Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist

Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Journalist @baltimoresun writer artist runner #amwriting Md Troopers Assoc #20 & Westminster Md Fire Dept Chaplain PIO #partylikeajournalist
Showing posts with label Media Truthout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media Truthout. Show all posts

Friday, March 09, 2012

The Peace Movement Needs Kucinich, With or Without Congress and more from TruthOut



Thursday 08 March 2012
Public-Sector Banks: From Black Sheep to Global Leaders
Ellen Brown, Truthout: "Public-sector banking is a concept that is relatively unknown in the United States. Only one state - North Dakota - owns its own bank. North Dakota is also the only state to escape the credit crisis of 2008, and has sported a budget surplus every year since, but skeptics write this off to coincidence or other factors. The common perception is that government bureaucrats are bad business people. To determine whether government-owned banks are assets or liabilities, then, we need to look farther afield." 
Read the Article 

On International Women's Day, Celebrate Feminist Victories of 2011
Christine Ahn, Women's Media Center: "On International Women's Day, we have a lot to celebrate. Rarely are feminist victories recognized by the mainstream media, or even for that matter, by our very own women's movements. So the Global Fund for Women decided it was time to honor some significant wins that women's groups have achieved around the world, from the courtroom to the court of public opinion. In the past year, women's organizing has led to significant progress in securing bodily rights, delivering justice to rape survivors, cementing gender equality into law, and ending violence." 
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Wisconsin Judge Halts "Extremely Broad and Largely Needless" Voter ID Law
Brendan Fischer, PRWatch: "A Wisconsin judge has issued a temporary injunction against Wisconsin's new voter ID law, calling it 'the single most restrictive voter eligibility law in the United States.' Wisconsin's voter ID law, like many others introduced in 2011 and 2012, is based on an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model bill." 
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The Peace Movement Needs Kucinich, With or Without Congress
David Swanson, War Is a Crime: "If Congressman Dennis Kucinich becomes simply Dennis Kucinich sans the 'Congressman' his value to the peace movement need not diminish. I admit it's been nice having someone in Congress who would say and do what he would. There have been and remain other relatively strong voices for peace, but none as strong as Kucinich's. His resolutions have forced the debates. His bills have changed the conversation. His questioning of witnesses has afflicted the comfortable while seeking to comfort the afflicted. Perhaps Congressman Norman Solomon will pick up the baton. Time will tell." 
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Chicago Kicks Out G8, Prepares for NATO
Rosa Trakhtensky and Nick Burt, Occupied Chicago Tribune: "It's not you, it's me, said the White House in announcing their plan to move May's G8 summit from Chicago to Camp David. They needed their space, they explained, 'to facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners.' But in reality, we all knew: It was us." 
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Bill Quigley | Occupying Corporations: How to Cut Corporate Power
Bill Quigley, Truthout: "Corporations are obviously not people. But Romney is correct in the sense that corporations have hijacked most of the rights of people while evading the responsibilities. An important part of the social justice agenda is democratizing corporations. This means we must radically change the laws so people can be in charge of corporations. We must strip them of corporate personhood and cut them down to size so democracy can work. People are taking action so democracy can regulate the size, scope and actions of corporations." 
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Number of US Hate Groups Is Rising, Report Says
Kim Severson, The New York Times News Service: "Fed by antagonism toward President Obama, resentment toward changing racial demographics and the economic rift between rich and poor, the number of so-called hate groups and antigovernment organizations in the nation has continued to grow, according to a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The center, which has kept track of such groups for 30 years, recorded 1,018 hate groups operating last year." 
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Jim Hightower | Remembering the Lyrical Populism of Woody Guthrie
Jim Hightower, Truthout: "Where's Woody when we need him? In these times of tinkle-down economics - with the money powers thinking that they're the top dogs and that the rest of us are just a bunch of fire hydrants - we need for the hard-hitting (yet uplifting) musical stories, social commentaries and inspired lyrical populism of Woody Guthrie." 
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Scott Walker Turns to Millionaires to Defeat the Recall, and More
In today's On the News segment: A new SuperPAC sprung up in the Badger State this week calling itself the "Defeat the Recall" campaign; killing off the EPA means killing American jobs; Obama is taking a tougher stance against the oil barons; Wall Street's favorite, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, has opened up a sizable lead against middle-class champion Elizabeth Warren; and more. 
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript 

