Defining Moments in US History and their Relevance Today By Charles Sullivan

Dandelion Salad

By Charles Sullivan
May 28, 2009 “”Information Clearing House”

There are periods in the history of every nation that define its character and reveal who is really running the government and its social and financial institutions. In the US, one of those periods, of which there are so many, was the political witch hunt that occurred during the 1950s. Known as the era of McCarthyism, this was a time in which the civil rights of anyone with leftist political leanings were violated through a series of tormented public persecutions. During McCarthyism, thousands of law- abiding citizens were blacklisted and thus unable to find work. Among this group, numerous families were torn asunder, divorces sharply increased, and multiple suicides were reported.

The era of McCarthyism, one of many dark epochs of US history, clearly demonstrates that the political forces running the government were conservatism and right wing extremism. They are the very same elements that are tearing the nation and the world asunder today. Men like then Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, and Ronald Reagan were manifestations of the syndrome of right wing extremism. Their fanatical neocon progeny are making the world a dangerous place today.

US military in South Korea ‘pushing’ the North

Dandelion Salad

AlJazeeraEnglish

Some analysts argue that the US military presence in South Korea has pushed Pyongyang into an arms race.

Bruce Klingner, the former head of the CIA’s Korea branch, spoke to Al Jazeera about how the US presence affects the politics of the region.

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US Army moves to DEFCON 2 + Casey: Army would have to ‘shift gears’ for N. Korea battle

Donald Kirk on N Korea nuclear test + N Korea carries out nuclear test

US Army moves to WATCHCOM 2 + Casey: Army would have to ‘shift gears’ for N. Korea battle (updated)

Updated: May 30, 2009 Apparently the first story is not accurate.  The Army has moved to WATCHCOM 2.  See updated story below and US military in South Korea ‘pushing’ the North

Dandelion Salad

MINA
Thursday, 28 May 2009

Sources close to MiNa claim the US Army has moved their alert level to Defcon 2. This was initiated by the alarming situation in North Korea. The US Army has over 35,000 troops stationed in South Korea, well within reach of North Korean convential weapons.

North Korea has the largest artillery force can be equipped with nuclear warheads in the world, which adds more to the already tense situation.

Earlier today, N. Korea’s leader Kim Jong issued threaths to the South Korean and US Navy ships for coming too close to North Korea’s territorial waters. The South Koreans and the Americans, may be positioning themselves for a preemptive strike.

[…]

via MINA Breaking News – Breaking: US Army moves to DEFCON 2.

h/t: CLG

***

Casey: Army would have to ‘shift gears’ for N. Korea battle

By Jeff Schogol, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, May 30, 2009

WASHIGTON – It would take the Army time to “shift gears” if it needed to fight against North Korea, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Thursday.

Right now, the Army is focused on the counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but North Korea’s recent saber rattling has raised the prospect that the Army might be called upon to fight a conventional war.

“I have said publicly for some time that if we had to shift gears, it would probably take us about 90 days or so to shift our gears and to train the folks up that were preparing to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to go someplace else,” Casey said after a speech at a Washington think tank.

That doesn’t mean that it would take at least 90 days to send reinforcements to U.S. troops in South Korea, Casey said.

[…]

via Casey: Army would have to ‘shift gears’ for N. Korea battle | Stars and Stripes.

h/t: CLG

***

Updated

South Korea and U.S. Raise Alert Level

By CHOE SANG-HUN
http://www.nytimes.com
May 27, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea — One day after North Korea warned of a possible attack against the South, the United States and South Korea ordered their forces here to their highest alert for three years, increasing surveillance flights and satellite reconnaissance to counter what officials termed a “grave threat.”

[…]

The South Korean Defense Ministry said allied troops, including, 28,000 U.S. soldiers based in South Korea, raised their Watch Condition, or Watchcon, to the second-highest level from Watchcon 3 to Watchcon 2.

[…]

via South Korea and U.S. Raise Alert Level – NYTimes.com.

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Donald Kirk on N Korea nuclear test + N Korea carries out nuclear test

US military in South Korea ‘pushing’ the North

Jonathan Drori: Why we’re storing billions of seeds

Dandelion Salad

TEDtalksDirector
May 28, 2009

http://www.ted.com In this brief talk from TED U 2009, Jonathan Drori encourages us to save biodiversity — one seed at a time. Reminding us that plants support human life, he shares the vision of the Millennium Seed Bank, which has stored over 3 billion seeds to date from dwindling yet essential plant species.

Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos ‘Show Rape’ + Was Rape an Enhanced Interrogation Technique?

Dandelion Salad

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent and Paul Cruickshank
ICH
May 28, 2009 “The Telegraph”

Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse, it has emerged.

Torture? What Torture? We Need More Torture! By Gary Corseri

By Gary Corseri
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
May 28, 2009

“What they regard as Tao is not Tao, and what they consider as right is often wrong.  [They] do not really understand Tao, but understand some of it. … They are able to worst others by argument, but do not convince people in their hearts, because they are just playing around with words. … [They get] lost in the bypaths.” — Chuang Tse

What’s all this nonsense about torture?

Now, I ain’t no Einstein, but it seems to me, if it makes us safer, it’s a no-brainer!

In fact, maybe what we gotta do is torture a whole lot more.

I’m not talkin’ about droppin’ bombs on people from Predator drones.  That’s a kind of torture if you get your limbs blown off or a beam thru your skull.  But, it ain’t personal enuf.  It’s what you call “collateral damage.”  What we gotta do is intentional damage—up close and personal.

And let’s not stop with the so-called “terr’ists.”  Let’s not pussy-foot.

Former Interrogator Rebukes Cheney for Torture Speech

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bravenewfilms
May 25, 2009

Dick Cheney says that torturing detainees has saved American lives. That claim is patently false. Cheney’s torture policy was directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of American servicemen and women.

Matthew Alexander was the senior military interrogator for the task force that tracked down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq and, at the time, a higher priority target than Osama bin Laden. Mr. Alexander has personally conducted hundreds of interrogations and supervised over a thousand of them.

“Torture does not save lives. Torture costs us lives,” Mr. Alexander said in an exclusive interview at Brave New Studios. “And the reason why is that our enemies use it, number one, as a recruiting tool…These same foreign fighters who came to Iraq to fight because of torture and abuse….literally cost us hundreds if not thousands of American lives.”

Sound off at http://bravenewfoundation.org

Trade Protectionism and Worldwide Economic Contraction by Rodrigue Tremblay

Dandelion Salad

by Rodrigue Tremblay
www.thenewamericanempire.com
May 28, 2009

“I almost went down on my knees to beg [President] Herbert Hoover to veto the asinine Hawley-Smoot Tariff.”…“That Act intensified nationalism all over the world.” — Thomas Lamont, banker and economic adviser, June 1930

“Now is a time where we have to be very careful about any signals of protectionism.” –President Barack Obama,  February 19, 2009

“From the purely economic point of view nothing speaks against free trade and everything against protectionism.” — Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Austrian economist

When the economy is booming, foreign borrowings and imports of goods and services from other countries are most welcome. They allow for more spending without inflation and they raise living standards. It is a version of having your cake and eating it too. In an economic downturn, however, the political reflex of populist politicians is to turn protectionist and to become economic isolationists by raising trade barriers. In such an environment, foreign competition becomes a convenient scapegoat for the crisis, even though the causes of such crisis are most often purely domestic in nature.

Avoiding Corporate Liability by Ralph Nader

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by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
May 27, 2009

Once upon a time early in the 19th century, corporations came into existence by state legislatures approving charters, which were granted for a limited period of time and for limited purposes. These corporations – producing textiles and other products in New England – raised capital in part because their investors had limited liability. That meant they could not lose any more than their investment if things went wrong.

Since corporations were artificial legal entities and not human, these lawmakers feared that without some strong leashes, they could be creating Frankensteins.

Over the following two hundred years, these ever larger corporations and their attorneys have been driving relentlessly, dynamically to erect systems of privileges and immunities that give the corporations themselves limited liability.

Cyber Warfare: Building Attack Tools for Mass Destruction by Tom Burghardt

by Tom Burghardt
Global Research, May 27, 2009
Antifascist Calling…

A quintessential hallmark of an authoritarian regime, particularly one that operates within highly-militarized, though nominally democratic states such as ours, is the maintenance of a system of internal control; a seamless panopticon where dissent is equated with criminality and the rule of law derided as a luxury ill-afforded “during a time of war.”

In this context, the deployment of new offensive technologies which can wreck havoc on human populations deemed expendable by the state, are always couched in a defensive rhetoric by militarist aggressors and their apologists.

While the al-Qaeda brand may no longer elicit a compelling response in terms of mobilizing the population for new imperial adventures, novel threats–and panics–are required to marshal public support for the upward transfer of wealth into the corporate trough. Today, “cyber terror” functions as the “new Osama.”

Don’t say I didn’t warn you: Big Brother is back! By Jerry Mazza

By Jerry Mazza
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at Online Journal
www.jerrymazza.com
May 28, 2009

On April 20, I wrote an article, Big Bro’s Cybersecurity ACT: A means to shut down the Internet. Lo and behold, yesterday, this article Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate appeared in the Washington Post.

The Post reported,

“President Obama is expected to announce late this week that he will create a ‘cyber czar,’ a senior White House official who will have broad authority to develop strategy to protect the nation’s government-run and private computer networks, according to people who have been briefed on the plan.

“The adviser will have the most comprehensive mandate granted to such an official to date and will probably be a member of the National Security Council [italics mine] but will report to the national security adviser as well as the senior White House economic adviser [Larry Summers], said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations are not final.”