Truthout 5/4

William Rivers Pitt | Things Fall Apart
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "'Things fall apart,' William Butler Yeats wrote. 'The center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.' He could have been talking about us, about this past week in America, about what happens when madness, greed and fear combine and conspire to show us what it looks like when the gates of Hell crack open."
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Ongoing Safety Violations at BP's Refineries Endanger Employees' Lives
Jason Leopold, Truthout: "BP Plc's troubles are not just limited to its Gulf of Mexico operations, where a deadly blast aboard a drilling rig two weeks ago ruptured an oil well 5,000 feet below the sea's surface and triggered a massive oil leak that is now the size of a small country."
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The Rebirth of Regulation
Robert Reich: "What do oil giant BP, the mining company Massey Energy and Goldman Sachs have in common? They're all big firms involved in massive plunder. BP's oil spill is already one of the biggest and most damaging in American history. Massey's mine disaster, claiming the lives of 29 miners, is one of the worst in recent history. Goldman's alleged fraud is but a part of the largest financial meltdown in 75 years."
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News in Brief: US Reveals Size of Nuclear Arsenal and More ...
Formerly a secret, the US discloses size of its nuclear arsenal; Senate begins voting on Wall Street reform bill; California faces deeper cuts and more tax hikes as state revenue plunges; New York state court rules to expand the rights of gay parents; New York governor to pardon the deportation of legal immigrants for old or minor criminal convictions; Supreme Court rules to curb liability of federal government in cases of death resulting from denied medical care for those in immigration detention centers; Italy follows Belgium and France in outlawing Islamic face-covering garments in public.
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Chicago and Nation March for Immigration Reform on International Workers' Day
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "It was in Chicago in 1886 that a largely immigrant workforce fought, and won, the battle for the eight-hour day. It was in Chicago in 2010 that a modern-day workforce, made up of immigrants and the descendants of immigrants, came out to fight for their latest demand: comprehensive immigration reform."
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From Vietnam to Iran and the March of Either/Or Thinking
Dallas Darling, Truthout: "On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh, the most important and popular leader in the French colony of Indochina, announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. After writing President Harry S. Truman for assistance, and after patterning Vietnam's Declaration of Independence after America's Declaration of Independence, he invited US military and political officials to attend a celebration in honor of Vietnam's freedom. Later in the day, Ho Chi Minh ordered 'The Star-Spangled Banner' to be played in their honor."
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Latino Giant to Change US Politics
Froma Harrop, Truthout: "It was over frozen lattes three blocks from the Alamo that Lydia Camarillo and I discussed the wave of Latino voters expected to change politics in Texas - and America. Camarillo is vice president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a group that signs up new Hispanic voters and spurs them to the polls."
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Times Square Bomb Suspect Arrested
Ben Arnoldy, The Christian Science Monitor: "Faisal Shahzad, arrested Tuesday as a Times Square car bomb suspect just before he left the country, had recently visited Pakistan. Several Americans showing interest in attacking America or militant Islam have journeyed there before."
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Border-First Hallucinations
Eugene Robinson: "The notion that the first thing to do is 'secure the border' between the United States and Mexico - and only then worry about comprehensive immigration reform - falls somewhere between hopeful fantasy and cynical cop-out. It's a good sound bite but would be a ridiculous policy."
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Congress, Where 44 Percent Are Millionaires, Freezes Pay
David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers: "Congress, where 44 percent are millionaires, freezes pay. Facing election-year pressure to keep a lid on their salaries, lawmakers in Congress have agreed quietly not to increase their pay next year. As a result, most members of Congress next year will receive $174,000 in 2011 under legislation awaiting President Barack Obama's signature, the same amount they're getting this year."
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Greece Crisis Fallout: Will Greeks Step Up Riots Over Austerity Measures?
Nicole Itano, The Christian Science Monitor: "Greece's eurozone partners and the IMF this weekend agreed to a $146 billion bailout to stem the Greece crisis. But in return, the country's leaders have been forced to implement a harsh austerity program."
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Can Brazil Save the World From War With Iran?
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "For the last several decades, fundamental international issues of war and peace have been largely determined by a small group of countries, especially the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the US, Britain, France, Russia and China, with some occasional input from other so-called G7 industrial democracies: Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan."
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Fourteen Ways a 90 Percent Top Tax Rate Fixes Our Economy and Our Country
Dave Johnson, Truthout: "A return to Eisenhower-era, 90 percent top tax rates helps fix our economy in several ways: 1) It makes it take longer to end up with a fortune. In fact, it makes people build and earn a fortune instead of shooting for quick windfalls. This forces long-term thinking and planning instead of short-term scheming and scamming. If grabbing everything in sight and running doesn't pay off anymore, you have to change your strategy."
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The Costs of the Military-Industrial Complex
Rose Aguilar, Your Call: "In 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave his now famous farewell speech about the military-industrial complex. He said we must never let the weight of the disastrous rise of misplaced power endanger our liberties or democratic process. He said, 'Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.'"
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Invest in Women to Halve Africa's Hunger
Nixon Otieno, GlobalPost: "Over 200 million additional people have been pushed into hunger in the past three years as a result of the food and financial crises. The UN estimates that some one billion people now go hungry."
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Airlines on Final Approach to Monopoly of the Skies
Carl Finamore, Truthout: "On Monday, UAL, the parent of United Airlines, announced it will merge with Continental Airlines, creating the world's largest airline by number of passengers carried. The deal was completed Sunday by the boards of the two corporations. Reportedly, the merged air carrier will keep the Chicago-based United brand name."
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Crazy? Stupid? Tea Party Supporters Are Neither
Adele M. Stan, AlterNet: "They're the kooks, the wing nuts, the fringe of American politics - a tiny but vocal and overexposed remnant of the tattered quilt of conservatism. This is how too many progressives dismiss the Tea Party movement."
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On a Border Near Arizona: How Police Can Protect Immigrant Women
Laura Tillman, The Women's Media Center: "As the Arizona governor tries to push back criticism of the new immigration law, other Southwest communities concentrate on fighting actual criminal behavior. The author describes a case in point in Brownsville, Texas."
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Demonizing Iran: Media Beating War Drums
Dave Lindorff, Truthout: "Last month, The Wall Street Journal had a lead story about Israeli planning to possibly 'go it alone' in an attack on Iran if the US were not to 'succeed' in its diplomatic efforts to get Iran to 'stop' it's alleged attempts to develop a nuclear weapon capability."
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The F Word: Corporate Bombs Demand Justice Too (Video)
Laura Flanders, GRITtv: "President Barack Obama said Sunday that his administration and law enforcement officials are investigating who is responsible for a bombing attempt in New York City's Times Square on Saturday night. Obama, visiting Louisiana to inspect the oil spill efforts, said he'll do what's necessary, 'to protect the American people, to determine who is behind this potentially deadly act and to see that justice is done.'"
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Hammering Out a Contract: Exploiting Low-Paid Workers at a Vo-Tech School
Walter Brasch and Rosemary Brasch, Truthout: "Art Welch, the in-school suspension supervisor at the Columbia-Montour Area Vocational Technical School (Vo-Tech) in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, earns $8 an hour, only 75 cents above minimum wage. In the six years he has been at Vo-Tech, he has never had a raise."
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Compassion: The New Wonder Drug
Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune: "New research suggests compassion helps buffer women against the physical consequences of emotional stress. Maybe the Dalai Lama is onto something. Compassion helps buffer women against the physical consequences of emotional stress, research suggests. Compassion for others is a pathway to health and happiness."
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