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A Message to Iran from Israel
Please share this video and help it reach all the Iranian people.-
- JRBarilla
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- 2 months ago
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IRAN: Yesterday and Today: Rick Steves
I had the pleasure of viewing this documentary on Iran and its people/culture and had to share it. There is so much we do not know about this land rich in history and steeped in culture. Despite the political/religious turmoil and tensions we see displayed in the media and by politicians and warmongers on all sides, the culture lives on. I have always believed that it is the people of a country who can work together to stop war and to plant the seeds of humanity and peace. I surely hope to see this with Iran and all countries around the world. Rick Steves takes you on a mystical and incredible journey through Iran and you come away not only with more knowledge of its people but hope that peace can be achieved. I hope you enjoy this look into an incredible culture as much as I did.I had the pleasure of viewing this documentary on Iran and its people/culture and had... more-
- JanforGore
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People to Wear Hoodies In Churches Across the United States
CNN...
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Lawyer: Federal hate crime charge against Trayvon shooter a 'challenge'
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 4:53 AM EDT, Sun March 25, 2012
Martin case sparks rallies across U.S.
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Sanford, Florida (CNN) -- Bringing a federal hate crime charge against a neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin will be "a challenge, to put it lightly," the victim's lawyer said.
Daryl Parks, an attorney for the Martin family, told board members of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on Saturday that prosecution on the state level stands a better chance.
"Most state laws tend to be better for the prosecution of state crimes. And that's why we see the federal authorities expressing, although gently, in their statements that they can only do so much if there's some type of race statements involved. The state officials don't have that problem," Parks said.
"I think the focus is not necessarily a federal arrest over a state arrest. We want an arrest, period. And I think that the state aspect of that is the one that's most feasible, most attainable in this matter."
Martin, 17, was killed February 26 as he walked back to his father's fiancee's house in Sanford, Florida, after a trip to the convenience store. Police say he was shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who says he was acting in self-defense.
The teen was unarmed, carrying a bag of Skittles candy and an iced tea, according to police. Zimmerman has not been charged.
Speaking to the NABJ, Parks said there is evidence that the Twin Lakes homeowners' association told residents who saw suspicious activity to call George Zimmerman if they could not contact the police, according to an NABJ statement.
The Martin family plans to pursue a civil case against the homeowners' association, Parks said.
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Meanwhile, worshipers in cities across the country will wear hoodies to church Sunday in honor Martin, who was wearing a hoodie when he was killed.
Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and Middle Collegiate Church in New York are among the churches that plan to honor the teen.
"I will also preach in a hoodie. We are doing this not for show, but to send a message that all humanity is sacred. And by saying ALL, we are including African American boys and girls, and men and women who reserve the right to wear a hoodie in the rain and not be racially profiled and killed because bigots think that their appearance is suspicious, or threatening," the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock said in a statement posted on Ebenezer's website.
A "Hundred Hoodie March" will take place Sunday in Rockford, Illinois, as well as a "Million Hoodie March" in Rochester, New York.
In Sanford, a "prayer for peace" and a candlelight vigil will take place Sunday evening. Another candlelight vigil will take place at the Civil Rights memorial in Montgomery, Alabama.
"In a nutshell, I think this case is not being handled properly -- that is why we have so many protests," Ron Campbell said after a demonstration in Virginia Beach, Virginia. "It was a senseless situation."
A handful of members from the New Black Panther Party rallied in Sanford on Saturday and offered a $10,000 reward for Zimmerman's "capture."
"It's time for us, as black men, to take justice in our own hands. If you won't give us justice, we will have to take justice," said Florida organizer Mikhail Muhammad. "An eye for an eye. A life for a life."
The New Black Panther Party, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a "virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization," is distinct from the better-known Black Panther Party, founded in the late 1960s.
The city of Sanford responded to the bounty offer by calling for "calm heads and no vigilante justice."
"Attempts by civilians to take any person into custody may result in criminal charges or unnecessary violence," it said in a statement.
Zimmerman's lawyer said Florida's "stand your ground" law doesn't apply to the shooting that killed the teen.
"In my legal opinion, that's not really applicable to this case. The statute on 'stand your ground' is primarily when you're in your house," said Craig Sonner, Zimmerman's attorney.
"This is self-defense, and that's been around for forever -- that you have a right to defend yourself. So the next issue (that) is going to come up is, was he justified in using the amount of force he did?"
The 2005 law allows people to use deadly force anywhere they have a right to be if they have reasonable fear an assailant could seriously harm them or someone else.
It also eliminated a long-standing "duty to retreat" in the face of imminent harm, asserting that would-be crime victims have the right to "stand their ground" and "meet force with force" when attacked.
The case has sparked a national debate over the Florida law and concerns about racial profiling. Martin was black and Zimmerman is white Hispanic.
The Sanford Police Department said officers were prohibited from arresting Zimmerman the night of the shooting because physical evidence and testimony supported his claim that he acted in self-defense in accordance with Florida law. The police department gave the explanation to City Manager Norton Bonaparte, who included it in a letter to the community about the case, posted on the city's website.
Zimmerman said he was driving in his gated community when he saw Martin walking and called 911 to report a suspicious person.
Zimmerman told the dispatcher he was following the boy, but the dispatcher told him that wasn't necessary. Moments later, several neighbors called 911 to report a commotion outside, and police arrived to find Martin dead of a gunshot wound.
Sonner says his client was injured that night and went to the hospital with a broken nose and a serious cut on the back of his head.
Sanford police said Zimmerman did not indicate a chase, telling them instead that "he had lost sight of Trayvon and was returning to his truck to meet the police officer when he says he was attacked by Trayvon," the police said in the letter posted by Bonaparte.
But the Rev. Al Sharpton said he doesn't think Zimmerman was simply protecting himself.
"This is not about self-defense. This is about a man deciding somebody, based on who he was, was a suspect and that he would take matters into his own hands," Sharpton told a crowd in New York on Saturday.
Sonner said he believes Zimmerman's life is in danger and has advised him to keep a low profile.
"This case is spinning out of control," he said. "I hope there's a way to rein things in so it doesn't become an issue of a racial battle. I hope that things come back so that there can be a time for justice and for healing and not for just skipping the whole judicial process and going straight to sentencing."
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CNN's Kim Segal, Greg Morrison, John Couwels and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
.CNN... . Lawyer: Federal hate crime charge against Trayvon shooter a... more-
- EthicalVegan
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259,202 Youtube Hits So Far... March 23, 2012 (7:32am)
A Youtube Plea For Peace From an Isreali Father
Please share this, it's a video that should go viral. Go to youtube and comment, I did:
"THANK YOU SO MUCH... We need our peaceful voices to be heard. We are not cattle who cannot stop their own slaughter. We are human beings and we all share something in common; love, respect, peace and empathy for one another." thinkingblue
Amid war fever, some Israelis and Iranians talk of peace
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/22/2707569/amid-war-fever-some-israelis-and.html
By SHEERA FRENKEL
McClatchy Newspapers
JERUSALEM -- Hoping to counter the incessant saber rattling from their respective governments, some Israelis and Iranians have started an online campaign to exchange simple messages of friendship and love.
The initiative, which began with Israeli couple Ronny Edry and Michal Tamir, calls for residents of each country to exchange photographs with the words, "We love you."
"I'm not an official representative of my country. I'm a father and a teacher," Edry wrote on his blog, www.IsraelovesIran.com. He included a photograph of him and his son. "I know the streets of my town, I talk with my neighbors, my family, my students, my friends and in the name of all these people ... we love you. We mean you no harm. On the contrary, we want to meet, have some coffee and talk about sports."
Within days, the first responses from Iran began to appear. The images posted by Israelis and Iranians are strikingly similar - they show people in the midst of daily activities, posing with their children, dog or favorite book. Some include messages such as "We don't want war," and "I wish we both get rid of our idiot politicians." Often, it's impossible to tell where the message originated until the telltale tag line, Iran (or Israel) we love you. MORE HERE http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/22/2707569/amid-war-fever-some-israelis-and.html
ISRAEL LOVES IRAN BLOG
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/22/2707569/amid-war-fever-some-israelis-and.htmlA Youtube Plea For Peace From an Isreali Father Please share this, it's a... more-
- thinkingblue
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Why Venus and Zeitgeist Don't Have It Quite Right
I might presume that most of You are aware of the Venus Project and the Zeitgeist Movement - if not, search the web, as there is much information. What Jacque Fresco and Peter Joseph, the founders of these movements respectively, fail to grasp, in Each's approach to a "resource based economy" is that the planet We live on is vastly abundant, and the universe offers incalculable amounts of energy.
As all economies of today are based on energy, with money needed to account for the meaningful energy expended, adding abundant energy eliminates the need for an economy as We presently know it.
