#94: Human Problems: Peace, War, Health, Ecology: 08.6.23 - 09.1.31=6 1pm:
228, 許世楷
NTHAN = North Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation: http://nhan.ummoa.net/
ACdd = Armed Citizens direct democracy.
===================================
0) Peace Harmony: Taiwan ACdd: N, S, E Hakka A N,「台灣平民政府」
1) War Syndromes: Warfare State Superpower.
2) Life Health: Starvation, Aging, GMO, Roman HIV...
3) Nature Ecology.
===================================
0) Peace:--------------------------
0) 1. Peace Constitutions: Japan and others.
-----------------------------------
0) 2. Armed Citizens direct democracy (ACdd)
--------------------------------------------
0) 2-0-1. Just a Right Push to DD: http://tinyurl.com/6mwubt
"The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference"
0) 2-0-2. 'Rundschau' http://tinyurl.com/Rundschau
--------------------------------------------
0) 2-1. Bottom Up Direct Democracy: "Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir"
http://tinyurl.com/65mr24
: "Blue Rage, Black Redemption" http://www.tookie.com/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
0) 2-2. Taiwan Strait Peace:--------
: 林志昇「台灣平民政府」召集人.
0) 2-2-0. Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nations = THANs:-------
0) 2-2-0-1. North Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = NTHAN.
0) 2-2-0-2. South Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = STHAN.
0) 2-2-0-3. Easth Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = ETHAN.
0) 2-2-1. 'Statement by Cheng Kuang Chen' San Jose, Silicon Valley: Jan,07
: '陳辰光之聲明' 聖荷西市 2007年1月: http://tinyurl.com/yjf6hq
0) 2-2-2. 林志昇,「台灣平民政府」召集人: '回應「流亡政府」心態' Apr24,08
'新書介紹: 台灣最終地位' 林志昇、何瑞元 合著
'美國政府與台灣平民政府的互動' 蝶衣 Apr29,08
: 美台週刊 US TAIWAN CESSION WEEKLY, No.47(May4,08): http://tinyurl.com/3h386b
0) 2-2-3. '台灣建國啟智篇：拆穿本土政客的真面目' Jun13,08 台灣人統獨公投自決會期刊 第19 http://tinyurl.com/5kn7et
0) 2-2-4. '台灣獨立的三條件,兩時機' 趙紫龍 forumadmin Feb28,07 http://tinyurl.com/5g96we
-----------------------------------
0) 3. Anti-War Activities
0) 3-1. 'The Non-Aggression Principle'
0) 3-2. Nuclear Weapons
-----------------------------------
0) 4. Anti-War Publications: "The Sunflower" http://tinyurl.com/3mk8dx
"The Sunflower" Issue #134 (Sept. 2008) http://tinyurl.com/6j3ygh
-----------------------------------
1) War Syndromes:------------------
1) 0. Warfare State Capitalism:----
1) 0-0. Syndromes & Reality:-------
1) 0-0-0. 'Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy' http://tinyurl.com/2xuttf
1) 0-0-1. "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives"
1) 0-0-2. 'Of Moose and Pit Bulls' http://tinyurl.com/5o4tks
1) 0-0-3. 'Brain will be battlefield of future, warns US intelligence report' http://tinyurl.com/6os3m3
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 0-1. 'The Five Secret Billion-Dollar Companies Sucking Obscene Amounts of Taxpayer Money' http://tinyurl.com/3zzy2z
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 0-2. 'The War, Dems, MoveOn and The Uprising: An interview with David Sirota' http://tinyurl.com/5up2g4
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 0-3. "War on Terror":-----------
1) 0-3-1. 'The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America' http://tinyurl.com/6zfx25
1) 0-3-1-1. 'Boston Tea Party, 2008' http://tinyurl.com/4l5udg
1) 0-3-2. 'VFP Calls for U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan and the Prosecution of Dick Cheney and George Bush for Crimes Against Humanity' http://tinyurl.com/4m3slj
1) 0-3-3. 'Liars and Lapdogs' http://tinyurl.com/6adrst
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 0-4. War Dangers:-------------
1) 0-4-1. Georgia Crisis:--------
1) 0-4-1-1. ' Rice: Military power is "not the way to deal in the 21st century" ' http://tinyurl.com/5krqzm
1) 0-4-1-2. 'The Georgia Crisis Turns Dangerous' http://tinyurl.com/5td294
1) 0-4-2. Iraq/Afghan Wars:--------
1) 0-4-2-1. 'While other top brass played press agents for the administration’s war, William Odom told the truth about Iraq—though few listened.' http://tinyurl.com/5g8osd
1) 0-4-2-2. ' Book Exposes Iraq Occupation Through US Soldiers' Eyes: "We Blew Her To Pieces" ' http://tinyurl.com/3lvdhs
-------------------------------------
1) 1. Superpower State Syndrome:-----
1) 1-0. Western Empires:-------------
1) 1-0-0. Cold War:------------------
'Cold War Revisionism: Once Again the Major Historical Task' http://tinyurl.com/545tm8
1) 1-0-1. Ending Empire:-------------
1) 1-0-1-1. 'And None Dare Call It Treason' http://tinyurl.com/66eezk
1) 1-0-1-1-1. 'Obama Might Pursue Criminal Charges Against Bush Administration:
Biden says criminal violations will be pursued' http://tinyurl.com/62o6ae
1) 1-0-1-2. 'Obama's Cheney: Is there a curse on the office of the Vice President?' http://tinyurl.com/5tx9xj
1) 1-0-1-3-1. 'Sarah Palin's Career Ends in Tragedy' http://tinyurl.com/5kldu5
1) 1-0-1-3-2. 'Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice?' http://tinyurl.com/5fp2c3
Neither Pat. Buch, nor Dr. Ron Paul.
