Auntie Imperial's News & Blog Review

Perhaps Not... "Veterans Affairs Claims Progress In Ending Homelessness Among Vets"

2011-12-27T09:14:00.000-08:00

(Image at the left, 11/7/2007) «o» Historically, a number of fighters in U.S. wars have become homeless. In the post-Civil War era, homeless veterans sang old Army songs to dramatize their need for work and became known as “tramps,” which had meant to march into war, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Penn State University’s Beaver campus who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.

After World War I, thousands of veterans — many of them homeless — camped in the nation’s capital seeking bonus money. Their camps were destroyed by the government, creating a public relations disaster for President Herbert Hoover.

The end of the Vietnam War coincided with a time of economic restructuring, and many of the same people who fought in Vietnam were also those most affected by the loss of manufacturing jobs, DePastino said.

Their entrance to the streets was traumatic and, as they aged, their problems became more chronic... [More @ MSNBC]

And many of the new generation will end up out on the streets again (I KNOW THIS for a fact having witnessed it personally with Veteran acquaintances over the years...).

From today's Washington Post:

"Making aggressive use of a voucher program, Veterans Affairs has housed more than 33,000 veterans in the past 21 / 2 years. It did so by changing its longtime policy of requiring homeless veterans to be successfully treated for substance abuse and mental ailments before being given apartments." [Washington Post Federal Insider]

The vouchers for the housing, at least the regulatory details, seem to be cribbed from Section 8 FHA/HUD programs (Google) and all the federal requirements of the tenants are the same. "Act out", or have any drug related altercations, and yer out.

I just wonder if the VA IS usurping federal housing money (via some back door transfer of funds perhaps) that was to be used for other people like those 38 percent increase in homeless children (and their mothers) over the last four years reported the other day?

(Just in... A local VFW officer and friend in-the-know has informed me that indeed, the money has been diverted from civilian housing preograms)

I also suspect that many high school and college students will find less service jobs available next summer as SOME Vets return, and are immediately plugged into "Do you want fries with that..." jobs.

In my estimation, the US government IS SCARED of it's veterans, and their pandering to them with jobs/housing is a fear based reaction. Not due to any patriotic 'love' for them. If you have any doubts just look up the phrase "Bonus Army" on your favorite search engine or at Wikipedia

I wonder how many returning Veterans will be satisfied for long with those 'funny hat' jobs and housing that resembles in sociological detail and regulations, 'project housing'?

Merry Xmas Santa Cruz... From An Anonymous Hacker - Signs Of The (digital) Times

2011-12-18T08:21:00.001-08:00

«o»
This '7-days-left-to-shop-before-Xmas' morning the Rittenhouse Building in the rotting and corrupt heart of Santa Cruz California's Downtown Business District/Special Economic Area, had a VERY SPECIAL display on the networked digital advertising screens that inhabit every window of the completely vacant office/storefront building...[Someone kant(sic) spell either...]

[He's Gonna Find Out Who's Naughty Or Nice... That's A Threat]

Zapata's Blood Was Not Spilled In Vain - #OccupyLA > City Of Angels: "Para Todos Todo, Para Nosotros Nada: For Everyone Everything, For Us Nothing"

2011-11-27T09:55:00.000-08:00

H/t: South Central Farmers... In Solidarity with #OccupyLA on the eve of the city of Los Angeles attempt to evict the now-largest #Occupy tent encampment in the United States.

Resources:
#OccupyLosAngeles Site
#OccupyLosAngeles Twitter Feed
#OccupyLosAngeles USTREAM Live Video Feed From Solidarity Park

«o» Counter-Offer from Occupy Los Angeles G.A. to Mayor's Office, LAPD

Submitted by OLA Web Team on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 6:15am

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S RESPONSE TO THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES

Para Todos Todo, Para Nosotros Nada: For Everyone, Everything, For Us, Nothing

History: passed with full consensus at GA on Wednesday 11/23/2011. The language, ideas and grievances contained herein were culled from the minutes of 2 special City Liaison Committee Meetings, 2 General Assemblies devoted to the issue, one meeting with the Demands & Objectives Committee, consultation with Media and PR, and widely circulated and amended by the online community of occupiers, and adapted into its current form by the General Assembly on 11/23/2011. [In Full below the fold]

A sampling of the headlines for today from various MSM and Alt sources...

Occupy LA Braces for Police Raid this Sunday at Midnight - la.imc

Occupy LA: “Oh No! We Won’t Go!” Mayor Says “11/28 at 12:01am Park Will Be Shut Down” - Firedoglake, La Figa

Occupy L.A.: Mayor, LAPD won't discuss tactics for removal:

At a press conference Friday, neither Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa nor Police Chief Charlie Beck would say whether police were prepared to use tear gas or rubber bullets to clear protesters who refuse to leave, tactics officers in other cities have turned to while clearing Occupy encampments. [LA Times]

«o» Click here for the full counter-offer from #OccupyLA, plus a spoken and musical commentary on the topic of "Everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves", from Zack De La Rocha and Rage Against The Machine.

The Zapatistas and the Global Justice Movement
Zack De La Rocha & Rage Against The Machine

[This audio is 28+ minutes long. Popout Player?]
(download available here)

Zack del la Rocha and Rage Against the Machine speak with us about the modern re-origination of the Mexican Autonomous movement... The Zapatistas, and their ongoing connection to the the global movement for social justice in the US and overseas.

Brought to us by Rage Against The Machine and Skidmark Bob @ PoP dEFECT Radio, where you can find the one hour RATM special 'aired' in February 2011 the clip was drawn from.

The cuts between Zack's words spoken in "The Battle of Mexico City" documentary... People Of the Sun Evil Empire/Live At The Grand Olympic Auditorium 2003, Zapata's Blood/Live & Rare 1998, Take The Power Back/Live & Rare 1998... Zack comments on police abuse at the Democratic Convention in 2000, Live At The Grand Olympic Auditorium 2003, then he gets 'nice and friendly'... Fuck Da Police/Live & Rare 1998. Finally, Zach exhorts us... Know Your Enemy!, Live At The Grand Olympic Auditorium 2003].

«o» Counter-Offer from Occupy Los Angeles G.A. to Mayor's Office, LAPD

Submitted by OLA Web Team on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 6:15am

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S RESPONSE TO THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES

Para Todos Todo, Para Nosotros Nada: For Everyone, Everything, For Us, Nothing

History: passed with full consensus at GA on Wednesday 11/23/2011. The language, ideas and grievances contained herein were culled from the minutes of 2 special City Liaison Committee Meetings, 2 General Assemblies devoted to the issue, one meeting with the Demands & Objectives Committee, consultation with Media and PR, and widely circulated and amended by the online community of occupiers, and adapted into its current form by the General Assembly on 11/23/2011.

As a collective, Occupy Los Angeles would like to express their rejection of the City of Los Angeles’ alleged proposal that we leave City Hall by November 28th, 2011, in exchange for an apparently now rescinded offer of a 10,000 square foot building, farmland and 100 SRO beds for the homeless.

Occupy Los Angeles believes that as part of a global movement advocating direct, participatory democracy, and challenging economic and social injustices, our position is such that we cannot, in all good faith, accept further material benefit from City Hall at the taxpayer’s expense without seriously compromising our beliefs, our desire for global change, and our commitment to our inherent human rights to free speech and assembly protected in this country by First Amendment Rights. The 1 percent should be paying for any services used by the Occupy Movement, not taxpayers.

In the spirit of inclusivity and transparency which is so dear to our movement, Occupy Los Angeles extends an invitation to Mayor Villaraigosa and the City Council to attend our General Assemblies at the City Hall Occupation if he wishes to discuss these and other matters in a direct, democratic and horizontal way. Mayor Villaraigosa must speak out against the violent actions towards our brothers and sisters, declare the actions of other cities to be unjust, and stand before us equally at a General Assembly. Occupy Los Angeles believes that until this happens, we should have no more closed-door discussions regarding our continuing occupation of City Hall.

The City Council – in line with government in general – is an authority which is more accountable to developers and corporations than the public. The very act of the Los Angeles City Council requesting the physical removal of Los Angeles Occupiers without redressing the grievances which were specifically referenced in the inclusion of our adopted ‘Declaration of the Occupation of New York City’, and in the City Council’s ’1st Amendment Rights / Occupy Los Angeles / Responsible Banking Resolution’ — is in effect supporting the removal of all Occupations from public space by any means.

We cannot negotiate with such an institution without undermining our sister occupations across the globe who are suffering from oppressive force and attacks upon their inherent human rights to free speech and assembly, protected in this country under the First Amendment. We refer here to episodes in Oakland, Boston, New York, Portland, UC Davis and San Francisco, to name but a few.

We refer to those further afield, in Tahrir Square in Egypt, in Madrid, Greece, London and more. Teargas, pepper spray, beatings, jail, suppression and intimidation have been used as a coercive method of silencing our movement and our desire for global change.

We reject outright the City’s attempts to lure us out of City Hall and into negotiations by offering us nebulous, non-transparent and unconfirmed offers which fail to even begin to address our local grievances. We will continue to occupy this space, in solidarity with our global movement, until the forces of the few are forced to capitulate to the power of the people.

When the following grievances have been addressed – grievances which we have agreed upon as a movement through our General Assembly as advancing our cause and providing for the people of Los Angeles – we as a movement will be happy to initiate dialogue with the Mayor and Los Angeles City Council.

An office space of 10,000 square feet would not have addressed these grievances. While the grievances listed below are localized, we believe that they promote the underlying foundations and principles of our movement, which include, but are not limited to: providing for basic, fundamental and inalienable human rights such as shelter, food, healthcare, freedom of choice, sexual orientation, gender equality and education — and the right most paramount to a free and democratic society — the right to self-govern. Detailed demands which encompass our greater world view will be released at a later date by our Demands and Objectives Committee through the General Assembly.

GRIEVANCES NOT ADDRESSED

A moratorium on all foreclosures in the City of Los Angeles. The City of Los Angeles to divest from all major banks, and money to be removed from politics.

A citywide effort undertaken to solve the homelessness problem which has led to 18,000 homeless people sleeping on Skid Row every night. Rehabilitation and housing must be provided for all homeless people.

South Central Farm to be returned to the same LA community from which it was taken, and all other vacant and distressed land be open for the community use, and money to the tune of 1 million dollars – taken from Skid Row and given to the multi million dollar NFL firm – to be returned to Skid Row.

Los Angeles to be declared a sanctuary city for the undocumented, deportations to be discontinued and cooperation with immigration authorities be ended – including the turning in of arrestees’ names to immigration authorities.

All forms of weaponry used by multiple law enforcement officials – including, but not limited, to rubber bullets, pepper spray, verbal abuse, arrest, foam batons, long-range acoustic devices and more – are not to be used on those exercising their First Amendment Rights to petition our government for redress of grievances. We do not accept interference with freedom of the press and the public to document police actions in public spaces. We will not tolerate brutality.

We assert our right to an open plaza on the South Side of City Hall for people to peacefully assemble, voice grievances, speak freely, hold our General Assembly and come to the people’s consensus 24 hours a day if needed.

The City of Los Angeles to pressure the State to start a convention, as provided for in the Constitution, to remove corporate personhood and money from politics at a national level.

The City of Los Angeles to begin a dialogue at the State and Federal level on the issues of student debt and tuition hikes.

No cutbacks in city services or attacks on the wages, work conditions and pensions of city employees.

A world class transit system which addresses our debilitating traffic problem and restores the quality of life in Los Angeles.

We conclude, as a General Assembly, by hereby renaming City Hall Park -

SOLIDARITY PARK [Source]

Time Warner - Giving "Kept In The Dark And Fed BullShit" A New Meaning

2011-11-26T09:05:00.001-08:00

Sometimes a picture speaks louder than words:

Jackson Browne Has The Report

"And in the flickering light and the comforting glow
You get the world every night as a TV show
The latest spin on the shit we're in, blow by blow
And the more you watch, the less you know"

The Psychology Of Sociopathy - Obama 'Pardons' Turkeys On Thanksgiving While CIA Predator Drones Hunt Down Whole Familial Bloodlines

2011-11-23T19:48:00.000-08:00

Update: A FaceBook Friend from Kentucky posits...

I've only begun to read and mean nothing by this comment besides Kentucky has wild turkeys; so viewing the picture: Since when are turkeys white? :-D

Me:

When they're Genetically Grown so they're all tittie and leg (do you suppose it's because men run the agribiz corps?) and live a short miserable life in cages... You can thank Chairman Richard Huisinga from the "National Turkey Federation" (mug shot below) for that. I'm sure ALF would LUV to meet him and deliver your greetings personally.

Obama pardons Thanksgiving turkeys

Obama reprieved a 45-pound turkey called Liberty and an understudy named Peace from the butcher's knife on Nov. 23. The birds will live out their golden years on George Washington's estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Caption for the images that follow:

President Barack Obama, with daughters Sasha and Malia, pardons Liberty, a 19-week old, 45-pound turkey, on the occasion of Thanksgiving, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011, on the North Portico of the White House in Washington. At left is National Turkey Federation Chairman Richard Huisinga.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

There's just something disturbing about a guy who'll save a turkey's life but have CIA predator drones hunt down the individual members of Islamic insurgent's families and attempt to wipe out the entire familial bloodline (al-Awalaki, bin-Laden, and ex parte, the al-Gadaffi bloodline... for a start.)

Look at that SMILE!
You wouldn't know he's responsible for the murder 'under color of international law' of thousands of people around the world who just happen to disagree with US policies and goals for their countries.

Non-Violent Protests: "And they are met with fear..." - The Atlantic Senior Political Editor On #Occupy-Related Police Violence

2011-11-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

Too Much Violence and Pepper Spray at the OWS Protests
By Garance Franke-Ruta
Senior Politics editor
The Atlantic

Nov 19 2011, 6:58 PM ET

The dousing of seated, non-violent students with a chemical agent at U.C. Davis should provoke a call for restraint. These images show their experience is not unique.

[Pepper Spray in use @ #OccupySeattle]

Police dressed in riot gear at U.C. Davis on Friday afternoon used pepper spray to clear seated protesters from the university quad where they had set up a small Occupy encampment, pro-actively and repeatedly dousing the passively-resisting students with a chemical agent designed to cause pain and suffering in order to make it easier to remove them.

[UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike from the RECORDS DEPARTMENT gets his chance to 'kill commies']

It is hard to look at this kind of attack and think this is how we do things in America.

And yet it is all too American.

America has a very long history of protests that meet with excessive or violent response, most vividly recorded in the second half of the 20th century. It is a common fantasy among people born in the years since the great protests movements -- and even some not so great ones -- that they would have stood on the bold side of history had they been alive at the time and been called to make a choice. But the truth is that American protest movements in real time -- and especially in their early days -- often appear controversial, politically difficult, out-of-the-mainstream, and dangerous. And they are met with fear...

In Full @ The Atlantic

A profile of one of the perpetrators here:
D0Xing the Abusers: Introducing Lt. John Pike, UC Davis Pepper Spraying "officer"

«o» Pertinent California Codes & Rulings in re the official use of Pepper Spray:

United States Court of Appeals,Ninth Circuit
HEADWATERS FOREST DEFENSE v. COUNTY OF HUMBOLDT
o
o
o
"Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the protestors, we conclude that Philip and Lewis are not entitled to qualified immunity because the use of pepper spray on the protestors' eyes and faces was plainly in excess of the force necessary under the circumstances, and no reasonable officer could have concluded otherwise." (source)

California Penal Code Section 12403.7(a)(8)(g):

"Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county jail not to exceed one year or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment,"

The code goes on to add further sanctions if, lets say someone knowingly pepper sprays a police officer etc, but the above, based on the 9th Circuit Court's ruling in a civil case ought to go a long way towards convicting ANY official in California who commits, or perhaps even authorizes such an act.

To show us how out of touch with law the average police officer is (and to add to the extensive list of why one should NEVER ask a law enforcement official for legal advice), simply read the words of UC police Capt. Margo Bennett who said:

"The individuals who linked arms and actively resisted, that in itself is an act of violence,"

D0Xing the Abusers: Introducing Lt. John Pike, UC Davis Pepper Spraying "officer"

2011-11-19T20:50:00.000-08:00

«o» Update: Note this ruling in U.S. Appeals Court, which seems to make it illegal to use pepper spray against peaceful protesters:

United States Court of Appeals,Ninth Circuit

HEADWATERS FOREST DEFENSE v. COUNTY OF HUMBOLDT

HEADWATERS FOREST DEFENSE, Plaintiff, Molly Burton; Vernell “Spring” M. Lundberg; Michael McCurdy; Eric Samuel Neuwirth; Maya Portugal; Lisa Marie Sanderson-Fox; Jennifer Schneider; Terri Slanetz; Noel Tendick, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The COUNTY OF HUMBOLDT, a political subdivision of the State of California; Humboldt County Sheriff's Department; Dennis Lewis, Sheriff; Gary Philip, Chief Deputy; Marvin Kirkpatrick, Deputy; John Sylvia, Deputy; Ciarbellini, Sgt.; City of Eureka, a political division of the State of California; Eureka Police Dept; Bill Honsal, Captain; James Manos, Sgt., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-17250.
-- January 11, 2002
o
o
o
Moreover, in requiring that the law put a government officer “on notice that his conduct would be clearly unlawful” before he could be held liable for violating the Constitution, the Supreme Court emphasized that it was not insisting that “courts must have agreed upon the precise formulation of the standard.” Id. As we recently noted, a law can be violated “notwithstanding the absence of direct precedent . [o]therwise, officers would escape responsibility for the most egregious forms of conduct simply because there was no case on all fours prohibiting that particular manifestation of unconstitutional conduct.” Deorle v. Rutherford, 272 F.3d 1272, 1274-75 (9th Cir.2001) (citation omitted).

Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the protestors, we conclude that Philip and Lewis are not entitled to qualified immunity because the use of pepper spray on the protestors' eyes and faces was plainly in excess of the force necessary under the circumstances, and no reasonable officer could have concluded otherwise.
[Source, Findlaw Cases & Codes]

California Penal Code Section 12403.7(a)(8)(g): Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county jail not to exceed one year or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, except that, if the use is against a peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, engaged in the performance of his or her official duties and the person committing the offense knows or reasonably should know that the victim is a peace officer...

Source: D0X: UC Davis Pepper Spraying officer, Lt. John Pike

D0X: UC Davis Pepper Spraying officer, Lt. John Pike.

Please be respectful in your condemnation of this act of brutality.

