2011 November | American Pendulum

The Outrage Override

Posted by admin Top Stories Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Carl Cohen – Whom do you hate? Perhaps you hate Nazis, or the Taliban, or people who discriminate against homosexuals. Maybe you hate homosexuals. Homosexuality, we are told in Deuteronomy, and in many hateful sermons, is an abomination. Ought such hateful talk be forbidden? In Canada, just a few years ago, a man peacefully distributed pamphlets denouncing as sinful the introduction of homosexuality into the curriculum of the Saskatoon Public Schools. Four gay citizens complained to the authorities and he was punished — obliged to pay them $17,500 because their feelings had been hurt.

Israeli Intransigence On Palestine Isolating Both The U.S. And Israel

Posted by admin World Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Far from doing it any good, Israel’s intransigence is turning once friendly nations against it. “Five years ago, Turkey was, with Egypt, Israel’s most important ally in the Muslim world,” Coll writes. Now the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan derides Israel as “the West’s spoiled child.”

The Last Whistleblowers

Posted by admin National News/Opinion Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

David Swanson-Whistleblowing in our federal government may soon be a thing of the past, not because whistleblowers face more vicious retribution than ever before — although that is true; and not because important acts of whistleblowing now result in fewer reforms and less accountability than they used to — although that is also true and is getting closer; but fundamentally because the actions against which we need whistles blown are publicly acknowledged.

Occupy Movement: Next Step Convergence

Posted by admin National News/Opinion Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Joel S. Hirschhorn – The biggest mistake that passionate advocates for a cause make is overestimating their ability to reach critical mass and underestimating the competition of other movements with greater appeal which rob them of both attention and supporters.

Senate Rejects Amendment Banning Indefinite Detention

Posted by admin Top Stories Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

ACLU – Today, the Senate voted 37-61 to reject an important amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have removed harmful provisions authorizing the U.S. military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians, including American citizens, anywhere in the world.

The New Authoritarianism: From Decaying Democracies to Technocratic Dictatorships and Beyond

Posted by admin Top Stories Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Decaying democracy evolves into an ‘oligarchical democracy’ as executive officials rule by fiat; overriding democratic rules and ignoring the interests of the majority. An executive junta, of elected and non-elected officials, resolves questions of war and peace, allocate billions of dollars or euros to a financial oligarchy, and reduce living standards of millions of citizens via class biased “austerity packages”. The legislature abdicates its legislative and oversight function and submits to the executive junta’s “accomplished facts”. The citizenry is assigned the role of passive spectators – even as anger, disgust and hostility spreads and deepens.

Target Iran: Washington's Countdown to War

Posted by admin World Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Similarly today, a nonexistent “nuclear threat” is the pretext being used by Washington to install a “friendly” regime in Tehran and undercut geopolitical rivals China and Russia in the process, thereby “securing” the country’s vast petrochemical wealth for American multinationals.As the U.S. and Israel ramp-up covert operations against Iran, the Pentagon “has laid out its most explicit cyberwarfare policy to date, stating that if directed by the president, it will launch ‘offensive cyber operations’ in response to hostile acts,” according to The Washington Post.

Syria: NATO Genocide Approaches

Posted by admin World Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Tony Cartalucci – Blatant lies told by alleged “human rights activists” led to ignominious NATO-sanctioned brutality and ultimately brought BP, Shell, Total-sponsored Petroleum Institute representative, Abdurrahim el-Keib, into power in Libya. Now, these same corporate-financier interests, through their same networks of propaganda, duplicity and deception, are laying the ground work for a repeat performance in Syria.

SocGen Sees $600 Billion QE3 Starting In March 2012 Sending Gold Up Between $1900 And $8500/Oz

Posted by admin Economy Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Zero Hedge – So go long a bank that may well go bankrupt and return nothing before it at best doubles, or go long a real asset, which will always have value and may quadruple in short notice? The answer seems simple to us…

NATO supply stopped permanently: Malik

Posted by admin World Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

The minister said that NATO containers, which have been stopped, would not be allowed to cross the Pak-Afghan border. Malik said that the democratic government of Pakistan would not take dictation from anyone.