World-News

The Nation
by Robert Reich

06/30/10

Consider: in 1928 the richest 1 percent of Americans received 23.9 percent of the nation’s total income. After that, the share going to the richest 1 percent steadily declined. New Deal reforms, followed by World War II, the GI Bill and the Great Society expanded the circle of prosperity. By the late 1970s the top 1 percent raked in only 8 to 9 percent of America’s total annual income. But after that, inequality began to widen again, and income reconcentrated at the top. By 2007 the richest 1 percent were back to where they were in 1928 — with 23.5 percent of the total. Each of America’s two biggest economic crashes occurred in the year immediately following these twin peaks — in 1929 and 2008. This is no mere coincidence. When most of the gains from economic growth go to a small sliver of Americans at the top, the rest don’t have enough purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing...

http://www.thenation.com/article/36893/unjust-spoils



The war for financial independence: Calls to surrender

Our Future Blog
by Richard (RJ) Eskow

07/05/10

There’s a new conventional wisdom forming in Washington, DC this July 4th, one that transcends party lines and the usual classifications of “left” and “right” as they’re understood in that city. It’s only being recognized now, because it deals with a number of different economic issues, but the underlying theme is the same: The American dream of financial independence and security is gone. The sooner you accept that and raise the white flag the easier it will be, so stop struggling. They’re saying the ideal of ‘”life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ is dead. Deal with it. Why, there hasn’t been this much unanimity among Washington elites since — well, since they ‘knew’ there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq...

http://tinyurl.com/2a7ceuh


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Labor Losing to DC Elites Over Job Creation, Unemployment?
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/08-4



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=power+elite
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=total+income
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=the+American+dream
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=pursuit+of+happiness
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=unemploy
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Reich+Blog
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Richard+Eskow
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Art+Levine

The revelation that the number of opium-addicted Afghan children has reached new highs is a sad unintended consequence of that war. It dramatically illustrates how adult war games can doom generations of children to a miserable life.

http://www.theglobalist.com/printStoryId.aspx?StoryId=8472


From Information Clearing House

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US funds used to buy villas for wealthy Afghans

ABC News

07/06/10

Brigadier General Mohammed Asif Jabarkhel sits with folded arms in his office, just a few steps away from the security checkpoint at Kabul International Airport. ‘Of course I know what’s going on here,’ the 59-year-old head of the airport’s customs police grumbles from beneath his thick moustache as a fan whirs in the background. ‘But, in this country, who’s allowed to speak the truth?’ Jabarkhel is referring to the huge amounts of money regularly being secreted out of Afghanistan by plane in boxes and suitcases...

http://tinyurl.com/2dknnet


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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The Afghanistan War Funding Vote Was A Total Sham

When Michael Steele accidentally spoke the truth (while hypocritically trying to condemn President Obama for any possible reason) that "the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan", he was condemned by BOTH the Republican and Democratic leadership. Those in his own party demanded his resignation, while the DNC put out an especially snide press release accusing Steele of "rooting for failure" and other like chicken hawk talk.

Apparently he did not get the memo that BOTH major parties are now for endless, ruinous and vain foreign wars and occupations. But we need to tell our members of Congress that we DID get the memo and we are we not at all fooled or happy with yet other indefinite war bucks supplemental.

After The War Funding Vote Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1051.php

You see, friends, when Congress does something good and votes in the interest of the people (which hasn't happened much lately) they need to hear from us after the vote to let them know we appreciate them. But where, as here, they disregard the wishes of their constituents and do the exact opposite, and we are mad and unhappy about it, they need to hear that too.

The snaky "rule" vote (to pass if ANY one amendment passed) was completely manipulated to itself barely pass, to let the Democrats who voted against it pretend they would have voted against the war funding regardless (when they knew it was going to pass anyway), and to let the rest pretend they were not actually voting for it (when in fact the amendment votes had already been fixed). To show you how shamefully rigged this whole thing was, Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) switched her vote on the rule from "Yes" to "No", ONLY after it was clear hers would not be the DECIDING vote. Some peacenik, casting the vote of conscience when she knows it won't count.

Not to be outmatched in the cynical cowardice department the Republicans voted lock step against funding the war they themselves had touted all along, because it did anything else but burn war money.

The fact is the senseless and counterproductive occupation of Afghanistan has never been about supporting the troops. Instead it is about supporting war profiteers and overpaid mercenaries, because that's where most of the money we are borrowing from China to pay for it is going. And a substantial part of the rest is going as bribes and payoffs directly into the pockets of the very terrorists we are supposed to be fighting, literally a vote in support of terrorism.

So what we are left with is a two "war party" system in America, neither with the courage, the wisdom, or the leadership to end this hideously doomed, bloody mess.

Now, what are we going to do about? Step one is to call these people in Congress out, ALL of them. Submit the action page, and tell them, "You are not fooling me one little bit."

After The War Funding Vote Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1051.php

Because when you hear that 162 members of Congress voted for an amendment to set a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan that is just another total mirage, that dissipates the instant you try to approach it. In just the same way that they barely scraped up the votes to sneak this latest war funding vote through, they will always find a way to fall at least just a tad short on a vote to stop it, UNTIL WE all get an order of magnitude more vocal in our policy protests.

Notwithstanding the tens of thousands of you who have requested the free bumper stickers protesting the Supreme Court decision, that's still only about TEN percent of our distribution list.

That is simply unacceptable. The outrageous Supreme Court decision to turn our elections over to the corporations is opposed by at least
80% of Americans (if polls are to be believed), cutting across all party lines.

Are we doing to speak out or not? Are we going to demonstrate, and make our protest visible or not?

This week Ted Glick faced three years in prison for unfurling a banner in the Capitol protesting inaction by Congress on green climate legislation. That's what he did to make his protest visible. And if you must know the judge spared him any jail time today.

But all we are asking you to do is put a bumper sticker on your own car, and if you can, pick up a pack of 25 of the "Corporations Are NOT The People" bumper stickers so you can get all your like-minded friends to do the same thing.

Bulk Corporations Are Not The People bumper stickers: http://www.peaceteam.net/bumper_stickers_bulk.php

Please understand, we are on the inside of this activism process, and we STILL don't see the kind of numbers to persuade us that you folks COLLECTIVELY are serious about policy change. Those of you who are diehards need to keep up with what you are doing, and the rest need to get active more than once in a blue moon.

So unless you have a car registration problem, an outstanding warrant, or are fond of illegal turns, get a bumper sticker on your bumper and let's crank this thing up. When we run out of stock, we will know that real change is about to happen. Until then, not so much, as you can clearly see by recent events.

It's your call, folks. Do you really want policy change, or did you settle for a transitory rah-rah campaign slogan that never actually intended to deliver any such thing? It's time to demand delivery of what we were promised. Only BY demanding delivery will we ever get it.

And here is the Facebook link for the After The War Funding Vote action page further above.

[Facebook] Action Page: http://apps.facebook.com/fb_voices/action.php?qnum=pnum1051

And this is the Twitter reply for this same action

@cxs #p1051

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible.

usalone400b:320622



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=opium

By Chris Hedges

Corporate systems, which grow our food and ship it across country in trucks, which drill deep into the ocean to extract diminishing fossil fuels and send container ships to bring us piles of electronics and cloths from China, have created fragile, unsustainable man-made infrastructures that will collapse.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25871.htm



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=fossil+fuel
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chris+Hedges

By William Fisher

A 1998 report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur that noted, "extrajudicial executions can never be justified under any circumstances, not even in time of war. Willful killing is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, punishable as a war crime under the U.S. War Crimes Act."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25873.htm



Some Thoughts on "Patriotism"

By William Blum

The Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor were being patriotic. The German people who supported Hitler and his conquests were being patriotic, fighting for the Fatherland. All the Latin American military dictators who overthrew democratically-elected governments and routinely tortured people were being patriotic - saving their beloved country from "communism".

