July 18, 2013

Amy Goodman: Let the Light of Mandela Shine on U.S. Injustice

from truthdig:


Let the Light of Mandela Shine on U.S. Injustice

Posted on Jul 17, 2013
By Amy Goodman


As the world celebrates Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday, it is timely to reflect on his life, spent fighting for equality for people of color who long suffered under South Africa’s apartheid regime. Mandela was arrested in 1962, a year before Martin Luther King Jr. would give his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. After 27 years in prison, Mandela was released in 1990. Four years later, he would become the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

We should use Mandela’s incredible life to shine a light on injustice in the United States, as George Zimmerman is acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin, and as a massive hunger strike envelops the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, where scores of men have been held without charge for more than a decade.

When President Barack Obama visited South Africa recently, he took his family to Robben Island, the notorious apartheid-era prison off the coast of Cape Town. First lady Michelle Obama said of the experience, “It was amazing to see Mandela’s cell, a tiny room—about 6 feet wide—where he spent 18 of the 27 years he was in prison. He slept on a thin mat on the floor, and when he stretched out to sleep at night, his toes touched one wall, while his head grazed the other. The walls were two feet thick with no decorations, and he was given a bucket to use as a toilet.”

President Obama signed the Robben Island guest book, writing: “On behalf of our family we’re deeply humbled to stand where men of such courage faced down injustice and refused to yield. The world is grateful for the heroes of Robben Island, who remind us that no shackles or cells can match the strength of the human spirit.” ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/let_the_light_of_mandela_shine_on_us_injustice_20130717/

July 17, 2013

Chris Hedges: Urban Poverty Made Me Ask Questions

via truthdig:


Chris Hedges: Urban Poverty Made Me Ask Questions
Posted on Jul 16, 2013


The Truthdig columnist tells The Real News how his experience living in the inner city in Boston shaped his perspective as a journalist.

"And I think for a white person of relative privilege to confront the cruelty of what we do to poor people of color in this country and to begin to understand institutional forms of racism, all the mechanisms by which we ensure that the poor remain poor in, you know, what Malcolm X and Martin Luther King correctly called these internal colonies really rattled me, really shook me. It made me question all sorts of things—the myth we tell ourselves about ourselves, the nature of capitalism, the nature of racism, exploitation. So those two and a half years I spent in Roxbury were quite profound—not that, of course, I wasn’t stunned at the evils of empire in places like El Salvador or Gaza or anywhere else. But Roxbury was quite a shock for me."

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_urban_poverty_made_me_ask_questions_20130716/

July 17, 2013

Chris Hedges: Urban Poverty Made Me Ask Questions

via truthdig:


Chris Hedges: Urban Poverty Made Me Ask Questions
Posted on Jul 16, 2013


The Truthdig columnist tells The Real News how his experience living in the inner city in Boston shaped his perspective as a journalist.

"And I think for a white person of relative privilege to confront the cruelty of what we do to poor people of color in this country and to begin to understand institutional forms of racism, all the mechanisms by which we ensure that the poor remain poor in, you know, what Malcolm X and Martin Luther King correctly called these internal colonies really rattled me, really shook me. It made me question all sorts of things—the myth we tell ourselves about ourselves, the nature of capitalism, the nature of racism, exploitation. So those two and a half years I spent in Roxbury were quite profound—not that, of course, I wasn’t stunned at the evils of empire in places like El Salvador or Gaza or anywhere else. But Roxbury was quite a shock for me."

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_urban_poverty_made_me_ask_questions_20130716/

July 17, 2013

Defining Clear Standards for Transit-Oriented Development

(The Transport Politic) Transportation and land use are inextricably linked. Building a new rail line may expand development; new development may expand use of a rail line. The direct connection between the two makes differentiating between cause and effect difficult to measure. Transportation planners frequently make the argument that a new investment will produce new riders, for example, but whether those riders would have come anyway is not a simple question to answer. There is no counter-factual.

Nevertheless, planners have invested decades of considerable work in the pursuit of transit-oriented development (TOD), under the presumption that clustering new housing, offices, and retail will result in rising transit use and, in turn, reduce pollution, cut down on congestion, and improve quality of life. There remains some controversy about the effectiveness of TOD investments in actually increasing transit ridership, but, at least in my mind, the success of certain areas over others has as much to do with the manner in which developments are designed as the mere fact that there is construction adjacent to a rail or bus station.

For example, the considerable success of Arlington, Virginia in attracting riders to the Washington Metro, as compared to Rosemont, Illinois’ interaction with the Chicago L, is likely due to the fact that the former prioritized walkable construction immediately adjacent to subway stations while the latter put the rail line in the median of a highway, separated buildings from the station by hundreds of feet, and minimized pedestrian amenities. Getting the design of new development around transit right is often just as important as the transit itself in terms of attracting ridership.

If design matters, what has been missing has been a tool that offers empirical insight into the benefits of specific development interventions in terms of their effect on growing transit use. To fill the gap, a new tool for measuring TOD quality has recently been introduced by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP). It holds potential value in terms of defining the appropriate measures for creating effective TOD, but it needs further development to be useful in aiding the creation of best-practice development designs. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2013/07/15/defining-clear-standards-for-transit-oriented-development/

July 17, 2013

NYC Kills Fast Bus to LGA

(WNYC) Less than a year ago, New York officials vowed to bring fast buses to an infamously slow route route to LaGuardia Airport. But after push back from elected officials and community boards, the MTA says it's now formally killing the project.

