Saturday, November 07, 2009

The American War on Pot Rolls On

By Sherwood Ross
November 7, 2009

Seven million Americans have been arrested since 1995 on marijuana charges and 41,000 of them are rotting in federal and state prisons. Thousands of other pot users and sellers are confined in local jails. But the public is starting to rebel against “the preposterous war on pot,” two political scientists say.

Read on.

Friday, November 06, 2009

The Crazy October Surprise Debunking

By Robert Parry
November 6, 2009

Patently absurd reasoning in someone’s argument can often tell you about the strength of the underlying facts. If an argument is deceptive on its face, you might suspect the supporting facts are pretty fragile, too.

Read on.

Obama Fails to Reset Foreign Policy

By Melvin A. Goodman
November 6, 2009

President Barack Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, will go down in history as one of America's worst presidents, squandering diplomatic, international and economic assets that were bequeathed to him.

Read on.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

A 'Middle Way' on Afghanistan

By Bruce P. Cameron
November 5, 2009

U.S. policymakers may be contemplating some middle way on Afghanistan, but I haven’t seen it yet, at least not from the words and signals coming from President Barack Obama’s administration.

Read on.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Finding Vietnam War Positives

By William Blum
November 4, 2009

Not the crazy, hateful right wing, not racist or disrupting public meetings, not demanding birth certificates ... but the respectable right, holding high positions in academia and in every administration, Republican or Democrat, members of the highly esteemed Council on Foreign Relations.

Read on.

How Two Elections Changed America

By Robert Parry
November 4, 2009

Two clandestine operations during hard-fought presidential elections of the past half century shaped the modern American political era, but they remain little known to the general public and mostly ignored by historians. One unfolded in the weeks before Election 1968 and the other over a full year before Election 1980.

Read on.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Will a 'Surge' Work in Afghanistan

By Ivan Eland
November 3, 2009

Although President Barack Obama has more empathy for the opinions of the Islamic world than his predecessor and seems to vaguely understand that those opinions do affect U.S. security, he doesn’t seem to understand specifically that U.S. meddling in and occupation of Muslim countries inflames Islamic radicals and is the main cause of blowback anti-U.S. Islamist terrorism.

Read on.

Heeding George Kennan's Sage Advice

By Ray McGovern
November 3, 2009

I can’t remember how many times I have said that the U.S. military adventure in Afghanistan is a fool’s errand.

Read on.

Monday, November 02, 2009

Chomsky Doubts Change from Obama

By Mamoon Alabbasi
November 3, 2009

As civilized people across the world breathed a sigh of relief to see the back of former U.S. President George W. Bush, top American intellectual Noam Chomsky warned against assuming or expecting significant changes in the basis of Washington's foreign policy under President Barack Obama.

Read on.

Pentagon's Gates Plays Ugly American

By Melvin A. Goodman
November 2, 2009

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates played the "ugly American" in Tokyo, cast in a quasi-diplomatic role he should not be given. This performance speaks to the need for a demilitarized national security policy.

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The Incredible Shrinking Public Option

By Robert Parry
November 2, 2009

When the U.S. health care debate began last spring, the insurance industry and its congressional defenders fretted over the prospect that 119 million Americans might defect from private insurance to a public option, thus devastating the business model of wealthy insurance companies.

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Don't Miss Michael Jackson's 'This is It'

By Lisa Pease
November 2, 2009

Go see “This is It” while you can, even if -- perhaps especially if -- you are not a Michael Jackson fan. Seeing him for yourself allows you to get to know the man, not the media image of him, which is pretty far from the more talented reality.

Read on.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Cheney and the Plame-gate Cover-up

By Robert Parry
November 2, 2009

If Dick Cheney is to be believed, he wasn’t very upset that former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson criticized the Bush administration for having “twisted” intelligence to support its false pre-war claim that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium from Africa.

Read on.