What Obama Should Learn From Wisconsin | | AlterNet

What Obama Should Learn From Wisconsin | | AlterNet

The Shocking Pattern of Obama Repeating Some of the Worst of George W. Bush | | AlterNet

The Shocking Pattern of Obama Repeating Some of the Worst of George W. Bush | | AlterNet

Judge halts Douglas County school voucher program - The Denver Post

from the Denver Post, August 13, 2011:

"The court correctly recognized that it is unconstitutional for the state to underwrite a child's religious education," said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado. "Families who wish to send their children to a private school may do so, but not with government funds that may only be used to provide a free public education for Colorado's children."

Click on this link to read the full 68-page opinion of Judge Martinez

Study: CIA drones strikes have killed 168 children

Study: CIA drones strikes have killed 168 children

Romney Care: Good Idea; Obamacare: Bad Idea

More tax revenue: Good for Massachusetts
More tax revenue: Bad for the U.S.A.
Through the looking glass with Mitt Romney:
credit to Politico.com, August 11, 2011:

REALITY CHECK -- "Taxes key to Mitt's '04 pitch to S&P," by Ben Smith: "Gov. Mitt Romney lobbied the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's in 2004 to raise his state's credit rating in part because Massachusetts had raised taxes during an economic downturn two years earlier. The claim was part of a presentation to the ratings agency obtained by POLITICO under a state freedom of information law ... 'When I was governor, S&P rewarded Massachusetts with a credit rating upgrade for our sound fiscal management and the underlying strength of our economy,' Romney boasted [after last week's U.S. S&P downgrade]. ... But Romney's case to S&P [for Mass. in '04]... bears a far closer resemblance to the right-of-center grand compromise rejected by House Republicans this year ...

"Romney's administration made the case to Standard & Poor's that his state was creditworthy because of both spending cuts ... and new revenues, including fees he imposed and tax 'loopholes' he closed. ... Romney's aides, asked about the presentation, pointed out that Romney, once he took office as governor in 2003, never signed a tax increase, but instead passed on most of the fruits of an economic boom to taxpayers in the form of tax cuts." Story includes links to Romney's 2004 deck, split in five parts http://bit.ly/qKIn0c

Scifri Videos: Where's The Octopus?

Scifri Videos: Where's The Octopus?

US judge allows American to sue Rumsfeld over torture

Couldn't happen to a nicer war-monger, Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Bush (#43) and Cheney should be added as co-defendants.

This Company Needs a New Business Model!

from http://www.truth-out.org/ August 3, 2011:

The world power companies are winning.

Let's imagine a company, say a global corporation like Wal-Mart.

Let's suppose that this behemoth retailer sells - among other consumer goods manufactured outside of the US - shirts made in China to unemployed textile workers in North Carolina whose factories were closed and whose jobs were moved overseas. After all, they can only afford to shop at this retailer because the prices are cheap, even though they are committing self-cannibalization by buying goods that they used to get paid to make, but now are made in foreign lands at great profit to the retailer.

Let's suppose that this retailer - again like Wal-Mart - has been showing flat sales at its stores open more than one year in America (the financial measurement of success for retailers) because consumer demand has stagnated due to unemployment and low wages. As a result, this global colossus of wealth accelerates its opening of stores around the world, where there is more opportunity for increasing sales and profits. It sees its future not in the United States, but abroad.

Let's suppose that this retailer pays minimum wage and relies on government subsidies for Medicaid for its workers in some states and even food stamps and other federal and state programs. Let's say this company also gets tax breaks and other incentives from local governments to open stores, at the taxpayer's expense.

Let's suppose that this corporation is among the wealthiest in the world, but employs a team of union busters to ensure that many of its employees are paid the lowest possible legal wages in the United States.

Let's suppose that the family that owns this retailer - again like Wal-Mart - benefits from tax cuts for the rich that could significantly help balance the budget - and the members of this family are among the wealthiest in the world.

Let's suppose that, due to campaign contributions to politicians and to its own virtual state department to nations such as China and India, this corporation's loyalties are to its own enrichment and not to the best interests of the United States or its workers.

Let's suppose that this company is not like Wal-Mart, but is Wal-Mart.

Because it is.

Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout