April 2011
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Gates: US should not train Libyan rebels -... →
Robert Motherfucking Gates. Just when you think you know a guy.
Anyway, thanks for being honest, Bob.
“In terms of providing that training, in terms of providing assistance to them, frankly, there are many countries that can do that,” Gates said.
“That’s not a unique capability for the United States. And, as far as I’m concerned, somebody else should do that.”
The comments underscored the...
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Why We're Fasting - NYTimes.com →
Mark Bittman from Bittman Takes On and food columnist for the NYT is doing quite a thing here. Damn.
This is a moral issue; the budget is a moral document. We can take care of the deficit and rebuild our infrastructure and strengthen our safety net by reducing military spending and eliminating corporate subsidies and tax loopholes for the rich. Or we can sink further into debt and amoral...
March 2011
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Tea Party Express Jumps Into Wisconsin Judicial... →
Tea Party Express is the California-based political action committee created by a group of GOP political consultants, which helped elect Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.). It also backed Alaska’sJoe Miller in his surprise upset of incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary last year, demonstrating the PAC’s political savvy and fundraising prowess. Tea Party Express is the largest and most active...
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Demanding end to violence in Côte d’Ivoire,... →
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Obama and American exceptionalism - Glenn... →
It means that no matter how many bad things you do in the world, it doesn’t ever reflect onwho you are, because you’re inherently exceptional and thus driven by good motives. And it probably means — at least as it expresses itself in the American form — that you’ll find yourself in a posture of endless war, because your “unique power, responsibilities, and moral obligations” will always find...
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“The probability that I happened to be born in the greatest country on Earth —...”
– Obama and American exceptionalism - Glenn Greenwald
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The Syrian president speaks | Syria News Wire →
It was to be The King’s Speech. The words that could turn the situation around, or seal his fate.
After Buthaina Shaaban’s promising announcements last week, there was optimism, even among my favourite pessimists. Today, that all changed. Even supporters of Bashar Al-Assad are depressed.
We were expecting the revocation of the emergency law, at the least. A new political parties law, and the...
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CIA Operatives Aid Libyan Rebels - WSJ.com →
And here my support for UN 1973 ends. I’ve read too much of our foreign policy history to pretend this will end well.
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Hullabaloo | Fire This Public Employee →
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Robert Fisk: Right across the Arab world, freedom... →
Fisk:
What is not in doubt is the extraordinary tempest passing through the region, the spectacular break-up of the Arab world which most of us have known for most of our lives and which most Arabs have known for most of their lives. From the mildewed, corrupted dictatorships – the cancer of the Middle East – is emerging a people reborn. Not without bloodshed, and not without much violence in...
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Judge again blocks implementation of collective... →
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Does the US have a strategic interest in the... →
The rebels now have a fighting chance of winning, but the revolution itself cannot be completely outsourced to foreign powers.
As for the idea that the US has a strategic interest in the success of the wider revolution, I’m not about to claim that having previously displayed such a lack of interest in the rights of ordinary people across the region, the US has now been reborn as the...
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Commentary: What U.S. can learn from Israel's... →
Even in the midst of ongoing hostilities and warfare, under Israeli law, all detainees, regardless of nationality or the circumstances or location of their seizure, have a right of access to counsel and to independent courts empowered to review the basis for their detention and, when warranted, to order their release. This is true even when judicial review takes place amidst continuing terrorist...
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Vital Signs: State GOP health bills mirror model... →
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Press Release: The Youth Coalition in Tripoli | →
March 27, 2011: The Youth Coalition of the February 17th Revolution in Tripoli have released to us a declaration in support of the National Transitional Council and called out to all the sons of Tripoli, the scholars, dignitaries and national guards to be ready to fill up the ranks for the start of Libya’s new beginning.
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ADHD: It’s the food, stupid | Grist →
This is just one example of how the powerful billion-dollar drug industry designs and interprets studies to suit their interests. Since the 1970s, researchers not tied to drug companies have been drawing connections between foods, food additives, and the symptoms associated with ADHD but many have been dismissed or overlooked by conventional medicine. One of the earliest researchers in this...
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Be Very Concerned About Cote D’Ivoire Violence |... →
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Some Clarity on the Monikers of the Elite
“USAGE Aristocracy, oligarchy, and plutocracy are sometimes confused. All mean some form of rule by a small elite. Aristocracy is rule by a traditional elite, held to be made up of ‘the best’ people, and is usually hereditary. Oligarchy is literally rule by a few. Plutocracy is rule by the (necessarily few) very rich.”
From the definition of Aristocracy in the New Oxford...
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Billionaire self-pity and the Koch brothers -... →
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Tensions remain high in Syria - Middle East - Al... →
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War on American Worker Fighting – And Succeeding –... →
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Behind Michigan's "Financial Martial Law":... →
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An Open Letter to the Left on Libya | Informed... →
An argument from Dr. Juan Cole on the merits of intervention in Libya. His points are well-taken. Prof. Cole:
The proposition that social problems can never be resolved by military force alone may be true. But there are some problems that can’t be solved unless there is a military intervention first, since its absence would allow the destruction of the progressive forces. Those arguing that...
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What the right means when it calls NPR "liberal" -... →
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Losing Our Way - NYTimes.com →
Bob Herbert’s last column for the New York Times is a must read. So, go on then. Read it:
There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has...
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Scott Walker Kills His Wisconsin Union Busting... →
I’m almost giddy. This is a nice summation:
The irony here is that they didn’t kill their bill by passing it without the necessary quorum, violating state Open Meeting laws or publishing it in violation of a judge’s order; they killed it with their own hubris. Now that it’s published, it is much easier to have it stopped permanently. It can and will be fought on all of the above grounds as...
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What Iraq Should Teach Us About Libya | The New... →
This war—let us call it by its right name, for once—will be remembered to a considerable extent as a war made by intellectuals, and cheered on by intellectuals. The main difference this time is that, particularly in the United States, these intellectuals largely come from the liberal rather than the conservative side. Presumably, when the war goes wrong, they will disown it, blaming the Obama...
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Child among 4 dead as airstrike hits cars in Khost... →
nickturse:
Pajhwok reports that an ISAF airstrike killed four people, including a child in in southeastern Afghanistan. Another two civilians were killed when a helicopter opened fire on a bus stand in Sabari district of Khost province.
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WatchI thought ”Odyssey Dawn” was one of the Narnia books.
Mr. Jon Stewart on our latest foreign policy mistake.
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Syria's Revolt: How Dara'a Graffiti Stirred an... →
The words have been repeated from Tunisia to Egypt, from Yemen to Bahrain. “The people want the regime to fall” — the mantra of revolution. And so, last week, after 15 kids wrote those words on a wall in the agricultural town of Dara’a in southern Syria, the local governor decided to come down hard. The young people — all under 17 — were thrown in jail. The punishment stunned the town, and...
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Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, Hope and Turmoil in 2011... →
It is remarkable how, in other countries, people will one day simply stop believing in the regime that had, until then, ruled them, as African-Americans did in the South here 50 years ago. Stopping believing means no longer regarding those who rule you as legitimate, and so no longer fearing them. Or respecting them. And then, miraculously, they begin to crumble.
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Syrian regime launches crackdown by shooting 15... →
