tagged w/ Apartheid
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The six Freedom Riders chose to board a bus that serves Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank on it's way to Occupied East Jerusalem, wearing kuffiyehs (Palestinian scarfs) and t-shirts reading 'Justice', 'Freedom', and 'We Shall Overcome'. They took this bold action to expose the racism and policies of segregation that pervade every aspect of life in occupied Palestine. To send the message to the world that separate is not equal. Not in the United States and not in Israel or Palestine. They also wanted to bring attention to the role of Israeli and international companies, such as Egged and Veolia, who operate these segreated bus lines, in perpetuating and profiting from the occupation. http://www.makeahistory.com/index.php/recent-news/43025-forbidden-roadsThe six Freedom Riders chose to board a bus that serves Jewish-only settlements in the... more
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Poet Gil Scott-Heron dies
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 27, 2011 11:34 p.m. EDT
PROGENITOR OF HIP-HOP, GODFATHER OF RAP
Gil Scott-Heron was known for his poetry and soul works in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
He was known for his poetry and soul works in the late 1960s and early 1970s
After a 13-year hiatus from making music, Scott-Heron put out a new album last year
(CNN) -- Gil Scott-Heron, a poet and musician best known for the song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," died Friday, his publicist at XL Recordings said.
Born in 1949, Scott-Heron was known for his poetry and soul works in the late 1960s and early 1970s, according to his official website.
His early albums, "Pieces of a Man" and "Winter in America," has been credited with influencing other musical genres like hip hop.
After a 13-year hiatus from making music, Scott-Heron put out a new album last year called "I'm New Here."
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CNN UPDATE...
Poet, musician Gil Scott-Heron dies
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 28, 2011 1:43 a.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Gil Scott-Heron is best known for the 1970 song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
NEW: Scott-Heron's music has been sampled by hip hop stars, including Kanye West and Common
NEW: In 2008, Scott-Heron told a reporter he had contracted HIV
After a 13-year hiatus from making music, Scott-Heron put out a new album last year
(CNN) -- Gil Scott-Heron, dubbed the "godfather of rap" for his mix of poetry and music, died Friday in New York, his publicist at XL Recordings said. He was 62.
It was not immediately known what killed Scott-Heron, who was best known for the 1970 song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," a politically and socially charged song that examined the African American condition in America at the time. The song was banned by some radio stations.
Scott-Heron died at 4 p.m. at a New York hospital, said Lisa Gottheil, his publicist at XL Recordings.
Scott-Heron defined the genre, long-time friend and former bandmate Charlie Saunders told CNN. Saunders worked on Scott-Heron's 1970 debut album "Small Talk At 125th & Lenox."
Saunders, a percussionist, said the last time he saw Scott-Heron was about two years ago when he needed a place to stay.
"He came by our house to get himself together. He spent 4 to 5 days and then moved on," Saunders said.
Much of Scott-Heron's poetry and music reflected his struggles with drugs and alcohol.
Born in 1949, Scott-Heron first gained fame for his poetry and spoken word performances in the late 1960s. By the mid-1970s, he had published two books of poetry and recorded four albums, including "Small Talk At 125th & Lenox."
His early albums, "Pieces of a Man" and "Winter in America," have been credited with influencing other musical genres, such as hip hop. But it was the song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" that put Scott-Heron on the musical map.
His music has been sampled by everyone from Kanye West, who sampled "Comment #1" for his 2010 song "Who Will Save America," to Common's sample of "No Knock" on his 2008 hit "Universal Mind Control."
After a 13-year hiatus from making music, Scott-Heron put out a new album last year called "I'm New Here."
In a 2008 interview with New York magazine, Scott-Heron revealed he had contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, after years of batting drug and alcohol addictions. In 2001 and 2007, he was jailed on drug charges.
CNN's Denise Quan and Greg Morrison contributed to this report.Poet Gil Scott-Heron dies
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 27, 2011 11:34 p.m. EDT... more
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The Obama administration exercises its first U.N. Security Council veto to kill an Arab-backed resolution calling West Bank settlements 'illegal.' The vote was seen by both Israelis and Palestinians as a crucial test of U.S. loyalty.
Reporting from Jerusalem and Washington — The Obama administration, opposing 14 other United Nations Security Council members, exercised its veto power for the first time Friday to kill a resolution calling for Israeli settlements to be condemned as illegal and seeking to halt construction.
Though the resolution largely echoed long-standing criticism by the U.S. and international leaders about Israel's construction on land seized during the 1967 Middle East War, the Obama administration rejected the proposal, saying the U.N. is not the proper forum and the dispute should be handled during peace talks.
The Arab-backed resolution called Israel's settlements a major obstacle to Mideast peace talks.
GO TO STORY:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-un-israeli-settlements-20110...The Obama administration exercises its first U.N. Security Council veto to kill an... more
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"It is easer for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle, that it is for a Rich Man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Or, maybe you just need to buy a bigger needle?
It's official: as Egypt was burning, Mubarak was stealing the gold. When we reported, presumably jokingly, two weeks ago that the Egyptian Central Bank may have been plundered, it turns out we were pretty much accurate once again. For all those wondering why Mubarak was refusing to hand over power for the past two weeks as hundreds of people were dying, we now have the answer - it was all just to make sure he transferred his assets, especially gold, to safe regimes (in the process paying tens of millions in commissions to that most noble of jobs - the banker class). The Telegraph reports: "A US official told The Sunday Telegraph: "Hosni Mubarak used the 18 days it took for protesters to topple him to shift his vast wealth into untraceable accounts overseas, Western intelligence sources have said...There's no doubt that there will have been some frantic financial activity behind the scenes. They can lose the homes and some of the bank accounts, but they will have wanted to get the gold bars and other investments to safe quarters. The Mubaraks are understood to have wanted to shift assets to Gulf states where they have considerable investments already – and, crucially, friendly relations. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have frequently been mentioned as likely final destinations for Mr Mubarak and possibly his family."As usual, we remind readers that according to the World Gold Council, Egypt had 75.6 tonnes of gold at the end of 2010. Should this number not be reduced following Mubarak's plundering, we will know just how pervasive Tungsten is in the world central banking cartel.
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From Telegraph: ---
The former Egyptian president is accused of amassing a fortune of more than £3 billion - although some suggest it could be as much as £40 billion - during his 30 years in power. It is claimed his wealth was tied up in foreign banks, investments, bullion and properties in London, New York, Paris and Beverly Hills.
In the knowledge his downfall was imminent, Mr Mubarak is understood to have attempted to place his assets out of reach of potential investigators.
On Friday night Swiss authorities announced they were freezing any assets Mubarak and his family may hold in the country's banks while pressure was growing for the UK to do the same. Mr Mubarak has strong connections to London and it is thought many millions of pounds are stashed in the UK.
But a senior Western intelligence source claimed that Mubarak had begun moving his fortune in recent weeks.
"We're aware of some urgent conversations within the Mubarak family about how to save these assets," said the source, "And we think their financial advisers have moved some of the money around. If he had real money in Zurich, it may be gone by now."
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Perhaps Goldman Sachs can take a proactive PR step and disclose to the population that the flow trade-frontrunning hedge fund had nothing to do with facilitating the transfer of Mubarak's billions in stolen wealth from point A to point B. And perhaps all other banks can follow suit. Either that, or we can all just wait for Mubarak's sworn deposition when he is put on trial for crimes against the Egyptian people some time in 1-2 months. Doing text searches for "Goldman" in those thousand page PDFs will be breeze...
GO TO STORY:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8320912/Egypt-Hosni-Mubarak-used-last-18-days-in-power-to-secure-his-fortune.html
Story By: Philip Sherwell, in New York, Robert Mendick, and Nick Meo in Cairo
Shadowy Cabal: Tyler Durden
Illustration & Art Work: Gérard Angé"It is easer for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle, that it is for a... more
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With US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington's role in arming Egypt is under the spotlight...
In early January 2010, Bob Livingston, a former chairman of the appropriations committee in the US House of Representatives, flew to Cairo accompanied by William Miner, one of his staff. The two men were granted meetings with US Ambassador Margaret Scobey, as well as Major General FC "Pink" Williams, the defence attaché and director of the US Office of Military Cooperation in Egypt. Livingston and Miner were lobbyists employed by the government of Egypt, helping them to open doors to senior officers in the US government. Records of their meetings, required under law, were recently published by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington, DC watchdog group.
Although the names of those who attended the meetings have to be made public, the details of what was discussed are confidential. I called Miner to ask him about their meetings, but he referred me to Karim Haggag, the spokesman for the Egyptian embassy in Washington, who did not respond. Miner did confirm that he was a retired Navy pilot who had worked for clients like the Egyptian government, as well as several military contractors.
The cozy relationship between the lobbyists, members of the US Congress, Pentagon officials and the Egyptian government is easily explained: much is at stake. Egypt has received over $70bn in economic and military aid approved by the US Congress in the past 60 years, according to numbers compiled by the Congressional Research Service. Maj Gen Williams is the man in charge of the $1.3bn in annual US military aid supplied to the country.