The plan unveiled last year would have brought state-of-the-art "bus rapid transit" to the city, with special bus lanes, priority signals, and off-board payment, all of which have made buses almost as fast as subways in some parts of the world.

But the MTA released a statement Tuesday conceding the project wouldn't move forward.

"There are still a number of concerns about the project from the local Community Boards and elected officials that we have not been able to resolve to date," reads the statement. "As a result, NYCDOT and MTA New York City Transit have decided not to proceed with the M60 Select Bus Service project at this time." ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/transportation-nation/2013/jul/16/nyc-kills-fast-bus-laguardia-airport/

July 17, 2013

Seattle: Rasmussen Drops Bike-Share Bill; Funding Proving More Difficult to Wrangle

(Seattle Weekly) The launch of Seattle’s bike-share program in Spring 2014 is widely considered a given at this point. But doing so will require tweaks to Seattle’s Municipal Code - tweaks that Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen attempts to address in the bike-share legislation he dropped this morning.

Obtaining the full $4 million in funding the program needs to take off, however, may prove slightly more difficult than changing the city’s code. Though a new private sponsor is set to be announced late this week or early next week, according to Holly Houser, the executive director of Puget Sound Bike Share, the effort still needs “some big-money sponsors” to meet its goal.

Rasmussen’s legislation, Council Bill No. 117847, which is scheduled to be heard July 23 in the transportation committee he chairs, would amend Seattle Municipal Code to allow for Bike Share vending on city streets and sidewalks. The bill would also allow for permits to be issued authorizing the use of curb space or other parking spaces for bike-share stations. Currently, Municipal Code forbids both activities - which are obviously needed to get Seattle’s bike-share program off the ground. Both changes are considered minor; the legislation seems like little more than a formality.

The bigger hurdle, according to Houser, may be finding all the money needed to launch the program. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/thedailyweekly/947700-129/bike-share-says-houser-seattle-million

July 17, 2013

Hoodies (cartoon)

http://www.truthdig.com/cartoon/item/hoodies_20130716/

July 16, 2013

Bankster Brew-haha

WASHINGTON -- A loose coalition of beer brewers, automakers, Boeing and Coca-Cola is accusing big banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, of anti-competitive behavior in the aluminum market, fueling regulatory concerns and prompting a Senate probe as part of an international political battle over Wall Street's expansion into the commodities business.

The Senate Banking Committee next week will hear from MillerCoors and a pair of experts critical of banks' involvement in physical commodities activities and infrastructure assets involving businesses such as storage and transportation. The MillerCoors representative is expected to lash out at banks like Goldman and JPMorgan, which own large warehouses that store aluminum and trade derivatives contracts tied to commodity prices.

Representatives for Goldman and JPMorgan may be asked to testify as the banking panel scrutinizes their commodities businesses. Both companies, under fire in recent years due to a variety of controversies, are reported to be seeking buyers for their metals warehouses.

"When Wall Street banks control the supply of both commodities and financial products, there's a potential for anti-competitive behavior and manipulation," said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a member of the banking committee. "It also exposes these megabanks -- and the entire financial system -- to undue risk." ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/banks-commodities-business_n_3601631.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

July 16, 2013

If sh*t could take a crap, there would be a pile of Ted Nugent in the toilet.......

Rock musician Ted Nugent responded Sunday to the acquittal of George Zimmerman by calling his killing of Trayvon Martin "the purest form of self-defense there is."

In a column for conservative news website Rare, Nugent labeled Martin, who was shot by Zimmerman, a "17-year-old dope smoking, racist gangsta wannabe." In Nugent's retelling of the shooting, he said Zimmerman did what "anyone" in that situation would have done.



Nugent said that "non-racist America" is pleased with the outcome of the trial, which he called a victory for "common sense, honesty and decency" in this country. According to Nugent, Martin was the only individual guilty of racism the evening he was shot. ................................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/ted-nugent-trayvon-martin_n_3599437.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

July 16, 2013

Global Power Project Part V: Banking on Influence With Goldman Sachs

Global Power Project Part V: Banking on Influence With Goldman Sachs

Monday, 15 July 2013 09:18
By Andrew Gavin Marshall, Occupy.com | News Analysis


Anyone who has paid even minimal attention to the global economic and financial crises gripping the world since 2007 has heard the name Goldman Sachs.

One of the largest banks in the United States, Goldman Sachs was central to the process of creating the housing bubble that popped in 2007-8, which led to the largest economic crisis since the Great Depression. As Matt Taibbi famously documented in Rolling Stone, Goldman has been involved in “every major market manipulation since the Great Depression,” profiting along the way as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

Let's go back to a little history.

In 2006 and 2007, as Goldman was selling high risk securities on home mortgages worth $40 billion, it was simultaneously betting against the housing market, ensuring that as the housing market crashed, the bank would make a significant profit. Thus, “the nation’s premier investment bank pass[ed] most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies.”

In late 2007, as the mortgage crisis was accelerating, executives at Goldman Sachs sent each other emails explaining that they would make “some serious money” betting against the housing market. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the bank helped the market crash harder and faster. ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/17563-global-power-project-part-v-banking-on-influence-with-goldman-sachs