Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Spirituality for kids: a Kabbalah project supported by Demi Moore

This is not a strange childhood dream; it's the Greenwich Village studio space that belongs to the designer Donna Karan and is bustling with a New York-LA nexus of fashion and fame. Karan, Moore and her actor husband, Ashton Kutcher, are present for this high-powered fundraiser. Madonna is a co-chair. They are all friends, tied together originally by the red string of Kabbalah, the controversial religious group that has now given birth to the focus of the evening, Spirituality for Kids. SFK is a global youth programme that is already working within British schools as part of the curriculum and plans to expand. Its purpose, it claims, is to encourage children to recognise their own goodness, see the light and have more spiritual powers.

Kabbalah opponents have been surprised and outraged to learn that SFK is now running classes in six schools in London, with more on a waiting list.

"I heard it was their intent, but I hadn't realised that they had infiltrated British schools. I believe they work using mind manipulation," says Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, of Mill Hill Synagogue, London. He points to reports four years ago in The Times that former members of the London Kabbalah Centre had been subjected to emotional manipulation and financial pressure. Such allegations prompted the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, to issue the following statement: "In light of the issues which have been brought to our attention relating to the Kabbalah Centre in the UK we wish it to be known that this organisation does not fall within the remit of the Chief Rabbinate or any other authority in the UK recognised by us."

Critics believe the modern-day Kabbalah movement has hijacked a traditional form of Jewish mysticism and promoted it for financial gain using high-profile celebrities, most prominently Madonna. While traditional Kabbalah is practised only by male Hassidic scholars over the age of 40, celebrity Kabbalah spawned a T-shirt saying: "I scanned the Zohar with Ashton." When David Beckham, Winona Ryder and, briefly, Britney Spears, were spotted with a red Kabbalah string tied to their wrists the group was dubbed "Hollywood's hottest cult".

"That it is not supported by any main religious group in the world, what does that tell you?" Rabbi Schochet asks. "I'd like to tell Madonna: I won't meddle in your songs if you stop meddling in my Judaic traditions."

~ more... ~

 

Book Review - The Halliburton Agenda, by Dan Briody

 
Another sub-title for this book could well be "a study in state monopoly capitalism." The previous book of the author focused on the Carlyle Group, the spectacularly well-heeled firm that includes former President George H.W. Bush, his crony James Baker and a veritable rogues' gallery of washed-up politicians and businessmen of questionable integrity who blatantly trade upon their inside knowledge of government for private gain in yet another textbook example of state monopoly capitalism.

Yet, their money-grubbing pales in comparison – and chutzpah – to Halliburton, a firm formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, a firm that is frequently in the headlines in light of the lucrative contracts they have been awarded by Cheney's government in the theater of war that is Iraq.

The story begins in Texas where a predecessor firm of Halliburton, Brown & Root, was catapulted into prominence – and obscene profitability - because of a tight relationship with former Senator, then Vice President and President, Lyndon B. Johnson. Large scale construction and oil services were the two pillars on which this giant company was built. Routinely the government handed out handsome "cost plus" contracts, e.g. building the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, to this corporation. "Cost plus" means that the contractor could recoup all expenses plus a guaranteed profit based on a pre-negotiated percentage. This eliminates risk for the contractor and erodes the necessity to eliminate wasteful billing which, says the author, is "great for the contractor, not so great for the taxpayer." "Basically, it's a blank check from the government….when your profit is a percentage of the cost, the more you spend, the more you make."

Brown & Root reaped a bonanza of wasteful contracts during the war in Vietnam, which – coincidentally – Johnson prosecuted as vigorously as Cheney has done in Iraq. By 1967 this firm was the largest employer in South Vietnam. Yet even then there was an obvious downside to relying so heavily upon the private sector to perform the clear government function of waging war: motivated by the lust for profit their employees were "manipulating currency and selling goods on the black market," among other transgressions.

Johnson was so helpful to this company that the author argues that actually he was "working for Brown & Root, not the people of his district or the state." Something similar used to be said about another leading Democratic Party politician, the late Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington, who was referred to as the "Senator from Boeing." Obviously today we are in dire need of deeper examinations of the ramified ties between various sectors of state monopoly capitalism and leading political figures and parties, along the lines of the work at hand.

Brown & Root was also viciously anti-union. At one time, for example, progressive formations e.g. the National Maritime Union, played a pivotal role in Texas politics but after Brown & Root and their confederates pushed through anti-union legislation in the 1940s, the political complexion of what is now the second largest state began to change to the point where it has now become a reliable Republican redoubt and, not coincidentally, the home of both the current President and Vice-President.

But as profitable as it had been, when Dick Cheney left the Pentagon in the 1990s to become head of Halliburton, this company was catapulted to a new level of profitability. A staunch conservative, while a member of Congress Cheney avidly opposed imposing sanctions against apartheid South Africa while pushing aggressively for sanctions against socialist Cuba. Before leaving the Pentagon, which he headed during the administration of George H.W. Bush, he accelerated the privatization of core military functions in a way that – coincidentally – aided the company he was about to lead. "They made $109.7 million in Somalia…$6.3 million from Operation Support Hope in Rwanda…..Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti netted the company $150." Halliburton was "becoming another unit in the US Army" and reaping millions from war and misery, providing a perverse incentive for an increase in such pestilences. "From 1995 to 2000, Brown & Root" – now part of Halliburton—"billed the government for more than $2 billion in services. The company did everything from build the [military] camps to deliver the mail, with 24-hour food service and laundering. It provided firefighting services, fuel delivery, sewage construction, hazardous material disposal, and the maintenance and delivery of equipment." War in the Balkans was the "driving force" for Halliburton's increased profitability and heightened profile. "Halliburton's government business doubled while Cheney was CEO."

Yet Cheney also left this firm with a basket of problems after he was elected Vice-President and this may have given him incentive to steer contracts in Halliburton's direction in order to lessen the pain inflicted on his firm. He pushed through a merger with Dresser Industries, a profoundly disastrous maneuver, given the backbreaking liability for asbestos related lawsuits that this company carried. Coincidentally – that word again – Dresser was "the company that gave George H.W. Bush his first job." After Cheney left Halliburton a "grand jury investigation into over-billing and a Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] investigation into Halliburton's accounting practices while Cheney was CEO" ensued. That is not all. The company was accused of bribing a "Nigerian tax authority in exchange for contracts to build a liquefied natural gas plant." A French magistrate "was looking into the possibility of bringing charges against Dick Cheney for complicity in the bribery case and allegations that $243 million in secret commissions were paid from the late 1990s to 2002….the United States Justice Department and the SEC are looking into accusations that Halliburton made $180 million in illegal payments to win other contracts in Nigeria."

This points up another festering problem with Halliburton. The French investigation of Cheney's alleged malfeasance has complicated Washington's already deteriorating relations with Paris, while Halliburton's chicanery has contributed mightily to a culture of corruption in West Africa.

After Cheney left, Halliburton stock plummeted precipitously and given the millions of stock options that he still holds, this jeopardized his own personal fortune, not to mention the fortunes of his fellow executives with whom he had become quite close.

Though the author does not stress this, his study reveals a critical fault line within state monopoly capitalism. For when Halliburton began to feed ravenously at the government trough, other firms in the same business became angrily resentful, which helped to fuel congressional investigations and adverse publicity. For example, during the Reagan years, Bechtel was the government contractor of choice, as suggested by the prominent role in his administration played by two of their former executives – former Secretary of State George Schulz and former Pentagon chief, Caspar Weinberger. "The rapid rise" of Brown & Root, for example, "brought on a fit of jealousy" from their "biggest rival, Bechtel of San Francisco."
 
~ Source: Political Affairs ~
 

SAIC lobbying topped $900,000 in first quarter

Military contractor SAIC Inc. spent $900,000 in the first quarter to lobby on defense and intelligence spending issues and other matters, according to a disclosure report.

The company also lobbied on procurement issues, research and development tax credits, renewable energy, funding for NASA and other agencies, and more, according to the report filed April 21 with the House clerk's office.

Amy Childers, former special projects director for the House of Representatives, and Andrew Jazwick, who was a senior legislative assistant in the U.S. Senate, are among those registered to lobby for the San Diego-based company.

~ CNN Money ~

 

 

Defense contractor pleads guilty in bribery scheme involving DoD contracts in Iraq

A defense contractor, Raman International Inc. (Raman), pleaded guilty today for its role in a bribery scheme aimed at influencing the award of U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contracts at Camp Victory, Iraq, the Department of Justice announced today.

Raman, a military contractor headquartered in Cypress, Texas, pleaded guilty to an indictment charging one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, filed on Jan. 23, 2008 in the U.S. District Court of Oklahoma City. Under the terms of its plea agreement, Raman has agreed to pay a criminal fine of $500,000, which is the maximum fine for a corporation charged with conspiracy, and pay restitution in the amount of $327,192 to DOD.

The Army procures goods and services in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, including critical infrastructure, technological components and construction services. Camp Victory is the primary component of the Victory Base Complex, which occupies the area surrounding the Baghdad International Airport.

"The Department of Justice will vigorously prosecute criminal conspiracies that target our military's effort to obtain necessary goods and services," said Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department's Antitrust Division.

Scott Hammond, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division, added, "It is noteworthy that this bribery scheme was detected by federal agents detailed to the Victory Base Complex in Iraq. We commend those agents and their domestic counterparts for the investigation that led to today's guilty pleas."

According to the plea agreement filed today, a military officer received money and other items from Raman and Chidiac, including a new Harley Davidson motorcycle, in return for conveying sensitive information and fraudulently awarding contracts to Raman. Upon performance of these contracts, Chidiac received payment from DOD on Raman's behalf and kicked back a portion of that profit to the military officer.

In January 2008, Elie Samir Chidiac, a former employee of Raman, was indicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with the same activity, and is currently a fugitive.

Sharon E. Woods, Director, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, said, "It is unconscionable that while our service men and women are risking their lives in a combat zone protecting our national security, some of those entrusted with sustaining our troops are engaged in deceit that deprives our troops of the full support they deserve."

"I am shocked that anyone, in or out of uniform, could commit these criminal acts during a time of war when our service men and women need our support the most," added Brigadier General Rodney Johnson, the commanding general in charge of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command. "Our Criminal Investigation Command Special Agents have a robust and highly effective presence in the contracting arena, both at home and abroad, and we will continue to pursue those who violate the law and the public's trust."

Today's charges represent the Department's commitment to protecting U.S. taxpayers from procurement fraud through its creation of the National Procurement Fraud Task Force. The National Procurement Fraud Initiative, announced in Oct. 2006, is designed to promote the early detection, prosecution and prevention of procurement fraud associated with the increase in contracting activity for national security and other government programs.

This case is part of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Antitrust Division's National Criminal Enforcement Section (NCES) along with Special Agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (Army CID). Agents from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are providing additional assistance to the investigation.

~ Department of Justice Press Release ~

TrueMajority's 10 Principles

TrueMajority's underlying philosophy is contained in the TrueMajority Principles, a positive blueprint for moving forward in the post 9/11 world. These principles reflect the American values of compassion, charity and justice - the same values we must adhere to in order to build a safer, more secure home and world. These principles are also revenue-neutral, meaning the investments proposed are entirely funded by reductions in unnecessary spending on Cold War-era weapons that no longer contribute to our national security.

TrueMajority Principles: (click here for a full description of each principle)

1. Attack poverty and world hunger as if our life depends on it. It does.

2. Champion the rights of every child, woman & man.

3. End our obstructionism to the world's treaties.

4. Reduce our dependence on oil and lead the world to an age of renewable energy.

5. Close the book on the Cold War and ease the nuclear nightmare.

6. Renounce Star Wars and the militarization of space.

7. Make globalization work for, not against, working people.

8. Ensure equal treatment under law for all.

9. Get money out of politics.

10. Close the gap between rich and poor kids at home.

[ TrueMajority was founded by Ben Cohen, Co-founder, Ben and Jerry's. It is a grassroots education and advocacy joint project of UsAction and UsAction Education Fund. ]

Website

 

Robert Anton Wilson interview (1986)

Iconoclasm, new age, space colonization, conspiracy, cocaine, Freemasons, P2, The Vatican Bank, the eye in the triangle, space migration, immortality...

Former German foreign minister warns of Israeli strike against Iran

Fischer points out that the central axis of the recent visit by President George Bush to Israel was not to encourage a resolution of the conflict between Palestine and Israel, but rather to put together an alliance to support harsher measures against Iran, including military options.

He writes that "those who had expected his visit would mainly be about the stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians were bitterly disappointed." He continues: "Bush's central topic, including his speech to Israel's Knesset, was Iran. Bush had promised to bring the Middle East conflict closer to a resolution before the end of his term this year. But his final visit to Israel seemed to indicate that his objective was different: He seemed to be planning, together with Israel, to end the Iranian nuclear program—and to do so by military, rather than by diplomatic, means."

Fischer goes onto list six factors surrounding Bush's visit to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel that point to the likelihood of an Israeli assault on Iran:

First, Bush's call to 'stop the appeasement!' is a demand raised across the political spectrum in Israel—and what is meant is the alleged nuclear threat emanating from Iran.

Second, while Israel celebrated, Defence Minister Ehud Barak was quoted as saying that a life-and-death military confrontation was a distinct possibility.

Third, the outgoing commander of the Israeli Air Force declared that the force was capable of any mission, no matter how difficult, to protect the country's security. The destruction of an alleged Syrian nuclear facility last year, which evoked no serious international reaction, is viewed as a precursor to the coming action against Iran.

Fourth, the Israeli wish list for US arms deliveries, discussed with the American president, focused mainly on the improvement of the attack capabilities and precision of the Israeli Air Force.

Fifth, diplomatic initiatives and UN sanctions when it comes to Iran are seen as hopelessly ineffective.

And sixth, with the approaching end of the Bush presidency and uncertainty about his successor's policy, the window of opportunity for Israeli action is seen as potentially closing.

Fischer stresses that "the last two factors carry special weight... the feeling in Israel is that the political window of opportunity to attack is now, during the last months of Bush's presidency."

Fischer's warning of an Israeli strike against Iran within the next few months should be taken with great seriousness. Fischer was foreign minister and vice chancellor in the two coalition governments of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party between 1998 and 2005, and cultivated extensive political contacts in both the Middle East and the US.

He played a role in ensuring that Germany did not participate in the US-led "coalition of the willing" that invaded Iraq in 2003. Famously, in 2003 Fischer told then-US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that he "was not convinced" by the reasons given by Rumsfeld to justify the Iraq war. At the same time, in his role as foreign minister, Fischer established close links with the Israeli government and repeatedly stressed that Germany would consistently seek to defend Israeli interests.

~ more... ~

 

The Nation of Islam; A concise history; A true account

But there is an equal and plausible contention, that Ali may have received his Islamic worldview from the Masonic school of thought—the Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (the African American Shrine Organization) was founded in 1893 and the belief is that Drew Ali was actually initiated in the 32nd Degree and 33rd degree of Freemasonry, as well as initiated in the Mystic Shrine and this is where he received some of his knowledge relative to Islam. The Moorish Science Temple philosophy does have some similarities to the Speculative side of Shrine Masonry. Ali authored a book titled, "The Circle Seven: Holy Koran" there is little doubt that this book was inspired by Masonic Speculative philosophy and at the same time Ali was accused of plagiarizing the "Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ". written by Levi H. Dowling. (Reference: Peter Lamborn Wilson: Sacred Essays on the Margins of Islam).

Noble Drew Ali's slave name was Timothy Drew, but he eventually adopted Abdul Sharrieff Ali as his Islamic attribute---holy name. The title Noble is a titled that Shrine Masonry uses to refer to brothers that have been initiated into the Mystic Shrine. Ali is of interest for a number of reasons; he so-called received an official governmental character from President Woodrow Wilson, recognizing the Moorish Science Temple of America as s sovereign Islamic group and recognized that black Americans had a duly legalized nationality called Moorish Americans. This nationality or racial/ethnic recognition according to Ali afforded blacks certain legal and constitutional rights and even recognition within United Nations based on blacks' linage being tied to the Moors of Africa. (Reference: Robert L. Uzzel, "The Moorish Science Temple: A Religion Influenced by Prince Hall Masonry").

The Moors of North Africa had a splendid and glorious history, where Tarik Ibn Zaid in the 8th Century took civilization to Europe who were experiencing the Dark Ages. Some argue that W.F. Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad borrowed a lot of its teachings and theology from Ali and the Moorish Science Temple. Ali was murdered in 1929 and his organization, yet still around, but has not risen to the status of its former glory. (Reference: John G. Jackson and Willis N. Huggins; "A Guide to Studies in African History).

Also, there was Marcus Mosiah Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant who came to America in 1914 and who studied Islam and Pan Africanism under an Egyptian scholar who lived in London named Duce Muhammad Ali and eventually founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Garvey was inspired by Booker T. Washington, the founder of Tuskegee Institute who preached self-reliance and the importance of blacks embracing vocational and technical training over a classical liberal arts education (Reference: Fahim Knight: Article; "W.E.B DUBOIS AND BOOKER T. WASHINGTON: THE GREAT DEBATE" ).

Garvey at the peak and height of the UNIA movement, it was recorded that he led the largest mass movement of blacks—five million, in the history of black America. Garvey did not teach Islam, but he taught Pan-Africanism and Black Nationalism. He popularized the Back-to-Africa movement; although there were others such as Paul Cufee, Martin Delaney, George Padmore, Henry Highland Garnett, Bishop McNeil Turner, etc., that had advocated this type of African nationalism some years before Marcus Garvey.(Reference: Edmund David Cronon, "The Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Negro Improvement Association").

Some historians make claim that Elijah Muhammad was a member in both the UNIA and the Moorish Science Temple of America. This writer has not fully substantiated such claims. However, there is no doubt that Nation of Islam borrowed some of the Nationalism concepts from these two fore-organizations. Garvey taught "Africa for the Africans at home and abroad" and called for African unity under the banner of "One God, One Aim, and One Destiny". Garvey purchased ships with the intent of engaging in trade and commerce with Africa. He also was in discussion with the Liberian Government for acquiring land for which to relocate black Americans. (Reference: Amy Jacques-Garvey; "Philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey").

The Federal Bureau of Investigation worked to sabotage Garvey and his UNIA movement. It was a young federal agent named J. Edgar Hoover in the 1920s who worked to prosecute Garvey of mail fraud. Elijah Muhammad taught a religious nationalism that also called for worldwide black unity under the banner of Islam. He also advocated that blacks pursue political, economic and social independence from the dominant white society. He advocated self-reliance above all else and preached thriftiness and the importance of doing-for-self. Muhammad's bootstrapped philosophy resonated with a lot of poor and oppressed blacks in the 1950s and 1960s. Thus, it was not until Minister Malcolm X began to preach and it was his efforts that led to attracting middle class and educated blacks to the Nation of Islam. Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes spearhead a documentary titled, "The Hate, that Hate Produced" and it was this program aired in the early 1960s that brought the Nation of Islam to the national attention of white America. (Reference: Fahim Knight; "In Defense of the Defender: The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad").

