Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Ilan Grapel, American-Israeli accused of spying, to be released by Egypt - The Washington Post

  Egypt will release a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen held on suspicion of spying in exchange for 25 Egyptians jailed in Israel under a deal reached with the help of Washington, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Monday. A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Egypt had agreed to release Ilan Grapel, who has been held since June 12. Israel will release 25 Egyptians, including three minors, none of them jailed for security offenses, the statement said.

• Why can't we say "empire"? - Foreign policy - Salon.com

  Crowley and his establishment colleagues would have us believe we just woke up one day and found ourselves “the lone superpower in the world” rather than admitting that the position is the calculated result of empire building. They downplay our imperial behavior as mundane statecraft — as he put it, simply “throw[ing] our weight around.” But whatever euphemism you prefer, it’s undeniable that America is an empire — and it’s undeniable that the airing of this simple truth is highly inconvenient to those who represent the empire. It’s inconvenient to them because they fear the empire’s serfs might not be so supportive of our government’s long-term ambitions if they discover what those ambitions are.

• Are regulations killing US jobs? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

  Politicians pushing right-wing positions in public debate now operate with the assumption that they can get away with saying anything without getting serious scrutiny from the media. That is why right-wing politicians repeatedly blame government regulation for the failure of the economy to generate jobs. Even though there is no truth whatsoever to the claim, right-wing politicians know that the media will treat their nonsense respectfully in news coverage. If political reporters did their job, they would make an effort to determine the validity of the regulation-killing-jobs story and expose the politicians making the claim as either ignorant or dishonest, just as if a politician was going around claiming that September 11 was an inside job. However, today's reporters are either too lazy or incompetent to do their homework.

• EA WorldView - Home - Yemen Feature: Drones & the Killing of an American Teenager (Greenwald)

  Two weeks after the U.S. killed American citizen Anwar Awlaki with a drone strike in Yemen — far from any battlefield and with no due process — it did the same to his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, ending the teenager’s life on Friday along with his 17-year-old cousin and seven other people. News reports, based on government sources, originally claimed that Awlaki’s son was 21 years old and an Al Qaeda fighter (needless to say, as Terrorist often means: “anyone killed by the U.S.”), but a birth certificate published by The Washington Post proved that he was born only 16 years ago in Denver.

• Mitt Romney, Rick Perry & Herman Cain: Why the GOP Demonizes 'Illegals' - The Daily Beast

  ** Couldn't agree more! Use of the term 'illegals' is dehumanizing ** On the other hand, it’s just possible that the rhetorical dehumanization of millions of Latinos may have something to do with the big spike in anti-Latino hate crimes over the last decade. In 2010, for instance, a Phoenix man named Gary Kelley shot his neighbor, Juan Verela, after yelling, “Go back to Mexico or die!” No word yet on whether Kelley is an “illegal” as defined by Mitt Romney.

• Arab cry for affordable housing answered - FT.com

  Dubai’s Emaar Properties aims to tackle one of the main socioeconomic drivers of the unrest that has driven Arab revolutionary ferment this year: affordable housing. Dawahi Development, the property company’s specialist subsidiary, has been 18 months in the making, so the initiative predates the Arab spring, but the timing of this week’s launch is striking.

• Michele Bachmann on the Iraq withdrawal: Do Republicans think we own Iraq? - Slate Magazine

  But Gingrich’s and Santorum’s gripes are nothing compared to Michele Bachmann’s rage. On Face the Nation, she fumed: We've put a lot of deposit into this situation with Iraq. And to think that we are so disrespected and they have so little fear of the United States that there would be nothing that we would gain from this … We are there as the nation that liberated these people. And that's the thanks that the United States is getting after 4,400 lives were expended and over $800 billion? And so on the way out, we're being kicked out of the country? I think this is absolutely outrageous.

• Jobs Plan Stalled, Obama to Try New Economic Drive - NYTimes.com

  With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: “We can’t wait” for lawmakers to act.

• Police Pepper Spray Haka Dancers At Football Game In Utah

  ROOSEVELT, Utah -- Police in a small Utah town are being accused of overreacting after using pepper spray to break up a group of Polynesian men and boys performing a traditional dance called the Haka after a high school football game. The police action came after a pair of officers unsuccessfully attempted to disperse the dozen or so performers who were blocking an exit after the Union-Uintah game Thursday night, the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune reported.

• Over A Third Of Americans Support Occupy Wall Street Protests: Poll [LIVE UPDATES]

  More than one-third of the country supports the Wall Street protests, and even more – 58 percent – say they are furious about America's politics. The number of angry people is growing as deep reservoirs of resentment grip the country, according to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll.

• Church Of Scientology Investigated 'South Park' Creators Matt Stone, Trey Parker: Report

  Marty Rathbun, a former Church of Scientology executive-turned-critic and independent worshipper, revealed to the Village Voice a number of documents that detailed the religious sect's detailed surveillance of the Emmy-winning TV moguls. Through the help of informants, public records and various other means, they searched for "vulnerabilities" in the pair's personal lives, and after exploring their personal and business connections, widened their focus to investigating actors such as John Stamos, as well.

• Rick Perry Answers Questions On Obama Birth Certificate

  ** You've got to be kidding me ** Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry walked a fine line when presented with questions about President Barack Obama's birth certificate -- which was released by the White House earlier this year -- in a new interview with Parade magazine published online.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.