There are few people in this world who would defend Gaddafi as a sane and viable leader of Libya; but I think there would be even less that would see the logic in the U.S selling guns to someone as psychotic as him and then parading about as world police.

It's the equivalent of a sheriff giving an outlaw a six-shooter and then acting surprised when he starts popping off the town folk. 

The second one U.S plane gets shot down by one U.S surface-to-air missile, all the military big wigs should get together and make a decision once and for all - "we have to stop shooting at tyrants we've given guns to".

What do you think about Libya? What do you think about the obvious contradictions in U.S foreign policy and how do you think they should be addressed? Tell us and remember...Disqus!  . . read more

Almost exactly a year ago- as the global financial crisis was at its most threatening- a friend and I went to a talk at the Adam Smith Institute.

The main speaker- a very forgettable Conservative MP- extoled the value of the free market and market liberalisation while most sensible pundits and politicians were dipping into socialist economics for capitalism's salvation.

After the talk we stayed around to drink champagne, eat canapes and talk to some girls but we were interrupted by some cartoonish toffs.

They (and then the director of the institute) continued the discussion about the virtues of the free market, with the director almost pleading with us to believe that this was a credit crisis and not a failing of his beloved theory. 

Looking at Obama's banking reforms, it seems Mr Free Market is looking even more the fool.

Obama has sought to separate investment and commercial banks, and is trying to strip 'too big to fail' from the corporate lexicon. 

It seems in the land where the free market was the closest to conquering sense, that sense has finally hit back. 

And hopefully is set to stay.   . . read more

In short it's a history making moment for Obama that will define him.

So I'd like to say, as a citizen of one those countries that has lived with the dangers of socialised medicine for years, as a citizen of a country that has watched the twists and turns of U.S politics with increasing exasparation, and as a citizen of a country that can't understand why universal healthcare hasn't existed for decades-

Welcome to world of sanity you selfish fucks.  . . read more

"The right to liberty is one of the foundation rights of a free people.  The idea  that any US President can bypass Congress and bypass the Courts by issuing an  Executive Order setting up a new legal system for indefinite detention of people  should rightfully scare the hell out of the American people. Advisors in the Obama administration have floated the idea of creating a special  new legal system to indefinitely detain people by Executive Order."

With the goal being to clean up the Guantanamo Bay disaster, Quigley and Warren argue that this is by no means a solution and it may even be worse. Click the link to read more at Counter Punch.  . . read more

With Berlusconi before the courts and with Libya's war pornography helping the world get off, it's easy to forget that there's a 23 year old kid sitting in solitary confinement facing life imprisonment.

Bradley Manning, the U.S private accused of leaking 720,000 documents to WikiLeaks has been forgotten; he's not getting Assange like fame or reverence, or an Assange like house arrest.

Instead he's been shackled, alone in a cell and very often disrobed so he doesn't harm himself.  

Whether you agree with what he did or not, we have to remember that he's a U.S citizen, we have to remember what rights he has, and we have to remember what terrible long years he faces alone. 

We have to remember him.   . . read more