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Harvey Wasserman: For Obama it's one (term) if by war, two if by peace - As the world awaits Barack Obama's decision on Afghanistan, a lethal myth has spread. It says that standing up to the military will doom him to be a single-term president. More >>

Aung San Suu Kyi, Omar Khadr, and Barack Obama: A dreadful tale of what America has become - During his trip to Asia, President Obama called for the government of Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi, a noted dissident who has spent years under house arrest. It made headlines, a fact which tells us more about the role of media as an outlet for government ... More >>

Connie Lawn: US President Barack Obama Talks New Zealand Defence & Trade With Scoop
- President Obama has provided positive answers to a number of questions about New Zealand. Scoop's White House reporter, Connie Lawn, posed the questions a few weeks ago. She had been hoping to get an interview with the President, before... More >>

Gordon Campbell: The Selective Targeting Of Beenie Man - Reportedly, Big Day Out organizers have backed down from their original intention to include the Jamaican dancehall musician Beenie Man in the next BDO festival line-up in January. The reason has been the public pressure from gay activists who have been ... More >>

Dave Cohen: The Oil Situation Is Really Bad - On the eve of the International Energy Agency’s release of its annual World Energy Outlook (WEO), a whistleblower at the IEA claims the agency “has been deliberately underplaying a looming [oil] shortage for fear of triggering panic buying” in the... More >>

Franklin Lamb: Lebanese Students Advise President Obama How To Get It Right - If those in Lebanon watching the news on 11/12/09 blinked they might have missed an interesting news item. It appeared at approximately 4:20 pm on Narharnet.com , the pro-US/Saudi news website. More >>

How We Got To Zero: General Eikenberry's Hail Mary - WASHINGTON -- The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials ... More >>

Uri Avnery: Scoundrel With Permission - This means that no war has broken out, no suicide bomb has exploded, no Qassam rocket has been launched at Sderot. Ahmadinejad has not test-fired a new missile that can reach Tel Aviv. Just another murder. Not that Israel is the world’s murder capital. ... More >>

The Sensuous Revolt: An Education - Sixteen-year old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is predictably impressionable. Intelligence and the odd cutting remark might equip her for the classroom joust and parents in suburban Twickenham. But she has much growing up to do, something which is given ... More >>

Stateside: Veterans Day, 2009 - On the bus on the way home from the movie I went to this afternoon, I asked the person sitting next to me if there was an LP by Boston among all the records I could see in his shopping bag, and which he had been trying to unsuccessfully sell to a second-hand ... More >>

Lyndon Hood: ETS Amendment Submission - The most notable change brought about by this bill would be giving polluters, to 2050, one hundred billion dollars. I am right behind that idea, but the proposed system for delivering the money is unnecessarily complicated. More >>

Hide and Seek: The Truth About Rodney and Roger - There's a wonderful column by Rosemary McLeod in the Dom-Post this morning (12 November). She skewers the grotesqueries of Rodney Hide's apparently bizarre behaviour beautifully. But even Rosemary has missed something important about this whole affair. More >>

Related:

• Adrian Maidment - Cartoon: Rodney Hide at the Airport

Gordon Campbell: Obama’s Latest Surrender To Israel - President Barack Obama’s single most important foreign policy decision during 2009 has been his recent backdown over requiring Israel to abandon the building of settlements in the occupied territories. Beforehand, this was to be a precondition for peace... More >>

Tearing Down Walls: Berlin Twenty Years After - Twenty years have passed since a vision collapsed. For it was not just the Berlin Wall that fell in November 1989, but a social and political project that began with Vladimir Lenin at the Finland Station. The novelist Günter Grass’ version of two ... More >>

Creating The Global Nonprofit Corporation: The Ultimate Cooperative - At the end of my last article about the future of humankind as either being a Utopia or an Idiocracy, I stated that if we do not in parallel of those who are in power build our own institutions for humankind, we will never even get a glimpse of what ... More >>

Nothing In A Name: The Fort Hood Killings - Virginia-born Major Nidal Malik Hasan, in a ten-minute orgy of killing at the Texas military base of Fort Hood last week, is now in custody recovering from his wounds. Thirteen people (twelve soldiers and a civilian) were killed, and thirty injured... More >>

Ramzy Baroud: How Israel Won The Settlement Battle Again - When British Foreign Secretary David Miliband uttered a few words regarding the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, many wanted to believe that London was taking a sharp stance against Israel’s continued violations of international ... More >>

Martin LeFevre: Catholic Or Universal? - I had an aunt that was a nun in the Catholic Church. Even as a kid, I never saw her as religious person however. She was a career woman in a black habit, at a time when there were two choices for Catholic women: marry a man and have kids; or marry Jesus ... More >>

Gordon Campbell: Powers Of Search And Surveillance - Does the Search and Surveillance Bill, as the NZ Herald has recently maintained, really give a web of state agencies ‘sweeping powers to spy, bug conversations and hack into private computers’ ? Or is this all based on a ‘remarkable misunderstanding'... More >>

Seymour Hersh reports: US Pressing To Shore Up Security For Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons - Washington has been negotiating secret and “highly sensitive understandings” to “provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis,” investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports. “The secrecy surrounding the understandings was important because... More >>

Richard S. Ehrlich: America Won't Lift Sanctions Unless Suu Kyi is Freed for Election - BANGKOK, Thailand -- Burma must free Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and allow her to participate in a nationwide election, otherwise the vote will not be credible and U.S. economic sanctions will not be lifted, a U.S. State Department official ... More >>

Uri Avnery: A Line In The Sand - MAHMOUD ABBAS is fed up. The day before yesterday he withdrew his candidacy for the coming presidential election in the Palestinian Authority. I understand him. He feels betrayed. And the traitor is Barack Obama. More >>

Stateside With Rosalea Barker: Michigan - Is there any word that more trippingly trips off the lips than “Kalamazoo”? I think not. This city in SW Michigan began life as Bronson, named after the settler who first claimed the land and built a hut there in 1829, Titus Bronson . He wasn’t ... More >>

Jason Leopold: US House of Representatives Passes Sweeping Health Care Reform Legislation - Saturday began with a morning pep talk from President Obama during a private meeting with Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill and a public appeal from the presidential podium in the Rose Garden shortly thereafter. More >>

ALSO:
• Michael Collins - The Forgotten Question in the Health Care Debate
• Pres. Obama - Remarks on House Passing Health Care

Michael Collins: Foreign Contributions and the Supreme Court's Overdue Decision on Campaign Funding - The Supreme Court of the United States will soon announce a major decision on our lightly controlled system of campaign funding. Will it retain some limitations on corporate influence or will the court blow the lid off and cause a perpetual flood ... More >>

Scoop Media: Noam Chomsky "Very Glad To See" Evolution Exposé - We are greatly honored to be able to share the comments of MIT professor and beloved activist Noam Chomsky on the cover of Suzan Mazur’s book: The Altenberg 16 : An Exposé of the Evolution Industry More>>

From the Hood: Looking beyond the veil into news beyond our own - From time to time, Scoop gets email from alternate universes. I don’t mean the press releases written by individuals who, while inhabiting this physical world, are mentally on another planet entirely. If we were to reject PR from these people we would, frankly, have nothing to publish. More >>

ALSO:

• Werewolf Issue 5

Martin LeFevre: Evolution And Spirituality - A local Lutheran church, which is considered one of the more progressive faiths in this town and country, has an astounding declaration on its home page. “We believe that Genesis chapters one and two are factual accounts of creation and we therefore reject the false teaching of evolution... More >>

Jim Miles: Reflections On Michael Moore’s Capitalism - The thrift in me allowed me to wait until Michael Moore’s “Capitalism - A Love Story” came out on second run theatres - it was well worth the wait. The powerful effect that Moore has on his audience derives from the personal stories he relates ... More >>

Chomsky: President Obama Continues Bush Policy To Control Middle East Oil - Political activist Noam Chomsky says that although President Obama views the Iraq invasion merely as “a mistake” or “strategic blunder,” it is, in fact, a “major crime” designed to enable America to control the Middle East oil reserves. More >>

Martha Rosenberg: Agribusiness Attacks "Omnivore" Michael Pollan - Even if agribusiness could shut Michael Pollan up, the outspoken author of Omnivore's Dilemma and a journalism professor at University of California, Berkeley, it still has the Los Angeles Times to contend with. Last month, the Times blasted California ... More >>

Failure By Design: The "Public" Option - Do you know what the ''public option'' does or who it covers? If you've had trouble finding out, it's not your fault. Reading the corporate media coverage provides little or no clue. It's hardly ever defined. There's a very good reason for the lack of... More >>

Richard S. Erlich: Thailand & Cambodia Argue About Thaksin & The Coup - BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand and Cambodia have descended into a loud political feud about Bangkok's 2006 coup, and Thailand's current threat to demand the extradition of its fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The rift between the two ... More >>

Gather to the Chapel: Destiny Churchism in Theory and Practice
Amidst the terror and debauchery of the Old Testament are some passages of striking intrigue and beauty. Among these is Psalm 79 - a passage I was drawn to ponder during a recent visit to a ‘Miracle Faith Healing’ service held by one of our country’s... More >>

The Serbian Iron Lady Returns: Biljana Plavsic And Modern Justice - The only woman convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has returned to Serbia. Biljana Plavsic, former Bosnian Serb President (1996-8), had spent two-thirds of her 11-year sentence in a Swedish prison after being convicted... More >>

Globalization and terror: Dollar militarism, ALBA humanism - Many themes of global importance inter-relate when discussing events in Central America. An apparently simple discussion of local developments in the Nicaraguan economy ends up covering global issues. One has to look at the role of the dollar, the price of ... More >>

Martin LeFevre: Free The United Nations! - Fittingly, when you click on the official button for United Nations Day (October 24) it takes an inordinate amount of time for Ban Ki Moon’s brief message to load up. Most people give up; a few look elsewhere. More >>

Disoyal Opposition In The US: Fox News vs The White House - Paul Buchanan writes whether or not the so-called “war” between the White House & Fox TV is a carefully crafted plan by Obama’s advisors to expose divisions within the Republican Party, it still highlights a case of disloyal opposition in a democracy. More >>

UN Agencies: US Blockade of Cuba Undermines Their Work - In a report recently posted on the United Nations website [i] , numerous United Nations agencies condemned the United States blockade of Cuba, saying it impacts on their – and the Cuban Government’s - ability to provide prompt and affordable humanitarian... More >>

Product Launches: "News To Make You Feel Good" - In times like this, with bird flu, SARS, killer dogs and ‘Internet Hackers’, New Zealanders need a pleasurable laugh or two. The The Weekly Coitus can now deliver that pleasure. More>>

Franklin P Lamb: A Rare Victory For Lebanon’s Palestinians - Known simply as “ the General” Michel Naim Aoun was born in a peaceful mixed Christian-Shia area of Haret Hreik, now a core Hezbollah area. He rose from poverty to become the head of Lebanon’s newly created Eighth army following the September ... More >>

Sherwood Ross: Chomsky Receives Highest Pentagon Honor - The Pentagon has paid anti-war activist Noam Chomsky the highest honor any totalitarian entity can bestow upon an author: they’ve banned his book “Interventions” at Guantanamo Bay prison. They won’t say precisely why they “honored” Chomsky... More >>

Heading for the Tiber: Benedict XVI and the Anglican Church - Pope Benedict XVI is nothing if not wily. The Catholic Church issued a call last week stating that it would enable Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism, thereby undermining an already conflicted Church amounting to 77 million followers. Disaffected ... More >>

Nanette Woonton in Majuro: Pacific people talk strategy on how to adapt to climate change - Twenty years ago, the Marshall Islands was home to one of the first Pacific islands regional climate change conferences held. Now, two decades later, the Marshall Islands is host yet again to another Pacific climate change conference... More >>

Alberto Cruz:The UN Reforms - “Responsibility To Protect” (R2P) - The Nobel Prize awarded to the United States President is a sarcastic joke ; they say he received it for his work in favour of a New World Order and for his “move towards multilateralism”. But if anyone has worked hard for that New World Order... More >>

