Monday, August 09, 2010

Is Anti-Tax Rage Fueled by Racism?

By Jay Diamond
August 9, 2010

The momentum, the mass and the driving force behind the anti-tax, anti-government cult of the last 30 years has been RACISM.

Read on.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Lack of Jobs Kills Hope of Recovery

By Danny Schechter
August 9, 2010

In Washington, the Obama economic team has sprung a leak. First, Budget Director Peter Orszag, the calculating numbers savant, bailed. And now, “distinguished” economist Christina Romer, the only woman in that inner circle boys club has quit too.

Read on.


Reflections on the Ninth of August

By Gary G. Kohls
August 8, 2010

On the 9th of August 1945, an all-Christian B-29 bomber crew took off from Tinian Island in the South Pacific with the blessings of Catholic and Protestant chaplains.

Read on.

Pfc. Manning and the Value of Truth

By Ray McGovern
August 8, 2010

We are living in a liminal time, that is to say we live on the threshold. So much that we have taken for granted is passing.

Read on.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Letting Torturers Go Free

By Sherwood Ross
August 6, 2010

Although U.S. officials have attributed the torture of Muslim prisoners in American custody to a handful of maverick guards or limited to a few “high-value detainees,” such criminal acts were widely perpetrated, likely involving large numbers of military personnel, a book by a survivor suggests.

Read on.

October Surprise Cover-up Unravels

By Robert Parry
August 6, 2010

Not to belabor a point, but some die-hard defenders of the October Surprise cover-up continue to insist that there is real evidence debunking the now overwhelming case that Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign interfered with President Jimmy Carter’s negotiations to free 52 American hostages then held in Iran.

Read on.

Thursday, August 05, 2010

The Pleasantly Surprising 'Green Zone'

By David Swanson
August 5, 2010

I expected to be disappointed by "Green Zone.” I mean the movie, not the chunk of Baghdad we've spent seven years and trillions of dollars killing over a million people to steal for an "embassy" containing 21 buildings on 104 acres.

Read on.

Accusation of October Surprise Lying

By Robert Parry
August 5, 2010

Lawrence Barcella, who was chief counsel of the October Surprise investigation, has accused me of lying about him when I wrote that he decided to “hide” a report from the Russian government that contradicted his conclusion of “no credible evidence” that Ronald Reagan’s campaign sabotaged President Jimmy Carter’s attempts to free 52 Americans held hostage in Iran in 1980.

Read on.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Is Iran, like Iraq, 'Asking for War'?

By William Blum
August 4, 2010

If and when the United States and Israel bomb Iran (marking the sixth country so blessed by Barack Obama) – and this sad old world has a new daily horror show to look at on their TV sets – and we then discover that Iran was not actually building nuclear weapons after all, the American mainstream media and the benighted American mind will ask: "Why didn't they tell us that? Did they want us to bomb them?"

Read on.

Palin, Summers and the Crisis of Kitsch

By Phil Rockstroh
August 4, 2010

Given the level of cultural absurdity at large, both the commercially tormented landscape and the mass media dominated mindscape of the United States seem a Gogol goof-take.

Read on.

George Shultz's Counterfeit 'Coin'

By Robert Parry
August 4, 2010

Official Washington’s favorite quote from the Iran-Contra scandal was from Secretary of State George Shultz who famously assured congressional investigators that “trust is the coin of the realm.” What is never acknowledged is that Shultz's coin was counterfeit, that he then lied through his teeth.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

GOP Eyes Big Gains Over the Economy

By Stephen Crockett
August 3, 2010

It seems like the Republicans in Congress have decided that sabotaging economic recovery and employment growth is their best tactic for electoral gains in the November elections.

Read on.

Obama Warned Israel May Bomb Iran

By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (to President Obama)
August 3, 2010

We write to alert you to the likelihood that Israel will attack Iran as early as this month. This would likely lead to a wider war.

Read on.

Can US Live with a Taliban Revival?

By Ivan Eland
August 3, 2010

The 92,000 classified U.S. government documents leaked to WikiLeaks.org didn’t reveal many new shocking truths about the U.S. military quagmire in Afghanistan.

