The major sea change in media discussions of Obama and civil liberties
The controversies over the IRS and especially the AP phone records appear to have long-lasting effects By Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk Barack Obama Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images Due to the controversies over the IRS and (especially) the DOJ’s attack on AP’s news gathering process, media outlets have suddenly decided that President Obama has a very poor record [...]
Argentina’s General Videla and the “war on terror”
By Bill Van Auken, wsws.org Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla died May 17 at the age of 87 as the result of injuries suffered from a fall in a prison shower. He was remembered as the head of a savage military dictatorship that between 1976 and 1983 murdered and “disappeared” some 30,000 Argentine workers, socialist militants, [...]
By Chris Hedges Joe Sacco and I spent two years reporting from the poorest pockets of the United States for our book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.”We went into our nation’s impoverished “sacrifice zones”—the first areas forced to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace—to show what happens when unfettered corporate capitalism and ceaseless economic expansion [...]
PBS Killed Wisconsin Uprising Documentary “Citizen Koch” To Appease Koch Brothers
By Brendan Fischer, PRWatch | Report “Citizen Koch,” a documentary about money in politics focused on the Wisconsin uprising, was shunned by PBS for fear of offending billionaire industrialist David Koch, who has given $23 million to public television, according to Jane Mayer of the New Yorker. The dispute highlights the increasing role of private money in “public” television and raises [...]
Why Obama Will Walk Away Unscathed by the Current Political Scandals
by Pascal Robert, Black Agenda Report Don’t worry about Barack Obama. He’s far too useful to the rulers of America to be derailed by scandal, or even a combination of scandals. “Obama’s neoliberal government giveaways to private corporations and mercenary foreign policy already make him too valuable to the guardians of American empire to have [...]
Obama’s War on Free Expression
by Stephen Lendman It’s the most fundamental right. Without it all others are endangered. Obama’s waging war to destroy it. He’s done so throughout his tenure. He targeted AP. He did so unjustifiably. A previous article discussed it. Did you like this? Share it:
The Jesuit Pope – Who is Francis and who he pretends to be
Written by Esquerda Marxista editorial board Wednesday, 15 May 2013 The election of Pope Francis marks a turn in the prolonged crisis of the Catholic Church. It is important for revolutionaries to understand the reasons for the ongoing struggle within the Church. Far from moving to the left, Francis is trying to entrench the Church in [...]
Apple CEO defends multi-billion-dollar tax dodge
By Andre Damon, wsws.org Apple CEO Tim Cook used his appearance Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations—called to investigate Apple’s evasion of billions of dollars in taxes—to call for a sharp reduction in the corporate tax rate. The senators on the committee, Democratic and Republican alike, agreed with Cook [...]
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
In America the obvious and most efficient solutions are never considered.
President Obama’s mandate to buy private insurance was born in the rightwing Heritage Foundation, and has not found a home among any actual constituency of the public – white, non-white, Republican, Democrat, college-educated or not. A new poll confirms that “Obama has based his plan on a scheme that nobody likes – even his most loyal supporters.”
By BAR executive editor Glen Ford
Black Agenda Report is a fraternal organization
UNAC members, including BAR editors (from L) Kimberley, Ford, and Dixon (extreme R).
The United States finally has an anti-war movement that can’t be bamboozled by President Obama’s “humanitarian” mass murder. The United National Anti-War Coalition has broken decisively with those who would give a pass to Washington to wage illegal wars against Syria and Iran – as Obama did in Libya. “Our task as Americans is to dismantle from within the monstrous apparatus of imperial aggression. Period.” No exceptions.
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
Black Freedom Movement era icon Angela Davis tells people that Barack Obama “identifies with the Black radical tradition” – “as if everything he has written, said and done in national politics has not been a repudiation of the Black radical tradition.” In doing so, Prof. Davis “is repudiating herself, her history, her comrades – all in a foolish attempt to artificially graft a totally unworthy Barack Obama onto a place he not only does not belong, but most profoundly does not want to be.” Continue reading »
By Stephen Lendman
Syrian opposition activists walk past a poster showing a dead man reportedly killed during clashes in Homs. Photograph: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
On March 25, The New York Times headlined, “US and Turkey to Step Up ‘Nonlethal’ Aid to Rebels in Turkey,” saying:
Other US allies were urged to do the same. Insisting no weapons will be sent belies heavy Western and Israeli ones delivered through porous borders for months.
They include powerful explosives, small arms, submachine guns, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket and anti-tank grenade launchers, among others. They’ve been used to kill civilians and security forces, as well as destroy government facilities. Continue reading »
By Stephen Lendman
Inside the Beltway, it’s evident daily. The political news website Capitol Hill Blue says “Nobody’s life, liberty or property is safe while Congress is in session or the White House is occupied.”
Santorum and his imbecilic or equally corrupt supporters. Problem is this man is simply one more ordinary top politician in the United States: a thief, a prostitute, a sociopathic warmongerer, a complete reactionary in matters of conscience, and a medievalist in ecoanimal questions. In sum, a credible contender for the top job as far as the American political system is concerned. And don’t ask why the corporate media are not reporting such issues. —Eds.
Electoral politics also highlights its clear and present danger. It involves rogue politicians competing to be part of Washington’s corrupted duopoly run system – especially the top job as president. Continue reading »
From our archives—
(With our thanks to our fraternal site ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1996)
Hindi speaking at a press conference at the Laramie County Library, urging a halt to tie-down roping events.
Editor’s Note: Steve Hindi occupies a very special place in the annals of modern ecoanimal activism. a distinction he has earned through enormous hard work and perseverence. Unlike most activists, Steve has been on both sides of the issue, first as a “sport” hunter and angler, and later as a committed opponent of such cruel “recreational pastimes.” We all come to our realizations about our place in the web of life by different routes, but it’s fair to say that once Steve found his moral compass, he never deviated, never wavered from the right path, regardless of what that journey implied in terms of risk to his life or freedom. This conversion, from animal abuser to protector would lead him to found SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect & Kindness), an organization that in its relatively short life has become the bane of many who see animals as little more than animate objects on which to invest their frivolity or even depravity, as in the current rage of “canned hunts” both here and overseas. Continue reading »
