Thursday, May 13, 2010

Truthout 5/13

Criminal Charges Likely From Gulf Oil Spill, Legal Experts Say
Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Newspapers: "Federal investigators are likely to file criminal charges against at least one of the companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico spill, raising the prospects of significantly higher penalties than a current $75 million cap on civil liability, legal experts say."
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Glenn Beck, America's Historian Laureate
Greg Grandin, TomDispatch.com: "Americans, it's been said, learn geography when they go to war. Now, it seems, many get their history when they go to a Tea Party rally or tune in to Glenn Beck."
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Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan Goes to Bat for Monsanto, Sides With Conservative Justices
Joshua Frank, Truthout: "Alfalfa is the fourth largest crop grown in the United States and Monsanto wants to control it. On April 27, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could well write the future of alfalfa production in our country."
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On Helping - If Not on Killing - Is America a Quitter?
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "When President Obama visited Afghanistan in March, he assured US troops that 'the United States of America does not quit once it starts on something.' But according to Sunday's New York Times, it ain't necessarily so. When it comes to combating AIDS in the world's poorest countries, the greatest nation on earth has apparently decided to cry 'Uncle.'"
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How Too-Big-to-Fail's Army of Lobbyists Has Captured Washington
Kevin Conner, Institute for America's Future: "Throughout the financial reform debate, the finance industry has waged an unprecedented assault on the democratic process, spending an estimated $1.4 million per day to influence Congress and hiring 70 members of Congress and 940 former federal employees to lobby on their behalf."
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News in Brief: Wall Street "Flash Crash" Culprit Identified and More ...
Single trader may be at fault for last week's "flash crash" on Wall Street; federal prosecutors conducting a criminal investigation into whether Wall Street misled investors; FBI has taken several more people into custody as part of ongoing failed Times Square bomb attempt investigation; Obama administration plans to force BP to pay more cleanup costs; Thai general supporting anti-government protesters shot and seriously injured by sniper fire.
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Gulf Shrimpers Had Economic Interests, Too
Froma Harrop, Truthout: "A pile of beautiful Gulf shrimp beckoned from the fish counter, and I thought, better buy them soon. Louisiana shrimpers are now trying to grab all they can get before the oil takes over. A lot of pleasure is dying in the Gulf of Mexico - but economic activity, too. Only lawyers seem to be prospering as the suits begin to fly."
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America's Ten Most Corrupt Capitalists
Zach Carter, AlterNet: "The financial crisis has unveiled a new set of public villains - corrupt corporate capitalists who leveraged their connections in government for their own personal profit. During the Clinton and Bush administrations, many of these schemers were worshiped as geniuses, heroes or icons of American progress. But today we know these opportunists for what they are: Deregulatory hacks hellbent on making a profit at any cost. Without further ado, here are the 10 most corrupt capitalists in the U.S. economy."
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"Poor Countries Should Have a Seat at G20 Table"
Isolda Agazzi, Inter Press Service: "The global economic crisis highlighted the necessity of transforming global economic governance. But least developed countries (LDCs) have little voice in this process. It is time they are allowed a seat at the meetings of the Group of 20 industrialised and emerging economies."
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Iran Sanctions: Which Way Will China Go?
Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers: "As world powers wrangle this month at the United Nations about how to handle Iran's nuclear plans, China is attempting to balance its thirst for Iranian oil and natural gas with its ambition to be a diplomatic heavyweight."
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Corporate Speech and Campaign Finance Reform
William Bennett Turner, Truthout: "It's the most important First Amendment decision of the 21st century, so far. It powerfully reinforced fundamental free speech principles. Unfortunately, the court invoked the principles on behalf of business interests instead of the dissidents whose messages actually need First Amendment protection."
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The Urgency of Housing in Haiti: First Priority in Addressing Widespread Rape
Beverly Bell, Truthout: "The 7.3 earthquake which struck Haiti on January 12 was only the start of Haiti's most recent catastrophe. It has been followed by an ever-deepening social and economic crisis for those whose survival was precarious before the quake, especially among the 1.3 million who were left homeless or displaced."
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Obama's Feminist Touch
Joe Conason, Truthout: "Someday, when Americans have learned to live the true meaning of our creed, a Supreme Court nomination of a woman, a Latino, an African-American or any other variety of human being -- including a gay man or woman -- will provoke no comment or concern. Until then, we should applaud every step toward that future. The latest is President Barack Obama's choice of Elena Kagan to become the third female justice among the nine justices on the nation's highest court."
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"Soul of a Citizen": From an Eighth Grade Education to Testifying Before Congress
Paul Rogat Loeb, Truthout: "Too many of us hold back from community involvement because we think we don't know enough to act on our beliefs, or don't have the standing or confidence to take a public stand. When we see a woman who begins with no money, no power, no education and no status in the community, and then becomes a powerful voice for change, it should inspire us all."
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Meditations on Hip Hop
Tolu Olorunda, All Hip Hop: "Round about midway through the last decade, no more was it acceptable to cling to that absurd conviction claiming Hip-Hop was merely undergoing 'shifts' and 'trends,' and that much of the remonstrations, showering down from all tunnels, were ill-begotten and untimely and but the misguided ramblings of a few East-Coast-elitists displeased with another region (the South) assuming control of the Rap music machine. With the silly and senseless parodies that came to count as true artistic creations, most who once held skepticism to any criticisms began losing faith."
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Uh-Oh: Hurricane Season and the BP Oil Rig Disaster
Dave Lindorff, Truthout: "One thing you don't hear much mention of in all the coverage of the BP oil rig blowout that is now pouring 210,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, just a few dozen miles off the coast of Louisiana, is the 2010 hurricane season, which officially starts on June 1, but which can start significantly earlier."
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The League Against Denial
Eldad Beck, Yedioth Ahronoth: "'The phenomenon of Holocaust denial in the Arab world is wrong, misleading and causes damage to the Palestinian cause.' In his new book, Lebanese-French academic Gilbert Achcar grapples for the first time with the Arab attitudes towards the Holocaust."
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John Nichols: A Democratic Media
Rose Aguilar, Your Call: "What will it take to create a democratic healthy media? You know how dire the situation is: daily newspapers are closing, Washington bureaus are shuttering, whole areas of federal, state, and local governments are now operating with zero press coverage, international bureaus are disappearing, the list goes on. John Nichols, the Nation's Washington correspondent, writes, 'Journalism, the counterbalance to corporate and political power, the lifeblood of American democracy, is not just threatened. It is in meltdown.'"
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