Monsanto GMO crops set ablaze in Oregon, FBI investigating

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Except for scant local coverage, GMO crops said to belong to Monsanto were set ablaze in Oregon. According to several independent media sources, 40 Tons of GMO Sugar Beets were set ablaze in Eastern Oregon on June 22nd and the FBI is said to be investigating. The fires were alleged to have been started over a three day period. This would certainly classify as a major news story considering the world wide resistance to genetically modified crops engineered by Monsanto which has patents on the seeds which can naturally spread to neighboring fields. Why has the corporate media ignored this story?

The Business Journals has published rankings of state governors in job creation and while South Carolina isn't last, it isn't far from it. Tune in for some Haley-hatin and questions about why a State dominated by Republicans can not seem to create any jobs.

Zimmerman murder trial witness for the prosecution, Rachel Jeantel wrapped up her testimony yesterday and her testimony recalling Trayvon Martin saying a "creepy-ass cracker" was following him in referring to George Zimmerman. This is of course leading to speculation that Martin was racists towards white people.

However, to play up Trayvon Martin as using cracker as a racist term to describe who was following him is to say you believe Jeantel's testimony that Zimmerman was following Martin as other evidence shows.

Also, there is some interesting little known Florida history about the word "cracka" or cracker" besides the racial overtones to describe poor whites. According to Wikipedia,

"In reference to a native of Florida or Georgia, however, it is sometimes used in a neutral or positive context and is sometimes used self-descriptively with pride."

"Another theory holds that slave foremen in the antebellum South used bullwhips to discipline African slaves, with such use of the whip being described as "cracking the whip". The white foremen who cracked these whips thus became known as "crackers". They are called by the town's-people, "Crackers," from the frequency with which they crack their large whips, as if they derived a peculiar pleasure from the sound"

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Zimmerman murder trial continues with more testimony from Rachel Jeantel

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Today we are joined in studio by Efia Nwangaza to discuss the George Zimmerman murder trial and the other news of the day.

Yesterday’s trial proceeding in the George Zimmerman trial sparked a lot of debate on cable shows and online as people went back and forth expressing their opinions on the witnesses. Trayvon Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel, who was on the phone with him before he would be shot and killed by George Zimmerman, will be taking the stand again today as she continues to be cross examined by the defense for Zimmerman.

Brazilian protesters won another victory when Brazil's Congress rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that was a key grievance of protesters. Protesters argued PEC 37, would have limited the power of federal prosecutors to investigate alleged crimes committed by government officials and would open door for even more corruption. Tuesday, the PEC 37 was defeated by 430 votes to nine.

Australian airliner Qantas is launching an investigation into allegations that its in-flight disposable headphones were made by slave labor in Chinese prisons. Former prisoners said they were often beaten and made to work long hours and paid about $1.30 per month for their work. A Qantas spokesperson said that the company was "very concerned by these allegations" and suspended its use of the supplier until an investigation was completed.

In similar news in the United States, Prisoners in Washington State plan to stand in solidarity with California prisoners and stage a prison work strike on July 8. The San Francisco Bay View reports,

“Some prisoners in Washington, including some in juvenile facilities, have vowed to join the nonviolent strike. The strike’s aim is two-fold: to show support for the hunger strikers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to join California prisoners in protesting long-term solitary confinement and other human rights abuses in U.S. prisons.”

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Supreme Court rules parts of DOMA unconstitutional

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Today the Supreme Court struck down the part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by Bill Clinton. The court ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny federal benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married in the states where they are residing. Justice Anthony Kennedy who held the decisive vote stated,

"The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity.”

You can read Daisy's blog on the ruling at Daisy's Dead Air.

Current and former employees of Paula Deen are alleging through an attorney with Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, that Paula Deen and her brother Bubba Hiers practiced racism and white supremacy against them. A current and two former employees said that they were victims of wage discrimination along with other Black workers and that Whites were advanced quickly garnering promotions and higher pay. There are allegations that one Black employee was frequently referred to as "my little monkey" and that one worker who threaten to go to the EEOC was told by Deen's brother "you don't have any civil rights here".

