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War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Our Race
2007-06-17 16:37:00
By Ramzy Baroud 6/16/07 When I resorted to Mark Twain ?s writings I attempted to escape, at least temporarily from my often distressing readings on war, politics and terror. But his ?The Mysterious Stranger?, although published 1916, still left me with an eerie feel. The imaginative story calls into question beliefs that we hold as a ?matter of course? ? a favorite phrase of his. It summons the awful tendencies of ?our race?: our irrational drive for violence, be it burning ?witches? at the stake or engaging in wars that only serve the ?little monarchs and the nobilities.? As the Iraq war rages on, Twain?s words ring truer by the day. ?The loud little handful will shout for war?Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will out shout them and presently the anti-war audiences will thin and lose pop...
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In Pursuit of Immigrants. Whose security? Whose Interest?
2007-06-16 19:23:00
"NAFTA alone is estimated to have displaced 40% of the small farmers in Mexico. ?Displaced? to where, and to what? For many, it is to abject poverty and they head to where jobs are - regardless of how exploitative - the United States." By Rowan Wolf 6/15/07 They stand in icy water; in crowded conditions; wet to the skin for 18 hour shifts. They work for one of the largest food processors in the world. They are paid below legal wage, and not paid overtime. Now, 167 of them sit in ICE custody after a raid on the North Portland (Oregon) plant at which they were employed. Some had ICE agents show up at their homes and take them into custody.The workers (including legal immigrants) were employed at $7.00 an hour (below Oregon?s minimum wage of $7.80). They worked up to 18 hour shifts with no overtime in appalling conditions. Why did the workers stay? Rodriguez, the former worker, said most employees did not report poor conditions and long shifts to authorities for fear of losing thei...
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Daw Suu Kyi and movement for democracy, freedom and human rights in Burma
2007-06-16 19:07:00
By Dr. Habib Siddiqui 6/10/07 Throughout history, we have seen the importance of personality in shaping the destiny of a nation. These personalities become larger than their lives. They gravitate people to overcome their local and ethnic/tribal/regional inertia towards a common cause. Rarely did a social and national movement succeed that did not have that iconic unifying figure. That unique role has been provided by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for Burma, a country of many races, ethnicities, and religions. Analyzing from its problematic history, geography, social and economic factors, Burma is not an easy territory for anyone aspiring to become its national leader. Politically, it has more than its share of (almost never-ending) military dictatorships that pale the ugly records of other despots of our time by any indicator. The Junta has used most of the brutal and horrendous methods that were invented by beastly human perverts to....(Click here for the full article) Thomas Pa...
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Bush to Putin: Hey, Vlad. Straighten Up
2007-06-16 18:48:00
By Steven Jonas 6/12/07 Originally published at Buzzflash It was a rebuke that was little noticed, nor will it be long remembered. But last week George W. (I call the Pope "Sir") Bush had some interesting things to say to Russian President Vladimir (in the past Bush has called him ?Vlad?) Putin (June 6, The New York Times, "Chastising Putin, Bush Says Russia Derails Reform," S. G. Stolberg). Among other things, Bush told Vlad that: "In Russia, reforms that were once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development. . . . (Read the article in its entirety here) Thomas Paine's Corner is a site dedicated to advancing universal human rights, fostering social and economic justice, and supporting the cause of all oppressed, exploited, and impoverished human beings on our Earth.
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Imperial America?
2007-06-15 20:32:00
BY BRYN LLOYD-BALLARD6/14/07In an age in which the democratic mask is essential to legitimate plutocratic power with the benighted masses of the Anglo-America n empire, the manner in which imperial designs are carried out today may be less obvious than in ancient times, but the results are practically the same.It is common to hear talk of the Roman Empire, the British Empire, or the Soviet Empire, yet comparatively little is said about an American Empire. The reason is that it is often taken for granted that the era of imperialism ended with the collapse of communism, and that the near-universal extension of economic and political liberalism precludes any chance that Empire will again rear its ugly head. Empire is considered an outdated concept of little use for explaining the dynamics of a world increasingly integrated and globalized. Thus, Francis Fukuyama argues that we are witnessing the ?end of history,? ?the end point of mankind?s ideological evolution and the universalization ...
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Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush?s Billionaires
2007-06-15 19:36:00
BY MATT TAIBI RollingStone.com2/20/07?Now, after she shaved her head in a bizarre episode that culminates a months-long saga of controversial behavior, it?s the question being asked by her fans, her foes and the general public: What was she thinking??? Bald and Broken: Inside Britney?s Shaved Head, Sheila Marikar, ABC.com, Feb. 19.What was she thinking? How about nothing? How about who gives a shit? How?s that for an answer, Sheila Marikar of ABC news, you pinhead?I?m not one of those curmudgeons who freaks out every time that Bradgelina moves the war off the front page of the Post, or Katie Couric decides to usher in a whole new era of network news with photos of the imbecile demon-spawn of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I understand that we live in a demand-based economy and that there is far more demand for brainless celebrity bullshit than there is, say, for the fine print of the Health and Human Services budget.But that was before this week. I awoke this morning in New York City ...
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Tantrums of Mass Destruction or The Enduring Beauty of Ugly Truth: In Prais
2007-06-14 19:40:00
?We can produce slick, television-friendly self-promoters -- i.e. Thompson and Obama -- but we can't rebuild New Orleans or devise an exit strategy from Iraq.?By Phil Rockstroh6/14/07Recent news reports have revealed that the Bush Administration has bestowed upon itself the right to grant itself absolute power if "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions" might come to pass.http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea ses/2007/05/20070509-12.htmlActually, the hypothetical catastrophes stated above sound very much like the veritable calamities inflicted upon the nation by the Bush presidency itself. Worse, at present, many of our Democratic representatives are showing their outrage regarding the disastrous policies of the administration -- by agitating to bomb Iran.Regarding such circumstances, Eric Fromme warned, "t...
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Why Do You Hate?
2007-06-13 22:25:00
By Michael Goodspeed6/13/07Why do you hate?Behind the question is an obvious assumption. Since every human being you have ever known, including yourself, has likely expressed hatred for someone at some point in his/her life, the assumption seems entirely safe. We all carry in our hearts a certain amount of hatred for each other. But remarkably few have ever stopped to question WHY.We all know that countless human beings seem worthy of hatred. Grotesque, aberrant, sociopathic personalities have dominated the world for ages, and many appear to never receive "justice" in this life. And we all function day-to-day in the midst of little cruelties -- the jerk in the check-out line who swears out the cashier, the boss who humiliates us in front of our coworkers, the teenage boys and girls who mock and torment their peers.When we see a human being behaving in an inhuman manner, the only appropriate response is, "I hate that." In order to be sane, one must feel....(The article appears here i...
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Super Bowl XLI was an indictment of our society?s true priorities
2007-06-13 20:28:00
?The grand jury was silent on whether Rod K. Williams? seat for Super Bowl XLI was an indictment of our society?s true priorities.?By Paul A. Moore6/13/07This is the story of four young men.They all endure longer than Rod K. Williams. His body was found in a dumpster eight days after he died. Rod?s family and friends say he wanted to play football someday but he was only 14-years-old when he was wrapped in plastic bags and thrown in the garbage. While his body decomposed in the shadow of Dolphins Stadium they played Super Bowl XLI there. The game is described with Roman numerals due to its gravitas. An estimated one billion people watched the game on CBS, part of Viacom?s media empire. Tony Dungy beat Lovie Smith to the Lombardi Trophy and was lauded as the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl. While Peyton Manning was named the game?s Most Valuable Player many Black athletes on the field made spectacular plays that drew loud cheers from the crowd. The Bears Devin Hester...
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The Denial of Equality is the Root of All Evil
2007-06-13 03:47:00
By Michael Goodspeed 6/12/07 "To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face, one must be able to love the meanest of all creation as oneself." ---Mahatma Gandhi Late last week, I returned home to Portland, OR, after attending a three-day conference on the Electric Universe in Las Vegas, NV. The event brought together an impressive array of scientists, authors, and independent researchers from many different disciplines and walks of life, all unified in their quest to develop a better understanding of the cosmos and our place in it. Throughout the event, I had the privilege of interacting with some very accomplished scholars in such seemingly disparate fields as electrical engineering, physics, plasma physics, geology, and comparative mythology. In every instance, I was very pleased to find that I was treated as an equal, even though I claim no special expertise on the topics discussed. This lack of pretension on the part of the "experts" ...
