Mahmoud Abbas: PA Calls for UN Meeting on Gaza

Mahmoud Abbas, the Acting Palestinian Authority, has called for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the ongoing Israeli air attacks on the Gaza Strip. He has instructed the Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, to call the meeting, Ma'an News Agency reported on Saturday. The developments come as continuous Israeli air raids targeting the impoverished Gaza Strip in the past three days have killed at least 16 Palestinians and injured a further 45 others so far. By the way, when I was the Intelligence Operations Officer of our 4th US Armored Division in Goeppingen, Germany, I had intercepted an emergency transmission from the American ship USS Pueblo, requesting help from our fighter planes, because OUR Israeli "friends" were machine gunning their crew, in an attempt to sink our ship. At the time, General Sherrer, our commander, commented: "With friends like the Israelis, we have no need of enemies" Truer words were never spoken! Yet our idiotic "Congress" continues to shower the evil Israeli "government" with funds to wreak havoc on our ships and their Arab neighbors! Like my former commander, Mahmoud Abbas knows the evil nature of the Israelis, and after the continuing air attacks against his Palestinians, he has called on the Arab League to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Gaza. The AL Deputy Secretary General Ahmad Bin Helli announced on Saturday that the 22-member organization would hold an urgent meeting on the level of the permanent delegates on Sunday to discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. However, Israel began launching its air strikes on the Gaza Strip late Thursday. Moreover, Israel "has claimed that it launched the attacks in response to assaults that targeted two buses, and a military vehicle near the Red Sea resort of Eilat, in southern Israel, which allegedly left weight Israelis dead. Hamas said that it had nothing to do with the assault, and warned against any act of aggression against the "Gaza Strip". AND THE BEAT GOES ON!!!

Cliff Schecter: Wayne La Pierre is Washington's Lobbyist for Murderer's Rights

To quote Lawrence O'Donnell from his show back in February, Wayne LaPierre is Washington's lobbyist in favor of murderer's rights, so always use the gun of your choice. There is no better summary of a man who ensures his $1.27 million salary every year by being a paid serial liar in defense of arms dealers, which groups such as the Violence Policy Center have made again and again. So it should be no surprise that when faced with the rights of Americans to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, or those of the Mexican Drug Cartels, he comes down squarely on the side of the latter, as pointed out by Media Matters: Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, has been on a media blitz trying to defend an NRA lawsuit that attempts to block an executive rule aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of cartels and criminals. The new rule would require gun stores along the border with Mexico to report to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), when a person purchases multiple long guns, such as the cartel favorite AK-47. ATF agent and Fast and Furious whistle-blower Peter Forcelli, whom the NRA has previously cited as an expert on tactics, disagrees with LaPierre. Forcelli told Political Correction that the "vast majority of ATF agents support the reporting requirement, because they know how it works." Of course it works. It is common sense that it would work, except manufacturing doubt - from the oil companies to the tobacco pushers to the gun runners - is what these guys do. Common sense and science are their enemies. They might save many lives, but then LaPierre might only make $1.1 million per annum.

John Stanton: Does Our US Seek World War III?

These are gruesome days, and the "Single Bullet Doctrine" rules. The world is truly adrift and on the brink of global "something". In our USA, everyone can feel it. The US system of government is often described as a layer cake: Federal on top, State in the middle, and Local at the bottom. That cake is now a mess. The frosting (the sweet taste of the American Way of life) is now a mess: The bitter taste of economic insecurity and uncertainty is everywhere in our country, while the state and local layers are drying up and crumbling, as the economic crisis is causing them to jettison labor and safety-net programs! In addition, the cost for our country's care for returning military personnel, and the heavy burden that involves make life even more difficult. Listening to America's "leaders", one is tempted to think that their "grand solution"merely involves starting World War III, or the invasion of a relatively small country like Iran. What is "Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta" likely to dream up next: Early in his "career" he fanned the flames of war against Iraq, describing their citizens and their leader as "evil". Unfortunately, he is not the only moron in our government. What infinite horizons is CIA Director David Petraeus going to open next, to provide more adventure for our battle-weary soldiers. Fortunately, the former General's version of Iraq 'success' is being challenged from within. Nonetheless, if Obama ascends to the Presidency again, Petraeus will likely become Secretary of Defense. In the "daydream world", the US and Iran 'could' work together in Iraq and help to diffuse the violence in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and other countries in the region, but most Americans have little hope for such an outcome.

Ellen Brown: Are the Losses in our Stockmarket Part of an Evil Plan?

Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose or fell by at least 400 points for four straight days, a stock market first. The worst drop was on Monday, 8-8-11, when the Dow plunged 624 points. Monday was the first day of trading after US Treasury bonds were downgraded from AAA to AA+ by Standard and Poor's. But the roller coaster actually began on Tuesday, 8-2-11, a day that will live in infamy, the day after the last-minute deal to raise the US debt ceiling, a deal that was supposed to avoid the downgrade that happened anyway five days later. The Dow changed directions for eight consecutive trading sessions after that, another first. That volatility was unprecedented, leaving analysts at a loss to explain it. High frequency program trading no doubt added to the wild swings, but why the daily reversals? Why didn't the market head down, and just keep going, as in September 2008? The plunge on 8-8-11 was the worst since 2008, and the sixth largest largest stock market crash ever. According to "Der Spiegel", one of the most widely read periodicals in Europe: "Many economists have been pointing out that last week's panic resembled the fear that swept financial markets after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008. Then, as now, banks stopped lending each other money. Then, as now, banks' cash deposits at the central bank doubled within days. But on Tuesday, August 9, the market gained more points from its low than it lost on Monday. Why? A tug of war seemed to be going on between two titanic forces, one bent on crashing the market, the other propping it up.

Tom Burghardt: As our Economy Collapses, we have a "New" Police State!

Forget Your Rights: As corporate overlords position themselves to seize what little remains of a tattered social net, the Obama administration is moving at break-neck speed to expand police state programs, first only imagined by the Bush Administration. After all, with world share prices gyrating wildly, employment and wages in a "death spiral", and retirement funds and publicly- owned assets swallowed whole by speculators and "rentier scum", the state better dust off contingency plans, lest the Greek, Spanish or British "contagion" spread beyond the fabled shores of "old Europe", and infect God-fearin'folk raat heere in the USA: Lets hear it now, folks: USA, USA, USA. Fear not, "THEY" have only "OUR" best interests at heart. What the heck: Those of us who were foolish enough to serve in our country's many wars - I served in Vietnam, or Viate Naam, as LBJ, one of our president's liked to call it, but I still follow our disgusting phletora, or is it "phlobotomy", as many of our other temporary so-called occupants in the White House, the ones who can afford it, what with our currency problems, now call it. Meanwhile, up on Capitol Hill, Congress did their part to defend us from that pesky "Bill of Rights", that is, before 81 of them, nearly a fifth of "our" elected representatives, checked out for AIPAC funded junkets to Israel! As "Antifascist Calling" previously reported, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act Lawsuit against the Justice Department (where there REALLY is NO Justice), "demanding the release of of a secret legal memo used to justify FBI access to Americans' telephone records without any legal process or oversight."

Rachel Tabachnick: Meet the so-called Prayer Warriors who want Rick Perry as President!

Since he announced his candidacy on Saturday, Texas Governor Rick Perry has been hailed as the great GOP hope of 2012. Perry's entry into the chaotic Republican primary race has excited the establishment in part because he has he does not have Michele Bachmann's reputation for religious zealotry, yet can likely count on the support of the "Religious Right". While it may not have been obvious to those outside the "movement", Perry was publicly "annointed" as the "apostles" candidate for president, in his massive "prayer rally" a few weeks ago, an event filled with symbolism and coded messages. This was live-streamed to churches across the nation, and on "God TV", a Jerusalem-based evangelical network. Perry's event is not the first time NAR "apostles" have "partnered" with politicians. As one of my close friends told me many years ago: "If you go to bed with fleas, you get bitten!" A partial list of those who have made national or international appearances with these "apostles" include Paul Rosenberg, Bill Berkowitz, and Paul Rosenberg - the latter being a two-time loser.

Robert Scheer: The Biggest Little Hypocrite in Texas

It is unfathomable that yet another Texas blowhard governor has emerged as a front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination. The persistent appeal of the mythology of Texas as a model for our nation defies the lessons of logic and experience, and yet here we are with Rick Perry, a George W. Bush look-alike, as a prime contender to once again run our nation into the ground. To begin with, Texas is not, and never will be a model for the nation, unless the other states discover similarly rich deposits of oil and natural gas, that account for one-third of jobs, and supply 40 percent of tax revenues within those states. If Texas energy receipts and jobs helped float Gov. Bush's reputation, they have been nothing short of of miraculous for Perry's tenure. The price of oil rose from $25 a barrel when Lt. Gov. Perry replaced the newly elected President Bush to $147 in 2008, and has stayed at more than $80 a barrel since, to the dismay of anyone who has to buy gasoline. In addition, thanks to breakthroughs in oil field technology that Perry had nothing to do with, there have been controversial new drilling techniques that have vastly expanded the exploitation of gas and oil reserves, producing many of the new jobs that the Texas governor claims. For a relatively ineffectual governor, in a state in which the part-time Legislature holds the power, to take credit for this job boom is as ludicrous as a Saudi prince bragging of his entrepreneurial skills as the source of royal wealth. Unfortunately, the boom in the energy industry has not spread to those in the state, stuck in less lucrative sectors of the economy. Texas remains tied with Mississippi for the largest number of workers earning wages equal to, or less, than the federal minimum wage.