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Friday 27 April 2012

A Phoenix Rising: Common-Good Conservatism
Michael Stafford and D. R. Tucker: "Taken as a whole, the rise of libertarian-conservatism has dragged the Republican Party far to the right. So far, in fact, that it now regularly loses winnable races by nominating extreme candidates or sabotages the prospects of more mainstream figures by forcing them to parrot its fringe positions in order to survive primaries. This can be seen in the current Republican presidential primary with Mitt Romney. He toes the standard libertarian-conservative line and it's doubtful he'll be able to repudiate this later in the campaign, no matter how furiously he shakes his famous Etch A Sketch."
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Michael Winship and Bill Moyers | The Ghost of Joe McCarthy Slithers Again
Michael Winship and Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co.: "Like McCarthy, the more Allen West is challenged about his comments, the more he doubles down on them. Now he's blaming the 'corrupt liberal media' for stirring the pot against him - a trick for which McCarthy taught the master class. And the congressman's latest fusillades continue to distort the beliefs and policies of those he smears - no surprise there, either. There could even be a super PAC in this - with McCarthy's ghost as its honorary chairman."
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House Passes CISPA in Surprise Vote; Opponents Will Continue to Fight in Senate
Mike FCC Requires TV Stations to Put Political Ad Files Online, Truthout: "The House passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) in a surprise vote late Thursday despite a veto threat from the White House and opposition from civil liberties groups that say the bill undermines existing privacy law and would allow private companies to spy on American citizens. 'Cybersecurity does not have to mean abdication of Americans' online privacy,' said ACLU legislative counsel Michelle Richardson. 'As we've seen repeatedly, once the government gets expansive national security authorities, there's no going back.'"
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Washington Post's Kaplan and Other For-Profit Colleges Joined ALEC
David Halperin, Republic Report: "For-profit colleges are the ultimate special interest. Many receive around 90 percent of their revenue from federal financial aid, more than $30 billion a year, and many charge students sky-high prices. Are you surprised to learn that these subprime schools joined the now-discredited ALEC, the secretive group that connects corporate special interests with campaign contribution-hungry state legislators in order to dominate lawmaking at the state level? No, you probably aren't surprised."
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Broadcasters, Citizens United and the Perfect Storm (Part I)
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "As broadcasters take in record amount of political advertising money and give little indication of where it came from while lobbying against rules that would require increased transparency of this intake, transparency advocates like Free Press argue that companies including News Corporation, NBC Universal and the Walt Disney Company have created a perfect storm of political misinformation."
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Senate Votes to Reauthorize Domestic Violence Act
Jonathan Weisman, The New York Times News Service: "The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and expand its reach to American Indians and homosexuals, after Republicans opted to sidestep an expected partisan brawl. But a political fight still looms when the House takes up a version of the legislation next month that is shorn of the hot-button issues added in the Senate. The final vote, 68 to 31, including 15 Republicans, belied the partisan maneuvering that preceded Senate action on the bill."
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Afghan Security Forces Attack Coalition Troops, Officials Say
Rod Nordland, The New York Times News Service: "The shootings were the latest in a series of so-called green-on-blue incidents in Afghanistan this year after public anger erupted over inadvertent Koran burnings at an American base in late February. If reports implicating an Afghan special forces soldier prove true, it would be especially worrying for the NATO coalition. Highly trained and closely mentored by American advisers, the special forces are due to take over from the Americans sensitive duties like night raids."
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FCC Requires TV Stations to Put Political Ad Files Online
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) voted today to require major commercial TV stations to post online public files and political advertising files that detail crucial information on the campaign advertisements they air. Media reformers and transparency advocates are not completely satisfied with the new rule because only stations run by the top four broadcasting companies - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox - and operating in the nation's top 50 markets must comply in the coming weeks."
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Understanding Student Debt
