Walter Brasch reports
on
the Dingbat Reichwing Rethuglcan lie mongers in
Wisconsin.
Here are the main line lies and the truths which
contradict them. (030511a)
From AP we have a story
about
a dam being built in Afghanistan and how this
"hearts and minds" project has resulted in
strengthening the Taliban, wasting money and
extending the embarrassing circumstance that is
the US effort in that
nation
(030511b)
and this is part two of the
story
(030511c)
The
Paks say Raymond Davis will stand trial.
The murdering
CIA gunman/terrorist is caught up in an intrigue
that beguiles. One wonders if the decision has
been made to "pull the plug" on him.
(030511d)
03/04/07:
wemustknow.koen
lets us in on the EPA's "process" which allowed
a dangerous pesticide, known to be extremely
toxic to honeybees to be marketed to growers of
corn. When the
"word" leaded out the EPA simply ignored its own
scientists, the truth and let the crap stay on
the market. Amazing! (030411a)
Suzanne Goldenberg gives
us an overview of the Reichwing
Rethuglican Tin Foil Hat brigade, the Tea Party,
and its assault on the environment - its all out
war out there.
(030411b)
03/01/11:
F. William Engdahl
provides another perspective to the Jasmine
Revolution that is sweeping Arabic nations.
He believes that the US and some
internationalist partners are helping the change
occur, spread and speculates that this use of
"creative
destruction"
has, as its ultimate purpose, bringing the Arab
world into an alignment with Western
perspectives to "stand against" China, India
Russian and, yes, maybe Israel.
(030111a)
William
Rivers Pitt talks about the state of the alleged
"liberal media" he gives as an example the
coverage of the doings in Madison
Wisconsin.
(030111b) Lindsay
Beyerstein reports that the the capital police
refused an order to clear the building of the
protesters.
(030111c) What
amazes me is that even alternate sources do not
continually hammer at the fact that before
Wisconsin had its budget problem they had a
projected surplus, albeit a small one until,
that is, their governator pushed through about
130 million in tax cuts to his high end cronies
and then, well, whoops, a deficit "just
happened" and the unions had to pay for it.
Amazing.
Nancy A. Youssef, Jonathan
S. Landay, and Warren P. Strobel
report
of attacks and counterattacks an interview with
a "delusional Ghadaffi, and the freezing of some
30 billion dollars in his family
assets.
(030111d) amid reports of US naval vessels
arriving in the area.
Christopher Hellman talks
about the "real" cost of the defense budget.
The
"normal" budget is something around 600 billion,
but there is about that same amount in costs
that are covered by other agencies and the
annual cost of security is about 1.2 trillion
dollars.
Amazing no? Yes! (030111e)
Larry Beinhart reports
how
the Roosevelt administration dealt with the
great depression, another Reich Wing Rethuglican
product by the way, and successfully
so. The
current batch of neo-conservative goon-ologues
have not learned that lesson - yet. Amazing.
(030111f)
From think progress we
have the tale of the
legendary Koch Brothers who got their start, as
most wealthy self made men do, from their
fathers dealing with foreign
dictators. In
this case building oil refineries for Stalin.
But their greed knows no bounds nor does their
campaign to remake America to be a cash cow for
their never ending lust.
(030111g)
02/28/11:
Stephanie
McCrummen reports that the jasmine revolution
reaching Iraq has caused security forces to use
live ammunition and "sound bombs" against
protesters.
(022811a)
From
ABC news we hear that insurgents, freedom
fighters, rebels or "dead enders" have knocked
out Iraq's largest
refinery. So
battles are still being waged in the country. I
am SO glad that we've accomplished our mission
there. (022811b)
02/27/11:
James
Kelleher and David Bailey report on the uptick
in protests against Wisconsin's
governor.
(022711a) In a related story the hapless and
Reichwing dolt of a governor was forced to flee
a restaurant after the patrons raised a
persuasive ruckus regarding his presence. That
is called shunning - a great idea.
Protest
in solidarity with Wisconsinites held around the
nation on
Saturday.
(022711b)
Dave
Lindorff reports on what news outlets in
Pakistan and India are saying about the CIA's
man Raymond Davis - they're saying he is a
terrorist.
This must be rubbing the US the wrong way and
popular sentiment is lurching against the US in
both nations it would seem.
(022711c)
Frank
Gardner of the BBC reports on the "support" that
Gaddafi has in Libya; exactly who is propping
him up?
(022711d)
Ralph
Nader is 'Mad as Hell' in Madison.
Gives the
Wisconsin governors playbook some light - after
allowing 140 million in tax cuts he announces
that the state has a 133 million dollar short
fall and therefore unions have to go. Just as
the Reichwing Rethuglicans bollixed Obama into
bailouts before demanding spending cuts for the
program that help the poor. It is a kind of
'mini shock doctrine". This perspective is not
at all in the news. (022711e)
02/26/11:
Stephen Lendman reports on
some
of the not so well known aspects of Wisconsin's
so called budget balancing
bill.
