Born This Way, Therapy, Kids, Homophobia, The Natural World

Born This Way

• Having a stroke made me gay
• Boys Who Played With Barbies: A Look at Born This Way
• Queer by Choice, Not by Chance: Against Being 'Born This Way'
• Bering in Mind: Is your child a "prehomosexual"? Forecasting adult sexual orientation--Interesting reading to be found on Biology and sexual orientation and Fraternal birth order and male sexual orientation
• Ask an Academic: The Secrets of Boys
• Identical Twins = Identical Rights

Therapy

• Therapy to change 'feminine' boy created a troubled man, family says
• Therapists Who Help People Stay In the Closet NYT
• Revolutionary New Homophobia Immersion Therapy Involves Lowering Patient Into Tank Of Gays The Onion

Kids

• Princess Zach
• Little boy's reaction to meeting his first gay couple
• Census Shows Rise in Number of Gay Adoptions NYT

Homophobia

• Homophobia at BlizzCon: Is Gamer Culture Anti-Gay?
• Natural homophobes? Evolutionary psychology and antigay attitudes
• Is homophobia associated with homosexual arousal?

The Natural World

• A Map of Gender-Diverse Cultures--" On nearly every continent, and for all of recorded history, thriving cultures have recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders. [...] Yet hundreds of distinct societies around the globe have their own long-established traditions for third, fourth, fifth, or more genders."
• The surprisingly gay world of insect sex Salon
• Homosexual zebra finches form long-term bond

The Haves, Banks: Foreclosures, Loans, Debit and Credit Cards, Taxes, GOP, Wingers

The Haves

• 'Oligarchy': History of how the super-rich defend their wealth
• The 1% Have a Stranglehold on Politics: New Al Jazeera Documentary Sheds Light on the Koch Brothers
• Top 1% getting richer: Study shows growing income disparity
• The Ideological Fantasies of Inequality Deniers
• Why the Rich Get Richer--"Those who have money have a systemic advantage in the acquisition of proven productive resources over those who do not, an advantage which compounds."
• How the Legal System Was Deep-Sixed to Serve Elite America and Occupy Wall Street Became Inevitable
• Immunity and impunity in elite America: The top one per cent of US society is enjoying a two-tiered system of justice and politics--Salon's Glenn Grenwald is coming out with a new book, With Liberty and Justice for Some

Banks: Foreclosures, Loans, Debit and Credit Cards

• What the Costumes Reveal--Employees of NY's largest "foreclosure mill", Steven J. Baum, dressed as the homeless for their Halloween party last year.
• House GOP Wants To Repeal Requirement That Banks Hold A Portion Of Their Risky Loans--Guess who their real constituents are.
• Nevada Makes Illegal Foreclosures Felony
• Bank of America leads, but no one follows: Moynihan’s bluff called, move on fees backfires
• Wells Fargo Cancels Pilot of $3 Monthly Fee for Debit Cards
• Using Credit Cards to Target Web Ads--" The two largest credit-card networks, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., are pushing into a new business: using what they know about people's credit-card purchases for targeting them with ads online. "
• Visa Exposed As Massive Credit Card Scam The Onion

Taxes

• The flat tax fraud--"Conservatives are pushing the flat tax as a smokescreen. They’d rather not have anyone talk about the unfairness and fiscal absurdity of the current system."
• Perry Adviser Steve Forbes Crafted Flat Tax Plan That Would Have Given Himself A $1.9 Billion Tax Cut
• Millionaires Support Warren Buffett's Tax on the Rich--"A new survey from Spectrem Group found that 68% of millionaires (those with investments of $1 million or more) support raising taxes on those with $1 million or more in income. Fully 61% of those with net worths of $5 million or more support the tax on million-plus earners."
• Republican Voters Don't Mind Middle Class Tax Hikes, but Oppose Raising Taxes on Wealthy--Clearly there's a disconnect.
• Swiss Banks May Pay Billions, Disclose Names--"Swiss banks will probably settle a sweeping U.S. probe of offshore tax evasion by paying billions of dollars and handing over names of thousands of Americans who have secret accounts... ."

GOP

• The Republicans' war on science and reason
• The incentive behind GOP obstructionism
• Sabotage: The Story Behind The Republican Party's "Top Political Priority"--"Congressional Republicans won't admit it, but President Obama's proposed American Jobs Act is popular — with voters and economists alike."
• Jon Stewart To GOP On Qaddafi Death: What Is Wrong With You People?
• The Truth Has A Well-Known, Well, You Know NYT

Wingers

• Eric Cantor Cancels Income Inequality Speech After Learning It Will Be Open to the Public
• Tea party group to Bachmann: Quit the presidential race
• Rubio Tries To Clarify How His Family Left Cuba--"GOP rising star Sen. Marco Rubio caught heat last week for his Senate bio that misstated when his family left Cuba for the U.S...." Emphasis mine for a word that clearly means "lied about".
• GOP candidate admits lesbian affair with 'minor' while working as school gym teacher... but claims Christianity 'cured' her
  
• NJ GOP Mayor Has 'No Idea' How Rentboy Got Sexy Pictures of Him

Occupy Wall Street, Scott Olsen, Occupy Oakland, Confrontations, 7 Billion

Occupy Wall Street

• Taibbi: Wall Street isn't winning, it's cheating
• Frank Rich on Occupy Wall Street and Class Warfare
• The study that shows why Occupy Wall Street struck a nerve
• The real reason OWS terrifies conservatives--"It's not the dirty hippies. It's because the protesters could find natural allies in the Tea Party." Salon
• How OWS confuses and ignores Fox News and the pundit class--"One of the best things about Occupy Wall Street is the way it confuses and ignores the shrill pundit class."
  
