Ian Fletcher

There is an article in the Huffington Post today which, before apparently being retitled, asserted in its headline that U.S. manufacturing is now "red hot," and whose text quotes a financial analyst (apparently approvingly) who asserts that it is.

This is based on a report from the respected Institute for Supply-Chain Management which reports that manufacturing output in the U.S. has expanded for 19 months straight.

Sounds like things are looking up, no?

Well, no.

Full story »

Curt Day

In fact, America needs more than 1 N.A.P. But will we take it?

What kind of N.A.P. are we talking about? We are talking about National Austerity Protests. The Wisconsin protests, as valid and inspiring as they are, are shortsighted and do not address the causes of the state's deficit problems. By not addressing the main causes, winning to maintain collective bargaining rights alone shallow. That is not because collective bargaining rights are trivial, it is because the right to such bargaining becomes moot when future state shortfalls demand that the workers take further cuts in order to remain "fiscally responsible."

To understand the conflict that is currently happening in Wisconsin, we need Peabody's and Sherman's Wayback machine. Not so way back in 2005, Noam Chomsky identified one of the main causes of today's state deficits as is occurring in Wisconsin. The deficits are a partially a result of Bush's policies that focused on handing over more and more money to his rich friends regardless of the long range costs. Chomsky mentioned some of the ways by which this was done including refusing to sign and follow the Kyoto Protocol, pushing for drilling in the Arctic reserve, using the IMF to rescue risky foreign loans made to banks, and globalization. [1] The last in this list is misnamed because it only applied to the rich.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

When imperial America wants war, peace advocates are shut out by official rhetoric and hawkish media reports supporting militarism, not diplomatic efforts to achieve peace. Those for it aren't heard. Hugo Chavez's government is one. On February 28, Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Nicolas Maduro, warned against belligerence saying:

"We would be against any military intervention against the Arabic people of Libya, and I'm sure that all peoples of the world would support a struggle against any interventionism that some powerful countries would commit against it....Arabic people who are in a process of rebellion, seeking a better destiny, (can) find their way to peace. (Venezuelans understand) very difficult times, (but have) gone about finding our ways to independence, democracy, and freedom, which in our case" is Bolarivarianism.

Full story »

Peter Chamberlin

Duane R. Clarridge

If the FBI is using Duane Clarridge’s spy network in Afghanistan and Pakistan to investigate the murder of ten aid workers which the Taliban publicly labels as CIA spies, is it a cover-up, or another “false flag” operation? Clarridge recently renamed his network the “Eclipse Group,” because it is intended to be just that, an eclipse that blocks-out our memories of what his boys have been up to along the Durand Line. Just last year, his group’s activities were allegedly suspended by the Pentagon.

FBI utilising private spy network’s skills to investigate Afghan aid workers’ deaths

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly taking the help of a private spy network operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan to investigate the killing of 10 medical aid workers in northern Afghanistan.

Full story »

Ian Fletcher

It is sometimes argued that although free trade has some victims, its benefits exceed its costs, so it is possible for its winners to compensate its losers out of their gains, everyone thereby coming out ahead in the end.

This is, in fact, the usual fallback position of mainstream economists once they admit that free trade has drawbacks. (They don't usually admit to civilians there are drawbacks, but press them even moderately hard and they'll usually 'fess up.)

Full story »

Gilad Atzmon

Israeli Ynet reports today that IDF Spokesperson assumed false name to avoid arrest for 'war crimes' in Britain.

In an interview with the British magazine Defense News, IDF Spokesperson Avi Benayahu revealed he had recently flown to Britain using a pseudonym so as to avoid getting arrested and investigated for war crimes.

When asked about the fact that IDF officers are threatened with mass protests and arrest warrants even in friendly countries like Britain, Benayahu replied: "It's true. In my last visit to London, I had to assume a false name because well-funded anti-Israel activists are exploiting universal jurisdiction powers to wage law fare against us."

Full story »

GILAD ATZMON

Last Weekend the British press was very quick to tag John Galliano, one of the world’s leading fashion designers and Christian Dior’s chief designer, as a vile ‘anti Semite’.

The British and American press reported that, in a Parisian bar, Galliano told a woman, whom he thought to be Jewish, that he ‘loves Hitler’ and that her parents should have been ‘gassed’. When the woman asked him ‘where are you from?’ Galliano replied: ‘Your ****hole’. I guess that Galliano referred to one of the woman’s orifices (probably the rectum, though I am not sure) rather than any Jewish sacred location around the world. The press also reported that Galliano unleashed some anti-Asian hate language towards a man in the bar, apparently the woman’s boyfriend.

I think that the conclusion is obvious. Galliano is not an ‘anti Semite’, he probably hates everyone equally at least as much as he loves himself. In case someone fails to see it, Galliano is actually a typical Zionist. This is what Zionists are, they hate everyone equally, as much as they love themselves. They repel gentiles, the Germans, the Russians, the Poles, the Arabs the Muslims, The Palestinians, the Christians. You name it, they hate it. But at the same time they really love themselves. Galliano is an ordinary bigot, this is probably why the Zionists hate him so much. He reminds them of themselves.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

He's lived in exile since US marines forcefully ousted him at gunpoint on February 29, 2004. Efforts to help him return followed, what he's wanted for eight years today, the anniversary of his abduction.

On February 25, San Francisco's Bay View and other publications ran attorney Walter Riley's article titled, "Prominent anti-apartheid movement veterans call on South African government to assist Aristide in returning to Haiti now," saying:

Noted figures wrote "South African President Jacob Zuma an open letter 'in hopes that (he'll) assist' former (President) Aristide and his family (return) to Haiti 'as soon as possible.' " Among them were:

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

America's media, Britain's state-controlled BBC, other Western sources, and Al Jazeera are spreading unverified or false reports on Libya's uprising.

On February 25, writer Madhi Darius Nazemroaya, a Middle East/Central Asian specialist, based on reliable in-country contacts, headlined an important article, "Libya: Is Washington Pushing for Civil War to Justify a US-NATO Military Intervention?"

Full story »

eileen fleming

[Orlando, Florida] – It wasn’t just a hot one in O’Town on the last Sunday of February because the thermometer registered 83 degrees in the shade at Lake Eola during the first Arab American Cultural Festival, but because of the heat that emanated from voluptuous belly dancers, award winning Debkeh dancers, singers and passionate hip hop poets who energized the crowd of thousands and caused hundreds to dance in celebration of a culture that most of the non-Arab Americans in attendance had never experienced before.

Hip Hop artist, Omar Offendum is also “an MC/Architect hailing from the great nation-state-of-mind known as ‘SyrianamericanA’ where everything is connected and everyone is welcome.”

Full story »