Wednesday, September 15, 2010

America's Decoupling from Reality

By Robert Parry
September 15, 2010

As Election Day 2010 approaches – as the United States wallows in the swamps of war, recession and environmental degradation – the consequences of the nation’s three-decade-old decoupling from reality are becoming painfully obvious.

Read on.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Great Britain's Brave New World

By Danny Schechter
September 14, 2010

London looks pretty much like it did the last time I was here except for all the closed stores and businesses I passed on the way to the War and Media Conference that brought me here.

Read on.

GOP Leaders Embrace Ugly Intolerance

By Michael Winship
September 14, 2010

Gentlemen, start your defibrillators. To baby boomers like me it gives the heart a bit of jolt to realize that 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the presidential campaign between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon.

Read on.

Rory Kennedy's "The Fence"

By Lisa Pease
September 14, 2010

Rory Kennedy's upcoming HBO documentary “The Fence” (“La Barba”) presents a compelling argument that the border fence, the subject of the film, is an ill-conceived and expensive mistake.

Read on.

Has US Empire Benefited the World?

By Ivan Eland
September 14, 2010

In a recent column, Thomas Friedman, probably the most influential “internationalist” — read: proponent of U.S. interventionism in faraway places — has finally discovered that the United States must soon turn inward and put domestic economic growth first because of its massive public debt, huge federal budget deficit, and looming fiscal crisis caused by a dramatic automatic escalation in entitlements spending.

Read on.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Marijuana 'Prohibition' on CA's Ballot

By Kevin Zeese
September 13, 2010

Since the founding of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973, 15 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana.

Read on.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

US Hypocrisy Hobbles Human Rights

By Lawrence Davidson
September 12, 2010

On Aug. 23, Israel’s most prestigious human rights organization, B’Tselem released a short report on the condition of water supplies in the Gaza Strip.

Read on.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Would Jesus Hate Muslims?

By Rev. Howard Bess
September 11, 2010

Early in the 21st century, America is being gripped by xenophobia, the fear of strangers or foreigners, or more broadly the fear of the unfamiliar.

Read on.

America's Excessive Fear of the World

By Jonathan Schwarz
September 11, 2010

The question of whether America is safer today is sort of strange, for two reasons.

Read on.

After 9/11, Making Matters Worse

By Melvin A. Goodman
September 11, 2010

The terrorist attacks on Washington and New York City nine years ago extracted a terrible price in terms of blood and treasure. Unfortunately, the U.S. reaction to 9/11 has also extracted a terrible price with no end in sight.

Read on.

NYT Pushes Confrontation with Iran

By Robert Parry
September 11, 2010

Apparently having learned no lessons from the Iraq WMD debacle, the New York Times is pushing for a heightened confrontation with Iran, slipping into the same kind of hysteria that it and other major U.S. news organizations displayed in 2002 and 2003.

Read on.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Hillary's Imperial Dream Meets Reality

By Danny Schechter
September 10, 2010

Oh, Hamid, Oh Hillary: How your worlds converge and diverge.

Read on.

Islam Basher Claims to Unmask Cleric

By Robert Parry
September 10, 2010

Last month, Steve Emerson, a propagandist with close ties to Israel’s Likud and America’s neocons, went on a national radio program and claimed that Islamic cleric Feisal Abdul Rauf would likely not “survive” Emerson’s disclosure of supposedly radical comments that Rauf made a half decade ago.

Read on.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Toning Down the 9/11 Tirades

By Michael Winship
September 9, 2010

This past Sunday was beautiful, bright and warm, not unlike the sky blue day when those two airliners hit the World Trade Center in 2001, just a mile or so from where I live. That day, a Tuesday, was a bit hotter, a bit more humid, yet just as sunny and promising.

Read on.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

The Value of Real Journalism

By Mort Rosenblum
September 8, 2010

The University of Colorado is scrapping journalism for communications. At least, I think they are.

Read on.

Iraq Pullout v. the Base Temptation

By Ivan Eland
September 8, 2010

As President Obama gave a self-congratulatory speech about keeping his campaign promise to remove U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the end of August, he accomplished this feat by merely redefining the mission of the 50,000 combat-trained U.S. forces remaining there to “advising and assisting” Iraqi forces.

Read on.

Why the Israeli Boycott Is Growing

By Lawrence Davidson
September 8, 2010

On Sunday, the Israel newspaper Haaretz published an article with the headline "Anti-Israel Economic Boycotts are Gaining Speed" and with the subtitle, "the sums involved are not large, but their international significance is huge."

Read on.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Petraeus Spins the Afghan War Mess

By Barbara Koeppel
September 7, 2010

A few weeks ago, Gen. David Petraeus pulled off a flawless remake of Gen. William Westmoreland’s 1967 performance in which the Vietnam War commander detected “light at the end of the tunnel” – just months before the Viet Cong launched its Tet offensive, proving the resistance was very much alive and well.

Read on.

Banksters Steal Away with the Loot

By Danny Schechter
September 7, 2010

Ben Affleck’s next movie, “The Town,” is set in Charlestown, Massachusetts, known for the battle of Bunker Hill and dubbed in the past by tabloid TV as “hell’s half acre” for all the crimes that take place there.

Read on.

Monday, September 06, 2010

Blair Reveals Cheney's War Agenda

By Robert Parry
September 6, 2010

Ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s new memoir offers the expected rationalizations for his joining in an illegal, aggressive war against Iraq, even to the point of quibbling about the death toll. But Blair does reveal how much more war was favored by Vice President Dick Cheney and the neocons.

Read on.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Must the Bible Remain 'Holy'?

By the Rev. Howard Bess
September 5, 2010

Christianity is in a great state of flux, exceeding even the diversity that came out of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. Today’s upheaval is fostered by the Internet and its free flow of information and opinions.

Read on.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

CIA's 'Red Cell' Hypocrisy on Terror

By Robert Parry
September 4, 2010

The Central Intelligence Agency has scoffed at an internal memo that cites a few terrorist acts by some American citizens as possibly causing foreign nations to see the United States as an “exporter of terrorism.” The CIA notes that the paper came from its “red cell” analysts who are assigned to “think outside the box” to “provoke thought.”

Read on.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Recession Snuffs Out New Media Hope

By Danny Schechter
September 3, 2010

When your life and your work is as entwined as mine has been – fusing the personal and the political over all these years – it may be stretching things to consider yourself unemployed, but that’s what I am as Labor Day approaches.

Read on.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Posturing on the PanAm 103 'Bomber'

By William Blum
September 2, 2010

The British government recently warned Libya against celebrating the one-year anniversary of Scotland's release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Libyan who's the only person ever convicted of the 1988 blowing up of PanAm flight 103 over Scotland, which took the lives of 270 largely Americans and British.

Read on.

WikiLeaks and Defining 'Journalism'

By D.H. Kerby
September 2, 2010

There is a strong intuition among the American people that there is a fundamental difference between publishing a secret for all the world to read and secretly informing an enemy of a secret.

Read on.

Will US Really Prosecute WikiLeaks?

By Ivan Eland
September 2, 2010

The U.S. Justice Department is apparently considering prosecuting Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, which is a Web site that publishes classified documents from governments, under the rarely used Espionage Act of 1917.

Read on.

The Afghan Pincer Attack on Obama

By Melvin A. Goodman
September 2, 2010

The "double envelopment" or pincer movement is a classic military maneuver that finds the flanks of the opponent under simultaneous attack from the opposing forces.

Read on.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

How the Right Still Frames Iraq

By Robert Parry
September 1, 2010

President Barack Obama’s instruction to “turn the page” on the Iraq War has set off a new wave of frustration on the American Left, which believes that the architects of this war of aggression should face some accountability for the death and destruction.

Read on.

Obama Sugarcoats Iraq War Realities

By David Swanson
September 1, 2010

Lies aren't used just to start wars, but also to escalate them, continue them, and even reduce or end them. And we got a pile of war lies from President Barack Obama on Tuesday evening.

Read on.

Beck's Washington Monument Myth

By Jonathan Schwarz
September 1, 2010

I realize this isn't breaking news, but...listening to Glenn Beck is the mental equivalent of falling into a vat of Karo syrup. You thrash around, can't get out, and feel like you're going to die in the most insipid way possible.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Beck and the American Know-Nothings

By Michael Winship
August 31, 2010

Watching Glenn Beck's performance Saturday at his "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, DC, I thought of the novelist Sinclair Lewis' Elmer Gantry, the charlatan evangelist who seduces most of those around him with his hearty backslapping and false piety.

Read on.

War on Terror: Greatest Covert Op Ever

By Douglas Valentine
August 31, 2010

The politics of terror are the greatest covert operation ever.

Read on.

What Obama Won't Say Tonight

By Ray McGovern
August 31, 2010

My Fellow Americans,

Read on.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Obama vs. the Generals

By Rory O'Connor
August 30, 2010

On Feb. 27, 2009, barely a month after entering the White House, President Barack Obama revealed his plans for completing the combat portion of America’s ongoing military involvement in Iraq.

Read on.

Why US Media Is Soft on Wall Street

By Danny Schechter
August 30, 2010

When you connect the dots in your writing or look for deeper explanations behind the decisions of policymakers, market makers and media-makers, it’s easy to be dismissed as a conspiracy nut.

Read on.

The Christian Right Needs 'Enemies'

By the Rev. Howard Bess
August 30, 2010

At the heart of American Christian Fundamentalism is a basic religious dualism that is obsessed with a never-ending struggle between Good and Evil. These Christian fundamentalists must always have an “enemy” with whom to fight.

Read on.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Hawks Box in Obama on Afghan War

By Ray McGovern
August 26, 2010

Just back from Afghanistan, Marine Commandant, Gen. James Conway held a news conference to add his voice to the Pentagon campaign to disparage the July 2011 date President Barack Obama set for U.S. troops to begin leaving Afghanistan.

Read on.

Karl Rove Exploits Corporate Money

By Kevin Zeese
August 26, 2010

In the last week Democrats were gloating about how little money the Republican Party had in its campaign coffers. The Republican National Committee has just over $5 million in the bank for the final stretch of the 2010 midterm election campaign and is carrying over $2 million in debt.

Read on.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

At War with American Workers

By Michael Winship
August 25, 2010

Among the many TV ad jingles sadly cluttering my brain since childhood (although useful in trivia contests) is the one that went, "The finest apples from Apple Land/Make Mott's Apple Sauce taste grand!"

Read on.


Twisting Palestinian Arms for Peace

By Lawrence Davidson
August 25, 2010

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has announced that direct "negotiations" between Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas will begin on Sept. 2. It is reported that Abbas agreed to these talks only after heavy pressure from both the United States and the European Union.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Christian Nationalism's War with Islam

By Rev. Howard Bess
August 24, 2010

An underlying issue in the dispute over a proposed Islamic center near the site of 9/11’s Ground Zero is the emergence of Christian nationalism, which embraces a vision of the world in which every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Christ is Lord.

Read on.


Making a 'Mosque' a 'Wedge' Issue

By Ivan Eland
August 24, 2010

The American media, and to a lesser extent the world media, focus on symbolism at the expense of underlying reality. And sometimes they can’t even make sense of the symbolism.

Read on.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Turning Iraqi Cities into Slums

By Adil E. Shamoo
August 23, 2010

Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life.

Read on.

Fiddling While the US Economy Burns

By Danny Schechter
August 23, 2010

We know we live in hard times that are on the verge of getting harder with 500,000 new claims for unemployment last week, a recent record.

Read on.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Transocean Questioned on Burma Deal

By Thomas Maung Shwe
August 20, 2010

U.S.-Swiss drilling company Tranoscean has admitted it is under investigation by the U.S. Treasury over its “operations in Myanmar [Burma]”. The probe comes amid intense public scrutiny since its rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read on.

Spinning the US Failure in Iraq

By Robert Parry
August 20, 2010

When I watched the last U.S. combat battalions leave Iraq on Wednesday night, I couldn’t help but recall the scene when the last Soviet troops departed Afghanistan on Feb. 15, 1989. In both cases, the two governments soft-pedaled the hard truth about the strategic defeats that the withdrawals represented.

Read on.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Tea Partiers' Historical Fictions

By Jada Thacker
August 18, 2010

Today’s adherents to the Tea Party movement claim to share common cause with American “Sons of Liberty” rowdies who, on Dec. 16, 1773, dumped about 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor.

Read on.

Do Religions Reject Gay Marriage?

By Daniel C. Maguire
August 18, 2010

Through much of history, especially prior to the Fourteenth Century, many Christians did not share the view that marriage was a reward for being heterosexual, nor that a same-sex union was objectionable.

Read on.

Mosque Furor Endangers US Troops

By Robert Parry
August 18, 2010

For years, the American Right and neocons have been quick to accuse critics of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars of endangering American troops – by causing disunity, exposing counter-terror techniques, etc. – but these war enthusiasts are now the ones putting the lives of U.S. soldiers in jeopardy.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Letting the Banksters 'Settle'

By Danny Schechter
August 17, 2010

Another day, another bank in the news -- with the settlement blues.

Read on.

Making the US Look Small to the World

By Alvaro Vargas Llosa
August 17, 2010

New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission was right not to designate the building at 45 Park Place, two blocks from Ground Zero, a historical landmark.

Read on.

Old-Time Bigotry Alive in America

By Michael Winship
August 17, 2010

As citizens of the nation continue through the summer, distracting themselves from difficult truths by howling at the moon and one another, I spent this past weekend in Manhattan seeing revivals of two classic period pieces of American theater.

Read on.

The Truth about Pat Tillman's Death

By Rory O'Connor
August 17, 2010

Of the many lies George W. Bush told us about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some were larger but none worse than that told about the death of Pat Tillman.

Read on.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Behind a Lethal Israel-Lebanon Clash

By Lawrence Davidson
August 16, 2010

On Aug. 3, violence erupted along Lebanon’s southern frontier, followed almost simultaneously by verbal assaults against Lebanon from the U.S. House of Representatives. Lebanon soon lost, at least temporarily, $100 million in U.S. military aid. What is this all about?

Read on.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

How Truth Can Save Lives

By Ray McGovern
August 15, 2010

If independent-minded Web sites, like WikiLeaks or, say, Consortiumnews.com, existed 43 years ago, I might have risen to the occasion and helped save the lives of some 25,000 U.S. soldiers, and a million Vietnamese, by exposing the lies contained in just one SECRET/EYES ONLY cable from Saigon.

Read on.

Friday, August 13, 2010

US Staggers Toward Dysfunction

By Danny Schechter
August 14, 2010

Financial journalist Charles Gasparino whose career trajectory took him from Newsweek to CNBC to Fox News was on with Bill O’ Reilly doing what the host of the fact-less Factor likes to do the most: promote Fox News.

Read on.

Gut-Check Time for Progressives

By Don Monkerud
August 13, 2010

Hopes for change are turning to disappointment as Congress fails to meet goals for a progressive agenda.

Read on.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

A Neocon Preps US for War with Iran

By Ray McGovern
August 12, 2010

I guess I was naïve in thinking that The Atlantic and its American-Israeli writer Jeffrey Goldberg might shy away from arguing for yet another war — this one with Iran — while the cauldrons are still boiling in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Read on.

Why Israel Wants a US War with Iran

By Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett
August 12, 2010

Amid widespread skepticism that sanctions will stop Tehran's nuclear development and grudging, belated recognition that the Green Movement will not deliver a more pliable Iranian government, a growing number of commentators are asking the question, "What does President Obama do next on Iran?"

Read on.

Don't Try These GOP Alibis at Home

By Robert Parry
August 12, 2010

Unless you’re a member of the Bush Family or some other well-connected Republican, it’s not advised that you try the alibis that cleared Ronald Reagan’s campaign in the 1980 October Surprise case. You also would need to make sure that the “investigators” were lame-brained or weak-kneed Democrats.

Read on.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Manning, Khadr: Cases of Conscience

By Lawrence Davidson
August 11, 2010

At present there are two young men sitting in prison who have never met but are nonetheless intimately connected.

Read on.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Mosque, the Wall, and America

By Michael Winship
August 10, 2010

The current fight over the building of an Islamic study center near Ground Zero in Manhattan is reminiscent of another battle nearly 30 years ago. Then, too, ignorance, rage and prejudice threatened to destroy the creation of something intended to help mend a grievous wound and foster understanding and reconciliation.

Read on.

The Dual Realities of Israel/Palestine

By Lawrence Davidson
August 10, 2010

On Aug. 5, 2010 Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, citing a Fars (Iran) news service story, reported that a non-governmental organization in Iran had "launched a Website with cartoons on the Holocaust aimed at undermining the historic dimensions of the mass murder of Jews."

Read on.

Hard Choices in Iraq and Afghanistan

By Ivan Eland
August 10, 2010

As President Obama pooh-poohed as old news the many WikiLeaks documents showing the sad state of the conflict in Afghanistan, the chief executive also began an entire month of crowing about keeping his campaign promise to “bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end.”

Read on.

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.