The government of Japan has begun to reopen nuclear power plants that it had recently closed down. Twenty thousand appeared at the initial protest in Tokyo against this stupid decision. See video of protest ... Massive Anti-Nuclear Protest in Tokyo at PM's Official residence 22.06.2012 and news report ... Japan protest over nuclear restart
Tag: Japan
If Okinawa can oust half its US soldiers Colorado Springs can do it too
The regimes of Japan and the United States have finally reached an agreement to move 9,000 marines from Okinawa, leaving 10,000 US military personnel, still unwelcome, on Japan's southern isle. With troop reductions expected stateside, wouldn't now be the ideal time to submit bids to be recipients of those cuts, in the same manner that exploitative local business clubs lobby for base expansions?
Obama Adminstration begins to build more nuclear reactors in the US
Where is the liberal and Left communities when it comes to the Obama regime's reopening construction of nuclear reactors in the US? Have we learned nothing from the Japanese? First new nuclear reactors OK'd in over 30 years (in the US).
Shaken, stirred, totally Fukushima’d
Now Fukushima Daiichi means the same in English as in Japanese. Although now apparently "meltdown" no longer means apocalyptic, "radiation" no longer means toxic, and to "exceed the safety levels" no longer means to pose adverse risk to your health. Curious. Because, I suppose, Japan can't cry REACTOR FIRE in a crowded metropolis. Instead of blaming a Japanese government for being less than forthcoming about the obvious exponential horrors to come, realize they're in hospice-caretaker mode, with little recourse but to comfort the imperiled population with big white lies. The Japanese are skeptical, but what are they supposed to do? They can no sooner stop drinking and eating than they can stop breathing. Will Fukushima be only a partial Chernobyl or verse visa? Halfway around the world, is the news being broken gently for our unknowing benefit? From across the Pacific, we can fret about the fallout --a word which now apparently means radioactive particles of no demonstrated significance. At least this president is not advising us to grab for duct-tape and visqueen. Leave the Japanese the stiff upper lip indispensable to island nations sin salida. For your own self-preservation, turn off the telly and heed experts who haven't jettisoned the original nuclear power glossary. To those talking heads and blog comment trolls still shilling for the nuclear ambitions of the "Clean Power" Green Energy scam. Sayonara.
How to make an entire country disappear
They did it to Haiti... and now, Japan. They're still there, see... my sentence structure is starting to really fall apart but push, push, push on I must. They've been disappeared into the Friday News Cycle Memory Hole. Even though, now, Japan going out has the potential to take out the entire rest of us. Some slower than the rest. Must keep the citizens entertained, don't look at the nasty glowing clouds approaching, kids... if we all pretend they're not real they'll go away. OK, maybe it won't be as grim... but it is really really grim. The unnatural tendency for the Newsies and other people who cheerlead for More Money At Any Cost is to hide things from the rest of us, at least enough that they can cash their stocks and bonds out. Not that it will matter. So, how bout that American Idol? They did that to us during the opening days of the Iraq Invasion and Occupation errr Liberation and Nation Building. The Last Baptist Church of Burleson Texas was holding prayer meetings for some kid named Kelly who can sing, (she won) Special Prayer meetings begging God to intervene and make her into an Idol. Hey, it was the only thing on the news in North Texas for an entire two weeks aside from the Build Up The Lie campaign about the WMDs. Bread and circuses, well, they can't afford the bread so they'll make a circus out of executing the Bread Riot ringleaders. Oh, they're expanding the War on Everybody Darker Than a Paper Bag (it's a Louisiana thing, you would have to have been there) to Libya and to Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio. The rest of us have to wait our turn, meekly... Or DO WE? By the bye, the Wisconsin folk, mostly white but you know what Stupid Boy Glenn Beck has been doing these past few weeks? Saying that the workers in Wisconsin are being manipulated by The Caliphate. Yes, brethren and sistren and mothren, those insidious darkies are now preying on our workers as well. Because of course working folks are stupid. I mean, we'd just about have to be to be ripped off so long and so regularly over the ages, right? You know what the difference is between a Hiroshima event and a Chernobyl style event? The Chernobyl style events leave buildings standings. See, I was avoiding the Japan story for just this reason. That and I really did harbor an irrational hope that the reactors could be tamed down, locked down, shut down forever and people would walk away from it with a better understanding of just how badly we've screwed up, and a real resolve to give up on the stupid shit. Apparently not.
It’s official. We’re screwed.
I didn't want to post anything about this, not here, guess it's my Irish part of my heritage not wanting to speak the name of the devil. But the reactors in Japan are now officially out of control. What makes it official is that Obama made an official emergency statement that there was no official emergency. The dude can't do what Bush or Reagan did, look us straight in the eye and tell the most outrageous lies. He had to include a little informercial for the Nuclear Industry at home too, and clean coal. Said that the American nuke plants were given a clean bill of health... by the same Nuclear Regulatory agencies that were gutted for the past three decades by Reagan, Bush the not quite as stupid and The Chimp. Which were the part of the same Nuclear Experts team which declared the Japanese reactors safe.
Japanese activists steal whale meat… here’s why…
A court in northern Japan found two Greenpeace activists guilty Monday for stealing whale meat, but suspended their sentences, Greenpeace Japan said. The Aomori District Court ruled that the activists, Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, will only have to serve one-year terms if they commit a crime in the next three years, Greenpeace said. In a press conference after the verdict, Sato said Greenpeace would appeal the case. He said Monday's sentence was "unfair" and "preventing the citizens' right to know." Activism101, getting busted is sometimes the only way the truth comes out. If they had BOUGHT the whale-meat and then tried to use it as evidence, they would have essentially "evidence" that they were in possession of whale meat. Nothing more. With charges filed against them for stealing whale meat from a Government subsidized supplier, that changes. The government, by pressing charges, admits the truth that they're actually selling Whale Meat, illegally. And documenting it with their actions.
Cool Runnings vs selling out the whales
Forget putting together a Winter Olympic delegation to tap into your nationality's PR budget, the real money is in the International Whaling Commission. Right now Japan is showering aid to nations willing to enroll in the IWC, to help Japan overturn the whaling moratorium. The IWC convenes a special session tomorrow in Florida and Greenpeace reports the whales have just lost the majority. Of great concern is that the US and New Zealand appear to want to switch sides, despite Candidate Obama's pledge to support the whaling moratorium. The traditional pro-whaling nations of Japan, Norway, Iceland, Peru and Russia have allied with land-locked entities to vote to resume whaling. Mali and Mongolia are among recent recruits. Other aid recipients include Antigua, Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, Panama, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, St Kitts, and the Solomon Islands. Anti-whaling leader Australia is joined by Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Switzerland and San Marino. Other members include Argentina, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, People's Republic of China, Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Kiribati, Laos, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Monaco, Nauru, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Palau, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Tanzania, Togo, Tuvalu, United Kingdom and Uruguay. If your nation isn't on the list, contact your state department. Forget assembling a tropical bobsled team, you'll be able to pay your own way to Sochi, because the big money is in killing whales.
Japan owes somebody A NEW BOAT!
The Japanese whaling fleet, whose inhumane hunts pretend to serve the Institute for Cetacean Research, have deliberately rammed the high-tech trimaran Ady Gil, formerly the Earthrace, operated by their arch nemesis the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Pseudo-science spokesman Glenn Innwood was quick to declare the footage showed otherwise, saying the accusation "is just not vindicated by the video." Obviously the Japanese need a cover who speaks better English. It's a Freudian slip to seek to be not vindicated. Au contraire for Kiwi Innwood-sen, the videos from both ships show the Ady Gil floating idle to the Shonan Maru's starboard side before the whaler turns straight for it. The whalers are perhaps counting on not enough people seeing the video. That might have worked before YouTube. If the Japanese believe "The obstructionist activities of the Sea Shepherd threaten the lives and property of those involved in our research, are very dangerous and cannot be forgiven" then aiming to ram the smaller vessel must constitute attempted murder, however unpremeditated the crime of passion may be. Whether or not the action is ruled a crime, it's without any doubt a violation of maritime code. The Ady Gil had right of way both by its position, and by being stationary. Here's the collision from the perspective of the whaler Shonan Maru 2, a highly maneuverable harpoon chase ship, as broadcast on Al Jazeera: And here is the footage released by Paul Watson's Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: UPDATE: I'd say this footage clinches it, from the Animal Planet Whale Wars cameraman aboard the Ady Gil. Read a detailed description from NZ.