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Report Details CIA Prisons In Europe
2007-06-10 16:49:00
By Joe Kay 6/10/07 A report released Friday by the Council of Europe confirms that the CIA has used interrogation centers in Europe, including in Romania and Poland, to secretly hold and torture prisoners captured in Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the globe. The report is the most detailed description of a secret program initiated by the US government, with the collaboration of Europe. In addition to Poland and Romania, many European and other powers have taken part in the program, including Germany, Italy, Britain and Canada. An earlier report from the council released in June 2006 provided some information on the program, and singled out 14 European governments for complicity. The report was prepared by Dick Marty, a rapporteur for the council, which is tasked with monitoring human rights in Europe. It was issued the same day as a trial began in Italy against CIA agents suspected of involvement in capturing one of the prison network's victims (see today's article on ...
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Wall Street Journal's Looking Glass World
2007-06-09 18:31:00
Photo: Mary O?Grady Wins Bastiat Prize for Journalism By Stephen Lendman 6/9/07 She's at it again on the Journal's editorial page in her June 4 article called "The Young and the Restless," subtitled "Is this the beginning of the end for Hugo Chavez?" The writer is self-styled Latin American expert Mary Anastasia O'Grady always getting top grades in vilification and disinformation but failing ones on regional knowledge and legitimate journalism. This time she may have overstepped. Her article reeks with disinformation, outright lies, and most disturbing of all - incendiary commentary straddling the tipping edge of inciting insurrection. She can get away with it because she represents elitist interests and the Journal's editorial view supporting the Bush administration's fixation on ousting Hugo Chavez by any means, including through violence. It doesn't matter that Chavez was just reelected again in December by a near two to one margin or that he's admire...
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Losing Afghanistan: Firepower Doesn?t Always Win Wars
2007-06-09 18:20:00
By Ramzy Baroud 6/8/07 In a statement made available through the country?s Foreign Office, Pakistan?s Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri chastised the ?international community? for the ?abandonment? of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989. In his estimation, it was this attitude that created the conditions which eventually culminated in the rise of the Taliban, the hosts of al-Qaeda. The statement was reportedly made at the G-8 Foreign Ministers? recent conference in Potsdam, Germany, according to Pakistan?s Daily Times. Kasuri was, expectedly, packaging his critique within a context specific to Pakistan?s own concerns: namely the 2.4 million Afghani refugees - according to UNHCR figures ? and who have crossed the border into Pakistan seeking shelter and relative safety. Moreover, Pakistan, under consistent censure for allegedly failing to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda militants operating around its Western border, deployed 90,000 soldie...
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Beyond PTSD: the Moral Casualties of War
2007-06-08 23:19:00
BY CAMILLO ?MAC? BICA6/4/07According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, during the Iraq war, 56 percent of soldiers and Marines (henceforth I will use the term ?soldiers? to include members of all branches, both male and female) have killed another human being, 20 percent admit being responsible for noncombatant deaths, and 94 percent had seen bodies and human remains.[i] According to Colonel Charles Engel, MD, MPH, director of the deployment health clinical center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, between 15 and 29 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Because soldiers still on active duty are being deployed longer and more often to Iraq, experts say that the PTSD rate among Iraq veterans could well eclipse the 30% lifetime rate found in a 1990 national study of Vietnam veterans. While these numbers are staggering and should give any rational human being pause, the readjustment difficulti...
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Stay in NYC?
2007-06-08 22:26:00
Originally published at Speaking Truth to Power 6/8/06[In 2006 Phillip Botwinick helped organize and coordinate the Local Energy Solutions Conference in New York City. His years of research on Peak Oil, climate change, and economic collapse, as well as his experience as an instructor of Permaculture, superbly qualify him to critique Plan NYC as a public relations pipedream disconnected from current reality.?Carolyn Baker]I remember Earth Days in the seventies. It was a big deal. People seemed genuinely interested in saving the planet. As the years passed the crowds got smaller and it became a human interest story for the local media. Until this year. Maybe Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" was a catalyst for many people. Maybe people read more stories about -­Climate Change in papers, magazines. Whatever the reason, I frequently hear conversations about the weather in elevators, on subways and on the street. This year I saw more events, more people and more questions at t...
