The 2012 political platform of the Republican Party of Texas is available online here. The views expressed in this document are both disturbing and depressing. Below are a few highlights. 1. On Education Controversial Theories – We support objective teaching and equal treatment of all sides of scientific theories. We believe theories such as life origins and environmental change should be taught as challengeable scientific theories subject to change as new data is produced. Teachers and students should be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these theories openly and without fear of retribution or discrimination of any kind. Knowledge-Based Education –…
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Julian Assange interviews Moazzam Begg and Asim Qureshi (The World Tomorrow)
From the website of the The World Tomorrow: [The fifth episode] of The World Tomorrow takes us to the very heart of America’s War on Terror: Guantanamo Bay. Julian Assange sat down with a former Gitmo prisoner and a rights campaigner fighting for those still trapped behind the wire. Ten years ago the war on terror prompted the opening of the facility. Now, more than three years after President Obama ordered its closure, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, like the war in Afghanistan, remains with us. Over a year ago, Wikileaks blew the lid on Gitmo by releasing a cache of…
Julian Assange and Slavoj Zizek interview David Horowitz (The World Tomorrow)
Slavoj Zizek and David Horowitz are the guests for the second episode of Julian Assange’s interview show, “The World Tomorrow“. “Intellectual superstar” Slavoj Zizek is a philosopher, psychoanalyst and cultural commentator. David Horowitz is a hard-line American conservative and unrepentant Zionist. The tone of the conversation between Zizek, Horowitz and Assange alternates between combative and friendly. The topics covered include Palestinians and Nazis, Joseph Stalin, Barack Obama, the decline of Europe, and the tension between liberty and equality. Episode 2:
Julian Assange interviews Hassan Nasrallah (The World Tomorrow)
In the world premiere of Julian Assange’s ‘The World Tomorrow‘ on RT, he interviews Hezbollah leader Sayyid Nasrallah, his first appearance in international media in over six years. For interviewing such a “radical” on an English-language Russian news network, Assange predicted that he would be denounced as a traitor. And sure enough Assange’s predictions are being proven true by the reactions of the international corporate media. Episode 1:
Dear Germany: It’s okay to criticise Israel (by Mark Levine)
Irvine, CA – My parents would never buy a Mercedes. Period. They couldn’t understand Jews who would (legitimate adults didn’t buy Volkswagons either back in the 1970s, at least where I lived). In fact, aside from long-dead German composers and pastries from the local German-American bakery – whose owners were probably Jewish – Jewish-Americans wanted nothing to do with Germany. For obvious reasons. Even today, it’s very hard for non-Jews to understand the trauma Jews born in the post-Holocaust generation experienced related to Germany. Our family lived in a strange zone between the past and present. At regular moments throughout the…
Media failures in the Iran war debate
Has the American media informed or mislead the public on the debate about whether or not the US should initiate or support an attack on Iran? In this article, originally published in Foreign Policy, Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, provides a helpful list of the top ten media failures on this issue. He also participated in this related discussion on an NPR radio program. .
What Are Iran’s Intentions? (by Noam Chomsky)
Published on Saturday, March 3, 2012 by The New York Times Syndicate. Written by Noam Chomsky. The January/February issue of Foreign Affairs featured the article “Time to Attack Iran: Why a Strike Is the Least Bad Option,” by Matthew Kroenig, along with commentary about other ways to contain the Iranian threat. The media resound with warnings about a likely Israeli attack on Iran while the U.S. hesitates, keeping open the option of aggression—thus again routinely violating the U.N. Charter, the foundation of international law. As tensions escalate, eerie echoes of the run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are in the…
The Israel Lobby Swims The Atlantic (by Grant Smith)
Jeffrey Goldberg’s current cover story in The Atlantic, “The Point of No Return,”achieved massive distribution across a broad spectrum of old and new media in the United States. Some observers – including Glenn Greenwald in “How Propagandists Function” – noted how well the methodology and message of Goldberg’s piece serves the Israeli government’s efforts to push U.S. military action against Iran. Gareth Porter views it as part of an overarching strategy to keep the U.S. from restoring productive relations with Iran. A huge trove of newly declassified documentssubpoenaed during a Senate investigation reveals how Israel’s lobby pitched, promoted, and paid to have content placed…
International award for hypocrisy
Alan Hart recently wrote this emotional but accurate article on his blog, asking for the introduction of an international Award for Hypocrisy as a consequence of the British and American response to the failed UN Resolution on Syria. He says, If there was such an award, the statements of European and American leaders in the immediate aftermath of Russia and China’s veto of the Security Council resolution to end the killing in Syria suggest two most obvious nominees for it. Those being William Hague, UK Foreign Secretary, and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN. Some Quotes from the article: The obvious…
Ron Paul
Ron Paul is a very interesting figure in American politics. Progressives love his foreign policy but hate his economic plans and his positions on domestic issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and health care. Conservatives, on the other hand, love Paul’s domestic agenda of reducing the size of the government, lowering taxes, and abolishing the Federal Reserve, but they seem to hate his non-interventionist foreign policy. So Paul has been received differently by different political groups, but even among liberals and progressives, Paul has generated a significant amount of controversy. Consider Kathy Pollit’s recent essay, which outlines the reasons why…
Israel’s assassins
This article in The Australian claims to provide some of the facts and context surrounding Israel’s latest act of terrorism inside Iran. It reads in part like a crime novel, a murder mystery–except that there is almost no mystery. The act was carried out in broad daylight and everyone seems to know who committed the crime, or at least who is behind it. The authors of this article even seem to know to know precisely who gave the go-ahead orders. The most amazing thing about the story though is how insignificant it has been outside of Iran. The event was noted,…
The bid for Palestinian statehood
John Quigley (professor of law at Ohio State University) and Gabi Fahel (international lawyer) have written an excellent article outlining the rationale for the Palestinian request for UN membership. Well worth reading.
Remaining committed to obstructionism and doublespeak
UNESCO finally voted to admit Palestine as a member state: 107 countries supported the motion, 52 abstained, and the US and Israel managed to pressure only another 12 countries to vote against it. The US responded to this small but significant exercise in global democracy by immediately announcing that it would cut off all funding to UNESCO, an educational, scientific, and cultural organization. This announcement was yet another crystal clear example of US obstructionism on the Palestinian issue, its utter disregard for world public opinion, and its unwavering and irrational support for Israel. But listen to the announcement itself, in…
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