Not Even a Fig Leaf: The Blatant Self-Dealing of Chairman McKeon
Dina Rasor, Truthout: "In past years, it has not been surprising that the chairmen of the House of Representatives of the Armed Services Committee have taken many large campaign contributions from defense contractors. It has happened through many sessions of Congress and included both Republican and Democratic chairmen. So, an article on the current chairman of the Armed Services Committee taking campaign contributions from defense contractors would seem to be an obvious and redundant read. However, Chairman Howard 'Buck' McKeon (R-California) has taken self-dealing to new heights and is having those same contractors contribute to his wife's campaign for the California legislature." 
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Coming to a Bankster's Mansion Driveway Near You: Occupy Our Homes
Amy Dean, Truthout: "As one of the more promising offshoots of the Occupy movement, Occupy Our Homes - the grassroots effort to prevent evictions and foreclosures - has continued to organize throughout the winter.... For this installment, I spoke with a West Coast activist who is both a leader in anti-foreclosure activism in Los Angeles and a participant in national coalitions organizing around this issue. Amy Schur is executive director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)." 
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Obama Unveils "Clean" Vehicle Initiative
Tim Funk, Jim Morrill and Celeste Smith, McClatchy Newspapers: "Mixing politics with policy, President Barack Obama returned to North Carolina on Wednesday to step up his wooing of this key election-year swing state and to propose new federal incentives to spur 'clean energy' vehicles." 
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Ann Jones | Playing the Game in Afghanistan
Ann Jones, TomDispatch.com: "In short, Afghan history is a sobering antidote to the relentless optimism of the American military. Modern Afghan history indicates that no Afghan National Army of any size or set of skills has ever warded off a single foreign enemy or done a lick of good for any Afghan ruler. As for those Afghan guys who whipped the British three times and the Soviet's Red Army, they were mostly freelancers, attached to the improvised militias of assorted warlords, fighting voluntarily against invaders who had occupied their country." 
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Forced Ultrasound, "Informed Consent," and Women's Health in Texas: The Sad State of the State
Andrea Grimes, RH Reality Check: "Last month, when news spread that Virginia legislators were considering a forced trans-vaginal ultrasound bill, the uproar was loud, clear and immediate: women would never stand for this invasive and unnecessary law. Politicos and pop-culture icons alike spoke out against the Republican-led legislation. What kind of world are we living in, reasonable people wondered, when 'informed consent' is tantamount to state-sanctioned rape?" 
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Widow of Anthony Shadid, on Her Husband's Life and Posthumous Memoir, "House of Stone"
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now!: "We speak with Nada Bakri, the widow of Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Anthony Shadid, about her husband's passion for covering the Middle East and his posthumous memoir. 'House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East' chronicles Shadid's rebuilding of his family's ancestral home in Lebanon." 
Read the Article 

BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
Limbaugh May Get Fitting New Sponsors: Web Sites That Arrange Adulterous Relationships and Match Sugar Daddies With Younger Women
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "Considering that, as BuzzFlash noted yesterday, Limbaugh's fourth wife is more than 25 years his junior and a beautiful blonde, the sugar daddy web site may finally be just the right fit as a sponsor. As for his audience, Amanda Marcotte finds Ashley Madison's making bucks off arranging adulterous encounters appropriate for Limbaugh's male following in that 'some companies tacitly acknowledge that central defining characteristics of their customers is that they're jerks.'" 
Read the BuzzFlash Commentary
Springtime for Occupy: Movement's Plans for Coming Weeks and MonthsRead the Article at ABC News
The Tax Hypocrisy of the Wall Street JournalRead the Article at BuzzFlash
Sen. Carl Levin Says Limbaugh Should Be Dropped From Armed Forces NetworkRead the Article at ThinkProgress
Judge Blocks Report on UC Davis Pepper-Spraying AttackRead the Article at The San Francisco Chronicle
Soldier Suicides, Mental Health Woes Soar Since Start of Iraq WarRead the Article at ABC News
Inside That New Anti-Occupy BillRead the Article at Salon
Dennis Kucinich: Conscience of the CongressRead the Article at Truthdig


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*****

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Former Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor: "A Pair of Testicles Fell Off the President After Election Day"

Former Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor: "A Pair of Testicles Fell Off the President After Election Day"


Sunday 13 November 2011

Former Guantanamo Chief Prosecutor: "A Pair of Testicles Fell Off the President After Election Day"
Jason Leopold, Truthout: "'There's a pair of testicles somewhere between the Capital Building and the White House that fell off the president after Election Day [2008],' said [Morris] Davis, an Air Force colonel who spent two years as the chief prosecutor of Guantanamo military commissions.... Davis is 'hugely disappointed' that Obama reneged on a campaign promise to reject military commissions for 'war on terror' detainees, which have been condemned by human rights advocates as unconstitutional."
Read the Article

Activists Speak: Voices From the Occupations
Jeremy Gantz, In These Times: "The Occupy protesters have been ridiculed by the press, celebrated by the left, and reviled by the right - but rarely allowed to speak for themselves. After the initial New York protest morphed into a national movement in October, reporters struggled to understand the spectacle and pundits stepped in to pontificate and prognosticate. They were right about one thing: United in anger, the mostly young protesters have lost faith in America’s political and economic system - but they don’t always agree on how to repair it."
Read the Article

Radiation Reporting: Blind, Idiotic, Corrupt - or All Three
John LaForge, Truthout: "The ongoing radiation catastrophe stemming from three out-of-control nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan, has taken a back seat to far graver news events of late: Michael Jackson's doctor, fund-raising by presidential hopefuls, the World Series and Netflix stock. Meanwhile, reporting about the on-going disaster relentlessly repeats the minimization and trivialization of radiation risk that began March 11, with the largest earthquake in Japanese history and the unprecedented tsunami that left over 26,000 people dead or missing and 80,000 still living in shelters."
Read the Article

Denver Police Evict "Occupy" Protesters
The New York Times, The New York Times News Service: "The Denver police cleared a protest encampment allied with the Occupy Wall Street movement in a downtown square Saturday evening. Sixteen people were arrested, according to the police.... Saturday night also saw protesters swept out of an Occupy encampment in Salt Lake City."
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Mayor "1 Percent" Bloomberg Tries to Make it Harder for Homeless to Get Into Shelters
Tana Ganeva, AlterNet: "Last week the Bloomberg administration announced new eligibility rules that would make it harder for homeless people to get into city shelters, a cost-cutting measure astutely timed to coincide with the approach of winter.... Under the policy, originally set to go into effect next week, the city could refuse someone a bed at a shelter unless they proved they had no other housing options, such as staying with relatives or friends."
Read the Article

Berlusconi Steps Down, and Italy Pulses With Change
Elisabetta Povoledo and Rachel Donadio, The New York Times News Service: "Marking the end of a tumultuous week and of an era in Italian politics, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned Saturday evening after Parliament approved austerity measures sought by the European Union. The lower house passed the measures on Saturday by a vote of 380 to 26, a day after they were approved by the Senate, trying to keep a step ahead of market pressures that sent borrowing rates on Italian bonds skyrocketing last week to levels that have required other euro zone countries to seek bailouts."
Read the Article

Corporate Media Stumped on How to Cover the Occupy Movement
Russ Baker, Who What Why.com: "Conventional journalism is increasingly irrelevant in a time of crisis. We find abundant proof in a recent column from the New York Times’ so-called 'Public Editor,' who is supposed to somehow magically represent the public interest and rarefied ethical values to the rest of the paper. In this column, he says the media is having difficulty figuring out how to cover Occupy Wall Street and its offshoots."
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Can the Oceans Continue to Feed Us?
Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers: "Far out on the Pacific Ocean, the world's industrial fishing fleets pursue one of the last huge wild hunts - for the tuna eaten by millions of people around the world. Yet tuna still aren't fished sustainably.... This illustrates one part of the pressure on the world's oceans to feed a growing global population, now 7 billion. It also underscores the difficulties people have in balancing what they take against what must be left in order to have enough supplies of healthy wild fish."
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Richard D. Wolff | The Originality of Occupy Wall Street
Richard D. Wolff, RDWollf.com: "In the short history of OWS and its spread to date, I am struck by its impressive insistence on remaining a movement around a very general and inclusive critique of an unjust economy (99% against 1%) that has corrupted much of US politics and culture. The net result is a built-in systemic critique, sometimes explicit (remarkably often named as capitalism) and almost always implicit. The hesitation to choose among and focus on specific demands reflects the wisdom of maintaining the broad, systemic critique. The taboo against systemic critique – a legacy of post-war anti-communism – seems to be broken."
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Protesters Interrupt Bachmann's Speech in South Carolina
Amanda Peterson Beadle, ThinkProgress: "About 40 protesters from Occupy Charleston interupted Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) foreign policy speech during a campaign stop in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. As she was beginning her speech, the protesters stood up and recited a prepared message in unison. 'We have a message for Miss Bachmann,' they yelled. Bachmann’s supporters yelled at the protesters to sit down and tried to drown them out. The protesters chanted, 'We are the 99 Percent,' as police escorted them out."
Read the Article
TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday.
Occupy Portland Protesters Defy Eviction From City ParksRead the Article at NY Daily News
Where the Nukes Are: Map Shows Nuclear Material Spread Across United StatesRead the Article at Yahoo! News
Feds: All Commodity Traders Will be AuditedRead the Article at Crooks and Liars
Cain Says God Persuaded Him to Run for PresidentRead the Article at Yahoo! News
Rick Perry: Foreign Aid Starts At Zero - Even For IsraelRead the Article at Talking Points Memo
Right-Wing Christians Mobilize Prayer Teams to Pray Away Occupy Wall StreetRead the Article at Politics USA
NY Times: We Are Seeing the Dawn of a New Progressive MovementRead the Article at The New York Times

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Saturday, September 03, 2011

Truthout: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult


Saturday 03 September 2011
Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult
Mike Lofgren, Truthout: "Both parties are rotten - how could they not be, given the complete infestation of the political system by corporate money on a scale that now requires a presidential candidate to raise upwards of a billion dollars to be competitive in the general election? Both parties are captives to corporate loot... But both parties are not rotten in quite the same way. The Democrats have their share of machine politicians, careerists, corporate bagmen, egomaniacs and kooks. Nothing, however, quite matches the modern GOP."
Read the Article

Files Note Close CIA Ties to Qaddafi Spy Unit
Rod Nordland, The New York Times News Service: "Documents found at the abandoned office of Libya’s former spymaster appear to provide new details of the close relations the Central Intelligence Agency shared with the Libyan intelligence service - most notably suggesting that the Americans sent terrorism suspects at least eight times for questioning in Libya despite that country’s reputation for torture."
Read the Article

Will Top Obama Economist Fight for Jobs?
Ari Berman, The Nation: "The Obama administration’s selection of Alan Krueger to lead the Council of Economic Advisers was greeted with applause from progressive economists, including Paul Krugman and Jared Bernstein... Next week Obama will lay out his ideas to create jobs, which will likely include the extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, a tax cut for companies that hire new workers, an infrastructure bank to spur new construction jobs and job training for the long-term unemployed, reports Bloomberg News and the Washington Post."
Read the Article

China Benefits as US Solar Industry Withers
Keith Bradsher, The New York Times News Service: "The bankruptcies of three American solar power companies in the last month, including Solyndra of California on Wednesday, have left China’s industry with a dominant sales position - almost three-fifths of the world’s production capacity - and rapidly declining costs. Some American, Japanese and European solar companies still have a technological edge over Chinese rivals, but seldom a cost advantage, according to industry analysts."
Read the Article

How Prisons Imperil Black Voting Power in Post-Katrina Louisiana
Zoe Sullivan, New America Media: "For criminal justice advocates, this discrepancy between eligible voters and counted population is a stark example of how prisons are skewing Louisiana’s political process, shifting power from urban areas to rural ones and further disenfranchising African-American communities suffering from the historic legacy of racism and the recent calamity of Hurricane Katrina."
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US Awash in Oil and Lies, Report Charges
Stephen Leahy, Inter Press Service: "The country's oil industry is primarily interested in who will pay the most on the global marketplace. They call that 'energy security' when it suits, but in reality it is 'oil company security' through maximising profits, say energy experts like Steve Kretzman of Oil Change International, an NGO that researches the links between oil, gas and coal companies and governments."
Read the Article

Get Out of the Way of Eric Schneiderman!
Thom Hartmann, The Big Picture With Thom Hartmann: "Meet Eric Schneiderman - he's our best shot at making sure banksters pay for the crimes they committed on Wall Street - crimes that have led to millions of Americans losing their jobs, homes, and livelihoods. Crimes that SO FAR - have gone unpunished. Earlier this week - Schneiderman - who is New York's Attorney General - was kicked off a panel of state officials from around the country who are working with the Obama administration to come up with a one-time settlement for banksters to pay up for their crimes."
Read the Article