After Bill Maher sought to compare Paula Deen's use of the n-word to the use of the n-word by rappers on "rap records", author Ann Rice in a Facebook status message compared the public backlash against Deen to a "lynch mob" culture stating,

"What's happening with Paula Dean? Is it fair? I never heard of her until today, and wow, this looks like a crucifixion. Opinions, thoughts welcome. Thanks to Troy Hawkins for the link. I may be wrong but aren't we becoming something of a lynch mob culture? Is this a good example of that? What are your feelings?" - Ann Rice

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What is a journalist and SCOTUS guts Voting Rights Act

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The South Carolina Public Service Commission held a hearing yesterday to hear comments from the Greenville community about the latest proposed utility rate hike by Duke Energy. Daisy Deadhead wrote about the hearing on her blog Daisy’s Dead Air and will share her thoughts about what she observed on today’s show.

What is a journalist? That is a question that was sparked when NBC News' Sunday morning talk show host for Meet the Press, David Gregory asked Glen Greenwald if he should be charged with a crime for “aiding and abetting” Edward Snowden’s movements. After Greenwald ripped into Gregory for insinuating that, he had aided and abetted Snowden and that a “journalist” should not be aiding and abetting those who have created a hostile environment for investigative journalism, Gregory said that Greenwald's credentials as a journalist might be subject to scrutiny.

Now another corporate media mouthpiece for NBC has gone after Greenwald. MSNBC's Joy Reid is questioning the Snowden/Greenwald timeline in an attempt to prove that Greenwald is an accomplice to a crime and not simply an investigative journalist who broke one the biggest news stories of the year and a possible candidate for a Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Continuing with the question about what is or who is a journalist, The New York Times has issued a correction for calling Alexa O'Brien, who was a guest on Occupy The Microphone last week, an "activist" and not a journalist in an article it published about Wikileaks.

The United States Supreme Court recently ruled 5 to 4 that states targeted by the Voting Rights Act no longer need pre-clearance from the US Department of Justice when making changes to their voting and election law. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the rules were both unconstitutional and outdated. Attorney General Holder has said that the Department of Justice will fight any state Republican Party efforts to rig the Electoral College.

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Is a free and independent press an illusion in America?

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The Federal Reserve has been "buying" bonds from banks to the tune of 80 Billion dollars a month for some time. Known as "Quantitative Easing" it increases the amount of cash available to the market. Now the Federal Reserve is tapering off this program, and some believe that this is exactly the wrong time to be reducing the flow of cash into the economy.
As we've discussed on Occupy the Microphone recently, the Obama administration is apparently preparing to get us deeply involved in the Syrian civil war. Now we find that US troops are scheduled to serve in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Are we headed towards WWIII? Is that what the "Global War on Terror" has become, a war between nations across the planet? Are there any meaningful limits the political and military 1% place on themselves?
Of course, Edward Snowden has been on the road, flying from Haiwaii to Hong Kong, and now he has reportedly flown to Moscow. It's said that he will fly to Cuba and then on to Equador, which has granted assylum to Julian Assange in London. The US has suspended Snowden's passport and leaders from both political parties are saying Snowden should "face the music", which might include torture and a possible death penalty.
Finally, journalist Michael Hastings, who recently died in a fiery crash sent a text message to friends and colleagues hours before his death saying the FBI was interviewing his friends, and Hastings would have to "go off the radar". Has being a journalist become a dangerous proposition?
Are the threats implied by David Gregory in his questioning of Glen Greenwald an example of those risks? Is Assange paying the price for not being part of the "real journalism" world and will Greenwald be in the same boat? This and more on today's episode of Occupy The Microphone.
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The death of American leftists in America

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You know how we like to make movie references on Occupy The Microphone and we could not help but notice life imitating art playing out in the real life events unfolding right before our eyes. A scene from the movie "Good Will Hunting" shows Matt Damon characters telling a NSA official why he should not be working for the NSA. While the reasons Matt Damon's character give for not wanting to work for the NSA are not exactly the reasons former NSA private contractor employee Edward Snowden gave for blowing the lid on the massive surveillance network of the NSA, it is quite possible Snowden was moved by conscious.

