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Same Old Santorum: A response to the Elephant in the Room
2008-05-31 03:29:00
by Mel Seesholtz Ph.D. Rick Santorum’s extremist views and abrasive rhetoric were the reasons Pennsylvania voters overwhelmingly booting him out of office in the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent senator since 1980. It seems he didn’t learn anything from the experience. On May 22, 2008 Santorum’s biweekly “Elephant in the Room ” column appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer bearing the title “A wake-up call on gay marriage after '03 alarm went unheeded.” It’s pure Santorum: fear-monger, self-aggrandizing, misleading, illogical. The first paragraph set the tone. Those were just a few of the terms hurled my way in 2003 when I said that the Supreme Court's Texas sodomy decision opened the door to the redefinition of marriage. When I wasn’t ducking the epithets, I was being laughed at, mocked, and given the crazy-uncle-at-the-holidays treatment by the media. Or I was being told I should resign from my leadership post by some Senate colleagues. Wrong, Mr. Santoru...
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Coexistence, Not Apartheid
2008-05-30 21:35:00
by Ramzy Baroud For the last 60 years, all those who have sought a genuinely peaceful and fair solution for Israel and Palestine have faced the same obstacle — Israel's sense of invincibility and military arrogance, abetted by the US and other Western governments' unwavering support. Despite recent setbacks on the military front, the Israeli government is yet to awaken to the reality that Israel is simply not invincible. The wheel of history, which has seen the rise and fall of many great powers, won't grind to a halt. Experiences have also repeatedly shown that neither Israel's nuclear arms nor Washington's billions of dollars in annual funds could create 'security' for the former. While Israel can celebrate whatever skewed version of history it wishes to, it still cannot defeat a people, ordinary people armed with their will to survive and reclaim what was rightfully theirs. The same problem confronted the US in Vietnam, France in Algeria and Italy in Libya. The Palestin...

Rove Protégé May Dig for Dirt on Obama
2008-05-30 21:33:00
by Jason Leopold Timothy Griffin, a central figure in the U.S. Attorney scandal and a protégé of Republican political guru Karl Rove , reportedly has been hired to dig up dirt on likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama . FirstRead, a political Web site of NBC News, cited a Republican source as confirming that Griffin was being brought onboard by the Republican National Committee to handle opposition research on Obama. Griffin hung up on me when I contacted him at his home and asked him to comment about the report. An RNC aide told me he could neither “confirm nor deny the report.” Griffin’s return to the RNC as an opposition researcher – a post he held during the Bush-Cheney campaigns – would seem to mark a return to a “dirty tricks” style of campaigning that John McCain has vowed to avoid. During the 2000 presidential campaign, Griffin handled “oppo” on Al Gore and, according to several RNC staffers, hung a poster behind his desk that paraphrased a line from “Gladiat...
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Suicides
2008-05-30 20:30:00
by Christopher Ketcham Suicide has gotten a bad rap. In our culture of endless imbecile optimism, the culture of self-help and medicated despair, we have lost respect for the suicide. For my part, I have on a few bad nights thought of suicide but never seriously; more contemplatively, as in: death is of course the other half of our equation, a partner always growing stronger. I have a pistol here at home: how to use it effectively? In the temple? Or up through the palate, directly into the brain? Coward thoughts because anodyne, without the context of real pain – you haven’t lived the long deaths of places like Iraq, the Congo, Colombia…the murmurings of one who’d like to have this balls-out vision of death and reflect on it as if it were cake. Still, to call the suicide a coward is an insult. The suicide enters the greatest unknown in human history. He steps willfully toward an abyss that the priests and philosophers build gossamer webs to conceal. Schopenh...
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Bending Over For Bush
2008-05-30 20:14:00
by Michael Collins 21 War Loving Senate Democrats Give Bush $165 Billion for Iraq It is now their war. Iraq has been and will be the war of every Senator and Representative who funds the madness. Over four thousand U.S. troops have been killed in battle in Iraq. Ten times that number have major injuries. Sixty thousand have post traumatic stress disorder. Suicides among those who have served in Iraq are at 120 a week or about six thousand a year. Over a million Iraqis have died as a result of the lawlessness and unrest due to the Bush-Cheney invasion. There are five million Iraqi orphans. "Before it's over," the war will cost three trillion dollars, but there's no end in sight. Yet each of these Democrats cast that all aside and voted to provide the very worst president in our history, a blatant incompetent, with $165 billion dollars to continue the war. Democratic Hall of Shame Democratic Senators voting more funding for the Bush-Cheney war. Why would they ...

