Link: http://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/just-say-no-war-drugs

June 2011 marked the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's declaration of a "war on drugs" — a war that has cost roughly a trillion dollars, has produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the United States, and has contributed to making America the world's largest incarcerator. Throughout the month, we’ve run daily posts about the drug war, its victims and what needs to be done to restore fairness and create effective policy.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/budg-j30.shtml

Issuing the fraudulent slogan of “balanced” deficit reduction, Obama declared his determination to impose cuts on the elderly, the sick, school children and college students.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/30/bill-would-eliminate-taxes-on-gold-silver-coi/

Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced legislation this week that would eliminate all taxes on gold and silver coins, elevating them from the status of "collectables" to "legal tender" of the same status as Federal Reserve notes.

Link: http://www.truthout.com/news-thom-hartmann-tsa-agents-working-radiation-machines-develop-cancer-and-more/1309449287

New evidence that the body scanners at airports are giving people cancer, new US drone strikes in Somalia, Ohio's ongoing war on organized labor, and more. Scroll down to watch the newscast.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2011/06/30/new-orleans-cops-trial-murder

OPENING ARGUMENTS began this week in what observers have called the most important trial New Orleans has seen in a generation. It is a shocking case of police brutality that has already redefined this city's relationship to its police department, and radically rewritten the official narrative of what happened in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina. Five police officers are facing charges of shooting unarmed African Americans in cold blood, killing two and wounding four, and then conspiring to hide evidence. Five officers who participated in the conspiracy have already pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against their fellow officers.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article20919

Over the past two weeks, we have been suggesting, tongue in cheekily, that despite the relentless desires of everyone to sell the EUR, it has continued to drift higher, due to some inexplicable force with bottomless pockets, which, after some deductive logic, we assumed was China. It turns out we were correct.

Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/greene06302011.html

Teresa Chambers is the luckiest whistleblower in the United States. She lost her job as the first woman chief of the U.S. Park Police after she told the media in 2004 that the department was below the number required to perform the job adequately. She sued, and in January 2011 won her case.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/30-5

The Obama administration appears to have given a green light to an Israeli attack on an unarmed flotilla carrying peace and human rights activists — including a vessel with 50 Americans on board — bound for the besieged Gaza Strip. At a press conference on June 24, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized the flotilla organized by the Free Gaza Campaign by saying it would "provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves."

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/30-8

“All the evidence shows that we are nearing the end of man’s tragic experiment in independence from God.” Wow, I thought. They get it. And suddenly I felt a burst of solidarity with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The words are from one of their tracts, which was given to me because I have this passion for talking about God — a wild glee, almost, for stepping up to The Big Serious and wrestling theology with the neighborhood proselytizers.

Link: http://www.infowars.com/police-taser-beat-pepper-spray-mentally-handicapped-teen-then-charge-him-with-assault/

Dayton police tasered, pepper-sprayed and beat a mentally handicapped teen and then charged him with assault. What did the disabled boy do to deserve this onslaught? The police officer “mistook” his speech impediment for a sign of “disrespect”. Of course, as is standard operating procedure for police after they beat and torture innocent and defenseless victims, Kersey himself was charged with “assault on a peace officer, resisting arrest, and obstructing official business,” charges which were later dismissed after the court declared Jesse incompetent.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/06/201163018229379353.html

First such attack reported in east African nation reportedly wounds two leaders of anti-government group al-Shabab. A US drone aircraft is reported to have fired upon two senior members of al-Shabab, the Islamist anti-government armed group, in Somalia last week, marking the first time a US unmanned plane has been used for such an attack inside the country. The strike, said to have been carried out on June 23, is believed to have targeted a convoy of fighters belonging to al-Shabab, which is fighting to overthrow Somalia's weak Transitional National Government and impose Islamic law.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/06/20116304212789309.html

