31 Oct 2011

Palestine Statehood Bid: U.S. Cuts Off UNESCO Funding After Palestine Vote

Palestine became a full member of UNESCO on Monday in a highly divisive breakthrough that will cost the agency a fifth of its budget and that the U.S. and other opponents say could harm renewed Mideast peace efforts.

Soon after the vote, the United States cut funding to the organization because of a U.S. law that bars funding an organization that has Palestine as a member before an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is reached.

Monday's vote is a grand symbolic victory for the Palestinians, but it alone won't make Palestine into a state. The issues of borders for an eventual Palestinian state, security troubles and other disputes that have thwarted Middle East peace for decades remain unresolved.

Huffingtonpost.com

Lunar Anomalies

The Lunar Anomalies Blog - More via about.com

Gilad Atzmon and The Wandering Who?

Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel, now living in the UK. He is a successful jazz musician as well as a prolific writer. Atzmon writes on political matters, social issues, Jewish identity and culture. He specializes in writing about Jewish identity politics and how it fits into Jewish ideology.

Much more on Red Ice Radio (Listen to the podcast)

Things You Shouldn’t Microwave

A collection of items which should never be placed in the microwave oven, unless of course you’re a mad genius experimenting with technology, but we all know how mad geniuses end up (and if you don’t, just take a moment to remember Frankenstein’s tale…). Ever since it was invented, the microwave oven was intended for reheating food, but have you ever wondered what happens if we try to cook things which aren’t supposed to be cooked. Click for more on VyperLook.com.

World's Population hits 7 billion

The world's population hits 7 billion this week, but Ziona, the patriarch of what may be the biggest family in the world, is not bothered. "I don't care about overpopulation in India ... I believe God has chosen us to be like this (have big families). Those who are born into this family don't want to leave this tradition so we just keep growing and growing," he says with a smile.

ziona-family

Ziona, who only goes by his first name, has 39 wives, 86 children and 35 grandchildren. Ziona's father, Chana, founded the Christian sect in Baktwang village that promotes polygamy as God's will. "I never wanted to get married but that's the path God has chosen for me," he says. "It's not my wish to keep marrying again and again."

CNN.com

Exposed: Media fabricated 'empty tents'

Following all the media hype (Telegraph, The Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express) about 'empty tents' at OccupyLSX we decided to check out whether their thermal imaging evidence was true. We got hold of exactly the same thermal imaging camera and showed that - surprise, surprise - you can't tell when people are in their tents.

YouTube

Prince Charles inspired by family connections to 'Count Dracula'

Prince Charles is campaigning to save the forests of Transylvania, inspired by his ancestral links to Vlad the Impaler, the 15th century nobleman better known by his patronym, Dracula.

Rapid economic growth in Romania - which is now part of the EU - means that the forests of the Carpathian Mountains are under threat from development and logging. The Prince is calling for the forests, some of the last untouched wilderness areas in Europe, to be protected before they are lost, like the woodland that once covered Britain.

prince charlie

He claims a family connection to the area through Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, who earned the sobriquet Vlad the Impaler thanks to his favoured method of torture and execution. The 15th century nobleman, notorious for his bloodthirsty campaigns against the Ottomans and fierce repression of his people, is a distant ancestor of Charles's great-grandmother, Queen Mary. (Mail Online)

Oh, and did you know this:

UK Ministers have been forced to seek permission from Prince Charles to pass at least a dozen government bills, according to a Guardian investigation into a secretive constitutional loophole that gives him the right to veto legislation that might impact his private interests.

Since 2005, ministers from six departments have sought the Prince of Wales' consent to draft bills on everything from road safety to gambling and the London Olympics, in an arrangement described by constitutional lawyers as a royal "nuclear deterrent" over public policy. Unlike royal assent to bills, which is exercised by the Queen as a matter of constitutional law, the prince's power applies when a new bill might affect his own interests, in particular the Duchy of Cornwall, a private £700m property empire that last year provided him with an £18m income. (The Guardian)

30 Oct 2011

Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil sent to mental hospital

The Egyptian government’s referral of Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad to the Abbaseyya Mental Hospital is “a dangerous and unacceptable affair,” according to a statement from Basma Abdel Aziz, Director of Media Department of Egypt’s General Secretariat of Mental Health.

Nabil, who has been on a prison hunger strike since August 23, was referred to the Abbaseyya Mental Hospital by Egyptian authorities. Basma Abdel Aziz condemned the recent move regarding Nabil’s case, stating, “the previous regime used to accuse mentally healthy individuals of being mentally disturbed and accuse them of crimes of conscience despite professional reports stating their sanity.”

Free Maikel Nabil

“The incarceration of an individual whose charge is having a different view of the situation in the country is morally and professionally unacceptable. Sanad is kept in one ward with others accused of criminal charges, a matter that is involves terrorizing and threat,” the statement continued. It  went on to condemn the politicization of mental hospital spaces to isolate and ridicule political opponents.

