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Guest Workers As Bellwether

By Josh Eidelson Dissent Magazine
As pseudo-stateless workers, guest workers face all of the obstacles confronting any U.S. workers who try to organize, and then some.

Atlanta Test Cheating: Tip of the Iceberg?

Valerie Strauss Answer Sheet Blog
It would be easy to think that the Atlanta cheating scandal by adults on standardized tests is the worst we have seen, given last week’s startling indictment against former Atlanta schools superintendent Beverly Hall and 34 others under a law used against mobsters.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars - Spring Break Edition

Portside
Peru Billboard Wrings Water from Air; Tips for Facing Racist and Sexist Online Attacks; Catholic Colleges Go After Condom-Distributing Students; Model for Quality Academics Broken; Triangle Fire Building will get a Memorial Wrap; Wal-Mart Doesn't Have Enough Workers to Keep the Shelves Stocked; Conservatives Stick to Name Brands; Cuba Releases a Shoot-Em-Up Video Game Based on 1959 Revolution

Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Shame of Three Strikes Laws

Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone
Despite the passage in late 2012 of a new state ballot initiative that prevents California from ever again giving out life sentences to anyone whose "third strike" is not a serious crime, thousands of people – the overwhelming majority of them poor and nonwhite – remain imprisoned for a variety of offenses so absurd that any list of the unluckiest offenders reads like a macabre joke, a surrealistic comedy routine.

Syria: A Multi-Sided Chess Match

Conn Hallinan Dispatches From the Edge
In some ways the Syrian civil war resembles a proxy chess match between supporters of the Bashar al-Assad regime— Iran, Iraq, Russia and China—and its opponents— Turkey, the oil monarchies, the U.S., Britain and France. But the current conflict only resembles chess if the game is played with multiple sides, backstabbing allies, and conflicting agendas.

Why We Tax: A Timely Reminder for Tax Day

Sam Pizzigati Campaign for America's Future
Media darling Rand Paul is doing his best to end progressive taxation in America. Randolph Paul, over a half-century ago, helped make progressive taxation a prime building block for America’s middle class golden age. To stop politicos like Rand, we need to remember insightful advocates like Randolph.

The Methane Beneath Our Feet

Bill McKibben The New York Review of Books
Gas Leakages beneath your feet - these leaks challenge some of the basic assumptions of current US energy policy, which has aggressively endorsed natural gas as a “clean” and climate-friendly alternative to oil and coal.