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Dispatches from the Culture Wars – Not Ready for Prime Time edition

Portside
Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade; Ohio air show pushed to drop Hiroshima raid reenactment; Raul Castro’s daughter denied visa to attend gay rights conference; Rape Case Solved By Anonymous in Less Than 2 Hours Despite "No Evidence"; Teamsters foil Westboro Baptist Church; Palestinian marathon tribute to Boston victims; Oscar Romero beatification; Amherst and the economists’ fuzzy math; Zuckerburg dishes out the dough for Keystone XL

U.S. Policies Allow Sweatshop Fires

Tom Hayden The Peace & Justice Resource Center
The latest sweatshop disaster in Bangladesh, which claimed the lives of over 200 young women, calls into question the foundations of US globalization policies since the Clinton era. It is not enough to blame the corruption of Bangladesh factory owners, nor sufficient to suggest better training and factory codes from Walmart or the Gap. It is time to ban the US sale of garments made in Bangladesh until enforceable labor codes are imposed on that country.

Five Ways to Bridge the Jobs vs. Environment Gap

Jeremy Brecher Common Dreams
So often there's an apparent conflict between jobs and the environment. There's a way to resolve our differences. Every environmental campaign should have a jobs program and every jobs program should be designed to address our climate catastrophe.

A Fighter by His Trade: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Sports and the American Dream

Dave Zirin The Nation
In most descriptions of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he’s described as a “one-time boxer.” That doesn’t quite tell the story. Tsarnaev was a two-time New England Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion. Understanding Tsarnaev’s motivations is critical. Just as we shouldn’t accept the racist argument that “culture” is the root cause of gun deaths in Chicago, we should reject the idea that Islam bears any sort of collective responsibility for Tsarnaev’s crimes.