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The Afghan dust is settling
Eric Walberg
Yes, it really is another Vietnam, and just as in 1972, presidential elections will make no difference.
Scarcely a word is heard about foreign affairs amid US election talk, despite the many fires around the world that the US military is either stoking or trying to douse -- depending on your point of view. Other than Republican contender Ron Paul -- not a serious candidate for the mainstream -- no one questions the plans for war on Iran, Israel’s continued expansion in the Occupied Territories, or US plans to end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The Wondering Jesse
by Gilad Atzmon
This week, Jesse Lieberfeld an11th-grade American Jewish teenager won the Dietrich College’s 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Awards for composing a beautiful piece about his own moral awakening and journey away from Judaism.
“I once belonged to a wonderful religion. I belonged to a religion that allows those of us who believe in it to feel that we are the greatest people in the world—and feel sorry for ourselves at the same time,” says young Jesse. However, it seems that it didn’t take too long before Jesse found out for himself that what he was part of was neither flattering or glorious.
America's Great Divide Between Rich and Poor
by Stephen Lendman
In 1962, Michael Harrington's "The Other America" exposed the nation's dark side, saying:
"In morality and in justice, every citizen should be committed to abolishing the other America, for it is intolerable that the richest nation in human history should allow such needless suffering."
"But more than that, if we solve the problem of the other America we will have learned how to solve the problems of all of America."
Jack Kennedy was concerned enough to ask Walter Heller, his Council of Economic Advisor chairman, to examine the problem.
In his January 8, 1964 State of the Union address, poverty levels also got Lyndon Johnson to say his administration "today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America."
Gingrich Phony Populism Sells in the South
By Michael Collins
Bionic candidate Mitt Romney went from inevitable to simply evitable thanks to South Carolina Republican primary voters. With 600,000 voting, turnout was up 34% over 2008. Ninety eight percent of voters were white. This is even less representative of the nation than Iowa and New Hampshire. But that's how things work in this democracy
The South Carolina exit poll (sponsored by the mainstream media) had a new question for voters as they left their polling places. They were asked if they had a positive or negative opinion of Mitt Romney's background as an investor. Investor refers to Romney's time as an investment banker with Bain Capital and can be taken as a proxy for a pro or anti-Wall Street/financial elite stance.
Criminalizing Dissent in America
by Stephen Lendman
America has a sordid repressive history. Among others, First Amendment rights are violated.
It guarantees freedom of religion, expression, to petition government for redress of grievances, and right to peacefully assemble.
The 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts restricted First Amendment freedoms.
So did 1919 anti-communist Palmer raids, the 1934 Special Committee on Un-American Activities, its House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) successor, secret FBI COINTELPRO crackdowns, the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the 2001 USA Patriot Act, and other post-9/11 measures.
These and other measures expanded government surveillance, eroded habeas, formalized military tribunals, permitted torture-extracted confessions, and instituted violence for national security.
FBI "terrorist profiles" can investigate anyone for any reason. So can local police working cooperatively or alone. Street protests can be criminalized. America's right to dissent is endangered.
Planned Regime Change in Iran and Syria
by Stephen Lendman
Plans are longstanding. Timing alone isn’t known. Signs suggest 2012. If sanctions, subversion, cyberwar, and targeted assassinations fail, expect hot conflict to follow.
On January 9, the Washington Post quoted an anonymous US intelligence official saying America's goal for Iran is "regime change." A next day article retracted the statement, saying:
"An earlier version of this article reported that a US intelligence official had described regime collapse as a goal of US and other sanctions against Iran. An updated version clarifies the official's remarks."
All This and Heaven Too
By Robert Singer
All This and Heaven Too (1940), directed by Anatole Litvak, staring Charles Boyer and Bette Davis, aired this month on Turner Classic Movies.
The movie, and Rachel Field's novel by the same name, is based on the true story of Field's great-aunt, Henriette Deluzy Desportes, a governess employed by Theobald, Duc de Choiseul-Praslin to care for his children.
