By Jim Miller
Things haven’t been going too well for the corporate education reform forces lately. In Chicago there is great controversy surrounding and parent resistance to school closings as a result of the efforts of over zealous reformers. This shameful turn of events puts yet another black mark on former Obama Administration chief of staff and current Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s heavy-handed reign of error over his city’s schools.
Editor’s Note: Since most of the news media ‘experts’ have no clue what they’re talking about when it comes to the backgrounds of the Boston Marathon bombers we’re publishing this detailed backgrounder by researcher Chip Berlet. Part One explains the genesis of Islamic terrorism, the apocalyptic viewpoint likely connected to the Boston bombing, and a quick primer on how the history of Chechnya fits into this story.
By Chip Berlet / Talk to Action
Walk a mile in the shoes of those who claim to honor God and yet cheer the bombing of the Boston Marathon. They represent only a tiny fraction of the Muslims on our planet, yet they see themselves as carrying out the will of God. Fanatics such as these can be found in many of the World’s religions. They shoot abortion providers in the United States; blast apart buses in Israel; and murder Muslims in India (and vice versa).
By Sebastian Rotella / ProPublica
As an eighth-grader in a Cambridge public school, suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was quiet, friendly, spoke good English and seemed at home in his adopted country.
While hundreds of police officers pursued the 19-year-old during a nationally-televised rampage across Boston Friday, a former classmate recounted memories of the refugee who, according to counterterror officials, became a U.S. citizen on an ironic date: Sept. 11, 2012.
The story of the Boston bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, is still unfolding at high speed. Many aspects of the case, including the brothers’ motivations, are not yet clear. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
The press release was a master stroke of Orwellian NewSpeak. Representative Scott “Better Than Bilbray” Peters was touting passage of H.R. 624, ‘The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA),’ “which passed the House of Representatives with 288 votes in favor and 127 against on a bipartisan basis.”
Finally, we are led to believe, Congress has taken action to protect the nation against “cyber attacks that could cripple our infrastructure and our national security, and cost our country untold amounts of money and jobs.”
Oh, and all those concerns people might have about privacy and oversight were taken care of via amendments, or so we’re told.
The only problem with all this congratulatory rhetoric is that it’s not true.
INSIDE: Big Pharma Fights Back, Local Actions in Support of Boston Marathon Runners & Gun Safety, Anti-Union Group Cries Wolf
BREAKING: We will have coverage of events in Boston later on. Unlike the New York Post & CNN we aren’t in any big hurry to misinform you. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
Investigators pursuing forensic evidence in the Boston Marathon Bombing case have already determined that the devices used consisted of gunpowder packed into at least one pressure cooker along with pieces of metal, nails and ball bearings.
Were it not for the repeated efforts of the National Rifle Association, authorities could trace the manufacturer and possibly even the chain of custody of the gunpowder used to kill three people and injure more than 170 on Sunday.
Thanks to lobbying efforts by the NRA, explosive makers are not required to place tracing elements called taggants in gunpowder. Plastic explosives and non-gunpowder detonators are all required by law to contain these tracing elements.
On two occasions over the past five decades lawmakers attempting to mandate the use of identification taggants have run into a buzz saw of disinformation distributed by gun lobby supporters falsely claiming the microscopic color-coded particles would somehow impair performance.
INSIDE: Pauma Organizing Drive Underway, Retribution Filner Style, Issa’s Big Campaign Stash, Gabby Giffords, Diane Feinstein & More… [Read more…]
By Joy Williams
It’s official: Barrio Logan is an environmental justice hot spot.
According to CalEnviroScreen, the State’s environmental justice screening model, the Barrio Logan area ranks among the most vulnerable areas of the entire state.
Currently, 92113, the Barrio Logan zip code ranks in the top 5% in the state for environmental justice risks to the community and highest in San Diego County.
Developed by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, CalEnviroScreen ranks California zip codes by their cumulative impacts of economic, environmental, health, and social disadvantage indicators. The model is in final draft mode and has had extensive input from community groups, academics, and others. With those particular indicators, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been in Barrio Logan anytime in the last several decades that we’re at the top of that not-so-majestic list.