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Gas Prices Could Go Up - Way Up
2007-06-08 19:08:00
by Rowan Wolf6/6/07Hold onto your hats folks. Gas prices could skyrocket shortly due to cyclone Gonu which is hitting Oman and heading into Gulf of Oman. This could have a significant effect on oil fields, production facilities and shipping. There is an extensive discussion at the Oil Drum at this link and the most recent thread at this link. I will try to summarize the high points.Gonu has hit Oman and is heading on into the Gulf. The reports range from this being the most powerful storm to hit Oman in 60 years, to reports that no cyclone has ever entered the Gulf of Oman. Storm surges of 10-15 feet are expected to hit the coast of Iran. This will definitely impact shipping in the region - even oil shipping.According to Oil Drum, Oman produces 774,000 bbl/day, and their operations could be impacted for 30 days or more. Combined with other likely impacts in the Gulf of Oman, there could be a drastic reduction in oil movement out of the region.(The image above - Courtesy of Wired New...
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Resource Wars - Can We Survive Them?
2007-06-08 00:36:00
By Stephen Lendman6/6/07Near the end of WW II, Franklin Roosevelt met with Saudi King ibn Saud on the USS Quincy. It began a six decade relationship guaranteeing US access to what his State Department called a "stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history" - the region's oil and huge amount of it in Saudi Arabia. Today, the Middle East has two-thirds of the world's proved oil reserves (around 675 billion barrels) and the Caspian basin an estimated 270 billion barrels more plus one-eighth of the world's natural gas reserves. It explains a lot about why we're at war with Iraq and Afghanistan and plan maintaining control over both countries. We want a permanent military presence in them aimed at controlling both regions' proved energy reserves with puppet regimes, masquerading as democracies, beholden to Washington as client states. They're in place to observe what their ousted predecessors ignored: the rules of imperial managemen...
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Or, maybe it's just totally wrong to kill and let's not even go there.
2007-06-08 00:07:00
?You say you want a revolution? Well, you know ... we're all doing what we can."--John Lennon"Is This Heaven?"by Mike Palecek"Nope.Iowa."Where brown puppies are frisky, U-Turns aren't risky, and good girls sip their whiskey.On the road, on my book tour, I was asked a few times, well, then, what should we do??I don't know. ... I just don't know."Hey.The new presidential directive says that in case of emergency George W. Bush has dictatorial powers.The new presidential directive.What's that? What was the old presidential directive? Who said he gets directives?Did you vote for that?So. If you don?t like that, what do you do in the United States?Vote for a Democrat?Try to figure out whom to shoot?Speaking of voting. Didn't we think we did this big thing awhile back when we elected a bunch of Democrats and Nancy Pelosi was the new house mom?And the first thing she said before she was even the leader was that impeachment was off the table, and now they support Bush.People also asked...
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Some democracy, America
2007-06-07 21:30:00
The America n President is selling a product that America does not have.by Anwaar Hussain6/6/07President Bush is in Europe flaunting, in a hard sell pitch, his brand of democracy to the world at large and to Russia in particular. He is known to have said: ?We believe that the voice of the people ought to be determining policy, because we believe in democracy.?That, ladies and gentlemen, is as fallacious a statement as any that the President of United States has been giving since he took over the reins of his great country. Fallacious too because the American President is selling a product that America does not have.Granted that we in the Muslim countries have not much idea of the fruits of democracy, having been perpetually ruled by kings, despots, generals, tyrants, autocrats and dictators of all hues. Granted too the fact that no democracy is perfect and at any given time it is either getting better or getting worse, yet the President?s statement is a wholly fallacious one. Fallaci...
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AN OPEN LETTER TO LIBERTARIAN ACTIVISTS
2007-06-06 20:34:00
?We can thank workers? struggle for the abolition of child labor, not the wonders of the free market which thrives off of cheap labor sources, including the children of the poor.?By Paul Donovan6/5/06Dear Libertarian s,I sincerely appreciate the passion and sincerity you exhibit in your endeavors, and that is why I?d like to bring up a few points to your attention. These comments originate in my recent exposure to a very large number of posts commenting primarily on an article on the Thomas Paine?s Corner blog of Cyrano?s Journal, Annals of Stupidity: The Demise of Alexander Cockburn, by Gerald Rellick. I discern in this thread what I have observed elsewhere, a tremendous infatuation by Libertarians with Rep. Ron Paul. That certainly strikes me as logical: Paul is one of your own. The point of divergence, however, is equally simple. The reasons and personal qualities you adduce for elevating Mr. Paul to the status of national saviour are matched, and in many dimensions clearly exceed...
