Truthout: 16 March 2012

William Rivers Pitt | Everything Dies
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "The power of the pen - a single op-ed - cost these brutes more than $2 billion in a single day. That, right there, is capitalism. Real capitalism. An institution which decrees that those who can't compete, and those who cheat, die. Hm. Sounds pretty good to me. 'Too Big To Fail' is someone else's catch-phrase. Nothing on the skin of this Earth is too big to fail."
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On Bank of America, Occupy Wall Street Has Told You So
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "The police were very careful to block all entrances to Goldman Sachs' global headquarters, which the march's route passed. As always, they caught an earful from the protesters whose point they were demonstrating. 'Your back is turned to the real crooks,' one protester harangued. Another piped up, 'You should be protecting us from them, not protecting them from us.'"
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Poll: Sixty-Five Percent of Americans Want More Fracking Regulations
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "Sixty-five percent of 1,002 adults polled this month favored more regulation of the natural gas drilling practice, while 18 percent want less and 17 percent aren't sure. The ongoing natural gas boom has boosted domestic production, reduced prices for consumers and created 600,000 jobs, according to Bloomberg, but the impacts of fracking - especially on drinking water supplies - have made it one of the nation's most divisive and talked-about environmental issues."
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Giving Up Your Bank for Lent
Michael Winship, Moyers & Co.: "Inspector General David Montoya said, 'I believe the reports we just released will leave the reader asking one question - how could so many people have participated in this misconduct? The answer - simple greed.' Simple greed - hey banks, how about giving that up for Lent?"
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Democratic Senators Issue Strong Warning About Use of the Patriot Act
Charlie Savage, The New York Times News Service: "On Thursday, two of those senators - Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado - went further. They said a top-secret intelligence operation that is based on that secret legal theory is not as crucial to national security as executive branch officials have maintained."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: SOPA Corporate Creep, and More
In today's On the News segment: a major for-profit college scandal involving Goldman Sachs, Republican women speak out against ultrasound "shaming" legislation, protesters arrested outside of Sudanese Embassy, and more.
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USDA: Schools Can Opt Not to Feed "Pink Slime" to Students
Maria Recio, McClatchy Newspapers: "The USDA, roiled by more than 225,000 signatures on the online petition that was launched in early March as well as the ongoing publicity, made its decision in advance of the April purchase order for the fall's school lunch program. Some 32 million children are fed each day in the government's lunch program."
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Bain Capital Tied to Surveillance Push in Chinese Cities
Andrew Jacobs and Penn Bullock, The New York Times News Service: "In December, a Bain-run fund in which a Romney family blind trust has holdings purchased the video surveillance division of a Chinese company that claims to be the largest supplier to the government's Safe Cities program, a highly advanced monitoring system that allows the authorities to watch over university campuses, hospitals, mosques and movie theaters from centralized command posts."
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Occupy Your Constitution
Camilo A. Ramirez and Marcus Michelsen, Truthout: "We, the people, the fourth branch of government, are in a race against the clock to establish explicit constitutional safeguards against our government's aggression. By wielding both the accusation of terrorism and the remedy against it, the executive branch has taken over the role of creating the legal regime through which it operates."
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Texas Decision to Block Planned Parenthood Results in Loss of Federal Funds
Amanda Peterson Beadle, ThinkProgress: "The Obama administration notified Texas yesterday that it was officially stopping funds to the Texas Women's Health Program because of the state's decision to block abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, from participating in the program. About half of the participating clinics were cut off by the new state rule that went into effect this week, affecting 130,000 women."
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At Last, Some Decency on Wall Street
Robert Scheer, Truthdig: "Contrast Smith, who announced his resignation from Goldman in the Op-Ed article, and Siewert, who has just joined up with the greed merchants after working in the administration that made that greed legal. Clearly, people like Siewert, comfortable in the Washington-Wall Street axis, have no sense of shame. They know all too well what Goldman and the other financial swindlers have been up to, causing so much misery for tens of millions throughout the world."
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Why Republicans Aren't Mentioning the Real Cause of Rising Prices at the Gas Pump
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "As I've noted before, oil supplies aren't being squeezed. Over 80 percent of America's energy needs are now being satisfied by domestic supplies. But Wall Street is betting on higher oil prices in the future - and that betting is causing prices to rise. These bets are pushing up oil prices because Wall Street firms and other big financial players now dominate oil trading."
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Is Parody a Felony? Latest Twist in Fight Over GOP Suppression of Wisconsin Labor Art Show
Roger Bybee, In These Times: "Konopacki and other artists were deeply offended when Republican State Rep. Steve Nass leaned on the University of Wisconsin School for Workers - the nation's longest standing labor education program - to cancel an art exhibition displaying the enormous outpouring of creativity unleashed in artwork, signs, posters and banners by last year's labor rebellion. With the School for Workers funding always vulnerable to being wiped out by the Republicans, the school saw no alternative but to cancel the exhibition."
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What Other Skeletons Lurk in the NYPD's Closet?
Shahid Buttar, Truthout: "Congress was right: the fifth set of NYPD abuses, repeatedly violating First Amendment rights, reflects precisely the problem that Congress foresaw a generation ago. The department's use of CIA tactics has tarred and feathered entire communities, and Muslims are hardly the first victims."
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BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

Mississippi Freeloads on the Back of Blue State Taxpayers for Federal Subsidies to Survive
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "Yes, it's true, as BuzzFlash at Truthout documented a short time ago, the State of Mississippi (MS) 'sucks up $2.73 in federal support for every dollar its residents pay in national taxes.' In the dog-whistle language of the right wing, that makes the state where 66 percent of GOP voters believe in creationism, an official 'welfare state.' In short, the MS state government run out of Jackson is a leech upon the US government, but try telling that to Mitt Romney."
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Afghanistan: The Wheels Are Coming Off
Read the Article at The Nation

For Women's Rights, Another Round of Defensive Victories
Read the Article at This Can't Be Happening

In the Absence of New Ideas and Intelligent Thought, the Right Tends to Dredge Up Improbable Scenarios
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Our Immoral Drone War
Read the Article at Salon

End of an Error: The Car Century Begins to Wane
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo

Is "Deceased" the Average Age of a Typical White Male Rush Limbaugh Listener?
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

NAACP to Call on UN to Investigate Voter Disfranchisement in US
Read the Article at The Guardian UK

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