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Everything Americans Think They Know About Drugs Is Wrong: A Scientist Explodes the Myths

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Kristen Gwynne - Jun. 16 (Interview) - There are multiple false conclusions. There is a belief, for example, that crack cocaine is so addictive it only took one hit to get hooked, and that it is impossible to use heroin without becoming addicted. There was another belief that methamphetamine users are cognitively impaired. All of these are myths that have have been perpetuated primarily by law enforcement, and law enforcement deals with a limited, select group of people—people who are, in many cases, behaving badly. But to generalize that to all drug users is not only shortsighted and naive, it’s also irresponsible. The impact of that irresponsible behavior has been borne primarily by black communities.

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How Right-Wing Ideology Has Suckered Millions of Americans into Hating Their Own Government

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Lawrence Davidson - Jun. 11 (Special Report) - Boortz’s view of the regulatory powers of the federal government is dangerously naive. He seems unaware that in the United States the ability to create and protect the civil liberties he supports comes from the legislative action of a strong federal government that then oversees the implementation of those laws against historically prejudiced, racist state and local governments.

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Trayvon Martin information barred

Tue, 28 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Josh Levs. Graham Winch, Victor Blackwell - May. 28 (News Report) - The judge at the George Zimmerman murder trial ruled the defense cannot bring up Martin's text messages, his familiarity with guns, marijuana use or previous fights.

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Punishing Students For Not Making Eye Contact? How Charter Schools' Prejudiced Policies Undermine Equality

Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - May. 26 (Special Report) - not only do charter schools fail children of color and students with disabilities, they often actively work against them as they try to transform students into what they imagine is the status quo. From outrageous fees to strict disciplinary codes, charter schools continuously work to target students they don't want.

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America's Corrupt Justice System: Federal Private Prison Populations Grew by 784% in 10 Year Span

Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By David Harris-Gershon - May. 26 (Special Report) - From 1999-2010, the total U.S. prison population rose 18 percent, an increase largely reflected by the "drug war" and stringent sentencing guidelines, such as three strikes laws and mandatory minimum sentences. However, total private prison populations exploded fivefold during this same time period, with federal private prison populations rising by 784 percent (as seen in the chart below complied by The Sentencing Project):

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Racist chants halt Milan-Roma game

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - May. 13 (News) - The Serie A match between AC Milan and Roma is halted because of racist chanting inside the San Siro.

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"Over the Line": U.S. Agents Shooting Dead Innocent Mexicans Across the Border With Impunity

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 07 (Special Report) - A joint investigation by The Washington Monthly and The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute has found over the past five years U.S. border agents have shot across the border at least 10 times, killing a total of six Mexicans on Mexican soil. The killings have gone unpunished after a court ruled the Mexican victims have no standing to sue in U.S. courts since they died on their own soil. Investigative reporter John Carlos Frey writes: "The picture that emerges from this investigation is of an agency operating with thousands of poorly trained rookies and failing to provide the kind of transparency, accountability, and clear rules of engagement that Americans routinely expect of law enforcement agencies." Frey joins us to discuss the shootings, and why he fears that the current immigration consensus in Washington on "border security" could increase Mexico's civilian toll.

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NSU trial attracts international attention

Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

dw.de - May. 06 (News Report) - The trial of Beate Zschäpe and four men charged with helping the National Socialist Underground (NSU) carry out 10 race-related murders began on May 6 in a Munich court. Investigation glitches in the run-up to the trial and court restrictions on media coverage unleashed a storm of controversy that has tinged the proceedings and fueled embarrassing doubts about the democratic process in Germany.

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Leonard Pitts: Rand Paul’s ‘outreach’ at Howard University a missed opportunity

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Miami Herald - By - Leonard Pitts Jr. - Apr. 21 (Opinion) - would someone please tell Paul and any other Republican planning “outreach” to African Americans that if you must go back 104 years (the NAACP was founded in 1909) for examples of solidarity with black folks, it kind of illustrates the problem?

