Tag Archives: service

Does the Heartbleed Bug Mean You Should Stay Off the Internet?

by DongTrouette Posted on April 9, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

On Tuesday, news broke that the safeguard many websites use to protect sensitive information on the internet has had a major security flaw for about two years. These sites use a security system called OpenSSL to encrypt data like content, passwords, and social security numbers. But thanks to a small coding error in a popular version of OpenSSL, nicknamed “Heartbleed,” hackers can potentially steal sensitive data from vulnerable websites. Richard Bejtlich, chief security strategist at FireEye, a network security company, notes that there’s no evidence that malicious hackers have exploited the flaw yet. But the secrecy-minded Tor Project, which enables anonymous Internet browsing, nevertheless recommended on Monday that, “If you need strong anonymity or privacy on the Internet, you might want to stay away from the Internet entirely for the next few days while things settle.” Here are seven reasons why you might want to stop looking at cat videos right now:

1. Lots of popular websites have the security problem.

According to the New York Times, up to two-thirds of sites on the Internet rely on OpenSSL. A user on Github, an open-source coding site, compiled a list of sites that were allegedly vulnerable after a test was conducted on Tuesday. The Github list included Yahoo, Flickr, OkCupid, and Eventbrite, among dozens of other companies. (Some may have since updated their security.) Facebook and Google both released statements confirming they are not affected by the flaw. If you’d like to test a specific site to see whether it’s could be exploited—although this doesn’t meant that it has—go here.

2. Your most sensitive personal information is at risk.

When websites use SSL, that’s a good thing. The security layer is deployed during sensitive transactions to protect data like bank details, social security numbers, and passwords. Runa Sandvik, a staff technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), says that she’s heard, “this is even worse than if SSL wasn’t used at all, because it’s used to protect sensitive information. A site that isn’t protected at all, you might not submit sensitive information there in the first place.” The good news is, some security researchers are reporting that hackers may not be able to get the private keys to an entire website’s content. The bad news is, the flaw is still “a great way to steal passwords from recent logins” according to researchers at Errata Security.

3. Canada is freaking out.

The Canada Revenue Agency announced on Wednesday that it is temporarily shutting down its online services as a result of the Heartbleed bug. The moves come mere weeks before Canadians are expected to file their taxes. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service said in a statement Wednesday that its website has not been affected by the bug.

4. Right now, hackers are racing to get at that information.

“With these things, you can practically hear the shotgun go off. We’re in a race now between the attackers and the defenders, to see how quickly attackers can build viable attacks, and how quickly the defenders can put out their defenses,” says Christopher Budd, a spokesperson for Trend Micro, a Japanese security software company. He notes that while exploiting the vulnerability right now is fairly difficult, as hackers share information, people could build tool kits and it will become significantly easier.

5. You won’t necessarily know if your information has been hacked.

“It’s a serious bug in that it doesn’t leave any trace,” David Chartier, chief executive at Codenomicon, told the New York Times. “Bad guys can access the memory on a machine and take encryption keys, usernames, passwords, valuable intellectual property, and there’s no trace they’ve been there.”

6. It won’t be easy for websites to fix the problem.

Budd says fixing the problem is “simple, but not easy.” While there is a fixed OpenSSL version that websites can download, it can take time to roll out the new program across a website’s entire infrastructure. Budd notes that companies will have to weigh the risk of an attack against the potential that the entire website might come crashing down if a new coding error is introduced. That might dissuade companies from acting quickly. Additionally, after a website installs the new “fix,” it needs to update its SSL certificate, a process that can take a little time. Jeremy Gillula, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, notes that even if a website has downloaded the fix, if it hasn’t updated its certificates, it “could still be subject to a man-in-the-middle-attack on its users.”

