Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Monday 6 May 2013


 Daily Headlines

By Chris Hedges
The Death of Truth
WikiLeaks shone a spotlight into the inner workings of empire -- the most important role of a press -- and for this it has become empire's prey. Those around the globe with the computer skills to search out the secrets of empire are now those whom empire fears most.

Hungary has taken a bold stand against biotech giant Monsanto and genetic modification by destroying 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds, according to Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar. Unlike many European Union countries, Hungary is a nation where genetically modified (GM) seeds are banned. In a similar stance against GM ingredients, Peru has also passed a 10 year ban on GM foods.
Like the Gypsy Rose Lee of Justices, O'Connor performs her version of "Let Me Entertain You" not in minutes, but years, dropping a veiled hint here, trailing an innuendo there, encouraging her audience to think she'll take it off, take it all off, without ever revealing much of anything.

Legions of people around the world still cling to the belief that powerful individuals in the United States government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. More than ever, we need to discern what's real and true about the events and circumstances of modern life. Unresolved emotions can clutter our mind, obstructing access to objectivity and wisdom.
By Tom Driscoll
The punishment they seek
Some thoughts on capital punishment and the Boston Marathon bombing.
Many of them have put the dollars they owe in taxes into one of a number of funds set up for this purpose. They can take their money back if they choose, but meanwhile the interest it earns goes to worthy causes of their choosing in the form of these grants announced in something more like a celebration than the usual tax-day lamentation that war opponents are all familiar with.
Following a five-day organizing training and strategy summit in Birmingham, members of the labor group OUR Walmart will announce a plan to send civil rights movement--style caravans of workers from around country to converge at the retail giant's June 7 annual shareholder meeting. The current campaign has outpaced past efforts by taking advantage of vulnerabilities in Walmart's supply chain, developing worker leadership through local shop floor showdowns, and mounting carefully crafted work stoppages designed to engage more workers, while dodging the obstacles facing modern US strikes.
The attackers, be they suicide bombers over there or domestic bombers here, are motivated by their hatred of our invasions, our daily bombings, our occupations, our immersion in tribal preferences leading to divide-and-rule sectarian wars. What drives them is their despair and their desire to expel the foreign invaders from their homeland.
The 7.5 percent reported rate is not the product of new jobs generated by a recovering economy. It is the result of discouraged workers who, unable to find jobs, give up looking and, thus, cease being counted in the work force. The real rate of unemployment when discouraged workers are counted as unemployed is 23 percent.
A United Nations expert group is warning that too many gaps remain in implementing new safeguards among businesses based in the United States, both in terms of their domestic and international operations, to ensure the protection of human rights of workers and communities affected by those operations. Junior Walk of Coal River Mountain Watch, said, "It's a sad thought that our politicians are so crooked that we have to ask the United Nations for help, but no one else will listen."
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health is turning its back on the so-called bible of its field. In a statement, the institute said it will start doing research in a way that ignores the categories in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is commonly known as the "DSM," plus a number to indicate the edition. This just weeks before the American Psychiatric Assoc plans to publish the 5th edition of the DSM.

Living near a toxic waste site may represent as much of a health threat as some infectious diseases, a study in three developing countries finds.
On a recent morning at my corner café, I ordered two Americanos (they were out of drip) and a flaky, buttery calorie bomb of a pastry to start my day.
n his role as Google's chief internet evangelist, Cerf has spent much of his time thinking about the future of the computer networks that connect us all. And he should know. Along with Bob Kahn, he was responsible for developing the internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, that underlies the workings of the net. Not content with just being a founding father of the internet on this planet, Cerf has spent years taking the world wide web out of this world.
By Suzana Megles
Who Is the Real Predator?
I guess there will always be a difference in opinion re our "stewardship" of the earth and its animals. Some people think its all right to exploit animals. In my opinion, this makes those people the real predators - not the animals.
By Abdus-Sattar Ghazali
Greeting card turns veiled Muslim doll into terrorist doll
In the latest sign of rising Islamophobia in the country, the seven-million strong American Muslim community was shocked at the fabrication of a birthday card that depicts a veiled girl doll as a suicide bomber who'll "Blow Your Brains Out."
The $85 billion in federal budget cuts known as sequestration are beginning to be felt far from the nation's capital, like at a Head Start program in Pejepscot, Me., that is being closed and a cancer center in Birmingham, Ala., that is looking at layoffs. Kidney patients are losing their free transportation to dialysis centers in Stark County, Ohio, and flood gauges are being shut down on the Red River in North Dakota. Some programs are coping, some are struggling and others appear to be out of luck.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte. "Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television. "This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), on the surface flushes out U.S. tax evaders, a pro-99% aim, but increasing the U.S. taxes collected on previously hidden offshore accounts is only the tip of the iceberg. The worldwide shadow financial system referred to in the Global Financial Integrity (GFI) article is the global corruption and trade manipulation iceberg that FATCA can start melting.
The funny thing is that right now these same hard-line conservatives declare that we must not run deficits in times of economic crisis. Why? Because, they say, politicians won't do the right thing and pay down the debt in good times. And who are these irresponsible politicians they're talking about? Why, themselves. To me, it sounds like a fiscal version of the classic definition of chutzpah -- namely, killing your parents, then demanding sympathy because you're an orphan. Here we have conservatives telling us that we must tighten our belts despite mass unemployment, because otherwise future conservatives will keep running deficits once times improve.
The United States was not given any warning before air strikes in Syria against what Western and Israeli officials say were weapons headed for Hezbollah militants, a U.S. intelligence official said on Sunday. Without confirming that Israel was behind the attacks, the intelligence official said that the United States was essentially told of the air raids "after the fact" and was notified as the bombs went off.
In speech after speech at the National Rifle Association's annual convention here this weekend, its top leaders and political allies blasted President Obama and other gun control advocates, warned against "all-out, historic attacks" on the constitutional right to possess firearms, and issued a rallying cry to members to become a political force in next year's midterm elections and the 2016 presidential race. Praising the NRA's membership for helping defeat a bipartisan Senate proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers last month, executive vice president and principal spokesman, Wayne LaPierre said that the Senate fight had helped swell the association's membership to a record five million people.
If I could ask the Highest Deity for one small favor, one simple concession--it would be that all politicians who support or voted in favor of going to war -- including the Generals who think it's cool to play God with human lives on their chessboard of death via covert action or otherwise--that they attend each soldier's funeral and look into the eyes of each family member and explain to them why their loved ones are dead!
By David Glenn Cox
The Right to Belong
The propaganda networks will trumpet 165,000 "new" jobs and that's Winston Smith's way of telling you, everything is so much better now. Come out; come out where ever you are! Ollie, Ollie Ocean free!
Wouldn't it be great were Elizabeth Colbert Busch to defeat Mark Sanford in the special election for the First District congressional seat in South Carolina? Not really. Steve Breyman explains why a Colbert Busch victory would be a pyrric victory.
Richard Falk's crime is to be a person of note, an esteemed academic and a respected servant of the United Nations, who is trying to break through with the truth. At least at the level of leadership and media, the United States is not capable of such self-reflection and so its citizens are likely to be the last to know that much of the terrorism they fear is a product of their own government's continuing barbarism.

 Latest Articles

Thanks to Senator Angela Giron, our kids will be better protected from rampant gun violence. Thanks to Angela, Coloradans will have better-funded schools in their neighborhoods, and more access to higher education. Thanks to Angela, when our kids complete their educations they are going to find more and better jobs waiting for them in an energized economy.

350.org and Pipeline: Bill M. Needs 12-Step Obama Rehab Program
Another scathing Patrick Walker exercise in iconoclasm, this time skewering 350.org's Bill McKibben for his masochist support of Obama in the face of evidence screaming that Obama intends to approve the Keystone XL pipeline
Realignment in California's enormous prison system posed to defy compliance with US Supreme Court orders.

Things the way they are
Texas celebrated the NRA and "gun day" by proving it wasn't afraid of anyone - especially not the U.S. Government.
Amnesty International identifies her as a prisoner of conscience, she was the first American woman conscientious objector to flee to Canada, but mainstream media mostly ignore this Iraq war vet with PTSD -- unless they're labeling her a "deserter."

 Best News Links from the Web

Obama's Former Communications Director's Firm Pimps KXL Pipeline, Tar Sands
Double-dipping is a "no go" in the real world of eating chips and salsa with a circle of friends but an everyday reality in the world of lobbyists and PR professionals. Enter double-dipper Anita Dunn, former White House Communications Director for President Barack Obama who now runs the firm SKDKnickerbocker (Squier Knapp Dunn), a firm that "brings unparalleled strategic communications experience to Fortune 500 companies, political groups and candidates, non-profits, and labor organizations."
Six years ago, Québec activist Alexandre Boulerice denounced the First World War as "butchery." The war cost millions of lives and enriched countless capitalists. He praised the peace activists who, almost a century ago, tried to stop the senseless carnage. Ancient history, we might think. Especially in a fast-paced world that measures its news-cycles by the hour. But with the recent anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge Boulerice -- now a member of Parliament -- has been targeted by a strident campaign led by Sun Media pundits and commentators. And the prime minister.