An article written by Jeffrey St. Clair titled "The Silent Death of the American Left" resonates with Daisy Deadhead and she has been discussing the demise of the political left in American politics. Does a true leftist movement exist within America or have elitist and the one percenters hijacked it just as people accused the TEA Party movement of being hijacked by those who have nothing in common with the worker class in America?

This week in Charlotte, NC, a teenager was shot and killed by an undercover narco agent working for the Charlotte Mecklenburg police during a marijuana sting. A 66-year-old man in Bluffton, S.C., is facing years on a prison plantation for growing marijuana in his backyard for his chronically ill wife so that she can regain her appetite and sleep better. Even though a majority of Americans believe that pot should be legal and not just for medicinal uses, the Obama administration like the Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon and so on, continues to employ a failed drug policy. The "War on Drugs" has not reduced the availability of drugs but has resulted in the enslavement of millions of people and the killing of countless others by ruthless drug gangs including those wearing badges.

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Is Greenville, South Carolina suppressing free speech?

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In May of 2011, Occupy The Microphone co-host and co-producer Gregg Jocoy participated in a demonstration against Fox News at The Peace Center for the Performing Arts located in Greenville, South Carolina. He would be ticketed for having a sign that was too large according to city ordinances. The sign was no larger than what you would see on typical human billboards around the country. Gregg decided to stand up for free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – Bill of Rights

Take the Freedom of Speech Poll

Today he lost a battle in the increasing hostile war against civil liberties in America. He will update us on this court battle, which thus far so-called civil rights organizations have refused to help. Does limiting the size of hand held posters while allowing companies, corporations and other organizations to post signage on giant billboards amount to curtailing an individual’s freedom of speech.

The jury for the murder trial of George Zimmerman has been chosen and it consists of all females and 5 out of 6 are white the remaining juror is rumored to be Latino, not black. George Zimmerman has a Latino parent. Daisy is making the prediction that the jury will acquit Zimmerman of murdering Trayvon Martin and there will be riots due to the racial makeup of the jury.

In Entertainment news, actor and producer James Gandolfini died suddenly while vacationing in Rome, Italy. An official cause of death has yet to be determined pending an autopsy. Gandolfini was most known for his role Tony Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos but he also produced documentaries about returning injured Iraqi veterans and PTSD.

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240,000 turn out to protest bus fare and police brutality in Brazil

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Massive protests have been going on in Brazil for over a week as the 99% take to the streets in protest over the raising of bus fare in that poor see as means for the rich to pay for a sports complex. A video of eight cops giving a reporter a Rodney King style beating caused even more Brazilians to take to the streets.

There has been very little in-depth coverage by the mainstream of PFC Bradley Manning's trial. "Bradley Edward Manning is a United States Army soldier who was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of having passed classified material to the website WikiLeaks." We had an opportunity to catch up with one reporter who has been providing in-depth coverage and you can tune in today to hear our interview with journalist Alexa O'Brien. You can follow Alexa's reporting on her website and follow her on Twitter.

In Spartanburg, SC, a group of families confronted Sheriff Chuck Wright over the cases of men who were killed where it was ruled self defense. One mother, Darlene Smith questioned Wright over her son's case who was shot in the head along with another man. Michael Deangelo Gentry-Hill and Darren Hill were both shot in the head allegedly while attempting to break into an apartment. Neither of the two were armed when Douglas Williams confronted them outside his apartment instead of waiting till the men entered the apartment or allowing the police who were called to get there and investigate the alleged crime.


