Minneapolis Justice for Trayvon Martin Rally/March
March 30, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, Video Perspective
Minneapolis Justice for Trayvon Martin Rally/March
Uploaded by YaBasta5000 on Mar 29, 2012
Minneapolis, MN
March 29th, 2012
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FBI: ‘We are losing to hackers’ Hacktivists Win
March 30, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News
if you thought hacktivists only messed with the FBI on Fridays, think again.
On Wednesday the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted they are fighting a losing battle in cyberspace.
Shawn Henry, the FBI executive assistant director said fighting on the future “battleground” has been harder than initially thought.
“I don’t see how we ever come out of this without changes in technology or changes in behavior, because with the status quo, it’s an unsustainable model,” Henry told The Wall Street Journal.
“Unsustainable in that you never get ahead, never become secure; never have a reasonable expectation of privacy or security,” he added
Henry has gone on record saying he believes “the cyber threat is an existential one, meaning that a major cyber-attack could potentially wipe out whole companies,” said Henry on the FBI news website. Read the rest of this entry →
The roads leading to disaster
March 27, 2012 in Editorial, Headline, Politics, World News
Reflections of Fidel - By: Fidel Castro Ruz – en.cubadebate.cu
This Reflection could be written today, tomorrow or any other day without the risk of being mistaken. Our species faces new problems. When 20 years ago I stated at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro that a species was in danger of extinction, I had fewer reasons than today for warning about a danger that I was seeing perhaps 100 years away. At that time, a handful of leaders of the most powerful countries were in charge of the world. They applauded my words as a matter of mere courtesy and placidly continued to dig for the burial of our species.
It seemed that on our planet, common sense and order reigned. For a while economic development, backed by technology and science appeared to be the Alpha and Omega of human society.
Today, everything is much clearer. Profound truths have been surfacing. Almost 200 States, supposedly independent, constitute the political organization which in theory has the job of governing the destiny of the world.
Approximately 25,000 nuclear weapons in the hands of allied or enemy forces ready to defend the changing order, by interest or necessity, virtually reduce to zero the rights of billions of people.
I shall not commit the naïveté of assigning the blame to Russia or China for the development of that kind of weaponry, after the monstrous massacre at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ordered by Truman after Roosvelt’s death. Read the rest of this entry →
Obama signs a martial law executive order – that will be in effect during peacetime…
March 25, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News
rt.com - As folks headed out to happy hour last Friday evening, President Obama signed an executive order that could potentially give him the power to institute martial law in the United States in times of peace or during a national threat.
The National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order will give Obama power over “resources and services needed to support such plans and programs.”
Many Americans were shocked to find out that this order gives the president practically unlimited power over US citizens and their property. All in the name of national security of course.
In the order it states, “in the event of a potential threat to the security of the United States actions are necessary to ensure the availability of adequate resources and production capability, including services and critical technology, for national defense requirements.”
According to a White House press release, the US “must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contributing to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment.” Read the rest of this entry →
While Banks Have the Upper Hand, the Global Economic Crisis Will Continue
March 25, 2012 in Editorial, Finance, Headline, Politics, World News
The stock market may be up, but for working people the global political economy is likely to remain in crisis for at least another three to five years.
Because the state of the economy looms so large in the outcome of the 2012 presidential election there is a tendency on the part of those who would like to see the president re-elected to be optimistic about recent job creation, factory orders and other indicators that there may be light at the end of the tunnel. The reality may be very different however and the changes needed go far beyond what Mr. Obama is proposing or is likely to get now or in the new Congress. The stock market may be up but for working people the global political economy is likely to remain in crisis for at least another three to five years, with high unemployment and slow growth. The character of this period makes a grim cyclical crisis worse by adding to it both a financial component and a deeper structural crisis which challenges a model of accumulation dependent on financialisation and corporate globalisation. A year ago, then European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet expressed the view that the next ten years could be a ‘lost decade’. Median income in the US declined by 7% between 2000 and 2010 and the Wall Street Journal’s poll of 50 leading business economists expects the losses will not be made up before 2021. These are not the testimonies of radical Marxists (who generally hold similar opinions). Read the rest of this entry →
Occupy The Midwest Faces Violent Police Repression and Keeps Moving On Strong
March 17, 2012 in Documentary, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Video Perspective
I am sure many people have by now already heard about Occupy the Midwest and the events of Thursday the 15th. I was one of the people arrested in the events of the evening, basically because I had a camera and was to close to some very violent police officers. I was filming them as they beat the crap out of peaceful protesters, 3 of which ended up in the hospital in what has been the first real acts of police violence in the Midwest at this scale. Pepper spray was used previously in other locations such as Tulsa, but never to this extreme. Several other journalists I have spoken with were pepper sprayed in the events of Thursday, police seemed to target media first to be able to hide the true extent of the illegal repression they violently upheld.
I was in a police vehicle with 5 other men and 2 women, 3 of us were journalists. Here is some of the video from the evening, more updates to come. We were all released from jail yesterday, and I wanted to get this out as soon as I could. Some of the video is rather bad from my recording as very little light was available and the camera I used was not the best. Altogether 15 people were arrested and given the same charges, except for the 3 people who had to go to the hospital who were given assault charges so the police could explain away their actions — I observed NO violence from demonstrators, and from other footage I have seen from other journalists covering different angles with static footage we are still in the process of uploading there is no evidence any demonstrators broke any windows or were violent in any way.
The thought that with the entire city’s police force on the site they were unable to stop a window of their own car being broken is rather laughable. (inside information details that all the police in the city were ordered to drop what they were doing and get on site, including calling up off duty officers.) In a surprising turn of events, I have just been informed that internal affairs is reaching out to all of those arrested and any witness to investigate the matter.
*** UPDATE as the weekend progressed – It seems as though Cell / WiFi jamming has been used to keep the media from reporting the events, over 5 different live reporters I talked to and myself were unable to get an internet signal through numerous events the rest of the weekend, My guess is they are scared of the truth of their abomination being told to the world UPDATE ****
This is my video, the audio is actually the most interesting part as much of the screen is distorted from water on the lens and lack of light.
More Lies and Inaccurate Reporting From The Denver Post – This Time Occupy has “Scabies”
March 14, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics
At 1:30 pm approximately 20 police officers appeared at Civic Center Park (known by the Occupiers as Marvin Booker Plaza) and began removing personal effects of the people who sleep there. Amidst essential tarps and blankets they took crucial medications for conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes as well as various individuals’ legal identification papers. All items were thrown indiscriminately into a public works disposal truck. The police informed everyone in the surrounding area that they could reclaim their belongings within 30 days. The officers did not say where or how and left without responding to further questions such as how the property would be identified or reclaimed without their identification papers. The police refused to provide any information on how these individuals could reclaim their personal property.
According to Lieutenant Matthew Murray of media relations for the Denver Police Department, the Department of Public Works is requesting enforcements for the city ordinances, encouraging the DPD to respond to violations that DPW see as detrimental to the city.
From the Public Works’ website (denvergov.org/dpw) “Our responsibilities include all – year-round road maintenance and repair, weekly household trash collection service to 163,000 households, design and construction management of streets, bridges, and public buildings, transportation services through our parking management, transportation planning, engineering and operations offices, and protection of our urban environment.“
Public works is known for creating the DRMC sec. 49-296 “Encumbrance law” which defines any “thing whatsoever” as an “encumbrance”. (See the end of the article for the full notice of this law.)
At 4:20pm members of Occupy Denver held an impromptu meeting with the Dept of Public Works for clarification as to why they are sending police to enforce city municipal ordinances on such an extreme scale.
What was ascertained is that Public Works is concerned with perceived health risks and how community members view a zone of their city, over the actual health, safety and human rights of individuals.
They consistently stated that the area is a health hazard to every ordinary citizen that walks by via the simple “threat” of a single person alleged to have scabies.
Busted for Busting Out at Bank of America
March 14, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics
“Stripping Protestors In Pink Bras Crashed Bank Of America CEO Brian Moynihan’s Speech,” declared Business Insider on March 8, showing Moynihan’s stern photo with a pink bra playfully dangling in the air beside him.
It’s true, things did get a bit wild at Citi’s Financial Services conference at New York’s Waldorf Astoria when Brian Moynihan got on stage and began flipping through his tedious powerpoint.
