MicroHawk's NewsScan

Rio+20 and the Peoples´ Summit | USSF 2010

20 years ago, the UN played an important role in calling attention to the dangers to human and nonhuman life if the myth of endless economic growth continues to dominate economic policies and if irresponsible consumerism is not curbed. The planet is finite, the vital cycles for replenishment of natural resources are being destroyed, and nature will inevitably “take revenge” in climate changes soon to become irreversible. This will affect the poorest people most, thus exacerbating already intolerable social injustice. States seemed to heed the warnings, and many promises were made in conventions and protocols. Multinational corporations, those major agents of environmental deterioration, seemed to be on guard.

Unfortunately, this moment of reflection and hope soon disappeared. The USA, then the main polluter and today the main per capita polluter, refused to assume any binding commitment toward reducing the emissions that cause global warming. Instead of decreasing, emissions increased

via www.ussf2010.org

Those Laboratory Mice Were Children - IPS ipsnews.net

Facing a frozen image of a child born without limbs, Hadidi says parents’ feelings usually range between shame and guilt. "They think it’s their fault, that there’s something wrong with them. And it doesn’t help at all when some elder tells them it’s been ‘god’s punishment’."

The pictures are difficult to look at. And, those responsible for all this have closed their eyes.

"In 2004 the Americans tested all kinds of chemicals and explosive devices on us: thermobaric weapons, white phosphorous, depleted uranium...we have all been laboratory mice for them," says Hadidi, turning off the projector.

via ipsnews.net

PG&E Quake Risks at Diablo Nuclear to Undergo 3D Exam - Bloomberg

PG&E Corp. (PCG) and Edison International (EIX) are embarking on the most extensive and costly study of earthquake risks ever undertaken for U.S. nuclear power plants using 3-D seismic technology pioneered by the oil industry.

The utilities plan to spend $128 million and use research gathered at sea to acquire a better understanding of seismic hazards at California’s two atomic plants built along the coast in the most earthquake-prone area of any U.S. reactors.

via www.bloomberg.com

Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming People Among First, Most Affected by War on Terror's Biometrics Craze

Since when did travelers' gender become the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) business? Since at least September of 2003, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an advisory warning against "Al-Qaeda's continued efforts to plan multiple attacks against the US and US interests overseas." The advisory included a list of potential terrorism targets, a mention of recent arrests of unnamed terror suspects and this warning: "Male bombers may dress as females in order to discourage scrutiny."

via truth-out.org

Wells Fargo Racial Discrimination Investigation Launched By HUD

Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's largest mortgage lender, is facing the second of at least two federal probes into how it treats minority borrowers and the properties it owns in minority neighborhoods. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials confirmed this week that the agency will investigate allegations lodged against the bank Tuesday by the National Fair Housing Alliance. The alliance complaint accused Wells Fargo of working to maintain and market bank-owned foreclosed properties in predominantly white communities far more aggressively than it does in mostly black and Latino neighborhoods.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

The Bully Backlash: How the Christian Right Is Attacking Efforts to Help Kids | | AlterNet

Even as states and schools try to put in place anti-bullying policies, the Christian right is mobilizing to undo them.

via www.alternet.org

Deciphering Right-Wing Code: What Conservatives Are Really Saying When They Seem to Spew Nonsense | | AlterNet

Even though right-wing narratives are often factually wrong, they are absolutely never content-free. Stories like this are always about something. And the weirder and more factually challenged they sound to liberal ears, the more important it probably is for us to know what that something is. Too often, our obsession with the gobsmacking wrongness of these statements deafens us to clues to the right's current motives and intentions that are frequently lurking in these strange declarations.

via www.alternet.org

Capitalism's Dirty Secret: Corporations Don't Create Jobs, They Destroy Them | | AlterNet

We keep hearing that corporations would put Americans back to work if they could just get rid of all those pesky encumbrances – things like taxes, safety regulations, and unions. But what happens when we buy that line? The more we let the corporations run wild, the worse things get for the 99 percent, and the scarcer the solid jobs seem to be.

via www.alternet.org

"Guidebook to False Confessions": Key Document John Yoo Used to Draft Torture Memo Released

Abu Zubaydah, the first high-value detainee captured after 9/11, was tortured at CIA black site prisons beginning in May 2002. Seven of the ten techniques he was subjected came from a manual just released by the Defense Department under the Freedom of Information Act. (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)In May of 2002, one of several meetings was convened at the White House where the CIA sought permission from top Bush administration officials, including then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, to torture the agency's first high-value detainee captured after 9/11: Abu Zubaydah.

via truth-out.org