George W. Bush against Madonna
2008-05-30 14:22:00
by Roland Michel Tremblay Who is Madonna ? Oh, just the most influential artist this planet has ever seen. She is sort of American, with Italian and French-Canadian parents, but there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that she is the embodiment of America, the coming of age of the American Dream. Who is George W . Bush ? Oh dear, where should I begin? George W. Bush is at least four generations of political corruption and everything that gives this planet a bad name. George W. Bush and his ancestors, are what ultimately makes humanity not worth existing. Let’s just pull the plug on humanity and annihilate it all whilst there is still time, before we annihilate the rest of the universe with it. That is George W. Bush. George W. Bush is such a bad man, his reign that lasted a decade, has inspired every single artist on this planet to write their best work yet. Creative minds were bored out of their mind for so long, and suddenly they had a reason to live, a reason to exist, so...
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"Immoral Hazard"
2008-05-30 14:15:00
by Stephen Lendman So says Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of Boston-based investment firm Grantham, Mayo and Van Otterloo, now known as GMO. Some call him the philosopher king of Wall Street because of his highly insightful views on markets and the economy, usually with a longer-term perspective. In a profession of touts, fast-buck and scam artists, Grantham's commentaries are notably refreshing. They're detailed, scholarly, sober, clear and especially important at a time of unparalleled excesses, great economic uncertainty, voices ranging from gloom and doom to blue skies and all clear ahead, so who knows what to believe. Few people sort things out better than he, and whether right or wrong, he makes consummate sense and should be taken seriously. He calls his latest commentary "Immoral Hazard " and takes straight aim at the perpetrators. It's not the first time, and with good reason. Bad policy yields bad results with former Fed Chairman Greenspan Exhibit A. Grantham...

Gays, God, and Government: Self-righteousness in the State Capitols
2008-05-30 14:07:00
by Walter Brasch The mantra of almost all conservatives—it makes no difference what political party they belong to—is to keep government out of their lives. But, they don’t mind government interference when it plays to their biases and bigotry. For example, it’s perfectly acceptable for the government to enter one’s bedroom if the purpose is to ban homosexual activity and—horrors!—gay marriage. In Pennsylvania, political conservatives and religious fundamentalists thought the existing state law against same-sex marriage was vulnerable to a constitutional challenge, and wanted something more permanent—a constitutional amendment to “preserve” the sanctity of marriage. Having heard the call—and an opportunity to score with his constituents— State Sen. John Gordner unleashed his horse and charged into battle, thrusting his sword of righteousness into every hole that could allow for same-sex marriage. The proposed amendment sailed through the judiciary and app...
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Rice's Lies About Torture
2008-05-30 13:57:00
by Dave Lindorff Is anyone surprised that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that the Bush/Cheney administration’s authorization of torture of captives has been consistently legal and in compliance with all treaties the US has signed, including the Geneva Conventions? After all, she was at the meetings in the White House in 2001 at which various acts of torture, ranging from waterboarding to exposure to extreme heat and cold, to enforced long periods in stress positions, and to treatments which have not been disclosed (no doubt because they are so outrageous and offensive to common decency) were dreamed up, proposed and approved for use—meetings that were manifestly criminal in nature and in violation of international and US law. The US was “a different place” in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, Rice told a group of people at a town hall meeting in Mountain View, Calif. on Thursday. But even though the administration’s “top priority” at the time was allegedly “prev...
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What Are We Waiting For?
2008-05-30 13:54:00
Joel S. Hirschhorn Long before the disastrous George W. Bush administration, I had been waiting for profound, systemic changes in our political system. Perversely, I saw the upside of Bush as motivating more Americans to demand political change. And that happened. But the national yearning for change was co-opted by Ron Paul on the right and Barack Obama on the left while John Edwards with the most authentic populist change message fizzled out early. It is not enough to want, demand and support change, not when change is more of a campaign slogan than a carefully detailed set of reforms. Critically needed is a firm understanding of what specific changes can restore American democracy and remove the privileged rich plutocrats and corporatists running and ruining our nation. A huge fraction of Americans have bought into the Obama candidacy because of his polished and effective rhetoric. But Obama does not offer the changes I have been waiting for, or ...
