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McCain targets Russia
Reactions to McCain speech to RNC from Phyllis Bennis, Paul Heinbecker and Jonathan Schell. Part 1
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McCain and the Independent vote
Matt Welch, editor of the libertarian magazine Reason.com, says McCain is more interventionist than Bush. Part 2
Matt Welch is a journalist, blogger, pundit and a libertarian. Since 2008, he has been the editor-in-chief at the monthly libertarian journal, Reason. Recently (from 2006 to 2007), he was an editorial page editor for the Los Angeles Times. He has written a portrayal of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, from a libertarian perspective. In McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, Welch argues that a McCain presidency would advance a statist agenda.
See Part 1 at: http://current.com/items/89269364_palin_a_bold_move_or_... Matt Welch, editor of the libertarian magazine Reason.com, says McCain is more interventionist than Bush. Part 2 ... more -
US invade Pakistan — but no complaints from the ‘international community’ By Willi...
By William Bowles
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
I love it! I just came across an article, “Did We Just Invade Pakistan?” but you’ll search in vain for any headline in the mainstream media that even comes close to calling it a US invasion of Pakistan.
This is how the BBC reported it,
“Pakistan fury over ‘US assault’
Pakistan has summoned the US ambassador to protest at an alleged cross-border raid which officials say killed at least 15 villagers in the north-west.”
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7597529.stm
Talk about double-standards! Note that the BBC puts the ‘US assault’ in single quotes and talks of an ‘alleged cross-border raid’ which calls into question whether or not the US-led ‘coalition of the willing’ did in fact assault, invade or otherwise use its helicopter gunships against yet another sovereign nation killing perhaps twenty people some of which are, by one report, children (‘US forces kill 20 in Pakistan cross-border raid’).
Predictably of course, the US denies that it ‘assaulted’ Pakistan. The BBC is not merely the mouthpiece for the UK state but also for the US. So much for ‘objective’ journalism. (For a cross-section of reactions see ‘Pakistan News-links 3-4 September 2008’.)
So what gives here? How come when Russia conducts a ‘cross-border raid’ to repel an invasion by Georgia of the Autonomous Region of Southern Ossetia, we read how it’s condemned by the ‘international community’? But then the ‘international community’ is at best ten countries, all of which are ‘allies’ of the US. (For complete and in-depth analysis of media coverage of Russia’s ‘cross-border’ raid see Media Len’s excellent ‘When news is noise – Georgia, South Ossetia and the political pipeline’.)
More importantly mainstream coverage (if that’s what it can be called) of events reflects the built-in bias of the West when it comes to countries other than those of the G-7. It’s yet another case of don’t do as I do, do as I say!
[...]
see
http://current.com/items/89268799_u_s_invades_pakistan_... By William Bowles featured writer Dandelion Salad ... more -
Lies, nothing but damn lies and then there’s the mass media… By William Bowles « D...
By William Bowles
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
[...]
Two, totally different interpretations of the world and how it works. The important point however is the ‘explanation’ offered by the BBC is but one expression of the ideological commitment of the corporate/state media to the maintenance of capitalism. Thus the way the BBC ‘explains’ the crisis is essentially identical to the government’s, namely ‘it’s not our fault, it’s a global thing over which we have no control’.
The reality however, is very different. The US, along with the UK via their military and economic control, especially over the financial and oil markets are directly responsible for the current crisis, a crisis compounded by the massive financial fraud perpetrated by the major banks and investment corporations, a fraud that ordinary working people are being forced to pay for.
And the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Over the past thirty years a vast transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich has taken place.
[...]
Read the rest at the link.
Thanks. By William Bowles featured writer Dandelion Salad [...] ... more -
WAR ON DEMOCRACY
John Pilger's 2007 documentary explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger claims that the film "...tells a universal story... analyzing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".
Pilger interviews several ex-CIA agents who purportedly took part in secret campaigns against democratic countries and who he claims are profiting from the war in Iraq. He investigates the School of the Americas in the U.S. state of Georgia, where General Pinochet’s torture squads were reportedly trained along with tyrants and death-squad leaders in Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina.
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This is a film that should be shown in History classrooms throughout the states and the world. Pilger aptly displays the American government’s involvement in manipulating Latin America’s leadership over the past 60 years or so.
