Wednesday, November 25:

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.

Tuesday, November 24:

Russ Buchanan: How the Democrat Party Lost Its "ic" (4 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.

Rabbi Michael Lerner: Obama's Declining Popularity (6 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?

Dave Lindorff: UK Inquiry: Blair Conspired with Bush as Early as February 2002 to Plot Iraq Invasion (8 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.

Monday, November 23:

Patricia Mailloux: How to Win in the Game of Life About the health care reform and why we should consider universal health care as a viable option for our future.

Daniel Vojir: The Manhattan Declaration: The Christian Right Declares Global Warfare, Giving Africa The Gift Of ...Fear (2 comments) Warren is still nowhere to be seen in regards to criminalizing homosexuality in Africa. However, his imprint is on the Manhattan Declaration - the signed document that purports to speak for all of Christianity with all of its mind-numbing messages of hypocrisy.

Sunday, November 22:

Robert Parry: The Madness Returns As soon as the mainstream news correspondents sensed that the tide was turning again, they smoothly readjusted to the resurgence of know-nothing-ism. Palin's recitation of right-wing talking points was treated with deference and respect, except by the likes of Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's “Daily Show.”

michael payne: China vs. U.S.: economic power vs. military might; which will prevail? (11 comments) Two world powers, with two distinctly different political philosophies, proceed in world affairs on strikingly different courses. China has chosen to flex its economic muscle while America's strategy is based on using military might in pursuing its agenda.

Saturday, November 21:

Daniel Tilson: Bad News For American Women Comes In Threes (4 comments) From the U.S. House version of health reform that included further abortion restrictions, to new recommendations on screenings for breast cancer and cervical cancer, the signs have not been good.

Liz Grover: *My Experience in Afghanistan & My Message to President Obama Liz Grover, an activist who lived and worked in Afghanistan for two years, makes her please to President Obama to use dialogue and genuinely listen to what the Afghan people want.

Rick Rozoff: Rumors Of Coups And War: U.S., NATO Target Latin America Rumors Of Coups And War: U.S., NATO Target Latin America

Jason Paz: Justice Delayed is Justice Denied (1 comments) We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. - Martin Luther King

Friday, November 20:

Daniel Vojir: Will James David Manning Be Tried As A Martyr ... Or As An Idiot? (3 comments) Are fraudulent ministers just plain stupid? Maybe so. James David Manning, "Ph.D" has been operating ATLAH Ministries Worldwide and calling for the death of the President. His last video was so threatening that Homeland Security paid him a visit on November 16th. He fully expects to be carted away any day now for his reasonless rantings. We hope he is. Pray for the members of his congregation.

Muhammad Khurshid: Another Army Takeover Is Imminent In Pakistan (2 comments) There are reports that Pakistan Army has almost finalised the plan for taking over the power as the civilian leadership has failed in controlling the situation. It is not yet clear whether General Kiyani will take all the matters in his own hands or he will allow formation of a national government.

Angola 3 News: The Arrest and Torture of Syed Hashmi --an interview with Jeanne Theoharis (4 comments) Jeanne Theoharis is the author of an April, 2009 article in The Nation, entitled “Guantanamo At Home,” which focuses on the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of US citizen Syed Hashmi in a New York City prison with Guantanamo-like conditions. Hashmi's trial will begin in New York City on December 1.

Thursday, November 19:

Andreas Umland: Understanding the Orange Revolution: Ukraine's Democratization in the Russian Mirror On November 21st, 2009, Ukrainian democrats will be celebrating the fifth anniversary of the start of demonstrations in Kyiv which led to larger political developments that came to reshape our understanding of post-Soviet politics. During the last five years, the 2004 events in Ukraine known as the Orange Revolution have become important reference points in the international study of democratic transition and consolidation.

Richard Wise: If Health Reform Fails: Insurers' Double-0 “License to Kill” If health care reform fails, the result will not be a return to the status quo. It will be much worse. The banks and the insurance companies will have won the big prize and they will pay themselves handsomely for their victory. Meanwhile, Democrats in disarray will slink off stage left, blaming everyone but themselves for the outcome.

Michael Collins: HHS Task Force Mammogram Recs Slammed (11 comments) Now it's time to find out how this HHS research organization could impanel a group of experts to recommend cancer treatment protocols when none of the physicians on the panel were oncologists and none had any identified clinical experience treating cancer.

Stephen Lendman: Media Disseminated Myths about Obamacare Corporate media lies and deception about Obamacare

Bob Patterson: Ambush Alert! (1 comments) Are the electronic voting machines going to be used to ambush Latino voters in Colorado?

Wednesday, November 18:

Brent Budowsky: 2010: A progressive strategy to win (2 comments) The issues discussed in this column stand at the heart of the American economy and the source of discontent that now spreads throughout the land. With the principled stand of progressive patriotic populism, we speak for the majority of voters. With a total mobilization to support those who stand with us in 2010, we can confound the experts again, as we did in 2006 and 2008.

Rowan Wolf: Is the "Tea Party" Really An Appropriate Name? (3 comments) The "Tea Party" is more akin to the nativist Know Nothings than the colonists rebelling against British corporate monopoly.

Tuesday, November 24:

Huffington: Will The Unemployment Disaster Be Obama's Katrina? "At this point you have to wonder what Obama's attachment to Summers and Geithner is."

Inconsistent Conservatives and Progressives by Sheldon Richman The problem is that conservatives and progressives fail to see that their arguments can legitimately be applied to government activity across the board, including activities they like. If each side were consistent, it would oppose many things it now favors.

Monday, November 23:

The Pro-War, Anti-Gun Wing of the GOP | by Jerry Salcido Save Those Bullets for the Monsters

Obama's First Judicial Nominee Confirmed (5 Months Later) Judge Hamilton had the support of both his home state Senators – Senator Lugar, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, and Senator Bayh, a well-respected moderate Democrat. He was rated “well qualified” by the American Bar Association, and his nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee in June. But despite all this, conservatives had since prevented a final vote, arguing Hamilton was too liberal.

Sunday, November 22:

Frank Rich: The Pit Bull in the China Shop The fact-checking siege of “Going Rogue” — by the media, Democrats and aggrieved McCain campaign operatives alike — is another fruitless sideshow. Palin's political appeal has never had anything to do with facts — or coherent policy positions.

Saturday, November 21:

Engineering California's Economic Collapse by Ernest A. Canning As shocking as it may seem, California looming financial meltdown is the intended product of a Republican-led privatization scheme.

Friday, November 20:

Is the Israel lobby doing more harm than good? We are at a pivotal point. The rise of the right in Israel's last election does not signal that the voters are opposed to territorial compromise and a two-state solution. On the contrary, polls consistently show a clear majority of Israelis favoring this outcome, but they seem to prefer a right-wing prime minister to carry out a leftist policy.

Paul Krugman: The Big Squander So here’s the real tragedy of the botched bailout: Government officials, perhaps influenced by spending too much time with bankers, forgot that if you want to govern effectively you have retain the trust of the people. And by treating the financial industry — which got us into this mess in the first place — with kid gloves, they have squandered that trust.

Thursday, November 19:

Glenn Beck and Fox News (2 comments) Some see Beck as a joke, and some see him as a danger, and some—especially those who like guns, don't want health-care reform, and feel that their freedom is somehow threatened by every political initiative of the Obama Administration—are grateful to him, for his efforts to “take back America.”

E.J. Dionne: The GOP's no-exit strategy Is it any wonder that Congress has miserable approval ratings? Is it surprising that independents, who want their government to solve a few problems, are becoming impatient with the current majority? Democrats in the Senate -- the House is not the problem -- need to have a long chat with themselves and decide whether they want to engage in an act of collective suicide.

Dan Froomkin: Obama's Afghan Dilemma: The Only Real Exit Strategy Is Political Suicide (1 comments) What's taking so long? Obama wants his plan to include an exit strategy--or an "endgame" as he put it yesterday. And there isn't one--at least not one that's politically palatable. The only genuine exit strategy left involves unilateral disengagement. But politically, that's a nonstarter--he would be derided in the press and by Republicans as a coward and a quitter.

Wednesday, November 18:

Exposing Britain's Pro-Israel Lobby: Channel 4 TV Makes a Bold Start Last night Channel 4's ‘Dispatches' program set out to investigate the pro-Israel lobby in Britain, and to boldly go where no TV team had gone before.it would be no bad thing if all our Westminster politicians had the Second Principle of Public Life tattooed on their forehead – Integrity.

Tuesday, November 24:

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan Members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found.

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."

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.

Spin meter: Legislation inflation grips GOP Republicans: You Lie! Read how the simple-minded Republicans artificially inflate the 209 page healthcare reform bill into a 2,000+ page back-breaker. It is NOT longer than War & Peace, & it is barely longer than Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.

Monday, November 23:

G.O.P. Considers ‘Purity' Resolution for Candidates Republican leaders are circulating a resolution listing 10 positions Republican candidates should support to demonstrate that they “espouse conservative principles and public policies” that are in opposition to “Obama's socialist agenda.”

Ann Garrison: Rwanda Green Party activists claim illegal detention Saboteurs disrupted the Rwandan Green Party's fourth attempt to meet, on 10.30.2009, which was then shut down by police. Today's Rwandan News Agency reports that eight Rwanda Greens charge they were illegally arrested and detained during the following week, and that they have now been prevented from convening again.

Pakistan's Battle with Taliban Militants Expands North Pakistan's Army says that while the South Waziristan offensive has taken out the country's largest Taliban sanctuary, militants falling back into Orakzai could become the military's next focus, Bloomberg reports. (Click here for a map of Pakistan that includes Orakzai, Peshawar, and South Waziristan.)

SC gov faces 37 charges he broke state ethics laws South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces ethics charges he broke state laws more than three dozen times by violating rules on airplane travel and campaign money, according to details of the allegations released Monday.

Sunday, November 22:

Gitmo Boy Celebrates Eid in Afghanistan by Hossam el-Hamalawy Mohammad was twelve when he was sent to Gitmo. After seven years, he is free

Partisan divide widens as Obama considers Afghanistan policy The internal debate has morphed into a much broader debate, a virtual Rubik's Cube in which Obama is weighing not just the number of troops, but when and where they would be deployed as well as how long they should be committed there and at what cost.

The Cornucopia Institute: Food Manufacturers and Organic Industry Lobbyists Circle the Wagons Two powerful lobby groups in the food industry, The Grocery Manufacturers of America and the Organic Trade Association, recently intervened as friends of the court in a federal consumer class-action lawsuit accusing the nation's largest supplier of private-label organic milk of consumer fraud.

Friday, November 20:

Lawmakers To Take Up Impeachment Proceedings Against Sanford (2 comments) Yesterday, a state ethics panel announced it would move ahead with its investigation of S.C. Governor Mark Sanford's travel and his use of state funds in connection with the affair. Next week, they will take up impeachment proceedings against the disgraced governor.

Glenn Beck to announce ‘big plan' for 2010 (1 comments) At a rally Saturday at a massive retirement community in central Florida, Beck is planning to unveil what he has billed as a “big plan” for 2010, which is expected to involve the 9.12 Project, the group he started earlier this year and named for the day after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Short Selling American Lives: Deutsche Bank Life Insurance Fund in Hot Water The closed-end funds buy life insurance policies from Americans and assume responsibility for paying their future premiums. When the original policy-holder dies, the entire payout goes to the fund. It is like short-selling US life expectancy.

Thursday, November 19:

Michael Pollan: Help Protect Our Farmers From Assaults By Monsanto - The True Food Network (1 comments) Here's an activist group that is taking on Monsanto and agribusiness. I'm not advocating that you give them money; I just am pleased to see an activist organization taking on the big guys (Monsanto, Cargill, others) that so effectively lobby congress and exploit the law and the courts. Maybe you are too. (Disclaimer: I have no connection with the organization or its principals. I'm not recommending it as a charity.)

Capitol Briefing - Fort Hood hearing focuses on homegrown threats, 'political correctness' Lieberman lamented that some commentary in the aftermath of the attack attributed Hasan's alleged actions to "mental stress or instability" and thus not to his adherence to any radical or jihadist ideology.

Patrick J. O'Donoghue: INTI Pedro Moreno: On the front line of agrarian reform in Venezuela's Lara State Pedro Moreno has been leading the government's agrarian reform program in Lara State for the last five years and has already received death threats from landowners opposing occupancy of idle lands for production by peasants.

Wednesday, November 18:

Dissection of Palin's 'Going Rogue' begins (1 comments) When asked where she's going next, Palin said, "I'll be heading home to Alaska, of course. Back to that kitchen table. We'll discuss the day's news and the next stop. I always tell my kids that God doesn't drive parked cars, so we'll talk about getting on the next road and gearing up for hard work to travel down it to reach new goals."

Getting Serious about Tackling Corruption: Afghan Attorney General to Indict Five Leading Politicians - SPIEGEL ONLINE - The pressure on Karzai is immense. In recent days, a veritable parade of ambassadors has descended on his office. Diplomats are speaking of a "shopping list" that they have presented to Karzai, who has found himself weakened since the manipulated elections that recently returned him to office.

How the US Funds the Taliban (1 comments) US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon's logistics contracts--hundreds of millions of dollars--consists of payments to insurgents.

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

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