Dance Away Blues

Featureless Features

2011-10-27T21:01:00.006-04:00

Some of us may have been shocked to have read The New York Post’s coverage of trouble at #OWS. As a native born Neu Yawker I'm used to the Post's peculiar way of, uh, I think they call it reporting. I did a little research and I’m gonna say, the NY Post twists a story with clear intent to spread propaganda and to sow seeds of discontent, divide and conquer, create media stars and generally distract from the fact that #OWS is astonishingly, beyond comprehensionally, ragingly SUCCESSFUL! Now, I’m not there so I can only make assumptions based on what I read and what I already know. So I present the NY Post’s coverage of what was “important” today, followed by what I found on #OWS:

Occupy Wall Street kitchen staff protesting fixing food for freeloaders

By SELIM ALGAR and BOB FREDERICKS

Last Updated: 10:58 AM, October 27, 2011

Posted: 1:43 AM, October 27, 2011

The Occupy Wall Street volunteer kitchen staff launched a “counter” revolution yesterday -- because they’re angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for “professional homeless” people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters.

For three days beginning tomorrow, the cooks will serve only brown rice and other spartan grub instead of the usual menu of organic chicken and vegetables, spaghetti bolognese, and roasted beet and sheep’s-milk-cheese salad. [Sounds almost as good as Guantanamo Bay! BTW--Haven't we seen that guy before? Like early on in this movement as a former Wall St. hot shot who knew better than anyone else what to say and do next?]

They will also provide directions to local soup kitchens for the vagrants, criminals and other freeloaders who have been descending on Zuccotti Park in increasing numbers every day.

It goes on but there’s nothing really relevant until this little paragraph sneeks up:

As the kitchen workers met with the “General Assembly’’ last night, about 300 demonstrators stormed from the park to Reade Street and Broadway, where they violently clashed with cops.

Officers made at least 10 arrests when rowdy demonstrators refused to get out of the street and stop blocking traffic. A dozen cops on scooters tried to force them back to the sidewalk.

There were no reported injuries.

The demonstrators said they were angry over the violence in Oakland.

Huh? That’s it? Then there’s a video which purports to be about the drummers being difficult, but if you’re really bored you can watch it to find out they’ve already worked things out (with one exception, brought to you by the NY Post!) Also sidebars about, hold your breath, the repuglican’s talking point for today: #OWS is controlled by, gasp, ACORN!!!!

I am sure there are grievances and difficulties for people living there, as the temperature drops and supplies and energy gets low, but if you go to #OWS’s web site, the lead story’s headline is what was given only a passsing mention in Rupert Murdoch's disinformation sheet:

#ows Takes The Streets In Solidarity With #occupyoakland

Posted Oct. 27, 2011, 2:53 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

Last night hundreds marched through the streets of NYC, chanting "New York is Oakland, Oakland is New York." We circled City Hall, ran in the streets, refused to be kettled or have our voices silenced, marched up broadway, North on 6th Ave, circled around on Bleecker, and marched south against traffic on 6th ave, running past police barricades, running past our fear, running in solidarity with each other and #occupyoakland.

Further down are reports about many different solidarity actions for Oakland and significantly, announcements of vigils for Scott Olsen. There’s a post from Cairo, a report titled “Drumming and the Occupation” and one called “Where Do We Go From Here?” All the rest of the web home page is about getting more information and learning how to DIY. As for the NY Post, there’s no “there” there. I got the story and it wasn’t from them.

http://occupywallst.org/

#OWS Fnks Are Outed

2011-10-17T17:08:00.002-04:00

What can you say about people who betray your trust? Not a whole lot. What can you do? That depends on how egregious the betrayal. In these times when a stark, survivalist mentality seems normal, it would seem "right action" requires a bit of thought and investigation. It does occur to me, however, that if the agency which is supposed to be tracking cyber crimes COMMITS them, an investigation would make sense.

Meet the Guy Who Snitched on Occupy Wall Street to the FBI and NYPD

By Adrian Chen

Oct 15, 2011 4:47 P

The Occupy Wall Street protests have been going on for a month. And it seems the FBI and NYPD have had help tracking protesters' moves thanks to a conservative computer security expert who gained access to one of the group's internal mailing lists, and then handed over information on the group's plans to authorities and corporations targeted by protesters.

Since the Occupy Wall Street protest began on September 17, New York security consultant Thomas Ryan has been waging a campaign to infiltrate and discredit the movement. Ryan says he's done contract work for the U.S. Army and he brags on his blog that he leads "a team called Black Cell, a team of the most-highly trained and capable physical, threat and cyber security professionals in the world." But over the past few weeks, he and his computer security buddies have been spending time covertly attending Occupy Wall Street meetings, monitoring organizers' social media accounts, and hanging out with protesters in Lower Manhattan.

As part of their intelligence-gathering operation, the group gained access to a listserv used by Occupy Wall Street organizers called September17discuss. […] On Friday, Ryan leaked thousands of September17discuss emails to conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who is now using them to try to smear Occupy Wall Street as an anarchist conspiracy to disrupt global markets.

What may much more alarming to Occupy Wall Street organizers is that while Ryan was monitoring September17discuss, he was forwarding interesting email threads to contacts at the NYPD and FBI, including special agent Jordan T. Loyd, a member of the FBI's New York-based cyber security team.
[…] On September 26th, Ryan forwarded another email thread to Agent Loyd. But this time he clued in the NYPD as well, sending the email to Dennis Dragos, a detective with the NYPD Computer Crimes Squad.

[…] Interestingly, it was Ryan who revealed himself as a snitch. We learned of these emails from the archive Ryan leaked yesterday in the hopes of undermining the Occupy Wall Street movement. In assembling the archive of September17discuss emails, it appears he accidentally included some of his own forwarded emails indicating he was ratting out organizers.

"I don't know, I just put everything I had into one big package," Ryan said when asked how the emails ended up in the file posted to Andrew Breitbart's blog. Some security expert.

[…] Did the FBI and/or NYPD ask him to monitor Occupy Wall Street? Was he just forwarding the emails on out of the goodness of his heart? In a phone interview with us, Ryan denied being an informant. "I do not work with the FBI," he said.

Ryan said he knows Loyd through their mutual involvement in the Open Web Application Security Project, a non-profit computer security group of which Ryan is a board member. Ryan said he sent the emails to Loyd unsolicited simply because "everyone's curious" about Occupy Wall Street, and he had a ground-eye view. "Jordan never asked me for anything."

Was he sending every email he got to the authorities? Ryan said he couldn't remember how many he'd passed on to the FBI or NYPD, or other third parties. Later he said that he only forwarded the two emails we noticed, detailed above.

[…] But regardless of how many emails Ryan sent—or whether Loyd ever asked Ryan to spy on Occupy Wall Street—Loyd was almost certainly interested in the emails he received. Loyd has helped hunt down members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous, and he and his colleagues in the FBI's cyber security squad have been monitoring their involvement in Occupy Wall Street.

http://gawker.com/5850054/

#Occupy Key West?

2011-10-13T23:38:00.006-04:00

I've come back to Key West after having spent the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in NYC, with friends and strangers and a lot of folks taking a break from the smarmy cynicism that poisons too much conversation. There is such beauty in mourning and we mustn't ever let anyone tell us to "move on." Yes, being dysfunctional is not good but as long as one is still participating in the real world, who is to say what is dysfunctional? I love New York. I will always be a New Yorker and completely understand when people are proud of their hometowns. Nowadays, there seems to be more to be proud about, since communities all over America, Canada, Europe and many places without media to cover them, even the Tundra are participating in Occupy Together on October 15!

Living in Paradise has a surprising set of difficulties unique to organizing an event in this place. Very few people have one job, and many jobs are for the tourists, meaning the ability to have a demonstration might be easier if this was a factory town or a college town. But we're a tourist town and holidays and weekends are prime time to make money.

In spite of that, this Saturday, October 22 a group of leaderless people will hold an Occupy Key West event at Mallory Square, beginning with an open mike and ending with a march, location yet to be determined.

This Occupation is sponsored by those of us Key West citizens who have had enough of the lies, the obscuration, the degeneracy of any true faith that justice is equal for all the people. We CAN'T BELIEVE that justice is blind in a Bubba land.

We, the 99% want the Occupation of OUR OWN institutions, built and paid for by We, the People!

We want jobs that have nothing to do with patronage.

We want to stop the outright scandalous behavior that becomes acceptable once you have achieved a certain status. When you look at the patronage and interconnecting favors and debts which weave a very complicated pattern between certain tribes in the Paradise known as Key West, well, it could, rather should give you pause. Perhaps it's more useful to let the more ambitious ones slug it out and just pick up the pieces of what's left. Sounds like a wrecker way of doing things! Then you can put some time into assessing which tribe to join. The facts are that this island has always been occupied!

When you finally get your mind set on a particular set of strategies to accomplish the goal you have already decided on, the next step is get it together.

I will present myself to tout le monde on Duval Street astride my faithful, never complaining tricycle, Jezebel, who will be all tricked out with signs which will let people know that Saturday night at 5:00 something very special is going to happen on Mallory Square.

We, the 99% will reclaim our public square, our public streets and the lovely little parks which appear like out of a dream. We will pass around a megaphone or mike or use the human megaphone to proclaim the right to gather to peacefully petition our government for a redress of grievances, to be determined by the General Assembly which will beheld just prior to the march.

We will inform our neighbors, new friends and old friends that our lives are facing irreversible changes not because of our poor choices or lifestyles but because the ones who hold all the power are capable of doing whatever they want or serves their purpose which is ultimate power. FACE IT. We don't matter any more to them with their electronic heartbeats and bunkers where you can ride horseback.

The time has come for all of us to know where we stand. Howard Zinn said you can't stand still on a moving bus. We must acknowledge change is inevitable and adapt. Hopefully, the ruling class will recognize this as well. I'm heartened by the growth of the web site by those in the 1% who side with we, the 99%. You can see their posters here: http://westandwiththe99percent.tumblr.com/

Change is coming, for all of us. Let's try to handle it gracefully.
For more on Occupy Together and to find events near you, go to:
http://www.occupytogether.org/

Wall St., Meet the 99ers

2011-09-18T03:30:00.001-04:00

Self defined as the 99% who pay taxes and get screwed with less than 1% of the profits, a determined and disciplined group of mostly early 30 year olds attempted to occupy Wall Street. Even the benches were fenced in!!! After a day of playing hide & seek with the NYPD, the radicals settled in at "Liberty Park" on Broadway just north of Wall. Although the afternoon was fraught with chaos and potential police riot, once this detente was reached everyone settled in. I took a break and returned around 1:00 am. Some were sleeping, a group of about 6 played with one of those little balls you kick around, there were clusters of folks around a guitarist or singer, some danced. It all, it was peaceful I hope the morning will bring new recruits to the occupation of Wall Street.

Finally got the photos downloaded--more details will come about today's events and the people there.

https://occupywallst.org/

Wizard of Wiki Betrayed by a Corporate Whore

2010-12-05T22:25:00.001-05:00

This is really important stuff. It exposes how evil the forces are, that there is NO moral code they live by. They'd shoot their own child in the head if it got what was necessary. EVIL!
Assange Accuser Worked with US-Funded, CIA-Tied Anti-Castro Group


By: Kirk James Murphy, M.D. Saturday December 4, 2010 9:20 pm

Yesterday Alexander Cockburn reminded us of the news Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett broke at Counterpunch in September. Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up.

Anna Ardin (the official complainant) is often described by the media as a “leftist”. She has ties to the US-financed anti-Castro and anti-communist groups. She published her anti-Castro diatribes (see here and here) in the Swedish-language publication Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas put out by Misceláneas de Cuba. From Oslo, Professor Michael Seltzer points out that this periodical is the product of a well-financed anti-Castro organization in Sweden. He further notes that the group is connected with Union Liberal Cubana led by Carlos Alberto Montaner whose CIA ties were exposed here.
[...] In Cuba she interacted with the feminist anti-Castro group Las damas de blanco (the Ladies in White). This group receives US government funds and the convicted anti-communist terrorist Luis Posada Carriles is a friend and supporter. Wikipedia quotes Hebe de Bonafini, president of the Argentine Madres de Plaza de Mayo as saying that “the so-called Ladies in White defend the terrorism of the United States.”
[...] Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles (born February 15, 1928) (nicknamed Bambi by some Cuban exiles)[1] is a Cuban-born Venezuelan anti-communist extremist. A former Central Intelligence Agency agent,[2] Posada has been convicted in absentia of involvement in various terrorist attacks and plots in the Americas, including: involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed seventy-three people;[3][4] admitted involvement in a string of bombings in 1997 targeting fashionable Cuban hotels and nightspots;[5][6][7] involvement in the Bay of Pigs invasion; [and] involvement in the Iran-Contra affair…
Luis Posada Carilles is so evil that even the Bush administration wanted him behind bars:
Who is Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden? She’s a gender equity officer at Uppsula University – who chose to associate with a US funded group openly supported by a convicted terrorist and mass murderer. She just happens to have her work published by a very well funded group connected with Union Liberal Cubana – whose leader, Carlos Alberto Montaner, in turn just happened to pop up on right wing Colombian TV a few hours after the right-wing coup in Honduras. Where he joined the leader of the failed coup in Ecuador to savage Correa, the target of the coup. Montnaner also just happened to vociferously support the violent coup in Honduras, and chose to show up to sing the praises of the Honduran junta. [...]
[...] Rape is a hideous crime. Yet in Assange’s case his alleged victim – the gender equity officer at Uppsula University – chose to throw a party for her alleged assailant – after they’d had the sex that even Swedish prosecutors concede was consensual. Barrister Caitlin again:

[The] phenomena of social networking through the internet and mobile phones constrains Swedish authorities from augmenting the evidence against Assange because it would look even less credible in the face of tweets by Anna Ardin and SMS texts by Sofia Wilén boasting of their respective conquests after the “crimes”.
In the case of Ardin it is clear that she has thrown a party in Assange’s honour at her flat after the “crime” and tweeted to her followers that she is with the “the world’s coolest smartest people, it’s amazing!”. Go on the internet and see for yourself. That Ardin has sought unsuccessfully to delete these exculpatory tweets from the public record should be a matter of grave concern. That she has published on the internet a guide on how to get revenge on cheating boyfriends ever graver. The exact content of Wilén’s mobile phone texts is not yet known but their bragging and exculpatory character has been confirmed by Swedish prosecutors. Neither Wilén’s nor Ardin’s texts complain of rape.

Small world, isn’t it? Julian Assange is the human face of Wikileaks – the organization that’s enabled whistle-blowers to reveal hideous war crimes and expose much of America’s foreign policy to the world.

He just happens to meet a Swedish woman who just happens to have been publishing her work in a well-funded anti-Castro group that just happens to have links with a group led by a man at least one journalist describes as an agent of the CIA: the violent secret arm of America’s foreign policy.
And she just happens to have been expelled from Cuba, which just happens to be the global symbol of successful defiance of American foreign policy.
And – despite her work in Sweden upholding the human right of gender equity – in Cuba she just happens to end up associating with a group openly supported by an admitted CIA agent who himself committed mass murder when he actively participated in the terrorist bombing of a jetliner carrying a Cuban sports team…an act that was of a piece with America’s secret foreign policy of violent attacks against Cuban state interests.
And now she just happens – after admittedly consensual sex – to have gone to Swedish authorities to report the sex ended without a condom…which just happens to be the pretext for Interpol to issue a “Red Notice” informing the world’s police forces of charges against Julian Assange.
Who just happens to be the man America’s political class – the people who run America’s foreign policy – have been trying to silence. And who happens to be the man some of them have been calling to have murdered.
With a lust for vengeance like that, one could be forgiven for concluding they’ve just happened to have taken a page from Anna’s revenge manual.

http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties/

Blackwater in Pakistan

2010-12-01T20:04:00.003-05:00

From The Nation comes Jeremy Scahill's latest, very important article. He discusses the "covert operations" perpetrated by Blackwater and other mercenary war opportunists like DynCorp within the framework of official government policies, now exposed by Wikileaks, connecting the dots. It's all so reminiscent of our "special advisers" in Vietnam and the terrible toll it took on our country. We're neck deep in the big muddy, but the big fools say to push on.

