Image via WikipediaBradBlog
Xenophobic Dehumanization & 21st Century McCarthyism
from The BRAD BLOGTo what extent has xenophobia greased the wheels of the right-wing smear machine?
A venal hard-right, operating through a pathological, race-baiting con-artist, like Andrew Breitbart, targets, for one of its deceptive smear campaigns, a group, like ACORN, or an individual, like Van Jones or Shirley Sherrod.
The smear is amplified by the propagandists at Fox "News." It reverberates throughout the right-wing echo chamber (which has usurped the majority of our public airwaves to bolster their agenda). The smear is then repeated by pliant mainstream corporate media, which will, at best, offer up a belated, chiseling, inaccurate "correction" --- too little and too late to undo the damage wrought by a Democratic "opposition" which timidly seeks to distance itself from the smeared as they scurry to hand the hard-right what it seeks (e.g., a bill stripping ACORN or NPR of public funds, or the forced resignation of the targeted individual).
There is no doubt but that some of the corporate media complicity derives from common financial interests. As Bill Moyers observed in Moyers on America, "media giants...exalt commercial values at the expense of democratic value...squeezing out the journalism that tries to get as close as possible to the verifiable truth."
But there is another issue, magnified by two recent events: (1) The matter-of-fact acceptance of the prompt resignation of two NPR officials over a secretly taped and deceptively-edited video hit piece in which two of convicted federal criminal and Republican con-man James O'Keefe's flunkies posed as members of a Muslim organization seeking to help fund NPR, and (2) The deafening corporate media silence over an outrageously racist remark by a right-wing Kansas state representative who compared "illegal immigrants" to "feral pigs"...
Revisiting The Lucifer Effect
In The Lucifer Effect, Professor Phillip Zimbardo defined dehumanization as a means "by which certain other people or collectives of them are depicted as less than human." Zimbardo's academic analysis was covered at length in my article "Hate Speech and the Process of Dehumanization" where poignant examples were provided both with respect to Nazi Germany and, by way of Leon Litwack's photographic display and account of lynching in the American Jim Crow South in Without Sanctuary.
Just as Zimbardo traced the sadism of the SS to the Nazi media campaign to dehumanize the Jewish population, so also Litwack traced lynching, which took the lives of more than 4,700 African Americans between 1882 and 1968, to the injection of racism into popular culture by media. Writes Litwack:
Historians and the academic sciences [provided]…the intellectual underpinnings of racist thought and behavior, validating theories of black degeneracy and cultural and intellectual inferiority, helping to justify on "scientific" and historical grounds a complex of laws, practices and beliefs. Popular literature, newspaper caricatures, minstrel shows, and vaudeville depicted blacks as a race of buffoons and half-wits. And with Birth of a Nation in 1915, the cinema did more than any historian to explain the "Negro problem" to the American people….Beneath the grinning exterior of the black man, this film warned, there lurks a mindless savagery that demands white vigilance….
The extent of the dehumanization is reflected in a remark by former Georgia governor William J. Northen, quoted by Litwack: “I was amazed to find scores and hundreds of men who believed the Negro was a brute…and his slaughter nothing more than the killing of a dog."
Governor Northen's observation should be kept in mind when we cover how a Republican Kansas state legislator thinks we should now address the issue of "illegal immigration."Happy Anniversary! Fukushima May be Cooling, the Gulf May be Leaking, and a Bad Moon is Rising...
Choosing an interesting way to 'celebrate' the 8th anniversary of the launching of Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq kicking off our invasion there on March 19th, 2003, the U.S. Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama approved the launching of Tomahawk cruise missiles into Libya on the anniversary today, as a five-nation coalition began to carry out a U.N.-approved No Fly Zone mandate over yet another oil rich Middle Eastern nation.
In response, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), General Electric, The Shaw Group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the rest of the nuclear energy lobby sent a thank you note to Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gaddafi, as the world media quickly turned their attention en masse to the new military action in the Middle East and away from the still-pending nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.
a giant 100-mile oil slick has been spotted in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana near the site of last year's BP deepwater oil drilling disaster. And yet with all of that, CNN has still not announced plans to scale back the 150 staff contingent they are set to deploy to cover next month's Royal Wedding in the UK.
In still more, let's call it irony, over a 100 demonstrators, including "Pentagon Papers" whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, were arrested at the White House Saturday, protesting all the wars we were in prior to today, as well as against the reportedly deplorable conditions of detainment for 23-year old Army Private Bradley Manning, accused of leaking classified war documents and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. Many of the same protesters were arrested in a similar protest at the White House in December, also for failing to obey orders as they handcuffed themselves to the White House fence, though few media bothered to cover that demonstration either. Another rally is set for tomorrow in support of Manning, also sure to be ignored, at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia where he has been held in solitary confinement, reportedly, 23 out of 24 hours of each day for the last nine months.
... MSNBC's Rachel Maddow offered a clear, cogent, humane explanation of the concerns which now focus specifically on the spent fuel rods at Units 4 (where a "renewed nuclear chain reaction [is] feared"), 5 & 6, and even at reactors 1 through 3 where spent fuel is also stored on site in cooling ponds which, unlike rods in the reactors themselves, are unprotected by steel vessels and concrete containment structures. She's worth watching here:
...the nuclear industry, and those who profit off them --- which is to say, many, likely the majority, of politicians and decision makers in both the Republican and Democratic parties in this country --- will work hard to not notice the success of the mighty wind farms in Japan in the weeks, months and years ahead.
We spoke about some of those points, including the "bankrupt, corrupt and criminal companies" still forcing nuclear power on the nation, during my interview on KPFK/Pacifica yesterday with BBC journalist Greg Palast. Earlier this week, Palast, formerly a government investigator of corrupt nuclear power companies, wrote at Truthout about the Obama administration's support of plans for TEPCO --- yes, the same TEPCO --- to build two new nuclear reactors on the Gulf Coast of Texas. What could possibly go wrong?
... we observed that Japan's "big government tyranny" likely saved tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives last week, due to the country's exceedingly strict building codes ---
My KPFK Interview With Greg Palast on the Plan for TEPCO to Build Nuclear Reactors in Texas
'Green News Report' - March 17, 2011
UK, France to Citizens: Get Out of Tokyo Due to Nuke Plant Worries; US to Citizens: No Worries!
afro spear
West overzealous on Libya – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.Now that the United Nations Security Council resolution for a no-fly zone has been passed, how will it be implemented?The UNSC Resolution 1973 has made it legal for the international community to protect the Libyan people from Muammar Gaddafi’s lethal and excessive force – by, among other things, imposing a no-fly zone and carrying out military strikes and other military action short of occupation. However, the overzealousness of certain Western powers like Britain, France and, as of late, the US, to interpret the resolution as an open-ended use of force, is worrisome. With their long history of interference and hegemony in the region, their political and strategic motivation remains dubious at best. Likewise, their rush to use air force individually or collectively could prove morally reprehensible – even if legally justified – if they further complicate the situation on the ground.
This sounds like ‘damned if they do, damned if they don’t'?
Well, the onus is on these Western powers to prove that their next move and actions are based on a strictly humanitarian basis and are not meant as a down payment for longer-term interference in Libyan and regional affairs.
They need to demonstrate how their ‘change of heart’ from supporting the Gaddafi dictatorship over several years to condemning him as a war criminal and acting to topple him, is not motivated by more of the same narrow national and Western strategic interest.
Unfortunately, the Libyan dictator’s statements and actions (and his recent cynical and contradictory threats and appeals) have played into Western hands, making it impossible for Libyans, like Tunisians and Egyptians before them, to take matters into their own hands.
Those who abstained at the UN Security Council, including Germany, India and Brazil, wanted to co-operate in charting a brighter future for Libya, but are also suspicious of the overzealous French and British eagerness to jump into a Libyan quagmire with firepower.
By Felicity Arbuthnot
“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”The bombing of Libya will begin on or nearly to the day, of the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the destruction of Iraq, 19th March, in Europe. Libya too will be destroyed – its schools, education system, water, infrastructure, hospitals, municipal buildings. There will be numerous “tragic mistakes”, “collateral damage”, mothers, fathers, children, babies, grandparents, blind and deaf schools and on and on. And the wonders of the Roman remains and earlier, largely enduring and revered in all history’s turmoils as Iraq, the nation’s history – and humanity’s, again as Iraq and Afghanistan, will be gone, forever.
George Orwell
The infrastructure will be destroyed. The embargo will remain in place, thus rebuilding will be impossible. Britain, France and the US., will decide the country needs “stabilising”, “help with reconstruction.” They will move in, secure the oil installations and oil fields, the Libyan people will be an incidental inconvenience and quickly become “the enemy”, “insurgents”, be shot, imprisoned, tortured, abused – and a US friendly puppet “government” will be installed.
The invaders will award their companies rebuilding contracts, the money – likely taken from Libya’s frozen assets without accounting – will vanish and the country will remain largely in ruins.
And the loudest cheerleaders for this, as Iraq, will be running round TV and radio stations in London, Europe and the US, then returning to their safe apartments and their UK/US/Europe paid tenures, in the knowledge that no bombs will be dropping on them. Their children will not be shaking uncontrollably and soiling themselves with terror at the sound of approaching planes.
And this Libyan “Shock and Awe”? Shame on France, shame on Britain and the US and a UN avowed: “… to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” Every shattered body, every child maimed or blown to bits, every widow, widower, orphan, will have their name of those countries, and the UN., written in their blood in their place of death.
And the public of these murderous, marauding Western ram raiders, will be told that we were bringing democracy, liberating Libya from a tyrant, from the “new Hitler”, the “Butcher of Bengazi.”
The countries who have ganged together these last days to overthrow a sovereign government have, again, arguably, conspired in Nuremberg’s: ” … supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole”, and yet again, plotted to overthrow a sovereign government, with a fig leaf of “legality” from an arm twisted UN. We have seen it all before.
USAgain Clothing Donation Bins in Da ‘Hood…Can We Trust It?
They started off in Europe–Germany, Denmark, and England and were shut down after being investigated. But they slithered over here to America and it seems to be too difficult to put the finger on them. So now they are in my community and others here in the San Francisco Bay Area, taking free clothing, reselling it to the tune of millions, all under a tax exempt status!
White or Black Led Urban Ministries…Who Gets The Money?
http://www.urbanfaith.com/2011/02/who-gets-the-money.htmlThese hard-working, good Christian ministers are white, black and other POC. All races are helping in the urban communities. But according to the author, it seems that there is a gaping chasm between the amount of donations that white run urban ministries receive in comparison to the black run urban ministries, with the white organizations receiving the Lion’s share! Hmmmm….
. Psycho-Slavery: Black Boys, White Female Teachers & the Rise of A.D.H.D.
2. How China has created a new slave empire in Africa
3. Afro-Futurism: The Marketing of Revolution
FREE WESLEY SNIPES!!!
They gave Ron Isley three years. They gave Wesley Snipes three years. What did they give the CEO/CFO’s of Merrill Lynch, AIG, Goldmund Sachs?!I’ll tell you what they gave them: a handjob. They gave them record bonuses, the highest being almost half a billion dollars. They, meaning the people charged with regulating them aka, the SEC, the Federal Reserve, the President, the Congress, gave these corporate pirates a free pass – along with ‘no strings attached’ taxpayer bailout money – that was used, in part, for more management bonuses.
There was no recouping of individual lost savings, of employee retirement plans looted. In other words, there was no bailout for the little people RAPED by their own government.
They say the financial system was out of control. I say: the people who control the system conspired to take what they could get and trot out the usual cover story of some vague, rogue, unnameable other, who can’t be found and can’t be prosecuted
No prosecutions or jail time for any of these KNOWN criminals has been sought. Let me repeat that: NOT ONE OF THE PEOPLE BEARING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 2008 HAS SERVED JAIL TIME. Nor has anyone in authority SOUGHT to put them in jail – OR, sought to get them to give back what they took.
In fact, your President Noir has placed the foxes firmly in control of the chicken coop. The “great community organizer” has more Goldmund Sachs reps in his administration than a pimp has pocket change. Geithner. Summers.Etc, etc, etc…
(As an aside, this is what Larry Summers had to say about YOU:
Bishop Noel Jones in South Africa…The Practicality of Christianity
Bishop Noel Jones, discussing the intersection of business and church, the practical and the spiritual, the dialectical and the liturgical. Bishop Noel Jones is considered a profound Christian theologian and intellectual. He has a way with the Word of God that leaves no room for doubt about God’s existence, His mercy, and His love for us all.
When he recently visited in South Africa and sat down to speak on the SABC network, the good Bishop met his intellectual match in his interviewer, Mbulelo Rakwena. Watch as the two intellects argue the points of how black Christians ought to approach Christianity–how we black people ought to bring Christianity to bear on our history, including our enslavement and the effects of it, so that God’s Word and God’s love breaks the bonds of economic and mental slavery that we are still suffering worldwide.One thing we know, God has given us Free Will to choose our paths. We see how the slavers made their choice to twist Scripture. We see how they brought Christianity to bear in their desire to conquer and vanquish black people, and by extension, the world. The imperialists and slavers reinterpreted scripture to support their desires for domination. This reinterpretation still rings in the ears of many people who have decided that they can’t relate to the “white man’s religion”. The imperialistic misinterpretation of God still holds sway over most black agnostics and atheists to this present day. But what we as black Christians must do is to begin the reinterpretation of scripture that works for us in our practical lives here on earth. We can never accept the imperialists racist interpretation of scripture as God’s unchanging truth, even if those imperialists would have us to believe this profound lie!
God’s Omniscience, Omnipresence and Omnipotence is too big to equate with the european slavers, or their fallacy ridden, eurocentric interpretation of HIM!
Revolution the Only Solution (Part 4)
Good news in Yemen:Defense Ministry Mohammad Nasser Aliis just gave a brief statement saying the army would defend Saleh against any coup against democracy.Meanwhile, in Bahrain, Secretary of State Clinton announces US support for the Saudi troops that have entered the country:
There have been dozens of major defections today, including the most powerful military officer, who controls 60 percent of the army.
France's foreign ministry has said that Saleh's departure is is unavoidable, according to Al Jazeera. Washington is still sticking with its ally.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton affirmed here Saturday the US commitment to protect the security of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, accusing Iran of being a factor of instability in the region.Has no one told Clinton that she sounds eerily like the Soviet apparatchiks who justified the 1968 invasion of Czechoslavakia on the ground that the people there needed to be protected against a bourgeois counterrevolution? I am starting to worry that, while the Iranian nuclear research program has not ignited a conflict between the US and Iran, turmoil in Bahrain just might.
Iran pursues a private agenda to destabilize neighboring countries and undermine peace and stability in the Gulf region, Clinton said.
She made the remarks in a press conference at the Elysee Palace after a summit of world leaders on the international military action against the regime of Libyan leader Col Muammar Qaddafi.
It’s a priority for the US administration to work with partners in the Gulf region against the concern over the behavior of Iran, she said.
Commenting on the deployment of troops from the Peninsula Shield Force in the Kingdom of Bahrain in the wake of violent protests, Clinton said it was a sovereign right for Bahrain to seek help from GCC member states under the joint defense treaty they had signed.
Black Rain
UPDATE 1: Having grown up among Japanese Americans in Northern California, I find these stories to be especially heartrending:The devastating impact of the Japanese earthquake on the country's ageing population was exposed on Thursday as dozens of elderly people were confirmed dead in hospitals and residential homes as heating fuel and medicine ran out.And, it's not much better for children, either:
In one particularly shocking incident, Japan's self-defence force discovered 128 elderly people abandoned by medical staff at a hospital six miles from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. Most of them were comatose and 14 died shortly afterwards. Eleven others were reported dead at a retirement home in Kesennuma because of freezing temperatures, six days after 47 of their fellow residents were killed in the tsunami. The surviving residents of the retirement home in Kesennuma were described by its owner, Morimitsu Inawashida, as alone and under high stress. He said fuel for their kerosene heaters was running out.
Some Reflections About the Japanese Nuclear Catastrophe
UPDATE 1: From a New York Times article about the remaining workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station:They crawl through labyrinths of equipment in utter darkness pierced only by their flashlights, listening for periodic explosions as hydrogen gas escaping from crippled reactors ignites on contact with air.
They breathe through uncomfortable respirators or carry heavy oxygen tanks on their backs. They wear white, full-body jumpsuits with snug-fitting hoods that provide scant protection from the invisible radiation sleeting through their bodies.
They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots.
Free Schools with Chinese characteristics
In theory, Beijing public schools report to Beijing’s education bureau, which then reports to the Ministry of Education. In practice, each public school is an independent kingdom that pays nominal deference to education authorities. To understand this relationship, think of Beijing’s education bureau as the United Nations: It has neither financial nor political control over schools, so it projects the illusion of authority by issuing meaningless proclamations and convening boring conferences.
It’s taken for granted that Peking University High School, because of its affiliation with China’s intellectual centre, does whatever it wants. But each of Beijing’s top 43 public schools is fiercely independent.
Take, for example, Number 101 High School, which our school’s administration toured last week. Founded in 1946, 101 is a sprawling campus of 200,000 square metres with the Old Summer Palace as its backyard. Their alumni include Zeng Qinghong and other powerful politicians, and they draw their students from Beijing military and political families. Their annual budget is more than that of most Chinese counties, and their school leadership has been in place for over a decade. The meeting room that hosted us had the year before hosted Kai-Fu Lee, the founder of Google China, and a visiting delegation of leading American journalists and writers.
http://bloodandtreasure.typepad.com/blood_treasure/2011/03/a-quick-fold-or-a-bloody-war.html
the more likely unfolding scenario is the one outlined by Adam Silverman:
In fact I'm pretty sure we will see something of the usual suspects version of the use of force: a no fly zone that doesn't do much to remove Qathafi (which is now, if I understood the President's remarks correctly, the overall stated US objective: that he has to go), followed by pressure from both our allies (France, Britain) and from the internal foreign and defense policy mavens that we must do more, America is looking weak, we're not living up to our standards - the usual arguments for boots on the ground intervention, which will result in said intervention. Then we will start hearing the arguments that we have to expand operations so as not to discredit those who have already risked so much and because we can not allow Libya to descend into an ungoverned state of chaos, destabilize the region, and become a haven for al Qaeda, other extremists, and/or international criminals. This will then become the basis for the need for the US to build a modern Libyan nation-state.Watch out for the “c” word, when Cameron or whoever starts saying that our credibility is at stake. LOL :)
Carbon-capture game draws criticism
A non-profit organization has launched an educational game for children between the ages of six and eight that tackles a controversial topic: carbon capture and storage. The Science Alberta Foundation, which educates students in science and technology, created the game called Carbon Capture.
Gallery: Monday's images following the Japan quake and tsunami
The latest images of devastation to come out of Japan as people around the world mourn the dead.
Foreign aid promised for Japan quake zone, but where is it?
Scores of countries have pledged aid to the victims of Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami, but little of it is visible in many towns and villages devastated by the disaster.
Sunny 2011 outlook for Alberta drilling
Drilling activity has had its strongest start this year since 2007, according to the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC).
U.S. researcher touts cleaner oilsands extraction process
A new oil extraction method that could be used in Alberta’s oilsands and would eliminate the need for the environmentally hazardous tailings ponds responsible for the deaths of hundreds of ducks in the last few years has been developed by U.S. researchers.
Decision to sell off nuclear agency puts Canada at risk: experts
The Conservative government's decision to sell off its nuclear agency may put Canada and other countries at risk, the association representing its engineers and scientists warned Monday.
Hydro-Quebec pressured to close Gentilly-2 nuclear plant
A coalition wants Hydro-Quebec to close Gentilly-2, the province’s only nuclear power plant.
Flaherty to table federal budget as government faces threat of defeat
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will rise in the House of Commons on Tuesday and unveil a play-it-safe budget short on big new spending or tax initiatives, but long on implications for the life span of the Conservative government.
Former Israeli president Katsav jailed for rape
Former Israeli president Moshe Katsav was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in jail for rape, a case that brought shame to Israel's highest office and sent a firm message to a transfixed public that no one was above the law.
Taxpayers to fund Buddhist-inspired stress course for civil servants
Stressed-out employees at Justice Canada in Ottawa will soon be able to seek relief in a taxpayer-funded program that uses the Buddhist concept of mindfulness to help them cope with personal and workplace pressures.
Calgary police defend giving white supremacists bus transportation
City police are defending the decision to use a city bus to ferry a dozen white supremacists out of downtown after their march Saturday, saying it avoided a violent battle with anti-racism demonstrators.
Canadian jets turn back on Libya bombing run
Canadian fighter jets on a combat mission in Libya turned back without releasing their bombs Tuesday after it was determined that the risk of "collateral damage" was too great, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said.
Stray buffalo euthanized after herd escapes near Airdrie
Airdrie police ended up playing the part of buffalo wranglers last Wednesday, when 31 of the animals escaped their pasture off of Highway 72 and Range Road 285.They responded after concerns the bison would wander into roads and cause collisions. Thirty of the 31 animals were caught with the assistance of local farmers and a seismic company working in the area. Despite various herding efforts of RCMP, the remaining stray was put down, after evading RCMP for several days and causing damages to surrounding property.
Solar Climate Change for period 19th - 27th March 2011
John O'Sullivan: Public Warning: High Earthquake Risk Now Imminent Say Two Leading Experts
Berkland, a former USGS Geologist, warns we are seeing a coincidence of several natural phenomena including the closest approach of the Moon since 1992, plus a full moon coinciding with the equinoxal tide. He warns that this convergence of three of the most important tide raising factors is a “seismic window” of additional stresses on the Earth’s crust that may trigger quakes.
Source: suite101.com
Read in full with comments »
Anthony J. Sadar & Stanley J. Penkala: More Climate Disruption Drivel
Article Tags: Anthony J. Sadar, Stanley J. PenkalaIt certainly didn't take long for someone, a British academic this time, to couple the tragedy in Japan to the specter of future tsunamis caused by global warming. In 2004, Michael Crichton's State of Fear had the plot line of an extreme environmental group planning to trigger a tsunami using a massive underwater explosion, with the intention of blaming it on man-made climate disruption. Sadly, Japan's tsunami is now being used to stoke the dying embers of climate-change mania.
Even before nature's fury ravaged Japan, meteorological mischief was contemplated to awaken the world's interest in climate change. This effort would take the form of coordinated messages using political rhetoric in the media to blame climate change on the industrialized nations of the world.
But, after studying the climate-change science "business" for the past thirty years, many of us old-timers see the situation as clear and settled as ever: The global climate changes and humans play a negligible role in that change.
Source: americanthinker.com
Willie Soon: What Really Threatens Our Future?
Article Tags: Willie Soon
Japan is grappling with a triple tragedy: earthquake, tsunami and possible nuclear radiation. This has brought rolling blackouts, as authorities strive to meet electricity demands with reduced supplies and crippled transmission lines.
However, power cuts and inadequate power are routine in developing countries like India. For them, going without electricity for hours or even days is the norm, not the exception.
But now, the UK’s power grid CEO is warning Brits that their days of reliable electricity are numbered. Because of climate change and renewable energy policies, families, schools, offices, shops, hospitals and factories will just have to “get used to” consuming electricity “when it’s available,” not necessarily when they want it or need it.
UN IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri justifies this absurd situation by sermonizing, “Unless we live in harmony with nature, unless we are able to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy sources, and until we change our lifestyles, the world will increasingly become unfit for human habitation.”
Source: townhall.com/columnists/williesoon
Read in full with comments »
Japan is grappling with a triple tragedy: earthquake, tsunami and possible nuclear radiation. This has brought rolling blackouts, as authorities strive to meet electricity demands with reduced supplies and crippled transmission lines.
However, power cuts and inadequate power are routine in developing countries like India. For them, going without electricity for hours or even days is the norm, not the exception.
But now, the UK’s power grid CEO is warning Brits that their days of reliable electricity are numbered. Because of climate change and renewable energy policies, families, schools, offices, shops, hospitals and factories will just have to “get used to” consuming electricity “when it’s available,” not necessarily when they want it or need it.
UN IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri justifies this absurd situation by sermonizing, “Unless we live in harmony with nature, unless we are able to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy sources, and until we change our lifestyles, the world will increasingly become unfit for human habitation.”
Source: townhall.com/columnists/williesoon
Read in full with comments »
( I become annoyed with arguments which ignore resource depletion, garbage buildup, toxic pollutants - especially in drinking water - to concentrate on 'the sky is falling' warming after an ice age. )
Murdered Afghan Trophy Photos on Der Spiegel
by craig on Mar 22nd in Uncategorized
The United States have killed so many innocent civilians in Afghanistan that nobody will ever know all their stories. There is a line running from genuine accident in the fog of war, to carelessness, through callous disregard of life to deliberate murder. There is a real sense in which it makes no difference to the dead civilian where their killing sits on the line. The six boys under 11 years old killed this month by an aerial attack when out gathering firewood are every bit as dead as the 13 year old boy in one of the trophy photos now released by Der Spiegel.
There is something very vile in the culture of the US military, of which this is but one symptom. I won’t say much, as I feel more grief than anger just at the moment. But I leave you these truths. It is more common for US soldiers to possess such trophy photos, than it is for those trophy photos to be exposed to an international magazine. And it is a great deal more common for US soldiers to murder from the enjoyment of their absolute power of life and death, than it is for them to incriminate themselves by recording the event.
This is but the tip of an iceberg of evil.
There is something very vile in the culture of the US military, of which this is but one symptom. I won’t say much, as I feel more grief than anger just at the moment. But I leave you these truths. It is more common for US soldiers to possess such trophy photos, than it is for those trophy photos to be exposed to an international magazine. And it is a great deal more common for US soldiers to murder from the enjoyment of their absolute power of life and death, than it is for them to incriminate themselves by recording the event.
This is but the tip of an iceberg of evil.
Human Rights in the USA
by craig on Mar 22nd in Uncategorized
The Obama administration has, rightly, been paying at least lip service to the primary of international law in the limitation of military action in Libya to conform with the provisions of SCR 1973.Here is a still more fundamental piece of international law – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. It is in itself a high point of human achievement, and it is worth reading from time to time. Consider this in particular:
Article 23.In directly contravening Clause 4 of Article 23, the government of Wisconsin is not only attacking its own workforce, it is attacking the very essence of human dignity and the achievement of ordinary people in obtaining a right to it. There is no doubt that in the second half of the twentieth century labour unions grew into over-centralised, undemocratic and corrupt institutions. Those evils can be regulated away. But removing the right of individual workers to combine to negotiate the price of their labour is a much greater evil.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Murdered Afghan Trophy Photos on Der Spiegel
by craig on Mar 22nd in Uncategorized
The United States have killed so many innocent civilians in Afghanistan that nobody will ever know all their stories. There is a line running from genuine accident in the fog of war, to carelessness, through callous disregard of life to deliberate murder. There is a real sense in which it makes no difference to the dead civilian where their killing sits on the line. The six boys under 11 years old killed this month by an aerial attack when out gathering firewood are every bit as dead as the 13 year old boy in one of the trophy photos now released by Der Spiegel.
There is something very vile in the culture of the US military, of which this is but one symptom. I won’t say much, as I feel more grief than anger just at the moment. But I leave you these truths. It is more common for US soldiers to possess such trophy photos, than it is for those trophy photos to be exposed to an international magazine. And it is a great deal more common for US soldiers to murder from the enjoyment of their absolute power of life and death, than it is for them to incriminate themselves by recording the event.
This is but the tip of an iceberg of evil.
There is something very vile in the culture of the US military, of which this is but one symptom. I won’t say much, as I feel more grief than anger just at the moment. But I leave you these truths. It is more common for US soldiers to possess such trophy photos, than it is for those trophy photos to be exposed to an international magazine. And it is a great deal more common for US soldiers to murder from the enjoyment of their absolute power of life and death, than it is for them to incriminate themselves by recording the event.
This is but the tip of an iceberg of evil.
Human Rights in the USA
by craig on Mar 22nd in Uncategorized
The Obama administration has, rightly, been paying at least lip service to the primary of international law in the limitation of military action in Libya to conform with the provisions of SCR 1973.
Here is a still more fundamental piece of international law – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. It is in itself a high point of human achievement, and it is worth reading from time to time. Consider this in particular:
It was possible for liberals to believe – I believed it – thirty years ago that capitalism as a system naturally ameliorates and moves everybody towards the middle class, reducing extremes of wealth and poverty as capitalism matured. But since then, the gap between the very wealthy and the ordinary working man has increased exponentially. Those providing financial and other middleman servies are disproportionately rewarded, and those who labour to manufacture or provide physical services are increasingly impoverished, abused and unprotected. The public services are one of the few areas where rapacious neo-liberal practices of exploiting, abusing and discarding labour still met any, though reducing, resistance. The propaganda against human rights in Wisconsin has, as as one of its more evil elements, an appeal to those already abased, to drag down those who can to some extent be portrayed as having to some extent escaped.
But it would be quite wrong to portray this attack as led just by the Republicans. Obama has notably refused to do anything to counter the wave of hatred towards employees, organised and financed by corporate America. Obama himself is notably failing in his duty to live up to the following paragraph of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
A couple of weeks ago, while this blog was down for remont, another of my friends, Ray McGovern, was arrested for the new crime of wearing a Veterans for Peace T shirt at a Hillary Clinton meeting. She was talking at the time, with no apparent sense of irony, about the right to protest in the Middle East. Just before the camera cuts to Ray, you can see her smirk as she sees him manhandled.
The next time I share a platform with Ray and Dan, I shall feel that they have been paying their dues for freedom more than I. But I have an excuse for not getting arrested. I have been most of the time in Ghana, which respects human rights, whereas they are in the United States, which does not.
Here is a still more fundamental piece of international law – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. It is in itself a high point of human achievement, and it is worth reading from time to time. Consider this in particular:
Article 23.In directly contravenng Clause 4 of Article 23, the government of Wisconsin is not only attacking its own workforce, it is attacking the very essence of human dignity and the achievement of ordinary people in obtaining a right to it. There is no doubt that in the second half of the twentieth century labour unions grew into over-centralised, undemocratic and corrupt institutions. Those evils can be regulated away. But removing the right of individual workers to combine to negotiate the price of thier labour is a much greater evil.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
It was possible for liberals to believe – I believed it – thirty years ago that capitalism as a system naturally ameliorates and moves everybody towards the middle class, reducing extremes of wealth and poverty as capitalism matured. But since then, the gap between the very wealthy and the ordinary working man has increased exponentially. Those providing financial and other middleman servies are disproportionately rewarded, and those who labour to manufacture or provide physical services are increasingly impoverished, abused and unprotected. The public services are one of the few areas where rapacious neo-liberal practices of exploiting, abusing and discarding labour still met any, though reducing, resistance. The propaganda against human rights in Wisconsin has, as as one of its more evil elements, an appeal to those already abased, to drag down those who can to some extent be portrayed as having to some extent escaped.
But it would be quite wrong to portray this attack as led just by the Republicans. Obama has notably refused to do anything to counter the wave of hatred towards employees, organised and financed by corporate America. Obama himself is notably failing in his duty to live up to the following paragraph of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.The degrading treatment of suspected whistleblower Bradley Manning is a further example of US contempt for human rights – as is what happens to those who seek to protest about it. I was struck to see this picture of my friend Dan Ellsberg flash up on Sky News.
A couple of weeks ago, while this blog was down for remont, another of my friends, Ray McGovern, was arrested for the new crime of wearing a Veterans for Peace T shirt at a Hillary Clinton meeting. She was talking at the time, with no apparent sense of irony, about the right to protest in the Middle East. Just before the camera cuts to Ray, you can see her smirk as she sees him manhandled.
The next time I share a platform with Ray and Dan, I shall feel that they have been paying their dues for freedom more than I. But I have an excuse for not getting arrested. I have been most of the time in Ghana, which respects human rights, whereas they are in the United States, which does not.
New Arab Leadership
by craig on Mar 21st in Uncategorized
The key question is whether new Arab leadership will be more open and democratic that the extremely corrupt long term dictators they replace. Still, that’s no reason to hang on to Sepp Blatter.
On Civilian Casualties
by craig on Mar 21st in Uncategorized
During the initial phase of the war in Iraq, stray US missiles aimed at Iraq hit Kuwait, Turkey and Syria. Two missiles hit Syria which were specifically supposed to hit Baghdad. That is on top of the numerous instances of misidentification. You will also remember that we hit the Chinese Embassy when bombing Belgrade.
Two nights ago, 118 Tomahawk missiles were aimed at 20 targets. These things are extremely destructive. We know that some of the targets were radar installations and SAM missile sites. These are not extensive. Airfields would need more, but the fact that 118 extremely expensive missiles were fired at just 20 targets undoubtedly includes a large measure of redundancy, precisely because the military know very well that some of them will miss.
You cannot send hundreds of cruise missiles and numerous bombing raids into Libya without killing civilians. You do not have to accept anything the Gadaffi regime says to know that.
There are genuine questions arising now about proportionality and whether the allied action really is confined to carrying out the mandate of SCR1973. Taking out air defences can be justified as an essential precursor to setting up the no fly zone. But whether taking out the command and control structure of the entire Libyan armed forces is really necessary to the protection of civilians appears at best a dubious proposition.
The Guardian’s editor, disgraceful Blair catamite Alan Rusbridger is always up for military action to kill Muslims. The Guardian reports that
According to the Guardian report, the allies are now going on to attack Gadaffi’s artillery and armour. Whether there is still any threat to Benghazi remains unclear. But there seems to be a very real danger that the bombings will only serve to stoke patriotic support for Gadaffi among wide sectors of the population.
Plainly what compliance with SCR1973 would require now is a period of pause, during which the no fly zone is enforced, and whether any further ground attacks are in fact needed to enforce the very limited aims of SCR 1973 can be assessed. If instead we continue to see further intense attacks upon Libya, plainly the coalition is moving into illegality.
Actually, having seen the man in the flesh, I don’t object to the “Mad Dog” descriptions of Gadaffi. Britian has its own “Mad Dog” in Liam Fox, shooting his mouth off about assassinating Gadaffi and doing his best to alienate international support. I remenber Fox as a rumbustious bigot from the beer bar of Glasgow University Union. He was a leading light in the successful campaign to ban the Gay Society. He struck me then as a talentless zealot of deeply unpleasant views. It is deeply worrying that somebody like him can achieve high office.
Al Jazeera have excellent coverage today of the terror being visited upon the people of Bahrain now their democracy movement has been temporarily crushed. The US were complicit in this, and Qatar and the UAE – neither of them democracies, both of them involved in the brutality in Bahrain – are now providing the Arab military forces supposed to give political cover to the coalition.
The endgame may be the division of Libya into two parts – diesel and unleaded.
Two nights ago, 118 Tomahawk missiles were aimed at 20 targets. These things are extremely destructive. We know that some of the targets were radar installations and SAM missile sites. These are not extensive. Airfields would need more, but the fact that 118 extremely expensive missiles were fired at just 20 targets undoubtedly includes a large measure of redundancy, precisely because the military know very well that some of them will miss.
You cannot send hundreds of cruise missiles and numerous bombing raids into Libya without killing civilians. You do not have to accept anything the Gadaffi regime says to know that.
There are genuine questions arising now about proportionality and whether the allied action really is confined to carrying out the mandate of SCR1973. Taking out air defences can be justified as an essential precursor to setting up the no fly zone. But whether taking out the command and control structure of the entire Libyan armed forces is really necessary to the protection of civilians appears at best a dubious proposition.
The Guardian’s editor, disgraceful Blair catamite Alan Rusbridger is always up for military action to kill Muslims. The Guardian reports that
Critics claimed that the coalition of the willing may have been acting disproportionately and had come perilously close to making Gaddafi’s departure an explicit goal of UN policyThe last part of that quote is misleading nonsense. The “coalition of the willing” have failed miserably to make regime change explicit UN policy. That is extremely clear in SCR1973. What the coalition of the willing are extremely close to doing is acting illegally in making war beyond their UN mandate. That is a very different thing.
According to the Guardian report, the allies are now going on to attack Gadaffi’s artillery and armour. Whether there is still any threat to Benghazi remains unclear. But there seems to be a very real danger that the bombings will only serve to stoke patriotic support for Gadaffi among wide sectors of the population.
Plainly what compliance with SCR1973 would require now is a period of pause, during which the no fly zone is enforced, and whether any further ground attacks are in fact needed to enforce the very limited aims of SCR 1973 can be assessed. If instead we continue to see further intense attacks upon Libya, plainly the coalition is moving into illegality.
Actually, having seen the man in the flesh, I don’t object to the “Mad Dog” descriptions of Gadaffi. Britian has its own “Mad Dog” in Liam Fox, shooting his mouth off about assassinating Gadaffi and doing his best to alienate international support. I remenber Fox as a rumbustious bigot from the beer bar of Glasgow University Union. He was a leading light in the successful campaign to ban the Gay Society. He struck me then as a talentless zealot of deeply unpleasant views. It is deeply worrying that somebody like him can achieve high office.
Al Jazeera have excellent coverage today of the terror being visited upon the people of Bahrain now their democracy movement has been temporarily crushed. The US were complicit in this, and Qatar and the UAE – neither of them democracies, both of them involved in the brutality in Bahrain – are now providing the Arab military forces supposed to give political cover to the coalition.
The endgame may be the division of Libya into two parts – diesel and unleaded.
Dancing To The Saudi Tune
by craig on Mar 20th in Uncategorized
As the British government carefully looks the other way while democracy movements are bloodily crushed in the Gulf, here is some good reading for anyone who doubts the influence wielded over the British government by Saudi oil money and by the armaments industry. This wikileaks cable catalogues one of the most shameful moments in the long history of the British state. I strongly recommend that you read the whole thing. Here is a taster.Garlick
reported that SFO and MOD Police investigators had expended more
than 2 million pounds sterling on the BAE investigations. She
said on December 14, SFO Director Robert Wardle had decided to
discontinue the joint SFO/MOD Police investigation based on his
personal, independent judgment. Garlick then described four
distinct parts of the BAE/Saudi Arabia investigation:
Lessons from Japan
Regarding the on-going crisis of the nuclear plants in Japan, I received this (which I have abridged and reformatted as a numbered list):
So, what do we learn?
Don't use nuclear power.
If you do, don't build in an earthquake zone.
If you do, don't build on a tsunami-prone seaside.
Make sure the emergency cooling system works, even in an emergency.
Make sure the reactor is fail-safe in a power
So, what do we learn?
Don't use nuclear power.
If you do, don't build in an earthquake zone.
If you do, don't build on a tsunami-prone seaside.
Make sure the emergency cooling system works, even in an emergency.
Make sure the reactor is fail-safe in a power
Revolution Postponed, Perhaps Indefinitely
by Len Hart, The Existentialist CowboyI have been urging a 'peaceful revolution' for some 20 years now! I might have been wasting my breath and keyboard! The time for that has come and gone!
In America, too many progressives seemed content to post ugly caricatures of Bush Jr or the usual and almost always correct assessment of his utterly failed regime. Anyone would have been better, we supposed!
It was too easily forgotten that in the United States there is no 'left wing' with which to mount an effective opposition --let alone revolution. Campaigns are incredibly expensive to 'run' and even more so to 'win'! Only the increasingly concentrated, corporate media benefits. In a nation in which right wing policies --most notably those of Ronald Reagan --have resulted in the enrichment of an increasingly tiny elite, the tiny elite tolerates elections to maintain the appearance of 'Democracy'. I will not bother to post the actual 'Gini Indices' that prove that point --a point that should already have been made, documented, and known by all. In short, American wealth is increasingly concentrated in fewer hands with the rise of the GOP. It is not a coincidence --it's policy! Reagan's 'tax cut' and subsequent GOP largesse was and remains a payoff to the base.
But what is to be done about it? Forget about waging revolution in the conventional sense. The only hope left Democrats is a peaceful revolution waged first from within the party. It must be recalled that Hitler's 'Beer Hall Putsch' succeeded in getting Adolph arrested and thrown in jail. It is tragic that he learned from his mistake and eventually won the leadership of what was, at the time, a 'socialist workers' party. It would not remain so long. A. Hitler --like so many American politicians --pulled a 'bait and switch' on the German people.
The Democratic party is reduced to 'sloppy seconds'; they are but a hedged bet for those who buy and finance not just individual politicians but the process itself. We are property! Realistically --how 'radical', how 'progressive', how innovative can a Democratic candidate be when his/her entire campaign is financed by the same folk who brought you Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush --the three worst 'presidents' in U.S. history --the 'three horsemen of the political apocalypse'?
It's Time for Rush Limbaugh to Go!
by Len Hart, The Existentialist CowboyFree speech is not free! It is paid for with responsibility! Rush Limbaugh, however, has made a career of "...yelling fire in a crowded theater" when, in fact, there is NO fire! Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s decision re: Eugene Debs means that Rush has routinely exceeded the limits of free speech. But the Holmes decision was fallaciously applied to Debs; Rush, by contrast, is defined by cries of 'fire' when --in fact --there is no fire!
We might tolerate Rush if the Fairness Doctrine were restored. His opponents would at least be heard. They are sure to be more intelligent, articulate and even entertaining; the nation would be better for it!
How long would Rush last if he had to compete in truly free market, if he were compelled by law to be responsible as I was compelled as a working broadcast journalist in major U.S. markets? I was expected to be responsible and professional; but Rush lives down to lower expectations. He is expected, even encouraged to be irresponsible, outrageous, dishonest and boorish!
