Warnings to Russia from Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham

What vast resources?????? - Ed.

John McCain's two most loyal supporters and most influential foreign policy advisers, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, have an Op-Ed in The Wall St. Journal today proclaiming that "Russia's invasion of Georgia represents the most serious challenge to this political order since Slobodan Milosevic unleashed the demons of ethnic nationalism in the Balkans." Just as their neoconservative comrade, Fred Hiatt, does in today's Washington Post, Lieberman and Graham demand that the U.S. expend vast resources and assert itself both militarily and politically in order to thwart the New Russian Menace ("This means reinvigorating NATO as a military alliance, not just a political one . . . The credibility of Article Five of the NATO Charter -- that an attack against one really can and will be treated as an attack against all -- needs to be bolstered. . . .The Georgian military should be given the antiaircraft and antiarmor systems necessary to deter any renewed Russian aggression").

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WWTT....WTF!!!

Funny...you know, in that sad way. - Ed.

It's nice that Luke Russert can cash a paycheck from NBC. Nepotism among the Beltway whores is a time honored tradition which should not be confined to the likes of the cretinous Cokie Roberts.

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Greed at a Glance

Know anyone who wakes up every day at five, works without a break until late afternoon, then gets back to work and sticks at it until bedtime — only to have that bedtime interrupted at least a couple times a night? You probably do. Single moms with young children, after all, have been living schedules just this hectic for years. Adam Levinson has a hectic schedule, too. The difference between single moms and Adam Levinson? About $300 million. That’s the bonus Levinson, a 38-year-old Wall Street speculative trader, collected from his employer, the Fortress Investment Group, this past April, the Wall Street Journal revealed last week. The Manhattan-based Levinson runs a hedge fund for Fortress. That fund is currently losing money, but Fortress, a public traded company, apparently feared that Levinson, without a sweet incentive to stay, would jump ship to a privately held hedge fund. How's Levinson defending his lush new reward? He’s emphasizing how long and hard he works. He gave the Journal an hour-by-hour rundown of his busy schedule, starting with his 5:10 a.m. wake-up for 20 minutes of yoga . . .

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America - The Newest Third World Nation

The evil Bush administration has largely completed the process begun years ago of turning America, the most powerful and richest nation in history, into a Third World nation. I remember a lunch, about 21 years ago in Long Beach, California, with the president of an aerospace company, myself, and a senior foreign general. A comment by the general has always stayed with me. He said, "America is a very rich nation, it will take a lot to bring her down". In the twenty some years after this, I am simply amazed at just how far one crooked president after another, with the assistance of our "bought and paid for" Congress has managed to take us.

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NATO-Russian naval confrontation on tap in Black Sea?

Tbilisia/Kiev/Moscow - A NATO-Russia naval confrontation in the Black Sea appeared days away on Tuesday, after American officials announced a US warship would attempt to enter a Georgian port controlled by Russian army and naval forces. US fleet elements will in coming weeks unload humanitarian aid in the Russia-controlled Georgian port Poti, US embassy spokesman Stephen Guice said in remarks widely reported by Georgian media. The American announcement setting the stage for a direct US-Russia naval confrontation came against a background of continuing high tensions in the region in the wake of the Russia-Georgia conflict and with both Russia and NATO rushing warships into the Black Sea.

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Bush pushing world toward Armageddon

THE NEO-CONNED BUSH REGIME and the Israeli-occupied American media are heading the innocent world toward nuclear war. Back in the Reagan years, the National Endowment for Democracy was created as a Cold War tool.

Today, the NED is a neo-con-controlled agent for U.S. world hegemony. Its main function is to pour U.S. money and election-rigging into former parts of the USSR in order to ring Russia with U.S. puppet states.

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Applying math: Prices to double in 7 years

Recently I’ve come across a few articles discussing the effects of inflation on the global economy. Many countries are facing rapidly rising prices: Canada, Philippines, Thailand, China, India, Turkey, Israel, South Africa, Russia, Holland, Iceland, Argentina, Venezuela, the United States, and many more.

“Double-digit price rises are about to afflict two-thirds of the world's population … So it is worrying that global monetary policy is now at its loosest since the 1970s: the average world real interest rate is negative…”

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US Media Perpetuates Bush Era

Names in the American foreign policy establishment have already publicly announced that we are living in an “a-polar” world. Others speak of “multi-polarity,” and still others speak of a “post-American” era. The United States, they say as one, continues to be an economic and military power without equal, but it has lost relative power.

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Worthless Money, Worthless Economy

There comes that "Kodak moment" (elsewhere referred to as that "Wile E. Coyote moment" when he has run off the cliff and is surprised to see himself momentarily suspended in mid-air) when burgeoning governments and the dysfunctional economies that grow up around them have grown and evolved into their final, grotesque, bloated maximum by constantly expanding their spending via debt and taxes to the maximum, and then one day they suddenly cannot do that silly crap anymore.

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My Palestinian Wife

Every now and then, the rumor arises that I have a Palestinian wife. Some of my kin were highly amused by a debate on that subject that was being conducted by letters to the editor in their local paper recently.

