Monsanto Criticized for Practices

By TheRealNews.com
June 26, 2008

Monsanto is a world leader in industrial agriculture, providing the seeds for 90 percent of the world's genetically modified crops.

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Moon Shot,, Obama

By Brent Budowsky
June 25, 2008

America should mobilize to mass-produce, within five years, a “patriot car” that achieves 100 miles per gallon or runs on entirely gasoline-free fuels.

The next president should issue a call to action and a moon shot-magnitude program to enlist all Americans to a new generation of technology, science and research leadership, similar to JFK reaching the moon within a decade.

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Saudis Blame Others for High Oil Prices

By TheRealNews.com
June 25, 2008

At a recent summit in Saudi Arabia between oil-producing and oil-consuming nations, Saudi King Abdullah said his country was not to blame for soaring oil prices.

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Help Us Cover Campaign 2008

By Robert Parry
June 24, 2008

Campaign 2008 could well be the hinge that swings open the door to the future of the American Republic – and arguably to the survival of the planet – or it may slam the door shut. (To do the work necessary to cover this historic election, we at Consortiumnews.com need your help.)

While the choice between Barack Obama and John McCain is surely not a perfect one – both candidates have weaknesses and strengths – they nevertheless represent clear choices on crucial questions about how a Republic must function and how America should approach the world.

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Health-Care Crisis Endangers Economy

By Jason Leopold
June 24, 2008

If the United States does not act soon to address health-care costs, federal and state governments as well as American businesses could face a cascading fiscal crisis with devastating long-term consequences, says a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

In the report entitled, “Long Term Federal Fiscal Challenge Driven Primarily by Health Care,” the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said an immediate “multi-pronged solution” must be pursued before the “window of opportunity” to address the issue closes.

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Campaign Finance Reform Has Failed

By Robert Parry
June 23, 2008

Barack Obama’s decision to opt out of federal campaign financing has riled newspaper editorialists, TV pundits and even some progressives who view regulating “money in politics” as the silver bullet to kill the special-interest domination of Washington.

But the fury over Obama’s choice to rely on his Internet-based small donors – rather than take nearly $85 million in federal funding – misses a difficult truth that may be especially heretical on the Left: campaign-finance reform has been, by and large, a failure.

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Alarm over 'Unfair' Campaign Money

By Jeff Cohen
June 22, 2008

There was real emotion in his voice when ABC News anchor Charles Gibson used Friday night’s newscast to stand up for little-guy McCain against online-fundraising-powerhouse Barack Obama.

By opting out of public financing, Gibson intoned, the Democrat could obtain “two times, three times, four times, as much money as John McCain.”

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Top Dems Hand Bush Key Victories

By Jason Leopold
June 21, 2008

In November 2006 when Democrats won control of Congress for the first time in 12 years, Rep. Nancy Pelosi explained the significance behind the record voter turnout that helped shift the balance of power in Washington.

“People voted for change and they voted for Democrats who will take our country in a new direction,” Pelosi said during a victory speech in San Francisco on Nov. 8, 2006.

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Democrats Legalize Bush's Crimes

By Robert Parry
June 20, 2008

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that a key positive feature of the new wiretap “compromise” is that the bill reaffirms that the President must follow the law, even though the same bill virtually assures that no one will be held accountable for George W. Bush's violation of the earlier spying law.

In other words, in the guise of rejecting Bush’s theories of an all-powerful presidency that is above the law, the Democratic leadership cleared the way for the President and his collaborators to evade punishment for defying the law.

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US-Backed Offensive Hits Taliban

By TheRealNews.com
June 20, 2008

Afghan and NATO troops, backed by helicopter gunships, launched a massive counter-attack against Taliban militants occupying villages near Kandahar.

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Israel Accepts Gaza Truce

By TheRealNews.com
June 20, 2008

Israel officially has confirmed that the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire deal between the Israeli government and Hamas would go into effect.

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Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Us?

By Ray McGovern
June 19, 2008

It’s crazy, but it’s coming soon – from the same folks who brought us Iraq.

Unlike the attack on Iraq five years ago, to deal with Iran there need be no massing of troops. And, with the propaganda buildup already well under way, there need be little, if any, forewarning before shock and awe and pox – in the form of air and missile attacks – begin.

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Europe Gives Bush a Cool Good-bye

By TheRealNews.com
June 19, 2008

Public reception to the last European tour of Bush's presidency was less than warm in the UK earlier this week.

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Hamas Declares Truce with Israel

By TheRealNews.com
June 19, 2008

After months of failed negotiation, while 400 Palestinians and 7 Israelis died, Hamas has announced a cease-fire with Israel.

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Kandahar Braces for Taliban Offensive

By TheRealNews.com
June 18, 2008

In anticipation of a Taliban offensive, the Afghan army flew four planeloads of soldiers to Kandahar from the capital Kabul.

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The Semantics of Bush's Torture Policy

By Jason Leopold
June 18, 2008

The Bush administration built a legal framework – relying on semantics and secrecy – to subject detainees at Guantanamo Bay to brutal interrogation techniques and then to hide the reality from human rights observers, according to internal government documents.

The documents, made public by the Senate Armed Services Committee, undercut assertions by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior administration officials who have blamed cruel treatment of detainees on "a few bad apples" who acted on their own.

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Kucinich Comments on Impeachment

Interview by Dennis Bernstein
June 17, 2008

Bernstein: Let’s cut to the quick and tell us what you see as being at the core of your call to impeach the President and the Vice President.

Kucinich: An attempt to destroy constitutional governance by violating numerous constitutional provisions, U.S. code and international law, taking us into a war based on lies, making a false case for the war, saying falsely that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that it had the intention of attacking the United States, that there was a readiness to imminently attack, pursuing policies of torture, illegal detention, wiretapping, spying, rendition. I mean, there’s…you know these articles…

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Bush/Cheney Transcripts Subpoenaed

By Jason Leopold
June 17, 2008

A House committee has subpoenaed FBI transcripts of interviews with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney regarding their possible roles in the exposure of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued on Monday to Attorney General Michael Mukasey in the latest chapter of a standoff over what Bush and Cheney told a special prosecutor about the case in 2004.

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Izzy Stone, Patron Saint of Bloggers

By Jeff Cohen
June 17, 2008

It was nineteen years ago this week that I.F. (Izzy) Stone died. The legendary blogger was 81.

Confused? You say he died years before web blogs were invented?

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Finally, Congress Looks at Plame-gate

By Jason Leopold
June 16, 2008

Five years ago this month, an extraordinary battle was taking shape in the shadows of official Washington: a former U.S. ambassador was preparing to go public to challenge a central deception used by the White House to justify invading Iraq – and the Bush administration was readying a fierce counterattack against him.

Now, after many nasty clashes – which led to the exposure of a covert CIA officer, a criminal White House cover-up, a special prosecutor investigation, the conviction of a senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and a subsequent presidential commutation – one key administration insider finally has agreed to testify before Congress.

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