Justice for killers; State of the Union, 1945; permanent bases, Afghanistan; birds fall from sky; dishing the dirt; nicotine deaths

Miscarriage of justice

2,000,0000 and counting in prison for varied crimes. Crime fighting and media resources misallocated, misguided. All the big crimes committed by institutions, by armies, by corporations, by banks--not by individuals. Time to go after the collective criminals who leverage their capacity to kill.

Individual killer, 1/2/11
(MOBILE, Ala.) Mobile Police are investigating the death of a man found lying on Deer River Road.

The mass murderers
Cigarette Maker Manipulated Nicotine, Its Records Suggest
By BARRY MEIER, Published: February 23, 1998

Tobacco industry documents, including some released in recent weeks, strongly suggest that one of the nation's largest cigarette producers, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, altered nicotine delivery to smokers, apparently believing that doing so would increase the ''kick'' of its popular Winston brand and make it more competitive.

WikiLeaks, Ideological Legitimacy and the Crisis of Empire
Francis Shor, Truthout: "Given the battered economic and military standing of the United States over the past several years, the hysterical reaction of the American political class over the recent release of State Department cables by WikiLeaks is not surprising.... The abuses heaped on Julian Assange and the threats against him, especially, but not exclusively, from politicians in the United States, reflects this hollowing out of democracy and a fear of the new virtual world of free speech."

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State of the Union 65 years later. Nothing’s changed. Scenario for Obama bushwhack

Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse first staged their Pulitzer Prize–winning play, State of the Union, in 1945. Candidate Grant Matthews is a self-made businessman who is very popular with the public for his strong and controversial views. A politician, James Conover, and a host of other politically influential supporters convince a reluctant Grant to run for president, and he agrees, thinking that he can do so without compromising his plan to be an honest candidate. Unfortunately, as Grant makes more and more concessions, he—and his wife, Mary—realize that in order to be honest, he must risk alienating special interest political groups, which could cost him the election.

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The Ides of March

BEEBE, Ark. – Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night. The birds fell over a 1-mile area of Beebe, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area.

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Permanent U.S. bases. How could an independent Afghanistan ask for anything more?

WASHINGTON – A leading GOP lawmaker on U.S. military policy says he wants American officials to consider establishing permanent military bases in Afghanistan.
Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina says that having a few U.S. air bases in Afghanistan would be a benefit to the region and would give Afghan security forces an edge against the Taliban.

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CIA sends out its Plumbers Unit to dig up, manufacture, dish out the dirt to discredit opposition. Assange gets Berlusconi/ Rather treatment

By Victor L. Simpson
-Associated Press
6:51 p.m., Sunday, November 7, 2010
ROME | Is this time different? Silvio Berlusconi has survived prostitution scandals, howling gaffes and seamy courtroom dramas only to bounce back with a billion-dollar grin on his face.
Italians have taken to shrugging off their leader's misbehavior as the foibles of a man accustomed to "la dolce vita" — the sweet life that they themselves aspire to.
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WikiLeaks, Ideological Legitimacy and the Crisis of Empire
Francis Shor, Truthout: "Given the battered economic and military standing of the United States over the past several years, the hysterical reaction of the American political class over the recent release of State Department cables by WikiLeaks is not surprising.... The abuses heaped on Julian Assange and the threats against him, especially, but not exclusively, from politicians in the United States, reflects this hollowing out of democracy and a fear of the new virtual world of free speech."

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Smoking Deaths Worldwide
International Smoking Death Totals · More International Smoking · Smoking Bans

· Addiction? · Smoking Stats ·
Around 5.4 million deaths a year are caused by tobacco.
* Smoking is set to kill 6.5 million people in 2015 and 8.3 million humans in 2030, with the biggest rise in low-and middle-income countries.
* Every 6.5 seconds a current or former smoker dies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
* An estimated 1.3 billion people are smokers worldwide (WHO).
Over 443,000 Americans (over 18 percent of all deaths) die because of smoking each year. Secondhand smoke kills about 50,000 of them.

Surgeons General reports
1964: “Cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in men; the magnitude of cigarette smoking far outweighs all other factors. The data for women, though less extensive,point in the same direction.”
“Cigarette smoking is the most important of the causes of chronic bronchitis in the United States, and increases the risk of dying from chronic bronchitis.”
“Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from coronary artery disease than non-smoking males….”.
“Cigarette smoking is a significant factor in the causation of cancer of the larynx [and]an association exists between cigarette smoking and cancer of the urinary bladder in
men.”1

Admissions of the Tobacco
Industry - Public vs Private Statements
http://www.ashaust.org.au/pdfs/fact10.pdf