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In highly unusual testimony inside the federal supermax prison, a former operative for Al Qaeda has described prominent members of Saudi Arabia's royal family as major donors to the terrorist network in the late 1990s and claimed that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One with a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington.
By George Eliason
Critical war updates- Ukraine's strategy change. Poroshenko's attacks on civilians with prohibited weapons. An address from Prezrak Commander Alexey Mosgovoy on the future of the war.
By michael payne
Or, posing the question somewhat differently; will The European nations that belong to NATO finally resist the dictates of the U.S. government as it pressures them to take part in strong sanctions against Russia and actively participate in NATO's objective to "surround" that country with military power?
By Robert Weiner
At nearly every outing, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, one of the top Republican presidential hopefuls, is pushing for African American votes for the Republican Party in 2016. He asked Howard University students, "How did the Party of the Great Emancipator (Lincoln) lose that vote?" He believes that his party can win over black voters because he says Democratic policies "haven't worked."
The American Sniper is a model American. And the American model is immorality. Chris Kyle did his patriotic duty. He obeyed orders, followed the words and carried out the tasks issued from the White House. The fish rots from the head down. The American Government is the American Sniper.
For the majority of Americans who spend their waking, leisure hours transfixed in front of the television or watching programming on their digital devices, the American police state itself has become reality TV programming--a form of programming that keeps us distracted, entertained, occasionally a little bit outraged but overall largely uninvolved, content to remain in the viewer's seat.
No one should be naive. Net neutrality is not being guaranteed as a gift to citizens and consumers. It is being won by citizens and consumers. That win must be assured in the weeks to come. And it must be defended in the months and years to come.
As retired Gen. and ex-CIA Director David Petraeus was about to speak in New York City last Oct. 30, someone decided to spare the "great man" from impertinent questions, so ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern was barred, arrested and brought to trial, prompting McGovern to ask some questions now in an open letter.
Clinton, Bush, and Bowles are among the thousands of prominent and successful individuals who have sat on the boards of major corporations. It's good work if you can get it. The pay is typically several hundred thousand dollars a year in exchange for showing up at six to 10 board meetings.
The struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party isn't over. But the president's dismissal of "mindless austerity" draws a useful parallel between Germany's harmful policies and those of the GOP, while the Democratic populists offer a clear alternative to the greed-driven magical thinking of our financial elites.
The artistic community -- or at least a part of it -- has spoken. And they want Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to run for president in 2016. "Our country needs someone who will stand up for working families and take on the Wall Street banks and special interests that broke our economy," reads an open letter from Artists for Warren -- a group of musicians, actors and directors including actors Matt Bomer, Elizabeth Olsen, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Julia Stiles, Olivia Wilde; musicians DJ Spooky and Kim Gordon; and filmmaker Michael Moore.
Ansel Adams sat, fascinated, listening to Grandfather's workshops on photography. Adams, and the world of the early 20th Century saw the motion of wildflowers turning their faces to the sun, in his films. And in 1926 scientists first saw a cell dividing, a life process common to people and flowers, in Pillsbury's films.
Texas journalist Candice Bernd has made a splash with her reporting on police brutality and government transparency issues. In my interview, Bernd laments that Texas is facing a "brain drain" of committed journalists and activists. But Bernd wants to stick it out because she feels she can make a difference in the Lone Star State.
This day should have ended like most other days with small lunch boxes returned to backpacks for the trip home to Mommy and Daddy. But today, December 14, 2012, was to become a day like no other in the history of America.
By David Swanson
Addiction Is Not Addictive Whether someone becomes addicted to drugs has much more to do with their childhood and their quality of life than with the drug they use or with anything in their genes.
Mars is nifty. It's fascinating. It's red and rocky and we currently have a couple of high-tech rovers checking it out. But it's no Europa. Jupiter's intriguing moon may be iced over, but scientists suspect there's a massive ocean underneath. Researchers have even spotted what they believe to be water vapor plumes venting from the moon's south pole. If the theories hold true, then Europa may give us a great opportunity for finding the building blocks of life beyond Earth in our solar system. At last, NASA is taking a big leap in its plans to go there. Speaking in his annual State of NASA address Monday, administrator Charles Bolden said, "Looking to the future, we're planning a mission to explore Jupiter's fascinating moon Europa, selecting instruments this spring and moving toward the next phase of our work."
TV's idea of family may be bleached, starched, and pumped up on cheeroids, but sometimes it can even save a life.
A debate on vaccinations has infected the political sphere this week as a result of a measles outbreak that began in Disneyland last month and has resulted in 102 cases across 14 states. The anti-vaccination (or anti-vaxxer) movement is centered on the role of the government in private life and fears around the supposed side-effects associated with vaccination. Despite the fact that there is zero evidence supporting a link between vaccinations and autism, the idea has been trumpeted by many conservatives.
Attorney General Eric Holder responded to his irresponsible Republican critics today by firmly insisting there's been no politicization of this Justice Department. He said such an accusation is "totally inconsistent with the facts." The Bush DOJ was politicized when he got in, Holder said, but he's managed to change it.
The 2015 World Economic Forum at Davos was a gathering of 1500 executives of the world's largest corporations, 40 heads of state, and specially invited celebrities, academics and NGO representatives. The purpose of the WEF is to allow the world's plutocrats to address global problems such as the soaring inequality described in the latest Oxfam report, a dangerous situation of their own creation. Don't get your hopes up.
