Truthout Headlines: 18-11-10
Truthout Headlines: 18-11-10
Thursday 18 November 2010
Exclusive Report: Evidence of Iran Nuclear
Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent
Gareth Porter,
Truthout: "The Obama administration says there can be no
diplomatic negotiations with Iran unless Iran satisfies the
IAEA fully in regard to the allegations derived from the
documents that it had covert nuclear weapons program. That
position is based on the premise that the intelligence
documents that Iran has been asked to explain are genuine.
The evidence now available, however, indicates that they are
fabrications."
Read the Article
Michael
Moore | They Said They Would Push Me "Off a
Cliff"
Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com:
"Yesterday, on the TV and radio show 'Democracy Now' hosted
by Amy Goodman, the former Vice President of CIGNA, one of
the nation's largest health insurance companies, revealed
that CIGNA met with the other big health insurers to hatch a
plan to 'push' yours truly 'off a cliff.'"
Read the Article
BP's
Probation Officer Petitions Federal Judge to Revoke
Company's Probation Over Alaska Oil Spill
Jason
Leopold, Truthout: "Days before the BP Exploration Alaska's
(BPXA) probation was due to end, a federal probation officer
petitioned a US District Court judge to revoke the company's
probation over a 46,000 gallon oil spill that occurred in
November 2009. The probation officer, Mary Frances Barnes,
said in court documents filed Tuesday that the November 29,
2009, spill at BPXA's Lisburne facility amounted to
'criminal negligence' under the federal Clean Water Act and
violated the terms of the probation agreement BP signed in
November 2007 following a 212,000 gallon oil spill on the
North Slope."
Read the Article
Schakowsky
Proposes Alternate Budget Plan: Save Social Security, Tax
Millionaires
Nadia Prupis, Truthout: "After the
National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
released a polarizing deficit reduction proposal on November
10, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois) did not hesitate in
expressing her disapproval. 'This is not a package I could
support,' she said at the time. On Monday, Schakowsky, who
also serves on the commission, released her own proposal,
which contrasts significantly with the plan compiled by
commission co-chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles. Most
notably, Schakowsky's plan approximates a $426.95 billion
reduction, a higher figure than the $250 billion target
President Obama recommended to the commission."
Read the Article
"Birthright
Citizenship" Will Be Target of House GOP
Majority
Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Newspapers:
"As one of its first acts, the new Congress will consider
denying citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants
who are born in the United States.... GOP Rep. Steve King of
Iowa, the incoming chairman of the subcommittee that
oversees immigration, is expected to push a bill that would
deny 'birthright citizenship' to such children."
Read the Article
Paul Krugman
| What Voters Really Care, and Don't Care,
About
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "I stopped
watching the Nov. 3 postelection press conference after
President Obama declared that Americans rejected Democrats
at the polls in part because 'we were in such a hurry to get
things done that we didn't change how things got done.'
Nobody cares about this stuff - voters only care about
results."
Read the Article
News in
Brief: International Study Shows US Health Care Is Lacking,
and More ...
Americans have more trouble
affording health care than other rich countries; British
students protest education funding cuts; University of
California students arrested for protesting fee hike; Harry
Reid will push legislation to repeal "don't ask, don't
tell"; Massey Energy mines in danger of takeover by Federal
officials; and more ...
Read the Article
Could
Nonviolent Resistance Defeat Petraeus's Night Raids in
Afghanistan?
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "It is a
striking symptom of the moral depravity of the US war in
Afghanistan that the policy of night raids, which press
reports have suggested is one of the most hated aspects of
the US military occupation among the Afghan population, has
been the subject of almost no public debate in the United
States. Newspaper columnists aren't inveighing against the
night raids. Members of Congress aren't demanding that the
night raids stop."
Read the Article
Michael
Winship | Don't Ask, Don't Care
Michael Winship,
Truthout: "Although I grew up in a small town, I live in the
West Village of Manhattan, New York City, just three blocks
from Christopher Street and the Stonewall Inn, where in 1969
a police raid led to angry demonstrations that marked the
start of the gay rights movement. Yet, in most ways, my
neighborhood is just like yours. We all co-exist. Kids go to
school, business owners complain about the economy, everyone
- straight or gay - is worried about jobs."
Read the Article
Rock-Paper-Scissors
Clay Bennett's
editorial cartoon takes a look at the electorate and the
future of Social Security.
View the Cartoon
Israel
Approves Withdrawal From Ghajar, Flashpoint Village on
Lebanese Border
Nicholas Blanford, The Christian
Science Monitor: "Israel's cabinet on Wednesday approved a
United Nations proposal to withdraw Israeli troops from the
divided village of Ghajar, which straddles the UN-policed
boundary between Lebanon and Israeli-occupied Syria. The
move is likely to ease tensions in the area, but could
complicate the lives of residents, who oppose any sort of
'Berlin Wall' dividing them from each other."
Read the Article
The US
Social Forum and Money: Building a Transformative National
Movement
Seth Adler,Truthout: "More than 15,000
social movement organizers assembled in Detroit this June
for the US Social Forum. Even more so than its predecessor,
three years ago in Atlanta, this forum resembled a political
convention-like gathering. Yet, this was a gathering with a
different type of unity paradigm than one would associate
with any related left conventions or party-building
meetings. The proceedings featured over 40 People's Movement
Assemblies (PMA), each hammering out political platforms
along with an intensive week of networking in which
thousands of people developed regional and national ties
among like-minded organizations. The forum participants
engaged in about 1,400 organizing workshops, dozens of
political actions and cultural events and large plenary
sessions."
Read the Article
Keith
Olbermann Special Comment: False Promise of "Objectivity"
Proves "Truth" Superior to "Fact"
Keith
Olbermann, Countdown: A "Special Comment" on objectivity and
the media with video and transcript.
Read the Article
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BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
Early on in John Kerry's
campaign for president in 2004, BuzzFlash wrote an editorial
advising him to define his opponent or risk being defined as
a caricature.
He didn't listen and got
Swiftboated upside his head.
The
Republicans, with the help of some in the corporate media,
created an image of Al Gore as an exaggerator and worse in
2000. He didn't listen either.
Now,
Obama appears to have fallen victim to the same lack of
savvy and guts on the part of Democrats to go on the
offensive and lead public opinion forward. He, too, appears
to perennially - with few exceptions - lack the conviction
to dispel the lies of the Republicans and attack his
opponents with the truth. There seems to be no disciplined
message, no understanding of the power of the media to echo
key phrases and values.
As BuzzFlash
has said many a time, if you repeat a lie five times it
becomes the truth. That's the modus operandi at Fox and with
the GOP - and it works for at least half the American
population. "Reality" consists of falsehoods delivered
through coordinated right-wing media shills and Republican
politicians until they come to be perceived as "the
truth."
That's why it was a breath of
fresh air to read about Democrats in Congress who challenged
Republicans on the Hill to turn down their government health
insurance if they oppose health care reform. Why? Because
insurance offered to representatives and senators is
taxpayer funded and functions like the exchanges set up
under Obama's plan.
Creatively and
directly calling out hypocrisy is playing offense on an
issue instead of the all too frequent Democratic last stands
on the one-yard line. With the "red surge" overtaking the
House of Representatives, will the Democrats at long last
stop playing virtually all four quarters on
defense?
Mark Karlin
Editor,
BuzzFlash at Truthout
More US
Households Short of Food
Read the Article at
BBC
Marketing War to Children, Paid for by
American Taxpayers
Read the Article at
BuzzFlash
Democrats Press Barack Obama to Hang
Tough on Tax Cuts
Read the Article at The
Politico
"Sarah Palin Poised to Run for
President in 2012." Definitely Would be the Most
Dysfunctional First Family in American
History
Read the Article at The Guardian
UK
John "Orange" Boehner Will Be Speaker of
the House. First Speaker to Glow in the Dark?
Read the Article at
CNN
Nicholas Kristof: A Hedge Fund Republic or
a Banana Republic? Take Your Pick
Read the Article at The New York
Times
Facts Don't Seem to Matter When You Have
Government by Plutocracy
Read the Article at
BuzzFlash
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
ENDS