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The nerve of these guys! Karzai 'wins' anyway
William Bowles
Have you ever seen anything more outrageous? Talk about double standards! For weeks the BBC bombarded us with outrage concerning the elections in Iran with wall-to-wall coverage of the protests and predicting some other kind of ‘colour’ revolution, a green one this time (what will USAID, NDI, Freedom House, George Soros et al do, when they run out of colours?).[1]
“Millions of Iranians simply did not believe the result. The main demand of the protesters has been an annulment of the result and an election re-run.” — ‘Q&A: Iran election aftermath’, BBC News, 22 June, 2009.
Compare the BBC’s squeals of outrage over the Iranian elections with how the BBC ‘delicately’ deals with the Afghan elections. No wall-to-wall coverage of Afghan outrage over a stolen election. Instead,
“There was no further reference to fraud. It was pointed out that the figures were more or less in line with the opinion polls - President Karzai, the candidate of the majority Pashtun people, in the high 40s and Dr Abdullah in the low 30s.” — ‘Karzai back in favour - conditionally’, BBC News, 2 November, 2009.
The Great Foreclosure Robbery Of The 21st Century
By Robert Singer
The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that there have now been 1,000,000 foreclosures filed so far in 2009 and the group expects the foreclosure number to double before the end of the year.
U.S. Home Vacancies Hit 18.7 Million on Bank Seizures (Update2) [1]
Thanks to our controlled and uncontrolled media, we know when you take the derivative of the foreclosure crisis you get those greedy predatory lenders at AIG, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America plotting to steal our tacky (I mean tract-y) houses.
Conventional wisdumb and the media always blame the usual suspects and FOX News wraps it up: "It's the age-old Wall Street vs. Main Street smackdown again"
Clinton tells Abbas: either you budge to Israel, or else
Khalid Amayreh
The latest visit by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to Occupied Palestine seems to have effectively terminated whatever hopes the Palestinians and other Arabs may have pinned on the Obama administration to adopt an evenhanded approach toward the Arab-Israeli conflict.
In his public policy discourse toward the Muslim world, which culminated in his Cairo speech on 4 June, President Obama gave a certain impression that his administration would resist Israeli insolence and arrogance of power and introduce a semblance of fairness into its policy toward the Palestinian issue.
Obama also pledged to get Israel to freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a precondition for resuming stalled peace talks between the apartheid Israeli regime and the weak Palestinian Authority (PA).
Now, it is becoming increasingly clear that all Obama’s assertions and promises were mostly disingenuous rhetoric that is meant for public relations consumption.
Bonaparte Blair & Co
by Gilad Atzmon
Gordon Brown urged European Socialist leaders last week to appoint Tony Blair as the European President. “Get real”, he told them, “This is a unique opportunity to get a strong progressive politician to be the president.”
Brown is obviously correct, nothing could be more refreshing, innovative ‘real’ and ‘progressive’ than assigning the job to a man who has more blood on his hands than any other person in Europe. It may also be right to argue that there is just one living person on this planet with more blood on his hands than Blair. That man dwells in Texas, his name is George and actually unlike our Bonaparte figure, he keeps relatively quiet. Unlike George, our Boney is craving for recognition, he cannot live without a crown or an official title. Someone should remind Boney that he already made it into history, he can really take a break. With more than one million fatalities in Iraq, he is not far behind Hitler and Stalin.
Speech of Malalai Joya: No nation can liberate another
Malalai Joya
The worst massacre in Afghanistan from September 11 to now happened during the presidency of Obama.
Malalai Joya is known around the world as a courageous opponent of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, the corrupt regime presided over by President Hamid Karzai--and the Taliban and other conservative Islamist forces battling U.S. and Afghan government troops.
An uncompromising fighter for women's rights, Joya was elected to parliament in 2005, where she denounced the presence of representatives who she called "warlords" and "war criminals." In 2007, she was suspended on the grounds that she had "insulted" fellow members. An international solidarity campaign has rallied support for her.
Joya has been the target of assassination attempts and must travel in Afghanistan with armed bodyguards, wearing a burqa as a disguise. She has written a new book about her life, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice.
As the first stop on a speaking tour of the U.S., Malalai Joya was the featured speaker on a panel discussion at the Northeast Socialist Conference in New York City on October 23. Introducing her were several American opponents of the U.S. war on Afghanistan, including Iraq Veterans Against the War member Mathis Chiroux. Here, we print edited excerpts from Joya's speech.
Wall Street money rains on Schumer
Victoria McGrane & Lisa Lerer
Wall Street has showered nearly $11 million on the Senate since the beginning of the year, and more than 15 percent of it has gone to a single senator: Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York.
Schumer’s $1.65 million take from the financial services industry is nearly twice that of any other senator's — and more than five times what the industry gave to any single Republican senator.
While the industry has scaled back its political spending in the wake of last year’s economic collapse, data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that it’s still investing heavily in the Senate, where it’s likely to have its best shot at stopping — or at least shaping — the crackdown on Wall Street that President Barack Obama has proposed.
And it’s clearly looking to Democrats to do it. ―Of the $10.6 million the industry has given to sitting senators this year, more than $7.7 million has gone to Democrats. Schumer got his $1.65 million; his New York colleague Kirsten Gillibrand took in $886,000; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada received $814,000; Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut scored $603,000; Colorado freshman Michael Bennet got $401,000; and Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas— who will have a big say on the derivatives portion of regulatory reform — got $336,000.
House Resolution Designates Venezuela a State Sponsor of Terrorism
by Stephen Lendman
At a time of growing US poverty, hunger, homelessness, and despair, imperial wars without end, and the Obama administration even worse than its predecessor, Venezuela:
-- is a model participatory democracy;
-- holds free, fair and open elections;
-- respects the rule of law, civil liberties, and human rights;
-- doesn't intimidate its neighbors;
-- uses its resources responsibly for the people;
-- provides essential social services for the needy;
-- champions judicial fairness and the rule of law;
-- has a model free and open media;
How Foreign Lobbies and Elites 'Bought' the US
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
FASCISM is a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology defined by a corporatist economic ideology enforced by a dictatorial regime which, in turn, is supported by a symbiotic business/corporate community.
In pre-war Germany, Hitler held a meeting with his corporate backers. He cut them all a 'deal' and, in turn, was rewarded with their enduring support and they by his LUCRATIVE DEFENSE CONTRACTS. It was I.G. Farben which manufactured Zyklon 'B' used to murder Jews, gypsies and non-Nazis in concentrations camps.
Hamas: don't allow sham elections to take place
By Khalid Amayreh in Ramallah
Anyone listening to Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas these days would think the man is a paragon of democracy and liberty. Abbas, who has remained at the helm of the PA despite the expiration of his term in office, has been exhorting Palestinians to prepare for "presidential and legislative elections" which he called a "constitutional imperative."
However, a deeper look into Abbas's behaviors at home shows that the PA Chairman is not really interested in holding true, free and honest elections. After all, actions speak louder than words. Today, Abbas is presiding over a ruthless despotic regime where the level of repression is unprecedented since the start of the Israeli Occupation in 1967.
CONGRESS'S LATEST DISGRACE - Religionists vs. UN Gaza report
Re-reported, edited by Carolyn Bennett
Ros-Lehtinen, Berman, Burton, Ackerman - time to rein in this team of four - now, or November 2010
The Goldstone report concluded that, "while the Israeli Government sought to portray its operations as a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self-defense, the Israeli plan had been directed, at least in part, at the people of Gaza as a whole." The report pointed to the "treatment of many civilians (detained or killed while trying to surrender) as one manifestation that effective rules of engagement, standard operating procedures, instructions to the troops on the ground" had created "an environment in which regard for civilian lives and basic human dignity had been replaced with a disregard for basic international humanitarian law."
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