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| If you have a problem reading this email, please click here to see the web page version You received this email because you signed up for it at OpEdNews. Unsubscribe instructions are at the bottom of this email. I'm becoming an even bigger fan of Evo Morales, president of Bolivia: Bolivia: President Proposes to Take US to International Tribunal It won't be surprising if the former banana republics of South America save democracy in the US. rob kall   Daily HeadlinesSix weeks after Obama declared, "I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," he's canceled a summit because of him. Obama won't be meeting with Vladimir Putin because Putin extended temporary asylum to Edward Snowden. Some news accounts say it's a new Cold War. What do a billionaire, ice hockey, Penn State, a gasaholic governor, a multinational corporation, and fracking have in common? Award-winning journalist Walter Brasch has the answer, Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, announced he will propose UNASUR to bring the US before an international tribunal for human rights violations after his plane was denied airspace in Europe in the beginning of July. Shouldn't National Security, Sustainability, and Citizenship be Highly Relevant to Our Trade Policy?  My linked article ends with the sentence: "The concept of sustainability as a national strategic imperative for the twenty-first century can create a new path forward so that we, as a nation of citizens, can endure and thrive in our own "hour of peril and national opportunity." Working trumps retirement by choice and necessity. With more and more citizens working right through their retirement, the trend may make Social Security stronger than ever. This isn't about throwing bankers in jail for the sake of it. It's about making things fair. If we're going to keep throwing people in jail for food stamp fraud, then bankers who commit systematic securities fraud also have to go to jail. Either that, or we have to come up with alternative punishments for both types of nonviolent criminal. Every day, all across the world -- and in the holy-moley Homeland itself -- Obama commits and countenances crimes beyond the wildest dreams of LBJ and Richard Nixon. Every day he helps tighten the stranglehold of rampant militarism and corporate power on the lives of the people. Yet there are no riots, no uprisings, no public or institutional dissent that might trouble the complacency of our overlords. By earl ofari hutchinson Holder Says the Obvious--the Drug War is a war on Minorities The scuttlebutt is that Attorney General Eric Holder is poised to say what has long been obvious to anyone who has the faintest notion about how the wildly failed, flawed war on drugs has been waged for three decades. The obvious is that the war on drugs has been a ruthless, relentless and naked war on minorities, especially African-Americans. When he met Julian Assange for the first time, Sigurdur Thordarson admired the WikiLeaks founder's attitude and quickly signed up to the cause. But little more than a year later, Thordarson was working as an informant spying on WikiLeaks for the U.S. government--embroiling himself as a teenager in one of the most complicated international events in recent history. Thanks to the sobering revelations of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the world has been given a glimpse of the abuse of power (and trust) that our governments have breached. Indeed, the gravity of this "hijacking of humanity" is a crime against "life" itself. Review of Elysium and class conflict in the present day as expressed through futuristic visions. A voice from neo-colonized majority Mankind reviews a wonderful article: leaders within the sick, suffering US materialist society of amoral, usurious, and homicidal speculative interest banking WILL one day soon be "locked away for life" or hung, and the names of those US leaders who will have died beforehand, will forever appear in history books as murderers owing for wrongful death, injury, destruction and massive theft. Let's replace our practice of praising and worshiping our gods with taking care of each other. The cynic might suspect that the Dream 9 were released because they'll be less of a problem for the government scattered to their homes around the country than they were inside where they were organizing, protesting, gathering stories of other detainees, and shining some light on one of the darker corners of authoritarian America. In America today there is nothing more potent than celebrity and the big screen plasma living room god that delivers it. Obama further diminished the office of the presidency this week by appearing on Jay Leno's clown show to pitch his lies about NSA spying and throw a tantrum over Russia. Wake up America, your brains have been colonized by the television and liars like Obama. By Marjorie Cohn The Struggle Continues: Seeking Compensation for Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims, 52 years on  Today marks the 52nd anniversary of the start of the chemical warfare program in Vietnam, a long time with NO sufficient remedial action by the U.S. government. One of the most shameful legacies of the American War against Vietnam, Agent Orange continues to poison Vietnam and the people exposed to the chemicals, as well as their offspring. The most significant damage to the Russian-American relationship occurred during the administration of George W. Bush, whose international policies created the worst of all strategic worlds. In December 2001, President Bush announced U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which had been the cornerstone of strategic deterrence and the arms control regime for 30 years. The degree of pressure on reporters and politicians from the White House and Democratic leadership in the Snowden controversy was in full and embarrassing view yesterday when Rep. John Lewis walked back from an interview that he gave to the Guardian praising Snowden. He appears not to have gotten the memo: Snowden is not to be praised in the media or by members of Congress. Various reporters and new organizations have held the line in mocking Snowden or refusing to call him a "whistleblower" rather than a "leaker." After all, the fear seems to be that Snowden has to be a traitor or Obama would look like a tyrant. President Barack Obama unveiled a series of proposals Friday that could curtail the federal government's ability to spy on Americans, in light of eroding confidence by the public after recent leaks about the massive surveillance programs. Although Freshman Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) believes President Obama may secretly be a Kenyan who forged his birth certificate, he thinks it's too late to do anything about it. Mullin felt aggrieved that he had to question whether Obama was actually born in the United States, concluding that although the issue is "still there," it's too late to prove it to the country. By Karl Grossman Weiner-Spitzer--Outrageous Arrogance Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer--men of outrageous arrogance. Even in New York City, a town used to assertiveness, Weiner's performance as he seeks to run for mayor has been way over the top. Meanwhile, Spitzer, who resigned suddenly as New York governor for "personal failings" after disclosures of his being a regular client of a prostitution ring, is flooding New York with TV commercials as he runs for city comptroller. McCain and Graham may be Republicans, but they have a lot of clout. Why do they have such clout? One reason is that they are extremely responsive to the Israel lobby. In fact, both men lately flipflopped on a principled statement -- cutting off aid to Egypt -- evidently at the urging of AIPAC, the leading Israel lobby organization. ALEC is still very much what ALEC has been for decades: a key player, perhaps the key player, in advancing the corporate agenda on a host of issues in statehouses across the country. What has changed for ALEC is that a lot more Americans are now paying attention to its advocacy. New national campaigns to get corporations and foundations to quit ALEC are ramping up. Washington's hunger to know everything about its citizens seems to be matched only by its reticence in revealing its own activities to its citizens. The latest move to prevent us from knowing what is going on relates to so-called transparency policies whose fine print instead does the opposite -- by effectively blunting the stated intent of the regulations. I don't think any of us would debate that major change needs to happen. Our freedoms are being taken away, the environment is being destroyed, and we have entered an era of corporate feudalism. Australian author is a change agent who helps us to move into ways of creating change that is empowering. His is the work of the future, if we are to have one. Latest ArticlesOpen Letter to President Obama In Regard Survelliance An article posted on CNN which contains several statements made by you make this second Open Letter to the President of the United States rather unique, and unfortunately, necessary. I will attempt to be as short as possible. millions of Americans would be grateful for an answer to, and if you dare, I challenge you to answer the few questions and respond to the commentary that I am offering to your interview with CNN. Vows of "Occupation Until Martyrdom' Jihadists are entering Syria at an accelerating pace, according to Syrian, UNWRA, and Palestinian officials as well as residents in the refugee camps here. For the now-estimated 7000 imported foreign fighters, Palestinian camps are seen as optimal locales for setting up bases across Syria. Facing life's challenges despite the feeling of failure or loss. It just may pay off in the long run. Lessons in US Foreign Policy from the Islands of Hawaii The rain is as beautiful The rising rain Into my palm Into my face, The rain is as beautiful Rain is about to smile. Lavabit has shut itself down rather than participate in what it calls "crimes against the American people," and in doing so, has gone to the legal limits in order to tell us all what has happened. There will undoubtedly be more acts inspired by Snowden's initial choice to unravel his own life to make the world aware of what the US government has been doing in the dark. Is it fair for a columnist to take some old criticism of Bush, change the name of the President and re-post it?  Best News Links from the WebWhile Koch-funded groups like AFP are unlikely to heed the message anytime soon, there is every indication in the solar energy field that the political terrain is starting to shift dramatically. In Georgia, the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity (AFP) warned that a solar energy proposal would "reduce the reliability of every appliance and electronics gadget in your home" and could increase Georgia electricity rates by up to 40 percent. a separate branch of the Tea Party in Georgia, known as the Tea Party Patriots, came out strongly in favor of more solar power in the state. Debbie Dooley, national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots told the press: "AFP Georgia is putting out absolutely false data," that doesn't take into account the fact that "solar prices have plummeted" in recent years. Dooley quipped that her group was forming "a Green Tea Coalition" ... The National Security Agency, hit by disclosures of classified data by former contractor Edward Snowden, said Thursday it intends to eliminate about 90% of its system administrators to reduce the number of people with access to secret information. Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, told a cybersecurity conference in New York City that automating much of the work would improve security. "What we're in the process of doing - not fast enough - is reducing our system administrators by about 90%," he said. "At the end of the day it's about people and trust," Alexander said. He again defended his agency's conduct, much of which he said had been "grossly mischaracterized" by the press. "No one has willfully or knowingly disobeyed the law or tried to invade your civil liberties or privacies... |
