Revolutionary Flowerpot Society
Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s Iran/Contra Connection?
8 June 2009

What do Michael Ledeen (the American ‘neo-conservative’), Mir-Hossein Mousavi (the Iranian presidential candidate of ‘chagne’) and Adnan Khashoggi (the opulent Saudi Arabian jet-setter) have in common?

They are all good friends and associates of Manuchehr Ghorbanifar (an Iranian arms merchant, an alleged MOSSAD double agent, and a key figure in the Iran/Contra Affair, the arms-for-hostages deals between Iran and the Reagan administration). In one or two, at most three, degrees of separation, these people hung out in the same circles and very likely drank to the same toasts.

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The Vineyard of the Saker
The gullible, useless, clueless and mindless Left
16 June 2009

The situation in Iran is volatile and fluid and things could get much worse (there are already reports about Mousavi supporters being arrested with explosives!) and it is way too early to draw some deep conclusions about these events. One thing, however, is absolutely clear: the so-called “Left” showed no common sense, no critical thinking and no analytical capabilities whatsoever. Even the best Leftist websites and commentators (Pepe Escobar, Counterpunch, etc.) swallowed the propaganda of the Rafsanjani camp hook, line, and sinker. There is an amazing irony here: the events in Iran are just about the perfect example of a class struggle, and yet the Lefties missed that completely even though this story was not without precedent.

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15 June 2009

On May 30th, a group of armed men and one woman shot and killed Brisenia Flores and her father in Arivaca, AZ. They kicked in the door to the family’s home and murdered the 9-year old and her father Raul Flores, injuring Brisenia’s mother. Though media has reported that the motivation behind the crime “is not clear”, what is glaringly clear is the hate behind it.

Jason Bush, Shawna Forde, and Albert Gaxiola have all been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Each of the accused belongs to the MinuteMen American Defense, a group of vigilante anti-immigrants who have dehumanized immigrants (and Latinos) to the point that they have no trouble shooting a 9-year old in cold blood.

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Raúl Zibechi | June 16, 2009
Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)
americas.irc-online.org

Translated from: Masacre en la Amazonia: La guerra por los bienes comunes
Translated by: Laura Carlsen

The events of June 5 left hundreds wounded and between 20-25 dead. Photo: intercontinentalcry.org.

Three MI-17 helicopters took off from the base of the National Police in El Milagro at six in the morning of Friday, June 5. They flew over Devil’s Curve, the part of the highway that joins the jungle with the northern coast, which had been occupied for the past 10 days by some 5,000 Awajún and Wampi indigenous peoples. The copters launched tear gas on the crowd (other versions say that they also shot machine guns), while simultaneously a group of agents attacked the road block by ground, firing AKM rifles. A hundred people were wounded by gunshot and between 20-25 were killed.

[Read the report]

Juan Cole decided Saturday, based on opinion and speculation, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had certainly stolen Iran’s presidential election. He was assisted in this viral mission by the great intellectual who cheered the illegal invasion of Iraq, Andrew Sullivan, and think tank celebrity, Steve Clemons, who punched-up one of his anti-Iran diatribes with a photo of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez embracing Ahmadinejad. Whatever was he implying?

The sloppiest of innuendo and conjecture attained instant credibility on the sacred internets. Mousavi can claim victory before but Ahmadinejad absolutely cannot several hours after the polling closed; Iranian demonstrators beaten by police are victims of an oppressive state; U.S. demonstrators pre-emptively enclosed in free speech cages, infiltrated by the FBI, and clubbed; demonstrators against Israeli apartheid murdered on a regular basis are …?

No time for deep analysis. Man your Twitter accounts, girls and boys. There’s casus belli to manufacture and a chattering class to convince it needs to do the heavy lifting.

Recommended Reading (hat tip):
South/South: Conversation with Grandma after Iran’s elections

This entry is from Dr. McCanne’s Quote of the Day, a daily health policy update on the single-payer health care reform movement. The QotD is archived on PNHP’s website.

The White House
June 13, 2009
Paying for Health Care Reform

Health Care Reserve Fund ($ in billions – over 10 years)

$635 – FY 2010 Budget
– $309 – Medicare and Medicaid Savings
– $326 – Revenues

$313 – Additional Medicare and Medicaid Savings
– $110 – Incorporate productivity adjustments into Medicare payment
– $106 – Reduce hospital subsidies for treating the uninsured as coverage increases
– $75 – Pay better prices for Medicare Part D drugs
– $22 – Other

Total: $948
http://www.whitehouse.gov/MedicareFactSheetFinal/

Comment: What does President Obama mean when he says that this is how we’re going to pay for most of his health care reform proposals? Is he referring to savings in the actual costs of health care that would offset the increased spending that would result from expanding coverage? Or is he merely referring to a decrease in government spending that helps with government budgets, but doesn’t really have much impact on our total national health expenditures (NHE)?

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