BY STEPHEN GOWANS | Simulposted at What’s Left
In a truly well-organized world, this mugshot would be no joke. Karl Rove and his masters and associates are indeed political criminals of the worst kind.
It is widely believed in the Western world that respect for civil and political liberties is more highly advanced in the United States and among countries of the Anglo-American orbit than it is anywhere else. The idea is so deeply ingrained that even egregious abuses of human rights by the US government (most recently in connection with the “war on terror”) are insufficient to discredit the fiction among US citizens that their government is the world’s principal human rights champion. While the US government has been criticized by such human rights organizations as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the criticisms have been made in the context of concern that the US is squandering its human rights moral authority – criticism that serves to reinforce the dogma, not challenge it. Continue reading ‘Whose Rights?’
BY MICHAEL D. RECTENWALD
Originally published by The Rec Report / Citizens for Legitimate Government
Only a small minority in the United States maintains an unwavering faith in the administration of George W. Bush. Most of the country has finally discovered Bush and his ilk are liars, thieves, incompetent hacks, and mercenary madmen. Only a few true believers remain. These few are reflected in the unwavering statistical minority of 30%-33%, who still support Bush, and apparently will support Bush, no matter what he does. This remnant, or as Steven Colbert called them, “the backwash,” will never sway. Like the Christian martyrs of old, they will go to their deaths swearing allegiance to their master. One might wonder who this faithful remnant is, and just where its members might be found. Well, a narrow and vociferous margin can be found screeching on Freerepublic.com. There, they are apparently alive, but judging from what they hold to be ‘reality,’ not so well. Continue reading ‘The Delusions of the Last Rightwing Remnant: Freerepublic.com’
BY STEPHEN LENDMAN
This man and his cabal know the Iraq War is not about installing democracy but robbing this country at gunpoint of its petroleum riches. Rarely have astonishing hypocrisy and wholesale murder worked hand in hand with such degree of impunity.
Congress is back from its July 4 break and with it more bluster and political posturing on changing course to keep things the same, including everything
not working in place. It’s the same old scheme, back again, to fool enough of the people all the time and most all of them long enough to move on to the next
change of course mission shift starting the whole cycle over again. Even the blind can see the hopelessness of staying the course in Iraq. Aside from its lawlessness and immorality, pushing on with a failed effort qualifies as a classic
definition of insanity: continuing the same failed policies, expecting different results. Continue reading ‘Plan Iraq - Permanent Occupation’
Rumsfeld and Cheney (seen in 1975 with Pres. Ford) have been part of the “permanent government” for a long time. Their criminal and disgraceful imprint on the American republic and the world will be a hard record to match.
BY SHAYNE NELSON
On the 10th of September, 2001, the day before 9-11, The U.S. government calmly annouced that it had stolen $23,000 from every US Household.
One has to wonder if 9-11 was scheduled to cover up the news on 9-10, when Rumsfield cooly announced that the Pentagon had somehow lost 2.3 trillion dollars. Rummy didn’t address how that could happen, nor why, nor who might be responsible. He accented the word ‘trillion’ as if he were proud of it. Continue reading ‘What happened on 9/10?’
Michael Moore speaking at the Capitol, with Dennis Kucinich (l) in attendance.
Dateline: July 14, 2007 2:49:24 AM PDT
Dear CNN,
Well, the week is over — and still no apology, no retraction, no correction of your glaring mistakes.
I bet you thought my dust-up with Wolf Blitzer was just a cool ratings coup, that you really wouldn’t have to correct the false statements you made about “Sicko.” I bet you thought I was just going to go quietly away.
Think again. I’m about to become your worst nightmare. ‘Cause I ain’t ever going away. Not until you set the record straight, and apologize to your viewers. “The Most Trusted Name in News?” I think it’s safe to say you can retire that slogan. Continue reading ‘An Open Letter to CNN from Michael Moore’
MANY WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS BEEN SELF-CONSCIOUS ABOUT DISCHARGING THEIR NATURAL FUNCTIONS IN PUBLIC, EVEN IF THEY DON’T FEEL THE SAME ESTHETIC PANGS WHEN FULFILLING THE UNIQUELY MESSY TASK OF BIRTHING. BELOW, TWO REPORTS FROM THE MOST RECONDITE OF FRONTS. WILL THE INCONGRUITY BETWEEN THE FABLED ETHEREAL CONNOTATIONS OF THE “GENTLER SEX” AND THE INEVITABLE BIOLOGICAL REALITIES EVER BE RECONCILED?
Take One
BY STEPHANIE FAIRYINGTON
Another Problem With No Name: Gals in Public Stalls //•\ ||
There’s no doubt that the bad-ass, brazen Betty Friedan and her 1963 declaration of women’s independence, The Feminine Mystique, helped galvanize the modern-day feminist movement. But the other night, fact-checking a tribute to this grand dame at the glossy women’s magazine where I’m employed, it hit me that Friedan and her successors failed to address an ever-present problem in women’s lives: the excruciating anxiety we experience when “nature calls” in bathrooms where we work. Continue reading ‘Inter feces ed urinam—the last feminist frontier?’
BY SHAYNE NELSON
Sarkozy gives the victory sign
A LITTLE PREAMBLE
Many Americans are disgusted with the situation in the US under Bush, and I entirely sympathize with those who think the solution is simply to leave the US, something I did about fifty years ago, but that solution doesn’t work any more. Continue reading ‘Dispatch from Paris: APARTHEID IN FRANCE’
Smoke over Tyre (Lebanon) after an Israeli bombardment.
BY JAMES PETRAS
The US is the only country in the world where the peace movement is unwilling to recognize, publically condemn or oppose the major influential political and social institutions consistently supporting and promoting the US wars in the Middle East. The political power of the pro-Israel power configuration, led by the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC), supported within the government by highly placed pro-Israel Congressional leaders and White House and Pentagon officials has been well documented in books and articles by leading journalists, scholars and former President Jimmy Carter. The Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) has over two thousand full-time functionaries, more than 250,000 activists, over a thousand billionaire and multi-millionaire political donors who contribute funds both political parties. The ZPC secures 20% of the US foreign military aid budget for Israel, over 95% congressional support for Israel’s boycott and armed incursions in Gaza, invasion of Lebanon and preemptive military option against Iran. Continue reading ‘The Unopposed War Lobby’
BY PHIL ROCKSTROH Dateline: July 12th, 2007
At present, George W. Bush is unpopular with the majority of the American public not because of the murderous mayhem he has loosed in Iraq; rather, his standing has plummeted due to the fact that he didn’t deliver the goods. Americans are fine with fueling our republic of road rage using the blood of Iraqis (or any other distant and darker people) as long as “the mission” doesn’t drag on too long or reveal too much about ourselves. Continue reading ‘What Lies Beneath: Privileged Grotesques, Ordinary Monsters and the Iraqi Deathscape.’
BY ALEX LANTIER | SIMULPOST World Socialist Website | Dateline 12 July 2007
On July 10 Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff gave an interview to the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, claiming that the US was at heightened risk of new terrorist attacks. The Tribune released an edited partial transcript of the interview and an accompanying article, which were soon picked up by television news broadcasts. However, Chertoff gave no evidence of serious risks, besides saying that he had a “gut feeling.” Continue reading ‘US Homeland Security official has “gut feeling” on terrorist attacks’
