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Of Resistance and Fighting for the First Amendment
By Jason Miller - 9/17/10
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances……
Contemplating the words of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, that imperfect yet powerful piece of parchment that ostensibly bestows all humans in the US with a set of basic rights enshrined and protected by the legal system, demands that we ask ourselves if we are going to continue apathetically allowing corporations and plutocrats to wrest those rights from us. Will we continue to stand idly by as C. Wright Mills’ “Power Elite” reduces us to over-consumptive, indentured automatons, with no voice and little choice but to devote our lives to the hollow, meaningless pursuits of materialism, the bread and circuses they provide, and narcissistic “fulfillment” via the wage and debt slavery that enables the perpetuation of their obscene gluttony and condemns our souls to pecuniary bondage?
BASEL III: TIGHTENING THE NOOSE ON CREDIT
By Ellen Brown, September 16th, 2010
The stock market shot up on September 13, after new banking regulations were announced called Basel III. Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief. The megabanks, propped up by generous taxpayer bailouts, would have no trouble meeting the new capital requirements, which were lower than expected and would not be fully implemented until 2019. Only the local commercial banks, the ones already struggling to meet capital requirements, would be seriously challenged by the new rules. Unfortunately, these are the banks that make most of the loans to local businesses, which do most of the hiring and producing in the real economy. The Basel III capital requirements were ostensibly designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 banking collapse, but the new rules fail to address its real cause.
Why China Owns Us
By Len Hart, The Existentialist CowboyThe U.S. used to make things and export them. Some said that the U.S. fed the world from a mid-western 'bread-basket'. At the same time, the U.S. had a viable labor movement which seems to have simply withered away with the decline of American labor and productivity. After all, a nation cannot limp along on one leg. It was the Reagan regime which cut off the labor leg. Amputated, we have not gone far but backward, at best, in circles.
That the U.S. trails the world is proven by the CIA's own 'World Fact Book' which lists the U.S. on bottom with the World's Largest Negative Current Account Balance. Our benefactor/owner, China, is on top with the World's Largest Positive Current Account Balance. Simply that is because the China makes things and thus employs its population. China sells those things to us (the U.S.) but only because it props up the U.S. dollar in order to get it back via sales. It's a scheme that will eventually collapse.
Virginia to execute accessory to crime while triggermen got life sentences
Mary Shaw
On Thursday evening, September 23, the Commonwealth of Virginia is scheduled to execute Teresa Lewis for the 2002 murders of her husband and stepson.
Some in the media are hyping the execution because Lewis will be the first woman to be executed in Virginia in nearly a century. Being a feminist, I don't think a woman deserves any different treatment than a man would get for committing the same crime. I just oppose the execution altogether.
Aside from my categorical opposition to the death penalty, here are some reasons why I find the Lewis case particularly disturbing:
First of all, she didn't pull the trigger. She was involved in the plot, but the actual killings were committed by her co-defendants, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller. But Lewis was given a death sentence while the triggermen, Shallenberger and Fuller, got life in prison!
Growing Poverty in America
by Stephen Lendman
The newly released US Census report on "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009" way understates a growing problem as do most other government data. Unemployment for one, the Labor Department's headlined (U-3) 9.6% masks the true 22% based on 1980 calculations.
With America in economic crisis, the new Census report portends much worse ahead under a president and Congress doing little to address it, the Brookings Institution Isabel Sawhill expecting the problem to "get much worse long before it gets better." More on the new data below. First, some other confirmations of economic trouble.
The Federal Reserve's September-released Flow of Funds report shows household Q 2 2010 net worth plunged $1.5 trillion because of a $0.9 trillion drop in corporate equities and a $0.7 reduction in pension fund holdings. Overall, total household financial assets declined by $1.7 trillion to $43.7 trillion, a trend expected to continue for some time.
