April 24, 2013

Anti-Drone Movement Grows: Ethics, Legality and Effectiveness of Drone Killings Doubted

Anti-Drone Movement Grows: Ethics, Legality and Effectiveness of Drone Killings Doubted

Wednesday, 24 April 2013 11:22
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers , Truthout | News Analysis


Zeese and Flowers examine the US drone program, its security effectiveness, legality under US and international law, state of development, and position in US opinion.


We are in the midst of a month of actions against drones. Nearly 4,000 people have been killed in some 420 "targeted killing" operations since the first US drone strike was conducted under the Bush administration in October 2001. There is now a growing movement of people speaking out and standing up to protest the use of drones by the United States in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as at home in the United States. Human rights groups are questioning their legality; clergy are questioning their ethics and activists are protesting their use. More are questioning whether the use of drones is actually decreasing or increasing terrorism.

On our weekly program, Clearing the FOG, we spoke with two guests who are working to build the movement against drones. Noor Mir, a citizen of Pakistan and graduate of Vassar who works on drones with the anti-war organization Codepink in Washington, DC, described how people in Pakistan no longer go to funerals or weddings; children refuse to go to school and people avoid events where they will be in groups because of the fear of drone attacks. Judy Bello of the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars points out that drones are used mostly in countries that we are not at war with, raising many legal and strategic questions.

Violence Begets Violence: There Is Another Way

In light of recent very public violent episodes, from the Boston Marathon bombing to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Americans now have a greater sense of what it must be like for people living in countries where the US attacks people with drones on a constant basis. Could you imagine experiencing mass killings involving innocent civilians every day? It is particularly alarming that US drones have murdered nearly 200 children.

Growing up in a war zone with constant fear of attack at any time and being forced to flee your home and community to live in a refugee camp or some other foreign place has dramatic psychological impacts. Civilians living in war zones suffer economically and experience shortages of basic necessities such as food, water and medicines. They also suffer from the threat or experience of being raped or beaten, losing a loved one and forced labor. Mental illness, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD) are high in areas of conflict. Women, children, the elderly and the disabled are the most vulnerable. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/15959-anti-drone-movement-grows-ethics-legality-and-effectiveness-of-drone-killings-doubted

April 24, 2013

Fracking waste deemed too radioactive for hazardous-waste dump

from Grist:



A truck carrying fracking waste was quarantined and then sent back to where it came from after its contents triggered a radiation alarm at a Pennsylvania hazardous-waste landfill. The truck’s load was nearly 10 times more radioactive than is permitted at the dump in South Huntingdon township.

The radiation came from radium 226, a naturally occurring material in the Marcellus Shale, which being fracked for natural gas in Pennsylvania and nearby states. “Radium is a well known contaminant in fracking operations,” writes Jeff McMahon at Forbes. ....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/news/radioactive-frack-waste-quarantined-at-pa-dump-turned-away/

April 24, 2013

Troubled slaughter: Big Ag fights to keep out prying eyes

from Grist:



Troubled slaughter: Big Ag fights to keep out prying eyes
By Susie Cagle

There’s a Paul McCartney quote popular with veg-heads: “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.” It may not be quite as simple as all that, but he’s definitely got a point.

For a little over 10 years, groups such as Mercy for Animals, the Humane Society of the United States, and Compassion Over Killing have conducted undercover investigations into abuses and rules violations on factory farms, and publicized what they’ve documented to lobby for change.

It’s worked: Individual campaigns have resulted in business closures, criminal charges, and even broader changes in social behavior. That has got Big Animal Ag scared.



So it has done what Big Ag does best: crafted legislation and lobbied for it. State farm-protection laws, or “ag-gags,” as The New York Times‘ Mark Bittman lovingly called them, come in many different forms, mixing various combinations of restrictions on undercover filming and activist access to farms and slaughterhouses. Some of the laws give a nod to the value of whistleblowers but require that damning footage be handed over to law enforcement within a day or two, immediately blowing the cover of investigations that would typically last from two to six weeks. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/food/troubled-slaughter-big-ag-fights-to-keep-out-prying-eyes/

April 24, 2013

How Big Business Robs Us With "Externalities"

How Big Business Robs Us With "Externalities"

Wednesday, 24 April 2013 14:08
By The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Show | Op-Ed


Odds are you've never heard the phrase "negative externalities." Corporations and their boards know all about them, but most Americans don't understand even the concept.

A negative externality is a cost born by all of us that was produced by a private entity and then dumped on us – externalized from that business to us. Externalities reduce the costs of business for corporations, which in turn increase their profits, while the tab is picked up by you and me, the taxpayer, the worker, and/or the citizen.

For example, air pollution is usually a negative externality.

