Truthout: 27 March 2012

Citing Truthout Report, UN Special Rapporteur "Looking Into" Guantanamo "Suicides"
Jeffrey Kaye, Truthout: "Earlier this month, Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, responded to an inquiry by this reporter regarding new information on the deaths of two Guantanamo prisoners, Abdul Rahman Al Amri and Mohammad Salih Al Hanashi. According to the Department of Defense (DoD), both prisoners died of suicide in 2007 and 2009, respectively. But new details surrounding their deaths, first reported by Truthout March 1, challenged government accounts concerning what happened."
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The Occupy Files: DHS Investigated Anonymous and Kept Tabs on Political Hackers
Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "Protesters wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and maybe a black hat or cape have been a common sight at Occupy protests across the country. On the street, they were just another group of protesters, but on the Internet, the Anonymous hacker movement they represent was seen as a serious security threat during the first few months of Occupy, according to internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents and emails released to Truthout last week."
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Hard Questions From Justices Over Insurance Mandate
Adam Liptak, The New York Times News Service: "With the fate of President Obama's health care law hanging in the balance at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, a lawyer for the administration faced a barrage of skeptical questions from four of the court's more conservative justices. 'Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?' Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asked the lawyer, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., only minutes into the argument."
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Lawsuit: CIA Withholds Documents Using Legal Exemption It Does Not Have Authority to Apply
Jason Leopold, Truthout: "For the past eight years, the CIA has used an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that 'protects intelligence sources and methods' to justify the withholding of certain records from requesters. But a federal lawsuit filed against the agency charges that the CIA does not have the authority to deny records under what is known as a (b)(3) exemption unless the agency consulted with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and received specific authorization in each instance it had denied records under that rule, which it apparently has not done."
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ALEC Climate-Change Denial Model Bill Passes in Tennessee
Steve Horn, DeSmogBlog: "Welcome to Tennessee, which on March 19th became the fourth state with a legal mandate to incorporate climate change denial as part of the science education curriculum when discussing climate change... The ALEC bill passed as H.B. 368 and S.B. 893, with 70-23 and 24-8 roll call votes, respectively. Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Haslam is likely to sign the bill into law soon."
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Paul Krugman | Inequality Is Rising, but the Swedes Are No Americans
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, the authors of the book 'Why Nations Fail,' recently reacted on their blog to the economist Allan Meltzer's claim that the top 1 percent is surging everywhere, even in Sweden, so it's not a proper political issue."
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Eugene Robinson | Repeal the "Stand Your Ground" Laws
Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Writers Group: "The 'Stand Your Ground' laws in Florida and other states should all be repealed. At best, they are redundant. At worst, as in the Trayvon Martin killing, they are nothing but a license to kill. Police in Sanford, Fla., cited the statute as grounds for their decision not to file charges against Martin's killer, George Zimmerman. Martin, 17, was strolling home from a convenience store, armed with an iced tea and a bag of Skittles, when Zimmerman - a Neighborhood Watch volunteer and wannabe police officer - spotted him and decided he looked suspicious."
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Climate Change Disappears From Keystone XL Pipeline Debate
Lisa Song, Inside Climate News: "Mining and using tar sands oil creates more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil. But that's rarely mentioned anymore. Neither the White House nor the EPA returned requests for comment. A State Department spokeswoman said the agency could not comment on the president's Cushing speech. She added that the State Department has no involvement in reviewing the southern leg of Keystone XL, which would run from Cushing to Texas."
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On the News With Thom Hartmann: ExxonMobil Continues to Benefit From Taxpayer Subsidies, and More
In today's On the News segment: More than eight in ten school districts across the nation say they are inadequately funded; support for the Afghanistan war has now reached an all-time low; an end in sight to the bloodshed in Syria might be near; by using at least 20 different tax shelters, ExxonMobil was able to pay fewer taxes than even Mitt Romney; and more.
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Washington Post Annual Report Reveals Widespread Accreditation and Legal Problems at Kaplan University
Danny Weil, Truthout: "Kaplan University is the blood bank for The Washington Post and supplies the Washington Post Corporation with 58 percent of its revenue. On February 29, 2012, The Washington Post Company released its 2011 10-K annual report. The report detailed accreditation problems at Kaplan College medical training programs all across the country. The annual report also revealed a dramatic decline in Kaplan's fortunes. Revenues at Kaplan Higher Education declined $500 million in 2011."
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Reproductive Rights and the Long Hand of Slave Breeding
JoAnn Wypijewski, The Nation: "I hate liberalism's language of 'choice.' I always have. Redolent of the marketplace, it reduces the most intimate aspects of existence, of women's physical autonomy, to individualistic purchasing preferences. A sex life or a Subaru? A child or a cheeseburger? Life, death or liposuction?... If there is an upside to the right's latest, seemingly loony and certainly grotesque multi-front assault on women, it is the clarion it sounds to humanists to take the high ground and ditch the anodyne talk of 'a woman's right to choose' for the weightier, fundamental assertion of 'a woman's right to be.'"
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Bill Moyers | The Dangerous Road of Wishful Thinking (Video)
Bill Moyers, Moyers & Co.: "Bill Moyers counsels President Obama not to look at America through the rose-colored glasses of people - like Robert Kagan - led by political opportunity and wishful thinking, but by those - like Andrew Bacevich - who see the world as it truly is, and are best poised to make it better."
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We Screwed Up: A Letter of Apology to My Granddaughter
Chip Ward, TomDispatch: "I know a better world is possible. We create that better world by reaching out to one another, listening, learning, and speaking from our hearts, face to face, neighbor to neighbor, one community after another, openly, inclusively, bravely. Democracy is not a gift to be practiced only when permitted. We empower ourselves. Our salvation is found in each other, together."
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From Coast to Coast, Protesters Demand Justice in Trayvon Martin Case
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Personhood, the Undead Movement, Marches On
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Did the US Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Cheney's New Heart? Yes
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A Furious Lawrence O'Donnell Interrogates Empty Chair After George Zimmerman's Lawyer Cancels
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Let's Stop Fighting in Afghanistan and Wage a War on Big Oil
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Santorum Looks to Deny Romney a Win by Any Means
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Kohler Stops Advertising on Limbaugh's Radio Show
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