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AN INVITATION
by Mary Pitt
This is an invitation for all of you Washington D.C. officials who are serving as representatives of "the people" in the revered halls of our National Capital. It appears from the Congressional schedule that you intend to have ample time to spend "at home" in your respective states and districts, and so we invite you to engage in a strange adventure which may be a new and exciting experience for most of you.
We would ask you to have your well-paid office staffs do some research to prepare yourself for one of your vacations, er, fact-finding missions "at home." Tell them to research the poorest neighborhoods in your district and design a "walking tour map" that can be accomplished in a specific number of days. Then you will want to assign whatever number makes you comfortable to accompany you on this real-life adventure. Instruct them that you want to go to the places that you normally drive by without looking, you know -- the areas in which you would not be comfortable walking alone at night.
Arab People Win Freedom
Mahboob A. Khawaja, Ph.D.
“When a people return to Allah, surely, Allah’s help come rushing to them.”
Across the Arab world, tragic scenes unravel inspiring human struggle for freedom – police shooting on peaceful protesters at random, massive deaths, degradation of human life, disruption of social and economic activities, and cries of “Allah –o- Akbar - God is Great” and “La Illa ILLulaha - there is no god but God.” Unthinkable and unexpected as it was to the Arab neo-colonial ruling elite, mostly uneducated, devoid of reason and intellectual foresight and being unable to THINK right, to know and understand the concerns of the masses- the typical sinking behavior to blame others, not being able to see the authoritarian self in the mirror as the crux of the problems. The people’s revolutionary movements generate great deal of sensation and dramatic effects on the Western TV screens. Sometime the Western entertaining news media called it “unrest” or “uprising” but in reality the people’s movement for freedom from the yoke of imperialism.
Waging War on Working Americans
by Stephen Lendman
Outside the beltway, ground zero is Wisconsin, but worker rights are threatened across America, including by the Obama administration's spurning them since taking office in January 2009. While giving at least $12.4 trillion to Wall Street crooks and hundreds of billions more to other corporate favorites, he stiff-armed budget-strapped states and local governments, especially in the current fiscal year, leaving them on their own sink or swim.
He also did little for distressed households. Promising millions of new jobs, he created few, leaving real unemployment over 22% more than three years after economic crisis began.
Moreover, he provided little popular aid overall, and facilitated Wall Street's home foreclosure racket, involving fabricated documents, forgery, perjury, lost paperwork, and "rocket docket" eviction speed throughs lasting 20 seconds on average. He also froze federal worker wages and plans sweeping austerity for working households, while showering business and America's aristocracy with generous tax breaks and other handouts.
After 20 years, nearly everyone still wants GM food to be labeled
By Rady Ananda
At this MSNBC poll, over 40,000 people have voted strongly in favor of labeling genetically modified foods: 96% of all respondents.
But, a review of several polls going back to 1994 reveals that the numbers have always been high -- the vast majority of people have always wanted GM labels. That biotech foods have remained unlabeled for nearly 20 years in the US reveals a deliberate and willful refusal by regulatory agencies to serve the will of the people, instead opting to abet industry profits through public deception.
2008 Debate: "It's the economy, stupid" (OpEdNews 404 – Repost)
By Robert Singer
Click here to read why “this article is not currently available” at OpEdNews.
October 8, 2008
2008 Debate: "It's the economy, stupid"
Barack Obama and John McCain clashed over the causes and cures for the worst economic crisis in 80 years in the debate last night.
Republican McCain called for a sweeping $300 billion program to stop mortgage foreclosures so they could continue the American Dream and get back to shopping. Yes, national politicians are still suggesting that if we just shop some more for stuff made in China, our economy will get back on track. What part of import/export economics do our elected officials not understand?
