New accounts of waterboarding, other water torture and abuses in secret prisons.

By Noam Chomsky - Znet

Dr. Chomsky said that while he is no fan of President Obama, the positions of most Republican candidates on issues such as climate change are "utterly outlandish."

August 27, 2012 - Hollywood Reporter

Giant, walking vaginas have descended upon the Republican National Convention...Several demonstrators from the feminist group Code Pink wore frilly pink costumes while others adorned with cardboard cutouts resembling the sexual organ were milling about Sunday looking for Republicans.

By Amira Hass - August 24, 2012

Israel’s investigation into the death of American activist Rachel Corrie was not satisfactory, and wasn’t as thorough, credible or transparent as it should have been, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told the Corrie family this week...In 2002 Rachel Corrie joined a group of International Solidarity Movement activists who had been living among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, in areas that were subject to Israel Defense Forces incursions and attacks.

Video by the Center for American Progress courtesy of Counterpunch.

CBC News - August 8, 2012

A disciplinary hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday for a Vancouver police officer who pushed a disabled woman to the ground two years ago...[Sandy] Davidsen suffers from multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy..."I’ve never even received an apology from the officer for being pushed down...I’d like to see him receive more than just a slap on the wrist for what he’s done."

By Krystalline Kraus - rabble.ca

That afternoon during an Occupy march, NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna...decided to pepper-spray a small group of female activists trapped inside an orange, mesh police net...Bologna was flagged early on by Occupy Wall Street as being particularity heavy-handed towards activists and is now continually referenced on different Occupy Wall Street live-streams, commentaries and in the mainstream media itself.

SchNEWS - 2nd August 2012 | Issue 822

London's Olympic ceremony didn't stand a chance of competing against Beijing in scale or spectacle, but Team [Great Britain] is sure as hell giving the Chinese a run for their money when it comes to state repression.

By ISRAEL SHAMIR - July 30, 2012

Israel retains its ability to control the Syrian ‘Islamist’ rebels. Netanyahu is not worried about Syria’s possible disintegration. Despite the received wisdom claiming that Israelis prefer a stable and familiar Assad to the great unknown of Islamic guerrillas, the new and sensational information we received points out to the opposite, namely: Israelis prefer the Somalisation of Syria, its break-up and the elimination of its army, as this will allow them to tackle Iran unopposed.

By GARY LEUPP - July 26, 2012

To end the routine abuses of the cops we need conditions that don’t require cops, at least not cops who are outsiders charged with earning their collar by training their guns on youth, occupiers comparable to foreign troops in Afghanistan and Iraq who drop bombs almost as sport. We need conditions that allow for community self-policing based on values of kindness and respect. We need to replace the hurling of water bottles with demands for revolution.

By Media Lens - July 23rd, 2012

When is an act of terrorism not terrorism? When the victims are officially sanctioned state enemies. This was clear from the political and media response to the assassinations of senior ministers of the Syrian ‘regime’...[F]rom a propaganda viewpoint that accords with Western state ideology...[v]iolence perpetrated by enemy actors is “terrorism”; what ‘we’ or ‘our’ allies do is “counter-terrorism” or “peace-keeping”.

By David Brown - WSWS

The city of Anaheim in Southern California was rocked by a spate of police violence on Saturday. After fatally shooting an unarmed man, police used “less-lethal” ammunition — including rubber bullets and a police dog — against residents, including children, who were protesting the killing.

The middle east is heating up. Using Libya as a template, hardcore western destabilization has been slowly simmering Syria for the past 16 months. Demonization and destabilization of Iran has been an ongoing theme for decades.

By Ethan Cox - rabble.ca

Police actions over the weekend crossed a line, an even more significant one than that crossed by the reviled Bill 78. Across Montreal's metro system...where the Formula 1 racetrack is located, police engaged in "preventative arrests"...People were pulled off metros, denied access to a public park, searched, and in many cases arrested. Why? Because they were wearing a political symbol. A red square of solidarity with the student cause.

By Pamela Palmater - rabble.ca

I am writing this blog today because the ignorant, racist comments against Indigenous peoples in Canada seem to be increasing by Harper's Conservative cabinet ministers. Since they are so well informed about our issues, we cannot excuse them based on ignorance -- their words reflect not only their lack of empathy for our peoples, but also their outright disdain for us. I hardly know where to start with this one, but here goes...