World-News

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/02-5

--------

Obama and the CIA: What Must Be Done

Melvin A. Goodman, Truthout: "New presidents (and President Barack Obama is no exception) fall in love with three Washington institutions: the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency and Camp David. The Camp David love affair makes sense; it contributes to the president's physical and mental health. The infatuation with the military and intelligence communities, however, can create serious problems for both the administration and the nation."

http://www.truthout.org/president-obama-and-cia-what-must-be-done56605



Our Incredible Shrinking Democracy

Robert Reich, RobertReich.org: "I wish conservatives would stop complaining about big government and start worrying about the real problem - small democracy. I wish we'd all worry more about our incredible shrinking democracy."

http://www.truthout.org/robert-reich-our-incredible-shrinking-democracy56603



"If You Can Think Differently, You Can Act Differently"

Leslie Thatcher, Truthout: On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, Leslie Thatcher spoke over the phone with Henry Armand Giroux about his book, "Youth in a Suspect Society." Public pedagogy and the war on democracy were also discussed. He declared, "No category seems to me more central to democratic life - and the ethical and moral underpinnings required to support it. What kind of society will young people inherit? What are we doing to them now? How are we betraying them?"

http://www.truthout.org/if-you-can-think-differently-you-can-act-differently56628

--------

What are the consequences of Obama’s $3.8 billion budget?

FreedomWorks
by BPeck

Instead of choosing to abandon the Keynesian tax, borrow, and spend philosophy for which he has become notorious, Obama will continue to raise taxes for hard working Americans, increase discretionary spending faster than the tax dollars come in, and therefore create more debt for the current and future taxpayers of America. I’m not exactly sure how this approach exemplifies fiscal responsibility; a priority that Obama emphasized the importance of achieving during last week’s State of the Union Address...

http://tinyurl.com/yj8oexf


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Budgets, War and Blind Ambition: The Limited Minds of the American Elite
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/1919-budgets-war-and-blind-ambition-the-limited-minds-of-the-american-elite.html



Neat, Painless, Perpetual War
http://original.antiwar.com/mike-tennant/2010/02/02/neat-painless-perpetual-war/


Informant: Kev Hall

--------

The Limited Minds of the American Elite

War, Budgets and Blind Ambition

By Chris Floyd

The ending of the imperial wars and the dismantling of America's global military empire -- and its global gulag -- would save trillions of dollars in the coming years.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24615.htm

--------

Deathbed of Keynesian Economics Will Be in U.K.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/deathbed-of--keynesian-economics.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Keynes
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=imperial
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=empire
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=American+elite
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=State+of+the+Union
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=perpetual+war
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Central+Intelligence+Agency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Henry+A.+Giroux
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Matthew+Rothschild
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Melvin+A.+Goodman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Reich+Blog
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=BPeck
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chris+Floyd
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Tennant
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Leslie+Thatcher

Last year, that budget grew to more than $50 billion - "the largest-ever sum," according to Aviation Week's Bill Sweetman, a longtime black-budget seer. A few more billion were added for wartime operations, for a total of $54 billion. This year'total would be $2 billion higher, a 3.7 percent increase.

http://snipurl.com/u98po



New Defence Strategy Envisions Multiple Conflicts

A report and budget request from the U.S. Defence Department released Monday reveal both new and old priorities for President Barack Obama's Pentagon.

http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2822



The Pentagon Runs Amok

Obama is letting the generals and contractors roll over him

By Dan Simpson

The budget line for defense stands at $708 billion, 53 percent of discretionary spending, eight times more than the next largest item, health and human services. Does that reflect America's priorities? Is that who we are?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24586.htm


From Information Clearing House

--------

No defense for this budget

The Nation
by Katrina vanden Heuvel

02/02/10

Who would know from all of the whining about budget deficits that military spending is the largest discretionary item in the federal government? Exempting all security-related expenditures from common sense cuts will have serious consequences for almost everything the government does - -from job creation, poverty reduction and alternative energy development, to aid for cash-strapped state and local governments. In fact, the Economic Policy Institute reports that non-security-related discretionary spending is already at near-historic lows as a share of GDP...

