Kanya D’Almeida - The 'School to Prison Pipeline': Education Under Arrest

Published on Thursday, November 17, 2011 by Inter Press Service

by Kanya D'Almeida

WASHINGTON - Metal detectors. Teams of drug-sniffing dogs. Armed guards and riot police. Forbiddingly high walls topped with barbed wire.

Such descriptions befit a prison or perhaps a high-security checkpoint in a war zone. But in the U.S., these scenes of surveillance and control are most visible in public schools, where in some areas, education is becoming increasingly synonymous with incarceration.

The United Nations, along with various human rights bodies and international courts, have recognised that "free education is the cornerstone of success and social development for young people".

The landmark Brown v. Board of Education court ruling, which officially desegregated U.S. schools in 1954, stated, "It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if (he/she is) denied the opportunity of an education."

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Stephen Kemble - Why Competition Among Health Plans Can't Help Us

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Competition-Among-Heal-by-Stephen-Kemble-111117-858.html

November 17, 2011 By Stephen Kemble Insurance is a system for managing financial risk. When a high percentage of a population has known risk, as the case with health insurance when so many have pre-existing conditions and risk factors, then competition does not reward better plans, it rewards avoiding covering or paying for the sick, undermining the whole purpose of health insurance. With or without with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the total national cost of U.S. health care is rising unsustainably, with an increasingly unaffordable share pushed onto patients.1,2 CMS projections of total national health expenditures show a rise from 17.8% of gross domestic product in 2010 to 21% in 2019 under the ACA, compared to 20.8% in 2019 under prior law, both far higher than any other country.2 Problems with access to care are widespread and increasing. Doctors and hospitals are seeing reimbursement cut while administrative burdens escalate. Unwarranted regional variations in health spending point to large amounts of money wasted on unnecessary care.3

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George Ciccariello-Maher - The Coming War on the Occupy Movement

November 17, 2011

by GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER

As I begin to write this, Occupy Oakland circulates in a by-now familiar pattern: forced from the camp at the break of day, the occupiers reconvened as they have done before on the steps of the Public Library. Later, they will attempt to close a repeating circuit that stretches a short six blocks along 14th Street between City Hall and the Library.

This circuit, moreover, is one which draws its familiarity not only from recent weeks, but also from the early moments of what is a single cycle of struggle spanning years: it was down 14th Street that Oakland Police pursued us during the first rebellion, on January 7th of 2009, that greeted the murder of Oscar Grant. And it was in front of the same Public Library that I crouched behind a bush as an armored personnel carrier sped past, only to sprint off as heavily-clad militarized police-troops dismounted to chase myself and others on foot.

It has become all too apparent that the Occupy Movement is under attack, and that even my title is wholly insufficient: this war is not “coming,” this war has already begun.

Breaching the Limits of Tolerance

Writing from the perspective of a previous cycle of struggle, the radical Frankfurt School theorist Herbert Marcuse described the phenomenon of “repressive tolerance,” in which an ostensibly liberating concept and practice becomes distorted to suit the powerful and legitimate the status quo. According to the political theorist Wendy Brown, the discourse of tolerance serves to mark the powerful as normal while discrediting the “unruly” as somehow “deviant,” and thereby “legitimates the most illiberal actions of the state.” In other words, the repression that comes is not a distinct and corrupted form of tolerance, as for Marcuse, but instead embedded within the idea itself.

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Alex Newman - Bilderberg Leader Mario Monti Takes Over Italy in 'Coup'

By Alex Newman

Global Research, November 17, 2011

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27712

Italy’s new Prime Minister Mario Monti (with wife at left), who rose to power in what critics called a “coup d’etat,” is a prominent member of the world elite in the truest sense of the term. In fact, he is a leader in at least two of the most influential cabals in existence today: the secretive Bilderberg Group and David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission.

Nicknamed “Super Mario,” Monti is also an “international advisor” to the infamous Goldman Sachs, one of the most powerful financial firms in the world. Critics refer to the giant bank as the “Vampire Squid” after a journalist famously used the term in a hit piece. But its tentacles truly do reach into the highest levels of governments worldwide.  

Italy’s Political Crisis

Following the Italian government’s descent into the economic abyss that saw bond yields soar to record highs as the euro-zone began to come apart at the seams, ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi decided to step down. And late last week, President Giorgio Napolitano asked Monti to form a new government.

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Dave Johnson - Privatization Nightmare: 5 Public Services That Should Never Be Handed Over to Greedy Corporations

By Dave Johnson, AlterNet

Posted on November 17, 2011, Printed on November 18, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153093/privatization_nightmare%3A_5_public_services_that_should_never_be_handed_over_to_greedy_corporations

Who gains – and who loses – when public assets and jobs are turned over to the private sector? 

The corporate right endlessly promotes “privatization” of public assets and public jobs as a cash-raising or cost-saving measure. Privatization is when the public turns over assets like airports, roads or buildings, or contracts out a public function like trash collection to a private company.  Many cities contract out their trash collection.  To raise cash Arizona even sold its state capital building and leased it back. 

The justification for privatization is the old argument that private companies do everything better and more “efficiently” than government, and will find ways to cut costs.  Over and over we hear that companies do everything for less cost than government. But it never seems to sink in that private companies don’t do things unless the people at the top can make a bundle of cash; if the CEO isn’t making millions, that CEO will move the company on to something else.  When government does something they don’t have to pay millions to someone at the top.  

So how do private companies save money?   What costs do companies cut that government doesn’t?  When you hear about “cost-cutting” here is something to consider: what if by “costs” the privatizers are talking about … us? 

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Progressive Radio Host Mitchell J. Rabin Mondays @ 6pm - Once Upon A Time....There was a Beautiful Planet

By Mitchell J. Rabin

Yes...there was a big, beautiful planet called Earth. And running all around her, as well as swimming inside her, were all types of interestingly shaped, sized and colored beings, each making their own unique sounds, hums and noises while moving about in their own unique ways. SSome walked, others crawled, some swam and yet others slithered. Despite the fact that some ate others for their sustenance, they all had a way of finding time to frolic, pro-create, rest, and those who were on land, bask in the warmth and rays of the sun. And in a strange, somewhat abstract way, all were somehow, more or less, co-existing on this beautiful, blue-green planet. 

At a certain point along the way of the multi-billion-year history of this marvel of an Earth, a green gem of the solar system, appeared a being known initially as Neanderthal, and who later, much later, came to be known as a chimpanzee, oh wait, excuse me, as homo sapiens. Yes, in one of his now considered ancient languages, this meant "rational, or wise man" with a brain volume of a minimum of 1,350 cubic centimeters. What we have learned from biology and history, it is apparently not size that most matters.

He was a playful if mischievous creature, and due to his larger brain than that of his neighbors in the animal kingdom, in different ways, began to lord over them. He lived in accordance with the beauty and abundance of this amazing and extraordinarily rich, beautiful planet during which period, he was considered, according to another of his ancient languages from the other side of the Earth, living in the Tao, that is, the flow of life. 

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Terra Daily - Climate change driving world towards food crunch: experts

by Staff Writers, Terra Daily.com
Paris (AFP) Nov 16, 2011

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Climate_change_driving_world_towards_food_crunch_experts_999.html

Surging population growth and climate change are driving the planet towards episodes of worsening hunger which only an overhaul of the food system will fix, a panel of experts said on Wednesday.

"In the 21st century, as we are now we've got a major set of converging threats," said John Beddington, a British professor who chaired a 13-member nine-month probe.

"There's population growth, unsustainable resource use and big pressures on humanity to transform the way that we use food," Beddington said in a teleconference.

"But it is intimately linked to water issues and energy issues -- and of course with the major issue of climate change."

Beddington said that in 2007-8, a surge in food prices drove 100 million people into poverty, and 40 million more followed them in the 2010-2011 spike.

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Eric Newhouse - Half of Vets Returning From Iraq and Afghanistan Need Medical Attention

Wednesday 16 November 2011

by: Eric Newhouse, Truthout | Report

http://www.truth-out.org/half-vets-returning-iraq-and-afghanistan-need-medical-attention/1321369149 

More than half of America's former warriors are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan with medical and mental problems that need treatment, according to new statistics from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

"These are unprecedented numbers," said Dr. Sonja Batten, assistant deputy chief of patient services care for the VA Mental Health Division.

But they're surprising numbers, in some ways.

While they bear out the controversial 2008 Rand Report that one soldier in three will return home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI), the TBI component is dramatically less than predicted.

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NEW ORIGINAL SERIES: American Veterans: Forgotten and Discarded - Episode 1: "Afflicted"

This Thanksgiving, remember our vets who have returned to a country that so easily forgets them. 

In a follow-up to the heart-wrenching series, "Who Is Killing Our American Veterans?", Dr. Gary Null exposes the continued epidemic of homelessness affecting our American Veterans today. Thousands of Veterans are mired in poverty, suffering with physical and psychological illnesses and are living on the streets and in the woods throughout America. See the tragic story of these forgotten men and women and the few dedicated people who are committed to helping them in their plight. 

Senior Executive Producer/Writer/Director: Gary Null Ph.D.

Executive Producer/Co-Director: Richard Polonetsky   

Producer: Shannon Burnett   

Editor: Michael Palmerio   

Camera: Florian Boehm

A Progressive Radio Network Original Series

We would like to give a very special thanks to the organizations listed below.  Please visit their websites to see how they are helping homeless Veterans and how you can help support their efforts.

National Veterans Homeless Support [http://www.nvhs.us/]

Veterans Transitional Facility

Vietnam and All Veterans of Brevard Inc. [http://www.vietnamandallveteransofbrevard.com/]

Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Inc. [http://www.clsmf.org/index.php/services/vlap]

Daily Bread Inc. [http://www.dailybreadinc.org/]

AIDS Fraud

Dr. Gary Null and noted journalist Janine Roberts hold a press conference to expose the fraud behind the alleged discovery of the AIDS virus.

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