Democracy Now!
"This Is the Worst Catastrophe to Hit Any State Since Biblical Times"–Just Back from Pakistan, Feryal Ali Gauhar Describes the Suffering from the Flood
It is well known, if not acknowledged by—particularly by the state, that the base for the drones, where they’re housed before they are automated, is in Pakistan. The current government has literally gone blue in the face denying that. But I just happened to stumble across a contractor—and that’s not the Blackwater contractor—the contractor who built the base, who inadvertently, actually, spoke about it. But he was speaking about it in a different context, and that context was the fact that he was there at the time of the flooding—and, you know, this is the worst catastrophe to have hit any state since apparently biblical times. So, he actually mentioned to me that the River Indus, which is one of the largest rivers in the world, carrying now a volume of water which has not been known in contemporary history, was breached on the left bank deliberately in order to protect the base, which is on the right bank. And the breaching caused, consequentially, the inundation of an entire district, which resulted in the displacement of millions, not thousands, but millions, because we have 170 million people in the country, and this particular district is one of the most densely populated. - Activists Go on Trial in Nevada for Protesting Obama Admin Drone Program
- Pakistan Flood Victims Tell of Suffering, Unfolding Disaster in Southern Sindh Province
- Flood Refugees in Karachi Relief Camp Complain of Government Corruption and Inefficiency
- As Pakistan Floods Continue Moving South, Calls for Debt Cancellation Grow
- Fatima Bhutto: Pakistan’s Devastating Floods Are President Zardari’s Katrina
It is well known, if not acknowledged by—particularly by the state, that the base for the drones, where they’re housed before they are automated, is in Pakistan. The current government has literally gone blue in the face denying that.
But I just happened to stumble across a contractor—and that’s not the Blackwater contractor—the contractor who built the base, who inadvertently, actually, spoke about it. But he was speaking about it in a different context, and that context was the fact that he was there at the time of the flooding—and, you know, this is the worst catastrophe to have hit any state since apparently biblical times. So, he actually mentioned to me that the River Indus, which is one of the largest rivers in the world, carrying now a volume of water which has not been known in contemporary history, was breached on the left bank deliberately in order to protect the base, which is on the right bank. And the breaching caused, consequentially, the inundation of an entire district, which resulted in the displacement of millions, not thousands, but millions, because we have 170 million people in the country, and this particular district is one of the most densely populated.
- Activists Go on Trial in Nevada for Protesting Obama Admin Drone Program
- Pakistan Flood Victims Tell of Suffering, Unfolding Disaster in Southern Sindh Province
- Flood Refugees in Karachi Relief Camp Complain of Government Corruption and Inefficiency
- As Pakistan Floods Continue Moving South, Calls for Debt Cancellation Grow
- Fatima Bhutto: Pakistan’s Devastating Floods Are President Zardari’s Katrina
NEW SPIDER CATCHES ATTENTION IN GIANT WEB
A new spider species in Madagascar constructs webs up to 82 feet in length.
DOG GROWLS CONTAIN SPECIFIC INFORMATION
There is a growing body of evidence that animal calls are far more complex than previously thought.
Study: Glucosamine, Chondroitin No Help for Arthritis
Glucosamine, chondroitin, or their combination are no better than placebo (dummy pill) when it comes to joint pain and joint space narrowing, the new study shows.
But the supplements are safe, the study researchers write.
“I said it was disgusting that soldiers get sent to war by a gov but when they arrive home injured they have to rely on charity."
How Money Is Created By Banks
"Repudiate This Lie of a Debt!"
"If our Nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill. The element that makes the bond good, makes the bill good also. The difference between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets money brokers collect the amount of the bond and an additional 20 percent interest, whereas the currency pays nobody but those who contribute directly in some useful way.
"It is absurd to say that our country can issue (X dollars) in bonds and not (same X dollars) in currency. Both are promises to pay; but one promise fattens the usurer and the other helps the people."
