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Time Magazine is reporting that there “was little surprise among Afghanistan experts” at the recent New York Times report claiming that Afghan President Karzai’s brother is on the CIA payroll. It has been referred to in Afghanistan as an “open secret.” Now some members of Congress are asserting that the Central Intelligence Agency may have lied to them at least five times since 2001. Among the instances of alleged deception are the CIA’s failure to disclose to Intelligence committees, that terrorism suspects were being tortured. Another instance involved its secret assassination program for top Al Qaeda leaders. The findings are the result of an investigation following a briefing by CIA Director Leon Panetta in July. Meanwhile, a human rights lawyer investigating the story of CIA torture, has discovered that the CIA’s …

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Several weeks ago, in response to a major campaign by conservative groups and Fox News against the community group ACORN, Congress voted to temporarily stop federal funding. The ban on funding expires this Saturday, October 31st, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and its supporters are calling on the government not to renew the ban. Republicans are already claiming the ban will be renewed and warning of a showdown against Democrats if they resist. ACORN found itself in the crosshairs of the GOP earlier this year when a pair of conservatives carried out a sting operation of sorts against ACORN by dressing up as a prostitute and her pimp, and secretly filming a handful of ACORN workers giving them advice on how to commit fraud. Meanwhile, in …

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The Execution of Leon Czolgosz

Back in the day on October 29th, 1901, Leon Czolgosz was executed by the electric chair for the murder of President William McKinley. The self-proclaimed anarchist assassin had wrapped a .32 caliber revolver in a handkerchief on September 6th, 1901 as he waited for his target. President McKinley was receiving greeters at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, when Czolgosz approached him as if to shake hands and fired two shots that would prove to be fatal. The former mill worker who suffered a breakdown three years before the shooting was apprehended and confessed soon thereafter. Referring to the President, Czolgosz said, “I didn’t believe one man should have so much service and another man have none.” Investigators suspected that the assassination was …

“Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate.” — Hubert H Humphrey

South Asian history expert Vijay Prashad will analyze this week’s dramatic dual bombings in Pakistan and Afghanistan by the Taliban and what it means in the context of US war. And we’ll hear from human rights lawyer John Sifton on some new findings of the CIA’s secret prisons and detainee torture. And, progressives call on Congress to stop the witchhunt against ACORN – we’ll hear sound from a new video by Brave New Films.

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In a press conference on Monday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced proposed health care legislation that included a public option. Ending weeks of speculation, the Democrat from Nevada explained his decision this week by stating, “I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system.” Immediately after the announcement political focus turned to whether or not Reid would be able to convince enough Democrats in the Senate to support the public option inclusive plan. Senator Mary Landrieu expressed skepticism while her fellow Democratic colleague Ben Nelson would not indicate how he would vote on the Reid proposal. As a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has shown increasing public support for the government-run option, its inclusion in Reid’s legislation contains a …

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When the Disney company made claims years ago that its line of Baby Einstein videos would make infants and toddlers smarter, parents lined up to buy them. The marketing of the DVDs implied that they were educational despite no evidence to support it. In fact today pediatricians recommend absolutely no television for children under the age of 2. In 2006 a group of consumer advocates called the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, brought a Federal Trade Commission complaint against the company, which forced Baby Einstein to stop claiming the videos were educational. But the campaign went further and succeeded in pressuring the company to offer refunds to anyone who bought the videos. A spokesperson for Baby Einstein has responded to the campaign as “a sensational, headline-grabbing publicity campaign that seeks …

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The multiple award winning independent feature film, Skin, directed by Anthony Fabian, tells the real-life story of Sandra Laing, a South African woman with dark skin and black curly hair, born to white Afrikaner parents in Apartheid South Africa, unaware of their own black ancestry. Skin is a reflection on the devastation of institutional racism exemplified by South African Apartheid, and exacerbated by existing patriarchal structures. Despite her appearance, Sandra Laing was raised by her parents as a white girl. Her father fought the court system to classify her as “white” and even sent her to a white school, from which she was expelled. Eventually at age 17 Sandra chose to leave white society and follow her heart, living as a black woman for the first time in her life. …

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The Death of Camilo Cienfuegos

Back in the day on October 28th, 1959, Cuban revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos mysteriously died. The long bearded swashbuckler boarded an airplane flying from Camaguey to Havana fifty years ago when it disappeared over the ocean at night. The Cuban government immediately organized a massive search lasting days, but could not recover debris from the crash nor locate the body of the immensely popular icon of the revolution. Born to a Spanish anarchist family in 1932, Cienfuegos became politicized in the student movements against Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. He then moved to Mexico after a second stay in the United States where he met up with Fidel Castro’s Granma expedition. Cienfuegos would go on to become a comandante in the course of the revolution.

Controversies exist …

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” — Nelson Mandela