Hypocrisy To The Nth Degree by Philip A. Farruggio

by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
31 July, 2010

Interesting how there is such an uproar about WikiLeaks and Sgt. Manning. As with the Pentagon Papers of the early 70s, sets of documents, incriminating in their content, are portrayed as Top Secret. Hogwash! To reveal a certain mindset, or how the perpetrators conduct a War ( just add the word Crimes to it ) should not in itself be labeled as ‘ State Secrets ‘ . No, as with the 2007 video of the Apache helicopter attack on innocent Iraqi civilians ( including two young children ) by US military personnel……. Truth Is Truth! Yet, the outrage by many of our elected officials ( John McCain comes to mind first ) and the Obama administration is hypocrisy taken to another level.

Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff: Europe Under the Crunch

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GRITtv: blip.tv
July 30, 2010

We’ve heard plenty about the recession in the U.S., but what about the rest of the world? Countries across Europe have faced budget crunches and conservative governments are using the crisis as an excuse to roll back the social safety net that most have enjoyed for decades. Many of the problems–and the solutions–sound sadly familiar. Lowered taxes on the rich and corporations, falling wages, and deregulation led to the crisis, which is being shifted onto the backs of the working class–as Michael Hudson notes, putting the class war back in business. Hudson joins us in studio, along with Richard Wolff, to discuss the economic crisis in Europe, what we can learn about the response to it and apply back at home. Here’s a hint: it involves organized labor.

Kucinich, Conyers, Sanders Renew Call for National Single Payer on Medicare’s Birthday

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by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Washington, Jul 30, 2010

Medicare for All is the most Cost-Effective Health Care Option for America

Congressmen Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are today reaffirming their efforts to provide all Americans with health care that would allow access to the doctor of choice without premiums, co-pays or deductibles. Kucinich and Conyers, Jr., are the co-authors of H.R. 676, Medicare for All, which provides a blueprint for an effective, national single-payer system. Sanders is the author of S. 703, the American Health Security Act which also provides for a single-payer system.

Out of Afghanistan by Ralph Nader

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by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
July 30, 2010

The war in Afghanistan is nearly nine years old—the longest in American history. After the U.S. quickly toppled the Taliban regime in October 2001, the Taliban, by all accounts, came back stronger and harsher enough to control now at least 30 percent of the country. During this time, U.S. casualties, armaments and expenditures are at record levels.

America’s overseas wars have different outcomes when they have no constitutional authority, no war tax, no draft, no regular on the ground press coverage, no Congressional oversight, no spending accountability and, importantly, no affirmative consent of the governed who are, apart from the military families, hardly noticing.

Susan Shaw: The oil spill’s toxic trade-off

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TEDtalksDirector | July 27, 2010

http://www.ted.com
Break down the oil slick, keep it off the shores: that’s grounds for pumping toxic dispersant into the Gulf, say clean-up overseers. Susan Shaw shows evidence it’s sparing some beaches only at devastating cost to the health of the deep sea.

EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup

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Democracy Now!
July 20, 2010

EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup

With BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. We speak with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit. [includes rush transcript]

Google Teams Up with CIA to Fund “Recorded Future” Startup Monitoring Websites, Blogs & Twitter Accounts

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Democracy Now!
July 30, 2010

Google Teams Up with CIA to Fund “Recorded Future” Startup Monitoring Websites, Blogs & Twitter Accounts

Investors at the CIA and Google are backing a company called “Recorded Future” that monitors tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts in real time in order to find patterns, events and relationships that may predict the future. The news comes amidst Google’s so-called “Wi-Spy” scandal, that refers to revelations that Google’s Street View cars operating in some thirty countries snooped on private WiFi networks over the last three years.

Our Complicity by Dahr Jamail

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by Dahr Jamail
Dahr Jamail Dispatches (see photography by Erika Blumenfeld)
July 29, 2010

We rather be ruined than changed.
We rather die in our dread,
than climb the cross of the moment,
and let our illusions
die.
-W.H. Auden, excerpted from “The Age of Anxiety”

Not long ago we strolled along a beautiful white-sand beach in Orange Beach, Alabama, taking photos of freshly washed ashore black and brown tar balls. We watched little boys playing in the shallow surf, trying to catch minnows, as red oil boom bobbed in the waves just offshore behind them. This is the world we have all created.

