UN Security Council and US government rubber stamp Sinhalese slaughter of Tamils in Sri Lanka

Like how the UN Security Council and the US government ONCE hid in the shadows egging on Saddam Hussein-led Iraq and its assault on Iran in previous times, today it is doing the same with the Sri Lanka Civil War. But Saddam Hussein couldn’t get in the death blow against Iran that the Security Council lusted for on behalf of the US in the ’80s. Sinhalese Sri Lanka is though against its Tamil opposition, and now the Security Council has come out of the shadows and is egging the final kill on. See Tamil Tigers urged to surrender (by UN Security Council)

Geopolitical reasons always dictate who the world corporate press declares as being righteous and who is denounces as being villainous in these conflicts. The US and its European allies have definitely tilted towards using India as regional ally against China and Russia, and India wants the end of Tamil rebellion, both inside India itself, and also inside Sri Lanka. That’s enough to spin the conflict as it is being done. While the ‘Security Council’ with the name of the United Nations attached to itself is calling for the Tamil insurrection to lay down its arms, we sincerely doubt that it will ever do anything to protect the Tamil population from slaughter at the hands of Sri Lanka’s government. It certainly hasn’t in the past.

Cheney and other Perverted Torture Freak Scum…

There’s a standard, a psychological finding used to determine
when somebody is a serial killer, and determine whether he is
worthy of the death penalty.
The prosecution doesn’t actually NEED it in many cases, but they
always do the testing and make the determination.

It’s a level of sociopathy wherein one has a fetish for causing
pain, or even death, and becomes sexually aroused by it.

The same standard can be applied to torturers.

Those who do the “dirty work” themselves, and those who direct
their actions, such as George Bush and Richard Cheney.

Their clones John and Sarah as well, and those who, knowing the
bastards were engaged in these unholy perversions, supported them
anyway.

There’s another Legal standard, “accomplice before and/or after the fact”.

This has also been often used in Death Penalty cases, sometimes the
“first to squeal, gets the deal” will be the one who actually
pulled the trigger.

And get a life sentence while his partners in crime get the needle,
or the gas in California or the bullet in Utah.

The standards for determining “torture” and “war crimes” used to
convict the Nazis, and lately Saddam Hussein and many of his
friends and family, also convicts Richard Cheney and his
meat-puppet George Bush.

…and the people who support them.

People like Bobby Jindal and Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, the people
who VOTED for them.

I’m often told that this is overly harsh, people say stupid crap
like the Torturers keep us safe.

But the only way a Torturer can accomplish his job is if he or she enjoys it.

On an extremely basic sexual level.

Torture, like serial murder, is a vicious form of rape.

People tell me “How dare you say that! My son, daughter, husband,
father—whoever— works at Abu Ghraib or Khandahar or Guantanamo”

Hey, the fact that the Perverts are related to the whiners who say
that doesn’t make the Perverts any less guilty.

Your son or daughter works at one of the Torture Centers, your son
or daughter is a Rapist. It is EXACTLY that simple.

The Torturers keep us safe? Are you sure?

Do you REALLY want to trust the future governance of our nation to
Perverts who get their rocks off to killing or hurting people?

They’re “only doing their jobs”? They’re not forced to take the
job. They seek out the job because it gives them an opportunity to
exercise Ultimate Control over another human being, and, because
they, like Bush and Cheney and Jindal and Gingrich, are physical
cowards… they have to have helpless victims.

They have to have their Gang back them up on everything.

They took the job not out of Patriotism or a sense of Duty, nothing
nearly that noble. They took the job because they enjoy doing it,
and some Dumbass Dubya appointee hired them to do it and gave them
immunity.

The only substantial difference between them and the dude strapped
to a table with a needle in his arm, THEY have the support of “our”
Government.

And enough people who are Stupid enough to support them unconditionally.

One other thing,..

A determination of somebody being a habitual killer is strengthened
if the person attributes his actions to God.

Like George and Sarah do…

And their good friend Erik Prince, the Murderer in Chief of the
Blackwater mercenaries does…

For those of you who do support those types of action, there’s an
excellent description from Professor Churchill:

Little Eichmanns.

Just following orders, right(wing)?

Saipan abuses impervious to outrage?

A 2006 article in MS Magazine exposed labor abuse in the US territories of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Have conditions changed since protectors Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff were dislodged? Consider that US Senator Daniel Kahikina delivered this condemnation of human exploitation in the Saipan in 1998.

The Commonwealth shares our American flag, but it does not share the American system of immigration.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a CNMI immigration system that issues permits to recruiters, who in turn promise well-paying American jobs to foreigners in exchange for a $6,000 recruitment fee. When the workers arrive in Saipan, they find their recruiter has vanished and there are no jobs in sight. Hundreds of these destitute workers roam the streets of Saipan with little or no chance of employment and no hope of returning to their homeland.

The State Department has confirmed that the government of China is an active participant in the CNMI immigration system. There is something fundamentally wrong with an immigration system that allows the government of China to prohibit Chinese workers from exercising political or religious freedom while employed in United States.

Something is fundamentally wrong with a CNMI immigration system that issues entry permits for 12- and 13-year-old girls from the Philippines and other Asian nations, and allows their employers to use them for live sex shows and prostitution.

Finally, something is fundamentally wrong when a Chinese construction worker asks if he can sell one of his kidneys for enough money to return to China and escape the deplorable working conditions in the Commonwealth and the immigration system that brought him there.

There are voices in the CNMI telling us that the cases of worker abuse we keep hearing about are isolated examples, that the system is improving, and that worker abuse is a thing of the past. These are the same voices that reap the economic benefits of a system of indentured labor that enslaves thousands of foreign workers — a system described in a bi-partisan study as “an unsustainable economic, social and political system that is antithetical to most American values.”

There is overwhelming evidence that abuse in the CNMI occurs on a grand scale and the problems are far from isolated.

The Full Text of Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s speech

AhmadinejadAt last we have a copy of the full text of the Iranian President’s speech at the Durban Review Conference on racism and now we can examine just how it has been misrepresented as vile, ugly, and racist by vile ugly racists. The fact is that the main point of the speech actually has next to nothing to do directly with Israel or Jewish people at all, but rather is an attack on the war-like and imperialist United Nation Security Council and the undemocratic nature of this US controlled organization.

He essentially calls for its abolishment in the summary of his remarks and it is this Call that actually is the cause of the Made-In-US boycott and subsequent walkout from the anti-racism conference, and not anything else Ahmadinejad said.

President Ahmadinejad….

‘Secondly, mindful of the inefficiency of the current international political, economic and security systems, it is necessary to focus on divine and humanitarian values by referring to the true definition of human beings based upon justice and respect for the rights of all people in all parts of the world and by acknowledging the past wrong doings in the past dominant management of the world, and to undertake collective measures to reform the existing structures.

In this respect, it is crucially important to rapidly reform the structure of the Security Council, including the elimination of the discriminatory veto right and to change the current world financial and monetary systems.

