A World war has begun. Break the silence! Prosecute-torturers-and-their-bosses. Photo Since the day President Obama took office, he has failed to bring to justice anyone responsible for the torture of terrorism suspects — an official government program conceived and carried out in the years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
He did allow his Justice Department to investigate the C.I.A.'s destruction of videotapes of torture sessions and those who may have gone beyond the torture techniques authorized by President George W. Bush.
This transatlantic trade deal is a full-frontal assault on democracy. Remember that referendum about whether we should create a single market with the United States?
You know, the one that asked whether corporations should have the power to strike down our laws? No, I don't either. A New Post-Crash Constitution in Iceland? Politik im Netz: Wenn User mitregieren. What Snowden says. Edward Snowden is the man who has been "spilling America's political secrets.
" Or at least, that is how I just heard him described on a cable news program. Since the former NSA contractor outed himself, I've heard him called many names by people from both official and "unofficial" spokespeople of Washington - the pundits, paid thinkers and writers who are part of that well-groomed group. For those unlucky people who can't experience the joy of watching domestic television, allow me share a few of the descriptions I've heard and read. Snowden has been called "a traitor, high school dropout, loser, slacker, and a man with messianic aspirations. " So to sum it up, most of the people who have access to professional microphones are targeting him with labels that would make any human being feel like a skinny, acne covered High School freshman with lice.
This has an impact beyond Snowden’s self-esteem. I can't tell you how Americans really feel about NSA surveillance. Safety as freedom - Opinion. The Delhi gang-rape of December 2012 brought to the streets the deep and growing concern about violence against women and the demand for women's safety.
The movement is the voice of women reclaiming their right to safety and freedom, through resistance to all forms of patriarchal power and celebration of women's peaceful power and energy. Commodification, appropriation and control over women's bodies and the resources of the earth are one aspect of the threat to safety. Imposition of hazardous technologies that we do not need is another aspect. Safety has emerged as an overpowering concern - safety of women and children, tribals, farmers and rural communities, safety from nuclear hazard, and environmental as well as health hazards of GMOs.
Demokratie oder Rating-Regierung? Global capitalism and 21st century fascism. Story highlights The crisis of global capitalism is unprecedented, given its magnitude, its global reach, the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the scale of the means of violence.
We truly face a crisis of humanity. The democratic clock turned back. Financial markets rallied last week when the Greek prime minister, George Papandreou, announced he was dropping plans for a referendum on the terms of his country's bailout.
Bond dealers liked the idea that the government in Athens could soon be headed by Lucas Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy think Papademos is the sort of hard-line technocrat with whom they can do business. Silvio Berlusconi's long-predicted departure as Italy's prime minister will no doubt be greeted in the same way, particularly if he is replaced by a government of national unity headed by another technocrat, Mario Monti. Managed expectations in the post-employment economy - Opinion. On March 4, Olga Khazan, the new editor of the Global section of the Atlantic, sent an email to Nate Thayer, a veteran journalist covering Asian political affairs.
Khazan had seen an article Thayer had written about North Korea and liked it. London boroughs plan housing for homeless families outside the capital. Local authorities in London are preparing to send thousands of homeless families to live in temporary homes outside the capital, in defiance of ministerial demands that people should continue to be housed locally.
Das lange Leben des Neoliberalismus. The Great Putsch: welcome to post-democratic Europe. Having pushed through “technocratic” regime change in Greece and Italy, the EU is paving the way for the diktak of an unaccountable clique of bankers. We are living through crazy, crazy times. As the Financial Times wrote this weekend, “the euro emergency has wreaked a deeper shock than ever.” 'Big Government' Isn't the Problem, Big Money Is. With the 2012 elections projected to be the priciest ever, we must rein in the billions of influence-peddling dollars flowing toward Washington.
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney responds to cheers from the crowd as he speaks at a campaign rally at West Hills Elementary School in Knoxville, Tenn., Sunday, March 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Conservatives love to rail against “big government.” But the surge of cynicism engulfing the nation isn’t about government’s size. It flows from a growing perception that government doesn’t work for average people but for big business, Wall Street and the very rich—who, in effect, have bought it.
About the Author. Oligarchy and Democracy - Jeffrey A. Winters. It is a confounding moment in American political history.