Nabil was sentenced to a three-year jail term for insulting the Egyptian military on his blog “Son of Ra”, in a blog post published last March entitled, “The people and the military were never one hand.”

Bikya Masr

Little hope for Mauro

The Dutch Christian Democratic party voted to work towards a more humane policy on young refugees, but that does not mean 18-year-old Angolan boy Mauro can stay, party officials said on Saturday. (DutchNews.nl)

mauro_debate

Abigail R. Esman is appalled. she writes this because she finds it unfathomable that a Western, civilized country that dares to boast of its “tolerance” (a fable, but people still believe it) and its “openness” (ditto), a country that professes to believe in human rights and human dignity, can be committing this kind of sin against an innocent young man. She write this because she thinks the world should know.

Mauro Manuel arrived in the Netherlands as a child of nine – frightened, alone, sent off by his parents who feared for his safety in their war-torn homeland of Angola. Their son, they knew, would face a better future in the West.

And so he came to live in the Netherlands, where he has, in the nine years since, learned to speak the language fluently, with the unmistakeable drawl of the province of Limburg, where he now lives with a foster family. He has been a good student. He plays soccer with the best of them. His foster parents gave birth two years ago to a son Mauro calls his brother, and loves as if they had been born to the same family.

Dutch_Gov

But Mauro is now 18 years old. And the Dutch government wants to send him back to Africa. Mauro no longer speaks his native language. He no longer knows the cultural mores of his homeland. He has been raised a Westerner, a Dutchman, and this is the culture of which he feels a part.

Abigail R. Esman on Forbes.com

War Again

From the album Blue Eyed Black Boy by Balkan Beat Box

A Message To The Police

Our thoughts go out to Scott Olssen, the ex marine who served 2 tours in Afghanistan/Iraq and lived, only to come home and be brain damaged by these so called police. I say so-called because they are not true police, they are just robots in uniform, and they must remember, its only a uniform. MrGlasgowTruther4U (YouTube)

Ces Gens Là

A searing performance from his last Olympia concert in 1966 Jacques Brel enacts a story of young man who is rejected by his girls petit bourgeois family. He proceeds to demolish these people one by one.

29 Oct 2011

V for Vendetta masks: Who's behind them?

The sinister Guy Fawkes mask made famous by the film V for Vendetta has become an emblem for anti-establishment protest groups. Who's behind them?

Anonymous-europe

From New York, to London, to Sydney, to Cologne, to Bucharest, there has been a wave of protests against politicians, banks and financial institutions. Anybody watching coverage of the demonstrations may have been struck by a repeated motif - a strangely stylised mask of Guy Fawkes with a moustache and pointy beard.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrived at the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest to make a speech wearing one of these masks. He took it off, reportedly at the insistence of the police.

Guy Fawkes masks

They were thought to have been used first by the notorious hacker-activist group Anonymous in 2008 during a protest against Scientology, but have since spread throughout the global protest movement. The masks are from the 2006 film V for Vendetta where one is worn by an enigmatic lone anarchist who, in the graphic novel on which it is based, uses Fawkes as a role model in his quest to end the rule of a fictional fascist party in the UK.

Anonymous needed an all-purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolise that they stand for individualism - V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system” David Lloyd

BBC News

The end of the internet as we know it

Yes, it's a terrible shame that the entertainment industry isn't making billions of dollars instead just millions. But are we going to allow for the end of the free flow of information and ideas, the end of easy and open discourse, and the end of free speech on the internet so that Hollywood can make more money? CENSORSHIP!
That's what the American PROTECT IP ACT will give us and little else. This video elaborates on exactly how that going to work...

brasscheck tv - Is the Government Trying to Kill the Internet? - Digital Media Wire - Fight For The FutureSee the Bill here (PDF)

New promises, old results in unsolved russian journalists murders

togliatti-murder

The Togliatti murder investigations illustrate the systemic problems that afflict the other 15 unsolved journalist murders committed in Russia since 2000. Despite the incremental progress Russian authorities have made in combating impunity, most investigations continue to fail due to a lack of political will. In the cases of Valery Ivanov and Aleksei Sidorov, new promises of commitment have given way to old habits of neglect. Vladimir Sidorov put it this way: “The system is a corporate organism. An individual cannot do anything on their own.” Russian authorities must work hard to prove Sidorov’s skepticism wrong. And they can do that only one way—by finding, prosecuting, and convicting the killers of Valery Ivanov and Aleksei Sidorov. The real ones.

Committee to Protect Journalists

AKA ... What a Life!

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

28 Oct 2011

Hypocrisy USA

Ohio State Rep Introduces Law That Requires Politicians & Judges & Bankers To Be Drug Tested!

MOXNews.com

FTSE 100 Directors Enjoy Large Increase In Average Earnings

Directors in the UK's top firms have seen their pay rise by almost 50% in the past year, taking their average earnings to just under £2.7 million, a new study has revealed.

ftse_100

Research by Incomes Data Services (IDS) among directors in FTSE 100 companies showed that their 49% increase - which covers salary, benefits and bonuses - was higher than the 43% jump in the pay of chief executives. Average bonus payments for directors increased by 23% from £737,000 in 2010 to £906,000 this year, said the report.

Huffington Post

He May Be a Communist

Mutassim Qadhafi meets Hilary Clinton at Washington

Hilary Clinton is very pleased to meet with Qadhafi 's son
Washington DC, April 21, 2009 - LiveLeak.com

Streets Of Philadelphia

Bruce Springsteen

Fear And Loathing On Libya's Roads

Driving from Benghazi to Tripoli is a long way. A very long way. It feels even longer when you are limping on only three decent tyres and a dodgy spare. It has only been possible to drive that journey uninterrupted recently and a Sky News team travelled the route in a single day - from the birthplace of this revolution, past Colonel Gaddafi's last stand in Sirte to the capital.

LIBYA/

The 600-mile route snakes along Libya's northern coastline and, barring the scars from Nato bombs which have taken out pro-Gaddafi vehicles, the roads were remarkably smooth - putting some in the UK to shame. It was, however, one of these vicious potholes in the road caused by a bomb dropped from the skies that caused tyre problem number one. Our driver, Hakeem, had successfully slalomed his way through until now but this one near Ras Lanuf caught him out and we hit the hole with an almighty crack which shuddered through the whole vehicle.

Fear And Loathing On Libya's Roads As Sky Correspondent Stuart Ramsay Dodges Nato Bomb Craters

27 Oct 2011

Oakland Policeman Throws Flash Grenade Into Crowd Trying To Help Injured Protester

Footage from the Occupy Oakland protest, October 25th, 2011. After protesters ran to the aid of a badly-injured person, Oakland Police deliberately lobbed a flash grenade into the crowd. Whatever you think of the Occupy movement, police behavior of this kind is criminal and should be prosecuted. YouTube

How a Terrifying US Law Could Lead to Jail-time for Miscarriages, Birth Control Bans, and the End of Legal Abortion

Dr. Freda Bush has a warm, motherly smile. In her office just outside Jackson, Miss., she smiles as she hands me a brochure that calls abortion the genocide of African-Americans, and again, sweetly, as she explains why an abortion ban should not include exceptions for rape or incest victims. The smile turns into a chuckle as she recounts what the daughter of one rape victim told her: “My momma says I’m a blessing. Now, she still don’t care for the guy who raped her! But she’s glad she let me live.”

women-in-prison

Bush is smiling, too, in the video she made to support as restrictive an abortion ban as any state has voted on, Initiative 26, or the Personhood Amendment, which faces Mississippi voters on Nov. 8. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, black or white, or even if your father was a rapist!” she trills. But Initiative 26, which would change the definition of “person” in the Mississippi state Constitution to “include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof,” is more than just an absolute ban on abortion and a barely veiled shot at Roe v. Wade — although it is both. By its own logic, the initiative would almost certainly ban common forms of birth control like the IUD and the morning-after pill, call into question the legality of the common birth-control pill, and even open the door to investigating women who have suffered miscarriages.

Full article on AlterNet

Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin promotes call for Palestinian genocide

In a blog post cheering the release of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, neoconservative activist Rachel Decter Abrams descended into a twisted call for genocide, calling for Israel to throw released Palestinian prisoners whom she described as "child sacrificing savages" and "unmanned animals" -- along with "their offspring" -- "into the sea, to float there, food for sharks."

 abrams-rubin

Abrams is a board member of the right-wing Emergency Committee for Israel, which recently produced baseless ads claiming the Occupy Wall Street movement is anti-Semitic. The Washington Post's neoconservative "Right Turn" blogger Jennifer Rubin is one of Abrams' closest allies in the media. As soon as Abrams tweeted out a link to her exterminationist blog post, Rubin -- whose Twitter account is "JRubinBlogger" -- retweeted it to her followers, clearly approving of its content. Indeed, Rubin is not known for using Twitter to simply curate news and opinions.

uruknet.infoMore on occupiedpalestine

Argentina jails officials from Dirty War

A court in Argentina has sentenced 12 former military and police officials to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the country's 1976-1983 dictatorship. The men were convicted of kidnapping, torturing and killing leftist dissidents at a torture centre called the Navy Mechanics School.
Among those sentenced was Alfredo Astiz, a 59-year-old former navy officer dubbed "the Angel of Death". Astiz is accused of participating in the disappearance, torture and murder of two French nuns, a journalist and three founders of a human rights group that he infiltrated while spying for the dictatorship.
Official figures say 9,000 people were kidnapped, tortured and killed in what became known as Argentina's "Dirty War," but many believe the real number to be closer to 30,000.

