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Leading progressives hit Obama hard

From an open letter that others can sign. . .

With the Obama administration beginning its third year, it is by now painfully obvious that the predictions of even the most sober Obama supporters were overly optimistic. Rather than an ally, the administration has shown itself to be an implacable enemy of reform.

It has advanced repeated assaults on the New Deal safety net (including the previously sacrosanct Social Security trust fund), jettisoned any hope for substantive health care reform, attacked civil rights and environmental protections, and expanded a massive bailout further enriching an already bloated financial services and insurance industry. It has continued the occupation of Iraq and expanded the war in Afghanistan as well as our government’s covert and overt wars in South Asia and around the globe.

Along the way, the Obama administration, which referred to its left detractors as “f***ing retarded” individuals that required “drug testing,” stepped up the prosecution of federal war crime whistleblowers, and unleashed the FBI on those protesting the escalation of an insane war.

Obama’s recent announcement of a federal worker pay freeze is cynical, mean-spirited “deficit-reduction theater”. Slashing Bush’s plutocratic tax cuts would have made a much more significant contribution to deficit reduction but all signs are that the “progressive” president will cave to Republican demands for the preservation of George W. Bush’s tax breaks for the wealthy Few. Instead Obama’s tax cut plan would raise taxes for the poorest people in our country.

The election of Obama has not galvanized protest movements. To the contrary, it has depressed and undermined them, with the White House playing an active role in the discouragement and suppression of dissent – with disastrous consequences. The almost complete absence of protest from the left has emboldened the most right-wing elements inside and outside of the Obama administration to pursue and act on an ever more extreme agenda.

Sen. James Abourezk. . . Michael Albert. . . Rocky Anderson. . . Jared Ball. . . Russel Banks. . . Thomas Bias. . . Cheryl Biren. . . Noam Chomsky. . . Bruce Dixon. . . Frank Dorrel. . . Gidon Eshel . . . Jamilla El-Shafei. . . Okla Elliott. . . Norman Finkelstein. . . Glen Ford. . . Joshua Frank. . . Margaret Flowers M.D.. . . John Gerassi. . . Henry Giroux. . . Matt Gonzalez. . . Kevin Alexander Gray. . . Judd Greenstein. . DeeDee Halleck. . . John Halle. . . Chris Hedges. . . Doug Henwood. . Edward S. Herman. . . Dahr Jamail. . . Rob Kall. . . Louis Kampf. . . Allison Kilkenny. . . Jamie Kilstein. . . Joel Kovel. . . Mark Kurlansky. . Peter Linebaugh. . . Scott McLarty. . . Cynthia McKinney. . . Dede Miller. . . Russell Mokhiber. . . Bobby Muller. . . Christian Parenti. . Michael Perelman. . . Peter Phillips. . . Louis Proyect. . . Ted Rall. . Michael Ratner. . . Cindy Sheehan. . . Chris Spannos. . . Paul Street. . . Sunil Sharma. . . Jeffrey St. Clair. . . Len Weinglass. . . Cornel West. . . Sherry Wolf. . . Michael Yates. . . Mickey Z. . . Kevin Zeese

The non-profit blues: Can the revolution be funded?

Eric Tang, Post Capitalist Project - Non-profits, also known as non-governmental organizations, are often stripped down to their barest and most essential nature as an IRS tax category: the 501(c)3. This official registration with the government grants the accreditation needed to receive government funding and funds through private philanthropic foundations. In exchange, the grassroots non-profit must adopt legally binding by-laws, elect a board of directors modeled after corporations, and open board minutes and fiscal accounting to the public. Previously considered anathema to the grassroots Left, these practices are accepted governing principles of many community organizations. . .

Years ago the Left made a decision to go down a certain road towards non-profit incorporation. There were some victories but also a good number of political casualties, according to those who took part in that turn. Yet open dialogue on the complex challenges posed by the non-profit has often taken a back seat to the immediate need of getting important work done. Resultantly, a new generation of leaders inherit the unresolved dilemmas.

