By David Brown - 3 May 2013

May Day protests in Seattle, Washington ended with 17 arrests as police clashed with protesters. Like last year, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) used the marches as an opportunity to experiment with crowd-control techniques and test out new equipment...“They’re making this into a war zone when it’s not. If you’re in a crowd and you’re surrounded by police in riot gear, you get defensive.”

By Noam Chomsky - May 2, 2013

It's rare for privileged Westerners to see, graphically, what many others experience daily - for example, in a remote village in Yemen, the same week as the marathon bombings...The strike terrorized the villagers, turning them into enemies of the United States - something that years of jihadi propaganda had failed to accomplish.

Tom Wheeler is a former top Obama fundraiser. He's an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He's a former cable and wireless industries lobbyist.

By Bill Van Auken - WSWS

At least 100 detainees being held at the Guantanamo prison camp remained on hunger strike Wednesday, a day after President Barack Obama told a White House press briefing that he would “re-engage Congress” on closing the facility...A spokesman for the US prison at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in southeast Cuba reported Wednesday that 23 of the hunger strikers were being subjected to force feedings and that four of them were being held at the prison hospital.

By Dave Zirin - Znet

What is certain is that the means by which people have historically felt a sense of having a stake in this country have been inexorably altered in the post-9/11 world. This is now a nation defined and scarred by the cruel anti-immigrant policies of both Presidents Bush and Obama. It’s now a nation defined and scarred by pushing people away from that historic safe haven for immigrants otherwise known as competitive sports. It’s a nation that spawned the brothers Tsarnaev.

By Steven Hsieh - May 1, 2013

A Florida teen with an exemplary record is facing federal charges after conducting what a classmate calls “a science project gone bad”...16-year-old Kiera Wilmot is accused of mixing housing chemicals in a small water bottle at Bartow High School, causing the cap to fly off and produce a bit of smoke. The experiment was conducted outdoors, no property was damaged, and no one was injured.

Big Brother no longer is fiction. It hasn't been for some time. It's official US policy.

Both men represent the nation's ruling class. They want more wealth transferred from ordinary people to corporate America and privileged elites like themselves. They're back with plan B.

By Dave Zirin - April 25, 2013

Why did Newark’s only movie theater, co-owned by Shaquille O’Neal, just pull a scheduled showing of a documentary about Mumia Abu-Jamal? No one is talking, but this is a story that stinks worse than the Jersey swamps...When O’Neal purchased the theater, he held a press conference...and pointedly thanked “the Newark Police Department” which “helped raise” him. The future Hall of Famer has long held court about his dreams of becoming a police officer. He has been sworn in as a “reserve police officer” in both Miami and Los Angeles.

It's unaffordable. It doesn't protect. It under-insures. It forces millions to choose between life or debt. It reflects irresponsible governance. Obama bears full responsibility.

America's business is war. Permanent wars reflect official US policy. They're glorified in the name of peace.

By Finian Cunningham - April 28, 2013

Ms Stewart (73) is dying in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, from cancer that has spread from her breast to the rest of her body. Her family has little doubt that her life-threatening illness has been induced by the vindictive conditions of her incarceration by the US authorities...The US state’s cruel persecution of this woman epitomizes the general destruction of human rights and the rise of draconian police powers across America in the aftermath of 9/11 and the fraudulent “war on terror”.

April 27, 2013 - CBC News

The former NASA scientist criticized by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver earlier this week for his views on the Keystone XL pipeline is responding by calling the Conservatives a desperate and "Neanderthal" government..."The current government is a Neanderthal government on this issue...I have hopes that Canada will actually be a good example for the United States but the present government is certainly not."

International law is clear and unequivocal. Torture is illegal at all times, under all circumstances with no allowed exceptions. It violates constitutional protections. They include the 8th Amendment's guarantee against "cruel and unusual punishments."

By Martha Rosenberg - April 25, 2013

...[D]on't worry, Wall Street. Pharma isn't going to deliver disappointing earnings just because it has little or no new drugs coming online and has failed at the very reason for its existence. Here are six new Pharma marketing initiatives that are guaranteed to keep investor expectations high...The secret? Recycling old and discredited drugs and marketing diseases to sell the few new ones.