[PAA-Discuss] William Rivers Pitt | Volunteers of America

Juli3 at aol.com Juli3 at aol.com
Tue Feb 22 08:01:18 EST 2011


 

 
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Friday 18 February 2011William Rivers Pitt  | Volunteers of America
William Rivers Pitt,  Truthout: "Did you hear about the uprising? Not the 
one in Tunisia, or  Egypt. No not the one in Libya, though what has been 
happening there is  certainly riveting. Thousands of protesters took to the 
streets in  several cities, defying the forty-year rule of Muammar el-Qaddafi 
under  threat of death. Not the similar one in Bahrain, where several died and 
 many more were injured. Not the similar one in Yemen, which has been  
going on for more than seven days. Not the really interesting one in  Iran, 
which has been a long time coming, and which prompted the ruling  elite to call 
for the immediate murder of anyone and everyone who is not  down with the 
sickness. Not the one in Iraq, which involved a demand  from the city of 
Baghdad for one billion dollars from the United States  of America, to pay for 
the damage done to the city from the war." 
_Read the Article_ (http://org2.democracyinact
ion.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=RmwceY3P2RMMmSdd/OXixbXSV3TwYHxh)  

Democratic Senators Leave State to Stall Bill as Mass  Protests Continue
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "In a  continuing attempt to stall a vote on the 
anti-union bill proposed by  Gov. Scott Walker, the 14 Democratic senators 
have left the state with  state troopers dispatched by Republican Senate 
leaders on their heels.  Without at least one additional senator in the chamber, 
the GOP does not  have the majority quorom to vote on the bill, which has 
been called the  biggest assault on worker's rights in Wisconsin and would 
effectively  strip collective bargaining rights from most public-sector 
unions.  Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to give all public-sector  
workers bargaining rights in 1959." 
_Read the Article_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=kj8DbUg4qByQLVPBuCdOuLXSV3TwYHxh)  

House Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood, Jackie Spier  Stands Up for Women
Tanya Somanader, ThinkProgress:  "Since gaining the upper-hand in the 
House, Republicans have led what  Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called 'the most 
comprehensive and radical  assault on women's health in our lifetime.' Blindly 
constructing bills  to redefine rape, to leave women to die rather than 
perform an abortion,  and to cut off support for women's health care clinics, the 
House GOP  has beat the anti-choice drum while woefully ignorant of how such 
 sanctimony affects women in the real world." 
_Read the Article_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=bLf9OQnS7fnttl3l0e08w04S4AwB4xuB)  

Security Forces in Bahrain Open Fire on  Mourners
Michael Slackman and Mark Landler, The New  York Times News Service: 
"Government forces opened fire on hundreds of  mourners marching toward Pearl 
Square Friday, sending people running  away in panic amid the boom of concussion 
grenades. But even as the  people fled, at least one helicopter sprayed 
fire on them and a witness  reported seeing mourners crumpling to the ground. 
It was not immediately  clear what type of ammunition the forces were firing, 
but some witnesses  reported live fire from automatic weapons and the crowd 
was screaming  'live fire, live fire.' At a nearby hospital, witnesses 
reported seeing  people with very serious injuries and gaping wounds, at least 
some of  them caused by rubber bullets that appeared to have been fired at 
close  range." 
_Read the Article_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9tMMqZYu5iN0Pkxl2V17mk4S4AwB4xuB)  

Dean Baker: Budget Cuts Are the Real Job-Killers  (Video)
Laura Flanders, GRITtv: "'People who want to  see the budget cut are people 
who are advocating throwing people out of  work, it's that simple,' says 
Dean Baker of the pressure from  conservatives on Obama's budget - pressure, 
it appears, that Obama is  conceding to as he brags that discretionary 
spending will be the lowest  since Eisenhower's administration. So Obama's budget 
includes cuts to  infrastructure, education, and more, and for Republicans, 
that's still  not enough. Dean joins us from D.C. via Skype to talk about 
what the  president should be arguing as the budget fight heats up." 
_Watch the Video_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=HBmXDEQjBK+MZAU3SID0fk4S4AwB4xuB)  

Joe Conason | Why Do They Hate Social  Security?
Joe Conason, Truthout: "Among the mysteries  of modern politics in America 
is why so many of our leading pundits and  politicians persistently seek to 
undermine Social Security, that  enduring and successful emblem of active 
government. In the current  atmosphere of budgetary panic, self-proclaimed 
'centrists' are joining  with ideologues of the right in yet another campaign 
against the program  - and yet again they are misinforming the public about 
its purposes,  costs and prospects." 
_Read the Article_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=cC9OB/fmKGuEkg3kvN4BM04S4AwB4xuB)  

Police Brutalize Ray McGovern as Hillary Clinton Talks  Free Speech
David Swanson, David Swanson's Blog: "As  Secretary of State Hillary 
Clinton spoke in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday  about the failures of foreign 
leaders to respect people's freedoms, a  71-year-old U.S. veteran Army officer, a 
man who spent 27 years in the  CIA and delivered presidential daily briefs, 
a peace activist and  proponent of nonviolence, the man who famously 
confronted Donald  Rumsfeld for his war lies, the man who drafted our letter to 
Spain and  delivered it to the Spanish Embassy on Monday, our friend Ray 
McGovern  turned his back in silence." 
_Read the Article_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=uqC/HwQyFRUTUEbIcIWmVU4S4AwB4xuB)  

