note-worthy news this week
Good news for capitalists! Because of the public's growing sense of disgust with the govt, and the resulting increase in political activism, lobbyists are expecting a windfall in 2009. Also, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by the end of the year, more than $100 billion of your tax dollars will have been fed back into the the economy via private contractors in Iraq. This is a far greater proportion than in any previous conflict, with contractors now employing more people in Iraq than the U.S. military.
For those of you wondering why the (formerly) booming economy didn't have a greater impact on reducing government debt, look to the source. Corporations have to keep their profits in order for trickle-down to work, don't you know, which is why the Government Accountability Office found a majority of corporations pay ZERO income taxes.
It looks like the lame-duck administration isn't quite ready to give up its fight against the environment after all. They've again proposed gutting the Endangered Species Act, this time to allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether their projects would endanger protected species rather than relying on the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades. The revisions also would bar federal agencies from assessing greenhouse gas emissions or their effect on species and habitats. The best part is that these proposed revisions were kept hush-hush until the National Wildlife Federation got a hold of some leaked documents outlining the plan.
And because I always seem to concern myself with things of no concern to me: The UK has an organization called the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) which awards crime victims money for their suffering. Putting aside questions of how I feel about that, I find my self questioning my ambiguous feelings about the woman who recently won a lawsuit claiming discrimination after her rape compensation was reduced because she was drunk at the time her drink was spiked. On one hand, it does seem like punishing the victim to give them disproportionate compensation because of other lifestyle choices, but on the other hand, people have been known to do some reckless things in pursuit of money, and I imagine that office would be a ripe berry to pluck for some women. A tempting topic for debate, but alas I have no time these days...
For those of you wondering why the (formerly) booming economy didn't have a greater impact on reducing government debt, look to the source. Corporations have to keep their profits in order for trickle-down to work, don't you know, which is why the Government Accountability Office found a majority of corporations pay ZERO income taxes.
It looks like the lame-duck administration isn't quite ready to give up its fight against the environment after all. They've again proposed gutting the Endangered Species Act, this time to allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether their projects would endanger protected species rather than relying on the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades. The revisions also would bar federal agencies from assessing greenhouse gas emissions or their effect on species and habitats. The best part is that these proposed revisions were kept hush-hush until the National Wildlife Federation got a hold of some leaked documents outlining the plan.
And because I always seem to concern myself with things of no concern to me: The UK has an organization called the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) which awards crime victims money for their suffering. Putting aside questions of how I feel about that, I find my self questioning my ambiguous feelings about the woman who recently won a lawsuit claiming discrimination after her rape compensation was reduced because she was drunk at the time her drink was spiked. On one hand, it does seem like punishing the victim to give them disproportionate compensation because of other lifestyle choices, but on the other hand, people have been known to do some reckless things in pursuit of money, and I imagine that office would be a ripe berry to pluck for some women. A tempting topic for debate, but alas I have no time these days...