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Imagine This
2008-05-30 13:51:00
 by Stephen P. Pizzo We've arrived at one of those moments when we'd be wise to just hit the "pause" button, stop, sit in a quiet place and imagine something that could happen, actually happening. (After all, had more people done just that before we invaded Iraq, a whole lot people would still be alive and the nation would be a trillion bucks richer right now. But we didn't, and here we are.) Now we have another chance to image something before it happens. This time that "something" is Vice President Hillary R. Clinton. Having failed to bag the number one spot on the ticket, Hillary and Bill and their surrogates are now furiously working the back channels trying to get a lock on the second spot. So, what if Obama is successfully hounded into tapping Hillary Clinton as his No. 2? What would life be like for President Obama — and the rest of us — over the next four years? Let's stop, look both ways and imagine this: Scene: VP Hillary Clinton ...
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WILL AN ADULT FINALLY PREVAIL?!
2008-05-28 20:58:00
by Linda Milazzo Yes, I know. John McCain was a prisoner of war and he survived to tell his tale. It's fortunate he survived and I commend him for his service, but as President he won’t prevail. He’s dangerous. He’s delusional. And he lacks the emotional stability and maturity for the job. Yes, he lacks the MATURITY for the job! He’s another privileged son of another privileged family who believes he’s entitled to the job. Well, he’s NOT!! True, McCain suffered greatly as a POW, but to his good fortune when he did arrive home he was cloaked in his celebrity, provided every resource, and protected by his family – a decidedly different scenario from the isolation and lack of services lesser known vets are forced to endure. Their fates frequently result in homelessness, drug and alcohol addiction, and an inability to secure adequate medical and mental-health services for years - even decades. Not so for John McCain. John McCain, the Admiral’s...
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Of Mice and Straw Men
2008-05-28 20:53:00
by Jayne Lyn Stahl Now that we've figured out, six years into it, that the war in Iraq wasn't about fighting Al Qaeda, but straw men, it's time to turn our attention to the Senate who singlehandedly showed that the times they are indeed a changing this week by adding protections for veterans, and the jobless, onto the the Iraq war funding bill. Notably, the bill passed the Senate by a wide, and bipartisan, margin. And, despite the stalwart efforts of the mainstream media to ignore it, there is a strong likelihood that the next President may be facing a majority of Democrats in both the House and the Senate which could make it immensely difficult to slip an activist conservative Supreme Court justice through the cracks, should the White House next be occupied by McCain. This could get interesting, especially in light of Mr. Bush's new role as fundraiser-in-chief, and lobbyist, for McCain. Reportedly, the president will be working to raise cash for the Arizona senator next w...
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Celebrating Israel's 60th Birthday in the 60th year of the Nakba
2008-05-28 11:55:00
by Zahir Ebrahim May 15, 2008 (Footnote updating the record of festivities in Israel added May 20, 2008) On the festive and felicitous occasion of the 60th anniversary of Israel's existence which is being celebrated with much fanfare from Tel Aviv to Washington D.C., President George W. Bush along with his notable wife landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport on May 14, 2008, to the warm greetings of Shimon Perez: “Welcome to the new Israel: Three thousand years old, and going on sixty” President Bush effusively replied: “Our two nations both faced great challenges when they were founded. And our two nations have both relied on the same principles to help us succeed. We built strong democracies to protect the freedoms given to us by an Almighty God” Project HumanbeingsfirstTM would like to offer its humble contribution to the love-fest celebrations on Israel's 60th birthday by elaborating upon these “same principles to help us succeed”, beginning with the few...
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TH*NK*NG (CONTRACTIONS)
2008-05-28 11:49:00
by Fred Cederholm I’ve been thinking about contractions. Actually I’ve been thinking about the Summer 2008 driving season, recessions, the March 2008 trade numbers, our trade deficits, our energy deficits, and worldwide gas prices at the pump. Official numbers for our trade deficits, the cumulative trade deficit(s) for the calendar year thus far, our energy import sources, and the “at the pump pricing” for gasoline around the world for this past March were released last week. The results and implications for US/us were actually quite surprising - at least they were not what I had expected. You see the Summer of 2008 driving season usually kicks off on this coming Memorial Day weekend. Like everyone else I am already shelling out more per week to fuel up my vehicle(s) and am re-allocating expenditures on convenience (and junk) food, eating out, summer apparel, and anything else I don’t absolutely need to buy. I’ve never been a “power shopper” and only frequent the Malls/ r...

Evolve or die: Can we shed our moral primitivism before itÂ’s too late?
