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Torture is the American way
Bush vetoes bill banning certain forms of torture| |
Excerpt: The bill [Bush vetoed] would limit CIA interrogators to the 19 techniques allowed for use by military questioners.
Among the techniques the field manual prohibits are hooding prisoners or putting duct tape across their eyes, stripping them naked, forcing them to perform or mimic sexual acts, or beating, electrocuting, burning or otherwise physically hurting them.
They may not be subjected to hypothermia or mock executions. It does not allow food, water and medical treatment to be withheld. Dogs may not be used in any aspect of interrogation.
But waterboarding is the most high-profile and controversial of the interrogation methods in question.
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Canadians reject torture-tainted evidence from CIA| |
Excerpt: According to documents obtained by Newsweek, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the country's national-security agency, last month quietly withdrew statements by alleged Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah from public papers outlining the case against two alleged terror "sleeper" operatives in Ottawa and Montreal.
The move, which so far has received no public attention, is the latest sign of potential international fallout from the CIA's recent confirmation that it waterboarded a handful of high-profile Al Qaeda suspects in 2002 and 2003. The use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques were approved by the Bush White House and Justice Department. Waterboarding, which critics charge is a form of torture, involves strapping a suspect to an inclined board and forcing water into his lungs, typically by pouring water through a cloth placed over his nose and mouth.
Comment: Civilized observers will be pleased that Canada has distanced itself from US torture techniques.
Also, please note the routine Newsweek obfuscation of the facts, with the misleading "Waterboarding, which critics charge is a form of torture." No: Waterboarding is universally known as torture and always has been, and the only people denying this are Bush-Cheney operatives and baa-baa Republicans who echo whatever lies they're told. How sad that Newsweek is on board with the liars. Fifth of November PERMANENT LINK |
Report: US used Britain's Diego Garcia as torture facility| |
Excerpt: UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak [UN profile] told AP on Sunday that multiple sources have confirmed that the US detained terror suspects at the US military base on the British island of Diego Garcia between 2002 and 2003, a claim which the US has previously denied. According to Nowak, his sources are "credible" and include former detainees at Diego Garcia. |
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Bush approved plot to trigger Palestinian civil war| |
Excerpt: The documents, which have been corroborated by sources at the US State Department and Palestinian officials, reveal that the plan was supposed to be implemented by the State Department.
The report confirms allegations by Hamas and other Palestinians that the US has been supplying Fatah with weapons and money so that its forces could bring down the Hamas government. Some senior Fatah officials have also accused the US of "meddling" in Palestinian affairs by encouraging Fatah to work toward toppling the Hamas government. ...Following Hamas's victory, "everyone blamed everyone else," the report quotes an official with the Department of Defense as saying. "We sat there in the Pentagon and said, "Who the f*** recommended this?" |
Election 2008
Party insiders, not American public, will choose "Democratic" nominee| |
Excerpt: Hillary Rodham Clinton won't catch Barack H. Obama in the race for Democratic delegates chosen in primaries and caucuses, even if she wins every remaining contest.
But Obama cannot win the nomination with just his pledged primary and caucus delegates either, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
That sets the stage for a pitched battle for support among "superdelegates," the party and elected officials who automatically attend the convention and can support whomever they choose.
Two months into the voting, Obama can claim the most delegates chosen by voters.
"It is very difficult to see any scenario that Hillary Clinton would get the nomination in a way that doesn't rip the party apart," said Wisconsin Gov. James E. Doyle, an Obama supporter. "I think that it would be a terrible mistake for the Democrats to not accept the will of the people who have turned out in primaries and caucuses."
Clinton spokesman Doug Hattaway said Obama's lead in pledged delegates is "hardly a mandate."
Comment: An Obama campaign bigwig got fired this week for calling Hillary a "monster." But what would you call someone intent on destroying a political party in an ego-driven quest for power, especially when that party is our country's best hope for avoiding complete financial ruin and stopping our slide towards tyranny? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Obama wins Texas, despite losing popular vote| |
Excerpt: Barack Obama's campaign claimed Wednesday that he had won the majority of delegates in the Texas Democratic presidential primary despite rival Hillary Clinton capturing the state's popular vote. |
Clinton seems to say she'd support McCain over Obama| |
Excerpt: "I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002." |
Clinton continues praising McCain to diss Obama| |
Excerpt: "I think that since we now know Sen. (John) McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party, national security will be front and center in this election. We all know that. And I think it's imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold," the New York senator told reporters crowded into an infant's bedroom-sized hotel conference room in Washington. "I believe that I've done that. Certainly, Sen. McCain has done that and you'll have to ask Sen. Obama with respect to his candidacy," she said.
