Women's rights were to be strengthened and a Western-style form of government was to be implanted. In fact, according to the U.S.'s own statements, the hijackers of those planes that flew into the World Trade Center towers were primarily Saudis. The docile oil country of Saudi Arabia was never attacked.
Google, World's Biggest Censor, Was Founded By The CIA (tags)
Google censors by totally erasing some search links, hiding others in the back pages, designing algorithms to generate more negative than positive links, placing old data first,
New Google algorithm restricts access to left-wing, progressive web sites (tags)
In the three months since Google implemented the changes to its search engine, fewer people have accessed left-wing and anti-war news sites. This is political censorship and constitutes an attack on free speech.
British press: Widow of 7/7 bomber hunted in terror alert (tags)
British media's ever-increasing campaign of war, fear and hate-mongering is an ominous sign of new wars abroad and severe repression at home.
UK Prime Minister Cameron: We must not be afraid to use military force against tyrants (tags)
In complete denial of the genocides perpetrated by ten years of Anglo-American-led wars across the globe, Mr Cameron and Mr Obama would still have us believe that their aim is ?to spread peace, prosperity, democracy?.
Down with Gaddafi! No to US-NATO intervention! (tags)
"In this time when events seem to be moving so fast, we must maintain focus on the essential meaning and purpose of imperialist efforts. Elites in Washington and other capitals of the west are desperate and working with full dedication to "roll back" the popular advances being made in the Mideast and across North Africa. This article is offered in the effort to support a progressive analysis while the mainstream media works triple time to confuse and obfuscate an understanding of the "full on class war" unfolding before us. No to the budget cuts. No to intervention in Libya. Organize to stand up and fight wall street and the banksters, and ther're "agents" in media and government. Organize in your communities and beyond quickly now. "You have a world to win and only your chains to lose."
Essentials on the situation in Egyp (tags)
"Then, over the weekend, came the public statement by Frank Wisner, the former ambassador to Cairo tapped by the Obama administration to serve as its envoy to Mubarak. Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Wisner declared, “President Mubarak remains utterly critical in the days ahead as we sort our way toward the future.” He added that the dictator “must stay in office in order to steer those changes through.” The State Department immediately responded that Wisner was speaking in a personal capacity and had not cleared his remarks first with the US government. While mortified that Wisner had the audacity to say publicly what the administration—behind all its phony rhetoric about democracy—is actually doing, no one disputed the content of Wisner’s statement. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs found a somewhat more elegant way to echo Wisner’s view, declaring that the issue was one of “process not personality.”
Are We Witnessing the Start of a Global Revolution? (tags)
"Understand that the “War on Terror” is a complete lie, a concoction meant to obscure the imperial attack on the worldwide insurrection of the people’s revolt the imperialist ruling class knew would be coming. Of course 911 was a false flag attack perpetrated largely by imperialism to serve as a defense against this revolt. But before that the outlines of this “defense of the system” was likely behind the crash of a jumbo jet in the ocean when an Egyptian pilot, with no record of radical ideas, supposedly crash dived a fully loaded passenger plane shouting, “God is great.” One can review and study these manipulations and begin to see the strategy and heartless efforts being waged by our rulers in a desperate attempt to maintain our world in bondage. The U.S. will claim to be defending democracy and human welfare while attempting to utterly crush both."
Desperate to stop the "truth telling" (tags)
"The imperialists of the world are desperate to stop the "truth telling" of wikileaks. To do so they have thrown away the cover of respect of "freedom of speech" in particular and "support of democratic principals" in general. They are naked now in their hatred of democracy. Organize, resist, do all that you can to protect these true heros from attack. Most importantly, aid them in their efforts to reveal the truths that just may "set us free."
UAW: Reform or rebellion? (tags)
"History shows that every gain won by American workers was the result of militant struggles in opposition to the corporate establishment and both big business parties. The very right to have a union, as well as the eight-hour day, child labor laws, overtime pay, health benefits, etc. was won in often bloody struggles against the violent resistance of the employers and the government. Whenever the Democrats, under the threat of revolution, conceded concessions to workers’ demands, they did so to smother the social movement so they could claw back the workers’ gains at a later point."
