DhafirTrial

By Gregory Clark The Japan Times 10/06/08

Iraq is supposed to be an example of impending Western victory over Islamic extremists. But all that has happened is that the U.S. and its friends are finally beginning to stop making mistakes. Before the U.S. military arrived, there was no al-Qaida in Iraq. They needlessly created a Sunni resistance. They have helped to wreck a society that once had one of the highest levels of education, literacy and female emancipation in the Middle East. And they call that victory? (more…)

By Chris Hedges Truthdig 10/06/08

The passing of the $850-billion bailout pulled the plug on the New Deal. The Great Society is now gasping for air, mortally wounded, coughing up blood. It will not recover. It was murdered by the Democratic Party. (more…)

Wall Street Bailout — 10/01/2008 Senator Bernie Sanders

“While the middle class has declined under President Bush’s reckless economic policies, the people on top have never had it so good. For the first seven years of Bush’s tenure, the wealthiest 400 individuals in our country saw a $670 billion increase in their wealth, and at the end of 2007 owned over $1.5 trillion in wealth. That is just 400 families, a $670 billion increase in wealth since Bush has been in office.” (more…)

Dear Friends,

Last week, Oregonian writers and editors tried to persuade their employer not to mail the “terror DVD” to thousands of subscribers along with today’s Sunday paper. They lost that fight. (more…)

The global financial crisis will see the US falter in the same way the Soviet Union did when the Berlin Wall came down. The era of American dominance is over

by John Gray Guardian U.K. 9/28/08 (Seen on Commondreams.)

The dire condition of America’s financial markets is the result of American banks operating in a free-for-all environment that these same American legislators created. It is America’s political class that, by embracing the dangerously simplistic ideology of deregulation, has responsibility for the present mess. (more…)

In an article for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes the ‘great silence’ over the annual British party conferences as politicians and their club of commentators say nothing about a war provoked and waged across the world the responsibility for which lies close at hand. (more…)

Bob Egelko San Francisco Chronicle 9/23/08

The Bush administration has overturned a 22-year-old policy and now allows customs agents to read and copy documents from travelers at airports and borders without suspicion of wrongdoing, civil rights lawyers in San Francisco said Tuesday in releasing records obtained in a lawsuit. (more…)

By Chris Hedges Truthdig 9/21/08

If the financial-services industry is able to suck us dry, our assets, from our homes to our retirement investments, will continue to tumble. Taxes will go up. Jobs will be lost. The grim economic indicators will get worse. The dollar, which has already lost about a third of its value against the euro, will continue to plummet. The rate of foreclosures, one in every 416 U.S. households in August, will skyrocket. (more…)