Lieutenant John Pike
Records Unit Manager
Phone: 530-752-3989
Cell: 530-979-0184
japikeiii@ucdavis.edu
Address: 4005 Cowell Blvd, Apt 616. Davis, CA 95618-6017
Skype: japike3
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-pike/18/a76/879
Pike has received 2 Meritorious Service Awards from UC Davis

File formal complaint against UC Davis police officer here: (pdf)

UC Davis Support Services Division
Contact Information:
Captain Joyce Souza
530-752-6202
Monday - Friday
8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
jxsouza@ucdavis.edu

Reporting a Crime or Accident
UC Davis Police Non-Emergency Service
(530) 752-1727

UC Office of the President
Mark G. Yudof
University of California
1111 Franklin St., 12th Floor
Oakland, CA 94607
Email: president@ucop.edu

Professor at the university, Nathan Brown, wrote an “open letter” calling on Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi to resign. The entire letter boldly condemns the Chancellor for permitting riot police to handle students as police did. (source)

UC Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi
Her response to the brutality
Offices of the Chancellor and Provost
Fifth floor, Mrak Hall
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 752-2065
Contact form: http://chancellor.ucdavis.edu/contact.php
Katehi’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Linda-PB-Katehi/147754228574654

UC Davis FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/UCDavis

His boss, UCD Police Chief Annette Spicuzza, told the Davis Enterprise that she’s “very proud” of her officers. “I don’t believe any of our officers were hurt,” she says, “and I hope none of the students were injured.” (source)

UCD Police Chief Annette Spicuzza
(530) 752-3113
Salary: $125,000/yr
Linked in: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/annette-spicuzza/18/435/772

UC Davis Police Department
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 752-6823
FAX: (530) 752-3216

John Pike’s Education
California State University-Hayward (BS)
Activities and Societies: Theta Chi Fraternity

Submit a story to Theta Chi Fraternity
International Headquarters: 317-824-1881
http://www.thetachi.org
Theta Chi UC Davis Chapter: Zeta XI

California Penal Code Section 12403.7 (a) (8)
(g) Any person who uses tear gas or tear gas weapons except in self-defense is guilty of a public offense and is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months, or two or three years or in a county jail not to exceed one year or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment, except that, if the use is against a peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, engaged in the performance of his or her official duties and the person committing the offense knows or reasonably should know that the victim is a peace officer, the offense is punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for 16 months or two or three years or by a fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both the fine and imprisonment.

--30--

Update: The Siege Of #OccupySantaCruz - A Move To Get The City Injunction Into A Court Where "Constitution" Is Spoken... Federal Court

2011-11-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

Update November 13 2011

«o» The upper encampment and the Geodesic Dome Information Center by the court house steps are still under threat of removal.

[Seen recently at the #OccupySantaCruz Geodesic Dome Information Center ]

[Type of tent given by local Veterans groups to homeless Veterans]
THAT confrontation may occur as early as tomorrow morning.

There IS some good news on the legal front though.

The #OccupySantaCruz General Assembly achieved consensus this afternoon to kick the legal 'football' into federal court, with filing fees already voted and appropriated, to seek relief from a Santa Cruz city injunction against their city park encampment, on undisclosed evidence, presented in a closed door session of Santa Cruz Superior court after a secret city council meeting.

There MAY BE further consensus on a counter-suit against the city of Santa Cruz California for attempting to violate the first amendment rights (among others) of the people at the encampment considering that legal counsel has informed the General Assembly federal court decisions consistently support camping as an exercise of the First Amendment right to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

We HAVE grievances!

The city of Santa Cruz IS attempting to deny #OccupySantaCruz that right to peaceably assemble, and considering the secrecy of the process that caused the delivery of the injunction, that attempt to deny MAY HAVE occurred under circumstances that could be described as fraudulent, or perjured.

The Siege Of #OccupySantaCruz Begins... And A 'Sidebar' About The Treatment Of Veterans In That Namesaked City

2011-11-12T11:27:00.000-08:00

«o» A brief synopsis using FaceBook wall posts with a few comments and related links thrown in:

"This morning Francis Moore Lappe (world-renowned author of 19 books, including the revolutionary books "Diet for a Small Planet") stopped by Occupy Santa Cruz on her way to San Francisco's Green Fest, to show her support and solidarity with the Occupy movement--especially our local group in light of recent events." [source]

The recent event?

#occupysantacruz support needed! all tents in front of the courthouse are being taken down! Come down and show support for the people who have been out occupying, they need solidarity now!

"20 sheriffs showed up in the early morning & the occupy night watch successfully warned all occupiers before they arrived. Tents were taken down after sheriffs began removing tents themselves under the offense of "lodging". 2 tents confiscated, no tickets or arrests. Occupirates put tents on cars to sattiate(sic) threats & followed them back to the courthouse continuously requesting what "lodging" actually consists of. The sheriffs refused to or could not answer." [source]

GONE!

This is the type of tent that was given by local Veterans groups to homeless Veterans.

GONE!

Did you see a 'sanitation or safety hazard in those photos?

Neither did I.

Yet, barring evidence to the contrary these are the kind of photos the city presented after a secret city council meeting, later to be presented in a closed door Superior Court session the other day to garner support for a Preliminary Injunction against the encampment.

Here's a shot of the 'Bench-lands' just around the corner and down the hill from the court house building in the City's San Lorenzo Park near the lovely banks of the San Lorenzo Sewage Chan... I mean 'River'! [snigger]:

Not seeing the 'feces' the city claimed to be littering the ground here.

Albeit some winos absolutely delight in shitting and pissing on the county building and it's attached court house whenever possible (and it's been that way since the first wino walked the Earth in Santa Cruz), there is NO POSSIBLE WAY to say the 'poop & pee' incidents have increased since the campers presence, and it's also quite unlikely, as the encampment has a Porta-Can emptied regularly, and available to all.

Unlike the city park's bathroom.

The warning that was handed out in lieu of arrests or tickets:
(click on all document images below for larger copies)

Note the care with which they say they'll handle the #Occupiers personal property.

The city and county are worried about ANY bad PR that could go national or even global if things, for some unimaginable reason, went seriously South.

It wasn't apparent at last year's PeaceCamp2010 demonstration that the sheriffs or the Santa Cruz police department were very concerned with that issue...

...nor did they show concern in their action, with a lot of damaged or 'disappeared' property reported by the protesters. The rest being seriously delayed by the SCPD's property recovery hours. If I remember correctly there were only 2 hours during the work week where the SCPD would arrange to return your property a day or two later.

More information on the California Penal Code 647(e) "Lodging" law, and the PeaceCamp occupation here.

Nevertheless, in spite of the attempts to repress #OccupySantaCruz, we're all expecting a well attended General Assembly today, Saturday, November 12 2010 at 6pm, on the steps of the Santa Cruz County court house.

Occupy Santa Cruz

We gather together as Occupy Santa Cruz in solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Movement. We are individuals committed to promoting justice. We have no leaders. We recognize the right of ALL voices to be heard: our diversity is a source of strength. We present a united front in our non-violent approach to addressing the problems we face and generating solutions beneficial to all. Please join us in creating a better world. We gather 24/7 on the steps of the Superior Courthouse on Water Street. General Assemblies are held daily at 6pm, and on Sundays at 2pm in San Lorenzo Park.

Contact Info to get involved on a local level:

Email: occupysantacruz@gmail.com
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/OccupySantaCruz

How do YOU want to get involved?!

Iraq Veteran, Marine Corp, hailing from North Carolina, with a furry friend, at #OccupySantaCruz:

«o» Since I brought up the topic of Veterans, it's just been reported that the unemployment rate for Veterans is now THIRTY PERCENT!

So it behooves us, in the wake of Veterans Day, to discuss the city and county of Santa Cruz treatment of it's own.

This morning's Santa Cruz Senile mentions the fact that it was Veterans Day yesterday by featuring a front page picture of the parade in Watsonville, because not only does Santa Cruz not deem it fit to hold a parade for their Veterans, they and the county have been, dast I say (Dast!... Dast!...), actively hostile towards local Veterans, with the closure of the Bill Motto Post #1588 VFW building under suspicious circumstances and the now ongoing delay in getting the building repaired and reopened.

The building was, and WILL BE AGAIN, the home of the annual community Thanksgiving and Christmas day dinner for all. The county and city were lambasted last year for not making any plan for a replacement community meal venue until complaints by the community at large became too strident and the Civic Auditorium was used, on short notice, in what could only be described as a sterile and non-festive atmosphere.

The county and city's rationale for not acting sooner essentially boiled down to:

"It's not our problem, but since you whined...".

Just in case you wondered how much your city government cares about it's community.

Meanwhile last night, Bill Motto VFW Post# 1588 (Facebook page), which I might mention, is the only avowedly Anti-War Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in the United States, DID NOT 'parade'.

They engaged in a drum circle in front of O'neil's Surf Shop across from the Cinema 9 theater on Pacific street in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz, with a group of traditional Lakota Sioux drummers, under a cabana, in the rain.

#Occupy. (period)

Republican Presidential Contender Rick Perry's Ties to an American Terrorist Right-Wing Militia ('Republic of Texas')

2011-11-11T13:37:00.000-08:00

WhoDaThunkIt! IndyBay in the MSM!

"...while Indybay’s Juan Batista alleges that also-running Rick Perry once “sought the support of the Republic of Texas militia (Ed. link intentionally broken... remove dashes... if you must), which has a long history of terrorism,”
(H/t: Congressional Quarterly 'Behind The Lines' homeland security newsletter)

Rick Perry denies he ever spoke in favor of Texas secession from the United States. But records show he not only spoke in favor of secession, Perry spoke at a rally attended by secessionist leaders and a top Perry aide met with secessionist leaders privately. Perry went on to push for legislation favored by secessionists and others. One of the groups he sought the support of, the Republic of Texas militia, has a long history of terrorism, including plots to assassinate a Republican governor (later president), a Democratic president, attempted attacks on a US Army base and federal building, and attempts to acquire missiles and biological weapons.

Rick Perry's Ties to a Terrorist Militia

By JuanBatista

Wednesday November 2, 2011 - 9:20 pm

[...]
These are the type of people Governor Rick Perry for a time chose to associate with and sought out their support.

(Summing up, the ROT militia is guilty of:)

Treason, seeking to overthrow the US and Texas governments by force
Plots to assassinate one American President and one Texas Governor (later a US President)
Plotting to murder soldiers at an American Army base
Plotting to murder federal employees
Over $1.5 billion in various forms of fraud
Three kidnappings
Three other attempted murders, including of two policemen
Three other assaults on police
Numerous threats against police and public officials
Attempts to acquire surface to air missiles, plastic explosives, and other military weapons including biological ones
Paper terrorism using phony liens, court orders, summons, warrants
Numerous counts of forging passports, driver’s licenses, other documents

The ROT militia claims to have thousands of members statewide, and admits that some of the membership includes a “white supremacist faction.”[16]

Recall the phony charges against Obama in 2008 about “palling with terrorists” over serving on a committee with someone who, a quarter of a century early, had solely destroyed property.

But Rick Perry shared the stage with real terrorists, and sought their support. The ROT tried to assassinate a Democratic president and a Republican governor, murder police, soldiers, and civilians, force elected officials from office using threats, steal on a scale organized crime can only dream about, and intimidate any who disagree with them.
[...]

In Full @ IndyBay

Beyond Nepotism - Santa Cruz California Mayor Uses City Council Proclamation To 'Plug' Self-Sponsored Book/Talk Event At His Businesses

2011-11-11T10:31:00.000-08:00

AuntieImp received this note from Becky Johnson @ One Woman Talking today:

Looks like Mayor Ryan Coonerty is AGAIN misusing his power with a Mayoral proclamation that sells both books at Bookshop Santa Cruz(ed. his family's business downtown) and tickets at NextSpace (ed. transient office worker rental space downtown).

Feathering his own nest? Heck, that's all he ever does.

Coonerty is the co-owner and co--founder of NextSpace.

He's used his mayoral proclamation to sell tickets to the speaking event his company is sponsoring AND the woman's book is sold in Bookshop Santa Cruz.

See: What's Next Lecture: Jacqueline Novogratz & The Blue Sweater and http://whatsnextlectures.com/

It might also be noted that Mayor Coonerty is married to the one of the owners of Dell Williams Jewelers, an old-line locally owned store downtown.

That may not sound like an 'issue' but it must be considered that his wife is also the current chairperson for the Santa Cruz Downtown Business Association.

And even while his engagement to a woman who chairs a merchant organization that is responsible for most of Santa Cruz city's tourist and student generated revenue was kept in near secrecy, mayor Coonerty voted on matters affecting the downtown shopping district.

To this day the "Boy Mayor", as he's referred to affectionately by those in the know and those who remember his father Neil Coonerty's corrupt so-called 'progressive' reign over Santa Cruz politics, STILL refuses to recuse himself on city council votes regarding their "Shopping Mall By The Sea" formerly known as the "Pacific Garden Mall".

The Santa Cruz City Council Agenda for November 08 2011 with his self-involved 'proclamation':

Santa Cruz Ca City Council Agenda 11/08/2011

For more information about nepotism and corruption in Santa Cruz politics...

See how a member of the Santa Cruz city council actually attempted to have a local church pastor fired for attempting to feed the homeless at his church located across the street from a house owned by the councilwoman's daughter, despite the fact the pastor had ameliorated the city's alleged complaints, and documentation to the fact that Councilwoman Matthews did so on an official city letterhead, with nary a word to the council OR public, here:

"Sorry... Two Words" (That Describe How Corrupt A Local Government Official Can Be) - Santa Cruz California Edition

You might also want to peruse Becky Johnson's One Woman Talking for more 'dirt' on Santa Cruz city dealings and corruption.

The current post on her site: Council's behind the scenes machinations typical of the 1%ers

And Now For A Veterans Day "Warm Fuzzy" - (Donald Rumsfeld's Own) "Charity" Offering Veterans Chance To Strangle Donald Rumsfeld

2011-11-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

What could be more Veteransy than a Veterans Day lunch with Donald Rumsfeld?

Because, after all, Vogon poetry, in all it's horrid spleen-bursting metre, is infinitely preferable to Rumsfeld's, and with Donny boy's fighting techniques, he simply doesn't stand a chance against some Special Forces Operator who lost a number of friends in one of Rummy's worthless wars.

[Click on the screenshot for the full story @ Wonkette]
o
o
o

"Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is auctioning the opportunity for a winning bidder and two guests to join him for a private lunch at his office in Washington, D.C.

Secretary Rumsfeld will personally give the winner and guests a tour of his office after lunch, which contains memorabilia, historic photos and more. They will also all receive a personally inscribed copy of his latest book, Known and Unknown.

Excerpt:
The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
Auction proceeds will benefit the Rumsfeld Foundation.

Bidding on the experience, valued at $10,000, is open at http://www.charitybuzz.com/catalog_items/275001no

Uhh, so the “charity” is Donald Fucking Rumsfeld’s own foundation? A fucking TAX SCAM to continue enriching DONALD RUMSFELD?

In Full @ Wonkette
While you're at Wonkette, you MIGHT want to...

[Click the screenshot for the complete travelogue]

This is Razer Raygun Saying: "If you're going to 'go for it' you may as well go for the throat"

#The1stAmendmentIsOurPermit - OccupySantaCruz Reads "The Riot Act" To The Political Cronies Of Santa Cruz California

2011-11-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

«o» Backgrounder and link to the unsolicited 'permit' mentioned below Here

The cronies of the 1% of Santa Cruz got swarmed at city hall this afternoon...

At least 50 people from #OccupySantaCruz (California) marched to city hall today to deliver a mass vocal rejection of an ultimatum disguised as a 'non-commercial event permit' which would have limited the Occupier's autonomy and control over their encampment in San Lorenzo Park near the Santa Cruz County Court House, by the lovely banks of the San Lorenzo sewag... I mean "River" (really I do!) along with a number of other issues recounted at the background link above and in the rejection document authorized by the General Assembly that follows.

The crowd you see gathered above read the document in unison to city council members who were present and the city manager who had authorized the issuance of the 'permit'.

The city manager of Santa Cruz California claims that the police department 'serves at his pleasure'. In other words, the city council has delegated the day to day authority of the local police department to a hired manager.

Consensus among the Occupiers however is simply; Since the city manager is employed or fired at the city council's pleasure, they are indeed in charge of their own police force. Hence the attempt to trap these rats in their own lair for them all to hear the recited refusal to accept the regulations their manager was demanding of a first amendment related protest.

You could hear the reading of the following document all the way to the back of the City Hall complex:

[Click the image for a full size image in a popout window]

Meanwhile, about another 50 people stood by at the information center on Water Street, one of the busiest traffic routes in the city, near the court house steps, to protect a Geodesic Dome structure which had been erected to protect the #Occupy visitors center from inclement weather, only to have it threatened with forcible removal by the city authorities.

We're waiting Santa Cruz city... ...THIS is what we expect to see:

[Click the image for a full size image in a popout window]

One Word... "Nuts!" - An Open Letter From #OccupySantaCruz To Santa Cruz' Government

2011-11-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

According to various accounts from those present, when (General Anthony Clement) McAuliffe was told of the German demand for surrender (at the Battle of the Bulge, WWII) he said "nuts".

At a loss for an official reply, Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard suggested that his first remark summed up the situation well, which was agreed to by the others. The official reply was typed and delivered by Colonel Joseph Harper, commanding the 327th Glider Infantry, and his S-3, Major Alvin Jones, to the German delegation.

It was as follows:
To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander
Suffice it to say, the Germans were perplexed at the short reply. Harper offered an explanation of the meaning of the word to the Germans, telling them that in "plain English" it meant "Go to hell."[1] (source)

«o» At first "Wes" came up with this draft letter to the city of Santa Cruz in response to their ultimatum masquerading as a 'permit':

Uh, thanks City. I can see how this makes it easier politically for you to still bust homeless people in the park while ignoring our occupation, but since the need for usable public space is a small and important part of our occupation, we got that covered, thanks.

While neither the GA nor the individuals in the legal committee asked for the special event permit, nor for all the restrictions that come with it, thank you for the kind thought, but no thank you.

If you still would like to help (and to be sure, help without strings attached is certainly welcome), perhaps you could direct the city manager to direct the police to leave the occupation alone. We know you have no direct say over the county sheriffs, but perhaps your example will inspire the county supervisors to direct the sheriff to also leave the occupation alone.

In any case, thank you for thinking of us. While your help is welcome, we’ll be okay without you.

«o» This final draft open letter is in response to the city of Santa Cruz California's attempt to deliver an ultimatum to #OccupySantaCruz in the form of an unrequested and unwanted 'permit for a non-profit event'.

Of course #Occupations are not really a non-profit event, but a protest, and there were a number of other issues with the document, including the concept of 'permission to #Occupy' itself that caused the following letter to be voted affirmative in a near consensus.

It will be delivered tomorrow November 7 2011 at 3PM PST by the whole of #OccupySantaCruz not only to the city manager who actualized it, but the city council members, wherever they may be found at the city hall complex, to whom the city manager is answerable.

