Thursday, January 25, 2007
Our Humanity
- What Happened To It?
I found this earlier today. It left me such a disgusting after-taste, which I'm sure you'll all feel after finishing the read. Except for the initial shock, horror and total disgust, it brought to mind one (rhetoric) question: do we have the right to call ourselves human?
We accept such happenings everyday, nay, we encourage them via our open markets daylight robbery, wars, mayhem, you name it. We deplore and cry the Muslim women veiling, yet encourage their Iraqi daughters to sell their bodies for 50 Syrian pounds. Yes, this is the price of an Iraqi 15 years old in the local Gulf States infested brothels. That's 1 US Dollar, by the way. Cheap, yes, compared to a 6 years Cambodgian put to serve some mid-aged European or Arab freak.
But then again, money is way better invested into war. A Cambodgian child is sold into prostitution for 10$ to 100$. How many can be saved with 1.2 Trillion dollars?
It's very sad to see that people in a democracy we are supposedly are building are being exploited down to their last posession - their own personal self-worth.
I'm not saying that war is a good investment at all. I'm only pointing out that the so-called war in terror is big money for a select few to the tune of 1.2 Trillion dollars.
The problem is really that the military-industrial complex seems to depend on the perma-war (the war on terror) in order to continue to operate. Perhaps rather than creating war, the ilitary-industrial complex needs to be re-vectored onto other projects that can actually help people rather than leading people into poverty. Perhaps companies that are used to building high-tech composite wings for airplanes could be making windmill blades. Instead of building massive secret prisons and airforce bases, they could be pouring foundations for the windmills. Instead of building missile bodies, a missile contractor could be building the towers for windmills. Instead of building factories that produce bombs, companies could be producing factories that make alcohol from agriculural waste. etc.
HiTek
I know what you mean and I agree totally to what you say regarding war, and this is what I mean: just like you pointed out earlier, until now war in Iraq alone costed some unbelievable amount of money. This money would have freed at least half of Africa from hunger and tyrany. Instead, Ethiopia was encouraged to invade Somalia.
And Justice For All?
I often wonder how we can hope to be the shining beacon of democracy when our very own democratic principles have been undermined to help further a so-called war on terror. Innocent until found guilty in a court of law has turned into kidnapping with out a criminal charge, extraordinary rendering to secret prisons, guilty until proven innocent, held indefinitely without charge or trial, no rights to an attorney, no writ of habeas corpus, torture and unusual punishment to get confessions, even executions of totally innocent people.
Under the current law, the President is authorized to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once kidnapped into this perverted system, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights. Essentially anyone can simply be declared an enemy combatant and be whisked away to be tortured without probable cause.
According to Pentagon figures, approximately 380 detainees have been released countries since 2002. Guantanamo still holds about 395 detainees, almost none of whom have been charged with a crime. Why? Are we patiently waiting until they incriminate themselves with a false confession? Are we afraid they may reveal that Gitmo sole purpose is a torture camp? Who knows how many have disappeared to a ghost network of detention facilities and secret prisons like the "Salt Pit" and naval ships.
On one hand, the President tells us that we don't torture, but on the other hand, John Yoo publicly argued there is no law that could prevent the President from ordering the torture of a child of a suspect in custody – including by crushing that child’s testicles. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has re-defined torture so that only interrogation techniques which caused death or pain equal to that associated with organ failure constitute torture. He approved a legal memo defining torture so narrowly so as to authorize practices such as “waterboarding,” denial of pain killer medication, simulated drowning, and threatening to transfer detainees to other countries’ interrogators. It has been well publicized that the US now outsources "stress and duress" interrogation (torture) to governments that routinely torture prisoners.
On such example is the case of Syrian-born Canadian Citizen Maher Arar who was kidnapped at JFK International airport and rendered to Syria where he was beaten with a metal cable, tortured and forced to make a false confession. The American government still firmly denies any wrongdoing although Arar was cleared of all charges.
With its conduct in the war on terror, the Bush administration has made the world less secure, weakened America's influence, and betrayed the very principles America believes in. If I had know this is how the US actually practices democracy, I would have never become a naturalized Citizen.
It's time to start the next hundreds of hours to restore what were once the foundations of our democracy.
1) If we don't want our own servicemen to be tortured, then we must put an end to torturing or outsourcing torture.
2) If we are a just nation, then we do not have a need for secret prisons. We need to close torture facilities such as Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, the Salt Pit, etc.
3) If we are a civilized nation, we need to re-affirm adherence to Geneva Conventions.
4) Our foundation of democracy is our Constitution. However, it has been largely dismantled. We need to restore basic rights such as habeas corpus and due process of law.
5) If there are truly terrorists, then why can't we use normal police procedures, present evidence, try and convict these alleged terrorists? Let's do real police work instead of hunting-down, torturing and executing people on mere rumors.
6) We need to investigate the wrong-doings of this administration concerning the treatment of detainees and/or prisoners. Officials that have openly endorsed torture need to be held accountable. We need an investigation into these allegations. I.e. It's time to impeach Alberto Gonzales.
7) We owe an apology to the falsely incarcerated detainees.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
PGCC Goes Nuclear
Persian Gulf Cooperation Council members, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are expected to hold talks with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to discuss plans to launch a regional nuclear program.and according to this INA article, The Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) on supports Iran's legal and inalienable right to access peaceful nuclear technology under rules and regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
PGCC Secretary-General Abdul-Rahman al-Attiya made the remarks while speaking to reporters in Cairo, Egypt.So if Iran develops their own nuclear power program under IAEA safeguards, it's criminal. Critics say "Why on earth should Iran develop nuclear power peacefully? Afterall, they have all an endless supply of oil." They don't mention that Iran hit Peak Oil in 1974.
He said the council also backs settlement of Iran's nuclear case through diplomatic channels or negotiation.
He said the PGCC also backs the international call for establishment of a Middle East region free from weapons of mass destruction, and stressed the importance of Israel being held to account.
Israel is reported to possess more than 200 nuclear warheads, he said, and added it is now clearly the threat to the region because of the absence of supervision over its military and nuclear activities.
If PGCC states (who have loads of oil right across the gulf) propose to do exactly the same thing it's not even mentioned in the controlled news.
If Israel and the UK contemplate a Nuclear Pre-Emptive Strike to put a stop to Iran's nuclear power project, it fits into Bush's plan of the War on Terror and it's wonderful.
What's wrong with this picture?? Maybe Iran refused to buy its nuclear power and reprocessing plants from US companies.
everything from the lies to the major war proffiting crimes pooy i say wheres a hero when you need them .O wait Bush fired them
the only country to bomb another not once but twice was the US on Japan towards the logo "ending the war faster" which resulted in Hiroshema and Nagasaki of immediate death tolls of 66,000 and 69,000
MFL
Poll #11 Results
violence is one ball of wax.
"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?" -Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and writer (1884-1962)
Me i wont judge but i dont like murder of any kind here or other places i thought we as a world where striving to be mor human and in balance not what ever it is we still are.I think we are striving for true respect health and humanity but sometimes im not so sure.Be safe walk in peace allways
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Extreme Duplicity
They are also building wind farms. But the DIRTY energy lobby won't tell you that. See the story at this link.
The Shah was certainly a murderous tyrant, but the British and US administrations of the day were behind him all the way.
Here his 'good guy' image (note all the medals) was being used to argue against the nasty hippies who were protesting against the use of nuclear energy.
My...how things have changed :]
Isn't interesting how when the US chooses a dictator for a country, they end up being murderous little bastards with a Napoleon complex (like our President).
All things said, what is the difference between the Shah and the current Irani nutt-case? Isn't it just the perspective (or bottle) you look at things through?
Actually I am doing research on that matter (part of my course) so if anything, I will write you a nice post about it :)
The new "nutcase" is a twelver Shiia and extreme anti-semite but the fact remains no sane Iranian leader will be happy with a nuclear armed Israel next door or a hegemon (US) that demands the right to global dominance and an exclusive franchise on nuclear weapons. Remember we supported Iraq in the war against Iran, they don't trust us, why would they?
Keep in mind that this current nut is a pawn in the hands of Ali Khamen'i, the supreme leader and Wali el-Faqih in Iran
MFL
You know I heard of something similar to what you mentioned about Ahmedinejad. I also heard that his, let's call it cult, believes in the Hidden Imam, or the new Messiah (Mahdi, in Islam) which is soon to come as the 12th Imam born from Mohammed's lineage. The mainstreem Islam usually confounds Mahdi with Jesus.
(P.S. just having real trouble singing in)
It is not only him, it is in the Iranian constitution, and the theory is called the Wali el Faqih (actually Hezbollah in Lebanon abide by it and they regard that the Wali el Faqih as the head of the Shora Council within them).
The theory was founded by Ayatollah Imam Rouhollah Khomeini, which focuses on the 12 Imams theory (technically followed by the Shiites. The 12th Imam, AL-Mahdi, disappeared about a Millenium ago and in the Shiite doctrine he shall appear on Judgement Day. During his disappearance, an emulator is required to issue jurisprudence laws and is the protector of the Islamic Nation. That man is the Wali el Faqih. He is the ultimate reference when it comes to "Taqlid" and "al-qarar". The current Wali is Ali Khamenei, and he controls the sensitive spots in Iran which crippled Khatami to do some of his reforms (actually a lot of his buddies got imprisoned or assassinated).
MFL
PS: I will do a post about it when I finish my paper within two weeks...
Friday, January 19, 2007
Left-Wing Aggregator
I have been, for the past month or so, been getting to know the Lebanese Community on the blogosphere. There are over 400 blogs in Lebanon, and couple of on-line bloggers decided to do an aggregator that covers all the blogs from Lebanon. During the day, I usually click on their links and read those aggregator pages as if reading a daily newspaper (despite the right-wing presence) which becomes an alternate source for the newspaper.
The reason I am writing this is why we don't establish a left-wing aggregator (I know it sounds a mission impossible) for all the left-wing blogs and everyone would get to know everyone. Moreover, our aggregator would be similar to the Alternate Media, while comrades from over the world would know each other.
The two samples I will put are Liliane's Aggregator and Rampurple's aggregator.
Probably we can do it per country & Alphabet (or per continent and Alphabet) but what do you think?
Waiting to hear your ideas
Those are great sites but it looks to invlove a lot of time and effort. I think most of us have our hands full just checking links on favorite blogs! It's a great concept.
I know both authors, I think it would take 15 minutes per day, one of the two is in Lebanon so I will ask her to teach me how to do such an event, and probably integrate it with (if my other colleagues allow it) with the Further-Left Forum.
MFL
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Good $ After Bad?
In economic and in business decision-making, "sunk costs" are costs that have already been incurred and which cannot be recovered to any significant degree. Applying microeconomic theory, only variable costs (costs that are will change due to the proposed course of action) are relevant to a decision. Economics proposes that a rational actor does not let sunk costs influence one's decisions, because doing so would not be assessing a decision exclusively on its own.
For example, when one pre-orders a non-refundable movie ticket, the price of the ticket becomes a sunk cost. Even if one decides that one would rather not go to the movie, there is no way to get back the money originally paid. But to go to the movie (and not liking it) simply because we've already paid for the ticket is an irrational decision. And making a party of it and inviting more of your friends to the bad movie is simply insane. (or maybe just a Rocky Horror Picture Show)
It's Time ton Say No on Iraq
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Marxist Archive
Under Attack By China
(MFL notes: this came from the www.marxists.org, for those who do not know what the Marxist Internet Archive, it is the greatest Marxist archive assembled with time that even includes audio-visuals, minutes of the internationals, and almost everything related to Marxism.)
In early November we came under sustained denial of service attack from Internet hosts in China attempting to exploit a misconfiguration in our server's operating system. The nature and origin of the attack, our previous history with the PRC, and the experience of others suggest that this maybe politically motivated and directed by the Chinese government. Protecting ourselves necessitated rebuilding part of the kernel and rebooting the system remotely. The failure of the system to properly boot into the new kernel caused a prolonged outage as we scrambled to find someone with the necessary access to get the system back into the previous configuration.
While the attacks continued and greatly degraded MIA performance, we were understandably cautious about rebuilding the kernel and trying again. On January 15, the server became unresponsive and we asked for it to be remotely rebooted, taking the opportunity to bring it up with the new kernel.
While this alleviated the previous issue, it seems to have uncovered another, more serious, problem with our CPU that causes random errors (machine check exceptions) and cause the system to reboot.
Each time the system reboots, it causes our RAID storage system to reinitialize and rebuild, a lengthy process that severely degrades performance. To make matters worse, the redundant disk in the array seems to be failing.
As if that weren't bad enough, while attempting to make arrangements to buy a new server, we learned that our colocation facility will be closing on February 1, leaving MIA literally homeless.
At the moment, our redundant disk is back online and we are rebuilding the array to protect against data loss on the server. We also have offsite backups of all MIA content should the worst come to pass. We are furiously searching for new hosting space, but our data transfer needs (approximately 1.3TB a month) make this a very difficult choice compared with our previous non-profit host.
The bottom line: there is a significant probability that we will not be able to find and deploy an acceptable solution in time to meet the February 1 lights-out date.
This means that the MIA will be off the air. We will make every attempt to bridge the gap with the help of our dedicated mirror operators though we may need to stop serving some of our more "expensive" content such as MP3s and PDFs.
There is also a chance that our ultimate solution may require us to make a long-term evaluation of the type of content we serve and make things like PDFs available via alternate distribution channels (e.g. BitTorrent). However, despite our recent litany of seemingly fatal problems, the MIA remains a strong organization with a wealth of content, committed to providing the premiere electronic library of Marxist writings. Despite the political, technical, or economic pressures, rest assured that we will find a way to keep these works available to the world.
We've been censored too. Blame it on Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Further Left was kicked off a service last March because of its political focus. That service was owned by a Canadian operating in Mexico who claimed Further Left's content was causing him to receive hacker denial of service attacks emanating from the US. This was reported on the Forum at the time in a post titled "Kicked Off". It might be worth re reading its details as instruction of how assumptions can be and are made and were dealt with.
I was horrified by the idea no more MIA, I mean 70% of my research on Marxism in from that site
What a horror if all these years' accumulation suddenly disappeared, and by the Chinese government!!
Energo-Fascism
The Pentagon's Energy-Protection Racket
The Bush administration and its neo-con supporters offer a vision of a vast imperial enemy-in-the-making that they call "Islamo-fascism". That is the publicly acceptable code expression trumpeted to US dummies. Decoded, it reveals the real more chilling course, "energo-fascism", or the militarization of the global struggle over ever-diminishing supplies of energy. US armed forces are being turned into a multibillion-dollar "global oil protection service" in this ruthless scramble. The full article by Michael Tare expanding this appeared today in Asia Times.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Broken Laws Of War
By Both Hizbullah And Israel
Claims Human Rights Watch
MFL: I do not agree with several contents of the Human Rights Watch report, but it is worth to discuss it. This article by Iman Azzi is taken from the Lebanese Daily Star
BEIRUT: Israel and Hizbullah violated the laws of war this summer, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its annual report Thursday, blaming both sides for indiscriminately targeting civilians during the 34-day war. Other Middle Eastern states did not fare better, as the human rights watchdog pointed at oppressive regimes for stifling human rights across the region.
The Israeli Army "repeatedly violated the laws of war by failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians," the report said. A total of 1,189 Lebanese, mostly civilians, were killed during the fighting, according to the Lebanese government.
Israel justified striking civilian areas by saying that Hizbullah hid in them, but HRW reported that the "attacks responsible for a majority of the civilian deaths took place at times when there was no evidence that Hizbullah fighters or weapons were even in the vicinity."
HRW also condemned the use of cluster munitions during the summer war. Israel fired an estimated four million sub-munitions into Lebanon, leaving behind as many as one million hazardous duds, which have killed or wounded over 120 people since the end of the war.
The United Nations has said that Israel fired 90 percent of the cluster bombs during the last 72 hours of fighting when a cease-fire was imminent.
Oxfam estimates that up to 85 percent of Lebanon's farmers lost some of all of their harvest as a result of the war.
Hizbullah also fired Chinese-made cluster rockets. HRW reported that Hizbullah packed "more than 4,000 anti-personnel steel spheres ('ball bearings') that shoot out upon impact, causing many of the civilian deaths and injuries." A total of 39 Israeli civilians and 100 Israeli soldiers were killed by Hizbullah rockets.
"While Hizbullah appeared to target some of its rockets at military objectives, in some cases hitting them, many of its rockets hit civilian areas, far from any apparent military target. Such attacks - at best indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and, at worst, deliberate attacks against civilians - violated the laws of war," the report said.
The annual report highlighted other human rights concerns in Lebanon, pointing to the continued efforts to form an international tribunal to try the assassins of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the lack of progress toward uncovering the fate of over 17,000 Lebanese, Palestinians and other nationals still missing since the 15-year Civil War.
Across the Middle East, monarchs and authoritarian leaders received poor marks on the progress of human rights.
"Overall human rights conditions remain poor in Saudi Arabia ... The government undertook no major human rights reforms in 2006, and there were signs of backsliding on issues of human rights defenders, freedom of association, and freedom of expression," the report said. The respect of both Syria and Iran for basic human rights "deteriorated," it said.
Egypt "displayed a heavy hand against political dissent in 2006," it said, adding that the government renewed the Emergency Law in April 2006, despite pledges by President Hosni Mubarak to allow the controversial legislation to expire.
The HRW announced unsurprisingly that in Iraq, "the human rights situation worsened significantly in 2006." The country saw an increase in sectarian attacks and an independent group estimated that over 650,000 Iraqis have been killed since 2003, it added.
Iraqi refugees faced trouble in neighboring countries - an average of 2,000 flee every day. Syria and Jordan have taken in the majority, but after an Iraqi gunman killed 57 Jordanians in November 2005, sympathy for the half million Iraqis seeking shelter in the kingdom has waned, the report said.
In Libya, human rights conditions "improved somewhat in 2006 as the country continued its slow international reintegration, but serious violations remain," it said, adding that the Benghazi AIDS cases plagued the government's hopes of improving relations with Europe.
Lack of freedom of expression, assembly and the press featured prominently as concerns for the region. Other issues were gender inequality and the torture of prisoners.
The release of the HRW report coincided with the five-year anniversary of the creation of the Guantanomy Bay prison by the United States.
In September, President George W. Bush defended torture - referring to it euphemistically as "an alternative set of [interrogation] procedures" - and secret CIA prisons.
In October, the US Congress, acting at the behest of the Bush administration, denied Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their detention in court. Human Rights Watch called on the US to close the prison, adding that it is long past time to either bring detainees to trial or set them free.
"Naughty, naughty, naughty" say the good about the bad, and go right on doing what they find so sad. The fitting to categories depends however on who is looking where from where. Here is the full text of the human rights record of the US in 2005 released by the Information Office of China's State Council as it appeared in People's Daily.
So what is the alternative? Should the good stop saying naughty things about the bad just because they are not perfect themselves? What kind of logic is that? The people in the US at least have a chance at rectifying these crime statistics by voting in more law and order representatives. The Chinese People's Daily picks up a few well-publicized crimes that occurred in the US during 2005 and insist that because of them, the US has no moral right to complain about any other nation's human rights violations. China represses its citizens by state sponsored censorship, imprisonment of political opposition and allows no freedom of assembly whatsoever. How is this different from any other tyrannical or despotic regime? They should call themselves the DISinformation Office publishing this kind of smokescreen.
Cheers!
The left column of this site has a link list of world news outlets. There are no direct links to US sources but Google News there leans to it heavily. One can peruse the others to see what is really happening and then check Google's to compare with spin placed on what is allowed to sneak through to mold (oxymoron coming...) US thought.
May be because the US over-supports Israel who currently got the highest rates of massacres on civilians in the area
Bush Speech Reaction
I have to conclude that most of this is magical fairy dust to get you to watch the left hand while the right hand does something else. The key here is not the 20K increase in troops, but the Billions of dollars that needs to be spent on re-constructing Iraq that is tied to this effort. The Billions of dollars is another non-competitive bonanza for contractors like KBR, and companies like GE. Check out this US Government web page. Take a careful look at the last picture on the bottom - a whole trade event centered around on spending lots of money. And we, the citizens of the US will pay for all of it.
ordo ab chao
Looking up the webpage for next year's trade show I found the following table:
Iraq reconstruction needs until 2007
o Local administration & civil society $300 million
o Health, education & employment $7 billion
o Infrastructure $11 billion
o Electricity $13 billion
o Agriculture and water resources $3 billion
o Security and police $5 billion
o Oil $8 billion
o Culture $1.5 billion
I wonder if this is in addition to the $100 billion dollar emergency spending bill that Bush will require in February.
The war in Iraq has cost us already 1,200,000 million dollars (1.2 trillion dollars), quite a bit more than the 50,000 million dollars they predicted at the beginning of the war. It's big business for a few companies. No wonder it's worth a trade show!!!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Perverse Logic
Of Bush's War
The iron law governing the politics of imperial debacles seems to be that the leaders who commit a country to failed war realize at some point that they have seriously miscalculated and that the war cannot be won, but by then they figure it is already too late; they must act as though they are aiming at victory, because of the fear of admitting the truth. Read more in an Asia Times article by Gareth Porter.
Maybe there's no reason to want to "win" this perma-war. How convenient that they don't even know who the enemy is? What most people have not figured out yet is that it's a huge highway robbery.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Why Not Renewables?
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Surge Back
I would call on all the readers of this post to organize an action in their town or city, something which could be implemented immediately upon a call for escalation of the horrible conflict in Iraq. Enough is enough. The game is over. It is obscene to even consider sacrificing more life to salvage a "legacy". More soldiers would have no more of a defined mission as the current 140,000. A surge would only mean a tidal surge of more blood. Get out and organize quickly.
There is a piece in the Further Left Library that tells how to do that. It is in the section called "Radical Activism, an organizing how to". In particular, down that page are paragraphs under "ORGANIZING FOR RADICAL ACTIVISM IS EASY. YOU CAN DO IT. HERE'S HOW". They detail simple experience tested steps that have not and will not fail. They cost nothing, are enjoyable, and entail little risk. Give them a try and surge back!
The same neocon goons that brought us this war of agression in the first place, have now strategized this upcoming massive surge in Iraq. Since the generals would not cooperate, Bush fired a couple of them. The apparent delay in order to gain consensus around this issue is just a delay tactic to organize another massive shock and awe attack in Irack. If neighboring countries see our presence in the middle east, they may just join in the fight to repel the United States. Perhaps other countries that see this as a deliberate attempt to take the Middle East oil for ourselves may just join in and oppose us.
While there is still time, we need to escalate the demand for peace. Demand the funding for the war to be cut. Demand this whole insanity to end.rcq
Saturday, December 30, 2006
They Killed The Guy
- You Wonder Why?
The two best expositions I have seen of Bush assassination of President Hussein appeared on the blogs of two of our team members, Puppeteer's Bloody Feast and MarxistFromLebanon's The US Drama Closes Down its Saddam Curtain. You won't find similar on Google News.
Stupid US administration made Saddam a national hero in the Arab world... and more blood shed will hit Iraq
MFL,
I can't post on your blog, I'm sorry, we have some serious censoring problems here, I can hardly check my blog. Fortunately I can post. Anyway, just wanted to say "Hi!".
Puppeteer, if you want you can email me what you want to post, and I will put them khayyieh :), I placed my msn on my blogspot :D
Hasta La Victoria Siempre comrade
MFL
Friday, December 29, 2006
Suspicious Suicide
According to a Monterey County News article titled "Lawyer falls to death at Hotel"...In what police describe as a "probable" suicide leap, a prominent Monterey Bay Area attorney fell at least nine floors to his death at the Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay in Seaside the morning before Christmas....
Shortly before 9:30 a.m. Sunday, officers found the body of Aptos attorney Paul Sanford in the west end of the hotel lobby, where he had landed on a large ventilation grate.
He caused a stir after he joined the White House Press Corps in 2005, making waves as the first reporter to ask then-White House press secretary Scott McClellan whether the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name might be considered an act of treason.In the Santa Cruiz Sentinel, the story is being reported just a bit differently
"There has been a lot of speculation concerning the meaning of the underlying statute and the grand jury investigation concerning Mr. Rove," Sanford asked. "The question is, have the legal counsel to the White House or White House staff reviewed the statute in sufficient specificity to determine whether a violation of that statute would, in effect, constitute treason?"