Tom Engelhardt | Waist Deep in the Washington  Quagmire
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch: "Here's the  latest news from Congress, in 
case you've been in Afghanistan for the  last couple of weeks. A debate about 
slashing the federal budget is now  upon us, while fears of a possible 
government shutdown as spring  approaches are on the rise. The Republican 
leadership of the House of  Representatives originally picked $40 billion as its 
target figure for  cuts to the as-yet-not-enacted 2011 budget. That was the 
gauntlet it  threw down to the Obama administration, only to find its own 
proposal  slashed to bits by the freshman class of that body's conservative  
majority.They insisted on adhering to a Republican Pledge to America vow  to cut 
$100 billion from the budget." 
_Read the Article_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=CuRSiZvkiJlgm2m83SVp/k4S4AwB4xuB)  

Outsourcing, Trade Agreements and Employment: Lame Duck  or Just Plain Lame?
Gerald Epstein, TripleCrisis:  "The Obama plan for employment generation 
has now come down to this:  trickle-down stimulus tax cuts and a pledge to 
double exports in five  years' time. The first plan was passed during a lame 
duck session of  Congress, while the second is pretty lame, plain and simple. 
Taking a  page out of the Clinton playbook, the Obama administration is now  
touting free trade agreements and the restoration of American  
competitiveness as a key solution to our economic and employment  problems." 
_Read the Article_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=xCBlFPQbpvGWxv1kMvRwZLXSV3TwYHxh)  

Alexander Cockburn | BP Faces Fines of Up to $10  Billion, Plus Jail Time 
for Guilty  Officials
Alexander Cockburn, Truthout: "For its huge  oil spill last summer in the 
Gulf of Mexico, BP is facing 'the largest  criminal fine ever paid in the 
United States,' according to the man who  worked for 17 years in the 
Environmental Crimes Section at the Justice  Department and ran the Crimes Section for 
seven. These days, David  Uhlmann is a professor at the University of 
Michigan Law School. He  recently authored an article - 'After the Spill Is Gone: 
The Gulf Of  Mexico, Environmental Crime, and the Criminal Law' - scheduled 
for  publication this spring in the Michigan Law Review." 
_Read the Article_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=fmo/LblJq83r/U8rkbs1QE4S4AwB4xuB)  

_Click here for more Truthout  articles_ 
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BUZZFLASH DAILY  HEADLINES

It's tough to be a pinhead elitist, as Bill O'Reilly calls  liberals. 
After all, we are in a nation where intelligence has never been  valued 
much by the culture. But we've reached a point, where as one  
BuzzFlash/Truthout reader emailed, if we taxed stupidity, we would be  running a huge 
national budget surplus. 
However, given the corporate shaping of the news by the mainstream  media, 
it is not surprising to read that many Americans are not so much  stupid as 
ignorant of the facts. Force fed an alternative reality by the  likes of Fox 
- including the psychotic, psychedelic fantasies of Glenn  Beck - many US 
citizens just don't know what they don't know. 
Recently, I was reading Walter Lippman's treatise on the failings of  
journalism at the beginning of the last century, "Liberty and the News."  Lippman 
faulted the press during the WW I period for confusing jingoism  with the 
facts, for inflating a false sense of patriotism that sold  papers, but 
didn't disseminate the truth. 
Lippman had this to say about his time - and prophetically ours: 
And yet I am convinced that we shall accomplish more by fighting  for truth 
than by fighting for our theories.... To deny this, it seems  to me, is to 
claim that the mass of men [and women are] impervious to  education, and to 
deny that, is to deny the postulate of democracy,  and to seek salvation in 
a dictatorship. There is, I am convinced,  nothing but misery and confusion 
that way.
We at Truthout and BuzzFlash continue to fight for the truth. 
Can we count on you to _assist us with a  donation?_ 
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Falsehoods are free and paid for by corporate ads, but the truth is  
priceless. 
Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

Obama Backs Collective Bargaining for Public Workers in  Wisconsin
_Read the Article at The Washington  Post_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=3nxu4SbHTbuRct7hVg6zik4S4AwB4xuB) 
House Blocks Federal Aid for Planned  Parenthood
_Read the Article at The Washington  Post_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=d8uPr12ORFnrVo4psEh9+04S4AwB4xuB) 
Will the Movement to Hold Banks Accountable for Taxes Hit the  US?
_Read the Article at The Guardian  UK_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=zzoy4WI5fSGtVVTcLNZiEk4S4AwB4xuB) 
GOP Tries to Defund Regulation of Wall Street
_Read the Article at  Politico_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=a3N/raiC/AlCG2OfBblQUrXSV3TwYHxh) 
Watered Down FCC Net Neutrality Ruling Under Attack by  House
_Read the Article at The Wall Street  Journal_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hRP11P69MgouFDzC8UIJUE4S4AwB4xuB) 
Will Wisconsin GOP Governor Call Out National Guard to  Suppress Dissent?
_Read the Article at  Salon_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=tpRTD5tkui/kH3pMPFf+Zk4S4AwB4xuB) 
Private Sector Workers Join Ohio Fight for Right to  Collective Bargaining
_Read the Article at The AFL-CIO  Blog_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=mL92Nf81LLktKyUDGHzsb04S4AwB4xuB) 
Classified Papers Prove German Warnings to  Bush
_Read the Article at Spiegel  Online_ 
(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=tnbEJKvMTnxPTtRC/o9gf04S4AwB4xuB) 
_Click here for more BuzzFlash  headlines_ 
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