Dan Eggen and Robert Barnes, The Washington Post: "Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president. Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: 'If I may be so bold, there was another president . . .' He caught himself and started again: 'At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's advocacy for democracy and freedom.'"
Anlässlich der Einigung zwischen den USA und Polen zur Errichtung des Raketenabwehrsystems in Polen, erklärt Helmut Scholz, Mitglied des Parteivorstandes:
DIE LINKE bleibt bei ihrer klaren Ablehnung der US-amerikanischen Pläne, Militärbasen in Osteuropa zu errichten. Auf Grund der hohen Aktualität der Lage und im Schatten des Kaukasuskonfliktes fordert DIE LINKE mehr Besonnenheit. Weiteres Aufrüsten kann nicht zu mehr Sicherheit führen, im Gegenteil Aufrüstung schürt Konflikte. Der von den Polen gewählte Weg, sich nun mit den USA zu verständigen und eine US-Basis zuzulassen belastet das Verhältnis zu Russland. Ob das Abwehrsystem auf den Iran, den Nahen- und Mittleren Osten oder alle anderen Gebiete gerichtet ist, spielt für Frieden und Sicherheit eine untergeordnete Rolle. Es zielt auf die globale Durchsetzung der US-amerikanischen Hegemonie und wird eine Demokratisierung der internationalen Staatenbeziehungen verhindern. Darüber hinaus wird ein konfrontativer Kurs des Ausbaus der NATO vorangetrieben. DIE LINKE wird sich weiterhin für Abrüstung und Frieden gemeinsam mit zivilgesellschaftlichen Kräften einsetzen, insbesondere aktiv und konkret mit jenen in Polen und Tschechien.
The bulwark against tyranny is dissent. Open opposition, the right to challenge those in power, is a mainstay of any healthy democracy. The Democratic and Republican conventions will test the commitment of the two dominant U.S. political parties to the cherished tradition of dissent. Things are not looking good...
Multiple combat deployments to Iraq are increasing serious mental health problems among soldiers, triggering drug and alcohol abuse and contributing to record suicide levels, suggest reports out today. In a typical unit headed to Iraq, 60% are on their second, third or fourth deployment, lasting about a year each, said Army Col. Carl Castro, who directs a medical research program at Ft. Detrick, Md...
Susan Bysiewicz, The New York Times: "What is the secretary of Veterans Affairs thinking? On May 5, the department led by James B. Peake issued a directive that bans nonpartisan voter registration drives at federally financed nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and shelters for homeless veterans. As a result, too many of our most patriotic American citizens - our injured and ill military veterans - may not be able to vote this November."
Cornelia Dean, The New York Times: "Last year, a private company proposed 'fertilizing' parts of the ocean with iron, in hopes of encouraging carbon-absorbing blooms of plankton. Meanwhile, researchers elsewhere are talking about injecting chemicals into the atmosphere, launching sun-reflecting mirrors into stationary orbit above the earth or taking other steps to reset the thermostat of a warming planet."
Nina Bernstein, The New York Times: "He was 17 when he came to New York from Hong Kong in 1992 with his parents and younger sister, eyeing the skyline like any newcomer. Fifteen years later, Hiu Lui Ng was a New Yorker: a computer engineer with a job in the Empire State Building, a house in Queens, a wife who is a United States citizen and two American-born sons. But when Mr. Ng, who had overstayed a visa years earlier, went to immigration headquarters in Manhattan last summer for his final interview for a green card, he was swept into immigration detention and shuttled through jails and detention centers in three New England states."
On May 12, immigration officials swooped in to arrest 400 undocumented workers from Mexico and Guatemala at the local meat-packing plant, a raid described as the biggest such action at a single site in U.S. history. The raid left 43 women, wives of the men who were taken away, and their 150 children without status or a means of support. The women cannot leave the town, and to make sure they do not they have been outfitted with leg monitoring bracelets.
Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Newspapers: "Attorney General Michael Mukasey confirmed plans Wednesday to loosen post-Watergate restrictions on the FBI's national security and criminal investigations, saying the changes were necessary to improve the bureau's ability to detect terrorists."
Paul J. Saunders, The Washington Post: "The fates of South Ossetia and Abkhazia are chief among the many issues that are still unresolved in the war between Georgia and Russia. What's clear, however, is that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered his country's military to assert his authority over South Ossetia by force. American officials should reflect on the implications of Saakashvili's behavior for U.S. policy toward Georgia, Russia and the region."
