DN Speak: 7/29/12

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Why We Believe in Gods - Andy Thomson - American Atheists 09

Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what we are told.

Religious dogma is doing what we are told, no matter what is right.

- Andy Thomson

Romney Smears Obama, Falsely Claims He Filed Lawsuit To Restrict Military Voting In Ohio

Romney Smears Obama, Falsely Claims He Filed Lawsuit To Restrict Military Voting In Ohio
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 4, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bV7sK

Today on Facebook, Mitt Romney claims that the Obama campaign is trying to "undermine" the ability of members of ... Read more

Who's To Blame For High Unemployment?

Who's To Blame For High Unemployment?
THE HUFFINGTON POST - FEATURED NEWS | AUGUST 3, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bTTKy

The government probably could get us out of this mess. One striking piece of data in the jobs numbers out Friday was just how much of a drag the publ... Read more

Must-Read Hansen: ‘Climate Change Is Here — And Worse Than We Thought’

Must-Read Hansen: 'Climate Change Is Here — And Worse Than We Thought'
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 4, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bV3iw

The nation's best-known and most prescient climatologist, NASA's James Hansen, has a must-read op-ed in the ... Read more

FLASHBACK: Romney Economic Advisers Predicted Bush Tax Cuts Would Lead To Huge Job Growth

FLASHBACK: Romney Economic Advisers Predicted Bush Tax Cuts Would Lead To Huge Job Growth
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 4, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bTq15

Mitt Romney and his economic advisers have spent the week claiming that Romney's economic plan will create 12 million ... Read more

Interpreting Shariah Law Across The Centuries

Sadakat Kadri is an English barrister, a Muslim by birth and a historian. His first book, The Trial, was an extensive survey of the Western criminal judicial system, detailing more than 4,000 years of courtroom antics.

In his new book, Heaven on Earth, Kadri turns his sights east, to centuries of Shariah law. The first parts of his book describe how early Islamic scholars codified — and then modified — the code that would govern how people lead their daily lives. Kadri then turns to the modern day, reflecting on the lawmakers who are trying to prohibit Shariah law in a dozen states, as well as his encounters with scholars and imams in India, Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Turkey and Iran — the very people who strictly interpret the religious and moral code of Islam today. And some of those modern interpretations, he says, are much more rigid — and much more draconian — than the code set forth during the early years of Islamic law.

Islamic law is shaped by hadiths, or reports about what Prophet Muhammad said and did. The hadiths, says Kadri, govern how Muslims should pray, treat criminals and create medications, among other things.

"It's a huge oral tradition, which was set down in the 9th century and which was then, by some people, transformed into compulsion and rules," Kadri tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It would be literally impossible to follow all of them, because plenty of them directly contradict each other. So you have to make choices, and Muslims have been making choices for ... the last 1,400 years. And what's happened over the past 40 years is that in certain places, the hard-liners have come to the forefront."
In the early 1970s, Libya, led by Moammar Gadhafi, became the first country to introduce Islamic criminal penalties outside of Saudi Arabia; Pakistan and Iran followed suit in 1979. Throughout the past three decades, the number of countries applying harsh interpretations of Islamic law has expanded.

"One thing I realized when traveling around the Muslim world is how closely these hard-line interpretations of Islamic law are associated with political consternation and turmoil," he says. "There isn't a country anywhere in the Muslim world which has been applying Muslim laws continuously for hundreds of years and which is drawing on genuine tradition. It's a revival of supposed traditions, which don't really pay much heed to history at all."

Kadri addresses the hard-liners in the prologue to Heaven on Earth, which starts with a disclaimer: "Lest it be necessary to say so — and it probably is," he writes, "[this book] does not intend at any point to challenge the sacred stature of the Prophet Muhammad, the self-evident appeal of Islam, or the almightiness of God."

Kadri says he wanted to make it clear that his book was not out to offend.

"It's a disclaimer to the extent that I'm pointing out what I'm not contesting," he says. "I'm not arguing the fundamentals of Islam. What I'm arguing about is the interpretation that's been put on those fundamentals over the last 1,400 years. And what I'm arguing about is the interpretations of Islamic law that are being presented as sacred by hard-liners. And that, I think, should be a proper subject to debate."

Interview: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/16/150560969/interpreting-shariah-law-across-the-centuries

Interview Highlights

On interpretations of the Shariah
"There are interpretations which do justify stoning, which do justify the concealment of women behind hijabs, which do justify the execution of adulterers. But those are just interpretations of the Shariah. As far as I was concerned, it was very, very important to draw a distinction between the two things because the argument just tends to get so confused these days between people who attack the Shariah, when actually what they ought to be attacking is the hard-line interpretations of Islamic law. By attacking the Shariah, basically a huge amount of mistrust and incomprehension is created between Muslims and non-Muslims. Because as far as a Muslim is concerned, an attack on the Shariah is an attack on God. "

On why he wanted to write about Shariah law
"People just seemed to be arguing about Islam, Islamic law, the Shariah, without actually getting to the substance of what it was all about. So because I come from a Muslim background, I certainly had plenty of people I could ask. I started with my father. My father's also a lawyer. I asked him, 'So what is the Shariah? What does it say? Where is it written down?' And he didn't really have an adequate answer, as far as I am concerned. He said, 'It's what's regarded as God's law.' And I knew that. I didn't need to be told that. And the more I asked, the more I realized people just seemed to be ignorant. Muslims seemed to be ignorant, let alone the people who were attacking it without knowing what they were talking about."

On the word 'Shariah'
"It means the right path to follow if you want to attain salvation. It's a very spiritual concept. It's an idea of the right thing to do, how you attain salvation. And there's no denying that the human interpretations of the Shariah do contain some very repressive laws."

On the movement to ban Shariah law in America
"It's crazy, basically. It's this idea that Shariah is some kind of movement to take over the United States or a conspiracy to overturn American freedoms. That isn't what Shariah is. There are certainly hard-line interpretations of Islamic law. But these measures don't even claim to restrict themselves to that. They claim to prevent the courts from taking any account at all of the Shariah, which potentially means that a court can't, for example, take account of someone's will. If someone says they want to be buried according to Muslim rituals laid down in the Shariah, a court would theoretically not be able to take account of that. And, of course, it's possible to say, 'That's not what the law's aimed at. The law's aimed at something very different.' But as everyone should know by now, liberties begin to erode when you have laws that are too widely drawn.

"And laws which say that under no circumstances can a court take any account of the Shariah are necessarily discriminatory. They're necessarily over-broad. And they necessarily create communal dissension for no good purpose. Because it's perceived by Muslims as an attack on Islam. ... I am absolutely sure that many of the people who support the laws and their sponsors are genuinely motivated by fear of Islamic extremism. Islamic extremism is something which I'm fearful of. I was around on Sept. 11 and July 7 here in London when Islamic extremists blew lots of people up. I'm no fan of violent extremism from Muslims, but these laws don't target that. They simply target the body of beliefs that Muslims call the Shariah."

Read an excerpt of Heaven On Earth

Friday, August 3, 2012

'Obama's Secret Wars' Against America's Threats

Interview: http://www.npr.org/2012/06/04/154282712/obamas-secret-wars-against-americas-threats

The New York Times reported that Stuxnet, the computer worm that infected computers around the world in 2010, was developed by the United States in conjunction with Israel to destroy Iran's nuclear centrifuges.

"It appears to be the first time the United States has repeatedly used cyberweapons to cripple another country's infrastructure, achieving, with computer code, what until then could be accomplished only by bombing a country or sending in agents to plant explosives," wrote David Sanger, the paper's chief Washington correspondent.

Sanger describes how President Obama decided to speed up clandestine cyberattacks against Iran's nuclear facilities — and significantly expand America's use of cyberweapons — in his new book, Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power, which details how Obama is using both innovative weapons and strategies to address rapidly growing threats around the world.

On Monday's Fresh Air, Sanger talks about the president's changing foreign policy strategies in Yemen, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where early idealism in the White House eventually transitioned into a policy called "Afghan Good Enough."

"Afghan Good Enough," the nickname of a committee organized to narrow the goals in Afghanistan, met regularly with the president to determine what was considered "good enough" in terms of goals for the country.

"The kind of conversations that took place within that group represented a realpolitik that no one ever admits to on Sunday morning talk shows," writes Sanger. "One participant told me later, 'We spent the time asking questions like, 'How much corruption can we live with?' "

Sanger also details Obama's aggressive use of weapons like drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan and his acceleration of cyberwarfare attacks in Iran, where the U.S. and Israel developed computer worms designed to take down Iran's nuclear facilities.

Before they could attempt to take down Iran's Natanz nuclear enrichment plant, however, U.S. and Israeli officials needed to know what it looked like. Sanger explains that they initially sent a bit of computer code called a beacon into Natanz to map the plant's electronic infrastructure.

"This beacon went in and basically built a blueprint for how the Iranians had designed the electronics of this plant and then came back out and phoned home, back to the National Security Agency and Unit 8200, the Israelis' equivalent of the NSA," says Sanger. "And from the data that they gathered there, the U.S. and the Israelis designed a computer worm that would replicate within the system."

But U.S. officials first wanted to test the worm. So they built a full-scale replica of the Natanz plant on the grounds of the Department of Energy's national laboratories.

"They literally attacked their own mockup of the plant," says Sanger. "And one day they brought back ... the rubble of a destroyed centrifuge that had been attacked merely by computer commands. They had accomplished, for the first time, the destruction that previously the United States or other countries could accomplish only through bombing a facility."

When Obama took office in 2009, he met regularly with the security officials working to destroy the nuclear centrifuges.

