"The military, prison, and financial policies of the U.S. government are interrelated, creating a social system that is repressive and offensive to human dignity for people who experience it, especially the marginalized, the poor, the 'Third World'. The poor in America are filling the prisons and the 'Third World' are the fodder on the other end of the bombs in America's wars. In categorizing the abuse of power that is undertaken by institutions operating 'above the law' or through State privilege, the deprival of life by government policies through war and the deprival of liberty to individuals through imprisonment are particularly fundamental problems that relate to the basic human rights every person should enjoy equally. Capitalism is being used as a justification for these actions historically by American policies, leadership, and their rhetoric... When you discuss what the alternatives to the 'corruption' that favors the 1% or represents only a fraction of the 1% who are permitted an active or consequential role in politics, it seems that #ows is suggesting an alternative of direct, active, particpative democracy that is also interested in a reform of policy according to moral standards." + Understanding #ows - Noam Chomsky Interview

U.S. News:

Federal Government: Staff & Workers will lose jobs
U.S. Government Shutdown
How will budget gridlock affect the American people? - Submitted by: Walt Sonnabend

In 2011, the U.S. Congress passed a last-minute compromise bill authorizing the raising of the national debt limit which narrowly escaped a shutdown of the Federal government and its associated agencies. The threat of a U.S. government shutdown has major significance for the international financial markets, the employees of the Federal government, and the people who rely on it for goods, services, and payments. A U.S. government shutdown may be temporary and limited in effect, as it was in 1995 during the Clinton administration when the Congress and White House became deadlocked in a budgetary impasse.

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U.S. News:

Stephen Kinzer’s Analysis of U.S. Foreign Policy
Stephen Kinzer’s "Overthrow"
America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq - Submitted by: Tech Streets

Stephen Kinzer has emphasized in his book analyzing “a century of regime change” in American foreign policy that he views this process as a “continuum” and the latest invasion of Iraq is the “culmination” of this historical evolution. (Kinzer, 2006) Kinzer begins the analysis by examining the manner through which the sovereign and independent Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown and progressively annexed by the United States. Hawaii is associated with the projection of US military power abroad throughout Asia with the use of military bases that extend the range of the Navy and Air Force.

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U.S. News:

"General Lee Royal" Video Game Console & Predator Dro
Obama: The Neocon Admin
President Obama's First Term - Serving the Interests of TBTF - Submitted by: Jon Akash

On March 31st, 2011, the Washington Times published an editorial titled “Obama the Neocon,” where the newspaper stated: “The president is using force he disdained as a senator.” (Washington Times, 2011) The Washington Times has a conservative editorial bias, and the paper’s staff was clearly pleased with the direction that the policy was taking, as well as the obvious sense of hypocrisy that it created for the President. Despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama has never renounced war. Rather, he has increasingly stylized it and masked it through covert operations, the use of “Predator” drones, cruise missiles, and airstrikes which inevitably minimize U.S. casualties while maximizing destruction and de...

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"Over the past the month, the Occupy movement has taken to the streets across cities nationwide to protest economic inequality as well as corporate greed and control of government. These grievances are legitimate and well intentioned, but at the same time the top-down solutions to solve the problems proposed by a handful of OWS actors unfortunately empower the very establishment that they claim to be against by giving the government even more power. This will only incentivize more rent-seeking from corrupt Wall Street actors. What is truly needed is a set of libertarian demands that not only ends corporatism and restores true free markets but also bring back the rule of law, well defined property rights, and a respect for individuals liberties."

‎"Here is a set of ten demands that will put our political economy on the right track:

1. End the Federal Reserve
2. End all corporate subsidies
3. Restore Freedom of Association in Labor Relations
4. End the War on Drugs
5. Restore Free Markets in Education
6. Restore Free Markets in Health Care
7. Revert to a Non-interventionist Foreign Policy
8. End Coercive Taxation
9. Let Young People Opt out of Entitlement Programs
10. Restructure Business Incorporation

This is not a comprehensive list and it would not fix all of the government’s problems, but they independently or together would definitely be steps in the right direction."
+ Libertarian Occupy Wall Street Demands

'‎Castells saw the development of global networks facilitated by the internet as revolutionary. Old style hierarchical organizations would be no match for flexible networks. Cleaver believed to observe how the “fabric” of politics was being “rewoven” as activists formed global networks of solidarity to exchange information and organize in support of the Zapatistas. Based on the Zapatista experience, Holloway argued for changing the world without taking power.'
+ The Global Solidarity Movement

U.S. News:

African American: disproportionate rate of homelessness
Homelessness Intervention
A Strategy for Homeless African American Families - Submitted by: Sara Riverston

The problem of homeless African American children and families should be addressed through an inter-religious council which organizes a coherent, long-term strategy of support and rehabilitation for the people who are suffering from poverty. While recognizing the disproportionate burden that African American families bear in homelessness and poverty, this social work should be unhindered by racial issues but appeal to the common humanity and solidarity which is at the basis of all religions. Similarly, communities both national and local should not look to government, taxation, and politics as a solution to this collective problem.

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U.S. News:

Romer: the government needs to spend more & tax less
'Stimulus Lost,’ (2010)
Analysis: Christina Romer & the Wall St. Bailout - Submitted by: Stephanie Grant

When Christina Romer resigned from her position in the Obama Administration in 2010, she cited two main issues of contention which were not resolved by government policy, despite the lagging recovery following the bailout packages and stimulus response authorized in the aftermath of the 2008 economic meltdown. Romer stated that she saw a need for the government to “to spend more and tax less,” surely a dream prescription for any policy maker, but one that raises serious questions about the sustainability of the course she was proposing. It should be noted that in 2010 the U.S. was also approaching a 100% Federal Debt to GDP ratio which is regarded by economists as a serious symptom of financial problems in national government. Furthermore, the U...

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U.S. News:

The Oprah/Obama Continuum - Manufractured Consent
MLK: Dream of the Century
Obama Campaigns upon MLK Tenets Yet Renounces the Path - Submitted by: Jeffrey Scott

One of the main points of "Endgame 2012" is that President Obama has failed to stand true to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi as an advocate of reform and change in U.S. Federal policy that is based upon non-violence, compassion, and commitment to the voiceless elements of society suffering the most through human inequality globally. In challenging the basis of the "just war" theory in Niebuhrian logic, a return to genuine Christian, inter-religious, or multicultural heritage in pacifism, charity, and good will is possible in alignment with progressivism, civil rights, and social reform movements historically, as well as the Millennium Goals currently overdue. The issue is made clear when contrasting Obama and Mandela d...

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Federalism & Healthcare - Universal Healthcare - A Federal vs. State Analysis - Submitted by: Walt Sonnabend

Federalism leads to increasingly decentralized and inherently local government, which can efficiently manage healthcare cooperatively out of natural care and compassion, as opposed to the national implementation that is doomed to failure due to the size of the bureaucracy and apathy of official policy. Dr. Harold Pease has illustrated this issue with his discussion of California’s energy policy in the 1990’s, which led to frequent breakdowns and “brownouts” rather than the propounded goal of the central planning committee.
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Walt Sonnabend
Three Questions on Policy - Afghanistan, Marxist Land Reform, & Constructivism - Submitted by: Thomas Evers

1. The realist perspective in foreign policy from Machiavelli to Kissinger is based in the belief that States only justify the use of power when it serves their interests. In accordance with this, a realist analysis may proceed in evaluating the importance of global security, international hegemony, natural resources, and “democratization” in reference to the NATO deployment in Afghanistan. The justification for the use of NATO forces in Afghanistan is based on the association of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden with the Taliban in the country, who...
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Thomas Evers
Conceal and Carry Laws - Promoting equality in licensing standards - Submitted by: David Marshall

The “Conceal and Carry” Bill passed in Minnesota in 2003 represents a significant change to previous concealed weapons laws, as it changed key wording that pertained to the requirements for licensing. This essay will look at the 2003 Minnesota bill and its after-effects by highlighting the arguments that were discussed by both advocates and opponents to the law. The arguments will be viewed in the context of the seven years following the law change to see if the fears or predictions of either group have been well founded. The constitutional issues will be...
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David Marshall
The GATT Agreements & WTO - The importance of international law in borderless trade - Submitted by: Tech Streets

International traders in commodities, equities, bonds, and other goods or services employ a number of different strategies to maximize their return on investment. One of the oldest forms of international trading is arbitrage, the discovery of lower prices in one market and profitable resale opportunities in other environments globally. For traders of commodities which require physical transportation and delivery to other markets, international agreements will apply to the transaction as well as to import taxes and duties. Increasingly international trade organizations...
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Tech Streets

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1

The Caging of America

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik -

'Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today—perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then... there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height.'
1

The US Is No Longer the Land of the Free

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/287-124/9448-the-us-is-no-longer-the-land-of-the-free -

"The world clamored for prosecutions of those responsible for waterboarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, but the Obama administration said in 2009 that it would not allow CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted for such actions. This gutted not just treaty obligations but the Nuremberg principles of international law."
1

A Shrinking Military Budget May Take Neighbors With It

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/us/a-hidden-cost-of-military-cuts-could-be-invention-and-its-industries.html -

"The Pentagon spends about 12 percent of its budget in that area, about $81.4 billion during the most recent fiscal year. That is roughly 55 percent of all federal spending on research and development... It is a pot of money with a remarkable record of success. The Navy, which started budgeting for research in 1946, counts 59 eventual Nobel laureates among the recipients of its financing."
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