Rupert Murdoch and David Koch Collude Against Wisconsin Workers | | AlterNet

Rupert Murdoch and David Koch Collude Against Wisconsin Workers | | AlterNet
By Adele M. Stan
While Fox News feeds its rabble the anti-union line, Murdoch's Wall Street Journal columnists front for Koch's Americans for Prosperity and coddle elite investors.

February 25, 2011 |

Photo Credit: CNBC

In the week-long battle taking place in Wisconsin over Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to strip state workers of their collective bargaining rights, you'd expect Fox News to be doing what it's done: misreporting the story, mistakenly characterizing a poll supporting public workers to mean its opposite, featuring Glenn Beck painting the protests of union workers as something cooked up by Stalinists. And you might be tempted to think, well, that's just Fox playing to its base of frightened Tea Partiers who prefer a fact-free zone to the more challenging territory of actual news, where the answers are never pat, and the world is a bit more complicated than it seems in the realm of Fox Nation.

Tea party and American foreign policy

Tea party and American foreign policy

8:50 AM, February 24, 2011 ι Abby Wisse Schachter

In Foreign Affairs this month, Walter Russell Mead has some bad news for President Obama . Mead argues that the Tea Party is here to stay in one form or another and that it is important for US foeign policy to reflect that fact. Mead says, however, that a proper understanding of how "Jacksonian" populists - aka teapartiers -- see the world is key:

Chomsky: Uprising in the USA?

Chomsky: Uprising in the USA? | Economy | AlterNet

ECONOMY

Democracy Now! / By Amy Goodman and Noam Chomsky

World-renowned public intellectual Noam Chomsky discusses the protests in defense of public sector employees and unions in Wisconsin.

February 18, 2011
World-renowned public intellectual Noam Chomsky discusses several domestic issues in the United States, including the protests in defense of public sector employees and unions in Wisconsin, how the U.S. deification of former President Ronald Reagan resembles North Korea, and the crackdown on political activists with anti-terror laws and FBI raids.

Koch Brothers’ Money Fuels Wisconsin Fight - NYTimes.com

Koch Brothers’ Money Fuels Wisconsin Fight - NYTimes.com
By ERIC LIPTON
Published: February 21, 2011

WASHINGTON — Among the thousands of demonstrators who jammed the Wisconsin State Capitol grounds this weekend was a well-financed advocate from Washington who was there to voice praise for cutting state spending by slashing union benefits and bargaining rights.

Enlarge This Image

Left, Robert Caplin For The New York Times; Dave Williams/Wichita Eagle, via Associated Press

David H. Koch, left, and Charles G. Koch have long used their wallets to promote fiscal conservatism and combat regulation.

George Soros: Iranian regime won't last

George Soros:  Iranian regime won't last:59

George Soros: responds to Glenn Beck2:03

George Soros: Obama has lost control1:13

AOL to Buy The Huffington Post - NYTimes.com

AOL to Buy The Huffington Post - NYTimes.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

By JEREMY W. PETERS and VERNE G. KOPYTOFF

Published: February 7, 2011

The Huffington Post, which began in 2005 with a meager $1 million investment and has grown into one of the most heavily visited news Web sites in the country, is being acquired by AOL in a deal that creates an unlikely pairing of two online media giants.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

Arianna Huffington said that as she began talking to Tim Armstrong of AOL, “it was really amazing how aligned our visions were.”

On Sunday, Tim Armstrong said the deal fit “right into our strategy.”

The two companies completed the sale Sunday evening and announced the deal just after midnight on Monday. AOL will pay $315 million, $300 million of it in cash and the rest in stock. It will be the company’s largest acquisition since it was separated from Time Warner in 2009.

Leon T. Hadar: Will Anti-Interventionist Congressional Republicans Please Stand Up

Leon T. Hadar: Will Anti-Interventionist Congressional Republicans Please Stand Up

Since the inception of Tea Party movement, pundits -- including yours truly -- have been trying to deconstruct the foreign policy direction of what is a coalition of many local and national groups that seem to share a commitment to libertarian economic policy agenda.

Indeed, a recent study prepared by the Cato Institute refutes the popular notion that the movement is dominated by social-cultural conservatives. As David Kirby and Emily Ekins point out, "Libertarian attitudes are fueling roughly half the tea party activists" who believe that "'the less government the better' and don't see a role for government in promoting 'traditional values.'" This is a big reason "why the movement has largely focused on economic matters, resisting attempts to add social issues to its agenda," the two analysts note.

Rand Paul: Republicans 'Aren't Maybe Brave Enough' to Tackle Deficit - ABC News

Rand Paul: Republicans 'Aren't Maybe Brave Enough' to Tackle Deficit - ABC News

'True Believer' Paul Wants All Foreign Aid Eliminated -- Including Aid to Israel

BY JONATHAN KARL

Feb. 4, 2011

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., took aim at the newly released House GOP budget, saying it falls far short of what needs to be done to deal with the federal deficit.

"It's really not going to touch the problem," Paul said. "There's a disconnect between Republicans who want a balanced budget but aren't maybe yet brave enough to talk about the cuts to come."

The plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., released on Thursday, would cut non-security discretionary spending by $58 billion by the end of fiscal year 2011, which ends on Sept. 30.

Egypt, Federal Deficit Brings Calls to Eliminate Foreign Aid

Egypt, Federal Deficit Brings Calls to Eliminate Foreign Aid

Egypt, Deficit Bring Calls to End Foreign Aid -- But Should We?

Feb 5, 2011 – 8:25 AM
Andrea Stone

Win McNamee, Getty Images

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is calling for ending all foreign aid as way to help shrink the federal deficit.

WASHINGTON -- The unrelated crises roiling Egypt and the federal budget have at least one thing in common: They both have brought calls to eliminate foreign aid.

Just as Punxsutawney Phil crawled from his hole this week, the perennial debate over sending taxpayer money to foreign lands emerged once more on Capitol Hill.

In its effort to get a handle on the turmoil, the Obama administration raised the specter of ending military aid to Egypt. The second-largest recipient of U.S. largesse after Israel, Egypt has gotten more than $250 billion in weaponry since 1950, and that doesn't count thebillions sent there for economic development and the promotion of democracy.

Unconventional Wisdom - An FP Special Report | Foreign Policy

Unconventional Wisdom - An FP Special Report | Foreign Policy

A special anniversary report challenging the world's most dangerous thinking.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

In Foreign Policy's first issue, published at the height of American exhaustion with the war in Vietnam, founders Samuel P. Huntington and Warren D. Manshel promised to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy in Washington. And with provocative essays from the likes of John Kenneth Galbraith -- who famously coined the term "conventional wisdom" and spent a career fighting against it -- and Richard Holbrooke-- who as a serving Foreign Service officer ripped the State Department as "the machine that fails" -- an insurgency was born. Forty years later, upending assumptions is embedded in FP's DNA. In that spirit, we offer this, our 40th Anniversary package tackling the world's most dangerous conventional wisdoms.

Medvedev: "I told him – Barack go rest! [Barack, otdikhai]”

Moscow Inspired by the US Senate START Ratification

Political repression escalates in Russia

By Pavel Felgenhauer

The Kremlin remained uncertain about whether US President, Barack Obama, would manage to push through the lame-duck Senate session the ratification of the new START III. There was fear in Moscow that if the arms treaty was postponed until the spring of 2011, the new Senate with a reduced Democratic majority may never ratify it. START III allows both the US and Russia to have 700 deployed strategic delivery systems – intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM’s) and long-range strategic bombers. But, Russia today already has only 500 to 550 strategic delivery systems left and in the future may have even less, as its Cold War arsenal has deteriorated while its dilapidated defense industry has failed to produce enough replacements (Vedomosti, December 24). The treaty was seen as vitally important as a means to ensure the US also reduces its nuclear capabilities and a credible balance of deterrence is maintained that must guarantee the West shall not have any chance to sway Russia’s internal politics or its relations with its neighbors.

Russia: Obama Signed Away Missile Defenses

Russia: Obama Signed Away Missile Defenses

Wednesday, 05 Jan 2011 09:04 AM

By William Chedsey

Russia’s legislature says the New START nuclear arms treaty ratified last month by the U.S. Senate restricts the U.S. from building and operating missile defenses against nuclear attacks. President Obama says the opposite: that the treaty “places no limitations on the development or deployment of our missile defense programs.”

US- NATO Missile Deployments directed against Russia: Putin Prepares For War

US- NATO Missile Deployments directed against Russia: Putin Prepares For War

Vladimir Putin is the most popular leader in the world today. His personal approval ratings are in the stratosphere, usually well-above 80 percent. He is admired for his quiet, confident manner and for having restored Russia to its former greatness following the chaotic breakup of the Soviet Union. The Russian people love Putin. Parents name their children after him, vodka and caviar producers use his name to boost sales, and his face appears on the tee-shirts of students and young people. It's unthinkable that he would step down after his term as prime minister is over a year from today. The Russian people want him to stay on and run for a third term as president, and that's probably what he'll do.

Reagan Aide Perle: START 'Seriously Flawed'

Reagan Aide Perle: START 'Seriously Flawed'

Thursday, 16 Dec 2010 

By Dan Weil and Ashley Martella

Instead of pressuring reluctant Republican senators for rapid ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia, the Obama administration should just drop it, says Richard Perle, a key architect of President Ronald Reagan’s strategy to end the Cold War.

U.S. military backs START despite Republican concerns | Reuters

U.S. military backs START despite Republican concerns | Reuters

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON | Thu Dec 16, 2010 6:41pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top military officials said on Thursday the United States badly needed ratification of the New START nuclear treaty with Russia, even as Republican senators questioned its implications for national security.General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters all the military service chiefs were "very much behind this treaty" because it would provide transparency as Russia and the United States modernize their nuclear forces.