Bhaskar Sunkara, In These Times: "Yesterday, the level of American student debt passed the trillion dollar mark. There was little mention of the milestone in the mainstream media, but the Occupy Student Debt Campaign and its allies marked the occasion with '1T Day,' a national day of action. It's a start, but it doesn't come close to the scale of the problem. That's an important juxtaposition: student debt and the crisis of higher education more generally is more pronounced in the United States than elsewhere in the developed world, but the level of student organization and resistance is lower here."
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No End in Sight for Tuition Hike Dispute Between Quebec's Government, University Students
Alissa Bohling, Truthout: "Striking students say everyone stands to lose access to education if the hikes are not stopped, and a campaign by students at Quebec's McGill University, called Tuition Truth, maintains that women, people of color and the poor will be disproportionately affected by rising costs. The Simone de Beauvoir Institute ... has supported the strike, and recently pointed to a study that indicates after the fee increase, single mothers would have to set aside 8 percent more of their earnings than two-parent families to pay for one child's undergraduate degree."
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Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? (Video)
Donald Goldmacher, Heist - The Movie: "'Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?' is a feature documentary that investigates the roots of the current economic crisis and the continuing assault on working people in the United States. 'Heist' reveals who created the slide that has left the middle class reeling, exposing how corporate leaders worked with elected politicians of both major parties to create the largest transfer of wealth in history. Heist posits that a fair economy requires that those responsible for the crisis be held accountable; rigorous reforms must be enacted into law."
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A History of the World, BRIC by BRIC
Pepe Escobar, TomDispatch: "However, BRICS cohesion, to the extent it exists, centers mostly around shared frustration with the Masters of the Universe-style financial speculation that nearly sent the global economy off a cliff in 2008. True, the BRICS crew also has a notable convergence of policy and opinion when it comes to embattled Iran, an Arab Sprung Middle East, and Northern Africa. Still, for the moment the key problem they face is this: they don't have an ideological or institutional alternative to neo-liberalism and the lordship of global finance."
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Occupy and Failure
Natasha Lennard, The Occupy! Gazette: "Looking ahead to May 1st, different individuals and groups are anticipating events and hoping for a multitude of different outcomes - there is no one idea shared even among organizers who have been collaborating to plan what a successful general strike would constitute that day. It's tempting to align with the media narrative and worry in advance about whether May Day will be a success, and what 'success' here might mean. It's better, perhaps, to keep in mind our beautiful and shared failures over the past six months."
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New Keystone XL Route: Out of the Sandhills, but Still in the Aquifer
Lisa Song, InsideClimate News: "'Water has always been first and foremost in our mind,' said Tom Genung of Hastings, Neb.... 'We were promised everything would be okay if [the pipeline] got out of the Sandhills ... but it's not.' The company's preferred corridor avoids the Sandhills of southwest Holt County, just as TransCanada promised it would. But it still crosses through northern Holt County, where the soil is often sandy and permeable and the water table is high - the same characteristics that make the Sandhills so vulnerable to the impact of an oil spill."
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Obama Implies He Will Approve Keystone XL Pipeline as Former General Cites Its Threat
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "In a nod that his campaign will be using climate change as a wedge issue this year against Romney, Obama, however, implied that he thought too much of a ruckus was made about the Keystone XL Pipeline - and all but said that he would approve it."
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Exxon Makes $104 Million in Profit Per Day So Far in 2012, While Americans Are Stuck With a Higher Gas Bill
Read the Article at ThinkProgress

Meet the 28 Lawmakers Who Have Quit ALEC This Month
Read the Article at The Nation

Every President Has Campaigned for Re-Election on Air Force One, So Why Is Obama Different?
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

"If Paul Ryan Knew What Poverty Was, He Wouldn't Be Giving This Speech"
Read the Article at Mother Jones

The Government's Overreach on Bradley Manning
Read the Article at the ACLU

Gulf Coast Waters Closed to Shrimping Due to Poisoned Shrimp Catch
Read the Article at DailyKos

Dial G for Gaffe: Romney Press Calls Take Messaging Off Track
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo

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