The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted.

engagedelectorate:

Political anger can be a constructive thing. Not the blind, unthinking anger of those who have been carefully worked into a perpetual rage by the expertly trained pitchmen of political talk radio, or the anger of the single-issue zealot or culture warrior, but the steady, rational indignation of the fully informed citizen about the fact that his rights and privileges are being usurped, and that his heritage is being squandered. 

The fact is that there’s no 50-50 split [on civil liberties abuses, drone murders, aggression, whistleblower persecution, etc.]. There’s a different kind of split. And the reason that Obama has not been as good as he could’ve been is because he’s being enabled. And every day, there’s this silent enabling of people who are afraid of being viewed as disloyal — ooh, don’t say that, you can’t say that, you can’t say that. He’s our guy. Well, the fact of the matter is, politically, if you don’t have your supporters pushing you towards an agenda, pushing you to be better, pushing you to a higher plane…you leave it to the ego — or to Obama’s ego, or his vanity, or his narcissism, whatever you want to call it — we will not benefit. The people at large will not benefit, it is about him, not the people. So there’s this, I believe, unintended, or well-intended, silent enabling by giving him a pass. And it’s not just civil liberties. What scares me the most is that so many of the people that are on the sidelines, that would have to be activated — motivated and activated to make a movement, are taking it for granted.
Kevin McCabe (via theamericanbear)

Israeli Soldiers Kill Teenager in West Bank, Fourth Palestinian Death in a Week

anarcho-queer:

Israeli Defense Forces on Tuesday shot from behind and killed 16-year-old Samir Awad, a Palestinian boy in the West Bank, as he was retreating*. The IDF claims Awad tried to breach the separation barrier Israel has built to help fortify their system of apartheid and land theft.

However, Ayeed Mora, a member of the Budrus Popular Committee, claims “that near the separation barrier that Israel built, IDF soldiers ambushed the youths and opened fire,” Haaretz reports. “There was no just cause to open fire, he asserts.”

“In recent days we feel an escalation by the army, which shoots at everything that approaches the fence, even if they are children,” Mora told Haaretz. “Time and time again we hear of the claim that the young Palestinians provoked or hurled stones, but nothing justifies the shooting of live rounds at children.” Mora added that the IDF “shouldn’t speak of provocations, the fact they built the fence on our lands is provocation.”

This is the fourth Palestinian killed by the IDF in a week. Israeli soldiers also shot a Gaza farmer, 21-year-old Mustafa Abu Jarad, in the head on Monday. This time, the IDF had no excuse and has refused to comment.

The last time Israel tried to quietly murder unarmed Gazans, it used Palestinian retaliation as an excuse to bomb the entire strip.

*Update: The Guardian reports that Awad was shot by Israeli forces in the back, as he was running away.

According to villagers, Samir was grabbed by soldiers who were concealed in a trench. He broke free and was running away when a soldier or soldiers opened fire. He was hit by three or four bullets, in his head, torso and leg.

Ayed Morrar, a member of the village popular resistance committee, said: “They shot him in cold blood, they shot him in the back. He wasn’t threatening them.”

(Source: jayaprada)

Iran denies responsibility for cyber attacks on US banks

sinidentidades:

Iran has denied US media reports it carried out cyber attacks on US banks, the official IRNA news agency said Friday, quoting a statement from Tehran’s UN mission.

“The Islamic republic of Iran categorically denies any involvement in cyber attacks on American banks and denounces such methods which are a violation of the sovereignty of nations,” the statement said.

US media reported Wednesday that American financial institutions are being pounded with high-powered cyber attacks that some suspect are being orchestrated by Iran as payback for political sanctions.

“There is no doubt within the US government that Iran is behind these attacks,” James Lewis, a former official in the state and commerce departments and now a computer security expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told the New York Times.

While the identities of those behind the online onslaught officially remain a mystery, it was clear they were using a potent new weapon for slamming bank websites with overwhelming numbers or requests for information, reports said.

The top 20 US banks were hit on Wednesday with a third wave of attacks, each of which has been preceded by a claim of responsibility by a group calling itself Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters.

The attacks began in September last year, according to Radware, which specializes in commercial computer security and has been investigating the cyber assaults.

John Bumgarner of the US Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit group that studies the impact of cyber threats, cautioned against rushing to assign blame for the attacks.

“These attackers are using the anonymity of the cyber space to mask who they are,” Bumgarner said. “There is not irrefutable evidence that the Iranian government was responsible.”

Israeli Soldiers Kill Gaza Student With No Warning Shots

Israeli soldiers attacked a group of three Palestinians today along the border with the Gaza Strip, killing one and wounding another in what Israeli officials described as an attempt to “harm Israel’s sovereignty.”

The slain Palestinian was described as a student studying for an upcoming exam. His brother was also present at the incident, and was uninjured. The third person, described as a farmer, was shot in the leg and taken to the hospital.

Israeli soldiers on the border have had their rules of engagement changed considerably since the most recent truce went into effect, and are supposed to exclusively fire warning shots at protesters’ feet. Though the military insisted today’s shootings were warning shots, the slain man was hit in the chest.

Today’s death was the third of a Gaza Strip resident since the ceasefire began, each shot by Israeli troops along the cusp of what they consider the “no-go” portion of the tiny strip, close to the border with Israel.

(Source: jayaprada)

From the White House down the ranks, the Obama administration has compiled a broad appointment record that significantly exceeds the Bush administration’s in terms of appointing women but does no better than the Clinton administration’s, according to an analysis of personnel data by The New York Times.

Under Obama, a Skew Toward Male Appointees - NYTimes.com (via firthofforth)

It’s time for an end to the white (conservative) male stranglehold on the Treasury and Defense Departments.

(via dendroica)

Saudi Arabia: Yes, it has lots of oil. But the Saudis, who need cash to fuel their welfare state, are going to sell it regardless of how Obama treats them. Meanwhile, the Saudi monarchy holds thousands in arbitrary detention, imposes archaic restrictions on women, suppresses most dissent, mistreats its Shiite minority, and insists that the neighboring Bahraini monarchy crush its pro-democracy movement. Obama has been silent.

Bahrain: Saudi Arabia’s next-door neighbor is the most glaring exception to Obama’s generally supportive posture toward Arab Spring demonstrators. The ruling Al Khalifa family uses lethal force, torture, and arbitrary detention to crush protests. Yet out of deference to Saudi sensibilities and fear of losing the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet base, the Obama administration has allowed its security relationship with Bahrain to trump its concern for the rights of Bahrainis — a selectivity that undermines its broader support for Arab freedom.

8 Terrible US Allies (via jayaprada)
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