While the hotel security was busy watching anti-bank protesters rallying outside, CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans, dressed in a hot pink bustier, burst into the conference room. “Bust up Bank of America before it busts up America”, she shouted, before being hauled out by security guards. “As I was saying,” continued a deadpan Moynihan to the laughter of the crowd, returning to the dreary slides that tried to put a rosy spin on this dinosaur of a company whose share price has plummeted while it continues to foreclose on families’ homes and faces tens of billions of dollars in damages from lawsuits over mortgage investments.
Little did Moynihan know that the excitement at what is normally a bankers’ snoozefest had just begun. CODEPINK codirector Rae Abileah and I were already seated in the front of the room. Wearing dark business suits, we did our best to blend into the crowd of stodgy white men in black business suits. Read the rest of this entry →
Tom Morello joins Occupy Musicians at Interoccupy Meetup : Video
March 14, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, Video Perspective
Tom Morello formerly of Rage Against the Machine and NOW with singer/songwriter Ben Harper as the Nightwatchmen, has been a familiar face at Occupy Wall Street and L.A. as well as on programs such as the Real World With Bill Maher on HBO.
In this video, before he performs at the So Cal Interoccupy Meetup at MacArthur Park, he interacts with fellow occupiers, stops to listen to artists and occupiers Michelle Shocked and Esteban Gil perform en espanol and then talks to me about the future of Occupy.
In addition, Michelle, Esteban, and I break out into a spontaneous multi-part harmony with a rendition of ‘Solidarity Forever’ with our fellow occupiers.
Stay tuned for more videos of music and interviews with fellow occupiers at the meetup and even more dialogue from around the world!
Love and Peace NOW,
NOWMAN
Occupy NOLA, Occupy the Stage and Occupy Baton Rouge team up for Speech with 1st Amendment as Permit
March 14, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics
To watch the legislature reconvene, comments from Robert and see the interview with Justin about almost being arrested, check out Occupy the Stage’s Livestream channel:
http://www.livestream.com/occupythestage
Occupy NOLA with Occupy the Stage went to Baton Rouge to assist OccupyBR. Brought out tent monsters and signs outside. Tent monsters caused issues so moved to steps outside. Told to run around and do what tent monsters do, meaning be silly and chaotic.
United General Assembly
March 14, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics
Occupy Birmingham is the newest addition to the United General Assembly.
from - occupyaustin.org
The following topics have been proposed for the United General Assembly:
- Corporate Personhood (Occupy Nashville)
- Occupy Food & Monsanto (Occupy Austin)
- Immigration Reform & Apr 14 Immigration Day of Action (Occupy Birmingham)
We look forward to discussing these topics with our occupation!
The newest addition to the UnitedGA is Occupy Birmingham! We welcome them to the conversation. Here is a complete list of participating occupations:
- Occupy Austin
- Occupy Birmingham
- Occupy College of Dupage
- Occupy Nashville
- Occupy Newark
- Occupy Portland
- Occupy San Diego
Police evicted Occupy Nashville from its encampment last night. We look forward to supporting them in their future steps.
Quick Link: Occupy Austin’s UnitedGA Proposal, passed March 5. Use it as a model in your occupation! Just a few days left to join!
http://occupyaustin.org/2012/03/occupy-birmingham-unitedga-topics/
KONY 2012
March 14, 2012 in Documentary, Headline, Occupy, Politics, Video Perspective
Uploaded by invisiblechildreninc on Mar 5, 2012
KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.
HOW TO HELP:
Visit: http://kony2012.com
Donate to Invisible Children: https://stayclassy.org/checkout/set-donation?eid=14711
For info on Invisible Children: http://invisiblechildren.com
American Facing Prison for Protesting Killings of Civilians and Children Afganistan
March 13, 2012 in Headline, Politics, World News
KATHY KELLY – accuracy.org Institute for public accuracy
Kelly is just back from Afghanistan and may be sentenced to prison today along with other peace activists for protests outside the base. She is with the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She was on “Democracy Now!” this morning along with a representative from the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers. She said today: “President Obama and U.S. military brass are depicting a U.S. soldier killing 16 Afghan civilians as an exceptional event. But in fact, this tragedy reflects and encapsulates the U.S. war of choice in Afghanistan. Groups of U.S. soldiers have been breaking into Afghan homes and killing people, without cause or provocation, for the last 11 years. Civilians have been afflicted by aerial bombing by helicopter gunships, drone surveillance and attacks, and night raids.
