Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Economic Inequality in the USA Reaches New Extremes / Politics / US Politics
By: Joel_S_Hirschhorn
Rising American economic inequality has received attention by Senator Jim Webb, presidential candidate John Edwards, CNN’s maverick Lou Dobbs, and others. The middle class has not shared in rising national prosperity, because the nation’s wealth has been siphoned off to the richest Americans. Some elites are nervous. They have attacked what are pejoratively called “neopopulists” – people who say the middle class is under siege.
Surprisingly, the attack and economic propaganda have come from the relatively unknown Third Way group that is associated with the Democratic Leadership Council. Why would self-proclaimed progressives and centrists put out a report that says the whole economic inequality story is bogus?
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Tony Blair Starts UK Withdrawal of British Troops from Southern Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
Tony Blair has announced plans to reduce British forces in Iraq by 1600, or approximately 25% to 5,500, with further withdrawals planned during 2007 to bring the UK's troop presence to below 5000.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
The Axis of Evil shrinks by one, North Korea, will Iran be next ? / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
The Bush foreign policy is predicated on one simple axiom: “We will stop the world's most dangerous men from getting their hands on the world's most dangerous weapons”. By that standard, Bush's dealings with North Korea havebeen a wretched failure. After 6 years of fruitless saber rattling and belligerence, the North detonated a nuclear bomb in early October and put region on notice that there's a new member in the nuclear weapons club.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 09, 2007
Bush backs down to Nuclear North Korea as US Drops Sanctions / Politics / North Korea
By: Mike_Whitney
There's been plenty of saber rattling and bold talk about forcing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, but after a 6 year standoff, Bush has decided to give in to Kim Jung Il's demands. The western media is characterizing the new developments as a “breakthrough”, but, in fact, Bush has retreated on every issue of consequence. It is as close to a total foreign policy failure as one can possibly imagine. Nothing has been achieved. The bottom line is this; Kim refused to budge from his original position, while Bush completely capitulated on his.
“The US has talked tough without achieving anything.” Han Seung-Joo, South Korea's former foreign minister (UK Guardian)
Thursday, February 08, 2007
How US Citizens are Sacrificing for the Iraq War - Cost / Politics / Iraq War
By: Dr_Martenson
“The average American has not been asked to sacrifice for the Iraq war…”
At least once a week for the past few years I've heard some version of the above quote and it implies that the average person has not been inconvenienced in any way by the war. Both the left and the right go to great lengths to perpetuate this illusion of no sacrifice while using the statement to fulfill whatever partisan goal they are currently chasing. Such vacuous statements leave me breathless mainly because they are so explosively ignorant that they suck all of the oxygen out of the air.
Every single person in America that uses money has sacrificed for this war. Anybody with savings, income, investments or who has bought anything over the past three years has sacrificed a significant portion of that money because of inflation brought on by excessive government spending on the Iraq War.
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Monday, February 05, 2007
Military Surge in Iraq could push US into War with Iran / Politics / Iran
By: Mike_Whitney
“If the United States continues to be bogged down in a protracted, bloody involvement in Iraq, the final destination on this downhill track is likely to be a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large.” Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter
No one has done more to expand Iran’s power in the region than George Bush. He routed the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 and then toppled Saddam and the Ba’athist Party in 2003. Both of these were the traditional enemies of the Islamic Republic. Now Bush has installed Iranian-backed warlords in the Green Zone and delivered the country to the Shiites.
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Thursday, February 01, 2007
US Troop Surge in Iraq to Pacify Baghdad to satisfy Oil Majors - Is it destined to Fail ? / Politics / Iraq War
By: Mike_Whitney
“There is no solution. We’ve destroyed Iraq and we’ve destroyed the region, and Americans need to know this.”
Nir Rosen; interview with Amy Goodman, “Democracy Now”
Let’s assume for a moment, that Dick Cheney is the driving force behind the plan to surge in Iraq. Does anyone really believe that the vice president is genuinely concerned about the safety of the Iraqi people? And, yet, the media still insists that the purpose of the troop-increase is to improve security in Baghdad. Nothing could be further from the truth. The wellbeing of the Iraqi people has never been a factor in the administration’s decision-making and it isn’t now.
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Thursday, February 01, 2007
Are we Better Off than Our Parents ? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Clif_Droke
Who had it better: Our parents or us? Much adieu was made recently about the U.S. population crossing the 300 million mark. The latest report from the U.S. Census Bureau sparked a flood of news articles on the population debate and not a few discussions on how our present standard of living has changed over the years.
One well-known publication made this statement in response to the census report: "[T]he typical family is doing a whole lot better than their grandparents were in 1967, the year the population first surpassed 200 million." This statement was made in a Forbes.com article which appeared recently on Internet news wires around the country. The article went on to tout the incredible level of economic prosperity our generation enjoys compared to the generation 40 years prior. It was entitled "The Average American: 1967 and Today" and was written to convince today's younger generation that they've never had it so good and should stop their grumbling and be happy about their economic lot. Problem was, the article was extremely superficial and just barely scratched the surface of all the major economic influences that determine whether our current standard of living is higher than that of our parents' and grandparents' generation. In other words, it was a propaganda piece in the truest sense.
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Sunday, January 28, 2007
The New World Order - Bilderbergs a power elite who supposedly rule the world / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Douglas_V_Gnazzo
The Bilderbergs - who are they and what do they do? An aura of mystique surrounds the name, casting shades of reflections of the power elite who supposedly rule the world. Presidents, royalty, prime ministers, global industrialists, and financial leaders from around the world are said to be members of the secrete organization that meets once a year to set the direction and course of international affairs, world events, and global policies.
