Truthout 3/1

The Need to Demilitarize US National Security
Melvin A. Goodman, Truthout: "Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave a provocative and even dangerous speech at the National Defense University (NDU) last week that revealed the cold-war thinking of a key holdover from the Bush administration. With language reminiscent of the worst days of the cold war in the 1950s, Gates argued that the 'demilitarization of Europe - where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it - has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st century.'"
Read the Article
Robert Reich | The Enthusiasm Gap
Robert Reich, RobertReich.org: "I had dinner the other night with a Democratic pollster who told me Dems are heading toward next fall's mid-term elections with a serious enthusiasm gap: The Republican base is fired up. The Dem base is packing up."
Read the Article
To Pass Health Care Reform, Democrats May Go It Alone
Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor: "Party leaders may have settled on a healthcare reform strategy: muscle through legislation with only Democratic votes. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will face defections. Democrats have paused and considered their options. Now party leaders may have settled on a healthcare-reform strategy: It appears theyíre going to shoulder up one more time and try to muscle through legislation with only Democratic votes."
Read the Article
New Mexico Leads the Way in Combating Foreclosure
Dean Baker, Truthout: "As the Obama administration works up its 12,487th plan for keeping underwater homeowners in their homes, New Mexico's legislation had the courage and good sense to do the obvious: let foreclosed homeowners stay in their home as renters. The New Mexico legislature voted to allow homeowners in houses that sell for less than the median price to remain in their home as renters for at least one year following foreclosure."
Read the Article
Jonathan Alter | The Blair House Test
Jonathan Alter: "Obama's summit sets a precedent. The summit at Blair House didn't get stellar reviews: bloggers found it boring, and the participants left with mostly the same views they held on arrival. Democrats intended the meeting to be a final gesture of bipartisanship - a recognition that the public yearned to see politicians working together - before using their majority to ram home the health-care bill. Republicans saw it as a chance to spread their talking point that it's time to 'start over' and go 'step by step.' Real deal-cutting will continue to take place, as always, behind closed doors."
Read the Article
Law, Morality and Conscience in War
Camillo "Mac" Bica, Truthout: "War has been a part of my life virtually for as long as I can remember. First, as a child and adolescent playing and then preparing for war, as a young adult participating in war and then attempting to recover from its effects, and as an old man striving to understand war and to use what I have learned as a means to educate others about differentiating war's realities from the mythology that dominates, not unintentionally, our media and public perspective on war."
Read the Article
State by State, Unions Matter
Dick Meister, Truthout: "Union members invariably have better pay and benefits than nonunion workers. But, as a new study shows, the number of workers who've joined unions varies widely from state to state. Even in some states with a relatively high number of union members, the number is only a small percentage of the state's overall workforce, according to the study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research."
Read the Article
Daniel Tilson | The Home Depot Misery Index
Daniel Tilson, Truthout: "Extra, Extra. The economy still sucks. Didn't need to hear today's 'unexpectedly' bad news from the Labor Department about a new surge in unemployment filings to know just how many of us are hurting, and how badly. No, all it took to 'rub it in' was a trip to my local Home Depot here in Southeast Florida - a trip I made with some degree of trepidation."
Read the Article
A Titanic Budget in an Ocean of Icebergs: Will the USS Budget Go Down?
Jo Comerford, TomDispatch.com: "Send up a flare! The 2011 federal budget has sprung some leaks in the midst of a storm. Not sure there's enough money for life rafts! Forget women and children first! Buffeted by economic hard times, the 2,585-page, $3.8 trillion document is already taking on water, though this won't be obvious to you if you're reading the mainstream media."
Read the Article
Haitian Peasant Groups Offer Humanitarian Aid
Beverly Bell, Truthout: "'Yon sel dwet pa manje kalalou,' says Christroi Petit-homme, a member of a peasant farmer organization. You can't eat gumbo with one finger. Peasant groups throughout rural Haiti form the fingers of the hand, reaching out with humanitarian aid for those left bereft after the earthquake."
Read the Article
Prayer Warriors and Palin Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America
Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet: "It's a movement whose followers played a significant role in the battle over Proposition 8, California's anti-same-sex marriage initiative, and Uganda's infamous proposed Anti-Homosexuality Law, more commonly associated with the Family, a religious network of elites drawn from the ranks of business and government throughout the world."
Read the Article
Afghanistan and the "Balance of Armaments"
Dallas Darling, Truthout: "Before discussing what Afghanistan has to do with the 'balance of armaments' idea, it is obvious that US and NATO forces, with regards to superior weapons and advanced armament industries, have had tremendous advantages over insurgents in the Middle East and Asia. Unfortunately, the production, maintenance and use of these advanced weapons systems and war technologies have routinely been accepted in the West. How modern war technologies, including their manufacturing and support systems, collectively shaped and changed those involved have rarely, if at all, received any type of criticism, too."
Read the Article
Abandoned Foreclosures a Mounting Crisis in Florida
Robert Napper, The Bradenton Herald: "A mounting crisis created by the record number of foreclosures in Manatee County has hit Jeannette Traylor right where she lives: An abandoned foreclosed home has brought blight, crime and fear into her neighborhood."
Read the Article
Snow Can't Stop Freedom to Marry Day in Dallas
Candice Bernd, Truthout: "Against the backdrop of a rare amount of newly fallen snow, the city was a scene fit for a wedding. A group of about 20 people from the Texas regional activist group Queer Liberaction gathered early on February 12 to participate in the second annual Freedom to Marry Day. The event focused on gaining marriage equality for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered) community through civil disobedience and public exposure."
