Former President Jimmy Carter slammed Fox News Channel for their coverage of President Barack Obama and said the Tea Party does not realize it is financed by oligarchs.
"With the discussion groups, for instance, on Fox News, that are totally biased, and they implant completely false images not only of the facts about legislation that's passed, or doesn't get passed, but also about the character of President Obama," Carter told CNN's Howard Kurtz on Sunday.
Fox News' opinion shows cater almost exclusively to conservative audiences and the network has been a vocal critic of Obama since he won the election in 2008.
"When conservatives such as myself and others pointed out that we felt Barack Obama had radical ties and socialist, radical views, we were laughed at, made fun of, people thought we were too harsh on the president," Fox News' host Sean Hannity said in October. "Now a full, you know, 60 percent of the American people view him as socialist."
In July of 2009, another Fox News' host, Glenn Beck, claimed that the president had "a deep-seated hatred of white people or white culture."
Monday, November 01, 2010
Jimmy Carter: Fox News is ‘totally biased,’ implants ‘completely false images’
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Urban Grocery Gap: Killing Us Softly | Race in America | Change.org
Friday, October 29, 2010
Another Day, Another 850 Afghan Children Dead
Bamiyan Diaries – Day Five
By David Smith-Ferri
“Is This Normal?”
In a small storage shed at the edge of town, we watched as fourteen-year-old Sayed Qarim signed a simple contract agreeing to borrow and repay a no-interest, 25,000 afghani loan (roughly $555). Daniel from the Zenda Company, the loan originator, counted out the crisp bills and handed them to Qarim, who smiled broadly and shook hands. Qarim, whose family farms potatoes and wheat, plans to use the funds to purchase a cow and her calf. “There are great benefits of owning a cow,” Qarim explains. “Our family gets to use the milk, and we can sell the calf for a good profit.”
No one walking by outside on the narrow dirt road would have known an important business transaction had just occurred, one that could in fact help a young man and his family gain economic traction and greater security. The transaction didn’t take place in a bank. No village leaders were present. Only a fourteen-year-old boy, the representative of a private business company, and a witness. And while the signed agreement constitutes a business relationship, the Zenda Company sees it as primarily personal.
Qarim was recommended for a loan by Faiz and Mohammad Jan, two other young men who live in his village and who have themselves recently received and repaid loans. Following this recommendation, Zenda spent much time getting to know Qarim, meeting with him, assessing his knowledge, his resources (such as access to grazing land), and his character, answering his questions, and describing to him his responsibilities as a borrower.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Iraq war logs: 'The US was part of the Wolf Brigade operation against us'
During the foreboding months of 2005, one police unit struck more fear into Iraqis than the entire occupying US army. They were known as the Wolf Brigade.
Brutal even by Iraqi standards, their soldiers and officers seemingly answered to no one. They were seen as indiscriminate and predatory. The unit's reputation had been known Iraq-wide and results of their numerous raids are still bogged down in Iraq's legal system.
But the full range of their abuses and close co-operation with the US army remained in the shadows until the WikiLeaks disclosures showcased them in stark detail.
A visit from the unit to any neighbourhood was sure to bring trouble – as it it did for Omar Salem Shehab on 25 June that year.
"We were at home that night," Shehab recalled this week. "We were three brothers sleeping above my ice-cream shop. We were woken by soldiers entering our house by force. They came with Americans. They said we were wanted and produced a document.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The WikiLeaks Release: U.S. Complicity and Cover-Up of Iraq Torture Exposed
[globalresearch.ca] On October 22nd, the whistleblowing web site WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 classified Iraq war documents, the largest leak of secret information in U.S. history.
Explosive revelations contained in the Iraq War Logs provided further evidence of the Pentagon's role in the systematic torture of Iraqi citizens by the U.S.-installed post-Saddam regime.
Indeed, multiple files document how U.S. officials failed to investigate thousands of cases of abuse, torture, rape and murder. Even innocent victims who were targets of kidnapping gangs, tortured for ransom by Iraqi police and soldiers operating out of the Interior Ministry, were "investigated" in a perfunctory manner that was little more than a cover-up.
Never mind that the Pentagon was fully cognizant of the nightmare playing out in Iraqi jails and prisons. Never mind the beatings with rifle butts and steel cables, the electrocutions, the flesh sliced with razors, the limbs hacked-off with chainsaws, the acid and chemical burns on battered corpses found along the roads, the eyes gouged out or the bones lacerated by the killers' tool of choice: the power drill.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal: Detroit Screening of New Documentary, Mon., November 1, 7:00 p.m.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MECAWI HOSTS SCREENING OF NEW DOCUMENTARY, JUSTICE ON TRIAL: THE CASE OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
What: First Detroit Screening on Mon. Nov. 1, 7:00 p.m.
