Americas

"In this election season, these are some of the questions voters must ask on the issue of education."

While supplying the ostensible first draft of history, U.S. media filtered out vital information that could refute the claims of Washington’s exalted war planners. “Journalists, too many of them -- some quite explicitly -- have said that they see their mission as helping the war effort,” an American media critic warned during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq. “And if you define your mission that way, you'll end up suppressing news that might be important, accurate, but maybe isn't helpful to the war effort.”

"The rational and financially self-interested course of action for the corporate executive and investor is to throw out the cowboys and the buccaneers, and replace them with responsible and honorable players in international finance. It is a solution that has the distinct advantage of being radical, sudden and unequivocal. And it can be accomplished on November 4."

"McCain apparently is hoping that voters will forget he was a major ultra-conservative part of that record -- he voted for Bush policies 90% of the time, for example, including approval of torture as state policy. But that chameleon trick seems to fool a good many voters. Plus, he added the younger, attractive Sarah Palin to the ticket and she joined him in the charade about "reform" and "change," saying she and McCain "will shake things up in Washington." But she's silent about the extreme, rightwing nature of the "change" she has in mind."

"It is likely the hotel bombing is a response to a number of attacks carried out by the United States and its allies over the past several weeks."

"No matter. At times such as the present, when politicians and well-connected interest groups are attempting to stampede the public into acquiescing quietly as it is being plundered mercilessly, everybody with any political clout is a potential looter. Come one, come all."

"...the emergency policies the government is currently concocting will certainly have extensive ramifications, many of them unanticipated, for years to come. The encouragement to moral hazard now being given to financial institutions promises to make them more reckless than the biggest plunger in Las Vegas. After all, any profit will go into their pockets, but any big losses, they will reasonably expect, will be sloughed off onto the taxpayers. Yes, indeed, that image shimmering on the horizon is Casino Capitalism. Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and the rest of these statist saviors are making a mighty contribution to this country’s economic ruin."

"To deflate the Taliban ascendancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the vast majority of U.S. and allied forces should be withdrawn from Afghanistan, leaving only a small contingent of clandestine Special Forces and Predators to take advantage of any window of opportunity, should bin Laden or any other leadership targets be located. However, most of the U.S. effort should be reoriented to the same policy that has reduced violence in Iraq: paying off your enemies not to fight you."