Serge Truffaut, Le Devoir, chalks up Russia's military incursion in Georgia to a single source, "all because the commitment President Bill Clinton made to Moscow was not honored by his successor."
Helen Cooper, CJ Chivers and Clifford J. Levy, The New York Times: "The story of how a 16-year, low-grade conflict over who should rule two small, mountainous regions in the Caucasus erupted into the most serious post-cold-war showdown between the United States and Russia is one of miscalculation, missed signals and overreaching, according to interviews with diplomats and senior officials in the United States, the European Union, Russia and Georgia. In many cases, the officials would speak only on the condition of anonymity."
Tour of Tskhinvali Undercuts Russian Claim of Genocide
Tom Lasseter, McClatchy Newspapers: "As Russian troops pounded through Georgia last week, the Kremlin and its allies repeatedly pointed to one justification above all others: The Georgian military had destroyed the city of Tskhinvali ... But a trip to the city on Sunday, without official escorts, revealed a very different picture. While it was clear there had been heavy fighting - missiles knocked holes in walls, and bombs tore away rooftops - almost all of the buildings seen in an afternoon driving around Tskhinvali were still standing."
Mikheil Saakashvili's decision to use the opening of the Olympic Games to cover Georgia's invasion of its breakaway province of South Ossetia must rank in stupidity with Gamal Abdel-Nasser's decision to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships.
All the Propaganda That's Fit to Print:
The New York Times, Again, Tells It Like It Ain't
By Sean M. Madden
As part of an all-out Western media campaign to bury the simple fact that Georgia invaded South Ossetia a week ago -- an act of aggression which led, subsequently, to Russia's response -- Thursday's NYT's top headline helps to further instill the lie, at home and abroad, that Bush and the U.S government are truly concerned about the welfare of Georgians and human beings generally.
I am a citizen of a country that was a principal actor in the two big wars of the twentieth century. I believe that these wars were unnecessary for the security of my country and killed unimaginable numbers of people. They also destroyed British primacy in the world and were the means of transforming Britain from genuine liberal democracy to politically correct corporatism.
The Bush Regime imbeciles don't know when to stop. With the world still rolling in laughter from John McCain's claim that "in the 21st century nations don't invade other nations," the moronic US secretary of state declared: "This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten a neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed."
The Truth about Georgia gets censored again on TV?
The Truth about Georgia gets censored again on TV. A reporter makes a comparison to the US reaction to 911 to Russia's reaction to Georgian attacks and the satellite feed drops off in the middle of his question. TV is censored every day and every hour but sometimes the censorship is plain to see.
Once the Atlantic Alliance is shattered, America's lifeline to the world is kaput
By Mike Whitney
There are no military installations in the city of Tskhinvali. In fact, there are no military targets at all. It is an industrial center consisting of lumber mills, manufacturing plants and residential areas. It is also the home to 30,000 South Ossetians. When Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered the city to be bombed by warplanes and shelled by heavy artillery last Thursday, he knew that he would be killing hundreds of civilians in their homes and neighborhoods. But he ordered the bombing anyway.
Russia-Georgia Conflict Fueled by Rush to Control Caspian Energy Resources
Democracy Now! Audio & Transcript
Human Rights Watch has accused both Russian and Georgian forces of killing and injuring civilians through indiscriminate attacks over the past week of fighting. Professor and author Michael Klare joins us to talk about how the Russian-Georgian conflict is largely an energy war over who has access to the vast oil and natural gas reserves in the Caspian region.
Since Bill Clinton invaded the Balkans and severed Kosovo from the Yugoslav torso, the incredibly patient Russians had stoically endured years of abuse, insults, and increasingly open belligerence directed at the Kremlin. Yet still they tried to have normal relations with the West. The turning point was reached only recently, as the Americans defended the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia and implicitly justified the murder of a dozen Russian soldiers, who were on a UN-sanctioned peacekeeping mission. The War Party has had a hard-on for Putin ever since the run-up to our Iraq misadventure, when the Russian leader opposed the drive to war, tried to buy time for the Iraqis via the UN, and openly mocked the lies that rationalized the whole disaster...
The Republican War on...
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rudkla - 12. Jun, 05:44
With FBI Reportedly Investigating...
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