Al Jazeera English

Michael Tsarion - Lectures

26 Oct 2011

Vatican Inc.

Earlier this month, the Vatican, the sovereign papal state at the heart of Rome, introduced new rules to clean up its financial system. At the heart of that system is the Vatican's own bank, the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), a notoriously secretive organisation.

AlJazeera

Secret society's code cracked

Cosmic Log

Wounded Syrian protesters being tortured in hospital

Protesters wounded in anti-government rallies in Syria have been tortured and abused inside hospitals, and in some cases deliberately refused medical treatment, according to a damning report by Amnesty International.

syria-protesters-oil

The human rights group said there was compelling evidence that the Syrian government was using hospitals as "instruments of repression" in its ongoing efforts to crush opposition. The report said medical staff, nurses and security officials had all physically and verbally attacked patients. Seriously wounded demonstrators suspected of taking part in anti-government rallies had been carted off from hospital to military jails, Amnesty added.

The Guardian - Watan

25 Oct 2011

Japanese Journalist Accuses Israel Of Fukushima Sabotage

A leading Japanese journalist recently made two incredible claims about the Fukushima power plant that suffered a nuclear meltdown in March 2011, sending shockwaves around the world. First, the former editor of a national newspaper in Japan says the U.S. and Israel knew Fukushima had weapons-grade uranium and plutonium that were exposed to the atmosphere after a massive tsunami wave hit the reactor. Second, he  contends that Israeli intelligence sabotaged the reactor in retaliation for Japan’s support of an independent Palestinian state.

fukushima

According to Yoishi Shimatsu, a former editor of Japan Times Weekly, these nuclear materials were shipped to the plant in 2007 on the orders of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, with the connivance of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The shipment was in the form of warhead cores secretly removed from the U.S. nuclear warheads facility BWXT Plantex near Amarillo, Texas. While acting as the middleman, Israel transported warheads from the port of Houston, and in the process kept the best ones while giving the Japanese older warhead cores that had to be further enriched at Fukushima.

Roland Vincent Carnaby shot

Shimatsu credits retired CIA agent and mercenary Roland Vincent Carnaby with learning the warheads were being transported from Houston. In a strange twist, Carnaby was mysteriously shot dead less than a year later by Houston police at a traffic stop. He was shot once in the back and once in the chest. He did not have a weapon in his hands. Intelligence sources said he had been tracking a Mossad unit that was smuggling U.S. plutonium out of Houston docks for an Israeli nuclear reactor.

In an even more explosive charge, the journalist says that 20 minutes before the Fukushima plant’s nuclear meltdown, Israel was so upset with Japanese support for a Palestinian declaration of statehood that it double-crossed Japan by unleashing the Stuxnet virus on the plant’s  computers. The virus hampered the shutdown, leading to fallout from a section of the plant housing uranium and plutonium retrieved from the warheads supplied in 2007.

More on American Free Press and Secret Weapons Program Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant?

Fukushima Disaster TEPCO Status Report 22 October 2011

Jesus would have been an atheist

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins claims that given today’s knowledge of science, even Jesus would have questioned the existence of God if he were living today.







“To the extent that a religious person believes an obvious falsehood like the world is only 6,000 years old, I’m going to have an argument with them,” Dawkins explained. “Your tea-drinking vicar who doesn’t believe that… I mean, of course those people are very different and I would have a very different kind of argument with them.”

The Raw StoryThe Guardian

OSCE asks Lukashenko Not to Tighten Law on Public Organizations

Audronius Ažubalis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, presiding in the OSCE, expressed concern about the tightening conditions of social and political activities in Belarus at the legislative level. October 24, Lithuanian Foreign Minister urged the Belarusian president not to sign the amendments to the law on public organizations and state security agencies.

Lukashenko

"I urge Lukashenko not to sign the amendments and to refrain from further violations of commitments within the OSCE by introducing new restrictions on civil society in Belarus. I am deeply concerned at these new restrictions, and once again call on the Belarusian president to stop political persecution," said Audronius Ažubalis.

Telegraf.by

The Capitalist Network that runs the World

The 1% indeed: a new study of the global economy and wealth concentration has identified a complex system of only 147 banks and corporations around the world which share in the largest chunk of the change. While that number might not seem too shocking to those of us paying attention, this study, "by a trio of complex systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, is the first to go beyond ideology to empirically identify such a network of power," writes New Scientist. In other words: valuable data which will not only strengthen OWS' political arguments but will help us identify whether, and how, the global economy is unstable.

Barclays boss Bob Diamond

Number one? Barclays, which currently helps fund Robert Mugabe, among other things. The scientists in the study were split on whether economic concentration necessarily amounted to political power, but it's certainly a porous distinction in some places. Read the full summary and list at New Scientist.