Where: 5920 Second Ave. at Antoinette, North of WSU Campus
Cost: Free Admission
Contact: 313.671.3715
E-mail: panafnewswire@yahoo.com
URL: http://www.mecawi.org
Important Meeting As the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal Takes on Renewed Urgency With Upcoming Court Hearing
As one of the nation’s most closely-watched death row cases heads to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on November 9, Baruch College Professor of American History Johanna Fernandez teams up with director Kouross Esmaeli of Big Noise Films to investigate the controversial case of Mumia Abu-Jamal in their new film, Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Fernandez wrote and produced the film, which Esmaeli directed. Justice on Trial will receive its first Detroit screening at the weekly meeting of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice on Mon., November 1 at 7:00pm.
A trial court convicted Abu-Jamal of first-degree murder in the 1981
killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal was
sentenced to death and has been on death row since 1982. During the intervening years, debate has raged between Abu-Jamal’s supporters and detractors, with his supporters maintaining his innocence and claiming that exculpatory evidence was suppressed during the trial.
In Justice on Trial, Fernandez asks what she describes as fundamental questions about the workings of the criminal justice system and the Abu-Jamal case—from his sentencing in 1982 to subsequent appeals. According to Fernandez, Justice on Trial presents the legal and factual arguments for reasonable doubt about the fairness of the guilty verdict.
Abu-Jamal is an award-winning radio journalist who sits on death row in a Western Pennsylvania prison where he has authored six books, including the bestselling Live From Death Row. On orders from the Supreme Court, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals will reconsider reinstating the death penalty on Nov. 9. With the federal appeal on the horizon, Fernandez and Esmaeli expedited completion of their four-year project in order to participate in revived conversations inspired by the case.
Trailer here:
http://bignoisefilms.org/films/tactical-media/114-justice-on-trial
Democracy Now news clip on the film here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/22/as_competing_films_offer_differing_views
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/justiceontrialthemovie
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The 25 Most Unequal Cities In America
But in some cities the disparity is especially bad, according to Census data. We picked out the 25 metro areas where the top quintile has the greatest share of the income."
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Chavez claims Ecuador leader 'in danger of being killed'
Mr Chavez said that his lefitst ally had been "kidnapped" by police inside the hospital and trying to oust him from power.
Peru and Colombia both said it would close their borders with Ecuador while their leaders, along with Mr Chavez, were flying to Argentina for an emergency meeting of the regional body UNASUR to discuss the events. The US condemned “any attempt to violate the democratic process.”
The government declared a state of emergency, enabling the military to take over the functions of police taking part in the rebellion, Security Minister Miguel Carvajal said.
Scores of soldiers swarmed over the landing strip of the international airport, forcing it to close. Witnesses said there was looting in Quito and in the city of Guayaquil, and that many workers and school students were being sent home.
Elsewhere in Quito, uniformed police burned tires in protest at a proposal to cut their bonuses.
Why Are American Male Tennis Writers Racist & Sexist Against Serena Williams? « GayBlackCanadianman
A familiar narrative emerges every year on high profile sports blogs and the usual target is tennis champion Serena Williams. Usually, after the US Open,
the American tennis establishment repeats publishing a series of articles blasting Serena Williams committment to women’s tennis. The theme is the same,
and the result is the same. Serena ignores the racists and misogynists and continues to dominate the game."
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Lieberman presents plans for population exchange at UN
Controversial scheme would see part of Israel's Arab population moved to a newly created Palestinian state, in return for evacuation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
September 28, 2010
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday presented the United Nations with his draft for a population and territory swap, as part of an eventual peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Under Lieberman's controversial scheme, part of Israel's Arab population would be moved to a newly created Palestinians state, in return for evacuation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
"A final agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has to be based on a program of exchange of territory and populations," Lieberman told the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The foreign minister stressed that his proposals did not represent a scheme for "populations transfer", a phrase that evokes historical proposals by Israel's extreme right to evict Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza altogether.
"We are not talking about population transfer but about defining borders so as best to reflect the demographic reality," said.
Friday, September 24, 2010
White Europocentric Power the Acknowledged Basis for US Education
The Texas State Board of Education today passed a resolution warning textbook publishers to scrub their books of "gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian" bias. The vote was 7 to 6.
The board passed the nonbinding resolution after more than three hours of debate.
Proponents of the measure, including board members and witnesses, argued that world history textbooks spend too much space discussing Islam, and in too positive a light, when compared with Christianity.
One parent said she read through a section of her son's history book and found four pages on Islam and only one reference to the Bible. Asked by a board member what the section was titled, she replied, "Life in the Eastern Hemisphere."
One of the board's most conservative members, Don McLeroy, who is serving the last months of his term, said textbook publishers have been biased in favor of Islam for years. He argued that "one of the greatest gifts to the world was medieval Christendom," citing an essay he had written in 2002 titled "The Gift of Medieval Christendom to the World."
In a recent interview on Univision, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) expressed outrage, in Spanish, at "the Vietnamese and the Republicans are [trying] -- with an intensity -- to take this seat, this seat with which we've done so much for our community."
"[They're trying] to take this seat and give it to this Van Tran, who is very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic," she continued.
According to the Orange County Register, both Sanchez and her Republican opponent, California Assemblyman Van Tran (whose family was evacuated by the U.S. Army out of Saigon the week before it fell) have already issued statements about the comments. In a statement, Tran's campaign manager George Andrews said: "At a time when our state faces an unemployment rate above 12 percent, Loretta Sanchez resorts to insensitive racist attacks against her own constituents. Her attack against immigrants and the Vietnamese community on national television is shocking."
Meanwhile, Sanchez's campaign said that she "was referencing those in the Vietnamese community who are supporting her opponent."
Tran's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TPM.
Israel Flotilla Raid Violated International Law, U.N. Council Says
[huffingtonpost.com/] GENEVA — A report by three U.N.-appointed human rights experts Wednesday said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killing nine activists earlier this year.
The U.N. Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded late Wednesday by saying the Human Rights Council, which commissioned the report, had a "biased, politicized and extremist approach."
The Islamic militant group Hamas that controls Gaza, meanwhile, praised the report and called for those involved in the raid to be punished.
The 56-page document lists a series of alleged crimes committed by Israeli forces during and after the raid, including willful killing and torture, and claims there is "clear evidence to support prosecutions." ure.
"A series of violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel prior to deportation," the experts found.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Police: Washington woman admits acid attack was a hoax – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs
Police: Washington woman admits acid attack was a hoax – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs
Thursday, September 16, 2010
White Sexual Insecurity and Drug Criminalization « Playing the Devil's Advocate
Read this Wikipedia entry on the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act- the first anti-drug law in the US.
The relevant parts.."
Friday, September 10, 2010
Zionist Israel: “There Are No Civilians In Wartime.”
“There are no civilians during wartime,” Yossi declared under oath.
Yossi made his remarkable statement under withering cross examination by Hussein Abu Hussein, the lawyer for the family of Corrie, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah on March 17, 2003. In the back of the courtroom were Rachel’s parents, Craig and Cindy, and her sister, Sarah, back in Israel for the second round of hearings in their civil suit against the state of Israel. They were joined by supporters, friends and a handful of reporters, including me (see Nora Barrows-Friedman’s report for more). No one from the Israeli media was present — the case has been virtually ignored inside Israel.
In the immediate wake of Corrie’s killing, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, then the chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, instructed Corrie’s parents to demand a “thorough, fair and transparent investigation” from the Israeli government. Since then, the Israelis have stonewalled them, refusing to provide key details of their investigation, which was corrupted from the start by the investigators’ apparent attempts to find evidence that a bulldozer did not in fact kill Rachel.
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Airports aren't the only place to find companies selling X-ray scanners
While debate continues in the United States over whether whole-body imagers now being used at airports to detect weapons violate privacy rights and even create potential health risks, manufacturers of the technology are opening deeper opportunities for themselves elsewhere that could make the controversial machines an even bigger part of everyday life.
A Massachusetts-based company claims that government agencies here and abroad have purchased hundreds of its van-mounted X-ray devices that reveal the contents of passing vehicles without authorities relying on a manual search to find human stowaways, secret compartments full of narcotics or bomb ingredients.
An executive of American Science & Engineering told Forbes privacy writer Andy Greenberg late last month that the X-ray scanners are most popular with the Defense Department, a fact borne out by federal contracting data. Troops face insurgent bomb architects in Iraq and Afghanistan capable of stymieing the world’s most powerful armed forces with crude, MacGyver-style explosives, so vehicle X-ray technology in a place like Baghdad makes sense.
Monday, September 06, 2010
John John: The View From Occupied Canada
LAS VEGAS - September 3 - On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, members of the Creech 14, along with their legal advisors and supporters will hold a rally at Lewis and 3rd Street, at 7:30 a.m. and then proceed to their trial which begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Regional Justice Center at 200 Lewis Avenue. Charged with criminal trespass for entering the Creech AFB on April 9, 2009, the activists will argue that, under international law, they are obliged to oppose illegal U.S. usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) to attack people in Afghanistan. They also plan to show the court that by entering Creech AFB they were enacting their first amendment right to assemble peaceably for redress of grievance.
Sri Lanka: Ties with Israel expose duplicity | Green Left WeeklyOn July 21, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth published an interview with Donald Perera, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Israel. Perera, the former Sri Lankan Air Force commander and Chief of Defence Staff, thanked Israel profusely for its support in the fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
He said: "For years Israel has aided our war on terror through the exchange of information and the sale of military technology and equipment... Our air force fleet includes 17 Kfir warplanes, and we also have Dabur patrol boats. Our pilots were trained in Israel, and we have received billions of dollars in aid over the past few years. This is why I asked to be assigned to Israel — a country I consider a partner in the war against terror."
Is Alberta worse than Africa when it comes to protecting and sharing its natural wealth? Greenpeace International's new executive director makes that claim after visiting Canada's oil sands this summer.
It was the first time Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International's "activist-in-chief" had been to the oil sands area, and the South African-born anti-apartheid organizer drew some unflattering conclusions.
"It has been said that Africa is so poor above the ground because it is so rich under the ground. Alberta is beginning to see similar impacts of being a resource-rich region," Naidoo wrote in an email to The Tyee.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Libertyblog: Just About the Perfect Libertyblog Story
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
National Archives says Glenn Beck lied about George Washington speech
National Archives says Glenn Beck lied about George Washington speech | Raw StoryGlenn Beck seems to have been nailed by the men and women who protected the nation's most prized political documents: The National Archives.
While speaking during his "Restoring Honor" rally Saturday, Beck said that he'd held an original speech given by George Washington.
Beck remarked, "I held the first inaugural address written in his own hand by George Washington."
Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer destroys the claim in an Mother Jones' Wednesday. The National Archives says Beck never held the document in his hands.
"Beck did receive a special VIP tour of the archives, arranged by an as-yet unidentified member of Congress. During that tour, he did get a peek inside the "legislative vault," which isn't open to ordinary visitors," Mencimer says.
Story continues below...
"But Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper insists that Beck didn't lay a finger on any precious documents, much less George Washington’s inaugural address. That would be a major violation of policy," she adds.
"Those kinds of treasures are only handled by specially trained archival staff," Cooper said. "I'm certain it was a figure of speech," she says.
IACHR Condems Murders Of Indigenous Leaders In Colombia
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns the murder of three indigenous leaders in Colombia, and the wife of one of them, over the last two weeks.
According to the information available, three leaders of the U’wa, Sikuani, and Pasto peoples, and the wife of one of the leaders, were killed by hired assassins between August 13 and 26 of this year. On August 13, Carmen Elisa Mora Uncacia was killed. A member of the U’wa people, she worked as coordinator of the Office of Indigenous Affairs in the Mayor’s Office in the town of Saravena, in the department of Arauca. The indigenous leader, who was attacked in her home, was the mother of two children and was pregnant at the time of her death. On August 14, Jaime Reyes, of the Sikuani people, was killed. He lived on the Parreros reserve and was a member of the town council of La Esperanza. The indigenous leader, who was in a situation of forced displacement, was attacked by hit men in the community of Barcelona, in the municipality of Tame, in Arauca. On August 26, Ramiro Inampues and his wife, of the Pasto people, were kidnapped; their bodies appeared two days later, with bullet wounds, in the community of El Corso, in the Guachucal indigenous reserve, in the department of Nariño. The indigenous leader, who was known as Taita Ramiro, had been governor of the Guachucal reserve and was a council member in the municipality of Guachucal.
The IACHR condemns these violations to the individual rights of the victims and their families. The Inter-American Commission also emphasizes that attacks on indigenous leaders and authorities break down the cohesion of indigenous peoples. These murders affect not only the direct victims of violence and their families, but also indigenous societies as a whole, given the critical duties of leaders and authorities and their central role in defending, preserving, and passing down their ancestral cultures. Since attacks on indigenous leaders and authorities constitute assaults on the entire sociocultural structure, they are grave crimes that violate the integrity and collective rights of indigenous peoples as groups that have special protections under international human rights law and, in the context of internal armed conflicts such as the one in Colombia, under international humanitarian law as well.
The Commission urges the Colombian State to investigate these crimes, prosecute and punish the perpetrators and masterminds, and address the needs for protection and security of indigenous leaders and authorities in Colombia, in order to prevent these violations of individual and collective human rights.
A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this matter. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in a personal capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.
5th International Black Power Conference
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 12:55 PM
From: "Pan-African Roots"
The 40th anniversary of the “Black Power Uprising” in Trinidad and Tobago is being commemorated with an international academic conference at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, from Friday 17th September to Sunday 19th September 2010.
This 5th International Black Power Conference is being organized by the Department of History at St. Augustine, Trinidad. Co-sponsors include the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies and the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (both at St. Augustine campus). Other supporting organizations in Trinidad include the National Joint Action Committee (NJAC), the History Society (at UWI), the Emancipation Support Committee, the Oilfield Workers Union and the Public Services Association. The All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP (GC)) is also a supporting organization.
This historic Conference includes a record 90 presentations on 20 panels in 2 days. Participants include professors and organizers from Trinidad, Jamaica, Canada, Britain, the United States and other countries. They represent several academic and movement schools and traditions including: History, Trinidad and Caribbean Studies, Pan-African Studies, Black Studies, Black Power Studies, Black Radical Studies, Afro-centric Studies, NJAC Studies, Black Panther Studies, etc.
The A-APRP (GC) will present two papers:
(1) Mwalimu Keita will present, on behalf of the A-APRP (GC), a paper titled Black Power: An Ideological Channel for Mass All-African Revolutionary Political Education and Organization.
This paper provides a historical analysis of the call for Black Power in the U.S. within the context of African people's generational struggle for Africa's Unity, National Independence, Liberation, and Pan-Africanism. It documents the dialectical relationship between Black Power as an intellectual and ideological force in the worldwide anti-colonial movement and as an objective in the African Revolution, of which Pan-Africanism is its highest expression. It defines, defends, and reclaims Black Power as an objective necessity and channel to teach, politically educate, empower, and organize the African Masses in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora in all-African organizations as an expression of the revolutionary African Personality and Culture.
(2) Bob Brown will present, on behalf of the A-APRP (GC), a paper titled Kwame Ture Is Still Dancing In The Fire! Towards A New Historiography.
This paper will provide an overview of Kwame’s public life, work, study and struggle from 1950, when his philosophical conscience and political conscious was awakened in Trinidad, to his transition to the Ancestors in Guinea in 1998. It will serve as the Introduction to a book by the same title that will be “the definitive political biography of Kwame Ture.” As you perhaps know, Bob has been working on this book for the past 12 years. It will be published in late 2011 or early 2012.
The Conference invites all interested parties, worldwide, to attend. Email us for contact information at paroots02@yahoo.com
Bob, as a representative of the A-APRP (GC), has also been invited to visit Venezuela to observe the Parliamentary Elections, make several presentations and attend several meetings. We hope that he can visit other countries in the Caribbean Basin while in the area.
The A-APRP (GC) needs and asks for your assistance in raising the funds needed to defray travel to and in the region, and provide modest accommodations. Tax exemption is available for those who request it. Please contact Bob directly, if you can help: paroots02@yahoo.com or (202) 239-1651.
A copy of the A-APRP (GC)’s two papers will be emailed to all who make a donation, no later than September 17, 2001, the start of the Conference. Thank you in advance for any assistance that you might offer.
As always, we remain
Ready for Revolution!
Organizers, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)
info@a-aprp-gc.org
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Saudi cleric slammed over fatwa on women cashiers
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A conservative Saudi cleric was told to stop giving unauthorized edicts after he called for a boycott of a supermarket chain that employs women as cashiers, the office of the kingdom's most senior religious leader said Thursday.
The move is the first public reprimand of a prominent cleric following a royal decree that limits the issuance of fatwas to the country's most senior group of clerics. Fatwas are religious edicts that provide guidance in matters of everyday life to pious Muslims.
Sheik Youssef al-Ahmed had urged people not to shop at Panda Supermarket because women there work in jobs that allow for the mingling of the sexes, which the cleric said was a violation of Islamic law.
Saudi media reported that al-Ahmed's fatwa forced the supermarket management to reassign 11 of its women employees to other positions on Wednesday. The chain could not be reached for comment.
Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheik's office said Thursday he had summoned al-Ahmed and ordered the cleric to refrain from issuing unauthorized fatwas.
The office said it "received a pledge from al-Ahmed not to issue any fatwas" without approval.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
AP Exclusive: Japanese mayor defends dolphin hunts
TAIJI, Japan – As children in inner tubes bob on the calm waters of this small ocean cove, a 550-pound (250-kilogram) dolphin zips through the crowd in pursuit of raw squid tossed out by a trainer.
Niru, a Risso's dolphin caught locally, seems unbothered by all the people and the squeals of surprise and delight. The cove is packed — it's a bright summer Sunday and hundreds of families have come.
But in two weeks, the waters of the cove will turn blood red, as it becomes a holding pen for annual hunts that capture and kill hundreds of dolphins each year.
The ancient village of Taiji, portrayed in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," has a long and complex relationship with the dolphin. The film portrays the dolphin hunts as a sinister secret, cruel and dangerous because the animals have high mercury levels.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Peace Talks in the Shadow of Demolitions
While President Barack Obama pressures Palestinians to re-engage in direct peace talks, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu loftily counsels President Mahmoud Abbas not to miss the opportunity, recent demolitions within the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel continue unabated and unaddressed.
According to OCHA, July and August have marked the highest number of demolitions this year. As of the end of July, OCHA reports Israeli forces have destroyed over 230 structures effectively displacing and/or affecting over 1100 Palestinians, including 400 children since the beginning of 2010. Over 50% of said destruction has taken place in July alone. OCHA further comments that the Israeli Civil Administration will be stepping up demolitions in the West Bank per orders by the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
In the Jordan Valley, Israeli forces have demolished the village of al Farisyia twice within the span of 10 days; first on July 19th and again on August 5th. These have resulted in the destruction of 116 structures and the displacement of 129 people, 63 of whom are children. In the second round of demolitions, 10 structures not previously harmed were demolished along with 27 structures and materials provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Israel has flagrantly disavowed its peace rhetoric by issuing additional demolition orders to be meted out on August 15th & 16th.
Moreover, Israeli authorities are proving complicit in vigilante activity among Jewish settlers in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. In the early morning hours of July 29th Jewish settlers stormed the Kirrech house, home to 9 Palestinian families, without sanction. Of these families, only one has been allowed restitution to their home by court order. The other eight families continue to be displaced while waiting for their case to be tried in court.
While UN bodies have condemned these demolitions, absent actionable measures, the condemnations alone fall short of the United Nations' obligations to maintain peace and security and to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Under international law the State is obliged to prevent, investigate, and provide remedy, and when it fails to do so the international community becomes responsible for providing victims with effective protection. Violence by non-state actors (settlers) should not be seen merely as provocative actions; but as part of an overarching policy backed by State authority. By stopping at rhetoric, the United Nations, States, and international organizations fail to adequately respond to Israel’s human rights abuses that both fuel the humanitarian crisis and undermine the peace process.
In fact, even if Netanyahu’s recent statements were to be considered sincere, Israel's actions are a flagrant rejection of the peace process and its underlying documents including the Oslo Accords which reserve settlements as a final status issue and the Road Map which outright prohibits settlement expansion.
Under the cover of its calls for the resumption for peace talks, Israel is also infringing on the rights of its own Palestinian citizens. Israeli forces have demolished Al Araqib, a Bedouin village in the Negev, 4 times from July 27th to August 17th, displacing 300 Palestinian citizens of Israel at the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan forcing them to endure a recent heat wave living in the open air atop their cemetery. According to MK Talab al-Sana, "This is a test for democracy in Israel; and democracy is failing. Al Araqib is a test of how much Israelis can live in peace with their own Palestinian citizens; so, how can [Israel] live in peace with Palestinians [within Palestine]."
Demolitions and the denial of basic human rights, such as shelter, are features of Israel’s apartheid regime and are indicative of the root causes of the ongoing humanitarian crises in the OPT. At best, Israel's recent demolitions can be considered attempts at colonization, at worst they can be interpreted as ethnic cleansing.
Taking these actions into account, one cannot help but be confused by the good faith underpinning the most recent calls for peace' talks. We call upon States, UN bodies, international organizations, and the international community at large to reconcile peace talks with humanitarian and human rights law in an effort to create an environment where peace may actually be sought instead of paying lip service to peace in the shadow of demolitions and displacement.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
This is American White Racism in Your Face...
Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally, with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin among the scheduled speakers, will take place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, 47 years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech there.
The conservative talk show host announced in November that he wanted to reveal a "100 year plan for America" at the Lincoln Memorial. More recently, he said that the purpose of his Aug. 28 event is to restore the country's "values" and to pay tribute to military families.
"There will be absolutely no politics involved," he said. "This rally will honor the troops, unite the American people under the principles of integrity and truth, and make a pledge to restore honor within ourselves and our country."
Civil rights leaders have denounced Beck's plans, questioning his motives for choosing the date and place, which they said are historically symbolic of the country's civil rights movement.
Responding to the criticism on his show June 28, Beck said he believes it was "divine providence" that the rally was scheduled on the anniversary of the King speech. He said he had initially planned the event for Sept. 12 and then realized it was a Sunday. "I'm not going to ask anyone to work on the Sabbath," he said. He rescheduled the rally for Aug. 28 because it was the best day for the schedules of the people involved, he said.
"It was not my intention to select 8-28 because of the Martin Luther King tie. It is the day he made that speech. I had no idea until I announced it and I walked offstage and my researchers said, New York Times has already just published that this is [the same day as the King speech] -- and I said, 'Oh, jeez.' "
Monday, August 16, 2010
Cambodian Woman faces prison in land-grabbing case
Dear all,
I would like to bring your close attention to a recent case of land grabbing has happened here in Cambodia. Today, Monday 16th August, Mu Sochua took part in a Press Conference organized in the context of a recent land dispute case (in Kompong Thom Province). Local representative, Lem Nath, has been physically abused and thrown into prison for stepping up in the case of local land grabbing. As Mu Sochua declared, “the Press Conference was held to shine the light on the illegal way she was arrested and the misuse of police power and court illegal mishandling of the case. [Further], the purpose is to educate the public about the law and the false practices by the court.”
Please read for full details on Mu Sochua's blog:
http://sochua.wordpress.com/
This case of human rights violation is one of many happening every day here in Cambodia. We are raising awareness about this terrible case. Please forward on this information in Cambodia and abroad.
We are raising funds for Lem Nath’s legal fees. If you would like to donate to her case, please follow this link (http://sochua.wordpress.com/donate/) to donate to Strey Khmer, our organization which arranged the press conference and handles the donations.
Also, do not hesitate to contact us for any further information.
Very best,
Strey Khmer
Arms to Israel
The UK supplies Israel with a steady stream of arms on a ‘case-by-case basis’, although none of them are supposed to be used inside the Occupied Territories. In practice there is no way of knowing what Israel does with the kit it buys, so British companies are restricted from selling things, including fighter parts and missile systems, that have been used in the Occupied Territories in the past. But under the current rules the US can still tranship this kind of hardware to Israel through the UK.
‘The UK government is keen to maintain good relations with the US defence industry so they leave it to the exporter to decide what is to be transhipped,’ Ian Prichard from the Campaign against the Arms Trade told me. ‘Since Israel is not one of the blacklisted nations for arms exports, apart from Category A and B goods which are very few, if the US considers it is OK to export something to Israel then it is OK for us.’
Category A goods include cluster munitions and equipment designed for execution and torture; Category B includes most small arms, long range missiles and unmanned air vehicles. All other military equipment is Category C, which means the US can still export to Israel the weapons that have wreaked most of the destruction in the Occupied Territories in past conflicts.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
The Obsidian Files
YouTube - Interracial Option for Black Women
According to K. Alonzo Hart, same old snake oil garbage mainstream media put out about Black women. Most Black women see through this white supremacist garbage of mind control.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Friday the 13th: Tea Party Comic Book - Is It Racist?
Circulating the internet, TEA PARTY COMICS. A blatant rip of many of America's beloved superheroes taking on a supervillian, President Barack Obama.
In what could be a sign of what is brewing in the conservative movement is a potentially damaging comic book that depicts the president in blackface.
The author of the comic is unknown, but the gripes that the comics present are the same talking points generated by talk radio, Fox News and conservative blogs.
A number of tea party leaders disavowed the comic books last week, claiming that they're an obvious plant by tea party opponents.
Right?
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Tom Kalb and His Amazingly Racist Tea Party Comics by Dan Linehan
An extremely racist "underground conservative comic" has began making the rounds online after an excited Tea Party member in Corpus Christie apparently sold it to a blog, Comics with Problems, who promptly scanned it in and posted it online for the world to see.For some time now, the origins of the comic have been indeterminate. No one seemed to want to take credit for the extremely racist series, and Comics with Problems is still describing the underground comic as, "artist and organization unknown, presumably year 2009-2010, each issue forty pages."
What we have known however, was that the creator of the series seemed to have quite an extensive knowledge of comic book history. Many of the illustrations were penned to directly parody classic Superman, Spider-Man, and even DuckTales comic book covers.
After doing some research on eBay, it turns out the comics seem to all be coming from precisely one source: Tom Kalb, the middle-aged owner of a small, strip-mall comic book store named Caveman Comics and Books, in Mesa, AZ. Mr. Kalb had been been producing and distributing the Tea Party Comix series as "underground conservative comics" on his eBay store throughout the last month.
Here are a couple screenshots from the (now expired) auction that Tom was running. He was advertising that he still has "more than 10" first print editions of the comic series available, even after he had made nine first edition sales throughout the month. I wonder how someone would obtain more than twenty first run sets. Mysterious.
Click for full-size images.
Of course, it makes perfect sense that the series was produced by a comic store owner due to the satirical nature of many of the illustrations.
It remains to be seen whether Tom Kalb is really as racist as his Tea Party Comix make him seem to be, or if the series is actually a form of advanced satire aimed at conservatives in general and the Tea Party movement specifically.
While many people are saying that the comics must have been made to mock the Tea Party, mainly based on the logic that no one in their right mind would ever release anything so blatantly racist without it being satirical, I'm not entirely convinced. Judging from Tom's alternating use of uppercase and lowercase sentences on his eBay store, all the wingnut whargarbl indicators are present and accounted for:
I WILL BE ON VACATION STARTING SUNDAY NIGHT, MAY 23rd. The store will be CLOSED for about 5 days (M-F). On MONDAY (the 23rd) I will fill all orders placed and paid for by Monday morning. The store will NOT be accessible for FIVE days, but I will still take emails and payments (for older orders). I WILL NOT BE GOING TO THE POST OFFICE BETWEEN TUESDAY AND FRIDAY!! ...IF YOU HAVE AN OUTSTANDING ORDER OR THERE IS SOME OTHER PROBLEM, DO NOT GO NUTS WITH FEAR! I'm still here. I have not run off to Mexico with your $22.50... THANKS! .................................................................Then again, it is eBay. (A++++++ TOP SELLER!!)
Beyond the grammatical issues, there are also quite a few concepts mentioned in the comics that probably wouldn't make much sense to someone unless they were following right wing politics fairly closely: accusations of free abortions, depictions of Obama printing massive amounts of fiat money, showing the President missing his birth certificate. The comic even goes so far as to engage in some good, ol' fashioned vaccination fear-mongering. These don't seem like issues someone non-partisan would know or care about, but they are right in line with the fears of many right wingers.
If any readers happen to be in Mesa, Arizona, feel free to check out Caveman Comics & Books and see if Tom is still carrying any more first editions of the Tea Party Comix. And while you're there, ask him whether he is really a Tea Party member; we're dying to know.
Caveman Comics & Books
500 West Southern Avenue, Suite 32
Mesa, AZ 85210
Conservative talk radio host and the N-word
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Pingpu tribes demand recognition on UN indigenous day
Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) About 30 Pingpu tribespeople gathered in front of the Presidential Office on the United Nations' International Day of the World's Indigenous People Monday, calling on President Ma Ying-jeou to recognize Pingpu people as aboriginals.
Escorted by police officers, 10 of the protesters entered the Presidential Office to deliver a petition to President Ma Ying-jeou after participating in an ancestor worship ceremony at Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the presidential building.
Historian Lin Sheng-yi, who heads the Ketagalan of Taiwan Indigenous Culture Alliance, said that in addition to petitioning for official recognition of the tribes, they also demanded the restoration of a 4,400-year-old Ketagalan historical site in Gongliao in Taipei County and an investigation into the destruction of the site.
Ketagalan are a Taiwanese aboriginal tribe originating in what is now the Taipei Basin.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
No Right Turn: Utterly shameful
But the real reason, apparently, is that the government was concerned that granting compensation might 'open the floodgates' and cause other victims to come forward. Well, we can't have that now, can we? It might make the police look bad! It might cost money which could be spent on tax cuts for the rich! So instead, the government has to deny justice - and reality.
With this decision, National has shown that it does not care about women, and it does not care about justice. Neither attitude is acceptable from our government."
Solitary Confinement Is a “Challenge for Medical Ethics” � Solitary Watch
Several professional organizations and activist groups made up of medical and mental health practitioners have condemned the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere in the so-called war on terror. In particular, they have denounced the idea that members of their professions should play any role in that treatment. But as Metzner and Fellner point out, there has been “scant professional or academic attention to the unique ethics-related quandary of physicians and other health-care professionals when prisons isolate inmates with mental illness.” This despite the fact that for some prisoners, “isolation can be as clinically distressing as physical torture.”"
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Palestinian female inmates appeal to the Red Cross to close Al-Damon prison
MEMO, August 9, 2010
The female Palestinian prisoners of Al-Damon prison have called on the International Red Cross to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to close the "the worst jail ever," as they "experience tragic conditions in Al-Damon."
In a statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) on Sunday August 8, it stressed that the circumstances and conditions faced by detainees in Israeli prisons and detention centres are "very difficult", particularly in light of the abusive policies exercised by the prison services "keeping Al-Damon prisoners in a small department that is cold in the winter, hot in summer, and full of insects."
The PPC drew attention to the policy of "medical neglect" being applied by the Israeli prisons authorities against Palestinian prisoners of both genders. The statement claimed that authorities prevent external doctors from coming into prisons to treat prisoners. Al-Damon contains a large number of those who suffer from acute and chronic illnesses such as joint pain, acute shortness of breath, toothache, allergies, tonsil infections, acute weight loss, and other chronic diseases "which require surgery or specialists counselling."
The captive women’s movement in Al-Damon renewed its invitation to the Red Cross to visit the prison and witness the physical and psychological condition the female prisoners are forced to live in under the tightening policies imposed on them by the Occupation Authorities.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Liberal television host Rachel Maddow solidarizes herself with US military in Afghanistan
[wsws.org] The visit by MSNBC news program host Rachel Maddow to Afghanistan in early July was as revealing as it was repugnant. Maddow is a principal voice of the liberal-left in the American media mainstream. When her program first aired in September 2008, the press made much of the fact that the she was the first “openly gay anchor” to host a prime-time news program in the US.
Maddow spent several days in Afghanistan this month, interviewing American officers and soldiers, touring Kandahar and Kabul, discussing counter-insurgency strategy and the overall state of the US military occupation. Whatever misgivings she might have about the ultimate fate of the American and allied effort in Afghanistan, Maddow solidarized herself fully with the occupation and the US military, endorsing the bloody suppression of the insurgency.
In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, there were those in the US and elsewhere who were deceived into thinking that the American invasion of Afghanistan had something to do with bringing terrorists and their Taliban sponsors to justice. Nine years of the conflict—with the location and fate of Osama bin Laden largely dropped and the number of Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan calculated, by US officials, to be between 50 and 100—have clarified the issues.
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Huffington Post Article: The White American Media Attack First Lady Michelle Obama Because She Is A Black Woman. | GayBlackCanadianman
People, what are your thoughts on First Lady Michelle Obama's trip to Spain? Please feel free to express your opinion. Don't be afraid.
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