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/525267/no_defense_for_this_budget



Obama’s “jobs” plan

John Stossel's Take
by John Stossel

02/02/10

At the State of the Union, Obama said the federal government ’should tighten its belt,’ but today’s Wall Street Journal points out how unlikely that is, given that the number of federal employees has surged …. After eight years of war, it’s natural to assume the growing federal job count is a result of the military. But the real boom is in the federal agencies …

http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/02/02/obamas-jobs-plan/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=DoD
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=budget
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deficit
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GDP
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=military+spending
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=wartime+operation
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=contractor
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=jobless
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Katrina+vanden+Heuvel
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=John+Stossel

By Howard Zinn

In this world of war and injustice, how does a person manage to stay socially engaged, committed to the struggle, and remain healthy without burning out or becoming resigned or cynical?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24568.htm



Howard Zinn: Myths of the Good Wars

Three 'Holy' Wars

Video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24572.htm

--------

Howard Zinn: The People's Historian
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/03-3



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Howard+Zinn
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Amy+Goodman

By Harriet Fraad

Society-wide depression has struck America. Why it's happened and what we can do about it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24569.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=American+Dream
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=foreclosure
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=jobless
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Harriet+Fraad

By Dahr Jamail

The military is claiming that he "communicated a threat" with his song. Hall mailed a copy of the song to the Pentagon after the Army unilaterally extended his contract for a second Iraq deployment.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24573.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=veterans
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deploy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dahr+Jamail

By DAVID E. SANGER

In a federal budget filled with mind-boggling statistics, two numbers stand out as particularly stunning, for the way they may change American politics and American power.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24560.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deficit
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=global+power
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=DAVID+E.+SANGER

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan127.html



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

Dean Baker, Truthout: "Our political leaders continually assert that we should be thanking them that we are not in a second Great Depression rather than complaining about how bad things are. The second Great Depression theme came up repeatedly in the debate over the reappointment of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. It also featured prominently in Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's defense of his handling of the AIG bailout."

http://www.truthout.org/the-second-great-depression-bogeyman56559



False Profits

Leslie Thatcher, Truthout: "The delicious double-entendre of Dean Baker's most recent title is enhanced by the book's cover photo of a trio of false prophets, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Henry (Hank) Paulson, all of whom are thoroughly excoriated within the book's pages for their responsibility in feeding, prolonging, misdiagnosing and incorrectly responding to the 2007-2009 financial meltdown and associated economic collapse."

http://www.truthout.org/false-profits56731

--------

Exposed: Bernanke's "Skimming Operation"

By Mike Whitney

The banks didn't care if the loans were repaid because they got their money "up front" on volume originations. That's why they were so eager to issue mortgages to people with no income, no collateral, no job, and a bad credit history. It was all a gigantic skimming operation, where banks and brokers got their cut and then bailed out before the whole thing blew up.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24575.htm



Greenspan's Testimony: Two hours of buck-passing

By Mike Whitney
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25181.htm

--------

Paulson and the fear factor

Independent Institute
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa

02/17/10

We think of statism as born out of altruism or megalomania. But here a third cause transpired: naked, primeval fear. The notion that people could be left to sort themselves out in the biggest financial crisis since the 1930s was terrifying even for Paulson, a true believer in free markets who keeps repeating in his book that he disliked what he was doing. The fear was so overpowering that Paulson, his colleagues and Wall Street decided to put unconditional faith in the very institution, the federal government, that the author tells us was responsible for the conditions under which the housing bubble occurred: easy money, political incentives for homeownership and regulatory incompetence...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2730


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Statism: The Opiate of the Frightened Masses
http://www.lewrockwell.com/englund/englund57.1.html