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Same old war songs as US moves to arm Syrian "rebels"

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It looks like the US could get pulled into another non-declared war launched by the executive branch that could cost the American tax payers billions in a no win situation for the American people. Members of the Obama administration have been pushing language with the help of pro-war members of the Senate that sounds strikingly similar to that used to justify invading Iraq, which we now know were lies about weapons of mass destruction and mushroom clouds. CIA analyst Ray McGovern compared it to President Bush's Axis of Evil Speech to congress.

Former French foreign minister Roland Dumas in a recent interview with French Parliamentary TV network, LCP that Britain had been planning a war against Syria some two years before the unrest broke out in the Arab country.   
“I’m going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria, this was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer minister for foreign affairs, if I would like to participate.” - Roland Dumas

Last night ABC reported news about 711 store franchise owners running a human trafficking/slavery scheme forcing workers to work for very little pay and keeping them locked up and/or scared of being deported back to Pakistan because their visas had expired. However, if this was able to go on so long involving people from a country the US is waging war in with drone strikes, how effective is the government's domestic spying programs?

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Green Shadow Cabinet joins fight against Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement

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The Green Shadow Cabinet includes nearly 100 prominent scientists, community and labor leaders, physicians, cultural workers, veterans, and more, and provides an ongoing opposition and alternative voice to the dysfunctional government in Washington D.C. Today we will be joined by Richard McIntyre who is the U.S. Trade Representative for the Green Shadow Cabinet. He will discuss the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement which the Obama administration is currently negotiating in order to enter the United States in the trade agreement. Critics have blasted TPP "as a secretive, multi-national trade agreement that threatens to extend restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws across the globe and rewrite international rules on its enforcement."

The new Superman film "Man of Steel" has been getting a lot of ink in terms of its successful marketing to seniors. However, Daisy Deadhead has some thoughts on the pro military propaganda promoted by "Man of Steel".

Two weeks ago, Occupy The Microphone reported that there are allegations that South Carolina paid a ransom to hackers not to sell the personal data of South Carolinians, which was stolen when they breached the computers at South Carolina's Department of Revenue. Governor Haley has neither confirmed nor denied paying the ransom deferring questions to investigating law enforcement agencies. Greenville Online is reporting that instances of hackers locking computer systems and demanding ransoms to release the data have been growing. Jenny Shearer, spokesperson for the FBI, said that since 2002 victims who have claimed losses approaching $1 Million have filed almost 3,000 complaints.

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Hillary Clinton denies knowledge of scandals rocking the State Dept

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New revelations emerge from another US Government whistle-blower about scandals at the State Dept involving the cover up of alleged acts of child sex solicitation, soliciting prostitutes, drug dealing and sexual misconduct by employees and private security contractors working for the State Department in Iraq. The name of the active US Ambassador accused of soliciting children and prostitutes for sex has not been revealed even though corporate news reports say the accused denies the allegations. Hillary Clinton through a spokesperson has denied any knowledge of anything revealed in the leaked Inspector General’s memo. Whistle-blower Aurelia Fedenisn has not yet been charged with leaking information but that remains a possibility and would be par for course considering how both the Obama and previous Bush administrations have gone after whistle blowers.

The Obama administration has said it will start supplying military aid to Syrian rebels who are attempting to overthrow the government led by President Bashir Assad. After months of saying the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government forces would be a game changer, the White House is citing chemical weapons use as the reason for its recent decision to arm the rebels. Previous reports about chemical weapons use pointed to Syrian rebels after a UN investigation but the UN walked backed the claims claiming there was “strong suspicion” the rebels used sarin gas. Russian authorities say that they have seen the latest evidence the US is touting and calling it weak. The UN Secretary General is opposing the arming of the Syrian rebels saying the region does not need more militarization.

Hackers associated with the group Anonymous have attacked the NSA website and leaked information on 400 of its employees. The group’s latest activities were initiated after Edward Snowden revealed information that the NSA was spying on millions of Americans trolling their electronic communications information. The group also sought to overwhelm the Prism system by sending out a large among of emails with “terror-related” keywords. A website called trollthensa.com released the following presser, “If millions of us, all at the same exact time, call or email someone with our keywords-of-terror-filled script, we can give our nation’s impressive surveillance apparatus the kind of test it deserves. They say they don’t read or listen to the contents of our messages. Why not test it out? It’ll be fun.”

