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POPSTop 25 Censored Stories for 2009 # # 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights # # 17 UN’s Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights # # 18 Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers # # 19 Indigenous Herders and Small Farmers Fight Livestock Extinction # # 20 Marijuana Arrests Set New Record # # 21 NATO Considers “First Strike” Nuclear Option # # 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid # # 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs # # 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror # # 25 Bush’s Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer
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POPSStunning Statistics About the War Every American Should Know A year from now, we will likely see more than 220,000 US-funded personnel on the ground in Afghanistan. The US has spent more than $23 billion on contracts in Afghanistan since 2002. By next year, the number of contractors will have doubled since 2008 when taxpayers funded over $8 billion in Afghanistan-related contracts. Despite the massive number of contracts and contractors in Afghanistan, oversight is utterly lacking. “The increase in Afghanistan contracts has not seen a corresponding increase in contract management and oversight,” any USAID staff are “administering huge awards with limited knowledge of or experience with the rules and regulations.” According to one USAID official, the agency is “sending too much money, too fast with too few people looking over how it is spent.” As a result, the agency does not “know … where the money is going.”
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POPSHijacking Our Water Supply A group of water oligarchs engineered a disastrous privatization scheme to make a fortune out of California's most precious natural resource.
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POPSKucinich: Why I voted NO I'm so torn. I think we should have fought harder for a single-payer bill, even though I know that would have been a much harder battle. But I don't think that voting no on this was the solution, either. As much as I would like BIG CHANGE, I know that can't happen in one fell swoop. Baby steps, unfortunately, will get us to that final goal. Hopefully, the public will realize, soon, that we need single payer!
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POPS Is Britain's Health-Care System Really That Bad? How does NHS health care compare with U.S. health care? Like most developed countries, Britain ranks above the U.S. in most health measurements. Its citizens have a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality, and the country has more acute-care hospital beds per capita and fewer deaths related to surgical or medical mishaps. Britain achieves these results while spending proportionally less on health care than the U.S. — about $2,500 per person in Britain, compared with $6,000 in the U.S. For these reasons, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked Britain 18th in a global league table of health-care systems (the U.S. was ranked 37th). However, there are measures by which the U.S. outperforms Britain: for instance, the U.S. has lower cancer mortality rates.
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POPSIn support of the UC Faculty/Staff/Student walkout My wife is one of the thousands of UC staff who are walking the union picket lines today. Save public education! Pay those who teach and keep the university running rather than lining the pockets of the upper-floor executives! Note: If you're inclined to get all anti-union, my advice is this: save it. Not today, not on this clip. Because my wife & her co-workers and fellow union members are walking the line today. And I'll ban you in a heartbeat if you feel like getting up in my grill over this. Save it for another day.
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POPSKatrina Kriminal: poor, former renter, black Warning - you may not want to read this since it is about racial bias and elitism's effects in America. Four years ago Katrina laid bare the depth of racism and elitism in not just New Orleans, Louisiana but in the USA. Reminds me of why we tolerate genocide in the Sudan, high crime and homicide rates in predominately Black-American neighborhoods, and very high infante mortality in the Black and or poor America.
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POPSShoddy/Profiteering - Former Bush Cronies Cash In Shoddy was a term that entered the language to describe uniforms sold to Union troops during the civil war. The uniforms literally disolved when they got wet. Profiteering is a better understood term that came out of the same era. Now it is part of the revolving door syndrome in Washington DC. Retire or resign from your politically appointed job or high military post and go to work for a government contractor to be sure you get contracts for work you may or may not do or do well but get because of old "relationships" Stinks doesn't it - no matter what party does it. It has been reason so many companies now have offices and divisions near Washington. Make me mad as hell.
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POPSA Case of Copy Right-Infringements This looks like a very interesting case, i.e. if it develops further. If Ms Susan Jeffers wins her case it may be very difficult for writers, bloggers, etc. to use our mutual language freely.
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POPSMilwaukee Selling Water Birthright Cain would be proud of Milwaukee! Finally someone else is selling their birthright! The beer that made Milwaukee famous - you want someone else to own the water you make beer with?
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POPSIs the United States drifting toward "war socialism"? The difficulty with the BNP supporting these kinds of ideas is that they are associated quite rightly by the mainstream with the Party's racialist history. The time has come for a New Party to be formed which embraces autarchy, but not racialism. The same for the US: Time for a New Party.
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POPSThe words vs. actions of Obama He, like Bush, is squandering our resources on war and violence and, no matter what his words are, his actions and policies are what matters. Unfortunately, "Yes We Can" has morphed into "But, No, We Won't". Jerry Gerber San Francisco
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POPSSpecial Interest or Public Interest? The doctrine has been carried into American common law via the Magna Carta and English Common Law. It has been argued that laws like the Endangered Species Act have extended the concept of the public trust to apply to the survival of animals and plant species. Politicians treat environmental organizations not as representatives of the public interest but as just another special interest whose power, influence – and campaign contributions – need to be considered and weighed against the power, influence – and campaign contributions – of corporate and other private interests. Water privatization and air pollution trading are two examples of environmental establishments being redefined as private. The drive to redefine water, air, wildlife and all things traditionally public as private is a radical development which conflicts with the bedrock values which prevailed during most of human history. The Public Trust Doctrine is slowly eroding away.
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POPS"Top 25 Five Censored News Stories" # # 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid # # 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs # # 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror # # 25 Bush’s Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer
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POPSObama's Triple Surge Into Afghanistan
What Obama has not mentioned is that, in addition to soldiers and civilians, there is a third surge in his plan: private military contractors. Yes, another privatized army, such as the one in Iraq. There, the Halliburtons, Blackwaters and other war profiteers ran rampant, shortchanging our troops, ripping off taxpayers, killing civilians and doing deep damage to America's good name. Already, there are 71,000 private contractors operating in Afghanistan, and many more are preparing to deploy as Pentagon spending ramps up for Obama's war. The military is now offering new contracts to security firms to provide armed employees (aka, mercenaries) to guard U.S. bases and convoys. Despite the widespread contractor abuses in Iraq, Pentagon chief Robert Gates defends the ongoing privatization push: "The use of contractor security personnel is vital to supporting the forward-operating bases in certain parts of the country," he declared in a February letter to the Senate Armed Services Committ
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