(For more on the basis of economies in an energy-scarce world, see My blog: http://amaterasu101.tumblr.com/)
Adding overunity in a form drawing on the "dark" energy of the universe allows the elimination of an economy altogether, in any sense We Humans grasp as an economy today. As resource abundance and energy abundance flow, the economy will become a social one, not resource-based.
Released to follow One's bliss, We all will place value, not on resources, but on reputation.
To illustrate this I will offer an example of a painter - but this could be a scientist, an architect, a programmer, a robotics expert, or any other bliss-driven activity that offers betterment.
In the abundance paradigm, Our artist may order Her brushes, paints and canvases (all created by robots and any whose bliss it is to create these things) from the web, delivered to Her by robots (or, should there be any, One whose bliss it is to deliver things...).
She blissfully paints as Her heart leads Her, spending as much time as She chooses - She has no deadline - in completing Her work. Once She is satisfied that the painting is done, She photographs it and emails the picture to Her "followers." She may have a small list or a very large list. She may post the picture on websites to build Her list of followers (Her reputation).
Those who like and want Her painting will contact Her and then She may ask questions, seeking the highest appreciation of Her work (Her "payment" in the form of appreciation). Eventually, She decides on the recipient of Her piece, sending it via robot to the One She feels most appreciates Her efforts.
Those who appreciate Her work leave glowing comments at Her site...
The resources are not the base of the economy; the social aspects of reputation, appreciation, name recognition, lauds, Self-satisfaction, and so on are what the "economy" will be based on. Though resources are needed to facilitate abundance, they are not the basis of economy in abundance.
_________________
So sign a petition for the release of the "free energy" technology of electrogravitics, click here:
http://chn.ge/AouRTZI might presume that most of You are aware of the Venus Project and the Zeitgeist... more-
- Amaterasu
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- 2 months ago
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Are Peaceful Societies Normal?
John Horgan, Center for Science Writings joins Thom Hartmann. War - what is it good for? The song will tell you "absolutely nothing" - and new research suggests it doesn't have to be part of human nature at all. Modern history will teach you that war is an inevitable part of American culture - after all - we've been involved in over a dozen wars or conflicts over the last century. But is modern history the exception - and not the rule? Could it be that the true nature of humans is to be peaceful?John Horgan, Center for Science Writings joins Thom Hartmann. War - what is it good... more-
- Vierotchka
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Tired?
Have you had enough of this terrible world?-
- Progresshiv
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- 2 months ago
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- 82 comments
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Noam Chomsky chooses Obama over GOPs as 2012 President
Noam Chomsky has said, "I’m not a great enthusiast for Obama, as you know, from way back, but at least he’s somewhere in the real world." He stated that the 2012 candidates are "Off the International Spectrum of Sane Behavior."
The extended view by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman with Noam Chomsky --- world-renowned activist, linguist, public intellectual and Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author and one of the most influential political analysts of our day and age --- represents what American GOP middle-class voters are lamenting, "If only we had another candidate to pick from."
This is even made more evident in Amy Goodman's latest article, "Republicans Divided, Citizens United," saying that "the Republicans are not enthusiastic about any of their candidates." In her article, Goodman forecasts that the 2012 presidential election promises to be long, contentious, extremely expensive and perhaps more negative than any in history.
Goodman asked Professor Chomsky what he thought the big difference was between President Obama, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. She also asked if he thought there would be a "drastic change in policy if a Republican were to win in 2012 and if it were Perry or Romney?"
As seen in the above video, his reply was, "Politics in this country now is in a state that I think has no analogue in American history and maybe nowhere in the parliamentary system. It's astonishing."
One of things he referred to is the fact major Republican candidates deny climate change, except for Michele Bachmann when she was still in the running. "I heard a statement of hers in which she said, 'Well, yes, maybe it's happening. It's God's punishment for allowing gay marriage,' or some comment like that. I mean, this --- what's going on there is just off the international spectrum of sane behavior." He added, "The positions they're taking [the candidates] are utterly outlandish."
Chomsky went even further by saying," I just came back from Europe, where people just can’t believe what they’re seeing here, what people are saying."
Noam Chomsky feels that one of the most crucial issues for the human species is doing something about environmental catastrophe. However, Romney and Huntsman are the only candidates who support science. The fact they are Mormons causes many to distrust their opinions. Chomsky especially goes after Rick Perry, wondering why he would deny global warming when in August and September, Perry's home state of Texas was burning up thousands of acres with the highest temperatures on record.
However, as far as the 2012 GOP candidates go, Noam Chomsky goes on record several times in support of Ron Paul, but the Republicans do not want him in office any more than Barrack Obama. Ron Paul is considered uncontrollable and would disrupt Republican ideology. But on Tuesday, January 10, 2011, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul tripled his 2008 vote totals Tuesday, capturing a strong second in the New Hampshire Primary, reported Revolution PAC. What is interesting is that Paul and Romney are the only Republican candidates who have successfully secured positions on the primary ballots of every state, according to a Newswire Press Release, thought to be the only two candidates to win over Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential Race.
Ron Paul, an expert on the Constitution, history and politics, tried to explain why the Arabs hate us, in which Paul was horrifically booed by the audience. Chomsky's response to the Ron Paul video is that nothing that Ron Paul said was untrue, "I think what he said was uncontroversial. You can read it in government documents, find it in polls. Maybe people don't like to hear it, as I mentioned before, but it goes back to the 1950s … and actually, right after 9/11." Over all, Noam Chomsky has agreed with Ron Paul on Paul's foreign policies and other issues.
However, his opinion of President Obama is that he is the only one who makes sense in the real world, as compared to the 2012 GOP candidates. Chomsky's remarks on the "U.S. Economic Crisis --- Joblessness, Excessive Military Spending and Healthcare" video below – are in vivid contrast to that of the Republican party,
"The healthcare system...the huge military spending, the very low taxes for the rich [and corporations]...those are fundamental problems that have to be dealt with if there’s going to be anything like successful economic and social development in the United States.'
"He notes that 'to worry about a possible problem 30 years from now, which can incidentally be fixed with a little bit of tampering here and there, as was done in 1983, to worry about that just makes absolutely no sense, unless you’re trying to destroy the program' ."
http://digitaljournal.com/article/317710Noam Chomsky has said, "I’m not a great enthusiast for Obama, as you know,... more-
- JRBarilla
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- 2 months ago
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Standing Up for Peace
Monday 19 March 2012
by: Jim Hightower, OtherWords | Op-Ed
Keene, New Hampshire has no crime that would warrant rolling out a tank.
During a recent city council meeting, the mayor of Keene, New Hampshire leaned over to a council member and whispered excitedly: "We're going to have our own tank."
Yes, the tank (or, more specifically, the "armored personnel vehicle") is the latest must-have toy for mayors and police departments. Even in this picture-perfect and tranquil New England town of about 23,000 residents, officials hurl common sense to the wind at the very thought of having such a cool ride parked in front of town hall. Maybe they'll even get to drive it in the next 4th of July parade! Never mind that Keene has no crime that would warrant rolling out a tank.
Nonetheless, thanks to such richly funded boondoggles as the "war on drugs" and the "war on terrorism," the federal government is throwing money at cities and states to militarize their various police forces. Thus, Keene was granted $285,000 by the Department of Homeland Security to buy its very own "Bearcat," an eight-ton combat vehicle.
Of course, corporations that peddle such pricey hardware testily insist that Keene needs a tank. A sales executive for Lenco Industries, which makes the Bearcat, snapped to an inquiring reporter: "I don't think there's any place in the country where you can say, 'That isn't a likely terrorist target.' Wouldn't you rather be prepared?"
The sensible people of Keene, however, aren't swallowing the fearmonger pill, and they've forced the town council to reconsider. Local businesswomen Dorrie O'Meara says she hasn't met a single person who's in favor of having "this militaristic thing in Keene." She calls the tank "completely unnecessary. But it's more than that," she adds. "It's just not who we are. It's about what kind of town we want to be."
Wherever you live, take heart in the Keene example. Reject the corporate nonsense and insist on being the town you want to be.
http://www.truth-out.org/standing-common-sense/1332163389Monday 19 March 2012 by: Jim Hightower, OtherWords | Op-Ed Keene, New Hampshire... more -
Israelis, Iranians Agree Via Facebook: 'We Don't Want War'
Amid the drumbeat of war between Iran and Israel, an Israeli couple has launched an online peace campaign in an effort to reach out to Iranians and say no to a military conflict.
Forty-one-year-old graphic designer Ronny Edry and his partner, 36-year-old Michal Tamir, launched the initiative last week by posting pictures of themselves with their children on a Facebook page with a simple message: "Iranians, we love you. We don't want to bomb your country."
