The major sea change in media discussions of Obama and civil liberties
The controversies over the IRS and especially the AP phone records appear to have long-lasting effects By Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk Barack Obama Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images Due to the controversies over the IRS and (especially) the DOJ’s attack on AP’s news gathering process, media outlets have suddenly decided that President Obama has a very poor record [...]
Argentina’s General Videla and the “war on terror”
By Bill Van Auken, wsws.org Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla died May 17 at the age of 87 as the result of injuries suffered from a fall in a prison shower. He was remembered as the head of a savage military dictatorship that between 1976 and 1983 murdered and “disappeared” some 30,000 Argentine workers, socialist militants, [...]
By Chris Hedges Joe Sacco and I spent two years reporting from the poorest pockets of the United States for our book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.”We went into our nation’s impoverished “sacrifice zones”—the first areas forced to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace—to show what happens when unfettered corporate capitalism and ceaseless economic expansion [...]
PBS Killed Wisconsin Uprising Documentary “Citizen Koch” To Appease Koch Brothers
By Brendan Fischer, PRWatch | Report “Citizen Koch,” a documentary about money in politics focused on the Wisconsin uprising, was shunned by PBS for fear of offending billionaire industrialist David Koch, who has given $23 million to public television, according to Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. The dispute highlights the increasing role of private money in “public” television and raises [...]
Why Obama Will Walk Away Unscathed by the Current Political Scandals
by Pascal Robert, Black Agenda Report Don’t worry about Barack Obama. He’s far too useful to the rulers of America to be derailed by scandal, or even a combination of scandals. “Obama’s neoliberal government giveaways to private corporations and mercenary foreign policy already make him too valuable to the guardians of American empire to have [...]
Obama’s War on Free Expression
by Stephen Lendman It’s the most fundamental right. Without it all others are endangered. Obama’s waging war to destroy it. He’s done so throughout his tenure. He targeted AP. He did so unjustifiably. A previous article discussed it. Did you like this? Share it:
The Jesuit Pope – Who is Francis and who he pretends to be
Written by Esquerda Marxista editorial board Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The election of Pope Francis marks a turn in the prolonged crisis of the Catholic Church. It is important for revolutionaries to understand the reasons for the ongoing struggle within the Church. Far from moving to the left, Francis is trying to entrench the Church in [...]
Apple CEO defends multi-billion-dollar tax dodge
By Andre Damon, wsws.org Apple CEO Tim Cook used his appearance Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations—called to investigate Apple’s evasion of billions of dollars in taxes—to call for a sharp reduction in the corporate tax rate. The senators on the committee, Democratic and Republican alike, agreed with Cook [...]
Por Leonora Esquivel Frías, Directora/Fundadora de AnimalNaturalis Internacional
By Jim Hightower, Creators.com, with select comments from the original threads.
Our thanks to colleague Jenelle Green, of Occupy Corporate News for alerting us to this piece.
Activist T-shirt created to defend the USPS. Courtesy of Cranky Beagle.
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What does 50 cents buy these days? Not a cuppa joe, a pack of gum or a newspaper. But you can get a steal of deal for a 50-cent piece: a first-class stamp. Plus a nickel in change.
Each day, six days a week, letter carriers traverse 4 million miles toting an average of 563 million pieces of mail, reaching the very doorsteps of our individual homes and workplaces in every single community in America. From the gated enclaves and penthouses of the uber-wealthy to the inner-city ghettos and rural colonias of America’s poorest families, the U.S. Postal Service literally delivers. All for 45 cents. The USPS is an unmatched bargain, a civic treasure, a genuine public good that links all people and communities into one nation. Continue reading »
“Clean coal” hits the river. Image from Keep WV Wild. Please click on picture for larger image.
On March 29th, President Obama engaged in some of the most honest discussion of the realities of oil and oil corporations I have heard from a politician. He also engaged in some big lies of omission (elisions). So let’s start with the “truths.”
(I have included the video of President Obama’s speech on 3/29/2012, and my transcript of same, at the end of this article so that readers can get the the points in context.) Continue reading »
by William Blum
www.killinghope.org
The Holy Triumvirate — The United States, NATO, and the European Union — or an approved segment thereof, can usually get what they want. They wanted Saddam Hussein out, and soon he was swinging from a rope. They wanted the Taliban ousted from power, and, using overwhelming force, that was achieved rather quickly. They wanted Moammar Gaddafi’s rule to come to an end, and before very long he suffered a horrible death. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was democratically elected, but this black man who didn’t know his place was sent into distant exile by the United States and France in 2004. Iraq and Libya were the two most modern, educated and secular states in the Middle East; now all four of these countries could qualify as failed states. Continue reading »
Darrell Issa: This smiling Republican creep, sent to Congress by misguided Californians, is leading the charge against the USPS.
By Patrice Greanville
MSNBC host Ed Schultz delivered one of the most impassioned and informed pleas for the survival of the USPS, currently under all-out dishonest attack (is there any other kind?) by the Republicans, a charge led by the contemptible Darrell Issa. The campaign—which in reality aims to further cripple unions in general and public employes in the particular— has advanced this far for the usual reasons: Obama has remained passive and absent from this struggle, providing no bully pulpit leadership to fire up the public, which could have quickly turned the tables against the GOP in terms of public opinion; the head of the USPS itself is party to the “contract” on the post office he is supposed to defend; and a complicit Democratic party has done practically nothing to denounce and oppose the GOP moves. Meanwhile, with the corporate media indifferent to the issue, the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of workers and millions of Americans hang in the balance. Continue reading »
By Patrice Greanville
We said in a prior that Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC host, is superb at demolishing Rethuglicans (See Maddow tackles Obama: The exception that proves the rule (VIDEO), and this piece proves it. I think pieces like this one have value in providing ammo for those ready and willing to oppose the system, since the GOP is an integral part of it, and its rottenness can’t be dismissed as a mere temporary aberration. HOWEVER, as also mentioned in the previous article, Maddow largely defeats the impact of her presentation by staying within a very narrow, non-systemic ambit, devoid of any class analysis, which leaves Democrats off the hook for their frequent betrayals and complicity, and notorious lack of leadership. This is what has permitted the GOP to become once again a major player in American “politics.” Continue reading »