McClellan was apparently flustered by the question and replied that "those are matters for those overseeing the investigation to decide."
Seaside police believe that Sanford intentionally fell from at least nine stories into the courtyard of the Embassy Suites Hotel Monterey Bay about 9:20 a.m. Sunday, to the shock of hotel patrons who were eating breakfast in the hotel atrium.So here's Paul Sandord, a Free Speech attorney who defends the homeless and indigent, and progressive activist who hosts a talk show host on KOMY. He suddenly gets a press pass and goes to Washington to ask a very interesting question during a press conference. What did this guy know to convince him to ask this one question knowing full well that the Bush regime will never let him ask another.
Police Capt. Steve Cercone said a note had not been found, but there was no evidence of an accident or foul play. Sanford, who lived in Aptos, was not staying at the Embassy Suites and several hotel employees told police they saw a man pacing the halls of one of the top floors of the 12-story building, the tallest in the area.
Isn't it interesting how anyone who openly criticizes the Bush administration and their crimes, ends up suicided? What did he know?
These methods of silencing difficult people are crude but effective - take the case of Dr David Kelly - gone and pretty much forgotten.
If it smells like shit and tastes like shit...
Monday, December 25, 2006
Poll #10 Results
It is impossible to not effect world change, you didn't ask if the change was the one we wanted. Everyone who reads this forum/blog is effected by it, some in direct negative reaction.
In 1940 I listened on my grandmother's short wave floor model radio in Chicago as DA BEARS won the US football championship 73 to 0 while playing in Washington. The stadium there became as close that day as Chicago's Wrigley Field, just a few miles away.
In 1954 Bill Zolz entered my science class and produced from his pocket a small plastic box he said was a radio. We turned it on and between static and screeches listened for a while to some talk from far away. Then we removed its back and passed it around the room. All wondered at the little thing I explained was a transistor. The world seemed a transistor's size that day.
In 1960 France was giving up on Algerian colonization but its generals revolted, telling their troops and fight to maintain what was. They didn't follow those orders, for transistor radios had let them know that Paris had something else in mind. Paris became a lot closer to Algiers that day.
A few years later I finished building our first color television and our daughters in the US could see Africa through the camera eyes of people who were there doing what people do. That was something my 1930's childhood did not allow. My kids looked beyond their father that day.
In 1987 we tripped from Mexico to visit my mother in the United States and showed her a photo of my wife riding a burro. She reached in a drawer and produced one of herself on an elephant in India. Our burro became a lot smaller that day and my mother a lot larger.
In the early 90's I tuned our amateur radio to a Mexican radio internet gateway and used a laptop computer connected to it to pass an email message to a daughter in the US. Her and I became closer that day.
In 2003 we opened the Further Left Chat Room on Yahoo. And now, three and a half years later, those we've met there communicate regularly. It has taught us there isn't much difference in persons who reside in Argentina, China, Lebanon, Mexico, the US, and the rest of the 137 nations who have found us. We've all become closer during Further Left's days.
Two days ago Time Magazine sorely surprised persons seeking individual fame when it announced that 'You' were designated its 'person' of the year. That was in recognition of how keyboard peckers such as us have brought sites such as ours to accelerate world change. It was a signalling of surrender from celebrants of the old order to admit we've become closer than they today.
Claude Shannon's 1938 paper on electrical switching circuits laid out the basis of computer creation. The still resulting increased facility of transportation and communication to which it led has defined the locale of today's tribe to those on the surface of a ball in the sky 13,000 kilometers in diameter. My shrinking world and expanding tribe is a lot larger in size and number and yet closer to me than it used to be.
Our world and the tribe therein that we count ourselves among is what we allow them to be. I don't know if this Forum or others of similar stripe have changed those of anyone else in particular. I do know they have changed mine just by letting me be a part of it. Any perceived negativity that may have to others in what is presented to them can only rest with personally created and enforced attitudinal borders of non acceptance. They can surpass those borders by seeing themselves among the rest if only they will.
"But it's really a revolution."
Pocho's comment tells a lot. Technology evolves, the aim is to bring more and more people together.
In this world of sharing and being shared, listening and being heard, we probably have found so far the best way to understand and know each other more. Cooperation in any time is always a task. So have I had to save this wonderful article by reposting to my website.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Babel Bubble
Busting
An ex-vice president of IBM in charge of world trade made some interesting observations of how all non-english speaking countries' natives have developed what he has termed Globish. In addition to the wonderful tool the internet serves global communication, this "English-lite" way of speaking may very well be the healing of mankind's fractious wound in Babel. Now if we could get the doctors, lawyers and priests to quit babbling in latin…
Thanks for the link to this article. It tends to the academic in using big words to show how simple ones are better. Still, it is very interesting in a practical sense. Confused communication in this Forum and many internationally used web sites are good examples. It can often be seen in our Chat Room where "Could you repeat that plainly?" is a common cross cultural question.
It is not always the bigness of the word that gets in the way but rather the limited contextual or geographic area in which it is used and for what. Think jargon and slang, used in both cases so outsiders won't know.
The problem centers often on habitually not thinking beyond assumption that one's own way is the norm, or should be. Local people from my area can tell by word habits in which of four or so few kilometer separated small villages a person lives. On a larger scale, though you will not find it in a book on Spanish, people in this part of Mexico often use "eh" instead of "si" for the English "yes". Maybe there is some magic in the sound of "eh" shown by the habit of many Canadians hanging it on the end of every sentence.
Lack of word simplicity often covers for but can flag cloudy understanding. Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead worked together on Principia Mathematica, one of the most profound papers at basis of math and physics. Russell wrote simply. Whitehead did not. One gets the sense Russell understood their work better than Whitehead. Einstein's theory of special relativity was itself the best of its popular explanations. Meaning of his following theory of general relativity can hardly be put to words, let alone mathematics. Einstein himself understood the first more than the second. It has been said that the job of a physicist is not done until discoveries can be explained to a seven year old child.
"KISS" is short for a slogan taught every student of computer system design (Note: I did not use "acronym") taken from "Keep It Simple Stupid". It is too bad it is more often repeated than applied. KISS fits well to language use also. It is what Globish really comes down to.
There is a question worth asking as we cast thoughts across space. Are we really trying to aid others' learning and thus in turn learn from them? Or, are we more interested in showing ourselves how smart we are by remaining un-kissable?
Those who are not trying to improve communications to increase the general wisdom of mankind must be lying, or, at least spinning the truth to corral mindless believers. Look at the specializations that use Latin, though no country still speaks it: Religion for spiritual control, Lawyers for physical control, scientists for mythical control, doctors for health control.
Just to play the devils advocate here, I will suggest there is a need for complex words (those with multiple roots) to convey complex meanings. If people have to ponder a little bit, or even grab a dictionary, it is not such a bad thing.Decreasing standards of explanation can have serious negative effects, as I think the national discussion of politics demonstrates.
it's not too different from the 100 word essential word list that my son had to learn in Kidergarten last year, but it's extended to 1500 words.
http://perso.orange.fr/yvanbaptiste/globish/index.html
It's actually the 1500 most common words in English as used today by most people. Most high school students of today would do really well in knowing how to spell them all and knowing which ones to use when. I.e. their, they're and there.
Yes, we call it Arabeeze. It's one word in Arabic, 5 in English and 2 in some mix between. What have become of Esperanto?
Saturday, December 23, 2006
NIKE = Scrooge
Is it FIFA Approved?
In a Yahoo News article entitled "Nike's dilemma: Is doing the right thing wrong?" the question is being posed, is it better that Nike continues with its practice of hiring contractors like Saga that use child labor, or do they drop those contracts and leave huge unemployment behind.
Saga opened in 1996 with a pledge to prohibit child labor, a common practice in Pakistan. Saga was among several Sialkot-based sporting goods manufacturers that in 1997 signed an agreement with the U.N. International Labor Organization and world football's governing body, FIFA, to phase out children working in soccer-ball stitching centers.
FIFA's commitment to social responsibility has come to the fore as part of its Quality Concept. Licensees are contractually obliged to ensure that no child labour is used in any stage of the manufacturing process and they have to pledge to comply with the Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights At Work Adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Code of Conduct of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI).
So after ten years of telling people that they don't utilize child labor, and blaming the contract factories for the child labor that does occur, the Nike boycott looks like it's finally working. It looks like they are seeing the demand for non FIFA approved soccer balls drop and had to close a plant as a result. Rather than looking where to save another quarter in the price of making the $140 soccer balls, perhaps Nike should be looking at what the market really wants - an end to child labor and FIFA approved soccer balls. Nike - just do it - quit using child labor.
Neofundamentalism
Even Santa Claus is a terrorist. He has radical long hair and a full beard and wears a strange cap on his head. He has a shop near the north pole, deep in International territory where he runs a "toy factory" manned by elves. From his secret base, he flies in radar evading flights to many major cities in the world and climbs into people's chimneys to deliver gifts and holiday cheer. And he has you believe he does this in exchange for cookies and milk.
As you can see, he's global citizen, resourceful and meticulous, skilled with technology and with the patience to wait years for the opportunity to attack. If you are bad, he quits delivering presents and brings a lump of coal as a gentle warning of his power. Just think about it. He operates in a globalised world in which borders and distance offer little protection to potential victims. Santa Claus's goal is ultimately to establish a caliphate - a superstate uniting all lands that implement his ultimate "wish" - Peace on Earth.
Which is more mythical, the guy in the sky or the dolls in the dirt. In devotion determined by dollars, the fat white man's got it all over the swarthy kid. Only Thanksgiving tops it for hypocracy.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Accountability
- For Who?
Eight Marines were charged in connection with the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians. The Marine Corps is sending a clear message to its officers: They will be held accountable for the actions of their subordinates.This is looks like it will be similar to Abu Graib where only one low-ranking officer (Brig. General Janis Karpinski) was ever charged. The upper stratosphere that set the policies - for example the torture memo remain scott free.
Bush administration officials still have made no effort to hold contractors and their CEOs accountable or compensate victims for indiscriminate shootings of Iraqi civilians. Take a look at this trophy video:
It seems necessary to maintain the illusion that there is still some kind of honor associated with being a warrior.Each act of overt brutality is greeted with feigned shock and surprise. And a promise that justice will be served and the aberrant behavior punished. All Spectacle for our viewing pleasure.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Syria's A Stick
In Uncle Sam's Eye!
"The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad. Parts of the scheme are outlined in a classified, two-page document that says that the U.S. already is "supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora Syrian activists" in Europe. The document bluntly expresses the hope that "these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of actions for all anti-Assad activists.""
The rest to be found here.
One point seems to escape my logic: doesn't the self-proclaimed "intelligent" Intelligence Agency realise the the common people, nay, every person in Syria would damn well better vote for the Devil provided he's not US backed?
Puppeteer!
It has been a while comrade, missed you (ya 3ami). BTW any clue on the visits of that businessman to the Syrian embassy in Washington?
Seems the Bush administration wants to shake hands with "terrorists" again like they did in 1990-1991 :)
Cheerios and finally the "Axis of Evil" has returned ;)
Hmm... if they want to shake hands with us, you've been removed, and obviously can't do anything against Koreea, who will remain in the Axis?
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Wal-Mart Unionizes
And Goes Commie
Wal-Mart, the US retail giant and world's largest retailer, has set up a new branch of the Communist Party at its China headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen after allowing unions to operate in its China stores earlier this year. The company is known for it's anti-union stance in other countries. None of Wal-Mart's stores in the US has a union. This was reported in People's Daily.
The good fight is being fought on more than just one front...
Wal-Mart has lost a battle in the Quebec Court of Appeal to fight the unionization of its store in Gatineau. See this C.B.C. article.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
We the Arabs
On The Holocaust And Palestine
[MFL notes: Special Thanks to Dr. Traboulsi, he linked me with the translation of his latest article on Znet]
[Translator's note: The following article first appeared in the Beirut daily as-Safir of 14 December 2006. Its author, Fawwaz Traboulsi, is a historian, long-time political commentator, and weekly columnist for as-Safir. In this piece Traboulsi is addressing an Arab audience. The original title in Arabic "We, the Holocaust, and Palestine" was thus rendered into "We the Arabs, the Holocaust, and Palestine." -- Assaf Kfoury]
The two-day Tehran conference on the Holocaust, on December 11 and 12, was attended by an assortment of well-known Holocaust deniers from Europe and Australia, by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, by anti-Zionist orthodox rabbis, and by many others. In a speech to the conference, Iran's president Ahmadinejad predicted that Israel would disappear just as the Soviet Union did. The majority of the participants vied in denying the Holocaust, maintaining it is a myth, or putting in doubt the number of its victims. Nevertheless, the conference concluded with the announcement of the formation of an international committee to investigate the facts about the Holocaust.
The Tehran conference epitomizes a kind of discourse on the Holocaust, Zionism and the state of Israel in general, which is in vogue among certain Arab (and Iranian) elites. At one time, such conferences and this kind of discourse were a specialty of the Libyan regime of Colonel Gaddafi. Today, it is the Islamic Republic of Iran that has taken over the role. The discourse in question is fraught with delusions, a form of hallucination which is at once obsessed with the West and incapable of breaking away from it.
One side of this discourse is the urge to engage the West. More specifically, they want to do this on terms understood by Western democrats opposed to Nazism. They thus make analogies between Zionism and Nazism as a way to explain the hideous crimes perpetrated by Israel's aggressive policies. "Just as you fought Nazism in the past, we too fight Zionism today," declared a Lebanese legislator from Hizbullah to visiting Ségolène Royal, the French Socialist Party's presidential candidate, a few days ago. The comparison triggered a political storm in France, still blowing unabated and fanned by right-wing French politicians trying to score points against Royal.
But there is a second side of the same discourse, contradicting the first. This is the desire of some Arabs (and Iranians) to emulate the Nazis and identify with them. Their unstated premise is: "Too bad he didn't finish them off". The "he" is Hitler and the "them" is of course the Jews. To these Arabs (and Iranians) we can apply the saying "the suspect nearly asked to be indicted" -- in that they can barely veil their genocidal intentions. They wish to be associated with the Nazi crime or to complete a crime left unfinished by the Nazis!
What business do the Arabs have in all of this? The crime occurred in Europe, committed by Europeans against other Europeans. Nevertheless, in internal European debates on the Holocaust, many Arabs find it opportune to intervene and take sides -- on the wrong side! Thus, a number of Arab intellectuals hurried to vent their support for Günter Grass this past August, when his confession, that he had served in the Waffen SS as a 17-year-old at the end of WW2, unleashed a fierce controversy in Germany. This should not diminish in any way our concern for the human tragedy resulting from the Nazi crimes, and its implications for the rest of us, in particular Arabs. Between 1942 and 1945, the Nazi regime organized the genocidal extermination of the Jews and the Gypsies, in a massive campaign that also went after anti-Nazi resisters in occupied territories, after Catholics and after communists, of various nationalities and political orientations. But just to recall: While Nazi theories of the master race ranked the Jews among the lowest racial groups, one group they considered still inferior to the Jews were ... the Arabs!
Although the Zionist movement started several decades earlier, the Holocaust was the main event that contributed to the success of its project for establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. The Holocaust supplied Jewish emigration to Palestine with hundreds of thousands of refugees running away from the Nazi inferno, just as it aroused an enormous sympathy for the victims of Nazism that Zionism succeeded in mobilizing to its advantage in pursuit of its project in Palestine.
Yes, Zionism and Israel have exploited the Holocaust to justify their policies in Palestine. Serious critics of Zionism, such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, have shown how the exploitation of the Holocaust was turned into an "industry" after the June 1967 war. Note carefully: The focus on Israel as a refuge for the remnants of the Nazi genocide came after, not before, the Israeli victory in that war! This has become by now a familiar tactic of Zionist propaganda: Claiming the role of the victim while acting as the executioner.
How can we ever hope to make a convincing contribution to the unmasking of the "Holocaust industry" if we deny Nazi crimes against the Jews? How can we ever hope to draw attention to the crimes of the "new Nazis" against the Palestinian people if we decrease the number of victims of the historical Nazis? What is the significance of making comparisons between Nazism and Zionism, in order to denounce the latter, if we also exonerate the Nazis of their greatest historical crime, which is the Holocaust? And is this not the mirror image of what the Zionists have done when they appropriate the role of victims and deny the Palestinians of even claiming they are victims?
Two further remarks must be added.
First, in saying that Israel will disappear just as the Soviet Union disappeared, President Ahmadinejad seemed to draw inspiration from a time-honored practice of the European and American far right, which conflates Judaism with communism and spreads the canard of a "Jewish-communist conspiracy" to control the world. If Iran's president cared for the cause of the Palestinian people, he would know that the "disappearance" of the Soviet Union contributed to the strengthening, not weakening, of the state of Israel in pursuit of its aggressive policies. But closer to home, if President Ahmadinejad had reviewed the reports of the Iranian embassy in Beirut, he would have discovered that, in the most recent international conference in support of the Lebanese resistance and Hizbullah, held in Beirut at the end of November 2006, the majority of the participants belonged to the secular left, including Marxist and communists of different orientations.
Second, would it not be more appropriate for the Islamic Republic of Iran to help instead organize an international commission of inquiry into the crimes committed by the state of Israel against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples? And into the use of forbidden weapons by the Israeli army in its war on Lebanon in July and August 2006?
This writer is on record for supporting the right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, and even to possess a nuclear option until there is an agreement to ban all nuclear arms in the region. But this should not prevent us from criticizing policies pursued by the Iranian regime, both internal and external, and from strongly condemning some of its practices, including its recent campaign against secular activists, among which are now clerics calling for the separation of religion and state. This critique is not just a right, but a duty for all of us.
When these same kinds of ridiculous conferences take place in the US no one conflates this with the idea that all white people are holocaust denyers. Of course, important people from our government don't attend these events (though a few wish they could). Yet when it occurs in the Mahgreb or Levant it becomes indicative of a trend and another reason for the "War on Terror".
I couldn't agree more. Stop feeding the conspiracy theorists and start greasing your elbows! Hear that Mr. Ahmadinejad? Did I make myself clear Mr Bush?
Funnier thing, that clown Ahmadinejad seems to have not studied history, the stalinist Soviet Union played a role in Iranian revolution.
Deja Vu
- All Over Again
Iran has decided to conduct all international financial transactions in euros rather than dollars according to an article in Al Jazeera. Iraq's attempt to do the same was what brought on the hushed urgency of US invasion.
Terrorism was conveniently (manufactured and?) forwarded as primary excuse. It certainly wasn't the back up flim flam of what the US calls "democracy" among Iraqis. Societies of the US itself as well as allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan give lie to that. (no mention of Israel waving its hand and loudly whispering in the not so hidden background.)
The US would like to maintain the status quo of oil, and everything else for that matter, being bought and sold in dollars. With such scheme, it stays by definition the richest of all. It only has to print more of them to remain so. That resulting inflation dogs almost all its people is of little consequence to those who suck up the bucks.
Other nations must have dollars then to buy things. And from where must they acquire them? Why, from the US course by borrowing. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank it controls are only too glad to cooperate. Got a credit card? Same thing. Interest payments keep the borrowers broke and subservient if they want even more loans they are guaranteed to need.
If goods including oil, for which the US hungers, were bought and sold in euros, the US would have to have a way to collect them. That would have to be in the old fashioned manner of selling things in the currency sought. Problem is the US has little of anything anyone else wants. (except maybe military hardware to accompany its decreasingly heeded chant of "Lets you and him fight".)
Hussein was warned not to pursue the money change route but did not cave in. Bombs and invading troops carried the message of mistake. Is Ahmadinejad blind to what is apparent to everyone except Americans, or is he issuing a deja vue dare the US would like to repeat but afraid to conjure?
You've hit the nail on the head, Pocho. Democracy and freedom being used as a cover to stop a run on the bank. If everyone who held dollars demanded value, the US would become a fourth world country of unprecedented poverty. Time for the fat rich white man to start taking language and survival lessons from his gardener and maid.
I sit and watch with blinded eyes the world go by i wonder why.I must sit with blinded eyes to all that happens around me .I sit and hear with death ears to all people say around me i wonder why.When i was small people would come and go the government would take children from moms trying hard kids acting so good but the lady next door who sold and beat her kids never got not 1 bad word.I sit with blinded eyes and death ears hearing them cry watching them walk the streets .No one would come and save them little girls but the lady down the street who worked 2 jobs lost her kids because she left them home along and did not send them into the street to whore for her.So with blinded sees i watch all the injustices with death ears i heard so much pain.How can we be a world with care and heart when the children around the world suffer so many injustices.A mom and dad working all they can make to much to get help churches judging so wrongly just so there blinded hearts and death souls can judge someone worse so they can be better. do they give and helping hand with a crutch to help the people up no they help with a noose when they judge so blindly watch with no heart.When you help with heart you don't judge you help and show with action not force changes to feed someone not force thoughts you help with open ears and a open heart.How can a free world be so blind its easy the world is not free it is the illision of a free world because the world is not just 1 town just 1 country the world is the world all on this planit so how with blinded eyes and death ears can people who refuse to respect others or refuse to see good outside there normal ideas ever truly help with blinded eyes that cant see or death ears that cant hear ????
I wrote this a while back and some resion i think it fits here copyed further left
Funny thing, the US seem to always neglect the fact by invading Iraq they pushed Iran (Iraq's border neighbor) to accelerate on Nuclear Production as a means of defence. I mean there you are sitting in your presidential room suddenly you see the US imperialist troops entering neighboring Iraq, what to do? Throw flowers?!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Powerless?
Not At All
We have been out of power since last Thursday in North Bend, Washington due to a freak storm that blew down many trees, phone and power lines. Three weeks ago, we had a 500 year flood. This week, it's a 200 year wind storm. (I am posting this from my daughter's gymnastics meet in Kent, WA where they do have power and wireless Internet.) 1 1/2 million people have no electricity in the Puget Sound area. Grocery stores running on emergency power are running low on canned and no refrigeration food, batteries, flashlights, candles, blankets. Gasoline lines are about 30-50 cars long. Many gas stations are closed because there is no power to run the pumps. The food bank is nearly out of food. It's unknown how the homeless are surviving.
At our house, we have no electricity but we do have natural gas, water and sewage. However, our gas furnace does not run because we have no electricity to run the blower. The gas fireplace is good for romantic effect, but has little capability to heat the house. On Friday morning, I got in line to order 40 lbs of propane to run my coleman stove and propane heater. I have yet to take delivery. Our house, without heat, is relatively warm at 58-60 degrees although it's 38-45 outside. It's slightly passive-solar although it was not designed to be that way. We are told we will not have commercial power restored until after Christmas.
While FEMA / and the Department of Homeland defense is busy fighting a supposed war on terror, three weeks ago, we were flooded and never received any help. Albeit a few local policemen kept people from driving down streets that were 3 1/2 feet under water. The dike broke, but I'm pretty much convinced it will never be fixed by the Army Corps of Engineers. It's simply not a priority. We are told we need our Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq to secure our national interests (=oil for Bush's corporate buddies).
Now that our power is out, we are working our way through this emergency. In our town, people have been cooperating in helping each other through this. People have helped each other with chain saws to cut down trees that have been blown over by the winds. I have helped neighbors hook up their generators to provide power for needed for medical equipment like a sleep apnia breathing machine and a nebulizer for astma treatments. The neighborhood hardware store was giving away firewood to help the community. This week, I will volunteer at the local food bank. And, actually, it does not surprise me that we have not had any looting, shootings or other violent incidents so far.
I could not imagine how the Republican paradigm of every woman, man and child for themselves will work in the long run, especially under conditions like these. It takes a community of people helping each other to minimize the death toll in such situations.
We need to fix things, not in Iraq or Afghanistan, but right here at home. We need to make sure that communities are safe from flooding. We need to encourage people to become energy independent or at least to have backup power. We need to encourage passive-solar home designs again. We need to ensure that everyone has access to proper healtcare. We need to make sure that our kids get good educations. If the leadership cannot find ways to help prevent or at least helping find solutions to problems such at these, we will need to find leadership that can. You see, we were flooded and now don't have electrical power, but we're not powerless to do something about it.