[Click the image for a full size image in a popout window]

IF all goes well, we'll see a response similar to this:

[Click the image for a full size image in a popout window]

#Occupy PSA - $5,000 Reward Offered For Identification Of The Police Officer Who Assaulted USMC Veteran Scott Olsen

2011-10-31T09:46:00.000-07:00

Tear Gas canister... fired at point-blank range.... Make that charge "Attempted Murder".

Due to difficulties identifying the police officer who shot USMC Marine Veteran Scott Olsen in the face at point blank range with a tear gas canister at the #OccupyOakland Police Riot last week there is a $5,000 dollar reward being offered to anyone who can identify the assailant.

Some of Scott's 'brothers' want to speak with the 'gentleman'

[Disclaimer: It is unknown whether the Brother above is one of the people making that offer.]

Perspectives: On The Topic Of Muammar al-Gadaffi, Other 'Brutal Dictators', And 'Atrocities'

2011-10-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

Atrocity is a word bandied about a lot now days in regard to national leaders who aren't held in high esteem by the so-called civilized nations of the world, so yours truly seeks to clarify.

THIS in an "Atrocity":

"We don't do body counts" ~~General Tommy Franks _src

But, of course that was just another lie:

"The Wikileaks Iraq war logs provide us with a unique picture of every death in Iraq.

These are those events mapped using Google Fusion tables."

When the Hand Cursor points at a red dot, click once for the specifics of that particular death.

[Baghdad alone. This map zooms out to cover every death in Iraq at the time of 'purloin-ment']
Fullscreen online version available here

[Download the data]

Go To The Guardian (UK) For More

9/11... Who NEEDS A "Conspiracy"? Just Buy The Airplane Tickets And Hand Them Out At 'Appropriate' Places

2011-10-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Unless his experience includes crashing airplanes into buildings or structural engineering for the construction trade, yours truly's experience is just as valid as his.

(Mine maybe more so with experience in construction and foundry work).

The story he's been told... quite simply is an evasion, a carefully crafted fiction using denial and rationalization of facts like 'we have people working as slaves to make our lifestyle possible...'

They're making plastic crap like this:

Twin tower 'Terror Toy' packaged in candy for American children.
Click the image for the news story.

In conditions usually WORSE than this:

‘Blood factories’ of Capitalism

The Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn is the single largest exporter from China. It manufactures high-end equipment for Apple, Dell, HP, Nintendo, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and a clutch of other global brands
o
o
o
Foxconn’s business model is based on mass production at thin margins, realised by driving its young workforce to the maximum.

While Foxconn has largely achieved anonymity as the world’s largest maker of electronic gadgetry, its shocking suicide rate has catapulted the company to global notoriety.

It’s mastodon factories – Foxconn employs a million workers in China – which resemble medium-sized cities, are run like a military dictatorship.

All the suicide victims at Foxconn’s two Shenzhen factories have been migrant workers in the 17-25 age group. Employees are forced to work double or triple the legal limit on overtime on a regular basis, according to independent surveys. While the maximum legal amount of overtime is 36 hours per month in China, researchers report that 80 to 100 hours of overtime is normal at Foxconn.

Another factor is systematic repression. The company prefers to employ ex-army officers from Taiwan as line supervisors. Militarisation of the production process is a feature of the ‘Foxconn model’. [More]

When people culturally and economically in cadence with the Air Force pilot pictured above allow their elected representatives to bomb countries 'back to the stone age' "Protecting us" from the enemies we've created by our own callous disregard for other cultures, societies, and those lives, it wouldn't even take a charismatic figure like Osama to find a group of people despondent enough to drive an airliner into one or more of our buildings.

Just buy the airplane tickets and hand them out at appropriate places.

Why the buildings fell the way they did or why WTC 7 seemed to independently collapse, is not only irrelevant to the overarching issue, but much of it is easily explainable within a reasonable margin-of-error using simple physics.

But we're talking about self-obfuscation here... we're not talking about reasonable people. We're talking about mainstream middle-class people (and people aspiring to be middle-class) desperate to maintain their lifestyles.

Addicts... Any kind... From the 'depths and degradations' of Heroin addiction to the typical American compulsively consuming 'Stuff' they're told they must have.

As they spin out of control they attempt to micromanage, control, assign responsibility to, and blame everyone but themselves.

Responsibility-for-their-own-actions while simultaneously maintaining the addiction is not possible.

[Click the image for source and comments @ Adbusters Magazine, Journal of the Mental Environment]

You blame Dick Cheney.

You blame Osama.

You blame the Military-Industrial complex that DOES indeed profit from the War on Terror while you receive the benefit of a continuation of lifestyle for a little while longer...

But you will NEVER blame yourself, your lifestyle, or take any sort of personal responsibility for your government's actions taken in your name.

Because you would have to admit you've been 'bought and sold', like sheep, led without resistance to the slaughter.

Sheep To The Slaughter/If - Paris, and The Maroons

Auntie's Bookshelf: American History 101 - Readings On The Advent Of 'Indigenous Annihilation Day', Howard Zinn

2011-10-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

A People's History Of The United States
by Howard Zinn

Presented by History Is A Weapon.
A Note and Disclaimer are below.

1. Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress

2. Drawing the Color Line

3. Persons of Mean and Vile Condition

4. Tyranny is Tyranny

5. A Kind of Revolution

6. The Intimately Oppressed

7. As Long As Grass Grows Or Water Runs

8. We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God

9. Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom

10. The Other Civil War

11. Robber Barons And Rebels

12. The Empire and the People

13. The Socialist Challenge

14. War Is the Health of the State

15. Self-help in Hard Times

16. A People's War?

17. "Or Does It Explode?"

18. The Impossible Victory: Vietnam

19. Surprises

20. The Seventies: Under Control?

21. Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus

22. The Unreported Resistance

23. The Clinton Presidency and the Crisis of Democracy

24. The Coming Revolt of the Guards

25. The 2000 Election and the "War on Terrorism"

A Note and a disclaimer.

The Note: This great book should really be read by everyone. It is difficult to describe why it so great because it both teaches and inspires. You really just have to read it. We think it is so good that it demands to be as accessible as possible. Once you've finished it, we're sure you'll agree. In fact, years ago, we would offer people twenty dollars if they read the book and didn't think it was completely worth their time. Of all the people who took us up on it, no one collected.

The disclaimer: This version is made from OCR. That is a fancy way of saying that we scanned in and coded over six hundred fifty pages. There will be a few small occasional errors: spelling mistakes, odd punctuation, and the like. If you see any, please contact us. We have posted it in spite of these mistakes for two simple reasons. First, the book is worth a mistake or two because it really deserves the widest audience possible. Second, we are sure that once you new people begin reading it, you'll go out and get a physical copy. You should go and get it (and ones for your friends and family). At this point, A People's History Of The United States is available in regular form, read aloud on audio, on posters, in a teaching edition, and as just the twentieth century chapters (we have all but the posters). And now here. Please Enjoy!

Visit History Is A Weapon

This is Razer Raygun saying:

"Stop Thinking Like An "American" (more on that here)

Before:

After:

US Veteran: "I Was Deployed To Iraq Four Times... And I Support #OccupyWallStreet"

2011-09-29T11:44:00.000-07:00

I was deployed to Iraq 4x
5 of my friends are dead
1 of my friends is missing his arm
1 of my friends killed himself
I've been blown up 2x by roadside bombs
Hearing fireworks makes me nervous
I can't sleep at night

All so bankers and war profiteers could get richer

I am the 99%
www.occupywallst.org

This is Razer Raygun saying:

"In order to succeed in your...

Don't forget to meditate kiddies."

#Occupy. An IMPORTANT Message From Anonymous... A 'Tahrir Square Moment' Channeled Through Keith Olbermann

2011-09-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

Wall Street: US stocks end week with $1 trillion loss - The Economic Times

24 Sep 2011

NEW YORK: An estimated $1 trillion was wiped off the value of US stocks this week, amid heightened fears that the world economy is heading for another recession. [More]

Hint: They aren't 'losses', they're 'sales'.

It's the "sound" of bankers, corporations, and financial institutions taking the money and running.

#Occupy.

A 'Tahrir Square Moment' ... Courtesy of Anonymous

Whether You Bothered To Notice Or Not 'The Dirty Fucking Hippies' Were Right!

2011-09-18T11:43:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to the people at #OccupyWallStreet.

If I still lived anywhere near NYC, I'd bring a tent.

It's just too bad that one can no longer throw money from the balcony of the Stock Exchange the way Abbie Hoffman did. I think it was fifty dollars in one and five dollar bills, and he brought the exchange to a screeching halt.

That story as retold by one of Abbie's closest friends, Stew Albert, who was a participant in the 'celebration' is here.

Now, they won't even let you on Wall Street, no less the balcony to the Exchange... Today (#OccupyWallStreet Day 2):

Police officers had completely blocked off Wall Street. In order to get on the street Sunday, people, including employees from the International Business Times, were asked if they lived or worked in the area before they were granted permission to pass through the barricades. [In Full, NYTimes]

I wonder what they'll do to verify 'local' creds tomorrow (Monday) when zillions of people are on their way to work?

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists." ~~Abbie Hoffman, Tikkun (July-August 1989) [wikiquotes]

It's time to give new meaning to the word "overthrow"

Excerpt, Country Joe McDonald's testimony at the trial of the Chicago 7... 8... 6... 9.

"We had a very long discussion. The meeting had been called to discuss the proposed Yippie! Convention in Chicago, to be held in Chicago. We never -- we hadn't heard much about it, and so we all met and we were staying at the Chelsea Hotel in New York and we met to discuss the Yippie! happening thing in Chicago.

Jerry Rubin said to me,
"We feel that the Democratic Convention being held in Chicago is a very important political event in the country, and that it represents fascist forces in America, oppression of minority groups, continuation of the war in Vietnam, and actual celebration of death, that the Democratic Convention being held in Chicago will be a celebration of death in that all of those things which are held in high esteem by the establishment, political parties in this country are those things which represent death and oppression,"
....and that it was the responsibility of those people, young people, who are concerned with freedom in America to try to do something in Chicago which would counter-balance the evil and negative vibrations from the Democratic Convention and that since I had written the Vietnam Rag, which has become the most well known song against the war in Vietnam, and that my group was very influential with young people of America, amongst the youth, that it was very important that we try to say something in Chicago which would be positive, natural, human, and loving, in order to let the people of America know that there are people in America who are not tripped out on ways of thinking which result only in oppression and fear, paranoia and death.

At that point Abbie Hoffman wanted to know what the song was, and then I -- then I sang the song.

It goes:

[he sings] "And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. The next stop is Vietnam. And it's --"

THE COURT: No, no, no, Mr. Witness. No singing.

THE WITNESS: "five, six, seven -- "

THE COURT: Mr. Marshal --

[the marshal goes over to Country Joe and puts his hand on Joe's chin to close his mouth]

THE MARSHAL: The Judge is talking.

THE COURT: No singing is permitted in the courtroom. You are here to answer questions. You may continue telling about this conversation.

BY MR. KUNSTLER:

Q. Can you recite the song? Do you think you can do that?

A. Yes, The chorus of the song is:

"And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. The next stop is Vietnam....

[Click the image for more @ The Realist archive]
Also See:

Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: As The Saying Goes: "The next time you need help, call a hippie..."

This is Razer Raygun with a friendly tip...

Capitalism is holding a loaded gun...

...And the target is ANYONE who gets in the way of their profits.

Take it easy... But TAKE IT!

The Festivities WILL BE WebCast! #OccupyWallStreet #Sep17 Is The Beginning Of A Global Revolution... The Power Elite Just Don't Know It Yet

2011-09-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

The Fun Begins @ 3PM ET September 17 2011

[Pop Out Player For Your Viewing Enjoyment]
Brought to you by globalrevolution on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

9/11 Nostalgia & Memoriam Department - The "War on Terror" Is An Absolute (but quite murderous) Fraud

2011-09-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

The War on Terror is a Fraud

Thursday, September 8, 2011

A decade of war started, and both fueled & fought by the same corporate-financier interests.

by Tony Cartalucci

From the beginning, even for those wanting to believe the fairy tale that 9/11 was carried out by cave dwellers carrying box cutters directed by Osama Bin Laden, who by all accounts was dying or already dead from kidney failure in 2001 - "unfortunate blunders" in US foreign policy can still be blamed for the creation and perpetuation of the ubiquitous, unceasing terror organization known as Al Qaeda. However, in light of recent events in Libya, Syria, Iran, and Algeria, there is exposed a truth, many have known for over 10 years, and many more are catching onto now - that the "War on Terror" is an absolute fraud, started, fueled and simultaneously fought against by the same handful of corporate-financier interests for the sole purpose of spreading Wall Street and London's hegemony across the globe.

Inception: Al Qaeda Made in USA

By all accounts, including admissions by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Osama Bin Laden's organization that would become Al Qaeda was created during the Soviet-Afghan war in in the late 70's and throughout the 80's. The funding of these militants did not begin after the Soviet invasion, but actually several years before the invasion. US intervention in Afghanistan by training and arming Afghanistan's Mujaheddin, along with Osama Bin Laden's Arab fighters, is one of the leading factors that led to the murderous and protracted decade-long war, according to the Nation in an article titled, "Blowback, the Prequel."

Photo: Former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski meeting with Osama Bin Laden, then leading the CIA's Arab legionaries in Afghanistan. Bin Laden's Al Qaeda would later spin off into regional terrorist organizations, covertly armed, trained, and protected by the CIA to this day, including LIFG in Libya, MEK in Iraq and Iran, and Baluchi terrorists in Pakistan.

....

Bin Laden's Al Qaeda would continue to fight after the Soviets were expelled from Afghanistan, this time in Kosovo's bid for independence from Serbia in the late 1990's. Al Qaeda-trained Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) militants garnered a Serbian response which was then used by NATO as a pretext for intervention. NATO's entry into the war led to the eventual carving up of the nation. Again, the CIA was found to be propping up Bin Laden's terrorist legionaries. Serbia's president, Slobodan Miloševic' would later be removed from power by yet another arm of American interventionism, the National Endowment for Democracy via Optor, now known as the infamous CANVAS organization which, with US funding, trained activists ahead of the now admittedly US-engineered "Arab Spring."

Despite Al Qaeda quickly becoming America's arch enemy, filling the void left by a collapsed Soviet Union, and justifying America's continued absurd defense spending as well as its enormous tactical holdings overseas throughout the 90's, it appears the organization was still very much a vehicle carrying forward US foreign policy. And despite accusations that it was a terrorist organization, it continued receiving covert support from US and British intelligence agencies, as did many other extremist groups which eventually were integrated with Al Qaeda after September 11, 2001...
In Full at Land Destroyer

West Point Study - Libyan 'Rebels' Are Also Most Likely To Be The 'Foreign Fighters' Killing US Troops In Iraq

2011-09-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

[Click for full size chart. Courtesy of West Point Military Academy and Land Destroyer]

Taken from a US West Point study [West Point, PDF] these graphs created by data obtained in Iraq clearly show that Libya's eastern region, and the cities of Darnah and Benghazi in particular, provided by far more militants found fighting US troops in Iraq than any other nation, including Saudi Arabia.

In Full @ Land Destroyer, Libyan Rebels Listed by US State Department as Terrorists

Further, a major part of the Libyan "rebel" army is still on U.S. State Department Terrorist Organization sanctions list:

"Belhaj/al-Hasidi and his men are being portrayed as reformed terrorists despite the fact that they are still LIFG fighters and LIFG itself is still listed as an international terrorist organization."

All docs at the above link, and an update here:

"West Point CTC Confirms LIFG Terrorists Leading Libyan Rebellion - then apologizes for them."

More Reasons The West Wants Muammar al-Gadffi Dead Or Gone (via William Blum, The Anti-Empire Report)

2011-09-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

North African Oil And Gas Infrastructure Map
[The above map of North Africa's Oil & Gas Infrastructure is brought to you courtesy of the Perry - Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas Austin. Here is A Full Size Map (1440x1080), and the Map Legend & Key Are Here]

The following is excerpted from: Libya and the world we live in, William Blum, The Anti-Empire Report September 1st, 2011

The desire to get rid of Gaddafi had been building for years; the Libyan leader had never been a reliable pawn; then the Arab Spring provided the excellent opportunity and cover.

As to Why? Take your pick of the following:

Gaddafi's plans to conduct Libya's trading in Africa in raw materials and oil in a new currency — the gold African dinar, a change that could have delivered a serious blow to the US's dominant position in the world economy. (In 2000, Saddam Hussein announced Iraqi oil would be traded in euros, not dollars; sanctions and an invasion followed.) For further discussion see here.

A host-country site for Africom, the US Africa Command, one of six regional commands the Pentagon has divided the world into. Many African countries approached to be the host have declined, at times in relatively strong terms. Africom at present is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. According to a State Department official: "We've got a big image problem down there. ... Public opinion is really against getting into bed with the US. They just don't trust the US." (The Guardian (London), June 25, 2007)

An American military base to replace the one closed down by Gaddafi after he took power in 1969. There's only one such base in Africa, in Djibouti. Watch for one in Libya sometime after the dust has settled. It'll perhaps be situated close to the American oil wells. Or perhaps the people of Libya will be given a choice — an American base or a NATO base. Another example of NATO desperate to find a raison d'être for its existence since the end of the Cold War and the Warsaw Pact.

Gaddafi's role in creating the African Union (ed. Libya is one of five countries along with Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, that cover 75 percent of the AU's budget). The corporate bosses never like it when their wage slaves set up a union. The Libyan leader has also supported a United States of Africa for he knows that an Africa of 54 independent states will continue to be picked off one by one and abused and exploited by the members of the Triumvirate. Gaddafi has moreover demanded greater power for smaller countries in the United Nations.

(Editorial note from Auntie Imp: More information about Libya's relations with the African Union and the country's funding of development projects throughout Africa can be found here. The funding of those projects was contingent on the recipient nation's attempts at reducing government corruption.)

The claim by Gaddafi's son, Saif el Islam, that Libya had helped to fund Nicolas Sarkozy's election campaign could have humiliated the French president and explain his obsessiveness and haste in wanting to be seen as playing the major role in implementing the "no fly zone" and other measures against Gaddafi. A contributing factor may have been the fact that France has been weakened in its former colonies and neo-colonies in Africa and the Middle East, due in part to Gaddafi's influence.

Gaddafi has been an outstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause and critic of Israeli policies; and on occasion has taken other African and Arab countries, as well as the West, to task for their not matching his policies or rhetoric; one more reason for his lack of popularity amongst world leaders of all stripes.

In January, 2009, Gaddafi made known that he was considering nationalizing the foreign oil companies in Libya. He also has another bargaining chip: the prospect of utilizing Russian, Chinese and Indian oil companies. During the current period of hostilities, he invited these countries to make up for lost production. But such scenarios will now not take place. The Triumvirate will instead seek to privatize the National Oil Corporation, transferring Libya's oil wealth into foreign hands.

The American Empire is troubled by any threat to its hegemony. In the present historical period the empire is concerned mainly with Russia and China. China has extensive energy investments and construction investments in Libya and elsewhere in Africa. The average American neither knows nor cares about this. The average American imperialist cares greatly, if for no other reason than in this time of rising demands for cuts to the military budget it's vital that powerful "enemies" be named and maintained.

For yet more reasons, see the article "Why Regime Change in Libya?" by Ismael Hossein-zadeh, and the US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks — Wikileaks reference 07TRIPOLI967 11-15-07 (includes a complaint about Libyan "resource nationalism")

Much More, With References And Footnotes @ The Anti-Empire Report

William Blum is the author of:

Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2

Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower

West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir

Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire

Portions of the books can be read, and signed copies purchased, at www.killinghope.org

'Check Yourself' Means Look In The Mirror And Ask: "Who the F**k Do You Think You Are?"

2011-08-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

The Rear View Mirror Works...

Addicts... Any kind... From the 'depths and degradations' of Heroin addiction to the typical American compulsively consuming 'Stuff' they're told they must have.

As they spin out of control they attempt to micromanage, control, assign responsibility to, and blame everyone but themselves.

Responsibility-for-their-own-actions while simultaneously maintaining the addiction is not possible.

[Click the image for source and comments @ Adbusters Magazine, Journal of the Mental Environment]

Auntie Covers The Arts: August 2 Is International DaDaism Month, Day Five

2011-08-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Today is Day 5 of International Dadaism month...

IDM is not one consecutive month, but rather celebrated each year on February 4, March 28, April 1, July 15, August 2, August 7, August 16, August 26, September 18, September 22, October 1, October 17, and October 26. zimzim urallala zimzim urallala zimzim zanzibar zimzalla zam.

More zivwohwowie @ Wikipedia

This is Auntie Imperial saying:

And don't forget to take it easy... But TAKE IT!

For A Damn Good Reason Too! (Part 2) - Why the Rich Fear Violence in the Streets

2011-07-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Just in! End Result Of US Ethnocide: Report - Safest Place To Be a Black Man Is in Prison

Sarah Jaffe at AlterNet continues on where Robert Frank @ the Wall Street Journal leaves off (Part One)

Caption: An auto lays on its side
and crowds gather after a bomb exploded
on Wall Street on Sept. 16, 1920. (Getty)
$230,000 For a Guard Dog: Why the Wealthy Are Afraid Of Violence From Below

As inequality in the US grows, the ultra-rich are pouring their spare cash not just into private jets, but into private security. Think there's a connection?

July 29, 2011

[ooo] John Johnson, the owner of the $230,000 (Attack) dog featured in the New York Times, is a former debt collector. (You can't make this stuff up.) He sold his debt collection company three years ago, but still has not just one, but six highly—and expensively—trained “executive protection dogs.” Harrison K-9 services, the trainers behind Johnson's pricey protection dogs, used to train dogs for elite military units like the Navy Seal team that raided Osama bin Laden's compound. The article doesn't say exactly how many dogs Harrison K-9 has provided for the world's rich and famous, but it does feature a quote from their head trainer saying she's trained “a thousand” dogs.

In addition to security systems, dogs and armed yachts, the security-conscious oligarch can hire a private spy company—Jellyfish, a spinoff of the notorious private security company Blackwater. Or what about their own personal drone? “Smaller, private versions of the infamous Predator” may be coming to well-heeled private citizens near you, according to the UK's Daily Mail. So far the private drones appear to only be for spying, but former Navy fighter pilot Missy Cummings told the Daily Mail, “It doesn't take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody.”

So why are the rich getting paranoid? After all, here in the U.S. it looks like they don't even have to worry about their taxes returning to Clinton-era levels, let alone cope with a truly significant change to their lifestyles.

Still, as the rich get richer, it seems, they get more and more worried about the rest of us coming for their wealth—and they're out to protect it by any means necessary.

David Sirota has noted that “we're fast becoming a 'let them eat cake' economy,” where ostentatious displays of wealth and arrogance seem to be an everyday occurrence as the rest of the country suffers.

A private jet traffic jam was big news in the New York Times last week, because the children of the uber-rich have to get to a Maine summer camp, and driving just won't do. Maine's Tea Party governor, Paul LePage, took some time off from limiting access to the vote and picking fights with organized labor to gloat over the jet traffic:

“Love it, love it, love it,” Mr. LePage said of the private-plane traffic generated by summer camps. “I wish they’d stay a week while they’re here. This is a big business.” [More on jet jammin' at Crooks and Liars]

While the private jet crowd is “big business,” the rest of Maine—and the country—is still suffering.

And maybe that's where the fear comes in...

We've seen revolution in Tunisia and Egypt, attempts in Libya, Syria, Yemen, unrest in Greece and Spain, student protests in England, and here at home the occupation of the capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. While nothing yet in the U.S. has approached the level of organized attacks on the wealthy by the have-nots, since the financial crash even the hint that perhaps private jet owners could pay a few more dollars in taxes has been decried as class war.

A few protests that actually dare approach the doorsteps of the bankers appear to be all it takes to stoke paranoia among the super-rich...

More @ Alternet

So it all comes down to this...

Is America Ripe for a Tahrir Moment?

Imagine … it's the dawn of the 13th day of the occupation … you're tired, not sleeping or eating too great … you've been harassed, maybe tear gassed and beaten. But when you look at your compatriots you see emancipation burning in their eyes. Bloomberg is threatening to call in the National Guard, Obama is hemming and hawing, but you are sitting tight because much of the nation is cheering you on. Al Jazeera and BBC are beaming your struggle to a captivated world and the tension is building for Obama to break his silence. It feels much like it did in Tahrir Square moments before Mubarak caved. More @ Adbusters

[Click the image to learn more... and bring a tent]

In the meantime, CrimethInc, the EX-Workers Collective, and your Auntie want you to know:

Crises like this are part of the protection racket that keeps them in business.

Economic crises are not natural disasters. They are brought about by the actions of bankers, officials, and developers, not to mention ordinary folks struggling to get by in a world we didn’t choose. They appear beyond our control, but they are not inescapable facts of life.

For all the talk of collapse, capitalism itself is as healthy as ever. The fundamental relationships remain unchanged: employers and employees, politicians and voters, police and policed. Our masters may loan us cars or houses to pacify us, but we still lack control over our own lives.

Crises like this are part of the protection racket that keeps them in business.

[Click the image for a full size PDF format poster]

They profit on the industries that heat up the earth’s atmosphere, and when hurricanes destroy our neighborhoods they replace them with condominiums and sell us energy-saving light bulbs.

They profit on the invasions that secure more resources for the economy, and also on the occupations in which our friends and relatives die.

They profited from the subprime mortgages that contributed to the latest disaster, and now they’re profiting from the bailout... In Full

Remember... They only call it Class War when we fight back

Take it easy, but TAKE IT!

Why They Want Muammar al-Gadaffi Dead... The War On Libya Is A War On Most Of Africa

2011-07-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Stan Goff's Photos @ FaceBook
Visit his sites, Feral Scholar and Insurgent American

Updated... MORE reasons why the West wants Muammar al-Gadffi dead

Also let it be noted that Reuters has modified their 'Factbox'. There are a number of strategic-to-the-West countries such as Somalia where their mention as having been assisted by Libya has been redacted. Yours truly has seen the original un-expurgated copy, and it is reproduced in full here. I stand by this copy, complete with all errors, ie. "...the Libyan Central Bank announced Libya would provide $50 in grants..."

At the top... For the Keep It Simple Silly crowd.

Muammar al-Gaddafi put $97 billion of his country's money 'where his mouth is' to keep Africa from needing Western Imperial assistance on the condition that the African states receiving the aid rid themselves of corruption and nepotism.

Consider that Western "Assistance" looks something like this...

Contractors And Others Steal Half Of Food Aid To Somalia

"New York - At least half of the World Food Programme's food supplies to Somalia's needy people has been diverted by unscrupulous contractors, radical Islamist militants and even UN staff in the country, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The Times said an unpublished report by the UN Security Council would recommend that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon launch an investigation into WFP's operations in Somalia considering the severity of the food aid diversion."

[In case you need a catch-up on 'corruption' there's a whole other piece Auntie posted, including a discussion of "Why DOES Somalia NEED "food aid" in the first place?" Here.]

Continuing...

So it's sort of obvious that, in a very real way, the War on Libya is being fought because Libya was attempting to bring down an African network of corruption, and attempting to foil the continued maintenance by the West of an ongoing status quo... You can call it 'economic war', being pursued against most all the nations of Africa.

Here's how Libya's aid to Africa is being/has been being spent:

Source: Reuters, Factbox: Libyan aid and investment projects in Africa

[Click the image for a larger, more legible version]

AFRICAN UNION: Libya is one of the biggest contributors to the budget of the African Union. A Libyan diplomat told Reuters Libya is one of five countries -- the others are Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa -- which cover 75 percent of the Union's budget. "Libya makes its full required contribution to AU funds. Not all countries do and that buys it influence," a senior African Union official said.

MALI: For several years Mali has been confronted with the activities of the radical Islamist militia Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in its northern deserts. Gaddafi’s money and diplomacy have helped to resolve conflicts in northern Mali between rebels and the government. In 2010 Libya has given Mali two security planes to combat insecurity in the north of the country. These conflicts could flare up again if Gaddafi exits the stage. Nowadays Gaddafi has many supporters in Mali who regularly march to protest against the Western-led military intervention in Libya.

CONGO: Libya has put $65 billion into sovereign wealth funds, including one which is specifically designed to make investments in Africa. The Libyan Arab African Investment Company, a vehicle of Libya's Africa sovereign wealth fund, owns Le Meridien, one of the biggest hotels in Congo. The hotel is undergoing refurbishment paid for by Libyan investment. In 2010, Libya planned to fund the building of a highway north of Congo's capital Brazzaville, where also the building of a mosque is planned.

LIBERIA: Libya has provided millions in investment projects, helping to strengthen the rule of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in one of Africa’s most impoverished nations. Gaddafi's help includes the funding of a rubber processing factory built in Gbarnga, Bong County, a technical and vocational school for the handicapped, as well as Libyan assistance in helping Liberia tackle the food crisis and renovation for the Ducor Intercontinental Hotel.

NIGER: Also in Niger Gaddafi has helped to prop up the government and the authorities would become more fragile without his financial help. Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi visited Niger in August 2010 and announced the creation of a $100 million investment fund for Niger as part of a strengthening of bilateral ties. Under earlier agreements, Libya is contributing 100 million euros for the construction of a Trans-Sahara highway in the north of Niger, according to sources close to Niger's foreign ministry. The local subsidiary of Libya Oil, along with Total, are the major players in Niger's fuel retailing business.

CHAD: Gaddafi has been a key supporter of the government, which would weaken if it lost his aid revenue. Chad has been plagued by civil wars and invasions after its independence from France in 1960. After years of unrest, Gaddafi seals a peace agreement for Chad between four Chadian rebel groups and the Chadian government in 2007, which agreement was signed in Sirte.

In 2010 Libya made a huge investment in Chad's National Telecom, which meant a boost of the number of the Chadian mobile phone users from 100,000 to two million.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Libya has helped to prop up the fragile government, sending paratroopers into the capital in 2001 to defeat a rebel assault. In 2008 Gaddafi played a role in the formation of a peace agreement between the government and rebel groups.

MAURITANIA: Gaddafi was the first head of state to visit after a 2008 coup which brought President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz to power. Aziz, who subsequently won a presidential election, has visited Gaddafi several times since then. Even Mauritanian opposition politicians have gone to Tripoli to pledge allegiance to the Libyan leader. Mauritania has debts to Libya of about $200 million. During discussions on debt relief in May 2010, the Libyan Central Bank announced Libya would provide $50 (Misprint by Reuters) in grants to build a hospital and a university. The university is to be named after Gaddafi.

SUDAN: The 20,000-troop peacekeeping mission in Dafur, jointly supported by the African Union and the United Nations, could be hampered if the African Union (AU) loses funding from Gaddafi and destabilize the country. Gaddafi, who blamed the crisis in Darfur on Israel, made a number of attempts to broker peace talks between Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government.

In October 2010, Gaddafi warned ahead of a vote on possible independence for South Sudan that a partition of the country would be a “contagious disease” that could spread to other African states.

ETHIOPIA: The African Union, based in Ethiopia's capital, could find itself in financial trouble if it loses the massive support that Gaddafi gives it. Under his rule, Libya supplied 15% of the AU’s membership dues, and it also paid the dues of many smaller and poorer African nations. To seek for a solution of the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict, Gaddafi has sent a special envoy to Ethiopia in 2000. In 2008, Libya's OiLibya bought Shell Ethiopia. This agreement also included retaining all Shell employees, who were hoping to work in a better environment since a long time

SOMALIA: The African Union peace keeping mission, whose 8,000 soldiers are crucial to the battle against Islamic radicals in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, could be severely weakened if the AU lost the financial support of Gaddafi. In 2008 Libya decided to grant an investment fund to Somalia through the Sahel-Saharan Investment and Trade Bank to fund infrastructures such as roads and bridges within Somalia.

GAMBIA: Libyan firms own two hotels and the "Dream Park" entertainment centre in Gambia. Gambian agriculture has received support from Libya, including a donation of seven new tractors. In 2009 Gaddafi gave two camels to Gambian President Yahya Jammeh as a gift. The Libyan and Gambian presidents have exchanged visits and senior Gambian officials attended ceremonies in September to mark the anniversary of Gaddafi coming to power. On September 7, 2009, Gambia celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Al Fateh Revolution: "In Libya everyone enjoys Freedom!".

==30==

You Da Man! (derp derp derp) - Adam Kokesh, Iraq Combat Vet & Winter Soldier, Delivers ANONYMOUS' Response To NATO

2011-07-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

Ah, No... They DID say why...

Dear North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Our Message is simple 'Do not lie and your lies won't be exposed...' 'Do not make corrupt deals and your corruption won't be laid bare...'

What We Are Capable Of... Join Us!

It Is Time: 'What Are We Capable Of?' - A Call For A Global Nonviolent Revolution - Anonymous

2011-07-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

You ARE the "Legion"
Your ideas for a better world are bulletproof:

"We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea," ~~Anonymous' response to Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant director of the FBI's cyber division [src]

Learn more at whatis-theplan.org

@Facebook

H/t: Adbusters, The journal of the mental environment

This Could Be Ugly (in the best kind of way)... 'Anonymous' Declares Solidarity With The Animal Liberation Struggle

2011-07-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

I can just picture Edward Abbey smiling down On Anonops

Be like Ed (Description)

"We aren't trying to overthrow EVERYTHING... ...but certain specific things. Business, POLITICS, Poverty, and Oppression." ~~Herbert Marcuse

Anonymous Hackers Group Declares Solidarity With Animal Liberation Struggle

Fight Against Oppression Won't be Affected by Recent Arrest of 14 Alleged Members

Los Angeles: In a computer-generated spoken communique on YouTube last week, the hackers group Anonymous voiced its solidarity with the struggle for animal liberation. Citing the commonality of oppression against humans and non-human animals, the group highlighted the injustice in animal experimentation and the unnecessary consumption of animal flesh, and asked the public not to turn their backs on non-humans capable of "emotions such as joy. anger. sadness & fear. both [humans and non-human animals] have families. mothers. fathers. brothers. sisters. sons & daughters".

...and the sentiment is mutual:

"The North American Animal Liberation Press Office unequivocally supports the actions of Anonymous, as a critical component in the fight against a capitalist state intent on the destruction of habitat, oppression of those who are necessary to sustain its domination, and suppression of any dissent by those who recognize the need to act against tyranny."

Your browser is not able to display this multimedia content.

[Source and full transcript Animal Liberation Press Office]
H/t: Indymedia California

For A Damn Good Reason Too! Why the Rich Fear Violence in the Streets - WSJ

2011-07-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

July 30 2011, Part 2 posted [here]

Hmmm... Public 'resentment' against the rich could turn violent... I support that, and we should get together and do it as soon as possible before these people, who control not just the money, but the media as well, figure out how to get the middle class to turn against the poor... Fascists LUV that kind of action, and the middle class of the US, which has been shown repeatedly to blindly work against it's own self interest, is quite used to scapegoating OTHER people.

Why the Rich Fear Violence in the Streets

July 6 2011

By Robert Frank

Caption: An auto lays on its side
and crowds gather after a bomb exploded
on Wall Street on Sept. 16, 1920. (Getty)

Last year, I was at a billionaire’s home in California and I asked him to describe his biggest worry. He pointed to a 19th century painting on the wall, which depicted a female beggar receiving alms from a wealthy gentleman and giving her patron a flower in return.

“That’s what I worry about,” he said. “But instead of flowers, she’s got guns.

Violence in the streets, aimed at the wealthy. That’s what I worry about.”

It turns out he wasn’t alone. A new survey from Insite Security and IBOPE Zogby International of those with liquid assets of $1 million or more found that 94% of respondents are concerned about the global unrest around the world today.

Fully 90% of respondents have a negative view of the current global economic climate and 41% say they have little or no faith that the U.S. will be able to right itself in this fiscal climate.

More than a third said security concerns have negatively affected business or investment plans.

“The survey found a seismic shift in the attitudes of the wealthy and how they are living their lives, the way they travel and how they are running their businesses,” said Christopher Falkenberg, President of Insite Security.

Of course, Insite has an interest in getting the paranoid rich to beef up their security. Still, the numbers are backed up by other trends..

Read It @ The Wall Street Journal

This is Auntie Imperial, with a friendly reminder...

They only call it "Class War" when you fight back:

'The Baby And The Baath Water' - A Multi-Media History Of The West's Involvement In Syria & The Region Via The CIA Infiltrated Baath Party

2011-06-28T14:48:00.000-07:00

(Including information about Saddam Hussein's involvement with the Baath-CIA coup of 1963 in Iraq which deposed Abd al-Karim Qasim. That's right... Saddam Hussein, the "insane dictator", began his rise to power thanks to the CIA and US State Department.)

THE BABY AND THE BAATH WATER

Adam Curtis

Thursday, 16 June 2011

What is happening in Syria feels like one of the last gasps of the age of the military dictators. An old way of running the world is still desperately trying to cling to power, but the underlying feeling in the west is that somehow Assad's archaic and cruel military rule will inevitably collapse and Syrians will move forward into a democratic age.

That may, or may not, happen, but what is extraordinary is that we have been here before.

Between 1947 and 1949 an odd group of idealists and hard realists in the American government set out to intervene in Syria. Their aim was to liberate the Syrian people from a corrupt autocratic elite - and allow true democracy to flourish. They did this because they were convinced that "the Syrian people are naturally democratic" and that all that was neccessary was to get rid of the elites - and a new world of "peace and progress" would inevitably emerge.

What resulted was a disaster, and the consequences of that disaster then led, through a weird series of bloody twists and turns, to the rise to power of the Assad family and the widescale repression in Syria today.

I thought I would tell that story.

In 1968 a CIA agent called Miles Copeland (Ed. Conspiracy Buffs Note: His son is Stewart Copeland drummer for the well-known band "The Police".) wrote a book called 'The Game of Nations' that revealed what went on in 1947.

Back then Copeland was part of a mangement consulting team in Washington who were working out how America should contain the threat of communism in the Middle East, now the old European Empires had gone. This was before the CIA existed, and Copeland describes how they got together an odd group of diplomats, secret agents left over from the war, advertising men from Madison Avenue, and "pipe-smoking owls" (which is what intellectuals were called in those days).

Copeland describes an impassioned lecturer telling this group that their aim should be to change the leadership in the countries in the Middle East:

"Politicians in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt seem to have been elected into power, but what elections! The winners were all candidates of foreign powers, old land-owners who tell their tenants and villagers how to vote, or rich crooks who can buy their votes. But peoples of these countries are intelligent, and they have a natural bent for politics. If there is a part of the world which is crying for the democratic process the Arab World is it."

They decided to start with Syria. Compared to what was to come, it was all very sweet and innocent...

In Full

Author Adam Curtis also produced the excellent three part documentary "The Power Of Nightmares" for the BBC.

The documentary explains the roots of the Muslim Brotherhood, now much in the news due to the Egyptian revolt earlier this year, al-Qaeda, the Neoconservatives of the United States and elsewhere, and their common philosophical roots derived from a grossly dysfunctional 'reading' of Jewish philosopher Leo Strauss' works and teachings. There was an Egyptian national in Leo Strauss' lecture hall, and he returned home to Egypt with the same world view and vision as Elliot Abrahms Fred Kagan, Paul Wolfowitz, and other public figures who now have the ear of the American political Right and all to often, the confidences of sitting US presidents.

From the introduction:

This film explores the origins in the 1940s and 50s of Islamic Fundamentalism in the Middle East, and Neoconservatism in America, parallels between these movements, and their effect on the world today.

From the introduction to Part 1:
"Both [the Islamists and Neoconservatives] were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. And both had a very similar explanation for what caused that failure. These two groups have changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together, they created today's nightmare vision of a secret, organized evil that threatens the world. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the most powerful."

The documentary is available at Internet Archive at two links:

The documentary presented in a player-on-page with a number of video formats available for download here.

Here is the link to the landing page for an ISO file ready to burn to DVD.

Breaking: Santa Cruz California Lawyer Ed Frey Jailed For Protesting Anti-Homeless Laws Has Bail Reduced From $50,000 - $110

2011-06-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

"Leave no brother or sister behind enemy lines..." ~~POCC (Prisoners of Conscience Committee).

Breaking News June 24 2011:

Santa Cruz California lawyer Ed Frey jailed for protesting anti-homeless laws has had his bail (to allow for post-conviction appeals) reduced from $50,000 to $110.

Also, other charges against co-defendant Gary Johnson have been dropped (21 counts). ~~Johnson is still imprisoned for six months~~ (6/28/2011 - Gary Johnson released on bail pending appeal.) on a single protest conviction. [More]

Backgrounder Here

Half The World's Refugees Are Running From US Instigated Wars

2011-06-24T13:44:00.001-07:00

It was simpler in the old days:

‎‎"I do not understand this sqeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes." -- Winston Churchill 1920 (speaking of the Iraqis, Kurds, and other 'dusky natives' of the region)

[Clickthrough ThinkProgress]

"MY COUNTRY is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" ~~Martin Luther King Jr.

...and endangering citizens by causing them to flee from wars made for extractive resources but persecuted under false pretenses qualifies as one of the most callous forms of violence as it affects everyone from old people to infants. They are also the most likely to die as displaced persons.

Thoughts On The 2012 Democratic Convention... Simply Stated:

2011-06-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

Too bad about Charlotte. Seems like a real nice place.
(Unlike the armpit of California known as Los Angeles)

[The whole half hour video is here.]

The push began in 1968...

It's time to shove.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich Explains What's Wrong With The U.S. Economy In Under Two Minutes

2011-06-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of MoveOn

The Super Rich wrote America a note of appreciation a while back. Read It.

In the meantime, CrimethInc, and your Auntie want you to know:

Crises like this are part of the protection racket that keeps them in business.

Economic crises are not natural disasters. They are brought about by the actions of bankers, officials, and developers, not to mention ordinary folks struggling to get by in a world we didn’t choose. They appear beyond our control, but they are not inescapable facts of life.

For all the talk of collapse, capitalism itself is as healthy as ever. The fundamental relationships remain unchanged: employers and employees, politicians and voters, police and policed. Our masters may loan us cars or houses to pacify us, but we still lack control over our own lives.

Crises like this are part of the protection racket that keeps them in business.

[Click the image for a full size PDF format poster]

They profit on the industries that heat up the earth’s atmosphere, and when hurricanes destroy our neighborhoods they replace them with condominiums and sell us energy-saving light bulbs.

They profit on the invasions that secure more resources for the economy, and also on the occupations in which our friends and relatives die.

They profited from the subprime mortgages that contributed to the latest disaster, and now they’re profiting from the bailout... In Full

Santa Cruz California Lawyer Ed Frey & Houseless Defendant Imprisoned Six Months For Sleep Protest

2011-06-11T13:03:00.001-07:00

Breaking News June 24 2011:

Santa Cruz California lawyer Ed Frey jailed for protesting anti-homeless laws has had his bail (to allow for post-conviction appeals) reduced from $50,000 to $110. Other charges against co-defendant Gary Johnson dropped (21 counts). Johnson is still imprisoned for six months on a single protest conviction [More]

"Leave no brother or sister behind enemy lines..." ~~POCC (Prisoners of Conscience Committee).

A protest is scheduled for Monday, June 13th 2011, on the Santa Cruz California County Courthouse steps beginning at 7:30AM and continuing until....

Let's start with a brief summary of events.

[Above: Pseudo-Legal Camping (to spend money) Cinema 9 Theater]
Note that sleeping in plain sight, even on your own property, is illegal in Santa Cruz.

[Above: Pseudo-Illegal Camping (to protest city policies) @ SC County Courthouse]

The PeaceCamp 2010 protest and sleep-in responding to the unavailability of shelter space for the droves unemployed and homeless people in Santa Cruz California began on the steps of the Santa Cruz County Court House on July 4 last year, eventually moved to Santa Cruz City Hall, and continued 24/7/365 until October 2, with the admonition by lawyer and organizer of the event Ed Frey's words:

"the struggle is now moving into the courts"

In the Cabale News Service report for August 09 2010, yours truly wrote:

Sorry occifer! we don't have relatives in Oklahoma Kansas Georgia Tennessee like the po' folk did in the 30s.

Santa Cruz California Peacecamp2010 has been under siege over the weekend with dozens of Misdemeanor citations written and almost a dozen arrests. The camp's lawyer, Ed Frey, and other participants have been arrested for refusal to cooperate and sign the tickets, claiming the law they are being cited for is unconstitutional and invalid.

One man is on hunger strike and remains incarcerated until a Tuesday hearing.

One person was overheard telling the sheriffs involved in the raid: "Someone just got hit by a drunk driver... because you were here enforcing this unconstitutional law instead of patrolling the highways on Saturday night."

This correspondent saw the officer's shoulders rise with tension and one can only hope his 'dop kit' contains antacid.

The protest revolves around the apparent unconstitutionality of a total ban on sleeping outdoors, covered with a blanket, or in any manner, between the hours of 11pm and 8am anywhere within the city limits.

HOWEVER, to avoid testing the city of Santa Cruz' 'camping ban' ordinances, the law the arrestees are being cited for is California State Penal Code 647(e).

It is understood from sources that the Santa Cruz police department has refused to cooperate with the Santa Cruz Sheriffs in citing under their own 'ordinance' (not 'law'... 'ordinance').

California State Penal Code 647(e) is applicable to anyone...

...Who lodges in any building, structure, vehicle, or place, whether public or private, without the permission of the owner or person entitled to the possession or in control of it."

This State Code implies that it's illegal to bed down (or perhaps even rest by the side of the road) anywhere in the state without domicile (housing) or a welcoming place to stay (the meaning of 'lodging' itself).

Put simply... without 'some place to go', it's apparently illegal to be "(any) place" in the state for any length of time (because one MUST rest or sleep).

[Santa Cruz lawyer Ed Frey forced to cooperate with arrest process]

It is a 'law' that should date back to slavery days when California was a 'free' state attempting to control the influx of escaped 'Nigras'. This law is eerily close to the "Vagrancy Laws" overturned or sun-setted since the 40s, except in the South where laws like this were used into the 1960s to control the movement of the African American U.S. citizens.

Funny thing... (but I'm not laughing) you'd think this law was probably last used extensively in California during the GREAT DEPRESSION of the 1930s, but in reality this law was added to the state's law books over the last few years...

There are more writings on the PeaceCamp 2010 protests in the August 06 2010, August 09 2010, August 12 2010, and August 25 2010 editions of the Cabale News Service Report. Also see the PeaceCamp 2010 tag @ Becky Johnson's One Woman Talking for more extensive reports, documents, and details, and this posting at Santa Cruz IndyMedia, where you can see the hatred exhibited by certain elements of the community, typically representing the business community rather than the average Santa Cruz citizen, towards their disenfranchised neighbors.

Now, to the issue at hand...

Becky Johnson, host of the blog "One Woman Talking" attended the trial of the PeaceCamp Six and it's aftermath.

She writes:

(Santa Cruz California lawyer Ed Frey to Judge John Gallagher, Santa Cruz County Superior Court:)

"Where did you get the authority to claim the definition of illegal lodging included sleeping? It's not in the law itself. Opposing counsel cited two authorities, neither of which addressed sleeping as a criminal act. The defendants last August had no access to a definition of "lodging." The sheriff's who enforced it had no guidelines or definition to determine what "lodging" was. Only when we get to trial do we find that you, yourself provide that definition to the jury. Where did you get that definition? On what authority did you base it?"

"And how were the defendants last August supposed to know what "lodging" is? You, yourself said it is equivalent to sleeping. But where did you get that?"

"I got it from a dictionary," Gallagher admitted, so softly his words were barely audible. "And the defendants were warned first that they were illegally lodging."

[Click for larger image]

JURY FOREMAN: Personally I found it pretty crappy that it was clear that they were citing people as soon as they fell asleep. That was the one thing they were really going after.

Frey was adamant about pressing this point. He had filed a motion to dismiss based on vagueness of PC 647 (e) at a January 21st hearing this year. At that hearing, DA Sara Dabkowski argued that a definition was not necessary since "everyone knows what "lodging" means. It is a common word that puts people on notice that they can't lodge, can't live, can't stay the night, can't sleep somewhere, can't set up roots somewhere if they don't have permission. So it's not unconstitutionally vague on its face as written." (A complete transcript of that hearing can be found here.)

Yet at trial, and against the objections of the defense, Judge John Gallagher introduced his own definition of "lodging".
o
o
o
Indeed, Gallagher's language, which he claims came from a dictionary, contains suspect language. He used the term "settled in" as an indication of illegal behavior.

There is legal precedent for this language. Article 13 of Indiana's 1851 Constitution stated

"No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this Constitution."

While PC 647 (e) does not prohibit blacks from coming into the State, it does condemn to jail any person found within the State boundaries who does not have some form of permission to to sleep, live, or spend the night. That means any person in the State of California can be arrested on sight if they can't prove they have permission to "live" somewhere.

This sounds little different than article 13 of the Indiana State Constitution of 1851.

Just substitute the word "homeless" for "Negro."

o
o
o

But the County of Santa Cruz, the County Sheriffs, City police, and the judges at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse have all decided that sleeping is a criminal act. They have decided that depriving homeless people of any right to sleep, any ability to sleep on either public or private property is the cornerstone of their policy to criminalize homelessness. And the jails are full of homeless people.

"I instructed correctly at trial that sleeping is part of the definition of lodging. And you can be punished for that conduct."

DA DABKOWSKI moved on to the sentencing phase.

"We are asking for 400 hours of community service from Mr. Frey. People who worked at the County Building said they feared for their safety when they had to walk by people."

Frey argued,

"We were expressing ourselves. The first amendment is the most valid right we have. 400 hours of labor for expressing ourselves? That's outrageous. I didn't even know there was a "lodging" law. We were there to protest the Sleeping Ban of the City. We were speaking on behalf of the poorest of the poor. 400 hours is outrageous. I won't serve them."

"Then I sentence you to 6 months in County Jail,"

Gallagher announced, the maximum sentence possible under 647 (e). Frey asked to be released long enough so he could file an appeal.

"Okay. $50,000 bail!"

Double-outrageous.

"I can't find it in any of the laws that were cited that you can't sleep. Go home tonight and sleep if you can, and let my words ring in your ears."

Then Gallagher turned to Gary Johnson, who is homeless.

"Do you accept 400 hours of community service?"

"I have more of a problem with the 3 years probation clause "obey all laws." I have to sleep. I can't go three years without sleeping."

"Are you turning down the conditions?"

"It's not that I won't. I can't. I have to sleep. I have to sleep tonight. Where can I go and legally sleep in the State of California?"

"Do you accept the 400 hours of Community service?"

"As a citizen and a patriot, I cannot."

"Okay. Then 6 months in the County Jail for you too. Report to jail next Friday at 3PM."

"But I have to sleep TONIGHT."

"Okay. You can sleep in jail. You will be remanded into custody at the end of this hearing."

Gary Johnson and Ed Frey were handcuffed and led off to jail by County Sheriff's. A protest is scheduled for Monday, June 13th, on the County Courthouse steps beginning at 7:30AM and continuing until....

In Full @ Becky Johnson's One Woman Talking

A Sad Day For The American Social Justice Movement: Gil Scott-Heron Has Passed At The Age Of 62

2011-05-28T13:13:00.001-07:00

It is a sad day for the Social Justice movement in America and around the world

The following video is brought to us by the Guardian UK:

Jamie Byng, publisher of Canongate Books, was a friend of Gil Scott-Heron for more than 20 years. During 2010 they recorded this interview in London where the rapper-poet talked about his life and work, interspersed with intimate performances of his music. A fuller version of the film is to be released later in 2011

[Source]

Juan Cole @ Informed Comment had this to say:

Ironically, his obituary will not be televised because television news became just what he predicted.(Because:)

The military
The Monetary
They get together
Whenever they think it necessary
They are turning our brothers and sisters into mercenaries
They are turning parts of the planet into a cemetery...

"Better Work For Peace, ’cause peace ain’t comin’ this way."

A note from Razer Raygun: I spent a decade and a half doing audio reinforcement for live performances in Central California, and one of the first gigs I ever worked was in 1982/3 for KUSP Santa Cruz community radio doing sound and a live broadcast of Gil Scott-Heron from Soledad prison. Like BB King, Gil Scott-Heron was a tireless worker for social justice and DID NOT forget his brothers imprisoned in America’s gulags.

Rest in Peace Gil Scott-Heron, you WILL be remembered.

A very well-written summation of Gil Sott-Heron's life and times from the Telegraph UK.

Gil Scott-Heron, who died on May 27 aged 62, was a composer, musician, poet and author whose writings and recordings provided a vivid, and often stinging, commentary on social injustice and the black American experience; his declamatory singing style, allied to the overtly political content of his work, made him widely recognised as one of the inspirational figures of rap music.

Scott-Heron first came to attention with his 1970 recording The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, an attack on the mindless and anaesthetising effects of the mass media and a call to arms to the black community: “You will not be able to stay home, brother./You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out./You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,/Skip out for beer during commercials,/Because the revolution will not be televised.”

Written when Scott Heron was just 18, it first appeared in the form of a spoken-word recitation, his impassioned incantation accompanied only by congas and bongo drums, on his debut album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.

The following year Scott-Heron recorded the song for a second time, this time with a full band, for his album Pieces of a Man, and as the B-side to the single Home Is Where The Hatred Is.

The song went on to be covered, sampled and referenced in innumerable recordings, the title entering the lexicon of contemporary phraseology. In 2010 it was named as one of the top 20 political songs by the New Statesman.

Scott-Heron’s music reflected something of the militancy and self-assertiveness of such theorists and polemicists as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. Over the course of some 20 albums he produced a series of sardonic and biting commentaries on ghetto life and racial injustice, including Whitey’s On The Moon, Home Is Where The Hatred Is, The Bottle (a lamentation about people squandering their lives on liquor, set to an irresistibly seductive Latin beat) and the anti-apartheid anthem Johannesburg.

But anger was only colour in Scott-Heron’s music palette; songs such as Must Be Something and It’s Your World were moving affirmations of faith in the power of the human spirit...
[In full, a succinct but detailed biography]

A Barren Place: California Bookstore Replaced By Police Substation

2011-05-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

A Barren Place: Santa Cruz California Bookstore Replaced By Police Substation

Wednesday May 11 2011

In the wake of the closing of Borders Bookshop the SCPD has increased their overt pressure on the musicians and craftsmen native to, and traveling through Santa Cruz California.

These itinerant craftspeople have been known to purvey their wares within the boundaries of the city's arcane laws regarding sales, vending, noise ordinances with no known or stated standards, trespassing laws that encompass half the available sidewalk space as is the case in front of Borders Books, and the police are on scene this morning to specifically show the citizens of Santa Cruz how welcome they are, and to prove-by-their-presence that generally, hanging out and enjoying the day on Pacific avenue, a PUBLIC STREET, is a significant enough event to warrant(sic) 'observation'.

Your browser is not able to display this multimedia content.

Pacific Avenue, in the intervening years since the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, has become an ugly blight... A failed corporate business-inhabited 'Shopping Mall', with the only revenue producing businesses apparently being the bars frequented on weekends by UCSC students, wherein Santa Cruz increases it's bloated police budget, but NOT it's city treasury, enforcing laws related to a host of universally problematic alcohol related crimes.

This is RazerRaygun saying "Take It Easy... But TAKE IT!

This news report has been cross-posted to Santa Cruz IndyMedia

Tragedies Of War, Mothers Day Edition: 6 Years After Watching US Soldiers Kill Her Parents, 11 Year Old 'Tal Afar Girl' Samar Hassan Still Traumatized

2011-05-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

A photograph that brings sadness, and for some, rage, on this "Mother's Day":

MOSUL, Iraq — Until the past week, Samar Hassan had never glimpsed the photograph of her that millions had seen, never knew it had become one of the most famous images of the Iraq war....

