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Brits Under Assault By Right Wing Think Tanks

2:18 pm EST September 13th, 2011 | News | 5 Comments

Nadine Dorries won’t answer it. Lord Lawson won’t answer it. Michael Gove won’t answer it. But it’s a simple question, and if they don’t know it’s because they don’t want to. Where does the money come from? All are connected to groups whose purpose is to change the direction of public life. None will reveal who funds them.

When she attempted to restrict abortion counselling, Nadine Dorries MP was supported by a group called Right to Know. When other MPs asked her who funds it, she claimed she didn’t know. Lord Lawson is chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which casts doubt on climate science. It demands “openness and transparency” from scientists. Yet he refuses to say who pays, on the grounds that the donors “do not wish to be publicly engaged in controversy”. Michael Gove was chairman of Policy Exchange, an influential conservative thinktank. When I asked who funded Policy Exchange when he ran it, his office told me “he doesn’t have that information and he won’t be able to help you”.

We know that to understand politics and the peddling of influence we must follow the money. So it’s remarkable that the question of who funds the thinktanks has so seldom been asked.

There are dozens of groups in the UK which call themselves free-market or conservative thinktanks, but they have a remarkably consistent agenda. They tend to oppose the laws which protect us from banks and corporations; to demand the privatisation of state assets; to argue that the rich should pay less tax; and to pour scorn on global warming. What the thinktanks call free-market economics looks more like a programme for corporate power.

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11:02 pm EST September 6th, 2011 | News | Comments Off

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Cutting Government Spending Hurt Unemployment

10:23 am EST September 5th, 2011 | News | 128 Comments

Some labor day knowledge from Krugman:

Although you’d never know it listening to the ranters, the past year has actually been a pretty good test of the theory that slashing government spending actually creates jobs. The deficit obsession has blocked a much-needed second round of federal stimulus, and with stimulus spending, such as it was, fading out, we’re experiencing de facto fiscal austerity. State and local governments, in particular, faced with the loss of federal aid, have been sharply cutting many programs and have been laying off a lot of workers, mostly schoolteachers.

And somehow the private sector hasn’t responded to these layoffs by rejoicing at the sight of a shrinking government and embarking on a hiring spree.

O.K., I know what the usual suspects will say — namely, that fears of regulation and higher taxes are holding businesses back. But this is just a right-wing fantasy. Multiple surveys have shown that lack of demand — a lack that is being exacerbated by government cutbacks — is the overwhelming problem businesses face, with regulation and taxes barely even in the picture.

Look, conservative economics doesn’t work. We know this. The more we keep engaging it like it’s a real, viable thing the worse off we’ll be.

News Of Note

1:44 pm EST September 1st, 2011 | News | 9 Comments

National Confidential:

Mark Zuckerberg Tops 2011 Vanity Fair New Establishment List

Boehner Backstab: Agreed To Speech Date With Obama, Rescinded It In Public

Jon Hutt: Man Cut Off Toes With Pocket Knife After Foot Pinned

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Lawsuit: AIDS Grant Money Went To Washington D.C. Strip Club

Wikileaks Endangers Lives

11:25 am EST August 30th, 2011 | News | 23 Comments

The good guys, my ass.

In a shift of tactics that has alarmed American officials, the antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks has published on the Web nearly 134,000 leaked diplomatic cables in recent days, more than six times the total disclosed publicly since the posting of the leaked State Department documents began last November.

A sampling of the documents showed that the newly published cables included the names of some people who had spoken confidentially to American diplomats and whose identities were marked in the cables with the warning “strictly protect.”

State Department officials and human rights activists have been concerned that such diplomatic sources, including activists, journalists and academics in authoritarian countries, could face reprisals, including dismissal from their jobs, prosecution or violence.

Topic: Wikileaks

Earthquake!

3:18 pm EST August 23rd, 2011 | News | 4 Comments

Our office shook for a little bit, then it was over. Somewhat exciting though, I must say.

Michele Bachmann: I Worked As A Tax Lawyer To Know The Enemy

4:54 pm EST August 18th, 2011 | News | 11 Comments

Stupid people on parade.

Maureen Chao Should Be Fired

10:24 am EST August 14th, 2011 | News | 38 Comments

This is unacceptable.

The United States has apologised for controversial remarks made by a US diplomat who spoke of “dark and dirty” Indians, calling the comments “inappropriate”.

US Vice-Consul Maureen Chao told Indian students on Friday that her “skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians” after a long train journey, according to Indian media — referring to people from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

During her speech in the Tamil Nadu capital, Chennai, Chao was quoted as saying: “I was on a 24-hour train trip from Delhi to (the eastern Indian state of) Orissa.

“But, after 72 hours, the train still did not reach the destination… and my skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians.”

Following her speech, the US Consulate in Chennai on Saturday issued a “statement of apology”.

Some News

10:36 am EST August 12th, 2011 | News | 18 Comments

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Obama Approves Additional Funds For Horn Of Africa Famine Relief

3:57 pm EST August 8th, 2011 | News | 11 Comments

From a White House press release:

Amid the worst drought in East Africa in 60 years, the United Nations has declared that famine now affects five regions in Somalia and predicts that famine could soon expand throughout southern Somalia. Thousands of Somalis are fleeing the famine and seeking refuge in Kenya and Ethiopia, which are also affected by the drought. According to the United Nations, more than 12.4 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Today, on behalf of the U.S. Government and the American people, the President has approved an additional $105 million for urgent humanitarian relief efforts in the Horn of Africa, including funds from his Emergency Relief and Migration Assistance Fund. This year alone, the U.S. has provided approximately $565 million in humanitarian assistance. U.S. assistance will continue funding the urgently needed food, health, shelter, water and sanitation assistance to those who desperately need help.

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DONATE TO AMERICAN REFUGEE COMMITTEE
DONATE TO INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS (Horn Of Africa Crisis)