Propaganda, Media, Playing Politics, Public-Private Partnerships, ALEC, Citizenship, Immigration

Propaganda

• Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban--"Propaganda that was supposed to target foreigners could now be aimed at Americans, reversing a longstanding policy."
• "Militants": media propaganda--"To avoid counting civilian deaths, Obama re-defined "militant" to mean 'all military-age males in a strike zone.'" Salon
• Army propagandist admits to smear campaign against journalists--Follow-up on the USA Today story.

Media

• How The U.S. Press Lost Its Way: The Politics of Journalism.
• The Death Of Facts In An Age Of 'Truthiness'
• Radio Daze--"This week's parasha introduces a medium for distinguishing truth from falsehood. On the radio, where actors are hired to read scripts and pretend to be real people, things aren't so simple."

Playing Politics

• Turned off from politics? That's exactly what the politicians want.
• Quartzsite, Arizona: Little town, big uproar--Still a mess.
• Bureaucrat Torpedoes Plea for a Presidential Pardon
• Supreme Court Justice Scalia Turns Advocate Against Obama as Queries Criticized: "It's disturbing to see a justice use oral argument as a platform for expressing the talking points that you hear each night on Fox News."
• Gov. Jan Brewer Signs New Law That Takes Debt Collectors' Word For How Much You Owe
• Rep claims Bettencourt faked internship reports
• Missouri Taxpayers Fund 24-Hour Security Camera for Limbaugh Statue--Are you fucking kidding me?

Public-Private Partnerships

• Report: Member Of National Labor Relations Board Leaked Info--"A Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) who was recently given a recess appointment by President Barack Obama leaked internal information to two former members of the board who are now working in the private sector...."
• Bobby Jindal, Aaron Broussard donations under scrutiny--"Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard each received $40,000 in campaign contributions from companies that the Louisiana Board of Ethics now alleges are 'straw man entities' used to launder illegal donations from the embattled River Birch landfill's parent company."
• Waste watchdog got no-bid contract from state--Surprise, surprise, someone actually resigned.

ALEC

• ALEC's Secrets Revealed; Corporations Flee--Add Amazon.com and Wal-Mart to the list.
• ALEC in Wisconsin: The Hijacking of a State
• ALEC Gets a Break From State Lobbying Laws
• ALEC leader admits last week's announcement was a PR stunt
• ALEC Wants To Make It Illegal For State AGs To Go After Companies On Behalf Of Consumers

Citizenship

• In vitro babies denied U.S. citizenship--And they're not automatically entitled to Social Security survivor benefits.
• Romney Doesn't Support DREAM Act, But That's Not What His Spanish Ad Says
• A Dream Act Without the Dream NYT
• Dreamers spurn Obama--"Young immigrants feel tricked by the White House line on Marco Rubio's revival of the DREAM Act." Salon
• Are Democrats Falling For Rubio’s Trap On The DREAM Act?

Immigration

• Why Silicon Valley Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are Returning Home
• Microsoft lobbies for same-sex immigration benefits bill
• Mayor Bloomberg Calls for Immediate Immigration Reform
• Illegal immigration is being stopped by a pill, not a wall
• Historic wave of Mexican immigration at a standstill, report says

Youth, Quebec, Student Loans, Budgets, Educamation, Zero Tolerance, Schoolbook

Youth

• Why a Growing Movement of Young People Could Ignite a Workers' Revolution
• 2012 vs. 1984: Young adults really do have it harder today
• Boomers and Millennials: Who's Got It Worse in the Workplace?
• Summer Jobs for Young People Remain Scarce
• Mitt Romney: Bank Of America Protesters Too Young 'To Really Understand' Economy

Quebec

• Quebec's largest student group vows to defy government’s new emergency law
• Night of Protest in Montreal after 'Emergency Law'--"Police continue to attempt crackdown on 'one of the most amazing mass protests of the year.'"
• Pot-banging against Bill 78, Quebec law limiting protests, is catching on--Over 700 Canadian protesters detained in police crackdown
• Student negotiator arrested at Quebec City protest after meeting with education minister
• Opinion: It’s the older generation that’s entitled, not students

Student Loans

• California Committing Educational Suicide
• Degrees of debt: Soaring college costs hobble a generation
• Congress pulls plug on Pell Grants; thousands of students affected

Budgets

• Error causes $25 million shortfall in education budget--Because the Maths is hard.
• Talking Pineapples and Texas Education
• Global Protests Against Draconian Education Cuts, Tuition Hikes
• Often Overlooked: For-Profit Colleges Ripping Off Taxpayers
• University of Florida Eliminates Computer Science Department, Increases Athletic Budgets. Hmm.

Educamation

• What teachers really want to tell parents
• Kenneth Cole gets schooled--"The fashion mogul has backed off his assault on schoolteachers after a public outcry." Salon
• Anti-teacher flier stirs tempest in Janesville
• Honors Track
• How "No Child Left Behind" Unleashed a Nationwide Epidemic of Cheating

Zero Tolerance

• Kindergartner Charged with Battery. Why Are We Criminalizing Kids?
• First-Grader Suspended for Singing ‘I’m Sexy and I Know It’
• Police Handcuffing 7-Year-Olds? The Brutality Unleashed on Kids With Disabilities in Our School Systems
• Nurse refuses student inhaler during asthma attack
• Texas honor student jailed for missing too much school--"[Diane] Tran said she works both full-time and part-time jobs, in addition to taking advanced and college level courses. [...] On top of that, Tran said her parents spilt up and moved away, leaving her to support her younger sister." But the judge wanted to "make an example of the teen."

Schoolbook

• School forces students to reveal Facebook activity, unlock smartphones
• When the school is the bully: A middle-school family gets a lesson in Facebook privacy Salon
• Clayton High's principal resigns amid Facebook mystery
• High school students told to quit Facebook or be expelled--If they're under 13, then they shouldn't be using it in the first place.
• Teen sues over Facebook bullying

Black Out and Speak Out Against Bill C-38, CISPA and SOPA, Copyfight, International, Pirate Party, MPAA, Movies, Music

Black Out and Speak Out Against Bill C-38

• Opposition plotting to disrupt passage of Conservative omnibus bill
• Bill C-38 protest has 13,000 websites going dark across Canada this June--June 4 is the day to Black Out, Speak Out.
• Most Canadians have no idea how seriously Bill C-38 will affect their lives

CISPA and SOPA

• CISPA: The End of "Our" Internet?
• White House taps budget official to replace Howard Schmidt as president's cybersecurity chief
• Senator admits: SOPA "really did pose some risk to the Internet"
• CISPA and SOPA: What Older Generations Just Don't Get About the Internet
• Reddit's Alexis Ohanian And Activists Aim To Build A 'Bat-Signal For The Internet'

Copyfight

• Google Lifts The Veil On Copyright Takedowns: Reveals Detailed Data On Who Requests Link Removals
• Kevin Smith's Approach To Competing With Piracy: Give Away A Ton, Then Sell Stuff That Can't Be Pirate
• Mark Twain: Copyright Maximalist Who Also Believed That Nearly All Human Utterances Were Plagiarism?
• Why Are People Resigning Before The Copyright Industries' Will?
• Nobody Cares About The Fixed Costs Of Your Book, Movie, Whatever
• DRM-free physical media: dead in the water or the answer to art's prayers?
• An Open Letter to Jay Leno About Stealing My Video and Then Getting It Removed From YouTube

International

• Romanian PM will not ratify ACTA
• Judge nixes "Oil Orgy" scheme to scare P2P users into quick settlements
• Dutch Judge who ordered Pirate Bay links censored found to be corrupt
• Idiotic Copyright Comparisons in Canadian Parliament
• Finnish court: open WiFi owners not responsible for copyright infringement

Pirate Party

• Three days before election, largest German state censors Pirate Party from the Net
• German Party Scores Fourth Consecutive Election Win
• The Pirate Party fits the political gap--"Germany's changed social stuctures means there's a section of voters no longer served by the main parties."

MPAA

• Piracy is NOT Theft After All
• We’re No Pirates! You Are Thieves! Or?
• Censorship Is Good For Consumers

Movies

• DVDs and Blu-rays will now carry two unskippable government warnings
• Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes Says Movie Windows Must Collapse To Combat Piracy
• Feds considering allowing DVD-encryption cracking

Music

• When did music become unimportant?
• Supreme Court Lets Stand $675,000 File-Sharing Verdict
• No, The RIAA Is Not Asking For $72 Trillion From Limewire (Bad Reporters, Bad)

Memorial Day, War on Terror, Military Industrial Complex, TSA, Security Theater, Who are the terrorists again?

Memorial Day

• 45% of Afghanistan, Iraq Vets Seek Disability
• The Military's Suicide Epidemic
• The White House Pledges to Eliminate Veteran Homelessness, App by App
• After 'Huge Progress,' Veterans Are Still Struggling To Find Employment
• "No NATO, No War": U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit

War on Terror

• Federal judge blocks National Defense Authorization Act provision
• The CIA "torture memo"--"'Enhanced interrogation' or torture? Ten methods, described in painstaking detail, that the CIA used to get information from Al Qaeda detainees."
• West Point Is Divided on a War Doctrine’s Fate--"[T]he argument is whether the counterinsurgency strategy used in Iraq and Afghanistan — the troop-heavy, time-intensive, expensive doctrine of trying to win over the locals by building roads, schools and government — is dead." NYT
• Doctor who ran fake CIA vaccination drive to find Osama bin Laden is jailed--"Shakil Afridi faces 33 years in jail in Pakistan despite calls from senior US officials to release him."
• Next to U.S. firing range in Afghanistan, a village of victims

Military Industrial Complex

• We were warned 51 years ago
• On Military Budgets and Spiritual Death--"As Martin Luther King told us 45 years ago, 'A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.'"
• Military Industry Lobbyists Manufacturer Fake Tea Party Outrage Against Cutting Defense Pork--"Defense firms are astro-turfing fake grassroots "outrage" to maintain their fat contracts."

TSA

• Congress: The TSA Is Wasting Hundreds Of Millions In Taxpayer Dollars
• Homeland Security Concedes Airport Body Scanner 'Vulnerabilities'
• METRO faces public backlash over counter-terror intitiave at Houston bus stops
• TSA budget cuts likely mean even longer airport waits
• TSA eases airport screening for elderly travelers

Security Theater

• TSA Reveals Passenger Complaints … Four Years Later
• Man’s Airport Strip Meant to Highlight Intrusive and Ineffective TSA Security
• In Defense of Profiling
• TSA Screeners Watched Suitcases of Drugs Pass Through Airport
• House Representative Paul C. Broun: "It is clear that that TSA has become nothing more than a bloated, broken bureaucracy which uses its extensive powers to violate traveling Americans' civil liberties while doing little to ensure their safety."

Who are the terrorists again?

• TSA to My Mother-in-Law: 'There's an Anomaly in the Crotch Area'
• Diabetic teen upset with TSA screeners at Salt Lake City Airport--"A Colorado teen is upset with screeners at Salt Lake City International Airport. The type one diabetic says TSA agents were abrupt, rude and were responsible for breaking her $10,000 insulin pump. A pump she has to have to survive. "
• Does this girl look like a terrorist?--"Family misses flight after TSA screeners target disabled 7-year-old."
• TSA Defends Pat-Down Of Crying 4-Year-Old Girl At Kansas Airport
• Baby, 18 months old, ordered off plane at Fort Lauderdale airport--"It's absurd. It made no sense. Why would an 18-month-old child be on a no-fly list?"

Conservatives, Church vs. State, Educamation, S-E-X, Think of the Children, To Catch

Conservatives

• Hiding the True Jesus--"In reshaping American politics and society, the Christian Right has applied a distorted version of Jesus’s teachings, downplaying his pacifism and his contempt for wealth while emphasizing later revisions that didn’t threaten the powerful. That’s why Rev. Howard Bess says the search for the true Jesus is crucial."
• Sure, the Christian Right Champions Religious Freedom – For Themselves
• Growing up in Michele Bachmann's world--"Millions of evangelicals, including GOP candidates, are trapped in an alternative 'parallel culture' with its own standards of truth."
• Why Do Conservatives Hate Freedom?--"Since World War II, mainstream conservatives have opposed every expansion of personal liberty in the United States."
• Conservatives Trying to Rewrite the History of Civil Rights

Church vs. State

• David Barton Says Church Law Should Overrule Supreme Court Ruling
• Rep. Walter Jones likens church tax rule to Communism
• City wins church tax fight--"The city didn't violate state law or the Constitution when it began taxing a Pentecostal church after officials determined parts of the church's sprawling building on Mountain Road weren't being used for a religious purpose, the state's high court ruled yesterday."

Educamation

• Teacher Terminated: University prof who complained about crosses is cut
• 10 Frightening Things That Happen at Conservative Christian Schools That May Be Funded With Your Tax Dollars
• How Public Money is Funding Private, Religious Schools in Georgia

S-E-X

• Hugh Hefner: 'Repressed conservatives' waging 'war against sex'
• Right-wing sexual pathos--"Attempts to ban talk of birth control and homosexuality from classrooms reveal conservatives' deepest sexual fears." Salon
• Christians Still Teaching Sex Is Dirty in Public Schools
• New Tennessee law aims to curb teaching 'gateway sexual activity'
• SMBC: Exposure

Think of the Children

• Worried about online porn? Don't regulate the net – regulate your kids
• So How Do We Talk About This? When Children See Internet Pornography NYT
• Open Rights Group: Mobile filters censor innocent content

To Catch

• 'I Was Teenage Hockey Message Board Jailbait'
• Blast from the Past: Sex offenders must hand over passwords
• TWKUK: Grapist

JPMorgan, Wall Street, Reckoning, Fall-on-your-Facebook, Ex-Patriot Act

JPMorgan

• Double trouble at JP Morgan: trader's losses could exceed $7bn
• Senators put federal regulators, not JPMorgan, on the hot seat--Breathtaking in their audacity to pin the blame on somebody else.
• Krugman: Dimon's Déjà Vu Debacle NYT
• JPMorgan Unit Has $100 Billion of Risky Bonds
• JPMorgan's loss: More than a blip in the news cycle
• After JP Morgan Fiasco Obama Targets Wall Street's GOP Enablers
• JPMorgan Losses Throw Republican Lawmakers Off Balance
• GOP Senator Worries JP Morgan's Losses Will Lead To Efforts To Strengthen Financial Regulations
• JP Morgan Chase Is Biggest Campaign Contributor to the Senator Who's Chairing the Investigation of JP Morgan Chase
• Breaking up Chase: Good for shareholders and taxpayers

Wall Street

• Heist of the century: Wall Street's role in the financial crisis--"Wall Street bankers could have averted the global financial crisis, so why didn't they?"
• Is Insider Trading Part of the Fabric?--"Ted Parmigiani, an analyst at the former Lehman Brothers, spent two and a half years giving the S.E.C. information about what he contended was insider trading at the firm. But the S.E.C. ultimately decided against filing a case." NYT
• So, how can bankers live with themselves?--"Many bankers see themselves as part of a global elite – spaceship finance – with little sense of national belonging."
• The Super "Connected" 1% CEO: The Incredible Tale of Billions of Dollars of Failure--"Citgroup's outgoing chairman Dick Parsons' career is the perfect example of how 1 percenters reward utter failure at the expense of the rest of us."
• Krugman: Egos and Immorality--Meanies should just leave Wall Street alooonee! NYT

Reckoning

• Bill targets Fed conflicts--"On the heels of JPMorgan's stunning trading losses, two senators on Tuesday unveiled a bill that would ban financial executives from regulating themselves by taking positions at the Federal Reserve."
• Welcoming Wall Street's anger--"Obama should pick a fight with reckless bankers by beefing up the Volcker rule." Salon
• A Modest Proposal: FDIC Rule Change Ends Too Big to Fail
• Krugman: Win Some, Lose Some--"Can Romney really not understand that key financial institutions are different from any old business — that when they fail they can wreak havoc?" NYT
• Nurses (yes, nurses) lead charge for Wall Street 'sin' tax

Fall-on-your-Facebook

• Inside Job: Facebook I.P.O. Shows System is Broken
• Mass. subpoenas Morgan Stanley in Facebook case
• Facebook I.P.O. Raises Regulatory Concerns NYT
• The Facebook IPO Was an Inside Joke
• Warm, fuzzy vultures: Facebook’s scandalous IPO
• The Facebook IPO: Shareholders Weren't Invited to the Real Party
• The Facebook Fallacy--"For all its valuation, the social network is just another ad-supported site. Without an earth-changing idea, it will collapse and take down the Web."

Ex-Patriot Act

• Chuck Shumer (D-NY) introduces anti-thoughtcrime bill: to renounce US citizenship, prove that it's not for "tax reasons"
• Grover Norquist: Trying To Stop Billionaires From Dodging Taxes Makes You A Nazi
  
• Chuck Schumer Denounces Eduardo Saverin Defenders, Nazi Comparisons As 'Appalling'

Towel Day, Science Fiction/Double Feature, Dammit Bennett, Over at the Frankenstein Place, The Time Warp, TrEkkie, Super Heroes

Towel Day

• Light from Small, Oozing Alien Planet Seen
• Seti Live website to crowdsource alien life
• Queen of SETI retires from research
• Mars missions cancelled due to NASA budget cuts--As Neil deGrasse Tyson said in another matter, "In just one year, the expenditure of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined."
• Neil deGrasse Tyson: Partisan bickering tainted future of NASA
• American Physics Dream Deferred NYT
• xkcd: Orion Nebula

Science Fiction/Double Feature

• Science Channel's Top Ten Sci-Fi Books
• Where I Write: Fantasy & Science Fiction Authors in Their Creative Spaces
• Dear Science Fiction Writers: Stop Being So Pessimistic!

Dammit Bennett

• Dan Harmon: Hey, Did I Miss Anything?
• Why Firing Dan Harmon From 'Community' Was Stupid and Very NBC (Analysis)
• Leaked Memo: 'Community' Studio Tells Cast How to Address Dan Harmon Firing

Over at the Frankenstein Place

• Artifice--Ongoing science fiction webcomic that deals with humanity, sexuality and technology.
• Fans surprised to learn Japanese pop idol isn't real
• ManPlus--"Volunteering to be the next transformed cyborg of the Man Plus Project for the colonization of Mars, Roger Torroway is unaware that the Project is being secretly manipulated by an unknown group of shadowy planners."

The Time Warp

• Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Time
• The science of warp Salon
• Attention: Tonight, I will attempt to travel back in time...
• Back to the Future: An Animated Timeline--Bonus pic: Futurama-style
• The Future of Time Travel: Is It Also Its Past? The Onion
• When it simply HAS to be there yesterday
• A Time to Protest

TrEkkie

• Stewart: Star Trek was 'going to be a failure'
• The Air Force Wants a Holodeck
• Bob Orci Explains How The New Star Trek Movie Fits With Trek Canon (and Real Science)
• The Evolution of 'Star Trek'
• Star Trek: "I'm a big chocolate slut."--Dialogue matched to lip movements.

Super Heroes

• HBO's Real-Life SUPERHEROES Documentary
• Who is the Route 29 Batman? This guy.
• Britain's The Statesman Revealed As Mild Mannered Bank Clerk, Scott Cooke
• The Seattle Real Life Super Hero Pub Crawl
• 'Batman' helping Brazilian police
• Government Buys Its Own Real Life Super Hero
• Seattle superhero not prosecuted--But Phoenix Jones was fired from his job.
• World Superhero Registry
• If Superheroes Were Real!
• Prom picture--What a cute concept.
• Old Superhero costumes

Budget, Taxes, Class War, Military, GOP, Economic Sabotage, Fucks News

Budget

• How Bush-Fueled Deficits Continue To Haunt Obama
• Obama spending binge never happened--"Government outlays rising at slowest pace since 1950s," despite what the Republicans have been lying about.
• CBO Report Says Deficit Reduction Will Cause New Recession
• GOP rookies buck Grover Norquist
• A New Politics That Rejects Austerity and Wars of Whim

Taxes

• Geithner: U.S. 'Can't Afford' Bush Tax Cuts for Wealthy-- WSJ
• Pelosi asks Boehner for immediate vote on middle-class tax cuts
• Harry Reid to Republicans: Give in on Bush tax cuts, gutting Medicare and maybe we can talk
• Windfall! Rich will get richer from new tax credit
• Hey Gov. Christie, New Jersey is over here
• After Slashing Funds For Health And Education, Ohio Prepares To Cut Taxes For Banks
• Grijalva Slams Arizona Governor For Using Foreclosure Settlement Funds To Balance Budget--She'd rather give corporate tax cuts.

Class War

• Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income
• Bill Clinton: How to Tame the Debt Without Screwing the Poor and Middle Class
• Obama: War savings should be devoted to middle class, debt

Military

• Behind Army’s $17,000 Drip Pan, Harold Rogers's Earmark NYT
• China fake parts 'used in US military equipment'
• Even more bloated than you think--"Ignore the GOP's budget cut outrage: National Security will still acount for a third of the projected 2013 budget." Salon

GOP

• Respected scholars: Frustrated with Washington? Blame Republicans
• Schwarzenegger: GOP, take down that small tent--"California's Republican Party used to work toward solutions. Now it's an exclusive club where members' ideological cards must be checked at the door."
• Jon Stewart on the Right's Cognitive Dissonance With Refusing to Give President Obama Credit for Anything
• GOP to modernity: Stop--"For House Republicans, the less we know about our country and our planet, the better." Salon
• Opinion: GOP faithful in a state of denial

Economic Sabotage

• House GOP Throws Out Entire Summer Of Debt Ceiling Negotiations In Less Than 10 Minutes
• Sabotage: The new GOP plan--"Paul Ryan and the Republicans' latest tactic is outright treachery: They want to break the government." Salon
• The GOP is Today's Know Nothing Party--"Their hyper partisanship is paralyzing Washington."
• Is GOP trying to sabotage economy to hurt Obama?
• David Vitter Is Trying To Crush the Economy

Fucks News

• It’s Official: Watching Fox Makes You Stupider
• FCC urged to revoke Fox News' license
• Roger Ailes criticizes New York Times, AP during Ohio University talk-
• Roger Ailes: Jon Stewart ‘basically’ told me he was a socialist
• 14 Propaganda Techniques Fox 'News' Uses to Brainwash Americans

Birther Pains, Elections 2012, Citizens United, Colbert, Wisconsin, Vote Machinations, Trayvon Martin

Birther Pains

• Arizona deputies in Hawaii seeking Obama birth certificate--Arpaio on wasting taxpayer funds: 'So what?'
• Hawaii Trolls Arizona's Presidential Birth Certificate-Seeking Secretary of State
• Bennett Backs Off Birther Threat, Apologizes To Arizona--He was planning to keep Obama off the ballot.

Elections 2012

• Is This the Most Boring Election Ever?--"Obama and Romney feels like a contest between two calculating centrists, fighting for the right to serve as figurehead atop a bloated state apparatus that will operate according to the same demented imperial logic irrespective of who wins the White House."
• With memo, race issue flares in campaign--Romney: "I'm actually — I’m not familiar with precisely, exactly what I said. But I stand by what I said, whatever it was."
• Is Mitt Romney really a job creator? What his Bain Capital record shows.
• Obama's Bain Capital mutiny--Says it's fair game.
• Who's winning the 2012 presidential money race?--"The assumption was that Obama would have a big fundraising advantage over Romney, but GOP-friendly super PACs are proving prognosticators wrong."
• Why Joe Biden Needs to Stay--"He isn't just vital to the White House -- he's been the most effective vice president in American history."
• Marco Rubio as vice president: the Bilderberg conspiracy

Citizens United

• 22 States Back Montana's Citizens United Challenge
• Corporate Lobbying Group Asks Supreme Court Not To Use "Empirical Evidence" When Reconsidering Citizens United
• How John Roberts sold us out--"Jeffrey Toobin's Citzen's United blow-by-blow leaves no room for doubt: The "moneyed interests" have won." Salon

Colbert

• Stephen Colbert Raises More Than PAC Backing Ron Paul
• Stephen Colbert inspires new fad across U.S. college campuses
• Stephen Colbert super PAC numbers pick up
• Stephen Colbert named among Maxim’s list of hottest 100 women--Wait, what?
• Stephen Colbert helps Reddit organize gift exchange for U.S. troops

Wisconsin

• Wisconsin's Recall
• Wisconsin Democrats Furious with Democratic National Committee for Refusing to Invest Big Money in Walker Recall--And the Republicans have the momentum. UPDATE: The DNC changes its mind.
• Donations to Scott Walker Flagged as Potential Fraud
• Scott Walker’s politically suicidal exchange--"He tells a billionaire donor about his 'divide and conquer' anti-union strategy – on camera." Salon
• Gov. Walker Disregards Official Jobs Data Now That It Shows Wisconsin Losing Most Jobs In The Nation

Vote Machinations

• Pa. Supreme Court judge charged with campaign corruption in case that ensnared senator sister
• Julius Henson Convicted In Maryland Robocalls Case--"Henson's lawyers argued that 'dirty tricks' are a form of free speech."
• FACT CHECK: 'Non-Citizen' Voter In James O'Keefe's Voter Fraud Video Is Actually A Citizen
• Court Action May Lift Anonymity For Some Campaign Donors
• GOP in CA Hired 'Professional Con Artist' Who Turned in Thousands of Fraudulent Voter Registrations in $50,000 'Bounty' Scheme

Trayvon Martin

• Cops, Witnesses Back Up George Zimmerman's Version of Trayvon Martin Shooting
• In Defense of George Zimmerman--"How the gun lobby, conservatives, and right-wing media have rallied to defend the man who killed Trayvon Martin."
• Trayvon Martin gun range targets sold online--"Seller admits he wants to profit off controversy."

Patents, Software, Oracle vs. Google, Casebook, Hacking, Telco Bilking, Bad Reception

Patents

• Jury strikes down Eolas' 'Interactive Web' patent--Thank FSM this particular patent troll didn't prevail or it would have been the end of the web as we know it.
• Twitter introduces the Innovator's Patent Agreement
• Microsoft seeks patent on monetizing buttons of TV remote
• Oops! Yahoo blunders in Facebook patent squabble--"Yahoo claimed Facebook had fraudulently filed some of its patents, but Facebook hit back by proving Yahoo hadn't even checked the records to see if it was right."
• Uncommon Sense: Goliath v. David, AAC style
• Empirical Evidence Of Just How Much Patent Trolling Hinders Innovation
• Top judge: ditching software patents a "bad solution"--Is he out of touch?

Software

• Adobe backpedals, will now patch software for free--"Changes tune after customers, security pros condemned Adobe's advice to spend hundreds on upgrades to get fixes."
• Microsoft to charge customers $99 to remove OEM 'crapware'
• Australia to Investigate Software Price Disparities

Oracle vs. Google

• Oracle v Google Judge Is A Programmer!--Schools tech-impaired lawyer.
• Oracle and Google Agree to Copyright Truce (For Now)
• Oracle v. Google: the road ahead

Casebook

• Don't 'Like' This Post Or Your Boss Can Fire You
• Facebook Asserts Trademark on Word 'Book' in New User Agreement
• Woman sues over Facebook ads--"A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook in B.C., with a Vancouver woman alleging the social media giant misused her image — and those belonging to other members — in linking it to advertisements."

