Also Try Archives Budget Deficit Child Heroes Civil Liberties and Security Conservative Views Current Events Lessons Democracy and Corporate Power Democracy and Media Economy Election Reform Immigration Iraq News Presidential Election 2008 Progressive Views Religion and Politics Social Security Swine Flu Terrorism Veterans Game Budget Hero Game (AmericanPublicMedia.org) Provides a game that lets you spend the federal budget over the next 50 years and see the consequences. Lists -Catastrophic Climate Change (Awesome Library) "Our quality of life cannot survive in a world with massive climate change…and massive climate change is very likely unless we aggressively sequester the carbon dioxide (CO2) already in the atmosphere." -Contact Legislators (Congress.org) Provides information on U.S. senators and representatives, committees, state legislators, governors, federal government officials, and judicial members. Multimedia -001 The President's State of the Union Speech (WhiteHouse.gov) Provides the video. 01-12 -01-26-12 A Fact Check on the President's State of the Union Speech (FactCheck.org) "The president’s State of the Union address got the facts right — mostly." 01-12 -01-26-12 A Fact Check on the Republican Response to the State of the Union Speech (FactCheck.org) "The president’s State of the Union address got the facts right — mostly." 01-12 -12-15-11 Editorial: Lowe's and Islamophobia (CNN News) Presents the difference between Muslims and Islamic extremists. 12-11 News -001 Can We Prevent Climate Change? (Newsweek.com) Secretary of Energy Chu: "Right now, the climate scientists feel that if all humans shut off carbon emissions today, it will still glide up by about 1 degree centigrade. In the business-as-usual scenarios, Nicholas Stern says there's a 50 percent chance we may go to 5 degrees centigrade.... And certain tipping points might be triggered. We can adapt to 1 or 2 degrees. More than that, there is no adaptation strategy." "So the big fear is that once the tundra thaws, those microbes wake up, they digest all that carbon. It goes up in the atmosphere. At that point, no matter what humans do, it's out of our control. This is the realization in the last decade that has caused many of us to get very, very concerned. Adaptation at 1 or 2 degrees will be painful, it will cause a lot of hurt and pain, but adaptation at 5 or 6 degrees—I'm terribly frightened that that's catastrophic." 04-09 -001 Check Claims Made by Political Candidates or Their Campaigns (FactCheck.org) "We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding." "FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels." 11-11 -001 Editorial: Gaining Good Governance (New York Times) "A crisis of governability has beset the Western world. It is no accident that the United States, Europe and Japan are simultaneously experiencing political breakdown; globalization is producing a widening gap between what electorates are asking of their governments and what those governments can deliver. The mismatch between the growing demand for good governance and its shrinking supply is one of the gravest challenges facing the West today." "Representative governments have proved far better at distributing benefits than at apportioning sacrifice. Rather than shooting straight about the need for shared belt-tightening, vulnerable politicians have been catering to party bases and campaign donors, failing to make the tough choices needed to restore economic solvency." "In the United States, this crisis of governability is taking the form of a paralyzing polarization. Average household income has fallen by 10 percent over the past decade and the country is now the most unequal in the industrialized world." "In a globalized world, liberal democracies must turn to strategic planning and state-led investment in infrastructure, education and jobs to restore competitiveness, redress inequality and advantage mass publics rather than the party faithful or special interests." 12-11 -001 Editorial: The Global Crisis of Stunting (Time.com) "Stunting, or stunted growth, is the result of chronic nutritional deficiencies. A stunted 5-year-old is four to six inches shorter than a non-stunted peer. But lost height is the least of concerns: a stunted child, for instance, is nearly five times more likely to die from diarrhea than a non-stunted child because of the physiological changes in a stunted body. Stunting is also associated with impaired brain development. A typical stunted brain has fewer cells. The cells themselves are somewhat smaller, and the interconnection between them is more limited. This means lasting impaired functioning, which leads in turn to significantly reduced learning. Considering the severe effects, stunting has received far too little attention for far too long." "Stunting is so common in some areas that it is sometimes mistaken for a genetic heritage, rather than a preventable condition. Just 21 countries straddling the globe account for more than 80% of the problem around the globe. In six countries — Afghanistan, Burundi, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Timor-Leste and Yemen — 50% or more of all children under age 5 suffer from this condition. In Afghanistan, a staggering 59% of children under age 5 are stunted." "How can a community, a nation or a continent ever hope to develop to its full capacity if its children cannot? In all conscience, how can those of us in societies not so afflicted withhold our help to combat stunting in the developing world? We know how to address the problem by providing expectant mothers, newborns and very young children nutrients such as proteins, fat and vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A, iron and zinc." 02-12 -001 How Do We Keep Candidates from Lying Over and Over? (MSNBC News) "Should the candidates be asked: As you prepare for a debate, is part of your preparation to remind yourself, whatever I say, I should play it straight with the American people? Aren't you embarrassed to repeat statements that any 8th-grader could look up in 20 seconds and discover have been proven untrue? Or do you calculate that it's acceptable to twist the facts to win an election?" 01-12 -001 The Obama Administration Changes Birth Control Ruling (CNN News) "Under the new policy to be announced today, women will have free preventive care that includes contraceptive services no matter where she works. The policy also ensures that if a woman works for religious employers with objections to providing contraceptive services as part of its health plan, the religious employer will not be required to provide contraception coverage, but her insurance company will be required to offer contraceptive care free of charge." "The president will also announce that his administration will propose and finalize a new regulation during this transition year to address the religious objections of the nonexempted religious organizations. The new regulation will require insurance companies to cover contraception if the nonexempted religious organization chooses not to." 02-12 -001 The President's State of the Union Speech (Time.com) Provides the text. 01-12 -001 Truth-O-Meter on Barack Obama (PolitiFact.com) Covers Obama's true and false statements. 01-12 -001 Truth-O-Meter on Mitt Romney (PolitiFact.com) Covers Romney's true and false statements. 01-12 -001 Truth-O-Meter on Newt Gingrich (PolitiFact.com) Covers Gingrich's true and false statements. 01-12 -001 Truth-O-Meter on Rick Santorum (PolitiFact.com) Covers Santorum's true and false statements. 01-12 -001 Truth-O-Meter on Ron Paul (PolitiFact.com) Covers Paul's true and false statements. 01-12 -001 What Is an Election Caucus? (Christian Science Monitor) " In the context of presidential politics, a caucus is a gathering of Republicans or Democrats for the purpose of stating a preference for their party’s presidential nomination. In Iowa, a caucus is held in each precinct, which means 1,774 meetings around the state." 12-11 -01-01-12 Peter Larson Shivers for the Homeless (ABC News) "Abdulahi was shocked and touched when she realized that it was a boy who saved her and her children's chances at happiness." " 'I don't know how to explain what he did," she said. "He was just a little boy and it surprised me so much. My God, it's really wonderful. We have a home where my children are safe and healthy and because of Peter I don't have to worry about them. He took a burden off my shoulders, and for my children took them out of a very, very stressful situation and showed them a beautiful world. They're inspired and they talk about Peter all the time, how they want to be good and help like him.' " Also see Child Heroes 12-11 -01-08-12 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Profits Soar (San Francisco Chronicle) "Insurance companies spent millions of dollars trying to defeat the U.S. health care overhaul, saying it would raise costs and disrupt coverage. Instead, profit margins at the companies widened to levels not seen since before the recession, a Bloomberg Government study shows." "Insurers led by WellPoint, the biggest by membership, recorded their highest combined quarterly net income of the past decade after the law was signed in 2010, said Peter Gosselin, the study author and senior health care analyst for Bloomberg Government. The Standard & Poor's 500 managed health care index rose 36 percent in the period, four times more than the S&P 500." 01-12 -01-11-12 HIgh School Student Finds a Possible Cure for Cancer (CBS News) "Angela's idea was to mix cancer medicine in a polymer that would attach to nanoparticles -- nanoparticles that would then attach to cancer cells and show up on an MRI. so doctors could see exactly where the tumors are. Then she thought shat if you aimed an infrared light at the tumors to melt the polymer and release the medicine, thus killing the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells completely unharmed." "It'll take years to know if it works in humans -- but in mice -- the tumors almost completely disappeared." 01-12 -01-11-12 Report: Nuclear Materials Are Not Secure (ABC News) "A new report shows that President Barack Obama is a long way from reaching his goal of locking down the world's nuclear weapons material by next year." 01-12 -01-11-12 Study Ranks Countries on Nuclear Security (New York Times) "Now, for the first time publicly, experts have surveyed the precautions each country has in place and ranked the nations from best to worst. The study is full of surprises and potential embarrassments: for instance, Australia takes first place in nuclear security and Japan comes in at No. 23, behind nations like Kazakhstan and South Africa." "The United States? It tied for 13th place with Belgium. Last place goes to North Korea, a police state that the report finds to be seriously deficient on issues of atomic security." 01-12 -01-14-12 FactCheck.org: Anti-Romney Ad Not Truthful (USA Today) "A 28-minute political documentary released this week by a pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC presents a one-sided, often distorted and misleading view of Mitt Romney's years leading the venture capital firm Bain Capital." 01-12 -01-16-12 National Defense Autorization Act and Civil Rights (Wikipedia.org) "The most controversial provisions to receive wide attention are contained in Title X, Subtitle D, entitled 'Counter-Terrorism.' In particular, sub-sections 1021 and 1022, which deal with detention of persons the government suspects of involvement in terrorism, have generated controversy as to their legal meaning and their potential implications for abuse of Presidential authority." "The American Civil Liberties Union has responded that despite claims by the Obama Administration to the contrary, 'The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision... [without] temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.' " Editor's Note: Among the most basic of human rights is freedom from arbitrary detention. The right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus, to be brought before a judge to determine if your detention was lawful, seems to be suspended by this Act. 01-12 -01-18-12 Mitt Romney Reveals His Personal Tax Rate (New York Times) "As a candidate, Mr. Romney has also advocated for tax policies that would significantly benefit people who, like him, derive most of their income from investments." "Assuming Congress does not act to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, the rate for capital gains income is set to return to 20 percent for the 2013 tax year, while the rate for dividend income will jump to 39.6 percent. But in his economic plan, Mr. Romney calls for making permanent the Bush-era tax cuts on capital gains and dividend income, keeping them both at the current rate of 15 percent." 01-12 -01-18-12 Study: Stimulus Money Kept Americans Off the Streets (CNN News) "Federal aid helped many cash-strapped Americans keep a roof over their heads during the prolonged economic slump, but the number of people living a step away from the streets has grown sharply, researchers reported Wednesday." 01-12 -01-20-12 Editorial: The Most Important Number in Politics (Time.com) "Hibbs model has successfully predicted each election since 1952 to within 2.5 percentage points, with the exception of two misses: 1996, when Hibbs model predicted a bigger Clinton win, and 2000, when Hibbs model predicted a bigger popular vote win by Al Gore. Political scientists generally agree that campaigns do matter–though they tend to cancel each other out–and that other factors like party identification, ideology and policy also affect the final vote. But the biggest single factor in moving the polls, presidential approval and the vote, in a time of general peace, is almost surely economic performance. And Barack Obama is short on time to put some better numbers on the board." 01-12 -01-22-12 Election 2012 Coverage (CBS News) Provides news on the 2012 election." 01-12 -01-22-12 Election 2012 Coverage (CNN News) Provides news on the 2012 election. Also try Presidential Election 2012. 01-12 -01-22-12 Election 2012 Coverage (Politico News) Provides news on the 2012 election, including polls, news by candidate, editorials, and a calendar. Also try Presidential Election 2012. 01-12 -01-22-12 The Working Poor and a Living Wage (Truth-Out.org) "Millions of people in the US work and are still poor. Here are eight points that show why the US needs to dedicate itself to making work pay." "In 2011, the US Department of Labor reported at least 10 million people worked and were still below the unrealistic official US poverty line, an increase of 1.5 million more than the last time they checked. The US poverty line is $18,530 for a mom and two kids. Since 2007 the numbers of working poor have been increasing. About 7 percent of all workers and 4 percent of all full-time workers earn wages that leave them below the poverty line." 01-12 -01-25-12 Editorial: Did Obama Make Government Bigger? (CNN News) "Government spending as a share of the economy has hovered around 24% during the Obama administration, several percentage points higher than under President Bush, according to Congressional Budget Office data. It's also elevated from the historical average of 20.7% over the past 40 years." "Much of that increase has come from mandatory spending, including Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. Those programs have expanded mostly because of the recession, which has prompted more people to apply for Medicaid and Social Security, as well as the growth in people hitting retirement age." "Many safety net programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps, automatically expand during economic downturns. And in the face of prolonged high jobless rates, Congress has authorized extending federal unemployment benefits to a record 99 weeks. The initial extension was passed under President Bush." "The federal payroll has been expanding since President Bush took office, after declining during the Clinton administration. But it's still a tad smaller than it was in 1992, said Craig Jennings, a federal budget expert at the progressive think tank OMB Watch." 01-12 -01-25-12 Editorial: Gingrich's Tax Plan (CNN News) "According a new analysis, Gingrich's tax plan would reduce government revenue by a staggering $1.3 trillion -- or 35% -- in 2015, the first year the plan could be fully implemented." "For businesses, Gingrich wants to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 12.5% -- a move that would take the rate from one of the highest in the industrialized world to one of the lowest." "All those tax cuts mean the federal government would take in much less money. In order to balance the budget -- or get even remotely close -- government spending would have to be slashed by huge amounts." "The highest-income individuals would see the greatest benefit. A full 99.9% of Americans with more than $1 million in income would get a tax cut. The average savings: $613,000, for an after-tax income boost of 28.7%." 01-12 -01-25-12 Editorial: Romney Fails to Provide Details (CNN News) "Romney wants Americans to pay lower income taxes, but hasn't said what the new rates will be, what the bracket structure will look like, or when he wants them to take effect." "He wants to cut government spending to 20% of GDP, but is cloudy on exactly how that will happen." "And his economic plan barely even mentions housing -- one of the economy's biggest drags." 01-12 -01-26-12 Apple's $100 Billion Cash Surplus (Time.com) "When Apple reported its blowout financial results this week, it disclosed an amazing fact: The company is now sitting on $97.6 billion in cash." 01-12 -01-26-12 Apple's Outsourcing (Time.com) "Although outsourcing and the consequent demise of the U.S. manufacturing sector is a perennially hot political issue, the economics of globalization suggest that U.S. jobs lost to cheaper overseas competition won’t be coming back." 01-12 -01-26-12 Expenditures and Donations by Candidate (OpenSecrets.org) Provides information on contributions and expenditures by candidate. 01-12 -01-26-12 Poll: Majority Would Vote All of Congress Out (MSNBC News) "In a country sharply divided on almost every issue, most Americans agree on one thing: they don’t like Congress, and they would vote to replace every single member -- even their own -- if they had the option." 01-12 -01-27-12 Another Administration-Backed Energy Company Goes Bankrupt (CBS News) "An Energy Department spokeswoman said EnerDel had received $55 million so far under a program in which EnerDel matches federal investment dollar-for-dollar. Ener1 said in a statement that the restructuring would not affect EnerDel's operations. The company makes lithium-ion batteries for electric cars such as the Chevrolet Volt." "A CBS News investigation found earlier this month that a dozen green-energy companies - which in total received at least $6.5 billion in stimulus money from the federal government - have filed for bankruptcy protection." 01-12 -01-28-12 Study: CEOs Sometimes Do Well When Companies Go Bankrupt (MSNBC News) "When companies go bankrupt, the misery is shared among many: Bond holders are wiped out, retirees see their pensions and benefits vanish, and employees lose their jobs." "But some feel no pain at all: CEOs and other top executives of companies that go through Chapter 11 receive robust compensation in the form of salary, stock grants and other benefits." "In some cases, they earn even more money than they did before the filing, even while other stakeholders suffer. It's the most unlikely fast-track to a fat payout ever, and it goes on in spite of federal legislation meant to crack down on corporate honchos feasting while everyone else fights over crumbs." 01-12 -01-30-12 "Trickle Down" Economics and Taxing the Rich (HowStuffWorks.com) "During church services on Sunday, Catholics around the country were read a blistering letter assailing the Obama administration for an 'assault on religious liberty' in the form of a coming requirement that most church-linked organizations - among them hospitals, schools and universities - offer birth control coverage as part of their health care plans." 01-12 -01-30-12 Catholic Churches Take a Strong Anti-Contraception Position (CBS News) "During church services on Sunday, Catholics around the country were read a blistering letter assailing the Obama administration for an 'assault on religious liberty' in the form of a coming requirement that most church-linked organizations - among them hospitals, schools and universities - offer birth control coverage as part of their health care plans." 01-12 -01-31-12 Housing Prices Fall in November (CNN News) "Home prices posted a steep, month-over-month drop in November, falling 1.3%, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city report. Prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities the index covers." 01-12 -01-31-12 Romney Wins Decisive Victory in Florida (Time.com) "Mitt Romney routed Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary Tuesday night, rebounding from the previous week's defeat with a commanding victory and taking a major step toward the Republican presidential nomination. Despite the one-sided setback, Gingrich vowed to press on." 01-12 -01-31-12 The Coming U.S.-China Solar Panel Contest (Time.com) "It's been a schizophrenic time for the U.S. solar industry. On the one hand, about $11 billion worth of solar power is set to be installed in 2012, with more than five times that figure in the investment pipeline. Demand for solar power rose eightfold between 2006 and 2011 — from 200 MW to 1,600 MW. Nationally, the solar industry employs some 100,000 Americans, a number that rose by nearly 7% last year — even as overall employment barely grew at all." "Despite those rosy numbers, many U.S. solar companies — especially those that manufacture solar panels and modules — are struggling to survive. Most notably, the solar start-up Solyndra went under in 2011, taking with it over $500 million in government loan guarantees. The Bloomberg Large Solar Energy Index of 17 top solar companies lost more than two-thirds of its value in 2011." 01-12 -02-01-12 A Good Way to Start Your Day (Time.com) "So what would our mornings look like if we re-engineered them in the interest of maximizing our creative problem-solving capacities? We’d set the alarm a few minutes early and lie awake in bed, following our thoughts where they lead (with a pen and paper nearby to jot down any evanescent inspirations.) We’d stand a little longer under the warm water of the shower, dismissing task-oriented thoughts (“What will I say at that 9 a.m. meeting?”) in favor of a few more minutes of mental dilation. We’d take some deep breaths during our commute, instead of succumbing to road rage. And once in the office — after we get that cup of coffee — we’d direct our computer browser not to the news of the day but to the funniest videos the web has to offer." "For decades, psychologists have manipulated the emotions of subjects in the lab by showing them short film clips. But now there’s YouTube — and, in fact, the clip that made the participants in Ruby Nadler’s study happiest of all was a YouTube video of a laughing baby. Laughing babies and a double latte: now that’s a way to start the day." 02-12 -02-01-12 Editorial: Could Birth Control Be Illegal Again? (Time.com) "The right to use contraception seems so obvious that it is startling to realize that not that long ago even married couples could be arrested for using it. In 1965, the Supreme Court overturned a doctor’s conviction for helping married couples obtain birth control. It was not until 1972 that the Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts law making it illegal to distribute birth control to single people." "Americans have been fighting for decades over abortion, but a new battle has been raging lately — and it’s one with a distinctly retro feel. This time, the war is over birth control: whether insurance companies or government should have to pay for it — and yes, even whether it should be legal." 02-12 -02-01-12 Editorial: Gingrich's Claim of a "War on Religion" (Time.com) "As ever, Newt Gingrich minced no words. 'I understand that there’s a war against religion,' Gingrich told the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody last week, 'and I am prepared to actually fight back.' In the same conversation, Gingrich claimed that most journalists simply could not understand people of faith given the media’s purported secularism. And so Gingrich’s 'war' goes on." "The nonbelieving, not the believing, are the ones who should feel outnumbered. According to Gallup, 78% of American adults identify with some form of Christian religion. Jews make up less than 2%; Muslims form 1%; and 15% say their 'religious preference' is 'none/atheist/agnostic.' Ninety-five percent of Americans who say they are religious are thus Christians. The President of the United States routinely invokes God’s blessing on the nation. Washington and state and county and city buildings throughout the country use religious imagery. We open our congressional sessions and our inaugurations with prayers; chaplains receive publicly funded salaries. The pagans, therefore, are not exactly at the gates." "It is true that traditional Christianity is losing some of its appeal among Americans, but that is a religious, not political, matter. It is worth remembering that the Jeffersonian 'wall of separation' between church and state has always been intended to protect the church from the state as much as the state from the church. And evangelism is about winning souls more than it is about winning votes. For many serious believers, that’s the real war. And it’s not the one Gingrich thinks is unfolding." 