Pages: << 1 ... 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 1158 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 ... 1326 >>
Euro peace: The sounds of silence
Eric Walberg
Eurospeak: “peace” via US missile bases, a mobile missile “blanket”, a “convention” on cybercrime, “Long live NATO!” Eric Walberg strains to hear a Euro voice of reason
After being the playground for 20th century militarism, after finally uniting with no enemies in sight, you think that Europe would be the world’s bulwark for peace. But a continent that rejected the US war in Vietnam is in thrall to US militarism as never before. None of the European peoples support the current wars and arms race, yet Euro governments dutifully cough up troops to send to Afghanistan. Many sent forces to Iraq. All of them are happy members of NATO, which is unashamedly the forward presence of the US military around the world, having long ago cast aside any pretense of defending Europe from the dreaded communists.
Perpetual Grief over September 11th
By Ramzy Baroud
The anniversary of the infamous tragedy of 9/11, 2001, and the subsequent ramifications indeed induce, throughout the world, a plethora of feelings of sorrow.
The 9/11 event should have never taken place. Regardless of the situation, targeting civilians is unconditionally reviled. No matter where we stand on war, and how do we wish to rationalize and define extremism, and even terror, we must pause to remember those who died on that day, and the many, many more who died in the months and years that followed.
Sadly, we must even pause today for those who will die tomorrow, to avenge the victims of the twin towers. 9/11 was a tragedy that should have been studied within the parameters of US foreign policies vis-à-vis Muslim countries, in the Middle East region in particular. If we wish not to venture that far, then an honest look at the period that followed the first Gulf War of 1990-91, and the tragic sanctions that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, is certainly warranted.
Is Bagram Obama’s New Secret Prison?
Andy Worthington
On Monday, one day after the New York Times and the Washington Post reported that the Obama administration was planning to introduce tribunals for the prisoners held in the US prison at Bagram airbase, Afghanistan, the reason for the specifically-timed leaks that led to the publication of the stories became clear.
The government was hoping that offering tribunals to evaluate the prisoners’ status would perform a useful PR function, making the administration appear to be granting important rights to the 600 or so prisoners held in Bagram, and distracting attention from the real reason for its purported generosity: a 76-page brief to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (PDF), submitted yesterday, in which the government attempted to claim that “Habeas rights under the United States Constitution do not extend to enemy aliens detained in the active war zone at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.”
The main reason for this brazen attempt to secure a PR victory before the appeal was filed is blindingly obvious to anyone who has been studying the Bagram litigation over the last five months. In April, Judge John D. Bates ruled that three foreign prisoners seized in other countries and “rendered” to Bagram, where they have been held for up to six years, had the right to challenge the basis of their detention in US courts.
GLOBAL CLIMATE CRISIS FACTS
BY: MANFRED ZYSK, M.E.
A Global Climate Crisis is when weather and climate conditions cause long-term changes to our environment, worldwide droughts, flooding, food supply shortages, and when these climate changes have an effect on the overall life for every person on this planet, and effect future generations. NY Times 9/13/2009. Mexico is enduring its worst drought in six decades. Crops are drying up in the fields and water is being rationed in the capitol. 40% of the farmland has been affected by the drought per government inspectors. Guatemala declared "a state of calamity" last week because the drought has caused large crop damages.
Health Care Deceit
Paul Craig Roberts
The current health care "debate" shows how far gone representative government is in the United States. Members of Congress represent the powerful interest groups that fill their campaign coffers, not the people who vote for them.
The health care bill is not about health care. It is about protecting and increasing the profits of the insurance companies. The main feature of the health care bill is the "individual mandate," which requires everyone in America to buy health insurance. Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont), a recipient of millions in contributions over his career from the insurance industry, proposes to impose up to a $3,800 fine on Americans who fail to purchase health insurance.
The determination of "our" elected representatives to serve the insurance industry is so compelling that Congress is incapable of recognizing the absurdity of these proposals.
How Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal Endangers Us All
by Jeff Gates
On September 24th, U.S. President Barack Obama will preside over a U.N. Security Council session on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. In March 2010, Moscow will host a Global Nuclear Summit that the U.S. has agreed to attend.
