Irish Boat the MV Rachel Corrie proceeding to Gaza #flotilla

May 31, 2010
9 hours ago
Irish Boat the MV Rachel Corrie proceeding to Gaza #flotilla

I received the following message from a member of the Belfast Palestine Solidarity Committee which has received word from the Free Gaza Movement that those aboard the Irish vessel "Rachel Corrie" have decided to proceed to Gaza. A full press release is expected shortly.

THERE IS SOMETHING WEIRD ABOUT THIS PICTURE

There is something weird about this picture. Perhaps it's fairly common, but I have never seen it before.

NAOMI KLEIN IN NEW YORK CITY

MAD DOGS IN GAZA: NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

First I will invoke a reference regarding Noam Chomsky, "the world's greatest living intellectual"(TM), from the following quote in Norman Finkelstein's wikipedia.

Finkelstein's work has attracted a number of supporters and detractors across the political spectrum. Notable supporters include Noam Chomsky, prominent intellectual and political critic; Raul Hilberg, Holocaust historian; Avi Shlaim, Israeli New Historian; and Mouin Rabbani, Palestinian jurist and analyst. According to Hilberg, Finkelstein displays "academic courage to speak the truth when no one else is out there to support him... I would say that his place in the whole history of writing history is assured, and that those who in the end are proven right triumph, and he will be among those who will have triumphed, albeit, it so seems, at great cost."

There is also this:

American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein is an award-winning documentary film about the life and career of Norman Finkelstein, released in 2009 and directed by David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier. It has been screened in 2010 the Toronto Hot Docs Documentary film festival

And then, Norman Finkelstein's latest opinion on the Gaza Flotilla courtesy broadcsster Russia Today

HOW TO PREDICT THE FUTURE

For days the Israeli government prepared the Israeli society for the massacre at sea. It said that the Flotilla carried weapons, it had ‘terrorists’ on board. Only yesterday evening it occurred to me that this Israeli malicious media spin was there to prepare the Israeli public for a full scale Israeli deadly military operation in international waters. Make no mistake. If I knew exactly where Israel was heading and the possible consequences, the Israeli cabinet and military elite were fully aware of it all the way along. What happened yesterday wasn’t just a pirate terrorist attack. It was actually murder in broad day light even though it happened in the dark.

BUSH, KIRCHNER, OLIVER STONE AND WAR

Kirchner said he once discussed global economic problems with former President George W. Bush. Bush said "...the best way to revitalize the economy is war. And that the United States has grown stronger with war. All of the economic growth of the United States has been encouraged by wars." He said it very clearly.



Democrats have a much better record at starting wars:
James Polk-Mexican,
Wilson-WWI,
FDR-WWII,
Truman-Korean,
Kennedy/Johnson-Vietnam,
Carter-Afghanistan,
Clinton, Yugoslavia/Rwanda,
Obama-AFPAK.

Republicans:
McKinnley-Spanish American,
Bush I-Gulf I,
Bush II-Afghanistan/Gulf II

That's 8 to 2 in favor of the Dems. And Obama is still in office and Iran looms large and Hillary working hard on N.Korea

CARVILLE'S BRAND

James Carville has backed political candidates in Latin America identifying with Bill Clinton’s militaristic and free market approach to the region.

Carville is also a virtual kingmaker in Latin America, Mexico’s Ernesto Zedillo, Brazil’s Fernando Enrique Cardoso

Colombia, Carville has offered his consulting services to Juan Manuel Santos, a former Minister of Defense and member of the governing Social Party of National Unity or Party of the U. Santos is sullied as Minister of Defense, armed forces killed
civilians and passed off as rebels

Santos, a militarist, favored U.S. free trade agenda. Bill Clinton supported the Colombian elite to the hilt, Plan Colombia, $1.3 billion aid package which waived human rights conditions. out of office Bill met with Uribe personally.

Carville advised Honduran Manuel Zelaya but was not aware and would not have agreed with Zelaya’s post-election turn to the left

Argentina, Carville advised Peronist Daniel Scioli who is linked to Kirchner. Kirchner was a critic of neo-liberal economic. Scioli doesn’t fit

Carville also advised Domingo Cavallo. Cavallo, a supply-side economist commitment to free-market and huge profits to foreign investors. His first stint in charge of Argenine economy was 1991 to 1996. He linked the Argentine peso to the American dollar, which in the beginning eliminated inflation, encouraged foreign investment, and spurred middle-class to splurge on overseas spending. eventually made for exporters harder to sell, unemployment and deficits rose.

In his second stint, he froze bank deposits which lead to a huge devaluation and increased his country’s indebtedness and inflate commissions to banks in exchange for agreement to renegotiate bonds.

Panama, advised Ernesto Pérez Balladares, former CEO at Citibank. Strategy to sell off state industries and reduce labor laws. unions demanded an end to the privatization protests erupted, rubber bullets.

Ecuadoran President Jamil Mahuad, dollarizing currency. prompted Indians civil disobedience. In January, 2000, he was forced out.

Bolivian Gonzalo Sánchez de Losada “Goni.” In 2002 against Evo Morales. In Goni's prior term, pursuing partial privatization of state enterprises. After Goni’s win, he decides to ship gas through Chile, sparking riots. Goni crumbled, fled.

Carville's latest stint is as environmental gadfly of BP. Carville’s associates have had ties to BP. Stanley Greenberg, during Goni, BP was at the center of the gas transmission deal involving Chile.

In Colombia, energy loom large

BP is a key player in Colombia. It is thinking about commencing exploratory drilling in offshore Colombian oil blocs. Colombia needs to give BP the boot. Antanas Mockus, is no radical either but he would be the first Green Party president in the world.

PRESS TV LIVE:

Interview with Alison Weir, If Americans Knew.

"While the Israeli naval interception was clearly well planned, its accompanying blackout of communications was evidently not swift enough, failing to prevent Turkish satellite TV footage broadcasting for several minutes what was taking place. Those images relayed by international media nail the lie in the Israeli version of events. (Whether the US media do so will be telling.)

MASS MURDER: GAZA FLOTILLA

When Moammar Gadhafi met Silvio Berlusconi: June 09,2009

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi began his first visit to Italy on Wednesday with a warm embrace from Premier Silvio Berlusconi

An hour late, Gadhafi stepped off the Libyan plane wearing full dress military uniform. He escorted down the steps the elderly, white-robed son of a Libyan national hero who was executed by Italian colonial authorities for leading a guerrilla war against the Italians in the 1920s and 1930s.


Mohammed Omar al-Mukhtar, son of Omar al-Mukhtar, stepped gingerly down the steps,
Pinned to Gadhafi's uniform was a faded, black-and-white photo of the late hero chained by his Italian captors.

Under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, tens of thousands of Italians settled in the Italian colony in the 1930s, taking charge of road construction, power plants and other public works. Libya declared its independence in 1951.

Tariq Ali - Obama, Pakistan and the US empire

Marxsite 2010
"Excellent and extremely useful" - Tariq Ali.

DRILL BABY COMPILATION

THE SCIENCE OF EMPATHY

“Empathy is grounded in the acknowledgment of death and the celebration of life in rooting for each other to flourish and be. It’s based on our frailties and our imperfections.”

“Empathy is the invisible hand. Empathy is what allows us to stretch our sensibility with another so that we can cohere in larger social units. To empathize is to civilize; to civilize is to empathize.”

If the invisible hand of the liberal right is the market, and of the conservative right is tradition, is the invisible hand of the left empathic sociality? And is science now on its side?

"EMPATHY" TIES TOGETHER ALL THE THREADS

Crises are opportunities. He has consistently missed them. This was a grand opportunity to pull together the threads -- BP and the spill, Massey and the mine disaster, Wall Street and the economic disaster, Anthem BlueCross and health care, the Arizona Immigration Law, Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- even Afghanistan. The press threw him fastballs straight down the middle, and he hit dribblers every time.

---

no unifying narrative, no patriotic call to the nation on the full gamut of issues. Instead, there were only hints, suggestions, possible implications, notes of concern

---

The central idea is Empathy. Democracy is based on empathy, on people caring about one another and acting to the very best of their ability on that care, for their families, their communities, their nation, and the world. Government must also care and act on that care. Government's job is to protect and empower its citizens.

That idea is what draws together all the threads. The bottom line for corporations (whether BP, Massey, Anthem or Goldman Sachs) is money, not empathy. The bottom line for those who hate (whether homophobes, the Arizona Legislature, or al Qaeda) is domination and oppression, not empathy.

---

The right-wing, which shows little empathy, has confused empathy with sympathy for individuals, which they see as a weakness.

