"Evening of Conscience"

Obama’s Secret Plan for Govt Openness

The Obama administration is conducting a workshop on government openness for federal employees today. It is, of course, closed to the public and the media. While the White House has tried to make the point that the public has a right to know, they have been secretive about many things, including those having nothing to do with [...]

Ron Paul on the US Quagmire in Afghanistan

Before the House of Representatives, December 2, 2009:

John Brown: A Terrorist who Deserved Hanging

This is the 150th anniversary of the hanging of John Brown. When he attacked Harper’s Ferry with a handful of followers, the butcher of Kansas helped sow the seeds of the Civil War. Few things would have made Brown happier than the thought of hundreds of thousands of people dying for [...]

What a Difference a Week Makes for Bill Kristol

One day out from Obama’s long-awaited announcement on troop deployments to Afghanistan the White House is getting plenty of criticism from both sides of the aisle. Democrats, including Rep. David Obey (D-WI), the influential chair of the House Appropriations Committee, have expressed concerns about both the cost of the war and the difficulty of achieving victory [...]

Ron Paul on Afghanistan and Perpetual War

Ron Paul cuts through the bull:

Update 2: Coakley, Brown Win Senate Primaries

Update #2: Coakley, Brown Win Senate Primaries

Update #1: Democrat Coakley Takes Early Lead, Republican Brown Wins in Massachusetts Primary.

Matt Viser, Andrew Ryan, Michael Rezendes, and Noah Bierman, The Boston Globe report:

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Copenhagen Climate Summit in Disarray After 'Danish Text' Leak

John Vida, The Guardian UK reports:

"The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations....

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Has the GOP Collapse Begun? Hypothetical "Tea Party" Outpolls Republicans

Something is afoot among the conservative base -- voting Republican doesn't seem to cut it anymore, and incumbents are getting nervous.

Establishment Republicans, take notice. The Tea Party is about to steal your thunder.

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The Meaning of Copenhagen

Whether the Copenhagen meeting concludes in "failure" or "success" is a rather secondary question. For this dramatic moment is no finale, but the moment when the powerful forces moving below the surface of the news, when the long pulsations of the human adventure emerge.

What is it all about, really? It's the dramatization of the contradiction which has been forged throughout the entire industrial revolution between economic rationale and ecological limits. The development of productive forces led to a never-before-achieved level of collective material wealth

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Obama Offers Job Proposals, Discusses Improving Economy

President Barack Obama has proposed increasing spending on highway, transportation and other infrastructure projects, as well as increasing tax breaks for small businesses and offering tax incentives to people who make their homes more energy-efficient. In his speech Tuesday morning at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, Obama also said that small business, infrastructure and clean energy are areas in which Americans can be put to work while putting the nation on a sturdier economic footing.

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Democracy Now! 2009-12-08 Tuesday

Headlines for December 08, 2009; "We Are Having a Hard Time Surviving" Gwich'in Elder Sarah James on How Climate Change Is Altering Life in the Alaskan Arctic ; "Would You Commit Murder?" - 15-Year-Old Maldives Climate Ambassador Asks World Leaders to Take on Climate Change; Report: Burma, Yemen and Vietnam Hardest Hit by Extreme Weather in 2008; As EPA Rules Greenhouse Gases Endanger Public Health, a Discussion on Obama's Climate Change Policies; Nigerian Environmentalist Nnimmo Bassey: The Global North Owes a Climate Debt to Africa

Democracy Now! 2009-12-07 Monday

Headlines for December 07, 2009; Climate Countdown: Largest Climate Summit in World History Opens in Copenhagen; Ahead of Copenhagen Talks, Tens of Thousands Protest Across Europe Calling for Climate Justice; Voices from Africa: Drought, Crop Shortages, Deforestation and Increasing Number of Climate Refugees Linked to Climate Change; Climate Change and the Global South: A Roundtable Discussion

Democracy Now! 2009-12-04 Friday

Headlines for December 04, 2009; Eliot Spitzer: Geithner, Bernanke "Complicit" in Financial Crisis and Should Go; "The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther"

Democracy Now! 2009-12-03 Thursday

Headlines for December 03, 2009; NY State Senate Defeats Bill to Legalize Gay Marriage; “One Voice for Choice" - FireDogLake Founder Launches Campaign to Target Dems Supporting Stupak Amendment; 25 Years After Bhopal Disaster, Survivors Still Seeking Justice; As Troop Escalation Begins, Relief Groups Decry Militarization of US Aid to Afghanistan