~ more... ~

 

Revolution deep in the hearts, minds of Americans

...This political season — like all political seasons — we are asked to choose between one of two pro-imperialist, pro-corporate parties. Regardless of who wins, power will remain in the laps of the few, and inequalities of multiple kinds will endure. "If voting could change anything," said Emma Goldman, "they'd make it illegal."

I may not quite have the anarchist's cynicism for our political system, but it is true that fundamental social change never comes through the ballot box. Bill Clinton, after campaigning on a moderately populist platform in 1992, gave us NAFTA, corporate welfare, a bourgeoning prison-industrial complex, a bloodied welfare system and countless other policies that makes one wonder why the right so detests him. Civil rights groups and labor unions were often left speechless, while the hopeless — from homeless veterans to enfeebled Appalachian miners, to the inner-city unemployed — remained without hope. Is it any wonder why so few of the underclass turn out to vote?

Those who put all their faith in the Clintons and Obamas, or even the Edwardses and Feingolds, will always end up disappointed if their desire is to see a substantial concession to social justice. If a real shift in power is the intended goal, can we really expect it to come about through a system that locks away most property and influence in a safe from which only the top 1 percent have access? I pity he who is so naive.

Fortunately, America has a better tradition of democracy — one that takes its cues not from a trifling ballot, but from outpourings of popular pressure. It's a tradition which has turned out millions into the streets and, as Howard Zinn so aptly describes, creates a narrative of its own, in which the working majority — not the elite politician — dictates history.

The American centuries have produced countless examples of this type of change (real change, that is) of which the labor movement is particularly noteworthy. American workers did not achieve the eight-hour workday, the abolition of child labor and the minimum wage by voting. They did so through struggle. The bloody battles with police of the Gilded Age, the sit-down strikes of the 1930s and the walkouts of the postwar era amounted to a shutdown of the means of production, forcing politicians to make concessions and improve the quality of life for the hitherto powerless majority.

"OK, you've convinced me," said Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking to a delegation of activists. "Now go out and put the pressure on me." Trade unionists and other agitators went out and did just that, feverishly organizing workplaces and making the bosses everywhere queasy with apprehension. The legacy of this struggle — aided, but not directed, by a sympathetic president — is still apparent.

Similarly, it was the activists of the Civil Rights Era, staging sit-ins, marches and other protests, who forced the end of apartheid in the American South, not a liberal White House. It was President Richard Nixon, after all, who oversaw the integration of more schools than either of his two predecessors.

True, times have changed, but people remain dissatisfied. The health care problem has turned into a crisis, the war continues to consume bodies and money, while real wages are seemingly unable to stop plummeting. As long as our society remains one of mass inequities, in which millions are crushed by unnecessary burdens and millions more long for control over their working lives, the well of revolt will never be dry.

"The really critical thing," according to Mr. Zinn, "isn't who is sitting in the White House, but who is sitting in the streets, in the cafeterias, in the halls of government, in the factories. … Those are the things that determine what happens."

Take it from a historian, and don't hold your breath if Barack Obama wins in November.

~ Source: The Badger Herald ~

 

Elder served notice that rebuilding ceremonial lodge is illegal

On Tuesday, May 20th, key traditional elder resister to the relocation laws, Pauline Whitesinger, was served a notice to halt "new" construction of an earth lodge commonly known as a hogan, and this notice was served by Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agency deputized officers, Hopi Tribal Range Technicians. In addition to this warning about "illegal" construction activity, officers attempted to get personal information from a non-Indian volunteer helper and sheepherder. The issued notice also stated that elder Whitesinger is having an "unauthorized" guest and thus, she is violating 'laws' of the Hopi Tribe.

Pauline Whitesinger, a traditional Dineh (Navajo) matriarch and is about 76 years old, has defied federal laws to relocate and to not practice her ancient traditional livelihood anymore. Whitesinger is one of the only few elders left in the Big Mountain area who has stood her ground to not recognize the U.S. Congressional mandate to give up the culture, her history, her peoples' ritual ways, and to ultimately relocate. Big Mountain region is the largest area that was partitioned to a non-Dineh territory status in 1977. Along with other key elder resisters, many who are now deceased, Whitesinger has based her purpose and principles to resist these harsh, federal Indian policies on what can only be translated as aboriginal sovereignty and on the spiritual obligations to Big Mountain area's sacredness. Today, these elders and some of their extended families are also opposed to Peabody's coal mining operations and proposal to expand operations.

The Hopi Tribe is a 'recently' formed local and tribal institution (circa 1964), and it has been and is still funded and backed by the BIA under the U.S. Department of the Interior. The original Hopi sovereignty was once based on village authorities known as Kwimongis or Village Chiefs, and there are documented evidences that show how the U.S. BIA has attempted for over three decades to undermine and ousted the Kwimongi authority. It was not until the late 1950s when coal and utility companies were interested in the Black Mesa coal fields that a part time attorney for Peabody was hired to form a 'federally recognized' tribal council in Hopi country. This is how all modern-day tribal governments were created and they were not formed by "two-thirds of all adult male members of the tribe" as the treaties have specified. Despite evidences and equitable claims that showed how Peabody and utility companies conspired by secretly lobbying the U.S. Congress to pass the Indian Relocation Act (P.L. 93-531), the modern Hopi administrators exert a false authority to repress traditional indigenous practices and to segregate a rightful universal human association.
 
 

'The Iron Heel at 100’

Bad times inhibit good writers, but they also inspire them. Just look at the new and recent arrivals in bookstores and libraries. The double-barreled assault on civil liberties and human rights, by the administration of President George Walker Bush, has, if nothing else, spurred an outpouring of books, both fiction and nonfiction, condemning the erosion of American democracy and the perceived drift toward totalitarianism. Jack London—the best-selling twentieth-century American author, who was born in 1876, the year of the American Centenary, and who died in 1916, the year before the United States entered the First World War—would surely not be surprised. In fact, one might well anoint London the founding father of the contemporary body of literature about political repression, including Henry Giroux's The Emerging Authoritarianism in the United States, Matthew Rothschild's You Have No Rights, Chris Hedges's American Fascists, Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Crimes Against Nature, and Philip Roth's disquieting 2003 novel The Plot Against America. Of course, there are many others that cover much the same terrain.