Defence minister says Americans told to leave base from where they are alleged to have launched drone strikes. Pakistan has stopped the United States from using an air base in the southwest of the country which it is alleged to have used to launch controversial drone strikes, according to the country's defence minister. Ahmed Mukhtar told journalists on Wednesday that US officials had been told to leave the Shamsi base in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, Pakistani state media reported.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/8608337/Doctor-barred-from-flying-after-refusing-body-scan-on-health-grounds.html

Tony Aguirre a specialist at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary declined to go through the full-body scanner on both medical and ethical grounds. But instead of being offered a pat down search as an alternative, the father-of-two was escorted out of the airport by police and not allowed to board his flight to Zurich.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/fukushima-children-radiation-tests-caesium

Trace amounts of radioactive substances have been found in urine samples taken from children from Fukushima city, raising concerns that residents have been exposed internally to radiation from the stricken nuclear power plant 37 miles (60km) away.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/151483/drug_company_profiteering%2C_pill_mills_and_thousands_of_addicts%3A_how_oxycontin_has_spread_through_america/

Corruption down the line, from Big Pharma to doctors and the war on drugs, builds a growing epidemic and an addiction-fueled empire. I left a very white, very affluent Philadelphia suburb for NYU in 2007. When I go home, Oxys always come up in conversation with friends: Who got really "bad" (and can you believe it was him?!), who started selling, or what new pill-based friendship is the strangest. On one visit, I found pens gutted to be used as straws (to snort pills) and tin foil in my old best friend’s bedroom, to smoke Oxys.

Link: http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/522.php

Financial crashes were well understood for a hundred years after they became a normal financial phenomenon in the mid-19th century. Much like the buildup of plaque deposits in human veins and arteries, an accumulation of debt gained momentum exponentially until the economy crashed, wiping out bad debts – along with savings on the other side of the balance sheet. Physical property remained intact, although much was transferred from debtors to creditors. But clearing away the debt overhead from the economy's circulatory system freed it to resume its upswing. That was the positive role of crashes: They minimized the cost of debt service, bringing prices and income back in line with actual ‘real’ costs of production. Debt claims were replaced by equity ownership. Housing prices were lower – and more affordable, being brought back in line with their actual rental value. Goods and services no longer had to incorporate the debt charges that the financial upswing had built into the system.

Link: http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/06/fukushima-spews-los-alamos-burns-vermont-rages-we-almost-lost-nebraska/

Humankind is now threatened by the simultaneous implosion, explosion, incineration, courtroom contempt and drowning of its most lethal industry. We know only two things for certain: worse is yet to come, and those in charge are lying about it—at least to the extent of what they actually know, which is nowhere near enough.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/151442/why_is_jerry_falwell%27s_evangelical_university_getting_filthy_rich_off_your_tax_money/

"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!" - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, America Can Be Saved. This year, the 40th anniversary of Liberty University, Rev. Falwell's dream -- now being looked after by his son Jerry Jr. -- has become a reality thanks in large part to America's taxpayers.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2011/06/top-obama-advisor-homeland-is-primary.html

The Huffington Post is reporting that the White House is set to release their new counterterrorism strategy on the White House website. In a press conference Tuesday, deputy national security advisor for Homeland Security and counterterrorism, John Brennan, outlined some of the details:

Link: http://www.imemc.org/article/61573?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitterA

A Committee of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a first draft of a law that will require that Palestinians whose homes are destroyed by Israeli forces pay the Israeli government for the demolition costs. The law will now be passed to the full Knesset for a final reading, where it is expected to pass due to the current makeup of the Knesset.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=29163

Chairman for West Oxfordshire Tory Party, Christopher Shale was found dead in a toilet cubicle at Glastonbury Festival the day after his interview with the Mail On Sunday was published. Significantly in the interview Shale had criticised his own party for being, as he put it: “voracious”, “grasping” and “always seen to be on the take”. His comments on the economy echoed what many felt, that it could not be coincidence that almost every country in the world was facing economic collapse simultaneously.