New activists in community, labor, and justice struggles are soon made aware that they bear heavy burdens. They must carry forth movements that ended Jim Crow, created environmental justice, and inspired mass anti-war protests. The young organizer can take a course that covers Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and the United Farm Workers and learn that all union members, even the lowest paid, contributed regular membership dues. Chavez insisted, “this is the only way the workers will ‘own’ the organization.” Young activists will inevitably take a hard look at grassroots organizing that lives on foundation grants, hires a development director to raise funds to free others to do the real work, and adopts management systems which are foreign, if not alienating, to the values and skills-set of the grassroots base. Contradictions will be analyzed:

Why do we apply for a police permit to protest the police? …Because if we break the law, our board is liable.

Why can’t we lobby? …Because that would violate our 501(c)3 status and the conditions of our grant.

Why not just take the streets? …Because insurance doesn’t cover it. . .

Indeed, the majority of organizational leaders I’ve sat down with over the past year and a half¬whose work ranges from defeating the onset of neoliberal policies in public schools, to the ongoing struggle against police violence, to defending the rights of immigrant communities¬have experienced, to varying degrees, an onset of the NP blues. They are concerned about the ways in which the priorities of philanthropy tamper with the organizing work, or how NP governance makes impossible the principle of unity which calls for youth and working class people at the center. Worse still is how hiring and promotion policies have led to competition and individualism among the ranks. .

Another reason for Bloomberg not to run in 2012

A prominent charter school made the list of underperforming schools that the Department of Education plans to close, and the school said it intends to fight for its survival. The Ross Global Academy Charter School on the Lower East Side was founded in 2006 by Courtney Sale Ross, the widow of Steven J. Ross, former chief executive of Time Warner. The school's test scores for 2009 show it's one of the city's three worst-performing charter schools. Only about 30% of its students were proficient in math or English. It has had four principals in five years, and 77% of its teachers and 25% of its students left last year. - Wall Street Journal. . . . New York Magazine called the school "Chancellor Joel Klein's most

Great moments in diplomacy

Independent, UK - Meera Shankar, the Indian ambassador (pictured here with President Obama), made the mistake of visiting the Deep South last week, to address students of the University of Mississippi's International Studies programme. On her way home, she wore a Sari. Big mistake. To the cosmopolitan folk manning the security queue at Jackson airport the traditional Indian outfit apparently looked like Muslim garb. So she was identified as a potential terrorist and singled out for what is known in the trade as "additional screening." Result: one highly-offended ambassador, who - while officially declining to comment on the affair - has vowed to never again venture back to the KKK's favourite State. Being groped, in plain view of fellow travellers, was "humiliating," it seems. She said, "I will never come back here."

Reuters - Asked about the incident involving Shankar, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she had looked into the matter and concluded that "it was by the book.". . . "It was a pat-down that followed our procedures, and I think it was appropriate under the circumstances," Napolitano told reporters.

What culture to anthropologists belong to?

NY Times - Anthropologists have been thrown into turmoil about the nature and future of their profession after a decision by the American Anthropological Association at its recent annual meeting to strip the word “science” from a statement of its long-range plan. The decision has reopened a long-simmering tension between researchers in science-based anthropological disciplines ¬ including archaeologists, physical anthropologists and some cultural anthropologists ¬ and members of the profession who study race, ethnicity and gender and see themselves as advocates for native peoples or human rights.

During the last 10 years the two factions have been through a phase of bitter tribal warfare after the more politically active group attacked work on the Yanomamo people of Venezuela and Brazil by Napoleon Chagnon, a science-oriented anthropologist, and James Neel, a medical geneticist who died in 2000. With the wounds of this conflict still fresh, many science-based anthropologists were dismayed to learn last month that the long-

Films: The Wars You Don't See

John Pilger, Observer, UK - The public needs to know the truth about wars. So why have journalists colluded with governments to hoodwink us?

In the US Army manual on counterinsurgency, the American commander General David Petraeus describes Afghanistan as a "war of perception . . conducted continuously using the news media". What really matters is not so much the day-to-day battles against the Taliban as the way the adventure is sold in America where "the media directly influence the attitude of key audiences. . .

Never has so much official energy been expended in ensuring journalists collude with the makers of rapacious wars which, say the media-friendly generals, are now "perpetual". In echoing the west's more verbose warlords, such as the waterboarding former US vice-president Dick Cheney, who predicated "50 years of war", they plan a state of permanent conflict wholly dependent on keeping at bay an enemy whose name they dare not speak: the public.

Of course, only the jargon is new. In the opening sequence of my film, The War You Don't See, there is reference to a pre-WikiLeaks private conversation in December 1917 between David Lloyd George, Britain's prime minister during much of the first world war, and CP Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian. "If people really knew the truth," the prime minister said, "the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don't know, and can't know."
. .

College degrees outpace jobs for them

Richard Vedder, Chronicle of Higher Education - Approximately 60 percent of the increase in the number of college graduates from 1992 to 2008 worked in jobs that the BLS considers relatively low skilled¬occupations where many participants have only high school diplomas and often even less. Only a minority of the increment in our nation’s stock of college graduates is filling jobs historically considered as requiring a bachelor’s degree or more.

Haliburton planning plea bargain for Cheney

Global Post - Halliburton is planning to make a plea bargain in former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's corruption case, Nigerian officials told GlobalPost. Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charged Cheney as the head of Halliburton when its engineering subsidiary, KBR, allegedly paid bribes totaling $180 million to secure contracts worth $6 billion.

Great moments in higher education

Kaplan is owned by the Washington Post which has spent the past few years lecturing DC on how to run its school system

Chicago Sun Times - It was 2007 when Kaplan University students received a disturbing message in their e-mail inboxes.“YOU ARE F-----!” was the subject heading. And it was signed by the head of the online school.“Your schools (sic) Web site has been Hacked!” the e-mail threatened. “All of your personal information . . . will now be used to ruin your credit, take out credit cards in your name and pay for on-line gambling.” The e-mail emerged in a dramatic trial that unfolded over the last two weeks in the Dirksen federal courthouse.Prosecutors allege it was sent by former Kaplan Dean of Legal Studies Bennie Wilcox, who is accused of boiling over and hacking into the school’s e-mail system after he was let go from his $111,000-a-year job. . .

Bloomberg - Last week, a former dean of the unit alleged the company engaged in fraud to get U.S. student aid as he defended himself against criminal cyber-harassment charges in a federal jury trial under way in Chicago. In testimony in U.S. District Court, Bennie Wilcox, a former dean of law and legal studies at Kaplan University, said he witnessed Kaplan executives commit “multiple schemes” to defraud the U.S. government and taxpayers out of $1 billion. Kaplan denies the allegations. Wilcox claims the company retaliated against him when he exposed fraud in a pending whistleblower lawsuit in Florida filed in 2007.

American homes lost $9 trillion in value in four years

CNN - American homes are expected to be worth $1.7 trillion less in 2010 than they were worth last year, according to a report released by real estate website Zillow. This year's drop in home values is 63% bigger than the $1 trillion dip in 2009, and brings the total value lost since the housing market's peak in 2006 to a whopping $9 trillion.

Police blotter

Portland Press Herald, ME - The owner of a strip club in Westbrook that is closed because of code violations apparently has workers putting in late hours to make repairs. At 1 a.m. Sunday, police were checking commercial buildings along Warren Avenue when they "came upon activity that appeared to indicate that Dreamers Cabaret was open for business," the city said in a news release. . . Inside, a few women were serving coffee while the music system blared, a disco ball spun overhead and lights flashed, Westbrook police say. . . Officers couldn't identify any licensed plumbers in the group or see any evidence of emergency repairs or construction, the city said. "They certainly weren't dressed like plumbers," said Police Chief William Baker

Even best case misses climate stability

DW, Germany - Even assuming all countries makes goods on pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions, there's still a gap between what scientists say is needed to prevent catastrophic effects of climate change and what's been promised.` For all the haggling in Cancun over finance, forestry, technology transfers and open accounting, very little has been said about climate targets. The world's pledges to tackle climate change, all contained in last year's Copenhagen Accord, list voluntary cuts as well as a goal to limit global warming to below two degrees Celsius. But there's a gap - called the gigaton gap - between what governments have pledged and what climate researchers have said is needed.

Letting people go homeless in the cause of good statistical data

Gawker - In the name of getting good statistical data, New York City is randomly denying poor people access to a program designed to stave off homelessness. . . The program in question is called Homebase. . . To find out whether or not Homebase really works, the city is conducting a study. As the NYT puts it, "Half of the test subjects - people who are behind on rent and in danger of being evicted - are being denied assistance from the program for two years, with researchers tracking them to see if they end up homeless."

Notes of a real teacher

Matt Amaral, Teach4real - Last year, an essay question on the STAR test asked something like this, “What is the biggest thing you would change if you were given the key to your city?” The problem a lot of students had with this question, aside from being really bad at writing, was they didn’t have any idea what having a key to a city meant? They didn’t have the cultural capital, language proficiency, or life experience to know what that expression meant. So this prompt immediately relegated a large group of students to failure because they didn’t understand what the question was asking of them. . .

Last month, at my school, we gave the same assessments in every high school. So every 9th grader in my English classes took the same assessment for House on Mango Street as every other 9th grader in the other two high schools in my city. Now I’m not even going to go into the fact that some teachers didn’t even teach that book, or that some classes don’t even have teachers yet (yes, still going on today on December 8th at my school). I’m just going to talk about the fact that after we assessed them, and uploaded their scores into the District database, a group of English teachers in my department got together to assess how they did on certain questions. What we found was a bit depressing. In our opinion, 8 of the questions were wrong. Either they were worded wrong, there was more than one answer, the answer given was wrong, there was a better answer- you get the picture. Now, on a test with less than 30 questions, how can we possibly assess anything if 8 of them are wrong?. .

I am all for increased teacher evaluation and accountability. But it is things like this that hurt our fight to show evaluations can work. How can you evaluate a teacher on a 28-question test when 8 of them are wrong? Instead of the class average being a 70%, it is now a 60%. . .

So our next big assessment is coming up. I just took the proposed exam and scored around a 78%, or a C+. I have a Master’s Degree. But that’s okay, because all the tests the students have been taking every year are this messed up, so hopefully it won’t reflect on what I’m teaching them.

Although I wish it would.

Morning line

When the liberals in the House can appear less concerned over real people's needs than their once beloved Barack Obama, you know there's a problem. Liberal empathy with the economic problems of Americans has been in decline for many years, but their handling of the tax issue sets something of a record. Basically, to prove a point - albeit a good one - they are willing to let unemployment benefits die for two million Americans and end the middle class tax cuts. Yes, the price Obama is willing to pay for these is almost obscenely high but this is a reason for opposing him in 2012, not for hurting millions in 2010. That's a law school mindset- where the argument is more important than the results - and it's one reason liberals are in such political trouble. - Sam Smith

Wikileaks update

• FAQ about Wikileaks
• Brazilian president Lula: "Instead of blaming someone who has disclosed these documents , those who wrote them should be blamed"

• Paypal surrenders money already given to Wikileaks
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• Wikileaks now ranked 4th on Facebook
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• Alternatives to PayPal
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• Assange follows Rupert Murdoch's advice
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• Search Wikileaks cables
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• Wikileaks back up in Switzerland Netherlands Finland Denmark US & Britain
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• Other links
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Feds tracking Americans' credit care use in real time without warrant

Wired - Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows. The document, obtained by security researcher Christopher Soghoian, explains how so-called “Hotwatch” orders allow for real-time tracking of individuals in a criminal investigation via credit card companies, rental car agencies, calling cards, and even grocery store loyalty programs.

Great moments at Fox News

A dead man can't leak stuff. This guy's a traitor, he's treasonous, and he has broken every law of the United States. And I'm not for the death penalty, so. . .there's only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch. - Bob Beckel, Fox News

At the height of the health care reform debate last fall, Bill Sammon, Fox News' controversial Washington managing editor, sent a memo directing his network's journalists not to use the phrase "public option." Instead, Sammon wrote, Fox's reporters should use "government option" and similar phrases -- wording that a top Republican pollster had recommended in order to turn public opinion against the Democrats' reform efforts.

Nearly half of seniors will experience at least one year in or near poverty

AFL_CIO Blog - According to a new study, 47 percent of all Americans between the ages of 60 and 90 will experience at least one year of poverty or near poverty and seniors of color are twice as likely to be affected.`The study by Mark Rank, a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis, shows that 58 percent of seniors between 60 and 84 will, at some point, not have enough liquid assets to allow them to weather an unanticipated expense or downturn in income.

Rank found that although 33 percent of white older Americans will experience at least one year below the official poverty line, the percentage for black older Americans was nearly double at 65 percent. For unmarried seniors, the percentage experiencing poverty was 51 percent compared with 25 percent for married older Americans. Likewise, for those with fewer than 12 years of education, the percentage experiencing poverty was 48 percent compared with 21 percent for those with 12 or more years of education.

