Truthout: 21 March 2012

Romney Wins Illinois Big, Takes Big Stride Toward Nomination
David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers: "Mitt Romney's march to the Republican presidential nomination got a huge, possibly decisive, boost Tuesday as he scored an overwhelming victory in the Illinois presidential primary. Primary voters who said the economy was the top issue preferred Romney, according to exit polls, and those who said their vote hinged on who could best beat President Barack Obama heavily favored Romney."
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Details of Talks With IAEA Belie Charge Iran Refused Cooperation
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service News: "The first detailed account of negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran last month belies earlier statements by unnamed Western officials portraying Iran as refusing to cooperate with the IAEA in allaying concerns about alleged nuclear weaponization work ... The talks in February came close to a final agreement, but were hung up primarily over the IAEA insistence on being able to reopen issues even after Iran had answered questions about them to the organization's satisfaction."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Health Insurance Companies Are Charging Women an Extra Billion Dollars Annually, and More
In today's On the News segment: Health insurance companies are charging women in America an extra billion dollars annually, the backlash against Paul Ryan’s radical budget plan continues, the DOJ says Florida is discriminating against minority voters, and more.
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A Colossal Mistake of Historic Proportions: The "JOBS" Bill
Simon Johnson, The Baseline Scenario: "From the 1970s until recently, Congress allowed and encouraged a great deal of financial market deregulation - allowing big banks to become larger, to expand their scope, and to take on more risks.... With the so-called JOBS bill, on which the Senate is due to vote Tuesday, Congress is about to make the same kind of mistake again - this time abandoning much of the 1930s-era securities legislation that both served investors well and helped make the US one of the best places in the world to raise capital."
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Nonviolent Protests in Russia: About the Elections, or Also for the Future?
Anna Derinova, Truthout: "Only two years ago, civil protests would have been of marginal interest to most Russians.... The full sweep of these nonviolent actions has embraced all the major population centers, having been initially triggered by numerous reports of vote-rigging in parliamentary elections. Considering these events, which could be fairly called 'the Russian Spring,' one could ask a number of questions regarding the conditions that inspired people to join these peaceful protests. What are their reasons and demands? Is it just about Vladimir Putin?"
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Thom Hartmann's Enlightened Journey
Thom Hartmann, Berrett-Koehler Publishers: "My wife, Louise, and I came of age in a world that was fundamentally different from the world in which today's young people are growing up. Student debt? The idea was alien to Americans for most of our history, until the predators got into the system ... It's creating a generation of serfs for the multinational corporations - kids so afraid to challenge or leave their employers that they are little better off than the indentured workers who came here in the nineteenth century from Europe."
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SUV Burning Spurred Internal Debate at DHS on Its Role Regarding Occupy, First Amendment Activity
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "On October 24, 2011, a domestic terrorism analyst with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Homeland Counterterrorism Division emailed colleagues an article he or she had come upon in Grey Coast Anarchist News ... 'I'd like to know what objections CRCL [the department's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties] might pose to such a product concerning the Occupy movement - which has thus far been nonviolent' [the email said]."
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Wall Street Confidence Trick: The Interest-Rate Swaps That Are Bankrupting Local Governments
Ellen Brown, Truthout: "For more than a decade, banks and insurance companies convinced local governments, hospitals, universities and other nonprofits that interest-rate swaps would lower interest rates on bonds sold for public projects such as roads, bridges and schools. The swaps were entered into to insure against a rise in interest rates; but instead, interest rates fell to historically low levels.... The banks got in trouble, and the Federal Reserve and federal government rushed in to bail them out, rewarding them for their misdeeds at the expense of the taxpayers."
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A Seven-Day Plan to Finally Hold Wall Street Accountable
Bruce Judson, New Deal 2.0: "Since the start of the financial crisis, federal and state officials have been struggling to change Wall Street behavior. To date, every effort has failed miserably, and the weak enforcement provisions of the robo-mortgage settlement are unlikely to meaningfully change this dynamic.... The greatest moral hazard now confronting the nation is what appears to be increasingly brazen criminal activity by financial industry executives. With each decision not to prosecute, Wall Street executives justifiably conclude that they are immune to the rules."
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DHS Denied Louisiana Fusion Center Request for Federal Intelligence on OWS
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "Baton Rouge-based Toby Coates of the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis submitted a Support Request Form to the DHS ... Coates requested: 'Any DHS products identifying and/or describing criminal activities and/or potential civil disobedience associated with the Occupy Wall Street protests nationwide. How many arrests have been made, type and number of weapons confiscated, communication used to plan these crimes, etc?'"
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BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

The NRA and Florida Legislators Gave George Zimmerman a License to Murder Trayvon Martin
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "Let's be blunt: if you were given a chance to shoot and kill someone you didn't like or detested for whatever reason (maybe the color of their skin, a detestable neighbor or your spouse's or partner's lover), and you were guaranteed getting away with it - not even being arrested - would you do it? Well, in Florida and some other states, thanks to the NRA, you can. It's guilt-free, punishment-free murder, courtesy of the gun lobby."
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Why Is the GOP Turning Against Anti-Domestic-Violence Legislation?
Read the Article at Slate

Pastor John Hagee's Christian Zionist Enterprise Hits One Million Member Mark
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Florida State Workers Face Random Drug Tests Under New Law
Read the Article at The Chicago Tribune

Undocumented Immigrants Honored in California Assembly
Read the Article at The Fresno Bee

The GOP Body Count
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Women Give Rick Perry the Facebook Backlash
Read the Article at The Washington Post

Another Hidden Bailout: Helping Wall Street Collect Your Rent
Read the Article at Rolling Stone

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