Saturday, May 29, 2010

Truthout 5/29

William Rivers Pitt | Top Kill Indeed
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "'Top kill.' That has been the phrase on the lips of every network news talking head, and in the lead paragraph of every news report, all throughout this last week. British Petroleum (BP) describes the process this way: 'The primary objective of the top kill process is to put heavy kill mud into the well so that it reduces the pressure and then the flow from the well. Once the kill mud is in the well and it's shut down, then we follow up with cement to plug the leak.'"
Read the Article

Criminal Investigations of Massey Energy Go Forward as Citizen Pressure Builds for Prosecution
Kevin Zeese, Truthout: "Just over a month ago, I wrote urging criminal prosecution of Massey Energy executives for the deaths of coal miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine. Since then, more evidence of criminal wrongdoing has been shown and federal prosecutors and the FBI are investigating the corporation and its executives. In addition, citizen pressure urging prosecution is growing and financial problems for the corporation are showing."
Read the Article

Election-Year Politics Derail Bid to Save Teachers' Jobs
David Goldstein, McClatchy Newspapers: "Congress bailed out Wall Street and the auto industry, but it appears to have drawn the line - at least for now - at rescuing teachers. A Democratic plan to send $23 billion to the states to save the jobs of 100,000 to 300,000 public school teachers, librarians, counselors and other employees slated for layoffs looks dead for the time being."
Read the Article

Court to Guantánamo Uighurs: Accept Resettlement or Stay in Prison
Warren Richey, The Christian Science Monitor: "A federal appeals court in Washington delivered a terse message on Friday to five Chinese ethnic Uighurs long held at the terror prison camp at Guantanamo Bay: Accept the US offer to resettle in a third country or stay at Guantánamo."
Read the Article

China Suicides: Is Apple Headed for a Consumer Backlash?
Kathleen E. McLaughlin, GlobalPost: "As Apple released the iPad today across Europe and Japan, a key supplier in China continued fortifying factory buildings with anti-suicide nets and bracing against a growing tide of public criticism about working conditions after 10 apparent employee suicides this year - including one this week hours after the company chief visited."
Read the Article

More Deepwater Disasters on the Horizon?
Hannah Rubenstein, Inter Press Service: "Despite a federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling, new permits and controversial environmental waivers for oil rigs continue to be granted, sparking criticism from policymakers and environmentalists. On Thursday, President Barack Obama issued a six-month extension of the moratorium on permits and environmental waivers for the drilling of new deepwater wells."
Read the Article

Peak Oil and Apocalypse Then
Melinda Burns, Miller-McCune: "Oil is the backbone resource of industrial society, but the Oil Age will come to an end, someday. The pessimists say the world reached maximum oil production in 2008. Middle-of-the-road optimists say peak oil won't occur until 2030. Either way, production is already past its peak and on a terminal decline in 54 of the 65 largest oil-producing countries in the world, including Mexico, Norway, Indonesia and Australia."
Read the Article

Makers: DIY Agents of Social Change
Alyce Santoro, Truthout: "As our society collectively awakens to the realization that it must devise ways to stem the hemorrhaging caused by years of denial and excess and as the DIY (do-it-yourself) movement grows in popularity, Joseph Beuys' words, 'everyone is an artist' ring all the more true."
Read the Article

How Has the Pill Affected Women's Lives?
Rose Aguilar, Your Call: "This month, the birth control pill turns 50. The pill, as it quickly came to be known, was originally used to treat infertility and menstrual disorders. The Food & Drug Administration approved the pill as a contraceptive on May 11, 1960. Within two years of its approval, 1.2 million American women were taking the pill every day. By 1964, the pill was the most popular contraceptive in the country. It unleashed a contraceptive revolution. For the first time, women had access to an effective form of birth control that did not require men's cooperation or even their knowledge."
Read the Article

LOVE for the Environment
Dan Brook, Truthout: "All we need is LOVE. There are many things and we can (and should) do to preserve and protect our environment if we want to preserve and protect life on Earth. Reducing consumption of resources, reusing products and materials, and recycling what can no longer be reused are all critical to being more sustainable. However, the most important personal thing we can each do for the environment is to fall in LOVE: Local, Organic, Vegetarian/Vegan Eating."
Read the Article

At Every Step, a Neo-Liberal Mortgage
Rosa Moussaoui, Humanite in English: "The policies of liberalization and deregulation have been confirmed and deepened in each of the European treaties, leading up to the present impasse."
Read the Article

We enjoy hearing from all of our readers! Please email us at feedback@truthout.org.

No comments:

Post a Comment


What do you think it symbolizes?