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Sunday 19 February 2012


Delusions of the Corporate State
Evaggelos Vallianatos, Truthout:
"The citizens of America must push the servants of oligarchy out of office, the very people who made a killing with their 2008 financial disaster. Americans must return to the Greek-inspired path of Thomas Jefferson: reinvigorate democracy while bringing the military-industrial complex under control." 
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Mortgage-Backed Securities Make a Comeback, Despite Similar Risks
Azam Ahmed, The New York Times News Service: "Some Wall Street investors made money as the mortgage market boomed; others profited when it fell apart.... Mr. Lippmann is joined by other big-money investors — mutual funds like Fidelity as well as hedge funds — in riding a wave of interest in the same complex loan pools that nearly washed away the financial system." 
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Industry Plan to Save Us From Global Warming a Nightmare, Not a Dream
Peter Montague, AlterNet: "By ignoring global warming, the U.S. is painting itself (and the world) into a corner. But now the fossil fuel industry has prepared an escape for us. You may not have heard of it, but the escape is called 'carbon capture and storage' or CCS for short. It has never been tried on anything like the scale needed to limit global warming, so it's a colossal experiment with the future of civilization at stake."
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Frustrated Protesters Fill the Streets in Syria's Capital
Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times News Service: "Hundreds and hundreds of antigovernment protesters braved scattered gunfire from Syrian soldiers to march through a middle-class neighborhood in Damascus on Saturday, the biggest demonstration witnessed close to the heart of the capital since the country's uprising started 11 months ago." 
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Disaster Capitalism: Profiting From Crisis in Post-Earthquake Haiti
Deepa Panchang, Beverly Bell and Tory Field, Other Worlds Are Possible: "Below are a few examples of post-earthquake contracts and grants, selected to show just some of the problems at play. They offer a small glimpse into a much larger, secretive world of disaster deals. We're grateful to our investigative journalist colleagues who, alongside us, have kept heavy on the scent of these corporations and brought buried information to light." 
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Perfect Storm Threatens Long-Term Unemployed
Greg Kaufmann, The Nation: "In December, there were more than 13 million unemployed workers and about four people looking for work for every available job. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), 5.5 million people have been unemployed for more than half a year, up from 1.2 million in 2007, and the average duration for an unemployed person is over nine months.... So it's particularly alarming to see Congress playing games with an extension of unemployment benefits that are set to expire at the end of the month." 
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How the Ohio GOP's Attempts to Game Voting Rules Backfired
Jennifer Brunner, AlterNet: "In Ohio, the GOP-controlled legislature - without a fight from my predecessor, the Republican secretary of state, Ken Blackwell - began a systematic effort to tinker with Ohio's voting rules, from requiring people to take a training session before they could register voters, to requiring naturalized citizens to show their papers at the polling place (all of which were struck down by federal courts in 2005 and 2006).... Nearly every time the GOP in Ohio has succeeded in implementing an unfair 'reform,' it has backfired on them." 
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Andrew Bacevich | Uncle Sam, Global Gangster
Andrew Bacevich, TomDispatch: "With the United States now well into the second decade of what the Pentagon has styled an 'era of persistent conflict,' the war formerly known as the global war on terrorism (unofficial acronym WFKATGWOT) appears increasingly fragmented and diffuse. Without achieving victory, yet unwilling to acknowledge failure, the United States military has withdrawn from Iraq. It is trying to leave Afghanistan, where events seem equally unlikely to yield a happy outcome." 
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Human Safaris: When Does Tourism Become Unethical?
Joanna Eede, Survival International: "In principle, there is little harm in tourists visiting tribal peoples who have been in routine contact with outsiders for some time. But as natural social sensitivity and respect would dictate, this only applies to tribal peoples who are happy to receive visitors, have proper control over where the tourists go and what they do in their communities, and receive a fair share of the profits." 
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It's Up to Us to Protect the First Amendment
Josh Stearns, Save the News: "What happens when a journalist is arrested? How do we account for the stories that don't get told, or the issues that don't get covered because the press was restricted or behind bars? How do we measure the intimidation journalists feel, and the chill that police intervention places on freedom of the press? One gauge might be the U.S.'s recent drop in global press freedom rankings, down to number 47 worldwide." 
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Subsidize This: US Eyes Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels, But What Gets Protected?
Gregg Levine, Capitoilette: "While trade is often a bone of contention between the United States and China, this week's visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping threw the spotlight on one subset of that battle that could have far-reaching effects well in excess of the raw dollar amounts at stake. At issue is a complaint filed by a solar industry trade group, the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, or CASM, asking that the US government impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels. CASM wants the duties for what it claims are unfair subsidies by China that make Chinese solar products substantially cheaper than those offered by many US competitors." 
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES



The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return Monday.


Lieberman Edges US to War With Iran
Read the Article at Consortium News
Supreme Court Sanctioned Sale of US Government to Highest Bidders Likely to Continue as Court Puts Hold on Montana State Limit on Political Contributions
Read the Article at Bloomberg
How Rick Santorum Ripped Off American Military Veterans
Read the Article at Mother Jones
Suicide Attack on Iraq Police Academy Kills 19
Read the Article at Reuters
Hague Warns Israel Over Military Action in Iran
Read the Article at Yahoo! News
Fracking Debate Divides New York Landowners as the State Prepares to Lift a Moratorium on Fracking 
Read the Article at The LA Times
Iran Stops Exporting Crude Oil to Britsh and French Companies
Read the Article at Bloomberg
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlinesSaturday 21 January 2012

Citizens United: A Tsunami of Secret Corporate Cash Is Drowning Our Democracy
Isaiah J. Poole, Campaign for America's Future: "Today is the two-year anniversary of the infamous Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court that allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. Since then, our democracy has been drowning in a tsunami of corporate special interest money. Our government is under the thumb of the Koch brothers and other corporate moguls instead of the hands of the people. And citizens are uniting in their disgust."
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Jason Leopold | Military Attorney Accused of "Smuggling" Anti-Guantanamo Literature to Detainee
Jason Leopold, Truthout: “Early last month, Air Force Capt. Michael Schwartz was summoned into the office of Rear Adm. David Woods, the new commander of Guantanamo, and was allegedly accused of ‘smuggling’ into the detention facility an anti-Guantanamo pamphlet that featured the photographs of two Kuwaiti detainees, Fayiz al-Kandari and Fawzi al Odha…. If ‘incendiary’ reading material was the true catalyst behind Woods’ order, then it’s likely the interrogators who work at Guantanamo are to blame, a former prison guard said.”
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Henry A. Giroux | Remembering Etta James
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "I never stopped listening to Etta James, not only because her music reminded me of some of the most memorable moments of my youth, but because she flaunted her cultural capital without apologies, combined passion and desire and lived on the edge merging her body and music into a constant reminder of what it meant to ground one's life in real struggles, disappointments, and hopes. She knew how to affirm rather than compromise both her music and the pathos and hope it embodied."
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Mandate Transparency on the Anniversary
Lisa Gilbert, Huffington Post: "Mandating transparency is well within the SEC's authority, and there is no time like the 2 year anniversary of this game changing decision to set the wheels in motion. The SEC should shine a light on corporate spending in politics and enable the public and shareholders to hold CEO's accountable when they spend in politics. Otherwise, I fear the recap I will be giving of this election at next year's anniversary."
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Gingrich Surges With Old, Familiar Ploy: Racist Attacks on Poor People