Edry wrote, "To the Iranian people, to all the fathers, mothers, children, brothers, and sisters. For there to be a war between us, first we must be afraid of each other. We must hate. I'm not afraid of you. I don't hate you. I don't even know you. No Iranian ever did me harm."
(more at link)Amid the drumbeat of war between Iran and Israel, an Israeli couple has launched an... more-
- Vierotchka
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The Antiwar Comic: In Response to Kony 2012
Tony D responds to the Kony 2012 video.-
- TonyDiGerolamo
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- 2 months ago
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Electrogravitics - A Description of a Better Overunity ("Free Energy")
Electrogravitics... This technology was being developed and tested in all major aerospace companies in the 1950's. Martin, Convair, Lear, Sperry, Raytheon, and many others all were eagerly studying electrogravitics. But in 1959 or early 1960, the technology became highly classified and the path to energy abundance was stymied. Here is a basic description of electrogravitics:
First One has to understand that the model offered by Einstein is flawed... There are other models. There is one in particular...
The model, which I say is a far better one than relativity, is subquantum kinetics (SQK). Its developer, Dr. Paul A. LaViolette (an interesting character, to say the least), started with chemical kinetics (as above, so below?) and came up with SQK, being very concerned by its gravitational predictions. He had not heard of the Biefeld-Brown Effect, nor the work of T. Townsend Brown. He struggled with these predictions until He encountered Brown's work, discovering that SQK predicted exactly what Brown was showing experimentally.
Why is SQK better than relativity?
It takes no element on faith: Einstien's relativity is based on the faith that matter somehow "bends" space-time. Nowhere does He explain (or even try to) HOW or WHY this might be. One just has to take it on faith.
It explains things without the need for "renormalization;" relativity ends in infinities without this mathematical fudge.
It integrates EM with gravity. Einstein Himself died still trying to do so.
And it still predicts things like the lensing of light, the apparent time dilation, and all other predictions of relativity, plus more - all of which are testable (string theory is 100% untestable).
In fact, many of the mysteries of Einsteinian mathematics are predicted in SQK.
I recommend reading a book called Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion, by Dr. LaViolette, for more on the Biefeld-Brown Effect, Brown's work, electrogravitics, SQK, and more. It can be read here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/47447158/secrets-of-antigravity-propulsion-pdf-november-11-2010-11-21-pm-28-7-meg
In SQK, positively charged particles have a positive gravity potential "well." Negatively charged particles have a negative gravity potential "hill." The positive particle's "well" is just the smallest fraction bigger than the negative "hill," accounting for the apparent weakness of gravity, where essentially even amounts of positively charged and negatively charged particles make up common matter, and in quantities as big as the earth, say, offer a slight "well" overall, thus explaining why We are aware of gravity at all.
The Biefeld-Brown Effect was discovered when it was noted that a dielectric with electrodes attached at either end, would lose weight when charged if the positive pole was pointed upwards on a scale, and gain weight when reversed. Higher voltage increased this effect. Study showed that the higher the K of the dielectric, the more pronounced the weight changes became, as well. Asymmetrical electrodes increased the effect. Also, a non-linear dielectric produced greater changes than a linear one. With high K, non-linear dielectrics, a substantial force could be observed, even to the point of levitation and a local gravity field was induced.
If, say, four devices were placed on a cross, each oriented 90° to the center and pointing in the same direction relative to that center, and a shaft was set at center and into a generator, when small amounts of energy are used at high voltage on the units, the resulting rotation will induce a greater output at the generator than the input to the units. Overunity is achieved.
________________
To sign a petition for the release of electrogravitics from black projects, please sign this petition and spread the information. If We can reach the tipping point of awareness, We can demand this technology:
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-military-release-the-technology-of-electrograviticsElectrogravitics... This technology was being developed and tested in all major... more-
- Amaterasu
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Jacob Acaye, featured in Kony 2012 defends film's maker against criticism
Jacob Acaye, the Ugandan former child abductee at the heart of the film Kony 2012, a web phenomenon seen by more than 50 million people around the world, defended the video and its makers on Thursday against criticism that it is misleading and champions western intervention against an insurgency which is already waning and on the run.
Acaye's home region around the town of Gulu is now relatively peaceful, and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which kidnapped him and killed his brother in 2002, has been driven out of northern Uganda along with its warlord leader, Joseph Kony, who has melted into the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. But Acaye denied widespread criticism in Uganda and elsewhere that the American-made film calling for Kony's arrest is out-of-date or irrelevant. "It is not too late, because all this fighting and suffering is still going on elsewhere," Acaye, now 21, told the Guardian in a telephone interview from Kampala, where he is studying law. "Until now, the war that was going on has been a silent war. People did not really know about it.
