Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Thu 29 Mar, 2007 10:14 pm
How can this be?
Posted by: peacefullaim on Mar 29, 2007 11:58 AM
Is anyone else having trouble sleeping nights. . .


http://alternet.org/blogs/video/49884
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Sat 31 Mar, 2007 08:35 am
Why George Bush is Insane[/color]


By Harold Pinter
From 2002

03/30/07 "Assassinated Press " -- -- - "Earlier this year I had a major operation for cancer. The operation and its after-effects were something of a nightmare. I felt I was a man unable to swim bobbing about under water in a deep dark endless ocean. But I did not drown and I am very glad to be alive. However, I found that to emerge from a personal nightmare was to enter an infinitely more pervasive public nightmare - the nightmare of American hysteria, ignorance, arrogance, stupidity and belligerence; the most powerful nation the world has ever known effectively waging war against the rest of the world. "If you are not with us you are against us" President Bush has said. He has also said "We will not allow the world's worst weapons to remain in the hands of the world's worst leaders". Quite right. Look in the mirror chum. That's you.

The US is at this moment developing advanced systems of "weapons of mass destruction" and it prepared to use them where it sees fit. It has more of them than the rest of the world put together. It has walked away from international agreements on biological and chemical weapons, refusing to allow inspection of its own factories. The hypocrisy behind its public declarations and its own actions is almost a joke.

The United States believes that the three thousand deaths in New York are the only deaths that count, the only deaths that matter. They are American deaths. Other deaths are unreal, abstract, of no consequence.

The three thousand deaths in Afghanistan are never referred to.

The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead through US and British sanctions which have deprived them of essential medicines are never referred to.

The effect of depleted uranium, used by America in the Gulf War, is never referred to. Radiation levels in Iraq are appallingly high. Babies are born with no brain, no eyes, no genitals. Where they do have ears, mouths or rectums, all that issues from these orifices is blood.

The two hundred thousand deaths in East Timor in 1975 brought about by the Indonesian government but inspired and supported by the United States are never referred to.

The half a million deaths in Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Argentina and Haiti, in actions supported and subsidised by the United States are never referred to.

The millions of deaths in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are no longer referred to.

The desperate plight of the Palestinian people, the central factor in world unrest, is hardly referred to.

But what a misjudgement of the present and what a misreading of history this is.

People do not forget. They do not forget the death of their fellows, they do not forget torture and mutilation, they do not forget injustice, they do not forget oppression, they do not forget the terrorism of mighty powers. They not only don't forget. They strike back.

The atrocity in New York was predictable and inevitable. It was an act of retaliation against constant and systematic manifestations of state terrorism on the part of the United States over many years, in all parts of the world.

In Britain the public is now being warned to be "vigilant" in preparation for potential terrorist acts. The language is in itself preposterous.

How will - or can - public vigilance be embodied? Wearing a scarf over your mouth to keep out poison gas? However, terrorist attacks are quite likely, the inevitable result of our Prime Minister's contemptible and shameful subservience to the United States. Apparently a terrorist poison gas attack on the London Underground system was recently prevented. But such an act may indeed take place. Thousands of school children travel on the London Underground every day. If there is a poison gas attack from which they die, the responsibility will rest entirely on the shoulders of our Prime Minister. Needless to say, the Prime Minister does not travel on the underground himself.

The planned war against Iraq is in fact a plan for premeditated murder of thousands of civilians in order, apparently, to rescue them from their dictator.

The United States and Britain are pursuing a course which can lead only to an escalation of violence throughout the world and finally to catastrophe.

It is obvious, however, that the United States is bursting at the seams to attack Iraq. I believe that it will do this - not just to take control of Iraqi oil - but because the US administration is now a bloodthirsty wild animal. Bombs are its only vocabulary. Many Americans, we know, are horrified by the posture of their government but seem to be helpless.

Unless Europe finds the solidarity, intelligence, courage and will to challenge and resist US power Europe itself will deserve Alexander Herzen's definition (as quoted in the Guardian newspaper in London recently) "We are not the doctors. We are the disease".

Harold Pinter

The article is taken from an address given by Harold Pinter on receiving an honorary degree at the University of Turin © Harold Pinter 2002

The Assassinated Press[/b]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17452.htm
0 Replies
 
msolga
 
  0  
Reply Sun 1 Apr, 2007 10:30 pm
Thanks for posting that, Endy.

Just as relevant in 2007, maybe more so ....
0 Replies
 
lostnsearching
 
  0  
Reply Mon 2 Apr, 2007 08:32 am
and still that idiot doesn't get it!!!
By the way, i just love that title :wink:
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Thu 5 Apr, 2007 11:03 pm
UN warns of Darfur 'catastrophe'

The new United Nations humanitarian chief has warned of the "crying need" for political action to bring peace to Sudan's Darfur region.

In a report to the UN security council, John Holmes said 2.2 million people had fled their homes in Darfur, and the number of displaced civilians has risen dramatically in Chad and the Central African Republic.

Holmes said it was time for politicians and concerned leaders to stop playing "protracted games with each other, with little or no thought to the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens, whom the international community meanwhile keeps alive".

The UN emergency relief co-ordinator warned that despite 13,000 aid workers now operating in the region the poor security situation was putting efforts to help the population at risk.

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2007/4/5/1_217041_1_5.jpg

"Despite its scale and success in sustaining millions and saving literally hundreds of thousands of lives, the Darfur humanitarian operation is increasingly fragile," Holmes said after returning from a tour of Sudan, Chad and the Central African Republic.

"If things do not get better, or if there were more serious incidents involving humanitarian workers, some organisations could start to withdraw and the operation could start to unravel.

"Then we could face a rapid humanitarian catastrophe ... We must do everything in our power to avoid it."


When Jan Egeland, Holmes' predecessor, first warned the Security Council of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur three years ago this week, about 230 relief workers were struggling to assist 350,000 people.

Aid workers 'abused'

Holmes told the Security Council that aid workers had been "physically and verbally abused, offices and residences raided and personal belongings stolen."

He blamed both government forces and rebels for the violations of international law and widespread human rights abuses.

At least 200,000 people have died since the Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 but some sources believe that the death toll is much higher.

The conflict broke out when rebels from minority tribes took up arms to demand an equal share of national resources. This prompted a heavy-handed crackdown by Khartoum and the Janjawid militia.

Holmes said that more than 250,000 people had fled to displaced persons' camps in the last six months and more than half of the population could be living in them within 18 months.

"Meanwhile, politicisation and militarisation of camps have become a fact of life, creating a future time bomb just waiting to go off," he warned.

The former British ambassador to France also emphasised the effect the conflict was having on Sudan's neighbours.

"The spillover effect from Darfur is clear, not least in eastern Chad."

He also called for better protection of the Central African Republic's border with Darfur, through the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2007/4/5/1_217046_1_3.jpg

This picture caught my eye today - and the colours made me think of easter flowers - daffodils.

How much more death shall humanity stand by and witness, in all its hypocrisy?
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Fri 6 Apr, 2007 06:50 am


Children throughout the West Bank and Gaza have observed Palestinian Children's Day, which aims to highlight the plight of children living under Israeli occupation.

To mark the day, the Palestinian Network for Children's Rights issued new figures on Thursday showing how the Israeli occupation has damaged the lives of thousands of children.


"In 2007, the Israeli army continues to deploy the same violent policy towards Palestinian children with eight children being killed so far this year," a press release from the group said on Thursday.

"This brings the total number of children killed since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000, by the Israeli army and illegal Israeli settlers, to 860."

Additionally, 5,200 Palestinian children have been arrested by the Israeli army and about 400 are still being held in Israeli prisons and interrogation centres, the statement said.


Palestinian children also suffer unusually levels of stress and mental problems - largely as a result of living in a state of near-constant insecurity.

A child's story

Typical of many Palestinian children is Amna Ghaben. Ten years old, her name in Arabic means to be safe and secure but she has enjoyed little of either.

A year ago an Israeli rocket landed on her family's house in Gaza. Her eight-year-old sister, Hadeil, was killed and 11 other family members were injured in the attack.

Amna suffered shrapnel wounds all over her body. But although the physical injuries have now healed, she remains mentally traumatised.

"During shelling, I'm with them and their father hugs them too, but they keep telling us this house could be destroyed on our heads," her mother said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/images/2007/4/5/1_217066_1_5.jpg
Amna Ghaben was wounded and lost her 8-year old sister when an Israeli missile hit her home


Dr Ismail Ahmad, a psychiatrist, has been working with Amna since the attack, analysing her drawings.
He says her drawings are a window into how Amna has dealt with the tragedy.