• The Stunning Victory That Occupy Wall Street Has Already Achieved--"In just one month, the protesters have shifted the national dialogue from a relentless focus on the deficit to a discussion of the real issues facing Main Street."
• Glenn Greenwald on Occupy Wall Street, Banks Too Big to Jail and the Attack on WikiLeaks
• Goldman Sachs and Occupy Wall Street's bank: the real story
• Occupy Wall Street's Most Unlikely Ally: The Pope
• Solidarity from Ken Jennings

Scott Olsen

• How the Wounding of a Vet Who Dared to Dissent Has Stirred More Dissent
• Despite Iraq Vet’s Cracked Skull, DoJ Sees No Evil in Occupy Crackdown--Watch an Oakland Policeman throwing a flash grenade into a crowd trying to help an injured protester.
• Scott Olsen 'cannot talk' after injury at Occupy Oakland protest

Occupy Oakland

• What Happened at Occupy Oakland
• Oakland protesters re-"Occupy" plaza
• Egyptians march from Tahrir Square to support Occupy Oakland protestors

Confrontations

• Wall Street Firms Spy on Protesters in Tax-Funded Center--"In a secretive government facility Wall Street firms get to sit alongside the New York Police Department and spy on law-abiding citizens."
• New York City Pulls the Plug on Zuccotti Park's Power--And they also confiscated the generators just when temperatures in NY are starting to drop.
• NY Cops defy orders to break up #OccupyAlbany demonstrations
• San Diego Police Take Over Occupy San Diego – at least 44 Arrested
• Occupy Nashville Protesters Claim Victory, Return to Plaza

7 Billion

• When will the 7 billionth human be born?--In two days, it seems.
• Why current population growth is costing us the Earth
• China's one-child policy means many benefits for parents – if they follow the rules

Occupy Oakland, Bad Cops, Eavesdropping in Illinois, NYPD, Lawsuits

Occupy Oakland

• Police Fire Tear Gas at Occupy Protesters in Oakland
• Scott Olsen, Iraq War Veteran Shot By Oakland Police, Has A Fractured Skul
• Occupy Oakland: Vigil planned for former Marine hurt in protest
• Oakland police and mayor face fresh protest over wounding of veteran
• Occupy Wall Street protesters support injured war veteran
• Oakland Mayjor Jean Quan says she will Minimize police presence and that she supports the Movement
• Occupy Oakland protester Scott Olsen awake ahead of brain surgery
  

Bad Cops

• "We Don't Need a Warrant, We're ICE"
• Some police are barely literate, lawyer claims--"Some British police officers are 'barely literate' because the educational standards required to join the service are so low, it was claimed last night."
• Bungling cops raid wrong home... for 41st time
• Alameda raid mistakenly targets TV reporter's home
• Wrongful Arrest

Eavesdropping in Illinois

• Strict eavesdropping law ruled unconstitutional in Illinois case
• Special Segment: Felony Eavesdropping--"This is the story of Louis Frobe, but it's also about others who have run afoul of the Illinois eavesdropping law, one of the most restrictive of its kind in the country."
• Guy Arrested, Threatened With 15 Years For Recording Traffic Stop In Illinois

NYPD

• Former Detective: NYPD Planted Drugs on People to Meet Drug Arrest Quotas
• NYPD Ticket-Fixing Scandal: Bronx DA Expected To Indict 17 Police Officers
• Eight NYPD cops found abusing their power to smuggle guns, drugs, and cigarettes.

Lawsuits

• Lawsuit planned in Little Rock police shooting--"On the evening of December 9, 2010, 67-year-old Eugene Ellison, a Vietnam veteran, was shot and killed in his home by Little Rock police officers Donna Lesher and Tabitha McCrillis. On that date, Officers Lesher and McCrillis worked as off-duty security guards at the Big Country Chateau apartment complex and entered Ellison’s apartment without a warrant. "
• Traffic Stop Does Not Justify Home Entry: US Court of Appeals rules a cop cannot enter a home over a minor traffic violation
• New York: Federal Court Overturns Search on a Hunch
• A Closing Argument--A lawyer's client was "charged with two counts of attempt first degree murder with a firearm, two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm to a police officer, and four counts of Armed Violence" for defending himself when police broke into his home.
• Taser Case Fails to Stun Full Panel of 9th Circuit

Surveillance, The Trouble with Telcos, Spycam, Wi-Fie, Net Worth

Surveillance

• The Patriot Act, Cyber-Edition
• In praise of chaos: Governments' attempts to control the internet should be resisted
• Obama man: 'Global internet surveillance skyrocketing'
• EU Politician Wants Internet Surveillance Built Into Every Operating System
• FBI to launch nationwide facial recognition service
• Want to Read My Email? Not Without a Warrant
• China to tighten social media censorship--"China will tighten its censorship of social media networks, the Communist Party said on Wednesday. Internet users will be punishable for publishing what the Party deems 'harmful information'."

The Trouble with Telcos

• Document Shows How Phone Firms Treat Private Data
• Verizon Wireless Now Collecting Your Web, Location, App Data
• Verizon tweaks privacy policy for ad targeting based on physical address.

Spycam

• Marisel Garcia Caught in Webcam Spy Hacker Craig Feigin Case
• Neb. man sues ex-wife for putting recorder in toy
• How an Omniscient Internet ‘Sextortionist’ Ruined the Lives of Teen Girls
• Adobe to plug Flash-related Webcam spying hole
• The Sins of the Flash--"[C]ode on a remote computer somewhere decides whether or not random web sites can spy on you. If someone changes that code, accidentally or deliberately, your own computer has just been turned into a bug, without any need for them to attack your machine."

