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Wednesday 15 February 2012

Slavery Lives on in the United States
Dan Archer, Truthout: "September 22, 2012, will mark the 150th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation, President Lincoln's decisive move to abolish slavery nationwide. President Obama echoed this decisive call by declaring January 'National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.' On January 1, 2013, the FBI Unified Crime Reports will at last feature a 'trafficking' category to allow police departments to begin quantifying the size of the problem."
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Could Lieberman Bill Block War-Averting Diplomacy With Iran?
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "There's no question that some people in Washington would very much like for the US to have a policy toward Iran, the endgame of which is war or externally induced regime change.... Now, according to reports from DC, come Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham with a new bill."
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Noam Chomsky | The Imperial Way
Noam Chomsky, TomDispatch: "In the years of conscious, self-inflicted decline at home, 'losses' continued to mount elsewhere.... A look at the studies of public opinion undertaken by U.S. polling agencies in the MENA countries easily explains the western fear of authentic democracy, in which public opinion will significantly influence policy."
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Mike Ludwig | Leak Reveals How Big Business Funds Climate-Change Deniers
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "The climate-change-denying think tank The Heartland Institute pays monthly stipends to vocal global warming skeptics, received $200,000 from the Charles G. Koch Foundation in 2011 and received a total of $3.4 million from corporations in 2010 and 2011, according to internal documents released last night."
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Reforming a Recalcitrant Military
H. Patricia Hynes, Truthout: "In his third State of the Union address, President Obama opened and closed with iconic praise for the military.... Six days earlier, on January 18, 2012, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta held a press conference to report on sexual assault in the military and the new reforms being launched by the Department of Defense (DoD). This public airing of the military's heart of darkness - sexual crime in its ranks - came on the heels of an estimated 19,000 military sexual assaults in the previous year, by DoD calculations."
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Fifty Activist Groups Call for Congressional Hearings on Citizens United
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "Fifty organizations presented letters to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on Tuesday requesting hearings this year on the need to amend the Constitution to overturn Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that opened the floodgates for unlimited independent campaign spending and gave rise to the infamous Super PAC."
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Tentative Deal Reached to Preserve Cut in Payroll Tax
Jennifer Steinhauer, The New York Times News Service: "Members of a House-Senate committee charged with writing a measure to extend a payroll tax reduction and provide added unemployment benefits reached a tentative agreement Tuesday evening, with Republicans and Democrats claiming a degree of political victory in a fight with significant election-year implications."
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Reports Shed Light on Iran Sanctions and US's, Big Oil's Goals in Middle East
Nick Mottern, Truthout: "As I write this, Israel's military planning chief Maj. Gen Amir Eshel is reported by ABC News to have said that if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, an arms race will be touched off that will lead to 'a global nuclear jungle' ... But the situation is more complex, and the anti-Iran campaign has a great deal to do with the fortunes of the world's largest oil companies, rather than with nuclear threats to either Israel or the United States."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Arizona Passes a Law to Establish Its Own Militia, and More
In today's On the News segment: Arizona passes a law to establish its own militia, lawmakers on Capitol Hill received 800,000 reasons to ditch Keystone XL pipeline plans, running against Congress could be a winning strategy for the president this year, and more.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

In Europe, Great Depression Was Bad; This Is Worse
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "One thing everyone always says is that while this Lesser Depression may be bad, it's nothing like the Great Depression. But this is in part an America-centered view: we had a very bad Great Depression, and have done better than many other countries this time around."
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Why Did Petraeus Fire the Auditor Charged With Stopping Flow of Pentagon Funds to Taliban?
Ralph Lopez, War Is a Crime: "The story which reared its head then dropped off the radar in summer of 2010 is still alive: that the major source of funding for the Taliban is likely the Department of Defense itself, estimated around $400 million per year, which is funneled to Afghan 'security' companies as 'protection payments,' for allowing the massive and constant ground traffic of convoys of supplies for US bases to crisscross the country, unhindered by attacks."
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*TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES*

"GOP Priorities out of touch with Americans," crowed an email BuzzFlash at Truthout received today from the Democratic House Leadership Office.

Call it a partisan claim (we get similar boasting emails from the GOP leadership), but the facts of a new New York Times (NYT) poll cited in the correspondence appear to bear out the partisan assertion.

On social issue after issue, the Republican leadership seems to be arguing on the wrong side of the population divide. By a wide majority, including Catholics, Americans back Obama's contraceptive policy. That may be because while the Catholic bishops are all male, an estimated 97 percent of Catholic women have used birth control. Now - if they are insured - the White House is offering it to them and their families for free. If any party should understand the power of the word "free" in politics, it should be the GOP.

Then again, there's the Republican catering to homophobia. However, most Americans back civil unions of some sort, according to the NYT and other polls, which means an increased national acceptance of rights for those who are gay.

One of the NYT findings the Democrats cite is that "67 percent of Americans believe taxes should be increased on those earning more than one million dollars a year to lower the budget deficit, compared to only 29 percent who do not." So much for again extending the Bush tax cut on millionaires.

The NYT also found that "when asked to choose between changing Medicare, Social Security, or the military in order to cut spending an overwhelming 52 percent of respondents picked the military - while just 15 percent said Medicare, 13 percent selected Social Security, and 10 percent replied with none." Whatever happened to that "peace dividend" when we ended the Vietnam War decades ago? Americans, apparently, want to know.

Meanwhile, the GOP aspirants for the presidency are duking it out with variations on dog-whistle appeals to the logically challenged, racially charged Tea Party and the religious extremist wing of the GOP.

More and more, the Republican Party seems to be a last stand contingent for returning to 19th-century America.

In addition to the New York Times, an increasing number of polls indicate that modernity in public opinion is sweeping aside those US citizens who want to encase the nation in some sort of historical museum. Perhaps that is why they are so angry and bitter.

Mark Karlin
Editor BuzzFlash at Truthout

The Globalization of Big-Brother Electronic Surveillance: Just Take a Look at Canada. Yes, Canada
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Mark Morford: Santorum, the Bishops and You
Read the Article at The San Francisco Chronicle

Republicans Risk Their Future in Opposing Gay Marriage
Read the Article at The American Prospect

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Obama's Super PAC Decision Was a Make-or-Break Moment for Democracy
Read the Article at The Washington Post

Walker Campaign Asks Judge for More Time (Again) to Challenge Recall Petitions
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo

WikiLeaks to Launch Global Square in March
Read the Article at Computer World UK

Reducing Support for Education Undercuts America's Future
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

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