Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20278

Israel’s attack on a humanitarian aid ship headed for Gaza may prove to be the greatest strategic error the government has ever made. Like the Soweto riots in South Africa in 1976, or Bloody Sunday – the American civil rights march on March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, where police opened fire and killed civilians – the Mavi Marmora affair crossed a red line. It has triggered an international wave of condemnation, expressing a shift in attitude toward Israel. The hope is that this international outrage, flanked by growing anti-government dissent inside the country, will provoke an identity crisis among the elite and people of Israel, shake up the political kaleidoscope and allow for a viable pro-peace force to emerge. Unless this occurs, new Israeli aggression, including against Iran, will remain high on their immediate agenda.

Link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/26/world/main6714453.shtml

Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai says that a NATO rocket attack killed 52 civilians in the south of the country on Friday. Hamid Karzai's statement issued Monday says the Afghan intelligence service determined that a NATO rocket hit Regi village in Helmand province's Sangin district. The dead included women and children. Karzai condemned the attack.

Link: http://www.vdare.com/roberts/100726_us_treasury.htm

The White House is screaming like a stuck pig. WikiLeaks’ release of the Afghan War Documents "puts the lives of our soldiers and our coalition partners at risk." What nonsense. Obama’s war puts the lives of American soldiers at risk, and the craven puppet state behavior of "our partners" in serving as US mercenaries is what puts their troops at risk. Keep in mind that it was someone in the US military that leaked the documents to WikiLeaks. This means that there is a spark of rebellion within the Empire itself.

Link: http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0726/polls-show-legalize-pot-support-growing-higher-higher/

While US support for marijuana legalization may never hit the "every man" level -- at least not publicly, that is -- two recent national polls definitely show that it is growing higher and higher.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/world/147636/wikileaks_bombshell_docs_paint_afghan_war_as_utter_disaster_--_will_we_finally_stop_throwing_money_and_lives_at_this_catastrophe/

There's clear proof the war in Afghanistan is a complete failure -- we must demand an immediate exit. The brutality and fecklessness of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan have been laid bare in an indisputable way just days before the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on whether to throw $33.5 billion more into the Afghan quagmire, when that money is badly needed at home

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2010-07-24-goldman-bailout-cash_N.htm

Goldman Sachs received a $12.9 billion payout from the government's bailout of AIG, which was at one time the world's largest insurance company. Goldman Sachs sent $4.3 billion in federal tax money to 32 entities, including many overseas banks, hedge funds and pensions, according to information made public Friday night. Goldman Sachs disclosed the list of companies to the Senate Finance Committee after a threat of subpoena from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Ia. 12.9 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to the $26 trillion given to the privately owned Federal Reserve bank, where did that money go?

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2010/07/26/victim-of-a-racist-smear

Shirley Sherrod's controversial speech certainly was not about hating white farmers--but neither was it about "moving on" from the issues of race and racism. WHAT HAPPENED to Shirley Sherrod--the former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) official who was slandered by a right-wing provocateur and unceremoniously fired by the Obama administration before it even checked the facts--highlights the explosive nature of the politics of race and racism in the U.S. today.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/pers-j26.shtml

In a report issued Friday, a federal “special master” found that 17 big financial firms awarded nearly $2 billion in bonuses and retention payments to top executives during the period when they were receiving bailout funds from the US Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Kenneth Feinberg, the special master for TARP executive compensation, declared in a perfunctory four-page statement that he “did not determine that payments were contrary to the ‘public interest’ requiring monetary reimbursement.” He also claimed that he had no legal authority to rescind the bonuses or penalize the banks that awarded them.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/stre-j26.shtml

The keenly awaited report on the stress tests of European banks, made public Friday by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), amounted to a whitewash of the major financial institutions. The CEBS delayed the release of its report on the balance sheets of 91 European banks until after the close of European markets. The report declared that just seven European banks had failed the stress tests, a figure much lower than the 10-15 banks predicted by many analysts. Just one German bank, Hypo Real Estate (HRE), failed the test, plus five Spanish savings banks and one Greek bank.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/afgh-j26.shtml

Eight months after the Obama administration announced a “surge” of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to crush the Taliban-led insurgency, the rate of US and allied casualties has soared to the highest level of the nearly nine-year war and is beginning to match the bloodiest stages of the occupation of Iraq. Five more American soldiers were killed on Saturday, four in a single roadside bomb blast in an unspecified area of southern Afghanistan. The fatalities were announced amidst a desperate aerial and ground search by American forces to locate two missing Navy personnel.