The current economic crisis, according to Barack Obama, is the result of the last eight years of the Bush administration. Not true, it is the final verdict of United States economic policies of the last six decades. Americans enjoyed the highest standard of living in the Western world based on our ability to import cheap, raw materials (thanks to the CIA) and ship refrigerators, cars, airplanes and military hardware to the rest of the world. When the rest of the world caught on, and the refrigerators, cars, airplanes and even our socks started to be produced elsewhere, we still had one more product to ship offshore, and, beginning in 1980 the Reagan administration embarked upon the greatest export of all: OUR DEBT. What we are witnessing in the economic crisis today is the final death march of the dollar. After the government printed an extra trillion dollars over the weekend, the huge drop in markets worldwide shows the extent to which people no longer believe the safest place to be is in U.S. dollars. Our economy also hinges on understanding our dependence on foreign oil. Both Obama and McCain were sure that if we just get out and start drilling we can get the economy out of trouble and back on track for everyone to experience the American Dream. Although drilling offshore or onshore is on the bridge to nowhere, there is a solution to our economic problems related to energy.
Does the following analysis sound familiar?
A weakening U.S. dollar is putting upward pressure on oil prices. The shock produced chaos in the West. In the United States, the retail price of a gallon of gasoline rose 50%, consumption dropped by 6.1% from September to February. Underscoring the interdependence of the world societies and economies, oil-importing nations in the noncommunist industrial world saw sudden inflation and economic recession. The energy crisis led to greater interest in renewable energy and spurred research in solar power and wind power as well as increased interest in mass transit.
Reactionary Extremism in Wisconsin and Ohio
by Stephen Lendman
It's spreading nationally under Republican and Democrat administrations, but Wisconsin and Ohio are key battleground states. Wisconsin especially - ground zero to save organized labor, on the chopping block to be weakened ahead of eliminating it altogether, returning America to 19th century harshness.
Already a shadow of its peak strength, it's been gravely harmed under corrupted union bosses, betraying rank and file members for power and self-enrichment. Short of real change, working Americans face stiff headwinds for their rights fast eroding.
Nonetheless, Wisconsin public employees show heroic stamina, 17 days after protests began, rallying in cold and snow, sleeping on Capitol floors, staying the course for rights too important to lose, facing off against extremist governance wanting them stripped of everything.
Class Struggle: Don’t Get Fooled Again!
By Larry Pinkney
“History is the only true teacher, the revolution the best school for the proletariat...Marxism is a revolutionary worldview that must always struggle for new revelations.” -Rosa Luxemburg
“Industry required ever greater skills, thus closing their doors to the poor. Unions, fearing automation, warded off the poor; their predominantly White members often developed a paranoiac racism.” -Introduction by Franz Schurmann for the book, To Die for the People, by Huey P. Newton
Being euphorically oblivious to the inherent contradictions of class struggle in a corporate-capitalist society is a certain recipe for perpetuating hypocrisy and assuring catastrophe.
Currency Revaluation Won’t Fix America’s Trade Mess
Ian Fletcher
It is sometimes suggested that our trade problems (job losses, international indebtedness) will go away on their own once currency values adjust. Bottom line? A declining dollar will eventually solve everything.
In the short and medium term, of course, foreign currency manipulation will prevent currency values from adjusting. But even if we assume currencies will eventually adjust, there are still serious problems with just letting the dollar slide until our trade balances.
Egypt/Serbia/Georgia: Learning from others’ mistakes
Eric Walberg
There is a Russian proverb: only a fool learns from his own mistakes. As Georgia's foreign minister visits his Egyptian counterpart, there are lessons for Egypt in similar revolutions in eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union, notes Eric Walberg
Central to Egypt’s revolution was a tiny group of Serbian activists Otpor (resistance), who adapted nonviolent tactics of in the late 1990s and successfully forced Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic to resign in 2000. Egyptian youth in the 6 April Youth Movement even adopted their clenched fist symbol, bringing Otpor once again into world headlines and TV screens.
IMF Rates Up Dictatorships Just Before Revolutions
By Michael Collins
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) made an embarrassing error just two days before the start of the Libyan people's revolution on February 17. This quote from an IMF country study appeared in a previous article: "The outlook for Libya’s economy remains favorable." IMF Feb 15 This advice was 180 degrees off target. The Libyan economy has ceased functioning as protests and popular demands imploded the Gaddafi regime. (Image)
Further investigation unearthed a specific pattern of positive IMF endorsements for each of the nations experiencing popular uprisings that are sweeping the region. When the IMF blesses a nation's progress for conforming to the economic policies underlying globalism, watch out! There is a popular rebellion in the wings.
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