From AlterNet

Barclays boss makes last-ditch plea to halt bank reform - guardian.co.uk, 1 September 2011

24 Oct 2011

The Message

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five

The Anthem for Occupy Wall Street

Faces, Signs and Sentiments at Occupy Wall Street, set to a previously unreleased song by the great Bill Fox.

The Shocking US Graphic Data That Shows Exactly What Motivates the Occupy Movement

What are the Occupy Wall Street protesters angry about? The same things we’re all angry about. The only difference is the protestors turned their anger into public action. Occupy Wall Street lit the embers and the sparks are flying. Whether it turns into a genuine populist prairie fire depends on all of us.

Now is not the time for wonky policy solutions, as the media meatheads are calling for. Rather, it’s time to air our grievances as loudly as possible, which is precisely what Wall Street and its minions fear the most. Here’s a brief list of why we should be angry and the charts to back it up.

top 100 ceo

Actually the top tenth of one percent. Because of financial deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, the income gap is soaring. Here’s one of my favorite indicators that we compiled for The Looting of America. In 1970 the top 100 CEOs earned $45 for every $1 earned by the average worker. By 2006, the ratio climbed to an obscene 1,723 to one. (Not a misprint!)

Much more fact on AlterNet

Occupy Melbourne calls for inquiry into police violence

Occupy Melbourne released the statement below on October 21 following a brutal police attack on protesters earlier that day.

Occupy Melbourne have called for a full inquiry into unlawful police behaviour amid scenes of police violence on the streets of Melbourne today. The call comes after riot police disrupted a peaceful demonstration in Melbourne’s CBD.

“We call on Premier Ted Ballieu and Lord Mayor Robert Doyle to back a full and independent investigation into the use of unlawful and excessive force by Victoria Police and the Melbourne City Council,” said Occupy Melbourne spokesperson Erin Buckley.

Green Left Weekly

23 Oct 2011

I'm Afraid of Americans

"I'm Afraid of Americans" is a song and single by David Bowie from the 1997 album Earthling. The song, co-written by Bowie and Brian Eno, originally appeared as a rough mix on the soundtrack to the film Showgirls and was subsequently remade for Earthling. (Wikipedia)

The world system we inhabit came about by a mistake

In a Collector's Edition entitled "Secrets of the Da Vinci Code," published by US News and World Report, there is a brief interview with James Robinson, general editor of the Nag Hammadi Library. In response to Dan Brown’s reference to the Nag Hammadi texts as scrolls, Robinson points out: “They are codices – books with individual pages. They are actually the oldest example we have of leather-bound books.” Amazingly, whatever the significance of their content (and we have just barely begun to comprehend what that might be), the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC) are rare original artifacts, the earliest surviving examples of bound books.

archons

A close reading of these arcane materials shows that Gnostics were deeply concerned with alien intrusion into human affairs. The entities they called Archons appear to be identical to the ET’s of modern Ufology. Both Grey and Reptilian types are explicitly described in the codices. I would estimate that up to one-fifth of the core material in the NHC concerns the Archons, their origin, methods and motives. 'The Sophia Mythos,' the Gnostic creation story, explains that the Archons arise due to an anomaly in the cosmic order. “The world system we inhabit came about by a mistake.” (The Gospel of Philip)

Read further on Red Ice - John Lash - The Archons (download Red Ice Radio Podcast)

US Bishops Are Behind the 'Let Women Die' Act and the Push Against Birth Control

The first bishop in the US is indicted for child sex-abuse cover-up; meanwhile, his colleagues push for laws that will intrude on our sexual freedom.

bishops

Last week, the House's passage of the now-notorious H.R. 358 -- also known as the "Let Women Die" bill -- caused deserved outrage. But the bill's connection to the high-ranking Catholic group that fought for its passage, even while the American church is fighting a horrific new sex abuse scandal, hasn't been given the attention it deserves.

The new bill (which the president has vowed to veto) would essentially obliterate abortion coverage by both public and private insurers, and most egregiously get hospitals off the hook for refusing to perform abortions for women whose lives are in immediate danger.

Full story on AlterNet

22 Oct 2011

India's Silent War

A 40-year long civil war has been raging in the jungles of central and eastern India. It is one of the world's largest armed conflicts but it remains largely ignored outside of India. Caught in the crossfire of it are the Adivasis, who are believed to be India's earliest inhabitants. A loose collection of tribes, it is estimated that there are about 84 million of these indigenous people, which is about eight per cent of the country's population. 

maoists-raise-the-issues-affecting-the-adivasis

For generations, they have lived off farming and the spoils of the jungle in eastern India, but their way of life is under threat. Their land contains mineral deposits estimated to be worth trillions of dollars. Forests have been cleared and the Indian government has evacuated hundreds of villages to make room for steel plants and mineral refineries.

