Common Dreams

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced Saturday that she is backing out of delivering the 2014 graduation commencement address at Rutgers University after protests by Rutgers faculty and students over her role in the Iraq War and torture. Rice was a leading hawk in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war.

Last week, Rutgers students staged a sit-in at a campus administrative building, holding signs that accused Rice and other Bush administration officials of war crimes. Signs included: “No honors for war criminals,” “War criminals out” and “RU 4 Humanity?”   Continue reading “Protests Force Condoleezza Rice to Cancel $35K Rutgers Speech”

American flag shirt / CBS news screenshotThe Daily Caller – by Robby Soave

Students in a California school district will not be allowed to wear American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo, due to concerns that such displays of patriotism would inflame racial tensions by offending Mexican students on their holiday.

The district’s policy concerned many free speech advocates, but was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.    Continue reading “Students, It’s Illegal To Wear An American Flag Shirt On Cinco De Mayo”

IRS Audit NotificationCNS News – by Barbara Hollingsworth

In 2011, while the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was busy scrutinizing the tax-exempt status of 100 percent of Tea Party groups and other conservative non-profits, the tax agency did not audit a single high-value electing large partnership (ELP) with more than $100 million in assets.

That’s according to a preliminary report released to Congress by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) April 17th. (See GAO.pdf)    Continue reading “Too Big To Audit? Large Partnerships Escape IRS Scrutiny, GAO Reports”

Militant Hippies

This is our packing list. It is for bugging out on foot without transportation.

Remember this:

Driving at 60 mph for 30 minutes can get you 30 miles from home. That can take two days to walk if something happens while on the road. This bag should be carried in your vehicle if you are driving more than a two day walk from home. We also pack smaller bags called get home bags for normal daily driving close to home. They hold enough equipment to walk for two days or less.   Continue reading “Bug Out Bags”

A woman stands in line with some of the 1,500 people seeking employment during a job fair at the Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater in Washington, DC (AFP Photo / Chip Somodevilla)RT News

Although the US unemployment rate has declined, more and more Americans are choosing to opt out of the labor market altogether and no longer even figure in the employment data.

Efforts by the Obama administration to dress up the employment picture are a bit like attempting to stuff a circus elephant into a ballerina costume. As Washington trumpets last month’s drop in the unemployment rate (6.3 percent), it has quietly moved more than 988,000 Americans into the “not participating in the labor force” column.   Continue reading “Nearly 102 million working-age Americans jobless”

Shimon PeresCry me a river!  *barf*

Mail.com

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli President Shimon Peres says he and his late wife decided to go their “separate ways” after he insisted on running for the presidency in 2007.

The 90-year-old Peres, who rarely discusses his personal life, told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper that his wife Sonya asked him to retire from politics — something he couldn’t accept. The remarks, published Monday, came as Peres is wrapping up his seven-year term as the country’s largely ceremonial head of state in July.   Continue reading “Israel’s Peres says politics broke up his marriage”

Jose MujicaMail.com

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay has finally released its rules for the legal marijuana market it is launching this year, detailing how the government plans to get very involved in every aspect of the business. But anyone hoping the South American nation will become a pot-smoker’s paradise should probably head to Colorado instead, President Jose Mujica suggested on Friday.

“It’s a complete fiction what they do in Colorado” in terms of controlling the sale and use of legal marijuana, Mujica said in an Associated Press interview. Colorado licenses sellers and producers but allows any adult to buy up to 28 grams at a time — and then go down the street and buy 28 grams more. In Uruguay, consumers must be licensed as well, and each purchase will be tracked to ensure they buy no more than 10 grams a week, he said.   Continue reading “Uruguay leader calls Colorado pot law ‘a fiction’”

Yahoo News

Berlin (AFP) – Dozens of specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are advising the Ukrainian government, a German newspaper reported Sunday.

Citing unnamed German security sources, Bild am Sonntag said the CIA and FBI agents were helping Kiev end the rebellion in the east of Ukraine and set up a functioning security structure.   Continue reading “CIA, FBI agents ‘advising Ukraine government’: report”

Mail.com

PHOENIX (AP) — A parachuting medical team and other U.S. Air Force rescuers are working to bring two badly burned Chinese sailors from a boat in the Pacific Ocean to a California hospital.

Officials said two other Chinese sailors died and six are believed to be missing after their boat sank. Maj. Sarah Schwennesen, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, said Sunday that a Venezuelan fishing boat reported finding 11 sailors floating in a raft Friday afternoon.   Continue reading “US air teams rescuing injured Chinese sailors”

Truth Dig – by Chris Hedges

The U.S. Supreme Court decision to refuse to hear our case concerning Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which permits the military to seize U.S. citizens and hold them indefinitely in military detention centers without due process, means that this provision will continue to be law. It means the nation has entered a post-constitutional era. It means that extraordinary rendition of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil by our government is legal. It means that the courts, like the legislative and executive branches of government, exclusively serve corporate power—one of the core definitions of fascism. It means that the internal mechanisms of state are so corrupted and subservient to corporate power that there is no hope of reform or protection for citizens under our most basic constitutional rights. It means that the consent of the governed—a poll by OpenCongress.com showed that this provision had a 98 percent disapproval rating—is a cruel joke. And it means that if we do not rapidly build militant mass movements to overthrow corporate tyranny, including breaking the back of the two-party duopoly that is the mask of corporate power, we will lose our liberty.    Continue reading “The Post-Constitutional Era”

PBS Newshour – by Lara Jakes

KINSHASA, Congo — The United States is prepared to give Congo $30 million in aid for stability and democracy-building – but wants President Joseph Kabila to agree to step down at the end of his current term in office, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.

Kerry said Congo’s government also needs to schedule elections soon. The vote is tentatively set for 2016, although a firm date has not yet been set.   Continue reading “U.S. pledges $30 million to Congo for democracy-building”

Image: A wildfire burns in Oklahoma.NBC News – by Alexander Smith

Thousands of people fled a deadly wildfire burning across 4,000 acres in Oklahoma, officials said early Monday.

Some 30 fire departments battled the blaze overnight.

A 56-year-old man died after he chose not to evacuate his home near Guthrie, Okla., the city’s Fire Chief Eric Harlow said.   Continue reading “Oklahoma Wildfires Turn Deadly, Destroy Homes”

The New American – by Alex Newman

The Founding Fathers created the U.S. government for the express purpose of securing the God-given individual rights of Americans, according to the Declaration of Independence. A poll released last month, however, confirmed yet again that a majority of voters now view the perpetually expanding Leviathan as a threat to those rights and individual liberty. More than one in three Americans even fears the federal government, the recent poll showed, confirming other surveys finding broad public agreement that Washington, D.C., has become dangerous and out of control.   Continue reading “Poll: Most Americans View Feds as Threat to Liberty”

Rocky Mountain Corn

Have you ever chased a slick-skinned, sixteen inch bullfrog around the kitchen while your mama’s hollering, “get that frog out of my house”? Fried frog legs were a staple when I was growing up. Not the whole frog, just the back legs. Nothing better – nothing tastier, more succulent than fried frog legs. Yep, its true. Those legs would twitch and sometimes jump clean out of the pan. Always keep the lid on. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County had nothing on these big boys once they warmed up from the ice chest.   Continue reading “Fried Frogs and Commissars”

Washington Post – by Danny Franklin

Danny Franklin is a partner at Benenson Strategy Group, a strategic consulting firm, and a member of its team advising the White House on public opinion and communications.

When Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed his state’s so-called guns everywhere law, it marked the latest in a string of legislative defeats for gun-control activists. Since the December 2012 Sandy Hook murders, 20 states have loosened gun laws . Georgia has now upped the ante with a bill that allows people to carry concealed weapons into bars, churches, schools and airports and prohibits law enforcement from requiring someone to show their gun owner’s license.    Continue reading “Framing the danger of guns as a public health risk will change the debate over gun control”

bidenMinutemen News

Vice President Joe Biden extoled immigration as crucial to American innovation Saturday at a college graduation ceremony in South Florida.

The Miami Dade College graduates from two campuses and their families, 2,000 strong, cheered as a procession of 39 flags from their home countries, entered the gym and opened the program. Biden acknowledged that he was addressing many immigrants and the children and grandchildren of immigrants, many from South America and the Caribbean.   Continue reading “Biden: 11 Million Illegal Immigrants In U.S. Are “Already Americans””