Gwynne Dyer, Miramichi Leader, 27 August 2008

Cynicism and hypocrisy are always part of international politics, but in the case of Poland and the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) missiles everybody is over-fulfilling their norm. Nobody involved in the controversy, Polish, Russian or American, believes a single word they are saying about this misbegotten missile defence system, whose principal characteristic is that it doesn’t work — never has, and probably never will. And yet we’re all expected to report what they say as if it mattered.

Washington insists that the ABM missiles are being put into Poland to protect the United States and its allies from Iran’s long-range ballistic missiles (which do not exist) tipped with nuclear warheads (which Iran doesn’t have either). Yet after months when US-Polish talks on the subject were stalled, suddenly last Wednesday Warsaw agreed to provide a base for the “missile defence system” — because it would infuriate the Russians.

[Read the article]

Drats! I was so looking forward to the camera zooming in on him as he mouthed the words, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” He might have finally succeeded in squeezing out a big fat tear or two.

Announcement via MSNBC text alerts.

What really scares us about Barack Obama
By Bradley Burston, Ha’aretz, 27 August 2008

One August survey showed likely Louisiana voters favoring John McCain by a margin of 57 percent to 39 percent. The significance of the poll may go well beyond the fate of the Bayou State’s nine electoral votes. Simply put, Louisiana has voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election for the past 36 years.

In the end, one suspects, John McCain may take this election in a quiet walk.

I was reminded of a conversation that took place during a prior visit to California, where this foreign visitor was born and raised. A woman who I believe supports Obama but who, as a member of the Jewish community, has been bombarded with e-mails distorting the Democratic candidate’s positions on Israel, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Jews, terrorism, and taxes, asked me an honest question:

“Are Israelis frightened by Obama?” [Read the article]

The McCain camp must think so:

Adam Entous, Reuters, 25 August 2008

Excerpt: Pro-settler groups say they are entitled to the tax breaks because their work is “humanitarian”, not political, and reject any comparison to Palestinian charities, some of which face U.S. sanctions over suspected links to Islamist groups like Hamas.

The full extent of tax-exempt U.S. funding for settlements is unclear because so many groups are involved and their spending practices are not always transparent.

But a review by Reuters of U.S. tax records found 13 tax-exempt organisations openly linked to settlements that have raised more than $35 million in the last five years alone.

[Read the report]

By Bruce Dixon, Black Agenda Report, 27 August 2008

Digital TV means four to ten times as many channels for each and every broadcaster with no obligations to the public. The FCC quietly awarded broadcasters this colossal gift of public property worth $70-$80 billion during the Clinton administration back in 1996. In the 12 years since, under Democratic and Republican presidents alike, corporate broadcasters and their stooges at the FCC have diligently peddled the cover stories that digital TV is all about the advent of high definition television, and that the only nagging questions are how and whether enough converter boxes will be available for consumers who can’t or won’t buy brand new TVs.

In a final act of brazen misdirection to conceal this grand theft digital, FCC Commissioners are scheduled to tour dozens of cities between now and February 18, 2009, doing a lot of talking, but not much listening.

[Read the report]