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Obama administration enabling rapists and pedophile US Ambassadors?

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Today we will be joined by Rev. Billy of The Church of Stop Shopping. The Church of Stop Shopping is an activist performance group based in New York City, led by Reverend Billy, the stage name of Bill Talen. Using the form of a revival meeting, on sidewalks and in chain stores.

Is the South Carolina DMV going too far with its proposal to require electronic license plates to make it easier for law enforcement to spot expired tags, out of date registrations and when a person's driver license has been suspended? There is even mention of allowing the plates to flash Amber Alerts. Is this Big Brother gone to far or a scheme to generate extra funds for the state or is it a good idea?
Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham stated this week on Fox & Friends that the Obama administration “empowers men who want to abuse women” by complying with a court order to allow over-the-counter emergency contraception sales to women and girls of any age. Speaking of Conservatives, Ann Coulter is taking the Republican Party to task for supporting an immigration reform bill that she says if passed, the Republican Party deserves to die. She said the called Fox News host Sean Hannity is like a liberal posing silly questions about her opposition to the bill. 
Hillary Clinton is taking heat again for her alleged mismanagement of the State Department after an internal memo from the department's Office of the Inspector General obtained by CNN alleges Senior State Department and Diplomatic Security officials may have covered up or stopped investigations of inappropriate or even criminal misconduct by staff. Among the allegations is that an active U.S. ambassador "routinely ditched his protective security detail in order to solicit sexual favors from both prostitutes and minor children," the memo says. The ambassador's protective detail and others "were well aware of the behavior,"

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BMW and Dollar General discriminating against Black workers

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Today's show, Marie Wilmot, mother of Kiera Wilmot, the Florida girl who was arrested after an unauthorized experiment with household chemicals led to a soda bottle top being blown off the bottle, will join us to talk about her daughters, the way the system reacted to her honor-roll daughter afterward, and what is in the future for her daughters and herself.
BMW faces an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit for allegedly discriminating against black employees and job applicants. The suit claims that the company's use of criminal background checks to screen out job applicants or fire employees discriminates against African-Americans, who have higher arrest and conviction rates than whites do do. The EEOC also moved against Tennessee based Dollar General for the same policy and the suit against the company was filed in Illinois.
Finally, we will be joined by Mary Olson of the Nuclear Information Resource Service to get the latest in nuclear news from across the nation. Plans to locate even more dangerous nuclear waste on the Georgia/South Carolina border should concern all of us, even if you're not in the area, as the nuclear waste will have to be transported across the nation, even on Interstate and state highways, to get it to the proposed waste dump.
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Is Rep. James Clyburn reversing stance on spying on Americans?

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South Carolina Representative James Clyburn (D) seems to be more concerned with President Obama being politically embarrassed by recent revelations that the NSA is sweeping up information about millions of Americans without warrants than he is about the spying itself. Representative Clyburn's voting record on National Security issues would suggest that he is pro-civil liberties when it comes to these matters and that makes his comments somewhat confusing.
Is Edward Snowden a traitor or a hero? The answer depends on whom you ask and whether your allegiance is to the US government or the US constitution. Former Republican presidential candidate and long time member of Congress before retiring, Ron Paul believes Snowden is a hero and it is those who have violated the Constitution who should be prosecuted. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein says that Snowden committed an act of treason and is not a whistle blower.
Larry Klayman, the founder of Judicial Watch and now Freedom Watch and a former Justice Department prosecutor,  announced that he has expanded his lawsuit against President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, the heads of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Verizon, the entities themselves, and the federal judge, Roger Vinson, who signed the warrant allowing for the alleged illegal violation of the constitutional rights of well over a hundred million subscribers and users, to be a class action lawsuit. The complaint, which can be found at www.freedomwatchusa.org, was amended yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (Case No. 1:13-cv-OO851).
This news and more from your news source for the 99%.