Ward Churchill to speak for O’odham
According to Censored News, Activist and scholar Ward Churchill will speak at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson, 4831 W. 22nd St., on November 13, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. to benefit O'odham VOICE Against the Wall, which since 2003 has organized and advocated for the traditional O’odham leaders and elders of the Tohono O’odham communities in the southern territory of the United States and northern territory of Mexico. Professor Churchill’s talk is part of the “Apartheid in America: Surviving Occupation in O’odham Lands” O'odham activist Ofelia Rivas will also participate. The event is sponsored by the Dry River Radical Resource Center, the Earth First! Journal, and Voices against the Wall. Here's some background on the O'odham struggle: By J. D. Hendricks, 2004 TIAMAT PUBLICATIONS #5 The People Who Emerged From the Earth Over two thousand years ago the descendents of the O’odham moved into the southwestern region of the area now claimed by the U.S. as the state of Arizona. 1 The O’odham have had one of the longest histories of contact with the forces of European colonization compared with the rest of the native North American peoples. The O’odham’s first contact with Spanish invaders took place in the mid 16th century; nearly one hundred years before the colonization of the North Atlantic coast and Great Lakes regions were begun by the French and English colonists. As such, the history of the O’odham provides a good context for an investigation of the colonization of Native North America, and more specifically, an investigation of the interplay between, and results of, the varied responses to colonization – that of collaboration, accommodation, and resistance. Many histories of the O’odham refer to these desert people as the Papago. The term Papago was a name given to the O’odham by the Spanish colonizers, and is likely the result of a Spanish corruption of the O’odham word “papabi” which was the O’odham name for one of their principal bean varieties. Thus, the Spanish colonizers term for the O’odham (Papago) came to mean “the bean eaters.” 2 For the purposes of this study I will refrain from the use of the term Papago and will refer to “the people” 3 by their traditional pre-colonial name. 4 As is often the case, with the name Papago being a good example, European constructs are often imposed upon indigenous peoples by the historians that seek to portray their past. This result can occur when historians seek to glorify European norms and traditions at the expense of indigenous ones, and can also be the result of the subconscious indoctrination of the historian by the dominant culture – in this case that of western style industrial civilization. In other cases it can be the result of a simple uncritical usage of language. One of the most dominant and reoccurring “civilized” constructs imposed upon indigenous peoples history is the commonly understood notion that the O’odham, or any other indigenous North American culture for that
FDR wanted an Economic Bill of Rights
You think Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address was a zinger, you should see FDR's. Unearthed by Michael Moore for his new movie, the footage records Roosevelt declaring his intention to pursue a Second Bill of Rights. FDR died before he could make it happen, and you'll never feel more sorry for yourself. FDR proposed these economic rights because our "political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness." They were: equal rights to a job, fair pay, a home, medical care, retirement, and education. All these would have been affordable to the prospering industrial superpower, before the richest 1% took ownership of 90% of America's wealth. Curiously, as revealed in the film, FDR's diplomats sent to rebuild Europe and Japan, did survive the president, and were able to draft new constitutions which guaranteed those rights. As a result, our former enemies, the refashioned Germans, Italians and Japanese, have all these protections. Theirs are now the most prosperous economies on Earth. FDR in 1944: Read it and weep. It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure. This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed. Among these are: The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation; The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad; The right of every family to a decent home; The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health; The right to adequate protection from the
Sept 11 – America Reaps What It Sows!
