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Manning Verdict Today
“The verdict in Bradley Manning’s trial is expected to be issued by the judge [Tuesday]. It also is the day that Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa would like to see designated as National Whistleblowers Day because of the historic significance of July 30; in 1778, the first whistleblower protection law in America was passed. “That…
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Korea Still at War 60 Years Since Armistice
“On July 27th, there will be official, state-sponsored commemorations of the Korean War, mostly honoring veterans who fought in the war. What is problematic, however, is it fails to recognize the three million Korean lives lost in the three-year war and the ongoing lives still threatened due to the unended Korean War, largely in the…
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Bill to Cut NSA Funding Narrowly Fails, Sparks Rare Congressional Debate
“Given the combined opposition of the GOP leadership in the House and the Democratic establishment in the White House, it is remarkable that a band of conscientious members of Congress could find common cause across the partisan aisle and nearly win a surprise vote to de-fund the NSA through the defense appropriations process. With members…
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Bradley Manning Trial Ending: “Criminalizing Leaks to the Press”
“During oral argument on July 15, Manning’s defense attorney, David Coombs, declared the only way this offense makes sense is if there is an ‘intent requirement.’ It has to be there to ‘avoid the very slippery slope of basically punishing people for getting information out to the press, to basically put, I guess, a hammer…
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Economy: Picking Fed Chair; Minimum Wage Same for Four Years
“I want my employees concentrating on our customers, not worrying how they will afford to pay rent or put food on their own table. We’ve paid our employees more than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour from the day we opened in 2010, and have never regretted that decision. In fact, it’s helped our…
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Administration Attacks on Free Press: Succeeding Where Nixon Failed?
“Asking courts to treat journalists as criminals under the Espionage Act has only been asserted once before Holder started using it. President Richard M. Nixon used it against New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan, who obtained the Vietnam archives from Daniel Ellsberg. Following the Pentagon Papers case, Nixon convened a grand jury to indict Sheehan…
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Summers for Fed Chair? “Great Gift to the Mega-Banks”
“Barack Obama, I am told, is on the brink of making a terrible mistake by appointing Lawrence Summers as the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. That sounds improbable, since Summers is a toxic retread from the old boys’ network and a nettlesome egotist who offended just about everyone during his previous tours in government.…
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Military Contractor Resigns in Impassioned Protest: “I Hereby Throw Down My Rifle”
“I felt a lot of cognitive dissonance for the last two or three years. I knew what the truth was and what the consequences of our actions were. But I needed to make a living. … When [Edward Snowden] talked about how he had believed in the mission, joined after the Iraq war, and found…
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Senate Bill’s Path to Citizenship a “Myth”
“While the Obama administration continues to take the Spanish language airwaves and social media pushing reform and its benefits, the President and his mouthpieces, including Cecilia Munoz, continue to blatantly lie, saying that administrative relief is outside of executive purview. In the meantime, deportations and detentions, already at record highs, continue. “The only communities that…
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2,500 California Prisoners Remain on Hunger Strike Over Long-term Solitary Confinement — Without Even a Window
“We are in our fourth day and our keepers have remained true to form, because on [Thursday, July 11] they came and kidnapped my [cellmate] and took him to hell row. Hell row is an even more oppressive number of cells used as further sensory deprivation and torture for those already in prolonged isolation. They,…
