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By Morris Dickstein
$19.77
Sam Harris
$19.74
$18
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Pro-Choice Public Education Project / Creative Commons
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To the ire of anti-abortion supporters, a temporary restraining order has been extended on an Oklahoma law requiring doctors to report the personal information of women seeking abortions to a Web site.
Posted on Dec 19, 2009
14 COMMENTS 
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Flickr / S. Lo
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The northeast Spanish province of Catalonia has made the first step toward banning the practice of bullfighting, a cultural phenomenon but also a sizable thorn in the side of animal rights activists.
Posted on Dec 19, 2009
2 COMMENTS
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Flickr / laura padgett
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If it wasn’t crystal clear before that Senate Republicans will stop at nothing to make sure their Democratic rivals don’t pass a health care reform bill by Christmas, or anytime, it should be now. On Friday, GOP senators attempted, unsuccessfully, to filibuster a huge military spending bill that needed to be passed before midnight ... (continued)
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
9 COMMENTS
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bennelson.senate.gov
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It could be a long and snowy weekend on Capitol Hill for our sparring U.S. senators, who were busy antagonizing each other and making various accusations and threats Friday as they wrestled over the health care bill. The Democrats’ lone holdout, Sen. Ben Nelson, was the subject of a woo-in conducted by his peers ... (continued)
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
1 COMMENT
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AP / Shakil Adil
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Pakistan’s Supreme Court dealt a blow to many in the country’s ruling elite Friday by reopening corruption cases against “thousands of politicians,” according to The New York Times, and calling for dozens of those officials to appear before the courts. Included on the list was President Asif Ali Zardari, but his position grants him immunity against prosecution.
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
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problembear.wordpress.com
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The world leaders who showed up for the final stretch of the Copenhagen climate summit, perhaps assuming that their lesser representatives would have paved the way for a relatively easy finale, were in for some long hours and tough talks lasting into the night. Things didn’t go as planned, it seems, and rifts between countries weren’t being resolved in time Friday to strike the deals they sorely needed to make. Updated
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
13 COMMENTS
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Wikimedia Commons / Open Clip Art Library
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Portugal is likely to become the sixth European nation—after Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands—to legalize gay marriage. The Portuguese government has proposed to change the country’s official definition of marriage to include same-sex unions.
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
2 COMMENTS
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Wikimedia Commons
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You know things are bad when your national soccer team flees the country. That’s what happened to Eritrea, whose national team absconded while in Kenya for a regional soccer tournament. The athletes later reappeared in the capital city of Nairobi, seeking asylum.
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
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Flickr / Mohammed Aliwi
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Iranian troops have again entered Iraqi territory, though in a disputed border section, and taken control of an oil well in the al-Fakkah field, about 200 miles from Baghdad.
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
5 COMMENTS
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Flickr / Tanya N
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Even after the hoopla of President Barack Obama’s executive order barring torture, evidence is surfacing that CIA agents are cooperating with, and potentially supervising, Palestinian security agents who are detaining and allegedly torturing Hamas supporters in the West Bank.
Posted on Dec 18, 2009
2 COMMENTS
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Federal Reserve
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It’s been a good week for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. First came the news that he’d been chosen to be Time magazine’s Person of the Year, and then, on Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee voted to approve his nomination to lead the Fed for another four years.
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
7 COMMENTS
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Oh what to make of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s dark influence on health care reform? Should it be passed or torpedoed for the greater good? And what about sexting? Hey, there’s more to life than health care. And it’s all here, in today’s list.
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
1 COMMENT
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youtube.com
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This doesn’t bode well for next year, but it looks as if leaning ever to the right helped Fox News in 2009. The cable news channel, home to a host of conservative pundits (Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc.) pulled in its highest ratings ever, which was definitely not the case for CNN and MSNBC.
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
17 COMMENTS
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Wikimedia Commons / Jonathunder
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Perhaps reflecting a frustration among Democrats over Joe Lieberman’s role in shaping the Senate’s health care proposal, Sen. Al Franken nipped in the bud the Connecticut senator’s discussion of amendments to the bill Thursday. Updated: Now with video!
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
8 COMMENTS
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Original: U.S. Air Force / Master Sgt. Scott Reed
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The $4.5 million Predator unmanned aerial vehicle and its at least $10 million successor are considered the future of America’s Air Force and a big part of the president’s escalation in Afghanistan. Insurgents in Iraq (and probably Afghanistan) were able to track the planes and intercept video feeds using $26 software available on the Internet. (continued)
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
12 COMMENTS
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AP / Muhammed Muheisen
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Mahmoud Abbas, who was to leave office in a month, will remain the Palestinian president. The Palestinian Liberation Organization indefinitely extended his term to avoid a constitutional crisis after elections planned for late January were delayed.
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
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Wikimedia Commons
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Despite profound ideological differences and a long history of fighting between the groups, the two largest Colombian guerrilla armies, the ELN and the FARC, have forged a pact to fight the country’s security forces.
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
1 COMMENT
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AP / Anja Niedringhaus
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In a move to ostensibly “save” the United Nations’ climate talks in Copenhagen, the U.S. has pledged to support a $100 billion multilateral fund to help poor countries adapt to climate change and develop environmentally friendly technologies.
Posted on Dec 17, 2009
2 COMMENTS
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Wikimedia Commons / Webridge
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Scientists are now able to map the complete genetic codes of lung and skin cancer, and now an international effort is in motion to do the same for more varieties, including breast, stomach, liver, brain, mouth and pancreatic cancer.
Posted on Dec 16, 2009
3 COMMENTS
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usafa.af.mil
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“God Is Not Great” author Christopher Hitchens got a feel for the evangelical climate at the Air Force Academy in May and came away with some troubling questions. In a column headlined “In Defense of Foxhole Atheists,” he asks: “Is there a clique within the United States military that is seeking to use the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an opportunity to mount a new crusade and to Christianize the ‘heathen’?”
Posted on Dec 16, 2009
21 COMMENTS
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AP / Mark Lennihan
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Was there ever a time when Goldman Sachs was more, um, ethical and client-centric than greedy and profit-driven, as its reputation now suggests? That’s debatable, but whatever its previous corporate ethos might have been, all signs point to Goldman’s current chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, as the major driving force behind the firm’s push for building bigger profits quicker these days.
Posted on Dec 16, 2009
1 COMMENT
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Flickr / Liberal Democrats
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Now that health care reform has been tailored to the demands of Sen. Joe Lieberman, there’s real debate among progressives about whether it’s worth doing at all. Howard Dean writes: “Any measure that expands private insurers’ monopoly over health care and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real health-care reform.” (continued)
Posted on Dec 16, 2009
14 COMMENTS
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apple.com/iphone
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The iPhone is getting outfitted for battle. Raytheon, that clever military contractor, has developed an iPhone application called the One Force Tracker that helps soldiers track each other and their enemies, orient themselves and communicate using an interface similar to Facebook.
Posted on Dec 16, 2009
1 COMMENT
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abcnews.go.com
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President Barack Obama’s hope of getting new health care legislation passed by Christmas may not be realized, especially if Senate Republicans, who seem intent on using whatever strategies they can to delay the vote until next year, have anything to do with it. That’s not to say all Democrats are particularly thrilled with the way it’s shaping up either.
Posted on Dec 16, 2009
3 COMMENTS
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Las Vegas is out to ruin the sanctity of prostitution, and the Joe Lieberman-shaped health care bill violates the Hippocratic oath to do no harm. These arguments and more in today’s list.
Posted on Dec 16, 2009
1 COMMENT
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