Chris Hedges: Economics Trumps Politics

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with Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Jan. 27, 2010

VPR News
All Things Considered

Interview: Journalist Chris Hedges, Author of “Empire of Illusion”

Journalist Chris Hedges says we live in two separate Americas.

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via VPR News: Interview: Journalist Chris Hedges, Author of “Empire of Illusion”

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Chris Hedges: No Tyranny in History has Crushed the Human Capacity For Love

Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction by Chris Hedges

from the archives:

After Words with Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Book Excerpt: ‘Empire of Illusion’ by Chris Hedges

The NYT: Home of Disgraced Editors, Shady Reporters & Agenda-Driven Foreign Correspondents? by Sibel Edmonds

by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
27 January 2010

From Judith Miller to Dean Baquet to Ethan Bronner

I am certain all of you know of the infamous New York Times reporter Judith Miller. You know, the dark lady who worked with the Bush administration’s Pentagon to sell us the war with Iraq – based on planted made-up stories on WMD; the one who was involved in the Plame case? The one who ended up not getting fired, but retired from the New York Times, took a job with the Fox News Channel, and joined the conservative Manhattan Institute think-tank? Yes, that Judith Miller you all know about.

I am sure many of you are aware of the New York Times decision to cover up and bury the story on NSA’s illegal domestic wire tapping program. Right? They were later forced to admit that they held the story on the eve of the 2004 presidential election. Basically, they protected the Bush administration and helped them get reelected.

Postcards From The Empire: Cindy Sheehan’s New Column In Correo Del Orinoco

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
January 27, 2010

Somos americanos

I was born in the U.S. in 1957.

I was born a subject of the world’s most lethal Empire.

When did the U.S. become an Empire? Ask our indigenous people that question.

I was also born in a Myth-ocracy, where we are propagandized from Day One about how we live in the “Greatest Nation in History” and that our neighbors in Latin America are lucky to have the U.S. so close in proximity so we can “save” the people from their “dictators.” Also, here in The Empire, many people believe that the “commons” that exist in Latin America are not really for the people in that region, but for the U.S.—and we will be happy to “liberate” the resources and land from our poorer and less intelligent Latin brothers and sisters. These myths need to be dispelled—and very quickly.

Stop sleepwalking into the future By Gunther Ostermann

By Gunther Ostermann
Dandelion Salad
Kelowna, BC. Canada
previously published as a letter/op-ed 1.29.09
Slightly revised edition: January 27, 2010

Recently, the prominent scientist Stephen Hawking warned humanity that “We’re acting with reckless indifference to our future on planet earth. It will be difficult to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million.”  Some time earlier he said that the “Doomsday Clock advanced to 5 minutes to midnight.” David Suzuki echoes the same words “we’re sleepwalking into the future.”

Why is humanity hell-bent on destroying the world? Hawking admonishes us that “If we are the only intelligent beings in the galaxy we should make sure to survive and continue.” Otherwise who will be left to discover what gravity is, and if the Eleven Dimensional String Theory is true? Etc, He admits he doesn’t know how life on earth first appeared. Yet Hawking states that “the universe has no creator,” but then again he says “the universe created itself spontaneously out of nothing.” Wow!

Marcy Kaptur grilling Geithner + Entire Hearing

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VoiceofAmericans2008
January 27, 2010

January 27, 2010
Geithner Recuse himself NY Fed
Dan Jester, the man hand-picked by Paulson to be Treasury’s point person on AIG, also worked at Goldman Sachs.
Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio grilling Geithner

more about “Kaptur: Geithner more beholden to ban…“, posted with vodpod

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[For your entertainment:]

Entire hearing on C-SPAN:

Secretary Geithner on Government Assistance for AIG – C-SPAN Video Library

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Obama’s State of the Union Rhetoric, 2010 Part II by Michael Hudson

State of the Union Junk Economics, 2010 Part I by Prof Michael Hudson

Kucinich Plan to Create One Million Permanent Job Opportunities

Dennis Kucinich: We’re Either Going To Invest Or This Economy Will Continue To Tank!

The Daily Show: Elizabeth Warren

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse 2

Britain’s decision to go to war in Iraq illegal

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

http://therealnews.com

Two most senior law officials state that Britain’s decision to go to war in Iraq was illegal

more about “Britain’s decision to go to war in Ir…“, posted with vodpod

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Norman Finkelstein: Main Architects of the Iraq War were Cheney and Rumsfeld, not the Israel Lobby

The Chilcot ‘Inquiry’: a theatre of the absurd By William Bowles

Rogue State: Israeli Violations of U.N. Security Council Resolutions by Jeremy R. Hammond

by Jeremy R. Hammond
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Foreign Policy Journal
27 January, 2010

Following is a list of United Nations Security Council resolutions directly critical of Israel for violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the U.N. Charter, the Geneva Conventions, international terrorism, or other violations of international law.

