Link: http://abcnews.go.com/News/story?id=8257819&page=1

The Pentagon has detected two Russian-attack submarines patrolling several hundred miles off the East coast of the United States, but it's not clear if this is a sign that Russia is trying to reassert military capabilities severely weakened since the end of the Cold War. Why Are Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S.? Biden's big insulting mouth, Obama's missiles in Poland that threaten Russia, and lets not forget that Israeli American and Georgian forces attacked eleven Russian towns in Georgia running over Russian women and children with tanks.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/05/william-jefferson-guilty-corruption

William Jefferson convicted of taking bribes in a case in which agents found $90,000 in his freezer. A federal jury convicted a former Louisiana congressman today of taking bribes on 11 of 16 counts in a case in which agents found $90,000 (£53,000) in his freezer.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/141776/how_we_became_a_society_of_gluttonous_junk_food_addicts/

Every chef is said to have a secret junk food craving. For Thomas Keller, chef-owner of Per Se and The French Laundry, two of the most acclaimed restaurants in the country, it's Krispy Kreme Donuts and In-N-Out cheeseburgers. For David Bouley, New York's reigning chef in the '90s, it's "high-quality potato chips."

Link: http://www.truthout.org/080509K

Ring-fencing medical knowledge is one of the great grotesqueries of our age. This is the story of one of the great unspoken scandals of our times. Today, the people across the world who most need life-saving medicine are being prevented from producing it.

Link: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1262.htm

Reports circulating in the Kremlin today are stating that President Medvedev expressed “shock” to President Obama during an emergency phone conference over the United States backing of a coup to overthrow the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Even more shocking, these reports continue, was when Medvedev pressed Obama on why Iran had “suddenly” transferred over $18 Billion to the American President’s “personal account”, Obama was said to have replied, “You’ll find out soon enough”.

Link: http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23198.htm

An unusually blunt memo (concluding) that Iraqi forces suffer from entrenched deficiencies but are now able to protect the Iraqi government and that it is time “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home.” As the old saying goes, ‘Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days,’” Reese wrote. “Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose.” As usual, committing truth horrified Reese’s superiors. Those (Reese’s) conclusions are not shared by the senior U.S. Commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno . . . A spokeswoman for Odierno said that "the memo did not reflect the official stance of the U.S. military and was not intended for a broad audience." Truth never is. On the situation in Iraq as on everything else, the American people get the mushroom treatment. That is how Brave New World works.

Link: http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/65072

While the healthcare policy outcomes are looking grim, the supposed political imperatives are fueling the desires of Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill to produce a victory that President Obama can tout as healthcare reform. Consider this quote from “a prominent Democrat” in the August 10 edition of Time magazine: “Something called health-reform legislation will pass. The political consequences of not passing anything would be too great.”

Link: http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/keeping-track-of-the-empires-crimes/

If you catch the CIA with its hand in the cookie jar and the Agency admits the obvious — what your eyes can plainly see — that its hand is indeed in the cookie jar, it means one of two things: a) the CIA’s hand is in several other cookie jars at the same time which you don’t know about and they hope that by confessing to the one instance they can keep the others covered up; or b) its hand is not really in the cookie jar — it’s an illusion to throw you off the right scent — but they want you to believe it.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/5/hours_before_court_martial_army_resister

US Army Specialist Victor Agosto faces up to one month in jail for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. After returning from thirteen months in Iraq, Agosto became a victim of the stop-loss program that has extended the tours of more than 140,000 troops beyond their contracts since 9/11. Just hours before his court-martial, Agosto speaks out from his military base at Fort Hood, Texas. AMY GOODMAN: You just feel Afghanistan is wrong. SPC. VICTOR AGOSTO: Yes, I don’t feel that we’re making the world any safer by doing that. We’re just killing people and spreading suffering with no real justification.

Link: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/08/suit-exworkers-accuse-blackwater-founder-murder

Two men who worked for Blackwater allege in a federal lawsuit that Blackwater founder Erik Prince or his agents murdered one or more people who were planning to provide information to federal authorities about criminal conduct by the company and its operatives in Iraq. In his sworn statement, he says he observed “multiple incidents of Blackwater personnel intentionally using unnecessary, excessive and unjustified deadly force.”

Link: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article19057

In the years since the New Deal (particularly since the presidency of Ronald Reagan) we have witnessed a steady erosion of the programs and principles that guided us through the darkest days of the American republic. Having not experienced an economic meltdown so severe as the Great Depression, the nation has expunged those downtrodden years from its collective memory.