photo: Orange County ArchivesA conflict may be emerging between the National Rifle Association (NRA) and several large national medical and mental health associations regarding the expansion of US and state government mental health databases. Medical Daily reported last week that four national medical and mental health associations have sent letters to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expressing concern about a proposed rule to increase the flow of mental health records...

photo: World Economic ForumHere we go again, another round of Mideast peace talk kabuki. A process in which Washington, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization hold intense talks over holding talks, a ritual as stylized as the traditional Japanese dance. In the end, it’s the same empty, cynical ritual, year after year. This past week, US Secretary of State John Kerry has been leading the dance in the latest attempt to restart peace talks between Israel and the Mahmoud Abbas’ PLO. As...

photo: DaveybotPodcast host Adam Kokesh appears to have joined the long list of victims of the US government's drugs and guns prosecution trap. After a US Park Police raid on his Virginia residence last week, media reported Monday that Kokesh was charged with possession of a Schedule I or II drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act while in possession of a gun. After his arrest, a judge ruled that Kokesh is prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm through the end of his...

photo:Foreign and Commonwealth OfficeBritish Foreign Secretary William Hague announced yesterday that his government would be spending nearly one million dollars providing the Syrian rebels with special hoods and other equipment to protect them from chemical weapons. He promised that the assistance would only go to "moderate" forces, but did not explain how he would measure who was moderate or who was extreme. That will be no easy task. For example, as a commander of the Free Syrian Army, Abu...

photo: Truthout.orgWhy so many whistleblowers? Why the Tom Drakes? Why the Edward Snowdens and others? And why the persecution, unprecedented persecution by the administration? The answer to those questions is a huge answer. And the answer is the national security state which we've become and the interminable war that we wage as that state. So Snowden is not the disease. We don't have traitors or whistleblowers blooming all over because they are some sort of malady. The disease is war. We've...

Although the main spot in the world news is still occupied by Egypt, which has come to the brink of civil war, the tensions in Turkey are constantly making themselves felt. While Egypt, according to the popular blog Haberturk, is already “going the way of Libya,” the civil disturbances in Turkey are clearly of a protracted nature. In the last several days the activity on the streets of Istanbul and other Turkish cities has died down somewhat, but has not faded away entirely. The police is...

photo: -lucky cat-It’s very revealing and symbolic that President Morales’ plane should have been forced to land in a European Union country after the withdrawal of overflight rights by other EU countries, because this, of course, shows how the European poodle jumps at the American circus master’s command. European governments are very obviously under the thumb of the Americans, they have shown this very blatantly. And the reason why I say it’s symbolic is that the abuses which Snowden has...

The July 3 move by the Egyptian military to stabilize the country signals the collapse of Obama’s Middle East policy. Washington’s present interventionist regional policy began during the George W. Bush administration and was fatally flawed from the start. The Obama administration simply compounded the mistakes while moving it forward. Vice President Dick Cheney and his neo-con team created a crusade against the Shia branch of Islam targeting Iran, its ally Syria, and Hizbullah in Lebanon. The...