Obama's Justice Dept's Forbidden Words & Spying on Skype, Facebook, Blackberry (tags)
The forbidden fruit always tastes the best, and here are Obama's Justice Dept's forbidden words that were the basis for the latest invasion of peace activists' homes and grand jury subpoenas: PALESTINE, SOCIALISM, CLASS STRUGGLE, IMPERIALISM, REVOLUTION, MARXISM, TROTSKYISM. Learn those words early and repeat them loudly everywhere.
Socialist Equality Party Announces Southern California Meeting (tags)
Socialist Equality Party Vice Presidential Candidate Bill Van Auken Will Speak in Santa Monica on Saturday, October 25, 2008. The Socialist Equality Party is the party of the World Socialist Web Site, www.wsws.org
Pacifica Los Angeles KPFK Listeners Ask:Will Censorship of Socialist Perspectives Continue (tags)
With candidates of socialist perspective taking the lead on issues in the 2008 election, listeners of self-proclaimed Pacifica "Revolutionary Radio" KPFK wonder if the station will continue to censor their candidates and positions and ignore their core point that, as a matter of empirical fact, liberal reform has failed and shows no prospect for success with an Obama election.
Grace Aaron Committee to Strengthen KPFK Run Station Board Shuts Down Web User Forums (tags)
The new Grace Aaron/Ian Masters Local Station Board slate candidates have moved to strengthen their control over the station by eliminating a source of listener criticism.
Socialists: Iraq War Still Number One Issue (tags)
The Peace and Freedom Party and Socialist Party USA have strongly opposed U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and have maintained that the Iraq War was launched only to advance U.S. imperialism and to control the vast oil reserves in the Middle East. Both socialist parties are calling for an immediate end to the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the withdrawal and return of all U.S. troops, and the immediate release of all prisoners of war and detained civilians.
Firefighter Shortage In Orange County, etc (tags)
THe World Socialist Website, 10/29/07, has more on the lack of funding for firefighters as a cause of the inability to stop the fires in Southern California..
Bush to propose record US war budget (tags)
The Bush administration will seek congressional approval of more than $700 billion in military spending this year, including $245 billion to fund the ongoing wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, top officials told the press Friday. The gargantuan funding request will be formally unveiled and sent to Congress Monday.
Israel leaks it’s plan to nuke Iran (tags)
A report in yesterday’s London-based Sunday Times revealed that the Israeli military has been training to use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and other nuclear facilities. Based on several Israeli military sources, the article said two air force squadrons were involved, with the preparations being overseen by air force commander Major General Eliezer Shkedi. Israeli officials were quick to disparage the report. Foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev “formally denied” the claim and restated the official stance that Israeli was committed to a diplomatic solution and supported last month’s UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran. Top government and military figures have repeatedly warned, however, that Israel would not allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.
Bush visits Middle East to intensify Iraq war (tags)
The thrust of today’s talks in Jordan between George Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is clear in advance. Bush, accompanied by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will insist that the Iraqi leader bow down to US demands for a bloody crackdown against the largest faction in his own government, the anti-occupation Sadrist movement headed by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and its Mahdi Army militia. An unnamed senior US official bluntly told the New York Times: “It’s decision time and everybody knows it.”
Blair joins the attack on Britain’s Muslims (tags)
Prime Minister Tony Blair has placed himself at the head of an ongoing and sinister campaign against Britain’s Muslim minority. This week he used his monthly press conference to solidarise himself with former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s attack on the veil or niqab, telling reporters that it was “a mark of separation and that is why it makes other people from outside of the community feel uncomfortable.” He also backed the decision by Kirklees council to suspend the young teaching assistant Aishah Azmi for refusing to remove her veil in front of male staff.
Why is the American press silent on the report of 655,000 Iraqi deaths? (tags)
The US media is virtually silent on a new scientific study that estimates the Iraqi death toll from the US war at 655,000. The study, conducted by Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and funded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was posted Wednesday on the web site of the British medical journal, the Lancet.
Will a coup in Iraq follow the US elections? (tags)
Another comment has appeared in the American press foreshadowing a move by the Bush administration to remove the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq. In an opinion piece in the October 2 Washington Post, the newspaper’s deputy editorial editor Jackson Diehl strongly suggested that Washington may dispense with Maliki’s regime shortly after the November 7 US congressional elections.
US Senate votes 100-0 for $70 billion more in war spending (tags)
The unanimous vote by the US Senate on Friday to approve the Bush administration’s request for an additional $70 billion to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrates a basic truth of American politics: the Democratic Party, no less than the Republicans, is a party of imperialist militarism and war.
Democrats defend “our president” against international criticism (tags)
The pretense that the Democratic Party represents some sort of opposition to the Bush administration was punctured again last week when leading Democrats vociferously condemned the anti-Bush speech given by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to the United Nations General Assembly.
Bush wants a bloodbath in Baghdad (tags)
Increasingly desperate over the deteriorating situation in Iraq, the Bush administration is demanding that the US-installed government in Baghdad support a savage intensification of repression or give way to a dictatorial regime that will.
A belligerent Bush addresses the UN (tags)
In a speech to the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, US President George W. Bush delivered a remarkably belligerent warning to the peoples of the Middle East that Washington intends to continue and even widen its campaign of military aggression.
A symbol of American manufacturing’s decline: Ford to slash 44,000 jobs (tags)
Ford Motor Company on Friday announced a plan to drastically downsize its North American operations, cutting about a third of its salaried employees and offering buyouts to all of its hourly workers in the United States. The move—an acceleration and intensification of the company’s “Way Forward” plan announced in January—is aimed at cutting annual operating costs by $5 billion.
Bush demands congressional rubber-stamp for police-state powers (tags)
In the fourth of a series of speeches aimed at fueling public fears of terrorism to boost his administration’s failing political standing, President Bush appeared before an audience of right-wing policy experts in Atlanta, Georgia Thursday. The speech was focused on the demand that Congress move quickly to legalize the program of warrantless wiretapping of Americans, the existence of which was revealed late last year.
Democratic Party outlines pro-war agenda for US elections (tags)
The right-wing, pro-war position of the Democratic Party was on full display Tuesday as the party leadership presented a new report that criticizes the Bush administration for failing to adequately defend the interests of American militarism.
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld speeches: A new drumbeat for war (tags)
In a coordinated series of speeches this week, the top officials of the Bush administration have begun a public campaign to smear and intimidate opponents of the war in Iraq while laying the political groundwork for dragging the American people into a new and even more terrible war—this time against Iran.
Warnings of a US recession and global slowdown (tags)
Three commentaries published in the Financial Times over the past week have pointed to the increasing likelihood of a US recession that would have major implications for the global economy.
After defeating pro-war incumbent Lieberman, Lamont reassures Wall Street (tags)
The victory of multi-millionaire cable executive Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Democratic primary August 8 has produced paroxysms of uncritical celebration in liberal publications like the Nation and from groups like MoveOn.org, which campaigned heavily for Lamont and against incumbent senator Joseph Lieberman.
Contradictions, anomalies, questions mount in UK terror scare (tags)
A British court on Wednesday extended the warrants for 23 people held since August 10 in connection with the alleged plot to blow up commercial airliners flying from Britain to the US. An additional person was arrested Tuesday. The judge issued his ruling late in the evening following a closed-door hearing that lasted most of the day.
The US media and the London terror scare (tags)
Since August 10, when British authorities arrested two dozen individuals in connection with an alleged plot to blow up a number of airplanes over the Atlantic Ocean, the American mass media has worked ceaselessly to create a climate of fear.
The politics of the latest terror scare (tags)
Five days after UK authorities arrested 24 British-born Muslims and announced that they and their American counterparts had thwarted a plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights from London to the US, neither the British nor the American government has produced any facts to substantiate their dire claims.
Britain’s airline terror plot: Questions that need to be answered (tags)
The claim that American and British security forces have thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up commercial flights between Britain and the United States should not be accepted uncritically. It is impossible to determine at this point whether or not such an attack was in the offing, although the mass media have, as usual, reported the assertions of the British and American governments as indisputable fact, without bothering to ask for any specific information that would substantiate the official story.