You are so right threw all of this our country should have been top of any list .But then we saw in katrina how truly important human life is compaired to that war of humanity for oil.We need leaders of healthy earth and countrys.Im still trying to understand this war and why even my bro who was all for it now is having major second thoughts but then guess its not time for america to wake up till we have totaly lost .I pray you and yours stay safe and all is fixed soon my friend.Be safe walk in peace allways
Sonshine
You sound like my daughter's realizations after starting over from scratch after Katrina, with no help from the federal government, and the new found cooperation of fellow sufferers We behave much better at the tribal level than at the state or national scale.
Methinks we'll all have to call on that spirit in the not to far future.
I have my power back since Tuesday night. Many people I know still don't have their power back a week later. The power company is trying their best. Meanwhile it took more than three days to open the emergency shelter here. While I have a roof, hot water, a working sewer, and candle light for my children, ... the most vulnerable - homeless people had nowhere to go.
So far, this is a practice drill for when the big earthquake hits. We won't be expecting the National Guard because they are busy fighting the so called war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan or in some other unnamed place.
It's pretty clear in this Republican paradigm that ordinary people get to help each other while the billionaires get to help themselves - to their oil and your money.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
I Switched Again
This is a screenshot of my dashboard after my second time switch to beta. For the first switch, I couldn't rejoin the forum because beta accounts were not ready for non-beta blogs yet. The second switch did well, and made my both accounts migrate to one.I'm waiting for the forum to be upgraded.
It is now possible for the owner of a team blog to switch. The hesitating is for naught, because in the next months everyone will have to switch. The slow progression over to beta was to facilitate the equivalent to "switching engines in midflight" as one of the Blogger geeks described it. It works fine and the labels feature is great.
I don't think so and leave this as a warning to other team members not to switch until blogger gets its act straight.
Evidence:
1. How come I had to approve this post before it would show? That doesn't happen for team members. As far as the Forum is concerned in blogger's realm, a switcher becomes effectively a non member by switching. That's what I was afraid of.
2. A switched profile no longer shows the Forum as one of its blogs.
3. Profiles of other team members show a switcher as still a team member and so does the forum members list though team member priveleges and listing on the switched beta blog do not indicate forum team membership or link to it.
Cheap system design is to throw something out and expect users to do design debugging. It doesn't appear enough users have rebuilt it correctly yet. We are not on google's payroll and will wait until we know.
Note that Prole's blog is hosted independently using Wordpress rather than blogger. She looked around. So will we while waiting.
Dogmatic thought: Capitalism is about maximizing income while minimizing expenditure, those it impacts be damned. Proper system development is expensive, so sell them whatever they'll buy. Hey it gets the advertising out there.
I grant your three points, which are all the result of the switched and the non-switched team blog being on different systems now. As soon as, and if you ever, switch this blog over those problems will go away. It is not some scheme to undermine the quality of anything.
A Beta Test is the best method of finding and working out bugs, which is what Blogger Beta was doing originally to test the improved system on volunteers. Now that they are satisfied enough to switch the entire sysrem over, from static to dynamic pages, they are tapping sections of subscribers to switch at a time, but eventually all team blogs will be in the same system with switched members again … when the team blogs switch. Xenophopic Dogmatism?
I seem to survive the paradigm shift, although I face a problem when accesing some of the comments links (right just now). I'm still behind the iron curtain.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Apologists for Terror
Aside from the moral issues of weighing your bank account against the murder and torture of thousands, the reality is when Pinochet executed his CIA backed coup,Chilean unemployment stood at 4.3% and poverty at 20%. After ten years of "free market modernization" unemployment hit 22%, poverty rates doubled and real wages declined by 40%, just like everywhere else the "Washington Consensus" was imposed. The economy only picked up after the General re-nationalized the copper industry.
Fanatical right-wingers are the same the world over, their reactionary anti-communist zeal blinding them to human-rights atrocities and forcing them into fantastical fascist apologetics. Here is blogger sonia-belles twisted logic: "Kill millions of innocent people and you're a communist hero. Kill 3,000 future Communist tyrants and your a Devil." I guess it was his idea of a pre-emptive strike!
Mrs Thatcher the "great" lady of British politics was reported to be saddened by her friend's. Pinochets death. Must ahve been her sort of dictator.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6167351.stm
Monday, December 11, 2006
Annan's Goodbye
Kofi Annan will step down on 31 December 2006. He delivered his final speech as United Nations Secretary General today, Monday 11 December, at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Missouri, USA. The full text of Kofi Annan's final speech follows.
Thank you, Senator for that wonderful introduction. It is a great honour to be introduced by such a distinguished legislator.
And thanks to you, Mr Devine, and all your staff, and to the wonderful UNA chapter of Kansas City, for all you have done to make this occasion possible.
What a pleasure, and a privilege, to be here in Missouri. It is almost a homecoming for me. Nearly half a century ago I was a student about 400 miles north of here, in Minnesota.
I arrived there straight from Africa - and I can tell you, Minnesota soon taught me the value of a thick overcoat, a warm scarf and even ear-muffs!
When you leave one home for another, there are always lessons to be learnt. And I had more to learn when I moved on from Minnesota to the United Nations - the indispensable common house of the entire human family, which has been my main home for the last 44 years.
Today I want to talk particularly about five lessons I have learnt in the last 10 years, during which I have had the difficult but exhilarating role of Secretary General.
I think it is especially fitting that I do that here in the house that honours the legacy of Harry S Truman. If Franklin D Roosevelt was the architect of the United Nations, President Truman was the master-builder, and the faithful champion of the Organisation in its first years, when it had to face quite different problems from the ones FDR had expected.
Truman's name will for ever be associated with the memory of far-sighted American leadership in a great global endeavour. And you will see that every one of my five lessons brings me to the conclusion that such leadership is no less sorely needed now than it was 60 years ago.
My first lesson is that, in today's world, the security of every one of us is linked to that of everyone else.
That was already true in Truman's time. The man who in 1945 gave the order for nuclear weapons to be used - for the first, and let us hope the only, time in history - understood that security for some could never again be achieved at the price of insecurity for others.
He was determined, as he had told the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco, to "prevent, if human mind, heart, and hope can prevent it, the repetition of the disaster [meaning the world war] from which the entire world will suffer for years to come".
He believed strongly that henceforth security must be collective and indivisible.
That was why, for instance, he insisted, when faced with aggression by North Korea against the South in 1950, on bringing the issue to the United Nations and placing US troops under the UN flag, at the head of a multinational force.
But how much more true it is in our open world today: a world where deadly weapons can be obtained not only by rogue states but by extremist groups; a world where Sars or avian flu can be carried across oceans, let alone national borders, in a matter of hours; a world where failed states in the heart of Asia or Africa can become havens for terrorists; a world where even the climate is changing in ways that will affect the lives of everyone on the planet.
Against such threats as these, no nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others. We all share responsibility for each other's security, and only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves.
And I would add that this responsibility is not simply a matter of states being ready to come to each other's aid when attacked - important though that is.
It also includes our shared responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity - a responsibility solemnly accepted by all nations at last year's UN summit.
That means that respect for national sovereignty can no longer be used as a shield by governments intent on massacring their own people, or as an excuse for the rest of us to do nothing when such heinous crimes are committed.
But, as Truman said, "If we should pay merely lip service to inspiring ideals, and later do violence to simple justice, we would draw down upon us the bitter wrath of generations yet unborn."
And when I look at the murder, rape and starvation to which the people of Darfur are being subjected, I fear that we have not got far beyond "lip service".
The lesson here is that high-sounding doctrines like the "responsibility to protect" will remain pure rhetoric unless and until those with the power to intervene effectively - by exerting political, economic or, in the last resort, military muscle - are prepared to take the lead.
And I believe we have a responsibility not only to our contemporaries but also to future generations - a responsibility to preserve resources that belong to them as well as to us, and without which none of us can survive.
That means we must do much more, and urgently, to prevent or slow down climate change. Every day that we do nothing, or too little, imposes higher costs on our children and our children's children.
My second lesson is that we are not only all responsible for each other's security. We are also, in some measure, responsible for each other's welfare.
Global solidarity is both necessary and possible. It is necessary because without a measure of solidarity no society can be truly stable, and no one's prosperity truly secure.
That applies to national societies - as all the great industrial democracies learned in the 20th century - but it also applies to the increasingly integrated global market economy we live in today.
It is not realistic to think that some people can go on deriving great benefits from globalization while billions of their fellow human beings are left in abject poverty, or even thrown into it.
We have to give our fellow citizens, not only within each nation but in the global community, at least a chance to share in our prosperity.
That is why, five years ago, the UN Millennium Summit adopted a set of goals - the "Millennium Development Goals" - to be reached by 2015: goals such as halving the proportion of people in the world who do not have clean water to drink; making sure all girls, as well as boys, receive at least primary education; slashing infant and maternal mortality; and stopping the spread of HIV/Aids.
Much of that can only be done by governments and people in the poor countries themselves. But richer countries, too, have a vital role.
Here too, Harry Truman proved himself a pioneer, proposing in his 1949 inaugural address a program of what came to be known as development assistance. And our success in mobilising donor countries to support the Millennium Development Goals, through debt relief and increased foreign aid, convinces me that global solidarity is not only necessary but possible.
Of course, foreign aid by itself is not enough. Today, we realise that market access, fair terms of trade and a non-discriminatory financial system are equally vital to the chances of poor countries.
Even in the next few weeks and months, you Americans can make a crucial difference to many millions of poor people, if you are prepared to save the Doha Round of trade negotiations.
You can do that by putting your broader national interest above that of some powerful sectional lobbies, while challenging Europe and the large developing countries to do the same.
My third lesson is that both security and development ultimately depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law.
Although increasingly interdependent, our world continues to be divided - not only by economic differences, but also by religion and culture.
That is not in itself a problem. Throughout history human life has been enriched by diversity, and different communities have learnt from each other.
But if our different communities are to live together in peace we must stress also what unites us: our common humanity, and our shared belief that human dignity and rights should be protected by law.
That is vital for development, too. Both foreign investors and a country's own citizens are more likely to engage in productive activity when their basic rights are protected and they can be confident of fair treatment under the law.
And policies that genuinely favour economic development are much more likely to be adopted if the people most in need of development can make their voice heard.
In short, human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity. As Truman said, "We must, once and for all, prove by our acts conclusively that Right Has Might."
That is why this country has historically been in the vanguard of the global human rights movement. But that lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism.
When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused.
And states need to play by the rules towards each other, as well as towards their own citizens. That can sometimes be inconvenient, but ultimately what matters is not convenience. It is doing the right thing.
No state can make its own actions legitimate in the eyes of others. When power, especially military force, is used, the world will consider it legitimate only when convinced that it is being used for the right purpose - for broadly shared aims - in accordance with broadly accepted norms.
No community anywhere suffers from too much rule of law; many do suffer from too little - and the international community is among them. This we must change.
The US has given the world an example of a democracy in which everyone, including the most powerful, is subject to legal restraint. Its current moment of world supremacy gives it a priceless opportunity to entrench the same principles at the global level.
As Harry Truman said, "We all have to recognise, no matter how great our strength, that we must deny ourselves the licence to do always as we please."
My fourth lesson - closely related to the last one - is that governments must be accountable for their actions in the international arena, as well as in the domestic one.
Today the actions of one state can often have a decisive effect on the lives of people in other states.
So does it not owe some account to those other states and their citizens, as well as to its own? I believe it does.
As things stand, accountability between states is highly skewed. Poor and weak states are easily held to account, because they need foreign assistance. But large and powerful states, whose actions have the greatest impact on others, can be constrained only by their own people, working through their domestic institutions.
That gives the people and institutions of such powerful states a special responsibility to take account of global views and interests, as well as national ones.
And today they need to take into account also the views of what, in UN jargon, we call "non-state actors". I mean commercial corporations, charities and pressure groups, labour unions, philanthropic foundations, universities and think tanks - all the myriad forms in which people come together voluntarily to think about, or try to change, the world.
None of these should be allowed to substitute itself for the state, or for the democratic process by which citizens choose their governments and decide policy. But they all have the capacity to influence political processes, on the international as well as the national level.
States that try to ignore this are hiding their heads in the sand.