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The End Does Not Justify the Means

In the many issues facing society, a common rationalization for committing wrong, immoral, unjust or unethical acts is that if the greater good is served the relative harm necessary to gain such a supposed good is justified. In essence, people say doing bad can result in good, thus they assert bad becomes good. This has become commonly accepted in politics (as well as within people's personal and business lives).

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The Tempo of Change

One of the lessons of history is that change, no matter how drastic it appears on the pages of history books, is rarely anything like so sudden for those who live through it. Read an account of the French Revolution, for example, and events seem to follow one another like explosions from a string of firecrackers, from the final crisis of the Ancien Régime straight through to the fall of Napoleon. For the man or woman in the French street, though, these happenings were scattered threads in a fabric of months and years woven from the plainer cordage of ordinary life.

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"You can't be president": The outrageous barriers to democracy in America

As the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver, we speak to Harper’s publisher Rick MacArthur on his new book You Can’t Be President. MacArthur says that the popular notion that any American can become president only reinforces the “destructive national delusion that widespread, up-from-the-ground, truly popular democracy, both political and economic, really exists in America.” To assume that, he says, is equal to believing that Santa Claus exists. [includes rush transcript]

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Is Hillary going for the kill at the Denver Convention?

According to conventional wisdom Barak Obama agreed, for the sake of party unity, that Hillary Clinton should be "put into nomination" at the Denver Convention, on the understanding that when nominated, and before the first roll call, she would release her delegates to him and urge them to vote for him. That, apparently, is how it's supposed to happen next Tuesday evening. But is that the way it will happen?

The key to understanding what could actually happen is in the fact that Hillary did not withdraw from the race. She announced only that she was "suspending" her campaign.

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Obama's Secret Deal with the Neo-Cons on Iran's Nuclear Issue

Tabnak’s reporter in the United States has received some information that shows that a deal has been made between Barack Obama the Democrat candidate and the Republican Neo-Cons on dealing with Iran’s nuclear issue.

According to this report, considering that there will be no new security council resolutions against Iran until the U.S. presidential elections in November 2008, and the Democratic candidate’s policy of negotiating with Iran, it’s now clear for some American experts that Obama will be elected as the next U.S. president. So, he methods used during the rule of the Republicans towards Iran will change.

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Hegemon Hold 'Em

The art of analyzing international affairs is somewhat like discovering new planets. The astronomer notes the behaviors of observable objects; when those objects behave in a manner that other observable phenomena can't explain, the astronomer begins hypothesizing what unseen phenomena may be present whose gravity could have produced an otherwise irrational event.

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Outsourcing Intelligence in Iraq: A CorpWatch report on L-3/Titan

When U.S. troops or embassy officials want to track and investigate Iraqis — such as interrogating prisoners accused of terrorism, doing background checks on potential employees, or even to chat with ordinary citizens on the street — the principal intermediary is a relatively obscure company named L-3, that is just over a decade old. Although it is not as well known as companies like Halliburton, it is now the ninth-largest military contractor in the United States. Based in Manhattan, it is headquartered on the upper floors of a skyscraper on Third Avenue, a few blocks from the United Nations. The bulk of this work is done by a recently acquired L-3 subsidiary: Titan Corporation of San Diego.

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Hisssssss......BOOM!

Jackson Hole got interesting toward the end.

Former BOE Policy Maker Willem Buiter savaged Bernanke; here are a few excerpts:

"``The Fed listens to Wall Street and believes what it hears,'' Buiter said yesterday in a paper presented to the Fed's conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. ``This distortion into a partial and often highly distorted perception of reality is unhealthy and dangerous.''

No kidding? Not to mention Cramer. Oh wait - he's just a mouthpiece for people screaming on Wall Street when they're facing the possibility that they will have to stop lying.

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High Treason: 'Pentagon lied to the 911 Commission'; Bush's theory falls apart

911 Commission co-chairs claim that they were misled, perhaps deliberately, by the Bush administration and Pentagon brass. Because 911 was an act of mass murder overtly covered up by the Bush administration, the many lies by Bush amount to more than mere obstructions of justice or cover ups. They amount to high treason --a mechanism by which this administration seized power unconstitutionally. Holes in Bush's theories are holes in Bush's theories. Lack of evidence in support of Bush does not refute his critics who point them out. Bush's many lies and overt efforts to obstruct justice, it is hoped, will bring about the 'controlled demolition' of this illegal and illegitimate regime.

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Fascism Anyone?

Below is the article titled "Fascism Anyone?" by Dr. Laurence W. Britt that appeared in the Spring 2003 Free Inquiry magazine. Free Inquiry magazine is a journal of humanist thought published quarterly by the Council for Secular Humanism. The link to the article follows the article. The list of fourteen characteristics of fascism is interesting but it leaves unexplained how fascism comes into existence in capitalist countries. The way fascism comes into existence is this. Typically, in capitalist nations that have gone fascist, the capitalist class controls most of the capital. Also, typically, the pro-fascist faction of the capitalist class uses their overwhelming economic power to finance the political campaigns of the pro-fascist politicians, and in some cases the private fascist armies at the service of pro-fascist politicians, in their rise to power. In all cases, the attraction of fascism to the pro-fascist faction of the capitalist class is they deceive themselves into believing that they can retain their enormous economic power, and the political power it can buy, without solving the inherent problems associated with capitalism or the external problems confronting capitalism. That is, they deceive themselves into believing that they can retain their power via a fascist state that crushes all political opposition. Historically, this has been a recipe for disaster. - John P. Stoltenberg, P.E.

