THE HEADLINES

(Image from Antiwar.com)

CIA IS AQAP’S BEST FRIEND IN YEMEN.

(Antiwar.com)

Persistent drone strikes against “terrorists” in Yemen are producing a bonanza harvest of support of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), unpopular because of its “blunders” in attacks on women in an area that depends heavily on their labor. Resentment of the drone attacks carried out by the CIA is being used by al-Qaeda to shore up its failing image in Yemen.

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DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: AS USUAL, OBAMA GAVE AN “INSPIRING” SPEECH ON JOBS. AS USUAL, HIS COMMITMENT TO DELIVERY ON THE WORDS IS DOUBTFUL.

(The Progressive)

Progressive editor Matthew Rothschild so characterizes last night’s speech, praising it for saying the right things about “government’s” commitment to address the “community’s” needs, condemning it for focusing on half-measures and an actually regressive tax proposal (cut in payroll taxes) that will benefit mostly better-paid workers and employers’ bottom profit lines and without creating any jobs.

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SLASHES IN “ENTITLEMENT” PROGRAMS, A BI-PARTISAN CONSENSUS: NO LONGER WHETHER TO CUT BUT HOW TO CUT.

(New York Times)

As the President makes liberal-sounding statements about shared responsibility for deficit reduction that will include changes in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid entitlements, a possible GOP rival, Rick Perry, advocates openly for the abolishment of these programs, calling them a “monstrous lie” to younger workers about their future “security.” The consensus that actually prioritizes debt reduction over job creation virtually ensures that the nation’s safety net will become less safe as more of the old, the unemployed and the poor will be allowed to drop through the holes punched in this net.

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WHAT CITIZENS UNITED HATH WROUGHT: TEARING DOWN THE BARRIERS TO CORPORATE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS IN MONTANA.

(Helena Independent)

Conservative groups sue the state over its regulations on corporate campaign contributions, citing “free speech” for corporations arguments that might have been written by the lawyers in the notorious 2010 Supreme Court case which conferred “personhood” and the rights of persons on corporations. Their suits even challenge laws requiring candidates to reveal the identity of the “persons” (corporations) who contribute money to their campaigns, citing the “burdensome and onerous” quality of such requirements

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FLORIDA GOVERNOR AND LEGISLATURE GO CHERRY-PICKING ON ACCEPTING FEDERAL AID TO STATE PROGRAMS.

(Herald-Tribune Politics)

As a matter of state’s rights “principle,” the state turns down $106 million of federal dollars associated with federal Obama care health program. They forget their principles when it comes to programs that better fit their ideological agenda, such as a $13 million grant to support “abstinence only” sex education in the public schools.

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Quote of the day...

A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the U.S. “He repeatedly asserted that the only way to drive the U.S. from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt them,” Eric Margolis writes. “‘Bleeding the U.S.,’ in his words.” The United States, first under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, rushed right into bin Laden’s trap… Grotesquely overblown military outlays and debt addiction… may be the most pernicious legacy of the man who thought he could defeat the United States” — particularly when the debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with the collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny.

Noam Chomsky, in a statement shortly before the 10th anniversary of 9/11 attacks.

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