The Trials of Julian Assange: The End of Diplomacy?
Julian Assange, who has been granted asylum by Ecuador but remains in limbo in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, has been on trial for some time in the court of public opinion. The exact nature of many of his alleged crimes remains elusive.
Why Republicans Think Leading From Weakness Will Work
I'm looking at Politico and I see that the bizarre decision to start the rollout of the Romney-Ryan ticket with a focus on Medicare isn't just a strange notion cooked up at Romney headquarters -- it's a strategy endorsed by much of the GOP:
90 Million Americans Can’t Be Wrong
When asked by USA Today and Suffolk University why they're not planning to vote this November, respondents answered that: "They're too busy. They aren't excited about either candidate. Their vote doesn't really matter. And nothing ever gets done, anyway." All are excellent reasons, especially the last two, for they lay bare the great lie that elections solve anything. The results of the poll indicate that some 90 million Americans have no intention to vote in this year's presidential election; let’s hope that number swells over the coming months.
US Court Allows Patents On Human Genes
Is a gene more like a tree trunk or more like a baseball bat? A federal court Thursday took a stand on the question, ruling that isolated DNA molecules are “not found in nature”, and are therefore more like inventions, such as baseball bats, than natural phenomenon, such as tree trunks.
Do Not Reward Israeli Apartheid!
More than 15,000 illegal Israeli Jewish settlers were added last year making the current number of “illegal settlers” 650,000. Yet still you propose a Palestinian state based on the Bantustans we have been herded into, without rights to water, to real movement, to airspace, sea space and certainly no rights to the 6 million refugees around the world who European countries have continually turned their backs on.
Federal judge skeptical about new Guantanamo access to counsel restrictions
The US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] held a hearing Friday regarding a challenge to new restrictions on lawyers representingGuantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder] detainees who have had their habeas corpuschallenges denied or dismissed. Chief Judge Royce Lamberth expressed skepticism about the new restrictions [AP report], which in some cases require a lawyer to sign a "memorandum of understanding" (MOU) [memorandum, PDF] to continue to be able to meet with a client, making any meetings or communications with a client "subject to the authority and discretion" of the Guantanamo commanding officer.
Seven Banks Under Investigation for Global Interest Rate Scandal
The scandal involves LIBOR - or the London Inter Bank Offer Rate - a global system of interest rates for $360 trillion in international deposits. While many of these loans are overnight transfers between banks, they affect the price of consumer loans like mortgages, car loans and credit card loans. The rates are set by the British Bankers Association which makes a considered average of rates reported to them verbally by participating bankers.
The World (Still) Too Big to Fail
In Noam Chomsky’s “Who Owns the World?” -- the most popular TomDispatch post of all time (which means the last 10 years) -- he wrote of one key imperial principle: “The U.S. cannot tolerate ‘any exercise of sovereignty’ that interferes with its global designs.” Hence, the under-reported but staggering U.S. build-up in the Persian Gulf.
Israel is the only real winner of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’
Award-winning Iranian journalist Kourosh Ziabari recently interviewed me about the ongoing destabilization of the Middle East and North Africa commonly referred to as the Arab Spring.
Christian-Right Terrorism Charlatans
The Church of England British Police and Troops had their own Right wing, Protestant "Terror Experts" that committed Bloody Sunday. How did that work out for them, long term? These Charlatan Terror Experts created the very terrorists they claimed to be "fighting and preventing". Their brutal oppression methods and the mounting toll of dead Catholics created a scenario that still is unfolding: http://www.u.tv/News/Bomb-factory-part-of-wider-plot/ddbd0ec8-0596-4488-8fe5-8fd85e18f1d6 .
Silencing Dissent in America
Freedom in America is endangered. Bipartisan complicity plans destroying it altogether.
America is on a fast track toward tyranny and ruin. Police state laws threaten everyone.
Increasingly dissent is marginalized. It's not tolerated. Resistance is called dangerous to national security.
Who Speaks For The Internet? Do Artists have No Voice Online?
We’re always kinda amazed when a singular entity or point of view “speaks for the internet” as if there is no social, economic, geographic or political diversity. Is the “Internet’ a demographic onto it’s own, and if so, what defines that demographic? Which begs the question, does “the internet” speak for you (as an artist, as an individual)? Though this entry is somewhat cute, it is also disturbing to see “the internet” as a single block with a Borg like hive mind… TechDirt reports:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120718/18350719751/internet-wins-again-writer-gets-rapper-pitbull-exiled-to-alaskan-walmart.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120718/18350719751/internet-wins-again-writer-gets-rapper-pitbull-exiled-to-alaskan-walmart.shtml
Pat Robertson says sexually abused children shouldn’t be adopted lest they grew up to be “weird”
Televangelist Pat Robertson on Thursday cautioned his viewers to think twice before adopting disadvantaged children that had been sexually abused or deprived of food because they could grow up “weird.”
Kentucky Republicans Complain About Teaching Evolution
Evolution has been a favorite target of conservative Republicans for a very long time now. In the last few years alone, Republicans have made every effort to push for teaching the Biblical story of creation in science classrooms in states such as Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Indiana, and elsewhere. Republicans in Kentucky, apparently feeling left out, are now jumping into the fray to fight against real science as well.
Mitt Romney Vowed To Boost National Debt By $716 Billion, And Nobody Cares?
Romney has just made his duties as presumptive president $716 billion harder if he wins the race. Because Ryan said that the money cut from Obamacare would go back into a similar program, Romney, with a typical obstructionist attitude, has decided that simply isn’t the right thing to do.
World’s best political comedians
Meet the people from all over the globe who make us laugh and challenge government Orthodoxy
Five ways privatization is ruining America
We spend lifetimes developing community assets, then give them away to a corporation for lifetimes to come
Is Israel trying to lead the US to war with Iran?
That's what it's starting to look like. But looks can be deceiving.
Gen Y: the most book-loving generation alive?
A new study says that in 2011 Gen Y surpassed baby boomers by a healthy margin when it comes to spending on books.
Will Americans Ever Realize That a Good Life Is More Important Than Money?
Will Americans Ever Realize That a Good Life Is More Important Than Money?
Lawyer: Raid on Embassy to Arrest Assange Would Be "Unprecedented" Breach of Diplomatic Immunity
Fast and Furious about backing drug cartel
Police Shoot Homeless Man 46 Times
Six officers shot a homeless man 46 times after he failed to follow their instructions in a parking lot.
BAND OF THE DAY:
PUSSY RIOT
http://www.myspace.com/pussyriot
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pussy-Riot/258101530907327
http://freepussyriot.org/
_____________________________
Steve Dustcircle can be found at:
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