Video: Scenes from Rally for Healthcare Reform in D.C.
Le Wednesday 10 March 2010
par William Hughes
On March 9, 2010, a rally was held in Washington, D.C. championing Healthcare Reform. The demonstration began at Dupont Circle, at 10: 30 AM, and then moved south, about 10 blocks to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Fat Cats from the Healthcare Insurance Industry were holding a conference at that site. The event was organized by Health Care for America Now (HCAN), along with more than 50 major Labor, grassroots and religious leaders. For background go to: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/ Featured in this video, are, inter alia, U.S. Democratic Senate candidate in New York, State Jonathan Tasini; Ex-Governor Howard Dean (D-VT); and Matthew Weinstein, Maryland Coordinator, Health Care for America Now.
Video: Civil Disobedience at Health Insurance Fat Cats’ Confab
Le Wednesday 10 March 2010
par William Hughes
On March 9, 2010, around noon, about 14 pro-Healthcare Reform activists were arrested at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in down town Washington, D.C. They attempted to cross a police line set up at an entrance to the hotel, where the Fat Cats of the Healthcare Insurance Industry were holding a conference. Earlier, the protesters had convened at Dupont Circle for a rally. Then, they paraded down to the hotel, about ten blocks away. The crowd was estimated at about 5,500. The event was staged by Health Care for America Now (HCAN), along with more than 50 major Labor, grassroots and religious leaders. For background go here: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/
The D.C. police decided, for their own reasons, not to place criminal charge against the parties that were detained at the hotel. Four of the 14 reportedly arrested were: an official from the SEIU union; Jonathan Tasini, Democratic candidate for U. S. Senate in NY; Jeff Blum of US Action; and Sean Dobson of Progressive Maryland. The crowd shouted chants, like: “Healthcare, now!” and “Arrest the real criminals!”
The Conscious Convergence: A Wave of Unity July 17-18, 2010
Le Tuesday 9 March 2010
par Solve et Coagula
The Conscious Convergence: A Wave of Unity July 17-18, 2010
Creating the intention for the unity consciousness of the Ninth Wave of the Mayan calendar!
In recent years there has been a radically increased interest in the Mayan calendar and especially its end and so many ask what this tells us about the future. Surprisingly, many people ask this question as if the answer had nothing to do with themselves or the choices they make. Few seem to have considered that the fulfillment of the cosmic plan will require of them to step up to the role of co-creators with this divine plan. This is not to say that human beings can just create anything they want at any point in time. The waves of consciousness brought by the Mayan calendar still defines the framework of our existence and what we may or may not be able to create in any given era. Yet, only the creativity that is consistent with a new wave will be favored and this will again be evident as we enter the ninth, and highest, wave of the Mayan calendar system. It is thus pertinent to ask what consciousness the ninth wave will create and what it will require of us to be able to step up to becoming co-creators with this wave.
To address this we need to consult the ancient Maya and look at their only inscription, which describes the meaning of the end of their calendar, the Tortuguero Monument 6. This says that at that point in time the nine-step entity, Bolon Yookte, (Fig 1) will “descend.”* What this means in a more straight language is that a combination of nine cosmic forces, nine wave movements, will simultaneously manifest fully. In this ancient Mayan way of looking at the meaning of the end of the calendar there is thus nothing that speaks of an end to the world. Rather, what the end of the calendar system is all about is a completion, or fulfillment, of evolutionary processes that have been going on from the beginning of time and led the world to what it is today.
These nine cosmic forces are the nine evolutionary progressions (Underworlds), each through thirteen energies that the prophetic Mayan calendar system is made up from, a system, which significant events in biological and historical evolution correlate extremely well with. The different progressions each develop a different frame of consciousness and currently we are most strongly influenced by the eighth wave. It is however the ninth and highest of these wave movements that will bring about the final shift to unity consciousness that will culminate as the calendar comes to an end. I feel it is imperative to realize that these nine cosmic forces are not acting separately from the human beings, but through their influence on us and so they will only manifest inasmuch as the humans align with them. I feel we also need to consider that the co-creation of this highest level requires that we are truly committed to its purpose. It is in preparation of this somewhat mysterious ninth wave that I am encouraging the celebration of the Conscious Convergence, July 17-18, 2010, as a point to focus on aligning with the highest and decisive wave of the Mayan calendar system, the ninth wave.
Many people have an intuitive sense that the end of the Mayan calendar will bring a shift in consciousness. Yet, it is rarely clearly stated or explained exactly what is the source of such a shift, how it will happen or what would be its nature. Maybe however shifts in consciousness are actually a little less mysterious than many people tend to believe. In fact, shifts in consciousness have been happening from the beginning of time and continue to happen whenever there is a significant energy shift in the Mayan calendar, such as between any of its days and nights.
Continue to read:
http://www.calleman.com/content/articles/ninth_wave.htm
Citizen’s Arrest of George Bush Justified, Court Hears
Le Tuesday 9 March 2010
par johnny canuck
Calgary Sun March 8, 2010
Political activist John Boncore [Splitting the Sky] was entitled to try to arrest US President George W Bush for war crimes, his lawyer told a Calgary court Monday. Defence counsel Charles Davison said his client’s attempts at breaching a police barrier to gain access to Bush was justified.
Boncore is charged with obstructing a peace officer for repeatedly trying to get past security and into the Telus Convention Centre last March 17.
"Mr. Boncore had reasonable grounds to attempt to do what he said to the police he wanted to do," Davison told provincial court judge Manfred Delong.
"And that was to carry out a citizen’s arrest of George Bush," the lawyer said.
Davison said he will present evidence, including a documentary entitled Taxi to the Dark Side, which details the torture and murder of an innocent Afghan cabbie to support Boncore’s claim.
Davison said a group called Lawyers Against War, had urged the RCMP to arrest Bush for crimes against humanity if he stepped on Canadian soil. That group asserted Bush was ’inadmissable to Canada’ as a suspected war criminal and said the former US President should not be allowed into our country.
If he was deemed a suspected war criminal Bush would be disentitled to enter Canada...
"The Hurt Locker": A victory for women!? The Oscars Academy grants an apology to the US Army!
Le Monday 8 March 2010
par La Louve
Is a movie that “only” costs $11 million more « politically correct »
than a $500 million one?
They can’t see the trees for the forest.
Or more bluntly, had the Academy Awards wanted to grant ‘its’ army an
Oscar without thinking twice about it?
People will call it a ‘work of art’, a ‘movie’, ‘without an ulterior
motive’ (yes I’ve already read it somewhere...) etc
On top of it all, was the great March 8th pet theme: “wow it’s
awesome, it’s the first women director to get an Oscar”
or « Great, it’s the victory of small-budget movies against the big ones »
MY ASS.
This movie shines by the total thoughtlessness on what brings these «
mine-clearing experts” to do this “job.” The movie is so complacent in
its attempt to elicit thought about the invasion of Iraq and
Afghanistan. It is an exaltation of « courage » (in reality
recklessness and fanaticism), and an exaltation of the absence of
respect for one’s own life and the life of others.
And then I heard Kathryn Bigelow’s acceptance speech for her movie Hurt Locker.
And guess what this woman said, this woman to whom I award the title
of the most awful political and anti-pacifistic trash.
She dedicated her award to “women and men in the military who risk
their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the
world.”
Really, Kathryn ? You dedicate your award to all of them? Even to
Lynndie England, the notorious officer of Abou Ghraib prison who
tortured prisoners?
They really have a short memory in the world of entertainment and 24
hour information!
It sends shivers down my spine.
Go and watch the trailer if you don’t want to see this movie (a
decision that I’d completely understand):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxSDZc8etg
Without considering them socialists, I used to naively think that the
ferment of social protest remained in the USA and that it could be
found partly, but not exclusively, in Hollywood.
I realize that even that is over now.
No one got up yesterday to protest against this dubious choice of the award.
Not even Sean Penn, the "leftist" actor, who was there and gave the award to Sandra Bullock.
I am really disappointed with him.
This is a bad sign for the international situation.
The American Awards overtly applauded a propaganda pro-war movie!
Is this the meaning of the “Yes We Can” of Mr. Obama?
War Crimes Alert: Canada Wanted Afghan Prisoners Tortured - CBC
Le Saturday 6 March 2010
par johnny canuck
"Unredacted documents show officials hoped to gather intelligence expert says. If the allegation is true, such actions would constitute a warcrime.."
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010...
