Published on Sep 19, 2012 by SISSAschool

On September 17, 2012, Noam Chomsky held a public lecture with the title "The Emerging World Order: its roots, our legacy" at Politeama Rossetti in Trieste.

from Consortium News:



Dismantling FDR’s Legacy
September 20, 2012

With Mitt Romney exposed as another disciple of Ayn Rand’s gospel of makers and takers, Election 2012 is shaping up as a test of whether the United States will embrace the laissez-faire Gilded Age or uphold the New Deal with its middle-class values. Will Franklin Roosevelt be honored or rejected, asks Beverly Bandler.

By Beverly Bandler


The Republican Party wants to undo the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and what is left of the New Deal. Many Republicans hated FDR when he was alive. They hate him still. They refuse to accept that he saved capitalism and that he genuinely believed that the government had a duty to serve 100 percent of the country’s citizens, not only the 53 percent, or the 2 percent or the 1 percent.

According to a recently leaked video, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a closed-door fundraiser in May that he thinks 47 percent of Americans are deadbeats who consider themselves “victims.” In doing so, Romney revealed that he stands with his party’s Social Darwinists and shares the worldview of fiction writer Ayn Rand.

As political scientist Alan Wolfe writes, that view “boils down to two propositions. One is that selfishness is the highest of moral virtues. The other is that the masses, above all resentful of success, are parasites living off the hard work of capitalists far superior to them in every way.”

This current Republican leadership believes the U.S. should return to the laissez-faire days of the 1920s when, in spite of the post-World War I boom, more than half of the country’s population was living below a minimum subsistence level and without any safety nets for the recurring economic crises. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/09/20/dismantling-fdrs-legacy/

Published on Sep 22, 2012 by RussiaToday

Thousands have taken to the streets of Libya's second city Benghazi to demand an end to the tyranny of armed militias. Four people have been killed and dozens injured outside an Islamist base.

The people are angry at the militia, as one of the groups is suspected of killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in protests over the U.S.-made anti-Islam film last week.

Journalist Anthony Wile says America's foreign policy has destabilised the region.

Published on Sep 22, 2012 by RussiaToday

Britain's poorest are likely to get another hit from the Treasury chief, who's trying to rein in spending.
Millionaire George Osborne wants to freeze welfare payments for 2 years. RT's Polly Boiko has the story.

from truthdig:



Drug Dealers Protecting Their Turf

Posted on Sep 21, 2012
By David Sirota


If you heard a drug dealer denigrate his competitor’s product as unsafe, would you trust his criticism? Or would you think he’s a hypocrite with ulterior motives? Last week, thanks to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper (CO), these became the central political questions in the fight over whether to continue America’s destructive War on Marijuana.

The frontline in that war is Colorado, where the federal government has interfered with its system of state-regulated medical marijuana businesses, despite President Obama’s promise to refrain from doing so. Countering that crackdown is a 2012 ballot initiative that would make Colorado the first state to fully legalize marijuana and regulate it like alcohol.

Enter Hickenlooper. In the same month a poll showed majority support for the marijuana legalization initiative, the governor blasted the measure for allegedly “detract(ing) from efforts to make Colorado the healthiest state” and for “send(ing) the wrong message to kids.“i

What makes his announcement so stunning, and what evokes the drug-dealer comparison, is the governor’s career as a purveyor of the drug commonly known as alcohol. That’s right, as the founder of the state’s first brewpub, Hickenlooper was instrumental in flooding the state with his beery drug of choice. In fact, he is so proud of his record pushing that mind-altering substance that he recently made national headlines telling reporters that “I’m the first brewer who’s ever been a governor.” ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/drug_dealers_protecting_their_turf_20120921/

from AlterNet:



Romney's Rhetoric Responsible For Obama's Surge And New Lead In Polls
Obama is pulling away from Romney in most national polls, and leads in swing states.


Mitt Romney's string of offensive remarks—attacking Obama after U.S. diplomats were murdered in Libya and saying 47 percent of Americans don't pay taxes and are pathetic government dependents—has resulted in the largest lead by Obama in 2012's polls.

The most detailed poll, by The Pew Research Center For The People And The Press, gives Obama the biggest lead—8 percentage points—and says that compared to this same time period in recent presidential elections, Obama shares the favorables that recent candidates had who went on to win.

“Not only does Obama enjoy a substantial lead in the horserace, he tops Romney on a number of key dimensions,” Pew said. “His support is stronger than his rivals, and is positive rather than negative. Mitt Romney’s backers are more ardent than they were pre-convention, but they are still not as enthusiastic as Obama’s. Roughly half of Romney’s supporters say they are voting against Obama rather than for the Republican nominee.”

However, Obama now leads Romney 48.3 percent to 45.0 percent in an average of all nationwide polling taken in the last week, according to Real Clear Politics. In a handful of swing states, such as Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin, Obama also is moving ahead of Romney. In others, notably in Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina, both candidates are statistically tied. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/hot-news-views/romneys-rhetoric-responsible-obamas-surge-and-new-lead-polls

from the Detroit Metro Times:



A pioneer speaks out

By Larry Gabriel
Published: September 19, 2012


Irvin Rosenfeld is one of the four surviving federal medical marijuana patients. There were once 13 of them, and Rosenfeld has been receiving his allotment longer than any of the other survivors. He gets a canister with about 300 rolled marijuana cigarettes from the government every 25 days. Instructions printed on the can instruct the patient to smoke 12 of them each day.

Rosenfeld, who has a bone disease called multiple congenital cartilaginous exostosis, which causes tumors to grow on the long bones of his body, was in Michigan last week to lobby the state Legislature on pending bills that will affect medical cannabis patients and their access to their medicine. He also spoke at a Downriver Community Compassion Club (DCCC) meeting held at Donovan VFW Hall in Dearborn Heights and sold a few copies of his 2010 book, My Medicine: How I convinced the U.S. government to provide my marijuana and helped launch a national movement.

It was a heck of a meeting for the 60 or so attendees, who also got to hear from Hiedi Handford, publisher of the Montana Connect (a medical cannabis publication), and Dan Solano, a former Detroit police officer and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Solano gave a status rundown on 11 pending bills in the state Legislature.

Rosenfeld was clearly the star of the evening. He began with: "I'm going to thank each and every one of you for paying for my medicine." That's because the cannabis he receives for free from the government is paid for by our tax dollars. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://metrotimes.com/mmj/a-pioneer-speaks-out-1.1374920

(New York, NY – WNYC) NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joe Lhota wants to either take away or reduce the bonus money from subway and bus riders who use pay-per-ride Metrocards. Right now, riders get a 7 percent bonus when they put $10 or more on a Metrocard. Lhota says he’ll propose cutting the bonus as part of the transit agency’s effort to raise the $450 million needed to balance its budget next year.

“The stated fare price is $2.25 cents, and the average revenue we receive per rider is $1.63,” he said. “It shows the depth of our discount system that goes on, and I think we really need to have a discussion of, ‘Do we need a discount that deep?’”

Lhota says he’ll formally propose the change next month. If the NY MTA Board approves the plan, which would be subject to public hearings in November, the bonus could be gone by March. That’s also when fare and toll hikes of about 7 percent are scheduled to kick in.

For every $10 a rider adds to a Metrocard, the card comes out with $10.70, which brings down the cost of a subway or bus ride from $2.25 per trip to $2.10. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://transportationnation.org/2012/09/12/nyc-straphangers-could-lose-last-bit-of-bonus-on-a-multi-ride-metrocard/