Fri May 24 2013

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National Issues : Recent Articles

Child poverty is the real scandal
by Rev. Jesse Jackson
Washington is descending into another silly season. Let’s end this diversion of dust and smoke as partisans hype mock “scandals” for political profit.
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Death penalty dying out
by David Swanson
Most of the world's governments no longer use the death penalty. Among wealthy nations there is one exception remaining. The United States is among the top five killers in the world. Also in the top five: the recently "liberated" Iraq.
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Why we allow the destruction of our planet
by David Swanson
It's not enough to point out that our political system is completely corrupted by money, including money from coal and oil and nukes and gas. Of course it is. And if we had direct democracy, polls suggest we would be investing in green energy. But saying the right thing to a pollster on a phone or in a focus group is hardly the extent of what one ought sensibly to do when the fate of the world is at stake.
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Obama in Plunderland: Down the Corporate Rabbit Hole
by Norman Solomon
The president’s new choices for Commerce secretary and FCC chair underscore how far down the rabbit hole his populist conceits have tumbled. Yet the Obama rhetoric about standing up for working people against “special interests” is as profuse as ever. Would you care for a spot of Kool-Aid at the Mad Hatter’s tea party?
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Don’t Vent, Organize -- And “Primary” a Democrat Near You
by Norman Solomon
Progressives often wonder why so many Republican lawmakers stick to their avowed principles while so many Democratic lawmakers abandon theirs. We can grasp some answers by assessing the current nationwide drive called “Primary My Congressman” -- a case study of how right-wing forces gain ground in electoral terrain where progressives fear to tread.
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Bank bailout recipient sends foreclosed food to landfill under sheriff's guard
by Gerry Bello
March 23, 2013 was a chilly day in Augusta, Georgia, when hundreds of families gathered to claim free food from a local supermarket that had been foreclosed. What greeted the hungry people of this neighborhood instead was a line of sheriff's deputies and barricades around the store's entire stock. Local charities had declined to pick up the food, diapers, tolietries, and clothing. Under instruction from the bank, Sun Trust, sheriffs deputies supervised as all the food was put into a dumpster while hungry families watched in horror and disbelief.
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North Carolinians will be arrested today
by Jennifer Farmer
(Durham, North Carolina) – In the face of unprecedented and far reaching attacks on North Carolinians ability to vote, go to school and properly care for their families, the North Carolina NAACP State Conference held a national media conference call at 3:00 pm to discuss a nonviolent civil disobedience “pray-in” at the North Carolina General Assembly later today. Leaders say the “pray-in” is the first of many nonviolent direct actions in the state where leaders will be arrested and jailed.
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South Side isn’t ready for health emergencies
by Jesse Jackson
As this is written, everyone wounded in the terror bombings at the Boston Marathon has survived his or her wounds. This remarkable testament to effective medical response stems largely from Boston’s exceptional health-care capacity.
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A tale of two tragedies
by Mike Ferner
On April 15, 29 year-old Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, 23 and Martin Richard, 8, left home to watch runners cross the finish line in the Boston Marathon. They and their families thought they would return that day as always. But they never did. As the world now knows, Krystle, Lu and Martin were killed and 170 other people were shattered by bombs that day.
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Reparations in order for 1963 bombing
by Rev. Jesse Jackson
It was terror that shook the nation. On Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, a bomb exploded in the basement of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. Four little girls, all dressed in white — 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, and 11-year-old Denise McNair — died in the explosion, and are remembered in history.
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