Annie Leonard tells the story of Citizen’s United in 9 minutes

Annie Leonard does a great job of summarizing the problem with Citizen's United in this eight minute video. If you agree, please do consider it sharing it with others. You'll find more of Annie's well-crafted stories at her main website, named after her first project, "The Story of Stuff." Consider, for instance, her no nonsense examination of the false-solution of "Cap and Trade." I had joined a loud chorus critical of Citizen's United with this post.

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United States creates digital sock puppets to disseminate propaganda

This sort of headline must be a joke, a fake headline from The Onion, right? Wrong. Here's what the U.K. guardian has to say:

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

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Bill Maher: the United States is like herpes

Recent activity in Libya reminds me of the following from Real Time with Bill Maher, Episode 147, premiering on March 27, 2009:

New Rule: Forget about bringing the troops home from Iraq. We need to get the troops home from World War II. Can anybody tell me why, in 2009, we still have more than 50,000 troops in Germany and 30,000 in Japan?

. . .

How did this country get stuck with an empire? Now, I’m not saying we’re Rome. Rome had good infrastructure. But, we are an empire, and I think the reason is because once America lands in a country, there is no exit strategy. We’re like cellulite, herpes and Irish relatives. We are not going anywhere! “We love you long time!”

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