Year: 2009

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/031909N http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/medical_marijuana Associated Press writer Thomas Watkins in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Attorney general signals shift in marijuana policy By DEVLIN BARRETTThu Mar 19, 12:41 am ET WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal … Read more

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://www.opednews.com/articles/Voters-Approve-Rights-of-N-by-Mari-Margil-Assoc-090317-322.html OpEdNews March 19, 2009 Voters Approve Rights of Nature By Mari Margil, Associate Director Ecuador Approves New Constitution: Voters Approve Rights of Nature  Ecuador Follows Lead of U.S. Communities:  First Country in the World to Shift to Rights-Based Environmental Protection, Working With Legal Defense Fund  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  By an overwhelming … Read more

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://www.opednews.com/articles/Was-the-Bailout-Itself-a-S-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-090319-674.html OpEdNews March 19, 2009 Was the Bailout Itself a Scam? By Paul Craig Roberts Professor Michael Hudson (CounterPunch, March 18) is correct that the orchestrated outrage over the $165 million AIG bonuses is a diversion from the thousand times greater theft from taxpayers of the approximately $200 billion “bailout” of AIG. … Read more

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-disses-Blackwater–by-Josh-Mitteldorf-090318-657.html OpEdNews Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-disses-Blackwater–by-Josh-Mitteldorf-090318-657.html March 18, 2009 Obama disses Blackwater – then Renews their Contract By Josh Mitteldorf President Obama recently announced his withdrawal of support for Blackwater, the private military contractor that operated parallel to the US Army in Iraq, but outside the controls and responsibilities imposed by a … Read more

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://www.opednews.com/articles/Growing-Your-Own-Food-On-O-by-The-Naib-090317-61.html OpEdNews March 18, 2009 Growing Your Own Food On One Square Yard Of Land By The Naib I grew up in the mid-west. Lots and lots of flat, open never ending flat. We industrious human have cut down just about anything and replaced it with endless acres of corn, wheat, soy, … Read more

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://www.countercurrents.org/kessel190309.htm Israeli Soldiers Expose Atrocities In Gaza By Jerrold Kessel & Pierre Klochendler 19 February, 2009Inter Press Service JERUSALEM, Mar 19 (IPS) – Based on testimony from Israeli soldiers who took part in the recent war in Gaza, Israel is being confronted directly with the serious charge that permitted rules of engagement allowed … Read more

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/031809D http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/64160.html McClatchy Washington Bureau Posted on Tue, Mar. 17, 2009 Vets recoil at idea of using insurance for service injuries David Goldstein | McClatchy Newspapers last updated: March 17, 2009 12:35:34 PM WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering a plan to make veterans use private insurance to pay for treatment … Read more

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7951493.stm Fed pumps $1.2tn into US economy The US Federal Reserve says it will buy almost $1.2 trillion (£843bn) worth of debt to help boost lending and promote economic recovery. It said it would start buying long-term government debt and expand purchases of mortgage-related debt. The size of the move surprised investors, … Read more

2009-03-19 Richard Moore http://www.slate.com/id/2213942/ THE BEST POLICY The Real AIG Scandal It’s not the bonuses. It’s that AIG’s counterparties are getting paid back in full. By Eliot Spitzer Posted Tuesday, March 17, 2009, at 10:41 AM ET Everybody is rushing to condemn AIG’s bonuses, but this simple scandal is obscuring the real disgrace at the … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.counterpunch.org/martens03162009.html video of Jon Stewart’s broadcast: http://tinyurl.com/c3ulk4 Jon Stewart’s Epiphany Has a Comedian Just Saved America? By PAM MARTENS As testimony to how Orwellian life has become under the outrages of Wall Street hubris, last week saw a comedian, who poses as an anchor on a fake news show, grab the reins of … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12735 The Financial Sector: “A House Burning Down” Ben Bernanke’s False Analogy By Prof. Michael Hudson Global Research, March 16, 2009 On the March 15 CBS show “60 Minutes”, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke used a false analogy already popularized by President Obama in his quasi-State of the Union Speech. He likened the … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22221.htm Obedience to Authority in America  A Different Kind of Revolution:  By Mike Whitney My e mail exchange with Dr. Bede Vincent Curley  March 16, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — – Mike Whitney: I have been beating the same dead horse for three or four years now and many people are getting … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.countercurrents.org/chamberlin160309.htm Message To The Future By Peter Chamberlin 16 March, 2009Countercurrents.org This is written for you, the survivors. Two or three years ago, I decided to write this message to you. My only intentions were to find the best solutions to the nightmare visions and ease the suffering billions of souls who … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore But there’s even more to this swindle than that — much more. According to the Wall Street Journal: “Wall Street dealers, including J P Morgan Chase & Co. and Barclays PLC’s Barclays Capital, have created vehicles to participate in the TALF that would allow investors in the program to circumvent many of the … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=8079 OpEdNews July 8, 2008 Free Energy and the Open Source Energy Movement (Part 2) By Steve Windisch (jibbguy) Part 2 of the series: This installment examines Dr. T. Henry Moray’s work, the important energy savings technology known as “Rotoverter”, and an Open Source free energy device that nearly anyone can build … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.opednews.com/articles/Free-Energy-and-the-Open-S-by-jibbguy-080623-466.html http://tinyurl.com/d366vv OpEdNews June 24, 2008 Free Energy and the Open Source Energy Movement By Steve Windisch (jibbguy) Free Energy and the Open Source Energy Movement Part One   By jibbguy  6-2008 Free Energy? In this series of articles, we will attempt to examine several “Free Energy” devices, and explain their workings in a … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/031709A Winter Soldiers Speak Out in Europe Tuesday 17 March 2009 by: Maya Schenwar, t r u t h o u t | Report     Last March, a group of soldiers and veterans gathered in Washington, DC, to recount their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. They spent three days testifying, confessing and mourning. … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.truthout.org/031609D http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/former-guerrillas-win-power-in-el-salvador-1645867.html Former Guerrillas Win Power in El Salvador Monday 16 March 2009 by: Catherine Bremer  |  Visit article original @ Reuters     El Salvador’s former Marxist guerrillas, who fought one of the bitterest conflicts of the Cold War, finally won power through the ballot box after a tight election victory over their right-wing civil war … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore The report underscores a “worrying” trend toward protectionism as countries rush to shield their ailing domestic industries during the global economic crisis. … “Leaders must not heed the siren-song of protectionist fixes, whether for trade, stimulus packages or bailouts,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick. Noting that protectionism is widely viewed … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore Bcc: interested parties ___ As with all of Obama’s agendas, this Open Government Initiative is accompanied by a very appealing PR message. Of course we all want more public participation in policy formation. And in the report below, we see that some very good organizations, well-meaning organizations, are signing up to participate … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore Humanity is facing “water bankruptcy” as a result of a crisis even greater than the financial meltdown now destabilising the global economy, two authoritative new reports show. They add that it is already beginning to take effect, and there will be no way of bailing the earth out of water scarcity. There … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore What makes the charter school movement so tricky is that, using the “start-up” charter school model, it may leave the playing field wide open for a swindler with ambition. According to Sue St. Denis, a Los Angeles lawyer who helped lead a grass roots opposition to a start-up charter school, “The charter … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/laec-m18.shtml Latin America hit hard by world crisis By Luis Arce  18 March 2009 Capital Economics—a leading macroeconomics research and consultancy firm that supplies analysis to institutional investors and clients across the globe—reports in its latest Latin America Chart Book that “Latin America’s five-year economic boom has come to an abrupt end.” “The drop … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/biny-m18.shtml Britain: Right-wing campaign waged against freed Guantánamo detainee By Robert Stevens  18 March 2009 Recently released Guantánamo Bay prisoner Binyam Mohamed has given further details of his ordeal at the hands of his interrogators and torturers in Pakistan, Morocco, Afghanistan and the United States base in Cuba. Mohamed was initially arrested … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore When he signed into law a $410 billion omnibus spending bill on March 10, President Barack Obama included a “signing statement” weakening a rider in the bill that would have given protection to government officials who turn over information to Congress. … Obama’s signing statement on the omnibus spending bill suggests that he … Read more

2009-03-18 Richard Moore We all knew the US was behind Latin American terrorism in the era of the disappeared, but it’s good to have the documentation.  rkm ___ Begin forwarded message: From: National Security Archive <•••@••.•••> Date: March 17, 2009 10:36:41 PM GMT Subject: Declassified documents show U.S. Embassy knew that Guatemalan       … Read more

2009-03-17 Richard Moore China’s state-run media outlets are calling the acquisition spree an opportunity that comes once in a hundred years, and analysts are drawing parallels to 1980s Japan. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031603293.html? China Gains Key Assets In Spate of Purchases Oil, Minerals Are Among Acquisitions Worldwide By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, March 17, … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore When I saw the title, The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment, I was eager to read this article. The signs of rising fascism have been clear for some time, and I was hoping this article would bring in an historical perspective. Unfortunately, Mr. Freeman’s interpretation of events in the 1930s is based … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore The campaign, which will be run under the aegis of the Democratic National Committee, will rely heavily on the 13 million-strong e-mail list put together during the campaign and now under the control of Organizing for America (OFA), a group overseen by the DNC. Aides familiar with the plan said it is … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore Education is one of the areas Obama is in the process of “reforming”. I’ve already published critiques of his reform plans, so I won’t repeat those arguments here: The Educational System Was Designed to Keep Us Uneducated and Docile http://www.radicalpress.com/?p=940 Obama scapegoats teachers, continues Bush education policies http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/obam-m11.shtml       At the center … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12669 Financial Meltdown: The Doublespeak of a Discredited IMF By Eric Toussaint and Damien Millet Global Research, March 11, 2009 The international crisis that broke in summer 2008 demolished all the neo-liberal dogmas and exposed the deception behind them. Unable to deny their failure, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore Roundup Ready Soybeans Use 2-5 times more Herbicides than non-GE Varieties.  When you add royalties, fees and other costs the resulting profit for the farmer is $0.  The increase in production is negligible and usually less than a traditional crop.  These crops also require 2 to 3 times more water to grow. http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/monsanto’s-assault-on-agriculture/ Monsanto’s assault on agriculture … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/1020/1/ SECESSION? WE’RE ALREADY ON OUR OWN, By Jim Hogue Thursday, 12 March 2009 [For those who question the wisdom of secession from the United States, it is not so much a question of making a decision to secede but preparing for the disintegration of the Union as a result of unprecedented … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore http://links.org.au/node/938 First Victory’ in Guadeloupe general strike; Movement spreads to other French colonies By Richard Fidler March 8, 2009 — Life on the Left — The general strike in Guadeloupe ended March 4, when an accord was signed between the LKP Strike Collective and the local governments, the employers’ federation and the French government that … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-New-Dust-Bowl-From-Washi-by-Patricia-Stewart-090310-995.html March 12, 2009 A New Dust Bowl From Washington? By Patricia Stewart A new Dust Bowl faces America’s farms, only this one isn’t coming on the Jet Stream, like the Great One of the 1930’s. It’s coming from our government, threatening to bury our small farms under storms of paperwork, expenses … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman130309.htm Updating The Militarization  And Annexation Of North America By Stephen Lendman 13 March, 2009Countercurrents.org The title refers to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), also known as the North American Union – formerly launched at a March 23, 2005 Waco, Texas meeting attended by George Bush, Mexico’s President … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7941717.stm Switzerland eases banking secrecy Switzerland, the world’s largest offshore financial centre, has agreed to accept concessions on bank secrecy. However, while it will now abide by international rules on bank data sharing, it said it would only respond to “concrete and justified” requests. The government added that it would still protect … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690358175013837.html OPINION MARCH 13, 2009 Obama’s Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth By DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN and SCOTT RASMUSSEN It is simply wrong for commentators to continue to focus on President Barack Obama’s high levels of popularity, and to conclude that these are indicative of high levels of public confidence in the work of his … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/pers-m14.shtml Obama at the Business Roundtable 14 March 2009 On Thursday, President Barack Obama spoke before the Business Roundtable, an organization of leading corporate CEOs. Obama used the opportunity to deliver a paean to American capitalism. The speech, delivered in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, had … Read more

2009-03-16 Richard Moore The fact that today’s neoliberals claim to be the intellectual descendants of Adam Smith make it necessary to restore a more accurate historical perspective. Their concept of “free markets” is the antithesis of Smith’s. … Economic writers from the 16th through 20th centuries recognized that free markets required government oversight to prevent monopoly … Read more