Specifically, the aid money pays for US-designed Abrams tanks assembled in suburban Cairo under contract with General Dynamics. Boeing sells Egypt CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, Lockheed Martin sells F-16s, Sikorsky Aircraft sells Black Hawk helicopters. Lockheed Martin has taken in $3.8bn from Egypt in the last few years; General Dynamics $2.5bn; Boeing $1.7bn; among many others.
In addition, hundreds of Egyptian military officers come for short training courses to the US each year. Two days after Livingston and Miner met with the US officials in Cairo, the embassy sent a cable to Washington with a list of Egyptian officials approved to take a three-week military training course in the US in February 2010. Under the "Leahy law" – a human rights requirement named after Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont that prohibits US military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights – the embassy must, as a matter of routine, vouch for the prospective trainees.
One of the training courses listed in the cable made public by WikiLeaks was listed as one in how to handle explosives. The WikiLeaks cables show that numerous officials working for "state security", aged between 30 and 50 with ranks from major to lieutenant colonel, were given clean bills of health to take a variety of such specialised military training programmes.
After the US lobbyists returned to their offices in Washington, DC, Miner kept in touch with "Pink" Williams, corresponding via email. A little over three months later, an Egyptian military delegation led by Major General Mohamed Said Elassar, assistant to Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the Egyptian minister of defence, came to Washington. Livingstone and Miner were on hand once again to take the Egyptian officials to meet with a number of members of Congress, as well to visit the office of the secretary of defence to discuss "US/Egyptian security issues".
So, when protesters in Cairo last week were struck by tear gas canisters fired by Egyptian security officials, it was not surprising that pictures taken by ABC TV would show that the canisters were manufactured in the US. Nor does it seem that surprising that a journalist from the Sydney Morning Herald would find 12-gauge shotgun shells with ''MADE IN USA'' stamped on their brass heads when he visited the wounded in a makeshift casualty ward in a tiny mosque behind Tahrir (Liberation) Square.
The photographs show that the tear gas comes from a company named Combined Systems Inc (CSI), which describes itself as a "tactical weapons company" and is based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. A similar picture from the protests in Egypt was posted on Twitter of a "Outdoor 52 Series Large Grenade" grenade made by CSI, which is designed to discharge "a high volume of smoke and chemical agent through multiple emission ports". (CSI did not return calls for comment.)
Although CSI markets these products as "less-than-lethal", several incidents indicate that they can cause injury and death. Bassem Abu Rahmah, a Palestinian man, was reportedly killed on 17 April 2009, when a CSI 40mm model 4431 powder barricade penetrating tear gas grenade struck him in the chest, according to a report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Nels Cooper Brannan , a US marine deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, unsuccessfully sued CSI for injuries caused by an allegedly defective MK 141 flashbang grenade that caused serious damage to his left hand when it exploded accidently.
While the Egyptian protesters were facing tear gas grenades fired by security forces in Cairo, another delegation of Egyptian senior military officials led by Lieutenant General Sami Hafez Enan, the chief of staff of Egypt's armed forces, was back in Washington to meet with Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (No public records have been filed yet, so it is unclear if Miner and Livingstone were escorting them again.)
Within hours of the news of the huge protests, Enan cut short his trip and dashed back to Cairo last Friday, but his boss, Minister Tantawi, has kept in touch with Washington, making daily phone calls to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Both men – together with Egypt's spy chief, Omar Suleiman – are among President Hosni Mubarak's closest allies and enjoy close ties with Washington, according to the diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks. And it was these men that Thomas E Donilon, the US national security adviser, was frantically phoning last weekend to try to gauge how to prevent the collapse of the Mubarak regime.
It could days, maybe even weeks, before the future of the Egyptian government is decided, and with it, the relationship with the US. But one thing is clear: the Egyptian protesters are well aware of the close ties between officials in Cairo and Washington and not happy about the US training and tear gas shells supplied to the Egyptian military. Crowds gathered in Liberation Square last week chanted: "Hosni Mubarak, Omar Suleiman, both of you are agents of the Americans." The protesters believe that the billions in military aid that kept Mubarak in power have helped him keep democracy from flowering in Egypt.
Two years after Obama's famous speech in Cairo, in which he called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims", it might be a little late for his administration to heed the words of Mostafa Amin, Egypt's most famous columnist and journalist:
Maybe America gains a lot when it exports to us arms and cars or planes, but it loses more when it does not export the best that its civilisation has produced, which is freedom and democracy and human rights. The value of America is that it should defend this product, not only in its country but throughout the world! It may harm some of its interests, but it will make gains that will live hundreds of years, for the friendship of peoples live forever, because the peoples do not die, but governments change like the winter weather.