Seth Freed Wessler, ColorLines.com: "Newt Gingrich has done as much to wreck the federal safety net and translate the Southern Strategy into the post-racial era as anyone in Washington. His chances of gaining the Republican nomination are slim, but the war against poor people that Gingrich has lead is well entrenched. Regardless of who wins the GOP nomination, Gingrich’s legacy will carry on."
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100% Unverifiable Statewide E-Voting in South Carolina's 2012 GOP Primary
Brad Friedman, The Brad Blog: "The voting systems in use for the nation's first three all-important electoral contests in the 2012 primary - from Iowa to New Hampshire to Saturday's South Carolina Primary - go from pretty great to intolerably horrible.... now we come to the ‘First-in-the-South’ Republican primary in South Carolina, where all evidence of how voters vote disappears entirely as the voters will be forced across the entire state to vote on easily-manipulated, oft-failed, 100% unverifiable touch-screen voting systems made by the nation's largest voting machine company, ES&S."
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Blacks Face Bias in Bankruptcy, Study Suggests
Tara Siegel Bernard, The New York Times: "Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to wind up in the more onerous and costly form of consumer bankruptcy as they try to dig out from their debts, a new study has found. The disparity persisted even when the researchers adjusted for income, homeownership, assets and education. The evidence suggested that lawyers were disproportionately steering blacks into a process that was not as good for them financially, in part because of biases, whether conscious or unconscious."
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From CEO to Candidate, Romney Flip-Flops on Debt
Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica: "Are there private equity executives anywhere in the world who would counsel their companies not to borrow at such extremely low rates? I haven't had the privilege of meeting one. Their mantra is, borrow now, for tomorrow the Mayans might turn out to be right. Few indeed are the companies that could borrow that cheaply and not make some kind of return on essentially free money."
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Study Challenges Supreme Court’s Image as Defender of Free Speech
Adam Liptak, The New York Times News Service: "The Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the conventional wisdom goes, is exceptionally supportive of free speech. Leading scholars and practitioners have called the Roberts court the most pro-First Amendment court in American history. A recent study challenges that conclusion. It says that a comprehensive look at data from 1953 to 2011 tells a different story, one showing that the court is hearing fewer First Amendment cases and is ruling in favor of free speech at a lower rate than any of the courts led by the three previous chief justices."
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A Look Behind the Drop in Undocumented Immigration
Michelle Mittelstadt, New America Media: A recent New York Times op-ed by Dowell Myers argues that we need to shift from an “immigration policy,” focused on border enforcement, to an ‘immigrant policy’ focused on the integration of those who are already here. The argument is based on reports that illegal immigration to the United States has dropped dramatically. Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications for the Migration Policy Institute, takes a closer look behind the numbers in the context of global migration trends.
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Friday 20 January 2012