"The smile is gone from Amna's face, her academic level went down, and she feels insecure in her house," Ahmad said.
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Sun 8 Apr, 2007 08:27 pm



I can see you, citizen



CCTV cameras that shout at you?
All very well, but I have a much scarier idea. Trust me, you'll love it ...[/b]


Charlie Brooker
Monday April 9, 2007
The Guardian

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/backbench/comment/0,,2052937,00.html

___________________________________________

Lie detectors
Breaking trust with the public


Leader
Monday April 9, 2007
The Guardian


http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2052953,00.html

_____________________________________________
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Tue 10 Apr, 2007 03:46 am
http://www.antiwar.com/photos/najaf-rally.jpg

Hundreds of Thousands march in Iraq against US occupation
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Wed 11 Apr, 2007 09:58 pm
It's Thursday 12th April 2007

Here is where the Revolution begins


Iacocca: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

American Empire | Books

Excerpt: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney

04/11/07 "ICH" -- -- -Had Enough? Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course." Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out! You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies.Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for.

I've had enough. How about you? I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to, as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us. Who Are These Guys, Anyway? Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them, or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy. And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.

Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

The Test of a Leader
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points, not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.

A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.

If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.

A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President, the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush,"Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't. Leadership is all about managing change, whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.

A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.

A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths. For what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION, a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President, four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake. It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.

You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know, Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators-no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job-Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush. Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world, and I like it here." I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.

The Biggest C is Crisis Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down. On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day, and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero. That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq, a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you,I don't know what will.

A Hell of a Mess.
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened. Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it? <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry. <!--[endif]-->

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change? Had Enough? Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough

0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Thu 12 Apr, 2007 07:22 am
November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007

April 12th, 2007 1:00 am
Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84

By Christian Salazar / Associated Press

NEW YORK - Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9572

I Love You, Madame Librarian - by Kurt Vonnegut

by Kurt Vonnegut / In These Times

I, like probably most of you, have seen Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Its title is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury's great science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451. This temperature 451° Fahrenheit, is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury's novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.

And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.

And still on the subject of books: Our daily sources of news, papers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books can we find out what is really going on. I will cite an example: House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger, published near the start of this humiliating, shameful blood-soaked year.

In case you haven't noticed, and as a result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida, in which thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily disenfranchised, we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war lovers, with appallingly powerful weaponry and unopposed.

In case you haven't noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.

With good reason.

In case you haven't noticed, our unelected leaders have dehumanized millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We wound and kill 'em and torture 'em and imprison 'em all we want.

Piece of cake.

In case you haven't noticed, we also dehumanize our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class.

Send 'em anywhere. Make 'em do anything.

Piece of cake.

The O'Reilly Factor.

So I am a man without a country, except for the librarians and the Chicago-based magazine you are reading, In These Times.

Before we attacked Iraq, the majestic New York Times guaranteed that there were weapons of mass destruction there.

Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn't even seen World War I. War is now a form of TV entertainment. And what made WWI so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun. Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don't you wish you could have something named after you?

Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now am tempted to give up on people too. And, as some of you may know, this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine.

My last words? "Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse."

Napalm came from Harvard. Veritas!

Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler.

What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without a sense of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations and made it all their own?
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Fri 13 Apr, 2007 09:51 am
Death by Execution

Yeah, they put a noose around his neck
Pulled the lever, like gamblers
In a shabby, out dated casino
Where dollars buy plastic
And on the roll of a dice
Death can come at any time
To take your life
As the rope whistled down
So fell a nation
Yeah, they hanged many
Like Ned Kelly
Hung up like a fox on a post
A warning to daring dogs and bitches
Not to mess with civilized folk
Yeah, Jesus tried to tell them
Time to settle up the score
I see you cheating on the masses
De-valuing the poor
So they nailed him to their temple
They nailed the rebel high
They stole his name
And in his name they've nailed up many
And hung 'em out to dry
Yeah, hanged drawn and quartered
Or a cold, injected death
Execution's murder
When you're gasping your last breath





Endymion 2007
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Fri 13 Apr, 2007 05:19 pm
Saw this in the Guardian - I think a lot went into writing it - the least I can do is show it to people - hope someone, somewhere is listening.....



The escalating attacks are not usually aimed at civilians, but are a direct response to the brutal actions of US-led troops

Haifa Zangana
Thursday April 12, 2007
The Guardian

In Muqdadiyah, 50 miles from Baghdad, a woman wearing a traditional Iraqi abaya blew herself up this week in the midst of Iraqi police recruits. This was the seventh suicide attack by a women since the Anglo-American invasion in 2003, and an act unheard of before that. Iraqi women are driven to despair and self-destruction by grief. Their expectations are reduced to pleas for help to clear the bodies of the dead from the streets, according to a report by the international committee of the Red Cross, released yesterday. It's the same frustration that drew hundreds of thousands to demonstrate against foreign forces in Najaf on Monday.

In the fifth year of occupation, the sectarian and ethnic divide between politicians, parties and their warring militias has become monstrous, turning on its creators in the Green Zone and beyond, and not sparing ordinary people. One of the consequences is a major change in the public role of women.

During the first three years of occupation women were mostly confined to their homes, protected by male relatives. But now that the savagery of their circumstances has propelled many of them to the head of their households, they are risking their lives outdoors. Since men are the main target of US-led troops, militias and death squads, black-cloaked women are seen queuing at prisons, government offices or morgues, in search of disappeared, or detained, male relatives. It is women who bury the dead. Baghdad has become a city of bereaved women. But contrary to what we are told by the occupation and its puppet regime, this is not the only city that is subject to the brutality that forces thousands of Iraqis to flee their country every month.

Bodies are found across the country from Mosul to Kirkuk to Basra. They are handcuffed, blindfolded and bullet-ridden, bearing signs of torture. They are dumped at roadsides or found floating in the Tigris or Euphrates. A friend of mine who found her brother's body in a hospital's fridge told me how she checked his body and was relieved. "He was not tortured", she said. "He was just shot in the head."

Occupation has left no room for any initiative independent of the officially sanctioned political process; for a peaceful opposition or civil society that could create networks to bridge the politically manufactured divide. Only the mosque can fulfil this role. In the absence of the state, some mosques provide basic services, running clinics or schools. In addition to the call to prayer, their loudspeakers warn people of impending attacks or to appeal for blood donors.

But these attempts to sustain a sense of community are regularly crushed. On Tuesday, troops from the Iraqi army, supported by US helicopters, raided a mosque in the heart of old Baghdad. The well-respected muazzin Abu Saif and another civilian were executed in public. Local people were outraged and attacked the troops. At the end of the day, 34 people had been killed, including a number of women and children. As usual, the summary execution and the massacre that followed were blamed on insurgents. The military statement said US and Iraqi forces were continuing to "locate, identify, and engage and kill insurgents targeting coalition and Iraqi security forces in the area".

It is important to recognise that the resistance was born not only of ideological, religious and patriotic convictions, but also as a response to the reality of the brutal actions of the occupation and its administration. It is a response to arbitrary break-ins, humiliating searches, arrests, detention and torture. According to the Red Cross, "the number of people arrested or interned by the multinational forces has increased by 40% since early 2006. The number of people held by the Iraqi authorities has also increased significantly."

Many of the security detainees are women who have been subjected to abuse and rape and who are often arrested as a means to force male relatives to confess to crimes they have not committed. According to the Iraqi MP Mohamed al-Dainey, there are 65 documented cases of women's rape in occupation detention centres in 2006. Four women currently face execution - the death penalty for women was outlawed in Iraq from 1965 until 2004 - for allegedly killing security force members. These are accusations they deny and Amnesty International has challenged.

There is only one solution to this disaster, and that is for the US and Britain to accept that the Iraqi resistance is fighting to end the occupation. And to acknowlege that it consists of ordinary Iraqis, not only al-Qaida, not just Sunnis or Shias, not those terrorists - as Tony Blair called them - inspired by neighbouring countries such as Iran. To recognise that Iraqis are proud, peace-loving people, and that they hate occuption, not each other. And to understand that the main targets of the resistance are not Iraqi civilians. According to Brookings, the independent US research institute, 75% of recorded attacks are directed at occupation forces, and a further 17% at Iraqi government forces.The average number of attacks has more than doubled in the past year to about 185 a day. That is 1,300 a week, and more than 5,500 a month.

Another way of understanding this is that in any one hour, day or night, there are seven or eight new attacks. Without the Iraqi people's support, directly and indirectly, this level of resistance would not have happened.