"It is absurd to say that our country can issue (X dollars) in bonds and not (same X dollars) in currency. Both are promises to pay; but one promise fattens the usurer and the other helps the people."
Friends like these
You might have thought that if it was anybody's job to look after Israel's occupation forces, it would have to be the Israeli taxpayer. But it transpires that Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) has assumed the responsibility of providing these soldiers with love and support in an effort to ease the burden they carry on behalf of the Jewish community worldwide...with the mission of providing and supporting social, educational, cultural, and recreational programs and facilities for the young men and women soldiers of Israel who defend the Jewish homeland...Providing financial aid to soldiers in need, granting academic scholarships to former combat soldiers, helping bereaved families, and sponsoring fun days for combat battalions are just some of our endeavors...reinforce the significant bond between the Jewish community in the United States, the soldiers of the IDF, and the State of Israel.
FIDF builds sports and cultural centres for the IOF all over Israel and, if I read the mapcorrectly, in the West Bank, as well as providing mobile recreational facilities for those too busy humiliating Palestinians at remote checkpoints or bashing down doors in the middle of the night to get to one of the more permanent centres.
If IOF soldiers carry the burden of occupation and oppression 'on behalf of the Jewish community worldwide' doesn't that constitute 'Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel', one of the ways 'in which anti-Semitism manifests itself with regard to the state of Israel', according to the EU Monitoring Commission's 'Working definition'?
Governor of Akwa Ibom Threatens NGOs Protecting “Child Witches” with Arrest
Embarrassed by reports of the continuing problem of children being stigmatised as witches in Akwa Ibom state in Nigeria, Governor Godswill Akpabio has decided to act: by going after the charities that have been caring for abandoned children and highlighting the problem. …Chief Akpabio had accused officials of the NGO of fraud and promised to effect their arrest in a radio and television phone-in- programme in the Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC).
Photos from NY 9/11 Anti-Mosque Protest
"Dizzy With Success." That was the phrase used by Stalin to describe the "few excesses" that had taken place in the "historic drive to collectivization," i.e., the Bolshevik war on the rural poor that had led to massive famine and the deaths and uprooting of millions of people. The campaign had left such a swathe of ruin that some of those who saw its effects went mad, or turned dissident, or subsided into horrified, soul-drained silence.
"Dizzy With Success" would be also be an apt description for the epochal ruin that has been visited on the people of Afghanistan in nine years of military occupation by the United States and its European allies. Or as Nick Turse puts it in a searing new article at TomDispatch, "How Much 'Success' Can Afghanistan Stand?"
The "meaning" of the American occupation for ordinary Afghans is a topic of little note among the talking heads who steer the national "discourse" ... except of course for the occasional propaganda excursion pointing out the inestimable benefits the empire has bestowed upon the poor benighted denizens of Bactria -- and how infinitely worse it will be for them should Washington shirk its paternal obligations.
But the reality, of course, is that the lives of ordinary Afghans has, by almost every measure, been sent hurtling backwards and spiraling downwards at the hands of the Americans and the client state they have installed.
After a near-decade of American occupation -- and hundreds of billions of dollars ostensibly poured into the country in the form of "aid" that mysteriously ends up almost entirely back in American pockets -- there are more hungry people in Afghanistan than before the invasion, with the situation worsening all the time.
But of course the Terror War is "all about the children," isn't it? Liberating them, protecting them, building them a brighter future.
There is violence against women in Afghanistan -- great violence. But this has only increased, not decreased, as the American military presence drags on.
Free Blogger Ali Abdulemam
Nukak dispossession highlights Amazonian tribes' plight
Duki and his relatives live far from their traditional lands on the outskirts of the departmental capital, San Jose del Guaviare, about 280km (173 miles) from the capital Bogota.They reside in Aguabonita, a displacement camp set up specifically for the Nukak, just a stone's throw from the military bases whose helicopter gunships offer a constant reminder of the situation in this part of Colombia.