Beyond PTSD: Soldiers Have Injured Souls
Diane Silver, Miller-McCune: "Thousands [of veterans] grapple with what some call 'the war after the war' - the psychological scars of conflict. Working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and private organizations, these men and women are employing treatments both radically new and centuries old. At the center of their journey is a new way of thinking that redefines some traumas as moral injuries."
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Quick Things to Bring Manufacturing Jobs Home
Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: "Here is a fact about bipartisanship and civility in Washington: the Republicans in Congress will obstruct anything President Obama proposes to create jobs and help the economy, period... The President can and should 'go big' and make dramatic proposals to Congress for job-creation. Doing so will draw contrasts so the public has a clear choice in the coming elections. Fortunately there are things the President can do right now, without the approval of Congress, that will have a big impact on job-creation now and in the future."
Read the Article

Click here for more Truthout articles

BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday.Wounded Syrian Protesters Abused in HospitalRead the Article at The Los Angeles Times
Time to Up the Ante: Restrict Individual Assets in US to One Billion DollarsRead the Article at BuzzFlash
Under the Gun, Obama Tells Congress to Pass Major Transporation BillRead the Article at The Christian Science Monitor
Iran Speeding Up Nuclear Program, Investigators SayRead the Article at The Washington Post
AFL-CIO and Others Object to Georgia "Work" Program Rumored for Inclusion in Obama Jobs SpeechRead the Article at Daily Kos
Conservative Columnist: Registering Poor To Vote "Like Handing Out Burglary Tools To Criminals"Read the Article at Talking Points Memo
Battles in Sudan Continue to RageRead the Article at AP
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines


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*****

Saturday, July 02, 2011

Truthout: 14 Propaganda Techniques Fox News Uses to Brainwash Americans

Truthout: 14 Propaganda Techniques Fox News Uses to Brainwash Americans

Saturday 02 July 2011
14 Propaganda Techniques Fox News Uses to Brainwash Americans
Dr. Cynthia Boaz, Truthout: "It is ironic that in the era of 24-hour cable news networks and 'reality' programming, the fluff-to-news ratio and overall veracity of information has declined precipitously. Take the fact Americans now spend on average about 50 hours a week using various forms of media, while at the same time cultural literacy levels hover just above the gutter. "
Read the Article

The Super Rich Sabotage the Arab Revolutions
Shamus Cooke, Truthout: "With revolutions sweeping the Arab world and bubbling up across Europe, aging tyrants or discredited governments are doing their best to cling to power. It's hard to overexaggerate the importance of these events: the global political and economic status quo is in deep crisis. If pro-democracy or anti-austerity movements emerge victorious, they'll have an immediate problem to solve - how to pay for their vision of a better world."
Read the Article

No End in Sight as Minnesotans Grapple With State Shutdown
Monica Davey, The New York Times News Service: "Heading into a holiday weekend in a state that savors its summers outdoors, licenses for fishing, hunting, trapping, boats and ATVs were unavailable for purchase. And all around the State Capitol - the place where all the troubles began - the streets were eerily empty and official buildings locked, plastered with hand-taped signs that offered a gentle explanation: 'This building is closed until further notice due to the current state government service interruption.'"
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Gaza Flotilla Move Sinks
Pierre Klochendler, Inter Press Service: "The besieger is besieged, such is the forlorn fact emanating from the order by Greece to block the ships docked at its ports from setting sail to the Palestinian strip of land, and that fact seems to have sealed the Flotilla's fate."
Read the Article

Police Attack Peaceful Protesters in Morocco
Sarah Lazare, Truthout: "With revolutions sweeping the Arab world and bubbling up across Europe, aging tyrants or discredited governments are doing their best to cling to power. It's hard to overexaggerate the importance of these events: the global political and economic status quo is in deep crisis. If pro-democracy or anti-austerity movements emerge victorious, they'll have an immediate problem to solve - how to pay for their vision of a better world."
Read the Article