Calling McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee a good friend and a "distinguished man with a great history of service to our country," Clinton said, "Both of us will be on that stage having crossed that threshold. That is a critical criterion for the next Democratic nominee to deal with."
Comment: Of course, McCain will use all these clips in ads if Obama's the nominee, and of course, Hillary Clinton doesn't care about that. She cares only about Hillary Clinton, not about having a Democrat in the White House. Rebecca PERMANENT LINK |
Nobel Peace Prize winner poo-poos Clinton's claim
that she "helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland"| |
Excerpt: "I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday. But negotiators from the parties that helped broker the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 told The Daily Telegraph that her role was peripheral and that she played no part in the grueling political talks over the years.
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Obama says he'll break Bush tradition and follow Constitution| |
Excerpt: Barack Obama told a cheering crowd at a town hall meeting in Casper today that he would restore respect for law in the White House by reviewing every executive order issued by President George W. Bush and discarding any deemed unconstitutional. |
Why the war on Obama
by Robert Parry, Consortium News| |
Excerpt: Powerful lobbies -- from AIPAC to representatives of military and other industries -- also are recognizing the value of keeping their dominance over campaign cash from getting diluted by Obama's deep reservoir of small donors. It's in their direct interest to dent Obama's momentum and demoralize his rank-and-file supporters as soon as possible.
So, neoconservatives and other ideological movements -- heavily dependent on grants from the same special interests -- are now joining with the Clinton campaign to tear down Obama by depicting him as unpatriotic, un-vetted, possibly a "closet Muslim."
Comment: I generally agree with what the Highwaters have said, that Obama is just a very eloquent middle-of-the-road politician. But if his small-donor following leaves him unshackled from big-money interests, then he develops true radical potential: He could conceivably decide for himself what's right and wrong, without being a puppet on billionaires' strings. Shibasaburo PERMANENT LINK |
McCain remains 'very proud' to be associated with
"white Farrakhan", while media remains disinterested
CNN praises McCain's ex-mistress/current wife as "perfect"| |
Excerpt: The headline reads, "Can Cindy McCain really be that perfect?" Seriously. (I'm trying to imagine the conservative apoplexy if an on-air CNN personality ran an item with the headline, "Can Michelle Obama really be that perfect?") |
Ten questions for supporters of Hillary Clinton
Bush says McCain will stay the course in Iraq
Clinton campaign lies that "she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act"
Clinton campaign compares Obama to Bush, Rove, Ken Starr
Some military officers worry about putting "Hothead" McCain in charge
Girl "safe and asleep" in Clinton's 3 A.M. ad is supporting Obama
CNN's Beck and Chicago Tribune's Kass lie about Obama's real estate "discount"
Reporters praise McCain for embracing positions he rejects
McCain lies that he called for Rumsfeld's firing, and media repeats his lie without question
On MSNBC News, Hitchens attacks Obama's church as "dumb, nasty ... racist"
Washington Post uncritically repeats McCain's lie-laden attacks on Obama
Fox News is still lying about Obama's fictitious "Muslim background"
AP asks McCain about Renzi's scandal, but doesn't
mention that Renzi is McCain's campaign co-chair
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CREW seeks court order over White House/Republican emails| |
Excerpt: "This evidence demonstrates defendants' blatant disregard for the truth and the processes of this court," Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told US District Judge Henry Kennedy in court papers. CREW wants the judge to compel the Executive Office of the President to explain why it should not be held in contempt of court.
Comment: It would take an honest judge to finally call the Bush-Cheney administration on their lies and cover-ups, so when reading about court cases like this, I click around to see who appointed the judge. In this matter, the judge is Henry Kennedy, and he was appointed by Bill Clinton, so there's at least a reasonable chance he's fair and competent. Keep your fingers crossed.