"Now what was happening in Gulu is still going on elsewhere in the Central African Republic and in Congo. What about the people who are suffering over there? They are going through what we were going through."
Kony 2012 has become a surprise hit around the world some 25 years after Kony founded his militia and a decade after the peak of its reign of terror in northern Uganda. But its makers, a group called Invisible Children, have been widely criticised by Ugandan journalists and other aid agencies for being self-promoting (the video spends much of its 28 minutes on its maker, Jason Russell and his young son, Gavin) and opaque about its use of funds – and for concentrating on an issue that has dramatically changed in recent years.
"They are focusing more on an American solution to an African conflict than the holistic approach which should include regional governments and people who are very key to make this a success," said Victor Ochen, the director of African Youth Initiative Network based in Lira, the site of one Kony's worst massacres in Uganda.
"They are advocating for a mechanism to end war with more attention to a perpetrator not victims. Campaigning on killing one man and that's the end is not enough … There are many people who are caught up in this war. Invisible Children has good access to international media but they have no connection with the community they claim to represent." Ugandan writer Angelo Opi-Aiya Izama wrote on his blog: "To call the campaign a misrepresentation is an understatement ... its portrayal of his alleged crimes in northern Uganda are from a bygone era." He added that the main problems in the area now are child prostitution, HIV and a mysterious and incurable neurological disorder, known as nodding disease, which has afflicted more than 4,000 children.
Izama said that although the LRA is still preying on civilians in neighbouring countries, it was no longer an unknown problem. He said: "The LRA leader is the subject of an international manhunt by a joint force of Ugandan, Congolese, Sudanese and Central African troops. This effort is assisted by US combat troops."
In 2009 a US-supported military operation dubbed Operation Lightning Thunder and carried out by Uganda government forces failed to kill Kony. The Ugandan army said Kony had left his compound a few minutes before the attack. Since it was set up in 2003, Invisible Children, a San Diego-based charity has released 11 films and run regular "awareness-raising" film tours across the US, mainly showing to schools and universities. The group is barely known in Uganda, but claims to have given school and university scholarships to 750 children, and helped re-build schools. Acaye said that his old school is one of those the group has rebuilt.
"Now that the situation in Gulu is stabilised and there is no longer war there, there is reconstruction of the place. Schools are being built. It is not the fault of the people there that they were abducted and used. They need to be helped," he said. "The organisation has fought really hard to rebuild my school. It is doing good work." Acaye was taken prisoner by the LRA militia when it attacked his home village of Koro, near Gulu, but he escaped after three weeks when one unit handed him over to another.
"I got lucky. I was taken by a second group which did not know much about me, and I was transferred to that group. They asked me how long I had been with the LRA and I said three months so they thought I had no intention of running away, so they did not watch me," Acaye said.
He found his way back to his village, but from then on joined the hundreds of children who walked into Gulu to sleep every night for safety. It was while he was sleeping on a verandah there that he was found by Invisible Children.
"They could not understand what was happening. They wanted a kid who was sleeping there and who spoke English. I could understand English and I could say what was happening, so that is how I was in their film," Acaye said.
Invisible Children's accounts show it is a cash rich operation, which more than tripled its income to $9m (£5.68m) in 2011, mainly from personal donations. Of this, nearly 25% was spent on travel and film-making. Most of the money raised has been spent in the US. The accounts show $1.7m went on US employee salaries, $850,000 in film production costs, $244,000 in "professional services" – thought to be Washington lobbyists – and $1.07m in travel expenses. Nearly $400,000 was spent on offices in San Diego.
Questions were raised on Thursday about its operation after it emerged that Charity Navigator, a US charity evaluator, gave the organisation only three out of four stars overall, four stars financially, and two stars for "accountability and transparency". Noelle Jouglet communication director, responded in a statement saying: "Our score is currently at 2 stars due to the fact that Invisible Children currently does not have five independent voting members on our board of directors. We are currently in the process of interviewing potential board members, and our goal is to add an additional independent member this year in order to regain our 4-star rating by 2013."