Wi-Fie

• Cutting the cord: how the world's engineers built Wi-Fi
• The History Of The (Fake) 'Free Public WiFi' You Always See At Airports
• NY case underscores Wi-Fi privacy dangers
• Wi-Fi–Hacking Neighbor From Hell Sentenced to 18 Years
• Google Lets Wi-Fi Hotspot Owners Opt out of Location Service

Net Worth

• Your Online Reputation Is More Important Than You Think
• How the Internet Tried to Kill Me
• The New "Publicness," the New (Networked) Privacy, and Youth Expression
• 'Public' online spaces don't carry speech, rights
• Your face -- and the Web -- can tell everything about you

Wikileaks, Economics, Banks, Cashing Out, Mortgages and Foreclosures

Wikileaks

• WikiLeaks cables and the Iraq War Salon
• WikiLeaks suspends publishing to fight financial blockade--"Julian Assange says banking bans have destroyed 95% of whistleblowing site's revenues."
• The bankers' blockade of WikiLeaks must end--"Whether you support WikiLeaks or not, the blockade by Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and others is a sinister attack on free speech"

Economics

• The Hole in Europe’s Bucket NYT
• Economics has met the enemy, and it is economics
• EU Considers Ban on Country Ratings--"Ratings agency forecasts are throwing entire countries into financial crises by driving up interest rates on bonds. Now the EU is considering a ban on ratings for countries that are in the process of negotiating economic bailout packages."
• Bill Clinton talks to Simon Schama--Nothing less than the globe's greatest challenges now exercise the former president, who deployed his formidable brains and charm to set up his Global Initiative in 2005. But what does a man who personifies the American dream make of the problems currently facing his own nation?
• Economics in One Lesson

Banks

• Obama flush with cash from finance, banking sector
• 2008 Redux: Taxpayers to help bailout Merrill Lynch and Bank of America
• Volcker Rule, Once Simple, Now Boggles--The Volcker rule was supposed to simply "curb risk-taking by banks", but "[w]all Street firms have spent countless millions of dollars trying to water down the original Volcker proposal and have succeeded in inserting numerous exemptions. Now they’re claiming it’s too complex to understand and too costly to adopt." NYT
• Citigroup to pay $285M in fraud settlement--"The Securities and Exchange Commission said Citigroup committed fraud when they invited investors to finance a $1 billion derivatives deal tied to the U.S. housing market, in which they bet against investors as the housing market showed signs of collapse."
• GAO warns of Fed conflicts--"The Federal Reserve faces possible conflicts of interest by having financial and banking executives serving on its regional boards, according to a new report Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office that calls for greater transparency."
• Bank earnings don't bode well for economy
  

Cashing Out

• 'Bank Transfer Day' Gains Momentum on Facebook
• Bank Fees Push Consumers to Put Money Elsewhere
• Coloradans Divest from Wells Fargo--"On Tuesday, members of the Colorado Progressive Coalition (CPC) will join over 300 Wells Fargo account holders and one local union in divesting their accounts from Colorado's largest bank due to predatory lending habits, continued failure to approve substantial numbers of eligible HAMP modifications and their refusal to stop foreclosure proceedings after disclosing 'robo-signing' like errors in their approval."

Mortgages and Foreclosures

• Escrow Company Error Lands Home In Foreclosure
• Houston, we've got a problem - Bevilacqua
• Obama administration ramps up mortgage refinancing effort

War Against Science, Politics, Environment, Lawsuits, Climate Change

War Against Science

• The Republican war on science is un-American Salon
• Neil deGrasse Tyson continues his onslaught on the government’s betrayal of science
• 'Duh' science: Why researchers spend so much time proving the obvious--"Experts say they have to prove the obvious — and prove it again and again — to influence perceptions and policy."
• Coburn anti-NSF report misleading, factually incorrect
• C Hawking - What We Need More Of Is Science
• What if scientists had the same standard as pundits?
• The Anti-Science Fair

Politics

• Court upholds Clinton-era ban on forest road-building
• Obama Administration Abandons Stricter Air-Quality Rules NYT
• GOP fights for dirty air Salon

Environment

• "Revenge of the Electric Car": Why the automakers went green Salon
  
• Olbermann, McKibben Talk Tar Sands: Pipeline Will Be "Game Over" for Climate--Why isn't this scandal getting more coverage?
• Film Alleges Koch Industries' Dumping of Toxic Chemicals is Killing People in Arkansas
• Donald Trump's plea to Alex Salmond over 'ugly' wind farm
• You've Been Trumped: film reveals tycoon's ruthless efforts to build Scottish golf resort--Documentary highlights how potential environmental damage has been disregarded because of the perceived benefits to the local economy

Lawsuits

• Gas firm's suit targets 3 families
• Rainforest activist asks for protection after death threats
• Hungary fines metals firm behind 2010 red sludge flood $647 million for environmental damages
• Amazon pollution victims ask New York judge to award $8bn Chevron money
• Brazil judge blocks Amazon jungle dam construction

Climate Change

• Professor says state agency censored article--"A Rice University professor is accusing Texas' environmental agency of systematically deleting all references to climate change and sea-level rise from an article he wrote about changes in Galveston Bay."
• Koch brothers accidentally fund study that proves global warming
• Climate Skeptics Take Another Hit
• Climate Change and the End of Australia
• Forests dying off as world's climate warms
• Worst Flooding in Decades Swamps Thailand
• Tuvalu drought could be dry run for dealing with climate change

Ice, Ice, Baby

• Arctic ozone loss at record level
• Melting Arctic ice clears the way for supertanker voyages
• Rivers of ice: Vanishing glaciers

