By Phyllis Bennis - February 18, 2012
...[T]he current anti-Iran mobilization is primarily political. It doesn't reflect actual US or Israeli military or intelligence threat assessments, but rather political conditions pushing politicians, here and in Israel, to escalate the fear factor about Iranian weapons [however non-existent] and the urgency for attacking Iran [however illegal]. And the danger...is that this kind of rhetoric can box leaders in, making them believe they cannot back down from their belligerent words.
By Mark Karlin - February 17, 2012
The most recent threat to personal privacy coming out of Ottawa is a bill that sounds frighteningly reminiscent of ones we've seen in the U.S....The bill is just in its preliminary stages, but already the Harper Tory government is using the seedy tactics of the U.S. Republican Party to try and intimidate opponents who champion the preservation of civil liberties on the Internet. The Tory public safety minister is...accusing critics of the bill of "aligning themselves with child pornographers."
Greece is banker occupied. Ordinary people have no say. Parliamentarians get orders and obey. Despite multiple painful austerity rounds, Troika power demands more - the IMF, EU and European Central Bank.
By Patrick Martin - 17 February 2012
The savage practices documented by Amnesty investigators include beatings with whips, cables, metal chains and wooden sticks, electric shocks, extraction of fingernails, and rape. Militia fighters conducted these attacks brazenly, in some cases continuing to abuse prisoners while human rights advocates were present...[T]he National Transitional Council, installed by the imperialist powers, has not conducted a single investigation into the torture and abuse of prisoners, and the militias have uncontested authority to do as they please.
By Sarah Rotz - February 13, 2012
Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation — a remote fly-in Oji-Cree community located roughly 1,400km northwest of Toronto — has governed and cared for their land since time before memory. This immense and rich area of lakes, rivers, boreal forests, and wetlands provides KI...with the essential elements of life, including a clean and consistent supply of fresh water. Indeed, one of the many reasons that KI has chosen to say no to mining exploration on its Homeland is that it would contaminate much of the local water system.
By David Walsh - WSWS
Considered as a whole then, one might say that while A Dangerous Method raises intriguing personalities and issues set during a period and in locales that continue to exercise fascination a century later, it treats these elements inadequately and even, at its weakest, teeters on the brink of banality...Perhaps, however, the film’s greatest benefit is that it encourages the spectator to investigate further the figures and issues involved. Because it cannot be argued that [it]...examines them in any great depth.
By Louise Koster, Contributing
Writer
Potent News
February 15, 2012
Contrary to what the CDC says, Morgellons is not a delusion. I have personally felt and seen my hair move by itself, I've had strange fibres come out of my skin, I constantly feel like there are bugs crawling over my body. I have witnessed many of my fresh organic vegetables, fruits and meat moving by itself, causing me to have to throw out the majority of the food I've bought. I have had to stop wearing a lot of my clothes because even those seem to be comprised of moving fibres. Some might say the fibres in the video below are moving because of static electricity, however I find that very hard to believe.
By Bill Bradley - Media Co-op
Draconian cutbacks delivered by the Mike Harris Conservative government are back, or should be, according to economist Don Drummond...The former TD Bank analyst released his prognosis of the Ontario economy along with hundreds of cost cutting measures for public services the day after Valentines Day..."To meet its own goal of a balanced budget in seven years, the (Ontario) government will have to cut program spending more deeply...and over a much longer period of time, than the Harris government did in the 1990s...”
By RON JACOBS - Counterpunch Weekend Edition
The list continues to grow. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The essentially unprovoked police attacks on protesters, bystanders and journalists at Occupy protests...The continuing murder of (mostly young and black) men by police departments around the nation with few or no legal repercussions...The continuing pursuit of “material support” charges against antiwar and solidarity activists involved in work against US and Israeli policies. The infant US police state is no longer learning to crawl; it has learned to walk and will soon be stomping its boots in a neighborhood near you.
Predatory bankers are destroying economies and people for profit.