The (Not So) Secret (Anymore) US War in Pakistan

Jeremy Scahill

Despite sustained denials by US officials spanning more than a year, US military Special Operations Forces have been conducting offensive operations inside Pakistan, helping direct US drone strikes and conducting joint operations with Pakistani forces against Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in north and south Waziristan and elsewhere in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, according to secret cables released as part of the Wikileaks document dump. According to an October 9, 2009 cable classified by Anne Patterson, the US ambassador to Pakistan, the operations were "almost certainly [conducted] with the personal consent of [Pakistan's] Chief of Army Staff General Kayani." The operations were coordinated with the US Office of the Defense Representative in Pakistan. A US special operations source told The Nation that the US forces described in the cable as "SOC(FWD)-PAK" were "forward operating troops" from the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the most elite force within the US military made up of Navy SEALs, Delta Force and Army Rangers.

The cables also confirm aspects of a Nation story from November 2009, "The Secret US War in Pakistan," which detailed offensive combat operations by JSOC in Pakistan. In response to the Nation story, Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell called it "conspiratorial" and explicitly denied that US special operations forces were doing anything other than "training" in Pakistan. More than a month after the October 2009 cable from the US embassy in Pakistan confirming JSOC combat missions, Morrell told reporters: "We have basically, I think, a few dozen forces on the ground in Pakistan who are involved in a train-the-trainer mission. These are Special Operations Forces. We've been very candid about this. They are—they have been for months, if not years now, training Pakistani forces so that they can in turn train other Pakistani military on how to—on certain skills and operational techniques. And that's the extent of our—our, you know, military boots on the ground in Pakistan." According to the October 2009 cable, Morrell's statement was false.

[...] The ability of US special operations forces to operate in Pakistan is clearly viewed as a major development by the US embassy. "Patient relationship-building with the military is the key factor that has brought us to this point," according to the October 2009 cable. It also notes the potential consequences of the activities leaking: "These deployments are highly politically sensitive because of widely-held concerns among the public about Pakistani sovereignty and opposition to allowing foreign military forces to operate in any fashion on Pakistani soil. Should these developments and/or related matters receive any coverage in the Pakistani or US media, the Pakistani military will likely stop making requests for such assistance."

Such statements might help explain why Ambassador Richard Holbrooke lied to the world when he said bluntly in July 2010: "People think that the US has troops in Pakistan, well, we don't."

A US special operations veteran who worked on Pakistan issues in 2009 reviewed the Wikileaks cables for The Nation. He said he was taken aback that the cable was not classified higher than "SECRET" given that it confirms the active involvement of US soldiers from the highly-secretive, elite Joint Special Operations Command engaging in combat—not just training—in Pakistan. And offensive combat at that. JSOC operations are compartmentalized and highly classified.

[...] In 2006, twelve "tactical action operatives" from Blackwater were recruited for a secret JSOC raid inside Pakistan, targeting an Al Qaeda facility. The operation was code-named "Vibrant Fury." Which raises another issue: the activities described in the October 2009 cable very closely align with what a US military intelligence source, a US special forces source and a former Blackwater executive told The Nation in November 2009, namely that JSOC was running an operation in Pakistan where "members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, 'snatch and grabs' of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan.… The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes." The arrangement, which involved a web of subcontractors, allowed the Pakistani Frontier Corps—the force cited in the cable—to work with JSOC operators while simultaneously denying that Americans were involved.[...]

[...] In November 2009, Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Nation, "We do not discuss current operations one way or the other, regardless of their nature." A defense official, on background, specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. Captain Kirby told The Nation if it published the story it would "be on thin ice." The US embassy and Pakistan's interior Minister Rehman Malik both denied Blackwater was operating in Pakistan.

In January 2010, on a visit to Pakistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, appeared to contradict that line, telling a Pakistani TV station, "They [Blackwater and another private security firm, DynCorp] are operating as individual companies here in Pakistan," according to a DoD transcript of the interview. As Gates's comments began to make huge news in Pakistan, US defense officials tried to retract his statement. As the Wall Street Journal reported, "Defense officials tried to clarify the comment…telling reporters that Mr. Gates had been speaking about contractor oversight more generally and that the Pentagon didn't employ [Blackwater] in Pakistan."[...]

[...] Since the Nation story originally ran, Blackwater has continued to work under the Obama administration. In June, the company won a $100 million global contract with the CIA and continues to operate in Afghanistan, where it protects senior US officials and trains Afghan forces. Earlier this year, Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince, put the company up for sale and moved to the Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Whether Blackwater or former Blackwater operatives continue to work in Pakistan is not known. What is clear is that there is great reason to believe that the October 2009 cable from Ambassador Anne Patterson describing US special operations forces activities in Pakistan represents only a tiny glimpse into one of the darkest corners of current US policy in Pakistan.

I urge you to read the full story here:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/156765/not-so-secret-anymore-us-war-pakistan

Kucinich Tells it Like it IS

2010-11-12T22:13:00.002-05:00

This is the way we need to go. There are no easy solutions, no wiggle room. Just pack it up and say, "Sorry, folks, we bombed your country and now we have no solutions. But you can do it without us. We're just making more trouble than it's worth." This is from The Raw Story:

Kucinich to force Congress to vote on withdrawing from Afghanistan after news Obama will extend war to 2014

By Eric W. Dolan

[....] Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) blasted President Barack Obama Wednesday over reports that he is planning to de-emphasize the July 2011 deadline for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
"When the new 112th Congress convenes in January, I will immediately enter a privileged resolution that will force Congress to vote on setting a withdrawal date," Kucinich said. "The withdrawal of our troops must be driven by Congress, not the corrupt president of Afghanistan."
[...] "Expanding the timeline constitutes a de facto expansion of the war without Congressional approval," said Kucinich.
The new policy is to be unveiled at a NATO conference in Lisbon next week, where the United States and other NATO countries are set to discuss their commitment to Afghanistan. The United States hopes to introduce a plan to begin the withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan by 2014, senior officials told McClatchy.
[...] "The Obama Administration must withdraw our troops now," said Kucinich. "Our presence there is counterproductive, it keeps our troops in harms way and it opens to the door for the expansion of the massive corruption of the Karzai regime."
[...] "The War in Afghanistan is longer than any other war America has ever fought," said Kucinich. "The war has cost U.S. taxpayers more than a trillion dollars. The death toll is rising. More than 1300 Americans have died, thousands more wounded and countless Afghan civilians have died. The civilian death toll is rising, and there are fewer than 100 Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
"To top it all off," he added, "we recently learned that Karzai has openly admitted to accepting bags of cash from Iran."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/kucinich-tears-report-afghan-pullout/

Stop the excuses while blood runs in the streets and the "lucky" ones come home too traumatized to live a decent life. Stop it!

Make The Supremes Sing a New Song

2010-11-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

Have you had enough of the corporate take-over of America? If this last election didn't rub it into your nose enough that money buys power and democracy is an illusion, just wait. The next few months are gonna make you long for the Reagan era (gag).

Citizens United was a disaster for our ability to hold fair elections since it granted "personhood" to corporations, allowing big money to give however much it could to the candidates who would sing the song they picked. But we do have some options, and MovetoAmend.org is leading the way. Please sign the petition and contribute, if you can. The corporations have bought the Supremes but We, the People still can reclaim our power if we stand together and overrule the Supremes. It is our Constitutional right to do so. Use it or lose it.

Sign the petition and please forward the link to everyone who still believes in justice for all, not JUST US!

http://movetoamend.org/please-contribute

Lead by Example

2010-10-24T13:09:00.000-04:00

We, the People were lied to about 9/11 and the reasons to bomb people in Afghanistan, then Iraq. There has never been any reason to go to war with these countries since the "attack" of 9/11 was perpetrated by Saudis and a couple of misfits, none from those two countries. Yet we have destroyed them. Why? Oil and now, we are learning about precious minerals in Afghanistan, plus pipelines, et al, et nauseum.

If we are to have any credibility in the future of this planet, we must take the lead in holding accountable every single leader who led us down this road to disaaster. I think that begins with the former president-select, George W. Bush.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Obama's Duty To Prosecute Bush For War Crimes

Indeed, the rule of law is the "strongbox that keeps all our other values safe." We can write laws that say we have certain freedoms and rights, and we can build courts and elect lawmakers, but if there is no rule of law, then we lose our rights bit by bit until they are no longer recognizable. While the goppies will cry "partisan witch hunt," even the Bush State Dept. recognizes that no democratic society can tolerate abuses when people are tortured or kidnapped under rendition in violation of our rule of law or tolerate the failure to prosecute in compliance with our Constitution.
Signing the petition drafted by budhydharma and Docudharma is not in defiance of our President-Elect Obama, but rather a sign of support for the difficult times that he and Holder will face when performing their clear constitutional duties.
As President, Obama will have the constitutional duty to faithfully execute our laws.
The constitutional oath of office will require President Obama to faithfully execute the office of President and preserve, protect and defend our Constitution. Our constitution also requires that our presidents "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." The principle of the rule of law is partially based on this Faithfully Execute clause which requires our President to comply with laws, our Constitution and treaties because our Constitution established a government of laws, not of men and women.
The Geneva Convention is one of the laws which must be faithfully executed.

Posted by Edger at 8:00 PM

Obama's Duty To Prosecute Bush For War Crimes
by Patriot Daily at Docudharma, Monday December 29, 2008 at 14:14:19 PST
http://ooibc.blogspot.com/2008/12/obamas-duty-to-prosecute-bush-for-war.html

8 Good Reasons to Vote

2010-10-24T12:50:00.001-04:00

There is too much to lose if we let ourselves become deluded into thinking "they're all the same." Yes, Obama and the Dems have let us down but just imagine what this country will turn into if the tea baggers and repuglicans take over Congress.

They already own the Supremes and have essentially given the richest 2% complete power over the electoral process by granting corporations the right to spend as much as they want to on campaign funding. How do you think that will INFORM citizens? Tax and spend, they scream, while laughing all the way to their jets and island hide-a-ways.

No, dear citizens, we must get out and VOTE and this article knocks down the bullshit. This is from Campaign for America's Future

Eight False Things The Public “Knows” Prior To Election Day

By Dave Johnson, October 22, 2010 - 1:07pm ET

[ ...] This stuff really matters.
If the public votes in a new Congress because a majority of voters think this one tripled the deficit, and as a result the new people follow the policies that actually tripled the deficit, the country could go broke.
If the public votes in a new Congress that rejects the idea of helping to create demand in the economy because they think it didn't work, then the new Congress could do things that cause a depression.
If the public votes in a new Congress because they think the health care reform will increase the deficit when it is actually projected to reduce the deficit, then the new Congress could repeal health care reform and thereby make the deficit worse. And on it goes.
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010104222/false-things-public-knows-they-go-vote

Name That Raid!

2010-09-30T22:58:00.000-04:00

I grew up in an era of Communist threat, nuclear threat, the RED threat, but it was always something and still is. This brief report should get wide distribution. I hope you agree that this story HAS to reach as many citizens as possible.

Black Agenda Report
News, analysis and commentary from the black left
President Barack “Midnight Raid” Obama: End Your Wars at Home and Abroad

Wed, 09/29/2010 - 16:06 — Glen Ford

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

Last week’s FBI raids likely signal that the Obama regime has begun a major campaign to criminalize and crush the Left. Think COINTELPRO, 21^st century-style. President Obama, the constitutional rights lawyer who claims the right to kill at will, seeks to strangle the activist opposition to his wars and pro-Wall Street policies. “For targets not marked for oblivion, there awaits a grand jury with boundless powers to ensnare anyone.”

http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content%2Fpresident-barack-%E2%80%9Cmidnight-raid%E2%80%9D-obama-end-your-wars-home-and-abroad

It doesn't matter the race or religion, it's about power and slavery, It's older than the Bible, it's why working people dream of heaven or fortune and blame their fellow working slave for why life sucks.

Good Terrorist, Bad Terrorist

2010-02-25T11:53:00.001-05:00

Putting aside the fact that the Taliban was armed and trained by the US (to fight Russians?) and Osama Bin Laden was a CIA agent, these very disturbing reports begin to expose the hypocrisy we call the War on Terror.

Pakistan helped Iran nab Jundallah chief
TEHRAN: Pakistan played a role in helping Iran arrest its most wanted Jundallah chief Abdolmalek Rigi who was seized onboard a flight from Dubai, Islamabad's ambassador to Tehran Mohammad Abbasi said on Wednesday.
“I must tell you that such action cannot be carried out without the cooperation of Pakistan. I am happy that he has been arrested,” Abbasi told a media conference at Islamabad's mission in Tehran.
[...] Rigi, the head of shadowy rebel group Jundallah (Soldiers of God), was captured on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday.
An airport official from Bishkek told AFP on condition of anonymity on Tuesday that the passenger plane Rigi was travelling in was forced to land on Iranian territory by two Iranian jet bombers.
[...] Declaring Rigi's arrest on Tuesday, Iran's Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi told reporters that the militant had been at a US military base in Afghanistan just 24 hours before he was nabbed.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/03-pakistan-helped-iran-nab-jundallah-chief-ss-07
More details from a televised confession by Abdolmalek Rigi follow below:
US offered Rigi 'extensive aid' for Iran attacks
The captured ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, has confessed that the US administration had assured him of unlimited military aid and funding for waging an insurgency against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Excerpt from transcript: [...] "One of the CIA officers said that it was too difficult for us to attack Iran militarily, but we plan to give aid and support to all anti-Iran groups that have the capability to wage war and create difficulty for the Iranian (Islamic) system. They reached the conclusion that your organization has the power to create difficulties for the Islamic Republic and they are prepared to give you training and/or any assistance that you would require, in terms of telecommunications security and procedures as well as other support, the Americans said they would be willing to provide it at an extensive level." [...]
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119474&sectionid=351020101#

Sandals in the Snow (and Garbage)

2010-02-22T11:11:00.003-05:00

I can't even comprehend the motivation behind such an unceremonious exit as that given to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Can you imagine the uproar if this were the Pope being hauled out by the elbow?

US Downplays Obama's Meeting with Dalai Lama as Part of Chess Game with the Chinese
Martin Barillas

February 22nd 2010

The unceremonious departure of the Dalai Lama from the White House on February 19 gained almost as much currency as the actual meeting between the Tibetan Buddhist leader and President Barack Obama. While leaving the Executive Mansion, the Dalai Lama was captured on film exiting through a door usually used by household staff where the West Wing meets the main presidential residence. The saffron-robed monk, a recipient of the Nobel Prize and revered icon for Buddhists and lovers of liberty was seen walking around trash bags in his sandals in chilly Washington DC.
The photo promptly went all over the world, sparking criticism and bewilderment. For its part, the White House released only one photo of the actual meeting between the two leaders, showing them in conversation.
China, which has occupied the mountainous nation of Tibet since the 1950s, duly registered its diplomatic pique over the visit. The American ambassador in Beijing was summoned for a consultation with the Chinese foreign ministry in protest. A Chinese spokesman averred that the Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit with Obama had “seriously harmed” Sino-American relations. The Chinese registered its “solemn representation” to the U.S. diplomat that international relations had been damaged because of Obama’s refusal to heed Chinese warnings. “We believe the actions of the U.S. side have seriously interfered in Chinese internal affairs, seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, [really?] and seriously undermined China-U.S. relations,” said the Chinese spokesman.
[...] The White House went forward with the meeting even while calculating it that meant angering the Chinese. “I don’t think this has come as a surprise, no,” said U.S. Ambassador Jon Hunstman. “The president had expressed his concerns for human rights in Tibet and his admiration for the Dalai Lama as an international religious figure. I can’t say what would appease the Chinese on this meeting, but of course we had told the Chinese months in advance and in fact when President Obama was here in November he did mention he intended to meet with the Dalai Lama when he had his meeting with President Hu Jintao.”
In an open letter, Arjia Rinpoche—Director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center and one of the most respected Tibetan Buddhist leaders in exile—wrote “The visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and President Barack Obama has far more far reaching significance than many commentators are giving credit. The President, despite Chinese objections, is showing the Dalai Lama greater respect than any president before him and is also a meeting of two very special people.” In 2009, Obama met with President Hu of China and was criticized for not meeting with the Dalai Lama first. However, Rinpoche notes the criticisms, at least two U.S. diplomatic envoys went to the exiled leader’s headquarters in India to discuss preparations for the eventual visit.
http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=11986

Saudi Prince Buys Faux News

2010-02-22T10:46:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Joseph Trento for providing a personal glimpse into the greed machine that has become the news business. Below is more info from HuffPost regarding this Prince's meddling in the USA's internal affairs. Forget about freedom of the press, my friends. It's all about the bottom line.

