Amitabh Pal - Austerity is Killing Europe

The austerity fetish of those making economic decisions is killing Europe’s economy.

The last few days have provided further proof.

“Spain officially slipped back into recession for the second time in three years Monday, after following the German remedy of deep retrenchment in public outlays, joining Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic,” the New York Times reported this week.

And more bad news has followed.

“Britain slid back into recession in the first quarter of the year, according to official figures released Wednesday, undercutting the government's argument that its austerity program was working,” says today’s Times.

But those in charge seem to be eternally clueless.

“We must persevere,” said Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank.

Draghi’s obliviousness becomes more understandable when you look at his background. From 2002 to 2005, Draghi was managing director and European vice president of Goldman Sachs. His outlook represents that of a hard-hearted investment banker, more interested in listening to the concerns of the financial sector than of the people. Goldman Sachs has been a master of putting such folks in charge of the global economic system.

‘They’re simply the best at building political networks, and that has earned them the name ‘Government Sachs,’ ” Marc Roche, author of a book on the firm, explained to the New Internationalist magazine. “In Europe they stay clear of ex-politicians; instead they go for ex-European Commissioners and former central bankers. These work as door openers. They help the bank to get access to those in power, and they show them how the EU works.”

Read More:

http://www.progressive.org/austerity_is_killing_europe.html

Carey L. Biron - In New US "Bioeconomy", Industry Trumps Environment

The White House on Thursday announced the formulation of the National Bioeconomy Blueprint, aimed at shoring up the U.S. commitment to bioscience-related research.

But critics warn that the new program focuses too much on economic concerns, placing too little emphasis on either social issues or on the environment itself.

"We're disappointed to see what finally came out," Eric Hoffman, a Washington-based campaigner with Friends of the Earth, an international NGO, told IPS. "This report largely seems to be an endorsement for the biotechnology industry to rush ahead without any real oversight."

The biotechnology industry "says that it has been calling for this type of legislation for long time," Hoffman notes. "That makes sense, given that the industry stands to gain the most from the types of policies laid out in the Blueprint."

Hoffman says that the biotechnology industry includes many of the largest oil and petrochemical producers – ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Monsanto, Dow. The lack of plans for government regulation apparent in the Blueprint leaves him pessimistic that much "clean, green" technology will come out of the new effort.

Read More:

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107587

Sucralose Causes Cancer Concern

Following the discovery in a new study that mice have a higher risk of developing cancer after eating the popular British-made low-calorie artificial sweetener sucralose, a leading cancer scientist calls for urgent research. 

Dr. Morando Soffritti, director of the Ramazzini Institute in Bologna, Italy will present the findings of the study for the first time at the Childhood Cancer 2012 conference in London.

Hundreds of millions of people all around the world consume artificial sweeteners, which can be found in a large variety of foods and drinks, including soft drinks, cakes and foods for diabetics, as well as medicines. The increasing problem of obesity in developed countries, which started in the 70's in Europe and the U.S., has led to increasing demands for reduced-calorie foods and drinks. However, the expansion of the artificial sweetener market has also led to rising concerns amongst consumers in terms of safety and potential long-term health effects, especially with regard to the potential cancer risks.

Read More:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/244603.php

Cora Currier - ALEC and ExxonMobil Push Loopholes in Fracking Chemical Disclosure Rules

One of the key controversies about fracking is the chemical makeup of the fluid that is pumped deep into the ground to break apart rock and release natural gas. Some companies have been reluctant to disclose what's in their fracking fluid. Scientists and environmental advocates argue that, without knowing its precise composition, they can't thoroughly investigate complaints of contamination.

Disclosure requirements vary considerably from state to state, as ProPublica recently charted. In many cases, the rules have been limited by a "trade secrets" provision under which companies can claim that a proprietary chemical doesn't have to be disclosed to regulators or the public.

One apparent proponent of the trade secrets caveat? The American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, a nonprofit group that brings together politicians and corporations to draft and promote conservative, business-friendly legislation. ALEC has been in the spotlight recently because of its support of controversial laws like Florida's "Stand Your Ground" provision.

Read More:

http://www.propublica.org/article/alec-and-exxonmobil-push-loopholes-in-fracking-chemical-disclosure-rules

NSA Domestic Spying Continues Under Obama

WASHINGTON - April 25 - On Monday, National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower and Government Accountability Project (GAP) client William Binney continued publicly revealing massive domestic surveillance beginning under President George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11, and continuing rampantly under President Obama.

A senior crypto-mathematician, Binney served at NSA for over forty years, lastly as the Technical Director of the NSA World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting group, made up of thousands of NSA employees charged with analyzing massive volumes of electronic data gathered worldwide. Today, on the day of the annual Ridenhour Prizes that celebrate whistleblowers and truth-telling in the public interest, GAP is lauding Binney for courageously taking a stand and continuing to blow the whistle on NSA’s unconstitutional domestic surveillance.

Binney’s explosive disclosures over the past few weeks include:

Read More:

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/04/25-3?print

Renee Parsons - U.S. Hegemony in Latin America

While the 'misconduct' of Secret Service agents with prostitutes in Colombia is a significant, if titillating scandal, most media reports have missed the tectonic political shift that surfaced at the recent Summit of the Americas meeting.

The Summit, an offshoot of the Organization of American States organized in 1948, consists of 35 western hemisphere nations that meet on a tri-annual basis with the U.S. historically setting the agenda since the summit's inception in 1994.

The president arrived, smooth and impeccable, with, no doubt, the expectation of encouraging new investment and trade initiatives at the first business seminar conducted since the Summits began. Attending were over three hundred U.S. business executives with Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue in attendance to push for a free trade deal with Brazil. Once China began out-hustling the U.S. for its share of the global pie in Latin America and as the U.S. bogged down in a decade of war with an enduring economic catastrophe on its hands, Summit countries took the opportunity to readjust their vision of Uncle Sam's once omnipotent authority. That readjusted vision has offered a measure of independence from U.S. trade markets as well as U.S. domination on policy decisions. While not known for its historical memory, the U.S. does not usually react kindly to previously compliant nations flexing their sovereign muscles, U.S. AID to Latin American and the Caribbean at $1.3 billion in 2010 will most likely provide the necessary tether for continued cooperation.

Read More:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/renee-parsons/us-hegemony-in-latin-amer_b_1445244.html

Jamie McClelland - POLICE CLAMP DOWN ON INDEPENDENT ONLINE MEDIA: FBI Seizes Server from Progressive Internet Service Provider

In an attack on our infrastructure, our movement and the democratic Internet, the FBI seized a server yesterday from one of our cabinets in a colocation facility.

The server is owned by our sister organization, Riseup, and is managed by ECN, a progressive technology provider in Italy.

While the seizure of any equipment is pernicious and damaging, the pointlessness of this seizure suggests an inclination toward extrajudicial punishment and an attempted crackdown on the very possibility of anonymous speech online.

The FBI has told us they are investigating bomb threats targeting the facilities and people at the University of Pittsburgh. They appear to believe that one of the servers used to transmit these threats was an anonymous e-mail server operated by ECN. Anonymous remailers have no logs or traces of who used them, so the FBI will not get any useful information from the stolen machine.

Seizing this machine serves no useful purpose in tracking down or stopping the bomb threats, but it has many serious negative implications. Anonymous e-mail is an important part of the Internet. One of the benefits of Internet technology is the ability to communicate world-wide, and this communication is fundamental to the struggles of the world's people to address many of the world's ills. In a period in which our society has seen massive losses of privacy in which just about everything we do on-line can be tracked, logged, studied and used for all kinds of purposes, anonymous Internet-based communication tools provide shade from the intrusive searchlights of ubiquitous surveillance.

Read More:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30420

POLL: Majority of Republicans Guess They Have to Support Fu*king Romney

In what Romney campaign insiders are hailing as a sign that the party faithful are rallying around the former Massachusetts governor, a new poll released today shows that a majority of Republican voters agree with the statement, “I guess I have to support fucking Romney.”

When asked why they were now ready to cast their vote for Mr. Romney, a majority of those Republicans polled “strongly agreed” with the statement, “Why do you think?  No one else is fucking running anymore.  Stop asking such stupid fucking questions.  I don’t need this shit.”

Underscoring the sense that he is now the presumptive nominee, the Romney campaign unveiled a new slogan this morning, “You Have No Other Options Anymore.  Start Dealing With It, Losers.”

Read More:

http://www.borowitzreport.com/2012/04/25/poll-majority-of-republicans-guess-they-have-to-support-fucking-romney/

Danny Schechter - Are You “Spring Trained” For May Day?

Listen to Danny on "The News Dissector" every Friday at 1pm (Eastern Time)

Our Own Stand Your Ground Message, 1894

...Let the winds lift your banners from far lands 
With a message of strife and of hope:
Raise the Maypole aloft with its garlands 
That gathers your cause in its scope....
...Stand fast, then, Oh Workers, your ground,
Together pull, strong and united:
Link your hands like a chain the world round, 
If you will that your hopes be requited.
When the World's Workers, sisters and brothers, 
Shall build, in the new coming years,
A lair house of life -- not for others, 
For the earth and its fullness is theirs.
Walter Crane, The Workers' Maypole, 1894

New York, New York: When you hear the term "spring training," most of us think baseball, but, this year, it has a different context because the Occupy Movement has appropriated the term to describe educating and preparing activists for non-violent nationwide protests and a hoped for general strike slated for May Day 2012 this May 1.

Read More:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Are-You--Spring-Trained--by-Danny-Schechter-120423-2.html

Danny Schechter - My 30 Minutes of Fame: Rocking In The Shadows Of Dick Clark

Listen to Danny on "The News Dissector" every Friday at 1pm (Eastern Time)

The News: DICK CLARK DIES AT AGE 82

“Dick Clark has died. Clark's agent confirmed the news in a statement that the 82-year- old TV legend, who brought rock and roll into the American living room, died of a massive heart attack this morning." For Mr. American Bandstand, Rock and Roll was a brand, here to pay! He parlayed one show into becoming a TV icon, endlessly on the air every New Year’s Eve even when he could barely talk or stand. He became most famous for being famous.

The Memory: JOCKO Enters My Life With Dick's demise, I had a reason to reflect on my own experiences as a participant on similar shows. I was always considered a good dancer and the rock n'roll dance show was a staple in my teen years. When I was at DeWitt Clinton High School, I was invited- -don't remember how or why--on a more racially mixed American Bandstand local look- alike show for the New York market called Teen Bandstand, hosted by Jocko Henderson, a radio DJ, who was rapping before rap was even known as a musical form. Jocko used to introduce himself this way:

"Ooo Boop a Doo, How Do You Do? Hey. This is the Jock, on the Scene with the record machine…."

He was a lively raconteur, an original hipster. great at jive talk. He MCed the show I was on. (Jocko so impressed me that I tracked him down decades later and included him many years later on a TV report I produced for ABC's 20/20 called "Rapping to the Beat"(1981), the first national TV segment on hip-hop.)

Back then, there was a dance contest each night and then the winners were asked back to compete against each other in a weekly dance-off.

I won the prize on my big night---a "gold plated" Coke Bottle that I still have, and a pair of white buck shoes from Tom McCann that I wore out pretty quickly. (It was a low budget show).

Read More:

http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/50-danny/990-my-30-minutes-of-fame-rocking-in-the-shadows-of-dick-clark