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Electoral Blowback: Reality Kicks us in the Rump One More Time
2007-06-06 19:05:00
BY JOE MOWREY5/30/07Everyone is carping about the betrayal of the antiwar movement by the Democrats. It won?t take more than a few paragraphs to state the obvious. We no longer live in anything resembling a democracy, and we haven?t for many decades now. We live in a corporate-fascist theocratic oligarchy, or whichever multi-syllabic label you want to tack onto our current laissez faire capitalistic religious-extremist nightmare. If you need to have this explained to you in more depth, then you are probably one of those dreamers who did volunteer work for some Democratic candidate last year. Get over it. You?ve been duped again. No big surprise.It is not now, and hasn?t been for at least the last 100 years, a question of which party holds power. Both parties are branches of the same form of governance. Those of you out there who think this is about a good system gone awry, look again. The system is working just the way it was intended to. The power elite who controls and operates co...
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The End of the Line
2007-06-06 18:29:00
By Guy Zimmerman6/1/07From the VOXPOP section of Cyrano?s JournalCapitalism, for all its effectiveness in certain arenas, is the source of potentially fatal imbalances in the ways human being interact with others and with the environment. Capitalism is unspeakably cruel to those it enslaves, and it is a moral catastrophe for those it empowers. It should correctly be viewed as the socio-economic embodiment of the ?3 poisons? of greed, hatred and ignorance given historical expression by the Enlightenment. The human species must move to an entirely different way of interacting with each other and with the geosphere, and the first step is clarity about where we are now and hence what this process will entail.The rubric of ?right? and ?left? is itself a holdover from the 18th century and the French revolution and I suspect its usefulness is nearly over. In any event, in my last post I wasn?t at all promoting the right as successful in anything but defending the prerogatives of an utterly...
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I AM A PALESTINIAN
2007-06-06 16:55:00
BY GARY CORSERI(originally posted at Dissident Voice, 2006)Before Moses or the Romans,Before Jesus and Muhammad,Before the Turks and the English,We dwelled in this land.We built cities out of the dust,Watered with our tears,Mortared with our joys;We fished the abundant seas,Blessed our children?s marriagesIn our cool olive groves.We did not botherTo give ourselves a name.We were ?the People,?The ones who had always been.Intruders cameAnd marched across our land.They brought Sky Gods with weaponsOf iron and steel.When we complained,They butchered our babies.The old men prayed,And they were murdered where they prayed.The women keenedAnd were murdered where they keened.We wrote petitions to World CouncilsAnd were laughed off the stage.We appealed to the Great PowersFor mercy, understanding, justice.Sometimes they listened politely.(We were pawns in their games.)Sometimes they yawned at our wounds.We are a small people, and our skin is dark with the desert sun.White men with pink skin a...
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Annals of Mendacious Punditry: When the Shill Enables the Kill
2007-06-04 09:06:00
By Jason Miller 6/4/07 Jonah Goldberg is the living, breathing embodiment of virtually all that is pernicious in the malignant socioeconomic and political structures collectively known as the American Empire. Yet tragically, this scheming sycophant to the cynical, privileged criminals of the US plutocracy reaches countless millions through myriad corporate media conduits as he weaves his sophistic arguments supporting nearly every morally repulsive aspect of United States foreign policy. Rising to his position amongst the US mainstream punditry elite through vigorous and shameless self-promotion based on his mother?s involvement in the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, young Jonah quickly learned our culture?s ferocious appetite for the sordid, the lurid, and all that validates our collective pathological narcissism euphemistically called the American Dream. To this day, he skillfully crafts malevolent agitprop to convince and reassure us here in the United States that it is ...
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This is Not the Life I Ordered
2007-06-03 07:30:00
By Michael Goodspeed 6/3/07 Every man with the smallest inklings of humility and courage is forever discovering new things about himself. The self-images we cultivate through arrogance and ignorance are easily exposed in the harsh light of life experience. One may think himself a hero or genius or saint, but all too often, these grandiose self-analyses are born of egoic delusion rather than objective reality. When one's false pride has fallen and his ego stands defenseless and trembling, therein lays the greatest opportunity for self-discovery. One can either wait for the ego to re-inflate and again retreat to its comforting shelter, or one can leap head-first into the cavernous abyss that the ego once filled. The latter is the action advised by some of history's great spiritual teachers, but the former is the one preferred by almost all of humankind. We only do the really serious introspection when we have no choice, when we're at life's bottom. Stripped of every f...