"They would explain to the president what the latest version of the worm had done or had not done, what they were aiming for, and at the end of these sessions, he would essentially authorize them to move forward," says Sanger. "He would say, 'You can move to the next step,' and these attacks grew bolder and bolder until one day, at the end of 2010, when they made a big mistake."

That mistake allowed the computer worm — nicknamed Stuxnet — to spread to an Iranian engineer's computer, after he connected the computer to a centrifuge. When that engineer then went online, the virus began replicating — and spreading all over the world.

"The worm did not detect that its environment had changed," says Sanger. "So all of a sudden it thought the whole Internet — the whole world — was that same environment [as the plant], and it began propagating itself."

Initially Sanger and his colleagues at The New York Times thought Stuxnet had been released on the Internet by intelligence officials hoping to get the worm inside Iran's nuclear facilities.

"In fact, we had it backward," he says. "It had started in Natanz and escaped like a zoo animal."
When U.S. and Israeli officials learned that Stuxnet had escaped, they met with Obama in the Situation Room. The president asked if the code could damage computers outside the plant. After security officials assured him that was not the case, the Obama decided the program could go forward. A week later, another iteration of the code brought down 1,000 centrifuges within Iran.

"The official internal estimate is that [this code] delayed Iran's progress and weapons capability by 18 months to two years," says Sanger. "I had some outside experts who believe that that is not true — that Iranians have recovered fairly quickly. But what we don't know — and will never know — is whether they would have been able to build far better centrifuges and far more sophisticated centrifuges had this not happened. Because as their centrifuges were literally blowing up, they ended up firing people, taking centrifuges offline — because they were trying to figure out what was going wrong. As one official said to me, 'It was to make them feel stupid.' "

Interview Highlights

On concerns about the cyberattacks program
"While the U.S. now has a very subtle understanding of when it wants to use drones and not, there is no equivalent right now of when you use cyberweapons. Partly that is because [Operation] Olympic Games [as the Iran cyberattack was called] was so secret, and part of that is because the weapon is new and developing so fast that no one is really gathering together the sort of theory about how and when you would use it, when you would use it as a deterrent, that we developed in the 1950s about nuclear weapons."

On preparing for cyberattacks
"In the old nuclear age, you could sit under a big screen under a mountain in Colorado and you could see where the missiles were coming from. If there's a cyberattack from China or Russia or Romania or Mexico, it may well run through a server in another country. And it may take months before you know where it really came from."

Growing Economic Inequality 'Endangers Our Future'

Interview: http://www.npr.org/2012/06/05/154345390/growing-economic-inequality-endangers-our-future

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz grew up in Gary, Ind. — a city that has weathered many economic storms over the past half-century.

Stiglitz went on to study at Amherst College and MIT, where he received a Ph.D. in economics. He later served on and chaired President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and became the chief economist at the World Bank. But even as a child, Stiglitz says, he noticed ways in which the markets weren't working.

"I saw discrimination lead to poverty, I saw episodic high levels of unemployment, I saw business cycles, and I saw all kinds of inequalities," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "It was clear that America wasn't quite the dream that was depicted in some textbooks, and I wanted to understand why those textbooks were wrong and I wanted really to make a contribution to do something about it."

In his latest book, The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future, Stiglitz argues that widely unequal societies don't function effectively or have stable economies and that even the rich will pay a steep price if economic inequalities continue to worsen.

In the current system, top income earners who make their money through capital gains and stock dividends pay lower effective tax rates than the average person. Those capital gains tax rates were first lowered during the Clinton administration, when Stiglitz led the Council of Economic Advisers.

"I very strongly opposed [lowering the tax rate]," he says. "I thought it was wrong because it increased inequities in our society and it encouraged speculation, and [I thought] that it would not lead to faster real economic growth. And unfortunately, all three of those concerns came to be true. ... And that has led to a period in which the growth of inequality has been higher than it has ever been and led to the kind of instability that led to the great [economic] crisis."

The past 30 years have been markedly different for the middle class, says Stiglitz. Income levels have dropped, and fewer and fewer people are climbing to new income brackets.

"The nature of our growth today is markedly different than in the decades after World War II," he says. "There, we had shared prosperity. More recently, what we've had is exactly the opposite. ... Right now, most Americans are worse off than they were 15 years ago. There has not been shared prosperity."

Interview Highlights

On lobbying
"People come from Wall Street and go into government and then leave government and go back into Wall Street. When you have this kind of revolving door, it's not just that their interests are not well-aligned with the public; it's that their mindset is captured by the industry from which they come. They see their interest — the interest of Wall Street — as if it were in the public interest. We call that cognitive capture. But you also see it through campaign contributions which affect both the administration and Congress. It's the interaction of the two which is so strong. Because the administration might say, 'Oh, we think we ought to do it differently, but we won't be able to get it through Congress.' Unfortunately, some parts of the administration are so influenced by the financial sector that they take a more active role and see the world through the eyes of the financial sector. There used to be an expression, 'What's good for General Motors is good for the United States and vice versa.' I think increasingly, given the strength of the financial sector, many thought, 'What was good for the financial sector was good for the economy.' And they're obviously wrong in their judgment."

