Mary Shaw

The Obama administration continues trying to block the release of some additional photos of detainee abuse. The excuse? They say exposing the photos could incite anti-American violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

They seem to forget that we're already seeing anti-American violence in those countries. And they seem to forget why.

They seem to ignore how much this move is reminiscent of the Bush administration's culture of secrecy. If it's not openly acknowledged, then it doesn't exist. "We do not torture," Bush would tell us, as if saying the words would make it so. But the world knew better. The terrorists knew better. As they do now.

And that, not so ironically, has contributed to the ongoing anti-American violence in the world. Now, despite Obama's attempts at containing the photos, descriptions of what they depict are leaking into the media.

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Stuart Littlewood

Corruption runs far deeper than fiddling MPs’ expenses…

UK politicians are currently reeling from a public lashing for fiddling their expenses big-time. Such is their arrogance that many, when confronted with their crimes, don't see that they have done anything wrong.

The guilty ones who step down will be further enriched with a lavish re-settlement allowance and a big pension pot.

To appease voters’ anger Parliament and Government are now promising anti-sleaze reforms. They are calling on the impressive-sounding Committee on Standards in Public Life to investigate and make recommendations. Conservative leader David Cameron, who has expectations of becoming the next British prime minister, talks of purging his party of its cheats and racketeers.

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By Ramzy Baroud

“We've accomplished quite a few things, and I think the most important one is to cement the principle that the path to peace is through negotiations and not through violence.”

These were the ‘encouraging’ words modestly uttered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a joint press conference with the US president. The President was then Bill Clinton, and the date was October 2, 1996.

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by Stephen Lendman

Wall Street's mantra is that markets move randomly and reflect the collective wisdom of investors. The truth is quite opposite. The government's visible hand and insiders control markets and manipulate them up or down for profit - all of them, including stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies.

It's financial fraud or what former high-level Wall Street insider and former Assistant HUD Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts calls "pump and dump," defined as "artificially inflating the price of a stock or other security through promotion, in order to sell at the inflated price," then profit more on the downside by short-selling. "This practice is illegal under securities law, yet it is particularly common," and in today's volatile markets likely ongoing daily.

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Len Hart

Among several sticky tar babies Bush left Obama the worst are: Guantanamo, torture, capital war crimes! The clock is ticking for Obama. The time for 'good faith' is running out! Unless Obama moves to close Guantanamo now and end the practice of torture while bringing war crimes charges against Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney et al., he risks being so charged himself!

Preventive detention is the classic defining characteristic of a military dictatorship. Because dictatorial regimes rely on fear rather than consensus, their priority is self-preservation rather than improving their people's lives. They worry obsessively over the one thing they can't control, what Orwell called "thoughtcrime"--contempt for rulers that might someday translate to direct action.Locking up people who haven't done anything wrong is worse than un-American and a violent attack on the most basic principles of Western jurisprudence. It is contrary to the most essential notion of human decency. That anyone has ever been subjected to "preventive detention" is an outrage.--Ted Rall, Resign Now

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Jennifer Carnig

The male students were searched by Principal
Noel Patterson as a state trooper watched.

May 28, 2009 – The New York Civil Liberties Union has called on the Red Creek Central School District in upstate New York to publicly apologize to high school students subjected to illegal, humiliating and invasive searches by state police and school officials.

In a letter to Superintendent David Sholes, the NYCLU also urged the district to take steps to prevent invasive searches and protect students’ rights. Students subjected to the April 9 searches were passengers on a school bus parked outside of Red Creek High School. Every student was pulled off the bus and searched.

“This was one of the most humiliating moments of my life,” said 18-year-old graduating senior Stephanie Schultz, who is attending college in the fall. “My school taught me about the Constitution and about my rights, and then pushed them both aside and made me feel like my rights didn’t matter.”

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eileen fleming

Mairead Maguire was shot by Israeli forces during a nonviolent demonstration in Bil'in in 2007, but it was USA Homeland Security who judged her a criminal in May 2009. After hosting and attending the Nobel Womens' Conference in Guatemala, to discuss, 'Redefining Democracy, Human Rights and Peace' the Nobel Peace laureate was detained for two hours, questioned, fingerprinted and photographed by Homeland Security at Houston Airport causing her to miss her flight home after the three day conference which was attended by over 150 feminist activists.

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Mary Shaw

An article in Thursday's New York Times reveals that some pro-choice groups are concerned that "Judge Sotomayor may not be a reliable vote to uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision."

The article quotes NARAL president Nancy Keenan as calling for the Senate to press the issue during the confirmation hearings:

"Discussion about Roe v. Wade will -- and must -- be part of this nomination process. As you know, choice hangs in the balance on the Supreme Court as the last two major choice-related cases were decided by a 5-to-4 margin."

This is an important issue, and NARAL's concern should not be too readily dismissed. But it's worth taking some time to research the court cases behind their concern.

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Rodrigue Tremblay

“I almost went down on my knees to beg [President] Herbert Hoover to veto the asinine Hawley-Smoot Tariff.”...“That Act intensified nationalism all over the world.” - Thomas Lamont, banker and economic adviser, June 1930

"Now is a time where we have to be very careful about any signals of protectionism." - President Barack Obama, February 19, 2009

“From the purely economic point of view nothing speaks against free trade and everything against protectionism.” - Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Austrian economist

When the economy is booming, foreign borrowings and imports of goods and services from other countries are most welcome. They allow for more spending without inflation and they raise living standards. It is a version of having your cake and eating it too. In an economic downturn, however, the political reflex of populist politicians is to turn protectionist and to become economic isolationists by raising trade barriers. In such an environment, foreign competition becomes a convenient scapegoat for the crisis, even though the causes of such crisis are most often purely domestic in nature.

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Rajesh Makwana

Despite the scientific consensus on the urgent need to address the causes of climate change, a stubborn attachment to economic growth by policymakers threatens to disrupt any effective response to the growing environmental crisis. Interim updates in the run up to December’s major Climate Conference in Copenhagen revealed that emissions and temperatures are accelerating more rapidly than expected - leading many to ask why governments and political leaders are doing so little to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change.

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