Archive | November, 2011

Thousands Chip In to Help Dissident Artist Pay Fine – NYTimes.com

6 Nov

BEIJING — In the days since the Chinese government delivered a punitive $2.4 million tax bill to the artist Ai Weiwei, thousands of people have responded by donating money in a gesture that is at once benevolent and subversive.

More than 20,000 people have together contributed at least $550,000 since Tuesday, when tax officials gave Mr. Ai 15 days to come up with an amount that was more than three times the sum he was accused of evading in taxes.

via Thousands Chip In to Help Dissident Artist Pay Fine – NYTimes.com.

Tags: ,

Welcome to the “augmented revolution” – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com

6 Nov

Simply put, the terms “real” and “virtual” to describe the physical and digital worlds are inadequate: Facebook is real as the rest of the world grows increasingly virtual. It is this massive implosion of atoms and bits that has created an augmented reality where properties of digitality — information spreads faster, more voices become empowered, enhanced organization and consensus capabilities — intersect with the importance of occupying physical space with flesh-and-blood bodies.

via Welcome to the “augmented revolution” – Occupy Wall Street – Salon.com.

Tags: , ,

Panetta Weighs Military Cuts Once Thought Out of Bounds – NYTimes.com

6 Nov

Mr. Panetta, a former White House budget chief, acknowledged in an interview that he faced deep political pressures as he weighed cuts to Pentagon spending, which has doubled to $700 billion a year since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He said that meeting deficit-reduction targets might require another round of base closings, which could be highly contentious as members of Congress routinely fight to protect military deployments and jobs in their communities.

via Panetta Weighs Military Cuts Once Thought Out of Bounds – NYTimes.com.

Tags: ,

Gates offers G20 a lesson in philanthropy – The Globe and Mail

6 Nov

It’s nice the Bill Gates is devoting all this time and money to good works. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t also be a self-important arrogant dorkwad!

To confront the concerns of protesters who call themselves “the 99 per cent,” the G20 decided to invite a member of the 0.000000001 per cent.

Mr. Gates laughed at this comparison, but had little time for the new inequality protests.

“Good old Occupy Wall Street! I will certainly be glad to print up signs for them if they want to hold them up saying ‘More bed nets!’, ‘More vaccines!’, ‘More agricultural research!’ ” Mr. Gates said. “I’ve never met any of these people … but I haven’t seen them holding any banners speaking up on behalf of the world’s poorest.”

Mr. Gates was invited because he has a reputation for getting things done: His foundation played a key role in getting the African AIDS crisis under control, and was the key actor behind the successful development of vaccines against meningitis and malaria.

via Gates offers G20 a lesson in philanthropy – The Globe and Mail.

Tags: ,

Occupy Wall Street Protest Reaches a Crossroads – NYTimes.com

6 Nov

Community Board 1, which represents the area, recently passed a resolution to support Occupy Wall Street. Loving the protesters and hating the problems that have accompanied them “are not mutually exclusive,” said the community board chairwoman, Julie Menin.

“Half the residents are completely out of their minds and need Occupy Wall Street to leave immediately,” said Patricia L. Moore, who lives near Zuccotti Park and also leads the Quality of Life Committee for the community board. “And half are residents who came to the last meeting and said, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood.’ ”

Ms. Moore said that most of the residents’ complaints were less about Occupy Wall Street’s presence than about getting the city to make life better for the protesters and the neighborhood.

via Occupy Wall Street Protest Reaches a Crossroads – NYTimes.com.

Elites Who Back the Wall St. Protesters – NYTimes.com

6 Nov

Yet when I interviewed the two of them in a wide-ranging public conversation last week, hosted by the Center for International Governance Innovation, a independent, nonpartisan Canadian research organization, they sounded an awful lot like the people camped out in Zuccotti Park in New York.

Neither Mr. Zedillo [former President of Mexico] nor Mr. Martin [former Canadian prime minister] had sympathy for the complaint that Occupy Wall Street lacked a clear agenda. As Mr. Zedillo put it: “These criticisms — ‘Oh, they don’t have an agenda, they only pose problems and provide no solutions’ — well, they are citizens and they have earned the right to express a very serious, real problem.”

The truth, the two statesmen agreed, was that the protesters were articulating a real, important and global concern.

via Elites Who Back the Wall St. Protesters – NYTimes.com.

Tags:

Labor poised for big win in Ohio – The Labor Movement – Salon.com

6 Nov

How is the issue playing in presidential politics?

We’ve got a couple of the outside groups — Citizens United and FreedomWorks, which is a Washington-based Tea Party group — on the record saying that “the reason we’re involved in Issue 2 is that we think it’s a precursor to the 2012 election in Ohio.” If they can somehow help Republicans win an upset here or at the very least make a dent in public opinion, they see that as a step in the right direction to defeating President Obama here next year.

The unions are less vocal about this. But the fact remains that they have this huge network with all these field operations set up. You can argue that the logical transition would be that many of those operations would just be folded into Obama’s operation here next year. But that connection cannot be officially drawn yet.

via Labor poised for big win in Ohio – The Labor Movement – Salon.com.

Tags: ,

Is Obama Toast? Handicapping the 2012 Election – NYTimes.com

6 Nov

Three factors are considered:

• The first factor, Americans’ performance reviews of Obama, can be measured through his approval ratings.
• The second factor, economic performance, can be measured through statistics like G.D.P.
• The third factor — essentially, the ideological positioning of the Republican candidate — is sometimes thought of as an “intangible.” But it can be measured too, and it matters a great deal.

Four scenarios: 2 Obama vs. Romney, 2 Obama vs. Perry; for each paring, one where the economy stagnates, one where it’s improving. If the economy is improving, Obama wins against each, otherwise he loses. But the loss against Perry is worse.

Average these four scenarios together and the probabilities come out to almost exactly 50-50. A month or two ago, when Perry and Romney appeared about equally likely to be the Republican nominee, it would therefore have been proper to think of the election as a toss-up.

With Perry having slumped in the polls, however, and Romney the more likely nominee, the odds tilt slightly toward Obama joining the list of one-termers. It is early, and almost no matter what, the election will be a losable one for Republicans. But Obama’s position is tenuous enough that it might not be a winnable one for him.

via Is Obama Toast? Handicapping the 2012 Election – NYTimes.com.

Tags: , , ,

Our Reckless Meritocracy – NYTimes.com

5 Nov

What you see in today’s Republican primary campaign is a reaction to exactly these kinds of follies — a revolt against the ruling class that our meritocracy has forged, and a search for outsiders with thinner résumés but better instincts.

But from Michele Bachmann to Herman Cain, the outsiders haven’t risen to the challenge. It will do America no good to replace the arrogant with the ignorant, the overconfident with the incompetent.

via Our Reckless Meritocracy – NYTimes.com.

Tags: ,

Forgive student debt, fight the recession – Student Loan Debt – Salon.com

5 Nov

As someone who has student loan debt myself, it occurred to me that if I were suddenly relieved of my obligation to repay the approximately $500 in student loan payments that I dutifully make each and every month without fail, I’d have an extra $500 per month, every month, to spend on ailing sectors of the economy. Think of it as a trickle-up approach to economic stimulus.

via Forgive student debt, fight the recession – Student Loan Debt – Salon.com.

Tags:

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →