HANDCUFFING KIDS FOR NO REASON. This is the allegation of two whistle-blowing police officers against the practices of the New York Police Department in a class action suit against the city charging racial profiling. They claim that their supervisors maintained quotas of the number of arrests and summonses they were expected to execute in [...]
HOMEGROWN THREATS: NYPD DEFINES SUCH MUSLIM BEHAVIORS AS GIVING UP SMOKING, GAMBLING AND HIP HOP MUSIC AS INDICATIONS OF THEIR “JIHADIZATION.” In New York as elsewhere Muslim Americans are subjected to very intrusive surveillance at any places where they might congregate with fellow Muslims, not only at mosques but cafes and book stores that they [...]
FORGET A “SLIPPER SLOPE.” THE LEAKED JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MEMO ON KILLING AMERICAN CITIZENS IS DOWNRIGHT TERRIFYING. Reaction has been strong to news of a leaked Justice Department memo that bluntly lays out the Obama administration’s justification for its highly controversial and legally questionable use of drone strikes to kill suspected “terrorists.” Language in [...]
18,000 MILE TRIP ADDS ANOTHER GIANT OIL RIG TO DRILLING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO. Operation owned jointly by Royal Dutch Shell and BP brings a huge platform from South Korea, to be assembled at a port in Texas, then to join a slew of rigs seeking to extend the producing life of the [...]
WHAT DO SAUDI ARABIA, BAHRAIN AND QATAR HAVE IN COMMON? First, they are “monarchical regimes” within which are found some of the most barbaric labor practices in the world, often featuring immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Second, they are the closest of allies of the United States in its determined policy in fomenting insurrection in a “humanitarian [...]
“WAR CRIMES IN PROGRESS.” Amnesty International so characterizes the escalating practice of Syrian rebels beating and summarily executing people associated with the Syrian government, many of whom are soldiers manning checkpoints designed to quell the insurgency. Free Syrian Army, the “umbrella” group supported by U.S. and other foreign powers and which “coordinates” rebel efforts, [...]
AUSTERITY-PROTESTING CHAOS IN STREETS OF SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND GREECE—AND NEW YORK TIMES CHOOSES MOSTLY THE FACT THAT MARKETS “FALTER” IN THESE COUNTRIES AS THE NEWS “THAT’S FIT TO PRINT.” As European central bank demands austerity measures cutting benefits to people as condition of buying up their bad debts, riots occur across southern Europe and [...]
An unprecedented mandate approved by health officials in New York City that bans the sale of most large sugary drinks in restaurants is likely to spark a larger debate about obesity, public health and efforts to curb what has become a deadly — and costly — epidemic in the United States. The New York City [...]
THE MORAL CAVALRY TO THE RESCUE: SOFT IMPERIALISM IN THE SOAPY WORLD OF AMERICAN VIEW OF OTHERS. (Counterpunch) Laura Agustin de-constructs the moral world of journalist Nicholas Kristof, one of many operators in a “rescue industry” not content to leave all the self-congratulatory opportunities to Oprah Winfrey. In the name of humanity (as in anti-prostitution [...]
“BUT SIR, WE HAD TO TAKE A LEAK SOMEWHERE!” (UK Telegraph) U.S. officials fall over themselves to “deplore” action of U.S. Marines caught in a video which shows them urinating on the corpses of slain Afghans. These include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who vows that the incident will [...]
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