The U.S. Justice Department filed its opening brief on election night defending a controversial military detention provision that a trial judge in Manhattan declared unconstitutional earlier this year. The suit filed in Manhattan federal district court by a group of journalists and activists,challenges a section of the National Defense Authorization Act that DOJ lawyers said…
Journalists
WORLD CORRUPTION AND DEMOCRACY
This is our most important post of 2012. A must read. Here is the link to a complete discussion. http://gendinsjournal.com/?p=6309
HOW TO INTERVIEW THE CONTENDERS
I suppose the people who moderate these TV shows that feature Republican specialists in bombast have entered into an agreement not to embarrass them with tough questions. It would be easy enough, otherwise, to knock out a few of them with questions that would prove even to their supporters that they are dumb fools whose…
I AIN’T GOT NOTHING AGAINST NO VIET CONG
With those ringing words, The Greatest fulfilled the dream of freedom that Martin Luther King had achingly announced just a few years earlier. Subsequent events proved that none of us had anything against those Viet Cong. I am put in mind of this by today’s meaningless fuss about the never-promoted Colonel Gaddafi who got blasted…
DYING IN OSLO, ARE THEY?
77 murders in one incident is nothing to joke about, but why the hysteria? Let’s take a good look around the world just since January. January 1 – 21 dead, 97 injured in a bombing in Alexandria. January 7 – 16 dead, 20 injured in Kandahar, Afghanistan. January 7 – 10 dead, Lawdar, Yemen. January…
A CALL TO HATE ALL MUSLIMS
Reprinted from aljazeera.net Israel and the anti-Muslim blow-up By MJ Rosenberg, Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network A visiting rabbi from Israel gave a sermon [in Washington, D.C.] about the intifada that was then raging in Israel and the West Bank. The sermon’s ending which was unforgettable. The rabbi concluded with the…
AMERICAN AGENTS OF TERROR
This is an excerpt with slight editing of a letter appearing in the NY Review of Books by David Cole on April 8, 2010. “US officials strip suspects naked, deprive them of sleep for up to eleven days straight, hit them, slam them into walls, force them into painful stress positions, and waterboard them. These…
THE BIG GUYS
Here is a partial list of the world’s largest newspapers. If you need to see the complete list, CLICK HERE. Newspaper Country Circulation (thousands) Language Owner 1 Yomiuri Shimbun Japan 14,067 Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun Group 2 Asahi Shimbun Japan 12,121 Japanese Asahi Shimbun Group 3 Mainichi Shimbun Japan 5,587 Japanese The Mainichi Newspapers Co., Ltd.…
SENSE VS. NONSENSE IN MARIJUANA POLICY
Not all is lost in the war against the war. Sane people are trying to change the mad laws against the use of marijuana. Among them is Steve Fox, the director of state campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s largest organization dedicated to reforming marijuana laws. Previously, from 2002-2005, Steve lobbied Congress for…
SOCIALIST EQUALITY PARTY CONDEMNS U.S. ACTION IN HAITI
Excerpt from an article: “The US intervention in Haiti after the major earthquake that devastated that country on January 12 has become a subject of international controversy. Though there were no reports of attacks on aid workers, US forces seized Port-au-Prince airport and the main government buildings, flying in thousands of troops and blocking the…
THE GUANTANAMO MESS
From Amnesty International Dear Sidney, Late last night – on the eve of the date President Obama promised to restore justice to a busted Guantanamo detention system – a Justice Department-led task force released its outrageous recommendation to continue holding nearly 50 Guantanamo detainees indefinitely.1 We’re stunned that the Department of Justice would act in…
HOLDER DOESN’T REALLY MIND TORTURE
This is a very brief excerpt from David Cole’s article, “The Torture Memos: The Case Against the Lawyers” that will appear on newstands and in the NY Review of Books, on October 8 but which is previewed simply by a CLICK HERE. As President Obama began his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, his administration released a…
WAYNE MADSEN AT YOUR SERVICE.
Wayne Madsen is a crusader – for right causes. Swing over to his website and find out what he provides. Just CLICK HERE. I don’t get a red cent from this, just a listing on his “favorite sites.” Here is a little bio as provided by Wayne: Wayne Madsen Biography: Wayne Madsen is a Washington,…
AN ANONYMOUS TIP
When I lived in Brooklyn, NY, a good way of getting rid of a guy you didn’t like was to call the police at 1 A.M. and report that you have seen drug dealers going into Apartment 3 C, just a floor above yours. Give no details and hang up. That works. One time boss…
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN DOWNTOWN AFRICA?
Once more we turn to one of the keenest observers and astute analysts of African affairs – our man Omar Kalinge for enlightenment concerning these matters. Mr. Kalinge is a regular columnist for Uganda’s Monitor and he has been very generous in granting us permission to reprint his articles on an as-we-feel-it basis. If Africa…
ANTI-GAY BIGOTRY ON AMERICAN IDOL
This report is filed by our man in Israel, columnist Bradley Burston, who works for haaretz.com. For the original article, (if you must) CLICK HERE. I am, as always grateful to him for his standing permission to use any or all of his great articles. **************************** “In Israel, Adam Lambert would have won” By Bradley…
TODAY’S TOPS OF THE TOP
If you want to see the front pages of all newspapers and read what they think is important, it is simple Newseum.org provides this service. 780 in all. Here is the link. Just CLICK HERE.
ALBERTO GONZALES GETS A “JOB”
The following is an excerpt from an article in the NY Times written by Randy Cohen. For the complete story of this sordid mess, CLICK HERE. ************************* It’s back to school for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Texas Tech University is paying him $100,000 to teach a single undergraduate political-science course, Contemporary Issues in the…
KEEPING LIFE AND DEATH IN PERSPECTIVE
I turned the radio on at about 6.50 A.M. and heard the news. I came in near the end of some babble about soccer matches and then the newscaster said, “Ted Kennedy died last night of brain cancer. He was 77 years old,” Wthout stopping to draw a breath, she turned to the baseball scores…
REPRINT OF POST #3038 ON COPYRIGHT
WatchingPolitics believes it may reprint any articles of public interest without worry over copyright infringements. It is our normal practice, strictly as a matter of courtesy to authors to get them to grant us the right to reprint but we do not think we have a legal or moral obligation to do so. To the…
WILL ISRAEL GRANT ASYLUM TO FASCISM?
This essay is reprinted in its entirety from Haretz.com with the express permission of its author, Bradley Burston, regular contributor to its pages. ************************************* One of the great strengths of fascism is its ability to persuade a society to simply invite it in. So what sound does fascism make when it tries to get you…
ILLITERACY IN AMERICA
I thank Dr. Ted Drange for calling my attention to this article published in truthdig.com and written by Chris Hedges. This is only an excerpt. For the full article, please CLICK HERE. “There are over 42 million American adults, 20 percent of whom hold high school diplomas, who cannot read, as well as the 50…
REINCARNATION OF HEDDA HOPPER AND LOUELLA PARSONS
Beginning in the 1930s and running to about 1960, Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons feuded over who was Queen of Hollywood Gossip. Neither one, in their long careers, ever published an article that was worth a damn. Today, the gossip columns have been revised with a twist by MSNBC nitwits, Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman and…
GETTING OUT THE NEWS
Newspapers are becoming obsolete as more and more of them are closing shop. Still, 80% of news originates in newspapers and 20% on TV. Blogs account for nothing. It can’t be otherwise because we don’t have staffs. Nor do we have good sources of revenue. The median income for male bloggers is $200/year and for…
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