December 6. A few more thoughts on the subject of the last few days. When I said that "paying back" is part of money economy thinking and doesn't really apply to a gift economy, I didn't go far enough. Another frame that we take for granted is that it's more desirable to receive than to give. When we have to be told "It's better to give than receive," that means that the opposite belief is embedded in our culture: Whenever something is given, we imagine that the receiver is being helped and feeling good, while the giver is being hurt or drained. But really we often feel more pleasure and satisfaction from giving than from getting.
This is only tangentially related to the issue of money economies vs gift economies. What it's really about is whether we have a psychology of scarcity or abundance. And that is not necessarily related to whether resources are scarce or abundant. It could even be inversely related: Many forager-hunter tribes have had a psychology of abundance while living barely above survival, and America of the last 60 years has had more material wealth than any society in history, while having a scarcity psychology, where no matter how much people have, they never feel like they have enough and they're always afraid of being ripped off.
Read more
12.07.2008
Mind Detox XXIII: Cyrano's Journal Online/Thomas Paine's Corner (Proudly Piercing the Simulacrum since 1982)
"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."
Please read Mind Detox and disseminate it far and wide!
Underscoring CJO's and TPC's unwavering support for animal liberation and radical environmentalism, I am now associate editor for both Cyrano's and for the Institute for Critical Animal Studies, which is positioned at the front lines of the intellectual battle to save non-human animals and the Earth from the twin juggernauts of speciesism and capitalism. Please visit our site at http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/.
1. “POLITICS AND THE ARTS, INTERNATIONALISM, AND ACTIVISM: AN INTERVIEW WITH GARY CORSERI BY LLOYD ROWSEY
In other words, the arts—aesthetics—are fundamental to our lives, as much a reason that people fight for their country as mom, flag and apple pie. Every time they play the “Star-Spangled Banner” at a ball-game, the political elite are devoting a couple of minutes to the arts. Unfortunately, it’s bad art. In the case of the “Star-Spangled Banner”—the melody is from an old drinking song!–, it’s very bad art. Hardly anyone knows the words, and even fewer can sing the high notes. But, it’s rousing, martial music that gets people in a fighting mood. Add the pageantry of pretty cheerleaders waving the flag, and we can see how the boys get all sentimental and stiff with patriotism! http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1350
2. Chomsky on The Election, Economy, War, and Peace
These observations suggest an interesting thought experiment. What would be the content of the “Obama brand” if the public were to become “participants” rather than mere “spectators in action”? It is an experiment well worth undertaking, and there is good reason to suppose that the results might point the way to a saner and more decent world.http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=2270
3. Don’t tell my mother I work at the White House. She thinks I play the piano in a whore house by Bill Blum
The same lack of awareness about superior conditions in other countries extends to health care, working hours, vacation time, maternity leave, child care, unemployment insurance, and a host of other social and economic benefits. In short, amongst the developed nations, the United States is the worst place to be a worker, to be sick, to seek a university education, to be a parent; or, in the land of two million incarcerated, to exercise certain rights or be a defendant in court.http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=1981
4. The War Against Toys and Pharma-ganda by Adam Engel
And every time THE MAN tries to crack down, the network of rebel thrill-seekers grows until Kris - who grows a Che Guevara beard and changes his name to “Claus” after a wanted poster names the clean-shaven Kris Kringle PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE - is welcome among fellow travelers and creatures of the woods like Che himself among the peasants.http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1337
5. How these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington by George Monbiot
This tragedy has been assisted by the American fetishisation of self-education. Though he greatly regretted his lack of formal teaching, Abraham Lincoln’s career is repeatedly cited as evidence that good education, provided by the state, is unnecessary: all that is required to succeed is determination and rugged individualism. This might have served people well when genuine self-education movements, like the one built around the Little Blue Books in the first half of the 20th century, were in vogue. In the age of infotainment, it is a recipe for confusion.http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=1931
6. ‘Sticking it to the Man,’ 21st Century style….. Paul Watson interviewed by Jason Miller
He pulled the trigger and hit the whale at point blank range in the head. The large bull screamed and fell back in the water in a spreading pool of its own hot blood. And as the whale struggled in agony on the surface, rolling and thrashing, I caught his eye and he saw me. Suddenly I saw a trail of bloody bubbles coming swiftly towards us and the whale rose up out of the sea at an angle directly beside us and was about to fall upon our small fragile inflatable boat. And I looked up into that eye, an eye the size of my fist and what I saw there changed my life forever – I saw understanding, I saw awareness. That whale knew what we were doing and with a great effort pulled himself back and sank into the sea and I saw his eye disappear below the surface and he died. He could have taken our lives but in his last moments he spared us and thus I am indebted to that whale for my life.http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1142
