Clipmarks | arifsali's 'united states' clips

Route 66

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:43:42 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

Tags: pictures, united states

71% of Americans say U.S. gov't shouldn't take sides in Mideast conflict

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:57:07 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

A public opinion poll released by a research institute at the University of Maryland shows that 71 percent of Americans believe that the United States government should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The survey, which measured attitudes of nearly 19,000 respondents in countries around the world, found that in 14 of the 18 nations studied, a large majority favored an even-handed approach to the conflict.

In none of the countries did a majority support taking Israel's side. Of American respondents, 21 percent said the United States should take Israel's side, and only 3 percent, the Palestinians.

Tags: united states, world, survey

U.S. employers challenge crackdown on illegal immigrants

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:13:02 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

Under pressure from the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in two decades, employers across the United States are fighting back in state legislatures, U.S. courts and city halls.

Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke the licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. They are proposing alternatives that would revise U.S. rules for verifying the identity documents of new hires and would expand programs to bring in legal immigrant laborers.

Although the pushback is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year. Businesses, generally Republican stalwarts, are standing up to others within the party who accuse them of undercutting border enforcement and jeopardizing U.S. jobs by hiring illegal immigrants as cheap labor.

Tags: united states, immigration

Why do non-Jewish Americans support Israel?

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:08:36 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

Walter Russell Mead is one of the most revered American foreign policy scholars in the U.S.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from Walter Russell Mead's The New Israel and the Old:

The American public has few foreign policy preferences that are this marked, this deep, this enduring -- and this much at odds with public opinion in other countries. In the United States, a pro-Israel foreign policy does not represent the triumph of a small lobby over the public will. It represents the power of public opinion to shape foreign policy in the face of concerns by foreign policy professionals."

Tags: united states, israel

Mississippi Floodwaters in Iowa

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:46:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

Tags: flood, united states

Conventional wisdom wrong about Arab journalists' anti-Americanism

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:24:50 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Since September 11, U.S. politicians have repeatedly reminded us that the journalists in the Arab world are biased against America and the West. Ground-breaking research published in the July 2008 issue of International Journal of Press/Politics published by SAGE shatters the myths, finding that much of the conventional wisdom about Arab journalists that has shaped U.S. public diplomacy toward the region lacks substance.

To provide a snapshot of journalists' attitudes and to create a benchmark for future studies, the researchers surveyed 601 mainstream professional Arab journalists with the goal of understanding how they view both their profession and the events they cover.

The study,

suggest there is a sizable bloc of Arab journalists who share the same values often espoused by the United States: political freedom, human rights, and at least some separation of church/mosque and state.

Tags: study, arab, united states, journalism, journalists

“shell shock”

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:48:14 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: cosmicvariance.com

Over Memorial Day weekend this year there was a flurry of media coverage about the devastating psychological toll of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The single most awful paragraph in the round-up:

“According to the Army, more than 2,000 active-duty soldiers attempted suicide or suffered serious self-inflicted injuries in 2007, compared to fewer than 500 such cases in 2002, the year before the United States invaded Iraq.

It is, thankfully, becoming much more broadly understood within the military and beyond that “shell shock” is not malingering, or evidence of an essential weakness of moral fiber. PTSD is now understood as a disease, and as one that involves physical changes in the brain.

Tags: united states, military, suicide, brani, disease

U.S. cancels Fulbright grants to Palestinian scholars

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:05:08 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

The State Department has withdrawn all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza hoping to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions this fall because Israel has not granted permission for the students to leave Gaza.

Israel's restriction is in keeping with its policy of isolating this coastal strip, which is run by the militant group Hamas.

The United States consulate in Jerusalem said the grant money had been "redirected" because of concern that if the students were forced to remain in Gaza the grant money would go to waste

Abdulrahman Abdullah, one of the seven Gazans who received the letter, was in shock.

"If we are talking about peace and mutual understanding, it means investing in people who will later contribute to Palestinian society," he said. "I am against Hamas. Their acts and policies are wrong. Israel talks about a Palestinian state. But who will build that state if we can get no training?"

Tags: israel, united states, scholars

U.S. rejects ban on cluster bombs

Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:58:26 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.presstv.ir

The United States on Friday rejected an international call to abandon the use of cluster bombs, despite an overwhelming support from other countries.