(022611a)
David
Corn gives us a peek at FOX news again not "fair
and Balanced" but "crass and twisted"
(022611b)
Simon Johnson reports on
"Gutless" Geithner's current dictum,
that
giant US banks can "go for it" taking on
business the world over without risk, that
potential damage can be contained, and that
reform is not
necessary.
(022611c)
Peter
Michaelson gives a psycho-sociological analysis
of the conservative mind set.
No real
surprises here that the father/decider makes the
rules and does everything it can to do keep
control, power and influence - no matter right,
logic, or a world on fire.
(022611a)
02/25/11:
From London we hear that
the man
the Pakistanis are holding had some interesting,
read nuclear and biological warfare, related
documents on
him. They
think he was attempting to supply the Taliban
with such stuff. (022511a) Sumera Khan reports
that
the US is threatening to use the ICJ against
Pakistan, a near useless threat in as much as
the US has, in the past, disrespected it,
ignored its decisions and so
forth.
(022511c)
By C. J. Chivers, Alissa
J. Rubin and Wesley Morgen report
that an Afghan valley, once viewed as vital,
will no longer be occupied by US
troops.
(022511b)
Jack Healy and Michael S.
Schmidt report on the
inevitable: the Jasmine revolution reaching
Iraq. There it
seems that the government is being ignored as
are the religious leaders. This development is
particularly salient, what the the people take
over Iraq and decide to do things
democratically, I mean really decide what they
want. (022511d)
02/24/11:
From
the Guardian we have evidence of Libyan civil
war, an incoherent leader, mercenaries on a
terrorist spree sanctioned by the leader's
son and some
moment by moment events unfolding today.
(022411a)
From Truthout we hear of
the great hypocrisy that is the US.
The
enemy has a name and that name is
fascism.
Banksters do it, Hedgers do it, even presydink
does do it, let' call it; we'll call it
fashionable fascism the American Way.
(032411b)
Truthout
has it that the Koch Brothers "Prank" No
Laughing Matter by Mary Bottari
(022411c)
(Author's note: The
term "The Great" War originally referred to
Bush's Global War On Terror, G.W.O.T. Now It is
beginning to include the other war news based
upon the notion that the US should maintain
complete superiority over all possible
contenders and prevent any potential rival from
becoming an actual one. Something the Bushites
made specific and which, it seems, has carried
on. 07/27/10)
The Great
War:
From
NYT:
this is how bad war profiteering has gotten,
apparently a British outfit has been making and
selling bomb detectors to Iraq. Problem is that
they absolutely do not
work. It is
not as if they have a poor functioning or are
dubious for some reason, they are a fake,
non-functioning assemblage of parts that have no
function except to garner sales. They've been
used across Iraq for some time and this story is
only now causing arrests to happen.
(022111h)
Wikileaks
- Saudi asked US to stop oil lawsuits, it seems
there is no limit to US accommodation of Saudi
"needs"
(021311c)
So if inquiring minds want
to know here it is: the
real reason Bush invaded Iraq.
You'll be
amazed. I had heard it before however.
(020711e)
Tom Engelhardt lets us in
on what
it is like going through the "gates of hell"
and just who
drove our nation through those gates and why;
this is a sad and quick romp through the wet
dream of the Neo-Con fantasy lands.
(020711f)
Sameer
Mohindru reports on the rising cost of cereals
and other food staples.
If food
pricing is a cause for unrest, then we've more
unrest to come. The article does not say that
but the food riots of 2008 are not so long ago
and the prices are heading in that direction.
(020411a)
Sibel
Edmonds takes us back the the days before 9/11
when yet another specific warning was given to
the US by reliable sources and it was
ignored. After
9/11 those who knew were told "the warnings
never happened." That's all folks. (020311a)
here
is part two of the article
(020311b)
and
part three.
(020311c)
Ryan
Grim reports that Al Jazeera has been blocked
from the US, however the "blockade" has many
holes.
(020111d)
Nick
Turse wonders how many bases does the US
maintain the world
over.
Surprisingly there are many answers and not
surprisingly how could anyone know if even the
US military has different answers? (011111d)
Europe's
News:
England:
France:
Greece:
Italy:
Spain:
Muddle
East News, Central Theater: Palestine
Gaza,
Israel,
Jordan,
Lebanon,
The
West Bank and
Syria
The
area in general:
From PressTV has it
that
the US is sending naval forces to Egypt in case
we have to evacuate US
citizens.
(020811b) Meanwhile Tim Ross, Christopher Hope,
Steven Swinford and Adrian Blomfield have it
that WikiLeaks
is playing a role in exposing Israeli "interest"
and involvement with the Egyptian government and
the Egyptian press is turning on the
leadership.
(020811c)
Jonathan
Cook gives us a look at the "negotiations"
between Palestine and
Israel.
Somethings revelations are rankling the rank and
file. (012511c)
and here is part two of the
article.
(012511d)
Maybe
we should call this the age of leaking.
