2012-05-17: Headlines

• USA TODAY: Estranged wife of Robert Kennedy Jr. found dead 2012-05-17

  Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s estranged wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy, who had fought drug and alcohol problems, was found dead at the family property Wednesday. | Mary Richardson Kennedy poses for a photo outside her home in Bedford, N.Y. | An autopsy for the 52-year-old was scheduled for Thursday, and no cause of death had been released.

• New York Magazine: Student Found Not Guilty Thanks to Video at First Occupy Wall Street Trial 2012-05-17

  Joe Coscarelli: "What's happening is very similar to what happened in 2004 with the Republican National Convention," Arbuckle's lawyer told the Voice. "It's just a symptom of how the NYPD treats dissent. But what has changed is that there is more prevalence of video. It really makes our job a lot easier to have that video." This "dissenter" just happened to be a potential ally.

• The Seattle Times: Chip implant lets paralyzed patients control robotic arm with thoughts 2012-05-17

  A paralyzed Massachusetts woman picked up a bottle of coffee and sipped from it by moving a robotic arm with her thoughts, researchers reported Wednesday — the latest advance in the race to restore movement to people who have lost control of their muscles. | The moment marked the first time in 15 years the 58-year-old, who had suffered a stroke, was able to pick up anything of her own volition.

• Independent commentary from Israel and the Palestinian territories: A Middle Eastern alternative to Israel: A response to Yuval Ben-Ami 2012-05-17

  Yuval Ben-Ami is thinking of leaving Israel for a saner life somewhere in Europe. Though I know the feeling he talks about and sympathize with it deeply €“ my choice, time and time again, is to stay right here, at home. I can even justify it. | A calm, grey and tempting street in Berlin (Haggai Matar) | And yes €“ there are alternatives for us.

• amnestyusa.org: Amnesty International Urges Africa to End Discrimination Against LGBTI on International Day Against Homophobia 2012-05-17

  Keywords: (Washington, D.C.) -- Discrimination and persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in South Africa and Cameroon must end, Amnesty International said today, as activists around the world mark the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia.

• Democratic Underground: Reuters: Israeli decision to attack Iran nears 2012-05-17

  This inner sanctum at the end of a corridor between Netanyahu's private room and the office of his top military adviser, is where one of the decade's most momentous military decisions could soon be taken: to launch an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear...

• Democratic Underground: Tennessee Walking Horses Tortured **GRAPHIC VIDEO** 2012-05-17

  According to ABC News, the alleged abuse was intended to force the horses to produce the "high-stepping gait" on which they are evaluated in competition. In the video, McConnell presides over the stable hands as they allegedly use electric cattle prods...

• Truthdig: Obama Can't Knock the Hustle 2012-05-17

  How did we end up with such smart scoundrels? Even after it was known that Jamie Dimon's bank blew more than $2 billion, Barack Obama still had praise for the intellect of his political backer. -

• GlobalPost: North Korea resumes work on nuclear reactor 2012-05-17

  North Korea has reportedly resumed work on their nuclear reactor. | Stacey LeascaMay 17, 2012 08:40 PrintTweet Two North Korean soldiers stand guard in front of the Unha-3 rocket at Tangachai -ri space center on April 8, 2012. (PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images) | According to the BBC, North Korea has resumed work on a light water reactor that could be used to support its nuclear program.

• AllAfrica.com: Cape Town Under-20 International Friendly Tournament Beckons 2012-05-17

  The Cape Town International invitation friendly tournament kicks off from 24th of May to 3rd of June in South Africa with an array of future stars from South America and Africa on show. | The draw has put hosts South Africa in group A with Argentina, Nigeria and Ghana and group B features South American giants Brazil alongside Cameroon, Kenya and Japan.

• WLS: Demonstrators protest police brutality at South Side march 2012-05-17

  Keywords: mostly young people in town to protest the NATO Summit dressed in all black with black bandanas covering their faces -- initially gathered near South Halsted Street and West 50th Place. They began marching through the neighborhood about 6:40 p.m. and grew to about 100 people as residents left their porches to join the march.

• Radio Netherlands: Terrorists and uncertainty flourish in northern Mali 2012-05-17

  There's been no peace in northern Mali since Tuareg rebels took control of the area and declared independence earlier this year. Radical Muslim fighters came in their wake and introduced Islamic law. Meanwhile, terrorists from all over the world are reportedly coming to Mali. Yet no one really has a hold on the region. | Boubacar Traore lights a cigarette. The other exiles crouching under a baobab tree in Mopti laugh at him.

• News Tribe: Protests in Chicago ahead of Nato summit 2012-05-17

  May 17th, 2012 (No Comment) | Reuters reported that the protesters marched to banks and government offices, demanding a freeze of one year on local home evictions and foreclosures. | The activists participated in a street theatre performance, showing a bank trying to throw out a family from their home and neighbours stepping up to stop the measure, Press TV reported.

• Democratic Underground: Why Do Conservatives Hate Freedom? 2012-05-17

  Response to applegrove (Original post) | 'reality' imposed on them from the hierarchies. | Response to applegrove (Reply #1)

• Asia Times Online: Why ceasefires fail in Myanmar 2012-05-17

  Lower House member of parliament Aung Thaung, whose hawkish persona was seen as ripe for the recalcitrant group, was recently retired from his post as peace broker. More than five high-level meetings with Kachin officials failed to net a result...

• International Middle East Media Center: Verdict in Corrie Lawsuit to be Announced August 28, 2012 2012-05-17

  Rachel Corrie , a 23-year-old American peace activist and human rights defender from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death on March 16, 2003, by an Israeli military Caterpillar D9-R bulldozer while nonviolently protesting the demolition...

• The Root: Romney's Economic Proposals Are Even Worse Than Bush's 2012-05-17

  In his column at the Washington Post, Eugene Robinson calls Mitt Romney an "expert on creative destruction." | Republicans say they€™re eager for the presidential campaign to turn away from €œdistractions€ and focus instead on the economy. Someone should warn them that if they€™re not careful, they might get their wish.

• Huffington Post: Americans Elect and the Failure of Our Leadership Class 2012-05-17

  Andrew S. Doctoroff: The cognoscenti so dismissive of American Elects' efforts merely smirk, mocking the truth many of us consider self-evident: Our partisan duopoly continues to fail us.

• McClatchy Washington Bureau: Closing arguments in Edwards trial set for today 2012-05-17

  Anne Blythe, McClatchy Newspapers: When prosecutors and defense lawyers in the John Edwards trial take their turns before jurors Thursday morning for closing arguments, each side will weave together testimony of witnesses with hundreds of pages of phone records, financial statements, political schedules, email and voicemail messages.

• Pacific Free Press: Taking the Prize: Honduran Fascist President Lobo Awarded at CHLI Gala 2012-05-17

  The Real News: Keywords: by TRNN VOICEOVER: On Monday, May 7th, a number of Congress members, corporate leaders, and international politicians gathered at an upscale hotel in Washington, DC to attend the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute, or CHLI's, 8th annual gala...

• OpEdNews: If Only it Were 99 Percent, or Even 80 Percent, Versus the Rich 2012-05-17

  Yes, statistically the upper one percent of the population or perhaps more realistically twenty percent (still a huge wealth gap)--stand in sharp contrast to the lower eighty percent of the population which share only fifteen percent of the national wealth, have fewer resources and thus less power than the rich.  They should be fighting back. But they aren't. Many of the eighty percent in the middle and low-income...

• AllAfrica.com: Gacaca 'Achieved Its Mission' 2012-05-17

  It was authored by renowned researcher Dr Phil Clark, a lecturer in comparative and international politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and co-founder of Oxford Transitional Justice Research .

• Art Threat: 99 musicians for the 99 percent 2012-05-17

  If you support the Occupy movement, relish discovering new music, and are gainfully employed, then you seriously need to plunk down ten bucks and purchase Occupy This Album.

• Amsterdam News: Hiller Armament uses Trayvon Martin image as gun target 2012-05-17

  Keywords: 
While some are still protesting for justice for the murdered Trayvon Martin, others are using his image as a target.

• Globe and Mail: Germany's 'debt queen' kicks austerity to the curb 2012-05-17

  Hannalore Kraft's style contrasts with Angela Merkel, dubbed "Mutti" — or "mummy" — by German media because of her undisputed grip on power, but who often looks stiff when meeting voters face to face. | Her rivals call her Germany's "debt queen,"

• independent.co.uk: Charles Taylor claims West rigged his trial at The Hague 2012-05-17

  The war criminal and former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, accused the international court that convicted him of crimes against humanity of being manipulated by the West, and said prosecutors had paid witnesses to testify against him.

• Democratic Underground: Noam Chomsky: Occupy Has Created Solidarity in the US 2012-05-17

  AMY GOODMAN: And yet, it's under President Obama, or you might say because of President Obama, that the Occupy movement has blossomed in this country. Talk about the significance of Occupy . NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, the Occupy movement is - it was a big...

• AllAfrica.com: Obama Should Raise Press Freedom in Africa Food Talks 2012-05-17

  As you prepare to host the G-8 summit and discuss the security of food supplies with leaders from Africa, we call on you to strongly consider the role of an independent press in identifying and assessing agricultural challenges and famine, and facilitating the national and international response to food crises. | Mr. President, as a central example, we urge you to consider the situation in Ethiopia.

• San Francisco Chronicle: Russian Funds Flee as Anti-Putin Activists Occupy Moscow Squares 2012-05-17

  Investors are fleeing Russia as demonstrators against President Vladimir Putin dig in, exacerbating the impact of Europe's debt crisis on the country's markets, money managers from Frankfurt...

• Truthdig: Blue Man Coup, Part 2: War for God, Country and Cocaine 2012-05-17

  People gather inside a Tuareg clansman's tent in Koygma, northern Mali in this 1997 photo. | The belief that "ungoverned spaces" such as the Sahara provide "safe havens" for terrorist groups to flourish resulted in several major changes in U.S. foreign policy after 9/11. In 2002, the U.S. set up the Pan Sahel Initiative, renamed the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Initiative in 2005.

• Reuters India: Obama, Republicans clash over US debt limit increase 2012-05-17

  If Republican and Democratic leaders want to avoid a reprise of last year's nasty showdown over raising the federal debt limit, they are not off to a good start.

• Truthdig: Veterans Say No to NATO 2012-05-17

  Veterans of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are now challenging the occupation of Chicago. | This week, NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is holding the largest meeting in its 63-year history there. Protests and rallies will confront the two-day summit, facing off against a massive armed police and military presence. The NATO gathering has been designated a "National Special Security Event" by the Department of Homeland...

• Truthdig: The Tea Is Getting Weaker 2012-05-17

  Uh, oh! Some people are looking over the right shoulders of the Republicans who rode into the House of Representatives on the tea party wave of 2010. And they don't like what they're seeing. -

• Bay Area Indymedia: Occupy Oakland is Dead. LONG LIVE THE OAKLAND COMMUNE. 2012-05-17

  Keywords: by Some Oakland Antagonists For those of us in Oakland, " Occupy Wall Street " was always a strange fit. While much of the country sat eerily quiet in the years before the Hot Fall of 2011, a unique rebelliousness that regularly erupted in militant...

• Democratic Underground: Judge Blocks Controversial NDAA Provisions 2012-05-17

  Signed by President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve, the 565-page NDAA contains a short paragraph, in statute 1021, letting the military detain anyone it suspects "substantially supported" al-Qaida, the Taliban or "associated forces.

• independent.co.uk: In the dock: justice catches up with Butcher of Bosnia Ratko Mladic 2012-05-17

  Twenty years after he became commander of the Bosnian Serb Army for the 1992-95 war, Ratko Mladic sat in the dock of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague yesterday charged with committing crimes against humanity in Bosnia.

• Daily Beast: Autopsy: Gunshot Killed Trayvon 2012-05-17

  The autopsy released Wednesday showed that Florida teen Trayvon Martin died of a single gunshot wound to the chest fired from "intermediate range." The only other injury on Martin's body was a quarter-inch abrasion on his left ring finger below his knuckle, the report said, according to NBC News. A medical report revealed yesterday showed that George Zimmerman, Martin's killer, had a fractured nose, two black eyes, and cuts on the back of his...

• International Middle East Media Center: Palestinians Behind Bars: Prisoners Without Human Rights 2012-05-17

  Marking the annual Palestinian Prisoners Day of 2012, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights releases the film This short documentary addresses the issues of solitary confinement and other measures of inhuman and degrading treatment to which Palestinian prisoners are subjected in Israeli jails. The film further highlights the human rights violations related to family visits and the Israeli abuse of administrative detention.

2012-05-16: Headlines

• Reuters: Ohio Governor signs law to repeal voting law changes 2012-05-16

  CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich signed a bill on Tuesday reversing a contentious voting law that Democrats have called a blatant attempt at voter repression, in a move aimed at pre-empting a threatened repeal referendum.

• Gothamist: Citizen Journalist Arrested During OWS March Fights City Wins 2012-05-16

  Arbuckle was arrested early New Year's Day around 13th Street and Fifth Avenue for allegedly blocking traffic during an OWS march. However, Arbuckle's attorneys, Paul Keefe and Gideon Oliver of the National Lawyer's Guild—New York City Chapter, used footage shot by videographer Tim Pool to show that wasn't the case. The arrests occur between the 31:00 and 35:00 marks in the video below.

• msnbc.com: Roadside bomb hits UN observers in Syria 2012-05-16

  Opposition activists said the Syrian security forces have even opened fire on a funeral procession, killing at least 21 people. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

• San Francisco Chronicle: Obamas Disclose Assets of $2.6 Million to $8.3 Million in 2011 2012-05-16

  President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama held total assets of between $2.6 million and $8.3 million last year, with as much as $1 million of it in a JPMorgan Chase & Co. asset management account.

• The Guardian: Ratko Mladic trial for Bosnian war crimes begins in The Hague 2012-05-16

  Ratko Mladic goes on trial in The Hague on Wednesday charged with masterminding atrocities in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war. Twenty years after Serb forces unleashed their brutal campaign, Mladic will enter the international criminal court's Yugoslavia...

• The Associated Press: Mexican novelist, essayist Carlos Fuentes dies 2012-05-16

  Author Carlos Fuentes, who played a dominant role in Latin America's novel-writing boom by delving into the failed ideals of the Mexican revolution, died Tuesday in a Mexico City hospital. He was 83. | Fuentes died at the Angeles del Pedregal hospital where he was taken after his personal doctor, Arturo Ballesteros, found him in shock in his Mexico City home.

• Straight Goods: November surprise 2012-05-16

  Romney edged Obama 48 to 47 percent in a Politico-George Washington University Battleground Poll and Obama beats Romney 47 to 45 percent in the Gallup Swing States poll , the Chicago Tribune reports. So far, May has been a disaster for Romney.

• Truthdig: Blue Man Coup: How Gadhafi's Mercenaries Broke Mali 2012-05-16

  Everything that rises must converge, and in 2012, an uprising at the ancient crossroads of Timbuktu kicked up a decades-in-the-making sandstorm of global capitalism, U.S. counterterrorism, cocaine smuggling and the long-denied rights of the most romantic nomads on earth. -

• AllAfrica.com: Religious Leaders Should Work for Peace, Stability 2012-05-16

  Remarks by His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar mni, CFR, Sultan of Sokoto and President-General Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, at the opening ceremony of NASFAT conference on Islam and Peaceful Co-Existence in a Contemporary and Multi-Religious Society, held at Abuja on Thursday, May 10, 2012. | It is with utmost thanks and gratitude to Allah (SWT)

• independent.co.uk: Wanted Congolese general Bosco Ntaganda still using child soldiers, says Human Rights Watch 2012-05-16

  A renegade Congolese general wanted by the International Criminal Court | for war crimes has begun to recruit child soldiers again to fight the government, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation released on today.

• Malaysia Star: Anti-war protesters target Obama Chicago office, 8 arrested 2012-05-16

  Eric Johnson: Anti-war protesters converged on President Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters on Monday but only got as far as the elevator before eight people were arrested, in the first of many protests expected around the NATO summit this weekend.

