[Ed. note: The Republicans talk a lot about family values and McCain's character. This is a UK news story about McCain's "character."]

The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind
By Sharon Churcher

Now that Hillary Clinton has at last formally withdrawn from the race for the White House, the eyes of America and the world will focus on Barack Obama and his Republican rival Senator John McCain.

While Obama will surely press his credentials as the embodiment of the American dream – a handsome, charismatic young black man who was raised on food stamps by a single mother and who represents his country’s future – McCain will present himself as a selfless, principled war hero whose campaign represents not so much a battle for the presidency of the United States, but a crusade to rescue the nation’s tarnished reputation.

McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children.

But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children.

And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain’s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965.

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.

[Ed. note: You have to read this closely; the main election points are in the middle and end of the article. It's amazing that the Brits censor their own media for US political propaganda.]

Government issued notice to stop Afghanistan reports
by Anthony Loyd

It was not merely the Taleban, the hostile tribes, the bombs, mines and even more hostile terrain that haunted British commanders as they planned their most audacious and complex operation in Helmand to date.

They already knew that carrying a delicate, multimillion-dollar cargo of machinery along 75km (47 miles) of road to the power plant at Kajaki would be beset with obstacles.

Yet they also understood that the plan was fraught with political and military problems at the highest levels. The knowledge left many Nato commanders wondering whether the lives of their men were being risked for the sake of little more than American political expediency.

Going on an Imperial Bender
How the U.S. Garrisons the Planet and Doesn't Even Notice
By Tom Engelhardt

Here it is, as simply as I can put it: In the course of any year, there must be relatively few countries on this planet on which U.S. soldiers do not set foot, whether with guns blazing, humanitarian aid in hand, or just for a friendly visit. In startling numbers of countries, our soldiers not only arrive, but stay interminably, if not indefinitely. Sometimes they live on military bases built to the tune of billions of dollars that amount to sizeable American towns (with accompanying amenities), sometimes on stripped down forward operating bases that may not even have showers. When those troops don't stay, often American equipment does -- carefully stored for further use at tiny "cooperative security locations," known informally as "lily pads" (from which U.S. troops, like so many frogs, could assumedly leap quickly into a region in crisis).

At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans had an estimated 37 major military bases scattered around their dominions. At the height of the British Empire, the British had 36 of them planetwide. Depending on just who you listen to and how you count, we have hundreds of bases. According to Pentagon records, in fact, there are 761 active military "sites" abroad.

The fact is: We garrison the planet north to south, east to west, and even on the seven seas, thanks to our various fleets and our massive aircraft carriers which, with 5,000-6,000 personnel aboard -- that is, the population of an American town -- are functionally floating bases.

And here's the other half of that simple truth: We don't care to know about it. We, the American people, aided and abetted by our politicians, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media, are knee-deep in base denial.

Now, that's the gist of it. If, like most Americans, that's more than you care to know, stop here.

[Ed. note: Jaw-dropping revelations on the state of US geopolitical strategy in the last five paragraphs.]

Russia, Europe and USA: Fundamental Geopolitics
by F. William Engdahl

As details of the larger strategic picture emerge over what is at stake in the Georgia and larger Caucasus crisis, it is becoming clearer that Moscow is not determined to roll back the borders of Stalin and the Cold War of 1948. What Putin and now Medvedev have begun is a process of defusing the highly dangerous NATO expansion, led by the Washington warhawks since the end of the Cold War in 1990.

Had events progressed as Washington had planned up until the surprise rejection of NATO membership from no less than ten European NATO member countries, including Germany and France at the April NATO Summit, Georgia would today have been in the admission process to NATO-ization along with Ukraine. That would have opened the door to full-scale encirclement of Russia militarily and economically.

In Utah in the "land of the free" it's illegal to catch rainwater. The rain is "private property" and you need "water rights" to catch rain falling on your roof. But don't worry -- the authorities are only harassing green businesses; they're not (yet) prosecuting homeowners who water their gardens this way.

Let them eat cake: king's party angers hard-up Swazis

Mbabane, Swaziland/Johannesburg - A few apples and oranges, some corn on the cob, the odd avocado - a bounty not fit for a king but good loot for some of the impoverished demonstrators who swarmed through the streets of Swaziland's capital Mbabane on Thursday in protest at lavish anniversary celebrations planned for the weekend.

Several hundred striking workers and youths brandishing sticks and branches ran through the streets, smashing car windows and looting shops in some of the worst rioting in the normally peaceable mountainous city in decades.

Torture As Official Israeli Policy
By Stephen Lendman

The UN Convention against Torture defines the practice as:

"any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain and suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity...."

[Ed. note: If you're offended by the title, good! Just remember the words of US Army Major General Antonio Taguba, who was assigned by the Pentagon to investigate claims of torture after Abu Ghraib: "...[T]he commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture.... There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes."]

Torture As Official US Policy
By Stephen Lendman

Post-9/11, torture has been official US policy under George Bush - authorized at the highest levels of government. Evidence of its systematic practice continues to surface. First some background.

Why We Were Falsely Arrested
By Amy Goodman

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Government crackdowns on journalists are a true threat to democracy. As the Republican National Convention meets in St. Paul, Minn., this week, police are systematically targeting journalists. I was arrested with my two colleagues, “Democracy Now!” producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, while reporting on the first day of the RNC. I have been wrongly charged with a misdemeanor. My co-workers, who were simply reporting, may be charged with felony riot.

This is just a reminder: Don't believe the crap we post!

Seriously. Instead of believing the news you read/hear/watch, think about it. Know the source of your news. Consider that news source and the article's author. Consider the author's background. Think about the phrase "follow the money." Beware of statistics cited, and if they're not cited take them with a grain of salt. Watch out for biased or inaccurate headlines.

Above all, think!

So be skeptical. Look for spin. Read and read some more. Decide for yourself what your personal values are, what you think governments should be doing, and where your personal morality lies.

[Ed. note: Dissent is being criminalized. What, you didn't think those terrorist laws would be used against loyal Americans and to kill free speech?! Read the book "1984"; we're starting to live it.]

Eight Members of RNC Activist Group Lodged with Terrorism Charges

Ramsey County prosecutors have formally charged eight members of a prominent activist group with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism. The eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee are believed to be the first persons ever charged under the 2002 Minnesota version of the federal PATRIOT Act. The activists face up to seven-and-a-half years in prison. We speak with the father of one of those charged and the president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

Republican insiders caught by hot mic: Race is over
By Jimmy Orr

Don’t expect Republican strategist Michael Murphy and Wall Street Journalist column Peggy Noonan to receive Christmas cards from the John McCain and Sarah Palin campaign this year.

On the most critical night of the year so far for the McCain-Palin ticket, the two Republican insiders were talking with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd about the Palin VP selection. The segment wraps up. End of story.

Not so fast.

The problem? They kept talking. The mics were still on, and they didn’t know it.

So what do they think when not spouting the made-for-TV talking points?

Let me paint the scene. In a Portuguese soccer game, one fan runs out onto the field showing off. The security cops chase him down and tackle him. Multiple cops start hitting the fan. Next some of the crowd empties from the stands onto the field and start chasing, pummeling, and kicking the cops (even a player helps out). I'm betting the cops will show a little respect next time they apprehend a foolish fan.

The McCain Plan: Homer Simpson without the Donut
By Greg Palast

I’m guessing it was excessive exposure to either radiation or George Bush, but Senator John McCain’s comments from inside a nuclear power plant in Michigan are so cracked-brained that I fear some loose gamma rays are doing to McCain’s gray matter what they did to Homer Simpson’s.

On Tuesday, the presumptive Republican candidate descended into the colon of a nuke to declare we need to build 45 new nuclear plants - that this is the way out of our energy crisis. Nuclear power, declared the senator, is a “safe, efficient [and] inexpensive” alternative to oil.

Really? We can argue all day about whether nuclear plants are safe (they aren’t –period). But there can be no argument whatsoever that these giant radioactive tea-kettles are breathtakingly expensive.

How the Bush Administration is Helping McCain
The Fake U.S. Victory in Iraq
By PATRICK COCKBURN

Political events in Iraq are seldom what they seem. The hand- over by the US military of control of Anbar province, once the heartland of the Sunni rebellion, to Iraqi forces is a case in point. The US will keep 25,000 American soldiers in Anbar, so the extent to which the Iraqi government will really take over is debatable. But the future of Anbar is a crucial pointer to the fate of Iraq. It is a vast area and one of the few parts of Iraq that is overwhelmingly Sunni.

[Ed. note: I changed the headline above. I don't consider this type of sleazy underhanded corporate control "laughable".]

The 5 most laughable terms of service on the Net

Nobody reads terms of service agreements, those legal documents new users have to click a box to say they've read. And the truth is, they hardly matter to anybody but the cyber-rights-now crowd who get worked up by articles on Boing Boing, and the paranoid lawyers at large Web companies who want to avoid money-fishing lawsuits. But sometimes they go far beyond protecting corporate interests into la-la land.

Did you know that when you download Google's new Chrome browser, you agree that any "content" you "submit, post or display" using the service — whether you own its copyright or not — gives Google a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute" it? Google's ambitions for Chrome are even larger than we thought; by the letter of this license, Google will own all information that flows through its browser. But Chrome's terms of service are just the latest in a long line of ludicrous legalese.

Israel of the Caucasus
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE

NATO guarantees that an attack against one member country is an attack against all are no longer what they used to be. Had Georgia been inside NATO, a number of European countries would no longer be willing to consider it an attack against their own soil.

Suspected U.S. troops kill 20 in Pakistan attack
By Hafiz Wazir

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Suspected U.S. commandos from Afghanistan killed 20 people, including women and children, in a pre-dawn raid inside Pakistan, officials said, an attack branded as an assault on the nation's sovereignty.

The attack is likely to spark uproar in Pakistan, where it will be seen as undermining sovereignty at a time when a new civilian government is struggling to assert authority in the turbulent nuclear-armed state.

"It is outrageous," Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West Frontier province, said in a statement.

George W. Bush's Policies Must End
By PATRICK SEALE

If the world were voting in the U.S. presidential elections next November, Barack Obama would be certain to win. Such is the longing across the globe -- and nowhere more than in Europe and the Arab world -- for the United States to recover its sanity, its authority and its reputation. But the world will not be voting.

The American electorate -- distracted by the current economic downturn, manipulated by special interest groups, and largely ignorant of the outside world -- cannot be counted on to put Obama in the White House, although the polls suggest that most Americans have a sense that their country is heading in the wrong direction.

[Ed. note: As the US struggles with Russia for Caspian Sea oil reserves and debates climate-change-denier Sarah Palin, the US still refuses to do anything significant about global warming; all while others pay the price for the industrial world's pollution.]

BENIN: Coastal erosion threatening to wipe out parts of Cotonou

Rising sea levels have destroyed hundreds of homes, hotels, roads and harvests, and threaten to engulf large areas of Cotonou, Benin’s capital.