The Largest Minority

July 24th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Disgusting.

July 19th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Lebanon celebrated Wednesday as it exchanged the bodies of two Israeli soldiers for five living Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of almost 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters. Though it came at a heavy cost, Hezbollah’s victory over Israel is undeniable. It is a victory for all resistance. It is a victory for us.

July 16th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Judging from the Bush administration’s change in policy, it would appear as though Iran’s missile tests were successful in more ways than one.

The United States does not invade countries which can defend themselves. We invade countries like Iraq and Grenada because they pose a potential economic opportunity and NO potential military threat. If Iran were really the most dangerous nation in the world, as the administration has irresponsibly stated over and over again, then any military option would be completely off the table. Only after the Iranians have shown that they do in fact have the ability to put up a fight have we decided to attend talks to avoid one.

An envoy from the US will attend weekend talks with Iran and other major powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The announcement on Tuesday that William Burns, the US under-secretary of state, is to attend a meeting in Geneva with Saeed Jalili, Iranian nuclear negotiator, is a switch in position for the US.

Burns will join Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, and envoys from China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, at the meeting, due on Saturday.

They will discuss Iran’s response to an offer made by world powers last month to give up nuclear work that the West believes is aimed at building an atomic bomb and Tehran says is for peaceful power-generation purposes.

read more…

June 29th, 2008 by Sam

Here is Seymour Hersh on CNN’s Late Edition discussing covert US operations conducted inside Iranian territory.

It’s worth noting the utter illegality and brashness of such actions on the US’s part.  Scott Ritter, who has also written extensively on these issues, reminds us that the “violation of a sovereign nation’s airspace is an act of war in and of itself.” One can only imagine the response our government would unleash were Iran to even contemplate conducting similar operations in our sovereign territory, much less actually carry them out.

June 24th, 2008 by D.C.

It is difficult to face the rising cost of oil prices these days, but is it really worth it to tap into oil supplies that would destroy a protected wildlife reserve? I think the preservation of the environment should be foremost in the minds of the United States government. They protected these areas for so long, and to give it up now seems to be a slap in the face to people that lobbied to have them saved in the first place.

 Besides, the oil that would be produced from this new oil source would not become available right away and would take years for the effects of the newly introduced oil to take effect. This oil crisis is making sane people act irrationally. We do not need to lose sight of the important things. It makes no sense to fix a problem in the present, but only to create a bigger problem in the future.

June 11th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Colin Powell’s former Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson speaks on how Cheney blocked talks with Iran. The letter Wilkerson is referring to was discussed in this post awhile back.

Iran was willing to be completely open about its nuclear program, help stabilize Iraq, end its support for Palestinian groups the US considered terrorists, and to help disarm Hezbollah. All Iran asked in return was for the US to halt further hostile actions in the region, and to be removed from the “axis of evil”.

The Bush administration refused that offer.

h/t Steve from COANews

June 11th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Kudos to Keith for leading with this story while the rest of the corporate media is simply pretending it never happened, and kudos to Kucinich for showing once again that no one else in the entire House is fit to keep their job as he alone fights a one-man battle for the constitution. Where does the man buy pants large enough to accommodate those brass balls?

h/t Dandelion Salad

June 9th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Bill O’Reilly sent one of his flying monkeys (producer Porter Barry) to the National Conference for Media Reform 2008 to do the dirty work he’s too scared to do himself. Barry tries to assassinate Moyer’s character by accusing him of being too scared to appear on The O’Reilly’s Factor. Moyers not only successfully disputes the “facts” of this petty man, but throws the offer back at Barry to appear on PBS. When the tool realizes he’s been defeated, he tries to escape but is given a taste of Fox journalism.