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Destructive Neoliberal Austerity
by Stephen Lendman
Instead of vitally needed stimulus, Washington and European governments dictate austerity. The pretext of deficit reduction is being used to transfer more wealth to those already with too much, plus the usual canard over the urgency to save national banking systems.
In other words, make ordinary people bear the burden of bailing out banking giants responsible for the severest economic crisis since the Great Depression. How? The usual IMF solution, involving preservation of capital at the expense of workers - a package including wage and benefit cuts, less social spending, privatization of state resources, mass layoffs, deregulation, lower "onerous" taxes, maintaining corporate debt service, and harsh crackdowns against resisters.
The Era of Pain Avoidance is Over
By Numerian
Erskin Bowles: former Chief of Staff to President Clinton and prior to that a North Carolina businessman. Alan Simpson: at age 79, fourteen years senior to Erskin Bowles, and a former Republican senator from Wyoming. Alice Rivlin: also age 79, and Clinton’s former budget director. Peter Domenici: age 79, and a former Republican senator from New Mexico. These four people are the principal players in a set of competing proposals to do something about the US federal debt. They all have what Washington calls “gravitas”, which is a certain respectability that comes with age and experience. They also display that precious quality of “bipartisanship” which makes them supposedly immune from political bias. That’s why you get these Republican-Democrat partnerships: Simpson-Bowles, and Domenici-Rivlin. You would trust these people, wouldn’t you, to give you the cold, hard truth that politicians cannot deliver?
You shouldn’t. These people are good at delivering cold, hard truths in terms of areas of the budget to cut, and new sources of revenue to tap, which together over the long run will bring deficits down to zero and reduce the interest burden of the national debt to something manageable. But they won’t give you a vision of America under these new fiscal conditions. Reading through their proposals, we are left to imagine what America would be like in such a permanent state of austerity.
The Windy City Makes Waves for Peace, Equity and Justice in Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
The suburban Chicago-based Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine (CJPIP) "is a diverse, community-based group dedicated to organizing activities and educational events that advance the cause of peace and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis."
It supports:
-- "equal rights and access to resources (equitably) based on" social, economic, environmental, and political justice principles;
-- peace and equal justice;
In terror prosecution cases, justice does not mean convictions
Mary Shaw
On November 17, in federal court in New York City, Guantanamo detainee Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was convicted of a single charge of conspiracy in connection with the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. He was acquitted of 284 other counts against him. Ghailani was the first Gitmo detainee to be tried in federal court rather than a military commission. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for January.
Some on the right are pointing to the acquittals as proof that trying terrorism suspects in a civilian court does not work. But these critics are conveniently ignoring the fact that four other defendants in the same bombings had been sentenced in 2001 - also in federal court - to life in prison without parole. Ghailani could face a similar sentence, and will serve at least a minimum of 20 years.
Profit Ties between Phony Terror Alerts, Airport Security and L-3 Communications
By Steve Scheetz and Rady Ananda
COTO Report
Since September 11, 2001, the US government has been operating with a demand for the understanding of the people. We, as part of this demand, are to allow certain limitations on our liberty in order to gain a certain level of security. But, given the questionable nature of what are likely exaggerated threats, coupled with Congressional enrichment from these expensive security technologies, the U.S. public is losing both liberty and security, as well as money.
Former director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge revealed details about how terrorism alerts are used. Among other things, Ridge admits that he was pressured to raise the terror alert to help Bush win re-election in 2004. According to the Associated Press, “He said the episode convinced him to follow through with his plans to leave the administration; he resigned on Nov. 30, 2004.”
Haiti's Cholera Epidemic: Mounting Illnesses and Deaths, Inadequate Aid
by Stephen Lendman
Three previous articles on the crisis can be accessed through the following links:
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/11/haitis-cholera-outbreak-disease-of.html
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/11/cholera-outbreak-hits-por-au-prince.html
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/11/haitis-cholera-epidemic-sparks-outrage.html
More will follow as events dictate.
In America, especially on TV, Haiti's epidemic gets scant, if any, coverage. In contrast, daily independent news reports are alarming. Yet, despite raging cholera across Haiti, aid is woefully inadequate. A November 19 Doctors With Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres - MSF) press release headlined, "Cholera in Haiti: MSF Calling on All Actors to Step Up Response," saying:
Stone Age Brain, Space Age Culture
Mickey Z.
I was recently asked to do a short reading at Art House Astoria
ckering candles and eating food before it could spoil, longtime neighbors introduced themselves, discovering similarities and answering the question of the day: “Where were you when the lights went out?” They were asking this, of course, during the big blackout of August 14, 2003, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. This story begins in the stars…
Living in New York City, I often have the opportunity to see stars. They’re everywhere: at cafés, boutiques, movie premieres, health clubs, & other such earthbound venues. Check the gossip columns if you don’t believe me.
Official! The Police no longer need a warrant!
Roland Michel Tremblay
It took me two years to finally send this article, I was afraid, afraid of the police and other authorities. It is now official, the Police no longer need a warrant to enter your home and look through your things, hoping to find something to incriminate you. I am a living proof of it, twice over, living in the United Kingdom no less.
Never would have I expected this from such a country. There you are, they found nothing, there was nothing to be found, and yet, we have found something. Something serious, critical, significant. This is the end, the beginning of a new way of life, an all powerful Police State against which we are all powerless. It has begun. and it happened to me not once, but twice in the last two years, our worst fears have materialised.
Unrecognized Palestinians: Illegally Demolishing Their Homes and Villages
by Stephen Lendman
In October, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, together with nine other human rights organizations, addressed a position paper on "The unconstitutionality of the state's policy of demolishing Arab Bedouin unrecognized villages in the Negev" to three Israeli officials:
-- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
-- Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, and
-- Minister of Justice Yaakov Neeman.
Citing the illegality of home demolitions, in this case of Arab Israeli citizens, they urged halting them immediately and finding a durable solution for unrecognized village residents. In Salim Abu- Medeghem v. The Israel Land Administration (April 14, 2007), Israel's High Court proposed replacing demolitions with solutions based on dialogue, Justice Arbel ruling:
Buffett Thanks "Uncle Sam" for Big Bailout Payday
Michael Collins
The people's oligarch Warren Buffett just wrote a thank you letter to "Uncle Sam" published in the New York Times. It is the height of cynicism. (Image)
Buffett has a carefully crafted public image as a brilliant but people-friendly master of investments. We hear about his regular table at an Omaha diner where he conducts business (just plain Warren) and we see his occasional public stands for reasonable policies like the inheritance tax.
He claims that "Uncle Sam", the government, saved us from a financial catastrophe that would have swallowed up his company. He then endorses the notion that the housing bubble was based on "mass delusion" - meaning it was our fault. But he forgets to mention that he took advantage of the 2008 crisis to purchase a $5 billion interest in Goldman Sachs. And he forgets whose money "Uncle Sam" stole from the Treasury to save him and the rest of his cronies. What an asshole.
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