by Gary Leupp / January 30th, 2012
A recent column by the always insightful Ray McGovern succinctly demonstrates the problem.
The world of science acknowledges matter-of-factly that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program. There is simply no evidence for one. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, staffed by specialists on nuclear power and maintaining a tight watch on Iran’s civilian facilities, finds no evidence of a military program. Two successive reports (National Intelligence Estimates) produced (in 2007 and 2010) by all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies have declared with confidence that there is no operative weapons program. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and (even) Israel’s Defense …
by Tom Burghardt / January 30th, 2012
When the European Union declared on Monday that it will impose an oil embargo on the Islamic Republic, it set the stage for a new escalation of the Western-created crisis over claims that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program.
In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama declared amid thunderous applause and a standing ovation from Congress, “Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal.”
Similar to sanctions legislation signed into law by Obama on December 31, the EU-approved …
Return of “The Decider” Stuns Washington; GOP Presidential Debates Thrown Into Chaos
by Michael K. Smith / January 30th, 2012
Related Headlines
Bush Pick Hailed as “Pragmatic Master Stroke”
Outraged Biden Joins Tea Party, Threatens To Sue
Obama Lauds Bush Vow To “Follow the Cheney Tradition” as VP
Washington, January 27 — Barack Obama today named George W. Bush of Crawford, Texas as his running mate, the first ex-president selected to run for Vice President on a major party ticket. The president announced his historic step before an ebullient crowd of Blackwater mercenaries on the White House lawn. ”There’s an electricity in the air, an excitement, a sense of new possibilities and of pride,” Obama told a section of cheering snipers moments after disclosing …
by Ron Jacobs / January 30th, 2012
Unlike a couple of years ago, when the consensus was split, there recently seems to be a growing consensus among pundits and certain politicians that Washington will be launching a military attack on Iran. While pundits do not have the power to make war, politicians in Congress certainly do. Furthermore, pundits convinced that this is an advisable route will do their best to bend the ears of those politicians so that there wishes can be filled, especially if those pundits are representing interests that believe they would benefit from such an attack.
Why now? Part of the reason is because the …
by Kathleen Wallace Peine / January 30th, 2012
Sometimes you should just say you got it wrong or think there’s a high probability that you didn’t get it right.
I penned a piece just the other day voicing my frustration with the newly formed Justice Party and the presidential candidacy of Rocky Anderson. I never had any misgivings about the platform of that party which, if you take the time to research, covers all the hot spots — reform of Citizen’s United, restoration of basic Constitutional rights, curbing the MIC… In short, it’s a wish list for populists, or even those simply aware that we are on a path …
by Kathleen Wallace Peine / January 28th, 2012
I promised you. And here’s the party it turned into.
So sing the New Pornographers, and so sounds in my head, as I consider the third party option that dangled brightly for but a moment. I’m talking about the Justice Party and their candidate for president, Rocky Anderson.
Yes, the Justice Party was a bit of a hokey name to go with, providing mental images of superheroes in tights, but clearing that away, the word justice is pretty beautiful if ever realized. What I was able to glean from their talking points, the party and Anderson, that is, cover most of the issues …
by Fidel Castro / January 28th, 2012
Cuba found itself forced to fight for its existence against an expansionist power located a few miles off its coast that had declared the annexation of our island and that believed our destiny was to fall into their lap like a piece of ripe fruit. We were condemned to cease to exist as a nation.
Jose Marti was among the glorious legion of patriots who. throughout the second half of the 19th century, fought against the loathsome colonialism brandished by Spain for 300 years. Marti most clearly foresaw such a dramatic destiny and expressed this view in the last lines he …
by Martha Rosenberg / January 28th, 2012
“People love turkey. We love turkey, too,” says the corporate website for Butterball, the nation’s largest vertically integrated turkey producer.