2008-05-27 16:12:00
by Jason Miller The introduction and questions providing the catalyst for Best’s deconstruction of capitalism, corporatism, speciesism and the like are “As ye sow, so shall ye reap…” Endless resource wars, globalization, privatization, profits over life, exploitation, raping the Earth, poisoning and irradiating the environment, exponentially criminal levels of unnecessary suffering caused by the concentration of wealth into the hands of a few, Climate Change, alarming rates of species extinction, Peak Oil, a jungle of cronyism and corruption so dense you couldn’t hack your way through it with the sharpest of machetes, and increasingly powerful monopoly entities intensifying their stranglehold on the “free market” are the rotting fruits that comprise the bitter harvest we are reaping by the bushel-basketful. And our Karma’s not through with us yet. Not by a long-shot. As long as we maintain our jejune, myopic, and infinitely idiotic devotion to capitalism, all but a selec...
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When Free Speech DoesnÂ’t Come Free
2008-05-23 10:41:00
by Remi Kanazi Free speech is not without consequence. In the United States, for example, criticism of Israel is tantamount to heresy. Former US President Jimmy Carter felt a societal backlash last year after the release of his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which condemned IsraelÂ’s apartheid-style policies in the occupied Palestinian territories. Consequently, and without foundation, Carter was branded by many in the American press as a one-sided, anti-Semitic propagandist. Similarly, Harvard professor Stephen Walt and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer were lambasted for a paper the two co-authored that discussed the power of the Israel lobby and its adverse effect on American policy. Additionally, Norman Finkelstein, an esteemed professor at Depaul University and author of the bestselling book, The Holocaust Industry, witnessed a McCarthyite-style campaign mounted against him when he came up for tenure. Finkelstein, the son of Holocaus...
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Out-Foxing Fox: Times Totes Water for War Crime Spin
2008-05-23 10:36:00
by Chris Floyd We have often noted here the special role that New York Times reporter Michael Gordon plays in the national media. For years, he has served as a key conduit for government propaganda aimed at fomenting military aggression, then justifying it once it has begun. In many ways, he has probably been a far more effective tool of the militarists than the Fox News network. The latter, of course, pumps the toxic, bloodstained sewage of Bush Regime spin directly into the public discourse 24 hours a day. But Fox is a very crude instrument. The network makes almost no attempt to hide its direct relationship with the warmongers, as demonstrated by its recent hiring of "news analyst" Karl Rove – who, though supposedly retired from politics, is of course still a principal adviser of both the White House and the McCain campaign. Fox preaches largely to the converted, and although it plays a vital role in keeping the faithful roused to fury, its partisan extre...
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Spinning the News - The FARC-EP Files, Venezuela and Interpol
2008-05-23 10:33:00
by Stephen Lendman First some background. On March 1, the Colombian military (with US Special Forces help) illegally attacked a FARC-EP rebel camp inside Ecuador. US satellite telephone tracking located the site. Washington signed off on the mission. Over 20 people were killed, including 16 or more FARC-EP members while they slept. Key among them was Paul Reyes, the FARC-EP's second-in-command, key peace negotiator and public voice, and lead figure in the Chavez-led hostage negotiations with Colombia. The action was a clear act of aggression and premeditated murder. It's not how the dominant media played it. Hostile verbal exchanges took place between Hugo Chavez and Ecuador's Raphael Correa on the one hand and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe and George Bush on the other. US presidential candidates, as expected, supported the White House and Bogota. Tensions heightened further when Colombia's vice-president, Francisco Santos Calderon, revealed his n...
More About: News , The News , Venezuela , Farc , Spinning

Dumpster-Diving for GOP Quotes (And Their Hidden Meanings)
2008-05-23 10:27:00
by Dr. Bernard Weiner As a playwright, I pay special attention to the difference between words as they are spoken and the unsaid words hidden beneath the surface — what we in the dramaturgy biz call "subtext." With McCain and Obama edging closer to full-out general election campaigning, it seems an appropriate time to examine recent and older public utterances of various Republican officials — Bush, McCain, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Fleischer, Ashcroft, et al. — and their likely subtextual meanings. I'm presenting them here for several reasons: first, to make sure these utterances do not get forgotten, but also to help us figure out how to combat the twisted politics they represent. No doubt a goodly number of these quotations will appear in campaign ads prior to November. George W. Bush, of course, is a never-ending source of such examples. Many of them make you guffaw in absolute embarrassment for the guy, way over his head in a ...
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Lebanon gets a President: The Doha Scorecard
2008-05-23 10:25:00
by Franklin Lamb The agreement was not ideal for either party and I hope that it will serve as a launch pad for decent relations between the majority and the opposition. We will tackle the other issues in Beirut and there is no need to fear anything". — MP Michel Aoun, Hezbollah ally and leader of the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) following this morning's Doha agreement Lebanon will have General Michel Suleiman as its new President , possibly within hours. But no later than Sunday May 25, in order to allow time for the international community to send representatives. Suleiman had appeared to be closer to the government coalition when he was first nominated but he was recently criticized as being too close to the opposition when his troops did not intervene when gun battles broke out between the warring sides this month. Some say events make the man. Others the obverse. Suleiman could be a much needed, honest, strong, independent leader that will en...

Rapid Unraveling And The Demise Of Adolescent America
2008-05-23 10:21:00
by Carolyn Baker Well here it is folks-the great unraveling so many of us have been forecasting during the past five years as we've read the tea leaves and researched the unprecedented convergence of myriad natural, political, economic, and environmental realities. As most of you know, I'm traveling, yes on the road, across this country. I was going to wait until arriving at my final destination before writing about my experience, but with oil rapidly heading for $200 a barrel, it feels important to do so sooner rather than later because our lives have just changed more dramatically than we can imagine, and we will only be able to comprehend to what extent as the repercussions of the end of the age of oil reverberate through what is left of industrial civilization. In my travels I've seen exactly one RV on the road, a few SUV's and vans, a number of small cars and motorcycles, and lots of eighteen-wheelers going 55 MPH. Motels have a record low number of guests,...
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A “Holey” Instrument of Peace in Iraq
2008-05-23 10:16:00
by Robert Weitzel On October 23, 2006 a U.S. soldier or marine peered through the telescopic sight of his M24 sniper rifle and trained it on the face of Nora, a five-year-old Iraq i girl. Her pretty face was close enough to kiss. Instead, he squeezed the trigger and sent a 7.62 round slamming into her skull. The medical report read, “Nora sustained an explosive bullet injury to her head that smashed the skull bones and ruptured her cerebral membrane.” Nora survived the sniper’s bullet. During the battle for Falluja in 2004, U.S. snipers positioned themselves on rooftops covering the entrance to the only hospital still in operation, creating what locals called “sniper alley.” Iraqi men, women, and children seeking medical treatment were fired on. Ambulances delivering patients and supplies were fired on. Unlike Nora, many did not survive the sniper’s bullet. On May 30, 2006 Nabiha Nisaif Jasiam and her cousin, Saliha Mohammed Hassen were shot from behind by a ...
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Is capitalism a religion we have taken too far?
2008-05-23 10:15:00
by Roland Michel Tremblay Is pure capitalism a religion we have taken too far? George W. Bush may wish to talk about God as much as he wants, his track record and the one of his family, up to his grandfather and great grandfather, speak for themselves. The Bush family has only one God and one religion, it has nothing to do with Christianity, but everything to do with making money. Pure capitalism and pure greed to the extreme is our only religion. I feel it is difficult to speak of capitalism as a whole, without falling in numerous traps and being accused of not knowing what I am talking about. So first thing I did was to go on Wikipedia, then I stopped myself. Don’t get me wrong, I will read it and say what I think of it, but first capitalism must be, before anything else, what the people inside really feel it is. Not the perfect book definition that we all wish it to be, because in practice we know capitalism has evolved into something else, that many consider a rea...
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The Recognition of Israel - The impact, legacy and relevance of an earlier
2008-05-23 10:11:00
by Dan Lieberman The 60th anniversary of the state of Israel prompted reviews of the post World War II declarations that resulted in the formation of a nation that had no name until David Ben Gurion proclaimed on May 14, 1948, the birth of the new state of Israel. Books, articles, documents, memoirs and letters from past generations have detailed how a miniscule group of insiders prevailed over recommendations from the experienced and famous U.S. State Department of "wise men." An embattled clique, surrounded by powerful detractors, struggled against all odds and succeeded in its endeavors. It is the story of the Zionist mission. It is the story of Israel. The history is available, but the impact, legacy and relevance of the 1945-1948 events to today's occurrences have not been sufficiently explored. Under the surfaced stories are the hidden messages and obscure drives that shaped the past and extend into the future. A more complete analysis of the legacy...
