Truthout: October 4, 2011

Truthout: October 4, 2011

Anatomy of a $30 Billion Medicare Crime
Kathleen Sharp, Truthout: "Like all great capers, this $30 billion Medicare crime supposedly unfolded in plain sight. A drug rep sat in the doctor's office, balancing folders on his knees and flipping through the patient files. He wore a starched shirt, navy slacks and a golf tan from that day he'd convinced the doctor-client to participate in his company's 'mini-trial.' The deal was this: if the oncologist would inject his patients with high doses of a poorly tested drug, he could pocket $1,500."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: Union Goes to Court to Prevent NY Bus Drivers From Transporting Arrested Wall Street Protesters, and More
In today's On the News segment: The White House was asked to respond to Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, New York Transport Workers Union went to court to block New York City and the New York Police Department from forcing bus drivers to transport arrested Wall Street protesters, senators passed legislation last night to impose trade tariffs on China in response to that nation's manipulation of its currency, and more.
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Paul Krugman | US Tax Policies Benefit Rich
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "With taxes on the wealthy on the political radar, we're going to be drowning in a vast wave of double-talk and smothered by the fuzzy math. Still, one has to try. So, a couple of notes. One is that you have to beware of the old trick of saying 'taxes,' then slipping into 'income taxes.' Most Americans pay more payroll taxes (for things like Medicare and Social Security) than income taxes, but the reverse is true at high incomes. So focusing only on income taxes makes it seem as if the rich bear much more of the burden than they really do."
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From "Occupy Wall Street" to Electioneering, Frustrated Liberals Rising
Tony Pugh, McClatchy Newspapers: "Demoralized liberals are trying to get their mojo back. Frustrated with Congress, outmaneuvered by the tea party and all but silent as the GOP swept the 2010 elections, liberals say they've had enough. On Monday, 2,000 progressive activists who represented more than 200 groups came to Washington to chart a new course for recapturing the 2008 electoral magic that put Barack Obama in office and gave Democrats control of both houses of Congress."
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Michael Moore: How I Became Anti-War
Michael Moore, Grand Central Publishing: "I can't quite remember when I turned against the idea of war, but I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that I didn't want to die. From pretty much the sixth grade on, I was firmly, solidly, against dying. But up until then, I spent many years dying with verve in our neighborhood. The favorite game to play on our street was War.... But by 1966, as the pictures on the evening news seemed nothing like what we were acting out on our little dirt street, 'playing' war became less and less fun. These soldiers on TV were really dead - bloody and dead, covered in mud, then covered by a tarp, no slow-motion heroics provided."
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Top Five Reasons Why the Occupy Wall Street Protests Embody Values of the Real Boston Tea Party
Lee Fang, ThinkProgress: "In recent years, the Boston Tea Party has been associated with a right-wing movement that supports policies favoring powerful corporations and the wealthy. As ThinkProgress has reported, lobbyists and Republican front groups have driven the current manifestation of the Tea Party to push for giveaways to oil companies and big businesses."
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Why 2012 Will Shake Up Asia and the World
John Feffer, TomDispatch.com: "The United States has long styled itself a Pacific power. It established the model of counterinsurgency in the Philippines in 1899 and defeated the Japanese in World War II. It faced down the Chinese and the North Koreans to keep the Korean peninsula divided in 1950, and it armed the Taiwanese to the teeth. Today, America maintains the most powerful military in the Pacific region, supported by a constellation of military bases, bilateral alliances, and about 100,000 service personnel. It has, however, reached the high-water mark of its Pacific presence and influence. The geopolitical map is about to be redrawn."
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Thom Hartmann | Free Trade Is Ravaging National Economies
Thom Hartmann, Berrett-Koehler Publishers: "Free trade is a phrase behind which multinational corporations have essentially strip-mined both the developed and the developing world. That's strong language, but the metaphor holds up under examination. In strip-mining, a company comes in, strips off anything necessary to get at what it wants, and leaves. Similarly, the developing world is being mined for its resources, including human labor. At the same time, the already-developed world is being mined for its wealth, as its middle class and working poor sink farther into debt while multinational corporations become richer than any historic kingdom the planet has ever seen."
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Uncle Sam Should Support Built-to-Last Companies, Not Built-to-Loot Enterprises
Chuck Collins, Institute for Policy Studies: "A powerful coalition of US-based global companies is lobbying hard for a 'tax holiday' on offshore profits. Companies like Google, Apple, Pfizer, and General Electric have parked huge amounts of profits - a stash totaling more than $1.4 trillion - in offshore tax havens. They've stowed those funds abroad primarily to avoid having to pay federal taxes on that income."
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Settlement Reached Over Arrest of Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! Producers at 2008 GOP Convention (Video)
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: "A final settlement has been reached in a federal lawsuit challenging the police crackdown on journalists reporting on the 2008 Republican National Convention and protests in St. Paul, Minnesota. Democracy Now! host and executive producer Amy Goodman, along with former producers Nicole Salazar and Sharif Abdel Kouddous, filed the lawsuit last year against the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments, the Ramsey County Sheriff and United States Secret Service personnel. The lawsuit challenged the policies and conduct of law enforcement during the 2008 RNC that resulted in their arrests."
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Live Feed: Take Back the American Dream Conference in Washington, DC (Video)
Free Speech brings you live coverage of the "Take Back the American Dream" conference.
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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is threatening to shut down democracy on Wall Street.

You might expect that from a man who is the fourth-wealthiest person in America, with $19.5 billion dollars in his pocket. Moreover, Bloomberg made a lot of money as a Wall Street financier, but he catapulted into the multibillionaire category by revolutionizing financial market information and selling a specialized terminal and access services to the financial industry (followed by Bloomberg media services).

In short, his fortune is directly integrated into the Wall Street status quo.

That may be why he told a New York City radio show host last week that "New Yorkers need 'to help the banks.'" The Village Voice headlined its story on the plutocratic pronouncements of Bloomberg, "Mayor Bloomberg: 'We'll See' If The City Will Let Occupy Wall Street Continue."

Bloomberg seemed in a baronial haze, claiming, "The protesters are protesting against people who make $40-50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet. That's the bottom line." Is the mayor mainlining Fox "news" as his source of information? He royally added, "so anything we can do that's responsible to help the banks ... that is what we need."

Yesterday, BuzzFlash at Truthout wrote that there is little doubt that law enforcement officials - at the behest of corporate-backed politicians - are infiltrating and planning ways to discredit the Wall Street autumn of democracy.

In his plutocratic cloud of personal financial interest and self-serving disdain for the right of assembly, Bloomberg resembles a monarchist, not a mayor.

If the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads and grows, you can count on Mayor Bloomberg to pull the curtains down on this exercise in America's basic right of redress.

As Thom Hartmann noted in a book excerpted on Truthout, Thomas Jefferson warned that "the artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy."

Bloomberg is just waiting to snap the mouse trap shut on democracy.

Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

Barney Frank: Cut the Military Budget Now
Read the Article at The Nation

Reagan Insider: "GOP Destroyed US Economy"
Read the Article at MarketWatch

The New York Police Department and FBI Are Trying to Infiltrate Wall Street Protest to Discredit It: Of This You Can Be Sure
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

First Arctic Ozone Hole Found, Global Warming Cited as Cause
Read the Article at LiveScience

Why Did the New York Times Change Their Brooklyn Bridge Arrests Story?
Read the Article at The Village Voice

Rick Perry Loves Some Ted Nugent ... and Is O.K. With Brazen Racism, Too
Read the Article at The Somervell County Salon

Thousands of California Prisoners on Hunger Strike
Read the Article at CNN

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