Saturday, June 12, 2010

El Paso 'Cat and Mouse' Turns Fatal

By Dennis Bernstein and Jesse Strauss
June 12, 2010

It was a blistering Monday evening in El Paso. The heat had jumped past 95 degrees and it was about to get a lot hotter in this militarized border town, with checkpoints and helicopters flying over head.

Read on.

Friday, June 11, 2010

America's Covert Democracy

By Danny Schechter
June 11, 2010

Defending America covertly has become an ongoing theme for one more TV series. Salute the flag and praise NBC (GE) for its latest effort to persuade the population to accept the kind of secret operations that now drive the war in Afghanistan.

Read on.

Roberts' Court Sinks Campaign Reform

By Michael Winship
June 11, 2010

At a dinner party, an ever-so-proper aristocrat who had been at the British evacuation of Dunkirk 60 years ago, remained tightlipped despite intense questioning from the other guests about what he had seen there. Finally, he shuddered at the memory and exclaimed, "The noise, my dear, and the people!"

Read on.

The Troubling Mystery of 'Revelation'

By the Rev. Howard Bess
June 11, 2010

Every time there is a crisis in the United States or the world, real or imagined, a significant part of the Christian population takes on a renewed interest in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, with its vivid imagery of violent conflict between Good and Evil.

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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Imagining Courage and Sanity

By William Blum
June 10, 2010

Things internationally are so dispiriting there's nothing left to do but fantasize.

Read on.

Obama Goes with Neocon Flow on Iran

By Robert Parry
June 10, 2010

Whether wittingly or witlessly, President Barack Obama is pursuing a neocon-charted path on Iran that parallels the one that George W. Bush took to war with Iraq – ratcheting up sanctions against the “enemy,” refusing to tolerate more peaceful options, and swaggering along with the propagandistic tough-guy-ism of the major U.S. news media.

Read on.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Obama Shies from Real Intel Reform

By Melvin A. Goodman
June 9, 2010

President Barack Obama's appointment of retired Gen. James Clapper as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) demonstrates the Pentagon's enormous influence over the President and indicates that there is little likelihood of genuine reform of the hidebound intelligence community.

Read on.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Standing Up for Helen Thomas

By Robert Parry
June 8, 2010

Long-time White House correspondent Helen Thomas was right to apologize for a stupid remark she made about Israeli Jews leaving Palestine, but another ugly part of this incident was how her “mainstream” colleagues quickly turned on this 89-year-old icon.

Read on.

Monday, June 07, 2010

Terrorism and Israel's Attack at Sea

By Ivan Eland
June 8, 2010

Details of Israel’s attack on the flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza remain in dispute as Israel and other nations negotiate over who will conduct an investigation. But even if Israel’s spin about its attack on the flotilla is accepted, the situation is still fairly damning for Israel.

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Israel's Attack and the Cycle of Blame

By Michael Winship
June 7, 2010

“Where is the balance between wisdom and force?”

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Bush's Torture Experiments Criticized

By Jason Leopold
June 7, 2010

Physicians for Human Rights has accused the Bush administration of using “war on terror” detainees as human “guinea pigs” to gauge the effectiveness of various torture techniques, a practice that has raised troubling comparisons to Nazi-era human experimentation.

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Wall Street Reform Under Siege

By Danny Schechter
June 7, 2010

We have less than a month to go before the Congress votes on financial reform.

Read on.

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Obama's 'Drone' Attacks Criticized

By Sherwood Ross
June 6, 2010

The United Nations independent investigator on extrajudicial killings wants countries that employ lethal drone attacks to first prove they have attempted to capture or incapacitate suspects.

Read on.