Mary Shaw

First, the good news: On September 29, the Senate Finance Committee approved a $75 million funding stream for comprehensive (i.e., responsible) sex education. According to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SEICUS), "$50 million [...] would be geared to evidence-based, medically accurate, age-appropriate programs to educate adolescents about both abstinence and contraception in order to prevent unintended teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. The remaining funds would be for innovative programs as well as research and evaluation."

The amendment passed by a margin of 14-9, with moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe (ME) joining all committee Democrats in voting in favor. Next, the bad news: They also passed an amendment that reinstates funding for the failed Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program which expired on June 30, 2009. This amendment will provide $50 million per year through 2014 to extend the program. It passed by a shameful 12-11 vote count, with Democratic Senators Blanche Lincoln (AR) and Kent Conrad (ND) joining all committee Republicans in voting in favor.

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Stephen Lendman

For 33 years, Sonoma State University's (SSU) Project Censored (PC) has engaged in pioneering research on, and advocacy for, First Amendment issues. Founded by Carl Jensen in 1976, it's now headed by Professor Ben Frymer. On July 1, he took over from Professor Peter Phillips who stepped down after 13 years of distinguished service as Director.

PC works cooperatively "with numerous independent (US) media groups," primarily to train SSU students "in media research and First Amendment issues and the advocacy for, and protection of, free press rights in the United States."

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By Ramzy Baroud

World events have taken an interesting turn recently, with the Goldstone report, which wreaked havoc in the beginning of the week being nearly completely overshadowed by Iran’s revelation of another nuclear facility, according to diplomats in Vienna on September 25.

The Iran nuclear threat - although theater is a more suitable term - was highlighted repeatedly, first by US President Barack Obama during a UN speech on September 23, then again by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the next day. The latter came armed with maps and relentlessly provoked Holocaust memories, following the ever so predictable, albeit insensitive and deceptive pattern.

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Excerpted, edited by Carolyn Bennett

Health care is a right
The private health insurance industry is
Too cruel
Too inhumane
Too arbitrary
Too bureaucratic
Too inefficient, and
Must be replaced

Our private health insurance industry-dominated system permits 45 million people to live without health insurance, denying them access to preventive and routine care, resulting in the death of at least 35,000 people a year.

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eileen fleming

In defense of freedom of the press, conscience and speech; I have seized the liberty to counter Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spinning at the UN on September 24, 2009.

He is "N" and I am "E" and so it begins:

N: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen

Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland. I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people. The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth.

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by Stephen Lendman

The FBI's top six news stories for the week ending September 25 were about arrests and/or indictments of suspected Muslim terrorists. Combined, they became the latest national security targets in America's war on Islam.

Waged relentlessly since 9/11, it continues unabated under Obama for the same political advantage George Bush sought by stoking fear to be used as a pretext to wage imperial wars and crack down ruthlessly at home with police state efficiency - today against Muslims, Latino immigrants, environmental and animal rights activists, and street protestors, tomorrow against anyone voicing dissent.

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By: Peter Chamberlin

We are faced with the ever-present and ever-growing problems presented by the state of Israel. The entire world has been given the most sinister ultimatum of all time (and Barack Obama is fully supporting it)- we either make Israeli interests the paramount issue concerning the world today, or else Israel will single-handedly start World War III.

If we do not take military actions to preserve Israel’s outlaw nuclear edge in the Middle East, then, according to Israel’s supreme leader, Israel will use those nuclear weapons upon Iran (Israel can only do the job with nukes). If the leadership of the world does not alleviate Israeli leaders’ greatest fears through limited, though intense military actions, then Israel will unleash WWIII in the Middle East, effectively destroying the oil-based international order.

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Allen L Roland

Israel's Dimona nuclear weapons factory in the Negev desert

Israel and United States nuclear hypocrisy is clearly evident when one realizes the full extent of Israel's hidden Dimona nuclear weapons factory as well as the fact that Iran, unlike Israel, is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has been pushing for the removal of all weapons of mass destruction across the globe:

As the Obama administration lays the groundwork to isolate Iran economically from the rest of the world over that nation's nuclear program ~ don't forget that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recently ordered Iran's foreign currency reserves, currently in US dollars, to be held in euros.

Press TV reports that the order was issued on September 12 following a decision by the trustees of the country's foreign reserves. An ominous reminder that shortly after Iraq announced the same move to oil payments in euros versus dollars ~ the United States attacked Iraq.

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Stuart Littlewood

Knowing that Iran won’t surrender its right to civil nuclear power, the schemers in Tel Aviv and Washington were bound to mount a hysterical campaign to scare the rest of the world into believing this would bring terror to our own streets.

And at the United Nations we saw the process swing into action as Netanyahu tried to whip up support for another Middle East war for Israel's benefit.

Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium… To those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?"

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by chycho

A must read for every citizen of the United States of America is Gore Vidal’s “Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated.” It is a short read that provides a lot of information and raises many important questions about the American Empire.

What I personally got from reading this book was how articulate Timothy McVeigh was in expressing his opinion and forming an argument - Vidal shared many of their dispatches. This was surprising to me since Western Mainstream Media (AKA the government ) portrayed McVeigh as an illiterate lunatic. Gore Vidal proved otherwise. But this post is not about Timothy McVeigh or Gore Vidal, it’s about truth and the consequences of American apathy.

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