Things to consider—

Since early 2011, Obama's been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme's familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism's dark side. In the 1980s, CIA-recruited mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers." He characterized Contra killers the same way. —Stephen LendmanFor over a century now US ambassadors have acted as fifth columns in the nations they are embedded in, their role chiefly to foster corporate and plutocratic power and coordinate machinations against any truly pro-democratic government.•••••"The dead end identity politics of SF Pride, which sells out a peace hero like Bradley Manning to curry favor with the American ruling class, is what I had in mind. The empire loves your tameness, irrelevance and cowardice, SF Pride. You don’t bother the American ruling class — a five foot two, 105 pound soldier does because he has a conscience and because he didn’t make comfort the guiding principle of his life...." —Randy Shields
Apr 222011
 

A program and action for economic health.

By Cindy Sheehan

“Our problems stem from acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.” ~~~ Dorothy Day

Sheehan

Once upon a time, many years ago, when things weren’t quite so f’ed up here in Duh-merica, the Democratic candidate for president from Nowhereville, Arkansas made the expression, “It’s the economy, stupid,” a catch-phrase for his successful bid to unseat the incumbent, George H.W. Bush. Pappy Bush had been wildly popular (we love our “successful wars” here) after his attack on Iraq but had not addressed the recession we were suffering under at the time. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 4:07 pm
Apr 222011
 

By Tom Eley  | 21 April 2011 | READ FIRST INSTALLMENT HERE

This second installment in a four-part WSWS series marking the first anniversary of the BP Gulf oil disaster focuses on the role of deregulation in creating conditions for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout. See also, “One year since the BP oil spill: Covering up a catastrophe.”

The BP Gulf oil blowout was indisputably a consequence of capitalism—and in particular systematic deregulation and promotion of the “free market” as the sole arbiter of industrial practices.

AN OVERWHELMING BODY OF EVIDENCE from investigative hearings, media reports, and Deepwater Horizon rig workers demonstrates that the April 20 explosion and subsequent oil spill was a direct product of the negligence and cost-cutting of BP. In the months, days, and hours leading up to the disaster, the energy giant ignored numerous warnings that a blowout was likely so that it could hurry its Macondo well into production. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 12:48 pm
Apr 222011
 

By Tom Eley  | 20 April 2011

This article, the first of a four-part series marking the first anniversary of the BP Gulf oil disaster, reviews the systematic corporate and government cover-up of the BP disaster and its consequences. READ THE SECOND INSTALLMENT HERE

Our fellow creatures have suffered the most, but a similar disaster could happen again tomorrow, as the exploiters of the Gulf push on to restore "business as usual" and the government --in their pocket--does nothing. Disgusting and disgraceful.

One year ago today, on April 20, 2010, an explosion on the BP-run Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers, injured 17 more, and led to the greatest single ecological catastrophe in US history. By the time the blown out Macondo well was capped on July 15, 2010, some 206 million gallons of oil had gushed out from the wellhead located one mile beneath the ocean’s surface and about 50 miles from Louisiana’s southeast coast. Millions more gallons of highly toxic chemical dispersant were dumped on the Gulf’s surface or released underwater. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 12:33 pm
Apr 222011
 

By Noam Chomsky, TomDispatch [3]
Thursday 21 April 2011

Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t

THE DEMOCRACY UPRISING in the Arab world has been a spectacular display of courage, dedication, and commitment by popular forces — coinciding, fortuitously, with a remarkable uprising of tens of thousands in support of working people and democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, and other U.S. cities. If the trajectories of revolt in Cairo and Madison intersected, however, they were headed in opposite directions: in Cairo toward gaining elementary rights denied by the dictatorship, in Madison towards defending rights that had been won in long and hard struggles and are now under severe attack. Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 11:59 am
Apr 222011
 

By Stephen Lendman

The struggle against Egypt's new military Junta continues, although the American media, as usual, have largely dropped the story.

In her book, “Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law,” Marjorie Cohn quoted a former CIA agent saying:

“If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear….you send them to Egypt.” Continue reading »

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 Posted by at 11:46 am