Truthout 22 July 2011

William Rivers Pitt | Murdoch in the Morning, Part II: Watching Fox
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "I did a running diary of the Fox News coverage of the Murdoch hearings in Britain on Tuesday, and thought it would be a fine idea to watch Fox for a few hours on Thursday to see how often they talked about that testimony, as well as the whole phone-hacking scandal. I decided to recreate a 'Watching Fox' running diary I did ten years ago. Ugh. What follows is a blow-by-blow breakdown of my Thursday with Fox News. I lasted as long as I could, and I'm not doing it again for another ten years."
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Richard D. Wolff | In Economic Crisis, Capitalism Delivers the Bads
Richard D. Wolff, Truthout: "Throughout its history, capitalism never succeeded in preventing recurring economic cycles or crises. However, they were usually contained within the system. Economic crises usually did not become social crises; the system itself was usually not called into question. Transition to a different system was then an idea kept away from public discussion, a project kept from public action. During cyclical downturns, production was reduced, unemployment and bankruptcies rose, deflation often hit and hurt, and mass working-class suffering spread."
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Simon Johnson | Defaulting to Big Government
Simon Johnson, Project Syndicate: "Leading United States congressmen are determined to provoke a showdown with the Obama administration over the federal government's debt ceiling. Ordinarily, you might expect House Republicans to blink at this stage of the negotiations, but there is a hardline minority that actually appears to think that defaulting on government debt would not be a bad thing. These representatives - with whom I've interacted at three congressional hearings recently - are convinced that the US federal government is too big relative to the economy, and that drastic measures are needed to bring it under control."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Department of Justice Ready to Subpoena News Corp., and More
In today's On the News segment: Department of Justice ready to subpoena News Corp., Republicans using fake debt crisis to destroy FDR's New Deal, GOP pushing hike in cost of student loans, Drug Enforcement Administration refuses to reclassify medical marijuana, Defense Department to certify repeal of don't ask, don't tell, and more.
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Seven Dead in Oslo From Blasts and Gun Attack
Elisa Mala and J. David Goodman, The New York Times News Service: "Powerful explosions shook central Oslo on Friday afternoon, blowing out the windows of several government buildings, including one housing the office of the Norwegian prime minister. The state television broadcaster, citing the police, said seven people were killed and at least 15 injured; a spokeswoman for the prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said he was 'safe and not hurt.'"
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Gang of Six Plan Would Raise Taxes on Low-Income Workers
Daniel Marans, The Campaign for America's Future: "The chained Consumer Price Index (CPI), a provision included in the Gang of Six's deficit reduction package, raises taxes on low- and moderate-income workers, according to a recent report by the Joint Committee on Taxation. This belies the claim that the harm done to the middle class by the chained CPI's benefit cuts would be partly off-set by the revenues it would generate."
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Murdoch Testimony on Hacking Comes Under New Scrutiny
Jo Becker and Don Van Natta Jr., The New York Times News Service: "Testimony by James Murdoch about Britain's phone hacking scandal came under renewed scrutiny on Friday with Prime Minister David Cameron saying that Mr. Murdoch still had 'questions to answer' and a lawmaker calling for the police to open a new inquiry. The pressure on Mr. Murdoch built a day after two former executives of News International - the British subsidiary of the News Corporation - publicly contradicted evidence he gave on Tuesday to a parliamentary panel seeking to untangle the story of phone hacking at the now defunct Murdoch tabloid The News of the World."
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Local Energy, National Breakthroughs: An Interview With Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change
Amy Dean, Truthout: "Based in Washington, DC, [Center for Community Change] describes itself as an organization that, 'strengthens, connects and mobilizes grassroots groups to enhance their leadership, voice and power.' As a national group that works with community organizations throughout the country, CCC is helping to conceive what the next generation of 'intermediary organizations' will look like - how we can create national groups that unite disparate local efforts, expand the capacities of member organizations and channel the work going on at the regional level into a coherent national agenda. I spoke with Bhargava this week to examine some of the concrete challenges he faces in this work."
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Indigenous Groups Challenge Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination
Jason Coppola, Truthout: "Margarita Gutierrez Romero is the president of the State Coordinator of Indigenous Women Organizations in Chiapas, Mexico. In New York City to participate in the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), Romero told us, 'Indigenous peoples are being permanently alienated from our being. We are being stripped, ripped off, and plundered of our values, our spirituality, our spirits, even of our gods,' she said. Romero was speaking at a side event about the root of the problems affecting her people - the dehumanization caused by the 'Doctrine of Christian Discovery.'"
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The Real War on Drugs: Veteran Border Journalist Charles Bowden Speaks
David Zlutnick, Truthout: "Charles Bowden is an author and journalist whose work has largely focused on the US/Mexico Border region. His writing has especially centered on the Mexican drug war and Ciudad Juarez, the border city known as the epicenter of Mexican drug violence. Bowden sat down for a video interview with me while in San Francisco for a speaking engagement. In his responses he argues the extreme violence seen in Mexico is a sign of a deeper societal disintegration resulting from governmental corruption, failed economic policies and the war on drugs."
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Jeremy Scahill: Behind the CIA's Secret Somalia Operations (Video)
Keith Olbermann talks with Jeremy Scahill of The Nation, also a "Countdown" contributor, about a secret CIA site in Somalia that trains Somali agents in counterterrorism efforts against a militant Islamic group.
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BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

BuzzFlash read this headline and thought that it was refreshing that God was becoming more selective in his/her choice of Republican candidates for president: "God Urges Rick Perry Not To Run For President."

Except that it was from the satirical web site, The Onion.

Thus far, among the GOP primary candidates for the White House, we have been led to believe that God has indicated to just about all of them that they should run.

This rather promiscuous urging of several Republican candidates to run - based on their claims that God is backing them - leads one to believe that the GOP aspirants are either lying or God likes a good political donnybrook.

Back in the '60s, Bob Dylan understood the hypocritical power to do evil simply by claiming that God is on your side:

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

After invoking all the wars America has engaged in with "God on its side," Dylan wonders whether the great betrayer of Christ also had "God on his side."

That's something to think about when evaluating candidates who claim that they have been divinely chosen to run.

Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

Jobless Rates Jump in 28 US States in June
Read the Article at Reuters

Drop in Liberal Support Pushes Obama Approval Rating Down to 45 Percent
Read the Article at CNN

How Murdoch's Empire Suffocates the Craft of Journalism
Read the Article at In These Times

Alan Grayson Tells It Like It Is
Read the Article at Truthdig.com

Climate Change "Threatens Peace," UN Official Warns
Read the Article at The BBC

Paul Krugman: The Lesser Depression
Read the Article at The New York Times

Justice Department Prepares Subpoenas in News Corp. Inquiry
Read the Article at The Wall Street Journal

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