Lieberman’s defeat and the state of American politics (tags)
The response of Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman and the Democratic Party leadership to Lieberman’s defeat in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election says a great deal about the politics of the Democratic Party and the state of American politics as a whole.
Israeli war crimes aimed at “cleansing” south Lebanon (tags)
On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes struck the southern Lebanese town of Ghaziyeh, killing at least 14 people. Missiles demolished civilian homes just as some 1,500 mourners were participating in a procession to bury 15 of their relatives and neighbors slain just the day before. The explosions sent the crowd running in panic, dropping shrouded corpses in the street.
SEP California campaign: Elections board declares nearly one half of signatures invalid (tags)
The Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office announced on August 8 its determination that of the nearly 7,600 signatures collected by the Socialist Equality Party through July 25 to place John Burton on the ballot for US Congress from California’s 29th Congressional District, only 4,000 are valid. This ruling is flagrantly antidemocratic, because it involves the rejection of hundreds of signatures of legally registered voters in the district. If it stands, it will make much more difficult the effort to collect by the August 11 deadline the 8,442 signatures of registered voters required to place Burton on the ballot.
Behind Bush’s “truce” plan: the drive towards a wider Middle East war (tags)
US President George W. Bush on Monday declared his full support for a US-French United Nations resolution that dictates Israel’s terms to the Lebanese people while allowing the Israeli military to indefinitely continue its occupation and devastation of Lebanon.
UN resolution on Lebanon: blueprint for intensified war and colonial occupation (tags)
The US-French resolution that is to be voted on by the United Nations Security Council early this week represents an imperialist diktat to the people of Lebanon and an attempt by Washington to legitimize and consummate the geo-strategic goals pursued in the last month of US-Israeli war of aggression.
SEP candidate to participate in Spanish-language radio program (tags)
John Burton, the Socialist Equality Party candidate for US Congress in California’s 29th Congressional District, will be participating in a program on the Spanish-language station KTNQ, AM 1020, on Saturday night, August 5. The broadcast, which begins at 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time, is hosted by Alan Diamante, a prominent immigration and civil rights attorney in Los Angeles.
Germany joins US, British, Israeli axis of aggression (tags)
Last Sunday, German government spokesman Ulrich William spoke on behalf of the chancellor, Angela Merkel (Christian Democratic Union—CDU), and expressed Merkel’s “great regret and deep sadness over the consequences of the Israeli air raid on Qana.” Two days later, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Social Democratic Party—SPD) began an interview in the Süddeutsche Zeitung with the words: “What took place on Sunday in Qana was appalling. The large number of civilian victims of the Israeli air raid is terrible and unacceptable.”
Democratic Party leaders rally behind pro-war Senator Lieberman (tags)
Three-term US Senator Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 2000 and a candidate for the party’s presidential nomination in 2004, is trailing in his bid for renomination in the August 8 Democratic primary in Connecticut. A poll published July 20 showed a four-point lead for Lieberman’s challenger, multi-millionaire businessman Ned Lamont, whose campaign is fueled mainly by anger over the war in Iraq.
What way forward in the struggle against war? (tags)
As the brutal US-Israeli war against the Lebanese people enters its fourth week, there is no sign that the massacre of innocent civilians is about to end. On the contrary, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), backed by air strikes and artillery fire, are pressing deeper into Lebanon, with the apparent aim of advancing 18 miles to the Litani River, either killing or driving out the entire population between it and the Israeli border.
Bush seeks to extend Guantánamo procedures to American citizens (tags)
In draft legislation prepared in response to last month’s Supreme Court decision against the use of military tribunals for US prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, the Bush administration proposes to extend the practice of indefinite detention and summary trial by military commissions to include American citizens.
The Qana massacre: Slaughter of innocents in Lebanon (tags)
The repeated missile strikes, launched in the dead of night while the targeted victims were asleep, reduced a four-story apartment building and nearby houses to rubble, killing at least 57 residents, including 37 children.
