BOMB AT BOSTON MARATHON KILLS 3 PEOPLE, INCLUDING 1 CHILD AND THERE IS AN OUTPOURING OF U.S. SYMPATHY FOR THE VICTIMS. A secret C.I.A. counter-terrorist raid in Afghanistan kills 17 people, including 12 children. Sympathy out-pouring?—not so much, at least in the U.S. Not so, however, in Afghanistan itself, where the PM Hamid Karzai [...]
THE WAY OF THE KNIFE: THE C.I.A., A SECRET ARMY, AND A WAR AT THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. A new book of this title by Mark Mazzetti is about to be released and is excerpted in the New York Times. It describes the “secret deal” in 2004 between the C.I.A. and the Pakistani state [...]
THE “BIGGEST CLIMATE FIGHT” OF THE YEAR MAY ALREADY BE HERE, AND IT COULD HAVE BIG CONSEQUENCES FOR THE HEALTH OF OUR PLANET. A tiny Oregon town is at the center of a brewing struggle over big profits for the coal industry and whether simply “offshoring” the dirtiest of fossil fuels will negate any [...]
SIDING WITH THE CHARTER SCHOOL SUGAR DADDIES. This is Bruce Dixon’s description of President Obama’s educational policy. The No Child Left Behind program of school privatization and operation on a corporate accountability measures based on standardized tests results has continued with a vengeance with the Race to the Top policy of the current administration. [...]
“YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO SOMETHING…TO LOWER PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS OF WHAT THEY’RE GOING TO GET.” This is Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein opening the familiar pandora’s box of rhetoric designed to fundamentalism “change” — i.e; kill off — “entitlements” like Social Security and Medicare. Almost like clockwork, the election results are being used [...]
“WAR CRIMES IN PROGRESS.” Amnesty International so characterizes the escalating practice of Syrian rebels beating and summarily executing people associated with the Syrian government, many of whom are soldiers manning checkpoints designed to quell the insurgency. Free Syrian Army, the “umbrella” group supported by U.S. and other foreign powers and which “coordinates” rebel efforts, [...]
“THIS WAS A WRETCHED DEBATE, WITH ALMOST NO REDEEMING QUALITIES.” You’d be forgiven if you thought Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were running mates instead of political adversaries if you watched the last of three presidential debate on Monday night. The pair spent much of the nearly two-hour event agreeing with each other on [...]
DEATH BY “VIDEO GAME” IN PAKISTAN. Human rights attorney in the country has instituted, on behalf of a journalist who lost both his son and brother to drone attacks launched from remote bases in Nevada, law suits against two Pakistani-based C.I.A. agents deemed responsible for calling in air strikes against supposedly “militant” targets, [...]
U.S. DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN: WE’RE NOT DOING THEM; BUT DAMN THEY ARE DOING GOOD! The U.S. government resists demands to release records on drone strikes, saying there is “no proof” that such a program exists but not hesitating to “leak” operations that are said to kill terrorist leaders. And of course in defining [...]
U.S. POLICY IN AFRICA: WHERE THERE IS NO DIRECT RULE, LET THERE BE CHAOS. (Black Agenda Report) A new UN report on the the Democratic Republic of the Congo, delayed by U.S. obstructionism, details the ongoing genocide which has killed 6 million Congolese since 1996 and heaps blame on the U.S. which, for “strategic interest,” [...]
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