Truthout: 2 August 2011
Truthout: 2 August 2011
Senate Passes, Obama Signs Debt
Ceiling Bill
Jennifer Steinhauer and Carl Hulse, The
New York Times News Service: "The Senate voted Tuesday to
raise the government’s debt ceiling and cut trillions of
dollars from its spending, finally ending a fractious
partisan battle just hours before the government’s
borrowing authority was set to run out. The bill, which
passed 74 to 26 after a short debate devoid of the
oratorical passion that had echoed through both chambers of
Congress for weeks, was signed by President Obama later on
Tuesday."
Read the Article
Despite New
Denials by Rumsfeld, Evidence Shows US Military Used
Waterboarding-Style Torture
Jeffrey Kaye, Truthout:
"In the controversy over whether torture, especially
waterboarding, was used to gather information leading to the
capture of Osama bin Laden, former Secretary of State Donald
Rumsfeld told Fox News' Sean Hannity recently that 'no one
was waterboarded at Guantanamo by the US military. In fact,
no one was waterboarded at Guantanamo, period.' In his
memoir, 'Known and Unknown,' Rumsfeld maintained, 'To my
knowledge, no US military personnel involved in
interrogations waterboarded any detainees, not at - or
anywhere else in the world.' But as we shall see, Rumsfeld
was either lying outright, or artfully twisting the
truth."
Read the Article
Isn't It Time to
Lower America's War Ceiling?
Tom Engelhardt,
TomDispatch: "One American world, one Washington, is
devouring the other. Think of this as the half-hidden
psychodrama of this American moment. Put another way, for
months Americans have been focused on raising that debt
ceiling, as onscreen countdown clocks ticked away to
disaster. In the process, few have asked the obvious
question: Isn't it time to lower America's war ceiling?"
Read the Article
Paul Krugman | A
Cult of Centrism, Poisoning the American Political
System
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "Watching our
system deal with the debt ceiling crisis in the United
States - a wholly self-inflicted crisis, which may
nonetheless have disastrous consequences - it's increasingly
obvious that what we're looking at is the destructive
influence of a cult that has really poisoned our political
system. And no, I don't mean the fanaticism of the right.
Well, O.K., that too. But my feeling about those people is
that they are what they are; you might as well denounce
wolves for being carnivores. Crazy is what they do and what
they are."
Read the Article
On the News With
Thom Hartmann: John Boehner Brags He Got 98 Percent of What
He Wanted in Debt Deal, and More
In today's On the
News segment: Speaker of the House John Boehner bragged that
he got 98 percent of what he wanted in the debt-limit deal,
GOP goes on vacation and leaves FAA funding in limbo, GOP
sending Wisconsin Democratic voters false ballots,
billion-dollar corporations now reporting massive profits,
Fukushima nuclear plant is still spewing radiation, and
more. Scroll down to watch the newscast.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript
Fatal Radiation Level Found at Japanese
Plant
Martin Fackler, The New York Times News
Service: "The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant said Monday that it measured the highest radiation
levels within the plant since it was crippled by a
devastating earthquake. However, it said the discovery would
not slow continuing efforts to bring the plant's damaged
reactors under control."
Read the Article
Four Ways the
Debt-Ceiling Deal Will Affect You Personally
Richard
(RJ) Eskow, Campaign for America's Future: "How is this deal
likely to affect your household? If you're in the top 1% of
earners, there's no need to read any further because it
probably won't affect you personally.... Don't forget how
your elected officials behave as this deal makes its way
through the process. Write it down if you need to, but be
sure you remember everything when you vote next November."
Read the Article
Unequal
Protection: Corporate Control of Politics
Thom
Hartmann, Berrett-Koehler Publishers: "Fascism is rising in
America, this time calling itself 'compassionate
conservatism,' and 'the free market' in a 'flat' world. The
point of its spear is 'corporate personhood' and 'corporate
free-speech rights.' The behavior of the Roberts Court in
Citizens United eerily parallels the day in 1936 when
Roosevelt said: 'In vain they seek to hide behind the flag
and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what
the flag and the Constitution stand for.' Even before the
Citizens United case blew open the doors to a corporate
takeover of American politics, the corrosive influence of
corporations' having 'rights' was already evident. Now these
'unequal consequences' have been put on steroids."
Read the Article
Somalis Waste
Away as Insurgents Block Escape From Famine
Jeffrey
Gettleman, The New York Times: "The Shabab Islamist
insurgent group, which controls much of southern Somalia, is
blocking starving people from fleeing the country and
setting up a cantonment camp where it is imprisoning
displaced people who were trying to escape Shabab territory.
The group is widely blamed for causing a famine in Somalia
by forcing out many Western aid organizations, depriving
drought victims of desperately needed food. The situation is
growing bleaker by the day, with tens of thousands of
Somalis already dead and more than 500,000 children on the
brink of starvation."
Read the Article
Why Have There
Been No Great Woman Comics Artists? (Part 2)
The art
world is different from the rest of the business world,
right? All those creative people, making culture happen from
their perch on the cutting edge, are sheltered from the
humdrum problems the rest of us face in the workplace -
right? Wrong, and wrong. And no one knows it better than the
women who make comics happen while a sizable slice of their
potential audience, and their colleagues, avert their gaze.
Wanna draw and raise kids? Attend a conference without being
mistaken for the hired eye candy? Comic pros Anne Elizabeth
Moore and Christa Donner take us into their world for
another ink-stained brainstorm about the mysterious shortage
of accomplished lady drawers, and the absent praise for the
women who've already more than earned it.
Read the Comic Strip
El Salvador:
The Truth Commission and the Jesuit Massacre
Jennifer
Nerby, Council on Hemispheric Affairs: "Twenty Salvadoran
soldiers await trial in Spain for crimes against humanity
perpetrated during the Salvadoran Civil War.... The
extradition of war criminals to be tried under the Spanish
judicial system draws attention to profound weaknesses in
Salvadoran trial.... A growing number of Salvadorans are
beginning to show unease that the nation's moderate
President Mauricio Funes will move the country beyond the
social causes of conflict in the 1980s."
Read the Article
Countdown With
Keith Olbermann | Al Gore on Why Washington Is Broken
(Video)
Keith Olbermann, Countdown With Keith
Olbermann: "As leaders make a final push late Monday to pass
a final debt deal and cut federal spending, voters aren't
exactly cheering. Americans call the budget impasse
'ridiculous,' 'disgusting' and 'stupid,' according to a new
poll. In this extended interview, Keith consults with former
Vice President and Current TV Chairman Al Gore on why our
government is in real trouble."
Watch the Video
Click here for more Truthout
articles>
TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY
HEADLINES
Republicans can't stop feasting on pork, even as they denounce it.
Last week, BuzzFlash at Truthout asked the question, "Why is GOP hypocrisy so brazen and audacious?"
We focused on freshman Illinois Tea Party Congressman Joe Walsh, who voted no on the debt ceiling/deficit reduction bill on Monday. Walsh, a favorite of cable TV, said he was opposing the bill in order to save a future for his children and grandchildren - and only more drastic deficit reduction would do that and show fiscal responsibility. Walsh, however, was revealed last week to be a deadbeat dad to the tune of owing more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife.
But there are a myriad of GOP hypocrisies, whether having to do with lapsed moral values (e.g. David Vitter paying for prostitutes, or John Ensign having an adulterous affair with his top aide's wife and then paying him off to hush it up) or financial improprieties (Ensign qualifies for a twofer in these two areas). And many, many more.
Which brings us to virtually the entire Republican delegation in Congress decrying pork (earmarks) as not being kosher for fiscal accountability, while indulging in bringing home the bacon to their districts or states (as Sarah Palin tried to do as governor with her "bridge to nowhere," among other federal projects).
The New York Times ran an editorial on Monday exposing just a few examples of GOP hypocrisy on pork:
The road to Washington is paved with broken campaign promises. But few are so rich in hypocrisy as those of House Republican freshmen caught engineering hometown pork even as they vow to slash the federal budget for the supposed good of the nation....
Representative Tim Scott, a Tea Party favorite from South Carolina, helped secure the down payment on a $300 million harbor dredging project back home. Not at all pork, said Mr. Scott, pronouncing the dredging a matter of the national interest. In the case of a new bridge in Wisconsin, Representative Sean Duffy reasons it's no earmark since the legislation listed no specific costs.
Representative Michele Bachmann, Minnesota's three-term incumbent and presidential aspirant, also supports the bridge - and calls for a "redefinition" of what an earmark is. "There's a big difference between funding a teapot museum and a bridge over a vital waterway," is Ms. Bachmann's head-scratching guidance.
No, it's not "head-scratching." It's just being fundamentally dishonest, annoyingly self-righteous and profoundly hypocritical, yet again.
Mark
Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout
GOP's
Disrespect of Obama Goes Beyond Debt Fight and Into the
Racism Zone
Read the Article at USA
Today
Government by Hostage Taking
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
How
the Representatives Voted on the Debt Ceiling/Deficit
Reduction "Compromise"
Read the Article at The Associated
Press
The Tea Party's War on America
Read the Article at The New York
Times
Homegrown Economic Terrorism
Read the Article at
BuzzFlash
Department of Justice Sues Alabama Over
Draconian Immigration Law
Read the Article at Stateline
Giffords' Vote the Most Memorable of All
Read the Article at The Associated
Press
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines