America Loses Another War
Iraq: a shameful ass-whupping, or just a pathetic trouncing? Ugly disgrace? Choices, choices

The good news is, we're all back in harmony. All back on the same page. No more divisiveness and no more silly bickering and no more nasty and indignant red state/blue state rock throwing because we're finally all back in cozy let's-hug-it-out agreement: The "war" in Iraq is over. And what's more, we lost. Very, very badly......more

Clueless

Pinochet's grandson kicked out of army

The grandson of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was booted out of the army today for criticising the judiciary in a highly politicised speech at his grandfather's funeral. In his funeral speech, the younger Pinochet described his grandfather as "a man who, at the height of the Cold War, defeated the Marxist government which tried to impose its totalitarian model, not through the ballot box, but through direct use of force."......more

The Fall of the Mighty Dollar

Is an end of an era looming in the foreign exchange markets? The dollar has been depreciating against the euro for weeks. Currency experts and the German government don't yet see this as cause for alarm. The US currency's role as a lead currency isn't as important as it used to be, they say......more

Blame the Iraqis and run

As George W. Bush agonises over which bits of last week’s Baker-Hamilton re­port to adopt for his forthcoming “new way forward in Iraq” announcement, an­other consensus is emerging in Washington on how to handle the situation: blame the Iraqis.....more

December 10, 2006: Human Rights and Impeachment (Prison) Day
here

European Left see better ties with US after Democrat win

The chairman of the national committee of the US Democratic Party, Howard Dean, told the gathering his party now "has a say" in US policy and wants to restore close political ties with Europe. "It is time for the US to renew its ties with the rest of the world. It is time for us to treat our allies with respect and honesty," he said to applause from participants.......more

A New Game

If you’re like me, you’ve got a wingnut friend or two that persists in trying to “convert you” by sending you foolish spam emails and chain letters. Sometimes the emails aren’t so bad - I got one from a devout Christain friend the other day that spoke of respect for the troops during the holidays. Jingoistic? Sure… But it was touching, nonetheless......more

The Dixie Chicks Earn Five Grammy Nominations

Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best Country Album........more

The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is sad and profoundly un-American.”.........Harvey Weinstein

Changes Are Expected in Voting by 2008 Election

By the 2008 presidential election, voters around the country are likely to see sweeping changes in how they cast their ballots and how those ballots are counted, including an end to the use of most electronic voting machines without a paper trail, federal voting officials and legislators say......more

Dean calls for another election in District 13

"You cannot seat someone if you don't have an election that's valid," Dean said in a taped interview scheduled to air Sunday on Bay News 9, Tampa Bay's cable news channel......more

George Bush "in denial"

"Make no mistake about it, sir, I understand how bad it is, I talk to the families who die," Mr Bush went on, leaning forward past his podium to hammer home his point with a string of trademark malapropisms......more

Are Saudis funding Iraq terror?

Report says millions sent to Sunni insurgents for weapons

Private Saudi citizens are giving millions of dollars to Sunni insurgents in Iraq and much of the money is used to buy weapons, according to Iraqi officials and The U.S. Iraq Study Group report said Saudis are a source of funding for Sunni Arab insurgents. Several truck drivers interviewed by reporters described carrying boxes of cash from Saudi Arabia into Iraq, money they said was headed for insurgents.......more

Al Gore:

"The worst strategic mistake in the history of the United States.”

I would urge the president not to — to try to separate out the personal issues of being blamed in history for this mistake and instead recognize it’s not about him. It’s about our country and we all have to find a way to get our troops home and to prevent a regional conflagration there.....more

All the President's men are down to one

They were all this President's men - Cheney and Rummy and Wolfie and Bolton - neoconservatives, hard-line conservatives, iron-fisted conservatives, unyielding conservatives. Once they were not only The Untouchables but also The Unbudgeables. Now there is only one.....more

Wealth distribution disparity growing

The richest 2 percent of adults still owns more than half of the world's household wealth, perpetuating a yawning global gap between rich and poor, according to research published Tuesday by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research.....more

Why Are Folks So Afraid of John McCain?

With John McCain sporting a fairly robust level of popularity, scoring a 57.7 out of 100 in Quinnipiac's national thermometer (third highest overall) and maintaining a favorable/unfavorable ratio of between 2-to-1 and 2.5-to-1, there are more than a few people -- even on this side of the aisle -- who believe that it is all but a foregone conclusion that the senior Senator from Arizona will become the 44th President of the United States.....more

Delaware underdogs find strength
America's tradition of dissent unites disparate voices into powerful force for change

In Delaware, a woman raised by a Methodist minister and who runs an organization working for peace stands alongside an intellectual raised by a blacklisted union organizer who argues for inclusion and neighborhood revitalization for Wilmington's African-American community......more

Video is a window into a terror suspect's isolation

One spring day during his three and a half years as an enemy combatant, Jose Padilla experienced a break from the monotony of his solitary confinement in a bare cell in the brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, South Carolina.....more

Cuba To Celebrate Failed Revolution

Communist Cuba's military is rolling out its olive green Soviet-era hardware this weekend, summoning 300,000 troops and citizen soldiers for a show of strength in times made uncertain by Fidel Castro's illness. "These Arms Will Never Bow Down Before the Empire!" the red letters of an eight-story-high banner proclaimed Friday from the side of the National Library facing the plaza.....more

WMNF: Holiday Bazaar Music & Book Sale
December 2, 2006 10am - 5pm
Cuban Club, Ybor City

Irish Ban ‘Guantanamo Express’

THE plane sometimes referred to as the ‘Guantanamo Express’, used by the CIA to transport kidnapped suspects to secret jails, has been banned from landing at Irish airports in future, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told a European Parliament committee......more

29 November 2006 McDowell rejects claim on 'rendition' flights

Menu for this year's White House holiday receptions

As the president flies back from his summit on the war -- the one that will have claimed the lives of more than 3,000 Americans by Christmas -- the Office of the First Lady is distributing the menu for this year's White House holiday receptions....here

"The time of war is a time of sacrifice."

Slaughter House Iraq

Civil war is raging across central Iraq, home to a third of the country's 27 million people. As Shia and Sunni flee each other's neighbourhoods, Iraq is turning into a country of refugees. The US and British position in Iraq is far more of a house built on sand than is realised in Washington or London, despite the disasters of the past three-and-a-half years. George Bush and Tony Blair show a unique inability to learn from their mistakes, largely because they do not want to admit having committed any errors in the first place......more

US Hearts and Minds Cash Goes to Taleban

When United States troops in the southern province of Ghazni handed out cash to village elders, they must have thought they were winning friends. The money, intended for bridges, wells, drinking water, irrigation systems and other infrastructure projects, was supposed to convince the local Afghans that the foreign presence would benefit their country in general and themselves in particular. But the resources intended to combat Taleban influence ended up doing just the opposite. Local people in several parts of Andar district told IWPR that almost as soon as the coalition forces left their villages, the money found its way into Taleban coffers to finance the jihad against the foreigners......more

Howard Dean opens Liberal Party convention

As the Liberals struggle to regain their confidence and drive -- having lost to Harper's Conservatives in January after 12 years in power -- they've turned to a man from south of the border for inspiration. U.S. Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean will open the convention.....more

Committee on Public Information

Also known as the CPI and the Creel Committy, was established under Woodrow Wilson as an independent agency by Executive order 2594, April 13, 1917.

Its purpose was to influence American public opinion toward supporting U.S. intervention in World War I via a vigorous propaganda campaign. Among those who participated in it were Wilson adviser Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, the latter of whom had remarked that "the essence of democratic society" was the "engineering of consent", by which propaganda was the necessary method for democracies to promote and garner support for policy. Many have commented that the CPI laid the groundwork for the public relations (PR) industry.......@Wikipedia

Stop The War! Bring The Troops Home!