GO TO STORY:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/04/egypt-arms-tradeWith US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington's role... more
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Please support Wikileaks by donating.
Click here: http://213.251.145.96/support.html
Please sign the petition: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks...
If you would like to become even more involved, then there may be a "support Wikileaks protest" near you.
Click here for details: http://wlcentral.org/events-protests
Here is a list of Wikileaks mirror sites:
http://wikileaks.ch/mirrors.html
After Effects template for opening by Kenzei via Video Hive.
The statistics of how many have died as a result of the war on terror is an estimate taken from http://www.unknownnews.net
It is hard to pin pinpoint just how many have died due to the fact that this information isn't released. estimates have the toll somewhere between
800,000 and 1,200,000
Requests under freedom of information act denied by Obama Administration should read 49% - for more info
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/16...
Another point to make is that the clip of Obama talking about different terrorists was an except taken from an interview with Bill O'Reilly where he was explaining the difference between terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, i thought it was relevant as so much of the terminology in the media is focused around labelling wikileaks and it's people terrorists.
The song "Your the Voice" was by Coldplay featuring John Farnham - song was originally by John Farnham.
The clip was taken from a concert in Sydney "Sound Relief" where many bands came together to support people who were devastated by the Black Saturday fires. - of whom Coldplay were amongst them.
PLEASE POST THIS AROUND.
CheersPlease support Wikileaks by donating.
Click here: http://213.251.145.96/support.html... more
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By JPOST.COM STAFF
01/05/2011 12:07
WikiLeaks cable reveals: Officials planned to keep Gaza economy functioning at lowest possible level without causing humanitarian crisis.
Talkbacks (48)
In the period before Operation Cast Lead, Israeli officials said the aim of the blockade of Gaza was to keep the Strip’s economy on the brink of collapse, a US diplomatic cable obtained by Norwegian paper Aftenposten revealed on Wednesday.
The cable, dated November 3, 2008, and released by whistle-blower web site WikiLeaks, suggested that Israeli intelligence agencies and politicians said that the plan was to keep the Gazan economy functioning at the lowest possible level without causing a humanitarian crisis.
GO TO ARTICLE:
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=202311By JPOST.COM STAFF
01/05/2011 12:07
WikiLeaks cable reveals: Officials planned... more
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http://ow.ly/3zFed
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 002301GO TO DOCUMENT:
1. (S/NF) Summary: U.S. businesses allege that corruption by Israeli officials at Karni crossing is impeding their access to the Gaza market. As of late May 34 shipments of American goods, amounting to nearly USD 1.9 million dollars, have been waiting three to four months to cross into Gaza. U.S. distributors assert they are being asked to pay "special fees" which amount to as much as 75 times the standard processing fee as quoted by GOI officials. According to one major American distributor, corruption extends to Karni management and involves logistics companies working as middlemen for military and civilian officials at the terminal. An open and transparent truck registration system and the development and publication of clear procedures, charges and service standards for Karni would go a long way to fight corruption and advance the Agreement on Movement and Access, goal of effective service standards for the border crossings. End summary and comment.
------------------------- ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION -------------------------
GO TO RELEASED DOCUMENT:
http://www.aftenposten.no/spesial/wikileaksdokumenter/article3974066.ecehttp://ow.ly/3zFed
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 002301GO TO DOCUMENT:... more
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Josef Federman /AP Jan 6, 2011 – 9:33 AM
JERUSALEM - A U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks on Thursday quoted American officials as saying a key Israeli cargo crossing for goods entering the Gaza Strip was rife with corruption.
The June 14, 2006, cable, published Thursday by Norway's Aftenposten daily, says major American companies told U.S. diplomats they were forced to pay hefty bribes to get goods into Gaza. It was unclear whether the practice still continues.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
The document quoted a local Coca-Cola distributor as saying he was asked to pay more than $3,000 to get a truckload of merchandise through the Karni crossing. The executive claimed an unidentified "high-level official" at the crossing headed the corruption ring.
"Corruption extends to Karni management and involves logistics companies working as middlemen for military and civilian officials at the terminal," the document says.
The executive was identified as Joerg Hartmann, with Coca-Cola's distributor in the West Bank. The company did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The cable says other companies, including Proctor & Gamble, Caterpillar, Philip Morris, Westinghouse, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Aramex and Dell, had complained of corruption at the crossing. It was not clear which companies had actually paid the bribes, though the document said Caterpillar executives refused to pay.
The alleged corruption occurred a year before Hamas overran Gaza and Israel imposed an economic blockade. At that time, however, Israeli-Palestinian violence frequently closed the border crossings.
Hartmann told U.S. diplomats that the cost of the bribes would rise after extended closures of the border.
The document was identified as a "joint cable" by the U.S. ambassador to Israel in Tel Aviv and the American consul-general in Jerusalem, who works closely with the Palestinians. The embassy had no immediate comment.
Go to Story:
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/06/wikileaks-israel-charged-bribes-for-gaza-access/Josef Federman /AP Jan 6, 2011 – 9:33 AM
JERUSALEM - A U.S. diplomatic cable... more
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Posted on January 4, 2011 by Crushing Bastards
Crew photo from my first deployment. The plane is a RC-135 "Rivet Joint."
I am a US Air Force Intelligence veteran of the war in Afghanistan and I support Wikileaks.
During my service I held a Top Secret security clearance and worked as an Afghan-Pashto linguist; my duties included consuming and producing a large number of intelligence reports. After reading many of the Iraq/Afghan/Cablegate logs I am compelled to inform my fellow citizens that I saw nothing in these logs that could endanger our troops or public servants.
Here’s what I did see: I saw Iraq war logs that painted a very bleak picture of the situation there which doesn’t match up with the “improved security” that’s been reported by the “Defense” Department for years. I saw proof of public officials acting dishonestly and abusing their posts. Overall, I saw an out of control government that is in over its head and does more to endanger the lives of its people than any publishing organization ever could.
I volunteered to protect this country under the impression that my government followed the will of the American People and adhered to the US Constitution. As it turns out, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were never constitutionally declared and despite public opinion being against the two wars they continue to grow more destructive. My experiences in these wars differed greatly from the propaganda the American people were sold by America’s mainstream media outlets; many times I would return from a mission to see wild inaccuracies being reported on Fox/CNN/MSNBC about the very operation I had just been supporting. Wikileaks has helped shine light on the true nature of these illegal wars and the policymakers that perpetuate them, for this I am thankful.
Speaking of policy makers that perpetuate war… Apparently, this nation is bankrupt. The US dollar, under the custodianship of Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve System, continues to lose its purchasing power as new dollars are printed to pay for warfare and corporate welfare (in the form of bailouts for bankers). We must recognize that printing more money will not solve our problems, it will only make Americans increasingly poorer. The foundation of America’s financial system is corrupt and dishonest; Wikileaks is also working to unmask this corrupt central-banking system.
For too long, bastards (using Julian Assange’s definition) have been able to use America’s good reputation as a cover for their misdeeds. These days, it seems that powerful interests wield more influence in Washington than the whole of the American electorate. These interests see the American people as nothing more than sheep to be fleeced and so they use their influence to make it easier for us to be held down. I support Wikileaks because I want to see these insidious influences exposed. My hope is that the 21st Century will be one of liberty and transparency, not of greater secrecy and slavish submission to authority.
Let it be known that there are many of us who will resist any attempts to stifle 1st Amendment protections; that America’s veterans take seriously their oaths to the US Constitution and will demand transparency and honesty from government officials; that America’s veterans stand ready to defend the ideals of a free society in the 21st century.
http://crushingbastards.org/blog/2011/01/04/i-am-a-us-air-force-intelligence-veteran-of-the-war-in-afghanistan-and-i-support-wikileaks/Posted on January 4, 2011 by Crushing Bastards
Crew photo from my first... more
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The Film: "Personal Responsibility"
[ Warning: This Video Has a PG Rating ]
~ About Freedom of the Press & Freedom of Speech
How very important of a roll that all members of a Free Press and Journalism play in our Society .
JFK spoke of how the press and it's manipulation by powerful corporations and secrecy will destroy the fabric of democracy. A process that today has turned most of us in Journalism into no more than PIOs. and PR agents.
JFK's words on Secrecy, Censorship, and Freedom of The Press ~ remind all of us how very important it is... that today we all standup and reevaluate ourselves again and repoint our journalistic compasses to the North star again...
This is a chance for all the media and all Journalists to begin again to perform our mandated historic investigative rolls to uncover and report the full complete truth and wrongdoing where ever that may lead us and no matter how painful it may be....
That is the only way to get our country back on course again.
Our freedom our Democracy and our future all depend on that.
The Truth is courageous...
Be Courageous...