· Haifa Zangana, an Iraqi exile who was imprisoned by Saddam Hussein, is the author of Women on a Journey: Between Baghdad and London
haifa_zangana@yahoo.co.uk


http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2054881,00.html
0 Replies
 
msolga
 
  0  
Reply Fri 13 Apr, 2007 09:35 pm
"Death By Execution"

<Vigorously nodding head in agreement & sympathy.>

Bravo, Endy!
0 Replies
 
lostnsearching
 
  0  
Reply Sat 14 Apr, 2007 03:41 am
Endymion wrote:
- hope someone, somewhere is listening.....





A lot of people...a lot of places...

Dude, just BELIEVE!!!
(ok i'm not sure if the 'i' comes first or the 'e' so Embarrassed )
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Sat 14 Apr, 2007 04:21 pm
Things are reaching melting point in Iraq. There's no question about that.





Iraqi group 'seizes 20 police'

Al-Qaeda in Iraq has said its fighters have kidnapped 20 Iraqi soldiers and policemen in northeast Baghdad.

In an internet statement released on Saturday, the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq said the men would be killed unless the government released all Sunni women held in Iraq's prisons within 48 hours.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4345871C-B601-4355-A294-427C74223805.htm



April 14th, 2007 2:24 pm
3 U.S. Troops Killed In Iraq

2 Iraqi Translators Also Killed; Al Qaeda-Led Insurgents Claim Parliament Blast

(CBS/AP) Three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi translators were killed in two attacks south of Baghdad, the military said on Friday. Eight soldiers were wounded.

In the worst of the two attacks, which took place Thursday, two soldiers were killed and seven wounded in an attack on their base south of the capital. The two Iraqi interpreters died in that attack.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9583


Banned in USA

Canada Offers Forum for Lecturer Barred From U.S.
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Sat 14 Apr, 2007 04:41 pm
Thanks Olga and Naima for your support

Peace
Endy
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Sat 14 Apr, 2007 07:29 pm
April 14th, 2007 4:48 pm
Petraeus surprised by extension announcement

By Sean D. Naylor / Army Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The timing of the announcement raising the standard length of active Army Iraq deployments to 15 months took the U.S. commanding general in Iraq by surprise, according to a senior U.S. military official here.

Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. military operation in Iraq, learned of the change in policy during a briefing from his staff the morning after the Defense Department announcement, according to the senior military official. However, the official added, he was "pretty confident" that the content of the announcement did not come as a shock to Petraeus.

"I don't see this as being a complete surprise," he said.

"It was a surprise to everyone [in Baghdad] because of the time zone difference," the official said. "They announced it at 1500 [in the Pentagon], which is 2300 here.... The surprise was they announced it when everyone [here] was asleep."

Read the offical excuses here
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9586


It's always the ones it suits the least and affects the most that are the last to know - especially if it means they're being screwed. Guess that's modern politics for you.
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Sun 15 Apr, 2007 06:25 pm
US generals urge climate action


Former US military leaders have called on the Bush administration to make major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

In a report, they say global warming poses a serious threat to national security, as the US could be drawn into wars over water and other conflicts.

They appear to criticise President George W Bush's refusal to join an international treaty to cut emissions.

Among the 11 authors are ex-Army chief of staff Gordon Sullivan and Mr Bush's ex-Mid-East peace envoy Anthony Zinni.

The report says the US "must become a more constructive partner" with other nations to fight global warming and deal with its consequences.

It warns that over the next 30 to 40 years, there will be conflicts over water resources, as well as increased instability resulting from rising sea levels and global warming-related refugees.

"The chaos that results can be an incubator of civil strife, genocide and the growth of terrorism," the 35-page report predicts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6557803.stm
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Sun 15 Apr, 2007 06:30 pm
Two die as UK helicopters crash



Two British helicopters have crashed in Iraq, killing two military personnel and seriously injuring another.

The Ministry of Defence said both of the Puma helicopters were from RAF Benson in Oxfordshire.

Defence Secretary Des Browne said one of those killed was from the RAF and the other from the Army. Four other personnel were injured, one seriously.

Speaking outside the MoD, he said reports suggested the crash, north of Baghdad, was an accident.

"There will of course be an investigation into the precise cause of this incident, but I should stress that Puma helicopters have a very good safety record," he said.

Wounded discharged

The Puma helicopters came down in the early hours of Sunday in a rural area near Taji, site of a large US base. US forces had secured the crash site, Mr Browne said.

Two of the four injured had already been discharged and had returned to their units. The other two injured remain in a US military hospital - one remains in a "very serious" condition.

Mr Browne said: "Back here in the UK our focus is of course in supporting the families of those killed or injured in this incident. Our thoughts are with them at this very difficult time."

