Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he would steer clear of provocative gestures or raising tensions with Venezuela after troops from that country blew up two foot bridges along the border. Venezuelan soldiers yesterday dynamited rope suspension bridges crossing the Tachira River near the Colombian hamlet of Ragonvalia, in the northeastern province of Norte de Santander, according to Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva. Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizalez said the pedestrian crossings were used to move contraband. “We cannot make gestures of violence toward Venezuela, our brother,” Uribe said in an interview with Colombia’s RCN Radio. “This is Colombia’s great opportunity to show the world its only interest is defeating terrorism.” Chavez last week told his military to prepare to resist an invasion by Colombia, which signed an agreement last month to give U.S. troops access to seven military bases. Colombia’s government has denied any intention of attacking Venezuela and says the U.S. accord will help fight drug trafficking and domestic terrorism. [Note: Let's call this, trying to destabilize Venezuela. Shame on you, Uribe.]

The military coup by SOA graduates in Honduras has once again exposed the destabilizing and deadly effects that the School of the Americas has on Latin America. The actions of the school’s graduates are unmasking the Pentagon rhetoric and reveal the anti-democratic results of U.S. policies. It is time for a change towards justice. From November 20-22, 2009, thousands will vigil at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, to stand up for justice, to shut down the School of the Americas and to end the oppressive U.S. foreign policy that the school represents.

Palin is whining about her Newsweek photo, but it reflects who and what she really is.

Thom Hartmann talks with John Perkins author of Hoodwinked and Confessions of an Economic Hit man

For decades, I've heard that one big reason drug companies charge so much for their products is that they need plenty of money for R&D (research and development). Staying on the pharmaceutical cutting edge, the argument goes, is part of what has given America "the greatest health care system in the world." Yeah, it works just great -- for CEOs, stockholders and wealthy people in general. The difference between what the drug companies are charging and what Americans pay for most other products is astonishing.

International travel by world leaders is mainly about making symbolic gestures. But let’s hope that when the cameras aren’t rolling Mr. Obama and his hosts engage in some frank talk about currency policy. For the problem of international trade imbalances is about to get substantially worse. And there’s a potentially ugly confrontation looming unless China mends its ways. Despite huge trade surpluses and the desire of many investors to buy into this fast-growing economy, Chinese authorities have kept that currency persistently weak. China’s weak-currency policy exacerbates the problem [of the depressed state of the world economy], in effect siphoning much-needed demand away from the rest of the world into the pockets of artificially competitive Chinese exporters. This problem is about to get much worse. Because for the past year the true scale of the China problem has been masked by temporary factors. Looking forward, we can expect to see both China’s trade surplus and America’s trade deficit surge. Unfortunately, the Chinese don’t seem to get it: rather than face up to the need to change their currency policy, they’ve taken to telling us to raise interest rates and curb fiscal deficits. And I’m not sure the Obama administration gets it, either. The administration’s statements on Chinese currency policy seem pro forma, lacking any sense of urgency. That needs to change. I don’t begrudge Mr. Obama the banquets and the photo ops; they’re part of his job. But behind the scenes he better be warning the Chinese that they’re playing a dangerous game.

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992Drug makers say they have valid business reasons for the price increases. Critics say the industry is trying to establish a higher price base before Congress passes legislation that tries to curb drug spending in coming years.

After eight years of war, we’re losing – only to have turned Afghanistan and Pakistan into terroristic turmoil.

Censorship increases as killings become routine. "I don’t want to die young," says one reporter. Like on any other Monday morning, reporter Bladimir Antuna kissed his family goodbye and set off in his Ford SUV to work the crime beat at a local newspaper in Durango city. Hours later his lifeless corpse was found beaten, strangled and dumped outside a public hospital. “This is what happened to me for giving information to the military and writing what I shouldn’t. Take care of your texts before you do your story,” said a message scrawled on cardboard next to the cadaver. Antuna’s brutal murder marks Mexico’s worst year on record for the slaying of its media workers, many who have been killed covering the relentless drug war. The incessant violence and intimidation is leading to many journalists to censor their coverage of the cartels and corresponding police corruption.

The current U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, General Karl W. Eikenberry, who was top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007, has told President Obama he opposes sending more troops. .... snip ... When the RAND Corporation held a forum on Afghanistan recently on Capitol Hill, Zbigniew Brzezinski claimed that it was uncontroversial that US troops had to stay in Afghanistan. I pointed him to polls of Americans, and he replied that Americans get fatigued and don't know any better.

"I was facilitating a meeting in Washington, DC this past weekend, and an Iraq “War” veteran claimed that the GI resistance movement ended the Vietnam War. I started to say that I was sure that the GI movement was a part of ending the Vietnam War as was the draft, the student movement, the Congress (that had some influence back then), and I was interrupted by the rep from Veterans for Peace who simply said: “actually it was the Vietnamese people who ended that war.” That’s the plain truth after millions dead/wounded, the Vietnamese people succeeded in vanquishing the U.S."

Chomsky takes on a critic. "Noam Chomsky interviewed on the BBC program HARDtalk, during his tour of the United Kingdom in Nov. 2009."

He has been the most recent high level official to state publicly what many NATO military and political leaders are increasingly recognizing as a primary obstacle to success in the war torn country.

A study of internal company documents suggests Pfizer Inc altered or omitted unfavorable study findings to expand its epilepsy drug Neurontin's market, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday, offering a look at how drugmakers influence scientific research. Clinical trials are supposed to answer a specific, predetermined scientific question, but a comparison of Pfizer documents and published studies on Neurontin for conditions other than epilepsy found that eight out of 20 study reports never made it into medical journals. And in eight of the 12 published studies, the primary outcome -- the answer to the main scientific question -- was changed by Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker, from the original study design.

"Soon we’ll know who our new administration has in mind to replace Karzai’s regime. Will it be an insider like our General Wardak? Certainly not impossible. He’s been the man for decades, and they’ve invested a lot in him and his son, and enriched him and his family tremendously. Will it be another puppet just like Karzai but with a new face? Certainly possible. That would mean another group of carpetbagger war profiteers entering the market to grab the pots of gold financed by us, while the Karzais and Wardaks go away and enjoy their hundreds of millions of dollars stashed somewhere."

Last month, a large ship carrying 76 men was seized off the coast. Although the origins of the ship and the men was initially unknown, the government has learned that the men are Tamil migrants and the ship was used by the LTTE, a terrorist organization...

Gordon Brown warned the Afghan government today that he will not continue to risk the lives of British troops to defend a corrupt regime. In a clear policy shift, the Prime Minister cautioned President Karzai that unless he quashes endemic corruption he will have “forfeited” his right to international support. As he tried to shore up faltering public opinion at home by claiming that the conflict was a “necessity, not choice”, Mr Brown appeared to open the way for a possible exit strategy. “I am not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm’s way for a government that does not stand up against corruption,” he said.

His books sell in their hundreds of thousands, he is mobbed by students as a celebrity, but he is rarely reported or interviewed in the US outside radical journals and websites. The explanation, of course, isn't hard to find. Chomsky is America's most prominent critic of the US imperial role in the world, which he has used his erudition and standing to expose and excoriate since Vietnam.

New York City may be the dirtiest city in the country (per square foot), but New York City residents have the lowest carbon footprint in the nation on a per capita basis. David Owen, author of Green Metropolis, explains why.

Battle in Kentucky with an openly can candidate seeking to unseat an ultra-conservative incumbent. Finally, one of the biggest nightmares to Kentucky's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex community, Representative Stan Lee (R-Lexington) has competition in the upcoming 2010 election. Lee is not only a nightmare to the LGBTI community, but EVERYONE who wants to move Kentucky forward and stands for equality, justice, and progress. The election is closer than you think, considering the primary is in May 2010. Representative Lee has run unopposed in the last several elections.