~The Film: "Personal Responsibility"
[ Warning: This Video Has a PG... more
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After more than a decade of success expanding voter rolls, voting rights advocates are noting a disturbing trend in the run-up to the 2010 elections. Dramatically fewer groups are engaged in registering voters during the current election cycle than in previous midterm elections, and fewer voters, especially in poorer areas that are traditionally underrepresented and therefore the usual target of voter registration drives, are registering to vote as a result.
Registration patterns vary significantly from state to state, but 26.7 percent fewer new voters have registered in Florida this year than in 2006, along with 21.4 percent fewer in Maryland and 16.9 percent fewer in Tennessee, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy and law institute at New York University. And while there’s no single cause for the decline, experts point out that many independent organizations are withering under a combination of public attacks by conservative activists alleging voter fraud and new state laws making it difficult for such groups to operate.
“A four-year wave of attacks on voter registration drives, both in terms of state laws that either shut down voter registration drives or made it too onerous to do it, and other public attacks have certainly had an effect,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Project.
And while voter registration drives have languished, state governments aren’t picking up the slack. Voting rights advocates argue that many states aren’t adequately complying with requirements in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to register voters automatically at state agencies and keep their addresses up to date when they move. The result is a gaping hole in the country’s voter registration efforts that threatens to undo the positive strides that have been made over the last decade and a half.
The most obvious cause for the decline in voter registration is the shuttering of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. At its height, ACORN had a budget of close to $35 million and was credited with registering approximately half a million voters in 2008 alone. Amid allegations from conservative activists that the group engaged in widespread voter fraud, Congress voted last fall to defund ACORN(http://j.mp/9RSrGC), which received approximately a third of its budget in the form of government grants. The rest of the group’s funding soon dried up, and ACORN was forced to cease operations at its approximately 75 field offices soon thereafter.
But rather than rest on the laurels of their victory against ACORN, conservative activists have been emboldened to seek out new(http://j.mp/9qDMyo) organizations engaging in voter registration drives and levy similar accusations against them, creating an increasingly hostile landscape for them to perform their mission.
“I wouldn’t underestimate the public attacks,” says Weiser. “It’s not a law prohibiting you, so it’s a little harder to demonstrate, but the chilling effects have nonetheless been palpable. People are nervous to do drives and support groups that do this kind of work.”
Tea Party groups, revved up by accusations made against ACORN in 2008, have worked(http://j.mp/9ZycNX) to challenge voter registration drives and contest votes on election day in a number of states, including California, Wisconsin and New Mexico. But the clearest example of attacks launched against new groups seeking to register voters occurred in Harris County, Texas, where True The Vote, which is affiliated with the Tea Party group the King Street Patriots, dug through the county’s registrations and accused a voter registration organization called Houston Votes of engaging in widespread voter fraud in August.
The controversy centered on a number of voter registration forms filed by Houston Votes that were rejected because they were linked to vacant lots and people that did not exist. Many of these registrations, Houston Votes argues, had been made in 2008 and 2009 — before the group was founded and when many of the lots still had homes on them. But the damage had been done. King Street Patriots’ leader Catherine Engelbrecht allegedly referred to Houston Votes as the “New Black Panthers’ office”; Houston Votes responded by filing suit for defamation.
“When someone says you’re associated with racists that are trying to kill all white people, then it has a chilling effect on donors willing to give to your organization, which has an effect on the amount of work you can do. That’s pretty simple-minded stuff,” said Jim George, the lawyer representing Houston Votes. In recent months, the group has been forced to slow its activities(http://j.mp/9WuOqa) to registering just 200 votes a day, down from over a 1,000 before the allegations were leveled.After more than a decade of success expanding voter rolls, voting rights advocates are... more
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On July 26, Israeli police demolished 45 buildings in the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Arakib, razing the entire village to the ground to make way for a Jewish National Fund forest. The destruction was part of a larger project to force the Bedouin community of the Negev away from their ancestral lands and into seven Indian reservation-style communities the Israeli government has constructed for them. The land will then be open for Jewish settlers, including young couples in the army and those who may someday be evacuated from the West Bank after a peace treaty is signed. For now, the Israeli government intends to uproot as many villages as possible and erase them from the map by establishing “facts on the ground” in the form of Jewish National Forests.
One of the most troubling aspects of the destruction of al-Arakib was a report by CNN that the hundreds of Israeli riot police who stormed the village were accompanied by “busloads of cheering civilians.” Who were these civilians and why didn’t CNN or any outlet investigate further?
