BY JEREMY SCAHILL
Bush’s “Whores of War,” or, maybe, more appropriate, the boys from the “Coalition of the Billing.”
TOPICS OF PERMANENT INTEREST
Crosspost at THE NATION, where it originally appeared, and to whom we are grateful: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill_vid
[first posted online on March 15, 2007]
Jeremy Scahill reports on the Bush Administration’s growing dependence on private security forces such as Blackwater USA and efforts in Congress to rein them in. This article is adapted from his new book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (Nation Books). Continue reading ‘Bush’s Shadow Army’
We have said it before: If hot air could be used as a viable energy source, Tom Friedman alone could solve the world crisis. The billionaire pundit’s arrogance often matches his ignorance—and is there any point in asking why the NYTimes poo-bahs keep him under contract?
By Steve Jonas / Dateline: Tue, 10/16/2007 -
Tom Friedman has been wrong before about the major issues of our time. He supported “globalization” and apparently still does, even though this is finally being revealed to be not at all about “free trade” (e.g., U.S. sugar), as some observers have known for quite some time. Rather it is about the free export of capital to places where it can make a lot more profit for its owners than it could in the U.S. Tom Friedman originally supported the War on Iraq, even though he wasn’t sure about WMD. And now Tom Friedman is wrong on Gore (for the most part) and on Bush. Continue reading ‘Dr. J.’s Commentary: Tom Friedman: Wrong. Again.’
Britches in the arms of an ALF member, with stitches removed. This stump macaque became famous when animal liberation “terrorists” raided the lab where she was being subjected to frivolous experimentation, and found her eyes had been sewn shut as a form of early maternal and sensorial deprivation. (See below) As a critical part of the establishment complex, a lot of universities work hand in glove with corporations, the military and other institutions in projects that the public would readily disallow if properly informed.
BY WILL POTTER // Dateline: “Green is the New Red: How the Bush Administration Is Using Terror Laws to Prosecute Nonviolent Environmental Activists,” Counterpunch, May 04, 2006.
A version of this article was also published by Earth First Journal and Green is the new red blog
• Reproduced here with comments from Green is New Red blog
The Red Scare was less about evidence than really great PR. Joseph McCarthy and crew flacked one word so relentlessly, so virulently, that it became a political albatross to hang around anyone’s neck. The true meaning of the word fell by the wayside: communism became a fluid brand to slap on the enemy of the hour. Continue reading ‘SMOULDERING ISSUES: Green Is The New Red’
By character and class consciousness Pelosi is simply reacting to events as the wealthy bourgeoise she is. If revolution and true defiance to the status quo will come they won’t come from creatures ensconced in privilege.
TAKE ONE: A VIEW FROM THE LEFT
House Speaker Pelosi lashes out at antiwar protesters
By Patrick Martin \ Dateline: 15 October 2007
Crosspost with the World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org, which originated the article.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the most powerful Democrat in Washington, normally maintains a public display of sympathy towards the mass opposition to the war in Iraq—an opposition which propelled the Democrats into control of the House and Senate in the congressional elections last November. Continue reading ‘THE DEMOCRATS’ BETRAYAL—TWO UNUSUAL TAKES’
By Jim Holt
London Review of Books
Editors’ Note: The LRB and Holt are British mainstream liberals, conservative at times, a position Cyrano is certainly not comfortable with nor endorses. But this article presents a plausible explanation for what otherwise would have to be a case of historically unprecedented and criminally insane meddling in the affairs of another nation. But the fact this analysis posits a rational scenario for this murderous war is not exactly comforting.
