Truthout: 12 February 2012
Truthout: 12 February 2012
Where the Right Went Wrong
(Video)
Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co.: "Among the people
who saw this crisis coming was the conservative economist
Bruce Bartlett, the supply-side champion who wrote the
manifesto for the Reagan Revolution.... Yet for all those
credentials, he is today an outcast from the very
conservative ranks where he was once so influential. That's
because Bruce Bartlett dared to write a book criticizing the
second George Bush as a pretend conservative who slashed
taxes but still spent with wild abandon."
Watch the Video and Read the
Transcript
Public Utility, Private Profit:
Privatization of Water is as Benign as
Lucifer
Richard Raznikov, The Rag Blog: "Water is the
basis of all life. It is preposterous that it might be owned
and that some may be thereby deprived of it Thanks, however,
to the World Bank, which is actually just the operative arm
of the largest U.S. banks and whose policies can bring down
governments - c.f. Italy and Greece in the past few months
alone - the commons argument is quickly dying. Most
Americans, being inhabitants of a nation which does not
generally have these worries, are unaware of this."
Read the Article
Even Critics of
Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It
Binyamin
Appelbaum and Robert Gebeloff , The New York Times News
Service: "The government safety net was created to keep
Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no
longer receive a majority of government benefits.... The
share of benefits flowing to the least affluent households,
the bottom fifth, has declined from 54 percent in 1979 to 36
percent in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office
analysis published last year. And as more middle-class
families like the Gulbransons land in the safety net in
Chisago and similar communities, anger at the government has
increased alongside."
Read the Article
James O'Keefe:
Investigating Voter Fraud, or Just a Fraud?
Brad
Friedman, The Brad Blog: "James O'Keefe and his band of
co-conspirators at his ironically named Project Veritas
outfit have another new video in their 'Voter Fraud
Investigation' series out. So that means, naturally, they're
misleading the public again. This time, O'Keefe's video
portends to show some of his courageous, unnamed and unseen
cohorts at various voter registration centers in Minnesota,
asking whether they can have voter registration forms to
take home to 'Thomas Brady' and 'Timothy Tebow,' so they can
register them to vote."
Read the Article
Occupy Movement
Regroups, Preparing for Its Next Phase
Erik Eckholm,
The New York Times News Service: "Far from dissipating,
groups around the country say they are preparing for a new
phase of larger marches and strikes this spring that they
hope will rebuild momentum and cast an even brighter glare
on inequality and corporate greed. But this transition is
filled with potential pitfalls and uncertainties: without
the visible camps or clear goals, can Occupy become a
lasting force for change? Will disruptive protests do more
to galvanize or alienate the public?"
Read the Article
Army Officer's
Leaked Report Rips Afghan War Success Story
Gareth
Porter, Inter Press Service: "An analysis by Lt. Col. Daniel
Davis, which the U.S. Army has not approved for public
release but has leaked to Rolling Stone magazine, provides
the most authoritative refutation thus far of the official
military narrative of success in the Afghanistan War since
the troop surge began in early 2010. In the 84-page
unclassified report, Davis, who returned last fall after his
second tour of duty in Afghanistan, attacks the credibility
of claims by senior military leaders that the U.S.-NATO war
strategy has succeeded."
Read the Article
Bishops Reject
White House's New Plan on Contraception
Laurie
Goodstein, The New York Times News Service: "The nation's
Roman Catholic bishops have rejected a compromise on birth
control coverage that President Obama offered on Friday and
said they would continue to fight the president's plan to
find a way for employees of Catholic hospitals, universities
and service agencies to receive free contraceptive coverage
in their health insurance plans, without direct involvement
or financing from the institutions."
Read the Article
Thirty Queer
Writers Explore What Divides LGBTQ
Communities
Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout: "The 30
writers in Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's latest collection,
'Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?' offers a direct and
searing confirmation of de Montaigne's observation. As they
assess the lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer
(LGBTQ) movement's transition away from the
out-in-the-street celebrations of queer difference that were
common in the 1970s and 80s, they turn a spotlight on those
sidelined by the rush toward respectability and
almost-like-straight-world sameness that has dominated the
agenda for more than a decade."
Read the Article
Guantanamo Ten
Years Later: Guantanamo Expert Andy Worthington
Speaks
Brad Jacobson, Truthout: "On January 12, the
tenth anniversary of the notorious military prison in
Guantanamo Bay, Truthout interviewed investigative
journalist and Guantanamo expert Andy Worthington. Author of
'The Guantanamo Files' and co-director of the film 'Outside
the Law: Stories from Guantanamo,' Worthington has spent the
last six years painstakingly worked to keep alive in the
public consciousness the human faces and personal contexts
of the 779 people imprisoned within the facility."
Read the Article
Under New Law,
France Would No Longer Be Sexual Playground of Men Like
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Janice G. Raymond, Truthout:
"Dominique Strauss-Kahn's (DSK) marauding sexual behavior
has passed out of the news cycle. However, in the aftermath
of DSK's alleged rape of a Guinean hotel maid in New York
and subsequent accusations of his rapacious pattern of
behavior in France, more information about his actions has
emerged. Several recent events have also challenged the
French laissez-faire image of sexual exploitation so
personified by DSK."
Read the Article
Successful Defense
of Poor, Black Tenant in Landlord's Shooting Shows Strength
of Unlikely Coalitions
Carl Finamore, Truthout:
"'People Wasn't Made to Burn' by journalist Joe Allen reads
like a lively, creative work of fiction with its abundance
of larger-than-life characters and a seemingly
overdramatized backstory of shocking events awaiting one
black family escaping rural poverty in the South and landing
amidst Northern urban racism. The story includes corruption,
greed, a heavy dose of Chicago political intrigue,and,
finally, arson, death and murder. It even has a surprise
ending."
Read the Article
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY
HEADLINES
The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday, February 13.
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