Above all of this, an oil-spotting white blimp made slow rumbling passes up and down the beach.

‘Go Ahead, Try and Make Me Pay You’: Wage Theft and S.B. 1070 + Illegal Invasion Or Economic Scapegoat?

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By Danny Postel and Ted Smukler
http://www.inthesetimes.com
July 27, 2010

The Arizona Interfaith Alliance for Worker Justice, a worker center in Phoenix, has seen a “huge spike” in wage theft since SB 1070, Arizona’s draconian immigration law, passed in April. Trina Zelle, the group’s executive director, has seen a “noticeable shift” in the four months since the measure was signed into law.

“Employers are even more brazen in their mistreatment of workers,” Zelle says. “Increasingly, “Go ahead, try and make me pay you” is the response workers hear when they confront their employers over unpaid wages.

Mr. Obama, Why We are not that Impressed By Timothy V. Gatto

By Timothy V. Gatto
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
liberalpro.blogspot.com
July 30, 2010

I decided to listen to President Obama’s speech to the Netroots Convention in Las Vegas. I wasn’t invited, I’m sure that the cheerleaders from Daily Kos were. I’m sure that all the Democratic websites posing as “progressive” websites had invites floating around for their members. Maybe I’m not the kind of person that the Democrats want at the netroots convention. Maybe, just maybe, I’m part of the “looney left” that Bill O’Reilly is always harping about. Maybe I want a little more “change” with my politics and less bragging about bills that sound good at first glance, but after a little scrutiny, they aren’t all they are cracked up to be. I won’t bore you with the details about the “health care” bill or the “financial reform” bill, if you are reading my article, I think just by being on the website you are on; you know what I’m talking about. If you are on this site by accident, well ask around, I’m sure there are all sorts of people that will let you in on what I’m talking about.

LeiLani Dowell: Imperialism at home and abroad: Policy or system of exploitation? + Pete Seeger: Which Side Are You On?

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blip.tv

LeiLani Dowell, WW managing editor, at the Workers World Forum in NYC, July 22, 2010.

Patrick Cockburn on Missing Billions in Iraq and Soaring Cancer & Infant Mortality Rates in Fallujah

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Democracy Now!
July 29, 2010

Patrick Cockburn on Missing Billions in Iraq and Soaring Cancer & Infant Mortality Rates in Fallujah

In Iraq, an official audit by the US Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction found that the Pentagon cannot account for almost $9 billion taken from Iraqi oil revenues between 2004 and 2007 for use in reconstruction. Meanwhile, a new medical study has found dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004. We speak with Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the London Independent. [includes rush transcript]

Dennis Kucinich: We Cannot Afford War with Iran

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by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Washington, Jul 28, 2010

U.S. Must Continue Diplomatic Efforts

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today addressed the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform arguing that with troops spread thinly in Iraq and Afghanistan, “the United States cannot afford another war. We must find a more effective means of engaging Iran.

“Sanctions play into the hands the leaders of Iran and undermine the efforts of Iranian people who have courageously challenged their government, often at the cost of their lives.

Greg Palast: Fighting Toxic Oil Companies

with Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
29 July, 2010

Laura Flanders

http://grittv.blip.tv/

Last week, Mike Papantonio told us that there was no fund from BP to pay for the oil disaster, and raised some questions about Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator of the damages to Gulf residents.; Today investigative journalist Greg Palast answers some of those questions–and raises a few of his own.

Palast has been investigating BP for years, and right now is working on The Amazon to Arctic Investigation (and could use your help). He’s also got a bit of his own experience with Kenneth Feinberg, and he joins us in studio to lay out the history of cases like this, where the people hurt by corporate negligence end up getting doubly screwed when it comes time to get their benefits.

The light shines, hope emerges, love perseveres by Eileen Fleming + Fingers crossed: US Cargo Heads For Gaza-again

by Eileen Fleming
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
July 28, 2010

“When we first learned of the opportunity to get these supplies directly to the people of Gaza via the Freedom Flotilla, we asked our partner NGOs in Gaza what we could send that would matter most to them, given the 3 year-long blockade. They asked Americans to send messages to children, along with backpacks, sports equipment, and cement to build a kindergarten.”- Donna Baranski-Walker, Executive Director of the Rebuilding Alliance.

In 2006 Father Manuel, the parish priest at the Latin Church and school in Gaza informed the world: