Such self-loathing, such depraved, pointless violence. Hard to believe this is serious.

High joblessness in the home of U.S. space flight

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from :

Dear Sirs:
In a recent OpEd Andrew Sentance resurrects the discredited theory of “cost push” as the cause of price inflation. According to this theory rising oil and commodity prices “push up” other prices and lead to widespread price inflation. Left unexamined is how it is possible for ALL prices to rise.

War by media, says current military doctrine, is as important as the battlefield. This is because the real enemy is the public at home, whose manipulation and deception is essential for starting an unpopular colonial war. Like the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, attacks on Iran and Syria require a steady drip-effect on readers’ and viewers’ consciousness. This is the essence of a propaganda that rarely speaks its name.

To the chagrin of many in authority and the media, WikiLeaks has torn down the facade behind which rapacious western power and journalism collude. This was an enduring taboo; the BBC could claim impartiality and expect people to believe it. Today, war by media is increasingly understood by the public, as is the trial by media of WikiLeaks’ founder and editor Julian Assange.

. . . .

For this, as the American historian William Blum points out, “dozens of members of the American media and public officials have called for [his] execution or assassination”. If he is passed from Sweden to the US, an orange jumpsuit, shackles and a fabricated indictment await him. And there go all who dare challenge rogue America.

In Britain, Assange’s trial by media has been a campaign of character assassination, often cowardly and inhuman, reeking of jealousy of the courageous outsider, while books of perfidious hearsay have been published, movie deals struck and media careers launched or resuscitated on the assumption that he is too poor to sue. In Sweden this trial by media has become, according to one observer there, “a full-on mobbing campaign with the victim denied a voice”. For more than 18 months, the salacious Expressen, Sweden’s equivalent of the Sun, has been fed the ingredients of a smear by Stockholm police. (Read more)

Great lecture by a great speaker, Tom Woods:

In a ruling on 31 January, the BBC Trust defended its decision to censor the word “Palestine” from a freestyle by rapper Mic Righteous on 1xtra in February last year. In the performance (above), he rapped:

I still have the same beliefs

I can scream Free Palestine,

Die for my pride still pray for peace,

Still burn a fed for the brutality

They spread over the world.

BBC production staff covered up the word “Palestine” with the sound of broken glass. The censored version was also aired in April. Responding to the original complaints, the BBC said that “Mic Righteous was expressing a political viewpoint which, if it had been aired in isolation, would have compromised impartiality.”

Yet its own guidelines make allowances for “individual expression” for “artists, writers and entertainers”, as long as services “reflect a broad range of the available perspectives over time”. The BBC argues that a late night music show was not the appropriate place to get into political debate as it was not obvious when these other views would be aired.

Amena Saleem, of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: ‘”In its correspondence with us, the BBC said the word Palestine isn’t offensive, but ‘implying that it is not free is the contentious issue’, and this is why the edit was made.”

But the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is a fact, not a statement of opinion. The UN Security Council classifies Israel as the “occupying force” in the West Bank and Gaza. Indeed, in upholding their decision, the BBC Trust has not addressed this key issue in the complaints. Consequently, nine complainants have said that their main point, that the BBC “demonstrated bias against Palestinians”, had been ignored.

At the time, the PSC made the point that the BBC did not ban the song “Free Nelson Mandela” in 1984, even though Mandela was considered to be a terrorist by many western governments. (Read more)

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul secured his first caucus
victory over the weekend, by winning 29 percent of the popular vote
among the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands. However, the mainstream
media decided to report that despite coming in second with 26 percent,
Mitt Romney was the real winner.

The Republican Party of the U.S. Virgin Islands reported the results as “112 to Paul (29%), 101 to Romney (26%), 23 to Santorum (6%), 18 to Gingrich (5%),”

In response, The AP and other mainstream reports yesterday claimed that Mitt Romney won caucus, because he stands to come away with more delegates. (Read more)

Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. And it is the oldest written national constitution still in force anywhere in the world. But its influence is waning.

. . . .

The United States Constitution is terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights. The commitment of some members of the Supreme Court to interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning in the 18th century may send the signal that it is of little current use to, say, a new African nation. And the Constitution’s waning influence may be part of a general decline in American power and prestige.

In an interview, Professor Law identified a central reason for the trend: the availability of newer, sexier and more powerful operating systems in the constitutional marketplace. “Nobody wants to copy Windows 3.1,” he said.

. . . .

As Sanford Levinson wrote in 2006 in “Our Undemocratic Constitution,” “the U.S. Constitution is the most difficult to amend of any constitution currently existing in the world today.”

. . . .

Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education and health care.

It has its idiosyncrasies. Only 2 percent of the world’s constitutions protect, as the Second Amendment does, a right to bear arms. (Its brothers in arms are Guatemala and Mexico.) (Read more)

(according to reddit)

Romney super PAC raised $6.6M in January Restore Our Future, a super PAC aiding Mitt Romney, raised $6.6 million in January to aid his presidential campaign, documents filed today show.

The super PAC spent nearly $14 million in January as it blistered Romney’s GOP rivals with stinging ads during last month’s caucuses and primaries. It ended the month with $16.3 million in the bank, some of which is being deployed in Romney’s native state of Michigan ahead of the Feb. 28 primary there. . . .

A report filed earlier today showed PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel donated $1.7 million last month to a super PAC supporting one of Romney’s GOP rivals, Ron Paul. (Read more)

If it’s true, they must have re-written the article too.

Nearly 500 veterans and active duty soldiers marched through the streets of Washington, DC on Monday to show their support for presidential candidate Ron Paul. Men and women traveled from across the country to be part of the historic march.

One soldier, 26, traveled alone, all the way from Alaska to participate. He asked that he remain anonymous, as he was breaking military directives by attending. The soldier from Alaska said that the march was “humbling and powerful” and definitely worth the risk. He told Examiner, “I shared some emotional moments with my brothers and sisters in arms. All in all, it was an amazing day.”

He continued,

I decided to support Ron Paul during the 2008 campaign while I was still deployed in Afghanistan. I started asking questions after witnessing so many injustices occur there.

Not only is Ron Paul the only veteran remaining in the race, he understands that our foreign policy is deeply flawed. Pretending that occupying other countries won’t have some repercussions is absolutely ignorant. The fact of the matter is we create more enemies than we can kill.

. . . .

Not unexpectedly, the mainstream media also largely neglected to report on the “Ron Paul is the Choice of the Troops” march in DC. One of the few videos about the event was made by RT, a Russian media outlet. One ABC article listed the march as having “dozens” of troops marching. After outrage in the comments, “dozens” was changed to “several hundred.” NBC was at the event recording, but never aired the footage.
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