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Israel's Wanton Aggression On Gaza
Stephen Lendman
It's not the first time and won't be the last. On December 27, AP reported that:
"Israeli aircraft struck Hamas security compounds across Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of simultaneous attacks, and Hamas and medics reported dozens of people were killed."
Wall St. and the Fed Get Fatter, While Main St. Suffers
William Hughes
“Wall Street has hijacked the economy for the last twenty some years.” - Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO
The Fed and Wall Street are the real powers in the land. During the financial meltdown crisis in the Fall of 2008, the U.S. Congress acted as a patsy for the fiscal elite. The Fed Chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, and the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Henry M. Paulson, Jr., ordered the politicos to give Wall Street banksters a bailout of $700 billion of taxpayers’ money with no review. Although, it initially balked, the Congress soon caved in to that rash demand, with little or no strings attached. (1) The Fed, a/k/a “The Federal Reserve System,” was sanctioned by an Act of Congress in 1913, but it’s a quasi-private, and not a publicly owned, entity, whereas, the banksters on Wall Street are the essence of private, money-grubbing enterprises. They both have their own corporate interests and are not truly accountable to the Congress. (2) While this clique, whose laissez-faire policies helped to create this ugly financial mess, is getting fatter, more Americans, daily, are falling through the cracks.
Can there be any doubt who the real terrorists are? US definition fits perfectly
Stuart Littlewood
The patience of all decent men must surely be exhausted.
Today’s slaughter of innocents in Gaza, with at least 230 reported killed in raids on “Hamas terror operatives” (as the Israeli military put it), amounted to “a mass execution”, said Hamas.
Can there now be any doubt who the real terrorists are?
The killing spree couldn’t have happened without the tacit approval of America, Britain and the EU. The political pea-brains that direct the pro-Israel western alliance were partying, gorging themselves on Christmas fare or binge-shopping while this massacre of hungry women and children and their despairing menfolk in Gaza was being planned and executed.
The $6 Million Social Worker
By Walter Brasch
The New York Yankees just bought a first baseman for $180 million. For the next eight years, Mark Teixeira will earn about $22.5 million a season. The week before, the Yanks bought seven years of pitcher CC Sabathia¡¯s life for $161 million, about $23 million a season¡ªand five years of A.J. Burnett for $82.5 million, about $16.5 million for each season, according to the Associated Press. None of the salaries include any incentive pay or outside endorsements, which add millions to each salary.
Jail instead of rehab: Not just for grownups anymore
Mary Shaw
The United States is a nation of prisoners. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world. According to the National Institute of Corrections, some 0.7 percent of Americans are incarcerated. In fact, almost 50% of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons, even though the U.S. comprises only 5% of the world's population. Prison overcrowding is the status quo.
Why?
I doubt that the average American is more innately predisposed to criminal behavior than our counterparts in Russia, China, Iran, or anywhere else in the world. No, we're just victims of a broken system that favors incarceration over rehabilitation.
Bush's Farewell Gift
Nicola Nasser**
UN Resolution 1850 pushes Palestinian unity further from reach than ever.
The body of UN Security Council Resolution 1850 avoids any meaningful mention of a two-state solution or the creation of a Palestinian state with the exception of a feeble reference late in the text -- added almost as an afterthought -- to "preparation for statehood". While the preamble does mention Resolution 1514, issued five years ago, and notes that "lasting peace can only be based on an enduring commitment to mutual recognition, freedom from violence, incitement, and terror, and the two-state solution, building upon previous agreements and obligations," and even notes "the importance of the Arab peace initiative of 2002" the seven articles of the resolution, adopted on 16 December, focus on committing all parties to continuing an endless peace process.
Early Suspicions About Bernard Madoff
Stephen Lendman
On December 12, 2008, the Wall Street Journal headlined: "Top Broker Accused of $50 Billion Fraud. Bernard L. Madoff....was arrested by federal agents (the previous day) after his sons turned him in for running what they said their father called a giant Ponzi scheme."
Too late to matter, the SEC, in a civil complaint, cited an ongoing $50 billion swindle in asking a judge to seize the firm and its assets. "Our complaint alleges a stunning fraud that appears to be of epic proportions," according to Andrew Calamari, SEC's New York associate director of enforcement who was derelict in his duty since being appointed on November 14, 2004 after joining the agency in 2000.
Hunger before the storm
Sameh Akram Habeeb
Israeli politicians, in the run-up to elections, are promising to deal a severe blow to Gaza as this is how Israeli policy is made. However, every household in Gaza is already under siege. In Gaza you can only find pale, angry and frustrated faces. If you visit my house you won't find power, while my neighbor is out of gas. Another neighbor seeks potable water as power outages have left him without for four days. A third neighbor desparately looks for milk for his child but does so in vain. Another friend who lives on the corner needs medicine that can't currently be found in Gaza.
Earth Bailout and the Stewardship Revolution
Dr. Glen Barry
Global citizens together committing to a revolutionary spirit of action are the Earth and humanity's last best hope
December 25, 2008 By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet From Earth's Newsdesk, http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
Oceans on acid, certifiably crazy ancient forest logging, carbon markets paying to log and pollute -- the global ecosystem is failing and the world has gone mad. The disease of too many humans, each wanting to forever consume more at the expense of liquidating life-giving ecosystems, must be decisively cured before being ends. It has become apparent that changes of the magnitude necessary to ensure humanity's shared survival are not, indeed cannot, occur without transformative revolutionary action. What hope remains for the Earth and humanity lies in a global people's movement to topple polluting industries and usher in an era of stewardship.
Unscripted: Green Zone Theater and the Shoe Drama
Ramzy Baroud
The plot, so unexpectedly, thickened in Iraq on a Sunday like no other. The two main actors - US President George W. Bush, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki – took to the stage to perform another well-rehearsed press conference. The scripts were ever so predictable: Bush to tout the ‘progress’ achieved in Iraq, while al-Maliki to express gratitude for the freedom bestowed on his country. Both men were to caution from overstated optimism, and to forewarn of the great challenges that are yet to come. The two partners were to shake hands, smile and walk away. Things, however, didn’t go according to plan on Sunday, December 14.
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