The fact is that states can no longer - if they ever could - confront global challenges alone. Increasingly, we need to enlist the help of these other actors, both in working out global strategies and in putting those strategies into action once agreed.
It has been one of my guiding principles as Secretary General to get them to help achieve UN aims - for instance through the Global Compact with international business, which I initiated in 1999, or in the worldwide fight against polio, which I hope is now in its final chapter, thanks to a wonderful partnership between the UN family, the US Centers for Disease Control and - crucially - Rotary International.
So that is four lessons. Let me briefly remind you of them: First, we are all responsible for each other's security. Second, we can and must give everyone the chance to benefit from global prosperity. Third, both security and prosperity depend on human rights and the rule of law. Fourth, states must be accountable to each other, and to a broad range of non-state actors, in their international conduct.
My fifth and final lesson derives inescapably from those other four. We can only do all these things by working together through a multilateral system, and by making the best possible use of the unique instrument bequeathed to us by Harry Truman and his contemporaries, namely the United Nations.
In fact, it is only through multilateral institutions that states can hold each other to account. And that makes it very important to organize those institutions in a fair and democratic way, giving the poor and the weak some influence over the actions of the rich and the strong.
That applies particularly to the international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Developing countries should have a stronger voice in these bodies, whose decisions can have almost a life-or-death impact on their fate.
And it also applies to the UN Security Council, whose membership still reflects the reality of 1945, not of today's world.
That is why I have continued to press for Security Council reform. But reform involves two separate issues.
One is that new members should be added, on a permanent or long-term basis, to give greater representation to parts of the world which have limited voice today.
The other, perhaps even more important, is that all Council members, and especially the major powers who are permanent members, must accept the special responsibility that comes with their privilege.
The Security Council is not just another stage on which to act out national interests. It is the management committee, if you will, of our fledgling collective security system.
As President Truman said, "The responsibility of the great states is to serve and not dominate the peoples of the world."
He showed what can be achieved when the US assumes that responsibility. And still today, none of our global institutions can accomplish much when the US remains aloof. But when it is fully engaged, the sky is the limit.
These five lessons can be summed up as five principles, which I believe are essential for the future conduct of international relations: collective responsibility, global solidarity, the rule of law, mutual accountability, and multilateralism.
Let me leave them with you, in solemn trust, as I hand over to a new Secretary General in three weeks' time.
My friends, we have achieved much since 1945, when the United Nations was established.
But much remains to be done to put those five principles into practice.
Standing here, I am reminded of Winston Churchill's last visit to the White House, just before Truman left office in 1953. Churchill recalled their only previous meeting, at the Potsdam conference in 1945.
"I must confess, sir," he said boldly, "I held you in very low regard then. I loathed your taking the place of Franklin Roosevelt." Then he paused for a moment, and continued: "I misjudged you badly. Since that time, you more than any other man, have saved Western civilisation."
My friends, our challenge today is not to save Western civilisation - or Eastern, for that matter. All civilisation is at stake, and we can save it only if all peoples join together in the task.
You Americans did so much, in the last century, to build an effective multilateral system, with the United Nations at its heart.
Do you need it less today, and does it need you less, than 60 years ago? Surely not.
More than ever today Americans, like the rest of humanity, need a functioning global system through which the world's peoples can face global challenges together.
And in order to function, the system still cries out for far-sighted American leadership, in the Truman tradition.
I hope and pray that the American leaders of today, and tomorrow, will provide it. Thank you very much.
All that emphasis on "leadership" to solve problems displays a deep misunderstanding of systems.Poor guy means well, but hasn't learned much from recent history.Truman set up the UN to extend US hegemony and until someone proposes ending the veto, the status quo will prevail.He wants to see wealth spread a little more evenly, but still thinks markets and development aid can work.Does he think these systems which have failed the worlds poor for generations will now change because the situation is now more desperate? A bit naive.To "save the Doha Round of trade negotiations"is he suggesting the rich nations give up their advantage? Cmon.
I think that problems could be solved by leaders that were statesmen instead of politicians for their own gains. For as long as the leader's goal is for their own gains, the only problem that will be solved is the cash level in someone's pocket.
On the other hand, I thought he was right on the money with his swipes at Bush and the US
* US ‘must remain true to principles’
* And his warning about secret prisons and torture
I dissected today's speech of Annan regarding the Middle East. I would have posted it here, but then gotta work with the colors and everything. You can find it at my blog.
I think he speaks truth .Leaders need to want for all not just self and health so much more then gain of stuff.
Kofi Anana tenure will not be one remembered by fondly. Recently Anan admitted he should have resigned and was contemplating resignation over Iraq. He just admittied recently knowing his tenure is coming to an end. Why do so? Why not resign or use the threat when the US were beating the war drums and beginning its sordid occupation? Answer is simple, Anan being the US stooge he is wanted to give legitimacy to the occupation and has done. Anna was handpicked by Clinton. Essentially he was US choice to replace the critical Boutros Boutros Ghali. Its interesting to learn hopw much time Anan actually spent in the USA. Now we know where his allegainces stand. Also interesting to read his praises fro the "man" (if I can call him that), who through the doctrine named after him was repsonsible for millions of deaths (including many in my homeland- were the Truman doctrine was first enacted). That was in the days of the war "against communism" and the big red peril. Interestingly enough Anana quotes another man often thoguh to be great, Mr Churchill, the British aristocrat, who justified gassing kUrds because they were "uncivilized" and referred to Ghandhi as a "savage". All I say is Anans tenure should have ended years ago.
I guess its a fight been going on way before and is one that will go on after we are gone.
I know tho silly as i am i wish there could be no more fights or harm but even if humans could stop all human caused deaths of posioning disease and WAR.Earth would still kill off millions and she will more have we not become a plage to our selfs ????
P.S i may be the only one whos noticed no emails or even no pocho in the chat room not that many would have noticed.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Real Lebanese Unity
Took Place During The July War Only
In his famous book "The German Ideology", Karl Marx speaks of change in the society, more precisely on real change taking place through social interaction. This is the role placed on the Marxists through out the world to be done. Lebanon is not a different situation (even though the Stalinist Lebanese Communist Party is there, it sold out its ideology/sciences). The aim of this post is to equate both reactionary camps and denounce them as stabbers of the working class.
I tackled how each leader isolates his sect (and I still say his rather his/her becuase of the situation that only the male political figures got their goons on Sectarian basis) and acts the defenders of the Sect. The media (Radio/TV/Newpapers) works more on dividing the public opinion. Noam Chomsky argues that the media should simply report the public opinion, and not create it. His arguement was based on the US media in specific and anywhere the Media breaches its major role. Actually, John Steward Mill Jr. argued that the Media should be as objective as possible despite the odds facing the reporters. Trotsky argued that the Media should be as informative and objective as possible as well, since the facts reflected what would be part of the history archives.
In Lebanon, you would see on Future TV (Harriri-Sunni based) which family opposes the "opposition" while the extreme case would be al-Manar (Hezbollah - Shiite based) refering to the Government as "Unconstitutional Government". The varieties of channels also target specific audiences. Hence, as I argued last week, each Sect/Audience lives in a world of their own.
Now I mentioned on the title of this tiny article that Real National Unity did occur, and I meant it. The only time national unity occured is during the July War. The basic interaction took place from the refugees fleeing the Dahhieh region and the South due to the brutal aggression of the Israelis towards the Christian areas in Achrafieh. I will not go into details how long it took to get those schools to open (as I actually wanted to place this section within my Lebanon, Israel, and Class Struggle series), but the first wave of refugees faced major social difficulties; at least the refugees who fled to those areas. Some supermarkets over even refused to even sell them their commodities. Locals in several areas simply shut out their doors and pretended they were never present. The displaced also expressed fear, due to the fact that it is the first time they enter a "Christian" area, and some even expressed fear of being killed. I couldn't believe it when they said so (and vice versia btw), so for the first time in my life I refered myself as a sect and told the refugees: "Listen, I am labeled a Christian on my passport, do I appear like a scary creature?"
Our team units everywhere had to break this cultural difference. The refugees in general were Shiites since Israel was bombarding Shiite populated areas mostly. The mothers or girls were embarrased to be regarded as "low-life" creatures, since the myth among the Sects goes by that the Christian community is superior. Some have heard insultive comments regarding the veil. Nevertheless, as the war became bloodier, those refugees and the locals in the Christian areas (well in reference to Beirut) interacted. I highly recommed the website Samidoun for details on such interactions. I know some stories would be stunning about how both "sect" streets feared each other, but in the end humanity called. I am not sure whether humanity or nationalism struck at the same time, since the more the war was lasting, Hezbollah during the war got more support as the Israeli Army recieved damage. Plenty of Sects interacted with each other, and the major complaint I have was blocking the entry of Palestinians living outside the camp to enter the schools because they lacked the Lebanese Passport, but we broke through that problem where we were present.
People forgot their Sect differences and political "Lebanese honest" demands. The majority of Lebanon are after all Lower Middle and Lower classes. Nobody bothered to hear the political disputes of the Sect leaders and "intellects" like those opportunists General Aoun, Saad Harriri, Samir Jaajaa, Ghazi Aridi, S. Frangieh...etc. The dividing means were cut out. The media was not reaching the ears of the majority of the Lebanese. The audiences thought that hearing their words are a waste of time since none of them can do anything during the war. Actually, most of the Lebanese were worried on:
1) Where the Israelis were bombing
2) How many were killed
3) What villages were under siege by the Israelis
4) Damages inflicted on the Israelis
5) What was going on in the international level.
6) No Sect was threatened by the other
7) Viewing the Zionist army as the enemy and did not politicians to tell them so
The supporters of Hezbollah seem to forget that it was not only their weaponry that allowed the Lebanese proletariat to stand victorious in face of the Zionist aggression, rather it was the Civilian resistance which brought food, medicine, psychological treatement to the children, and everything else. After all, 1/4 of the population was displaced. Some people working on relief didn't even know that the war was over till days later because they didn't have time for them as they were busy doing medical checklists on the displaced.
Now when the great divide returned? After the war was over of course! The politicians sought to isolate the Proletariat as Sects again, and the supporters returned like followers to hail them. Real national unities transcend the elites' policies and programs. Those who call for National Unity like Nasrallah & Jaajaa (and all the rest of the duo camps) would not want real national unity among the Proletariat because then they would be out of business. Even their priests and clergies would be out of business.
No War But Class War!!!
MFL
Another case of mistrust of government at least as much as the enemy they call on citizens to fight for them. Even sect leaders responsible for too many people to effectively represent the variation they are.
How large is the average humans circle of friendly comfort? A tribe, a clan, a town, a commune. Surly not a city, or state, or nation.
Um excuse me but is not WAR war no mater what social name to it ????Is not harming killing and judging worse or better a war even if with in ????raw war
It is easy for people to unite when they are being attacked, but it is a shallow and superficial unity. Political unity only happens when the other antagonisms (sect, clan, ethnicity)are matters of articulation rather than "belief" or faith.The Middle east is decades away from a real civil society and institutions need to be dismantled and new ones constructed.
Stay The Course
Friday, December 08, 2006
Poll #9 Comments
Control and restriction both perpetuate borders, those things that governments like to lie that they are protecting the people by erecting against the undesirable tainting of the perfect culture they are trying to herd and tame within. No borders, no government, no war. Maybe.
Hey, Everybody! go read Pisces Iscariot's post, "Limbo Terminus" for what the man can do with words to caress truth!
I agree.Everyones home should provide the same basic opportunities so that no one is forced to leave. In the case that people just WANT to seek a life elsewhere, great, there would be an equal flow so that no one system is stressed.Just respect the culture you have immersed yourself into and add something good to it.Fighting for liberty means fighting against these absurd restrictions on our lives.
Life, Liberty and the Persuit of Happyness...
The immigration issue is really the compliment of import/export trade - It controls the movement of labor. True free trade involves both the movement of of labor and goods. However, with borders and imigration the balance between the two can be skewed to favor certain groups. Currently, the policies are enforced such that cheap labor can come and go as they please. It's well known that illegal labor is used to harvest much of of our crops and build our houses. On the other hand, it's relatively difficult for professionals to come into the US. Their numbers and countries of origin are limited And, once they're required to have a license to perform their skills. The jet set has no problem with going anywhere they want to. Clearly, current imigration is used to protect the middle class. Officially, it protects the lower income bracket as well. But the way it's implemented, illegal immigration creates poverty by undercutting the minimum wage labor. Clearly, the current imigration policy protects the jet set.
