From NOEBIE.net
Another reason I won’t be voting for Obama in 2012:
White House gives blessing to partial Keystone XL pipeline construction. [The Hill’s E2-Wire] – The White House backed TransCanada Corp.’s bid to build a major portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline Monday, a move that could shield President Obama from growing GOP attacks over the project.
Today, most of our mass media are controlled by one of six companies. Check out Frugal Dad’s infographic on the state of media consolidation in the U.S.
Source: Frugal Dad
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.
January deficit fell sharply to $27 billion: CBO. [Reuters] – The budget deficit shrank by nearly half in January compared to a year earlier as tax collections from individuals rose and outlays fell, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday. The CBO said it expects the Treasury Department to report a $27 billion deficit for January, versus a $50 billion deficit in January 2011. The January budget gap will bring the total deficit for the first four months of fiscal 2012 to $349 billion, a decrease of about $70 billion from the same period of fiscal 2011.
IMF’s Christine Lagarde warns of ‘1930s moment’. [BBC News] – IMF chief Christine Lagarde has warned the world faces an economic spiral reminiscent of the 1930s unless action is taken on the eurozone crisis. Ms Lagarde, speaking in Berlin, warned of a danger of rising unemployment if governments did not act together.
Congress Tosses PIPA and SOPA Antipiracy Bills. [WSJ.com] – Leaders of the Internet movement that turned little-noticed antipiracy legislation into a national cause proclaimed victory Friday after congressional backers abandoned their bills.
Yesterday this site, along with thousands of others on the Web, went “on strike” to protest the SOPA/PIPA legislation which is making its way through Congress. The legislation is being boosted by the big entertainment companies (Hollywood, the record industry, etc.) as a way to prevent “online piracy” and protect their property, but many believe that there are adequate copyright enforcement methods already available, and that this law would give the government (and individual copyright holders) too much power to censor online content they feel is objectionable.
Yesterday’s action has been called “the largest online protest in history” and it seems to have had some impact. According to Fight for the Future (the folks who run AmericanCensorship.org) there were only five U.S. Senators who had publicly opposed the measure as of last week. As we approach next Monday’s crucial Senate vote, now there are 35. It takes only 41 to block the bill.
We need to keep the heat on. I would urge you to learn more about this important issue, and to call your own Senators in advance of Monday’s session, and to call them again every day until the fight is over.
Use your freedom wisely.
Since The Doomsday Clock first appeared on the cover of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947, it has conveyed how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction, and has monitored the means humankind could use to obliterate itself. First and foremost, these include nuclear weapons, but they also encompass climate-changing technologies and new developments in the life sciences that could inflict irrevocable harm. The Scientists announced today that they are moving the clock forward one minute.
Doomsday Clock moves to five minutes to midnight. [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists] – It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007.
Occupy groups urge defeat of proposed law. [UPI.com] -Two Chicago-area Occupy protest groups warned city aldermen that supporting Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “Sit Down and Shut Up” ordinance will be met with resistance.
Did renewables overtake nuclear power in 2011? Sort of. [The Washington Post] – In 2011, for the first time in decades, the United States got more of its energy from renewable sources than it did from nuclear power. Not only that, but renewables are growing much faster than any other energy source.