From the
"muddle east" we hear of a trove of documents
that will be shedding light on the Palestinian
Authority, Israel and the US, of course, and the
back room deals that will put an unfavorable
light on the PA and the other parties as well.
(012411e)
Gaza:
Israel:
According
to PressTV Israel wanted to cleanse Gaza and
gave its troops inhumane sorts of
orders.
(020811a)
Jordan:
Ranya
Kadri and Ethan Bronner let us know
that
the unrest in the Arab world has reached Jordan
although there, it has been mitigated by some
swift changes which, for the
moment, seem
to be gaining acceptance (020111h)
Lebanon:
Syria:
The
West Bank:
Muddle
East News: Western Theater: Egypt, Kurdistan,
Turkey
Egypt:
Kareem Fahim and J. David
Goodman report that the
Egyptian military have sacked the parliament and
is promising elections in 6
months.
(021311d)
William
Rivers Pitt has it that Robin Hood is dead. Yes,
you say, you knew
that. But read
it anyway. Then maybe think about what has
happened in Egypt and ask, why not here in the
good old US of A? (021211a) Rosa Aguilar as if
to answer that question
we have this story about "balanced news
coverage" which is to say it is
not.
(021211b)
David Keyes gives us
an
overview of the "experts" who missed the whole
Arab uprising thing because, well, because they
were WRONG.
(011111a) Michael Collins reports on
the
"elephant in the living room" the role of unions
in the overthrow of
Mubarak. They
played a significant part but you'd never know
if from the coverage in the West or most any
place for that matter. (021111b)
and
here is part
two (021111c)
Michelle Chen has a bit more
on
the composition of the revolutionary movement in
Egypt and labor's part in
it.
(021111d)
Shashank Bengali reports
that some
organizers of the Egyptian protests are being
arrested, perhaps abused, but there is no
sustained and serious program that threatens the
"good atmosphere"
in Tahrir
Square (020711d) Other stories report that
negotiations between the government and the
revolutionaries have not been
successful.
Ralph Lopez reports that
thousands
of protester have been injured and Egypt' police
and other enforcers are torturing while the US
mumbles on.
(020611a) Karen Kwiatkowski gives
another
take speculating on the causes which sparked the
Egyptian revolution, those that existed within
Egypt and adds
some details about why Israel and even Iran are
interested bystanders. (020611b) Franklin Lamb
talks about the
resistance to the revolution, meaning the US and
Israel, and their
motives
(020611c) Michael Winship talks
about blow back through implication mostly but
interesting I
guess the threat to the regime has the potential
for creating problems for the US mainly if the
Egyptians want to run their own country, in
their own way and to suit their own needs
(020611d)
Robert
Alvarez reports on the connection between money,
speculators, food prices, Egypt and
unrest.
(020611e)
Noam Chomsky
talks
about a comparison between the collapse of the
""So-Be-it" Onion" and they revolution roiling
the Arab
world. My
sense is that there is more to come, like I've
said, a "sea change" is on the horizon.
(020311d)
Max
Aji reports on the evolution of the past few
days in Egypt, how the police, entering the fray
as "counter protesters"
have been
unmasked and international interests are talking
and, just as certainly, planning how to stop
real democracy from taking root. (020311e)
Anthony Shadid, David D.
Kirkpatrick and Kareem Fahim report on
the
street fighting taking place between organized
supporters of Mubarak and the much larger mass
of
revolutionaries
taking up in Tahrir Square, Cairo
(020211a)
Rabbi
Michael Lerner has it that there is considerable
support for the Egyptian revolution among the
Jewish community and he gives us his opinion as
to why that's
so. One may
hope that it is true and that this "unheard
voice" will be heard in Israel as well.
(020211e)
Chris Hedges reports on
the the near term future of Egypt.
I
suspect, from what he says, that a sea change is
in the offing. Maybe the US will have what it
wants a transformation of Middle Eastern
governments into
democracies.
(020111a)
Lonnie Griesbaum gives us
the tip that
most of what Egypt's revolution is about, as in
Tunisia was economic dispossession. It does not
seem that "Islamist" parties or leaders are in
the van or control,
but people
want jobs, food and stability. It may morph into
more than that but people are not tolerating the
old regimes because they did not deliver.
(020111b) and
here is part
two.
(020111c)
Nafeez Ahmed brings the
global circumstances into
the
"Egyptian equation" showing that global warming,
food prices, declining oil production, in Egypt,
and commodities speculation have created a
perfect storm of conditions which contributed to
the overthrow of Tunisia's government
and threatens
that of Egypt. (020111e) and
here is some more thoughts to
follow
(020111f)
Anthony Shadid, David D.
Kirkpatrick and Kareem Fahim let us know
that
the Egyptian army has said it will not fire on
protesters.
This makes it a revolution and Mubarak's time
may be limited. Only time will tell. Tuesday
huge events are planned and that could be a
turning point. We'll see.
(013111a)
Yana
Kunichoff the spreading of riots in the Arab
world has Al Jazeera "riding high" on the
Tunisian success and now Egypt is showing signs
of distress.