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25888.htm



Extrajudicial Killing: US attack kills 18 people in Pakistan

Two separate US attacks in one day in North and South Waziristan have killed 18 people, Geo News reported on Sunday.

http://www.pakistantimes.net/pt/detail.php?newsId=13248

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Can the Obama Administration Learn from the Death of Ayatollah Fadlallah?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/09


From Information Clearing House

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Obama: Judge, jury, and executioner in chief

The Liberty Papers
by Stephen Littau

08/12/10

Even though I did not vote for Obama in 2008 and was very critical of his policy positions at the time, I thought he would at least be an improvement in the area of civil liberties. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It seems that rather than rolling back these Bush era unconstitutional power grabs, Obama has grown accustomed to them and decided to take these powers to the next level: killing Americans he believes to be enemies of the state...

http://tinyurl.com/24eoax4

Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Waziristan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=extrajudicial
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=assassin
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=drone
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=power+grab
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=unconstitutional
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=civil+liberties
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Geneva+Convention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=war+crime
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=War+Crimes+Act
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=patriotism
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=William+Fisher
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Blum
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Reese+Erlich
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Stephen+Littau

By James Denselow

The precise compilation of western casualties contrasts with almost criminal neglect in tracking the numbers of Afghan civilians killed since 2001. If Afghanistan is the "good war" then why are we not demanding to be accurately told how many skeletons there are in the Afghan closet?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25872.htm



NATO occupation forces admits killing two civilians in Kandahar

NATO officials in southern Afghanistan are admitting that two civilians, including a woman, were accidentally killed in a military operation Friday night.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20100703/nato-civilian-deaths-100703/



The Charge of the Media Brigade

By John Pilger

The Associated Press, says the Pentagon, spends $4.7 billion on public relations: that is, winning the hearts and minds not of recalcitrant Afghan tribesmen but of Americans. This is known as "information dominance," and PR people are "information warriors."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25893.htm



Bipartisan Stupidity on Afghanistan

By Ted Rall

Even taking historical precedent into account, America's post-9/11 occupation of Afghanistan--its longest war ever--has been notably disastrous. Wonder why? Everything you need to know was contained in this week's war of words between the chairmen of the two major political parties.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25892.htm



NATO Blames Miscommunication For 6 Afghan Deaths

A NATO helicopter patrol mistook the Afghan soldiers for insurgents planting landmines in the eastern Ghazni province. Headquarters cleared the crew to open fire based on inaccurate information about the location of Afghan troops in the area. NATO officials have apologized for the deaths.

http://bit.ly/dgUv6q
[ http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1314658&lang=eng_news&cate_img=logo_world&cate_rss=WORLD_eng ]



US military build-up in Kandahar will bolster Taliban, warns security monitor

Nato's counterinsurgency tactic shows no signs of success, says Afghanistan NGO Security Office.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/kandahar-us-military-taliban-afghanistan



US military build-up in Kandahar will bolster Taliban, warns security monitor

Nato's counterinsurgency tactic shows no signs of success, says Afghanistan NGO Security Office.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/18/kandahar-us-military-taliban-afghanistan


From Information Clearing House

--------

U.S. Casualties to Mount as Afghan War Widens, General Says
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/08-3

On Afghanistan, the DNC Does Not Speak for Me
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/09-10

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Civilian deaths and vengeance in Afghanistan

Mind Hacks
by staff

Wired’s Danger Room reports on a new study finding that civilian causalities in Afghanistan lead to anti-coalition feelings and an increase in insurgent attacks. Although this would seem to be blindly obvious, the study adds some morbid detail to the picture and provides evidence for some in the US military who had suggested no such link existed. The study was completed by four economists and it reports its uncomfortable results in stark statistical terms. Interestingly, not all civilian casualties are created equal in terms of their backlash...

