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Sunday 8 April 2012

The US War on Drug Cartels in Mexico Is a Deadly Failure
Mark Karlin, Truthout: "There is no end game here. The United States is using all its vast powers to do what urban police do in American cities: chase the corner drug dealers out of one area and into another, through the use of temporary intensive 'enforcement' - and then chase them back again at a later date.... Meanwhile, in the United States, controlling the demand side appears to be interpreted as throwing people - particularly minority men - in jail for drug offenses, leading to the highest incarceration rate in the world."
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Survivors Tell of Bloody Aftermath of Continued Fighting in Syria
Anand Gopal, McClatchy Newspapers: "Wounded Syrians being treated in hospitals here are providing detailed accounts of a bloody battle for the town of Taftanaz in northern Syria earlier this week that left the town devastated and scores of residents and an unknown number of soldiers dead. Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar Assad succeeded in gaining control of the town center after two hours of fierce combat, then summarily executed captives and burned bodies, according to the accounts. At least 82 people died, though it was unclear from the survivors how many of those were noncombatants and how many were anti-Assad fighters."
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Poetry, Plasticity, Philosophical Activism
David PalumboLiu, Truthout: "The formula, '99 percent,' seems at once incredibly rhetorical and real. We are used to hyperbole; we are less used to an absurdly lop-sided figure that is actually matched by a reality. Poetic figuration meets statistical validity. Many of our society's inequalities have been rationalized away in statistics. We have statistics for differences by income; in home ownership; and access to employment, health care and education. But behind these statistics are lives and values."
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Deal Reached on Contested Afghan Night Raids
Alissa J. Rubin, The New York Times News Service: "Afghanistan and the United States signed an agreement on Sunday on night military raids that would hand responsibility for carrying out the operations to Afghan forces but allow continued American involvement. The agreement clears the way for the two countries to move ahead with a more comprehensive long-term partnership agreement, say Afghan and American officials."
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Let's Ditch the Empty Suits as Politicians and Bring Back Real Fiscal Policy
Dan Kervick, New Economic Perspectives: "People frequently rail against the pork barrel spending and earmarks that result from the legislative process. But the pork barrels don't worry me nearly as much as handing our economy over to another generation of theory-addled elitists like Alan Greenspan.... We have an election this year. I suggest we use it to ditch the empty suits, the plutocratic shills and the small minds, and fill their spots with people ready to act."
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Welfare Limits Left Poor Adrift as Recession Hit
Jason DeParle, The New York Times News Service: "Perhaps no law in the past generation has drawn more praise than the drive to 'end welfare as we know it,' which joined the late-'90s economic boom to send caseloads plunging, employment rates rising and officials of both parties hailing the virtues of tough love. But the distress of the last four years has added a cautionary postscript: much as overlooked critics of the restrictions once warned, a program that built its reputation when times were good offered little help when jobs disappeared. Despite the worst economy in decades, the cash welfare rolls have barely budged."
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JOBS Act: Something for Nothing?
James Kwak, Baseline Scenario: "The so-called JOBS act is a victory of faith over basic logic. The motivating idea seems to be that if we reduce the regulations that govern the process of raising capital, small companies will find it easier to raise money, and that money will translate into jobs. Many people have pointed out some of the problems with the bill: recently, for example, Andrew Ross Sorkin highlighted the potential for companies to take advantage of investors, and Steven Davidoff pointed out that regulation is probably not the reason for the decline in the number of small company IPOs."
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Monsanto Threatens to Sue Vermont over GMO Labeling Bill
Will Allen and Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association: "The world's most hated corporation is at it again, this time in Vermont. Despite overwhelming public support and support from a clear majority of Vermont's Agriculture Committee, Vermont legislators are dragging their feet on a proposed GMO labeling bill. Why? Because Monsanto has threatened to sue the state if the bill passes."
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Shale Shocked: "Remarkable Increase" In U.S. Earthquakes "Almost Certainly Manmade"
Joe Romm, ThinkProgress: "A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) team has found that a sharp jump in earthquakes in America's heartland appears to be linked to oil and natural gas drilling operations. As hydraulic fracturing has exploded onto the scene, it has increasingly been connected to earthquakes. Some quakes may be caused by the original fracking - that is, by injecting a fluid mixture into the earth to release natural gas (or oil). More appear to be caused by reinjecting the resulting brine deep underground."
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Private Consultants Rake in Public Pension Fund Fees
Mike Alberti, Remapping Debate: "The woes of public pension funds have generally been placed squarely at the feet of public employees, who are often accused of having bloated pension packages that are neither realistic in today's economy nor fiscally sustainable. But much of the damage to pension fund account balances occurred as a result of losses incurred during the collapse of the bubble in 2008 to 2009. Who has been responsible for fund performance? A recent article in The New York Times shed some light on the huge amounts of money that public pension funds pay each year to Wall Street firms for the service of managing their assets."
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The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday, April 9.

US and EU Call on Iran to Close End Uraniam Enrichment to 20% Ahead of "Last-Chance" Talks
Read the Article at Guardian UK

Scott Walker Quietly Repeals Wisconsin's Equal Pay Law
Read the Article at Daily Censored

Stand Your Ground/License to Murder NRA/ALEC Laws Coincide With Jump in Justifiable-Homicide Cases
Read the Article at The Washington Post

Class Warfare Chronicles: Chief Executives Pay Just Keeps Rising
Read the Article at The New York Times

60 Minutes News Legend Mike Wallace Dies at 92
Read the Article at CBS News

Tell Me What You Really Think: the Ten Best Revelations of Keith Olbermann's Lawsuit Against Current TV
Read the Article at ThinkProgress

US is Already Using Drones to Spy in Iran
Read the Article at The Washington Post

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