Presstitutes

Glenn Greenwald: The message sent by America’s invisible victims

"The most propagandistic aspect of the US War on Terror has been, and remains, that its victims are rendered invisible and voiceless. They are almost never named by newspapers. They and their surviving family members are virtually never heard from on television. The Bush and Obama DOJs have collaborated with federal judges to ensure that even those who everyone admits are completely innocent have no access to American courts and thus no means of having their stories heard or their rights vindicated. Radical secrecy theories and escalating attacks on whistleblowers push these victims further into the dark." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: The message sent by America’s invisible victims

Health Insurance Under Obamacare: “The More You Make The More You’ll Pay”

"A friend familiar with the industry emails and points me to a summary at the NOLO legal encyclopedia that explains how healthcare insurance premiums are going to become income based. My friend concludes: This is the provision that I was told about by somebody who works at Blue Cross, but the government and even the media has been keeping very mum about it…. One provision not mentioned in this article is about the grandfathering of current plans back to sometime in 2010, where if you have had the same policy since then you won’t be charged based on income." Continue reading →

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Commentator Donna Brazile Gets Obamanized (Note: Very Painful)

"Donna Brazile, apologist for everything Obama, syndicated columnist, television political commentator on CNN and ABC, is bitching about her soaring healthcare insurance premium. She doesn't know why it is going up. I've covered some of the why here and here, but the short and long answer is Obamacare. Below is her 'health care works' cheering on of ACA via a tweet last year, underneath that is a tweet from her today where she is bitching about her healthcare premium climbing and not getting a good answer as to why it is going up. She still doesn't seem to get that she has been Obamanized." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCommentator Donna Brazile Gets Obamanized (Note: Very Painful)

Brennan Promotes CIA Agent Who Helped Run Torture Programs

"John Brennan, the man Obama appointed to head the CIA, promoted an undercover agent to be director of the CIA’s clandestine service, despite the fact that she helped run the CIA’s illegal torture and detention program after 9/11 and 'signed off on the 2005 decision to destroy videotapes of prisoners being subjected to treatment critics have called torture.' 'The woman, who remains undercover and cannot be named, was put in the top position on an acting basis when the previous chief retired last month,' reports The Washington Post." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBrennan Promotes CIA Agent Who Helped Run Torture Programs

Glenn Greenwald: Domestic drones and their unique dangers

"What possible reason could someone identify as to why these small, portable weaponized UAS products will not imminently be used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in the US? They're designed to protect their users in dangerous situations and to enable a target to be more easily killed. Police agencies and the increasingly powerful drone industry will tout their utility in capturing and killing dangerous criminals and their ability to keep officers safe, and media reports will do the same. One has to be incredibly naïve to think that these 'assassin bugs' and other lethal drone products will not be widely used on US soil." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Domestic drones and their unique dangers

The Centralization of Intellectual Control Proceeds Apace

"How has publishing in top economics journals changed since 1970? First, annual submissions to the top-5 journals nearly doubled from 1990 to 2012. Second, the total number of articles published in these journals actually declined from 400 per year in the late 1970s to 300 per year most recently. As a result, the acceptance rate has fallen from 15% to 6%, with potential implications for the career progression of young scholars. Third, one journal, the American Economic Review, now accounts for 40% of top-5 publications, up from 25% in the 1970s." Continue reading →

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Chris Hedges: The Day That TV News Died

"Phil Donahue and Bill Moyers, the last honest men on national television, were the only two major TV news personalities who presented the viewpoints of those of us who challenged the rush to war in Iraq. General Electric and Microsoft—MSNBC’s founders and defense contractors that went on to make tremendous profits from the war—were not about to tolerate a dissenting voice. Donahue was fired, and at PBS Moyers was subjected to tremendous pressure. A leaked MSNBC memo stated that Donahue was hurting the image of the network. He would be a 'difficult public face for NBC in a time of war,' the memo read. Donahue never returned to the airwaves." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChris Hedges: The Day That TV News Died

How The News Media Betrayed Us On Iraq

"The tenth anniversary of the start of America’s illegal and aggressive war against Iraq should not pass without recalling that the mainstream news media eagerly participated in the Bush administration’s dishonest campaign for public support. Most news operations were little more than extensions of the White House Office of Communications. The media became shameful conduits for unsubstantiated and outright false information about Saddam Hussein’s alleged threat to the American people. Unfortunately, even as media figures now issue mea culpas about their shameful Iraq 'coverage,' they are engaged in precisely the same shoddy business with respect to Iran." Continue reading →

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The Iraq War: 10 Years Later – Anthony Gregory

"Operation Iraqi Freedom unleashed terrorism, draconian Shariah law, and the systematic persecution of women and religious minorities. Bush’s gang established martial law, deadly checkpoints, and torture chambers; used white phosphorous, flooded the country with sewage and disease, destroyed infrastructure that twelve previous years of U.S. war and sanctions had yet left standing, confiscated Iraqis’ guns, and implemented central taxation and economic planning. Wilson’s WWI bungling helped lead to communism, Nazism, and WWII; Bush’s bungling has exacerbated jihadism and will reverberate for decades. One good resulted: Global disrespect for American empire." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Iraq War: 10 Years Later – Anthony Gregory

Fox News analyst: ‘Very high probability’ Iraq hid WMDs in Syria

"A Fox News military analyst who has previously justified the U.S. invasion in Iraq by asserting that Russia conspired to hide Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now says that there is a 'very high probability' that those WMDs are in Syria. 'That’s conjecture, but we do know prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, there was a lot of vehicles crossing the border into Syria. And there was a great deal of conjecture. A Iraqi major general swore by it. He said he delivered it. And so I think that it would be a very high probability if we could get into those bunkers that they would have Iraqi signatures on them.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFox News analyst: ‘Very high probability’ Iraq hid WMDs in Syria