The risk of losing everything they have ever known has made many Adivasis fertile recruits for India's Maoist rebels or Naxalites, who also call these forests home. The Maoists' fight with the Indian government began 50 years ago, just after India became independent. A loose collection of anti-government communist groups - that initially fought for land reform - they are said to be India's biggest internal security threat. Over time, their focus has expanded to include more fundamental questions about how India is actually governed.

More (with video) on Al Jazeera English – More on Indian Vanguard

The Ascent of Money

4 hour documentary by Niall FergusonWikipedia

Was The Iran Terror Plot A U.S. Fabrication?

Mere paranoia? Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, G6 of U.S. Army’s 94th Division, says last week’s alleged plot by Iran to conduct a bombing and assassination on U.S. soil may be a fabrication by the Obama administration, perhaps even to establish a cause for war:

Disinformation

21 Oct 2011

Amerika

RammsteinWelt

Money Madness New Louisiana Law Bans Cash Transactions

It's absolute insanity! When we end up in a cashless society the banks, which are currently being protested worldwide, will have their greedy fat fingers in every single transaction that takes place.
And second hand goods? Many people buy second hand goods because they can't afford to buy them new, because they're poor. Many of us are becoming poorer everyday, which is also why more and more of us are SELLING our used goods.
It may become a new form of discrimination against people without checking accounts, debit cards, or credit cards. Believe me, they want every last one of us in that system, and they want it bad.

Brasscheck TV

Guatemala leader apologises for 1954 coup

The Guatemalan president, Alvaro Colom, has issued an official apology to the family of the former president Jacobo Arbenz, 57 years after a US-backed coup violently removed him from power. Colom, who apologised under a settlement worked out with Arbenz's family by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said on Thursday the coup was a "crime [against] the Guatemalan society committed by the CIA and Guatemalans with bad intentions".

Rinden-homenaje-Jacobo-Arbenz

Speaking during a ceremony at the former government headquarters, in the presence of Jacobo Arbenz Vilanova, the only surviving son of the former president, Colom said: "As head of state, as constitutional president of the republic and as the military's commander in chief, I hereby wish to request the forgiveness of the Arbenz Vilanova family for this great crime. "It was above all a crime against him, his wife, his family, but also a historic crime for Guatemala. This day changed Guatemala and we still haven't recovered."

More on Al Jazeera English

Religious Nuts Clash In US City

One Muslim man prays, Christian evangelists try to distract him and say "praise Jesus Christ", another holds a Zionist flag. All on one street together?! What an odd sight!

LiveLeak.com

Gaddafi's Murder and International Law

The Real News - Clinton jubilant over Gaddafi's death: "We came, we saw, he died"

Also see Charlie V  - Al Muatassim Al Gaddafi captured alive before being tortured and murdered

20 Oct 2011

Iraq and Libya Should Reimburse the U.S. for 'Liberating' Them

Michele Bachmann (US presidential wannabe) at the CNN, Las Vegas GOP debate: “We should not be cutting foreign aid to Israel. Israel is our greatest ally. The biggest problem is the fact... that the president -- the biggest problem with this administration in foreign policy is that President Obama is the first president since Israel declared her sovereignty put daylight between the United States and Israel. That heavily contributed to the current hostilities that we see in the Middle East region.

Bachmann 2012

Cutting back on foreign aid is one thing. Being reimbursed by nations that we have liberated is another. We should look to Iraq and Libya to reimburse us for part of what we have done to liberate these nations.”

Crooks and Liars – Also see: 10 Of The Craziest Things Michele Bachmann Has Ever Said

Eta declares halt to armed conflict

Half a century of bloodshed in Spain's northern Basque country has come to a historic close after armed separatist group Eta finally renounced the use of arms and sought talks with the Spanish and French governments. The announcement that one of Europe's bloodiest groups was calling a final stop to the use of bombs and bullets was made by three masked leaders of the group in a video on the website of the Basque Gara newspaper.

Eta

"Eta has decided the definitive cessation of its armed activity," they said. Eta was following a peace script put together with the help of mediators led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan after a year in which it had observed a unilateral ceasefire.

More on The Guardian

Gaddafi as orator: a life in quotes

Gaddafi seems dead, picture on The Guardian.

Former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi died of wounds suffered on Thursday as fighters battling to complete an eight-month-old uprising against his rule overran his hometown Sirte, Libya’s interim rulers said. See latest on Al Arabiya – Bloodied but not dead: last moments of former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi following fall of Sirte. Amateur video has emerged of Colonel Gaddafi apparently wounded but still alive.

gadaffi dead

As soon as Muammar Gaddafi seized power in Libya in 1969, at the age of 27, he launched into a perplexing and controversial career as a speech-maker that now spans more than 40 decades.  In scattershot diatribes that at times stretched to several hours, Gaddafi astounded audience at Libya and abroad.
Famously dubbed the "mad dog of the Middle East" by Ronald Reagan, the former president of the US, Gaddafi did little to dispel that nickname in his wild orations and writings. In 1975, he outlined his political philosophy in "The Green Book" which carried the subtitle, ""The Solution to the Problems of Democracy; The Social Basis to the Third Universal Theory."

gaddafi-young

No matter how he is remembered by history, Gaddafi’s legacy as an orator is assured. Here are some famous Gaddafi-isms from his nearly 42 years in power:

"I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam of Muslims, and my international status does not allow me to descend to a lower level."
Remarks to a crowd including King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and having his microphone cut on March 30, 2009, as quoted by The Scotsman in the article "Gaddafi walks out of summit after attack on Saudi king" by Salah Nasrawi.

