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Leave the British Press Alone – No ‘Royal’ Charter, No Regulation
Michael Collins
Great Britain's three political parties just made a deal to provide a degree of regulation for the British press. The deal produces a Royal Charter that establishes a press regulator at arms-length from the government plus a regulation regime that the major media companies can join.
The charter is an outgrowth of the Leveson Commission established to get to the bottom of the press abuses in the phone hacking scandal that resurfaced in 2011. Thousands of crime victims, celebrities, and lower profile citizens had their phone hacked by the press and private detectives working for the Murdoch papers and other media outlets. The London Metropolitan Police (the Met) colluded with the Murdoch papers both by ignoring obvious criminal behavior and by using police resources to track and snoop on the news targets of the tabloids.
Why would a news organization join the voluntary regulatory regime if it's voluntary? Good question. It's not exactly voluntary. Let's say The Mirror tabloid failed to join the regulatory organization. Any court cases brought against that paper/company would be subject to extraordinary damages compared to a media outlet that committed the very same transgression but happened to be part of the self-regulatory regime.
Obama Heads to Israel
by Stephen Lendman
As now scheduled, he'll arrive March 20. He'll remain until March 23. It's his first presidential visit. He made several trips before. He's only the fifth US president to go. Others included Nixon, Carter, Clinton, and GW Bush.
He waited until Israel's new government was formed. It took weeks to do so. On March 15, coalition partners agreed.
Netanyahu remains Prime Minister. Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett become troika partners. It's Israel's most extremist government ever. It reflects fascism writ large. Israelis have themselves to blame. They're stuck with what they should have rejected.
Detroit Symbolizes America's Decline
by Stephen Lendman
America's economy is sick. It's getting sicker. Coverup and denial conceal reality. Census data say record numbers of US counties are dying. It's over one in three.
It reflects population shifts and Depression conditions. America's decline gets little attention.
Since 1981, 42 US municipalities declared bankruptcy. Ten did so in the past four years. Expect more to follow. Hard times getting harder assures it.
Detroit once symbolized industrial America. Might Motown resembles a ghost town. It's dying. It nears bankruptcy. Fifty years ago it was America's fifth largest city. It's now 18th. In the last decade, half the population left. It's America's ghetto. Its neighborhoods are in disrepair. They're decaying and dying.
America's Dirty War in Iraq
by Stephen Lendman
America wages wars dirty. They're all unprincipled and lawless. It's official policy. Exceptions don't exist. No-holds-barred barbarism is longstanding.
Rule of law principles don't matter. They never did. Modern technologies make today's wars worse than ever. All forms of brutality are commonplace.
On March 6, London's Guardian discussed the Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centers. General David Petraeus was directly involved.
So was Col. James Steele. He's a retired special forces expert. He's a Central America "dirty wars" veteran.
His Iraq mandate included establishing detention/torture centers. Innocent victims were subjected to monstrous brutality. More on that below.
Paul Ryan's At It Again
by Stephen Lendman
He represents Wisconsin's first congressional district. He was Romney's vice presidential running mate. He's House Budget Committee chairman. Wall Street Journal editors love him.
On March 12, they headlined "A Ryan Reboot," saying:
His FY 2014 proposal is "an important document, even if it has no chance of becoming law this year, because it reaches for that elusive thing in Washington - realistic solutions to the country's problems."
A convoluted explanation followed. Journal editors want budget balancing on the backs of ordinary people. Ryan wants it done faster than he earlier proposed. He wants America's social contract destroyed.
Challenging Israel's Right to Exist Responsibly
by Stephen Lendman
Israel's a rogue terror state. It's been so from inception. Its leaders' hands are blood-drenched. They're responsible for decades of high crimes.
A rare New York Times Opinionator piece challenged Israel's right to exist. It did so responsibly. Joseph Levine wrote it. He "was raised in a strongly Jewish environment."
The Free Ride of George W. Bush - Elective Amnesia
Michael Collins
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana
George Bush lost the 2000 election by half a million votes. When the state of Florida wanted to recount votes, Bush operatives disrupted the disreputable Florida elections commissions that held the key to a fair count. But there was no point. Lists of felons from the Governor Bush Texas government were used to knock 50,000 legally registered voters off the Florida voting lists. Many of whom were minority voters. Turnout in Florida was very high. Without that preemptive strike, there would have been no recount necessary. Bush would have lost Florida outright. The 2000 election was stolen. (Image)
Bush got in and immediately planned an invasion of Iraq, the greatest foreign policy disaster in the history of the country. The true cost is over three trillion dollars.
Commander in chief Bush presided over a profound command failure leading up to 9/11by failing to acknowledge overwhelming intelligence evidence of a plot to attack U.S. skyscrapers with airplanes. The military command was so disarrayed; the U.S. Air Force could only mount a few fighters in defense and they arrived late.
DEATH OF A LION / HUGO CHAVEZ 1954 - 2013
Allen L Roland
Larger than life and now larger than death ~ Hugo Chavez will not be forgotten. His permanently displayed embalmed body will be a constant reminder of his righteous indignation of the imperialistic West and our illegal wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as his empowering commitment to the Latin American poor and disenfranchised which even extended to the United States:
"Like Bolívar, Chávez swore to break the chains binding Latin Americans to the will of the mighty. Within his lifetime, the ties of dependency and indirect empire have loosened" Oscar Guardiola-Rivera
Every lifetime personalities emerge whose personality, presence and commitment transcend politics and they stand alone at the pinnacle of human achievement. Nelson Mandela is one of these people as is Martin Luther King Jr but the irrepressible Hugo Chavez also belongs on that same world stage.
Global Peace and Security: America Needs Soul Searching
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
Today, the Obama administration was quick to blame Hamad Karzai- the puppet president of Afghanistan for his remarks of “ America colluding with the Talaban.” Talabans are not intruders but native people and political organization of Afghanistan. America and its allies are aggressors and are called occupation forces. The crucial challenge Obama faces is how to exit from Afghanistan and to cope with change and adaptability to a New Beginning that he envisaged but betrayed by conscientious compromise to ensure his own political survival. Paul Craig Roberts called him “The World’s Least Powerful Man – the Obama Puppet.” Obama did not pave the way to hell for the unwanted wars but found it already in place by George Bush to keep on solo walking to entrapment - the Madness of Unthinking. Obama needs people of new ideas to deal with the future. Surely, Obama administration without help from Pakistan and Iran cannot effectively disembark from Afghanistan. What a tragedy that American strategic planners are so ignorant of the facts on the ground. They always THINK BIG and get hurt and lost. American politicians failed to learn anything from the present and past. For all its wrong thinking, American politicians continue to use the false pretext of 9/11 to encroach other nations.
Axing the Death Penalty in Maryland!
by Bill Hughes
"Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders." - Albert Camus
It appears almost certain that the General Assembly of Maryland will do the right thing and repeal the “Death Penalty” law. This may happen as early as this week. Kudos to that legislative body and to the leadership that the Governor Marty O’Malley has shown on this legal and moral issue. (1)
Back on January 28, 2013, I was in Annapolis, in Lawyers Mall, to attend a spirited rally in support of ending the death penalty. I interviewed activist Marvin “Doc” Cheatham on the status of the effort by the social justice community to get the job done in this session of the General Assembly. He’s currently the “Political Action Chair” of the state’s NAACP and he has a solid rapport with the leadership in the legislature. “Doc” Cheatham told me he thought that “this could be the year” when such a law could be passed and signed into law by the governor. (2)
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