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Poverty Expert Peter Edelman Explains How Low Wages and Racial Politics Line the Pockets of the Rich

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Adelle M. Stan - Apr. 16 (Opinion) - in 1996, Edelman resigned his post as an assistant secretary in the Department of Health and Human services to protest President Bill Clinton's signing the Republicans' welfare-reform bill into law. Since then, Edelman has held fast not only to his critique of that law -- which, he says, has left some 6 million people with no income other than food stamps -- but to his assessment of why poverty in the world's richest nation has become so intractable.

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Intelligence Documents Suggest Obama Administration Lied About Who Drones Kill

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Steven Hseih - Apr. 10 (News Report) - The documents also provide a glimpse into the Obama administration’s seemingly thin rationale for executing some attacks. Contrary to claims of the CIA program’s precision and “ exceedingly rare” civilian casualties, the intelligence reports proves that “drone operators weren’t always certain who they were killing.” McClatchy’s report notes that several drone victims “died in what appeared to be signature strikes,” or attacks carried out based on a “signature” pattern of behavior, rather than a known identity.

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Nullification must never be on the table

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

NBC News - By Rachel Maddow - Apr. 04 (News Analysis) - some states are looking to nullify gun laws that don't yet exist; West Virginia is thinking about nullifying federal regulations on coal mining; and Mississippi, like Tennessee, is eyeing the creation of a nullification committee to pare down federal laws the state doesn't like. Let's also not forget that in North Carolina, there's pending legislation that says the First Amendment doesn't apply to the state, federal courts can't determine what's constitutional under the U.S. Constitution, and North Carolina has the right to declare its own state religion. If we broaden the context a bit, we can even look at the anti-abortion measures recently approved in North Dakota and Arkansas.

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5 Things You Should Know About the History of the Death Penalty

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Stephen Hartnett - Apr. 03 (Special Report) - The history of capital punishment is the history of slavery's attempts to destroy free speech.

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Former Prisoner's Dire Warning: America's Prisons Turning Out Violent White Supremacists "Mentally Fighting Civil War"

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Alex Kane - Apr. 03 (Special Report) - “America’s harsh judicial system, coupled with a growing national affinity for utilizing complete isolation at super-max prisons as a corrections tactic of first choice, in many cases turns men into monsters.” The prisoner warned that “many of the first men locked up when our nation embarked on a policy of for-profit mass incarceration near the end of the last century are now returning into society.” He also provided details on what motivates the members of the Aryan Brotherhood gang.

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Immigrants Held in Solitary Cells, Often for Weeks

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Ian Urbina, Catherine Rentz - Mar. 24 (Special Report) - New federal data shows that on any given day, about 300 immigrants are held in solitary confinement at Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers, a practice psychiatrists worry is overly punitive.

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Racial entitlement? You’ve got to be kidding Justice Scalia

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

seattletimes.com - By Leonard Pitts jr - Mar. 03 (Opinion) - I’ve spent much of my life ... being disabused of that naiveté. Watching media empires built upon appeals to racial resentment, seeing the injustice system wield mass incarceration as a weapon against black men, bearing witness as the first African-American president produced his long-form birth certificate, all helped me understand just how silly we were to believe bigotry was done.

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Did Scalia Really Say That He Was, 'White and Proud'?

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0800

readersupportednews.org - Mar. 03 (Editorial) - The historical truth, Clyburn argued, is that the 1965 law has "had a positive impact on the voting rights of people traditionally denied the right to vote. To ignore that, to me, is beyond the pale. It means you went to the bench with an agenda." "Playing around with the Voting Rights Act is playing with fire."

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EXCLUSIVE: Rarely Seen Film "King: A Filmed Record" Traces MLK's Struggle from Montgomery to Memphis

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Martin Luther King Jr.,Amy Goodman - Feb. 25 (Special Report) - In a Black History Month special, we air excerpts of a rarely seen Oscar-nominated documentary about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the rise of the civil rights movement. Produced by Ely Landau, "King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis" is made from original newsreel footage and other original video footage shot of marches, rallies and church services. "King" was originally screened for one night only in 1970 in more than 600 theaters across the United States, but has rarely been seen since. We air extensive footage of the film, featuring a historic look at the eight-year period that led up to the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. [includes rush transcript - partial. More to come. Check back soon.]

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What Led Chris Dorner to Go Off the Edge: Workplace Abuse, Racism, and Unfair Firing

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Mark Ames - Feb. 23 (News Analysis) - all this focus on Dorner’s spectacular ending has obscured the real story about what sent Chris Dorner over the edge: workplace abuse, racial discrimination, and a legitimate claim of wrongful termination.

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How Right-Wing Media Tricked Republicans into Fearing a Group that Doesn't Even Exist

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Stephen Colbert - Feb. 22 (Comedy News) - Besides offering us a joke for the ages, the “friends of Hamas” mess also revealed the ugly lengths that conservatives will go to hurt the president. Colbert ended his bit on this piece of wisdom: "President Obama, you must withdraw the nomination of Chuck Hagel, or you will lose the support of every moderate Republican — another group that doesn't exist."

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Israel, Palestine and the Oscars

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

nationofchange.org - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 21 (Opinion) - What does a Palestinian farmer wear on the red carpet in Hollywood? We were almost prevented from knowing, as Burnat, his wife and 8-year-old son were detained at Los Angeles International Airport and threatened with deportation. Despite his formal invitation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, it took the intervention of Oscar-winning documentarian Michael Moore, who now sits on the Academy Board of Governors, followed by Academy attorneys, for Burnat and his family to gain entry into the country.

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Florida’s School-to-Prison Pipeline is Largest in the Nation

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Julianne Hing - Feb. 16 (Special Report) - in Florida, more than any other state, that schoolyard fight can lead to the student’s arrest and even felony charges. Last year 12,000 students were arrested 13,870 times in Florida public schools, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The arrests are meted out unevenly. Black students are just 21 percent of Florida youth, but make up 46 percent of all school-related referrals to law enforcement, according to the Sun Sentinel

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NAACP: New Election Commission Needed to Address Voter Suppression, Attacks on Voting Rights

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By amy Goodman,Juan Gonzalez,Benjamin Jealous - Feb. 15 (Investigative Report) - During his State of the Union Tuesday, President Obama announced the formation of a new bipartisan commission to fix the nation’s broken voting system. In the audience was 102-year-old Desiline Victor who waited for hours to cast her ballot in the last election. Victor lives in Florida, where an estimated 200,000 voters failed to vote after becoming frustrated by the long lines. We speak to NAACP President Benjamin Jealous about how long lines is just one of many forms of voter suppression that the commission needs to address. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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The Vote Is the Emblem of Equality -- and Now It is Under Attack

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Elizabeth MacNamara - Feb. 14 (Opinion) - The Voting Rights Act is an essential part of American democracy. The thought that the Supreme Court might overrule Congress and take away voting rights should send a chill down the spine of every American. Based on an extensive record of current discrimination, Congress reauthorized the VRA in 2006 and President Bush signed it into law. It would be wrong for the Supreme Court to challenge the role of Congress and the President in our constitutional system.

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You can't sell us on charters

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

socialistworker.org - By Rory Fanning - Feb. 10 (Comment) - In front of a largely African American and Latino crowd, Hampton finally handed the microphone over to the all-white, suit-clad lineup of analysts from Loran Marketing Group. They picked up where Hampton left off and began to inaudibly outline the CPS/Walton Foundation "vision" for Chicago schools. The slides--seemingly intended to sedate the audience--were blanketed in impossible-to-read fine print and graphs. At first, much of the audience didn't know what to make of the interruptions, but soon a majority was stomping their feet, clapping their hands,and yelling in unison: "No charters!" "The money is there!" "You have money to arrest our kids, but none to educate them!" "The people united will never be defeated!" and "They say cut back. We say fight back!"

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