Blog Posts

About 250 people were in attendance on a cold sunny afternoon at the amphitheatre next to Occupy Portland, on Sunday, November 6, 2011, at the rally in solidarity with Hands Around the White House to stop the Tar Sands Pipeline.

Hello there!

Full title:

"Turning Occupation into Lasting Change: How Pittsburgh, Spokane and other communities can point the Occupy movement towards elevating rights for people and nature over corporate rights"

by Thomas Linzey & Jeff Reifman

The timing could not be better, given the explosion of Occupation sites across the US and beyond, as my latest recorded speech gets broadcast on more than 240 radio stations in eight countries this week, at different times, depending on the station. To find out when it's playing in YOUR town, please click HERE.

Ron Paul and Ralph Nader have an intriguing idea. While both know that there are significant ideological divides between their camps (and so neither are suggesting forming a political party together), they are proposing populist coalitions on some major issues.

Tunisia and Egypt are both ruled by dictators, as are many other societies in the Arab world and beyond. But is it really that different in these United States, as our corporate media and government leaders would have us believe? Is this country so democratic and free that a similar sort of uprising is not needed here?

(Note to readers: I received this action alert on 24 January 2011 from Firedoglake about Pfc Bradley Manning being held in solitary confinement. I sent a quite strongly worded response back to them, which they did not reply to. I'd love to hear YOUR thoughts about their action alert and my response - whether critical or positive. Clearly, I have a strong opinion about their action plan.)

The Republicans in the House plan to introduce a new piece of legislation which would de-fund public radio (NPR) and television (PBS). In response, public stations have launched an online campaign and petition called "170 Million Americans" which you can view here. 

.....(and asserts the right of community self-government) is now being considered by municipalities in 20 counties in a growing number of states

It turns out that people who buy e-books don't actually own them after all. Unlike a real book, you aren't allowed to re-sell it. Why not? Because corporate lawyers have thus far successfully argued that the "first sale doctrine" which governs actual books isn't good enough for them when it comes to e-books. This is yet another expansion of corporate property "rights".