|
Latest Articles: Opinions/Editorials
If Al Gore Had Won
Post Date: 2011-09-04 13:55:23 by Brian S
6 Comments
A recent poll by "60 Minutes" and Vanity Fair found that a majority of Americans, and a majority of Democrats, do not believe things would have changed much if Al Gore had been inaugurated president in January 2001. With a jobless scandal gripping the nation, the presiden'ts popularity collapsed from earlier levels, congressional favorable ratings laughably at 12 percent (within reach of Saddam Hussein's favorables), the Gore v. Bush poll is breathtaking. If Al Gore had won, for starters: Had Gore been briefed by intelligence officers as Bush was in August 2001 about terrorist planes attacking buildings, Gore would ...
Drill, baby, drill fails: Oil prices soar in spite of sharp increase in U.S. production under Obama
Post Date: 2011-09-04 08:29:56 by lucysmom
4 Comments
US oil production last year rose to its highest level in almost a decade…. As a result, analysts believe the US was the largest contributor to the increase in global oil supplies last year over 2009, and is on track to increase domestic production by 25 per cent by the second half of the decade. Domestic oil production is soaring, but so are global prices. It should be obvious that yet more drilling can’t have any significant impact on oil prices — particularly since the U.S. Energy Information Administration has been making that precise point for years now (see EIA: Full offshore drilling will not lower gasoline prices at all in 2020 and only 3 cents in 2030!). The only ...
The Iraq Disaster Looms Big: But Don't Tell That to the Petraeus Worshippers
Post Date: 2011-09-02 20:16:00 by Brian S
0 Comments
As Gen. David Petraeus retired from the Army on Wednesday, he received a 17-gun salute and was hailed across the U.S. news media as the strategic genius who organized the “successful surge” in Iraq and similarly achieved gains against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He is now off to run the CIA. However, the less glorious truth about Petraeus’s much-heralded “surge” in Iraq was that it cost the lives of almost 1,000 more U.S. soldiers, inflicted more violence upon the people of Iraq and will likely only have achieved a delay in a U.S. military defeat of historic proportions. Much the same could be said for Petraeus’s “surge” in Afghanistan. The Iraq ...
I've Come To The Conclusion That Facebook Is The Antichrist
Post Date: 2011-09-01 23:50:43 by A K A Stone
3 Comments
[[I'm really sort of only half-joking...]] So for a long while now, I’ve had this theory that facebook is the antichrist and/or the “mark of the beast.” Tonight, I decided to investigate my theory further, and what I have found may shock you. Prepare yourselves for the epiphany of a lifetime. First of all, my initial theory stemmed from the verse in Revelations that says the antichrist will require everyone to get the “mark of the beast”: He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads. [Revelations 13:16] Well, facebook is something pretty much EVERYONE has nowadays, right?! ...
Dick Cheney, The Ultimate American Terrorist
Post Date: 2011-08-31 15:41:56 by Brian S
6 Comments
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. - Dick Cheney It is axiomatic by now: when someone leaves government service, especially from a high-profile position, they write a book. They all do it, sometimes more than once. Richard Nixon is the main example of one who produced a multi-volume apologia; by the time he went into the ground, he'd penned enough books to fill a wide shelf. Henry Kissinger was similarly prolific, which leads one to wonder about the relationship between criminal activities and the printed page. Nixon was chased from office after a series of crimes that, at the time, had no precedent, and Kissinger is still so ...
Jihad el-Khazen : Reasons For Hating Israel Are Completely Justified
Post Date: 2011-08-30 19:55:25 by Brian S
9 Comments
There is the story about the psychiatrist who is unsuccessful in treating a patient with an inferiority complex. The doctor tells the patient, “Maybe you don’t have a complex. Maybe you’re really inferior.”
Israel is the one with the inferiority complex, and like the patient, is actually inferior. No one likes it, and it responds with what makes people hate it even more.
I put together translations of the Israeli press from the weekend, and found an item in Maariv, saying that Israel decided to start a fight with Qatar because of its growing anti-Israeli activity in the world. The item focused on the huge legal and political support offered by Qatar, as the chair of the Arab Follow-up ...
Beau Biden cautious on signing off on mortgage settlement
Post Date: 2011-08-30 11:38:17 by lucysmom
3 Comments
B eau Biden isn't winning any friends on Wall Street. The big-money guys aren't happy that Delaware's attorney general insists on asking tough questions about bad mortgages. A lot of big players want the mortgage mess behind us. The top banks, for instance, want a settlement that would protect them from future lawsuits or prosecution over fake paperwork. The U.S. Treasury Department, on the other hand, wants the burden of the foreclosure scandal off the banks' books. snip Most of all, he has said, why is there such a hurry to settle things before anyone knows what really is going on? That speed is what worries Biden. The scandal is not going to go away even if the ...
You Think Obama’s Been a Bad President? Prove It
Post Date: 2011-08-29 10:57:30 by Brian S
38 Comments
Tell me again why Barack Obama has been such a bad president? I’m not talking here about him as a tactician and communicator. We can agree that he has played some bad poker with Congress. And let’s stipulate that at the moment he’s falling short in the intangibles of leadership. I’m thinking instead of that opening sequence in the show “Mission Impossible,” the one where Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, gets his instructions. Your mission, Jim (and readers named something else), should you decide to accept it, is to identify where Obama has been a poor decision-maker. What, specifically, has he done wrong on policy? What, specifically, would you have done ...
Why This Is The Moment Libya's Islamic Extremists Have Prayed For
Post Date: 2011-08-28 14:43:45 by Brian S
0 Comments
As Tripoli fell to anti-Gaddafi rebel forces, the euphoria that erupted in some parts of the city was matched only by that which broke out among Middle East pundits in the West. The fall of the Libyan capital represents a clear victory for freedom over tyranny, they tell us, and a new country - defined by an enthusiastic embrace of democracy, pluralism and representative government - will emerge. However, we have been here twice before in the Middle East in recent months. First, when Tunisia's strongman, Zine El-Abidene Ben Ali, fled Tunis, and then when Egypt's dictator Hosni Mubarak vacated the presidential palace in Cairo. Seven months on, both countries are as authoritarian ...
The Story Of How Bin Laden Was Found Is Fiction
Post Date: 2011-08-28 14:27:36 by Brian S
9 Comments
The whole story of how Osama bin Laden was found to be hiding out in Abottabad, Pakistan — recreated in incredible detail in The New Yorker — was made up, according to R.J. Hillhouse, a prominent security analyst and author. According to Hillhouse, who attributes the news to her sources inside the intelligence comunity, a Pakistan intelligence officer came forward with the information of bin Laden's whereabouts in exchange for the $25 million reward and U.S. citizenship for his family. The informant, Hillhouse says, claimed that the Saudis had been paying the Pakistani military and intelligence agency, ISI, to shelter bin Laden under house arrest. "The C.I.A. and ...
Alex Jones And Ron Paul Are The Voices of Reason And Dissent Inside Babylon
Post Date: 2011-08-27 16:00:00 by Capitalist Eric
0 Comments
Take it to the wilderness Into the jungle sun Lookin' for the voice of reason Inside this babylon." - Jefferson Starship, from the song "Layin' It On The Line." "The truth would certainly do well enough if she were once left to shift for herself. . . .Errors, indeed, prevail by the assistance of foreign and borrowed succors. But if Truth makes not her way into the understanding by her own light, she will be but the weaker for any borrowed force violence can add to her." - John Locke, as quoted in the book, "Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition," by John Durham Peters. "But at my back I always hear Time's winged ...
Did Fracking Cause the Virginia Earthquake?
Post Date: 2011-08-26 08:04:31 by lucysmom
31 Comments
Earthquakes in the nation's capitol are as rare as hen's teeth. The epicenter of Tuesday's quake was in Mineral, Virginia, which is located on three very quiet fault lines. The occurrence of yet another freak earthquake in an unusual location is leading many anti-fracking activists (including me -- they have just started fracking in Stratford, which is 40 minutes from New Plymouth) to wonder whether "fracking" in nearby West Virginia may be responsible. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of initiating and subsequently propagating a fracture in a rock layer, employing the pressure of a fluid as the source of energy. The fracturing is done from a wellbore ...
CLAIM: The Founding Fathers Believed in Redistributing Wealth -- Why Do Tea Party Heroes Like Perry and Bachmann Vilify It?
Post Date: 2011-08-25 18:15:04 by Brian S
7 Comments
American conservatives have lurched so far to the right they're now trying to re-litigate questions about the role of government that have been settled for hundreds of years.
The redistribution of wealth is a perfect example. Listening to today's Republicans, one would think it is some kind of pernicious and un-American leftist principle – an idea only embraced by foreigners, socialists and assorted freaks.
During the waning days of the 2008 campaign, John McCain jumped on Barack Obama telling “Joe the Plumber” on the campaign trail that we need to “spread the wealth around” a little bit. It became the heart of the case that the decidedly centrist Obama is a “socialist.” A feverish ...
The American President And Freedom For Jonathan Pollard
Post Date: 2011-08-25 13:13:47 by Brian S
4 Comments
The extensive powers of clemency the American Constitution grants to the president are his solemn responsibility. This executive privilege is bestowed to enable the president to safeguard the rights of all American citizens. In cases where the justice system has discharged its responsibility appropriately and the public good would be neither benefited nor harmed by the president’s intervention, it is entirely his prerogative whether or not to exercise executive clemency. But in a case like that of my husband Jonathan Pollard, where the judicial system has been subverted to prosecute one American citizen excessively and where all legal remedies have been exhausted, there is a moral ...
Democracy In Libya? Don't Hold Your Breath
Post Date: 2011-08-24 16:53:26 by Brian S
0 Comments
Fouad Ajami, with characteristic disdain for political correctness, once described the Arab world as “caught between prison and anarchy”. But the vast majority of post-Saïdian anti-Orientalists, in characteristic submission to political correctness, have been telling us all for decades that in the vibrant civil society of the Arab world, democracy is around the corner, especially in Palestine. Indeed, and ironically, George Bush’s neocon inspired invasion of Iraq was based on the notion that, the dictator toppled and democracy introduced, democracy would spread like dominoes across the region. Despite the consistently repeated failure of these expectations, nothing seems ...
Rewrite, Sugarcoat, Ignore: 8 Ways Conservatives Misremember American History—for Partisan Gain
Post Date: 2011-08-24 13:16:36 by Brian S
1 Comments
The mortgage crisis began in 2006 and it’s all President Obama’s fault—at least according to Fox News host Sean Hannity. Hannity recently blamed [1] Obama—“his policies, his economic plan, his fault”—for the mortgage crisis, ignoring who was actually president (that would be George W. Bush) as the housing market slipped [2]. Hannity’s is just one example of the selective memory and historical revision frequently on display in the conservative movement. Right-wing pundits, politicians and pseudo-historians are nibbling away at objective historical truths to rewrite history for present-day purposes, and hardly any topic is off-limits: glorifying the ...
Christian Zionists Seek to Judaize Jerusalem, Says Arab MK
Post Date: 2011-08-23 19:01:48 by Brian S
0 Comments
MK Ibrahim Sarsour, the head of the Ra'am Ta'al Arab party, urged Arab and Muslim leaders to wage war on Israel in a letter Monday. He cited Christian Zionists as one of the elements conspiring to 'Judaize' Jerusalem. The letter was written to the Secretary General of the Arab League and to the Secretary General of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation on the 42nd anniversary of "the crime of the burning of Al Aqsa mosque." This refers to the attempt in 1969 by deranged non-Jewish Australian Dennis Michael Rohan to burn down the mosque. Sarsour wrote that "The greatest danger to Al Quds [Jerusalem – Ed.] is and will remain the Israeli occupation, and ...
Buchanan: Why Are We Baiting the Bear?
Post Date: 2011-08-23 12:15:30 by Brian S
0 Comments
Is the Senate trying to reignite the Cold War? If so, it is going about it the right way. Before departing for a five-week vacation, the Senate voted to declare Abkhazia and South Ossetia to be provinces of Georgia illegally occupied by Russian troops who must get out and return to Russia. The Senate voice vote was unanimous. What is wrong with Senate Resolution 175? Just this. Neither Abkhazia nor South Ossetia has been under Georgian control for 20 years. When Georgia seceded from Russia, these ethnic enclaves rebelled and seceded from Georgia. Abkhazians and Ossetians both view the Tblisi regime of Mikhail Saakashvili, though a favorite of Washington, with contempt, and both have ...
Gold's Dramatic Rise and Fall in 1980s - Why It's Important
Post Date: 2011-08-23 01:44:05 by lucysmom
5 Comments
First of all, I am not a gold bug and like Dennis Gartman, am not very comfortable when everyone becomes bullish on gold. Many analysts and journalists do all sorts of historical analysis for gold prices, looking back at the Q1 1980 high of $800 + (nominal price) and using this number in all sorts of statistical comparison. But what one has to be extremely careful about is the fact that this price was an extreme movement which didn't last for too long at that time. Gold moved above $700 and stayed there for just a couple of weeks before dropping into the $300-500 range (nominal) for most of the '80s. Here is some research I did to explore what caused Gold prices to rise (and ...
