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Are you still supporting Obama,
even after it has become completely clear that he is an enemy of the
press and transparency-- a more dangerous enemy than any recent
president? That doesn't make you a liberal. That makes you a supporter
of fascism.
Yeah. I know. Cancel your
subscription. This is the time when we must stand up or, by being
silent, and acquiescing, you become a part of the problem. So please,
wake up, stand up and tell Obama that you are opposed to his evil, vile
attacks on journalism-- through DOJ attacks on Bradley Manning, Edward
Snowden and James Risen.
Read the plethora of articles on this subject appearing every day in Opednews. And please, support us.
rob kall
  Daily Headlines
The
part of the First Amendment that prohibits "abridging the freedom " of
the press" is now up against the wall, as the Obama administration
continues to assault the kind of journalism that can expose government
secrets.
By David Swanson
TPP: The Terrible Plutocratic Plan Maybe the first thing I would interrupt a super bowl or a state of the union to tell people about the TPP is that it creates corporate nationhood.
Are
you still supporting Obama, even after it has become completely clear
that he is an enemy of the press and transparency-- a more dangerous
enemy than any recent president? That doesn't make you a liberal. That
makes you a supporter of fascism.
Vermont's
Green Mountain Care Board recently announced rates that will be charged
by insurers selling through Vermont Exchanges in the Fall. The rates
will reportedly be "comparable" to what they would be if the exchange
did not exist. Not reported by the media was that this is the scenario
likely to be replicated in other states when the new rules take effect
in January.
By fred branfman
Executive Branch leaders have killed, wounded and made homeless well over 20 million human beings in the last 50 years 
It
is a matter of indisputable fact that the U.S. Executive Branch has
over the past 50 years been responsible for bombing, shooting, burning
alive with napalm, blowing up with cluster bombs, burying alive with 500
pound bombs, torturing, assassinating, and incarcerating without
evidence, and destroying the homes and villages of, more innocent
civilians in more nations over a longer period of time than any other
government
Submission
to authority becomes the only proper way to serve God. Critical
judgment is abolished. Religious cliches shut down independent thought.
All other ways of living become a compact with the demonic. A
persecution mentality is pounded into adherents, making them deeply
distrustful of outsiders. It is an ideology of fear and abject obedience
to authority.
The
European decision says that no Israeli institution or corporation which
has any direct or indirect connection with Israeli settlements in the
West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights will receive any
contract, grant, prize or suchlike from the EU or any member state. To
assure compliance, every contract between Israelis and the EU will
contain a paragraph stating that the settlements are not part of Israel.
When
Detroit declared bankruptcy, or at least tried to -- the legal
situation has gotten complicated -- I know that I wasn't the only
economist to have a sinking feeling about the likely impact on our
policy discourse. Was it going to be Greece all over again? There are
influential people out there who would like you to believe that
Detroit's demise is fundamentally a tale of fiscal irresponsibility
and/or greedy public employees. It isn't. For the most part, it's just
one of those things that happens now and then in an ever-changing
economy.
Official
Washington's national security/mainstream media incest was on
scandalous display when ex-NSA chief Michael Hayden posed as a CNN
analyst to denounce Edward Snowden for exposing surveillance excesses
that Hayden had a hand in creating.
By Kevin Gosztola
In Ruling Ordering Times Reporter to Testify Against Source, Dissenting Judge Defends Freedom of the Press | The Dissent 
A
divided federal appeals court ruled that a reporter for the New York
Times did not have a reporter's privilege under the First Amendment or
'
Marine Gen. John F. Kelly works in a fortress-like headquarters near
the Miami airport. Starting this fall, he will live in Casa Sur, an
elegant home with a pool and gardens on one of the area's swankiest
streets ... The cost to taxpayers? $160,000 a year, plus $402,000 for
renovations and security improvements now underway. Casa Sur is one of
hundreds of high-end homes, villas and mansions where senior generals
and admirals are billeted, according to a Pentagon report prepared for
Congress last month but not publicly released.
Global
warming five million years ago may have caused parts of Antarctica's
large ice sheets to melt and sea levels to rise by approximately 20
meters, scientists report. Atmosphere temps and CO2 not far from what
we're seeing today. [Get a good map maker to show where the oceanfront
property may be; you may have a better investment than Larry
Silverstein!]
How Goldman Made $5 Billion By Manipulating Aluminum Inventories (and Copper is Up Next).
(Photo:
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom (Collins, Rothfus, Amash, Gohmert,
Massie, Mulvaney, Schweikert); Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
(Sensenbrenner, Wenstrup, Desantis, Franks); Pete
Marovich/ZumaPress/Newscom (Goodlatte); Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll
Call/Newscom (Salmon, Desjarlais, Labrador); Action
Press/ZumaPress/Newscom (Bachmann); Newscom (Chabot); Richard
Ellis/ZumaPress/Newscom (Sanford); The Augusta
Chronicle/ZumaPress/Newscom (Broun); Michael Allen Jones/Sacramento
Bee/ZumaPress/Newscom (McClintock); William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC
NewsWire/Getty Images (Cotton); The Washington Times/ZumaPress/Newscom
(Price); Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Lamborn); Bill
Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images (Posey, Huelskamp))
In
the new film Fruitvale Station, Oscar Grant is essentially a character
witness for Trayvon, and for scores of other young black men who've died
at the hands of "law enforcement'
Broad
Group of China has started onsite work for the "building as a city" Sky
City skyscraper. It is desiged to have a total height of 838 meters
which would be 10 meters taller the current world's tallest building the
Burj Khalifa 10. On the evening of July 18 evening, Changsha Broad
Group signed a "Sky City" construction contract. The total package price
is 5.25 billion yuan. Broad Technology Group CEO Zhang Yue and the
general manager of Tang Ying five innings chairman Lugui Qing attended.
The Changsha City Sky will be built in the Hope Town Waterfront Park. It
will hae underground reinforced concrete structure and an all-steel
frame. It will have a total construction area of 1.2 million square
meters. 30,000 people will work and live fully functional vertical city.
On the afternoon of July 19 in Changsha Hope Town, the ambitious "Sky
City" Lot has started construction.
With
political uncertainty in Egypt, civil war in Syria and utter chaos in
Washington, who should care about the plight of bees? Everyone that's
who. And here's why . . .
Two
American fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs into Australia's Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park last week when a training exercise went wrong,
the U.S. Navy said, angering environmentalists. The jets from the 31st
Marine Expeditionary Unit had intended to drop the ordnances on the
Townshend Island bombing range, but aborted the mission when controllers
reported the area was not clear of hazards. The pilots conducted the
emergency jettison because they were low on fuel and could not land with
their bomb load, the Navy said.
By Ginger Carter
What We Can and Must Do for Edward Snowden Edward Snowden is an American hero in real time. He is much more than just a "story' or an "icon.' Although mightily inconvenienced by the machinations of a government that appears to believe it possesses the authority to supersede the will of its democratic electorate, Edward Snowden is, at this moment, alive, well, and (relatively) free. It is imperative that he remain so.
By Phyllis Reed
Why We're Not Done With The Heartache Connects local reactions to the Zimmerman trial to the feelings expressed by Pres. Obama to suggest that identifying with feelings can help Americans end the heartache.
By Rev. Dan Vojir
The Other Haitian Disaster: A Volcano of Hate Erupts, Killing Two Men While Sparing Thousands Of The Self-Righteous 
With
the murder of two gay men during an anti-gay rally, Haiti has shown
that it has not recovered from the onslaught of the Christian Right
after its devastating earthquake.
The
key is to speak to reasonable Americans, some of them Democrats and
some of them Republicans, some of them liberals and some of them
conservatives, who have a creeping suspicion that laws permitting the
use of deadly force even when it could be avoided might not be
contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we'd all
like to see.
From
the Archive: Often annoying her press colleagues, the late Helen Thomas
was one of the few Washington journalists who would shatter the
predictable frame for discussing tough issues. When she heard lazy
rationalizations, Thomas would press the policymaker on why, as ex-CIA
analyst Ray McGovern wrote in 2010.
Justice Sequestered - NYTimes.com
"Washington's automatic budget-cutting is hurting the courts and imperiling the federal public defender program and undermining the sound functioning of the courts -- particularly imperiling the delivery of effective legal representation to poor people accused of federal crimes....The cuts for federal defenders may actually end up costing taxpayers more. Because indigent defendants still have a right to counsel, new cases that would ordinarily be handled by a federal defender will inevitably be taken up by court-appointed private lawyers. That will lead to worse results at a higher cost, according to academic studies....That things have reached this point is a deep embarrassment for a nation grounded on the rule of law. Yet it appears that the situation is about to get much worse. Federal defender offices have been told to prepare for another round of cuts ."
By Washington's Blog
NSA Spokesman Accidentally Admits that the Government Is Spying On Virtually All Americans 
Given
that there are now approximately 875,000 people in the government's
database of suspected terrorists -- including many thousands of
Americans -- every single American living on U.S. soil could easily be
caught up in the dragnet. A mere 140 potential terrorists could lead to
spying on all Americans.
The
way the Israelis behave they have no need of Helen Thomas to
"delegitimize" their country. They are doing a fine job of that on their
own. Thomas's remarks came in the aftermath of a piratical attack on
the Gaza Aid Flotilla, during which Israeli commandos murdered nine aid
activists on the Mavi Marmara.
By Philip Weiss
Some Views Of Kerry's Announcement ("By George He Did It!" -- "Sovereignty Over Slivers") 
Mitchell
Plitnick at Lobelog says this is warmed-over Oslo and he has doubts
about the U.S. ability to apply pressure to make that work, especially
given Palestinian mistrust of Oslo and the growing importance of the
refugee issue.
