Puppet MastersS


Star of David

You know it's an election year when... Barack Obama honors Israeli president with Medal of Freedom


Press TV
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 06:16 UTC
Image
US President Barack Obama awards Israeli President Shimon Peres the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a dinner ceremony in Washington, June 13, 2012.
US President Barack Obama has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Israeli President Shimon Peres, the man who has overseen the killing of Palestinian women and children by Israeli forces in the occupied territories for decades.

Obama awarded the 88-year-old Israeli president the highest civilian honor in the United States during a dinner ceremony in the White House on Wednesday.

"No individual has done so much over so many years to build our alliance... as the leader we honor tonight -- our friend, Shimon Peres," Obama said during the event, which also hosted former US President Bill Clinton.

Obama also stated that the "bonds" between the United States and Israel are "unbreakable" and "non-negotiable."

The Israeli president has been honored by Obama a few months ahead of the US presidential election of November 2012.
Read More...
Chess

Plain talk: "Arab Spring benefited only Israel"

Author
Voltaire Network
Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:22 UTC
In an exclusive interview with RT, Lebanese Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that the Arab Spring has borne no fruit for any of the affected countries, so the ongoing process should rather be called the 'Israeli Spring', since no country now poses a threat to Israel. Furthermore, external forces seek to divide and weaken all the countries surrounding Israel in order to ensure her security.

Read More...
Dollar

Food Stamp Subsidies for Junk Food Makers, Big Box Retailers, and Banks?

Michele Simon
appetiteforprofit.com
Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:56 UTC
Image
© treehugger.com
As 2012 Farm Bill debate rages in Congress, a new report demands SNAP program transparency

Are food stamps lining the pockets of the nation's wealthiest corporations instead of closing the hunger gap in the United States? Why does Walmart benefit from more than $200 million in annual food stamp purchases in Oklahoma alone? Why does one bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, hold exclusive contracts in 24 states to administer public benefits?

These are a few of the questions explored in a new report called: "Food Stamps, Follow the Money: Are Corporations Profiting from Hungry Americans?" from Michele Simon, president of Eat Drink Politics, a watchdog consulting group. This first-of-its kind investigation details how the food stamp program - originally designed to help farmers and those in need - lines the pockets of junk food makers, food retailers, and banks.

Right now, Congress is debating the farm bill, including significant cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). Much attention has focused on how agricultural subsidies fuel our cheap, unhealthy food supply. In reality, the largest and most overlooked taxpayer subsidy to the food industry is SNAP, which comprised two-thirds of the farm bill budget in 2008.
Read More...
Vader

NATO preparing vast disinformation campaign against Syria

Thierry Meyssan
Voltaire Network
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:54 UTC
Image
Member States of NATO and the GCC are preparing a coup d'état and a sectarian genocide in Syria. If you want to prevent these crimes, you should act now: circulate this article on the Internet and alert your elected officials.

In a few days, perhaps as early as Friday, June 15, at noon, the Syrians wanting to watch their national TV stations will see them replaced on their screens by TV programs created by the CIA. Studio-shot images will show massacres that are blamed on the Syrian Government, people demonstrating, ministers and generals resigning from their posts, President Al-Assad fleeing, the rebels gathering in the big city centers, and a new government installing itself in the presidential palace.

This operation of disinformation, directly managed from Washington by Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, aims at demoralizing the Syrians in order to pave the way for a coup d'etat. NATO, discontent about the double veto of Russia and China, will thus succeed in conquering Syria without attacking the country illegally. Whichever judgment you might have formed on the actual events in Syria, a coup d'etat will end all hopes of democratization.

Comment: There's the fantasy based on lies they create for you... and there's the reality:



Read More...
Dollar

Corporate boards that love ex-politicians

Douglas A. McIntyre & Brian Zajac
24/7 Wall St.
Wed, 13 Jun 2012 11:20 UTC
Image
© Guille3691
The appointment of former politicians to large public companies' boards of directors is regularly called into question.

Just recently, following the scandal at Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) when CEO Aubrey McClendon made investments in drilling projects in which the company was involved, the issue was in the limelight again. Chesapeake, based in Oklahoma, has two powerful politicians on its board - former member of the Senate from Oklahoma, Don Nickles, and former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating. The company's board members used the firm's private planes for travel - a perk most governance experts frown upon. Perhaps the more salient question is why the two have stayed on the board under the current circumstances. It is equally reasonable to ask why politicians, with their backgrounds unrelated to running big companies, were even appointed to the board.

Many other politicians sit on the boards of America's largest public companies, and some aspects of their services raise troubling questions. Some are successful lobbyists because of their Washington connections. These firms could work for causes or companies that do not have identical interests to those of the corporations of the boards on which they sit. There are questions about the past ethical behavior of others among these board members. In most cases, the former politicians have no obvious backgrounds that qualify them to be on public companies' boards. A final problem is that some have done very well financially because they sit on several boards - another practice many corporate governance experts oppose.

Comment: While slightly off subject, in the following video there's a list of those coming from corporations and integrating into government to serve companies.


Read More...
Star of David

Israel Considering Military Attack on Syria


Press TV
Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:27 UTC
Image
© Press TVArmed rebels in Syria
Israel is apparently laying the groundwork for a possible military attack on Syria by alleging that Damascus could be using chemical weapons against the Syrian people.

Tel Aviv has recently expressed concern about what it calls the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Israel says the weapons could fall into the wrong hands and that they may even be used by Syria to carry out an attack against Israeli forces.

The pretext is being used to justify a possible military assault on Syria even if it means triggering a broader conflict across the region.

Ayoob Kara, a senior member of the Israeli Likud Party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed in an interview with Israel Radio on June 9 that the Syrian government has used "chemical weapons against men, women, and children" during the past months of unrest in the country.
Read More...
Light Saber

Russia defends weapons sales to Syria, says U.S. arming rebels

Isabel Coles & Jon Hemming
Reuters
Wed, 13 Jun 2012 08:54 UTC
Image
Vlad sez: the buck stops here
Russia's foreign minister on Wednesday defended his country's sale of arms to Syria and accused the United States of supplying rebels with weapons to fight against the government.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday Washington was worried Russia may be sending attack helicopters to Syria and described as "patently untrue" Moscow's argument that its arms transfers to Syria are unrelated to the conflict there.

"We are not violating any international law in performing these contracts," said Sergei Lavrov, in response to a question about Clinton's comments at a news conference during a visit to Iran.

"They are providing arms and weapons to the Syrian opposition that can be used in fighting against the Damascus government," he said on Iranian state television, speaking through an interpreter.

Russia is one of Syria's principal defenders on the diplomatic front and, as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council with the power to veto resolutions, has stymied efforts by Western powers to pressure President Bashar al-Assad into stepping down.
Read More...
Stormtrooper

Greece: Fascists step up assaults on political opponents and migrants

Jordan Shilton
World Socialist Website
Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:29 UTC
Image
The assault launched by the spokesman of Greece's neo-fascist Golden Dawn against two political rivals on live television must be taken as a warning to working people. Especially in a country with a history of military dictatorship, the emergence of such far-right violence points to the threat of a turn to openly authoritarian forms of rule.

The attack took place in the context of the build-up to elections on June 17, which are dominated by the threat of a Greek exit from the euro. Whatever the result, the election will be followed by a vast intensification of the austerity measures against the Greek population.

Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris attacked Liana Kanelli of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and Rena Dourou of the pseudo-left coalition SYRIZA during a political debate on morning television last Thursday. Kasidiaris threw a glass of water at Dourou, after Dourou pointed out his well-documented links to acts of violence, and then hit Kanelli in the face on several occasions after she protested Kasidiaris's attack on Dourou.
Read More...
Newspaper

Houla massacre carried out by Syrian 'rebels', says Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Chris Marsden
World Socialist Website
Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:06 UTC
Image
Disgusting: it turns out that these children were executed from point-blank range and cut up with machetes by the Syrian 'rebels' directed by Washington, DC.
The May 25 Houla massacre was perpetrated by opposition forces aligned with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), according to Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The report refutes the official account by the United States and other major powers and presented uncritically by the media. The massacre was attributed to pro-government forces and used to step up the propaganda offensive for military intervention against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Without providing any serious evidence, the US and its allies claimed that either the Syrian Army or pro-government Shabiha militas carried out the mass killing of over 100 people.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on June 7 published a report from Damascus by Rainer Hermann, who based his article on investigations by oppositionists who visited the area and took eye-witness testimony. They largely confirm the account of the events in Houla given by the Assad government.

Comment: NATO's 'Civil War' Machine Rolls Into Syria

Read More...
Light Sabers

Russia prepares army for Syrian deployment

Clara Weiss
World Socialist Website
Tue, 12 Jun 2012 03:01 UTC
Image
Mi-35 Russian choppers, seen here in Afghanistan
Given the worsening crisis in Syria, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper reported that the Russian army is apparently being prepared for a mission in Syria. Citing anonymous sources in the military leadership, the newspaper said that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the general staff to work out a plan for military operations outside Russia, including in Syria.

The units being prepared for an intervention are the 76th Division of airborne forces (an especially experienced unit of the Russian army), the 15th Army Division, as well as special forces from a brigade of the Black Sea fleet, which has a base in the Syrian port of Tartus.

The details of the operational plan are being prepared by the working parties of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, to which most of the post-Soviet states belong, as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to which China and Russia belong.
Read More...