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Under Threat: A Free and Open Internet
by Stephen Lendman
First some background. As a candidate, Obama pledged support for "network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet." As president, he reneged across the board, including for Internet freedom and openness, Boston.com writer Joelle Tessler headlining, "FCC votes to reconsider broadband regulations," saying:
Federal regulators are "wading into a bitter policy dispute that could be tied up in Congress and the courts for years." At stake: a free, open, and affordable Internet, threatened by powerful phone and cable giants wanting to privatize and control it, have unregulated pricing power, and decide what's published at what speed or blocked.
On June 16, alternate regulatory paths were considered, including the one likely to prevail, favored by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski "to define broadband access as a telecommunications service subject to 'common carrier' obligations to treat all traffic equally."
Kos, "Raw Data," and the Mainstream Media
When DailyKos publisher and owner Markos Moulitsas demanded that his pollster produce raw data from the polls Moulitsas purchased, he established a principle of election polling transparency that could open up the checkered history of presidential elections in the United States.
The controversy erupted when Moulitsas (kos) fired his polling company. He was unhappy with their results and demanded that his pollster, Research 2000 (R2000), turn over raw data for review. Moulitsas said:
"Early in this process, I asked for and they offered to provide us with their raw data for independent analysis -- which could potentially exculpate them. That was two weeks ago, and despite repeated promises to provide us that data, Research 2000 ultimately refused to do so." kos
J. D. Salinger - With Love and Squalor, For Esmé
By Katherine Smith, Ph.D
This essay will explore the relationship of America’s most famous recluse to The CIA, George H.W. Bush and the MK-Ultra mind control program.
In his celebrated story For Esmé – With Love and Squalor, Salinger, trying to get a grip on life, most probably is talking about himself when he starts a correspondence with a thirteen-year-old British girl in 1948. A Perfect Day for Bananafish is another story about his struggle with suicide.
“In Search of J. D. Salinger” by Ian Hamilton recounts Salinger’s experiences in the employ of United States Defense Intelligence, during and after World War II, serving with the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC).
His time was spent mainly in the interrogation of captured Nazis. However, toward the end of the war, he was involved in the denazification of Germany and the subsequent creation of the mind control program MK-Ultra. Project Artichoke was developed under the influence of the former Nazis who worked with CIC to get the Jews to Palestine. [1]
Misery and Despair Plague Haitians
by Stephen Lendman
Six months after Haiti's January 12 quake, inadequate relief has arrived, numerous accounts calling conditions hellish, unsanitary and unsafe - New York Times writer Deborah Sontag's July 10 article for one, headlined, "In Haiti, the Displaced Are Left Clinging to the Edge," saying:
Conditions around Port-au-Prince "contain a spectrum of circumstances: precarious, neglected encampments; planned tent cities (with poor sanitation); debris-strewn neighborhoods, (and only) 28,000 of the 1.5 million (or more) displaced moved into new homes," the affected areas "a tableau of life in the ruins." Oxfam's Julie Schindall said "Everywhere I go, people ask me 'When will we get out of this camp?' " She doesn't know so can't say.
Police Brutality in America
by Stephen Lendman
Across America, daily incidents occur, one of many the cold-blooded January 1, 2009 murder of Oscar Grant - unarmed, offering no resistance, thrust face-down on the ground, shot in the back, and killed, videotaped on at least four cameras for irrefutable proof. USA Today said five bystanders taped it.
His killer: Oakland, CA transit officer, Johannes Mehserle, tried for the killing, the jury told to consider four possible verdicts - innocent, second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, or involuntary manslaughter, jurors deciding the latter.
The Legal Dictionary defines it as "The act of unlawfully killing another human being unintentionally," the absence of intent distinguishing it from voluntary manslaughter. Many states don't define it or do it vaguely. Wallin & Klarich Violent Crime Attorneys say in California it carries a two - four year sentence. However, since a gun was used, Judge Robert Perry can add three to 10 additional years.
IS ISRAEL A NORMAL COUNTRY?
John Chuckman
"Israel went so far as to attack ruthlessly an American intelligence ship..."
