Michele Bachmann makes more false statements than any other GOP presidential race contender

From The Daily What: On this morning’s Good Morning America, host George Stephanopoulos pointed out to Michele Bachmann — who earlier today told CNN she wishes she “could be perfect every time I say something” but can’t — that she makes more false statements than any other GOP presidential race contender according to PolitiFact, before giving her an opportunity to clarify her statement concerning the founding fathers’ tireless efforts to end slavery.

Bachmann took advantage of opportunity… to dig in deeper by claiming her statement is correct since “founding father” John Quincy Adams (nine years old in 1776), who was “most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era,…worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery.”

In somewhat related news, Bristol Palin told Fox News her mom “definitely knows” whether or not she intends to run for president, but wouldn’t reveal the decision. Tease.

[abcnews / cnn / thinkprogress / thehill.]

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Wins for Gay Rights

From The New York Times: "Lawmakers voted late Friday to legalize same-sex marriage, making New York the largest state where gay and lesbian couples will be able to wed and giving the national gay-rights movement new momentum from the state where it was born." More here.

From the Huffington Post: "A Brazilian state judge on Monday approved what the court said is the nation's first gay marriage." More here.

Come on California, you're next!

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Protests in Greece and Egypt

From CNN: "Greek riot police fired tear gas to disperse stone-throwing demonstrators Tuesday, as thousands rallied to protest proposed austerity measures on the first day of a two-day strike." More here.

From The New York Times: "The fighting [in Cairo] began after several people were arrested from among a group of relatives of those killed in Egypt’s 25 January revolution". More here.

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Legalize Today!

From The Daily What:

Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Ron Paul (R-TX) introduced a bill today that would amend the government’s Controlled Substances Act to remove all federal penalties for the production, distribution, and possession of marijuana, effectively striking down its classification as a scheduled drug.

The bill aims to allow individual states to set their own marijuana laws without the concern of being overridden on the federal level. The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 [pdf] — the first bill of its kind — resemblesthe repeal of the 18th Amendment in that it restricts the government’s role in controlling the substance to keeping the drug out states where it is banned.

Frank stressed the bill was “not a legalization bill,” telling reporters it offered limited-government politicians the perfect opportunity to put marijuana where their mouth is.

[latimes / reason / image: thcfinder.]

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New Little Ice Age in store?

From the Telegraph: "The Earth could enter a new 'Little Ice Age' in the coming years due to low solar activity, astronomers believe." More here.

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Obama Will Speed Pullout From War in Afghanistan

Potential positive news!

From the New York Times: "Mr. Obama announced plans to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year. The remaining 20,000 troops from the 2009 “surge” of forces would leave by next summer, amounting to about a third of the 100,000 troops now in the country. He said the drawdown would continue “at a steady pace” until the United States handed over security to the Afghan authorities in 2014." More here.

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The Truth About the Economy

Robert Reich connects the dots on the economy, in less than 2 minutes and 15 seconds:

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Resisting the State

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Supreme Court rules for Wal-Mart in massive job discrimination lawsuit

From CNN: The Supreme Court put the brakes on a massive job discrimination lawsuit against mega-retailer Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., saying sweeping class-action status that could potentially involve hundreds of thousands of current and former female workers was simply too large. More here.

Fuck Wal-Mart!

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White House Defends Continuing U.S. Role in Libya Operation

From the New York Times: The White House, pushing hard against criticism in Congress over the deepening air war in Libya, asserted Wednesday that President Obama had the authority to continue the military campaign without Congressional approval because American involvement fell short of full-blown hostilities. More here.

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The Secret History of Iraq’s Invisible War

From Wired: In the early years of the Iraq war, the U.S. military developed a technology so secret that soldiers would refuse to acknowledge its existence, and reporters mentioning the gear were promptly escorted out of the country. That equipment – a radio-frequency jammer – was upgraded several times, and eventually robbed the Iraq insurgency of its most potent weapon, the remote-controlled bomb. But the dark veil surrounding the jammers remained largely intact, even after the Pentagon bought more than 50,000 units at a cost of over $17 billion. More here.

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“The March of Tyranny” by Ben Garrison

More at Ben Garrison's site here.

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Bilderberg 2011 Meeting Starts In Switzerland

From Disinfo.com: The fact that this report is from CNBC and not an obscure conspiracy theory website suggests that that the Bilderbergers don’t feel the need to hide their existence any longer…

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, naturally, isn’t attending this year, and his likely successor Christine Lagarde is in China, but the Bilderberg Conference which kicks off in the Swiss resort of St. Moritz on Thursday retains its conspiratorial chic and pulling power.

The attendee list of Bilderberg is still pretty much the only thing that is not a closely guarded secret, as 120 of the world’s richest and most powerful people meet behind closed doors, this time at the Suvretta House hotel in Switzerland, a venue which not only boasts a “fairytale castle” design, but also its own “Teddy World.”…

Andrew Kakabadse is professor of international management development at Cranfield University. For his recent book “Bilderberg People,” co-authored with Nada Kakabadse and Ian Richardson, Kakabadse interviewed a number of past attendees in order to understand how the network of global influence works.

“It’s a meeting. It’s not an organization. It’s not an official summit,” he told CNBC.com. “It’s basically a meeting of friends.

“The Bilderbergs are probably the most influential global network of all time. It’s an honor to be invited, it’s a tremendous honor. Part of it is recognition for work done and part of it is for contribution to enabling world affairs.

“The people we talked to are quite genuine. Mostly they don’t understand the conspiracy bit, because they say when you go there what you find is people of all sorts of varying views. But the fact that they’ve been invited is indicative of the position that they’ve reached in life,” he said…

More at Disinfo.com.

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Over 3,500 people evacuate as Chile’s Puyehue volcano erupts for the first time in 50+ years

More pictures at the Herald Sun.

More at Yahoo! News.

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Turning the Tables on Bank of America

From The Daily What: "It took a year, but the pair won their case, and the judge ordered Bank of America to cough up the legal fees."

Mark that as a win!

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The War Against Free Speech

From the New York Times: "Pakistani Journalist Found Dead After Criticizing Pakistan’s Chief Intelligence Agency"

From The Daily What: "Openly lesbian Syrian blogger Amina Arraf, who fearlessly wrote about her country’s political turmoil at A Gay Girl in Damascus under the nom de plume Amina Abdallah, was abducted last night by armed men while on her way to a meeting in Damascus."

From Fast Company: "The Iranian government is planning to wall-off much of the country’s online access. A high-ranking Iranian official has their new solution: A “Halal Internet” that will run as a nationwide intranet and be subject to extensive censorship."

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Hong Kong remembers Tiananmen as Beijing cracks down

From The Washington Post: "Tens of thousands gathered Saturday night in Hong Kong to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, galvanized in their orderly outrage by China’s current crackdown on dissent, the most sweeping in two decades."

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A Few Wins

Not everything is doom and gloom. We're happy to report a couple of positive news stories:

From Boston.com: "Conn. Senate votes for pot decriminalization bill"

From The New York Times: "Illinois lawmakers on Wednesday approved legislation allowing civil unions in this state"

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Sarah Palin Says Paul Revere Warned the British

Sarah Palin doesn't know US History. Regarding Paul Revere: "He warned the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells." More at KABC.

Let's hope she doesn't run for President in 2012.

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Follow Your Dreams

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Global war on drugs 'has failed' say former leaders

From BBC: "The Global Commission on Drug Policy report calls for the legalisation of some drugs and an end to the criminalisation of drug users." More here.

Isn't it about time we started focusing on real issues? When will we decriminalize and prioritize?

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Approval of Massive Dam in Brazil to Displace 40,000 Natives

From The Daily What:

"Chief Raoni, of the Kayapo tribe native to the Brazilian state of Pará, weeps upon learning that Brazil’s newly elected president Dilma Vana Rousseff has authorized the construction of the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam despite hundreds of thousands of petition signatures, letters, and e-mails begging the government to reconsider.

From Etcetera:

[A] death sentence [for] the peoples of Great Bend of the Xingu river [has been] enacted. Belo Monte will inundate at least 400,000 hectares of forest, an area bigger than the Panama Canal, thus expelling 40,000 indigenous and local populations and destroying habitat valuable for many species – all to produce electricity at a high social, economic and environmental cost, which could easily be generated with greater investments in energy efficiency.

To learn more and sign a last-ditch petition, go here.

[ver2go / thanks telemonz!]

UPDATE: I may or may not have caused Amazon Watch to crash. Sorry about that. So here’s an alternative link to the petition (thanks joanna!). Site’s in Portuguese, so here’s a link to the Google translation."

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There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says

From Wired: "You think you understand how the Patriot Act allows the government to spy on its citizens. Sen. Ron Wyden says it’s worse than you know."

More here.

Update from CNN: "The vote on the measure to extend the Patriot Act provisions for four years passed easily on a 72-23 vote."

More here.

A government comprised of secrets that passes laws to know the people's secrets is not a government to be trusted.

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Egyptian general admits 'virginity checks' conducted on protesters

From CNN: "The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the March 9 protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks."

More here.

This is an atrocity. When will the world treat women like human beings?

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