---

Future generations, the sacredness of nature over the immediate economic consequences, caring for this incredible bounty that we have, identifying with folks who see fishing as part of who they are, analogies to what's been happening in the financial markets, soul searching.

---

But to make it central and powerful would be confrontational. It would bring him head-to-head with right-wing ideology -- empathy-free, self-interest maximizing, with disdain or even hatred for those seen as lesser beings. It is self-reinforcing: a value-system that above all promotes that value-system itself.

Parish official: BP shipped in workers for president's visit

(CNN) -- A Gulf Coast official accused BP of shipping workers into Grand Isle, Louisiana, for President Barack Obama's visit to the oil-stricken area Friday and sending them away once the president left the region.

Early Friday morning, "a number of buses brought in approximately 300 to 400 workers that had been recruited all week," Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts told CNN's "Situation Room."

Roberts said the workers were offered $12 an hour to come out to the scene at Grand Isle and work in what he called a "dog and pony show."

But, when Obama departed, so did the workers, he said, adding that he's never seen more than 20 workers at the Grand Isle cleanup site since the effort started.

FB Lede

BP uses cost-benefit analysis to maximize profits. BP used cheaper materials whose defects may well have caused the explosion. The use of cost-benefit analysis for a corporation's benefit (and not the public's) is a dangerous practice. Cost-benefit analysis, used this way, should be considered as an important component of systemic risk by the President's commission on safety.

NOLA.COM Story

Beck calls to "put a time capsule ... in our children" like the Dead Sea Scrolls

when constantine decided that he was going to cobble together an army, he did the council of nicaea, right, pat? council of nicaea, and what they did is brought all of the religious figures together, all the christians, and they said, “ok, let’s put together the apostles’ creed, let’s, you know, you guys do it. and so they brought all their religious scripture together, that’s when the bible was first bound and everything else. and then they said, “anybody who disagrees with this is a heretic and off with their head!”

well that’s what the dead sea scrolls are. dead sea scrolls are those scriptures that people had at the time that, they said, “they are destroying all of this truth.” whether it’s truth or not is up to the individual, but that, at that time those people thought that this was something that needed to be preserved. and so they rolled up the scrolls and put them in clay pots and they, they put them in the back of caves. no one could find them. they were hidden scripture because everything was being destroyed that disagreed with the council of nicaea and constantine.

that’s what those things are.

first, i think glenn was meaning to say the nicene creed, not the apostles’ creed. the apostles’ creed, or at least a part of it referred to by a letter from the council of milan to pope siricius in 390 CE, is older than the nicene creed. not only that, but it does not share the same concerns as those addressed in the nicene creed (christology, pneumatology, etc.).

second, beck probably could not be more wrong about what the dead sea scrolls actually are. they are not various scriptures that were rejected by the council of nicaea and then hidden in caves. in fact, part of every book of the hebrew bible, except esther, has been found within the corpus of the dead sea scrolls. rather, the dead sea scrolls are a collection of texts with a jewish origin that were collected (and perhaps even written) by a particular group of jewish people who (may have) lived at the qumran settlement from around 150 BCE to around 67 CE .

third, it was not constantine from whom the scrolls were hidden. rather, it was most likely the roman empire of the mid-first century CE, hundreds of years before constantine, from whom the scrolls were hidden.

fourth, there is absolutely zero evidence that anyone at the council of nicaea was even aware of the texts that were found in and around qumran. for instance, there is no mention of sectarian texts, like peshar habakkuk or 4qmmt, at the council of nicaea. these and other types of texts (apocalypses, psalms, “re-written” bible, etc.) are all part of the qumran library and were not an area of contention at the council of nicaea.

to put it succinctly, glenn beck has no idea what he is talking about. he is simply making up history and pretending that it is the truth. if his recent infatuation with books romanticizing the assumed christianity of george washington wasn’t enough to convince you he was off his rocker, this type of non-sensical (and simply false) history lesson should do the trick.

THE WESTERN TRINITY

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead.[1] The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases,[2] but one being.[3] (Personhood in the Trinity does not match the common Western understanding of "person" as used in the English language—it does not imply an "individual, self-actualized center of free will and conscious activity."[4]:pp. 185-6. To the ancients, personhood "was in some sense individual, but always in community as well."[4]:p.186 Each person is understood as having the one identical essence or nature, not merely similar natures.) Since the beginning of the third century[5] the doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "the one God exists in three Persons and one substance, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."[6]



...........................................................................

DATTATREYA

Dattatreya (Sanskrit: दत्तात्रेय, Dattātreya) or Datta is considered by Hindus to be god who is an incarnation of the Divine Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The word Datta means "Given", Datta is called so because the divine trinity have "given" themselves in the form of a son to the sage couple Atri and Anasuya. He is the son of Atri, hence the name "Atreya."

Christianity in 105 Words

The belief that a walking dead Jewish deity who was his own father although he always existed, commits suicide by cop, although he didn't really die, in order to give himself permission not to send you to an eternal place of torture that he created for you, but instead to make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh, drink his blood, and telepathically promise him you accept him as your master, so he can cleanse you of an evil force that is present in mankind because a rib-woman and a mud-man were convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree. -- The Inerrant Word of God.

ATHEISTS CAN HELP YOUR DOG AFTER THE RAPTURE

You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind.

We are a group of dedicated animal lovers, and atheists. Each
Eternal Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you've received your reward. Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus.



We are currently active in 22 states. Our representatives have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, have the ability and desire to rescue your pet and the means to retrieve them and ensure their care for your pet's natural life.

We currently cover the following states:
Maine,New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Our service is plain and simple; our fee structure is reasonable.
For $110.00 we will guarantee that should the Rapture occur within ten (10) years of receipt of payment, one pet per residence will be saved. Each additional pet at your residence will be saved for an additional $15.00 fee. A small price to pay for your peace of mind and the health and safety of your four legged and feathered friends.

FB Tag

You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind? Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind. Our reps. have been screened to ensure that they are atheists, animal lovers, are moral / ethical with no criminal background, and as such will still be here on Earth after you've received your reward.

OTHER REFERENCES

AOL News Story
Religious Blog
Another Religious Blog

FREE MARKET AND RELIGIOUS VARIETIES OF FUNDAMENTALISM

I would like to see some work that explores the ties between free market fundamentalism and the development of religious fundamentalism with the thesis along the lines of the publication in 1910 of the 12 volume work titled "The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth", anonymously financed by Lyman Stewart and his brother Milton, cofounders of Union Oil or Unocal, as a reaction against and a deterrent of the work of those like Walter Rauschenbusch. You could throw in some "latter day false prophet" references just for fun and let the audience guess which one is which.

OIL SPILLS

Oil spills of over 100,000 tonnes or 30 million US gallons, ordered by tonnes^[a]

Spill / Tanker	Location	Date	*Tons of crude oil	Reference
Gulf War oil spill	Persian Gulf	January 21, 1991	1,360,000–1,500,000 (9,968,800-10,995,000 barrels)	[22][23]
Ixtoc I oil wells	Gulf of Mexico	June 3, 1979–March 23, 1980	454,000–480,000 (3,328,000–3,518,000 barrels)	[24]
Atlantic Empress / Aegean Captain	Trinidad and Tobago	July 19, 1979	287,000 (2,104,000 barrels)	[25][26]
Fergana Valley	Uzbekistan	March 2, 1992	285,000 (2,089,000 barrels)	[23]
Nowruz oil field	Persian Gulf	February 1983	260,000 (1,906,000 barrels)	[27]
ABT Summer	700 nautical miles (1,300 km) off Angola	1991	260,000 (1,906,000 barrels)	[25]
Castillo de Bellver	Saldanha Bay, South Africa	August 6, 1983	252,000 (1,847,000 barrels)	[25]
Amoco Cadiz	Brittany, France	March 16, 1978	223,000 (1,635,000 barrels)	[23][25]
Amoco Haven tanker disaster	Mediterranean Sea near Genoa, Italy	1991	144,000 (1,056,000 barrels)	[25]
Odyssey	700 nautical miles (1,300 km) off Nova Scotia, Canada	1988	132,000 (968,000 barrels)	[25]
Sea Star	Gulf of Oman	December 19, 1972	115,000 (843,000 barrels)	[23][25]
Torrey Canyon	Scilly Isles, UK	March 18, 1967	80,000–119,000 (586,000–872,000 barrels)	[23][25]
Irenes Serenade	Navarino Bay, Greece	1980	100,000 (733,000 barrels)	[25]
Urquiola	A Coruña, Spain	May 12, 1976	100,000 (733,000 barrels)	[25]

^a One tonne of crude oil is roughly equal to 308 US gallons or 7.33 barrels and 1 oil barrel is equal to 42 US gallons approx.