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I'm NOT on Putin's Bandwagon

I had as much satisfaction as anyone from the humiliation Vlad Putin dealt the Zionists in Georgia recently. However I'm not joining in the general celebration evinced by articles like "The Zionist West Has Met Its Match" by Karl Schwartz (August 23,2008.)

To equate the New World Order with Zionism is incorrect. Zionism is just one pincer in the NWO. The other is Opposition-to-Zionism, represented by Russia's Putin and Iran's Ahmadinejad. The Rothschilds control them both through MI-6.

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Israel paying the price

Officials at the Kremlin apparently took into account the possibility of a harsh diplomatic response by the West to the Georgia invasion. They were prepared for a verbal clash at the UN Security Council and with NATO, and showed willingness to cooperate with the French president’s mediation efforts. However, the West then adopted three harsh retaliatory moves that the Kremlin apparently did not foresee: The US quickly signed a deal with Poland in respect to the deployment of warning systems and missiles; NATO announced it was suspending its ties with Moscow; and talks were launched on Georgia joining NATO.

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Cheney will head diplomatic mission to Georgia war zone

Exactly. Because as soon as you hear the words 'diplomatic mission,' you think of Dick Cheney. - Ed.

CRAWFORD — President Bush is dispatching Vice President Dick Cheney to Georgia, setting up a high-ranking diplomatic mission to an ally reeling from war.

The White House announced today that Cheney will head abroad on Sept. 2 for stops in three former Soviet Republics — Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine — plus Italy.

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Fear of Russia ends Israeli support for Georgia

First off, if you're an English speaker, every story proffered on the Russia-Georgia conflict is 100-proof propaganda. Next, the most important story you haven't heard is that Israel is betting against US success vs. Russia. Paradoxically, and despite Israel's typically overweening, convoluted conceits, this is very heartening, since it means they think the US won't go to the mat and start launching its nuclear arsenal. Apparently, they also believe the Russians can handle US Navy, Air Force, and Army units going into Project Georgia in the names of "humanitarian aid" and "peacekeeping." Israel understandably wants the output of the BP-sponsored Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan whoever controls it, yet until now they've been neck-deep in arming and training the Georgian military. How deep? Georgia's minister of defense, for example, is a citizen of Israel.

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Russian threat to NATO supply route in Afghanistan

Russia played a trump card in its strategic poker game with the West yesterday by threatening to suspend an agreement allowing Nato to take supplies and equipment to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia.

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The Eurasian Corridor: Pipeline geopolitics and the New Cold War

The ongoing crisis in the Caucasus is intimately related to the strategic control over energy pipeline and transportation corridors.

There is evidence that the Georgian attack on South Ossetia on August 7 was carefully planned. High level consultations were held with US and NATO officials in the months preceding the attacks.

The attacks on South Ossetia were carried out one week after the completion of extensive US - Georgia war games (July 15-31st, 2008). They were also preceded by high level Summit meetings held under the auspices of GUAM, a US-NATO sponsored regional military alliance.

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Ward Churchill???? That's all they've got????

If you want a grim chuckle, check out these videos of protesters interacting with some twit from Fox News. He keeps bringing up Ward Churchill. I think it's supposed to be some sort of smackdown for people on the left.

Stheriousthly.

Link to videos.

The Plot Against Liberal America

The most cherished dream of conservative Washington is that liberalism can somehow be defeated, finally and irreversibly, in the way that armies are beaten and pests are exterminated. Electoral victories by Republicans are just part of the story. The larger vision is of a future in which liberalism is physically barred from the control room -- of an "end of history" in which taxes and onerous regulation will never be allowed to threaten the fortunes private individuals make for themselves. This is the longing behind the former White House aide Karl Rove's talk of "permanent majority" and, 20 years previously, disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's declaration to the Republican convention that it's "the job of all revolutions to make permanent their gains."

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Very Interesting Items at TBR News

The Voice of the White House:

Washington, D.C., August 21, 2008: “Such heart-warming news! High level Republican associates here are talking about the latest ploy on the part of the State of Israel to gain complete control of the United States government. Their idea is to offer the diseased McCain unlimited support from their papers and television stations in return for his putting Joe Lieberman on the ticket as vice president. As McCain is known to be seriously ill and will soon be unable to function, the plan will be for him to retire “for reasons of health” and then Joe Lieberman, loud and persistent Israeli supporter, will step into the Oval Office and America will have her first (unelected) Jewish president. And a firmly dedicated Zionist at that! Many GOP people say putting Lieberman on the ticket will ruin any chance McCain has at the White House. Why? His obvious mental confusion? No, the American public is becoming seriously anti-Semitic and anti-Israel and if McCain attempts to support a universal draft (as he is dead set on doing) and has a rabid Zionist as a running mate, his fall will be great and he will drag the shattered remnants of the Republican Party with him. Thank God!”

Also, the next story: Israel and the Tehran Attack

Vladimir V. Putin: Neo Con

This is such a tremendous article on Russia. Various people in the comments remarked that they have been reading 30 articles a day on this topic and found this article so helpful. I agree. Just imagine how much better off the American people would be if they enjoyed this level of analysis as a matter of course rather than be subjected daily to the rich idiots who spew forth lies in the corporate media. It's sad, but you can know better. - Ed.

About a year ago, the Bush administration and the neocon babble-ocracy began touting Vladimir Putin as America's next Man We Love to Hate. This is odd, since by nearly all standards, Mr. Putin is the most successful neocon on the planet. Or perhaps it's jealousy. Since taking power in 2000, Mr. Putin's Russia has dodged chaos, seen its GDP increase six-fold, its poverty fall by half, average monthly real wages rise by 150% and, with the invasion of Georgia, demonstrated to the world that it can no longer be baited, humiliated or ignored without consequences.

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The great consumer crash of 2009

Great article on the economy. - Ed.

James Quinn is senior director of strategic planning, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

“It is easy to ignore the storm if you look at the opposite horizon. When the storm reaches your location there can be no more ignorance.”

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US and Israel will soon be isolated from the rest of the world

At first glance, the title of this article may sound too incredible to imagine and many (in the US and Israel) will dismiss it as pure fantasy. But is it?

In the last couple of weeks we have seen changes taking place that suggest the balance of global power is beginning to move in a different direction.

Despite the "valiant" efforts of the Mainstream Media (mostly controlled by those supportive of the Bush administration and Israel), in trying to "brainwash" their readers into believing that Russia is now the "bad guy" again. It is encouraging to see that their tactics are not working quite as well as they have done in the past, and people are starting to ask questions.

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Lone accountant takes on IRS and wins

WASHINGTON — It took seven years, but Charles Ulrich did something many people dream about, but few succeed at: He beat the IRS in a tax dispute.

Not only that, but tax experts say potentially millions of other taxpayers could benefit from his victory.

The accountant from Baxter, Minn., challenged the method the IRS has used for more than 20 years to tax shares and cash distributed by mutual life insurance firms to their policyholders when they reorganize as public companies.

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Israeli troops briefly enter Lebanon

Eight Israeli soldiers entered the south Lebanon area of Mais al-Jabal, but pulled out after 15 minutes, a Lebanese daily reported.

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US troops kill 95 villagers in Afghanistan, 50 of them kids

KABUL, Afghanistan: President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned on Saturday a coalition airstrike that he said killed up to 95 Afghans — including 50 children — in a village in western Afghanistan on Friday, and said his government would be announcing measures to prevent the loss of civilian life in the future.

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Readjustments in Pipelineistan

Georgia has long been viewed as an alternative -- indeed, the only alternative -- to trans-Russian transport of Central Asian oil and gas to western markets. To that end, the crown jewel of the movement was the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which saw its opening in May of 2006. Initially, Russia expressed resistance to the BTC pipeline, but viewed it as predictable competition to its near-monopoly on European petroleum delivery, uttering only the occasional diatribe against the project.

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The Big Sting Two

The plan for an economic takedown, the results of rampant market speculations, insiders picking up assets for pennies on the dollar, the coming hyperinflation, the credit crunch, collapse of the dollar carry trade, suppression of metals prices, American meddling in Georgia

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US antifascist to warn Vancouverites about dangerous elites

Obviously, another 'paranoid delusionist' like myself. - Ed.

A retired U.S. air force colonel is coming to Vancouver to warn Canadians about the dangers of corporate influences on governments. Lt.-Col. Bob Bowman, a former Pentagon director of advanced space programs development, told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview that he has been travelling across the U.S. for four and a half months to “wake people up”.

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The Eternal Value of Privacy

The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures -- is this line: "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?"

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Bush to Putin, "get out now!" Putin to Bush, "Nyet!"

When Vladimir Putin heard President Bush demand that Russian troops "leave Georgia territory immediately", he did what any sensible leader of a great nation would do; he yawned, scratched his belly and ambled over to the Kremlin frig to see if there were any left-overs from last night's imperial banquet with the French dignitaries. He may have even smiled wistfully to himself as he peered over the Chicken Kiev and the Siberian cutlets, thinking, "Nyet, George; South Ossetia's future is no longer negotiable".

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The Washington Post won't say what the world knows

Yes, without America there would be no war in Ossetia and no war between Russia and its former constituent part. US ruling Elite went From Stupid to Moronic to Evil

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Harsh words: but true

During a recent stay with a Palestinian family in the West Bank, I found myself in their basement, watching the news with two of my host's sons. The week's events had been particularly violent, with fierce clashes between the Israel defence forces (IDF) and villagers in the town of Nilin, where we were now sitting, as well as reports of a home-made rocket being fired by settlers in the direction of a Palestinian community nearby.

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Debunking NIST's conclusions about WTC7: easy as shooting fish in a barrel

Debunking NIST's conclusions about WTC 7 is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.

Symmetrical Collapse

NIST lamely tried to explain the symmetrically collapse as follows:

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The mainstream media propaganda effort on new WTC7 collapse theory falls in a heap

Yesterday’s release of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) report on the collapse of WTC7 seems to have been carefully coordinated with the mainstream media in an all-out propaganda effort to debunk so-called conspiracy theories that insist that WTC7 collapsed after being rigged with demolition charges which would infer that, due to time constraints, could only have been placed in the building before 9/11.

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Feds say they've solved 9/11 mystery

GAITHERSBURG, Md. (Aug. 21) - Federal investigators said Thursday they have solved a mystery of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: the collapse of World Trade Center building 7, a source of long-running conspiracy theories.

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Twilight of the Psychopaths

“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.” – John Lennon, before his murder by CIA mind-control subject Mark David Chapman

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Our military has no higher duty than to end fascism

As with any civilization, there comes a time where that civilization must choose between right and wrong, commonsense and nonsense, and civility over barbarism. The period immediately after World War II saw the world community questioning the German people on their complicity with the fascist regime that had wrecked havoc and desolation upon the world and was guilty of mass exterminations of millions of human beings. The answer that was often time given was that the average German didn’t see it coming, and that if they knew what the future would bring, they would have never participated in Hitler’s mad schemes. The world never quite forgot the German people’s complicity in the last World War, and they will not forgive the American people for displaying their lack of concern over what our government does in the name of the “American People”.

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Arab regimes cautious, public eager for rising Russia

AMMAN -- Arab leaders are closely and quietly watching the unfolding military conflict between Russia and Georgia, while considering its political repercussions on the global scene and potential impact on the volatile Middle East. The Arab street, meanwhile, is openly backing a resurgent Russia and hopes to see the end of a Washington-centered unipolar world.

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US mercenary chickens will come home to roost

The wholesale privatization of U.S. war-making capabilities continues apace, despite the expected indictment of six Blackwater mercenaries involved in last year’s massacre of Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic jam. Domestically, for-profit prisons are popping up like Wal-Mart superstores, while Katrina brought soldiers of fortune to the streets of a major American city. “As the current corrupt order decays, the rulers find that due process and other niceties of law - including armies operating under codes of military justice and civil service police forces - restrict their freedom.

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Mr Moron Enough is Enough

So you have the colossal audacity, Mr. Bush, to “warn” Russia to pull back? As the wanton, perverse war criminal under whose watch the world saw the crime known as “shock and awe” committed, I’d say you were well out of your mind to suggest that Russia should pull back.

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WW II interrogators got information without torture

Many people have noted that torture doesn't work as a method for obtaining information.

Now, a group of leading World War II interrogators have broken their silence and confirmed that torture is not needed. As quoted in the Washington Post:

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Russia sends aircraft carrier to Syria

The Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is ready to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus. The mission comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is open for a Russian base in the area.

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NSA may be reading Windows software on your computer

Sooner or later, a country that spies on its neighbors will turn on its own people, violating their privacy, stealing their liberties.

President Bush’s grab for unchecked eavesdropping powers is the culmination of what the National Security Agency(NSA) has spent forty years doing unto others.

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Blood in August: On avoiding WW III

Students of history will always find the month of August a little ominous. In August 1920, the Red Army invading Poland (led by neoconservative hero Leon Trotsky) nearly captured Warsaw and spilled into central Europe, whence it might well have conquered a prostrate Germany, Austria, and Hungary -- just for starters. The heroic Polish defeat of the Soviet forces will always be known in that land as the "Miracle of the Vistula," since the battle raged in the octave of the Feast of the Assumption, and many Polish soldiers claimed that they saw Our Lady appear over the battlefield, which spurred them on to fight.

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Russia cancels all military cooperation with NATO

Russia, apparently stung by NATO's condemnation of its military action in Georgia, plans to cease all military exercises with Norway and other NATO members.

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Olmert warns Israelis next war will hit their cities

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Tuesday that the next war with Lebanon would involve attacks on Israel's cities, and threatened that the Jewish state would hit back "harder than before."

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Syria: Time ripe for closer Russian military ties

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the conflict in the Caucasus underlines the need for Russia and Syria to expand military ties.

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The Narrative Versus the News

he degeneration of journalism into "infotainment" has been bemoaned by the mandarins of the profession ever since the cable news revolution knocked the networks off their pedestal. Now the Internet is overtaking the cable channels as the place news consumers go to get their infotainment fix – or, alternatively, where they go to find out what the mainstream media isn't telling us. In any case, the perception of a rapid degeneration of the news-gathering business into something other than journalism is not exactly a new complaint. What is new is that this long-standing complaint has a fresh angle on it. With the entire concept of reporting the "news" already endangered, the hysterical warmongering that followed in the wake of 9/11 completed the process of degeneration begun long ago. In the post-9/11 world, the news, as such, no longer exists: what we have now is a "narrative."