A post-911 perspective by Black Liberation Army prisoner of war Jalil Muntaqim. U.S. International Warfare Initiates World War III Human Rights During Wartime By Jalil A. Muntaqim In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Americans have displayed their true colors of jingoism, a militaristic spirit of nationalism. Similarly, it was witnessed how the people of Iraq rallied in support of their President, Saddam Hussein, after the U.S. bombed to death 250,000 Iraqis, and continued devastation of that country with collateral damage of 1 million dead women and children. Hence, people rallying in support of their government and representatives is a common phenomenon when a country is attacked by an outsider. The U.S. has been foremost in the world extending foreign policy of free-market economy, to the extent of undermining other countries cultures and ideologies expressed as their way of life. Such conflicts inevitably positions the U.S. as the centerpiece, the bulls-eye for international political dissent, as indicated by demonstrations against the U.S. controlled IMF, WTO and World Bank conferences. The attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon did not occur in a vacuum. The people that carried out the attacks were not blind followers or robots with an irrational hatred of the U.S. peoples. Rather, this attack was part of an overall blowback to U.S. imperialist policy in support of zionist Israel and opposition to fundamentalist Islam. There are essentially three primary world ideologies or world views: the capitalist free-market economy/democracy; the socialist production economy; and Islamic theocratic government, of which has been in competition for many decades. However, in the last 20 years the socialist economies has been severely subverted and co-opted by free-market economies, the ideals of American style democracy. This isolated, for the most part, Islamic theocratic ideology and system of government as the principle target of the U.S. in its quest for world hegemony. This reality of competing world views and economies is further complicated due to religious underpinning of beliefs that motivates actions, especially as they are expressed by U.S. and Western European christianity and Israel zionist judaism in opposition to Islam. From the struggles of the Crusades to the present confrontation, the struggle for ideological supremacy reigns, as the faithful continue to proselytize in the name of the Supreme Being. When geopolitics are combined with religious fervor in the character of nationalist identity and patriotism, rational and logical thinking is shoved aside as matters of the moment takes historical precedents. It has often been said that "Truth Crush to the Earth Will Rise Again". Since truth is relative to ones belief, can it be safely said that America has reaped what it has sowed? The American truth of capitalist christian democracy and its imperialist hegemonic aspirations has crushed both socialist and Islamic world views. It has extended its avaricious tentacles as the world police and economic harbinger of all that is beneficent, in stark denial of its history as a purveyor of genocides, slavery and colonial violence.
Atomic’s one handed coders rebrand Fallujah game as Six Hours in My Lai
NMT has obtained screenshots from Atomic Games 'Six Days in Fallujah,' traded p2p and remarketed as Six Hours in My Lai. There was no budget to modify the OIF coalition uniforms to resemble the Vietnam GIs, but who's looking at the clothing? Nostalgic vets will find the rape reenactments unremarkably familar. In reality the mayhem of My Lai and My Khe lasted 28 hours, not six, but industry research indicates that cyber ejaculators rarely have more than a six hour window before a landlady looks in on them. Gaming studies remain inconclusive about whether virtual sex stimulation augments with cumulative scorekeeping. It will require a scientific leap before computer health levels can fortify a real-world refractory period. Otherwise virtual serial binges cannot build on themselves like the longer pyramid games of Civilization or World Of Warcraft. Japanese game publisher Konami, forced by civilian outcry to drop a distribution deal for Atomic's Fallujah first person shooter, is pleased that the salient gangbang modules will find their way to end-user Marine Corps wannabes. Konami already has a bestselling Raper II title, an Okinawa schoolgirl adventure for American servicemen. Konami's own one-handed programmers are set to adapt the Atomic code for the Japanese market. The human trafficking of Iraqi orphans into US contractor Army brothels becomes Korean Comfort Women; US combat depravity becomes The Rape of Nanking. Deprived of being able to cash in on the Fallujah atrocity allure, Atomic Games is looking for sympathy from the Support the Troops crowd. Atomic laid off the soldiers on its staff, issuing this statement: "We wish to assure the dozens of Marine veterans who have collectively invested hundreds of hours in this project that, while we have been badly wounded, we will fight on. The stories of your brothers' courage and sacrifice in Fallujah must be shared with the world." By historical accounts, are they referring to the virtual sequences between the levels of action which act like silent movie inter-titles to link the running and jumping to a bigger story? Where the plot points are inviolate can be the only teaching moments in an otherwise chose-your-adventure killing spree. Where will there be opportunity for gamers to show courage and sacrifice with only a menu of rape and murder? Let's be clear. The Fallujah video game was not about soldiering. It did not mean to replicate the experience of 99.9% of the American soldiers who served in the battle for Fallujah. A first person shooter is not about following orders, falling in, or self-sacrifice. An FPS is about four wheeling a personal path of personal destruction. Atomic's Six Days in Fallujah was a spring break for Grand Theft Auto sex tourists. NMT is equally concerned about the lost Fallujah stories which may have been the narrative of the gameplay. The world should hear of the turning back all male refugees, of the White Phosphorous and sniper Free Fire Zones. The lost Fallujah action sequences no doubt exploited the armored vehicles crushing the Iraqi wounded, and
the food revolution starts here. only the healthy will survive.