Butterball is certified by the British Retail Consortium, says the site, on “300 elements related to food safety and quality, as well as worker safety, environmental impact and management commitment.” The turkey processor practices “good citizenship” based on “self-governance,” “social responsibility,” and “sustainability.”
But search for the words “welfare,” “Mercy For Animals” or “Shannon, North Carolina” (where a grisly Christmas-time expose took place) and you will get no results. Maybe you didn’t spell the words correctly.
…
by Frank Scott / January 28th, 2012
Class consciousness is knowing which side of the fence you’re on.
Class analysis is knowing who is there with you.
America has finally developed a movement for social change that seems conscious of political economic divisions that transcend race, sex or other very serious but sometimes overstressed problems. That movement offers the only solution to the inequality which grows more glaring and unjust. Calls for the 99% to take control from the 1% at the top of the financial pyramid are threatening to that ruling minority, its agents from the upper levels of the 99%, and the totally misinformed from the bottom. …
by Chris Pratt / January 28th, 2012
After failing to get COICA (Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act) passed in 2010, he is back again this year with PIPA. Do not forget PIPA is the son of COICA. Back then (2010) while the Vermont ACLU was nominating Senator Patrick Leahy as the Civil Libertarian of the Year, the national ACLU office was writing him a letter in opposition to COICA legislation. Senator Wyden from Oregon subsequently tabled it.
These guys really love their acronyms. This ridiculous name – PIPA – or PROTECT IP stands for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and the Theft of Intellectual Property. …
by John V. Walsh / January 27th, 2012
There are distressing signs that some antiwar progressives are withdrawing support for Obama as the 2012 election draws near. A few have gone so far as to whisper a begrudging respect for Ron Paul, although they have scrupulously refrained from acting on it. It is high time to stem this tide carrying votes away from our president, to take a stand, to show some ovarian fortitude and to slog on for Obama. In just such a spirit this pledge is offered for anti-interventionist progressives, a term redundant under Bush but edging closer to oxymoronic under Obama.
I pledge in the year …
The People United Will Never Be Defeated
by Kevin Zeese / January 27th, 2012
The labor movement has been in decline for decades, while more than one-third of employed people belonged to unions in 1945, union membership fell to 24.1% of the U.S. work force in 1979 and to 13.9% in 1998. Today, including all workers public and private, 11.4% are union members, for workers outside of government it is only 6.5%. Restrictive laws make organizing workers very difficult so a new strategy is needed to increase worker power. That strategy needs to include uniting unions, non-union workers and the people. The 99% needs to see that it is everyone’s interest to have a …
by Herb Dyer / January 27th, 2012
Mozart, Pascal, Boolean algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Balanchine ballets, et al. don’t redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history.
— Partisan Review, 1967.
After coming under heavy criticism for this statement, Sontag eagerly recanted and revised it, saying that “it slandered cancer patients.”
As representatives and protectors of America’s white supremacist ethos, the current …
by Ramzy Baroud / January 27th, 2012
The country that has long been known to abuse its powers and privileges in the United Nations is now leading a campaign to reform the same organization. While UN reforms are welcomed, if not demanded, by many of its member states, there is little reason to believe the recent US crusade is actually genuine. Rather, it seems a clear attempt to stifle any semblance of democracy in the world’s leading international institution.
Most American politicians actually despise the UN. While the Security Council is directed or tamed by the US veto (often to shield the US and its close ally Israel …
by Steve Salmony / January 27th, 2012
Humankind could soon come face to face with an incredible and unprecedented situation. We are spectacularly successful at doing something potentially ruinous of all we claim to be protecting and preserving as we ever more rampantly increase our exploitation of natural resources and continually increase our food production and distribution capabilities. Stupidly we hold fast to a wicked idea that, if we do not do these things, a catastrophe will follow.
This upside down, deluded thinking is leading us to risk the precipitation of a colossal disaster of some unimaginable sort. The continuous plunder of limited resources and conversion of biomass into human mass, …