On President Clinton's decision to lower the capital gains tax rate
"The Republicans controlled Congress, and he wanted, like any president, to show that he was doing something. The view among some of the political advisers was that doing something was better than doing nothing. My view was that doing something that was wrong was worse than doing nothing. And unfortunately that was one of those instances where the political advisers won and I think a wrong decision was made."

On tax policy
"I think most Americans today understand that our system isn't fair. One of the roles of the government is to try to make our system fair. And one part of fairness is that everybody ought to pay a fair share of their income in taxes. A basic premise that I think most Americans believe is that if your income is very, very high, you ought to pay at least the same percentage of your income in taxes as somebody whose income is lower. Most Americans would not agree with the view that speculators ought to be taxed half the rate as those who work for an income."

On the 1 percent
"It's a very small group; it's a very elite group of people whose incomes are very high. This 1 percent gets about 20 percent of all of the nation's income. It consists disproportionately of CEOs, of those in the financial sector — but there's an array of other people — high-paid lawyers who help serve the CEOs and those in the financial sector."

On student loans
"Market forces do play a role in shaping inequality, but market forces are shaped by political processes, by legislation that can either give more scope for inequality or restrict it. So, take student loans. Here, it's understandable why poor people understand that their future prospects depend on education. But we've passed a bankruptcy law that totally distorts the market. It allows derivatives to get priority over any other claimants. At the same time, it says students cannot discharge their debt, even in bankruptcy, even if the school that was purportedly supposed to give them an education actually doesn't deliver on what it promised. They wind up without an education, without prospects of a higher education and yet are saddled for the rest of their lives with these student debts. People are graduating with a huge burden — $25,000 is now the average student debt."

How Louisiana Became The World's 'Prison Capital'

Interview:

Interview Highlights

On Louisiana's prison budget
"A long-term consequence of our policies is that there has been less money to fund some of the very things that might keep people out of the prison system in the first place — like early childhood programs, schools, after-school programs, recreation programs."
On the profits made by rural prisons and sheriffs
"You're talking about rural parishes that before this were so underfunded that they were buying used patrol cars from Oklahoma, they were driving around in cars with 200,000 miles on them, they were sharing bulletproof vests. So [any profit] is going back into [the sheriff's] department, often to buy basic equipment for his deputies."
On relocating inmates
"I've talked to many inmates who were transferred multiple times and they don't know why. It's not because they were troublemakers or because they didn't get along with people. Sometimes it's just between the rural sheriffs trading [prisoners], and it can be that one sheriff needs a skilled mechanic and the other sheriff ended up with two."

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/05/154352977/how-louisiana-became-the-worlds-prison-capital

A new expose by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans calls Louisiana the "world's prison capital."
The state imprisons more people per capita than any other state or country in the world, with one out of every 86 adults behind bars. Its rate of incarceration is three times higher than Iran's and 10 times higher than Germany's.

How did Louisiana double its prison population in the past 20 years? And what differentiates it from other states?
The difference, says Times-Picayune reporter Cindy Chang, is that more than half of the inmates in the state are housed in local prisons run by sheriffs, and the state's correction system has created financial incentives for those sheriffs to keep prisons full.
"In Louisiana, the system has grown so that sheriffs house a lot of inmates who are serving state sentences," Chang tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. "And the reason the sheriffs are willing to do that is because they get money in return for doing that."

A majority of Louisiana's inmates are now housed in for-profit jails, which are run in many instances by parish sheriffs located in rural areas of the state. The sheriffs receive approximately $25 a day per inmate.

In some instances, sheriffs outsource the prisons to for-profit companies who then operate the prisons themselves. In exchange, the sheriffs receive cash for their department, which allows them to hire more employees.

"We went to Jackson Parish ... and what the sheriff there gets is a guaranteed $100,000 a year, whether the prison is making a profit or not," she says. "But what he really gets — and he was not shy about using this word — is the patronage. Because his department, prior to this, had 50 employees, and now it has 150 employees. In a place like that, 100 jobs with benefits is huge. And what he means by patronage, of course, is that he'll get re-elected if he keeps supporting these [prison] jobs."
Conditions at the rural sheriffs' prisons differ remarkably from those in larger state institutions, says Chang.

"They're usually dormitories, and there's typically 80 or 90 women or men sleeping in a large room in bunk beds," she says. "And the difference is that people are just lounging around that dorm. They will literally sit there day after day, year after year, until their sentence is over. Whereas in a state prison, which is where most states house almost all of their inmates, you're busy whether you like it or not — you have a job or you take classes or you're learning a trade that will help you get a job when you get out."

Each inmate is worth $24.39 a day in state money. Housing the inmates cheaply and providing few services means there's more money left over for the sheriff's department, says Chang.