To answer the question which policy - Encouraging, Controlling, or Restricting would work best for the country, we would need to look at which policy would benefit the most and injure the least.
Why shouldn’t a person be free to cross a border in search of work to sustain his life, to open a business, to tour, or simply because he wants to? Why not?
"Open borders bring in poor people and would tax our welfare system." If there were no borders, movement would be regulated only by economic ability. Essentially, those people that can afford to move will move in or out of a country. If the difference in conditions between one country is great enough, people will pick up and move at all costs. And, those with the greater economic ability to do so would move first.
"Open immigration will pollute America’s culture." Our culture is Heinz 57. How can possibly adding more immigrants to a country of immigrants pollute our culture?
"Immigrants will take jobs away from Americans." It's the undercutting of legitimate jobs through the use of illegal immigrants that are not paid a fair wage for their work that takes jobs away. As a matter of fact, open borders may concentrate skills such as high-tech labor and perhaps even bring back jobs with them.
"Imigrants will bring in drugs." Lots of people, including returning tourists bring in drugs. But the large volume drug trafficking is perpetuated by drug merchants, not by immigration. This is an import/export issue, not an issue of the movement of labor.
"Immigrants will go on welfare." Welfare is and should be restricted to people that make the country their permanent home - citizens and permanent residents. Clearly the burden of welfare must be born by someone and welfare is needed as the safety net of last resort. It's important that people don't imigrate for the purposes of using the welfare system. Certainly if you were looking for a country with a great welfare system to move to, the US would not be the best choice. Europe would be far better.
"There will be too many people." Immigrants go where the opportunities are and in turn they avoid areas where there are no opportunities. It's more likely that young people pick up and move than older people. This means that open borders would tend to bring in people that would in turn help support our aging population.
"Open immigration will permit terrorists to enter our country." No amount of immigration control will control terrorism. The best solution to this problem is to quit being the cause of terrorism. A change in interventionist policies will go a long way in solving this problem.
In conclusion, a lot of benefits may come form open borders. So far, I'm not convinced by the arguments from the closed border side.
I would disagree with vagabond that "cheap labor can come and go as it pleases." People are dying in the deserts trying to cross, being rounded up in sweeps and deported, etc..It is capital that has no controls , that can wander the globe in serch of cheap labor and lack of regulation. 60,000 people are naturalized every year, mostly those with education and job prospects in some sector the economy needs.Wages are so low in America because capital has busted all the unions and scabs are easy to find. Do you want fries with that?
Troutsky,
I think in part we may be saying the same thing.
The 60,000 legal permanent residents that are naturalized every year is a drop in the bucket compared to the 3 1/2 million of illegal immigrants that land here in the US every year.
About 90,000 people come here every year with H1B visas. They have the needed education and job prospects in some sector the economy needs to get the visas. After 6 years, people on an H1 visa can apply for permanent resident status (green card). You have to be a permanent resident for five years before you can become Naturalized. I came here this way myself.
Illegal immigration into the US on the other hand, is a highly profitable proposition for both employers and the US government, and it also benefits Mexico, which is the largest source country of undocumented immigrants into the US. This year more than three million crossed the border. Only 1,954 people died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border between the years 1998-2004, from various causes. For the most part, the stories of deportation and deaths are over-exaggerations to convince the middle class that something is done about the illegals.
But realistically, the corporations and business owners do not pay these undocumented workers the minimum wage, social security, benefits and so on. The government does not want to take care of these people. But illegal immigration creates poverty by undercutting the minimum wage labor.
...and, yes Capital imports and exports goods as it pleases and invests its capital in foreign countries where there are no labor regulations. Capital has busted all the unions and scabs are easy to find due to all the illegal labor being brought in.
I fully believe the immigration issue has been created by the Bush administration to swing the "Git er done" red voters on their side. A 650 mile concrete berlin wall will not solve this problem. They need to jail business owners that use illegal labor.
Lame Duck Congress
Is this really acceptable? No. We should demand a return to our values of personal freedoms and guarantee of civil rights.
Sad we send our men and ladys to fight for others freedoms while back home our leaders are destroying what OUR military is fighting for else where.But then even that fight has been confussing !!!!I wish we can keep our fought and died for freedoms at home too!!!!Bless all people who want real true freedom to the ring of life.
Except for privatizing Iraq's oil, there is no particular objective in Iraq, that was lasting.
Neither major US party will end the concept of "unlawful detainee".
It's pretty clear that Iraq is all about control over the oil. If it was about establishing a democracy, they would not have leveled most of the infrastructure - universities, schools, hospitals, and kept only the oil ministry offices.
Neither party will remove bad laws that were created during Bush's term in office. Instead, our only hope is that the bad laws are challenged in Supreme court.
The Supreme Court's ruling on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld was a strong rebuke of the Bush administration's unlawful detainee policy. The decision stated that any legal proceedings must provide fundamental fair trial rights to any detainee charged with a crime. The administration's response to this was to remove Habeas Corpus rights from detainees that have yet to be charged with a crime and to hurry up to build a court house in Guantanamo Bay.
Hopefully, the Supreme Court will remove most of these bad laws over time.
World Problems
Forum Profile
I would like to see what the priorities for world problems, including suggested solutions for each, held by the visitors to the Further Left Forum are. What must be done to make this forum unnecessary? Problems that come to mind off hand are: Imperialism, Oppression, Global Warming, Pollution, Population, Poverty, Hunger, Terrorism, Injustice … Listing your top three problems and solutions will be sufficient for this survey, but further elaboration is welcome and encouraged.Since it was my curiosity that prompted this fill in your own blanks poll, I will go first, with no intention of influencing anyone else, as unavoidable as that seems to be.
Priority #1 - War must be abolished and any weapons of war and means of their manufature must be destroyed.
Priority #2 - Population growth must at least be stopped, if not reversed. Poverty, famine, and pollution are the direct result of a never ending attempt to produce more food to feed the unchecked, always starving increase in population. Growth economies rape and poison the earth in the production of more for endless profit. Since our food supply is artificially abundant we must educate and encourage the entire world population about contraception, despite religious arguments otherwise.
Priority #3 - Central governments rule over populations too large to be considered representative or feel responsible. Returning to tribal responsibilities with administration handled within the tribe and between tribes for interdependent dealings, with only a clan of “fair witness” environmental overseers coordinating larger projects. This should relieve a great portion of oppression due to nonrepresentation in ones own welfare.
Okay, have at it.
seam to me not a choice of things but a idea of things on how to do it .
But then most polls are for information gathering
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Fire The Fürer
If the Fürer can't listen to expert advice and continues to stay the course, I believe it's time to impeach the bastard. What on earth did we elect the new Congress critters for if they can't follow through?
Hopefully, Blair can talk some sense into the idiot in charge before the people take it to the streets. Just call it a victory the same way Nixon did.
By the way, his new direction "forward" still means stay the course. It avoids the question how did we get here? And what can we do differently.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Subliminal
Sonic Branding
I've been noticing that many companies have been using sonic brands with their commercials. For example, I'm sure you've heard of the sound branding when you turn on your computer, the Microsoft chime, or intel inside tone. Also, you can't miss the T-Mobile tone dah-dah-bing-dah. Well during a commercial yesterday, I heard a sound like a cell phone ringing during a McDonald's commercial. I was compelled to find it. I asked my kids where the cellphone ringing was and they told me it's part of the commercial. I asked them how long McDonald's has been doing that. They told me it's been that way for about a couple months now, where have you been? Indeed the cellphone ring tone is on the background of most of the McDonalds commercials in the morning.This got me to look around as far as other places noises are used to get people to pay attention to the drone of the television. Once you pay attention, it's really obvious why people are hypnotized to the pro-war news on Fox. What kinds of sounds do you hear in the background of TV programs and commercials? How are they being used to direct the masses?
I used to listen to Frank Zappa a long time ago, but never heard that song before. The lyrics are really funny. I can't wait to listen to it...
Frank Zappa › I’m The Slime (3:24)
"Frank zappa (guitar, vocals)
Ralph humphrey (drums)
Sal marquez (trumpet, vocals)
Tom fowler (bass)
Bruce fowler (trombone)
George duke (keyboards, synthesizer)
Ruth underwood (marimba, vibes, percussion)
Ian underwood (flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone)
Jean-luc ponty (violin, baritone violin)
Kin vassy (vocals)
I am gross and perverted
Im obsessed n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little had changed
I am the tool of the government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you
I may be vile and pernicious
But you cant look away
I make you think Im delicious
With the stuff that I say
I am the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I am the slime oozin out
From your tv set
You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we dont need you
Dont got for help...no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold
Thats right, folks..
Dont touch that dial
Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin along on your livinroom floor
I am the slime from your video
Cant stop the slime, people, lookit me go"
Thanks!
With the freedom of the internet available, so long as it remains so, I am surprized anyone caring to be informed with the reality of events still watches TV for any reason other than to take active part in the soap opera it has made of the "American Way of Life" sponsored by Disney, McDonalds and Coke. They call it the American Dream because you can't visualize it unless you are asleep.
Not that i know much but have thay not been using this sence the event on avertising in one form or another.Like when the Military got free advertising or was it Lucky strike well thay where together at one time 2 for 1 advertising.aka brainwashing
Littlebitofsonshine
Frank jumped around from politically astute to theatre of the absurd. Truly liberating for those of us growing up in a surreal time. Also one of the great guitar players of all time,in the same league as Beck and Page.
Mediocre Max
These trade deals are where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, for those of us interested in halting the unfettered rampage of global capital. We will join our S.Korean brothers and sisters in struggle on Friday and I know Mad Max will be safe and warm somewhere far away from the action. Hopefully choking on that beef.
Isn't this the Senator that wanted to create a red-light district on the internet? The proposed .xxx base domain was sure to the way for governments - the United States or repressive regimes abroad - or even private industry to filter speech protected under the First Amendment. It would not surprise me if they then would toss forums like ours into the free speech zone (.xxx).
Monday, December 04, 2006
Sinking Dollar
- Will China Back Out?
In a recent article entitled "Will China Lead a Stampede out of the US Dollar?", it was reported that Beijing is having second thoughts about the composition of its $1 trillion portfolio of FX reserves, with 70% held in low yielding US fixed income securities. “Firstly, long-term US interest rates are falling. Secondly, the exchange rate of the US dollar, which is the major reserve currency, is going lower, increasing the depreciation risk for east Asian reserve assets,” Wu said.Most of the US trade surplus with China is being recycled with US Bonds. China now owns more than a Trillion dollars worth of US Bonds. According to the article, “China's economy would take a big hit if the US dollar weakened sharply due to such factors as a bursting of the US property bubble. The loss for China’s foreign exchange reserves would be extremely serious. If that happens, it will be a tremendous hit to the Chinese economy,” he said.
On October 10th, Fan Gang, another member of People’s Bank of China’s policy committee, made similar comments, “China risks an erosion of its holdings because the US dollar will probably decline.” On August 29th, Gang wrote, “The US dollar is no longer a stable anchor in the global financial system, nor is it likely to become one, therefore it is time to look for alternatives.”
Aparently, China is caught up in a Catch 22. If they continue to invest in the US dollar, they will lose their capital due to the sinking dollar. If they pull out of the US dollar, they will cause themselves internal economic problems. At some point the losses due to the dropping dollar are worse than the loss of being able to sell their goods in the US and they will pull out of the US dollar. That point is approaching fast.
What will the globalists do?
They are creating all of this. They move jobs overseas, they artificially create wars, set up the dominoes and then deliberately collapse entire economies to collect. It's part of the plan. Since the war on terror is losing its support and costing too much money, they will find a new enemy - China.
According to the scenario you lay out running up to the "looking for a new enemy" part, new enemies are the last thing you need when you can't afford a war and your enemy has all your IOUs.
so true. The US cannot afford war and China holds many of the IOUs. But look at the idiots stir up trouble with Syria, North Korea and Iran. When China pulls the plug, they will be judged as "terrorists" too.
By the way, many of us hoping to get Social Security own a large part of the national debt and so do US investors. Japan also owns a large part of the IOUs.