Appeasement 2006: Europe capitulates to American-Israeli aggression (tags)
The international conference in Rome held Wednesday to address the crisis precipitated by the Israeli attack on Lebanon ended without a call for a ceasefire. According to numerous press accounts, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood virtually alone in opposing any language in the conference statement suggesting that the Israeli onslaught, which has already caused close to 500 civilian deaths and destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure, should be ended any time soon.
Rice leaves bloody footprints in Lebanon (tags)
At some point in the future, when the ill-fated American drive for hegemony in the first decade of the twenty-first century is subjected to critical study, historians will discover ugly parallels between the tenure of Condoleezza Rice as American secretary of state under President Bush and that of Joachim Ribbentrop as German foreign minister under Chancellor Hitler. All the characteristics of the foreign policy of the Third Reich as it set the stage for World War—its depraved deceitfulness, cynicism, hypocrisy, recklessness, fascination with violence and utter contempt for human life—are to be observed 70 years later in the operations of the Bush administration, for whom Rice serves as chief foreign policy spokesman.
Democrats, Republicans line up to back Israeli war crimes (tags)
Last week, both the US House of Representatives and Senate overwhelmingly passed resolutions praising the Bush administration for its full support of Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon. Democrats joined with Republicans to endorse Israel’s bombing campaign, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.
The New York Times and the war in Lebanon: A cynical defense of US-Israeli war crimes (tags)
In an editorial published Friday, the New York Times weighs in as the liberal voice of American imperialism on the US-backed Israeli war against Lebanon. Under the headline “More Than a Cease-Fire Needed,” the Times repeats the propaganda line of Washington and Jerusalem that Israel is the victim and Hezbollah the aggressor. It lines up with the US and Israel in opposing demands that Israel halt its bombing campaign—an assault so flagrantly in breach of international law and so nakedly directed against civilians that Louise Arbour, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, was moved to declare on Wednesday that those “in a position of command and control” could be held personally responsible for war crimes.
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth: political posturing and the Democratic Party (tags)
Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, is intended to serve one essential purpose: bolstering the environmental and supposedly liberal credentials of the Democratic Party and the former US vice president himself. Its aim, therefore, is not primarily to treat the very real environmental problems that it in part lays bare, but to create a new mechanism for ensuring that these problems cannot find a serious solution.
Plan to attack New York tunnels: Yet another dubious “terror plot” (tags)
New Yorkers awoke Friday morning to lurid headlines in the New York Daily News proclaiming that a “Tunnel Bomb Plot” had been foiled. That afternoon, Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director Mark Mershon, flanked by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, told a press conference that the FBI had disrupted a plan to carry out suicide bombings in the PATH train tunnels that carry hundreds of thousands of commuters between Manhattan and New Jersey. The alleged mastermind, a 31-year-old resident of Beirut, Lebanon named Assem Hammoud, was being held in Beirut and had, according to the FBI, confessed to participating in the plot and acting on the orders of Osama bin Laden. There were a total of eight suspects, two of whom were in custody at unnamed locations. None were Americans and none had set foot on US soil.
Major candidates in Mexican election offer no solution to the social crisis (tags)
On Sunday, July 2, Mexican voters will elect a new president and a new Congress. The election takes place under conditions of mounting class tensions, as hundreds of thousands of teachers, miners and other workers have taken to the streets. None of the major candidates in the presidential election genuinely addresses the needs of the masses for decent-paying jobs, improved living standards and social programs.
Pentagon report on China highlights danger of nuclear war (tags)
One sinister aspect of the US Defence Department’s 2006 report on the Chinese military released last month is its discussion of nuclear policy. Overall, the document entitled “Annual Report to Congress: Military Power of the People’s Republic of China” marked a more aggressive US military stance toward China than in previous years. It identified the Chinese regime as a military rival and highlighted its growing defence spending, particularly its investment in advanced military technology (see: “Pentagon report targets China as a military threat”). For the first time since its publication began in 2001, the annual report tried to suggest that China is a growing nuclear threat to the US. In the context of the Bush administration’s doctrine of “pre-emptive war”, the shift indicates that the Bush administration and Pentagon are themselves preparing for nuclear war.
Europe’s leaders close ranks with Bush (tags)
On Tuesday, US President George Bush touched down in Vienna for the annual summit of US and European Union (EU) leaders. After brief talks in Vienna, Bush is due to fly to Budapest on Thursday for the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Bush’s trip to Europe is the first in a round of visits over the next few weeks. Next month he will return to Europe to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Stralsund, before proceeding to Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin prior to the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, to be held July 15-17.
Czech Greens enter right-wing government (tags)
Following the Czech parliamentary elections of June 2 and 3, the Green Party is now preparing to join the right-wing government of the arch-conservative Citizens Party (ODS). The Greens have now entered an Eastern European parliament for the first time, with Strana Zelenych (SZ) receiving 6.3 percent of the vote. Clearly, the Green Party in Prague is beginning its political odyssey at the point it left off in Germany—as a governing party; but this time no longer in alliance with the Social Democrats, but instead with politically conservative and right-wing parties.
President Bush’s trip to Baghdad Tuesday has been hailed by the American media and official Washington as something of a political masterstroke. In fact, the sudden trip, conducted in secrecy even from the Iraqi government that holds nominal sovereignty in the US-occupied country, was a demonstration of both the dire state of affairs in Iraq and the political isolation and disorientation of the Bush administration.
New Zealand joins Australia’s military occupation of East Timor (tags)
The New Zealand Labour government last month dispatched nearly 200 troops to support the Australian-led military occupation of East Timor. Underlining the close Australian and New Zealand collaboration in neo-colonial exercises throughout the region, the contingent includes soldiers who were deployed in the initial 1999 intervention in East Timor, some who had recently served in the Solomon Islands, and a group of military police just returned from Afghanistan.
Europe’s ‘Green’ militarists (tags)
The days when the German Green Party opposed international military operations by Germany’s armed forces, or at least criticized them, have long since passed. After seven years in government, the party has returned to the opposition benches, but it has by no means returned to its former pacifist positions. The Greens are among the most avid proponents of a German military mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one that could easily become the most extensive and dangerous foreign operation conducted by German soldiers since World War II.
Mass rioting reveals depth of Afghan opposition to US occupation (tags)
The mass rioting that broke out in the Afghan capital of Kabul Monday has exposed the intensity and breadth of popular opposition to the four-and-a-half-year US-led occupation of Afghanistan and the fragility of the hold on the country by Washington and the puppet regime of President Hamid Karzai. According to official and press reports, at least 20 people died Monday in clashes between demonstrators, US troops and Afghan security forces, while more than 140 were wounded. A doctor at the Khair Hana Hospital in northern Kabul told the New York Times that a seven-year-old child was among the dead, while several other school children were severely wounded.
The Enron verdicts: corruption and American capitalism (tags)
The guilty verdicts handed down by a Houston jury last week against former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling provide an opportunity to evaluate the significance of the company’s rise and fall within the context of American capitalism. Accounts by jurors given after the verdicts were announced indicate they all agreed that the evidence against the two executives was overwhelming. It consisted mainly of testimony from over a dozen former executives, who implicated Lay and Skilling for their roles in defrauding investors and employees through various forms of accounting manipulation. The jurors quickly rejected the absurd position of the defense that Enron was basically a healthy company that collapsed into bankruptcy in December 2001 largely as the result of Wall Street machinations and negative press coverage.
Constitutional crisis over FBI raid on US congressman (tags)
The conflict between the US Congress and the Bush administration over the FBI raid on US Representative William Jefferson’s congressional office has rapidly escalated into a constitutional crisis. The episode highlights the contempt with which the Bush administration views such fundamental issues as the separation of powers and the autonomy of the legislative branch. It also reveals the atmosphere of crisis and tension which pervades the American political system.
Democrats ensure confirmation of NSA spy chief to head CIA (tags)
The US Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday gave its support to General Michael Hayden, the principle architect of recently exposed domestic spying programs, to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Leading Democrats joined Republicans in approving Hayden, the former head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the current principal deputy director of national intelligence. Hayden is expected to easily win confirmation by the full Senate before the end of the week.
FBI stages unprecedented raid on congressman’s office (tags)
The FBI conducted a search of the office of Louisiana Representative William Jefferson over the weekend in what is the first such intrusion by an agency of the executive branch into the office of a sitting congressman in US history. In a press conference on Monday, Jefferson, a Democrat, denounced the raid as an “outrageous intrusion into the separation of powers.” The raid on Jefferson’s office in the Rayburn House Office Building on Saturday night was a politically motivated breach of constitutional boundaries aimed at asserting the power of the executive branch over the legislative. It is yet another political marker in the government’s moves towards dictatorial forms of rule.
US Senate declares English the “national language”: a boost to chauvinism and racism (tags)
The Socialist Equality Party unequivocally condemns the vote by the Senate on Thursday to make English the “national language” of the United States. The measure, added to the Senate immigration “reform” bill, is the but latest in a series of reactionary, ignorant and short-sighted moves aimed at shoring up the right-wing base of the Bush administration and the Republican Party, with the most far-reaching and anti-democratic implications. The proposal is a sop to right-wing and fascistic elements who are working to whip up intolerance and hatred against immigrants in general, and Hispanic Americans in particular. It underscores the deeply undemocratic and unconstitutional essence of all of the measures being enacted in the name of “securing the border.”
Senate hearing on CIA nominee: Democrats rubberstamp Bush police-state spying (tags)
The Senate hearing Thursday on the nomination of General Michael Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency demonstrates the bipartisan congressional support for the Bush administration’s assault on the democratic rights of the American people. While there were scattered criticisms of the methods of the Bush administration, particularly its failure to consult with Congress, every senator on the Intelligence Committee accepted the premise that the United States is engaged in a “war on terror” and that the Bush administration’s escalation of domestic surveillance and wiretapping is a product of that war.
As support for Bush plummets, no alternative from Democrats (tags)
A series of opinion polls released in recent weeks have shown a massive increase in popular opposition to the Bush administration. The US president’s approval rating has dropped to barely one third, on a par with that of Richard Nixon on the eve of his resignation over the Watergate scandal. The latest results published Thursday were from a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, showing only 36 percent of respondents approving of Bush and his policies (compared to 48 percent a year ago). The same poll indicated that 67 percent believe that the US is on “the wrong track.”
French unions hold talks with government in move to end “First Job Contract” strikes (tags)
France’s major trade unions and student unions, a total of twelve organizations operating under the umbrella of the Intersyndicale, held a joint meeting in Paris Wednesday morning to coordinate negotiations with the Gaullist government over the “First Job Contract” (CPE). Five trade unions—CGT (General Confederation of Labour), CFDT (French Democratic Confederation of Labour), FO (Workers Power) and two management unions, the CFTC and the CFE-CGC—later held separate discussions with deputies from the ruling Union for a Popular Majority (UMP) party. Other unions will meet with the government in the coming days.
France: As millions protest government attacks, unions signal retreat on “First Job Contra (tags)
An estimated 2 to 3 million striking workers and students demonstrated throughout France yesterday against the Gaullist government’s “First Job Contract” (CPE) legislation, matching the turnout at a similar day of action on March 28. Tuesday’s strikes and protests followed President Jacques Chirac’s announcement last Friday that he had officially ratified the CPE, which permits employers to dismiss young workers without cause during their first two years of employment.
On 9/11: Was the Asbestos-Laced World Trade Center "Disposable"? (tags)
Millions in the U.S. and worldwide now know there is evidence that 9/11 was an "inside job"; "false-flag," state-sponsored terrorism to provide a pretext for a premeditated war. But in exposing this evidence, the 9/11 Truth effort is also shedding light on a significant story-within-the-story: that the World Trade Center (WTC) was obsolete and asbestos-laced, and that its destruction on 9/11 may, for certain interests in the U.S., have been both desirable and profitable--independent of any interest in war.