7. Changing your passwords right away isn’t necessarily going to help you.

After news of Heartbleed broke, you probably got a lot emails from people telling you to change your passwords. Not so fast, experts say. If you change your password prior to a site getting rid of the bad SSL, your new password could be just as vulnerable as your old one. Sandvik from CDT says, “I’m in the same situation as everyone else. I would look for statements issued by companies before logging in, and if there is no statement, contact them and ask them. Also test their website.” Budd advises, “This is one of those situations where the best thing people can do is stick to best practices, don’t panic, and wait to hear information from people to know what’s going on. If you get instructions, follow them.”

Or you know, go read a book.

Original link – 

Does the Heartbleed Bug Mean You Should Stay Off the Internet?

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Does the Heartbleed Bug Mean You Should Stay Off the Internet?

10 Things Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Protection Agency Has Done For You

by BraydenUqe Posted on March 14, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the watchdog agency conceived of and established by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the wake of the financial crisis, had a hard time getting on its feet. The GOP tried everything it could to hobble the bureau, but to no avail. Over the past couple of years, the CFPB has issued dozens of protections shielding consumers from shady practices by mortgage lenders, student loan servicers, and credit card companies. Here are ten things the CFPB, which was created in 2011, has done to protect the little guy:

1. Mortgage lenders can no longer push you into a high-priced loan: Until recently, lenders were allowed to direct borrowers toward high-interest loans, which are more profitable for lenders, even if they qualified for a lower-cost mortgage—a practice that helped lead to the financial crisis. In early 2013, the CFPB issued a rule that effectively ends this conflict of interest.

2. New homeowners are less likely to be hit by foreclosure: In the lead-up to the financial crisis, lenders also sold Americans “no doc” mortgages that didn’t require borrowers to provide proof of income, assets, or employment. Last May, the bureau clamped down on this type of irresponsible lending, forcing mortgage lenders to verify borrowers’ ability to repay.

3. If you are are delinquent on your mortgage payments, loan servicers have to try harder to help you avoid foreclosure: During the housing crisis, loan servicers—companies that collect payments from borrowers—were permitted to simultaneously offer a delinquent borrower options to avoid foreclosure while moving to complete that foreclosure. New CFPB rules force servicers to make a good faith effort to keep you out of foreclosure. That’s not all: Loan servicers will now face civil penalties if they don’t provide live customer service, maintain accurate mortgage records, and promptly inform borrowers whose loan modification applications are incomplete.

4. Millions of Americans get a low-cost home loan counselor: In Jan 2013, the CFPB required the vast majority of mortgage lenders to provide applicants with a list of free or low-cost housing counselors who can inform borrowers if they’re being ripped off.

5. Borrowers with high-cost mortgages get an outside eye: Lenders who sell mortgages with high interest rates are now required to have an outside appraiser determine the worth of the house for the borrower. If a borrower is going to be paying sky-high prices for a fixer-upper, at least she’ll know it beforehand.

6. Fly-by-night financial players will be held accountable: Part of the CFPB’s mandate is to oversee debt collectors, payday lenders, and other under–regulated financial institutions that profit off low-income Americans. The bureau is preparing new restrictions on debt collectors, and considering new regs on payday loan industry. In the meantime, the bureau is cracking down on bad actors individually.

7. Folks scammed by credit card companies get refunds: In October 2012, the CFPB ordered three American Express subsidiaries to pay 250,000 customers $85 billion for illegal practices including misleading credit card offerings, age discrimination, and excessive late fees. This past September, the CFPB ordered JPMorgan Chase to refund $309 million to more than 2.1 million Americans for charging them for identity theft and fraud monitoring services they didn’t ask for.

8. Student lenders face scrutiny: The CFPB oversees private student loan servicing at big banks to ensure compliance with fair lending laws. In December, the agency announced that it will also start supervising non-bank student loan servicers, which are companies that manage borrowers’ accounts. Many of these servicers have been accused of levying unfair penalty fees and making it hard for borrowers to negotiate an affordable repayment plan.