Of course, any time the judge is a Bush appointee, you might as well move on to the next news item, because the verdict is already in. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
America's rigged elections
Ohio does its election fraud magic again| |
Excerpt: Clinton won the 2-party vote by a 10.6% margin (55.3 -- 44.7%). But her unadjusted exit poll margin was just 3.4% (51.7 -- 48.3%).
As is always the case, the Final Exit Poll was adjusted to match the vote count. |
Military contractor trying to buy Diebold| |
Excerpt: United Technologies, a major multinational conglomerate with a range of technology interests, receives approximately $5 billion in military contracts from the United States annually. United Technologies is also a major donor to political campaigns -- the sixth largest defense industry donor in the 2004 election with two-thirds of their donations going to Republicans. The corporation they are trying to by is Diebold, infamous for producing electronic voting machines that have serious security and performance problems. |
Newscaster quits after station pulls stories about alleged Republican vote-buying efforts| |
Excerpt: [Laura] MacCallum, a 32-year radio and TV news veteran who has worked in Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles, said the station caved to complaints from Congresswoman Heather Wilson's Senate campaign about the stories. Wilson campaign spokeswoman Whitney Cheshire called the station to argue the unfairness of stories alleging that many delegates to the ward conventions were paid by Wilson's and other campaigns to show up and cast their votes for certain delegates.
Comment: The media won't run stories about this kind of election fraud, which actually exists. But we hear endless stories about people without photo ID perpetrating voting fraud … even though those stories are just a fictional excuse for disenfranchising those without photo ID. But whether a story is true or not doesn't matter much in mainstream "journalism" anymore. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
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USDA knows where recalled beef was sold ... but won't say| |
Excerpt: Richard Raymond, USDA undersecretary for food safety, told an incredulous House Appropriation's agriculture panel this week the information is "proprietary" and would not be released.
Naming names could drive customers away and just "confuse" people say trade groups like the American Meat Institute, Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers Association. |
Big Brother Bush is watching you (and the Democrats approve)
Democrats ready to roll over, give Bush & telecoms immunity| |
Excerpt: This is, of course, everything except surprising. No rational person who has watched Congressional Democrats since they took over Congress could possibly have expected them to do anything but what they always do: namely, whatever they're told to do by the White House. The last thing they were ever going to do was stand their ground over Americans' basic liberties and the rule of law, concepts about which they couldn't possibly care less.
Dem Rep Reyes continues sell-out over telecom/Bush immunity
Excerpt: Rep. Reyes still doesn't get it. The issue is very simple:
* If the phone companies did nothing illegal, the courts will make that determination.
* If the phone companies did something illegal, they should be held accountable in the court of law.
* This is America's last chance to hold the Bush administration accountable for their illegal warrantless wiretapping. Ending these lawsuits before a trial has even begun will forever let George Bush and his cronies off the hook.
Comment: This is from Democracy for America, a grassroots group currently focused on pressuring Rep Reyes to do the right thing. They want you to contribute $25, for ads that will be used to shame Reyes into perhaps finding his conscience, common sense, and Constitutional oath.
DFA is clearly a group of good guys, but they're not getting my $25 today. Reyes has already won his primary, and he faces no Republican challenger for the November election, so he has no incentive to discover any temporary scruples, and anyway, a Democratic congressman who needs an ad campaign to consider doing what's obviously the right thing to do is just a waste of time. Even if they can shame Reyes into the proper vote this time, he'll just be a sell-out on the next issue that matters, or he'll find a backdoor way to give Bush and the telecoms the immunity they want. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
Pelosi is hard at work on FISA capitulation
Quaint Constitution insists that Congress can't grant after-the-fact telecom immunity |
Whistleblower: Feds have a high-speed backdoor into wireless carrier| |
Excerpt: A US government office in Quantico, Virginia, has direct, high-speed access to a major wireless carrier's systems, exposing customers' voice calls, data packets and physical movements to uncontrolled surveillance, according to a computer security consultant who says he worked for the carrier in late 2003. |
FBI Chief: Report will show continued widespread improper use of subpoenas| |
Excerpt: FBI Director Robert Mueller says an upcoming Justice Department report will show the bureau improperly used national security letters to obtain personal data on Americans during terror and spy investigations. |
The "liberal" position on the Surveillance State
by Glenn Greenwald, Salon| |
Excerpt: The [FISA Court] is a classically Kafka-esque court that operates in total secrecy. Only the Government, and nobody else, is permitted to attend, participate, and make arguments. Only the Government is permitted to access or know about the decisions issued by that court. Rather than the judges being assigned randomly and therefore fairly, they are hand-picked by the Chief Justice (who has been a GOP-appointee since FISA was enacted) and are uniformly the types of judges who evince great deference to the Government. As a result, the FISA court has been notorious for decades for mindlessly rubber-stamping every single Government request to eavesdrop on whomever they want. ...
Yet now, embracing this secret, one-sided, slavishly pro-government court defines the outermost liberal or "pro-civil-liberty" view permitted in our public discourse. And indeed, as reports of imminent (and entirely predictable) House Democratic capitulation on the FISA bill emerge, the FISA court is now actually deemed by the establishment to be too far to the Left -- too much of a restraint on our increasingly omnipotent surveillance state. Anyone who believes that we should at the very least have those extremely minimal -- really just symbolic -- limitations on our Government's ability to spy on us in secret is now a far Leftist. |
Bush executive order guts Intelligence Oversight Board
Bush: Americans 'ought to say thank you' to telecoms for 'performing a patriotic service'
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Iran: America's next war
Key documents backing Bush hysteria over Iran are purportedly forged| |
Excerpt: The German account of the origins of the laptop documents contradicts the insistence by unnamed US intelligence officials who insisted to journalists William J Broad and David Sanger in November 2005 that the laptop documents did not come from any Iranian resistance groups.
Despite the fact that it was listed as a terrorist organization, the MEK was a favorite of neo-conservatives in the Pentagon, who were proposing in 2003-2004 to use it as part of a policy to destabilize Iran. The United States is known to have used intelligence from the MEK on Iranian military questions for years. It was considered a credible source of intelligence on the Iranian nuclear program after 2002, mainly because of its identification of the facility in Natanz as a nuclear site. |
UN approves new sanctions against Iran| |
Excerpt: The UN Security Council approved a third round of sanctions against Iran on Monday with near unanimous support, sending a strong signal to Tehran that its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment is unacceptable and becoming increasingly costly.
For the first time, the resolution bans trade with Iran in goods which have both civilian and military uses and authorizes inspections of shipments to and from Iran by sea and air that are suspected of carrying banned items. |
Magazine says US CentCom chief Fallon is the only
impediment to war on Iran... and he's about to be removed| |
Excerpt: As he was preparing to take command, Fallon said that a war with Iran "isn't going to happen on my watch," according to retired Army Col. Patrick Lang. |
Petraeus says Iran reneged on pledge to quit supporting Iraqi militias| |
Excerpt: "There is no question that Iran has continued to train the so-called special groups," Petraeus said, referring to what the US military calls "rogue" elements of the militia that's loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr. "We have individuals in detention, and have detained them fairly recently, who had explained how they received the training, the whole process for going to and from Iran," he said.
Comment: Gen Petraeus has a track record of lying to support Bush-Cheney policies. Near as I can tell, that's a key component of his job. Larry P. PERMANENT LINK |
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9/11 'investigation' wasn't interested in
warnings Rice had been "bombarded with"| |
Excerpt: Today's Sydney Morning Herald prints an extract from Shenon's book which provides further details about Rice's incompetence. "Emails from the National Security Council's counter-terrorism director, Richard Clarke, showed that he had bombarded Rice with messages about terrorist threats" before 9/11, Shenon writes. ...
But 9/11 Commission staff director Philip Zelikow was not interested in pursuing criticisms against Rice. Zelikow -- who had worked closely with Rice on the Bush transition team in 2000 and 2001 -- "made it clear to the team's investigators that Clarke should not be believed, that his testimony would be suspect."
Background: Questions about 9/11/2001 |
Feith, leading architect of Iraq war, blames
debacle on Powell, Franks, Bremer, Rice, Armitage,
State Dept, and "others outside the Pentagon"| |
Excerpt: Douglas J. Feith, in a massive score-settling work, portrays an intelligence community and a State Department that repeatedly undermined plans he developed as undersecretary of defense for policy and conspired to undercut President Bush's policies. |
Over 112 Palestinians killed in five-day Israeli attack| |
Excerpt: As Israel pulls ground troops from Gaza, Israeli aircraft continues to carry out bombing raids. On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally suspended contacts with Israel to protest what he called a criminal war on the Palestinian people.
