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Four Integrity Tests for President Obama
Joel S. Hirschhorn
A great smile does not make a truth teller. A talker of change does not define a reformer. Make no mistake, for the good of the nation I want President Obama to succeed in getting us out of the scandalous economic meltdown we are immersed in. But I do not like many of his actions, policies and strategies for accomplishing this, nor does the stock market.
I always had my doubts that he was a true agent of change and reformer when it came to the structure of the political and government system. He took an awful lot of money from the very rich and powerful in his campaign. Sure, with his superb speaking skills he has the capacity to win public approval, but most Americans are not deep, critical thinkers, nor do most have the best detailed information. What if he is just another untrustworthy politician? What if he does not keep his promises? With these questions in mind, I have examined four areas where I find President Obama’s behavior disappointing.
Modern Slavery in America
Stephen Lendman
Called human trafficking or forced labor, modern slavery thrives in America, largely below the radar. A 2004 UC Berkeley study cites it mainly in five sectors:
-- prostitution and sex services - 46%;
-- domestic service - 27%;
-- agriculture - 10%;
-- sweatshops or factories - 5%;
-- restaurant and hotel work - 4%; with the remainder coming from:
-- sexual exploitation of children, entertainment, and mail-order brides.
It persists for lack of regulation, work condition monitoring, and a growing demand for cheap labor enabling unscrupulous employers and criminal networks to exploit powerless workers for profit.
The United States of Israel
Khalid Amayreh
It seems that one doesn’t have to wait four years to find out that Hillary Clinton is just a fraud, very much like her predecessor in the job, Condoleezza Rice.
The infamous Rice paid 24 visits to Occupied Ramallah and Occupied Jerusalem, babbling about the “peace process” and George Bush’s vision of two states living side by side in peace, Israel and Palestine.
Eventually, however, it was proven beyond any doubt that she was a lying emissary representing even a more lying boss.
So one may really wonder if Hillary Clinton will be re-enacting the same absurd show, same lies, and same deception.
In her recent visit to Occupied Palestine, the former NY senator, who had proven herself a submissive pawn in the service of Zionist circles, reiterated the same old platitudes about US commitment to the “two-state” solution.
Prison of nations
Eric Walberg
Sarkozy’s ‘incoherence’ is a sign of the euro-impasse, says Eric Walberg
Riots swept across Eastern Europe this winter. In Latvia 100 were arrested when they attacked the Finance Ministry with cobblestones from the quaintly restored tourist area protesting unemployment, budget and wage cuts. In Lithuania, riot police fired rubber-bullets and tear gas on a trade union march. A demonstration in the Bulgarian capital turned violent leading to the arrest of 150 protesters. These three states are all members of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM2), the euro’s pre-detention cell. They must join.
Obama's First Full Month Significant And Telling
Brian McAfee
President Barack Obama's first full month as president will be marked as historically significant for its shift away from the fraudulent "trickle down" economic model begun by Ronald Reagan almost 30 years ago. The first significant policy vote was to approve and increase the State Children's Health Insurance Program or SCHIP. This program provides health coverage for children of working parents who are not eligible for Medicaid and whose parent's employers do not provide health insurance. The shift in SCHIP eligibility provides health insurance for 4 million more children then the old system. The Republicans en masse voted agaist SCHIP with West Michigan congressman Pete Hoekstra using the specter of children of "illegal immigrants" possibly being eligible as part of his opposition to the bill. Hoekstra's no vote was duplicated by most of the rest of the Republicans in the House the final vote being 289 yes 139 no.
The Matrix Report
Houdini
“WHAT IS TRUTH?” Is truth whatever and all the information you get off the evening news? Is truth everything they taught you your whole life in school? Is truth everything your parents told you throughout your life? Is truth whatever the corporate publishing giants who print your history books tell you? Is truth whatever and anything your government tells you? Can the truth change from day to day and at someone’s whim? How do you determine what is truth from bullshit? Do you even care ‘what is truth’?
Clean Water Protection Act Introduced In US Congress With 115 Co-Sponsors, Bill would protect mountain communities and streams
Jamie Goodman, Appalachian Voices
The Alliance for Appalachia www.TheAllianceForAppalachia.org
WASHINGTON, DC – The Clean Water Protection Act has just been reintroduced by Representatives Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Dave Reichert (R-WA) and John Yarmuth (D-KY) with 115 Cosponsors, including 17 members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee into the United States House of Representatives. The bill will protect communities and water quality by outlawing the dumping of mining waste into streams.
Lancet Withdraws Gaza Article, Author Responds
Ann
On 2 February 2009, The Lancet Medical Journal’s Global Health Network online published Dr Swee Ang and Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta’s ‘The Wounds of Gaza’, first published here at PULSE. It introduced the article by stating:
Two Surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang, managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they describe their experiences, share their views, and conclude that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack.
When we stop dreaming
Najwa Sheikh Ahmed, Nusierat Camp, Gaza Strip
The life of the Palestinian refugees over the last 60 years was very unique, and rich, rich of the amount of sufferings they have to endure, rich of their capability to live and to cope, and rich of the their willingness to survive and continue, to challenge all the circumstances around them. The dilemma of the Palestinian refugees was not only about loosing the homeland but also about loosing all the human rights that the free world is calling to adapt, loosing the security, the respect and the dignity.
My father represents the second generation of the refugees in Gaza, he was a hard worker, spent most of his life working in Israel, he was such a peevish father, but from the inside we all knew how much he loved us and wanted us to be the best in everything, his ambition stimulated him and gave him the strength to work even harder to fulfill it, until he managed to support his nine children high education. I still can remember how my father managed to save the money for my eldest brother’s study at the university in Cairo, and how he used to hide the money inside the shoes, I also still remember how he used to repair our shoes with his own hands, but what I mostly still remember the moment when my father slaps me on the face before he gave me the Arabic book he bought to me for school, I felt frozen, could not find an explanation until I heard his words, “I slapped you to remember how hard I worked to buy you this book, so you will never loose it, and you will know how expensive it was”.
Human Rights in Israel and Occupied Palestine
Stephen Lendman
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) publishes annual reports on "The State of Human Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories." This article reviews its December 2008 one as human rights activists commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10.
ACRI is Israel's leading human and civil rights organization and the only one addressing all liberty and rights issues. It was founded in 1972, is independent and nonpartisan, believes human and civil rights are universal, and leads the struggle for these issues in Israel and Occupied Palestine (OPT) through litigation, legal advocacy, education, and public outreach.
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