There is a spate of recent films spilling the beans about the corporate takeover of the global food economy. Many are available online or through Amazon and Netflix. Please watch some of these. Show your kids. Host a screening in your community. Donate a copy or two to the local library or public school system. Encourage teachers to show the films. Spread the word! Subvert the dominant food paradigm! Refuse to play along anymore! Food, Inc., the first enviro-food movie to be screened in major theaters across the country, has brought food consciousness in the United States to a new level. Fresh: The Movie is the perfect follow-up screening to Food, Inc. because it shows the flip side—positive change being created by farmers, students, thinkers, and business people in the U.S. today. French Fries to Go documents Telluride, Colorado's quest to run city buses on recycled fryer oil. Garden Cycles: Faces From the New Farm is the story of three women on a three-month bicycle-powered tour of urban gardens throughout the Northeast. Polycultures: Food Where We Live looks at communities in Northeast Ohio that are coming together to grow a more sustainable, just, and local food system. The Greening of Southie is about Boston's first LEED-certified residential green building and the way it affected a community. Eating Alaska is a documentary by a vegetarian filmmaker who moves to Alaska and marries a hunter. The film looks at the ethics behind food choices and how politics, society, religion, and taste all play a role. Sustainable Table: What's on Your Plate? traces West Coast food production from field to table. To Market to Market to Buy a Fat Pig tours outstanding farmers' markets from Baltimore to Hawaii. The Real Dirt of Farmer John looks at one man and his family farm. Farmer John and his story will have you reconsidering stereotypes about farmers. The Garden examines the largest community garden in the U.S., 14 acres of green in South Central Los Angeles, and the fight to keep it there. The World According to Monsanto looks at this behemoth of a multinational agricultural biotech corporation and their dominance of patents on genetically engineered seeds and pesticides. Seeds of Deception focuses on how genetically engineered food is making its way into our daily diets. Bad Seed: The Truth About Our Food looks at who is controlling the world's food supply and the consequences of genetically modified food on health. The Future of Food examines the complex web of market and political forces that affect what we eat and what we will eat in the future. Food Matters takes a look at the often overlooked connection between food and our nation's current state of health. With the health-care debate raging, watching this film feels extra-timely and important. King Corn investigates the staggering scale of the corn related food economy in the U.S. in an entertaining way. While you're at it check out Carey's two part quest to go corn free. Two Angry Moms shows two angry (and awesome) moms striving to improve school lunch with simple changes, like having fresh fruits
Unseen 1945 Hiroshima Ground Zero pics loosed from personal stash
Let's file this under more soul-less disregard for your fellow travelers. Never before seen photographs of Ground Zero at Hiroshima have emerged in time for the 64th anniversary of the record-setting war crime. The US army photo record, which had escaped the government's suppression efforts, remained in someone's personal stash for decades. The damning documentation his to neglect, and, fortunately, to accidentally discard. In the early 1970s this gentleman and a friend discovered a chest full of pictures obviously taken at the epicenter of the atomic bomb blast in Japan. His friend kept the chest and he stuffed the photos into an old suitcase which he then left to the damp of his basement. Somewhere in the process of housecleaning and moving, the suitcase was thrown to the curb, where a garbage sleuth made the find. The US military took scrupulous records of the devastation of Hiroshima. Immediately after Japan's capitulation, Army photographers circulated all over Ground Zero, doubtless paying for it with the cancer shortly thereafter. The images were kept from the US and world public indefinitely, and relatively few of them have ever been shown. In an attempt to trace the provenance of these photos, the original house owner was contacted for the full story. He didn't know it, having chanced upon it himself, but he greeted the call without a clue: “The photographs? Of Hiroshima? You have them? I thought they were in my basement! How do you get them?” “This is wild! I must have thrown them out by accident when I was moving stuff out. I never would have purposefully gotten rid of those photographs. I’ve been carrying them around with me since 1972!”