9. Service members get extra protection: In June, the CFPB ordered US Bank and its non-bank partner Dealers’ Financial Services to refund $6.5 million to service members for failing to disclose fees associated with a military auto loan program. In November, the CFPB ordered the payday lender Cash America to pay up to $14 million for illegally overcharging members of the military.

10. Consumers get a help center: If your bank or lender does anything you think is unfair, the bureau has a division dedicated to fielding consumer complaints. The agency promises to work with companies to try to fix consumers’ problems.

Excerpt from:

10 Things Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Protection Agency Has Done For You

Posted in Anchor, Anker, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 10 Things Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Protection Agency Has Done For You

In a Radical Shift, California Police Chiefs Push for Regulation of Medical Marijuana

by Georgeysm Posted on March 13, 2014

Mother Jones


Maps: Will Your State Be Next to Legalize Pot?


How Industrial Pot Growers Ravage the Land: A Google Earth Tour


The New Marijuana Service Industry


When Republicans Love Legalized Pot


How to Get a Pot Card (Without Really Trying)


The New Dealers


Welcome to the Amsterdam of the Rockies

California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, but like the pimply-faced stoner dude you may have known in high school, it hasn’t had the healthiest of relationships with Mary Jane. The Golden State differs from most others with medical pot laws in that it doesn’t actually regulate production and sale of the herb. Instead, it lets cities and counties enact their own laws—though in practice most haven’t. The result has been the Wild West of weed: Almost any adult can score a scrip and some bud from a local dispensary, assuming, of course, that it hasn’t yet been raided and shut down by the feds.

But all of that might be about to change. The California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA) recently announced support for a bill that would put the state in the business of regulating the medical pot trade. Though you’d think cops would have pushed for such a thing decades ago, the reality is quite the opposite: The CPCA and other law enforcement organizations have, until now, opposed pretty much every reform to California’s medical marijuana system for fear that anything short of completely abolishing it would legitimize it.

The CPCA’s change of heart “is a huge for us,” says Nate Bradley, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association, the state’s marijuana industry trade group. Bradley agrees with his police adversaries that tighter regs would legitimize medical marijuana, which is why the CCIA has pushed for them since the group’s inception four years ago. Bolstering his case, the US Department of Justice last year announced that it would no longer raid dispensaries in states that it believes are regulating them adequately—a formulation that seemed to exclude California. New rules issued last month by the Obama administration allow banks to accept funds from pot dealers, but only if they’re licensed in the state where they operate.

So why are California’s drug warriors reversing course? “We could no longer ignore that the political landscape on this issue was shifting,” the CPCA explained in a letter written jointly with the League of California Cities. Polls and changing federal policies suggest that medical pot reform “could be enacted,” and that “without our proactive intervention, it could take a form that was severely damaging to our interests.”

The bill that law enforcement groups are backing, SB 1262, is flawed, but it’s something that “we can work with,” says Bradley, who previously worked as a cop in California’s Yuba County. Advocates of medical pot don’t like how the bill constrains the ability of doctors to recommend marijuana, outlaws potent pot concentrates such as hash oil, and puts regulation in the hands of the Department of Public Health, rather than the Department of Alcoholic Beverages Control.

Continue Reading »

Source article:

In a Radical Shift, California Police Chiefs Push for Regulation of Medical Marijuana

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on In a Radical Shift, California Police Chiefs Push for Regulation of Medical Marijuana

How the Feds Are Ripping You Off To Benefit Big Coal

by BenitoStingley Posted on February 4, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Federal coffers are missing out on what could be billions of dollars in lost revenue due to shoddy accounting work by the office that handles leases for coal mines on public land, according to a report made public today by the investigative arm of Congress.

