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kpete's JournalYou Are All Suspects Now. What Are You Going To Do About It?
You Are All Suspects Now. What Are You Going To Do About It?
By John Pilger
You are all potential terrorists. It matters not that you live in Britain, the United States, Australia or the Middle East. Citizenship is effectively abolished. Turn on your computer and the US Department of Homeland Security's National Operations Center may monitor whether you are typing not merely "al-Qaeda," but "exercise," "drill," "wave," "initiative" and "organization": all proscribed words. The British government's announcement that it intends to spy on every email and phone call is old hat. The satellite vacuum cleaner known as Echelon has been doing this for years. What has changed is that a state of permanent war has been launched by the United States and a police state is consuming western democracy.
What are you going to do about it?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/You-Are-All-Suspects-Now--by-John-Pilger-120426-298.html
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By this September, 9/11 will be eleven years ago. Yet despite the War on Terror, the loss of Americans' privacy and civil liberties, an expenditure of trillions of dollars on numerous wars, violations of US and international laws against torture, and so forth, no one has been held accountable. Neither the perpetrators nor those whom the perpetrators outwitted, assuming that they are different people, have been held accountable. Going on 11 years and no trials of villains or chastisement of negligent public officials. This is remarkable.
What are you going to do about it?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Trials-Without-Crimes-Or-E-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-120425-939.html
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It's also true for out-of-control imperialism, war and peace overall, political corruption, corporate power, illusory democracy, elections little more than theater, police state lawlessness, an unprecedented wealth disparity, shocking poverty, unemployment, hunger and homelessness levels, and numerous other issues in the world's richest country.
Widespread public ignorance keeps these and other abuses out of public consciousness and concern enough to demand political Washington address them responsibly.
Instead, officials serve wealth and power alone. As a result, popular needs go begging, especially under mandated austerity to pay bankers and wage imperial wars.
A nation of morons literally lets America get away with murder, erode human and civil rights, and leave millions uninformed, on their own, out of luck.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Nation-of-Morons-by-Stephen-Lendman-120426-341.html
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What are you going to do about it?
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MEANWHILE IN NORWAY!!!
Tens of thousands take to Norway’s streets to sing a song that Anders Behring Breivik hates
Up to 40,000 Norwegians staged an emotionally-charged sing-along in Oslo on Thursday near the court house where Anders Behring Breivik is on trial for the murder of 77 people in a protest organizers said showed he had not broken their tolerant society.
The crowd chose to sing a song – “Children of the Rainbow” – that extols the type of multicultural society Breivik has said he despised and one that he specifically dismissed during the trial as Marxist propaganda. (Photo: Kyrre Lien/NTB Scanpix/Reuters)
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/26/tens-of-thousands-take-to-norways-streets-sing-a-song-anders-behring-breivik-hates/
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Some+Norwegians+gather+sing+song+Anders+Behring+Breivik+hates/6521469/story.html
VIDEO:
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hat/tip - Bodhi BloodWave
GOP Tries To Water Down Violence Against Women Act, Expresses Willingness To Tolerate Some Domestic
Source: Think Progress
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Although the full details of Grassley and Hutchinson’s watered down protections for domestic violence victims have yet to be released, it is likely that they will map Grassley’s previously stated opposition to providing greater support for LGBT, undocumented, and tribal victims of domestic violence. The Hutchison/Grassley amendment will likely leave out some victims who face particularly harsh discrimination. If Senate Republicans embrace Grassley’s earlier objections to reauthorizing VAWA, they will show that they are willing to tolerate a certain amount of domestic violence by ignoring certain victims:
For Native victims: In 86 percent of reported rapes or sexual assaults on Native women, the perpetrators are non-Native. While Hutchison has criticized the tribal provisions, saying that ‘any American’ could be imprisoned by tribal courts, in actuality, the provisions allow tribal members to prosecute a non-tribal people who commit domestic violence and who either live or work on a reservation, or are married to a tribal member. The Grassley / Hutchison amendment requires any domestic violence to be prosecuted in federal courts, meaning that rural tribal victims won’t seek help. Additionally, federal prosecutors “already decline to prosecute half of Indian Country crimes that are referred to them,” and with the added number of domestic violence crimes, victims are likely to never see justice.
For LGBT victims: The new version of the bill also lacks any additional provisions for the LGBT community, blanketing over LGBT-specific issues with gender neutral language that lumps the needs of gay and lesbian protections in with the needs of straight couples. The original version of VAWA says that domestic violence shelters cannot discriminate against gay, lesbian, or trans people, but the new version says nothing about this issue. Grassley has said that he does not believe discrimination in shelters is an issue — despite the fact that “44.6 percent of LGBT/HIV-positive survivors of intimate partner violence were turned away from shelters.”
For undocumented victims: The Grassley/Hutchison version of the bill takes out the added visas for undocumented people who are beaten and seek assistance from the state. The visas are put in place so that victims aren’t too scared to contact the authorities when they find themselves physically harmed or in danger. When such protections don’t exist, people are forced to work outside of the law to protect themselves.
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Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/26/467789/kyl-vawa-tribal-provisions/
Exxon Makes $104 Million In Profit Per Day So Far In 2012 ($1,300 in profits per second)
Source: Think Progress
Exxon Makes $104 Million In Profit Per Day So Far In 2012, While Americans Are Stuck With A Higher Gas Bill
By Rebecca Leber on Apr 26, 2012 at 10:08 am
Last year, ExxonMobil, one of the world’s most profitable companies, earned $1,300 in profits per second. As consumers paid record-high springtime gas prices, Exxon posted first quarter profits of $9.45 billion.
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A by-the-numbers look shows how Exxon’s executives and Big Oil’s allies are rewarded generously for the company’s billions, while Americans are stuck with rising gas bills:
$9.45 billion profits, or almost $104 million per day in the first three months of the year.
13 percent: The tax rate Exxon paid last year, lower than the average American family.
60 percent of its first quarter earnings, or $5.7 billion, on buying back stock. Became world’s largest dividend payer by increasing dividends 21 percent.
$1,091,000: Political contributions sent to federal politicians for the 2012 election cycle, making it the largest oil and gas spender.
91% of these contributions went to Republicans.
More than $52,000,000: Lobbying for the first three years of the Obama presidency, 50 percent more than in the Bush Administration.
$34.9 million: Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson’s salary for 2011, a 20 percent raise.
$52,300: Political contributions from Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson in the 2012 cycle, alone.
No. 2: Fortune 500 list of richest companies and for highest-paid CEO.
Exxon not only used 60 percent of its Q1 profits to buy back its stocks, enriching executives and largest shareholders, but it funnels money through political groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and American Petroleum Institute, to influence legislation in its favor.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/04/26/471469/exxon-takes-104-million-profits-per-day-so-far-in-2012-while-americans-are-stuck-with-a-higher-gas-bill/
President Barack Obama: "I think Jon Stewart’s brilliant."
Ready for the Fight: Rolling Stone Interview with Barack ObamaThe president, in the Oval Office, discusses his job, the opposition and the coming campaign
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ready-for-the-fight-rolling-stone-interview-with-barack-obama-20120425#ixzz1t6cnK6dA
Q. (JW) – What do you read regularly to keep you informed or provide you with perspectives beyond the inner circle of your advisers?
A. (PBO) – (Laughs) Other than Rolling Stone?
Q. (JW) – That goes without saying.
A. (PBO) – I don’t watch a lot of TV news. I don’t watch cable at all. I like The Daily Show, so sometimes if I’m home late at night, I’ll catch snippets of that. I think Jon Stewart’s brilliant. It’s amazing to me the degree to which he’s able to cut through a bunch of the nonsense – for young people in particular, where I think he ends up having more credibility than a lot of more conventional news programs do.
I spend a lot of time just reading reports, studies, briefing books, intelligence assessments.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/25/president-obama-and-why-he-gets-it/#more-405623
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ready-for-the-fight-rolling-stone-interview-with-barack-obama-20120425
House GOP Would Kick 280,000 Children Off School Lunch Program To Protect Tax Cut For Millionaires
Source: Think Progress
House GOP Would Kick 280,000 Children Off School Lunch Program To Protect Tax Cut For Millionaires
By Guest Blogger on Apr 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm
House Republicans recently proposed cuts to nutrition assistance that will kick 280,000 low-income children off automatic enrollment in the Free School Lunch and Breakfast Program. Those same kids and 1.5 million other people will also lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly food stamp benefits) that help them afford food at home.
Ten years’ worth of these nutrition cuts could be prevented for the price of one year of tax cuts on 3,340 multimillion dollar estates that House Republicans are protecting in their budget.
On April 18 the House Agriculture Committee passed a bill cutting over $33 billion from SNAP over the next decade. About one-third of these cuts ($11.5 billion) comes from putting restrictions on “categorical eligibility,” a provision that enables states to better coordinate between programs and improves access to assistance for low-income families.
By restricting this provision, the bill would kick an average of 1.8 million low-income people a year off of food aid and end automatic enrollment in free school meals for 280,000 children in struggling families.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/04/25/470967/gop-school-lunch-cuts/
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