Julian Borger, John Vidal, and Rosebell Kagumire in KampalaJacob Acaye, the Ugandan former child abductee at the heart of the film Kony 2012, a... more-
- BRAVATRAVELS
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The Last of the Snow and Other Bullshit
Sometimes I wonder about colors. Why blue, the soft color of the sky and the crystal of water, is also the feeling of being sad. And why yellow, bright, warm and bursting is having no courage. Why red is passionate, heat and fire is bloody and blushing. And black, opaque, dark, mysterious and sensual. And why are yo u a rainbow– complex with colors all blended and shining?Sometimes I wonder about colors. Why blue, the soft color of the sky and the crystal... more -
Chris Hedges at Occupy AIPAC
Truth Dig - Chris Hedges gave this talk Saturday night in Washington, D.C., at the Occupy AIPAC protest. Please read article and share, following is an excerpt.
AIPAC Works for the 1 Percent:
"...The battle for justice in the Middle East is our battle. It is part of the great battle against the corporate forces of death that reign over us—the fossil fuel industry, the weapons manufacturers, the security and surveillance state, the speculators on Wall Street, the oligarchic elites who assault our poor, our working men and women, our children, one in four of whom depend on food stamps to eat, the elites who are destroying our ecosystem with its trees, its air and its water and throwing into doubt our survival as a species.
What is being done in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison, is a pale reflection of what is slowly happening to the rest of us. It is a window into the rise of the global security state, our new governing system that the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls “inverted totalitarianism.” It is a reflection of a world where the powerful are not bound by law, either on Wall Street or in the shattered remains of the countries we invade and occupy, including Iraq with its hundreds of thousands of dead. And one of the greatest purveyors of this demented ideology of violence for the sake of violence, this flagrant disregard for the rule of domestic and international law, is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
I spent seven years in the Middle East. I was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. I lived for two of those seven years in Jerusalem. AIPAC does not speak for Jews or for Israel. It is a mouthpiece for right-wing ideologues, some of whom hold power in Israel and some of whom hold power in Washington, who believe that because they have the capacity to war wage they have a right to wage war, whose loyalty, in the end, is not to the citizens of Israel or Palestine or the United States but the corporate elites, the defense contractors, those who make war a business, those who have turned ordinary Palestinians, Israelis and Americans, along with hundreds of millions of the world’s poor, into commodities to exploit, repress and control..."
Please read more at : http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/aipac_works_for_the_1_percent_20120304/Truth Dig - Chris Hedges gave this talk Saturday night in Washington, D.C., at the... more-
- JRBarilla
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The Antiwar Comic: The Interventionists’ Argument
Tony D tries to argue for peace.-
- TonyDiGerolamo
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Inverted Totalitarianism and the Corporate State
Stricken with a terminal disease, the decline of traditional society is unavoidable. For decades, the political institutions that fostered a Republic based upon individual liberty and responsibility fade into fond memory. Defenders of all that made America a shining example of human freedom are attacked and ridiculed for holding onto a moral and ethical system that is based upon the dignity of every individual. Most will blame the failure of this decay on the politicians that willfully pander to the masses with the next generation of social welfare programs. While defining a politician as a scoundrel, deserving damnation, seems obvious; the underlying source of the decay that eats away the culture comes from various directions.
The trends toward despotism are visible for all to see. Most prefer their blinded vision because accepting the lethal condition might require some proactive response. The idea that a single dictator will seize power and rule as a tyranny seems foreign to many plebeians. Yet, the daily news that flows from the corporate mass media build upon the absence of real reporting and fundamental truth that ignores, denies and substitutes meaningless stories for earth shattering events.
Therefore, the significance of the concept, inverted totalitarianism, as defined by Sheldon S. Wolin deserves examination.
“It is all politics all of the time but a politics largely untempered by the political. Party squabbles are occasionally on public display, and there is a frantic and continuous politics among factions of the party, interest groups, competing corporate powers, and rival media concerns. And there is, of course, the culminating moment of national elections when the attention of the nation is required to make a choice of personalities rather than a choice between alternatives. What is absent is the political, the commitment to finding where the common good lies amidst the welter of well-financed, highly organized, single-minded interests rabidly seeking governmental favors and overwhelming the practices of representative government and public administration by a sea of cash.”
Watch the Sheldon Wolin You Tube interview for a summary of his viewpoint.
For an in-depth study of Mr. Wolin’s ideas, review Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. He asks the following questions:
“Does a demos have a future in the age of globalization, instant communication networks, and fluid borders? Is the notion of “a” demos as asingle, compact body with a “will” and an identity that persists overtime at all possible or even a coherent notion in the age of the political bloggers? Is there time for a more authentic politics, more reflective of the pluralistic character of reality?”