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Russia and Georgia

It's said that Russia's response to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia is disproportionate: we hear of "Western leaders anxiously watching for a withdrawal and puzzling over how to punish Moscow for what they called a disproportionate reaction to the Georgian offensive". No one has asked whether a disproportionate reaction or response is always wrong.

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USA and Israel knew beforehand of Georgian attack on Ossetia? Well, duh!

Georgia in US-financed arms race for war on Abkhazia, South Ossetia, from The Tiraspol Times, independent news from Moldova.

Written by Jason Cooper.

From 11/Nov/2007.

Read the date again, please.

Got it?

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Are You Ready for Nuclear War?

Pervez Musharraf, the puppet installed by the US to rule Pakistan in the interest of US hegemony, resigned August 18 to avoid impeachment. Karl Rove and the Diebold electronic voting machines were unable to control the result of the last election in Pakistan, the result of which gave Pakistanis a bigger voice in their government than America’s.

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The US missile defense system is the magic pudding that will never run out

It's a novel way to take your own life. Just as Russia demonstrates what happens to former minions that annoy it, Poland agrees to host a US missile defence base. The Russians, as Poland expected, respond to this proposal by offering to turn the country into a parking lot. This proves that the missile defence system is necessary after all: it will stop the missiles Russia will now aim at Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK in response to, er, their involvement in the missile defence system.

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Sibel Edmunds Case: FBI files formal complaint with Sunday Times

Last week, Scott Horton interviewed (audio) investigative journalist Joe Lauria. Lauria was one of the co-authors of the three-part (1, 2, 3) series on the case of former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds for the UK's Sunday Times.

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If we could speak to the people, what would we say?

If we could reach beyond the news filter that keeps real news from the
American people, what would we say? If we figured-out how to get one message
out to the people, what could we say that would actually motivate them to
take a stand for themselves, for their families, for their country and their
world?

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Russia considers nuclear missiles for Syria, Mediterranean, Baltic

This site has a lot of good articles about the situation with Russia. - Ed.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report Moscow’s planned retaliation for America’s missile interceptors in Poland and US-Israeli military aid to Georgia may come in the form of installing Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.

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Court: Passengers can challenge no-fly list

Critics of the government's secret no-fly list scored a potentially important victory Monday when a federal appeals court ruled that would-be passengers can ask a judge and jury to decide whether their inclusion on the list violates their rights.

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Crisis in the Caucasus. What were they smoking in the White House

The Bush administration appears to have pulled off its latest military fiasco in the Caucasus. What was supposed to have been a swift and painless takeover of rebellious South Ossetia by America’s favorite new ally, Georgia, has turned into a disaster that left Georgia battered, Russia enraged, and NATO badly demoralized. Not bad for two days work.

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US - Iran War: Intentions Unclear, Israel and Israel Lobby Press for War

by William H. White at Concord Bridge Coalition

Mixed Signals

After months of increasing expectations that the Bush administration was preparing to attack Iran, a series of events in the last few weeks indicated a possible shift in strategy. The central question about these events, listed below, is whether they represent a genuine shift away from intended war making, or are just repositioning designed to enhance conditions for the long-planned attack on Iran?

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George, Stay out of Georgia

What interests does the United States have at stake in the war between Russia and Georgia? Only one: that we remain out of it.

It almost passes belief to think that the Bush administration, bogged down in two wars and planning a third (with Iran), might move toward a confrontation with Russia. Yet that is what the White House appears to be doing. The August 11 Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that

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Georgia Update from Ruppert

GEORGIA UPDATE -- August 16, 2008 4:15 PM PDT --
Increased risk for nuclear confrontation as Poland and Ukraine feel the sting


Things have passed exactly as forecast in my first report. Looking beneath the headlines the situation is developing in a way that is guaranteed to produce a major "no turning back" confrontation rather than a softening of tensions. I pray for sanity on both sides.

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This is the power of the internet and why our corporate governments are trying to control it

As was previously stated, there is a very good possibility that the World War III option is an attempt to control the Internet by eliminating Net Neutrality and online free speech. It appears that the boundaries set between countries through treaties are vanishing due to the exponential dissemination of information through the Net. This is in conflict with the wishes of the oligarchy who are willing to do anything to maintain control.

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Arab world fears an Iran war may be impending

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that the Iranian satellite carrier space launch Sunday, Aug. 17, was prompted by a joint caution to Tehran from Saudi King Abdullah and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

After their meeting Saturday, the spokesman of the presidential palace in Cairo, Suleiman Awwad, said: Iran should not present on a silver platter the “justifications and pretexts for those [US and Israel] who want to drag the region down a dangerous slope.”

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Americans play Monopoly, Russians chess

On the night of November 22, 2004, then-Russian president - now premier - Vladimir Putin watched the television news in his dacha near Moscow. People who were with Putin that night report his anger and disbelief at the unfolding "Orange" revolution in Ukraine. "They lied to me," Putin said bitterly of the United States. "I'll never trust them again." The Russians still can't fathom why the West threw over a potential strategic alliance for Ukraine. They underestimate the stupidity of the West.

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Election fraud is NOT the real problem, the entire system is corrupt

I am tired of hearing pathetic Democrats cry about stolen elections. Fine...it has been proven that George W. Bush and his handlers stole the last two presidential elections. The evidence is voluminous. The fact is that we have been living under the rule of enemies domestic for almost eight years and Congress, along with our military, have allowed these enemies of the state to remain in control of our government. Doesn't that tell you something? Don't you see a larger problem here?

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FBI Admits it destroyed evidence in Anthrax case

According to the Associated Press:

"FBI scientists early on had — but destroyed — the unique strain of anthrax used in the deadly 2001 attacks that years later would lead them to Dr. Bruce Ivins...:

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Musharraf resigns

Islamabad, Aug 18: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Monday announced that he was stepping down from the post, amid tremendous pressure from the ruling coalition government to do so. “For the sake of the nation and people, I’m resigning. I don’t want anything from anybody. I’m not vindictive. Let the people be the judges. Let them do justice. I’m going with the belief that I have done everything for the nation with honesty,” Musharraf said in a live televised address to the nation.

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Iran warned not to allow war pretext

Following a meeting this weekend between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah, Iran was told not to allow the U.S. and Israel to create a pretext for a military attack, a warning interpreted by Tehran that an impending attack is on the horizon.

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South Ossetia: A Gaza of their Own

Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is directly responsible for supreme war crimes of aggressive war and genocide within a larger campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Russians and ethnic Ossetes of South Ossetia — a secessionist region of Georgia that has declared its independence, once by war and more recently by landslide referendum.

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Concerns raised over suspicious deaths of 24 bio-scientists

OVER THE PAST SEVEN YEARS, more than two dozen of the world’s most esteemed microbiologists—all of whom were focused on combating bioterrorism—have died under questionable circumstances.

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"I was murdered!! Can you hear me?"

Can you hear me as I scream out from my watery grave in the Mediterranean Sea? Can you hear me from the tomb in the mass grave at Arlington National Cemetery? Can you hear me from my grave in the rolling hills of Kentucky? Can you hear me from my grave next to Mom & Dad’s house in Wisconsin? I am in many graves throughout this land in America. Can you hear me, so my death was not in vain?

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Georgia: Israel's Home Sweet Home

The Israeli Georgian Connection is more than a thousand years old. Most of the Jewish residents of Israel are of the same stock as of the Jews of Georgia. None should be shocked to discover the depth of Israel’s involvement in the Georgian/Russian conflict.

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NYT article on Nouriel Roubini as 'Dr Doom'

The New York Times has published a long article/profile about me – available online here – that appears in print on their glossy Sunday Magazine.

The article is a very friendly and sympathetic portrait of my views. I would take issue only with the characterization of myself as being a “perma-bear” or “perpetual pessimist”. For one thing I ended up a realist rather than a pessimist about the current economic and financial crisis; things are turning out even worse than I initially predicted.

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Mr Sarkozy and the CIA. Based on Thierry Meyssan's 'Operation Sarkozy'

A most interesting study dated 14th July 2008 by Thierry Meyssan, entitled Operation Sarkozy, has been brought to my attention on how the CIA managed to place one of its agents, namely Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, as president of the French Republic.

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Condoleeza Rice, what is wrong with you?

Are you hysterical or what? Having a difficult menopause? How many times do we have to tell you, Russia calls the shots these days. So keep your hysterical whining to yourself and stop reiterating the same thing time and time again. Russia will withdraw from Georgia when it sees fit.

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Putin's winning hand: Once the atlantic alliance is shattered, America's lifeline to the world is kaput

by Mike Whitney

August 16, 2008

There are no military installations in the city of Tskhinvali. In fact, there are no military targets at all. It is an industrial center consisting of lumber mills, manufacturing plants and residential areas. It is also the home to 30,000 South Ossetians. When Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered the city to be bombed by warplanes and shelled by heavy artillery last Thursday, he knew that he would be killing hundreds of civilians in their homes and neighborhoods. But he ordered the bombing anyway.

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US steels Israel to counter 'Iran threat'

The pretend 'Iran threat' is costing US taxpayers a lot of money, but it certainly is good for Raytheon. - Ed.

Washington has agreed to deploy early-warning radar defense systems to Negev desert to help Israel counter Iran's ballistic missiles.

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When government suspends 'rights', tyranny inevitably follows

History proves that there is always advance warning when governments enter the final stages of transitioning from freedom to tyranny. The three most obvious warnings are sounded when government begins openly spying on people, publicly punishing opinions and raising up standing armies. The U.S. government and its state, county, municipal and corporate minions have legalized unwarranted surveillance, searches and seizures; those who speak and write in opposition to government policies are subject to punishments ranging from character assassination and harassment to prison sentences and sudden, suspicious deaths and; police at all levels are being militarized in dress, weaponry, demeanor and tactics. What Thomas Jefferson pointed out as historical fact over 200 years ago is supported in contemporary experience as described by Ron Paul. The truth is plain to see: The U.S. government has become obsessed with surveillance and the enforcement of its increasingly unpopular policies with militarized police authority.