Jobs, Occupy Wall Street, Confrontations, Student Loans, Labor Shortage

Jobs

• Jobs Plan Stalled, Obama to Try New Economic Drive NYT
• Why GOP benefits from blocking jobs policies the public supports
• Senators Who Blocked Latest Jobs Bill Have Combined Net Worth Of $400 Million
• It's Not Just Unemployment -- New Data Shows Working Americans' Pay is "Awful"
• Gov. Rick Scott’s Aide Admits That Scott’s Corporate Tax Cut Won’t Create Jobs
• Farms can't find pickers--"In some areas, farm labor is so scarce that inmates in nearby penitentiaries are picking crops."
• Facebook Helps The Unemployed Find Jobs

Occupy Wall Street

• I Went To Occupy Wall Street. This Is What I Saw
• In a Single Month, the Occupation Became a Force
• How Occupy Wall Street Is A Rational Response To A System That’s Failed
• Wall Street lobbyists rage at Dems for daring to whisper a word of support for the Occupy Wall Street protests
• How Democrats can use Occupy protests to their advantage
• Goldman Sachs Sends Its Regrets to This Awkward Dinner Invitation--"Goldman withdrew its name from the dinner. It also pulled the plug on its $5,000 funding pledge."
  
• The New Yorker Mocks The 1% With Its Occupy Wall Street Cover
• Why Occupy Wall Street Is Good for the Tea Party
• Just How Much Can the State Restrict a Peaceful Protest?
• What the NYPD Really Thinks of Occupy Wall Street
• Chinese leaders grow nervous about Occupy Wall Street
• The Daily Show: The 99%

Confrontations

• Over 1,000 Americans Have Been Arrested Protesting Wall Street, While Bankers Have Dodged Major Prosecutions
• Chicago police arrest 130 Occupy protesters
• Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie join Occupy Wall Street protesters in march to Columbus Circle--NY Mayor Bloomberg says that "The city is planning to take a harder line on demonstrators camping out in Zuccotti Park - and insist on permits every time they want to march through Lower Manhattan."
• Citibank Protester Talks About Undercover Infiltration In Occupy Wall Street
• Why Are Police Attacking Peaceful Protesters? How OWS Has Exposed the Militarization of US Law Enforcement
• Occupy Wall Street officer Anthony Bologna 'broke pepper-spray rules'--"Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna faces losing 10 vacation days after the incident on 24 September incident near Union Square..."
• Federal judge tells police not to ticket Occupy protesters
  
• Jesse Jackson Literally Links Arms With Occupy Wall Street Protesters to Protect Medical Tent
• Naomi Wolf: How I was arrested at Occupy Wall Street
• NPR Gets Radio Host Fired for Occupying

Student Loans

• Student Loan Debt To Exceed $1 Trillion This Year
• The $1 Trillion Student Loan Rip-Off: How an Entire Generation Was Tricked into Taking on Crushing Debt That Just Enriches Banks
• Paul Ryan to Student Who Needs Pell Grants: Get Three Jobs Instead
• Student loan debts crush an entire generation Salon
• Forgiving Student Loans: A Stimulus Measure to Revitalize the Middle Class
• Dept. Of Education's New Site Giving Headaches To Folks With Student Loans
• Beyoncé Parody Brings Pain of Student Loan Debt to Life

Labor Shortage

• Census: Recession takes big toll on young adults--"In record numbers, they're struggling to find work, shunning long-distance moves to live with mom and dad, delaying marriage and raising kids out of wedlock, if they're becoming parents at all. The unemployment rate for them is the highest since World War II, and they risk living in poverty more than others - nearly 1 in 5."
• For Law School Graduates, Debts if Not Job Offers NYT
• The jobless young: Left behind
• The great mismatch
• Amid China boom, job search for many grads goes bust

War on Terror, Surveillance, TSA, Unfriendly Skies, Ripping Off Uncle Sam

War on Terror

• Iraq rejects US request to maintain bases after troop withdrawal--"Although the US is pulling out all troops, it will keep its embassy in Baghdad and two consulates. There will also be about 4,000-5,000 defence contractors, White House aides said."
• U.S. drops keeping troops in Iraq
• About that Iraq withdrawal Salon
• Court verdict on Adnan Latif not for you to know
• NY Times Sues US Government for Refusing to Explain its "Secret" Interpretation of the PATRIOT Act
• Judge Refuses to Sanction CIA for Destroying Torture Tapes
• Bin Laden death: 'CIA doctor' accused of treason--"A Pakistani commission investigating the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden says a doctor accused of helping the CIA should be tried for high treason."
• 15 Facts About Military Spending That Will Blow Your Mind
• UK Home Secretary: scrap the Human Rights Act--"Mrs May uses an interview with The Sunday Telegraph to warn that the Act is hampering the Home Office's struggle to deport dangerous foreign criminals and terrorist suspects."
• Conservative Party Conference 2011: David Cameron backs Theresa May over 'chilling' Human Rights Act

Surveillance

• Court Order Seeks Email Data of WikiLeaks Volunteer Jacob Appelbaum--"The U.S. government has obtained a controversial type of secret court order to force Google Inc. and small Internet provider Sonic.net Inc. to turn over information from the email accounts of WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal."
• Calif. Governor Veto Allows Warrantless Cellphone Searches
• FBI Monitoring News Talk Radio for Investigations
• German government accused of spying on citizens with state-sponsored Trojan
• Italy wiretap law: Wikipedia hides pages in protest
• Tracked: The Supreme Court Shouldn't Let Technology Trump the Constitution
• Technology users are under constant digital surveillance
• Skype users BitTorrent habits traceable even when logged out for 3 days

TSA

• Tennessee Becomes First State To Fight Terrorism--By having the TSA do random inspections in truck stops.
• Woman Roughed Up, Arrested for Reciting the Constitution During TSA Inspection
• Coming soon: felony to satirize TSA?