Trento’s Take:
Fox News Can’t Upset Murdoch’s Saudi Prince
03 February 2010
Written by Joseph Trento
[...] I had said to Doocy that Saudi Arabian money was still financing Al Qaeda. Doocy did not react to my comment. But ten days later I learned that Fox’s parent company, News Corporation, was, at the time of my interview, negotiating with a Saudi prince to vastly increase his stake in the company.
The notorious Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, nephew to the Saudi king, met with Rupert Murdoch in Hong Kong on Jan. 14. The prince issued a press release after the meeting stating that the prince’s Kingdom Holding Company had discussions that "touched upon future potential alliances with News Corp."
[...] Alwaleed is the same Saudi prince who made headlines right after 9/11 when he personally went to Ground Zero and offered then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani a $10 million check for the relief efforts. But Alwaleed could not keep his mouth shut. He released a bizarre statement that blamed the attacks – not on the 15 airline hijackers from Saudi Arabia – but on the United States’ support of Israel. Giuliani, “America’s mayor,” saw a political opportunity and, confident that his reaction was appropriate, immediately refused the prince’s donation. He said: “There is no moral equivalent for this attack.”
Remarkably, I find myself agreeing with Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan appointee who is not happy about Murdoch’s new dealings with the prince. He recently wrote:
... Even more troubling than having a Saudi spinmeister, even a lousy one, at the decision-making table of America’s most successful, and conservative, television network is another aspect of Al-Waleed’s deal with Mr. Murdoch. The Australian entrepreneur has reportedly also given the prince the unfiltered ability to broadcast Saudi-produced materials directly into America on Murdoch’s satellite. Here’s how that part of the deal will evidently work: Prince Al-Waleed’s Rotana Audio Visual Company, which operates TV channels in the Middle East, has signed a deal with DirecTV, the TV-satellite firm controlled by News Corp. As a result, it would seem Rotana will be able to beam its programs into U.S. cable boxes without interference from federal regulators, or anybody else…What passes for entertainment in Saudi Arabia mostly looks like jihadist agitprop to the rest of us. Rotana has a huge library of movies, music and television programs. Such programming has to also include vicious anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-American incitement. That is, after all, the only kind of material the Wahhabi religious censors approve for production and broadcast in Saudi Arabia. Could that be what the prince has in mind for DirecTV subscribers? [...]

http://www.dcbureau.org/20100203319/Trento-s-Take/trentos-take-fox-news-cant-upset-murdochs-saudi-prince.html

Here's the HuffingtonPost's coverage of Prince Alwaleed's business exploits, including threats to Citigroup:

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Seeks Deeper Ties To News Corp

TAREK EL-TABLAWY | 01/17/10
CAIRO — The Saudi billionaire whose investment firm is one of the biggest stakeholders in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said he is looking to expand his alliances with the media giant, in the latest indication that his appetite for growth remains robust even as his company retrenches.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of the Saudi king and who was listed last year by Forbes as the world's 22nd richest person, met with News Corp.'s chief executive Rupert Murdoch on Jan. 14 in a meeting that "touched upon future potential alliances with News Corp.," according to a statement released by his Kingdom Holding Co. late Saturday.
[...] Kingdom Holding's statement said Alwaleed is already the second largest stakeholder in News Corp., with 5.7 percent of the shares of the media company. The stake is held through Kingdom Holding, in which Alwaleed holds a 95 percent stake.
The investment company has a diverse portfolio, ranging from hotels to shares in Apple, eBay and Citigroup.
Alwaleed, and the investment firm, were hit hard by the global meltdown.
He has since focused on shoring up borrowing power, in part through a recent decision to transfer 180 million of his shares in Citigroup to Kingdom Holding. In a statement last week, he described the move – valued at about $600 million – as key to facilitating future borrowing and growth.
The Saudi royal also met last week with Citigroup's chief executive Vikram Pandit, according to a statement by Kingdom Holding e-mailed Sunday.
Alwaleed raised his stake in Citigroup to 5 percent in late 2008 from less than 4 percent in a move that came as the company was facing a possible collapse. Kingdom Holding says Alwaleed is the single largest shareholder in Citigroup.
Citigroup has repaid the money it borrowed from the U.S. government during the financial crisis, but still faces a new fee to be levied on banks by the Obama administration to recoup $120 billion in taxpayer money used to support faltering companies.
Alwaleed said he was opposed to the move, arguing that "I believe taxing the banks right now is not the right time at all."
[...] The $120 billion recovery goal is the most that administration officials expect to lose from the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that bailed out banks, automakers and other financial firms.
Alwaleed's Rotana already has an alliance with News Corp.
In 2008, the two companies teamed up to bring Fox Movies to the Arab world and then last year, Rotana and Fox International Channels signed a multi-year output deal with The Walt Disney Co. to provide a range of programing to viewers in the Middle East, according to the statement by Kingdom Holding.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/18/saudi-prince-alwaleed-bin_1_n_426891.html?just_reloaded=1

Scapegoating for Their Lives

2010-02-12T13:05:00.005-05:00

The right wing smear machine is desperately trying to rewrite history and create propaganda to advance the notion that we were "safe" under BushCo. because W was so tough on terrorists. These are lies and dangerous assertions which could radically impact on our democracy.

To that end, we must prosecute BushCo. for its lying us into the willful destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq. If we don't our children will grow up believing that might makes right and power is the only thing than matters. Tell CBS to support free speech and critical thought. Our democracy depends upon an informed populace which holds elected officials responsible for criminal deeds. Please take a moment to sign this petition and pass it on.
The principles of the U.S. Constitution are not "attack advertisement"
CBS attempts to silence IndictBushNow movement!
The petition reads: I am writing to express outrage at CBS Outdoor's recent decision to silence those who want to stop torture and who demand accountability from elected government officials by denying IndictBushNow.org the ability to purchase ad space on buses in Washington, D.C.
The proposed ad stated these simple words: "TORTURE is not just wrong ... it is ILLEGAL. Because NO ONE is above the law," followed by the organization's website address. The CBS Outdoor legal team abruptly classified this as "attack advertising" in its sudden refusal to place the ads after weeks of planning.
Opposition to the illegal practice of torture or equal application of the law to all is not an "attack" on anyone. In fact, these are fundamental values enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and law--values that are cherished by people across the United States.
Clearly, CBS Outdoor does not feel the same way.
For our part, we will not allow political influence to cover up crimes or trample the Constitution, human rights and our civil liberties. We insist that CBS Outdoor rescind its decision and allow these bus ads to go forward immediately.
http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage

Along these lines it's important to recognize that the increasing vitriol being spewed at Barack Obama serves to deflect attention from BushCo.'s failure to protect AND defend America on 9/11/2001. Here is an interview from the Joe Scarborough show featuring Lawrence O'Donnell attempting to get the facts straight: The original video was removed without my knowledge. I got this from youtube.

Lawrence O'Donnell Rages On Bush Speechwriter Marc Thiessen: 'Your Administration Invited The First Attack' (VIDEO)
The original video was removed without my knowledge. I got this from You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqfpvvDCU9w
Fireworks erupted on the set of "Morning Joe" Friday, after MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell took umbrage with former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen's claim that President Obama was inviting a domestic terrorist attack.
Things started off rocky after Thiessen -- in the process of justifying the coercive counter-terrorism techniques used under the Bush administration and condemning Obama for "eliminating" the CIA's interrogation program -- insisted that his former boss was required to essentially start from scratch.
"You gotta think back to the period after 9/11," he said. "We didn't even know who hit us. [my bold] We didn't know that Khalid Sheik Mohammad was the mastermind of 9/11 or the operational commander of al Qaeda. And then we started rounding up these terrorists..."
O'Donnell responded quickly, barking out his bewilderment with Thiessen's assertion that there had been no pre-9/11 warning that an attack was coming.
"Isn't it true that the president you worked for invited the first attack by having no idea what was going on with al Qaeda? You just admitted that when you were hit on 9/11, you just said, 'We didn't know who hit us'. You were told who was going to hit you before 9/11. And your administration invited the first attack, for which you should live in shame."
Those charges were some of the milder in the heated exchange. Later in the segment, O'Donnell told Thiessen that he was hopelessly ill-equipped to talk about terrorism or torture.[...]

See the video and read more here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/12/lawrence-odonnell-rages-o_n_459907.html

My last comment on this subject, in case you've forgotten:

"Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S."--August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing

Getcha Bumper Stickers Here!

2010-02-07T19:27:00.001-05:00

Join The Pen's vigorous campaign to protect government of the people and get a free bumper sticker! Just take a moment to fax your senators, the prez and/or newspapers while you're at it.

http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1030.php

Promote Freedom from Tyrany in Iran Feb. 11

2010-02-06T09:15:00.005-05:00

Iran has executed two men for participating in demonstrations. More executions may take place, but we can help. Amnesty International is calling for international support and actions on the anniversary of Iran's revolution. Please do what you can to raise awareness of conditions for human rights activists in Iran.

Unite for human rights in Iran on February 11th

February 11th is Victory of the Revolution Day in Iran. Equivalent to the Fourth of July in the United States, it is a day commemorating liberty, independence and freedom. But the Iranian government has long violated these rights and is responsible for numerous abuses including torture, arbitrary arrests, censorship and the most recent execution of two activists accused of inciting the post-election protests on June 12th – even though these men had been held in detention long before the violence erupted.
Since blogs and websites like Twitter and YouTube were virtually the only way the Iranian people could expose the horrific treatment being inflicted on them in the days following the contested Presidential election, we expect that Iranians will turn to the Internet once again to carry their messages. That is why we are asking everyone to show their solidarity online on February 11th – whether it’s on your blog, website, or social networking profile.
Stand with us to ensure that Victory of the Revolution Day signifies an end to these abuses!
http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/iran/unite-for-human-rights-in-iran-on-february-11th/page.do?id=1011702&ICID=E1002A01&tr=y&auid=5906888
I love this video which starts off with Stephen Marley & Natalie Merchant then opens up the stage to musical artists from ALL OVER THE WORLD!

Former Marine Helps Vieques

2010-02-01T16:08:00.001-05:00

It doesn't take great genius to recognize the cause and effect of toxic substances on human beings, but the corporatists who control every federal agency, including the CDC and the EPA are going to stonewall, delay and "manufacture doubt," as the tobacco companies did in the 50s in an attempt to delay the inevitable apologies and compensations which will eventually be granted. I just hope the people who are suffering now will be granted a hearing in their lifetimes.
Island residents sue U.S., saying
military made them sick
By Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein,
CNN Special Investigations February 1, 2010
Vieques, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Nearly 40 years ago, Hermogenes Marrero was a teenage U.S. Marine, stationed as a security guard on the tiny American island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico.
Marrero says he's been sick ever since. At age 57, the former Marine sergeant is nearly blind, needs an oxygen tank, has Lou Gehrig's disease and crippling back problems, and sometimes needs a wheelchair.
[...] The decorated former Marine is now the star witness in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit by more than 7,000 residents of this Caribbean island -- about three-quarters of its population -- who say that what the U.S. military did on Vieques has made them sick.
For nearly six decades, beginning right after World War II, Vieques was one of the Navy's largest firing ranges and weapons testing sites.
[...] After years of controversy and protest, the Navy left Vieques in 2003. Today, much of the base is demolished, and what's left is largely overgrown. But the lawsuit remains, and island residents want help and compensation for numerous illnesses they say they suffer.
"The people need the truth to understand what is happening to their bodies," said John Eaves Jr., the Mississippi attorney who represents the islanders in the lawsuit.
Because he no longer lives on Vieques, Marrero is not one of the plaintiffs but has given sworn testimony in the case. He said the weapons used on the island included napalm; depleted uranium, a heavy metal used in armor-piercing ammunition; and Agent Orange, the defoliant used on the Vietnamese jungles that was later linked to cancer and other illnesses in veterans.
[...] The Environmental Protection Agency designated parts of Vieques a Superfund toxic site in 2005, requiring the Navy to begin cleaning up its former bombing range. The service identified many thousands of unexploded munitions and set about blowing them up. But the cleanup effort has further outraged some islanders, who fear that more toxic chemicals will be released.
[...] The U.S. government's response to their lawsuit is to invoke sovereign immunity, arguing that residents have no right to sue it. The government also disputes that the Navy's activities on Vieques made islanders ill, citing a 2003 study by scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found no link.
That study, however, has been harshly criticized by numerous scientists, and the CDC is embarking on a new effort to determine whether residents may have been sickened by the contamination from the Navy range.
Asked whether his duty on the island made him sick, Marrero responds, "Of course it did."

"This is American territory. The people that live here are American," he said. "You hurt someone, you have to take care of that person. And the government's just not doing anything about it."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/01/vieques.illness/index.html
Here's an excellent exploration from Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog on the subject of manufactured doubt and the role of legal liars like Hill and Knowlton, to create and promote dubious issues which divert attention from real life and death issues which slow down the profit margin. This essay includes a review of a book written in 2008 by George Washington University epidemiologist David Michaels called, Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health.
The Manufactured Doubt industry and the hacked email controversy

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1389

Chinese Frogs Leap Into Tibet: Populace Flees the Hopping Hans!

2010-01-24T11:10:00.004-05:00

China is the biggest Big Brother on the planet, no doubt about it. Below are two views about development in Tibet and who will benefit. These reports try to walk the tightrope between reporting as the politburo wants it, and reporting facts for the real world. First, the NY Times interpretation of this special new strategy:

China Seeks Stability in Tibet via Development
By EDWARD WONG Published: January 23, 2010
BEIJING — China’s top leaders laid out a strategy last week for bringing “leapfrog development and lasting stability” to the Tibetan regions, the state news agency reported late Friday.
President Hu Jintao and other leaders at a Tibet planning conference decided that “more efforts must be made to greatly improve living standards of the people in Tibet, as well as ethnic unity and stability,” the Xinhua news agency reported.
President Hu Jintao and other leaders at a Tibet planning conference decided that “more efforts must be made to greatly improve living standards of the people in Tibet, as well as ethnic unity and stability,” the Xinhua news agency reported.
The emphasis on economic development indicates that Chinese leaders still see the solution to the problem of Tibet as one of supplying creature comforts. If the region can develop fast enough, the reasoning goes, then Tibetans will buy into Chinese rule[...] [Anybody know anything about Tibetan Buddhism? Like the concept of non-attachment? Will somebody please let Hu Jintao know you can't FORCE people to be materialistic when their heritage views material success as illusion?]
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/world/asia/24china.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Now here's the report as presented by the Xinhua News Agency. Watch the painful effort to put a smiley face on everything:

China to achieve leapfrog development, lasting stability in Tibet
Editor: Mu Xuequan
BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- China has made plans to achieve leapfrog development and lasting stability in Tibet Autonomous Region in a bid to ensure China's development as a whole, according to a high-level meeting held here this week.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders attending the fifth meeting on the work of Tibet, from Jan. 18 to 20, agreed that more efforts must be made to greatly improve living standards of the people in Tibet, as well as ethnic unity and stability.
[…] During the meeting, senior leaders also meted out plans to develop Tibetan-inhabited areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's policies towards Tibet in the new era were totally correct, suiting to national condition, Tibet's actual conditions and the fundamental interests of people of all ethnic groups in Tibet. [sic] [I’m thinking this is a sneaky way of saying, “Yeah, this is great but only if the Tibetans want your so-called stability“.]
[…] While vowing to take substantial measures to ensure "normal order of Tibetan Buddhism", Hu said the awareness of being part of the Chinese nation and being law-abiding citizens [my bold] must be constantly enhanced among cadre and the masses in Tibet. [We all know that being “law-abiding citizens” can mean something different to people under the boot of an oppressive regime, no matter how many times they use the word “people” in their official titles & proclamations.]
[…] He stressed Tibet's significance in ensuring China's national security, and efforts in building the region into a strategic reserve of natural resources, an agricultural production base, a land with unique culture and a world-class tourism destination.
[…] Speaking of education, he said free education would be offered for all the children of farmers and herdsmen in primary schools and junior and senior high schools. [Will Tibetan children now be educated in the Tibetan language or Mandarin? I think I know the answer!]
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/world/asia/24china.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

I'm not just preoccupied with a free Tibet because it is a just cause or because I am a Buddhist. Our economy has essentially collapsed and China owns us. It's just a matter of time before the Han government insinuates itself into all aspects of American life, free speech and all. But if you think the powers that be are going to leave the USA alone, letting us live our own lives the way we choose, I have a bridge to sell you.

Our Horrific Heritage

2010-01-18T09:49:00.005-05:00

George M gives a perspective to the film Avatar which identifies the heart of the issues driving conservatives crazy. However, we European Americans can no longer afford to ignore the truth of what we did in taking over the Americans. It is truly breathtaking, almost paralyzing when we come to grips with the real history of European imperialism. But it is imperative to learn from the past and make amends. Our future depends upon it.

