Those who have followed the Republican campaign for the presidential nomination and current contest between Romney and Obama know that the United States has no political leadership in Washington.
Billions of dollars have been spent on political propaganda, but not a single important issue has been addressed. The closest the campaign has come to a political issue is which candidate can grovel the lowest at the feet of Israeli prime minister Netanyahu. Romney won that contest. But for the rest, well, it is like two elementary school children sticking their tongues out at one another.
Cynthia McKinney
The question of US political leadership has been on my mind for some time. I can remember when political leadership still existed and when bipartisan cooperation could be mustered on enough issues to keep the country and the government functioning.
But no more. It might have been Newt Gingrich who, as Speaker of the House, destroyed bipartisan cooperation by making war on the Democratic Party, warfare that Karl Rove has taken to a new height.
When a country loses leadership, how does a country get leadership back? This is an important question. Without leadership, there is only violence. Once the Romans lost their republic, there was no one to lead them and they were ruled by violence. Will this be our fate?
L. Randall Wray and Michael Hudson present at the Modern Money and Public Purpose seminars. L. Randall Wray is a Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Michael Hudson Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri (Kansas City), and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends (ISLET).
This video is an hour and three-quarters long — Wray begins, then Hudson takes over at 43:00 — so I suggest you listen to it over your Sunday morning coffee instead of NPR. (And if you’ve been taking note of all the “tally stick” jokes in the threads lately, I’m guessing this video is where that comes from…)
ROME (AP) — Italy's highest criminal court on Wednesday upheld the convictions of 23 Americans in the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, paving the way to possible extradition requests by Italian authorities.
The ruling by the Court of Cassation marks the final appeal in the first trial anywhere in the world involving the CIA's practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries where torture is permitted.
The Americans were convicted in absentia following a three-and-a-half-year trial, and have never been in Italian custody. They risk arrest if they travel to Europe and one of their court-appointed lawyers suggested that the final verdict would open the way for the Italian government to seek their extradition.
“It went badly. It went very badly,” lawyer Alessia Sorgato said after the court announced its decision after a day of deliberations. “Now they will ask for extradition.”victed in absentia following a three-and-a-half-year trial, and have never been in Italian custody. They risk arrest if they travel to Europe and one of their court-appointed lawyers suggested that the final verdict would open the way for the Italian government to seek their extradition.
Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro, one of Italy's top anti-terrorism magistrates who shaped the prosecution, hailed the top court's decision, saying it was tantamount to a finding that extraordinary rendition “is incompatible with democracy.”
A secret operation in San Francisco disregards city regulations and grafts fruit branches onto non fruit-bearing public trees, hiding farm-fresh produce in an urban environment. Officials have banned fruit trees from the city sidewalks in the hopes that it will help keep urban areas clean and avoid messy situations as a result of fallen fruit. But Tara Hui and Miriam Goldberg have found a way around that law.
The two women are the leaders of Guerrilla Grafters, a group that exists to make “delicious, nutritious fruit is made available to urban residents” through the creation of inner-city orchards. Using electrical tape to color code their work, the Guerrilla Grafters develop partnerships in each neighborhood they graft in so there’s someone local to monitor progress. According to Hui, “There’s no ownership of these trees. There’s just stewardship.”
The LA Times reports that though city officials disapprove of the grafts, they haven’t done anything to formally remove them. But, it is considered vandalism and if this project were ever to really gain momentum it’s possible that officials would eventually decide to step in and halt it. Others, however, are impressed by their efforts: their work was featured in the “Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good” exhibit at the 13th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy.
The group (which consists of about 30 people) has grafted about 50 trees so far. Perhaps it will always be a small-scale project, but Guerrilla Grafters is working to reach as many people as possible: they’ve developed an online mapping app to help track their illicit produce and have an active Facebook group to help grow popularity.
Attack on Camp Bastion: The Taliban strike on Camp Bastion in Helmand Province destroyed more than $150 million worth of planes and equipment, Western officials said on 16 September. Military officials said the insurgents destroyed six AV-8B Harrier jets and three refueling stations. Two other Harrier aircraft and six soft-skin aircraft hangars were significantly damaged in the attack.
Comment: An investigation of this security breach is in progress. As with other similar attacks, the success of this attack almost certainly indicates the attackers had extensive intelligence provided by insiders and inside assistance in penetrating the bases at the time of attack
The legality of targeted killing of suspected terrorists, including U.S. citizens, was examined in a memorandum prepared for members of Congress by the Congressional Research Service.
The U.S. practice of targeted killing raises complex legal issues because it cuts across several overlapping legal domains. To the extent that the U.S. is actually at war with the targeted persons, the “law of armed conflict” would provide the appropriate legal framework, though the relevance of this framework far from a “hot battlefield” is disputed. Outside of armed conflict, the U.S. could be acting under the related but distinct laws of “self-defense.” The use of lethal force in law enforcement operations offers another way of conceiving of and evaluating anti-terrorist strikes. In all cases, the sovereignty of the nation where the strike occurs adds a further layer of legal complexity. With respect to targets who are U.S. citizens, the applicability of the U.S. Constitution is yet another urgent issue.
Obama Administration officials have discussed targeted killing in severalpublicspeechessince 2010, but have evaded detailed public questioning on the subject. The Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel has prepared a memorandum on the targeting of suspected terrorists who are U.S. citizens, as reported by the New York Times, but it has refused to release the OLC memorandum or even to publicly acknowledge that it exists. Meanwhile, Congress has been largely silent and acquiescent.
The CRS memorandum, entitled “Legal Issues Related to the Lethal Targeting of U.S. Citizens Suspected of Terrorist Activities,” was prepared in May 2012 by legislative attorney Jennifer K. Elsea. It presents an overview of the pertinent legal context, and then carefully parses official Administration statements in an attempt to infer a detailed legal rationale for lethal targeting. A copy was obtained by Secrecy News.
It is trite to say big things are happening in the Middle East: The biggest, IMO, may turn out to be that Israel has overplayed its hand by hysterically fomenting the Iranian crisis. There are incipient signs suggesting that Netanyahu's smarmy efforts to manipulate American presidential politics to Israel's advantage and to the detriment of the United States threaten to blow back on Israel [e.g., see note 1]. The United States is in no position to be suckered into yet another war against an Islamic country (this time one with a population of almost 80 million), particularly a war manifestly of Israel's choosing. The grand-strategic role of Turkey (also and Islamic country with a population almost 80 million) is changing and becoming more assertive and independent. Paradoxically, the position of Iran may be strengthened by nuclear-armed Israel's hysterical rantings, especially if (when?) Israel backs down, but also if Israel launched what will almost certainly be an inconclusive pre-emptive attack, and when the immorality of unjust — and ultimately ineffective — sanctions being levied on Iran, largely in an effort to placate Israel, become more self evident. The civil war in Syria threatens to spillover into Lebanon, become sectarian, and might even evolve into a larger Sunni-Shi'a confrontation. Kurdish nationalism is on the rise, threatening the territorial integrity of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria [informative report here]. And of course, Iraq and Afghanistan are both a shambles, each now a symbol of America's failed imperialistic adventurism.
And then there is Egypt, yet another Islamic country with a population of almost 80 million), which has been off the US scope recently. Attached below is a blow by blow analysis by Esam Al-Alminof the largely unappreciated but momentous political changes that have taken place in Egypt in the eight months — changes that will not only affect the people of Egypt but, as Al-Almin suggests toward the end of his higly informative essay, could greatly augment the shifting balance of power in the entire Middle East, particularly among the big three — Egypt, Iran, and Turkey, which have a combined population of more than 230 million people.
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[1] Two recent examples: Romney's ass-kissing trip to Israel generated no traction domestically. According to Israeli new reports (here), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Also, General Martin Dempsey slapped down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak for orchestrating the national hysteria surrounding the possibility of an attack in Iran. According to YNet News, Israel's largest news outlet, the United States, in effect, …”slammed Israel's head against the wall and said: ‘Shut up. Stop babbling about Iran. Without us there is not much you can do, and don't assume for a second that we are dancing to your tune. You shouldn't do anything stupid, and stop driving the entire world crazy.'”