Unfriendly Skies

• Police called to Gatwick to calm passengers stranded on plane--"Air India passengers kept on board flight from Mumbai for nine hours after plane was diverted from Heathrow because of fog."
• Citizen-Muslim Sues Southwest Airlines--"[S]he was not allowed to reboard "because the crew was 'uncomfortable' with her on the plane...."
• Anger as deaf people banned from taking flight
• On YouTube, a Debate Over the Right to Fly (With Your Pants Down) NYT
• American Airlines Blocks Twitter On Troubled Flight
• Qantas loses boy. Rarely happens
• Penny Arcade: The Line

Ripping Off Uncle Sam

• Fraudulent Defense Contractors Paid $1 Trillion--If the government wants to save money, then it should deal with these first.
• Oracle to pay US almost $200M to resolve false claims lawsuit--"Because of these allegedly fraudulent dealings, the United States alleges that it accepted lower discounts and ultimately paid far more than it should have for Oracle products..."
• Watchdog: Feds paid $600 million to dead people. Son of beneficiary continued receiving payments for 37 years after father's death

Gaddafi killed, Hacking, Jobs, Workers, GOP, Palin, Tea Party

Libya's Col Muammar Gaddafi killed, says NTC

Hacking

• British Reporter Says He'll Name Names in Phone Hacking Scandal NYT
• UK Police Admit Knowing About Phone Hacking As Early As 2002
• Phone hacking: News International faces more than 60 claims
• Investors Call for Rupert Murdoch to Step Down as News Corp Chair
• In Rift Between Murdochs, Heir Becomes Less Apparent NYT

Jobs

• Obama: Congress Is Apparently Too Stupid To Understand My Jobs Bill, So We're Going To Simplify It For Them
• Tea Party Nation Wants Small Business Owners to Cease Hiring--"What is in it for a business owner, holding off on hiring for a position that needs to be filled, just to hurt employment numbers in an effort to make Obama look bad?"
• Hallmark adds job loss to line of sympathy cards

Workers

• Amazon.com: The Fraying of a Nation's Decency NYT
• 'Retirement Heist': How Firms Trimmed Pensions--"As companies have been moving away from traditional pension plans, they have been shifting employees to new retirement plans, such as 401(k)s, that transfer the cost — and the risk — to workers."
• Enslaving your interns for evil and profit--"If you’re an intern, don’t sign a non-compete contract."
• How Unpaid Internships Perpetuate Rampant Inequality in the US
• Grassroots Movement for Paid Sick Days for Workers Picking Up Steam Across the Country

GOP

• Long-life Texas GOP Latino Leader Leaves Republican Party After Herman Cain Advocates the Death of Immigrants
  
• Disconnect grows between GOP voters and GOP lawmakers
• After GOP State Senator Uses Her Position To Cover Up Domestic Violence, GOP Pushes Her To& Resign
• GOP Rep. Asked Paper To Keep Town Hall Secret, Selected Residents Who Were Invited
• Daily Kos: Now THAT's how you respond to the right wing

Palin

• Jon Stewart Says What The Media Won't: Sarah Palin Is A Scammer
• Fox News's Roger Ailes: 'I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot'
• Sarah Palin Movie Debuts to Empty Theater in Orange County

Tea Party

• Pinellas County Commission stands firm in decision to end fluoridation
• Top Tea Party organizer arrested for soliciting prostitute
• Schools Say No To Tea Party's Constitution Lessons

Your Rights Online, Facebook and Your Privacy, Efail, Bad Tech, Spam

Your Rights Online

• GOP Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) Pushes Radical Bill To Restrict Discussion Of Abortion Over The Internet
• New York Democrats Argue Free Speech is a Privilege That Can be Revoked
• French Court Orders ISPs to Block Access to Site That "Allow[s] Civilians to Post Videos of Alleged Police Misconduct"
• Lawyer Wants To Wipe Out Anonymous Speech If It's Critical Of Someone
• Judge: Racy High School Slumber Party Photos Posted to Facebook May Not Be "Important" or "Worthwhile," But They're Still Protected Speech
• Testing the limits of free speech
• Twitter chief: We will protect our users from Government--"Dick Costolo, Twitter's chief, has stood by the company’s decision not to suspend the service during the UK riots or disclose user identities to authorities."

Facebook and Your Privacy

• Schneier on Security: Discovering What Facebook Knows About You
• Stalking in the age of Facebook
• Facebook accused of violating US wiretap law
• Facebook: The law reasonably states you can’t have all your data
• Brutal Dishonesty

Efail

• Quick Points on Gmail Security
• When a hacker deletes all your Gmail messages
• How an email hacker ruined my life and then tried to sell it back to me

Bad Tech

• How Two Scammers Built an Empire Hawking Sketchy Software
• 'New Stuxnet' worm targets companies in Europe
• Cyber Terrorism Ring Revealed: A Case Study In The Depths Of Depravity
• Privacy-violating, useless AVG antivirus app pulled from Windows Phone Marketplace
• Download.com wraps downloads in bloatware, lies about motivations

Spam

• Microsoft finds 64 billion fewer spam messages per month after botnet takedowns
• Appeals judges berate spammer for "ridiculous," "incompetent" litigation
• Seventh Circuit Awards e360 a Whopping $3 in Damages Against Spamhaus -- e360 v. Spamhaus
• Study: Viagra Spam Is Profitable, but Margins Are Tight
• Man gets 7 years for forcing modems to call premium numbers
• Catalog Choice--Eliminate unwanted catalogs you receive in the mail
• Mailman fails to deliver, becomes local hero

Occupy Wall Street, Commentary, Economic Climate, Banks, Money Manipulations

Occupy Wall Street

• Wall Street Protests Hit ‎Over 1,500 Cities Around World--Some pics.
• Public Opinion Snapshot: Public Warms to Occupy Wall Street Protesters
• One Month In, Occupy Wall Street Protesters Appear Poised to Change US Politics
• How Christian Fundamentalism Helped Empower the Top 1% to Exploit the 99%
• How Occupy Wall Street Can Avoid Cooptation--"Stay leaderless. Bedevil the media. And ignore history."
• OCCUPY 2012: How Obama Plans To Use Wall Street Protests To Win Re-Election.
• US Marine vs. NYPD Cops
• We Need To Buy Better Senators, Sir
• Foodies, Get Thee to Occupy Wall Street--Because Big Food makes Big Finance look like amateurs.

Commentary

• Paul Krugman: Losing Their Immunity--"You see, until a few weeks ago it seemed as if Wall Street had effectively bribed and bullied our political system into forgetting about that whole drawing lavish paychecks while destroying the world economy thing. Then, all of a sudden, some people insisted on bringing the subject up again." NYT
• Paul Mason: 'Occupy' is a response to economic permafrost
  
• Suze Orman: "Occupy Wall Street": Approved!
• Paul Campos: Occupy Wall Street's Age Divide--Why Baby Boomers Don't Understand the Protests
• Nicholas Kristof: America's 'Primal Scream'-- "The banks have gotten away with privatizing profits and socializing risks, and that’s just another form of bank robbery." NYT
• Dylan Ratigan: "Tens of trillions of dollars are being extracted from the United States… The banking system is fully corrupt and defrauding us."
• Matt Taibbi: Why Occupy Wall Street Is Bigger Than Left vs. Right
• Mark Steyn: Crisis of Decadence--A society can live on the accumulated capital of a glorious inheritance for only so long.
• Glenn Greenwald: What are those OWS people so angry about? Salon

Economic Climate

• The Morning Plum--Some interesting poll results such as "Americans favor Occupy Wall Street far more than Tea Party" and "And animosity towards Wall Street runs deep".
• Is politics from below 'class warfare'?--"Americans are slowly waking up from their passive state and speaking out against greed, corruption, and predatory wars."
• What caused the wealth gap? Salon
• 72% Of Voters Want To Extend NY's "Millionaires Tax," Despite Cuomo's Objections
• California Dems blast Obama on foreclosure crisis--"California House Democrats ripped the Obama administration Wednesday for inaction on home foreclosures, saying the president could pass all the jobs bills he wants but that won't fix the economy until the housing sector recovers."
• Howard's way: Starbucks' boss urges his peers to stop giving money to politicians
• Goldman Sachs To Federal Reserve: Boost The Economy Already

Banks

• Occupy Wall Street Backs a Nationwide Boycott Against Banks--Remember, remember this 5th of November.
• San Jose: Millions Withdrawn from Bank of America and Wells Fargo!
• Bank On It: They're Scared
• Romney Is Winning Bankers' Dollars
• Attorneys General Settlement: The Next Big Bank Bailout?
• Banking Has Become an Oligopoly Instead of a Competitive Business -- And That's Really Bad News for Us 99%
• Break Up the 'Too-Big-to-Fail' Financial Behemoths that Destroyed the Economy

Money Manipulations

• How Bank of America Covered Up Fraud by Silencing Whistleblowers
• Goldman Sachs let off paying £10m interest on failed tax avoidance scheme
• Hedge fund tycoon gets 11 years for insider trading

Girl Power, (Saudi) Women Drivers, Sex Strikes, Sex and Politics, Feminine Wiliness

Girl Power

• Leymah Gbowee and the saving of Liberia
• Camila Vallejo, 23, Chile revolution leader
• Women in Saudi Arabia 'to vote and run in elections'--It's cause for celebration (The Onion).
• Pakistani Family Refuses to Kill Daughter Who Was Raped, Drawing Anger
• Afghan women rally, turning men red-faced with anger
• Yemeni woman faces the bullets of the state
• Court acts to stop arranged wedlock--"A 16-year-old girl has been placed on a nationwide airport watch list to stop her being sent to Lebanon against her will for an arranged marriage."

(Saudi) Women Drivers

• US put pressure on Saudi Arabia to let women drive, leaked cables reveal
• Woman sentenced to flogging for driving
• Saudi woman driver's lashing 'overturned by king'

Sex Strikes

• Sex strike works in Colombia, authorities bow to demands--"Women in a rural Colombia said they wouldn't have sex until a road that connects their town to the rest of the country was paved."
• Women's "sex strike" ends fighting in Philippine villages--"Make love, not war."
• Indonesian women stage skirt protest over rape remarks

Sex and Politics

• EU: Prostitutes may work in Sweden
  
• Louisiana decriminalizes oral and anal sex
• New York Court: Lap Dances Not Tax-Exempt The Onion

Feminine Wiliness

• The Science of Cougar Sex: Why Older Women Lust
• Woman Tries To Scare Boyfriend Into Proposing By Calling Police On Him
• Woman steals baby to keep boyfriend
• Domino's Pizza's review
• Trojan Horse

The Separation Corp and State, Occupy Wall Street, Plutocracy, Tea party and the 53%, International

Separating Corp and State

• Conservatives and Liberals Agree: End the Malignant, Symbiotic Relationship Between Big Government and Big Corporations
• House Democrats push legislation to overturn Citizens United ruling
• The Big Picture: A 40-Year Scan of the Right-Wing Corporate Takeover of America

Occupy Wall Street

• Bloomberg cancels "cleaning" of Zuccotti Park, avoiding showdown with Occupation Wall Street NYT
• Mark Cuban: My Soapbox Advice to the OWS Movement and then some
• Citibank CEO Says Occupy Wall Street Protesters Are Right--"Citibank CEO Vikram Pandit appeared at a corporate breakfast yesterday organized by Fortune magazine and attempted to make nice with the Occupy Wall Street movement. So nice, in fact, that he issued an open invitation for protesters to 'come up' to his office for a chat anytime."
• Bank of Canada head calls Occupy protests 'entirely constructive'
• Ben & Jerry’s Becomes First High-Profile Company to Support Occupy Wall Street
• 12 Most Absurd Laws Used to Stifle the Occupy Wall St. Movement Around the Country
• HIV Positive Protester Says Cop Who Punched Him Should Get Tested

Plutocracy

• Panic of the Plutocrats--"So who’s really being un-American here? Not the protesters, who are simply trying to get their voices heard. No, the real extremists here are America’s oligarchs, who want to suppress any criticism of the sources of their wealth." NYT
• Why the Elites Are in Trouble
• This is Why They Hate You and Want You to Die--"You pay fired executives more in severance than the average American worker will earn in a lifetime."
• The Welfare of the 99% not the wealth of the 1%
• What do the “1 percent” actually do? Salon

Tea party and the 53%

• Tea Party, Meet Occupy Wall Street. OWS, Tea Party
• Spooked By Occupy Wall Street, WSJ's Peggy Noonan Rewrites Tea Party Past
• Judith Miller Admits the 'Tea Party' Has Been Co-opted by Koch Brothers and Others
• 53 Percenters: Conservative campaign against Americans who don't pay federal income taxes
• The 'We are the 53%' Tumblr is Heartbreaking

International

• 'Occupy Wall Street' protests go global
• Occupy Wall Street-style protests spreading to Britain--"People are not stakeholders in democracy, in the workings of the nation anymore."
• Occupy Wall Street protests have now spread to Ireland
• Australians Gather to 'Occupy Sydney'
• Protesters Go Through Taiwan's 101 As 'Occupy Wall Street' Spreads

Elizabeth Warren, Jobs, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, Confrontations

Elizabeth Warren: The Woman Who Knew Too Much--"Millions of Americans hoped President Obama would nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the consumer financial watchdog agency she had created. Instead, she was pushed aside. As Warren kicks off her run for Scott Brown's Senate seat in Massachusetts, Suzanna Andrews charts the Harvard professor's emergence as a champion of the beleaguered middle class, and her fight against a powerful alliance of bankers, lobbyists, and politicians."

Jobs

• Two Dems Vote With GOP To Kill Obama Jobs Package In Senate
• Obama says Senate defeat of jobs bill 'by no means the end of this fight'
• Team Obama Says GOP Deliberately Tanking the Economy

Occupy Wall Street

• Protesters Against Wall Street--"The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening." NYT
• Occupying Wall Street: The Start of a New American Movement
• The Inside Story Of Occupy Wall Street
• This Ain't No Tea Party: A Conservative Defense of Occupy Wall Street
• Occupy Wall Street protesters are American patriots
• 40-year low in America's view of Wall Street
• CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...

Politics

• Alan Grayson: 'I will be that spokesperson'--He's certainly well-spoken.
• What Obama can learn from the Occupy Wall Street movement
• Can OWS be turned into a Democratic Party movement? Salon

Confrontations

• The worst OWS moment so far: Boston police charge Veterans for Peace and take down an American flag to break up the Occupy Boston protest Salon
• Police Clashes Spur Coverage of Wall Street Protests NYT
• Conservative Writer Admits 'Infiltrating' 99 Percent Movement To 'Mock And Undermine'--Just who is this 'agent provocateur'?
• Boston mayor: "[C]ivil disobedience will not be tolerated."
• Officer's Arrest Sought in Pepper-Spray Incident
• MoveOn.org Interviews Jesse LaGreca (The Guy Who Schooled Fox News)
• Occupy Wall St. protesters are running out of space

Fat Tuesday, Food Gone Bad, Healthcare Reform, Health vs. Wealth, Men's Health

Fat Tuesday

• Red Cross: Obese outnumber hungry
• Hungary Introduces 'Fat Tax'--"In an effort to address rising obesity rates and health care costs, Hungary on Thursday implemented a law imposing special taxes on foods with high fat, salt and sugar content."
• Outcry as 'fat' French pupils forced to cut down on fries
• White Castle hates fatty's gut--"A devoted, 290-pound White Castle fan is steaming mad at the fast-food chain, which he says repeatedly broke promises to make the booths in his local eatery bigger." He says that , "I'm not humongous, [but] I'm a big guy. I could not wedge myself in."
• Fat chance: Extra weight won’t help you live longer after all

Food Gone Bad

• Why the Breakfast Most Americans Will Eat Today Is a Corporate Scam
• Thanks to the FDA, You Really Have No Idea What's In Your Food
• Cracked.com: The 6 Most Horrifying Lies The Food Industry is Feeding You.

