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President Obama and Remaking of US Presidency
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD
In his presidential re-election winning comments on November 6 at Chicago, President Obama reclaimed his moral and intellectual conscience to state that he “will be open to change and listening and learning and to be a better president to serve the American people.” If contemporary history is a reference point, he made similar assertions during and after the 2008 historic presidential win by a black candidate. Did Obama share new political imagination to pursue a different course of policies and actions in his 2nd term of office? Is Obama a changed person? Does he posses a rekindled consciousness of his broken commitments, failure and challenges in waiting to prove his leadership for the 2nd term? What is there to believe his credibility?
What Did Petraeus Know and When Did He Know It?
Michael Collins
(Washington, DC, 11/15) The bitterness of the neocons knows no limit. They're still having tantrums after being denied the unchallenged ability to pillage and plunder at will (and at our expense). Never mind that the public doesn’t want to hear it. The Congressional Republicans are jumping up and down over their big question: When did President Obama know about the affair between General Petraeus and Mrs. Broadwell? Talk about a misguided salvage operation. Their inquiries will spark some questions that they won't want asked. (Image)
The real questions concern the behavior and motivation of General Petraeus in the aftermath of the murder of the United States ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, on September 11, 2012.
When did General Petraeus know the sequence of events that preceded the murder of United States Ambassador Stevens, indicating the likely motivation for the murder?
The Petraeus CIA provided inaccurate information about events on the ground to the Obama Administration, particularly to President Obama and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice. Did they know it was inaccurate?
If the Petraeus CIA mislead or withheld information from the White House or allowed that to happen, was it in the service of the Romney campaign or those clamoring for an attack on Iran?
A World in Which Truth is a Dying Species
by GAITHER STEWART
Rome
US military bases encircling Iran
Hidden away somewhere within the labyrinth of the Pentagon there must be a top secret euphemism department engaged in the invention of the Orwellian surrogate words that have crept surreptitiously into the American English vocabulary and from there translated into many other languages. In my mind I see a unit of studiously serious executives, coffee mugs in their hands and their neckties awry, devising senseless terms for terrible things and used unthinkingly by people today from New York to California, from Maine to Texas. The goal of my imaginary secret unit is to render ugly terms meaningless or to transform them into their opposite. To quote the perceptive Scottish writer, Candia McWilliam, "plain words are always under threat." There are words that don't say what they mean and there are words that say what they don't mean.
Intensified or enhanced interrogation sounds oh so much more genteel than the hideous word TORTURE. Collateral damage goes down quite well instead of the savage bombing and strafing of a funeral procession or a wedding party. Military leaders themselves have come to love the suggestive word "footprints" to indicate the evidence of America's powerful presence throughout the world: "We were here and we leave this little sign with you." A little footprint, maybe a fleet of super bombers or Predator drones.
Tropical Storm Sandy: Natural or Political Disaster?
James Petras
“Homes still lack power a week on”
Financial Times 11/5/12, p. 3
“Households suffer without power as temperatures fall and storm looms”.
Financial Times 11/6//12, p. 3
“Climate change needs action but it has a cost”
Financial Times 11/5/12, p. 4
“City accused of not acting on plan”
Financial Times 11/1/12, p. 3
Introduction
What has the world’s biggest and most costly ‘national security state’ have to do with securing the life, livelihood and property of the global financial capital of the world? Virtually nothing!
Obama’s Presidency Through Palestinian Eyes
By Dr. Elias Akleh
People worldwide were very interested and following the 2012 American election believing that their future would, somehow, be affected by the foreign policies of the new American President. Only the Palestinian people were totally apathetic to the election. They believe that the American stance toward the Palestinian cause, specifically, and towards the Middle East, generally, would not change no matter who becomes the American president; whether a democrat or a republican.
Many people, including large percentage of the American people, are under the illusion that the President really has the power to change things. It appears that a president may have the power to take his country to war, to create jobs, to improvise and improve medical care plans, or to change tax laws or any other law, in that matter. Such matters are determined by a power elite representing the very rich and very influential 1% of the population, who owns, controls and manipulates the economic, political, industrial, and social structures of the country. The President is just an employee, who is appointed in a theatrical game of fake democratic election, in order to carry the plans of this power elite.
Petraeus: Resignation or Sacking?
by Stephen Lendman
Some observers call Washington a city of scandals. Lots of intrigue reflects daily life in the nation's capital. Elected and appointed officials come and go.
Most often it's uneventful. Other times once powerful figures fell from grace or scandals affecting them rose to the level of affixing a "gate" suffix on what happened.
Watergate, Whitewatergate, Iran/Contragate, Koreagate, Travelgate, and Troopergate among others come to mind.
More spin on Syria…
by Philip Greaves
Having followed the Guardians Middle East Live blog for a while there has been a distinct narrative forming in the support of the opposition in the Syrian civil war, one could say the support in western media has from the outset been on the side of the uprising which started with peaceful protest, brutally cracked down by the Assad regime and it’s forces it has fomented into civil war, but it is far more complicated than that. What was once perceived as the street and the people rising up against a dictator and demanding self-determination and human rights has turned into civil war with outside states and internal factions now vying for the inevitable power vacuum once Assad has gone.
Grand Bargain Betrayal Coming
by Stephen Lendman
Obama's economic record includes nearly 25 million unemployed, around 23% of working age Americans without jobs, poverty, homelessness, and hunger at record levels or close to it, and the greatest wealth disparity in US history.
Privileged elites benefitted enormously on his watch. They'll get plenty more ahead. Others are enduring protracted hard times. Bipartisan complicity calls for making things worse, not better. Huge budget cuts loom. Social programs will be hit hardest. More on that below.
America's compromised progressive left hailed Obama's victory. Condemnation should have been headlined instead. Nation magazine lost its soul long ago.
Throughout its history, it pretended to have one. It scorns truth. It turns reality on its head. It ducks responsible reporting on issues mattering most.
Obama’s Post-Election Militancy
by Stephen Lendman
Obama didn't miss a beat. He picked up where he left off. He's America's most belligerent leader. He's waging multiple direct and proxy wars abroad and at home by other means.
Despite pressing unresolved domestic issues, he celebrated his electoral victory belligerently.
On November 7, he bombed Yemen. Washington's been waging proxy war there for years. Daily attacks occur. Drones are the weapon of choice.
Remote warriors conduct sanitized killing on the cheap. Death and injury tolls rise. Mostly civilians are harmed. On November 8, Press TV headlined "US drone kills three in Yemen." US media scoundrels ignored it.
Hours after Obama's reelection, a "drone strike near the Yemeni capital has killed three people and injured two others."
Greece: Profile of a Failed State
by Stephen Lendman
Greece exhibits failed and rogue state characteristics. It governs irresponsibly. It's beholden more to foreign interests than its own. Banker needs are prioritized. Ruling authority outside Greece dictates terms.
The country's unable or refuses to provide public services. It threatens the welfare of its people. It spurns legitimate rule. It's bankrupt but won't declare it.
Governance in Greece combines travesty, tragedy and shame. Democracy's birth place spurns it. It also displays an unprincipled disregard for human need at a time of rampant corruption and prioritized military spending.
In 2011, seven billion euros went for arms. Greece is the tenth largest weapons importer. It's one of 28 NATO countries. Collective defense requires member states to purchase arms and buy them from alliance partners.
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