He defines democracy as,
“Democracy is about the conditions that make it possible for ordinary people to better their lives by becoming political beings and by making power responsive to their hopes and needs. What is at stake in democratic politics is whether ordinary men and women can recognize that their concerns are best protected and cultivated under a regime whose actions are governed by principles of commonality, equality, and fairness, a regime in which taking part in politics becomes a way of staking out and sharing in a common life and its forms of self-fulfillment. Democracy is not about bowling together but about managing together those powers that immediately and significantly affect the lives and circumstances of others and one’s self.”
The power influence of the transnational corporation dampens any idealistic notion that democracy is coming from the voices of the people. Momentous influence comes through the propagandist media message. The corporate economy dictates the parameters of the public debate. Trivia replaces the profound. Spending drives a lust for meaningless ingestion of poisonous consumption. The shaping of the popular culture is meant not just to dumb down the public but also to confer a normalcy for accepting the mundane. Rejecting the historic dialogue of the nature of man and the role of a just government is replaced with a diet of manufactured “dependency rights” and “entitlements”.
From Fugitive Democracy: Sheldon Wolin and contemplating the local, the following quote offers an insight on the nature of political apathy that relegates one to accept a mad culture which is devoid from reality.
“In the emerging political economy, Wolin discerns an “anti-political” movement that coordinates the corporation and the state in a drive toward Superpower—that is, “an expansive system of power that accepts no limits other than those it chooses to impose on itself” (p. xvi). As this ‘postmodern’ political economy tends toward Superpower, those in positions of authority demand a new form of citizen: the imperial citizen. Sheldon Wolin reminds us of American president George W. Bush during the tense moments after September 11th, 2001, who exhorted the people to show their citizenship through consumption: “unite, spend, and fly” (590). This pastoral concern by the president emblemizes the postmodern power of the political economy as it reconstitutes “civic culture” as a flattened plane detached from the dynamic structures of Superpower’s soveriegn handle of world affairs. The best thing citizens can do is prove their patriotism by submitting to the authority of the established powers without a word of protest or difference (thus the encouragement to “unite”). Rather than spending unnecessary time and energy worrying about the changing shape of common life—of the networks that bind us to near and distant neighbors—the postmodern citizen faces the multiplicity of demands and choices available at the local Starbucks as she scrolls through the latest bids on ebay while listening to music on her iPod as she waits for the latest iTunes song to upload on her iBook. With so much to do, why worry ourselves with what our representatives are paid to do? This is the imperial citizen according to Superpower—a free-floating, apolitical subject, moved by the television pulse from the security of home to the perpetual satisfaction of shopping malls. “Superpower needs an imperial citizen,” writes Wolin, “one who accepts the necessarily remote relationship between the concerns of the citizen and those of the power-holders, who welcomes being relieved of participatory obligations, and who is fervently patriotic.” (565).”
The imperial citizen is truly a fool. The imperium that surrounds the disengaged participant in the latest escalation of self-imposed slavery, is the ultimate result of the corporate/state.
Progressive author and pundit, Chris Hedges adds his vantage point in the video, Inverted Totalitarianism: Brand Obama and the Corporate State.
Hedges’ talent for ripping apart the corporate state in all its horror is well established. However, his clarion voice goes unheard in the corridors of real power. The economy dictates the marketplace that is available for sale. The advertisement is the message that is acceptable to believe. And the limits upon one’s ability to think and act rationally is controlled by the inverted totalitarianism that is of our own making.
Blaming external forces for all the ills of circumstances begs the issue. As long as passive individuals...
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/02/28/inverted-totalitarianism-and-the-corporate-state/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inverted-totalitarianism-and-the-corporate-state&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitterStricken with a terminal disease, the decline of traditional society is unavoidable.... more-
- JRBarilla
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The Antiwar Comic: Celebrity Politics
Do celebrities impact politics or the other way around?-
- TonyDiGerolamo
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Ron Paul in Oklahoma City 2/25/12
Talks Wall Street Corruption, Occupy Movement, Bipartisanship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IQgX6YKWl30Talks Wall Street Corruption, Occupy Movement, Bipartisanship... more-
- JRBarilla
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Anonymous Message To American Citizens Concerning Ron Paul
Anonymous Message To American Citizens Concerning Ron Paul
Against New World Order Slavery http://www.new-world-order-plan.orgAnonymous Message To American Citizens Concerning Ron Paul Against New World Order... more-
- JRBarilla
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