Image via WikipediaThe Existentialist Cowboy
"Truth to Power: A Blunt Assessment of US Crimes in Iraq"
2441. War crimes(a) Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death. --U.S. Codes, Title 18, Section 2441">TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 118 > § 2441
On the same day the administration sent its latest budget proposal to Congress, Mother Jones s
Image via Wikipediapoke with the iconoclastic economist about myopic Iraq War accounting, the need for a military draft, and the task of putting a price tag on human life.--Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell, MotherJones, Iraq War Sticker Shock: The Trillion Dollar War that Will Bankrupt America?
Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal
The Source of America's wars, Neocons Zionists
envoyé par FTChanneel7. - L'info internationale vidéo.
The Source of US Wars: Neocons, Zionists
Award winning economist says America has bankrupted itself with the Iraq war
Sarthanapalos
Global Lessons From The Egyptian Revolution
This video is disturbing. As demonstrators walk peacefully, a police car smashes into them and drives on. This is exactly the state sanctioned behavior that the Egyptian Revolution is trying to stop.
We can all have cell phones, computers and televisions. But, if we are not free to say, write and see different points of view, or question our society, they are useless toys reduced to mind numbing chatter. We can educate entire nations, but we cannot keep them submissive and numb.Our Neo Liberal economics stands as a place holder to perpetuate the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. In truth, western societies did not advance because of the economic functions, they advanced because we had “Social Democracies”. Democracies that nurtured civil society and the individual. Social Democracies that did not just appear, social democracies that took a great deal of work to establish.
Tony Judt, in his last book, Ill Fares The Land, describes how we have placed a blind faith on the markets and we have allowed our values of Social Democracies to wither. We have closed an eye to the most abhorrent violations of human rights in the name of economic gains. Shame on us. In fact, some are hell bent to regress from the core values of social democracies and just create states that are mere vehicles for commerce.
( Who are the 'We' ? The disenfranchised of the biPartisan Tyranny that is Representative Government aka Demockracy ? This is the sort of writing that the 'Wrong' decry as being irrelevant as it posits a false narrative. Even a stopped clock is correct twice a day. )
It is time, it is time that we look at the demands of the Egyptian people for self-determination, freedom, democracy and human rights. The empty shell of exporting Neo Liberal free market economies as stand alones, corrupts everything and strengthens all the authoritarian tendencies of nations. The Egyptian revolution is the next step to a true global culture. A system that is not just free markets that help the few, a system entrenched in democratic values. The young people are trying to smash this cloud of oppression.
The men from the balcony, in total frustration start screaming “sons of dogs”, ” sons of dogs”, then they go into the anti -Mubarak chants. Do not be mistaken, that feeling of despair is starting to percolate here in America and in other parts of the west, we watch from day-to-day as our gains are taken away in the name of economic expediency. My mother, could only tell me the story, these men could post it on You-tube using a cell phone camera. Thank you for the tools, now, how do we keep the avenues open to use the tools for a purpose?
Mubarak: State Sponsored Terror Against Egyptians
The anti Mubarak demonstrators were peaceful and acted with all the anti-violence values of resistance. Now, Mubarak has unleashed oil workers, undercover policemen, NDP party members to brutalize the demonstrators.
This is the peaceful transition that he promised. They went on top of buildings, throwing stones and all types of things. This is the terrorism we should be fighting, state imposed terror. I wonder who helped him to cook this strategy? The Army stands by. Is there any doubt that they are complicit?US diplomat apologises for radio tag comment
18 students being made to wear ankle bracelets should choose to see it as a bang-on-trend moment. 'Let me tell you they are very hep and happening because many of our movie stars and celebrities choose the anklets rather than sitting in a red jumpsuit in prison,' the channel quoted her as saying.'It's funny people getting upset about this. I don't know about your servants...but my servant has big heavy silver anklets...that look a heck of a lot more uncomfortable and binding.'
