Peter King’s hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims got off to an emotional start today, when Rep. Keith Ellison—the first Muslim American elected to Congress—broke down in recounting the story of a Muslim paramedic who died while responding to the 9/11 attacks and was later, according to…
Continue reading …With the death of Mike Starr, a former Celebrity Rehab participant, the time has come to talk about why the show needs to be shut down. No, not because of Starr’s death—“If every recovery center had to close down after a former patient relapsed and died, we’d have no…
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Live from 4pm – 5pm ET: Click here to join live discussion regarding the NPR video sting and undercover journalism ethics. James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas have just released part two of their NPR investigation, which claims to show an NPR executive telling a fake Muslim donor how his group can be shielded from a government audit if it donates $5 million. The video features phone calls between… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : The Blaze Discovery Date : 10/03/2011 22:17 Number of articles : 9
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Passengers on the platform at a Boston station were able to pull a man to safety after he fell onto the tracks just as a subway train was approaching the scene. (March 10)
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Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper on their new sci-fi thriller ‘Limitless.’ (March 10)
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Click here to view this media You know, I used to have some respect for Jack Cafferty even though I knew back then that we were on primarily opposite ends of the political spectrum because he spoke out against the Bush administration when that wasn’t necessarily the most popular thing for a conservative to be doing, but he just lost me completely here. Calling Social Security a “welfare program” is just shameless. The widows and orphans who receive those benefits do so after a spouse or a parent paid into the system and seniors receive the benefit after paying into it for their entire lives. And unemployment insurance is just that, insurance. It’s not welfare. And does Jack really think we should just leave our elderly, the disabled and young mothers and children with no help to pay their medical bills at all? What cost does he think it would be to our society to just leave those people to rot on the streets? Painting people who receive these benefits as “welfare” recipients paints a picture of a bunch of lazy unemployed people who don’t want to work, and just want to sit on their duffs and collect government benefits. Does he think that most of the people receiving these benefits now haven’t worked for a living most of their lives and paid into the system? At a time when we’ve got record unemployment and underemployment and a lot of good, decent, hard working Americans who would like to find jobs and can’t, asking a question with this frame is doing nothing but trying to pit one middle or lower class individual in the United States against another and get them to resent each other. It’s divide and conquer bulls**t to distract from us from those who have caused our economic problems and they are NOT the elderly, the poor, the unemployed, widows, orphans and young mothers and their children who don’t have any health insurance. Shame on you Jack. Here’s his post at The Cafferty File. Thankfully a lot of the answers if you go read his entire comments section were a whole lot better than his question, but sadly a lot of the comments there were from individuals who’ve bought into the kind of resentment that Cafferty is peddling here. What does it mean if social welfare benefits make up 1/3 of wages, salaries in U.S.? : Americans have become alarmingly dependent on handouts from Uncle Sam, according to a new report. Government social welfare programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment insurance made up 35% of all public and private wages and salaries last year. That’s more than one-third of all the money Americans earned. These findings are contained in a study of government data done by TrimTabs Investment Research. In 2000, 21% of all wages and salaries in the United States came from social welfare programs. In 1960, it was just 10%. One of the economists at TrimTabs says we’re in for some difficult times ahead unless this country can get back to at least the 26% ratio it had before the recession started. And she says there are only two ways to do that: Either increase private sector wages and salaries by 35% or cut social welfare benefits by nearly a quarter. Neither of those things is likely to happen. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the so-called entitlement programs, make up more than 60% of federal spending each year. As the baby boomers get older, retire and need more medical care, the costs for those programs will only go up. While the squabbling over budget cuts continues on Capitol Hill, you can be sure no one is touching these programs. The $60 billion measure passed by the House last month didn’t touch one dime of those three programs. As the evidence continues to mount that our country is hurtling toward an economic disaster, our government refuses to respond in any meaningful way. Here’s my question to you: What does it mean if social welfare benefits make up more than 1/3 of all wages and salaries paid in the U.S.? Interested to know which ones made it on air? Mike in Brooklyn: It means that we’re in a bad Recession. One so bad that it’s really a Depression. What is shocking to me about how you phrase your question, Jack, is that you fail to include all the handouts to businesses (especially the large corporations), trade associations, and “development” commissions, among other entities, that get subsidies. Sylvia in San Diego: It means that we are a welfare nation and in order to recover from this economic disaster, it will be very painful for many. Larry in Springfield, Ohio: Jack, it means that those jobs that Americans refuse to do need to be done by Americans that refuse to do them. If they are able otherwise, we need to stop paying people not to work. A.: Welcome to reality. The middle class used to make money and pay taxes. Now the rich make the money and don’t pay taxes; the poor don’t make money and receive poverty credits to keep them from attacking the system with pitchforks. Patsy: Jack, I’m certainly no authority but how can Social Security be classified as a “handout” when people who draw on it are the same people who used some of their salary to pay into it? It is money earned but saved. The Government should never have borrowed on it in the first place, and technically were not supposed to. If left alone to earn interest, most likely there would be more money now. Nancy in Tennessee: The answer does lie in increasing wages and salaries in the private sector by 35%. It all boils down to jobs. This country needs more jobs that will provide a living wage. Americans are hurting individually and that translates into a hurting American economy. Rick: It means that we are a socialist country, whether we like it or not. And while people may not like the label, just try taking away all that income! Bob: It means I’m in the wrong job!
Continue reading …Bee Colony Collapse Spreading Around The World, Putting Global Food Supply At Possible Risk
March 10, 2011 No CommentI keep wondering just why Big Agra is so indifferent to this. It’s really strange, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not as if they can artificially pollinate all the crops around the world: The mysterious collapse of honey-bee colonies is becoming a global phenomenon, scientists working for the United Nations have revealed. Declines in managed bee colonies, seen increasingly in Europe and the US in the past decade, are also now being observed in China and Japan and there are the first signs of African collapses from Egypt , according to the report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The authors, who include some of the world’s leading honey-bee experts, issue a stark warning about the disappearance of bees, which are increasingly important as crop pollinators around the globe. Without profound changes to the way human beings manage the planet, they say, declines in pollinators needed to feed a growing global population are likely to continue. The scientists warn that a number of factors may now be coming together to hit bee colonies around the world, ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of damaging insecticides, to the worldwide spread of pests and air pollution . They call for farmers and landowners to be offered incentives to restore pollinator-friendly habitats, including key flowering plants near crop-producing fields and stress that more care needs to be taken in the choice, timing and application of insecticides and other chemicals . While managed hives can be moved out of harm’s way, “wild populations (of pollinators) are completely vulnerable”, says the report. “The way humanity manages or mismanages its nature-based assets, including pollinators, will in part define our collective future in the 21st century,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director. “The fact is that of the 100 crop species that provide 90 per cent of the world’s food, over 70 are pollinated by bees. “Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature. “Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature’s services in a world of close to seven billion people.”
