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Reflections on Jack Kennedy
by Stephen Lendman
Though much about his background and public service warrants criticism, he also deserves praise rarely given properly, this article offering some and the writer's personal reflections on his commencement address to my June 14, 1956 graduating class, a message not heard now by US leaders - erudite, incisive and timely. More on it below.
Some Background
Had an assassin not taken his life, his health surely would have, some around him saying "from a medical standpoint, (he) was a mess." Indeed so, having been hospitalized more than three dozen times in his life and given last rites on three occasions.
At age 2 years, 9 months, he nearly died of scarlet fever. He contracted measles, whooping cough and chicken pox the same year, and as a child, was susceptible to upper respiratory infections and bronchitis. In 1935, he suffered jaundice, had a history of sports-related injuries because of his weak physique, and his mother remembered him as "a very, very sick little boy." In the 1930s, he began taking steroids for colitis, later developing complications, including a duodenal ulcer, back pain, digestive trouble, and underactive adrenal glands known as Addison's disease.
Sycophants in Washington
By Timothy V. Gatto
Recently the big subject on the internet has been the Fair elections Act which calls for public financing of candidates for public office. I’m not surprised as I have been writing non-stop about this subject since 2004. I just wondered when the rest of the country was going to catch up. There is no one that could be as happy as I am that people are finally “getting it”.
Not that I’m calling anyone stupid. It’s just that campaign finance reform has never been the sexiest thing to write about. I should know as I’ve written my share. Once I thought I had the catchphrase that would make CFR the latest big deal by calling it “The Reform that Enables All Other Reforms”. Here is what I said:
“What I believe...no, what I know is, we will never, ever have true reforms until we start with The Reform that Enables all Other Reforms. That reform is campaign finance reform. Unless we implement that, unless we publically finance all election campaigns, we will never get rid of what is stopping us from getting these reforms passed in the first place, corporate and special interest campaign money. This is the "grand poobah" so to speak. The elephant in the living room, the hidden family secret, the real reason that Congressmen and Senators don't respond to their electorate, the people that put them in office, the billion dollar payoff to government , and the way the elected officials keep their jobs; corporate and special interest campaign money.” http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_timothy__061230_the_reform_that_enab.htm
THE LOWEST OF THE LOW
GILAD ATZMON
Millions of ballot papers have been sent out yesterday to those eligible to vote in the Labour leadership election. Symbolically enough, this happened the day Tony Blair, the British PM who launched the criminal war in Iraq, published his controversial memoirs.
I am not holding my breath for the Labour party to make the right decision. Clearly, the same party failed to curtail Blair’s militant enthusiasm, even when it was plainly clear that the argument for the Iraq war was grounded in a dodgy dossier.
Considering the scale of the atrocities we are all complicit in thanks to the Labour government, it is my duty to remind the Labour party members who their leading candidate is, what he stands for and what interests he may serve.
Katrina's Destructive Aftermath
by Stephen Lendman
August 29, 2005, a day of infamy remembered less for the storm, catastrophic floods and destruction, and more as a metaphor for disaster capitalism, exploiting security threats, "terror" attacks, economic meltdowns, and "natural" disasters like Katrina.
It turned this aging senior into a writer and radio host, furious over federal, state and local authorities using it to reward business at the expense of New Orleans' poor Blacks. Five years later, their lives remain in disarray through no fault of their own.
'Conspiracies of Rich Men' to Rob You, Enslave You, and Wage Aggressive Wars at Your Expense!
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
It is still fashionable in the American media to deride 'conspiracies' with a blanket if illogical and uninformed smear. Conspiracies are, in fact, how things get done in either crime or commerce. Lately, there is little difference. When just one percent of the U.S. population owns more than the rest of us combined, we are expected to believe that this is the result of merit and commerce. But if we should cite the evidence that argues persuasively that this outcome is the result of a conspiracy of right wing politicians and the venal elites who bankroll them we are reviled and/or ridiculed. That's understandable! We should expect this pack of lies of anyone caught with a hand in the sugar bowl, benefiting financially for having hijacked the apparatus of government for purely venal and/or commercial benefit.
The State and Local Bases of Zionist Power in America
James Petras
Introduction
Any serious effort to understand the extraordinary influence of the Zionist power configuration over US foreign policy must examine the presence of key operatives in strategic positions in the government and the activities of local Zionist organizations affiliated with mainstream Jewish organizations and religious orders.
