Battening Down the Hatches: Secret State Monitors Protest, Represses Dissent By Tom Burghardt

Dandelion Salad

By Tom Burghardt
ICH
Dissident Voice
Antifascist Calling
October 12, 2009

As social networking becomes a dominant feature of daily life, the secret state is increasingly surveilling electronic media for what it euphemistically calls “actionable intelligence.”

Take the case of Elliot Madison. The 41-year-old anarchist was arrested in Pittsburgh September 24 at the height of G20 protests.

Madison, a social worker and volunteer with The People’s Law Collective in New York City, was busted by a combined task force led by the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) and Pittsburgh’s “finest.” The activist was charged with “hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime,” according to The New York Times.

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize without Even Trying (Yes, Obama’s THAT Good) By Timothy V. Gatto

By Timothy V. Gatto
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
liberalpro.blogspot.com
October 12, 2009

I wanted to scream when I woke up to the news the other day that Obama had won the Nobel Peace prize. I shouldn’t have been surprised, not much in this world makes much sense anyway. Look at it this way, most of the self-righteous people that protest abortions because it kills defenseless babies in the womb think nothing of supporting a war where Israel kills women, children and babies in Gaza. I guess as long as they have already been born and can feel the flesh being burned off their bones makes it all right.

Of course there are those that will label me an Obama hater because I don’t believe he should win a peace prize. Just because he spends a trillion dollars for the armed forces and lusts after tanks, guns, planes, bombs and bullets along with advanced nuclear weapons shouldn’t disqualify him. After all, these procurements are to insure peace not to foster war. We are the United States, right? Sometimes what appears to mean one thing means exactly the opposite. Here is a good example:

A Dollar Rout Or More Bernanke Trickery? By Mike Whitney

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By Mike Whitney
Information Clearing House
October 12, 2009

Consumer credit is falling fast. In July, consumer credit plunged by $19 billion, followed by an August drop of $12 billion, a 5.8 percent annual rate. Credit card spending decreased by nearly $10 billion in August, while non-revolving debt, including auto loans, fell by $2 billion. Credit has shrunk for 7 consecutive months, the longest period of decline since 1991. The banks have shrugged off their commitment under the TARP program to increase lending to consumers and businesses. They’ve either deposited their excess reserves with the Fed, where they earn interest, or invested them in the equities markets for better returns. The bottom line: Credit is shrinking and the economy is slipping further into deflation.

From MarketWatch:

Scott Ritter on Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton (must-listen)

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Scott Ritter « Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton and Charles Goyette

Thomas Greco’s “The End of Money and the Future of Civilization”: A Review by Richard C. Cook

by Richard C. Cook
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
richardccook.com
October 12, 2009

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

It’s too late for anyone to pretend that the U.S. government, whether under President Barack Obama or anyone else, can divert our nation from long-term economic decline. The U.S. is increasingly in a state of political, economic, and moral paralysis, caught as it were between the “rock” of protracted recession and the “hard place” of terminal government debt.

Beneath the hype: How would a US-Iran war begin?

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TheRealNews
October 12, 2009

Beneath the hype Pt.5: Ray McGovern and Greg Thielmann on the potential catalysts to armed conflict in Iran.

A Letter From Afghanistan: Bagram, Afghan suffering and the futility of war by Andy Worthington

by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
12 October 2009

Last year, I received one of those special emails out of the blue, from someone wise and compassionate, who, to my great delight, wished to thank me for the courage of my writing. This woman, who has worked in rural development and post-disaster rehabilitation for 20 years, mostly in Africa, has spent the last few years in Afghanistan, and last week I unexpectedly received the following letter by email, which was so perceptive and so informative that I asked for her permission to reproduce it here, and was delighted when she said yes.

The Victims of Pornography by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
Oct. 12, 2009

Latin America’s Twenty-First Century Socialism in Historical Perspective By James Petras

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By James Petras
Axisoflogic.com
Sunday, Oct 11, 2009

Introduction

The electoral victory of center left regimes in at least three Latin American countries, and the search for a new ideological identity to justify their rule, led ideologues and the incumbent presidents to embrace the notion that they represent a new 21st century version of socialism (21cs). Prominent writers, academics and regime spokespeople celebrated a totally new variant of socialism, as completely at odds with what they dubbed as the failed 20th century, Soviet-style socialism. The advocates and publicists of 21cs claims of a novel political-economic model rested on what they ascribed as a radical break with both the free market neo-liberal regimes which preceded, and the past “statist” version of socialism embodied by the former Soviet Union as well as China and Cuba.

In this paper we will proceed by examining the variety of critiques put forth by 21cs of both neo-liberalism and 20 century socialism (20cs), the authenticity of their claims of a novelty and originality, and a critical analysis of their actual performance.

Obama and the Nobel Prize: When War becomes Peace, When the Lie becomes the Truth by Michel Chossudovsky

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by Michel Chossudovsky
www.globalresearch.ca, October 11, 2009

When war becomes peace,

When concepts and realities are turned upside down,

When fiction becomes truth and truth becomes fiction.

When a global military agenda is heralded as a humanitarian endeavor,

When the killing of civilians is upheld as “collateral damage”,

When those who resist the US-NATO led invasion of their homeland are categorized as “insurgents” or “terrorists”.

When preemptive nuclear war is upheld as self defense.

When advanced torture and “interrogation” techniques are routinely used to “protect peacekeeping operations”,

When tactical nuclear weapons are heralded by the Pentagon as “harmless to the surrounding civilian population”

When three quarters of US personal federal income tax revenues are allocated to financing what is euphemistically referred to as “national defense”

When the Commander in Chief of the largest military force on planet earth is presented as a global peace-maker,

When the Lie becomes the Truth.

Obama’s “War Without Borders”

We are the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US in partnership with NATO and Israel has launched a global military adventure which, in a very real sense, threatens the future of humanity.

Robert Fisk: Obama’s Nobel Prize for Public Speaking

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AlJazeeraEnglish
October 11, 2009

We discuss the motives behind granting the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama, the US president. Does he deserve the prize? And what has he achieved? Or was the award granted in the hope he would succeed in the future?