The Government Accountability Office was asked by Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a stalwart climate hawk, to look into whether the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management routinely sells leases to coal mining companies for far less than their market value. Investigators found that BLM agents in Wyoming (by far the country’s largest coal producer) set prices based on coal’s historic value, but, in contradiction of the department’s own rules, fail to take into account how much it will likely be worth in the future. Similar problems were found in other coal-producing states. As a result, the GAO report claims, many leases were sold far beneath their true market value, depriving taxpayers of additional royalties (which, as it stands, come to about $1 billion per year) that are normally skimmed from the mines’ profits.

“As a net result, the public is getting screwed,” said Tom Kenworthy, an energy analyst at the Center for American Progress who has kept tabs on Interior’s longstanding problems with coal lease valuation.

That the leases are selling for less than they’re worth seems clear; what’s less obvious is exactly how much money is at stake, since the values were never properly set in the first place (the GAO report doesn’t specify a number). A 2012 analysis of federal lease records by former New York State Deputy Comptroller Tom Sanzillo for the independent Institute for Energy Economics found that undervalued coal leases cost the Treasury $28.9 billion in lost revenue since 1983, or almost $1 billion every year. Meanwhile, analysis by Senator Markey’s office put the figure at $200 million, although a spokesperson would not specify the time period to which that applied, as the underlying data are considered proprietary to the Interior Department, he said.

Since 1990, the federal government has leased 107 parcels of public land for coal mining; these parcels typically account for 25-40 percent of the roughly one billion tons of coal produced annually nationwide. That adds up to a massive carbon footprint: Fossil fuels produced on public land create roughly a billion metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution every year, about as much as 285 coal plants.

Continue Reading »

Original article – 

How the Feds Are Ripping You Off To Benefit Big Coal

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on How the Feds Are Ripping You Off To Benefit Big Coal

One More Time: No, the Fort Lee Lane Closures Were Not Part of a Traffic Study

by ShadWeiland Posted on February 4, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

From Chris Christie’s radio interview about Bridgegate yesterday:

You still don’t know at this point whether there was a traffic study?

Well, what I’m saying, Eric, did this start as a traffic study that morphed into some political shenanigans, or did it start as political shenanigans that became a traffic study?

Oh come on. If this started as a legitimate traffic study, there would be two pieces of routine evidence for it. First, there would be some kind of planning document from the Port Authority engineering department. Second, there would be some kind of report on the results of the study. This is the absolute bare minimum that would accompany a genuine traffic study, especially one that involved a major lane closure.

If either of these documents exists, Christie would have produced it long ago. He hasn’t, and it’s simply not plausible for him to continue pretending that we don’t know if there was a real traffic study that prompted this affair. There wasn’t.

POSTSCRIPT: Robert Durando, general manager of the George Washington Bridge, has testified that data was collected during the days when the Fort Lee access lanes were closed. This is meaningless. It was tolls data, which is collected routinely every day. The fact that this is the only data that was collected is evidence against the the notion that there was a real traffic study being conducted, not evidence for it.

View original – 

One More Time: No, the Fort Lee Lane Closures Were Not Part of a Traffic Study

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on One More Time: No, the Fort Lee Lane Closures Were Not Part of a Traffic Study

For Republicans, Immigration Reform Is Unavoidable

by KaraRaineiguo Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Should Republicans support immigration reform this year? From a purely political perspective, there are good reasons not to:

It would anger the conservative base, which is dead set against any kind of comprehensive immigration reform that allows undocumented workers to stay in the country legally (i.e., a “path to citizenship” or a path to legal residence of some kind).
Even outside the tea party base, most Republicans oppose immigration reform.
It almost certainly wouldn’t help Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. It might even hurt them.

What about the other side? In my view, there’s really only one good reason for the Republican leadership to forge ahead despite all this:

In the long term, it would be good for the party. Opposition to immigration reform is a festering sore that prevents the GOP from appealing to the fast-growing Hispanic population, something that they’ll have to address eventually.

In the simplest sense, then, this is an issue of timing. At some point, Republicans will have to bite the bullet and do this. They just can’t keep losing the Hispanic vote 70-30 and expect to ever win the presidency again. It’s a simple question of brute numbers. The question is how long they can hold out.

