America’s Wars – How Serial War Became the American Way of Life By David Bromwich

Dandelion Salad

By David Bromwich
TomDispatch
July 21, 2009

On July 16, in a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that the “central question” for the defense of the United States was how the military should be “organized, equipped — and funded — in the years ahead, to win the wars we are in while being prepared for threats on or beyond the horizon.” The phrase beyond the horizon ought to sound ominous. Was Gates telling his audience of civic-minded business leaders to spend more money on defense in order to counter threats whose very existence no one could answer for? Given the public acceptance of American militarism, he could speak in the knowledge that the awkward challenge would never be posed.

We have begun to talk casually about our wars; and this should be surprising for several reasons. To begin with, in the history of the United States war has never been considered the normal state of things. For two centuries, Americans were taught to think war itself an aberration, and “wars” in the plural could only have seemed doubly aberrant. Younger generations of Americans, however, are now being taught to expect no end of war — and no end of wars.

[…]

via Tomgram: David Bromwich, America’s Serial Warriors

see

War Without Purpose by Chris Hedges

War Is Sin by Chris Hedges

The Disease of Permanent War by Chris Hedges

The Multiple Faces of War By Siv O’Neall

Becoming What We Seek to Destroy by Chris Hedges

Chair. Bernanke reports to Congress about the economy + Testimony + Grayson grills

Dandelion Salad

Testimony

Chairman Ben S. Bernanke
Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress
Before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
July 21, 2009

Kucinich: Is the Fed Paying Banks NOT to Loan Money?

Dandelion Salad

Congressman Dennis Kucinich
WASHINGTON (JULY 21, 2009)

Domestic Policy Subcommittee Chair Announces New Probe of TARP

Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has led the effort challenging the use of TARP funds through two administrations, today questioned whether or not “banks are parking a historic amount of taxpayers’ money in the Federal Reserve while the businesses and consumers across America are starved for credit” and whether the Federal Reserve is “paying banks not to make loans.”

Kucinich raised the question in a hearing this morning before the Government and Oversight Committee at which the Special Inspector General for TARP, Neil Barofsky, testified.

The Great Tax Con Job By Thom Hartmann

Dandelion Salad

By Thom Hartmann
July 21, 2009 “Information Clearing House”

Republicans are using the T-word – taxes – to attack the Obama healthcare program. It’s a strategy based in a lie.

A very small niche of America’s uber-wealthy have pulled off what may well be the biggest con job in the history of our republic, and they did it in a startlingly brief 30 or so years. True, they spent over three billion dollars to make it happen, but the reward to them was in the hundreds of billions – and will continue to be.

As my friend and colleague Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks pointed out in a Daily Kosblog recently, billionaire Rupert Murdoch loses $50 million a year on the NY Post, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife loses $2 to $3 million a year on the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, billionaire Philip Anschutz loses around $5 million a year on The Weekly Standard, and billionaire Sun Myung Moon has lost $2 to $3 billion on The Washington Times.

George W. Bush, Part III By Cindy Sheehan

By Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
July 21, 2009

“When a government lies to you, it no longer has authority over you.” Cindy Sheehan. Dallas, Tx; 2005

Okay, so the United States of America has had a new puppet regime for six months now. I was never so much into giving Obama a “chance” and I think it’s way past time to call Obama and his supporters out, like we called Bush and his supporters out. Our Presidents are merely puppets for the Robber Class and Obama is no exception.

Exclusive: The Warsaw Ghetto and Gaza Strip by Gary Sudborough

by Gary Sudborough
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
21 July 2009

There are in modern history at least two examples of captive populations; one group, the Jews, being the victims in the first instance and the perpetrators in the second instance. I am talking about the Warsaw Ghetto and the Gaza Strip. Regardless of one’s prejudices one way or the other, the facts speak for themselves and there are many similarities. Eliminating the dissimilarities first- the Gaza Strip is much larger and has more people. The Jewish population of the Warsaw Ghetto was about 400,000 and that of the Gaza Strip is approximately 1.4 million. The Warsaw Ghetto was only about 3 square miles in extent and the Gaza Strip is 131 square miles.

The Streets of Gaza with Viva Palestina

Dandelion Salad

Trevolution1
July 20, 2009

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “The Streets of Gaza with Viva Palestina“, posted with vodpod

h/t: Andrew Ravert

see

Viva Palestina: 24 Hours in Gaza By Soozy Duncan

Viva Palestina US Crosses Into Gaza through Rafah – Short Speech By George Galloway

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Think Globally, Breathe Locally, Defer Politically by Robert S. Becker + Action Alert

Sent to DS by the author, thanks, Robert.

By Robert S. Becker, Ph.D.
Dandelion Salad
www.beyondchron.org
July 21, 2009

Where’s the Pro-Life ‘Stimulus’ To Fight Earth’s Meltdown?

Behold the mixed blessing from recession: less commerce retards the speed by which we strip the earth of unsustainable resources. Think we’ll take advantage of this disruption to ponder our global religion of growth, even press leaders to start serious, comprehensive planning? Free markets aren’t free, comes the painful dis-illusion-ment, and expansion is unstoppable except by war, pandemics, natural disasters, and bad recessions. Have we learned much from the high price for rather low interest rates – today’s nasty late payment?

Economically, “meltdown” is a metaphor for painful lay-offs and lending freezes. But the global “meltdown” is not figurative for warming literally melts the earth: normally frozen tundra oozes, prehistoric glaciers and ice caps turn from hard and fixed to liquid, and thus dangerously mobile. Thawed tundra releases methane held over millennium, a greenhouse gas 20X more potent than carbon dioxide. Thus buoyed, I stumble on this headline, “Obama Administration Approves First Roadless Logging Contract In Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.”

Health Care Is Not The Only Socialized Thing We Need To Stop – Here Are 20 More!!

Dandelion Salad

Satire from
LeeCamp2
July 21, 2009

Independence from the Great Satan: The Stakes are High

Dandelion Salad

ManilaRyceTLM
July 21, 2009

UK government: Terror threat lowest level since July 2005 bombings

Propaganda Alert

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
30 June 2009

 

1) UK government: Terror threat lowest level since 7/7 bombings (July 2009)

2) [from the archives] UK interior minister: The threat of a chemical or nuclear attack is now more real (March 2009)

___________________

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23721809-details/Terror+threat+lowest+level+since+7+7+bombings/article.do

excerpts from: Terror threat lowest level since 7/7 bombings

by Martin Bentham, Evening Standard, 20 July 2009

The official terrorist threat level was today downgraded to its lowest level since before the 7 July London bombings in 2005.

The decision to reduce the classification from “severe” to “substantial” means that although an attack is believed to remain a strong possibility, it is no longer regarded as highly likely.

The change, which follows a renewed assessment of the danger by the Government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, was announced by Home Secretary [i.e. UK Interior Minister] Alan Johnson. […]

The last time the official threat level – which can range across five classifications from “low” to “critical” – was set at substantial was in May 2005, two months before the July 7 bombings.

Since the London attacks it has generally remained at “severe”, despite occasionally and briefly rising to “critical” […]

The threat level was last at critical in June 2007 following the attack on Glasgow Airport and the failed car bombings in central London.

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The Case of the ‘Fatwa’ to Rig Iran’s Election by Jeremy R. Hammond

By Jeremy R. Hammond
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Foreign Policy Journal
July 21, 2009

The propaganda campaign to paint the victory of the incumbent candidate in Iran’s June presidential election as having been a stolen one began early. Even before the election, the seed was being planted that the election would be stolen to give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a win. This narrative played nicely into the hands of the reformist opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who cried foul following the favorable results for the incumbent. But what evidence is there to support this narrative?

In one prominent example, on June 7, five days before Iran’s presidential election, the website Tehran Bureau reported:

In an open letter, a group of employees of Iran’s Interior Ministry (which supervises the elections) warned the nation that a hard-line ayatollah, who supports President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has issued a Fatwa authorizing changing votes in the incumbent’s favor.

Obama Task Force To Delay Report On Detainee Policy

Dandelion Salad

Guantánamo Must Be Closed And Detainees Tried In Federal Court, ACLU Says

American Civil Liberties Union
7/20/2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212 549-2666;
media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – According to news reports today, an Obama administration task force charged with developing a plan to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay will not issue its recommendations on detainee policy tomorrow as previously scheduled. The news reports, which suggest the task force will delay its report outlining detention plans for Guantánamo detainees until the fall, state that task force members agree that the Obama administration should continue to claim the right to hold some Guantánamo detainees indefinitely without charge or trial.

The following can be attributed to Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union:

“The Obama administration must not slip into the same legal swamp that engulfed the Bush administration with its failed Guantánamo policies. Any effort to revamp the failed Guantánamo military commissions or enact a law to give any president the power to hold individuals indefinitely and without charge or trial is sure to be challenged in court and it will take years before justice is served. The only way to make good on President Obama’s promise to shut down Guantánamo and end the military commissions is to charge and try the detainees in established federal criminal courts. Any effort to do otherwise will doom the Obama administration to lengthy litigation. A promise deferred could soon become a promise broken.”

The news reports also say that a second report on interrogation slated to be issued this week is being delayed as well.

see

Predictable Chaos As Guantánamo Trials Resume by Andy Worthington

Guantánamo And The Courts Part One: Exposing The Bush Administration’s Lies by Andy Worthington

Former Insider Shatters Credibility of Military Commissions by Andy Worthington

Military Commissions: Government Flounders, As Admiral Hutson Nails Problems by Andy Worthington

Naomi Wolf: Obama can lock up any US citizen without trial

American Civil Liberties Union : House Hears Testimony On Unconstitutional Guantanamo Military Commissions

from the archives:

Habeas Corpus/HR 6166/Military Commissions Act/MCA