Tell us: Can we afford what we spend on the military or is it weakening the economy?

Pro — We do have deficit problems, but national security cannot be shortchanged. National defense is the first responsibility of government, and it is too important to let fiscal concerns dictate our level of spending on it. The US can clearly afford its current national defense budget — after all, it is just 4 percent of America’s economy and this percentage has been going down for some years.

Con — These enormous national defense budgets actually hurt us by adding to the deficit, weakening the economy, and obligating future generations to repay the debt. Other parts of the economy are short-changed, diverting talent and resources from other goals and weakening America’s economic competitiveness — which hurts our security in the long run. We need to rebalance our priorities and rein in defense spending.

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"The Real Mad Men: Following the Money Behind TV Political Ads." By Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!

May Day, Murdoch and the murder of Milly Dowler. What do they have to do with the 2012 U.S. general election? This year’s election will undoubtedly be the most expensive in U.S. history, with some projections topping $5 billion. Not only has the amount of spending increased, but its nature has as well, following the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which allows unlimited spending by corporations, unions and so-called super PACs, all under the banner of “free speech.” This campaign season will unfold amidst a resurgent Occupy Wall Street movement launched globally on May 1, the same day the British Parliament released a report on Rupert Murdoch’s media empire charging that he is “not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.” Now more than ever, people should heed the advice of the famous Watergate source, Deep Throat: “Follow the money.”

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Will a Militarized Police Force Facing Occupy Wall Street Lead to Another Kent State Massacre? | Civil Liberties | AlterNet

Four decades later, as police across the country deploy paramilitary tactics developed for fighting foreign terrorists on Occupy and some May Day protests, and as campus police ratchet up responses to tuition hike protests, we must ask, is this where things inevitably are headed—toward deadly confrontations between overly armed police and angered protesters, or just as likely, innocent bystanders caught in a crossfire?

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Private Prison Corporations Are Modern Day Slave Traders | | AlterNet

The Corrections Corporation of America believes the economic crisis has created an opportunity to become landlord, as well as manager, of a chunk of the American prison gulag.
April 29, 2012

The nation’s largest private prison company, the Corrections Corporation of America, is on a buying spree. With a war chest of $250 million, the corporation, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, earlier this year sent letters to 48 states, offering to buy their prisons outright.

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Firefox creators Mozilla attack Congress; denounce CISPA — RT

Silicon Valley’s Mozilla Corporation has tasked themselves with extinguishing a fire, and no, it’s not what you have in mind.

Mozilla, the Mountain View, California-based developers responsible for creating the hugely successful Firefox Web browser, has issued a statement publically condemning the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. In a memo sent to Forbes’ data security department on late Tuesday, Mozilla’s privacy and public policy official explains that its newly-publicized stance is not one that encourages online cyber attacks, but merely establishes that the company is in favor of protecting the rights of its users.

“While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security,” reads the statement. “The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse. We hope the Senate takes the time to fully and openly consider these issues with stakeholder input before moving forward with this legislation.”

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Know Your Rights: Twitter Chat for Activists « American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

Thousands of demonstrators are expected to converge upon the City of Chicago in May for the NATO Summits. The ACLU, as part of our commitment to defending civil liberties and the First Amendment, will be offering a twitter chat to answer questions about the First Amendment, and how to protest safely and legally in the City of Chicago.

We’ll be chatting on Wednesday, May 9th at 1 p.m. Follow and participate using the hashtag #kyr. If you do not have a twitter account, you will be able to follow at http://tweetchat.com/room/kyr.

Know Your Rights: Twitter Chat for Activists « American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

Noam Chomsky: What next for Occupy?, Noam Chomsky interviewed by Mikal Kamil and Ian Escuela

Q: Professor Chomsky, the Occupy movement is in its second phase. Three of our main goals are to: 1) occupy the mainstream and transition from the tents and into the hearts and the minds of the masses; 2) block the repression of the movement by protecting the right of the 99%'s freedom of assembly and right to speak without being violently attacked; and 3) end corporate personhood. The three goals overlap and are interdependent.

We are interested in learning what your position is on mainstream filtering, the repression of civil liberties, and the role of money and politics as they relate to Occupy and the future of America.


Read the full interview here...