7. The God That Failed: The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult by Chris Floyd
This was the cult that captured the governments of the United States and Britain (among others), as well as the Republican and Democratic parties, and the Conservative and Labour parties as well. And for almost thirty years, its ruthless doctrines have been put into practice. Regulation and oversight of financial markets were systematically stripped away or rendered toothless. Essential public services were sold off, for chump change, to corporate interests. Public spending on anything other than making war, threatening war and profiting from war was pared back or eliminated. Such public spending that did remain was forever under threat and derided, like the remnants of some pagan faith surviving in isolated backwaters. http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=1869
8. Divide and Deceive By Rowan Wolf
The language of division is meant to inflame. It is meant to make targets of certain populations for random and mass attack, It is meant to create fear on the part of the targeted and drive them back to their places of invisibility and second-class citizenship (or no citizenship). It was what drove the witch trials of the early United States, the horrors of lynching, the brutality of the reservations, the disenfranchisement of Japanese and Mexican Americans, and the incarceration, beatings, and murders of gays and lesbians from the twentieth century to today.http://www.bestcyrano.org/avenger212/?p=453
9. The Killing Fields of South Africa: Eco-Wars, Species Apartheid, and Total Liberation by Steve Best
This essay supports the rights of elephants to live and thrive in suitable natural environments and opposes all justifications for culling elephants and exploiting African wildlife in general.[3] My purview is much broader than elephants, hunting, and the ivory trade, however, as I see the human-elephant “conflict” as a microcosm of the global social and ecological crisis that involves phenomena such as transnational corporate power, state totalitarianism, militarism, chronic conflict and warfare, terrorism, global warming, species extinction, air and water pollution, and resource scarcity. The approach of the South African government and people toward the “elephant problem” has global significance and is an indicator of whether or not humankind as a whole can steer itself away from immanent disaster and learn to harmonize its existence with the natural world.http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1201
10. Over the River and through the Woods by David Irving
At the sight of pork chops you sometimes wince. You can’t quite forget the brutality of the worker who slammed the little piglets from over his head, bashing them down on the concrete floor and then throwing them on a heap of other dying, mortally wounded piglets all writhing in a suffering mass of cruelty and pain. You wish you’d never seen the video. But that’s what PETA does, investigative reporting no one can deny. You even mentioned the video to the guys at work, how a supervisor shoved a cane up a sow’s vagina, how the workers beat the pigs with metal gate rods, how another supervisor kicked a pig in the genitals and face and said: “You gotta beat on the bitch. Make her cry.”http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1320
11. JESUS FREAK FASCISM by John Steppling
It is a teaching of moral absolutes, and a reinforcement of not just racial ideology, but also Capitalist ideology. Hard work, self improvement, and a fixed sexual identity that are described as the bedrock of western family and hence western values. They also, from the start, believed in government as an enforcer of these moral absolutes. Government was to stay out of the marketplace, but should, must, invade the home.http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1066
12. Stacks of dead presidents or flesh and blood companions? Robert Turnbull interviews Jason Miller
Yet 58 million people voted for this troglodyte. That’s pretty disturbing. Does that mean that she is indeed a reflection of our collective selves? That we Americans are as petty, mean-spirited, narcissistic, obtuse, and belligerent (in a “socially acceptable” way) as Caribou Barbie? That we are but a thin, flexible veneer of respectability super-glued over a decaying, putrefied core that, were it fully exposed, would not even be “decent” enough to make the cut for Jerry Springer’ show?http://www.bestcyrano.org/avenger212/?p=457
13. Dr. J.’s Commentary: U.S. Energy Policy: A Brief History by Steve Jonas
Yes indeed, the U.S. does have an energy policy. It is to make us as oil-dependant as possible, thereby producing the largest possible profits for the oil companies. Those profits are almost entirely dependent on the use of foreign oil, because there is so little left here (unless the state of Colorado is totally destroyed by oil shale mining, as parts of Western Canada are being currently, of course). And so, the President-elect has announced a policy to make the U.S. independent of foreign oil in 10 years (without raping Colorado and blowing the tops off every coal mountain that that gentle industry can find). And you think that the oil industry, and their other extractive-industry relatives, coal and natural gas, are going to take this lying down? Well my friend, you’ve got another think coming.http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=2264
14. Industrial capitalism is a given and the natural world is secondary Derrick Jensen interviewed by Melissa Gragg and Jason Miller
But that’s the level of thought crime that they’re talking about, and my point is that, that the above ground work is absolutely necessary, and the below ground work is absolutely necessary, and the important thing is to leverage our power, and the longest lever that I can find right now is writing, and that doesn’t alter the fact that every time I cross the Klamath I don’t feel like a failure, because the Klamath River salmon are still getting hammered for many reasons including the dams. http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1229
Please read Mind Detox and disseminate it far and wide!