Gordon Campbell: Anne Tolley’s 19th Century Approach To Education - Remember National’s election promise to return New Zealand to the top half of the OECD tables? In government, its moves in education seem motivated more by a desire to return New Zealand to the golden age of Victorianism... More >>

Martha Rosenberg: Think Disease Mongering Started with Direct-to-Consumer Ads? Think Again - The photo looks like John Travolta or Divine playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Under the bangs of a Dynel doll wig a ''floozy'' with nasolabial folds, male facial features and leathery skin mugs for the camera--coquettish hair bow, mod sunglasses... More >>

Jason Leopold: Torture Diaries Should Be Given To Defense Counsel - Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah is expected to finally gain access to diaries he wrote during the years while he was being tortured by CIA interrogators. A federal court judge has ordered the government to turn over unredacted volumes of the diaries... More >>

Connie Lawn: Washington Thoughts - You could hear the arm twisting from Kabul, Afghanistan to New Zealand. Hamid Kharzi was presented with an offer he could not refuse. He suddenly saw the light, and agreed to run- off Presidential elections for November the 7th. Of course, they could be... More >>

A Censored Headline and why it Matters: German High Court Outlaws Electronic Voting - (Oct 20-- DailyCensored.Com ) The justices above are clearly the most rational group of high level functionaries in the industrialized world. They did what no other court would do in Europe or the United States. They effectively outlawed electronic voting... More >>

Syria’s Golan Heights: Can International law forestall a Golanian intifada? - Nationals from nearly one-third of the 192 member states of the United Nations met in Damascus last week to discuss the Return/Liberation of the Golan Heights. An estimated 5000 researchers, Lawyers, politicians, activists, victims of Israel’s 42 years ... More >>

Richard S Ehrlich: U.S. Appeals to Extradite Russia's Alleged "Merchant of Death" - BANGKOK, Thailand -- Newly obtained documents, prepared by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), portray an elaborate sting operation to capture alleged weapons trafficker Viktor Bout in Bangkok, and America's current appeal to extradite him ... More >>

Martin LeFevre: Sound And Meditation - On one of the last days of the year before winter sets in in the mountains, I drive up to Lassen Volcanic National Park, the entrance of which is only about an hour and a half from here. Lassen is one of the least visited national parks in America, ... More >>

Rosalea Barker: A Trip Down Under In Pictures - The US flag atop the new drilling rig next to the road to my birthplace was in tatters by the time I left town a week later, shredded by the south wind that had brought unseasonal snowfalls early in the week of my visit and dressing my beloved mountain... More >>

Gordon Campbell: Managing The Press Gallery, Afghanistan - As a free fire exercise in which anything at all can be raised, the Prime Minister’s post Cabinet press conference should be a rewarding experience – and it commonly does set the political agenda for the next 48 hours. Yesterday though was a prime... More >>

Uri Avnery: The Slippery Slope - IT IS, of course, all the fault of Judge Richard Goldstone. He is to blame for it, as he is to blame for all the other ills that are befalling us now. He is to blame for the trouble we are having at the UN, both in New York and in Geneva. For the ... More >>

Earlier:
• Ramzy Baroud - Abbas and the Goldstone Report
• United Nations - Recent UN Probe Into Gaza Conflict
• UN Watch - Withdrawal of the Goldstone Resolution
• Ramzy Baroud - Iran’s Nuclear Theater Meant to Divert Attention
• Ramzy Baroud - Will Goldstone's Report Deliver?
• Bruce Clark - The Goldstone Report On Gaza
• Ramzy Baroud - Fighting for the Right to Walk

Andy Worthington: UK Judges Order Release of Details About the Torture of Binyam Mohamed by US Agents - In August 2008, while British resident Binyam Mohamed still languished in a prison cell in Guantánamo, two British High Court judges attempted to inform the public about what, in May 2002, the CIA had told their British counterparts about how they... More >>