Air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels causes damage to public health, crops, and the overall environment. But do the oil or coal or natural gas companies pay for these costs? No, of course not – they externalize them to us. You and I are forced to play for the cleanup of this pollution and the damage and cancers that it causes, while the corporations that pump it out increase their profits because we're picking up the bill for the externality of pollution. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15975-how-big-business-robs-us-with-externalities

April 24, 2013

Anti-Drone Movement Grows: Ethics, Legality and Effectiveness of Drone Killings Doubted

Anti-Drone Movement Grows: Ethics, Legality and Effectiveness of Drone Killings Doubted

Wednesday, 24 April 2013 11:22
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers , Truthout | News Analysis


Zeese and Flowers examine the US drone program, its security effectiveness, legality under US and international law, state of development, and position in US opinion.


We are in the midst of a month of actions against drones. Nearly 4,000 people have been killed in some 420 "targeted killing" operations since the first US drone strike was conducted under the Bush administration in October 2001. There is now a growing movement of people speaking out and standing up to protest the use of drones by the United States in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as at home in the United States. Human rights groups are questioning their legality; clergy are questioning their ethics and activists are protesting their use. More are questioning whether the use of drones is actually decreasing or increasing terrorism.

On our weekly program, Clearing the FOG, we spoke with two guests who are working to build the movement against drones. Noor Mir, a citizen of Pakistan and graduate of Vassar who works on drones with the anti-war organization Codepink in Washington, DC, described how people in Pakistan no longer go to funerals or weddings; children refuse to go to school and people avoid events where they will be in groups because of the fear of drone attacks. Judy Bello of the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars points out that drones are used mostly in countries that we are not at war with, raising many legal and strategic questions.

Violence Begets Violence: There Is Another Way

In light of recent very public violent episodes, from the Boston Marathon bombing to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Americans now have a greater sense of what it must be like for people living in countries where the US attacks people with drones on a constant basis. Could you imagine experiencing mass killings involving innocent civilians every day? It is particularly alarming that US drones have murdered nearly 200 children.

Growing up in a war zone with constant fear of attack at any time and being forced to flee your home and community to live in a refugee camp or some other foreign place has dramatic psychological impacts. Civilians living in war zones suffer economically and experience shortages of basic necessities such as food, water and medicines. They also suffer from the threat or experience of being raped or beaten, losing a loved one and forced labor. Mental illness, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (or PTSD) are high in areas of conflict. Women, children, the elderly and the disabled are the most vulnerable. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/15959-anti-drone-movement-grows-ethics-legality-and-effectiveness-of-drone-killings-doubted

April 24, 2013

Iowa GOPers: Cut pay of justices who made gay marriage decision

Several Republicans in the Iowa House of Representatives are pushing to cut the pay of the Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in 2009 — though they contend that it’s not meant to punish the justices.

Rep. Tom Shaw, a Republican, said that the bill was meant “to maintain the balance of power” between the different branches of government in the state. ”We’re just holding them responsible for their decision, for going beyond their bounds,” he said.

The Iowa Gazette reports:



“It’s not the merits of what they said in that decision,” Alons said. ........................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.salon.com/2013/04/24/iowa_gopers_cut_pay_of_justices_who_made_gay_marriage_decision/

April 24, 2013

David Sirota: Good riddance, Senator Baucus

Good riddance, Senator Baucus
Retirement for one of the Democrats most responsible for the party's destructive shift to the economic right

By David Sirota


(Salon) The easiest way to interpret the news this morning of the retirement of six-term Montana Sen. Max Baucus (D) is through the prism of the 2014 battle for control of the U.S. Senate and how it supposedly hurts Democrats’ prospects for holding the chamber. But for those of us who have lived in Montana and worked in Montana politics, that cheap horse-race analysis is short-sighted for two reasons.

First and foremost, if my old boss and friend, the wildly popular former Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D), mounts a Democratic candidacy it means the seat would likely remain in the party’s hands. Additionally, and more important for the long-term topography of American politics, Baucus is not just a single Democrat holding a Senate seat in a Republican-leaning state. He is one of the politicians most responsible for the Democratic Party’s destructive long-term shift to the right on economic issues. That means his retirement isn’t just a 2014 story or a Montana story; it is significant to the whole country.

Remember, Baucus is not any old senator holding an office and casting terrible votes on social issues like guns. He is, more important, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. As the panel that oversees every major economic issue from healthcare to Social Security to taxes to trade, the committee is the most powerful body in the United States Congress. That means despite being relatively unknown outside of the Beltway and Montana, Baucus is one of the most powerful politicians in the world. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.salon.com/2013/04/23/good_riddance_senator_baucus/

April 24, 2013

The tragedy of Sunil Tripathi

What really happened to Sunil Tripathi?
As a body is discovered in Providence, we're reminded of the human cost of the despicable need to be first

By Mary Elizabeth Williams




(Salon) Of all the ways in which last week’s horror in Boston showed the resilience and cooperation of a community in the wake of disaster, the tragedy will also inevitably go down as a shining example of the desperate, despicable scramble to hunt, to accuse, to blame first – and worry about ethics and responsibility later. If ever.

We saw it in the epic bungling of mainstream media outlets like CNN and the New York Post. We saw it in the frenzy of Redditors and overeager Tweeters. We saw it, most cruelly, in the story of a missing student, a young man whose body may have been pulled Tuesday night from the Providence harbor.