Avatar Half-Tells a Story We Would
All Prefer to Forget
By George Monbiot
Monbiot.com.
January 18, 2010.
Avatar, James Cameron's blockbusting 3-D film, is both profoundly silly and profound. It's profound because, like most films about aliens, it is a metaphor for contact between different human cultures. But in this case the metaphor is conscious and precise: this is the story of European engagement with the native peoples of the Americas. It's profoundly silly because engineering a happy ending demands a plot so stupid and predictable that it rips the heart out of the film. The fate of the native Americans is much closer to the story told in another new film, The Road, in which a remnant population flees in terror as it is hunted to extinction.
But this is a story no one wants to hear, because of the challenge it presents to the way we choose to see ourselves. Europe was massively enriched by the genocides in the Americas; the American nations were founded on them. This is a history we cannot accept.
[...] the greatest acts of genocide in history scarcely ruffle our collective conscience. Perhaps this is what would have happened had the Nazis won the second world war: the Holocaust would have been denied, excused or minimised in the same way, even as it continued. The people of the nations responsible – Spain, Britain, the US and others – will tolerate no comparisons, but the final solutions pursued in the Americas were far more successful. Those who commissioned or endorsed them remain national or religious heroes. Those who seek to prompt our memories are ignored or condemned.

http://www.alternet.org/story/145107/avatar_half-tells_a_story_we_would_all_prefer_to_forget?page=entire

Who Let the Dogs Fly?

2010-01-17T11:39:00.007-05:00

It could be coincidence. It could be conspiracy. Someone in a position to investigate should be asking the question: Why did the Israeli security company fail not once but at least twice in letting shoe bombers and crotch bombers onboard international flight? How many "mistakes" will they be allowed to make before their contracts are terminated?

If I screw up a job I get fired. When is International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS) going to be held accountable for letting known terrorists board planes over and over again? Or are they doing a really terrific job at planting false flags?

Why is the American press silent on the Israeli role in NW Flight 253?
By Patrick Martin
16 January 2010
Nearly a week ago, on January 10, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz carried a news article by correspondent Yossi Melman pointing out the role of an Israeli security firm, International l (ICTS), in the failed attempt to detonate a bomb on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
ICTS subsidiaries I-SEC and PI are responsible for security screening of passengers at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, where accused suicide bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded the Detroit-bound jet. The company uses screening technology to profile passengers and identify security risks, based on the experience of the Israeli intelligence services. Former El Al Airlines and Shin Bet security personnel established ICTS in 1982 to market their expertise, and many US airlines use their services or technology.[...]
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/f253-j16.shtml

OpEd News carried this report from Britain suggesting an Israeli connection to the 9/11 Commission here:

The Chilcot Inquiry: Britain's 9/11 Commission
January 4, 2010
By Maidhc O' Cathail
All too often, official inquiries are conducted by the very people who should themselves be under investigation.
In this respect, Britain's Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq war bears a distressing similarity to the 9/11 Commission.
In a remarkable symmetry, both inquiries involve a Jewish Zionist historian, who not only advised his country's leader to go to war against Iraq, but actually provided the ideological justification for that unnecessary war.
Perhaps Philip Zelikow was one of the few people who was not surprised by his appointment as executive director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, better known as the 9/11 Commission. After all, the Professor of History at the University of Virginia had shown uncanny prescience in foreseeing an event such as 9/11 itself. In 1998, as project director of the Catastrophic Terrorism Group, Zelikow had written:
"An act of catastrophic terrorism that killed thousands or tens of thousands of people " would be a watershed event in America's history". Like Pearl Harbor, such an event would divide our past and future into a 'before' and 'after."{...}
This report goes on to discuss British allies to the neocon agenda. The whole article can be read here:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Chilcot-Inquiry-Brita-by-Maidhc-O-Cathail-100104-369.html

As we go down memory lane we find Google provides even more scary connections between Israel, ICTS, false flags and excuses to bomb other nations. Check out this blog from 2005 which examined the London terror bombings:

Saturday, July 30, 2005
The London bombs, Israel and ICTS
Christopher Bollyn, American Free Press
[...] Like 9/11 and other "false flag" acts of terror, the London bombings occurred during a large-scale terrorist exercise that took place at the same time and locations as the actual explosions.
Peter Power, former high-ranking employee of Scotland Yard and member of its Anti-Terrorist Branch, told BBC 5 and ITV News that his company, Visor Consulting, had carried out "crisis exercises," with an unnamed private company.
The exercise envisioned "almost precisely" the bombings that actually occurred, Power said.
Power described the simulation of "simultaneous attacks on a underground and mainline station" and "bombs going off precisely at the railway stations" at which the actual bombings occurred.
"There were a few seconds when the audience didn't realize whether it was real or not," he said. On ITV, Power suggested that the unnamed partner in the terror exercise was concerned about Jewish buildings and banks being targeted.
AFP contacted Visor Consultants, the mayor of the City of London, Scotland Yard, and the transportation authority to ask about the identity of the unnamed partner in the terror exercise.
A likely candidate is an Israeli company called International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS) International N.V., an aviation and transportation security firm headed by "former [Israeli] military commanding officers and veterans of government intelligence and security agencies."
Menachem Atzmon, convicted in Israel in 1996 for campaign finance fraud, and his business partner Ezra Harel, took over management of security at Boston's Logan Airport in 1999 through Huntleigh USA, a subsidiary of ICTS.[my bold] Until his 1996 conviction, Atzmon was president of the Israel Development Fund (IDF), a U.S. tax-exempt foundation funneling money illegally to the Likud party of Sharon and Netanyahu, according to author Anton Chaitkin.[...]
[...]Atzmon and Harel were majority owners of ICTS. The convicted Likud criminal's [Atzmon] firm was in charge of security at Logan Airport, Chaitkin wrote – inspecting the validity of passports and visas, searching cargo, screening passengers – when two airliners were hijacked from there on Sept. 11, 2001, and demolished the World Trade Center towers in New York.[...]
[...] "Was ICTS International, or one of its affiliates, involved in the July 7 terror exercise in London?" AFP asked ICTS spokesperson Petra Snoek at company headquarters in Amstelveen, Holland.
"Herewith I would like to inform you that ICTS International is not operating in the U.K.," Snoek wrote.
But ICTS International does have a subsidiary in Britain called ICTS U.K. Ltd., located in London's Tavistock House South, precisely where the double-decker bus was bombed on July 7.
A receptionist at ICTS U.K. Ltd. said the office was temporarily closed after the bombing due to damage, but that the company was indeed part of ICTS International.[...]
http://london-bombs.blogspot.com/2005/07/london-bombs-israel-and-icts.html

One more log to throw on the fire is this piece from Rense.com describing Mossad agents dancing in the streets while watching the towers burn and collapse on 9/11. Why were these guys allowed to return to Israel, without any scrutiny, while Muslim males in the NYC area lived under fear of instant disappearance if they whistled in the wrong direction?

Mossad - The Israeli Connection To 911
By Christopher Bollyn
Exclusive to American Free Press, 4-14-5
U.S. investigators and the controlled media have ignored a preponderance of evidence pointing to Israel's intelligence agency, the Mossad, being involved in the terror attacks of 9/11.
From the very morning aircraft smashed into the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon, news reports have indicated Israeli intelligence being involved in the events of 9/11 - and the planting of "false flags" to blame Arab terrorists and mold public opinion to support the pre-planned "war on terror."
Shortly after the destruction of the twin towers, radio news reports described five "Middle Eastern men" being arrested in New Jersey after having been seen videotaping and celebrating the explosive "collapses" of the WTC.
These men, from a phony moving company in Weehawken, N.J., turned out to be agents of Israeli military intelligence, Mossad. Furthermore, their "moving van" tested positive for explosives.
Dominic Suter, the Israeli owner of Urban Moving Systems, the phony "moving company," fled in haste, or was allowed to escape, to Israel before FBI agents could interrogate him. The Israeli agents were later returned to Israel on minor visa violations.
The Assistant Attorney General in charge of criminal investigations at the time was Michael Chertoff, [my bold] the current head of the Dept. of Homeland Security. Chertoff, the son of the first hostess of Israel's national air carrier, El Al, is thought to be an Israeli national.
One of the Israeli agents later told Israeli radio that they had been sent to "document the event" - the event which took the lives of some 3,000 Americans.[...]
http://www.rense.com/general64/moss.htm
You've done your research, now have a peaceful Sunday!

Google Takes a Stand Against Chinese Censorship

2010-01-16T11:03:00.005-05:00

In what hopefully will be the first in a cascade of reactions to the usual threats and intiminations of China's ruling class, Google is firmly placing its logo on the side of liberty, and I say Right ON!!! The International Campaign for Tibet reports the following:

13 January, 2010
International Campaign for Tibet

Google decision a "crack in the wall of censorship" that sets new standard

Google's decision to halt censorship on its search engine in China and its threat to pull out of the Chinese market in response to cyber-attacks that seek to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists sets a new standard for other companies operating in China. A Google blog this morning (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/) announcing the decision was front page news worldwide.
[...] The latest news from Google comes in the context of stepped-up efforts by Chinese government authorities to criminalize information-sharing and pursue charges of "subversion" for online, email or phone discussions with the outside world about the situation in Tibet. Beijing has set up a new task force within the Public Security Bureau specifically targeted at the "fabrication and spreading of rumors," according to an official press report (Tibet Daily, December 26, 2008). This initiative has led to numerous detentions, and supports the trend identified by ICT of harsher punishments meted out for Tibetans who receive and impart information and opinions than for some Tibetans who actually take part in demonstrations.
Kunchok Tsephel, an official in a Chinese government environmental department and founder of the influential Tibetan literary website, Chodme ('Butter-Lamp,' www.tibetcm.com), was sentenced to 15 years in prison in November 2009 on charges believed to relate to content on his website, which aims to protect Tibetan culture, and to passing on information about protests in Tibet in 2008. (http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/founder-tibetan-cultural-website-sentenced-15-years-closed-door-trial-freedom-expression-c).

Norzin Wangmo, a Tibetan woman and Communist Party member, is serving a five-year prison sentence for passing on news over the phone and Internet about the situation in Tibet to the outside world (http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/disappearances-continue-across-tibet-tibetan-woman-sentenced-talking-telephone).[...]
Google's announcement comes one day before a scheduled speech by Google CEO Eric Schmidt to a meeting of Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives tonight (January 13).
Mary Beth Markey concluded: "For 20 years, we've battled against putting profits in the China market ahead of human rights. It's impossible for us not to see Google's decision as anything but a real victory for the people and those who support their struggle for greater freedoms. It is fitting that Mr. Schmidt is meeting with members of the House this evening, many of whom, including Nancy Pelosi and, of course, the late Tom Lantos, have cautioned U.S. companies that it is in their self-interest to take on a stronger role in the development of both more progressive economic and political systems in China."[...]

http://savetibet.org/media-center/ict-press-releases/google-decision-crack-wall-censorship-sets-new-standard
The Epoch Times reported the story of Kunchok Tsephel on Nov. 9:
Tibetan Web Site Founder Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
By Matthew Robertson
Epoch Times Staff
The founder of an influential Tibetan literary Web site was sentenced to 15 years in prison after a closed-door trial on Nov. 12.
Kunchok Tsephel, 39, is accused of “divulging state secrets,” a vague charge used by the Chinese authorities to punish dissidents of all stripes. Under such laws, the Chinese authorities are not required to explain which state secrets the defendant is alleged to have divulged.
The charges probably relate to content posted on his Web site, Chodme (butter lamp), which seeks to protect Tibetan culture. He is also accused of passing on information about last year’s protests in Tibet, according to the activist group which released the news.[...]
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/25317/

Taking Protest to the Streets

2010-01-16T10:34:00.003-05:00

Veterans and military families will lead the March 20, Washington, DC demonstration against war as more organizations and individuals connect the dots of racism, poverty and war.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/

Veterans and military families speak out

Veterans and military families are joining with tens of thousands of others who will be marching on Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 20.

If you are a veteran, active-duty service member or a member of a military family and would like to join the veterans, active-duty service members and military families contingent, click here.

[...] We must continue the struggle. We must be louder than ever, as you will hear many tell us to shut up and go away. Don’t tell the public the truth that there has been no change … that we should not challenge the leaders of our country because they are now labeled Democrats rather than Republicans. As we have fewer voices, we must be louder now than ever before.

Read the entire release here: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/01/16/veterans-and-military-families-speak-out/

The group ANSWER is coordinating the demonstration:

All out for the March 20th March on Washington!

People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. To see a list of the initiators, click this link.
We will march together to say “No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!” We will march together to say “No War for Empire Anywhere!”
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.

http://answer.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=m20_homepage

Dhondup Wangchen: 6 Years for Reporting Life

2010-01-06T13:34:00.009-05:00

Radio Free Asia reports that Tibetan documentary film maker Dhondup Wangchen has been sentenced to six years imprisonment (not counting the one he's already spent awaiting trial) for the crime of "splitting the motherland." That's right, folks, China is such a fragile nation that it's handlers can't cope with being exposed in a documentary. It might make the ruling class look bad. Really.

China Jails Tibetan Filmmaker
2010-01-06
HONG KONG—Authorities in the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai have handed a six-year jail sentence to a Tibetan filmmaker who returned from exile to make a documentary about his homeland, Tibetan sources say.
The Xining Intermediate People's Court [my bold] handed the sentence to Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind,” in a secret trial that found him guilty of “splitting the motherland,” the sources said.“Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of ‘Leaving Fear Behind,’ was sentenced six years to prison,” a Tibetan from the Amdo region identified as Thardrub said.
“We were checking around about it...later, we were able to confirm that he was sentenced secretly [my bold] by Xining Intermediate People's Court in Qinghai on Dec. 28, 2009.”
Dhondup Wangchen’s relatives were given no information about his trial or sentencing, he added.
“They were not informed about the sentencing,” Thardrub said. “The relatives argue that he is innocent and he did not commit any crime...They are planning to appeal his sentence in the higher courts.”
Jamyang Tsultrim, a relative of Dhondup Wangchen now living in Switzerland, said the sentencing of Dhondup Wangchen was a clear indication of how Tibetans were deprived of freedom of expression in China.
“His relatives made arrangements for a lawyer to represent him, but the lawyers were not allowed to represent him,” Jamyang Tsultrim said.
“He was also suffering from liver problems and was denied any kind of medical treatment,” he added.
[...] Dhondup Wangchen’s film, “Leaving Fear Behind” (www.leavingfearbehind.com), is a 25-minute documentary including interviews with Tibetans in the Amdo region expressing their views on Tibet’s exiled leader the Dalai Lama, the Beijing Olympics, and Chinese laws.
The authorities also detained Jigme Gyatso, a monk from the Kham region, at the same time, but released him on Oct. 15. He later said he was tortured in detention.
“Leaving Fear Behind” was produced outside China after Dhondup Wangchen managed to send footage out of Tibet before the authorities caught up with him.
It was shown to foreign journalists in Beijing during the Olympic Games.[...]
Original reporting by RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/filmmaker-01062010111100.html

Imagine living in a country where not only is it a crime to document real things happening in real places, but a so-called "people's court" can keep you imprisoned, run a secret trial with a secret decision, and disappear you for SIX YEARS! Your family and friends can't file an appeal because they haven't been notified of anything--not the alleged "crimes" and certainly not the supposed "justice" of having to live in a Chinese prison for almost a decade.
The day will come when the Chinese people and all the minority ethnic groups within China will recognize their enslavement to this nebulous government of the people. They will rise up and say, "Whose justice are you talking about?" Let's hope true justice comes about through peaceful means. It can happen if each and every individual bureaucrat wakes up to the crimes they commit in the name of "The People." It will grow as they decide to stand up for justice, not Just Us.

Learn more from the web site for Leaving Fear Behind: http://www.leavingfearbehind.com/
The NY Times covered this story in October, with more personal info about Dhondup Wangchen:
China Is Trying a Tibetan Filmmaker for Subversion
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: October 30, 2009
CHONGQING, China — A self-taught filmmaker who spent five months interviewing Tibetans about their hopes and frustrations living under Chinese rule is facing charges of state subversion after the footage was smuggled abroad and distributed on the Internet and at film festivals around the world.
The filmmaker, Dhondup Wangchen, who has been detained since March 2008, just weeks after deadly rioting broke out in Tibet, managed to sneak a letter out of jail last month saying that his trial had begun.
“There is no good news I can share with you,” he wrote in the letter, which was provided by a cousin in Switzerland. “It is unclear what the sentence will be.”
[...] Until now, the case of Mr. Wangchen, 35, has received little attention abroad. Uneducated and plainspoken, he was an itinerant businessman until October 2007, when he bought a small video camera and began traveling the Tibetan plateau interviewing monks, yak herders and students about their lives.
Tsetring Gyaljong, a cousin who helped him make the documentary, said that Mr. Wangchen’s political awareness was sharpened nearly a decade ago, when he witnessed a demonstration in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, that was quickly broken up by public security officers.
“He saw how it was dissolved in two or three minutes and how everyone was taken away,” said Mr. Gyaljong, speaking from Switzerland, where he has lived in exile since escaping from Tibet. “There were no pictures, no testimonies, and he felt like the world should know that Tibetans, despite the Chinese portrayals, are not a happy people.”
[...] In an interview from Dharamsala, where she works as a baker, Mr. Wangchen’s wife, Lhamo Tso, said she feared she might not see him again for many, many years.
“As a wife, I’m very sad to be without the person I love so much,” she said. “But if I can separate out that sadness, I feel proud because he made a courageous decision to give a voice to people who don’t have one.” [...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/asia/31tibet.html?_r=2

Long live the Tibetan people, wherever they are!

Barack Obama's Strange Mentors

2009-12-22T17:25:00.002-05:00

OMG--I really wish this wasn't so because it gonna send us waaaaay back down the rabbit hole! SDS is even implicated!!!
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 12/22/09:
Obama worked for the CIA
For OpEdNews: Josh Mitteldorf - Writer
from an article at Online Journal
Wayne Madsen Reports has obtained additional details on Business International Corporation (BIC), the CIA front company where President Obama spent a year working after graduating from Columbia University in 1983.
BIC used journalists as non-official cover (NOC) agents around the world. The firm published weekly and fortnightly newsletters for business executives, including Business International, Business Europe, Business Latin America, and Business Asia.
On February 24, 2009, WMR reported: "For one year, Obama worked as a researcher in BIC's financial services division where he wrote for two BIC publications,Financing Foreign Operations and Business International Money Report, a weekly newsletter.
"An informed source has told WMR that Obama's tuition debt at Columbia was paid off by BIC. In addition, WMR has learned that when Obama lived in Indonesia with his mother and his adoptive father Lolo Soetoro, the 20-year-old Obama, who was known as "Barry Soetoro,' traveled to Pakistan in 1981 and was hosted by the family of Muhammadmian Soomro, a Pakistani Sindhi who became acting president of Pakistan after the resignation of General Pervez Musharraf on August 18, 2008."[...]
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-worked-for-the-CIA-by-Josh-Mitteldorf-091222-13.html

Here's a bit more on BIC from Wikpedia:

Founded in 1953 by Eldridge Haynes and his son, Elliott Haynes, BIC initially focused on American companies and started out with a weekly newsletter (called Business International) and a group of key corporate clients. Offices were established overseas, including major regional operations based out of Vienna (East Europe and the USSR) and Hong Kong (Asia-Pacific), and single-country offices (e.g., Rome, Tokyo).
BI eventually became the premier information source on global business with research, advisory functions, conferences and government roundtables in addition to its publications. It was headquartered in New York City, with major offices in Geneva, London, Vienna, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and a network of correspondents across the globe.
In his book The Strawberry Statement, former student protester James Kunen reports a description of Business International by an unnamed Students for a Democratic Society conference attendee in 1968. The attendee, referred to by Kunen as 'the kid', claimed the company offered to finance SDS demonstrations in Chicago. Business International is described as 'the left wing of the ruling class' and as desiring a Gene McCarthy presidency.^[1]

Operation Blue Lightning, Meet the Narco Politicos

2009-12-22T16:33:00.048-05:00

MadCow Morning News is back with a BANG and tons (43 tons, perhaps?) of new information linking a little flight school in Venice, Florida with not just the training of Mohammed Atta and his crew, but heroin and cocaine trafficking PLUS strange escapades involving the to and fro of a pilot named Michael Brassington into Miami Airport and crashing into Teterboro Airport. Gosh, it just goes on & on!

Although it's hard to keep track of the players in this apparently on-going escapade, Daniel Hopsicker is working hard to connect the dots. Please visit his site in the link below to get probably more than you wanted to know about this nasty spider's web of CIA/NSA/druglords + Afghani 9/11 conspirators.

9/11 Drug Pilot & Operation Blue Lightning

December 22, 2009

by Daniel Hopsicker

Elements of the U.S. Government took a surprisingly keen interest in controversial Guyanese drug pilot Michael Brassington during 2003 and 2004, when, according to interviews with former Customs Agents, Brassington was involved in—or the subject of—a secretive Miami-based U.S. Government operation.
“Whenever Brassington entered the U.S. a special team from Miami was supposed to come up,” stated former Fort Lauderdale Customs Agent James Sanders.
Brassington was supposed to be met by Customs Agents from “Operation Blue Lightning.”

“Operation Blue Lightning is some kind of joint task force," Sanders explained. "I found out later, from a chief inspector on the team, that I wasn’t even supposed to inspect him.” [...]

[...] Operation Blue Lightning clearly fits the description provided by a top DEA official in Miami when he informed us why the DEA had not mounted an investigation into the owners of two planes caught carrying over 10 tons of cocaine in Mexico’s Yucatan:

Because the two American drug planes belonged to a “rogue” operation in U.S. Customs, explained the DEA official. So the investigation properly belonged to the Office of Investigations in the Dept of Homeland Security.[...]

And there's so much more for you to research at MadCowProd.com: http://www.madcowprod.com/12222009.htm

Special thanks go to George H.W. Bush for setting the stage and giving the go ahead, (as Reagan's VP) for the new Narco State!

Stop the Chamber from Wrecking America

2009-12-22T16:19:00.001-05:00

I hope you can take a moment to sign this petition. The so-called Chamber of Commerce has interfered with every progressive cause and elections to date, and is up to its teeth in anti-health care reform activities, outsourcing jobs and denying climate change. It is particularly interesting that several big corporate players ALSO want to wash their hands of this sordid organization, i.e. Apple, Exelon Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric, Nike, and Public Service Company of New Mexico. Apparently the CEOs of these companies are looking beyond the bottom line towards a sustainable future for ALL.

Please also alert your friends and neighbors to the reality of this organization. They are not out to support small businesses, but to maintain status quo for the itsy bitsy minority on the top of the pyramid. Here are excerpts from VR's home page:

UPDATE: Chamber Supporters Make Death Threats. On December 11, 2009, we filed a request with the FBI in Washington for a federal investigation into a campaign of death threats against us by supporters of the Chamber and Tom Donohue. Read the complete letter here. We provided hundreds of emails to the FBI and have asked for for a determination of who is behind the threats and prosecution of those who have made the threats. We have also asked the FBI to investigate whether the Chamber is engaged in a smear and intimidation campaign against our organization and people associated with it in order to obstruct justice. It is against the law to intimidate and threaten someone who makes a criminal complaint to the Department of Justice, which we made in our October 5, 2009 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. Read all about it here on Huffington Post.
UPDATE: Tom Donohue has been palling around with the president of China in order to promote the outsourcing of American jobs. As Mr. Donohue told VentureOutsource publication, outsourcing is good for business and the Chamber is “fighting to preserve their right to [outsource].”
UPDATE: Reward Increased To $200,000 For Information Leading To The Arrest And Conviction Of Chamber CEO Tom Donohue. Click Here For Reward Poster.
We have had enough and it is time to Stop The Chamber. Therefore, we demand the following:

Fire Tom Donohue. Mr. Donohue is the Chamber's corrupter in chief who single handedly turned the Chamber into a pay-to-play vehicle for right-wing causes and corporate dishonesty. As Eliot Spitzer put it, "Tom Donohue has never once found a crime that he couldn't justify, as long as it was committed by one of his dues-paying members."
Drop Corporate Support for the Chamber. [...]
Launch A Criminal Investigation Against The Chamber For Fraud, False Tax Filings And Campaign Finance Violations. [...]
Ask Congress To Investigate The Chamber. [...] Public Citizen. http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2305 Send a letter to Congress here.
Reorganize The Chamber. [...]
Speak Out Against The Chamber. [...]

Thank you, Velvet Revolution!

www.StopTheChamber.com

REAL ID Relief, for now...

2009-12-20T10:54:00.000-05:00

With all the complaints the Tea Baggers have, you'd think an obvious intrusion into privacy such as REAL ID would grab their attention. But then again, a black man did not create the program and isn't the face that is advocating it's implementation.

States get 16-month reprieve from REAL ID

By Tribune Staff • December 20, 2009

The decision by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano means that Montana driver's licenses will continue to be legitimate identification for purposes such as traveling on commercial airliners. The REAL ID law requires states to standardize driver's licenses in an attempt to prevent forged identifications from being used by terrorists, such as the Sept. 11 hijackers.
[...] Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and the state Legislature were among the earliest opponents of the congressionally passed act. They defied the federal government by not enforcing the law. Montana and 12 other states were granted an exemption from the requirements, but that exemption was scheduled to expire Dec. 31. Napolitano's decision keeps the exemption in place through the end of April 2011.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091220/NEWS01/912200304/States-get-16-month-reprieve-from-REAL-ID

Click the links below for previous posts about REAL ID and the players, pro & con.

All ISMs are Equal! Hang 'Em All!!!

2009-12-20T10:22:00.002-05:00

While snow falls over the eastern seaboard, I'm exposing myself to the twisted logic [sic] of the Tea Baggers. In between laughing and stunned amazement at their ignorance, I can't help but wonder what will happen to these people next year as the economy will continue to plunge and our standard of living change to conspicuous hoarding.

Here's a video from LeftMedia of their "massive" demonstration on Washington, DC on 9/12.

Teabaggers Exposed: Meet The Anti-Obama Group!

Never forget: just act self-righteous, no matter what the facts are!

Show Me Your REAL ID

2009-12-16T11:36:00.002-05:00

You'd think the government would put at least as much effort into assisting a rational promotion and distribution of this bogus REAL ID program, wouldn't cha? But that assumes there are responsible officials, great protective fathers (& mothers) in homeland security who dedicate their time to the PUBLIC's need to know, rather than covering their bureaucratic asses and climbing the corporate/government ladder. It also very neatly provides enough confusion to ensure the right people "fall through the cracks." Here's the latest on how we're gonna be safer. Right.

Real ID arrives on 1 January:
Will you be allowed to board a domestic flight?

Published 15 December 2009

Unless Congress extends the deadline for implementing the Real ID Act, air travelers will have to produce a Real ID-compliant driver’s license as a means of identification – or they will not be allowed on board; trouble is, more than thirty states have not agreed to Real ID, and the driver’s licenses they issue may not be fully compliant with the act’s strictures
[...] [Neala] Schwartzberg notes that currently there are more than thirty states that have not agreed to Real ID and are therefore out of compliance. On 1 January, unless an extension is granted by DHS (and it appears an extension will be issued), residents of those states have IDs that are not acceptable under the Real ID act and will not be able to use their driver’s licenses for identification for domestic flights.
The airlines have said nothing about this issue Schwartzberg contacted American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, two carriers with a significant presence in Albuquerque and Texas which also cover much of the United States. American Airlines spokesperson Tim Smith said:“We are not doing anything about it at this time, at the airline level. Here’s why: at this stage it is a ‘head-butting’ contest between TSA, Homeland Security, and Congress, which passed the law.” He continues: “With more than half the states in America unable to comply with the [Real ID] law at this time, we believe that this issue will have to be worked out among those parties in some fashion. We suspect none of them is prepared to turn away tens of thousands of travelers on January 1.”
[...] Schwartzberg went to the TSA Web site to see what they had to say about it. The Web site said: “Effective June 21, 2008, adult passengers (18 and over) are required to show a U.S. federal or state-issued photo ID that contains the following: name, date of birth, gender, expiration date and a tamper-resistant feature in order to be allowed to go through the checkpoint and onto their flight.”
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/real-id-arrives-1-january-will-you-be-allowed-board-domestic-flight

A Radio that is Priceless

2009-12-15T10:14:00.003-05:00

In this age of high tech communication we all have portable access to every frivolous game, video or song we want. We can also "virtually" chat inanly with thousands of complete strangers. Yet our First Responders are still unable to communicate with each other. It's about time our First Responders get the tools they need to save lives, including their own.

DHS Tests Multi-Band, Interoperable Radio
January 2010, By Austin Wright

The Department of Homeland Security has entered the final stages of its four-year, nearly $9 million effort to develop a multi-band radio that can communicate across virtually all public-safety spectrums.

The lack of interoperable public-safety radios has been a high-profile issue since the federal government released the 9/11 Commission Report in 2004. The report said that in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, police departments struggled to coordinate their response plans because their radios weren’t compatible with other departments’ communications systems.[...]

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2010/January/Pages/DHSTestsMulti-Band,InteroperableRadio.aspx

Give to the 9/11 First Responders

2009-12-15T09:59:00.001-05:00

This is the time of year we all think about giving, even just a little something, to those who provide services, be it mail carriers, hair dressers, doormen, etc. It's hard to think we need to even ask for help, 8 years later, for those who ran to the "pile" and seem to be forgotten in the rage of health care reform.

Please forward this message and put pressure on President Obama and Speaker Pelosi: Pass HR 847. Thank you.

Fealgood Foundation Christmas Message to President Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QN3b3N9rmE

Pray for Peace

2009-12-12T10:26:00.004-05:00

If you're reading this today then you, like me couldn't make it to DC to register your resistance to wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, on and on. These wars are justified in our Amerikan minds because of 9/11, even though the jury is still out on who did what and why. Here are excerpts from a very provocative article from the blog Veterans Today.

Special Report:

YEARS OF DECEIT: US OPENLY ACCEPTS BIN LADEN LONG DEAD

BIN LADEN NEVER MENTIONED IN McCHRYSTAL REPORT OR OBAMA SPEECH

"HUNT FOR BIN LADEN" A NATIONAL SHAME

By Gordon Duff/STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Conservative commentator, former Marine Colonel Bob Pappas has been saying for years that bin Laden died at Tora Bora and that Senator Kerry's claim that bin Laden escaped with Bush help was a lie. Now we know that Pappas was correct. The embarassment of having Secretary of State Clinton talk about bin Laden in Pakistan was horrific. He has been dead since December 13, 2001 and now, finally, everyone, Obama, McChrystal, Cheney, everyone who isn't nuts is finally saying what they have known for years.
However, since we lost a couple of hundred of our top special operations forces hunting for bin Laden after we knew he was dead, is someone going to answer for this with some jail time? Since we spent 200 million dollars on "special ops" looking for someone we knew was dead, who is going to jail for that? Since Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney continually talked about a man they knew was dead, now known to be for reasons of POLITICAL nature, who is going to jail for that? Why were tapes brought out, now known to be forged, as legitimate intelligence to sway the disputed 2004 election in the US? This is a criminal act if there ever was one.

[...] What kind of man was Osama bin Laden? This one time American ally against Russia, son of a wealthy Saudi family, went to Afghanistan to help them fight for their freedom. America saw him as a great hero then. Transcripts of the real bin Laden show him to be much more moderate than we claim, angry at Israel and the US government but showing no anger toward Americans and never making the kind of theats claimed. All of this is public record for any with the will to learn.
[...] We know this: Bin Laden always denied any ties to 9/11 and, in fact, has never been charged in relation to 9/11. He not only denied involvement, but had done so, while alive, 4 times and had vigorously condemned those who were involved in the attack.
This is on the public record, public in every free country except ours. We, instead, showed films made by paid actors, made up to look somewhat similar to bin Laden, actors who contradicted bin Ladens very public statements, actors pretending to be bin Laden long after bin Laden's death.
These were done to help justify spending, repressive laws, torture and simple thievery.
For years, we attacked the government of Pakistan for not hunting down someone everyone knew was dead. Bin Laden's death hit the newspapers in Pakistan on December 15, 2001. How do you think our ally felt when they were continually berated for failing to hunt down and turn over someone who didn't exist?
http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9641

As for today's demonstration, if you don't "subscribe" to cable or a dish, you will have to wait until tomorrow to get the meagre crumbs of information about the speeches and how it all played out. Rather than feel frustrated, listen to "Listen", from Jordan Page. Let's keep it in mind as we go about our daily chores.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_M_IO25xHg

Please remember: no matter how difficult our lives are, we aren't living under fear of bombardment EVERY DAY. Horrific as our 9/11 was, the people of those three countries suffer the horror as we divert out attention with entertainment. Please, please pray for peace.

