As Copenhagen Summit Closes, Obama Maintains Widely Criticized US Position on Emissions Cuts, Climate Aid

DemocracyNow!
December 18, 2009

After ten days of talks, uncertainty looms over the Copenhagen summit—and, some might say, the fate of the planet. Negotiations remain deadlocked as fundamental divisions remain between rich and poor countries. A draft agreement drawn up by a small group of countries, including the US, was dismissed overnight by developing nations. President Obama arrived early this morning to join nearly 120 other world leaders at the summit. In a much anticipated address, Obama offered no new proposals to address the demands of developing countries...

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How Bugliosi Met the Bush Censors

By David Swanson
Consortium News
November 25, 2009

Editor’s Note: In the United States, the immense power of the right-wing news media, the cowardly careerism of the corporate press, and the weakness of independent media add up to a system of propaganda that is subtly Orwellian, hyping trivial matters and ignoring significant ones, even while many Americans think they are being protected by a free press.

While this dark reality is something we write about often at Consortiumnews.com, it has become increasingly apparent to almost anyone who speaks out on important topics, such as demanding accountability from George W. Bush and other protected figures, as David Swanson notes in this guest essay:

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A Court Decision that Reflects What Type of Country the U.S. is

by Glenn Greenwald
Salon via ICH
November 4, 2009

Even when government officials purposely subject an innocent person to brutal torture, they enjoy full immunity.

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Supreme Court to Take Up PATRIOT Act with Review of Case on Humanitarian Assistance to Groups on Terror List

DemocracyNow!
October 1, 2009

In its first-ever review of the PATRIOT Act, the Supreme Court has announced it will decide the constitutionality of a controversial anti-terrorism law that makes it a crime to give any form of aid, including humanitarian assistance, to groups on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. The Supreme Court case centers on a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project. We speak to David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor and attorney in the case...

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Ask Your Representative to Support H. Res. 554

Read The Bill
September 23, 2009

At the end of the day it comes down to this: an informed citizenry is critical to a functioning democracy. The point isn't only whether legislators read every word, but whether all citizens - people like us - have an opportunity to review and comment on pending legislation before it has an impact on our lives.

We are going to make sure we have that chance.

There's no ifs, ands, or buts. Legislation should be online for everyone to read.

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“Good Billions After Bad”–One Year After Wall Street Bailout, Pulitzer Winners Barlett and Steele Investigate Where All the Money Went

DemocracyNow!
September 10, 2009

It’s been exactly one year since the onset of the financial crisis and the passage of the Bush administration’s $700 billion bailout of Wall Street. But what were the factors in deciding who received bailout funds? And what happened to all the money? The answer to those two simple questions is: We don’t know. In a new article in Vanity Fair, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative team Donald Barlett and James Steele try to find an answer. The problem is, they write, “once the money left the building, the government lost all track of it.”...

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High Court Weighs Rules On Campaign Finance

by Nina Totenberg
National Public Radio
September 9, 2009

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have returned early from their summer recess to hear arguments in a case that could rip apart the legal underpinnings of the nation's campaign finance laws. For more than a century, for all practical purposes, those laws have barred corporations from spending money on candidate elections.

Wednesday's argument is a double first: The first argument to be heard by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and the first time new U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan will argue a case before the Supreme Court.

The justices view the case as so important that they are hearing it three weeks before the official opening of the new term, and they have taken the unusual step of allowing same-day broadcast of the audio...

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