Monday, November 30:

Kathy Malloy: Just Another Cyber Monday One thing's for certain, if you were anywhere in the vicinity of a shopping mall this weekend, it was difficult if not impossible to avoid the sucking vortex of traffic funneling shoppers into the stacked parking decks like so many farm animals being led to the guy with the pneumatic bolt gun.

James Brett: Open Letter to Iran Dear Citizens of Iran, Here's some friendly advice. Yours truly, the rest of the world (mostly ...)

Jim Miles: Imperial Inertia (2 comments) All current global problems are related - the economy, wars, the environment - all part of the same thing.

Joe Parko: Divided We Fall (5 comments) If we want American democracy to survive, we need to grow up. We need to stop projecting our fears onto other people. We need to stop yelling at each other and learn to start listening to each other. We need to accept the reality of change and begin working together to find productive ways of dealing with a world that is constantly changing.

Dr. Keith Hilton: Honoring two great white management gurus"Peter Drucker and Russell Ackoff (1 comments) Honoring two great white management gurus, Peter Drucker and Russell Ackoff, if we are ready to talk frankly and honestly about interpretations of management, Corporate America, leadership and race in America.

Douglas A. Wallace: NSA SPYING FILES ON AMERICANS WILL BECOME ACCESSABLE TO MORMON LEADERS AND THAT IS SCARY! (1 comments) For many years the author has been warning Americans about the Mormon Quest for Empire. The creation of a microwave resonation spying system in the early 1970's in Utah by the Mormon Church's Council of the Fifty will soon be augmented by a massive complex being built by the Government in Utah making it accessible to the evil ambition of Mormon fascist leaders. Time to wake up America!

Sunday, November 29:

Tommy News: *Take Action: World AIDS Day is Tuesday, December 1st Take Action: World AIDS Day is Tuesday, December 1st

Eugene Elander: Giving Thanks Where Thanks Is Due! We should give Thanks for the new spirit and new approaches in Washington; at least the Obama administration is trying very hard.

Steven Leser: What I want to hear from President Obama about Afghanistan (6 comments) Would a pullout result in another terrorist attack? Would a pullout be the right thing? What is the current situation on the ground? If escalation is the right thing, is 30,000 troops enough?

James Nimmo: LGBT News: Aggressive or Passive Are we going to use all the tools we can legally, or are we going to wring our hands and worry over being seen as rude?

Saturday, November 28:

Alex Knight: Giving Thanks to Inspiration - Review of "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community" Review of "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community" by David Korten. Alex Knight reviews the book that can inspire us to move in a radical new direction.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue: New push in Venezuela's agrarian reform arouses violent verbal PR reaction A recent push by the Agriculture & Lands (MAT) Ministry and the National Lands Institute (INTI) to recover more land for peasants in Guarico State and Lake Maracaibo South Bank has aroused a violent verbal and PR reaction by ranchers and opposition media, accusing the government of imitating Richard Mugabe's land grab of farms belonging to white farmers in Zimbabwe.

David Kendall: Dr King Spanks Obama: Part 4 Higher levels of economic democracy are a prerequisite, not a byproduct, of programs like Basic Income Guarantee and Single Payer Health Care. 1) Fire your boss and reorganize the workplace cooperatively. 2) Close your bank account and deposit your money in a credit union or some other form of publicly owned bank. That is, any kind of system that does not feed back into the currently predominant debt-based monetary system.

Bennet Kelley: Rumble in Little Rhody: Patrick Kennedy Takes On The Bishop And The Church's Moral Myopia (2 comments) What message does it send when the Church will deny communion to a pro-choice official like Patrick Kennedy whose voting record is otherwise consistent with church teaching, but not pro-life officials guided by the gospel of greed or intolerance or even mobsters such as the legendary crime boss Raymond Patriarca who was given a Catholic funeral?

Roy S. Carson: VENEZUELA: Hugo Chavez' big mouth! Woops ... he's gone and done it again! (2 comments) Years ago it might have taken days for Chavez' rasher statements to reach the disbelieving ears of Europeans, North Americans or even those in Asia and elsewhere in the Pacific who give a damn about what's happening along southern Caribbean shores. The time differential and the cost of reporting trivialities were not unsubstantial and lunacies were kind of expected from faraway places.

Grant Lawrence: War Crimes, Exploitation, Abuse, and Suffering Brought to You by the 'Big Lies' (8 comments) In TV reality, the suffering and the exploitation offered by the Military Industrial Complex to the world is ignored or sometimes even applauded by Americans. Unfortunately, Americans can no longer hide behind the entertainment, the booze, and the pills.

Chaz Valenza: A Simple Plan to Screw Big Banking. Use Cash. (23 comments) Use Cash: a low-tech, easy, effective, and unstoppable way to fight Big Banking abuse. Every cash transaction snatches a dime, a dollar, thirty-five dollars, a hundred dollars or more out of the greedy, blood soaked hands of Big Banking. Each transaction denied is a cut. Together it's death by a billion cuts daily.

Friday, November 27:

Dave Berman: Book Review: "am I being kind" by Michael J. Chase Presenting stories of his own imperfect self and spiritual evolution as context, Chase delivers a simple and digestible message influenced by The Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Eckhart Tolle, Ram Dass, Buddha and Christ (among others), without being cerebral, esoteric or religious.

earl ofari hutchinson: No JFK Moment for Obama on Afghanistan (3 comments) The great hope was that President Obama would have the courage and political sense to do what JFK did forty six years ago. Kennedy told the generals no to their demand for escalation in Vietnam. It wasn't easy.

Stephen Lendman: Political Prisoner Jalil Muntaqim Denied Parole Political persecution in America

Robert Davidson: Are Big Pharma and the PDUFA to Blame for Healthcare Mess? (8 comments) Recent $2.3 billion Pfizer settlement indicates an underlying systemic malady within the FDA. Since the passage of PDUFA, user fees have played an important role in expediting the drug approval process. The implicit underlying assumption, that expediting the drug approval process is good for public health, is seriously flawed.

Susan Galleymore: A View from the Faultline (3 comments) I met a Birther! Here, in the San Francisco Bay Area. My small island town is a mix of people and, until 1997, was home port to one of the largest naval fleets in the Pacific. Many of those who worked on the naval base still live here. Nevertheless, I was surprised to find a real, live person who seriously believes that Barack Obama was born in Mombasa ...and that his presidency will last only one year.

Jay Janson: *34,000 Additional Troops Not Worth the Life of One Afghani Child (2 comments) Think back on childhood. Childhood will have been just as precious for each next Afghani child destiny choses to be sacrificed by a U.S. holding on to control of oil rich Central Asia. 34,000 more troops? Nothing to be thankful for. Al Qaeda watching as the U.S. alienates world opinion, and brings it more recruits from among older Muslim children wishing to prove themselves as brave sons of their aggrieved and angry fathers

Thursday, November 26:

Michael Roberts: Generals Not Always Right (2 comments) Why President Obama Must Take His Time On Afghanistan;32 Years Ago Another Young President Had To Make Similar Decisions

Eric Walberg: Canada 's Guantanamo It seems the world's favourite peaceniks are complicit in torture

Joan Wile: THE BROKEN THREAD A free-style poem about my loss of faith in Obama

Don Williams: Go ahead, hug that tree and give thanks (2 comments) It may be impossible to say anything truer about happiness than this: Giving thanks is the key to happiness.

Stan Stahl: Thanksgiving 2009 (1 comments) An Essay on Freedom in Celebration of Thanksgiving

Joe Perez: Thanksgiving is the Gayest of Holidays (1 comments) The day given over to gratitude is the most Homophilic of the holidays, because the act of expressing thanks is one of the most immanent or self-directed of spiritual acts (just as Christmas, defined by the act of giving, is the most Heterophilic of the seasonal celebrations). In receiving gifts with gratitude, we accept that which is, and we take into our soul Fullness; in giving gifts, we open to Emptiness.

Rob Kall: Afghanistan as Sports Event, Sexual Fantasy and Detour From the Hero's Journey (27 comments) Sports, sex, the hero's journey mind all play a role in America's perception of our relationship to Afghanistan. President Obama can pander to our baser instincts, as he's been doing or seek a higher road that takes America home to a higher level as a better nation.

Mikhail Lyubansky: Thanksgiving's Many and Complicated Needs (2 comments) The early relationship between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag in many ways continues to be controverial, but two peoples came together in peace and mutual assistance that first year and the resulting Thanksgiving, in turn, paved the way for a half century of peace. Is this event worth celebrating, or is it yet another example of white insensitivity toward its indigenous peoples?

Wednesday, November 25:

Kathy Malloy: Sing Along: “Thank Heaven, for Little Girls . . .” Before you and your family zone out on tryptophan and ESPN and slap on the running shoes for the midnight Black Friday sales, take a moment to be thankful for the little things that make you happy.

Gene Cappa: *PUT Cheney/Bush On Trial For The 9/11 Attacks Bush put Cheney in charge on 9/11 and Cheney put our NORAD air defenses on stand down over the target areas at the Pentagon and World Trade Center Towers resulting in the 9/11 attacks.

Fred Cederholm: Thanksgiving ... it was a time of fellowship, remembrance, and gratitude... The third Thursday in November, we in the US observe a truly unique American celebration. It was a time of fellowship, remembrance, and gratitude. We look back upon where we have been, we consider where we find ourselves, and we contemplate where we are headed: normally we are thankful.

Suzana Megles: A Presidential Turkey Pardoning Do we really need to eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day or any other day for that matter? CBS's Sunday Morning Offering this week was all about celebrating Thanksgiving with meat. How disappointing. Don't they have any vegetarian or vegan reporters? Don't they care about the impact of so much animal raising on the environment?

Elayne Clift: On the Backs of Women: The Politics of Betrayal (1 comments) From Afghanistan to America, when the chips are down, it's always women who get thrown under the bus.

Sheila Dean: *Fusion center data consolidation effort failing, Texas seeks public input Since the passage of the PATRIOT Act, data collection has been a part of an ambitious effort to coordinate national security efforts. Many state governments are in the process of developing warehouses for private and public information in centralized digital hubs called fusion centers, over 70 of which have already been established around the country.One fusion center is the North Central Texas Fusion Center (NCTFS).

Ted Newcomen: New Anti-Islamic Working Class Group Rattles British Government A new anti-islamic white working class grass-roots organization has got the British political establishment rattled. The English Defense League (EDL)has moved in to fill the vacuum caused by widespread disenchantment with traditional mainstream parties as the UK struggles with the economic recession.

David Model: A Tax Increase for What? (2 comments) Two powerful members of Congress called for a war tax to pay for new troops to be deployed in Afghanistan. It is interesting that these two members of Congress are suggesting the unthinkable, a tax increase. When was the last time you heard a member of Congress call for a tax increase for healthcare, poverty, homelessness, veterans? Washington's priorities are defined by the urgency of this tax increase to support a war.

Allan Goldstein: I Could be Even More Thankful A short, satirical to-do list for the holiday season. Go ahead, it's okay. You can laugh and still get to heaven one fine day. It might even help.

Harvey Wasserman: Still more fluff, lies and radiation from TMI and the new nuke media machine Like this vast core of green groups, Moody's, Standard & Poor, Citibank and a powerful cohort of financial analysts see atomic power as a horrific investment that can only be described as, well, radioactive. The risks of building a new reactor, says a recent Citibank report, "are so large and variable that individually they could each bring even the largest utility company to its knees."

Tuesday, November 24:

Russ Buchanan: How the Democrat Party Lost Its "ic" (11 comments) My determination to find out why and when Republicans replaced "Democratic Party" with the stunningly childish "Democrat Party" led me to a secret strategy session held by the Republican elite shortly after their defeat at the polls. Strangely, the minutes of the meeting were written in verse.

Ray McGovern: Obama: Profile in Courage, or Cave-In? (24 comments) The choice, in my view, is between courage and cowardice cloaked as politics of the possible. Let me guess what you're thinking—“But that's asking too much of the young President; “cowardice” is too strong a word; Obama cannot possibly face down the entire military establishment.” John Kennedy did. So the question is whether Barack Obama is “no Jack Kennedy,” or whether he will summon the courage to stand up to

Rabbi Michael Lerner: Obama's Declining Popularity (13 comments) While Obama is still hailed around the world in almost messianic tones, recent polls indicate his approval rate is below 50% in the U.S. How could a man who aroused so much hope be losing support so dramatically? And what lessons can be learned for politicians all around the world?

George Washington: Instead of Fixing the U.S. Economy or Creating Jobs for AMERICANS, Obama Will Spend The Money in Afghanistan and Iraq The wars are unnecessary, and they are draining resources which could be used to reduce unemployment and help the economy.

Dave Lindorff: UK Inquiry: Blair Conspired with Bush as Early as February 2002 to Plot Iraq Invasion (11 comments) In the UK, people are learning about the deceit and lies of their former prime minister. In the US, there's no such investigation, and most of the media won't even report on the UK probe.

Josh Mitteldorf: Afghan War: Realities on the Ground A series of recent articles describes the way the U.S. is fighting against itself in Afghanistan, funding the enemy through extortion payments, stirring up the hatred of the people whose lives are ruined by the war, paying poppy growers to produce less, while trafficking in drugs in order to fund covert CIA operations. Continue this war? This is what Obama calls a tough decision.

Lawrence Velvel: Let Us Now Seek Competent Men. (2 comments) Let us now seek competent men.

Monday, November 30:

War Fraud Whistleblowers Under Wraps One of the reasons for the high costs of maintaining each soldier is the lack of oversight of private contractor billings over the course of these two wars. The Department of Defense (DOD), and especially the Army, has fought the auditors and the investigators in the military who have attempted to expose fraud, waste, overbillings and other abuses of costs in contractor contracts.

Scrubbing Major Hasan: The Strange & Silly Media Rewrite Of The Fort Hood Shooting Spree Krauthammer argues that America's liberals are actually sabotaging the military and intelligence agencies as part of some kind of conspiracy to destroy America and pave the way for an Islamic-socialist-liberal takeover. Which makes the liberals guilty of treason. Treason is a capital offense.

An Open Letter To President Obama On Afghanistan Instead of "change we can believe in," we are about one huge blow to America's future wellbeing. Obama is about to become a Bush-style "war president" and in so doing he will drive the last nail into our economic coffin as well. If you want to have any future at all don't be passive this time. Making your voice heard now may be our last opportunity to turn this nation around.

Addicted to Nonsense Top flight summary of our descent into Hell--not that you needed one, but read the many comments and at least know you that are not alone.

How the War Hawks Caged Obama - Robert Parry (1 comments) There was always the danger that these powerful “rivals” would fill key staff positions with subordinates who didn't share the new President's goals and then essentially hijack a sensitive policy decision. That situation appears to have arrived as Obama finds himself caged in by war hawks – Gates, Petraeus, McChrystal and Clinton – determined to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

Paul Krugman: The Jobs Imperative our best hope now is for a somewhat cheaper program that generates more jobs for the buck. Such a program should shy away from measures, like general tax cuts, that at best lead only indirectly to job creation, with many possible disconnects along the way. Instead, it should consist of measures that more or less directly save or add jobs.

Sunday, November 29:

David R. Griffin's review of The Ground Truth The one-sidedness of Farmer's book is manifest in his endnotes, which include no reference to any writings aimed at exposing serious problems with the 9/11 Commission. Farmer does not even mention "The Commission" by former New York Times writer Philip Shenon, who pointed out, among other things, that Zelikow had secretly written a detailed outline of the Commission's report before his research staff had even begun its work.

Searching for Whitopia: The Unfortunate Misdirection of a Journey Into Whiteness Rich Benjamin, an African American journalist spent over two years criss-crossing the country to document the latest manifestation of "white flight" -- the migration of white residents from cities to racially homogeneous enclaves that Benjamin calls "Whitopias." Along the way, he bumps into a white separatist group that, by his account, treats him well. What are we to make of his account vis a vis contemporary race relations?

Saturday, November 28:

Gideon Levy: Israel is lying to itself about 'united Jerusalem' And the prime minister has told us other lies, such as "our commitment to protect freedom of worship for all the religions in Jerusalem, and to ensure fair and equal treatment for the city's residents, Jews and Arabs alike." Freedom of worship? It's a sad joke. In no other city is access to holy places restricted.

15 Signs American Society Is Coming Apart at the Seams Now I know why Obama didn't sign the treaty banning landmines, so he and Wall Street could say to the poor and hungry of America, "Let them eat landmines."

Friday, November 27:

Arthur Silber: Once Upon a Time...Wherein We Gaze into Our Inerrant Crystal Ball and Espy a Deadly Rat Need I remind you that Obama is the commander in chief? It's not complicated in the least. In fact, the United States could leave, within three or six months. Announce the phased withdrawal of all U.S. personnel -- and then do it. We could do the same in Iraq. We won't do it in either case.

Taxing the Speculators by Paul Krugman (4 comments) While a financial transactions tax would not completely prevent any future crisis, it could generate substantial revenue while providing a useful check on reckless short-term speculation. Europe is beginning to do it. But Geithner opposes it. Time for Geithner to go.

The rabid right has made me doubt my faith in America What troubles me about the US today in ways I never expected to witness in my lifetime is not Obama's failure to solve all its urgent problems in a year, or even four. It is the scale of the irrational, emotional and ignorant, reaction his presidency has unleashed on the American right, some of it understandable in a fast-changing and confusing world, much of it ugly and increasingly violent in tone.

John Aravosis on the hypocrisy of alleged pedophile enablers moralizing on gay marriage From AmericaBlog - not to mention moralizing on abortion!

Thursday, November 26:

VIDEO: Dana Perino Claims No Terrorist Attacks on U.S. During Bush Presidency Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. After all this is the same Dana Perino who is so embarrassingly ignorant that she didn't know what the Bay of Pigs was. (Even worse, she's so mind-numbingly stupid that she admitted it.)

Merck's Vioxx scandal widens: Drug maker knew Vioxx was deadly for years before risk was made public (1 comments) Merck knowingly and maliciously allowed a deadly drug to continue to be sold to patients for years. It's a clear case of profits before patients from a drug company mired in one scandal after another. (Merck is also the maker of Gardasil, the cervical cancer vaccine.)

Wednesday, November 25:

United States Backs Illegal Elections in Honduras, Betraying Process to Restore Constitutional Order (2 comments) In declaring that it will recognize the coup regime sponsored elections on November 29 without prior restitution of constitutional order, the United States has emboldened the coup regime, betrayed a lengthy negotiation process and endangered the lives of millions of Honduran citizens who are committed to democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Tuesday, November 24:

Iran's Nuclear Ambassador: 'We Have Nothing to Hide' Ali Asghar Soltanieh serves as Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He said,"We need guarantees that we will get fuel in return for our uranium. Given the way we've been treated by the West over the last 30 years, we have plenty of reasons to be mistrustful."

The myth of the superhuman terrorist Hysteria hits high water when talk turns to the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Elected officials seem to have taken lessons from P.T. Barnum: "The most deadly killers in the world"; "The worst of the worst." But when proof substitutes for prattle, federal judges see it �differently: Thirty-eight prisoners have had their fate decided by the courts, and 30 have been cleared.

Watchdog puts no bite on despots, Gerald M. Steinberg and Dan Kosky The president and communications director of NGO Monitor supports the call for reform of Human Rights Watch (HRW) by its founder, Robert Bernstein.

The Extreme Secrecy of the Federal Courts To see how false this claim is, all anyone ever had to do was look at the Classified Information Procedures Act, a short and crystal clear 1980 law that not only permits, but requires, federal courts to undertake extreme measures to ensure the concealment of classified information, even including concealment from the defendant himself.

Monday, November 30:

Another Iranian journalist receives heavy prison term ,Payvand Iran News Since the summer uprising the Islamic Republic is taking revenge from the participants. Although, free press is guaranteed in Iranian constitution, journalists are getting harsh sentences for telling the truth. Even gods are sleep .

High Court To Take Up Case Involving Part of Patriot Act By William Fisher The Public Record Nov 30th, 2009 The case is known as Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, and is the first case to challenge a portion of the Patriot Act before the Supreme Court. The case, originally brought in 1998, challenges the constitutionality of the law that makes it a crime to provide “material support” to groups the administration has designated as “terrorist.”

Bruce: An American Indian Gathering at Thanksgiving A report on the annual gathering of United American Indians of North America on Thanksgiving

Soraya: Iran: Time to Leave the NPT (2 comments) Article suggests it is time for Iran to leave the NNPT given that the injustice of the system.