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For Boycott to Be Effective, an International Coalition Is Indispensable
2007-06-02 15:11:00
By Ramzy Baroud 6/2/07 South Africa's Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils whispered to me as I sat down following a most enthusiastic speech I gave at a recent conference in Cape Town: "if you want the world to heed to your call for boycotting Israel, the call has to originate from the Palestinian leadership itself." Kasrils is obviously right. The call for boycotting the racist Apartheid government was an exclusively South African endeavour, made resonantly and repeatedly by the African National Council (ANC) and backed by the various liberation movements in the country and in exile. It took years for the dedicated campaign to be effective. The message communicated to the international community was clear and simply persuasive: put an end to Apartheid. It was but only a facet....(Here is the article in its entirety)Thomas Paine's Corner is a site dedicated to advancing universal human rights, fostering social and economic justice, and supporting the cause of al...
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ONE EARTH FLAGS: Passports for World Citizenry
2007-06-02 15:01:00
by Mankh (Walter E. Harris III) 6/2/07 I am a citizen of the world, my countrymen all mankind. --Thomas Paine With, without.And who?ll deny it?s what the fighting?s all about? -- Pink Floyd "Us and Them" Imagine there's no countries... -- John Lennon "Imagine" Imagine the image of Earth stitched onto a corner of every national flag. Not quite what John Lennon sang to us to do but it is a start. One World flags would help us to remember our connection with the world as a whole. And anything nasty done by a nation -- wherever they might raise their flag....(Click here to read the full article) Thomas Paine's Corner is a site dedicated to advancing universal human rights, fostering social and economic justice, and supporting the cause of all oppressed, exploited, and impoverished human beings on our Earth.
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The House of Cards Collapsed in 1929
2007-06-01 18:31:00
Photo: Civilian Conservation Corps at an experimental farm in Beltsville, Maryland. (Circa 1933)By Carolyn BakerSpeaking Truth to Power6/1/07?..that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy.?The Glass Menagerie?, by Tennessee WilliamsWilliam Faulkner famously stated that ?good history is not was.? By this Faulkner meant that history is a tapestry of interconnected events whose meaning and significance cannot be appreciated unless past causes, present manifestation, and future consequences are assessed. Robert S. McElvaine, author of The Great Depression, America 1929-1941, provides us with the kind of tapestry to which Faulkner was alluding as McElvaine analyzes the first momentous collapse that the United States ever experienced.I was recentl...
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Just Say ?No!? to Coal
2007-06-01 18:07:00
by Rowan Wolf of CJO Avenger6/1/07There needs to be a call to action. Big Coal (like Peabody Energy Company aka Peabody Coal Company) is pushing hard to get us (via the government) to make massive investments in coal, and coal to liquid fuel legislation. The plan is to take our current estimated 250 year supply of coal and use it as a liquid fuel to replace imported oil. Imported oil makes up 60% of the oil used in the United States. This plan is so stupid on so many levels that it is difficult to know where to start.Coal is being pushed as an ?alternative? fuel. Oh please spare me. Coal is neither ?clean,? ?green,? or renewable. There is a big push to increase coal for electric generation as well. Even though the ?scrubbing? technology for emissions have improved, more plants using more coal means more emissions - including CO2 emissions. Let us not forget that ?energy? is not the only crisis facing us. There is the ?little? issue of global warming. The New York Times (May 29, 2007...

Symbols and Their Power
2007-06-01 17:35:00
Graphic: Chinese symbol for loveby Ivor Hughes6/1/07The heart also thinks but not in the same way as the mind.. the heart thinks holistically... holographically.. it thinks in pictures.. symbols.. the beam of light between a man and woman?s gaze.. the heart consciousness operates at a greater magnitude of speed than does the mind.. glance at a painting .. ?a picture speaks a thousand words?. The mind would need considerably more time to process that amount of information than that which is conveyed to the heart in a trice.It is because symbols communicate with the heart that they are used to sway human minds... That explains nicely why our rulers make such good use of symbols for example the Union Jack ... the flag of Britain raises much patriotic feeling amongst Britons.The national flag in other nations must do the same. Men march to War behind a flag .. so we may understand it is a very powerful symbol.. Just as the Cross is for Christians.. and the Koran is for Muslims.. So havi...
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