On September 15, RealtyTrac reported another disturbing one, saying:
"The number of homes taken back by lenders hit a new record high last month:" 95,364 foreclosures, about 2% higher than the previous May 2010 peak. According to its CEO, James J. Saccacio:
The Disguised Debate Concerning a Mosque
By Dan Lieberman
The debate on a specific Islamic Center has revealed a subtle effort to position the Muslim community to a status similar to that of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, as dhimma, giving it right of residence in return for taxes, and limiting its right of expression as a minority subjected to the will of the majority. This effort is driven by an American psyche nurtured from fear of a growing force which it has been taught to contend and by a Christian leadership, which suspects loss of domination and of being forced to share economic and social control with the world’s second largest and fastest growing religion. The problem with the Islamic center near ‘ground zero’ is two fold: The subdued presence of functioning Islam has become a major presence, and the planned mosque has preempted Christian worship presence close to the 9/11 site. The St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, destroyed in the 9/11 attack, has not been rebuilt and no church has been planned close to the new World Trade Center.
ON JEWISH LOYALTY
Gilad Atzmon
Recognizing Israel as uniquely Jewish is one of the key demands made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest talks with the Palestinians. However, Foreign Minister Lieberman took it one step further. He demands all Israelis swear an oath of loyalty to the Jewish state. Liebermann’s campaign slogan is "no loyalty, no citizenship."
"We can't continue to ignore issues like that of Hanin Zuabi, who identifies completely with the other side," Said Lieberman on Sunday. He was referring to an Israeli Arab member of Knesset who was stripped of her parliamentary privileges after sailing aboard the heroic Mavi Marmara, and being witness to the Israeli massacre in high seas.
So here we are : Israel is basically a Western liberal ‘multi cultural’ society where all different ethnicities and minorities are demanded to swear loyalty to the ultimate form of chauvinist Jewish tribal practice.
Immigration, A Perennial Issue Of Concern In The U.S.
By Brian McAfee
The issue of immigration was brought to the forefront recently by Arizona's discriminatory immigration law SB 1070, which would require police and other public officials to ask all or any Latino looking people to show their ID's. This demonstrates an attitude oriented towards criminalizing immigrants in general and a hostile outlook towards Hispanics in particular. The anti-immigrant attitude was also evident in Utah a few months ago when a list was published and widely distributed with the names and personal information of 1,300 supposedly illegal immigrants concerning which some were actually born in the U.S., but happened to have Hispanic looking names. The people that created the list signed it 'anonymous', i.e.- cowards.
At the same time, many in the right wing of America are targeting the 14th Amendment, which states 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction there of, are citizens of the United States and of the states where in they reside.' They (the right) have dubbed them 'anchor babies' and, in effect, wish to criminalize babies.
Save American Democracy, or What’s Left of It
By Kevin Zeese
In the First Election After Citizens United, Voters Need to Beware and Organized to Combat Massive Power of Concentrated Corporations
This is the first election after the Citizens United decision which gave corporations complete freedom to spend as much money as they want to influence the outcome of elections.
Citizens beware. Citizens get active. Citizens get organized. Our fragile democracy is at grave risk.
We’ve seen in Obama’s time and office (and before) how corporations dominate Washington, DC. The health care “reform” turned out to be a re-enforcement of the insurance company dominated health care industry. And finance reform had to get the approval of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve before moving forward. Corporate welfare to the weapons industry, coal, nuclear and oil have continued or even grown under Obama. The housing crisis which should have ended with the bail out of Wall Street is getting worse with record foreclosures last month. But that is not enough for the oligarchs who control government through concentrated corporate power. They want more and are using massive spending on elections to get it.
Israel Denies Gazans Access to Their Own Land and Waters
by Stephen Lendman
Throughout 43 years of occupation, Israel has waged war on Palestinians' human rights and civil liberties, a new UN report providing more evidence that keeps mounting exponentially, adding clarity about an out-of-control rogue state operating lawlessly.
On August 10, Haaretz writer Akiva Eldar cited it in an article headlined, "UN report: IDF barring Gazans' access to farms, fishing zones," saying:
"Over the last 10 years, the (IDF has) increasingly restricted Palestinian access to farmland on the Gazan side of the Israeli-Gaza border as well as (offshore waters) along the Gaza beach, a United Nations report (just) revealed."
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