Iraq is ‘unwinnable’, a ‘quagmire’, a ‘fiasco’: so goes the received opinion. But there is good reason to think that, from the Bush-Cheney perspective, it is none of these things. Indeed, the US may be ‘stuck’ precisely where Bush et al want it to be, which is why there is no ‘exit strategy’. Continue reading ‘It’s the Oil —hard lessons in realpolitik’
BY LISA FAGER
Dateline: Wednesday, 03 October 2007
There can be no doubt that much Hip Hop product is pathological. But whose product is it? Industry activist Lisa Fager went to Capitol Hill to school lawmakers on the real purveyors of audio and video mayhem: the music and communications corporations that control the destructive content that saturates the market. Pathology is not limited to musical product; it oozes into the public discourse in the form of racist speech and images that defame the powerless - all for the sake of corporate profit margins. Under relentless media consolidation, music playlists have become uniform indicators of massive payola - “an organized corporate crime.”
Continue reading ‘From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images’
“We have established a global presence and provide training and tactical solutions for the 21st century. Our clients include federal law enforcement agencies, the Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of Transportation, local and state entities from around the country, multinational corporations and friendly nations from all over the globe.”
Blackwater corporate website
“I would like to have the largest, most professional private army in the world.”
Gary Jackson, president of Blackwater USA
“Blackwater . right now has contracts that [Gary Jackson] says are so secret that he is not able to tell one branch of the Feds that he’s working for a different branch of the Feds.. Much of the interview I had with them was couched in this — this almost cowboy-like secrecy. They were very proud of being on these top secret missions.”
Barry Yeoman, author of “Soldiers of Good Fortune,” on Democracy Now
Continue reading ‘The State Dept.’s Murderous Guardians’
Nader, controversial, especially to the “Anybody But Bush” crowd who continue to scapegoat him as the main factor that “lost” the election in 2000, despite a huge amount of evidence that Gore ran a lackluster campaign and finally the election was stolen, is still a powerful reminder of how far this republic has to travel before it begins to live up to its own image.
Who Will Confront the Unprecedented and Unconstitutional Concentration of Executive Power?
BY RALPH NADER
The rogue regime of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney — so widely condemned for its unconstitutional, criminal Iraq war, its spying on Americans illegally, its repeated illegal torture practices, its arrests and imprisonment of thousands in this country without charges and its
pathological secrecy and corporate corruption — still has not felt the heat of the 800,000 practicing lawyers and their many bar organizations. Continue reading ‘Where Are the Lawyers of America?’
Considering what a repugnantly amoral opportunist Chris Matthews is, he got off easy with Jon Stewart, who remains a voice for serious morality camouflaged in comedy. Stewart is to be commended for not being afraid to tackle these systemic topics. But being, after all, a corporate media figure, his is indeed a highwire act and the men behind the curtain, the top corporadoes, could easily tire of his jabs at the system and suddenly pull the rug from under him.
BY GREG MITCHELL
If you have ever bemoaned the turn Matthews — a former newspaperman — has taken in recent years, you have to check out what happened on “The Daily Show” on Tuesday night. Matthews called it “the worst interview ever.”
(October 03, 2007) — You may find this hard to believe, but there was a time when TV gasbag Chris Matthews was a respectable hard news reporter. He worked in Washington, D.C. for the San Francisco Examiner from 1987 to around 2000, and also wrote columns for the San Francisco Chronicle and others. But if you have ever bemoaned the turn his career took as an interviewer/talk show host – or if you just hate the inside-the-beltway mentality of many of our leading press and TV pundits – then you would have loved Jon Stewart’s dismantling of Matthews on “The Daily Show” last night (Oct. 2, 2007). Continue reading ‘Jon Stewart Dismantles Chris Matthews’
“Don’t wait up for me, darling.” Bush patting one of his European concubines in crime.
By Bill Van Auken | 29 September 2007
A solidarity post with World Socialist Web Site
WSWS : News & Analysis : North America
THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE FEBRUARY 2003 discussions between US President George W. Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar published Wednesday by Spain’s largest daily, El Pais, provides fresh documentary confirmation of what is already a widely known historical fact. That is: the Bush administration was determined to wage a war of aggression to conquer Iraq and was not about to allow international law or compromise settlements to interfere with its long-planned invasion. Continue reading ‘The Bush-Aznar tapes: glimpse of a gangster preparing for war’
