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t's time to end the debate about whether the Affordable Care Act should exist and whether it should be funded.
By John Whitehead
From NSA Spying & VIPR Sweeps to Domestic Drones: A Round-Up of the Police State Programs NOT Affected by Govt Shutdown 
The one area not impacted in the least by a government shutdown will be the police/surveillance state and its various militarized agencies, spying programs and personnel. Take a look at the programs and policies that will not be affected by a government shutdown, and you'll get a clearer sense of the government's priorities.
News stories around the country have trumpeted a public pension "crisis" in various states, featuring elected officials who insist that these crises justify slashing the retirement benefits of public employees.
This arbitrary power to murder is the central political reality of our time; it is the bedrock, the foundation, of the American state as it actually exists today. The NSA surveillance program is merely an outgrowth -- a natural product -- of this system. Even if by some miracle, you could nip this single bud, the tree will continue to bring forth an abundance of poisonous fruit.
Israel, one of the world's leading nuclear powers, wants to make the Middle East nuclear free, with the exception of Israel, of course. The best way to accomplish this, from Israel's perspective, is to break up many states into smaller, weaker "tribal states" which would pose no military threat to the reigning Middle East power, Israel.
Obamacare Is Such a Serious Threat to the Right-Wing Project That They've Shut Down the Govt. to Try to Stop It
The way to destroy Obamacare is to make sure that young, healthy people don't sign up for it.
The government has shut itself down, because it cannot deal with the budget deficit and mounting public debt caused by 12 years of wars, by financial deregulation that allows "banks too big to fail" to loot the taxpayers, and by the loss of jobs, GDP, and tax base that jobs offshoring forced by Wall Street caused.
A party that has been cynical and greedy for a long time has now become something even more disturbing: It has become irrational. This is no longer a hostage negotiation. It has become something far more unpredictable, and much more frightening. Republicans have come full circle from when Ronald Reagan proclaimed "it's morning in America." It's midnight in John Boehner's America and the shutdown has officially begun.
By Richard Wise
Is it time for a "Congressional Responsibility Amendment"? The tea party controlled House GOP caucus has refused to fund the federal government. It's time to put a stop to their idealogical hostage taking. Here's one way to do it.
Knee-jerk House tantrums hit new comic highs as the Wily E. Coyote party continued its madcap leap to self-destruction. Can't zealots who hate government find more imaginative ways not to govern? The latest cartoon antics only dramatize what happens when the party of stupid redefines itself downward.
With the government shutdown upon us, President Obama and John Boehner play for the cameras.
A sensor previously used for military operations can now be tuned to secretly locate and record any single conversation on a busy street.
Hasn't this "pursuit of happiness" been our undoing? Whose happiness? How to attain it? The slave-holder's happiness, but not the tenant farmer's (let alone the slave's)? The settler's happiness, but not the Tribal People's? The billionaire's happiness or the minimum wage-earner's?
Hyundai to defer payments for federal workers
Hyundai is offering to defer new-car payments for 800,000 workers who have been furloughed due to the partial U.S. government shutdown.
Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos formally took over as the owner of The Washington Post on Tuesday, officially ending 80 years of local control of the newspaper by the Graham family. Bezos's $250 million purchase was completed as expected with the signing of sale documents. The signing transfers the newspaper and other assets from The Washington Post Co. to Nash Holdings, Bezos's private investment company.
This is the fourth part of the serialization of All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). The ideas in this book are further developed in my recent novel The Rowan Tree.
So call Breaking Bad, this warped western, a masterful depiction of American exceptionalism. And mirror it with the soft pull of a dying, lone superpower which is still capable of turning the whole planet into junkies, addicted to the cinematically sumptuous spectacle of its own demise.
Peter Ludlow has some very interesting ideas and observations on young people's responses to Snowden, Manning, etc., and he brings an interesting perspective and info on hacktivism- activism via hacking
The recent diplomatic overtures toward improving relationships between Iran and the US are unexpected but certainly welcomed milestones. The major diplomatic turnarounds with Iran confirm the theme of this article that U.S. hegemony around the world does no longer resonate with the new mosaic American nation. A nation dominated by minorities is a kinder nation that brings about more tolerance, collaboration, and fairness.
Many may be surprised that actual anarchists aren't necessarily rejoicing over the U.S. government's latest form of self-annihilation.
