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Friday 04 May 2012

Occupied Oakland's May Daze
Susie Cagle, Truthout: "May Day 2012 in Oakland was not, in fact, a general strike. That was never made more clear than when occupiers on an anti-gentrification march went in to a downtown restaurant and some of the workers pushed them out - because they wanted to work…. May Day was supposed to mark a rebirth of the movement, the return of thousands to the streets, the recapturing of the nation's imagination. Hopes were high. For a six-month-old movement, perhaps they were too high."
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A Tale of Two Cities: Ciudad Juarez and El Paso
Andrew Kennis, Truthout: "Charles Bowden dubbed Ciudad Juarez 'Murder City' via the title of the book he published in 2010, the same year the city suffered 3,110 murders. 'You have come on a very busy day today,' Sandra Rodriguez tells me ... 'There have already been eight murders,' adds Rodriguez as she walks briskly back toward her desk to finish the next write-up. It is just 4 PM."
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US and China Reach Deal for Chen Guangcheng to Study Abroad
Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers: "The United States and China appeared to have brokered a deal allowing blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng and his family to leave the country, a potentially dramatic turnaround in a case that threatened to become a serious blow to the Obama administration. Chen received a fellowship offer from a US university and the Chinese government agreed to issue him travel documents, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement."
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Disappointingly Little Changes After ICE Review of Secure Communities, Say Advocates
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "A tweak to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Secure Communities program, would allow the agency to withhold placing undocumented immigrants stopped by local law enforcement for traffic violations into deportation proceedings until 'conviction for the minor criminal traffic offense.' But the change ... still means that undocumented immigrants are at risk for being deported for missing a traffic light or speeding. So what has really changed in the policy? Disappointingly little, say advocates."
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New Police Strategy in New York - Sexual Assault Against Peaceful Protesters
David Graeber, Naked Capitalism: "Arbitrary violence is nothing new. The apparently systematic use of sexual assault against women protestors is new. Most of the women who have been victims of such assaults have been hesitant to come forward. Suing the city is a miserable and time-consuming task and if a woman brings any charge involving sexual misconduct, they can expect to have their own history and reputations ... raked over the coals, usually causing immense damage to their personal and professional life."
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Wisconsin Recall Election a Preview of 2012 Big Money to Come
Suzanne Merkelson, Republic Report: "Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) is facing a recall election after he pushed through legislation last year that limited public workers' bargaining rights. And now a special Wisconsin state law that allows recall targets to raise unlimited amounts of money in the early days of the campaign has helped Walker raise an unprecedented amount of money... Unlike in the presidential election, not one of Walker's opponents has come close to raising the millions he's made off his ties to corporate donors."
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White House Counterterrorism Adviser Should Tell the Whole Truth About Drone Strikes
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "On Monday, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan publicly addressed the US use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists in countries with which the United States is not at war, like Yemen and Pakistan. The fact that Brennan publicly addressed the drone strikes is a significant improvement, long overdue. But Brennan didn't tell the whole truth about the drone strikes."
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Goldman Sachs Political Contributions Tainted by Money From Swindled Veterans and Other Misdeeds
Danny Weil, Truthout: "For-profit colleges have been aggressively targeting and recruiting veterans as they chase post-9/11 GI benefits as a lucrative source of revenue not subject to the Department of Education's 90/10 rule, which ensures at least 10 percent of their revenue comes from somewhere other than federal student aid. Dropout rates for veterans at these diploma mills are as high as 68 percent, meaning while the schools keep the money, the veterans are left with neither degree nor GI benefits."
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The Crushing Burden of Student Debt
David Graeber, Mike Konczal, Brian Kalkbrenner and Sarah Jaffe, n+1: "One of my favorite moments of Occupy Wall Street was the second or third night. There's this guy, he's playing a carnival barker, and he says, 'Step right up! Write down what you owe to the bank; write down what you're worth to the 1 percent!'... and people were writing down what they owed and what type of debt. And I thought, this is a radical moment, because we are articulating this number out loud, and we are putting it in a political context, and this is the moment I've been waiting for."
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University of California Takes Aim at Human Rights Activists
Stephen Zunes, Truthout: "University campuses have been an important venue for concerned scholars and activists to raise issues regarding human rights, international law and US foreign policy. However, in an effort to stifle this tradition, University of California President Mark Yudof has launched a campaign targeting human rights activists and others challenging the Israeli occupation and colonization of the West Bank and other policies of the right-wing US-backed Israeli government."
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David Harvey: Taking Back the Streets for Anti-Capitalist Struggles
Aaron Leonard, Rabble: "David Harvey, anthropology professor, geographer and authority on Karl Marx's work Capital, has just published 'Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution.' The book addresses the state of inequality in capitalist society, the role of the city as concentration point of struggle around that, and the prospects for a different world."
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Job Slowdown Continues Into April, but Unemployment Still Edges Downward
Dean Baker, Center for Economic Policy and Research: "The economy added just 115,000 jobs in April. Clearly much of this story is bounce back, where the unusually good winter weather brought much hiring forward.... It is important not to place too gloomy a picture on the April data. The weakness in March and April is the flip side of the stronger growth the prior three months. Nonetheless, the economy is not growing fast enough to bring unemployment down quickly."
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Major Super PACs Spent Big on Deceptive Ads
Theresa Riley, Moyers & Co.: "According to a new report from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, four super PACs spent over half of their advertising budgets on deceptive ads in the Republican presidential primary. Spending estimates from Kantar Media CMAG and research by FactCheck.org reveals that 23.3 million (56.7%) of the 41.1 million dollars was spent on '19 ads containing deceptive or misleading claims.'"
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Paul Krugman | In the Euro Zone, False Narrative Dominates Debate
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "So, the euro crisis is risk on again. And this time it's centered on Spain - which in a way is a good thing, because now the essential craziness of the orthodox German-inspired diagnosis of the crisis is on full display. For this is really, really not about fiscal irresponsibility.... I'm really starting to think that we're heading for a crack-up of the whole system."
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In the State Trayvon Martin Was Shot In, GOP Convention to Welcome Loaded Guns
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "Some days you wake up, rub the sleep dust out of your eyes, fire up the computer, and are convinced that you are reading 'The Onion' instead of a mainstream corporate news site. That's the only response to an ABC News online headline, 'Water Guns Banned, Handguns Allowed at GOP Convention,' that I could at first ascertain."
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Arrests Exceed 7,000 as the Occupy's Movement's Spring Plans Unfold Across the Nation
Read the Article at The Huffington Post

Words Matter: Why Go Right When the Right is Wrong?
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Dial M for Murdoch
Read the Article at The Nation

Orwell at Guantanamo: Complicit In the Ugly Truth
Read the Article at Common Dreams

Ron Paul Racks Up Delegates, Putting GOP Establishment on Edge as Convention Approaches
Read the Article at The Huffington Post

Dismembered Bodies of Four Journalists Found in Veracruz
Read the Article at Neglected War

Romney's Biggest Fib?
Read the Article at Mother Jones

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