On his first day in office, President Barack Obama promised that he would close the Bush-era prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, ‘as soon as practicable’ and ‘no later than one year from the date of this order.’ The announcement was met with relief, even joy, by those, like me, who had opposed the very existence of Guantanamo on the grounds that it represented a legal black hole where the distinction between guilt and innocence had been obliterated, respect for the rule of law was mocked, and the rights of prisoners were dismissed out of hand. We should have known better...
I don’t think the majority of Americans would go to a doctor who tells them that the only way to fight off a deadly cancer is with another, less lethal form of cancer, as a way to divert from the original problem. The same metaphor can be used to explain the current politics in the US. If there is one thing I hope the average American voter will learn from the past decade, is that there really is not a difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. Politic[i]ans from both sides have been called out on corruption, driven up the national debt, and have passed laws limiting American’s freedom. The only way to stop the current pattern of constantly switching sides in hope of a better government is for the average American to stop buying into the two-party system...
Restoring federalism and state sovereignty: A constitutional path to prosperity
Liberty For All
by Barry Poulson
04/19/10
The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution provides: ‘The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.’ Over the first century of our nation’s history the 10th Amendment was an important part of the Constitutional rules constraining the growth of the federal government...
Mary Susan Littlepage, Truthout: "The unemployment rate last year for young male veterans, including those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, hit 21.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The stats show that veterans have a hard time making the transition from serving in war to coming home and finding work."
Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.
Sarah Palin, 55 percent unfavorable poll ratings notwithstanding, is a political phenomenon the likes of which American public life rarely has seen. There’s something distinctive, something deeply personal, about the way her legions of strong supporters rush not just to defend her but to counter-attack any and all of her critics. Palin has a way of establishing a sense of connectedness with her backers — such a strong, attitudinal sense that she is not just like them but one of them — that she has created what amounts to a one-woman, conservative ‘identity politics’ writ very, very large. Yet if conservatives are to continue a political love affair with this admirable and galvanizing woman, we need to insist on more than mere identity. And more than mere attitude...
If you shake your head and roll your eyes at the nonsense coming out of the Teaparty followers of Sarah "Africa is a country" Palin and other intellectual giants like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh ... If you have thoughts of moving abroad after the latest silly lies and fantasies like "Obama the Marxist" and "Obama the antichrist" ... keep in mind that the right wing has long been at least as stupid and as mean-spirited.
While the religious right are free to vote for candidates who share their reliance on religious belief, they are not free to re-imagine the fundamentals of this country - at least not without putting their reinvention through the rigorous process of amending, or re-writing, our Constitution.
"This is the playbook for the resurgence of the conservative movement," says none other than Dick Cheney, on thebook jacket. It's "a must-read for conservatives who want our movement to dominate," exclaims a blurb from Karl Rove.
Eight more banks failed last week, bringing the 2010 total to 50. Three of the failures were in Florida, and two were in California. Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington had one bank failure each.
A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year, a sign banks are starting to wade through the backlog of troubled home loans at a faster pace, according to a new report.
Illinois bank-owned foreclosures double in first quarter
Almost 15,000 Illinois homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure in the year's first three months, twice as many as the number that went back to lenders during 2009's first three months, new figures show.
During his tenure as prime minister, it was considered a deep and very clever insult to accuse Tony Blair not just of being ‘Bush’s poodle’ but of acting presidential. It wasn’t always clear that this accusation was backed by a working knowledge of how the American president governed, or a decent argument as to why this was so vastly inferior to the British model. The point was rather obvious: American politics were something to avoid, seeing as Americans all carry handguns and are denied hospital treatment when shot (which is inevitable, considering the number of armed lunatics stalking the streets). … this heavy-breathing about America’s baleful influence on British politics came to mind when watching last night’s ‘presidential debate,’ the first of its kind, that pitted Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Labour), David Cameron (Conservative), and Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) against each other and an audience of pre-selected questioners...
British politics has become presidential. Thursday’s leaders debate just underlined that. The problem, of course, is that we don’t have a constitution that can contain presidential power. In fact, we have one that takes presidential power and, provided the ruling party’s majority is large enough, turns it into an elected dictatorship. Put simply, our legislature no longer holds the executive to account in any meaningful way. Party whips enforce discipline, and anyone who wants to climb the greasy poll knows they have to toe the party line — if they don’t they’ll lose out on the luxuries that come with being a minister...
The British election campaign has reached its dramatic climax, with the third debate between the ‘major’ party representatives, but the furor created by Gordon Brown’s confrontation with that ‘bigoted woman’ who dared ask a question about immigration may have pulled the rug out from under the Labor party before the clash of the partisans was aired. In British politics, as in America, immigration is an issue that separates the elites from the hoi polloi: the former don’t want to talk about it, except to give reasons why it ought to be increased, and the latter deeply resent it, as the economy tanks and immigrants line up for welfare benefits. In hard times, when ordinary people are being squeezed, immigrants as scapegoats are a popular target, but Brown’s run-in with Gillian Duffy, the ‘bigoted’ grandmother, underscored the arrogance not only of the British Prime Minister but of the elites he speaks for, who feel nothing but disdain for ordinary people as they struggle to survive in an era of diminished expectations. How dare Grandma Duffy ask such a politically incorrect question! Doesn’t she know the rules?
For Americans, ‘the special relationship’ sounds like the title of a guidebook on marriage. Many Britons instantly recognize the phrase as Winston Churchill’s description of the tight bond between Great Britain and the United States. That alliance is on the rocks, experts say, and the results of Thursday’s election may weaken it further.
Under bombardment from the rightwing media, Clegg must not tack back to the middle ground
By John Kampfner
The evidence so far is that Clegg will not tone down some of his more "controversial" policies. I put the word in inverted commas because many of the points he is making are blindingly obvious to sensible voters. In a speech to London-based foreign correspondents this week, Clegg spoke candidly of the need to end the self-delusion of the "special relationship" with the United States.
U.K. Election Campaign Enlivened by Come-From-Behind Politician Who Wants A 'Rebalanced' Transatlantic Relationship
The customarily third-place "Lib Dems" have jumped 10 points in a week, putting Clegg's party either in the lead or close behind the Conservatives and pushing Labor into third place in terms of votes overall.
"We first need to acknowledge the fact that we still too readily put ourselves in a position of unthinking subservience to American interests", Clegg has said.
Nick Clegg’s sudden forward sprint in the British elections has the political establishment in Britain in an uproar — and the Americans are suddenly noticing that they might have a slight problem on their hands. As a symptom of the vast discontent of the English-speaking peoples, his surge in the polls — after a scintillating performance in the first debate — confirms a trend that began in the last US presidential election, and has apparently leaped the Atlantic to implant itself in British soil. In Britain it is the year of the insurgent, as it was in America in 2008 — and yet that is where the similarities end, for the most part. With Barack Obama, there was the appearance of change, but the reality soon proved to be quite different...
Voters in the UK have given us a paradigmatic sampling of our political times. They don't know where to turn. They vaguely remember that letting the right have the keys to government is a prescription for disaster, but the so-called left has not only lost its nerve and purpose, it's lost its leftiness too.
It should no longer be a matter of dispute that US Special Forces in Afghanistan are responsible for an increasing number of murders, whether part of targeted extra-judicial killings or the result of bad intelligence. From the attack on a bridal shower in Gardez on February 12, 2010 that killed numerous civilians, including two pregnant women, to the growing list of executions of insurgents in the Kandahar area, Special Forces have become the US military version of death squads...
Unlike other wars in American history, a global war on a terrorist network has no geographic boundaries and no clear end point. FDR interned Japanese Americans until the end of World War II, an extraordinary assault on civil liberties. But at least there was no doubt what the end of that conflict would look like. ‘The danger of a war that takes place everywhere and lasts forever is that it gives the president almost limitless authority to detain or even kill U.S. citizens and civilians anywhere in the world,’ says Ben Wizner, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. On February 3, Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, confirmed that power in congressional testimony, telling lawmakers that the administration had the right to kill American citizens who joined Al Qaeda without court involvement or consultation with Congress. The only legal authority required, Blair said, was ’special permission,’ which amounts to presidential approval on a case-by-case basis... (for publication 06/10)
A US-Sponsored Terror Network: Death Squads in Afghanistan
By Francis Shor
From the attack on a bridal shower in Gardez on February 12, 2010 that killed numerous civilians, including two pregnant women, to the growing list of executions of insurgents in the Kandahar area, Special Forces have become the US military version of death squads.
Trump and His Allies...
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/21/trump-and-his-allies-are-clear-and-present-danger-american-democracy?utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter_op
rudkla - 22. Jun, 05:09
The Republican Party...
https://truthout.org/articles/the-republican-party-is-still-doing-donald-trumps-bidding/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=804d4873-50dd-4c1b-82a5-f465ac3742ce
rudkla - 26. Apr, 05:36
January 6 Committee Says...
https://truthout.org/articles/jan-6-committee-says-trump-engaged-in-criminal-conspiracy-to-undo-election/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=552e5725-9297-4a7c-a214-53c8c51615a3