Economics and Politics; by Paul Krugman
"My old teacher Rudi Dornbusch -- whose presence is sorely missed in this world gone mad -- once wrote an influential analysis, with Sebastian Edwards, of what they called macroeconomic populism. This is the historical tendency of some (not all) populist governments to engage in wishful thinking, to believe that they can repeal the usual rules -- that they can indefinitely contain inflation in an overheated economy with price controls, that they can ignore limits on capacity, etc.. It's slightly tricky to talk about this problem in times like these macroeconomic populism is heterodox economics, which is not all macroeconomic populism; e,g,, capital controls have often been an ultimately destructive attempt to mask underlying reality,..
A Bad Mistake - by Thomas L. Friedman, NYTimes
"The decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and House Speaker John Boehner to cook up an address to Congress by Netanyahu on why the U.S. should get tougher on Iran is churlish, reckless and, for the future of Israeli-American relations, quite dangerous.If Netanyahu wants some intelligent advice, he should listen to the counsel of his previous ambassador in Washington, the widely respected Michael Oren, who was quoted as saying that the whole gambit was creating the impression of "a cynical political move, and it could hurt our attempts to act against Iran." How offensive the whole thing is to average Americans:"a lot more Americans will not be happy -- and some will ask, "How did we get into this mess?" One of the first things they'll dig out will be Netanyahu's speech to Congress.
By taking on the president, Netanyahu risks smashing apart Washington's political consensus on Israel and exposing the American public for the first time to a debate about whether Israeli interests coincide with US ones. The very rift he is fostering with Obama is likely to rebound on him. That could have unpredictable -- and dangerous -- consequences for Israel.
A Jordanian government spokesman says Jordan has executed two prisoners, including a would-be female suicide bomber from al-Qaida. The executions at dawn Wednesday came just hours after Islamic State militants released a video that purportedly showed a captured Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive in a cage. Jordan vowed a swift and lethal response. Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said that two prisoners, Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli, were executed early Wednesday.
Several people were killed when a Metro-North Railroad train struck a vehicle on the tracks in Valhalla, N.Y., in Westchester County, on Tuesday evening, resulting in a fiery crash, officials said. The female driver of the vehicle and several passengers on the train were killed, said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. At least 12 people were injured. The train struck the vehicle, a black Jeep Cherokee, which was crossing the tracks at Commerce Street around 6:30 p.m.
By Farid Khavari
Why "recurring costs" and "social costs" matter more than income? Everybody needs to understand one simple fact--reducing costs is more important than the rising income and savings. Because the cost keeps rising permanently, income does not. Second, inflation eats into your income and savings, but it cannot eat your costs; it only increases your costs!
Some economists laud on-demand work as a means of utilizing people more efficiently. But the biggest economic challenge we face isn't using people more efficiently. It's allocating work and the gains from work more decently. On this measure, the share-the-scraps economy is hurtling us backwards.
By William Dunkerley
Warning: Suspicious Clintonites Rattle Sabers at Russia over Ukraine. War to Come? Who benefits from increased tensions between the United States and Russia?
Eric Holder is reaping applause as his six-year reign as Attorney General comes to a close. But Holder's record is profoundly disappointing to anyone who expected the Obama administration to renounce the abuses of the previous administration. Instead, Holder championed a Nixonian-style legal philosophy that presumed that any action the president orders is legal.
House Speaker Boehner's unprecedented invitation to give Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a platform of a joint session of Congress to undercut President Obama's foreign policy is just the latest example of how much power the Israel lobby wields, as Gareth Porter explains.
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"In highly unusual testimony inside the federal supermax prison, a former operative for al-Qaida has described prominent members of Saudi Arabia's royal family as major donors to the terrorist network in the late 1990s and claimed that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One with a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington."
The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted for the 56th time to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. The vote was largely symbolic, because the measure is unlikely to pass the Senate and would face a certain veto from President Barack Obama if it did. But Republicans insisted on the vote, casting it as a chance to send a message and let new GOP members have a chance to vote against a law that most of them contend destroys jobs, freedom and the Constitution.
Queensland state government defeated in anti-austerity vote
The Liberal National Party (LNP) government in the Australian state of Queensland was defeated in an unprecedented political reversal at last Saturday's state election. The first-term government was ousted, just three years after it was elected in a landslide victory over the previous Labor Party government. Premier Campbell Newman became the first Queensland leader in 100 years to lose his own seat. That was the result of intensifying popular hostility to his government's austerity agenda of budget-slashing, job destruction and decimation of social spending, including its elimination of more than 14,000 public sector jobs and $37 billion privatization plan. Aussies are obviously more intelligent than Americans as shown here. Meanwhile, we continue to sink lower and lower....as Fats used to ask, "How low can you go"?
LATINO HIGHER EDUCATION- REALITY OR MERE RHETORIC? - Lenny isenberg,
In the midst of an endless barrage of belated education reform proposals coming from Governor Brown, President Obama, and elsewhere that are purportedly designed to improve what has become an abysmal public education system, regrettably one might still ask if anybody really wants minority- and more specifically Latino- children to finally achieve their academic potential? If they actually did, those devising public education policy might try doing something different that has already proven to work well everywhere else in the world where it has been implemented. Simply stated, literacy in any language drives increased fluency in all other languages and unrelated subjects that a student is intelligently exposed to. Ignoring the fact that all students have a two-year foreign language requirement for university admission, districts like the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)... |
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