Iraq War Foes Get Short Shrift
In the three weeks since Barack Obama's election, hawkish Democrats and some pro-war Republicans have fared better in the job hunt than people who opposed the Iraq War early.
by Robert Parry | 11.25.08
Idiots and Bailouts
In truth, all the talk in congress and in the Obama camp about rescuing jobs is just a cover for bailouts that are really aimed at rescuing managers and investors, not workers.
by Dave Lindorff | 11.24.08
Security Blanket: Western Democracy and the Strategy of Tension
by Chris Floyd | 11.24.08
Gates and the Urge to Surge
Maneuvering to keep his job, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is applying the politically popular word "surge" to Barack Obama's position on Afghanistan.
by Ray McGovern | 11.23.08
Robert Gates: As Bad as Rumsfeld?
Some Democrats are urging President-elect Obama to retain Defense Secretary Robert Gates, but ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern asks whether Gates is really better than his reviled predecessor.
by Ray McGovern | 11.19.08
Predictable Disaster of George W. Bush
After almost eight years of incompetence, President George W. Bush smirks about facing "a depression greater than the Great Depression." But why weren't American voters better warned in 2000?
by Robert Parry | 11.17.08
Obama Risks Clinton-Era Mistakes
The rumored appointments of Hillary Clinton at State and Robert Gates at Defense suggest Barack Obama is making the same missteps that hobbled Bill Clinton in his first year.
by Robert Parry | 11.17.08
Louella Gets an Economics Lesson
"Think back to 9/11, when the economy tanked. I want you to imagine you're in a board room at some big bank...."
by Louella Pryzbylewski | 11.13.08
The Danger of Keeping Robert Gates
According to press reports, President-elect Obama is considering keeping on Defense Secretary Robert Gates, but Obama first might want to examine Gates's record.
by Robert Parry | 11.13.08
Obama: Beware the Lessons of '93
President-elect Obama is being told to forego investigations of George W. Bush's war crimes, but he should recall how the last Democratic President got burned with similar advice.
by Robert Parry | 11.11.08
Obama Mania
Our country won't get "a new New Deal" Krugman advocates given the names being floated to serve in Obama's Administration who seem to have passed under the radar screens of commentators.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.10.08
Can the Republicans Change?
Despite hope for more bipartisanship after Barack Obama's victory, the hard truth may be that Republicans are so wedded to slash-and-burn politics that they can't change.
by Robert Parry | 11.09.08
Pundits and Quantoids: Assessing Blame for Losing – The news media ought to begin paying more attention to the quantoids in academia and less to the political pundits.
For all his efforts to re-brand himself as a social conservative, McCain was always perceived as a market conservative.
by John Hickman | 11.09.08
We Have Hope, But Real Change in the U.S. Represents an Immense Task
Obama is the inheritor of one of the bleakest legacies ever in a modern state.
by John Chuckman | 11.07.08
President-Elect Obama and Getting the Change We Deserve
Why is this the Employee Free Choice Act so important? Because without a powerful labor movement, we will never see the Democratic Party, or any third party of the left, become a serious force for progressive change.
by Dave Lindorff | 11.07.08
Let us shed tears of gratitude for this moment of grace. It will be brief.
Obama's campaign has inspired millions of people to become active, to expect more, to work hard with many people towards something larger than yourself.
by Mike Ferner | 11.06.08
E-Voting Machines Used in Disputed Franken, Coleman Race Failed Tests
Ruth Johnson, the Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds, warned that tabulating software in Election Systems & Software M-100 optical scan voting machines recorded “conflicting” vote counts during testing.
by Jason Leopold | 11.06.08
WIBDI: A Prism for the New Paradigm
If Obama, heeding his own neocon advisers, decides to launch a "limited nuclear strike to bring Iran back to the bargaining table," will American "progressives" utilize the WIBDI tool, and lead marches in the street against this Bush-like use of unilateral force?
by Chris Floyd | 11.05.08
Why are American Muslims Poised
To Vote En Masse for Obama?
The lines are clear in 2008 election. The Democrats go with the facts while the Republicans go with fear.
by Abdus Sattar Ghazali | 11.03.08
Thinking About 2012
We as a nation cannot wait for a lame duck Presidency and a lame duck Congress to diddle out their remaining tenure over the coming months. We need self-sacrificing acts of real statesmanship and leadership that transcend personal egos – giving the next administration (and Congress) a running start!
by Fred Cederholm | 11.03.08
McCain's 'Real-ly Stupid' America
John McCain is tying his last-ditch election hopes to more guilt-by-association smears against Barack Obama and more Joe-the-Plumber appeals to voters.
by Robert Parry | 11.03.08
Studs Terkel: The Passing of An Icon
"America is a better place as a result of Studs Terkel being here."
by Stephen Lendman | 11.02.08
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Fate of Lakotahs Highlights America's Failed Native American Policies
Nothing's changed for over a century - Broken Promises, Broken Laws, Broken Treaties, and Broken Hope for a Broken People suffering hugely in the United States of America - out of sight and mind and not an issue for the dominant news media.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.21.08
Vigilante Man: Crime Without End, Amen
The Iraq War? Illegal. Who says so? The former top law lord of America's main ally in the invasion and occupation. What does it mean? And from this, what follows? Nothing. No prosecutions. No justice for the victims, no punishment for the murder bosses.
by Chris Floyd | 11.18.08
The Beat Goes On: More Atrocity as Afghanistan Braces for Obama Surge
Mass slaughters of civilians are now a regular occurrence in this occupied land.
by Chris Floyd | 11.06.08
QUOTABLE:
“Always drink upstream from the herd.”
— Will Rogers
(1879 - 1935)
The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other publications falsely reported that a majority of the population is under opposition control. Official statistics show otherwise but were ignored.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.28.08
What Must Be Done Now!
America's media asymmetry -- tilted from vacuous mainstream to ideological right -- contributed to today's crises and must be addressed for real change to be possible.
by Robert Parry | 11.20.08
Targeting Hugo Chavez
The Wall Street Journal's Mary O'Grady is notorious. She relentlessly attacks independent democrats like Chavez. Her style is agitprop. Her space a truth-free zone. Her latest commentary is on what The New York Times calls "Suitcasegate."
by Stephen Lendman | 11.14.08
Targeting Aristide in Exile
Aristide's supposed/accused "corrupt" IDT dealings were invented and bogus. Another smear done with typical corporate-sponsored agitprop directed at leaders who dare oppose Washington, neoliberalism, and instead pursue socially enlightened policies.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.05.08
Israel's Slow-Motion Genocide in Occupied Palestine
Israel is a serial human rights international law abuser. The UN Human Rights Commission affirms that it violates nearly all 149 articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention that governs the treatment of civilians in war and under occupation and is guilty of grievous war crimes.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.26.08
Plus ça change: "Progressive" Leaders Ride War Machine Deeper Into Darkness
Barack Obama and Gordon Brown have both pledged themselves to a substantial escalation of the Anglo-American misadventure in Central Asia.
by Chris Floyd | 11.20.08
Extrajudicial Assassinations As Official Israeli Policy
Extra-judicial killings are indefensible, morally abhorrent, and illegal under international laws and norms.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.19.08
The Era of Magical Thinking: SOFA Smokescreens and Presidential Power
It is absurd in the extreme to pretend that the ''Status of Forces Agreement'' with Iraq is not a treaty-level matter, requiring full debate and a vote in the Senate.
by Chris Floyd | 11.18.08
Israel Needs Its Own Obama
Experts analyze the existing situation and tend to extrapolate from it into the future. But the future is made by human beings, who are never entirely predictable.
by Uri Avnery | 11.03.08
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• 2008 TARP Bailout: displacing an earlier program to buy and repackage toxic Debt and sell as FDI guaranteed CDOs, the U.S. Gov't is instead buying preferred shares of distressed banks to strengthen bank balance sheets: $350B of the allocated $700B has spent, $350B will be disbursed by Obama's administration. The "Non-voting[?]" preferred shares earn 5-8% interest and will likely make money when sold, thus long-term debt will be avoided. Many conditions for U.S. investment apply, notably Executive Compensation Rules weakly limits salaries by denying corporate tax exemption above $500,000/yr. [The model for our bailout that avoids ongoing debt comes from Sweden.]
• 2009 Deficit: OMB's earlier estimated $600B deficit excluded $150B for illegal wars, so it's really $750B before TARP. Now add costs of TARP Bailouts and the deficit (new debt added for the year) increases to over $1T.