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Edward Snowden comes forward as the NSA whistleblower

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Security contractor Edward Snowden has come forward as the source of Glenn Greenwald's article on the massive NSA spying program used to sift through the phone data of millions of Americans. The program exposes the hypocrisy of President Obama who once blasted the Bush administration for its warrantless wiretaps. The NSA spy program is the largest in US history and the Obama administration has targeted whistleblowers far above that of previous administrations and ignoring laws which protect them.

However, can this be laid solely at the feet of the President when so many in Congress, like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, have expressed nothing but support for the spy program declaring it is for the American people's own good?

This news and more from your news source for the 99%.

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Native Americans should repent for their ancestors

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A video of TV prophet Cindy Jacobs has gone viral after she proclaimed that anyone with Native American or Aztec bloodlines must repent for their ancestors practicing "animism". Animism is the religious worldview that natural physical entities including animals, plants, and often even inanimate objects or phenomena possess a spiritual essence. In 2011, Jacobs proclaimed that the Occupy Wall Street movement was the work of Satan.

Did the US government outsource spying on Americans to two Israeli companies? American tech companies like Facebook and Google deny giving the National Security Agency access to the data of their users but there is speculation that two secretive Israeli companies are involved in tapping the lines of US telecoms and data mining the internet for the NSA.

Is the corporate media attempting to demonize political prisoner Private Bradley Manning for leaking crimes of the US government? A recent Rolling Stone article examines the headlines of several corporate outlets questioning the angle of "mainstream" coverage of his trial, which started this week.

This news and more from your news source for the 99%.

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Here's a link to Teresa Slack's campaign website.

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Fox News says rapes in the US military getting too much media coverage

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Andrea Tantaros of Fox News says rape in the US military is getting too much media coverage from MSNBC and thinks that the hearings on the IRS scrutinizing political non-profits is not getting enough coverage. Occupy The Microphone reported back in May that in 2012 alone, over 85,000 vets, 40% of them male, sought assistance for trauma related to service related sexual assaults. Yesterday, Media Matters reported that Fox News has only devoted 14 minutes total to the Congressional hearings on sexual assaults in the military while spending 4 hours covering the IRS hearings. We have to ask, does Fox News really care about those who serve in the US Armed Forces like they claim they do?

Are you using Verizon for your cell phone service? If you do like millions of others, your cell phone data has been handed over to the National Security Agency under a secret court order. The Guardian, a UK based news outlet has obtained a copy of that order and reports "The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries." South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says he is glad the NSA is secretly spying on millions of Americans.

US drone strikes in Pakistan have killed over 1,000 people and while the US maintains it is only going after terrorist, the truth is, US policy still considers the loss of civilian lives acceptable "collateral damage". Over one hundred children have also been killed in Pakistan and family members of victims say they want revenge on America.

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Rejecting Medicaid expansion will cost states billions

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Guests: Local business person Jeffrey Fant will be in studio to talk about his lawn care and pressure washing business and the challenges of operating a small business in today's economic climate.
14 states are still refusing to implement the Health Care Reform Act's Medicaid expansion and a new study says it will cost those states billions of dollars and leave millions of residents uninsured. The study conducted by the Rand Corporation looks at 14 states that have decided to opt out of the new Medicaid funds, which results in them getting $8.4 billion less in federal funds forcing them to have to spend an extra $1 billion in uncompensated care and result in about 3.6 million fewer insured residents in those states.

Speaking of the Health Care Reform Act, private insurers in South Carolina are worried that a bill nullifying "Obamacare" could cause them problems in dealing with the regulatory aspects of the federal law. The State reports, "A proposed bill, on special order in the South Carolina state Senate, would allow the state attorney general to take businesses, including health insurers, to court if he “has reasonable cause to believe” they are harming people by implementing the law. The bill already has passed the House".

Two high school students say they were unfairly targeted and discriminated against in school functions. Escambia Academy High School in Atmore, Ala., makes students and staff sign pre-graduation contracts agreeing not to wear "extraneous items during graduation exercises unless approved by the administration." Student Chelsey Ramer tried to get approval to attach an eagle's feather to her graduation cap as a symbol of her Poarch Creek Band native culture but the school headmaster refused. Chelsey decided not to sign the contract and participated in her graduation ceremony wearing the eagle feather but she was fined $1,000.00 by the school that is holding her diploma hostage until the fine is paid. The student called it discrimination.

The parents of Brittany Minder want an apology from Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale, Washington after the teen says she was embarrassed at her senior prom when she was forced to cover her chest, which officials contend showed too much cleavage. The school dress code says strapless dresses are allowed as long as cleavage, midriff and lower back are covered. Brittany was wearing a strapless dress made specifically for large breasted women and she says she was humiliated having to wear a shawl over her chest, which ruined her prom experience and hurt her self-esteem.

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Move to Abolish Slavery in 21st Century America

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Guest: Our online co-producer Scotty Reid will be on the program today to discuss the need for another Abolitionist movement in the United States and how those who gave their lives to end the institution were betrayed by the Lincoln administration.

A privacy rights blog is reporting that your cell phone  may be used to spy on you and others at protests. New technology called "IMSI catchers" is being pushed to law enforcement officials and intelligence groups that allow them to intercept cell phone data. Privacy SOS reports, "IMSI stands for "International Mobile Subscriber Identity". The technology is essentially a mobile phone tower with "a malicious operator". It mimics the behavior of a cell tower and tricks mobile phones into sending data to it, instead of to the tow."

Continuing our coverage of government spying on citizens without a warrant, the United States is testing a high tech spy tool on an unsuspecting New Zeeland public. The New Zealand Herald is reporting that "The tool was called ThinThread and it worked by automatically intercepting phone, email and internet information."

However, a Wikipedia entry on ThinThread states, "ThinThread is the name of a project that the United States National Security Agency pursued during the 1990s, according to a May 17, 2006 article in the Baltimore Sun. The program involved wiretapping and sophisticated analysis of the resulting data, but according to the article, the program was discontinued after the September 11, 2001 attacks due to the changes in priorities and the consolidation of U.S. intelligence authority. The "change in priority" consisted of the decision made by the Director of NSA Gen. Michael V. Hayden to go with a concept called Trailblazer, despite the fact that ThinThread was a working prototype that protected the privacy of U.S. citizens."

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US citizens not guaranteed right to vote in elections

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According to two US House members, the US Constitution does not explicitly guarantee anyone a right to vote in US elections. According to fact checking sources, they are right. US Representatives Mark Pocan and Keith Ellison, both Democrats are working together to introduce a new constitutional amendment that guarantees every US citizen 18 years and older the right to vote in US elections.

St. Louis, MO police are the subject of protests after they shot 25-year-old Cary Ball Jr. 25 times. Cary Ball Jr. a convicted felon was illegally in possession of a firearm and did not immediately pull over for a traffic stop, crashed his vehicle and took off running but police claim he pointed a handgun at officers. However, witnesses say that the 25 year old had his hands raised up in the air surrendering when two St. Louis police officers shot him. Cary Ball Jr. was said to be trying to turn his life around after an armed robbery conviction when he was 17 yrs old. He was described as an honor student at Forest Park Community College where he was seeking a degree in Human Services.

Comedian and political commentator Bill Maher says that unlike gay marriage proponents, Democrats are afraid to push the issue of Marijuana Legalization as a freedom issue even though public opinion has changed in favor of allowing recreational use just as public opinion now favors same sex marriages.

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Get the smartphone App for Iphone & Android from our audio blog. Catch us in the Upstate of SC on 105.7FM & 910AM on your drive at 5pm.

To advertise on the show email Gregg: info@occupythemicrophone.com