Hacking

• From Hackers to Slackers--"How a federal law can be used to prosecute almost anyone who uses a computer."
• Court Rebukes DOJ, Says Hacking Required to Be Prosecuted as Hacker
• Blast from the Past: With lawsuit settled, hackers now working with MBTA--This is what the MBTA should have done rather than denying the problem exists and having the courts muck up the issue of 'full disclosure', which they wisely cleared up.

Telco Bilking

• AT&T Argues That More Competition Is Bad For You & Leads To Higher Prices
• AT&T, Verizon look to further squeeze subscribers as earnings soar
• Verizon to kill unlimited data plans for existing subscribers--Only if they get new subsidized devices (NYT).
• Verizon's and Comcast's data caps: Who wins and who loses?--It seems that Verizon plans to raise its rates.
• FCC to Verizon: what's wrong with that spectrum you never built out?--"Verizon wants to sell spectrum it never bothered to use, and buy some more."

Bad Reception

• Couple Dead After Bad Cellphone Connection Foils Chance of Rescue--After 9 dropped calls, they dropped dead. But will telcos actually spend to help those in need?
• Unconscious Carroll man found after 11-hour search--"It would have been nice if Verizon would have turned on his phone for five or 10 minutes, just long enough to try and find the guy. But they would only turn it on if we agreed to pay $20 of the unpaid bill. Ridiculous."
• BART defends mobile service shutdown to the FCC--"Digital rights groups, however, say the harms of a disruption of mobile service outweigh the benefits."

Prisons for Profit, Injustice, Exonerations, Jail Tales, Law and Disorder, Judges

Prisons for Profit

• Private Prisons Are the Problem, Not the Solution
• The Unbelievable Brutality Unleashed on Kids in For-Profit Prisons--"Privatization of the youth prison industry handed soaring profits to GEO, but a history of brutal injustice to its incarcerated youth and their families."
• Louisiana is the world's prison capital
• Firm Leaves Mississippi After Its Prison Is Called 'Cesspool'
• Private Prison Corporations Are Slave Traders
• America's Top Prison Corporation: A Study in Predatory Capitalism and Cronyism
• Prison Industries: "Don't Let Society Improve or We Lose Business"

Injustice

• The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man to his death--"Groundbreaking Columbia law school study sets out in shocking detail the flaws that led to Carlos DeLuna's execution in 1989."
• Time doesn't pay, wrongfully imprisoned find--"Alan Northrop served 17 years for a rape and kidnapping he didn't commit. He received no compensation for his time behind bars."
• Free After 25 Years: A Tale Of Murder And Injustice
• Romeo Phillion launches $14-million lawsuit for wrongful conviction--"Romeo Phillion, who spent 31 years in prison before his murder conviction was quashed, launched a $14-million lawsuit against the Ontario government on Thursday."
• Local girl lied about 2001 rape; father set free--"Baur said Cassandra Kennedy will not be prosecuted for her apparent lies about her father, partly because prosecutors do not want to discourage people in similar circumstances from coming forward." And this won't encourage so-called "victims" to lie since there apparently are no repurcussions?

Exonerations

• Largest compilation of exonerations ever finds over 2,000 falsely convicted over past 23 years
• Wrongfully convicted Texas trio exonerated in 1994 robbery
• Bennett Barbour exonerated of rape in Virginia: how the state is botching the DNA retesting and notification of old cases

Jail Tales

• Rikers Violence: Out Of Control. Shocking images back up what we've been reporting for years: New York City's jails are houses of horror
• Out of Step With the World: Juvenile Life Without Parole in the United States
• Hieroglyphics turn prisoner away from a life of crime
• The Naked Rambler: the man prepared to go to prison for nudity
• Breast cancer survivor handcuffed and thrown in jail over a mistaken $280 medical bill as 'debtor's prisons' return to the U.S

Law and Disorder

• Supreme court: immunity for witness grand jury testimony--"The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a government investigator who initiates a criminal case against a private individual and later lies to a grand jury still has immunity from a civil lawsuit over his testimony." Emphasis mine.
• Baltimore police search for suspect in video attack--"Baltimore police said Tuesday they are making progress in their investigation into an attack that left a man beaten, stripped and robbed on the street while onlookers laughed and did nothing to help." They probably haven't watched the Seinfeld finale.
• Think Before Stealing That Soda Refill--"While his charge is petty theft, because of previous petty theft convictions, the charge for drinking the unpaid-for soda was increased from a misdemeanor to a felony."

Judges

• Investigators: Tenn. Judge High on Pills in Court--"A Tennessee judge was so addicted to prescription drugs during his final two years on the bench, he was having sex and buying pills during courtroom breaks, at times purchasing from convicts he had previously sentenced...."
• Judge jailed entire court for phone interruption
• Report: Judges Collect More Than $1 Million In Traffic Fines By Calling Them 'Court Costs'
• Oregon judge rules bloggers aren't journalists
• No Contempt, No Jail for Spamming a Judge

420, Obama, Medical Marijuana, War on Drugs, Cui Bono: Who Benefits?, Mexico, International

420

• Let's Be Blunt: It's Time to End the Drug War
• Former NM Gov. Gary Johnson: Legalize marijuana to reduce violence
• Pro-pot attorney general candidate wins Oregon primary--Congratulations to Ellen Rosenbaum.
• Colorado's Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol ad: "Dear Mom"
• The Anti-Science Streak in Federal Marijuana Policy--"The classification of cannabis as a schedule one narcotic is among the least defensible aspects of prohibition."
• The Drug Czar's False Statement About Marijuana and Hemp Should Be a Bigger Scandal
• Dutch government decrees that all cannabis cafes are off-limits to tourists--Protestors just say no.
  

Obama

• Why Nancy Pelosi is Right to Slam Obama's War on Pot
• Medical marijuana meets hostility from Obama administration
• Dr. Jill Stein: Obama Irrational On Marijuana, Medical or Otherwise
• Obama Lies About Federal Marijuana Law to Rolling Stone
• Jimmy Kimmel Addresses Marijuana Legalization At White House Correspondents' Dinner 2012--"Marijuana is something that real people care about," Kimmel said, addressing Obama directly.

Medical Marijuana

• Poll: 74 Percent of Americans, Including 67 Percent of Republicans, Want Obama to End Medical Marijuana Crackdown
• Poll: New Yorkers high on medical pot, split on fracking and fighting
• Connecticut Senate passes medical marijuana bill after lengthy debate
• A Sitting NY Supreme Court Judge With Cancer Makes A Plea For Medical Marijuana
• Marijuana relieves muscles tightness, pain of multiple sclerosis: Study--This is what Big Pharma wants to suppress.

War on Drugs

• Student in DEA custody forgotten without food or water for days
• US DEA Kills Innocent Civilians in Honduras -- US Media Silent--The DEA denies they did any shooting.
• Soap maker David Bronner: Hemp ban highlights absurdity of drug war
• Up In Smoke
• Moms Say, "No More Drug War!"--"Mothers throughout history have come forward for the sake of their children. We're coming forth today saying that the drug war has been more damaging to our families than the drugs themselves."
• Cannes 2012: Shia LaBeouf's 'Lawless,' parable for the drug war?
• FBI: Motorcycle Gang Trademarked Logo to Keep Narcs at Bay

Cui Bono: Who Benefits?

• Are All U.S. Politicians Drug War Profiteers?--Follow the money.
• 4 Industries Getting Rich Off the Drug War
• The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal

Mexico

• Mexico's Drug War: 50,000 Dead in 6 Years
• Thirty-seven dismembered bodies dumped on Mexico highway--Seems to gone up to 49.
• Numb to Carnage, Mexicans Find Diversions, and Life Goes On NYT
• Corruption flows freely along U.S.-Mexico border--"In one New Mexico town alone, the mayor, police chief and a city trustee were guilty of gun smuggling — and it's probably not an isolated case."
• Two Mexican generals detained for alleged drug gang ties
• Fast And Furious Investigation: House Committee Prepares To Cite Eric Holder For Contempt
• ATF: 70 percent of guns found in Mexico come from US

International

• India: Drugs ravage Punjab, nation's breadbasket state--"With drug-related crimes occurring at ten times the nation's average, locals say police and politicians are complicit in Punjab's narcotics trade."
• Drug War at Sea: Rise of the Narco Subs--"Over the past five years, drug cartels have increasingly been shipping cocaine by way of hard-to-detect semi-submersible vessels. And the next generation of narco subs may be even harder to spot."
• Latin America’s drug war evolution--"A policy advisor explains why leaders from Mexico to Argentina are pushing decriminalization and legal regulation." Salon

Quebec, G20, Protests, Greek Tragedy, World News

Quebec

• Quebec student groups reject proposed tuition deal
• Quebec education minister quits over tuition dispute
• Quebec debates back-to-school bill
• Anti-protest legislation passes in Quebec
• Molotov cocktails launched in Montreal protests following legal crackdown

G20

• Toronto News: Byron Sonne not guilty on G20 explosives charges
• G20 aftermath: Blair accepts responsibility but doesn’t apologize
• G20 charges coming against Toronto police commanders

Protests

• Thousands in Spain revive May 15th protests to rail against cuts, government
• Police detain 400 "Blockupy" activists in Frankfurt
• Occupy Europe protests pictures

Greek Tragedy

• Grexit and Bank Run Prospects Continue to Weigh on the Euro
• Greece fails to form new government, going to elections
• Greek Politicians Debate the Debt Crisis and Election Issues--'If We Leave the Euro, Everything Will Be Worse'
• Nightmare foretold if Greece heads for euro exit
• Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras: 'It's a war between people and capitalism'

World News

• Briton imprisoned for reporting African massacre: 'How can this have happened to our son?' ask family
• 'Princelings' in China Use Family Ties to Gain Riches NYT
• North Korea 'executes three people found guilty of cannibalism'

Fabrication, War on Terror, Torture, "Over There", Military Might, Your Rights Online, Surveillance

Fabrication

• Terrorist Plots, Hatched by the F.B.I. NYT
• 'Underwear bomber' was working for the CIA--"Bomber involved in plot to attack US-bound jet was working as an informer with Saudi intelligence and the CIA, it has emerged."
• How FBI Entrapment Is Inventing 'Terrorists' - and Letting Bad Guys Off the Hook
• FBI: Men unknowingly put fake bombs at Ohio bridge--"Their arrests that night marked the latest case in which FBI agents planned fake terrorism plots alongside targeted suspects, an indication it continues to be a top strategy for the government in preventing terrorism."
• The Case of the Missing Terrorists

War on Terror

• Federal court enjoins NDAA--"An Obama-appointed judge rules its indefinite detention provisions likely violate the 1st and 5th Amendments." Salon
• Ninth Circuit Presses Government Lawyer on Watch Lists: "What Would You Do?"--It can get rather Kafkaesque.
• Army Admits Re-Education Camp Manual "Not Intended For Public Release"--"[A]nd claiming that its provisions only apply outside the United States, a contention completely disproved by the language contained in the document itself."
• Pentagon instructor urged total war with Islam
• The American character--"Fareed Zakaria warns the war on terror will never end. Obama and Romney still won't debate our surveillance state." Salon

Torture

• US rendition 'torture' case heard--"Khaled al-Masri claims he was abducted in Macedonia in 2003 and flown to a US detention centre in Afghanistan, where he says he was tortured."
• 'Vomiting and screaming' in destroyed waterboarding tapes--"Secret CIA video tapes of the waterboarding of Osama Bin Laden's suspected jihadist travel arranger Abu Zubaydah show him vomiting and screaming, the BBC has learned."
• American seeks political asylum in Sweden, alleging torture, FBI coercion

"Over There"

• Why are we still in Vietghanistan?
• Afghan peace negotiator Arsala Rahmani shot dead
• Iran says nuclear inspector killed in car crash
• House Bill Shifting Red Line for War on Iran Passes Overwhelmingly
• Al-Qaeda is weaker without bin Laden, but its franchise persists
• Drone strikes in Yemen: US expert warns of anti-western sentiment
• US shadow war in Horn of Africa revealed by blogger

Military Might

• Republican plan boosts Pentagon, cuts social programs--Ain't a plan no longer.
• Fighter Pilots Claim Intimidation Over F-22 Raptor Jets
• The F-35 Shows Why the Pentagon Deserves a Smaller Budget
• Romney Will Increase Military Spending By $2.1 Trillion With No Plan To Pay For It
• Public overwhelmingly supports large defense spending cuts
• Defense bill passes House, faces veto

Your Rights Online

• Beyond CISPA: The cybersecurity bills you need to worry about right now
• White House will veto CISPA, Amendments not good enough
• FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites - now
• UK: 'Snooper's charter' web spying Bill announced--"The Queen has formally announced plans to greatly increase surveillance of the internet by intelligence agencies and the police, in plans that are being labelled a 'snooper's charter' by civil liberties groups."
• Tim Berners-Lee urges government to stop the snooping bill
• How the Toews-sponsored Internet surveillance bill quietly died--The reports of its demise has been greatly exaggerated.
• The Rise of Europe's Private Internet Police
• Surveillance State democracy--"As the FBI seeks full access to all forms of Internet communication, it is not voters who need to be convinced." Salon
• Court Rules NSA Doesn't Have To Reveal Its Semi-Secret Relationship With Google
• Google's eavesdropping technology: Going too far to sell ads?

Surveillance

• London's Amazingly Explicit Surveillance State Mascot For The 2012 Olympics Has A Huge Camera Eye That 'Records Everything'
• DOJ Official: Any Privacy Protection is Too Much Privacy Protection for Cell Phone Tracking
• The FBI took -- and mysteriously returned -- their server. Here's their story.

Occupy Movement, Law and Disorder, Wall Street, Income Inequality, Poor You, That's Rich, Brazillionaires

Occupy Movement

• Noam Chomsky: What next for Occupy?
• "Occupy Cop" under attack--"Retired Philadelphia Police Capt. Ray Lewis could lose his life insurance for wearing his uniform to a protest." Salon
• Media grows bored of Occupy--"And that means, according to a new report, that Americans can expect to hear a lot less about income inequality." Salon
• Occupy London protest rally against 'predatory capitalism'
• Chris Hedges: Colonized by Corporations

Law and Disorder

• Dozens of Police Evict Georgia Family at Gunpoint at 3am--"The eviction might have been another anonymous descent into poverty were it not for Occupy Atlanta activists who tried to help the family stay."
• In The First Occupy Wall Street Protest Trial, Acquittal
• Police did indeed give Occupiers free pot, new evidence suggests; DRE program suspended
• White House & Dems Back Banks over Protests: Newly Discovered Homeland Security Files Show Feds Central to Occupy Crackdown
• Twitter Fights Prosecutors Seeking Occupy Protester's Data Without Warrant

Wall Street

• Why Obama Must Hold Wall Street Accountable
• Poll: Obama Soft On Wall Street Banks, Swing State Voters Not Ha
• JPMorgan chief gets nod for $23m pay despite loss--Which is now $3B and rising.
• Accidentally Released - and Incredibly Embarrassing - Documents Show How Goldman et al Engaged in 'Naked Short Selling'
• Wells Fargo Has Blood on Its Hands: Desperate Man Commits Suicide After Shocking Foreclosure Mistreatment

Income Inequality

• Too Hot for TED: Income Inequality--The presentation was too controversial to post... or was it?
• American Pie: Wealth and Income Inequality in America
• Romney's former associate argues that growing income inequality is good for the 99%
• Bill O'Reilly: "Income Inequality Is Bull. Nobody Gives You Anything, You Earn It"--Two words: Trust funds
• George Lucas Does Something Likeable For a Change: Revenge on Rich Neighbors

Poor You

• How to Be Poor (culture of poverty)
• Paul Ryan Defends Cutting Food Stamps For The Poor: 'You Have To Get Savings In Some Of These Areas'
• Idiot congressman defends denying poor children school lunches by quoting non-existent scripture
• Productivity Doubled -- And The Middle Class Got Screwed. What Went Wrong?
• As The Richest Americans Get Richer, The Rest Are Drowning In Debt

That's Rich

• Capitalists and Other Psychopaths NYT
• The Truth About Taxes: History Suggests High Tax Rates On Rich People Do Not Hurt The Economy
• High earners say au revoir to France
• America’s idiot rich--"The 1 percent is complaining louder than ever. There can be no reasoning with people this irrational." Salon
• $5,000 For a Pair of Sandals: The Rich Are Different, Right Down to Their Shoes

Brazillionaires

• Billionaire squatters: Brazil's plutocrats raze protected public lands to erect private mansions, ignore rule of law
• The Billionaire's Son, The Dead Cyclist And The Tweeted Manslaughter Defense--Double standard? More like a gold standard (NYT).
• Brazil's super rich grow richer as poor are left behind