Top stories from alternative news sites

Yesterday I showed some of the top stories from leading news organizations on TV and in newspapers.


Today I look at some of the top stories from alternative (i.e., non-profit news organizations).


From Truthout:

An Inquiry Into the 9/11 Commission's 10th Anniversary Report: How to Read a Government Commission Report

By Mike Lofgren, Truthout | Op-Ed

The cover of the final 9/11 report, which can be purchased in bookstores across the United States and around the world. (Image via Wikipedia)One of the many things I learned in government is that the investigative commissions which inquire into a scandal, disaster or atrocity are usually intended to bury the real causes of the incident and trumpet other circumstantial or irrelevant details as if they are shocking or novel. In other words, commissions are cover-ups pretending to be exposés. This is not always the case, but as the stakes rise, it becomes the accepted practice.
One of the masters of this technique has been former House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Indiana). He cut his teeth as chairman of the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran, where he was careful to stop short of implicating President Ronald Reagan of impeachable criminal culpability, and, more importantly, provided the same service to the future President George H.W. Bush. A few smaller fries took the fall, and Reagan, the man whom Republicans retrospectively credit for making the sun shine and the rain fall, was chastised for not being in control of his own immediate subordinates. Bush, of course, was out of the loop. In 1992, Hamilton chaired the House October Surprise Task Force, and failed once again to find Bush culpable of criminal misdeeds.




From Common Dreams:

Brazil Farmers Say GMO Corn No Longer Resistant to Bugs

Deirdre Fulton, staff writer

Brazilian farmers say their GMO corn is no longer resistant to pests, Reuters reported Monday. The Association of Soybean and Corn...

From AlterNet:

Gaza: More Than 110 People Killed in Less Than 24 Hours

Harriet Sherwood

The Guardian

Gaza endured a night of relentless bombardment that brought some of the heaviest pounding since the start of the conflict three weeks ago.

The GROWING crime of income inequality

Income inequality refers to the gap between the rich and the poor. It is a measure of many things, including how much people earn and most notably how much they have (i.e., wealth).

It has been growing in America for some time. And it is not happening by accident. Purposeful policies create it. Things like tax cuts, outsourcing, downsizing, unnecessary wars, etc.

But, even when we face economic crises, politicians find a way to make it even worse. Yet, there's not much about it in the news.

This is from an article on Alternet:

"From 2009 to 2011, the richest 8 million families (the top 7%) on average saw their wealth rise from $1.7 million to $2.5 million each. Meanwhile the rest of us -- the bottom 93% (that's 111 million families) -- suffered on average a decline of $6,000 each.

Do the math and you'll discover that the top 7% gained a whopping $5.6 trillion in net worth (assets minus liabilities) while the rest of lost $669 billion. Their wealth went up by 28% while ours went down by 4 percent.

It's as if the entire economic recovery is going into the pockets of the rich. And that's no accident."

 

The author of the article goes on to explain why. Check it out here. Pretty shocking stuff that you think would be of interest to the American media. Only it's not.