Information
- Founded:
- 1976
Social RSS
Report this feed
You are about to report that this RSS feed has violated the RSS-Connect Terms of Service, the Facebook Terms of Use, the Facebook Code of Conduct or the Facebook Copyright Policy.
All reports are strictly confidential.
| Reason: (Required) |
|
Racist Outrage of the Day (Year?)
8 July 2009, 1:42 pm |
|
|
Blood, prepare to boil. According to the NBC affliate in Philadelphia, the Valley Swim Club booted a day camp of inner city kids—which had paid $1900 for summer swimming rights—after members refused to swim with black kids. Really.
In a statement! Wow. The mind reels. First at the racism. And then at the PR bungling. When I posted this to Facebook, a got a note from a (white) friend who grew up in that part of Philly. It didn't surprise him, he said; racism in that neighborhood is entrenched. Worth noting that the comments on the NBC site, many of which were horrifc a hour ago, have been disabled. You can follow this link to let Valley know what you think.
Read more >> |
|
|
The Dodd Squad Fires Back
8 July 2009, 1:42 pm |
|
|
The Chris-Dodd-is-no-K-Street-pawn campaign is ramping up. I just received an email from Colleen Flanagan, communications director for the Connecticut Democratic Party. She'd seen my blog item commenting on today's Roll Call story on the senator's recent efforts to "distance himself from K Street" and wanted to direct my attention to a press release the party issued earlier today defending Dodd's record.
The release goes on to list a series of quotes in which lobbyists whine that Dodd's shutting them out and ends with a quote from Flanagan:
In a separate email, Flanagan told me: "The point is that advocating on behalf of consumers is nothing new for Sen. Dodd, and the people who say otherwise are ignoring close to 30 years of his track record on these issues." As I noted earlier, Dodd has indeed been a champion of consumer causes. But his image problems are largely of his own making. And he's placed himself in a position where it's easy to call his motives into question. For years, he's raised huge amounts of campaign cash from lobbyists and finance industry players. As Jonathan Stein and I detailed back in April, almost a third of Dodd's first quarter receipts came from financial execs and interests, whose industry Dodd holds great sway over as Senate banking committee chairman. (That doesn't take into count sizable contributions from K Streeters or the insurance or health care industries.) Dodd's campaign machine clearly sees an opportunity here to rehabilitate the public's perception of the embattled senator. While publicly they are expressing outrage about lobbyists "peddling stories" about their lack of access to the senator, privately they must be thinking that any press that puts Dodd on the wrong side of K Street is just the type of PR they're looking for. After all, without stories like that, there wouldn't be ads like this: Read more >> |
|
|
Torture in Iran
8 July 2009, 1:35 pm |
|
|
For weeks, I have been reading Twitter messages from Iran with reports of opposition supporters being detained and beaten to extract forced confessions. Now Human Rights Watch confirms these accounts. From a statement accompanying a report it has released:
One detail:
While many Americans have been obsesing over Sarah Palin or Michael Jackson, there have been a series of Stalinesque confessions broadcast on Iranian television:
All of this violates Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a party. And the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment states, "No detained person while being interrogated shall be subject to violence, threats or methods of interrogation which impair his capacity of decision or judgment." (The Bush administration clearly did not hold this accord dear.) Is any government going to raise Iran's treatment of opposition supporters at the UN? You can follow David Corn's postings and media appearances via Twitter. Read more >> |
|
|
We're Still at War: Photo of the Day for July 8, 2009
8 July 2009, 10:39 am |
|
|
Read more >> |
|
|
Dodd: Biting the Hands That Fund Him?
8 July 2009, 7:02 am |
|
|
When Chris Dodd's first quarter campaign disclosures were released this spring, revealing that just five of the hundreds of donors to the veteran senator's reelection bid were residents of his homestate of Connecticut, the political attack ads basically made themselves. One, released by one his Republican challengers, features a map showing the home states of his out-of-town contributors and the amounts derived from each locale: $90,000 from Massachusetts, $100,000 from Maryland and New York, $81,000 from Texas. And then, as game show style music plays, the zinger: just $4,250 from residents of the Nutmeg State. Here at Mother Jones, Jonathan Stein and I focused on another aspect of Dodd's first quarter disclosures: the fact that, with his political future in jeopardy, the five-term senator and chair of the powerful Senate banking committee appeared to be receiving a personal bailout from his friends in the finance industry.
Dodd's spokesman, Bryan DeAngelis, insisted at the time: "Campaign contributions do not and never have influenced Senator Dodd's agenda and priorities. As his record reflects—from working to stop abusive credit card practices and predatory lending to opposing industry-friendly bankruptcy reform and tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas—Chris Dodd's priorities are not determined by the financial industry. His work is always and has always been about representing the interest of the people of Connecticut." Well, there are at least five Connecticut residents who think so. It's certainly true that Dodd has been a standout consumer advocate in the Senate. Recently, he shepherded credit card reform legislation that reined in some of the industry's more abusive practices. But he hasn't been able to escape the perception that he's way too cozy with K Street and the industries he oversees and out of touch with his own constituents. Not that Dodd has done much to dispel that image. Until now, that is. According to Roll Call, Dodd "has tried to distance himself from K Street by taking an increasingly pro-consumer, anti-industry tack." This shift understandably has K Streeters and finance industry execs worried and, yes, a bit angry too. After all, they've been quite generous to his campaigns, including his failed presidential run, and they expect something in return. This isn't charity after all. “He is taking positions to prove that he’s not bought and paid for, almost to prove to voters in Connecticut that he has not lost his way,” one finance industry lobbyist told the paper. “If he’d won his election and he was looking at these issues with a full six-year term in front of him, he’d be taking different positions. It’s a scary thing for lobbyists and for the industry in general.” Dodd may be banking on the fact that he can have it both ways. He can rehab his too-close-to-K-Street image, while continuing to pull in industry campaign cash to give him a fighting chance in what's projected to be a very tight 2010 election. As another lobbyist pointed out to Roll Call, Dodd can snub K Street and Wall Street and still “raise money from the traditional donors because he’s chairman of the Banking Committee.” The real question for Dodd is, if he prevails in 2010, is it just back to business as usual? Read more >> |
Events
18 past eventsSee All
- Denver Green Festival
Colorado Convention Center
Saturday, May 2 at 10:00am - Bay Area New Media Summit
301 Battery Street
Friday, April 17 at 12:00pm - Seattle Green Festival
Washington State Convention & Trade...
Saturday, March 28 at 10:00am - A Conversation With Rachel Maddow
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Saturday, March 28 at 8:00pm - San Francisco Green Festival
SF Concourse Exhibition Center
Friday, November 14 at 10:00am - DC Green Festival
DC Convention Center
Saturday, November 8 at 10:00am - Bioneers
Marin Convention Center
Friday, October 17 at 8:00am - New York is Book Country
Central Park
Sunday, September 21 at 8:00am - Slow Food Nation
Civic Center
Friday, August 29 at 8:00am - Netroots Nation
Austin Convention Center
Thursday, July 17 at 8:00am
Links
3 of 194 linksSee All

Time Goes Gaga for Palin | Mother Jones
2:04pm Jul 9
Public Option Enemy No. 1 | Mother Jones
10:11am Jul 9
Torture in Iran | Mother Jones
7:42am Jul 9













Mother Jones For exposing the truth, this reporter's life is in grave danger. Let's get the word out!
























Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 10,000 signatures - please sign here: http://www.thepetitionsite
Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign also. ... Read More
Thank you!
















Mother Jones GAH! this weekend is supposed to be about fireWORKS not a fire! (hopefully our site will be restored soon)


Mother Jones Yikes! A fire at the MoJo server building has taken us offline.










I can laugh at crass playful banter all day. But we've never seen a woman in the White House. When people attempt to blame that on ... Read Morepostpartum depression or preoccupation with fashion, looks or say they are emotional, unstable OR stupid but pretty--you are really saying, she can't be president/vp because she's a woman.
I understand the physiological differences between men and women, but that has NO place here or in any discussion revolving around a woman's political career. I have been blown over and completely devastated for the last year and a half but how open and pervasive misogyny is in this day and age.
--Amy Siskind (from Huff Po)

















































Mother Jones