"It's kind of a vicious cycle," she says. "If you can reduce the prison population, then hopefully you'll have more money to give the ones who are in the system more help. [But] the Sheriff's Association is one of the most powerful lobbies in the state. And they've consistently opposed any change that would reduce the prison population."

Louisiana's prison sentences are among the harshest in the country. The state leads the country in the percentage of inmates who are serving life without parole and exceeds the national average for the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars. Chang writes that a two-time car burglar can receive 24 years without parole. Three drug convictions can send a prisoner away for life.
Though the state's prison budget is $600 million, comparisons with other states are difficult, she says.

"Twenty-five dollars a day is incarceration on the cheap," she says. "In Louisiana state prisons they spend, on average, $55 an inmate, so the average in Louisiana comes out to $38 per day, per inmate, which is the lowest in the country. So if you look at the size of the budget, it's very misleading, because we're incarcerating two people to every one person in another state because we spend so little on them."

Facing The Fiscal Cliff: Congress' Next Showdown

Interview:

In December, Congress is poised for another showdown on the deficit and taxes. If Congress doesn't act, 2013 will mark the end to Bush-era tax cuts that have been in place for a dozen years, and the beginning of automatic cuts to domestic and defense programs that would total $1.2 trillion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office says the combination of higher taxes and deep spending cuts could create a 4 percent reduction in economic output, a number big enough to throw the country into another recession. The culmination of higher taxes and spending cuts is being called the "fiscal cliff."

David Wessel joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about how the federal budget got to this point and the steps Congress could take to pull the nation back from the fiscal cliff. Wessel thinks there is a fundamental difference between the two parties "about how important and how big a role the government should play in our economy and that influences what you think should be done to cure the deficit."

Wessel believes one possibility for compromise is to place "pretty tough restraints on spending, on benefit programs, like Medicare and Medicaid, which would be hard for the Democrats to swallow, coupled with some increase in taxes, that would be hard for the Republicans to swallow."

David Wessel is a weekly columnist and economics editor for The Wall Street Journal and writes the Capital column. His previous book, In Fed We Trust, chronicled Fed chairman Benjamin Bernanke's response to the global economic crisis of 2008. His new book is Red Ink: Inside the High Stakes Politics of the Federal Budget.

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/31/157610155/facing-the-fiscal-cliff-congress-next-showdown

Interview Highlights

On the defense budget
"I think one of the interesting things that's happened in Washington in the last few years is that a lot of the conservatives are beginning to wonder about how much money we should spend on defense. It's not a simple liberal-conservative split anymore. And I suspect that despite Mitt Romney's promises about increasing the defense budget, even if he's elected, we'll see some severe pressure on how much do we really need to spend on defense."

On tax rates
"One reason why tax rates are where they are is because we have these sticker price tax rates in the tax code and then we have a tax code that is full of holes, like a piece of Swiss cheese ... and what a lot of people are saying is it's going to be very hard to raise tax rates but we have to raise money from the tax code. Well how can we do that? The way to do it is to have fewer deductions, loopholes, credits, these things that are basically subsidies ... they're almost like spending in disguise that we run through the tax code because that's become a politically easier way to do it. So pretty much everybody ... is looking for ways to reduce the amount of money that [goes into] these inefficient loopholes, credits and deductions in the tax code, as a way to either lower tax rates or raise money for the federal government [while] doing less harm to the economy.

On federal government employees
"The fact is that the federal government employs 4.4 million people, most of them, more than half are either uniform military personnel, or they're civilians working for the Defense Department or Homeland Security. If we fired them all, everybody, the president, the guy who's standing in front of the congressional office building to put you through the metal detector, if we fired all of them we'd save about $435 billion dollars a year, but the deficit we have is well over a trillion dollars. So the reason that this is significant is because it's a way to remember that ... most of the money that comes into the federal government goes right out again and does not go through the paychecks of federal employees."

Fresh Air Weekend: Bishop Blair, Sister Farrell

Interview:
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/28/157441054/fresh-air-weekend-bishop-blair-sister-farrell

Bishop Explains Vatican's Criticism Of U.S. Nuns: Bishop Leonard Blair talks about his Vatican-ordered assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents 80 percent of Catholic sisters in America. He says the LCWR is promoting a "new kind of theology that is not in accordance with the faith of the church."

An American Nun Responds To Vatican Criticism: The Vatican recently announced that it would completely make over the Leadership Conference of Women Religious because of its "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." Sister Pat Farrell, who heads the organization, says many of the charges are unsubstantiated.

(Note: I counted multiple factual error and/or distortions, and at least one logical fallacy. Guess who spoke them.)