The first Bilderberg conference was held at the Bilderberg Hotel in Osterbeek Holland in May 1954, from which it derives its name. Created as a secret and supportive adjunct of NATO and the Marshall plan of the 1940s, the raison d'etre behind the group was to promote post war trans-Atlantic cooperation between America and Europe. It has since evolved into much more.
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Saturday, January 27, 2007
Russia fires nuclear missile at Britain - Radiation poisoning suspect named Lugovoi / Politics / Russia
By: John_York
The richer Russia becomes, the more aggressive its foreign policy becomes. This is evidenced by the recent turmoil in the oil & gas supplies to Western Europe Russia cuts oil to Europe in response to Belarus syphoning off thousands barrels of oil . And the assassination of a critic of President Putins regime in Russia, Andre Litvinenko who died on November 23rd from Polonium-210 poisoning ( Russian ex-agent poisoned whilst investigating killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya).
The media in Britain have named Andrei Lugovoi as the person considered as the prime suspect for the poisoning, to be named by British Police, who have spent the last 2 months laboriously following the Polonium 210 trail across London, on board flights right back to Andrei Lugovoi in Russia. (Radiation found on at least two BA B767 aircraft that flew from London to Moscow)
Friday, January 26, 2007
Secrets of the New World Order / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Douglas_V_Gnazzo
My last article ended with several quotes from Professor Carroll Quigley, a world renowned scholar who had written quite extensively about secret societies and other elite groups, whose sole purpose was to establish a New World Order.
The following part of one such quote reveals important insights into not only Quigley, but the entire subject as well.
"In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so. I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960's, to examine its papers and secret records.
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
State of the Union Address by a weak lame duck President Bush / Politics / US Politics
By: John_York
President George W Bush is shortly to deliver his 7th State of the Union address, now ranked 43rd out of 43 presidents by some 415 historians.
Key points that President Bush will cover -
1. Recognition of Global Warming
Year after year George Bush has dismissed global warming as an issue, Could the texan oil man now finally be changing his spots and going green ?
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Saturday, January 20, 2007
Hillary Clinton declares intention to run for the Presidency on the day with highest US killed in Iraq in 2 years / Politics / US Politics
By: John_York
Hillary Rodham Clinton declared on her website her intention to run for the Presidency in 2008, with the message "I'm In".
Friday, January 19, 2007
Government admits that the NHS is overpaying GP's as average salaries surge well above £100,000 due to government mismanagement of contracts / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, has said that the Government should have capped GP Salaries when the new contracts were introduced in 2004. "I think if we anticipated this business of GP's taking a higher share of income in profits we would have wanted to do something to try to ensure that the ratio of profits to the total income stayed the same and therefore more money was invested in even better services for patients,” she said.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, January 19, 2007
China fires ballistic missile into Space destroying its own Weather Satellite / Politics / China
By: John_York
China successfully fired a ground based ballistic missile into space destroying one of its own weather satellite Feng Yun (FY-1C), that was schedules to be shortly retired. Immediately western leaders expressed concern that China was now capable of targeting foreign satellites including low orbit spy satellite, and risked a new space arms race.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Iraq War - Two lame duck leaders - George Bush and Tony Blair / Politics / Iraq War
By: John_York
Exactly how much damage can the two lame duck leaders of the USA and UK do during their remaining time in office ?
Both recently gave the same old tired speeches about how failed policies will win the war in Iraq, when the reality is that more UK and US solider's will die and many thousands more Iraqi's whilst they stave off the real tough decisions until after they have left office.
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Sunday, January 07, 2007
NHS GP's enjoy record pay for less hours whilst neglected patients suffer / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
A near tripling in GP salaries since New Labour came to office has led to less time spent in practice by GP's, as they seek to enjoy their windfall payout's on the golf green rather than spend time in surgeries. This means less time committed to patient consultations and thus quality of GP diagnoses is expected to decline significantly.
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Thursday, January 04, 2007
Nancy Pelosi opens 110th Congress as the balance of power shifts to the Democrats / Politics / US Politics
By: John_York
Nancy Pelosi became the first female
House speaker, and third inline to the Presidency after Dick Cheney. In the chamber of the House, its new speaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi, beamed and clapped as she listened as members elected her by voice vote.
She said: 'Today we make history. Today we change the direction of our country.'
'This is an historic moment - for the Congress, and for the women of this country. It is a moment for which we have waited more than 200 years,' Ms Pelosi said in prepared remarks. 'Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights.'
'For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling,' she said.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
NHS runs out of money - Despite a £100 billion budget , time to privatise ? / Politics / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
NHS trusts up and down Britain have reportedly run out of money, and as a consequence are cancelling routine operations such as treatments for varicose veins, teeth etc. We highlighted this possibility in our article of 25th December 06 - The NHS is killing Britain as it wastes tens of billions every year , Hospital trusts continue to request billions more as GP's are told to refer fewer patients to hospitals. As well as hospital departments being told to turn patents away.
Whilst in the meantime, the debt that has built up through utter incompetence and mis-management by NHS Trusts CEO's, that have in some cases tripled salaries of none front-line staff, which is the primary reason why £100 billion per year is not enough to meet the needs of patents, despite reduced patient load due to lengthening in waiting lists
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Sunday, December 24, 2006
The NHS is killing Britain as it wastes tens of billions every year ! / Politics / NHS
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The UK Labour government came to office in 1997, focused on reinvigorating the National Health Service (NHS), this they did with vigor where the annual NHS budget has grown from £34 billions in 1997 to the present days £96 billion ! A more than 282% increase !!!!
Given the surge in spending, you would expect everything to be happy in the NHS, with ample funds to go around, if so ? You would be badly mistaken. NHS trusts up and down the country are reporting budget over-runs and cut backs in beds available to patents as well as on staffing with demands for billions more money to be spent.
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