Truthout 5/5

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Slick Operator: The BP I've Known Too Well
Greg Palast, Truthout: "I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum (BP)."
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Voting for War. Take Your Pick
John Pilger, Truthout: "Staring at the vast military history section in the airport shop, I had a choice: the derring-do of psychopaths or scholarly tomes with their illicit devotion to the cult of organized killing. There was nothing I recognized from reporting war. Nothing on the spectacle of children's limbs hanging in trees and nothing on the burden of shit in your trousers. War is a good read. War is fun. More war please."
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What Happens in Arizona Is Everybody's Business
Connie Schultz, Truthout: "The argument goes something like this: If you don't live in Arizona, you have no business meddling in its immigration problems. After all, what's it to Midwesterners if Arizona makes it a crime not to carry proof of immigration status? Why should East Coast residents care if a new law in the Southwest targets people of color? What right does anyone living somewhere else have to criticize a law in Arizona that directs police to demand proof of documents from people who trigger 'reasonable suspicion' that they are illegal?"
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News in Brief: Three Die in Violent Protests in Athens and More ...
Violent protests in Greece leave at least three people dead; German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses Germany's financial support of the largest share of Greece's rescue package; possible mistakes by FBI and Emirates airline related to recent terrorism case; BP oil spill continues gushing estimated 200,000 gallons of oil per day.
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Wall Street Profits, Subsidies and Lobbyists
Jim Hightower, Truthout: "Citigroup has just announced that its profits for just the first three months of this year totaled an incredible $4.4 billion, Goldman Sachs' haul was $3.5 billion, JPMorgan Chase grabbed $3.3 billion and Bank of America took $3.2 billion."
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Tom Tomorrow | This Modern World
Truthout is proud to feature Tom Tomorrow, whose award-winning political cartoon, "This Modern World," is now a regular feature. To quote documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, "All Hail Tom Tomorrow!"
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Primary Season Begins With First Returns
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina announced the results of their primaries Wednesday, heralding the start of a long and difficult road to Congressional seats in November. Voters in Ohio chose Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in the state's Democratic primary over Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, according to The Associated Press. Fisher will face Rob Portman, unopposed winner of the GOP primary, in November to fill Sen. George Voinovich's (R-Ohio) Senate seat. Portman is said to have $7 million more than Fisher in his campaign treasury."
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Rep. Bob Ney After Prison: "Money Is the Problem" (Video)
Laura Flanders, GRITtv: "Get the money out of Washington. It's an ongoing refrain now, from the left and even from those in the Tea Party movement. Too much corruption, too little trust. Jack Abramoff, the superstar lobbyist whose spectacular fall brought down then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay, was the very public face of the problem of lobbying when he headed off to jail, and he is the subject of Alex Gibney's newest documentary, 'Casino Jack and the United States of Money.'"
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Will Hollywood Go the Way of Enron? Derivatives Come to the Movies
Ellen Brown, Truthout: "As if attacks from paparazzi and star-crazed fans weren't enough, Hollywood stars may soon have a literal price put on their heads by investors in the Cantor Exchange, a real-money trading platform where people can bet on the gross profits of upcoming movies. Sales of 'The Dark Knight' skyrocketed after Heath Ledger died unexpectedly, and so did sales after the deaths of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. Will greed-driven investors now be laying in wait for the stars of movies they have bet on?"
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Bolivia Throws Down Gauntlet, Demands Real Climate Action
Max Ajl, Truthout: "It was a rounding error: 3, 3.5 million dollars, the amount of funding in climate aid that the United States had taken away from Bolivia, in explicit retribution for Bolivia's filibuster at the Copenhagen Summit this past December, when along with Venezuela, the Sudan, Nicaragua and Ecuador, it effectively scuppered the Copenhagen accords."
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Red State Road Trip 2: Jump Off The World (Video - Part VI)
Chris Hume, Truthout: "Mullinville, Kansas, a mere speck on the map, is home to the great M.T. Liggett - Kansas' most celebrated outcast. His metal sculptures stretch for miles into the prairie. Free thinking and foul mouthed, M.T. provokes the local inhabitants. 'If you can't think for yourself, then jump off the world!'. M.T. Liggett also appeared in the original Red State Road Trip 2005."
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All-Volunteer Wars: Yawn ... How Many Times Have You Seen This Headline?
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com: "After a week away, here's my advice: in news terms, you can afford to take a vacation. When I came back last Sunday, New Orleans was bracing for tough times (again). BP, a drill-baby-drill oil company that made $6.1 billion in the first quarter of this year and lobbied against 'new, stricter safety rules' for offshore drilling, had experienced an offshore disaster for which ordinary Americans are going to pay through the nose (again). News photographers were gearing up for the usual shots of oil-covered wildlife (again)."
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Suspect in Times Square Bombing to Face Terrorism Charges
Grace Huang, Truthout: "Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday that the Justice Department will charge the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing with terrorism and mass destruction. Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized citizen from Pakistan living in Connecticut, was arrested late Monday night at JFK International Airport. After being questioned by FBI agents, Shahzad admitted his role in what Holder called a 'terrorist plot aimed at murdering Americans in one of the busiest places in this country.'"
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Disorganization at Banks Causing Mistaken Foreclosures
Paul Kiel, ProPublica: "Millions of homeowners face losing their homes in the continuing foreclosure crisis, but homeowners often have more than the struggling economy and slumping house prices to worry about: Disorganization within the big banks that service mortgages has made a bad problem worse."
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On National Teacher Day, Unions Rail Against School Cuts
Amanda Paulson, The Christian Science Monitor: "Some 300,000 teachers and others might lose their jobs this year as administrators make difficult school cuts. One union launched a campaign on National Teacher Day to highlight the issue. On Tuesday, which was National Teacher Day, teacher unions and lawmakers highlighted the grim future looming for some districts that are being forced to ax teachers - among other school cuts - in order to balance their budgets."
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EPA Postpones Decision That Would Toughen Coal Ash Rules
Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed the nation's first federal rules for the disposal of contaminant-laden ash from coal-fired power plants, but delayed a decision for at least three months on whether coal ash should be regulated as a hazardous substance."
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The Rules of the Nuclear Game Today
Tad Daley, Truthout: "The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed in 1968 and came into force in 1970. In May 2010, both diplomats and nongovernmental leaders are gathering at the United Nations in New York for the 40-Year NPT Review Conference - as mandated by the treaty itself - to assess how the various parties are complying with the various obligations they undertook four long decades ago."
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Deadly Explosions Hit Somalia Mosques
Tristan McConnell, GlobalPost: "Another bloody week in Mogadishu was on the face of it like so many others: dozens of civilians blown to pieces or maimed by explosions, shot to death or injured. But this week's attacks were different, signaling a change in the fighting that rages between Islamist insurgents and the United Nations and Western-backed government."
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Women Punished Twice Over in Colombia's Prisons
Helda Martinez, Inter Press Service: "'Loss of freedom should not mean loss of fundamental rights," Diana Sanchez, a lawyer with the Political Prisoners Solidarity Committee (CSPP), told IPS. 'But in Colombia prisoners are punished twice over: with a prison sentence, and with restrictions on their other rights.'"
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Europe Must Change in Order Not to Implode
Pierre Ivorra, Humanite in English: "Another European summit is to take place on May 10. Confronted with the risk of a crash, the need for a drastic overhaul of the European construction is becoming clearer and clearer. The European Central Bank must come to the rescue of Greece. Our paper's petition is very favorably received."
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Complicit Agents of Imperial Crimes
Francis Shor, Truthout: "What would you do if you knew that a large contingent of well-armed gang members were planning to assault Los Angeles, inflicting massive death and mayhem on innocent civilians? Furthermore, what if those gang members could be linked to you through financial support you had given to their paymasters?"
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Forces Align Against Arizona: Four Major Cities Threaten Boycotts; Baseball Flexes Its Muscles; Citizens in Uproar
Liliana Segura, AlterNet: "As calls continue to boycott Arizona over its racist immigration law, many are focusing on Major League Baseball, where nearly a third of the players are Latino. Immediately after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the racist new anti-immigration law, calls for a boycott of her state arose, from La Opinion, the nation's largest Spanish-language newspaper, to Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, who called for targeted economic sanctions of his own state, saying that 'good' and 'decent' organizations 'should refrain from bringing their business' to Arizona."
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Noriega Sleeps in Prison in France
Cathy Ceibe, Humanite in English: "The ex-dictator, ex-drug-trafficker, ex-agent of the CIA, extradited from the United States, arrived yesterday in Paris. Condemned in absentia, he will reappear before the courts. The former general and de facto head of Panama will finish his days behind bars in France. Antonio Noriega arrived yesterday morning at Roissy, where he was to be interviewed by the French justice system."
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