Obama Issues Orders to Escalate War in Afghanistan

Graphic from viceland.com

President Obama has issued orders to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending between thirty and thirty-five thousand additional troops. Obama will outline his war plans tonight in a prime-time address but he has already notified military leaders of his decision. On top of previous reinforcements sent earlier this year, the troop buildup will nearly triple the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan that President Obama inherited when he took office. Despite Obama’s plan to escalate the war, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs claimed the president has a plan to wind down the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

Robert Gibbs: “The president will reiterate tomorrow what I’ve said a number of times, which is that this is not an open-ended-–this is not an open-ended commitment; that we are there to partner with the Afghans, to train the Afghan national security forces, the army and the police, so that they can provide security for their country and wage a battle against an unpopular insurgency in that country.”


Opponents of War Escalation Plan Protests Tonight Around the Country
Organizations opposed to an escalation of the war in Afghanistan are planning protests and actions on Tuesday, Dec. 1, designed to coincide with President Obama's speech at West Point announcing a troop increase in that conflict. The organizations include CodePink, SDS, United for Peace & Justice and The World Can't Wait. Many of the groups have been galvanized by the open letter to President Obama written by filmmaker Michael Moore:

From MichaelMoore.com:
"Dear President Obama,
Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so..."


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FBI Releases New Hate Crime Data
New FBI statistics show the number of hate crimes against African-Americans jumped sharply in 2008 amid President Obama’s presidential campaign. The number of attacks on Blacks increased eight percent last year to nearly twenty nine hundred. Hate crimes based on religion increased nine percent. Two-thirds of the attacks were against Jews. Meanwhile the number of victims of bias-motivated crimes based on sexual orientation increased by 11 percent.


More Americans Depending on Food Stamps and Food Banks
More Americans are depending on food stamps and food banks, especially senior citizens. New government statistics show the number of seniors living alone who seek help from food pantries in the U.S. increased by 81 percent between 2006 and 2008. And the demand continues to increase. Catholic Charities USA reported a 54 percent increase in requests for food and services from seniors nationwide during the third quarter compared to the same period last year.

Aine Duggan, Food Bank for New York City: “The fact of the matter is the staggering unemployment rates, poverty, and food insecurity are increasing across the nation and all of the economists are predicting that those staggering unemployment rates are going to last until 2012. So, it’s very difficult for those of us who are working on the front lines to understand what’s meant by recovery and recession ending, because it’s not ending any time soon for the people we serve."


Fed: High Unemployment Expected Through 2012
The Federal Reserve is warning it expects a high unemployment rate over the next several years. On Tuesday, a Fed report said unemployment will remain well above the 5 percent benchmark through 2012. Another report meanwhile downgraded previous estimates of national economic growth in the third quarter from 3.5 percent to 2.8 percent.


Bank Loans Fall to 25-Year Low
New figures meanwhile show bank lending continues to decline. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says lending fell 2.8 percent in the third quarter, the largest drop in at least 25 years.


Supreme Court Overturns Ruling on Torture Photos
The Supreme Court has upheld the Obama administration’s efforts to withhold the release of photographs of prisoners being tortured and abused by U.S. forces. On Monday the Supreme Court vacated a lower court ruling that would have required the government to release the photographs to the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a government brief, some of the photos show “soldiers pointing pistols or rifles at the heads of hooded and handcuffed detainees,” a soldier who appears to be striking a detainee with the butt of a rifle, and a soldier holding a broom “as if sticking its end” into a prisoner’s rectum.


Comcast Moves Closer to Purchasing NBC Universal
In media news, the nation’s largest cable television company Comcast appears one step closer to buying the television and movie giant NBC Universal from General Electric. Such a deal would give Comcast control of the NBC network, the Spanish-language Telemundo, cable channels including MSNBC, dozens of local television stations and the Universal film studio. Josh Silver of the media reform group Free Press said “If Washington allows this deal to go through, Comcast will have unprecedented control of marquee content and three major distribution platforms: Internet, broadcast and cable. We’ve never seen this kind of consolidated control.”


California Man Jailed For Illegally Housing the Homeless
In California, a 66-year-old man was jailed on Monday after being accused of illegally housing homeless people on his ranch in San Luis Obispo. For the past eight years, Dan De Vaul has run a sober-living center for about 30 homeless people on his 72-acre ranch. In September a jury convicted him of two misdemeanor violations of building and safety codes at his ranch. De Vaul was offered probation but he refused the terms. De Vaul said QUOTE “I’m proud to go to jail for housing the homeless.”


Scientists: Climate Change “Accelerating Beyond Expectations”
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As U.S. Probes Radiation at Three Mile Island, Journalist Writes About “Zombie Nuke Plants” Nationwide
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Journalist Christian Parenti says “Zombie Nuke Plants” like Three Mile Island should have been closed long time ago, but continue to operate. The real issue, he says, is what happens to our old nuclear plants, such as Three Mile Island. He says the country’s oldest plants—most of which opened in the early 70s, and were designed to operate for only thirty to forty years—should be dead by now. Yet, zombie-like, they march on, thanks to the indulgence of the NRC.

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: Well, they’re all over the country. There are 104 reactors in the U.S., they’re all over the country. They were designed to last for 40 years. What has happened over the last several years is that half of this fleet of atomic reactors has been re-licensed for 20 years. There is actually a discussion of re-licensing some of them for another 20 years. What happens in many cases is that new companies bought them, frequently these old plants were unburdened of their dead at the expense of the ratepayers, and now you have companies like Exelon which gave over 225—$225,000 to Obama and has contracted regularly with Axelrod, David Axelrod’s PR firm. So they buy these plants and they are now running them for an extra 20 years.

One of the problems is that radiation makes metal brittle, so these plants are in serious disrepair. There were designed to last 40 years and now will be used for 60 years. On top of that, there’s a process called uprating whereby these operators can apply to increase the rate in which to operate the plant and in some cases up to 120% of design capacity. For example, Vermont Yankee outside Brattleboro, Vermont runs at 120% of its design capacity and it’s at the end of its life.


Appeals Court Affirms Eminent Domain for Proposed Brooklyn Stadium
And in New York, state officials and developers behind a massive stadium project have won a key legal victory to seize private property from Brooklyn residents. On Tuesday, the court of appeals said the state can use eminent domain to seize land planned for the $4.9 billion dollar Atlantic Yards project. Opponents of eminent domain have argued its unconstitutional and lawmakers have faced calls to curb its use. The group Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn says it plans to continue its campaign against the proposed stadium.


Washington Post Shutters Remaining U.S. Bureaus
In media news, the Washington Post has announced its closing its three remaining domestic bureaus. Six reporters based in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will be reassigned after their offices are closed at the end of the year.


Supporter of Coup Wins Election in Honduras
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