I traveled to al-Arakib yesterday with a delegation from Ta’ayush, an Israeli group that promotes a joint Arab-Jewish struggle against the occupation. The activists spent the day preparing games and activities for the village’s traumatized children, helping the villagers replace their uprooted olive groves, and assisting in the reconstruction of their demolished homes. In a massive makeshift tent where many of al-Arakib’s residents now sleep, I interviewed village leaders about the identity of the cheering civilians. Each one confirmed the presence of the civilians, describing how they celebrated the demolitions. As I compiled details, the story grew increasingly horrific. After interviewing more than a half dozen elders of the village, I was able to finally identify the civilians in question. What I discovered was more disturbing than I had imagined.
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More at lin
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/07/the-summer-camp-of-destruction-israeli-high-schoolers-join-in-the-destruction-of-a-bedouin-town/On July 26, Israeli police demolished 45 buildings in the unrecognized Bedouin village... more
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Wi-Fi candidates fueled by unlimited corpo-supremacists funds (Thanks Supreme Court) will spin the 2010 US election into a brand new realm of deceit, fraud & rape of our constitution and democracy.
More than ever...
"We are watching a poorly staged rendition of Wag the Dog , interpreted for the morbidly stupid and performed by the criminally insane." - Jules Carlysle
& ever so sadly...
"It's here that the American dream decided it liked the taste of the vomit it was chocking on. Just rolled over on its back and screamed for more drugs. it didn't die." - Warren Ellis
BACKSTORY
2010 ELECTION BOUGHT & SOLD
http://current.com/news/91280296_2010-election-just-been-bought.htmWi-Fi candidates fueled by unlimited corpo-supremacists funds (Thanks Supreme Court)... more
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IS DISSOLUTION, DISMEMBERMENT AND DELEGITIMACY INEVITABLE FOR AMERICA?
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
To millions of Americans, the “end times” seem to be on us. The BP disaster in the Gulf may leave 25% of America virtually uninhabitable, eco-systems destroyed for sure but maybe much more, a destroyed sea floor, toxic gas clouds moving inland and warnings of something worse, a geological disaster of biblical proportions sitting offshore like a ticking time bomb. Millions of American believe the president is a foreign born Muslim, a puppet of the terrorists while millions believe he is working for Israel. Every speech, every state visit, everything done is seen to support one side or another, sometimes both. The destruction of the American presidency is only part of it, part of a program of racial division, fear, hate and a descent into class warfare and violence.
The end result of the disasters, political infighting, religious extremism, the total collapse of trust in America’s system of government and the infiltration of terrorist elements into every institution, America’s military and political core, financial terrorists working to destroy America’s standard of living, its industrial base, its currency and, eventually the last of its freedoms will be the division of America, starting with an apartheid state and ending in “Balkanization” and the world’s largest nuclear arsenal being unleashed on the world. This has been heard before, it is a story that faith based broadcasting has been sending out to the American people for the past thirty years. The biblical flood began when the money disappeared.
ECONOMIC APOCALYPSE
The serious side is the economic meltdown. Even with the hundreds of billions Americans borrowed to give to our “banksters” who our ”congress critters” decided were too big to allow to fail, we have no banks, simply depositories for stolen money while it waits to be shipped overseas. Money is taken in, none loaned out, not for jobs in America anyway. All the government did was to push the burgeoning debt left us by the Bush/Cheney failures even higher, topping $13 trillion dollars this month, money we owe to pay back money we never got from people who had no right to print it in the first place.
More and more Americans are becoming aware of the fact that our system, the Federal Reserve, is nothing but a racket where foreign bankers, all thinly disguised Rothschilds, sell us our own money while maneuvering us into debt, really a massive mortgage on America’s future, we can never keep up the payments on. America has been systematically destabilized, the most powerful nation in the history of the earth, living on borrowed money and, frankly, borrowed time.
TOO MUCH TO STOMACH, BP BUYING OUR GOVERNMENT AND LIEBERMAN CONTROLLING THE INTERNET
When Americans look at television and see half their politicians crying about BP, a company that laid waste to more of the planet than any in history, they see a world upside down. They know their politicians take money, everyone knows this, but to think they would be brazen enough to scream out “yes, we are crooks, what are you going to do about it?” is more than that. It is an announcement that anyone in government can do anything they want, anything, and never answer for it, not even face reelection problems. The more crooked a politician, the more favorable press he gets, the more the Israel lobby supports him, the more the Tea Baggers support him, the more “heroic” he is portrayed by the pundits and fear mongers.
Things have gotten so bad that Senator Josef Liebermann (I-srael) has introduced a bill that would allow the internet to be closed down in case of “emergency.” Liberman talks about terrorism or espionage but the real problem was that the ”corporate press” got caught lying over the Freedom Flotilla massacre and millions of Americans have turned to the internet for the news, news sometimes bizarre, conspiratorial and fringe, often however, much more accurate and truthful than the newspapers and TV networks. His bill, written in Tel Aviv, is designed to make Americans who depend on the internet for news and communication feel helpless, isolated and ready to turn to violence.
Picture yourself going to the computer. Your email is blocked, nothing in, nothing out. You are looking at one screen, the same thing on every computer in the country. The logo, a simply, DHS, Department of Homeland Security. In the middle of the screen is a new search engine, “Safety Friendly Family Approved Searches.” Below that are approved news stories, linking you to ABC, CNN, FOX, CBS, MSNBC, the WSJ, NYT, WP and Family Security Matters.org. Below that is a warning:
“Your microphone and webcam are in active mode. Do not attempt to mute, shield or disable under penalty of law.”
Senator Lieberman is trying to start a civil war, more than just planting the seeds, this is a provocation, a clear and present danger to American freedom.
BUILDING THE MECHANISM OF APOCALYPSE, THE MOVE TO APARTHEID
More at the link:IS DISSOLUTION, DISMEMBERMENT AND DELEGITIMACY INEVITABLE FOR AMERICA?
By Gordon... more
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"For decades before the apartheid regime in South Africa was finally disassembled in 1990, many of the most principled and determined enemies of the state were incarcerated on Robben Island...where they suffered assaults by sadistic guards...
should political prisoners cooperate in any way with those who hold them captive?...might not any cooperation constitute acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the regime...?
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/05/30/soccer"For decades before the apartheid regime in South Africa was finally disassembled... more
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The “Invictus” trailer reveals the film’s basic story. It’s 1995. South Africa has emerged from apartheid. After 27 years in a cell on the infamous Robbins Island, Nelson Mandela is elected president.
Yet, at the top of this remarkable man’s “to do” list: forgive the men who put him in prison. He is determined to rebuild one nation, black and white. To do that, he forges a partnership with the captain of the Springbok rugby team, a squad beloved by Afrikaners but despised by blacks. Inspired by his words and an entire nation’s good wishes, the team wins the sport’s World Cup the year South Africa is the host country.
Yes, watch the trailer, and it appears to be just another feel-good story. The Springboks win won for the Gipper Mandela and South Africa.
But what the trailer doesn’t -- can’t -- do is show how powerful this film is. It can’t come close to revealing the subtlety with which director Clint Eastwood and screenwriter Anthony Peckham approach the story. It also can’t begin to show the muscular intensity that star Morgan Freeman brings to the role of Mandela.The “Invictus” trailer reveals the film’s basic story. It’s... more
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writa
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added this
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1 year ago
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Nick Broomfield on his documentary, "His Big White Self," sequel to "The Leader, His Driver and The Driver's Wife."Nick Broomfield on his documentary, "His Big White Self," sequel to... more
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“Stereoscope” (1999) is an award-winning animated short film by the Australian artist William Kentridge, with music by South African composer Philip Miller. The film is about the position of the privileged white artist in the midst of a political system that he rejects, but of which he’s s also part. It’s about both the white bureaucrat who’s greedy and rich, and the creative artist as stand-ins for aspects of Kentridge himself. Apartheid, a system of detestable oppression, formed him, supported him, and made him a famous artist. He refers to it as a rock that he carries within himself.
In “Stereoscope,” one of Kentridge’s strongest films, the cold bureaucrat Soho sits at his desk looking at a framed photograph of his wife, who comes to life and couples with her lover, Felix Teitelbaum, a creative sensual personality. Crowds gather outside Eckstein House, Soho’s office building, which eventually disintegrates in a cloud of charcoal dust. At the end, Soho stands all alone in a room, his head bowed. He cries himself a bright blue river that rises to his knees.
The blue water is flowing everywhere, he’s dejected. The blue water is cleansing, but his world has disintegrated. He knows he’s guilty, but he can’t deal with it. His whole world was numbers, control, greed, money and paper pushing. The message fuses hope and despair: Nothing is stable, all that is done can be undone.
“Stereoscope” premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in April 1999 and was shown at the Venice Biennale 1999, and earned the Carnegie Medal at the Carnegie International 1999/2000. It was also awarded a Silver Spire (Television/The Arts), at the 2000 Golden Gate Awards, San Francisco.
This piece includes a number of color drawings from the film, as well as the acclaimed animated short film, “Stereoscope.”
Please visit my website to view the pictures, and to watch this very moving, award-winning short film:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/stereoscope-the-irrationality-of-evil/“Stereoscope” (1999) is an award-winning animated short film by the... more
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