August calendar
6- Day of World Solidarity with the Struggle of the Japanese People 18- Day of Solidarity with the Afro-American People 22- Doug Lamborn Health Care Town Hall, Woodland Park, 5pm 25- Doug Lamborn Health Care Town Hall, Canyon City, 4:30pm 27- Doug Lamborn Health Care Town Hall, Valley-High Golf Course, 7pm 29- "Red White and Brave" pro-war parade, Tejon Ave, 10am
One man’s Guerrier, another’s Terroriste
WELL LOOKY WHAT I FOUND! Published in France just after the war, this book is about "LES TERRORISTES." Can you tell by the cover art, who play the title role? USA POST-2001: America designates its war zone detainees as EPWs, or "Enemy Prisoners of War," because to call them POWs would confuse public sympathies. To the average American, "P.O.W." commemorates the GI captivity experience in Vietnam or Korea. When a soldier of ours is caught, that's a POW. To grant both sides equal status would be to humanize our enemy. Of course, POW used to mean all "Prisoners Of War," ours and theirs, in WWII days, before, and as mentioned in all international conventions. We label the people of Iraq or Afghanistan who resist our occupation, as insurgents. Be they Bathists or Taliban, we call their cause an insurgency, not a resistance, because that would confuse American public affection for the French Resistance: La Resistance! Every nation in Occupied Europe had a resistance movement, and the WWII archetypes are still fresh. Occupiers equal Germans. Collaborators equal cowards, traitors, Qwislings, Vichy. Resistance fighters equal the heroes. Since then, American occupations, of postwar France for example, have avoided mention of their assigned task. In Germany and Japan, US soldiers are merely "stationed" there. In countries which we've invaded, like Vietnam, Americans denied being the despised occupiers, we were advisors, protectors, etc. And the populations who opposed our military administration were insurgents, and if they attacked us by unconventional means, they were terrorists! In Iraq as well as Afghanistan, the American spectator can discern that al-Qaeda has been the only named terrorist organization, yet Sunni, Shiite, and Taliban fighters are all called terrorists. Militant Islam is considered terrorist, Hezbollah and Hamas liberation movements are called terrorist, even the Somali pirate brigands are being condemned as terrorists. So who were "Les Terroristes" of Occupied France? The book cover heeds us to "Souvenais-vous!" Never forget them. The book is full of their pictures and accounts of their brave deeds. Most of them fell to the Nazis, to firing squads and Gestapo tortures. The brave Terroristes were the scourge of the German Occupation, rooted out and almost eradicated before the last year of the war. The Nazis called them "terrorists," they were LA RESISTANCE!
