By Kenneth J. Theisen

Imagine going to a bank and asking for a few billion dollars. When the banker asks what you are going to do with it, you tell him to go screw himself. He then gives you the money anyway. Yes, that is hard to imagine. But if you are the bank, and the institution giving you the bucks is Congress, it is perfectly plausible. 

By Marjorie Cohn 

By Reuters

By David Swanson

This is the question now raised in Iraq: If they throw shoes at your face are you a combat troop or a noncombat troop? The answer may be important in helping to guide President Elect Obama's strategy of reducing but continuing the genocidal occupation that has made a shoeless journalist one of the most beloved, if little known, people in the world overnight.

A related dilemma is this: If shoes become weapons, were the metal detectors, searches, and bribes to phony journalists successful? This strikes me as a similar question to the following: if box cutters become weapons, were the nuclear arsenal, the missile offense shield, and the empire of bases successful?

That all depends upon what the goal was, I suppose. If the goal encompassed the well-being of only one person, then success may have been achieved. Dallas mansion, six-figure speeches, and drunk golfing here I come! But no dog's goal would ever be so narrow, and animal rights groups can be expected to speak out against Muntadar al-Zeidi's comparison of George W. Bush to a dog. I also hope human rights groups will be closely monitoring the well-being of this shoe-throwing hero to billions.

By Kenneth J. Theisen

By Dennis Loo

In the Post Op-Ed, Miller calls for the Obama administration to ban any “kiss and tell” books from White House insiders--making serving in the administration the equivalent of omertà, the mafia’s code of silence--for five years after leaving the administration. 

People in the United States Have the Responsibility to Stop the Endless Wars  

When: Tuesday, November 11, 7:00 pm

Where: Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, NYC

Speakers: Scott Ritter, Larry Everest, Jeremy Scahill, Elaine Brower

Following the election of Barack Obama, noted critics and activists against the US occupation of Iraq will speak on the responsibilities of people in the United States to continue to oppose "endless wars."  The public is invited.

From BBC news

American officials in Afghanistan have confirmed that a number of civilians have been killed in an air strike. The incident happened in Kandahar province late on Tuesday evening when a wedding party was bombed.

A local member of parliament told the BBC that as many as 38 people may have died. Details are still emerging. President Karzai has repeatedly criticised the high level of civilian casualties from coalition bombings and called on Barack Obama to stop them. The latest incident underlines the challenges ahead for US President-elect and future commander-in-chief.

World Can't Wait held its annual "Festival of Resistance" on the University of Hawai`i - Manoa campus Friday, October 26^th. During the week prior to the festival more than 100 brilliant orange signs were hung from trees and railings: "Stop Torture" - "No Strykers" - "Stop the War" - "Pro Choice" - "No Human Being is Illegal" - "Arrest Bush & Cheney" and many more. A "Join the Festival of Resistance" banner stayed up in a central square for the entire week.

The morning of the festival activists put up another hundred signs all over campus, and big banners were dropped from building rooftops: "Before And After the Elections - We Are Still Against the War," "No Torture," "U.S. Military Out of Makua," "Stop Police Brutality," "No Attack on Iran,"" The entire area around Campus Center was covered with banners and signs and AFSC's display of boots and shoes symbolizing victims of war were lined up on the Campus Center steps.