[The photo for Samar, then 5 years old, showed her screaming and splattered in blood, mostly of her parents,]

"Samar, almost 12-year-old now, lives the outskirts of Mosul in a two-story house with four other families, mostly relatives.

Losing her brother Rakan, who died when an insurgent attack badly damaged the house, she currently lives with her older sister, Intisar, and her husband, an unemployed former police officer.

Intisar’s husband, Nathir Bashir Ali, says that the family could not pass the accident psychological trauma, in a country with a failing health system.

“The pains of war have been visited on thousands of Iraqis, but even here Samar’s story stands apart. Three years after her parents were killed, her brother Rakan died when an insurgent attack badly damaged the house where she lives now. Rakan had been seriously wounded in the shooting that killed their parents, and he was sent to Boston for treatment after Mr. Hondros’s photos were published. An American aid worker, Marla Ruzicka, who helped arrange for Rakan’s treatment, was herself later killed in a car bomb in Baghdad.

Intisar’s husband, Nathir Bashir Ali, suspects his house was bombed by insurgents as retribution for sending Rakan to the United States. “When Rakan came back from America, everyone thought I was a spy,” he said.

Samar left school last year because she was too shy and not doing well, Mr. Ali said, although Samar said she would like to return and hoped to be a doctor when she grew up. She leaves the house only on infrequent family excursions and has two friends who visit to play with dolls and chat. She spends her days cleaning, listening to music on her purple MP3 player and watching episodes of her favorite television show, the Turkish soap opera “Forbidden Love,” about lovers named Mohanad and Samar.

“I am Samar,” she said, wearing a long red dress and sitting on the couch next to Mr. Ali. Two of her siblings, also in the car when their parents were killed, sat nearby.

“I’ve taken them many times to the hospital, where they get pills” for emotional problems, Mr. Ali said. “All of them take pills.”

He says Samar’s 8-year-old brother, Muhammad, talks to himself when he is alone.

“When we go out and see a family, they get sad,” he said.

Sometimes he finds the children in a room together, crying.

“When they remember the accident, it’s like they just died.”

Under George W. Bush’s administration, the US invaded Iraq in 2003 to oust the Saddam Hussein regime on claims of possessing weapons of mass destruction, a claim never proved true.

Since the 2003 US invasion, Iraq has plunged into abyss with overlapping civil conflicts that have left tens of thousands of civilians dead... [Much more @ the New York Times]

Alternate version, OnIslam.net

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:

"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,

Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn

All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country

To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
Preamble to the "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe.
One of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States.

Inspired By Uprisings In North Africa And The Middle East Revolution Spreads To America - Rap News 7

2011-05-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

Revolution Spreads To America - Rap News 7

[9 minutes 58 seconds, Pop Out Player?]

Osama Bin-Laden - Not The First In A Long History Of Pot-Smoking Terrorists

2011-05-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, if you're the typical impoverished American and have the munchies after reading this post, the US government is here to help... "About 1 in 7 in U.S. Receive Food Stamps". You could be eligible too... Unless you or anyone in your household has been convicted of a terrorist act or a simple felony like robbing a store to feed yourself.

From the New York Daily News... One step removed from the National Enquirer, or Razer's local paper:

"Small plots of marijuana found growing on bin Laden compound perimeter"

"Reporters at Bin Laden's million-dollar hideout discovered small plots of marijuana growing in the deserted lots on the compound's perimeter.

The dope plants were planted on three sides of the compound..."

(OMFG Duuuude it's a 'Must Read')

Speaking of drugs, Terrorists, et al you REALLY NEED TO KNOW about...

"The 5 most ridiculous moments in terrorist history"

"Many past terrorists, even some of the most notorious ones, have been complete morons." ~~Anonymous, former DoD counterintelligence analyst

Anonymous, at Tremble The Devil:

It’s generally a bad idea to leave the keys to your getaway car inside of the carbomb you’ve just rigged with fireworks, three propane tanks, a couple 5-gallon jugs of gasoline, and 100 pounds of explosive fertilizer.

Makes it kind of hard to get home.

Wait wait, make that non-explosive fertilizer actually – because you’re too stupid to bother googling what kinds of fertilizer actually blow up. Plus, what makes it even harder to get home is also locking your house keys inside of the same carbomb. And it’s probably an ever worse idea to release a YouTube video claiming responsibility for the attack before it even happens… especially when your attack hinges on a bunch of fireworks left in a bucket igniting a bunch of explosive material that’s not even exposed to the air.

But that was the modus operandi for Faisal Shahzad, just one in a long line of really, really stupid terrorists.

For reasons that’ll soon grow obvious, after the successful execution of an FBI sting against a group of ex-cons who’d converted to radical Islam in prison last summer, one of the media’s favorite quotes has been that at least one of the men is “intellectually challenged.”

This is said like it somehow makes him incapable of carrying out a terrorist plot. Like all past terrorists have been clever. Sinister, devious fellows who used their sharp wits and bright minds to think their way past our defenses. Like much of terrorism, this is an illusion. Many past terrorists, even some of the most notorious ones, have been complete morons.

It was only two years ago that two terrorists were thwarted from bombing an airline terminal when their Jeep Cherokee got stuck beneath the awning of the Glasgow International Airport.

One of the duo fled from the Jeep in flames, and was forever immortalized when a Scottish cabby kicked him so hard in the crotch that the heroic cabby broke his own foot, leaving us with the absolutely epic headline:

I Kicked a Burning Terrorist So Hard in Balls That I Tore a Tendon In My Foot

And in fact so many terrorists have been so ridiculously stupid that the failure of this most recent plot doesn’t even break into the top five.

The media’s also keyed in on the fact that the ringleader in last year’s NYC plot smoked up during the day of their foiled attack, and was still so high he told the judge he only “sort of” understood what was going on around him. Which brings us to our first moment:

5. The formation of the Assassin sect

If it wasn’t for weed, we might still have Ghandi, Abe Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King, and JFK with us today.

You might even say that their deaths never would have happened if some old dead Muslims hadn’t been baked out of their minds.

Nowadays when you get high you’re pretty much only a threat to someone’s life if they happen to be a Dorito, but back in the day getting higher than a giraffe’s ass was an inescapable prerequisite for joining what’s become the world’s most notorious fraternity of killers.

And the term “fraternity” isn’t used loosely here, as about any SAE pledge-master would be put to shame by the initiation ceremony of the original Assassins – but more about that shortly.

The term Assassin actually loosely translates to “pot-head.” Labeled Hashshasheen in their native Arabic, literally “those who smoke that dank-ass Mediterranian hash,” the Crusaders who first encountered them decided this was a bit too much of a mouthful so over the years the term was anglicized to the more familiar “assassin.” As it turns out, smoking the sticky-icky was an integral part of becoming an Assassin.

Led by the Old Man of the Mountain, who you can think of as some kind of terrible killer Arabic pot-smoking Santa Claus, the original Assassins were a Shiite sect headquartered in the Persian crags where they’d plot their attacks, swooping down into cities and royal courts to stab the hell out of whoever was opposing their will. After, of course, smoking copious amounts of dope. In this way the Assassins managed to consolidate an empire that was both vast and, presumably, very hazy.

To become an Assassin you first had to go through a trial that is fairly unique in history. A prospective initiate had to smoke hash until he blacked out. Seriously. The first step to becoming an assassin was to literally smoke yourself retarded.

Afterwards you’d awaken in a lush garden, filled with fountains and the most beautiful damsels in all the land, who would feed him every type of delicious morsel and subject you to sexual pleasures he might not even had known were possible. Odds are, to become an assassin you’d have to be cool with having a finger stuck somewhere uncomfortable. Possibly the back of a Volkswagen.

As the day went on you were given more and more pleasures, and more and more hash, until you passed out from the dope once again. A finger may still have been somewhere uncomfortable. When you woke up, the whole process began again, until finally an Assassin explains that what you’ve just experienced was but a tiny glimpse into the Paradise that awaited you if you would die for Allah as an Assassin.

Once you accepted their offer you would learn all the ways of the dagger (while high), how to mix poisons (while high), become a master of disguises (also while high), and how to pass for a member of any religion or culture in the region (while, of course, high). On your mission you must be focused on the kill alone, not your own escape, or where to find some munchies.

Assassins carried out hundreds of bleary-eyed killings as they spread their empire from Persia across the rest of the Middle East, and faded from notoriety only after their supply of marijuana finally ran dry.

But the best part…

Actually, they never ran out of dope, they were all brutally slaughtered by Genghis Khan’s Golden Horde in 1255.

One of them, probably while giggling and making Big Lebowski references, felt it necessary to assassinate one of Genghis’s sons because he wouldn’t let his Muslim sect – big shocker coming – pray as much as they wanted to.

So Genghis Khan sent word out that there was going to be a census, and every member of the Assassin sect made their way to the nearest city so that they’d be counted and get their piece of the pie, or pot-brownie or whatever.

But instead of being counted, the assembled Assassins were brutally slaughtered where they stood by the Golden Horde’s cavalry. The few who escaped were eventually tracked down and sent to the widow of Khan’s brother, so that she could torture them to death one-by-one in whatever manner she wished.

So tap a little out for your most infamous forbearers the next time you pack a fatty in front of season two of The Chappelle Show (Cf.).

Shockingly, the history of terrorism only gets more absurd in modern times...
Read About all five stupid terrorist tricks @ Tremble The Devil, the story of terrorism as Jesus Christ, James Bond, and Osama bin Ladin would tell it (and be very afraid).

Extinct Is Forever... Fuck 'Patience'! (One Less Beautiful Creature On The Planet)

2011-03-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

[Click the image for an unmarked version, because you're never going to see one in real life again]

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The "ghost cat" is just that.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday declared the eastern cougar to be extinct, confirming a widely held belief among wildlife biologists that native populations of the big cat were wiped out by man a century ago.

After a lengthy review, federal officials concluded there are no breeding populations of cougars – also known as pumas, panthers, mountain lions and catamounts – in the eastern United States. Researchers believe the eastern cougar subspecies has probably been extinct since the 1930s.

Wednesday's declaration paves the way for the eastern cougar to be removed from the endangered species list, where it was placed in 1973. The agency's decision to declare the eastern cougar extinct does not affect the status of the Florida panther, another endangered wildcat.

Some hunters and outdoors enthusiasts have long insisted there's a small breeding population of eastern cougars, saying the secretive cats have simply eluded detection – hence the "ghost cat" moniker... [Read it and weep]

Taking a chapter from End:Civ, Fuck Patience!

Angry?

Management advice and tools here (download link)
This Book Is Dedicated To Edward Abbey

Be The Change You Wish To See... ..And The Revolution WILL Start Now (So what you doin' standin' around?)

2011-02-28T19:21:00.000-08:00

"Listen people I don't know how you ever expect to stop the war if you can't sing any better than that!" (Country Joe, of "The Fish" fame, at the Woodstock Festival... Three Days Of Mud And Music)

♬ ♪ Sing it LOUD! ♪ ♬
(...or you'll end up singing THIS song.)
"Last night I had a dream
That the world had turned around
And all our hopes had come to be
And the people gathered 'round
They all brought what they could bring
And nobody went without
And I learned a song to sing
The revolution starts now

Yeah the revolution starts now
Yeah the revolution starts now

In your own backyard In your own hometown
So what you doin' standin' around?
Just follow your heart
The revolution starts... now"

Here's a more Electric, eclectic version, again live.

The Neocon's 'Crude Urges' - The UN's Libya Sanctions Are A Declaration Of War On Libya's Civilians Who Have Already All But Removed Their 'Dictator'

2011-02-27T09:32:00.000-08:00

The Neo-Cons have 'Urged' a Libyan 'intervention' and demanded (draft-dodging arrogant warmongering pricks that they are) 'immediate military action.'.

The appeal, which came in the form of a letter signed by 40 policy analysts, including more than a dozen former senior officials who served under President George W. Bush, was organised and released by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), a two-year-old neo-conservative group that is widely seen as the successor to the more-famous – or infamous – Project for the New American Century (PNAC). [More @ al-Jazeera]

In the REALPOLITIK world, Gadaffi is done... why wait for those "Sanctions" to have the effect they had on Iraq with an estimated half million children alone dead from causes including starvation, unsanitary water, and lack of medicine, when the citizens of the country have already isolated, disenfranchised, and cornered him in the only remaining 'un-liberated' city in Libya, Tripoli?

The Western industrial nations fronted by NATO and blessed by their Security Council cronies at the UN will simply use Muammar al-Gadaffi as the excuse for military intervention and an 'oil grab'. All they REALLY want al-Gadaffi to do is hide. But he probably won't because he considers himself Libya's 'leader of destiny' (for want of a better nomenclature).

Perhaps there's a JSOC team with al-Gadaffi visage, daily movements and habits already burned into their memories ready to 'snatch' him in the same manner they illegally kidnapped Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide? (Just a conjecture... al-Gadffi would be a much 'harder' target for such an operation.)

But the BIG QUESTION here is... If the Libyans are capable of deposing their own leader (and currently the 'Libyan government' probably controls less that 10% of what was 'Libyan' territory), with the oil the West so badly needs soon under the control of tribal groups more than willing to deal for their fair share of what they've been deprived of for all these years... It begs the question: "Why Sanctions? Why Intervention?

It will not stop the bloodshed the sanctions have been claimed to prevent.

If Iraq is used as a notable example of "intervention" in recent history, those now-in-place sanctions will only magnify the mayhem by un-countable multiples in an economic and militarized war-without-a-thought for the civilian population of Libya.

Because it WILL BE a war on the civilian population of Libya who almost completely OPPOSE the regime we have sanctioned, after turning a blind eye to the alleged atrocities al-Gadaffi's administration has committed for all these years.

The West and America were such good friends with Libya that our EX-Vice President's company sold Libya (Iraq too!) dual-use oil drilling equipment (The other use would be drilling test holes for nuclear weapons experiments) and, through its subsidiary, Halliburton Logging Services, sent six pulsed neutron generators to Libya.

Pulsed neutron generators are used to break down Uranium into isotopes, and could easily be used to create fissionable material for a nuclear 'dirty bomb' or, with more time and materials, a complete nuclear weapon.

[More about Halliburton @ Wikipedia] (including information on the long-standing relationship between the Bush family and Halliburton-related corporations)

The State Department prosecution and fining of Halliburton that followed was a joke, "After having pleaded guilty, the company was fined $1.2 million, with another $2.61 million in penalties.". Halliburton's revenue statement for the year of the prosecution, 1995, is Here.

But about those sanctions...

When the West committed to sanctions on Iraq's Hussein regime it caused mass suffering among a population which was already under authoritarian rule.

UNICEF has stood by it's figures of ONE HALF MILLION CHILDREN DEAD (including sanctions, collateral effects of war) by those measures, which deprived the civilian population of Iraq such things a Chlorine ('Dual-use', natch!) to purify their water (after we bombed their infrastructure thereby CREATING a contaminated water supply).

Do you really suppose that Saddam Hussein (by US media parlance 'so-damn insane') went even one day of the sanctions drinking unclean water, without food or medicine?

Sanctions on a country like Libya, where the leader is already 'on the way out' is a murderous joke (if they are ever truly useful at all for reining in a 'loose cannon' in the geopolitical 'deck'), and NOT to the benefit of ANYONE but the invested(sic) financial and industrial interests in the West.

They will certainly be of no benefit to the Libyan people, and may very well PREVENT Muammar al-Gadaffi's removal from power by his own people. The ONLY people who have a right to judge him for his actions, and allow him to cobble his regime back together in the guise of a 'Jihad' against foreign intervention.

...and I AM NOT alone in that train-of-thought...

[The above map of North Africa's Oil & Gas Infrastructure is brought to you courtesy of the Perry - Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas Austin. Here is A Full Size Map (1440x1080), and the Map Legend & Key Are Here]

Libya: Is Washington Pushing for Civil War to Justify a US-NATO Military Intervention?

Is Tripoli being set up for a civil war to justify U.S. and NATO military intervention in oil-rich Libya?

Are the talks about sanctions a prelude to an Iraq-like intervention?

Something is Rotten in the so-called “Jamahiriya” of Libya

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a Canadian Multidisciplinary sociologist and scholar. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) specializing in geopolitics and strategic issues. He is also a lecturer and author about the topics of the Middle East, Central Asia and the former USSR.

There is no question that Colonel Muammar Al-Gaddafi (Al-Qaddafi) is a dictator. He has been the dictator and so-called “qaid” of Libya for about 42 years. Yet, it appears that tensions are being ratcheted up and the flames of revolt are being fanned inside Libya. This includes earlier statements by the British Foreign Secretary William Hague that Colonel Qaddafi had fled Libya to Venezuela. [1] This statement served to electrify the revolt against Qaddafi and his regime in Libya.

Although all three have dictatorship in common, Qaddafi’s Libya is quite different from Ben Ali’s Tunisia or Mubarak’s Egypt. The Libyan leadership is not outright subservient to the United States and the European Union. Unlike the cases of Tunisia and Egypt, the relationship that exists between Qaddafi and both the U.S. and E.U. is a modus vivendi. Simply put, Qaddafi is an independent Arab dictator and not a “managed dictator” like Ben Ali and Mubarak.

In Tunisia and Egypt the status quo prevails, the military machine and neo-liberalism remain intact; this works for the interests of the United States and the European Union. In Libya, however, upsetting the established order is a U.S. and E.U. objective.

The U.S. and the E.U. now seek to capitalize on the revolt against Qaddafi and his dictatorship with the hopes of building a far stronger position in Libya than ever before. Weapons are also being brought into Libya from its southern borders to promote revolt. The destabilization of Libya would also have significant implications for North Africa, West Africa, and global energy reserves...
[More @ GlobalResearch.ca]

You Have 'Killer Eyes'!

2011-02-26T09:14:00.000-08:00

Apparently, there IS NO Libyan military and never has been.

For that matter... Libya never was a 'nation' either.

Serbian daily 'Alo' carries an image of Serbian mercenaries in Libya

According to a Maltese blog Malta CC, Serbian military pilots reportedly took part in the bombing of protesters in the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi.This claim was made public after two Libyan pilots fled to Malta, refusing to bomb their fellow citizens participating in the Libya uprising. Serbian daily Alo reminded readers that Muammar al-Gaddafi had hired Serbian pilots before: in the 90s, in combat operations against radical Islamists, but also in actions against civilians, in support of the ground forces.

In the same article, Alo revealed that Serbian mercenaries were allegedly killing protesters in the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi:

Serbian mercenaries earn tens of thousands dollars for this job… They come from Serbia, but Bosnian and Croatian agencies are involved in recruiting for this kind of work…”Serbian legionnaires” are veterans of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. In addition to former members of the military and police units, the bulk of these forces are the former [”Red Berets“]… Gaddafi pays them as much as they demand! A good number of them had great-paying jobs in various African countries, but this was an offer not to be rejected. It can be expected that in the near future a lot of our contractors go with Gaddafi, who has great confidence in Serbian soldiers.

It appears that Serbian netizens are not too surprised by these allegations and revelations...

From the comments:

Paja 1408, a Serbian military officer, recalls: "Hey, gentlemen, what is strange about it? I know personally, when I was in military schools, there were also Libyans, Iraqis, Zambians, Palestinians… I know that they were in Russian [military] schools also. Gaddafi's military experts appreciated the school in Yugoslavia… He knew to recruit the best ones to join the Libyan army...

Read More @ Global Voices

Also, for perspective, see this posting by John Pilger @ Antiwar.com about WHY people like Muammar al-Gadaffi rise to power in the first place.

External corporate powers NEED their resources and slave labor (and as seen above, use the brutalized disenfranchised labor of others so vanquished to continue their economic conquests):

Fascism is a difficult word, because it comes with an iconography that touches the Nazi nerve and is abused as propaganda against America’s official enemies and to promote the West’s foreign adventures with a moral vocabulary written in the struggle against Hitler. And yet fascism and imperialism are twins.

In the aftermath of World War Two, those in the imperial states who had made respectable the racial and cultural superiority of "Western civilisation," found that Hitler and fascism had claimed the same, employing strikingly similar methods.

Thereafter, the very notion of American imperialism was swept from the textbooks and popular culture of an imperial nation forged on the genocidal conquest of its native people. And a war on social justice and democracy became "US foreign policy."

As the Washington historian William Blum has documented, since 1945, the US has destroyed or subverted more than 50 governments, many of them democracies, and used mass murderers like Suharto, Mobutu, and Pinochet to dominate by proxy.

In the Middle East, every dictatorship and pseudo-monarchy has been sustained by America. In "Operation Cyclone," the CIA and MI6 secretly fostered and bank-rolled Islamic extremism. The object was to smash or deter nationalism and democracy.

The victims of this Western state terrorism have been mostly Muslims.

The courageous people gunned down last week in Bahrain and Libya, the latter a "priority UK market," according to Britain’s official arms "procurers," join those children blown to bits in Gaza by the latest American F-16 aircraft.

The revolt in the Arab world is not merely against a resident dictator but a worldwide economic tyranny designed by the US Treasury and imposed by the US Agency for International Development, the IMF and World Bank, which have ensured that rich countries like Egypt are reduced to vast sweatshops, with half the population earning less than $2 a day.

The people’s triumph in Cairo was the first blow against what Benito Mussolini called corporatism, a word that appears in his definition of fascism. [In Full @ Antiwar.com]

SUCH A Kidder! EX-general Stanley McChrystal Says "...to defeat a networked enemy we had to become a network ourselves." (A Network Using al Qaeda)

2011-02-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

Today in Foreign Policy Magazine (with the comments closed), resigned in disgrace EX-general Stanley McChrystal said:

"In bitter, bloody fights in both Afghanistan and Iraq, it became clear to me and to many others that to defeat a networked enemy we had to become a network ourselves." (source)

He's SUCH A KIDDER!... We have (re)created that network... with al-Qaeda as part of our not-yet-announced but underway War On Pakistan!.

(See Here and Here for more on our "Madeline's War NATO affiliated al-Qaeda network and Here (the site's New Yorker link is dead...It's here, with more here) for information on our dealings with them regarding Iran and our attempt to stymie a Shiite rise to power elsewhere in the Middle East)

Al-Qaeda is generally translated as: The Database... of CIA affiliated Muslim fighters who fought our proxy war against the Russians in Afghanistan and worked for the Pentagon and NATO elsewhere.. the former Yugoslavia, in 'Madeline's War', where Osama bin-Laden had been tasked with recruiting mercenaries for the Kosovo Liberation Army.

In recent history, the U.S. was first in line to acknowledge Kosovo as a new 'independent' Nation (with an economy based on smuggling and a government led by a wanted terrorist)

Journalist Mike Whitney give us a very clear picture of the US Foreign Policy Apparatus' ONGOING INVOLVEMENT with al-Qaeda affiliated elements in Pakistan and elsewhere in a freshly minted article @ CounterPunch, and he also gives us many (many!) details on the recent imbroglio in Lahore Pakistan where a supposed "diplomatic aide" named Raymond Davis apparently shot and killed two people he said were trying to mug him...

Or perhaps not...

Breaking: US reveals that CIA agent Raymond Davis worked for private security firm Xe, formerly known as Blackwater. "...eyebrows were raised when it emerged that he shot the men 10 times, one as he fled the scene." More @ Guardian UK

An Excerpt From Whitney's Article At...

CounterPunch

The CIA's Killing Spree in Lahore

By Mike Whitney
February 24, 2011

When CIA-agent Raymond Davis gunned down two Pakistani civilians in broad daylight on a crowded street in Lahore, he probably never imagined that the entire Washington establishment would spring to his defense. But that's precisely what happened.

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mike Mullen, John Kerry, Leon Panetta and a number of other US bigwigs have all made appeals on Davis's behalf. None of these stalwart defenders of "the rule of law" have shown a speck of interest in justice for the victims or of even allowing the investigation to go forward so they could know what really happened. Oh, no. What Clinton and the rest want, is to see their man Davis packed onto the next plane to Langley so he can play shoot-'em-up someplace else in the world.
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But why all the intrigue and arm-twisting? Why has the State Department invoked the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to make its case that Davis is entitled to diplomatic immunity?

If Davis is innocent, then he has nothing to worry about, right?

Why not let the trial go forward and stop reinforcing the widely-held belief that Davis is a vital cog in the US's clandestine operations in Pakistan?

The truth is that Davis had been photographing sensitive installations and madrassas for some time, the kind of intelligence gathering that spies do when scouting-out prospective targets. Also, he'd been in close contact with members of terrorist organizations, which suggests a link between the CIA and terrorist incidents in Pakistan. Here's an excerpt from Wednesday's The Express Tribune:

"His cell phone has revealed contacts with two ancillaries of al Qaeda in Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Taliban of Pakistan (TTP) and sectarian Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has led to the public conclusion that he was behind terrorism committed against Pakistan's security personnel and its people ....This will strike people as America in cahoots with the Taliban and al Qaeda against the state of Pakistan targeting, as one official opined, Pakistan's nuclear installations." ("Raymond Davis: The plot thickens, The Express Tribune)

"Al Qaeda"? The CIA is working with "ancillaries of al Qaeda in Pakistan"? No wonder the US media has been keeping a wrap on this story for so long.

Naturally, most Pakistanis now believe that the US is colluding with terrorists to spread instability, weaken the state, and increase its power in the region. But isn't that America's M.O. everywhere?

Also, many people noticed that US drone attacks suddenly stopped as soon as Davis was arrested. Was that a coincidence? Not likely.

Davis was probably getting coordinates from his new buddies in the tribal hinterland and then passing them along to the Pentagon. The drone bombings are extremely unpopular in Pakistan. More then 1400 people have been killed since August 2008, and most of them have been civilians.

And, there's more. [A MUST READ @ CounterPunch]

When Only Automatic Weapons Will "Contain" Those Pesky Legally Protesting American (or Iraqi or...) Demonstrators

2011-02-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

"The army's existing crowd-control rounds are single shots fired from handheld grenade launchers with a range of about 50 metres - the XM1044 would double this range. It would be supplied in belts for the Mk19 grenade launcher, a truck-mounted weapon that can fire almost six rounds per second."

Army wants rapid-fire rubber bullets for crowd control

By David Hambling

New Scientist
17 February 2011

THE US army is planning to field "rubber bullets" for machine guns. Military officials claim the ammunition will allow them to more effectively quell violent protests without loss of life, but human rights campaigners are alarmed by the new weapon.

The final design for the XM1044 round has not been selected, according to an order placed on the Federal Business Opportunities website last month, but the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has been working on a ring aerofoil projectile for some years. The round is a hollow plastic cylinder 40 millimetres across, looking something like a short toilet-paper roll. In flight its shape generates lift, giving it a longer range.
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Firing rapidly at long range is likely to be dangerously inaccurate, says Angela Wright of Amnesty International. "Such a weapon system would allow for a burst of non-accurate fire at a crowd, with high risk of hitting bystanders, ricochets and of hitting vulnerable areas of the body," she says.

Despite being hollow and plastic, if a round were to strike someone in the head, it could severely injure or kill them, she adds. [More @ NewScientist]

In The "No Food For You, Fascist" Department:: Seattle-Area Restaurant Refuses To Serve TSA Agents

2011-02-23T13:03:00.000-08:00

In the "No Food For You, Fascist" department:

Seattle-Area Restaurant Refuses To Serve TSA Agents

By Chris Morran
February 22, 2011

Fed up with what he views as crappy treatment from the TSA, the owner of a restaurant near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has decided to put all TSA agents on his No-Eat List.

"We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren't allowed to come into our business," one employee tells travel journalist Christopher Elliott. "We have the right to refuse service to anyone."

She says that whenever a TSA agent attempts to dine at the restaurant, "we turn our backs and completely ignore them, and tell them to leave... Their kind aren't welcomed in our establishment."

The restaurant claims that 90% of its patrons are in agreement with their stance and that the local police have actually helped escort TSA workers of the premises... [Source]

And since we're on the topic of abuse of authority by various police state apparatchik:

New York Judge Orders City to Release Reports on Shots Fired by Police at Civilians Since 1997

Separately, the civil liberties group has requested statistical information about the disciplining of officers involved in civilian shootings. Mr. Dunn said the police had said they would respond by the end of this month.

By AL BAKER
February 22, 2011

A Manhattan judge has moved to shine more light on New York Police Department shootings, ruling that departmental reports generated whenever an officer fired at a civilian in the last 13 years be turned over to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The decision, by Justice Emily Jane Goodman of State Supreme Court, means that a trove of internal police documents could soon be thrust into public view. The decision, dated Feb. 14, gives police officials 60 days to turn over two sets of the documents for each shooting dating back to 1997 — a period covering roughly 850 shootings. The city has not decided whether to appeal.

One of the documents Justice Goodman ordered to be released is an investigatory report done within 24 hours of each shooting. The other report, completed within 90 days, is more extensive.

The ruling, affecting about 1,700 reports and thousands of pages, could provide the public new details about such recent police scandals as the 2006 shooting death of Sean Bell in Queens and the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx.

“There are going to be a lot of big cases in these reports,” said Christopher T. Dunn, the associate legal director of the civil liberties group, who said he would make the reports public. “There will also be a lot of cases nobody ever heard of.”

Asked about the decision at a news conference on Tuesday, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said... [More @ The NY Times]

Meanwhile, In Libya (From an English speaking Libyan with relatives in country)

2011-02-20T15:54:00.000-08:00

Unknown Libyan forces attempt to street clear with live ammo

What follows is relayed from an English speaking Libyan with relatives in country. Thanks 'Fulani' irc://irc.anonops.in/oplibya

Freeware IRC client

February 20 2011 1430pmdt

1) This Morning, Cousin In Benghazi Calls Us From Protest, Halfway Through Comes Under Fire From Helicopter

2) Benghazi Liberated At About 6pm Local Time When Libyan Spec Ops Side With People And Take Out Base

3) All Other Cities Are Now Clear Of Mercenaries

4) Sheikh Gives A Religious Order That It Is Incumbent On Every Muslim To Join In, That This Is Jihad.

This Leads To 5) Largest Tribe In Libya Joins The Fray ( 1 million Men)

6) Taureg Join The Fray (About 560k In Libya)

7) People From Subrata And Zawayra Arrive In Tripoli To Bolster The Efforts At About 10pm

8) People In Tripoli Come Out, Armed With Melee Weapons Of Every Sort - Swords, Axes, Sticks

9) Then There Was A Pitched Battle, 4 People Shot Dead By The Mercenaries

10) Protesters Come Under Fire On Omar Mukhtar Road From The Red Fort In The Green Square

11) Yesterday, Tobruk Was Cleared As Well As Baydha, The Egypt Border Was Opened And Egyptians Began To Send Supplies - Thank You To The Egyptian People God Bless

You're quite welcome...

12) About 2330 Libya Time, Reports Of Gunfire In Gadafi Compound, And Snipers And Police Withdraw From Green Square.

13) Reports That Gadafi Has Fled The Country To Venezuela , And That His Sons Had A Fight, Moatassem shot Saif , However, Saif Is Currently On Tv, So Either It Is A Recording Or This Isnt True

14) Crowds Everywhere Are Pissed Off At Saif (Gaddafi's son, currently speaking to the Libyan nation on Libya-TV), In Misuratha They're All Holding Their Shoes Up In Front Of The Big Screen (Symbolic For Fuck Off)

--30--

Video Of The Week: Egyptian Protesters Take The Kasr Al Nile Bridge In Cairo, And More

2011-01-29T08:24:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Reaction to the recent events in the Middle East/North Africa can be summed up simply as:

'Democracy is great in theory, but if it will cause any disruption to business as usual, we prefer dictatorship'...

Read "Dead-Enders on the Potomac", MERIP on the U.S. response to the overthrow of the Tunisian government and the unseating of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

[Source, CNN iReport]

The 2011 "Weather Report" For America's War On Afghanistan - It's Going To Be A Stormy Blood-Soaked Year

2011-01-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

H/t: Free Range International ("Outside the Wire, Inside the Loop")

Afghanistan (Combat Incident) Summary

by babatim on November 7th, 2010

See here for January 15 2011 update, "The Start of a Long Year"

[Click thumbnail for a larger chart]
Breakdown of TB (Taliban)/ AGE (Anti-Government Element [ie. Tribal Fighters]) incidents by Regions:

1. South-eastern Region
(140 incidents – 36% of countrywide incidents)

2. Southern Region (125 incidents – 32%)

3. Eastern Region (36 incidents – 9%)

4. Central Region (34 incidents – 9%)

5. Western Region (21 incidents – 5%)

6. North-eastern Region (21 incidents – 5%)

7. Northern Region (16 incidents – 4%)

8. Central Highlands (0 incidents)
Main types of attacks have remained consistent with earlier weeks; IEDs (163 – previous week 164) have remained the numbers one tactic, followed by CPX (complex) attacks (82 – previous week 81), SAF (Small Arms Fire) attacks (76 – previous week 101) and rocket / mortar attacks (43 – previous week 42).

Suicide attacks have continued with average of 2.5 attacks per weekly, which is slightly lower than last year’s weekly average of 3 attacks per week. However, due to increasing usage of suicide bombers in complex attacks, the amount of “used” suicide bombers have continued increasing in Afghanistan.

If the same trend will continue throughout the winter we will have total of approx 17500 – 18000 TB / AGE initiated incidents on this year, which would be approx 80% higher than last year.

And if the current trend would continue throughout the next year we could be witnessing approx 34000 – 36000 TB / AGE initiated incidents during the next year.

Although this is unlikely scenario and more likely the increase of attacks will not continue with the current pace, the outlook of next year is grim....
Source, and more

[Note: The statement "Both sides of the conflict" implies government and anti-government elements of the population]

For SOME PEOPLE 'Endless War' Validates Their Religious Delusions - Apocalyptic and Crusading Xtian Cults Infest The US Military

2011-01-21T11:58:00.000-08:00

Updated July 27 2011: "Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons"

Also See: Welcome to Crusade 2.0, The Really Really Long War... "Let's imagine that the Cold War was a detour. The entire 20th century, in fact, was a detour... ...For those who see Islam as a civilizational threat, the key dates aren't 1945 or 1989 but rather 1683, 1492, 1099, and 732."

It's notable some of America's military leaders are Kinky SICK FUCKS too!

From 2002:

"UN struggles to explain away presence of US-Sponsored Iraq weapons inspector with S&M fetish"

In short, Harvey John "Jack" McGeorge, a former Secret Service officer "who has no specialised degree in any of the relevant sciences", HAS considerable expertise in unusual sexual practices.

Despite his lack of background "He runs a business offering seminars on "weaponisation of chemical and biological agents" but his OTHER businesses offer "training seminars of a different kind involving "various acts conducted with knives and ropes". This relates to his role as co-founder of Black Rose, a "pansexual S&M group" based in Washington, and also as a founder of Leather Leadership Conference IN, which "produces training sessions for current and potential leaders of the sadomasochistic/ leather/fetish community".

When "Outed", McGeorge tendered his resignation, but the Pentagon refused to accept it.

Story @ PrisonPlanet.
The original Independent UK story link is dead, but remembered personally

Now, the featured presentation

"The Christian fundamentalists have a fear and loathing of Islam even older than that of the Zionists.

For the fundamentalists September 11 opened the door to a new crusade, to the renewal of the age old battle between Christendom and Islam now brought into the heartland of America.

Thus, Christian fundamentalist organizations in the state of Oklahoma, led by State Representative Rex Duncan, have pushed legislation that would prohibit the state’s courts from using Sharia law to decide any cases.

This nonsensical gesture (American courts are bound to use American law) was “passed overwhelmingly in both the house and senate” of Oklahoma. (Hailey Branson-Potts, OkGazette.com, “State Question 755,” October 6, 2010).

At the foreign policy level, both groups lobbied for the invasion of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. ~~Islamophobia as a Form of Paranoid Politics, Lawrence Davidson, Logos Journal 2011: Vol.10, Issue 1

You've been on-duty for a couple of weeks now in an ICBM missile silo's artificial atmosphere... it's disenfranchised environment, and your finger is on the

BIG RED BUTTON.

Apocalyptic "Christianity" helps steady the nerves when the phone rings with the bad news...

It's the "GO" code.

It IS 'Gods Will', after all... Hail Mary full of... [Click]

USAF Academy Taps Member of "Lord's Army" to Speak at National Prayer Luncheon
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The National Prayer Breakfast is sponsored by The Fellowship, a foundation associated with The Family, a secretive group of influential Christian lawmakers and politicians whose mission is to advance the evangelical Christian agenda in Washington and across the world.

An anonymous MRFF client and spokesperson attending the Air Force Academy issued a statement on Tuesday claiming that an email sent to everyone at the academy made it clear that the attendance at the luncheon, although technically optional, is strongly encouraged:

.. when the base-wide e-Mail begins with a highlighted statement:
it's not hard for so many of us here at USAFA [US Air Force Academy] to conclude that the senior leadership is STRONGLY encouraging attendance. The attached flyer goes on to say that you can purchase his book at the BX and that he'll be available to sign it, too. A visit to his web site, though, and one gets the impression that, while everyone on base is invited to attend, this isn't going to be the most inclusionary event of the year.

The first paragraph reads "Clebe is what he likes to call a complete Marine. To him, USMC will always mean a U.S. Marine for Christ." I can only conclude that anyone that doesn't share his particular religious view must be an "incomplete Marine," (or soldier, or [sailor], or airman) unworthy of the uniform. And shouldn't it be USMC as in "US Marine for the Constitution?" That's the document he swore to defend when he was commissioned.