Shariah Coming To Libya
Post Date: 2011-08-22 19:41:44 by Brian S
1 Comments
The United States among other countries officially recognized the Libyan Transitional National Council (TNC) as the legitimate governing body of Libya back in July. The U.S. and it's allies is counting on the TNC to fill the current void in Libyan leadership since the country's dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi of over 40 years was forced to relinquish his power by rebel forces and their allies over the weekend. Many are asking, though, who exactly is this group that the United States and others are trusting to lead Libya towards a Middle Eastern democracy? Although the United States is optimistic about working with the TNC, past analysis about the TNC from the White ...
Top Ten Myths about the Libya War
Post Date: 2011-08-22 12:54:28 by go65
19 Comments
The Libyan Revolution has largely succeeded, and this is a moment of celebration, not only for Libyans but for a youth generation in the Arab world that has pursued a political opening across the region. The secret of the uprising’s final days of success lay in a popular revolt in the working-class districts of the capital, which did most of the hard work of throwing off the rule of secret police and military cliques. It succeeded so well that when revolutionary brigades entered the city from the west, many encountered little or no resistance, and they walked right into the center of the capital. Muammar Qaddafi was in hiding as I went to press, and three of his sons were in custody. ...
Five bummer problems that make societies collapse
Post Date: 2011-08-21 12:07:48 by lucysmom
33 Comments
“If anyone tells you that there’s a single-factor explanation for societal collapse,” says collapse guru Jared Diamond, “you know right away that they’re an idiot. This is a complex subject.” So, forget about peak debt, peak oil, peak climate, peak Harry Potter or even peak everything as the single most important problem that could bring today’s whole pulsing, beaming and txt-mssgng mess down into a lifeless pile of shorted-out microchips, rusted carburetors and busted sporks from Taco Bell. In a TED talk that Diamond gave in 2003 with eerie relevance for this very minute, the author of two books on collapse, the solid-gold hit Guns, Germs and Steel and ...
Criminal Zionism Will Bring About Lasting Disaster Unto Jews
Post Date: 2011-08-20 19:55:30 by Brian S
1 Comments
Israeli leaders have nearly lost their composure, reacting to a rare resistance attack originating from the Sinai Peninsula near the southernmost town of Um al Rushrash, renamed by the Zionists as Elat. Appearing existentially anxious and morbidly hypochondriac, Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu was behaving in a conspicuously convulsive manner. He vowed to murder Palestinians, saying "we must kill those trying to hurt Jews." Netanyahu, an inherently dishonest and racist politician, thought that the only way Israel could prove her military might was by ganging up on nearly helpless and virtually undefended Gazans who are languishing under a lingering blockade that has ...
Thoughts from Taiwan [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-08-19 08:36:27 by jwpegler
163 Comments
I spent the last week in Taipei, Taiwan visiting a customer. I've been all over Asia, but this was my first trip to Taiwan, other than catching a connecting flight at the airport. I'm sitting here at Taiwan International Airport waiting for my 12 hour flight to Seattle, reflecting on my week. I love Taiwan and its people. The city is on the move. People are hustling and working hard. Yet, they are extraordinarily friendly and caring. Last night we went to Tower 101, which is one of the tallest buildings in the world. Until very recently, it also had the fastest elevator in the world. We climbed from the 5th floor to the observation deck on the 89th floor in a matter of seconds. ...
Tea Party: The Christian Right in Disguise?
Post Date: 2011-08-18 20:26:01 by Brian S
1 Comments
Aug 18, 2011 1:54 PM EDT New research confirms that the Tea Party firmly unites right-wing politics and evangelical Christianity, a fact so problematic that it can make even Christine O’Donnell speechless. Print Email Comments On Wednesday night, former Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell walked off the set of Piers Morgan Tonight after refusing to answer a question about gay marriage. She said she hadn’t come on the show to deal with “a rude talk- show host, but to talk about my book and talk about the issues I address in my book.” Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann, once an outspoken social conservative, has reduced her comments on gay ...
Latest [Newer] 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 [Older]
|