• AllAfrica.com: We Can't Sacrifice Peace on the Altar of Politics 2012-05-16

  The Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Dr. Wahab Adam, has expressed optimism that despite the violence that characterised the just-ended biometric registration exercise in some constituencies, this year's elections would be peaceful.

• Democracy Now: Head of Anti-Whaling Group Sea Shepherd Arrested in Germany for 2002 Confrontation 2012-05-16

  Human Rights Watch's Kenneth Roth examines why the U.S. has not pressured Bahrain to release pro-democracy activists. He also discusses Syria and the conditions in Israeli jails and courts that prompted 1,550 Palestinian prisoners to go on a hunger strike. [includes rush transcript] | At the May Day rally in New York City's Union Square, Amy Goodman bumped into the Tax Dodgers...

• Huffington Post: Planned Parenthood 'Strongly Opposes' House GOP's Violence Against Women Act 2012-05-16

  Laura Bassett: The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has joined a growing list of civil rights organizations, women's rights groups, domestic violence workers and faith-based organizations in strong opposition to the House GOP's version of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization. Planned Parenthood released a statement on Tuesday saying that it strongly opposes the House measure.

• Los Angeles Times: Edwards defense testimony focuses on payments, ex-aide 2012-05-16

  Lawyers for John Edwards spent their second day of defense testimony Tuesday trying to discredit the chief witness against him while also seeking to prove that money paid to support Edwards' mistress constituted private gifts and not illegal campaign contributions.

• The Root: It's OK If Elizabeth Warren Says She's Native American 2012-05-16

  In his Chicago Tribune column, Clarence Page says that any dispute over the U.S. Senate candidate's heritage serves to illustrate how quickly our old racial narratives are failing to keep up with changing times. | So what if Elizabeth Warren claims to be part Native American Indian? She's entitled, according to historical documents.

• San Francisco Bay View: Palestinian prisoners' mass hunger strike concludes after agreement is reached 2012-05-16

  After nearly a full month of fasting, around 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners ended last night their mass hunger strike upon reaching an agreement with the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) to attain certain core demands. Family visits that have been denied based on vague €œsecurity reasons€ will be reinstated.

• BusinessWeek: Democrats See Leverage as Congress Nears Budget Cliff 2012-05-16

  Congressional Democrats say they can prevail in a year-end fiscal showdown with Republicans, so long as President Barack Obama and Democrats hold firm in their insistence on higher taxes for the rich. | "If the president brings the tough approach he had on the payroll tax holiday to this debate, Democrats have a good shot of taking the upper hand," said Clint Stretch, managing principal of tax policy at Deloitte Tax LLP.

• Aljazeera.com: Collateral damage: Victims of NATO's war 2012-05-16

  Inside Story: "NATO is an inter-governmental organisation with member states. [it] is bound to have immunities before national courts, especially national courts of member states, so that is a problem." | Can NATO be sued and held accountable for killing civilians and is there an international mechanism to help the victims of war?

• AllAfrica.com: President Wants Preservation of Cultural Values, Social Peace 2012-05-16

  Angolan head of State and president of the ruling MPLA party José Eduardo dos Santos is concerned about family's cohesion, preservation of cultural values, new attitude and construction of a long-lasting spiritual, social and moral peace in the country. | This was stressed Tuesday in Luanda by the secretary general of the ruling MPLA party, Julião Mateus Paulo "Dino Matrosse".

• Truthdig: Greece's Balkan Inheritance Is Heavy 2012-05-16

  This has everything to do with the present crisis of Greece and the future of Greece's membership in—or perhaps its departure from—the European Union and its euro zone. To understand what is happening, it is necessary to understand something of the past.

• BusinessWeek: Persian Gulf Stocks: Oman Cement, Oman International Bank Moved 2012-05-16

  The DFM General Index (DFMGI) slumped to the lowest level since Feb. 2, losing 1.4 percent to 1,466.08 at the 2 p.m. close in the emirate. Abu Dhabi€™s ADX General Index (ADSMI) fell 0.3 percent. | The following shares were active in the Persian Gulf region. Stock symbols are in parentheses. | Oman International Bank SAOG (OIBB) advanced the most since March 22, climbing 2.7 percent to 0.231 rial.