American Corners: centers for organizing American government subversion
American 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
Petty bureaucrat resents being called… The Holocaust denials of Larry DeWitt
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
Ward Churchill: Some People Push Back
Here is Ward Churchill's notorious 9/11 "Little Eichmanns" essay, published online September 12, 2001, presented here for archival purposes lest critics think they can silence one of our nation's strongest dissenting voices. Churchill later expanded this piece into a book entitled On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: reflections on the consequences of U.S. imperial arrogance and criminality published by AK Press in 2003. Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill When queried by reporters concerning his views on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm X famously – and quite charitably, all things considered – replied that it was merely a case of "chickens coming home to roost." On the morning of September 11, 2001, a few more chickens – along with some half-million dead Iraqi children – came home to roost in a very big way at the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. Well, actually, a few of them seem to have nestled in at the Pentagon as well. The Iraqi youngsters, all of them under 12, died as a predictable – in fact, widely predicted – result of the 1991 US "surgical" bombing of their country's water purification and sewage facilities, as well as other "infrastructural" targets upon which Iraq's civilian population depends for its very survival. If the nature of the bombing were not already bad enough – and it should be noted that this sort of "aerial warfare" constitutes a Class I Crime Against humanity, entailing myriad gross violations of international law, as well as every conceivable standard of "civilized" behavior – the death toll has been steadily ratcheted up by US-imposed sanctions for a full decade now. Enforced all the while by a massive military presence and periodic bombing raids, the embargo has greatly impaired the victims' ability to import the nutrients, medicines and other materials necessary to saving the lives of even their toddlers. All told, Iraq has a population of about 18 million. The 500,000 kids lost to date thus represent something on the order of 25 percent of their age group. Indisputably, the rest have suffered – are still suffering – a combination of physical debilitation and psychological trauma severe enough to prevent their ever fully recovering. In effect, an entire generation has been obliterated. The reason for this holocaust was/is rather simple, and stated quite straightforwardly by President George Bush, the 41st "freedom-loving" father of the freedom-lover currently filling the Oval Office, George the 43rd: "The world must learn that what we say, goes," intoned George the Elder to the enthusiastic applause of freedom-loving Americans everywhere. How Old George conveyed his message was certainly no mystery to the US public. One need only recall the 24-hour-per-day dissemination of bombardment videos on every available TV channel, and the exceedingly high ratings of these telecasts, to gain a sense of how much they knew. In trying to affix a meaning to such things, we would do well to remember the wave of elation that swept America at
Is there a sumo in your future?
I used to avert my imagination on the subject of Sumo Wrestling. Probably I still do, visualization wise. But the bigger than grotesque spectacle has suddenly fascinated me, as a historic predecessor of the wide world of sport of our future. How odd that a tiny bonsai-grown island people fixate on professional athletes multiple times a normal human size. It seems so inorganic, to cheer for man-hippos, instead of competitors made from our own image. After all, we cheer for home teams, not cross town rivals. But sports fans are coming round once again to see their hero athletes for the super humans they need to be, to impress us with their superhuman feats. Might I suggest that for a brief democratic period, baseball offered more than an illusion, that a neighborhood hero could emerge from the most unassuming physique. Today Americans recognize that professional athletes are no longer improved versions of us. Real winners are crafted by genetics and unimaginable dedication, for their superhuman destinies. Our insistence that athletes cannot use steroids therefore seems to me awkwardly unreasonable. Doping levels the playing field, for aspirants up against genetics. That viewers recognize the well demarcated expectations of the differing athlete body types, became no more clear to me than in this year's Super Bowl, when a Steelers linebacker carried the ball from end zone to end zone, dodging not only his pursuers, but the book maker's handicap as well. Even Saturday Night Live parodied the feat, although their urban comedy cannot be said to snub the NFL certainly. Weekend Update portrayed the beleaguered James Harrison as still out of breath, a full week after SB XLIII. It seems even SNL knows that non-sports watchers would recognize that Harrison's 100 yard triumph was over and above what a non-running football position could be called upon to do. It could almost have been an ordinary Japanese man facing a Sumo. That would be populist fantasy, but not sport.
American arrogance
Protests as US warship docks in Nagasaki What incredible arrogance and bad taste! This is your military and government, Americans! Look in the mirror and weep!
