Truthout: November 28, 2011

How Private Warmongers and the US Military Infiltrated American Universities
Steve Horn and Allen Ruff, Truthout: "A matrix of closely tied university-based strategic studies ventures, the so-called Grand Strategy Programs (GSP), have cropped up on a number of elite campuses around the country, where they function to serve the national security warfare state."
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Occupy Elections, With a Simple Message
George Lakoff, Truthout: "Wall Street exerts its force through the money that buys elections and elected officials. But ultimately, the outcome of elections depends on people willing to take to the streets - registering voters, knocking on doors, distributing information, speaking in local venues. The way to change the nation is to occupy elections."
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Greg Palast | BP on Trial at the Occupation
Greg Palast, Greenpeace: "This is not the first courtroom where I've faced off against BP, British Petroleum. But this time, I was outdoors, with a patrol car's red lights spinning. Occupy Wall Street asked me to act as 'prosecutor' in the Climate Court in their relocated locale in a New York park. I have the cold, hard, documentary evidence in my hand, gathered with the help of Greenpeace and their submarine (no kidding) in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caspian Sea, in Alaska."
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New Report Warns of Escalating Dangers From Europe's Debt Crisis
Liz Alderman, The New York Times News Service: "The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said the euro crisis remained 'a key risk to the world economy.'... 'The probability of multiple defaults by euro-area countries is no longer negligible,' Moody's said."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Occupy Los Angeles Protesters and Supporters Challenge Eviction Efforts, and More
In today's On the News segment: Occupy Los Angeles protesters and supporters challenge eviction efforts, Black Friday again marked by violence, CIA network uncovered in Lebanon, and more.
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Rep. Barney Frank Won't Seek Re-Election
James Oliphant and Lisa Mascaro, McClatchy Newspapers: "Rep. Barney Frank, the longtime Democratic congressman from Massachusetts and a favorite GOP target for crafting legislation to reform Wall Street business practices, is expected to announce Monday that he will not seek reelection next year."
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In Egypt, Long Lines for a Vote Clouded by Army's Role
David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times News Service: "At a polling place in the Cairo neighborhood of Shobra, voters laughed at their own stubborn determination to cast ballots they had little faith would make a difference: 'If a sick person is dying,' ran a joke making its way down the queue, 'you still have to get him to the hospital.'"
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Washington State Set to Slash Education and Health Care for the Poor
Jesse Hagopian, Truthout: "Beyond breaking the state Constitution and Judge Erlick's recent ruling, these budget cuts are literally a matter of life and death. Should the cuts be ratified, it would result in the elimination of the state's basic health plan, ending a program that subsidizes health care for some 35,000 people living in poverty. Denying health care to the state's most vulnerable populations will undoubtedly lead to increased morbidity."
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Dean Baker | Time to Retake Politics From the One Percent in Both Political Parties
Dean Baker, Truthout: "The deficit is the agenda of the One Percent. There is no reason that the rest of us should be concerned about budget deficits when the rest of the country is struggling with the economic disaster created by the greed and incompetence of the One Percent."
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No Free Speech at Mr. Jefferson's Library
Peter Van Buren, TomDispatch: "Morris Davis got fired from his research job at the Library of Congress for writing that article and a similar letter to the editor of the Washington Post. (The irony of being fired for exercising free speech while employed at Thomas Jefferson's library evidently escaped his bosses.) With the help of the ACLU, Davis demanded his job back.... The case is being heard this month."
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Is There a Way to Be Good Again? How to Be a Man After the Penn State Pedophilia Scandal
Sophia A. McClennen, The Good Men Project: "The major players in the Penn State scandal are all men. Even the administrators that were not part of the football program are all men. All of the victims were boys. The only person to go directly to the police was a mother of one of the victims. These are the facts. And all gender politics aside, these facts force us to think about what this crisis will mean for the men and boys in our community."
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Vacant or Occupied: Where Do the 99 Percent Go When Nature Calls?
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "The restaurant serves as something of a neutral ground, where protesters and policemen are able to switch off the suspicion and hostility born of the power relationship they find themselves in when the latter are specifically charged with supervising the former."
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What Country Do We Want to Keep?
Thomas Drake, Consortium News: "It is pure sophistry to argue that the government can operate secretly with unbridled immunity and impunity - especially for such blatant illegalities as torture and wiretapping without warrants - from those it is constitutionally bound to serve and protect when providing for the common defense of the Nation - and then persecute and prosecute the very people who revealed such wrongdoing and malfeasance."
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent me an email enticing to me to buy Republican swag as a gift for the holidays. Frankly, I thought it was a parody when I looked at the individual items.

One of the bumper stickers I am still wrapping my brain around for some sense of sanity says, "Vote Democrat: It's Easier Than Working." Then, there's a button that evokes a GOP rapture of sorts: "Visualize No Liberals."

Of course, for sale is the inevitable Republican freeloader slogan: "If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Taxes." Ah yes, "the everything for nothing party."

Priebus' offering of holiday gifts manages to be hypocritical and unimaginative at the same time - sort of like second grade insults.

But what makes it all the more perplexing is how the Republican Party in DC - short of the libertarian wing such as Ron Paul - vigorously affirms subsidizing corporations and Wall Street with tax dollars. That's socialism for the moneyed class that the GOP supports.

This most recently came to light, ironically, with a Bloomberg news report, "Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion."

This occurred under the Bush administration, and it was a clear taxpayer subsidy in the billions of dollars to Wall Street that were not paid back. As Bloomberg Markets magazine reveals, "no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed's below-market rates."

This means the working stiff that the GOP so blithely mocks in its holiday "gifts" underwrote Wall Street with taxpayer dollars to the tune of billions of dollars.

Bloomberg news also notes in its analysis of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, "While Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger."

Ah, so much for the faux Republican holiday sloganeering. Did Priebus have Fox "News" design the GOP Store gifts?

In fact, Priebus' shilling of misleading propaganda for the holidays comes on a day that a federal court ruled that Citigroup's $285 million slap-on-the-hand settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is not acceptable. Why?

Because the federal judge in New York said that the SEC fine doesn't reveal the truth about Citigroup's financial misbehavior. According to The Associated Press report:

Judge Jed Rakoff rejected the settlement Monday. The deal would have imposed penalties on Citigroup even as it allowed the company to deny allegations that it misled investors on a complex mortgage investment. The SEC has accused the bank of betting against the investment in 2007 and making $160 million, while investors lost millions.

The judge wrote that there is an overriding public interest in knowing the truth about the financial markets.

What would an Occupy Wall Street holiday button read?

Maybe, "Visualize the Republican Fraudsters Going to Jail."

Or, "Vote Republican and Ensure Taxpayer Subsidies for Wall Street."

That's a store at which I would shop.

Mark Karlin,
Editor of BuzzFlash at Truthout

Five Things to Know About the Durban Climate Talks That Begin This Week
Read the Article at Mother Jones

Pakistan Rejects US Apology
Read the Article at CNN

Julian Assange: Internet Has Become "Surveillance Machine"
Read the Article at Agence France-Presse

Message to the GOP: You Can't Handle the Truth
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Altered Political Environment Gives Democrats New Ability to Tout "Spreading the Wealth"
Read the Article at The New York Times

New York's Ardor for Michael Bloomberg Cools
Read the Article at The Guardian UK

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