One thing that's for sure. Once the US's credit rating towards junk status, the interest rates necessary to finance the debt are sure to go up. I.e. interest hikes are on their way. Can you say inflation? Of course it will be the Democrat's fault.
We talk in terms of "China's economy " or the "US economy" but in this age of integrated ,trans-national capital many of the players are the same stateless actors. General Electric or the Carlyle Group don't care who is the seller or who is the buyer or who does the financialization or the manufactering. They make money off of every deal.The proxy wars are just pissing matches to prove we can protect shipping lanes or oil wells.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Salmon Rivers
- Bush Threatens World's Greatest
According to a recent CNN article, "Drilling may resume in Alaska Bay", U.S. President Bush is deciding whether to lift a ban on oil and gas drilling in federal waters off Alaska's Bristol Bay, home to endangered whales and sea lions and the world's largest sockeye salmon run.
Leasing in a portion of the area rich in oil and natural gas ended nearly two decades ago -- while Bush's father was president -- in the outcry after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989."
Essentially Bush has allowed big oil to set policy -- what big oil has wants, big oil gets. And it now wants to drill off shore in Alaska, where it is estimated there are only 40 million barrels of economically recoverable oil (assuming $30 per barrel). This is enough to supply the U.S. for a little over two days at the current rate of oil consumption. There's 1.27 trillion cubic feet of estimated economically recoverable (assuming $3.52 per million cubic feet). This is enough to supply the U.S. for only 20 days at the current rate of gas consumption.On the other hand, the Bristol Bay Watershed produces the world’s greatest commercial salmon fishery and internationally renowned salmon and trout runs that attract anglers from all over the world. The waters in this region have long been an integral part of the State’s economy and have provided sustainable jobs, subsistence foods and other benefits to Alaskans for generations. Alaska's Bristol Bay supplies 50 percent of US seafood.
Recently, however, adult sockeye runs in Bristol Bay have declined dramatically, even though counts of both juvenile fish leaving the rivers for the ocean, and adults returning to the rivers to spawn, have indicated strong sockeye salmon production in the freshwater tributaries to the Bay. The last thing this sensitive ecosystem needs is another oil spill.
Even President Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who recognizes that Florida's coastline is of major concern to Florida voters, has been fighting for restrictions on oil drilling in the Gulf for at least 150 miles off the Florida coast.
If Bush and Congress allow drilling in Bristol Bay, it illustrates how deep they are in the pocket of Big Oil. Exxon-Mobil (Esso) ($2.470.000) and Texaco-Chevron ($2.200.000) are some of the biggest donors to the Republican Party coffers.
I have to say this i write letters emails have been writing letters for years .I have sence stoped.Sence i learned how thay treat baby cows in the veal trade.Now we hear about posions in the water animals thay feed other animals Plantion are being killed off.We have the knolage to slowly stop using major oil and to save our world.But so many self consummed people who say thay are caring leaders are not.Thay dont hear the needs of our own country in health .I will add tho some people are caring and thay do all thay know how to help people so them bless you for what you do.I can only truly speak of the usa .What makes any one think any change will happen .I am just 1 you are 2 there may be 1000s but when we as a whole learn to block out truth does it mater any more .Like pocho says the fight was before us and will be after us .I for one love my IDEA of my country .But i think untill people learn to care for earth as a whole we are doomed as a whole earth .The butterfly affect in action .Just take a true look at history in the last 80 years .We have destroyed more life in that time in the water ways in the ground and in the air then could be fixed naturaly.When we as the world come togther in healing I think is when all our countrys will be better for it and the world.But then what do i know im not a collage grad nore even a high school grad im just a me 1.Millions my see what is happening like i do but when leaders dont hear .leaders dont care because of some blind faith in there ideas and no care for plant and animal life we under them are nothing.We should all be special plants animals and people we are in the end nothing but animals just read the news look to the sheep . baba black sheep have you any wool .Yes but its breaking up so unhealthy am i.
Wonder About Islam?
Islam, is it how the media portrays it? Is it really all about terrorism and extremism? What do the Muslims believe? What is the Islamic concept of God? What does the Qur'an say about Jesus Christ and what do Muslims believe about Jesus Christ? Ever wondered? Well here is your chance to find out, please visit our blog at http://thejourney2islam-team.blogspot.com/.
# posted by Admin: Sunday, December 03, 2006 4:25:22 AM
I would say that the blog in the article you point to reflects radical Islamic views, not that of mainstream Islamic people I know. I'm sure you can find radical or fundamental Christian viewpoints that read similarely. That does not mean that all members of either religion have radical viewpoints like these. The Neocon's fear element would have you believe handing out felt moons for all of our Muslim friends (or the more modern version - to record people's religious preferences in an indelible database) would solve this problem.
Maybe I didn't read enough but I didn't come across anything radical. To me all this theology is an exercise in absurdity for which I have no time.I have nothing against anyone who chooses to spend precious time absorbing all this mystical trivia until it affects my reality with conflict and proselytising and oppression.Actually I wish it would all go the way of Toltec sacrifice so we could move on but half the people in the US still don't believe in evolution.
Polonium Spy Case
- Some Thoughts
The news is full of articles recently about the russian spy that was poisoned by polonium 210. (see the Yahoo story, Italian Who Met Spy Has Traces Of Poison and the CNN story, Polonium 210 One Of The World's Rarest Elements.)We know a couple of facts:
1) An ex-soviet spy, Alexander Litvinenko died, poisoned with Polonium 210
2) Polonium 210 poisoning is very difficult to detect
3) Litvinenko was a harsh critic of Putin's Russian government
4) Litvinenko blames his poisoning on Russia
5) His wife and a friend of his also have traces of Polonium 210 on them
6) You just can't find Polonium 210 in your house or grocery store. In fact, only government labs or large universities with a reactor can make it.
7) Polonium 210 has been used as an initiator to detonate nuclear weapons in the 40's and 50's. But, the technology is now obsolete.
8) His friend received an e-mail from a source naming the purported killers of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative journalist gunned down on Oct. 7 in Moscow. The e-mail reportedly said that he and Litvinenko — a friend of the reporter — were also on the hit list.
9) Politkovskaya had planned to file a lengthy story on Soviet torture practices in Chechnya.
10) Litvinenko was a very vocal proponent of the theory that the Kremlin ordered the assassination of Politkovskaya because she was trying to tie together a story that the Putin government had an official torture policy in the war in Chechnya.
Deductions:
It's not likely to be an accidental poisoning.
It's pretty clear it's a murder
The murder weapon is pretty expensive.
Who ever is behind it, did not want it to be easily detected.
Hmmmm could it be the Soviet government? It's well known the soviets tortured in Chechnya. So why does this need to be covered-up??
Or how about if Chechnya was the destination of extraordinary rendering by a western country that would be repulsed by mass torture? Perhaps the US government? How would that be covered up? Wouldn't it be nice to blame it on a "barbaric" government like the Soviet Union? ...especially when our leader is evangelic and would never dream of torturing anyone.
Why are we bombarded with media blurbs that are trying to get us to accept torture? Why is this propaganda necessary if we are not complicit in torture? Should this not be repulsive to everyone? I'll tell you why there aren't mass protests about these human rights abuses. It's because people show no sign of even recognizing there's a problem with torture in the first place.
Still waiting for the fire brand new democrats to get things cleared up — hah! Impeachment off the table. A worse Secretary of Defense because he's smarter on the same annihilation agenda. Watch big government ignore everything but their paychecks and big enough bribes, er ah, lobby payoffs. Refuse to pay taxes, that'll get their attention a lot quicker than protest marches, and they haven't got enough IRS people to deal with everyone who is against Bush and company's behavior.
to me murder is wrong of any kind and war is also wrong but then im a tree hugging american .But i will kill my dinner.
Unfortunately, if nothing is done about torture and "extraordinary renditions", anarchists, loonies and dissenters are all labeled as terrorists and tortured or disappeared.
Vagabond correctly identifies the danger of doing nothing but it is a catch 22 of the modern police state. Do nothing ,you are screwed later, protest and you are screwed sooner.
It is bizarre how that picture of the hairless, dying spy captured the US love for Spectacle.He would have his own TV show, if he wasn't dead.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Terrorism Score
- How To Change Yours
The Associated Press reported Thursday that Americans and foreigners crossing U.S. borders since 2002 have been assessed by the Homeland Security Department's computerized Automated Targeting System, or ATS. Please refer to this Yahoo News Article.The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years. Some or all data in the system can be shared with state, local and foreign governments for use in hiring, contracting and licensing decisions. Courts and even some private contractors can obtain some of the data under certain circumstances.
According to FR Doc 06-9026 the ATS--P (Automated Targeting System--Passenger), a component of ATS, maintains the PNR (Passenger Name Record) information obtained from commercial carriers for purposes of assessing the risk of international travelers. PNR may include such items as:
PNR record locator code,
Date of reservation,
Date(s) of intended travel,
Name,
Other names on PNR,
Number of travelers on PNR,
Seat information,
Address,
All forms of payment information,
Billing address,
Contact telephone numbers,
All travel itinerary for specific PNR,
Frequent flyer information,
Travel agency,
Travel agent,
Code share PNR information,
Travel status of passenger,
Split/Divided PNR information,
Identifiers for free tickets,
One-way tickets,
E-mail address,
Ticketing field information,
Automated Ticketing Fare Quote (ATFQ) fields,
General remarks,
Ticket number,
Seat number,
Date of ticket issuance,
Any collected APIS information,
No show history,
Number of bags,
Bag tag numbers,
Go show information,
Number of bags on each segment,
Other Supplementary information (OSI),
Special Services information (SSI),
Special Services Request (SSR),
Voluntary/involuntary upgrades,
Received from information, and
All historical changes to the PNR
Not all carriers maintain the same sets of information for PNR.
Knowing this published list, it should be possible to change your "terrorism score". So for example if you are a terrorist, make sure your name is Cat Stevens instead of something arabic sounding like Yusuf Islam. Make sure you take baggage on your trip and buy a round trip ticket even though you will not be returning. Don't put Osama Bin Laden's name and e-mail address on your contact list and so on. Get your airline travel done by Expedia, Priceline, or something rather than the travel agency in downtown Timbuktu... etc. And be sure you use Cat Steven's frequent flyer number when making that reservation. When you get to the ticket counter, make sure you're not in a hurry or sweating, or they'll mark your boarding pass with an S. Take your time, relax and enjoy your trip. Afterall, you're going to heaven soon. Do all the weird shaving stuff when you get on the plane, not beforehand.
But if you are like most people and you are not a terrorist, you end up learning the hard way. One way tickets and no baggage are a sure fire way to get pulled over and searched at the airport. But there are reasons for one way tickets. You are travelling the world and took one airline to get from Europe to the US and plan on leaving the US through Mexico. Or you take one airline to get here and another to get back to get a cheaper fare. If you fly out somewhere to buy a car, plan on getting hassled because you bought a one way ticket.
Sometimes it's easier to skip all the hassle of security checks and so on. Lately, they don't want you to bring your toiletry kit containing toothpaste, mouthwash and your dental floss because someone thinks you could make a bomb with that sun-in product that contains a little bit of peroxide barely strong enough to bleach hair. Of course, it's no problem buying all the parts necessary to build a pretty serious rocket after security using Mentos and Diet Coke. (shhhh... or else they won't sell sodas and breath mints behind security) And, your mom has all of that stuff at her house. So you travel without luggage. Wrong. You will get hassled for not carrying luggage. Bring a carry-on.
As you can see it's much easier for terrorists to blend in like ordinary people than it is for ordinary people to behave like ordinary people so they don't look like someone's perverted idea of a terrorist. I really wonder what the cost benefit of this brain fart is. The TSA hassles millions of passengers for hours and hours and catch or prevent how many terrorists?
So the problem seems to be high unemployment or lots of people doing goon surveilance work — pick your poison. Meanwhile the most organized terrorist groups fly in troop transports, another solution to high unemployment.
It's interesting to note that Nazi's had lucky charms for their unwanted groups
Star of David - Jew
Pink triangle - Gay
Purple triangle - Jehovah's Witness
Red - Political Prisoner
Black - Gypsy/Asocial/Roma
Green - Criminals
This time around the little lucky charms are attached to your computer record - "Terrorist Score"
