World-News

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "Does anyone even remember the first eight months of the George W. Bush administration? It was an unmitigated train wreck. One of the last nails in our current economic coffin got hammered in when he gave away the Clinton surplus to his one-percenter buddies with a massive tax cut we couldn't afford and they didn't need. Chinese fighters swatted some of our airmen out of the sky, and George made sure they had Bibles."


http://www.truthout.org/091009R?n

 

How 9/11 Should Be Remembered

Rebecca Solnit, TomDispatch.com: "Eight years ago, 2,600 people lost their lives in Manhattan, and then several million people lost their story. The al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers did not defeat New Yorkers. It destroyed the buildings, contaminated the region, killed thousands, and disrupted the global economy, but it most assuredly did not conquer the citizenry. They were only defeated when their resilience was stolen from them by clichés, by the invisibility of what they accomplished that extraordinary morning, and by the very word 'terrorism,' which suggests that they, or we, were all terrified. The distortion, even obliteration, of what actually happened was a necessary precursor to launching the obscene response that culminated in a war on Iraq, a war we lost (even if some of us don't know that yet), and the loss of civil liberties and democratic principles that went with it."

http://www.truthout.org/091009T?n

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Qaeda
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=civil+liberties
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Rivers+Pitt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Rebecca+Solnit

Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III, Truthout: "During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Obama promised to immediately withdraw troops from Iraq in order to bolster the forces in Afghanistan in order to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda. 'It's time to refocus our attention on the war we have to win in Afghanistan.' This approach was taken in order to placate the anti-Iraq war contingent of the American electorate on the left while not leaving candidate Obama vulnerable to the 'soft on defense' hawkish argument from the right. As a campaign tactic, this proved to be successful. As American foreign policy, this is proving to be one of the greatest miscalculations President Obama has made."

http://www.truthout.org/091009D?n

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Afghanistan: Obama's Vietnam?
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/29-7

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreign+policy
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=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=al-Qaeda
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wilmer+J.+Leon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Helena+Cobban

The Center for Public Integrity: "For months, a cloud has swirled around Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and the relationship that Murtha and other subcommittee members had with the PMA Group, a lobbying firm filled with former subcommittee aides. Murtha and fellow panel members Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.) steered a host of earmarks to PMA clients, and those clients and PMA staffers gave campaign contributions to the lawmakers. Aspects of those relationships are the subject of a Justice Department probe, which is thought to be looking at whether there were explicit quid pro quo exchanges of favors for cash, which would make crimes out of relationships that are otherwise legal."

http://www.truthout.org/091009C?n

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/706.html

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=9/11

AlterNet
by David Swanson

09/09/09

Nixon never kept as much of our government secret as Bush-Cheney did, and when push came to shove, he gave up some of his secrets and left town. Nixon’s former legal counsel John Dean agrees that the Cheney-Bush gang far surpassed Nixonian levels of secrecy and abuse of power. Not to mention lawyerly deviousness. Cheney claimed privileges supposedly belonging to the executive branch when it suited him. For example, he refused to comply with subpoenas because ‘the president and the vice president are constitutional officers and don’t appear before the Congress.’ At other times, Cheney claimed to be part of Congress in order to avoid complying with rules governing the executive branch. Hence the conclusion that if Cheney belonged to any branch it had to be the hitherto unheard of Dick Cheney Branch, which perhaps existed in Cheney’s well-known ‘undisclosed location...

http://tinyurl.com/nvq3qa


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Cheney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=abuse+of+power
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=subpoena
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Swanson

Truth Dig

by William Pfaff

09/08/09

The United States has for practical purposes been a plutocracy for some years now. American national elections usually function more or less correctly, except that they have become all but completely dominated by money. The contributors of money to Senate and House campaigns are dominated by the source of that money, and the source of the money is the United States government, which directs it to them as a result of the contracts awarded to them by the House and Senate members whose election they support. The process is circular. It would be cheaper for all concerned if business were directly to pay senators and representatives and eliminate the middlemen, the parasites who live on the surplus money in this system, paid for their ability to persuade both sellers and buyers (so to speak) that they are providing a service by facilitating the bargain. Elections now cannot take place without them...


http://tinyurl.com/n4jwho



Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=plutocracy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=William+Pfaff

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/09

Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR): Role of Disabilities Ignored for Tens of Millions Experiencing Income Poverty

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/09-6

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=recovery
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jim+Hightower

Bill Moyers Journal: "With a landmark speech on health reform behind him and tensions rising in war-torn Afghanistan, Bill Moyers Journal looks at President Obama's next big fights. Global health specialist and incoming president of Dartmouth College Dr. Jim Yong Kim shares his expertise in public health. And, the Journal takes a hard look at the state of affairs in ever-divided Afghanistan with McClatchy DC Pentagon correspondent Nancy Youssef."

http://www.truthout.org/090909Y?n

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=healthcare
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nancy+Youssef
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Moyers

John Mottern, Truthout: "The diversity of Camp Runamuck illustrates the impact current economic times are having on those living to close to the edge in America. Young and old, blue collar workers and professionals - all are appearing in greater numbers in these tent cities after losing jobs and homes. 'Homeless' no longer refers to mostly alcoholics, drug addicts and the mentally ill. It now includes many whose options have just plain run out."

http://www.truthout.org/090909R?n

 

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

Who's the number one weapons broker in the world, again? Take a guess
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/

 

Fate of Democracy Now in Supreme Court's Hands

If the court rules to free corporations to make unlimited campaign expenditures from their treasuries, the election playing field will be tilted massively against candidates advancing the public interest.

http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2959

 

Senate must raise debt ceiling above $12 Trillion

Obama is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling, something lawmakers are almost certain to do despite misgivings about the federal debt. The ceiling already has been hiked three times in the past two years, and the House took action earlier this year to raise the ceiling to $13 trillion.

http://snipurl.com/rpq0p

 

Top 1 Percent of Americans Reaped Two-Thirds of Income Gains

Two-thirds of the nation's total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households, and that top 1 percent held a larger share of income in 2007 than at any time since 1928,

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2908

 

Treasury Sees Millions More Foreclosures

Only 12 percent of U.S. homeowners eligible for loan modifications under the Obama administration's housing rescue plan have had their mortgages reworked, and millions more foreclosures are coming, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=8525289

 

Another Wave of Foreclosures Looms

The housing market faces the prospect of a new round of foreclosures as hundreds of thousands of risky home loans known as option adjustable-rate mortgages reset to significantly higher payments that could force borrowers to fall behind, according to a report released Tuesday by Fitch Ratings.

http://snipurl.com/rpq14

 

Job openings down 50% from the peak in 2007

6 unemployed people for every available position
http://snipurl.com/rpq18

 

Another financial crisis inevitable: Greenspan

Another global financial crisis is inevitable because human nature always reverts to "speculative excesses" during a period of sustained prosperity, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23452.htm

 

Greenspan and Buffett issue recovery warning - papers

Two of America's most noted financial commentators have argued the recovery of the US economy is not a given, despite the recent uptick in sentiment.

http://snipurl.com/rpq1k


From Information Clearing House

 

http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greenspan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=federal+debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Treasury
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=recovery
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=housing
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreclosure
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=homeowner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=unemploy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=corporation