And so it continues. The war on whistleblowers. Famously, of course, Bradley Manning (recently recommended for court-martial…). Now, CIA agent John Kiriakou. Six such prosecutions in all… more than all prior American administrations combined. Kiriakou, allegedly, disclosed some of the horrific tortures associated with the abuse of Abu Zubaydah, KSM and others. Note that the actual torture is of no concern to this Administration– the disclosure of the waterboarding and other egregious torture, however… that is the highest crime of all. Because… The “crime,” of course… is embarassing the Empire. This is reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib perps: that they...

World War III edition? Let’s see… plans for Israeli/USA false flag attacks on Iran? Check. Do we have our “war on” with Iran? Er, check. Is the Grey Lady out there with its Judy Miller-style propaganda, making sure the USA public will be well-behind the coming mega-war? Checkarino. And of course, is all this really about propping up Israeli-domestic-political and internal-American-political-diversion (not to mention generating uber-profits for the usual suspects), because what would actually work to bring down the Iranian regime would be dialing down the World War rhetoric thereby letting oil prices crash and hence bankrupting the Iranian regime?...

That would be The World Can’t Wait’s dance event on Sunday, January 8th, right here in NYC. [Specific details for those not clicking}: January 8, 2012 4pm 3-D Laboratories 29 West 26th Street New York Your talking dog is proud to be one of your hosts for this event, part of the acknowledgment of ten years of Guantanamo Bay (quite a legacy for our nation); Andy will also be there, discussing his tireless work on the subject, quite literally a resource for all humanity. So Give Generously. Alrightie then. Because, as I constantly try to remember, and to remind the...

I’m losing track of just which dictatorial measure gets signed into law exactly when, but “it is being reported that” [my college classmate] the President used the occasion of his vacation in Hawaii and New Year’s Eve to sign the massive Defense Authorization Act that authorizes indefinite detention of suspected terrorists, though he used a signing statement to quibble with restrictions on the executive’s “flexibility.” As we enter this year of 2012, in which we will see at least three quadrennial events, to wit, a February 29th, a summer Olympic games (in London this year) and the USA Presidential election...

As regular readers of this blog know, I tend not to be pollyannish about much of anything– indeed, I might actually have, what’s that word… a “following…” if I weren’t such a damned downer most of the time… and yet… I’m pretty much in agreement with this somewhat upbeat assessment by the great Charles Hugh Smith. As 2011 showed us, really for the first time I’ve been cognizant of (I was a small child back in the ’60’s), actual on the street protests (particularly, when that street is “Wall Street,” albeit technically Broadway about two blocks from Wall Street, though...

One of the defining taglines of my home state’s lottery advertising is “Hey, you never know!” Recently, they’ve gone to “Are you ready?” While I have met two lottery winners in my life (and the odds say that’s all I’ll meet!), preparedness is… good. And so, we give you this “Survival Guide for Citizens in a Revolution”.” Because… the revolution will not be televised… it will be live. While some of you may think “this can’t happen (here, anyway)”… it’s already happening. I note that one evening you might find a vibrant unincorporated municipality across the street from your office…...

I was once reminded by another blogger that the famous book 1984 “was not a manual.” Really? The council of the U.K. City of Oxford has determined to record all conversations in taxi cabs. The U.K. already has eavesdropping cameras just about everywhere as it is… but that wasn’t, you know, enough. [Maybe the UK is just upset about Brazil passing it as the 6th largest economy… or something…]

The Pentagon has investigated itself, and concluded that the controversial Bush/Rumsfeld era program whereby former military officials were shilled provided with information that they could present on cable and other news programming was… wait for it… perfectly appropriate. Some of the “controversy” concerned the fact that some analysts were dropped like hot potatoes if they said things critical of the Pentagon… they weren’t, you know, “team players.” And of course, in some cases, the Bush Administration just went all out and created fake news broadcasts. Good times. Interestingly, with respect to the Pentagon program, anyway, it seemed there was virtually...

. Because December 23rd only comes once a year.

Usually, I devote the “profiles in political coverage” tag to “my party” doing things that I oppose (such as implementing totalitarianism in the name of “national security”). In the present case, I’ll note, for a change, the somewhat unusual occasion of “their party” caving under immense political pressure, in this case, the House Republicans agreeing to a compromise two-month extension of the “payroll tax holiday.” The Republicans, of course, are supposed to be the party of reduced taxation; this little wing-ding, however, demonstrated that the Republicans have no problem adding to the tax burden on labor— they only want income...