The Future of the Keystone XL Pipeline
Mike Ludwig and Alissa Bohling, Truthout: "Unless TransCanada drops the project or lawmakers take the review out of the State Department's hands, the Obama administration could take another stab at reviewing the pipeline permit. If the current drama is any indicator, the Keystone XL pipeline will continue to be a political headache for the Obama administration."
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Wisconsin Recall Elections a Sure Thing, but New ID Law May Block Anti-Walker Vote
Roger Bybee, In These Times: "As in other states, the Wisconsin Republicans felt no obligation to present proof that voter-impersonation fraud - the supposed target of the legislation - actually takes place in more than a tiny handful of cases. But the extreme rarity of this form of potential fraud has seldom been stressed in corporate media accounts. Most stories on the issue simply present statements and counter-statements by the two major political parties ..."
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Afghanistan's Soldiers Step Up Killings of Allied Forces
Matthew Rosenberg, The New York Times News Service: "The 70-page classified coalition report, titled 'A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility,' goes far beyond anecdotes. It was conducted by a behavioral scientist who surveyed 613 Afghan soldiers and police officers, 215 American soldiers and 30 Afghan interpreters who worked for the Americans."
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The Old South Lives in Today's DC: Exploitation Then and Now
J.A. Myerson, Truthout: "Slavery and colonization are what happen when no one makes laws limiting the courses of action available to those who would amass control of resources by the exploitation of others. By and large, today's American plutocrats use different, kinder tactics to accomplish that goal. They lobby Congress for laws that facilitate their accumulation of wealth and for the repeal of laws that impede it."
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Blood Feud: The Man Who Blew the Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever
Kathleen Sharp, Dutton Books: "Earlier that day, a nurse had walked up to Jim Lenox and without consent had injected him with an overdose of a drug that stimulated his red blood cells. At the time, that shot had angered Sharon. Now, in light of her husband's slow, torturous death, that injection loomed large in her mind. Had that drug killed her husband? Were others dying in the same way?"
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Supreme Court Rejects Judge-Drawn Maps in Texas Redistricting Case
Adam Liptak, The New York Times News Service: "One set of maps was drawn by the Legislature, which is controlled by Republicans. Those maps seem to favor Republican candidates. The other set was drawn by a special three-judge federal court in San Antonio, and it increases the voting power of Hispanic voters and seems to help Democratic candidates."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Occupy the Courts, and More
In today's On the News segment: Online piracy hub shut down (without needing SOPA or PIPA), new human rights filings against the Bush administration, US Army suicides are rising, Elizabeth Warren's money bomb, and more.
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Active-Duty Soldiers Take Their Own Lives at Record Rate
Elisabeth Bumiller, The New York Times News Service: "The rise in Army suicides has long been attributed to the stress of repeated deployments during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Army officials say there are many other factors at work, including alcohol abuse and a lowering of recruiting standards several years ago that allowed a higher-risk population into the military."
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Despite Everything, Choice Survives in Kansas
Eleanor J. Bader, Truthout: "'You know, when we first started talking about reestablishing a clinic in Wichita back in 2010, people were still shell-shocked by Dr. Tiller's murder,' Burkhart admits. 'There was almost a deer-in-the-headlights reaction to the idea of once again offering abortions in this city. Then, once we started to talk about the idea, people came around and became eager to do it.'"
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The Price of Apple
James Kwak, The Baseline Scenario: "Most of us already realized, on an intellectual level, that the stuff we buy is made by people overseas who, in general, have much less than we do and work harder than we do, under tougher working conditions. It's harder to ignore, however, listening to Daisey talk about the long shifts (up to thirty-four hours, apparently), the crippling injuries due to repetitive stress or hazardous chemicals, the crammed dormitories, and the authoritarian rules."
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Thanks to Citizens United, Multinational Mega Lobbyist Firm Salivates Over $4 Billion in Campaign Cash
Lee Fang, AlterNet: "For the WPP Group, which owns firms involved in the influence game from top to bottom, the more corporate money in elections the better. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with its state affiliates like the Michigan and California Chamber of Commerce, will probably spend tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying and running ads this year. We now have parties embracing SuperPACs and begging wealthy donors to cash. Obama's campaign has pledged to raise $1 billion."
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Labor, Consumer Agency Fights Aren't Over: Now Republicans Try to Defund Them
Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future: "Republicans were blocking National Labor Relations Board and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau nominees to keep these agencies from doing their jobs under the law, in exchange for a cut of the take. Obama made recess appointments to get them up and operating. Now Republicans are trying to defund the agencies."
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One Million Recall Signatures Versus One Partisan Judge
Ernest A. Canning, The Brad Blog: "With polls showing 58% of respondents in WI favor Recall, delay and endless litigation provide the immensely unpopular, Koch-supported governor with a means to cling to power beyond the time envisioned by existing statutes, and in violation of the rights of Badger State voters."
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Bill Moyers Talks With Reagan Budget Director About "Crony Capitalism
Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co.: "This weekend, David Stockman, former budget director for President Reagan speaks candidly with Bill Moyers about how money dominates politics, distorting free markets and endangering democracy. 'As a result,' Stockman says, 'we have neither capitalism nor democracy. We have crony capitalism.'"
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BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES
As the anniversary of the infamous Citizens United decision nears (January 21), you can count on Jim Hightower to stick it to the Supreme Court (5-4 corporate majority): "If a corporation is a person, where's its navel?"