Qaddafi Threatens Europe With Attacks
Kareem Fahim, The New York Times News Service: "In the speech, delivered by telephone to thousands of people marching in Green Square in Tripoli, Colonel Qaddafi warned that Libyans would be able to take the battle 'to Europe, to target your homes, offices, families, which have become legitimate military targets, like you have targeted our homes.'"
Read the Article

Number of Mexico's Missing Swells, Families Call for Help
Tim Johnson, McClatchy Newspapers: "As the numbers of missing and dead mount in Mexico, thousands of families suffer the same uncertainty. Mexico has no centralized system to track and identify those who disappear. Hundreds of bodies pulled from clandestine mass graves remain unidentified for the most part, nameless victims of Mexico's ongoing carnage."
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From the Reservation to the Airwaves: Navajo Band Battles Injustice
Martha Sorren, Truthout: "In 1979, Arizona Snowbowl proposed the addition of artificial snow created from reclaimed refuse water. The plan created an uproar among Native American communities, as well as with many other local citizens. Three decades later, the plan is being executed despite lawsuits filed by both the Hopi and Navajo tribes. The tribes argue that under freedom of religion, the mountain is a holy place and shouldn't be contaminated with reclaimed water."
Read the Article

We Must Stop the Building of a Plutonium Bomb Factory in Fire Country
Subhankar Banerjee, Climate Storytellers: "The government is heavily monitoring the air in the area for toxic pollutants. They’re using dozens of monitors on the ground as well as a specially outfitted twin–engine plane with sensors that came from the Environmental Protection Agency. As of June 29, 'top lab officials and fire managers say there have been no releases of toxins.' Let us hope we’re getting the full truth."
Read the Article
BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
The BuzzFlash at Truthout commentary will return on Monday.
Neocons Want War and More War. What's New? Read the Article at Consortium News
Segregation in the Land of Limousine Liberalism - Westchester County Fighting Court Ordered Desegregation?Read the Article at Salon
Colbert's "SuperPAC" Pushes the Limits of Election LawRead the Article in The Atlantic
US Disaster Capitalists Flocked to Haiti Post-Quake "Gold Rush" (WikiLeaks)Read the Article in The Nation
Conservative Cash Crop, Bachmann StyleRead the Article in The New York Times
What if You Held a Class War and No One Showed Up? GOP Treats Recent History Like a Dreamscape.Read the Article in Mother Jones
The 10 Loudest Movies Ever!!!Read the Article at Salon


*****

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

James Russell Truthout: US Mayors Call for End to Wars and Nuclear Weapons

US Mayors Call for End to Wars and Nuclear Weapons


Mayors from around the country gather at the United States Conference of Mayors in Baltimore, June 17, 2011. (Photo: Monica Lopossay / The New York Times)
Peace activists won a major victory on Monday, June 20, when the US Conference of Mayors voted to adopt two resolutions that call for a drawdown of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and the abolition of nuclear weapons. Both resolutions also demand the reprioritization of defense spending, including the $126 billion spent each year in Iraq and Afghanistan, toward the needs of municipalities.
The group, which represents mayors of municipalities with 30,000 or more residents, has not passed such a resolution in 40 years.
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) fellow Karen Dolan directs IPS's Cities For Peace project, which organizes elected officials and activists to take action against war on a local level. In a statement to Truthout, Dolan said...http://www.truth-out.org/us-mayors-call-end-wars-and-nuclear-weapons/1308677269

