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Democracy Now! Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
Today's Headlines Iran Accuses Detained Americans of Espionage CBS: Obama to Send Up to 40,000 Troops to Afghanistan 40 Democrats Threaten to Reject Healthcare Bill over Abortion Restrictions Fort Hood Shooter to Be Tried in Military Court Survey Highlights Global Concerns over Free Market Capitalism Palestinians Knock Down Part of West Bank Wall Again EPA Attempts to Silence Agency Critics of Cap and Trade Maldives President Urges Developing Nations to Become Carbon Neutral Whistleblower: Peak Oil Closer than IEA Forecasts Show China Executes Nine over Xinjiang Riots Watchdog: New York State Regulation of Natural Gas Wells Has Been "Woefully Insufficient for Decades." The New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health. The state is considering allowing for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers. Filmmaker Philippe Diaz on "The End of Poverty?" Earlier this year, the IMF and the World Bank warned that the financial crisis posed a serious challenge to reducing poverty. The World Bank predicted that the economic crisis could push another 53 million people in the global South into poverty. Well, according to the latest numbers from the United Nations, we’re now up to 2.7 billion people around the world who survive on less than two dollars a day, one billion of whom live on less than a dollar a day. Given the dire statistics and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, how can we see the eradication of poverty? That’s the central question of a new documentary called The End of Poverty? Hoodwinked: Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded -- and How to Remake Them John Perkins calls himself a former economic hit man. He has seen the signs of today’s financial meltdown before. The subprime mortgage fiasco, the collapse of the banking industry, the rising unemployment rate—these are all familiar to him. Perkins was on the front lines of monitoring and helping create these very events that were once just confined to the Third World. From 1971 to 1981, he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main, where he was a self-described “economic hit man.” He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Confessions of An Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire.
Seeders: 28
Leeches: 48

PBS Independent Lens-POWER PATHS.Nov 3, 2009.WS-PDTV.XviD.Ekolb

Category: Documentary
Description:
POWER PATHS November 3, 2009 on PBS POWER PATHS offers a unique glimpse into the global energy crisis from the perspective of a culture pledged to protect the planet, historically exploited by corporate interests and neglected by public policy makers. The film follows an intertribal coalition as they fight to transform their local economies by replacing coal mines and smog-belching power plants with renewable energy technologies. This transition would honor their heritage and support future generations by protecting their sacred land, providing electricity to their homes and creating jobs for their communities. Their story is a parable for our time, when the planet as a whole hungers for alternatives to fossil fuels. For environmental trailblazers, it’s proof that going green is not only possible—it’s the only choice we have. The POWER PATHS story begins in the 1960s, when two massive coal mines open on Navajo and Hopi reservations in Arizona. Between them, they produce enough coal to satisfy the unquenchable energy thirsts of Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. They also comprise the single largest strip-mining complex in the world. For more than 30 years, the mines—and the Mohave Generating Station they supply—scar sacred native land, drain the natural aquifers and pollute the Southwestern skies. Meanwhile, beneath the high-tension power lines that carry electricity to the neon-saturated Vegas Strip, Native American reservation dwellers have no electricity or running water. Sickened by the economic disparity and the mounting toll on their land and health, some Navajo and Hopi tribe members begin pressuring their tribal governments not to renew the mining leases, but to no avail. As a result, a handful of grassroots organizers from both tribes join forces with The Sierra Club, the Grand Canyon Trust and the National Parks and Conservation Association to fight back. Calling themselves the Just Transition Coalition, they take on wealthy and entrenched adversaries from Peabody to Southern California Edison. They succeed in closing the power plant (and subsequently the mines) in 2005. But the ecological and moral victory comes at a cost: About half of the adults on the reservations had worked for the mines, and are now unemployed. Undeterred, the Just Transition Coalition shifts gears and heads for California, where they win a legal battle to use the shuttered Mohave plant’s cap-and-trade pollution credits to finance investment in solar panels and wind turbines for their reservations. In one scene, a Navajo mother screws a light bulb into a kitchen socket for the first time and sees it light up, enabling her children to stop depending on sunlight or dangerous kerosene lanterns in order to do their homework. She weeps in relief and gratitude. Today, more tribes are seeking investments and partnerships to create green-energy economies on the reservation, with hopes that one day, renewable energy will replace casinos as a primary means for economic development and tribal self-sufficiency. As the nation at large struggles to disengage itself from the chains of a fossil-fuel-based economy, POWER PATHS signals cause for hope that an alternative is not somewhere in the future, but possible right now. And Native Americans are leading the way. Update In June 2009, the 21st Navajo Nation Council voted 62 to 1 to establish a Navajo Green Economy Commission, according to the Sierra Club. The legislation, which is designed to take advantage of federal stimulus funds for green jobs, is intended to stimulate the economy by developing a sustainable energy infrastructure on the Navajo reservation. Format : AVI Length : 465 MiB for 56mn 32s 25ms Codec : XviD Source : PDTV Language : English Subtitles : None Genre : Documentary Video #0 : MPEG-4 Visual at 1 000 Kbps Aspect : 608 x 336 (1.810) at 29.970 fps Audio #0 : MPEG Audio at 135 Kbps Infos : 2 channels, 48.0 KHz Enjoy! Ekolb
Seeders: 0
Leeches: 0

