Saturday, August 7, 2010

Truthout 8/7

How Many Iraqis Did We "Liberate" From Life on Earth?
Robert Naiman, Truthout: "Is there a man or woman in America today who is willing to stand at noon in the public square and claim that demands to bomb, invade, and occupy other people's countries have anything to do with human liberation? If such people can be found, let them answer a few simple questions about the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from the companionship of their loved ones? How many Iraqis did we "liberate" from dwelling in the houses and towns and the country of their birth? How many Iraqis did we 'liberate' from life on Earth?"
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Conservatives Go After Judges Who Rule In Favor of Marriage Equality
Amanda Terkel, ThinkProgress: "On Wednesday, Vaughn Walker, chief judge of the Federal District Court in San Francisco, issued a landmark ruling declaring the state's ban on marriage equality unconstitutional and without any 'rational basis.' The right wing is trying nevertheless, as they have in other states where judges ruled that denying same-sex couples marriage rights is unconstitutional. They have called for impeaching the judges, launched political campaigns to oust them, and perhaps most disturbingly, perpetrated nasty whisper campaigns about their personal lives."
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Job Loss Sends Employment Ratio Downward
Dean Baker, Truthout: "For the second consecutive month, the economy created virtually no jobs, net of temporary Census jobs. The Labor Department reported that the economy lost 131,000 jobs in July, 12,000 less than the 143,000 drop in the number of temporary Census workers. The June numbers were revised down by 100,000 to show a gain of only 4,000 non-Census jobs."
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The Peace Vision
Peter G. Cohen, Truthout: "We are losing the war. Not just the war in Afghanistan, but the war against war itself - the Peace War.... The whole peace movement needs to be far more active, more vocal, and reach out to the unemployed, to all who are being cut back, threatened and limited by this huge military boondoggle. We must work far more diligently to form coalitions that enhance our clout and theirs."
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Militarization and the Authoritarian Right
Barry Eisler, Truthout: "Yes, former Bush administration speechwriter and current Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen's demand that 'WikiLeaks Must Be Stopped' is, as his colleague Eva Rodriguez notes, 'more than a little whacky.' But it's useful, too, because an infatuation with the notion of using the military in nonmilitary operations, particularly domestic ones, is a key aspect of the modern American right and of the right-wing authoritarian personality. Examining Thiessen is a good way to understand both."
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The War on Terror: Beyond the Military
Lt. Col. Barry Wingard, Truthout: "We certainly cannot expect to defeat terrorism when the War on Terror itself creates indifference and fosters misunderstanding among our own citizens. In America, we now accept secrecy in this War on Terror as common, acceptable and subject only to the amount of scrutiny that shadowy operatives in the government deem appropriate for disclosure. In America, the War on Terror has become a subjective 'us' versus 'them' battle that serves to advance stereotypes based upon who we believe we are as Americans and who, or what, we perceive them to be."
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Why Democrats Should Run as Big Spenders and Tax Raisers
Michael Meurer, Truthout: "If US fiscal history were a guide to politics, Democrats would be running in the 2010 mid-terms on a platform of raising taxes and doubling domestic spending on everything from infrastructure to healthcare to alternative energy. Instead, even in the midst of an economic meltdown that rivals the Great Depression, they are running away from Barack Obama's modest spending programs and struggling to justify a very manageable budget deficit."
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What is Intelligence?
Winslow Myers, Truthout: "It is its searching look at nuclear terrorism that makes the film contemporary and frighteningly compelling. When we hear how easy it is to obtain and sell and smuggle nuclear materials, and how much Al Qaeda wants to get its hands on some, it is hardly surprising to read in the Washington Post of the existence of over two thousand secret agencies in the US government working to gather intelligence on terrorist groups. A shadowy, undetectable threat that comes from anywhere on earth can only engender a kind of infinite security paranoia."
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AFRICOM and Uganda's Dance with Death
Dallas Darling, Truthout: "AFRICOM, or US African Command, established in 2008, is a unified Pentagon command center in Africa and is presented as a humanitarian guard in the global war on terror. However, its real, hidden objective, backed by US corporations and the Pentagon's military-industrial complex, is to penetrate Africa and to militarily control Africa's vital oil and mineral resources. More than 1,500 military officers from Africa have completed programs at US military schools and military bases. Still, Washington is selling and supplying millions of dollars worth of advanced weapons systems to several African nations. Some warn AFRICOM is actually identifying and developing African governments to function as US surrogates."
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Vampire Blues: Suckin' Blood From the Earth
Chris Genovali, Truthout: "When Neil Young recorded the anti-Big Oil "Vampire Blues" for his brilliant album On the Beach in the mid-1970s, who could have known that the song would end up even more relevant a quarter century later? Speculation abounds on fan sites that Neil, who is currently on tour, believes the time is right to perform 'Vampire Blues' once again, particularly given the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico."
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