(012911a) From the AP we have some
WikiLeaks
showing that the US was not that interested in
pushing human rights in
Egypt.
(012911c) From the Daily Mail
we
have some photos from Egypt and reports of the
widespread
discontent.
(012911d) Peter Beaumont, Jack Shenker in Cairo
and Ian Black report
on the crowds swelling into the thousands and
more.
(012911e)
Kevin
Gosztola talks about the tens and hundreds of
thousands of protesters in
Egypt as well
as a military that seems to be less than
interested in clearing streets and firing
weapons. (012911f) and
here is part two
(012911g)
and
then part
three.
(012911h)
Jeffrey Fleishman
reports
on the rioting in Egypt where people were able
to outfox the police and face off against them.
Are times
a'changin? (012511b)
Turkey:
Afghanistan:
Gareth Porter explains to
us how
the US military could experience a 50% increase
in enemy attacks over last year but declare that
the enemy is not getting
stronger,
that, in fact, it is no stronger than it was a
year ago - how to do that? Just simply declare
that enemy strength has not increased. (021811e)
Nadia Prupis reports on
the
opium industry in Afghanistan, still going
strong despite
a crop failure
of sorts and the remarkably ineffective effort
by allies (010611b)
Bahrain:
From Michael Slackman and
Nadim Audi we hear that
in Bahrain for now, at least, the protesters
have been driven off with deaths and hundreds of
wounded.
(021711b)
Michael
Slackman reports that in Bahrain the protests
are getting under way and another square is the
focal point for the protesters.
(021611d)
Iraq:
John
Leland What have we done for Baghdad? Plenty!
Why, just look at the way they live ... off
garbage.
(011211a)
Iran:
From
the BBC we hear of an
"interesting development" Iran has sent a couple
of naval vessels through the Suez
canal for
training practice off Syria. Israel is not
pleased. (022211d)
Iran
claims it has taken another step in the
development of its nuclear
industry.
(010811c)
Pakistan:
From ABC news we hear of
the
row between the US and Pakistan over a man
Pakistan accuses of a double murder and now the
case expands as Pakistan accuses another
consular employee of killing a third
Pakistani,
both involved with the incident. This has become
a sore point between the two nations and,
apparently, the US ambassador to the nation has
not been, shall we say, diplomatic and or all
that capable. It does not help that the accused
double murderer, a Mr. Davis, is rumored to be
involved with terrorist networks and all sorts
of "juicy" items. Other articles state that the
Pakistani authorities are fearful that the US
will make an attempt on his life. (022111f)
and
here are some more details.
The Pakistani
site originating the story has been unavailable
for some time now. (022111g)
William
Rivers Pitt gives us a bit on the risky nature
of Pakistan's circumstances.
The portrait
is bleak and this is not "news" per se, the
comments following the article, those critical
of Mr. Pitt's article, do not make for
reassurances. So ... (020511a)
Saudi
Arabia and neighbors:
Saudi
Arabia:
Dubai:
Kuwait:
Yemen:
Laura
Kasinof and Nada Bakri report that
the
president of Yemen has said he'll not run for
reelection in 2013.
My
speculation is that he may not last that long.
(020211b)
Asia:
Greater Asia Islamic Theater News: China,
India,
The Koreas,
Russia,
Azerbaijan:
China:
Donata
Hardenberg reports on the connection between
Sudan and China,
apparently US
oil companies abandoned the place ad so the
Chinese got a foot hold which is now ever so
much more than that. (011111b)
Sudha Ramachandran reports
on
the subtle changes that China is applying to its
relations to India
vis a via
Jammu and Kashmir. India has indicated that "two
can play at that game and I think it has already
begun. (010311d)
India:
Koreas:
Kyrgyzstan:
Nepal:
Russia:
Thailand:
Tibet:
Ukraine:
Turkmenistan:
Vietnam:
News
from Africa and the Sub Sahara Theater
Libya:
Kareem
Fahim and David D. Kirkpatrick let us know that
fighting in Libya is approaching
Tripoli.
Currently Ghadaffi is deploying troops some 50
miles west of Tripoli to forfend any effort to
unseat him. (022311c)
From Al Jazeera we hear
that Gadaffi
is "digging in" to fight it out. But a number of
cities, most notably Benghazi, are out of his
control. In
Benghazi military units deserted and sided with
the people. (022211a)
David
D. Kirkpatrick and Mona El-Naggar report that
Qaddafi's
control is
slipping,
Libya's second city, Benghanzi, is in "rebel"
hands and the capital is chaotic. The jasmine
revolution looks set to take out another secular
Arab leader. (022111i)
Morocco:
Somalia:
Tunisia:
David Mednicoff brings us
his thoughts on how
secular governments such as that which was in
Tunisia and is still in Egypt compare to those
where "royalty" prevail when it comes to
stability.
(013011b)
Cam
McGrath a number of persons have burned
themselves to death in the Arab world since the
events in Tunisia and one wonders if further
changes will be
inspired.