1) 1-0-1-3-3. 'Palin and the Beltway Pundits' http://tinyurl.com/6p7gog
1) 1-0-1-3-4. ' Sarah Palin' http://tinyurl.com/6n3jsz
1) 1-1. Superpower Opponents:--------
1) 1-1-1. Russia:--------------------
1) 1-1-1-0. 'Russo-Georgian Conflict Is Not All Russia’s Fault, But war could ignite further disputes in the region' http://tinyurl.com/5wz924
1) 1-1-1-1. 'Is Not Western Hypocrisy Astonishing?' http://tinyurl.com/6pjdbc
1) 1-1-1-2. 'Neocon Crybabies' http://tinyurl.com/5zo7t3
1) 1-1-1-3. 'Georgia and Kosovo: A Single Intertwined Crisis' http://tinyurl.com/6ohfks
1) 1-1-1-4. 'Does Bush Want War With Russia?' http://tinyurl.com/5g7rbc
1) 1-1-1-5. 'Warnings to Russia from Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham' http://tinyurl.com/6c4ghn
1) 1-1-1-6. 'Georgia Admits Dropping Cluster Bombs, says Rights Group' http://tinyurl.com/6gfcnm
1) 1-1-1-7. 'Marching Through Georgia' http://tinyurl.com/5pj2gr
1) 1-1-1-8. 'Iran Could Benefit from Georgia Crisis' http://tinyurl.com/5ej7rm
1) 1-1-1-9. 'Israeli Strategy After the Russo-Georgian War' http://tinyurl.com/6okgfg
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 1-1-2: China:---------------------
'U.S. Not Ready for Georgia-Style Computer Attacks' http://tinyurl.com/66u453
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 1-2. Superpower "Lapdogs":--------
1) 1-2-1. NATO:----------------------
1) 1-2-1-1. 'Quit the NATO Club' http://tinyurl.com/59pxqg
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 3. British Empire:--------------
1) 3-5. Colony India:--------------
1) 3-5-0. 'Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age' http://tinyurl.com/5e2yby
1) 3-5-1. UK: 'Teutonophopbia' by Paul Gottfried
1) 3-5-2. 'Winston Churchill: Secret conversations reveal views on Stalin and Gandhi' http://tinyurl.com/5ytbbo
1) 3-7. World War II:--------------
1) 3-7-4. 'The blood of Dresden' http://tinyurl.com/59p283
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 4. 'Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 5-0. 'A Century of War: Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt' http://tinyurl.com/62vsjc
1) 5-0-1. Lincoln:---------------
1) 5-0-1-1. 'The Call of the Tyrant' http://tinyurl.com/4alz9r
1) 5-0-1-2. 'Vindicating Lincoln?' http://tinyurl.com/3g2t52
: the Mises Review: http://tinyurl.com/4v4wms
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 6. Global Power:--------------
1) 6-0. ' The Oddly Powerless 'Global Power Elite' ': http://tinyurl.com/6h3uhp
-----------------------------------
2) Health:-------------------------
2) 00. Starvation:-----------------
'World Food Crisis at Critical Juncture' http://tinyurl.com/5wjwtw
2) 0. General:---------------------
2) 0-0. Health from Self, Within:--
2) 0-0-0. 'Is Your Picnic Filled With ‘Franken-Foods’?' http://tinyurl.com/5vyvpl
2) 0-0-1. 'Tantra Psychology' http://tantrapsychology.learn.to/
2) 0-0-2. 'The World United: Connecting People through Personal & Planetary Evolution' http://www.theworldunited.org/aboutus.html
2) 0-0-3. 'When the Cure Is Worse Than the Disease' http://tinyurl.com/4pvlgd
2) 0-0-4. 'Avoid Flu Shots, Take Vitamin D Instead' http://tinyurl.com/48e7yn
2) 0-1. Age Medicine:--------------
2) 0-1-1. 'The Fight to End Aging Gains Legitimacy, Funding'.:
2) 0-1-1. 'Quantum dots improve effectiveness of gene silencer'.
2) 0-1-2. 'News: Measles doesn't work in the way we thought'.
2) 0-1-3. 'How to deliver DNA into cells without triggering immune responses'.
2) 0-1-4. 'Viruses use microRNA to block the immune system'.
2) 0-1-5. 'Subtle nervous system abnormalities may predict risk of death in older individuals'
2) 0-1-6. 'Common drugs may combat ageing disease' http://tinyurl.com/6rbt9x
2) 0-1-7. 'Red LEDs could make anti-ageing device' New Scientist magazine, issue 2679, Oct28,08, page 21: http://tinyurl.com/5zd8rm
2) 0-2. Medicine Technology:-------
2) 0-2-1. 'Smart contact lens feels the pressure of glaucoma' http://tinyurl.com/5eptnz
2) 0-2-2. 'Nanotubes bring artificial photosynthesis a step nearer': http://tinyurl.com/6a2p52
2) 0-2-3. ' Helping the deaf to 'see sound' ': http://tinyurl.com/6bn383
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) 1. Brain:-----------------------
2) 1-1. 'Toxic Key To Alzheimer’s Disease Memory Loss Identified' ScienceDaily (June 27, 2008): http://tinyurl.com/4op355
2) 1-2. ' 'Cross fire' from the brain makes patients tremble '
http://tinyurl.com/5zga7q
2)1.6. 'Brain Structure Assists In Immune Response' http://tinyurl.com/BrainImmune
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) 2. 'Low Sperm Counts and Deformed Penises: The Chemical Industry Has a Hold on Your Reproductive Future' http://tinyurl.com/5z8vm8
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) 3. ' Blood pressure 'link to dementia' ' http://tinyurl.com/6epa65
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) 4. Medical History:-------------
'Did the Romans destroy Europe's HIV resistance?' http://tinyurl.com/6xn3ff
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) 10. Whole Body:-------------------
2) 11. Body Appearance:--------------
2) 11-1. Body Measurements:----------
'How our body measurements affect who we are' http://tinyurl.com/BodyMeasure
-----------------------------------
3) Nature:-------------------------
3) 0. Technology:------------------
3) 0-1. 'Nanotubes bring artificial photosynthesis a step nearer'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3) 1. Earth:-----------------------
: 'Ron Paul on Iran & Energy (C-SPAN 6/26)' http://tinyurl.com/6z44ry
3) 1-0. 'Humanity's Meltdown' Mike Davis: http://tinyurl.com/6bskyq
3) 1-1. 'Earth Near Tipping Point, Climatologist Warns' http://tinyurl.com/5azhax
3) 1-2. 'Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near on Global Warming': http://tinyurl.com/5azhax
3) 1-3. To Save Earth:----------------
3) 1-3-1. '10 Audacious Ideas to Save the Planet': http://tinyurl.com/43mwhu
3) 1-3-2. 'UN Says Eat Less Meat To Curb Global Warming: Climate expert urges radical shift in diet' http://tinyurl.com/695xdw
3) 1-3-3. 'National Coal Day of Action in Over 50 Cities, Anti-Coal Movement on Rise:
Thousands to Protest Citi and Bank of America’s Coal Investments' http://tinyurl.com/6xt295
3) 1-4. 'Destroying African Agriculture': http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5271
3) 1-5. 'GM: The Death Of Rice In India' Arun Shrivastava http://tinyurl.com/5f5799
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3) 2. USA:----------------------------
3) 2-1. Cascadia: '...Cascadia Rising Tide and the Climate Convergence' http://tinyurl.com/69kxdz
3) 2-2. CA: 'Governor Coordinates State Firefighting Effort with Local and Federal Partners' http://www.calfires.com/
3) 2-3. 'State of Emergency for Central Valley Region's Severe Water Shortages' http://gov.ca.gov/issue/disaster-preparedness/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3) 3. Other Areas:-----------------
3) 3-1. Mediterranean:
3) 3-2. Mediterranean Water:
'PAM: Water will influence future stability in the Mediterranean': http://tinyurl.com/5awh5t
===================================
===================================
0) Peace:--------------------------
0) 1. Peace Constitutions: Japan's etc.
-----------------------------------
0) 2. Armed Citizens DD:------------
0) 2. 'Armed Citizen Direct Democracy Future' July 2, 2008 9:48:46 PM
"Blue Rage, Black Redemption" http://www.tookie.com/
0) 2-0-1. Just a Right Push to DD: http://tinyurl.com/6mwubt
"The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" Malcolm Gladwell.
0) 2-0-2. 'Rundschau' http://tinyurl.com/Rundschau
0) 2-1. Bottom Up Direct Democracy: "Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir"
http://tinyurl.com/65mr24
0) 2-1-1. US Constitution:--------
0) 2-1-1-1. 'Who Killed the [US] Constitution?' http://tinyurl.com/5l3lqm
0) 2-1-1-2. "Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush" http://tinyurl.com/5wwogl
0) 2-1-2. US Politics:-------------
'The Odds of Change: A Statistical Look at Our Democrat’s Voting Records' http://tinyurl.com/5vv96g
0) 2-1-3. 'Peace Prevails! Help Tell The Story. . .' http://tinyurl.com/5onfxv
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
0) 2-2. Taiwan Strait Peace:-------
: 林志昇「台灣平民政府」召集人
0) 2-2-0. Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = THAN:
0) 2-2-0-1. North Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = NTHAN.
0) 2-2-0-2. South Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = STHAN.
0) 2-2-0-3. Easth Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = ETHAN.
-----------------------------------
0) 3.Anti-War Activities
-----------------------------------
0) 4. Anti-War Publications: "The Sunflower" Issue #132: http://tinyurl.com/3mk8dx
-----------------------------------
0) 2-1. US Problems:---------------
0) 2-1. Bottom Up Direct Democracy: "Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir"
http://tinyurl.com/65mr24
0) 2-1-1. US Constitution:---------
0) 2-1-1-1. 'Who Killed the [US] Constitution?' http://tinyurl.com/5l3lqm
0) 2-1-1-2. "Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush" http://tinyurl.com/5wwogl
0) 2-1-2. US Politics:-------------
'The Odds of Change: A Statistical Look at Our Democrat’s Voting Records' http://tinyurl.com/5vv96g
0) 2-1-3. 'Peace Prevails! Help Tell The Story. . .' http://tinyurl.com/5onfxv
------------------------------------
------------------------------------
0) 2-2. Taiwan Strait Peace:--------
0) 2-2-0. Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = THAN:
0) 2-2-0-1. North Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = NTHAN.
0) 2-2-0-2. South Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = STHAN.
0) 2-2-0-3. Easth Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = ETHAN.
0) 2-2-1. 'Statement by Cheng Kuang Chen' : '陳辰光之聲明' http://tinyurl.com/yjf6hq
0) 2-2-2. 林志昇「台灣平民政府」召集人: '回應「流亡政府」心態'
'新書介紹: 台灣最終地位' 林志昇、何瑞元 合著
'美國政府與台灣平民政府的互動' http://tinyurl.com/3h386b
0) 2-2-3. '台灣建國啟智篇：拆穿本土政客的真面目' http://tinyurl.com/5kn7et
0) 2-2-4. '台灣獨立的三條件,兩時機' http://tinyurl.com/5g96we
0) 2-2-5. '台灣獨立的三條件,兩時機' 趙紫龍 http://tinyurl.com/5g96we
-----------------------------------
-----------------------------------
0) 3. Anti-War Activities:---------
0) 3-0. 'Will the Last Superpower Recognize In Time What We Must Do to Save the Planet?'
0) 3-1. 'The Non-Aggression Principle'
0) 3-2. Nuclear Weapons:-----------
0) 3-2-1. '20:20 Vision Aimed at Dismantling Nukes'
0) 3-2-2. 'Nuclear Abolition by UK Alone Would Still Herald New Era' Peter Jones: Pub. July15,08 by Edmonton Journal: http://tinyurl.com/6r9hnw
: "" Since the dawn of the nuclear age, all countries have been officially committed to eliminating these weapons. Today, some of the most influential politicians and officials of the nuclear era are talking seriously about actually doing it. "
... ...
