- James Clyburn: Super-Commitee Selection Tokenism | The Root
- Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who was the sole African American named to the “super committee” charged with cutting $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit, chatted with Tavis Smiley on his radio show today and told him the following about his place on the committee: “Well, that is tokenism. My Lord, I’m 71 years old, Tavis. It’s not new to me to be a token, but as you said, I’d much rather be there than not be there at all — without having African Americans there at all.”
- The Tanning of America: Hip-Hop Changed Corporate America
- The Root Recommends: The Tanning of America, a highly anticipated book that connects the dots between hip-hop and the corporate world.
- North Dakota’s Economic “Miracle”—It’s Not Oil | YES! Magazine by Ellen Brown
- A number of other mineral-rich states were initially not affected by the economic downturn, but they lost revenues with the later decline in oil prices. North Dakota is the only state to be in continuous budget surplus since the banking crisis of 2008. Its balance sheet is so strong that it recently reduced individual income taxes and property taxes by a combined $400 million, and is debating further cuts. It also has the lowest foreclosure rate and lowest credit card default rate in the country, and it has had NO bank failures in at least the last decade.
- If its secret isn’t oil, what is so unique about the state? North Dakota has one thing that no other state has: its own state-owned bank.
- > north_dakota state_budget_crisis
- Josh Fox: Why I Got Arrested | Tar Sands Action
- Thirdly, the tar sands extraction fits into a pattern of extreme energy development which has become a disturbing trend on the planet. As we run out of fossil fuel… the extractive fossil fuel industries have turned to ever more polluting, dangerous and contaminating forms of energy extraction. These new extractive techniques are not “technological innovations” as the energy companies often claim, they are desperate…
- > global_climate_change environmentalism activism
- Bring Our War Dollars Home | YES! magazine • by Oliver Lazenby
- U.S. Mayors: In order to build up jobs, we have to draw down troops.
- > war_what_is_it_good_for class_warfare
- The Coming of the Coal-Free Campus by Jen Horton — YES! Magazine
- When you think about the typical college campus, a towering coal plant belching pollutants like mercury and fly ash is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. At more than 60 colleges and universities across the country, though, that’s just what you’ll find. Virginia Tech’s coal plant burns more than 43,000 tons of coal each year, for example, and students often wake to find ash coating their windows.
- But college students across the United States are asking their schools to clean up their act.
- Paid Sick Leave for All by Rebecca Leisher — YES! Magazine
- Nearly 40 percent of all U.S. private sector workers get no paid sick days—but Connecticut is leading the way to change that.
- NASA’s Dr. James Hansen: “Someone worthy of our dreams” | Tar Sands Action • by Jamie
- …video of our country’s top climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, being arrested at the White House…
- > environmentalism global_climate_change
- Another Perspective | Talking Points Memo
- When Boehner does something like this (that no previous Speaker has done to any previous President), when he refuses to return the President’s phone call during the debt ceiling crisis, when he skips state dinners, when he refuses to definitely say that he believes the President was born in the US or is a Christian, or when Boehner coddles a member of his caucus who shout “you lie” during a Presidential address, etc one certain thing happens – black Americans notice it.
- > racism
- Google says your name is “Toby” NOT “Kunta Kinte” – Identity Woman
- …Tim [O'Reilly] and others are dismissing the real hurt and anguish being felt by people saying they are being “strident” for speaking up for their right to pick their own name … continued insistence [that Google] have the right to decide what an acceptable name is for people.
- …we have already been using Google e-mail and other services for years with the names we chose – in changing the rules on the Google plantation they have undermined the social contract that it had with existing users. …
- Many different people are now fearful of speaking up in Google about these issues… Google turned off Violet Blue’s profile knowing full well it was her real name …
- > pseudonymity
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
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