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Obama’s Policy on Civil Liberties: Bush Lite?
Ivan Eland
Barack Obama entered the presidency as one of the most rhetorically pro-civil liberties politicians in recent memory. And shortly after taking office, he drew applause from friends of liberty for promulgating executive orders closing Guantanamo and CIA secret prisons, ending CIA torture, suspending kangaroo proceedings at military tribunals, and pledging more openness than the secretive Bush administration. Unfortunately, instead of prosecuting Bush administration officials, including George W. Bush, for violating criminal statutes against torture, illegal wiretapping of Americans, and other misdeeds—thus avoiding the bad precedent of giving a president a free pass on illegal acts—Obama appears ready to vindicate the prior administration’s anti-terrorism program by adopting Bush Lite.
The Battle for Bil'in
eileen fleming
[Bil'in, Feb. 23, 2009] For four years, the beleaguered agricultural village of Bil'in in the West Bank has resisted the route of Israel's Wall; which in Bil'in is composed of miles of electrified-barbed wire fencing that denies the landowners access to their legally owned land.
The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that The Fence must be moved and the stolen land restored to the Bil'in villagers; but civil and military authorities have not complied and last week, night time raids by Israel escalated.
Foes of Mountaintop Removal Have no Ally in the White House The Myth of Clean Coal
Joshua Frank
Barack Obama seems to be following a dirty legacy when it comes to his official energy policy, a policy that has left Appalachia with fewer mountaintops every year.
The price of oil per barrel fluctuated dramatically in the past year, and the U.S.'s dependency on foreign crude has become less stable as tensions in the Middle East have escalated. Over his long campaign, Obama laid out his strategy on how to deal with the crisis, which has been exacerbated by the war in Iraq and the potential confrontation with Iran, not to mention the oil speculator's dubious role in the money game. But sadly Obama has been echoing old solutions to our new 21st century environmental troubles. Mainly, where is our energy going to come from if oil supplies dwindle or prices skyrocket again? And how will this all affect the dire reality of climate change?
How to Conduct the Struggle: The Next Steps
Eric Sommer
Social action begins with concerns, which may include anger or outrage at injustice. But effective strategy must also take account of the power, positions, and possibilities of the various social forces and social classes involved. A number of such factors must be considered when mobilizing around the interests of ordinary people during the emerging world ecnomic crisis.
First, we need to note that the share of national profits enjoyed by the financial sector in the U.S. rose from 6 percent in 1980 to 40 percent in 2008. In short, the economic power and weight of this sector has expanded astronomically in the past few decades. Almost half of all profits last year went to those who produced no goods or services useful to human beings, other than the manipulation of money and credit.
War Criminals, Including Their Lawyers, Must Be Prosecuted
Marjorie Cohn
Since he took office, President Obama has instituted many changes that break with the policies of the Bush administration. The new president has ordered that no government agency will be allowed to torture, that the U.S. prison at Guantánamo will be shuttered, and that the CIA's secret black sites will be closed down. But Obama is non-committal when asked whether he will seek investigation and prosecution of Bush officials who broke the law. "My view is also that nobody's above the law and, if there are clear instances of wrongdoing, that people should be prosecuted just like any ordinary citizen," Obama said. "But," he added, "generally speaking, I'm more interested in looking forward than I am in looking backwards." Obama fears that holding Team Bush to account will risk alienating Republicans whom he still seeks to win over.
A New Afghanistan Nightmare
Ramzy Baroud
When US envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke met with Afghanistan’s ‘democratically’ installed President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on February 14, he may have just learned of the historic significance of the following day. February 15 commemorates the end of the bloody Russian campaign against Afghanistan (August 1978-February 1989).
But it is unlikely that Holbrooke will absorb the magnitude of that historic lesson. Both he and the new US President Barack Obama are convinced that the missing component for winning the war in Afghanistan is a greater commitment, as in doubling the troops, increasing military spending, and, by way of winning hearts and minds, investing more in developing the country. That combination, the US administration believes, will eventually sway Afghans from supporting the Taliban, tribal militias, Pashtun nationalists and other groups. The latter is waging a guerilla struggle in various parts of the country, mostly in the south, to oust Karzai’s government and foreign occupation forces. While Kabul was considered an “oasis of calm” – by Jonathan Steele’s account – during the Soviet rule, it’s nowhere close to that depiction under the rule of the US and its NATO allies, who had plenty of time, eight long years, to assert their control, but failed.
US Judges involved in human trafficking
by chycho
Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and Michael T. Conahan
At this point in my life I am against the death penalty, mainly because I know the system is corrupt, however I have been a supporter of the death penalty in the past and may become one in the future, so I have a question for those who support the death penalty in the United States of America, or anywhere else for that matter. Would you execute the members of a criminal syndicate responsible for child trafficking?
Specific Example
On Thursday, 12 February 2009, “judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.”
Bailouts, Stimulus Packages or Redistribution of Assets?, Part 2 by Deanna Spingola
Deanna Spingola
Unconstrained, the bankers have financed all of the profit-producing, declared and undeclared wars. The U.S. government alleged that the Second World War was caused by obstacles to free trade, exacerbated by the financial events of 1929 manifested in Nazi fascism and responsible for the tensions that led to the Second World War. As a consequence of their questionable theory, the conditions of receiving American economic aid included the implementation of a free trade policy. Free trade policies, like central banks, only assist the bankers and the corporations who exploit cheap labor in third world countries.
World War II ended the depression. There was plenty of money. People had jobs. Women were encouraged to work – more money to service the interest payments to the Federal Reserve. Shuffling women into the workplace was really never about equal rights and opportunities, despite the rhetoric. Bankers serve on corporate boards and control corporate decisions. They depress or increase corporate stock by leveraging loans. When stock prices are depressed, bankers' agents purchase large blocks of the company's stock. The bank may then approve a multi-million dollar loan to the company which increases the stock which can be sold at a profit. Billions are accrued, enabling the purchase of additional stock. The Federal Reserve Board manipulates the market by increasing or decreasing their discount rates. Stocks soar or crash at their whim, sustained by economic experts who manipulate public opinion.
Bailouts, Stimulus Packages or Redistribution of Assets?, Part 1 by Deanna Spingola
Deanna Spingola
On February 17, 1950, James Paul Warburg appeared before the U.S. Senate and declared: “We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether world government will be achieved by conquest or consent.” To establish a world government, it is necessary to incrementally eradicate the constitution, bring the U.S. to her knees economically, and shackle the taxpayers to perpetual debt through bailouts and stimulus packages funded by printing billions of dollars of interest and debt-bearing Federal Reserve Notes to drastically devalue the currency in circulation thus impoverishing the taxpayers. The only benefactors are the extant banks, certain corporations and the individuals who concocted the financial disaster.
"Posthuman Resources": Why Do We Hate Humans So Much?
ddjango
There is no phrase in biz lingo more insidious, odious, and degrading than "human resources". Every company has a department with that title (or outsources its functions). Such departments used to be called "Personnel" or "Employment". Pretty neutral and innocuous, I think. Then, I guess, somebody came up with the bright idea that putting "human" in the title modernized the concept and/or made it more, well . . . "humane". Just the opposite, I'm afraid. It's that concept of "resource" that really singes my socks . . .
I was born in California in the late 40s. Pretty early on it was just my dad (a school teacher) and myself. We lived and I grew up in a series of communities, some of them in the northern rural part of the state and others that were in Sacramento, Stockton, San Francisco, and Eureka. These communities were called "neighborhoods" and our friends were, well, "friends".
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