Underscoring CJO's and TPC's unwavering support for animal liberation and radical environmentalism, I am now associate editor for both Cyrano's and for the Institute for Critical Animal Studies, which is positioned at the front lines of the intellectual battle to save non-human animals and the Earth from the twin juggernauts of speciesism and capitalism. Please visit our site at http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/.
1. “POLITICS AND THE ARTS, INTERNATIONALISM, AND ACTIVISM: AN INTERVIEW WITH GARY CORSERI BY LLOYD ROWSEY
In other words, the arts—aesthetics—are fundamental to our lives, as much a reason that people fight for their country as mom, flag and apple pie. Every time they play the “Star-Spangled Banner” at a ball-game, the political elite are devoting a couple of minutes to the arts. Unfortunately, it’s bad art. In the case of the “Star-Spangled Banner”—the melody is from an old drinking song!–, it’s very bad art. Hardly anyone knows the words, and even fewer can sing the high notes. But, it’s rousing, martial music that gets people in a fighting mood. Add the pageantry of pretty cheerleaders waving the flag, and we can see how the boys get all sentimental and stiff with patriotism! http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1350
2. Chomsky on The Election, Economy, War, and Peace
These observations suggest an interesting thought experiment. What would be the content of the “Obama brand” if the public were to become “participants” rather than mere “spectators in action”? It is an experiment well worth undertaking, and there is good reason to suppose that the results might point the way to a saner and more decent world.http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=2270
3. Don’t tell my mother I work at the White House. She thinks I play the piano in a whore house by Bill Blum
The same lack of awareness about superior conditions in other countries extends to health care, working hours, vacation time, maternity leave, child care, unemployment insurance, and a host of other social and economic benefits. In short, amongst the developed nations, the United States is the worst place to be a worker, to be sick, to seek a university education, to be a parent; or, in the land of two million incarcerated, to exercise certain rights or be a defendant in court.http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=1981
4. The War Against Toys and Pharma-ganda by Adam Engel
And every time THE MAN tries to crack down, the network of rebel thrill-seekers grows until Kris - who grows a Che Guevara beard and changes his name to “Claus” after a wanted poster names the clean-shaven Kris Kringle PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE - is welcome among fellow travelers and creatures of the woods like Che himself among the peasants.http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1337
5. How these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington by George Monbiot
This tragedy has been assisted by the American fetishisation of self-education. Though he greatly regretted his lack of formal teaching, Abraham Lincoln’s career is repeatedly cited as evidence that good education, provided by the state, is unnecessary: all that is required to succeed is determination and rugged individualism. This might have served people well when genuine self-education movements, like the one built around the Little Blue Books in the first half of the 20th century, were in vogue. In the age of infotainment, it is a recipe for confusion.http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=1931
6. ‘Sticking it to the Man,’ 21st Century style….. Paul Watson interviewed by Jason Miller
He pulled the trigger and hit the whale at point blank range in the head. The large bull screamed and fell back in the water in a spreading pool of its own hot blood. And as the whale struggled in agony on the surface, rolling and thrashing, I caught his eye and he saw me. Suddenly I saw a trail of bloody bubbles coming swiftly towards us and the whale rose up out of the sea at an angle directly beside us and was about to fall upon our small fragile inflatable boat. And I looked up into that eye, an eye the size of my fist and what I saw there changed my life forever – I saw understanding, I saw awareness. That whale knew what we were doing and with a great effort pulled himself back and sank into the sea and I saw his eye disappear below the surface and he died. He could have taken our lives but in his last moments he spared us and thus I am indebted to that whale for my life.http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1142
7. The God That Failed: The 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult by Chris Floyd
This was the cult that captured the governments of the United States and Britain (among others), as well as the Republican and Democratic parties, and the Conservative and Labour parties as well. And for almost thirty years, its ruthless doctrines have been put into practice. Regulation and oversight of financial markets were systematically stripped away or rendered toothless. Essential public services were sold off, for chump change, to corporate interests. Public spending on anything other than making war, threatening war and profiting from war was pared back or eliminated. Such public spending that did remain was forever under threat and derided, like the remnants of some pagan faith surviving in isolated backwaters. http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=1869
8. Divide and Deceive By Rowan Wolf
The language of division is meant to inflame. It is meant to make targets of certain populations for random and mass attack, It is meant to create fear on the part of the targeted and drive them back to their places of invisibility and second-class citizenship (or no citizenship). It was what drove the witch trials of the early United States, the horrors of lynching, the brutality of the reservations, the disenfranchisement of Japanese and Mexican Americans, and the incarceration, beatings, and murders of gays and lesbians from the twentieth century to today.http://www.bestcyrano.org/avenger212/?p=453
