Progressive Review

• Morning Line: Three decidedly different controversies mushed into one
  Sam Smith: If you feel confused about the real story in the hat trick of controversies overwhelming the media these days, don't feel bad. There are an extraordinary number of officials manipulating these tales for their own use, with the help of an extraordinarily manipulated media. In happier times, the media would have seen its job as coming up with t […]
• Rebuilding America: A movement, not a campaign
  Sam Smith - In 1997, WW Norton published my book the Great American Repair Manual, a title that, sixteen years later, seems overly optimistic. Repair is no longer enough. Today, America needs to be rebuilt. Here is the first in a series of ways we could go about it, based in part on a remix of earlier writings. A movement is not like a campaign. No one gets […]
• US arrests about 400,000 immigrants a year
  TRAC - On a typical work day Immigration and Customs Enforcement took 1,509 individuals into custody, according to the latest available ICE data from November and December 2012. If activity continues at this pace, ICE will detain around 400,000 individuals during the current fiscal year.      Seven out of every ten individuals were originally detained in sta […]
• Cleveland hostage house visited by officials & meter readers 120 times
  WKYC - Police and the county sheriff visited Ariel Castro's Seymour Avenue home five times in the 10 years that Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight were held hostage.Dominion East Ohio Gas installed automated meters between 2007 and last year, during the time the women were held captive.Photos:Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight fo […]
• Poor now predominantly in the suburbs
  The Review has argued for years that pro-gentrification policies would push the poor into the suburbs where they would find it hard to find jobs, transportation and social services. It seems to have happened big time.  LA Times -  More poor people now live in the nation's suburbs than in urban areas, according to a new analysis.As poverty mounted throug […]
• From our overstocked archives: Notice
  Progressive Review, 2000 - The Review intends to resist as long as possible the unruly and repugnant trend towards Germanization and cyberization of the English language. If for no other reason than it makes spell-checking more tedious, TPR will continue to frown upon compound words and excessive capitalization (especially in the middle of words). TPR believ […]
• Seattle teachers, students win major battle against test tyrants
  Democracy Now -  After months of protest, teachers, students and parents in Seattle, Washington, have won their campaign to reject standardized tests in reading and math. In January, teachers at Garfield High School began a boycott of the test, saying it was wasteful and being used unfairly to assess their performance. The boycott spread to other schools, wi […]
• Hollywood corporations try to censor Pirate Bay documentary
  Torrent Freak - After years of anticipation, The Pirate Bay documentary TPB-AFK was finally released to the public in February. It is no secret that Hollywood is trying to take down as many pirated movies as they can, but their targeting of a Creative Commons Pirate Bay documentary is something new. Viacom, Paramount, Fox and Lionsgate have all asked Google […]
• On the other hand. . .
  Quotes I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" […]
• China running out of water
  Financial Times - In the face of China's rapid economic expansion and growing presence on the global stage, it is often forgotten that the country is running out of water. In per capita terms, China's water resources are just a quarter of the world average. Eight of China's 28 provinces are as parched as countries in the Middle East such as Jo […]
• Angus King challenges Obama's endless war
  Truth Dig - Pentagon officials said during a Senate hearing on Authorization for the Use of Military Force, enacted by Congress in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, that the global war on terror could last up to 20 more years, and that its legal mandate gives the president the power to wage war anywhere on the globe for as long as he deems necessary.Sen. Angus Ki […]
• A journalism professor explains why a shield law is dangerous
  Christopher B. Daley - A shield law for reporters? Thanks, but no thanks!First, the Obama administration antagonized the news media by seizing the phone records of The Associated Press. Now, in an effort to make up, the president has thrown his support behind a Senate bill that would create a federal “shield law” that would allow journalists to legally prote […]
• Texas joins four other states in suing BP, Hallburton over oil spill
  Al Jazeera -  Texas has joined the crowd of Gulf of Mexico states to file suit against BP Plc, Halliburton Co and others for their role in one of the worst oil spills in US history.The complaint, filed on Friday in US District Court in Beaumont, Texas, alleges that the companies and others "engaged in wilful and wanton misconduct" for their role in […]
• Obama regime considers war on terror endless
  Glenn Greenwald, Guardian, UK - That the Obama administration is now repeatedly declaring that the "war on terror" will last at least another decade (or two) is vastly more significant than all three of this week's big media controversies (Benghazi, IRS, and AP/DOJ) combined. The military historian Andrew Bacevich has spent years warning that […]
• Update on the Supreme Court assault on individual rights you may have forgotten about
  Hit & Run  - In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed New London officials to seize an entire neighborhood via eminent domain on the basis that the city had a "carefully considered" plan to boost economic development.After the initial plan—a corporate campus with hotels, condos, and office space—fell apart, officials selected a new developer to […]