Sinclair Lewis, who wrote the electrifying classic It Can't Happen Here (1935)—about the advent of a Nazi regime in Washington, D.C.—owed much of his inspiration to London's The Iron Heel, which was first published in 1908, and which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. London's dystopian novel also inspired George Orwell when he wrote 1984, and it deserves recognition as the first modern American novel to sound the alarm about the dangers of a dictatorship in the United States. The Iron Heel has never achieved the popularity of London's dog stories—The Call of the Wild and White Fang—but from the moment that Europe began to drift toward fascism in the 1920s, and then throughout the twentieth century, it was widely read in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, and hailed as a great, prophetic work of art by the likes of Leon Trotsky, the exiled Russian revolutionary, and Anatole France, the Nobel Prize-winning French novelist.

One hundred years after its initial publication, London's political ideas and cultural insights seem remarkably contemporary. Indeed, in The Iron Heel, he describes a sinister conspiracy, by an oligarchy, to quash freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, imprison its outspoken opponents and critics, control news and information, install a professional army of paid mercenaries, create a secret police force, and wage global warfare for economic hegemony. There's also guerrilla warfare, furious acts of wanton terrorism, and cold-blooded terrorists—a world roiling in violence that might be taken for the world of the twenty-first century. Here's a book that demonstrates the veracity of Ezra Pound's remark that "the artist is the antenna of the race."

Like much overtly political fiction and didactic storytelling, The Iron Heel tends to emphasize ideas and ideological concerns at the expense of character development and plot, but London, the artist, could not help but craft a story with suspense, drama, and bigger-than-life, cinematic scenes that depict bloody warfare and horrific massacre in the streets of the United States. In the handwritten notes for the novel that he originally entitled "Oligarchy," he scrawled, "What scenes are given let them be striking to make up for absence of regular novel features," and he made good on that admonition to himself. The change in the title of the novel, from "Oligarchy" to The Iron Heel, shows London moving away from an idea to a compelling and vivid image that enlivens his story.

[ ... ]

London wrote no major political novel after The Iron Heel, but he did not cease to serve as the "antenna of the race." In The Scarlet Plague (1915), one of his last books, he anticipated the arrival of AIDS and HIV, and predicted a pandemic that would sweep across the world and decimate the human race.  Surely a novelist with that much imagination and prescience deserves more attention from literary scholars than he has so far received.

~ From: The Iron Heel at 100 Jack London — The Artist as 'Antenna of the Race' ~

 

“When democracies torture"

AMY GOODMAN: Now, these latest revelations, what is your response, Professor Rejali?

DARIUS REJALI: Well, I mean, they fall under the doctrine of command responsibility; that is to say, moral culpability lies with people who know that something is happening or should have known that something is happening under their command and had the power to stop it. So, typically under war crimes trials and things of this sort, this doctrine has been evoked quite a bit. So, first of all, on the moral side, that's the issue.

Actually, the interesting thing for me on the political side is that it doesn't fit any of the two models we thought were happening in the White House. One of the models was that there was this kind of—this is a more conservative argument—a slippery slope: people sent mixed messages, and then people went on to torture. And then, the other model is the Mafia model, the wink-wink, nod-nod model: just get it done, I don't care how. It turns out, actually, that there were not only demonstrations, but also that the policymakers that were key to this wanted a legal cover. And so, they cared enough about the rule of law—this is the silver lining, if you want—that they actually went to lawyers and had them write a cover, which means that sort of on the—this is sort of central to the thesis of Torture and Democracy—when democracies torture, they always try and do it under the cover of law, and they try and do it in such a way that appears that no torture is actually happening, leaving torture techniques that leave no marks and things that really make it difficult for victims to come forward credibly.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about that difference—it's just an odd phrase to say "when democracies torture"—but the difference between torture in democracies and not democracies.

DARIUS REJALI: Yeah. Most people think that, well, logically, democracies are unlikely to torture, because they're bargains of leniency—people don't like to be tortured, they elect their rulers, rulers don't torture them—whereas in authoritarian states, they can torture them as much as they want, because the people don't control power.

In fact, it's a little different than that. Authoritarian states indeed use scarring techniques, techniques—they don't particularly care if they leave bloody marks or if journalists report or other sorts of things, because they can stop them. In democracies where there's a minimal civil society, where people watch their government, whether they're church groups or whether they're newspaper organizations or human rights organizations, then whether it's your local government, your local police or your national government, they try to use cleaner techniques. And by this, I mean techniques that leave very few marks. I mean, the list of techniques that you read earlier—sleep deprivation, various forms of stress positions, waterboarding—these are all techniques that are actually kind of rare in human history up until the nineteenth century, where we find them appearing first in democracies and then spreading—

AMY GOODMAN: Like where?

DARIUS REJALI: Well, waterboarding—well, let's say electrotorture, the most famous of these, is—first appears in the United States in the 1908. Emma Goldman was—documented the very first electrotorture device in American prisons, the famous anarchist writer. 1908, she documented something called the "humming bird," which was a device that probably hummed with electricity, which was used in New York prisons. So it's very, very early on that we start using these things.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, in terms of torture, you go back to slavery.

DARIUS REJALI: Yes, certainly slavery existed. What's really interesting about slavery is that there were two types of techniques in—among slavers. There were techniques that left marks. Most people think that slavery is about whipping and those things. That mostly pertained to owners. But dealers, to sell slaves, had to leave no marks on their slaves, because that would affect the price. So what we find—what's very interesting is that the techniques that slave dealers were using start becoming much more common, and the police start adopting them in the United States starting in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. And they become common interrogation techniques in the '20s and '30s.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what happens to a society that has engaged in torture?

DARIUS REJALI: Yeah. There's always blowback. There's always blowback. One of the things that definitely happens is that, particularly if the torture happens in a foreign war, is that the soldiers come back, and those who have been involved in torture get involved in usually security activities, policing or private security. And what then happens is that they use the same techniques to get ahead that they did in the war.

Torture has a twenty-year shadow, it appears. That is to say, the reason we all know waterboarding, for example, isn't because we had waterboarding from the early days; it's because the soldiers who came back from the Philippine insurgency war in 1902 all brought it back to the United States, and then this technique started appearing all over the United States, particularly in the South and against conscientious objectors during the World War I.

So—and the same thing happened in Chicago. We have—one of the biggest torture crises of recently years was the torture crisis in Chicago, which involved hundreds of victims and including people who were forced to confess and were condemned to death row. And—

AMY GOODMAN: You're talking about the police commander, Jon Burge—

DARIUS REJALI: Jon Burge

AMY GOODMAN: —and the prisoners forced to so-called confess, end up being taken off of death row now, and say that they were tortured—

DARIUS REJALI: That is correct.

AMY GOODMAN: —and now the documentation is there.

DARIUS REJALI: There are many other cases that will soon probably come into that whole discussion. The main point is that the torture techniques that were used by police in those circumstances were torture techniques that were first documented in southern Vietnam during the Vietnam War. So somebody brought these back. And so, I mean, the thing is that the torture techniques in this war are likely to appear in a neighborhood near you sometime in the next twenty years, and that's one of the most serious blowbacks of this.

~ From: Torture and Democracy, Part II: Scholar Darius Rejali Details the History and Scope of Modern Torture ~

 

'It's not the first time this type of approach has been recommended for a catastrophic pandemic'

The idea is to try to make sure that scarce resources — including ventilators, medicine and doctors and nurses — are used in a uniform, objective way, task force members said.

Their recommendations appear in a report appearing Monday in the May edition of Chest, the medical journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.

"If a mass casualty critical care event were to occur tomorrow, many people with clinical conditions that are survivable under usual health care system conditions may have to forgo life-sustaining interventions owing to deficiencies in supply or staffing," the report states.

To prepare, hospitals should designate a triage team with the Godlike task of deciding who will and who won't get lifesaving care, the task force wrote. Those out of luck are the people at high risk of death and a slim chance of long-term survival. But the recommendations get much more specific, and include:

_People older than 85.

_Those with severe trauma, which could include critical injuries from car crashes and shootings.

_Severely burned patients older than 60.

_Those with severe mental impairment, which could include advanced Alzheimer's disease.

_Those with a severe chronic disease, such as advanced heart failure, lung disease or poorly controlled diabetes.

Dr. Kevin Yeskey, director of the preparedness and emergency operations office at the Department of Health and Human Services, was on the task force. He said the report would be among many the agency reviews as part of preparedness efforts.

Public health law expert Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University called the report an important initiative but also "a political minefield and a legal minefield."

The recommendations would probably violate federal laws against age discrimination and disability discrimination, said Gostin, who was not on the task force.

If followed to a tee, such rules could exclude care for the poorest, most disadvantaged citizens who suffer disproportionately from chronic disease and disability, he said. While health care rationing will be necessary in a mass disaster, "there are some real ethical concerns here."

~ From: Who should MDs let die in a pandemic? Report offers answers ~

 

Dalai Lama condemns branding of Muslims as terrorists

Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Sunday condemned moves to brand the Muslim community as 'terrorists' in the wake of the recent spurt in terror activities in India.

Inaugurating the 'Global Conference on Terrorism' here, he said that it was wrong to brand Muslims as terrorists because of the views and deeds of a few mischievous people.

"Some mischievous people and their deeds generalize whole religion. Because of these incidents, it creates impression that Muslims are militants. It is wrong. I'm Buddhist but I am defending Islam," he said.

He is expected to visit Jama Masjid (Mosque) today for the first time.

India has suffered a wave of militant attacks in recent years, with targets ranging from mosques; temples to trains but few groups came forward to claim responsibility for the attacks.

Islamist militant groups in Pakistan and Bangladesh who aim to spread hatred between Muslims and Hindus and damage fragile peace process between New Delhi and Islamabad, are often blamed for the bomb attacks in India.

~ Top News ~

 

Will proposed treaty make border agents copyright cops?

An Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) under quiet negotiation by several countries including the U.S and Canada is raising concern in some quarters after a leaked document, purportedly offering more details on the nascent agreement, was posted on the Internet.

The document, titled "Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" (download PDF), was posted last week by the Wikileaks whistle-blower Web site. The four-page document was apparently quietly provided to select lobbyists in the "intellectual property industry" late last year -- but not, apparently, to public-interest organizations, according to Wikileaks.

Plans for the trade agreement were announced last October by the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). At that time, the agreement was described by the USTR as a "major" step in the fight against the global piracy and counterfeiting of intellectual property.

The countries that have been identified as engaged in ACTA discussions are the U.S., Canada, the 27 member states of the European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland. In a fact sheet (download PDF) accompanying the announcement, the USTR said that ACTA would focus on increasing international cooperation and information sharing around IP protection, the creation of stronger and standard enforcement mechanisms, and the establishment of a more "effective" legal framework for combating piracy and counterfeiting. Among the legal provisions being considered are those for criminal enforcement, "border measures" and for Internet distribution of IP.

[...]

Importantly, the treaty -- if adopted as proposed -- also has the potential to turn customs and border patrol agents into copyright cops, said Caleb Sullivan, an attorney specializing in international trade and customs law with Becker & Poliakoff, a Florida law firm.

U.S Customs and border patrol officials have already been carrying out searches of laptops and other electronic devices belonging to travelers at U.S borders without any reasonable cause or suspicion, Sullivan said. If ACTA is adopted, it will give these officials a much broader pretext for carrying out such searches, he cautioned. "If the rules are established within this international treaty it would provide further justification from them to engage in this type of behavior," he continued, "and it won't be just at U.S. borders that travelers could be subjected to such searches, but in other countries as well."

~ more... ~

 


Google
 

image from http://www.spitting-image.net

Favorite Links

~325~ ~9-11...Who Really Did It~ ~10:10~ ~10 Zen Monkeys~ ~911 Truth~ ~13 Indigenous Grandmothers~ ~15O~ ~15th October~ ~Activist Post~ ~ACT UP~ ~Adbusters~ ~Aerogaz (greek)~ ~Afinity Project~ ~Aging Hipsters~ ~Alecto's Ophelia~ ~Al-Jazeera~ ~Alex Constantine's Blacklist~ ~Alliance for Human Research Protection~ ~All Things Cynthia McKinney~ ~All Things Pakistan~ ~Alternative Insight~ ~Alternative Press Review~ ~Alternet~ ~American Friends Service Committee~ ~American Street~ ~Anarkismo~ ~Andy Worthington~ ~Anglican Pacifist Fellowship~ ~Anomaly News Syndicate~ ~Another Day In The Empire~ ~AntiWar~ ~Antiwar League~ ~Anxiety Culture~ ~Appeal For Redress From The War In Iraq~ ~A Poetic Justice~ ~Artists Without Frontiers~ ~Art of Europe~ ~Arts And Letters Daily~ ~Attack the System~ ~Athens IMC~ ~Ballardian~ ~Bilderberg.org~ ~Black Box Voting~ ~BlackListed News~ ~Black Vault~ ~Blog Bioethics net~ ~Blog of the Unknown Writer~ ~Blondsense~ ~Boiling Frog~ ~Boiling Frogs Post~ ~BoingBoing~ ~Book Ninja~ ~Bookslut~ ~Bradley Manning Support Network~ ~Brand New Law~ ~Brainsturbator~ ~Bring Them Home Now~ ~Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing~ ~Buckminster Fuller Institute~ ~Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists~ ~Bureau of Public Secrets~ ~Business & Human Rights Resource Centre~ ~Buzzflash~ ~Campaign For Real Farming~ ~Catapult the Propaganda~ ~Campus Antiwar Network~ ~Cargo Culte~ ~Castan Centre for Human Rights Law~ ~Catch of the Day~ ~Censorship Paradise~ ~Center for Media and Democracy~ ~Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies, Afghanistan~ ~Centre for Research and Action for Peace~ ~Center on Law and Security~ ~Chapati Mystery~ ~Choike~ ~Chomsky.info~ ~Chronicle of Higher Education~ ~Church of the FSM~ ~CIA & Drugs~ ~Citizens for Legitimate Government~ ~Citizens for Tax Justice~ ~Clandestina~ ~CODEPINK~ ~Coilhouse mag~ ~Collateral Murder~ ~Common Dreams~ ~Complete 9/11 Timeline~ ~Concerned Africa Scholars~ ~Connexions~ ~Conspiracy Archive~ ~Contra Info~ ~Corrente~ ~COTO Report~ ~Coup d'Etat in America~ ~Countercurrents~ ~Crapaganda~ ~Create Real Democracy~ ~Creative-i~ ~Crimes of the State~ ~CrimethInc~ ~Crisis Group~ ~Critical Legal Thinking~ ~Cronache da Mileto (Italian)~ ~Crooks and Liars~ ~Crowd Modelling~ ~Cryptoforestry~ ~Cryptome~ ~Cyclos~ ~Culture Change~ ~Cutting Through The Matrix~ ~Cyrano's Journal~ ~Daily What~ ~Damn Interesting~ ~Dangerous Minds~ ~Deliberative Democracy Consortium~ ~Democracy Center~ ~Democracy Journal~ ~Democracy Now~ ~Democratic Underground~ ~Detournement~ ~Digital Rights [greek lang.]~ ~Diplomacy Lessons~ ~Direct Power!~ ~Discoveries-Researchings-Visions-Understandings-Enlightenments~ ~Disinformation~ ~DistributorCap NY~ ~Dr Hugo Heyrman-Motions of the Mind~ ~Dylanology~ ~EAGAINST~ ~Earthnocentric~ ~Eco Tort~ ~Ectoplasmosis!~ ~Educate Yourself~ ~E-Flux~ ~Electronic Frontier Foundation~ ~Electronic Intifada~ ~Eliminate War Forever~ ~End Evil~ ~Energy Bulletin~ ~Eradicating Ecocide~ ~EROCx1 Blog~
~Europeanrevolution~ ~European Revolution~ ~Eurozine~ ~Exposing the Truth~ ~Extinction Protocol: 2012 and beyond~ ~Families of the Fallen for Change~ ~Fellowship of Reconciliation~ ~Financial Armageddon~ ~FKN Newz~ ~Food For Your Eyes~ ~Forward the Revolution~ ~Franchot's Band~ ~Free Bloggers in Greece~ ~Free Expression Network~ ~Free Press International~ ~Freethinking for Dummies~ ~Free Thought Manifesto~ ~From the Wilderness~ ~F-t-W's Peak Oil Blog~ ~G1000~ ~Ghostdancing in Venice~ ~GIMP~ ~Gilles Duley~ ~Global Guerillas~ ~Global Integrity~ ~Global Policy Forum~ ~Global Revolution~ ~Global Security Institute~ ~Global Voices Online~ ~Gold Star Families for Peace~ ~Government Dirt~ ~Greek Alert [greek lang.]~ ~Greek Assembly in London~ ~Green Left Weekly~ ~Groklaw~ ~Hack Democracy~ ~Hakim Bey and Ontological Anarchy~ ~Hiroshima Peace Institute~ ~History Is A Weapon Blog~ ~How Appealing~ ~How To Vanish~ ~Human Rights Law Review~ ~I Can't Believe It's Not a Democracy!~ ~Idler~ ~Impropaganda~ ~Independent Media Center~ ~INIREF~ ~Institute for Media Peace and Security~ ~International Action Center~ ~International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)~ ~In These Times~ ~Information Clearing House~ ~Information Liberation~ ~Infoshop~ ~Institute for Policy Studies~ ~Institute for War and Peace Reporting~ ~Insurgent American~ ~Intel Hub~ ~International Labor Rights Forum~ ~Intrinsic Impact~ ~Invisible History~ ~Iraq Citizens Against the War~ ~Iraq Freedom Congress~ ~Iraq Veterans Against the War~ ~Irish Peace Institute~ ~Issues and Alibis~ ~James Howard Kunstler~ ~Jesus Radicals~ ~John Zerzan~ ~Jorgen Schäfer's Homepage~ ~JUST~ ~Just For The Love Of It~ ~Justice Not Vengeance~ ~Kasama Project~ ~Keep Talking Greece~ ~Kia Mistilis~ ~Kill Me If You Can by Bob Miller~ ~Killer Coke~ ~Labor Rights~ ~Labor Rights Now~ ~Labour Start~ ~Lava Cocktail~ ~Lemon Gloria~ ~Lemony Snicket~ ~L'ennui mélodieux~ ~Lessig~ ~Liberation Theology~ ~Libertarians for Peace~ ~Life After the Oil Crash~ ~Life & Peace Institute~ ~Lunch Street Party~ ~Lycaeum~ ~Links by George~ ~Literary Kicks~ ~Lubinproductions~ ~MacNN~ ~Mad Cow Morning News~ ~Manageable Ants~ ~Mario Profaca's