Although Citizens United is generally considered the most recent apogee of the expanding legal concept of corporate personhood, it was - on a more focused level - a case about campaign financing. What the ruling did was nullify a section of the McCain-Feingold election financing reform law. In overturning a District of Columbia federal court ruling, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates of corporate, union and Super PAC expenditures in elections as "third parties."

Indeed, Justice Stevens wrote in his dissent from the Citizens United ruling:

At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.

The Citizens United decision was really representative of just one part of the growing influence of corporations and big money on our government. However, the danger of corporate personhood as a legally enshrined precedent is hydra-headed.

"I'll believe in corporate personhood when one of them is executed in Texas." That's a quip that caromed around the Internet a few weeks back.

BuzzFlash at Truthout doesn't support capital punishment, but it would be nice to see a few corporate CEO's hauled into court and held accountable as persons for corporate misdeeds.

The best place to start is with Wall Street. If advocates for democracy can get arrested and sentenced for protesting, it's time to put the persons running predatory big business on trial for laws that they have broken.

That would begin to make the people behind corporate personhood no longer placed above the law.

Meanwhile, if we are going to stop corporations and big money from continuing to buy our government, campaign finance reform remains of the highest priority.

Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

Scott Olsen: Casualty of the Occupation
Read the Article at Rolling Stone
Chicago Joins the Growing Number of Cities That Are Strangling Free Speech
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Conservatives Freak Out Over Romney's Kryptonite: Money
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo
Meet Foster Friess, Rick Santorum's Billionaire Sugar Daddy
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Republican Racism Is an Air Raid Siren, Not a Dog Whistle
Read the Article at AlterNet
Canada High Court Refuses to Hear Torture Cases
Read the Article at Agence France-Presse
The Republican Nightmare
Read the Article at The New York Review of Books
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines

 Sunday 18 December 2011  http://www.truth-out.org/opinion

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Montana State Supreme Court: Citizens United Not Welcome Here
Sam Ferguson, Truthout: "The Supreme Court of Montana has held that Citizens United does not apply to Montana campaign finance law. The Court upheld the constitutionality of a 1912 voter initiative - the Corrupt Practices Act - that prohibits corporations from making contributions to or expenditures on behalf of state political candidates and political parties.... Montana ... is the only state court so far to uphold a ban on corporate political expenditures in the wake of Citizens United."
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Romney Wins Iowa Caucus by Eight Votes
Jeff Zeleny, The New York Times News Service: "Mitt Romney's quest to swiftly lock down the Republican presidential nomination in the Iowa caucuses was undercut by the surging candidacy of Rick Santorum, who fought him to a draw on a shoestring budget by winning over conservatives who remain skeptical of Mr. Romney. The two candidates were separated much of the night by only a sliver of votes, with Mr. Romney being declared the winner by eight ballots early [this] morning."
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New York City Council Votes Against Corporate Personhood, Citizens United
Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "Missoula, Montana; Boulder, Colorado; and South Miami, Florida, have all done it, but you know it's really catching on when the Big Apple jumps on board. The New York City Council voted Wednesday to get rid of corporate personhood in a growing nationwide backlash against the much-maligned Citizens United ruling."
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Possible Showdown With Iran Sends Oil Prices Soaring
Jonathan S. Landay and Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers: "The possibility of a confrontation ... [grew] after the Obama administration dismissed an Iranian warning against moving a U.S. aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf, saying the deployment was crucial to 'the security and stability of the region.' Fears that a crisis could disrupt Gulf tanker traffic carrying some 40 percent of the world's sea-borne oil drove international petroleum prices up by more than $4 a barrel."
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Bachmann Says She Will Not Continue in the Race
Sarah Wheaton, The New York Times News Service: "On the morning before Iowa's caucuses, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said she was counting on a 'miracle' to resurrect her faltering campaign. On the morning after, she acknowledged that it was beyond saving.... 'Last night, the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, and so I have decided to stand aside,' Mrs. Bachmann said at a news conference in West Des Moines."
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Obama Makes Recess Appointment of Cordray to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Lesley Clark, McClatchy Newspapers: "President Barack Obama today will announce the recess appointment of his choice to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, setting up a pitched battle with congressional Republicans who oppose the new agency.... Created by the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law in 2010, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau serves as America's beat cop against deceptive, abusive and predatory loan products in the financial marketplace."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Even While European Economy Suffers, Germany Is Surging, and More
In today's On the News segment: Even while European economy suffers, Germany is surging; New York City Council votes today on a resolution against corporate personhood; Mitt Romney takes the Iowa Caucuses by eight votes; oil prices jump 4 percent; and more.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

