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Obama's Rollback Strategy: Honduras, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan (and the Boomerang Effect)
James Petras
The recent events in Honduras and Iran, which pit democratically elected regimes against pro-US military and civilian actors intent on overthrowing them can best be understood as part of a larger White House strategy designed to rollback the gains achieved by opposition government and movements during the Bush years.
In a manner reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s New Cold War policies, Obama has vastly increased the military budget, increased the number of combat troops, targeted new regions for military intervention and backed military coups in regions traditionally controlled by the US. However Obama’s rollback strategy occurs in a very different international and domestic context. Unlike Reagan, Obama faces a prolonged and profound recession/depression, massive fiscal and trade deficits, a declining role in the world economy and loss of political dominance in Latin America, the Middle East, East Asia and elsewhere. While Reagan faced off against a decaying Soviet Communist regime, Obama confronts surging world-wide opposition from a variety of independent secular, clerical, nationalist, liberal democratic and socialist electoral regimes and social movements anchored in local struggles.
You Betcha Sarah Palin Has a Higher Calling
by Walter Brasch
Sarah Palin said she had a "higher calling" that required her to resign 17 months before her term ended as governor of Alaska, and not to seek a second term.
I have no idea where this "higher calling" came from, but I suspect it could only have come from two sources. The first one is God. I don't know what God said to Sarah Palin, but I suspect it might have been something like this:
"Sarah. I am a patient God. But, you have tried my patience. You are an embarrassment to my ideals, to yourself, to the people of your state, and to your country. Me, and my wolves and moose, would like you to please resign and devote the rest of your life in spiritual embrace of a better life. Oh, by the way, I knew a Sarah, and you are no Sarah."
The other possibility of her "higher calling" is from the Sultan of Greed. I also haven't talked to him about Sarah Palin's "Higher Calling," but this is a possibility of that conversation:
Forget the Headlines: Iraqi Freedom Deferred
By Ramzy Baroud
As US combat troops redeployed to the outskirts of Iraqi cities on June 30, well-staged celebrations commenced. The pro-US Iraqi government declared “independence day” as police vehicles roamed the streets of war-weary Iraq in an unpersuasive show of national rejoicing. US mainstream media joined the chorus, as if commemorating the end of an era.
Meanwhile, top US administration and army officials cautioned Iraqis of their own recklessness. “Biden Warns Iraq About Reverting to Sectarian Violence,” read a New York Times headline. “What will it take to make a good exit from Iraq?” inquired a Kansas City Star analysis. But missing from news headlines and commentary was any indication of direct US responsibility for the genocide that has befallen Iraq.
British Empire's Warfare Raging Though South and Central Asia
From (LPAC)
The British Empire is waging hot warfare throughout South and Central Asia, from Xinjiang in western China, through Afghanistan-Pakistan, to the North Caucasus region of Russia, as the Obama Administration's insane surge policy gets underway. Today alone, seven U.S. troops died in Afghanistan, four of them in a roadside bombing in the allegedly less violent northern region.
The latest outbreak, the violent riots which last night killed at least 156 people and wounded over 1,000 in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang autonomous region in far western China, is part of this war. Thousands of hard-core militants who were operating in Pakistan's border regions, have been forced out of their bases by the attacks by the Pakistani Army, and have moved back into Central Asia. There are some 10,000 of these hard-core militants, and the various groups, supported by Saudi funds and recruitment operations, are expanding, according to regional intelligence sources. Few of the governments have any capability to deal with these militants, who are supported by the opium-trafficking operations which run through the Fergana Valley, and other routes. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, in particular, are extremely poor, and borders are almost impossible to control in this huge mountainous region.