Link: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=29126

Susan Rice, the American ambassador to the UN, said there was “no greater threat” to US support and funding of the UN than the prospect of Palestinian statehood being endorsed by member states.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jun2011/pers-j29.shtml

The devastation of New Orleans and much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina exposed the incompetence and criminal indifference of the Bush administration. A great American city was virtually destroyed by the failure of the levees maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The rescue effort was botched by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, while Bush gave his thumbs-up to FEMA chief Michael Brown, declaring he was doing “a heckuva job.” More than a thousand people died in New Orleans alone and half a million fled the hurricane zone, many never to return.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2011/06/29/disappeared-into-bagram

According to the convention media wisdom, Barack Obama is defying the Pentagon and ordering a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. But in reality, tens of thousands of combat troops will remain in Afghanistan for years to come. And no part of the media are reporting on a dirty secret of the Afghan occupation--that hundreds and hundreds of Afghan men have disappeared into the U.S.'s notorious Bagram prison for years at a time.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28431.htm

The International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are violating their charters in order to bail out French, German, and Dutch private banks. The IMF is only empowered to make balance of payments loans, but is lending to the Greek government for prohibited budgetary reasons in order that the Greek government can pay the banks. The ECB is prohibited from bailing out member country governments, but is doing so anyway in order that the banks can be paid. The German parliament approved the bailout, which violates provisions of the European Treaty and Germany’s own Basic Law. The case is in the German Constitutional Court, a fact unreported in the US media.

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article20918

You could be, too. “Newsflash: The radioactive crisis near Fukushima isn’t getting any better. This has been something we discussed in the last few weeks, but now there are some new disturbing details.

Link: http://www.rense.com/general94/getting.htm

The ability to manipulate the price of essential foods worldwide at will -- almost irrespective of today's physical supply and demand for grains -- is quite recent.Almost every culture had the practice of storing a reserve stock of a grain harvest ­ right up to the most recent times. Wars, droughts and famines were the reason. When properly stored, grain can be safely stored over a period of about seven years, enabling reserve stocks in case of an emergency. The process of eliminating government grain reserves in major producing countries took time, but with the passage of the 1996 Farm Bill, the US had virtually eliminated its grain reserves. The EU followed soon after. Today, among major agriculture producing countries, only China and India still hold to a strategic security policy of nationally held grain reserves.The price of grain was now run by the new casino masters of grain supplies -- from Wall Street to London and beyond -- For some two billion people in the world who spend more than half of their income on food, the effects have been horrifying. During the speculation-driven grain price explosion in 2008, more than a quarter billion people became what the UN terms "food insecure,"Up until the grain crisis of the mid-1970s there was no single "world price" for grain, the benchmark for the price of all foods and food products.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2011/06/201162081055517275.html

Naseema was born into and lives in one of India's most infamous brothels but is now working to free trafficked women. India's handwritten magazines have long fascinated me. But while researching the subject for a blog, I came across one in particular that stood out. Jugnu is a 32-page monthly magazine that has been written and published by the sex workers of the Chaturbhuj-sthan brothel in Bihar, near the border with Nepal, for the past 10 years.

Link: http://lewrockwell.com/rep2/rich-dad-poor-dad-prepper-dad.html

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Prepper Dad? Even Robert Kiyosaki Is Warning That an Economic Collapse Is Coming. Are you familiar with Robert Kiyosaki? He is best known for the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series of books. Over 26 million books authored by Kiyosaki have been sold and he is recognized as a financial expert by millions of people across the globe. Well, guess what? Even Robert Kiyosaki is warning that an economic collapse is coming.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/2011628101331334709.html

Ten ships bound for Gaza are expected to set sail from Greece in the coming days. A Swedish ship due to join an upcoming Gaza-bound aid flotilla has been sabotaged in the Greek port of Piraeus, organisers say. In a statement, they said "hostile divers had destroyed the propeller house and cut the propeller shaft" of the vessel Juliano on Monday.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/151463/if_ayn_rand_and_the_free_market_fetishists_were_right%2C_we%27d_be_living_in_a_golden_age_--_does_this_look_like_a_golden_age_to_you/

