CALL IT AN OBAMA DEPRESSION / DESPITE WALL STREET CELEBRATION
Allen L Roland
President Obama inherited a Bush recession but instead of initiating badly needed banking reforms ~ Obama chose a top down Wall Street bailout which accelerated Main Street's agony to the extent that it is now an Obama Depression:
PermalinkAnti-Zionists: The New Heretics
By Jeff Gates
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”-- George Santayana
How quickly we forget. With the Inquisition still fresh in memory, America’s Founders embraced democracy as a means to protect liberty from the manipulations of faith. That’s why facts were enshrined at the core of self-governance grounded in the rule of law. The duplicity at the heart of the U.S.-Israeli relationship puts that founding principle at risk.
For seven terrifying centuries, heretics were punished under canon law. In 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was condemned for “grave suspicion of heresy” when he showed that the Sun—not the crown—was the center of the universe despite what the King’s subjects—with help from the Church—had been induced to believe.
A Small First Step In Cleaning Up the West's Middle East Mess
Franklin Lamb
An oil slick from Israel's bombing of Lebanon's oil storage facility at
Jiyeh, 30 kilometers south of Beirut, produced an environmental
disaster for Lebanon's territorial waters and beaches.
Sunday morning on the dunes: Why Hezbollah and Americans joined other Lebanese friends and cleaned up Lebanon’s “Free Gaza Beach”
"Lebanon’s endangered Green Sea Turtles are no less genetically imprinted by nature to return west to the sea than her Palestinian Refugees are imprinted by justice to return south to their homes." Nehme Hamie, Horse Rancher near Baalbek, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
Ramlet el Baida, Beirut -- It is hard to believe that it has already been three years since July 13 and 15, 2006, when American MK 82 and MK 83, 500 and 1,000 lb. bombs, and four US TOW missiles, gifted to Israel, destroyed Lebanon’s oil storage facility at Jiyeh, 30 kilometers south of Beirut.
Will Venezuelan Destabilization Follow the Honduran Coup?
by Stephen Lendman
After ten and a half years in office, Hugo Chavez is very savvy about America's intentions. On January 17, even before Obama's inauguration, he said "Barack Obama has the 'stench' of his predecessor as US president and was at risk of being killed if he tries to change the American 'empire.'"
He added that frayed ties with Washington were unlikely to improve despite the departure of Bush, the man he called the 'devil.' Now there's a new "devil" with his fingerprints all over the June 28 Honduran coup. More on that below.
Iceland: Lessons to be Learned from Economic Meltdown
Eva Joly
In the wake of the failure of the Icelandic banks Messrs Brown, Barroso and Strauss-Kahn prove that they have understood nothing
From G8 to G20, many heads of state and government seem to delight in repeating that nothing will ever be the same again. The world is changing, to the point of being turned on its head by the crisis; the way we think and act in terms of financial regulation, international relations and development aid must therefore, according to them, change too. However, numerous examples contradict all this big talk. The situation in which Iceland now finds itself following the implosion of its banking system and the emergency nationalisation of its three main banks (Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir) is undoubtedly one of the most significant of these examples. This small country of 320,000 inhabitants is now reeling under the weight of billions of Euros of debt, which has absolutely nothing to do with the vast majority of its population and which Iceland cannot afford to pay.
Reclaiming the Vote
ddjango
In my previous post (Oblahma: Time for a Moratorium on Talk), I asked, "If there is no really discernible difference between the real agendas of the Democratic and Republican parties, what do we do about the prospect of elections in 2010 and 2012?" Let me suggest a partial response to the question ...
There is strong evidence at present that, in spite of the anger in the electorate, our choices are more limited than ever before and it will take an enormous amount of work on the part of the disenfranchised to create the necessary movement that will create cohesion around specific principles, goals, and strategies, that will result in breaking the status quo stranglehold. Such a movement is as critical as it is nearly impossible.
As one who has several times over the past decade directly agitated for a coalition of the various "parties of the Left" under a negotiated consensus platform, I find that that same Left and its parties have been further marginalized. In some cases that marginalization even takes the form of vilification, as the tide of the radical liberalism called "libertarianism" has gained momentum in reaction to the increased unveiling of the one world government and economic system agenda. The core of the traditional American Left - democratic socialism - has been all but crushed by the call for small government and the insistence of the supremacy of individual rights.
Israel moves to declare rights groups as foreign agents
Jonathan Cook
In a bid to staunch the flow of damaging evidence of war crimes committed during Israel's winter assault on Gaza, the Israeli government has launched a campaign to clamp down on human rights groups, both in Israel and abroad.
It has begun by targeting one of the world's leading rights organizations, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), as well as a local group of dissident army veterans, Breaking the Silence, which last month published the testimonies of 26 combat soldiers who served in Gaza. Additionally, according to the Israeli media, the government is planning a "much more aggressive stance" towards human rights groups working to help the Palestinians.
Israeli ethnic cleansing - Scots witness brutal 'business as usual'
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
After less than 24 hours of their Scottish delegation to the Occupied Palestinian Territories seven Scots from Edinburgh and Glasgow heard first-hand how Israeli police and soldiers forced their way into the homes of the Hanoun and al-Ghawi families, beating children, one son had his leg broken. The furniture and family possessions were loaded into trucks and Israeli police are demanding payment in order for them to be returned.
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