OBAMAGEDDON / THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE EMPIRE
Allen L Roland
Obama is selling optimism opium to the masses and what is needed is a dose of hard reality. California is showing us where we are headed. The Empire is disintegrating before our eyes and to big to fail monopolies are killing Main Street ~ it's time for action, America:
America is going bankrupt while still financing the Bush/Cheney expensive neocon pipedream of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan but our leaders, still drunk with power, refuse to see this reality and continue to sell the opium of optimism to an increasingly skeptical and economically suffering public ~ who will eventually take to the streets. California suffered a new setback in its financial crisis on Monday when Fitch Ratings cut its rating on the state's general obligation debt to just two notches above junk status. http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0614503820090707
Quiet diplomacy
Confronted by multiple irritants from Washington, the Kremlin seems to have caved, wonders Eric Walberg
A little over 40 per cent of Russians consider Russian-US relations strained or hostile, down slightly from 2004 when 46 per cent said they considered the US to be Russia’s adversary. United States President Barack Obama’s world PR campaign is working, despite the issues dividing the two countries, from Star Wars missiles in Poland and US plans for cyber warfare, to NATO’s love-affair with Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan to name just a few of Russia’s neighbours.
So Russia's agreement, announced at Obama’s summit in Moscow 6-8 July, to ferry primarily US troops and arms through Russian land and air space to Afghanistan to accelerate the slaughter there – without any reciprocation on other outstanding issues – comes as a bit of a surprise. Obama faces a reservoir of resentment among Russians who believe that the US has rarely followed through on its occasional peace gestures. “At this point, there is a little bit of hope and a lot of distrust,” said talk show host Vladimir Pozner on Channel One.
Obama's Cap and Trade Carbon Emissions Bill - A Stealth Scheme to License Pollution and Fraud
Stephen Lendman
On May 15, HR 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACESA) was introduced in the House purportedly "To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy."
In fact, it's to let corporate polluters reap huge windfall profits by charging consumers more for energy and fuel as well as create a new bubble through carbon trading derivatives speculation. It does nothing to address environmental issues, yet on June 26 the House narrowly passed (229 - 212) and sent it to the Senate to be debated and voted on. More on that below.
AMERICA'S TOP DOWN APPROACH FAILING MISERABLY
Allen L Roland
America's top down approach of power, control and manipulation is failing miserably in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Honduras and at home. It's just a matter of time before the people take to the streets and dismantle this International financial Behemoth ~ the largest and most dangerous political plutocracy known to man:
A Behemoth is the largest and most powerful animal ever to exist. Metaphorically, the name has come to be used for any extremely large or powerful entity ~ and what better name to describe the largest and most powerful plutocracy ever found which is now existing under the name of the United States.
Guided by an out of control Military/Industrial complex and driven by corporate greed it was held somewhat in check until 1990. But the Cheney/Bush administration quickly removed its leash and this voracious predator has destroyed everything in its path for the past ten years ~ and always under the guise of Democracy and the War on Terror.
To dam the torrential rivers of blood and to silence the cacophony of their agonized cries….
By Jason Miller
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated, allied, aligned, or connected with the Transformative Studies Institute, the Institute for Critical Animal Studies, Anthony Nocella II, or Richard Kahn. While I am a press officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office and am an associate of Jerry Vlasak and Steve Best, I am penning this piece independently of NAALPO and all of my allies.
Years of introspection and profound soul searching—intrepidly trekking the seemingly infinite number of unexplored, untamed, thorny and treacherous paths winding circuitously through my psyche—led me to naively conclude that I’d sketched out a nearly complete map of who I am, my worldview, and my purpose.
Vanunu VS the Unjust Justice System of Israel
eileen fleming
The night before Vanunu's High Court appeal on July 6, 2009, I received a Face Book message from a friend of his whom I met on June 14, 2009 when I spent A Sunday with Vanunu:
Vanunu's friend wrote:
"This morning in church Mordachai said that he has a Supreme Court hearing on Monday and expects a decision on letting him leave Israel after 26 years. He said he hoped it would be his last Sunday with us in church at the English speaking Lutheran service."
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