"If a community of people wears white on a mournful occasion and another dresses in black, then one community would like white and dislike black and the other would like black and dislike white. Moreover, this attitude leaves a physical effect on the cells as well as on the genes in the body."
— Excerpt from "The Green Book" (1975)

More on Al Jazeera English

World War II: The Holocaust

One of the most horrific terms in history was used by Nazi Germany to designate human beings whose lives were unimportant, or those who should be killed outright: Lebensunwertes Leben, or "life unworthy of life". First applied to the mentally impaired, later to the "racially inferior", or "sexually deviant", or merely "enemies of the state" both internal and external. From very early in the war, part of Nazi policy was to murder civilians en masse, especially targeting Jews -- which later in the war became Hitler's "final solution", the complete extermination of the Jews. Beginning with Einsatzgruppen death squads in the East, killing some 1,000,000 people in numerous massacres, later in concentration camps where prisoners were actively denied proper food and health care, and ending with the construction of extermination camps -- government facilities whose entire purpose was the systematic murder and disposal of massive numbers of people.

Landsberg concentration camp

Lt. Col. Ed Seiller of Louisville, Kentucky, stands amid a pile of Holocaust victims as he speaks to 200 German civilians who were forced to see the grim conditions at the Landsberg concentration camp, on May 15, 1945.

Impressive pictures on In Focus by The Atlantic

Occupy (We the 99)

NYPD use strobe lights on RT camera at OWS

NYPD officers cleared the park at midnight, having arrested more than one dozen protesters who chose to stand their ground. RT's Lucy Kafanov filmed the aftermath.

The destruction of Sirte

The Libyan city of Sirte is being systematically destroyed by National Transitional Council "rebel" fighters and NATO fighter planes. The operation stands as a monumental war crime, for which primary responsibility rests with the leading forces behind the military intervention in Libya—US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

sirte

Sirte has been under siege for weeks. TNC forces have prevented all supplies from entering the city, including food, medicines, and other basic necessities. NATO bombs have rained down, together with a heavy and indiscriminate bombardment by TNC mortars, tank shells, and rockets. Basic infrastructure—including water, electricity, and sewerage systems—has been destroyed as part of the calculated effort to trigger a humanitarian crisis in the city and terrorise its inhabitants into submission.
Every building in Sirte, including apartment blocks, homes, hospitals, schools, and other civilian structures, has either been levelled or severely damaged by the "rebel" forces trying to finally take the city. Militiamen are looting homes, cars, and shops, with truckloads of residents’ stolen possessions now leaving Sirte every day. - uruknet.info

Ruined Sirte becomes a killing ground as Gaddafi loyalists face destruction – The Telegraph

19 Oct 2011

Fuel Poverty Causes 2,700 Deaths Each Year In England

"Fuel Poverty" caused by rising energy prices could lead to thousands of deaths in England this winter, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Senior Woman Warming Hands By Fire At Home

Energy prices are already under close scrutiny, after figures released by Ofgem, the regulator, showed that the profits per customer made by the six largest energy companies in the country had increased by more than 700 per cent since June. The prime minister held a summit with providers and consumer groups on Monday.

Under current definitions, a household suffers from fuel poverty if it spends more than 10 per cent of its income on heating.

huffingtonpost.co.ukMore on The Poverty Site

The Robots' Rebellion

Imani Hekima

Jailed Egyptian blogger on hunger strike says 'he is ready to die'

An Egyptian blogger jailed for criticising the country's military junta has declared himself ready to die, as his hunger strike enters its 57th day.

Maikel Nabil Sanad

"If the militarists thought that I would be tired of my hunger strike and accept imprisonment and enslavement, then they are dreamers," said Maikel Nabil Sanad, in a statement announcing that he would boycott the latest court case against him, which began last Thursday. "It's more honourable [for] me to die committing suicide than [it is] allowing a bunch of Nazi criminals to feel that they succeeded in restricting my freedom. I am bigger than that farce."

Sanad, whom Amnesty International has declared to be a prisoner of conscience, was sentenced by a military tribunal in March to three years in jail after publishing a blog post entitled "The people and the army were never on one hand". The online statement, which deliberately inverted a popular pro-military chant, infuriated Egypt's ruling generals who took power after the ousting of former president Hosni Mubarak, and have since been accused of multiple human rights violations in an effort to shut down legitimate protest and stifle revolutionary change.