02-12 -02-01-12 Syrian Soldier Defects and Tells His Story (New York Times) "Ammar Cheikh Omar recalled the first time he was ordered to shoot into a crowd of protesters in Syria. He aimed his AK-47 just above their heads, prayed to God not to make him a killer and pulled the trigger." 02-12 -02-02-12 Congress Passes the Stock Act (CNN News) "Aiming to restore voters' faith in Congress, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday that makes clear it's illegal for members of Congress, their staffs and many executive-branch employees to trade stocks and other securities based on inside information learned on the job." 02-12 -02-02-12 Facebook Goes Public (New York Times) "The social network company announced its $5 billion public offering Wednesday afternoon, which is expected to value the whole company at $75 billion to $100 billion. Ultimately, that offering will mint a lot of billionaires and millionaires." 02-12 -02-02-12 Insurance Companies Required to Disclose Climate-Change Response Plans (New York Times) "Insurance commissioners in California, New York and Washington State will require that companies disclose how they intend to respond to the risks their businesses and customers face from increasingly severe storms and wildfires, rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change, California’s commissioner said Wednesday." "Last year’s level of natural disasters was unprecedented, according to an August report by the A. M. Best Company, which rates the financial strength of insurers. By late June, the estimated $27 billion in losses suffered by the American industry exceeded the 2010 total." 02-12 -02-03-12 Komen Apologizes for Withdrawing Funds from Planned Parenthood (Time.com) "Now that the most eminent breast-cancer advocacy group in the nation has apologized for its decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood, it’s worth looking at what went wrong. The backlash was not just grassroots and viral but reached the most senior levels. All seven California affiliates of Komen opposed the decision and Dr. Kathy Plesser, a member of Komen’s scientific advisory board, threatened to resign if they did not reverse it." 02-12 -02-03-12 Unemployment Down (Time.com) "Some Obama opponents are struggling to find a cloud in the silver lining of January’s jobs numbers, which estimated that there was a 243,000-job boost and a big drop in the unemployment rate, from 8.5% to 8.3%, last month." "And when it comes to labor force estimates, the steep jump in the number of those not seeking work came entirely from the census adjustment, which added 1.25 million people to that group. If you take out the census adjustment, the labor force numbers stayed essentially the same, as reflected by the labor force participation rate of 63.7%. In other words, the spike in the number of people no longer looking for work is entirely the result of some people at the Labor Department adding numbers to their spread sheets rather than an actual observed shift anywhere in the real economy." 02-12 -02-04-12 Editorial: A Short History of Taxes (RollingStone.com) "After taking office, Clinton immediately seized the mantle of fiscal discipline from Republicans. Rather than simply trimming the federal deficit, as his GOP predecessors had done, he set out to balance the budget and begin paying down the national debt. To do so, he hiked the top tax bracket to nearly 40 percent and boosted the corporate tax rate to 35 percent. 'It cost him both houses of Congress in the 1994 midterm elections,' says Chafee, the former GOP senator. 'But taming the deficit led to the best economy America's ever had.' Following the tax hikes of 1993, the economy grew at a brisk clip of 3.2 percent, creating more than 11 million jobs. Average wages ticked up, and stocks soared by 78 percent. By the spring of 1997, the federal budget was headed into the black." 02-12 -02-05-12 How President Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football (CNN News) "A persuasive argument can be made that, were it not for what Roosevelt did during a meeting in the White House toward the end of 1905, football as we know it today would not be a part of American life. There never would have been a National Football League -- at least not the wildly popular NFL that has become such a sports, business and cultural institution -- and Americans would almost certainly be spending Super Bowl Sunday in a completely different way." 02-12 -02-05-12 Obama Team Defends Birth Control Policy (USA Today) "The Obama administration is defending a policy requiring religious-affiliated employers to cover birth control through its insurance policies." 02-12 -02-06-12 Billionaires Contribute Heavily to Super Pacs (CBS News) "Sixteen billionaires on the 'Forbes 400,' the business magazine's list of the richest Americans have given to 'super PACs,' according to a CBS NEWS review of the 2011 fundraising reports disclosed to the Federal Election Commission." 02-12 -02-06-12 Editorial: Is Business Paying Its Fair Share of Taxes (Time.com) "As the nation frets over slow growth and large budget deficits, much has been made over how much Americas are and should be paying in income tax. President Obama and Democrats have argued that the wealthiest among us are not paying their fair share. They say the spoils of the globalization and the internet revolution have gone almost exclusively to the very wealthy, and that, in times of crisis, more should be asked of those who can afford to give. Those on the right counter that the wealthy pay their fair share and, more, that the top one percent pay a huge percentage of federal income tax receipts." "But there is another source of federal revenues that receives less attention: corporate income taxes. According to the Wall Street Journal’s recent study of Congressional Budget Office numbers, corporations are paying an effective rate of 12.1%, the lowest in at least 40 years. So why are some of the biggest and most powerful entities in our society getting away with paying so little? The story is complicated, but the biggest factor in the recent collapse in corporate tax receipts appears to be a set of tax breaks built into recent stimulus efforts." 02-12 -02-06-12 Editorial: Wealth and Suffering (CBS News) "A few days ago when I opened the newspaper the news was so strange that it made my head spin." "There was so much spectacular randomly-acquired wealth and so much misery right next to each other that I couldn't fit it all into my brain." 02-12 -02-07-12 House and Senate Stalled on Medicare Payments (New York Times) "House and Senate negotiators are deadlocked over how to prevent a deep cut in Medicare payments to doctors who treat millions of Medicare beneficiaries, an impasse that could threaten broader legislation on a payroll tax cut." "In the absence of agreement, doctors’ fees will be cut 27 percent next month, and many doctors say they could not continue treating Medicare patients under the lower payments." 02-12 -02-07-12 Santorum Wins in Minnesota and Missouri (New York Times) "His candidacy all but dismissed just days ago, Rick Santorum won the Minnesota caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri on Tuesday, raising fresh questions about Mitt Romney’s ability to corral conservative support." "Mr. Santorum was also running strongly in Colorado, a state Mr. Romney captured four years before." 02-12 -02-08-12 The Obama Administration Birth Control Ruling (Huffington Post) "U.S. Catholic bishops have slammed the Obama administration for a regulation finalized on January 20 that would require health insurance to include birth control and other preventative health services for women. The leaders contend the policy infringes on religious liberty because the church does not condone birth control of any kind." "Over the weekend, Catholic clergy across the country called for congregations to pressure Obama to back down." "The controversy centers on a provision in the 2010 healthcare bill which requires health insurance to cover basic preventative services for women. An advisory group, the Institute of Medicine, had recommended covering a fuller range of contraceptive services to help prevent unwanted pregnancies." "Susan Wood, a health professor at George Washington University's Jacobs Institute of Women's Health who backs birth control, said religious groups should have no more control over what employees do with their insurance than with their salaries." " 'This is an employee benefit issue. This is not the Catholic Church having to provide a service directly. No Catholic hospital is going to be required to write a prescription or provide a pack of pills.' " "Two polls released by Planned Parenthood, which provides birth control and reproductive services, showed the majority of voters, including Catholics, support contraceptive coverage." 02-12 -12-01-11 An Activist Stands Her Ground in Bahrain (New York Times) "During a protest in Bahrain on Saturday, an American journalist named Matthew Cassel reported on Twitter that he had just witnessed something remarkable: a lone female protester who refused to move as police officers in riot gear charged past her, firing tear gas shells just a few feet from her head." 12-11 -12-01-11 Arctic Getting Worse: A Tipping Point? (CBS News) "A new report card from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rates the polar region with blazing red stop lights on three of five categories and yellow cautions for the other two. Overall, these are not good grades, but it doesn't mean the Arctic is doomed and it still will freeze in the winter, said report co-editor Jackie Richter-Menge." "The Arctic acts as Earth's refrigerator, cooling the planet. What's happening, scientists said, is like someone pushing the fridge's thermostat much too high." " 'We've got a new normal,' said co-author Don Perovich, a geophysicist at the Army Corps of Engineers Cold Research and Engineering Lab. 'Whether it's a tipping point and we'll never recover, who's to say?' " 12-11 -12-01-11 Bono Extols U.S. Leadership on AIDS (Time.com) "Bono spoke glowingly about the United States' leadership in the fight against AIDS, calling this country's efforts the 'greatest heroic act since America jumped into the Second World War.' It is an 'extraordinary thing that the United States has done, which is in the war against this tiny little virus, which has caused so much destruction and heartache, American leadership has been the turning point,' Bono says, mustering all the Irish charm that propelled U2 through decades of rock stardom. 'Five million lives have been saved around the world because of American leadership.' " Also try: HIV and AIDS. 12-11 -12-01-11 Chevy Volt Tops Consumer Ratings (CBS News) "The electric Chevrolet Volt may be prompting worries about battery fires after crashes, but the people who already own Volts love them. Volt topped all models in the owner satisfaction survey released today by Consumer Reports." "A whopping 93 percent of Volt owners said they would definitely buy the car again, edging out sporty contenders Dodge Challenger and Porsche 911, each with a 91 percent buy-again rating." 12-11 -12-01-11 Deputies Refuse to Evict 103-Year-Old Woman (MSNBC News) "A 103-year-old woman and her 83-year-old daughter got a last-minute eviction reprieve when sheriff's deputies and movers decided they couldn’t uproot the women from their longtime Atlanta home." 12-11 -12-01-11 Editorial: Gingrich Is "My Man" (New York Times) "Franker than ever as he announced plans to retire from Congress, Barney Frank told Abby Goodnough in The Times that Gingrich was 'the single biggest factor' in destroying a Washington culture where the two parties respected each other’s differing views yet still worked together." "Maybe the ideal man to fix Washington’s dysfunction is the one who made it dysfunctional. He broke it so he should own it. " 12-11 -12-01-11 Editorial: Gingrich Reveals How He Would Do It (CBS News) "Newt Gingrich is the only candidate who talks about how he would actually enact some of the promises he makes and the changes he would bring to the office of the presidency. Whether you agree with him or not, this is a useful and laudable thing. Candidates should be able to show that they have some concept of how to engage the massively complex organization they hope to take hold of. This would tell us something about them, and force those of us casting votes to be more realistic about what presidents can accomplish." 12-11 -12-01-11 Senate Approves Defense Budget (Time.com) "Ignoring a presidential veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a massive, $662 billion defense bill that would require the military to hold suspected terrorists linked to al-Qaida or its affiliates, even those captured on U.S. soil." 12-11 -12-01-11 Syria Now in Civil War (CBS News) "The U.N.'s top human rights official says Syria is now in a state of civil war with more than 4,000 people killed.” "Syrian President Bashar Assad has been trying to crush an 8-month-old revolt against his autocratic rule." 12-11 -12-01-11 The Occupy Expression "99 Percent" Still Stands (New York Times) "Whatever the long-term effects of the Occupy movement, protesters have succeeded in implanting “We are the 99 percent,” referring to the vast majority of Americans (and its implied opposite, “You are the one percent” referring to the tiny proportion of Americans with a vastly disproportionate share of wealth), into the cultural and political lexicon." 12-11 -12-02-11 Islamists Dominate in Egyptian Election (Time.com) "The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's political mainstream, and its most significant challengers are the more extreme Islamists of the Salafi movement rather than the secular liberal forces that dominate the Tahrir Square protest movement. That appears to be the not-exactly-surprising verdict of the electorate, according to reports from the first two days of voting in Egypt's protracted parliamentary election." "The Muslim Brotherhood is Egypt's political mainstream, and its most significant challengers are the more extreme Islamists of the Salafi movement rather than the secular liberal forces that dominate the Tahrir Square protest movement. That appears to be the not-exactly-surprising verdict of the electorate, according to reports from the first two days of voting in Egypt's protracted parliamentary election." "The official announcement of results from the nine (out of a total of 27) provinces has been delayed until Friday or Saturday, but the New York Times reports that the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party looks to have garnered some 40% of the vote, while a further 25% could go to the even more conservative Salafist al-Nour party. Despite the apparent Islamist majority, Brotherhood leaders hastened to reassure Egyptians Thursday that they have no intention of seeking a coalition with the Salafists, seeing secular parties as the more natural ally for their vision of a democratic Egypt. If anything, the Islamists' share of the vote is more likely to grow than shrink, considering that the electoral districts that voted this week were the most urban, middle class and liberal." 12-11 -12-02-11 Unemployment Falls Sharply (BBC News) "The US unemployment rate dropped sharply to 8.6% in November, its lowest level in two-and-a-half years, from 9% the month before, official figures show." 12-11 -12-04-11 Editorial: $7.7 Trillion Provided to Wall Street (Truth-Out.org) "They were funneling $7.7 trillion to Wall Street under the table - without one constituent phone call - without worrying about one election - without having to give one explanation." "They were able to do that because they're members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors - a group of people who are not voted into office, but have the power to completely dictate monetary policy in America." "Or - to put it in today's terms - the interests of the 99 percent rarely line up with the interests of the 1 percent. That's why - back in 2008 - the technocrats at the Fed weren't interested in waiting for Congress - with all of its open debate and constituent services - to bail out the banks - they just went ahead and did it themselves. According to documents obtained by Bloomberg News - in 2009 - the Fed dished out $7.7 trillion in no-strings-attached, super-low interest loans to Wall Street's biggest players." "That's more than half of the total value of EVERYTHING - every single thing produced in America - that same year." "As the world descends into financial turmoil on fears that the Euro zone may collapse, it's the technocrats who are taking power - replacing elected officials." "Only when the Federal Reserve becomes an instrument of the people to calm the mood swings of the market - and not a piggy bank for transnational banking corporations - can we really protect ourselves from a technocratic takeover in the future. And the way to do it is pretty straightforward - it was Alexander Hamilton's idea back in the George Washington administration. Have the central bank owned by the US government and run by the Treasury Department, so all the profits from banking go directly into the Treasury and you and I pay less in taxes while the banksters on Wall Street can find a job at Wal-Mart." 12-11 -12-04-11 Record Jump in Carbon Emissions (New York Times) "Emissions rose 5.9 percent in 2010, according to an analysis released Sunday by the Global Carbon Project, an international collaboration of scientists tracking the numbers. Scientists with the group said the increase, a half-billion extra tons of carbon pumped into the air, was almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution, and the largest percentage increase since 2003." "The increase solidified a trend of ever-rising emissions that scientists fear will make it difficult, if not impossible, to forestall severe climate change in coming decades." "The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions, the report found." 12-11 -12-06-11 Editorial: The "Strange Doings on Earth" (Truth-Out.org) "The IEA [International Energy Agency] estimated that if the world continues on its present course, the 'carbon budget' will be exhausted by 2017. The budget is the quantity of emissions that can keep global warming at the 2 degrees Celsius level considered the limit of safety." "Also last month, the U.S. Department of Energy reported the emissions figures for 2010. Emissions 'jumped by the biggest amount on record,' The Associated Press reported, meaning that 'levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst-case scenario' anticipated by the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007." 12-11 -12-07-11 Wheeler, Rachael: Builder of Homes in Haiti (MSNBC News) "The 12-year-old Florida resident has done more to aid others than many grown-ups do in a lifetime." "Three years ago, when she was only nine, Rachel tagged along with her mother to a very adult meeting about charity work in Haiti. She listened as Robin Mahfood, from the aid agency Food For The Poor, describe children so hungry that they eat cookies made of mud, so poor that they sleep in houses made of cardboard." 12-11 -12-09-11 Editorial: Gas Fracking "Likely" Polluted Ground Water (Time.com) "EPA constructed two deep monitoring wells to sample water in the [Pavilion, Wyoming] aquifer. The draft report indicates that ground water in the aquifer contains compounds likely associated with gas production practices, including hydraulic fracturing. EPA also re-tested private and public drinking water wells in the community. The samples were consistent with chemicals identified in earlier EPA results released in 2010 and are generally below established health and safety standards." "Personally, I still feel the way I did when I wrote TIME’s cover story on fracking last year: shale gas is a potentially very valuable resource for the U.S., one that could help us reduce air pollution and carbon emissions by replacing dirty coal generation. But there are still major questions about the environmental effects of shale gas drilling and fracking—especially as it scales up and moves to more crowded parts of the country. The EPA’s draft study in Pavilion only underscores those concerns—and shows why many Americans are still hesitant to embrace the fracking revolution." 12-11 -12-09-11 Editorial: Why Rick Perry's New Ads on Religion Are Wrong (Time.com) "Let’s start with Perry’s statement that he’s not ashamed to 'admit' that he’s a Christian. We’ll set aside the suggestion that there is typically some barrier that discourages politicians from being open about their religious affiliation, because that’s clearly absurd. The more relevant charge underlying Perry’s remark is that Barack Obama won’t talk about his faith. Anyone who has paid attention to Obama’s speeches and language would have to concede that the charge is false. Obama’s remarks at the White House Easter prayer breakfast this year–in which he spoke of Jesus’ 'unfathomable gift of grace and salvation through his death and resurrection'–are arguably the most explicitly Christian that any President has uttered at an official White House event." "In fact, Obama has confounded conservative expectations by retaining and expanding the faith-based initiative started by George W. Bush. His refusal to overturn the executive order allowing faith-based organizations to discriminate in hiring for positions paid for by government funding has frustrated and infuriated his supporters on the left." "It would be easy to dismiss Perry’s message as just a typical appeal to social conservatives or the desperate strategy of a candidate who may have slipped out of contention. But this is new. The casualness with which Perry tosses off the charge about 'Obama’s war on religion' is at odds with how corrosive the accusation really is." 12-11 -12-11-11 After the Climate Conference, Still Grave Danger (Time.com) "The hard-fought deal at a global climate conference in South Africa keeps talks alive but doesn't address the core problem: The world's biggest carbon polluters aren't willing to cut emissions of greenhouse gases enough to stave off dangerous levels of global warming." "Figures from the U.N. weather agency show the three most powerful greenhouse gases reached record levels last year and were increasing at an ever-faster rate." "And the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the total heat-trapping force from major greenhouse gases has increased 29 percent since 1990, the benchmark year in the climate talks. 12-11 -12-11-11 Web of Prisons for Terrorism Inmates (New York Times) "Today, 171 prisoners remain at Guantánamo. As of Oct. 1, the federal Bureau of Prisons reported that it was holding 362 people convicted in terrorism-related cases, 269 with what the bureau calls a connection to international terrorism — up from just 50 in 2000. An additional 93 inmates have a connection to domestic terrorism." 12-11 -12-12-11 Iran Gains U.S. Drone (Time.com) "U.S. experts are split on whether or not Iran actually has the drone – one of which the U.S. has publicly acknowledged went missing while flying over western Afghanistan, without specifying what kind of drone it was." "While U.S. officials considered destroying the drone, one said, the government elected not to take that action. That suggests, he says, that Washington was not as concerned about the drone falling into Iranian hands as some commentators have suggested." 12-11 -12-14-11 Chinese Village in Standoff (The Wall Street Journal) "A fishing village of about 20,000 people in southern China is in open revolt against the local government after it announced the death in police custody of a villager who had led protests over an alleged land grab, according to local people." 12-11 -12-14-11 Fewer Marriages Now (USA Today) "The most dramatic decline in marriage has occurred among adults ages 18 to 29. Just 20 percent of them were married last year, compared with 59 percent in 1960." "The median age at first marriage is also at its highest -- 26.5 years for women and 28.7 years for men -- and over the past 50 years has risen by about six years for both women and men." 12-11 -12-14-11 Post-War Iraq: A Shiite Nation (MSNBC News) "Regardless of President Bush’s intent in waging this war, what it wound up doing is replacing a dictator with a Shiite-run state that is close to Iran. This could not have been the plan." 12-11 -12-14-11 White House OKs Indefinite Military Detention (CBS News) "The White House is signing off on a controversial new law that would authorize the U.S. military to arrest and indefinitely detain alleged al Qaeda members or other terrorist operatives captured on American soil." "While the bill never expanded the authority to detain American citizens indefinitely without charges, proponents said the legislation would codify court decisions finding the President does have the authority to declare 'enemy combatants,' as commander-in-chief and under the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force against al Qaeda and its allies." " 'By signing this defense spending bill, President Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in U.S. law,' said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. 