Open Letter from Lynne

2009-12-07T11:50:00.000-05:00

Dear Sisters and Brothers, Friends and Supporters:

Well the moment we all hoped would never come is upon us. Good-bye to a good cup of coffee in the morning, a soft chair, the hugs of grandchildren and the smaller pleasures in life. I must say I am being treated well and that is due to my lawyer team and your overwhelming support.

While I have received “celebrity” treatment here in MCC—high visibility—conditions for the other women are deplorable. Medical care, food, education, recreation are all at minimal levels. If it weren’t for the unqualified bonds of sisterhood and the commissary it would be even more dismal.

My fellow prisoners have supplied me with books and crosswords, a warm (it is cold in here most of the time) sweat shirt and pants, treats from the commissary, and of course, jailhouse humor. Most important many of them know of my work and have a deep reservoir of can I say it? Respect.

I continue to both answer the questions put to me by them, I also can’t resist commenting on the T.V. news or what is happening on the floor—a little LS politics always! (Smile) to open hearts and minds!

Liz Fink, my lawyer leader, believes I will be here at MCC-NY for a while—perhaps a year before being moved to prison. Being is jail is like suddenly inhabiting a parallel universe but at least I have the luxury of time to read! Tomorrow I will get my commissary order which may include an AM/FM Radio and be restored to WBAI and music (classical and jazz).

We are campaigning to get the bladder operation (scheduled before I came in to MCC) to happen here in New York City. Please be alert to the website I case I need some outside support.

I want to say that the show of support outside the Courthouse on Thursday as I was “transported” is so cherished by me. The broad organizational representation was breathtaking and the love and politics expressed (the anger too) will keep me nourished through this.

Organize—Agitate, Agitate, Agitate! And write to me and others locked down by the Evil Empire.

Love Struggle, Lynne Stewart
— lynnestewart.org , December 4, 2009

To write to Lynne Stewart:
Lynne Stewart
#53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY NY 10007

For more information e-mail us at
info@lynnestewart.org
The Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
350 Broadway, Suite 700
New York, NY 10013
212-625-9696

Dec. 12--Be There

2009-12-07T10:12:00.004-05:00

As I wrote after BHO's speech, let the demos begin. Here's the first big one I'm aware of:

EMERGENCY ANTI-ESCALATION RALLY

Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009
11am-4pm • Washington DC

Lafayette Square | White House
Metro: Farragut West or Farragut North

Speakers: Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Sen. Mike Gravel, Kathy Kelly, Chris Hedges, David Swanson, Rev. Graylan Hagler, Gael Murphy, Brian Becker, Debra Sweet, Mathis Chiroux, Coy McKinney, Elaine Brower, Lynne Williams, Hon. Betty Hall, Marian Douglas, Dr. Michael Knox, Ralph Lopez, Cpt. Ron Fisher.
Plus: Statements from Rabbi Michael Lerner, Col. Ann Wright, Kevin Zeese, Dr. Stephen Zunes, Granny D (turning 100), and others.

Anti-War, 1969

Live Music: Jordan Page, Head-Roc, Emma's Revolution, Precise Science.

Under Obama-Pelosi-Reid, the US has already sent about 35,000 more troops into the Afghanistan graveyard of empires. Now, Obama has announced another round of re-enforcements—an Afghan surge of 30,000 additional GIs, thereby betraying his supporters on the left and ignoring the majority of Americans, 55% of whom disapprove of his handling of the war. Instead, Obama is taking the advice from the war party—from Petraeus, McChrystal, and Mullen. It's high time Obama, Pelosi, and Reid heard a clear message from a resurgent antiwar movement demanding no escalation and an immediate pullout of all US forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, including an immediate halt to Predator drone attacks and CIA operations in the region.
Come to the rally and let our united voices be heard!
http://www.enduswars.org

Jesse Does 9/11

2009-12-06T21:47:00.002-05:00

Jesse Ventura will be addressing 9/11 on his show, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. The show is called The Secrets of 9/11

http://www.trutv.com/shows/conspiracy_theory/index.html

Here's the message about the broadcast from Les Jamison, 9/11Truth.org :

I urge everybody to tune in this Wed. when the show will be on 9/11. I just learned that there will be interviews with William Rodriguez, a few firefighters, Manny Badillo and other 9/11 family members.As you're probably aware, Jesse is one of the few high profile people out there with the courage and vision to point to the compelling evidence and reveal the obvious anomalies of 9/11.

Here's a big opportunity to counter the media firestorm over the KSM/Gitmo trials in NYC and call attention to the recent news about Osama Bin Laden being allowed to escape from Tora Bora. Between the torture of the Gitmo 9/11 suspects, the inadmissibility of any confessions as evidence, and Bin Laden's escape undermining the credibility of the government's claim of his guilt, we have plenty of powerful material to expose the deception which has been dumped onto the public all these years. This cannot be allowed to stand. We must put pressure on the media to stop their participation in the deception. We must put pressure on all progressives to finally deal with the facts provin the government has lied to us, covered up the truth, and continue to use 9/11 as justification for their imperial agenda including their current escalation in Afghanistan.

Now is the time for action which all of us can easily make happen. Spread the word and urge everybody in your address book to watch this show, AND same for any media people you know. Write letters to the editor, call into talk shows, etc. The coverup stops here. Let's create a huge buzz about this show and put the pressure on people in media to fulfill their obligation to do the research and discover the facts that make it clear that 9/11 manifested PNAC's "New Pearl Harbor", which was in the pattern of a long history of false flag events designed to traumatize the public into supporting wars of expansion.

Here's another FYI which I think it's safe to assume will be of interest to many. There will be events Dec. 12th in Manhattan and Dec. 13th in Suffolk revealing very unique information on the banking system, the creation of credit, dealing with debt collection, stopping foreclosure, and more. Irecently won 2 lawsuits by a major credit card company and wiped out over $21,000 in phony debt using this knowledge. Find out all about the events at www.citizensreformcenter.com. Seating will be limited so please RSVP as instructed there. Furthermore, if you're interested in being part of a support group in the NYC area, include this in your RSVP or send an email to services@citizensreformcenter.com.

Towards truth,
Les Jamieson

ENERGIZE ME and All Jobless & Broke Folks!!!

2009-12-06T12:45:00.002-05:00

If this picture doesn't make your heart beat faster, make sure you are breathing! Look out, Neu Yawkers: Here comes the righteous Reverand Billy with our ever-living Life After Shopping Gospel Choir to help you get through the holidaze. Here's the invite from the Rev, himself

Peace-a-loo-ya-all!!!

As the "Blessed are the Jobless Blessed are the Broke" tour continues!

The day we resist Consumerism feels like a holy day. When we walk away from Militarism, what a nice walk to the farmer's market. And Black Friday turned so easily into Buy Nothing Day and Local-a-lujah! -- BUY LOCAL! The secret revolution of self-saved souls grows in this season of hope. Come join us - we cup in our hands the seed of hilarious, wild Spring!

Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir
Saturday, 12/12/2009, 8:00pm. All ages, Tickets $10 -- no one turned away. Order online here: http://bit.ly/2009-blow-out
At The Brooklyn Lyceum!
227 4th Avenue, at Union Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Ph: 718-857-4816
R train to Union Street Station Saturday, October 3rd
Doors @ 7:00pm $10 | Brooklyn Lyceum 227 4th Ave, R Train To Union St.

Music, Video, Blogs and more at http://www.revbilly.com

(Photo by Jefferson Siegel)

9/11 Death Toll Still Rises

2009-12-05T01:32:00.002-05:00

It is such a heartbreak to know that there are still First Responders from 9/11/01 who suffer from respiratory problems, cancers, PTSD, on and on. It is completely outrageous that we have to ASK our government to provide for these heroes who are still with us. There are some who are sick now and could be helped and even live if Congress acted swiftly.

We can no longer say "3,000 people died from the terror attack of 9/11." Clearly, people are still dying, only it's our responsibility to save them. And we won't have any bearded boxcutting freaks to blame.

Here is a link to Adam's Angels, a site in celebration of one fire fighter's life:

http://www.adamsangels.org/

More timely is their request for all of us to show support for passage of HR 847, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, and get Congressional action to help our heroes.

Here is their statement:

Beginning Monday, December 7^th, Adam’s Angels are asking all Americans to take a stand and demand that HR 847- The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 be brought to the floor of the House of Representatives, immediately. Gaining as much public support as possible, as quickly as possible, from concerned citizens throughout the United States of America will allow immediate pressure on the House of Representatives to put HR 847 on their weekly schedule for a vote.

While it speaks volumes that 9/11 first responders (primarily those who are suffering from illnesses related to their time at the WTC site), along with their respective constituency groups, have been advocating for the passage of HR 847- The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009, it is time that all Americans fight on behalf of them. These men and women thought of their fellow Americans first, and foremost before heading to the WTC site, in the wake of September 11, 2001.

We, as Americans, must stand together united on this issue and make it known that we will not accept empty promises. Together, we will make sure that those who put others first are ALWAYS taken care of and that their sacrifices are NEVER forgotten.

Adam’s Angels are asking that all Americans please take a moment out of their day to call the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi at 202-225-0100 and the Majority Leader of the House, Steny Hoyer at 202-225-4131 and let them know that as proud Americans, we demand to see HR 847 brought to the floor, immediately. Callers are asked to say that as Americans, we will not sit by and allow those who put others first be taken for granted.

Having lost over eight hundred September 11th first responders since that horrific day, we must act now as many, many more of our Nation’s Heroes are sick and dying due to the time they spent at the World Trade Center site. We would like to stress how important the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 is to us, our community and America. It is time to get this bill to the House floor and passed so that those who put America first on September 11, 2001 are taken properly taken care of, now. We want HR 847 passed so that we, as a country, can properly thank the thousands who have given so much of themselves, so selflessly. We have lost over eight hundred September 11th first responders since that horrific day, we MUST act now as many, many more of these men and women are sick and dying due to the time they spent at Ground Zero.

How to Take Action, Now

If your Representative is on the list of co-sponsors (see below), please contact them and demand that they help get HR 847 to the floor by the end of 2009- ask them to take an urgent and immediate stand, with us. If your Rep is not currently supporting HR 847, please call them and stress how important HR 847- the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 is to you, your community and America. It is time to get this bill to the House floor and passed so that those who put America first on September 11, 2001 are taken properly taken care of, NOW. The list of all United States Reps and their contact information can be found at: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml .

HR 847- The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009

( http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h847/show ) is sponsored by Representative Carolyn Maloney [D, NY-14] and co-sponsored by Reps. Ackerman [D, NY-5], Andrews [D, NJ-1], Arcuri [D, NY-24], Baldwin [D, WI-2], Berkley [D, NV-1], Bishop [D, NY-1], Bishop [D, GA-2], Brady [D, PA-1], Burgess [R, TX-26], Capps [D, CA-23], Carney [D, PA-10], Castor [D, FL-11], Christensen [D, VI-0], Clarke [D, NY-11], Cohen [D, TN-9], Connolly [D, VA-11], Conyers [D, MI-14], Courtney [D, CT-2], Crowley [D, NY-7], Dahlkemper [D, PA-3], DeLauro [D, CT-3], Dent [R, PA-15], Doyle [D, PA-14], Ellsworth [D, IN-8], Engel [D, NY-17], Etheridge [D, NC-2], Fattah [D, PA-2], Garrett [R, NJ-5], Gonzalez [D, TX-20], Green [D, TX-29], Grijalva [D, AZ-7], Hall [D, NY-19], Higgins [D, NY-27], Himes [D, CT-4], Hinchey [D, NY-22], Hodes [D, NH-2], Holt [D, NJ-12], Israel [D, NY-2], Jones [R, NC-3], King [R, NY-3], Klein [D, FL-22], Kucinich [D, OH-10], Lance [R, NJ-7], Larson [D, CT-1], Lee [R, NY-26], Lee [D, CA-9], Lewis [D, GA-5], Lipinski [D, IL-3], Lowey [D, NY-18], Maffei [D, NY-25], Massa [D, NY-29], McCarthy [D, NY-4], McCaul [R, TX-10], McGovern [D, MA-3], McHugh [R, NY-23], McMahon [D, NY-13], Meeks [D, NY-6], Murphy [R, PA-18], Murphy [D, NY-20], Murphy [D, CT-5], Nadler [D, NY-8], Pascrell [D, NJ-8], Pierluisi [D, PR-0], Rangel [D, NY-15], Rush [D, IL-1], Sarbanes [D, MD-3], Schakowsky [D, IL-9], Schauer [D, MI-7], Schwartz [D, PA-13], Serrano [D, NY-16], Sestak [D, PA-7], Sires [D, NJ-13], Slaughter [D, NY-28], Smith [R, NJ-4], Stupak [D, MI-1], Sutton [D, OH-13], Thompson [D, MS-2], Tonko [D, NY-21], Towns [D, NY-10], Velázquez [D, NY-12], Weiner [D, NY-9], Wexler [D, FL-19], Woolsey [D, CA-6].

James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009

2/4/2009-- Introduced. James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2009 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health the World Trade Center Health Program (WTC program) to provide:

(1) medical monitoring and treatment benefits to eligible emergency responders and recovery and cleanup workers who responded to the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001; and

(2) initial health evaluation, monitoring, and treatment benefits to residents and other building occupants and area workers who were directly impacted and adversely affected by such attacks. Requires the WTC program administrator to:

(1) implement a quality assurance program;

(2) establish the WTC Health Program Scientific/Technical Advisory Committee;

(3) establish the WTC Responders Steering Committee and the WTC Community Program Steering Committee;

(4) provide for education and outreach on services under the WTC program;

(5) provide for the uniform collection of data related to WTC-related health conditions;

(6) conduct research on physical and mental health conditions that may be related to the September 11 terrorist attacks; and

(7) extend and expand arrangements with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to provide for the World Trade Center Health Registry. Authorizes the administrator to make grants to the Department to address mental health needs relating to the terrorist attacks. Amends the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act to:

(1) make individuals eligible for compensation under the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 for harm as a result of debris removal; and

(2) extend the deadline for making a claim for compensation.

Will Lynne Stewart Pay for Ramsey Clark's Crimes?

2009-12-01T22:44:00.002-05:00

Thought crimes, no more. Lynne Stewart was brought into this difficult case by Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General and current mischief maker for the left. At times I rejoice at his speaches, at other times I cringe and wonder what the hell he's doing on our team? I wonder if Lynne Steward wonders the same things, since he was her supervisor and continues to walk freely while she suffers in jail.

Casualty of the War on Terror
The Case of Lynn Stewart
By MARJORIE COHN , The Jurist

http://counterpunch.org/cohn11252009.html

Reject Obama's War

2009-11-30T22:10:00.005-05:00

The anti-war community is growing again, momentum is building again. There will soon be too many demos to go to, for our troops in Afghnistan, Iraq, places unacknowledged and most of all for the people of those traumatized countries.

Here are two views about Prez Obama's upcoming announcement of more boots on the ground, again.

From US Labor Against the War, I present in it's entirity their announcement. It isn't posted on their web page yet but I felt it important that a broad audience read this:

               ***

November 29, 2009
To:           All USLAW affiliates, members and supporters
From:       USLAW Co-Convenors
RE:          Imminent Afghan Escalation

On the very eve of the USLAW National Labor Assembly in Chicago, President Barack Obama is expected to announce his decision about the deployment of tens of thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan. Media reports predict he will make an announcement on Tuesday evening, December 1, that he intends to send as many as 34,000 additional U.S. troops and will seek thousands more from NATO allies.
Antiwar organizations around the country are organizing to protest this military escalation in Afghanistan. We encourage USLAW affiliates, members and supporters to join them to convince the administration that this escalation puts our country on the wrong course. It is the path LBJ took in Vietnam and it cost him "The Great Society." We can do better.
While the Assembly will consider USLAW's overall stance, it has been USLAW policy since the Leadership Council meeting December, 2008, that we
    •    Oppose any escalation of the conflict in Afghanistan and military action in Pakistan and promote non-military solutions that rely primarily on diplomacy, economic development, and pursuit of terrorists as a criminal rather than military matter.
      On November 15, we reiterated this position in an Action Alert in which we said:
The wisdom of that stand has been born out by the steady deterioration in the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The government is viewed by Afghans as corrupt and ineffective. The elections there made a travesty of the very notion of democracy. Karzai, surrounded by warlords and drug lords, is thoroughly discredited. His own brother is a druglord and a thug.
Committing thousands more troops will only stiffen Afghan resistance to foreign military occupation.
During the last few weeks, across the country, tens of thousands of people who share these concerns have written and called the White House to express opposition to any escalation of the conflict in Afghanistan. They believe, as we do, that the corrupt regime in Kabul does not deserve any more blood or money.
What Afghanistan needs now is not more foreign forces but rather more international diplomacy, regional negotiations that include the Taliban, real development assistance, more schools and clinics, electrification, clean water, and sanitation.
It costs $1 million for every troop the U.S. sends to Afghanistan. The billions of dollars we are squandering there are not making us any safer, but they are draining resources that could be used here to meet the urgent needs we have here at home - for health care, education, infrastructure, and more.
Rather than listen to the generals and Congressional hawks, we must convince the Obama administration to listen to the people - a majority of whom want an end to war and occupation in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Now is not a time for silence!
Join, Support & Build USLAW - Labor's Antiwar Voice!

Here's their link: http://uslaboragainstwar.org/

Next is Michael Moore''s letter to the president. Blessed be Michael Moore!!

An Open Letter to the President

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1267518840#/notes/aser-plac/open-letter-to-obama-by-michael-moore/218683830309

Michael Moore's blog: http://www.michaelmoore.com/?%28none%29

What Are We Hiding and Why?

2009-11-27T13:46:00.001-05:00

The heady days of "hope" are long gone and we are now faced with the dilema of supporting a president most of us only supported in theory. He was unknown, untested and now, it seems, untruthful. A man of the law who runs for president must completely comprehend and accept his campaign promises of transparency in governance and justice for ALL (not JUST US). What is Obama protecting by messing around with linguistics in policy? What have we done to maintain our security? Why are lies and obstructions more pallatable to some citizens than truth and setting things straight?

The question that's haunting me is what could a person possibly do to make them "untriable?" The answer keeps coming back that it isn't the prisoner who is untriable, but the legal system which "dissappeared" law abiding citizens. Which brings us back to the question of what our president is doing to protect and maintain our democracy, because democracy HAS to be for all, or it just ain't democracy.

I hope you have sufficiently digested and recovered from yesterday's food fest to stomach this. And get ready when the news breaks out of our new Afghani Gitmo in Bagram.

(Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t;
Adapted: christophe dune / Flickr)

Obama's Fifth Category: The "Untriable"

Tuesday 24 November 2009

[...] According to The Washington Post, quoting an unnamed official, there are some 75 prisoners in this "fifth category." And the administration's position is that these people are untriable because the evidence against them was obtained through torture or because public trials would involve and potentially expose an unacceptable volume of classified material.

[...] The Obama administration gave the human rights community apoplexy when it referred to "preventive detention." Now, it is simply saying that it's not going to seek any additional authority from Congress for such preventive detention. Which perhaps gives us a clue to the approach the administration has in mind. In a study by the Obama-friendly Center for American Progress, analyst Ken Gude suggests that the Obama administration "incarcerate detainees convicted in US criminal courts in maximum-security US prisons and transfer those who will remain in military custody to Bagram prison in Afghanistan." (Emphasis mine.)

That latter group would presumably include the untriable. Which appears to create a neo-GITMO at Bagram in Afghanistan.

http://www.truthout.org/1124094

Prejudice: What is it good for?

2009-11-18T00:25:00.029-05:00

I love those moments in all the Rush Hour films when Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker burst into "War: What is it good for? Absolutely NOTHING!" The same can be said for prejudice. Recent events in the Sunshine State of Florida have brought home the message that the ugly, smelly, nasty underbelly of white power and/or free-flowing racism is alive and well in Fort Lauderdale. It's had a long nap and now is flexing its muscles, savoring a romp in the park or Fort, as it were. Like this kind of crap:

"We have to see these billboards flourish in 2010 and leading up to the 2012 election when Obama will seek re-election," said Farah. "If he can't answer that simple question by then, he's toast. Help me make it so Obama can't go anywhere in the United States without seeing this sign." Since Jesus was an immigrant, I guess these are Christian values in action!

Last Saturday there was demonstration requesting amnesty for aliens which turned into a street fight between ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) and ALIPAC (Tea Parties Against Amnesty. Actually, it's Americans for Legal Immigration PAC).

A video posted by ALIPAC was so bizarre with it's pop-up comments that I felt compelled to deconstruct it, lest someone less compulsive than I sit through it and be misled and deluded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekW3HmlnYS4

It's easier to watch if you turn off the sound and keep your finger on the pause button. Ignore the pop ups, (very strategically placed) because reading them will obscure what your eyes see.

Shot from the perspective of someone across the street (let's call this person "Deep Wad"), we see a group of demonstrators organized around a corner while a man (call him "Jacko") stands in the street shooting a video directly into the face of an ANSWER demonstrator (good morning!). Words are seemingly exchanged and Jacko walks behind, then into the middle of the group. The ANSWER group turns to Jacko as a man in a black shirt (so ironic we could call him "Benito") leaps into the action (#8) with another video camera hoisted, already "shooting." Benito joins Jacko as side-by-side they continue to endure (heroically or arrogantly?) more verbal confrontration from the ANSWER demonstrators who clearly had claimed that corner to express their First Amendment right.

Only now notice there's a guy in a brown hat ("Goose") to the far left (# 12) who ALSO has a video camera and has been taping (from yet a different perspective) Jack and Benito's great adventure of provoking a riot at a peaceful demonstration.

Things happen quickly now. As Jacko seem to leave by walking behind and past Goose, a black van cuts across Deep Wad's angle. Although Goose is nearly obscured by a HUGE cartoony balloon directing us elsewhere, we can see Goose is clearly making gestures towards Jacko or Deep Wad, or maybe both. Goose turns towards Deep Wad and from here to #34 we can watch Goose cross the street and past Deep Wad's camera. Goose avoids a direct look but smiles into said camera while using his brown hat to shield his face as he gets closer to Deep Wad. Mission accomplis[h]ed?

Except provoking a riot is a felony, or so I thought based upon all the Black Panthers and Yippies and pacifists and progressives who've been busted for less. And in the case of the Panthers, outright hounded and murdered.

I don't get paid to do this and need some sleep but I hope someone will use what I've noticed, continue the deconstruction and get it to the right places.

Back in the day there were plenty of slug fests started by hardhats and Nazis and yes, cops out of uniform against anti-war protestors, only this time THEY GOT THE SHIT BEAT OUT OF THEM!!!

What a surprise!

Here is ANSWER's response, appropriately titled:
Racism, Lies and Videotape
A statement from ANSWER Florida
Nov. 17, 2009
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2/1667236835?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=9225&news_iv_ctrl=1621

At least the majority of American people understand the stupidity of the birthers, Birchers, Tea Baggers and repuglicans. There will be scuffling in the streets but we will continue to love and live as free Americans, despite their hatred.

A Tale of Two Men

2009-11-06T08:31:00.011-05:00

Down in Texass the repuglican spin meisters are working overtime to proclaim that the alleged (remember, innocent until proven guilty?) shooter at Ft. Hood, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was a loser and miscreant who just didn't feel like going to Iraq to shoot other Muslims. Born in America, Maj. Hasan was a Palestinian Muslim whose family fled for a better life. To be a dutiful American son, he volunteered for military service years before 9/11. Maj. Hasan considered the military his family. But he was just a soldier in a "volunteer" army, and that meant he had to take whatever shit they threw at him, including refusing requests to resign rather than be deployed to Afghanistan.

"He's disgruntled because he had a poor performance evaluation, he doesn't believe in the mission, he's looking at getting transferred to Afghanistan or Iraq," [Representative Michael] McCaul said. "He's not happy about all that."

Rep Michael McCaul and wife Linda at
POPE BENEDICT XVIS BIRTHDAY
The Italian Embassy on May 2008

Rep. McCaul, who bought his seat by using a couple millions from his wife's treasure chest (she's the daughter of Clear Channel's Chairman of the Board) can afford to look on the bright side of things. No chance is he going to face deployment to a hostile nation. No way was he not gonna git his way. Nope. Wealth and experience as a counterterror expert under W's presidency permits McCaul to say and do pretty much whatever he wants.

USA Today: 22 candidates dig deep into fortunes; only one wins

[...] In Texas, McCaul, a former counterterrorism specialist in the Justice Department, had the experience — and the cash. His wife, Linda, is the daughter of Lowry Mays, chairman of the board of Clear Channel Communications Inc.

McCaul spent $4 million to defeat millionaire Ben Streusand, a Houston-area mortgage banker, in a Republican runoff primary election. Since there was no Democratic candidate, McCaul won election to the House.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/2004-11-05-millionaires_x.htm

Please review the ideology of Mr. McCaul, courtesy of the internet tubes:
http://www.ontheissues.org/TX/Michael_McCaul.htm

This man McCaul will never receive an award for compassion or for even trying to walk in another man's shoes. Shit, second-hand was not part of the profile for this 4th generation prosecution attorney who wound up as a terrorISM expert.

Major Hasan was a psychiatrist who spent his days listening to soldiers relay the worst experiences and (probably) trying to patch them up enough so they could go back to the field and do more horrific damage to innocent people. If he survives his injuries it will be nearly miraculous if a Jack Ruby type doesn't assassinate him before any more facts come out.

I wonder how long Rep McCaul could last on a military base, with a case load of seriously damaged people filing in on the hour and out 10 minutes before, with precious little time to process, clear his head and write up the required progess notes before the next client walked in and then the next until his work day was over.

In the current atmosphere of financial desperation and dog eat dog under which most Americans must function, I doubt Michael McCaul could last a single day. But maybe he's got friends in Opus Dei with a special key to heaven. That might help, if you're a believer. I believe Jesus said a whole lot of good stuff about compassion. Too bad Michael McCaul didn't read those parts, or take them to heart. Maybe he will change. Maybe. Mostly, I just wish he'd keep his mouth shut until the facts are out. If he continues spewing out of his asshole, he might as well just pull the plug on Maj. Hasan's life support right now.

Here's more background about Maj. Hasan from sources I'd trust before CNN:
irishtimes.com
Texas Shooting leaves 13 dead

[...] Retired Colonel Terry Lee, who worked with Hasan, claimed the major was anti-war and argued with comrades who supported operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Hasan, a 39-year-old from Virginia, was also due to be sent to Afghanistan, something family members said would have been his “worst nightmare”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1106/breaking1.htm

BBC News: Profile: Major Nidal Malik Hasan

[...] His cousin told US media that Maj Hasan had been opposed to an imminent deployment overseas, describing it as his "worst nightmare".

He also said that Maj Hasan had been battling racial harassment because of his "Middle Eastern ethnicity".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8345944.stm

Wal-Mart Caused Black Friday Tragedy

2008-12-02T15:29:00.000-05:00

The NY Times report below attempts to place an ethical question onto this tragedy, but misses the point.
Americans have been brainwashed into believing they are only as good, successful, and worthy as the things they own.
Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales present the facts with clarity as well as compassion. Their interview with Patrick Purcell of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 and Savriti D, Director of Rev. Billy's Church of Stop Shopping, discusses the conditions which were created by a corporate giant. Wal-Mart saved money and murdered a man who went to his job one morning but will never go home again.
Wal-Mart Worker Crushed to Death in Early Morning Stampede of Shoppers on Black Friday
A Wal-Mart employee in Long Island, New York died after being trampled to death by a mob of shoppers on Friday, the traditional first day of the holiday shopping season. The 34-year-old worker Jdimytai Damour was killed after a crowd of 2,000 broke down store doors and ran over him shortly before the store"s schedule 5 a.m. opening. Four shoppers were injured in the stampede. Nassau County police were trying to determine what happened during the stampede, but said it was unclear if there would be any criminal charges.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/1/wal_mart_worker_crushed_to_death
A Shopping Guernica Captures the Moment
By PETER S. GOO DMAN
Published: November 29, 2008
From the Great Depression, we remember the bread lines. From the oil shocks of the 1970s, we recall lines of cars snaking from gas stations. And from our current moment, we may come to remember scenes like the one at a Long Island Wal-Mart in the dawn after Thanksgiving, when 2,000 frantic shoppers trampled to death an employee who stood between them and the bargains within.
It was a tragedy, yet it did not feel like an accident. All those people were there, lined up in the cold and darkness, because of sophisticated marketing forces that have produced this day now called Black Friday. They were engaging in early-morning shopping as contact sport. American business has long excelled at creating a sense of shortage amid abundance, an anxiety that one must act now or miss out.
Americans demonstrate acceptable behavior learned during the Reagan-BushCo. years
[…] After 9/11, President Bush dispatched Americans to the malls as a patriotic act. When the economy faltered early this year, the government gave out tax rebate checks and told people to spend. In a sense, those Chinese-made flat-screen televisions sitting inside Wal-Mart have become American comfort food.
And yet the ability to spend is cnstricting rapidly. Credit card limits are getting cut. Millions of Americans now owe the bank more than the value of their homes, making further borrowing impossible. The banks themselves are hunkered down, just hoping to survive.
[…] Wages for most Americans have fallen in real terms over the last eight years. Pensions have been turned into 401(k) plans that have just relinquished half their value to an angry market. Health benefits have been downgraded or eliminated altogether. Working hours are being slashed, and full-time workers are having to settle for jobs through temp agencies.
Indeed, this was the situation for the unfortunate man who found himself working at the Valley Stream Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. Friday, a temp at a company emblematic of low wages and weak benefits, earning his dollars by trying to police an unruly crowd worried about missing out. […]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/weekinreview/30goodman.html?_r=2&hp

Repent With The Church of Stop Shopping

2008-12-02T15:04:00.007-05:00

Arise From Black Friday!

Reverend Billy and

The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir

Nyack - Washington D.C. - New York City

In respectful memory of

Jdimytai "Jimbo" Damour,

killed by shoppers at the

Valley Stream Wal-Mart

on November 28, 2008

Nyack, NY: Riverspace Arts

Thursday, December 4th at 8pm

119 Main Street Nyack, New York 10960 http://www.riverspace.org/

Reverend Billy and the Choir deliver songs and sermons, great gospel and hot preaching!

Tickets are $12.00, click here to order now or call 845.348.1880

Washington D.C: Busboys and Poets

Saturday, December 6th at 4pm

2021 14th St NW Washington, DC 20009 http://www.busboysandpoets.com/

Join the Rev and Choir for a Capitol City Revival!

This event is FREE and open to the public

New York, NY: Stop Shopping Christmas Revival at Dixon Place

Sunday December 7th, 14th and 21st at 3pm http://www.dixonplace.com/

Our annual Christmas performance. This year you have three chances to be with us! How will you survive the holiday onslaught of Starbucks gingerbread lattes and last-minute-big-box-bargain stampedes?!?? Back away, children! You don't have to buy a gift to give a gift! What Would JESUS Buy?

Tickets are $12.00, click here to order now or call 1-866-811-4111Check http://www.revbilly.com/ for video, sermons, discussions more events(Image by Chris Ryan of Team Spider TV)

Right to Life for ALL Humans

2008-11-30T15:36:00.006-05:00

It would be wonderful to espouse the right to life not just for pregnant American teenagers but demand it for the lives within the wombs of women in war, and the women themselves! How can one pick and choose who gets the right to life? I have been completely bewildered by the mental gymnastics some folks must perform to justify bombing Iraq, or permitting economic blockades for Palestinians, even Cuba. What was it Jesus said about blessed be the poor ....?
The Rights of Women as Casualties of War
Written by Ramzy Baroud
Sunday, 30 November 2008
-Bibi and Nahil Abu-Rada are two women, one Afghan and the other Palestinian, who made news with similar tragedies. But their losses also helped further delineate the plight of millions of women in war zones and poor countries.
The United Nations news service reported on the troubles of Qurban-Bibi, a pregnant woman who simply needed to reach a hospital. Doctors had instructed that she must deliver in an equipped medical facility, considering her previous Caesarean delivery. The desperately poor husband and her brothers opted for a delivery at home, citing the unaffordable taxi ride. The woman almost bled to death. When the delivery turned for the worst, the family rushed her to Faizabad hospital in a nearby province. Her life was saved, but, evidently not that of her baby.
Nahil’s story also fails to deviate from the ever-predictable norm. The pregnant Palestinian woman was joined by her family on their way to a hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus. The hospital was so close, yet so far. Between their ambulance and salvation was an Israeli army checkpoint, Hawara. “Nothing helped. Not the pleas, not the cries of the woman in labor, not the father's explanations in excellent Hebrew, nor the blood that flowed in the car. The commander of the checkpoint, a fine Israeli who had completed an officers' course, heard the cries, saw the woman writhing in pain in the back seat of the car, listened to the father's heartrending pleas and was unmoved,” reported Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in Haaretz. He added, “Nahil Abu-Rada is not the first woman to lose her baby this way because of the occupation, and she won't be the last.”
The bearings of the painful losses of Qurban-Bibi and Nahil bring to mind two recently published reports pertaining to the rights of women and gender equality around the world: The State of the World Population 2008 report, produced by the United Nations Population Fund and The Global Gender Gap Report, published by the World Economic Forum.
The State of the World Population aims at development strategies that are sensitive to the uniqueness of particular cultures, for it found that culture is central to people’s lives as are ‘health, economics and politics’.
As for the Global Gender Gap report, it was a largely statistical study co-authored by researchers from Harvard and University of California-Berkeley, and published by the World Economic Forum. Researchers examined definite factors, such as jobs, education, politics, health, etc, to determine how improvements, or lack thereof in these areas have affected, or failed to affect, the equality between the sexes in 130 countries, that represent 90 percent of the world population. The outcome was predicable for the most part, but with notable deviations. “Out of 130 countries, Canada ranked 31 while the United States came in at 27. Canada also ranked behind Namibia, Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Lithuania and the Philippines, among other countries,” reported Canada’s Globe and Mail.

