U.S. is trying to solidify control over Latin America

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RussiaToday
November 10, 2009

Columbia is petitioning international institutions for protection from a potential invasion by Venezuela, but is there more to the story? U.S. government documents seem to show that the American military plans to engage in regional battles against the leftists Latin American countries allied with Hugo Chavez.

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Blackwater Bribed Iraqi Government Officials!

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MoxNewsDotCom
November 10, 2009

http://MOXNews.com/
November 10, 2009 MSNBC Rachel Maddow Show

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Blackwater Said to Approve $1 Million in Iraqi Bribes After Shootings

By MARK MAZZETTI and JAMES RISEN
NYTimes.com
November 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

[…]

via Blackwater Said to Approve $1 Million in Iraqi Bribes After Shootings – NYTimes.com.

h/t: CLG

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Iraq on Dandelion Salad

from the archives:

Countdown: Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater assassination contractors: Lord Of The Christian Supremacist Flies

Are nuclear weapons safe in Pakistan? by Seymour M. Hersh

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AlJazeeraEnglish
November 10, 2009

Hersh on US team to secure Pakistan nuclear arms – 11 Nov 09

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says the US has a rapid response unit ready to secure Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in the event of a mutiny or “any nuclear incident”, a claim the US and Pakistani governments have denied.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Hersh discussed his report which appeared in The New Yorker magazine and said a team was scrambled recently to respond to what was thought to be a nuclear emergency in Pakistan, which turned out to be a false alarm.

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Netanyahu’s Speech at Jewish Federations of North America GA (+ transcript)

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Propaganda Alert!

http://www.haaretz.com
Nov. 9, 2009

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly on Monday. The following is the full text of his address:

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Dodd upsets banks with plan for a single bank overseer

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By Kevin G. Hall and David Lightman
McClatchy Newspapers
Nov. 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — A key Senate committee chairman unveiled a sweeping 1,136-page bill Tuesday that, if enacted, would mandate the most comprehensive overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression.

The legislation would affect both average Americans and the well-heeled on Wall Street. It would bring unregulated entities such as hedge funds under closer supervision, give the government the power to shut down large financial firms, and merge numerous federal banking regulators under a single roof.

[…]

via Dodd upsets banks with plan for a single bank overseer | McClatchy

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Federal Reserve on Dandelion Salad

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse 2

Election Pre Mortems by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

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https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
Nov. 10, 2009

Looking at the title of this missive, the careful reader might well say “Pre Mortems? Don’t you mean Post Mortems?” My answer is: “no, I don’t mean post; I do mean pre.” For what went on, on and about Election Day 2009, meant a lot more for what is to come in the upcoming 2010 and then 2012 elections than it did for the particular small number of elections on the day itself. In sum, the country drifted evermore in the direction of fascism, to be accomplished by either by election or coup or a combination of both. But before we look at some of the evidence for that, let me put forth my standard, (relatively) brief definition of fascism:

“The word ‘fascism’ has been given many definitions. My short one (and I’ve got a really long one too, in The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022, originally published in 1996 under the pseudonym Jonathan Westminster and available on both Amazon and B&N) is:

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Noam Chomsky & the Workers Solidarity Movement discuss politics over breakfast

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Anarkismo
November 10, 2009

During Noam Chomsky’s recent visit to Ireland five members of the Workers Solidarity Movement met him over breakfast to talk over a range of issues from Palestine to the capitalist crisis to social partnership to Iran to Obama and the US Labour Movement. Notes on the discussion are below followed by the audio recording itself. Continue reading

To Our Coy President By Robert S. Becker

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By Robert S. Becker
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
Nov. 10, 2009

Had we but world enough, and time,
Your coyness, Barack, were no crime.
In leisure we’d sit down and think,
Or chuckle over Palin’s wink.
You could author a fine third book,
‘Til foes depart, by hook or crook.
While you and Michelle luxuriate
With storied rooms to contemplate;
Unrushed, your girls find knowledge,
And jobs and mates after college.
Your phantom consensus will grow
And time itself will move more slow.
A philosopher-king may wait
And let Tea Party rage abate –
Lasting, I’d bet, one hundred years
Of going rogue with snarling sneers.
Change to “believe in” has no date,
Awash with bipartisan debate.
Was “Our moment is now” unclear?
You act like you have ages to spare.
When a new world is on the line,
Who dares rush creation divine?

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Taliban fighters display ‘US weapons’

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Federaljacktube
November 09, 2009

Al Jazeera has obtained exclusive footage showing the Taliban in Afghanistan displaying what appears to be US weapons. The fighters say they seized the arms cache from two US outposts in eastern Nuristan province.

Days after the alleged assault, the US military pulled out its troops from the area.

Al Jazerera’s Jonah Hull reports.

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John Perkins Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded — and How to Remake Them

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Democracy Now!
Nov. 9, 2009

Hoodwinked: Former Economic Hit Man John Perkins Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded—and How to Remake Them

John Perkins calls himself a former economic hit man. He has seen the signs of today’s financial meltdown before. The subprime mortgage fiasco, the collapse of the banking industry, the rising unemployment rate—these are all familiar to him. Perkins was on the front lines of monitoring and helping create these very events that were once just confined to the Third World. From 1971 to 1981, he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main, where he was a self-described “economic hit man.” He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Confessions of An Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire.

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Why the U.S. has to go by Deepa Kumar

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by Deepa Kumar
SocialistWorker.org
November 10, 2009

Malalai Joya has been called the “bravest woman in Afghanistan” for her outspoken opposition not only to the U.S. occupation of her country, but both the corrupt U.S.-backed government of Hamid Karzai and the Taliban-led insurgency.

Joya was elected to Afghanistan’s parliament from Farah province in 2005, but was suspended several years later after other representatives claimed she insulted them. She has continued to speak out against war crimes and warlordism, in spite of numerous attempts on her life.

Joya is on a speaking tour of the U.S. for her book A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice. She talked to Deepa Kumar about the situation in her country and the message she hopes to bring to people in the U.S.

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WHAT HAS been the impact of the U.S. occupation and its puppet government on women in Afghanistan? Has the U.S. liberated Afghan women as it claimed it would?

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Venezuela, Colombia and the threat of war in Latin America by Kiraz Janicke

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Posted with permission from Green Left Weekly

by Kiraz Janicke
Green Left
Caracas
7 November 2009

The possibility of an imperialist war in the Americas came a step closer on October 30, when Colombia and the United States finalised a 10-year accord. The agreement allows the US to hugely expand its military presence in the Latin American nation.

It comes as the US seeks to regain its dominance over Latin America, which has declined over the past decade in the context of a continent-wide rebellion against neoliberalism — spearheaded by the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela.

To regain control of its “backyard”, the US has resorted to more interventionist measures. This is reflected by the recent military coup in Honduras, destabilisation of progressive governments in Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Paraguay and a massive military build-up in the region.

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