“Was Shadadi’s mother and father terrorist? They were killed by the US drone. They are both over 60 years old.” -Abdul Hadi Mohammed, neighbor of al Qaeda suspect Nader Shadadi, whose father, mother and sister were killed by a US drone strike in Yemen last week. Over 100 Yemenis have been killed in such bombings… Continue reading Justice Will Be Served
Category: briefly noted
short notes from my reading
Kafkaland
“My American dream became an American nightmare.” -American immigrant Syed Anwar Hashmi, describing the arrest and imprisonment of his son, essentially for political speech. Syed Fahad Hashmi now sits in solitary confinement nearly all his waking hours.
Understatement
“Obviously, I haven’t understood it correctly because we’re still here.” -Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, on his not being raptured yesterday
Completely Wrong
“A black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.” -Professor Cornell West, who did 65 campaign events for Obama, on the president’s betrayal. “I was completely wrong,” Dr. West added.
All It Took
All it took was for over 539,000 people to sign an international statement, 300 of the US’s top legal scholars taking a public stand, the forced resignation of a US State Department spokesperson, our organizers directly confronting President Obama, and of course our ongoing efforts internationally. -Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, on how we… Continue reading All It Took
Processing
“It feels as though that arc in American history has come to a close,” Watkins said. Acknowledging the strangeness of the analogy, he compared Bin Laden’s death to the upcoming last installment of the long-running Harry Potter movies: “It marks the end of our childhood,” he said. -Luke Watkins, a 20-year-old American, on his understanding… Continue reading Processing
“If the ruling class were as worried about the deficit as it claims to be, it would accept that the wealthiest people in society have a duty to pony up more for the very government whose police power and military protect them, their property and their wealth.”
-E.J. Dionne, in his column today
Source: US Uncut
Green Shoots
“This is no recession. We are already on our way to a Depression (a GDP contraction of 10%) possibly even another Great Depression. One in nine Americans are currently receiving food stamps. Real unemployment (without birth/death seasonal nonsense and all the other Federal gimmicks) stands at 20%. “So I don’t buy the ‘green shoots’ theory… Continue reading Green Shoots
“Every day we’re spending more in Libya than everything we’d like to keep in the budget. That’s turning around the Biblical imperatives and beating your plowshares into swords. You’re not going to solve the deficit with these programs. This is just mean. This is not believing the government should help poor people as a principle.”
-Jim Wallis, who is fasting to protest budget cuts