9. The Killing Fields of South Africa: Eco-Wars, Species Apartheid, and Total Liberation by Steve Best
This essay supports the rights of elephants to live and thrive in suitable natural environments and opposes all justifications for culling elephants and exploiting African wildlife in general.[3] My purview is much broader than elephants, hunting, and the ivory trade, however, as I see the human-elephant “conflict” as a microcosm of the global social and ecological crisis that involves phenomena such as transnational corporate power, state totalitarianism, militarism, chronic conflict and warfare, terrorism, global warming, species extinction, air and water pollution, and resource scarcity. The approach of the South African government and people toward the “elephant problem” has global significance and is an indicator of whether or not humankind as a whole can steer itself away from immanent disaster and learn to harmonize its existence with the natural world.http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1201
10. Over the River and through the Woods by David Irving
At the sight of pork chops you sometimes wince. You can’t quite forget the brutality of the worker who slammed the little piglets from over his head, bashing them down on the concrete floor and then throwing them on a heap of other dying, mortally wounded piglets all writhing in a suffering mass of cruelty and pain. You wish you’d never seen the video. But that’s what PETA does, investigative reporting no one can deny. You even mentioned the video to the guys at work, how a supervisor shoved a cane up a sow’s vagina, how the workers beat the pigs with metal gate rods, how another supervisor kicked a pig in the genitals and face and said: “You gotta beat on the bitch. Make her cry.”http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1320
11. JESUS FREAK FASCISM by John Steppling
It is a teaching of moral absolutes, and a reinforcement of not just racial ideology, but also Capitalist ideology. Hard work, self improvement, and a fixed sexual identity that are described as the bedrock of western family and hence western values. They also, from the start, believed in government as an enforcer of these moral absolutes. Government was to stay out of the marketplace, but should, must, invade the home.http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1066
12. Stacks of dead presidents or flesh and blood companions? Robert Turnbull interviews Jason Miller
Yet 58 million people voted for this troglodyte. That’s pretty disturbing. Does that mean that she is indeed a reflection of our collective selves? That we Americans are as petty, mean-spirited, narcissistic, obtuse, and belligerent (in a “socially acceptable” way) as Caribou Barbie? That we are but a thin, flexible veneer of respectability super-glued over a decaying, putrefied core that, were it fully exposed, would not even be “decent” enough to make the cut for Jerry Springer’ show?http://www.bestcyrano.org/avenger212/?p=457
13. Dr. J.’s Commentary: U.S. Energy Policy: A Brief History by Steve Jonas
Yes indeed, the U.S. does have an energy policy. It is to make us as oil-dependant as possible, thereby producing the largest possible profits for the oil companies. Those profits are almost entirely dependent on the use of foreign oil, because there is so little left here (unless the state of Colorado is totally destroyed by oil shale mining, as parts of Western Canada are being currently, of course). And so, the President-elect has announced a policy to make the U.S. independent of foreign oil in 10 years (without raping Colorado and blowing the tops off every coal mountain that that gentle industry can find). And you think that the oil industry, and their other extractive-industry relatives, coal and natural gas, are going to take this lying down? Well my friend, you’ve got another think coming.http://www.bestcyrano.org/cyrano/?p=2264
14. Industrial capitalism is a given and the natural world is secondary Derrick Jensen interviewed by Melissa Gragg and Jason Miller
But that’s the level of thought crime that they’re talking about, and my point is that, that the above ground work is absolutely necessary, and the below ground work is absolutely necessary, and the important thing is to leverage our power, and the longest lever that I can find right now is writing, and that doesn’t alter the fact that every time I cross the Klamath I don’t feel like a failure, because the Klamath River salmon are still getting hammered for many reasons including the dams. http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1229
12.06.2008
Deadline looms for federally required ID card in Alabama
New federal ID cards will be required of all local port workers starting Dec. 30, and the enrollment center in Mobile was bustling Thursday as people scrambled to get their cards, which require an extensive background check and cost more than $100 each.
Doug O'Brien, a 51-year-old truck driver for CTL Distribution Inc. in Theodore, sat with about a dozen people waiting to either apply for or pick up their cards. O'Brien, who was applying, said he had waited so long because up until a week ago he had heard very little about the program.
"All of a sudden, you've got to have it by the end of the month or else you don't drive, you don't work, you don't eat," O'Brien said.
Alabama gets brand new fusion center
MONTGOMERY - Local, state and federal officials welcomed a new asset in Alabama’s efforts to combat terrorism and crime, with the opening of the Alabama Fusion Center Dec. 1. Vice Admiral (ret.) Roger T. Rufe Jr. of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) delivered the keynote address and commended the center’s work “to detect, prevent and respond to terrorism and crime.”
Rufe, director of DHS’s Office of Operations, Coordination and Planning, said, “DHS sees fusion centers such as this as the critical bridge for sharing information vertically between the federal government and our state, local and tribal partners, as well as horizontally across the states.
SWAT team conducts food raid in rural Ohio
Because people with food are Very Dangerous. - Ed.
Via: Crossroad:
On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.
New Light on Office of Legal Counsel
In 2004, Congress enacted an ambiguously-worded statute that made it a crime to produce, possess, or use the variola virus (which causes smallpox) or any derivative of it that has more than 85 percent of the variola gene sequence.
Scientists were alarmed because the statute could be read to prohibit possession of other viruses that are used in research, and to compromise the development of vaccines. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, which advises the Secretary of Health and Human Services, recommended that the statute be repealed.
But it wasn’t repealed. Instead, it was “interpreted” by the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to eliminate the problem. The OLC opinion (pdf), published by the Justice Department this week, said that the prohibition extends only to viruses that cause smallpox and those that are deliberately engineered by human manipulation of the smallpox virus itself. The vaccine developers and other scientific researchers were off the hook.
No sensible person would be likely to object to the conclusion reached by OLC. What seems problematic, however, is the interpretive process and the quasi-legislative authority that OLC now has to define and redefine the terms of existing laws. In this case, OLC interpretation was the functional equivalent of statutory amendment or repeal. And though unclassified, the July 2008 OLC ruling remained unpublished for several months. One can only imagine what OLC may be doing in classified areas.
FBI has jurisdiction in Mumbai. Really.
Washington, Dec 4 (PTI) The FBI is assisting Indian investigative agencies in collecting evidence in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, the US attorney general has said as he insisted that his country has the jurisdiction to prosecute the terrorist captured during the deadly strikes.
Michael Mukasey dubbed as "horrendous" the terror attacks which killed nearly 200 people, including six Americans.
"Investigation is on the ground to assist Indian authorities. The FBI is looking into whatever evidence they can get," the top legal official who will be succeeded by Eric Holder in the incoming Barack Obama administration, said.
Asked about the captured gunman, Mukasey said "I believe we have jurisdiction" but declined to comment on the likelihood of eventual indictments in the United States.
He said the attack has given an "object lesson" on the need for continued vigilance including keeping an eye on suspected terror outfits.
Mukasey also said he did not believe the US was more vulnerable to a terrorist attack during the presidential transition period, although security will be heavy for the President-elect inauguration.
"Terrorists will strike when they feel the moment is right, not according to the political calendar," he said. The United States has "all of the surveillance techniques we need to keep us safe," Mukasey added. PTI
Source
Michael Mukasey dubbed as "horrendous" the terror attacks which killed nearly 200 people, including six Americans.
"Investigation is on the ground to assist Indian authorities. The FBI is looking into whatever evidence they can get," the top legal official who will be succeeded by Eric Holder in the incoming Barack Obama administration, said.
Asked about the captured gunman, Mukasey said "I believe we have jurisdiction" but declined to comment on the likelihood of eventual indictments in the United States.
He said the attack has given an "object lesson" on the need for continued vigilance including keeping an eye on suspected terror outfits.
Mukasey also said he did not believe the US was more vulnerable to a terrorist attack during the presidential transition period, although security will be heavy for the President-elect inauguration.
"Terrorists will strike when they feel the moment is right, not according to the political calendar," he said. The United States has "all of the surveillance techniques we need to keep us safe," Mukasey added. PTI
Source
Haaretz: Hebron settler riots were out and out pogroms
An innocent Palestinian family, numbering close to 20 people. All of
them women and children, save for three men. Surrounding them are a few dozen masked Jews seeking to lynch them. A pogrom. This isn't a play on words or a double meaning. It is a pogrom in the worst sense of the word. First the masked men set fire to their laundry in the front yard and then they tried to set fire to one of the rooms in the house. The women cry for help, "Allahu Akhbar." Yet the neighbors are too scared to approach the house, frightened of the security guards from Kiryat Arba who have sealed off the home and who are cursing the journalists who wish to document the events unfolding there.
Read the rest at Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043795.html
them women and children, save for three men. Surrounding them are a few dozen masked Jews seeking to lynch them. A pogrom. This isn't a play on words or a double meaning. It is a pogrom in the worst sense of the word. First the masked men set fire to their laundry in the front yard and then they tried to set fire to one of the rooms in the house. The women cry for help, "Allahu Akhbar." Yet the neighbors are too scared to approach the house, frightened of the security guards from Kiryat Arba who have sealed off the home and who are cursing the journalists who wish to document the events unfolding there.
Read the rest at Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1043795.html
News from Pakistan
‘Pakistan mulls downing US drones’
LAHORE: Pakistani officials are urging the incoming Obama administration to stop air attacks on Pakistani territory and are even hinting that they might shoot down US drones in its airspace, according to a report published in the Washington Times (WT).
The report said US forces based in Afghanistan had carried out around 25 strikes this year, most of them by drones, in the Pakistani border region. However, a November 19 attack was carried out in Bannu beyond the Tribal Areas, in the settled areas of Pakistan. After the strike on NWFP’s Bannu district, the government summoned US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson to the Foreign Ministry and lodged a formal protest.
Read full story
Nawaz discusses Mumbai attacks, bilateral ties with German ambassador
LAHORE: German Ambassador Dr Michael Koch met Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Thursday.Matters of mutual interest to further cement bilateral relations were discussed during the meeting.
Nawaz apprised the ambassador that Pakistan wanted friendly trade, cultural and diplomatic ties with Germany on equal footings.
"Today, there is a dire need that Pakistan and Germany promote bilateral relations by increasing co-operation in all sectors," he said, citing that Pakistan has great potential for investment from Germany.
Read full story
Kissinger says non-state groups carried out Mumbai attacks
No shit. Thanks for the tip, big guy. - Ed.
WASHINGTON: Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger held non-state groups responsible for last week’s Mumbai attacks, and advocated a regional solution to the problem and United States’ co-operation to address the tense South Asian situation.
“We have an immediate problem and a long-term problem. The immediate problem is that you have all these various groups that are non-state groups but are organised with highly modern equipment and communications that penetrated, in this case, into India,” he told FOX News. He noted that India-Pakistan tensions had been going on for the last six decades. Kissinger urged Pakistan to exercise strict control over its territory and for India to prevent inflaming its Muslim population.
Read full story
12.05.2008
Bush's Parting 'FUCK YOU' to America
The 'bailout' is another Bush/GOP scam, a big black hole into which some 1.5 trillion dollars has already has been sucked! The dollar will eventually collapse as did German Marks under the Weimar Republic. Only the big banks benefit but they, too, will collapse. There is no bailout for the 'buck'. The emerging picture is one of fat cats scrambling to cover bare asses while putting the screws to you. This sucks!
We are expected to believe that the collapse of the dollar is incidental, co-incidental, unfortunate! The dollar is collapsing as we write because the smart money dumped the dollar and maniupulated the market. Those profits have already been taken --by design. What is happening now is the scramble to escape. It is a mad rush to dump the dollar. The last man out loses.
Already $billions$ have been squandered, wasted, or simply stolen. Where is the accounting? Where has the money gone? Where are the loans that were supposed to have been made to folks hoping to own a home? How has the bailout benefited Americans in any way whatsoever? I'm open to any credible GOP explanation! I won't get one! Rather, I had expected Bush to tell Paulson: "You're doing a heckuva job!" The scary part is this: perhaps both Henry Paulson and Brownie have done precisely what Bush had intended. Like New Orleans earlier, the US economy is in ruins. Like New Orleans, there is no restoration in sight. There is, however, evidence that it was all planned.
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We are expected to believe that the collapse of the dollar is incidental, co-incidental, unfortunate! The dollar is collapsing as we write because the smart money dumped the dollar and maniupulated the market. Those profits have already been taken --by design. What is happening now is the scramble to escape. It is a mad rush to dump the dollar. The last man out loses.
Already $billions$ have been squandered, wasted, or simply stolen. Where is the accounting? Where has the money gone? Where are the loans that were supposed to have been made to folks hoping to own a home? How has the bailout benefited Americans in any way whatsoever? I'm open to any credible GOP explanation! I won't get one! Rather, I had expected Bush to tell Paulson: "You're doing a heckuva job!" The scary part is this: perhaps both Henry Paulson and Brownie have done precisely what Bush had intended. Like New Orleans earlier, the US economy is in ruins. Like New Orleans, there is no restoration in sight. There is, however, evidence that it was all planned.
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Russian Oligarchs losing a ton in financial meltdown
Wha wha whaaaaa! - Ed.In the past decade, while you were trying to survive the dotcom collapse and $4 gas, commodity-owning Russia was getting rich (well, some Russians, anyway). Moscow became a city of billionaires, and a year ago, these young, impossibly wealthy moguls were taking over the world.
And now? They're still dynastically wealthy, of course. But they've taken it on the chin. In fact, by some estimates, the Russian oligarchs have lost more than $230 billion in the past six months. Some are even reaching for Putin's modest $50 billion bailout wad. (And getting it.)
Mumbai Terror Attack: Further Evidence of Anglo-American-Mossad-RSS Nexus
Great post. Read the whole thing. - Ed.
