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Beyond President Chavez Electoral Victory: Socialism in a Rentier State
James Petras
Introduction
The successful re-election of President Chavez by a resounding 10% margin winning 20 of the 22 states, with a massive 80% turnout provides his government with a clear and decisive mandate to set the political and economic course of the country over the next six years.
To understand the opportunities and constraints which the government faces, it is essential to outline not only the positive strengths of the government but the complex and difficult structural features of ‘transiting’ in an essentially ‘rentier economy and society’ based on extractive enclaves, essentially a petrol economy. The socialist project faces an external environment with contradictory features, which include a highly globalized economy offering trade and investment opportunities and expanding economic partnerships via regional and global organizations ( OPEC, MERCOSUR, UNASUR, PETROCARIBE, ALBA) and political and military threats from its proximity to the North American imperial heartland.
The myth of the Christian right
Mary Shaw
GOP politicians and their followers love to play the Christianity card. They wave their bibles and wag their fingers at anyone whose behavior doesn't pass their sanctimonious moral judgment.
They call themselves Christians, but in Catholic school I was taught that Christians adore and follow Jesus Christ. These holier-than-thou Republicans don't reflect the Jesus that I read about in the New Testament.
To illustrate this point, let's compare the teachings of Jesus with the actions of his so-called followers in the GOP.
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Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Matthew 5:9)
The "Christian" Republicans, on the other hand, attacked Iraq for no good reason, and now are beating the war drums over Iran. And their corporate overlords in the war profiteering business are making a fortune. (See Halliburton.)
John Douglass: Embodiment of a Ruined Election System
By David Swanson
In April I had a chat with Congressional candidate John Douglass who had just about wrapped up his party's nomination for Congress here in Virginia's Fifth District. Douglass is a retired Brigadier General, a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and a former deputy U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium. He spent years buying weapons for the military and then years selling weapons to the military as CEO of Aerospace Industries Association. In Congress he would be back on the buying side of the revolving door of death dealing.
Obviously a candidate for war, right? That's not what people were telling me, and not what Douglass himself says. He tells me he's for peace and for moving from an offensive military to one that is truly defensive. Rather than wars in the Middle East, he says, he'd like to search every container that enters our country and control every passage across out country's borders. Such policies, he says, don't threaten anyone or produce terrorism.
“The name of the game: erasing Palestine…”
By Stuart Littlewood
Around the time my article “Who does ‘Agent Cameron’ work for?” appeared last week a Jewish lady, Elizabeth Morley, wrote to Mr Cameron scolding the prime minister for his shocking dinner speech to the United Jewish Israel Appeal http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/ujia/ .
Agent Cameron told his Jewish audience: "With me, you have a Prime Minister whose belief in Israel is unbreakable and whose commitment to Israel’s security is non-negotiable... I will always stand by the Jewish people... Britain will always stand by Israel, protect Israel, and work with Israel on the path to peace."
Paul Wellstone: Tenth Anniversary of His Assassination
by Stephen Lendman
October 25 marked the 10th anniversary of Wellstone's death. Was it accidental or an assassination to silence a sadly missed principled voice? Convincing evidence suggests foul play. More on that below.
On October 25, 2002, The New York Times headlined "Minnesota Senator Is Among 8 Dead in Crash," saying:
Wellstone "was killed today when his campaign plane crashed approaching a small airport in a wooded region in the northern part of his state." Campaigning for a third term, he "perished along with seven other people when the chartered King Air A100 went down near Eveleth around 10:20 a.m. Central Time, the Federal Aviation Administration reported."
A Hostile Takeover of Our Country Treasonous, noxious, thieving, tyrannical
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
American democracy is under assault.
In one super-PAC alone, Karl Rove and the Enron grifter Ed Gillespie, have assembled $200 million from big polluters and Wall Street moguls to buy the 2012 election.
Two of the Koch Brothers, Charles and David, pledged $130 million to elect candidates who favor unrestrained corporate profiteering.
The senators and congressmen they fund and elect are not representing the United States—they are representing Koch and its oil industry cronies, Big Pharma, and the Wall Street banksters currently mounting a hostile takeover of our government.
I have no problem characterizing these corporate-centric super-PACs as treasonous. We are now in a free fall toward old-fashioned oligarchy; noxious, thieving and tyrannical.
The Demonization of Dissent in the United States
By William Wraithwrite
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On Oct. 3rd, 2012 Wired.Com’s (or Wired Magazine’s) Danger Room came out with Spencer Ackerman’s story of a leaked although unclassified U.S. Army “chart” that lists indicators and behaviors for identifying people who are supposedly becoming radicalized to terrorist potential. But what is so startling about this Army’s presumptively rational analysis (more like propagandic analysis) is its broad categorization of symptoms for identifying those thought alienated enough to become potential terrorist material.
Netanyahu/Lieberman Unite for War
By Stephen Lendman
American crimes of war and against humanity perhaps exceed all other rogue states in history combined.
Pound-for-pound, however, Israeli lawlessness matches the world's worst. Long ago, it graduated from a regional menace to a global one.
It enforces barbaric occupation harshness. Its war machine threatens and attacks neighbors. It gets away with murder because world powers don't intervene to stop it.
Genocide in Bani Walid
by Stephen Lendman
Washington bears full responsibility for waging multiple wars on humanity. It planned, initiated and controls direct and proxy conflicts across North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Bani Walid made headlines for three weeks. Genocide threatens its residents. Obama's dirty hands are all over this crime of war and against humanity. Media scoundrels ignore it. More on this below.
America's proxy war on Syria continues. Washington's directly responsible for recruiting, arming, funding and directing Syrian death squads.
Proposing a Vision of a New Earth
By Rajesh Makwana
The following article is based on a presentation by Share The World’s Resources for the World Public Forum ‘Dialogue of Civilisations’ 10th Anniversary Conference, Rhodes, October 2012
The earth’s ecological problems stem largely from our collective failure to share. That might seem like an overly simplistic statement, but it is now increasingly evident that only by sharing the world’s resources more equitably and sustainably will we be able to address both the ecological and social crisis we face as a global community.
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