Occupy the Caucus: Dozens Arrested Challenging Corporate Influence in Iowa
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "As voters in Iowa prepared to throw their support behind Republican presidential candidates ... Occupy activists in Iowa are wrapping up a week of direct actions aimed at letting both political parties know that none of their corporate-sponsored candidates represent the 99 percent. At least 62 arrests were made during nonviolent actions since Occupy Des Moines held a 'Peoples Caucus' a week ago to organize actions."
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Juan Cole | Reading in the New Millennium: Forward to the Past?
Juan Cole, Truthdig: "I know many Americans do not read any books once they're out of school or college. But some do, and what they read has been shaped not only by changing tastes but by availability.... The combination of tablet book readers and a massive free library of out-of-copyright Google Books raises an interesting possibility. Will there be a revival of interest ... in pre-20th century authors because of their new accessibility and the low cost of entry?"
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Pipeline Inspector-Turned-Whistleblower Calls Keystone XL a Potential "Disaster"
Stephen Lacey, ThinkProgress: "Mike Klink is a former inspector for Bechtel, one of the major contractors working on TransCanada's original Keystone pipeline, completed in 2010. Klink says he raised numerous concerns about shoddy materials and poor craftsmanship during construction of the pipeline, which brings tar sands crude from Canada to Midwestern refineries in the U.S. Instead of actually addressing the problems, Klink claims he was fired by Bechtel in retaliation."
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Cornel West and Carl Dix: Pursuing Justice in the Age of Obama
Kyung Jin Lee, National Radio Project: "With the world in transition, and the future so unclear, what kind of promises can we make to our children? What can we do to ensure a just world for them? And what are the youth doing now to make it happen for themselves? On this edition, we hear a dialogue between Princeton University professor Cornel West, and Revolutionary Communist Party USA spokesman Carl Dix about the future of America's youth in the age of Obama."
Listen to the Audio

How to Sustain a Revolution
Stephanie N. Van Hook, Metta Center for Nonviolence: "Starting a revolution is like lighting a match; it risks becoming extinguished as quickly as it was lit. Sustaining a revolution, however, is like starting a fire, and ensuring that it has the fuel to burn as long as necessary.... The revolution ... is not about putting a different kind of person in power; it is about awakening a different kind of power in people."
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The GOP Ticket in 2012: Romney-Rubio
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog: "You can forget the caucuses and early primaries. Mitt Romney will be the nominee. Republicans may be stupid but the GOP isn't about to commit suicide. The other candidates are all weighed down by enough baggage to keep a 747 on the tarmac indefinitely. For his running mate, Romney will choose Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida."
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Do We Need Health Insurance?
Philip Caper, Bangor Daily News: "The purpose of health care financing systems should be ... to facilitate the delivery of health care services, to protect individuals and families against huge medical care expenses ... It is not that for-profit insurance companies are failing in their mission. In fact, they are doing a very good job of exactly what their mission demands, maximizing the wealth of shareholders. The problem is that their mission fundamentally conflicts with the mission of a decent health care system."
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Michael Moore | A Man in Tunisia, a Movement on Wall Street, and the Soldier Who Ignited the Fuse

Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "One year ago on December 17th, Mohamed Bouazizi, a man who had a simple produce stand in Tunisia, set himself on fire to protest his government's repression.... Three months ago on December 17th, Occupy Wall Street began with a takeover of New York's Zuccotti Park.... Twenty-four years ago on December 17th, U.S. Army Spc. Bradley Manning was born.... People across the world devoured the information Bradley Manning revealed, and it was used by movements in Egypt, Spain, and eventually Occupy Wall Street to bolster what we already thought was true."
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Vaclav Havel, Dissident Playwright Who Led Czechoslovakia, Dead at 75

Dan Bilefsky and Jane Perlez, The New York Times News Service: "Vaclav Havel, the writer and dissident whose eloquent dissections of Communist rule helped to destroy it in revolutions that brought down the Berlin Wall and swept Havel himself into power, died on Sunday. He was 75. His assistant, Sabina Tancevova, said that Mr. Havel died in his sleep at his country house in northern Bohemia."
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Cop Art: The Rise of the Citizen Satirist
Adam Bessie, Truthout: "Our citizen satirists, who have made Pike pepper spray the innocent across history, who have made him the ‘New Face of Evil,’ who have turned him into a transcendent allegory of oppression, have captured the spirit of injustice, keeping our outrage aflame longer and brighter than it might with the images by themselves."
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Why a Constitutional Law Professor Should Not Sign an Unconstitutional Military Detention Bill
Ralph Lopez, War Is A Crime: "There has never been a better time to take a close look at how we got here, with Obama, a former Constitutional law professor, about to sign a law ... where anyone can be swept off the streets by the military to rot forever, or even be killed.... You don't need to be a constitutional scholar to know that permanent wartime powers amounts to the overthrow of the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution."
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Occupation 2.0: Occupy Wall Street Challenges Neighboring Church, and Capitalism
J.A. Myerson: "There are adherents to the theories of Bakunin and Marx and Fourier and Luxembourg at Occupy Wall Street, but these modern political ideologies are not required for anti-capitalism. After all, it was an ancient Nazarene carpenter who enjoined the masses that 'It is easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.'"
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The European Central Bank Fear Factor
Philippe Legrain, Project Syndicate: "Panic is beginning to overwhelm the eurozone. Italy and Spain are caught in the maelstrom. Belgium is slipping into the danger zone. As France is dragged down, the widening gap between its bond yields and Germany’s is severely testing the political partnership that has driven six decades of European integration."
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Supporters of Accused WikiLeaks Source Rally as Hearing Continues
Charles Davis, Inter Press Service: "Hundreds of people gathered Saturday outside a U.S. military base where evidence against Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking classified information to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, is being presented before a military judge for the first time since Manning's arrest."
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New Documents Released of 2007 Iraq Atrocity by Troops
David Swanson, War Is A Crime: "My name is John Needham.... I deployed with my unit to Iraq from October 2006 until October 2007 when I was medically evacuated for physical and mental injuries that I suffered during my deployment. The purpose of my letter is to report what I believe to be war crimes and violation of the laws of armed conflict that I personally witnesses while deployed in Iraq."
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Kenya's Criminal Assault on Famine-Stricken Somalia
Stephen Robin, Truthout: "Southern Somalia is currently the ‘epicenter’ of a famine that the UN believes could claim up to 250,000 lives in coming months. Famine relief efforts have been crippled by three major factors: Al Shabaab's partial ban on aid agencies, the large-scale theft of food aid by TFG-affiliated militias, and US aid restrictions.... The Kenyan intervention now joins the factors cited above as a primary obstacle to overcoming 'the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.'"
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Regulatory Meltdown Goes Nuclear: Will Attacks on NRC’s Jaczko Kill Post-Fukushima Upgrades?
Gregg Levine, Capitoilette: "If you had been waiting for the three-month follow-up to the Senate Environment and Public Works committee hearing on the Fukushima Near-Term Task Force recommendations–the one Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) promised in August at the last hearing on this issue of vital importance to US nuclear safety - well, that hearing was Thursday, December 15. . . and whether you watched them or not, you are still waiting."
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"Vietnam Ambush": A Cautionary Tale
David Krieger, Truthout: "’Vietnam Ambush’ is a short book. It is written in simple prose. It tells the truth. It reminds us that our society has corrupted its youth with war. It reminds us that war steals from the young - their youth and their consciences. It reminds us that war is not a game played on a field of battle; it has consequences that last for lifetimes.... It reminds us to choose peace."
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