(012311b)
From
Reuters we hear that protests in Tunisia
continue despite the fact that many of the
highest government officials "officially" quit
the party they belonged
to. The people
don't buy this as "change you can believe in"
and want a new slate. (012111c)
Yvonne
Ridley reports on the Tunisian government's
collapse. A
suicide lit the fuse, WikiLeaks fanned the
resultant flames but it was ordinary human
courage facing off against murderous intent that
make the difference after decades of repression
and abuse. (011611f)
Ryan Rifai gives us a
timeline of the
significant events in Tunisia which lead up to
the leader of that nation abandoning
office and
running for it. (011411a) From
Aljazeera we get some info about where the
leader went but no clue as to whether or not the
government will stand
(011411c)
Larbi
Sadiki reports on
the instability of various nations from the
increasingly violent state of Tunisia to Egypt
and others
where elderly leaders and corruption make for a
fragile state of affairs.
(011111c)
Pacific
and Australian News:
Australia:
Japan:
News
from the land south of the Ol' Rio Grande:
Columbia:
Cuba:
Ecuador:
El
Salvador:
Guatemala:
Haiti:
Georgianne
Niena has it that
the preliminaries to the upcoming election in
Haiti are not
over,
apparently someone's "plan" has gone awry.
(020811e)
Sebastian
Smith reports on the "progress" in Haiti a year
after the
earthquake.
Disappointing is an appropriate word. After all
the Katrina episode proved how well we can take
care of our own, and that situation is still
wanting as well. (011211b)
Honduras:
Mexico:
Peru:
It's
not nice to fool Mother Nature:
Reuters
another report on the burgeoning crisis in food
prices.
(021611a) John M. Broder reports that
a
UN expert is saying that global climate change
is effecting food production and thus, pricing
and thus, also, political
stability.
(021611b)
Leslie Thatcher reports on
the Monsanto
Monster now bringing an end to organic beef in a
market place near you and threatening nations
overseas.
(021611e)
From the Mail Guardian
we
hear a report that the global stock of oysters
is in decline
due to over
harvest, destruction of their environment and
disease. (020411b)
Damian
Carrington provides some coverage of the drought
in the Amazon.
This is
another tipping point. It may be that the Amazon
rain forest is changing from a carbon sink to an
emitter and could emit as much Carbon into the
atmosphere as does China. (020411c)
From
Rudy Ruitenberg we have the salient quote from
an uncomfortable
article: "We
don't want to accept this speculation on
agricultural commodities, which undoubtedly
enriches a lot of people but which impoverishes
the rest of the planet," Le Maire said. "We
determinately reject speculation that leads to
the ruin of farmers and an unstable situation in
emerging countries. (012411a)And from Pallab
Ghosh we have a dovetailing article which
talks
of a "perfect storm" comprised of global
warming, population growth and speculation in
food markets which threatens to effect the food
security of hundreds of millions on this sweet
little world of
ours.
(012411b) And
if those articles are not enough, a larger
picture of what 2011 may hold is disconcerning
as well
(012411d)
Axel
Bojanowski reports to update us on the changing
Rift Valley of east
Africa.
Volcanic activity and earthquakes are
increasingly common and the landscape is
evolving at a rate that fantastically fast,
geologically speaking. Change may come sooner
than anyone thinks and it will be a large scale
change. (012111a)
Richard
Black writing for the BBC reports on 2010 being
either the warmest year on record or darned
close to it.
(012011a)
Mike Ludwig the salient
news brief has it that 99
to 100 percent of women have toxic chemicals
coursing through their
bodies, DDT
has been found for example and others which
could put developing babies at risk.
(012011d)
Dale
Bowman reports on another die off, of fish this
time, and on Chicago's
shoreline.
It's just one kind of fish but at least some
birds are happy. (011211c)
Wil
Longbottom gives an overview of the mass animal
deaths that have spotted the news and the globe
this week.
(010811e)
Maggie
Fox reports on the losses of four species of
Bumblebees,
catastrophic
is an appropriate term when range contracts by
87% and population declines by 96%
(010411b)
David Sirota talks about
the New York's newest annual extravaganza
"snowpocalypse" but Mr.
"I'm a friggin' billionaire so give me a break"
Bloomberg thinks that because Broadway shows are
getting full houses that the city is just fine
thank you. No matter deaths in the city
attributable to the cut backs he engineered in
snow clearing
crews.
(010111b)
Meanwhile, in the southern
half of the globe we have Australia's annual
extravaganza getting into full swing,
a
flood zone larger than France and Germany
combined effects hundreds of thousands and will
force the further pinching of
pennies.
(010111c)
The
Future in the News!
AND our Presstitutes inaction:
WackyWiki:
According to
thinkprogress.org
there are several nations in line to "enjoy" the
benefits of the "jasmine"
revolution. I
hope for a sea change that will spread globally.
Could this be what we've been waiting for?
