Experts Say Iran Attack Is Irrational, Yet Hawks Are Winning the Debate. [Peter Beinart | The Daily Beast] – From the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to the head of Mossad, the experts are speaking out against attacking Iran over its nuclear program, but hawks like the GOP presidential candidates are drowning out the warnings.
Curated Links
Occupy Beyond The Camps
With camps gone, Occupiers prepare for new fights. [chicagotribune.com] – In interviews with Occupy groups in more than a dozen states – on both coasts and across the Midwest – activists described training for nonviolent confrontation, plans for spring rallies at state capitols and preparations for a major presence at the G-8 and NATO summits to be held in Chicago in May.
Snipers and Aerial Surveillance Ready for G8 Chicago
Face Masks, Snipers and Aerial Surveillance: Chicago’s Newest Anti-Protest Measures Revealed. [Truthout] – Each time a new measure that the city of Chicago is preparing for the coming NATO and G8 summits is unveiled, the tension in the city ratchets up a notch. The latest news comes in the form of reports that Chicago has purchased face shields, and may be considering the implementation of airborne surveillance technology.
New Fracking Study Sounds Alert
In addition to causing general environmental degradation, earthquakes and poisoned water, it appears that hydraulic fracturing also leaks methane at dangerous levels not previously suspected.
Fracking study sends alert about leakage of potent greenhouse gas. [Pete Spotts | CSMonitor.com] – A new study finds that fracking is releasing methane, a greenhouse gas, from a Colorado field at a higher rate than estimates suggested. Researchers must determine if the field is an anomaly or part of a bigger problem.
New Contraceptive Rule: Only Thing New Is “No Cost”
Julie Rovner writes on the NPR Health Blog:
There’s been no let-up in the debate about the Obama administration’s rule requiring most employers to provide prescription birth control to their workers without additional cost.
Here’s the rub: The only truly novel part of the plan is the “no cost” bit.
The rule would mean, for the first time, that women won’t have to pay a deductible or co-payment to get prescription contraceptives.
In fact, she notes, employers have for the most part been required to provide contraceptive coverage as part of their health plans since December of 2000.
Read More: Rules Requiring Contraceptive Coverage Have Been In Force For Years : Shots – Health Blog : NPR.
So, can someone please explain to me how providing coverage with a deductible or co-pay doesn’t violate “conscience” but providing it without a deductible and co-pay does?
Charting the Government’s Moves on Fracking
From Gung-Ho to Uh-Oh: Charting the Government’s Moves on Fracking. [Lena Groeger | ProPublica] – Fracking has only recently become a household word, but government involvement with the drilling technique goes back decades. ProPublica’s chart traces officials’ moves, and levels of caution, over time.
The Blood Is On The Floor
Inside Homs, ‘The Blood Is on the Floor’. [The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS] – Reports from the besieged Syrian city of Homs paint a dire picture. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that dozens have died there in the last 24 hours, 14 of them children. The assault by Syrian government forces came after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Assad regime. “Assad is using the veto as a license to unload on the opposition,” said Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute.
Student Loan Debt Bomb Next
Student loans could be next ‘debt bomb’. [UPI.com] – More than four of five U.S. bankruptcy attorneys say the number of potential clients with student loan debt has increased in the past three to four years, with some saying student loan client cases have increased 25 to 50 percent during the period. “Take it from those of us on the front line of economic distress in America: This could very well be the next debt bomb for the U.S. economy,” William E. Brewer Jr., the president of The National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, said in a news release.
What Santorum’s Victories Mean
For those who don’t mind profanity-laden political analysis:
Rick Santorum Primary Victories – Rick the Dick’s Delegate-Deprived Embrace by the Base. [Charles Pierce | Esquire] – Last night, with no delegates to their national convention on the line, and with the attention of the country largely elsewhere, the Republican base arose in Missouri, and in Minnesota, and in Colorado, and it delivered one unmistakably clear message to the party, and to the nation at large.
Chicago Hull House Closes After 120 Years
The Jane Addams Hull House Association, one of the largest non-profit social service organizations in Chicago, abruptly shut down on Friday, January 27th.
Shane Feratu and Scott Martin (for the website of the Fourth International) write:
Millionaires and billionaires abound in the Chicago region, but not even a few million could be raised to ensure an orderly closure of a historic charitable institution, let alone sufficient funds to sustain it. The era when the bourgeoisie and its institutions sought to veil social problems through reform has passed into one of austerity, when social spending is seen as a drain on the wallets of the wealthy and will no longer be tolerated.
Read More: Chicago’s Hull House closes after 120 years of service. [WSWS]