We might tolerate Rush had he ever made a good faith effort to inform his audiences with respect to real issues as opposed to propaganda, strawmen, distortions, outright lies and --most egregiously --bigotry and/or racial slurs about black athletes and, specifically, the great quarterback Warren Moon et al.
If an intelligent man like Eugene Debs --whose only crime was that of exercising his conscience i.e, opposing the U.S. entry into WWI --could be imprisoned, then Rush, who has exhorted treason and bigotry in response to phony threats and strawmen, should be held responsible for having abused 'privileges' that the rest of us had --at one time --enjoyed responsibly as 'rights'.
Debs was courageous and smart --a man of integrity! Rush is slimy and stupid --a charlatan! Debs spoke truth to power! Rush misleads the poor and gullible for profit! He is a corporate kiss-up, a coward, a stooge who peddles propaganda for profit! Debs accepted responsibility for what he had made of himself and was prepared to accept the consequences. Rush is coward who blames all on 'niggers', poor people and 'liberals, LIBERALS, LIBERALS!!!“When we are in partnership and have stopped clutching each other's throats, when we have stopped enslaving each other, we will stand together, hands clasped, and be friends. we will be comrades, we will be brothers, and we will begin the march to the grandest civilization the human race has ever known.” --Eugene Debs, American Activist
Eugene Debs and the Fight for Free Speech
Who was Eugene Debs and what brought him into conflict with the government? Debs was the great voice of socialism in the United States for the first two decades of the 20th century, a five-time presidential candidate for a third-party crusade against capitalism. He was a homegrown rebel, born and raised in Indiana, and a powerful speaker who knew how to translate socialism into an American idiom. In his view, when citizens finally threw out the 'plutocrats' who were running the country, they would be taking the next step in realizing the democratic promise of the American Revolution. He claimed that, just as the abolitionists fought to liberate the chattel slave, socialism was about to liberate the “wage slaves.”While many politicians and newspaper editors thought Debs was a dangerous crank, he was not molested much until America entered World War One. Debs was no pacifist—he figured that violence was sometimes necessary to move history forward. But, like most of his fellow radicals, he believed that wars were a symptom of capitalist greed. Rich men declare wars, and make money off wars, while poor men die in them. The “Great War” between rival European empires seemed to him a perfect example of the point, and he had no use for Woodrow Wilson’s claim that Americans were fighting for the loftier goal of “making the world safe for democracy.” Saying as much got him a ten year jail sentence in 1918.
How were Americans persuaded of the necessity to enter the First World War? Who was George Creel?
When Woodrow Wilson brought America into the war, he put George Creel in charge of building public support for the war. That was a big job since the country was deeply divided for a variety of reasons. Creel ran the Committee on Public Information, the first time the government created a full-time propaganda machine to promote enthusiasm for a war, and it worked all too well. Creel hired thousands of America’s best academics, artists, writers and ad men to whip up a campaign that he called “advertising America.” Creel was a true believer in Wilson’s crusade to create a new world order out of the war, and he claimed that he was only bringing the mighty power of truth to bear on a great public question.
..........
What were the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act?
At the president’s request, Congress passed the Espionage Act soon after the US entered the war. Wilson asked for power to censor all newspapers, but editors in the mainstream press hooted him down. But the Espionage Act contained two key provisions that the government used to go after war critics. First, the postmaster was allowed to deny mailing privileges to any publication that seemed to be undermining Americans’ enthusiasm for the war. Post Office censors used that power in a ham-fisted way, and succeeded in driving much of the nation’s lively radical press into bankruptcy by the end of the war.
And second, the law banned any speech that stirred up disloyalty in the army. If you go back and look at the Congressional debate over the Espionage Act, it seems clear that many lawmakers only meant to target saboteurs, those trying to encourage mutinies, that sort of thing. But prosecutors used the law more broadly, arresting people who made anti-war speeches, or even in a number of cases folks who made off-hand comments against Wilson and his war in saloons and on street corners. The government claimed that these malcontents were guilty of trying to incite young men to break the law, discouraging them from doing their duty by submitting themselves to the draft.
A couple thousand anti-war speakers were arrested under the law, Debs among them, and about twelve-hundred were convicted, sentenced in many cases to ten or more years. But by the summer of 1918, the attorney general claimed that too many dissenters were slipping though his net, so Congress added amendments, known as the Sedition Act, which stand as a high-water mark of American intolerance. Under this law, people could be arrested for using 'Profane, scurrilous, or abusive language' when discussing the constitution, the flag, and the military uniform. The law was so extreme that even the attorney general thought this went too far, and used it more sparingly.
Kucinich: 'We are Attacking the Victims of this Housing Crisis
America Is NOT Broke . . . the Madison speech by Michael Moore
A Prayer for America --
Nine years ago today Rep. Dennis Kucinich offered a "Prayer for America" at an event sponsored by the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action in Los Angeles. The Nation is republishing Kucinich's comments, with a new introduction by the Congressman contemplating what has changed, and what hasn't, in American life and politics, since this address.
Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The anthrax attack. The Patriot Act. Those were the themes in a speech which I gave nine years ago in Los Angeles, entitled "Prayer for America." Today the news is about...the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the anthrax attack, the Patriot Act.
We keep circling back to where we began: One war based on lies, another war based on arrogance and ignorance of history, both eventually contributing trillions to the deficit while we cut non-defense discretionary spending. The war machine is engulfing the rest of the government.The House and Senate are debating reauthorization of the Patriot
Act but there will be little debate over spending another $158 billion for the wars. We are escalating conflict in Afghanistan. We are simultaneously in and out of Iraq.
We read the US Constitution at the beginning of this new session of Congress, but what does it mean? What amnesia, anesthesia, psychic numbness has occured while we grimly push round and round the wheel of war, paying trillions of dollars for the privilege of grinding ourselves and others into the blood-soaked dirt.
We're living in a tragic version of Bill Murray's movie "Groundhog Day," where day in and day out we slumber in the arms of the national security state awakening to the color Orange. Our physical bodies are transparent to the security x-rays, but our government is opaque. How extensive is FBI spying? Who sent the anthrax which killed five people? Did the FBI fumble scientific evidence? Some fret about WikiLeaks while the lives of dutiful US soldiers and countless innocents are destroyed. War is a masqued ball, our goverment waltzing the freedom phantom abroad and dancing with its flickering shadow at home. Iraq. Afghanistan. The anthrax attack. The Patriot Act. Pray for America, indeed.
The Delicate Tightrope of Supporting a Dictator
The political context of the current Egyptian uprising is clear: The United States has steadfastly supported dictator Hosni Mubarak, whose rule has been marked by sham elections and the jailing and torture of dissidents, propping up his regime since 1981 with some $60 billion in aid, most of it military.
But since U.S. corporate media are accustomed to viewing international affairs through the lens of U.S. elite interests, much of the current coverage elides Washington's role, or presents it as a "tightrope" balancing act for the Obama administration.
As one New York Times story (1/26/11) put it, "The administration has tried to balance its ties to Mr. Mubarak with expressions of concern about rigged elections and jailed dissidents in his country." USA Today (2/1/11) announced: "The upheaval in Egypt has put the United States in a delicate diplomatic situation: pressing for a more democratic Egypt, but wary that too much change could threaten the stability that Egypt helps bring to the Middle East."
On the PBS NewsHour, Margaret Warner (1/31/11) said, "The chaos in Egypt posed a delicate diplomatic challenge for the United States: appealing for democracy without alienating an ally." Or as NBC Nightly News anchor Kate Snow (1/29/11) asked: "Is it a bit of a tightrope that the U.S. has to walk here, though, in terms of wanting to promote democracy on the one hand, but being a longtime ally of the Mubarak administration?"
An L.A. Times editorial (1/28/11) implausibly argued that the U.S. record of support for Mubarak would assist efforts to promote democracy: "As an ally and benefactor, the United States has helped prop up the 82-year-old strongman since he took power 30 years ago, and today it is in a unique position to impress upon him the importance of democracy."
