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- Most Recent portside Posts -



Stephen Hawking Says Universe Not Created by God

(Posted on Wed, 1 Sep 2010 22:40:11 -0400)

Stephen Hawking Says Universe Not Created by God

 Physics, not creator, made Big Bang, new book claims  Professor had previously referred to 'mind of God'

The Guardian September 2, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/02/stephen-hawking-big-bang-creator

God did not create the universe, the man who is arguably Britain's most famous living scientist says in a forthcoming book.

In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity.

In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking ha...

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Workers Rebuilding New Orleans Face Rampant Wage Theft

(Posted on Wed, 1 Sep 2010 22:41:10 -0400)

Workers Rebuilding New Orleans Face Rampant Wage Theft

Undocumented Workers Vital to Reconstruction Face Discrimination and Abuse

By Elise Foley The Washington Independent September 1, 2010
http://washingtonindependent.com/96411

Jacinta Gonzalez, an organizer with the Congress of Day Laborers in New Orleans, tells a story about the abuse of workers rebuilding the city after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. She once met a man who went to his employer's house to demand payment for a his labor on a construction site after the employer stiffed him of his dues. The man's boss came at him, swinging a hammer. The worker immediately called the police. When they showed up, she says, the fi...

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August 28th Remembered

(Posted on Wed, 1 Sep 2010 22:41:23 -0400)

August 28th Remembered

by David McReynolds Socialist Web Zine August 31, 2010
http://www.socialistwebzine.org/2010/08/august-28th-remembered.html

What a difference money makes. Today, Saturday the 28th of August, 2010, Glenn Beck rallied on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with all the majesty of Fox News behind him. Day after day Fox News had trumpeted the event, organizing for it, and if Beck doesn't get a crowd it will be no fault of those who own Fox News and fund Glenn Beck. (Fox News is one very good reason for an estate tax which would guarantee that no one could buy and own networks, newspapers, and control the media, the way Rupert Murdoch has done). I'v...

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Anti-War Coalition: Complete Withdrawal from Iraq

(Posted on Wed, 1 Sep 2010 22:40:57 -0400)

National Anti-War Coalition Calls for Complete Withdrawal from Iraq

For Immediate Release: August 31, 2010 United for Peace and Justice
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

Contact: Michael McPhearson, UFPJ Co-Convenor, 973-666-4605, michaelvfp@gmail.com Phyllis Bennis, UFPJ Steering Committee - 202-234-9382 ext 5206, PBennis@ips-dc.org

Any reduction in the number of US troops occupying Iraq is a good thing. But the occupation is continuing, even if on a somewhat smaller scale, with 50,000 troops. Despite a commitment to withdraw "combat brigades," these 50,000 are indeed combat troops, "re-missioned" by the Pentagon and assigned to "training and assistance." But even Secretary of Defense Gates adm...

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Support Aristide's Return to Haiti

(Posted on Wed, 1 Sep 2010 22:41:50 -0400)

Support Aristide's Return to Haiti

HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE ALERT.


http://www.haitisolidarity.net/article.php?id=444

TO: President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michele Obama:

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a former liberation theology priest, was elected by the people of Haiti as their president in 1990 and again in 2000 (by 60% and 92% of the vote respectively). Both times he was overthrown by military coups - in 2004 directly by the US with backing from France and Canada. UN troops have occupied Haiti ever since, and thousands of people have been persecuted and even killed for demanding his return.

After the earthquake, President Aristide told the media, from his forced exile...

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A Crisis of Spiraling Tuition

(Posted on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:54:16 -0400)

A Crisis of Spiraling Tuition

Colleges must volunteer - or be forced - to address rising costs

By Derrick Z. Jackson

The Boston Globe

August 31, 2010


http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/08/31/a_crisis_of_spiraling_tuition/

In a speech to the Urban League in July, President Obama bemoaned the nation's drop from first in the world to 12th in measures of college completion. This situation is "economically indefensible'' and "morally inexcusable,'' he said, and "all of us are going to have to roll up our sleeves to change it.''

Graduation rates aside, the mos...

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Is Glenn Beck mobilizing the religious right for November?

(Posted on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:56:02 -0400)

Is Glenn Beck mobilizing the religious right for November?

Beck's vacuous but pious rally may have served to inaugurate a pre-election bid for power by the evangelical right

By Joe Conason

August 30, 2010


http://www.salon.com/news/politics/2010_elections/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/08/30/pray

If Glenn Beck's Washington extravaganza seemed strangely empty of political content, filled with vacuous pieties and fetishes rather than protest, then perhaps it should be seen as the opening act in a renewed campaign to assert the power of the religious right. A series of four mass prayer events, ...

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25 companies responsible for 700,000 lost jobs

(Posted on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:55:01 -0400)

25 companies responsible for 700,000 lost jobs

Submitted by Robert Oak on Wed, 08/18/2010


http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/25-companies-responsible-700000-lost-jobs

* Insourcing/Outsourcing * layoffs.labor arbitrage

Daily Finance has compiled a list, from Challenger and Gray layoff data, of the top 25 companies with the biggest job losses this recession.

From The Layoff Kings: The 25 Companies Responsible for 700,000 Lost Jobs author Douglas McIntyre, compiled the list below. I've added whether or not that company is known for offshore outsourcing jobs. The actual jobs offshore outsourced is unknown, if some ambitious res...

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Health Effects of the Gulf Oil Spill

(Posted on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:55:30 -0400)

Health Effects of the Gulf Oil Spill

By Gina M. Solomon, MD, MPH, and Sarah Janssen, MD, PhD, MPH

JAMA/Journal of the American Medical Association

August 16, 2010


http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/jama.2010.1254?eaf

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico poses direct threats to human health from inhalation or dermal contact with the oil and dispersant chemicals, and indirect threats to seafood safety and mental health. Physicians should be familiar with health effects from oil spills to appropriately advise, diagnose, and treat patients who live and work along the Gulf Coast or wherever a major oil spill occurs.

to read more, go to:

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Populist Passion Is Antidote to Bankster Greed

(Posted on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:56:29 -0400)

Populist Passion Is Antidote to Bankster Greed

By John Nichols

Capitol Times

August 30, 2010


http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/article_de5521a0-5a99-532f-bce0-060a69c4aa28.html

It is hard to imagine a better setting for Jim Hightower to renew the populist call to action than Fighting Bob Fest, the county-fair-style outdoor gathering of 10,000 progressives where the agitator from Austin will appear Sept. 11.

And it is hard to imagine a better time.

Hightower has for almost three decades - since his election as Texas agriculture commissioner in the second year of t...

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