Sunil Tripathi was already making headlines before the Boston Marathon bombing. The Brown undergraduate was last seen on March 16, wearing “a black jacket, blue jeans and a Philadelphia Eagles cap.” In the early days of his disappearance, the news focused on his friends and Pennsylvania family, who posted a video on YouTube pleading for him to come back. “Hey, Sunny,” they say to the man whose nickname belied a reported history of depression. “We miss you.” It was, at first, the haunting mystery of a philosophy student with a “warm smile and generous gentle spirit,” who’d taken a leave from school while he was “trying to figure out his future.”

And then Boston happened. In what was later far too generously referred to as the “confusion” of its aftermath, the amateur detectives of Reddit decided that the missing man could be seen in images at the scene of the bombing. “The photos bear good resemblance… not perfect but there are definitely strong similarities… skin tone, hair color, approximate build, and yes that nose.” Where the whole thing really went berserk, though, was in the rumor, which instantly became a desperately repeated report, that Tripathi, along with another man mentioned by name, had been “identified on police scanner” as a suspect. Tripathi’s photograph was instantly splashed across the world. He was declared unquestioningly in the news feeds of both hasty, news hungry social media users and several media outlets as a “suspect.” The Facebook page Sunil Tripathi’s family created to share information and show support for him became so deluged with what they described as “hateful, angry posts” they had to temporarily take it down. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.salon.com/2013/04/24/what_really_happened_to_sunil_tripathi/

April 24, 2013

Erskine Bowles Dismisses Facts on Deficits. Perhaps Because He Collects Millions for Deceiving....

Beat the Press / By Dean Baker

Erskine Bowles Dismisses Facts on Deficits. Perhaps Because He Collects Millions for Deceiving the Public?
Overwhelming evidence shows that there is little obvious reason to fear higher debt levels.

April 24, 2013 |


Most of us accept that the earth goes around the sun. This is impressive since we can look up in the sky and see the sun going around the earth. We believe the opposite because we have been told about the research of astronomers over the centuries showing that what we can see with our own two eyes is wrong. Instead we accept that the motion of the stars and planets can be much better explained by the earth going around the sun.

Suppose for a moment that astronomers and people who write on astronomy did not agree on earth or solar orbits. Imagine that a substantial group of these people, including many of the most prominent astronomers, insisted that the sun goes around the earth, as anyone can plainly see. In that case there would likely be huge numbers of people who refused to accept that the earth goes around the sun. This is the state of modern economics.

A new study by three researchers at the University of Massachusetts found major arithmetic errors in the widely cited paper by Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff, "Growth in a Time of Debt," that purports to show high levels of government debt sharply slow growth. This study has been widely cited by political figures demanding deficit reduction, in spite of the fact that the unemployment rate remains high and interest rates are at extraordinarily low levels.

When the errors in the Reinhart and Rogoff study are corrected, the strong relationship between high debt levels and slower growth disappears. In other words, there is little obvious reason that we need fear higher debt levels. We can have the government make investments in infrastructure and education that will boost growth, create jobs, and increase future productivity. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/erskine-bowles-dismisses-facts-deficits-perhaps-because-he-collects-millions

April 24, 2013

Filling the Empty Battlefield: Jeremy Scahill, Blowback Reporter

from TomDispatch:


Filling the Empty Battlefield
Jeremy Scahill, Blowback Reporter

By Tom Engelhardt


Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire was published in March 2000 -- and just about no one noticed. Until then, blowback had been an obscure term of CIA tradecraft, which Johnson defined as “the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people.” In his prologue, the former consultant to the CIA and eminent scholar of both Mao Zedong’s peasant revolution and modern Japan labeled his Cold War self a “spear-carrier for empire.”

After the Soviet Union disappeared in 1991, he was surprised to discover that the essential global structure of that other Cold War colossus, the American superpower, with its vast panoply of military bases, remained obdurately in place as if nothing whatsoever had happened. Almost a decade later, when the Evil Empire was barely a memory, Johnson surveyed the planet and found “an informal American empire” of immense reach and power. He also became convinced that, in its global operations, Washington was laying the groundwork “all around the world... for future forms of blowback.”

Johnson noted “portents of a twenty-first century crisis” in the form of, among other things, “terrorist attacks on American installations and embassies.” In the first chapter of Blowback, he focused in particular on a “former protégé of the United States” by the name of Osama bin Laden and on the Afghan War against the Soviets from which he and an organization called al-Qaeda had emerged. It had been a war in which Washington backed to the hilt, and the CIA funded and armed, the most extreme Islamic fundamentalists, paving the way years later for the Taliban to take over Afghanistan.

.....(snip).....

Chalmers Johnson was, you might say, our first blowback scholar. Now, more than a decade later, we have a book from our first blowback reporter. His name is Jeremy Scahill. In 2007, he, too, produced a surprise bestseller, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. It caught the mood of a moment in which the Bush administration, in service to its foreign wars, was working manically to “privatize” national security and the U.S. military by hiring rent-a-spies, rent-a-guns, and rent-a-corporations for its proliferating wars. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175691/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_field_of_nightmares/#more