Some of the recently released WikiLeaks cables on Egypt provided another window into media thinking on the issue. The January 28 New York Times story was headlined, "Cables Show Delicate U.S. Dealings With Egypt's Leaders." The same day, the London Guardian had a very different headline: "WikiLeaks Cables Show Close U.S. Relationship With Egyptian President." The Times account buried some of the more damning details, which make clear that U.S. officials are keenly aware of the prevalence of torture and brutality under Mubarak (FAIR Blog, 1/28/11).ABC's Christiane Amanpour offered what amounted to a rationalization of U.S. support for Egypt, explaining (1/26/11) that the implications are really big because this is very fundamental. Egypt receives the most American aid, more than $1 billion a year. It has the same goals as the United States against radicalization and terrorism, pro the Israeli peace process. But the United States, many people are saying, needs to get ahead of the curve, because otherwise it might be left behind as the people demonstrate their will.
Some outlets saw a distinct shift in the Obama administration's position--well ahead of any evidence to that effect. The Washington Post published a January 27 piece headlined "As Arabs Protest, U.S. Speaks Up," which declared that the White House was "openly supporting the anti-government demonstrations shaking the Arab Middle East," adding that the administration had "thrown U.S. support clearly behind the protesters, speaking daily in favor of free speech and assembly even when the protests target longtime U.S. allies such as Egypt."
The Post's evidence, however, was thin: a quote from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stating that the Mubarak government should "respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people." The strongest support for the notion that the U.S. was backing the street protests came from an anonymous administration official--hardly an indication of "speak[ing] up" in "open support."
...It would seem that Egyptians have a clearer view of U.S. policy than many pundits and mainstream journalists. That point was driven home when NBC reporter Richard Engel, to his credit, brandished a tear gas canister that had been fired at protesters (1/28/11):These were the tear gas canisters that were fired by all those riot police today. And if you look at them closely, they say clearly in English, "Made in the USA." Egyptians have been picking them up, they've been looking them over.
But then, as if this straightforward illustration of the U.S. role in Egyptian repression was too revealing, Engel qualified his observation: "And from an Egyptian perspective, it does seem like Mubarak and the United States are working together. So the U.S. is walking a fine line here."
It does not, in fact, take an "Egyptian perspective" to appreciate how crucial U.S. support has been to the Mubarak dictatorship. One only needs to look at the history of the past three decades--a history U.S. media would prefer that we overlook, or treat as part of a delicate "balancing act."
Banner on Penn. Ave: ''MR. OBAMA: END THESE FUCKING WARS! WAR IS THE OBSCENITY!
Today at 1:00pm eastern time, U.S. military veterans hung an enormous banner on the front of the Newseum, wrapping their message around the First Amendment chiseled in five stories of limestone.Opposed to the wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Palestine, the vets' message said loud and clear: "MR. OBAMA: END THESE FUCKING WARS! WAR IS THE OBSCENITY."
Several veterans dropped the banner down the front of the Newseum, while others distributed special edition copies of the War Crimes Times, explaining the action and what they considered obscene.
"The American public should be shocked that we are still killing and crippling thousands of innocent people in these countries as well as our own soldiers -- that's what's truly obscene," said Mike Ferner,59 who served as a navy corpsman during Vietnam. "Blowing people's arms and legs off, burning, paralyzing them, causing sewage to run through their streets, polluting the water that kills and sickens children, terrorizing and bombing people and their livestock with flying robots-- that defines obscenity. If this banner shocks and offends a single person who hasn't been shocked and offended by what's being done in our name, we've accomplished our misson."
Veterans and activists taking part in the event include Ken Mayers, Kim Carlyle, Mike Ferner, Bruce Berry, Debbie Tolson, Nic Abramson,Tarak Kauff, Mike Hearington, Will Covert and Elliott Adams of Veterans For Peace.
http://warisacrime.org/content/banner-penn-ave-mr-obama-end-these-fucking-wars-war-obscenity?destination=node%2F54989
President Directly Supporting Terrorist
William and Bernadine Dohrn Weather Underground,Jodie Evans Code Pink
Deliver Hammas $600,000.They Admit Being In Egypt Trying To Enter The West Bank In Order To Protest For Hammas.They Help In The Uprising In Egypt.They are Friends and Supporters Of Qaddafi.
Barrack Hussein Obama Subverts Our Laws Claiming If He Doesn't Agree
They Must Not Reach Constitution Straight.Mr. Law Man,With No Degree Or License!At Least Not Seen By Man!
The Only Degree This Fool Has Is From Ayers & Dohrn Terrorist Training School,If I'm Wrong Prove It!
All The Presidents Men Are Radicals,Marxist, Plus Stated Graduates Of Harvard Sharia Law And Financial Compliant! Which By Islamic Rule Must Donate 10% to Jihad causes.So every Mosque,Bank,Nation,School,Business,follower contributes to
Terrorist!
Maybe I'm Wrong But,How can you have all these Terrorist Supporters in your Administration and Not Know What The Hell Is Going On.If Really That Stupid You Should Not Be In The Office To Begin With!
No Pharma Liability? No Vaccine Mandates
On February 22, 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court shielded drug companies from all liability for harm caused by vaccines mandated by government when companies could have made a safer vaccine. 1
From now on, drug companies selling vaccines in America will not be held accountable by a jury of our peers in a court of law if those vaccines brain damage us but could have been made less toxic. 2
If you get paralyzed by a flu shot or your child has a serious reaction to a vaccine required for school and becomes learning disabled, epileptic, autistic, asthmatic, diabetic or mentally retarded, you are on your own. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
From now on – unless we stand up and draw the line on vaccine mandates - the government can legally use police powers to force every American to get hundreds of vaccinations or be punished while those, who are hurt by vaccination, can be more easily swept under the rug and left to fend for themselves. 17, 18, 19&, 20
Big Pharma Blackmailed Congress in 1982
To understand how this happened, we have to turn the clock back to 1982. That is when four big drug companies (Merck, Wyeth, Lederle, Connaught) blackmailed Congress by threatening to stop selling vaccines in America unless a law was passed giving them complete immunity from prosecution. 21
The pharmaceutical industry knew they were in big trouble because the old, crude whooping cough vaccine in the DPT shot was causing brain inflammation and death in many children; 22 the live oral polio vaccine was crippling children and adults with vaccine strain polio; 23 and Americans were filing lawsuits to hold drug companies responsible for the safety of their products.
Supreme Court Allows Seat Belt Injury Lawsuits
On February 23, 2011, one day after the Supreme Court blocked lawsuits against drug companies for failing to make vaccines safer, they cleared the way for lawsuits against car manufacturers for failing to make seat belts safer. 24
Civil Liability Is A Consumer Protection
Civil liability is a consumer protection. In the past, civil liability has protected us from wealthy tobacco corporations selling cigarettes that were once endorsed by doctors and the U.S. government. 25, 26 Civil liability has protected us from defective cars and toys and food and drugs that have passed federal licensing and safety standards. 27, 28, 29, 30
Civil liability put pressure on drug companies to develop and license a less toxic pertussis vaccine in 1996. 31 Civil liability put pressure on federal health agencies to replace use of a contaminated, neurotoxic polio vaccine that can paralyze people with one that cannot. 32 Parents in 1980’s Opposed Total Liability Shield
Thirty years ago the wealthiest and most powerful industry lobbying on Capitol Hill and in state legislatures – the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry - tried very hard to get total liability protection for every vaccine that government regulates, recommends and mandates.
The only difference is that three decades ago, government officials were ordering doctors to give children 23 doses of 7 vaccines and, today, that direct order is up to 70 doses of 16 vaccines. 33, 34
The parent co-founders of the National Vaccine Information Center worked with Congress back in the early 1980’s and we refused to support any legislation that would legally let the pharmaceutical industry completely off the hook. 35
1986 Law: Pharma Liability Was The Safety Net
Parents successfully argued that, if Congress was going to give drug companies partial liability protection through the creation of a federal vaccine injury compensation alternative to a lawsuit, then language had to be written into the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 that protected a citizen’s right to sue drug companies when federal compensation was denied, or the company had the technological ability to make a vaccine less toxic but refused to do it. 36
Continued civil liability was the safety net for American consumers in that law. Continued civil liability was the leverage that gave some financial incentive for drug companies to make vaccines safer and gave some political incentive for government officials to award federal compensation to the vaccine injured. 37
Supreme Court Wrote Pharma A Blank Check
Now, six activist Supreme Court judges have ripped the liability safety net from the U.S. mass vaccination system and written Big Pharma a blank check by deliberately ignoring the language and legislative history of the 1986 Vaccine Injury Act. Only Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg, in an accurate and brilliant dissenting opinion, stood up for the people. 38
Every American Pays Surcharge on Every Vaccination
Now it will be much easier for employees in government health agencies and the U.S. Department of Justice and the Vaccine Court to deny vaccine victims federal compensation, which 308 million Americans pay for through a surcharge on each one of the annual flu shots and the dozens of doses of vaccines public health officials say we all should get. 39
There is $3 billion dollars waiting to be awarded in the Vaccine Injury Trust Fund, which has already been raided by federal agencies dragging vaccine victims through years of litigation and looking for ways to deny vaccine risks. 40
130 vaccinations from birth to death
The Supreme Court has now given Pharma and evangelistic doctors a green light to lobby legislators to require every American, who lives to be 78 years old, to get more than 130 doses of government recommended vaccines starting on the day of birth through the last year of life. 41
Hundreds of New Vaccines In Development
That does not include use of any of the hundreds of new vaccines now being developed by drug companies with government approval that will be required in the future - whether those vaccines are necessary or not; whether the vaccines work or not; whether the vaccines are dangerous or not and whether the people want to use the vaccines or not. 42, 43
This is not public health. This is exploitation of a captive people by a pharmaceutical industry seeking unlimited profits and by doctors in positions of authority, who have never seen a vaccine they did not want to mandate.