It is evident that lack of understanding of the urgency for change is equivalent to the much heavier costs of delay.’

There is absolutely nothing anti-Jewish in any of his remarks, and the world has had enough of the United Nation Security Council and its constant war making. Many will also champion Ahmadinejad’s call for its abolishment.

FULL TEXT:

(Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the Durban Review Conference on racism in Geneva on April 20, 2009.)

Mr. Chairman, honorable secretary general of the United Nations, honorable United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Ladies and gentleman:

We have gathered in the follow-up to the Durban conference against racism and racial discrimination to work out practical mechanisms for our holy and humanitarian campaigns.

Over the last centuries, humanity has gone through great sufferings and pains. In the Medieval Ages, thinkers and scientists were sentenced to death. It was then followed by a period of slavery and slave trade. Innocent people were taken captive in their millions and separated from their families and loved ones to be taken to Europe and America under the worst conditions. A dark period that also experienced occupation, lootings and massacres of innocent people.

Many years passed by before nations rose up and fought for their liberty and freedom and they paid a high price for it. They lost millions of lives to expel the occupiers and establish independent and national governments. However, it did not take long before power grabbers imposed two wars in Europe which also plagued a part of Asia and Africa. Those horrific wars claimed about a hundred million lives and left behind massive devastation. Had lessons been learnt from the occupations, horrors and crimes of those wars, there would have been a ray of hope for the future.

The victorious powers called themselves the conquerors of the world while ignoring or down treading upon rights of other nations by the imposition of oppressive laws and international arrangements.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us take a look at the UN Security Council which is one of the legacies of World War I and World War II. What was the logic behind their granting themselves the veto right? How can such logic comply with humanitarian or spiritual values? Would it not be inconformity with the recognized principles of justice, equality before the law, love and human dignity? Would it not be discrimination, injustice, violations of human rights or humiliation of the majority of nations and countries?

The council is the highest decision-making world body for safeguarding international peace and security. How can we expect the realization of justice and peace when discrimination is legalized and the origin of the law is dominated by coercion and force rather than by justice and the rights?

Coercion and arrogance is the origin of oppression and wars. Although today many proponents of racism condemn racial discrimination in their words and their slogans, a number of powerful countries have been authorized to decide for other nations based on their own interests and at their own discretion and they can easily violate all laws and humanitarian values as they have done so.

Following World War II, they resorted to military aggression to make an entire nation homeless under the pretext of Jewish suffering and they sent migrants from Europe, the United States and other parts of the world in order to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine. And, in fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine.

The Security Council helped stabilize the occupying regime and supported it in the past 60 years giving them a free hand to commit all sorts of atrocities. It is all the more regrettable that a number of Western governments and the United States have committed themselves to defending those racist perpetrators of genocide while the awakened-conscience and free-minded people of the world condemn aggression, brutalities and the bombardment of civilians in Gaza. The supporters of Israel have always been either supportive or silent against the crimes.

Dear friends, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. What are the root causes of the US attacks against Iraq or the invasion of Afghanistan?

Was the motive behind the invasion of Iraq anything other than the arrogance of the then US administration and the mounting pressures on the part of the possessors of wealth and power to expand their sphere of influence seeking the interests of giant arms manufacturing companies affecting a noble culture with thousands of years of historical background, eliminating the potential and practical threats of Muslim countries against the Zionist regime or to control and plunder the energy resources of the Iraqi people?

Why, indeed, almost a million people were killed and injured and a few more millions were displaced? Why, indeed, the Iraqi people have suffered enormous losses amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars? And why was billions of dollars imposed on the American people as the result of these military actions? Was not the military action against Iraq planned by the Zionists and their allies in the then US administration in complicity with the arms manufacturing countries and the possessors of wealth? Did the invasion of Afghanistan restore peace, security and economic wellbeing in the country?

The United States and its allies not only have failed to contain the production of drugs in Afghanistan, but the cultivation of narcotics has multiplied in the course of their presence. The basic question is that what was the responsibility and the job of the then US administration and its allies?

Did they represent the countries of the world? Have they been mandated by them? Have they been authorized by the people of the world to interfere in all parts of the globe, of course mostly in our region? Are not these measures a clear example of egocentrism, racism, discrimination or infringement upon the dignity and independence of nations?

Ladies and gentlemen, who is responsible for the current global economic crisis? Where did the crisis start from? From Africa, Asia or from the United States in the first place then spreading across Europe and their allies?

For a long time, they imposed inequitable economic regulations by their political power on the international economy. They imposed a financial and monetary system without a proper international oversight mechanism on nations and governments that played no role in repressive trends or policies. They have not even allowed their people to oversea or monitor their financial policies. They introduced all laws and regulations in defiance of all moral values only to protect the interests of the possessors of wealth and power.

They further presented a definition for market economy and competition that denied many of the economic opportunities that could be available to other countries of the world. They even transferred their problems to others while the waves of crisis lashed back plaguing their economies with thousands of billions of dollars in budget deficit. And today, they are injecting hundreds of billions of dollars of cash from the pockets of their own people and other nations into the failing banks, companies and financial institutions making the situation more and more complicated for their economy and their people. They are simply thinking about maintaining power and wealth. They could not care any less about the people of the world and even their own people.

Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen, Racism is rooted in the lack of knowledge concerning the root of human existence as the selected creature of God. It is also the product of his deviation from the true path of human life and the obligations of mankind in the world of creation, failing to consciously worship God, not being able to think about the philosophy of life or the path to perfection that are the main ingredients of divine and humanitarian values which have restricted the horizon of human outlook making transient and limited interests, the yardstick for his action. That is why evil’s power took shape and expanded its realm of power while depriving others from enjoying equitable and just opportunities of development.

The result has been the making of an unbridled racism that is posing the most serious threats against international peace and has hindered the way for building peaceful coexistence in the entire world. Undoubtedly, racism is the symbol of ignorance which has deep roots in history and it is, indeed, the sign of frustration in the development of human society.

It is, therefore, crucially important to trace the manifestations of racism in situations or in societies where ignorance or lack of knowledge prevails. This increasing general awareness and understanding towards the philosophy of human existence is the principle struggle against such manifestations, and reveals the truth that human kind centers on the creation of the universe and the key to solving the problem of racism is a return to spiritual and moral values and finally the inclination to worship God Almighty.

The international community must initiate collective moves to raise awareness in afflicted societies where ignorance of racism still prevails so as to bring to a halt the spread of these malicious manifestations.

Dear Friends, today, the human community is facing a kind of racism which has tarnished the image of humanity in the beginning of the third millennium.

World Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religions and abuses religious sentiments to hide its hatred and ugly face. However, it is of great importance to bring into focus the political goals of some of the world powers and those who control huge economic resources and interests in the world. They mobilize all the resources including their economic and political influence and world media to render support in vain to the Zionist regime and to maliciously diminish the indignity and disgrace of this regime.

This is not simply a question of ignorance and one cannot conclude these ugly phenomena through consular campaigns. Efforts must be made to put an end to the abuse by Zionists and their political and international supporters and in respect with the will and aspirations of nations. Governments must be encouraged and supported in their fights aimed at eradicating this barbaric racism and to move towards reform in current international mechanisms.

There is no doubt that you are all aware of the conspiracies of some powers and Zionist circles against the goals and objectives of this conference. Unfortunately, there have been literatures and statements in support of Zionists and their crimes. And it is the responsibility of honorable representatives of nations to disclose these campaigns which run counter to humanitarian values and principles.

It should be recognized that boycotting such a session as an outstanding international capacity is a true indication of supporting the blatant example of racism. In defending human rights, it is primarily important to defend the rights of all nations to participate equally in all important international decision making processes without the influence of certain world powers.

And secondly, it is necessary to restructure the existing international organizations and their respective arrangements. Therefore this conference is a testing ground and the world public opinion today and tomorrow will judge our decisions and our actions.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, the world is going through rapid fundamental changes. Power relations have become weak and fragile. The sound of cracks in the pillars of world systems can now be heard. Major political and economic structures are on the brink of collapse. Political and security crises are on the rise. The worsening crisis in the world economy for which there can be seen no bright prospect, demonstrates the rising tide of far-reaching global changes. I have repeatedly emphasized the need to change the wrong direction through which the world is being managed today and I have also warned of the dire consequences of any delay in this crucial responsibility.

Now in this valuable event, I would like to announce to all leaders, thinkers and to all nations of the world present in this meeting and those who have a hunger for peace and economic well-being that the unjust economic management of the world is now at the end of the road. This deadlock was inevitable since the logic of this imposed management was oppressive.

The logic of collective management of world affairs is based on noble aspirations which centers on human beings and the supremacy of the almighty God. Therefore it defies any policy or plan which goes against the influence of nations. The victory of right over wrong and the establishment of a just world system has been promised by the Almighty God and his messengers and it has been a shared goal of all human beings from different societies and generations in the course of history. Realization of such a future depends on the knowledge of creation and the belief of the faithful.

The making of a global society is in fact the accomplishment of a noble goal held in the establishment of a common global system that will be run with the participation of all nations of the world in all major decision making processes and the definite root to this sublime goal.

Scientific and technical capacities as well as communication technology have created a common and widespread understanding of the world society and has provided the necessary ground for a common system. Now it is upon all intellectuals, thinkers and policy makers in the world to carry out their historical responsibility with a firm belief in this definite root.

I also want to lay emphasis on the fact that Western liberalism and capitalism has reached its end since it has failed to perceive the truth of the world and humans as they are.

It has imposed its own goals and directions on human beings. There is no regard for human and divine values, justice, freedom, love and brotherhood and it has based living on intense competition, securing individual and cooperative material interest.

Now we must learn from the past by initiating collective efforts in dealing with present challenges and in this connection, and as a closing remark, I wish to draw your kind attention to two important issues:

Firstly, it is absolutely possible to improve the existing situation in the world. However it must be noted that this could be only achieved through the cooperation of all countries in order to get the best out of the existing capacities and resources in the world. My participation in this conference is because of my conviction to these important issues as well as to our common responsibility of defending the rights of nations vis-à-vis the sinister phenomena of racism and being with you, the thinkers of the world.

Secondly, mindful of the inefficiency of the current international political, economic and security systems, it is necessary to focus on divine and humanitarian values by referring to the true definition of human beings based upon justice and respect for the rights of all people in all parts of the world and by acknowledging the past wrong doings in the past dominant management of the world, and to undertake collective measures to reform the existing structures.

In this respect, it is crucially important to rapidly reform the structure of the Security Council, including the elimination of the discriminatory veto right and to change the current world financial and monetary systems.

It is evident that lack of understanding of the urgency for change is equivalent to the much heavier costs of delay.

Dear Friends, beware that to move in the direction of justice and human dignity is like a rapid flow in the current of a river. Let us not forget the essence of love and affection. The promised future of human beings is a great asset that may serve our purposes in keeping together to build a new world.

In order to make the world a better place full of love and blessings, a world devoid of poverty and hatred, merging the increasing blessings of God Almighty and the righteous managing of the perfect human being, let us all join hands in friendship in the fulfillment of such a new world.

I thank you Mr. President, Secretary General and all distinguished participants for having the patience to listen to me. Thank you very much.

Zionist Right Wing launches new effort to fire another Left university professor

William RobinsonUniversity of California- Santa Barbara Sociology and Global Studies Professor, William Robinson, is under attack from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for having spoken out against Israeli military atrocities in Gaza. Their position is quite simple and is that he should either shut up or be fired. See The Robinson Case

A quick view of his defense site shows that this professor and his supporters are quite aware of the nature of this enemy of free speech they are up against. See Academic Freedom in the News The Anti-Defamation League perversely spends much of its time trying to shut people up and defame them, so to speak. As another example of how this works, see the recent Right Wing attacks against President Obama himself for having shook hands with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Below is a passage of a news report about Obama and Hugo Chavez’s meeting last week.

‘Obama returned to Washington early Sunday evening. But even before he got back, Obama was facing condemnation from some Republicans about how he dealt with Chavez. “I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.’

While the Anti-Defamation League itself is not trying directly to remove Obama from office (they love Obama’s selection of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff way too much!), they do have a campaign going full steam to falsely label Hugo Chavez as being antisemitic. See ADL’s report below…

“What is troubling about Venezuela is that anti-Semitism is being used as a political tool,” Mr. Foxman said. “Anti-Semitism is fostered by those at the highest levels of government, trickled down the government apparatus and left unchallenged by officials in the Chavez regime, the government-controlled media, and civic and religious leaders who support the regime in Venezuela.

“We are encouraged by the many expressions of support for the Venezuelan Jewish community coming from opposition politicians and independent media outlets, who we believe more accurately reflect the views and feelings of the vast majority of the Venezuelan people.”

That is an excerpt from their website’s ADL Report: Venezuelan Jewish Community Under Threat

Coming after the US coup attempt and kidnapping of Hugo Chavez, one rather imagines that the ADL has the whole situation backwards. It is not the Chavez government that is anti-Semitic at all, but rather that it is the Right Wing Zionist Movement that is anti-Chavez. They want him removed just like they want all radical Left antiwar professors removed from their academic posts inside the US. And the ADL campaign against Venezuela’s current government moves hand in hand with the Republican campaign against Obama for shaking hands and laughing alongside Hugo Chavez. Both the Republican Right and the ADL simply want to stifle all views critical of US foreign policy and Israeli government policy.

This Israeli-made campaign to silence and trash all critics of the Jewish State hegemony in the Middle East promoted in US foreign policy even has been seen down to the level of covert attacks on American blogs like this one. That is why we now express our own solidarity with UCSB professor William Robinson. We will not, and should not, let them silence us all. They have many tools of intimidation and censorship and we need to bring to the light of day all of them.