http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/07/civilian_deaths_and_.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Kandahar
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Pentagon
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=bipartisan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=information+dominance
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=insurgen
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=casualties
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=civilian+deaths
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=James+Denselow
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=John+Pilger
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Reid+Davenport
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Naiman

Die Utopie vom Freigeld nach Silvio Gesell wird von einem aktuellen Politthriller aufgegriffen.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/32/32898/1.html

Das Urteil des Gerichtshof der Europäischen Union hat auch Folgen für die deutsche Rechtsprechung.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/32/32899/1.html



Rückwärts und vorwärts gerichtete Überwachung

In neuen Forschungsprojekten fördert das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung die automatisierte Auswertung von Bildern aus Videoüberwachung und Datenbanken.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/32/32859/1.html



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Überwachung
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Schwarz-Gelb

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis194.html

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What Eisenhower Could Teach Obama

Part I

Melvin A. Goodman, Consortium News: "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."

http://www.truth-out.org/what-eisenhower-could-teach-obama-part-i61130



The Military-Industrial Complex's Win

Part II

Melvin A. Goodman, Consortium News: "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.'"

http://www.truth-out.org/the-military-industrial-complexs-win-part-ii61187

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The rout of Obamanomics

The American Spectator
by Peter Ferrara

07/07/10

In February 2009, I published a commentary in the Wall Street Journal entitled ‘Reaganomics v. Obamanomics,’ which pointed out that President Obama’s economic policies were exactly the opposite of President Reagan’s. I predicted that as a result they would produce exactly the opposite results. Art Laffer has produced a far more sophisticated argument advancing a similar analysis. But the June unemployment report released last Friday shows an economy doing much worse at this point than even I expected...

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/07/the-rout-of-obamanomics


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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America is in a Societal Meltdown

by Pastor Chuck Baldwin

In other words, a united constitutional republic can only exist within the framework of certain rather narrow and finite conditions. Remove those conditions and the framework for liberty and limited government falls apart. And the above statements by Adams and Jay succinctly summarize the conditions necessary for freedom's framework.........

http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin600.htm



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=industrial+complex
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=unemploy
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=com/margolis
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Melvin+A.+Goodman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Peter+Ferrara
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=com/baldwin

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul681.html

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The crux of our endless War on Terror

Salon
by Glenn Greenwald

07/06/10

So between Afghanistan and Paksitan combined, there are a few hundred Al Qaeda members total. All of this ongoing war and those hundreds of billions of dollars spent and those deaths and the decade of occupation, and those bombings and shootings and drone attacks and lawless prisons and habeas-stripping court precedents: it’s all (ostensibly) for a few hundred extremists total hiding in remote tribal areas. A few hundred...

http://tinyurl.com/232h6r3


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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No, He Won't End the 'Global War on Terror'
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/07-1

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Hope and Change Fade, but War Endures

William J. Astore, TomDispatch: "If one quality characterizes our wars today, it's their endurance. They never seem to end. Though war itself may not be an American inevitability, these days many factors combine to make constant war an American near certainty. Put metaphorically, our nation's pursuit of war taps so many wellsprings of our behavior that a concerted effort to cap it would dwarf BP's efforts in the Gulf of Mexico."

http://www.truth-out.org/hope-and-change-fade-war-endures61172

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Six years in jail, no charge: The War On Terror's Forgotten Victim Speaks

By The Independent

In March 2009, he was awarded £60,000 in compensation after an admission by the UK's anti-terrorist police that they subjected him to 'grave abuse, tantamount to torture' during his first arrest in December 2003. Corresponding via email from a secure isolation unit at Long Lartin prison, he calls on the Government to charge him or release him.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25903.htm



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=global+war+on+terror
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Paksitan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=habeas+corpus
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=al-Qaeda
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=drone
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Paul
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=com/paul
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+J.+Astore