• Center for Research on Globalization: OSCE to monitor anti-NATO protests at Summit in Chicago 2012-05-16

  Keywords: by John Robles and Rick Rozoff Interview with Rick Rozoff, manager of the Stop NATO website and Global Research Correspondent. He will be debating NATO officials in Chicago on May 17th in a first-ever event where those opposed to NATO are allowed...

• Bay Area Indymedia: The Left, Labor and Occupy 2012-05-16

  On March 17, OWS supporters flowed into the public-private park next door to the center of world finance capital. They were met by the New York Police Department, which once again evicted protesters with an iron fist: charging into the crowd, slamming people to the ground and arresting a French bagpipe team serenading the occupiers.

• Antiwar.com: The Already Forgotten Iraq War 2012-05-16

  Survey research , such as that done by ORB, which asks Iraqis if they have experienced a death from the war , has been demonstrated in past wars to more accurately measure the number of fatalities than other methods. If the above death total estimates...

• Democratic Underground: Gerald Celente calls out Jamie 'two-bit' Dimon and his Financial Crime Syndicate 2012-05-16

  Response to stockholmer (Original post) | 1. Somebody needs to call all of them out... | meaning. Celente correctly uses the term and defines it as, "the merger of state and corporate interests is Fascism."

• AllAfrica.com: Jonathan's Watch 2012-05-16

  "There are three times in a man's life when it's useless to hold him to anything: when he is madly in love, drunk or running for office." Robert Mitchum. | A LITTLE over two years ago, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua died, providing a natural solution to a messy political and legal logjam that was to haunt the rest of his planned four - year term.

• AllAfrica.com: Leading South African Human Rights Activist Named Yale World Fellow 2012-05-16

  Sisonke Msimang, executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, has been named a 2012 Yale World Fellow, announced Yale University President Richard C. Levin. | The Yale World Fellows Program is the University's signature global leadership development initiative and a core element of Yale's ongoing commitment to internationalization.

• Huffington Post: The War on Women -- and the War Within Women 2012-05-16

  Elizabeth Debold: The War on Women has many fronts -- here in the U.S., abroad, and across forums on the Internet. In the U.S., the range of hostilities spans the gamut from lewd (Limbaugh) to degrading (state-sanctioned vaginal penetration) to downright dangerous (making the murder of abortion providers "justifiable homicide"). This year has been quite a wake-up call for any woman who has thought that women's rights and sexual freedom are guaranteed...

• PEJ News: The Palestinian Nakba: The Resolve of Memory 2012-05-16

  Many Palestinians remember and reference al-Nakba, also known asthe Catastrophe, on May 15 every year. The event marks the expulsion of nearly amillion Palestinians, while their villages were destroyed. The destruction ofPalestine in 1947-48 ushered in the birth of Israel. Older generations relaythe harsh and oppressive memory of their collective experience to youngerPalestinians, many of whom live their own Nakbas today.

• Green Left Weekly: PHOTOS: Sydney marks al-Nakba with defiant rally and march 2012-05-16

  Above: Photos by Kiz Janicke and Pip Hinman. | The Sydney Al-Nakba rally and march €“ marking 64 years since the ruthless dispossession of Palestinians from their historic homeland €“ went off successfully on May 15 despite the NSW police attempts to get it moved, or cancelled.

• Truthdig: Paul Volcker and His Rule 2012-05-16

  JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon may be less concerned with the actual $2 billion his bank lost than the credence it lends to calls for tougher regulation. | Dimon is among those bankers who has objected to even the most tepid efforts to re-regulate his industry following the 2008 financial collapse. | Back in April, Paul Volcker defended the merits of his namesake rule against Dimon's criticism.

• Huffington Post: Alan Simpson: Paul Krugman's Work 'Borders On Hysteria' 2012-05-16

  Mollie Reilly: Alan Simpson, the former Republican senator from Wyoming who co-chaired President Barack Obama's debt commission in 2010, took a swipe at one of his most fervent critics on Tuesday, saying that economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman's work often borders on hysteria.

• amnestyusa.org: Mali’s worst human rights situation in 50 years 2012-05-16

  Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting in northern Mali and dozens have been subjected to arbitrary detention, extra-judicial executions or sexual violence including rape, Amnesty International said today. | In a report ‘

• Daily Beast: Prisoners of Process 2012-05-16

  Two days ago the news of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian prisoners to end the hunger-strike broke. The prisoners, most of whom have been without food for a month, won the right to have Gazan family visit them in prison (such visits have been denied for the past seven years)

• Toward Freedom: From the Streets of Chicago Spring: May Day and Beyond 2012-05-16

  Would Occupy Wall Street have been so effective and influential if it had only been a convergence in one part of one city, in reaction to one particular event? Despite these mixed feelings about the initial call to action, I found myself in Chicago...

• Democratic Underground: Not ONE Democratic spokesperson in the 7 am block on Morning Joe today? Not ONE 2012-05-16

  Response to CTyankee (Original post) | Response to spanone (Reply #1) | obvious desperation. I asked them why they aren't having Norm Ornstein on about his new book. I quoted Krugman's statement about how the MSM is ignoring Ornstein's insightful new book about how the Republicans are standing in the way of any progress on anything except their own brand of extremism and women's reproductive rights...

• Huffington Post: Congress Scrutinizes San Onofre Power Plant Over Damaged Tubes 2012-05-16

  AP: The idled San Onofre nuclear power plant is facing new scrutiny from Congress as the utility that operates it moves closer to proposing a fix to get the twin reactors back in service. | The chair of the U.S.

• Reuters: US nuclear expert: Iran official linked to past program 2012-05-16

  Communications from the 1990s suggest Iran's current foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, had knowledge of a program to procure goods for an alleged clandestine nuclear program when he was head of a university, a U.S. nuclear expert said on Tuesday. | David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS)

2012-05-18: Headlines

• Los Angeles Times: US reaches historic demographic tipping point 2012-05-18

  Children born to Latino, Asian, African American and mixed-race parents now constitute a majority of all births, the Census Bureau reports.

• New York Times: Edwards Defense Asks the Jury to Distinguish Sin From Crime 2012-05-18

  GREENSBORO, NC — John Edwards has been a United States senator and a presidential candidate and has fathered five children. But this day was the most important day of his life, Abbe D. Lowell, his lawyer, told a jury on Thursday.

• San Jose Mercury News: San Francisco: Three arrested in connection with scam targeting older Asian women 2012-05-18

  Three women have been arrested and charged in connection with a scam targeting older Chinese women in San Francisco and other major cities around the U.S. in the past few months, police and prosecutors announced at a news conference Thursday.

• The Nation.: Tea Party Boxes Boehner In, Again 2012-05-18

  Action and dysfunction in the Beltway swamp. Email tips to george@thenation.com. | According to the story, Boehner briefed his colleagues on a contingency plan to reinstate both the requirement that keeps young Americans on their health insurance plans until age 26, and the laws that forbid insurers from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions. He believes that it's "too politically risky"

• OpEdNews: 'Occupy Empire' fighting to keep one version of the 'American Dream' 2012-05-18

  I remain very convinced that if the defused message of the current Occupy movement did nothing except articulate a strong and clear statement that our country has been 'captured' and is now "Occupied"  by a disguised Empire --- and if they did this aggressively by simply using the the name "Occupy Empire" --- that the elite corporatist media would not be able to avoid mentioning the term, "Occupy Empire", and that consequently...

• Salon: Pick of the week: A class-war thriller from Putin's Russia 2012-05-18

  While there are no overt politics in "Elena," it's a movie about the most pernicious forms of class warfare , made barely 20 years after the collapse of the regime that was supposed to end class warfare for good. That's enough politics, and enough...

• Huffington Post: Barack Obama Torture Lessons: New Book Details Clashes With Bush's CIA Director 2012-05-18

  Max J. Rosenthal: During the 2008 campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama railed against the intelligence programs implemented under President George W. Bush and vowed to end practices like extraordinary rendition and the enhanced interrogation techniques that many considered torture. Almost immediately after his election, President-elect Obama was lobbied heavily by CIA Director Michael Hayden, a Bush appointee, to leave the existing policies in place.

• Fight Back! Newspaper: March against foreclosures and evictions leads up to Chicago anti-NATO protest 2012-05-18

  Over 150 marchers gathered at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago May 16, to march against home foreclosures and evictions.

• OregonLive.com: Congress, not the Supreme Court, should champion the issue of marriage equality 2012-05-18

  The people vote and the elected officials should follow the result. Instead we get a group of people who believe that their views should prevail and that if someone disagrees with their point of view the laws should be thrown out. I have no issue with people having relationships with another person. I have no issue with civil unions.

• Center for Research on Globalization: NATO Summit: 'Enduring Presence In Afghanistan' Beyond 2014 2012-05-18

  WASHINGTON: The upcoming NATO summit in Chicago will determine its long-term presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, the top commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) told audience in the United States via video teleconference...

• Lez Get Real: NDAA Provisions Found Unconstitutional By Court 2012-05-18

  The prime issue to Hedges and Bolen is the vague definition in the law of who could be indefinitely detained as "a person who was a part of or substatially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces." Hedges and Bolen, along with a lot of American journalists, have had contact with terrorists as part of their work.

• Gulf Times: 7 die in Afghan suicide attack 2012-05-18

  Gunmen dressed in Afghan police uniforms and wearing suicide vests stormed a government compound yesterday, killing seven people and wounding 12 others in the southwest, police said. The four attackers targeted the offices of Governor Mohamed Ikhpolwak...

• Boston Herald: Hanging ruled cause of RFK Jr.'s wife's death 2012-05-18

  The medical examiner ruled yesterday that Mary Richardson Kennedy died from hanging, making her the latest member of the American dynasty to come to a tragic end. | His father, Joseph P. Kennedy II, called the death of his sister-in-law a "terrible and tragic" time for her estranged husband and four children. | "We appreciate the expressions of condolence and ask for privacy during this difficult time," he wrote in a statement.

• Salon: All Share Services 2012-05-18

  Still, mothers and grandmothers traditionally teach young girls belly dancing at home, particularly by watching old black-and-white movies that made earlier generations of belly dancers household names in Egypt. | Early Thursday, Egyptian vice police raided an apartment in central Cairo where the station's owner, Baligh Hamdy, had been running the operations and recording most of the videos, the security official said.

• Pacific Free Press: Losing the '99%' 2012-05-18

  Losing the "99%" written by Walter Brasch Eliminating the ‚Äò99%' Can Lead to a Better Message for Social Justice by WALTER BRASCH It's time to retire the 99 percent. Not the people, but the slogan that identifies the Occupy Movement. | "We're the 99 percent"  slogan focused upon two completely different groups of people. | The 99 percent are the masses, the impoverished, the disenfranchised, the middle class...

• OpEdNews: If Only it Were 99 Percent, or Even 80 Percent, Versus the Rich 2012-05-18

  Yes, statistically the upper one percent of the population or perhaps more realistically twenty percent (still a huge wealth gap)--stand in sharp contrast to the lower eighty percent of the population which share only fifteen percent of the national wealth, have fewer resources and thus less power than the rich.  They should be fighting back. But they aren't. Many of the eighty percent in the middle and low-income...

• The Indypendent: The New Military Urbanism in NATO-Occupied Chicago 2012-05-18

  One among the many weapons of this "new military urbanism" is the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) - a type of high-tech "sonic cannon" developed by "defense" corporations in league with the military and local law enforcement. It emits a focused beam of sound or ultrasound that "incapacitates enemies" by disrupting and potentially destroying eardrums, causing severe pain and disorientation.

• The Root: The Supreme Court: Weaponizing 'Brown v. Board of Ed'? 2012-05-18

  Doug Kendall, founder and president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, writes at the Huffington Post that the current legal battle over race-conscious measures is moving us farther away from achieving the promise of the landmark case.

• OpEdNews : Eliminating the "99%' Can Lead to a Better Message for Social Justice 2012-05-18

  It's time to retire the 99 percent. | Not the people, but the slogan that identifies the Occupy Movement. | "We're the 99 percent" slogan focused upon two completely different groups of people. The 99 percent are the masses, the impoverished, the disenfranchised, the middle class; the 1 percent refers to the concentration of wealth in the top one percent of the population and in the dominance of large corporate and global...