U.S. Faces Resentment in Afghan Region

By CARLOTTA GALL July 3, 2009
www.nytimes.com

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan - The mood of the Afghan people has tipped into a popular revolt in some parts of southern Afghanistan, presenting incoming American forces with an even harder job than expected in reversing military losses to the Taliban and winning over the population.

Villagers in some districts have taken up arms against foreign troops to protect their homes or in anger after losing relatives in airstrikes, several community representatives interviewed said. Others have been moved to join the insurgents out of poverty or simply because the Taliban's influence is so perva...

[Three days ago Israel intercepted Spirit of Humanity, a relief vessel bound for Gaza. Among those on board whom Israel detained were Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and former Congressperson Cynthia McKinney. Below are a news story and telephone interviews with Maguire and McKinney, from their jail cells, with Democracy Now! and WBAI, respectively. -- moderator]

Human Rights Activists 'Arrested' Off Gaza Coast

British and Irish people are among a group of 21 human rights activists arrested by the Israeli authorities, campaigners claimed.

Published: 10:44PM BST 30 Jun 2009
www.telegr...

Rush Limbaugh Is Still a Big Fat Idiot

And so are his Fox News pals, who lambasted Sen. Al Franken's "stolen election"

By Joe Conason
www.salon.com

July 3, 2009 | It wasn't surprising when, after seven months of legal wrangling, the Minnesota Supreme Court declared that Al Franken had won the 2008 Senate race against incumbent Norm Coleman. Still less surprising (although vastly more entertaining) was the simultaneous breakdown of nearly all of Franken's adversaries on the right, whose regurgitated insults, whining complaints and exploding noggins revealed nothing about him or his victory -- and everything about them.

Upon learning that Franken had ...

1 That '30s Show (Paul Krugman) 2 Nine Years of Job Growth Wiped Out (Economic Policy Institute)

That '30s Show

By PAUL KRUGMAN July 2, 2009
www.nytimes.com

O.K., Thursday's jobs report settles it. We're going to need a bigger stimulus. But does the president know that?

Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6½ million jobs - and as that grim employment report confirmed, it's continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we're about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole.

And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ours...

This week Friday Nite Videos features a quartet of videos that address health care from four corners of the compass. SEIU's HAARM (Health Americans Against Reforming Medicine) lampoons the Big Medicine lobby and its fear campaign. Jimmy Fallon and The Roots slow jam health care in the news. Those People Documentary features the struggle of the mentally ill for care. And finally, FAIR's media alert shows how the best solution is being systematically excluded from the national health care reform discussion and gives you a way to add your voice for a real discussion.

Plus videos on Mark Sanford, hunger as way to motivate children and solidarity with the people of Iran. Enjoy your Independence Day weekend! -- moderator

1 HAARM.org - Message Strategy Session (SEIU) 2 Jimmy Fall...

High Court Ignores the Greater Good

By Jesse Jackson
www.suntimes.com
June 30, 2009

New Haven, Conn., is a city in which African Americans and Hispanics account for nearly 60 percent of the population; yet, by order of the U.S. Supreme Court, the city must be served --"as it was in the days of undisguised discrimination -- by a fire department in which members of racial and ethnic minorities are rarely seen in command positions." Today's ruling is deeply flawed and should not be the law of the land. In assessing claims of race discrimination, "context matters." Grutter vs. Bollinger, 539 U. S. 306, 327 (2003). In June 2003, the Supreme Court ruled against affirmat...

Dispatches From The Edge

Of North Korea; Lebanon's Vote; Irish Shame

By Conn Hallinan

Most Americans think of North Korea as a nation of belligerent crazy people with a political succession system more akin to the 15th century than the 21st. Indeed, it is a repressive place, with a bizarre personality cult, but the U.S., Japan, and South Korea share much of the blame for the current crisis over nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

A little history.

In June of last year, North Korea dutifully carried out "Phase Two" of the 2007 Six-Party talks by giving China the details of its plutonium program. In a separate agreement with the U.S., Pyongyang agreed to disclose its uranium enrichment program and any technology proliferation to other countries. In ...

Undo the Coup

Four Reponses to the Military Coup in Honduras

1) Froim Danny Glover: Support Restoration Of Honduran President Zelaya

2) Amy Goodman: Undo the Coup

3) Committees of Correspondence: End US Military Aid & Close SOA

4) Roberto Lovato : Obama Must Strongly and Unequivocally Condemn the Coup

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Urgent Request To Support Restoration Of Honduran President Zelaya

By Danny Glover, International Human Rights Activist/Actor, Chairman of TransAfrica Forum, BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator BlackCommentator July 2, 20009

www.blackcommentator.com

Please join me in solidari...

Israel Attacks Justice Boat; Kidnaps Human Rights Workers; Confiscates Medicine, Toys and Olive Trees

June 30, 2009

www.FreeGaza.org

[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30 local time]

Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.

'This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza ...

Chamber of Commerce Launches $100 Million Campaign to Protect Wall Street's Power at Our Expense

By Zach Carter AlterNet July 2, 2009.

www.alternet.org

Perhaps the greatest public deception surrounding today's financial meltdown is the notion that it is unique -- a once-in-a-lifetime crisis that reflects bad luck rather than any fundamental problem with the U.S. banking system's sway in global politics.

The truth is that throughout the 1980s, the major money center banks were in much the same situation they find themselves in today.

But the U.S. Chamber of ...