Desperate Housewives doing better job of underminin jihad than U.S. is

Telegraph, UK - In a message sent back to Washington DC, officials at the US Embassy in Jeddah said the shows, starring Jennifer Aniston and Eva Longoria, were successfully undermining the spread of jihadist ideas among the country's youth. Such programmes, broadcast with Arabic subtitles on several Saudi satellite channels, were part of a push by the kingdom to foster openness and counter extremists, according to the cable. The officials said the policy was succeeding in a way that Al-Hurra, a television news station funded by the US, never could.

Wikileaks: How Shell & U.S. joined to spy on Nigeria

Guardian, UK - The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians' every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable. The company's top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew "everything that was being done in those ministries". She boasted that the Nigerian government had "forgotten" about the extent of Shell's infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations. The cache of secret dispatches from Washington's embassies in Africa also revealed that the Anglo-Dutch oil firm swapped intelligence with the US, in one case providing US diplomats with the names of Nigerian politicians it suspected of supporting militant activity, and requesting information from the US on whether the militants had acquired anti-aircraft missiles.

Cable: U.S. & China joined to undermine Copenhagen conference

Spiegel, Germany - Last year's climate summit in Copenhagen was a political disaster. Leaked US diplomatic cables now show why the summit failed so spectacularly. The dispatches reveal that the US and China, the world's top two polluters, joined forces to stymie every attempt by European nations to reach agreement.

In May 2009 the Chinese leaders received a very welcome guest. John Kerry, the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, met with Deputy Prime Minister Li Keqiang in Beijing. Kerry told his hosts that Washington could understand "China's resistance to accepting mandatory targets at the United Nations Climate Conference, which will take place in Copenhagen." According to a cable from the US embassy in the Chinese capital, Kerry outlined "a new basis for 'major cooperation' between the United States and China on climate change." ..

Medical marijauna already undercutting illegal drug trade

CNBC - Recreational users of marijuana are seeing price cuts on the street thanks to the growing number of states that have approved the drug for medicinal use.` The price of cannabis, of course, varies wildly¬depending on the strain purchased, its potency and the parts of the plant. Top quality pot in New York, for example, costs nearly $442 per ounce, while low quality is just $161, according to one website that tracks costs, PriceofWeed.com.

On the whole, though, prices have been dropping nationwide over the past three to four years.
“High Times” magazine, in its October issue, declared “It’s a buyer’s market!”, noting that the average price per ounce nationwide had fallen $49 in the past month alone.

Universities warning students not to engage in free speech

CNN - Several U.S. universities sent e-mails to students with warnings about reading leaked documents. They say students ought to be mindful of their future careers when commenting on or distributing the documents online -- especially those planning to seek jobs in national security or the intelligence community, which require a security clearance.

E-mails went out last week to students at several schools, including Boston University's School of Law, Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, cautioning students against commenting on or posting links to the documents on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Each message came from the schools' offices of career services, claiming to be sent at the recommendation of an alumnus.

Chicago police used Taser torture 700 times in past year

Chicago Breaking News - A new report shows that Chicago police used Tasers to subdue nearly 700 offenders over 12 recent months, a dramatic increase that reflects the department's decision earlier this year to expand its use of the weapons.

Obama's hidden threat to Social Security

Michael Hudson, Counterpunch - The tax giveaway includes a $120 billion reduction in Social Security contributions by labor – reducing the FICA wage withholding from 6.2 per cent to 4.2 per cent. Obama has ingeniously designed the plan to dovetail neatly into his Bowles-Simpson commission pressing to reduce Social Security as a step toward its ultimate privatization and subsequent wipeout grab by Wall Street. This cutback will accelerate the point at which the program moves into supposed “negative equity” – a calculation that ignores the option of restoring pension funding to the government’s general budget, where it would be paid out of progressively levied income tax and hence borne mainly by the wealthy, not by lower-income wage earners as a “user fee.”

Random meetings with Elizabeth Edwards

Craig Crawford, Huffington Post - I had no idea who she was in 2003 when I met Elizabeth Edwards. Covering a debate for the Democratic nomination I was chatting about the candidates with a media colleague in the so-called spin room when a smiling woman approached us, saying, "So this is how you guys decide these things, you just talk to each other and make it up."

Despite the tough words, her demeanor was more like she was teasing. I remember saying, "Yep, that is what we do. Isn't it awful?" She said, "Oh that's fine. What else could you do?"