Robert Naiman: McChrystal'S 40,000 Troop Hoax - It's a time-honored Washington tradition. If you want to bully the government into doing something unpopular and the public into accepting it, manufacture a false emergency. Iraq war? If you don't approve it, mushroom cloud. Banker or IMF bailout? If you ... More >>

Sherwood Ross: Fraudulent Afghan Election Raises Odds Against U.S. “Success” - The fraudulent Afghan election of last August 20th has delayed the possibility of a new regime taking over promptly to replace the corrupt rule of the discredited, U.S. hand-picked President Hamid Karzai. More >>

Marth Rosenberg: Dog Fighting Among Toddlers At Day Care Center - Fans on their way to the Eagles/Buccaneers game on Sunday were not happy to see Michael Vick protestors with ''Power to the Puppies'' and ''Stop. Think. Boycott.'' signs outside Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. More >>

Harvey Wasserman: Is The Climate Bill Being Fossil/Nuked? - Is the Climate Bill morphing into an excuse to promote fossil fuels and new nuclear power plants? Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) recent promotion of a pro-nuke/pro-drilling/pro-coal agenda in the name of Climate Protection has been highlighted in a New York Times ... More >>

Mapping The Real Deal: Building Your Local Food IQ - Let’s say my normal practice is to grab take-out on the way home from work or hit the grocery store at high speed to buy food processed by strangers thousands of miles away. More >>

John Minto: Infratil Puts The Boot Into Low-Paid Bus Drivers - Last Friday I joined a protest by Auckland bus drivers locked out by their employer, the Infratil-owned NZ Bus company. It was a lively, spirited protest by some 400 drivers and supporters. Many are from the Pacific and an entertaining feast of singing ... More >>

David Cooke: Only For The Economy, Stupid - In tertiary education, the Government means business, and not much else. The draft Tertiary Education Strategy starts by firmly bolting education to work and the economy, and never wavers in its focus. It does have some passing references to profile items... More >>

Gordon Campbell: The Rugby World Cup Bids - There seem to be two Rugby World Cups taking place in 2011. One is an absolutely splendid affair being overseen by RWC Minister Murray McCully that will pour $500 million into our national and local economies, and attract big spending visitors ... More >>

Stateside With Rosalea Barker: Arkansas - No sooner had the 25th state been admitted to the Union in 1836 than controversy erupted over the spelling and pronunciation of its name. One of its US Senators demanded to be introduced as the Gentleman from AR-kan-SAW and the other wanted to be introduced ... More >>

Martin LeFevre: Obama’s Foreboding Nobel - A week after the International Olympic Committee made a goat of Barack Obama for traveling to Copenhagen with Michelle and Oprah in his bid to plant the world’s flags in Chicago in 2016, the Nobel Committee restored him to god-like status by... More >>

ALSO:

• Jim Miles - Premature peace
• Gordon Campbell - Obama Peace Prize
• Sherwood Ross - Obama’s Nobel Prize Statement At Odds With Reality
• Harvey Wasserman - That Nobel screams: "Out of Afghanistan..."

That Dirty Colonial War: The Boer Conflict - It was some 110 years ago that the Boer War commenced, a nasty conflict with a miscellany of atrocities befitting a classic colonial engagement. It was waged in the true imperialist mould, revealing an unvarnished desire on the part of an insatiable Britain to acquire ... More >>

Dispatches From Washington, D.C: Busy Week for New Zealand - This past week has been an extremely busy one for New Zealand – related matters in the Nation’s Capitol. We like such busy weeks, and want more of them. Events included the visit of NZ Foreign Minister Murray McCully; the US-NZ Partnership Forum; ... More >>

Uri Avnery: The Other Israel - YESTERDAY, OUR table celebrated with Ada Yonath. This “table” just had its 50th anniversary. It started by accident in “ California ”, the Café established at the time by Abie Nathan, who later became famous as the Peace Pilot. Afterwards... More >>

Toni Solo: Honduras & Nicaragua – Disinformation & Reality - Maybe the poet T.S.Eliot had corporate mass media in mind when he wrote in 'Burnt Norton' : “human kind cannot bear very much reality.” In reporting on Honduras and Nicaragua, or anywhere elsewhere in the world, Western Bloc media – of the ... More >>