Yet, despite the complete takeover of our political landscape by corporations and billionaires like the Koch brothers, the mainstream media has remained dead silent about the devastating effects of the disastrous Citizens United decision.As a result, the majority of Americans have no clue what Citizens United is, let alone the damage it's done to our democracy and way of life.What could the Koch brothers and other funders of the Tea Party do to make sure that every television network in America did not do a special feature on Obamacare the night of September 30, and to make sure that on October 1 there weren't big news and feature stories about Obamacare on radio and television?They turned to the politicians they own, and told them to pull off such a radical stunt.They told them to shut down the government and it worked.It's just that simple. The billionaires got their way jsut like that
Edward Snowden has been nominated for this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Snowden is wanted in the US on espionage charges, after leaking secret documents revealing the US surveillance program PRISM used to gather private data. In August, he was granted temporary asylum in Russia, where he currently resides.
It is no surprise that Ted Cruz got caught in yet another lie. What is surprising is how sloppy and irresponsible it was. (VIDEO)
By Scott Baker
No More Detroits: The Philadelphia Public Bank Solution Discuss an innovative alternative to a system of municipal finance that puts the city at the mercy of Wall Street banksters.
By earl ofari hutchinson
Why a Shrinking Tea Party Still Holds the Nation Hostage There are three horrific facts about the bunch that's holding the nation hostage in the partial government shutdown. One is that they are either Tea Party members or affiliated with the party. Another is that they are a minority even within the minority of GOP congresspersons. The other is that their influence and numbers in the general population have plunged to the lowest point since the Tea Party inception a few years back.
Thanks to the dysfunctional deeds of the rabid right-wingers in Congress, there will be no trips to the National Zoo (hope somebody is feeding the animals), no panda-cam to track the action of the little cubs, no food inspections, no camping in National parks, no access to the Smithsonian Museum (art thief alert!).
World attention has moved to the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, but the evidence on the Aug. 21 attack near Damascus remains hidden and in dispute, causing a group of former U.S. intelligence professionals to ask Moscow and Washington to present what they have.
The Tea Party out in full force on a lovely autumn day.
Al-Qaida is hardly on the rise anywhere in the world, with much of its leadership now dead and the remaining elements barely able to communicate. But until a more vigorous enemy turns up, the overblown terrorist enemy used to justify the vastly profitable surveillance state, with selective scary news leaks, is all the military-industrial complex has got.
The government-sabotaging fervor of the Republican Right -- likened by one GOP congressman to "lemmings with suicide vests" -- can only be understood from inside the right-wing bubble where a distorted view of the Constitution prevails and actual democracy is disdained.
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As you watch the evening news or read of the endless arguments in Congress, about whether or not they should pay their bills or raise the debt ceiling, realize that these battles are absolutely unnecessary. Very few people understand that our nation can move forward to a better and brighter future by simply having our U.S. Treasury issue our nation's money without debt, rather than continuing to "borrow" it
Love is not a Feeling
To love we have to unlearn those things we came to believe and live by, that were never really true... and keep searching for what is really true. Who we are, how we're being, is what we teach.
Ghazanfar In The Land Of The Blind
Ghazanfar Roknabadi, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon recently gave many interviews to various TV channels and became a wanted figure for Middle Eastern media
Until recently, Iraq under PM al-Maliki was posturing as tactically placating Iran on Syria while committing quietly to its Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA), which al-Maliki signed with the former US president George W. Bush on December 14. 2008.
Leaks from Edward Snowden earlier this year have lead to hundreds of stories by the Guardian and other news outlets that examine the tension between personal privacy and national security. Our reporting has sparked a global debate about the full extent of the NSA's actions to collect personal data. The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald and Janine Gibson engage in a 90-minute Q&A with readers.
How did the USA reach the point of being within weeks of running out of money to pay its bills? How did a nation that was until relatively recently the world's biggest net lender become the world's biggest net debtor? More importantly, what implications does this situation have for the USA and the rest of the world?
This exhibit, which focuses on Chagall's images of the crucifixion, reminds viewers of Jesus' Jewish origins and the common ground of suffering: Jesus on the cross and the suffering of Jews in persecutions, and especially during the Nazi era.
Save the Nobel Peace Prize from Itself
On October 11, we'll learn whether the Norwegian Nobel Committee is interested in reviving the Nobel Peace Prize or putting another nail in its coffin.
When the administration released rates last Tuesday showing premiums in states where the federal government will run the exchanges, the announcement, Politico reported, came with "one big catch: the report doesn't actually reveal very much about what most people will pay."
Tomgram: Ann Jones, Americans Can't Remember, Afghans Will Never Forget
The Afghan War is officially winding down. American casualties, generally from towns and suburbs you've never heard of unless you were born there, are still coming in. Though far fewer American troops are in the field with Afghan forces, devastating "insider attacks" in which a soldier or policeman turns his gun on his American allies, trainers, or mentors still periodically occur.
