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Tepid Palestinian Authority UN Upgrade Bid
by Stephen Lendman
Instead of going for easily within reach full UN membership, Abbas prefers settling for less. Why he'll have to explain.
Others say it reflects his longtime collaboration with Israel. Doing so betrays his own people. Why they tolerate him, they'll have to explain.
If he follows through as planned, he'll get what he asks for. He'll upgrade Palestine from observer to non-member status. It's like being club member with most rights but not all. Non-member states can't vote.
Full de jure status requires following simple procedures that work. Abbas categorically refuses. Who knows if he even follow through on his lesser pledge.
Deepening the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade Partnership
By Dana Gabriel
Overshadowed by the upcoming American election are reports that the U.S. and European Union (EU) are working towards launching official negotiations on a deal that would further deepen their transatlantic trade partnership.
According to a recent Reuters article, “Europe and the United States are set to launch trade talks early next year to deepen the world’s largest trading relationship.” It goes on to say that, “An expert group co-chaired by EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will in December issue a report recommending pursuing talks.” An EU official explained that, “The report will recommend the negotiation of a comprehensive agreement between the United States and the European Union.” Last week, the European Parliament also approved a resolution calling for talks on a possible trade deal with the U.S. to begin in 2013. The U.S. and EU have already made incremental strides with regards to economic integration. With renewed political support, momentum for a transatlantic trade accord is building.
Obama's Disposition Matrix
by Stephen Lendman
Call it elevating Murder, Inc. to a higher level. A Washington Post Special Report discussed America's permanent war agenda.
It includes targeted killings, Obama's secret kill list, global drone wars, and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan's new rules for war playbook.
Established in 2003, Washington's National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) provides terrorist related information for America's intelligence community. Brennan initially ran the agency. It devised Washington's so-called "disposition matrix."
Remember Bani Walid
by Stephen Lendman
For courageous Jamahiriya fighters, it's their finest hour. Despite overwhelming force, use of chemical and other illegal weapons, and US-sponsored mass murder, they hang on valiantly.
Western major scoundrels shamelessly ignore the slaughter or misreport it. More on that below.
A previous article called what's happening one of history's great crimes. It's a Nuremberg level one writ large. Libyans and people of conscience won't ever let it be forgotten. Mass killing and destruction continues. An entire city is being destroyed. Western-sponsored death squads are murdering civilians in cold blood. NATO-supplied rockets, shells, chemical, and other illegal weapons target them. Inside the city, door-to-door murder threatens anyone remaining.
Beyond President Chavez Electoral Victory: Socialism in a Rentier State
James Petras
Introduction
The successful re-election of President Chavez by a resounding 10% margin winning 20 of the 22 states, with a massive 80% turnout provides his government with a clear and decisive mandate to set the political and economic course of the country over the next six years.
To understand the opportunities and constraints which the government faces, it is essential to outline not only the positive strengths of the government but the complex and difficult structural features of ‘transiting’ in an essentially ‘rentier economy and society’ based on extractive enclaves, essentially a petrol economy. The socialist project faces an external environment with contradictory features, which include a highly globalized economy offering trade and investment opportunities and expanding economic partnerships via regional and global organizations ( OPEC, MERCOSUR, UNASUR, PETROCARIBE, ALBA) and political and military threats from its proximity to the North American imperial heartland.
The myth of the Christian right
Mary Shaw
GOP politicians and their followers love to play the Christianity card. They wave their bibles and wag their fingers at anyone whose behavior doesn't pass their sanctimonious moral judgment.
They call themselves Christians, but in Catholic school I was taught that Christians adore and follow Jesus Christ. These holier-than-thou Republicans don't reflect the Jesus that I read about in the New Testament.
To illustrate this point, let's compare the teachings of Jesus with the actions of his so-called followers in the GOP.
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Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Matthew 5:9)
The "Christian" Republicans, on the other hand, attacked Iraq for no good reason, and now are beating the war drums over Iran. And their corporate overlords in the war profiteering business are making a fortune. (See Halliburton.)
John Douglass: Embodiment of a Ruined Election System
By David Swanson
In April I had a chat with Congressional candidate John Douglass who had just about wrapped up his party's nomination for Congress here in Virginia's Fifth District. Douglass is a retired Brigadier General, a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and a former deputy U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium. He spent years buying weapons for the military and then years selling weapons to the military as CEO of Aerospace Industries Association. In Congress he would be back on the buying side of the revolving door of death dealing.
Obviously a candidate for war, right? That's not what people were telling me, and not what Douglass himself says. He tells me he's for peace and for moving from an offensive military to one that is truly defensive. Rather than wars in the Middle East, he says, he'd like to search every container that enters our country and control every passage across out country's borders. Such policies, he says, don't threaten anyone or produce terrorism.
“The name of the game: erasing Palestine…”
By Stuart Littlewood
Around the time my article “Who does ‘Agent Cameron’ work for?” appeared last week a Jewish lady, Elizabeth Morley, wrote to Mr Cameron scolding the prime minister for his shocking dinner speech to the United Jewish Israel Appeal http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/ujia/ .
Agent Cameron told his Jewish audience: "With me, you have a Prime Minister whose belief in Israel is unbreakable and whose commitment to Israel’s security is non-negotiable... I will always stand by the Jewish people... Britain will always stand by Israel, protect Israel, and work with Israel on the path to peace."
Paul Wellstone: Tenth Anniversary of His Assassination
by Stephen Lendman
October 25 marked the 10th anniversary of Wellstone's death. Was it accidental or an assassination to silence a sadly missed principled voice? Convincing evidence suggests foul play. More on that below.
On October 25, 2002, The New York Times headlined "Minnesota Senator Is Among 8 Dead in Crash," saying:
Wellstone "was killed today when his campaign plane crashed approaching a small airport in a wooded region in the northern part of his state." Campaigning for a third term, he "perished along with seven other people when the chartered King Air A100 went down near Eveleth around 10:20 a.m. Central Time, the Federal Aviation Administration reported."
A Hostile Takeover of Our Country Treasonous, noxious, thieving, tyrannical
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
American democracy is under assault.
In one super-PAC alone, Karl Rove and the Enron grifter Ed Gillespie, have assembled $200 million from big polluters and Wall Street moguls to buy the 2012 election.
Two of the Koch Brothers, Charles and David, pledged $130 million to elect candidates who favor unrestrained corporate profiteering.
The senators and congressmen they fund and elect are not representing the United States—they are representing Koch and its oil industry cronies, Big Pharma, and the Wall Street banksters currently mounting a hostile takeover of our government.
I have no problem characterizing these corporate-centric super-PACs as treasonous. We are now in a free fall toward old-fashioned oligarchy; noxious, thieving and tyrannical.
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