Documentary - The Carbon Connection

Category: Documentary
Description:
As part of the deal to reduce greenhouse gases that cause dangerous climate change, major polluters can now buy carbon credits that allow them to pay someone else to reduce emissions instead of cutting their own pollution. What this means for those living next to the oil industry in Scotland is the continuation of pollution caused by their toxic neighbours. Meanwhile in Brazil the schemes that generate carbon credits gives an injection of cash for more planting of the damaging eucalyptus tree. The two communities are now connected by bearing the brunt of the new trade in carbon credits. The Carbon Connection follows the story of two groups of people from each community who learned to use video cameras and made their own films about living with the impacts of the carbon market. From mental health issues in Scotland to the loss of medicinal plants in Brazil, the communities discover the connections they have with each other and the film follows them on this journey. The Carbon Connection, is a Fenceline Films presentation in partnership with the Transnational Institute Environmental Justice Project and Carbon Trade Watch, the Alert Against the Green Desert Movement, FASE-ES, and the Community Training and Development Unit. See more on: www.carbontradewatch.org www.tni.org TamraGilbertson. (2009, October 16). Carbon Connection. Retrieved November 07, 2009, from EngageMedia Web site: http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/TamraGilbertson/videos/Carbontradewatch-cc.m4v. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. CC BY-NC-ND
Seeders: 0
Leeches: 0

Is It Better to be Mixed Race?~Science's Last Taboo 2009 11 02 Ch 4

Category: Documentary
Description:
Is It Better to be Mixed Race?~Science's Last Taboo 2009 11 02 Ch 4 389.61 MB/ 47:43./ XviD Before 1967, it was illegal in 16 American states for a black person and white person to marry. Right-wing groups on both sides of the Atlantic continue to espouse that the mixing of races is destructive and against some kind of natural order. Aarathi Prasad, a geneticist and mother of a mixed-race child, sets out to challenge the science of racial purity, as part of the Race: Science's Last Taboo season, and examines provocative claims that there are in fact biological advantages to being mixed race. It's a controversial subject that has aroused much opposition from both ends of the political spectrum, but does greater genetic diversity confer advantages in humans, as seen in the breeding of plants and animals, or are lifestyle and environment the primary influences? (Editor's Choice, Subtitles) http://www.channel4.com/programmes/is-it-better...-to-be-mixed-race Source: http://www.thebox.bz/details.php?id=97702 Cap: evil-koala Other shunster posts at:http://www.bt-chat.com/browse.php?category=11
Seeders: 11
Leeches: 6