Read the Article The Need to Demilitarize US National Security
Melvin A. Goodman, Truthout: "Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave a provocative and even dangerous speech at the National Defense University (NDU) last week that revealed the cold-war thinking of a key holdover from the Bush administration. With language reminiscent of the worst days of the cold war in the 1950s, Gates argued that the 'demilitarization of Europe - where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it - has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st century.'"
Read the Article
Robert Reich | The Enthusiasm Gap
Robert Reich, RobertReich.org: "I had dinner the other night with a Democratic pollster who told me Dems are heading toward next fall's mid-term elections with a serious enthusiasm gap: The Republican base is fired up. The Dem base is packing up."
Read the Article
To Pass Health Care Reform, Democrats May Go It Alone
Peter Grier, The Christian Science Monitor: "Party leaders may have settled on a healthcare reform strategy: muscle through legislation with only Democratic votes. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will face defections. Democrats have paused and considered their options. Now party leaders may have settled on a healthcare-reform strategy: It appears theyíre going to shoulder up one more time and try to muscle through legislation with only Democratic votes."
Read the Article
New Mexico Leads the Way in Combating Foreclosure
Dean Baker, Truthout: "As the Obama administration works up its 12,487th plan for keeping underwater homeowners in their homes, New Mexico's legislation had the courage and good sense to do the obvious: let foreclosed homeowners stay in their home as renters. The New Mexico legislature voted to allow homeowners in houses that sell for less than the median price to remain in their home as renters for at least one year following foreclosure."
Read the Article
Jonathan Alter | The Blair House Test
Jonathan Alter: "Obama's summit sets a precedent. The summit at Blair House didn't get stellar reviews: bloggers found it boring, and the participants left with mostly the same views they held on arrival. Democrats intended the meeting to be a final gesture of bipartisanship - a recognition that the public yearned to see politicians working together - before using their majority to ram home the health-care bill. Republicans saw it as a chance to spread their talking point that it's time to 'start over' and go 'step by step.' Real deal-cutting will continue to take place, as always, behind closed doors."
Read the Article
Law, Morality and Conscience in War
Camillo "Mac" Bica, Truthout: "War has been a part of my life virtually for as long as I can remember. First, as a child and adolescent playing and then preparing for war, as a young adult participating in war and then attempting to recover from its effects, and as an old man striving to understand war and to use what I have learned as a means to educate others about differentiating war's realities from the mythology that dominates, not unintentionally, our media and public perspective on war."
Read the Article
State by State, Unions Matter
Dick Meister, Truthout: "Union members invariably have better pay and benefits than nonunion workers. But, as a new study shows, the number of workers who've joined unions varies widely from state to state. Even in some states with a relatively high number of union members, the number is only a small percentage of the state's overall workforce, according to the study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research."
Read the Article
Daniel Tilson | The Home Depot Misery Index
Daniel Tilson, Truthout: "Extra, Extra. The economy still sucks. Didn't need to hear today's 'unexpectedly' bad news from the Labor Department about a new surge in unemployment filings to know just how many of us are hurting, and how badly. No, all it took to 'rub it in' was a trip to my local Home Depot here in Southeast Florida - a trip I made with some degree of trepidation."
Read the Article
A Titanic Budget in an Ocean of Icebergs: Will the USS Budget Go Down?
Jo Comerford, TomDispatch.com: "Send up a flare! The 2011 federal budget has sprung some leaks in the midst of a storm. Not sure there's enough money for life rafts! Forget women and children first! Buffeted by economic hard times, the 2,585-page, $3.8 trillion document is already taking on water, though this won't be obvious to you if you're reading the mainstream media."
Read the Article
Haitian Peasant Groups Offer Humanitarian Aid
Beverly Bell, Truthout: "'Yon sel dwet pa manje kalalou,' says Christroi Petit-homme, a member of a peasant farmer organization. You can't eat gumbo with one finger. Peasant groups throughout rural Haiti form the fingers of the hand, reaching out with humanitarian aid for those left bereft after the earthquake."
Read the Article
Prayer Warriors and Palin Organizing Spiritual Warfare to Take Over America
Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet: "It's a movement whose followers played a significant role in the battle over Proposition 8, California's anti-same-sex marriage initiative, and Uganda's infamous proposed Anti-Homosexuality Law, more commonly associated with the Family, a religious network of elites drawn from the ranks of business and government throughout the world."
Read the Article
Afghanistan and the "Balance of Armaments"
Dallas Darling, Truthout: "Before discussing what Afghanistan has to do with the 'balance of armaments' idea, it is obvious that US and NATO forces, with regards to superior weapons and advanced armament industries, have had tremendous advantages over insurgents in the Middle East and Asia. Unfortunately, the production, maintenance and use of these advanced weapons systems and war technologies have routinely been accepted in the West. How modern war technologies, including their manufacturing and support systems, collectively shaped and changed those involved have rarely, if at all, received any type of criticism, too."
Read the Article
Abandoned Foreclosures a Mounting Crisis in Florida
Robert Napper, The Bradenton Herald: "A mounting crisis created by the record number of foreclosures in Manatee County has hit Jeannette Traylor right where she lives: An abandoned foreclosed home has brought blight, crime and fear into her neighborhood."
Read the Article
Snow Can't Stop Freedom to Marry Day in Dallas
Candice Bernd, Truthout: "Against the backdrop of a rare amount of newly fallen snow, the city was a scene fit for a wedding. A group of about 20 people from the Texas regional activist group Queer Liberaction gathered early on February 12 to participate in the second annual Freedom to Marry Day. The event focused on gaining marriage equality for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered) community through civil disobedience and public exposure."
Read the Article