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

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

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

Pat Garofolo, ThinkProgress: "Transocean, the company that owns the failed Deepwater Horizon rig that caused the Gulf oil spill, used well-known tax havens in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland to lower its U.S. corporate tax rate by almost 15 points."

http://www.truth-out.org/bp-used-oil-industry-tax-break-write-off-its-rent-deepwater-rig61062



Dangerous Cost Cuts at Alyeska Pipeline: "Yet Another Example of How BP Runs Things"

In this exclusive investigative report, Truthout's Jason Leopold shows how BP's culture of cost cutting is not limited to its own operations. In fact, it extends to other areas of the oil industry in which the corporation has a stake. At Alyeska Pipeline, the BP-led consortium that operates the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline, employees have said BP ordered budget cuts that have put the integrity of the pipeline at risk. Those who raise safety concerns are threatened with immediate dismissal by Alyeska's CEO, Kevin Hostler, a former BP executive, who is now under fire by a Congressional committee and an independent investigator.

http://www.truth-out.org/alyeska-pipeline-yet-another-example-how-bp-runs-things61097

New Documents, Employees Reveal BP's Alaska Oilfield Plagued by Major Safety Issues
http://www.truth-out.org/documents-employees-reveal-bps-alaska-oilfield-plagued-by-major-safety-issues60470

Ex-EPA Officials: Why Isn't BP Under Criminal Investigation?
http://www.truth-out.org/ex-epa-officials-why-isnt-bp-under-criminal-investigation59936

BP Accused of Violating Safety Regulations at US Refineries, Endangering Employees' Lives
http://www.truth-out.org/osha-safety-violations-bps-us-refineries-endanger-employees-lives59133

Whistleblower: BP Risks More Massive Catastrophes in Gulf
http://www.truth-out.org/whistlelower-bps-other-offshore-drilling-project-gulf-vulnerable-catastrophe59027



Investigation Confirms Pennsylvania Fracking Well Blowout Was Easily Preventable, Potentially Catastrophic

Mike Ludwig, Truthout: "Pennsylvanians are wondering if their state could become the next environmental ground zero after officials confirmed Tuesday that irresponsible drilling practices and a failed 'blowout preventer' caused the June 3 blowout of a gas well in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania."

http://www.truth-out.org/investigation-confirms-pennsylvania-fracking-well-blowout-was-easily-preventable-potentially-catastr

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BP underwater video feeds
http://jtnog.org/



Censorship and cover-up in the Gulf oil disaster

By Tom Eley

The Obama administration has intensified its cover-up of the BP oil disaster. On July 1 it issued an order barring the public and the news media from coming within 65 feet of clean-up operations without permission from the Coast Guard. The transparent aim of the order, which purports to protect the safety of clean-up workers, is to prevent the population from viewing the devastation wrought by the BP oil blowout.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25891.htm



4,600 oil wells 'at risk of leaking' in Gulf of Mexico

The investigation by Associated Press suggests the BP oil spill is just the tip of the iceberg and that abandoned wells may have been leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico for decades.

http://bit.ly/bJvQcs



Oil seeping into New Orleans' Lake

Oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico is seeping into Lake Pontchartrain north of New Orleans, threatening another environmental disaster for the huge body of water that was rescued from pollution in 1990s.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/market_news/article.jsp?content=D9GQ45I00


From Information Clearing House

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BP skimming 1/500th of promised capability; oil hits Texas & nears Lake Pontchartrain

http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9790/

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The BP/government police state

Salon
by Glenn Greenwald

07/05/10

The very idea that government officials are acting as agents of BP (of all companies) in what clearly seem to be unconstitutional acts to intimidate and impede the media is infuriating. Obviously, the U.S. Government and BP share the same interest — preventing the public from knowing the magnitude of the spill and the inadequacy of the clean-up efforts — but this creepy police state behavior is intolerable. In this latest case, the journalists were not even focused on the spill itself, but on BP’s other potentially reckless behavior with other refineries, and yet there are DHS agents and local police officials acting as BP’s personal muscle to detain, interrogate, and threaten a photographer...

http://tinyurl.com/36u36cx


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Ron Paul Slams Federal Interference In Oil Spill Relief Efforts

Obama administration has no motivation whatsoever to cap the leak or clean up the spill

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, July 6, 2010

As tar balls from the BP oil spill wash into Galveston, Texas, Congressman Ron Paul has slammed federal interference in the relief effort that is hampering local attempts to mitigate the consequences of the disaster, mimicking how the feds deliberately botched the response to hurricane Katrina and made the crisis worse.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-slams-federal-interference-in-oil-spill-relief-efforts.html



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Ron+Paul
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=police+state
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=oil+spill
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=drilling
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=oil+industry
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=British+Petroleum
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Pat+Garofolo
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Jason+Leopold
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Eley
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Ludwig

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff327.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=IMF
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/rozeff

By Howard Zinn

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25862.htm



Declare Your Independence

By Kevin Zeese

Looking back at this history would you have voted for either one of the slave parties? Or, would you have voted to end slavery even though your candidate had no chance of winning?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25865.htm



FBI admits probing 'radical' historian Zinn for criticizing bureau

FBI files show bureau may have tried to get Zinn fired from Boston University for his political opinions.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0730/fbi-admits-probing-zinn-criticizing-bureau/


From Information Clearing House

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Reassembling America's Democracy
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/07-0

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Questions for West Point and US

Nick Mottern, Truthout: "Shortly after the occasion of Independence Day, I want to report on going to West Point on June 28, 2001, with six colleagues to raise questions for incoming cadets about the legality and purpose of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

http://www.truth-out.org/questions-west-point-and-us61147



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=nationalism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=pledge+of+allegiance
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=slavery
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Bureau+of+Investigation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Howard+Zinn
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kevin+Zeese
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Jim+Hightower
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nick+Mottern

Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, Truthout: "In the "War on Terror," I am amazed how every time our enemy takes action, it sets into motion a scramble by our government to take away the individual rights of Americans. Will we reach a point at which we will be completely stripped of our civil liberties in the name of eliminating danger from external threats?"

http://www.truth-out.org/the-erosion-individual-liberties-when-justice-and-politics-become-one60938

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Intelligence Community’s Enormous Use Of Private Contractors Raises Civil Liberties Concerns
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/07/20-11

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UK: Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu stopped and searched by police EIGHT times

The Archbishop of York yesterday revealed he has been stopped and searched by police eight times, as he warned new anti-terrorist powers are a threat to civil liberties.

http://bit.ly/9GCvYV


From Information Clearing House



http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Global+War+on+Terror
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civil+liberties
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=ACLU
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Barry+Wingard

http://dailycensored.com/2010/07/03/managed-news-inside-the-usnato-military-industrial-media-empire/

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Move the Money, Starve the Empire

By Christine Ahn

We can't address the economic crisis blighting neighborhoods throughout the United States without moving money away from war. That's the only part of the national budget not being cut.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25864.htm



Economic recession to bring down American Empire?

The US is overextended in multiple wars and its economy is continuing to falter; is the American Empire beginning to fall?

http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-07-07/economic-recession-american-empire.html


From Information Clearing House

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When the Media Are Mainly Liars
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/roseberry1.1.1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+industrial
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=media+empire
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=economic+crisis
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=budget
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=recession
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Peter+Phillips
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mickey+Huff
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Christine+Ahn
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=/roseberry