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."
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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."
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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.)"
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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."
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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."
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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."
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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."
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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."
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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."
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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."
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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."
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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

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