The BBC understands the helicopters had been taking part in a special forces mission.

Puma helicopters - mainly used to transport troops and equipment - are normally flown by the RAF.

However a Ministry of Defence spokesman would not confirm which regiment the dead personnel belonged to.

Earlier reports had incorrectly identified the crashed helicopters as American.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was a "terrible time" for the families of the two UK service personnel who had died, but insisted British foreign policy was "justified and right".

Retired Wing Commander Andrew Brooks told BBC News 24 that Pumas had been in service for around 30 years and were getting elderly.

The military had to use them in Iraq, he said, because the roads were not safe.

Further fighting

The two deaths bring the total number of British fatalities since the 2003 invasion of Iraq to 142.

Meanwhile, British troops have been involved in more fighting with a Shia militia group in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Five gunmen from the Mehdi army militia are thought to have been killed in an exchange of fire.

It follows an incident on Friday night when British forces killed eight members of the militia as they were apparently laying mines.

The incident was in the same area where a British Warrior armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb eleven days ago, killing four troops and their Iraqi interpreter.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6557183.stm
0 Replies
 
Endymion
 
  -1  
Reply Tue 17 Apr, 2007 02:46 am
April 16th, 2007 7:04 pm
"A Tragedy... of Monumental Proportions."

By John Nichols / The Nation



There will be plenty of "rapid responses" to the gun rampage on the Virginia Tech campus, which has claimed the lives of as many as 31 students -- making it the deadliest school shooting incident in the history of the United States.

Do not doubt that the National Rifle Association is preparing its "this-had-nothing-to-do-with-guns" press release. The group has no compunctions about living up to its reputation for being beyond shame -- or education -- when it comes to peddling its spin on days when it would be better to simply remain silent. But the NRA will not be alone in responding in a self-serving manner. Many groups on all sides of issues related to guns and violence in America will be busy making their points, just as many in the media will look for one dimensional "explanations" for what the university's president, Charles Steger, has correctly described as "a tragedy... of monumental proportions."

"The university is shocked and indeed horrified," explained Steger, after it became clear that what had happened on his campus Monday was worse than the carnage at Columbine High School in 1999 or at the University of Texas in 1966.

The trouble with shock and horror is that it does not often translate into contemplation, let alone serious reflection on the state of a nation in which such an incident can occur -- and, more troublingly, in which no one can suggest that the killings were unimaginable.

The first question, appropriately, is: Why did this happen?

The second question, equally appropriately, is: What should we do about it?

There is is a simple answer to Question No. 1: America is a violent country.

Unfortunately, simple answers lead to simplistic responses. If America can do nothing about its violent streak, the NRA will argue, it is silly to place limits on gun ownership. Better to arm everyone, the argument goes. Or better to allow the "concealed carry" of weapons. Or, well, you get the point -- anything to avoid taking a piece out of the profits of the corporations that manufacture and sell deadly weapons.

By the same token, the notion that banning those weapons will end the violence has become a a tougher sell. Shocking and horrible rampages occur in countries with stricter gun laws than the U.S. No, they do not happen as frequently. But they do happen.

Conversely, in some countries where gun ownership is relatively high, incidents like at Virginia Tech are far less common.

We ought to wrestle with these contradictions and complexities.

But where to begin?

Here is a modest proposal: Instead of adopting a particular line, rent Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine."

Of course, there are those who will not be able to see beyond their rage at Moore to recognize the value of this particular film.

Moore's 2002 film remains the best popular exploration of violence and the gun culture in America. And, despite what the film maker's critics would have you believe, it is a remarkably nuanced assessment of the zeitgeist.

Moore's purpose was to offer an explanation for why the Columbine massacre occurred and to examine the broader question of why the U.S. has higher rates of violent crimes than other developed nations.

Moore certainly does not let apologists for the gun industry off the hook. But he does not stop there. "Bowling for Columbine" explores the role that America's mad foreign policies and obscene expenditures on weapons of mass destruction might play in fostering a culture of violence. Most significantly, Moore takes a serious look at the way in which American media, with its obsessive crime coverage, creates a climate of fear in this country -- a climate that actually ends up encouraging violence.

After the movie came out, Mary Corliss wrote in Film Comment: "Moore makes the mind swim with the atrocities and poignancies on display. 'Bowling for Columbine' should be mandatory viewing."

That was true in 2002. It is ever more true today.
0 Replies
 
 

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