Yes, they may succeed at silencing an individual critic of Israel here and there but our Movement to expose the reactionary nature of US foreign policy use of Israeli Zionist Jewish State propaganda grows stronger over time. People around the globe are simply getting fed up with the racism and imperialism that are political cornerstones of the Israeli and US governments. The truth will continue to rise up through the blankets of neo-con and Zionist propaganda for having yet more of their bloodshed and pillage.

Visit Professor Robinson’s website

US directed walkout of conference threatens Iran with extension of regional US planned war

The truth hurts and the US and its allies don’t like it when it is spoken. Because of that reality, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had his honest speech at the UN anti-racism conference being held in Switzerland interrupted by a hateful US government whose main message is more war soon against even more of the uppity Middle East ‘darkies’. Racism talks expose deep divisions

The justification for the walkout led by the US government was supposedly that the speech by Ahmadinejad was intolerable and racist itself. Almost all those who walked out though, were White Europeans and White English speaking government neo-colonialist representatives from around the globe! Poor Whitey! How they struggle against racism in the world today. NOT, and never did either.

Since the speech was the supposed cause of their supposed indignation, I looked across the web to find a full English language transcript of it published, with the certain knowledge that if it truly was offensive, that both Israel and the US would have rushed out this transcript with great haste? But I couldn’t find one! Go figure then? Why not?

At this time, one must simply wait until more of the truth trickles out for us that await it, as this full transcript will eventually be released in English. What is for sure until then, is that the simple fact of this US led boycott and walkout of this UN anti-racist conference signaled to the entire world, that the US government with its new warmonger CIC Barack Obama at the helm, is jumping for an opportunity to committing yet more bloodshed against others and yet more war against the ‘darkies’ out there. And all to supposedly keep safe and protect White America and its honorary mainly European friends, those that provide the background for supporting White America’s running of the planet these days!

See CNN video of walkout

The truth comes out about how actually the US government tortured its POWs

Sept. 11 planner waterboarded 183 times: report, but this is a little bit different than the US government officials’ lies about how they used torture on Pentagon held POWs, is it not?

We ask, because the apologists for US government torture use have always tried to paint a picture of themselves using only supposedly limited and necessary tortures, needed and used only to protect the larger US common society from baddies. In such, they have mimicked the Israeli government’s murderous actions against Palestinians, too, where all the Israeli government abuse is qualified as being merely a restrained and rational program of protection for endangered Jewish people. But the truth actually in both cases is that both the Israeli and US governments are engaging in their own form of terrorism against people they have tried to deligitimize as supposedly not being subject to international laws of humanity and human decency.

Capitalism is Organized Crime

Capitalism is organized crimeFrom A.N.S.W.E.R.:
–Capitalism is a form of organized crime. The U.S. government is greasing the system’s wheels to ensure that banks and big corporations get trillions in bailout funds. Meanwhile, millions of workers are losing their jobs and homes. Deep cuts are gutting public education, making health care even less accessible and decimating much-needed social programs. Police brutality and racial profiling are rampant. Working-class people are being hit from all sides.

The conference will link the struggles against war and militarism with the fight for economic justice. This conference will be an important opportunity for political activists to meet, analyze, discuss and propose solutions. The conference organizers believe that a radical reorganization of society is necessary to meet the needs of the people rather than to maximize the profits of bankers and corporate executives who have driven society onto the path of endless war and economic suffering.

Featured speakers at the April 19th Conference will include: Marcos García, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Brian Becker, Hodari Abdul-Ali, Eugene Puryear, Prof. Zachary Wolfe, Maurice Carney, Muna Coobtee, Frances Villar, James Circello, and Crystal Kim.

Cornmeal

maize mealLack of money to pay for higher priced cornmeal is what is helping starve millions in Southern Sudan, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Somalia, and elsewhere in Africa. Many are just a few weeks from dying because they can’t buy the cornmeal at current prices.
 
See:
ZAMBIA: A better meal than maize-meal.
and:
Facing hunger in Kenya’s Kajiado.

Why not send the cornmeal in, instead of sending in the troops, setting up ‘no fly zones’, and spending money on ‘pirate control’? Not to mention all that money being spent on supplying those US troops spread all around the globe with their daily rations of hamburger with cheese? Where’s the humanitarian interventionism?

Because your government is so horrible you can do your own personal part in helping people out here. Go to any dollar store and buy a couple of dollar bags of corn meal, then go the post office, get the stamps and send it off to…

Starving Child Aid
c/o Barack Obama
White House USA

with a note…

Please make sure this food gets to countries in Africa where the poor can’t buy cornmeal because you are spending so damn much world $$$ on ‘missile shields’, wars on drugs, wars on a ghost called global terrorism, and the war against common sense.

Thank you,
Mr. President

Then again? …better yet, just send it straight to…

Starving Child
Postal service of
African Country with increasing hunger

It would get there then perhaps? Less corruption.

Hugo Chavez has message for Obama

Eduardo Galeano- Open veins of Latin America, 1998Hugo Chavez met Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas, and presented this gift to the American president: “The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano. At the United Nations General Assembly in 2006, Chavez held aloft Noam Chomsky’s “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance,” encouraging everyone to read it. Is there a common theme to the dark-skinned Chavez’s book recommendations? Chavez’ critics from the Venezuelan upper middle class think he’s no brighter than a monkey. His message, educate yourselves.

Eduardo GaleanoEduardo Galeano was interviewed by Amy Goodman on the day Barack Obama learned he had won the election. Galeano had this hope for the first US President of color: that he never forget that the White House, his new home, had been built by black slaves.

By the way, Galeano’s classic, with which Hugo Chavez hopes to bring Obama up to speed, was published in 1971.

When Obama won the 2008 election, Eduardo Galeano wrote this essay: I HOPE.

10 November 2008

Will Obama prove, at the helm of government, that his threats of war against Iran and Pakistan were only words, broadcast to seduce difficult ears during the election campaign?

I hope. And I hope he will not fall, even for a moment, for the temptation to repeat the exploits of George W. Bush. After all, Obama had the dignity to vote against the Iraq war, while the Democratic and Republican parties were applauding the announcement of this carnage.

In his campaign, the word most often repeated in his speeches was leadership. In his administration, will he continue to believe that his country has been chosen to save the world, a toxic idea that he shares with almost all his colleagues? Will he insist on the United States’ global leadership and its messianic mission to take command?

I hope the current crisis, which is shaking the imperial foundations, will serve at least to give the new administration a bath of realism and humility.

Will Obama accept that racism is normal when it is used against the countries that his country invades? Isn’t it racism to count the deaths of invaders in Iraq, one by one, and arrogantly ignore the many dead among the invaded population? Isn’t this world racist, where there are first-, second-, and third-class citizens, and the first-. second-, and third-class dead?

Obama’s victory was universally hailed as a battle won against racism. I hope he will assume, in his acts of government, this great responsibility.

Will the Obama government confirm, once again, that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are two names of the same party?

I hope the desire for change, which these elections have established, will be more than a promise and more than a hope. I hope the new government has the courage to break with the tradition of the one and only party, disguised as two parties which at the moment of truth do more or less the same thing while simulating a fight.

Will Obama fulfill his promise to shut down the evil Guantánamo prison?

I hope, and I hope he will end the evil blockade of Cuba.

Will Obama continue to believe that it is great to have a wall that prevents Mexicans from crossing the border, while money moves without anyone asking for its passport?

During the election campaign, Obama never honestly confronted the subject of immigration. I hope, now that he is no longer in danger of scaring voters away, he can and wants to break down this wall, much longer and more embarrassing than the Berlin Wall, and all the walls that violate people’s right to free movement.

Will Obama, who so enthusiastically supported the recent little gift of 750 billion dollars to bankers, govern, as usual, to socialize losses and privatize profits?

I’m afraid so, but I hope not.

Will Obama sign and comply with the Kyoto Protocol, or will he continue to give the privilege of impunity to the nation that is poisoning the planet the most? Will he govern for cars or for people? Can he change the murderous course of the lifestyle of the few who are risking the fate of all?

I’m afraid not, but I hope so.

Will Obama, the first black president in the history of the United States, realize the dream of Martin Luther King or the nightmare of Condoleezza Rice?

The White House, which is now his house, was built by black slaves. I hope he won’t forget it, ever.

Ground Zero for The Empire’s Collapse- Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation?

DTCCThe Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation or DTCC is possibly Ground Zero for the US Empire’s potential coming economic collapse, because it is the primary and dominant insuring company that guarantees pay outs for those who hold junk stocks, if they go belly up.

‘DTCC’s DTC depository provides custody and asset servicing for 3.5 million securities issues, comprised mostly of stocks and bonds, from the United States and 110 other countries and territories, valued at $40 trillion, more than any other depository in the world. In 2007, DTCC settled the vast majority of securities transactions in the United States, more than $1.86 quadrillion in value.’ Taken from wikipedia’s DTCC entry

Looking to see who is in charge at DTCC? Nice group of pics, right? Nice people I’m sure… lol… Good patriotic Americans and what all.

The DTCC history show 2 events that pushed this corporate outfit to the head. One was Bill Clinton’s deregulation of securities signed into law in 2000 at the end of his presidency, and the other was 9/11.

9/11 effectively was the death blow to paper securities, and DTCC was right there offering electronic securities instead. Here at DTCC’s site one finds this brief explanation of No More Paper: The Problems with Paper …see below

Q. I have heard that many securities were lost on 9/11. Is that true?

A. Yes, although they were eventually all replaced. Some $16 billion worth of certificates disappeared in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11, and it took many months and nearly $300 million in industry costs to replace them. During this period, electronic records were used to ensure the owners of the securities could be identified. Meanwhile, shares held electronically were not harmed at all on 9/11.

OK, that’s nice…. And here, written in 1999 about the Clinton Administration’s proposed financial deregulation of that year that then later allowed the rise of even more speculative securities and the eventual domination of DTCC over the securities market, is the following…

***Threat to financial stability***

The proposed deregulation will increase the degree of monopolization in finance and worsen the position of consumers in relation to creditors. Even more significant is its impact on the overall stability of US and world capitalism. The bill ties the banking system and the insurance industry even more directly to the volatile US stock market, virtually guaranteeing that any significant plunge on Wall Street will have an immediate and catastrophic impact throughout the US financial system.

The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which the deregulation bill would repeal, was not adopted to protect consumers, although one of its most celebrated provisions was the establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which guarantees bank deposits of up to $100,000. The law was enacted during the first 100 days of the Roosevelt administration to rescue a banking system which had collapsed, wiping out the life savings of millions of working people, and threatening to bring the profit system to a complete standstill.

As a recent history of that era notes: “The more than five thousand bank failures between the Crash and the New Deal’s rescue operation in March 1933 wiped out some $7 billion in depositors’ money. Accelerating foreclosures on defaulted home mortgages—150,000 homeowners lost their property in 1930, 200,000 in 1931, 250,000 in 1932—stripped millions of people of both shelter and life savings at a single stroke and menaced the balance sheets of thousands of surviving banks” (David Kennedy, Freedom from Fear, Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 162-63).

The separation of banking and the stock exchange was ordered in response to revelations of the gross corruption and manipulation of the market by giant banking houses, above all the House of Morgan, which organized huge corporate mergers for its own profit and awarded preferential access to share issues to favored politicians and businessmen. Such insider trading played a major role in the speculative boom which preceded the 1929 crash.

Over the past 20 years the restrictions imposed by Glass-Steagall have been gradually relaxed under pressure from the banks, which sought more profitable outlets for their capital, especially in the booming stock market, and which complained that foreign competitors suffered no such limitations to their financial operations. In 1990 the Federal Reserve Board first permitted a bank (J.P. Morgan) to sell stock through a subsidiary, although stock market operations were limited to 10 percent of the company’s total revenue. In 1996 this ceiling was lifted to 25 percent. Now it will be abolished.

The Wall Street Journal celebrated the agreement to end such restrictions with an editorial declaring that the banks had been unfairly scapegoated for the Great Depression. The headline of one Journal article detailing the impact of the proposed law declared, “Finally, 1929 Begins to Fade.”

This comment underscores the greatest irony in the banking deregulation bill. Legislation first adopted to save American capitalism from the consequences of the 1929 Wall Street Crash is being abolished just at the point where the conditions are emerging for an even greater speculative financial collapse. The enormous volatility in the stock exchange in recent months has been accompanied by repeated warnings that stocks are grossly overvalued, with some computer and Internet stocks selling at prices 100 times earnings or even greater.

And there is a much more recent experience than 1929 to serve as a cautionary tale. A financial deregulation bill was passed in the early 1980s under the Reagan administration, lifting many restrictions on the activities of savings and loan associations, which had previously been limited primarily to the home-loan market. The result was an orgy of speculation, profiteering and outright plundering of assets, culminating in collapse and the biggest financial bailout in US history, costing the federal government more than $500 billion. The repetition of such events in the much larger banking and securities markets would be beyond the scope of any federal bailout.

The complete article published back in 1999 at Clinton, Republicans agree to deregulation of US financial system Almost a totally prophetic article, as it turns out. So now we wait and see if all the government money thrown at these financial pirates…YES, financial pirates…’works’? Will it be capable of floating all this junk held insured by DTCC?

The economic quicksand that sinks us

quicksandFunny how it is that when both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party both have the same economic program, that so many of the same actors are pointing fingers at each other? But then again what could we really expect from these two partisan camps run by the same economic interests?

What we have now is a situation where More of the Same means CHANGE, and those that push CHANGE actually push More of the Same! Most of us just kind of watch from our points stuck in the economic quicksand and hope that somehow, somebody manages to throw us all a rope to help pull us out with. Good luck…

Salon has an article where it mentions some of the critics of the Obama Presidency’s economic policies. None of the summaries mentions anything about the War Budget’s effects on the greater economic quicksand we currently reside in! That’s kind of amazing, really it is. Still, check Salon out and see who are the people the article highlights… The Prophets of Doom– Meet the Cassandras, 14 economists, bloggers, politicians and businesspeople of all political stripes who have become the most strident critics of President Obama’s stewardship of the economy.

Amazingly, the author at Salon who selected these 14 people missed including Joseph Stiglitz! Well here he is then with his latest commentary, Obama’s Ersatz Capitalism

And what about James Galbraith? Here below is what he says on Democracy Now back in February.

Economist James Galbraith: Bailed-Out Banks Should Be Declared Insolvent

With estimates of the cost of addressing the financial crisis exceeding $9.7 trillion, we speak with economist and University of Texas professor James Galbraith, author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. Galbraith says rather than pouring billions into propping up troubled giant banks, the government should declare them insolvent.’

There are so many notable people who don’t like Obama’s economic policy that trying to include only 14 people in the list by Salon was a little bit unwise on their part. It is simple reality that Obama and his recycled Clintonistas are in quick danger of becoming sunk in this economic quicksand, too, since they seem to only know how to pour gasoline on the fire…. uh… I meant pour water into the quicksand…. or is it to throw tax monies into the economic quicksand?

Oh well, the idea is the same. Obama only knows how to sink us all yet further into the economic quicksand not get us out of it like some sort of fantasy Super Hero Economist could. HOPE for CHANGE is now underneath the muck.

A look at ‘peaceful nonviolence’- Is deliberately getting yourself arrested or in other trouble with the law smart?

One of the standby tactics of the Christian liberal types is to deliberately get arrested or otherwise break the law in some form or other. The question is, is this tactic a very smart one or is it a tactic designed in a way that gets non-clergy into legal trouble that actually destroys the individual’s ability to continue being an activist for long? After all, having to fight to earn a living with a criminal record is not the easiest way to long term fund one’s own personal political activities, and many who have a spurious arrest record due to their ‘non-violent’ law breaking find it hard to make a living later on.

And then there is always the possibility that you will do jail time, too? That sweet little nun who crosses onto an air base or fort somewhere in the US a step or two will not be given the same lack of leniency that a young person not connected with the religious community will probably get. Her community service ‘sentence’ of a day or two down at the soup kitchen might be the young person’s $10,000 fine instead. A young civil disobedience advocate not connected to some religious order or other might easily end up serving half a year in jail or more instead of getting some sort of slap on the wrist probation, Like Father Padre or Pastor Quaker Oats might get.

Say you don’t pay taxes? Do you really think that Uncle ‘Pentagon’ Sam won’t come after you? You’ll pay for those not-paid taxes one way or the other make no mistake about it. ‘Peaceful nonviolence’ and deliberately getting arrested or in other trouble with the law is not particularly a smart way of fighting the government. Much better is to use some smarts about when, where, and how to go into battle against The System, rather than isolating yourself with these types of religiously motivated tactics that just get the individual victimized more than anything else. It is better to actually use tactics that lead to building and organizing a real Movement of The People, rather than use tactics that merely might make a newspaper headline or two as you go out and deliberately look to getting hit by a legal stick, or a policeman’s.

The Pope versus Obama and the American people

The Pope in America‘The Vatican has vetoed three of Barack Obama’s potential nominees as US ambassador amid a growing dispute between the White House and the Roman Catholic church over the new administration’s support for abortion rights and the lifting of a ban on stem cell research.’
Full story at
Vatican vetoes Barack Obama’s nominees for US ambassador

Yes, but wouldn’t it be perfectly GRAND if the US government was to just say,

‘Catholic Church, you are not a country anyway, and we don’t send government ambassadors to churches.’ That would shut those silly ass bishops and the Pope God figure up for good, wouldn’t it?

Just who the Hell does the Pope and his Catholic church groupies think that they are anyway? The Anglican Church doesn’t have an American ambassador sitting in London or wherever that church’s HQ is located at for their leader to chat with. The Muslims don’t get an ambassador sent to Mecca or any of the other Holy Cities of their religion. There is no US government ambassador sent to Salt Lake City to hobnob with the Mormon Big Shot there. Simply to send an ambassador to the Vatican violates the separation of Church and State that is the foundation of modern democracy. It simply privileges one religion over others and the Catholics do not deserve this extra privilege at all!

Obama, just tell the Pope that you’ll send them Nobody as the US ambassador to the Vatican. And start taxing all that Catholic Church property, too. OH? And start applying the law to its fullest extent to those in the Catholic Church that have covered up sex crimes within the Catholic Church. Time for the special treatment for this church to come to an end. Time for them to end their interference in politics and stick to talking about God, instead of always trying to push their religion off onto others.

Mikheil Saakashvili, US government war whore

GeorgiaI still have US support, says Georgian leader. Well YES and NO, you whore. What you don’t have is the unconditional support of your own people, Georgians, for bombing parts of what was your own country anymore. You lost that support.
 
It is just so pathetic when foreign elites claiming to be Great Patriots of The Homeland become just total whores paid for by The American Empire! Your own people can no longer stomach you, Mikheil. They now know that you are the US Pentagon’s man, and not theirs. You’ll never gain back their support since you being an American whore has now cost their people dearly.

Springs Utilities and “Right to Work” law

Which is really the “right to fire you if you get injured on the job or if you seek fair compensation for your labor or if you form (or join an existing) an organization which represents the workers to ensure the Equal Protection Under the Law and right to petition the Government for redress of grievances” law.

Since both Springs Utilities and the Corporate Welfare Council are married to the Coal corporations, and they both apparently sponsored the “White” wash of the Ludlow Massacre“incident”
I felt it politic to post this again.

When I was in the hospital after my ankle fusion surgery two years ago there was this young dude in the next bed, who had been in an accident while working for Springs Utilities.

He had been working “under the crane” which is a strict no-no in Union work, because the hooks and or the cable and or the chains attached to the crane have a distressing tendency to snap and to send the load which they were bearing straight down.

Which is what happened in this case, the crane dropped a 2 1/2 ton steel fitting onto his foot.

His mom was visiting him, and a gentleman I think was his brother

His doctor came in, one of the surgeons from Front Range Orthopædics. Who is considered to be one of the Premier surgeons in the country.

He had spent the past three days trying to save the kid’s foot.

But the foot had to be amputated, and he was breaking the news to him and his family that they wouldn’t be able to save it.

After he left, his brother and his mom were telling him he needed to hire an attorney, he told them “No, (one of his friends from work) was talking about it with me and he said to just trust the company, they’ll take care of me”.

I almost bit my tongue in two keeping from interjecting on that score.

Then the Corporate Whore company representative came in, she was telling him what the settlement was the company was offering, his mom said ‘should we hire an attorney to review it?” and the Corporate Whore told her “no need, we’ll take care of him TRUST US

Then proceeded to tell the kid that they were going to assign a doctor to him, one “approved by the Corporation” his mom interjected with the fact that he had one of the best surgeons in America already as his doctor and the Corporate Whore said “yes, we know, he’s an excellent doctor but He Doesn’t Keep Up With The Paperwork”

Which is bullsh ee It of such a high order it deserves a third syllable.

The doctors at Front Range don’t do the paperwork, they have a very competent staff who do that.

Efficient enough that all the major insurers including CHAMPVA, TriCare, Medicare, Medicaid, Just a start on the Government insurers, accept their billing and procedures without question.

She was slick-dicking this kid who was in severe pain, on a morphine drip, and cowing him into obedience to The Company Line.

Politely browbeating him but doing it in a way that Establishes The Dominance of Her Corporate Masters, “Thou Shalt Not Question Our Orders”.

Then she said something truly stunning… she said the company would “generously” allow him two years of disability pay, until he
GETS BACK ON HIS FEET and they realized there would be “cosmetic damage” but it shouldn’t affect his ability to Perform his “duties”.

The bitch hadn’t even consulted with his doctor.

But according to the Right Wing Anti-Union “right to work” Fascists,

It’s supposedly the UNIONS who are victimizing us poor stupid workers.

The kid was still opposed to getting his own attorney.

I hope he wised up and realized that the Company was going to screw him repeatedly and often, as long as he allows them to do it.

If he wants to, he can still change his mind, and I’ll testify for him.

The “settlement” was offered to him while he was under extreme duress, in extreme pain and on enough morphine to keep an elephant high.

Illegal as all Hell, but… without Union representation, the Corporate BigPigs can get away with it often enough to make their obscene profit margins.

People who are invested in that corporation, you gotta realize where your money is coming from.

Obama’s war on Pakistan: disappear, torture, mutilate, and dump

Quetta traders
March 20, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said: … ‘We all have a concern about the Quetta shura (in Balochistan) and the activities of the Taliban in that area.’ Two and a half weeks later… April 9, Riots as Baloch chiefs found dead (in Balochistan) after being disappeared, tortured, mutilated, and dumped. Obama and Robert Gates? Two terrorists at large. It’s time to stop their wars! It’s time to end Pentagon terrorism!

What National Security is promoted for us by these acts of US government terrorism? None at all is the short answer. The picture used for this post was actually taken from a tourist site, one that was talking about visiting the market in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan. Would you like to be a tourist there now? How about then taking a package tour to see Egypt’s Pyramids?

Obama has done nothing more than continue George Dubya Bush’s wars, except to further extend them! Meanwhile, you can hardly get a liberal Democratic Party voter to do a single damn thing about it.

What a shameful country we live in with such an apthetic, compliant group of people here! But what goes around comes around. Think about it some. Your future right now looks quite grim.

Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party

Tax Day Tea Party
REVOLUTION IS BREWING?
We can only hope. While it is tempting to lampoon the self-interested prigs, with a “PHOOEY ON HEALTH CARE” or “I WANT A GOVERNMENT THAT DOES NOTHING” or “NO TAXATION OR REPRESENTATION,” there is the allure that otherwise flaccid citizens can still energize themselves in the streets. If they dress as Indians and loot the coffee from the Starbucks docks, I’m in. If these conservative anti-socialists remember the Boston Tea Party at all, they were the silent majority Monarchist Loyalists ratting out Nathan Hale to the Redcoats.

Moldova’s riots

What in the world is going on in Moldova, where the losers of the election just tore up some major government buildings? Might a small Trotskyist group, Popular Resistance offer some insight into the situation? They say that the ‘communist’ winners of the election are just another group of neo-liberals wanting to privatize the entire country on behalf of Western corporations.

And another commentary, this time from Moscow Times says that the riots in Moldova Underscores Failed Russian Policy as the US stages another Color Revolution.

This how the article begins…

Anti-government protests in Moldova this week unfolded in a similar manner to Western-backed uprisings that toppled governments in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Serbia in recent years.

But what should worry the Kremlin is not the threat of a similar uprising at home but the fact that both Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and the opposition groups turned to the West instead of Russia to mediate the conflict, analysts said Wednesday.

Because of the shortsightedness of Russian diplomacy and its failure to project its own “soft” power, the Kremlin faces the possibility of being sidelined once again in a former Soviet state that it considers to be within its realm of influence…

Somalia seizes Pentagon pirate ship

MaerkMore is coming in about the pirate ship just seized by Somalia off their shores. See Pirate Maersk Inc.

The ocean surveillance ships (of Pirate Maersk Inc) – USNS Effective, USNS Impeccable, USNS Loyal and USNS Victorious – work directly with the Navy fleets to listen for undersea threats. The range instrumentation ships – USNS Invincible and USNS Observation Island – support the U.S. Air Force by serving as seaborne platforms for radar systems. As part of MSC’s Special Mission Program, the noncombatant, government-owned ships will be crewed by U.S. commercial mariners.

Special mission ships provide operating platforms and services for unique U.S. military and federal government missions. These specialized services include oceanographic and hydrographic surveys, underwater surveillance, missile flight data collection and tracking, acoustic survey and submarine support.

In addition to performing special missions, MSC operates more than 110 noncombatant, civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and move 95 percent of military equipment and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces.

from Seafarers International Union, aiding Pentagon Pirates everywhere!

American Corners: centers for organizing American government subversion

America Corner logoAmerican Corners is a US government subversion program that operates multiple centers abroad to disrupt opposition to American foreign policy. See Conspiracy and Propaganda Centers: Illegal US Consulates in Venezuela.

OK, one might think that this commentary about them exaggerates or is paranoid, or is misleading in some way, so let’s examine one of these US government ‘Corners’ of subversion located in Israel. See American Corner Jericho.

Here the effort to subvert is not directed against the Israeli government, but against the Palestinian opposition to that Jewish State dictatorship. The basic political program is- Accept our money and become corrupted by us. This is the policy everywhere they are in operation. It is the policy of dangling carrots in front of donkeys.

Just how does American government subversion via the American Corner centers work? This American Corner Serbia is very illustrativ. Notice that the multi-national country of Yugoslavia has been completely ideologically deconstructed by the US government here. It is not called ‘American Corner Yugoslavia’, though this ‘Corner’ is located in Belgrade, but merely given the deconstructed name ‘American Corner Serbia’. Notice too the cartoonish character of the site as it leads you finally to the nutty gritty of ‘discussion’ with…

U.S. & SERBIAN MILITARY COOPERATION
Colonel von Tersch
U.S. Military Attache
U.S. Embassy Belgrade

There is talk of 7 American Corners located in ‘Serbia’. The subversion level attacks at the level of the knees, to cripple and deconstruct the entire idea of a valid Yugoslavian nationhood.

At the African Regional Services of the American Corner Paris program, we are told quite directly, among the Laura Bush ‘Favorite Books’ style literary display there, that …

‘Please note that no direct order from persons in charge of American Corners will be considered:
To be valid, the order must be approved and sent by the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Section.’

So cute, and so direct to the point, too.

The American Corners in Okinawa operates to keep the US military base ongoing at that site in Japan national territory. Not that the idea is very popular with the people of Okinawa itself.

How about some of this American Happy Face at an America Corner in the Arab World?

Surfin’ U.S.A.! at MCBS
On February 18, Embassy Muscat’s Defense Attach Col. Mark Avery enthralled a full house of approximately 50 students at the American Corner at Modern College of Business and Science (MCBS) with tales of surfing in his home state of Hawaii. Explaining how surfing was originally permitted only for Hawaiian kings on huge boards cut from old-growth forests, the Colonel described the sport’s modern manifestations. He discussed the surfing craze of the 1960s that spurred even American Midwesterners who lived hundreds of miles from ocean waves to buy surf boards, and he introduced surfing music like the “Beach Boys.” The students especially enjoyed the Colonel’s photographs of his favorite surfing spots in Oman, and appreciated his use of Arabic during his presentation.

More of the same at the Salalah American Corner site of the US State Department.

Peru convicts Fujimori for war crimes even as Sri Lanka slaughters thousands in a similar counter insurgency war against its citizens

Tamil Tigers The world once sat by and allowed the United States and its Peruvian puppet, Alberto Fujimori to slaughter off tens of thousands of its indigenous citizens. The excuse was that Sendero Luminoso, the oppositional group, was not a nice enough group of people for liberals and Leftists to campaign to stop the slaughter from occurring. Today the whole world sits by, because they don’t like the Tamil Tigers, and does the exact same thing of allowing the slaughter to go on.

Yet, On this very same day, today Fujimori got convicted and Tamils are demonstrating to stop the same sort of slaughter. The world as a whole though seems to learn nothing? No CHANGE has occurred still.

The role of the US government has been is to simply accept what its ally, India, does in Kashmir and in regard to the ‘Tamil Question?’ India is needed in a US constructed Asian regional alliance against both Russia and China, so this slaughter is just not important enough to the US government to prevent from occurring. The Tamils will simply join others as collateral damage.

Petty bureaucrat resents being called… The Holocaust denials of Larry DeWitt

Internment camp for Japanese-Americans, Granada Relocation Center, Amache Colorado
In the face of Ward Churchill’s vindication in a Colorado court, and now hearing support for him by fellow academics, Wingnut Holocaust Deniers are rallying behind whichever colleague will grab their dunce baton. The latest denier is academic aspirant, Social Security Administration archivist Larry DeWitt, who’s been nursing a masters from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County campus. His master’s thesis was about little known SSA efforts to mitigate The Wartime Internments & Other “Restrictive Governmental Actions.”

Example: his caption under a photograph of quarters at the Manzanar relocation camp reads: “Figure 43: While these internees do indeed have a bare lightbulb overhead, their living conditions are not as primitive as the rhetoric of some historians may imply.”

DeWitt has been an Agency Historian for the SSA since 1995, in which capacity he cobbled a history of the department, with a view it appears, to lay a groundwork for its privatization. You can read more about DeWitt at larrydewitt.net, a website “created as part of coursework in the graduate program of the History Department at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).”

But he calls it: A Miscellany of History, Philosophy and Public Policy: A portal to four websites containing the work of historian and public policy scholar Larry DeWitt.

Most recently, DeWitt assumes to be an authority on scholarship, opining on the History News Network website: Ward Churchill: He’s Baaack! Here’s his opening line: “Well, that embarrassment for the liberal academy—Ward Churchill—is back in the news again.”

A recent article for Coloquio: Revista Cultural was about Iraq: “Doing the right thing the wrong way.”

Are DeWitt’s writing unremarkable? Yes, but for a federal agency that has proven to be vulnerable to partisan attack, I think DeWitt’s positions are ominously charged. Here are some more articles:

“Howard Zinn: The Historian as Don Quixote,” HNN, 01/26/09

“The Future Social Security Debate,” Independent Voice , April/May 2008

“How Historians Can Help Frame the Next Social Security Debate,” HNN, 10/22/07

“It is Time to Impose Peace on the Middle East,” August 2006

“Should Historians Try to Rank President Bush’s Presidency?” HNN, 5/22/06

“A Progressive Argument for Overturning Roe,” October 2005

“It’s Not the Cows Who are Mad,” January 2004

Larry W. DeWitt of the Social Security Administration

Red, White, and Blue cowardice- These colors do run!

American flagFor years now, the majority of Americans have allowed their country’s leaders to murder, torture, and lie in their name, with hardly a protest against it. They allowed their Constitution to be defiled by remaining silent as their government held innocents in solitary confinement without charges and tortured them for years, all the while many of them obtusely said that no torture was involved at all as for as they were concerned.

These lies and this complicity, by politicians of both parties, with US Federal government torture and mayhem now lie open and exposed, but does the common American want to correct and apologize for their support of crimes against humanity? Do all these ‘little Eichmanns’ feel any guilt and wish to atone for it now that it has been thoroughly exposed? Read 75% Oppose Release of Guantanamo Inmates in the United States and you decide.

And remember… these are our flag-waving dumb-cluck neighbors here. Instead of facing their acts done with flag in hand, they run! That’s our society’s Red, White, and Blue cowardice on display to the world once again! This poll shows that Americans are a nation of bullies and cowards.

Tim DeChristopher on Democracy Now!

Edward-Abbey-Tim-DeChristopher-Arches
 
Tim DeChristopher, a University of Utah disobedient civilian, was interviewed on Democracy Now! today. Amy Goodman asked him what relevance Edward Abbey had to his move to disrupt the bidding process for oil and gas leases in Utah’s red rock country.

His answer:
I think that the most powerful relevance of Edward Abbey to what I did was his statement and really his expression of the idea that sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul, because I think that’s what I had seen throughout my work as an environmentalist previous to this, where I had seen this massive crisis and massive challenge that we were facing in climate change, and I saw that my efforts of writing the letter here and there and riding my bike and things like that weren’t really aligning. My actions weren’t aligning with my sentiment of how serious this threat was, and I knew that. And so, I felt that kind of conflict within myself.
And when I stepped it up at this auction and was putting myself out there and winning all these parcels was really the first time I felt like my sentiment—or I felt like my actions were aligning with my sentiment. And I felt this tremendous sense of calm when I started doing that, because for the first time that conflict within me was gone, and I knew that when I was, you know, standing up and risking going to prison, my actions really were aligning with how big of a crisis this is.

A grand jury indicted Tim DeChristopher Wednesday afternoon with two felony counts of violating the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Act. If convicted, Tim could face up to 10 years in the slammer. This, despite the fact that Ken Salazar cancelled the contested leases because the government failed to follow its own procedures, but more on that later!

For now, tune in to KRCC at 7 to hear Tim (and then Noam Chomsky) on Democracy Now! tonight.