There are at least 52 major American Jewish organizations actively engaged in promoting Israel’s foreign policy, economic and technological agenda in the US (see the appendix). The grassroots membership ranges from several hundred thousand militants in the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) to one hundred thousand wealthy contributors, activists and power brokers in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In addition scores of propaganda mills, dubbed think tanks, have been established by million dollar grants from billionaire Zionists including the Brookings Institute (Haim Saban) and the Hudson Institute among others. Scores of Zionist funded political action committees (PAC) have intervened in all national and regional elections, controlling nominations and influencing election outcomes. Publishing houses, including university presses have been literally taken over by Zionist zealots, the most egregious example being Yale University, which publishes the most unbalanced tracts parroting Zionist parodies of Jewish history (Financial Times book review section August 28/29 2010).
Lawsuit Challenges Obama Administration's Targeted Assassination Policy
by Stephen Lendman
An earlier article addressed the issue, accessed through the following link:
In February, then Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged it saying CIA operatives and Special Forces death squads have been authorized to kill US citizens abroad, suspected of terrorist involvement. Disapproval came from an unlikely source, Hollywood tough guy Chuck Norris in an article titled, "Obama's US Assassination Program? 'A Shortlist of US Citizens Specfically Targeted for Killing?" saying: It's true, an "abandonment of our Constitution....based on nothing more than" suspicion of terrorist involvement. "That's right. No arrest. No Miranda rights. No due process. No trial. Just a bullet," bomb or slit throat, Washington's new approach along with torture as official policy - justice, American-style under Republicans and Democrats, Obama even more extreme than Bush, the rule of law defunct and defiled, the "land of the free" disgraced, the entire world unsafe.
ONE DEMOCRATIC STATE IN PALESTINE
Introduction by Gilad Atzmon:
Living in a world dominated by relentless Zionist lobbying, I am far from being captivated by the current state of Western democracy. I am not impressed at all by the lethal enthusiasm to democratize the World in the name of ‘moral interventionism’. I am sickened by the murderous zeal that led the USA and Britain into a criminal war that left already more than 1.5 million Iraqi fatalities….
And yet, democracy can also be a genuine universal call. As it happens, it is the Palestinians who are teaching us what democracy is all about, what it stands for and why we favoured it in the first place. Read the Declaration of the Movement for One Democratic State (ODS) in Palestine. I assume that moral interventionists better visit the ODS conference in October so they gather that democracy is actually a humanist call.
Instead of an ethno-centric exclusive ‘Jews only democracy’ we are talking here about an inclusive multi ethnic state of its citizens.
Declaration of the Movement for One Democratic State in Palestine
Legislation for Greater Agribusiness Empowerment
by Stephen Lendman
On July 29, 2009, the House passed HR 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 "To amend the (1938 as amended) Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to improve the safety of food in the global market, and for other purposes."
An earlier July 2009 article discussed it, accessed through the following link:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/07/hr-2749-agribusiness-empowering-act.html
On March 3, 2009, S. 510: FDA Food Safety Modernization Act was introduced as the Senate's version of the House bill. On December 18, 2009, it cleared committee and was placed on the Senate's Legislative Calendar for consideration. Thus far not addressed, it likely will be and passed in the wake of the egg salmonella scare though, like its companion bill, it's for agribusiness empowerment, not food safety, used as cover to enhance greater industry consolidation at the expense of small farmers and consumers.
Preparing for the 28th Anniversary of the 1982 Massacre at Sabra-Shatila
Franklin P. Lamb
Hello Dearest Maisoon,
I certainly understand and share your sadness and feeling of hopelessness after your visit to Shatila Camp. Most people i take there leave feeling much the same as you.
In the Palestinian Refugee camps in Lebanon tomorrow begins the 'black month' during which the World commemorates the September 1982 massacre at Sabra-Shatila—this year being of course the 28th anniversary but for many its like the carnage happened last year.
Perhaps the commemoration will be a bit more somber than usual this year given the realization that the same mentality, indeed some of the same people, who committed, condoned and granted themselves amnesty for the massacre three decades ago were the most adamant last month in insisting on denying Palestinian refugees the most elementary civil rights. The Phalange,( Kataib--Lebanese Forces) Saad Haddad militia, and their Israeli allies for example—who were of course guilty in 1982 but all in Parliament, as with all of us inside and outside of Lebanon, are responsible for what happened between Sept. 16-18th in 1982 and what didn’t happen on August 17, 2010 with respect to civil rights for the massacre survivors.
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