Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Our Future and the End of the Oil Age: Building Resilience in a Resource-Constrained World - Dimitry Orlov
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Or manually advance and rewind the slides with the < > buttons.
[Cartoon H/t: "Peoples Geography - Reclaiming Space"]
Guerilla Gardening - The Illicit Cultivation Of Public Space
Use only land that is unused or unwanted, leave the land in better condition than when you found it, and don’t get caught.H/t: Alternet, "How Everyday Citizens are Breaking the Law for Mother Earth", Katherine Butler (From: EcoSalon), March 29, 2010
In another vein, Crop Mobbing: "This is the face of neo-agrarianism."
Labels:
Crop Mobbing,
Gardening,
Guerilla Gardening,
Private Property,
Squat,
Squatter,
Squatting,
Subversion
Change the world! We'll help your company make a lot of profit by outsourcing your human resources
[We'll help your company make a lot of profit by outsourcing your human ressources. We use children, women, migrants, illegals and more...]
Friday, March 26, 2010
A Little Geo-Political History Of "Israel" From Juan Cole - Top Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis
Generally, the following has NOT been applied since the occupation of Palestine:
"If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with all others justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless, the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place…then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever." -Jeremiah 7:5-7See: Thursday, January 8, 2009 "No, no, no," he said. "We should be hitting the greenhouses." - Israelis Watch the Fighting in Gaza ... They Come With Binoculars and Lawn Chairs
Juan Cole, Middle East Historian, University of Michigan:
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the American Israel Public Affairs Council on Monday that "Jerusalem is not a settlement." He continued that the historical connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel cannot be denied. He added that neither could the historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem. He insisted, "The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today." He said, "Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital." He told his applauding audience of 7500 that he was simply following the policies of all Israeli governments since the 1967 conquest of Jerusalem in the Six Day War.
Netanyahu mixed together Romantic-nationalist cliches with a series of historically false assertions. But even more important was everything he left out of the history, and his citation of his warped and inaccurate history instead of considering laws, rights or common human decency toward others not of his ethnic group.
So here are the reasons that Netanyahu is profoundly wrong, and East Jerusalem does not belong to him... GO >>>
Health Care "Reform" - The Democrats Lower The Bar... About Two Inches From The Ground
[OK, so 16 million more Americans may receive MediCare. That's all well-and-good for those millions of 'Baby Boomers' retiring, or soon to retire (like myself). But that's insignificant compared to the number of people in the US who will still go without any health insurance, no less any preventative health services. // Razer]
Stan Goff, Feral Scholar. Short, Sweet... Punchy Summation.
Pig in a poke. The original word was poche, French for ‘pocket.’ Or bag. The old trick was to sell someone a suckling pig, which was wriggling inside a sack. When the buyer gets home and unties the sack to inspect the family holiday supper, voila!, it’s a stray cat. Gotcha!
Obama’s health care bill is a pig in a poke.
The expansion of Medicare to 16 million people is, on balance, a good thing… for now, and smart politics. That’s a lot of votes. Couple of other sops.
But overall, this is the pig in the poke. We can spice that cat up someway…
This bill legally compels people to purchase insurance. From private insurance companies. I hope this proves to be unenforceable. This is theft.
No caps on premiums.
No standardization of benefits.
No restrictions on benefit denials by insurance companies.
Taxing of health benefits.
Obama’s rejection of his pro-choice constituency with his executive order.
The list is very long, and the way it’s now set up, the states will be engaged by a race to the bottom, officiated by Big Insurance.
Bad news all round, but hey, the Dems lowered the bar until they could make the specious claim that they changed history. The leap over this bar was about two inches off the ground.
War and theft.
Vote.
Nothing changes that isn’t changed within arms reach.
Those people don’t care about you. They care about their positions and power, and they’ll eat shovels full of shit to keep their positions and power. That’s their secret. [Source]
U.S. Army jails Hip Hop artist/soldier in Kuwait for seeking PTSD help
BAGHDAD — A U.S. soldier who threatened to shoot fellow troops and sent the Pentagon a violent rap song he wrote to protest plans to send him back to Iraq has been thrown out of the Amry, officials said Saturday.
The dismissal for misconduct means Spc. Marc A. Hall will avoid criminal charges but lose all military benefits earned over at least four years of service, including an earlier tour in Iraq.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom said Saturday that top brass decided to discharge Hall instead of taking him to trial in part because he admitted his guilt... MORE
U.S. Army jails HipHop rapping soldier Marc Hall in Kuwait for seeking PTSD help
[Donate to help defend Marc - 146 people have given $5,408 (March 26 2010).
Because the Army kidnapped Marc to Kuwait for trial, we will need to raise at least $10,000 to provide a civilian defense lawyer. Critical expert witnesses to could be another $5,000, in addition to the $4,600 already spent.]
Courage to Resist. March 25, 2010
"US Army Specialist Marc A. Hall sits in a military brig at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, facing an imminent court martial for challenging the US military’s Stop-Loss policy in a song — his pre-trial hearing was held last week on March 17. Yet it was not the hip-hop song he wrote criticizing the Stop-Loss policy that landed him in trouble.
What put the 34-year-old New York City native in the brig were his persistent assertions of inadequate mental health care that culminated in a Dec. 7 complaint to the Army Investigator General.
Just five days later Hall was charged with violating “good order and discipline” at Fort Stewart, Georgia, and was shipped out of the country.
Hall’s court martial is likely to occur late April or early May.
The jailing occurred a full five months after Hall wrote a rap song protesting the Stop-Loss order that halted his discharge after he served his country for 14 months of combat in Iraq.
Hall was charged with 11 counts of “communicating threats” related to the song and has since been charged with violating Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Conduct. All the alleged violations occurred between last July and December, yet not one warranted warning, counseling, or non-judicial punishment at the time.
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.
.
"...the military took the nearly unprecedented step of moving Hall overseas for court martial, instead of putting him on trial in Georgia where the alleged threats occurred.
On Feb. 26 Hall was put on plane to Iraq and transferred to Kuwait for pre-trial confinement. This put him out of reach of his civilian legal defense team, friends, and family. It will also make it extremely hard for defense witnesses to appear at trial on his behalf.
“Not just the Constitution, but the rules for courts-martial, prohibit prosecutors from holding a court martial in a combat zone as pretext for depriving an accused of a public trial, counsel of his choice and necessary witnesses,” said Hall’s attorney David Gespass, President of the National Lawyers Guild.“Whatever the Army may claim, that is exactly what the Army is doing...”Read More
[African Americans Sang About The Vietnam War Too]
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Just In: Iraq elections assessment from bitterlemons-international.org
A victory for Iran?
Sadegh Zibakalam
In the short term, anti-western forces both inside and outside Iraq can smile.
The game is not over
Safa A. Hussein
If all four blocs form a government, this could ease tensions with Saudi Arabia.
Turbulence at the exits
Greg Bruno
The political turbulence following the March 7 vote--and the wave of violence that punctuated it--illustrates just how long the road for Iraq truly is.
Building a state on a sectarian, ethnic and quota basis
Sawsan al-Assaf
Sectarianism will almost certainly ensure that Iraq's major cities again witness an increase in violence.
Read them @ bitterlemons-international.org
Be sure to browse bitterlemons-international archives too.
Recent roundtable topics:
The Arab League and Palestinian-Israeli proximity talks Ed. 7 Vol. 8 - March 11, 2010
* "All that is needed at this time is public Arab support" - Daoud Kuttab
* "High probability of failure" - Shlomo Brom
* "Reverse engagement" - Rime Allaf
The Mabhouh assassination in Dubai Ed. 6 Vol. 8 - March 01, 2010
* "Israel must be held accountable" - Ghassan Khatib
* "A brilliant blunder" - Josef Joffe
* "Hypocrisy" - Yossi Alpher
* "A scandal for Israeli intelligence" - an interview with Mustafa Alani
Labels:
Bitterlemons,
Elections,
Foreign Policy,
Iraq,
Iraq Elections,
Israel,
Middle East,
Palestinians
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