Congressmen Ron Paul On Swine Flu

I agree with much Dr. Paul has to say here outside of his criticism of the single payer model.

Here is a piece of propaganda put out by the government in 1976 to promote swine flu vaccination, seem familiar?

Thats Right We Toture And NO ONE IS GOING TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE

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We Don't Torture
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WHERES THE JUSTICE?

How Has America's Tourture Effected Thier Mission In Iraq?

Patrick Cockburns latest peice published in counter punch deals with the effects of the United State's torture policy. It asks what the effect has been on our mission in Iraq. To help answer this question Cockburn talks with an unidtenfied memember of the US military. To better understand where the peice is going one needs only to look at the title "Torture? It Probably Killed More Americans Than 9/11".

As the worlds attetion is diverted from toture to swine flu its important that people keep this dialouge on touture open. Obama's idea of moving on and not proscuting those responsible will only allow this problem to grow in the future. The book on the Bush/Cheney presidency has only begun to open, it is not time to move on. Without properly adressing the crimes of the last presidency there is no way this county can "move on" or "change".

Torture? It Probably Killed More Americans Than 9/11
By PATRICK COCKBURN

Two Sides of Somalia

The news has been filled with stories of Pirates off the coast of Somalia the past few days. For the most part none of these stories told the side of the Somalians, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising. Here are two peices on the story of Somali's pirates one is by Somalian rapper K'naan and the other comes from investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill.


Why We Don't Condemn Our Pirates in Somalia by K'naan

Will Obama Prosecute the Captured Somali 'Pirate' in a US Court? By Jeremy Scahill

The War Goes On, On Your Dime

Yesterday Barack Obama (Mr.Change) requested 83.4 billion dollars in funding to further the illegal occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, this brings the total funding for both wars to nearly 1 trillion dollars. He also asked for an additional 350 million for operations on the US/Mexico border and 400 million dollars for counterinsurgency aid to Pakistan. WHERE IS THE CHANGE?

When will these wars end? How many lives must be lost? How many homes must be destroyed? When will the violence stop? How long will it take to realize you can't win a war against an idea?


At the bottom of this post I am linking to a story written by Chris Floyd for counterpunch on Obama's appointment of Leon Panetta to head the CIA and the recently released report by the Red Cross on US torture policy.

Click Here: Hope Abandoned By Chris Floyd

Afghanistan Destorys Womens Rights

Last week in Afghanistan president Hamid Karzi signed a law that forces women to obey their husbands sexual demands, prevents them from leaving the house for work or school without her husbands permission, and grants custody rights to males. This law has gotten little attention in the US media. In effect the law subordinates the rights of all women,legalizes aggression against them and legalizes martial rape. As of now the United States government has made no comment.

Here is an article on the situation published on alternet.org: Brutal Law Strips Afghan Women Of Rights BY Marie Cocco

Resit Or Become Serfs

A new piece from Chris Hedges called "Resit Or Become Serfs" is up at truthdig.org. The piece is a great warning of things to come if the American people don't signal that our country needs to take a new direction. The changed promised, is only a change in delivery, a friendlier face to imperialism. The piece will be linked to below, but I though I should highlight a little section.

A few months ago I posted a piece by Paul Craig Roberts that said our unemployment rate is actually at 15%, Hedges not only backs this up but goes on to explain the logic behind it.

"The lies employed to camouflage the economic decline are legion. President Ronald Reagan included 1.5 million U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine service personnel with the civilian work force to magically reduce the nation’s unemployment rate by 2 percent. President Bill Clinton decided that those who had given up looking for work, or those who wanted full-time jobs but could only find part-time employment, were no longer to be counted as unemployed. This trick disappeared some 5 million unemployed from the official unemployment rolls. If you work more than 21 hours a week—most low-wage workers at places like Wal-Mart average 28 hours a week—you are counted as employed, although your real wages put you below the poverty line. Our actual unemployment rate, when you include those who have stopped looking for work and those who can only find part-time jobs, is not 8.5 percent but 15 percent. A sixth of the country is now effectively unemployed. And we are shedding jobs at a faster rate than in the months after the 1929 crash."

In short the American people need to wake up before its too late. Our government is choosing to leave us in the gutter while they back up and bail out the corporate crooks who got us into this mess.

Click here to read the piece: "Resit Or Become Serfs" by Chris Hedges

US And Russia To Begin Nuclear Negotiations

There isn't much I've been happy about with the Obama administration but here is a sign that some good might finally get accomplished. In July Mr. Obama will be visiting Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow to discuss shrinking both countries nuclear arsenals. While decreasing the amount of weapons sounds good on the surface, its not that good since the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty only requires the countries to shrink their arsenals to somewhere between 1,700 -2,200 warheads. That treaty expiries at the end of this year. Hopefully these talks will lead to the setting of a better goal, like total elimination.

To read more: Russia and US renew nuclear talks from BBC