According to Andrew G. Marshall, the ISI "has long been referred to as Pakistan's 'secret government' or 'shadow state.' It's long-standing ties and reliance upon American and British intelligence have not let up, therefore actions taken by the ISI should be viewed in the context of being a Central Asian outpost of Anglo-American covert intelligence operations."The presence of "foreign looking, fair skinned" commandos who calmly gunned down dozens of people after drinking a few beers indicates that the Mumbai attacks were likely the work of the Anglo-American covert intelligence operatives, not indigenous Indian Muslims or for that matter Arab al-Qaeda terrorists. The attacks prepare the ground for the break-up of Pakistan and the furtherance of destabilizing terrorism in the Middle East and Asia. The Mumbai attacks had little to do with India or the relationship between Muslim Pakistanis and Hindu Indians."Pakistan's position as a strategic focal point cannot be underestimated. It borders India, Afghanistan, China and Iran," concludes Marshall. "Destabilizing and ultimately breaking Pakistan up into several countries or regions will naturally spread chaos and destabilization into neighboring countries. This is also true of Iraq on the other side of Iran, as the Anglo-American have undertaken, primarily through Iraq, a strategy of balkanizing the entire Middle East in a new imperial project." (See Marshall'sDivide and Conquer: The Anglo-American Imperial Project.)
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By Amaresh Misra
Now who has the last laugh? That is the question; I only have pity for those who cannot see reality and who were so glib to buy into what the media and political troubleshooters were saying about the Mumbai Blasts.
Consider this:
As a BBC report notes, at least some of the Mumbai attackers were not Indian and certainly not Muslim.Pappu Mishra, a cafe proprietor at the gothic Victorian Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, described "two sprightly young men dressed in black" with AK47s who were "foreign looking, fair skinned."Gaffar Abdul Amir, an Iraqi tourist from Baghdad, saw at least two men who started the firing outside the Leopold Cafe. "They did not look Indian, they looked foreign. One of them, I thought, had blonde hair. The other had a punkish hairstyle. They were neatly dressed," Amir told the BBC.
Now who has the last laugh? That is the question; I only have pity for those who cannot see reality and who were so glib to buy into what the media and political troubleshooters were saying about the Mumbai Blasts.
Consider this:
As a BBC report notes, at least some of the Mumbai attackers were not Indian and certainly not Muslim.Pappu Mishra, a cafe proprietor at the gothic Victorian Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, described "two sprightly young men dressed in black" with AK47s who were "foreign looking, fair skinned."Gaffar Abdul Amir, an Iraqi tourist from Baghdad, saw at least two men who started the firing outside the Leopold Cafe. "They did not look Indian, they looked foreign. One of them, I thought, had blonde hair. The other had a punkish hairstyle. They were neatly dressed," Amir told the BBC.
According to Andrew G. Marshall, the ISI "has long been referred to as Pakistan's 'secret government' or 'shadow state.' It's long-standing ties and reliance upon American and British intelligence have not let up, therefore actions taken by the ISI should be viewed in the context of being a Central Asian outpost of Anglo-American covert intelligence operations."The presence of "foreign looking, fair skinned" commandos who calmly gunned down dozens of people after drinking a few beers indicates that the Mumbai attacks were likely the work of the Anglo-American covert intelligence operatives, not indigenous Indian Muslims or for that matter Arab al-Qaeda terrorists. The attacks prepare the ground for the break-up of Pakistan and the furtherance of destabilizing terrorism in the Middle East and Asia. The Mumbai attacks had little to do with India or the relationship between Muslim Pakistanis and Hindu Indians."Pakistan's position as a strategic focal point cannot be underestimated. It borders India, Afghanistan, China and Iran," concludes Marshall. "Destabilizing and ultimately breaking Pakistan up into several countries or regions will naturally spread chaos and destabilization into neighboring countries. This is also true of Iraq on the other side of Iran, as the Anglo-American have undertaken, primarily through Iraq, a strategy of balkanizing the entire Middle East in a new imperial project." (See Marshall'sDivide and Conquer: The Anglo-American Imperial Project.)
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Nariman House at the center of the web
The following extracts from the “mainstream” media should be enough to show the reality of the Nariman House and its involvement in the Nov 26 incidents in Mumbai.
BEFORE THE ATTACKS:
The drama started weeks before the terrorist attacks - at a Jewish residential complex In Mumbai run by the Chabad-Lubavitch ultra-orthodox movement.
Warlord Geo-Strategy Unveiled
Amazing map. Click the link. - Ed.
Click here to enlarge image. In the following PNAC, Exxon, AEI pipedream, Paksitan and Iran are located at geo-strategic positions which the warlords considers a considerable stumbling blocks in their way to realizing their global totalitarian designs. No wonder if we witness terrorist attacks in Pakistan and India. Pakistan is the prime target. And India has to suffer just as Pakistan suffered when it was time for Afghanistan to be on the chopping block. Today, Pakistan is on the chopping block and India has to play the tole which Paksitan has been playing since October 7, 2001. The region is in for a big trouble indeed.
Source
Click here to enlarge image. In the following PNAC, Exxon, AEI pipedream, Paksitan and Iran are located at geo-strategic positions which the warlords considers a considerable stumbling blocks in their way to realizing their global totalitarian designs. No wonder if we witness terrorist attacks in Pakistan and India. Pakistan is the prime target. And India has to suffer just as Pakistan suffered when it was time for Afghanistan to be on the chopping block. Today, Pakistan is on the chopping block and India has to play the tole which Paksitan has been playing since October 7, 2001. The region is in for a big trouble indeed.
Source
Terrorising Pakistan
Following up on this post (Terrorising Pakistan into further submission ) from yesterday, see how the bullying - say terrorising - continues:
Act now, Rice tells leaders in Islamabad: Enough information made available (civilian, political pressure)
Mullen wants ‘any and all ties’ explored (military pressure) Acting more like Indians rather than Americans. As if the target of the attacks was New York, not bombay.
Islamabad must cooperate over Mumbai attacks: US Did Pakistan say a word otherwise….?
And interestingly India is acting like the US after operation 9/11, when it refused everything and anyhting offered by the rest of the world. Here goes the pumped up Indians: Indian Congress rejects joint probe. Nevertheless, FBI is most welcome: FBI helping India gather evidence on Mumbai attacks.
Israeli troops evict settlers in the West Bank
HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli troops forcibly evicted about 200 hard-line Jewish settlers from a contested building in this volatile biblical city on Thursday, the first serious clash in what seems to be a spiraling confrontation between the government and defiant settlers.
The operation, carried out by 600 soldiers and policemen with stealth and efficiency, took half an hour and resulted in two dozen relatively light injuries. But events did not end there. Young settlers then rampaged through Palestinian fields and neighborhoods, setting olive trees on fire and trashing houses.
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The operation, carried out by 600 soldiers and policemen with stealth and efficiency, took half an hour and resulted in two dozen relatively light injuries. But events did not end there. Young settlers then rampaged through Palestinian fields and neighborhoods, setting olive trees on fire and trashing houses.
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LA Times: After Mumbai attacks, Israel debates protection for Chabad Houses
We'd love you to help us out, but if things go wrong, you're on your own. - Ed.
Money Quote:
"It's clear that we don't want our Chabad Houses to turn into barricaded forts," said Rabbi Menachem Brod, official Chabad spokesman in Israel. "The whole idea of Chabad is that we are open and accessible to Jews traveling abroad."
The concern has left Israeli officials fending off charges that they should do more to protect the buildings, which serve as outposts for ultra-Orthodox Jewish culture.
"Of course we care, of course we worry, but there's not much we can actually do," said Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "Not only is it not governmental, it's not even Israeli."
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Money Quote:
"It's clear that we don't want our Chabad Houses to turn into barricaded forts," said Rabbi Menachem Brod, official Chabad spokesman in Israel. "The whole idea of Chabad is that we are open and accessible to Jews traveling abroad."
The concern has left Israeli officials fending off charges that they should do more to protect the buildings, which serve as outposts for ultra-Orthodox Jewish culture.
"Of course we care, of course we worry, but there's not much we can actually do," said Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "Not only is it not governmental, it's not even Israeli."
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Chabad (Lubavitch), Putin, Russian Oligarchs
While ordinary Chabadniks often describe Vladimir Putin as an evil thug, the Chabad leadership basks in its relationship with him. This contradiction has complex roots.
In the beginning the mainstream Jewish community in post-Soviet Russia was dominated by the Russian Jewish Oligarchs, who are a sort of mutant spinoff of Friedmanite Neoliberals (a gross simplification) and who for the most part became enemies of the Putin's policy of bringing privatized former Soviet state corporations back under governmental control.
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In the beginning the mainstream Jewish community in post-Soviet Russia was dominated by the Russian Jewish Oligarchs, who are a sort of mutant spinoff of Friedmanite Neoliberals (a gross simplification) and who for the most part became enemies of the Putin's policy of bringing privatized former Soviet state corporations back under governmental control.
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More than meets the eye
So these terrorists groups can be linked to CIA, ISI, MI6. OK. And what about Mossad? Were they out polishing their halos when all this went down?? - Ed.
As details emerge about who was responsible for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last week, the evidence points to a militant group and network of associates that can be linked to a number of intelligence agencies, including the ISI, the CIA, and MI6.
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As details emerge about who was responsible for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last week, the evidence points to a militant group and network of associates that can be linked to a number of intelligence agencies, including the ISI, the CIA, and MI6.
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Activist moves homeless into foreclosed homes
By placing this story in Collapse, I’m not making a value judgment on it; this is simply to indicate that we’re seeing the beginnings of a failed state situation.
From this story alone, it should be clear just how little power that state actually has. If somebody told you five years ago that homeless people would be squatting in foreclosed homes with tacit approval from the state, would you have believed it?
Not me, brother!
Well, here we are.
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