"We take the position that these munitions do have a place and a use in military inventories, given the right technology as well as the proper rules of engagement," said the U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

McCormack said his country was aware of the "threat posed by the unexploded ordnance to innocent civilians", but revealed that the U.S. was "taking steps to upgrade cluster bombs".

Tags: united states, bomb, military, death, technology, politics, war

'US Sets Standards, Fails to Meet Them'

Wed, 28 May 2008 19:54:28 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: But while being critical of the position with the U.S. on specific counts, the thrust of the AI position was controversially that the U.S. carries the responsibility of setting an example to the rest of the world.

Clip Source: www.ipsnews.net

The annual report of Amnesty International (AI) released Wednesday holds the United States responsible for setting world standards on human rights -- and then failing in that task

"As the world's most powerful state, the USA sets the standard for government behaviour globally," but the U.S. has "distinguished itself in recent years through its defiance of international law."

Like last year, the focus was on U.S. detentions at Guantanamo Bay. The report said hundreds continue to be detained there, while noting that more than 100 were transferred out of that centre last year.

The report was critical of U.S. failures domestically as well. "Soldiers refusing to serve in Iraq on grounds of conscience were imprisoned. Prisoners continued to experience ill-treatment at the hands of police officers and prison guards. Dozens of people died after police used tasers (electro-shock weapons) against them."

Tags: amnesty, united states, human rights

3 European Muslims in America!

Mon, 26 May 2008 23:35:03 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.iht.com

For Karim Zéribi, the highlight was shaking the hand of the candidate Barack Obama. For Ali Zahi, it was meeting the basketball star, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, his childhood hero. And Mohamed Hamidi still cannot quite believe that the minaret of a mosque he saw in Washington was taller than that in the village of his parents in Algeria.

Hamidi, a well-known blogger, Zahi, a local politician and Zéribi, the founder of a recruitment agency, are all French, Muslim and under 42. Each grew up, and works, in suburbs that became emblematic of the rioting that rocked France for three weeks in 2005.

And, during recent months, all three joined the small but growing ranks of young minority leaders in Europe invited to the United States on 21-day, tailor-made trips organized by the U.S. State Department - tours that softened their view of a superpower generally distrusted and disliked in their communities.

Tags: united states, europe, muslims

US confession: Weapons were not made in Iran after all

Wed, 14 May 2008 20:56:07 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.campaigniran.org

In a sharp reversal of its longstanding accusations against Iran arming militants in Iraq , the US military has made an unprecedented albeit quiet confession: the weapons they had recently found in Iraq were not made in Iran at all.

According to a report by the LA Times correspondent Tina Susman in Baghdad: “A plan to show some alleged Iranian-supplied explosives to journalists last week in Karbala and then destroy them was canceled after the United States realized none of them was from Iran. A U.S. military spokesman attributed the confusion to a misunderstanding that emerged after an Iraqi Army general in Karbala erroneously reported the items were of Iranian origin. When U.S. explosives experts went to investigate, they discovered they were not Iranian after all.”

Tags: iran, united states, politics

US agrees to help Saudi Arabia develop civilian nuclear program

Fri, 16 May 2008 22:57:26 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Ah, the word "civilian"!

Clip Source: www.jpost.com

President George W. Bush and King Abdullah formalized new cooperation on Friday between the kingdom and the United States on a range of topics, including the development of civilian nuclear energy in Saudi Arabia and US protection of Saudi oil fields.

The White House says the president's visit is intended, in part, to celebrate 75 years of formal US-Saudi relations. But the rising price of oil commanded attention.

Tags: united states, saudi arabia, nuclear, politics

Israelis Claim Secret Agreement With U.S.

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:29:53 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president's efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office.

Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush's letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush's peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank. In an interview this week, Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed this understanding in a secret agreement reached between Israel and the United States in the spring of 2005, just before Israel withdrew from Gaza.

Tags: united states, israel, politics

The Day King George Was Crowned...

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 21:42:54 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Seems like a hottest youtube for this week.

Clip Source: youtube.com

The Day King George Was Crowned...

Today, 135 years to the day after the last American President suspended habeus corpus, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At it's worst, the legislation allows President Bush or Donald Rumsfeld to declare anyone -- US citizen or not -- an enemy combatant, lock them up and throw away the key without a chance to prove their innocence in a court of law. In other words, every thing the founding fathers fought the British empire to free themselves of was reversed today with the stroke of a pen.

Tags: bush, bush administration, politics, youtube, president, united states