Gaza conflict escalates VIDEO
Terror strike in Jerusalem
Excerpt: After a week of failed efforts to settle scores with Israel for the casualties caused by its operation in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian terror organizations scored a string of successes Thursday. The day began with the bombing of an army jeep along the Gaza border, which was videotaped by Islamic Jihad. It continued with a direct rocket hit on a house in Sderot that wounded several people, and ended with the deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, the flagship institute of the religious Zionist movement. The latter was the worst terror attack to take place inside Israel in almost two years.
Attack will be seen in Messianic terms
Excerpt: Being messianic religious people, the religious Zionists are going to see this attack through the prism of messianic prophecy. Already I am hearing on religious Zionist radio stations people talking about the attack in prophetic terms, such as Isaiah 59 verse 20: And a redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.
Settler radio talk-show hosts are interpreting this prophecy by saying that if the Jews don't stop Hamas, the Palestinians, Hezbollah and any other Islamic fundamentalists God will force the Jews to do it. The talk-show hosts blame Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and President Shimon Peres, and several callers into the broadcasts are unanimous in their condemnation of the Israeli government and calling on its removal. |
US to deport legal resident acquitted of terrorism charges| |
Excerpt: A man acquitted in a high-profile terrorism case is facing deportation based on the same charges that a jury dismissed two months ago.
Lyglenson Lemorin had been charged with six others in Miami for plotting terror attacks, but he was acquitted in December. Many legal experts criticized the government's prosecution, because the case rested almost entirely on one suspect's conversation with an FBI informant posing as a representative of al-Qaeda.
The Bush administration is now asking an administrative judge to order Lemorin's deportation based on the same charges that the jury dismissed. The thirty-three-year-old Lemorin moved to the US from Haiti as a child. He is now a legal US resident. |
Unknown Democrat wins former Speaker Hastert's seat
MSNBC's Carlson unintentionally reveals
the lapdog role of the American press| |
Excerpt: In one of the ultimate paradoxes, for American journalists -- whose role in theory is to expose the secrets of the powerful -- secrecy is actually their central religious tenet, especially when it comes to dealing with the most powerful. Protecting, rather than exposing, the secrets of the powerful is the fuel of American journalism. That's how they maintain their access to and good relations with those in power.
Illustrating that point as vividly as anything I can recall, MSNBC's Tucker Carlson had [Scotsman reporter Gerri] Peev on his show last night and angrily criticized her publication of [Obama advisor Samantha] Power's remarks. Carlson upbraided Peev for her lack of deference to someone as important as Power, and Peev retorted by pointing out exactly what that attitude reflects about Carlson and the American press generally.
Comment: Tucker Carlson is, for reasons that have always eluded me, one of America's most famous media faces, but he simply doesn't know the difference between being a reporter and being a public relations hack. And I don't think Carlson is especially clueless -- there's nothing he says here that Chris Matthews or Katie Couric or Anderson Cooper would disagree with -- but reading his notions on media ethics is a little like reading the obituary of American journalism. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
More liars in mainstream media  |
Autism linked to childhood vaccines| |
Excerpt: The US Department of Health and Human Services has concluded the family of Hannah Poling of Athens [California] is entitled to compensation from a federal vaccine injury fund, according to the text of a court document in the case. The amount of the family's award is still being determined.
The language in the document does not establish a clear-cut vaccine-autism link. ... But the case also thrusts the family into a national spotlight in the controversial public debate over whether vaccines have played some role in the growing number of US children diagnosed with autism. Of particular concern to some families is the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, not used in child vaccines (except for some flu shots) since 2001. |
Congress bars funding for Native American abortions| |
Excerpt: Following scant debate, the Senate last week approved an amendment to an Indian health care bill that would permanently prohibit the use of federal dollars to fund abortions for Native Americans except in rare cases.
The move has prompted an outcry from women's health advocates -- who point out that a similar ban has existed on a temporary basis for years -- and from tribal groups, who are asking why Native American women should be subject to restrictions not applicable to other ethnic groups.
Comment: So what's the thinking here? Native Americans are so much less human than "American" women that they don't qualify for the same access to abortion? Who's next in this kind of thinking -- maybe black women, Hispanic women, poor women, until abortion is available only to well-off women? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Lightning round news |
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Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
Americans are finally outraged by violence in Iraq ... after Marines kill one puppy| |
Excerpt: The family of a US Marine, who was filmed apparently hurling a puppy into a ravine, have received hate messages and death threats. The 22-year-old Marine has become a figure of hate after the graphic video of him abusing a dog was posted on YouTube.
Comment: Umm, you guys have heard about this thing going on in Iraq where the US is killing hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings, right? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Iraqi deaths up 33% in February| |
Excerpt: Violence appears to be on the rise again in Iraq. In February, 721 Iraqis were killed, a 33 percent increase since January. Most of the dead were civilians. The rising death toll reverses a six-month trend of reduced violence in Iraq. |
Occupation of Iraq costs US $12B per month
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US expects Medvedev to follow Russian constitution| |
Excerpt: The United States said Monday it expects Russia's next president, Dmitry Medvedev, and his promised prime minister, current President Vladimir Putin, to be guided by the Russian constitution in the way they run the government.
Comment: But the United States is not expected to follow the United States constitution. Marshall S. PERMANENT LINK |
US shuts down websites offering Cuba tourism| |
Excerpt: [Steve] Marshall said he did not understand "how Web sites owned by a British national operating via a Spanish travel agency can be affected by US law." Worse, he said, "these days not even a judge is required for the US government to censor online materials."
A Treasury spokesman, John Rankin, referred a caller to a press release issued in December 2004, almost three years before eNom acted. It said Mr. Marshall's company had helped Americans evade restrictions on travel to Cuba and was "a generator of resources that the Cuban regime uses to oppress its people." It added that American companies must not only stop doing business with the company but also freeze its assets, meaning that eNom did exactly what it was legally required to do. |
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This week's commentary
Dragon-free and peaceful
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: In a galaxy far, far away there was a nation that used some pet dragons to win a great war with evil. They pampered and fed these dragons in perpetual gratefulness for their survival. The dragons grew and multiplied until the upkeep of the dragons sapped the strength of that nation ... |
This train's called Economic Disaster
and it has no brakes
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: After the smoke of the economic train wreck clears, we will see our hard fought for standard of living considerably diminished. |
On the verge of utter economic collapse:
A suspicion, a guess, a fear,
a hope and an idea
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: There will be blood on the streets as millionaires push and shove through the crowd to the dollar exit doors. There will probably be one final insane selling climax and then Fox/CNBC/MSNBC will shout "Fire!" That will be the sign that the rich people will soon be reversing the money flows to buy up US properties on the cheap -- like real estate, bonds and stocks that were abandoned during the hysterical rush to flee the burning theater. Naturally, Joe-Sixpack will be selling dollars at the precise, multi-decade bottom -- and will then hold fast waiting for a final collapse, which will not be allowed to occur by The Powers That Be. |
Conspiracies, secrecy, and radical honesty
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: In today's world, the rational person is forced to fly blind most of the time, and can have very little confidence in their perceptions of the day as they will likely be shown to be in error in light of future revelations. Consequently I believe with certainty very little of what I see, and not very much of what I think. |
Clinton's politics of personal destruction
by Mariah G., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Between the Who You Gonna Call At 3 AM ad, and her disparagement of Barack in favor off McCain's and her own grandiose foreign policy experience, etc., etc., Clinton has severely damaged her own party for the general elections. If she manages to get the nomination under these circumstances a lot of people will end up voting for McCain. |
A bull market in schadenfreude
by Granville's Hammer, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The newest bubble, aside from oil and gold, is Schadenfreude. You don't hear it much on CNBC or MSNBC, but the average person is delighted when informed of the horrors befalling their corporate tormentors. It is glorious to see bankers and financiers forced to beg for scraps. Payback is a bitch! And this isn't just any payback. This is Payback With Compounded Interest. |
The genocide goes on
by Ben Heine, Unknown News
Why is it acceptable for Republicans
to call Democrats 'socialists',
but 'fascist' is beyond the pale?
by Steve Benen, Carpetbagger Report| |
Excerpt: You'll notice, of course, that [Texas Gov Rick] Perry equated Obama's policies with a "socialist agenda," and no one even raised an eyebrow. McCain didn't distance himself from the comments, Obama didn't respond, and reporters didn't highlight the comments. The governor of one of the nation's largest states engaged in subtle red-baiting, and it was considered so routine, no one, anywhere, cared at all.
I'm curious, though, what would happen if a Democratic governor of a large state publicly speculated about the difference between Obama and what he believes versus McCain and his agenda of "fascism." |
Previous commentary
America can't compete in even the simplest of industries
by Granville's Hammer, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Mostly, as far as I can tell, the rules, regulations and laws are used to punish enemies of the state and are applied only when there is an agenda in action (having nothing to do with food safety.) So I don't know what good it does for us to even have the USDA and FDA if they only regulate American producers. |
It all makes sense if you think like a sociopath
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I can hardly wait for the dust to settle on this destructive process, since I hope to still be alive when the evildoers who control our country lose interest and leave for greener pastures or, hopefully, their just desserts. Left to ourselves, I believe we can institute real democracy and popular control and make a decent, if poor, life from the wreckage the sociopathic gangsters leave behind. |
This week in the Class War
by JS Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: If you've grown up in the era of celebrities performing public charity, it is difficult to translate that back down to a person-to-person level. Pretty soon we all think we should have a camera there to applaud us for our generosity-or a publicly displayed plaque, mention in a newsletter, and so on. |
A "threat" to pull out of NAFTA?
by Chris D., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: If you believe that bullshit about NAFTA being a mutually beneficial trilateral agreement to lower tariffs and facilitate fair competition with equal terms to all three countries, then you're sorely mistaken. |
Dollar disaster
by Arnie V., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Unless the US government goes cold-turkey on currency debasement and resource squandering activities, the middle and lower-class people in the economic food chain are going to be making soup from shoe leather. |
Not all need drown as America sinks
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The lifeboats are few but the swimmers are strong. They will survive because they have a fight left in them. Small numbers will say no and they might die saying no -- but they will not go passively without some noise. Defiance is the birth pain of revolution. |
An open letter to Ehud Olmert
by Skulz Fontaine, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: How about you and Israel lay off the Palestinian people for a time, two times, and two and a half times? |
The blessings of diversity in the pursuit of liberty and survival
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The changes that we are about to be forced to deal with as a species will be sudden -- and catastrophic. The groups that survive will be those that retain the greatest degree of diversity of behavioral and perceptual styles, those most able to innovate in the face of change. |
Greed is the problem with US medical care
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The problems of medical care in the US are complex and hard to understand, but the cause is easy to identify: greed by the corporate influences that are picking over the corpse of US medical care. This is the reason why US medicine is falling rapidly behind all other industrialized countries and many poorer ones as well. |
Protecting children from the horror of giving a damn
by JS Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The thing that will drive me to civil disobedience will be some smug son-of-a-bitch telling me I can't perform the Works of Mercy. That's where I get radicalized. I'm going to feed the hungry. I'm going to give drink to the thirsty. I'm going to clothe the naked. I'm going to visit the imprisoned. I'm going to care for the sick. I'm going to bury the dead. And if that's going to be civil disobedience, then fine, count me in. |
Righteous karmic payback for banks
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Thousands, maybe millions of home owners can legally fight and win against bank foreclosures by merely asking in court that the bank produce the actual proof that they own the loan. Cases are being thrown out all over the country. |
Vote for Nader as a protest against the status quo!
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Unlike the candidates of the Democratic and Republican Party, Nader tells it like it is. Despite the enthusiastic rhetoric of hope and change coming from the lips of the mainstream candidates, the only change we the people will see is the small change we have left in our pockets after this new gang of thieves get done bailing out their benefactors on Wall Street. |
Clinton is delusional, while Obama is Cool Hand Luke
by Cindy A., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Hillary Clinton is delusional. No clue. Or just lying about her plans, which is equally likely. Or both. She seems to think that she will be ruling the world once she reaches the Oval Office. Didn't she get the memo? Bush screwed that up permanently. The US is no longer Number One. |
What exactly is 'power to the people'?
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It mostly means getting over the millennia of propaganda produced by coercive organizations that served to have us believe that we are inherently weak and dependent on remote authority for our survival. That was never true, is not now true, and will never be true. When we decide to band together in cohesive local units and act cooperatively with other such units for mutual support and protection, nothing is more powerful. |
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