By earl ofari hutchinson
Eight Compelling Reasons for a Federal Prosecution of Zimmerman The moment the NAACP, the Reverend Al Sharpton and other civil rights organizations publicly demanded that the Justice Department conduct a federal probe into the Trayvon Martin slaying and George Zimmerman's acquittal for killing him with a view toward bringing civil rights charges against him, volumes were written and spoken as to why the department supposedly couldn't or shouldn't prosecute him. There's one problem with all
Veterans
For Peace, a leading antiwar organization with chapters in every U.S.
state and several other countries, will hold its 28th national
convention in Madison, Wisconsin, August 7-11, 2013, at the Concourse
Hotel at 1 Dayton Street.
Latest Articles
the
truth is that we live in a world, and an America, in which the rule of
law does not prevail and might makes right. Our leaders endlessly inform
us that America is a "nation of laws not men," even though they only
escape punishment for their massive violations of basic human decency
and the law, as McNamara suggested, because they are too powerful to be
punished.
As My Daughter Remarries
Analysis of the wedding planning process with advice for men who wish to avoid it.
A long-standing sense of "otherness" keeps us from empathy for those who are different.
The Southern Cultural meme has finally metastasized and spread into America's vital organs
A review of the book " Dixie Rising: How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics, and culture," by Peter Applebome, with the reviewer's commentaries interspersed. It is offered in part as an explanation for Mr. Obama's utter impotence as a President.  Best News Links from the Web
Paul Krugman: Detroit, the New Greece
By all means let’s have a serious discussion about how cities can best manage the transition when their traditional sources of competitive advantage go away. And let’s also have a serious discussion about our obligations, as a nation, to those of our fellow citizens who have the bad luck of finding themselves living and working in the wrong place at the wrong time — because, as I said, decline happens, and some regional economies will end up shrinking, perhaps drastically, no matter what we do. The important thing is not to let the discussion get hijacked, Greek-style. There are influential people out there who would like you to believe that Detroit’s demise is fundamentally a tale of fiscal irresponsibility and/or greedy public employees. It isn’t. For the most part, it’s just one of those things that happens now and then in an ever-changing economy.
Robert Reich: Detroit, and the Bankruptcy of America's Social Contract
In drawing the relevant boundary to include just the poor inner city, and requiring those within that boundary to take care of their compounded problems by themselves, the whiter and more affluent suburbs are off the hook. "Their" city isn't in trouble. It's that other one - called "Detroit." It's roughly analogous to a Wall Street bank drawing a boundary around its bad assets, selling them off at a fire-sale price, and writing off the loss. Only here we're dealing with human beings rather than financial capital. And the upcoming fire sale will likely result in even worse municipal services, lousier schools, and more crime for those left behind in the city of Detroit. In an era of widening inequality, this is how wealthier Americans are quietly writing off the poor.
A
striking illustration of the consequences of deregulation. Banks are
now permitted to buy companies that trade in commodities, resulting in
huge profits for the banks and higher prices for consumers.... The good
news ? Mr Obama is said to be considering appointing the ineffable
Lawrence Henry Summers as next chairman of the Federal Reserve. Talk
about the fox keeping the hen house !...
Hemlock on the Rocks : Peer Into Pearson Education: A Huge Part of the Problems We Face as Teachers, Parents and Student
Hemlock on the Rocks : Peer Into Pearson Education: A Huge Part of the Problems We Face as Teachers, Parents and Students...This is a long post because there is so much about the Pearson company you need to read about and evaluate. Please read to the end, because if you agree with these findings, you need to contact public officials and press them to end the relationship between Pearson and American schools.
If You're a Bond Investor, Beware of the Seesaw - By JEFF SOMMERNYTimes.com
"The Securities and Exchange Commission has a basic reminder for investors enticed by rising interest rates on bonds: When rates climb, prices fall. THE Securities and Exchange Commission issues frequent bulletins about what it calls "investment frauds and scams" -- a frightening taxonomy of plots and stratagems aimed at separating investors from their money, but this problem isn't a new scam but a lack of knowledge about how bonds work, which can be dangerous in a time of rising interest rates. In its bulletin, the agency points out that investors need to understand that when rates rise, bond prices generally fall. This inverse relationship is a fact of life in the bond market. Like gravity in the physical world, it's constant, powerful and important." In America, financial literacy levels are generally very low.
A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold - DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI NYTimes.com
Regulators have allowed banks to buy companies that trade in commodities, resulting in huge profits for the banks and higher prices for consumers. In Detroit where a Goldman subsidiary stores customers' aluminum, each day, a fleet of trucks shuffles 1,500-pound bars of the metal among the warehouses. Two or three times a day, sometimes more, the drivers make the same circuits. They load in one warehouse. They unload in another. And then they do it again.he back-and-forth lengthens the storage time. And that adds many millions a year to the coffers of Goldman, which owns the warehouses and charges rent to store the metal. It also increases prices paid by manufacturers and consumers across the country. |
