THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC IS DEAD. HAIL THE AMERICAN EMPIRE. OR ELSE.

I believe that the American Republic died in the U.S. Senate last Thursday morning and was buried yesterday morning in the East Room of the White House.

Despite a deluge of calls, letters, and e-mails, which Capital Hill staffers admitted ran overwhelmingly against the ludicrously-named "Resolution Authorizing the President to Use Force, if Necessary, to End the Threat to World Peace from Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction," Congress extended to George II the authority to make unlimited and preemptive war against another nation that has neither attacked us nor shown the ability or inclination to do so. [read more]

thanks to wood s lot

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Build it, and they will die
What good are all these bombs unless we drop them?

Lately there's been a lot of justified howling over an unprovoked invasion of Iraq. Ditto, in the larger picture, for the recent report to Congress of the White House's new National Security Strategy. But amidst it all, a basic reason for the unprecedented bellicosity of the Bush Administration has largely been overlooked. Why, in the absence of any realistic threat to the United States or its allies, are we poised to invade a country halfway around the world? Why have we officially embarked on a foreign policy that threatens any country, anywhere in the world, that does not embrace our preferred notions of how to tax the rich or protect wetlands? Why do we treat war as our first resort?

Because we can. [read more]

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US fears oil-supply attacks

THE bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen and a foiled attack on a Saudi oil complex has US counter-terrorism officials worried that the Al-Qaeda terror network is targeting petroleum interests in the Middle East. [read more]

thanks to BookNotes

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Identify the Enemy!
The Business in Bali

But Al Qaeda is not General Motors or the CIA, with Bin Laden sitting in a cave in Pakistan surrounded by CEOs planning terrorist acts around the globe and supervising operations with logistics, funding, training and recruiting being handled by diverse departments with access to sophisticated intelligence and communications. We have to stop allowing ourselves from being deceived into believing one organization is behind all attacks on "western interests". Comforting it may be but the truth is another. The truth is that millions, if not billions, of people, from Papua New Guinea to Colombia, have well-founded reasons to hate the greedy western imperialism. Some of them will finally get desperate enough to turn that hate into action, as the moral right that is on their side doesn't get them far when the adversary is backed by IMF, WTO, the World Bank, not to mention the Armed Forces of US, UK and a few more. Little does the wellbeing of the Iraqis or the Palestinians, the Indonesians or the Congolese, count when oil, minerals or power is at stake. The people on the receiving side of oppression have a limit. When they have had enough and justice is denied them, no one should be surprised that some of them turn to bombs and guns. Some to kill anyone they connect to the oppressors. Some prepared to die themselves in the process. They may be Moslems, Christians, Hindus or something else, but they are human beings who finally had enough. Don't call them Al Qaeda, call them desperate! [read more]