Collapsing Mexico
Collapsing Mexico was not the intent of Lawrence Summers, Obama's new US Secretary of Treasury, but he has pulled it off BIG! Mexico's economy today is shedding hundreds of thousands of badly needed jobs and is providing negative economic growth to its continually growing population rather than any positive numbers. Lawrence Summers is the architect of that catastrophe, so let's review his US-Mexican resume some for those who are unaware of it. And let's see what might be in store for Mexico's neighbor, the USA? Lawrence Summers was Clinton's offerer of the US government's move to tie Mexico into the NAFTA con, and point man to convince the Mexican PRI dictatorship, led by Ernesto Zedillo, to totally tie their country's economic and political cart to an elephant and a donkey from the North. The carrot was a 'giant bailout' loan offer of billions of US treasury dollars (>$55 billion to be more exact). Many of Mexico's PRI tied business men jumped at the opportunity and headed towards behind the scenes funding of the actual setting up of an American style 2 party con game, instead of the holding tight to the one party regime they had been supporting for so many decades. The final result was an acceptance of the billions coming from the US and a turn to setting up the Vicente Fox-PAN into the Mexican White House (Los Pinos). National debt to the US was set as something to worry about in the future, meanwhile they planned to ride high on the hog short term, and they did. But now the US sowed genetically altered corn is coming come to roost, as Mexico has become caught totally tied to the US economy as the international collapse of all the world markets is underway. Mexicans are returning from the US because they cannot find jobs in the collapsing US economy, and returning under-aware of Mexico's collapsing economy. A dark storm is beginning to brew, and just last weekend several hundred thousand people demonstrated in the capital against their US government enforced upon them government. John Ross, America's foremost commentator on Mexican politics, writes of the unfolding situation this week in his commentary When (Mexican) Millionaire Mummies Mourn Davos vs. Belem; Swine vs. Pearls Why should Americans care about any of this? Isn't the US collapsing world economies (China, Japan, Russia, European, and so on),one on top of the other anyway? What's so special about what the US con-omy is doing to Mexico? Well.......? It is simply the fact that Mexico and the US are so intimately tied to each other and have been for centuries now. Wither Mexico, wither Latin America as a whole, too? It's a volatile brew that is being stirred. BANG! Keep an eye on Mexico as the economic downturn continues.
Germany the victim, Japan the victim, America the victim, Israel the victim?
What happens when imperialist states put on airs of victim-hood? First an imperialist state defined is simply a country that holds property of other nations, cultures, or religions, or a country that desires to do so. Or both covets new property and holds old properties of others, as the case of the United State so amply demonstrates. Imperialist states are rarely to never satisfied with their actual criminal take in profits. But what happens when countries that are imperialist, develop in their populations the notion that they are somehow also the victims and not the aggressors, as has happened to Germany, Japan, the US, and Israel, as just a few most prominent examples to mention? As one might remember from History lessons at school, Germany and Japan had populations of elites that began to feel that they were victimized by the other imperialist nations, whom all already had colonies to exploit. Japan wanted China to make up for that, and Germany wanted to compete with Britain, France, Holland, and Belgium in the imperialism arena, too. The German people chafed at having been given bad conditions by these other Powers post World War One, and they began to think that they were victims of a conspiracy, a conspiracy that denied them their just status, a conspiracy that exploited them financially and had thrown the majority of Germans into poverty. Shoot to the US, which after the Pearl Harbor attack by Japan was where the US began to rally its population around the idea that America was the Grand Victim of conspiracy. Later the Americans dropped the only atomic bombs ever used on people, and they dropped them onto civilian Japanese. Everything went over smoothly morality wise for the Americans because they had convinced themselves they were victims. In fact, the American government then became the preachiest government ever seen around anywhere, as it began to define war crimes as being always the actions of others, and never themselves. Now with 9/11, it is as if another dose of victim-hood has become injected into the modern US population. 'We're victims!', shouts the American crowd once again. We must be allowed to do anything without the slightest recriminations against us, because? 'We're victims! We are targets from a criminal conspiracy!' They are talking about Muslims now. The word the more direct Victim-hood fanatic uses is 'Islamofascsits' as code for Muslims. Yes, well that was what the Germans were convinced by Hitler to believe, too. Except the criminal conspiracy supposedly was from the Jews. In WW2 the Jewish European population actually were victims. Most did not escape alive either. Certainly the Jewish population were victims much more than the Americans, the Germans, or the Japanese ever have been. Further, they were not
STOP ISRAEL Sunday, January 18, 1PM
WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO JOLT THE CONSCIENCE OF ISRAEL?! IDF killings continue. Soldiers are being given "free-fire-zone" license! Meet this weekend, SUN, Jan 18 at 1PM, Acacia Park, at the torii gate, a traditional site for antiwar protest. The Shinto arch at Nevada Ave and Bijou Street commemorates our sister city of Fuji-yoshida, Japan. The plaque reads: "the purpose of the sister city relationship is to promote understanding between the people of our two countries and cities"