"James Gustave Speth"- Beyond Growth, Creating a Unified Progressive Politics

Published on Monday, September 12, 2011 by Great Transition Initiative

http://www.gtinitiative.org/

The U.S. political economy is failing across a broad front – environmental, social, economical, and political. Deep, systemic change is needed to transition to a new economy, one where the acknowledged priority is to sustain human and natural communities. Policies are available to effect this transformation and to temper economic growth and consumerism while simultaneously improving social well-being and quality of life, but a new politics involving a coalescence of progressive communities is needed to realize these policies. Yet, on the key issue of economic growth, differing positions among American liberals and environmentalists loom, a major barrier to progressive fusion. This Perspective proposes a starting point for forging a common platform and agenda around which both liberals and environmentalists can rally.

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"John Grant"- The Israel-US Relationship As a Train Wreck

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Israel-US-Relationship-by-John-Grant-110911-511.html

September 11, 2011

At what point does Israel and its complicated settlement situation become a liability for the United States as Americans cope with the growing pain of recession and decline?

The United States has been an enthusiastic partner of Israel's worst Iron Wall policies since the beginning of the state in 1948 and, most intimately, in the years following the 1967 war. The decision to see the West Bank as conquered, militarily occupied territory and the acceptance or encouragement of a settlers' movement has led to a world-class impasse and growing international anger at Israel.

The madness has gotten to the point that, even if leaders of the United States and Israel suddenly woke up one morning and accepted a Palestinian state, the state of Israel would be at odds with its own settlers it sent out to colonize the conquered West Bank and Jerusalem areas. Accepting a Palestinian state would require Israel to take on some of its most volatile citizens with military force to dislodge them.

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"Paul Krugman"- An Impeccable Disaster

September 11, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/opinion/an-impeccable-disaster.html

On Thursday Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank or E.C.B. — Europe’s equivalent to Ben Bernanke — lost his sang-froid. In response to a question about whether the E.C.B. is becoming a “bad bank” thanks to its purchases of troubled nations’ debt, Mr. Trichet, his voice rising, insisted that his institution has performed “impeccably, impeccably!” as a guardian of price stability.

Indeed it has. And that’s why the euro is now at risk of collapse.

Financial turmoil in Europe is no longer a problem of small, peripheral economies like Greece. What’s under way right now is a full-scale market run on the much larger economies of Spain and Italy. At this point countries in crisis account for about a third of the euro area’s G.D.P., so the common European currency itself is under existential threat.

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"Jenny Barchfield"- France Nuclear Site Explosion: Marcoule Waste Site Rocked By Blast

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/12/france-nuclear-plant-explosion-marcoule_n_958130.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

PARIS -- A nuclear waste site in southern France had an explosion Monday that killed one person, seriously burned another and slightly injured three others, France's nuclear safety body said.

The Nuclear Safety Authority said no radioactive leaks have been detected in the blast at 12:37 p.m. (1037 GMT, 6:37 a.m. EDT) at an oven in the Centraco nuclear site. The accident was under control within the hour, the agency said in a statement.

Centraco is located on the grounds of another nuclear site, Marcoule, in the Languedoc-Roussillon region near the Mediterranean Sea.

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"Leslie Savan"- Obama Finally Displays Some Guts -- Let's Hope It Lasts

By Leslie Savan, The Nation
Posted on September 12, 2011, Printed on September 13, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/152375/obama_finally_displays_some_guts_--_let%27s_hope_it_lasts

After Obama’s populist-sounding jobs speech, it’s understandable that a lot of us are asking, “Where has this Obama been?” He exuded verve, not wonk; he pointed fingers at the GOP (though he still insists on running against “Congress,” making Democrats seem as obstreperous as Republicans); and he hit the right angry-but-controlled tone. As Howard Fineman writes, “Friends and foes alike had to wonder watching him tonight: Where has that Barack Obama been?”

Actually, that Barack Obama has been popping up from time to time all along -- so fleetingly, though, that we keep asking the same question as if for the first time, in a sort of liberal’s version of 50 First Dates.

In July, when Obama talked tough at a press conference on the debt ceiling, website TPM headlined a post “Where Has This Obama Been?”; and a Huffington Post commenter echoed, “Where has this Obama been all this time? Love it! I'm so damn in!”

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"Earl Hutchinson"- Party Ending for the Tea Party?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Party-Ending-for-the-Tea-P-by-earl-ofari-hutchin-110912-223.html

September 12, 2011 There are two things that have distinguished the tea party. With the help of an awestruck, fawning media, it has been able to harness public disaffection with Washington beltway politicians and a large segment of white conservative anger and loath of President Obama's policies. The second thing is it has been able to con the same media and much of the public into thinking that it that had all the makings of a majority party that would permanently rearrange the political landscape. This was never the case. The August Gallup poll and other surveys that show that the tea party engenders far more negative feelings among Americans than positive feelings again confirm that. The tea party's prime constituents have always been mostly Deep South, and Heartland, white middle to lower income voters. But this should never have surprised. The tea party demographic mimicked the GOP's prime voter demographic in every election since 1980 that helped assure victory for Reagan, Bush Sr. and George W. Bush. Before that they were the anchor of   Nixon's Southern Strategy.

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"Ellen Brown"- War, The Fiscal Stimulus of Last Resort

“War!  Good God, ya’ll.  What is it good for?  Absolutely nothin’!” 

So went the Bruce Springsteen pop hit of the 1980s, first produced as an anti-Vietnam War song in 1969.  The song echoed popular sentiment.  The Vietnam War ended.  Then the Cold War ended.  Yet military spending remains the government’s number one expenditure.  When veterans’ benefits and other past military costs are factored in, half the government’s budget now goes to the military/industrial complex.  Protesters have been trying to stop this juggernaut ever since the end of World War II, yet the war machine is more powerful and influential than ever.   

Why?  The veiled powers pulling the strings no doubt have their own dark agenda, but why has our much-trumpeted system of political democracy not been able to stop them? 

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"Jack Smith"- The Strange Politics Of The US 2012 Election -- Part 1, What Both Parties Are Up To

When was it that the most extremely disturbed inmates seized control of the madhouse known as the American political system? We know they are wielding decisive influence within the two-party structure by their destructive antics in Washington and various state capitals, but when and how did this happen?

Some contend that the takeover was accomplished last January, when the new Republican House majority assumed office. Granted that the intransigent buffoonery of the right/far right party is a substantial factor, but it by no means is the only factor, as the Democrats suggest.

The Tea Party (TP) phenomenon is a symptom of one of the more bizarre political moments in American history between the odd couple that constitutes the two-party system, not the principal causative agent. It is a new formation but composed of the old hard core right wing and religious right reinvigorated with conservative populism, anti-government libertarianism, garnished with an element of racism in response to a non-white chief executive, and performing the political equivalent of wilding in the streets.

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"Garikai Chengdu"- Geostrategic Basis Of Libyan War -- Hydrological Warfare and Energy

From oil to water, water-boarding to arms and from gas to reconstruction the war in Libya will rake in billions of dollars for the West. Just how much will trickle down to the people of Libya remains to be seen.

People who think that the West's intervention in Libya is just another oil grab are mistaken. Broadly speaking, for Britain military intervention is mainly about arms, Italy its natural gas, France its water and for the US its counter-terrorism and reconstruction contracts. Spreading democracy and saving the people of Benghazi form merely tangential benefits used to justify these ends.

Lest we forget, Nato's bombardment began because Mr Gaddafi threatened to do to Benghazi what Mr Bashar al-Assad’s forces are doing to various Syrian cities and Nato itself is poised to do in Sirte.

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"Chaim Kupferberg"- September 11, 2001: The Propaganda Preparation for 9/11, Creating the Osama bin Laden "Legend"

Global Research Editors Note

This incisive and carefully researched article was first published more than nine years ago by Global Research on June 13, 2002 (revised 19 September 2002).  The original URL of this article was  http://globalresearch.ca/articles/KUP206A.html

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"My hypothesis: that the events of September 11 were planned by those who not only had the motive, means, and opportunity to carry out the plan, but also were best placed to manage the consequences stemming from it, as well as managing the flow of information. If this were an "inside job", the first thing to do was to look at who conveyed specific information on bin Laden before - and I stress, before - 9/11, for they were most likely involved wittingly or not with those who masterminded it.

"Read for yourself, and decide, at the end of the day, how much credibility you will continue to accord to those who claim to be the proper trustees of your fate and well-being." (Chaim Kupferberg, June 2002) 



The mystery surrounding the death of John O'Neill

In the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center, the finger of guilt was directed toward the only plausible author for such a sophisticated and ruthless act of terror - Osama bin Laden.

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