Comcast Blocking: First the Internet - Now the Public

http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2008/02/25/comcast-blocking-first-the-internet-now-the-public/

So it turns out, Comcast - one of the largest telecommunications corporations in the country - uses their financial might not only to put politicians in their back pocket but to pay people to fill up seats in public hearings in order to deny access to those who oppose the internet legislation they want passes. This is just ridiculous! The pictures of the Comcast "sleepers" are pretty funny though.

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Uncle Jay Explains the News

Hilarious!

Another Year, Another $300 Billion

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/16/7719/

So far the federal government has spent $600 billion on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (government accounts make it hard to separate the two). However this figure is just the “burn rate” spent on combat operations, such as transportation, equipment, supplementary combat stipends, and paying the 100,000 contractors employed to support the war effort.

That $600 billion figure ignores four major costs. First, there are additional war-related costs buried in places such as the non-Iraq defense budget. That budget has grown by $500 billion cumulatively since the beginning of the war. An estimated one-quarter of that growth is indirectly related to Iraq, including the increased costs of dealing with manpower shortages - recruiting and retaining soldiers and Marines.

Hillary's Bush Connection

http://realnews.org/index.php-option=com_content&task=view&id=59&Itemid=189.htm

In the Clinton's pursuit of power, there is no such thing as a strange bedfellow. One recently exposed inamorata was Norman Hsu, the mysterious businessman from Hong Kong who brought in $850,000 to Hillary Clinton's campaign before being unmasked as a fugitive. Her campaign dismissed Hsu as someone who'd slipped through the cracks of an otherwise unimpeachable system for vetting donors, and perhaps he was. The same cannot be said for the notorious financier Alan Quasha, whose involvement with Clinton is at least as substantial--and still under wraps.

Michael Pollan: Don't Eat Anything That Doesn't Rot

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/13/in_defense_of_food_author_journalist

Why do we eat what we eat? How are our food and dietary choices essentially made for us by food policies that favor one industry over another? Read or watch this interview with acclaimed author, Michael Pollan, author of "Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food." Very interesting stuff.

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Big Pharma Opens Wallet to Dems

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/04/news/companies/pharma_votes/index.htm?postversion=2008030714

"Democrats have long served as the traditional enemy of Big Pharma, but in this presidential campaign, the left is taking the lion's share of drugmaker money.

"Democratic senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the top recipients of donations from the pharmaceutical industry, according to The Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit, non-partisan research group in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, donations to Sen. John McCain, who was recently endorsed by President Bush as the official Republican candidate, pale in comparison."

10,000 Maniacs: Oregonians Exercising Democracy Through "Voter-Owned Elections"

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/07/7531/

Voter Owned Elections is providing a healthy alternative to politics as usual in Portland. Months before a traditionally low-turnout election - a municipal primary, for goodness sakes! - more than 10,000 citizens are already involved giving seven relative newcomers to politics a chance to present themselves to voters. And for those voters, the rest of the campaign will be about what campaigns are supposed to be about - issues, positions, problems, solutions, and conversations between hopeful public servants and the people they seek to represent.

"All the people, that is; have-nots as well as haves; denim pockets as well as deep pockets. Because in Voter Owned Elections, when you ‘max out’ as a donor with a simple $5 contribution, you get more for your money, not less. You get choices. You get hope. You get fairness. You may just get the democracy you deserve."

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Missile Defense: 'Longest Running Scam' Exposed

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=295515

"I believe that the Ballistic Missile Defense program is the longest running scam in the history of the Department of Defense," Cirincione said. "This is an enormous waste of money, and if you leave this decision to the Joint Chiefs they won't spend anything near what this Administration is requesting. In fact, the last time the Joint Chiefs were asked about this in 1993, [they] recommended to then-Pres. Clinton that we spend only $3 billion a year on these kinds of programs, and of that $2.3 billion should be spent on efforts to intercept short-range missiles – the ones that are a real threat to our troops and allies…. We're no further along in our ability to actually hit a real ballistic missile now than we were 20 years ago."

Obama's Answer

http://citizen.typepad.com/watchdog_blog/2008/02/will-obama-opt.html

Reform groups sent an open letter to the Obama campaign encouraging him to enter into a public financing agreement with John McCain for the general election, if the two of them were the nominees of their parties. Here is the Obama campaign response.

Bradley: Bill Clinton's Financial Backers Could Pose Big Problem

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/06/bradley-bill-clintons-f_n_90283.html

Former Senator and Presidential candidate, Bill Bradley, talks about the financial conflicts of interest for the Clinton campaign.

Top Iraq Contractor Skirts US Taxes Offshore

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2008/03/06/top_iraq_contractor_skirts_us_taxes_offshore/

"With an estimated $16 billion in contracts, KBR is by far the largest contractor in Iraq, with eight times the work of its nearest competitor.

"The no-bid contract it received in 2002 to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure and a multibillion-dollar contract to provide support services to troops have long drawn scrutiny because Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 until he joined the Republican ticket with President Bush in 2000."

Obama Raises a Record $55 Million in February

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Obama_raises_55_million.html

Adonal Foyle's Orlando Magic Video

Adonal Foyle is not only an NBA basketball player but also the founder and president of Democracy Matters. This is a short video about his history.

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Daryn

How to Swim Against the Current

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080324/hightower_demarco

This is a great article about the corporate and political ethics of progressive minds. Through clean elections maybe we can insert some of this idealism back into government and start getting rid of some "for-profit-bottom line-money hungry" swindlers.

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The Cost of a Week in Hell

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174902/william_hartung_the_cost_of_a_week_in_hell

This is going to sting a little bit!

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The Pentagon Is Financed Like Enron and Run Like General Motors

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/galloway/story/28973.html

"Pentagon procurement spending, according to the experts, is so totally out of control that no one even attempts to separate the good and necessary weapons programs from the bad, useless and even harmful ones. When money gets tight, the brilliant thinkers in the five-sided puzzle palace even starve good programs to feed bad ones.

"Under the Bush administration, defense spending has skyrocketed since 2001, but the money hasn't been spent wisely. With a recession looming, or already here, and the national debt heading north of $10 trillion, the next president and Congress may want to give serious thought to whether we can afford to go on spending like a drunken sailor on a defense establishment that's financed like Enron and managed like General Motors."

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The $2 Trillion Nightmare

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/opinion/04herbert.html?ex=1205298000&en=313294f8a18fd29b&ei=5070&emc=eta1

We are bankrupting our future! This is unacceptable!

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