"It's 1938 and Iran is Germany" (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/787766.html). Thus spoke Likud boss Benjamin Netanyahu, with a degree of hawkish-ness that most other civilized world leaders dare not attain to. Yet the war-hungry, bloodthirsty Netanyahu is not exactly more than a standard deviation away from the mean on the hawk scale. In fact, we are now living in the age of the warhawk.

David Freddoso is a conservative political reporter for the right-wing website National Review Online. In his recent book The Case Against Barack Obama (subtitled The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate) Freddoso unsurprisingly outlines the case against Barack Obama which is essentially that Obama is not an idealistic reformer but in fact a shrewd and cynical political operator whose political career evolved from the milieu of corrupt Chicago-style machine politics.

Simply put, a vote for John McCain is a vote for war with Iran. McCain the presumptive Republican nominee for president, recently spoke at a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) with disturbingly apocalyptic rhetoric in regard to Iran. There McCain outlined his Iranian Containment Policy (title mine) which from the sounds of it could become the centerpiece of his foreign policy were he to inexplicably become president. McCain says that, "Tehran's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons poses an unacceptable risk, a danger we cannot allow" and that an Iranian nuclear weapon poses an "existential threat to...Israel" (http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/Read.aspx?guid=97b08426-d9ad-4046-9c05-1ded14fc0b 8a).w

I have been sending out a high volume of action alerts from environmental groups to my email friends lately and I would like to explain some of the reasons why I think they are important and that responding to the environmental crisis warrants urgent attention.

  At around 5am local time Sunday morning five Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) patrol boats encountered three US naval warships of the 5th Fleet, identified as the USS Port Royal (CG 73), USS Hopper (DDG 70), and the USS Ingraham (FFG 61),   in international waters within the Straight of Hormuz (http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=34207).

  The Iranian vessels were accused of "harassing" the US warships. The Iranians were reported to have said, "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes," on the bridge-to-bridge radio communication systems. Secretary of State Rice called the Iranian's actions "provocative and dangerous" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7175325.stm).

  There is speculation that IRG hard-liners, who are outside of the Iranian establishment, are may want to sabotage détente between the US and Iran (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran8jan08,0,7610536.story?coll=la-home-center) . But could it be a provocateur operation by the US government to subvert the threat of détente in light of the recent NIE which stated Iran ceased its clandestine nuclear weapons program in 2003?  

That HIV/AIDS is a serious problem plaguing Africa is essentially a truism; commonly accepted and virtually undisputed in establishment media or press. And the unofficial reason for the severity of the problem, namely the over-sexualized behavior of blacks, while not a truism, does obviously have some rather widespread appeal even in intellectual culture. But could a commonly accepted truth in fact turn out to be little more than gross misunderstanding of appropriate scientific methodology? Could the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in South Africa have more to do with flawed statistical analysis than with the facts?

"Only in Palestine is it still possible for liberals to cheer cowboys gunning down the Indians or pushing them back into the badlands."

  It is becoming increasingly clear that the Bush administration's policy aspirations are essentially without respect to the factual structure of the given situation. The announcement that sixteen of the nation's intelligence agencies, which is quite reasonable to say represents a cross-section of the domestic intelligence community, have released an intel product stating that it is their conclusions that Iran discontinued its nuclear weapons program in 2003. This discontinuation may have been in response to the US invasion of Iraq, which would actually make it a rare foreign policy success stemming from the unilateral invasion.

The actions of the Bush administration are basically continuing the trend of US involvement in the world which has been going on for half a century: making the world a much more dangerous place for everyone and threatening the survival of the species.

Just a few months ago the global marketplace was being applauded as a place of great liquidity (which is what matters, not great value or distribution just lots of cash) and the regulatory environment and everything else about the legal framework seemed to be near optimal for market-oriented, private-profit driven enterprises. Then along came the sub prime scare, which has apparently affected investor sentiment and the markets have taken a plunge. Is this a chink in the armor of "tough love" capitalism (character-building market discipline for the poor and middle class--social welfare for the rich), where the focus on supply-side indicators has left stagnant demand that finally caught up with profit making? The suffering of the less privileged parts of the population, namely African-American homeowners in subtext, now requires a market correction. Does this expose a flaw in the neoliberal policies, those policies which are based on creating a tax/subsidy system which provides a welfare state for the rich and imposes the cost upon the poor?

This diary developed out of a conversation with Halcyon in my previous diary, "Death to Democracy – The Neoliberal Agenda in Iraq." Specifically, Halcyon asked if the North American Unionization polices were an effort to force tyranny and oligarchy upon the US. Halcyon also questioned the logic of the Republican responses to neoliberal globalization, and whether or not Bush was using his authority to expand his dictatorial powers. Halcyon went on to question how the stability of political organization of a nation state was affected by globalism, particularly forced globalism. These are my responses to Halcyon, with additions.

  Neoliberalism is, in a sense, an attempt to confuse the world into believing that mercantilism infused with Leninist communism is the same thing as free-market capitalism. Neoliberalism is a world system and as a state apparatus it serves as a catalyst for conquest and imperialism. Neoliberal social organization is the next stage in authoritarianism and human oppression.

  Some refer to this as the New World Order. However, there isn't anything particularly new about the world order, it is essentially at least several centuries old. The difference is that the center of power has moved across the Atlantic and the methods and instruments of human oppression have become more sophisticated and deadly.

  The following diary is a very brief examination of what this has meant for the people of Iraq.

I recently watched Mike Gravel on the MoveOn.org Town Hall: Climate Change. Mike Gravel's policy suggestions were the most novel and perhaps the most innovative. They do not fit within the orthodoxy of key policies that are being constructed in regard to climate change.

I had a chance at an early viewing of Sicko and decided to offer my critique and a public endorsement of it. Go see it, and take everyone you can to see it with you.

I bet this one will piss a lot of people off...

  If those who are in command of a state are unconcerned with the national interest (that of the welfare of that country's people), does that nation truly exist? I think not.

  But, if it is beneath consideration to those who could most benefit from it, what characteristics make it so irrelevant? I leave it up to the reader to draw their own conclusions.

  Just some quotes that will hopefully inspire you as they have inspired me.

I found this tidbit in the liberal,
Russian-language journal Novaya Gazetta (the one for
which murdered journalist and human rights activist
Anna Politkavskaya formerly wrote).
I wouldn't be surprised if it is denied, or even
turns out to be patently false -- draw your own
conclusions.