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Friday, September 5, 2008 |
TheNation: "Any hope for transformational domestic change depends on reversing the entrenched interests driving the dual agenda of military and corporate empire, including the Pentagon and the oil industry and the narrow elitist thinking of most national security and economic experts.
The battle is between the empire, or whatever euphemism by which is goes, and participatory democracy.
Our adversaries, who once favored monarchy and then white supremacy, have done a successful makeover and attempted to steal the banner of democracy. For example, they are exuberant about imposing democracy by force across the Middle East and to the borders of Russia, but they show no enthusiasm for the democratic process sweeping away the former dictatorships that our government backed in Latin America. Our government is opposed to democracy on our borders if those democracies reject our military bases, our special forces and our corporate dominance over their resources and services. Venezuela, Bolivia and, of course, Cuba are being targeted for isolation and subversion, while Colombia is the American spear in the Andes.
So I am saying that domestic groups - organized around issues from civil rights to the environment - cannot afford to leave peace simply to the peace movement. And the peace movement has to point every day to the domestic costs, including energy costs, of the Iraq War and the larger empire. And we must define an alternative vision to the undemocratic structures of corporate and military power that promise security but bring us war, that promise jobs but lower our standard of living. We need a new model of political economy that is equitable and sustainable, not one that expects every country in the world to meet our needs, including our appetite for their resources. And finally, we must build a progressive movement inside and outside the Democratic Party, one that respects the autonomy of single-issue movements, that brings our community organizing experiences to bear on this frustrating political process, that can build and strengthen a progressive power base that can fight everyday for our needs, not the empire's needs.
It is not enough to liberalize the empire; the task is to peacefully and steadily bring it to an end, making democracy safe for the world as some organizers said fifty years ago. In place of empire, we need to understand the world as a multipolar one, and drive it towards participatory democracy through social movements."
Zeit: "Wie wird die Welt nach dem Ende der US-Vorherrschaft aussehen? Amerikas Intellektuelle streiten über die Machtpole der Zukunft.
Amerika als Weltenlenker - das ist der Traum eines Idealisten, und er ruft sofort die Zweifler auf den Plan, die Realisten aller Seiten. Sie bestreiten zwar nicht die Bedeutung der US-Wahlen für ein Land, in dem die sozialen Spaltungen so tief sind wie seit den zwanziger Jahren nicht mehr. Aber für die Weltgesellschaft, fürchten sie, spiele es keine große Rolle, ob ein Republikaner oder ein Demokrat das Rennen macht. Warum? Weil Amerika nicht mehr das Zentrum der Welt ist, weil sein Einfluss schwindet und andere Staaten seine Macht herausfordern. Mag Obama auch von einer neuen Führungsrolle für sein Land träumen, so ist sein Traum doch von gestern."
Translation: "What will the world look like after the end of US hegemony? US intellectuals discuss the power poles of the future.
America as the driving force of the world - that is the dream of an idealist, and he immediately engages in battle with the doubters, the realists from all sides. They don't actually doubt the importance of the US elections for a country in which the social divide has reached the proportions of the 20s. But for the world community, they fear, it does not play any role whether a Republican or a Democrat makes it. Why? Because America no longer is the center of the world, because its influence is dwindling and other states are challenging its power. When Obama dreams of a new leading role for his country, his dream is yesterday's dream."
WashingtonPost: "The government of Ecuador has decided, and Washington has apparently agreed, that one of the most important foreign outposts in the United States' war on drugs will close. The 450 U.S. Air Force personnel and contractors stationed at a military base that shares the airport's runway will be leaving next year."
Forward: "The shifting winds could hardly be more threatening to America's interests - to say nothing of Israel's. If the plan in the war on terror was to subdue Islamist fundamentalists and strengthen moderates, the opposite has happened. The Taliban, whose defeat in Afghanistan was America's one clear victory, has nearly completed its comeback. Al Qaeda, never defeated, is expanding its reach to new regions. Moderate Muslim nations that were supposed to be a bulwark against the fundamentalists are either fading into the background or reaching out to the jihadists. Declaring war on the Islamists was not, it seems, the answer.
With luck and skill, an embrace of the less hostile fundamentalists could put America back at the center of a broad coalition of friendly nations willing and eager to follow our lead, instead of the despised, crippled giant we have become over the past decade.
An initiative like this could - and should - come from whichever party wins the November elections, if that party can overcome its fixed preconceptions about security, the nature of threat and the use of force. Given the failure of the current approach, there's no reason to delay."
If anything positive is to come out of the US elections, it is Obama who will provide the best chances for a peaceful and democratic America.
12:12:42 PM 
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ABCNews: "ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: While Republicans congregate in the Twin Cities striving to keep their hold on the White House, Barack Obama's running mate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., sharply criticized the Bush administration Tuesday while delineating the changes Democrats would demand if they rise to power.