No Change in favour of the grassroots in Burma
Even though it uses the slogan "Change', the government was formed with former military generals, who themselves wrote the 2008 Constitution. The biggest flaw in the constitution is the privileged 25 percent of seats in parliament that are reserved for soldiers who are basically appointed to the legislative body by the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
NBC - NRA - WTF NBC airs NRA program. Elephant gets shot (triumphantly) by top NRA lobbyist. NBC cancels program. Any questions?
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California narrowly lost their ballot measure to label GM foods, due to the biotech industry and its organic companies' monetary donations to kill the initiative. Washington State faces similar tactics to defeat Initiative 522. The biotech industry is using a powerful shadow umbrella group; Grocery Manufacturers Association(GMA), which has recently scrubbed its membership list. Cornucopia Institute pulled together the infographic shopper's guide from the archives. It shows Biotech industries funneling big money into defeating I-522, along with their puppet organic food brands that donated to defeat California's GM labeling initiative (on left of chart). Organic food businesses supporting I-522 are on the right of the chart. A victory in Washington State will further GMO labeling elsewhere in the nation.
Amnesty International USA issued the following comments today from Steven W. Hawkins, executive director, in response to the U.S. District Court decision overturning the 1974 murder conviction of Herman Wallace, among the Angola 3 prisoners, in Louisiana: "We welcome the court's ruling overturning Herman Wallace's original murder conviction and ordering his immediate release from state custody. Tragically, this step toward justice has come as Herman is dying from cancer with only days or hours left to live. No ruling can erase the cruel, inhuman and degrading prison conditions he endured for more than 41 years - confined alone to a tiny cell for 23 hours a day. Judge Jackson's decision to overturn Herman Wallace's conviction underscores Amnesty's long-held concerns about the original legal process that resulted in his imprisonment. The state must act immediately to release Wallace and...
For anyone who's not familiar with Dr. Howard's work, he has been charting who owns organics since 2002, and his charts are featured on Cornucopia Institute's website. The shift to biotech companies' ownership has been dramatic - both of seeds and of actual food companies. This is an updated chart of the top 100 food processors in North America including acquisitions, mergers, and the like. Dr. Howard's website is linked; there you can view his other infographics, some in process of being updated. There is also a chart on his site showing independent Organic processors - the businesses to support if you don't want to give bio-tech companies your food money.
President Barack Obama will meet with business leaders on Wednesday and visit a small local construction company on Thursday as he hopes to push Congress to re-open the federal government. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama has not canceled his trip to Asia this weekend for a series of summits and meetings, though some say it will be unlikely the president would travel overseas during a shutdown. We certainly hope that, in the time between now and the president's scheduled departure, the Speaker does the right thing," Carney said.
The Republicans' reckless obsession with destroying health reform and with wounding the president has been on full display. And as the public's anger grows over this entirely unnecessary crisis, it should be aimed at a party and a speaker that are incapable of governing.
This is one of the very best outlines of what the shutdown really means, by Numerian. "This is why a shutdown that extends into November becomes very serious. The month starts with $67 billion due for Medicare, military pay, and Social Security. There is $12 billion more due Social Security on the 13th, and then the kicker -- a whopping $31 billion coupon interest payment is payable to the market on the 15th. At this point, cash balances at the Treasury are getting close to zero ..."
Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who now works at Patton Boggs, a powerhouse law and lobbying firm in Washington, said he was glad not to be part of the mess. "I'd like to be in the arena and help work something out. But it's gotten too nasty and too mean these days. I couldn't work with these guys." Lott shook his head: "That Ted Cruz. They have to teach him something or cut his legs out from under him."
Videos from the Democracy Convention | 2013 Democracy Convention
We are currently in the process of posting a video archive of key Convention plenaries, workshops, and interviews. Please make a donation today to help us finish preserving the Convention's extraordinary content for the future! Closing Convention Plenary featuring Keynote Speaker Debra White Plume.
Pope Francis began landmark meetings on Tuesday to reform the Vatican, promising to do all he could to change the mentality of an institution he said was too focused on its own interests. Francis said the eight cardinals he had chosen to make up his advisory board did not have selfish motives. "They are not courtiers but wise people who are inspired by my same feelings. This is the start of a Church with an organization that is not only vertical but also horizontal," he said.
For years, Iran's leaders have scoffed at Western economic sanctions, boasting that they could evade anything that came their way. Now, as they seek to negotiate a deal on their nuclear program, the leaders are acknowledging that sanctions, particularly those applied in 2010 on international financial transactions, are creating a hard-currency shortage that is bringing the country's economy to its knees. A currency shortage, created by Western sanctions, appears worse than previously thought, increasing pressure on leaders seeking to negotiate a nuclear deal.
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