Some of the latests from Opednews

The Way Out
In the American Monetary Act, about to be introduced by Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a truly progressive proposal to reform the privately-owned, debt-based monetary system will be put before the American people. As usual, conservatives & the corporatocracy will hate it, but it could save the country.

Peace Rising
Decades later, Agent Orange is still destroying lives. The word for the kind of wars we have waged since Vietnam chills the soul: ecocide.

The Axis Of Middle Class Misfortune
After rising in every decade and every generation since the 1830s, and creating the surplus and investment which sustained the creation of a vast and prosperous middle class, wages began to fall in the U.S. in the mid 1970s. hey are falling now at the fastest rate in fourteen yeas, with no end in sight.

Wall Street's Scams, Lies And Frauds
A quote:Our theoretical analysis shows that an economic underground can come to life if firms have an incentive to go broke for profit at society's expense (to loot) instead of to go for broke (to gamble on success). Bankruptcy for profit will occur if poor accounting, lax regulation or low penalties for abuse give owners an incentive to pay themselves more than their firms are worth and then default on their debt obligations

Will All The Financial Reforms Lead To Change Or Just Prop Up The Status Quo?
Its been said that crises like the one we are experiencing leads to change. But is that happening today. Is there a chance that after the financial crisis is over, we will go back to the Status Quo. Danny Schechter, author of PLUNDER explores what is and is not changing as a result of the financial meltdown.

By Stephen Lendman: Ending Today's Economic Crisis Simply And Easily, In America And Globally
The solution to ending today's economic crisis is simple but untaken.

Bilderberg Plans For Economic "Recovery"
With the secret annual meeting of the Bilderbergers for 2009 completed news of their agenda is leaking out, and it is what you might have expected......

Sotomayor's Problem Isn't Being Too Latina; It's Having Hung With White Suits Too Long
There's nothing wrong with saying that being a Latina will influence your decision-making. There is something wrong with regularly taking the side of corporate interests, instead of the little individual.

In just 3 months Americans bought enough guns to outfit the entire Chinese and Indian armies combined

(AmmoLand.com)- In just 3 months Americans bought enough guns to outfit the entire Chinese and Indian army’s combined.

You also bought 1,529,635,000 rounds of ammunition in just the month of December 2008. Yeah that is right, that is Billion with a “B”. This number takes no accounting of reloading or reloaded ammunition.

This is an evaluation of overall firearms and ammunition purchases based on low end numbers per Federal NIC instacheck data base Statistics. The numbers presented are only PART of the overall numbers of arms and ammunition that have been sold. The actual numbers are much higher.

Mr. Obama, Rape of Prisoners is "Not Particularly Sensational?"

From Rebelreports:

Obama has tried to downplay the nature of thousands of photos of prisoner abuse, but the general who led the Abu Ghraib investigation is painting a horrifying picture of the classified photos.

By Jeremy Scahill

Let’s try to reconcile these two statements on thousands of photos of US military personnel abusing and/or torturing prisoners; photos that the Obama administration is fighting to keep from the public:

“I want to emphasize that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”
—Barack Obama, May 13, 2009

“These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.”
—Major General Antonio Taguba, who led the investigation into the Abu Ghraib torture, May 27, 2009.

Check out the full story in the Daily Telegraph of London.

Excerpt:

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

Taguba says he supports President Obama’s decision not to release the photos, arguing the “consequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.” He added: “The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”

The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit aimed at making these photos public has blasted Obama’s attempt to keep them secret:

“The decision to not release the photographs makes a mockery of President Obama’s promise of transparency and accountability,” said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh, who had argued and won the case before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. “It is essential that these photographs be released so that the public can examine for itself the full scale and scope of prisoner abuse that was conducted in its name.”


Update: from Naomi Wolf

Well, America? Do you want to live with this? Remember: history shows categorically that once the state can lock `them' up without a fair trial, torture, rape them or sodomize them - well; sooner or later it will be able to do the same to your children or mine; or to you and me.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22737.htm

Further update: Gen. Taguba Says Telegraph Quoted Him Correctly on Prisoner 'Rape' Photos

South Korea and U.S. Raise Alert Level

Just in from CLG:

Breaking:US Army moves to DEFCON 2
28 May 2009 Sources close to MiNa claim the US Army has moved their alert level to Defcon 2. This was initiated by the alarming situation in North Korea. The US Army has over 35,000 troops stationed in South Korea, well within reach of North Korean conventional weapons. North Korea has the largest artillery force in the world, which adds more to the already tense situation. Earlier today, N. Korea's leader Kim Jong Il issued threats to the South Korean and US Navy ships for coming too close to North Korea's territorial waters.

South Korea and U.S. Raise Alert Level
29 May 2009 One day after North Korea warned of a possible attack against the South, the United States and South Korea ordered their forces here to their highest alert for three years, increasing surveillance flights and satellite reconnaissance to counter what officials termed a "grave threat." The South Korean Defense Ministry said allied troops, including, 28,000 U.S. soldiers based in South Korea, raised their Watch Condition, or Watchcon, to the second-highest level from Watchcon 3 to Watchcon 2.

Casey: Army would have to 'shift gears' for N. Korea battle
30 May 2009 It would take the Army time to "shift gears" if it needed to fight against North Korea, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said Thursday. Right now, the Army is focused on the counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but North Korea’s recent [and perpetual US] saber rattling has raised the prospect that the Army might be called upon to fight a conventional war. "I have said publicly for some time that if we had to shift gears, it would probably take us about 90 days or so to shift our gears and to train the folks up that were preparing to go to Iraq and Afghanistan to go someplace else," Casey said after a speech at a Washington think tank. [How many wars -- on how many fronts -- would the US then be fighting?]