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Archives: October 2012
Bahrain King forbids Protest Rallies
The Kingdom of Bahrain has banned all public demonstrations and rallies, in a strike against the Shiite Wifaq Party, led by cleric Ali Salman. The king of Bahrain and most of his…
Syrian Regime flies 60 bombing Raids against Rebel City Quarters
The Baath regime of Bashar al-Assad spent the final day of a supposed 4-day cease-fire on Monday intensively bombing its own cities, with fighter jets flying dozens of sorties against rebel positions.…
Romney Ridiculed ‘Rising of Seas,’ Pledged Deep cuts to FEMA (Videos)
Mitt Romney makes fun of President Obama's pledge to slow the rising of the world's oceans, caused by climate change, and his Republican audience tittered. Instead, Romney pledged to "help you and…Top Green Energy Good News Stories in Honor of Frankenstorm
While storms and hurricanes are normal, Frankenstorms are not. Global climate change caused by human dumping of carbon dioxide into the air causes severe weather. We can only hope to slow down…
A vote for Romney is a vote for Zombies: Joss Whedon of the Avengers (Video)
Director and screenwriter Joss Whedon (The Avengers, The Cabin in the Woods (2012), suggests that a vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for the Zombie Apocalypse, and that learning Parkour (obstacle…
You, Robot: Darpa’s Robot learns to Avoid Obstacles
Darpa's Atlas Robot learns to avoid obstacles:
Severe Weather, Climate Change and Corporate Greed (Solnit)
Rebecca Solnit writes at Tomdispatch.com: Our Words Are Our Weapons Against the Destruction of the World by Greed In ancient China, the arrival of a new dynasty was accompanied by “the rectification…
Syria crisis Shakes Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia as Cease-Fire Crumbles
The inability of the Syrian government to crush an 18-month-old revolutionary movement is putting increasing pressure on its neighbors. Not only have hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria poured into Jordan,…
Medley of Grey-Faced Republican Men on Duty of Raped Women to Bear the Child (Video)
A medley of grey-faced Republican men with two-dollar haircuts fulminating on rape and the duty of raped women to bear their rapist's baby:
Romney & Ryan Self-Help Book on Rape (Jamiol Cartoon)
Courtesy Paul Jamiol
Candidates flee East Coast as Frankenstorm takes Revenge for their Ignoring Climate Change
Mitt Romney and Joe Biden have canceled campaign events planned for this weekend at Virginia Beach as a massive storm bears down on the east coast of the US. The candidates are…Jon Stewart: Romney/ Bain record on Picking Winners much Worse than Obama’s
Wherein Jon Stewart of the Daily Show on Comedy Central examines the proposition that Mitt Romney's Bain Capital can pick winners and losers among investment prospects better than Obama and the Federal…Omar Khayyam (338) “Who’ll hear the secret?”
