Truthout: 9 April 2012

Chris Hedges | America's Superficial Health Care Debate Silences Single-Payer Supporters
Chris Hedges, Truthdig: "The debate surrounding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act illustrates the impoverishment of our political life. Here is a law that had its origin in the right-wing Heritage Foundation ... and was solidified into federal law after corporate lobbyists wrote legislation with more than 2,000 pages... But you would never know this by listening to the Democratic Party and the advocacy groups that purport to support universal health care but seem more intent on re-electing Obama."
Read the Article

Scott Walker Quietly Signs Anti-Abortion, Abstinence Bills on Eve of Holiday
Igor Volsky, ThinkProgress: "Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) quietly signed three controversial bills on the eve of a holiday weekend to significantly limit access to abortion services and sex education. Walker 'signed the bills Thursday but didn't announce the move until midday Friday' ... Among the 47 other bills, Walker approved the repeal of the state's Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which had offered individuals legal recourse to fight wage discrimination based on race, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation or other factors."
Read the Article

Why the Kochs Matter
Robert Greenwald and Jesse Lava, Brave New Foundation: "Let's say everything that we progressives say about these guys is true. Is there anything that can or should be done about two men participating in the political process? When it comes to the kind of influence the Koch brothers wield, the answer is yes.... The Kochs, who use their wealth to perpetuate and expand their own fortunes, aren't just exercising their rights as humble citizens; they are keeping others from doing the same."
Watch the Video and Read the Article

Keystone XL's Dirty Little Secret
Jim Hightower, OtherWords: "What's the advantage of sending Canadian crude to refineries way down in Port Arthur, Texas? Aha - because it's a port! What the pushers of Keystone want to keep secret from you and me is that this oil will not be made into gasoline for our vehicles. Most of it will be refined into diesel and jet fuel and exported to Europe, China, and Latin America. The claim that the pipeline will reduce our reliance on OPEC is an outright lie."
Read the Article

Dean Baker | Obama and Romney Are Politicians, Not Visionaries
Dean Baker, Truthout: "President Obama and Governor Romney are politicians, not philosophers. They have not made it to the top of the political ladder because of their grand visions of the future. They got their positions by appealing to powerful political actors who were able to give them the money and/or votes needed to get ahead. The absurdity of a competing visions story is apparent to anyone who has looked at the Ryan budget."
Read the Article

As It Was Before Roe, So It Is Again: "Choice" Often Comes Down to Money
Eleanor Bader, Truthout: "When Griesse begins to speak about the women the fund has helped, her voice gets softer and the stories she tells become more and more heartbreaking: There was the 23-year-old who needed an abortion before she could start chemotherapy, the 43-year-old mother of five who'd lost her job, the community college student who was struggling to pay her tuition, the 31-year-old victim of contraceptive failure and the abused teen living on the street."
Read the Article

American Crossroads Super PAC, Eyeing General Election, Aims Blitz at Obama
Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zelaney, The New York Times News Service: "Steven J. Law, the group's leader, said the ads would address the challenge of unseating a president who polls show is viewed favorably even though many people disapprove of his handling of the economy. Basically, Mr. Law said, 'how to dislodge voters from him.' The ultimate goal of the Crossroads campaign, Mr. Law said, would be to better connect Americans' disappointment with the economy to their views of the president, especially among crucial swing voters."
Read the Article

The Invisible Hand Is Invisible Because It Isn't There
Elena Callahan, New Deal 2.0: "[Economist Joseph] Stiglitz says that 'most Americans don't realize that we are no longer the country of opportunity that we think of ourselves, that America today has less equality of opportunity than any of the other advanced industrial countries ... if you're going to be judging how well an economy is doing, clearly I think the key metric that one wants to focus on is what is happening to the living standards of most citizens.'"
Read the Article

Federal Funds to Train the Jobless Are Drying Up
Motoko Rich, The New York Times News Service: "With the economy slowly reviving, an executive from Atlas Van Lines recently visited Louisville, Ky., with good news: the company wanted to hire more than 100 truck drivers ahead of the summer moving season. But a usually reliable source of workers, the local government-financed job center, could offer little help, because the federal money that local officials had designated to help train drivers was already exhausted."
Read the Article

From Political Prisoner to Climate Activist: Ousted Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed Speaks Out
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy NOW!: "To [Nasheed's] surprise, the United States instantly recognized the man who took his place, former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Nasheed was a longtime pro-democracy activist who was jailed for six years under Gayoom's rule. The coup became news across the globe in part because Nasheed has become an internationally recognized leader in the effort to address the root causes of climate change."
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

Left Behind: What We Lost in Iraq and Washington, 2009-2012
Peter Van Buren, TomDispatch: "In some 24 years of government service, I experienced my share of dissonance when it came to what was said in public and what the government did behind the public's back.... What I saw while serving the State Department at a forward operating base in Iraq was, however, different. There, the space between what we were doing ... and what we were saying ... was filled with numb soldiers and devastated Iraqis, not scaredy-cat bureaucrats."
Read the Article

Click here for more Truthout articles

TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

What Is the Biggest Drug Cartel in the World? Big Pharma
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "Big Pharma has not lost the opportunity to push pain-killing drugs and off-label use of many drugs, both of which result in 'collateral damage' injury and death. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, told Truthout that more US citizens die from opiate overdoses due to legally prescribed pharmaceuticals than from heroin."
Read the BuzzFlash Commentary

Obama Administration Silencing Pakistani Drone-Strike Lawyer
Read the Article at Common Dreams

Paul Krugman: The Paul Ryan Phenomenon
Read the Article at The New York Times

Elizabeth Warren Raises $6.9 Million in First Quarter, More Than Double Sen. Scott Brown
Read the Article at The Boston Globe

Democrats' Walker Recall Strategy: It's Not About Unions
Read the Article at Mother Jones

Homeland Security Office Accused of Faking Reports on Internal Investigations
Read the Article at The Center for Investigative Reporting

Marco Rubio's Dream Act: The New "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?
Read the Article at New America Media

For-Profit Schools Under Fire for Targeting Veterans
Read the Article at NPR

Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines

Support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation by clicking here.

© Scoop Media