Read on.

Wall Street's Collapse, 3 Years Later

By Danny Schechter
August 3, 2010

We live in the United States of Amnesia and selective memory. As we debate the breaking news, we easily forget the sequence of events that broke the banks and left us broke.

Read on.

Monday, August 02, 2010

WikiLeaks Filled a Journalistic Void

By Mort Rosenblum
August 2, 2010

"Vietraqistan," the chapter on war reporting in Little Bunch of Madmen, explains why WikiLeaks.org is so dangerous and yet - given the Pentagon's news management - also so necessary.

Read on.

Washington's Ethical Double Standard

By Robert Parry
August 2, 2010

As two longtime members of the Congressional Black Caucus – Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters – are dragged into the public square to be punished for alleged ethical indiscretions, it may be worth remembering how Official Washington responded to evidence that President George W. Bush aided and abetted his corrupt benefactors at Enron.

Read on.

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Jesus's Unsettling Lessons for America

By Rev. Howard Bess
August 1, 2010

Typical Christians are very selective in their Bible reading. The parts in which believers find affirmation, they are quick to quote. Bible portions that confront them and their chosen lifestyles are conveniently ignored.

Read on.

Making an Example of Charlie Rangel

By Danny Schechter
August 1, 2010

Charles Rangel must die, politically that is. He has become an embarrassment to a House Speaker who vowed to “clean the swamp” of congressional corruption.

Read on.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Neocons Still Angle for War with Iran

By Gareth Porter
July 31, 2010

Reuel Marc Gerecht's screed justifying a prospective Israeli bombing attack on Iran coincides with the opening of the new Israel lobby campaign marked by the introduction of House Resolution 1553 expressing full support for such an Israeli attack.

Read on.

A Neocon Re-write of American History

By Robert Parry
July 31, 2010

On Friday, the Washington Post offered up its typical balance on the “Washington FORUM” page – two articles by former Bush administration officials (Hank Paulson and Michael Gerson) and two articles by prominent neocons (Robert Kagan and Max Boot). But Boot’s opinion piece – advocating never-ending largesse for the U.S. military – was perhaps the most insidious.

Read on.

Friday, July 30, 2010

To Publish Official Secrets -- or Not

By Robert Parry
July 30, 2010

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and top Pentagon brass are claiming that the lives of Afghan civilians and U.S. soldiers have been put at risk by the leak of some 92,000 classified documents about the Afghan War, waving the bloody shirt (even if they don’t yet have one).

Read on.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Truth Behind the Tea Parties

By Don Monkerud
July 29, 2010

Current attempts to revive that Boston Tea Party of 1773 are marketing gimmicks to masquerade conservative forces bent on defeating Obama and destroying any attempt to reform the present
gridlock political system.

Read on.

The Intellectual Mystery of 'Inception'

By Lisa Pease
July 29, 2010

“Inception” is a frontrunner for awards this year, for a number of factors. The film exists primarily in dream worlds, so the visuals are stunning and surprising. The acting is superb across the board. The story is both intellectually complex and emotionally engaging.

Read on.

The Intellectual Mystery of 'Inception

Hiroshima and the Myths of Empire

By Gary G. Kohls
July 29, 2010

Since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, millions of Americans have not wanted to address honestly the horror of that moment. Many were willing to swallow the post-war propaganda about the destruction of the city as necessary to avert the even worse death and devastation from a full-scale U.S. invasion of Japan.

Read on.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

US Grows Isolated on Aggressive War

By Peter Dyer
July 28, 2010

Though the U.S. political/media establishment remains in denial, an international consensus is building that the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a crime -- a profound and catastrophic violation of international law.

Read on.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

LAPD Unit Breaks Up a Birthday Party

By Dennis Bernstein
July 27, 2010

The Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division, made famous by the videotaped beating of Rodney King almost two decades ago, has been caught in action again – this time on a cell-phone video – breaking up a family birthday party in Pacoima, California.

Read on.

Stumbling Toward a Bleak Horizon

By Danny Schechter
July 27, 2010

As we move into the dog days of summer and a coming congressional recess, the Obama administration has shifted its focus back to the economy and wants to convince one and all that an economic recovery is just around the corner.