Where is an intimate friend who'll hear the secret …
Brandeis U. Owes Jimmy Carter an Apology: Israelis agree they run Apartheid State, as Far Right Wing Coalition Emerges
In 2007, Jimmy Carter's book Palestine: Peace, not Apartheid created a firestorm of controversy. Brandeis University initially said it would only allow Carter to speak on the book on campus if he…
Tina Fey tells off Republicans Todd Akin, Joe Walsh and Richard Mourdock (Video)
Comedian Tina Fey tells off the Republican candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives as "gray-faced men with 2-dollar hair cuts" who are trying to tell her what rape is.The United Nations will Investigate Civilian Deaths in US Drone Strikes
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism writes The United Nations plans to set up a special investigation unit examining claims of civilian deaths in individual US covert drone strikes. UN investigators have been…Egypt President condemns Israeli Air Raids on Gaza
Aljazeera Arabic is reporting on a speech by Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi on Wednesday evening Cairo time, in which the Muslim Brotherhood figure condemned Israeli attacks by fighter jet on the Gaza…Open Source Center Reports from Sept. 12 on Libya Consulate Attack Support Crowd Protests
Republican critics of the Obama administration's evolving accounts of what happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 imply that there was early certainty in the US intelligence community that it was an…
Lesley Gore to Todd Akin, Joe Walsh and Richard Mourdock: “You Don’t Own Me” (Video)
Given the rise of neo-patriarchy, especially in the Republican Party, which keeps trying to control women's bodies and put women in their (subordinate place), Lesley Gore has issued a public service announcement…
Mourdock, Rape as a Gift of God, and Islamic Sharia
Indiana candidate for the US Senate Richard Mourdock, who has been endorsed by Mitt Romney, has caused a stir by calling children conceived of rape 'gifts of God.': Here is his statement:…
The Most Bloated Election in History (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch.com Democratic Mockpocalypse Obesity is an American plague -- and no, I’m not talking about overweight Americans. I’m talking about our overweight, supersized presidential campaign. I’m talking about…
Romney’s Major Flip-Flops in the Third Debate
Gov. Mitt Romney continued his amazing chameleon act in the third presidential debate, apparently reversing several of his earlier talking points on foreign policy in the game's ninth inning. On Israel-Palestine Romney…US must Pressure Bahrain on Human Rights (Strindberg)
Anders Strindberg writes in a guest column for Informed Comment All is not what it seems: Bahrain and U.S. strategic interests On the last Friday night of September, Bahraini police shot seventeen-year…SNL Spoof of Second Presidential Debate (Video)
Saturday Night Live spoofs the second presidential debate at Hofstra University:Top Ten Republican Myths about Obama and Iran
1. It is alleged that Obama's willingness to negotiate with the Tehran regime encouraged the Ayatollahs to be even more obstreperous. In fact, the regime was split by the offer to talk,…
Big Brother is looking for a Cyber-Attack Pretext to Crack Down (Greenberg)
Karen J. Greenberg writes at Tomdispatch.com Will the Apocalypse Arrive Online? How Fear of Cyber Attack Could Take Down Your Liberties and the Constitution First the financial system collapses and it's impossible…
Gaza Aid Ship Estelle Commandeered by Israeli Navy; Israel kidnaps European Members of Parliament
The Israeli navy boarded the aid ship Estelle in international waters on Saturday, illegally commandeering it and kidnapping the 30 persons aboard, including five European parliamentarians and Canadian former member of parliament…Were TSA Scanners Dangerous? Ionizing X-Ray Machines Removed from Airports (Grabell)
Michael Grabell writes at ProPublica: The Transportation Security Administration has been quietly removing its X-ray body scanners from major airports over the last few weeks and replacing them with machines that radiation…
Masdar – The First Green City (Video)
A tour of Masdar, in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates -- the world's first city powered entirely by green energy. Video by Robert Llewellyn, "Fully Charged." Here is the video:
Some blame Syria’s al-Assad for Bombing in Christian Beirut that Kills Top Lebanese Security Official
A powerful bomb exploded in Ashrafieh, a largely Christian neighborhood in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, on Friday, killing Wissam al-Hassan, an intelligence expert in the Lebanese security apparatus who had been…
Walsh (Republican): No Pregnancy Ever threatens a Mother’s Life (Young Turks Video)
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill, a conservative Republican, now argues that there is never an instance when an abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother. In fact, 64,000 ectopic pregnancies…
Air Massacre in Maaret al-Numan, Syria as Fighting Intensifies
On October 9, the revolutionaries in Syria took the town of Maaret al-Numan in northern Idlib province for a second time, and began besieging the nearby Wadi Deif military base. From this…
Campaign Humor from the Candidates: Obama and Romney do Stand-Up
Barack Obama tells jokes at the Al Smith dinner, three weeks before the election. Obama observes that he was much more awake in the second debate, having gotten a nice long nap…
The US & Pakistan: The Mr & Mrs Smith of Foreign Policy (Hiro)
Dilip Hiro writes at Tomdispatch.com: The Alliance from Hell How the U.S. and Pakistan Became the Dysfunctional Nuclear Family of International Relations The United States and Pakistan are by now a classic…A Letter from Benghazi on Crappy Republican Talking Points
A common friend sent me this message from a resident of Benghazi, Libya: === I'm so fed up with all the nonsense that's repeated over and over about the Benghazi attack that…
Creepy Israeli Planning for Palestinian Food Insecurity in Gaza Revealed
An Israeli human rights organization, Gisha, sued in Israeli courts to force the release of a planning document for 'putting the Palestinians on a diet' without risking the bad press of mass…
Two Canadians Discover the US has become a Police State
From YouTube: "If you're told to do something, do it without asking the reason."
