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Wednesday 2 May 2012

Henry A. Giroux | Violence, USA: The Warfare State and the Brutalizing of Everyday Life
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "Since 9/11, the war on terror and the campaign for homeland security have increasingly mimicked the tactics of the enemies they sought to crush. Violence and punishment as both a media spectacle and a bone-crushing reality have become prominent and influential forces shaping American society.... The metaphysics of war and associated forms of violence now creep into every aspect of American society."
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Jim Hightower | The Stench of Bentonville Spreads to Mexico - and Back
Jim Hightower, Truthout: "Wal-Mart has long boasted of its 'Always Low Prices,' but now it has confirmed that it also has 'Always low morals.' The bottom line has always been THE line for Wal-Mart executives, and sinking to the ethical bottom to enhance that line has not only been tolerated, but legitimized as a proven path to executive promotion and riches.... Now, we can add bribery to the list of accepted practices - so accepted that even getting caught at it doesn't mean you get fired."
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The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying to Keep Marijuana Illegal
Lee Fang, Republic Report: "Last year, over 850,000 people in America were arrested for marijuana-related crimes. Despite public opinion, the medical community, and human rights experts all moving in favor of relaxing marijuana prohibition laws, little has changed in terms of policy ... It's worth showing that there are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep our broken drug laws on the books."
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The United States Military ... a Crusader Force?
Michael L. Weinstein, Truthout: "Countless armed forces members have reached out to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to express their dire concern regarding the proliferation of literature, imagery, insignia, and much more which indicates that, indeed, some do see themselves as the Christian extremist counterparts of their Islamic fundamentalist, Salafi-Jihadist foes. This extremely dangerous Islamophobia, inextricably intertwined into the very fabric of the US armed forces, has reached such a dire level of toxicity that it caused America's highest-ranking soldier to actually DO something about it just last week."
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What Did We Get for 381 US Dead Since the Death of Bin Laden?
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "No US official has explained to us yet what we won in Afghanistan since May 2, 2011, that justified the additional sacrifice that we have made in Afghanistan since Osama bin Laden's death ... President Obama said: 'We devastated al-Qaeda's leadership, taking out over 20 of their top 30 leaders.' It sounds like an impressive statistic, until you try to understand what it really means."
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In Afghanistan, Obama Says Wars of 9/11 Nearing an End
Jonathan S. Landay and Lesley Clark, McClatchy Newspapers: "President Barack Obama told Americans that after a decade of post-September 11th wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, 'we can see the light of a new day' - hours after signing an agreement that extended the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan ... Obama said the U.S. is prepared to shift into a limited support role in the region after combat troops leave in 2014 and begin to 'emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home.'"
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The Current Business Paradigm Is Toxic to Business and Society. Here's How We Change It
Rinaldo Brutoco and Sam Yau, World Business Academy: "Reformation that cracked the centralized control of the Catholic Church right down the middle and ended its dominance as the unchallenged organizer and controller of western civilization ... A similar global mind change awaits us. In the Second Renaissance, we value the subjective experience of every human being and return the human to the center of our world, but in harmony with the planet and all its other living inhabitants."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Newt Gingrich Will Suspend His Campaign for President, and More
In today's On the News segment: Newt Gingrich will suspend his campaign for president, 25 major US corporations on the Fortune 500 list paid their CEOs more money than they paid in taxes in 2011, the most radical Supreme Court decision in recent memory might get another hearing, and more.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

Activists Occupy the Justice Department to Demand an End to Racist Mass Incarceration
Rania Khalek, Truthout: "On Tuesday, April 24, several hundred activists from around the country gathered outside the Justice Department (DOJ) in Washington, DC, to call for an end to mass incarceration.... It's no secret that America holds 25 percent of the world's prisoners, more than any other nation on earth, yet makes up only five percent of the world's population, with the costs falling predominately on communities of color. While African-Americans make up just 13 percent of the overall population, they account for 40 percent of US prisoners."
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Robert Reich | The Tinder-Box Society
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "Public anger and frustration can ignite in two very different ways. One is toward reforms that more broadly share the productivity gains. The other is toward demagogues that turn people against one another. Demagogues use fear and frustration to advance themselves and their own narrow political agendas - scapegoating immigrants, foreigners, ethnic minorities, labor unions, government workers, the poor, the rich, and 'enemies within' such as communists, terrorists, or other conspirators. Be warned. The demagogues already are on the loose."
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Help Occupy Help You
Sarah Page, Truthout: "Occupy is growing as a movement of people working together to recover from the ills of unregulated capitalism and to help each other lead healthier, more equitable and meaningful lives. Whatever your perspective is ... Occupy needs your voice! One of the strengths of Occupy is its openness - anyone can participate, and the more diverse voices that join the movement, the better chance we have of developing workable solutions to these problems and succeeding in our mission to create a better world."
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How the Amendment to End Slavery Was Damaged by Racism
Gary Freeman, Truthout: "The Constitution of the United States of America was created to enable the founding ideals and principles of the Declaration of Independence. Yet something went terribly wrong. It failed to recognize, defend and enable those ideals. The tragedy of such a gargantuan failure is still with us today in the form of institutionalized and systemic racism and a deeply embedded exploitation of labor. Both are still given constitutional sanction."
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Mitch McConnell and the Chamber of Commerce Tell the Supreme Court to Double Down on Citizens United
Ian Millhiser, ThinkProgress: "The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to hear a case that will enable it to correct its error in Citizens United and overrule its indefensible decision to allow unlimited corporate and other wealthy donor money to influence elections. Neither the corporate lobby nor the Senate's top Republican are eager to see this occur, however. Both of them filed briefs in the Supreme Court yesterday urging the justices to not only reaffirm Citizens United, but to do so without even hearing argument in the case."
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Isn't It Criminal to Put People in Prison So Corporations and Individuals Can Make a Profit?
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "So, our policy toward Mexico and other Central and South American nations is partially driven by a perverse incentive to ensure prison time for nonviolent drug offenses and undocumented immigrants awaiting status hearings or deportation. Why? In large part because the prison industry needs to feed the beast of profit, corporate and personal."
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Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi Makes History by Taking Parliament Seat
Read the Article at The Los Angeles Times

How Will Murdoch's UK Implosion Be Felt in the US?
Read the Article at Free Press

Obama Can't Use Bin Laden, but Bush Could Use Saddam and 9/11 Relentlessly ... Really?
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Richard Grenell, Recently Hired to Sharpen Romney's Foreign Policy Message, Resigns in Wake of Pressure From Anti-Gay Conservatives
Read the Article at The Washington Post

Elizabeth Warren Ad Stars Obama in Massachusetts Senate Race
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo

New Study Predicts Frack Fluids Can Migrate to Aquifers Within Years
Read the Article at ProPublica

CNN Concludes Rachel Maddow Was Right in Gender Pay Gap Debate With Alex Castellanos
Read the Article at RH Reality Check

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