'In the past, Obama has lauded the importance of being on the right side of history, but today he is definitely on the wrong side.' " 12-11 -12-15-11 Church Leaders Join "Occupy" Movement (CNN News) "A group of African-American church leaders announced Wednesday their intention to join ranks with the Occupy movement in the nation's capital, bolstering what some consider a mutual message of condemning income inequality and social injustice." 12-11 -12-15-11 Constitutional Amendment Proposed to Prevent Corporate Influence in Elections (TheOccupiedAmendment) "The Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining the Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED) Amendment is a constitutional amendment introduced by Congressman Ted Deutch of Florida’s 19th district." 12-11 -12-15-11 Federal Government Shutdown Avoided (MSNBC News) "Congressional negotiators reached agreement Thursday on a compromise spending bill to avert a weekend federal shutdown. They also worked toward a deal renewing the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for another year but prepared a shorter version as a fallback." 12-11 -12-15-11 Half of Americans Are Now Low Income or Poverty Level (U.S. News) "About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure." 12-11 -12-15-11 Justice Department: Arizona Sheriff Guilty of Racial Profiling (MSNBC News) "The U.S. government said Thursday that the man who called himself the toughest sheriff in America ran an office that has committed wide-ranging civil rights violations against Latinos, including a pattern of racial profiling and heavy-handed immigration patrols based on racially charged complaints." "The U.S. Justice Department's expert on measuring racial profiling called it the most egregious case he has seen, the department's civil rights division chief told reporters." 12-11 -12-15-11 Time's Greatest Toys (Time.com) Time editors describe their list of 100 greatest toys. 12-11 -12-15-11 U.S. Officially Ends War in Iraq (New York Times) "Almost nine years after the first American tanks began massing on the Iraq border, the Pentagon declared an official end to its mission here, closing a troubled conflict that helped reshape American politics and left a bitter legacy of anti-American sentiment across the Muslim world." 12-11 -12-17-11 Editorial: Crippling the Right to Organize (New York Times) "UNLESS something changes in Washington, American workers will, on New Year’s Day, effectively lose their right to be represented by a union. Two of the five seats on the National Labor Relations Board, which protects collective bargaining, are vacant, and on Dec. 31, the term of Craig Becker, a labor lawyer whom President Obama named to the board last year through a recess appointment, will expire. Without a quorum, the Supreme Court ruled last year, the board cannot decide cases." "Workers illegally fired for union organizing won’t be reinstated with back pay. Employers will be able to get away with interfering with union elections. Perhaps most important, employers won’t have to recognize unions despite a majority vote by workers. Without the board to enforce labor law, most companies will not voluntarily deal with unions." 12-11 -12-17-11 How to Ask for More Money at Work (Time.com) "Now may not be the right time to ask for a raise. But it’s a good time to lay the groundwork." 12-11 -12-17-11 Senate Votes for Short-Term Extension of Payroll Tax Cut (New York Times) "In the ultimate cap to a year of last-minute, half-loaf legislation, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Saturday to extend a payroll tax cut for a mere two months, with the chamber’s leaders and the White House proclaiming victory, even as they punted the issue of how to extend the tax cut and unemployment benefits into the new year." 12-11 -12-19-11 Why Downgrading European Currency Matters (Time.com) "Rating agencies have just downgraded the economic outlook for seven European countries. Does that really matter, or is it just acknowledging problems that everyone already knows about?" "No matter how widely recognized a country’s problems are, bad financial news is cumulative. Perceptions about creditworthiness vary incrementally across a broad spectrum and each time a credit rating is reduced or an economic outlook is questioned, the needle moves a little bit further toward the danger zone. That makes bond buyers demand slightly higher interest rates to compensate for a slightly greater chance of losing their money." "In addition, potential bond buyers sometimes have to worry about legal requirements or customers’ reactions. If an international bond fund needs to keep the average risk of its portfolio at a certain level, the fund will reduce its holdings of bonds that are downgraded. Indeed, in some cases institutional investors may be required by their own internal rules to hold only bonds that have certain minimum credit ratings." 12-11 -12-19-11 Why Verizon Is Ending Unlimited Data Plans (Time.com) "Starting July 7, you’ll no longer be able to purchase an unlimited data plan through Verizon, which is moving instead to a 'usage-based' model." "If you’re an existing Verizon customer, it looks like you will be able to hang on to your unlimited data plan – for now. The new usage plans, which will go into effect July 7, will apply to new customers so you should be able to get in under the wire if you signed up soon." 12-11 -12-21-11 New "Third" Party to Break into the 2012 Elections (Time.com) "It’s hard to predict the role Americans Elect might play in 2012 until the Republican primary wraps up and the group taps a nominee of its own. Americans Elect will not promote a candidate, but the group is briefing potential contenders about the process. Among the names that have surfaced are Michael Bloomberg, Jon Huntsman and Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks." "Even the members of Americans Elect aren’t sure how the process will play out. “We are going to present the American people with a third candidate,” says Sragow. “If they decide that Americans Elect is somehow a process they don’t trust, they don’t have to vote for our candidate.” But trust is a commodity in short supply. And though Americans are weary with Washington and craving comity, a band of insiders backed by Wall Street money may not be the type of change voters have in mind." 12-11 -12-21-11 Obama Pushes for Payroll Tax Cut Extension (CNN News) "House members headed out for their holiday break without agreeing on a payroll tax cut extension. The tax cut saves the average American family $1,000 a year." 12-11 -12-22-11 Congress Agrees on Payroll Tax Cut Deal (CBS News) "House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that his fellow GOP congressmen have agreed on a deal to extend payroll tax cuts that would have expired at the end of the year. The announcement ends yet another episode of political brinksmanship in Washington that has contributed greatly to Congress' abysmal approval ratings." 12-11 -12-24-11 Gingrich and Perry Fail to Qualify for Virginia Ballot (CNN News) "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich failed to collect enough signatures to appear on the Virginia primary ballot, the Republican Party of Virginia announced Saturday morning, leaving the longtime Virginia resident without a place on the state's ballot and raising questions about his campaign's organization." "Gingrich, as well as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, did not meet the state's requirement of 10,000 signatures and, therefore, did not qualify for the ballot, the Virginia GOP said via Twitter." 12-11 -12-25-11 Study: Arguing with Mom Helps Fend Off Peer Pressure (Time.com) "New research shows that adolescents who quickly backed down during an argument with their mother had a harder time resisting peer pressure to use drugs and alcohol than teens who were able to calmly, persuasively, and persistently argue their point with Mom." " 'The key quality that appears to link household arguing and resisting peer pressure is a child’s 'ability to persuade and be assertive through calm reasoning,' rather than resorting to whining or yelling, Chango says. 'We found over and over again that the right kinds of arguments are linked to better outcomes for teens.' " 12-11 -12-29-11 Professors Synchronize Days and Dates (CNN News) "As the people of the world prepare to hang their 2012 calendars, two professors at Johns Hopkins University are proposing one you can keep forever, as each date falls on the same day of the week as it did the year before." 12-11 -Editorial: Why Housing Prices Are Still Dropping (Time.com) "Housing affordability measures have a blind spot. They look at the cost of buying a house now versus what it has been in the past. They don't look at the affordability of buying a house versus the alternative, which is renting. And this economy has been so bad, and empty houses have been so available, that rental prices have continued to fall." 05-11 07-14-11 Poll: A Majority Favors Taxes for the Wealthy for Debt Reduction (CNN News) "A full 67% of Americans favor a deal to raise the debt ceiling that includes taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, according to a poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University." "And according to Gallup, only 20% of Americans want a deal that consists only of spending cuts. That's the position of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and many of his colleagues." 07-11 07-15-11 Editorial: Behind the Battle Over Debt (New York Times) "The endgame in the fight to increase the nation’s debt limit has only begun, but intense exchanges this week between the two parties have made it clear that this is not so much a negotiation over dollars and cents as a broader clash between the two parties over the size and role of government." 07-11 07-18-11 Poll: 71 Percent Disagree with Republican Approach to Debt (CBS News) "Americans are unimpressed with their political leaders' handling of the debt ceiling crisis, with a new CBS News poll showing a majority disapprove of all the involved parties' conduct, but Republicans in Congress fare the worst, with just 21 percent backing their resistance to raising taxes." 07-11 07-31-11 Economists: Spending Cuts Ill-Timed (MSNBC) "The nation’s political leaders agreed on Sunday to spend and invest less money in the American economy, a step that economists said risks the reversal of a faltering recovery, in the hope of improving the nation’s long-term prosperity." 07-11 08-01-11 Editorial: Ransom Paid (Truth-Out.com) "Anyone who characterizes the deal between the President, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics." "The deal does not raise taxes on America’s wealthy and most fortunate — who are now taking home a larger share of total income and wealth, and whose tax rates are already lower than they have been, in eighty years." 08-11 08-01-11 Editorial: What Liberals Will Like in the Debt Ceiling Deal (Time.com) "In a world where the Tea Party didn’t exist, would this be a good bill for Democrats? Absolutely not. But considering that the trigger, commission, two-step process and discretionary budget cuts could’ve been a LOT worse – and actually were in Boehner’s version of the bill – this deal will be easier to swallow. The commission will likely mean a long-term win for Democrats: they’ll get either their revenue increases or achieve significant Pentagon cuts." 08-11 08-01-11 House Liberals and Tea Partiers Dislike the Debt Deal (CBS News) "President Obama has landed a deal with Republicans to make sweeping cuts in government spending in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The deal was brokered with literally hours to go before the U.S. exhausted its ability to borrow money, but its success in the House is still uncertain." 08-11 08-04-11 Liberal Debt Deal Revolt (Wall Street Journal) "Liberal economists such as Cornell's Robert Frank had been arguing that the 'spending problem is too little, not too much.' He believes the debt package is a job killer because 'cutting spending now would make the downturn worse.' " "Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin labeled the budget pact 'the final interment of John Maynard Keynes.' That would be quite an accomplishment if he's right." 08-11 08-05-11 Standard and Poor Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating (CNN News) "Fitch and Moody's, the other two main credit ratings agencies, maintained the AAA rating for the United States after this week's debt deal, though Moody's lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to 'negative.' " "John Chambers, the head of sovereign ratings at S&P, told CNN that the political brinkmanship over the debt ceiling proved to be a key issue, with 'the U.S. government getting to the last day before they had cash-management problems.' " " 'Congress should shoulder some of the blame, he said. 'The first thing it could have done is to have raised the debt ceiling in a timely manner so that much of this debate had been avoided to begin with, as it had done 60 or 70 times since 1960 without that much debate.' " "Chambers added that his agency's decision is likely to have a long-term impact. 'Once you lose your AAA, it doesn't usually bounce back,' he said." "He pointed to the decision by Congress about whether to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts as one crucial area. 'If you let them lapse for the high-income earners, that could give you another $950 billion,' he said." Editor's Note: As with a family, a lower credit rating translates into higher interest rates for loans. The Congressional debate on whether or not to continue to make timely debt payments on the U.S.'s obligations will now result in higher interest rates--and more debt--for the United States. Too many politicians believed that the vote to raise the debt ceiling was a vote to increase the amount of debt. Rather, however, the vote to raise the debt ceiling was a vote to pay EXISTING debt. The politicians who voted against raising the debt ceiling were voting for the U.S. to NOT pay all of its current debt obligations. 08-11 08-07-11 Five Economists Judge the U.S. Debt Deal (Time.com) Mohamed El-Erian said "Unlike Greece and other peripheral European economies, America does not have an immediate debt and deficit problem. Yes the budget deficit is high, but there is ample funding available to the US Treasury at extremely low interest rates." "At the very last minute, this self-manufactured crisis was addressed through a messy compromise that has only a limited impact on the medium-term fiscal outlook. In the process, however, politicians have put at risk America's valuable AAA rating and inflicted damage on the American and global economy." Simon Johnson said "The net effect of our debt ceiling debate is now clear — there will be large spending cuts, starting soon. Such an approach could make sense for some other economy or for the United States at another time. Unfortunately, the timing now could not be worse." Alex Taborrok said "instead of a balanced budget amendment I propose a better idea might be an unbalanced budget amendment. Like now, an unbalance budget amendment (unBBA) would allow the government to run a deficit during a recession. But unlike now, the unbalanced budget amendment would require the government to run a budget surplus in good times. So although unBBA allows for deficit spending on things like unemployment and food stamps during a recession, it would have similar effects to a balanced budget amendment over time because surpluses in good times would be spent in bad times. The surpluses, however, would come when we can most afford them, during a boom and the deficits would come when we most need them, during a recession." 08-11 08-07-11 Income Compared to Expenses of the U.S. Government (Washington Post) "Explore the various facets of the government's budget and see how revenues and spending have changed over time." "At the very last minute, this self-manufactured crisis was addressed through a messy compromise that has only a limited impact on the medium-term fiscal outlook. In the process, however, politicians have put at risk America's valuable AAA rating and inflicted damage on the American and global economy."--Mohamed El-Erian 08-11 10-04-11 Who's Paying for Climate Change Deniers? (Time.com) "Fossil-fuel companies like Exxon and Peabody Energy — which obviously have a business interest in slowing any attempt to reduce carbon emissions — have combined with traditionally conservative corporate groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and conservative foundations like the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity, to raise doubts about the basic validity of what is, essentially, a settled scientific truth. That message gets amplified by conservative think tanks — like the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute — and then picked up by conservative media outlets on the Internet and cable TV." 10-11 10-26-11 Top One Percent Getting Richer (CNN News) "From 1979 to 2007, average household income for the nation's top 1% more than tripled, while middle-class incomes grew by less than 40%, according to a new report from a research arm of Congress." 10-11 10-31-11 Measuring Success for the Occupy Wall Street Movement (CNN News) "There's no easy way to define Occupy Wall Street. That's part of what's made it hard for the media – and those involved in the protests – to wrap their arms around the movement." 10-11 Barack Obama Biographical Information and News (Awesome Library) Provides biographical information and news stories on the 44th President of the United States. 01-09 Bullying Behavior Pervasive (CNN News) "A new study commissioned by CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360°" found that the stereotype of the schoolyard bully preying on the weak doesn't reflect reality in schools." Legal News (FindLaw.com) Provides legal news related to current events. 09-08 Maps in the News (Maps.com) "Maps give context to today's news and headlines." News Calendar (ABC News) Provides a calendar of political events. News Sources (Awesome Library) Provides sources of national and world news, by subject or country. News and Current Events (About.com) Provides news. News on Hurricanes (Awesome Library) Provides hurricane news. Political Polls (PollingPoint.com) Provides results of political polls on key U.S. issues. Romney Wins Nevada (MSNBC News) "Mitt Romney is projected to win Nevada's Republican caucuses, adding to the political momentum the former Massachusetts governor has built for his campaign." 02-12 Social Security (Awesome Library) Provides news and facts on social security and proposed changes to social security. Supreme Court News (ABC News) Provides news on the U.S. Supreme Court. Supreme Court News (MSNBC News) Provides news on the changing U.S. Supreme Court. Papers "Climate Change Is All About the Oceans" (Time.com) Tony Knap, director of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), states that "just as carbon levels have been rising in the atmosphere, thanks largely to man-made greenhouse-gas emissions, CO2 levels are on the rise in the ocean as it warms as well. Ocean data matters — the oceans hold far more energy than the atmosphere. 'This will tell us how the ocean is changing over time,' says Knap. 'Climate change is all about the oceans, not the atmosphere.' " Editor's Note: Also try Threatened Oceans. 07-11 "The Future Is Drying Up" (New York Times) "When I met with [Secretary of Energy] Chu last summer in Berkeley, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, which provides most of the water for Northern California, was at its lowest level in 20 years. Chu noted that even the most optimistic climate models for the second half of this century suggest that 30 to 70 percent of the snowpack will disappear. 'There’s a two-thirds chance there will be a disaster,' Chu said, 'and that’s in the best scenario.' " 10-10 - Editorial: Why Elections in Afghanistan Were Never the Answer (Time.com) "...Afghanistan is in the grip of a civil war that pits a U.S.-backed political establishment, which includes both Karzai and Abdullah, against the Taliban." "No one actually voted for the Taliban, of course, and its call for a boycott of the poll was enforced by threat of death. But whether out of fear, political choice or sheer indifference, 12 million voters — representing 70% of the electorate, compared with just 30% in 2004 — stayed away from the ballot stations. A runoff election was expected to see an even smaller turnout." The author concluded that "any political solution in Afghanistan will have be negotiated on the basis of the real distribution of power, rather than votes cast in an election staged in the heat of a civil war." 11-09 -10 Things to Do While You're Unemployed (U.S. News) "Sure, while you're unemployed, job No. 1 is to look for another job. However, job hunting should not be the only thing you do while out of work." "You should also devote a bit of time and energy to doing something interesting that you can talk about at job interviews." 10-09 -Actual Corporate Tax Rates and Deregulation (The Economic Populist) "Count on hearing that US corporate tax rates are the highest in the world. This is simply untrue when you count the taxes actually collected. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), US corporate taxes accounted for 2.1% of the US gross domestic product (GDP-see graph) in 2009, highly favorable compared to the rest of the industrialized world." Editor's Note: Provides a chart showing corporate taxes as a percent of GDP. 05-11 -America's Dwindling Water Supply (CBS News) "After doing the dishes - 12 gallons per load - running the washing machine - 43 gallons per load - and watering the lawn - 10 gallons per minute - by the time we [Americans] go to bed, we've used up to 150 gallons." "By comparison, people in the U.K. use a quarter of that - 40 gallons of water a day. The Chinese average just 22 gallons per day. And in the poorest countries like Kenya, people use less than the minimum 13 gallons to cover basic needs." "Because Americans use so much, the report card shows water is an emerging crisis here." "Experts do agree: Demand is greater than supply. And 36 states face water shortages in the next three years." 01-10 -An Energy Crisis Looms (Time.com) "If the world continues to guzzle oil and gas at its present pace, global temperatures will rise by an average of 6°C by 2030, causing 'irreparable damage to the planet.' " 11-09 -Benefits of Health Care Reform Bill (Time.com) "The new health-reform bill has many Americans confused. Here are five of the most vital immediate benefits of the reform law and what details are still unknown about them." 04-10 -Best Leaders (US News) Provides articles on leadership in government and other fields and identifies persons that U.S. News editors believe are good leaders. 04-08 -Car Safety (Awesome Library) Provides information on car safety, such as recalls and old tires sold as new. 02-10 -China Controls 95 Percent of World's Rare Earth Minerals (CBS News) "China produces 95 percent of the world’s rare earths, essential for a wide range of high-tech industries." "No more than a few thousand metric tons remain to be shipped under this year’s quota, out of 30,300 metric tons of authorized shipments. World demand for Chinese rare earths approaches 50,000 tons a year, according to industry estimates." "The value of the remaining quotas has soared to the point that the right to export a single ton of rare earths from China now sells for about $40,000, including special Chinese taxes." "That is a sizable additional cost for buyers of neodymium, a rare earth used to make lightweight, powerful magnets essential to everything from large wind turbines to gasoline-electric cars to Apple iPhones. 10-10 -Climatologist: 450, the CO2 Red Line? (ForeignPolicy.com) "Twenty years ago, when global warming first came to public consciousness, no one knew precisely how much carbon dioxide was too much. The early computer climate models made a number of predictions about what would happen if we doubled the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to 550 parts per million. But, in recent years, as the science has gotten more robust, scientists have tended to put the red line right around 450 parts per million. That’s where NASA’s James Hansen, America’s foremost climatologist, has said we need to stop if we want to avoid a temperature rise greater than two degrees Celsius. Why would two degrees be a magic number? Because as best we can tell, it’s where the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets would become rapid and irrevocable. The ice above Greenland alone contains about 23 feet of sea-level rise, which is more than enough to alter the Earth almost beyond recognition." 01-09 -Death of a Small Town Bank (Time.com) "CBT was the 32nd bank to fail in Georgia since the start of the financial crisis in 2008 and one of 132 to fail nationwide in 2010 so far. In many ways, it embodies what has gone wrong with America's once trusted banking system." 11-10 -Editorial - Global Terror, Local Wars (Christian Science Monitor - Grier and Bowers) "In 2003, there were 175 significant global terror events - only 1.5 percent of those casualties were US citizens." "Indeed, this struggle may not be global, or even best described as 'war,' at all. The main fronts might instead be seen as separate hot spots, each on its own time cycle, each roiled by its own clashes of power and religion, each perhaps better fought in different ways. 