Click here to view this and past newsletters online. Please add "messenger@truthout.org" to your email contacts to ensure delivery.  Thursday 14 June 2012 For-Profit Colleges Are Bankrolling Romney to Keep Student Loan Money FlowingCharles M. Smith and Dina Rasor, Truthout: "Unfortunately there is great pressure at this time to cut back on state educational funding. The for-profit schools have an incentive to lobby for these states' 'austerity' programs to cripple their competition - public colleges. There have been efforts to resist these cutbacks in one of the most valuable public goods the states can produce, educated citizens. The fight will be a tough one, however, because the public colleges are competing with well-financed for-profit colleges and the attitude of the Republican Party toward the privatization of most aspects of government." Read the Article Lakoff and Wehling | Paul Krugman's Framing George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling, Truthout: "Markets are not provided by nature. They are constructed - by laws, rules and institutions. All of these have moral bases of one sort or another. Hence, all markets are moral, according to someone's sense of morality. The only question is, whose morality? In contemporary America, it is conservative versus progressive morality that governs forms of economic policy. The systems of morality behind economic policies need to be discussed." Read the Article Seven More States May Legalize Medical Marijuana in 2012 Ben Sherman, ThinkProgress: "Currently, 17 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana. In the second half of 2012, seven more states will decide, either in the state legislature or via ballot initiatives, whether they will join them in legalizing the use of marijuana, in whole or in part. Recent polling shows that 3/4 of Americans support the right to use state-sanctioned medical marijuana. Support for full marijuana legalization is at an all-time high of 50%." Read the Article Occupy the Heritage Foundation: How a Conservative Think Tank Aims to Rebrand the American Dream Matt Dineen and Jason Del Gandio, Truthout: "On April 17 of this year, the Heritage Foundation organized a public panel discussion entitled 'Occupy Wall Street: A Post-Mortem?' Unlike the dismissive and demonizing tactics of Fox News, this influential conservative think tank is seriously grappling with the Occupy phenomenon. Until now, there has been no response to the Heritage Foundation from Occupy or from the left. Philadelphia-based writer Matt Dineen recently interviewed Occupy Philadelphia member and 'Rhetoric for Radicals' author Jason Del Gandio. In the following dialogue, the two explore the significance of the Heritage Foundation's study and what Occupy can learn from it to ensure its own vitality and evolving relevance as the summer approaches." Read the Article The Prosecution Rests in D17 Occupy Wall Street Case John Knefel, Truthout: "The third day of the D17 trial concluded on Wednesday, June 13, with the prosecution resting their case and the defense set to present theirs Thursday morning. The trial will determine the guilt of eight Occupy Wall Street activists charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing on December 17, 2011, when the defendants allegedly entered Duarte Square illegally." Read the Article New Political Showdown in Egypt as Court Invalidates Parliament David D. Kirkpatrick, The New York Times News Service: "Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that the Islamist-led Parliament must be immediately dissolved, while also blessing the right of Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister to run for president, escalating a battle for power between the remnants of the toppled order and rising Islamists." Read the Article Criminalizing Pregnancy: How Feticide Laws Made Common Ground for Pro- and Anti-Choice Groups Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout: "Ask Lynn Paltrow, founder and executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), what reproductive justice means to her and the answer is immediate: The right to have a child, as well as the right to end an unwanted pregnancy. This dual focus differentiates NAPW from other pro-choice groups." Read the Article On the News With Thom Hartmann: The Republican War on Women Has Reached the Military, and More In today's On the News segment: Meet the billionaire who's trying to buy the 2012 election for Mitt Romney, Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim wants the rest of the world to worry about their retirement, Jamie Dimon was lobbed softballs yesterday in what was supposed to be a severe Senate grilling of the JPMorgan Chase CEO, a Republican staffer in the House told the Army Times that House Republicans plan to restrict military women's access to abortion in cases of rape and incest, and more. Watch the Video and Read the Article Charting the Cozy Connections Between JPMorgan and the Senate Banking Committee Cora Currier, ProPublica: "Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, faced a Senate hearing over more than $2 billion in bank losses caused by risky hedges that blew up.... Many lawmakers are holding up the losses as evidence of the need for stronger financial regulation. The chairman of the Senate banking committee, Tim Johnson, D-S.D., in his opening remarks, asked for 'a full accounting' of JP Morgan's losses. But through campaign contributions and well-connected staff, JP Morgan appears to have already taken its own accounting of the Banking committee." Read the Article Jobs for the Cure: Does Your Donation Go to Cancer Research or Salaries and Overhead? Ellen Leopold, Truthout: "Even after the Komen Foundation's withdrawal of funding from Planned Parenthood, many women still think it should be possible to 'keep politics out of breast cancer.' As one Race for the Cure veteran put it, they cling to their 'collective ignorance' as 'a kind of bliss,' and wish they could 'un-bite the apple.' Why is it so hard to accept the idea that cancer philanthropy is as rife with contradiction and partisan conflicts as any other enterprise with large amounts of money at its disposal? Why do we insist on giving them a pass? Have they cast a spell on us?" Read the Article Election Countdown 2012: Political Consultant Sentenced to 60 Days in Prison for His Role in Sending Automated Robocalls, and More In today's Election Countdown 2012 news: NY ACLU has released app for capturing police putdowns on video, Chicago Tribune sues Occupy Chicago, Political consultant Julius Henson was sentenced to 60 days in prison Wednesday for his role in sending automated robocalls to curb voters from heading to the polls in Maryland, and more. Read the Article The New Obama Doctrine: A Six-Point Plan for Global War Nick Turse, TomDispatch: "Across the globe from Central and South America to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the Obama administration is working out its formula for a new American way of war. In its pursuit, the Pentagon and its increasingly militarized government partners are drawing on everything from classic precepts of colonial warfare to the latest technologies." Read the Article The Great Retirement Squeeze - Pension Cuts Mean Poverty for Future Elders Paul Kleyman, New America Media: "Only a week after an election signaling a rollback in public-employee retirement benefits, new Federal Reserve data show a sharp decline in family wealth. The effect is especially acute for non-whites and Hispanic households. The compounding factors of deep losses in U.S. family wealth, sharp declines in pensions and calls in Washington to reduce Social Security could tarnish Americans' golden years for generations to come, particularly for economically vulnerable groups of older women and ethnic elders." Read the Article Click here for more Truthout articles
Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: "David Axelrod and the White House campaign team must be overjoyed with the type of diagonal header that appeared on the latest Newsweek cover, 'How Obama Learned to Kill,' just overhead a photo of Queen Elizabeth, the 'Jubilee Gal.'" Read the BuzzFlash Commentary House GOP Blocking Abortion Access for Raped Soldiers Press Non-Freedom in the US Progressive Morality and the Looming Presidential Election Billionaire Adelson Pledges Unlimited Campaign Contributions to Mitt Romney Is Homophobia Curable? British Supreme Court Dismisses Assange Appeal Bid Senate Smokes GOP/Rand Paul Bill to Cut Food Stamps Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
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