Healthcare Reform

• Obama healthcare battle moves to US supreme court
• Montana Gov. Seeks Waiver To Establish Single Payer In His State
• Paul Ryan Has A New Plan To Scam Millions Of Americans Out Of Their Healthcare
• A failing health care pitch to college students
• Fox News Host Admits Network Is Trying To Build Public Enthusiasm For Health Care Repeal

Health vs. Wealth

• Will the UN backtrack on accessible medicine?--It was leaked that Big Pharma wants to prevent countries from creating generic versions of their medicines that are more affordable.
• Looking at WikiLeaks cables on pharmaceutical drugs and trade pressures
• Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death--"A Denver mother whose son died after she was unable to fill his multiple prescriptions because pharmacists kept telling her he was not eligible for Medicaid — even though records proved he was — has filed a lawsuit against the city and county of Denver."
• Woman's yard sale to pay medical bills gets shut down
• Man Dies From Toothache, Couldn't Afford Meds

Men's Health

• The James Bond Shower: A Shot of Cold Water for Health and Vitality
• GOP Rep. Aaron Schock, Shirtless on The Cover of Men’s Health, Tells America, 'It's Time to Get Jacked'
• After marriage, a man's testosterone level will drop significantly

e-Readers, DRM, Amazon Sales Tax, First Sale, Enabling Disabling

e-Readers

• Ebook readers' bill of rights
• The Trouble with E-Readers
• The Very Rich Indie Writer
• iPad Magazine Sales Drop
• Will E-Book Prices & Restrictions Lead to E-Book Piracy?
• A Quaint And Curious Volume
• How Viral PDFs Of A Naughty Bedtime Book Exploded The Old Publishing Model
• Microsoft drops Reader after Amazon, Apple take over
• Spamazon: From content-farm crap to plagiarized books, junk has invaded the Kindle Salon
• Why Amazon Can't Make A Kindle In the USA

DRM

• EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers
• Ultra Violet: The DRM That Could Save Movies
• This is what You get for Renting a DVD instead of Pirating it
• DRM explained
• Reality of DRM
• Perils of DRM: What Happens to Your Digital Content if the Provider Goes out of Business?
• How To Turn Customers Into Pirates

Amazon Sales Tax

• Amazon cuts deal on California sales taxes
• The Amazon-California tax debacle: We all lose
• Amazon CEO: State tax demands violate Constitution
• Amazon Ditches Illinois Affiliates (Including Roger Ebert) To Avoid Web Tax
• Amazon packing after House vote--Bye-bye South Carolina.

First Sale

• Supreme Court Won't Hear Case Saying That You Have No First Sale Rights With Software
• Second Circuit holds first sale doctrine inapplicable to foreign-made goods
• EFF Wins Landmark Ruling Freeing Promo CDs for Resale
• The Man Who Dared to Sell AutoCAD R14 on eBay
• "Damn The Man!" The Ability To Sell Second-Hand CDs

Enabling Disabling

• Disabled man's crusade a bane to business owners
• Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind--Although Apple's come a long way.
• The Deadly Silence of the Electric Car

Occupy Wall Street, The 1%, Banks, Fucks News, Spreading the Occupation, Koch

Occupy Wall Street

• Keith Olbermann reads the first collective statement of Occupy Wall Street--Here's the text version.
• USW Supports the 'Occupy Wall Street' Protest Movement
• Memo To The Media: It’s Not 'Anti-Capitalist' To Protest An Industry That Was Saved By Trillions Of Taxpayer Dollars
• From Wisconsin to Wall Street, an Economic Reckoning
• Cantor Smears Occupy Wall Street as a 'Mob'

The 1%

• Confronting the Malefactors--"There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear, but we may, at long last, be seeing the rise of a popular movement that, unlike the Tea Party, is angry at the right people." NYT
• 5 Facts You Should Know About the Wealthiest One Percent of Americans --"1. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Owns 40 Percent of the Nation’s Wealth"
• If Top 1% Hadn't Ripped Off Trillions, You'd Likely Be Making Thousands of Dollars More Right Now
• The case of why one board gave their underperforming CEO a $6 million raise
• SEC still destroying records illegally, whistle-blower's lawyer says

Banks

• Rein in Wall Street and rescue the middle class--"It's time for us to end the financial oligarchy so destructive to our economy. If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist."
• How Banks Got Too Big to Fail
• UBS: Our risk systems did detect £1.3bn rogue trader--"But the warnings were ignored, bank claims"
• Former Citi VP Admits To Stealing $22 Million From Bank
• Debit card fees irk customers, prompt flight to credit unions--But as someone says on whether this is the solution, "don't count on it."

Fucks News

• For Fox, Raising Taxes On Rich Is Class Warfare, Raising Them On The Poor Is Good Sense
• Occupy Wall Street Protester Lectures Fox News Reporter
• Fox News Launches An All Out Assault Against Occupy Wall Street
• After Relentlessly Promoting Tea Party Protests, Fox Attacks Wall Street Protesters
• NY Fox 5 Crew Pepper Sprayed And Assaulted By NYPD

Spreading the Occupation

• The Wall Street Protesters Are Now In 15 Major Cities Across The Country
• Anti-Wall Street protesters gain support nationwide
• 'Occupy DC' protesters rally in Freedom Plaza
• Protesters set up camp in front of Los Angeles City Hall
• In NYC, Mayor Sics Cops on Protesters; In LA, Mayor Hands Out Rain Ponchos
• Boston is not New York
• At Chicago Board of Trade: "We are the 1 percent" signs mocking Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Chicago protests
• 25 arrested at 'Occupy Seattle' protest
• Activists throughout Canada set to show solidarity with Wall Street protesters

Koch

• Koch Brothers Flout Law With Secret Iran Sales--And the government isn't interested in pursuing this allegedly treasonous act.
• The Koch Brothers Revelations Have Staying Power
• GOP Mega-Donor Koch Brothers' Company Tied To Global Criminal Misdeeds In Bombshell Article