'The bottom line is they are not connected,' says Bruce Hoffman, a terror expert at the RAND Corp. in Washington." "Terrorism, after all, is not an ideology, such as communism. It is a technique - a tool that employs fear as a means of political coercion." 9-04 -Editorial - Terrorists Require the Partnership of Mass Media (Christian Science Monitor - Felling) "Troubling questions abound: Does terrorism exist without the media? Does coverage of terrorist acts empower or encourage the people behind them? If terrorism is directed more at the audience than at its victims, shouldn't television journalists stop giving terrorists the forum they covet?" "Certainly, television news covers terrorist attacks for the high-minded journalistic objective of informing viewers. But the zeal with which fear has been commoditized - from shark attacks to child kidnappings to the Washington sniper - is a product of TV executives realizing that frightened people put down the remote control and await news updates, ratcheting up ratings points. Unfortunately, this living-room fearmongering plays right into the hands of terrorists who are attempting to rattle every American, turning television news reporters into de facto publicists for terrorists." "Nearly 20 years ago, the eminent Washington reporter David Broder suggested that 'the essential ingredient of any effective antiterrorist policy must be the denial to the terrorist of access to mass media outlets.' He said this in a different era, before 24-hour news channels were in hot competition for Americans' attention. He's still right." "Amateur cooks learn quickly that pouring water on a grease fire only makes it worse. Broadcasters must realize that their coverage might be doing the same. Like cutting off the oxygen that sustains a flame, a few internal shifts in reporting policy would traumatize viewers less and could save lives." 9-04 -Editorial: A better Bailout (TruthOut.org) "There are four fundamental problems with our financial system, and the Paulson proposal addresses only one. The first is that the financial institutions have all these toxic products - which they created - and since no one trusts anyone about their value, no one is willing to lend to anyone else." "The Scandinavian countries showed the way, almost two decades ago. By issuing preferred shares with warrants (options), one reduces the public's downside risk and insures that they participate in some of the upside potential. This approach is not only proven, it provides both incentives and wherewithal to resume lending. It furthermore avoids the hopeless task of trying to value millions of complex mortgages and even more complex products in which they are embedded, and it deals with the 'lemons' problem - the government getting stuck with the worst or most overpriced assets." 10-08 -Editorial: An Answer for Why the Financial Institutions Collapsed (CBS News) " 'These investment banks were not only selling the securities that turned out to be terrible investments, they were selling insurance on them?' Kroft asks." " 'Well, it made it easier to sell the terrible investments if you could convince the buyer that not only were they gonna get the investment, but insurance,' Greenberger explains." "But when homeowners began defaulting on their mortgages, and Wall Street's high-risk mortgage backed securities also began to fail, the big investment houses and insurance companies who sold the credit default swaps hadn't set aside the money they needed to pay off their obligations." "Editor's Note: "Credit default swaps" are fancy words for "insurance policies." 10-08 -Editorial: An Honest Description of a Fiscally Conservative View (Time.com) "In our country, the governed have consented to the establishment of an old-age pension plan called Social Security. They have consented to Medicare and Medicaid. They have consented to have an FDA and EPA and SEC and OSHA and the IRS. I'm not saying that any of the above can't be modified and improved--they can be. What I am saying is that the American people, over time, have rejected Ron Paul's 10% offer because it places too much emphasis on individual rights and too little on the common good. The bright line between those competing goals is the essence of our political discourse; it's an honest argument--and I must say, Ron Paul presents his side fearlessly and with impressive intellectual integrity. But the building of a social safety net isn'tcreeping socialism. It's ground-zero democracy." 02-11 -Editorial: Are Big Profits for the Financial Sector Good for the Rest of Us? (Time.com) "The 1960s were by most measures the best decade ever for growth and widening prosperity in the U.S.; the past decade has been a bust. Yet the financial sector was relatively tiny in the 1960s and huge in the 2000s. Could this mean that good times for finance are bad for the rest of us? Philippon says it isn't that simple. The 1990s, for example, were good for both Wall Street and Main Street. His theory, which fits the historical evidence well, is that the financial sector's share of the economy should increase when there are fast-growing companies needing outside funding, like railroads in the late 19th century, manufacturers in the 1920s and tech firms in the 1990s. If financing wasn't in great demand in the booming 1960s, perhaps that was a warning sign of stagnation to come rather than evidence of the uselessness of financiers." "Over the past decade, though, reality took a detour from Philippon's theory. Corporate America's need for outside financing fell, but the financial sector refused to shrink; it pumped out ever riskier products until the system nearly collapsed. Why the refusal? Maybe the pay was too good." 10-09 -Editorial: Broken Government (Time.com) "According to the Census, median household income in 2008 was $50,303, a decrease from $51,295 in 1998, when the numbers are adjusted for inflation. In other words, over the last decade, America has been in decline." "This pain is blamed on Washington, but the anger is not directly connected to any policy, proposed or in place. Americans know that the president's health care reform effort only tackles a small part of the problem (health costs) imperfectly, and that its biggest change impacts a small percentage of the population (the uninsured). The jobs bill currently being debated in the Senate—the latest in what has become a biannual event—is not going to solve the underlying issues. It is a band-aid. Both parties are simply unsure what to do, so they are retreating to their poll-tested standbys. Republicans want to cut your taxes and voucher-ize your entitlements. Democrats want to increase subsidies and your entitlements.” 02-10 -Editorial: Death of Habeas Corpus (MSNBC News - Keith Olbermann) Congress passed a law that now allows the President, on his own, to decide who is an enemy. Such a person can then be placed in prison without trial, a court hearing, or any legal process to determine if he or she really is an enemy of the United States. This law is a clear violation of basic rights according to legal scholars, such as Senator Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Judicial Committee of Congress. Keith Olbermann notes, "The reality is without habeas corpus, a lot of other rights lose their meaning. But if you look at the actual Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments of that pesky Constitution, you’ll see just how many remain for your protection." "So as you can see, even without habeas corpus, at least one tenth of the Bill of Rights, I guess that’s the Bill of Right, now—remains virtually intact. No. 3 is still safe." "We can rest easy knowing that we will never, ever have to quarter soldiers in our homes as long as the third amendment still stands strong." 10-06 -Editorial: Defining Terrorism (Christian Science Monitor - Jenkins) "What is terrorism? Consensus has been elusive. But now that the United States is officially at war with terrorism, definition is crucial." "The term has been applied promiscuously to all forms of violence. But to get beyond propaganda, terrorism must be defined according to the quality of the act itself, not the identity of the perpetrators or the nature of their cause. An act is not terrorism simply because one opposes the cause, or because someone labeled 'terrorist' carries it out. Nor is an act not terrorism because a cause is deemed noble. Ends do not justify means." "That said, what are the qualities of terrorism?" "What sets terrorism apart from other violence is this: terrorism consists of acts carried out in a dramatic way to attract publicity and create an atmosphere of alarm that goes far beyond the actual victims. Indeed, the identity of the victims is often secondary or irrelevant to the terrorists who aim their violence at the people watching. This distinction between actual victims and a target audience is the hallmark of terrorism and separates it from other modes of armed conflict. Terrorism is theater." 11-05 -Editorial: Financial Institutions Become Wealthier--At Taxpayer's Expense (New York Times) "Even as the economy continues to struggle, much of Wall Street is minting money — and looking forward again to hefty bonuses." "Many Americans wonder how this can possibly be." "With interest rates so low, banks can borrow money cheaply and put those funds to work in lucrative ways, whether using the money to make loans to companies at higher rates, or to speculate in the markets." "A big reason for Goldman Sachs’s blowout profits this year has been the willingness of its traders to take big risks — they have put more money on the line while other banks that suffered last year have reined in such moves." 10-09 -Editorial: For the Bailout to Work, the Housing Market Must Mend (USA Today) "Washington's financial bailout plan is now law. So the credit spigot will start flowing again, banks will resume lending, and an economic recovery can begin, right?" "Wrong. Experts say the most important thing that needs to happen before the $700 billion bailout even has a chance of working: Home prices must stop falling. That would send a signal to banks that the worst has passed and it's safe to start doling out money again." Editor's Note: Huh? Wasn't the purpose of the bailout to create credit flow? If the bailout isn't creating credit flow, what is it doing? 10-08 -Editorial: Greed and Cowardice Killed "Climate Change" Legislation (New York Times) "Look at the scientists who question the consensus on climate change; look at the organizations pushing fake scandals; look at the think tanks claiming that any effort to limit emissions would cripple the economy. Again and again, you’ll find that they’re on the receiving end of a pipeline of funding that starts with big energy companies, like Exxon Mobil, which has spent tens of millions of dollars promoting climate-change denial, or Koch Industries, which has been sponsoring anti-environmental organizations for two decades." "Or look at the politicians who have been most vociferously opposed to climate action. Where do they get much of their campaign money? You already know the answer." "By itself, however, greed wouldn’t have triumphed. It needed the aid of cowardice — above all, the cowardice of politicians who know how big a threat global warming poses, who supported action in the past, but who deserted their posts at the crucial moment." 07-10 -Editorial: How China Is Capitalizing on the Economic Crisis (Time.com) "Once shy of making major foreign investments, Beijing has gone on the prowl for resources and underpriced assets across the globe. Cash-rich Chinese companies, backed by soft loans from state banks and re-energized by lower labor costs as jobs dry up, are descending on Central Asia, Africa and even Western Europe to snap up assets." 04-09 -Editorial: How Obama Is Making the Same Mistakes as Bush (Time.com) "Candidate Obama's repudiation of Bush's eight-year presidency was focused on his predecessor's ideology. He should have taken stock of Bush's executive process as well." 03-10 -Editorial: Is Obama Green Enough? (Time.com) " 'The world was hopeful that Obama would care about global warming, but he has been completely missing in action on this,' says Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA." "Radford is not being entirely fair: Obama has increased alternative-energy funding to record levels and assembled a green team of advisers. They include his Energy Secretary, the Nobel Prize — winning Steven Chu, who told me recently that 'the climate-change problem is at least equal in magnitude' to World War II. He's right. And if Obama wants to win this war, he's going to have to fight, not just make peace." 05-09 -Editorial: Is the Press Misreporting the Environment Story? (Time.com) "Rather than a stenographer, Pooley would prefer to see the media adopt the position of an "honest referee — keeping score, throwing flags when a team plays fast and loose with the facts, explaining to the audience what's happening on the field and why." In an issue as complex as climate change, the country badly needs smart, fair umpires, and the media can play that role. But the wave of cutbacks and closings that have hit the American media could make that all but impossible. Referees need to know the game cold, and climate change demands day-in, day-out experience from dedicated reporters. But a dwindling few media outlets are willing to pay for that kind of coverage at a time when the economy is crashing — Time's corporate cousin CNN has eliminated its entire full-time science section." 03-09 -Editorial: Is the U.S. a "Christian Nation?" (CBS News) "Ultimately, the question of whether America is a "Christian nation" depends in large part on how you define the phrase. If a 'Christian nation' is simply a nation made largely of Christians, then America is undeniably one. Despite the increase in non-religious Americans, they are still outnumbered more than 6-1 by Christians, according to Gallup." "But if a 'Christian nation' is something else – a nation on which laws, behavior and policy are fundamentally tied to Christian ideals – then the question is more complex." 04-09 -Editorial: Mexican Drug Cartels Operating in 230 U.S. Cities (Cafferty File) "The Obama administration says it will send hundreds of federal agents and crime-fighting equipment to the Mexican border in an effort to prevent drug-related violence from spilling over into this country. It’s a little late — the Mexican drug cartels are already active in 230 American cities." 03-09 -Editorial: Obama's Style a Challenge for Europe (Christian Science Monitor) "Ahead of his visit, in inconclusive meetings in Brussels, there was uncertainty and bickering. What's causing stress in the European Union is not US badgering and unilateralism, but the Obama dynamic of moving toward agreement, concensus, and multilateralism, say some economists and political scientists." " 'President Bush was an extraordinary catalyst for Europe, a bogeyman. Even people with diverging views on economic and foreign policy were united against the US policy,' says Karim Bitar, a Paris consultant and scholar at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations. 'But now the US can no longer be accused of all the world's ills. The truth is, Europeans now think more about America than about Europe. There is no European consensus on the most basic questions of our future, what we should be. Under Bush, we could evade them. Not now.' " 04-09 -Editorial: Senator Sanders Asks Americans to Join Him (Senator Sanders) Senator Bernie Sanders writes to President Obama and asks others to join him by signing his letter and sending it to the President. Senator Sanders says, in part: "This is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. Decisions are being made about the national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American for decades to come. As we address the issue of deficit reduction we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today - which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing. In fact, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth." "Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit - a deficit that was caused mainly by Wall Street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies. It is absolutely imperative, however, that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny." "Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending." 06-11 -Editorial: Supreme Court Backs More Corporate Political Spending (Politico.com) "The Supreme Court on Thursday opened wide new avenues for big-moneyed interests to pour money into politics in a decision that could have a major influence on the 2010 midterm elections and President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign." "The long-awaited 5-4 decision overruled all or parts of two prior rulings by the court that allowed governments to restrict corporations and unions from spending their general funds on ads expressly urging a candidate’s election or defeat." 01-10 -Editorial: The Damage Has Already Been Done to Our Standing (Time.com) "We face downgrades and investor panic not because of our deficits but because we are behaving like deadbeats, refusing to pay our bills, pouting while the bill collector waits at the door." 07-11 -Editorial: The Larger Struggle (New York Times) "In the democratic capitalist world we have oil companies, like Exxon Mobil, BP and Royal Dutch Shell, that make money for shareholders." "In the state capitalist world there are government-run enterprises like Gazprom, Petrobras, Saudi Aramco, Petronas, Petróleos de Venezuela, China National Petroleum Corporation and the National Iranian Oil Company. These companies create wealth for the political cliques, and they, in turn, have the power of the state behind them." "With this advantage, state energy companies have been absolutely crushing the private-sector energy companies. In America, we use the phrase Big Oil to describe Exxon Mobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and others. But that just shows how parochial we are. In fact, none of these private companies make it on a list of the world’s top 13 energy companies. A generation ago, the biggest multinationals produced well more than half of the world’s oil and gas. But now, according to Bremmer, they produce just 10 percent of the world’s oil and gas and hold only about 3 percent of the world’s reserves." "We need healthy private energy companies. We also need to gradually move away from oil and gas — the products that have financed the rise of aggressive state capitalism." 06-10 -Editorial: The Myth of Fair Elections (Observer Guardian - Harris) "There is little doubt that at a grassroots level America's election is in disarray and being abused. And at a time of narrow election victories where presidential races come down to a single state (Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004) a microscope is instantly cast on that state's electoral practises. And lo, they are found wanting. Or open to fraud. Or being abused. Or local groups (from both sides) are going hell for leather to keep the other side from the polls. This is not because this is being planned out of Washington and targeted into those key states. It is because it is actually happening all over the country. We just notice because it has come down to the wire at that particular state." "You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to be seriously worried about this state of affairs. In many ways, it is more worrying that the system is not being deliberately stolen from on high. It is actually broken from the ground up." 09-06 -Editorial: The Supreme Court Gives Corporations New "Rights" to Influence Elections (Time.com) "When the Supreme Court ended its term last week, its ruling extending gun rights was the big news. But the real headline of the term was the court's decision earlier this year giving corporations and unions sweeping new rights to spend money to elect candidates to office. It is not an overstatement to say that the 5 to 4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which was handed down in January, could permanently change American democracy." "Now, ExxonMobil or Walmart can simply go into the district of a member of Congress who is giving them a hard time and spend as much money as it wants to defeat him. The amount of money that is available is staggering. According to Democracy 21, a group that advocates for campaign-finance regulations, corporations had revenues of $13 trillion and profits of $605 billion during the last election cycle. (Unions have far less.)" "Of course, corporations may not even have to spend the money. If a member of Congress knows that General Motors or ConAgra could spend millions of dollars to defeat him in the next election, he may be a lot more sympathetic to the company's request for a bailout or for favorable language in a pending bill." 07-10 -Editorial: The Very Angry in the Tea Party (New York Times) "Sometimes it is hard to know where politics ends and metaphysics begins: when, that is, the stakes of a political dispute concern not simply a clash of competing ideas and values but a clash about what is real and what is not, what can be said to exist on its own and what owes its existence to an other." "The seething anger that seems to be an indigenous aspect of the Tea Party movement arises, I think, at the very place where politics and metaphysics meet, where metaphysical sentiment becomes political belief. More than their political ideas, it is the anger of Tea Party members that is already reshaping our political landscape." "It is not for the sake of acquiring political power that Tea Party activists demonstrate, rally and organize; rather, Lilla argues, the appeal is to 'individual opinion, individual autonomy, and individual choice, all in the service of neutralizing, not using, political power.' " "My hypothesis is that what all the events precipitating the Tea Party movement share is that they demonstrated, emphatically and unconditionally, the depths of the absolute dependence of us all on government action, and in so doing they undermined the deeply held fiction of individual autonomy and self-sufficiency that are intrinsic parts of Americans’ collective self-understanding." 06-10 -Editorial: U.S. No Longer the Clear Superpower (Christian Science Monitor) "Two American icons, General Electric and Berkshire Hathaway, lost their triple-A credit ratings. Then China, America's largest creditor, called for a new global currency to replace the dollar just weeks after it demanded Washington guarantee the safety of Beijing's nearly $1 trillion debt holdings. And that was just in March." "These events are the latest warnings that our world is changing far more rapidly and profoundly than we – or our politicians – will admit. America's own triple-A rating, its superpower status, is being downgraded as rapidly as its economy." "In Iraq, despite efforts in Washington to make "the surge" appear to be a stunning US victory, analysts most familiar with the region have already declared Iran the strategic winner of the Bush administration's war against Saddam Hussein. The Iraq war has greatly empowered Iran, nurturing a new regional superpower that now seems likely to be the major architect of the new Iraq." According to Robert Pape of the National Interest, " 'If present trends continue, we will look back at the Bush administration's years as the death knell of American hegemony.' " 04-09 -Editorial: What About the Auto Workers? (MSNBC News) "What will a solution look like? It will almost certainly have to involve major subsidies for the new industries to locate in the worst hit regions of the country (and that will mean making sure the new employers hire ex-union workers, as many new concerns have been unwilling to do). It will hopefully involve a real effort to transform major universities like the University of Michigan into tech-industry centers; they will never be Silicon Valley, but they can be small tech centers of the kind that have developed around Boston and Los Angeles." 03-09 -Editorial: What Brought Down Wall Street? (MSNBC News) "Lenders, for one, demanded lots more freedom. But they 'were a different kind of animal' from airlines and trucking firms, which the Carterites also deregulated, [Carter administration's aviation czar Alfred E.] Kahn says. 'They were animals that had a direct effect on the macroeconomy. That is very different from the regulation of industries that provided goods and services. ... I never supported any type of deregulation of banking.' " 09-08 -Editorial: What Caused the Need for the Bailout? (MSNBC News) "Once in the U.S., the redeployed Chinese savings allowed a multi-decade shopping spree to continue. U.S. consumers bought houses, cars and goods at a record clip earlier this decade, pushing consumer spending to a record 70% of economic activity in recent years. Meanwhile, Americans stopped saving altogether - the personal savings rate was negative for some years during the housing bubble, showing that U.S. consumers were outspending their income." "But this shopping spree - Americans have been spending some $700 billion annually more than they produce, borrowing the difference from overseas creditors - couldn't last forever. Once house prices stopped rising, consumers pulled back and the U.S. economy slowed. Nonfarm payrolls have now shrunk in eight consecutive months, and banks that only a few years ago were showing record profits are now bleeding red ink." 09-08 -Editorial: What Will Reform Wall Street? (CNN News) "The SEC recently fined Citigroup for $285 for selling CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) tied to bad mortgages. Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have both recently paid large fines ($500 million and $154 million) to the SEC for similar misbehavior, in each case teaming up with a hedge fund to create securities designed to fail, in order to defraud unsuspecting purchasers while the hedge fund bets against the securities. The hedge fund makes a large profit; the Wall Street firm earns a large fee; and the unsuspecting purchasers incur great losses. While the fines seems tough, they are merely a slap on the wrist.""Moreover, the Wall Street CEOs who were the architects of this illegal behavior have pocketed vast personal riches in recent years and have lost nothing themselves from the SEC fines, which are basically passed down to the shareholders as the companies as a whole foot the bill. What is worse is that CEOs who were in charge while these deals were cooked in the first place are still in charge today.""If we want to truly reform Wall Street, we must hold these leaders accountable. When companies commit financial fraud, the responsible senior management team should step aside, accepting responsibility for the serious misdeeds of their companies and apologizing to the American people for the heavy costs they and their colleagues have imposed on the entire economy. If they do not voluntarily step down, and if the shareholders do not remove them, then the government should remove them. Bankers are required to exercise probity and responsibility vis-à-vis the markets as well as their shareholders. It is the job of bank regulators to ensure that top bankers measure up to these basic standards.""Bizarrely, the hedge funds that teamed up with the investment banks have paid no price at all for their behavior." 11-11 -Editorial: What's Still Wrong With Wall Street (Time.com) "Are you furious? If not, you should be. The giant financial institutions that make up Wall Street have been bailed out, thanks to trillions of dollars of our money, and are on track to hand out record-breaking multibillion-dollar bonuses while millions of regular folks are hurting. Even outside the gilded halls of Wall Street, there's no shortage of good cheer: many economists say the Great Recession has ended, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke keeps seeing 'green shoots' in the economy." "But the only green shoots that many non–Wall Street types have seen lately are the weeds sprouting in the parking lots of abandoned malls. Unemployment is marching toward 10%, and house foreclosures are still rising. If you're a day late with your credit-card payment or overdrawn by a few bucks on your ATM card, the bank (which your tax money helped bail out) is still sticking you with obscene fees and charges." 10-09 -Editorial: Why Do Voters Believe Obvious Lies? (ABC News) "Psychologist Jon Krosnick of Ohio State University in Columbus studied nationwide surveys over a 16 year period, 1972 to 1988, and found that negative information had far more impact on voters than positive information." "Perhaps voters are looking for an easy way to eliminate one of the candidates. Krosnick also found that people were more likely to vote if they hated one of the candidates than if they liked them both, another reason why so many politicians resort to smear campaigns." "Perhaps voters are looking for an easy way to eliminate one of the candidates. Krosnick also found that people were more likely to vote if they hated one of the candidates than if they liked them both, another reason why so many politicians resort to smear campaigns." " 'As Francis Bacon put it so many years ago, 'Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true.' " 09-10 -Editorial: Why Medicare Is the Solution, Not the Problem (Truth-out.org) "The real problem is the soaring costs of health care that lie beneath Medicare. They’re costs all of us are bearing in the form of soaring premiums, co-payments, and deductibles." "Medicare offers a means of reducing these costs — if Washington would let it." "So what’s the answer? For starters, allow anyone at any age to join Medicare. Medicare’s administrative costs are in the range of 3 percent. That’s well below the 5 to 10 percent costs borne by large companies that self-insure. It’s even further below the administrative costs of companies in the small-group market (amounting to 25 to 27 percent of premiums). And it’s way, way lower than the administrative costs of individual insurance (40 percent). It’s even far below the 11 percent costs of private plans under Medicare Advantage, the current private-insurance option under Medicare." "In addition, allow Medicare – and its poor cousin Medicaid – to use their huge bargaining leverage to negotiate lower rates with hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies. This would help move health care from a fee-for-the-most-costly-service system into one designed to get the highest-quality outcomes most cheaply." 07-11 -Editorial: Why We Have a Crisis and What's Next (CNN News) "This is because the credit crisis reflects something more fundamental than a serious problem of mortgage defaults. Global investors, now on the sidelines, have declared a buyers' strike against the sophisticated paper assets of securitization that financial institutions use to measure and offload risk." "In recent years, our banks, borrowing to maximize the leverage of their assets at unheard-of levels, produced mountains of financial paper instruments (called asset-backed securities) with little means of measuring their value. Incredibly, these paper instruments were insured by more dubious paper instruments." "Therefore, the housing crisis was a mere trigger for a collapse of trust in paper, followed by a de-leveraging of the entire global financial system. As a result, we are experiencing the painful downward reappraisal of the value of virtually every asset in the world." "Most banks are leveraged by more than 10 to 1. Translation: The U.S. financial system will have a whopping $15 trillion to $20 trillion less credit available next year than was around a year and a half before. The cost of money is rising and the availability shrinking." "We need a private/public global bank clearing facility. The bankers don't trust each other. The central banks, working with the private institutions in providing enhanced data, need to begin to refashion the world's financial architecture." 10-08 -Editorial: Will the Next Election Be Hacked? (RollingStone.com - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) According to Ion Sancho, an election supervisor in Leon County, Florida, "With a few key people in the right places, it would be possible to throw a presidential election." Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke with a Diebold voting machine consultant who reported that in 2004 unauthorized and secret changes were made on voting machines. "According to [consultant] Hood, Diebold employees altered software in some 5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties [in Georgia] - the state's largest Democratic strongholds. To avoid detection, Hood and others on his team entered warehouses early in the morning." "The United States is one of only a handful of major democracies that allow private, partisan companies to secretly count and tabulate votes using their own proprietary software. Today, eighty percent of all the ballots in America are tallied by four companies - Diebold, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Sequoia Voting Systems and Hart InterCivic." 09-06 -Elder Statesmen Warn of Energy Crisis Looming (CBS News) "A bipartisan group of 27 American elder statesmen is sending an open letter to both presidential candidates and every member of Congress saying the United States faces 'a long-term energy crisis' that threatens the security and prosperity of future generations if swift action is not taken." 07-08 -Evidence of Economic Hardship (Time.com) "Here, ten indicators of how the economy, U.S. cities, and everyday citizens are faring lately...." 08-10 -Financial Crisis Hurts State Pensions and Budgets (ABC News) "The financial crisis on Wall Street is causing waves in statehouses across the country, where various governors are grappling with budget deficits, dwindling finances and plummeting pension funds." "As the credit market shut down at midday Monday, Massachusetts was unable to borrow the final portion of a $400 million loan from Wall Street investors to make quarterly aid payments to cities and towns and had to dip into its own funds to make up the $170 million shortfall." 09-08 -Five Steps to Survive the Financial Crisis (U.S. News) "It would be nice if the average American was prepared for ups and downs in the economy, but many simply aren't. More than a third of Americans have less than $10,000 in total savings and investments outside of their home and retirement plans, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Meanwhile, the median credit card debt for the average U.S. household in 2008 was $7,066 according to CardTrak.com." 03-09 -Four Lessons From Flight 253 (Time.com) "Not until Northwest Flight 253 was beginning its final descent into Detroit, at about 11:40 Christmas morning, did a handful of passengers step in to do what all the early-warning systems and security personnel could not: stop a terrorist trying to detonate a bomb on a plane on the quietest morning of the year." "It turns out that Washington's way of ranking likely terrorists, which was overhauled after Sept. 11, still resembles a Rube Goldberg contraption. There are four different U.S. terrorism databases, and yet Abdulmutallab's name never rose above the least threatening one." 01-10 -German Federal Court Rejects Voting Machines (Bundes-Verfassungs-Ggericht) "However, the Federal Voting Machines Ordinance (Bundeswahlgeräteverordnung) is unconstitutional because it does notensure that only such voting machines are permitted and used which meetthe constitutional requirements of the principle of the public nature ofelections. According to the decision of the Federal ConstitutionalCourt, the computer-controlled voting machines used in the election ofthe 16th German Bundestag did not meet the requirements which theconstitution places on the use of electronic voting machines." Editor's Note: Voting machines were rejected because they did not allow public scrutiny of the individual ballots. This standard would also be relevant to voting machines in other countries, such as the United States. 03-09 -Girl's Wish for Clean Water Takes Off After Her Death (MSNBC News) "Rachel Beckwith wanted to raise $300 by her ninth birthday to help bring clean water to people in poor countries. Donors from across the world are making sure her wish is realized after her death, perhaps a thousand times over." "Rachel was about $80 short of her goal when she turned 9 in June, and then a horrific highway traffic accident took her life away last week. But news of the Bellevue, Wash., girl’s pluck and selflessness emerged after the tragedy, and it is inspiring thousands of people — most of them strangers — to push her dream along." 07-11 -Health Care and Retirement (Time.com) "One of the most underestimated costs in retirement is health care, and for good reason. The figures can be staggering. A healthy 65-year-old couple should plan on $305,000 in out-of-pocket health costs during their retirement, according to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute." 01-10 -How Lobbyists Shaped Financial Reform Bill (Time.com) "Complexity is the modern lobbyist's greatest ally. Three lobbyists showed me three different proposals for rewording what may be the bill's biggest-money section: a provision in the Senate version that would force the five major banks that do most of the country's trillions of dollars of trading in derivatives — and make nearly $23 billion a year doing so-to spin off those operations. Even holding the dueling paragraphs side by side by side, I found it difficult on first read to appreciate the differences. But with some pointers from the lobbyists, it was clear that billions in profits depended on the variations in this nearly impenetrable language." 07-10 -How Sweden Handled a Similar Financial Crisis (New York Times) "The country was so far in the hole in 1992 — after years of imprudent regulation, short-sighted economic policy and the end of its property boom — that its banking system was, for all practical purposes, insolvent." " 'But Sweden took a different course than the one now being proposed by the United States Treasury. And Swedish officials say there are lessons from their own nightmare that Washington may be missing.' " "Sweden did not just bail out its financial institutions by having the government take over the bad debts. It extracted pounds of flesh from bank shareholders before writing checks. Banks had to write down losses and issue warrants to the government." 09-08 -How to Avoid Human Extinction (Huffington Post) "Why are we in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs? What has caused progress to slow and governments, leaders and experts to suddenly become gridlocked, unable to solve our most dangerous problems?" "The answer is complexity." "There's no denying it. Even the most brilliant among us is trapped in the same biological spacesuit -- a spacesuit that requires millions of years to develop new features. So what happens when the complexity of the problems we have to solve simply exceeds the capabilities we humans have evolved to this point?" "The answer is that we come to an impasse." -How to Take a Position of Power (Time.com) "Powerful people use their bodies to convey authority in at least two ways." 11-10 -Is Obama a Socialist? (Christian Science Monitor) "The assertion is getting louder: President Obama is a socialist, a wealth-redistributing wolf in Democrat's clothing gnawing at America's entrepreneurial spirit." "So, is Mr. Obama trying to form The Socialist Republic of America? Or are the accusations mainly a political weapon, meant to stick Obama with a label that is poison to many voters and thus make him a one-term president?" 07-10 -Jon Stewart Skewers Obama on Campaign Promises (Time.com) "Just before Barack Obama took to the air for his first Oval Office speech, Jon Stewart taped an episode of The Daily Show that blasted the president for not living up to his words." Stewart focuses on Obama's failure to uphold constitutional law, such as the right of a person to have a court decide if he or she has been lawfully detained. 06-10 -Lessons of Europe's Biggest Bailout (Time.com) "In the largest financial services deal ever signed, Fortis — part of a consortium alongside the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Spain's Santander — put up $34 billion in return for ABN's Dutch banking business, among other assets." 09-08 -Living on Nothing But Food Stamps (New York Times) "About six million Americans receiving food stamps report they have no other income, according to an analysis of state data collected by The New York Times. In declarations that states verify and the federal government audits, they described themselves as unemployed and receiving no cash aid — no welfare, no unemployment insurance, and no pensions, child support or disability pay. "Their numbers were rising before the recession as tougher welfare laws made it harder for poor people to get cash aid, but they have soared by about 50 percent over the past two years. About one in 50 Americans now lives in a household with a reported income that consists of nothing but a food-stamp card." 01-10 -Medical Loss Ratio (Wikipedia.org) "In insurance, the Loss ratio is the ratio of total losses paid out in claims plus adjustment expenses divided by the total earned premiums.[1] For example, if an insurance company pays out $60 in claims for every $100 in collected premiums, then its loss ratio is 60%." "Loss ratios for health insurance generally range from 60% to 110%.[2] Loss ratios for property & casualty insurance (e.g. automobile insurance), typically range from 40% to 60%.[3]. Insurance companies that have very low loss ratios are criticized for overcharging and making excess profits. Such companies are collecting significantly more premium than is paid out in claims. Insurers that consistently experience high loss ratios may be in poor financial health. They may not be collecting enough premium to pay claims, expenses, and still make a reasonable profit." 12-09 -Minimizing Your Own Risks in the Financial Chaos (New York Times) "Consider a few modest but concrete things you can do that could reduce your exposure to four of the big areas of risk — investments, job security, your mortgage and insurance — that have been front and center this week." "Some of these suggestions may have more impact for you than others, but they all can help you feel as if you’ve taken back some measure of control." 09-08 -New Laws Target Workplace Bullying (Time.com) "Bosses may abuse because they have impossibly high standards, are insecure or have not been properly socialized. But some simply enjoy it. Recent brain-scan research has shown that bullies are wired differently. When they see a victim in pain, it triggers parts of their brain associated with pleasure." 07-10 -Obama: Unprecedented Nuclear Threat (USA Today) "President Obama formally opened his Nuclear Security Summit today by telling delegates from 46 other nations that 'this is an unprecedented gathering to address an unprecedented threat' -- nuclear terrorism." 04-10 -Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Wikipedia.org) "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)[1][2], is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law (along with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress. PPACA reforms certain aspects of the private health insurance industry and public health insurance programs, increases insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions, expands access to insurance to over 30 million Americans,[3][4] and increases projected national medical spending[5][6] while lowering projected Medicare spending.[7]" "Insurers are prohibited from imposing lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits, like hospital stays, in new policies issued.[48] Dependents (children) will be permitted to remain on their parents' insurance plan until their 26th birthday,[49] and regulations implemented under the Act include dependents that no longer live with their parents, are not a dependent on a parent’s tax return, are no longer a student, or are married.[50][51] Insurers are prohibited from excluding pre-existing medical conditions (except in grandfathered individual health insurance plans) for children under the age of 19.[52][53] Insurers are prohibited from charging co-payments, co-insurance, or deductibles for Level A or Level B preventive care and medical screenings on all new insurance plans.[54] Individuals affected by the Medicare Part D coverage gap will receive a $250 rebate, and 50% of the gap will be eliminated in 2011.[55] The gap will be eliminated by 2020. Insurers' abilities to enforce annual spending caps will be restricted, and completely prohibited by 2014.[36] Insurers are prohibited from dropping policyholders when they get sick.[36] Insurers are required to reveal details about administrative and executive expenditures.[36] Insurers are required to implement an appeals process for coverage determination and claims on all new plans.[36] Enhanced methods of fraud detection are implemented.[36] Medicare is expanded to small, rural hospitals and facilities.[36 ]Medicare patients with chronic illnesses must be monitored/evaluated on a 3 month basis for coverage of the medications for treatment of such illnesses. Non-profit Blue Cross insurers are required to maintain a loss ratio (money spent on procedures over money incoming) of 85% or higher to take advantage of IRS tax benefits.[36] Companies which provide early retiree benefits for individuals aged 55–64 are eligible to participate in a temporary program which reduces premium costs.[36] A new website installed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services will provide consumer insurance information for individuals and small businesses in all states.[36] A temporary credit program is established to encourage private investment in new therapies for disease treatment and prevention.[36] 01-12 -Record-High CO2 Levels a Bad Sign for Climate (ClimateBiz.com) "CO2 emissions from energy production in 2010 were the highest in history following a recessionary dip the year before, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a stark announcement Monday. Existing and planned power plants mean the bulk of energy-related CO2 emissions projected for 2020 are already 'locked in.' " "World leaders have agreed to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius or less above pre-industrial levels to prevent catastrophic climate change, which could include heat waves, rising sea levels, extreme weather and droughts, among other impacts." "We need to keep the concentration of atmospheric GHGs below 450 parts per million in order to achieve this. To put this in perspective, we reached 393 ppm in April. Maintaining an energy pathway to the 450 Scenario would require us to essentially keep emissions levels flat over the next decade." 06-11 -Report: Call to Action to Address Freshwater Challenges (Time.com) "Noting that such [water] shortages will severely undermine the economy, the Foundation also mentions that water use and energy use are intertwined." "It's clear that the report is meant to spur change in the water-technology sector in the U.S. in a way that will sufficiently address the problem as well as reducing our carbon footprint--the title of the report says it all. Because while water shortages will take a huge toll on the American economy, it's also important to keep in mind how dire climate change and the water situation will be throughout the rest of the world in the next few years." 10-10 -Report: Carbon Pollution to Grow by 40 Percent (MSNBC News) "The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide seeping into the atmosphere will increase by nearly 40 percent worldwide by 2030 if ways are not found to require mandatory emission reductions, a U.S. government report said Wednesday." "The EIA report said that "much of the increases in carbon dioxide emissions is projected to occur among the developing nations" including China and India." "It said 94 percent of the world's expected increase in industrial energy use between now and 2030 is expected in the economically developing countries, with Brazil, Russia, India and China expected to account for two-thirds of that growth." 05-09 -Report: Climate Change "Catastrophic" (CNN News) "More than 300 million people are already seriously affected by the gradual warming of the earth and that number is set to double by 2030, the report from the Global Humanitarian Forum warns." "The report's startling numbers are based on calculations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the Earth's atmosphere warmed by 0.74 degrees Celsius (1.33 degrees Fahrenheit) from 1906 to 2005, with much of that increase coming in recent decades. The panel predicts that by 2100 temperatures will have increased a minimum of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels regardless of what's agreed in Copenhagen." 05-09 -Report: Global Warming May Be Twice as Bad as Expected (USA Today) "Global warming will be twice as severe as previous estimates indicate, according to a new study published this month in the Journal of Climate, a publication of the American Meteorological Society." "The research, conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), predicts a 90% probability that worldwide surface temperatures will rise more than 9 degrees (F) by 2100, compared to a previous 2003 MIT study that forecast a rise of just over 4 degrees." "The projections in the MIT study were done using 400 applications of a computer model, which MIT says is the most comprehensive and sophisticated climate model to date." Editor's Note: See catastrophic climate change. 05-09 -Seven Key Elements of Financial Reform (Time.com) "President Obama made his pitch for new Wall Street regulation in New York, but it's still unclear if the massively complex legislation would prevent another financial crisis. Here's a look at the seven crucial areas of the bills." 04-10 -Social Security Surplus Quickly Disappearing (Time.com) "If you count the $17 billion in income taxes expected to be paid on Social Security benefits, the system will still manage to provide a slight surplus for federal coffers in fiscal 2009. But from 2010 through 2012 there are small projected deficits, and after heading back into the black from 2013 to 2015 the program will become a growing drain on federal finances after that, projects the CBO." "Back in 1983, when Social Security last faced deficits, Congress approved a set of Social Security reforms that included a graduated hike in the payroll tax and an increase in the retirement age. Thanks to those changes, payroll tax receipts surpassed benefits in 1985, and the system has been operating at a surplus ever since." 