Critique of an article with the same title in Toronto’s Globe and Mail by Ian Buruma
This article starts with a brave question, and I think for most people the answer is apparent with the asking of the question.
But like the famous line of T.S. Elliot, the piece ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.
After asking a question which would never pass the lips of Israel’s establishment, the article makes the very claims and assertions the Israeli government would make.
“Israel has never done anything comparable to the late Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad’s 1982 massacre of more than 20,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Hama.”
While I’m the last to defend dictators, this is a completely unsubstantiated claim of what happened in Syria. Perhaps worse, the assertion about Israel is just false. Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon was just about that bloody.
Israel's Settlement Enterprise: Longstanding, Outrageous and Illegal
by Stephen Lendman
B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, addressed it in its July 2010 report titled, "By Hook and By Crook: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank", ahead of a July 6 meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama, their fifth - a shameless love fest endorsing Israeli crimes, Obama saying Israel has "got to be able to respond to threats or any combination of threats in the region," ones it manufactures to pursue ruthless, lawless policies, nonviolent civilians the victims.
On July 5, Israeli National News.com writer Hillel Fendel headlined, "Timed to Sabotage," quoting Yesha Council (YC) head Danny Dayan calling B'Tselem "an anti-Zionist tool for the destruction of Israel," citing the report and its report release date as one example.
Heat Wave Washes Away American Ideals: LeBron James, the Media, and the American Soul
by Walter Brasch
Millions of Americans had pleaded with basketball superstar LeBron James to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and come to their city when he became a free agent. Bloggers, media pundits, and reporters of every kind seemed to devote much of their lives to figuring out what team James would be a part of for the 2011 season.
The speculation ended, Thursday, July 8, when ESPN opened a full hour of prime time for some pretend-journalism and an interview with James, who 28 minutes into the infomercial announced he was leaving Cleveland and going to the Miami Heat. Floridians were ecstatic. With multimillionaire James joining multimillionaires Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, they were sure the Heat would once again win an NBA championship, something that had eluded James in Cleveland. The day after the ESPN show, the man known in Cleveland as "King James" held court with Wade and Bosh in Miami's American Airlines arena, surrounded by 13,000 screaming fans, all of whom watched South Beach and Miami city officials give the three superstars keys to their cities. Two days after the announcement, Miami Heat fans began buying replicas of James jerseys, with his new number, 6, stitched across the back. Most NBA jerseys sell for about $50; these were priced up to $150.
Allow them to own a home? La, Abadan! (No, never!) No “implantation” of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon!
Part VII of a series on the Case for Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon
Franklin Lamb
Shatila Palestinian Refugee Camp, Beirut
The explosive issue of Palestinian civil rights in Lebanon will move to center stage under the Parliamentary spotlight this week, with meetings of parliamentary committees and a legislative session now scheduled to consider late breaking proposals by the March 14 alliance, led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri. The main holdouts, as predicted, will be the right wing Christian Phalange party and its allies and former Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has been tasked this week with getting them on board.
The Washington DC-Beirut based Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, not heeding the admonition of the late Mahatma Gandhi, who when following various pre-Independence reports of ‘progress’ with representatives of Her Majesty the Queen, Bapu told the assembled media: “Promises are made and fools rejoice!.”
Corporations gone wild (as Jefferson warned us)
Mary Shaw
Today we live in historic times, and I don't mean that in a good way.
First of all, we are suffering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And why? Because the financial industry was permitted to run amok.
Under the relaxed regulations of the Reagan and Clinton administrations, the banks did not prove themselves trustworthy to do the right thing for the economy and for the customers they served. They only cared about profits. Alan Greenspan himself admitted that he had "put too much faith in the self-correcting power of free markets and had failed to anticipate the self-destructive power of wanton [i.e., unregulated] mortgage lending."
Nevertheless, the wealthy ruling class of Wall Street, largely unpunished, is doing just fine with its multi-million-dollar bonuses. But middle-class and working-class Americans continue to suffer through home foreclosures and long-term unemployment. And small businesses can't get loans to stay afloat.
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