(021311e)
Eric Boehlert reports on
an interview with a FoxNews
insider who reports that they spin, make things
up and more. Surprised? No, not
really, there
has been some coverage of that, but not much.
(021311f)
Robb Kall expresses
my
hope that the Huffington Post will gain a
greater reach and so will, therefore, a liberal
perspective.
Of course, if that does not pan out there will
be one less "liberal" voice in the world.
(020711a)
From Reuters, who got it
from a Norwegian paper, who got it from
WikiLeaks who got it from Assange who got it
from Manning ...??? Need I go on?
This
story purports to illuminate the Iranian' drive
for nuclear
weapons. Not
that they're not, but this kind of headline is
what the hard right in the US and Israel want.
(011711a)
Mike Whitney reports on
more WikiLeaks information. This
describes how the Lebanese government conspired
with the US and Israel in the latter's attack on
Hezbollah a couple of years
ago, the plan
was for Israel to knock Hezbollah down and for
the Lebanese army to finish them off. It did not
work. This revelation roils the region to some
degree. (010811a)
Another
WikiLeak: Israel kept the screws tight on Gaza
keeping its economy on the brink of collapse.
(010811d)
According
to Wikileaks documents nearly a year ago Israel
was gearing up for a "big war" against its
neighboring
foes, Lebanon,
Gaza and I guess the West Bank, but that is not
mentioned. The essential is that an Israeli
military official spoke, briefed, an American
government official and those are the purported
facts. I guess time will tell, won't it.
(010311c)
Presstitues:
From the CSM we have a
report on Olberman's leaving MSMBC.
This year the "left" has lost more of its
pillars and so skews, ever more seriously, to
the Reich, uh, right, the perspectives available
to the American public for
consideration.
(012211d)
William
Rivers Pitt fires back incendiary verbiage at
the Reich wing, nut job,
blabosphere
(011011a) Steve
Rendall has a reminder of how "hate speak" has
resulted in making the "weak minded" into
killers. (011011b) and from Michael Winship we
hear the similar connection between "hate speech
media" and the whacko's that find inspiration
from them to go out and "take direct
action."
(011011c)
The
legacy: America's
"selection of 2000" Repuglican'
Party, Obama
and North
of the Rio Grande
The
lame George W. Jackass Legacy:
Gustav Wynn reports on
the
Huffington Post's exposure of the "Bush War" in
Iraq and how our government lied while our media
gave them plenty of
cover. Bush
lied over a million died.
(022211b)
If
you can believe some of this stuff, some of it
is HARD, but this is the Rethuglican way of
thinking.
(022011a) it
is called their "war on women"
Here
are the referencing links to the articles for
each of the ten items
(022111b)
This is my "favorite":
South
Dakota is considering altering their definition
of "justifiable homicide" to include allowing
family members to kill an abortion provider who
provided said services for a family
member.
(022111c)
Debbie
Hines give us the overview of how the "new"
Rethuglian majority in the house is
doing. After
chanting "jobs, jobs jobs" during the election
they are not only doing nothing to make jobs but
are seeing to it that jobs are lost, benefits
are trashed and women get less protection. I
guess it must sound like progress to someone,
but now me. (021611c)
Again
from PressTV we hear a story that Bush may have
"justice waiting for him" when and if he travels
overseas.
(020811d)
Mike Ludwig reports on
another instance in which our
"government
of the people" has been sadly used by corporate
idiots who don't know what they're doing, except
when they're making money or whoopie, and
damaging the
environment in
the meantime. (020711c)
Max Fraad-Wolff and
Richard D. Wolff talk about the
latest conservative idiocy, blaming public
service workers and their pensions as being part
of the economic problem.
No matter that
the statistics do not bear that out; not so odd
that the media plays it the way corporations
want it to be played. (013111b)
Eric
Lipton has it that the Bushites violated the
law, the evidence is in but no one is willing to
do anything about
it. So it
goes. (012511a)
De Capo Press brings us a
piece by Michael Wolraich - it
is an analysis of Glen Beck's rise to influence
and how he's made his place in the Pantheon of
Reich Wing
Idiotologues.
(012211c)
Peter
H. Kemp talks to the "whackers" those public
figures who have publicly called for Assange's
death.
(011611d)
Steve
Striffler speaks on Jared Loughner's Politics
from a broader perspective.
The comments
are a rich variety of takes on the article and
the matter at hand; a worthy read. (011511a)
Nadia Prupis, the
"jackanapes branch of the
Rethuglican trash machine is set to start off
the congressional session with a bang, voting to
kill
Obamacare. No
debate, discussion, research, hearings or any
such nonsense - Sounds like gummint varmints to
me, ya'll. (010411a)
Chris
Hedges talks about what Nader says about things
going Rethuglican in a handbasket.
Nice.
