By Ramzy Baroud

The anniversary of the infamous tragedy of 9/11, 2001, and the subsequent ramifications indeed induce, throughout the world, a plethora of feelings of sorrow.

The 9/11 event should have never taken place. Regardless of the situation, targeting civilians is unconditionally reviled. No matter where we stand on war, and how do we wish to rationalize and define extremism, and even terror, we must pause to remember those who died on that day, and the many, many more who died in the months and years that followed.

Sadly, we must even pause today for those who will die tomorrow, to avenge the victims of the twin towers. 9/11 was a tragedy that should have been studied within the parameters of US foreign policies vis-à-vis Muslim countries, in the Middle East region in particular. If we wish not to venture that far, then an honest look at the period that followed the first Gulf War of 1990-91, and the tragic sanctions that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, is certainly warranted.

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BY: MANFRED ZYSK, M.E.

A Global Climate Crisis is when weather and climate conditions cause long-term changes to our environment, worldwide droughts, flooding, food supply shortages, and when these climate changes have an effect on the overall life for every person on this planet, and effect future generations. NY Times 9/13/2009. Mexico is enduring its worst drought in six decades. Crops are drying up in the fields and water is being rationed in the capitol. 40% of the farmland has been affected by the drought per government inspectors. Guatemala declared "a state of calamity" last week because the drought has caused large crop damages.

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by Jeff Gates

On September 24th, U.S. President Barack Obama will preside over a U.N. Security Council session on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. In March 2010, Moscow will host a Global Nuclear Summit that the U.S. has agreed to attend.

The next six months could prove hopeful or harmful—depending on the impact on Israel’s nuclear arsenal. With U.S. backing, Tel Aviv has thus far avoided compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty—joining North Korea, India and Pakistan.

President John F. Kennedy tried to stop Israel from starting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In a June 1963 letter to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, he insisted on proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Israel was not developing nuclear weapons at its Dimona reactor facility. Though his letter was cabled to the U.S. embassy, Ben-Gurion resigned (citing undisclosed personal reasons) before the message could be physically delivered.

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by drfrogsplat

I keep seeing headlines and articles that seem to put Christians, Republicans and Public-Healthcare-Opposers all in one group together, which is either totally unfair and biased, or suggests that there are a lot of Christians who are actually opposed to a public health care system... I find this a little worrying and confusing, and so write this not as evangelism to non-Christians (you guys can stop reading now...), but as evangelism to conservative Christians, who I ask to turn off Fox News and pick up their bible and see what you find in there about the matter...

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Allen L Roland

America's illusionary economic recovery is being fueled by bailouts and wishful thinking while Wall Street insiders frantically sell. The reality is that Main Street is broke, jobless, deep in debt and will not spend and inflate the debt bubble that just burst ~ which leaves the stock market over priced and vulnerable for a major correction:

Last week, U.S. home foreclosures hit new all-time record highs and are still rising. Personal bankruptcies are skyrocketing ~ even among the rich. Unemployment is still soaring. Consumer borrowing is contracting dramatically and the commercial real estate market is rapidly deteriorating.

Graham Summers nails our present precarious economic condition in his September first article, Crooks, Computers, and the Coming Crash, and states the obvious by calling the present stock market rally " a liquidity rally driven by non-thinking computer programs, not a rally based on fundamentals."

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Joel S. Hirschhorn

Anyone smart and strong enough to fight delusional thinking and who pays attention to current events should clearly see that corporate corruption of the US political system is so pervasive and powerful that there will be no genuine reform of both the health care and financial sectors.

I always believed that president Obama was just a different color corrupt politician who was subservient to the two-party plutocracy. His so-called reform efforts and ludicrous federal deficit spending should disappoint all his non-delusional supporters. For health reform the only genuine and sensible reform legislation should have been not much more than a single sentence mandating that every American has a right to full Medicare coverage. Period. End of story. True reform. True universal health insurance.

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By Mike Whitney

Surely, the events of the past week suggest that the G.O.P. has outlived its shelf-life and needs to be conveyed pell-mell to the nearest dumpster.

First, there was the Joe Wilson flap, where the indignant representative from South Carolina barked "You Lie" to President Barack Obama during his prepared remarks to Congress on health care. This is the very same Wilson who applauded all the bogus allegations about imaginary weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaida made in countless speeches by ex-president George W Bush. Now we are expected to believe that Joe is acting in "good conscience" in opposing minimal health care to a larger swath of uninsured Americans?

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by Stephen Lendman

In early September, The US Census Bureau released its new report titled, "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008" showing disturbing data that portends much worse ahead under a president and Congress doing nothing to address it. In 2008, poverty reached 13.2% of the population, its highest level in 11 years, the result of millions losing jobs during the first year of the gravest economic crisis since the 1930s. For blacks, the figure was nearly double at 24.7%, and 31% of all Americans were impoverished for at least two months between 2004 and 2007, years of economic expansion.

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Mary Shaw

Today's GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln, the party of Eisenhower, or even the party of Reagan. Today's so-called conservatives are anything but conservative in their seemingly desperate displays of anti-Obama sentiment.

Indeed, their behavior in 2009 makes their 2004 anti-Kerry chants of "flip-flop" seem almost charming by comparison.

It was bad enough when some of the needlessly frightened sheep started bringing loaded guns to health care town hall meetings -- even including a meeting where President Obama was the featured speaker. (Remember how George W. Bush's handlers would systematically banish -- and sometimes actually arrest -- citizens who merely sported tee-shirt slogans that they disagreed with?)

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by Rosemary and Walter Brasch

WNEP-TV, a large regional station in northeastern Pennsylvania, led its noon news, Friday, Sept. 11, with the announcement that there was finally a compromise on the state budget.

The legislators have been playing politics, stalling, and delaying for more than two months, leaving Pennsylvania the only state without a budget. To the viewer, it seemed that the executive branch and the legislative branch finally figured out that the people's money needed to be budgeted and used. This would have been great news--except that in the same story, we also learned there were still some details to be worked out.

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