Why Men Love War - | The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire
Published by Johnmiller on 2010/5/16 (138 reads)
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Monday, May 17, 2010
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Image - Why Men Love War - | The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 -
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Why Men Love War - | The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 - By Evan Thomas
The reasons and causes—territory, ideology, WMDs—may change with the times, but our lust for it is eternal.
Newsweek - May 10, 2010
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Theodore Roosevelt wanted a war, and almost any war would do. In 1886, when he was a 27-year-old gentleman rancher in the Dakota Territory, he proposed raising "some companies of horse riflemen out here in the event of trouble with Mexico." He wrote his friend Congressman Henry Cabot Lodge: "Will you telegraph me at once if war becomes inevitable?" In 1889, while agitating for military "preparedness," he wrote British diplomat Cecil Spring-Rice: "Frankly, I don't know if I should be sorry to see a bit of a spar with Germany; the burning of New York and a few other seacoast cities would be a good object lesson on the need of an adequate system of coastal defenses." Roosevelt loved hyperbole, but he was apparently serious. He wrote Spring-Rice, "While we would have to take some awful blows at first, I think in the end we would worry the Kaiser a little." A few years later, in 1894, he wrote a family friend, Bob Ferguson, that he longed for "a general national buccaneering expedition to drive the Spanish out of Cuba, the English out of Canada."
In my new book, The War Lovers, I tell this story—of Roosevelt, and of how we became involved in the Spanish-American War—as a way of understanding the ancient pull of the battlefield. I was, in part, trying to understand my own attitude on the Iraq War. As a NEWSWEEK journalist writing about that conflict (from a safe distance), I had initially been hawkish, then regretful as the costs mounted. The war may, in some muddled way, achieve some of its objectives, but it is clear that too many journalists, including me, caught at least a mild dose of war fever between 9/11 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I looked to the past to come to terms with those impulses.
BP: Tube is siphoning oil from leak
A tube was inserted Sunday into a pipe, seen earlier spewing oil and natural gas from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. BP hopes to eventually contain most of the leak via the tube, sending it to a tanker above.
Newsweek - May 16, 2010
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HOUSTON - Reporting its first success in containing the massive Gulf oil leak nearly a month after it started, BP on Sunday said oil and natural gas were flowing via a mile-long pipe to a ship at the surface. Yet even as the company reported the success, scientists warned oil that has already spewed into the Gulf could have dire consequences for the environment. Computer models show the black ooze might have already entered a major current flowing toward the Florida Keys, a researcher said Sunday.
Senate Approves Audit of Federal Reserve to End Fed Secrecy
The Bernie Buzz of Senator Sanders - May 11, 2010
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WASHINGTON – In a major victory for transparency at the Federal Reserve, the Senate today passed an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to audit the Fed and make the central bank reveal which banks received more than $2 trillion in emergency aid during the financial crisis. “The Fed can no longer operate in virtual secrecy,” said Sanders (I-Vt.).
Under his amendment, the Government Accountability Office would conduct a top-to-bottom audit of all emergency actions by the Fed since the start of the financial crisis in 2007. The non-partisan research arm of Congress specifically would be directed to investigate apparent conflicts of interest involving the Fed and CEOs of the largest financial institutions in the country. In addition to the audit, the Fed for the first time would have to reveal by Dec. 1, 2010, the identities of banks and other financial institutions that took more than $2 trillion in nearly zero-interest loans.The Roman Catholic Church - Where Was the Confession Booth?
Vatican to court: Priests are not our employees
Attorney outlines defense ahead of filing Monday in sex abuse case.
Newsweek - by Nicole Winfield - May 16, 2010
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VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Monday will make its most detailed defense yet against claims that it is liable for U.S. bishops who allowed priests to molest children, saying bishops are not its employees and that a 1962 Vatican document did not require them to keep quiet, The Associated Press has learned. The Vatican will make the arguments in a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds filed in Louisville, Kentucky, but it could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See. The Vatican's U.S. attorney, Jeffrey Lena, said it will include a response to claims that the 1962 document "Crimen Sollicitationis" — Latin for "crimes of solicitation" — barred bishops from reporting abuse to police.
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Commentary | Why Freedom Should Be the #1 Issue for Progressives
The right has long co-opted the idea of freedom for its political advancement. What if progressives took it back?
AlterNet - By Frances Moore Lappé - May 13, 2010
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Freedom — that’s what America stands for, right? It’s the value most deeply carved in the American psyche, and has been the rallying cry of American “conservatives’” for as long as I can remember.
And with what value are progressives most associated? Probably social justice, a term which carries a lot of baggage. “Social justice,” wrote Iain Duncan Smith and Rick Santorum in the Wall Street Journal, has been used by “the political left …as a Trojan horse for its big-state agenda.”
Beyond such obvious distortions, there’s a second challenge for progressives in being tied so singularly to justice. While it's absolutely vital to human thriving, justice is essentially defensive. It suggests resistance. It’s the righting of wrongs. Freedom by contrast feels positive, expansive and full of open-ended possibility—giving it a clear edge in stirring the human heart.
So, as Tea Partiers and newly re-energized Republicans take up the term anew, now’s a perfect time to ask: What is freedom, anyway?
Opinion | America's Ten Most Corrupt Capitalists
AlterNet - By Zach Carter - May 13, 2010
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Wall Street's captains of industry and top policymakers in Washington are often the same people. A lot of them get rich by playing for both teams.
May 13, 2010ged their connections in government for their own personal profit. During the Clinton and Bush administrations, many of these schemers were worshiped as geniuses, heroes or icons of American progress. But today we know these opportunists for what they are: Deregulatory hacks hellbent on making a profit at any cost. Without further ado, here are the 10 most corrupt capitalists in the U.S. economy.International News
Bilderberg: The ultimate conspiracy theory
BBC News Online Magazine - By Jonathan Duffy - June 3, 2004
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Turmoil inThalland | Thai power grows from the barrel of a gun
Asia Times - By William Barnes - May 13, 2010
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BANGKOK - The relative success of Thailand's red-garbed anti-government protest group in outmaneuvering the government and military owes much to Maoist revolutionary thought and guerilla tacticsUnited States Government
"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress." -- John Adams
"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." -- Mark Twain
Congress Goes to Bat For Wall Street, Rejects Plan To Break up Banks
AlterNet / By Zach Carter - May 7, 2010
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This item is omplete below.
Late last night, the U.S. Senate rejected the single most important element of Wall Street reform by a vote of 33 to 61. The SAFE Banking Act would have forced the break-up of the nation's six largest banks, and dramatically reduced the political clout of America's financial elite. The 61 votes against the me measure are votes in favor of Wall Street's stranglehold on our economy. No matter what else is ultimately enacted in the name of Wall Street reform, Congress has decided that it will not confront the single greatest problem in the U.S. economy: too big to fail.
On Wednesday, the Senate also voted down a $50 billion Wall Street tax that would have been used to fund the cost of shutting down a major failing bank. By rejecting both the break-up bill and the bank tax, the Senate has punted on ending too-big-to-fail. For now, it appears that Wall Street has emerged from the Great Financial Crash of 2008 with even greater political might than it wielded during the reign of George W. Bush. In the Citizens United era, both Democrats and Republicans have decided they can only get so tough with Corporate America.
Last night, 27 Democrats joined all but three Republicans to vote against breaking up the banks. President Barack Obama opposed both the tax and the break-up measures, and hosted J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for dinner at the White House on Monday. J.P. Morgan is the largest U.S. bank, and spent more money on lobbying in 2009 than any other bank. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, has aggressively courted Dimon for campaign cash.
There is literally no economic evidence that megabanks do anything to help the economy that cannot be accomplished with smaller institutions. By contrast, centuries of research has shown that giant banks are destructive. Adam Smith was warning against the dangers of megabanking back in the 18th century. And the current crisis in Europe-- which appears to be deepening by the day-- should make those dangers apparent to everyone living in today's economy. There are plenty of good economic reasons to cut our financial behemoths down to size, and no good reasons not to.
The good news is, there are still some smaller-bore reforms in the legislation that are worth voting for, and it appears that some version of reform, however tepid, will ultimately be approved. Congress will be deploying a screwdriver to perform a job fit for a bulldozer, but a few weeks ago, it was not obvious that even the screwdriver would make it through.
Shortly before the vote on breaking up the banks, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, cut a deal with Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., that would subject all of the Federal Reserve's bailout operations to a thorough public audit. Despite all of the attention heaped on the Treasury Department and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Fed has operated as the chief bailout engine of the U.S. government, pumping $4.3 trillion into the banking system without almost no public disclosure. We don't know who received money, or on what terms, or who approved the transactions. It now appears very likely that this information will finally see the light of day. Obama, who had opposed a more comprehensive Fed audit, now supports the Sanders plan.
Victory at all costs in Afghanistan
Isn't it time to call what the United States Congress will soon vote on by its right name: war escalation funding?
AsiaTimes - By David Swanson - May 13, 2010
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Early in 2009, President Barack Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan with 21,000 "combat" troops, 13,000 "support" troops, and at least 5,000 mercenaries, without any serious debate in congress or the corporate media.
The president sent the first 17,000 troops prior to developing any plan for Afghanistan, leaving the impression that escalation was, somehow, an end in itself. Certainly it didn't accomplish anything else, a conclusion evident in downbeat reports on the Afghan war situation issued this month by both the Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon.
So it seemed like progress for our representative government when, last autumn, the media began to engage in a debate over whether further escalation in Afghanistan made sense. Granted, this was largely a public debate between the commander-in-chief and his generals (who should probably have been punished with removal from office for insubordinate behavior), but members of congress at least popped up in cameo roles.
In September, for instance, 57 members of congress sent a letter to the president opposing an escalation of the war. In October, congresswoman Barbara Lee (Democrat) introduced a bill to prohibit the funding of any further escalation. In December, various groups of congress members sent letters to the president and to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposing an escalation and asking for a chance to vote on it. Even as congress voted overwhelmingly for a massive war and military budget in December, some representatives did speak out against further escalation and the funding needed for it.
While all sides in this debate agreed that such escalation funding would need to be voted on sometime in the first half of 2010, everyone knew something else as well: that the president would go ahead and escalate in Afghanistan even without funding in place - the money all being borrowed anyway - and that, once many or all of the new troops were there, he would get less resistance from congress which would be voting on something that had already happened.
Editor - Something has seriously gone wrong in the balance of constitutional power in Washington. What exactly has gone wrong in the grasp for power in the White House aided by Obama's coterie of Bush hackmen surrounding him? Pay attention to this evolving power redistribution on Obama'swatch.
Fortress Guam resists US military buildup
Asia Times - By Linda Natividad and Gwyn Kirk - May 14, 2010
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As President Barack Obama prepares for a June visit to the United States territory of Guam, the former backwater is emerging as a key hub for US armed forces in the Pacific. Pressure is building for US troops to relocate there from Okinawa in Japan. But the indigenous Chamorro people are firmly against plans for a massive military and naval build-up that has potentially dire consequences for their island's society and the environment.
EditorIt may serve the empire building purposes of the US but, evidently, not the interests of the islanders who have witnessed the devastations of nations after the introductions of US military force.Activism at the Ground Level
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Music video by Neville Brothers performing Fearless -
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The Toxic Relationship Between Government and Corporate America . . . and Beyond . . .
What Is "White Collar Crime"?
Expert Law - Current
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America's Ten Most Corrupt Capitalists
AlterNet - By Zach Carter - May 13, 2010
- LINK ^
Wall Street's captains of industry and top policymakers in Washington are often the same people. A lot of them get rich by playing for both teams.
May 13, 2010ged their connections in government for their own personal profit. During the Clinton and Bush administrations, many of these schemers were worshiped as geniuses, heroes or icons of American progress. But today we know these opportunists for what they are: Deregulatory hacks hellbent on making a profit at any cost. Without further ado, here are the 10 most corrupt capitalists in the U.S. economy.Economy and Finance
"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." -- Winston Churchill
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -- Ronald Reagan (1986)
Bloomberg Economic News
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Backbone Campaign - Featuring Paul Glover and Susan Witt -March 1, 2010
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Definition of Alternative currency
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US | Meet the Economist Who Says the Government's Economic Numbers Are Lies
Establishment economists think John Williams' numbers are off. But then, most of them also thought the economy was healthy.
Alternet / East Bay Express - By Chris Thompson - May 8, 2010
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The Cover-up: BP's Crude Politics and the Looming Environmental Mega-Disaster
Oilprice.com - Written by Wayne Madsen - May 9, 2010
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Breast cancer gene clue discovery
Five genetic clues to why some women have a family history of breast cancer have been identified by UK researchers.
BBC NEWS - ByHelen Briggs, Health Reportet - May 9, 2010
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Public Disturbance
Teenage bacchanalias organized on Facebook are frightening the French establishment
Newsweek Web Exclusive - By Harry Bradford - May 14, 2010
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