" This is perhaps the strongest argument the nuclear abolitionists have. In the case of the U.K., they can argue that even if it does not by itself end the nuclear weapons era, the impact of one of the original nuclear weapons states renouncing these weapons would so dramatically alter the prevailing paradigm that it must surely hasten that day.
And they no longer consist entirely of left-wing “peace” activists. They are joined by some of the most unabashedly “realist” of men who have spent a lifetime wielding nuclear weapons, and who now believe that the security of humanity requires that we eliminate them once and for all.
Peter Jones is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. He is a member of the Pugwash Council, the governing body of the international Pugwash movement, an NGO that works on behalf of disarmament. Pugwash was awarded a share of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in this field.
© The Edmonton Journal 2008 ""
-----------------------------------
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
0) 4. Anti-War Publications:-------
"The Sunflower" Issue #132 (July 2008) Nuclear Age Peace Foundation: http://tinyurl.com/3mk8dx
- - - - - - - - - - - -
"The Sunflower" Issue #134 (Sept. 2008) http://tinyurl.com/6j3ygh
""The Sunflower is a monthly e-newsletter providing educational information on nuclear weapons abolition and other issues relating to global security. Help us spread the word and forward this to a friend.""
: "" * Perspectives
o NATO Nuclear Weapons: Power Without Purpose by David Krieger
o Assessing the Georgian Crisis by Richard Falk
o US Missile Defense: The Magic Pudding That Will Never Run Out by George Monbiot
* Nuclear Proliferation
o US Official Claims Extensive Links Between China and Pakistan Nuclear Programs
o Georgian Conflict Raises Nuclear Terror Concerns
o Nuclear Suppliers Group Considering US-India Deal
o New Poll Shows That Americans Believe Nuclear Weapons Make Them Less Safe
* Nuclear Insanity
o More Trouble at Minot Air Force Base
o Clear Channel Removes Ads Discouraging Nuclear Weapons
* Resources
o US In the World
o Arms Control Reporter
o Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol Petition
* Foundation Activities
o Hibakusha to Speak in Santa Barbara
o New Nuclear Disarmament Coalition Forms in Los Angeles Area
o Become a Peace Leader in Your Own Community
o New Book Available: At the Nuclear Precipice: Catastrophe or Transformation?
* Quotes ""
===================================
===================================
-----------------------------------
1) Wars:--------------------------
1) Warfare State Capitalism:------
1) 0-0. "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives"
1) 0-1. 'The Five Secret Billion-Dollar Companies Sucking Obscene Amounts of Taxpayer Money' http://tinyurl.com/3zzy2z
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 1. 'The War, Dems, MoveOn and The Uprising: An interview with David Sirota' http://tinyurl.com/5up2g4
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 2. 'The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 3. British Empire:-------------
1) 3-0. 'Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age' http://tinyurl.com/5e2yby
1) 3-1. UK: 'Teutonophopbia' by Paul Gottfried
1) 4. 'Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion'
1) 5. 'A Century of War: Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt' http://tinyurl.com/62vsjc
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) 6. Global Power:---------------
1) 6. ' The Oddly Powerless 'Global Power Elite' ' http://tinyurl.com/6h3uhp
===================================
===================================
2) Health:-------------------------
2) 0. General:---------------------
2) 0-0. Health from Self, Within:--
2) 0-0-0. 'Is Your Picnic Filled With ‘Franken-Foods’?' http://tinyurl.com/5vyvpl
2) 0-0-1. 'Tantra Psychology' http://tantrapsychology.learn.to/
2) 0-0-2. 'Subtle Inner Engineering: Peak of Well Being' Jun25,08.
2) 0-0-3. 'When the Cure Is Worse Than the Disease' Bill Sardi Aug25,08
LewRockwell.com http://tinyurl.com/4pvlgd
-----------------------------------
2) 0-1. Age Medicine:--------------
2) 0-1-1. 'The Fight to End Aging Gains Legitimacy, Funding'.:
2) 0-1-1. 'Quantum dots improve effectiveness of gene silencer'.
2) 0-1-2. 'News: Measles doesn't work in the way we thought'.
2) 0-1-3. 'How to deliver DNA into cells without triggering immune responses'.
2) 0-1-4. 'Viruses use microRNA to block the immune system'.
2) 0-1-5. 'Subtle nervous system abnormalities may predict risk of death in older individuals'
2) 0-1-6. 'Common drugs may combat ageing disease' http://tinyurl.com/6rbt9x
-----------------------------------
2) 0-2. Medicine Technology:-------
2) 0-2-1. 'Smart contact lens feels the pressure of glaucoma' http://tinyurl.com/5eptnz
2) 0-2-2: 'Nanotubes bring artificial photosynthesis a step nearer': http://tinyurl.com/6a2p52
-----------------------------------
2) 1. Brain:-----------------------
2) 1-1. 'Toxic Key To Alzheimer’s Disease Memory Loss Identified' ScienceDaily (June 27, 2008): http://tinyurl.com/4op355
2) 1-2. ' 'Cross fire' from the brain makes patients tremble ': http://tinyurl.com/5zga7q
2) 2. 'Low Sperm Counts and Deformed Penises: The Chemical Industry Has a Hold on Your Reproductive Future' http://tinyurl.com/5z8vm8
2) 3. ' Blood pressure 'link to dementia' ' http://tinyurl.com/6epa65
-----------------------------------
3)2 'Humanity's Meltdown' Mike Davis: http://tinyurl.com/6bskyq
3) Ecology:--------------------------
3) 0. Technology:--------------------
3) 0-1. 'Nanotubes bring artificial photosynthesis a step nearer'
3) 1. Earth: 'Ron Paul on Iran & Energy (C-SPAN 6/26)' http://tinyurl.com/6z44ry
3) 1-1. 'Earth Near Tipping Point, Climatologist Warns' http://tinyurl.com/5azhax
3) 1-2. 'Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near on Global Warming': http://tinyurl.com/5azhax
3) 1-3. '10 Audacious Ideas to Save the Planet': http://tinyurl.com/43mwhu
3) 1-3-3. 'National Coal Day of Action in Over 50 Cities, Anti-Coal Movement on Rise:
Thousands to Protest Citi and Bank of America’s Coal Investments' http://tinyurl.com/6xt295
3) 1-4. 'Destroying African Agriculture': http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5271
3) 1-5. 'GM: The Death Of Rice In India' Arun Shrivastava http://tinyurl.com/5f5799
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3) 2. USA:----------------------------
3) 2-1. Cascadia: '...Cascadia Rising Tide and the Climate Convergence' http://tinyurl.com/69kxdz
3) 2-2. CA: 'Governor Coordinates State Firefighting Effort with Local and Federal Partners' http://www.calfires.com/
3) 2-3. 'State of Emergency for Central Valley Region's Severe Water Shortages' http://gov.ca.gov/issue/disaster-preparedness/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3) 3. Other Areas:--------------------
3) 3-1. Mediterranean:
3) 3-2. Mediterranean Water:
'PAM: Water will influence future stability in the Mediterranean': http://tinyurl.com/5awh5t
===================================
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0) Peace:--------------------------
0) 1. 'Japan Constitution Chapter 9.
The Feb. 28 Incident ROC Massacre: http://tinyurl.com/4ag2za '
'台湾熱血外交官許世楷在日4年為台打拼的実績-1' video Jun27,08 http://tinyurl.com/6hfpzb
'Ｔａｉｗａｎ Ｐａｔｒｉｏｔｉｃ Ｄｉｐｌｏｍａｔ-2' Jun29,08 http://tinyurl.com/3jt55v
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0) 2. 'Armed Citizen Direct Democracy Future':
[Tsai 08.7.2=3 #1] (Now I have changed my #system limited to particular forums, like this one on Conflict.) It seems to me, for all our future in this new time, what we need is a completely new form of global and thorough militarization, somewhat in Swiss style.
To do that, we have first to BEGIN to dismantle the old forms, from military-congressio nal-industrial complex control of the USA especially but then globally, nuke and mass-destruction' s deadly threats, global brain-washing, to state's "exclusive" and "legitimate" violence ideology corps.
And, almost at the same time following tightly, most urgently push at all levels for the establishment of global direct democracy of armed citizens, WITH thorough training of all kinds law-maintenance personnel, the kind of training mentioned in your post. I hope Senator Obama would have a similar kind of ideas, against the old-fashioned "patriotic" "warrior" mindset. Just hope so, not only just for the USA.
----- Original Message ----
From: Ro: July 2, 2008 4:34:14 PM
Subject: [Conflict] South American gangs ARE a threat
I got this (C&P'ed) piece from an unusual source: Stratfor's weekly TERRORISM report. Seems "the bad guys" involved are big-time Mexican drug dealers, and their ongoing turf wars are spilling-over into the USA. Not just street thugs - these guys attend Al Qaeda-style training camps in Mexico, which seem to have ISRAELI advisors. So much for "Hispanic drug gangs don't represent a REAL threat". They just made front page headlines in a serious publication dedicated exclusively to terrorism. Seems some of us can predict what's going to happen before it makes headlines... and some of us can't.
'Mexican Cartels and the Fallout From Phoenix' Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
: July 2, 2008
: "" Late on the night of June 22, a residence in Phoenix was approached by a heavily armed tactical team preparing to serve a warrant. The members of the team were wearing the typical gear for members of their profession: black boots, black BDU pants, Kevlar helmets and Phoenix Police Department (PPD) raid shirts pulled over their body armor. The team members carried AR-15 rifles equipped with Aimpoint sights to help them during the low-light operation and, like most cops on a tactical team, in addition to their long guns, the members of this team carried secondary weapons — pistols strapped to their thighs.
But the raid took a strange turn when one element of the team began directing suppressive fire on the residence windows while the second element entered — a tactic not normally employed by the PPD. This breach of departmental protocol did not stem from a mistake on the part of the team’s commander. It occurred because the eight men on the assault team were not from the PPD at all. These men were not cops serving a legal search or arrest warrant signed by a judge; they were cartel hit men serving a death warrant signed by a Mexican drug lord. " ... ...
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0) 2-0-1. Just a Right Push to Direct Democracy:
"The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" Malcolm Gladwell: New Ed (14 Feb 2002) http://tinyurl.com/6mwubt
: "" Amazon.co.uk Review
"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviours spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of mimetics will recognise this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanise the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston", he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.
Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point", like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. ""
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0) 2-0-2. 'Rundschau' by William S. Lind: Jan7,09, LewRockwell.com: http://tinyurl.com/Rundschau
: "" If we look around the world at the prospects for Fourth Generation entities, what does the new year reveal? Regrettably, they seem to face a rosy future.
The Israeli assault on Hamas in Gaza will succeed physically, prove a mixed bag mentally and fail on the moral level of war. " ...
... ...
" On another front, the seeming quiet between India and Pakistan is deceptive. I expect an out-of-the-blue strike by India on 4GW training camps in Pakistan, a Pakistani defeat and possibly a collapse of the Pakistani government in consequence. How many collapses of governments Pakistan can endure before the state itself crumbles is a key strategic question. The answer, I suspect, is not many more. Pakistan could offer Islamic 4GW forces an earth-shaking victory in 2009.
