Article: Obama in Wonderland - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Obama in Wonderland - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/15/assassinations/index.html

The U.S. has perpetrated "a record number" of drone attacks in flood-suffering Pakistan this month, targeting the Haqqani network.  Juan Cole notes the irony:  "Jalaluddin Haqqani is one of Ronald Reagan's 'Freedom Fighters,' who battled the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan in the 1980s with American aid. He could not accept the US invasion and occupation of his country, either, and organized an insurgency now mainly led by his son Siraj."

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Article: Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

Time Magazine has a lengthy new article examining — and largely deriding — the intensifying fight over net neutrality.  Just as was true for prior articles on this topic, Time does so without bothering to mention that the corporation which owns it, Time Warner Inc., is vehemently opposed to net neutrality and is pressuring the FCC to refrain from enforcing its principles.  

(via Instapaper)

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Article: Economists are making the case politicians are afraid to: Immigration is great for the U.S. - By James Ledbetter - Slate Magazine

Economists are making the case politicians are afraid to: Immigration is great for the U.S. - By James Ledbetter - Slate Magazine
http://www.slate.com/id/2265974/?from=rss

Article: Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape' - Telegraph

Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape' - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5395830/Abu-Ghraib-abuse-photos-show-rape.html

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

(via Instapaper)

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Article: US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies' | World news | The Guardian

US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies' | World news | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/09/us-soldiers-afghan-civilians-fingers

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

(via Instapaper)

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Article: Obama wins the right to invoke "State Secrets" to protect Bush crimes - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Obama wins the right to invoke "State Secrets" to protect Bush crimes - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/08/obama/index.html

a degree of continuity that has departed from the expectations fostered by President Obama's campaign rhetoric, which was often sharply critical of President Bush's approach.

Among other policies, the Obama team has also placed a United States citizen on a targeted-killings list without a trial, blocked efforts by detainees in Afghanistan to bring habeas-corpus lawsuits challenging their indefinite imprisonment, and continued the C.I.A. rendition program … .

(via Instapaper)

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Article: Obama wins the right to invoke "State Secrets" to protect Bush crimes - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Obama wins the right to invoke "State Secrets" to protect Bush crimes - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/09/08/obama/index.html

This is a sad day not only for the torture victims whose attempt to seek justice has been extinguished, but for all Americans who care about the rule of law and our nation's reputation in the world. To date, not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture program has had his day in court. If today's decision is allowed to stand, the United States will have closed its courtroom doors to torture victims while providing complete immunity to their torturers. The torture architects and their enablers may have escaped the judgment of this court, but they will not escape the judgment of history.

(via Instapaper)

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Huffington Post: Whistleblower: U.S. Interpreters In Afghanistan Can't Speak Afghan Languages

"More than one quarter of the translators working alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan failed language proficiency exams but were sent onto the battlefield anyway, according to a former employee of the company that holds contracts worth up to $1.4 billion to supply interpreters to the U.S. Army."

 

		Whistleblower: U.S. Interpreters In Afghanistan Can't Speak Afghan Languages

Huffington Post: Obama Refuses To Say He'd Veto Extension Of Bush Tax Cuts For Wealthy

  "the president was asked on four occasions whether his commitment to letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire was strong enough to veto even a "short term extension." On each occasion, Obama demurred."

		Obama Refuses To Say He'd Veto Extension Of Bush Tax Cuts For Wealthy
	President Obama on Thursday refused to commit himself to vetoing legislation that would temporarily extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, even as he...

  

Article: ITV - John Pilger - Flying the flag, faking the news

ITV - John Pilger - Flying the flag, faking the news
http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=586

At least 50,000 troops will continue to operate from 94 bases. American air assaults are unchanged, as are special forces' assassinations. The number of "military contractors" is currently 100,000 and rising. Most Iraqi oil is now under direct foreign control.

(via Instapaper)

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Article: Anti-Safety Net Candidate Sharron Angle Is Living Off Her Husband’s Federal Pension « Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Anti-Safety Net Candidate Sharron Angle Is Living Off Her Husband's Federal Pension « Alan Colmes' Liberaland
http://www.alan.com/2010/09/04/anti-safety-net-candidate-sharron-angle-is-living-off-her-husbands-federal-pension/

she wants to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and practically the entire social safety net, except when it applies to her. Angle has no job of her own at the moment and is living off her husband Ted Angle's federal pension.

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Article: Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography | The Upshot Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News

Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography | The Upshot Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100903/us_yblog_upshot/pentagon-declined-to-investigate-hundreds-of-purchases-of-child-pornography

A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department — including some with the highest available security clearance — who  used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show.

(via Instapaper)

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Article: Daily Kos: Lay off more workers, rake in more bucks

Daily Kos: Lay off more workers, rake in more bucks
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/9/2/898355/-Lay-off-more-workers,-rake-in-more-bucks?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

Corporate executives, in reality, are not suffering at all. Their pay, to be sure, dipped on average in 2009 from 2008 levels, just as their pay in 2008, the first Great Recession year, dipped somewhat from 2007. But executive pay overall remains far above inflationadjusted levels of years past. In fact, after adjusting for inflation, CEO pay in 2009 more than doubled the CEO pay average for the decade of the 1990s, more than quadrupled the CEO pay average for the 1980s, and ran approximately eight times the CEO average for all the decades of the mid-20th century.

American workers, by contrast, are taking home less in real weekly wages than they took home in the 1970s. Back in those years, precious few top executives made over 30 times what their workers made. In 2009, we calculate in the 17th annual Executive Excess, CEOs of major U.S. corporations averaged 263 times the average compensation of American workers. CEOs are clearly not hurting.