Saturday, February 27, 2010

Truthout 2/27

Michael Winship | Two Legal Foes Unite to Fight for Same-Sex Marriage
Michael Winship, Truthout: "Watching this week's 'health summit' in Washington, with both sides barely repressing the urge to turn the Blair House event into the Potomac version of mixed martial arts cage fighting, was discouraging. To get a little peace and quiet, I was tempted to switch to ESPN and search for an hour of the world's greatest soccer riots. At least they make better theater. And there are better-defined goals."
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Congress Reauthorizes Patriot Act, Sidesteps Privacy Concerns
Kyle Berlin, Truthout: "Under pressure from the White House and Republicans, a bill to extend three key provisions of the Patriot Act was passed by the House Thursday with little discussion or debate and sent to President Obama, who is expected to immediately sign it into law."
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Where Is the Outrage?
William Fisher, Truthout: "It was fascinating to watch the leaders of the Republican Party going through their ritual gyrations at CPAC - the annual conservative jamboree - last week to woo the support of the Tea Baggers. The party that spent us into historic deficits now attempting to join hands with the newest proponents of fiscal restraint!"
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GOP Sen. Bunning Blocks Unemployment Benefits Extension
David Lightman and Halimah Abdullah, McClatchy Newspapers: "Some unemployment benefits could dry up Monday. Newly laid-off workers wouldn't get federal help with health insurance premiums. Road and transit bills could go unpaid, Medicare payments to doctors would stay high and rural satellite reception could be affected, all thanks to Sen. Jim Bunning's decision to block legislation that would keep alive a host of programs that expire Sunday night."
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Healthcare Summit Ends in Deadlock; Single-Payer Advocates Excluded (VIDEO)
Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW!: "After nearly seven hours of televised debate, President Obama's so-called bipartisan healthcare summit ended Thursday without any substantive agreement between Republicans and Democrats. Republican lawmakers remained staunchly opposed to using the federal government to regulate health insurance." Amy Goodman speaks with Columbia Journalism Review contributing editor Trudy Lieberman and pediatrician Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Program.
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Ray McGovern | Iran Captures a "Good" Terrorist
Ray McGovern, Truthout: "The Iranian government is celebrating the capture of Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of a violent group called Jundallah (Arabic for Soldiers of God), which Tehran says is a terrorist organization supported by the United States, Great Britain and Israel."
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Judge Orders Another Guantanamo Detainee Freed
Carol Rosenberg and Mark Seibel, McClatchy Newspapers: "A federal judge here has ordered the release of a Yemeni prisoner who's been held at the Guantanamo detention center since January 2002."
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Mark Weisbrot | America's Public Debt: The Least of Our Worries
Mark Weisbrot, The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR): "Various political demagogues and Wall Street interests have mounted a campaign to convince Americans that despite persistent massive unemployment for the foreseeable future, more than 15 million people underwater on their home mortgages, and two unnecessary wars, what we really should be worried about is America's national debt."
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The Dirty Truth Behind Clean Coal
Joshua Frank, Truthout: "If you've tuned in to the Winter Olympics this past week, you likely sat through repeated showings of a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign paid for by Big Coal regarding the potential laurels of 'clean-coal' technology. The premise of the 30-second spot is simple: Coal can be clean and America needs to wean itself off of foreign crude and create jobs back home by tapping our nation's vast coal reserves."
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J. Sri Raman | Sri Lanka: After the "War on Terror"
J. Sri Raman, Truthout: "Democracy in Sri Lanka only faces new threats after the defeat of Tamil 'terrorism.' The first major event to follow the war was the presidential election of January 26, pitting the two 'anti-terror' heroes in a titanic struggle against each other. As noted in these columns (Sri Lanka: The Battle After the War, January 25, 2019), the contest between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and army chief Sarath Fonseka started on an extremely confrontational note. And it has not ended with the election."
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Bernard Weiner | Can the Ticking Middle East Conflict Be Defused?
Bernard Weiner, Truthout: "I had a fascinating email conversation over the weekend on the Middle East conflict, and it seems worthy of reproducing here. Not just because of the issues raised, but because they encapsulate the difficulty of even agreeing on what the central questions are."
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Defying Progressives, Obama Revives Nuclear Power
Randy Shaw, Truthout: "Those who continue to insist that President Obama would implement progressive measures if he only had 60 Senate votes (ignoring that he had this for most of 2009) will have a hard time explaining his move this week to launch the first nuclear power plants built in the United States since the 1970s."
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Carlton Meyer | The Myth of Low Military Pay
Carlton Meyer, Truthout: "One great myth in American society is that military personnel are poorly paid. That was true until the 1980s, when a push to improve recruit quality boosted military pay each year at twice the inflation rate. The military was once known for low pay yet great retirement, but now has great pay as well. This fact is hidden from the public with absurd propaganda from military associations about the need to boost pay, and fear in the Pentagon that if Congress catches on, the days of big pay raises may end."
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