Cyberspace Station~ ~Maro Kouri~ ~Maud Newton~ ~May it Please the Court~ ~McSpotlight~ ~Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture~ ~Metta Center for Nonviolence~ ~Metanoia~ ~Michael Moore - Must Read~ ~Mind Control~ ~Military Families Speak Out~ ~Mind in Peace (greek)~ ~Miss Welby~ ~MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence~ ~Molly's Blog~ ~Mother Jones~ ~MungBeing Magazine~ ~MyAntiwar.org~ ~n +1 mag~ ~National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee~ ~Natural Farming~ ~Neatorama~ ~Neuromarketing~ ~Neurosecurity~ ~New Internationalist~ ~News Dissector~ ~News Frames~ ~News Making News~ ~News Now~ ~New Tactics in Human Rights~ ~New World Dawning~ ~NEXUS~ ~NFAK~ ~Nomadic Academy Of Fools~ ~Non Fides~ ~Noor Images~ ~Not In Our Name~ ~Not Stupid~ ~Nuclear Resister~ ~NUTOPIA2~ ~[Occupy] 2012 Scenario~ ~Occupy America Social Network~ ~OCCUPY Cafe~ ~Occupy Istanbul~ ~Occupy Together~ ~Occupy Together Field Manual~ ~OWS~ ~Occupy Writers~ ~October 2011~ ~Odious Debts~ ~ODYS~ ~Olmaz~ ~On the Path to 2012~ ~Op Ed News~ ~Open Letters to George W. Bush from his ardent admirer,Belacqua Jones~ ~Open Revolt!~ ~Open Source Ecology~ ~Orthodox Peace Fellowship~ ~Orwell Today~ ~Outlaw Journalism~ ~OWNI~ ~Patriots Question 9/11~ ~Peace in Mind (greek)~ ~PeaceJam~ ~Peace Now~ ~Peaceful Tomorrows~ ~Peak Moment~ ~People's Assemblies Network~ ~Peter Frase~ ~Photography is Not a Crime~ ~Picture the Homeless~ ~Pieman~ ~Places the U.S. has bombed~ ~Pogo Was Right - privacy news~ ~Political Reform.ie~ ~Post Carbon Institute~ ~Praxis Peace Institute~ ~Primate Poetics~ ~Prisoner Solidarity~ ~Professors question 9/11~ ~Project Camelot~ ~Project Censored~ ~Project for the Old American Century~ ~Project on Corporations, Law and Democracy~ ~Psyche, Science and Society~ ~Psychogeography~ ~Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility~ ~Radical Anthropology~ ~Rainbow Family~ ~RawStory~ ~Reality Sandwich~ ~Real Democacy GR~ ~Real Democracy Now.net~ ~Rebel Dog~ ~Reflections on a Revolution~ ~Reporters Without Borders~ ~Re-public~ ~Resistance Studies Magazine~ ~Resource Based Economy Foundation~ ~Re-volt Radio~ ~Richard Heinberg's Museletter~ ~Rockefeller's War on Drugs~ ~Ruckus Society~ ~Sacred Texts~ ~Salon~ ~Save Orphan Works~ ~Scholars and Rogues~ ~Scoop~ ~SCOTUS Blog~ ~Secrecy News~ ~Service Academy Graduates Against the War~ ~Shadow Government Statistics~ ~Signs of the Times News~ ~Slovenia Peace Institute~ ~Smirking Chimp~ ~smygo~ ~SNU Project~ ~Soil And Health Library~ ~SourceWatch~ ~Speaking Truth to Power~ ~Spirit Horse Foundation~ ~Spunk~ ~Squattastic~ ~Starhawk~ ~Stockholm International Peace Research Institute~ ~StopCartel TV-GR~ ~Stop The Arms Fair~ ~Stop the Spying.org~ ~Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness~ ~Students Against War~ ~Survival Acres~ ~Survival International~ ~Swan's Commentary~ ~Take The Square~ ~Tangible Information~ ~Tax Justice Network~ ~Tax Research UK~ ~Theatre of the Oppressed~ ~The Black Commentator~ ~The Black Vault~ ~The Borowitz Report~ ~The Carpetbagger Report~ ~The Center for Public Integrity~ ~The Daily Reckoning~ ~The Dark Age Blog~ ~The Digger Archives~ ~The End of Being~ ~The Guardian~ ~The Hidden Evil~ ~The Huffington Post~ ~The Intelligence Daily~ ~The Lazy Man's Guide To Enlightenment~ ~The Mountain Sentinel~ ~The Nation~ ~The National Security Archive~ ~The New Z-Land Project~ ~The Other Israel~ ~The Pathology Guy~ ~The Progress Report~ ~The Progressive Magazine~ ~The Real News~ ~The Situation Room~ ~The Truth Seeker~ ~ The Watcher Files~ ~Think Progress~ ~Third World Traveller~ ~This Land Is Ours~ ~This Modern World~ ~TomDispatch~ ~Total Collapse~ ~Total Dick-Head~ ~Transform!~ ~Transnational Institute~ ~Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research~ ~True Democracy~ ~Troops Out Now~ ~True Democracy Party~ ~Truthdig~ ~Truth News~ ~Truthout~ ~TW3 and fotografia la dolce vita~ ~Uncommon Thought~ ~United for Peace & Justice~ ~United States Institute of Peace~ ~Unknown News~ ~UNPA Campaign~ ~Urbanibalism~ ~US Labor Against the War~ ~VBS TV~ ~Veterans Against the Iraq War~ ~Veterans for Peace and Justice~ ~Video Rebel's Blog~ ~Vietnam Veterans Against the War~ ~Virusmyth - Rethinking AIDS~ ~visionOntv~ ~Voices for Creative Non-Violence~ ~Void Network~ ~Voice Memo~ ~Voters for Peace~ ~Waging Nonviolence~ ~Waking the Midnight Sun~ ~Want To Know~ ~War Costs~ ~War Crimes and Military Improprieties~ ~War Criminals Watch~ ~War on Society~ ~War is Illegal~ ~War Resisters International~ ~War Resisters League~ ~Was Jack Kerouac a Punjabi?~ ~Watergate Exposed~ ~West Point Graduates Against The War~ ~What Really Happened~ ~What’s On My Food?~ ~Why Work? Creating Livable Alternatives to Wage Slavery~ ~Wikileaks~ ~WikiLeaks Central~ ~Wild Wild Left~ ~willyloman~ ~Winning Cancer~ ~Win Without War~ ~Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)~ ~Wonkette~ ~World Prout Assembly~ ~Worldwide Hippies~ ~Yes Lab~ ~Yippie Museum~ ~Young Protester~ ~Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR)~ ~Zapatistas~ ~Zine Library~ ~Zippy Elder-at-Large~ ~ZMag~
~ Thank you for visiting Circle of 13 ~

FAIR USE NOTICE

This blog may contain videos with copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.