SEP candidate in California: Extend full rights to all immigrants! (tags)
The following is a statement issue by John Burton, SEP candidate for Congress, 29th District of California During the past week, millions of immigrants, documented and undocumented, have taken to the streets throughout the country to demonstrate their opposition to the punitive and repressive anti-immigrant legislation being debated by the US Congress. Thousands of students, outraged by the injustices being perpetrated against their parents, friends, relatives and neighbors, have walked out of their schools and marched in support of immigrants’ democratic rights. As a socialist candidate for the US House of Representatives, I support the full extension of democratic rights to all immigrants, regardless of how they entered the country.
News Junkie Scott's Blog (10/21/05) (tags)
Beware Senate Bill 1873.
News Junkie Scott's Blog (10/1/05) (tags)
New Orleans prisoners left to drown after Katrina struck.
RUMSFELD CHARGED WITH WAR CRIMES IN GERMANY (tags)
look at what I found :>) author: Justus Leicht for the World Socialist Web Site US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld may be forced to skip a major international security conference in Munich next month for fear that he could be hauled before a German court on war crimes charges, according to published reports in both the US and Germany.
No to Falluja "cover up" (tags)
Dear friends, Are you wondering why/how the reports from Falluja have become so bland? Please read these frightening reports emerging from Falluja, consider sharing them with others, and take action to stop these horrors. jamie
Falluja: Blood lust dominates mainstream media (tags)
The Falluja battle is obscenely one-sided and, on the American side, thoroughly cowardly. The US military employs the most modern and horrific weapons to eradicate a few thousand lightly armed fighters.
Democratic frontrunner declares he will be stronger "war president" than Bush (tags)
What makes Kerry’s contribution so valuable, in the eyes of the ruling elite, is that his campaign will deprive the American people of any significant choice on the most basic issue, war and peace. There will be no fundamental change in US foreign policy if Kerry wins the election.
Prosecute The Washington Post for War Crimes (tags)
"What Katharine Graham warned against 26 years ago has already come to pass. The Post has moved considerably to the right of its readership base, which finds itself alienated from and revolted by the paper's robotic echoing of the administration's war propaganda."
White House bans news coverage of coffins returning from Iraq (tags)
“Since the end of the Vietnam War, presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of US soldiers arriving at air bases in flag-draped coffins,” wrote the Post’s White House reporter Dana Milbank. “To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: It has ended the public dissemination of such images by banning news coverage and photography of dead soldiers’ homecomings on all military bases.”
TEAMSTERS REFUSING TO CROSS PICKET LINES @ Ralphs, Vons, Pavilions & Albertsons (tags)
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AS THE ECONOMY CRUMBLES - June 16, 2003 (tags)
Summarizing the crappy economic news of the week.
Why we shouldn't go to War; Any War! (tags)
The United States Department of Defense has committed acts of intentional physical and psychological trauma, premeditated murder and treason. This is not a 'Liberal Left' vs 'Conservative Right' issue, this has nothing to do with Politics at all, this is about a Crime which was committed against our Military Personal while in the course of performing their duties.
WorldWire: Global Issues Daily Headlines, Aug. 9th (tags)
Top news headlines on global issues, from WorldWire, for Friday, Aug. 9th
Why is the US media blacking out documentary on war crimes in Afghanistan? (tags)
This major story, however, has received virtually no coverage in US newspapers or on network or cable television. Aside from stories on some alternative Internet publications, and a June 16 article on Salon.com, the story has been essentially blacked out in the US. A search for news about the documentary in the major dailies—including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe and the Miami Herald —turned up empty. Web sites for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News and CNN have likewise carried nothing on the film.
Pacifist moralizers rally behind the US war drive (tags)
I was directed to the World Socialist Web Site via the Yahoo news service under a section where they compiled a variety of news and opinion. I am not applauding Yahoo, such diversity of opinion is still rare. A piece that Scott Simon (of NPR fame) wrote for the Wall Street Journal merits special attention in this article.
Why we oppose the war in Afghanistan - World Socialist Web Site (Oct 9, 2001) (tags)
The World Socialist Web Site condemns the American military assault on Afghanistan. We reject the dishonest claims of the Bush administration that this is a war for justice and the security of the American people against terrorism.