It is a drug company stockholder’s dream, a health care consumer’s worst nightmare and a prescription for tyranny.
Americans Forced to Get More Vaccines Than Anyone in World
Americans are required by law to use more vaccines than any other nation in the world. In no other country - not in Canada, 44, the United Kingdom, 45 Australia, 46 New Zealand, 47 the Netherlands, 48 Germany, 49 Japan 50 or in any other country are citizens subjected to mandatory use of dozens of doses of vaccines under the threat of being denied a public education and health insurance and employment. 51 52 53
There is no other word for this but tyranny.
Vaccines Are Phamaceutical Products
Vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry a risk of injury or death, a risk that can be greater for some than others. If a vaccine is effective, then those choosing to use that vaccine will have nothing to fear from those who make another health care choice. If a vaccine is not effective, then consumers are being asked to take two risks: a risk they will be harmed and a risk the vaccine will not work at all.
That is not a product that should be legally required, especially when doctors cannot predict ahead of time who will be harmed by a vaccine and there is no civil liability for the company selling it, the person giving it or the government official mandating it.
No liability?
No accountability?
No mandates.
Stand Up for Health Freedom
If corporations are in business to make money; if doctors can make mistakes; if judges can get it wrong; if what is considered scientific truth today can turn out to be not true tomorrow; and if nobody is held accountable in the civil justice system for vaccines that could have been made safer, then now is the time for all Americans to stand up for health freedom in this great nation of ours.
There is no freedom more fundamental than the human right to be free to decide what risks we are wiling to take with our lives or our children’s lives.
Join NVIC: Help Us Help You
Please join with the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center, the largest, oldest and most experienced vaccine safety and informed consent watchdog in America.
Help us help you stand up for your right to know and freedom to choose which vaccines that you consider necessary, safe and effective enough to use.
Help us defend every American’s right to seek justice in a civil court of law when vaccines cause harm - or do not work - so that reactive and ineffective vaccines are forced off the market.
Protect Vaccine Exemptions in Your State
Vaccine laws are state laws. Sign up for our free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org that will teach you how to participate effectively in the democratic legislative process and defend vaccine exemptions in your state laws. Educate your elected representatives about why it is so important to include strong consumer protections and informed consent rights in all public health laws.
I curate therefore I am!
This project is an intervention in environmental ethics. It creates a series of environments and processes to monitor and localise pollution at the very same time that it is produced; to conceptualise oneself as responsible – collectively and individually – for our emissions. As consumers our default position is one of disengagement – we rely on others to clear up our mess, to hide it in landfill, for example, or toxics inside our body. And the abstraction of inescapably globalised pollution, escalating beyond the control of any individual nation state, can easily undermine a sense that localised actions are worthwhile or effective.
Pollstream, using visual, kinetic and sonic technologies, undermines these typical defences of disengagement by speeding up the normal time it takes for our actions in and on the environment to have consequences. Across a number of projects, a sense of constant rather than delayed feedback is created. Thus, in its final form, color coded communal information is projected onto the vapor of a power plant that is visible to all residents. The movement of the green vapor emission changes size to show levels of energy being consumed at any given time; the chimney becomes a community measuring tape, a shared canvas. Nuage Vert is the ultimate aesthetisation of pollution, while seeking to draw critical attention to it. It becomes a sign of wonder, a spectacle; a space is opened up for the spectator. Could they become mesmorised by a beauty that is, literally and metaphorically, a smokescreen? Will they
retreat to making this (terrible) beauty another defense?
... astonishing story of a nuclear accident in Britain in 1957, which has led to cancer decades later in a region that is still actively being despoiled by continuing deposits of radioactive nuclear waste. Everyone should become aware of such deceptive practices and be under no illusions about the motivations of corporate officials and regulatory agencies that fear accountability and financial liability above any considerations of public safety.
"Everything Is A Secret"
TOKYO -- Behind Japan's escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses.
Leaks of radioactive steam and workers contaminated with radiation are just part of the disturbing catalog of accidents that have occurred over the years and been belatedly reported to the public, if at all.
In one case, workers hand-mixed uranium in stainless steel buckets, instead of processing by machine, so the fuel could be reused, exposing hundreds of workers to radiation. Two later died.Why does this pattern of deception sound so familiar? Oh wait...Three Mile Island...Gulf Oil Spill...the list is endless, so I won't bother.
Instead I'm going to recount an amusing local drama. Last night I went to the Tewksbury Township Land Use Board meeting, where it was standing room only with so many neighbors crushed into the old Mountainville school house, the antique windows were cracked for relief from the sweltering air. Everyone had their knickers in a bunch because the Johnson clan - of baby oil, bandaid, and various lascivious scandals fame - wants a helipad permit for their 2500+ acre property that sprawls through a good portion of the village of Oldwick, dwarfing Wit's End. Yes, in the midst of arguably the worst compound disaster to occur within recent memory, I went to protest their application because...why not! This was just the opening salvo of what will be an ongoing saga with many more hearings before it is resolved, replete with various expensive expert witnesses with heaps of charts and of course, the prattling lawyers.
I asked three questions of the first witness, just for fun.
1. You stated in your testimony that with all the installations of helipads in Bedminster township, there had been no complaints about the lights. Were there any complaints about the noise?
This was great. The room was silent for a full minute while he stared at me, with a deer in the headlights look. He was rummaging around his brain and finally decided that the answer would depend on what the definition of is, is. No, no, I mean, the definition of complaint.
"Not that I'm aware of," he finally said. (This was a lie.)
2. As far as the environmental impacts study, was there or will there be a comparative study between helicopters and automobiles, to determine the relative amount of volatile organic compounds and CO2 emissions, per mile traveled?
Well, that just about gave him an apoplectic fit, since the Johnson property is within a minutes' drive from several private airports, and less than an hour from Newark International.
Needless to say, no such comparison has been or will be done.
3. You have said that the purpose of the helipad will be for cattle buyers visiting the farm, and family members' personal use. Is there any provision that would restrict the ability of the family to allow their friends to also use the helipad with their own helicopters?
Ha, this really pissed him off, because once they get a permit for the helipad, they can let anybody use it. They can have parties with dozens of their rich friends helicoptering in one after the other if they want, while everybody in the surrounding vicinity has to listen to the racket and breathe the fumes.
the harper government meets the birthers
I don't pay much attention to partisan campaigning, so I didn't realize just how far into the slime the Harper Government™ has sunk. I'm not surprised, but it is worth noting: a very nice post from Impudent Strumpet, with an important link.class war, u.s. edition
It's always so galling to me when members of the privileged, corporate class raise the spectre of class war. As the saying goes, "They only call it class war when we fight back."Here's a picture of the current class war being waged against working people in the US, found here (where it's a little more readable).
I've heard that some folks are working on a Canadian version, which is bound to be less dramatic, but equally imbalanced and unjust.
malalai joya denied entry to u.s.: four things u.s. readers can do to help
As you may know, Afghan writer and activist Malalai Joya has been denied entry to the US. Joya opposes the Western occupation of her country, and with a clear majority of USians* now opposing the war in Afghanistan, those who profit from the occupation want to prevent her injecting public opinion with facts and motivation.( LOL Perhaps I'm not the only one with the pet grump about people who use the name of two continents to refer to their citizenship/country. I wonder how many also think it a sign of shame ?? That and the constant rah Rah! USA ! )
I saw Joya speak - report here and here - and I know the peace movement in the United States needs her.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment