AmericaTaboo

What you don't hear in the mainstream.

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A journalist with guts. From the transcript:

"You’re — currently I think that you’ve invoked [the Espionage Act a] sixth time, and before the Obama administration, it had only been used three times in history. You’re — this is the sixth time. You’re suing a CIA officer for allegedly providing information in 2009 about CIA torture. Certainly that’s something that’s in the public interest of the United States. The administration is taking this person to court. There just seems to be disconnect here. You want aggressive journalism abroad; you just don’t want it in the United States."

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Economist Ian Fletcher talks about what's wrong with free trade in an interview with documentary filmmaker Gregory Thanos.

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The History of Iranian/American Friction

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These results are based on Gallup's annual World Affairs poll, conducted Feb. 2-5, 2012. The contour of responses to this "greatest enemy" question has changed substantially over the seven times Gallup has asked it since 2001. Americans most frequently mentioned Iraq as the United States' greatest enemy in 2001 -- before the U.S. invaded the country and removed Saddam Hussein from power -- and in 2005, when it tied North Korea. Iran has topped the list in each of the five surveys since.

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The Obama Administration wants the Supreme Court to dismiss an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenge to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, an act passed in 2008 that ACLU attorneys contend “allows dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international communications with none of the safeguards that the Constitution requires.” It filed a petition to the Court asking for an appeals court ruling that permits the ACLU to challenge the law to be overturned. The Justice Department (DoJ) argues that the plaintiffs in the challenge do not properly establish there could be any “imminent” or “future injury” from an “acquisition” of communications. The DoJ does not find the fear that plaintiffs might have their communications acquired abroad credible because there are other means available for acquiring communications of people outside the United States and they may not use authority granted to the government under the FISA Amendments Act. And, finally, the DoJ does not think that plaintiffs had sustained any “present injury” from “fear that the government will intercept their communications.”

Kevin Gosztola, FireDogLake

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Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th Nuclear Weapon

TEHRAN—Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America's uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon. "Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive nuclear program, the United States may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon capable of reaching Iran," said Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, adding that Americans have the fuel, the facilities, and "everything they need" to manufacture even more weapons-grade fissile material. "Obviously, the prospect of this happening is very distressing to Iran and all countries like Iran. After all, the United States is a volatile nation that's proven it needs little provocation to attack anyone anywhere in the world whom it perceives to be a threat." Iranian intelligence experts also warned of the very real, and very frightening, possibility of the U.S. providing weapons and resources to a rogue third-party state such as Israel.

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[americataboo]

According to Freeway Ricky Ross, Reagan and Bush Sr. sacrificed African-Americans by turning a blind eye to the smuggling of tons of cocaine into the U.S. (primarily into African-American neighborhoods), precipitating the crack-epidemic of the 80's, in order to prevent the Soviet Union from turning Nicaragua into a client state in America's backyard and "threatening our way of life". In other words "having a state near the U.S. which defied our commands"

This was done because the Congress had banned American money to the anti-government rebel "Contras" of Nicaragua due to their terrorist tactics, therefore the executive branch needed another way to support them financially. This problem was solved by allowing them to obtain funds through dumping tons and tons of cocaine into the U.S. with C.I.A. tacit approval.

If this is true, then it shows the hypocritical stance of the Reagan administration who beefed-up the so-called "War on Drugs", criminalizing users instead of putting them in rehab and locking up countless people of color disproportionately, while at the same time turning a blind eye as the Contras flooded U.S. neighborhoods with crack. It was a vicious cycle whose effects are still seen today. 

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Why does a BigMac cost less than a salad?

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"Saudi Arabia is doing its best to bring about the end of Mr. Assad, whose Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, is a minority in a country with a plurality of Sunni Muslims. It argues that the Security Council must act not because of Mr. Assad’s sect but because of his brutality. Yet at home, this Sunni regime doesn’t hesitate to open fire on protesters from its own minority Shiite population — or to threaten a liberal columnist with execution. The Obama administration, which has loudly and repeatedly called for Mr. Assad’s departure, has had much less to say about King Abdullah’s repression. In December, it approved a $30 billion arms sale to his regime. Now it chastises Russia for supplying arms to Syria. Of course the violence in Syria is far greater than that of Saudia Arabia — more than 7,000 people have been killed, and rebels are being attacked with tanks and artillery. But brains, justice, morals and fairness are in short supply not only in Mr. Assad’s Damascus but in the royal palaces of Riyadh as well."

Angry Arab News Service

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Because, see, earlier in the year, we took the president’s own words when he ran for office, saying no president should unilaterally go to war without the authority of Congress, Congressional authorization. His words exactly. And not one Democrat voted to support those words. They see it as a partisan attack on the president, but to me, I would have done it if it had been Bush. I mean, because it’s your words — either stand by them or not. You shouldn’t have one opinion when you’re running and another when you’re president.

Rand Paul

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The prime target was South Vietnam. The aggression later spread to the North, then to the remote peasant society of northern Laos, and finally to rural Cambodia, which was bombed at the stunning level of all allied air operations in the Pacific region during World War II, including the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this, Henry Kissinger’s orders were being carried out — “anything that flies on anything that moves” — a call for genocide that is rare in the historical record. Little of this is remembered. Most was scarcely known beyond narrow circles of activists.

Noam Chomsky

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this is from someone else’s tumblr.

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Bomb Hits Israeli Diplomats Car

"Today we witnessed two attempts of terrorism against innocent civilians," Netanyahu told a gathering of lawmakers from his Likud Party. "Iran is behind these attacks and it is the largest terror exporter in the world," he said.

Sure! Because you can say that after you just killed a few nuclear scientists in the same fashion in Iran.

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Prison Phone Calls That Should Be Criminal

According to Prison Legal News, the cost of making a long distance phone call from a prison in Oregon includes a $3.95 connection fee plus .69 cents a minute, costing $14.30 for a 15-minute call. Compare this with making a public call outside of prison which costs anywhere from 05 to 10 cents per minute for long distance calls on landlines, costing a maximum of $1.50 for a 15-minute call. For many families with loved ones behind bars, the choice between accepting a collect call and putting food on the table is a real and painful decision.

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Long but worth it.

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Israel is collaborating with the MEK, a designated "Terrorist Organization" by the United States, in order to kill Iranian nuclear scientists in Iran, with the tacit approval of the United States.