Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Truthout 8/3

Jesse Lemisch | Professors as Welfare Queens?
Jesse Lemisch, Truthout: "From Obama on down, the political atmosphere is deeply polluted by the use of 'centrism' as a self-description of what are essentially retrograde right-wing views. Under Obama, the US wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq continue, as do the lies put out about them. Guantanamo goes on. Obama's 'Deficit Commission' warms us up for cuts in Medicare and Social Security. 'The perfect is the enemy of the good,' and, thus, we have health care 'reform' by and for the insurers, with higher premiums and profits, and more evasions of coverage by merchants of death like UnitedHealthCare."
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Iraq Part Two: Operation New Dawn
Deb Weinstein, Truthout: "As promised and on schedule, 'President Obama said US troops will end their combat mission in Iraq at the end of this month.... However, although troops will no longer officially be in combat mode, US forces will remain on the ground until December 2011, according to the terms of a 2008 Strategic Agreement between the US and Iraq."
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Can Jesus Cure Shell Shock?
Matt Harwood, Truthout: "Many Christians believe faith in Jesus Christ can cure almost anything: alcoholism, cancer, homosexuality, even the Son of Sam. But can it cure post traumatic stress disorder in troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq? The Army Reserves' top chaplain for military policemen believes so, and published his prescription on the Army Reserves' official Web site for everyone to see, in an act a watchdog organization argues is unconstitutional and dangerous when soldiers continue to kill themselves at an alarming rate."
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Gulf Oil Flow Was 12 Times More Than Feds' Original Estimate
Erika Bolstad and Lesley Clark, McClatchy Newspapers: "As BP neared a fix that's expected to kill for good the runaway well that's wreaked economic and environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, the government Monday said that 10 to 12 times the amount of oil had been flowing from the well than it originally thought."
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Why We Sued to Represent Muslim Cleric Aulaqi
Bill Quigley, Truthout: "Anwar Aulaqi is a US citizen and Muslim cleric living somewhere in Yemen. The US has put him on our terrorist list and is trying to assassinate him. The Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU filed suit today so we can be pro bono lawyers for his father, Nasser Aulaqi, to stop the government from killing him."
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New Evidence About Prisoners Held in Secret CIA Prisons in Poland and Romania
Andy Worthington, Truthout: "On Friday, the Polish Border Guard Office released a number of documents to the Warsaw-based Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, which, for the first time, provide details of the number of prisoners transferred by the CIA to a secret prison in Poland between December 5, 2002, and September 22, 2003, and, in one case, the number of prisoners who were subsequently transferred to a secret CIA prison in Romania."
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Chris Hedges | Why the Feds Fear Thinkers Like Howard Zinn
Chris Hedges, Truthdig: "On Monday I will teach my final American history class of the semester to prison inmates. We have spent five weeks reading Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States.' The class is taught in a small room in the basement of the prison. I pass through a metal detector, am patted down by a guard and walk through three pairs of iron gates to get to my students."
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Phoenix Rising ... and the Struggle Continues
Randall Amster J.D., Ph.D.: "I've written a lot about Arizona since the national controversy over SB 1070 took hold, and in particular during recent weeks as the struggle over the bill's implications and ultimate fate began to reach a fever pitch. This focus is not accidental by any means; I've lived in Arizona for fifteen years, and I care deeply about the causes of social justice reflected in the debate over immigration."
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News in Brief: Israeli-Lebanese Border Sees Fiercest Clashes Since 2004 War, and More ...
Israeli and Lebanese troops exchange fire in the most serious clashes since 2006; Pakistan flood death toll reaches 1,400 with three million at risk; Republicans call to repeal 14th Amendment, Virginia attorney general O.K.s immigration checks; China overtakes US as world's biggest energy consumer; Senate cuts food stamps to supplement Medicaid and education; mosque to be built near Ground Zero clears hurdle.
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The Plight of Three Journalists Imprisoned in Iran Reveals the Risks That Come With Real Reporting
Kari Lydersen, AlterNet: "Journalist Shane Bauer made his friend Shon Meckfessel promise he wouldn't let him work during their vacation in the Kurdistan mountains in northern Iraq last summer. Bauer, 27, and his partner Sarah Shourd, 31, had been living in Damascus for almost a year. Bauer was studying language and reporting for the Nation, Mother Jones and other outlets."
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Conservative Deficit Hawks Demand Tax Cut Extensions
Zach Carter, The Media Consortium: "The same conservatives who spent the past year senselessly screaming about the U.S. budget deficit are now demanding an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich. The extension simply doesn't make sense, and the policies implied are a recipe for massive job loss in the middle of the worst employment crisis in 75 years."
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Indian Country Wins Power to Fight Sexual Assault
Michelle Chen, Color Lines: "Congress has just given Indian Country greater authority to police its own, and that may be good news for women. The Tribal Law and Order Act, which was signed by President Obama last week, expands the authority of tribal criminal justice agencies to prosecute crimes within their own territory, rather than relying on the notoriously spotty federal authorities. While the emphasis is on policing, advocates have hailed the bill as a step toward alleviating the often hidden epidemic of sexual and gender-based violence against Native women."
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