Greenspan Wanted Housing-Bubble Dissent Kept Secret
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/greenspan-kept-secrets.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=economic+collapse
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Great+Depression
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+meltdown
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=statism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bubble
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=housing
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Federal+Reserve
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bernanke
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Geithner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greenspan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Paulson
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=AIG+insurance
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dean+Baker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Leslie+Thatcher
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Alvaro+Vargas+Llosa
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/englund
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ryan+Grim

http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt394.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Gates
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/engelhardt

The CIA, Assassination, and the War on Terrorism
http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger175.html

--------

US intelligence chief: We can assassinate American citizens

ABC News

02/03/10

The director of national intelligence affirmed rather bluntly today that the U.S. intelligence community has authority to target American citizens for assassination if they present a direct terrorist threat to the United States. ‘We take direct actions against terrorists in the intelligence community; if … we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that,’ Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told the House Intelligence Committee...

http://tinyurl.com/y89gmgy



Civis Romanus Sum

AntiWar.Com
by Philip Giraldi

02/13/10

Obama’s decision to assassinate Americans overseas without any due process might well be viewed as an inevitable development from the established practice of killing foreigners using hellfire missiles fired from unmanned drones in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The United States has not declared war on any of those countries yet it reserves to itself the right to attack and kill local residents based on information that it does not subsequently have to reveal. This process is given a legal fig leaf by the US assertion that anyone connected to a terrorist group can be killed anywhere in the world and at any time. It assumes that in such matters the United States has extraterritorial jurisdiction, a claim that no other nation makes and which might reasonably be contested by those on the receiving end. It also does not require the President of the United States to prove his case that someone actually was a terrorist...

http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/02/12/civis-romanus-sum/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

--------

Intelligence Chief: US Can Kill Americans Abroad

By Ellen Nakashima

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair acknowledged Wednesday that government agencies may kill U.S. citizens abroad who are (allegedly) involved in terrorist activities if they are "taking action that threatens Americans."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24590.htm



CIA Has Program to Assassinate U.S. Citizens

By Thomas R. Eddlem

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has maintained an assassination list of U.S. citizens for the last eight year and has actually assassinated Americans, according to January 27 Washington Post story.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24591.htm



What Americans Really Have to Fear

By Scott Fina

Nothing is more detrimental to American freedom and security than a military that ignores the rights of peaceful and lawful citizens.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24589.htm



Interagency teams can now question terror suspects

Interrogators from the CIA, the FBI and the Defense Department, with expertise in a particular country and jidahist group, will assemble background information on each suspect on the list even before he or she is apprehended, two officials said. The teams will create a preauthorized strategy for each target.

http://snipurl.com/uahk5



US Government Death Lists for USA Citizens

By Professor Francis A. Boyle

The Bush Administration reduced the United States of America to a Banana Republic waging a "dirty war" around the world in gross violation of international law, human rights law, and the laws of war.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24635.htm



"The CIA Is Welcoming Itself Back onto American University Campuses"

The anthropologist David Price reveals the US intelligence community has established academic outposts at twenty-two US universities over the past four years.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/9/david_price_on_how_the_cia



Top 10 Problems with America Killing Its Own Citizens

By David Swanson

Assassinating non-Americans is just as illegal as assassinating Americans.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24668.htm



The Road to Armageddon

By Paul Craig Roberts

If the U.S. government can murder its citizens abroad it can murder them at home, and has done so.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24872.htm



Can Obama Assassinate Americans?

By Nat Hentoff

The executive branch alone decides who shall die instantly. And there are no defense attorneys to raise objections, even when an American citizen is marked for oblivion.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24888.htm


From Information Clearing House

--------

Legal Experts Slam "Targeted Killings" of US Citizens
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/05-11

Congressman Dennis Kucinich Challenges Potential Extrajudicial Killing of Americans
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/02/05-6



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Dennis+Blair
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Philip+Giraldi
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http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Nat+Hentoff