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Blood on Thai streets as political crisis worsens - AP
Thailand suffered its worst political violence in more than 16 years as police battled protesters who besieged the Parliament Tuesday in their struggle to change the country's system of democracy. One woman died and more than 400 people were injured.
The army moved into the streets of the capital, Bangkok, while most of the protesters eventually left the area around Parliament and regrouped on the grounds of the prime minister's office, which they have occupied since Aug. 26.
The violence heightened the political uncertainty that has bedeviled Thailand since early 2006, when large protests called for Thaksin Shinawatra, the tycoon-turned-prime minister, to step down for alleged corruption and abuse of power.
A September 2006 coup ousted Thaksin, but a military-appointed interim government proved incompetent and scared away foreign investors.
Thaksin's political allies were restored to power by a December 2007 election, serving only to deepen the split between his rural majority supporters and urban-based opponents, who have made it difficult for the government to function. The problems stayed at a boil when Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin's brother-in-law, became prime minister.
The upheaval comes at a tough time: the Thai stock market has sunk nearly 40 percent since May; a Muslim insurgency rages in the south; the rich tourist market has shrunk; and Thailand's great unifying figure, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, is 80, raising great concern about how the nation will cope with the eventual succession to the throne.
The protesters' rage over what they see as an effort to reinstall Thaksin by stealth leads some to suspect that they are pushing for a showdown that would re-energize them and possibly force another coup to oust the government. Thailand suffered its worst political violence in more than 16 years as police battled protesters who besieged the Parliament Tuesday ... more -
Peace march against knife crime
More than a thousand people, including families and friends of gun and knife crime victims, united yesterday to take part in two peace marches across London to Hyde Park.
Thousands of people from across the country have joined friends and family of the victims to march across the capital. Two walks beginning from Kennington Park in south London, and another from Caledonian Road, north London will both finish in London's Hyde Park.
London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "I am determined to support the People's March... I share the same sentiment as every law-abiding person in this country - enough is enough”
The idea was started on Facebook by two London women. The marchers chanted "Stop the knives, save lives". More than a thousand people, including families and friends of gun and knife crime victims, united yesterday to take part in two peace... more -
40,000 VW workers protest against EU
Employees at Volkswagen staged their biggest ever demonstration on Friday with tens of thousands protesting against EU plans to scrap the so-called "VW law" which gives the company state protection.
Tens of thousands of workers at Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen staged a demonstration on Friday in protest against EU demands to scrap a law giving the firm special state protection.
Trade union IG Metall said 40,000 VW workers joined the rally at the group's main plant in Wolfsburg, northern Germany, after the EU Commission warned it would take Germany to court for not fully complying with its demands to axe the so-called "VW law," which ensures a government veto in the affairs of the carmaker.
"In this age of globalization and financial market capitalism we need more democracy and not less," IG Metall leader Berthold Huber told the rally. The union said workers from all VW's plants in Germany and abroad had joined the demonstration.
The protest was also directed against Porsche, which is VW's biggest shareholder with 31 percent and which plans to raise its stake to a majority shortly. Porsche wants the VW law axed because it gives the government of Lower Saxony, which owns just over 20 percent of VW, the right to block major management decisions.
(CONTINUED AT LINK) Employees at Volkswagen staged their biggest ever demonstration on Friday with tens of thousands protesting against EU plans to scrap ... more -
TRNN journalists charged with unlawful assembly
Documentary report by Real News team arrested along with 818 people during the RNC.
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Hong Kong election
The desire for democracy in Hong Kong remains strong. The evidence came Sunday in legislative elections when pro-democracy parties won 60 per cent of the popular vote. The election also showed a shift to the left of the political spectrum, where reformers focus on social issues. The desire for democracy in Hong Kong remains strong. The evidence came Sunday in legislative elections when pro-democracy parties won... more
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Anarchy in Philly
Philadelphia is the birth place of our nation so it's no surprise that it is also home to one of the strongest and most well organized anarchist movements in the country. Publishing news papers, planning rallies and running book stores, these are some very organized anarchists. Philadelphia is the birth place of our nation so it's no surprise that it is also home to one of the strongest and most well orga... more
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Big stink as Israel unleashes 'skunk' on protestors
The Palestinian protestors massed at the fence expected tear gas and rubber bullets; what they got instead was a putrid yellow wind, Israel's newest weapon against West Bank demonstrators.
The noxious mist, which Israeli police refer to as "skunk," was used for the first time earlier this month, when a truck-mounted cannon sprayed it over the heads of protestors, sending them racing down the hillside, retching and tearing off their shirts to try to escape the stench.
Dozens of Palestinians from the village of Bilin, along with international and Israeli activists, had marched to a nearby segment of Israel's controversial separation barrier to demand its removal, just as they have done every Friday for the last three and a half years.
"No, no to settlements; no, no to the wall!" they shouted, as they waved Palestinian flags and posters of Yusef Amira, a 16-year-old shot dead by Israeli police at a protest in a neighbouring village last month.
The Israeli border police called on them to disperse through loudspeakers, warning them they were near a "closed military zone."
Then the skunk truck arrived, spraying a cloud of yellow mist and filling the air with the suffocating stench of faeces and urine.
More than one demonstrator said he preferred the tear gas Israeli troops usually use for crowd control, which sears the skin, nose, throat and eyes.
Israeli police say "skunk" is more effective at dispersing crowds than tear gas or the more lethal rubber-coated bullets, which killed Amira.
"It's the start of a change in tactics in dealing with crowd control and dispersing violent demonstrations and violent instances," Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.
"It protects the protestors because it doesn't require us to use tear gas and rubber bullets."
It was inevitable, perhaps, that Israel would unveil the skunk in Bilin. The small West Bank village has recently spawned a growing protest movement pitting local farmers and international activists against Israeli police on a weekly basis.
border "They use all kinds of violence against us but we have to get our land back. We are willing to sacrifice ourselves," says Ahmed Abu Rahma, a Bilin resident who has marched in the protests since they began more than three years ago.
The farmers have been galvanised by Israel's controversial separation barrier, a projected 723 kilometre (454 mile) stretch of concrete walls, barbed wire fence, and closed military roads that snakes across the West Bank.
Israel says the barrier is necessary to prevent attacks on its cities and Jewish settlements while Palestinians say the fence, most of which is built on occupied territory, undermines the viability of their future state.
The protest organisers say their aims are purely local. They ban the carrying of the flags of any Palestinian faction and have steered clear of the increasingly toxic internal politics in the occupied territories.
"Anyone who wants to can live in this country. The problem for us is that they took our land," Abu Rahma says, adding that his family has lost some 400 hectares (988 acres) of olive orchards to the barrier.
In September 2007 Israel's high court ruled in favour of village residents and ordered the barrier to be re-routed, but the military has yet to act, and the protests have since spread to neighbouring villages.
In the nearby village of Nilin, demonstrators clash with Israeli troops weekly, with local youths bounding through the terraced orchards near the fence construction site, hurling rocks and scattering before tear gas grenades.
But in late July the violence spiked, with Israeli troops shooting dead a 12-year-old boy, Hamad Musa, and 16-year-old Amira within a few days.*continues* The Palestinian protestors massed at the fence expected tear gas and rubber bullets; what they got instead was a putrid yellow wind, I... more -
Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, arrested outside Disneyland!
Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into police vans Thursday at the culmination of a labor protest that brought a touch of reality to the Happiest Place on Earth.
Images from the scene showed Peter Pan, with bowed head, being led handcuffed to a police cruiser. Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into polic... more -
Huge protests expected at political conventions
Thousands of protesters are expected to jam the streets of Denver and St. Paul at the Republican and Democratic conventions in a noisy counterpoint to the parties' carefully scripted speeches. Thousands of protesters are expected to jam the streets of Denver and St. Paul at the Republican and Democratic conventions in a noisy... more
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Canadians deported from China for protests
BEIJING - Along with others deported previously, several more Canadians have been deported from China following pro-Tibet protests in Beijing.
Steve Andersen, from Edmonton, and a Tibetan-German, were arrested by plainclothes police officers after they unfurled a Tibetan flag.
A short time after the arrests, Mike Hudema, a spokesman for Greenpeace in Alberta, was arrested with four other people from Edmonton.
"They came into our apartment. They ransacked our entire apartment, went through all of our bags, all of our luggage, despite the fact that we never consented to any searches," Hudema told CTV in a telephone interview.
"We were taken to the police holding facility and interrogated for several hours before we were deported."
Hudema said that he and several members of the group were in Beijing to observe and did not take part in any protests.
Another Canadian, 24-year-old Chris Schwartz, was also reportedly deported from China.
Schwartz, a student at Montreal's Concordia University and a long-time member of the pro-Tibetan movement, was taken into custody after a mock "die-in" at Tiananmen Square to protest China's occupation of Tibet.
Wrapped in Tibetan flags, he and a small group of people covered their mouths with fake blood before denouncing the occupation.
http://olympics.thestar.com/2008/article/475914 BEIJING - Along with others deported previously, several more Canadians have been deported from China following pro-Tibet protests in ... more -
Denver Police Brace for DNC
WASHINGTON — Federal and local authorities are girding for huge protests, mammoth traffic tie-ups and civil disturbances at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this month, fearing that the convention will become a magnet for militant protest groups.
Officials say that what makes Denver different than past conventions is the historic nature of Senator Barack Obama’s nomination, a megawattage event whose global spotlight could draw tens of thousands of demonstrators, including self-described anarchists who the police fear will infiltrate peaceful protest groups to disrupt the weeklong event.
The Secret Service is wary of discussing threats against the people they protect, but with Mr. Obama poised to become the first black presidential nominee, there are special worries. While law enforcement officials say there are no specific, credible threats against Mr. Obama, they expressed concern about low-level chatter on Web sites frequented by white separatists who spew hate about Mr. Obama’s race and what they perceive as his liberal agenda.
One recent scheduling change caused a major shift in security plans. When Mr. Obama announced last month that he would accept his party’s nomination not at the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver, where the convention is being held, but at Invesco Field, home of the Denver Broncos, the Secret Service scrambled to work out plans with local authorities to secure the open-air stadium, which seats more than 75,000 people. Invesco is also adjacent to Interstate 25, a major corridor through the Northern Rockies that will most likely be closed for at least part of Mr. Obama’s acceptance speech. . .
. . . “Because of the Internet, the ability of protesters to mobilize and share information has metastasized,” said Troy A. Eid, the United States attorney for Colorado. “That would be fine if it were peaceful, as we expect. But we have to plan accordingly.”
In recent days, domestic security officials issued a heightened awareness bulletin urging greater attention because of a number of factors, including the election and the conventions. But law enforcement authorities say they are trying to strike a balance between planning for every conceivable threat, including terrorist attacks and large public demonstrations, and not strangling a city’s commercial life in the process.
“We’re not looking to shut down an entire city,” said Malcolm Wiley, a Secret Service agent involved in security planning for the convention in Denver.
(go to link for full article) WASHINGTON — Federal and local authorities are girding for huge protests, mammoth traffic tie-ups and civil disturbances at the Democr... more -
War Video Warning:Graphic
7 years!
I have gathered an exhibition of graphic and bloody videos. 30 in all.
I believe you'll find them sickening and hard to watch.
I encourage you to view as many as possible go gain insight into the issue I'm presenting.
Watch and learn about the reality of war.
Barack Obama and John McCain want this to continue...
How can anyone see the sense or goodness in this.
Please add any links you have.
Let others know your thoughts by commenting below. 7 years! I have gathered an exhibition of graphic and bloody videos. 30 in all. ... more -
Ron Paul's Revolution March In D.C.
Please use this page to post updates and video from the event.
Ron Paul has been a pioneer and a champion of free speech and a return to democracy.
This page describes the march taking plance on June 12.
Libertarian for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Scotty Boman, will be joining thousands of Ron Paul “R3VOLutionaries” in a march on D.C. this weekend. Boman, who met and voted for Ron Paul in 1988, was very active in the Ron Paul 2008 presidential campaign, despite his strong Libertarian pedigree. Boman chaired the effort to get the Libertarian Party of Michigan on the ballot in 1993, and has run for partisan office as a Libertarian in eight consecutive election cycles.
Although it could be considered to be a campaign event, Boman will be using his personal funds to pay for his trip to D.C. Fundraising has not gone extraordinarily well for Boman, who set a goal of $10,000 by July 4, and fell $6,620 short. His Web site now says its goal is to raise $10,000 by July 31. Please use this page to post updates and video from the event. ... more -
G8 protesters and police clash
Japanese police make arrests as several thousand protest ahead of the annual G8 summit.
The protests were caught on one of the demonstrators cameras. Japanese police make arrests as several thousand protest ahead of the annual G8 summit. ... more -
The power of being little: Why we can stop the New World Order
In the last article I wrote about the nature of truth to reveal itself, in spite of the nature of deceivers to hide it. I argued that truth is stronger than lies, because truth stands on its own while lies need artificial structures to hold them up, structures that, not being natural, collapse eventually.
It may seem like mankind has labored forever under the illusions that bind us, but a few thousand years of human history is little in the broad expanse of time. We are in our infancy as a race, and like children, we believed in Santa Claus. But the children are growing up.
Lots of readers write in about their concerns, whether mankind will wake up in time to save itself from the catastrophes we hear predicted on all sides. But I don’t share those dire visions, and no one has to accept them, not even those of us aware of the global conspiracy. In fact, the more we envision bad things happening, the more likely they are to happen, if quantum physics is right in saying that we influence outcomes through our thoughts.
Of course, the global elite has plans to establish a fascist global government. Those plans cannot materialize without people’s support. Granted, they’re programming the public mind, through media propaganda, New Age religion, television and many other means to accept and even like the idea of global government, giving up personal freedoms for the sake of “peace” and security. But working against this is the awakening human consciousness. People are questioning things that humans never questioned before. Religions that have ruled unchallenged for centuries are failing to retain believers and have to change drastically or risk dying out. People who never questioned the integrity of their government are researching on the Internet for find alternative explanations to what they view as bogus on the mainstream news.
We humans are not so sharp that we suddenly wake up and see the light. We wake in phases, in waves, like a sleeper rising from the depths of the night’s sleep, resting on higher and higher shelves of awareness. Eventually we open our eyes and realize it’s morning.
We wake up from one dogma to another, one illusion to another. We see through the fraud of Christianity, then spend years stuck in Buddhism. We see through the lies of Bush and give our trust to Obama. It does mean we’re suckers in a sense, and it can look discouraging, as if mankind is incapable of learning. But every time we shift from one false belief to another, we’re shifting up, rolling onto a higher shelf of wakefulness. We’ve seen through one lie and fallen for another, but our experience in seeing through the first is experience we carry with us into the second: we won’t be duped for as long the second time.
Certainly in my own life, awakening has been a gradual process, a movement from one set of beliefs to one a little wiser, each shift in paradigm getting closer to the truth. I have to think it’s like that for all of us. And even for those who seem to never change, who can say they aren’t like eggs, appearing lifeless and lacking in awareness, only one day, in their own good time, to burst upon the world, brilliant wonders?
The worst thing we can do, once we become aware of the New World Order, is to accept that its achievement is a given. The global elite does have dire intentions, but those are not as threatening to our welfare as our own dire thoughts. Those who would control us cannot do so without our consent. If they could, they would have established a global fascist state long ago. To succeed, first they must lure our minds into seeing their plans as good or as inevitable. The people who can’t see through them support them by going along with their programs and ideas. Those of us who do see through them inadvertently support their efforts when we regard their success as unavertable.
Click on link for the whole article In the last article I wrote about the nature of truth to reveal itself, in spite of the nature of deceivers to hide it. I argued that ... more -
Riga Pride 2008 - Mozaika / Amnesty International solidarity
Amnesty International activists from around 30 countries gathering in Latvia to join Riga Pride 2008 in solidarity with the Mozaika alliance of LGBT people and other LGBT people in Riga, in Latvia and in the Baltic states.
Human rights are for everybody. Amnesty International activists from around 30 countries gathering in Latvia to join Riga Pride 2008 in solidarity with the Mozaika al... more -
ACLU Sues Denver For Information On Weapons Use During DNC
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the city of Denver after an open records request for information about the purchasing of security equipment for the Democratic National Convention was denied. The group wants to know what weapons the city is buying for crowd control during protests.
"Aren't you asking the police to reveal their tactics?" CBS4 asked.
"No, we're not asking the police to reveal tactics, we're asking the police to reveal how they are spending the public's money," said Mark Silverstein of the ACLU.
The city has allocated millions of dollars for security equipment purchases. Officials said they are planning for a peaceful event, but are ready for "contingencies."
The protest group Recreate 68 believes the city is buying high tech weaponry.
"We could save them a whole lot of money by just talking with us and de-escalating the confrontational situation that would cause them to use this weapon technology," said Glenn Spagnuolo of Recreate 68.
Spagnuolo thinks the city is looking at weapons like a stun gun which fires 20 seconds of pain from a shotgun. He also pointed to the LRAD, a long range acoustic device that emits a tone to disable people.
The city responded to CBS4's inquiries by saying it will not discuss tactics and that weapons use is part of that.
"It is important to keep that part of the planning confidential," said David Fine, a city attorney.
A court date is set for June on another lawsuit the ACLU filed against the city. That case concerns the routes protesters will be allowed to march during the convention.
-Rick Sallinger The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the city of Denver after an open records request for information about the p... more -
EU Fishermen Held Demonstrations because of Soaring Fuel Cost
Thousands of fishermen have held demonstrations in EU countries at soaring fuel costs.
Belgian fishermen let off flares at the protest in Brussels and thousands more held a rally in Madrid, Spain. Thousands of fishermen have held demonstrations in EU countries at soaring fuel costs. ... more -
4th July - NEW WORLD ORDER Revolution. Governmental Freedom!
'On 4th July 2008 - A peaceful non-violent demonstration will take place in cities around the world to expose the fraud, corruption and lies at the heart of our governments. It is an opportunity to express your right to free independent thought and to begin the fight to reclaim your liberties and freedoms. On the streets of London, on the sidewalks of Washington D.C, in the heart of Athens and in every other political Capital across the world, demonstrations will take place to demand a return of proper representative government.'
Don't just sit there and moan about what is happening-DO SOMETHING! 'On 4th July 2008 - A peaceful non-violent demonstration will take place in cities around the world to expose the fraud, corrupti... more -
Obama tells Republicans: 'Lay off my wife'
In his second heated response to Republican attacks in days, Obama said he would not tolerate attempts to attack him through his wife, Michelle, calling such efforts "low class". Barack Obama, yesterday warned Republicans to "lay off" his wife, demonstrating a more forceful style of politics. In his second heated response to Republican attacks in days, Obama said he would not tolerate attempts to attack him through his wife,... more
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Demonstrations
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Demonstrations
