Fwd: Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!"

Hi everyone -- This is where I get some of my stories.  They asked me to pass on the newsletter to you, so here it is.  I donate money to them too, because they are so good.  Have a look at the collection of articles below and see what you think.  Click the link to read the rest of the story.
--Kim

What did yesterday's elections demonstrate? While the pundits and prognosticators will give you different opinions, one thing is very clear: It's time for progressives to get to work.

The right wing runs a "ministry of truth" on television and radio, which spends 24 hours a day whipping up anger and pushing a plutocratic agenda.

We need to continue to build a trustworthy and powerful hub for expressing a true progressive morality. We need to engage more people who are ready to hear the truth - and ready to fight for economic fairness, peace and the cultivation of real democracy.

Please take five minutes to forward this Truthout newsletter to ten friends. Write a short note at the top and ask them to click the BIG RED BUTTON BELOW to sign up for our newsletter.

With your help, we can turn the tide in the battle of ideas. This is about constructive, fact-based discussion. We need your help to engage more people and bring them into this growing media movement.

In Solidarity,
The Truthout Team

Wednesday 03 November 2010
Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!"
Bill Moyers, Truthout: "Howard [Zinn] championed grassroots social change and famously chronicled its story as played out over the course of our nation's history. More, those stirring sagas have inspired and continue to inspire countless people to go out and make a difference. The last time we met, I told him that the stories in A People's History of the United States remind me of the fellow who turned the corner just as a big fight broke out down the block. Rushing up to an onlooker he shouted, 'Is this a private fight, or can anyone get in it?' For Howard, democracy was one big public fight and everyone should plunge into it. That's the only way, he said, for everyday folks to get justice - by fighting for it."
Read the Article

Nevada Senate Race: Harry Reid Wins in Election Night's Biggest Houdini Act
Brad Knickerbocker, The Christian Science Monitor: "In one of the toughest, most closely-watched, and perhaps weirdest US Senate races, majority leader Harry Reid has defeated GOP challenger and tea party favorite Sharron Angle."
Read the Article

Norman Solomon | After the Election Disaster: Back to Basics
Norman Solomon, Truthout: "Now what? We need to build a grassroots progressive movement - wide, deep and strong enough to fight the right and challenge the corporate center of the Democratic Party. The stakes are too high and crises too extreme to accept 'moderate' accommodation to unending war, regressive taxation, massive unemployment, routine foreclosures and environmental destruction."
Read the Article

Republican Takes Obama Senate Seat; Democrat Bennet Wins in Colorado
Nadia Prupis, Truthout: "The end of a draining election night brought two more surprising developments, as Republican Mark Kirk was elected to President Obama's former Senate seat in Illinois and Democrat Michael Bennet won the seat in Colorado. Kirk won in a narrow 48-46 vote, in a state that typically votes Democratic, defeating opponent and Illinois treasurer Alexi Giannoulias."
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More Than 30 Killed in New Baghdad Bomb Attacks
Jane Arraf, The Christian Science Monitor: "More than a dozen bombs struck Baghdad on Tuesday evening, killing almost 40 people and wounding 70 others in coordinated blasts two days after Al Qaeda-linked gunmen stormed a church in one of the deadliest attacks in a year."
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Campaign Cash: Citizens United Becomes Get Out-of-Jail-Free Card for Corporate Criminals
Zach Carter, The Media Consortium: "The votes are in, and while some close races are still being tallied, there is a clear winner from the 2010 elections: Secret corporate cash. Such unaccounted for political donations may end up allowing those accused of wrongdoing to go free. As Joshua Holland details for AlterNet, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission may have provided a lifetime supply of get-out-of-jail-free cards to corporate criminals."
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Cluster Munitions Treaty Leaves US Behind
Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service: "A campaign to rid the world of cluster munitions has still to rope in the US government, a major producer and stockpiler of the deadly payload, on the eve of a key global conference in Laos to ban its production and use. The mixed messages that Washington has been sending are expected to hover over the historic cluster munitions conference to be held Nov. 9-12 in Laos, a poverty-stricken South-east Asian country still grappling with the legacy of the bombs dropped by U.S. warplanes four decades ago."
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Microlending in a War Zone: Bamiyan Diaries - Day Five
David Smith-Ferri, Truthout: "In a small storage shed at the edge of town, we watched as 14-year-old Sayed Qarim signed a simple contract agreeing to borrow and repay a no-interest, 25,000 afghani loan (roughly $555). Daniel from the Zenda Company, the loan originator, counted out the crisp bills and handed them to Qarim, who smiled broadly and shook hands. Qarim, whose family farms potatoes and wheat, plans to use the funds to purchase a cow and her calf. 'There are great benefits of owning a cow,' Qarim explains. 'Our family gets to use the milk and we can sell the calf for a good profit.'"
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Death and Profits: The Public Utility Racket
Michael Parenti, Truthout: "Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is a multibillion dollar, privately owned, publicly regulated utility whose main function is to make enormous profits for its shareholders at great cost to ratepayers. I know this to be true; I'm one of the ratepayers."
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This Modern World: Mortgaging Our Kids' Future - Literally
Award-winning political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow brings us a look at our banking industry's clever new mortgage idea.
Read the Comic

E.J. Dionne, Jr. | And Now for the Next Battle
E.J. Dionne Jr.: "Democrats would be foolish to turn on themselves in fruitless bickering over whether their troubles owe to a failure to mobilize and excite their base or to win support from the political center. In fact, Democrats held moderate voters while losing independents. What hurt them most was this brute fact: Voters younger than 30 made up nearly a fifth of the electorate in 2008 but only about a tenth on Tuesday, according to network exit polls. This week's verdict was rendered by a much older and more conservative electorate. Yes, there was an enthusiasm gap."
Read the Article

Click here for more Truthout articles

BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

In a surge year for Republicans, California, as Joan Walsh of Salon points out, was the "thick blue line for the Democrats."

Indeed, Jerry Brown emerged triumphant in his bid to reclaim the governorship for the Democrats, while Barbara Boxer was re-elected to the senate. And the Democrats held strong against well-financed Republican campaigns for other key state offices.

California is a diverse state that now has a nonwhite majority in terms of its population. In a year of coded racial and "immigration" politics, this - no doubt - was an important factor in the outcome.

In a year of big money politics, Joan Walsh notes Californians also said "no" to the tens of millions of dollars in self-financing by Meg Whitman (former e-Bay CEO, running against Jerry Brown) and Carly Fiorina (former Hewlett-Packard CEO, running against Boxer): "Fiorina and Whitman defeated themselves; they were two wealthy ex-CEOs who thought they could buy their way into office, and who overlooked state voters' hunger for a government they can trust."

That's a refreshing bit of news from the Golden State.

Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

End of a Progressive Champion in the Senate: Russ Feingold Loses to Ron Johnson
Read the Article at TPM

Obama Makes Concession Calls
Read the Article at The Wall Street Journal

California Voters Defeat Marijuana Legalization Proposition
Read the Article at The Washington Post

Sums Up the 2010 Election? "Business Looks to Republicans to Block Rules, Taxes"
Read the Article at Bloomberg Businessweek

Now He Tells Us! Bush Considered Dropping Cheney From 2004 Ticket
Read the Article at The New York Times

November 2: The Death Knell of Corporate Liberalism?
Read the Article at The Progressive

As Democrats Lose House, Nancy Pelosi's Historic Reign as Speaker Will End
Read the Article at The Washington Post

Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines

 

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