http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.
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Common Dreams:
"The US government should transfer Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) command of aerial drone strikes to the armed forces and clarify its legal rationale for targeted killings, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to President Barack Obama and in a questions and answers document. A dramatic increase in the use of CIA drone strikes underscores the need for the US to demonstrate that the CIA adheres to international legal requirements for accountability, Human Rights Watch said.
'CIA drone strikes have become an almost daily occurrence around the world, but little is known about who is killed and under what circumstances,' said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. 'So long as the US resists public accountability for CIA drone strikes, the agency should not be conducting targeted killings...'
'Unsupported claims by administration officials that all US agencies involved in targeted killings are complying with international law are wholly inadequate,' Ross said. 'By failing to adopt policies and practices that demonstrate compliance with international law, the US raises doubts among its allies about the lawfulness of its actions and creates a dangerous model for abusive governments.' "
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/12/19-8
-->The NY Times only covers human rights reports when they are critical of Pentagon "enemies." Those reports critical of the US are routinely left out of print.
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Per Square Mile:
"Over the last 30 years, wealth in the United States has been steadily concentrating in the upper economic echelons. Whereas the top 1 percent used to control a little over 30 percent of the wealth, they now control 40 percent. It’s a trend that was for decades brushed under the rug but is now on the tops of minds and at the tips of tongues.
Since too much inequality can foment revolt and instability, the CIA regularly updates statistics on income distribution for countries around the world, including the U.S. Between 1997 and 2007, inequality in the U.S. grew by almost 10 percent, making it more unequal than Russia, infamous for its powerful oligarchs. The U.S. is not faring well historically, either. Even the Roman Empire, a society built on conquest and slave labor, had a more equitable income distribution.
To determine the size of the Roman economy and the distribution of income, historians Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen pored over papyri ledgers, previous scholarly estimates, imperial edicts, and Biblical passages. Their target was the state of the economy when the empire was at its population zenith, around 150 C.E. Schiedel and Friesen estimate that the top 1 percent of Roman society controlled 16 percent of the wealth, less than half of what America’s top 1 percent control."
http://persquaremile.com/2011/12/16/income-inequality-in-the-roman-empire/
-->The NY Times didn't cover these studies of gross income disparity in the United States. Most often, The NY Times is a newspaper for the 1%, not the 99%.
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Guardian UK:
"Chief executive pay has roared back after two years of stagnation and decline. America's top bosses enjoyed pay hikes of between 27 and 40% last year, according to the largest survey of US CEO pay. The dramatic bounce back comes as the latest government figures show wages for the majority of Americans are failing to keep up with inflation.
America's highest paid executive took home more than $145.2m, and as stock prices recovered across the board, the median value of bosses' profits on stock options rose 70% in 2010, from $950,400 to $1.3m. The news comes against the backdrop of an Occupy Wall Street movement that has focused Washington's attention on the pay packages of America's highest paid.
The Guardian's exclusive first look at the CEO pay survey from corporate governance group GMI Ratings will further fuel debate about America's widening income gap. The survey, the most extensive in the US, covered 2,647 companies, and offers a comprehensive assessment of all the data now available relating to 2010 pay."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/14/executive-pay-increase-america-ceos
-->Leave it to a foreign newspaper to outline how America's CEOs continue to rob the rest of us. Readers of The NY Times must go to the opinion page for such facts, like Paul Krugman's op-ed of November 24 entitled: "We Are the 99.9%."
