As The World Squirmsã

 

~Serious Comment for Serious People - A Global Perspective for Just a Few Friends~

 

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Monday, June 23, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Antiwar.com Action Alert 

 

Iran War Resolution May Be Passed Next Week

Israel’s Washington Fifth-Column Goads Pandering U.S. Congressionals to Proxy War for Israel

June 23, 2008

 

 

Quick Links

 H. Con. Res. 362

 S. Res. 580

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Introduced less than a month ago, Resolution 362, also known as the Iran War Resolution, could be passed by the House as early as next week.

The bill is the chief legislative priority of AIPAC. On its Web site, AIPAC endorses the resolutions as a way to ''Stop Iran's Nuclear Program" and tells readers to lobby Congress to pass the bill. In the Senate, a sister resolution, Resolution 580, has gained co-sponsors with similar speed. The Senate measure was introduced by Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh on June 2. It has since gained 19 co-sponsors.

The bill's key section "demands that the president initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran's nuclear program."

"Imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran" can be read to mean that the president should initiate a naval blockade of Iran. A unilateral naval blockade without UN sanction is an act of war.

Resolution 362 has already gained 170 co-sponsors, or nearly 40 percent of the House. It has been referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee, which has 49 members, 24 of whom, including the ranking Republican, are co-sponsors. The Iran Nuclear Watch Web site writes, "According to the House leadership, this resolution is going to 'pass like a hot knife through butter' before the end of June on what is called suspension - meaning no amendments can be introduced during the 20-minute maximum debate. It also means it is assumed the bill will pass by a 2/3 majority and is non-controversial."

Our national legislators deem it non-controversial to recommend to a president known for his recklessness and bad judgment that he consider engaging in an act of war against Iran. Those of you who consider this issue controversial can go to the Just Foreign Policy Web site and tell your representative to oppose this resolution.

 

For more information about this action item, media requests, donations or other information, please contact Angela Keaton at 310-729-3760 or akeaton@antiwar.com.

 

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Special Comment

 

 

War, Economy Can't Be Decoupled

 

By Rep. Ron Paul

(Excerpt)

“What is the importance of the war in Iraq relative to other current issues? This is a question I am often asked, especially as Americans continue to become increasingly aware that something is very wrong with the economy. The difficulty with the way the question is often asked relates to the perception that we are somehow able to divide such issues, or to isolate the cost of war into arbitrarily defined areas such as national security or international relations. War is an all-encompassing governmental activity. The impact of war on our ability to defend ourselves from future attack, and upon America's standing in the world, is only a mere fraction of the total overall effect that war has on our nation and the policies of its government.”

 

 

VIDEO: Washington’s Disastrous Foreign Policy - America and Islam After Iraq

A speech and video presentation by Michael Scheuer, Author and former Head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s bin-Laden Unit

 

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS: The Hard Choice – Obama and the fall into Tyranny

As articles by John Pilger, Alexander Cockburn, and Uri Avnery make clear, by groveling before the Israel Lobby Obama has dispelled any hope that his presidency would make a difference. Obama told the Lobby that in order to protect Israel he would use all the powers of the presidency to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.  As in the case of Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction, the conclusion whether or not Iran is making a nuclear weapon will be determined by propaganda and not by fact. Therefore, there is no difference between Bush, McCain, Obama, and the Lobby with regard to the Middle East.As Israel has several hundred nuclear weapons, and a modern air force and missiles supplied by the US, the idea that Israel needs American protection from Iran is a fantasy.  All Israel needs to do in order to be safe and to live in peace is to stop stealing the West Bank and to drop its designs on southern Lebanon.  Obama is too smart not to know that US foreign policy has been Shanghaied by the Lobby not in order to protect innocent Israel but to enable Israels territorial expansion.”

 

Reporters Say Networks Block War Reports

Lara Logan, chief foreign correspondent, CBS news: “If I were to watch the news that you hear [view] here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts.”

 

Glenn Greenwald, Salon: Time Magazine Uncritically Prints Nancy Pelosi's "Justifications" for the FISA "Compromise"

 

 

ERIC MARGOLIS: The March to Folly on the Afghan Border

 

 

The Single Most Popular Youtube Video Ever

 

 

Iran: Stop nukes by bombing oil wells, neocons suggest

 Why attack Iran's nuclear facilities when striking their oil infrastructure would be much more effective in the scope of a US-led preventive war? Sure, oil prices might skyrocket and the world economy might collapse. But, hey, that's the price you pay for security. Such a scenario is not a nightmare or an outtake from a remake of Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove," but part of a serious recommendation made by two neoconservatives in case sanctions fail to persuade Iran to abandon its enrichment of uranium. In a July report titled "The Last Resort: Consequences of Preventive Military Action Against Iran," scholars Patrick Clawson and Michael Eisenstadt advocate military strategies that would ultimately discourage Tehran from pursuing any future non-civilian nuclear activities.

 

 

Arch-NEOCON BILL KRISTOL: Bush Might Bomb Iran If He 'Thinks Senator Obama's Going to Win'

On Fox News Sunday this morning, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said that President [sic] Bush is more likely to attack Iran if he believes Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is going to be elected. However, "if the president thought John McCain was going to be the next president, he would think it more appropriate to let the next president make that decision than do it on his way out," Kristol said, reinforcing the fact that McCain is offering a third Bush term on Iran... Host Chris Wallace then asked if Kristol was suggesting that Bush might "launch a military strike" before or after the election: WALLACE: So, you're suggesting that he might in fact, if Obama's going to win the election, either before or after the election, launch a military strike? KRISTOL: I don’t know. I mean, I think he would worry about it...

 

Britain Admits Using Thermobaric Weapons in Afghanistan

 

 

Vice-president of German Parliament urges withdrawal of US nuclear arms from Europe

 

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DIVIDE AND CONQUER - The Gaza Bombshell

After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.

 

Leaked Israeli Drill Seen as US Pressure on Iran

 

 

 

Egypt says Hamas phones bugged by Israel

 

 

Fighting rages in north Lebanon for second day, 9 reported dead

 

 

 

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US, Iraqi Crackdown Meets No Sadrist Resistance

 

Iraq Courts Order 20,000 Freed Under Amnesty

 

In First, U.S. Court Rejects Military's Gitmo Ruling

 

DeWayne Wickham: Before Iraq inks a deal with Washington, a little U.S. history

 

Iraq to award oil contracts to foreign firms

22 Jun 2008-Iraq will award contracts to 41 foreign oil firms in a bid to boost production that could give multinationals a potentially lucrative foothold in huge but underdeveloped oil fields, an official said on Sunday. "We chose 35 companies of international standard, according to their finances, environment and experience, and we granted them permission to extract oil," oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told AFP.

 

Secret Pentagon Funding Near All-Time High

 

 

SWAT Teams Run Amok, Kill Civilians

 

 

 

Onstar Will Shut Down Your Vehicle If Stolen (or whatever) - Video

 

 

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GEORGE CARLIN

Comedic Icon Dead at 71 Years

Classic Carlin  Videos

Caution: Trenchant, Irreverent & Profanity

Video #1

Video #2

Video #3

 

 

 

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“Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder

respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

 

~George Orwell~

 

 

 

PERSPECTIVE

 

HE'S BACK! Ross Perot Sponsors New Public Interest Website

 

Don’t “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran!”

Video

 

Saddam Hussein Thanks for the Memories

Video

 

 

 

An extraordinarily prescient video interview with General Norman Schwarzkopf and Robert Gates - Deputy National Security Advisor to Former President George Bush Sr.

 

Why Invading Iraq Was A Very Stupid Idea…

 

(Click on blinking dot above for video)