UK Progressive

History Unfolding: Proud To Be An Egyptian

Adel El-Adawy — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:15:14 +0000

History is unfolding in Egypt. People are voting in their first democratic presidential election. Our grandparents and parents never thought they would live to see this moment, casting their voice into a ballot box to determine Egypt’s future and choose the next President. I have been in Egypt for a few days now and everyone [...]

Editorial: Selective Electoral Attention Deficit – Why Fracking in Wales Remains Bad Idea

Denis G Campbell — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:15:16 +0000

In Japan, Fukushima reactor number 4 is in danger of imminent catastrophic meltdown. The head of the US Nuclear Regulatory Agency recently resigned because the government is not taking safety seriously enough on these 40+-year-old GE reactors the industry wants rubber-stamped to life for another 10-20 years. The UK Tory/LibDem Government wants to do just [...]

Billion Dollar Bait & Switch: States Divert Foreclosure Deal Funds

ProPublica.org — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:15:11 +0000

by Paul Kiel and Cora Currier, ProPublica States have diverted $974 million from this year’s landmark mortgage settlement to pay down budget deficits or fund programs unrelated to the foreclosure crisis, according to a ProPublica analysis. That’s nearly forty percent of the $2.5 billion in penalties paid to the states under the agreement. The settlement, between five of the [...]

Trust Me: You Believe in Gun Control

Tina Dupuy — Thu, 24 May 2012 05:15:40 +0000

If you ask the typical hyper-political gun owner (and I have … at Thanksgiving dinner), why it’s important to own a gun, they’ll bark about the Constitution. Yes, the Second Amendment: “The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed!” This of course is the slogan the National Rifle Association [...]

In Race For Better Cell Service – Men Who Climb Towers Pay With Their Lives

ProPublica.org — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:15:55 +0000

Ryan Knutson, PBS Frontline, and Liz Day, ProPublica This story was co-published with PBS Frontline, which aired a film version Tuesday. In the spring of 2008, AT&T was racing to roll out a new cell phone network to deliver music, video and online games at faster speeds. The network, known as 3G, was crucial to the company’s [...]

Why Obama Should Be Attacking Casino Capitalism — Both Romney’s Bain and JPMorgan

Robert Reich — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:15:09 +0000

I wish President Obama would draw the obvious connection between Bain Capital and JPMorgan Chase. That way his so-called “attack” on private equity is neither a personal attack on Mitt Romney nor a generalized attack on American business. It’s an attack on a particular kind of capitalism that Romney and JPMorgan both practice: Using other [...]

GOP Messaging Trips Up Cory – Public Says ‘Meh?’

Denis G Campbell — Wed, 23 May 2012 05:15:57 +0000

Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker was inelegant on NBC’s Meet the Press last Sunday. The GOP SPIN Machine wasted no time creating a duplicitous and devious “I stand with Cory” fund raiser, collecting e-mails and thinking voters are stupid enough to believe Mayor Booker was abandoning the so-called ‘anti-capitalist President’ to support job creator [...]

An Ex-Marine Turned Pacifist Now One of ‘Hancock 33′

Sherwood Ross — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:15:33 +0000

It’s been a long journey for Russell Brown, 65, from the days when he fought with the Fourth Marines in Viet Nam, to becoming one of the “Hancock 33” protesters against drone warfare. Last April 22, he was arrested walking en route to Hancock Air Force Base, just outside of Syracuse, N.Y., where General Atomics-made [...]

Happy Graduation! Here’s The Best, Most Depressing Journalism on Student Debt

ProPublica.org — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:15:12 +0000

by Blair Hickman, ProPublica Outstanding student loans now top $1 trillion, more than the nation’s credit-card debt. We rounded up some of the best explanatory and accountability journalism on student debt. On the state of student debt — where we are: Degrees of Debt, New York Times, May 2012 This sweeping overview of the state of student debt, [...]

Class of 2012? You’re F**ked

Robert Reich — Tue, 22 May 2012 05:15:37 +0000

The Commencement Address That Won’t Be Given Members of the Class of 2012, As a former secretary of labor and current professor, I feel I owe it to you to tell you the truth about the pieces of parchment you’re picking up today. You’re f*cked. Well, not exactly. But you won’t have it easy. First, [...]