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• When people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they're talking about - and the people who talk the most understand the least.
• The economic “experts” on whom much of Congress relies have been repeatedly, utterly wrong about the short-run effects of budget deficits.
• World economy set for another major downturn
• All the GOP's Gekkos

Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

In 2011, as in 2010, America was in a technical recovery but continued to suffer from disastrously high unemployment. And through most of 2011, as in 2010, almost all the conversation in Washington was about something else: the allegedly urgent issue of reducing the budget deficit.

This misplaced focus said a lot about our political culture, in particular about how disconnected Congress is from the suffering of ordinary Americans. But it also revealed something else: when people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they’re talking about — and the people who talk the most understand the least.

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World economy set for another major downturn, Nick Beams, World Socialist Website

• Despite the trillions of dollars handed out to the banks and financial institutions over the past three years by governments around the world, nothing has been resolved.
• Who Will Fix the Economy?

Paul Krugman | All the GOP's Gekkos, Paul Krugman, New York (NY) Times

• Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the release of the movie 'Wall Street,' and the film seems more relevant than ever. The self-righteous screeds of financial tycoons denouncing President Obama all read like variations on Gordon Gekko's famous 'greed is good' speech, while the complaints of Occupy Wall Street sound just like what Gekko declares at one point in private: "I create nothing. I own." At another, he asks his protege, "Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, buddy?"
• How the GOP Tries to Transform America into a Selfish, Souless Place
   

• Santorum has crusaded against abortion throughout his tenure as a legislator and presidential hopeful. A recent analysis of his time as a U.S. senator showed an almost obsessive tendency to talk about abortion-related subjects on the Senate floor. His strict views on the issue, as well as gay rights, have repeatedly drawn aggressive pushback from his detractors on the campaign trail.
• Sundance documentary examines rape in US military

Huffington Post

This article is made possible with the generous contributions of readers like you. Thank you!

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum explained his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape during an interview Friday, saying that women who face such circumstances should "make the best out of a bad situation."

Asked by CNN's Piers Morgan what he would do if his own daughter approached him, begging for an abortion after having been raped, Santorum explained that he would counsel her to "accept this horribly created" baby, because it was still a gift from God, even if given in a "broken" way.

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Sundance documentary examines rape in US military, Sandy Cohen, Associated Press / Daily Mail UK

• Through interviews with rape survivors and military officials, "The Invisible War" suggests that it's not just the violence and harassment that traumatizes victims but the absence of impartial justice and personal retaliation they often experience after reporting the incident.
• A 2009 study shows that only 8 percent of military sex offenders are prosecuted.
• The Battlefield and the Barracks: Two War Fronts for Women Soldiers
   

• He constantly issues the call for a “strong national defense” which translates into a well-funded military. As he stated directly in a recent interview, “My Plan to Restore America does not cut one penny of defense.”
• Ron Paul is the most pro-corporate politicians in the Presidential race.
• Females who file sexual harassment suits are, according to Paul, oppressing others.
• Ron Paul's Useful Idiots on the Left

Billy Wharton, Socialist Magazine

If you like reading this article, consider contributing a cuppa jove to Evergreene Digest--using the donation button in the above right-hand corner—so we can bring you more just like it.

You’ve seen them skulking around a variety of left-wing protests. First it was the anti-war movement. Then came Occupy. They usually have a funny look in their eye, their clothes are a bit sharper than the average protest garb and they usually hit the road once a confrontation with the police is about to ensue. Yes, I’m talking about a Ron Paul supporter – an ideal type of that supporter for sure, but take a look next time and see if they fit the description. Just keep an eye out for an “End the Fed” sign.

Inevitably, after peeling past the pre-programmed slogans Ron Paulistas bring with them, you will discover a person – generally white and overwhelmingly male – looking for some alternative to mainstream politics. Ever susceptible to slick marketing campaigns thanks to a solid diet of American television, these zealots have bought it hook line and sinker in a typical conspiratorial fashion. The lynchpin is the Federal Reserve, a seemingly mysterious institution, which in the world of Ron Paul politics stands in as a more acceptable substitute for the variety of other conspiracy theories floating through far-right America including the Bilderbergs, the rich as secret lizard people and the Masons.

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Ron Paul's Useful Idiots on the Left, Megan Carpentier, Guardian UK

• Progressives who make common cause with Paul on US foreign policy ignore his stunningly reactionary views on everything else.
• Loveable Extremist
• 5 Reasons Progressives Should Treat Ron Paul with Extreme Caution
   

• Barack Obama recently told a radio interviewer of his response to criticisms of his administration, "I tell them what Joe Biden says, 'Judge me not as the Almighty, consider the alternative.'
• Barack Obama vs. Farrakhan, Hedges and the Bill of Rights

Marsha Coleman-Abedayo, Black Agenda Report
 
Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Jeanette Eastman

At a time when corporations are buying up elections – not to mention the 24-hour-news cycle – help ensure that a source for truly independent journalism lives on. Support Evergreene Digest today by using the donation button in the above right-hand corner.
 
Barack Obama has not just dribbled away the progressive mandate of 2008, he has emerged over the past three years as a politician "to the right of President Ronald Reagan, the Tea Party hero" on at least some issues. The U.S. continues its steady decline in all the indices that count for the average person. "Only three developed countries – Albania, Russian and Moldova – had a worse maternal mortality rate." African Americans are in free fall under the First Black President.
 
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Barack Obama vs. Farrakhan, Hedges and the Bill of Rights, Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
By signing the preventive detention law that his operatives in Congress helped to craft, President Obama has nullified the pillars of the Bill of Rights: due process of law and freedom of speech.