Click here to view this and past newsletters online. Please add "messenger@truthout.org" to your email contacts to ensure delivery.  Thursday 10 May 2012 Private F---ing Citizen Filpo of the First Civilian DivisionJ.A. Myerson, Truthout: "We met on May Day. 'It's the usual suspects,' he said, 'filthy rich Wall Street bankers who are sabotaging the economy and asset-stripping and taking away social and economic rights from the rest of the American people. It's a completely exploitative relationship.' If he sounds to most people more like a hippie than a Marine, it is because most people don't know about the Marine on Filpo's poster. It was only a few years ago that Filpo learned more about [Smedley] Butler than what his boot camp cadences taught him, when he caught a television documentary about the White House plot, a little-known episode in American history." Read the Article Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Bruce A. Dixon, Black Agenda Report: "In what should be the biggest story of the week, the city of Philadelphia's school system announced Tuesday that it expects to close 40 public schools next year and 64 by 2017. The school district expects to lose 40% of current enrollment to charter schools, the streets or wherever, and put thousands of experienced, well qualified teachers, often grounded in the communities where they teach, on the street." Read the Article Richard D. Wolff | Economic Democracy! Not Austerity or Keynesian "Growth" Richard D. Wolff, Truthout: "Recent defeats of Dutch, Greek and French governing parties show rising opposition to their austerity policies. Across Europe and North America, similar oppositions mount. Bailing out large financial and other corporations with borrowed money has been the almost universal government plan for coping with global capitalist crisis.... As opposition mounts, will it seek Keynesian 'growth' or go beyond capitalism to economic democracy?" Read the Article "Breathing While Latino" Laws Boom for Private Prison Profits Dina Rasor, Truthout: "For the past two weeks, I have written two columns on the biggest private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the Geo Group (GEO), to expose their efforts to elevate their profits by working to keep laws on the books that will maximize the number of prisoners in this country (one in 100 people, the highest in the world). They were successful by making certain that they had well-placed lobbyists and former employees to keep their product (the number of prisoners) high to keep beds filled in public prisons that they managed and private prisons that they owned." Read the Article Alan Grayson | A Dumb War Alan Grayson, Truthout: "To little fanfare, President Obama announced last week that he signed an agreement to extend the US military occupation of Afghanistan for twelve more years. No one noted the irony of this, since under our Constitution, President Obama can be president for no more than another four and a half years." Read the Article Koch Brothers' Activism Protects Their 50-Year Stake in Canadian Heavy Oils David Sassoon, Inside Climate News: "Over the last decade, Charles and David Koch have emerged into public view as billionaire philanthropists pushing a libertarian brand of political activism that presses a large footprint on energy and climate issues. They have created and supported non-profit organizations, think tanks and political groups that work to undermine climate science, environmental regulation and clean energy.... What is less well documented are the many Koch businesses that benefit from the brothers' efforts to push the center of American political discourse rightward, closer to their own convictions." Read the Article From Coal to Foreclosures, Bank of America Faces Protest at Shareholders' Meeting in Charlotte Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW!: "Occupy Wall Street protesters, environmental activists, and struggling homeowners are converging in Charlotte today for a protest outside Bank of America's annual shareholder meeting. The protesters are calling attention to the bank's involvement in the financial crisis, its support for the coal industry, and its long record of alleged foreclosure abuses. The rally marks a test run for activism targeting September's Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Charlotte." Watch the Video and Read the Transcript Women Artists Still Face Discrimination Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout: "Twenty-seven years ago, the Guerrilla Girls - an anonymous group of artists who use humor to illustrate gender inequities in the art world - surveyed the most influential galleries and museums in the country and found that most exhibited little to no work by women. The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) was but one example. Of 169 artists on display, only 13 were female. Even worse, the modern art section of New York's Metropolitan Museum was 97 percent male; on the flip side, 83 percent of the nudes were - you guessed it - girls and women." Read the Article On the News With Thom Hartmann: House Republicans Pass Measure Supporting the Discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, and More In today's On the News segment: House Republicans passed a measure in support of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's days of racial profiling may be numbered, recalled Gov. Scott Walker is now trying to use tax dollars to bribe voters, and more. Watch the Video and Read the Transcript Anatomy of an American Execution Josh Rushing, Al Jazeera: "In 2010, while making an episode of Fault Lines on the death penalty in the US, Josh Rushing interviewed death row inmate Michael Selsor. It was the only interview Selsor ever granted. Two years later, Rushing returned to watch Selsor die. In this special report, he takes an unflinching look at an American execution." Read the Article and Watch the Video The Energy Wars Heat Up: Six Recent Clashes and Conflicts on a Planet Heading Into Energy Overdrive Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch: "Conflict and intrigue over valuable energy supplies have been features of the international landscape for a long time. Major wars over oil have been fought every decade or so since World War I, and smaller engagements have erupted every few years; a flare-up or two in 2012, then, would be part of the normal scheme of things. Instead, what we are now seeing is a whole cluster of oil-related clashes stretching across the globe, involving a dozen or so countries, with more popping up all the time. Consider these flash-points as signals that we are entering an era of intensified conflict over energy." Read the Article Connie Schultz | Finally, the President Says, "I Do" Connie Schultz, Creator's Syndicate: "Tyler Winkler has been through a lot in his young life, which is the story of so many gay kids. He was raised in a Southern Baptist home where the list of things that would land you in hell was long and committed to memory. Homosexuality was way up there. Throughout high school, he tried to pretend he liked girls." Read the Article Paul Krugman | Obama Campaign Lacks Focus Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "Above all, President Obama isn't telling a clear story about the economy. What should that story be? Mr. Obama's defenders do in fact have a clear story, which goes like this: he was confronted both with a very bad economy and with complete political obstruction - which mattered, by the way, even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, because of the filibuster. So he did what he could, via stimulus and other policies, and pulled the economy back from the brink. If he hasn't done more, well, maybe he could have gotten a somewhat bigger stimulus, maybe he could have done more on housing relief, but on the whole he did pretty well given the political environment." Read the Article Violence Against Women Act: Overdue Justice for Native Women Karla E. General and Robert T. Coulter, Indian Country: "On April 26, 2012, the Senate passed S. 1925, the Violence Against Women Act of 2012, with broad bipartisan support. Title IX of the bill would restore concurrent tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit certain misdemeanor crimes involving domestic violence, dating violence, and violations of protection orders and who have significant ties to the prosecuting tribe. If enacted, Title IX would be a small, but historic step forward in restoring safety and justice to Native women - women subjected to epidemic levels of violence." Read the Article Click here for more Truthout articles
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "What are companies associated with the likes of Agent Orange and Dioxin (and there are more than just Monsanto and Dow in the chemical company takeover of Big Ag) doing controlling large swathes of crops throughout the world - and building a cycle of toxic dependency on their products?" Read the BuzzFlash Commentary US Military Taught Officers: Use "Hiroshima" Tactics for "Total War" on Islam Christian Anti-Porn Group Groping Groupon Colin Powell: Bush Didn't Consult National Security Council on Iraq War Obama Calls Romney Auto Bailout Claim an "Etch-a-Sketch Moment" Scott Walker Using $100 Million of Taxpayer Money to Fight Off Recall? Washington Post Account Details Romney's Prep School Pranks, Bullying Biden With the Assist: Vice President Again Dumb Like a Fox Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
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