Defending Polanski: The Excuse Of Art In Sex - The arrest of Roman Polanski at Zürich’s airport on a 31-year-old fugitive warrant from the United States involving sex with a 13-year-old girl has generated its fair share of support for the aging director. Polanski’s move was ill-advised... More >>

Brainy Chimps, Part Two: Make Love, Not War? - Bonobos look like graceful versions of chimpanzees. They are entirely tree dwelling, don’t make tools and primitive war as chimpanzees do, or engage in hunting monkeys for meat. More >>

Obama’s Test: Democracy Or Chaos In Latin America - Latin America stands at the threshold of a new era: one that promises a return to political uncertainty, violence and chaos or one of political stability and economic prosperity. Honduras is a crucial indicator. More >>

Scoop Video: Balloon Girl Discovers Origin Of Life - Artist Lai Chung demonstrates how a torus-shaped balloon can imitate the body forms of flowers and animals as part of a serious new theory of the origin of life and evolution. Animations are presented showing... More>>

Pondering in Copenhagen: McChrystal and the Afghan Problem - Times are desperate. The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal meets the US President for 25 minutes in a Scandinavian capital. A potential scolding is on offer... More >>

Connie Lawn: Messages From Washington to Samoa, Tonga, and Indonesia - This has been a week of tragedy, and tragic comedy, although it seems obscene to discuss them in the same column. The tragedies, of course, took place in Samoa, Tonga, and Indonesia. The events dominated... More >>

Dan Lieberman: Deconstructing The Israeli Narrative - As Israel’s democratic posture becomes more questioned, its mystique becomes more exaggerated. To prove the validity of its actions, Israel’s supporters focus on three components of Israel’s drive to an accomplished nation... More >>

Rabbi Michael Lerner: Just Say "NO" to the War in Afghanistan Or should we call it "Again-istan?" - Some people never learn. The arrogance of empire? Ignorance of history? Political opportunism? Or cowardice to confront the global challenges we face? They probably all contribute to the incredible situation in which the United States is now debating ... More >>

Harvey Wasserman: Obama Will Also Lose The Afghani Olympics - The stunning rejection of Barack Obama's play for the Chicago Olympics had better teach him a good lesson about escalating in Afghanistan. Ignoring fierce grassroots resistance in Chicago itself, the Obamas flew to Copenhagen to ''persuade'' the International... More >>

ALSO:
• Joan Brunwasser - Joan Brunwasser IV: Harvey Wasserman

Uri Avnery: A Story Of Betrayal - TODAY IS the 1196th day in captivity for the soldier Gilad Shalit. A prisoner of war must not be left in captivity. A wounded soldier must not be left in the field. The state signs an unwritten contract with every person who joins the army, and most... More >>

Martha Rosenberg: Yale Lab Technician Causes Two Problems for Animal Researchers - Scratch that $11.2 million underground animal research facility the University of Iowa's interim vice president for research, Jordan Cohen is probably saying to his Board of Regents right about now. A 35,000-square-foot underground vivarium where ... More >>

John Minto: Sue Bradford A Big Loss - Sue Bradford will be a big loss from parliament. Her decision to resign after 10 years as a Green MP removes the strongest voice for the most vulnerable groups in New Zealand. It’s not a case of another MP stepping up to fill her shoes. There ... More >>

The Audacity Of Hype? A World Without Nuclear Weapons - Last Thursday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a U.S-drafted resolution that did much to place Barack Obama’s views regarding a ‘world without nuclear weapons’ on the table. Opinions on the calamitous use of nuclear weapons were plentiful... More >>

Ramzy Baroud: Iran’s Nuclear Theater Meant To Divert Attention - World events have taken an interesting turn recently, with the Goldstone report, which wreaked havoc in the beginning of the week being nearly completely overshadowed by Iran’s revelation of another nuclear facility, according to diplomats in Vienna... More >>

Earlier:
• Ramzy Baroud - Will Goldstone's Report Deliver?
• Bruce Clark - The Goldstone Report On Gaza
• Ramzy Baroud - Fighting for the Right to Walk

