By Remy Davison, Monash University, via The Conversation Some 400 million eligible voters, 751 seats, 28 countries: a portrait of true democracy at work – unless they held an election and nobody came. Average voter turnout in the weekend’s European Parliament (EP) elections was an estimated 43.09%. That’s a stunning 0.09% improvement on 2009. In […]
Archives for May 2014
S. Carolina Bible College head Slaveholder Arrested. Yes, You Read That Correctly
… and your jaw is going to hit the floor when you read what he does for a living: The president of a South Carolina Bible college was charged last week with essentially treating foreign students as slaves by forcing them to perform work for little…
Shale Oil Hype Fail: California Bonanza Evaporates
California's Shale Fail: The Case of 13 Billion Barrels of Missing Oil By Richard Heinberg In 2011, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US Department of Energy commissioned INTEK Inc., a Virginia-based consulting firm, to estimate how much oil might be recoverable from California’s vast Monterey Shale formation. Production of tight oil was soaring […]
On Memorial Day, Let’s do right by our Veterans
(By Juan Cole) Memorial Day should honor not only those military personnel who gave their lives for America but really all those who have suffered and died in war. Given the difficulties that have been revealed for Veterans in getting prompt and thorough healthcare from the VA, it is also a day in which those […]
Obama’s Just Right Foreign Policy
By Daniel Wagner via IPD A plethora of pundits, lawmakers and think tanks continue to criticize the Obama administration for presiding over what appear to be persistent failures in the foreign policy arena. President Barack Obama speaking during a town hall. Chuck Kennedy/White House Whether it is Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Russia, or […]
The Pope in Palestine: O Little Town of Bethehem caught in Apartheid Wall
Papal pilgrimage heads to Bethlehem (via AFP) Pope Francis arrives in Bethlehem Sunday to begin the most sensitive part of his three-day Middle East tour aimed at forging regional peace and easing an age-old rift within Christianity. After beginning his trip in Jordan on Saturday with an urgent… —— Related video: Pope Francis arrives […]
Nat’l Gas actually worse than Coal for Climate Change because, Methane: Cornell Scientist
By Bobby Magill Follow @bobbymagill A Cornell University scientist’s claims that oil and gas development is so harmful to the climate that methane emissions and oil and gas production in general need to be cut back immediately to avoid a “global catastrophe…
30 Murders by Firearm in England 2012 (equiv. 164), vs. 8,855 in US
By Juan Cole The mentally imbalanced individual who hunted down UC Santa Barbara students and knifed three and shot 6 of them to death, wounding with gunfire 7 more, on Saturday, used a semi-automatic handgun. The most popular such weapon is a Glock. It is not an automatic weapon, meaning you have to squeeze the […]
The Real Veterans Scandal: 258,000 Have No Healthcare Thanks to GOP Governors
By S Lee Caudle The Real Veterans Scandal: 258,000 Have No Healthcare Thanks to GOP Governors (via Atlas Left) While the GOP/Tea Party fiddles, blaming Obama for everything that’s wrong, our Veterans are dying. This is the same Congress where the majority have never served in the military. First we send soldiers to fight our wars […]