More on The Guardian - Maikel Nabil Sanad Blog

Alleged Iran Assassination Plot Court Documents Suggest a Set Up

Pt2 Gareth Porter: Critical two weeks missing from FBI account. Watch pt1 - The Real News

US businessman visits Iran

Lecture by Rick Steves. In another talk, Steve's made the following observation: "It's a good idea to get to know people before you start bombing them."

Some facts:
1. Iran has a population of 66 million people - twice of Iraq's
2. Unlike Iraq, Iran has not had its military beat up for the last twenty years as Iraq did before we invaded it
3. Iran is not three separate people - Sunni, Shiite, and Kurds. It's one people and they are Persians, not Arabs.

Via Brasscheckt TV

18 Oct 2011

You think you have worries that matter?

X-Factor is manipulated 'entertainment', yes, but this guy, his brother and his 'mum' in Australia, are beyond fantastic.

Some people exploit the efforts of others and blame others for their plight instead of taking responsibility for their own lives. For those people, here is a life lesson: Its name is Emmanuel Kelly ...

An absolutely must-watch. David Icke Website

Wall Street’s Second Occupation: The Rise of the NYPD's Homeland Security State

These last weeks, there have been two “occupations” in lower Manhattan, one of which has been getting almost all the coverage -- that of the demonstrators camping out in Zuccotti Park. The other, in the shadows, has been hardly less massive, sustained, or in its own way impressive -- the police occupation of the Wall Street area.

nypd_stock-exchange

On a recent visit to the park, I found the streets around the Stock Exchange barricaded and blocked off to traffic, and police everywhere in every form (in and out of uniform) -- on foot, on scooters, on motorcycles, in squad cars with lights flashing, on horses, in paddy wagons or minivans, you name it. At the park’s edge, there is a police observation tower capable of being raised and lowered hydraulically and literally hundreds of police are stationed in the vicinity. I counted more than 50 of them on just one of its sides at a moment when next to nothing was going on -- and many more can be seen almost anywhere in the Wall Street area, lolling in doorways, idling in the subway, ambling on the plazas of banks, and chatting in the middle of traffic-less streets.

More on AlterNet

Taliban threat closes in on isolated Kalash tribe

For a decade the Kalash, a mountain tribe nestled in a stunning valley deep in the Hindu Kush, managed to avoid the Taliban scourge ravaging the rest of north-western Pakistan.

kalash_children

Visitors streamed into the valley to experience a unique non-Muslim culture in which the women eschew veils, the men make wine, and everyone worships a complex array of gods. Pictures of Kalash women adorned in an explosion of colourful beads became an icon of Pakistan's (admittedly struggling) tourist industry, and a hint at the country's tolerant vision of itself.

But the advent of some unwelcome visitors are putting paid to all that. Over the past month Pakistan's army has deployed to the Kalash valley for the first time. Soldiers prowl the valleys at night, firing deafening volleys of gunfire that echo between the valley walls. A military camp and new police station have sprung up. Vehicles with spies from the military's secret service, Inter-Services Intelligence, jolt down the rutted roads. All are protecting, they say, against the Taliban.

Much more on The Guardian

Big Brother bin searches in the UK

Council snoopers went through the bins of more than 30,000 families last year. The figure was double that of the previous year, despite a Coalition pledge to stamp out the intrusive practice. It was revealed in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Daily Mail.

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We can reveal that inspectors are building up a disturbingly detailed profile of families’ lives by rifling through their rubbish in secret.In some cases, they divide the contents into 13 main categories and 52 sub-categories of waste.

Councils claim it is so householders can be targeted for future recycling efforts such as leafleting campaigns. But campaigners fear this data could be passed to other departments such as health or social services. The audits, which are held on a database, can reveal an extraordinarily sophisticated portrait from what sort of foods are eaten and what kind of goods are bought in a particular street. Inspectors, often hired in from the private sector, check supermarket labels, types of unwanted food – and even examine the contents of discarded mail.

Story continues at Mail Online

U.S. Sending Mercenaries to Secure Libya’s Weapons

The State Department is sending dozens of American contractors to Libya to help that country’s fledgling efforts to track down and destroy heat-seeking antiaircraft missiles looted from government stockpiles that could be used against civilian airliners.

rebels-stoffel-guns

The contractors, weapons and explosives specialists, are part of a growing $30 million American program to secure Libya’s conventional weapons arsenal, which was ransacked during the fall of the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

American and other Western officials are especially concerned that as weapons slip from state custody, they can be easily sold through black markets to other countries, fuelling regional wars or arming terrorist groups. Analysts are particularly worried about the dispersal of the SA-7, an early-generation, shoulder-fired missile in the same family as the more widely known Stinger.

Full story on The New York Times

Also see: What To Do About Libya’s Weapons on The World