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featured 07.02.09

Air France plane crashed intact - "almost vertically"

The Air France plane that crashed last month with 228 people aboard "did not break up or become destroyed in flight,"... more

islek
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Honduras military blocks an airport runway to keep ousted President Zelaya from landing

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya was kept from landing at the main Honduras airport Sunday because the runway was blocked by groups... more

AwesomeJosh
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FRIZZI TOONS

Editorial Cartoons by Donn Frizzi

D_FRIZZI
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WARNING: This is what happens when you cheat on your wife with a PSYCHO!

In the photos, McNair and Kazemi can be seen parasailing together on some kind of beach getaway. It's clear the two had some... more

punkrock
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Iranian clerical group says vote result "invalid"

TEHRAN (Reuters) – A pro-reform Iranian clerical group said on Sunday the outcome of last month's presidential vote was... more

cabinettags
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Assessing the impact of cannabis use on trends in diagnosed schizophrenia

In conclusion, this study did not find any evidence of increasing schizophrenia or psychoses in the general population from 1996... more

JackHerer
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Crystal Defanti sex tape found in 5th-grade DVD yearbook

Crystal Defanti, a Calif. 5th-grade teacher at Isabelle Jackson Elementary School, made an embarrassing mistake when she sent... more

knowandtell
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Spending 102 billion a year on 800 worldwide military bases is bankrupting the country

The U.S. Empire of Bases -- at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise -- just got a good deal more expensive. As a start, on May 27th, we learned that the State Department will build a new "embassy" in Islamabad, Pakistan, which at $736 million will be the second priciest ever constructed, only $4 million less, if cost overruns don't occur, than the Vatican-City-sized one the Bush administration put up in Baghdad. The State Department was also reportedly planning to buy the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel (complete with pool) in Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, to use as a consulate and living quarters for its staff there.

Unfortunately for such plans, on June 9th Pakistani militants rammed a truck filled with explosives into the hotel, killing 18 occupants, wounding at least 55, and collapsing one entire wing of the structure. There has been no news since about whether the State Department is still going ahead with the purchase.

Whatever the costs turn out to be, they will not be included in our already bloated military budget, even though none of these structures is designed to be a true embassy -- a place, that is, where local people come for visas and American officials represent the commercial and diplomatic interests of their country. Instead these so-called embassies will actually be walled compounds, akin to medieval fortresses, where American spies, soldiers, intelligence officials, and diplomats try to keep an eye on hostile populations in a region at war. One can predict with certainty that they will house a large contingent of Marines and include roof-top helicopter pads for quick get-aways.

While it may be comforting for State Department employees working in dangerous places to know that they have some physical protection, it must also be obvious to them, as well as the people in the countries where they serve, that they will now be visibly part of an in-your-face American imperial presence. We shouldn't be surprised when militants attacking the U.S. find one of our base-like embassies, however heavily guarded, an easier target than a large military base.

And what is being done about those military bases anyway -- now close to 800 of them dotted across the globe in other people's countries? Even as Congress and the Obama administration wrangle over the cost of bank bailouts, a new health plan, pollution controls, and other much needed domestic expenditures, no one suggests that closing some of these unpopular, expensive imperial enclaves might be a good way to save some money.

Instead, they are evidently about to become even more expensive. On June 23rd, we learned that Kyrgyzstan, the former Central Asian Soviet Republic which, back in February 2009, announced that it was going to kick the U.S. military out of Manas Air Base (used since 2001 as a staging area for the Afghan War), has been persuaded to let us stay. But here's the catch: In return for doing us that favor, the annual rent Washington pays for use of the base will more than triple from $17.4 million to $60 million, with millions more to go into promised improvements in airport facilities and other financial sweeteners. All this because the Obama administration, having committed itself to a widening war in the region, is convinced it needs this base to store and trans-ship supplies to Afghanistan.

continued at the linkThe U.S. Empire of Bases -- at $102 billion a year already the world's costliest military enterprise -- just got a good deal... more