2011/02/19

Israeli Cemetary Bulldozer Attack on Palestinian Children!

An Israeli bulldozer at the gate of a Beduin cemetary at Al-Araqib in the Negev Desert advanced against children, injuring some of them. In a report sent to Pravda.Ru by a spokesperson of the Negev Bedouin, it seems there are "red lines" even for police brutality against the Israeli Negev, though destroying homes of Palestinians who did not have "building permits", and other Israeli atrocities are not included in that interpretation of Israeli "good manners". After destroying the tents of the Arab village once more, the JNF bulldozer approached the gate of the cemetery, attempting to run it down and destroy it. This was too much, even for the normally placid village residents, who had to watch while their village was once more the target of Israeli destruction. As the bulldozer approached the gate, the people tried to stop it with their bare hands. Of course, several Palestinians were injured, including children. When the bulldozer finally backed away from the cemetery gate, the Israeli police entered the cemetery to beat the children. In 2005, the Jewish National Fund began a campaign called "Living Room" in the Negev, whose purpose it was to increase the Jewish population in Israel by 500,000. The actions of the Jewish government's bulldozer were probably meant to underline the Jewish government's determination to follow through with that threat!

2011/02/16

Juan Cole: Do Not Fear the Muslim Brotherhood!!

The hysteria in "our" American media about Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is not only ignorant and demagogic, it is also hypocritical: "Our" United States has actively promoted Muslim Brother- hood branches in other countries when it suited its purposes, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, the Turkish and Indonesian cases of democratic transition in the Muslim world should have taught us something about how Muslim fundamentalist parties are themselves transformed in a democratic setting. As recently as 2005, the pragmatic Muslim Brotherhood had 88 seats in the lower house of the parliament, about 20 percent, and so has been at some points a junior partner in Egypt's governance. It has been so establishment that it declined to support the Facebook campaign on April 6, 2008, for better wages and working conditions for Egypt's textile factory workers. Out of that campaign came the April 6, 2008 Committee, that called for this year's Jan. 25 demonstration. The Brotherhood joined this year's protest movement only at the last minute, and was not a leading force in it. On Sunday, the Brotherhood called upon the new military regime to release all prisoners of conscience, including young protesters incarcerated during the past three weeks.

Obama will Propose More than $1 Trillian in Deficit Reduction.

Good News: The Obama administration will release a federal budget today for the fiscal year beginning October 1, that cuts the total federal deficit by more than $1.1 trillion over the next decade, two thirds of it through cuts in domestic spending. Among the social programs to be gutted are Pell Grants for working-class students and the LIHEAP program, which provides heating assistance for low-income families and the elderly. According to the Associated Press, an administration official says President Barack Obama is proposing to cut $100 billion over a decade from the Pell Grant program through belt-tightening, but use the savings to keep the maximum college financial aid award at $5,550. No details were provided, but apparently the plan is to reduce the number of recipients of Pell Grants in order to avoid reducing the dollar amount of the individual awards. The result will be tens of thousands fewer students from low-income families receiving a college education. The New York Times reported Two-thirds of the reductions that Obama will claim are from cuts in domestic spending programs, including many he has supported in the past.

2011/02/15

Fidel Castro: US would lose a Conventional War against Iran!

Fidel Castro is certain that the US would lose in a conventional confrontation against Iran, and a nuclear war is not an option for anyone, assured the leader of the Cuban Revolution. Iran is, of course, a Muslim country that has millions of highly motivated and trained fighters determined to die. "These are people who will not be intimidated, and force will not make change," said Fidel Castro in a conversation with the Canadian academic Michel Chossudovsky last October. The Iranians do not bend before force, and if the conflict kept its conventional character, it would be a war that Washington and Europe cannot win, claimed the Cuban leader. "In any circumstance, that of Afghanistan is a joke, and another in Iraq, compared to what they would face in Iran, the armaments, the training, the mentality, the kind of soldier, will undoubtedly be the most fearsome adversaries against whom the United States would be faced," he affirmed. If Washington-aggregated-made the mistake of using tactical nuclear weapons, it would produce in the world a great commotion and distress, and control of events would escape from their hands. In a nuclear war, they would lose it all. It is a war that we all would lose, Fidel Castro reinforced.

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Former President George Bush Can't Travel for Fear of Arrest and Prosecution!

Former President George W. Bush had abruptly canceled his scheduled appearance in Geneva to avoid the risk of arrest on a torture complaint, but he appears to be safe in Texas. You see, the Swiss take the torture in which our former president sanctioned, very, very seriously! However, there are those in America who disagree with the Swiss decision. We expect that Condi Rice, his former employee would disagree with the Swiss judgment: "Not to worry, Mr. President, as I told those upstart students at Stanford, when they kept asking about waterboarding. By definition, if it was authorized by the President, it did NOT violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. Period. End of Story. Remember, Mr. President, it was Richard Nixon who developed the principle of presidential immunity in his famous statement to interviewer David Frost: "When the president does it, that means it's NOT illegal." If Adolf Hitler were alive today, he would be completely exonerated by the same wonderful rules, and he would certainly thank Condi for pointing these "indisputable facts" out to him.

