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Less Popular Than Zombies: Congressional Approval Rating Drops to Single Digits

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Veteran’s Pension Payments and Disability Funding to Dry Up at End of Month

 By Doug Porter

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki is testified today before a House Committee about the consequences of the current government shutdown and the news was all bad for 3.8 million veterans who will not receive disability compensation come November.  An additional 315,000 veterans and 202,000 surviving spouses and dependents will also see pension payments stopped should the logjam not break.

He told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs the short-term effects include disability claims production slowing by an average of about 1,400 per day since the shutdown began Oct. 1, and that has stalled the department’s efforts to reduce the backlog of disability claims pending for longer than 125 days.   [Read more…]

Alvarez Gets The Nod from Democratic Party as Mayoral Election Takes Shape

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By Doug Porter

San Diego’s Democratic Central Committee met last night to consider the question of endorsing a candidate in the upcoming special mayoral contest.

Former City Attorney Mike Aguirre, civic activist Bruce Coons, former assemblyman Nathan Fletcher and City Councilman David Alvarez all pled their case behind closed doors in Kearny Mesa.

The Dems could have voted not to endorse at this point in the process. Or they could have endorsed more than one candidate. But either move would have effectively left the party’s ability to raise unlimited funds at the sidelines for the Nov 19th primary.

So in the end City Councilman David Alvarez won the endorsement with a 63-40 40-24 vote over Nathan Fletcher. In the event of a runoff after the special election, the committee agreed to back whichever Democrat advances, whether or not it’s Alvarez.   [Read more…]

At G20, Push For War Isolates Obama From World Leaders

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President presses for Syria strikes despite overwhelming global opposition, denounces UN legal channels as ‘hocus pocus.’

By Sarah Lazare / Common Dreams

Update:

After a vigorous lobbying effort, Obama walked away from the G20 summit with a statement signed by 11 countries that asserts Bashar al-Assad was behind the alleged chemical attacks and urges “a strong international response to a grave violation of the world’s rules” but notably falls short of supporting direct strikes   [Read more…]

Has Assad Crossed a Red Line In Syria?

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by Frank Thomas and John Lawrence

Is the Gassing of 1400 Syrians More of a Crime Against Humanity Than the Slaughter of 100,000 Syrians?

Frank Thomas’ take:

Russia’s ongoing multi-dollar sales of advanced massively destructive weapons to Assad’s government has exacerbated the killing fields in Syria. Yet Russia sanctimoniously thinks the rest of the world, namely the U.S., has no right of humanitarian intervention to protect the lives of innocents being slaughtered by chemical weapons and more so by Russia’s own prolific arms sales to Assad’s military forces.

Russia would remind us that for many years (1980-88) Saddam Hussein’s army blatantly used mustard and nerve gases at will against Iran and even the people of Iraq. Foreign Policy has just published CIA documents confirming Washington and other western nations knew of Iraq’s production and use of chemical gases and even delivered some raw materials. In fact, the U.S. incredibly falsely accused Iran of using chemical weapons. Super-hypocritically, we and others set the Iraq precedent that a tyrant government leader, no manner how barbarous, can use chemical gases so long as his tyrannical regime is on the right side of western interests.   [Read more…]

To Bomb or Not to Bomb (Syria), That is The Question

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By Doug Porter

Once again the world faces an ogre whose actions threaten the sensibilities of good people everywhere and any neighborhood or ethinic group that gets in his way. I am speaking of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the latest in a series of post-cold war functionaries to break bad on the world and their own people.

Syria, like much of the post-colonial world, is a nation-state created at the point of a gun by its European conquerors.  Assad is just another functionary entrusted with keeping stability in an unstable region.

He and his father before him were placeholders for Soviet interests in the Middle East. Today Syria and Iran stand alone against the Sunni masters of Saudi Arabia, a US surrogate increasingly open about operating on its own agenda.   [Read more…]

The Soul of Our Nation: War

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by Bruce Gagnon /Common Dreams

This is how it works.

The US has been providing Egypt with nearly $2 billion a year in “aid” since 1979.  Most of this is military aid.  That “aid” is then used to buy weapons from American corporations.  So in reality most of US foreign aid becomes more welfare programs for the military industrial complex.

Because of current civil war conditions in Egypt the Obama team is having to hold off on providing more aid to that embattled nation.  A recent Pew Research Center poll found that 51% of respondents said it’s better to cut off military assistance to Egypt, while 26% backed continued aid.   [Read more…]

Killing Civilians to Protect Civilians in Syria

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by Marjorie Cohn and Jeanne Mirer / Common Dreams

The drums of war are beating again. The Obama administration will reportedly launch a military strike to punish Syria’s Assad government for its alleged use of chemical weapons. A military attack would invariably kill civilians for the ostensible purpose of showing the Syrian government that killing civilians is wrong. “What we are talking about here is a potential response . . . to this specific violation of international norms,” declared White House press secretary Jay Carney. But a military intervention by the United States in Syria to punish the government would violate international law.

For the United States to threaten to and/or launch a military strike as a reprisal is a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter. The Charter requires countries to settle their international disputes peacefully. Article 2(4) makes it illegal for any country to either use force or threaten to use force against another country. Article 2(7) prohibits intervention in an internal or domestic dispute in another country. The only time military force is lawful under the Charter is when the Security Council approves it, or under Article 51, which allows a country to defend itself if attacked. “The use of chemical weapons within Syria is not an armed attack on the United States,” according to Notre Dame law professor Mary Ellen O’Connell.   [Read more…]

Manning Sentenced, But Was His Prosecution Justified?

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Comparisons between WikiLeaks and Pentagon Papers cases raise serious questions about government and judicial discretion.

By David Gespass/Military Law Task Force

Today, Bradley Manning was sentenced to thirty-five years for the “crime” of revealing the seamy underside of US diplomacy and war-making. The sentence is substantially less than sixty years the prosecution asked for, but greater than what the defense requested. It was predicated on alleged damage done to the US, though it remains unclear what actual damage, aside from embarrassment, occurred. Indeed, the idea that transparency is damaging is one that should shock the conscience of any patriot, if one defines patriotism as something other than blind obeisance to whatever one’s government says.

Manning’s defense attorney, David Coombs, told the court that “(his) biggest crime was he cared about the loss of life he was seeing and was struggling with it.” That, in fact, is what drove the government in its excessive and relentless attacks, inside and outside the courtroom, on Bradley Manning. That is what Barack Obama’s promise of the “most transparent” administration in history has devolved into. Everyone in the country; nay, everyone the world over, should be outraged at his prosecution and sentence. But for Manning, Reuters still would not know what happened to its correspondents, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen, the day they were gunned down by an American air strike. And the world would not know the callousness of the Americans doing the killing, who had no regrets about also shooting a man and a young boy who came to assist the wounded and dead.   [Read more…]

The Drone Industrialists: ‘Don’t Watch Us, We’ll Watch You’

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by Thomas Hedges / Common Dreams

The Wifi password at this year’s conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) was “DONTSAYDRONES.” It was printed and posted up in the pressroom of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., warning reporters not to unleash the offensive word while doing an interview. At one of the world’s biggest UAS conventions, drones did not exist.

Exhibitors instead flaunted their products like toys. Visitors demoed UAS in air, ground, and water spaces within the exhibit hall, which extended the length of a couple of football fields. There were onscreen displays, where attendees could fly virtual drones using a video game controller. Upstairs there were presentations on how UAS might be used to fight forest fires or quickly transport organs to hospitals on a moment’s notice.   [Read more…]

5 Companies That Make Money By Keeping Americans Terrified of Terror Attacks

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A massive industry profits off the government-induced fear of terrorism.

By Alex Kane/Alternet

Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency, has  invaded America’s television sets in recent weeks to warn about Edward Snowden’s leaks and the continuing terrorist threat to America.

But what often goes unmentioned, as the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald pointed out, is that Hayden has a financial stake in keeping Americans scared and on a permanent war footing against Islamist militants.

And the private firm he works for, called the Chertoff Group, is not the only one making money by scaring Americans.

Post-9/11 America has witnessed a boom in private firms dedicated to the hyped-up threat of terrorism. The drive to privatize America’s national security apparatus accelerated in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, and it’s gotten to the point where 70 percent of the national intelligence budget is now spent on private contractors, as  author Tim Shorrock reported. The private intelligence contractors have profited to the tune of at least $6 billion a year. In 2010,  the Washington Post revealed that there are 1,931 private firms across the country dedicated to fighting terrorism.

What it all adds up to is a massive industry profiting off government-induced fear of terrorism, even though Americans are more likely to be killed by a car crash or their own furniture than a terror attack.   [Read more…]

The Border-Industrial Complex

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War profiteers have spied a new place they can militarize with their high-tech, high-cost weaponry.

By  / OtherWords.org

At last, both Republicans and Democrats are beginning to respond aggressively to economic needs. “It has been a tough time,” admits one Washington insider, applauding a new spending proposal that “could help out.”

Unfortunately, he and Congress aren’t referring to your tough times. No, no — they’re rushing to the aid of the multi-billion-dollar Military-Industrial Complex.

The government, you see, hasn’t been getting our nation into enough wars to satisfy the insatiable appetite of Northrop Grumman and its ilk for government money. So those war profiteers have spied a new place they can militarize with their high-tech, high-cost weaponry: The U.S.-Mexican border.   [Read more…]

White House Closes Inquiry Into Afghan Massacre – and Will Release No Details

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By Cora Currier / ProPublica

Soon after taking office, President Obama pledged to open a new inquiry into the deaths of perhaps thousands of Taliban prisoners of war at the hands of U.S.-allied Afghan fighters in late 2001.

Last month, the White House told ProPublica it was still “looking into” the apparent massacre.
Now it says it has concluded its investigation – but won’t make it public.

The investigation found that no U.S. personnel were involved, said White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden. Other than that, she said, there is “no plan to release anything.”   [Read more…]

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