Politics & Globalization
Where Health, Justice, Sustainability, Peace and Democracy Intersect
International trade agreements force the U.S. and other participting countries to "harmonize" food and envrironmental safety standards to the lowest common denominator. Often these agreements are negotiated behind closed doors, shutting out Congress and the public, while granting corporations and trade associations a seat at the table. It's no surprise that these agreements give transnational corporations "special rights", allowing companies to challenge individual countries' environmental, worker and food safety laws and regulations.
-
ronnie-rose-oca-2784.jpg
Rose and Ronnie· Joe volunteer© 2008
News
May 9, 2007
The U.S. Senate passed the FDA "drug safety" bill today (S.1082) with a 93-1 vote. A key amendment that would have called for genuine drug safety protections for consumers -- the Grassley amendment 1039 -- was defeated by a single vote (47 to 46). The new law deepens financial ties between Big Pharma and the FDA, doubling the amount of money directly paid to the regulator by drug companies, but it fails to explicitly protect foods and nutritional supplements from overreaching FDA regulation efforts. The new law also failed to end Big Pharma's monopoly stranglehold on American consumers, Read more
News
May 9, 2007
The Corporate Democratic Party is into snuff politics.
The target this month, single payer, Medicare for all.
The motive: protect the corporate health insurance industry.
Democratic snuff politics was on display yesterday on Capitol Hill.
Senator Ron Wyden was on the Hill surrounded by his corporate supporters, Steve Burd, CEO, Safeway Inc., Art Collins, CEO of Medtronic, Inc, H. Edward Hanaway, CEO, CIGNA, Steve Sanger, CEO, General Mills, and Ronald Williams, CEO, Aetna, Inc.
Wyden has introduced legislation that is similar to Read more
The target this month, single payer, Medicare for all.
The motive: protect the corporate health insurance industry.
Democratic snuff politics was on display yesterday on Capitol Hill.
Senator Ron Wyden was on the Hill surrounded by his corporate supporters, Steve Burd, CEO, Safeway Inc., Art Collins, CEO of Medtronic, Inc, H. Edward Hanaway, CEO, CIGNA, Steve Sanger, CEO, General Mills, and Ronald Williams, CEO, Aetna, Inc.
Wyden has introduced legislation that is similar to Read more
News
May 7, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Adam Eidinger 1-202-744-2671
Email: adam@drbronner.com
ESCONDIDO, CA - The Bronner family, makers of the popular organic Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps have released a new video of NarcoPouchî 928 field drug tests of its soaps and other brands. The results prove that the test kit which was used to jail Don Bolles, drummer for the legendary punk band The Germs (http://germsreturn.com/)on April 4, will always give a false-positive for the drug GHB (Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate) if used on Read more
CONTACT: Adam Eidinger 1-202-744-2671
Email: adam@drbronner.com
ESCONDIDO, CA - The Bronner family, makers of the popular organic Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps have released a new video of NarcoPouchî 928 field drug tests of its soaps and other brands. The results prove that the test kit which was used to jail Don Bolles, drummer for the legendary punk band The Germs (http://germsreturn.com/)on April 4, will always give a false-positive for the drug GHB (Gamma Hydroxy Butyrate) if used on Read more
News
May 3, 2007
* May Day 2007: Hundreds of Thousands March for Immigrant Rights *
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants took to the streets on Tuesday in
protests in dozens of cities across the country. Calls focused on demanding
a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, ending immigrant raids and
deportations and rejecting anti-immigrant legislation. We speak with
organizers of the day's two largest protests: Los Angeles and Chicago.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow. Read more
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants took to the streets on Tuesday in
protests in dozens of cities across the country. Calls focused on demanding
a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, ending immigrant raids and
deportations and rejecting anti-immigrant legislation. We speak with
organizers of the day's two largest protests: Los Angeles and Chicago.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow. Read more
News
May 2, 2007
Blog Postings
"Mission Accomplished," Four Years Later
by Robin Andersen
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Bush administration's now-infamous photo op when Bush landed in a fighter jet on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and declared " Read more