A few weeks later this episode repeated itself. The same woman approached me and a media friend after a debate and said, "Here you are again, doing your group think." Again I pled guilty, but this time wondered who is this woman? Moments later, I saw her walking out of the building with John Edwards. Only then did I realize who she was.

After the next debate I saw her across the room, approached Elizabeth Edwards and said, "So now I get it, you're a trouble maker." She laughed and said, "So are you."

From then on we teased each other on many occasions, especially when I wrote more than a few unflattering articles about her husband. Whenever she griped to me about that, I offered the same response: "You should be the one running." And there was something about her demure smile that made me think she thought so too.

College students set up mock Palestinia checkpoint

Socialist Worker - A group of about 30 students marched in silence through Columbia University's main campus to Low Plaza, its center point, at Noon on November 18. There, the students, many wearing keffiyehs, lined up, before being gagged, blindfolded and forced to the ground by fellow students dressed in military uniforms and armed with cardboard guns, representing Israeli soldiers.

The mock checkpoint, organized by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, lasted two hours, gathering dissident voices to protest Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine by drawing attention to the countless humiliations, injustices and human rights violations that Palestinians encounter daily at Israeli military checkpoints.

The mock checkpoint was a symbolic staging of a brutal reality. SJP members came armed with hard facts--57 percent of Palestinian students cross one or more checkpoints during their daily commute to and from school, and 64 percent of these students report being physically abused by an Israeli soldier. Aside from the physical abuse, there is verbal harassment, violence and long delays, severely compromising their educational performance.

Cost of Ebooks and real books

Life Hacker - E-books are great for new releases. For new books, the electronic version is almost always the cheapest way to go. In fact, most e-books cost between $10 and $12. When the cost savings is combined with the space savings, e-books are the clear winner for new releases.

E-books are okay for classics. Anything that's in the Public Domain (published before 1923) can generally be downloaded to your e-book reader for free. Sometimes the formatting is goofy, and there usually isn't any supplemental material (like essays and notes), but you do get the books at no cost.

E-books suck for most titles published between 1923 and, say, 2008. Books from the past century are still priced between $5 and $10 in electronic editions. This is ridiculous. You can borrow these for free from your public library. Or you can go to a used bookstore, a garage sale, or a thrift store to pick them up for less than they cost in digital format.

Why won't the environmental movment deal with population?

NUMBER OF TONS OF CO2 SAVED FOR EACH MILLION INVESTED IN ABOVE PROJECTS

What the cables tell us about Iran and the Mid East

Juan Cole, Truith Dig - Iran is winning and Israel is losing. That is the startling conclusion we reach if we consider how things have changed in the Middle East in the two years since most of the WikiLeaks State Department cables about Iran’s regional difficulties were written. Lebanon’s Sunni prime minister, once a virulent critic, quietly made his pilgrimage to the Iranian capital last week. Israeli hopes of separating Syria from Iran have been dashed. Turkey, once a strong ally of Israel, is now seeking better relations with Iran and with Lebanon’s Shiites...

From 2005 through 2006, Iran appeared to be on the retreat in the eastern Mediterranean. Pro-Western Sunnis and Christians took over in Beirut. Syria was expelled from Lebanon and there was talk of detaching it from Iran. The powerful generals of Turkey, a NATO member and ally of Israel, were reliably anti-Iranian. Now, Hariri is a supplicant in Tehran, Syria is again influential in Beirut, and a Turkey newly comfortable with Islam has emerged as a regional power and a force for economic and diplomatic integration of Iran and Syria into the Middle East. Iran’s political breakthroughs in the region have dealt a perhaps irreparable blow to the hopes of the United States and Israel for a new anti-Iranian axis in the region that would align Iran’s Arab and other neighbors with Tel Aviv.

Lieberman wants NY Times investigated for possible espionage

CBS News - Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., wants the Justice Department to investigate whether the New York Times violated the Espionage Act after its decision to publish leaked U.S. Diplomatic cables. . .

"I certainly believe WikiLeaks has violated The Espionage Act. The New York Times has committed at least an act of bad citizenship," Lieberman said in a Fox News interview. "Whether they've committed a crime, I think that bears very intensive inquiry by the Justice Department. Why do you prosecute crimes? Because if you don't, others are going to do it soon and again. And I'm afraid that's what's going to happen here."

ENDS

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