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From truthout.org… News Briefs
Saturday 08 January 2011
Attacking Public Employees: Will New York Lead?
Richard D. Wolff, MR Zine: "As in other states, New York's new governor
has focused attention on the state's budget woes: revenues insufficient
to cover expenditures. His major response has been to blame public
employees and their unions as if their pay, benefits, and especially
pensions were chief causes of the problem.... Many political leaders
across the states and in both major parties have been pushing the same
agenda."
US Seeks Twitter Info on WikiLeaks' Assange, Others
McClatchy Newspapers: "A U.S. magistrate in San Francisco has ordered
Twitter to turn over to the Justice Department account whatever
information it was about four of its users, including WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange and Army PFC Bradley Manning, the one-time Baghdad-based
intelligence analyst accused of unauthorized downloading of hundreds of
thousands of classified U.S. government documents."
Will Our Economy Ever Recover From the "Greatest Recovery"?
Mark Provost, Truthout: "For the past two years, American workers
submitted to the president's appeal - taking steep paycuts despite
hectic productivity growth. By contrast, corporate executives have
extracted record profits by sabotaging the recovery on every front -
eliminating employees, repressing wages, withholding investment and
shirking federal taxes.... The global recession increased unemployment
in every country, but the American experience is unparalleled....
Washington's embrace of labor market flexibility ensured companies
encountered little resistance when they launched their brutal recovery
plans. Leading into the recession, the US had the weakest worker
protections against individual and collective dismissals in the world."
Protest by Suicide Highlights Economic and Political Oppression in Tunisia
Basel Saleh, Truthout: "Bouazizi's attempted suicide, which comes hard
on the heels of police humiliation and confiscation of his only source
of income, reveals the utter despair prevalent today among Tunisia's
population, especially college graduates. Twenty-four years of ruthless
corruption, dictatorship and neoliberal economic policies led to a
concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few people.... The
miserable economic conditions in the interior of the country and the
lack of employment opportunities and political freedoms pushed
Bouazizi, like thousands of other young men and women in the Maghreb
countries, to the margins of society."
Obama Signs Law, Decries Its Limits on Transfer of Guantanamo Detainees
Margaret Talev and Carol Rosenberg, McClatchy Newspapers: "President
Barack Obama on Friday reluctantly signed into law a military-funding
bill that limits him from transferring terrorism detainees from
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the U.S. or foreign countries, but he signaled
that he may get past the restrictions by using non-Pentagon resources
to get the job done. Even as he reserved that right, it wasn't
immediately clear to what degree the president still may capitulate to
political pressure between now and his 2012 re-election campaign to
keep detainees off U.S. soil and out of civilian courts."
Compensating for Decline: Revitalizing US Asia-Pacific Hegemony
Joseph Gerson, Truthout: "The Obama administration is attempting to
leverage its allies' resources and power while taking advantage of the
insecurities resulting from China's rising power and its aggressive
assertions of its territorial ambitions. The US is weaving together a
system of military and political alliances and relationships from Japan
to India and across Central Asia, as well as to Europe and to NATO."
What's Behind North Korea's Offer for Unconditional Talks?
Donald Kirk, The Christian Science Monitor: "China, as expected, has
strongly supported North Korea’s call for talks, saying they offer hope
for “stability” on the Korean Peninsula. Japanese leaders have been
increasingly concerned by rising confrontation on the Korean Peninsula
– a major reason why the Democratic Party of Japan has reversed its
previously soft-line stance. Analysts are puzzled, however, as to what
North Korea expects from calling for talks – or, for that matter, is
likely to gain even if talks resume."
Cathie Black and the Demise of Public Education
Christopher Lawrence, Truthout: "The appointment of Cathie Black - the
Hearst magazine executive with zero education experience - as New York
City schools chancellor is further evidence of the complete collapse of
the 20th century model of liberal public education in the US.... [This]
only serves to highlight the obvious message: education is a business
that is too lucrative in these difficult times to leave to teachers and
communities. It now seems inevitable that we will move to a dual
education system not seen since the days of legal segregation, with
minorities and the poor shuttled through a system of for-profit
institutions emphasizing standardized testing, uniform lessons and rote
learning."
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