'In an Obama-Biden administration, we will not have an attorney general who blatantly breaks the law,' Biden said at a town-hall meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida, his voice at times drowned out by applause. 'We will not have a president who doesn't understand the Constitution. And I will not be a vice-president who thinks he's not part of any of the three branches of government.'
'George Bush and his administration are going to be judged harshly by history,' said the Delaware lawmaker. 'Not for the mistakes they made, but for the opportunities to unite America and the world they squandered.'"
TheRawStory: "The possibility that Barack Obama might seek to bring criminal charges against President Bush or members of his administration has been a recurring theme during the presidential campaign, especially since the Obama campaign has attempted to stress themes of bipartisanship. For that reason, Democrats have been quick to downplay any hints of possible criminal prosecutions."
So Obama might pursue criminal charges against Bush administration. I hope he does. That would be a true historic event.
11:27:31 AM
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Fun with John and Sarah.
AlterNet: "Since the McCain campaign apparently didn't even bother Googling Sarah Palin before picking her to join the Republican ticket, we've taken it upon ourselves to compile some important - and terrifying - revelations about Palin.
1: Palin Tried to Ban Books From Local Library
2: Palin Apparently Doesn't Put 'Country First'
3: Palin's Love Affair With Earmarks
4: Palin Slashed Funding for Teen Moms
5: Crazy Reverend, Crazy Church
6: McCain Picking Palin Reeks of Sexism
7: Palin Can't Even Run a Car Wash
8: Lied About Foreign Travel"
More.
Why the Repuglicans would win, if they win, which they won't. In that case we can expect another world war.
Spacewar: "In scenes reminiscent of the Cold War, Russian bombers have returned to the skies in Europe's far north after years of absence, putting NATO's jet fighters on alert once again.
'They (the Russian planes) remain in international air space at all times without violating Norway's sovereignty. They have every right to do this,' Rygg pointed out."
11:21:08 AM
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HRW: "On August 21, 2008, Human Rights Watch reported a series of attacks with cluster munitions around four towns and villages in Georgia's Gori district. Human Rights Watch attributed all the strikes to Russian forces, but upon further investigation has concluded that the origin of the cluster munitions found on August 20 in two of the villages - Shindisi and Pkhvenisi - cannot yet be determined."
It seems Human Rights Watch is very reluctant to blame the Georgian army. But if those cluster bombs were of Israeli make, they were used by Georgia on their own civilians, possibly with the intention of blaming Russia.
11:12:01 AM
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Guardian: "The government has been ordered to release further details relating to its controversial dossier on Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction, following a ruling by the information commissioner.
The ruling follows a three-year battle by journalist Chris Ames to obtain drafts of the dossier, as well as comments made about them by officials and spy chiefs in the run-up to its publication in September 2002.
Allegations that the dossier was 'sexed up' before publication to make a stronger case for war on Iraq were examined by the Hutton inquiry into the death of government scientist David Kelly in 2003.
Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, has rejected the government's argument that publishing comments made about drafts of the dossier could jeopardise national security.
Kelly committed suicide after being named as the source of a BBC report alleging that the document was 'sexed up'."
DailyMail: "A female confidante of Dr David Kelly raised disturbing new questions last night over how the Ministry of Defence weapons inspector was able to kill himself.
But five years after his death at 59, his close friend, American military linguist Mai Pederson, has come forward to dispute this account.
The Hutton inquiry heard that he died after making several cuts to his left wrist, which severed the ulnar artery, buried deep in the tissue on the side of the hand nearest the little finger.
An earlier coroner's inquest was halted when the Government used an obscure law to turn the investigation over to Lord Hutton. His inquiry concluded that 'there was no involvement by a third party' in the scientist's death, which was said to be caused primarily by the cut artery and hastened by the painkillers.
Ms Pederson, a US Air Force officer, met Dr Kelly when she was assigned to work in 1998 as a translator for the UN weapons inspection team in Iraq.
And she revealed in an interview with The Mail on Sunday that, in the months leading to his death, the right-handed scientist was unable to use his right hand for tasks requiring strength because of a painful injury to his right elbow.
'He told me that some time ago he had broken his right elbow and it was never fixed properly, so he had real problems with it. It was painful and it never regained its strength.'
The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that after his disappearance, a heat-seeking search helicopter flew over the exact spot where his corpse was later discovered. Yet the thermal-imaging equipment picked up no sign of a body - which some experts say suggests he was killed elsewhere.
Moreover, a group of doctors, surgeons and anaesthetists has called for a new inquiry into his death, contending that a cut to the ulnar artery would not cause catastrophic bleeding. Little blood was found at the scene.
Even more mysteriously, there were no fingerprints on the knife he allegedly wielded nor on the bottle from which he supposedly drank water to wash down the tablets."
it is obvious that the UK government was hiding information and obstructing the inquiry. If Iraq had been involved in the killing Tony Blair would have done everything possible to blame them. He only blamed the BBC.
11:07:08 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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