Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category
May 19, 2010
Morning Star Online, May 17, 2010
By Jean Turner
Two works vital for understanding the development of the human race and the origin of life on Earth were published in the mid-19th century – The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1848 and Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859.
Both works were ground-breaking in that, by empirical methods, they produced a scientific analysis that refuted previous religious and philosophical concepts of the world in which we live.
Continues >>
Tags:Jean Turner, Lenin, Marx and Engels, new society, On the Origin of Species, socialism, The Manifesto of the Communist Party
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May 19, 2010
By James A. Lucas, Countercurrents.org, May 16, 2010
The White House tells us that we are releasing funds to rebuild Afghanistan. The reality, however, is that very little of the money actually will benefit the Afghan people. We are told that our nation is being very generous, mostly as a balm to our collective conscience to convince us to give our stamp of approval for that war which so far has cost over $260 billion in U.S. taxpayers’ money. 1 This deception also helps to put a happy face on this war so that our attention is diverted from the people who are dying and wounded there.
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Tags:aid subverted, James A. Lucas, misuse of aid, U.S. aid to Afghanistan, U.S. in Afghanistan
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, Uncategorized, US policy, USA | Leave a Comment »
May 19, 2010
| How can people who claim to be followers of Jesus be political conservatives |
When you are in the political world, you have decisions to make every single day about who you will try to help and who you won’t. In spite of the earnest quest of good technocrats everywhere, the simple fact is that there are only a few win-win solutions. Who you tax, who you give a tax break to, what programs you cut or add to, who you tighten regulations on, and who you loosen them on, what kind of contractors are eligible for government work, which school districts and non-profit groups get federal money, etc: these political decisions are generally not win-win. Instead, they mean that one group of people win, and one group of people loses. It is the nature of politics, and you can’t take the politics out of politics.
Tags:Christians, conservative followers of the Jesus, Jesus of the New Testament, Mike Lux, progressive and conservatives
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May 19, 2010
Google News, May 18, 2010
(AFP)
GENEVA — The World Health Organization demanded Tuesday that Israel end a blockade on the occupied Palestinian territories, saying that it was causing a shortage of medicines, particularly in the Gaza Strip.
An annual meeting of the WHO — the World Health Assembly — this week in Geneva passed the resolution with 63 member states voting in favour. Eight states voted against, 51 abstained and another 63 were absent during the vote.
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Tags:Israeli blockade of Gaza, Palestinian patients, WHO demand
Posted in Commentary, Gaza, Human rights, Palestine, Uncategorized, Zionist Israel | Leave a Comment »
May 19, 2010
David Walsh, wsws.org, May 18, 2010
The New York Times reported May 15 that the US military was continuing “to rely on a secret network” of spies and paramilitary assassins in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two months after the newspaper first brought the unit to public attention.
At the time, in March 2010, the network, under the supervision of Michael Furlong, a longtime Pentagon dirty tricks operator, was routinely described by the media and military US officials as “off-the-books” or “unauthorized.” Much ado was made about a Defense Department criminal investigation into Furlong’s activities and the millions of dollars spent on the program he allegedly directed.
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Tags:Afghanistan and Pakistan, David Walsh, network and Michael Furlong, United States, US military's secret network
Posted in Afghanistan, Commentary, crime, Pakistan, Uncategorized, USA | 1 Comment »
May 19, 2010
by Kathy Kelly and Josh Brollier, Voices For Creative Democracy, May 18, 2010
Islamabad—On May 12th, the day after a U.S. drone strike killed 24 people in Pakistan’s North Waziristan, two men from the area agreed to tell us their perspective as eyewitnesses of previous drone strikes.
One is a journalist, Safdar Dawar, General Secretary of the Tribal Union of Journalists. Journalists are operating under very difficult circumstances in the area, pressured by both militant groups and the Pakistani government. Six of his colleagues have been killed while reporting in North and South Waziristan. The other man, who asked us not to disclose his name, is from Miranshah city, the epicenter of North Waziristan. He works with the locally based Waziristan Relief Agency, a group of people committed to helping the victims of drone attacks and military actions. “If people need blood or medicine or have to go to Peshawar or some other hospital,” said the social worker, “I’m known for helping them. I also try to arrange funds and contributions.”
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Tags:drone attacks under Obama administration, journalist Safdar Dawar, Kathy Kelly and Josh Brollier, killings in Waziristan, North Waziristan, U.S. drone strike
Posted in Commentary, imperialism, Pakistan, President Barack Obama, Uncategorized, US policy, war | Leave a Comment »
May 17, 2010
The Washington Post, May 14, 2010
By Nina Shea, director, Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom
What is most startling about the report of the heartless double bus bombings on May 2 that targeted and injured 80 Christian students traveling to northern Iraq’s Mosul University was that the young Christians there attend university at all. Since the U.S. invasion, Iraq’s Christians have been mostly driven out of the country by violence directed against them for their religion. Their communities are shattered. That these young people continued to dream of preparing themselves to serve their country signals that community’s deep commitment to Iraq and a modicum of hope they still harbor for its future.
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Tags:Iraq, Iraqi Christians, Nina Shea, religious violence, US invasion and violence against Christians
Posted in Commentary, Human rights, Iraq, Uncategorized, USA, war | Leave a Comment »
May 17, 2010
A May 6 “expose” from the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot gave Israeli government officials and their hardline American proxies the ammunition they had been seeking against Judge Richard Goldstone. After Goldstone, a Jewish former South African judge who describes himself as a proud Zionist, charged Israel with crimes against humanity for its assault on the Gaza Strip in late 2008 and 2009, the Israeli government sought to destroy him. Now, thanks to Yediot‘s report, which documented Goldstone’s career as a judge in South Africa’s apartheid system and ignored his heroic role in guiding the country’s democratic transition, Israel and its allies have renewed their assault.
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Tags:Israel and apatheid South Africa, Israeli foreign policy, Israeli govenment and Judge Goldstone, Judge Richard Goldstone, report on Gaza assault, Shimon Peres and South Africa
Posted in Commentary, Uncategorized, Zionist Israel | Leave a Comment »
May 17, 2010
I was rather baffled by many of the comments to a column I posted last week. I offered what I thought was a modest and quite harmless suggestion: You should urge your representative in Congress to sign the Kind-Delahunt letter, which calls on the president to make strong efforts to move Israelis and Palestinians toward a two-state solution.
Oh no, no, said most of the commenters. Don’t bother. Each had their own reason and their own particular way of phrasing their common conclusion, which I think I paraphrase accurately here: Any effort to pressure the U.S. government is wasted, because the U.S. will always support the policies of Israel, no matter how unjust. (Oh, and the author is a fool — or worse — some added.)
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Tags:Congress, Professor Ira Chernus, right-wing Israel lobby, United States and Israel
Posted in Commentary, Uncategorized, USA, Zionist Israel | Leave a Comment »
May 17, 2010
Settlers benefit from Israeli-only routes
By Jonathan Cook, ZNet, May 16, 2010
(Jerusalem ) — The construction of sections of a controversial segregated road network in the West Bank planned by Israel for Palestinians — leaving the main roads for exclusive use by settlers — is being financed by a US government aid agency, a map prepared by Palestinian researchers has revealed.
USAid, which funds development projects in Palestinian areas, is reported to have helped to build 114km of Israeli-proposed roads, despite a pledge from Washington six years ago that it would not assist in implementing what has been widely described as Israel’s “apartheid road” plan.
To date the agency has paid for the construction of nearly a quarter of the segregated road network put forward by Israel in 2004, said the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ).
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Tags:Israel, Israeli settlers, Jonathan Cook, Palestinians under settlers, road network in the West Bank, USAid and road-building projects
Posted in Commentary, Palestine, Uncategorized, USA, Zionist Israel | Leave a Comment »
Peace and Justice Post 
The facts of Marxist thought remain
May 19, 2010Morning Star Online, May 17, 2010
Two works vital for understanding the development of the human race and the origin of life on Earth were published in the mid-19th century – The Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1848 and Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859.
Both works were ground-breaking in that, by empirical methods, they produced a scientific analysis that refuted previous religious and philosophical concepts of the world in which we live.
Continues >>
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Tags:Jean Turner, Lenin, Marx and Engels, new society, On the Origin of Species, socialism, The Manifesto of the Communist Party
Posted in Commentary, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »