Truthout: 22 February 2012

Henry A. Giroux | Why Teaching People to Think for Themselves Is Repugnant to Religious Zealots and Rick Santorum
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "Santorum and many of his allies dislike any public institution that enables people to think critically and act with a degree of responsibility toward the public. This is one reason why they hate any notion of public education, which harbors the promise, if not the threat, of actually educating students to be thoughtful, self-reflective and capable of questioning so-called common sense and holding power accountable."
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Who Owns the GOP Candidates
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "Have you heard of William Dore, Foster Friess, Sheldon Adelson, Harold Simmons, Peter Thiel, or Bruce Kovner? If not, let me introduce them to you. They're running for the Republican nomination for president. I know, I know. You think Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney are running. They are - but only because the people listed in the first paragraph have given them huge sums of money to do so."
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Occupy for Prisoners Comes Out Against Mass Incarceration
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "In the United States, more than 2.2 million people sit behind bars, according to the Justice Policy Institute.... But behind the shocking statistics are harsh sentencing laws and lucrative contracts for private prison firms that continue to drive the mass incarceration system, say the protesters at Occupy for Prisons, and they are calling for a fundamental change to the system."
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Once Again, Speculators Behind Sharply Rising Oil and Gasoline Prices
Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers: "US demand for oil and refined products - including gasoline - is down sharply from last year, so much that United States has actually become a net exporter of gasoline, unable to consume all that it makes. Yet oil and gasoline prices are surging. The ostensible reason for the climb of crude prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where ... [there] is [a] growing fear of a military confrontation with Iran in the Persian Gulf's Strait of Hormuz."
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Occupy the Department of Education: Just What Education Activists Were Looking for
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "On behalf of the people of New York City, the Panel for Educational Police (PEP) assembled on the evening of February 9. On behalf of the people of New York City, it deliberated the closure of 23 city schools. And on behalf of the people of New York City, it ignored the thousands of parents, students, teachers and taxpayers who had come to protest and axed the schools anyway. Democracy in action."
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How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street
Ellen Brown, Web of Debt Blog: "The financial sector called [the Black-Scholes equation that opened up the world of derivatives] the Midas Formula and saw it as a recipe for making everything turn to gold. But the markets forgot how the story of King Midas ended. As Aristotle told this ancient Greek tale, Midas died of hunger as a result of his vain prayer for the golden touch. Today, the Greek people are going hungry to protect a rigged $32 trillion Wall Street casino."
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Oil: In Perpetuity No More
Dahr Jamail, Al Jazeera: "Industrial civilization's entire economy is based on a finite resource we treat as infinite.... The leading OPEC countries, which account for two-thirds of the world's oil reserves, have all passed their peak production points."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: January Was a Good Month for SuperPACs, and More
In today's On the News segment: January was a good month for SuperPACs, President Obama has been good to gun owners in America, the Occupy movement is planning an action against the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and more.
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Why Patriarchal Men Are Utterly Petrified of Birth Control - and Why We'll Still Be Fighting About It 100 Years From Now
Sara Robinson, AlterNet: "What's happening in Congress, as Rep. Darrell Issa bars any women from testifying at his so-called 'religious freedom' hearings, is so familiar and expected that it hardly counts as news. The only thing surprising about it is the year: didn't we all honestly think that by 2012, contraception would be a non-issue, and Congress wouldn't make the mistake of leaving women out of conversations like this one? Yes, we did."
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Five Key Facts About the Obama Administration's Corporate Tax Overhaul
Pat Garofalo, ThinkProgress: "The Obama administration today is unveiling an overhaul of the corporate tax code, proposing to lower the top corporate income tax rate while eliminating a host of deductions and loopholes.... The U.S. already has the second lowest effective corporate tax rate in the world, and is raising historically low amounts of revenue from the corporate income tax. In fact, corporate tax revenue is at a 40 year low, even though corporate profits have rebounded to their pre-recession heights."
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With Mass Child Freezing Deaths, Proof of Mass Starvation, US in Violation of Geneva Conventions in Afghanistan
Ralph Lopez, War Is A Crime: "In 1949, at the Fourth Geneva Convention, the responsibilities of an 'occupying power' were recognized as a part of international law, to remain in effect as long as the occupier was the true and final authority in the client country ... What is abundantly clear is that there is no lack of 'means available to' the US to meet its responsibilities [in Afghanistan] under Articles 55 through Article 60 of Geneva, especially when the afflicted populations are in the most secure part of the country."
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Inside Rick Santorum's Head: For Him, the Right to Privacy Doesn't Exist
Jim Hightower, Other Words Blog: "Ayatollah Rick [Santorum] is a bit obsessed with what you might be doing in your bedroom. The Supreme Court, he asserts, was wrong to rule that we have a right to consensual sex in our homes. 'Then you have the right to bigamy,' he wails, 'the right to polygamy ... to incest ... adultery ... the right to anything.' Then comes his punch line: 'This right to privacy doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution.'"
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Bill Moyers Interviews Rita Dove on the Power of Poetry (Video)
Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co.: "Bill welcomes former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, who this very week received the National Medal of Arts from President Obama. Dove served two terms as Poet Laureate, the youngest and the first African American to be named to that prestigious position. Through an intimate conversation and select readings, Moyers and Dove explore American history, language, culture, and ideas."
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

Colbert Guillotines Santorum
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "Stephen Colbert distilled the absurdity of Rick Santorum's attack on President Obama's governing 'theology': 'Folks, I have often warned you that President Obama is an anti-religious zealot, which is surprising since he is also a devout secret Muslim.' Santorum has recently gone for broke in running on a platform that the United States should be governed based on his personal interpretation of the bible."
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Thanks, Rick Santorum! Your Backward Views are Alerting American Voters About GOP Extremism
Read the Article at Salon

Texas Becomes Battlefield in Keystone XL Pipeline Fight
Read the Article at The Sun Herald

College Affirmative Action Threatened by US High Court Case
Read the Article at The San Francisco Chronicle

Michigan's Hostile Corporate Takeover
Read the Article at Mother Jones

The Map That Proves Red Staters Use the Safety Net, Too
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo

Does Occupy Wall Street Have a Future in Politics?
Read the Article at Time Magazine

Democratic Senators Want SuperPAC Crackdown
Read the Article at Politico

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