It's a National Prayer Luncheon, but the message [couldn't] be clearer to those who may pray to a different deity or those that have a more ecumenical interpretation of their god - if you're not an evangelical, fundamentalist Christian, this event isn't for you. Yet senior academy leadership seems to want us there anyway.
The Air Force Academy and the MRFF have been butting heads over the evangelical influence at the academy for some time now. The MRFF charges that academy cadets are pressured into joining evangelical groups and attending Bible studies, while the academy has made public attempts to promote religious diversity by offering more types of religious services at its chapel and assessing the spiritual "climate" at the academy.

Last September, Air Force Academy graduate and MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein told Truthout that an anonymous Air Force cadet contacted him and claimed to be part of a "underground" group of about 100 cadets, who came together because they could not rely on legitimate channels to address pressure from evangelicals in the academy.

Weinstein's source said that some cadets pretended to be evangelical and attended services and Bible studies in order to maintain standing among their peers and superiors... _{[In Full @ Truthout]}

...and that's NOT all folks!

Seymour Hersh Claims High-Ranking Members Of The US Military Belong To Christian Cults

Hersh was quoted as saying
"Don't they get it? We're gonna change moseques into cathedrals. And when we get all the oil, nobody's gonna give a damn.' That's the attitude. We're gonna chance mosques into cathedrals. That's an attitude that pervades, I'm here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command [JSOC]."
He further claimed that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Vice Admiral William McRaven and others in the JSOC were members of the "Knights of Malta" and "Opus Dei," two little known Catholic orders.
"They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical attitude among some military -- it's a crusade, literally,"
Hersh reportedly continued.
"They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function."
He added that members of these societies have developed a secret set of insignias that represent "the whole notion that this is a culture war" between religions.

It was President George W. Bush who first invoked images of a holy war in the Middle East, when he suggested soon after Sept. 11, 2001 that the US was on a "crusade" in the region.

The "Knights of Malta" were a Catholic order founded in 1085 as a group of monks who cared for the wounded. It evolved into a military order that safeguarded Christian pilgrims from Muslims during the nine "Crusades," where Europe's Christian states laid siege to Muslims for control of Jerusalem.

"Opus Dei," popularly depicted in the Hollywood film "The DaVinci Code," was founded in 1928 and officially accepted as part of the Catholic church in 1947. The group's website claimed their principle calling was to bring about a "Christian renewal" around the world.

In Full @ Truthout

Voices From The (Santa Cruz) Village: Controversy at the "Red Church" - Is The City Interfering With The Church's Homeless Outreach Program?

2011-01-20T17:03:00.000-08:00

[This Video Is One Hour Long... Pop Out Player?]

Louis LaFortune, host of Santa Cruz Community Television's "Voices From The Village" hosts a roundtable discussion with local leaders about the situation between the city and Calvary Episcopal Church's homeless outreach program, which illustrates the unnecessary city-driven adversarial relationship between the independent homeless programs of Santa Cruz and the city, with Father Joel Miller, Pastor at Calvary Church, Richard Enriquez, a Calvary Church volunteer, Don Lane, Santa Cruz City Councilman, and Scott Galloway, Calvary Church volunteer/former Santa Cruz Metro Transit District Director, and others.

The document in question is Here... Written by FORMER city councilmember Cynthia Matthews, the document is a letter to the archdiocese of the Episcopalian church on a Santa Cruz city letterhead requesting their assistance in forcing Reverend Joel Miller of the Calvary Episcopal Church to end the homeless assistance program by pretty much falsely claiming alleged 'behavioral problems' and 'noise issues' "requiring" 'excessive' police and emergency service calls.

Video source: Santa Cruz Community Television

...And The BREAKING STORY In Santa Cruz California Today Is:

2011-01-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

"Santa Cruz and Watsonville Compete For In-N-Out Burger"

[ DoubleDouble Greezy GutBomb ]
That's right... In one of the most expensive places to live in the US, with simple one-room apartment rentals in the $1,000 dollar range (Student style @ $650/month for a closet of a room in someone's house with three other people is also a possibility) and also notable nationwide for one of the highest unemployment rates as well, the city is concerned about attracting a fast food restaurant paying minimum wages.

The rent will eat up more than half of the closet dweller's income.

H/t: Gleaned From January 19 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary ('Cheap Crap' - It's The Bottom Line For 'The American Lifestyle' And China's Monetary Policy) @ Razed By Wolves

America "Profiled": 'Countries With Wide Income Inequality Are Unstable, Have Large Underclasses, High Rates Of Crime & Little Opportunity'

2011-01-18T17:05:00.000-08:00

If current trends continue, “The United States by 2043 will have the same income inequality as Mexico.” (Tula Connell, Mar 12, 2010, AFL-CIO Now.)

Alternet:

The Class War Launched by America's Wealthiest Is Getting More Savage

By Larry Beinhart, AlterNet
January 13, 2011

We’re in a class war.

It’s the corporations and the very wealthiest against all the rest of us. We’re losing.

In 1962 the wealthiest 1 percent of American households had 125 times the wealth of the median household. Now it’s 190 times as much.

Is that a case of a rising tide lifting all boats, just a few of them a little bit higher? No.

From 1950 to 1965, median family income rose from $24,000 a year to $38,000 a year. That’s close to 4 percent a year, close to 60 percent over 15 years. That’s a rising tide.

In 1964 there was a big tax cut. That’s when things started to slow down for average people. By the mid-'70s the rise of the middle class stalled. From 1975 to 2010 median family income rose $42,936 to $49,777. That’s not quite 16 percent over 25 years, less than six-tenths of 1 percent per year.

Briefly, when taxes went up under Clinton, median income rose, peaked at $52,587 in 1999, and then, after Bush cut taxes, declined. Keep in mind that this is median family income. In the '50s and '60s, family income was usually earned by a single person. Today, family income normally comes from at least two people.

At the same time, income for the richest soared. In 1979 the richest 1 percent of Americans earned 9 percent of all U.S. income. Now they earn 24 percent of all U.S. income. One percent of Americans earn nearly one-fourth of all the income in the country.

Then came the crashes of 2001 and 2008 and the recessions that followed.

The crash hasn’t changed anything. Things have become worse.

From 1990 to 2005, adjusted for inflation -- the minimum wage is down 9 percent, production workers’ pay is up only over 15 years 4.3 percent.

At the same time, the rich get richer:

Corporate profits are up 106.7 percent. The S&P 500 is still up 141.4 percent since 1990. CEO compensation is up 282 percent. Call it transfer of wealth. Or call it class warfare.

What’s wrong with the rich getting richer?

Slate's Timothy Noah, in "The United States of Inequality," wrote, “Income distribution in the United States [has become] more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and roughly on par with Uruguay, Argentina, and Ecuador.”

Take a look at that list.

Countries with wide income inequality don’t lead the world in research, technology, industry, and innovation. They’re unstable. They have large underclasses. They have high rates of crime. They have little opportunity.

In such countries the rich have disproportionate power. They take control of all aspects of society, especially government, the police, and the judiciary. They become self perpetuating.

If current trends continue, “The United States by 2043 will have the same income inequality as Mexico.” (Tula Connell, Mar 12, 2010, AFL-CIO Now.)

Countries with high levels of income inequality are third-world countries... "...Here’s how regular people can deal with cultures of high inequality."

(All The Country Grrrrls Know) It Ain't Easy Being 'Duhks' In A "Fast Paced World"' [Quaaaaa!]

2011-01-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

Could this be a "Video Response" to Rodney Crowell, Sex, and Gasoline?

[Video - The Making Of Fast Paced World]

“Hey! We TOLD the Bitch to shut up” - AZ Teatard Leader On Gabrielle Giffords

2011-01-15T10:47:00.000-08:00

Brother Jonah
NOT MY TRIBE
1/13/2011

Translated into plain English that is...

Basically Mr Humphries said that anybody who has a Palin contract out on him should go into hiding.

Quote: The Arizona congresswoman shouldn’t have attended an event “in full view of the public” if she had security concerns, according to Tucson Tea Party co-founder Trent Humphries.

“It’s political gamesmanship,” he told the Guardian. “The real case is that she [Giffords] had no security whatsoever at this event. So if she lived under a constant fear of being targeted, if she lived under this constant fear of this rhetoric and hatred that was seething, why would she attend an event in full view of the public with no security whatsoever?”
Yeah, how DARE somebody stand up and speak publicly even though the TeaBags had targeted her?

I guess if Mr Humphries were ever threatened he would just shut up AND go into hiding. Just because TeaBags are cowards the rest of are supposed to follow their sick example...
MORE @ Not My Tribe

Again... Just for the record...

(Click the Teabag for "Poison Control" information and therapy advice for
"Teabaggers Syndrome", a psychological disorder affecting many Americans)

Your Infrastructure Will Be Your Undoing - One Reason Why Natural Gas CANNOT Replace The 20% Of Coal-Fired Powerplants Due Offline By 2015

2011-01-02T19:51:00.000-08:00

Updated January 06 2010:
In the San Francisco Chronicle today:

Feds put nation's pipeline operators on notice

Federal safety officials responding to the findings of the San Bruno disaster probe issued a nationwide bulletin Wednesday urging operators... of natural-gas pipelines to verify they have accurate records about their lines and to cut pressure on them if they don't.

The regulators took the unusual step in response to the discovery that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. had erroneous records about the high-pressure gas line that exploded in San Bruno in September, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes.

The revelation raised questions about whether the utility had set the line's maximum allowable operating pressure too high and whether it had used an inspection method for the pipe that was ill suited to detect some possible weaknesses... _{[Read more]}

This isn't some fanciful initiative Lisa Jackson dreamed up one day.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to continually update pollution limits to reflect the latest science. The U.S. District Court, for instance, has ordered the EPA to set new mercury standards by the end of next year. As a result, new rules are now coming down the pike on smog-forming pollutants, on mercury, on coal ash...

...according to industry analysts, many coal plants will have to shut down...":
[The rules] would force utilities to invest tens of millions of dollars on technologies to remove the substances. Many of those plants are about 50 years old and are already inefficient. "Those investments are just not going to be justifiable," said Dan Bakal, director of electric power programs at Ceres, a group of environmentalists and institutional investors.

Francois Broquin, a co-author of reports on coal by Bernstein Research, said the combined rules could push as much as 20 percent of U.S. coal-fired electric generation capacity to retire by 2015. "
In Full @ New Republic

Even as America comes to depend more and more on Natural Gas for it's energy needs, and it WILL ramp up even more dramatically as that 20% of all coal-fired power plants, 50,000 MW of nation's dirtiest coal plants, begins to go offline due to EPA regulations, one can begin to see that flammable gases are MUCH more dangerous than the 'Bunker Fuels' and Coal traditionally used in power generation.

But that's not all. Gases are hard to contain in the material's transmission infrastructure itself, EVEN WHEN THE INFRASTRUCTURE IS SHINY NEW, and the source needs to be somewhat nearby the end user to prevent massive product and by-product losses which also pollute heavily.

In the United States, methane emissions from natural gas distribution mains accounts for 32 percent of the industry's total methane emissions. (source)

That means gas pipelines and infrastructure everywhere to control costs and pollution, leading inexorably to more stories like these over the last few days:

2,000 Evacuated After L.I. Propane Leak

"A cracked plastic valve on a propane tank was the source of a leak that sent thousands of gallons of toxic, flammable liquefied propane gas..." More

Another news story today:

Gas leak raises alarm at Miami elementary school

Miami Fire-Rescue hazmat teams responded to a gas leak Saturday afternoon at Silver Bluff Elementary School.

The situation -- liquid propane gas leaking from three large tanks near the school cafeteria... More

Columbia Missouri:

Gas leak by new parking garage under control source

Little Rock Arkansas:

CenterPoint Energy fixing Pine Bluff gas leak

PINE BLUFF, Ark. (KTHV) -- The Pine Bluff Fire Department has evacuated one block bordered by 3rd and 4th Streets, as well as Main and State Streets because of a gas leak. source

It could be worse, ALOT worse, like the blast that wiped the homes and people who were in them near a transmission pipeline in the suburban SF Bay city of San Bruno off the map a few months back.

Considering the public safety track record of most power generation companies in the United State AND their state regulatory bodies...

The natural gas boom gripping parts of the U.S. has a nasty byproduct: wastewater so salty, and so polluted with metals like barium and strontium, that most states require drillers to get rid of the stuff by injecting it down shafts thousands of feet deep.

Not in Pennsylvania, one of the states at the center of the gas rush... In Full @ Alternet

...one would think that our everyday lives over the next few years, as the RUSH to 're-tool' our energy infrastructure intensifies with the typically concurrent lack of inspection/regulatory oversight (if only due to the lack of qualified inspection personnel), will become MUCH more dangerous.

References:
The New York Times: "Utilities shift to gas-based plants as alternative to coal"

Wall Street Journal: "Utilities are increasingly looking to natural gas to generate electricity"

Financial Times: "Wave of closures set to hit U.S. coal stations"

Denver Daily News: "PUC approves retiring Denver-area coal-fired plants, switching to natural gas"

Reuters: "Xcel to shut or convert Colorado coal power plants"

Chattanooga Times Free Press: "TVA to shutter coal plants, turn to nuclear"

Times Daily: "TVA to idle coal plants to cut emission output"

Charlotte Observer: "Duke considers closing old coal plants"

1984...Twenty Five Years On: The Surveillance State - You Are Being Conditioned On A Mass Scale To Accept It

2011-01-02T14:33:00.000-08:00

"Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it... All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals.

It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of (Cf. minute 7:45 in the video for more on this...) their own children." ~~George Orwell, 1984

Note: This video is 9 minutes 26 second long!
Pop Out Player? Click Here

Feeling powerless kids?
Some things that have historically been effective in alleviating that feeling:

"Sabotage in armament plants and war industries, sabotage at all gatherings, rallies, public ceremonies, and organisations of the National Socialist Party.

Obstruction of the smooth functioning of the war machine ...

Sabotage in all the areas of science and scholarship which further the continuation of the war - whether in universities, technical schools, laboratories, research institutes, or technical bureaus..." ~~The third leaflet of the German anti-Nazi group the White Rose

Or: "Are you so shut down you can't feel no more?" (Tom Petty, When A Kid Goes Bad)

Global "Weather" Forecast For 2011 From Russian TV: Expect Stormy "Weather" And Potential "Lightning Strikes" In The United States

2011-01-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

We Americans are exceptional... we're too 'stupidified' to revolt. Motivated by the hunger for 'stuff' and fearing anything that might upset the 'applecart' that supplies it, even if it's untenable for the long term and future of our children (and THEIR children) or outright murderous of people who happen to be in places 'needing to be bombed' in the American 'national interest'.

Dark Ages: 2010 Uprisings will become 2011 Revolts (Will the US escape?)

Also, we might miss "The Young And The Restless" while we're in the streets waiting for someone else to do our 'revolting' for us.

We will be continually kept psychologically off-balance and blinded by an ongoing savage blanket blitz advertising campaign hammering on us that we 'need' all that 'stuff', using the same technique, fear, that they sell us wars... on nations, and self-created 'terrorists' who in reality are typically rogue CIA agents like Osama bin-Laden and the mythical a-Qaeda, translated into English as "the database", which it was... They were the people on the CIA and Pentagon's database and payroll as allies in their war on Russia in Afghanistan.

Expect no civil rights, expunged one-by-one in the name of those wars based solely on lies... Just like the advertising of the "shiny... shiny..."

Expect no audience participation... (Snicker into cuff) ...because

The Revolution WILL NOT be televised.

The Empire NEEDS It's Entertainment! Hollywood & The War Machine (The Symbiotic Relationship Between Hollywood And The Military-Industrial Complex)

2010-12-30T11:46:00.001-08:00

War is hell, but for Hollywood it has been a Godsend, providing the perfect dramatic setting against which courageous heroes win the hearts and minds of the movie going public.

The Pentagon recognises the power of these celluloid dreams and encourages Hollywood to create heroic myths; to rewrite history to suit its own strategy and as a recruiting tool to provide a steady flow of willing young patriots for its wars.

What does Hollywood get out of this 'deal with the devil'? Access to billions of dollars worth of military kit, from helicopters to aircraft carriers, enabling filmmakers to make bigger and more spectacular battle scenes, which in turn generate more box office revenue. Providing they accept the Pentagon's advice, even toe the party line and show the US military in a positive light.

So is it a case of art imitating life, or a sinister force using art to influence life and death - and the public perception of both?

[This video is 47 minutes long... Pop Out Player?]

[Source, al Jazeera]

You DID Get Fooled Again (Obama's foreign policy could have been John McCain's. What are ya gonna do about it sucka? )

2010-12-30T09:21:00.001-08:00

An Advertisement For ACTION!

Brought to you by PeaceRally.org

I See! It's Only A Crime When North Korea Does It - FORCED RELOCATION Of Jeju Island South Korea Residents Underway To Build U.S. Navy Base

2010-12-28T10:36:00.000-08:00

H/t: Organizing Notes, Bruce K. Gagnon

Historical Note: (2007) It was 'not a crime' however, when the U.S 'looked the other way' as North Korea blatantly violated the U.N. ban on weapons transfers, by overtly yet silently allowing the sea shipment of Russian tanks, parts, and other logistics to Ethiopia...

Because those tanks were intended to be used in America's proxy war on Somalia.

"The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia... _{[IHT via NY Times]}

The South Koreans were Enraged.

United States Stands By Silently As North Korea Arms Ethiopians For Somali War

JoongAng Daily

EDITORIAL, April 13, 2007 (JoongAng): It is beyond our understanding why the United States has ignored a United Nations resolution and so given tacit consent to the export of weapons by North Korea.

It is simply astonishing that the United States has seen fit to neglect such an agreement reached by the international community. It is also an absurdity that the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which the United States has pointed to as a basis for demanding the abolishment of North Korea's nuclear weapons, can be so easily flouted.

Pursuant to the U.N. resolution, the United States should have stopped Ethiopia from importing weapons from the North. But since the weapons would be used to fight Islamic terrorists in Somalia, Washington tacitly approved the imports.

[More images... Korean language source]

UPDATE: Thirty-four citizens arrested trying to block 66 cement trucks from dumping their concrete on the rocky coast.

MAKE A CALL: If you'd like to help please call the South Korean embassy in Washington DC and tell them to stop building the Navy base and to quit arresting the villagers.

The phone is 202-939-5600

More:

MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2010
RESISTANCE BEGINS ON JEJU ISLAND

MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2010
NAVY MAKES MOVE TODAY ON JEJU ISLAND

Korean coverage... Some English, many pictures: "No base stories of Korea", [Jeju Update] 34 people arrested but released except for Prof. Yang/ Island Assembly and Parties denounce Island government and navy