Please sign the White House petition, and – just as importantly – post the link everywhere. It’s time to man the barricades, and fight the good fight. As the wizard Gandalf said to Galadriel and Saruman in The Hobbit movie: there is a Dark Power stealthily invading the Western lands, unwilling to show its full face just yet, waiting for the right moment to strike. The Hagel confirmation battle is an alarming sign that the enemy is about to show himself. So get over to that White House petition, and bring your friends – because we can’t let those neoconservative Orcs have to the field all to themselves. To heck with the "Emergency Committee for Israel." What we need – and must have – is an Emergency Committee for America.

Doug Bandow: Neocons Against Chuck Hagel: The Independent Senator Who Wouldn't Genuflect

As long-planned sectarian bloodbath unfolds, UN deceitfully labels atrocities as "reprisals." - As early as 2007, it was reported that the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, together were not only organizing, funding, training, and arming militants directly linked to Al Qaeda to be used against Syria and Iran, but knew well in advance that by doing so, they would trigger an unprecedented "cataclysmic conflict" driven by sectarian extremism. Not only was such sectarian violence expected, it was desired ahead of redrawing a new map for the Middle East - one that favored Western corporate-financier and geopolitical interests, while keeping the region weak, divided, and infighting. Now, the UN is feigning indignation over the inevitable, increasingly overt sectarian nature of the so-called "Free Syrian Army" and its so-called "rebellion." Entire communities of minorities face extermination. [...] The sectarian genocide in Syria was purposefully engineered by Western policy makers, and now is willfully covered up, spun, and excused by the UN and the Western mass media alike.

Canadian activists and protesters have held demonstrations in Ottawa, and several other cities to call for the protection of First Nations' rights.

On Friday, First Nations people held peaceful gatherings as part of the Canada-wide ‘Idle No More’ movement in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Toronto, and Nova Scotia. Protesting against the federal government's omnibus budget Bill C-45, First Nations leaders denounced the policies of the Canadian government vis-à-vis First Nations as oppressive. They argued that by offering major changes to the federal Indian Act, including changes to land management on reserves, the bill will cut the number of federally-protected waterways and put the lands they depend on at risk. “We’re not just speaking up for ourselves, we’re speaking up for the rest of Canada,” Nova Scotia aboriginal activist Shelley Young said at a panel discussion on Friday.

AWIP: Rising anger of Canada's First Nations over living conditions
Arctic Compass: Canada - First Nations are Victims of the Government! (Part 1)(Part 2)

Hunger and homelessness are on the rise in the United States, and cash-strapped cities and social services are being forced to turn needy people away empty-handed, a study published Thursday found. - The number of homeless people seeking help had increased seven percent from 2011, according to a survey of social service operators in 25 of the nation’s large cities commissioned by the Conference of Mayors. Even though food pantries and soup kitchens have cut back how much people received in an attempt to make their limited resources go further, the survey found that about 19 percent of the people asking for help didn’t get any.

Puke Read: With a patrician bearing, nearly three decades of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a highly decorated combat career in the Vietnam War, even a father who was a diplomat, John Kerry is the very picture of a secretary of state. "In a sense, John's entire life has prepared him for this role," President Obama said on Friday at the White House, as he nominated Mr Kerry to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first step in filling out a national security team for his second term. Mr Obama praised Mr Kerry, 69, a Massachusetts Democrat, for having been immersed in "every major foreign-policy debate for nearly 30 years."

Wayne Madsen: Hillary leaves Kerry a mess in Asia - To say that departing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton soured U.S.-Chinese relations with her constant saber-rattling rhetoric about China’s intentions in East Asia is an understatement. China’s new leadership will be closely examining the record of prospective Secretary of State John Kerry, a Navy SEAL officer during the Vietnam War, for past statements decrying America’s military intervention in Southeast Asia. How Kerry responds to growing friction between China and neighboring nations over maritime waters and island disputes may reflect his past experiences in fighting in an unpopular war in Asia and his later activism against such future wars involving America.

Bill Van Auken: Obama nominates John Kerry as secretary of state - In his remarks, Obama invoked Kerry’s four-month tour of duty in Vietnam in 1968-69 as a junior naval officer to argue for his fitness to help steer the course of American militarism. [...] Over the course of a four decade political career—beginning with an unsuccessful campaign for a congressional seat, a stint as a local prosecutor, election as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, his tenure in the Senate from 1985 and particularly in his unsuccessful 2004 campaign as the Democratic presidential challenger against George W. Bush—Kerry has refashioned his Vietnam record. Now he emphasizes his status as a veteran, as opposed to a passionate opponent of the war, going so far as to pin war medals to his tuxedo at a dinner in Washington this year.

Gun control works great if you're the one who
controls the guns...

The bitter national political divide over gun control played out Friday on live TV, as the National Rifle Association's leader delivered part of his statement at a Washington news conference with a determined protester's sign bearing the words "NRA killing our kids" displayed before him. But despite a seemingly unbridgeable gulf between two passionate sides engaged in a tug-of-war on the issue after the school shootings in Connecticut a week ago, "there is huge common ground" and potential for agreement, said Morris Fiorina, a Hoover Institution fellow and author of "Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America."

Armed guards in schools - On Friday, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, in the organization's first public statement since the massacre, said armed guards in schools could address the spate of recent mass shootings around the country. Medea Benjamin of San Francisco, co-founder of the protest group Code Pink and one of two demonstrators arrested at the event, called the gun lobby group's approach "tone deaf" and politically unacceptable. "My God, calling for schools to have armed guards - they are so out of touch," she said.

Eric Peters: If Guns Are Bad...
Paul Craig Roberts: Connecticut Tragedy Used To Disarm Americans Faced With A Police State
Arthur Silber: God Damn You, America, and Your White, Privileged Grief

At least four people have been killed in a US assassination drone attack in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region, reports say. - The incident occurred on Friday afternoon when missiles from a US unmanned aerial vehicle leveled a house in Hesokhel village of Mir Ali district in North Waziristan. Many others were also injured in the latest US attack on Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt which lies along the Afghan border. In neighboring South Waziristan region, a US drone crashed in Wana district on Thursday night while it was reportedly on a targeted killing mission.