the SGNews news blog

The SGNews Blog is a frequently-updated list of Canadian and international news links of interest to progressive readers.

Sep 192012
 

Rich are waging war against the have-nots.

New York Times Editorial

It turns out that Mitt Romney was right. There is class warfare being waged in the 2012 campaign. It is Mr. Romney who is waging it, not President Obama, and he’s stood the whole idea on its head.

When you think of class warfare, you probably think of inciting anger, resentment and jealousy among the have-nots against the haves. That’s what Mr. Romney has accused Mr. Obama of doing, but those charges have always been false. The truth is that Mr. Romney has been trying to incite the anger of a small slice of the richest Americans who need no government assistance but get it anyway, against the working poor, older Americans, the disabled workers and veterans, and even a significant chunk of middle-class Americans.

That was the message of remarks that Mr. Romney made in May at a private fund-raiser held at a private equity manager’s estate in Florida, a moment when he thought he was safe from annoying reporters and cameramen, and other Americans who are not rich enough to have bought a ticket to the event…

Mitt Romney, class warrior

Sep 192012
 

From The Nation

 

Marijuana legalization would harm kids, says Smart Colorado, a group advertising stock images of children along with messages asking for voters to reject Amendment 64, a ballot initiative this year to legalize and tax pot.

Smart Colorado, led former Republican senate candidate Ken Buck and a team of Republican lobbyists and campaign operatives, hopes to drive down the popularity of Amendment 64 before Election Day. The supposedly family-friendly group, however, relies heavily on funds from a pair of controversial Republican fundraisers who once led a drug rehab center shut down over wide-ranging child abuse scandals.

 

Full article…

Sep 172012
 

From The Independent

 

This analysis offers an anaysis of classic "blowback:"

 

…"But we have an expression in Syria: 'If you feed a scorpion, it will bite you'." His message couldn't have been clearer.

The United States supported the opposition against Libya's Colonel Gaddafi, helped Saudi Arabia and Qatar pour cash and weapons to the militias and had now reaped the whirlwind. America's Libyan "friends" had turned against them, murdered US ambassador Stevens and his colleagues in Benghazi and started an al-Qa'ida-led, anti-American protest movement that had consumed the Muslim world…

Full story:..

Sep 122012
 
from The Network
 
OTTAWA, September 12, 2012 — ­ Every six days in Canada, a woman is murdered by her spouse. That’s the sort of sobering statistic shelter workers across Canada know all too well. In a first for Canada, they will convene later this week as a pan-Canadian Network.
 
An expected 250 will attend the National Leadership Forum from 17-19 September at the Delta Montreal, with hundreds more participating in Forum discussions through social media.
 

Continue reading »

Sep 102012
 

From New York Review of Books

 

In my judgment the best course of action is to persuade Germany to choose between becoming a more benevolent hegemon or leaving the euro. In other words, Germany must lead or leave….

 

More…

Sep 092012
 

With no rebound in sight, there’s never been a slump like this

A trillion dollars has gone missing in the United States.

That enormous sum is the difference between the Bank of Canada’s current estimate of how big U.S. gross domestic product will be in 2015 and what the central bank projected four years ago, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. brought the world economy to its knees in September, 2008.

“Even in this room, that’s a big number,” Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney quipped in front of a high-powered audience in Calgary on Friday.

The U.S. recession technically ended in June, 2009. But the prosperity of the previous decade and a half has not returned, as anemic growth fails to achieve what economists call “escape velocity.”…

With no rebound in sight, there's never been a slump like this

Sep 072012
 

Tweeps are turning against the Romney campaign's #areyoubetteroff hashtag by a ratio of 5-to-1

by  Russell Brandom BuzzFeed Staff

After betting big on Twitter ads, the Romney campaign just saw their first sponsored hashtag go wrong. After promoting #AreYouBetterOff to the top of Twitter's list of trending hashtags as a criticism of President Obama's economic policies, a surprising number of tweets came in saying, Yes, they are better off.

But exactly how many tweets were defending President Obama? By our calculations, it's a Mockery Ratio of nearly 5:1….

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tommywilhelm/how-romney-learned-the-hard-truth-about-promoted-h