Henriette wins the love and affection of the children and although the Duc never expresses a love for the governess, we are to assume that he loves her, as well.
And that’s before the Duc beats his wife, Fanny Sebastiani Choiseul-Praslin, to death because she refuses to give Henriette a letter of recommendation. [1]
The Duc tries to make it look like a burglar killed his wife, but no one is fooled. The Duc and Henriette are arrested.
His wife, Fanny, is the daughter of Marachal Horace Sebastiani, one of the leading political and social figures in the Orleans Monarchy of France under King Louis Philippe. [2]
As the Duc is a privileged member of society, only other nobles can hear his case. The noblemen are concerned that if the Duc does not confess the crime, and involve Henriette, the masses will blame the government.
While under arrest, the Duc takes poison and on his deathbed, denies his own guilt and the involvement of the governess.
According to historians, the people of France were so incensed that the monarchy was unable to extract a confession, within a year the Orleans Monarchy (The February Revolution) was overthrown.
Charles Boyer and Bette Davis give the audience a superlative performance lasting 140 minutes, but the idea that Henriette is responsible for the downfall of King Louis-Philippe, in the words of one reviewer, is a historical gaffe.
Had Jack Warner understood that the February Revolution was the belated second phase of the July Revolution (1830) then Warner Brothers might not have paid Rachel Field $100,000 (in 1940 dollars) for the film rights. [3]
Historians agree that the July and February Revolutions were the last stage of the mother of all Revolutions: The French Revolution.
The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 brought about radical and social change based on Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights for the profane (the common man).
According to our filtered history books, the French Revolution was a popular uprising by peasants, serfs, and the working class (the Third Estate).
The French Revolution
At the beginning of the Revolution, kings, monarchs, and the despots of our history books held supreme power. By the time they ended, the human rights movement replaced centuries of tyranny and oppression for the common man.
Is that possible?
Revisionists are still trying to explain why the despots of our history books wouldn’t use the Guillotine to dispense with such a heretical movement.
Just Short of Treason in Georgia and Kansas
By Michael Collins
It's official. The crazies have arrived for the 2012 presidential race, florid in their deviant and repulsive rhetoric. Andrew B. Adler, editor of The Atlanta Jewish Times, called on Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu to "Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel's existence." This reference to President Barack Obama appeared in the print edition of the paper on January 13 and was first published online by Gawker on the 20th (alternate links here and here).
Right wing Republican Mike O'Neal, speaker of the Kansas House of Representatives, forwarded an email referring to the president that quoted (approximately) Psalm 109.8: “Let his days be few and brief; and let others step forward to replace him." The Lawrence Journal World noted that the very next verse, 109.9, indicates how the president should be replaced: "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." (Image SND)
The First Amendment is ignored when reactionary mayors want to stop the free speech and assemblies of Occupy Wall Street. However, free speech is expanded beyond the limits of the law when religious extremists in Atlanta and Kansas step well outside of the boundaries of U.S. Code.
Occupy the Neighborhood: How Counties Can Use Land Banks and Eminent Domain
Ellen Brown
An electronic database called MERS has created defects in the chain of title to over half the homes in America. Counties have been cheated out of millions of dollars in recording fees, and their title records are in hopeless disarray. Meanwhile, foreclosed and abandoned homes are blighting neighborhoods. Straightening out the records and restoring the homes to occupancy is clearly in the public interest, and the burden is on local government to do it. But how? New legal developments are presenting some innovative alternatives.
Waging Covert War on Iran
By Stephen Lendman
Washington and Israel plan regime change in Iran and Syria. Israel wants regional supremacy. Washington wants global hegemony and control of the world's strategic resources.
America tolerates no independent states. Making them client ones is prioritized.
Insurgent infiltrators ravaged Syria for months. Libya's model was replicated short of NATO intervention perhaps to follow.
Washington, Israel, and rogue allies use many destabilization tactics. They includefake accusations, political and economic sanctions, isolation, covert and direct confrontation, cyberwar, targeted assassinations, and other provocations short of war perhaps planned.
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