If you’re going to write your first novel, and it’s a political spoof, then you might as well as set it in the White House. Well, Ted Venetoulis does exactly that in his “Hail to the Cheat,” which is not only a fun read, I predict it’s going to make one zany movie.
Venetoulis is an author who has lived politics and it shows in his book. The main characters are all credible and taken from that realm. As a young man, Venetoulis worked as a Congressional aide, he was involved in the national presidential campaigns of both Robert F. Kennedy and JFK, and he also served a term as the Baltimore County Executive. Baltimore County is a giant sized suburb of Baltimore City, MD. Spiro T. “Ted” Agnew was once its boss.
After eight years of the insanity of Dubya, a deepening economic recession, mounting foreclosures, with millions laid off, and one year of Barack Obama’s presidency, a man who’d rather be liked than lead, the country deserves some laughs out of the White House, don’t you think? Hey, we’re paying for all of this crap. Aren’t we?
Venetoulis deftly delivers the comic turns and the twists, and then some. Before you get to page six of this fast-paced book, the First Lady of the Land catches her husband, President Lance Billingsley, in the Oval Office, “sprawled on the oval carpet...right on the presidential seal,” and in the buff, too, “humping” her dear friend, Sondra Heatherstone. Fireworks quickly erupt.
This madcap yarn is told from the point of view of an infuriated First Lady, Jessica Berringer. She’s the narrator. I found her very endearing, even though I think she likes the booze a little too much. We all know what First Lady Hillary did when President “Bubba Bill” Clinton embarrassed himself, in “Zippergate,” with Monica Lewinsky. Hillary chose to “stand by her man” and play the role of “The Good Wife.” Warning: Jessica doesn’t do Hillary!
Jessica, who’s in her early 50s, and still an attractive gal, insists that the adulterous First Man must leave the White House, pronto. She doesn’t give a good hoot if he has to sleep in a tent out in Lafayette Park. Jessica puts it this way to her cheating, double-dealing spouse: “Put on your clothes. Pack your stuff. And get the f... out. Now!” Sounds like a “Declaration of War” to me.
Now, kicking a pants-less president out of the White House is without precedent, as the author underscores. Presidents before “Bubba Bill,” such as Warren G. Harding, have been caught by their wives screwing around in the White House. Harding did it with his mistress, Nan Britton, in a “five-foot-square clothes closet.” His wife, Florence, suffered through that humiliation in silence. However, this isn’t the 1920s, folks, and a royally pissed off, fiery- tempered Jessica isn’t taking any God damned prisoners.
As the President drags his initially defeated ass over to the “Blair House,” (located about about a block west from the White House), the battle lines are firmly drawn. The seminal issue is this: In order to be the President of the United States, with the full panoply of its pomp and powers, the wimpy Lance needs to get his crushed-ego self back into the Jessica-Occupied White House.
At first, it’s Jessica versus the whole World! Against her, is pitted the entire Federal Government; which includes the U.S. Secret Service; and, the White House’s lying PR Machine, run by a mouthy Leo “Fibby” Buffaloya and a creepy “Super Guru.” Jessica picks up some allies. Her trusted girlfriend, the wisecracking Jamie, also joins her team. Meanwhile, Jessica is bunkered deep inside the White House and hitting the sauce pretty good, too.
The novel is full of zingers that demonstrate the author’s insightful understanding of the political whores, who have haunted the White House, and particularly, the ones on Capitol Hill, who have been running our once grand Republic into the ground. Try this one from Jessica: “In the White House, the art of sucking up reaches celestial levels where everyone, I mean everyone, nods approvingly when Lance mutters some inanity as if he were Pericles addressing his fellow Athenians.” Didn’t that happen when that warmongering doofus Dubya was in the White House?
Up front, Venetoulis lets you know that if the characters in his tome resemble “any one living”, then it’s “purely coincidental.” There is a back story, however, before he sets the dramatic face off at the embattled White House. We learn that Lance and Jessica both hailed from Akron, Ohio, where they attended college together, before getting hitched up. I would swear that Lance is a composite persona of the intelligence-challenged Dubya; the air-headed, free market zealot, the late Ronald Reagan; and that over-sexed pride of Hope, Arkansas—“Bubba Bill” Clinton.
Now, Jessica is more difficult to tag. I would think she’s mostly Hillary, with just a touch of Laura Bush tossed in. Hillary is one tough b....! I think if it would have suited her, she would have, re: Zippergate, flung “Bubba Bill” out on the White House sidewalk. She wouldn’t, however, risk it. Why? Because, she knew that the role of the First Lady of Land was her stepping stone one day to the Senate, and maybe, if she’s lucky, to the White House itself.
“Hail to the Cheat” isn’t just about Jessica getting sweet revenge on Lance either, which is a lovely thought. If it were, I don’t think the plot would have worked as well as it does. It would have been too predictable and hoisted itself on its own petard.
Venetoulis wisely added another critical element to his story, which sharply deepened his plot line, keeps the ball rolling and the readers guessing. The author cleverly made the Iraq War, the Military-Industrial Complex, corruption on Capitol Hill and, literally, the kitchen sink—relevant. And, it is all plausible, too, as you cheer on our wannabe heroine, Jessica, and wonder, right to the very end: Is she going to make it to the finish line? Stay plugged in!
By the way, Jessica also gets some help in her mission from a gallery of First Ladies, most of whom have passed on from this mortal coil. The device utilized, in the context of this farce, works.
I said up front that “Hail to the Cheat” would make a terrific film. So, to that end, let me suggest for the role of that slimy Lance—Alex Baldwin. For the raging spitfire, but lovable Jessica, I would cast Alex’s ex-squeeze, Kim Basinger! In any event, these two talented thespians have experienced the no-holds-barred battles between ex-lovers. The director won’t have to answer any questions from either of them, such as: “What’s my motivation?”
I suggest you buy “Hail to the Cheat,” and laugh your butt off. (1) Be sure to also go see the movie when it does comes out, no matter who gets the lead.
Notes:
1. The author’s web site is located at: http://www.hailtothecheat.com/ Venetoulis was raised in East Baltimore’s fabled “Greektown” neighborhood. Whatever you do, don’t tell those mad-as-hell “Tea Baggers”—that Venetoulis is a Liberal—and damn proud of it!
William Hughes is an author, commentator and videographer. His videos can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=liamh2 Email Contact: liamhughes@comcast.net
Le Friday 5 March 2010
par David R. Hoffman, Pravda.Ru Legal Editor
"Oh say can you see by the fluorescent light
The politicians we’ve bought at our last corporate meeting?
Whose venal hearts and deceit wrought health care’s defeat,
While from boardrooms we laughed and then raised premiums?
And the wars that were fought for the profits we’ve sought
Gave proof to our shareholders that freedom is bought.
Oh say does that banner of corporate fascism now wave,
O’er democracy’s corpse and the working class slaves?"
Anthem of the Corporate Fascist States of America.
Make no mistake about it: America is hopelessly corrupt.
If there were any doubts about this reality, they were efficiently crushed by the Congressional stalemate over health care reform and by the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
Citizens United, under the pretext of expanding the First Amendment’s “freedom of speech” clause, continued the destruction of democracy, first spawned by the court in Bush v. Gore, by granting corporations unlimited ability to influence the outcome of political elections. Thanks to Citizens United, corporations can now buy and own politicians legally and outright, instead of concealing their purchases behind the veil of so-called Political Action Committees (PACs).
Meanwhile the almost unanimous Republican opposition to Health Care Reform has exposed just how pervasive and unifying this corruption truly is, and has made America’s so-called “two party system” unworkable and anachronistic.
Under the rules of the United States Senate, sixty votes are needed to break “filibusters”—tactics used to stall or obstruct proposed legislation. According to a recent article by Steven R. Hurst of the Associated Press, Senate Republicans are currently filibustering at a record pace. This practice has become so egregious that Republican senator Jim Bunning, an embarrassment from the State of Kentucky, recently blocked efforts to extend unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies to millions of jobless Americans.
Kentucky is also represented by another embarrassment—Republican senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell has openly praised the Citizens United decision, proclaiming it would not increase the potential for foreign influence in American elections, even though he has personally accepted financial contributions from an American subsidiary of a foreign corporation.
The reasoning behind the Republican strategy is simple. In addition to appeasing their corporate masters, Republicans are hoping to neutralize the Obama administration and the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Then, during upcoming election campaigns, they can speciously claim that “change” is needed because nothing is being accomplished under the current regime in Washington.