• Debt: Bush II has doubled our national debt.
• Social Security: Surprise! SSA is fully solvent through 2040 if Treasury Bill principal & interest on SS surplus assets are paid back to SSA. But some believe other spending like the military [...] pre-empts paying what SS is owed, so new revenue must be raised and/or benefits cut. Obama proposes raising the taxable earnings cap of the FICA flat tax. McCain--whose family wealth is over $100 million, takes his monthly $1,900 SSA check and sees no moral problem--blithely talks about cutting benefits.
• Medicare underfunding – if it continues as is with uncontrolled profit margins – will increase debt $40T by 2040.
Does Anybody Else Think Getting America Shopping Again is Crazy Talk? – The consumer society as we have known it since the 1950s is dead, at least here in America.
Bloated military & intelligence spending are destroying our freedom by helping to bankrupt this nation, while stirring up deep hatreds of America everywhere they set foot.
by Dave Lindorff | 11.26.08
Thinking About Thanksgiving During this Economic Downturn
Please make contributions of non-perishable food items (or cash) during this holiday season, as they are sorely needed at every food pantry across our entire land.
by Fred Cederholm | 11.24.08
Lurching Toward Gomorrah: More Signs of An Unstoppable Economic Meltdown
In this environment, gold may be the safest of all asset classes at a time none are safe, and no one can predict how bad things may get before they improve. What's likely, however, is that the road ahead will be painful, protracted, and unlike anything experienced before.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.24.08
America’s economic crisis is beyond the reach of traditional solutions
The US needs to curtail its foreign borrowing by reducing its budget deficit. It can do this by halting its gratuitous wars and slashing its unnecessary military spending which exceeds that of the rest of the world combined.
by Paul Craig Roberts | 11.23.08
The Great Depression of the 21st Century: Collapse of the Real Economy
A solution to this crisis can only be brought about through a process of "financial disarmament", which forcefully challenges the hegemony of the Wall Street financial institutions including their control over monetary policy.
by Michel Chossudovsky | 11.21.08
Worse Than the Great Depression?
Before whatever comes out of this in the end, plenty of pain will precede it, then past sins will repeat, and we'll go through the whole cycle again - if we make it through this one.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.17.08
Thinking About Numbers
The implications of potentially lost future tax revenues (not to mention digging into federal and state coffers to underwrite any refunds) of this Net Operating Losses consolidation time bomb are enormous.
by Fred Cederholm | 11.17.08
Global Economic Tremors
Economist Michael Hudson reports that 1% of the US population owns 70% of its wealth. The proposed secret British, US and IMF strategy aims to increase their elites wealth & income by crushing competition to empower anglo-corporate giants.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.12.08
“Too Big to Fail” Has an Easy Answer: Anti-Trust or Public Control
The public needs to wake up and start demanding that if our money is going to be used to bail out these corrupt and horrifically managed enterprises, we the people need to have a controlling interest in running them, so that they are run in our interest.
by Dave Lindorff | 11.11.08
Thinking About Clocks
The remaining days of the Bush/Cheney administration’s now number less than 70 before Obama takes over. Any delay or misstep in corrective/remedial intervention will prove both devastating and costly. Corrective action is needed on so many fronts, time is of the essence, and the clocks keep ticking.
by Fred Cederholm | 11.10.08
The Wages of Sin
It's anyone's guess how an economic crisis this grave will be resolved or how things will look when it ends. But the age of George W. Bush is over, and not a moment too soon. Undoing his damage may be too great a task for any head of state—even for all of them combined. The wages of sin are now due.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.07.08
America’s ‘Economic Egotism’: World Tires of Rule by Dollar
Zhou Jiangong, editor of the online publication, Chinastates.com, recently asked: “Why should China help the US to issue debt without end in the belief that the national credit of the US can expand without limit?” Jiangong's solution to American excesses is for China to take over Wall Street.
by Paul Craig Roberts | 11.04.08
More from the Front Lines of the Financial Crisis
What's needed, but not proposed, is a 1930s type Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) plan that refinanced homes at affordable rates and prevented foreclosures. One on a grand scale as part of an enlightened New Deal agenda.
by Stephen Lendman | 11.03.08
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