Truthout 5/30

George Lakoff | Obama's Missing Moral Narrative
George Lakoff, Truthout: "Barack Obama may be one of the best communicators of this generation, but he is not living up to his own talents. In a year of disasters, communication failure doubles the disasters."
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BP Oil Spill: "Top Kill" Failure Means Well May Gush Until August
Mark Sappenfield, The Christian Science Monitor: "With the failure of the BP 'top kill' maneuver, the effort to combat the BP oil spill is increasingly becoming an attempt to manage expectations. A month ago, when the spill was barely a week old, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told CNN that the 'ultimate relief' - drilling a relief well - was still '90 days out.'"
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Marjorie Cohn | Rwandan Arrest of US Lawyer Motivated by Politics
Marjorie Cohn, Truthout: "Professor Peter Erlinder, noted criminal defense lawyer and past president of the National Lawyers Guild, was arrested Friday morning in Rwanda for 'genocide ideology.' Erlinder's representation of high-profile defendants before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has incurred the wrath of government officials, who have charged him with 'negation of the Tutsi genocide' for mounting defenses of his clients that conflict with the government party line about who was responsible for the 1994 genocide."
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Defense Spending the Top Priority, Critics Fear
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "As the United States retains its place as the world's largest defense spender for another year, and the Cost of War counter inches toward the $1 trillion mark, community activists bemoan the priorities of the Obama administration."
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Fuel Swap Shakes Sanctions Draft, Prods U.S. on New Iran Talks
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service: "Although the Barack Obama administration continued to dismiss the May 17 Iranian fuel swap agreement Friday, there are indications that Iran's move has shaken the agreement among U.N. Security Council members on sanctions, and is bringing Russian diplomatic pressure on the United States to participate in new talks with Iran on the swap arrangement - something the administration clearly wished to avoid."
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Why Misogynists Make Great Informants
Courtney Desiree Morris, make/shift: "In January 2009, activists in Austin, Texas, learned that one of their own, a white activist named Brandon Darby, had infiltrated groups protesting the Republican National Convention (RNC) as an FBI informant. Darby later admitted to wearing recording devices at planning meetings and during the convention. He testified on behalf of the government in the February 2009 trial of two Texas activists who were arrested at the RNC on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails, after Darby encouraged them to do so."
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House Hears of Dental Mercury Ending Up in Fish
Randy Rieland, Truthout: "An agreement to have dentists voluntarily reduce mercury emissions from their offices has been largely ineffective, exposing Americans to more mercury in their fish, representatives of state environmental agencies and a mercury watchdog group told a House of Representative subcommittee last week."
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Red State Road Trip 2 - Finale! (Video)
Chris Hume, Truthout: "10,000 Miles Later - Beyond Hope. After crossing the width and breadth of this land, we arrive in the tiny crossroads of Hope, Arizona. Red State Road Trip 2 wraps up with a look back at all the inspiring and disturbing moments that we encountered on the back roads of America."
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Dean Baker | Ordinary Workers Would Be Fired in a Second If They Screwed Up Anywhere Nearly as Bad as the Bankers Have
Dean Baker, Alternet: "The world is suffering from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. The crisis has left tens of millions unemployed in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. The huge baby boomer generation in the United States, now on the edge of retirement, has seen much of its wealth destroyed with the collapse of the housing bubble."
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Oil Spill's Scope Threatens Gulf's Endangered Marine Life
Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers: "As the magnitude of BP's oil spill becomes clearer, scientists fear that the volume of oil, the depth of the leak and the chemical dispersants the company is using will combine to threaten a vast array of undersea life for years."
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Chevron Bars Entry to Global Victims at Annual Shareholders' Meeting
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy NOW!: "Chevron has had five protesters arrested at its annual shareholders meeting in Houston and refused to allow another two dozen people from Chevron-affected countries around the world, like Nigeria, Ecuador and Burma. Those denied entry held legal shareholder proxies."
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"Dumpsites in Disguise:" Reuse of Coal Ash Largely Unregulated by Officials
Sue Sturgis, Facing South: "Coal ash isn't just dumped; it's increasingly being recycled into building materials and other uses. But in states like North Carolina, the failure to adequately regulate one so-called 'beneficial use' of the toxic-filled waste is putting communities at risk."
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