Continue reading …The rumored layoffs have arrived. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong today announced that the company would cut 200 US jobs, with the content side bearing the brunt of the layoffs. The Hollywood Reporter notes that a total of 900 jobs—or 20% of the workforce—will be done away with: Some…
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Egyptians will no longer tolerate paying for the state-run newspapers that peddled Hosni Mubarak’s propaganda A few hours before the ousting of the former president Hosni Mubarak, the Tahrir Square protesters were described in Egypt ‘s state-run media as “vandals” and “hooligans”. A few hours after Mubarak’s fall, the “vandalisers” had become “heroes”, and what was previously described as “chaos instigated by foreign powers” had suddenly become “a glorious revolution”. None of this impresses young Egyptians who – unlike older generations – have become accustomed to seeking out more neutral sources of information. They are increasingly fluent in alternative media, whether it’s social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, or the newly emerging independent newspapers that suffered under the former regime and are seen as one of the reasons behind the 25 January revolution. Sales of state-run papers have fallen quite drastically – partly because of the growth in independent media but also because of the way they sugar-coated Mubarak’s unpopular regime. One of the more outrageous examples came last September when al-Ahram doctored a photograph taken during the Israel-Palestine peace talks in Washington to suggest that 82-year-old Mubarak was leading the negotiations. The most loyal readers of the state-run press come from older generations who have a nostalgic attachment. Meanwhile, the young people who now represent the majority of the market prefer independent media – even foreign media such as the BBC, al-Jazeera and the Guardian – to get a more accurate picture. There are no reliable circulation figures for the state-run press in Egypt. Rafik Bassel, a media analyst and chief executive of Smartcomm advertising agency, says al-Ahram claims a circulation of 800,000 on weekdays and 1,000,000 on Fridays. He doubts this claim and suggests the real figure is 140,000 on weekdays of which 40,000 are subscriptions paid for by the government and distributed to officials around the country. “Advertising in state-run newspapers has been mandatory for businesses close to the previous regime,” Bassel added. “Large companies, banks and services were ordered to publish ads … not to mention obituaries, ‘congratulation’ ads, etc.” Mostafa Sakr, the chairman and editor of the independent al-Borsa daily (who used to work for al-Ahram’s economic magazine) told me that not only has the circulation of all state-run newspapers plunged seriously, but their influence has declined too. According to Sakr, people want sources of information they can trust – which is why sales of the independent newspaper al-Shorouk doubled during the revolution, reaching a circulation of about 150,000 a day. Even in the online world, independent media have proved more successful. Al-Youm al-Sabea news website was named as the Middle East’s top online newspaper by Forbes. Al-Ahram, the highest-ranking state-run newspaper on the list, came in 24th place. Economically speaking, these increasingly unpopular media outlets have become a financial burden on the Egyptian treasury. Taxpayers were paying the regime to provide them with lies and propaganda. A report from the Central Auditing Agency in 2008 accused Rose al-Youssef newspaper of wasting public money, since 74% of its printed copies were returned unsold, making its actual sales less than 2,500 a day. Rose al-Youssef, like many other state-run media, has a long and proud history that was severely polluted by its affiliation to unpopular, corrupt regimes. The future situation of these outlets is still unclear. However, the supreme council of armed forces, which is in charge of Egypt until a new president is elected in August, has ordered the dissolution of the information ministry – something the opposition had long been calling for. The ministry was regarded as the government’s means for controlling the media and limiting its freedom. Many journalists have also demonstrated at the syndicate of journalists, calling for the dismantling of the higher council of journalism, a government body controlled by parliament which is in charge of – and owns – Egypt’s seven state-funded newspapers. Whatever the future of these publications, the status quo should not be an option. Some of these papers, such as Rose al-Youssef, circulate in the low thousands and get funding in the tens of millions. With new, independent, credible and economically successful models of newspapers, the state-run press should be something of the past. If they can be made profitable they should probably be privatised so they can break free from the government’s grip and develop a more independent tone. If they cannot be profitable (which is more likely) then there is no reason for them to stay and be the burden they are. “If the state stops funding [its] newspapers, they will collapse in a heartbeat,” Bassel said. Egyptians have long paid a huge bill to be told lies. It’s time to do something more with this money. The era of communist-style propaganda is over in Egypt and the disparity between the content provided by state-run and independent newspapers has already narrowed since the fall of Mubarak’s regime. Starting a new era in Egypt should come with a new set of media practices and allow trusted names to lead a less stagnant media scene, replacing newspapers whose editorial policies were developed secretly in state security offices on presidential orders. Egypt Hosni Mubarak Newspapers Digital media Newspapers & magazines Middle East Arab and Middle East protests Press freedom Osama Diab guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Were it not for evolution, sex could be a pretty uncomfortable prospect. But fortunately for humans, the male penis evolved in one particularly nice way: it lost its spikes. Some animals, including chimps and mice, still have penises dotted with hard spines. But Stanford researchers have discovered one particular chunk…
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