Truthout: 19 March 2012
Truthout: 19 March 2012
Chris
Hedges | Murder Is Not an Anomaly in War
Chris
Hedges, Truthdig: "The war in Afghanistan - where the enemy
is elusive and rarely seen, where the cultural and
linguistic disconnect makes every trip outside the wire a
visit to hostile territory, where it is clear that you are
losing despite the vast industrial killing machine at your
disposal - feeds the culture of atrocity.... Civilians and
combatants merge into one detested nameless, faceless mass.
The psychological leap to murder is short."
Read the Article
Police Arrest 73
in Occupy Wall Street Crackdown on Protest Movement's
Six-Month Anniversary (Video)
Amy Goodman, Democracy
NOW!: "Many people reported excessive use of force by
officers; several cases were caught on camera. In one widely
reported incident, a young woman suffered a seizure after
she was pulled from the crowd and arrested. Witnesses say
police initially ignored Cecily McMillan as she flopped
about on the sidewalk with her hands zip-tied behind her
back, but she was eventually taken away in an
ambulance."
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript
Corporate Campaign Spending: They Get What They Pay
for
Salvatore Babones, Truthout: "Why would
corporations want to influence elections? The answer is
simple. It pays. In a January 2011 article in the Journal of
Management, University of Tennessee Business Professor
Russell Crook found that corporate political activity has a
significantly positive effect on company performance
measured using return on investment, return on assets and
government-derived revenues."
Read the Article
With Larry
Summers' World Bank Bid in Trouble, Mexico Insists on Open
Process
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "... [T]he Treasury
had leaked a purported 'short list' consisting of former
Harvard President Larry Summers, UN Ambassador Susan Rice
and Sen. John Kerry. But it turned out that Rice and Kerry
were fake candidates, because neither one wanted the job.
So, it appears that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
really had a 'short list' consisting of just one person: his
buddy Summers. Perhaps Geithner calculated that if he
presented President Obama with a 'short list' consisting of
Summers and two fake candidates, then Obama would have to
choose Summers."
Read the Article
Dean Baker |
Medicare Costs Too Much and They Better Not Cut
It
Dean Baker, Truthout: "There is an old story about
two men in a retirement home. The first declares, 'the food
in this place is poison.' His friend agrees and adds, 'and
the portions are so small.' This exchange perfectly captures
the Republican approach to Medicare."
Read the Article
After Six Months,
a Look at What Occupy Wall Street Has
Accomplished
Travis Waldron, ThinkProgress: "The
movement turned six months old last Saturday, and a closer
look at its record of achievement reveals that it has done
more than spark conversation around Wall Street's
watercoolers. Occupy groups have shifted the national debate
on taxes and inequality, helped homeowners stay in their
homes, forced major policy issues to the forefront of debate
at the state and federal level, and gotten the attention of
the institutions they've challenged most forcefully."
Read the Article
On the News With
Thom Hartmann: Congress' Approval Rating Lowest on Record,
and More
In today's On the News segment: Mitt Romney
won Puerto Rico Sunday night, most conservative Congress in
history also has the lowest approval rating on record,
Julian Assange will run for Australian Senate, and
more.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript
"Librotraficantes" Bring Banned Books Into
Arizona
Valeria Fernandez, New America Media: "'Every
great movement is sparked by outrage at a deep cultural
offense,' said Diaz, founder of Nuestra Palabra: Latino
Writers Having Their Say, a group that promotes Latino
authors and culture. 'Latinos are not the sleeping giant;
we're the working giant. When any state in this nation
passes an anti-Latino law they'll know we'll respond
together,' he said."
Read the Article
Drifting Right,
Illinois Is Test for Romney
Monica Davey, The New
York Times News Service: "Illinois has been known for
choosing Republicans of a moderate brand ... So for Mitt
Romney, who has had to defend himself against the moderate
label elsewhere, a primary here - with its large prize of
delegates and the symbolism of President Obama's backyard -
would seem a welcome, natural fit. And yet ... Illinois is
not shaping up to be the effortless romp some had
presumed."
Read the Article
Reclaiming Our
Rights From HR 347
Phil Rockstroh, Consortium News:
"A new law, known as H.R. 347, expands the power of the
Secret Service and police to arrest protesters near a
'protected person' or at special public events like
nominating conventions.... Reflecting how dire the assault
on civil liberties has become: The aforementioned bill
passed the House of Representatives by a 388 to 3 margin
(and was signed, shortly thereafter, by President Obama, on
Friday March 9, 2012)."
Read the Article
To Break the
Bonds of Injustice
Kerry Kennedy, Inter Press
Service: "As Robert Kennedy broke bread with Cesar Chavez in
1968, so allies from around the country will join members of
the Immokalee Workers who are fasting at Publix Super Market
headquarters, calling on the Florida-based supermarket chain
to meet with [the Coalition of Immokalee Workers] to address
abuses in its supply chain. To date, Publix executives have
declined to meet with CIW representatives and have not
answered a single letter."
Read the Article
Ever More and
Ever Less: The Unstoppable Legacy of the War on
Terror
Karen Greenberg, TomDispatch: "By now, you'd
think we'd be entering the end of the 9/11 era. One war over
in the Greater Middle East, another hurtling disastrously to
its end, and the threat of al-Qaeda so diminished that it
should hardly move the needle on the national worry meter.
You might think, in fact, that the moment had arrived to
turn the American gaze back to first principles: the
Constitution and its protections of rights and
liberties"
Read the Article
Jim Hightower |
Standing Up for Peace
Jim Hightower, OtherWords:
"During a recent city council meeting, the mayor of Keene,
New Hampshire leaned over to a council member and whispered
excitedly: 'We're going to have our own tank.'... [T]hanks
to such richly funded boondoggles as the 'war on drugs' and
the 'war on terrorism,' the federal government is throwing
money at cities and states to militarize their various
police forces. The sensible people of Keene, however, aren't
swallowing the fearmonger pill, and they've forced the town
council to reconsider."
Read the Article
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
Why Didn't Rick Santorum Denounce
the Immoral Epidemic of Child Abuse in the Catholic
Church?
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "Santorum
has run as a fundamentalist Catholic who actually said that
he throws up when he watches the tape of John F. Kennedy, in
his 1960 campaign, proclaiming the separation of church and
state. Yet, in a radio interview, Santorum would not stand
up on behalf of children - many of them now men and women
who have suffered life-long trauma as a result of
institutionalized sexual child abuse within his church.
That's not a moral leader; that's an enabler of vile and
unforgivable violations of the youngest among us."
Read the BuzzFlash Commentary
Paul
Krugman: Hurray for Health Reform
Read the Article at The New York
Times
Broadcasters Fight FCC Plan to Post Names of
Political Ad Buyers on Web
Read the Article at
Bloomberg
Investigate NYPD Violence Against Occupy
Wall Street
Read the Article at The Nation
Bank
of America: Too Crooked to Fail
Read the Article at Rolling Stone
Women Democrats Push for Violence Against Women
Act
Read the Article at Feministing
Al
Gore Endorses Eliminating the Current Obstructionist
Filibuster
Read the Article at
ThinkProgress
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
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