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Sunday, July 25, 2010

Truthout: Researchers Confirm Subsea Gulf Oil Plumes Are From BP Well



Saturday 24 July 2010

Researchers Confirm Subsea Gulf Oil Plumes Are From BP Well
Sara Kennedy, McClatchy Newspapers: "Through a chemical fingerprinting process, University of South Florida researchers have definitively linked clouds of underwater oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico to BP's runaway Deepwater Horizon well - the first direct scientific link between the subsurface oil clouds commonly known as 'plumes' and the BP oil spill, USF officials said Friday."
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For Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone, a Terror Topping
Ray McGovern, Truthout: "A recent expose in The Washington Post shows that if you have a security clearance and are comfortable being part of a lucrative 'self-licking ice cream cone' - a process that offers few if any benefits, while perpetuating its own existence - then the 'war on terror' is definitely for you!"
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Winslow Myers | Best Practices
Winslow Myers, Truthout: "When I was working as a teacher, I loved the phrase 'best practices.' It suggested pooled wisdom, a collective weeding out of the more effective from the less effective, a distillation of the authentic out of a world of potential baloney. It implied disinterested cooperation to figure out what really does work when we're trying to help children learn. Any collection of best practices would synergize with each other in a perfect storm of competency."
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'Soul Of A Citizen': Village Politics - Rebuilding Engaged Communities
Paul Rogat Loeb, Truthout: "How do we respond to a political landscape where Meg Whitman can spend $80 million on her primary candidacy alone? Or where, aided by the ghastly Citizen's United Supreme Court decision, right-wing groups are pledging over $200 million for the November elections. On-the-ground activism is key; ordinary citizens reaching out to knock on doors, make phone calls, talk to friends, neighbors and coworkers, spread the word through social media, and do everything possible to convince undecided voters and get reluctant supporters to the polls. That's what so many of us did during 2006 and 2008, helping tip the balance in race after race."
Read the Article

Senate Democrats Forced to Accept Much Slimmer Energy Bill
Mark Clayton, The Christian Science Monitor: "Without enough votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been forced to abandon a comprehensive energy bill. Gone is any tough climate provision. Will the House buy it?"
Read the Article

Afghanistan: US Steps Up Prisoner Releases
Jean MacKenzie, Global Post: "Zahir Daud says he is not angry with the Americans who took 32 months of his life. The only time the slim, dark-eyed former literature teacher showed a trace of bitterness is when he is asked how many children he had. 'Five,' he said. 'The youngest, a boy, was only 5 months old when they arrested me. I have not seen him since.'"
Read the Article

Bogus 'Obama Mom' Grants Lure Students
Sharona Coutts, ProPublica: "After being laid off from her job as a high school teacher in Dayton, Ohio, Nicole Massey decided to go back to college. For months, she scoured the Web for ways to fund her tuition, while supporting her 10-year-old son, Tyler. So when ads turned up in Massey's inbox claiming that President Barack Obama had created special college grants and scholarships for single mothers, her hopes soared."
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Temperatures Hit Record Highs Globally. El Nino or Global Warming?
Pete Spotts, The Christian Science Monitor: "The first half of 2010 was the hottest six-month period recorded globally with temperatures around the globe 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit above averages."
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Cluster Bombs and Civilian Lives: Efficient Killing, Profits and Human Rights
Ramzy Baroud, Truthout: "The human rights agency has confirmed that 35 women and children were killed following the latest US attacks on an alleged al-Qaeda hideout in Yemen. Initially, there were attempts to bury the story, and Yemen officially denied that civilians were killed as a result of the December 17 attack on al-Majala in southern Yemen. However, it has been simply impossible to conceal what is now considered the largest loss of life in one single US attack in the country."
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Rachel Maddow | BP May Be Trying to Hire Scientists to Protect Against Their Potential Future Testimony (Video)
Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show: "Something just happened in the BP oil disaster that can really only be explained using a scene from season five of 'The Sopranos.'"
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A Prisoner's Wife
Janan Abdu, Truthout: "I used to tell my husband, Ameer Makhoul, 'One day, they'll come for you.' As chairman of the Public Committee for the Protection of Political Freedoms, he'd begun to organize an awareness-raising campaign to push back against the security services' harassment of our community, the Palestinian citizens of Israel."
Read the Comic

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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Truthout: William Rivers Pitt | Tea on the Common