A strikingly obvious feature of Barrio Logan is that land uses are mixed together in a way not seen in any other community in San Diego. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
Labor unions and their supporters rallied in Sacramento yesterday surrounded by symbolic containers of gravy in support of Senate Bill 434, legislation introduced by Sen. Jerry Hill (D – San Mateo) that would bring about reforms in the Enterprise Zone tax (EZ) credit system in California.
I’m not so sure that reform is even a good idea, given just how outrageously this law has been used by large corporations. California taxpayers gave up $700 million in tax credits last year that were intended to create small business jobs in economically distressed areas.
Who are these businesses? Glad you asked, because much of that information is not available to the public. We do know that Walmart, Hyatt, Wells Fargo and the Déjà Vu Showgirls Club are among those enjoying this taxpayer largess. [Read more…]
The Founders warned us about an overzealous protection of liberties.
by Andy Cohen
The fight over guns rages on. The good news is that the parents and relatives of the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting have not allowed us to forget what happened in their quiet little town last December. The bad news is that it still doesn’t look like anything significant is going to get done.
The whole argument would seem to be pretty cut and dry, and relatively simple to resolve: Ban assault weapons from public ownership—after all, their sole purpose is for killing large numbers of people in a very short period of time. Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter, managed to fire off 154 rounds during his five minute rampage that took the lives of 20 young kids and six adults. There is no earthly reason for anyone outside of the military or police forces to own such a weapon. They’re not used to hunt. They’re used to kill people. That’s what they were made for. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
Local environmental advocacy groups are bravely planning a public protest where protests rarely go: Coronado.
The American Petroleum Industry (API), the largest advocacy and lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, just happens to holding its 2013 Pipeline Conference at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort. API is made up of nearly 400 members, including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical Company, Halliburton, and Shell Oil. These companies provide funding for API, which in turn champions the industry’s interests in the government and through public outreach
Led by SanDiego350.org, with the support of Women Occupy San Diego, Tar Sands Action – Southern California, and the Sierra Club San Diego, local activists are readying to denounce API for ‘being the climate misinformation machine of the carbon industry and for migrating the science of climate change into a divisive, political conflict.’
[Read more…]
By Doug Porter
It’s time to pay up, people. April 15 is tax day and Uncle Sam is looking for his dough.
The IRS estimates that fifty million Americans (75% of whom will get refunds) will wait until the last minute to file their taxes this year. The perceived agony of the tax paying process will dominate the news media scene today.
Here in San Diego we have several flavors of tax protests scheduled for today.
Tax evaders of the corporate kind will be the focus of the San Diego Light Brigade’s protest outside the Midway Post Office from 8 until 11pm this evening. Here’s the Facebook page for that demonstration.
Our local Tea Party types are having at least two protests today. [Read more…]
Prop 30 passed, the truth is that the poor still pay a heftier share of their income in taxes than the wealthy. Last week, the California Budget Project (CBP) released their annual report “Who Pays Taxes on California?”, and it appears that the post Proposition 30 landscape is far from apocalyptic for the top 1%.
By the broadest measure of revenue collection, “Taxafornia,” despite its largely progressive tax system, ranks 15th in the country in total “own source” revenue, and the poorest among us pay the highest share of their family income in taxes.
Indeed, as the CBP report outlines, “California’s lowest-income families pay the most in taxes, when measured as a share of family income. This is true even after accounting for Proposition 30’s temporary personal income tax increases for very wealthy Californians, which took effect in 2012. [Read more…]
By Norma Damashek
I know, I know, we’re only human. We all make mistakes. Everyone’s been known to lie or cheat or steal (only for a good reason, of course). At times we’re devious or lazy. Sometimes greedy. Vindictive, too.
Given our shortcomings, I ask you this: is it fair to demand higher standards from our elected officials than we might impose on regular folk like you and me? Here’s my answer: it’s more than fair; it’s self-evident common sense to hold out for brain-power and high ethical standards from politically-inspired individuals who climb into the public arena and vie for the prize of holding the public welfare in the palm of their hands.
You look for professional standards and expertise from a dentist, don’t you? from your trainer at the gym? the butcher at Vons? Does it make sense to accept anything less from your elected politicians who have the power to shape, improve, or make a mess of your daily lives and surroundings? [Read more…]
