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America's old ugly face
Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
The US is still playing fast and loose with its commitments on Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Speaking during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in West Jerusalem Saturday, 31 October, visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked that Israel was making "unprecedented concessions" on the issue of settlements. "What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy on settlements is unprecedented in the context of negotiations."
How the Iraq War Destroyed the US Economy
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
Wars reduce the GDP, destroy jobs, reduce productivity, and increase the trade deficit! If wars are 'bad' for the economy, then how are they sold so easily? The quick response: they are sold with focus group tested bullshit!
There's a 'living' in killing, we are told! There is a more opulent living in the commission mass murder which requires the construction of tanks, smart bombs, and fighter jets --the MIC, in other words. But that's all just snake oil for idiots and Republicans!
That wars are good for the economy is just a bald-faced lie cooked up by the defense lobby for whom killing IS a living but only for the shrinking one percent who benefit: the Military/Industrial complex, truly MURDER INC. Fact is war is most often disastrous for the economy.
It’s Baltimore, Hon!: Did Mayor Dixon Steal from the Poor?
by William Hughes
“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” - H. L. Mencken
Baltimore, MD - On Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, the criminal trial of Mayor Sheila Dixon will open up in the Circuit Court House, only two blocks from City Hall, where she’s reigned as boss of bosses since 2007. In a way, it will be like watching one of the iconic John Waters’ flicks. The case will have it all: sex, fur coats, a shop-till-you drop mentality, comedy, a married boyfriend in heat, gift cards, sleazy politics, back room deals, greed and high priced lawyers. In fact, the Mayor has seven lawyers on her defense team! This is probably a world record! (Saddam Hussein only had three.) This is also something film guru Waters would never allow in any of his movies. One legal eagle blowing off hot steam on behalf of a client would be more than enough for him.
Paid Lying: What Passes for Major Media Journalism
by Stephen Lendman
Today's major media journalism is biased, irresponsible, sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the truth. It's misinformation or agitprop disinformation masquerading as fact to boost circulation, readership, viewers, or listeners, and on vital issues lie about or suppress uncomfortable truths to provide unqualified support for state and/or corporate interests - to the detriment of the greater good that's always sacrificed for profits and imperial aims.
As a result, major media sources produce a daily propaganda diet and what Project Censored calls "junk food news," and get most people to believe it. In their landmark book, Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky explained the "propaganda model" that controls the public message by "filter(ing)" disturbing truths, "leaving (behind) only the cleansed residue fit to print" or air.
40 Million "Health" Criminals
Two provisions in the House health reform bill are troubling. In a powerful post on the Welcome Back to Pottersville, poster Jurassicpork laid it out. This is as clear and logical a statement as I've seen on the utter contempt that Congress has for the people. Well worth a read. Michael Collins
From: Welcome Back to Pottersville blog. Posted by jurassicpork
In the dead of Saturday night, the House passed their version of a health reform bill that, frankly, makes Max Baucus’ first health care proposal look like a bleeding heart liberal/socialist piece of legislation by conspicuous relief. One of the most alarming aspects of HR 3962, that passed 220-215 (219 Democrats and one Republican voted for it) are the purely evil sections 7203 and 7201. The less evil of these sections, 7203, calls for $25,000 in fines and up to a year imprisonment for “defying” the federal mandate for getting insurance. That's the misdemeanor. The felony? A quarter of a million dollars in fines and up to five years in prison.
And those of you who are actually found guilty of the crime of not buying over $100 of health insurance every week will lose their jobs and earning potential. For up to five years, we will not be contributing to anything other than a prison economy. We will not be paying taxes. We will not be paying child support if we already are. And when we get thrown into the prison system, who gets to foot the bill for the health care that we'd defiantly refused to get?
Entire post
The Walls of Berlin and Bil'in
eileen fleming
[Bil'in, West Bank] Twenty years ago on Nov. 9, the Berlin Wall came crashing down due to the build up of pressures exerted by the Solidarity movement demanding freedom at the time of the demise of Communism. The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolically portrayed the end of the Cold War and proved that walls cannot keep people apart. The Berlin Wall was twenty-seven miles of rolls of barbed wire augmented with a high concrete barrier and watchtowers, floodlights, and a no man's land. A few scaled over, some tunneled below and 136 East Germans died trying to cross it.
A wall twice as high and five times as long as the one that fell in Berlin, is close to completion in the West Bank. One of the chants I learned during one of my four visits to the agricultural village of Bilin, was "The wall will fall in Bilin; the wall will fall like in Berlin".
Rendition prosecuted abroad while U.S. courts do nothing
Mary Shaw
The George W. Bush administration was the target of much criticism from human rights groups for, among other things, its policy of extraordinary rendition, in which detainees have been transferred for interrogation in other countries that are known for their use of torture. And human rights groups and individuals have long been calling for an end to rendition, and accountability for all those who have enabled or participated in the use of torture in the "war on terror".
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any kind of accountability will be achieved here in the U.S. anytime soon. The latest evidence of this came on November 2, when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case of Maher Arar against U.S. officials who had sent him to Syria, where he was interrogated under torture for a year.
36 HOUSE MEMBERS DEFEND GOLDSTONE REPORT / 344 CONDEMN IT
Allen L Roland
In what has to be the most blatant act of allegiance to AIPAC versus their constituencies ~ the House of Representatives denounced the balanced and responsible Goldstone Gaza war crimes Report 344 to 36 despite the fact that every Israeli human rights NGO denounced the Gaza war and supports the Goldstone Report:
Despite the fact that a Rasmussen poll during the Gaza war found 55% of Americans opposed it and only 33% supported it ~ 344 spineless members of Congress followed the money, sold their souls to AIPAC ( American Israel Public Affairs Committee ) and their generous pro-Israel campaign contributions and refuted a truly balanced and responsible UN Report by the highly respected Judge Goldstone.
Foreign Contributions and the Supreme's Overdue Decision on Campaign Funding
The Supreme Court of the United States will soon announce a major decision on our lightly controlled system of campaign funding. Will it retain some limitations on corporate influence or will the court blow the lid off and cause a perpetual flood of unrestricted corporate contributions?
An additional outcome may surprise and shock the public.
If the Supreme Court overturns the lower court's decision, foreign nationals, corporations, and governments with partial ownership of U.S. corporations will, in effect, end up contributing to and influencing U.S. candidates in federal elections.
DATELINE AFGHANISTAN, Southwest Asia A continuing foreign policy of violence
by Carolyn Bennett
Sanity demands and all sides have said in one way or another that they want foreign forces out of Afghanistan. Yet foreign forces remain - are resisted violently - and continue to kill with careless impunity.
The better course of action, of course, though rarely attempted action, would be to alter substantively and significantly the course and character of particularly U.S. and UK-led relations with southwest Asia. Enter into open, honest, talking diplomacy with all factions in the southwest Asian [Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan] conflict(s). For each sector set a deadline for withdrawal and stick to it. Draw down forces leaving in the place of force respectful civilian relationships among foreign, local and regional factions and countries for the long term. Is this just too much to ask?
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