Huffington Post: Does Romney Think the Pentagon Needs More Marching Bands, NASCAR Sponsorships?

By Robert Greenwald and John Amick, Huffington Post

Recent commentators have rightly called out Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's obvious hypocrisy on cuts to Pentagon spending. This strikes us as a good time to step back and take a broader look at Pentagon spending, and deconstruct the spin coming from the Washington elites.

Historically, the United States has made cuts to the Pentagon budget once its major wars come to an end. It happened after the Korean War, Vietnam and the Cold War. And after a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now is the time to seriously consider significant cuts to a bloated, wasteful Pentagon spending machine. Yet those within the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex have been working hard to convince the American public that their perceived right to profit off of Pentagon spending is sacrosanct.

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Huffington Post: The Koch Brothers Must Have LOVED Monopoly as Kids

Huffington Post

The Koch brothers don't just have a gazillion luxury homes and boats. They've been using their wealth to shut out the voices of the 99% --pledging to spend at least $100 million on the 2012 elections. The pro-corporate policies they favor are, of course, antithetical to the public interest. But the TV ads they're airing so far in this election make it seem like they're on the side of regular Americans. "Maybe your family is like most, struggling to make it by... The private sector is not doing fine," says Americans for Prosperity, an organization the Kochs founded and fund. Watch the video: 

Let's forget for a moment that the expression is "get by" or "make ends meet," not "make it by." What the Kochs want is to use their vast fortune to influence the political beliefs of people with a millionth their net worth, getting the middle class to buy into the notion that what's good for the rich is good for everyone. But if the financial crisis and recession have taught us anything, it's that the interests of the extremely-well-to-do are not the same as those of the general public. Feeding the top doesn't translate into food for the middle and bottom.

Do we really think the Kochs are chiefly concerned about working families making five figures rather than expanding their own wealth? To ask the question is to answer it.

OpEd News: U.S. Guns, The Awful, Shocking Truth

OpEd News

The tragedy in Colorado demonstrated the devastating lethality of AR-15 type guns, like the one used in the Aurora shooting, and has caused many to question whether it makes sense to allow the purchase of military-style assault rifles. What a lot of people don't know is that these rifles are also the weapons of choice among ruthless Mexican drug cartels. In the last 6 years, over 60,000 people have lost their lives in Mexico's wave of violence.

The failure of the United States to enact meaningful gun regulation is not only affecting the United States; it is also fueling violence in Mexico. Among the victims are countless innocent bystanders, journalists, and children. The brutal truth is this--the AR-15s and many other guns used by drug lords, gangs, and kidnappers come from the United States.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), more than 70 percent of the weapons seized in Mexico in the last three years and submitted for tracing came from the United States. 

How do these weapons end up in the hands of Mexico's brutal drug lords? Look at the video on gun trafficking produced by WOLA and Cuentame and embedded here.

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Huffington Post: Fight Back Against Voter Suppression!

By National Council of La Raza at Huffington Post

Florida is one of a number of states that have implemented some major changes to its voting laws. The changes have an especially big impact on Latinos, Black, young voters, as well as women. Supporters of the changes--which are nothing more than thinly veiled voter suppression laws--dictate how groups register to vote, who is eligible, and when folks can vote.

We don't agree with these changes, and we're working hard to reverse them. Until then, however, all Floridians need to understand what is necessary to register to vote for the upcoming general election. We teamed up with our friends at Cuéntame to help you understand those changes and to arm you with what you need to know.

Also, be sure to register to vote here.

NBC Latino: Urgent social media efforts by Latino organizations aim to get Hispanic youth registered to vote

By Adrian Carrasquillo at NBC Latino

Latino organizations are revving up for the 2012 election by using the language of young Hispanics to speak to them and get them to register to vote — social media.

Partnerships and alliances have been formed amongst established Latino organizations like Voto Latino, The National Council of La Raza, and others, which are using Youtube, Facebook,Twitter and the online space to bring their message to a voting bloc that will only be able flex its considerable political muscle if it actually shows up on election day.

“When you look at 2008 registration data, the least registration was 18 to 24-year-old Latinos,” says Dan McSwain, vice president of digital campaigns for Voto Latino, adding that it was true whether you looked at age, educational attainment, race or geography. “It’s shocking. It shows traditional efforts have been falling short.”

One of the innovative online efforts is a new Youtube campaign forged through a partnership between NCLR and Cuéntame, which is a social community 80,000 Facebook fans strong. The first video provides a rapid-fire montage of Latinos breaking down the process of registering to vote in Florida and explains the acceptable photo ID at polling places and where they can be obtained.

 

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