Congressman Ron Paul Analyzes the Work of our "FED".

For the past three decades, the Federal Reserve has been given a dual mandate: Keeping prices stable and maximizing employment. This policy relies not only on the fatal conceit of believing in the wisdom of "supposed experts", but also on numerical chicanery. Rather than understanding inflation in the classical sense as a monetary phenomenon - an increase in the money supply - it has been redefined as an increase in the Consumer Price Index. The CPI is calculated based on a weighted basket of goods which is constantly fluctuating, allowing for manipulation of the index to keep inflation expectations low. Employment figures are much the same, relying on survey data, seasonal adjustments, and birth/death models, while the major focus remains on the unemployment rate. Of course, the unemployment rate can fall as discouraged workers drop out of the labor market altogether, leading to the phenomenon of a falling unemployment rate with no job growth. In terms of keeping stable prices, the Fed has failed miserably. According to the government's own CPI calculations, it takes $2.65 today to purchase what cost one dollar in 1980. Since its creation in 1913, the Federal Reserve has presided over a 98% decline in the dollar's purchasing power. The average American family sees the price of milk, eggs, and meat increasing, while packaged household goods decrease in size rather than price.

2011/02/14

Noam Chomsky: Why the Mideast Turmoil Is a Direct Threat to the American Empire!

Popular uprisings in the Arab World have led to the ouster of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the end of the Hosni Mubrak regime, a new Jordanian government, and a pledge by Yemen's longtime dictator to leave office at the end of his term. Obama was careful to hold his tongue in light of these enormous events: Whenever a favored dictator is in trouble, he tries to sustain him, hold on, and if possible, switch sides. Even the philosopher Noam Chomsky was surprised by these rapid developments, praising the courage, determination, and commitment of the demonstrators who brought about these rapid changes. President Obama did what he always does: Whenever a favored dictator is in trouble, he tries to sustain him, hold on, and if necessary, switch sides. Egypt is the second-largest recipient of US military and economic aid, after Israel. Before Mubarak resigned, Obama called Mubarak a "good" man, who has "done good things, and maintained stability", despite the fact that Mubarak was one of the most brutal dictators of that region - but he fully supported the Israeli Regime and their destruction of the houses of the Palestinians who had settled in that land for generations!

What is "our" CIA's Role in the NEW Egypt??

What chores will "our" CIA assign its agents, including Americans ans Egyptians in that troubled part of our world? To what extent has the CIA infiltrated military factions, political organizations and revolutionary groups to make some "spontaneous" events take place? American socialists and progressives are overly cooperative with mainstream media and Congress is hardly ever asking after our secret CIA shadow government. What chores will our CIA assign its agents, both American and Egyptian? Has it managed to infiltrate military factions, political organizations and revolutionary groups to make some "arrangements" for some 'spontaneous' events to take place? These are obvious questions Americans of 'decent' mind toward Egypt should, at the very least, be asking themselves. It seems that 'progressives', and even 'revolutionary' socialists in the US are overly cooperative with mainstream media and Congress in hardly ever asking about our secret CIA shadow government, but then why would one expect focus on the CIA from American progressive journalists? Have they promoted public interest in the ghastly revelations of the many files the CIA was forced to make public by the efforts of dedicated groups taking advantage of the Freedom of Information Law? These released documents are devastating to read for anyone harboring affection for JFK or Ike.

2011/02/13

The Winds of Change are blowing, and Egyptians lead the way!!

Just listen to that roar, urged a CNN correspondent in Egypt, as thousands of Egyptian protesters charged, fists pumped, against hundreds of armed Egyptian security forces. I can certainly sympathize with their sentiment, since I had that same spiritually uplifting feeling when I saw the Berlin wall fall to the anger of Germans only a few years ago. I was born in Germany, to be exact in Breslau, a city that is now in Poland. "The times are changing", and British MP George Galloway's comment about the Arab lion roaring again seems truer by the day. The Egyptians have revolted in style, and their revolution will go down in history books with such with such adjectives as "great", "noble" and "historic". Truth be told, Arabs have had their fair share of conjured "revolutions". Arab regimes have always been generous in how they ascribed the loaded term to their military coups or other stunts designed to impress or intimidate the masses: Any modern history of the Arab world will reveal an abundant number of "revolutions". The label has been useful for those who dared to criticize a regime, or demanded BASIC rights such as food, and who could then be dubbed "enemies" of whatever make-believe revolution the men in power championed. Innumerable Arab political prisoners were designated "enemies of the revolution", and they paid a heavy price for their "crimes". In Egypt alone, rough estimates put the number of political prisoners at 20,000. In other words: So what else is "new".