04-09 -State Department Changes Visa Policy (CNN News) "The State Department on Thursday is directing its embassies around the world to include information on whether a person has a U.S. visa when they send special cables to Washington containing information on potentially suspect individuals, CNN has learned." "The order comes in the wake of a failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S.-bound jetliner. The change was prompted by preliminary reviews ordered by President Obama of the terror attack." 12-09 -Stimulus Funds: Where They Are Going (CNN News) "Businesses receiving federal contracts under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program reported creating or saving more than 30,000 jobs in the first months of the program, according to data released Thursday by a government oversight board. " "The numbers, based on jobs linked to less than $16 billion in federal contracts, represent just a sliver of the $787 billion stimulus package. But they offer the first hard data on the early effects of the program." 01-10 -Study: After $75,000, Wealth Does Not Increase Happiness (Time.com) "People say money doesn't buy happiness. Except, according to a new study from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, it sort of does — up to about $75,000 a year. The lower a person's income falls below that benchmark, the unhappier he or she feels. But no matter how much more than $75,000 people make, they don't report any greater degree of happiness." 09-10 -Study: Global Warming Is Irreversible (TruthOut.org) "As carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, the world will experience more and more long-term environmental disruption. The damage will persist even when, and if, emissions are brought under control, says study author Susan Solomon, who is among the world's top climate scientists." 01-09 -Study: Wealth and Compassion (Time.com) "Are the rich really the unfeeling boors they're made out to be? Studies suggest that the richer people are, the less compassion they show." 01-06 -Study: What Makes a Terrorist? (New York Times) "Most researchers agree that justification for extremist action, whether through religious or secular doctrine, is either developed or greatly intensified by group dynamics." "Counterterrorism rhetoric like former President George W. Bush’s description of a planned tactic against Al Qaeda — 'to smoke them out and get them running and bring them to justice' — often serves to unify the group. So do invasions and escalations of campaigns against them, which can draw more sympathizers to the group. Most terrorist groups crumble quickly because of internal strife, many experts say." "Arie W. Kruglanski, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park, who has studied videotapes of suicide bombers’ final words and interviews with their mothers, argues that the overarching motivation of suicide bombers is the quest for personal significance, the desperate longing for a meaningful life that appears only to come with death." "Recruits are often promised an exciting, glamorous adventure and a chance to change the world. But what they often find, Dr. Horgan said, is that the groups they join are rife with jealousies and personal competition." 01-10 -Supreme Court Expands Gun Rights (Time.com) "McDonald v. Chicago, which was split 5-4 along party lines, expanded the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment to individuals in states and cities. It's a victory for gun rights advocates, who fought against local and state controls on firearms. It's a major blow to the city of Chicago, which had banned handguns for the past 28 years in one of the country's strictest gun policies. Now the city's policy will be reviewed and likely overturned." 06-10 -Taxing the Wealthy (Christian Science Monitor) "In the history of taxation, the wealthy have always paid a higher rate. But rates have swung wildly over time. Economists studying past rate changes have had trouble identifying clear effects." "Perhaps the best analog to Obama's plan is the 1993 tax hike under President Clinton. Congress raised rates to the same levels Obama is proposing for Americans making at least $250,000 a year. An economic boom followed Mr. Clinton's move." "That doesn't mean, however, that the two were necessarily related, says Joel Slemrod, an economist at the University of Michigan and the former editor of the National Tax Journal." " '[Obama's] proposal is to move back to top rates [that] the country had not that long ago, and it's hard to find evidence that they had a noticeable deleterious effect on the economy,' Professor Slemrod says. 'Having those tax rates then and knowing the economy did well doesn't prove what the role of tax rates was. It could be true that performance would have been even better without them.' " 04-09 -Tea Party Dilemma on Racism (Time.com) "Since its inception, the Tea Party movement has struggled to shed the perception that its members' dislike of Obama is fueled by racism." 07-10 -Ten Largest Environmental Accidents (Time.com) "As the Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows little sign of abating, TIME takes a look back at history's greatest environmental tragedies." 06-10 -The $55 Trillion Question (CNN News - Fortune) "In just over a decade these privately traded derivatives contracts [of "credit default swaps" or CDS] ballooned from nothing into a $54.6 trillion market. CDS are the fastest-growing major type of financial derivatives. More important, they've played a critical role in the unfolding financial crisis. First, by ostensibly providing 'insurance' on risky mortgage bonds, they encouraged and enabled reckless behavior during the housing bubble." 10-08 -The 25 People to Blame for the Financial Meltdown (Time.com) "The good intentions, bad managers and greed behind the meltdown." 04-10 -The EPA Declares CO2 in the Air a Danger (Time.com) "The Environmental Protection Agency took a major step Monday toward regulating greenhouses gases, concluding that climate changing pollution threatens the public health and the environment." 12-09 -Ways to Raise Your Credit Card Score (Time.com) "Your payment history makes up 35 percent of your score, so this is crucial." 07-11 -We Are Not Doing What Is Necessary to Avoid Climate Change (Time.com) "But there is one number that may not get discussed much at Copenhagen, even though it is as important as all the others: $10.5 trillion. That is the additional investment needed between now and 2030 to set the world on the path to low-carbon development, according to the International Energy Agency — a number that is far above the pittance the world currently spends on clean-energy research and development. As Jesse Jenkins and Devon Swezey of the think tank Breakthrough Institute wrote on Dec. 7, 'Without measurable progress that dramatically increases global investments in clean energy, we can forget stabilizing global temperatures or atmospheric carbon dioxide at any level.' " "Beyond the policy wars in the halls of U.N. summits and on Capitol Hill, the battle against climate change requires better and cheaper forms of alternative energy, which will need to be deployed fast. Unfortunately, they don't exist." Editor's Note: Fortunately, the last statement is incorrect. Decaying organic waste puts 8 times more CO2 into the air each year than human activity. The answer for now is not high-tech alternative energy, recycling, or energy efficiency. The way to reverse the amount of CO2 in the air quickly is to biochar instead of burning forest and agricultural waste. In addition, we need to convert coal-fired power plants to burning biomass. These two actions, undertaken globally, can save our climate from a catastrophe. 12-09 -Why Powerful People Overestimate Themselves (Time.com) " 'By producing an illusion of personal control,' the authors write, 'power may cause people to lose touch with reality in ways that lead to overconfident decision-making.' " 03-09 -Writing a Letter to the Editor (Chicago Tribune) "The maximum length for a letter is 400 words, but a clever writer understands how to make the point and increases the chances of being printed with a lot fewer words." 07-07 -Your Share of State Debt by State (CNN News) "States are taking on more debt. Here’s your state’s burden per capita." 07-10 08-22-11 Best Places to Live (CNN News) CNN News provides its choices for best places to live. 08-11 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis (Time.com) "In the wake of the housing bust, which toppled Countrywide and IndyMac Bank (another company Mozilo started), the executive's lavish pay package was criticized by many, including Congress. Mozilo left Countrywide last summer after its rescue-sale to Bank of America. A few months later, BofA said it would spend up to $8.7 billion to settle predatory lending charges against Countrywide filed by 11 state attorneys general." 03-09 25 Trends that Changed the USA (USA Today) "Today, USA TODAY editors and reporters pick the 25 most important trends of the past quarter-century." 07-07 A Theory of Affluence (New York Times) "For thousands of years, most people on earth lived in abject poverty, first as hunters and gatherers, then as peasants or laborers. But with the Industrial Revolution, some societies traded this ancient poverty for amazing affluence." "Historians and economists have long struggled to understand how this transition occurred and why it took place only in some countries. A scholar who has spent the last 20 years scanning medieval English archives has now emerged with startling answers for both questions." Across the Nation, Opposition to Mosques (New York Times) "At one time, neighbors who did not want mosques in their backyards said their concerns were over traffic, parking and noise — the same reasons they might object to a church or a synagogue. But now the gloves are off." "Feeding the resistance is a growing cottage industry of authors and bloggers — some of them former Muslims — who are invited to speak at rallies, sell their books and testify in churches. Their message is that Islam is inherently violent and incompatible with America." "A two-year study by a group of academics on American Muslims and terrorism concluded that contemporary mosques are actually a deterrent to the spread of militant Islam and terrorism. The study was conducted by professors with Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and the University of North Carolina. It disclosed that many mosque leaders had put significant effort into countering extremism by building youth programs, sponsoring antiviolence forums and scrutinizing teachers and texts." 08-10 After Tyranny: How Can Libya Avoid Iraq's Fate? (Time.com) "Away from the dizzying euphoria on Tripoli's streets, where Libyans have held wild celebrations of the end of Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, there is a specter that hovers over the scene in the minds of many Libyan officials and Western governments — that of another Arab capital: Baghdad." 08-11 Alan Greenspan and the Failure to Regulate (New York Times) "For more than a decade, the former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has fiercely objected whenever derivatives have come under scrutiny in Congress or on Wall Street." "As the nascent derivatives market took hold in the early 1990s, and in subsequent years, critics denounced an absence of rules forcing institutions to disclose their positions and set aside funds as a reserve against bad bets." "Time and again, Mr. Greenspan — a revered figure affectionately nicknamed the Oracle — proclaimed that risks could be handled by the markets themselves." "The derivatives market is $531 trillion, up from $106 trillion in 2002 and a relative pittance just two decades ago. Theoretically intended to limit risk and ward off financial problems, the contracts instead have stoked uncertainty and actually spread risk amid doubts about how companies value them. 10-08 Amazing Pictures of the Week (Time.com) Provides pictures. 08-10 America's Water Infrastructure Crisis (USNews.com) "Rep. Earl Blumenauer called for a Clean Water Trust Fund at a rally today in support of buttressing America's aging infrastructure." "Organized by Food & Water Watch, the rally highlighted a number of ills facing the country's water and sanitation systems. The average American pipe is 33 years old, while 72,000 miles of pipe are 80 years or older. Holding up today's Washington Post with a story detailing how a failed water main impeded efforts to fight a fire in a city neighborhood, group President Wenonah Hauter announced that it's 'time Congress does something about the water infrastructure crisis we're facing.' " 10-07 America's Wireless Networks Still Slow, Even With 4G (CNN News) "The real leap forward for next-generation deployments is defined not so much by technology but by speeds. Certainly, in this context, the 4G-branded service available in the United States does not compete with 4G service offered elsewhere." "That's not to say wireless speeds in the United States aren't improving; indeed, they are beginning to match the speeds of lower-end broadband connections. Verizon, claiming the 'Fastest, most advanced 4G network in America,' is rolling out LTE offering up to 5-12 Mbps download speeds." By comparison, "TeliaSonera rolled out LTE services in major Nordic and Baltic countries including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway and Sweden last year with speeds that blow US 4G offerings out of the water: 'In normal circumstances, the average download speed is 20-80 Mbit/s.' " 02-11 Arabian Spring: A Country-by-Country Look at Protests in the Middle East (New York Times) Provides "the latest news on the protest movements and uprisings shaking countries across the Middle East and northern Africa" in the spring of 2011. 02-11 Best Health Insurance Providers (ConsumerHealthRatings.com) Provides ratings and reviews from J.D. Powers, Consumer Reports, and U.S. News. 09-10 Bill Clinton's Vision for the Economy (CNN News) "First of all, we face more and more intense competition from around the world, and at the same time we have adopted—­except in the eight years I served and the first two years President Obama was ­serving—this anti­government philosophy, which has mostly, as I point out, been an antitax and an anti­regulation philosophy, so that we have dramatically increased the national debt and our reliance on other countries to fund it. Now we are facing the retirement of the baby boomers and once again a dramatic increase in health care cost. So we have to figure out a way to put the country in the future business. We have to get ahold of the long-term debt problem, and we have to revitalize the private sector. And you can’t do it with an anti­government strategy. You have to have a smart government and a strong economy." 11-11 Biochar Might Be That Magical (ABC News) "A new study in Nature Communications finds that the world could, in theory, sustainably offset a whopping 12 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions by producing biochar." "So for the Nature Communications study, the researchers just looked at the world's supply of crop leftovers: corn leaves and stalks, rice husks, livestock manure, yard trimmings. If virtually all of that biomass was used to make biochar, we could conceivably offset 12 percent of global carbon emissions." 08-10 Biomass Debate (CNN News) "Biomass is a favored form of renewable energy because its generation can be reliably scheduled; the wind and sun can merely be predicted, and not always very well, leading to a need for extensive storage." "Now a group in Cambridge, Mass., is mounting a more direct assault on harnessing biomass: the Biomass Accountability Project is trotting out experts in medicine and forestry to argue against such power generators." Editor's Note: See Biomass and Biochar. Eight times more carbon is released into the air from the decay of organic waste (biomass) than from burning fossil fuels each year. Pyrolysis of biomass is an effective way to keep the carbon in organic waste from re-entering the air. Pyrolysis of biomass produces biochar and syngas: Biochar can be used to enrich the earth. Syngas can serve as a clean energy source. Pyrolysis of biomass may be our best way to reverse the amount of surplus carbon in the air. Biomass should not be burned. Incineration does, in fact, create substantial pollution. Living trees should not be harvested to create biomass; biomass should be composed of crop waste, "beetle kill," and other oranic waste. 07-10 Both Political Parties Blame Bush for Economic Disaster (New York Times) "These experts, from both political parties, say Mr. Bush’s early personnel choices and overarching antipathy toward regulation created a climate, that, if it did not set off the turmoil, almost certainly aggravated it." "The president’s first two Treasury secretaries, for instance, lacked the kind of Wall Street expertise that might have helped them raise red flags about the use of complex financial instruments that are at the heart of the crisis." 09-08 Budget Deficit (Awesome Library) Provides news and facts on budget deficits. 09-08 Changes Coming in Medicare (ABC News) "The Medicare open enrollment period kicked off this Monday and seniors can expect to see significant changes in their plans as the new health care law takes shape." 11-10 Checks and Balances in the U.S. Government (BBC News) "The US is a federal republic of 50 states. The framers of the Constitution, drafted in 1787, wanted to block any individual or group from gaining too much control, so they established a government of separate institutions that share powers. Authority is divided into three tiers of national, state and local government, with the American people electing officials to serve in each tier. At the national level the government is split into three autonomous branches - legislative, executive and judicial. Each has its own distinct responsibilities, but they can also partially limit the authority of the others through a complex system of checks and balances." 04-07 Contributions to Politicians by Industry (US News) Lists the amount of contributions to members of Congress by party affiliation and also lists the top recipient. 01-11 Current Society and Community Issues in Depth (NOW with Bill Moyers) "When PBS and Bill Moyers launched NOW, it was to illuminate stories that weren't being covered on any other public affairs broadcast, and under Moyers' leadership, NOW has pursued the truth behind the headlines. 'We are continuing to take a thoughtful look at the events shaping our world,' says Moyers, who has received every major broadcast journalisim award including more than 30 Emmy Awards." 12-03 Derivatives and Funding for the SEC (U.S. News) "Despite the trillion-dollar meltdown now underway, the number of SEC enforcement personnel will decline from 1,209 this year to 1,177 in 2009. In all, the SEC expects to have 3,771 employees next year. For comparison, the Smithsonian Institution budget for 2009 includes funding for 4,324 employees." "Those pitiful numbers lead us to the innumerable problems posed by derivatives, the same financial instruments that led to the chaos at Enron, which before it failed operated a huge—and almost completely unregulated—derivatives exchange business. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the global derivatives market is now worth some $676.5 trillion. That's $676,500,000,000,000. That's a fivefold increase over the value of derivatives that were traded in 2003. Further, that $676.5 trillion is 51 times America's current gross domestic product." 09-08 Editorial: "Judicial Activism" a Phony Claim (Time.com) " 'Judicial activism' is the No. 1 conservative talking point on the law these days. Liberal judges, the argument goes, make law, while conservative judges simply apply the law as it is written." "It's a phony claim. Conservative jurists are every bit as activist as liberal ones. But the critique is also wrong as an approach to the law. In fact, judges always have to interpret vague clauses and apply them to current facts — it's what judging is all about." 06-10 Editorial: A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation (New York Times - Meacham) "In an interview with Beliefnet.com last weekend, Mr. McCain repeated what is an article of faith among many American evangelicals: 'the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.' " However, "the only acknowledgment of God in the original Constitution is a utilitarian one: the document is dated 'in the year of our Lord 1787.' Even the religion clause of the First Amendment is framed dryly and without reference to any particular faith. The Connecticut ratifying convention debated rewriting the preamble to take note of God’s authority, but the effort failed." "Thomas Jefferson said that his bill for religious liberty in Virginia was 'meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination.' When George Washington was inaugurated in New York in April 1789, Gershom Seixas, the hazan of Shearith Israel, was listed among the city’s clergymen (there were 14 in New York at the time) — a sign of acceptance and respect. The next year, Washington wrote the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R.I., saying, 'happily the government of the United States ... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. ... Everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.' " 10-07 Editorial: American Citizens Ignore Administration Lies at Our Peril (International Herald Tribune) "Ten days ago The New York Times unearthed yet another round of secret Department of Justice memos countenancing torture. President George W. Bush gave his standard response: 'This government does not torture people.' " "Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of 'torture' is. The whole point of these memos is to repeatedly recalibrate the definition so Bush can keep pleading innocent." "By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago." 10-07 Editorial: Does Obama's Winning Streak Prove Race Doesn't Matter? (US News) "In a ringing endorsement that connected his brother JFK’s legacy with the inspirational qualities of the candidate, Ted Kennedy hailed Obama's campaign as being 'about the country we will become, if we can rise above the old politics that parses us into separate groups and puts us at odds with one another.' " 10-08 Editorial: Election Reform Needed (CNN News) "Given that the primary system gives particular influence to party activists who are usually on the extreme end of the political spectrum, potential candidates are forced to think about how their decisions will play to them rather than moderates." "One potential reform has to come from the media. If the major news outlets devote more attention to policymaking and less to the statements of potential candidates, there will simply be fewer opportunities for people like Romney (or any comparable Democrat when a Republican is in the White House) to run this early. Nobody will be listening. The endless campaign thrives on receiving media attention." "The second change has to come from government. The White House and Congress must tackle campaign finance reform and attempt to restore some of the system that had been put into place as a result of the Watergate scandal. Only with public finance, enforced contribution limits and possibly expenditure limits would the nation be able to dampen the fundraising pressures on candidates." 06-09 Editorial: First Amendment - Upside Down (New York) "The Supreme Court decision striking down public matching funds in Arizona’s campaign finance system is a serious setback for American democracy. The opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. in Monday’s 5-to-4 decision shows again the conservative majority’s contempt for campaign finance laws that aim to provide some balance to the unlimited amounts of money flooding the political system." "Justice Elena Kagan, writing in dissent, dissects the court’s willful misunderstanding of the result. Rather than a restriction on speech, she says, the trigger mechanism is a subsidy with the opposite effect: 'It subsidizes and produces more political speech.' Those challenging the law, she wrote, demanded — and have now won — the right to 'quash others’ speech' so they could have 'the field to themselves.' She explained that the matching funds program — unlike a lump sum grant to candidates — sensibly adjusted the amount disbursed so that it was neither too little money to attract candidates nor too large a drain on public coffers." "Arizona’s system was a response to a history of terrible corruption in the state’s politics." 06-11 Editorial: Green Jobs to Save our Future (CNN News) "Ending the subsidies that make dirty fuels artificially cheap can spark a shift in infrastructure development, create more jobs and allow America to become more self-sufficient. "The choice is clear. We can sit idly as China and Germany invest in clean energy -- a soon-to-be $8 trillion world market -- or we can step up, get Americans back in the work force and export the best clean energy vehicles and technology." 08-10 Editorial: How America Is Squandering Its Wealth (US News) "Most important is to see the connection between the American way of life and the foreign policy that our government conducts. There are some critics of American foreign policy, Noam Chomsky, for instance, who portray U.S. foreign policy as a great conspiracy where certain elites pull the wool over the eyes of the people to benefit themselves and their cronies. I've come to believe that U.S. foreign policy is broadly conceived to reflect the will of the American people." 