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Disturbing Video: Detention camp set up for DNC protestors and mass arrests

Denver officials weren't planning to reveal details about where activists would be detained in the event of mass arrests during the Democratic National Convention until after the event had started, but those plans were quickly dashed this week when CBS 4News reporter Rick Sallinger not only revealed that protesters would be locked up in a city-owned warehouse, but he also obtained clear video footage inside the facility, a building that includes barbed wire-topped cages and signs warning of stun-gun use.

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Wary of modern law enforcement

Please don't kill me, put your hands in my pockets or search my private property.

1. I am wearing a chrome plated seat belt.

2. I may be reaching for my wallet or pocketbook.

3. I may have a cell phone in my hand (calling my mom to let her know the police have pulled me over).

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Fox Viewers Briefly Exposed to Truth, Host Cites "Gray Areas" in War

The Bush Hordes

The republicans, led by a moron who doesn’t speak the King’s English, have managed to destroy much of what Americans loved most about their country. Among the first casualties was the trust that had existed between the U.S. and other world powers. Another step back has been the steady erosion of American influence in the world. At home, Bush & Co. have been steadily chopping away at the American people’s Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. Americans have, for the first time, seen their nation assume pariah status among the world community as it expands its influence by war instead of goodwill. The world community is increasingly skeptical of the American voter’s judgment, and few have forgotten the coup-de-tat that delivered Bush to office. “Walk softly and carry a big stick,” has been replaced by “Bring ‘em on.”

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Russia the bad guys? Who are the West trying to kid?

As Russian forces started to hand over control of the Georgian town of Gori yesterday, you could detect a note of surprise, even disappointment, in many media reports. So the all-out Russian invasion of plucky little democratic Georgia might not be going to happen after all. Could it be that the bear was drawing in his claws?

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Missile Defense: Washington and Poland just moved the world closer to war

The signing on August 14 of an agreement between the governments of the United States and Poland to deploy on Polish soil US ‘interceptor missiles’ is the most dangerous move towards nuclear war the world has seen since the 1962 Cuba Missile crisis. Far from a defensive move to protect European NATO states from a Russian nuclear attack, as military strategists have pointed out, the US missiles in Poland pose a total existential threat to the future existence of the Russian nation. The Russian Government has repeatedly warned of this since US plans were first unveiled in early 2007. Now, despite repeated diplomatic attempts by Russia to come to an agreement with Washington, the Bush Administration, in the wake of a humiliating US defeat in Georgia, has pressured the Government of Poland to finally sign the pact. The consequences could be unthinkable for Europe and the planet.

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Wag the Dog: How to conceal massive economic collapse

Last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had just announced record losses, and so had most reporting corporations. Unemployment was mounting, the foreclosure crisis was deepening, state budgets were in shambles, and massive bailouts were everywhere. Investors had every reason to expect the dollar and the stock market to plummet, and gold and oil to shoot up. Strangely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 300 points, the dollar strengthened, and gold and oil were crushed. What happened?

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Experts accuse Bush admin of foot-dragging on DNS security hole

What's the hurry? This security hole could be really handy when making up an i-9/11 to justify shutting down the internet and blacking out coverage of world crimes. - Ed.

Despite a recent high-profile vulnerability that showed the net could be hacked in minutes, the domain name system -- a key internet infrastructure -- continues to suffer from a serious security weakness, thanks to bureaucratic inertia at the U.S. government agency in charge, security experts say.

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US rules out military role in Georgia but warns Russia off

Washington last night ruled out using military force in Georgia after putting the Pentagon in charge of the delivery of aid to the invaded Black Sea state and US non-combat troops on the ground. Robert Gates, the defence secretary, said he saw no prospect of the US engaging militarily in the Caucasus conflict, but warned that Russia's invasion of Georgia could set back its relations with the west for years.

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Gorbachev: Georgia started conflict in S. Ossetia

Georgian leaders may be blaming Russia for the conflict raging in South Ossetia, but former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said Thursday "there is no doubt" that Georgia provoked the clash.

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Israel clears troops who killed Reuters cameraman, eight other Palestinians

An Israeli tank crew who killed a Reuters cameraman and eight young bystanders in the Gaza Strip four months ago acted properly and will not face legal action, Israel’s senior military lawyer has concluded.

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Report: US troops abroad giving 6x more to Obama than McCain

A new analysis shows the vast majority of US troops serving abroad have donated to candidates running on strong anti-war platforms, with presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama out-raising his Republican opponent by a 6-to-1 margin.

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Putin walks into a trap?

The American-armed and trained Georgian army swarmed into South Ossetia last Thursday, killing an estimated 2,000 civilians, sending 40,000 South Ossetians fleeing over the Russian border, and destroying much of the capital, Tskhinvali. The attack was unprovoked and took place a full 24 hours before even ONE Russian soldier set foot in South Ossetia. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans still believe that the Russian army invaded Georgian territory first.

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