Sunday, November 29:

Iraq Inquiry bombshell: Secret letter to reveal new Blair war lies (1 comments) The Mail on Sunday can disclose that Attorney General Lord Goldsmith wrote the letter to Mr Blair in July 2002 - a full eight months before the war - telling him that deposing Saddam Hussein was a blatant breach of international law.

They're getting tired of being taken for granted Supporters of marriage equality have decided the enemy isn't those who oppose it but the politicians who string them along with empty promises of consideration.

Al-Qaeda Head Osama Bin Laden was 'Within Grasp' of US US forces had Osama Bin Laden "within their grasp" in Afghanistan in late 2001, a US Senate report says. It says calls for US reinforcements were rejected, allowing the al-Qaeda leader to "walk unmolested" into Pakistan's unregulated tribal areas.

John Little: Will the Growing Unemployment in America Lead to Civil Unrest and Revolution? (2 comments) What are the effects of increased unemployment on the sociopolitical front of the US?

Afghans Detail Detention in ‘Black Jail' at U.S. Base By ALISSA J. RUBIN, NY Times (1 comments) The NY Times suddenly discovers Bagram prison is not a nice place. Details of the abuse and injustice of Bagram finally make news in the MSM."An American military detention camp in Afghanistan is still holding inmates, sometimes for weeks at a time, without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to human rights researchers and former detainees held at the site on the Bagram Air Base."

Anti-war protest shakes up holiday shopping Anti-war street theater in Seattle.

Saturday, November 28:

Sherwood Ross: Obama Never Considered Diplomacy In Afghanistan (4 comments) Diplomacy? Calling an end to offensive operations upon taking office? Negotiating a withdrawal from Afghanistan? These considerations apparently never entered President Obama's mind.

Georgianne Nienaber: UN Report on Congo: A Boeing 727 From Florida, US Stonewalling, and Gold for Dubai (9 comments) You gotta read the full report to believe it...Arms shipments or suspected shipments to the DRC from Spain, North Korea, Ukraine, Iran, Libya, China, Belgium, Tanzania, the British Virgin Islands and others; US stonewalling on bank and phone records and 727 purchase from Florida.

Russia Train Crash 'Caused by Bomb' A bomb blast caused the Russian train crash in which at least 26 people were killed, intelligence officials say. BBC with short video.---The Nevsky Express derailed with nearly 700 on board as it ran through remote countryside between the capital Moscow and the second city, St Petersburg.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue: VENEZUELA: Son of a revolutionary friend shot dead outside his home at 7:00 a.m. They shot dead the 24-year old son of an old personal friend in Barquisimeto at around 7.00 a.m. Thursday morning. Apparently, a car with three persons aboard passed by the house as young Mijail left his dad's car running with keys in the ignition.

William R Castlelich: If I'm an "Idiot," do I still have free speech rights? A country founded on discourse cannot survive an environment of non-discourse, but that's exactly where the "rightwing" takes us almost anytime any of them open their mouths.

Friday, November 27:

IAEA votes to censure Iran over nuclear program The largely symbolic resolution berates Iran for its continued defiance of U.N. resolutions that demand a halt to uranium enrichment and other activities that U.S. officials believe are aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

David Fiderer: Rewriting History to Blame Tim Geithner: An Incomplete Story of the AIG Bailout (2 comments) Placing the blame on Geithner for problems with the AIG bailout suits those who want to oversimplify the problem, and deflect away culpability from the Bush Administration.

McMaster won't withdraw from Sanford case S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster, who is seeking the 2010 Republican nomination for governor, is reviewing the 37 ethics charges against Sanford. McMaster will determine whether any of those individual charges - or the sum of the charges - merit criminal prosecution.

Siegelman: Bush lawyers still running Justice Department Siegelman's lawyers argued the relationship between Siegelman and Scrushy was nothing out of the ordinary, and this fall 91 former attorneys general agreed, and urged the Supreme Court to hear Siegelman's case because it "concerns the criminalization of conduct protected by the First Amendment — the giving and receiving of campaign contributions."

Thursday, November 26:

Call it Ecocide: Babies With No Heads, 2 Heads or Monstrous Deformities (5 comments) Young women in Fallujah, the doctors wrote, "are terrified of having children because of the increasing number of babies born grotesquely deformed, with no heads, two heads, a single eye in their foreheads, scaly bodies or missing limbs." What might be causing this nightmare? The most likely factors are chemical or radiation poisoning

Blair and a deal signed in blood: PM and Bush had secret plan to topple Saddam (2 comments) As the UK's man in Washington from 1997 to 2003, Sir Christopher was questioned about the changing nature of British and American policy towards the oil-rich country. He said that the U.S. began targeting Iraq on the very day of the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.

Wednesday, November 25:

Is Belief in God Hurting America? (3 comments) In a paper posted recently on the online journal Evolutionary Psychology, independent researcher Gregory S. Paul reports a strong correlation within First World democracies between socioeconomic well-being and secularity. In short, prosperity is highest in societies where religion is practiced least.

Larry Gross: West Hollywood: City Built on Rent Control Celebrates 25th Anniversary (1 comments) Twenty-five years ago members of the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) rejoiced after a 7-year campaign to secure tenants' rights and preserve affordable housing in the then 1.9 square mile LA County unincorporated area of West Hollywood.

Study shows government contract fraud is hitting disabled veterans In a case-study of 10 firms, including one Florida company, the Government Accountability Office found ineligible companies had won about $100 million worth of contracts earmarked for service-disabled veteran-owned companies.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez convokes Fifth International; vindicates 'Carlos the Jackal' During a meeting with delegates attending an 'International Meeting of Parties of the Left' in Caracas, President Chavez took a bold but measured step in convoking The Fifth International on grounds that it is not enough to mouth the current left-wing dominant slogan: a "better world is possible ... it is possible and necessary."

Obama's Afghan Strategy Will Contain Many Messages So far, the administration has been successful only with the British, who have pledged an additional 500 troops. Germany, Italy and other NATO contributors have been silent, explaining to their American visitors that the war has become so unpopular at home that they can barely sustain the troop levels now in place.

Panel Asks How Britain Got Involved in Iraq War By JOHN F. BURNS Published: November 25, 2009 The inquiry, expected to last 18 months, has stirred political conflict, much of it over the plan to release the final report after British elections next year.

Tuesday, November 24:

VIDEO: Barack Obama: I'll 'finish the job' in Afghanistan Obama's decisions about his strategy are not known. But administration officials expect him to announce an increase of 20,000 to 40,000 additional troops in Afghanistan, a victory for his commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Fed Cautious About Strength of Recovery By EDMUND L. ANDREWS Published: November 25, 2009 Fed policymakers continue to predict that unemployment will remain well above 9 percent through the end of 2010.

Danny Schechter: Will Christmas Save US? Can "Black Friday Rescue The Economy? Will Christmas Shopping and Black Friday Bail Out the ailing American Economy asks News Dissector Danny Schechter

Census worker killed himself, tried to make it look like homicide, officials conclude (2 comments) A US Census worker found dead in a secluded Clay County cemetery killed himself but tried to make the death look like a homicide, authorities have concluded. There has been some anti-census sentiment in the country this year, and Sparkman apparently tried to capitalize on that with his ruse.

Lou Dobbs mulls White House bid (1 comments) Asked if he might make a run at the White House in 2012, Dobbs answered flatly: "Yes is the answer. I'm going to be talking some more with some folks who want me to listen in the next few weeks," Dobbs said. "Right now I'm fortunate to have a number of wonderful options."

Roger Shuler: Did Health-Care Reform Lead to a Medical Dean's Ouster? A medical dean in Alabama has announced he is stepping down. Is pressure brought on by possible health-care reform behind the decision?

Iraq inquiry: British officials heard 'drum beats' of war from US before 9/11 British officials heard the "drum beats" of war with Iraq emanating from the US government more than two years before the 2003 invasion and several months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Sir John Chilcot's Iraq inquiry has heard.

Homeless Organization Is Called a Fraud an investigation by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo appears to have confirmed what many New Yorkers secretly (if somewhat guiltily) suspected all along: The United Homeless Organization, supposedly a nonprofit group set up to help feed and house the homeless, was actually an elaborate fraud.

No events have been submitted for this level in the last week

No polls have been submitted for this level in the last week