08-08 Editorial: How to Save a Trillion Dollars (Time.com) "Across Washington, all sorts of people are starting to ask the unthinkable questions about long-sacred military budgets. Can the U.S. really afford more than 500 bases at home and around the world? Do the Air Force, Navy and Marines really need $400 billion in new jet fighters when their fleets of F-15s, F-16s and F-18s will give them vast air superiority for years to come? Does the Navy need 50 attack submarines when America's main enemy hides in caves? Does the Army still need 80,000 troops in Europe 66 years after the defeat of Adolf Hitler?" "Numbers alone tell much of the story: we are now spending 50% more (even excluding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) than we did on 9/11. We are spending more on the military than we did during the Cold War, when U.S. and NATO troops stared across Germany's Fulda Gap at a real super-power foe with real tanks and thousands of nuclear weapons aimed at U.S. cities. In fact, the U.S. spends about as much on its military as the rest of the world combined." 04-11 Editorial: In the Middle East, Peace and Good Governance Starts With Them (New York Times) "If it doesn’t start with them, if they don’t have ownership of a new peace initiative, a battle or a struggle for good governance, no amount of U.S. troops kick-starting, cajoling or doling out money can make it work. And if it does start with them, they really don’t need or want us around for very long." 06-11 Editorial: Is Obama a Really a Republican? (TheRoot.com) "If Obama had actually governed like a classic liberal, his most ardent critics would have been content to call him a liberal. But they resorted to calling him a socialist to camouflage the fact that his policymaking was more liberal Republican than progressive Democrat." "You've heard that Obama is anti-business, right? But the Dow was down near 7,000 in Obama's first 100 days, and it's been above 10,000 for more than a year." "Unlike George H.W. Bush's read my lips' tax increase in the face of 1990's recession, Obama's stimulus plugged a hole in the leaking national economy and still managed to rebate $288 billion in taxes to the middle class." 11-10 Editorial: Is Our Choice Between "Restoration" and "Transformation"? (Time.com) "Transformers view the Constitution as a supple, living document; restorers view it as sacred text and must, as the new GOP Pledge to America affirms, 'honor its original intent' — not that we've ever agreed on what that is." 12-10 Editorial: Islam Is a Religion, Not a Terror Ideology (CNN News) "Opponents of an Islamic community center and mosque planned to be built near ground zero say it would desecrate hallowed ground. But suspicion has greeted proposed mosque projects in places less hallowed than ground zero -- in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Temecula, California; and elsewhere." "This suggests that opposition to mosques is not driven only by sensitivity to the memory of terrorism victims, but also by a growing unease toward Islam, fueled by security fears." 08-10 Editorial: Obama Gets Little Credit (New York Times) "The health law will hold costs down, while giving millions the chance at getting care, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Financial reform seeks to prevent the kind of meltdown that caused the global economic collapse. And the stimulus, though it drastically raised the deficit, saved about 3 million jobs, again according to the CBO. It also gave a majority of taxpayers a one-time cut — even if 90 percent of Americans don’t know that, either." "The banking system was resuscitated by $700 billion in bailouts started by Bush (a fact unknown by a majority of Americans), and finished by Obama, with help from the Federal Reserve. It worked. The government is expected to break even on a risky bet to stabilize the global free market system. Had Obama followed the populist instincts of many in his party, the underpinnings of big capitalism could have collapsed. He did this without nationalizing banks, as other Democrats had urged."" "Billions of profits, windfalls in the stock market, a stable banking system — but no jobs." 11-10 Editorial: Protecting the Net Is Protecting Free Speech (CNN News) "Net neutrality may sound like a technical issue, but it's the key to preserving the internet as we know it -- and it's the most important First Amendment issue of our time." 08-10 Editorial: Reality-Based Conservatism Is Needed (Time.com) "We need conservative ideas to modernize the U.S. economy and reform American government. But what we have instead are policies that don't reform but just cut and starve government — a strategy that pays little attention to history or best practices from around the world and is based instead on a theory." 06-11 Editorial: Tag, You're It (Truth-Out.org) "Our economy is in tatters, the result of more than 30 years of Reaganomics and Clintonomics. Our democracy is hanging by a thread, the result of 40 years of radical Supreme Court decisions steadily advancing the powers of corporations and suppressing the rights of individuals and their government. And our environment is trembling under the combined assault of the Industrial Revolution and nearly 7 billion bundles of human flesh." "Now is the most important time for us all to be paying attention, to show up, and to wake up our friends, family, and neighbors. Because this nation is on the edge of a radical restart, a reboot." "Tag, you’re it." 01-11 Editorial: The Bush Legacy (CNN News) "I think the single most significant bad decision George Bush made came early in his presidency. It was a decision widely applauded at the time and with much bipartisan support. Remember the Bush tax cuts?" "Remember their effect on America's finances? In 2000, the Clinton administration had almost balanced the federal budget and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was projecting that over the next 10 years the United States would have budget surpluses that would add up to $5.6 trillion." "By the spring of 2002, two-thirds of that projected surplus had evaporated and the rest disappeared soon thereafter. It was the most profoundly un-conservative act of Bush's presidency. Rather than pay down debt and save in the good times for the inevitable bad times, Bush squandered it all so that all of us -- particularly high income earners -- could indulge in a bit more consumption." "And now, when times have gotten bad and we sorely need that reserve, we're clean out of cash. The federal budget deficit will likely range from $1.2 to $1.8 trillion over the next few years. Imagine what we could have done by either saving that money or spending it wisely on an energy revolution, on upgrading the infrastructure, on modernizing the health-care system." 01-09 Editorial: The End of American Capitalism? (MSNBC News) "The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is claiming another casualty: American-style capitalism." 10-08 Editorial: The Meaning of Obama's Win (Time.com) "Remember this day, parents told their children as they took them out of school to go see an African-American candidate make history. An election in one of the world's oldest democracies looked like the kind they hold in brand-new ones, when citizens finally come out and dance, a purple-thumb day, a velvet revolution." 11-08 Editorial: The Merit of Diversity (CNN News) "More than 20 years ago, I got into an argument with a college roommate over affirmative action -- one I've thought about since President-elect Barack Obama began nominating people to serve in the Cabinet and White House staff." 11-08 Editorial: The Unemployment Disaster (New York Times) "The employment situation in the United States is much worse than even the dismal numbers from last week’s jobless report would indicate. The nation is facing a full-blown employment crisis and policy makers are not responding with anything like the sense of urgency that is needed." 08-10 Editorial: Videotaping the Police Should Not be a Crime (Time.com) "Anthony Graber, a Maryland Air National Guard staff sergeant, faces up to 16 years in prison. His crime? He videotaped his March encounter with a state trooper who pulled him over for speeding on a motorcycle. Then Graber put the video — which could put the officer in a bad light — up on YouTube." 08-10 Editorial: We Can't Drill Our Way Out of Our Fuel Crisis (Time.com) "The reality is that whether the U.S. drills or not, it really doesn't make a difference — not against the sheer scale of the energy and climate crisis facing America and the rest of the world. (Indeed, the other 6.3 billion people factor into this equation too.) The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently estimated that under a business-as-usual scenario — which the U.S. seems intent on abiding — global oil demand would rise 70% by 2050. That increase represents five times as much oil as Saudi Arabia produces annually. You could drill America with exploratory wells until it looked like Swiss cheese and still not make much of a dent in that figure." 08-08 Editorial: What Can We Really Do to Limit Climate Change? (New York Times) "American companies can trade emission rights. By setting overall caps at levels designed to ensure that China sells us a substantial number of permits, we would in effect be paying China to cut its emissions. Since the evidence suggests that the cost of cutting emissions would be lower in China than in the United States, this could be a good deal for everyone." "But what if the Chinese (or the Indians or the Brazilians, etc.) do not want to participate in such a system? Then you need sticks as well as carrots. In particular, you need carbon tariffs." "A carbon tariff would be a tax levied on imported goods proportional to the carbon emitted in the manufacture of those goods. Suppose that China refuses to reduce emissions, while the United States adopts policies that set a price of $100 per ton of carbon emissions. If the United States were to impose such a carbon tariff, any shipment to America of Chinese goods whose production involved emitting a ton of carbon would result in a $100 tax over and above any other duties. Such tariffs, if levied by major players — probably the United States and the European Union — would give noncooperating countries a strong incentive to reconsider their positions." 04-10 Editorial: What Is "Objectivity" in News Reporting? (Time.com) "Namely, what journalists and people who talk about them generally call "objectivity" is not actual objectivity, but something more like "neutrality" (often a false and labored one). Objectivity does not mean having no opinion, taking no side or expressing no point of view. It means seeking, acknowledging and interpreting objective evidence, even when it conflicts with your preconceptions or with what you wish to be true. You can have subjective beliefs—because we all do—and yet subordinate them to objective evidence." "In most fields, someone who simply processes information yet is unable or unwilling ever to draw conclusions from it would not be considered very useful; only in journalism is that somehow the ideal." 11-10 Editorial: Where Did the Trillions in the Stock Market Go? (Time.com) "If you're looking to track down your missing money — figure out who has it now, maybe ask to have it back — you might be disappointed to learn that is was never really money in the first place." "Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale, puts it bluntly: The notion that you lose a pile of money whenever the stock market tanks is a 'fallacy.' He says the price of a stock has never been the same thing as money — it's simply the 'best guess' of what the stock is worth." 10-08 Editorial: Why Your Bank Is Broke (Time.com) "There's little hope that the type of shares the government is buying in banks as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will plug the hole in the banking system's bucket. Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets who has written a number of reports on the capital issues of banks, says the only way to solve the problem is for the government to stop buying preferred shares and start taking direct ownership stakes. Of course, the issue with that approach is that the problem at the banks is so large, Uncle Sam may end up owning a good portion of the banking sector. Few seem to want nationalization. Unfortunately, that could be the only way out." 01-09 Election Reform Expert: Suicide Bombers Not Motivated Primarily by Religion (MSNBC News) Tucker Carlson: "I should also say you’ve compiled the world’s largest database on suicide terrorism. You studied every suicide bombing in the world since about 1980, so you’re a good guy to ask, obviously, the guy to ask. You make the point, if I understand it correctly, that, most of the time, suicide bombing is a response to foreign occupation, you say, not a product of religious extremism." Robert Pape: "Yes. Over 95 percent of all suicide terrorist attacks around the world since 1980 have in common not religion, but a clear strategic purpose, to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland or prize greatly." 7-05 From Dictatorship to Democracy (AEinstein.org) "Out of these concerns and experiences grew a determined hope that prevention of tyranny might be possible, that successful struggles against dictatorships could be waged without mass mutual slaughters, that dictatorships could be destroyed and new ones prevented from rising out of the ashes." "I have tried to think carefully about the most effective ways in which dictatorships could be successfully disintegrated with the least possible cost in suffering and lives. In this I have drawn on my studies over many years of dictatorships, resistance movements, revolutions, political thought, governmental systems, and especially realistic nonviolent struggle." "This publication is the result." 02-11 Gene Sharp: The Shy Revolutionary (New York Times) "Few Americans have heard of Mr. Sharp. But for decades, his practical writings on nonviolent revolution — most notably 'From Dictatorship to Democracy,' a 93-page guide to toppling autocrats, available for download in 24 languages — have inspired dissidents around the world, including in Burma, Bosnia, Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia and Egypt." 02-11 Gerrymandering Keeps Incumbents in Congress (CNN News) "Gerrymandering is the term for the way politicians draw boundary lines for legislative districts in a way designed to keep one party or the other in power in that particular district." "In the last 10 years, 78% of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives -- almost four out of every five members of Congress -- did not change party hands even once." 11-11 Giving Thanks for Everyday Heroes (MSNBC News) "Meet 5 who answered the call, and hear what they learned from their acts of kindness and courage" 11-10 Glossary of Terms for the Oil Spill (CNN News) Provides a glossary. 06-10 Greenspan Admits 'Mistake' (MSNBC News) "Accused of contributing to the meltdown, but denying that it was his fault, Greenspan told a House panel the crisis left him — an unabashed free-market advocate — in a 'state of shocked disbelief.' " 10-08 Gross National Product Report: What It Means (U.S. News) "The data confirm that the U.S. economy is not just slowing; it's shrinking. Consumer spending saw its steepest fall since 1980, as more Americans kept their wallets closed in the face of higher unemployment and sagging home values." 10-08 Health Care Reform and the Health Care Insurance Industry (Time.com) "Brokers and agents have to hope there will still be demand for their help in navigating the maze of health insurance. 'More of the upfront stuff will be done online, but it won't replace the service,' says Janet Trautwein, CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters, which represents agents and brokers. She says the advice and counseling that state-licensed brokers and agents provide will still be needed." 08-10 How Social Media Is Changing Disaster Response (Time.com) "Halfway around the world in Japan, social media was a primary source of communication following the earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11. However, unlike the situation in Joplin, citizens were using networks like Twitter, Facebook and Mixi (a Japan-specific social site) to send warnings, ask for help and relay bits of information from the scene as well as to announce that they were safe." 06-11 How U.S. Credit Problems Went Global (Time.com) "Anyone who clinged to the notion that the risks lurking in America's mortgage pool were a local concern has now been proven wrong. The U.S. subprime mortgage market — turned sour by borrowers with poor credit struggling to meet payments as interest rates rise — is fast becoming a global worry. With huge chunks of this debt packaged up and sold to financial companies across the world, bad loans are roughing up banks and markets just about everywhere." 08-07 How the 1% Live: The Priciest Homes (Time.com) "When you look at the most expensive homes for sale in the country, most have been on the market more than 180 days, and the priciest property for sale in America right now, Fleur de Lys in Los Angeles, has been on and off the market since 2007." 11-11 How the Falling Dollar Affects Americans (Christian Science Monitor) "US consumers' standard of living may drop as they pay more for foreign goods, but demand for American labor will rise, say economists." 09-07 How to Know If the Stimulus Plan Is Working (MSNBC News) "Yet while job creation is arguably the most important goal of the stimulus package, other parts of the bill will have a much more immediate and visible impact. Food stamp increases and extensions of unemployment benefits will be among the first noticeable effects of the package. Tax credit payments for individuals and families would follow, along with other tax breaks and incentives. Rising consumer confidence and lower unemployment will be far more gradual, and aren't likely to surface until late 2009 at the earliest." 02-09 How to Remove Yourself From a Social Network Like Facebook (Time.com) "Need to disappear from Facebook or Twitter? Now you can scrub yourself from the Internet with Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, a nifty service that purges your online presence from these all-consuming social networks." "But be warned: As in life, resurrection is impossible." 01-10 Hunger Highest in 15 Years (CNN News) "The number of Americans fighting off hunger stayed level last year, though food insecurity rates remain the highest they have been since the federal government began keeping track 15 years ago, a Department of Agriculture report released Monday found." "About 14.7 percent of U.S. households were 'food insecure' in 2009, meaning they had difficulty feeding one or more of their members at some point last year due to a lack of financial resources, according to the report." "That equates to 17.4 million households total, or roughly 45 million people." 11-10 Information Needed to Vote (866OurVote.org) Provides the location of your polling place and information required to bring with you. 11-10 Information Needed to Vote (League of Women Voters) "Smart Voter provides nonpartisan information on elections and voting. Our goal is to offer the complete list of all contests on your ballot including local offices. Where possible we obtain this information by a collaboration of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters with election officials to present an accurate and complete ballot." 11-10 Interrogator: Why Saddam Pretended to Have WMD (CBS News) " 'It was very important for him [Saddam] to project that [he had weapons of mass destruction] because that was what kept him, in his mind, in power. That capability kept the Iranians away. It kept them from reinvading Iraq,' Piro says." 01-08 Islamists (Wikipedia.org) "Islamism refers to a set of political ideologies derived from various religious views of Muslim fundamentalists, which hold that Islam is not only a religion, but also a political system that should govern the legal, economic and social imperatives of the state. Islamist movements seek to re-shape the state by implementing a conservative formulation of Sharia. [1] Islamists regard themselves as Muslims rather than Islamists, while moderate Muslims and liberal movements within Islam reject this notion." 01-06 Journalistic Standards and Practices - Good Taste (CBC News) Provides journalistic standards on what should and should not be shown to the public in news media because of the diversity of the public. Judge: Justice Can Be Served Within the U.S. Constitution (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) "U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said the successful prosecution of Ahmed Ressam should serve not only as a warning to terrorists, but as a statement to the Bush administration about its terrorism-fighting tactics." " 'We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel,' he said Wednesday. 'The message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart.' " 7-05 Maddow Interviews Jon Stewart (Time.com) Provides a portion of the interview on Stewart's view on what is wrong with today's news media. Stewart makes the case that media should be focusing on the distinction between corruption and integrity rather than the distinction between Republican and Democrat. 11-10 Military Terms (MSBC News) A squad is comprised of 10-11 soldiers. A platoon has four squads. A company has two or more platoons and has 130-150 soldiers. "A battalion, usually about 400-strong, is comprised of three rifle companies, a combat support company and a headquarters company." A brigade "contains around 2,500 people commanded by a colonel." "One division is made up of at least three brigades with between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers." 03-07 Moderate Muslims Speak to Christians (Christian Science Monitor) "The open letter from 138 prominent Muslims – including imams, ayatollahs, grand muftis, sheikhs, and scholars – said 'the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians,' urgent language indicating a concern that tensions between the two faiths are in danger of spiraling out of control." "The Muslim signatories are authoritative, representing all major schools of Islamic thought, as well as influential at the grass-roots level, say scholars of Islam." "With its call for finding common ground in the foundational principles shared by the two faiths, the letter presents a significant counterweight to the voices of radical Islam on the global stage and is being heralded by Christian clergy and scholars as of historic import." 10-07 Mounting State Debts (New York Times) Financial analysts fear that "even when the economy recovers, the shortfalls will not disappear, because many state and local governments have so much debt — several trillion dollars’ worth, with much of it off the books and largely hidden from view — that it could overwhelm them in the next few years." 12-10 Nation's Top Accountant: The U.S. Is Headed for a Fiscal Catastrophe (ABC News) "As Steve Kroft reports, David Walker is an accountant, the nation’s top accountant to be exact, the comptroller general of the United States. He has totaled up our government's income, liabilities, and future obligations and concluded the numbers simply don’t add up." "David Walker is a prudent man and a highly respected public official. As comptroller general of the United States he runs he Government Accountability Office, the GAO, which audits the government's books and serves as the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress." "Asked if he knows any politicians willing to raise taxes or cut back benefits, Walker says, 'I don't know politicians that like to raise taxes. I don't know politicians that like to cut spending, but I think what we have to recognize is this is not just about numbers. We are mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren at record rates, and that is not only an issue of fiscal irresponsibility, it's an issue of immorality.' " 03-07 National Council of Churches: Torture Unacceptable (National Coucil of Churches) "The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA and Church World Service commended the U.S. Senate’s 'anti-torture provisions' in the 2006 Defense Appropriations bill." "But as the House of Representatives begins debate on the bill, some high ranking U.S. government officials have declined to support the provisions." " 'As delegates to the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA and Church World Service, we find any and all use of torture unacceptable and contrary to U.S. and international legal norms,' the delegates said." " 'We find it particularly abhorrent that our nation's law makers would fail to approve the pending legislation disavowing the use of torture by any entity on behalf of the United States government,' the statement said." 11-05 Newsweek's 50 Most Powerful Political Figures (Newsweek.com) "In the oversaturated, hypercommodified media culture of 2010, the most influential political figures are generally the ones who make the most money peddling their perspectives. To figure who's tops in this new world, NEWSWEEK asked Wealth-X, an intelligence and research firm, to compile a list of the 50 highest-earning political figures of 2010. Included in the rankings are politicians, ex-politicians, media personalities, and political consultants who hawk their personal brands in the public marketplace—and influence American political discourse in the process." 