Asian Age
Governance: Key to tackling Naxals
Among the various internal security problems this country is besieged with, the Naxal/Maoist issue is one which is difficult to attribute to foreign inspiration, unlike, say, the dodgy situation in Kashmir or the Northeast, or lately even communal violence, which is sometimes linked to the action-reaction syndrome driven by terrorist attacks. And yet it is plain that success in dealing with this homegrown malady appears to be minimal. .... a challenge which, at its root, emanates from two sources — the stark poverty in the countryside in large parts of the country, and the deficit of governance which drives people, particularly the poor, to despair that can become a stepping-stone to violence.
Government’s success in dealing with Maoism has been conspicuously limited. So long as the Indian State cannot take effective steps to raise people from grinding poverty, it cannot turn the tide against Naxalism, especially in regions where the terrain is forested and inaccessible for the most part. Merely deploying the police, paramilitary forces or even the military means will not do.
( That analysis sounds a lot like those for Afghanistan and Iraq. Corruption and lack of infrastructure and maintenance...rather like what caused the NOLA/Katrina crisis. )
Maoists now ‘fashionable’: Bengal’s Gov
The scent of jasmine
n Shashi Tharoor
is a member of Parliament from Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram constituency
Beijing’s official spokesperson on January 30 called for a “return to order” in Egypt, expressing concern at the troubles besieging this “friendly country”. Praying for calm, the Chinese government made it clear that the restoration of law and order was its principal priority.
What China’s statement about Egypt reveals is that the mandarins in Beijing are thinking about themselves — and their own stake in the success across the world of authoritarian systems which, whatever their foreign policy orientations, are more akin to their style of rule than to Washington’s.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990-91, no one was more worried than the Beijing establishment. They too had embarked on reforms, after all, driven by the same realisation as Moscow that the Communist system was not only morally and ideologically bankrupt, but worse still, did not work in practice. Communism’s biggest weakness was not that it was undemocratic, but that it could not deliver the goods. The fact that the USSR’s embrace of reform had led so rapidly to the collapse of the ruling Communist Party, and even to unravelling of the entire country, gave pause to the enthusiasts of change in China — those who had been tempted by the Gorbachev-like impulses of one-time party leader Zhao Ziyang. They anxiously studied the Soviet reform experience for lessons they could draw upon to avoid a similar fate themselves.
And from this emerged a simple insight: what an authoritarian system in the throes of reform needs to do is to pursue perestroika but not glasnost. Political change is a bad idea, economic success is essential.
Gorbachev’s big mistake, the bosses in Beijing concluded, was that he mixed up the genuine need for perestroika (the restructuring of the failed and inefficient Communist economic and bureaucratic system) with the unnecessary turn towards glasnost (openness, liberalism and democratic pluralism in the political system). The former, as the Chinese Communists saw it, was an imperative they had already realised by then; the latter, which Gorbachev saw as a necessary accompaniment — rather like the chole without which a batura isn’t worth having, would simply guarantee their own extinction. Whereas the Russian Communists had wrongly believed the package came as a whole and couldn’t be disaggregated, the Chinese decided it could be. They proceeded to demonstrate that you could operate a capitalist economic model within an authoritarian, repressive one-party state*.
What the protestors were shouting for was not just freedom but dignity — the dignity that comes from having jobs worth doing, food to eat, hopes of a better life for the kids. As long as authoritarianism can deliver economic benefits, most people in most developing countries will put aside their natural desire for democratic self-expression and concentrate on making a good life for themselves and their families instead. It is when an authoritarian state fails to deliver on these basic necessities that the people finally pour into the streets.
This is the central Chinese insight.
( * Which is the success of the chameleon state encouraging self delusion : it represents itself as that which it patently is not via constant indoctrination and punditry which studiously avoids controlling truths underlying a 'bipartisan' - or even more than two parties - structure. 'Heads I win - Tails you lose' )
All spectrum decisions since 2003-08 were wrong: Telecom Panel
New Delhi
Findings on procedural lapses are being sent to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is looking into the criminal culpability in the scam.
Addressing a press conference a day after the arrest of former telecom minister A. Raja, Mr Sibal said his predecessor had said that he was 'not deviating from the previous policies (the NDA government) but the problem was that the previous policies were wrong'.Quoting the report, Mr Sibal said the committee found that original spectrum allocation was 'bad' and procedures were not followed both during the NDA government till 2004 and the UPA government up to 2008.
Mubarak to step down soon
Embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is likely to step down immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman, backed by the army.A deal to this effect is being brokered by the Obama administration, which is in talks with top Egyptian leaders, New York Times reported today quoting US officials. Officials said under the proposal, the transitional government headed by Suleiman would prepare constitutional reform to prepare the country for a free and fair election in September.
( Supervised by the 'experts' in providing such. It might be an instructive time to have a look at the new Iraqi constitution. )
Chidambaram, Omar agree to push Kashmir peace roadmap
Union home minister P. Chidambaram met chief minister Omar Abdullah on Friday and the two agreed to draw up a roadmap for lasting peace in Jammu and Kashmir. The former then reviewed the security situation in Kishtwar. Biggest fear was the continuing infiltration from across the border.
Pardon prisoners who memorise Quran
Kuwait’s Endowments and Islamic Affairs ministry has said that prisoners who can memorise the Quran might be eligible for the annual pardon.The decision will be part of efforts to rehabilitate inmates and help them re-integrate society driven by high values. According to the ministry, 137 inmates were last enrolled in the memorisation programme.
“Kuwait adopts a religious preaching programme as part of its rehabilitation policy for inmates,” the ministry said.
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PRISONER REENTRY RELIGION AND RESEARCH
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick Viewreintegration of returning prisoners. Religious program research may hold a valuable key to ... DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, ...
peerta.acf.hhs.gov/pdf/prisoner_reentry.pdf
Ban on Prison Religious Program Challenged - washingtonpost.com
25 Feb 2007 ... Ban on Prison Religious Program Challenged. U.S. Judge Ruled Evangelical ... While in the program, prisoners are expected to pray daily, ...www.washingtonpost.com › Religion
Louisiana prison gives inmates chance to earn ministry degree ...
6 Jan 2010 ... Such programs are not tracked overall in state prisons. ... times over religious matters at Angola, but the seminary program is not one of them. ... Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your ...www.usatoday.com/.../religion/2010-01-06-louisiana-prison-ministry_N.htm
NWP 1-05 -- Religious Ministry in the U.S. Navy
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick ViewInfluence of Religious Ministry Programs on Information Warfare ................
www.usmc.mil/unit/.../NWP%20RELMIN%20IN%20THE%20USN.pdf
Image via WikipediaPrison Rehabilitation Programs - Inmates Meditate
1 Sep 2010 ... Prison Rehabilitation Programs include Transcendental Meditation. ... that this happens regardless of the inmates' religious or personal beliefs. ... and TM are registered trademarks, licensed to Maharishi Foundation USA.www.tm.org/blog/meditation/prison-rehabilitation-programs/
Image by Jayel Aheram via Flickr405 U.S. 319 - FindLaw
"F. Points of good merit are given to inmates by the Defendants as a reward for religious participation in Protestant, Jewish and [405 U.S. 319, 321] Roman ...caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol..
Prosecutor in Taseer murder case quits
The prosecutor who was pursuing slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer's murder case in a Pakistani court has withdrawn from the case citing security concerns
Salman Taseer was killed on January 4 by his own bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri, who said he killed Taseer because the latter spoke out against the blasphemy law.Malook said the government had promised to provide him security while he was following the case, but it has not fulfilled the promise so far.
Britain develops blood test for mad cow disease
BRITISH RESEARCH-ERS have developed the “world’s first accurate blood test” for human mad cow disease, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The human form of BSE or mad cow disease was first diagnosed in 1995. The disease, which affects the brain, is believed to have passed from cattle to humans through infected food. It causes personality change, loss of body function, and eventually death. Mad cow disease is caused by prions, the infectious proteins that can inhabit a person’s body for up to 50 years before presenting symptoms.
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