Saturday 18 September 2010

News For September 19, 2010

The "Obscenity" of Comparing Americans to "Killers and Terrorists"

By Glenn Greenwald

The nature of tribalism is that one always thinks their side is better and the other side worse, and that comparisons between the two sides (or even equal application of standards to each) is deeply unfair and offensive ("moral relativism"). Continue

Reality Check: Iran is Not a Nuclear Threat

By Scott Horton

Forget the neoconservative hype. The facts show Iran is not and has not been a nuclear threat to either the United States or Israel. Continue

Poll: Vast Majority Opposes Attack on Iran

By Daniel Tencer

Two-thirds want US to be neutral in Israeli-Palestinian conflict - Americans increasingly accept torture, survey finds. Continue

American Public Opinion and the Special Relationship With Israel

By John Mearsheimer

There is no question that the United States has a relationship with Israel that has no parallel in modern history. Washington gives Israel consistent, almost unconditional diplomatic backing and more foreign aid than any other country. In other words, Israel gets this aid even when it does things that the United States opposes, like building settlements. Continue

Some Killing More 'Moral' Than Other

By Mel Frykberg

Controversy is building up over a 91-year-old man, his 17-year-old grandson and a 20-year-old neighbour, all farmers, who were killed by Israeli shelling and gunfire as they tried to tend their land 700 metres from northern Gaza's border with Israel. Continue

Jewish Groups Denounce ‘Museum of Tolerance’
Builder Simon Wiesenthal Center for Support of Islamophobia

By Alex Kane

A coalition of four Jewish groups, backed by a wide array of peace and justice organizations, held a demonstration Sept. 16 outside the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in New York, denouncing the organization’s opposition to the Islamic community center in lower Manhattan. Continue

Chavez Wants a Break From U.S. Meddling.
Can You Blame Him?   

By Mike Whitney 

Most people know that Iran, Russia and Venezuela all have vast oil reserves. And, they also know that Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are on Washington's "enemies list".  So, why is it so hard for them to connect the dots? Continue

Suffocating the Poor: A Modern Parable

By Johann Hari

I want to tell you the story of how our governments have been torturing and tormenting an island in the Caribbean - but it is a much bigger story than that. It's a parable explaining one of the main reasons how and why, across the world, the poor are kept poor, so the rich can be kept rich. Continue

20 Signs That The Economic Collapse Has Already Begun
For One Out Of Every Seven Americans

By Economic Collapse Blog

For most Americans, the economic collapse is something that is happening to someone else.  Most of us have become so isolated from each other and so self-involved that unless something is directly affecting us or a close family member than we really don't feel it. Continue

Tea With Frankenstein: Please, No Masturbation

By David Michael Green

Just when you thought you’d reached the ground floor in the well of American self-destruction, you find out once again that that pit is absolutely bottomless. Continue

Report: Los Angeles spent $70 million in stimulus funds to create 8 jobs

By John Cook

A new piece of evidence has emerged in the debate over the effectiveness of President Obama's 2009 stimulus package, and it's not good for Democrats. Continue

