World-News

Obama Steals Bush's Speechwriters

By Matthew Rothschild

If you closed your eyes during much of the President's speech on Afghanistan Tuesday night and just listened to the words, you easily could have concluded that George W. Bush was still in the Oval Office.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24122.htm



Are Americans Too Broken for the Truth to Set Us Free?

By Bruce E. Levine

What forces have created a demoralized, passive, disCouraged U.S. population? Can anything be done to turn this around?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24126.htm



Helen Thomas Deviates From the Terrorism Script

By Glenn Greenwald

At a White House press conference yesterday with Janet Napolitano and John Brennan, Helen Thomas shows -- yet again -- that she's one of the very few White House reporters willing to deviate from approved orthodoxy scripts. She asks the prohibited question about the motives of Terrorists, and keeps asking as she receives complete non-responses, until they all just decide to ignore her.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24362.htm



Answering Helen Thomas on Why They Want to Harm Us

By Ray McGovern

Thank God for Helen Thomas, the only person to show any courage at the White House press briefing after President Barack Obama gave a flaccid account of the intelligence screw-up that almost downed an airliner on Christmas Day.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24363.htm



Always Be Scared!

Video

Funny, yet sickening view of societies "ills", and loss of liberty.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24365.htm

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‘Obama’s war’ in Afghanistan could be politically precarious

Christian Science Monitor

12/05/09

As 1,000 US marines launched a combat operation behind enemy lines dubbed ‘Cobra’s Anger’ this weekend, it became clear that President Obama now ‘owns’ the war in Afghanistan. Though there was high symbolism of that fact in his speech at West Point Tuesday, Obama took control of the war months ago, escalating US military assets and aggressiveness in Afghanistan. He’s more than doubled the number of US troops there since he took office. And as the Monitor’s Howard LaFranchi reported, he’s greatly increased the US commitment compared to NATO and other non-US forces. At the same time, Obama has authorized an increase in the use of pilotless drone aircraft to strike targets — typically Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives — along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, according to a New York Times report...

http://tinyurl.com/yz4ys77



Nobel acceptance will be a tricky moment

Associated Press

12/06/09

He’s the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who just ordered 30,000 more troops into war. He’s the winner who says he didn’t deserve to win. He’s not quite 11 months on the job and already in the company of Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama. This is President Barack Obama’s Nobel moment, an immense honor shadowed by awkward timing. When Obama leaves for Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday to be lauded for his style of international diplomacy, he goes knowing that the American people are more concerned about something else: peace of mind. The economy has left millions of them hurting. … Unemployment is in double digits even as the bleeding of jobs has slowed. Meanwhile, there’s no hiding the contrast of war and peace...

http://tinyurl.com/yza8llj



US foreign policy and the cult of “expertise”

AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

12/07/09

How do we account for the huge gap between the people and those who make policy in their name? To begin with, we have an entire class of people whose jobs, social prestige, and livelihoods are directly tied to our foreign policy of global intervention. These people are naturally inclined to favor militarism and meddling in the affairs of other nations. This group, while small in numbers, wields an outsized influence when it comes to such matters, and it can successfully defy popular opinion for quite a long time. It manages to hornswoggle the public with a number of scams, notably the cult of expertise, which Americans have traditionally been suckers for, and never more so than today, when confusion over the sheer complexity of some of the foreign policy issues being raised makes people particularly vulnerable to the argument from authority...

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2009/12/06/the-cult-of-expertise/



This sure seems like Vietnam

Albany Times Union
by Helen Thomas

12/06/09

President Barack Obama insists that his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in 30,000 more troops is not Vietnam all over again.Well, it sure reminds me of the perils and the price of that unwinnable war and the political chaos it wreaked at home. … Obama is too young to remember the national turmoil during the Vietnam War that resulted in the deaths of more than 58,000 Americans and thousands of Vietnamese. That war also ended the political career of President Lyndon Johnson, who decided not to seek re-election in 1968...

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/storyprint.asp?StoryID=874151



The twin frauds of Obama

CounterPunch
by Paul Craig Roberts

12/06/09

Of course, it is not really capitalism. It is an oligarchy or a financial plutocracy. In a failed state, the government’s priorities are totally separate from those of the people. The US can’t afford health care or a bailout for jobless homeowners, but it can afford a pointless war and multi-million dollar bonuses for banksters who wrecked the economy...

http://counterpunch.org/roberts12042009.html



Troop surge in Afghanistan a losing investment

Independent Institute
by Robert Higgs

12/04/09

President Obama’s decision to send another 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan during the next six months does not make sense. Hardly anybody has real enthusiasm for the plan. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are lukewarm, for the most part; some are stridently opposed. The military chiefs apparently support the plan, but surely the president can appease them in alternative, less politically risky ways. In explaining his plan, the president declares that ‘we must deny al-Qaida a safe haven. We must reverse the Taliban’s momentum … And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s security forces and government’ because ‘it is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted.’ If these statements express the president’s actual thoughts, then he is much less astute than he is usually given credit for...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2674



Obama’s exit strategy

Human Events
by Patrick J. Buchanan

12/04/09

If actions speak louder than words, President Obama is cutting America free of George Bush’s wars and coming home. For his bottom line Tuesday night was that all U.S. forces will be out of Iraq by mid-2011 and the U.S. footprint in Afghanistan will, on that date, begin to get smaller and smaller. Yet the gap between the magnitude of the crisis he described and the action he is taking is the Grand Canyon...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=34673



Peace prize protests scheduled

New York Times

12/06/09

It looks like President Obama is unlikely to get the Nobel Peace Prize without the occasion being marked by protests. At least one antiwar group is already calling for a midday march to the United States Armed Forces Recruiting Station in New York’s Times Square to coincide with the award ceremony in Oslo City Hall on Dec. 10, the date on which Alfred Nobel died. Days before the event protesters were already handing out leaflets headlined: ‘You Don’t End a War By Sending More Troops! Stop the Occupation of Afghanistan’...

