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Interesting day yesterday. Sean Hannity mentioned Opednews.com. Rush Limbaugh was on the defense, responding this article we published on Sunday.
The article I co-authored with Gustav Wynn tells you more about it than you'll find anywhere else on the web.
Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck Respond To Report That Parent Company Hires Actors for Call-ins
What do you care about? I ask because I'll bet that Opednews.com covers it, probably better than most of the rest of the media.
We need YOUR support to make our monthly nut. Please kick in what you can. We're off to a very weak start th is month and your help is seessential.
Click here to donate to OpEdNews.com today.
Thanks,
rob kall
 Latest Headlines
By Gustav Wynn
Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck Respond To Report That Parent Company Hires Actors for Call-ins
On Sunday, the article "Limbaugh/Hannity Parent Company Admits Hiring Actors to Call Radio Shows" generated an explosive response on Twitter, in the blogosphere and from Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck on their respective radio shows. By Debra Sweet
Nakedness, Justice and Bradley Manning  On March 2, the U.S. military announced 22 more charges against Bradley Manning, the accused Army Private imprisoned in solitary confinement since May 2010. One of the new charges, "aiding the enemy," is potentially punishable with death. This a most outrageous development, echoing the months of right-wingers screaming for his death. View the charges. Word comes that Brad is now held naked overnight, and forced to stand at a By Mac McKinney
Gaddafi Pulling a Fallujah on Zawiya: Tanks and Planes Reportedly Hammering Everything  From both the BBC and the Guardian UK: Gaddafi has launched a ruthless assault on rebel-held Zawiya, according to eyewitnesses, with one saying it had been reduced to ashes. By Andrew Schmookler
Interpreting the Beck Card in the Republican Deck  Beck is one instrument in the overall Right-wing band. He brings in the crazy, primitive fears to prime the audience for the more sane fear-mongering propagandists. He primes people for fear and hate the way a Halloween teller of frightful tales makes people afraid of shadows, afraid to look under their beds. By Michael Moore
How I Got to Madison, Wisconsin  I can't express enough the level of admiration I have for the people of Wisconsin who, for three weeks, have braved the brutal winter cold and taken over their state Capitol. All told, literally hundreds of thousands of people have made their way to Madison to make their voices heard. By Richard (RJ) Eskow
Contempt
Republicans are making their contempt for the American people as clear as they know how to make it. By Jerry Cope
NASA Data Strengthens Reports of Toxic Rain on the Gulf Coast From BP Spill  Government data collected during the oil spill last summer, which is now being released by one of the scientists on the NASA team, strengthens claims that oil and dispersant was brought onshore in rain during the spill. This means, if validated, that coastal populations are being exposed to chemical poisoning. By Kevin Zeese
Bradley Manning Is Punished for Seeking a More Perfect Union
Bradley Manning is accused of leaking documents that described serious flaws in U.S. foreign policy in an effort to start a debate that would lead to a more perfect union. This patriotism for America has resulted in him being denied due process and treated inhumanely -- virtual solitary confinement for ten months and now forced nudity. The actions of the government are inconsistent with the rhetoric of President Oba By Michael Collins
Libya, Gas Prices, and the Big Payday at Your Expense
Doing nothing, like Congress, and trying to manipulate market forces, as the president says he might, are not the heavy-hitters needed to stop this latest rip off. They both buy into the belief that there is some sort of occult mystery to why prices are going up. Everyone who benefits will raise prices because they can. By Judith Acosta
Parents as Authorities?
Why are parents so reluctant to be parents? What has happened in our culture and in our families that we are more worried about whether our kids like us than whether we properly prepare them for a life that is almost always challenging and sometimes damned unfair. By June Terpstra, Ph. D.
