Oct 10 2009
There’s a reason I’m posting these backwards, how any view is up to them.
No matter what is thought about the leadership of Iran, by the World, especially as to it’s treatment of it’s citizens, the fact remains, as pointed out in part three, they are surrounded by Nuclear Powers and Weapons. So if really seeking their own they do so as to defense of their threatened country and it’s citizens, and talks had ceased to disarm or rid the world of. New cold war mentality, yep!!
Jul 12 2009
I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Jul 01 2009
“Climate change is happening now. It’s not just happening in the Arctic regions, but it’s beginning to show up in our own backyards.”
Americans are now seeing a changing climate across the country, according to Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a principal author of “The United States Global Change Research Report“.
The question now is not if climate change will happen, but how much of a change do we want to allow and how quickly will those changes come? “Our destiny is really in our hands,” Karl explained. “The size of those impacts is significantly smaller with appropriate controls.”
Jun 14 2009
We have a failed Federal Government! No oversite, checks and balances, investigations, opposition, now for over Six Long and Ugly Partisan Years! Will the change in power, coming to the Peoples Congress change things, We’ll Be Watching! But there Must Be ‘Investigations’, in Many Area’s, but Especially as to this so called ‘War on Terrorism’, Iraq, War Profiteering……! Much Proof already in Public Domain, if investigations lead to ‘Impeachment’ so be it, than Indictments of ALL Involved!!
Jan 16 2009
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. dropped millions of gallons of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant, on Vietnam in an attempt to remove the jungle used for cover by communist forces.
Decades later, civilians still suffer the consequences. Dioxin still lurks in Vietnam’s soil, causing deformities which are passed on from generation to generation.
Worldfocus correspondent Mark Litke and producer Ara Ayer travel to Vietnam and witness the devastating effects the toxin has left behind.
For more information on efforts to aid the victims of Agent Orange, visit the Vietnam Friendship Village.
Dec 31 2008
Michael Scheuer has an interesting series of articles at the Asian Times from the The Jamestown Foundation. A window in the coming Blowback, that has already reared it’s ugly head in many places and is stoked by throwing intense flames onto the already started fire?
The latest report is called MUJAHIDEEN BLEED-THROUGH, Part 4 with a subtitle “Palestine and Israel: The ring of terror tightens”
Oct 03 2008
Boy does this hit the Nail on the Head, at least in this Part 1.
Robert Parry: After 28 years of drunken optimism and blind nationalism the US wakes up to a grim future
Oct 02 2008
A couple days ago, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy — the body that decides who will be the laureate for the Nobel Prize in Literature — stated Europe was the center of the literary world and America was “too isolated, too insular”.
This is what Horace Engdahl said in an interview he gave exclusively to the AP:
“Of course there is powerful literature in all big cultures, but you can’t get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world … not the United States.”
Sep 28 2008
Cross-posted from Progressive-Independence.org.
From an article by John Browne at Asia Times:
Last week, US Treasury secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke faced congressional leaders with a reported forecast that we are “literally days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system”. Apparently, the politicians were stunned into a long silence.
If citizens across the country could glimpse the horror seen by the congressmen (of which we have long warned), then widespread panic would truly be the order of the day. In particular, people will be shocked to see how Paulson’s seemingly vast request to congress for some $1 trillion is utterly dwarfed by the likely problem.
Later in the article:
If the economy moves into a severe recession and then depression, default rates will explode. These, in turn, will cause stock markets to implode, as they did in 1929. In addition, the US dollar is likely to plummet, driving up the trade deficit in the longer term. Considering these factors, many of which the government prefers to hide, things look bad – very bad.
The thing is, most Americans seem to oppose any bailout of Wall Street whatsoever. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein was inundated with communications from constituents demanding that she vote against giving any of their tax dollars to Wall Street, according to the Kansas City Star:
Feinstein’s office has heard from about 50,000 constituents since Congress began considering a financial rescue plan about a week ago – and “only one of a thousand supports it – whatever it is,” the California Democrat said.
Lawmakers from both parties reported similar confusion and concern among constituents as they spent their Saturday painstakingly, and sometimes painfully, trying to craft a still-elusive compromise package.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell aimed to have a final plan ready by 6 p.m. Sunday, in time for the opening of markets around the world.
But House Republicans, whose objections derailed a deal reached last week, warned they did not want any rush to judgment.
And:
The senator tends to side on most issues with Democratic liberals and moderates, but her feedback from home was similar to what conservatives were hearing. “People call us and say they’re really against bailing out fat-cats. That’s a big issue,” she said.
“We’ve heard from hundreds of people who say, ‘We pay our bills. Why can’t Wall Street pay theirs?’ ” said Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said his office had received 3,500 calls in recent days “and just 95 said they supported what we’ve done so far.”
Republicans have apparently been revolting against their own party’s dictator in the White House, seemingly out of a desire to finally look as though they oppose big government interference in the market system – earlier this month, the feds took lending giant Fannie Mae back under their control and also seized its counterpart, Freddie Mac.
Whether this is really the case is up for debate; it could all be a ploy to extend the financial crisis so as to force Democrats in Congress to cave in and write another blank check. My gut, however, tells me there’s genuine fear that a bailout not crafted to give taxpayers at least partial ownership of the financial institutions in return for a bailout would create a massive backlash at the polls come November.
At any rate, once the bailout does go through (no matter what form it takes), shall it be enough? According to at least one American economics writer and the foreign press, we’re already in the throes of an economic depression that began months ago. Considering the massive U.S. debt already being passed on to an incalculable number of future generations, adding another trillion or so dollars to it doesn’t seem as though it’ll solve the problem we now face.
Sep 24 2008
On the pedestal that supports the Statue of Liberty, is the poem, “The New Colossus”, by Emma Lazarus. The poem concludes with these lines:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
No more. The United States of America is no longer quite the beacon it once was to the immigrants of the world.
The Washington Post reports that Census data show big dip in migration To the U.S.
The number of immigrants coming to the United States slowed substantially in 2007, with the nation’s foreign-born population growing by only 511,000, compared with about a million a year since 2000, according to Census figures released today.
Aug 24 2008
Original Article, sub-headed After seven days of bloody war in the Caucasus and growing tension between the US and Russia, John Rees asks what is it about the new world order that has made it so prone to warfare?, via socialistworker.org.uk:
There is one fundamental thing that is common to capitalism in every age that makes it a uniquely violent system. It is not a marginal or accidental part of the system but something that is part of the very definition of capitalist society. That thing is competition.
Uh-oh! Competition being bashed…must restrain from shouting ‘USA, USA, USA.’ After all, isn’t our competitive spirit what made us greater than everybody else? Isn’t competition what makes our ‘free market’ system of capitalism work so well?
Aug 14 2008
The Economic Crisis defined by the neocons, isn’t the fact that folks are losing their homes/jobs/retirements, etc. No, Economic Crisis for the neocons is the fact that folks are finally waking up to the fact that our country has been robbed blind and these sleepy folks may soon be seeking justice and/or blood.
The Political Crisis defined by the neocons isn’t the fact that our politicians and government have been bought by corporations and are corrupt to the core. No, Political crisis for the neocons is the fact that folks are finally waking up to the fact that our politicians and government agencies have been bought by corporations and are corrupt to the core.
Its a pickle for the neocons…..how can they continue with business as usual when so many folks are on to them.