Debate: Islam Is A Religion Of Peace

Interview:

Is the rise of terrorism and violence justifiably traced to the teachings of Islam, or is this call to war a twisted interpretation of the true Muslim faith? Most of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims are moderates who see Islamic terrorism as a violation of their sacred texts. Is it wrong to let a radical minority represent authentic Islam? Has fear blinded us to its lessons of tolerance and peace?

http://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/past-debates/item/573-islam-is-a-religion-of-peace

Week In The News: Romney Abroad, Tea Party Win, Olympic Gold

Interview:

Governor Romney returns from a week abroad to mixed reviews. President Obama gives millions in aid to Syria and secretly authorizes support of the free Syrian army according to reports.
The new job numbers are out and we’ll take a look at what it means for the economy and the presidential election. Gabby Douglas wins gold in London making history as the first African American to win the all around in gymnastics. The gay community tries to strike a blow against biased fried chicken sandwiches and conservatives ride to Chick-Fil-A’s rescue.
This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/08/03/week-in-the-news-207

Friday News Roundup - Domestic

Interview:

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the economy was weaker but took no new steps to help. The House and Senate remained at loggerheads over whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts. Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney returned from a week-long overseas trip. And Chick-fil-A fans and critics took to the streets following anti-gay marriage comments by the company's president. Greg Ip of The Economist, Julie Hirshfeld Davis of Bloomberg News and Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post join Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-03/friday-news-roundup-domestic

Friday News Roundup - International

Interview:

The European Central Bank left its main interest rate unchanged, but ECB head Mario Draghi signaled the bank could purchase bonds and lower borrowing costs in the future. The battle for Aleppo raged on as Syrian rebels' handling of pro-government militiamen drew criticism. President Barack Obama announced new sanctions on Iran's energy sector. And India suffered the worst blackout in history, which left 670 million people without power. James Kitfield of National Journal, Susan Glasser of Foreign Policy magazine and David Ignatius of The Washington Post join Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-08-03/friday-news-roundup-international

Adventure Scouts USA - Adventure Has a New Name. Yours. Welcome, fellow Adventurers!

For those looking for a scouting program for kids -- one that does not discriminate --

http://www.adventurescoutsusa.org/

Author of right-wing voter fraud 'study' on probation for Jack Abramoff-connected fakery

Author of right-wing voter fraud 'study' on probation for Jack Abramoff-connected fakery
DAILY KOS | AUGUST 3, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bTltb

Horace Cooper Ryan J. Reilly is reporting that Horace Cooper, the author of a paper saying voter ID protects minority voters, ... Read more

Romney has 748 Washington Lobbyists donating to his campaign. The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee do not accept contributions from federally registered lobbyists.

Romney has 748 Washington Lobbyists donating to his campaign. The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee do not accept contributions from federally registered lobbyists.
REDDIT TOP NEWS | AUGUST 3, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bSnwU

Read more... 1588 score | 185 comments > submitted by indy_ttt subreddit: politics ... Read more

Thanks Jon.

Thanks Jon.
REDDIT TOP NEWS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bRSMG

Read more... 723 score | 17 comments > submitted by valjean260 subreddit: atheism ... Read more

In France, Socialist President Hollande makes wealthiest pay - The Washington Post

In France, Socialist President Hollande makes wealthiest pay - The Washington Post
WASHINGTONPOST.COM
http://pulse.me/s/bStOQ

Author: Romney Utterly Misread My Book - Jared Diamond says candidate misquoted Guns, Germs, and Steel

http://www.newser.com/story/151347/author-romney-utterly-misread-my-book.html

Senate Cybersecurity Bill Stalled By Ridiculous Amendments - Slashdot

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/08/02/1437240/senate-cybersecurity-bill-stalled-by-ridiculous-amendments

Economist: There’s A ‘Wide Consensus Among Economists’ That America Needs To Raise Taxes To Reduce Deficit

Economist: There's A 'Wide Consensus Among Economists' That America Needs To Raise Taxes To Reduce Deficit
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQTDZ

There is broad economic consensus among economists that the United States will eventually have to raise taxes to pay down the ... Read more

Iowa’s GOP Governor Blasts Romney Campaign On Wind Tax Credits: They Need To ‘Come Out Here To The Real World’

Iowa's GOP Governor Blasts Romney Campaign On Wind Tax Credits: They Need To 'Come Out Here To The Real World'
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQZSB

Now that Mitt Romney's campaign has officially declared the candidate's desire to kill tax credits for wind while ... Read more

GOP Governor Schools Romney On Wind: ‘Get Out Here In The Real World To Find Out What’s Really Going On’

GOP Governor Schools Romney On Wind: 'Get Out Here In The Real World To Find Out What's Really Going On'
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/bswy45w

Days after Mitt Romney's campaign announced his opposition to extending the wind production tax credit, Romney campaigned ... Read more

Message To House GOP About Drilling On Public Lands: ‘All Of The Above’ Does Not Mean ‘All Of The Acres’

Message To House GOP About Drilling On Public Lands: 'All Of The Above' Does Not Mean 'All Of The Acres'
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQhku

By Jessica Goad The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a hearing this morning about the ... Read more

