1. Why would even 20% trust a bunch of lying criminals?
“Majority of Americans distrust the government: survey
Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they do not trust the U.S. government to do what is right, expressing the highest level of distrust in Washington in half a century”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041900117_pf.html
2. “Populism, Left and Right
Why the establishment hates it
I have long been of the opinion that the 9/11 attacks impacted with such physical and psychological force that they caused a rift in the space-time continuum, and the Bizarro-McCarthyism that has maddened the progressive left provides yet more validation of this theory. In Bizarro World, where up is down and right is left, we have witch-hunts against those suspected of harboring “anti-government” sympathies: that is, they are in favor of freedom – an obviously subversive concept, which must be ruthlessly exposed and suppressed.
A similar reaction is taking place, to a lesser extent, on the establishment (i.e. neoconservative) right. David Frum, the Bush speechwriter and co-author of the “axis of evil” catchphrase, has become the liberal establishment’s favorite interview subject because he now spends all his time attacking “right-wing extremism,” most especially the explicitly libertarian elements of the tea party movement. He has set up his own movement, which might be called the “Scoop Jackson Republicans,” and a Web site where one can go for regular denunciations of the tea partiers and pleas for Republicans to moderate their message – except when it comes to foreign policy, naturally enough. In that realm, it’s the same old Republican invade-the- world globaloney: Iraq was a “victory,” Afghanistan is a necessity, and Israel must be defended and succored no matter the damage to demonstrable American interests.
…
Not content with going overseas in search of monsters to destroy, the current administration and its supporters are conjuring them right here at home. In any case, creating monsters, both real and imagined, is the one thing the US government is really good at.
Our elites hate populism in all its forms simply because it threatens their power, their privileges, their pelf and their prestige: populism is by definition a revolt against the elites, in government and society. Worst of all, from a ruling class perspective, is populism of the “antigovernment” variety, because it threatens the source and symbol of their power: what Murray Rothbard called the Welfare-Warfare State.
The maintenance of this apparatus of power, both at home and abroad, in straitened economic circumstances, requires tightening the belts of ordinary citizens – while the elites, of course, continue to fatten at the public trough. With the worldwide economic downturn, they know their hegemony is at risk, and so they’re arming themselves, politically and legally, against the onslaught of popular rage they expect – and deserve.”
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/04/18/populism-left-and-right/
3. “Goldman Cracks
Given the tremendous water pressure involved, even a small crack in a huge dam can lead to catastrophic failure.
Similarly, even a small breach in a seemingly invincible army’s defenses can lead to defeat.
…
Even if the timing of the SEC’s announcement was wholly political (some commentators have called it bread and circuses or kabuki theater), and even if (as some writers have alleged) Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein himself approved the action as a way to diffuse pressure for bigger, criminal prosecutions against bigger players, tons of public pressure and hordes of lawyers are probably on their way.
Or perhaps Goldman is like the warlord hated – but feared – by all. If there is ever a crack in the warlord’s veneer of invincibility, the locals might realize that he is only human after all … and decide they can – together as a group – take him on.”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/04/goldman-cracks.html
4. “Release of Student Information to Military Recruiters
Law will protect student privacy in public schools and parental decision-making rights
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a measure into law today that prohibits the automatic release of student information to military recruiters gathered as a result of the administration of a military test in the state’s high schools.
…
The law will ensure that the decision to share test results and accompanying private information with military recruiters rests solely in the hands of students and their parents. Maryland is the first state to pass such a law.”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18707
5. And you’re surprised you’re lied to?
“The Pentagon’s Fantasy Numbers on Afghan Civilian Deaths
The documented Afghan civilians killed were not participating in war-making activities [e.g., working in munitions factories, etc] and, therefore, had not forfeited their right to immunity from attack. In effect, as an astute scholar has noted, I am turning Michael Walzer’s notion of ‘due care’ upside down: that is, far from acknowledging a positive responsibility to protect innocent Afghans from the misery of war, U.S. military strategists chose to impose levels of harm upon innocent Afghan civilians to reduce present and possible future dangers faced by U.S. forces.[30]
Though sometimes swayed by military casualties, the American public has been consistently indifferent to collateral damage, in effect mirroring the U.S military stance.[31] But at least the U.S military recognized in 2009 that high levels of “collateral damage” in Afghanistan fuelled the resistance and consequently did reduce the number of airstrikes. These were simply replaced by escalating numbers of deadly ground raids.[32] The U.S military has justified such night-time raids as being necessary to better protect the attacking U.S. forces. For an Afghan family, it matters little whether execution of relatives comes from the skies or Special Operations Forces breaking down doors at midnight.
Conclusion
General McChrystal’s data provided an opportunity to reveal Pentagon lying (or incompetence) to all, but only the libertarians rose to the occasion. The mainstream U.S media, Obama cultists, and much of the U.S antiwar movement persist in blithely quoting UNAMA and consuming Pentagon and embedded “patriotic” U.S reporters’ characterizations of America’s War in Afghanistan. Where is the American like Jerome Starkey (of the Times of London) or Chris Sands (of the UAE’s The National) or the intrepid reporters of Pajhwok Afghan News presenting the uncomfortable, un-embedded truths from on-the-ground in Afghanistan?”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18718
