The Breakfast Club (Daft Punk – Get Lucky)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

Breakfast Tune: Daft Punk – Get Lucky – solo banjo by Charles Butler

Today in History

Breakfast News & Blogs Below

US sets new record for denying, censoring government files

Ted Bridis, AP

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration set a new record again for more often than ever censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn’t find documents, and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy.

It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law – but only when it was challenged. …

Last Briton in Gitmo being held to ‘silence’ torture claims, UK MPs hear

Tom Kutsch, Al Jazeera

The United States came under renewed pressure Tuesday to free the last Briton held at Guantánamo Bay, with U.K. parliamentarians demanding his repatriation amid fresh suggestions that U.S. officials looked into forcibly sending him to Saudi Arabia in a bid to silence him over torture claims.

In a debate in the House of Commons, allegations were aired that the sole reason Shaker Aamer – who has spent 13 years at the controversial U.S. prison in Cuba despite never being charged with a crime – has not been released was due to human rights abuses he witnessed in captivity, which U.S. and U.K. authorities would rather not come to light.

Despite being repeatedly pressed on the issue, to the extent of being called an apologist for the American regime, a foreign office minister attending the parliamentary session refused to divulge the explanations given by the U.S. authorities as to why Aamer remains behind bars. …

Fed Up With Austerity Policies, #Blockupy Storms Streets of Frankfurt

Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams

Anti-austerity protests boiled over near the new headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt on Wednesday, with hundreds of people arrested after an off-shoot from an otherwise peaceful march clashed with police.

Around 10,000 anti-austerity protesters reportedly gathered under the banner of #Blockupy-an alliance united against the so-called ‘Troika’ of the ECB, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund who oversee bailout packages in the eurozone. The alliance opposes the economic policies behind such packages, saying they harm the poor and middle class.

According to the German news service Deutsche Welle, the Blockupy network “is composed of more than 90 organizations from across Europe-some big, some small-that have united in opposition to what Blockupy calls ‘the European crisis regime’.” …

SF cathedral dismantles sprinklers that soaked homeless

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco on Wednesday dismantled a sprinkler system it had installed at the city’s cathedral during one of the worst droughts in California history to soak the alcoves and prevent homeless people from sleeping there.

The archdiocese took down the sprinklers after a barrage of criticism because the system installed at St. Mary’s Cathedral was drenching homeless people at night.

KCBS Radio first reported undeterred homeless people were using umbrellas and waterproof gear, but they were still getting soaked as they slept in the doorways. The sprinklers ran for about 75 seconds, about every half hour, starting before sunset in all four doorways, soaking homeless people and their belongings, a KCBS reporter who saw the sprinklers at work reported. …

• Seed Libraries Are Sprouting Up Across the Planet, and Corporate Dominated Govts Are Trying to Stop Them, by Christopher D. Cook, Shareable
• Top Ten Arguments for Raising the Minimum Wage by Bill Quigley, Black Agenda Report
• The People’s Budget: Progressive Proposal Aims to Un-Rig Failed Economic System by Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams
• The Only Place It Was Cold This Winter Was The East Coast Of The United States by Joe Romm, Think Progress

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac: