RealityZone; A New Era ?

450 Bases and It’s Not Over Yet The Pentagon’s Afghan Basing Plans for Prisons, Drones, and Black Ops By Nick Turse

2012-02-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

By Nick Turse
In late December, the lot was just a big blank: a few burgundy metal shipping containers sitting in an expanse of crushed eggshell-colored gravel inside a razor-wire-topped fence. The American military in Afghanistan doesn’t want to talk about it, but one day soon, it will be a new hub for the American drone war in the Greater Middle East.
Next year, that empty lot will be a two-story concrete intelligence facility for America’s drone war, brightly lit and filled with powerful computers kept in climate-controlled comfort in a country where most of the population has no access to electricity. It will boast almost 7,000 square feet of offices, briefing and conference rooms, and a large “processing, exploitation, and dissemination” operations center -- and, of course, it will be built with American tax dollars.
Nor is it an anomaly. Despite all the talk of drawdowns and withdrawals, there has been a years-long building boom in Afghanistan that shows little sign of abating. In early 2010, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had nearly400 bases in Afghanistan. Today, Lieutenant Lauren Rago of ISAF public affairs tells TomDispatch, the number tops 450.

The hush-hush, high-tech, super-secure facility at the massive air base in Kandahar is just one of many building projects the U.S. military currently has planned or underway in Afghanistan. While some U.S. bases are indeed closing up shop or being transferred to the Afghan government, and there’s talk of combat operations slowing or ending next year, as well as a withdrawal of American combat forces from Afghanistan by 2014, the U.S. military is still preparing for a much longer haul at mega-bases like Kandahar and Bagram airfields. The same is true even of some smaller camps, forward operating bases (FOBs), and combat outposts (COPs) scattered through the country’s backlands. “Bagram is going through a significant transition during the next year to two years,” Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Gerdes of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Bagram Office recently toldFreedom Builder, a Corps of Engineers publication. “We’re transitioning... into a long-term, five-year, 10-year vision for the base.” READ MORE

Tomgram: Nick Turse, Prisons, Drones, and Black Ops in Afghanistan | TomDispatch

2012-02-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Tomgram: Nick Turse, Prisons, Drones, and Black Ops in Afghanistan | TomDispatch:

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Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun - Live at Pompeii - Pink Floyd...

2012-02-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

Careful with That Axe, Eugene - Pink Floyd - Live At Pompeii - 1972 - HD

2012-02-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

Pink Floyd - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

2012-02-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

David Gilmour HD - Remember That Night (Full Concert, Royal Albert Hall ...

2012-02-12T14:31:00.001-07:00

Hit the [view full screen] on youtube.

Pink Floyd Reunion - Live 8 2005 - Full Length! - HD

2012-02-12T14:17:00.001-07:00

NO MORE EXCUSES

Us & Them Pink Floyd Music Video

2012-02-12T14:05:00.000-07:00

Pink Floyd - Sorrow

2012-02-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Mount Hermon's pure snow can't hide Israel's dark past - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

2012-02-12T13:42:00.001-07:00

Mount Hermon's pure snow can't hide Israel's dark past - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News:

The entire Golan Heights is occupied exactly as the West Bank is.

By Gideon Levy

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Israel panel okays bill calling for tax exemption to 'Zionist' donations - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

2012-02-12T13:37:00.001-07:00

Israel panel okays bill calling for tax exemption to 'Zionist' donations - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News:

Ministerial Committee on Legislation approves legislation sponsored by Likud's Zeev Elkin, Zion Pinyan that seeks to give %35 break to funds given to institutions that promote 'Zionism and settlement.'

By Jonathan Lis

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Report: Israel's Mossad still using foreign passports in undercover operations - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

2012-02-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

Report: Israel's Mossad still using foreign passports in undercover operations - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News:

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Arizona bill would fund militia

2012-02-12T12:58:00.001-07:00

Arizona bill would fund militia:
I am ashamed to admit that I live in Arizona.
Now they want to fund their own vigilante militia.

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Replacing History With Fiction in Arizona | The Nation

2012-02-12T11:26:00.001-07:00

Replacing History With Fiction in Arizona | The Nation:

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'US backs Al-Qaeda to mutually destroy Syria'

2012-02-12T10:57:00.000-07:00

Will AIPAC and Bibi get their war? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

2012-02-12T10:42:00.001-07:00

Will AIPAC and Bibi get their war? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English:

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Robert Scheer: Elections Are for Suckers - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

2012-02-12T10:33:00.001-07:00

Robert Scheer: Elections Are for Suckers - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig:

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US OKs transfer of 2nd warship to Philippines - Yahoo! News

2012-02-12T10:08:00.001-07:00

US OKs transfer of 2nd warship to Philippines - Yahoo! News:

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Afghanistan War: Lt.Col Daniel Davis's Report

2012-02-12T09:49:00.001-07:00

Afghanistan War: Lt.Col Daniel Davis's Report:

FULL ANALYSIS OF DAVIS REPORT HERE.

The improving picture NATO/ISAF keep telling us about.

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Army Officer's Leaked Report Rips Afghan War Success Story By Gareth Porter*

2012-02-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

By Gareth Porter*

U.S. Army Pfc. Shawn Williams is evacuated after being injured by a roadside bomb in Kandahar Province on June 17, 2011.
Credit:DoD photo

WASHINGTON, Feb 11, 2012 (IPS) - An analysis by Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, which the U.S. Army has not approved for public release but has leaked to Rolling Stone magazine, provides the most authoritative refutation thus far of the official military narrative of success in the Afghanistan War since the troop surge began in early 2010.

In the 84-page unclassified report, Davis, who returned last fall after his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, attacks the credibility of claims by senior military leaders that the U.S.-NATO war strategy has succeeded in weakening the Taliban insurgent forces and in building Afghan security forces capable of taking primary responsibility for security in the future.

The report, which Davis had submitted to the Army in January for clearance to make it public, was posted on the website of Rolling Stone magazine by journalist Michael Hastings Friday. In a blog for the magazine, Hastings reported that "officials familiar with the situation" had said the Pentagon was "refusing" to release the report, but that it had been making the rounds within the U.S. government, including the White House.

Hastings wrote that he had obtained it from a U.S. government official.

Contacted by IPS Friday, Davis would not comment on the publication of the report or its contents.

Writing that he is "no Wikileaks guy Part II", Davis reveals no classified information in the report. But he has given a classified version of the report, which cites and quotes from dozens of classified documents, to several members of the House and Senate, including both Democrats and Republicans.

"If the public had access to the classified reports," Davis writes, "they would see the dramatic gulf between what is often said in public by our senior leaders and what is true behind the scenes." READ MORE

Noam Chomsky Q&A: "Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours"

2012-02-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ethnic Cleansing in a Zionist Fairyland

2012-02-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Ethnic Cleansing in a Zionist Fairyland:

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African Babies As Guinea Pigs? Malaria, Bill Gate$, Big Drug$ and Big Buck$ | Foreign Policy Journal

2012-02-11T17:44:00.001-07:00

African Babies As Guinea Pigs? Malaria, Bill Gate$, Big Drug$ and Big Buck$ | Foreign Policy Journal:

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Inside the making of the Bali bombs | The Jakarta Post

2012-02-11T17:09:00.001-07:00

Inside the making of the Bali bombs | The Jakarta Post:

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Anonymous Message To The State of Israel

2012-02-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

China-Canada boost ties By Robert M Cutler

2012-02-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

By Robert M Cutler

MONTREAL - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Beijing this week signed with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao a declaration of intent for a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), after 18 years of negotiations between the two countries. Separately, a US$1 billion fund will facilitate Chinese investment in Canadian resource companies. READ MORE

Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering - news - The Ecologist

2012-02-11T15:49:00.001-07:00

Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering - news - The Ecologist:

The billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is backing a group of climate scientists lobbying for geoengineering experiment

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China's Visible Solar Power Success - Caixin Online

2012-02-11T15:12:00.001-07:00

China's Visible Solar Power Success - Caixin Online:

Now accounting for about half of the world's solar panel and module production, China looks set to lead the world toward using real fossil fuel alternatives

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Greenland: Economics and arctic exploration

2012-02-11T14:53:00.002-07:00

The battle for the French presidency

2012-02-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

The Trench: Egypt’s SCAF Double-Barrel Resistance

2012-02-11T13:57:00.001-07:00

The Trench: Egypt’s SCAF Double-Barrel Resistance:

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9/11 REVISITED Was Saudi Arabia involved? By Paul Church

2012-02-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

At 9:37 Eastern Daylight Time on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the western side of the Pentagon, killing all 59 passengers and 125 others in the building. News of the crash went global within minutes; yet another symbol of American power was ablaze. For the few still struggling to believe that the United States was under attack, doubt evaporated like the bodies of the many dead.

Conspiracists have puzzled for a decade over the failure to intercept the aircraft - or indeed, take even the elementary step of phoning the Pentagon to warn them of the approach. But only recently has wider attention been paid to the failure of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA's) Bin Laden unit to tell anyone that "muscle" hijackers, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, were in the country.

The chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas Keane, is now on record [1] as calling this "one of the most troubling aspects of our entire report". How is it that, despite having known for several months about al-Midhar and al-Hazmi, nobody at Alec Station saw fit to mention them to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the counter-terrorism policy board in Washington, Immigration or the Defense Department?

The Bin Laden Issue Station - codenamed Alec by insiders such as US Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer - was the CIA unit dedicated to reporting on al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and militants in Afghanistan. It was this unit that had called on authorities in Malaysia to monitor the Kuala Lumpur "terror summit" at which plans for 9/11 were probably finalized. Both al-Midhar and al-Hazmi were at that meeting.

Accounts differ as to exactly when the CIA became aware of the hijackers' presence in America. But specific orders were issued not to share the information: Doug Miller, an FBI agent loaned to the Bin Laden unit, was among those who received the instructions. In his book Pretext for War, author James Bamford quotes another FBI agent loaned to Alec: "[T]hey didn't want the bureau meddling in their business - that's why they didn't tell ...that's why September 11 happened."

Author Lawrence Wright has speculated that, so desperate was the CIA to get a source inside al-Qaeda, the agency shielded the aspiring terrorists while it tried to recruit them. In his book The Looming Tower, Wright also suggests a more serious possibility: lacking any domestic jurisdiction, the agency colluded with Saudi Arabian intelligence to keep their own fingerprints off events. According to Wright, this was the view of a team of FBI investigators known as Squad I-49.

In an interview for the documentary Who Is Richard Blee?, former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke was another insider to hint at possible Saudi involvement. Sensationally, Clarke also accused Central Intelligence Department head George Tenet of personally withholding evidence from Washington.

Filmmakers John Duffy and Ray Nowosielski managed to identify two key analysts involved in burying the evidence. Despite legal threats from the agency [2], the film is now available as a podcast.

Backtrack to January 2001: Prince Bandar bin Sultan is head of the Saudi Embassy in Washington. Bandar was the man at the center of the al-Yammah arms deal, a corruption scandal involving the exchange of arms for crude oil with Britain. A White House insider since he arrived in Washington nearly two decades before, Bandar's close ties with the Bush family are common knowledge. Less widely known is that in January 2001, the Saudi Prince sat with vice president Dick Cheney, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers discussing US strategy for the invasion of Iraq.

In his book Plan of Attack, investigative journalist Bob Woodward claimed that when Bandar was handed a map labeled "Top Secret Noforn" in the vice president's office, not even the secretary of state had been informed that his country would be at war. Colin Powell has denied this, but the incident serves to illustrate the prince's extraordinary access to the inner workings of government.
All the more shocking, then, that between 1998 and 2002, up to US$73,000 in cashier cheques was funneled by Bandar, via his wife Haifa - who once described the elder Bushes as like "my mother and father" - to two Californian families known to have bankrolled al-Midhar and al-Hazmi. The very same would-be terrorists protected by the CIA.

Princess Haifa sent regular monthly payments of between $2,000 and $3,500 to Majeda Dweikat, wife of Osama Basnan, believed by various investigators to be a spy for the Saudi government. Many of the cheques were signed over to Manal Bajadr, wife of Omar al-Bayoumi, himself suspected of covertly working for the kingdom.

The Basnans, the al-Bayoumis and the two 9/11 hijackers once shared the same apartment block in San Diego. It was al-Bayoumi who greeted the killers when they first arrived in America, and provided them, among other assistance, with an apartment and social security cards. He even helped the men enroll at flight schools in Florida.

When al-Bayoumi moved to England just days before the attacks, his apartment was raided by Scotland Yard. Beneath the floorboards were discovered the phone numbers of several officials at the Saudi Embassy.

Bandar and his wife deny any links to terrorism, but both former co-chairs of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Shelby and Bob Graham, think otherwise. They claim the FBI refused to allow the committee to interview investigators who had followed the money from the embassy. Other sources allege that the 9/11 Commission similarly failed to fully investigate leads, partly because commissioner Phillip Zelikow removed or relegated to footnotes any findings which cast doubt on the Saudis. A 28-page section of the report exploring possible foreign government involvement remains classified.

Then there is the suppressed testimony of Special Agent Steven Butler, described by officials familiar with his account as "explosive". [3] Butler had been monitoring a flow of Saudi money to the would-be hijackers. After he testified, staff director for the 9/11 Committee Eleanor Hill sent a memo to the Justice Department detailing Butler's allegations. When reporters quizzed the Justice Department about the content of Butler's testimony, they were told it was classified.

If possible Saudi Arabian involvement in 9/11 raised eyebrows at the Justice Department, what would they have made of mysterious but little publicized meetings between the Saudi ambassador and George Tenet? In his book State of War, author James Risen recounts how Tenet "set the tone for the CIA's Saudi relationship by relying heavily on developing close relationships with top Saudi officials, including Prince Bandar bin Sultan ..."

Around once a month, Tenet would slip away to Bandar's estate in McLean, Virginia, for talks so secretive he refused to tell officers working under him what they were discussing. Colleagues would complain that it was difficult for them to tell what deals were being made with the Saudis. Were al-Midhar or al-Hazmi ever mentioned?

"Bandar and Tenet had a very close relationship," confirmed one CIA officer.

The frantic rush to get Saudi Arabian nationals - including members of the Bin Laden family - out of America in the days after the 2001 attacks led to public outrage, and was featured in Michael Moore's seminal but flawed documentary, Fahrenheit 911. Less was made of a return trip by Crown Prince Abdullah, then de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, in 2002. The Crown Prince, Prince Saud al-Faisal and Prince Bandar bin Sultan were scheduled to meet president George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice at the president's ranch in Texas.

No fewer than eight airliners arrived from Saudi Arabia, and as the planes landed, US intelligence learned that two members of the royal entourage were on a terrorist watchlist. The next day, Osama Basnan reported his passport stolen to Houston police - proving he was in Texas the same day as the crown prince. Were the wanted men on the planes Basnan and al-Bayoumi?

According to the Wall Street Journal, the FBI planned to "storm the plane and pull those guys off" until, evidently fearing an international incident, the State Department intervened.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NB11Ak03.html
Yes I am a 9/11 Truther

2012-02-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

Analysis by Jim Lobe*

WASHINGTON, Feb 9, 2012 (IPS) - What with rumours from Israel of war on Iran, a major showdown with the Egyptian military over the indictments of government- funded U.S. activists in Cairo, and continuing political paralysis in Iraq, you would think President Barack Obama has enough Middle East crises to deal with.

But in the aftermath of last weekend's Russian and Chinese vetoes at the U.N. Security Council of an Arab League-sponsored resolution calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down as part of a transition leading to elections, calls for Washington to take stronger action, including arming rebel forces, have grown much louder here.

So far, the administration has resisted the pressure, focusing instead on convening a "Friends of Syria" contact group of anti-Assad Western and Arab states to ensure that whatever support may be provided to the chronically fractious opposition is coordinated to the greatest possible extent.

Washington is particularly eager to coordinate policy with Turkey whose foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, arrived here Thursday.

Citing the precedent of last year's U.S. intervention in Libya, three of the Senate's most hawkish members said Wednesday sanctions and the creation of the contact group were not enough.

"In Libya, the threat of imminent atrocities in Benghazi mobilized the world to act," Sens. John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and Joe Lieberman, said in a joint statement. "Such atrocities are now a reality in Homs and other cities all across Syria. More than 6,000 lives have been lost, and there is no end in sight." READ MORE

India neglects US & EU sanctions on Iran

2012-02-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

Inside Story - Al-Qaeda and al-Shabab: Double the trouble?

2012-02-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

Argentina takes Falklands dispute to the UN

2012-02-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

Reckoning With a Genocide in Guatemala

2012-02-11T13:04:00.000-07:00

How a war crimes case, 13 years in the making, could bring justice to a nation that has long suffered without it.

Forensic anthropologist Fredy Peccerelli, a member of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropologist Foundation, surveys remains from one of Guatemala City's mass graves / Ofelia de Pablo/Javier Zurita

GUATEMALA CITY -- A man in a mask opens a door. The smell of rot hovers in the air and everywhere there are piles of paper -- pink, yellow, white, all a bit aged and possibly very important. When searching through the 80 million documents dumped in the archives of the Guatemalan National Police, it's never clear what will turn up. What is contained here, however, in a sprawling building somehow hidden until 2005, reveals how the government of Guatemala committed grave human rights abuses from the 1970s through the 1990s in a war that left more than 200,000 dead and 100,000 women raped. Records of operations, identification cards, and communiqués between departments are just some of the files that compose the near-bottomless archive the regime kept of its own murderous campaign. READ MORE

Obama Signs Executive Order On Iran

2012-02-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Undermining Habeas Corpus The NDAA and the Militarization of America by CARL MIRRA

2012-02-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

by CARL MIRRA

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by the president on New Year’s Eve of 2011. Activists and other critics charge that the NDAA authorizes the indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens, but supporters counter that the law entails no new powers of detention for the federal government.

In a sense, both sides are right. Insofar as it affirms “existing law” as the basis for federal detention policy, the NDAA does not itself dramatically expand the government’s power to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely. The bad news, however, is the government has essentially already claimed this authority, and the NDAA will only provide more legal cover for the executive branch to further undermine habeas corpus.

Citizens Exempted? READ MORE

Asia Times Online :: The return of the Keyboard Warriors By Pepe Escobar

2012-02-11T11:43:00.001-07:00

Asia Times Online :: The return of the Keyboard Warriors:

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THE ROVING EYE
The return of the Keyboard Warriors
By Pepe Escobar

Waiting for the end of the world,
Waiting for the end of the world,
Waiting for the end of the world.
Dear Lord, I sincerely hope you're coming
‘cause you really started something.
Elvis Costello, Waiting for the end of the world

Leon T. Hadar: What Happens After an Iran-Israel War?

2012-02-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

Leon T. Hadar: What Happens After an Iran-Israel War?:

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Birth of the Moon

2012-02-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

Europe Decides Not to Play America’s Game

2012-02-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

U.S. Navy / MC2 Brooks B. Patton Jr.

How many nuclear aircraft carriers does it take to catch a terrorist?

By William Pfaff

The annual Munich Security Conference is regularly the scene for the complaints of American official and semiofficial participants deploring Europe’s failure “to pull its weight” in defense, “free-riding” on American efforts, and failing to spend more money on trans-Atlantic arms purchases. Instead they spend money on their own-make arms and military aircraft, such as the French Rafale and EADS’ Eurofighter, which they sell to such overseas markets as India that might otherwise buy American.

Courtesy restrains the European participants from asking what the threat is, against which Europe is being defended by the United States. The complaint reasonable Americans usually make in this matter is that the U.S. is massively over-armed against any existing or plausible future threat to the United States itself.

Surely 11 nuclear carrier groups with accompanying support is not required to fight the remnants of al-Qaida, nor have they proven decisive against the Taliban in Afghanistan. READ MORE

Robert Scheer: The Democrats Who Unleashed Wall Street and Got Away With It - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

2012-02-08T18:12:00.001-07:00

Robert Scheer: The Democrats Who Unleashed Wall Street and Got Away With It - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig:

AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

George W. Bush and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, share a laugh in 2006 at the groundbreaking for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington.

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South Korea-China FTA negotiations on the horizon : Business : Home

2012-02-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

South Korea-China FTA negotiations on the horizon : Business : Home:

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South Korea Plans to Buy Chinese Equities to Diversify Reserves

2012-02-08T17:57:00.001-07:00

South Korea Plans to Buy Chinese Equities to Diversify Reserves:

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'Starve the Beast' -- The Pentagon

2012-02-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

Instead of firing teachers, closing libraries and senior centers, and cutting bus routes, let's put the Pentagon on a diet.

by Mike Prokosch

Some Americans want to starve our cities, close our schools, and knock away the ladder that our children are supposed to climb to economic security. Your lawmakers may be among them.

The White House plans to release its proposed 2013 budget on Feb. 13. A free-for-all will ensue, as denizens of Capitol Hill compete for the titles of Biggest-Tax-Cutter and Baddest-Program-Slasher.

To appreciate how truly loony this is, consider how much we're already hurting.

U.S. cities and towns have fired half-a-million workers since 2008, and another quarter-million municipal employees may lose their jobs by the end of this year. Venice, Florida is losing its fire marshal, deputy fire chief, and fire inspector. San Jose, California may have to shut down all its libraries and community center programs. Gardner, Massachusetts has one clerk running its municipal grounds, parks, playgrounds, cemetery, forestry, flood control, insect control, golf course, and swimming pool. Fond du Lac, Wisconsin cut city inspectors, police, and crossing guards. READ MORE

U.S. Leak on Israeli Attack Weakened a Warning to Netanyahu Analysis by Gareth Porter* - IPS ipsnews.net

2012-02-08T15:13:00.004-07:00

U.S. Leak on Israeli Attack Weakened a Warning to Netanyahu Analysis by Gareth Porter*

- IPS ipsnews.net:

The leak by Panetta (above) appears to confirm fears that efforts to distance the U.S. from an Israeli attack are undermined by competing interests.
Credit:U.S. Navy

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Rocky Anderson: “Overthrow the Dictatorship of Money” » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

2012-02-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Rocky Anderson: “Overthrow the Dictatorship of Money” » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names:

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Will Iran Be Attacked? » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

2012-02-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

Will Iran Be Attacked? » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names:

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Book Burning in Arizona | Truthout

2012-02-08T14:43:00.001-07:00

Book Burning in Arizona | Truthout:

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(Photo: LearningLark)

'UK set to colonize Malvinas Islands'

2012-02-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

Simon Callow on Dickens

2012-02-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

Syria through a glass, darkly By Pepe Escobar

2012-02-08T13:05:00.002-07:00

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs:

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......................The bulk of Washington elites see regime change in Syria as a crucial way to hurt Iran. So this goes way beyond Syria. It's about shattering the Iranian regime, which is not a Western satrapy; energy flows from the Middle East to the West; the West's grip on the GCC and the intersection between the Arab and Persian worlds; and preserving the role of the petrodollar. Syria-Iran is a now a titanic match between NATOGCC and Russia/China - to try to expel them from the Middle East. The Pentagon's Full Spectrum Dominance doctrine is never more alive than when the jackals and hyenas of war are screaming and kicking.
READ MORE

Obama’s Middle East Malady - Zaki Laidi - Project Syndicate

2012-02-08T12:47:00.001-07:00

Obama’s Middle East Malady - Zaki Laidi - Project Syndicate:

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The Role of the Renminbi in the Global Monetary System - Brookings Institution

2012-02-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Role of the Renminbi in the Global Monetary System - Brookings Institution:

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Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - El Lobo

2012-02-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

According To A New DHS Report, If You Love “Individual Liberty” Of If You “Believe In Conspiracy Theories” You Are A Potential Terrorist - BlackListedNews.com

2012-02-08T11:57:00.001-07:00

According To A New DHS Report, If You Love “Individual Liberty” Of If You “Believe In Conspiracy Theories” You Are A Potential Terrorist - BlackListedNews.com:

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OH, OH.
KNOCK - KNOCK

24 Signs That We Are Getting Dangerously Close To A Major War In The Middle East - BlackListedNews.com

2012-02-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

24 Signs That We Are Getting Dangerously Close To A Major War In The Middle East - BlackListedNews.com:

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Carina Nebula revealed in all its glory | Science | The Guardian

2012-02-08T11:49:00.001-07:00

Carina Nebula revealed in all its glory | Science | The Guardian:

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The Carina Nebula, imaged in infrared light by the HAWK-I camera on ESO's Very Large Telescope (click to enlarge). Photograph: T. Preibisch/ESO

Patrick Disney on US and Israeli red lines and nuclear negotiations with Iran « LobeLog.com

2012-02-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

Patrick Disney on US and Israeli red lines and nuclear negotiations with Iran « LobeLog.com:

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Obama Joins the Democracy Sell Off | Common Dreams

2012-02-08T11:45:00.001-07:00

Obama Joins the Democracy Sell Off | Common Dreams

US and Israel in “lockstep” against Iran By Peter Symonds

2012-02-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

The danger of a US/Israeli attack on Iran was made clear in comments by US President Barack Obama to NBC News on Sunday. Obama not only repeated the mantra that “all options are on the table,” but added that the US was working with Israel “in lockstep as we proceed to try to solve this, hopefully diplomatically.”

Publicly, the Obama administration insists that it is seeking a “diplomatic solution” by imposing crippling oil sanctions on Iran, designed to force it to the negotiating table on US terms. At the same time, however, the White House is coordinating closely with Israel as it prepares military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Washington Post reported last week that US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta believed there was a “strong likelihood” that Israel would strike Iran in April, May or June. While he did not confirm the statement, Panetta did not repudiate it.

Obama downplayed the likelihood of a pre-emptive Israeli attack on Iran, declaring: “I don’t think Israel has made a decision on what they need to do.” However, he also declared: “I’ve been very clear: we’re going to do everything we can to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.” READ MORE

In reality it should be the other way around.

IF/WHEN Israel does attack Iran.

The U.S. should attack Israel.

Israel is the clear and present danger in the region and in the world.

They will have started WW III by attacking Iran.

The world will go into an immediate depression due to spiking oil prices.

Israel will be to blame, not Iran.

[TVZONE] Tens of thousands of books along the coast Buan ChaeseoKgang

2012-02-07T19:04:00.003-07:00

[TVZONE] Beauty preserved by Deokdong Village Pohang Yonggyejeong

2012-02-07T19:04:00.001-07:00

[TVZONE] The Four Seasons of Changdeokgung Palace

2012-02-07T18:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens

2012-02-07T04:07:00.001-07:00

Open birthday card to Charles Dickens, commentator, historian, cartoonist, psychologist, hero and advocate for the underclass.

A glance at the newspapers would tell you that your crooked financier, Mr Merdle, has many successors, and that Lord Decimus Tite Barnacle and his Etonian friends and relations are still running things.
The biggest human change to strike you must be that Britain is now a multilingual and multicultural society – something you might find hard to understand at first. But you would quickly see what rich material for novels this offers, and that it is being brilliantly worked by a great many writers.
Technological changes, too, you would take note of and investigate. With a sigh, you would learn about easy birth control, which could have allowed you to have no more than the three children you desired. Flying, too, which would have allowed you to travel to Australia, where you would have liked to go – another great subject for your pen. Read More.

Fidel Castro Publishes Memoir

2012-02-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

The book is called A Guerrilla of Time, and follows Castro’s life from his childhood to the eve of Cuba’s revolution. Its two volumes total nearly 1,000 pages, and are written as a dialogue between Castro and a journalist. Clip of launch here.

Astrophile: Pinball planets get wild, deadly ride - space - 03 February 2012 - New Scientist

2012-02-06T09:24:00.001-07:00

Astrophile: Pinball planets get wild, deadly ride - space - 03 February 2012 - New Scientist

Ustad Vilayat Khan

2012-02-06T09:09:00.002-07:00

Tabla and Sitar. From one of the great Ustads. Pure beauty. Listen here.

Army Officer Trashes Rose-Tinted Afghanistan Reports

2012-02-05T11:22:00.001-07:00

“How many more men must die in support of a mission that is not succeeding?“ Colonel Davis asks in an article summarizing his views titled “Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down.” It was published online Sunday in The Armed Forces Journal, the nation’s oldest independent periodical on military affairs. “No one expects our leaders to always have a successful plan,” he says in the article. “But we do expect — and the men who do the living, fighting and dying deserve — to have our leaders tell us the truth about what’s going on.” Full details.

Gingrich Fish Discovered In Deep Ocean

2012-02-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's actually a Fathead (Psychrolutes microporos) trawled during the NORFANZ expeditions at a depth between 1013m and 1340m, on the Norfolk Ridge, north-west of New Zealand.

White House Sheltering Egypt's SCAF - The Trench

2012-02-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

The status of 17 Americans assumes an understandable priority in the effort to resolve their legal obstacles and obtain their freedom. However the Obama administration’s emphasis on the NGO scandal has served a useful purpose by minimizing the SCAF’s other flaws. Egypt’s grander scheme continues to play out in Cairo’s streets, where thousands vent their bottomless distrust for SCAF and Interior Ministry. Fresh off Port Said’s tragedy - an incident that the administration has yet to politically react to - Egyptians gathered for a “Friday of Anger” that left at least 5 people dead and 1,400 wounded. These casualties added to Port Said’s estimated total of 74 and boosted anti-SCAF sentiment in the process. Link.

Drone Targets In Pakistan Include Rescuers And Funerals

2012-02-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

Speaking publicly for the first time on the controversial CIA drone strikes, Obama claimed last week they are used strictly to target terrorists, rejecting what he called ‘this perception we’re just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly’.
‘Drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties’, he told a questioner at an on-line forum. ‘This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists trying to go in and harm Americans’.
But research by the Bureau has found that since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed including more than 60 children. A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts. From Here.

Haditha Massacre Emails Leaked

2012-02-04T04:54:00.001-07:00

PanARMENIAN.Net - Members of the hacker group Anonymous defaced the website on Friday, February 3 of the law firm that defended a U.S. Marine who faced charges in connection with the 2005 killing of 24 Iraqi civilians, AFP reported.
Anonymous, in a statement which appeared on the website of the law firm of Puckett and Faraj, also claimed to have published online three gigabytes of private email messages of attorneys Neal Puckett and Haytham Faraj.
"The contents of these email messages include detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records pertaining to not only Frank Wuterich but also many other marines they have represented," Anonymous said.
Puckett served as the lead defense lawyer for Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who faced a U.S. military court martial last month in connection with the killings in the Iraqi town of Haditha.
Wuterich, 31, admitted one count of negligent dereliction of duty but manslaughter charges were dropped as part of a plea deal.
Wuterich, who led an eight-man squad whose other members have all been let off, was sentenced to 90 days of confinement and reduced in rank to private but will serve no jail time under the deal with prosecutors.
Anonymous, in the statement on the puckettfaraj.com website, said it wanted to bring attention to the "brutality of U.S. imperialism."

Buddy, Can You Spare $6Billion - Karzai

2012-02-03T11:42:00.004-07:00

The depression produced a range of great songs, mainly blues, but none more famous than Yip Harburg's 'Buddy Can You Spare A Dime':
They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
In the current recession, I wonder how many Americans will be happy with their tax dollars going east on the latest version as per this take.

Ancient Jewish Scrolls Discovered In N. Afghanistan

2012-02-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

A cache of ancient Jewish scrolls from northern Afghanistan that has only recently come to light is creating a storm among scholars who say the landmark find could reveal an undiscovered side of medieval Jewry. The 150 or so documents, dated from the 11th century, were found in Afghanistan's Samangan province and most likely smuggled out - a sorry but common fate for the impoverished and war-torn country's antiquities. Israeli emeritus professor Shaul Shaked, who has examined some of the poems, commercial records and judicial agreements that make up the treasure, said while the existence of ancient Afghan Jewry is known, their culture was still a mystery. Read More.

New Hubble Images Cast Fresh Light

2012-02-03T06:54:00.001-07:00

Two-thirds of nearby, younger galaxies have the bar, while only a fifth of older, more distant spirals have it.

The new picture also continues the Hubble space telescope's long heritage of striking astronomical images.
In the upper left of the image is a cluster showing recent star formation that is just visible to Hubble's cameras. More here.

Cassini Photographs

2012-02-03T05:30:00.008-07:00

The Cassini spacecraft has captured some stunning photographs of Saturn from various perspectives. A few examples here.

Iran - UK Cranking The War Machine

2012-02-03T03:54:00.002-07:00

Since the resignation in disgrace of Liam Fox, UK Defence Minister, in October, details have been emerging of his murky links to Israeli and US lobbying organisations. A number of undocumented visits to Israel by Fox and 'consultant' Adam Werritty have been investigated by former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray. Murray has impeccable contacts in the UK diplomatic and intelligence services and is about to blow the lid off the UK/US/Israel war machine and its manufacture of a war pretext around Iran. Evidence continues to mount that, rather than simply 'pursuing commercial interests' with then Defence Secretary Liam Fox, Adam Werritty was involved centrally in working with the British and Israeli intelligence services to try to engineer war against Iran. His official contact in all this was Matthew Gould, now British Ambassador to Israel.

Gould met with Werritty on 8 September 2009. At the time, Gould was Principal Private Secretary to then Secretary of State David Miliband. It is very unusual indeed for the Private Secretary to hold policy or lobbying meetings with outsiders in this way. Still more extraordinarily, nine months later, on 16 June 2010, Gould met with Werritty again, now as Private Secretary to current Secretary of State William Hague. More here.

Charles Dickens Bicentenary

2012-02-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

Charles Dickens, class-war hero, has his bicentenary this year. Good clip from the BBC here.

O's Election Strategy - It's Not About Hope (France24)

2012-02-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

By Jon FROSCH (text)

White House spokesman Jay Carney recently told reporters that President Obama is spending a “relatively small amount of time” campaigning for November 2012, since he is far more focused on governing.
But as it becomes increasingly likely that Mitt Romney will be the Republican presidential nominee, Obama’s re-election strategy is starting to take shape – and it looks to be a far cry from his idealism-infused 2008 bid.
If the Obama of 2008 dazzled US voters with promises to transcend partisan strife in Washington, the president’s message of hope, change, and “yes we can” seems obsolete during a time of continued economic anxiety. Instead, the president’s campaign team is crafting a re-election plan that consists of Obama playing up his accomplishments, pointing to encouraging economic signs, and, above all, defining the Republican alternative as negatively as possible.
A message of ‘fairness’
Obama will boast of various achievements on the campaign trail: the healthcare overhaul, the auto industry bailout, killing Osama bin Laden, withdrawing US troops from Iraq, bringing an end to “don’t ask don’t tell”.

US POLITICS - ELECTION 2012

US ELECTIONS
Romney reclaims lead as GOP slugs its way to Florida

But the economy will be the foremost issue on voters’ minds, and no US president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been re-elected with a jobless rate above 7.2%. If the trends of economic recovery recently seen continue, Obama is expected to make the case that his policies helped prevent a worse crisis—and that a Republican president would bring the US economy crashing down again.
According to Ari Berman, author of “Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics”, that case will succeed or fail on the basis of employment figures. “If unemployment continues to go down, Obama’s chances of staying in the White House are much better,” Berman told FRANCE 24. “If unemployment rises, it’ll be an uphill battle.”
Without stellar economic results to campaign upon, the president will focus on underlining his ideological differences with Republicans when it comes to the economy. In a recent blog post for The New York Times, legal scholar Stanley Fish argued that Obama should rely on the “fairness argument”. As Fish explains, Americans are not bothered by income inequality, which they see as an inevitable consequence of a free-market economy, but they cannot stand an uneven playing field. “In the eyes of most Americans, it is OK that Mitt Romney makes more money than they do,” Fish writes. “But it is not OK…for Mitt Romney to be paying a lower tax rate than his housecleaner….President Obama can take the fairness mantra all the way to…a second term.”
Defining the opposition
If Obama faces Romney, he will indeed use the Republican’s tax history as an indication that Romney is, in Berman’s words, “a creature of Wall Street and the ‘1 %’, who wants to protect the people that got us into this [economic] mess”.

US PRESIDENTIAL 2012

As political analyst Darrell West of the Brookings Institution told FRANCE 24: “Obama will have to raise Romney’s negatives. That is the only way he can overcome the bad economy.”
To do so, the Obama campaign will take a page from Newt Gingrich’s pegging Romney as a soulless capitalist who lined his pockets as CEO of a private equity firm while laying off workers. They will also keep a list of Romney’s verbal gaffes on the campaign trail, which have tended to revolve around issues of wealth and employment. Romney’s recent remark to CNN that he’s “not concerned about the very poor”, a comment weeks ago that he “like[s] being able to fire people”, and one over the summer that “corporations are people” will surely resurface in Obama campaign advertisements.
Obama is already busy contrasting himself with Romney. At a speech in Virginia Wednesday, he talked up a White House plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages, dismissively alluding to Romney’s statement a day earlier that the housing market had to “bottom out” before it got better. In an interview with FRANCE 24, Laura Chapin, a Democratic strategist in key swing state of Colorado, said the president would likely push “the narrative that he’s for average working Americans, and the Republicans are about protecting the wealthy and further dividing the country into haves and have-nots”.
The president will moreover try to tie his Republican opponent to deeply unpopular congressional Republicans. Last December, Obama’s deputy press secretary told reporters that the re-election campaign would present “the image of a gridlocked, dysfunctional Congress and a president who is leaving no stone unturned to try to find solutions”. In doing so, Obama can argue that his attempts to advance his 2012 agenda have been thwarted by an almost uniformly hostile opposition party.
To further dissociate himself from Congress, Obama will announce an initiative called “We Can’t Wait”, consisting of executive orders meant to help job seekers.
Recreating a coalition of supporters?
In 2008, Obama was carried to a decisive victory by a broad coalition of constituencies—young voters, African-Americans, Latinos, single women, and highly educated whites—taking states that no Democrat had won in years, such as Virginia, Nevada, and Indiana
The consensus is that 2012 will be different. “Is Obama going to have to work harder in this campaign? Absolutely,” strategist Laura Chapin said. “The novelty has worn off, and the economy is only starting to creep back. Margins will be closer than in 2008.”
A recent article in The New York Times examined the possibility that Obama would not even try to win over the “white working class”, but focus instead on consolidating a “center-left coalition” of well-off, progressive professionals and lower-income minorities. Still, as both Berman and Chapin pointed out, Mitt Romney, with his millions of dollars and lavish homes, is not a match made in heaven for working-class whites, either.
Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is reportedly hard at work trying to reactivate the vast army of volunteers that spent endless days and sleepless nights campaigning for a politician they believed in four years ago. The campaign is also looking at various combinations of states that Obama could win or lose in order to get to the 270 electoral votes he needs (far below the whopping 365 he snagged in 2008).
In any case, with a still-fragile economy, polarised public opinion, and widespread disillusionment with both parties, it is bound to be a bruising campaign for both Obama and his opponent.
“Look for a general election that is nasty, negative and filled with wild claims,” Darrell West of the Brookings Institution told FRANCE 24. “It won't be a pretty sight.”

White House 'Clarifies' Panetta's Remarks

2012-02-02T14:06:00.002-07:00

A simple clarification would have been to say that it's an election year in America and not to pay any more attention than you usually do to statements from the White House/Pentagon/NATO/ISAF. Their statements are very unlucky in their co-incidence with the factual world.

Washington - The White House on Thursday downplayed remarks by Defence Secretary Leon Panetta that the US could seek to end its combat role in Afghanistan earlier than planned. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Panetta's remarks were outlining discussions that he would be having with other defence ministers during a NATO meeting in Brussels, but did not indicate a shift in policy.
Panetta said Wednesday that the United States is aiming for an end to its combat role in Afghanistan by the second half of 2013. The United States' and NATO's aim has been to withdraw all combat troops by the end of 2014.
'Our goal is to complete all of that transition in 2013,' the Washington Post quoted Panetta as saying. 'Hopefully, by mid to the latter part of 2013, we'll be able to make a transition from a combat role.'
Carney said the goal remained a transfer to Afghan forces by 2014, but that it could happen sooner depending on circumstances. The topic would be a matter of discussion at a NATO summit set for May in Chicago, he said.

Egypt Soccer Riot - Police Accused As 74 Die

2012-02-02T04:21:00.000-07:00

On Thursday morning, dozens of angry protesters sealed off Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising that toppled Mubarak, while others blocked the street in front of the state TV building in downtown Cairo ahead of planned marches later in the day to the Interior Ministry to denounce the police force.

The melee at the stadium in Port Said erupted when Al-Masry fans stormed the field following a rare 3-1 win against Al-Ahly. Al-Masry supporters, armed with knives, sticks and stones, chased players and fans from the rival team, Al-Ahly, who ran toward the exits and up the stands to escape, according to witnesses. Read More.

Tougher Than Wisconsin: Arizona Republicans Launch ‘All Out Assault’ On Public Unions | TPMMuckraker

2012-02-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

Tougher Than Wisconsin: Arizona Republicans Launch ‘All Out Assault’ On Public Unions - via TPMMuckraker - With a sweeping series of bills introduced Monday night in the state Senate, Republicans in Arizona hoped to make Wisconsin’s battle against public unions last year look like a lightweight sparring match.
The bills include a total ban on collective bargaining for Arizona’s public employees, including at the city and county levels. The move would outpace even the tough bargaining restrictions enacted in Wisconsin in 2011 that led to massive union protests and a Democratic effort to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
“At first glance, it looks like an all out assault on the right of workers to organize,” Senate Minority Leader David Schapira (D) told TPM on Tuesday. “And to me, that’s a serious problem.”
The bills were crafted with the help of the Goldwater Institute, a powerful conservative think tank in Phoenix that flew Walker to the state for an event in November. Nick Dranias, director of the institute’s Center for Constitutional Government, told TPM he sees Walker as a “hero” but that Wisconsin’s laws were “modest” compared to Arizona’s measures.
“In Arizona, we believe that the political will exists to do even more comprehensive reform,” Dranias said. “The environment, the climate that we face in Arizona is much more receptive to these kinds of reforms than Wisconsin is.”
Beyond a ban on collective bargaining, the bills would also prohibit state and local government workers from deducting money from their paychecks to pay union dues.
They would ban state and local governments from paying anyone to spend time doing union work, a practice known as “release time.”
And in another break from the Wisconsin model, the restrictions would affect every type of public union, including police and firefighters.

Read more...

Audio Of Otto Von Bismarck

2012-02-01T03:54:00.000-07:00

A wax cylinder recording of German statesman Otto von Bismarck has been released. It's the first time his voice has been heard for more than 100 years.

The recording was made in 1889 by a technician working for the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison. Clip here (warning - this is not the digital quality you are used to when listening to Gaga or Justin on your Ipod :)).

Brainwaves Into Words

2012-02-01T02:57:00.000-07:00

A technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging to track blood flow in the brain has shown promise for identifying which words or ideas someone may be thinking about.
By studying patterns of blood flow related to particular images, Jack Gallant's group at the University of California Berkeley showed in September that patterns can be used to guess images being thought of -recreating "movies in the mind". More here.

Secret NATO Report - Afghanistan Disaster

2012-02-01T02:30:00.000-07:00

The BBC has got hold of a secret NATO report which flatly undermines everything NATO/ISAF have been saying publicly for years.

It notes: "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly".
It says that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.
Pakistan is finding it harder to convince outsiders it is not helping the Afghan Taliban and giving safe haven to its leaders.
"Senior Taliban representatives, such as Nasiruddin Haqqani, maintain residences in the immediate vicinity of ISI headquarters in Islamabad," it said.
It quotes a senior al-Qaeda detainee as saying: "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching."

In effect, the accusation is that Pakistan is betting on the insurgents being the strongest power in Afghanistan and most likely ally once Nato leaves - something Islamabad of course strenuously denies.
The leak of this report comes at a particularly sensitive time. Pakistan is already blocking the supply route to coalition forces in Afghanistan, following a Nato attack in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed.
With increasing pressure being heaped on Pakistan, public support there for formally ending co-operation with the West simply grows.

It is nothing new to say that Pakistan has enormous influence over the Taliban and what happens in Afghanistan. What is striking about this is the contrast between the secret and public utterances of NATO. The Polyanna-style, rose-tinted reports on NATO/ISAF 'progress' which they have issued several times each year since 2001 are blown out of the water by this leak. This is from last week. It is eloquent that they are refusing to comment on the leak.

Noam Chomsky On Wikileaks

2012-01-31T04:59:00.000-07:00

Video clip here.

WSJ And Climate Change Denial - Peter Gleick

2012-01-31T02:53:00.002-07:00

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board has long been understood to be not only antagonistic to the facts of climate science, but hostile. But in a remarkable example of their unabashed bias, on Friday they published an opinion piece that not only repeats many of the flawed and misleading arguments about climate science, but purports to be of special significance because it was signed by 16 “scientists.”
Serious doubt has been cast on the actual expertise on climate science of the signers and on the accuracy of the content, here and elsewhere, and the strawman arguments and technical flaws of their opinion piece are evident to anyone actually versed in the scientific debate. For example, their op-ed has fundamental errors about recent actual temperatures, they use false/strawman arguments that climate scientists are saying climate change “will destroy civilization,” they launch ad hominem attack on particular climate scientists using out-of-context quotes, and so on. Formal responses are in the works, and will be available from a variety of groups in the next day or so. [Just as an example, as pointed out here previously, and at the Union of Concerned Scientists: the authors claim there has been a “lack of warming” for 10 years. The reality? 2011 was the 35th year in a row in which global temperatures were above the historical average and 2010 and 2005 were the warmest years on record.]
But the most amazing and telling evidence of the bias of the Wall Street Journal in this field is the fact that 255 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences wrote a comparable (but scientifically accurate) essay on the realities of climate change and on the need for improved and serious public debate around the issue, offered it to the Wall Street Journal, and were turned down. The National Academy of Sciences is the nation’s pre-eminent independent scientific organizations. Its members are among the most respected in the world in their fields. Yet the Journal wouldn’t publish this letter, from more than 15 times as many top scientists. Instead they chose to publish an error-filled and misleading piece on climate because some so-called experts aligned with their bias signed it. This may be good politics for them, but it is bad science and it is bad for the nation.
Science magazine, perhaps the nation’s most important journal on scientific issues, published the NAS letter after WSJ turned it down.
Do you have an open mind? Read both, side by side. And understand that every national academy of sciences on the planet agrees with the reality and seriousness of human caused climate change.
The letter signed by 255 National Academy of Sciences members, from Science magazine.

The letter signed by 16 “scientists” in the Wall Street Journal.

8 Industries China Leads Where America Used To

2012-01-31T01:35:00.000-07:00

One reason that China continues to gain so rapidly on the U.S. is the high cost of American labor and manufacturing. In fact, U.S. manufacturing costs have risen so much that they are much higher than in any developed nation with factory capacity. This includes countries like China, Mexico and South Korea — places the U.S. and Japanese companies often contract to do their factory work. The labor price advantage has helped China become the largest steel producer in the world. China is also first place in car manufacturing.
24/7 Wall St.: The most popular U.S. companies in China

Low labor costs are not the sole reason China has become the single largest provider of many goods. China’s 1.3 billion citizens have become voracious consumers as workers in its manufacturing sector have grown the number of its middle class. China also has decided that it is often financially better to provide its own raw material for its factories— items like cotton — than it is to import such items from overseas.
24/7 Wall St. examined the manufacturing, agricultural and financial businesses in which China has surpassed the U.S. China likely will become the world’s largest economy based on GDP. It certainly has shown that it has the capacity to advance on that position — one large industry at a time. Full article here.

Warfare For Cowards

2012-01-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

'The ancient Greeks, unlike the Jews or the Christians, invested their gods with human failings. Divine judgement, they believed, was neither flawless nor dispassionate; it was warped by lust, vengeance and self-interest. In the hands of Zeus, the thunderbolt was both an instrument of justice and a weapon of jealousy and revenge.Those now dispensing judgement from on high are not gods, though they must feel like it. The people striking mortals down with drones are doubtless as capable as anyone else of self-deception, denial and cognitive illusions. More so perhaps, as the eminent fictions of the Bush years and the growing delusions of Obama suggest.'

Fully referenced article by George Monbiot here.

Afghanistan Exit - Operation Forked Tongue

2012-01-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

'But in an apparent response to France's call for a speedier NATO exit from Afghanistan, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday this meant that "from mid-2013 we will start the final transition of provinces and districts to lead Afghan responsibility."'

Based on NATO statement track records this, whatever it means and whatever part of NATO you care to believe, can be immediately discounted. Full story (fiction alert).

Hazing Deaths - Call For Proper Investigations

2012-01-30T12:27:00.003-07:00

100,000 Pakistanis In Anti-Drone Protest

2012-01-30T03:07:00.001-07:00

“We are not the enemies of the people of the West and the United States, but we reject the Americans’ attitude by which they always demand of a servile obedience from us,” JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the crowd in Pakistan’s financial capital.
… “Movements like Occupy Wall Street are just the beginning of the end of the imperialism of America and its Western allies,” he [Rehman] said.
“We are being forced to become extremists. When you and your religion are humiliated in Guantanamo Bay detention centre and your children are being crushed under tanks, then what the victims will ultimately do? They’ll counter your extremism with extremism.” Link.

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan - Immortal

2012-01-29T12:09:00.002-07:00

RZ is temporarily hors de combat due to continuing technical difficulties probably connected to solar flares. This is for him with wishes of a speedy return. The great Ustad:

'He practiced for 18 hours a day, even on his deathbed he was thinking only of his music. He was a great man and a great soul and it shows in his music. You all talk of his greatness but to him he was just a beginner in music, he used to say that he knew nothing. This is how great he is, he could not see his own greatness and only the greatness of the music and maata sarasvati.' LINK.

Iran To Cut Oil To Certain EU Countries

2012-01-29T11:59:00.002-07:00

TEHRAN, Jan. 29 (MNA) – Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has announced that Iran will cut oil exports to certain European countries in the near future in response to the recent oil embargo on the country.
The EU formally imposed an oil embargo on Iran and agreed to a freeze on the assets of the Central Bank of Iran on Monday, but existing contracts will be honored until July 1.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Qasemi said, “According to the Oil Ministry’s future plans, we will cut our exports to certain countries.”
“Less than 20 percent of Iran’s oil exports are destined for Europe,” he said, adding that the sanctions will take their toll on the European people and will not create a problem for Iran’s oil exports even if exports to Europe are halted.
The Iranian parliament is discussing a plan calling for a halt to Iran’s oil exports to the European countries that voted for sanctions on its oil industry.

George H.W. and Jeb Bush Pay Obama an Unscheduled Visit - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

2012-01-28T14:10:00.001-07:00

George H.W. and Jeb Bush Pay Obama an Unscheduled Visit - Politics - The Atlantic Wire
NUFF SAID.
What the EFF were they talking about?
They are all one happy family.
Jeb will be coming out soon.
His grooming is still in progress.
O must be getting a few pointers [orders] from Papa.

Flickr/White House

George H.W. and Jeb Bush Pay Obama an Unscheduled Visit - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

2012-01-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

George H.W. and Jeb Bush Pay Obama an Unscheduled Visit - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

Wall Street execs are major Obama fundraisers - Contraception - Salon.com

2012-01-28T13:32:00.001-07:00

Wall Street execs are major Obama fundraisers - Contraception - Salon.com

Barack Obama (Credit: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)