"Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers." David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian, "Of the First Principles of Government" 1758

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""How fortunate for leaders that men do not think." Adolf Hitler

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"The great are only great because we are on our knees." James Connolly - Irish republican and socialist leader. Executed by a British firing squad because of his leadership role in the Easter Rising of 1916.

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"I pledge that if any U.S. troops, contractors, or mercenaries remain in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6, 2011, as that occupation goes into its 11th year, I will commit to being in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., with others on that day or the days immediately following, for as long as I can, with the intention of making it our Tahrir Square, Cairo, our Madison, Wisconsin, where we will NONVIOLENTLY resist the corporate machine by occupying Freedom Plaza until our resources are invested in human needs and environmental protection instead of war and exploitation. We can do this together. We will be the beginning."
http://october2011.org/welcome

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Why were America's Islamophobes able to avoid accountability for so long?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28738.htm

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Armed men dispose of human corpses in Syria.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28735.htm

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Syrian citizens have no role in what is taking place on their land, except for the role of followers, either to the regime by being silent and submissive, or to the "external conspiracy," by being a mere tool for its implementation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28739.htm

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It is "so important that the economy move in the right direction" in order to pay for more military spending, Mullen said at the time.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28733.htm

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Defense contractors are awash in profits while lines lengthen at soup kitchens, foreclosed families sleep in shelters, 20 million are jobless or underemployed, food stamp use sets records.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28737.htm

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After reading the "news" in the Ministry of Propaganda and witnessing the stupidity of the US government, the rest of the world is struck dumbfounded by the immaturity of the "world's only superpower."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28730.htm

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Elections are no longer effective as the promise of hope and change which in the last presidential election energized the electorate and won the White House for Barack Obama but as it turned out was nothing more than a slick and deceptive advertising campaign.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28731.htm

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The Tea Party version of the American Revolution is not just fundamentalist. It is also Disneyfied, sentimentalized, and whitewashed.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28734.htm

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Moving beyond the debt ceiling canard; much more is at stake.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28740.htm

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The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28741.htm

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For me, arriving in a Latin American society without grinding poverty filling the eye is almost a shock.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28736.htm

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Despite fuzzy legality, US law enforcement will soon be able to perform mobile iris scans and fingerprinting.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28732.htm

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Authorities called in paramilitary soldiers and police to quell political and criminal violence in Pakistan's largest city after 34 people were killed here in less that two days, officials said...
http://bit.ly/nYiYe6

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"Two missiles were fired from a US drone targeting a militant vehicle. So far, four militants were killed," a security official said, while another official in the area confirmed the attack and the toll.
http://www.newkerala.com/news/2011/worldnews-40634.html

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Human rights campaigners said assaults by Assad's forces across Syria overnight and on Monday had killed at least 24 civilians, including 10 in Hama, where troops and tanks began a violent operation to regain control on Sunday.
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/world/2011/08/03/anger-as-more-killed-in-syria

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Fresh explosions erupted early Wednesday in the Syrian city of Hama as President Bashar Assad's regime showed no signs of halting the intense military assault against an uprising now in its fifth month, activists said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH2TsknDhW4

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Russia said it would not oppose a UN resolution to condemn the violence.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russia-ready-to-condemn-syria/441516.html

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Britain should never have got involved in Libya. But Whitehall constraint has been eroded, and none in power admit their folly
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/02/britain-bombs-libya-whitehall

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The powerful tribe of the Libyan rebels' slain military commander vowed on Tuesday to find justice themselves for his suspicious killing last week if rebel leaders failed to investigate it fully.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/younes-tribe-warns-rebels-over-probe-1.1111319

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The IFJ today condemned the NATO air strikes against Libyan state television which took place last Saturday in Tripoli, killing three journalists and injured fifteen staff members according to its director of the English service, Khalid Basilia.
http://bit.ly/nXe9QD

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In case you missed it:
Obama Lied About Gaddafi's Bloodbath? :

President Obama said that Gaddafi's regime was going to cause a bloodbath in Libya. Professor Alan J Kuperman of the University at Texas argues, however, that the president's claims were exaggerated and that the civil war should be over by now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmTxV5UaIbU&feature=share

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Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, the 2012 GOP contender with the most foreign policy experience, has been one of the fiercest critics of the Obama administration's decision to intervene in Libya.
http://abcn.ws/pyGMgQ

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Moscow made such a statement after France had decided to unfreeze the accounts of the Libyan leader and to transfer almost $260 million to the Benghazi-based opposition government.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/08/02/54098751.html

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Why do political leaders stride into the same trap, even having witnessed the fate of those who went before them?
http://ind.pn/qDSb7J

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Successive bombings targeting an alcohol shop on Baghdad's western outskirts killed three policemen. An Iraqi policeman was also killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) on Wednesday, while an army officer and two members of an anti-Qaeda militia were killed in attacks the day before.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/three-police-killed-baghdad-liquor-store-blasts-092329546.html

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Iraqi government to sign agreement to keep some US troops in the country: --

Iraqi political blocs gave the green light late Tuesday to the Iraqi government to sign a new agreement with the United States to Keep some of its troops, for military training purposes, beyond their departure date at the end of 2011.
http://bit.ly/mQNQ0s

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Hutchins was convicted for leading an eight-man squad that kidnapped an Iraqi man from his home in the village of Hamdania in 2006, marched him into a ditch and killed him.
http://bit.ly/nDLDJH

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Bread and Circuses
Egyptians shocked by Mubarak's court appearance: In pictures: :

Egyptians were shocked Wednesday at the sight of their former president, Hosni Mubarak, pleading not guilty in Cairo to the charges against him while lying in a hospital bed inside a cage of mesh and iron bars in a makeshift courtroom.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/08/03/egypt-hosni-mubarak-trial.html

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Tens of thousands of Israelis in nine cities pour onto the streets, demanding Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu resign
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBTJaieg-Rs&feature=player_embedded

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 For the first time, Israel's Supreme Court has formally ordered the dismantling of an illegal West Bank "settlement", brushing aside requests from the government for more time in order to organize the evacuation and construct alternative housing.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/08/israel-supreme-court.html

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 Prime minister said to be willing to negotiate pre-1967 borders if Palestinians do not seek UN recognition next mont
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/201182105413548137.html

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A number of new initiatives to curtail freedom of speech by conflating opposition to Israeli crimes with anti-Semitism are underway in the United States and Canada.
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2011/08/new-moves-to-curb-criticism-of-israel-in-us-and-canada/

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Russia criticised on Monday a U.S. Senate resolution calling for Moscow to withdraw troops from Georgia's breakaway regions, saying it fuelled a "revanchist mood" in Tbilisi.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/russia-accuses-us-of-fueling-georgian-revanchism/

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The UN declared three new regions in Somalia famine zones on Wednesday, expanding the area where the highest rates of malnutrition and mortality are taking place, including the refugee camps in the capital of Mogadishu.
http://bit.ly/rdgRuA

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Somalis with new uniforms and guns they say were bought by Kenya's government are supposed to be guarding the Somali-Kenya border against al-Qaida-linked militants. But many prey on refugees fleeing famine.
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110802/ap_on_re_af/af_east_africa_famine

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Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars after accepting full liability for two massive oil spills that devastated a Nigerian community of 69,000 people and may take at least 20 years to clean up.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/03/shell-liability-oil-spills-nigeria

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Noriega has one month to appeal the decision, but his lawyer said he does not plan to do so.
http://bit.ly/ossouk

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Spying on US Muslims:
Government wants to keep secrets in FBI lawsuit:

 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has invoked state secrets rules to prevent information being released in a lawsuit filed by Southern California Muslims who claim the FBI monitored their activities solely because of their religion.
http://bit.ly/nUUfcO

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Boston's TSA screeners - part of a security force whose competency has come under fire nationwide - soon will be carrying out sophisticated behavioral inspections under a first-in-the-nation program that's already raising concerns of racial profiling, harassment of innocent travelers and longer lines.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1355725

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The billionaire Koch brothers have moved in and are attacking democracy in the state. With recall elections against Republican state senators just around the corner - the Koch-funded Astroturf group Americans for Prosperity is reaching into their bag of dirty tricks to keep their buddies in power at any cost.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA9y9hoaF3A

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The comments Wednesday by People's Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan came as the country's state media continued to condemn Washington over its debt problems, and as one of China's smaller credit ratings companies downgraded its sovereign rating for the U.S.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903520204576485052384754400.html

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Keiser Report Video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgCqSEpGBF4&feature=player_embedded

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Of the companies in the S&P 500 list of large-cap firms which have reported their quarterly earnings to date, 72 percent have beaten analysts' forecasts, according to Standard & Poor's analyst Howard Silverblatt.
http://bit.ly/o44k4J

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45.8 million people (obviously an all time record) living on foodstamps which amount to the whopping $133.80 per person (an increase of $0.54 M/M) and $283.65 (an increase of $1.29) per household.
http://bit.ly/qd9ZRO

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It shows how a band of far-right Republican Tea Party extremists - financed initially by the billionaire Koch brothers - have managed to effectively take control of the U.S. political system and block the will of the American people.
http://bit.ly/qI074L

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A new report finds that the vast majority of the jobs created in the so-called recovery have been low-wage jobs. That's a recipe for continued economic pain.
http://bit.ly/rbPMnX

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Wal-Mart stores had 82.8 million fewer visits through the first five months of the company's fiscal year than a year earlier, says the memo, which was obtained by Bloomberg News.
http://bloom.bg/os8gEA

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Tom Feeley