Thursday, April 8, 2010

Truthout 4/8

Is Sotomayor Becoming a Defendant's Rights Justice?
Sam Ferguson, Truthout: "During Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, Senate advocates and the Obama administration depicted her as a judicial moderate, balancing her liberal record on equal protection cases against her more traditional career path as a prosecutor, corporate lawyer, trial judge and appellate judge. Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proudly told Sotomayor that she had 'heard appeals in over 800 criminal cases. You affirmed 98 percent of the convictions for violent crimes, including terrorism cases.'"
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IDF Soldiers Target Peaceful Protests in the Buffer Zone
Max Ajl, Truthout: "Patchwork clouds of smoke moved to and fro in the wind above a group of Palestinian youth waving Palestinian flags, standing on top of a low dirt ridge. Beyond it lay the Israeli border. I was near the Nahal Oz crossing, east of Gaza City in the northern segment of the Gaza Strip, close to where Israel used to bring diesel fuel into the Gaza Strip. It was Land Day. The sharp pop of bullets beginning to fly through the air grew louder as I drew closer to the group of shebab and cameramen stationed there, watching the youth below. They were maybe 150 meters from the border."
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Abolition: The Only Path to Nuclear Security
Dr. Joseph Gerson, Truthout: "In Prague, President Obama signed the modest START 1 Follow On Treaty, or 'New START,' between the US and Russia. It helps to stabilize the relationship between the two remaining nuclear superpowers, and extends and updates verification measures, setting the stage for negotiating deeper reductions later."
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Putting Lakoff's Work in a Larger Context
Mary L. Wentworth, Truthout: "In applying to political discourse the scientific discoveries of how concepts are embodied in our brains, George Lakoff and his associates have made an important contribution to how we Democrats ought to be talking about issues."
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Will We Forget the Miners Again?
E.J. Dionne Jr.: "There is a dispiriting and, yes, heartbreaking sameness about how we respond to mining disasters. The catastrophe at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W.Va., has taken at least 25 lives. An entire community stands in solidarity with the families of the victims, and hopes that some miners still trapped may yet be rescued."
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The Rules of Engagement vs. War Crimes
Michael Gass, Truthout: "On March 16, 1968, up to 500 civilian Vietnamese were massacred by United States forces at Mai Lai. The unit responsible for the massacre was initially praised by General Westmoreland. Maj. Colin Powell, who did an initial investigation of the incident, was characterized as trying to 'whitewash' the incident."
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Obama Backs Up Pledge to Reduce Nuclear Arms
Bruce I. Konviser, GlobalPost: "During a speech at Prague Castle last year, U.S. President Barack Obama announced an audacious idea to eventually rid the world of nuclear weapons. It was a goal, he said, not likely to be achieved in his lifetime."
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Federal Court Ruling a Blow to "Net Neutrality"
Kyle Berlin, Truthout: "In a blow to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and supporters of net neutrality, the Federal Appeals Court in DC ruled unanimously on Tuesday that the FCC cannot interfere in the management of networks run by telecommunications companies."
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Cover-Ups to Protect US Murders in Afghanistan Continue Unabated
Dave Lindorff, Truthout: "So, finally the truth comes out ... sort of. After initially claiming that two pregnant women and a teenage girl killed in a US Special Forces raid on an Afghan home in Khataba in February had been discovered by the Americans bound and slain, the US military has admitted that they were actually shot and killed by those US troops - who then tried to cover up their 'mistake' by carving the bullets out of the bodies with knives, removing other incriminating bullets from the compound's walls and then washing away the bloody evidence with alcohol."
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Film Brings Anti-Apartheid Movement to Life
Eric Stoner, The Indypendent: "'Have You Heard From Johannesburg' chronicles three generations of that struggle - from the early freedom fighters and African National Congress (ANC) leader Oliver Tambo to the international campaign to boycott corporations operating in South Africa and impose economic sanctions on the regime - through some 135 interviews spanning 12 countries, encounters with former apartheid officials and profiteering corporate executives, and archival footage from around the world."
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March to Fulfill the Dream
Ryan Van Lenning, Truthout: "Sunday marked the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, cutting short his dream. But it also marked the launch of a historic march from New Orleans to Detroit by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) to resurrect Dr. King's dream of ending poverty in the United States. The March to Fulfill the Dream seeks to highlight the critical issues facing tens of millions of poor people in the United States, including lack of affordable housing, health care and living-wage jobs."
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What Happens When We Don't See the Tipping Points
Bernard Weiner, Truthout: "Often in our busy daily lives, we miss the significance of a piece of news. Sometimes it's not until years later that we realize how very important that news event was in shifting the paradigm."
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Seven AGs Urge Congress to Preserve States' Greenhouse Gas Authority
SolveClimate.com: "Seven more state attorneys general jumped into the climate debate this week, this time arguing that any climate legislation must preserve the progress that states have made so far and not restrict their ability to keep pushing the envelope."
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San Francisco Man Arrested for Allegedly Threatening Nancy Pelosi
Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Newspapers: "The FBI on Wednesday arrested a San Francisco man for allegedly making threats against Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she voted to back a massive health care overhaul, authorities said."
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Inside the Mexican Drug Wars Quickly Consuming a Nation
Tomas Kellner and Francesco Pipitone, TomDispatch.com: "Just before noon on February 15, 2007, four municipal police officers in Aguascalientes, the picturesque capital of the central Mexican state bearing the same name, were called to a mundane road accident. An overturned, black Chevy Suburban with out-of-state license plates was blocking traffic on the quiet Boulevard John Paul II that runs through the city's sleepy western suburbs."
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Boost Haiti's Self-Sufficiency by "Buying Local" Rice
The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The international community could, in the words of former President Bill Clinton, help Haiti 'become more self-sufficient' by purchasing the entire Haitian rice crop over the next two years for just 2.35 percent of total current committed aid funds. A new issue brief from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) finds that buying up all of Haiti's rice should be close to the amount of food aid for rice that the international community is likely to provide this year, and would provide a tremendous boost to Haitian farmers, who currently are unable to compete with low-cost rice imports from the U.S."
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Author Louise Erdrich
Bill Moyers Journal: "How did award-winning author Louise Erdrich find her voice? Renowned for her mastery of multiple genres - including 13 novels, poetry, children's literature and a memoir of early motherhood - Erdrich discusses how her Native American heritage and unique cultural experience has impacted her life, motherhood and work. Also on the program, Bill Moyers talks with history and international relations expert and former US Army Col. Andrew J. Bacevich to discuss America's long war in Afghanistan."
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