(010311a)
Christopher Brauchli
reports on a congressman
King who wants to hold "hearings" because, as he
says, "When I meet with law enforcement, they
are constantly telling me how little cooperation
they get from Muslim
leaders
[when conducting terror
investigations.]" and so congressional
hearings are on the 2011 agenda and Muslims will
be the focus. (010111a)
Repuglican
Party and its "Tea Party"
munchkins:
From Lauren Monica we hear
about how Governor
Walker was punked by a man imitating David Koch
and how plans for bringing in troublemakers to
bring violence was being thought of and evidence
for a bribe was offered.
(022311b)
From
the BBC we hear of what I call the "Wisconsin
Flap"
spreading to other states as workers unite in
protest against the Jackass Wing of the
Rethuglican Party, the Wing-nut Faction of the
Tea Party and their fascistic enablers such as
the Koch Brothers. (022211e)
proposals In Lansing Mich the same thing is
happening.
(022211f)
From ABC news we hear that
the Wisconsin
lawmakers fled Madison in order to defend the
rights of the tens of thousands protesting in
the capital. I
recall a similar event that happened in Texas
during the Bush occupation of this country. More
power to them. (021811d) William
Rivers Pitt gives us a take on Madison's
protest. Maybe
the US citizenry is waking up. One wonders if
they police or National Guard will be called out
as mentioned. Times are getting lively.
(021811e)
Robert
Pollin and Jeffrey Thompson report on the Reich
Wing's nutjob attack on public employee
unions.
Regardless of the facts the tin foil hat branch
of the Rethuglican/Tea Party want to blame
someone for the pain, and it may as well be an
innocent who has, except for Wisconsin,
forgotten how to defend themselves.
(022111j)
John Nichols of The Nation
reports that in
Wisconsin a wildly Rethuglian governor is going
full bore to attack public employee unions
who have in
turn shown up in Madison by the tens of
thousands. Maybe things like this that are long
overdue are getting started in the US, finally.
(021711a)
Obama:
Kevin
Zeese reports on Obama's budgetary priorities.
When it comes
to cutting no military items are put on the
block. Everything else is "on the butcher's
block" (022211c)
Heavy
handed FBI actions against American Citizens
amount to harassment no matter that baseless
charges are being
pursued.
(022111d) and
here is part two of the
story.
(022111e)
From the Partnership for
Civil Justice we have a story of
"Hillasourus
Wrecks" who, speaking condemning governments
that arrest peaceful protesters, kept speaking
as her thugs bead a man who was standing
silently watching.
Apparently
his shirt was offensive? (021711c)
William
Fisher reports on the "latest trend" in prison
design, the "Communication Management
Units" where
everyone is incommunicado. It's weird!
(012111b)
Katrina
vanden Heuvel reports on the efforts to undo
Citizens United.
And
speculates on how they may come about.
(011911a)
William J. Broad, John
Markoff and David E. Sanger report for
the
"reputable" NYT that Israel and the US conspired
to use the "stuxnet" virus to infect the
computers used in Irans nuclear program.
(011611a) Say,
wouldn't that be an act of war? Just
asking.
Rob Kall gives us a bit of
an update on the stuxnet, US, Israel and Iran
episode. The
speculation is that it could be considered an
act of war to damage another country's
industrial
capacity.
(011611e)
From
AP we hear of a Reichwing nutjob threatening the
lives of government officials in
Indiana. The
"wild child" is currently being held on 100K
bail. (011611b)
From
Glen Greenwald we have a bit of coverage on
Bradley Manning, a new kind of
pioneer.
(011511b)
Andrew
Kreig reports on Obamawankenobi's war on whistle
blowers. The
witch hunt is underway and damaging enough as it
is. But that Obama is in favor is yet another
error pile he is stepping into.
(011111a)
Christopher
Lawrence has us look at the "damn the teacher,
full corporatization ahead" movement for
reforming the education
system.
(010811d)
Joanne Barkan writing in
Dissent Magazine's Op-Ed illuminates
the
disproportionate influence billionaires have on
US education and how, despite their "reform
efforts" they
have not had anything like real success. Further
US students DO compare well with students around
the world - no matter how the rich dimbulbs
confabulate otherwise. (010611c)
Roger Shuler reports on
politics gone bad, how bad? How
about a man found dead in a land fill who is
associated with the purchase of tankers, a 35
billion dollar contract, Alabama politics and
big business as
usual.
(010511a)
Stephen Zunes offers us
that "ol' timey fa'rit" musical question, can US
policy in the Middle East get worse? And the not
to surprising answer is why faster than you can
hable, "si se puede" you
can see that we CAN do MUCH WORSE and thankfully
with gutless hawk-eye Pelosi, Benjamin
Nutty-yahoo and a crop of Neanderthal
Rethuglicans coming into congress we'll get a
bird's eye view on this caper as it
unfolds
(101011d)
North
of the Rio Grande
Economics
101 in the News:
Stanley Kutler reports
that the origins of most
all the "deficit problem" in Wisconsin is due to
a 117 million dollar set of tax cuts to the
rich. The
governors own fiscal watch dog said this package
would create a huge deficit and that without it
the state would have been in the black.
(022311a)
David Glenn Cox has it
that
those in the know are bailing
out. He uses
only a few cases and says there are more but the
salient parts of the article are the facts
concerning what's called "quantitative easing".