Exodus Splinter Group Provides Fresh Look At Harmful Ex-Gay Methodology

Exodus Splinter Group Provides Fresh Look At Harmful Ex-Gay Methodology
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQN8o

When Exodus International's President Alan Chambers said recently that there's no "cure" for ... Read more

Like Romney’s Tax Plan, House Republican ‘Tax Reform’ Would Mean A Major Middle-Class Tax Increase

Like Romney's Tax Plan, House Republican 'Tax Reform' Would Mean A Major Middle-Class Tax Increase
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQpby

Our guest blogger is Seth Hanlon, Director of Fiscal Reform at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The House of ... Read more

60 Faith Leaders Sign Letter Telling GOP Not To Raise Taxes On 24 Million Americans

60 Faith Leaders Sign Letter Telling GOP Not To Raise Taxes On 24 Million Americans
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQZsC

A coalition of faith leaders released a letter ahead of yesterday's symbolic House tax vote telling Republicans not to ... Read more

Chick Fil America

Boehner: Debt deal? I didn't have anything to do with any debt deal!

Boehner: Debt deal? I didn't have anything to do with any debt deal!
DAILY KOS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQJN1

Boehner: "Who? Me?" Here we go again. As they pack their bags for a five-week summer recess, members of Congress who ... Read more

New Obama ad: 'Romney's tax plan? He pays less. You pay more.'

New Obama ad: 'Romney's tax plan? He pays less. You pay more.'
DAILY KOS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bPBiT

Brutal new ad from the Obama campaign set to air in New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and ... Read more

Mitt Romney says he built that

Mitt Romney says he built that
DAILY KOS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQ1BI

Other than insulting people in foreign countries, Mitt Romney's main focus over the past few weeks has been accusing President ... Read more

A desert island recession...

A desert island recession...
DAILY KOS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bQirv

Tom the Dancing Bug, by @RubenBolling, is supported by readers like you. Please join the INNER HIVE for benefits, ... Read more

Silly Christians..

Silly Christians..
REDDIT TOP NEWS | AUGUST 2, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bRuMa

Read more... 1770 score | 429 comments > submitted by GingerBadger22 subreddit: atheism ... Read more

Thursday, August 2, 2012

"Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse"

Interview:

Matchbox Vanish Magic Secrets Revealed

"The Free Will Argument" by Old Fart Rants

170 Law Professors Debunk ‘Religious Freedom’ Argument In Contraception Debate

170 Law Professors Debunk 'Religious Freedom' Argument In Contraception Debate
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 1, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bOOJc
Today, an Obamacare regulation went into effect that phases in guaranteed coverage of preventive services for women — including ... Read more

Economist: Prioritizing Deficit Reduction Over Important Investments Is ‘Completely Misguided’ In This Economy

Economist: Prioritizing Deficit Reduction Over Important Investments Is 'Completely Misguided' In This Economy
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 1, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bONsF

Making debt and deficit reduction our nation's top priority while the economy is still recovering from the Great ... Read more

GRAPHIC: A Day In The Life Of Big Oil

GRAPHIC: A Day In The Life Of Big Oil
THINKPROGRESS | AUGUST 1, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bP1cS

Every hour so far in 2012, the five largest oil corporations have recorded a $14,400,000 profit. And every hour, they received ... Read more

Artificial butter flavoring ingredient linked to key Alzheimer’s disease process

Artificial butter flavoring ingredient linked to key Alzheimer's disease process
REDDIT TOP NEWS | AUGUST 1, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bOlaB

Read more... 869 score | 117 comments > submitted by supercooper170 subreddit: science ... Read more

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The Debate Over Cuts To The Food Stamp Program

Interview:

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-07-26/debate-over-cuts-food-stamp-program

One in seven Americans receives food stamps, a number that's up sharply since the financial crisis. Most experts agree unemployment and underemployment have contributed to the number of people in need of food assistance. The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a measure that would cut nearly two million people from the program and cause 280,000 children to lose free meals. Anti-poverty advocates call it unconscionable. But supporters of the cuts say the food stamp program is inefficient and many people are receiving benefits who are not truly in need. Diane and her guests discuss the cost of feeding America's poor.

A Trade Show For Hackers

Interview:

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/07/26/hackers

Imagine the world’s best jewel thieves and the world’s best detectives meeting in Las Vegas to discuss the newest ways to steal high priced jewelry. That’s exactly what’s happening only it’s the world’s best hackers and security men at what is called The Black Hat Conference.

Would you like to learn how to hack into the utilities new smart meters, maybe make a minor adjustment? We have your hacker although the utility companies tried to shut down his presentation.
This hour, On Point, Hackers and the security companies who recruit them.

The Battle Over Voter ID

Interview:

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/07/25/the-battle-over-voter-id

Voter ID laws. It’s become a hot battle in the federal courts as we head toward November. 11 state legislatures, nearly all Republican, have passed stricter laws requiring voters to present identification at the polls in the last two years. Republicans say the new laws are necessary to prevent possible voter fraud.
Democrats respond it’s a solution in search of a problem, there’s no evidence of fraud except on the smallest of scales. The House majority leader in Pennsylvania bragged publicly that new voter ID laws will deliver his state to Romney.
This hour, On Point: Voter ID, needed authentication or voter suppression?

Eliot Spitzer: Clean Up The Banks

Interview:

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/07/23/eliot-spitzer

Remember when banks were full of stuffed shirts whose main interest was whether you had enough collateral to get a loan? Neither do I. After sending the planet into a worldwide recession four years ago, now another round of banking scandal. This time involving money laundering, Mexican drug cartels, Al Qaida funders and international interest rate manipulations. And sadly that’s not a complete list. Will anyone get arrested this time?

This hour, On Point: Former New York Governor and Attorney General Elliot Spitzer.

Crooked Bankers

Interview:

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/07/18/bankers

Somali pirates and piracy, pretty quiet this year we’re told. Wish we could say the same about the world of big banks. From the gory headlines week after week, the world of big banking can look like a pirates’ jamboree. LIBOR rate rigging. Mexican money laundering. London whaling.

Ponzi schemes and crooked deals and straight up theft and fraud. It’s too much. It’s appalling. Giant HSBC in the hot seat now for moving billions in drug lord money. Some days it feels like there are Somali pirates in the world’s banking wheelhouse.
This hour, On Point: banking gone bad, and what to do about it.

Chick-Fil-A Approval Rating Plummets After Anti-Gay Controversy

Climate Change Skeptic Does 180 On Global Warming

Oops: Romney Praises Poland's Economy But...

Senate Climate Hearings Hosted By Denialists, Obstructionists

Senate Climate Hearings Hosted By Denialists, Obstructionists
THINKPROGRESS | JULY 31, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bMfFk

On Wednesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is holding hearings to provide an "update" on ... Read more

CHART: Romney’s Plan To Swell The Defense Budget

CHART: Romney's Plan To Swell The Defense Budget
THINKPROGRESS | JULY 31, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bMIDV

In a report released today as part of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's "Romney U," CAP's ... Read more

Big 5 Oil Companies Going For The Gold

Big 5 Oil Companies Going For The Gold
THINKPROGRESS | JULY 31, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bMmlc

Second-Quarter Earnings Race Ahead, Boosted by Tax Breaks by Daniel J. Weiss and Jackie Weidman Middle-class families may have ... Read more

Republican Congressman Blasts GOP: Party Caters To ‘Extremes,’ Is ‘Incapable Of Governing’

Republican Congressman Blasts GOP: Party Caters To 'Extremes,' Is 'Incapable Of Governing'
THINKPROGRESS | JULY 30, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bIXqk

Congressman Richard Hanna (R-NY) is fed up with the GOP. Hanna singled out Michele Bachmann's "suggestion that ... Read more

Romney Praises Poland’s Economy, Where Government Plays A Larger Role Than The U.S.

Romney Praises Poland's Economy, Where Government Plays A Larger Role Than The U.S.
THINKPROGRESS | JULY 31, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bKyPg

Visiting Poland for the final leg of his gaffe-filled trip abroad, Romney praised how the nation has "lifted the heavy ... Read more

Monday, July 30, 2012

THE DAILY STAR :: Editorial :: Romney the dunce

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Editorial/2012/Jul-31/182720-romney-the-dunce.ashx#axzz229K0feQy

Another hiccup? Romney's foreign trip not smooth - Businessweek

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-07-30/romney-courts-donors-before-leaving-israel#p1

Romney a Fan of ... Israel's Socialized Health Care - Mitt praises health care system at fundraiser

http://www.newser.com/story/151095/romney-a-fan-of-israels-socialized-health-care.html

Facebook Abstainers could be labeled Suspicious

http://activepolitic.com:82/News/2012-07-25c/Facebook_Abstainers_could_be_labeled_Suspicious.html

So, I told my christian friend today that I was an atheist... Really christians?

So, I told my christian friend today that I was an atheist... Really christians?
REDDIT TOP NEWS | JULY 30, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bIyvU

Read more... 1178 score | 1262 comments > submitted by riot123123 subreddit: atheism ... Read more

Israeli Leaders Praise Obama’s Commitment To Israel’s Security

Israeli Leaders Praise Obama's Commitment To Israel's Security
THINKPROGRESS | JULY 30, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bHhE4

Mitt Romney's main theme on his foreign trip to the U.K., Israel and Poland this week is that President Obama isn't ... Read more

Romney Will Allow Wind Tax Credit To Expire, Costing 37,000 Jobs

Romney Will Allow Wind Tax Credit To Expire, Costing 37,000 Jobs
THINKPROGRESS | JULY 30, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/bHyEf
Mitt Romney has officially endorsed risking thousands of jobs by letting the production tax credit (PTC) for wind expire, the ... Read more