The next six months could prove hopeful or harmful—depending on the impact on Israel’s nuclear arsenal. With U.S. backing, Tel Aviv has thus far avoided compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—joining North Korea, India and Pakistan.
President John F. Kennedy tried to stop Israel from starting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In a June 1963 letter to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, he insisted on proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Israel was not developing nuclear weapons at its Dimona reactor facility. Though his letter was cabled to the U.S. embassy, Ben-Gurion resigned (citing undisclosed personal reasons) before the message could be physically delivered.
A message to Christians who oppose Public Health Care, from a fellow Christian: Read more Bible, Watch less Fox News
by drfrogsplat
I keep seeing headlines and articles that seem to put Christians, Republicans and Public-Healthcare-Opposers all in one group together, which is either totally unfair and biased, or suggests that there are a lot of Christians who are actually opposed to a public health care system... I find this a little worrying and confusing, and so write this not as evangelism to non-Christians (you guys can stop reading now...), but as evangelism to conservative Christians, who I ask to turn off Fox News and pick up their bible and see what you find in there about the matter...
AMERICA'S JOBLESS RECOVERY DESTINED TO FAIL / THE COMING CRASH
Allen L Roland
America's illusionary economic recovery is being fueled by bailouts and wishful thinking while Wall Street insiders frantically sell. The reality is that Main Street is broke, jobless, deep in debt and will not spend and inflate the debt bubble that just burst ~ which leaves the stock market over priced and vulnerable for a major correction:
Last week, U.S. home foreclosures hit new all-time record highs and are still rising. Personal bankruptcies are skyrocketing ~ even among the rich. Unemployment is still soaring. Consumer borrowing is contracting dramatically and the commercial real estate market is rapidly deteriorating.
Graham Summers nails our present precarious economic condition in his September first article, Crooks, Computers, and the Coming Crash, and states the obvious by calling the present stock market rally " a liquidity rally driven by non-thinking computer programs, not a rally based on fundamentals."
Corporate Corruption Killing America
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Anyone smart and strong enough to fight delusional thinking and who pays attention to current events should clearly see that corporate corruption of the US political system is so pervasive and powerful that there will be no genuine reform of both the health care and financial sectors.
I always believed that president Obama was just a different color corrupt politician who was subservient to the two-party plutocracy. His so-called reform efforts and ludicrous federal deficit spending should disappoint all his non-delusional supporters. For health reform the only genuine and sensible reform legislation should have been not much more than a single sentence mandating that every American has a right to full Medicare coverage. Period. End of story. True reform. True universal health insurance.
Teabagging Michelle Malkin
Matt Taibbi
"It pains me to say this as an American, but we are the only people on earth dumb enough to use a nationwide campaign of “teabag parties” as a form of mass protest, in the middle of a real economic crisis. What’s next? The Great Dirty Sanchez-In of 2010? A Million Man Felch?" -Matt Taibbi
"Many protesters expressed a sense that basic American freedoms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are threatened by new Washington policies seen by many as more socialistic than capitalistic. The proposed taxpayer bailout of homeowners who may have inflated their earnings in order to secure mortgages is one example, says Jeff Crawford, a protester from Dacula, Ga.
“The first year after the Mayflower arrived, the colonists tried a communal method of storing and sharing food and it failed miserably,” says Mr. Crawford. “Why are things any different now?”
Eighteenth-century symbolism was rife at the Atlanta event as speakers drew comparisons with the Boston patriots who dumped the King’s tea in Boston Harbor to protest taxation without representation, an act that began the American Revolution and the founding of the United States." via Michelle Malkin » A Tax Day Tea Party cheat sheet: How it all started.
I have to say, I’m really enjoying this whole teabag thing. It’s really inspiring some excellent daydreaming. For one thing, it’s brought together the words teabag and Michelle Malkin for me in a very powerful, thrilling sort of way. Not that I haven’t ever put those two concepts together before, but this is the first time it’s happened while in the process of reading her actual columns.
<< 1 ... 1153 1154 1155 1156 1157 1158 1159 1160 1161 1162 1163 ... 1326 >>