(021311a) and
here is part
two.
(021311b)
Greg
Hunter has it that the unemployment rate may be
as high as 22%.
It seems the
magic of math is being used to help make a
recovery out of whole cloth. (020811f)
Paul
Craig Roberts reports on the "Kleptocracy of
Brunei" as compared with that of the
US. By the
way, the US wins the "comparison.
(020711b)
Robert
Reich let's us in on a secret, "the street" is
up, way up and doing fine; housing is down,
maybe double dipping
and the
average Joe is suffering. Yet headlines are
heady claiming "recovery" or "bounce back" and
so forth and so on. (020211d)
Here
we see Raffi Cavoukian using the mythical story
of King Midas to compare what some moderns call
"monetization"
meaning how we translate "everything" into money
and how this penchant for perverting our
perspective on the world has indeed provoked the
global climate changes that are, even now,
sweeping away the old Earth and bringing forth
the new, perhaps less user friendly one.
(013011a)
Andrew Steele talks about
what I call the
"dollar effect" that meaning the manner in which
the dollar is being manipulated, meaning printed
up willy-nilly, has caused inflationary effects
overseas. This
has caused price inflation in other nations that
have to import dollar denominated items, which
means most all major staple commodities.
(020111g)
Stephen T. Asma reports on
a man exonerated for the murder of his own
daughter.
It seems his confession was forced that either
fortune or fate managed to intervene on his
behalf through the US justice
system. DNA
evidence was the key and it was not "heard" for
several years. Amazing (013011c)
Joseph
E. Stiglitz reports that the economic cures
being offered in the "first world" are not
taking hold.
One would think that the lessons of Japan during
the 1990's and of the US in the late 20's would
be heard, but you'd be wrong. The big banks and
Wall Street are doing well, thank you very much,
but a jobless "boom at the top" is not going to
last, or rather will last as long as money is
being printed. (012411c)
Robert Weissman gives us
the highlights of corporate control of congress
this past year; he makes the
case that more of such is to come the rallying
cry? "Regulation gets in the way of
jobs"
(012311a)
From
Alternet we have a snapshot of how the global
economy works,
first JP Morgan pumps up the housing market,
when it crashes they get US tax money, then they
foreclose, illegally, then they get into the
"food stamp debit card" biz, then they outsource
the service call jobs to someplace in India - to
save bucks. They make money everyone else gets
screwed. Nice work if you can morally afford it,
as they can, it seems. (012211a)
Here
we have an analysis of the role that the US
dollar plays in global
inflation. As
we print our money, other currencies, tied to
it, are effected. Our "quantitative easing"
becomes inflationary pressure overseas and this
effects, for one thing, food prices, oil, gold
and whatever else. (011611c)
Ellen Brown talks about
the
coming insolvency of municipalities and some
states while the Fed, and congress,
fiddles.
(011411b)
Michael
S. Rozeff reports that "big wigs" think that the
"day of reckoning" for the US dollar is near to
hand. The
annual tradition of "raising the debt ceiling"
is needed, but in other articles we read about a
Rethuglican" Tea Party plan to thwart any
raising of that ceiling. Economic chaos would
ensue if those idiots get their way, but maybe
chaos is the plan. (011111f) From PressTV we
hear
about another move to change the status of the
US dollar from its preeminent position as the
world's reserve currency. Something unthinkable
even a few years
ago.
(011111g)
Non-employment,
those who've quit looking or have never found
work to begin with, unemployment, those who are
still looking for work, underemployment, those
who would work more hours, need better pay or
have downgraded to accommodate their changed
circumstances are
legion. The
comments are interesting too.
(011111e)
Jerry
White reports on the increasing numbers of
bankrupt Americans
(010811b)
Javier Blas reports
that
the cost index measuring the expense of staple
food supplies globally has reached the kind of
insupportable peak seen in 2008.
That was not
a good time to a poor human in a "third world"
country. This time around the old record is
broken and it seems like the peak price range is
still in the offing. (010611a)
News
of Hope:
Gabriel Donohoe lets us
know that Dennis
Kucinich has done it again, proposed to have
money be just that, money, not an interest
bearing note of
debt.
(021811a) l
and part two
(021811b)
and,
finally, part three
(021811c)
Ellen Brown lets us know
that the
"state banking movement" is gaining
momentum is
the good news in the economic realm. (021611f)
From Alternet we hear from
Vermont,
apparently they've had enough of corporate rape
and have drafted a constitutional amendment with
would deny corporations the status of
personhood,
which is a source of real power for them.
(012211b)
Some
News from our "storied" Past:
Going
back to 9/11 we have some thoughts on the flight
that "came to earth" in Pennsylvania
(012911b)
Ira Chernus has us glance
back to Eisenhower's renown "military industrial
complex' speech. It
seems that the phrases that followed the oft
quoted passage offer us a very different look at
the man who peaceniks laud as a "reasonable
man" (012011b)
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