Iran dispute 'long way' from military solution: US army chief - "The top US military officer said here that Washington does not consider military action as an immediate option to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program."
Albright: Good versus evil isn't a strategy - "THE BUSH administration's newly unveiled National Security Strategy might well be subtitled "The Irony of Iran." Three years after the invasion of Iraq and the invention of the phrase "axis of evil," the administration now highlights the threat posed by Iran — whose radical government has been vastly strengthened by the invasion of Iraq. This is more tragedy than strategy, and it reflects the Manichean approach this administration has taken to the world."
So pro-Israel that it hurts - "The new John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt study of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" should serve as a wake-up call, on both sides of the ocean. The most obvious and eye-catching reflection is the fact that it is authored by two respected academics and carries the imprimatur of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The tone of the report is harsh. It is jarring for a self-critical Israeli, too. It lacks finesse and nuance when it looks at the alphabet soup of the American-Jewish organizational world and how the Lobby interacts with both the Israeli establishment and the wider right-wing echo chamber."
Harvard's Paper on Israel Drew From Neo-Nazi Sites - "A prominent Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, is alleging that the authors of a Harvard Kennedy School paper about the "Israel lobby," one of which is the Kennedy School's academic dean, culled sections of the paper from neo-Nazi and other anti-Israel hate Web sites." -- And the smear campaign begins?
KSG Seeks Distance from Paper - "In their paper, Walt and Mearsheimer argued that the “Israel Lobby,” composed of active supporters of Israel, has seized control of U.S. foreign policy and made it reflect Israel’s interests more than those of the U.S. Since its publication in the London Review of Books last Thursday, the authors have drawn heated criticism from many academics, including Harvard’s Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz and longtime Harvard lecturer Martin Peretz, who is also the editor-in-chief of The New Republic." -- With all this uproar, I'm thinking the authors of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" might have hit a little too close to the truth.
WAR MAKING 101 - A USER'S MANUAL - " Here's one definition of a dictator or at least one practicing to become one. It's a head of state able to decide alone with unchallengeable authority whether or not to take a nation to war for any reason. Here's an add-on to that definition. If a leader does it for any reason other than to respond to an attack by another nation or clear evidence an attack is coming, that leader is also a war criminal. Noam Chomsky believes every US president since WW II was and is a war criminal. Ditto, so do I. This essay will concentrate on the current "war criminal in charge." With some background for the historically uneducated, I'll then fast forward to the present and take you into the heart of the beast we better get to know well and quickly before it eats us alive. I'll lay out what I call a war maker's manual, step by step or rule by rule, from when we were new at this ugly business and still learning to the present. Ready? Here we go."
We don't need reason to hold you, Hammoudeh told - "Government attorneys finally told Sameeh Hammoudeh, Tuesday, the main reason they're keeping him imprisoned: because they can. ... But government attorneys argued in their written response Tuesday that the overriding reason Hammoudeh remains in jail is because ICE can legally keep him for six months, according to a U.S. Supreme Court decision."
The Seekers - "Internecine feuds are not uncommon among people who believe in conspiracies. Yet dubbing Truth movement members "conspiracy theorists" is inaccurate for two reasons. First, there's no doubt that 9-11 was a conspiracy—the question is whether it was among Muslim terrorists or others. Second, many Truth-ers deny having any theory at all. They resist efforts to construct an alternative story of the crime. "I cannot explain it. That is not my duty," says former German cabinet minister Andreas von B a leader of the 9-11 skeptics in Europe, in a recent Dutch documentary. VonKleist takes the same line. He doesn't theorize anything, he says. "I'm simply asking questions." That sounds fair at first, only it isn't."
Village Voice Hit Piece Attacks 9/11 Skeptics - "Jarrett Murphy's 'The Seekers' article in the Village Voice newspaper is a smarmy attempt to scoff at alternative explanations behind 9/11. ... The rules have changed Mr. Murphy and you are being replaced. People will not support newspapers that lie and twist the truth. The fact that the 9/11 movement is being directly targeted by Popular Mechanics, the State Department and others is a benchmark of our progress."
Corporate Media Manipulations - "There are more troubling question raised by Charlie Sheen concerning 9/11, but to me, the biggest tip-off is the fact the both george Bush and Dick Cheney did all they could to stop any investigation into what happened on that day. When they did finally decide to set up a comission, first they tried to place henry Kissinger in charge, and limited the scope, range, time, and funding for the commission. It's like Janeane Garofolo said on Air America a couple of weeks ago, 9/11 was an inside job. Perhaps if she was a bigger name, she might have generated as much controversy."
No Longer The Minority: 82% Plus Support Charlie Sheen - "Despite the best efforts of the now whimpering attack poodles of the mainstream media, an online CNN poll shows that over four-fifths, or 82 per cent, agree with actor Charlie Sheen that the U.S. government covered up the real events of the 9/11 attacks."
US asks Japan to stop Iran oil development - "The United States has informally asked Japan to suspend its plans to develop an Iranian oil field as part of world efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a Japanese newspaper said on Thursday. Resource-poor Japan has been planning to develop Iran's Azadegan oil field, estimated to hold the world's second-biggest single oil reserve, despite objections from Washington. But Japan's top government spokesman, Shinzo Abe, said Tokyo's plans to develop Azadegan were not currently a topic of discussion with the United States and added that the project was vital for Japan's aim of securing stable energy supplies ."
Battle begins to overturn S. Dakota abortion law - "Instead, abortion rights supporters may try to take the issue before South Dakota voters in November. State law allows ballot referendums seeking to overturn legislation. "When you take things to the courts you don't have the opportunity to engage the public in the process. You don't have the ability to build a movement," said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kate Looby."
Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement - "When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers. The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates. Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law."
Video Catches Hospital 'Dumping' Incident - "For many months, Los Angeles city officials have complained that regional hospitals are dropping off their indigent patients in the city's tough Skid Row area. On Wednesday, officials at a homeless shelter released a videotape that allegedly catches one hospital in the act."
New Home Sales Plummet in February - "Sales of new homes plunged by the largest amount in nearly nine years in February while the median price of a new home dropped for the fourth straight month, providing fresh evidence that the nation's once-booming housing market is cooling off."
Couple Accused Making 3-Year-Old Fight - "A Fort Hood soldier and his wife have been accused of injury to a child for allegedly forcing their 3-year-old daughter to beat up an older boy as they videotaped it, Killeen police said. ... Police said the tape shows the soldier commanding his daughter to knock the victim down, kick him and hit him in the face. The girl follows her father's instructions as the boy cries and pleads for her to stop, police said."
Coming soon: Download-to-own films - ""Download-to-own has the potential to completely revolutionize the way people watch movies," PA quoted Peter Smith, president of Universal Pictures International, as saying."
Nevada Approves New Mobile Gambling Rules - "The downside of mobility is "you'd probably spend more."" -- Isn't that the point?
Quote of the Day
"There is one simple way for the United states to decrease very significantly, the plague of terror in the world, and that is just to stop supporting and participating in it."
~ Noam Chomsky
No comments:
Post a Comment