11-10 Obama as CEO (U.S. News) "What's the president's job?" "The Founding Fathers took a stab at this thorny question in Article II of the Constitution. They gave the president responsibility for commanding the armed forces, initiating treaties, appointing ambassadors and judges, keeping Congress informed of the state of the union, recommending legislation, and making sure 'that the Laws be faithfully executed.' " "If Obama were a CEO, he'd be graded by shareholders on how efficiently he solved the immediate problem, fixed the flaws that caused it, compensated victims, and steered the company back toward a profitable future. He'd have to show leadership, but his mood wouldn't really matter. In the end it would all be about performance. 06-10 Orman: Pay off Credit Card Debt First (MSNBC News) "The best way to insulate yourself is to get out of credit card debt once and for all. If you pay off your balance, you don’t have to worry about the interest rate on your card. If you pay off your bal­ance, you are less likely to have your credit card limit reduced; and even if it is reduced, it will not have a negative impact on your FICO score." 01-09 Political Ads Do Not Have a "Truth in Advertising" Obligation (Time.com) "Candidates are not held to the same commercial standard, and the reason is simple: their statements and advertisements are considered 'political speech,' which falls under the protection of the First Amendment. The noble idea undergirding what otherwise seems like a political loophole is the belief that voters have a right to uncensored information on which to base their decisions. Too often, however, the result is a system in which the most distorted information comes from the campaigns themselves. " "But it's not just that candidates are allowed to launch unfounded attacks against their opponents or make false claims about their own records. Broadcasters are actually obligated to run their ads, even those known to be false. Under the Federal Communications Act, a station can have a blanket policy of refusing all ads from all candidates. But they cannot single out and decline to air a particular commercial whose content they know to be a lie." 11-08 Political Campaigns - Finances (Federal Election Commission) Monitors and reports on contributions to political campaigns. Political Prodigies (Time.com) Time selects 10 U.S. politicians, current and historical, as "prodigies." 10-10 Poll: Obama Is America's Most Admired Man (USA Today) "His party may have suffered a shellacking in November's elections, but President Obama remains the unchallenged champion on another front: For the third year in a row, he is by far the most admired man in America." "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues an even longer run, ranked in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll as the most admired woman for the ninth straight year. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is second, as she was in 2009." 12-10 Poll: The Tea Party (CBS News) "They're white. They're older. And they're angry.""Sixty-three percent say they get the majority of their political and current events news on television from the Fox News Channel, compared to 23 percent of Americans overall." 04-10 Presidential Personalities (American Psychological Association) "As part of their The Personality and the President Project, psychologist Steven J Rubenzer, Ph.D., of Houston, Texas and co-authors Thomas Faschingbauer, Ph.D., of Richmond Texas and Deniz S. Ones, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, used several objective personality instruments to analyze the assessments made by more than one hundred presidential experts who were instructed to assess the lives of presidents they studied. The experts were instructed to look only at the five-year period before their respective subject became president to avoid the influence that life in the White House might have had on their behavior." "Results of the research indicate that great presidents, besides being stubborn and disagreeable, are more extraverted, open to experience, assertive, achievement striving, excitement seeking and more open to fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas and values. Historically great presidents were low on straightforwardness, vulnerability and order." "Achievement striving was found to be one of the best correlates of greatness in the oval office and competence was also a big predictor of presidential success." 12-03 Presidents and their Debts (New York Times) "Any discussion about American presidents and economics has to begin with this discouraging word: American politicians don’t know anything about economics." "When Reagan became president -- and began to cut taxes -- the federal deficit was 2.5 percent of the national economy. When he left, eight years later, the deficit was 5 percent of the economy. Interest payments on the debt jumped to $169 billion in 1988 from $69 billion in 1981. At the time, those were astonishing numbers, and they have exploded since. "That’s where we are now." 07-11 Public Opinion on Current Issues (Public Agenda Online) Provides results of surveys of public opinion on key issues related to health, education, and other current concerns. Role of Media in Terrorism (Guardian Unlimited) "Journalists must urgently debate whether their coverage of crises such as the hostage-taking in Iraq is driving terrorists to commit ever more outrageous atrocities, a top BBC executive said last night." Editor's Note: The Awesome Library does not cover hostage-taking activities because coverage is necessary for terrorists to "gain full value" from their hostage-taking. Further, the Awesome Library staff strongly encourage other media not to cover hostage-taking events. Rules for Winning a Debate (CNN News) Paul Begala provides his 10 recommendations for winning a debate. 10-08 Selling Our Infrastructure to Foreign Investors? (New York Times) "The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the United States needs to invest at least $1.6 trillion over the next five years to maintain and expand its infrastructure. Last year, the Federal Highway Administration deemed 72,000 bridges, or more than 12 percent of the country’s total, “structurally deficient.” But the funds to fix them are shrinking: by the end of this year, the Highway Trust Fund will have a several billion dollar deficit." " 'We are facing an infrastructure crisis in this country that threatens our status as an economic superpower, and threatens the health and safety of the people we serve,' New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg told Congress this year. In January he joined forces with Mr. Schwarzenegger and Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania to start a nonprofit group to raise awareness about the problem." 08-08 States Are Broke (CNN News) "The states are broke, and like many consumers, they're borrowing big time to get out of their fiscal binds." 07-10 States Now Tied to Big Tobacco (MSNBC News) "On Nov. 23, 1998, the nation's four largest cigarette sellers agreed to pay $200 billion over 30 years in what seemed like a victory for David over Goliath. The money was supposed to help the states pay for health care and anti-smoking campaigns. Instead, much of it -- even payments that aren't due for 20 years -- has already been spent on politically popular tax breaks through complicated borrowing schemes initiated by Wall Street investment banks." "Because these states have essentially borrowed against future payments from the tobacco industry, they are now dependent on the continued vitality of cigarette sales. If Big Tobacco stumbles, states will be on the hook for these massive, billion-dollar loans. In other words, David and Goliath are now allies." 11-08 States in Economic Crisis (MSNBC News) "With the economy in a slide and the housing market in crisis, states are collectively rolling up tens of billions of dollars in budget deficits in one of the worst financial crunches in the U.S. since the 1970s." 07-08 Staying in Touch With Home (New York Times) "Forget the drones, laser-guided bombs and eye-popping satellite imagery. For the average soldier, the most significant change to modern warfare might just boil down to instant chatting." 02-11 Stories of Heroes and Goodness (MSNBC) Provides uplifting stories. Study: Immigrants Are a Small Percent of Prison Population (Time.com) "Despite our melting-pot roots, Americans have often been quick to blame the influx of immigrants for rising crime rates. But new research released Monday shows that immigrants in California are, in fact, far less likely than U.S.-born Californians are to commit crime. While people born abroad make up about 35% of California's adult population, they account for only about 17% of the adult prison population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) showed. Indeed, among men ages 18 to 40 — the demographic most likely to be imprisoned — those born in the U.S. were 10 times more likely than foreign-born men to be incarcerated." 02-08 Study: Political Views May Be in Your Brain (Time.com) "The scientists based their research on the brain scans of politicians and a handful of students--they found that the size of these two areas of the brain directly corresponded to the person's political viewpoints." 12-10 Study: Water Shortages Threaten Western U.S. (CNN News) "A shrinking snowpack in the Rocky Mountains may make it harder to slake the thirst of a growing population in the Western United States, according to new research from the U.S. government and several universities." "The shrinking snowpack serves as a "bank account" for those river systems, which supply drinking water and electric power to more than 70 million people from the Pacific Coast to the upper Great Plains, said Greg Pederson, the study's lead researcher." " 'In a nutshell, what you're seeing is synchronous, declining snowpacks across the West since the 1980s.' Based on the new study, the last time that pattern was seen as the mid-1300s to early 1400s, he said." 06-11 Study: We Have Left-Wing Brains and Right-Wing Brains (LATimes.com) "Even in humdrum nonpolitical decisions, liberals and conservatives literally think differently, researchers show. "Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work." 09-07 The Debate Over the Islamic Center in New York City (CBS News) "Of course the national argument isn't about measuring the length of two city blocks - it's about the distance between perceptions. If you believe Islam is a moral religion hijacked by terrorists, proximity doesn't matter." "If you believe Islam condones 9/11, this is too close." "One thing most people don't know is that the prayer space part of the project already exists. Hundreds of Muslims have been worshiping in the abandoned building for more than a year, ever since a nearby mosque lost its lease. The mosque near Ground Zero is a fact. The only question is whether the community center will go ahead." 09-10 The Fed Loaned $9 Trillion to Largest Financial Institutions (CNN News) "The Federal Reserve made $9 trillion in overnight loans to major banks and Wall Street firms during the financial crisis, according to newly revealed data released Wednesday." "The loans were made through a special loan program set up by the Fed in the wake of the Bear Stearns collapse in March 2008 to keep the nation's bond markets trading normally." 12-10 The Geneva Conventions (MSNBC News) Provides the Geneva Conventions, international agreements adopted by the United States regarding the humane treatment of prisoners and limits on the conduct of war. President Bush has proposed legislation to allow the Geneva Conventions to be re-interpreted by the CIA. 09-06 The Next 50 Years for the USA (CNN News) "CNN: You also describe how the U.S. will become more economically competitive in the future. How do you -- this to Americans who have seen our current economy slide downward into a recession and aren't convinced about this prediction?" "Kotkin: The U.S. has relatively younger demographics, which gives it a competitive advantage. This nation attracts people from all over the world, and that's what gives it global advantage; we have the potential to be energy sufficient. We are the only advanced country with a growing population, agricultural surplus, lots of raw materials, significant domestic energy. The nation is entrepreneurial in culture and has a reasonably stable political system. That doesn't mean that the U.S. will be a hegemonic global power, but I believe the economic condition, due to these factors, will definitely improve in the future and the census will reflect that." 07-10 The Primary Care Doctor Shortage (Time.com) "Less than 2% of current medical students are interested in general internal medicine and 4.9% in family care practice, says a study by Karen Hauer, M.D., published in the Journal of the American Medical Association." 08-10 The Road to Adulthood Getting Longer (New York Times) "Baby boomers have long been considered the generation that did not want to grow up, perpetual adolescents even as they become eligible for Social Security. Now, a growing body of research shows that the real Peter Pans are not the boomers, but the generations that have followed. For many, by choice or circumstance, independence no longer begins at 21." 06-10 The Tax and Revenue Problem (Time.com) "A telling example: General Electric, whose CEO Jeffrey Immelt recently landed a high-profile role heading up Obama’s advisory “Council on Jobs and Competitiveness,” pays some of the the lowest taxes of any corporation in America. The marginal corporate tax rate may be 35%, but GE effectively paid 15% in 2007, just 5.3% in 2008 and not one single penny in 2009. After recording $10.3 billion in income, they actually got a $1.1 billion tax benefit from the government. If that’s not a revenue problem, what is?" 11-11 The Trillion-Dollar Solution to the Credit Shortage (New York Times) "The result has been a drastic contraction of the amount of credit available throughout the economy. By one estimate, as much as $1.9 trillion of lending capacity — the rough equivalent of half of all the money borrowed by businesses and consumers in 2007, before the recession struck — has been sucked out of the system." "Banking chiefs, who have come under sharp criticism for not making more loans even as they have accepted billions of taxpayer dollars to prop themselves up, say it is the markets, not the banks, that are squeezing American borrowers." "The Obama administration hopes to jump-start this crucial machinery by effectively subsidizing the profits of big private investment firms in the bond markets. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve plan to spend as much as $1 trillion to provide low-cost loans and guarantees to hedge funds and private equity firms that buy securities backed by consumer and business loans." 02-09 The White House (WhiteHouse.gov) Provides information from the White House. "WhiteHouse.gov will be a central part of President Obama's pledge to make his the most transparent and accountable administration in American history." 01-09 Time's 10 Worst Bosses (Time.com) "On Oct. 16, America celebrated National Boss Day. In honor of this under-the-radar holiday, TIME takes a look at some of the nation's most egregiously bad chief execs." 10-10 Time's 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century (Time.com) "TIME surveys the 25 women of the last one hundred years who have most influenced our world." 11-10 Time's 50 Best Inventions of 2010 (Time.com) "Here are the year's biggest (and coolest) breakthroughs in science, technology and the arts." 11-10 Tracking Stimulus Spending (CNN News) "The $862 billion economic stimulus package 'was never intended to save every job,' Obama said on Wednesday at the White House marking the anniversary of his signing the bill. 'Businesses are the true engine of growth (and) always will be. But during a recession ... what government can do is provide a temporary boost.' " 03-10 U.S. Spent Tiny Fraction of Foreclosure Prevention Program (MSNBC News) "When the Obama administration launched its flagship foreclosure prevention program in early 2009, it pledged to spend up to $50 billion helping struggling homeowners. But the government has so far only spent a tiny fraction of that." 11-10 U.S. Water Distribution System Breaking Down (CNN News) "Critical water pipelines are breaking from coast to coast, triggered by this summer's record high temperatures. It's not a phenomenon or coincidence, experts say. It's a clear sign that Americans should brace for more water interruptions, accompanied by skyrocketing water bills." "The heat wave of the past few weeks has burst hundreds of crucial pipes in California, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky and New York, temporarily shutting off water to countless consumers just when they needed it most." "It underscores the fact that much of the nation's underground water lines are 80 to 100 years old -- and approaching the end of their lives." 08-11 Wael Ghonim, Revolutionary (Time.com) "But in spite of his career achievements and comfortable life, he chose to be part of a hidden, more dangerous world — one in which he sought to activate change in his homeland. After he returned to Egypt, that work thrust him into prison for more than 10 days. When he emerged, he was hailed by some as the leader of the faceless group of young revolutionaries who are credited with getting the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak off the ground." 02-11 Websites to Brighten Your Day (CNN News) "Despite its haters and trolls, the massive realm of the internet still has enough bright spots to improve any dark mood. Here are eight websites that feature positive and uplifting stories for people like Burke. Or you." "Who knows? They may even help renew your faith in the goodness of the human experience." 08-10 What Did the Banks Do With Your Cash? (ABC News) "The heads of eight major banks that received $125 billion in taxpayer bailout funds were largely unapologetic for their role in helping to create the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression as they testified before Congress this morning." 02-09 What Has the Stimulus Bill Done for Us? (Time.com) "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — President Obama's $787 billion stimulus — has been marketed as a jobs bill, and that's how it's been judged. The White House says it has saved or created about 3 million jobs, helping avoid a depression and end a recession. Republicans mock it as a Big Government boondoggle that has failed to prevent rampant unemployment despite a massive expansion of the deficit. Liberals complain that it wasn't massive enough." "Yes, the stimulus has cut taxes for 95% of working Americans, bailed out every state, hustled record amounts of unemployment benefits and other aid to struggling families and funded more than 100,000 projects to upgrade roads, subways, schools, airports, military bases and much more. But in the words of Vice President Joe Biden, Obama's effusive Recovery Act point man, 'Now the fun stuff starts!' The 'fun stuff,' about one-sixth of the total cost, is an all-out effort to exploit the crisis to make green energy, green building and green transportation real; launch green manufacturing industries; computerize a pen-and-paper health system; promote data-driven school reforms; and ramp up the research of the future. 'This is a chance to do something big, man!' Biden said during a 90-minute interview with TIME." 08-10 What To Do With Your Retirement Money Now (CBS News) "Contributor Ray Martin offers some specific advice for workers in different generations, as well as suggestions for how their portfolios should be allocated." 10-08 What to Expect From the Economic Crisis (Time.com) "The pain will soon come to Main Street — in Beijing and Brussels as much as in Boise. Economists are already outlining the downward spiral that they predict will follow. Banks will cut back on their lending to households and businesses. Mortgages and car loans will become harder to get. That in turn will stifle consumer spending and crimp investment in companies, leading to production cuts and job losses. Judging by previous crises, it can take about 18 months to two years for a financial squeeze to spread to the rest of the economy, which means that 2009 is shaping up to be a bleak year everywhere." "If the global financial meltdown can be traced to an American export — the subprime mess — the U.S. will import the consequences. As the go-go economies of China and India hit the brakes, so too will demand for American goods and services." 10-08 White House Power vs. Individual Constitutional Rights (Christian Science Monitor) "At issue is whether the White House has the power to keep an alleged victim from seeking redress in US courts." "The [federal] judge threw out the [Masri] suit on state-secrets grounds, and a federal appeals court panel upheld the dismissal on the same grounds." "In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Masri is asking the justices to examine whether the government properly invoked the state-secrets privilege or simply used the privilege to avoid being held accountable for alleged torture and other illegal and unconstitutional activities." " 'The whole reason for the court system is to protect individual rights that wouldn't be protected in the political process,' says Amanda Frost, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, who also teaches at American University's Washington School of Law." 09-07 Why AIG Stumbled and Taxpayers Own It (CBS News) "Of all the corporate bailouts that have taken place over the past year, none has proved more costly or contentious than the rescue of American International Group (AIG). Its reckless bets on subprime mortgages threatened to bring down Wall Street and the world economy last fall until the U.S Treasury and the Federal Reserve stepped in to save it." 05-09 Wolff: Global Food System Can't Survive (CNN News) "As the nation marks World Hunger Relief Week, more people are asking: Why are so many people starving and what, if anything, can be done to eradicate hunger?" "Wolff thinks hunger can be conquered. Her group produces 'Medika Mamba,' energy dense, peanut butter food that's designed to ensure Haitian children survive childhood. Medika Mamba is easy to make, store, preserve and distribute, she says." "Patel says '2008 was a record year in terms of harvest. There's more food per person in 2008 than there's ever been in history. The problem is not food, but how we distribute it.' " 11-08 Women Gaining Political Power (CNN News) "Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968 as the first black woman in the U.S. Congress, once said: 'I've always met more discrimination being a woman than being black.' " "In the House, 10 new congresswomen will join the 64 incumbents who were re-elected, according to Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics, bringing the number of women in the 435-seat body to a record 74. The 100-member U.S. Senate gained one woman, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who became the 17th female senator." 11-08 Woodward: Surge Success Greatly Caused by Secret Program (CNN News) "The dramatic drop in violence in Iraq is due in large part to a secret program the U.S. military has used to kill terrorists, according to a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward." 09-08 Worst Presidents (U.S. News) "Credit, or blame, for the first scholarly ranking of the presidents usually goes to Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger Sr., who conducted a poll for Life magazine in 1948. He asked 55 specialists in American history to rate the presidents as great, near great, average, below average, or failure. Claiming the cellar of that list were Warren G. Harding and, in ascending order, Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Calvin Coolidge, John Tyler, Benjamin Harrison, and Herbert Hoover." 05-08 Projects Cap and Trade Game (MSNBC News) Game simulates "cap and trade" to reduce air pollution. Editor's Note: The designers of the game assume that the cost for reducing emissions may always be high. 11-09 Find Events for Volunteering (USAService.org) "Barack Obama is calling on Americans of all ages to step up and help our fellow citizens however we can." 01-09 Homes for Our Troops (HomesforOurTroops.org) Builds specially adapted homes for severely disabled veterans. 04-08 New Voters Project (NewVotersProject.org) Provides activities to help "reengage young people in the political process. Over 28 million eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 24 years old could be a powerful voting bloc in the upcoming elections." 04-08 Using Editorial Cartoons to Teach Current Events (Cagle.com) "This is the Teachers' Guide for using the Professional Cartoonists Index web site in your classes. We have developed lesson plans for using the editorial cartoons as a teaching tool in Social Sciences, Art, Journalism and English at all levels --click on the icons to the left to visit our lesson plans." 04-08 Writing to the Media - Contacts (Congress.org) Provides information for writing letters to the editors and other media campaigns. 7-05

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