Philip J. Rappa

Ten years into a new century, (a mere two- hundred and thirty- four years for the U.S. of A.) using history as our guide, we have, in the last thirty years, chosen for President a B-actor, an elitist whose father’s and grandfather's patriotism was highly suspect, a morally impotent boy/man, a village idiot posing as a regular guy, and now, as we hang by a thread, we wait to see if hope floats. As if we would have learned by now that it’s pure insanity to expect a different outcome from the repetition of this four-year ritual, all these men were offered up as our choices by the latest Master's of the Universe, known as "Inc.", all powerful, all knowing: "Inc", running the world with the fanaticism of a corporate mindset.

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Eric Walberg

The plan voiced at the London Afghanistan conference to pay off the Taliban is belied by the plan at the Brussels NATO conference two days earlier to bomb them into submission.

London has been the venue of a three-ring Middle East circus over the past month. There is the ongoing Chilcot inquiry into the (il)legality of British participation in the invasion of Iraq. Two of the five committee members are Jewish -- Sir Martin Gilbert a militant Zionist, and Sir Lawrence Freedman the drafter of Blair’s invasion policy. Despite the deck being stacked, witness after witness has testified the invasion was illegal, and former British prime minister Tony Blair was booed after telling the inquiry he has no regrets.

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by Stephen Lendman

In November 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child, recognizing "that in all countries in the world, there are children living in exceptionally difficult conditions, and that such children need special consideration." Then in May 2000, the General Assembly adopted an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

In 1990, the UN Commission on Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography with a mandate to investigate the problem and submit reports to the General Assembly.

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