Reflections on International Women's Day, 2011
Journeys in activism. By Tim Hjersted
Raising Awareness: Why We Shouldn't Take It For Granted  A dangerous thing can occur when you start learning about what's really going on in the world. The problems start to seem so complex, and you're just one person, doubts begin to creep in. You sincerely want to help change the world, but from all this knowledge you start to believe that the world is too out of control and too big to change, so you end up not doing anything. By Kathy Leonardo
Contemporary Painter, Sona Mirzaei Returns from the Elephant Parade in Copenhagen!  The Elephant Parade is an open air art exhibition of 100 fiberglass elephant statues painted by 100 artists. In the past century Asian elephant populations have plummeted from over 250,000 to less than 35,000. The increase of human population coupled with the loss of more rain forests each year has had a dramatic impact on the numbers of elephants in Asia. By Olga Bonfiglio
Mardi Gras Reflection: Food's Impact on Re-Building New Orleans  In an odd sort of way, Hurricane Katrina helped to make New Orleans an incredible laboratory not only for understanding the role and importance of a city's food system but for recognizing the importance of food as an essential tool for community building. By David Glenn Cox
Two Visions  Can Capitalism be saved from itself? Will the phoenix rise from its own ashes again only to circle again above the injured looking for to select more innocent victims? With rumors of benevolence, whispers of appetite with the bared teeth of a carnivore. By Abdul-Majid Jaffry
Egyptian Revolution is Not Over Yet, it Just Begun
The mighty tower of power occupied by Hosni Mubarak may have crumbled, however, the question remains, would a new edifice based on the people's will be erected on the ruins of the old order or just a façade wall will be raised to cover the former. Would the U.S., a de facto power player in the region, allow fair and transparent elections that could replace the subservient regime with the independent minded democratic forces By Kathy Malloy
Another Brick in the Wall  What will be the eventual outcome in Wisconsin, will the forces of good defeat Governor Scott Walker and the Teabagger crazies who -- inexplicably -- protest labor rights, teachers, and middle-class values? The pressure is mounting on Wisconsin State Democrats to fold to Walker's threats; to wave pink slips over the broken backs of beleaguered state employees, and just pass his union-busting budget and get on with it. By David Swanson
You Might Be a Transpartisan If . . .
Transpartisan: an American interested in introducing humanity and complexity (and civics lessons) into political communications by working around the corporate media. By Roger Shuler
America Continues To Pay An Enormous Price For The Reagan Revolution  The Reagan myth is chipping away at America's soul--and its future. By Kevin Gosztola
Amn Dawla Leaks Reveals Gamal Mubarak, Egypt State Security Behind Sharm el-Sheikh Bombings  Egyptians stormed Amn Dawla, a State Security building in Nasr City, over the weekend. Protesters were aware that security was burning, shredding and destroying documents that might incriminate State Security officials in any future investigations or pursuits of accountability in the aftermath of the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak. They entered the building, started taking photos and video and took some of the documents. By Tom Engelhardt
Tomgram: James Carroll, Where Did All the Fatwas Go?
This is a new look -- as only Carroll could offer it -- at the way our vision of Arabs, the Arab world, and Islam has been turned upside down. In these last two months, he asks, where were the fatwas? Where were the violent jihadists ready to slaughter innocents? By Stephen Lendman
Wisconsin Democrats Plan Capitulation
Union bosses and Democrats plan to sell out rank and file workers. Latest Articles
Why the Democrats Should Never Have Started Paying Ransom to Avoid a Shutdown
Compromising over budget cuts this year isn't just unfair in terms of who will be hurt the most. It also compromises the fragile recovery, and puts the entire economy at risk. The White House should never have started paying ransom. Once ransom starts, there's no end to it. Memories from EL GALEON DE MANILA (Part 2) --Filipinos in late 19th Century Breaking with European History & Language
This is the 2nd article on Filipino history and identity. The first one focused on the Mexican and Filipino historical connection. This one looks at three main concepts used to define Filipino identity into modern times. JUMPSTARTING A VIBRANT & STABLE ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES
This articles deal some of the economic problems in the United States and provides solutions. Mother Machree  Among the very most favorite songs of Irish singers (especially tenors) is the 1910 song, Mother Machree. It, like many other popular songs, was written for a theatrical production; in this case, one with the title: Barry of Baltimore. This is a type of song that allowed a wide range of emotions which (today) might be termed maudlinness. This is not meant to detract from its sincerity. (Cynics were fewer in the earlier years. Another Life Focuses This One
Brilliant and humane playwright Karen Malpede has produced another play that grabs this country by the lapels, shakes it, caresses its cheek, and kicks its ass. The play is called "Another Life" and the life it leaves me thinking about is the life of our dreams. By Press Release
Video Alleges Libya Army Executions  Gaddafi will murder as many protesters as he can to cling to absolute power and crush truth any way he can to maintain the fiction that he is entitled to this despotic power. Meanwhile, his propaganda efforts are now being echoed by strange bedfellows on the Left who are so anti-American that they will back any dictator who jerks their anti-Imperialist chains. But the truth keeps leaking out about Gaddafi anyway. CNBC Advocates Unbridled Capitalism
Reagan's anti-government mantra became the dominant message of the era amplified by a growing right-wing media that propagandized the public. Over the next three decades, propelled by Reagan's strategy of massive tax cuts for the rich and hostility to unions, the rich got richer, while the poor and middle class stagnated, struggled and sank. Republican Right Has Long History of Conflict With Labor Unions
Conflicts between the Republican right and the labor movement have occurred frequently in American history. The Bourne Ultimatum and What the World is Wanting (Looking for) from America
President Obama continues to permit assasination units target both Non-American and Americans around the globe. The director of the Bourne Ultimatum got it right. The world is tiring of this sort of American super-patriot garbage. Viewers around the world expect such junk in action films but not as official USA foreign policy. I too, as an American, am against these rogue elements having sanction from America. Aren't U? Dr. King Spanks Obama: Part 5
Dr. King's views seem perhaps more applicable now, than ever before, as the first black President of the United States leaves Americans of every color to fend for themselves in a deep national crisis of education, employment, rights and housing. In stark contrast, here are some examples of what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had to say about the most pressing issues of our time. By Preston James
BIG GOVERNMENT SECRETS AREN'T REALLY SECRET*  Big Government Secrets can be conceals by several techniques. Most are simply too difficult for most of the public to understand -- on the order of Hitler's "big lies". Others, however, can be cloaked by the use of National Security Letters or, more chillingly, by National Security Signed Findings, which deprive the recipient of even the most basic legal rights. They demonstrate the US is no longer a Constitutional republic. Letting go of our convenience ethic
Article discusses how our daily reliance on convenience contributes to environment degradation. Jackson Browne has recently written a song about plastic in the oceans--it is a call to action THERE ARE NO GOOD OUTCOMES  There are no good outcomes, only bad, really bad, and catastrophic. Take your pick. Could gas prices drop below $3.00 per gallon if the world sinks back into recession? Yes. But it would only be momentary. The easy to access supply is dwindling. The medium and long term direction of gas at the pump is up. There is nothing that can be done in the next five years to prevent significantly higher oil prices. Murder Most Foul
The murder of the only Christian government minister is discussed. The need for Muslims to to save the essence of Islam is emphasized Has the Lebanon Tribunal drama become farce?
It appears that any pretense of progress via dialogue over the past few years is now discarded and it's once again an all-out struggle between the U.S. backed March 14th minority and the new majority, March 8th alliance. Fracking Democracy
Industrial horizontal drilling with massive slick water hydraulic fracturing (known as "fracking") poses tremendous risks to our communities. But the threats are more than physical and environmental. They're political. Industrial drilling for natural gas is fracturing the very bedrock of what's left of our democracy at the local level based on current laws. Fearing spill over of Bahrain riots Saudis release Shiite cleric
Amid mounting unrest in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Shiite majority province and elsewhere in the kingdom, the Saudi authorities Sunday released a prominent Shiite cleric, Sheikh Tawfiq Al-Amer, who was detained on 27 February after a call for a constitutional monarchy. Wall Street Says "Buy Krona not Dollars"
Wall Street loves Sweden's strong currency. Change Is Coming; Get Used To Your New "Normalized" Lifestyle  Remember that lifestyle that we all enjoyed back in the year 2000. Remember it with fondness because it's gone and it's not coming back. Welcome to a new, "normalized" lifestyle that will be yours into the foreseeable future. This society, long caught up in the grip of hyper-materialism, went too far, too fast and now that bubble has burst. Dramatic changes to our lifestyles are coming. This Time We're Taking the Whole Planet With Us
Globalization is the modern articulation of the ancient ideology used by past elites to turn citizens into serfs and the natural world into a wasteland for profit. Nothing to these elites is sacred. Human beings and the natural world are exploited until exhaustion or collapse. A Manifesto for the Impending Second American Revolution
A cogent argument for a peaceful second American revolution. 5 things that EVERY TAXPAYER IN AMERICA NEEDS TO COMPREHEND
Governor, today liberals are demonstrating all over the country in what CBS has called a liberal version of the Tea Party. Their main complaint is that a lot of corporations aren't paying their fair share. For example, Bank of America in 2009 paid nothing in corporate income taxes. With Ever Growing Productivity, Why Must We Keep Working 40-50 Hours a Week For So Many Years of Our Life?
There are other kinds of wealth besides those that have to do with the maximized consumption of resources, fuel, & consumer goods. In a famous essay, Bertrand Russell explained it something like this: Modern industrial techniques have made it possible to diminish enormously the amount of labor required to secure the necessities of life for everyone. This was obvious as far back as World War II & is more true today than ever. 100 Revelations to Mark the 100th Day of Cablegate  One hundred days ago, WikiLeaks began to release the US State Embassy cables. The release event, which continues, became known as Cablegate. Obama plays the Audience and Ignores Realities
President Obama plays the Jewish crowd and ignores the realities in the Middle East. Local Food Ordinance Passed in Maine Town
Sedgwick, Maine, a small coastal town in Maine, voted to adapt a local food and self-governance ordinance, setting a precedent for other towns in Maine and across the country. Could this be the beginning of more localized rule and the lessening of the rule of large corporations that fund our governments in order to control our lives for their benefit? LOCKERBIE DIARY: GADHAFFI, FALL GUY FOR CIA DRUG RUNNING
Former Asset, Susan Lindauer explains the CIA's involvement in heroin trafficking in Lebanon during the 1980s hostage crisis, and how efforts to block a federal investigation resulted in the bombing of Pan Am 103, otherwise known as the Lockerbie bombing. Beck's BS Book "Broke"
Beck's BS Book "Broke," A Partisan Polemical Refudiatin' Review  Best News Links from the Web
Ezra Klein - Senate Democrats weigh making big mistake on health-care reform
Small businesses manage to avoid paying taxes on a lot of small transactions. The 1099 provision would've forced them to report those transactions, raising about $20 billion over 10 years. But it would've require a lot of paperwork. So much paperwork, in fact, that Democrats agreed to repeal it. The Senate should stick with the 1099 repeal that the Senate has passed. 'US aims to drown ME protests in blood'
The daily Independent reports the United States' secret plan to arm Libyan rebels with Saudi arms. Saudis are air-lifting weapons to Benghazi, because what is at stake of course for the US in its intervention with Libya is to cease control of the popular uprising and to demonize their most recent client, Muammar Gaddafi. Bob Herbert: Flailing After Muslims  To focus an investigative spotlight on an entire religious or ethnic community is a violation of everything America is supposed to stand for. But that does not seem to concern Mr. King. "The threat is coming from the Muslim community," he told The Times. "The radicalization attempts are directed at the Muslim community. Why should I investigate other communities?" Peter King's Obsession
Not much spreads fear and bigotry faster than a public official intent on playing the politics of division. On Thursday, Representative Peter King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is scheduled to open a series of hearings that seem designed to stoke fear against American Muslims. His refusal to tone down the provocation despite widespread opposition suggests that he is far more interested in exploiting ethnic misunderstanding than in trying to heal it. Republicans in Iowa: Likely Republican presidential candidates praise God, criticize Obama  Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, delivered one of numerous condemnations of President Obama and the secular tilt that he and others blamed on the country's fraying morality. "We need to be a country that turns toward God," he said. "Not a country that turns away from God." Eugene Robinson - Stoking irrational fears about Islam  King seems untroubled that the freedoms of religion and association are guaranteed by the Constitution. His public exercise in Islamophobia, scheduled to begin Thursday, can do no good - and much harm. King casts doubt on the loyalties of millions of Americans solely because of their faith. This is religious persecution - and it's un-American and wrong. Israel fares poorly in eyes of world, poll shows
A new BBC poll of people in 27 countries has found strikingly negative attitudes toward Israel, placing it in company with three other countries viewed unfavorably: Iran, North Korea and the United States. Scott Walker Believes He's Following Orders from the Lord  Walker said that God has told him what to do every step of the way, including about what jobs to take, whom to marry, and when to run for governor. Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said, "It is frightening that the highest executive in our state suffers from the delusion that God dictates his every move. Consider the personal and historic devastation inflicted by fanatics who think they are acting in the name of their deity." Wikileaks shows American Muscle Subverting International Law
These cables released by Wikileaks are making a stir in Europe, but reporting in the US is scattered. American undercover agents are abducting foreigners, torturing innocents, "disappearing" people without due process. When foreign governments seek to prosecute this behavior, our government is using pressure through diplomatic channels to protect their agents and subvert the law. America's secret plan to arm Libya's rebels
Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a "day of rage" from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington's highly classified request. Why employee pensions aren't bankrupting states
There's simply no evidence that state pensions are the current burden to public finances that their critics claim. ronically, in Wisconsin, where Republican Gov. Scott Walker is trying to weaken public-sector unions and reduce pension benefits, he's exempted police and firefighters, who are among the most unionized public employees. And Wisconsin's public-sector pension plan still has enough assets today to cover more than 18 years of benefits. America's much abused moral authority  President Obama recently warned Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi that the brutality inflicted on his own citizens was "outrageous and it is unacceptable", saying it violates "international norms and every standard of common decency". He said those responsible "must be held accountable." If President Obama is sincere about standing up for fundamental values, then America's actions must live up to its rhetoric. Egyptian Prime Minister Appoints New Cabinet  Egypt's interim prime minister appointed a new caretaker cabinet on Sunday, answering a public demand to eliminate most ministers with links to former President Hosni Mubarak, even as protesters nationwide continued to try to storm the offices of hated institutions. U.S., allies set to begin Afghanistan troop drawdown in July - latimes.com  After meeting Karzai at the presidential palace, Gates offered a personal apology for the deaths last week of nine Afghan boys in an American airstrike. "This breaks our heart," Gates said at a palace news conference with Karzai next to him. "Not only is their loss a tragedy for their families, it is a setback for our relationship with the Afghan people whose security is our chief concern." Civil War Intensifies as Gaddafi Employs More Heavy Ordnance, Tanks and Jets  RAS LANUF, Libya -- Forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi pounded opposition fighters with airstrikes, artillery and rockets Monday in a battle for control of the key eastern oil port of Ras Lanuf -- a bid to stop the rebels' rapid advance toward the capital. In Ras Lanuf, a warplane launched an airstrike on a car carrying a family and may have killed one or more of them, witnesses said. Dan Froomkin: America Still Needs Jobs  The one thing we know for sure about cutting government spending is that it will have a dramatic effect on jobs in the short run: It will eliminate a lot of them, including many in the private sector. It's not just the crazy hippie Keynesians who believe that, it's anyone who's being honest. But you do have to give the Republicans credit for at least recognizing how important jobs are to American voters. They cared enough to craft a false narrative. E.J. Dionne Jr. - How Boehner is playing the Democrats  Richard Nixon espoused what he called "the madman theory." It's a negotiating approach that induces the other side to believe you are capable of dangerously irrational actions and leads it to back down to avoid the wreckage your rage might let loose. Boehner can just sit back and smile benignly as Democrats battle over which concessions they should give him. When the negotiating gets tough, he can sadly warn that his freshmen need more because he can't guarantee what they'll do. How to Kill a Recovery - NYTimes.com
Krugmans says: "The clear and present danger to recovery, however, comes from politics -- specifically, the demand from House Republicans that the government immediately slash spending on infant nutrition, disease control, clean water and more. Quite aside from their negative long-run consequences, these cuts would lead, directly and indirectly, to the elimination of hundreds of thousands of jobs -- and this could short-circuit the virtuous circle of rising incomes and improving finances... Over the next few weeks, House Republicans will try to blackmail the Obama administration into accepting their proposed spending cuts, using the threat of a government shutdown. They'll claim that those cuts would be good for America in both the short term and the long term.But the truth is exactly the reverse: Republicans spending cuts that would undermine America's future." Hacked e-mails show Web's usefulness in dirty-tricks campaigns
Although much of K Street spends its time plying the halls of Congress on behalf of well-heeled clients, there is a growing dark side to Washington's lobbying and public relations industry: figuring out new ways to undermine and sabotage opponents. J-Street: A Palestinian's perspective by Aziz Abu Sarah  Very few Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza or even in the US knew about J Street "s second annual conference that took place in Washington DC last week. Most Arabs don't know a thing about J Street. For a long time, Palestinians have only been aware of one Jewish Pro Israel lobby, known by the name AIPAC. J Street claims to be a new voice for the Jewish community, which is an important development and has found listening ears very quickly among thousands of Jews across the US.Although many in the Palestinian Authority see J Street as a positive change, most Palestinians are concerned with the reality in the region. The past two years have been full of disappointments. The failure to achieve a final settlement eighteen years after the Oslo Accords resulted in Palestinians questioning the possibility of peace and even the two-state solution.
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