The focus on Venezuela for the first 40 minutes of the film is an interesting change from what we see in mainstream media. An unabashed socialist, Chavez has thrown out American control in Venezuela, and has gone a long way in convincing his neighbors to do the same. However, the beauty of this film is much more than its discussion of Venezuela. Pilger goes through the history of several countries other Latin American countries weaving them into the bigger picture, thoroughly explaining many of the important details. Its rare to find such a comprehensive history of US involvement in Latin America. Pilger tries establish how the system has evolved from physical control to financial control in today's era. Pilger has mastered obtaining great interviews. For example, in this film he the interviews the head former head of CIA involvement in Latin America as well as interviews an American nun who was tortured in Guatemala in 1989.
Add to the list Georgia and Ukraine. When will "we the people" wake up?
INITIATE CONVERSATIONS WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS, CO-WORKERS AND FAMILY MEMBERS. PARTICIPATE IN EDUCATING THOSE THAT COME IN CONTACT WITH YOU. John Pilger's 2007 documentary explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bol... more -
The state of the empire
David Harvey: Exit the neocon global project, enter competing capitalist blocks. Part 1
In the first part of his interview with Pepe Escobar, David Harvey talks about competing capitalist blocks, the US-China relationship, the neoconservative global project and Barack Obama as the new face of US neoliberalism.
David Harvey is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at City University of New York. He is also a geographer, historian and political scientist. Harvey is the author of numerous books, including The Condition of Postmodernity, The Limits of Capitalism, The Urban Experience, and the international best-seller The New Imperialism. David Harvey: Exit the neocon global project, enter competing capitalist blocks. Part 1 ... more -
US to take over Afghan mission
The United States is planning to take control of all military operations in Afghanistan next year with an Iraq-style troop surge after becoming frustrated at Nato’s failure to defeat the Taliban.
Plans are being drawn up to send as many as 15,000 extra troops to Afghanistan with a single US general always in command, as in Iraq, defence sources said.
The Pentagon is also pushing for a permanent “unified command” in the south of the country that would sideline the Dutch and the Canadians.
At present, control of the south is rotated between the British, Dutch and Canadians, the three countries that provide the bulk of the troops.
From October next year, when the UK will take over from the Dutch, command of the south is expected to alternate between the British and the Americans.
Although final decisions cannot be made until the new US administration takes over in January, plans are being drawn up to send two to three US combat brigades – a total of between 8,000 and 12,000 men, the sources said.
Lawrence Korb, a defence expert at the Centre for American Progress, a Democratic think tank in Washington, said: “There is no doubt that the US wants to change the command structure as things have deteriorated in Afghanistan.”
Both Barack Obama, the Democrat presidential candidate, and John McCain, his Republican opponent, have spoken of using “two to three [combat] brigades for the surge, amounting to 8,000-12,000 troops”, Korb said. “There will be a US general and the forces will be under US command.”
The surge will also see US and other coalition special forces, which operate separately from the Nato command, absorbed into a single US command for the whole of Afghanistan.
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More at link.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia (largely by proxy), which country is next? And where will the manpower come from if not through a draft? One thing seems obvious - the Bush administration has been following the PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces, and Resources For a New Century" blueprint practically to the letter so far:
http://cryptome.org/rad.htm The United States is planning to take control of all military operations in Afghanistan next year with an Iraq-style troop surge after... more -
War on terror is smokescreen for PNAC
This is just part one of the speech, go to youtube to see part 2
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The cost of empire
In classic economic terms, an economy ought to create enough surplus wealth to grow without resorting to excess borrowing–we ought to be able to live on what we earn. But since 1983, we have been unable to do that. So what differentiates the American economy from the rest of the developed world since 1983? The only rational answer is in the chart below which demonstrates how far beyond any possible rival our military budgets have travelled. The fact that the DOD’s own inventory of worldwide bases is more than 189 pages long cannot lead one to any other conclusion than the American taxpayer is supporting the infrastructure of empire. In classic economic terms, an economy ought to create enough surplus wealth to grow without resorting to excess borrowing–we ought to ... more
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Bush's Blood-Orgy In Somalia
While George Bush was busy railing at Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe at the G-8 summit in Toyako, Japan; his Ethiopian proxy-army in Somalia was grinding out more carnage on the streets of Mogadishu. More than 40 civilians have been killed in the last 48 hours. On Sunday, Osman Ali Ahmed, the head of the UN Development Program in Somalia, was shot gangland style as he left a mosque Mogadishu. He died before he reached the hospital with wounds to the head and chest. Ali Ahmed is just the latest of the peace-keepers who have been killed in the ongoing battle between Bush's Ethiopian occupiers and Somali guerrillas.
"I care deeply about the people of Zimbabwe," Bush announced. "And I am extremely disappointed in the election which I labeled a sham election."
Right. Bush's newly-discovered empathy for black people was nowhere in sight during Hurricane Katrina when thousands of African Americans were rounded up at gunpoint and forced into the Superdome without food, water or medical supplies. Nor is it visible in Somalia today where millions of Somalis have been forced to flee their homes and relocate to tent cities in the south because of Bush's support for the Ethiopian army's invasion. The latest surge in violence has been the worst in a decade and the security situation continues to deteriorate despite the arrival of 2,600 troops from the African Union and a tentative truce that was signed in June between some of the warring factions. It should be no great surprize that the western media has stubbornly refused to report on the rising death-toll in Somalia, choosing instead to focus all of their attention on America's "villain du jour", Robert Mugabe. Mugabe is next on the neocon's list for regime change. Neocon Godfather Paul Wolfowitz even composed a postmortem for Zimbabwe's president in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial "How to Put the Heat on Mugabe".
In 2006, the United States supported an alliance of Somali warlords known as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) who established a base of operations in the western city of Baidoa. With the help of the US-backed Ethiopian army, western mercenaries, US Navy warships, and AC-130 gunships; the TFG was able capture Mogadishu and force the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and their allies to retreat to the south. But, much like Iraq and Afghanistan, the resistance has coalesced into a tenacious guerrilla army which has returned to the capital and resumed the fight making it impossible for their Ethiopian rivals to govern. As the struggle continues, the humanitarian situation gets worse and worse. At least 2.6 million Somalis are now facing famine due to acute food shortages spurred by a prolonged drought, violence and high inflation. UN monitors have warned that the figure could hit exceed 3.5 million by the end of 2008.
The UN Security Council has played its traditional role as facilitator of American-backed imperial violence by failing to condemn US involvement in Somalia and by promising to send peacekeepers to mop up after violence subsides. The UN has shown no interest in stopping the carnage and have become little more than the glove-hand of the US military; an accomplice to Bush's chronic adventurism. While George Bush was busy railing at Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe at the G-8 summit in Toyako, Japan; his Ethiopian proxy... more -
US to base food inspectors overseas
In a response to the salmonella outbreak caused by Mexican tomatoes, the FDA is stationing inspectors in Asia and Latin America to help prevent the importation of tainted foods to the US. Is the FDA going too far? I don't see other countries stationing officials to check our exports. In a response to the salmonella outbreak caused by Mexican tomatoes, the FDA is stationing inspectors in Asia and Latin America to hel... more
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Bush is trying to impose a colonial status on Iraq
Whatever the Iraq war was about, we were assured, it definitely wasn't about oil. Tony Blair called the idea a "conspiracy theory". It was about democracy and dictatorship, weapons of mass destruction and human rights, anything but oil. Donald Rumsfeld, then US defence secretary, insisted the conflict had "literally nothing to do with oil". When Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, wrote last autumn, "Everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil," he was treated as if he were some senile old gent who'd embarrassingly lost the plot.
That argument is going to be a good deal harder to make from next week, when four of the western world's largest oil corporations are due to sign contracts for the renewed exploitation of Iraq's vast reserves. Initially, these are to be two-year deals to boost production in Iraq's largest oilfields. But not only did the four energy giants - BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell and Total - write their own contracts with the Iraqi government, an unheard-of practice: they have also reportedly secured rights of first refusal on the far more lucrative 30-year production contracts expected once a new US-sponsored oil law is passed, allowing a wholesale western takeover. Big Oil is back with a vengeance.