“In the recent past, Afghan civilians have been appalled and agitated by news of U.S. soldiers that went on killing sprees, cutting off body parts of their victims to save as war trophies. They’ve been repulsed by photos of U.S. soldiers urinating on the corpses of Afghans whom they have killed. The burning of the Quran further enraged civilians. One of the greatest factors contributing to public dismay and hostility towards the foreign forces is the practice of night raids. As many as 40 of these raids happen around the country on some nights, and the U.S. military reports an average of 10 a night. U.S. /NATO soldiers burst into people’s homes and attack people in their sleep.
The U.S. wants the Karzai government to sign a Strategic Protection Agreement that will allow U.S./NATO forces to stay in Afghanistan until 2024 and possibly beyond. This agreement will very likely frustrate possibilities for a negotiated settlement since Taliban forces have repeatedly stated their demand that all foreign troops leave Afghanistan. The Strategic Partnership Agreement has never been presented to the Afghan Members of Parliament for their consideration. No one in the U.S. or Karzai government seems concerned about how ordinary Afghans might view the Strategic Partnership Agreement.
“Arguably, people in Afghanistan are looking for ways to vent long-suppressed anger over having their future dictated by their invaders and occupiers.”
Kelly recently wrote the piece “The Ghost and the Machine: Drone Warfare and Accountability” along with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers.
Also see from the The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers: “2 Million Candles to End the Afghan War.”
See by Anand Gopal “Night Raids, Hidden Detention Centers, the ‘Black Jail,’ and the Dogs of War in Afghanistan.”
65,000 March on Wisconsin State Capitol, fighting back against Governor Walker
March 13, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics
By Daniel Ginsberg – fightbacknews.org
Students for a Democratic Society, others join protest against Governor Walker's war on workers (Fight Back! News/Staff)
Madison, WI – 65,000 workers and their supporters marched on Wisconsin’s Capitol, March 10, marking one year since the fight back against Governor Scott Walker’s war on the people began.
In March 2011, Gov. Walker’s passage of union-busting SB 11 led to a revolt as teachers from around the state participated in a ‘sick-in,’ calling in sick to work and inspiring an uprising where over 100,000 workers, students and supporters surrounded and occupied the State Capitol. 14 state senators were compelled to flee the state to avoid a quorum. The bill was halted for months as protests spread throughout the state.
“Tens of thousands of people returned to the Capitol today because they know the power of the people can win this fight,” said Alicia Skeeter, who came to join the Occupy Wisconsin contingent.
Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Wisconsin Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin and an icon of the uprising, gave a rousing speech. “We are on the right side of history. Solidarity!”
Ridiculous bureaucracy killing the American Dream?
March 13, 2012 in Headline, Politics, Video Perspective
A Brief History of the Education Culture Wars: On Santorum’s Legacy, the GOP and School Reform
March 12, 2012 in Headline, Politics
By Dana Goldstein – alternet.org
As Santorum and his cohort stoke a culture war against mainstream education, a history lesson on the GOP’s drive to vilify public schools.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com
Judging by the applause lines at GOP campaign stops and debates this winter, a significant segment of the Republican electorate understands public education not as a crucial civic institution, nor as a potential path from poverty to the middle class, nor even as a means of individual betterment. Instead, this coalition of religious conservatives and extreme tax-cutters prefers to vilify public schools—and actually, pretty much any traditional educational institution, including liberal arts colleges—as potential corruptors of the nation’s youth; as unwanted interlocutors in that most sacred relationship: the one between a child and her parent.
It is a curious thing, because with some 90 percent of American children enrolled in public schools, there must be significant overlap between the consumers of public education and the approximately one-third of Americans who describe themselves as Tea Party–type conservatives. Never mind: It is clear that in the American political economy, there is nothing unusual about a voter hating and resenting a government program even while relying heavily upon it.
