By Bill McKibben, TomDispatch —At the moment, one of the world's most prominent features is a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark.
By Scott Tucker —For anyone who does not belong to the very capstone of the American social pyramid, the old slogan of the labor movement is gaining a new and terrible meaning: An injury to one is an injury to all.
President Obama’s controversial mandate to require religious organizations to include contraception in their health care coverage has already become fodder for his conservative opponents’ campaigns as they round the bend to their final run on the White House.
Once in a while, Bill O’Reilly strays from the expected Fox News formula and surprises us with his politics, as he did in this clip from Monday’s “O’Reilly Factor,” in which he compares the bid by the conservative women’s group One Million Moms to boycott J.C. Penney for picking Ellen DeGeneres as its spokeswoman to McCarthyist witch hunts of the ’50s. Updated
U.K.-based investigative reporters working with the Sunday Times have determined that “since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed [by CIA drone attacks in Pakistan], including more than 60 children.”
There may be untold millions of onetime Obama supporters whose feelings of hope have significantly diminished since, say, November 2008—and with good reason. But on Tuesday night, one of the president’s celebrity supporters, Scarlett Johansson, showed she’s still willing to stump for Obama at a gathering in New York that brought fashionistas and politicos together.
Animated movies make a bundle on commercial tie-ins, but “The Lorax” presented something of a challenge for Universal. After all, you can’t have plastic replicas of Dr. Seuss’ champion of the environment piling up in a landfill somewhere. The studio found a way to cash in by greenwashing its licensing with help from the EPA and Whole Foods.
Conservative power ranger Chuck Norris has come out swinging for the GOP once again—this time, he’s willing to lend his unique celebrity brand to give Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign a boost with a memorably worded endorsement only he could compose.
Fannie and Freddie are required to help homeowners while earning profits so they can pay back the taxpayers who bailed them out. Here is our guide to the little-known federal regulator, Edward DeMarco, ultimately in charge of the two companies. You may have never heard of him, but as The Washington Post put it, he’s “the most powerful man in housing policy.”
If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark.
Stephen Hadley, a former official in ex-Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, said in Munich that Europe must spend more if it wants to be a global player. The Europeans regard the George W. Bush administration record, and now the Obama administration’s, and see the disastrous results of “global playing.”
For anyone who does not belong to the very capstone of the American social pyramid, the old slogan of the labor movement is gaining a new and terrible meaning: An injury to one is an injury to all.
A Washington Post poll found that 83 percent of Americans approved of the U.S. government’s use of flying robots to kill terror suspects overseas, while 65 percent found no fault even if those targeted were American citizens. Liberals and Democrats consented to the killings as well, with favorable showings of 55 percent and 58 percent, respectively.
Washington became the seventh state to enter into the distinguished company of those that recognize the right of gays and lesbians to marry when the House passed Gov. Chris Gregoire’s same-sex marriage bill with a 55-43 vote Wednesday. Gregoire is expected to sign the bill into law within the next five days.
A $750 million, 104 acre complex that employs 16,000 people might have been George W. Bush’s concept of an embassy, but the people who run the country that happens to surround America’s fortress in Baghdad aren’t thrilled and the State Department has decided to scale back. (more)
Bashar al-Assad’s government rained more than 200 bombs on the opposition-controlled city of Homs on Wednesday, killing an unconfirmed 27 people and demolishing homes. The Russian and Chinese governments maintained their policy of nonintervention while leaders of Western and Arab nations scrambled to decide how, if at all, to get involved.
New York City’s hotels have agreed to arm housekeepers with personal panic buttons for use in emergencies, including the event of unwelcome advances from guests. The decision likely results from an increased concern for worker safety stirred up by the alleged sexual assault of a housekeeper by former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn last May.
John Boehner’s keen instincts have compelled him to zero in on the highly charged—and politically advantageous—dispute about religious organizations and contraception coverage that’s currently reaching the boiling point on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, the House speaker made a special speech devoted to the topic on the floor of Congress.
Contraception and Campaign 2012
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