US-led strike kills 70 in Afghanistan: A US airstrike has reportedly left 70 people dead in southeastern Afghanistan as the war-ravaged country votes to elect a new parliament.
Afghanistan Elections Marred by Deadly Attacks: A Taliban attack near a polling station in northern Afghanistan today killed seven people as the country votes in parliamentary elections.
Three NATO occupation troops killed in Afghanistan: Three foreign occupation troops have been killed in Afghanistan - two in a bombing in the south, and another soldier in an insurgent attack in the country's north, NATO said on Sunday
One third of Afghans vote in parliamentary polls - election commission: A total of 92 percent of polling stations were reportedly open on Saturday across the country. The rest remained closed for security reasons.
Afghans scrub fingers clean to cast extra votes: One voting station in the capital Kabul, suspected frauds included three middle-aged women who turned up to vote with the registration cards of women half their age. Three more had real voting cards but couldn't give the names printed on them.
14 Mauritania Troops, Militants Killed in Mali Fighting: It is not clear if the deadly assaults are linked to the kidnapping of five French nationals and two Africans in Niger.
Three killed as police open fire on crowd in Indian Kashmir: At least 100 people have so far been killed in the three-month old anti-India protests.
Iraq: Civilian shot down by gunmen fire in Mosul: A civilian man was killed by gunmen fire in eastern Mosul city on Saturday, a source from Ninewa police said.
Iraqi soldier killed in twin bombing in Baghdad: An Iraqi soldier was killed and 11 people were wounded in an overnight double bomb explosions which struck the Iraqi army in a Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source and a witness said on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
Allawi may be president in deal with Kurds: A deal is in the works where the Iraqi vice president would become prime minister in a power-sharing deal with a secular leader and Kurds, a party leader has said.
Israel's FM rejects freeze extension: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has rejected international calls for extending Tel Aviv's partial settlement freeze in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Ahmadinejad arrives in New York: The Iranian leader is scheduled to deliver a speech at the 65th UN General Assembly session at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Jail sentence for Iran activist: Shiva Nazar Ahari sentenced to six years in prison for plotting crimes against state and waging war against God..
Stranger than fiction? Couple Accused of Passing Nuclear Arms Secrets: A physicist and his wife, who both once worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, were arrested Friday and charged with a criminal conspiracy to help Venezuela build an atom bomb.
Gaza-bound Syrian aid ship sets sail: The wave of aid ships hoping to dock in Gaza follows an Israeli raid on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters on 31 May, during which Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish nationals.
Pakistan: Water wars leaves 102 dead: A police official says fighting between two tribes on the Pakistani side of the Afghanistan border has left 102 people dead over the last two weeks.
Tribes in Kenya Wage Water War: The water wars in Kenya are some of the world’s first skirmishes due to climate change
Farmers' apocalypse: the globalisation of food supply: Last week the US-based Monsanto secured a 20 per cent minority interest in Western Australia's InterGrain and launched an advocacy and "education" campaign to promote the benefits of genetic modification to consumers.
"In the Face of This Truth": It's time to talk honestly about collapse–no matter how others may respond. We live in the midst of multiple crises­—economic and political, cultural and ecological—posing a significant threat to human existence at the level we have become accustomed to.
Bomb-Plot Informant Testifies FBI Sent Him to Terrorist Camp in Pakistan: The confidential informant at the center of the case against four men accused of plotting to bomb New York City synagogues testified that the Federal Bureau of Investigation sent him to Pakistan in 2008 to attend a terrorist training camp.
Gingrich blasts Democratic establishment at annual summit: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich repeatedly brought social conservatives to their feet Saturday with an impassioned address in which he warned that America faces a dual threat from the Democratic establishment on the one hand and Islamic terrorists on the other.
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Palin Opens Up About Possible 2012 Run, Says She's Willing to 'Give It a Shot': Sarah Palin may be edging closer to a 2012 presidential run, telling Fox News "I would give it a shot" if the American people think she's "the one."
4 More banks close as U.S. bank failures reaches 124 this year.: Three bank failures in Georgia and one in Ohio has brought 2010's tally to 124, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Frida
Americans' Net Worth Falls Along With Stocks: U.S. households saw their wealth decline in the second quarter despite their efforts to save more money, underscoring the economy's struggle to recover from the recession
Record number of US homes seized by banks: More US homes were repossessed by banks in August—more than 95,000—than in any other month in history, according to realtytrac.com, a real estate marketplace. The company expects 1.2 million bank repossessions this year, a level 12 times higher than in 2005, when there were only 100,000.
Wall Street Banks Committing Widespread Mortgage Foreclosure Fraud: A Florida state-court judge, in a rare ruling, said a major national bank perpetrated a “fraud” in a foreclosure lawsuit, raising questions about how banks are attempting to claim homes from borrowers in default.

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