On the one hand, evidence of democratic possibilities is undeniable. In 2008, millions of Americans helped catapult a man of half-African descent into the White House long before observers thought the nation was “ready.” Democratic movements have won major victories in recent decades, spreading civil rights, improving the status of women and ending unpopular wars. This is the continuation of a trend with deep roots in American history, reaching back at least to the Jacksonian era, of extending the equality principle into American culture at large.
Oligarchie der Finanz: Der Krieg der Banken gegen das Volk - Feuilleton. The biggest threat to Western values. The paranoid style in politics often imagines unlikely alliances that coalesce into an overwhelming threat that must be countered by all necessary means. In Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington conjured an amalgamated East - an alliance between "Confucian" and "Islamic" powers - that would challenge the West for world dominance. Many jihadis fear the Crusader alliance between Jews and Christians. Analyse: Der rechte Abschied von der Politik - News Ausland: Amerika. Charles Moore ist Konservativer bis in die Knochen. Er war 20 Jahre lang Chefredakteur strenger und konservativer Zeitungen, zuletzt des «Telegraph». Er konvertierte zum Katholizismus, ist ein beliebter Gast des Papstes und der offizielle Biograf von Margaret Thatcher. The deep roots of conservative radicalism. New York, NY - Long before Ron Suskind tangled with the media and the White House for telling truths or tales about the Obama administration, he was the hero of liberals.
For it was Suskind, in the course of exploring the Bush presidency for the New York Times Magazine, who stumbled upon the Rosetta Stone of the contemporary conservative mind. In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. CHOMSKY on WIKILEAKS. Think Voter ID Laws Couldn't Cost You Your Vote? Think Again. A 93-year-old great-great grandmother who alleges she will be disenfranchised by Pennsylvania's recently enacted voter ID law heads to trial on Wednesday. In legal action backed by the ACLU and NAACP, Viviette Applewhite claims she no longer possesses any of the documents she needs to get a photo ID. Without it, she won't be able to cast a ballot this November in the Keystone State. It's the latest clash in an ongoing back-and-forth between voter ID advocates and opponents.
Voter ID supporters argue that identification requirements for registered voters helps prevent voter fraud, ensuring the integrity of elections. Adversaries say the ID requirements stand as a solution in search of a problem. The U.S.
Demokratie, oder: Die geraubte Braut - NZZ.ch, 11.07.2012. Von Adolf Muschg Es gehört kein böser Blick mehr dazu, demokratische Wahlen für schwerfällige Simulationen der Marktforschung zu halten. Ein Produkt wirbt um freie Wahl des Kunden, den es als König anspricht; als der Grösste (oder die Schönste) erscheint er im Spiegel der Reklame. In der Branche gilt das Verhindern von kritischen Berichten als Königsdisziplin. „Unsere Arbeit ist prinzipiell nicht öffentlichkeitsfähig“ – mit diesem Leitsatz fasste ein führender Altana-Lobbyist einmal das Arbeitsprinzip seiner Branche zusammen. Noch deutlicher kennzeichnete der Chef einer Berliner Lobby-Agentur, Peter Köppl, das Geschäftmodell der Interessenvertreter: „Lobbying ist vom Grundgedanken her ’non public’.“ Also nicht-öffentlich.
Noreena Hertz - Why we must stay silent no longer. In the hullaballoo following the American presidential election, with hanging and pregnant chads, and ballot forms that needed a PhD to decipher, it was easy to forget something that was in many ways even more alarming than confusion over who won. More than 90 million Americans had not bothered to vote - that is, more than the combined population of England, Ireland and Scandinavia. CATASTROIKA WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES. We Love You. Move Your Money: San Francisco Churches Move $10 Million From Wells Fargo. Violence Begets Defeat or Too Much Pacifism? by Michael Albert.
Net Neutrality Is Under Attack ... Again. The disappearing virtual library. Why we need to stop SOPA and PIPA. Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination. Occupy Together Occupy Wall Street: "Die Wall Street gehört uns" The American Revolution Begins Sept 17th. Occupy Will Be Back - Chris Hedges' Columns. The closing of American academia. Chile cracks down on violent student protest - Americas. Kuala Lumpur tribunal: Bush and Blair guilty. The crocodile tears of the complicit: Iraq and the cries against humanity - Opinion. Dear George Bush and Dick Cheney, You Are Guilty of Murder: A Letter from a Dying Veteran. ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH. How the Magna Carta became a Minor Carta, part 1.
Beyond the Limits of Neoliberal Higher Education: Global Youth Resistance and the American/British Divide. The emerging open-source civilisation.