One would think, should the Republicans reclaim majorities in the House and Senate, that the Democrats would retaliate by using filibusters themselves. But, as I pointed out in my Pravda.Ru article REVOLUTION, IF NOT NOW WHEN? (June 8, 2007), retaliation is not that simple because unity is not that simple. The corporate fascists and their Republican allies are already united behind one common goal—profit at any cost. Those who oppose them, however, often have diverse, and sometimes conflicting, reasons for doing so. This enhances the ability of the corporate fascists to “divide and conquer” by creating or exploiting disagreements between and/or within organizations and political movements campaigning for positive social change.
The destruction of the “public option” during the health care reform debate has made it painfully obvious that corporate fascists already control a handful of Democratic Senators, and these would undoubtedly be enough to terminate any filibusters a Democratic minority might attempt.
Thus it was no surprise when Anthem Insurance Company recently announced that it was raising its health insurance premiums by as much as thirty-nine (39%) percent. Although such a move seemed the height of stupidity, given that exorbitant health insurance costs have been a driving force behind the reform movement, it actually reflects the confident arrogance of an industry that knows it carries a plethora of politicians in its pocket.
Sadly the corrupting influence of corporate fascism has so inundated America that it not only infects venerated institutions like academics, law and religion, it is also the primary reason America goes to war.
Ronald Reagan, for example, invaded Grenada to divert attention from the “Iran-Contra” affair; George H.W. Bush invaded Panama to divert attention from the “Savings and Loan” scandal; and George W. Bush invaded Iraq to increase the profits of the oil industry and to award his political cronies lucrative “rebuilding” contracts. But, by wrapping these wars in ideals like “democracy,” “freedom,” “human rights,” “patriotism” and/or “national security,” most Americans remained oblivious to this reality.
Sadly, even those who suspected the truth were often reluctant to admit it. After all, how would one feel to receive an official letter stating: “The United States Military regrets the loss of your loved one. But you will be pleased to know that, thanks to his/her sacrifice, the oil companies, the military-industrial complex and the rebuilding contractors are enjoying record profits this year.”
Meanwhile, during the past few years the legal system has increasingly ignored, endorsed and even rewarded the corruption and criminality of those who serve corporate fascists and the government they control. Police officers who have used excessive force to kill innocent people, or who have committed perjury, fabricated evidence or engaged in torture to send innocent people to prison are rarely if ever brought to trial, and even when they are, they can normally count on a “good-old-boy” jury to acquit them. In addition, prosecutors who have suborned perjury, withheld exculpatory evidence or lied to obtain wrongful convictions often go on to become judges or prosper in lucrative private practices.
Even the celebrated FBI, especially under the tutelage of its racist, cross-dressing former director J. Edgar Hoover, has engaged in illegal spying, burglary, frame-ups of political dissidents and murder to obtain its objectives.
America’s secret police, the CIA, often went even further. In the 1960s, for example, it actually allied itself with members of organized crime in a plot to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Although many pundits scratched their heads in disbelief when this alliance became public, it really was not so surprising. The FBI, CIA, and numerous other law enforcement or “national security” agencies were not created to defend democracy, freedom, or human rights, but to protect and promote capitalism, both domestically and abroad, and often at the expense of democracy, freedom and human rights. Organized crime, motivated by the philosophy of profit by any means, is a natural evolution of global capitalism. The CIA wanted to restore capitalism to Cuba, and the mobsters wanted to reopen their casinos and other operations in Havana; thus their alliance was simply a marriage of common interests.
Recently, as if to further emphasize just how far those who control the American legal system will go to protect the criminality of their own, the so-called “Justice Department” announced that two of its former attorneys, John Yoo (now a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley) and Jay Bybee (now a federal appeals court judge), will not be punished for advocating the use of torture, illegal detentions and the destruction of the United States Constitution, because they had simply used “bad judgment.”
But what about those who arguably use “bad judgment” when exercising the Constitutional freedoms that Yoo and Bybee sought to destroy? Ask Ward Churchill, a former University of Colorado professor who believed that the First Amendment’s “freedom of speech” clause, coupled with the security of academic tenure, insulated him from economic retaliation when he wrote a controversial essay criticizing American foreign policy shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Unfortunately Churchill failed to realize that those who wield power in the academic community consider the exercise of one’s Constitutional rights a greater sin than advocating the destruction of those rights. Claiming that Churchill had engaged in various forms of “academic misconduct,” the University fired him. And even though a Colorado jury subsequently ruled that the University’s academic misconduct allegations had simply been a pretext used to illegally terminate Churchill, a biased, ethically corrupt, Clarence Thomas wannabe trial judge named Larry Naves nullified the jury’s verdict.
Not surprisingly, Colorado University regent and Republican congressional candidate Tom Lucero is now using his “success” in terminating Churchill as a catalyst to persuade Coloradans to vote for him.
Sadly, corporate fascists and their supporters even exploit religion to justify actions that logic, science, or commonsense cannot defend. Recently one of the most despicable and evil men in the history of the United States, George W. Bush, told a group of students how his “faith” had sustained him during his illegal occupancy of the White House.
Leave it to a man who executed more people than any governor in history, who, after using his family’s wealth and influence to avoid combat duty, murdered thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis in a war based upon nothing but lies, who stole not one, but two elections, and who advocated the use of torture and illegal detention, to attempt to excuse his crimes under the guise of “faith.”
Although it may seem tempting for other nations to laugh at the buffoonery of American politics and politicians, this temptation must be tempered by the fact that corporate fascism in the United States means imperialist slavery in many other nations throughout the world. Imperialist slavery allows corporate fascists, and the governmental institutions that serve them, to control foreign governments from afar, through the manipulation of debt, bribery, coups (such as the one that recently occurred in Honduras) and/or the rigging of elections.
The result is that workers in poorer nations are often forced to labor in unsafe and harsh conditions, and paid so little that many cannot even afford to purchase the very items they are producing.
Naturally the corporate fascists don’t care. They simply ship these products to wealthier nations, knowing that people who cannot afford them outright will turn to those convenient and ubiquitous “genies in the bottles”: Credit cards and loans.
What the corporate fascists failed, or refused, to realize, however, is that other corporate fascists would join the exodus, leaving wealthier nations for poorer ones. This, in turn, meant that many people who had acquired substantial loan or credit card debt suddenly found themselves jobless and unable to pay their bills.
The result was, and is, a worldwide recession. But instead of taking the blame, the corporate fascists simply raise their prices, citing as an excuse the very economic conditions they created.
In a democracy where ten percent of the people control ninety percent of the wealth, it would seem that any political party that habitually defends the interests of these “ten percenters” would never receive enough votes to gain power. But, as I stated in THE GREAT ALLURE (Pravda.Ru, September 22, 2004), fascism is a seductive master. And the Republican Party is a master of seduction.
By incessantly repeating “great lies,” as Bush did to build support for the illegal invasion of Iraq; by targeting convenient and unpopular scapegoats, as Lucero is doing in Colorado; and by emphasizing emotion over reason, the Republican Party has often convinced even the most destitute of Americans that it is their “friend.”
Of course, some may argue that emotions can be positive or negative; consequently those working for positive social change have the capability to appeal to the good in people just as easily as the Republican Party and the corporate fascists can appeal to their evil.
But if appeals to positive emotions actually worked, there would be no divisive health care “debate” in America, only a unanimous voice demanding that all Americans have access to quality medical treatment. Nor would there be any Glenn Becks, Bill O’Reillys, Rush Limbaughs or Sarah Palins. Fascists know that appeals to human virtues are rarely as effective as appeals to human vices, and thus have made racism, intolerance, ignorance, greed, bellicosity, hatred, fear and hypocrisy the tools of their trade.
The nagging question, of course, is how did America, supposedly an enlightened and compassionate nation, descend into this cesspool of corporate fascism and political stagnation? There are three answers, because, when it comes to politics, there are (with some exceptions) three types of Americans:
Number Ones are the “ignorance is bliss” type. In many ways they are the most sympathetic of the three. During my years as an attorney, a teacher, and a writer I have come to understand that the stench of corruption, hypocrisy, greed and soullessness emanating from those in power is often so malodorous and overwhelming that one cannot help but retreat from it. Most people in America depend more upon the private sector than the government for their incomes and the material goods that enhance the quality of their lives; therefore they are not always concerned about political issues. And even those who are concerned often feel they are powerless to bring about meaningful social change, or fear that making the attempt could jeopardize their economic security. So if Type Ones participate in the political process at all, it is usually for superficial reasons.
Number Twos are the “I’m okay, screw you” type. They are paradigms of the “dog eat dog” mindset, and support political candidates who protect their personal and financial interests, even when those interests are detrimental to others. Although Type Twos may not be a majority in America in terms of population, they are a majority in terms of money, and they readily use that money to buy political influence and power.
Number Threes are the “dupes.” These are the target audiences of demagogues, opportunists and propagandists. Refusing to entertain any viewpoints that conflict with their own, they are Orwellian wet dreams who can be indoctrinated and herded through the simple use of “buzzwords.”
This is why opponents of health care reform in America do not have to fabricate complex “great lies” to convince dupes that reform is “bad.” They simply need to call it “socialist.”
But does anyone truly believe that distraught mothers looking down upon their sick children, or self-employed businesspersons unable to afford a thirty-nine percent rate increase, would reject affordable health insurance offered through a public option just because some “wingnut” calls it “socialist?” Dupes are susceptible to buzzwords because they never envision themselves in such vulnerable positions. But when they are, they are usually the first ones to lament about the “injustice” of their situation.
For example, several years ago a company where I was employed closed down an entire department, resulting in the layoffs of several employees, including me. A friend in another department subsequently informed me that the man who discharged us had spent the rest of the afternoon laughing and joking about how he had gotten rid of “dead weight.”
Three weeks later my friend called to tell me that this same man had cried like a baby after being told his job was being eliminated. Perhaps if this karmic justice occurred more often, the political power of the dupes would be lessened.
As I was writing the first part of this article, I could not help but wonder how a nation that believed in the “Audacity of Hope” just a little over a year ago could have become so hopeless. And then I thought about the central theme in one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption: That hope can exist in even the most hopeless situations.
(For readers who have never seen the movie and intend to, please stop here, because the closing paragraphs contain “spoilers.”)
The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a wrongfully convicted man, and his friendship with fellow inmate Ellis Boyd Redding (aka Red). In one particularly revealing scene, Andy tells Red that his ordeal has been lightened by the knowledge that there is “something inside that they can’t get to; that they can’t touch: Hope.”
To which Red replies, “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”
Although the movie subsequently vindicates the redemptive power of hope, I could not help but wonder if Red’s viewpoint was more realistic than Andy’s. The legal system did not vindicate Andy and make him a free man; he had to escape from prison. Pangs of conscience did not stop the corrupt activities of the prison warden; it was the fear of arrest. And Red was not granted parole by hoping he’d be released; he simply told the parole board he didn’t “give a s**t” whether he was released or not.
So I began to wonder: Is there some sanity in hopelessness? After all, if one does not hope, one does not get discouraged. And if one has no faith in the goodness of those in power, then one cannot be shocked by their evil.
In recent years I had hoped for many things: I had hoped that the United States Constitution would not be destroyed by those sworn to uphold it; I had hoped that freedom of speech would be the domain of the individual and not the corporations; I had hoped that a Colorado judge would not single-handedly destroy academic freedom; I had hoped that the legal system would work harder to do justice than it does to rationalize injustice; I had hoped that men as evil as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would not be allowed to steal the two highest offices in the land; I had hoped that no lives would ever again be lost in wars based upon nothing but lies; I had hoped that the people who hawked or profited from such wars would be forced to fight in them, so they could experience the sacrifices they so easily demanded of others; I had hoped that the United States government would punish its own war criminals and torturers, instead of dismissing their crimes as “bad judgment”; I had hoped that a majority of Americans would be ashamed to live in a nation whose unspoken motto is “Billions spent to kill, but not a penny spent to heal”; I had hoped that the health care industry was actually in business for my health; I had hoped that those who ran for public office did so because they wanted to serve the people; I had hoped that people who abused the power of their office would be punished for doing so; I had hoped that once, just once, good would triumph over evil, selflessness over selfishness, and generosity over greed.
This list could go on, but you get the idea. And now I understand that, to survive in America, one must accept that sanity resides in hopelessness.
Of course, one could go insane living in such “sanity.” So I cling to a few hopes that not even the corporate fascists and corrupt politicians can take away: I hope that evil only prospers in the world of mortality; I hope there is a heaven and a hell; and I hope that those who have profited from evil, who have abused the rights of their fellow human beings, who have killed their consciences for the sake of ego, power or profit are eventually made to pay for all the suffering they have caused.
On Thursday morning, March 4, 2010, a spirited protest action was held in front of the “Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center,” on north Gay Street, not far from the City Hall, in Baltimore. The demonstrators demanded “$100 million [in Maryland’s state budget] be converted from youth jails to youth jobs and education,” according to their press release. Students, teachers and community activists joined in the social justice action. About 13 of the activists made their way into the lobby of the building, where they engaged in a civil disobedience-like protest. As I left the event to cover another assignment, the students in front of the building were continuing to chant: “Arrest O’Malley!” They even printed out a flyer, with O’Malley’s mug on it, which stated: “Wanted for Incarcerating Youth!” It appeared the police were prepared to simply “wait out” the protesters inside the building. For any updates, go to this web site: http://bailoutpeople.org/
Global Petition to Amnesty International: Restoring the Integrity of Human Rights
Le Thursday 4 March 2010
par hrfa
As organisations and individuals who stand for and support the universality of human rights, we have noted with concern the suspension of Gita Sahgal, Head of the Gender Unit at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London, for questioning Amnesty International’s partnership with individuals whose politics towards the Taliban are ambiguous.
We come from communities that recognize and appreciate the work of Amnesty International in defending human rights and women’s rights around the world. Many of us work closely with Amnesty International in their campaigns at various levels.
We believe that Gita Sahgal has raised a fundamental point of principle which is “about the importance of the human rights movement maintaining an objective distance from groups and ideas that are committed to systematic discrimination”.
This issue of principle is critical at the present moment, with the United States led “War on Terror” leading to the suspension of human rights and increased surveillance over individuals and the body politic. Ironically, the language of human rights and human rights defenders is being taken over by the US/NATO alliance in its efforts to legitimise a re-born imperialism. Equally disturbingly, this language is also being hijacked by organizations that espouse extremist and violent forms of identity-based politics. The space for a position that challenges both these is shrinking, and human rights are becoming hostage to broader authoritarian political agendas, whether from states or communities.
In this context, it is crucial for human rights defenders and organisations to clearly define principles and core values that are non-negotiable. Our commitment to countering, among others, Islamophobia, racism, misogyny and xenophobia should at no time blur our recognition of the authoritarian, often fascist, social and political agendas of some of the groups that suffer human rights abuse at the hands of the big powers.
The broader issue of principle which we raise here, is one which concerns all of us as human rights defenders from different parts of the world. Many of us who work to defend human rights in the context of conflict and terrorism know the importance of maintaining a clear and visible distance from potential partners and allies when there is any doubt about their commitment to human rights. Given the circumstances in which questions regarding the partnership with Cageprisoners appear to have been raised, we feel that Amnesty International should have refrained from providing them with a platform. It should have been possible for Amnesty International to campaign against the fundamental human rights abuses that have occurred at Guantanamo and elsewhere without making alliances that compromise Amnesty International’s core values, just as other human rights organisations have done.
History has repeatedly shown us that anti-democratic organisations can and do manipulate information and their own self-representation for narrow political advantage. In any situation of ambiguity, we feel that the benefit of doubt should have been given to the expert staff members of Amnesty International. We feel that in this instance there has been a lack of respect for the opinions expressed by Gita Sahgal, who is a senior member of staff, and a critical failure of internal democratic functioning at Amnesty’s International Secretariat.
What is needed is democratic debate, internally as well as in the public sphere, on the human rights principles that should guide Amnesty International and all of us in determining our alliances. We have to ensure that the partnerships we form are true to the core human rights values of equality and universality. Our accountability in this area, internally as well as externally, to all our diverse constituencies, cannot be put at risk. We need a rigorous examination of potential partners. Given the complex situations we work in, what is needed is open debate, not a censoring and closure of discussion on these important issues. Shifting the debate and turning this into a discussion about ‘Othering’ and ‘demonisation of Guantanamo prisoners’ is merely obscuring the real issues at stake. It puts at risk the work that Amnesty International is attempting to do in Afghanistan and other areas. Unfortunately, it also fails to answer the very serious questions that have been posed to which we are also seeking answers.
In the present context of ‘constructive engagement’ with the Taliban, as proposed at the recent Conference on Afghanistan in London, it is our obligation to ensure that we do not barter away the human rights of minorities and of women for ‘peace’. There are enough recent examples of such attempts which show that these deals are a chimera and do not result in either peace or security. Whatever the nature of ‘engagement’ with authoritarian groups, and whatever partnerships and alliances we enter into with individuals or organisations involved in such ‘engagement’, the positive conditionalities and checks based on human rights, which are universal and indivisible, must remain central and non-negotiable for human rights organizations and defenders.
