after President Obama started his second term, a loose-knit coalition of conservative activists led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III gathered in the capital to plot strategy. Their push to repeal Mr. Obama’s health care law was going nowhere, and they desperately needed a new plan. Out of that session, held one morning in a location the members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed 'blueprint to defunding Obamacare,' signed by Mr. Meese and leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups. It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans — including their cautious leaders — into cutting off financing for the entire federal government..."
Energy vs The Environment:
Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke Univ.: Impacts of Shale Gas Wastewater Disposal on Water Quality in Western Pennsylvania
"The safe disposal of liquid wastes associated with oil and gas production in the United States is a major challenge given their large volumes and typically high levels of contaminants. In Pennsylvania, oil and gas wastewater is sometimes treated at brine treatment facilities and discharged to local streams. This study examined the water quality and isotopic compositions of discharged effluents, surface waters, and stream sediments associated with a treatment facility site in western Pennsylvania. The elevated levels of chloride and bromide, combined with the strontium, radium, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic compositions of the effluents reflect the composition of Marcellus Shale produced waters. The discharge of the effluent from the treatment facility increased downstream concentrations of chloride and bromide above background levels. Barium and radium were substantially (>90%) reduced in the treated effluents compared to concentrations in Marcellus Shale produced waters. Nonetheless, 226Ra levels in stream sediments (544–8759 Bq/kg) at the point of discharge were 200 times greater than upstream and background sediments (22–44 Bq/kg) and above radioactive waste disposal threshold regulations, posing potential environmental risks of radium bioaccumulation in localized areas of shale gas wastewater disposal."
(Not) Taxing The Rich or Big Businesses:
Joshua Holland, Moyers & Co. - America has low taxes …so why do people feel ripped off?
"Today is the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax, which was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on October 3, 1913. To mark the occasion, Moyers & Company caught up with David Cay Johnston, who has probably forgotten more about our tax code than most economic experts ever knew. Johnston won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his comprehensive reporting on taxes and tax avoidance in The New York Times, and then authored a best-selling book on the subject, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else..."
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Domestic Surveillance:
The Guardian (UK) - NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel
"The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals. Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis. The disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacy of US citizens caught in the dragnet. The intelligence community calls this process "minimization", but the memorandum makes clear that the information shared with the Israelis would be in its pre-minimized state. The deal was reached in principle in March 2009, according to the undated memorandum, which lays out the ground rules for the intelligence sharing. The five-page memorandum, termed an agreement between the US and Israeli intelligence agencies 'pertaining to the protection of US persons', repeatedly stresses the constitutional rights of Americans to privacy and the need for Israeli intelligence staff to respect these rights..."
Capitol Politics:
gjohnsit (DailyKos) - The Return of the 19th Century
"A friend once told me that the wealthy elite didn't want to just 'roll back' the New Deal, they wanted to roll back the entire 20th Century. His point was that all the social gains of the 20th Century were granted to us in order to combat global communism, and that with the collapse of communism the wealthy elite are going it take it all back. I didn't fully appreciate his sentiments until recently. The recent upsurge in global piracy seems strange and exotic in today's world, but in fact it is rather appropriate in the full context of national events. Below is a list of trends which show the 21st Century is going to look a lot more like the 19th Century than the 20th Century..."
The Guardian (UK) - NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel
"The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals. Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis. The disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacy of US citizens caught in the dragnet. The intelligence community calls this process "minimization", but the memorandum makes clear that the information shared with the Israelis would be in its pre-minimized state. The deal was reached in principle in March 2009, according to the undated memorandum, which lays out the ground rules for the intelligence sharing. The five-page memorandum, termed an agreement between the US and Israeli intelligence agencies 'pertaining to the protection of US persons', repeatedly stresses the constitutional rights of Americans to privacy and the need for Israeli intelligence staff to respect these rights..."
Capitol Politics:
gjohnsit (DailyKos) - The Return of the 19th Century
"A friend once told me that the wealthy elite didn't want to just 'roll back' the New Deal, they wanted to roll back the entire 20th Century. His point was that all the social gains of the 20th Century were granted to us in order to combat global communism, and that with the collapse of communism the wealthy elite are going it take it all back. I didn't fully appreciate his sentiments until recently. The recent upsurge in global piracy seems strange and exotic in today's world, but in fact it is rather appropriate in the full context of national events. Below is a list of trends which show the 21st Century is going to look a lot more like the 19th Century than the 20th Century..."