• The BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill flow rate has not been reliably established. Based on estimates of experts,^{[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]} it has reached at least 55,660 tonnes of oil leaked by May 24, 2010 but the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico may be 20 times the size of BP's earlier claims of 5000 barrels per day (2.4 million gallons spilled as of May 24, 2010), according to an exclusive analysis conducted for NPR.^[37]

OIL SPILL

clipped from: news.bbc.co.uk

In that spill, the exploratory oil well Ixtoc 1 suffered a blowout and wasn't capped until more than nine months later, having released 461,000 tonnes of oil in total.

Only two of the spills in our list of the world's largest originated from oil rig explosions, the rest are tanker-related.

But far bigger than any of these peacetime accidents is the amount of oil spilled in the immediate aftermath of the first Iraq War, 1991. Although not a single offshore spill, it saw massive oil leaks that easily dwarf Ixtoc 1 with an estimated 1.4 million to 1.5 million tonnes of oil released into the Persian Gulf by Iraqi forces as they retreated from Kuwait.

BUSH: THE US HAS USED WARS TO GROW THE ECONOMY

President George W. Bush argued in 2004 that the best way to grow the U.S. economy was by waging war, according to former Argentine Prime Minister Néstor Kirchner.

Kirchner, in a meeting with Bush, suggested that the United States replicate the successful nation-building strategy it implemented at the end of World War II.

"And he stood up from his chair and got angry. He told me, 'A Marshall plan! No! That's a crazy idea from the Democrats. What needs to be done here, and the best way to revitalize the economy is -- the United States has grown based on wars,' he told me. That's what he told me," Kirchner recounted.

Bush added, said Kirchner, that "all the economic growth that the U.S. had had, had been based on the different wars it had waged."

The film is co-written by Tariq Ali, a British intellectual, and Mark Weisbrot of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research. The film opens in theaters June 25th.


...except democrats have a much better record at starting wars: James Polk-Mexican, Wilson-WWI, FDR-WWII, Truman-Korean, Kennedy/Johnson-Vietnam, Carter-Afghanistan, Obama-AFPAK. Republicans: McKinnley-Spanish American, Bush I-Gulf I, Bush II-Afghanistan/Gulf II. That's 7 to 2 in favor of the Dems. And Obama is still in office and Iran looms.

COVERUP AS CONSPIRACY THEORY

Millions of words have been expended down the decades on the matter of the press’s role in “cover-ups.” Every cover-up has its own specific mix
as with the saga of the USS Liberty, the Agency’s role in the 1953 Guatemalan coup, the story that prompted the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and New York Times to launch a collective onslaught on the San Jose Mercury News for Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” series in 1996.

The consistent features, starting with the extreme unease with which the corporate press approaches a story.

The onslaught on the Isolationists who strove to keep America clear of both World Wars. The clearest illustration of this antipathy is the mountain of evidence attesting to FDR’s campaign to get America into the war.

Professor Thomas Mahl published covert British campaign in the 1998 book Desperate Deception -- British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44 writes, “until recently, the study lacked respectability
smacks too much of conspiracy – a word with a very unprofessional ring among American historians…

Graduate students are warned about the ‘furtive fallacy.’… How does the historian avoid the charge that he is indulging in conspiracy history when he explores the activities of a thousand people.

The ruthless campaign to discredit Charles Beard’s pioneering 1948 book, President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War 1941 attested to the determination by the foreign policy and academic establishments to crush the Non-Interventionists and neutralize them as a political force.

Denouncing “conspiracy mongering” was an integral part of this campaign – never more vehement than when addressing the whole issue of FDR’s conduct in the run-up to Pearl Harbor.

Sometimes a conspiracy does surface, propelled into the light of day by a tenacious journalist. But by then the caravan has moved on.

a case on which the jury is still out.” As so often, the jury came back in and issued its verdict, but by then the press box was empty.

But maybe now with the decline in power of corporate press. And the greater availability of dissenting versions. The exposure of the methods used to coerce publish support for the 2003 US attack on Iraq will lead to a greater sense of realism on the part of Americans as to what their government is capable of

OBAMA FLAWED LEADER OF A DECLINING COUNTRY

flawed leaders

Here is the Obama pattern: Choose a foreign leader to pressure. Threaten him with dire consequences if he does not bend to Washington’s will. When he refuses to submit and instead responds vigorously, back off quickly and overcompensate for failure by switching into a placatory mode.

Obama lacks both guts and the strong convictions and is furnishing hard evidence that American power is on the decline and the slide is irreversible

Those who have refused to buckle

• China, a first-tier mega-nation

• Brazil, a rising major power

• Israel, heavily dependent

• Afghanistan, a client state

• Honduras, military junta in the overthrow of Zelaya

OBAMA, ONE TERM. PETRAUS IN 2012

There were journalistic puff pieces touting US Counterinsurgency (COIN) Strategy a book documented by General Petraeus. It was a regurgitation of French Marshal Lyautey's ink spot strategy. the showpiece the Marjah operation, has failed according to Stan of Banastan it has become a "bleeding ulcer.

Amongst the brass, backbiting and finger pointing. MacChrystal is being set up as a fall guy. General Petraeus presidential 2012.

McChrystal to return to special operations, targeted assassinations, it's desperation smacking of Phoenix Campaign.

Gone is hearts and minds. Make deals with the devil to get the intelligence information needed to decapitate the insurgency by assassinating the insurgent leaders.

decapitation is a tautological doctrinal. identify critical nodes, use strikes to destroy nodes. because nodes are vital, enemy collapse.

tautologically inevitable. They think it is a nengineering problem, where the adversary
acts and reacts predictably

USG CONTRACTS TO AFGHAN DRUG LORD FOR INTEL TO RUN MCCRYSTAL'S ASSASSINATION SQUADS

Failure looms. COIN is out, targeted decapitation-back in. USG Intel now run by largest heroin dealer on the planet, USG has sub'd out intel for so long it doesnt have capacity. In the meantime, new intel chief, Wali Karzai using his control of intel and the USG to kill off his competition in the world wide drug trade (probably shipping product on USG planes, as well). Stan of Bananastan being set up to take the fall. Petraus runs for president in 2012

McChrystal shifts to raids - and Wali Karzai

General Stanley McChrystal's team once talked openly about the need to remove from power Ahmed Wali Karzai, the most powerful man in Kandahar. Wali Karzai's role in the opium trade was counter to the population-centric strategy. We are backing thugs. intelligence chief General Michael T Flynn
get rid of [Al] Capone.

Wali Karzai "will be allowed to stay in place", complete reversal, de-emphasize governance reform and focus on Special Operations Forces (SOF) raids on suspected Taliban leaders in Kandahar city. needs intelligence provided by Karzai

message from the Barack Obama, progress by the end of December 2010. So, shift from governance reform to night raids

failed "population centric" strategy for putting pressure on the Taliban, now "removal" of many "lower level" Taliban commanders by "special operations forces". Afghan government had taken too long to get representatives into the two key districts of Helmand. doubted it would be any better in Kandahar

downgrading of governance, new emphasis on targeting

Says Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who frequently registers the latest thinking of the military leadership,

"Shaking up the power structure might put the United States on the side of the Pashtun man in the street," wrote Ignatius, "but it would open up a power vacuum that could be exploited by the Taliban." "There isn't time for risky experiments in Kandahar."

McChrystal had already ordered SOF raids dependent based on intelligence by Wali Karzai. on May 7, Karzai boasted he supplied "the majority of intelligence in this region"

NATO official confirmed, our intelligence comes from him, neither ISAF nor US SOF have intelligence networks of their own. Karzai dominated the flow with control over police and official Afghan intelligence. Karzai completed consolidation of political control over the national police using the Karzai private militia used by Central Intelligence Agency, the Kandahar Strike Force, to kill the province police chief and chief of criminal investigation.

More importantly, Karzai controls Kandahar branch National Directorate of Security which combines the intelligence and secret police. It is the largest network of informants in the province. It has taken the lead in carrying out the raids against the Taliban

McChrystal, accepts intelligence from Karzai, says it would be "foolish" to refuse it. He also uses information from drone recon which leads to constant mistakes. drone strikes had killed farmers

Karzai use US power against his political enemies, call down NATO air strikes or night raids by US SOF, target tribal opponents. The whole military effort is locked into Karzai's political strategy and his grip on power

McChrystal, ready to sacrifice political change to be able to do what he does best

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs mocked Mayella Ewell's suggestions that Obama was somehow in bed with big oil because of 2008 presidential campaign contributions. - D.W.

(photo from To Kill a Mockingbird)

MARCUSE'S SLEEP WALK TURNS INTO A DEATH MARCH

The US is a mystery to me. You might say, it's a riddle wrapped in an enigma. The closest that I get to a solution or an explanation is described by Herbert Marcuse in his book, One Dimensional Man.

In that book Marcuse argued that "advanced industrial society" created false needs, which integrated individuals into the existing system of production and consumption via mass media, advertising, industrial management, and contemporary modes of thought.

This results in a "one-dimensional" universe of thought and behaviour in which aptitude and ability for critical thought and oppositional behaviour wither away"

'One Dimensional Man' was a text of the New Left in the sixties. Angela Davis was a disciple of Marcuse, so that kind of "sexed" it up a bit. I acquired it, read it, and passed it on. I cant say that I understood it then, or even now, but to me Marcuse describes a nightmarish sleep walk. It seems to me that I have been watching the continuing institutionalization of his theory ever since.

I began to really appreciate the awesome power of this social construction, described by Marcuse, with the implementation of the very sophisticated, and long prepared neoconservative policies immediately after 9-11, all with little to no effective protest by 'public opinion'

But today, my appreciation finds a new level when I find this on the C&L site with no corresponding public outrage and demands
Mike Papantonio: Gulf Leak Can't Be Stopped.

And then I start thinking about other examples and this isn't the only massive hemorrhaging.

• There's the ongoing massive international bankster heist,
• the massive expansion of the monumental health care scam,
• the unimaginable military-industrial-complex $1 trillion budget with a 5 million person direct payroll and endless "privatization" scams,
• there is the international military-industrial drug cartel business whose laundered billions prop up wall street and whose market makes the US into a version of the comparatively small potatoes 'Opium Wars Period' of China with the added feature of the industrial-prison complex, and, of course,
• there are those massive hemorrhagings of which we must not speak or admit.
  

I think I'll read One-Dimensional Man again. I think it may finally be perfectly clear.

CHOMSKY ON THE LOBBY

International Middle East Media Center report:

American Professor Noam Chomsky held a meeting on Friday with a senior official of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah party, and discussed several issues regarding the Middle East conflict, Israel and the United States policies.

...Chomsky met with Nabil Qaouk, a senior Hezbollah official in charge of the party in southern Lebanon.

He said that he fears that the Zionist-Christian movement and the Zionist Lobby in the United States are having bigger effects on U.S polices.

Comments

Dan Kelly May 24, 2010 at 10:35 pm

Maybe he is coming around. Chomsky endorsed Jeff Gates’ book, Guilt By Association, in which Gates clearly identifies the secretive “Israel First” alliance to take control of US political life. Through the media, in academic life, in popular culture and in politics, Gates argues that this treasonous group has taken control of US foreign policy, and has been able to deceive the public into waging war for the Zionist state. His website is Criminal State.



Before you know it, Chomsky will be working with the distinguished Dr. Alan Sabrosky, who has posted at Mondoweiss in the past, and has recently told his colleagues at the prestigious Army War College and Headquarters Marine Corps that “9/11 was definitely an Israeli/Mossad job. Period. No question.”

Jeff Gates is publishing at veteranstoday.com, and has come out swinging.
There are 5 million military
this will ultimately play out in the military, simply because it’s the only structure left that isn’t bought in this country

check out Veterans Today website today–first article is on Chomsky not being allowed entry–his planned host attributes
this to the US Israel Lobby’s machinations:
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/05/18/israel-bars-noam-chomsky-from-west-bank/

Gordon Duff is awesome. I especially like reading the comments section of his articles.

צפו: ראיון מיוחד עם פרופ' חומסקי

Laura Schlessinger and Leviticus

Laura Schlessinger is a US radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstances. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a US resident:

Dear Dr. Laura,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him or her that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to follow them.

(a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

(b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

(c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.

(d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

(e) I have a neighbor who insists on working on Sunday (the Sabbath). In the book of Exodus verse 35:2 it clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

(f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't know. Can you settle this?

(g) Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

(h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?

(i) I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

(j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16). Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14).

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging, and we should do what the bible says.

Your devoted disciple and adoring fan.