It's a similar story when it comes to the future of the US occupation itself. The last thing on anyone's mind, we were told when the tanks rolled in, was permanent US control, let alone the recolonisation of Iraq. This was about the Iraqis finally getting a chance to run their own affairs in freedom. But five years on, George Bush and Dick Cheney are putting the screws on their Green Zone government to sign a secret deal for indefinite military occupation, which would effectively reduce Iraq to a long-term vassal state.
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A crime beyond words. Now we will make enemies of the Iraqi people thus prologing this war and the terrorism that goes with it. With a Congress that is totally ineffective in stopping them. So once this is done and should the predicted war in Iran take place, how is any candidate going to promise an end to this by next year? They are already being given more than enough time to make that end impossible. This government has now become the very sort of tyrannical monarchy our forefathers fought to free us from! Benjamin Franklin was quoted as stating, "Now you have a Republic if you can keep it." We are failing those words. These people must be held accountable! Whatever the Iraq war was about, we were assured, it definitely wasn't about oil. Tony Blair called the idea a "conspiracy t... more -
Lies, War, and Empire - Part II
Part II of a talk by Dr. Michael Parenti on "Lies, War, and Empire" given May 12, 2007 at Antioch University in Seattle.
Part I at:
http://current.com/items/89036207_lies_war_and_empire_p... Part II of a talk by Dr. Michael Parenti on "Lies, War, and Empire" given May 12, 2007 at Antioch University in Seattle. ... more -
Lies, War, and Empire - Part I
Part I of a talk by Dr. Michael Parenti on "Lies, War, and Empire" given May 12, 2007 at Antioch University in Seattle.
Part II at:
http://current.com/items/89036361_lies_war_and_empire_p... Part I of a talk by Dr. Michael Parenti on "Lies, War, and Empire" given May 12, 2007 at Antioch University in Seattle. ... more -
The secret history of the American empire
Interview with John Perkins, author of "The Hidden History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption" Interview with John Perkins, author of "The Hidden History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about... more
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A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn
Empire or Humanity?
What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire
by Howard Zinn
Narrated by Viggo Mortensen
Art by Mike Konopacki
Video editing by Eric Wold Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire by Howard Zinn Narrated by Viggo Mortensen ... more -
Bush arrives to protests in UK
NEWS EUROPE
Protests greet Bush on UK visit
About 2,500 protesters lined up against 1,200 police officers [AFP]
Up to 2,500 demonstrators in Britain have protested against the US president's visit, police say.
The rally was held in London's Parliament Square on Sunday, just 300m from Downing Street, where George Bush was dining with Gordon Brown, the British prime minister.
Protesters called Bush a "terrorist" and voiced their opposition to the so-called war on terror.
A few pelted officers with placards and tried to breach a police cordon set up to block them from getting near the prime minister's Downing Street residence. NEWS EUROPE Protests greet Bush on UK visit About 2,500 protesters lined up against 1,200 police officers [AFP] ... more -
Rapper Immortal Technique takes on the 'American Dream'
“Imperialism is sponsored by corporations – that’s why Halliburton gets paid to rebuild nations,” is a line typical of Immortal Technique, the New York based MC who combines the anger of the early hip-hop era with hard hitting political lyrics that set him apart from most rappers today.
Few MCs can claim to use the war in Iraq, Islamophobia and the occupation of Palestine as material to rap a-bout.
But Immortal Technique – real name Felipe Coronel – has never been one to shy away from controversial issues. He is not just a rapper, he’s a political activist.
His track “The Message Or The Money” talks of the pressures he and other MCs face to trade lyrical independence for corporate recognition. Technique released his first album, Revolutionary Volume 1, on his own without being signed to a label. He won a huge following in the underground scene.
“Hip-hop was created with the duality of not only speaking about things revolutionarily, but also being party music...It wasn’t that black and Latino people in the 1980s were enjoying what they were living through – it’s more that they wanted to speak about what they thought could be possible. They imagined certain riches, or imagined themselves in a better place. So they had these rhymes where people would talk about the kind of money they would make – and they had the more revolutionary aspect, the militant flow. And these things crossed each other – it wasn’t that this person just rhymes about this, or this person’s a party MC, or this one a political rapper. A rapper had to be a complete artist.”
But the influence of the music corporations soon transformed this early hip-hop scene, he added. “At some point, when corporations got involved in the marketing of hip-hop, they snatched one aspect out of it. They said, ‘We like it when you dance and sing, but we don’t like it when you talk about everything else. We don’t like it when you talk about Africa or Palestine’.”
“The technology right now allows for people who cannot afford that million dollar studio to get their message heard. Now you can circumvent the corporations by saying I’m gonna make my own music and I’ll promote it through the internet, through the street, through mixtapes.”
He also cautioned against thinking a black president will fundamentally change things. “I’ve learned this the hard way. In Latin America we said as soon as we have an indigenous person as president, everything would change. But it didn’t necessarily change. There are presidents that are black in Africa and there are Muslim rulers in the Middle East. Does that mean there’s less oppression there? No!”
Despite his scepticism, Immortal Technique said he voted for Obama in the primaries, mainly because of his more liberal stance on immigration. But he warned, “Just because I voted for him doesn’t mean I’ll endorse him as a candidate and run around with Obama posters!”He added that contrary to common belief the class system is alive and well in the US.
“I would say there is an American economic aristocracy – people who come from privileged families and influence. So that sort of system exists inside the US and has existed since its conception. And it’s tied into racism, which was created to justify classes and slavery.
“The greatest enemies of democracy have always been the ruling class. Do you think Bush or Obama is going go over and tell the king of Jordan or Saudi Arabia to hold an election?
That will never happen unless the people themselves rise up and reclaim that power. That is the way we truly start to facilitate revolution.”
The 3rd World by Immortal Technique is released on 24 June on Viper Records. “Imperialism is sponsored by corporations – that’s why Halliburton gets paid to rebuild nations,” is a line typical of Immortal Techni... more -
US wants 58 bases in Iraq!
58 bases??!! All the better to protect the oil? Would we want 58 Chinese military bases across the US?
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The children of empire, McCain and Obama
This article from the Independent in the UK talks about the similarities between McCain and Obama in relation to their family history. It also goes into pointed detail as to how each father shaped the sons into the candidates and men they are today, taken from speeches and excerpts from both candidates' books written about their fathers.
These paragraphs frame the race as only an independent observer, outside of the U.S. political sphere could frame this historic competition.
"I do not want to exaggerate the difference between Obama and McCain. The US political system is hemmed in by vast blocks of corporate power and geopolitical pressures. Any president can only nudge this system by inches, in either the right or wrong direction – but when a giant moves by a few inches, the effect is vast.
From his father, Obama learned to eschew "the confidence reserved for those born into imperial cultures" that they should rule the world their way, with "a steady unthinking application of force". He can imagine the mentality of the boy in Basra whose father has vanished into an occupiers' prison, because it happened to his father and grandfather too. McCain learned the opposite from his father: that the natives only ever learn "to behave themselves" at the end of a big stick. So now we have to ask: which ghostly father will America choose?"
I chose this image of the tensions between General William Henry Harrison and Tecumseh to highlight the theme of this article: the historic perspectives that both McCain and Obama share and to show how far we have come in American history. America was born on both a spirit of liberty and oppression and that's a complex history we have all inherited. Freed from the tyranny of a King spreading the seeds of democracy in places like France, and French colonies like Haiti alike. The contradictions of our history that lead both Harrison and Tecusmuh to be labelled as American folk heroes. Our history reveres cowboys and Indians, Colonists, and those who seek independence from Colonizers.
A history where McCain's grandfather both stopped the spread of fascism in Asia with Admiral Halsey along with his son McCain's father and then helped to foster fascism and squelch democracy in Latin America later in his military career. Where Obama's grandfather who served in WWII could liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp at a time when America had a 'quota' on the number of Jews who could live in the U.S. and when Obama's other grandfather was being detained by an American ally, Britain for speaking up for democracy. A generation later McCain is tortured by a communist government and Obama's father by a Democratic Kenya that his grandfather hoped for. At a time when everyone in the world is heralding and applauding how far we have come as a nation and as a world we need to take a step back and ask ourselves, what have we learned from the journey? This article from the Independent in the UK talks about the similarities between McCain and Obama in relation to their family history.... more
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Imperialism
