Talk about chutzpah. The right-wing blogosphere is ballistic over Barack Obama‘s rather tenuous ties to a former member of the Weather Underground. It was Hillary Clinton who first made an issue of the fact that Obama once served on the… Read moreMilitia-linked extremoids bait Obama on (tenuous) Weatherman tie
We’ve always maintained that anti-Semitism and anti-Arab racism are genetically linked phenomena. A lovely illustration is provided by Joseph E. DiGenova, the prosecutor in the Jonathan Pollard case, following the latest bust in the endless Israeli spy scandal—of octogenarian former… Read moreJewish “sleeper cells” threaten America: Pollard prosecutor
Stories like this make us think Orwell was an optimist. From Reuters, April 8: Robots seen doing work of 3.5 million in Japan Robots could fill the jobs of 3.5 million people in graying Japan by 2025, a thinktank says,… Read moreRobots to run Japan by 2025: think-tank
We’ve said it before, but here we go again. The Conspiracy Industry plays into the very hands of the police state it ostensibly opposes. The latest blog fodder from Raw Story, April 1, emphasis added, links not included: Mukasey hints… Read moreConspiracy vultures descend on Mukasey quip
The US State Department’s new annual human rights report accuses China of “extrajudicial killings, torture and coerced confessions of prisoners and the use of forced labor.” Russia and Sudan were also especially criticized. Ten countries were named as under “unaccountable… Read moreWhite House bashes China torture, vetoes bill banning torture
A man claiming to be Jaber al-Banna (also rendered Elbaneh), a Yemeni-American who is among the FBI’s most wanted terrorism suspects, showed up in a Yemeni court Feb. 23—and was allowed to walk free, surprising the attendees. Al-Banna’s appearance was… Read moreYemen lets jihadi walk free?
From New Scientist, Feb. 27: Governments around the world are rushing to develop military robots capable of killing autonomously without considering the legal and moral implications, warns a leading roboticist. But another robotics expert argues that robotic soldiers could perhaps… Read moreScientists want moratorium in “robot race”
Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan journalist for Canada’s CTV network held by the US military four months without charge, has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant, the Pentagon announced. Ahmad was allowed to make a statement before an enemy combatant review… Read morePentagon names reporter for Canadian TV “enemy combatant”
Our February issue featured the story “Oil Shock Redux: Is OPEC the Real Cartel —or the Transnationals?,” by Vilosh Vinograd, which argued that the unprecedented $100 a barrel is due less to OPEC production levels than the correct perception that… Read moreOur readers write: $200 a barrel oil?
The New York Times reports in a front-page story Feb. 23 that the Justice Department has opened an internal ethics investigation into the notorious August 2002 Bybee Memo that gave the imprimatur of legality to the Administration’s use of “waterboarding”… Read moreSupreme Court Justice Scalia defends torture
We’ve noted that Zbigniew Brzezinski is one of the primary exponents of the policy-elite backlash against the neocons, and his emergence as an adviser for Barack Obama says much about the coalition that is coming together behind the Obamarama. The… Read moreBarack Obama pawn in intra-elite paleo-neocon wars?
We’ve noted ourselves that Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate that talks a good line on the Iraq war. But it is really disturbing to see anti-war folks line up behind him uncritically. Nico Pitney notes the phenomenon—without comment—on… Read moreRon Paul: right-wing wackjob
