Dissent Mag

By Chris Hedges

The corporate state is our shadow government. Candidates who aspire to higher office get corporate money if they promote corporate interests. They are shut out of the national debate—look at Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader—if they do not. Defy the corporate state and you get handed a ticket to oblivion. You become invisible. Work for it and you are showered with tens of millions of dollars and the possibility of political power.

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By Siv O’Neall
Apr 18, 2008, 16:27

How did we come to this state of the world where we don’t know what we eat or drink, where there is nothing but secrecy as far as what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is plotting with the gigantic Monsanto corporation? Secrecy for the purpose of making Monsanto immune to legal suits, secrecy to make people unaware of what risks they are running when they drink rBGH milk, which is not labeled as coming from cows injected with the dangerous Bovine Growth Hormone. Yes, you read this right. U.S. dairy products are not even labeled as originating from rBGH milk. Incredible? Shocking? You bet.

Note video - “Genetic Foods/Monsanto Revealed” and “You and your milk (MONSANTO)” below the article

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Published on Sunday, April 27, 2008 by Salon.com
by Glenn Greenwald

John McCain was on a conference call with right-wing bloggers yesterday and boasted:

I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas’s worst nightmare.

What possible reason would a U.S. President have for turning himself and our country into a “nightmare” for Hamas, let alone its “worst nightmare”? Hamas is a single-issue Palestinian group, focused exclusively on its “territorial dispute” with Israel (and, in light of its victory in the U.S.-demanded election, is also now preoccupied with governing the Palestinian Authority). Is there anyone who thinks that Hamas has tried to, will try to, or ever could attack the U.S.? Hamas is an enemy of Israel, not the U.S. Is that a distinction we even recognize any more?

Note video “McCain = War” below the article

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By Larry Beinhart, AlterNet. Posted April 28, 2008.

The recession of 2001 never ended — at least not for ordinary Americans.

George Bush came into office. There was a recession almost immediately. Officially it began in March of 2001 and, officially, it ended eight months later.

The causes of that recession are vague and amorphous, generally credited to the “business cycle.”

Note - video “The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class” below the article

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By Stefan Steinberg

28 April, 2008
WSWS.org

A series of reports in the international media have drawn attention to the role of professional speculators and hedge funds in driving up the price of basic commodities—in particular, foodstuffs. The sharp increase in food prices in recent months has led to protests and riots in a number of countries across the globe.

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By NANCY GRAPE April 27, 2008

A New York Times report shines a light on how the military-industrial complex tries to shape broadcast news

The faces dominating the front page of The New York Times last Sunday were male, strong-jawed and familiar. Indeed, that was the point.

They were the faces of nine retired military officers (there were more inside the paper) who appear regularly on network and cable television news to give viewers informed, independent assessments of the war in Iraq.

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Black Hole In Bush’s Brain

By Peter Chamberlin

28 April, 2008
Countercurrents.org

Judging from the campaign rhetoric coming out of both camps, whoever wins the Oval Office will be inclined to continue the failed military policies in Iraq and to pursue a confrontation with Iran. Apparently it does not matter to either party what will follow those actions, or what these disastrous policies have produced as they played-out in Iraq and Afghanistan. It does not matter who gets elected, whether it is “bomb, bomb Iran” McCain, or “obliterate/massive retaliation” Clinton, nothing will change.

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