"Mission Accomplished," Four Years Later
by Robin Andersen
Today marks the fourth anniversary of the Bush administration's now-infamous photo op when Bush landed in a fighter jet on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and declared " Read more
News
May 1, 2007
NOTE: As the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is expected to give a green-light to nukes and large-scale biofuel production, including GMOs, here's part of an Ecologist Special Report on the "facts, fictions and fabrications" behind biofuels. For the other articles: http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=838 ---
--- The next genetic revolution? We didn't want GM on our table, but the crucial question now is, will we allow it in our tanks? Robin Maynard and Pat Read more
--- The next genetic revolution? We didn't want GM on our table, but the crucial question now is, will we allow it in our tanks? Robin Maynard and Pat Read more
News
May 1, 2007
As I was being driven through Tel Aviv from my hotel to a conference center a few years ago, I could not help but note the overwhelming presence of cars and parking lots. Tel Aviv, expanding from a small settlement a half-century ago to a city of some 3 million today, evolved during the automobile era. It occurred to me that the ratio of parks to parking lots may be the best single indicator of the livability of a city--whether a city is designed for people or for cars.
The world's cities are in trouble. In Mexico City, Tehran, Bangkok, Shanghai, and hundreds of other cities, the Read more
The world's cities are in trouble. In Mexico City, Tehran, Bangkok, Shanghai, and hundreds of other cities, the Read more
News
The People's Email Network
VOTING ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
Cast your vote and send your message to Congress at the same time!
As courageously drafted by Dennis Kucinich in H.Res. 333 filed just last week, the first and most central ground stated for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney was that he led the charge in fabricating a case for invasion of Iraq, based on phony weapons of mass destruction. Now almost as if it were timed to coincide with that initiative, former CIA head George Tenet Read more
Cast your vote and send your message to Congress at the same time!
As courageously drafted by Dennis Kucinich in H.Res. 333 filed just last week, the first and most central ground stated for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney was that he led the charge in fabricating a case for invasion of Iraq, based on phony weapons of mass destruction. Now almost as if it were timed to coincide with that initiative, former CIA head George Tenet Read more
News
April 19, 2007
Senator Bernie Sanders is frustrated. He believes there is a gap between the American people who are increasingly embracing progressive values and what's going on in Congress.
"The American people are way, way ahead on matters of the economy, war, global warming," he says, over coffee with a small group of reporters.
He points to recent CBS and Gallop polls showing that 57 percent of Americans disapprove of the way George Bush is handling the economy; a margin of over two-to-one believe that "money should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the Read more
"The American people are way, way ahead on matters of the economy, war, global warming," he says, over coffee with a small group of reporters.
He points to recent CBS and Gallop polls showing that 57 percent of Americans disapprove of the way George Bush is handling the economy; a margin of over two-to-one believe that "money should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the Read more
News
April 26, 2007
Two years ago, dairy giant Dean Foods shuttered a milk-processing
facility in Wilkesboro, a town at the eastern edge of North Carolina's
Appalachian Mountains.
Dean processes 35 percent of the fluid milk in the U.S. and Canada -- roughly equal to the combined market share of its three biggest rivals combined. In my area of western North Carolina, it processes 100 percent of the fluid milk. Since there were no other USDA-approved processing plants around, the few remaining dairy farmers in the mountains faced a stark choice: pay to have their milk hauled an additional 55 miles to Read more
Dean processes 35 percent of the fluid milk in the U.S. and Canada -- roughly equal to the combined market share of its three biggest rivals combined. In my area of western North Carolina, it processes 100 percent of the fluid milk. Since there were no other USDA-approved processing plants around, the few remaining dairy farmers in the mountains faced a stark choice: pay to have their milk hauled an additional 55 miles to Read more
Pages
for Politics & Globalization