Rationality and the Ideology of Disconnection

Category: eBooks, Magazines, Audio Books
Description:
Rationality and the Ideology of Disconnection Series: Contemporary Political Theory Michael Taylor University of Washington pdf eBook version (not scanned). "A powerful and provocative critique of the foundations of Rational Choice theory and the economic way of thinking about the world, written by a former leading practitioner. The target is a dehumanizing ideology that cannot properly recognize that normal people have attachments and commitments to other people and to practices, projects, principles, and places, which provide them with desire-independent reasons for action, and that they are reflective creatures who think about what they are and what they should be, with ideals that can shape and structure the way they see their choices. The author’s views are brought to bear on the economic way of thinking about the natural environment and on how and when the norm of fair reciprocity motivates us to do our part in cooperative endeavors. Throughout, the argument is adorned by thought-provoking examples that keep what is at stake clearly before the reader’s mind." from the author of: Anarchy and Cooperation. London: John Wiley & Sons, 1976 Community, Anarchy and Liberty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982 The Possibility of Cooperation (A substantially revised and expanded edition of Anarchy and Cooperation.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987 Bio: Michael Taylor (born 1942), is a political theorist and political economist who currently teaches at the University of Washington. His research interests include rational choice theory, moral motivation and game theory. Although game theory was applied in social sciences before Taylor's work, he was the first to explicitly link rationality with collective action. He sets out a theory for a rationally motivated revolution and rational cooperation. His theory specifically states that cooperation can be achieved without the intervention of the state. Rational individuals will cooperate as it will maximise their long term utility. Taylor shows this through game theory and especially the Prisoner's Dilemma supergame. (Editor and co-author) Rationality and Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Seeders: 10
Leeches: 0

PBS Independent Lens-Butte, America.Oct 20, 2009.WS-PDTV.XviD.Ekolb

Category: Documentary
Description:
Independent Lens: Butte, America Aired: Oct 20, 2009 You see the world differently when you work underground. That made Butte, Montana, different right from the start as immigrants came from around the world to work the mines. But what they blasted out of the 10,000 miles of tunnels was more than just copper. It was the rise of unions and multinational corporations, and the seeds of the current debate over the environment. Format : AVI Length : 465 MiB for 56mn 40s 166ms Codec : XviD Source : PDTV Language : English Subtitles : None Genre : Documentary Video #0 : MPEG-4 Visual at 1 001 Kbps Aspect : 608 x 336 (1.810) at 29.970 fps Audio #0 : MPEG Audio at 132 Kbps Infos : 2 channels, 48.0 KHz Enjoy! Ekolb
Seeders: 19
Leeches: 18

Democracy NOW! Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Category: News & Current Affairs
Description:
Harry Reid: Senate Bill Will Include Public Option Plan Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced the Senate healthcare reform bill will include a public health insurance plan that states can choose to opt out of. Sen. Harry Reid: “As we’ve gone through this process, I’ve concluded—with the support of the White House, Senators Dodd and Baucus—that the best way to move forward is to include a public option with the opt-out provision for states. Under this concept, states will be able to determine whether the public option works well for them and will have the ability to opt out, if they so choose. I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system. It will protect consumers, keep insurers honest, and ensure competition. And that’s why we intend to include it in the bill that we submitted—that will be submitted to the Senate.” The Washington Post reports the opt-out provision was engineered by New York Senator Charles Schumer as a compromise between moderates who want a smaller government role and liberals who prefer a single-payer system. The Democratic leadership must now scramble to secure the sixty votes needed to pass the measure. While details of how states could opt out of the system are unclear, it likely means that millions of Americans may never have a chance to enroll in a government-run health insurance plan because of Republican opposition. A combined total of 154 million people, or 51 percent of the population, live in states where Republicans control the governor’s mansion or the state legislature. Massey Energy Begins Blasting Coal River Mountain In West Virginia, Massey Energy has begun blasting operations on Coal River Mountain despite deep opposition from environmental groups and critics of mountaintop removal mining. Coal River Mountain is the last intact mountain on the historic Coal River Mountain range. All of the other mountains have been blown up by coal companies. Jeff Biggers, author of the book The United States of Appalachia: “Residents in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia were shocked last Friday to hear the rattle of explosives and see plumes of smoke rise above Coal River Mountain. According to news reports on Monday, Massey Energy has clearcut the lush forest and blasted part of the historic ridge in the first leg of a 6,000-acre mountaintop removal mine. For advocates across Appalachia and citizens group across the nation, the impending mountaintop removal operation on Coal River Mountain amounts to a final showdown between out-of-state coal companies and the state of coalfield residents.” Activists had proposed to save the mountaintop and turn it into a wind farm, a proposal which was seen by many as a model for sustainable green economic development. Anti-mountaintop removal activists are now calling on President Obama to halt the mining operation and save Coal River Mountain. US Official Resigns over War in Afghanistan The former top American civilian working in the Zabul province of Afghanistan has resigned from the Foreign Service to protest the Afghan war. Matthew Hoh said he quit because he had come to believe the war was simply fueling the insurgency and that the United States is asking its troops to die for what is essentially a far-off civil war. In his resignation letter, Hoh wrote, “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.” Hoh is a thirty-six-year-old former Marine who fought in the Iraq war. He is the first US official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war. Monday Marked Deadliest Day for US in Afghanistan in Four Years Meanwhile, President Obama said Monday he will not rush his decision about whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, where fourteen Americans died yesterday in the deadliest day for US forces in more than four years. Ex-AIG CEO Is Back with New Insurance Venture The New York Times reports that former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg is quietly building up a family of insurance companies that could compete with his former company. To fill the ranks of his venture, C.V. Starr & Company, Greenberg has been hiring some people he once employed. One insurance executive said, “Basically, he’s just starting ‘A.I.G. Two’ and raiding people out of ‘A.I.G. One.‘” People who work in the industry said Greenberg may soon be siphoning off AIG’s business and, therefore, its means to repay its debt to the government. AIG was the recipient of the biggest taxpayer bailout in history. Showdown in Chicago Continues Outside Bankers Meeting In other financial news, protests are continuing in Chicago outside the American Bankers Association convention. Sheila Bair, the chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, spoke to both the protesters and bankers on Monday. At a rally before thousands of activists, Bair voiced support for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Sheila Bair: “By regulating the non-bank shadow sector for the first time, this new agency can help prevent future abuses. I hope we see other measures taken that will create a more resilient, transparent and better regulated financial system, including an end to the ‘too big to fail’ doctrine. Yes, no more bailouts. No more bailouts." UN Urges US Engagement in Climate Change Deal During a stop in Seattle, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the US Senate to pass a bill limiting carbon emissions. Moon said such a bill will encourage other nations to act to fight climate change. Janos Pasztor, the director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team: “There are reports of a new poll in the United States that indicates that interest and support for action on climate change may actually be declining. The Secretary-General sees US engagement as vital for a climate change deal, a point he made in an op-ed today and in interviews since Seattle. He stated that we cannot afford another period where the US stands on the sidelines.” Canadian Climate Activists Disrupt House of Commons In Canada, about 200 young people staged a protest inside the House of Commons Monday forcing lawmakers to shut down the question period. The activists were calling on the Canadian Parliament to pass a bill setting out deep cuts in carbon emissions. Six people were reportedly detained, and the police beat at least one protester. Amnesty: Israel Denies Palestinians Access to Water Amnesty International has accused the Israeli government of preventing Palestinians from receiving enough water in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel controls much of the West Bank’s water supplies, pumping from an aquifer that bridges Israel and the territory. Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera called on Israel to distribute the region’s water resources in a fair manner. Donatella Rovera: “Palestinians are having access to four times less water than Israelis, and for some Palestinian communities it’s ten times less water for the Palestinians than the Israelis. To put an end to the situation where Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, which are unlawful under international law, have swimming pools and green lawns and irrigated fields, and the Palestinians do not have enough water even for drinking and for basic domestic needs.” US Officials to Travel to Honduras Senior US officials will travel to Honduras this week to press ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the country’s coup leaders to break a stalemate in a four-month-old political crisis. This marks the first time since the coup that the Obama administration has taken a leading role in pressuring the leaders of the de facto government to restore democratic order in Honduras. On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with both Zelaya and Honduras’s de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti. Officials said Clinton told the two leaders that there was “increasing frustration” over the deteriorating situation in Honduras. Clinton is said to have reserved her toughest comments for Micheletti, because the United States believes he has been “the most difficult.” Fidel Castro’s Sister Admits She Spied for CIA In other news from the region, Fidel and Raul Castro’s sister has admitted she spied on her brothers for the CIA in the 1960s. Juanita Castro disclosed her role as a spy in a new memoir. Juanita initially hailed the Cuban revolution but later became disillusioned by the actions of her brothers. Chamber of Commerce Sues Yes Men for Prank The US Chamber of Commerce has sued the Yes Men, after the political pranksters impersonated the organization. The Yes Men staged a fake press conference at the National Press Club last week to announce that the Chamber was changing its stance on climate change and supporting capping greenhouse gas emissions. Several news outlets, including Reuters, CNBC and Fox Business Channel, reported the policy change as fact before issuing corrections. The Chamber is suing the Yes Men for misappropriating its logo and violating a host of related copyrights. Activists Protest Mercenary Trade Association Meeting And the International Peace Operations Association is holding its annual conference in Washington this week. The trade association represents mercenary groups and private military contractors, including DynCorp and Triple Canopy. A coalition of activist groups, including CODEPINK, Africa Action and the Hip Hop Caucus, are planning to hold a protest and forum today to counter the mercenary conference. Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill: “While these merchants of death are meeting in Washington, DC, human rights activists and other concerned people are going to be gathering to protest these mercenaries. And we’re not only going to be addressing the use of mercenaries in Afghanistan and Iraq, which we know well is continuing unabated, but also the use of mercenary forces on the African continent, which is a story that basically never makes it into the corporate media. There are mercenaries that, once again, are operating in the Congo, in Somalia, in the conflict in Ethiopia and Eritrea. And so, we’re gathering to try to shut down this whole privatized war apparatus and to raise awareness of this Bush administration policy that the Obama administration is continuing and escalating.”
Seeders: 84
Leeches: 16

