Truthout: 25 March 2012
Truthout: 25 March 2012
Murder Incorporated: Guns, the NRA
and the Politics of Violence on the Mexican
Border
Mark Karlin, Truthout: "A phalanx of US law
enforcement and military personnel patrol the Mexican border
for undocumented migrants and drug traffickers, but there is
comparatively little effort to keep firearms, which are
increasingly heavy duty military-style semi-automatic
weapons, from entering Mexico. Indeed, while the flow of the
Rio Grande River separates most of Texas from Mexico, guns
stream into Mexico in an 'iron river' from the United
States."
Read the Article
The Healthcare
Battle Will Be a Proxy Fight of Divisions in American
Politics
Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet: "The Obamacare
battle that will come before the Supreme Court in the
longest hearings in nearly a half-century is a proxy fight
between the seemingly irreconcilable differences in American
politics On one side ... are Republican opponents who do not
want to see federal government do much beyond waging wars,
and who do not even want their states to pay for current
obligations - whether as health programs, pensions or
education - and amazingly, do not even offer an alternative
but instead posture behind their survival-of-the-fittest,
let-the-market-fix-it ideology."
Read the Article
23 States With
"Stand Your Ground" Laws Like Florida
Cora Currier,
ProPublica: "'Stand Your Ground,' 'Shoot First,' 'Make My
Day' - state laws asserting an expansive right to
self-defense - have come into focus after last month's
killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.... Florida is not
alone. Twenty-three other states now allow people to stand
their ground. Most of these laws were passed after
Florida's. (A few states never had a duty to retreat to
begin with.)"
Read the Article
US Plans No
Charges Over Deadly November Strike in Pakistan
Eric
Schmitt, The New York Times News Service: "The United States
military has decided that no service members will face
disciplinary charges for their involvement in a NATO
airstrike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, an
accident that plunged relations between the two countries to
new depths and has greatly complicated the allied mission in
Afghanistan."
Read the Article
Codes of Silence
and Child Abuse Cover-Ups: The Sick Underbelly of
Institutions in the US
Nathalia Jaramillo, Truthout:
"The codes of silence ... are actively produced across
institutional hierarchies, enmeshed within the overriding
logic of profit over people and embedded in profound frames
of intelligibility that further subordinate the
dispossessed. The culture of silence that Superintendent
Deasy speaks about should be investigated.... This should be
a starting point, but from there, broader questions need to
be asked about the overall cultural practices evident in
school sites and further demands need to be made for the
rights of the poor."
Read the Article
Loan Forgiveness
Good for the Economy, and Maybe Fannie and Freddie Mac
Too
By Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica: "New analyses by
mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have added an
explosive new dimension to one of the most politically
charged debates about the housing crisis: Whether to reduce
the amount of money beleaguered homeowners owe on their
mortgages. Their conclusion: Such loan forgiveness wouldn't
just help keep hundreds of thousands of families in their
homes, it would also save Freddie and Fannie money. That, in
turn, would help taxpayers, who bailed out the companies at
a cost of more than $150 billion and are still on the hook
for future losses."
Read the Article
Groups Attempt to
Influence Supreme Court on Healthcare
Eric Lichtblau,
The New York Times News Service: "Justice Clarence Thomas
likens all the outside political pressure that the Supreme
Court is facing over its review of the Obama
administration's sweeping health care law to the distraction
faced by a free-throw shooter confronted with fans waving
wildly behind the basket.... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
which has helped lead opposition to the health care law, has
been hosting moot court sessions to prepare lawyers involved
in the case."
Read the Article
Brooklyn Art
Students Join National Surge of College
Activists
Martha Sorren, Truthout: "These days, it
does seem student activism is on the rise. Through
involvement in Occupy Wall Street and subsequent occupations
of various college campuses, students have made it known
that they want to be involved in the change our country
needs. All over America, students are rising to action when
they feel something needs to be fixed. In Sacramento, a
proposal to cut grant funding crucial for many California
students to attend college was dropped on March 8 when
students and faculty rallied at the capitol building."
Read the Article
Jobs Act: The
Dumbest "Bipartisan" Move Since Repealing
Glass-Steagall
Richard Eskow, Campaign for America's
Future: "Here we go again. Once again the 'bipartisan'
consensus in Washington, fueled by an intoxicating brew of
conventional wisdom laced with campaign cash, has repealed
some of those 'cumbersome regulations' that do nothing of
value - nothing, that is, except prevent catastrophes. There
will be celebrating on both sides of the aisle when the
President signs this bill.... This time it's the deceptively
named 'JOBS Act,' introduced by the far-right Republicans in
Congress and passed overwhelmingly by members of both
parties."
Read the Article
West Coast
"Green" Jobs Data Shows Promise
Maria Galluci, Inside
Climate News: "A group of West Coast leaders has made its
first attempt to quantify how many jobs have been spurred by
the clean economy, a sector that includes engineers who
design solar, wind and efficiency technologies and the
electricians who install them - as well as train conductors,
recycling collectors and organic farmers."
Read the Article
The Republican
Budget, Explained
Dave Johnson, Campaign for
America's Future: "The new Republican budget plan: Smoke,
smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke,
smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke,
smoke. Tax cuts for the 1%, cuts in the things We, the
People do for each other. Smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke,
smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke....
And when it is all cleared away: Tax cuts for the 1%, cuts
in the things We, the People do for each other."
Read the Article
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday, March 26.
Birthers
Want Proof That Mitt Romney Was Born in America
Read the Article at MSNBC
US Paid
$50,000 Per Shooting Spree Death in Afghanistan
Read the Article at AP
7-to-9 Year
Old Looked Suspicious Enough for Zimmerman to Call Police in
Earlier Incident
Read the Article at Daily Kos
Did
Fox News Stop Selling Hoodies After Trayvon Martin's
Death?
Read the Article at
ThinkProgress
Mitt Romney: George W. Bush and Henry
Paulson Saved Country From Depression
Read the Article at The Huffington
Post
Leader of Mali Coup Received Office Training
From US
Read the Article at McClatchy
Newspapers
Rick Santorum Wins in Louisiana
Primary
Read the Article at The Washington
Post
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
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