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Mohawk Nation News: Exposing the secret warfare machines of Canada and US
2008-05-23 10:07:00
by Kahentinetha Horn HAUDENOSAUNEE EAGLES KEEP WATCH OVER CANADA'S AERIAL WARFARE: Those Pesky Mohawks are in the Way Again: by Iakoha’ko:wa of Sharbot Lake The 21st century soldier will be able to kill masses of people without ever looking into their eyes, or hearing their cries or smelling the stench of their dead bodies. They can commit the carnage while sitting comfortably in a place like Trenton Army Base in Ontario. They won't get their legs and hands blown off. They’re priceless because of all the tax money that went into their training in killing people. These kids will have the power of life or death over everyone, including themselves. We know that we are hardwired to protect each other. How do we stop this war making? Our survival depends on it. Canada is not under military threat from anyone, except perhaps the U.S. Yet on May 12, 2008 Canada announced a $30 billion 20-year “War Plan” to expand and “warriorize” their military. The previous budget was...
More About: News , Machines , The Secret , Nation

Qurei Urges Israel to Acknowledge Palestinian 'Right of Return'
2008-05-23 09:56:00
by Nicola Nasser 'We Persist Now on Fighting a Fierce Battle of Peace' Agreeing to the Israel i neo-historian Ilan Pappé's interpretation of the term "Nakba," Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmad Qurei said that peace and peace negotiations with Israel "could not hang on forever," warned that "the horrible alternative option could not but be the total collapse of the dreams of coexistence and the resumption of the bloody struggle," urged Israel to reach a solution for the Palestinian refugee problem "based on the principle of acknowledging the Right of Return , and compensation for the sufferings of the Palestinian people," and to adopt a "culture of confession" and "apologize" for what happened, and "to uphold the responsibility for all that happened" in 1948 as "a necessary first step that would pave the way to achieve a just and lasting peace, which makes room for all on the land." Qurei'...

The California Supreme Court Decision: Civil Equality Trumps Religious Bigo
2008-05-23 09:51:00
by Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D. The ruling had been anticipated for months. Gay Americans hoped they’d be recognized as equals and gain the right to the civil institution called “marriage.” The Christianist Right held their breath knowing that when put to the ultimate test, discrimination always loses. The California Supreme Court decision was announced at 10 AM (PDT) on 15 May 2008. Both sides “won,” sort of. In a May 17, 2006 editorial The New York Times summarized: The California Supreme Court brought the United States a step closer to fulfilling its ideals of equality and justice with its momentous 4-to-3 ruling upholding the right of same-sex couples to marry. … Opponents of giving gay couples the respect, benefits, obligations and protections that come with marriage are already mobilizing to try to nullify the historic decision through a proposed state constitutional amendment likely to appear on the November ballot. … Still, the California verdict was a major vict...
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McCain Defends 'Enron Loophole'
2008-05-23 09:45:00
by Jason Leopold Sen. John McCain says he opposes the $307 billion farm bill because it would dole out wasteful subsidies, but his chief economic adviser Phil Gramm also wants to stop its proposed regulation of energy futures trading, a market that was famously abused when Enron Corp. manipulated California’s electricity prices in 2001. Clearing the way for that California price gouging, Gramm, as a powerful Texas senator in 2000, slipped an Enron-backed provision into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act that exempted from regulation energy trading on electronic platforms. Then, over the next year, Enron – with Gramm’s wife Wendy serving on its board of directors – worked to create false electricity shortages in California, bilking consumers out of an estimated $40 billion. Gramm left the Senate in 2002 but now has emerged as what Fortune magazine calls “McCain’s econ brain,” not only filling the Arizona senator’s acknowledged void on economic expertise (“I don’t know as m...

Deconstructing Bush's Speech to Arab Nations
2008-05-23 09:41:00
by Stephen P. Pizzo From: White House Web Site. Transcript. President Bush Attends World Economic Forum Sharm el Sheikh International Congress Center THE PRESIDENT: I know these are trying times, but the future is in your hands – Because, as you may know, I will be hauled out of the Oval Office next January. America is a much younger nation, but we've made our mark by advancing ideals as old as the pyramids. Those ideals of liberty and justice ... Which my administration has pruned way back and/or openly violated in recent years. This hopeful movement made its way to places where dictators once reigned and peaceful democracies seemed unimaginable: places like Chile... Of course we did have to assassinate Chile's democratically elected President and turn the nation over to a brutal military dictator first... And people of faith (in those countries)are finding the blessing of worshiping God in peace. Of course only those who accept Jesus Christ as their personal sav...
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