The Doonesbury Comic Strip Republicans Don’t Want You To See
March 12, 2012 in Editorial, Headline, Politics
By Stephen D. Foster Jr. – addictinginfo.org
A war against women is raging and the Republican Party is waging it. Across the country, GOP lawmakers are passing laws designed to humiliate women and rollback their rights. From Virginia, to Georgia, to Texas, to Utah, to Oklahoma, to Kansas, Republicans are enacting policies that extend abortion waiting times, limit access to contraception, ban discussion of contraception in school, cut funding to Planned Parenthood, and require women to undergo invasive transvaginal ultrasounds. It’s unconscionable policies such as these that have inspired Garry Trudeau to bring up the topic in his daily Doonesbury comic strip.
But Republicans don’t want you to see the comic strip this week. They understand that if people are able to better visualize what women are going to through, they are in for an even bigger firestorm. The solution? Make sure newspapers don’t run the strip. Several US newspapers have decided to either run a different strip this week or run nothing at all, which is censorship. Some have simply moved the strip to the editorial pages, which isn’t such a big deal. But the fact that many newspapers are being protective of the conservative war against women is disturbing, and the possibility of GOP lawmakers actually pressuring newspapers to do so is even more troubling. Read the rest of this entry →
The Problem With the Environment Is Not Too Many People
March 11, 2012 in Editorial, Finance, Headline, Politics
by: Eleanor J. Bader – truth-out.org
Los Angeles smog. (Photo: Harshil.Shah / Flickr)
We’ve all heard the claim repeatedly: humans pollute, so if we just reduce the number of people – both the number being born and the number immigrating from point A to point B – the despoiling will cease and Eden will be restored.
If only it could be so simple.
Eco-socialists Ian Angus and Simon Butler’s critical assessment of population policy, “Too Many People?” begins with the Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus, who, in the early 19th century, put forward the idea that poverty is inextricably tied to population growth.
The authors next revisit the theories of Anne and Paul Ehrlich, highly influential 20th-century writers who linked the failure to impose population controls to ever-worsening environmental calamity, and then zero in on – and argue against – contemporary population-reduction advocates such as The Population Justice Project, Population Action International, Earth First! and the Optimum Population Trust in the United Kingdom, groups that aim to reduce the number of humans tromping the earth.
While Angus and Butler clearly champion access to birth control and abortion as human rights, “Too Many People?” is a clear and convincing challenge to the idea of population control as political necessity.
The Bloody Road to Damascus
March 11, 2012 in Headline, Politics, Update, World News
by James Petras – dissidentvoice.org
The Triple Alliance’s War on a Sovereign State
There is clear and overwhelming evidence that the uprising to overthrow President Assad of Syria is a violent, power grab led by foreign-supported fighters who have killed and wounded thousands of Syrian soldiers, police and civilians, partisans of the government and its peaceful opposition.
The outrage expressed by politicians in the West and Gulf State and in the mass media, about the ‘killing of peaceful Syrian citizens protesting injustice’ is cynically designed to cover up the documented reports of violent seizure of neighborhoods, villages and towns by armed bands, brandishing machine guns and planting road-side bombs.
Why Putin Is Driving Washington Nuts
March 11, 2012 in Headline, Politics, World News
by Pepe Escobar – dissidentvoice.org
Vladimir Putin
Forget the past (Saddam, Osama, Gaddafi) and the present (Assad, Ahmadinejad). A bet can be made over a bottle of Petrus 1989 (the problem is waiting the next six years to collect); for the foreseeable future, Washington’s top bogeyman — and also for its rogue North Atlantic Treaty Organization partners and assorted media shills — will be none other than back-to-the-future Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And make no mistake; Vlad the Putinator will relish it. He’s back exactly where he wants to be: as Russia’s commander-in-chief, in charge of the military, foreign policy and all national security matters.
Anglo-American elites still squirm at the mention of his now legendary Munich 2007 speech, when he blasted the then George W Bush administration for its obsessively unipolar imperial agenda “through a system which has nothing to do with democracy” and non-stop overstepping of its “national borders in almost all spheres.” Read the rest of this entry →
US Congress expands authoritarian anti-protest law H.R. 347
March 9, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update
By Tom Carter – 3 March 2012 – wsws.org
A bill passed Monday in the US House of Representatives and Thursday in the Senate would expand existing anti-protest laws that make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by a lengthy prison term—to “enter or remain in” an area designated as “restricted.”
The bill—H.R. 347, or the “Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011”—was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, while only Ron Paul and two other Republicans voted against the bill in the House of Representatives (the bill passed 388-3). Not a single Democratic politician voted against the bill.
The virtually unanimous passage of H.R. 347 starkly exposes the fact that, despite all the posturing, the Democrats and the Republicans stand shoulder to shoulder with the corporate and financial oligarchy, which regarded last year’s popular protests against social inequality with a mixture of fear and hostility.
H.R. 347 expands an existing federal criminal statute – Title 18, Section 1752 of the United States Code, or the “restricted buildings or grounds” law. The law was originally passed in 1971 and was last amended in 2006.
Under existing law, the areas that qualify as “restricted” are defined in extremely vague and broad terms. Restricted areas can include “a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting” and “a building or grounds so restricted in conjunction with an event designated as a special event of national significance.”
What does Art have to do with Revolution?
March 9, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, World News
Do artists contribute to real change? Or are we just “peripheral”? Is art something strange people do in their “spare time”, or is it an essential part of human growth and expression? Why would we waste our time adding an arts-element to our rally? Why would we play theater-games in the middle of a meeting?
I don’t know who you are, reading this blog, or what your understanding or experience with art has been. Over the years, as an arts-teacher, it’s become clear to me that something in the culture has driven a huge block between people and their natural and free expression of self. I have taught kindergarteners who have told me, with a self-resigned sigh, “Oh, I’m not an artist.” As if we expect their construction-paper cutouts to look exactly right the first time.
This expectation for instant perfection is disturbing and entirely false. It seems many people think artists are natural geniuses, and call their skills “gifts.” As if I didn’t have my own trail of crappy refrigerator-drawings flying behind me. As if I don’t have hundreds of songs I don’t remember and were probably worth forgetting. My heart still thumps whenever I sing in front of people. But I do it anyway. It’s where I need to grow. When I was a young adult, I was a terrible introvert. People had to ask me three times to repeat what I said, I was speaking so softly. (It’s likely they still didn’t catch what I said, but got tired of asking…) Through my art, I pushed the edges of my comfort-zone. Through my performance-work, I made myself get on stage again and again, until I could do it without shaking. Art can help us access pieces of ourselves we didn’t know were there. Now, when I have something to say, I say it. I’ve gotten in front of Occupy-General Assemblies as a facilitator, confidently and with a strong voice. But people don’t see those layers of effort, the many moments of embarrassment and self-forgiveness I’ve worked through, to be able to do what I do. Read the rest of this entry →
House Approved Bill Effectively makes First Amendment Null and Void
March 8, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics
H.R. 347 could make the First Amendment illegal. No one is really covering this bill and the major media call it non-controversial. The innocent sounding bill titled The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 was passed Tuesday with only three dissenting votes, and passed unanimously in the Senate. This bill dubbed the Anti-Occupy law was passed without one single Democrat speaking up for the first Amenndment.
Once this Bill is signed into law some believe it will make it a felony to excercise your first Amendment rights of Free Speech. Several of those commenting opined that the nearly unanimous vote proves that despite all the posturing both parties stand shoulder to shoulder in their defense of the greed and entitlement of the 1% from the rest of us. When you couple this with the indefinite detention of Americans in the National Defense Authorization Act it is clear that Obama is part of a ruling corporate oligarchy and is surely no Progessive.
The Real Jubilee : A Movement For Financial Justice
March 7, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News
This year the Queen is celebrating her 60th ‘jubilee’ but the original meaning of jubilee had a lot more to do with righting injustice than an extra bank holiday and Brian May on the roof of Buckingham Palace, says Tim Jones of www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk
The word ‘jubilee’ comes from the Jewish scriptures, and describing an ancient event occurring every fifty years. In the jubilee year everyone, remarkably, took a whole year off from working the land – not just one day – living simply off surpluses from previous years. All debts were to be cancelled. All slaves were to be released. All land was to be returned to the original sharing between the Hebrew tribes.
Jubilees were instituted in order to restore a sense of equilibrium into the economy. People working on the land got in debt when harvests failed. To feed their families they borrowed from their neighbours – supposedly without being charged interest, though many found ways to get round this law. As debts accumulated and families became unable to pay, they had to sell off their land to their creditors. Rent was charged on the sold land, so as creditors got richer, the debtors got poorer – and their debts were only likely to increase. As David Graeber sets out in his book Debt: The first 5,000 years, farmers often became stuck in debt and even had to sell their children into debt slavery. Read the rest of this entry →
US may use CIA cloak to hide Afghan presence
March 7, 2012 in Headline, Politics, Update, World News
Afghan men walk past by US soldiers in Ghazni province on February 2, 2012 (AFP Photo / Aref Yaqubi)
The Pentagon is reportedly deliberating over putting elite troops and Special Forces in Afghanistan under CIA control. The move would reduce official US presence with a view to meeting Obama’s promise of total withdrawal from the country by 2014.
Top US military sources told Agence France-Presse that the idea had been circulated by senior defense intelligence as a way to reduce US presence in Afghanistan before the 2014 deadline.
It is one of several initiatives currently under discussion in the Pentagon, according to AFP sources. The proposals have not yet been presented to US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
Washington has denied the existence of such a proposal, with Pentagon spokesperson George Little calling the claims “simply wrong.”
If the plan were to go ahead, Washington would be able to say it had no soldiers on the ground, as putting troops under CIA control would re-classify them as spies. As such the US could legitimately maintain its military presence in the war-torn country.
Moreover, the US government would not be obliged to inform the American public over funding or military operations of CIA-controlled troops. Administration would fall to the White House, with top intelligence officials effectively turning it into a covert operation.
In order to be approved, the plan would have to pass through the White House, congressional oversight committees and the Afghan government.
Special Forces under the guise of the CIA were used last year in the operation to raid Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.
US forces currently stationed in Afghanistan work in tandem with local security forces, training Afghan troops and conducting raids on Al-Qaeda stronghold areas. The Obama administration had promised a complete withdrawal of US presence from the country by 2014, and is currently implementing a gradual handover of security to Afghan hands.
The deteriorating relationship between the two cooperating forces has recently been marred by reports of US troops burning Korans. Over 30 people died, including several Western soldiers, in the ensuing protests across the country.
Is Monsanto ‘s Glyphosate Destroying The Soil?
March 7, 2012 in Headline, Politics, World News
by Sayer Ji – greenmedinfo.com
“The nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt
In light of this quote, had Monsanto been around during Roosevelt’s time, he would not have taken too kindly to their business strategy. After all, in 2007, 176 million lbs of an extremely toxic herbicide known as glyphosate,1 first created by Monsanto, was sprayed onto the soil (and everything standing between it) in this country, with untold environmental and human health fallout.
Untold, that is, until now…
Roundup (Glyphosate): The Science Vs. Marketing
2011 was a watershed year, as far as scientific revelations into the nature and extent of the damage associated with glyphosate-based herbicide usage and exposure is concerned. An accumulating body of peer-reviewed and published research now indicates glyphosate may be contributing to several dozen adverse health effects in exposed populations. And as we shall see, human exposure is as universal as is the contamination of our food, air, rain and groundwater with this now ubiquitous chemical.
Ever since Monsanto developed, marketed and patented the glyphosate molecule — Roundup (®) herbicide’s active ingredient — beginning in the early 70’s, a substantial and ever-growing portion of the earth’s arable surface has been transformed into an environmental and human health experiment, of unprecedented scale. Non-industry funded human research on glyphosate exposure is only now being performed, and the preliminary picture being painted isn’t very pretty. Recent experimental research found that exceedingly small concentrations of glyphosate (450-fold lower than used in agricultural applications) induce DNA damage in human cells. Given these findings, it is likely that the widespread adoption of GM agriculture has and will continue to result in massive collateral health damage; the fall-out of which we are only beginning to understand, and yet which we are all no doubt are already experiencing, mostly subclinically.
Anonymous, Infiltrated as we all knew, Has Revealed their 1st Wave of Spies and Informants
March 7, 2012 in ANON NeWs, Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News
LulzSec Leader Was Snitch Who Helped Snag Fellow Hackers – wired.com/threatlevel
Jeremy Hammond Accused In AntiSec Bust – freehammond.com
I have to start this article with a preface, just to make sure everyone that does not know becomes intimately aware. The government, in any country, as the world is now, is not your friend. They are spying on you, monitoring what you do, possibly even enticing you to commit criminal acts so they can keep you detained away from the population and fueling the prison state. Many people have assumed that Anonymous either was, is, or are heavily infiltrated by the CIA and other intel communities for a long time. The running joke I have heard was, ” If the CIA owns facebook, then who runs Anonymous, Israeli Mossad? What about wikileaks that’s the Swedish/Russian version of it, right ? ”
The jokes run thin when real people involved in what amounts to heroism get arrested, and under current law might face indefinite detention without trial. If you are involved or would like to be, REALIZE THIS RIGHT HERE AND NOW, anyone you do not personally know would probably rat you out for a nickle, and YOU DO NOT KNOW anyone on the internet.
There has been a recent crackdown on anonymous operations, and it is much broader than this article can describe. There are numerous unconfirmed reports I have been getting about individual hacktivists being shot in their homes in several locations, by local police SNIPERS. Many people have known the danger of infiltration and stayed away from all things anonymous since it’s advent as global hacktivist hero. For some, they were already talking to the wrong “friends.”
Another joke I have heard that might lighten the mood, “How do you get a top paying govt. job? – Get busted after a long stint of hacking their chit.”
Houston Food Not Bombs Under Immediate Threat
March 6, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics
By NickCooper – blog.foodnotbombs.net
Houston Food Not Bombs has been sharing healthy vegetarian food with hundreds of hungry people, several nights a week, for over 18 years and is a 2011 Recipient of a Peacemaker Award from the Houston Peace and Justice Center.
Well funded Houston homeless service organizations, developers, and city officials are promoting new regulations for dozens of groups like ours that provide food for the homeless in Houston every week. Read the new amendment on pages 33 – 45 here: http://www.houstontx.gov/citysec/backup/2012/030612.pdf
G8 Summit Moved: Chicago Summit Canceled, Shifted To Camp David
March 6, 2012 in Headline, Occupy, Politics, Update
WASHINGTON — The White House abruptly announced Monday that it had scuttled plans to hold the upcoming G-8 economic summit in Chicago, and would instead host world leaders at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.
It was an unusually late location change for a large and highly scripted international summit and came with little explanation from the White House. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel – the former White House chief of staff who personally lobbied President Barack Obama to hold the summit in Chicago – was informed only hours before the official announcement.
White House national security spokesman Tommy Vietor simply said that Camp David, the rustic retreat in the mountains of Maryland, was a setting that would allow for more intimate discussions among the G-8 leaders. He said security and the possibility of protests were not factors in the decision, noting that Obama would still host the NATO summit in his hometown of Chicago from May 20-21.
The White House said the G-8 summit would take place May 18-19. Read the rest of this entry →
Occupy After The Camps
March 6, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics, World News
Todd Gitlin – theoccupiedtimes.co.uk
The occupations were brilliant. They created facts on the ground—many grounds. They pumped oxygen into the global atmosphere. They are, or were, not only symbols of a need (community, shelter, expression) but public spaces for contact, information, and conversation, as well as attractors of the curious. At their best, they are, or were, recruitment centers. At their worst, they were the opposite.
But the merits of the encampments are largely beside the point now because the authorities took a hand, often a heavy one, to bust them up. So now the question is, how can the most useful functions of the encampments be carried out in other ways? What becomes possible now?
For one thing, direct actions need to continue—partly because they gin up enthusiasm, partly because they ensure that the movement continues to exist in public sight, and partly because they can win concrete victories. When the actions are well chosen, and (crucially) nonviolent, then the movement attracts the public eye. (When the black bloc moves in, however, the movement repels. Not all publicity is helpful publicity.) Actions need to be chosen with a mindful eye to both symbolic meaning and concrete consequences. Read the rest of this entry →