According to Nukak expert and anthropologist Dany Mahecha, the tribe's displacement has "made the Nukak people the clearest expression of the armed conflict in Colombia".And, displaced as they are, the Nukak are now being subjected to cultural, technological, biological and environmental pressure exerted by Colombian society.
Exams system 'diseased' and 'almost corrupt'
Exam regulator Ofqual said it would investigate claims of impropriety.( Fox watching the henhouse )
West Midlands police stated that they were happy for RtW to march past the conference centre and confirmed that centenary square, the square directly in front of the conference centre, would not be a “sterile zone”. A route was suggested by Birmingham City Council and West Midlands police and the delegation accepted the offer to walk the route being proposed.
*The Police have now reneged on the proposed route citing security reasons. They are denying us the right to march past the conference centre."The march has been initiated by the Right to Work Campaign and is backed by three national trade unions (the PCS, NUJ and UCU), the Labour Representation Committee and a number of local trade union and campaigning organisations.
This Is What Progressive Austerity Looks Like
What Castro Really Said
I took it to be an acknowledgment that under 'the Cuban model' the state has much too big a role in the economic life of the country."
Julia pointed out that one effect of such a sentiment might be to create space for his brother, Raul, who is now president, to enact the necessary reforms in the face of what will surely be push-back from orthodox communists within the Party and the bureaucracy. Raul Castro is already loosening the state's hold on the economy. He recently announced, in fact, that small businesses can now operate and that foreign investors could now buy Cuban real estate. (The joke of this new announcement, of course, is that Americans are not allowed to invest in Cuba, not because of Cuban policy, but because of American policy. In other words, Cuba is beginning to adopt the sort of economic ideas that America has long-demanded it adopt, but Americans are not allowed to participate in this free-market experiment because of our government's hypocritical and stupidly self-defeating embargo policy. We'll regret this, of course, when Cubans partner with Europeans and Brazilians to buy up all the best hotels)
Cuba: Another Education is Possible
...quick overview of the Cuban system, touching on the statutory right to work, the 1:650 doctor/general population ratio, the strength and depth of social solidarity, and its avoidance of personality cults and dogmatism characteristic of similar societies. If we realise how all this is possible in a poor country under the lash of an economic blockade then, Bill argued, we can also understand why the USA sees Cuba as a threat.
As a former leading member of the National Union of Teachers, most of Bill's talk focused on Cuba's education system. We were given the impression this extends far beyond formal schooling and HE. Crucial to retaining mass support for the Cuban revolution are the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution.
This same president has also fought tooth and nail -- often in open court -- to shield torturers, escalate pointless wars of aggression, relentlessly expand a liberty-stripping Stasi-style security apparatus, give trillions of tax dollars to rapacious financiers, health-care corporations, insurance companies and bloodstained war profiteers, while launching cowardly drone missile attacks on the sovereign territory of close ally, killing hundreds of civilians in the process - and has just signed off on the biggest arms deal in history with one of the most viciously repressive tyrannies on earth.
As Numbers of Uninsured Soar, Health Insurance Companies Plan Rate Hikes
These figures are sure to reignite the health care squabbling in Congress, and add to the tea party shrieks that Obamacare won't cure the health care mess, which is now more of a disaster than ever. While their analysis is flawed, the tea partisans' conclusion is, sadly, pretty much on the mark.
The Feds' Oil-Spill Number Games
Initial government estimates about the size of the Gulf oil spill were low—way, way low. The number the government repeated for four weeks, about 5,000 barrels per day, was about one-twelfth of the actual rate oil was seeping from the well. So what went wrong with the government's math? It's an awfully good question, one that watchdog groups want answered. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which represents whistleblower scientists at government agencies, announced Thursday that it is filing suit against the Obama administration to gain access to the paper trail on the government's early assessments. The group says government officials are "hiding the memos and e-mails behind official scientific assessments of the size of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico."
Governor of Akwa Ibom Threatens NGOs Protecting “Child Witches” with Arrest
Embarrassed by reports of the continuing problem of children being stigmatised as witches in Akwa Ibom state in Nigeria, Governor Godswill Akpabio has decided to act: by going after the charities that have been caring for abandoned children and highlighting the problem.
…Chief Akpabio had accused officials of the NGO of fraud and promised to effect their arrest in a radio and television phone-in- programme in the Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC).
Photos from NY 9/11 Anti-Mosque Protest
"Dizzy With Success." That was the phrase used by Stalin to describe the "few excesses" that had taken place in the "historic drive to collectivization," i.e., the Bolshevik war on the rural poor that had led to massive famine and the deaths and uprooting of millions of people. The campaign had left such a swathe of ruin that some of those who saw its effects went mad, or turned dissident, or subsided into horrified, soul-drained silence.
"Dizzy With Success" would be also be an apt description for the epochal ruin that has been visited on the people of Afghanistan in nine years of military occupation by the United States and its European allies. Or as Nick Turse puts it in a searing new article at TomDispatch, "How Much 'Success' Can Afghanistan Stand?"
"Dizzy With Success" would be also be an apt description for the epochal ruin that has been visited on the people of Afghanistan in nine years of military occupation by the United States and its European allies. Or as Nick Turse puts it in a searing new article at TomDispatch, "How Much 'Success' Can Afghanistan Stand?"
The "meaning" of the American occupation for ordinary Afghans is a topic of little note among the talking heads who steer the national "discourse" ... except of course for the occasional propaganda excursion pointing out the inestimable benefits the empire has bestowed upon the poor benighted denizens of Bactria -- and how infinitely worse it will be for them should Washington shirk its paternal obligations.
But the reality, of course, is that the lives of ordinary Afghans has, by almost every measure, been sent hurtling backwards and spiraling downwards at the hands of the Americans and the client state they have installed.
But the reality, of course, is that the lives of ordinary Afghans has, by almost every measure, been sent hurtling backwards and spiraling downwards at the hands of the Americans and the client state they have installed.
After a near-decade of American occupation -- and hundreds of billions of dollars ostensibly poured into the country in the form of "aid" that mysteriously ends up almost entirely back in American pockets -- there are more hungry people in Afghanistan than before the invasion, with the situation worsening all the time.
But of course the Terror War is "all about the children," isn't it? Liberating them, protecting them, building them a brighter future.
But of course the Terror War is "all about the children," isn't it? Liberating them, protecting them, building them a brighter future.
There is violence against women in Afghanistan -- great violence. But this has only increased, not decreased, as the American military presence drags on.
Free Blogger Ali Abdulemam
Nukak dispossession highlights Amazonian tribes' plight
Duki and his relatives live far from their traditional lands on the outskirts of the departmental capital, San Jose del Guaviare, about 280km (173 miles) from the capital Bogota.
They reside in Aguabonita, a displacement camp set up specifically for the Nukak, just a stone's throw from the military bases whose helicopter gunships offer a constant reminder of the situation in this part of Colombia.
According to Nukak expert and anthropologist Dany Mahecha, the tribe's displacement has "made the Nukak people the clearest expression of the armed conflict in Colombia".
And, displaced as they are, the Nukak are now being subjected to cultural, technological, biological and environmental pressure exerted by Colombian society.
Exams system 'diseased' and 'almost corrupt'
Exam regulator Ofqual said it would investigate claims of impropriety.
( Fox watching the henhouse )
West Midlands police stated that they were happy for RtW to march past the conference centre and confirmed that centenary square, the square directly in front of the conference centre, would not be a “sterile zone”. A route was suggested by Birmingham City Council and West Midlands police and the delegation accepted the offer to walk the route being proposed.
*The Police have now reneged on the proposed route citing security reasons. They are denying us the right to march past the conference centre.
*The Police have now reneged on the proposed route citing security reasons. They are denying us the right to march past the conference centre.
"The march has been initiated by the Right to Work Campaign and is backed by three national trade unions (the PCS, NUJ and UCU), the Labour Representation Committee and a number of local trade union and campaigning organisations.
This Is What Progressive Austerity Looks Like
What Castro Really Said
I took it to be an acknowledgment that under 'the Cuban model' the state has much too big a role in the economic life of the country."
Julia pointed out that one effect of such a sentiment might be to create space for his brother, Raul, who is now president, to enact the necessary reforms in the face of what will surely be push-back from orthodox communists within the Party and the bureaucracy. Raul Castro is already loosening the state's hold on the economy. He recently announced, in fact, that small businesses can now operate and that foreign investors could now buy Cuban real estate. (The joke of this new announcement, of course, is that Americans are not allowed to invest in Cuba, not because of Cuban policy, but because of American policy. In other words, Cuba is beginning to adopt the sort of economic ideas that America has long-demanded it adopt, but Americans are not allowed to participate in this free-market experiment because of our government's hypocritical and stupidly self-defeating embargo policy. We'll regret this, of course, when Cubans partner with Europeans and Brazilians to buy up all the best hotels)
Julia pointed out that one effect of such a sentiment might be to create space for his brother, Raul, who is now president, to enact the necessary reforms in the face of what will surely be push-back from orthodox communists within the Party and the bureaucracy. Raul Castro is already loosening the state's hold on the economy. He recently announced, in fact, that small businesses can now operate and that foreign investors could now buy Cuban real estate. (The joke of this new announcement, of course, is that Americans are not allowed to invest in Cuba, not because of Cuban policy, but because of American policy. In other words, Cuba is beginning to adopt the sort of economic ideas that America has long-demanded it adopt, but Americans are not allowed to participate in this free-market experiment because of our government's hypocritical and stupidly self-defeating embargo policy. We'll regret this, of course, when Cubans partner with Europeans and Brazilians to buy up all the best hotels)
Cuba: Another Education is Possible
...quick overview of the Cuban system, touching on the statutory right to work, the 1:650 doctor/general population ratio, the strength and depth of social solidarity, and its avoidance of personality cults and dogmatism characteristic of similar societies. If we realise how all this is possible in a poor country under the lash of an economic blockade then, Bill argued, we can also understand why the USA sees Cuba as a threat.
As a former leading member of the National Union of Teachers, most of Bill's talk focused on Cuba's education system. We were given the impression this extends far beyond formal schooling and HE. Crucial to retaining mass support for the Cuban revolution are the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution.
As a former leading member of the National Union of Teachers, most of Bill's talk focused on Cuba's education system. We were given the impression this extends far beyond formal schooling and HE. Crucial to retaining mass support for the Cuban revolution are the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution.
This same president has also fought tooth and nail -- often in open court -- to shield torturers, escalate pointless wars of aggression, relentlessly expand a liberty-stripping Stasi-style security apparatus, give trillions of tax dollars to rapacious financiers, health-care corporations, insurance companies and bloodstained war profiteers, while launching cowardly drone missile attacks on the sovereign territory of close ally, killing hundreds of civilians in the process - and has just signed off on the biggest arms deal in history with one of the most viciously repressive tyrannies on earth.
As Numbers of Uninsured Soar, Health Insurance Companies Plan Rate Hikes
These figures are sure to reignite the health care squabbling in Congress, and add to the tea party shrieks that Obamacare won't cure the health care mess, which is now more of a disaster than ever. While their analysis is flawed, the tea partisans' conclusion is, sadly, pretty much on the mark.
The Feds' Oil-Spill Number Games
Initial government estimates about the size of the Gulf oil spill were low—way, way low. The number the government repeated for four weeks, about 5,000 barrels per day, was about one-twelfth of the actual rate oil was seeping from the well. So what went wrong with the government's math? It's an awfully good question, one that watchdog groups want answered. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which represents whistleblower scientists at government agencies, announced Thursday that it is filing suit against the Obama administration to gain access to the paper trail on the government's early assessments. The group says government officials are "hiding the memos and e-mails behind official scientific assessments of the size of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico."
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