Hemp Hemp Hooray! The Growing Industrial Hemp Market (DVDrip)

Category: Documentary
Description:
Hemp Hemp Hooray! is a fast paced, fun educational glimpse into the potential of the world's most useful and versatile plant, cannabis hemp, and its burgeoning renewed industrial marketplace. Hear the voices of hemp - entrepreneurs, manufacturers, farmers, experts, activists and concerned consumers. See: a house furnished almost entirely with hemp products. Fine textiles and fashion for all family members, protein rich foods, cosmetics, soaps, housewares, paper, papermaking, ropes, shoes, on and on....products galore and glorious! Learn about the environmental advantages, essential fatty acids and hempseed nutrition, making plastics and building materials from hemp, historical facts and how to evolve into a hempen world. Woven into this fabric of possibilities are rare scenes from around the world. Germany...High tech farm equipment in action harvesting hemp France...Learn the process to make hemp bricks and see a demo house Romania...This factory has been spinning hempthreads for over 50 years Canada...Harvesting the first year crops of legal hemp near Toronto Santa Cruz Industrial Hemp Expo * SF Hemp Expo * Kentucky Farmers Feel:the palpable enthusiam where hempsters gather. The hope of a world free of toxic chemicals, giving back to the Earth and it's creatures. A vision of right livelihood amidst a circle of respect and sustainability where we each must take responsibility to learn, change and give what we can. Hemp Hemp Hooray ! The Growing Industrial Hemp Market is an inspired look at a renewable natural resource that can provide many of our world's needs while cleaning and rebuilding the environment. Educate yourself, your community and your legislators with this exhilarating video.
Seeders: 2
Leeches: 1

The Anarchist Library on torrent

Category: eBooks, Magazines, Audio Books
Description:
The whole archive of theanarchistlibrary.org
Seeders: 14
Leeches: 3

A River of Waste (2009)

Category: Documentary
Description:
Learn the shocking truth behind factory farms -- gigantic breeding grounds for meat and poultry -- in this documentary that details how the practice wreaks havoc on the environment and on consumers' health. Through disturbing footage and interviews with experts, director Don McCorkell paints a disturbing portrait of a food system that uses hormones, antibiotics and arsenic to increase its output with little regard for the damage it causes
Seeders: 4
Leeches: 1