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/peace-prize-protest/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Pakistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Vietnam
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nobel+laureate
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreign+policy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=militarism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=global+intervention
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=drone
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Qaeda
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=capitalism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oligarchy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=plutocracy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bankster
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bonus
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=healthcare
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=homeowner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=unemploy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Matthew+Rothschild
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bruce+E.+Levine
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=raimondo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Helen+Thomas
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Craig+Roberts
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Higgs
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Patrick+J.+Buchanan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ray+McGovern

http://lewrockwell.com/lind/lind162.html

It’s Not Just Obama, It’s the System
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/evil-and-unsalvageable.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/lind
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Timothy+Baldwin

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/grant5.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/grant

http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9196/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Gates
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Mullen
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afpak
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=national+security
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban

Military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, which President Obama suspended amid much fanfare immediately after taking office, quietly resumed this week with new signs of the legal complexities of the cases and the challenges for prosecutors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/03/AR2009120303409.html


From Information Clearing House

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Center for Constitutional Rights: Innocent Uighurs Still Detained at Guantánamo after Being Cleared for Release Since As Long Ago As 2003 Ask Supreme Court to Set.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/12/04-12



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Guantanamo
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Uighur
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detainee
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+panel
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+commissions
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Center+for+Constitutional+Rights

William A. Cook

There is a wall around this President, a wall he did not know existed when he made his famous speech in Berlin when still a candidate; a wall he did not know he could not tear down even if he became President; a wall that has been built by powers that control America not by the people of America; a wall that uses fear as its mortar, bigotry and racism as its buttress, coercion as its cement, and money as its allurement to maintain control.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24115.htm



Trickle-up Economics

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me

By Paul Craig Roberts

Little wonder the US can't afford health care for the uninsured and unemployed. It is far more important to finance multi-million dollar bonuses for investment bankers. I mean, what would we do without capitalism?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24113.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=racism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=capitalism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bonus
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=investment+banker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=healthcare
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=unemploy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+A.+Cook
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paul+Craig+Roberts

http://www.lewrockwell.com/cooper/cooper27.1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=police+state
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/cooper

Salon
by Glenn Greenwald

12/03/09

Torture is one of the most universal taboos in the civilized world. The treaty championed by Ronald Reagan declares that ‘no exceptional circumstances’ can justify it, and requires that every state criminalize it and prosecute those who authorize or engage in it. But only 25% of Americans agree with Ronald Reagan and this Western consensus that torture is never justifiable. Worse, 54% of Americans believe torture is ‘often’ or ’sometimes’ justified. When it comes to torture, the vast bulk of the country is now to the ‘right’ (for lack of a better term) of Ronald Reagan, who at least in words (if not in deeds) insisted upon an absolute prohibition on the practice and mandatory prosecution for those responsible. With these new numbers, it’s virtually impossible to find a country with as high a percentage of torture supporters as the U.S. has...

http://tinyurl.com/yj8gkxs


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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New Poll Finds Americans Favor U.S. Isolationism, Acting Alone

Majority of Americans Think Torture 'Sometimes' Justified

By Heather Maher

Fully 44 percent of Americans -- the highest percentage in more than 45 years -- say that because the United States is "the most powerful nation in the world, we should go our own way in international matters, not worrying about whether other countries agree with us or not."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24118.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glenn+Greenwald
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Heather+Maher

Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Brian Douglass

12/03/09

In recent months, there has been a good deal of discussion of change in the United States. Sadly, over the last two centuries, the direction in which this country has been changing seems to be away from liberty and towards more control. The present changes are hardly unprecedented and certainly not unforeseen. In this essay I will examine two authors, Hilaire Belloc and F.A. Hayek, who present a useful analysis of our present situation...

http://mises.org/daily/3880


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=servile
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=what+change
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Brian+Douglass

Christian Science Monitor

12/03/09

If President Obama is looking for something that transcends the national divisions over healthcare reform and Afghanistan policy, he might try isolationism. Roughly half of Americans now say the United States should ‘mind its own business’ and let other countries hash out problems on their own, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The survey, conducted every four years with the Council on Foreign Relations among CFR members and the general public, finds America’s perennial inward-looking strain at its highest level since pollsters first queried Americans about isolationist tendencies in 1964. Back then, just 18 percent of Americans supported a ‘mind our own business’ approach. Today, it’s 49 percent. The sour economy is one explanation for the isolationist spike, but so is disappointment and fatigue over the results of eight years of aggressive foreign policy under President Bush...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1203/p02s16-usfp.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreign+policy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=CFR
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=isolation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=healthcare