We call on Amnesty International to clearly and publicly affirm its commitment to the above in all areas of its work; and to demonstrate its obligation to make itself publicly accountable, as it has so often demanded of others.
We extend our solidarity and support to Gita Sahgal, who is well known and widely respected for her principled activism on human rights internationally, for her courageous stand in raising this issue within and outside Amnesty International.
Drafted and initiated by:
* Dr. Amrita Chhachhi, Women, Gender and Development Program, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, member Kartini Asia Network of Women/Gender Studies
* Sara Hossain, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh
* Sunila Abeysekera, INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre, Sri Lanka
To sign and endorse the above statement go to:
http://www.human-rights-for-all.org/spip.php?article15
"WTC 7 fell at free-fall speed for a period of over 2.5 seconds. Not noted in NIST’s revision was the clear implication that this feat defies the laws of physics if a gravitational collapse did indeed occur."
"All three coloccur with near zero resistance such as a controlled demolition collapse rather than a gravitational collapse.
Multi-ton steel ejections were also calculated to be ejected at speeds of over 60 mph and over 600 feet. Gage also addressed the complete pulverization of 90,000 tons of concrete and metal decking from both the Twin Towers and the lack of debris found at their base.
Combined with the fact that the blast radius base was 1,200 feet and that no floors were found “pancaked” on top of each other, the “pancake theory” holds little water. In addition, molten metal was found at all three sites after 9/11, as reported by firefighters and news reports during the weeks after. Yet, lead NIST investigator John Gross has gone on record denying any such existence of molten metal. If NIST were to acknowledge these reports, jet fuel fires would be nowhere near hot enough to account for metal to have not just weakened, but melted."
"AE911Truth has received remarkable coverage internationally while being blacked out by American media."
The Republican 112th Supreme Diebold Corporate Congress to be sworn in January 2011.
If you wait to see the whites of their eyes, it will be too late.
MILAN — In an effort to heighten awareness about the contributions made by foreign workers to the Italian economy, the promoters of the first strike by immigrants in the country invited workers to stay home and to boycott shopping for one day.
Similar protests took place in other European countries on Monday (the initiative started in France and found supporters in Spain and Greece, as well). A comparable boycott, “A Day Without Immigrants,” championing full rights for immigrants living in the United States, took place in 2006.
But demonstrations Monday had a particular resonance in Italy, where anti-immigrant rhetoric has increased recently in anticipation of regional elections at the end of the month, and where foreign labor makes up nearly 10 percent of the work force.
While introducing one electoral initiative last week, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi accused the left of “wanting an invasion of immigrants,” only to strengthen the opposition’s electoral basis.
Around Milan, electoral posters for the anti-immigrant Northern League party depicted a Native American Indian chieftain with the slogan: “They put up with immigration, now they live on reserves.”
But various studies suggest that immigrant labor has become a fundamental component of the Italian economy.
“Many Italians are convinced that immigrants are a burden, but in fact they have a very positive effect on our welfare system,” said Maurizio Ambrosini, a professor of the sociology of migration at the University of Milan, pointing out that Italian families have become increasingly dependant on foreign caregivers to look after their children and elderly parents. The construction industry, too, is heavily dependant on foreigners, particularly from East European countries, he added. “If anything, Italy constantly needs new waves of immigrants,” he said.
Statistics published last autumn by the Catholic Caritas Migrants foundation suggested that the 4.5 million legal immigrants in Italy (about 7.2 percent of the population) contribute about 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, often in jobs snubbed by Italians.
In its most recent annual report, issued last May, the Bank of Italy estimated that in 2006 foreigners “contributed about 4 percent to revenue from personal income tax, V.A.T. and excise duties, social security contributions, and the regional tax on productive activities.” More specifically, foreign residents contributed “around €4.5 billion in personal income tax and just under €10 billion in social security contributions, equivalent to 3 and 5 percent respectively of revenue from these two items,” according to the bank’s report, which also found that “the increase in the supply of labor resulting from immigration does not seem, on average, to have had negative effects on the wages or job prospects of the native population.”
“Immigrants come here to work, they’re funding our pensions, it makes sense to integrate them,” said Ciro Piscelli, a left-leaning municipal councilman for the town of Rozzano, in the Milanese hinterland. He was one of several hundred people who met in front of Milan City Hall on Monday morning in support of the strike. Like many other southern Italians, Mr. Piscelli emigrated to Lombardy from his native Naples in the 1970s, so he said he “spoke from experience.” Immigrants, he said, “are a resource.”
But such considerations seem to take a back seat whenever trouble involving immigrants arises. Calls to toughen up immigration policies multiplied last month, after rioting between immigrant groups disrupted a Milanese neighborhood last month.
And studies suggest that racist sentiments are rising in Italy, especially among the young. Research commissioned by the national and regional governments and presented to the lower house last month found that nearly half of Italians between the ages 18 and 29 express varying degrees of xenophobic or racist sentiments. “Young people themselves say that they perceive racism as increasing,” said Enzo Risso, the director of the SWG research institute that carried out the survey.
Jorge Carazas, one of the speakers at the rally Monday, came to Italy from Argentina 10 years ago. “We are the country’s new citizens and we want to send politicians a clear message,” he said. “No matter what racist tones the government chooses to adopt, we’re not going anywhere. This is our home.”
Politically correct racism (PC racism) - Australia ignores huge Aboriginal & Muslim excess deaths
Le Wednesday 3 March 2010
par Dr Gideon Polya
Politically correct racist (PC racist) White Australia is treating its domestic Aboriginal (Indigenous) subjects and its overseas Muslim subjects (in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan) like animals.
White Australians vigorously object to being labelled as “racist” but are involved in the racist subjugation of other people and resolutely ignores the horrendous human cost of such involvements, notably the continuing dispossession and maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians and Australia’s complicity in horrendous post-invasion excess mortality and infant mortality in Coalition-occupied Iraq and Afghanistan in gross violation of the Geneva Conventions. The Australian involvement in passive genocide in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories has been identified as “politically correct racism” or “PC racism”.
In 1998 a key paper in the Medical Journal of Australia reported that whereas mortality from all causes in New Zealand Maoris and Native North Americans had fallen substantially since the 1970s, “comparable mortality rates for Australian Aboriginals and Torres Straits Islanders in 1990-1994 were at or above the rates observed 20 years ago in Maori or North Americans, being 1.9 times the rate in Maori, 2.4 times the rate in Native Americans, and 3.2 times the rate for all Australians” (Ring, I.T. & Firman, D. (1998), Reducing indigenous mortality in Australia: lessons from other countries. Medical Journal of Australia, vol.169, pp528-533; see: http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues...).
Since then things have got even worse as reported in a 2004 review (Thomson, N., Burns, J., Burrow, S & Kirov, E. (2004), Overview of indigenous health 2004. Australian Indigenous Health Bulletin; 4(4): Reviews: http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au... ). Some salient statistics from this study are summarized below:
The average annual mortality rate for indigenous (Aboriginal) Australians (2001) = 22.3 deaths /1,000 = 2.2%.
Highest annual mortality rate for indigenous (Aboriginal) Australians (Northern Territory, 2001) = 23.6 deaths/1,000 = 2.4%.
Annual mortality rate for non-indigenous Australians (2001) = 5.3 deaths/1,000 = 0.5%.
Annual EXCESS MORTALITY (avoidable mortality) rate for indigenous Australians = 22.3-5.3 = 17.0 deaths/1,000 = 1.7%.
Australian indigenous (Aboriginal) population (2001) = 0.459 million.
Australian non-indigenous (White) population (2001) = 19 million.
Annual Australian non-indigenous (White) deaths (2001) = 100,700.
Annual Australian indigenous deaths (2001) = 10,236.
Annual EXCESS DEATHS (avoidable deaths) of indigenous Australians (2001) = 7,803.
The “annual excess mortality” of indigenous Australians is numerically equivalent to over 2 World Trade Centre atrocities EVERY YEAR.
How does the “annual EXCESS mortality rate” of Australian Aborigines (1.7%) compare with that of other people subject to effective OCCUPATION by Australia or its Anglo-American allies in the post-1950 era? Here are some post-1950 statistics (derived from UN Population Division demographic data; see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blo...) on “annual avoidable mortality rate” expressed as “% per year”:
Koreans (Korean War, 1950-1953) – 1.0%.
Papua New Guineans (Australian occupation period 1950-1975) – 1.9%.
Vietnamese (Vietnam War, 1965-1975) – 1.4%.
Laotians (Vietnam War, 1965-1975) – 2.2%.
Cambodians (Vietnam War, 1965-1975) - 1.7%.
Iraqis (Sanctions & Gulf War, 1990-2003) - 0.6%.
Afghans (Afghanistan War, 2001-present) – 1.4%.
Solomon Islands (Australian peacekeeping, 2003-present) – 0.06%.
Iraqis (Iraq War, 2003-present) – 0.7%.
These numbers need to be compared with 2003 “annual excess mortality rates” of 0% for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Israel, US, East Asia (excluding North Korea and Mongolia), Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Réunion, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and many Western European, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean countries (the value for the UK is 0.04% but is an appalling 0.35% for formerly Soviet-occupied Hungary).
Significantly the 2003 “annual excess mortality rate” (as consistently and conservatively measured for every country in the world from UN data) was also 0% for the Arab countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates with similarly very low values of 0.01% (Oman), 0.02% (Saudi Arabia) and 0.03% (for Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories).
The 2003 “annual excess mortality rate” was 0.13% (US-threatened Iran), 0.15% (Algeria), 0.22% (Egypt), 0.48% (US-occupied Iraq), 0.52% (Yemen), 0.77% (genocide-wracked Sudan) and 1.75% (US-conquered Afghanistan).
The “annual EXCESS mortality rate” of Australian Aboriginals is of the same order as that of Asian civilians suffering total war at the hands of the US and its allies such as Australia; it is higher than the huge value for US-occupied Iraq; and it is about the same as the horrendous value for US-occupied Afghanistan.
It is commonly asserted that “Hitler liked dogs” and Australians share this affection for PET animals. However Australian affection for commercially-exploited animals leaves a lot to be desired. According to Animal Liberation, “in the 5 years from 1982-1986, an average of 6.2% of adult sheep each year died in the paddock” and the annual death rate for lambs, normally about 15%, “can be over 50% in bad years” (see: http://www.animalliberation.org.au/...).
However Meat & Livestock Australia (November 2005, Animal Health & Welfare, “The economic impact of OJD infection on sheep farms”) states the current authoritative industry position that “the accepted annual mortality rate [is] 2-3% (from all causes) for Australian sheep flocks” (see:
http://www.mla.com.au/NR/rdonlyres/... ).
The “annual EXCESS mortality rates” (annual AVOIDABLE mortality rates) of 1.7% for (indigenous Australians), 1.75% (Australia- and US-occupied Afghanistan), 0.48% (Australia- and US-occupied Iraq) are similar to the “annual TOTAL mortality rate” of 2.5% for Australian sheep. Politically correct racist White Australia is treating its Aboriginal, Iraqi and Afghan subjects like sheep for slaughter. Islamophobic White Australia is treating Muslims like livestock in paddocks.
The puppet government of US-occupied Iraq has just agreed to RESUME buying Australian wheat despite the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) scam that diverted US$250 million from the US $35 billion UN Oil-for-Food Sanctions Program at an estimated upper cost of 20,000 Iraqi infant lives. Middle Eastern countries consume huge amounts of Australian sheep that are controversially exported LIVE with attendant suffering and mortality packed into huge livestock transporter ships. Australia is the third most popular destination for international students (after the US and its other key Coalition ally, the UK).
Should Arabs, Iraqis, Muslims, Asians – or indeed anyone – consume Australian wheat, Australian lamb or send their children to study in Australian universities when PC racist White Australia is treating its Aboriginal, Iraqi and Afghan subjects like animals?
As of 2010, the Aboriginal Genocide kills 9,000 Indigenous Australians each year.
As of 2010, the Muslim Holocaust in the Occupied Somalian, Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories kills about 0.7 million Muslims each year (see: “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ and “Hey, hey, USA, how many kids did you kill today? Answer: 1,000”: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article18750 ). The breakdown of the ongoing Muslim Holocaust is as follows.
Palestinian Holocaust, Palestinian Genocide (0.3 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths, 0.2 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, 7 million refugees): http://sites.google.com/site/palest... ;
Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide (4.5 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths, 2.4 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, 3-4 million refugees plus 2.5 million NW Pakistan Pashtun refugees): http://sites.google.com/site/afghan....
Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide (2.5 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths, 0.9 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, 5-6 million refugees; 1990-2009, 4.4 million violent and non-violent excess deaths, 2.1 million under-5 infant deaths): http://sites.google.com/site/iraqih... .
Global avoidable mortality: the above atrocities are dwarfed by the 1950-2005 excess deaths in the mostly post-colonial Muslim World that totalled 0.6 billion (see my book "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950" , G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007, and "Global avoidable mortality":
http://globalavoidablemortality.blo...).
Climate Holocaust, Climate Genocide (man-made global warming increasingly impacts the current 22 million annual avoidable deaths from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease; estimates from top UK climate scientists Dr James Lovelock and Professor Kevin Anderson point to 10 billion avoidable deaths this century due to unaddressed global warming, this including 6 billion infants, 3 billion Muslims in a near-terminal, 21st century Muslim Holocaust , 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis): http://sites.google.com/site/climat... .
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Tell everyone you can.
Mister President,
When you receive this letter, five Cubans: Fernando González, René González, Ramón Labañino, Gerardo Hernández and Antonio Guerrero, will have been imprisoned in your country, for eleven and a half years. An extremely long punishment for having fought against terrorism instigated by the USA against Cuba. Every one of their sentences is excessive; these five Cubans should have been freed a long time ago.
After the new sentences were handed down against Antonio, Ramón and Fernando, only one of the Cuban Five, Gerardo, was maintained under a life sentence, what is more, a double life sentence!
Here is a man serving a double life sentence for “attempted conspiracy to commit murder”, whereas the prosecution itself reckoned that it is impossible to prove this crime!
Indeed, in May of 2001, the Prosecutor sent a letter to the judges, expressly demanding them to retire charge n°3, as they say in the language of law, from Geraldo’s case file. This charge had been an object of contention all during the proceedings of his case, which is why it was maintained. In his letter, the Prosecutor recognized that “In light of the proofs presented, we are confronted with an insurmountable obstacle that will provoke the collapse of the accusation.”
How can one maintain an accusation when the very person prosecuting admits that he is incapable of proving the charge, and asks that the charge be eliminated?
As for the jurors, in the deleterious atmosphere, it took them a record time to declare Gerardo guilty of charge n°3, for which he was not even accused, without a second thought!
Mister President, we beseech you to investigate this case because it merits further inspection, this painful case of the planes that were shot down. The case evidence clearly demonstrates the innocence of Gerardo. Judge Kravitch, one of the three judges of the Atlanta Court of Appeal charged with the Cuban Five case, demonstrated this fact perfectly. You have, moreover, received, with my letter of December 2009, the case file constituted by this judge, refuting the responsibility of Gerardo.
The Cuban Five court case is one of the longest in the history of your country, a tragic miscarriage of justice. It is a purely political affair – these men should have been freed but the Florida Mafia’s implication in your country’s proceedings is testicular and powerful.
In addition, during 2000 and the preparation of the trial, the Prosecutor opines in official documents (motion in limite of the Prosecutor) :
"The struggle against terrorism is the culprit’s motivation, and the motivations must not be expressed in front of the jury »* :
Is the collusion between your country’s government and these terrorist groups going to continue unabated?
When Judge Joan Lenard justified Fernando’s condemnation by the fact that it ought to “serve as an example for those who might have the temptation to come to the U.S. to spy on United States citizens and to prevent them from exercising their constitutional rights”, all was said! She confirmed that, for the U.S. government, it is legitimate and complies with the Constitution of the United States, to organize terrorist attacks against sovereign countries.
We are disappointed with your government’s unwillingness to initiate new relations with Cuba. We believed the fine words of both your electoral campaign and of your mandate; you expressed the desire to have relations with other countries as equals. What happened to these fine resolutions?
Mr. President, “actions speak far louder than words”, if this really was a new beginning in foreign diplomacy, you would without delay, accord “presidential clemency” to these five Cubans.
We ask you once again – Mister President, do you have the courage to take this step? We deeply hope so.
Please accept, Mister President, the expression of my most sincere humanitarian sentiments.
Jacqueline Roussie
64360 Monein (France)
Copies sent to: Mrs. Michelle Obama, Mrs. Nancy Pelosi, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, Mr. Harry Reid and to the U.S. Ambassador in France.
The 1 March protests saw immigrant workers in Europe down tools to raise awareness of the discrimination they face
A peaceful and colourful spectre seems to be haunting Europe. It’s a grassroots movement of migrants and activists claiming for participation and protesting against discriminatory immigration laws in France and in Italy. Monday 1 March, the first "day without immigrants, 24 hours without us" cannot but be considered a milestone in foreign workers’ fight for social and political rights. The idea comes from the economic boycott in the United States in 2006, when hundred of thousands of Latino workers took to the streets asking for better conditions and against the criminalisation of "irregulars". They abstained from consumer spending and working in companies and family care, but also attending colleges, hospitals, buying and selling, while boasting slogans such as: "Today we march, tomorrow we vote."
In Europe, the movement was born in the ideal cradle of France. More than 200 years after the French revolution and the declaration of the rights of men and the citizen, a new social actor is demanding visibility: "We, immigrants, immigrants’ descendants, citizens, are aware of the contribution of immigration to our country, we all generate economic growth," reads the movement’s manifesto. The date of the strike was chosen after the French "code of foreigners’ entry and stay and right to asylum", which came into effect on 1 March 2005. This law, according to protesters, symbolises a mere utilitarian idea of immigration.
Organisers are ordinary workers such as African carpenters and Asian nurses, but also unionists, journalists and intellectuals, both natives and migrants who used Facebook to create the network in France and then spread it to Italy and, with less intensity, to Spain and Greece. Yellow is the colour of the movement, signifying the political neutrality and independence of the initiative, which was coordinated by local committees already active in fights against a rampant xenophobic propaganda.
It’s hard to assess the day’s concrete economic impact as many immigrants had to pass the strike for fear of losing their jobs or because they could not afford to lose even a single day’s wage. But the attention raised on the issue already meets organisers’ expectations. There were mass marches, concerts and meetings from Paris to Rome, despite the media blackout and lack of concrete help by the main leftist parties and trade unions, which just gave their moral support.
And yet European progressive forces and trade unions should listen carefully to this demand of representation. In Italy, where prime minister Silvio Berlusconi makes irresponsible statements such as "the left wants a multiethnic society, we don’t", there are 4.5m regular migrants who contribute 9% of the country’s gross national product. But recent immigration laws make it harder and harder to live and work legally in the country. The Italian government’s policy has been repeatedly criticised by UN agencies, NGOs and also the Vatican. From push-backs to Libya that sends potential refugees to violence and torture, to discrimination of migrants at work and criminalisation of illegal immigrants, among which there are many who have just lost their jobs after decades of work, due to the current economic crisis.
Such discriminatory and racist systems are raising the potential for social conflict in Europe. While the 1 March initiative is aimed at stimulating solidarity among the working class in Italy, in France and everywhere else, migrants are seen as a threat to natives’ jobs and wages, where there’s a claim for protection instead of rights.
2.1 million Iraqi infant dead under Sanctions & Occupation - yet Iraqi Holocaust Denial by US & Puppets
Le Monday 1 March 2010
par Dr Gideon Polya
There were 2.1 million under-5 year old Iraqi infant deaths under Sanctions (1.2 million, 1990-2003) and US Coalition Occupation (0.9 million, 2003-2010) - however this has occasioned egregious Iraqi Holocaust Denial by the US Occupier and its Puppet Iraqi Régime.
Not only is the US involved in an ongoing Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide (post-1990 violent and non-violent excess deaths 4.4 million), the US and its Iraqi Puppet Régime are grossly understating post-invasion mortality rates to the United Nations Population Division.
In the 2006 Revision of the United Nations Population Division the crude death rate in “deaths per 1,000 of population” was given as 8.3 (1980-1985), 6.9 (1985-1990), 9.6 (1990-1995; Gulf War and commencement of Sanctions in 1990 and Bombing in 1991), 10.0 (1995-2000), 10.6 (2000-2005; the invasion and occupation of Iraq commenced in March 2003); and 9.1 (2005-2010).
This data makes sense in that one would have expected the successive impositions of Sanctions, Bombing, War and finally violent Occupation would have increased the death rate in this period.
Further, the above estimates are conservative because the classic epidemiological study on post-invasion Iraq by top US medical epidemiologists estimated a crude death rate of 13.3 per 1,000 people per year in the 40 months post-invasion. [1].
Using UN Population Division data on the population of Iraq in the 1990-2009 period and using as a baseline death rate the 4 per 1,000 of population obtaining in a range of peaceful Developing Countries with similar demographics, the mid-1990-December 2009 non-violent excess deaths (non-violent avoidable deaths) were calculated to be 2.8 million.
Using the 2006 Revision of the United Nations Population Division one can readily estimate mid-1990- December 2009 under-5 year old infant deaths as 2.1 million.
It has been determined from World demographic data that the ratio of under-5 infant deaths/total non-violent avoidable deaths is about 0.7 for impoverished developing World countries. [2, 3].
Accordingly, one can estimate mid-1990-December 2009 excess deaths as 2.1 million/0.7 = 3.0 million, this being in good agreement with the above estimate of 2.8 million.
However “American Democracy” has intervened to radically distort this picture. In 2005, the Americans, having followed standard US global policies and murdered or imprisoned all the Iraqi political activists they didn’t like, proceeded to hold “democratic elections” from which any survivors were also excluded. Nouri al-Maliki was elected to the US Puppet “Transitional National Assembly” in 2005 and became Prime Minister of the US Puppet Iraqi Régime in mid-2006.
This fraudulent exercise in “American Democracy” was rapidly reflected in UN Population Division statistics.
Thus in the 2008 Revision of the United Nations Population Division the crude death rate in “deaths per 1,000 of population” was given as 9.0 (1980-1985), 7.9 (1985-1990; a similar downward trend as for the 2006 Revision) , 6.7 (1990-1995; a further DECLINE despite the Gulf War and commencement of Sanctions in 1990 and Bombing in 1991), 5.2 (1995-2000; a further DECLINE despite Sanctions and massive Bombing), 5.3 (2000-2005; the invasion and occupation of Iraq commenced in 2003 but this massive imposition evidently had no significant effect on Iraqi death rate); and 6.1 (2005-2010; a huge decline from the 1985-1990 figure despite nearly 2 decades of impositions variously including Sanctions, Bombing, War and Occupation).
From this unbelievable post-2006 Iraqi data one can calculate mid-1990-December non-violent excess deaths as 0.8 million (as compared to the pre-2006 data estimate of 2.8-3.0 million).
This evident US and US Iraqi Puppet Régime fraud also extends to under-5 infant mortality data.
Thus the 2002 Revision UN Population Division data for under-5 infant mortality in Iraq in “deaths per 1,000 live births” was 205 (1950-1955), 172 (1955-1960), 160 (1960-1965), 136 (1965-1970), 116 (1970-1975), 93 (1975-1980), 73 (1980-1985), 57 (1985-1990), 82 (1990-1995), 131 (1995-2000), and 131 (200-205).
The 2006 Revision data is similar, specifically 124 (1995-2000), 124 (2000-2005), and 105 (2005-2010). Using the 2006 Revision data one calculates mid-1990-December 2009 under-5 infant deaths totalling 2.1 million.
However the US and US Iraqi Puppet Régime data reflected in the 2008 Revision tells a radically different story. The under-5 infant mortality in Iraq in “deaths per 1,000 live births” was asserted in the 2008 Revision data to be 56 (1995-2000; a DECREASE from that before the Sanctions that are generally attributed as the cause of massive infant mortality in Iraq in the period 1990-2003); 45 (2000-2005; a further DECREASE under more Sanctions and Bombing and then Invasion and Occupation); and 41 (2005-2010; a further DECREASE after nearly 2 decades of Sanctions, Bombing and violent Occupation).
The mid-1990-December 2009 Iraqi under-5 infant deaths from the US and US Puppet Iraqi Régime data of the 2008 Revision total 0.8 million, 2.6 times lower than that determined using pre-2006 UN data.
As for post-invasion violent deaths in Iraq, 1990-2009, assessment is complicated by the position of the US military as summarized by US General Tommy Franks: “We don’t do body counts”. [4].
It has been estimated that 0.2 million Iraqis died in the Gulf War. Iraq Body Count currently estimates 95,000-103,000 violent post-invasion Iraqi death, but these estimates derive from utterly untrustworthy media and Puppet Government reports from a war zone. A 2008 US, US Puppet Iraqi Régime and WHO study has found about 150,000 post-invasion Iraqi violent deaths occurred between March 2003 and June 2006, this estimate being 4 times lower than the estimate from surveys by top US medical epidemiologists and the UK polling company ORB (see below). [4, 5].