Res. 57 (Sep. 18, 1948) – Expresses deep shock at the assassination of the U.N. Mediator in Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, by Zionist terrorists.

Res. 89 (Nov. 17, 1950) – Requests that attention be given to the expulsion of “thousands of Palestine Arabs” and calls upon concerned governments to take no further action “involving the transfer of persons across international frontiers or armistice lines”, and notes that Israel announced that it would withdraw to the armistice lines.

Zelaya to Leave Honduras As Coup Leaders Cleared

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Democracy Now!
January 27, 2010

Zelaya to Leave Honduras As Coup Leaders Cleared

Honduras, ousted president Manuel Zelaya is due to leave the country today after president-elect Porfirio Lobo is sworn into office. Zelaya has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa since returning to Honduras in September. On Tuesday, the Honduran Supreme Court dismissed all charges against six military commanders involved in the June 28th coup that removed Zelaya from office. We go inside the Brazilian embassy to speak with Democracy Now’s Andres Conteris.

Obama’s State of the Union Rhetoric, 2010 Part II by Michael Hudson

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by Michael Hudson
Global Research, January 27, 2010

Economic Euphemisms and Internal Contradictions

The State of the Union address is in danger of purveying the usual euphemisms. I expect Mr. Obama to brag that he has overseen a recovery. But can there be any such thing as a jobless recovery? What has recovered are stock market averages and Wall Street bonuses, not disposable personal income or discretionary spending after paying debt service.

There is a dream that what can be “recovered” is something so idyllic as to be mythical: a Bubble Economy enabling people to make money without actually working, by borrowing and riding the tide of asset-price inflation to make capital gains. Corporate Democrat Harold Ford Jr. writes nostalgically that Bill Clinton’s eight years in office created 22 million jobs, “balanced the budget and left his successor with a surplus. This can be done again,”[1] if only Mr. Obama moves further to the right (which Mr. Ford calls the center, meaning the Bayhs and Republicans).

Kucinich Plan to Create One Million Permanent Job Opportunities

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by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Washington D.C., Jan 26, 2010

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) will soon introduce legislation to create one million permanent job opportunities for unemployed workers by temporarily reducing the minimum age for Social Security early retirement benefits.

“Many older workers can’t wait to retire, while many younger workers desperately need work. My plan enables older workers to take early retirement, thereby freeing up those jobs for younger workers who are currently unemployed. If just 25% of eligible workers choose to retire early, we can very quickly open one million job opportunities. These are not temporary jobs, but permanent jobs that already exist in our economy, even under the current recessionary circumstances,” said Kucinich.

The Daily Show: Elizabeth Warren

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The Daily Show

When Elizabeth Warren stresses the urgency of Wall Street reform, Jon wants to make out with her.

McChrystal: Taliban leaders can join Afghan govt. + Secret talks held over Taliban ‘integration’

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PressTV
26 Jan 2010 07:37:11 GMT

The commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has hinted at the possibility of placing senior Taliban militants in the new Afghan government.

In an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, McChrystal said that political negotiations with leaders of the Taliban could help foster security and stability in conflict-plagued Afghanistan.

[...]

via McChrystal: Taliban leaders can join Afghan govt.

h/t: CLG

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Secret talks held over Taliban ‘integration’

Chavez Writes Off Haiti’s Oil Debt to Venezuela

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Latin American Herald Tribune
January 27, 2010

CARACAS – President Hugo Chavez announced Monday that he would write off the undisclosed sum Haiti owes Venezuela for oil as part of the ALBA bloc’s plans to help the impoverished Caribbean nation after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

“Haiti has no debt with Venezuela, just the opposite: Venezuela has a historical debt with that nation, with that people for whom we feel not pity but rather admiration, and we share their faith, their hope,” Chavez said after the extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, or ALBA.

[...]

via Latin American Herald Tribune – Chavez Writes Off Haiti’s Oil Debt to Venezuela

h/t: Climate and Capitalism

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Michael Moore on Haiti, the Supreme Court Decision on Corporate Campaign Financing, and Why He Calls the Democrats “Disgusting”

The siege of Haiti by Rachel Cohen and Alan Maass