Martin LeFevre: Foundations in Meditation and Enquiry - It’s late in the afternoon, and the sheen from a dozen shades of green shimmer off a glassy section of the stream. A fair sized trout, for so shallow a waterway, bursts from light to shadow and back again. More >>

Ravindra Kumar: Gandhi - India And Universalism - India is a country committed to internationalism or universalism. This commitment is thousands of years old and can be well acknowledged and understood through India’s ancient slogan of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ . Besides this, thousands of years... More >>

Reuben Steff: The Iranian Crisis and the Rationality of Irrationality - Iran has just revealed the existence of a second covert uranium enrichment facility . Unclassified US talking points state that the facility would be capable of producing about a weapons worth of material a year and that the facility was “very heavily... More >>

Jim Miles: Make Love...Make War? Two sides of the Israeli coin. - That Israel exists and has the power to continue existing is very much a fact. With a sophisticated military establishment including more than 200 nuclear weapons (at lowest estimates) there is no way Israel would stop existing as a state of some kind. ... More >>

Mapping the Real Deal: Solari Report Sep 30, 2009 - 3rd Quarter Wrap-Up - This Thursday evening, I will be giving my 3rd Quarter Wrap-up. In our year-end wrap up, 2008: Looking Back , I said that the big question for 2008 was the same one I have been asking since $4 trillion went missing from the US government: ''Where is ... More >>

Michael Collins: The G-20 Announces A "New World Order" - PITTSBURGH -- A new world order is emerging at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh with a decision by the group to become the premier coordinating body on economic issues. Radio Free Europe , Sep. 26, 2009 More >>

Swine Flu: The Digital Cacophony of Medical Experts, Public Relations
- It is not a benign advertising/marketing gimmick that most people are led to believe. It is an insidious, and at times diabolical, attempt at mass behavior control by manipulatively tapping into man's irrational self. More >>

Sinclaire Solomon: ‘Witchdoctor’ Satire On Obama’s Healthcare Policy Angers PNG - Papua New Guinea has been inadvertently drawn into US President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform plan controversy which has now turned into a raging debate about racism... More >>

Dahr Jamail: Army Prisoners Isolated, Denied Right to Legal Counsel - Afghanistan war resister Travis Bishop has been held largely ''incommunicado'' in the Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Lewis, Washington. Bishop, who is being held by the military as a ''prisoner of conscience,'' according to Amnesty... More >>

Trembling on the Nuclear Trigger: Exaggerating the Soviet Threat - The history of international relations is often a register of false perceptions, innuendo and dangerous gossip. A certain sense of terror often fits the bill in that regard. ‘Fear is a very dangerous thing,’ explained Britain’s post-World War I Prime ... More >>

Jason Leopold: The Republican War Against ACORN - In recent days, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other major news outlets have recounted the ''troubled'' history of the poor people's advocacy group ACORN, but left out the five-year anti-ACORN campaign led by White House adviser Karl Rove... More >>

Harvey Wasserman: Obama's LBJ Moment - Lyndon Johnson was once on the verge of becoming one of America's greatest presidents. But with a single wrong turn into Vietnam, LBJ plunged himself and the nation into a ghastly tragedy that still makes us all weep and bleed. More >>

Connie Lawn: Lamenting Letterman - The UN Session is over, and everyone apparently survived. There were important speeches by Prime Minister Key, President Obama, and nearly one hundred other world leaders. There were other rambling, hate filled speeches by the rulers of Iran and Libya. ... More >>

Also:

• Max Bowden - A Bigger Laugh For John Key

Toni Solo: The Battle For Honduras - What happens in Honduras will be decisive for the future of all Latin America. At stake is the chance of defeating the extreme right-wing continental project to deny the impoverished majority in Latin America meaningful political participation and ... More >>

Rory Harnden for Salient: Why We Love Old Things - In my wardrobe, there currently sit two coats. One of them—a sports coat—still smells a little of the man who was lucky enough to have owned it before me; a man who is almost certainly now dead. It was bought for me for what I believe to be significantly ... More >>