If you are unable to view this email message or are using a mobile device click here to view in your web browser. To ensure that you will continue to receive our messages, please add i...@nationofchange.org to your address books. ยป Do you have friends that would like this? Click here to share this edition with your contacts! Friday, 20 January 2012 Christopher Petrella | Death, Taxes, and Alcatraz Christopher Petrella, Op-Ed: ?Please allow me to introduce some figures that I believe will convincingly demonstrate the scope and depth of our predicament. Although the United States represents less than 5% of the world?s population, we harbor over 25% of those incarcerated. In fact, we?ve incarcerated more people in absolute terms than China, whose population is four times the larger. Despite these sobering figures, few thinkers, however?even those of avowedly ?progressive? persuasion? have sharply critiqued the well-worn diptych of ?crime and punishment.?? READ | DISCUSS | SHARE NationofChange Speaks with Craig from Occupy San Francisco Video Interview: On December 28th NationofChange spoke with Craig from Occupy San Francisco about the January 20th protests inside the financial district of San Fransisco. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Tensions With Iran Taylor Luca, News Report: Wednesday, January 11th, 2012, during the morning rush hour in northern Tehran, nuclear scientist Mostaf Ahmadi-Roshan was assassinated. It is said by Iranian officials that two men on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of 32-year-old nuclear scientist, Ahmadi-Roshan, killing him and his bodyguard. Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was a chemistry expert who worked as a director of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant which is suspected to play a key role in Iran?s nuclear arms program. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE How the Pipeline Died - And How to Bury It For Good Jamie Henn, Op-Ed: ?The fight against Keystone XL has its roots in the resistance to the Canadian tar sands led in large part by indigenous communities in Alberta and across western Canada. As news about the dangers of the pipeline spread along its proposed route, ranchers and farmers in states like Nebraska and Texas joined in the fight. National environmental groups and some progressive unions stepped in with additional resources to help the effort.? READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Could SOPA and PIPA Interfere with State Dept.?s Global Internet Freedom Agenda? Corbin Hiar, News Report: Two Internet anti-piracy bills working their way through Congress that are heavily backed by the movie industry could have significant impacts on technology companies, a threat highlighted Wednesday by Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing and other sites that went offline for the day in protest. As a result, some reporters have characterized the standoff over the House?s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate?s Protect Intellectual Property Act ? SOPA and PIPA for short ? as a fight between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Bad Bankers, Bad Fraud Deals, And The President?s ?Great Gatsby? Problem Richard (RJ) Eskow, Op-Ed: "Investigate the Banks!" Today a coalition of progressive groups handed in a petition with more than 360,000 signatures that demanded exactly that. It calls on the Obama administration to stop pushing a cushy fraud settlement for bankers, to pursue a fair deal for shafted homeowners, and to let criminal investigations against Wall Street crooks proceed. Yet White House officials are still aggressively pushing the very same cushy deal on foreclosure fraud that inspired the petition. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE How Payday Lenders Make Billions By Fleecing Americans In Poverty Tanya Somanader, News Report: ?As a growing number of Americans slip out of the middle-class into economic insecurity, they are increasingly vulnerable to predatory lending schemes like the payday loan. Each year, about 12 million Americans incur long-term debt by taking out a short-term loan that?s intended to cover a borrowers? expenses until they receive their next paycheck. Payday lending takes ?unfair advantage of lower-income borrowers,? with most taking out nine repeat loans per year with an interest rate as high as 400 percent.? READ | DISCUSS | SHARE NationofChange Interviews Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Video Interview: On January 17th 2012, NationofChange interviewed Green Party Presidential Candidate Dr. Jill Stein at Occupy Congress in Washington DC. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Robert Reich | Amend 2012 Robert Reich, Video Presentation: Thanks to the Supreme Court and Citizens United, the same big corporations and billionaires that destroyed our economy and caused millions of us to lose our jobs and homes, are spending obscene amounts to drown out our voices in elections and take over our government. But together, "We the People" can set things right. Stand with Robert Reich and join the movement for a constitutional amendment today. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE How to Change a System: Occupy and the Question of Non-Violence Audio Report: The Occupy movement has changed the way Americans view political activism. And there?s a raging debate over what tactics should be used. How is social change achieved, and does violence have a role to play? READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Our Selective Definition of Bigotry David Sirota, Op-Ed: ?One camp cites Paul?s hate-filled newsletters and his libertarian opposition to civil rights regulations as evidence that he aligns with racists... The other camp tends to acknowledge those ugly truths about Paul but then points out that the Texas congressman has been one of the only politicians 1) fighting surveillance, indefinite detention and due-process-free assassination policies almost exclusively aimed at minorities; 2) opposing wars that often seem motivated by rank Islamophobia; and 3) railing against the bigotry of a drug war that disproportionately targets people of color.? READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Deutsche Analyst Sounded Alarm When Asked to Alter Numbers Carrick Mollenkamp, News Report: The request came at a crucial moment. In the last months of 2007, investors had grown skittish about such investments amid signs that the housing bubble was deflating, if not bursting. Up and down Wall Street, banks were trying to persuade ratings agencies that large portions of their mortgage-backed securities merited the coveted AAA stamp, meaning that they posed negligible risks of default. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Day 124: Live Coverage of the Occupy Movement Special Coverage: As we enter Day 124 of the Occupy movements the protests have spread not only across the country but all over the globe. Thousands of activists have descended on Wall Street these past weeks as part of the #OccupyWallStreet protest organized by several action groups. What follows is a live video stream and live Twitter feed of this event. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Kucinich Announces Constitutional Amendment to Publicly Finance Federal Elections Dennis Kucinich, Op-Ed: On the eve of the second anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling known as Citizens United, which opened the floodgate of unlimited, shadowy corporate spending in public elections, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced H. J. Res. 100, a constitutional amendment to rescue American democracy from corporate money?s corrupting influence. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Iraq?s Maliki Accused of Detaining Hundreds of Political Opponents Laith Hammoudi, Roy Gutman and Sahar Issa, News Report: Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki?s security services have locked up more than 1,000 members of other political parties over the past several months, detaining many of them in secret locations with no access to legal counsel and using ?brutal torture? to extract confessions, his chief political rival has charged. Ayad Allawi, the secular Shiite Muslim leader of the mainly Sunni Muslim Iraqiya bloc in parliament, who served as prime minister of the first Iraqi government after the Americans toppled Saddam Hussein, has laid out his allegations in written submissions to Iraq?s supreme judicial council. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE Where Are the Republican Populists? E.J. Dionne Jr., Op-Ed: Members of the Tea Party insisted they were turning the GOP into a populist, anti-establishment bastion. Social conservatives have long argued that values and morals matter more than money. Yet in the end, the corporate and economically conservative wing of the Republican Party always seems to win. Thus was Mitt Romney so confident of victory in Saturday?s South Carolina primary that he left the state briefly on Tuesday for a fundraiser in New York. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE FROM AROUND THE WEB Afghanistan War France Suspends Afghan Troop Training The suspension comes after a shooting performed by an Afghan army soldier left four French servicemen dead. Conflict in Afghanistan 10 NATO Troops Lost Lives in Afghanistan In a deadly 24 hours, 10 NATO troops were killed in Afghanistan. Bain Capital Donations Bain Donated More Money to Democrats Than Republicans Bain Capital employees have given Democratic candidates and party committees more than $1.2 million SOPA/PIPA Congress Delays Judgment on SOPA and PIPA On Friday, lawmakers indefinitely postponed anti-piracy legislation. NationofChange is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please let us know. 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