NDAA: Hedges v. Obama: Did The Bill of Rights Die Today? by Jill Dalton

by Jill Dalton
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
recoveringarmybrat
February 9, 2013
Note: replaced and revised, February 11, 2013

Image by pameladrew212 via Flickr

As I head west on Chambers Street toward the Court House I hear a huge roar followed by loud chanting ricocheting off the stone walls of the buildings and I’m elated. This is amazing, I think. There must be hundreds of people protesting the NDAA outside 40 Centre Street. But then I realize the protest is the transit workers’ school bus strike, now in its third week. I stop to take a few photos and give them a thumbs up before continuing along my route.

Washington Speaks With Forked Tongue To Iran by Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
February 7, 2013

Image by AslanMedia via Flickr

Only days after American Vice President Joe Biden made a very public and tantalizing offer of bilateral talks between the US and Iran, there then follows another round of punitive trade sanctions imposed by Washington on Iran’s vital oil industry.

What to make of this seemingly contradictory US position? Some commentators say that the above anomalous attitude reflects a carrot-and-stick policy in Washington, by which incentives dangled in front of Iran are quickly followed by a blow of hardship, with the objective of forcing an end result.

Koch Brothers Driving Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada to Cut Out Venezuelan Oil by Greg Palast

Image by Elizabeth Brossa via Flickr

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
for Vice Magazine and The Other 98%
February 7, 2013

I’ve been tracking a tube of black putrid ooze, a toxic viper slowly slithering 2000 miles across the belly of America, swallowing all water aquifers, politicians and reason in its path.

The XL Keystone Pipeline.

As Nagini, the murderous snake in the Harry Potter tales, had its master Voldemort, I figured the Keystone XL Pipeline much also have its own dark lords.

Julian Assange: Obama’s Kill List

Image by a.powers-fudyma via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Note: I did find a partial transcript. http://rt.com/news/assange-drone-killing-leak-813/.

Replaced video; watch while available.

kryptos973281·Feb 8, 2013

Julian Assange to Bill Maher: ‘You Can Be Killed By Someone in White House For Completely Arbitrary Reasons’ and that’s why we need Wikileaks.

Statement of Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader Condemning the U.S. Postal Service’s Move to End Saturday Delivery

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
February 6, 2013

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) today continued its tradition under the leadership of Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe of shooting itself in the foot. The only question that remains is: When will the madness end? By ending Saturday letter delivery in August 2013, as the USPS has proposed, millions of customers who take advantage of its services will be harmed, mail service will be slowed, and the USPS’s current death spiral will deepen.

The Global Water Grab by Shiney Varghese

Dandelion Salad

by Shiney Varghese
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
January 18, 2013

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Writing in National Geographic in December 2012 about “small-scale irrigation techniques with simple buckets, affordable pumps, drip lines, and other equipment” that “are enabling farm families to weather dry seasons, raise yields, diversify their crops, and lift themselves out of poverty” water expert Sandra Postel of the Global Water Policy Project cautioned against reckless land and water-related investments in Africa.

American Foreign Policy – Have Our War Lovers Learned Anything? by William Blum

by William Blum
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.killinghope.org
February 7, 2013

Image by World Bank Photo Collection via Flickr

Over the past four decades, of all the reasons people over a certain age have given for their becoming radicalized against US foreign policy, the Vietnam War has easily been the one most often cited. And I myself am the best example of this that you could find. I sometimes think that if the war lovers who run the United States had known of this in advance they might have had serious second thoughts about starting that great historical folly and war crime.