OntheWilderSide

Saturday, November 20th is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Haven't heard of it? It is the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the grocery stores are packed with loads of people stocking their cupboard and refrigerators with the necessary ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner.  Even though you shopping list may be long, the holidays are a time to give thanks, and this is a great time to spread the message of fair trade. When we brew coffe … Read More

via Autonomie Project's Blog

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Princeton University professor and author Cornel West join us to talk about Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) being censured for ethics violations, President George W. Bush saying the worst moment of his presidency was when Kanye West called him a racist, and President Obama’s policies toward the poor. “The Obama administration seems to have very little concern for poor people and their social misery,” West said.

via Cornel West on Charles Rangel, Bush & Kanye West and Why Obama Admin “Seems to Have Very Little Concern for Poor People”.

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We bring you a Democracy Now! special with the singer-songwriter, poet, artist and punk rock legend, Patti Smith, on her life, her art and her singing and speaking out. “I do things that make people upset. My political views or my humanist views have caused me a lot of censorship, but I don’t have a problem with that,” Smith says. “What I would have more of a problem is if I had to look back on my life and say, ‘Yeah, I compromised here’ and ‘yeah, I did this so I could get that.’ Once you start doing that, it’s like a house of cards—it all falls apart.

via Punk Rock Legend Patti Smith on Her Life, Her Art, Her Singing and Speaking Out.

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The legality of hydrofracking and the future of New York state’s energy portfolio were largely ignored during the recent gubernatorial race, except in Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins’ campaign. Andrew Cuomo has said of natural gas, “Development needs to be highly sensitive to environmental concerns.” While it’s admirable that his administration plans to be “highly sensitive,” it is nonetheless disconcerting that he was unable to say it is a demonstrably bad practice that contaminates groundwater with unknown chemicals and that it should be outlawed until proven environmentally safe.

via Hydrofracking presents short-term solution with long-term consequences – The Daily Orange – Opinion.

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The TSA’s invasive new screening measures include officers literally putting their hands down people’s pants if they are wearing baggy clothing in a shocking new elevation of groping procedures that have stoked a nationwide revolt against privacy-busting airport security measures.

via News for Greens » TSA Now Putting Hands Down Fliers’ Pants.

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As one of the busiest travel seasons of the year approaches there is a public outcry over new airport security measures that include full-body scanners and invasive police-style pat-downs. We speak with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as New York City Councilman David Greenfield, who introduced a resolution to ban the use of the full body scanners in airports within the city.

via National Outcry Over TSA Body Scanners and Invasive Pat-Downs.

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A transpartisan coalition on state legislators in New Jersey held a press conference yesterday to announce their intention to seek an end to the TSA’s porno scanner and grope procedures.

Republican Mike Doherty and Democrat Valerie Vaneri Hottell joined Deborah Jacobs, Executive Director of the ACLU of New Jersey to unveil legislation calling on Congress to cancel the program.

via New Jersey Legislature Says “No” to TSA Porn Scanners and Gropes | FDL Action.

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In his latest report to Congress, the special inspector general for TARP Neil Barofsky said the mortgage-modification program can actually cause borrowers to go into foreclosure, due to extra fees that can accumulate on modified loans. The Government Accountability Office reported in March and in June not only that Treasury has not levied any fines on mortgage companies, but also that it hasn’t even finalized guidelines for doing so.

via Treasury Admits It Hasn’t Fined Banks For Failing To Comply With Mortgage Modification Program VIDEO.

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/Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) today released results of a November 2010 poll conducted by Lake Research Partners showing that across party lines, voters are strongly in favor of requiring financial institutions to do more to help home owners stay in their homes. The study finds that the majority of voters believe elected officials are not doing enough to reign in banks and mortgage lenders, nor are they doing enough to protect American home owners by helping prevent foreclosures.

via Americans for Financial Reform » Press Release: Poll Displays Bipartisan Public Support for Increased Protection of Home Owners.

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Leo Tolstoy and Gandhi never met, but they corresponded with each other during the final two years of Tolstoy’s life, 1909 and 1910. Tolstoy had read Hind Swaraj (1909) where Gandhi set out his vision of a liberated India, the means to reach liberation, and what an independent India could mean for the world. It was Gandhi’s plan of action before he set out to put it in practice.  Gandhi had listed some of Tolstoy’s books in a list of supplementary readings to Hind Swaraj in particular The Kingdom of God is Within You and Letter to a Hindoo, Tolstoy’s reply to an Indian revolutionary who had proposed a violent uprising.

via Tolstoy and Gandhi: Light as Darkness Approached | The Fellowship of Reconciliation.

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