Studies by top US medical epidemiologists from Public Health Schools of Johns Hopkins and Columbia University published in the top medical journal The Lancet indicated about 0.6 million violent Iraqi post-invasion deaths by July 2006. This work has been confirmed by the UK ORB polling company. The prestigious US organization Just Foreign Policy using such data now estimates post-invasion Iraqi violent deaths at 1.4 million. [1, 6].
For further details about the ongoing Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide see "Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide" [9], "Iraq Genocide Essays" [10] and "Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide" [11].
Summary.
1. According to the 2006 Revision UN Population Division data, medical literature data, and other authoritative sources, the Iraqi Holocaust has been associated with 1.1 million post-invasion non-violent avoidable deaths; 1.4 million violent post-invasion deaths; and 0.9 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths (90% avoidable and due to gross US Coalition violation of the Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War which demands that an Occupier supplies food and medical requisites to “the fullest extent of the means available to it.” In addition, avoidable deaths under Sanctions (1990-2003) totalled 1.7 million, violent deaths in the Gulf War totalled 0.2 million and under-5 infant deaths under Sanctions totalled 1.2 million. Iraqi refugees (both inside and outside Iraq) total 5-6 million.
2. The ongoing Iraqi Holocaust (1990-2009) involves 1.6 million violent deaths, 2.8 million non-violent excess deaths, 4.4 million violent and non-violent excess deaths, 1.9 million avoidable under-5 year old infant deaths and 5-6 million refugees – an Iraqi Genocide according to the UN Genocide Convention definition of “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group“. The Iraqi Genocide - still continuing under Nobel Peace Laureate Obama - is of a similar magnitude to the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation). [7, 8].
3. The US and US Puppet Iraqi Régime assertions, as reflected in 2008 Revision UN Population Division data, would have us believe that nearly 2 decades of Sanctions, Bombing, War and violent Occupation imposed on Iraq resulted in a steady decline in under-5 year old infant mortality, general death rate and avoidable death rate in Iraq.
4. The US under Obama and the US Puppet Iraqi Régime are involved in horrendous Iraqi Holocaust commission, Iraqi Holocaust denial, Iraqi Genocide commission and Iraqi Genocide denial.
5. All those politicians, public servants, academics and journalists complicit in the ongoing Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide (most notably George Bush Senior, Bill Clinton, George Bush Junior, Barack Obama, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair) should be arraigned for complicity in war crimes and genocide and /or for being accessories after the fact of war crimes and genocide.
[1]. Gilbert Burnham, Riyadh Lafta, Shannon Doocy & Les Roberts, “Mortality after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample survey”, The Lancet, October 2006: http://brusselstribunal.org/pdf/lan... .
[2]. Gideon Polya, “Layperson’s guide to calculating Iraq deaths”. MWC News, 6 April 2006:
http://sites.google.com/site/iraqge... .
[3]. Gideon Polya, “Iraq and Afghanistan: how many dying?”, pp 78-80, in “Haditha Ethics – from Iraqi to Iran?”, ed. Ken Coates, Spokesman for Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, London, 2006).
[4]. Iraq Body Count: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ .
[5]. WHO, :New study estimates 151,000 violent Iraqi deaths since Iraq invasion [March 2003-June 2006]”: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news... .
[6]. Just Foreign Policy: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/ .
[7]. Gilbert, M. (1969), Jewish History Atlas (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London).
[8]. Gilbert, M. (1982), Atlas of the Holocaust (Michael Joseph, London).
[9]. "Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide": http://sites.google.com/site/iraqih... .
[10]. "Iraq Genocide Essays": http://sites.google.com/site/iraqge... .
[11] "Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide": http://sites.google.com/site/muslim....
On Thursday morning, Feb. 25, 2010, a sidewalk summit advocating “Medicare for All,” was staged in Washington, D.C., at Lafayette Park, North, not far from the White House. To close the rally, Dr. Margaret Flowers sang her rendition of “It Isn’t Nice,” a ballad authored by the late, great songwriter and activist, Malvina Reynolds. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvina_Reynolds Dr. Flower was introduced by activist Katie Robbins. For background on the Sidewalk Summit, go to: http://www.healthcare-now.org/
A recent post of the moroccan press agency, MAP, reported on 25 Feb 2010 that britannic MP, Derek Conway told that moroccan autonomu plan is "a viable and serious proposal" that will help settle the Sahara issue. It’s important to highlight that the Derek Conway who proposed, two years ago, a deliberately deceptive Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament in favour of Morocco’s autonomy plan is the same Derek Conway that later faces fraud investigations after being sacked by his party for using public funds to “employ” family members.
Mr Conway was suspended from the Commons for 10 days and ordered to return £13,161 of the money he paid his son. A Commons standards committee said there was no record of Freddie, a student, doing work at Westminster in return for £40,000 of taxpayers’ money. The committee report, which said Freddie was “all but invisible” at Westminster, concluded the arrangement was “at the least an improper use of parliamentary allowances” and “at worst, a serious diversion of public funds”.
Police say they cannot investigate disgraced MP Derek Conway, even though he was reprimanded by Commons authorities for paying his student son nearly £40,000 to be a researcher. Scotland Yard said a “lack of systems” for accounting for MPs’ expenses meant it was ruling out an investigation.
It is said that a man can be known by the company he keeps. When it comes to Conway and his buddies in Rabat, this dictum appears to work both ways.
I don’t know if Conway’s relationship with the Moroccan government extends to financial remuneration – one wonders what motivated him to propose the EDM in favour of normalising Morocco’s occupation, if not some sort of financial reward. Perhaps he could have paid his sons in Dirhams and saved himself a lot of bother. He wouldn’t be the first foreign political figure to have been bought by the Moroccan state. After publishing a glowing analysis of the king’s fine new clothes (i.e. the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara), by ex US ambassador to Rabat Frederick Vreeland, the New York Times felt obliged to publish an Editor’s Note pointing out that Vreeland was chairman of a company that had contracts with the Moroccan government. I’m sure there will be many more such unmaskings as Morocco steps up its propaganda campaign with the help of its western stooges.
Nude Protest: Airport Body Scanners in Germany(video
Le Monday 1 March 2010
par Alan
The underwear bombers Christmas Day attack has prompted calls for the increased use of full-body scanners at airports.
So to protest, members of the Pirate Party in Germany organized a fleshmob of people who stripped down to their skivvies last Sunday and converged on the Berlin-Tegal airport.
The protesters marked their bodies with a number of messages such as, Something to hide? and Be a good citizen — drop your pants.
One woman has the word diaper scrawled on her lower back with an arrow pointing to her underwear and the word prosthetic printed on her leg. The word piercing and an arrow point to one of her breasts.
The full-body scanners use high-frequency radio waves to produce an image of a passengers naked body beneath clothes. Anything a passenger is carrying against the body — weapons, drugs or explosives — would be exposed. The scanners would also reveal the presence of prosthetic devices and breast implants.
As such, there have been privacy and legal concerns raised about the invasive equipment, particularly because its unclear if the scanners would be able to detect explosives hidden in body cavities and would therefore likely provide only minimal security.
Video: Ex-Baltimore City Commish: “’The Wire’ Was Accurate!”
Le Sunday 28 February 2010
par William Hughes
Ed Norris is the former Police Commissioner of Baltimore City. Currently, he is a popular radio talk show host, on 105.7 WHFS (FM), in town. On Feb. 24, 2010, he appeared on a panel to discuss the crime situation in Baltimore. The event, held at a local bistro/pub, was sponsored by “Investigative Voice,” See:
http://investigativevoice.com/ To learn more about Mr. Norris, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Norris and http://ednorris.com/mainsite/ Mr. Norris said that the HBO’s “The Wire” program gave an “accurate portrayal” of crime conditions in the city during his tenure in office.
APOLOGIES FOR THE POOR QUALITY OF THIS VIDEO.
A recent post of the moroccan press agency, MAP, reported on 25 Feb 2010 that britannic MP, Derek Conway told that moroccan autonomu plan is "a viable and serious proposal" that will help settle the Sahara issue. It’s important to highlight that the Derek Conway who proposed, two years ago, a deliberately deceptive Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament in favour of Morocco’s autonomy plan is the same Derek Conway that later faces fraud investigations after being sacked by his party for using public funds to “employ” family members.