The lavish rewards flowing to the titans of industry have not exactly transformed society into a vibrant force for beneficial progress. If the “free-market” theories of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman were correct, the United States of the last three decades should have experienced a golden age in which the lavish rewards flowing to the titans of industry would have transformed the society into a vibrant force for beneficial progress.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/28/activists-rally-to-push-for-maximum-sentence-for-nypd-cops-acquitted-of-rape/

This morning, a group of activists gathered in across the street from the Foley Square Courthouse in New York City to demand the maximum sentencing for Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, the former NYPD officers at the center of the well-publicized “rape cops” trial. Moreno and Mata were acquitted of rape, despite substantial evidence against them, including a taped confession;

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/06/bachmann-stands-by-claims-that-founding-fathers-ended-slavery/

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who officially announced yesterday in Iowa that she is running for president, appeared on “Good Morning America” Monday, where George Stephanopoulos attempted to clarify some of her previous statements. “Now with respect, Congresswoman, that’s just not true,” Stephanopoulos said. “Many of them including Jefferson and Washington were actually slave holders and slavery didn’t end until the Civil War.” Bachmann dodged the question...

Link: http://www.truthout.com/sen-bernie-sanders-we-will-not-balance-budget-backs-working-families/1309280399

Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. In the coming days and weeks, decisions will be made about our national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American in this country for decades to come.

Link: http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/06/did-mossad-sabotage-russian-plane/

Israel's Mossad has been suspected in the deaths of a number of Iranian and Turkish nuclear scientists. Although Russian officials are calling the crash an "accident" caused by poor weather conditions and pilot error, there are reports that the plane caught fire and broke up before it crashed.

Link: http://www.alt-market.com/articles/158-iea-oil-dump-a-disaster-in-the-making

It’s amazing. In the wake of the 2008 derivatives and housing bubble collapse, created by the U.S. Treasury and the private Federal Reserve with engineered low interest rates and easy money designed to artificially pump up the economy after the effects of the dot-com bust, the faltering markets of 2000-2001, and the rapidly depreciating dollar, we have now seen these same entities pour Trillions, yes, TRILLIONS in fiat injections into every conceivable corner of the markets. They have spent incredible sums on toxic equities (worthless equities, and don’t let anyone tell you different) to “ease” the debt spiral, they have propped up almost every large international bank, they have propped up the Federal Government and the Dollar itself with sizable purchases of our own Treasury debt, and, they have even thrown money into the pockets of foreign institutions and corporate beggars.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q9tho79Hmw

The French finance minister will be the next head of the IMF. She's replacing
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is facing charges of sexually assaulting a maid in a hotel last month. It's a prestigious position, but Christine Lagarde will also inherit a rather unpleasant legacy: riots in Greece, and people dying and demonstrating against a Government many believe has failed them. It's not only Greece though - the middle class in the US continues to suffer. Debt ceiling talks are going nowhere in Washington, and Charlie McGrath, who is the founder of wideawakenews.com, joins RT's Kristine Frazao to talk about the issue.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28432.htm

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” James Baldwin penned that line more than 50 years ago... I know the feel of thick calluses on the bottom of shoeless feet. I know the bite of the cold breeze that slithers through a drafty house. I know the weight of constant worry over not having enough to fill a belly or fight an illness. It is in that context that I am forced to assume that if Washington politicians ever knew the sting of poverty then they have long since vanquished the memory. How else to qualify their positions?

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/the-new-gold-rush-4400/

Due to economic uncertainty, a rise in inflation, various debt crises, and intense price pressures, global investors are returning to gold as a secure investment. The increase in demand has pushed the price of gold to a new high, fuelling an unprecedented mining boom in countries with rich mineral deposits, such as Colombia.

Link: http://www.a-w-i-p.com/index.php/2011/06/28/title-101

It is indisputable that similar indictments could be leveled against [the US,] US-backed regimes and allies in the region. That no such indictments or arrest orders have been issued only underscores that the International Criminal Court is a pliant tool of the US and the other major imperialist powers in pursuit of “regime change.”