The reports raise many questions, present many challenges, but on their own fail to address the struggles and tragedies of women like Qurban-Bibi and Nahil Abu-Rada.
The Global Gender Report ignited media frenzy more appropriate for a beauty contest – winners and losers - not a pressing issue that continues to victimize millions of women worldwide. This was hardly the intent of the report, one would fairly assume. Expectedly, it was later turned into an opportunity to settle political scores, stereotype religion and, at times, disparage entire cultures.
The State of the World Population was largely sensible in its view of culture: non-Western cultures were not simply chastised as the problem, but cultural sensitivity was recommended as part of the solution.
But addressing women’s rights and cultural patterns (as if these issues are not unique in time and space) without examining the underpinnings of the inequality is also a mistake.
Culture is hardly the summation of rational choices made by individuals in a specific time and easily demarcated space. It’s an innate collective response to internal and external factors, changes and events - political, economic or social. Chances are Palestinian women in villages surrounded by Israeli checkpoints tend to deliver their babies at home or in an unfit local clinic, a natural response to risking losing one’s baby altogether. Such a practice could eventually develop into a cultural pattern.
Many Afghan women are caught between the lethal occupation of foreigners and the extremism and vengeance of the Taliban. Early marriages are often the only available opportunity for women in some parts of the country, once they reach a certain age, sometimes as young as 9-years-old.
The same can be said about Iraq, where women, who comparatively achieved high status in pre-war years; have since endured untold humiliation. Thanks to the US ‘liberation’ of their country, they now constitute a large percentage of regional prostitution, a phenomenon alien to Iraqi society of yesteryear.
This hardly means that the suffering of women is always the outcome of foreign military interventions – masked as ‘humanitarian’ in some instances – nor does it render blameless local cultures, outdated customs and interpretation of religion. But what is missing from the reports, and subsequent analyses is how conflict, war and military intervention often jeopardize, more than anything else, the rights and welfare of women.
The issue of women’s rights is a pressing one, not just because of the horrifying statistics. (Women and girls are the poorest, least educated and most victimized the world over.) But also because no real progress, development or sound governance can ever take place when half of the society is marginalized and mistreated. Equality between the genders is not an act of virtue, but also a sound strategy for a brighter future for any nation, rich or poor. To address the issue correctly, studies and reports must delve into the roots of women’s suffering, and not be satisfied with numerical indicators that tell half of the story.
Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in many newspapers and journals worldwide. His latest book is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).
http://www.ramzybaroud.net/articles.php?id=f4fd73a3f36da633c3f561154f5de622#f4fd73a3f36da633c3f561154f5de622

No Blood Rubies from Burma

2008-11-30T09:24:00.005-05:00

Guide to your “Secret Shopping”for Human Rights in Burma
The U.S. Campaign for Burma is calling for action!

During this holiday season, ask jewelry retailers about the origin of the rubies they are selling.
Step by Step: How To Approach Jewelry Retailers, and politely get the information we need.
1. Find a jewelry store in your area. All this takes is a simple Google search or thumbing through the yellow pages. Large nation wide jewelry stores are best, as changing in their policies will have the biggest impact.
2. Enter the jewelry store and express that you are interested in looking at rubies (always be honest — if you are not interested in buying a ruby, then do not say that.) While we are using the term “secret shopping”, there is actually nothing secret about this we want to be straight forward and honest.
3. When asked by the retail clerks what you are interested in, tell them that you want to look at a ruby (this could be a ring or a necklace). It is best to have a specific item in mind, like a ruby ring, necklace, bracelet, or set of earrings.
4. After you are shown the specific piece, find out as much as you can about the ruby, including the colors, the shapes that the rubies are cut in, and ask whether it is a “good” or a “bad ruby” in terms of quality. You might want to learn a bit too, asking how you tell the difference between a good ruby and a bad ruby. Also ask about the entire piece and not just the stone.
5. Ask the retailers about the origin (specifically, where was it mined) of that particular ruby. You might say “Do you know which country this ruby came from?” If they say “No” (which is very possible since most chain store clerks may not know), then ask them politely, “can you please find out for me?”
6. If the rubies are from Burma, please let them know that you do not support the purchase of items from Burma: “I’m sorry, but I don’t support rubies from Burma because of the human right abuses of the military regime.” [my bold] It is not often that someone tells a retail jeweler that they do not support some items for a human rights reason, so your comment is likely to be passed along to management.
7. Please remember not to confront or challenge the retail clerk directly about the fact that the future import of rubies from Burma is illegal. At this time, we are only trying to compile a list of retailers that sell Burmese gems. It is not often that someone tells a retail jeweler that they do not support some items for a human and may be trying to circumvent complying with the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act. While not especially likely, it is also possible that some jewelers are doing this inadvertently. Once we have the list we will write to the retailers who have not complied and give them a chance to change their practices before we take action. Individual actions are more likely to produce change when they are conducted as part of an organized campaign.
8. Please report your findings to us. Email U.S. Campaign for Burma’s Campaigns Coordinator, Mike Haack at mike@uscamapaignforburma.org. Report all your findings. We want to know both which retailers are stocking Burmese rubies and which are not.
9. We will keep everyone updated on what our next actions will be to make sure that all jewelers respect the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE Act.
http://uscampaignforburma.org/guide-to-your-secret-shoppingfor-human-rights-in-burma
Take Action!

Tim Robbins & NYC's Katherine Harris, a/k/a Marcus Cederqvist

2008-11-25T15:44:00.012-05:00

Tim Robbins was put through the paces on election day, and here is his follow up letter to the Board of Elections in our "liberal" NYC. In spite of anticipating problems and being prepared, he STILL suffered the indignity of having to prove just how determined he was to place his vote, no matter what obstacles were placed in his way. How many others gave up? Here's Tim's letter via OpEd News:
Mr. Gregory C. Soumas
Board of Elections, City of New York
Executive Office
32 Broadway
New York, NY 10004-1609
November 17, 2008
Dear Mr. Soumas:
I would like to publicly apologize for being such a dim-witted dilettante on Election Day. I was under the naïve assumption that I could vote where I voted in the last two elections. Your thoughtful letter pointed out that if I had voted in the recent primary election in September I would have discovered that I was no longer registered in the polling place I have voted in since 2004. Considering your position at the Board of Elections and your deep respect for the democratic process I must assume that my local 14th St. poll worker, Betty J. Williamson's assertion that my name was on the active voter rolls for the primary in September of this year was erroneous and that she must be as confused and wrongheaded as I am. If Ms. Williamson saw my name in the book in September that would mean that you are lying. Certainly you wouldn't lie about a thing like that. That is unbecoming of a man of your bureaucratic stature. And why would anyone in the Board of Elections be eliminating legitimate voters from the rolls in late September and October of 2008? That's just crazy and un-democratic.
I should also apologize for the misguided actions of Justice Paul G. Feinman in issuing a court order on Election Day allowing me to vote on 14th St. He apparently thought that a printed out record from your own Board of Elections computer verifying my polling place as 14th St was justification for issuing the court order. If he had only thought to contact you, you could have helped him understand the logic and wisdom of eliminating my name from the book on 14th St. where I have always voted and leaving my name registered at a place I have never voted.
I must also thank you for sending your letter not to me but to all the major newspapers in the New York area and across the internet. [my bold] I understand it was your way of clearing up this matter and for that I am grateful. I am particularly appreciative of your sending a copy of my voter registration card with my home address and driver's license number to all the newspapers and, by extension, to millions across the internet. [my bold] What celebrity dilettante wouldn't want his private information made public? What kind of snob gets angry that his family's safety might be compromised? It comes with the territory, right?
I was thinking of returning that favor by publishing your home address in this letter but then I thought that maybe one of the thousands of New Yorkers that were taken off the voter rolls in the last two months might not understand what a patriotic upstanding man you are and might show up at your doorstep with the misguided assumption that you are a petty vindictive corrupt scumbag.
Tim Robbins
New Yorker since 1961
Voter since 1976
P.S. If anyone reading this letter had a similar experience on Election Day it can and should be reported at 866ourvote.org.
cc: Commissioners of Elections
Marcus Cederqvist, Executive Director
George Gonzalez, Deputy Executive Director
Pamela Perkins, Administrative Manager
Beth Fossella, Coordinator, Voter Registration
Steven H. Richman, General Counsel
Troy Johnson, Chief Clerk
Timothy Gay, Deputy Chief Clerk
After more searching it's starting to look like there was another hand behind Tim's problems. Last year the NY Times reported about the next darling of NYC's repuglican party, also the executive director of the Board of Elections:

Gearing Up for the Big Countdown

By ROBIN FINN
Published: February 1, 2008
Marcus Cederqvist: The man in the shadows

A DEFINITE contender for the title of Most Precocious Republican in New York City, Marcus Cederqvist, at 37 the baby-faced new executive director of the Board of Elections, is gearing up for his debut as the city’s chief vote counter for Tuesday’s New York presidential primary.

[...] Cederqvist is currently executive director of the Manhattan Republican Committee. He will succeed fellow Manhattan Republican John Ravitz, who left in October. The election board's commissioners are appointed by their respective county political bosses.

[…] Mr. Cederqvist is responsible for monitoring the city’s 1,363 polling stations on Tuesday and supplying them with some 6,300 voting machines — yes, the clunky but dependable Shoup lever machines that must all be replaced by modern, voter-friendly machines in time for the 2009 mayoral election.
But public service is old hat. He got his start while a student at the University of Rochester by volunteering for Charles Millard’s 1991 campaign for the New York City Council. He then had a summer internship with State Senator Roy M. Goodman in 1992, after which he coordinated the successful City Council campaign of Andrew S. Eristoff in 1993. By age 25, he was elected Republican leader of the 65th District on the East Side, and he went on to serve as Mr. Eristoff’s chief of staff until 1999.
“Granted, this is a partisan agency,” he says about the board of 10 commissioners: a Democrat and a Republican from each borough, a recipe that he is convinced ensures checks and balances. He is a true-blue Republican — “Better make that true red,” he corrects, with a rare giggle — whose fascination with the party began as a Manhattan teenager improbably attuned to the oratory of Ronald Reagan. But the board’s deputy director and its administrative manager are both Democrats. Hurrah for partisan parity.
“What everyone here is interested in, and what everyone truly wants, is a fair election,” he insists, waving a yellow pencil like a baton. “There isn’t really a Republican or a Democratic way to run an election; there’s just a right way. No, really! [Really? Are you protesting too much?] Here in this role, my job is very specifically to count votes, not influence them. That’s the only game I’m involved in now. The Board of Elections is kind of like the boiler in your house: It’s something you don’t think about much, but as long as it chugs along and keeps you warm, it’s doing its job.” He frets that the analogy sounds dumb.
[…] “I’VE been unbelievably busy,” [my bold, & you betcha!] he reiterates. He has even, because protocol demanded it, already voted (he won’t say for whom, but his palpable disappointment, and fleeting pout, at the news of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s withdrawal is a telltale sign). Mr. Cederqvist, before being named to this post, spent six years as executive director of the New York Republican County Committee. Making it a computer-savvy and candidate-rich organization was his mission. [...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/nyregion/01lives.html

BTW: Mr. Robbins, I'm very happy to give these civil servants more than one Google entry!

Vote on Prosecution of BushCo.

2008-11-25T15:00:00.001-05:00

This poll comes via OpEdNews. I hope you will weigh in.

Should the Obama Administration Prosecute Bush-Cheney Crimes?

10 Worst Corporations of 2008

2008-11-24T11:42:00.009-05:00

Alternet [http://www.alternet.org/] is covering this story from a watchdog group which is "new" to me, Multinational Monitor. To read the full story click on the link at the end:
The System Implodes:

The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008
by Robert Weissman
2008 marks the 20th anniversary of Multinational Monitor’s annual list of the 10 Worst Corporations of the year.
In the 20 years that we’ve published our annual list, we’ve covered corporate villains, scoundrels, criminals and miscreants. We’ve reported on some really bad stuff — from Exxon’s Valdez spill to Union Carbide and Dow’s effort to avoid responsibility for the Bhopal disaster; from oil companies coddling dictators (including Chevron and CNPC, both profiled this year) to a bank (Riggs) providing financial services for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet; from oil and auto companies threatening the future of the planet by blocking efforts to address climate change to duplicitous tobacco companies marketing cigarettes around the world by associating their product with images of freedom, sports, youthful energy and good health.
But we’ve never had a year like 2008.
The financial crisis first gripping Wall Street and now spreading rapidly throughout the world is, in many ways, emblematic of the worst of the corporate-dominated political and economic system that we aim to expose with our annual 10 Worst list. Here is how.
Improper political influence: Corporations dominate the policy-making process, from city councils to global institutions like the World Trade Organization. Over the last 30 years, and especially in the last decade, Wall Street interests leveraged their political power to remove many of the regulations that had restricted their activities. There are at least a dozen separate and significant examples of this, including the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, which permitted the merger of banks and investment banks. In a form of corporate civil disobedience, Citibank and Travelers Group merged in 1998 — a move that was illegal at the time, but for which they were given a two-year forbearance — on the assumption that they would be able to force a change in the relevant law. They did, with the help of just-retired (at the time) Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who went on to an executive position at the newly created Citigroup.
Deregulation and non-enforcement: Non-enforcement of rules against predatory lending helped the housing bubble balloon. While some regulators had sought to exert authority over financial derivatives, they were stopped by finance-friendly figures in the Clinton administration and Congress — enabling the creation of the credit default swap market. Even Alan Greenspan concedes that that market — worth $55 trillion in what is called notional value — is imploding in significant part because it was not regulated.
Short-term thinking: It was obvious to anyone who cared to look at historical trends that the United States was experiencing a housing bubble. Many in the financial sector seemed to have convinced themselves that there was no bubble. But others must have been more clear-eyed. In any case, all the Wall Street players had an incentive not to pay attention to the bubble. They were making stratospheric annual bonuses based on annual results. Even if they were certain the bubble would pop sometime in the future, they had every incentive to keep making money on the upside.
Financialization: Profits in the financial sector were more than 35 percent of overall U.S. corporate profits in each year from 2005 to 2007, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Instead of serving the real economy, the financial sector was taking over the real economy.
Profit over social use: Relatedly, the corporate-driven economy was being driven by what could make a profit, rather than what would serve a social purpose. Although Wall Street hucksters offered elaborate rationalizations for why exotic financial derivatives, private equity takeovers of firms, securitization and other so-called financial innovations helped improve economic efficiency, by and large these financial schemes served no socially useful purpose.
Externalized costs: Worse, the financial schemes didn’t just create money for Wall Street movers and shakers and their investors. They made money at the expense of others. The costs of these schemes were foisted onto workers who lost jobs at firms gutted by private equity operators, unpayable loans acquired by homeowners who bought into a bubble market (often made worse by unconscionable lending terms), and now the public.
What is most revealing about the financial meltdown and economic crisis, however, is that it illustrates that corporations — if left to their own worst instincts — will destroy themselves and the system that nurtures them. It is rare that this lesson is so graphically illustrated. It is one the world must quickly learn, if we are to avoid the most serious existential threat we have yet faced: climate change.
Of course, the rest of the corporate sector was not on good behavior during 2008 either, and we do not want them to escape justified scrutiny. In keeping with our tradition of highlighting diverse forms of corporate wrongdoing, we include only one financial company on the 10 Worst list. Here, presented in alphabetical order, are the 10 Worst Corporations of 2008. [...]
AIG
Cargill
Chevron
CNPC
Constellation Energy
Dole
General Electric
Imperial Sugar
Philip Morris Int’l.
Roche

http://multinationalmonitor.org/