IRAN: COLORED REVOLUTION

The multiple attacks orchestrated by the CIA in the non-Persian provinces of Iran failed to trigger separatist revolts. While the colour revolution, organized by the CIA and MI6 during the presidential election, was drowned out by a human tidal wave. To the tens of thousands of protesters in the northern neighbourhoods of Tehran, the rest of the country responded with a massive demonstration of 5 million people.

The IFC Media Project presents... FEAR Preview: Max Blumenthal and the T...

Max Blumenthal never fails to satisfy. This will be worth the time. This from Crooks and Liars I guess they are going to webcast it on the IFC website.

Our friend Max Blumenthal recently participated in the Independent Film Channel's Media Project (you might have noticed the ads on the site). Max's segment on "Fear" -- a look at the Tea Party movement and its discontents -- airs tonight at 8 p.m. EDT.

The video above looks great. The Denver Post's reviewer liked it:

MONSTER OF IRONY

"Yemeni cleric advocates killing US civilians" (by accusing the United States of intentionally killing a million Muslim civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.)

What a monster!

Of course, the cleric is an American citizen that the United States has already put on its assassination list, so maybe he's just a monster of irony

Al-Awlaki was born in 1971 in New Mexico. His father, Nasser al-Awlaki, was in the United States studying agriculture at the time and later returned with his family to Yemen to serve as agriculture minister. The father remains a prominent figure in Yemen, teaching at San'a University in the capital.

The younger al-Awlaki returned to the United States in 1991 to study civil engineering at Colorado State University, then education at San Diego State University, followed by doctoral work at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

"We have had more freedom in America than in any Muslim country," he said in Sunday's video. "But when America started to feel the danger of Islam's message, it tightened limits on freedom, and after 9/11 it was impossible to live in America as a Muslim."

The Century Of The Self - Eight People Sipping Wine_1 of 6

THE CENTURY OF THE SELF
Monday 29 April - Thursday 2 May 2002 7pm-8pm

EPISODE GUIDE
An overview of each Century of the Self programme

GRAMSCI

Gramsci and Political Theory by E. J. Hobsbawm

Espeluznante cogida a Julio Aparicio en Las Ventas en el cuello

The Century Of The Self - There is a Policeman Inside_1 of 6

THE CENTURY OF THE SELF
Monday 29 April - Thursday 2 May 2002 7pm-8pm

EPISODE GUIDE
An overview of each Century of the Self programme





Episode Two,

At about the time of Kent State and democratic convention '68, there began ruthless repression of the New Left. In the face of this the Left began to fall apart. "The Man" was much bigger and stronger than we realized. At that point, a change in tactics began. If it was impossible to get the policeman out of ones head by overthrowing the state, then instead one should find a way to get inside of one's own mind and removing the controls implanted there by the state and the corporations. Out of this would come a new self and thus a new society. The personal became political. (This seems somewhat Gramsciian). They outgun us. Turn to Willhelm Reich (The nemesis of Freaud, whose ideas were used by the state for social control). Invent ways for individuals to free themselves. The Esalen Institute. A form of group encounter put on by a man trained by Reich, Fritz Perls. Self enactment, self revelations, staying present.

Another driver was Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man. Marcuse's most famous student was Angela Davis

Creative Maladjustment

Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

You may not know it my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 dollars to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only $53 dollars for each person classified as poor and most of that $53 goes for salaries for people who are not poor. War is an enemy of the poor.

Sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967

Along about the nine minute mark it becomes abundently clear why he was murdered.

I NEVER INTEND TO ADJUST MYSELF

Dr. Martin Luther King's 1963 WMU Speech, see words here. See YouTube here

Herman W. Read Fieldhouse, west campus of Western Michigan University

"Social Justice."

Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is the word "maladjusted." This is the ringing pride to modern child psychology. Maladjusted. Now of course, we all want to live the well adjusted life. In order to neurotic and schizophrenic personalities.

But as I move to my conclusion, I would like to say to you today in a very honest manner, there are some things in our society and some things in our world which I am proud to be maladjusted and I call upon all men of good-will will be maladjusted to these things until the good societies realize.

I very honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to racial segregation and discrimination.

I never intend to adjust myself to religious bigotry.

I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. and leave millions of god's children smothering in an air tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.

I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, to self-defeating effects of physical violence.

But in a day when sputniks and explorers are dashing through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war.

It is no longer the choice between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.

BONUS: Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

"You may not know it my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 dollars to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only $53 dollars for each person classified as poor and most of that $53 goes for salaries for people who are not poor. War is an enemy of the poor."