My own guess is that now is just about as good as it’s going to get for Republicans. With a House majority, they have a fair amount of leverage to get the kind of bill they can live with. In fact, if they play their cards right, they might end up with a bill that fractures Democrats even more than Republicans. But what if they wait? Passing a bill is hopeless in 2015, with primary season for the presidential election so close. It’s possible that Republicans will be better off in 2017, but that’s a long shot. Democrats are certain to do well in that year’s Senate races, and are probably modest favorites to win the presidency again. Republicans would have less leverage than ever if that happens.

And even if the long shot pays off, what good would it do them? Immigration reform of the kind that would pass muster with the tea party base wouldn’t do the GOP any good. In fact, it would probably give Democrats an opening to get Hispanic voters even more riled up. What Republicans desperately need is a bill that (a) is liberal enough to satisfy the Hispanic community, but (b) can be blamed on Democrats and a few turncoat moderate Republicans in November.

I’m not optimistic about getting a decent bill passed this year, but what optimism I do have is based on this simple-minded analysis. If Republicans are smart, they’ll get this monkey off their backs now, when it won’t do them too much harm in the midterms but will give them time to start mending fences with Hispanics in time for 2016. Unfortunately, smart is in short supply these days.

See the original article here:

For Republicans, Immigration Reform Is Unavoidable

Posted in Citizen, FF, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on For Republicans, Immigration Reform Is Unavoidable

Report: Guards May Be Responsible for Half of All Prison Sexual Assaults

by CalebMcwhorter Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

This story first appeared on the ProPublica website.

A new Justice Department study shows that allegations of sex abuse in the nation’s prisons and jails are increasing–with correctional officers responsible for half of it–but prosecution is still extremely rare.

The report, released today by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, takes data collected by correctional administrators representing all of the nation’s federal and state prisons as well as many county jails. It shows that administrators logged more than 8,000 reports of abuse to their overseers each year between 2009 and 2011, up 11 percent from the department’s previous report, which covered 2007 and 2008.

It’s not clear whether the increase is the result of better reporting or represents an actual rise in the number of incidents.

Allen Beck, the Justice Department statistician who authored the reports, told ProPublica that abuse allegations might be increasing because of growing awareness of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act.

“It’s a matter of speculation, but certainly there’s been a considerable effort to inform staff about the dangers of sexual misconduct, so we could be seeing the impact of that,” said Beck.

The survey also shows a growing proportion of the allegations have been dismissed by prison officials as “unfounded” or “unsubstantiated.” Only about 10 percent are substantiated by an investigation.

But even in the rare cases where there is enough evidence to prove that sexual abuse occurred, and that a correctional officer is responsible for it, the perpetrator rarely faces prosecution. While most prison staff shown to be involved in sexual misconduct lost their jobs, fewer than half were referred for prosecution, and only 1 percent ultimately got convicted.

Continue Reading »

Read article here:  

Report: Guards May Be Responsible for Half of All Prison Sexual Assaults

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, ProPublica, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Report: Guards May Be Responsible for Half of All Prison Sexual Assaults

What Pete Seeger Taught Me About Activism

by LoisSteigrad Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

I was waiting for Pete Seeger along Route 9 in Wappingers Falls, an hour north of New York City, when he pulled up in the strip mall parking lot in his Toyota Highlander. It was 2008, and I was there ostensibly to write for the New York Times about Seeger’s weekly Saturday protests against the Iraq War, which he’d been attending for four years. But the secret reason I went was because I’d recently entered local politics, and had found change difficult to accomplish, and progress sluggish. I wanted to know how a man who’d been castigated, blacklisted, and even stoned (literally, by a mob in Peekskill, New York, in 1949) over five decades of political activism had kept the faith.