Romney Binder full of Top Ten Mistakes and Falsehoods
1. Romney attempted to convey the impression that he has worked to increase women's employment as governor, reaching out to women's groups and receiving "binders of women" from them. (Yes, that is…US Drone Strikes on Pakistan: Counting the Bodies (Ross)
Alice K. Ross writes at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism The US government must release its estimates of how many people are being killed in CIA drone strikes, to end an over-reliance…
10,000 Syrian Refugees Trapped on Iraq & Turkish Borders
Human Rights Watch is calling on Iraq and Turkey to open their borders in Syria's northeast to allow the passage of some 10,000 Syrian refugees, caught in the desert without proper sanitation.…Malala Yousufzai taken to UK for Treatment; and Pakistan’s Education Shame
Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai, shot in the head by the Taliban in the Swat Valley of Pakistan for demanding the right to an education, is being moved for further treatment to Britain. She…Colbert on Romney (Meet the Press, Video)
Comedian Stephen Colbert appeared on "Meet the Press" on Sunday to assess GOP standard bearer Mitt Romney: "A shambling mound of weakness" until the debate; "I didn't know what I was going…
The Republican Assault on Minority Voting Rights (Goulka)
Jeremiah Goulka writes at Tomdispatch.com Of Republicans and Race Cards: Why I Used to Believe That Voter ID Laws Really Were Just Common Sense Democrats are frustrated: Why can’t Republican voters see…Pakistan: Imran Khan’s march brings global attention to CIA drone strikes (Ross)
Alice K. Ross writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: US peace activists joined politicians, lawyers and the world’s press on Sunday as they attempted to march into Pakistan’s tribal region in…
Turkey Slams UN on Syria, Implies NATO should Act; Syria bans Turkish Airlines
Tensions between Turkey and Syria are at an all-time high, with the two countries trading occasional light artillery barrages at the border and massing tanks on either side of it. In the…
Conservative Media Spin Biden-Ryan Debate (Young Turks)
The Young Turks program on Current TV discusses the conservative spinning of the Biden-Ryan debate. No, CNN, Ryan did not win the debate (you over-represented Republicans). And, no, Libya is not that…On Libya, Biden Let Ryan Get Away with Murder (Smith)
Fact-Check: Is Obama’s Foreign Policy “Unraveling”? by Christopher C. Smith In Thursday night’s vice-presidential debate, Paul Ryan claimed that the recent terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya represented the…US Classifies Torture Testimonies of accused al-Qaeda Prisoners (Currier)
Still Classified: Terror Suspects' Own Accounts of Their Abuse by Cora Currier, writing at ProPublica In a motion unsealed last week, the government proposed new ground rules for classified information in the…A Post-Mortem on Muslim Rage: What did the reaction to the Islamophobic Trailer Really Tell Us? (Abootalebi)
Ali R. Abootalebi writes in a guest column for Informed Comment Today's journalism and social media, with their increasingly short news cycles, are good at pitching issues but bad at analysis and…
The Shameful Politicization of the Benghazi Consulate Attack
The Tea Party Congress, having, with Paul Ryan's leadership, deeply cut funds for embassy security, held a hearing on Wednesday on the circumstances of the attack on Sept. 11, 2012, on the…Colbert Report: Romney gives Americans ‘Vague, Long-winded Threats’ as Foreign Policy (Video)
Stephen Colbert reviews Mitt Romney's speech on foreign policy and concludes that he knows what Americans want: Vague, long-winded threats and "four more wars." Colbert also points out the danger of Iran,…Omar Khayyam (42) “No hand would set out to break them”
As for the parts of a wineglass that have been joined together-- no hand would set out to…Romney and the Syrian Dilemma
On Monday, Mitt Romney made clear his intention to intervene in Syria should he become president. As usual, how exactly he would do that remained vague. In the meantime, events in Syria…Romney as Mr. Rogers (Video Satire by Jimmy Fallon)
Jimmy Fallon's satirical sketch, "Mr. Romney's Neighborhood
The Pentagon’s Imperial Overstretch and Victory Culture (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt, author of the scintillating classic, The End of Victory Culture writes at Tomdispatch.com : Overwrought Empire: The Discrediting of U.S. Military Power By Tom Engelhardt Americans lived in a “victory…Col. Wilkerson on Romney’s Chickenhawk Advisors: They “make me sick”
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to then Secretary of State Colin Powell, tells Ed Schultz what he really thinks of the Neocon sharks such as former Bush ambassador to the…Romney’s Five Wars
Mitt Romney's speech at VMI on foreign policy has been widely condemned as vague and lacking in substance, sort of like the man who gave it. But the speech is also full…Omar Khayyam (383) “it is a shame for anyone to be well-known for righteousness”
It is a shame for anyone to be well-known for righteousness. It is a great disgrace to feel distress at the injustice of the turning of the wheels of fate. To get drunk on…Acting Like a Democracy, Libyan National Congress dismisses Prime Minister
On Sunday, the elected Libyan National Congress acted decisively to hold a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur. The same body had put him in power on September 12,…
Top Ten Things Mitt Romney’s Insults to Spain tell us About Him
Mitt Romney has caused a tiff with Spain by saying that its economic crisis was caused by government over-spending and saying he doesn't want the US to end up like Spain. The…California gasoline crisis shows Desirability of Hybrid, Electric Cars
The Big Oil lobby is always talking about how unreliable wind and solar energy are. They say the wind doesn't blow all the time, and the sun doesn't shine at night. But…
Global Facebook Network Connections on the Eve of the Arab Spring (Image)
At first I thought that this late 2010 map of Facebook network connections left the Arab world blank. But I zeroed in, and Tunis, Alexandria and Lebanon are all actually quite bright,…
Half of All Solar Panels are in Germany (Video)
Video report on how exactly Germany's renewable energy revolution has worked. From Renewable Energy Magazine
2012 Rumble/ Debate between Bill O’Reilly and Jon Stewart (Video)
The 2012 Rumble (debate) between Bill O'Reilly and Jon Stewart: Best line: 'Why should anyone vote for President Obama again?" Jon Stewart: "There are only two candidates and he is running against…Omar Khayyam (336)
I know the outside of being and nothingness, and I know the inside of the high and the low. Even so, I should be ashamed of all my knowledge if I knew…
Imran Khan Protest Convoy Against US Drones Heads toward Waziristan, Pakistan
Charismatic Pakistani opposition politician, Imran Khan, set out Saturday from Islamabad in a motorized convoy for a mobile protest by his Justice Party against continued US drone strikes on the tribal belt…
Romney and the Gish Gallop or How Fact Checking doesn’t Work (Young Turks)
Cenk Uygur explains Romney's apparent debate strategy, and explain why the media's on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand approach obscures how outrageous the strategy is. Cenk has some fun with CNN's, let us say generous, treatment…
Morocco more Forward-Looking on Green Energy than Mitt Romney (Film)
Desertec and Morocco's future as a solar and wind energy powerhouse. Or, how veiled young Moroccan Muslim women engineers are more clear-eyed about the future than Mitt Romney. "We are too dependent…Omar Khayyam (472) “Wine, you are my insane sweetheart”
Wine, you are my insane …
Israel Lobbyist suggests False Flag attack to start war with Iran
Israel lobby flack Patrick Clawson strategizes how to trick the United States into going to war against Iran on behalf of Israel. The 'Washington Institute for Near East Policy' is itself one…On How Despite the Currency Crisis Iran’s State Revenues are not Collapsing
The steep decline of the Iranian rial against the dollar has produced a lot of extravagant claims about the collapse of the Iranian economy. While there is no doubt that Iran is…
Extreme Oil: Costly, Dirty and Dangerous (Klare)
Michael T. Klare writes at Tomdispatch.com: The New “Golden Age of Oil” That Wasn’t Forecasts of Abundance Collide with Planetary Realities By Michael T. Klare Last winter, fossil-fuel enthusiasts began trumpeting the…Omar Khayyam (284) “God is merciful: Here, have some wine”
I staggered, drunk, outside a bar last night and saw a tipsy older man emerge, a bottle slung across his shoulder; and I said to him, "At your age, aren't you ashamed before…Lyon: CNN censored Ahmadinejad, engaged in War Propaganda
Amber Lyon, Emmy-award-winning journalist who has worked for CNN, alleges to RT that the network left out Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls for peace and an alternative world order when it covered…
Iran Bazaar Strikes signal Misery, not Sanctions ‘Victory’
On Wednesday, the Tehran covered bazaar was closed, and the traditional market in some other cities such as Mashhad also went on strike, with demonstrators protesting the collapse of the Iranian currency,…Omar Khayyam (2) “Who brought you here?”
Tonight, who brought you, drunk, here to me? From behind the curtain, who brought you here?-- to someone who was on fire because of your absence-- someone who, like the wind, sought…
Poll: Obama better Represents America!
We can pronounce the long GOP campaign to frame Barack Obama as somehow 'foreign' as complete failure. In a new Reuters/Ipsons Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,600 likely voters, Americans saw Obama as 'better…Top Seven Errors President Obama has made on the Middle East
Yesterday I explored the errors and fantasies in Gov. Mitt Romney's WSJ op-ed on the Middle East. Here I will briefly go over the mistakes that the Obama administration has made in…
Tom Ricks and The Generals: Why the US succeeded in WWII but not Since
Tom Ricks, award-winning military journalist, gives the Nimitz Lecture on why the US military succeeded in WW II but had so much trouble in the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The…Omar Khayyam (283) “Last night I wandered into a dark pottery workshop”
Last night I wandered into a dark pottery workshop and saw about two thousand pots lined up in silence. But then suddenly a vase cried out, inquiring, 'Where in the world are the…
Annals of Settler Colonialism: British Atrocities in Post-War Kenya
The anti-colonial movement in Kenya of the 1950s was mythologized by the British as a shadowy 'Mau-Mau,' an irrational outbreak of aimless hatred. In fact, the movement was protesting the confinement of…Top Ten Things Mitt Romney Gets Wrong about US Middle East Policy
Gov. Romney published an op-ed on Monday criticizing President Obama's Middle East policies. Aside from urging 'strength,' however, Romney offers no concrete alternative. And, he completely misunderstands the history of the US…Omar Khayyam (337) “I venerate the finest vintage so as to avoid self-worship”
I sip at wine, but never to get drunk, and I assail no one, save for my glass. I venerate the finest vintage so as to avoid self-worship of your sort. Translated…
Annals of Settler Colonialism (6): German Namibia #savagesunite
In an early instance of Neoliberalism, the German concentration camps for the remnants of the genocided Herero were sometimes given to private companies to run for a profit. Likewise, many private companies…
Health-Killing Coal Plant Finally Closes in Alexandria, Va.; Virginia: Put in Wind Turbines!
A notorious polluting coal plant has finally been closed in Alexandria, Va. It had been giving locals lung and heart problems for years. Ironically, the plant probably had actually been affecting the…Did Bashar al-Assad Betray Qaddafi?
The polemicists of the fringe left and the far right who depict the Baathist regime in Syria as a beleagured victim of Western plotting may have to retool their noise machines. It…Omar Khayyam (273) “Do good, and cast it upon the waters”
My sweetheart -- may she live as long as my heartbreak -- today began her kindnesses anew.…