Read on.

Israel's Self-Defeating Gaza Embargo

By Ivan Eland
July 27, 2010

In the wake of Israel’s botched attack on a Turkish ship bringing relief to Gazans from Israel’s (and Egypt’s) economic blockade of Gaza, the Israelis have responded to intensely negative world opinion by relaxing the blockade. That move may help Israel as much as Gazans.

Read on.

Monday, July 26, 2010

How Bush Botched the Afghan War

By Robert Parry
July 26, 2010

The 75,000 classified Afghan War reports, which were just published by Wikileaks, provide a troubling narrative of that conflict’s downward spiral as President George W. Bush concentrated the American military on the neoconservative target of choice, Iraq.

Read on.

Afghan War Leaks Expose Costly Folly

By Ray McGovern
July 26, 2010

The brutality and fecklessness of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan have been laid bare in an undisputable way just days before the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on whether to throw $33.5 billion more into the Afghan quagmire, when that money is badly needed at home.

Read on.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

BP Oil Spill Threatens Bayou Tribes

By Dennis Bernstein
July 25, 2010

For unlucky residents of the Gulf States, the BP oil-spill disaster, coming up on 100 days, could take another turn for the worst if one of the storms churning up tropical waters in the Atlantic Ocean blossoms into a full-blown hurricane and heads into the Gulf of Mexico.

Read on.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Other 'Top Secret America'

By Douglas Valentine
July 24, 2010

After Dana Priest’s and William M. Arkin's three-part series, “Top-Secret America,” appeared in the Washington Post, pundits began falling all over themselves in a rush to describe the size and implications of the elephant in the living room, though few saw fit to even notice the elephant before.

Read on.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Terror's Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone

By Ray McGovern
July 23, 2010

A recent exposé in the Washington Post shows that if you have a security clearance and are comfortable being part of a lucrative “self-licking ice cream cone” – a process that offers few if any benefits while perpetuating its own existence – then the “war on terror” is definitely for you!

Read on.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

'Loyal Bushies' Spared Prosecution

By Jason Leopold
July 22, 2010

A special prosecutor, who spent nearly two years investigating whether former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other Bush administration officials committed crimes in connection with the firing of a U.S. Attorney, has ended her probe, saying she found "insufficient evidence" to file charges.

Read on.

New Fin-Reg Law Only a Half-Measure

By Danny Schechter
July 22, 2010

With eleven pens for souvenirs, President Obama signed the financial reform bill in a rare celebratory moment.

Read on.

Pentagon's Robots Transform Warfare

By Sherwood Ross
July 22, 2010

The Pentagon is rapidly improving its ability to fight wars with robots, a capability “bringing about the most profound transformation of warfare since the advent of the atom bomb” and raising “a host of ethical and legal issues,” says Scientific American.

Read on.

The Fight to Protect Social Security

By Kevin Zeese
July 22, 2010

The bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which was created by President Barack Obama earlier this year, is using exaggerated rhetoric to heighten deficit fears at a time when many economists say more government spending is needed to spur hiring and avert a second dip in the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Read on.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Vanunu's Ongoing Persecution in Israel

By Eileen Fleming
July 21, 2010

On May 23, 2010, Mordechai Vanunu began a three-month sentence in solitary confinement on charges of speaking to foreign media in 2004. On Sunday, July 11, 2010, his brother Meir was allowed to visit him for 30 minutes.

Read on.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Right's Power of Infrastructure

By Robert Parry
July 20, 2010

Dwight Eisenhower, after commanding Allied forces in World War II and serving eight years as U.S. President, came to appreciate the power of political and economic infrastructure, leading to his famous warning about the threat to the American Republic from a “military-industrial complex.”

Read on.

No One Wants to Admit Afghan Failure

By Michael Winship
July 20, 2010

A recent headline on the New York Daily News Web site was blunt: "In case you’ve forgotten," it read, "we’re at war."

Read on.

Does Christian Charity Reach 'Illegals'?

By the Rev. Howard Bess
July 20, 2010

When the early Christians faced the challenge of bowing down to Caesar and obeying the Roman government or living by the teachings of Jesus, they followed the teachings of Jesus, becoming a persecuted people. Many lost their lives because of their commitment to their Christ.

Read on.

The Ever-Expanding 'War on Terror'

By Ivan Eland
July 20, 2010

The synchronized and unconscionable bombings by the Somali group al-Shabab — of people doing nothing more than watching soccer games in Kampala, Uganda — counter-intuitively illustrates why the United States should not be fighting Islamic militancy worldwide.

Read on.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Another Police Killing in Oakland, CA

By Dennis Bernstein
July 18, 2010

This weekend, police killed another man at the same rail transit station in Oakland, California, where 22-year-old Oscar Grant was shot in the back last year, a case that resulted in violent clashes this month when the police officer responsible was convicted of only involuntary manslaughter.

Read on.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Oliver Stone Under Assault Again

By Lisa Pease
July 17, 2010

Oliver Stone is under attack again, which isn’t a surprise, given that no other filmmaker has been so willing to challenge the “conventional wisdom” in an effort to uncover the facts about important events.

Read on.

Iranian Scientist, a Different Curveball

By Ray McGovern
July 17, 2010

Useful insights often must be seen through a glass darkly. But some can be pulled through the smoke and mirrors shrouding the wanderings of Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who is now back home in Iran after 14 months in the U.S. as guest of the CIA.

Read on.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Why I am a Jew

By Daniel C. Maguire
July 16, 2010

My coming out as a Jew would certainly surprise my Irish Catholic parents who produced a brood of seven Irish Catholics, including me, three of whom became priests, including me.

Read on.

Dying Sea Turtles Warn of Toxic Gulf

By Dennis Bernstein
July 16, 2010

Many of Nature’s most ardent defenders are gathered in the Gulf of Mexico, engaged in a desperate rescue mission, trying to save not only the wildlife directly endangered by BP’s massive oil spill but the ecosystem’s viability for sustaining future animal life as well as the economic life of coastal communities.

Read on.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Bybee Faults CIA on Torture Excesses

By Jason Leopold
July 15, 2010

Jay Bybee, who as a senior Justice Department lawyer signed two memos in 2002 authorizing CIA interrogators to torture “war on terror” prisoners, told a congressional panel that more than a half dozen other brutal methods were used by the CIA without legal approval.

Read on.

Obama Frees CIA from Its Watchdog

By Melvin A. Goodman
July 15, 2010

President Barack Obama has been a major disappointment to a liberal community that rallied to his call for genuine change.

Read on.

Some Hard Truths about America

By Robert Parry
July 15, 2010

A hard truth about the U.S. economy is that corporations don’t need as many of us as workers but still need us as consumers. That dilemma helps explain why unemployment is stuck near 10 percent and why the economic recovery is stumbling toward a double dip.

Read on.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Oakland Reels after Killer-Cop Verdict

By Dennis Bernstein
July 14, 2010

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums had a chance to shine last Thursday after the verdict was announced in the murder trial of transit cop, Johannes Mehserle, for the Jan. 1, 2009, killing of a 22-year-old, unarmed black man, Oscar Grant.

Read on.

PanAm 103 Verdict: Justice or Politics?

By William Blum
July 14, 2010 (Originally published Feb, 5, 2001)

The newspapers were filled with pictures of happy relatives of the victims of the 1988 bombing of PanAm 103.

Read on.

How James Meredith Beat the Racists

By Sherwood Ross
July 14, 2010

The inscription on the life-sized bronze statue of James Meredith on the campus of the University of Mississippi at Oxford reads “courage,” “perseverance,” “opportunity,” and “knowledge.”

Read on.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Wasteland of Social Media

By Phil Rockstroh
July 13, 2010

In an age, when nature is besieged and the political landscape blighted, and one stands, stoop shouldered and wincing into the howling wasteland of epic-scale idiocy extant in the era, a solitary person can feel lost ... marooned inside an increasingly isolated sense of self.

Read on.

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Rich Work Around the Recession

By Michael Winship
July 12, 2010

I may be one of the only Manhattan residents not disappointed with LeBron James’s televised announcement that, “This fall, I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.”

Read on.

Valentine's 'Pack' Traces Real Drug War

By Adam Engel
July 12, 2010

Relentless is the pack in search of prey, relentless are the wolves. Meticulous is the disclosure of truth about the real“war on drugs,” as chronicled by Douglas Valentine in The Strength of the Pack (“PACK”).

Read on.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Baker's Misfocused 'Family of Secrets'

By James DiEugenio
July 11, 2010

Russ Baker's Family of Secrets has a rather deceptive title. In two ways.

Read on.

Who Goes to Jail? BP CEO or Shrimper

By Dennis Bernstein
July 11, 2010

On June 17, after watching BP’s oil blowout pollute the Gulf of Mexico for nearly two months, environmental campaigner and fourth-generation Texas shrimp boat captain, Diane Wilson, had had more than enough.

Read on.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Speaking Up for the Expendables

By the Rev. Howard Bess
July 10, 2010

I serve on the Board of Directors of Palmer (Alaska) Arts Council, which every year facilitates dozens of events featuring music, drama, poetry, films and art, including popular summer programs for children theatre culminating in the presentation of plays.

Read on.

Speedy Justice for Spies, Not Wall St.

By Danny Schechter
July 10, 2010

We just witnessed justice on steroids. Ten Russian “spies” — even if we still don’t know what they were spying on or why — were brought to court, copped a plea, and were on their way out of the country by midnight.

Read on.

Nikola Tesla's Renewable Energy Vision

By Lisa Pease
July 10, 2010

We should have listened to Nikola Tesla when we had the chance.

Read on.

Friday, July 09, 2010

The Second Coming of Petraeus

By Ivan Eland
July 9, 2010

With the justified firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his replacement with Iraq water-walker David Petraeus, it’s as if people are hoping for a second coming of Jesus in Afghanistan.

Read on.

BP Ruined a Mississippi Way of Life

By Dennis Bernstein
July 9, 2010

Eleven weeks into the BP oil catastrophe, millions of gallons of thick black crude continue to gush into the Gulf of Mexico.

Read on.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Neocons, Likud Conquer DC, Again

By Robert Parry
July 8, 2010

The clout of Washington’s neoconservatives and the political fear induced by Israel’s Likud hardliners were on display again with recently released e-mails in which Gen. David Petraeus grovels before a key neocon and in White House meetings at which President Obama pandered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Read on.

McGovern, Parry Speak in Washington

By Michael Collins
July 8, 2010

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern and investigative journalist Robert Parry spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Wednesday night. They were guests of The McClendon Group which holds periodic meetings at the press club featuring investigative reporters and newsmakers.

Read on.

Obama's Bungled Military Strategies

By Melvin A. Goodman
July 8, 2010

President Barack Obama inherited a difficult national security situation — wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; an exaggerated and counterproductive war on terror; debilitating deficits and rising debt; an obstructionist Congress; and a corporate media that has abandoned its watchdog ethos.

Read on.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Oil Firms May Fuel Burma's Nuke Plans

By Dennis Bernstein
July 7, 2010

U.S. oil giant Chevron, along with the French energy giant, Total, and PTTEP in Thailand “are financing the world’s newest nuclear threat with multi-billion dollar payments, and have refused to practice financial transparency, despite calls by the Burmese and international community,” according to a newly released report from EarthRights International.

Read on.

Losing in Afghanistan

By Marjorie Cohn
July 7, 2010

Last week, the House of Representatives voted 215-210 for $33 billion to fund Barack Obama’s troop increase in Afghanistan. But there was considerable opposition to giving the President a blank check.

Read on.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

The Military-Industrial Complex's Win

By Melvin A. Goodman
July 7, 2010

Barack Obama’s crippling inheritance as President of the United States is the near-five-decade failure of the nation’s political leadership to heed President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s warning that “in the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

Read on.

Mississippi Gov. Barbour Fronts for BP

By Dennis Bernstein
July 6, 2010

Louie Miller, state director of the Sierra Club in Mississippi, is burning up. And its not the sweltering heat typical of Mississippi summers that’s getting to him: It’s Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and his kid-glove treatment of BP over its oil blow-out disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read on.

Cheery Fireworks, Depressing Reality

By Danny Schechter
July 6, 2010

On the Fourth of July, two days after a jobs report showed how many Americans are down, the nation was looking up -- at fireworks signaling the anniversary of American independence (even as the BP disaster shows how dependent we’ve become).

Read on.

Monday, July 05, 2010

Thoughts on Patriotism on July Fourth

By William Blum
July 5, 2010

Most important thought: I'm sick and tired of this thing called "patriotism."

Read on.

How Reagan Charted a Dismal Future

By Gray Brechin
July 5, 2010

Novelist Arthur C. Clarke and director Peter Hyams proved less than prophetic in the optimistic vision presented in the movie 2010, but they gave the audiences of 1984 what they wanted to hear.

Read on.

What Eisenhower Could Teach Obama

By Melvin A. Goodman
July 5, 2010

Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told his senior advisers in the Oval Office of the White House, “God help this country when someone sits in this chair who doesn’t know the military as well as I do.” Several months later, he issued his famous warning about the military-industrial complex.

Read on.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

America's First Spymaster

By Robert Parry
July 4, 2010

Having grown up in eastern Massachusetts not far from Lexington and Concord, I always found the Revolutionary War’s heroes familiar and fascinating, including some whose names are little remembered except by historians.

Read on.


Friday, July 02, 2010

Video Captures Another Border Killing

By Dennis Bernstein
July 2, 2010

It's a muddy cell phone video, taken from a difficult angle, but the audio recorded on the modest device, is both revealing and chilling: the contents cast doubt on claims by the U.S. Border Patrol, regarding the death of a Mexican national who died in custody after being beaten and electric-shocked by federal agents on May 28.

Read on.

A Musical's Message from '1776'

By Michael Winship
July 2, 2010

As we commemorate the Fourth of July, one of the joys -- and there are many -- of life in these United States is that you never know what the hell we, the people, will say next.

Read on.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Rethinking Iran-Contra

By Robert Parry
July 1, 2010

The conventional view of the Iran-Contra scandal is that it covered the period 1985-86, when President Ronald Reagan became concerned about the fate of American hostages in Lebanon and agreed to secretly sell weapons to Iran’s Islamist government to gain its help in freeing the captives.

Read on.

The Afghan 'No Exit' War

By Ivan Eland
June 30, 2010

In contrast to World War II and Desert Storm — which had clear goals, even though those of the latter were limited — the war in Afghanistan resembles the Spanish-American War and the Vietnam War.

Read on.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

BP Oil Spill Fouls Water, Land and Air

By Dennis Bernstein
June 29, 2010

On a morning last week, Floridians along the pristine beaches of the Florida panhandle found themselves the latest shoreline victims of the underground volcano of oil and dangerous gasses released by BP into the Gulf of Mexico.

Read on.

Bruce Fein and the Politics of Empire

By David Swanson
June 29, 2010

Bruce Fein concludes his new book, American Empire: Before the Fall, by demolishing the worldview of Henry Kissinger as expressed in a Washington Post column last year.

Read on.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Gen. Petraeus and the 'Surge' Myth

By Robert Parry
June 29, 2010

If there is one overriding consensus among Washington opinion leaders today, it is that Gen. David Petraeus is the perfect choice to turn around the failing war in Afghanistan because he supposedly already achieved such a feat in Iraq. But what if that conventional wisdom is wrong?

Read on.

Losing Civilian Control of the Military

By Melvin A. Goodman
June 28, 2010

The New York Times' David Brooks minimized General Stanley McChrystal's remarks in Rolling Stone magazine as "kvetching." For the Times' Maureen Dowd, McChrystal and his "smart-aleck aides" were merely engaging in "towel-snapping" jocularity.

Read on.

The Heat Is On in Washington

By Michael Winship
June 28, 2010

I spent part of last week in Washington, DC, and the heat already was so oppressive I recalled the old story that during the summer the British Foreign Service used to classify the capital as a hardship post, allowing embassy employees to go about their official business clad in pith helmets and shorts.

Read on.

Court's Dual Standards on Free Speech

By Nat Parry
June 28, 2010

A majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court seems to believe in free speech for corporations when it comes to influencing elections, but not so much for actual people trying to end wars.

Read on.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Finding the Financial-Reg Loopholes

By Danny Schechter
June 26, 2010

The Sturm und Drang is over. The Bank lobbyists went home to collect their bonuses as the House and Senate agreed on a 2,000-page financial “reform” quickly praised by the White House and superficially covered in the press.

Read on.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Is Financial 'Reform' a Charade?

By Danny Schechter
June 25, 2010

charade | sh əˈrād| noun, an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance : talk of unity was nothing more than a charade.

Read on.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Obama Misses Afghan Exit Ramp

By Ray McGovern
June 24, 2010

Is President Barack Obama so dense that he could not see why Gen. Stanley McChrystal might actually have wanted to be fired — and rescued from the current March of Folly in Afghanistan, a mess much of his own making?

Read on.

The CIA/Likud Sinking of Jimmy Carter

By Robert Parry
June 24, 2010

As the Official Story of the 1980 October Surprise case crumbles – with new revelations that key evidence was hidden from investigators of a congressional task force and that internal doubts were suppressed – history must finally confront the troubling impression that remains: that disgruntled elements of the CIA and Israel’s Likud hardliners teamed up to remove a U.S. president from office.

Read on.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Obama's Truman-MacArthur Moment

By Ray McGovern
June 22, 2010

Journalist Michael Hastings has given Rolling Stone magazine a graphic account of the arrogance, disarray and ineptitude that distinguish what passes for President Barack Obama’s policy on Afghanistan. For those of us with some gray in our hair, the fiasco is infuriatingly reminiscent of Vietnam.

Read on.

Evita, the Swiss and the Nazis (from the Archive)

By Georg Hodel
June 22, 2010 (Originally published Jan. 7, 1999)

On June 6, 1947, Argentina's first lady Eva Peron left for a glittering tour of Europe.

Read on.

Hung Out to Dry (From the Archive)

By Georg Hodel
June 22, 2010 (Originally published Summer 1997)

The "Dark Alliance" contra-crack series, which I co-reported with Gary Webb, has died with less a bang or a whimper than a gloat from the mainstream press.

Read on.

Propaganda and Iran's Election

By Edward S. Herman and David Peterson
June 22, 2010

It is almost a commonplace that the flow of information, opinion, and moral indignation in the United States adapts well to the demands of state policy.

Read on.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Turkey Resists Showdown with Iran

By Ivan Eland
June 21, 2010

The sad truth is that if Iran wants a nuclear weapon, it will likely eventually get one.

Read on.

Letting Corporate Criminals Rule

By Danny Schechter
June 21, 2010

It seems clear that BP can’t seem to fix the catastrophic gusher the press calls a “leak,” and that President Obama can’t fix the economy because its problems are structural and won’t respond to soaring rhetoric emanating from his bully pulpit.

Read on.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Christians and the Environment

By Rev. Howard Bess
June 19, 2010

With few exceptions Christians are keeping their mouths shut about the impending disaster that we and our world face. Collectively, we have created a life-style that cannot be sustained on the globe on which we live.

Read on.

US Soldier Alleges '360' Firing in Iraq

By Ralph Lopez
June 19, 2010

If even a small fraction of what former Bravo Company 2-16 soldier Ethan McCord is saying is true, that orders were given at a battalion level in Iraq for "360 rotational fire" against civilians in order to "kill every motherfucker in the street," upon being hit by an IED, then Congress must investigate.

Read on.

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Challenge of Being Miley

By Michael Winship
June 18, 2010

Amidst all the news of petrochemical malfeasance in the Gulf - and thank you Rep. Joe Barton, pride of Texas, for your apology to BP, demonstrating everything that's wrong with a Congress jammed too snugly in the pocket of big business - I watched teen sensation Miley Cyrus on David Letterman Thursday night.

Read on.