From his car trunk, Seeger pulled out his banjo and a few signs, including one on which he had spray-painted “Peace” in orange. As he walked to meet about a dozen other protesters, he bent like the handle of an old water pump to pick up a discarded Burger King coffee cup and a damp brown napkin.

“This is my religion now,” he said, stuffing the trash into his pockets. “You do a little bit wherever you are.”

After Seeger found his way to the other war protesters, they started chatting about the “Patriotism is Patriotic” placard displayed at a pro-war demonstration across the road. “I went over once,” Seeger told his fellows. He’d walked right across the road, where he’d told a man, “‘I’m glad we live in a country where we can disagree with each other without trying to shoot each other.’

“He had to shake my hand,” Seeger concluded. “He didn’t know what to say. I even picked up a little litter over there.”

The singer also told us about a teenager who sometimes attended the anti-war protest, and who was less diplomatic toward the opposition. “If somebody gives us the finger, he shouts, ‘Fuck you,'” Seeger said. “I try to persuade him: ‘You should say, “God bless you. That would confuse them. Blow them a kiss.”” Seeger’s own resistance didn’t wear a scowl, it wore a smile.

As Seeger stood there with his peace sign, I asked him how he overcame the molasses pace of change activists face, not to mention the inevitable setbacks. He responded by tilting his head back and breaking into one of his songs, “Take It From Dr. King,” written after the September 11 attacks.

“Don’t say it can’t be done,” Seeger sang, his Adam’s apple bouncing, hands slapping out the rhythm on his knees. “The battle’s just begun/Take it from Dr. King/You too can learn to sing/So drop the gun.” Then he told me that justice had gained ground during his lifetime, and that change often seemed impossible until it happened: Think about civil rights in this country, he said, or the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union without a fight.

Still, I asked him: “Do you think a dozen people protesting here really makes any difference?”

“I don’t think that big things are as effective as people think they are,” he said. “The last time there was an anti-war demonstration in New York City, I said, ‘Why not have a hundred little ones?'”

As part of the day’s protest, Seeger joined other musician-activists without his name recognition singing tunes such as “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” the spiritual used to give guidance to escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad, and “This Land is Your Land,” written by Seeger’s late friend, Woody Guthrie. At one point he stopped singing and crowed over the noise: “This song was never sold in stores. It’s one more example of a small thing that’s spread.”

He played these songs on the very same banjo he’d used to protest the Vietnam War. Around the instrument’s rim, in a rainbow of Magic Marker colors, he’d written: “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.”

A few hours later, he carried the banjo, like an old musket, back to his car. There, I asked him the most important question I’d brought along with me that day: Given the odds, the political landscape in America—an unnecessary war, growing inequality, a dysfunctional government—how did he manage to stave off bitterness?

“You have to keep your sense of humor,” he replied. “And you have to keep in mind the little victories. And you have to keep articles and share them.” Earlier in the day, he’d been handing out copies of a Philadelphia speech on race recently given by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. “If you write a good article, I’ll copy it,” he told me. “I’ll share it around.”

That made me laugh.

I returned home with a broader perspective, and I’ve tried to hold on to what I learned about activism that day: Be friendly to the opposition, engage locally, laugh, take inspiration from history, stay optimistic, stand with others, share good news, and be grateful for the little victories. It’s more than a prescription for survival while fighting for social change. It’s a prescription for happiness, even in hard times.

Credit: 

What Pete Seeger Taught Me About Activism

Posted in alo, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Pines, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on What Pete Seeger Taught Me About Activism

3 Badass Olympic Athletes Go for the Gold

by Cindy Holman Posted on February 1, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

As the world gears up for the Sochi Games, we reached out to these three amazing women to talk about everything from their first runs to high-speed crashes to race and gender politics. The opening ceremonies take place on Friday, February 7. Here’s the complete schedule of events.

Erich Schlegel/Zuma

Jazmine Fenlator, 28, bobsled

A lot of people think I’m on the Jamaican bobsled team. It’s a question every black bobsledder gets, even if you’re wearing a USA shirt. My dad used to love watching Cool Runnings with me. When I told him I got an invite to try out for the US bobsled team, his first words were: “Sanka! You dead, mon? Let me kiss your lucky egg!” Growing up biracial, I never really thought about things: I mean, you have some acceptance issues, but I grew up in a predominately white town. The side of my family I’m closest with is all white, so it’s not necessarily a topic of conversation. You get a lot of naive questions, but I welcome those. The more people I can teach and tell about bobsled, the more cheers we’ll have in Sochi. Not many people can relate to bobsled, and it’s hard to spectate. It’s a grueling, blue-collar sport. To support my bobsled habit, I’ve sometimes worked three jobs in the offseason. We do all the work on our sleds. We carry our sleds. There’s no caddy, there’s no pit crew. We handle all those things on top of trying to be the best athletes within our sport in the world.

Click here to read our extended interview with Fenlator. Women’s “bobsleigh” heats begin on February 18.

Erich Schlegel/Zuma

Katie Uhlaender, 29, skeleton

I always challenged men in foot races or whatever as a kid growing up, because it was a way of challenging myself—but you have to accept that men are born with testosterone. You can beat them for so long, but eventually they’re gonna catch up. There is a double standard: My father was a major league baseball player, and I grew up thinking I could have the same attitude on the field that he did. When I did that in real life, people thought I was a total bi-atch. Laughs. Women are held to a different standard, but there’s a reason. Because we are mothers, we have a different role in society. There are certain benefits we get being women—and we deserve them! But don’t take advantage of them. You have to walk the line and show that you have self-worth. If you lose yourself, then no one’s going to respect you. Miley Cyrus, the girl crossed the line! You can be sexy without licking a hammer.

Click here to read our extended interview with Uhlaender. Women’s skeleton commences on February 13.

Mitchell Haaseth/NBC

Maddie Bowman, 20, halfpipe freeskiing

Some people don’t understand that you can ski in the halfpipe. They think it’s cool and kinda crazy. It’s like a polar bear-grizzly bear mix—a pizzly. It’s a new species and it’s super badass! I was a racer before, but it felt a little too serious. My parents were a little resistant, but then they skied with us and realized we think about things before we jump off of stuff. They definitely get nervous. You can’t have my mom video a run at all because it’s so shaky—she always misses it! The first time I ever did a “left nine”—it’s two and a half spins, and I’m spinning down the wall, rotating to the left—I was so excited I completely forgot the rest of my run; I just sort of made it up. Most skiers, we can think pretty quickly on our feet—or off our feet if we’re falling. We like to push the limits, but when the limits push back, it’s always a rude awakening. Concussions and injuries are something everyone worries about. But you can’t be out there worrying about getting hurt, or else you’re more likely to get hurt. If I got hurt, knock on wood, I don’t know what I would do. Maybe I’d actually be a real college student.

Click here to read more about Bowman. The women’s halfpipe competition is on February 20.

View original article:

3 Badass Olympic Athletes Go for the Gold

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Oster, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 3 Badass Olympic Athletes Go for the Gold

The Noose Tightens Yet Again Around Chris Christie

by Ludie69E Posted on January 31, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

David Wildstein, the executive who was said to be Chris Christie’s “eyes and ears” at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is deeply implicated in last year’s scheme to close the Fort Lee lanes of the George Washington Bridge in order to conduct a “traffic study.” He has since resigned, and the Port Authority is refusing to pay his legal bills. Apparently this has pissed him off. Today he sent a letter asking them to change their mind, which included this lovely little nugget:

Even if it’s only a threat, Wildstein can hardly refuse to provide this evidence now that he’s publicly said it exists. That just can’t be good news for Christie.

Originally posted here: 

The Noose Tightens Yet Again Around Chris Christie

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Noose Tightens Yet Again Around Chris Christie