t r u t h o u t

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Tuesday 13 April 2010

William Rivers Pitt | Tea on the Common
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "I know, I know, it was just last week that I vowed never to write about these Tea Party people again. I would be more than happy to do just that, but you see, they're coming to my town, hell, to my neighborhood, and tagging along with them is none other than the Queen Of Duh, Sarah Palin."
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Iraq Vets: Coverage of Atrocities Is Too Little, Too Late
Dahr Jamail, Truthout: "The WikiLeaks video footage from Iraq taken from an Apache helicopter in July 2007 showing soldiers killing 12 people and wounding two children has caused an explosion of media coverage. But many Iraq vets feel it is too little and too late."
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US Troops Open Fire on Passenger Bus in Afghanistan, Killing Four Civilians
Jason Leopold, Truthout: "Four Afghan civilians were killed and 18 others wounded Monday when US troops opened fire on a passenger bus they believed was a threat to military personnel working to remove roadside bombs from a highway near Kandahar."
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Ignoring America's Slaveholding Past
Eugene Robinson: "It was bad enough when Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell proclaimed 'Confederate History Month' without mentioning slavery, but at least he came to his senses and apologized. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's contention that the whole controversy 'doesn't amount to diddly' is much worse."
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Make Birth Control, Not War
Thomas Hayden and Malcolm Potts, Miller-McCune: "Close your eyes for a moment and cast your mind back to the dominant news stories of early 2010. The economy in tatters? Certainly. Global stalemate on climate negotiations and unbreakable gridlock in Congress? Of course. And don't forget the terror - on Christmas Eve, 2009, a lone Nigerian man boards an airplane in Lagos and travels some 18 hours toward Detroit in what can only have been a dizzying combination of anxiety, fear and elation, and a grandiose sense of his own destiny."
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Anti-Government Extremists: On the Rise and On the March
Evan Thomas and Eve Conant, Truthout: "Stewart Rhodes does not seem like an extremist. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and a former US Army paratrooper and Congressional staffer. He is not at all secretive."
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The Magnetar Trade: How One Hedge Fund Helped Keep the Bubble Going
Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein, ProPublica: "In late 2005, the booming US housing market seemed to be slowing. The Federal Reserve had begun raising interest rates. Subprime mortgage company shares were falling. Investors began to balk at buying complex mortgage securities. The housing bubble, which had propelled a historic growth in home prices, seemed poised to deflate. And if it had, the great financial crisis of 2008, which produced the Great Recession of 2008-09, might have come sooner and been less severe."
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Turkey's Henchmen: Mass Media Butcher the Armenian Genocide
David Boyajian, Truthout: "Most reporters and other journalists in the mass media failed to do due diligence and misled their audiences regarding last month's US House Foreign Affairs Committee vote in favor of Resolution 252, which would reaffirm the Armenian genocide of 1915-1923. Nearly all media, prior to and after the vote, falsely said or implied that the House and the federal government had never before recognized the Armenian genocide."
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The Hazards of Using Toxic Coal Ash for Land Development
Sue Sturgis, Facing South: "Following the disastrous spill of a billion gallons of coal ash waste from the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston plant in December 2008, poorly regulated coal ash impoundments like the one that failed have landed in the public spotlight."
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Senate Ends GOP Filibuster That's Delayed Jobless Benefits
David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers: "The Senate on Monday took a major, and likely decisive, step toward restoring jobless benefits for hundreds of thousands of people, as those constituents endured an eighth straight day without assurances of any help."
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Obama's Nuclear Summit: The Search for "Loose Nukes"
Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor: "The Obama nuclear summit is focusing less on nuclear weapons and more on more poorly guarded nuclear materials that could be used to build nukes."
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In Africa, Land Grabs Continue as Elites Resist Regulation
Hilaire Avril, Inter Press Service: "A year after the purchases of vast swathes of farm land in Africa first drew public attention, transactions remain as opaque as ever. Private companies are resisting a global code of conduct that would ensure transparency and local elites continue to benefit from deals that encourage corruption and increase food insecurity."
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Massachusetts Court Rejects Health Insurers' Bid to Raise Premiums
Will Buchanan, The Christian Science Monitor: "Six health insurers in Massachusetts, which has universal health care, wanted to raise premiums. But the state's insurance commissioner said no. A judge ruled in the state's favor."
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A Coup and a Close Call in Kyrgyzstan
Owen Matthews: "The violence that gripped Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, last week quickly turned into a dictator's worst nightmare when the snowballing riots forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee for his life."
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My Hometown and Its Fate
James Howard Kunstler: "I was in my hometown, New York City, over the weekend. Everybody, it seemed, was outside swarming in the streets and the parks in perfect strolling weather. The magnolias and dogwoods were bursting. Anything highlighted in gold leaf was all burnished up. The city's sparkling physical condition was due of course to the spectacular flow-rate of money pouring through Wall Street the past twenty years - notwithstanding the big burp of 2008."
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Massey Energy Bought Workers' Comp Insurance Shortly Before Mine Blast
Dave Lindorff, Truthout: "Massey Energy Company, owner of the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia where at least 25 miners were killed April 5 in a methane gas explosion, apparently arranged for and purchased disability compensation insurance coverage only a month before the disaster, according to one source with inside knowledge about the company's risk-management operations."
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