In Afghanistan, the war continues to go badly for NATO and the U.S. More American troops doing what they are doing now will make the situation worse. The U.S. Army seems incapable of transferring what it learned in Iraq to Afghanistan. It is attacking the population rather than protecting it, which guarantees failure. The one bit of good news is that the Taliban and al Qaeda are replicating the latter’s mistakes in Iraq. "
... ...
" Perhaps the brightest sign on the horizon for 4GW entities of all types, not just those that represent Islamic jihad, is the world economy. If the world recession becomes a world depression, which looks more and more likely, states everywhere will be weakened. For reasons Martin van Creveld lays out in The Rise and Decline of the State, citizens now expect their state to take care of them economically. If they have no jobs and face penury, they will be ready if not eager to transfer their primary allegiance from the state to something else. A big winner here will be gangs of every sort.
This bleak Rundschau should not surprise us. We live in a time toward the end of the world of states. A growing number of states will vanish. Still more will become hollow shells, within which 4GW entities thrive while protected by "state sovereignty." As Globalism collapses economically and the global elites are revealed as emperors without clothes, the motto of every state will become "sauve qui peut."
If you’re lucky enough to have a time machine, set it to "Back" and get aboard.
January 7, 2009 ""
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0) 2-1. Bottom Up Direct Democracy:----
"Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir" Stanley Tookie Williams; Nov13,07: http://tinyurl.com/65mr24
Amazon.com: "" Editorial Reviews: Review:
"Tookie learned the hard way that belonging to a gang is not smart. I salute him for his courage and determination to overcome his circumstances." -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
"Some of the most vital peacemakers arise out of the very heart of the most destructive spaces. Tookie's story is proof of this." -- Luis Rodriguez, author of Always Running
Product Description
A gripping tale of personal revolution by a man who went from Crips co-founder to Nobel Peace Prize nominee, author, and antigang activist
When his L.A. neighborhood was threatened by gangbangers, Stanley Tookie Williams and a friend formed the Crips, but what began as protection became worse than the original gangs. From deadly street fights with their rivals to drive-by shootings and stealing cars, the Crips' influence -- and Tookie's reputation -- began to spread across L.A. Soon he was regularly under police surveillance, and, as a result, was arrested often, though always released because the charges did not stick. But in 1981, Tookie was convicted of murdering four people and was sent to death row at San Quentin in Marin County, California.
Tookie maintained his innocence and began to work in earnest to prevent others from following his path. Whether he was creating nationwide peace protocols, discouraging adolescents from joining gangs, or writing books, Tookie worked tirelessly for the rest of his life to end gang violence. Even after his death, his legacy continues, supported by such individuals as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Snoop Dogg, Jesse Jackson, and many more.
This posthumous edition of Blue Rage, Black Redemption features a foreword by Tavis Smiley and an epilogue by Barbara Becnel, which details not only the influence of Tookie's activism but also her eyewitness account of his December 2005 execution, and the inquest that followed.
By turns frightening and enlightening, Blue Rage, Black Redemption is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and an invaluable lesson in how rage can be turned into redemption. ""
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' How To Order Stan's Book, "Blue Rage, Black Redemption" ' http://www.tookie.com/
: "" Stanley Tookie Williams's memoir has been reprinted by Simon & Schuster's Touchstone Division. The book includes a foreword by Tavis Smiley and an epilogue by Barbara Becnel.
Order the book now from Amazon Books by clicking the book cover image at left. The price is $11.20. The book can also be ordered from bookstores or from BarnesandNoble.com.
Kirkus Reviews calls Stan's book "A modern, inspiring companion to such works as Claude Browne's Manchild in the Promised Land and Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice." Celeste Fremon, award-winning journalist specializing in gangs, criminal justice and education policy, reviewed Stan's book for the Los Angeles Times, and wrote, "There are already several South L.A. gangster memoirs on the shelves...but none provides the social/historical reach of Williams' Blue Rage, Black Redemption."
Why It Is Important to Order This Book
Blue Rage, Black Redemption's continued popularity makes a powerful statement about the value of Stan's work, his legacy for peace, and the injustice and immorality of a judicial system that kills. " ... ...
" Remember, Blue Rage, Black Redemption includes a copy of the Tookie Protocol for Street Peace, a peacemaker tool that can help keep the peace in the streets of urban areas throughout the nation.
For more information about the efforts to advance the peacemaker and criminal justice reform legacy of Stanley Tookie Williams, go to the STW Legacy Network, call Barbara Becnel or Crystal Bybee at 510-235-9780, or email our team at staff@stwlegacy.net.
The Apology
"I pray that one day my apology will be accepted. I also pray that your suffering, caused by gang violence, will soon come to an end ....." (click here to read complete Apology)
Tookie's Letter To Incarcerated Youth, No. 1
"Across the nation, young men and women like you are vegetating in juvenile halls and in youth authorities. More and more prisons are being constructed to accommodate your generation...(click here to read complete letter)
Tookie's Letter To Incarcerated Youth, No. 2
"What is the relationship between prisoner and guard? Is it slave versus master? Interactions between captor and captive can vary from person to person...." (click here to read complete letter)
News About Tookie and His Work
News stories from all over the world about Tookie's work for kids and his Nobel Peace Prize nominations are found in the news section of Tookie's Corner.
About Tookie / About Tookie's Corner ""
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Reality:---------------------------
0) 2-1-1-1. 'Who Killed the [US] Constitution?' Thomas E. Woods, Jr. July8,08: http://tinyurl.com/5l3lqm
: "" Today is the official release date for Who Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush (Random House/Crown Forum), the book I wrote with Kevin Gutzman, the New York Times bestselling author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution.
In a sense, our book states the obvious: the United States government today is restrained not by the Constitution but simply by a sense of what it can get away with. "
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0) 2-1-1-2. "Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush" Thomas E. Woods Jr., Kevin R. C. Gutzman: http://tinyurl.com/5wwogl
Amazon.com: "" Editorial Reviews
Product Description
“Let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
—Thomas Jefferson
The United States Constitution—the bedrock of our country, the foundation of our federal republic—is . . . dead.
You won’t hear that from the politicians who endlessly pay lip service to the Constitution. It’s the dirty little secret that bestselling authors Thomas E. Woods Jr. and Kevin R. C. Gutzman expose in this provocative new book. The fact is that government officials—Democrats and Republicans, presidents, judges, and congresses alike—long ago rejected the idea that the Constitution possesses a fixed meaning limiting the U.S. government’s power.
In case you’ve forgotten, this idea was not a minor aspect of the Constitution; it was the document’s very purpose.
Woods and Gutzman round up the suspects responsible for the death of the government the Founding Fathers designed. Going right to the scenes of the crimes, they dissect twelve of the most egregious assaults on the Constitution—some virtually unknown. In chronicling this “dirty dozen,” the authors show that the attacks began long before presidents declared preemptive wars, congresses built pork-barrel bridges to nowhere, and Supreme Court justices began to behave as our supreme legislators.
In Who Killed the Constitution? Woods and Gutzman
• REVEAL the federal government’s “great gold robbery”—the flagrant assault on the Constitution you never heard about in history class
• DESTROY the phony case for presidential war power
• EXPOSE how the federal government has actively discriminated to end . . . discrimination
• TEAR DOWN the “wall of separation” between church and state—an invention that completely contradicts what the Constitution says
• DARE to touch the “third rail of American jurisprudence,” Brown v. Board of Education—showing why a government decision that seems “right” isn’t necessarily constitutional
Never shying away from controversy, Woods and Gutzman reveal an unsettling but unavoidable truth: now that the federal government has broken free of the Constitution’s chains, government officials are restrained by little more than their sense of what they can get away with.
Who Killed the Constitution? is a rallying cry for Americans outraged by government run amok and a warning to take heed before we lose the liberties we are truly entitled to.
About the Author
THOMAS E. WOODS JR., PH.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, and 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask. A senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and a contributing editor of The American Conservative magazine, he has received the Templeton Enterprise Award and the O. P. Alford III Prize in Libertarian Scholarship, among other honors. He and his family live in Alabama.
KEVIN R. C. GUTZMAN, J.D., PH.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Constitution and Virginia’s American Revolution. An associate professor of American history at Western Connecticut State University, Dr. Gutzman has written for numerous popular and scholarly publications. ""
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0) 2-1-2. 'The Odds of Change: A Statistical Look at Our Democrat’s Voting Records' Debbie Morgan e-mail:e-mail: pressbox@bridgestonemediagroup.com Portland Independent Media Center: http://tinyurl.com/5vv96g
: We want change. Obama says he will deliver change, as did the Democrats in '06. Yet nothing could be farther from the truth. Even the statistics prove the Democrats have failed us.
: "" ... "
" Isn't it time that we stand up to the bullies in D.C. and start actively seeking alternatives to the "status quo" politician. Who will those new candidates be? Where will they come from? Who will support them? We know what the status quo will bring us... the same old broken promises of the past seven years. It's time to run for office, it's time to vote in mass, and it's time to support candidates who are your neighbors, friends, and colleagues. It is time for new blood in Washington. It's time for representation that we can be proud of.
Want to see some of these elected representatives "duke it out" on civil liberties?
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=Rkv2E1YPqsM
Want a game plan for replacing most of our House of Representatives?
http://www.washingtonyourefired.com
End Notes:
Statistics Defined http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/statistics
Pelosi: Bush Impeachment "Off the Table" http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2006/11/08/cq_1916.html
Rep Dennis Kucinich Articles of Impeachment http://kucinich.house.gov/spotlightissues/documents.htm
All of the votes for bills presented can be found by searching www.house.gov and www.senate.gov, or the convenient www.govtrack.us.
HR 3162 (107) USA PATRIOT Act of 2001
HR 3199 (109) USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005
HR 418 died, but attached to HR 1268 (109) Emergency Supplemental Appropriations
Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief Act of 2005
HR 5122 (109) John Warner Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal year 2007
S 3930 (109) Military Commissions Act of 2006
HR 2863 (109) Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2006 - Containing the Detainee Treatment Act (protecting torture)
HJ RES 114 (107) Authorization for use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution for 2002
HR 4939 (109) Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, The Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Relief
HR 1955 (110) Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (Related to S 1959 Bill of the Same Title)
HR 6304 (110) FISA Amendments Act of 2008
House Passes Spy Bill; Senate Expected to Follow
link to www.washingtonpost.com
Al Gore Speech, Video and Text
http://zennie2005.blogspot.com/search?q=full+text+of+Gore%27s+Speech
A Blueprint For True Change in DC
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=Rkv2E1YPqsM
homepage: homepage: http://www.takebackwashington.com
contribute to this article
The people who vote for Democrats don't care about the truth 05.Jul.2008 12:58
StevetheGreen link
Thank you for your thoughtful detailed documentation of the Democratic party's failures to live up to their promises.
Unfortunately, the people who rationalize voting for the "lesser of two evils" are well-versed in their excuses for the Dems.
This is even more true today with Obama-mania!
Even as Obama's positions slide to the right more and more everyday, the DNC and the corporate media continue to pretend as if the Obama candidacy represents something profound and exciting that will create real change.
And where do most people get their perspectives (disguised as their own opinions) from?
That's right! The corporate media.
So regardless of how many times you lead this horse to water, you can't make him drink.
But for those Obama supporters who claim they are not afraid to know who Obama really is, I invite them to read Green-change.
http://www.greenchange.org/display.php?modin=51&uid=21 """
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0) 2-1-3. 'Peace Prevails! Help Tell The Story. . .' Washington Peace Center: Education and Action for Social Justice: Submitted by jaymarx on Sun, 09/09/2007 - 3:23am: http://tinyurl.com/5onfxv
: "" It's election season, summer's here, the War and Occupation in Iraq continues at a cost of $720 million a day (!), and Congress just passed another $180+ Billion blank check for war. Meanwhile, the hard and creative work of pro-peace mobilization continues across the city and the region. The mainstream media ignores us furiously, but the Washington Peace Letter wants to tell the full story--and we need your help.
If you've been to an event--demonstration, cultural action, workshop, speech, government fiasco--anything that interested you and that you think others should know about, then TELL US ABOUT IT. The Peace Letter is written and edited by volunteers like you. You can send us any story (ideally between 200 and 2000 words--clarity and brevity are always appreciated) and we can put it in print. ALL SUBMISSIONS APPRECIATED AND CONSIDERED. (wpc@igc.org Subject line: NEWS- [your headline])
Did you snap a photo you think other people should see? Even better. (1000 words right there!) Send it along with a story or caption and we will see that it gets seen.
You write, right? Write up a story and do the movement some journalistic justice. Who knows? Your Pulitzer Prize may be just a few paragraphs away. . .
Questions? Give us a call at 202/234-2000, or email wpc@igc.org.
» jaymarx's blog ""
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0) 2-2. Taiwan Strait Peace:-------
0) 2-2-0. Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nations = THANs:-------
0) 2-2-0-1. North Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = NTHAN.
0) 2-2-0-2. South Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = STHAN.
0) 2-2-0-3. Easth Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation = ETHAN.
0) 2-2-1. 'Statement by Cheng Kuang Chen' San Jose, Silicon Valley: Jan,07
: '陳辰光之聲明' 聖荷西市 2007年1月: http://tinyurl.com/yjf6hq
0) 2-2-2. 林志昇,「台灣平民政府」召集人: '回應「流亡政府」心態' Apr24,08
'新書介紹: 台灣最終地位' 林志昇、何瑞元 合著
'美國政府與台灣平民政府的互動' 蝶衣 Apr29,08
: 美台週刊 US TAIWAN CESSION WEEKLY, No.47(May4,08): http://tinyurl.com/3h386b
0) 2-2-3. '台灣建國啟智篇：拆穿本土政客的真面目' Jun13,08 台灣人統獨公投自決會期刊 第19 http://tinyurl.com/5kn7et
0) 2-2-4. '台灣獨立的三條件,兩時機' 趙紫龍 forumadmin Feb28,07 http://tinyurl.com/5g96we
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0) Peace:----------------------------
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'Future Weapons: The Kriss .45 Calibre Sub-Machine Gun', Blackwater http://tinyurl.com/4xmqnh
'Federal Agents Raid Blackwater Armory, Seize AK-47s: ATF Investigators Seized the Weapons as Part of a Probe Into Company's Deal With Sheriff's Office' MARCUS BARAM: June 26, 2008: http://tinyurl.com/6l4t9n
'Has Maine Set a Precedent on Anti-War Protests? A unanimous verdict that freed six protesters of trespassing charges may show respect for dissent' Leigh Donaldson: Pub. Jun30,08 by the Portland Press Herald (Maine): http://tinyurl.com/5o28mv
: "" In late April, six peace activists stood victorious in front of Maine’s Penobscot County Superior Court. "
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0) 0. Two Ways to Global Peace:
0) 0-1. Japanese Constitution: Article 9,
Germany & Italy Constitutions.
'Muslim World Almanac 2008' Mathaba News Agency: Posted: 2008/06/27: From: Source: http://tinyurl.com/5q5zv7
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0) 0-2. 'Will the Last Superpower Recognize In Time What We Must Do to Save the Planet?' David Korten, YES! Magazine. Posted June 27, 2008:
In a time when the old order is shattering, a global movement is emerging to challenge the use of war as a tool of statecraft.
" A Defining Challenge
According to the scientific consensus, to avoid driving Earth's system of climate regulation into irrevocable collapse we humans must achieve at least an 80 percent reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2050 and possibly sooner. Less noted is the corresponding imperative that to avoid irrevocable social collapse, we must simultaneously achieve an equitable allocation of allowable emissions to meet the essential needs of every person on the planet.
This presents a particular challenge for the United States. As the world's leading producer of green house gases, our emissions reduction must be closer to 90 percent.
There is no place in this equation for war or the global projection of military power. " ... ...
" The Last Superpower
The United States is well positioned to take the lead among nations in renouncing war as an instrument of national policy and dismantling the means of conducting war. We account for roughly half of world military expenditures and our military expenditures account for more than half of the U.S. federal discretionary budget to the neglect of major education, health, infrastructure, and environmental needs.
Yet the only military threat to our domestic security is from a handful of terrorists armed with box cutters and a willingness to die for their cause. We face a greater danger from our own children brandishing guns in our schools than from any opposing army. If a band of terrorists were to attack us with an atomic weapon, it would likely be delivered in a suitcase or packing crate. Such threats share in common the simple fact that even the mightiest military force in the world offers no protection. The solutions depend more on strengthening our families and communities, than on increasing military budgets. "
" Getting Smart
The greatest threats to U.S. security come from weather chaos, oil dependence, disruption of food supplies, water scarcity, domestic gun violence, profligate borrowing, and a collapsing dollar -- threats increased by our current military security policies. "
... ... " two stand out as particularly promising. The first is a call by establishment insiders like George Shultz, who was U.S. Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan, to dismantle all the world's nuclear weapons (see Sarah van Gelder's interview with George Shultz).
The second is an emergent social movement calling all the world's parliaments to adopt the principles of Article 9 added to the Japanese Constitution following World War II. In the official translation it reads:
ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
Italy and Germany adopted similar, but less stringent, provisions following World War II. Each renounced war as a sovereign right.
A Global Movement
In May 1999, 6000 global citizens gathered in The Hague for what at that time was the largest peace conference in history and issued The Hague Appeal for Peace. Among other measures, they recommended, "every Parliament should adopt a resolution prohibiting their government from going to war, like the Japanese article number nine." On Japanese Constitution day, May 3, 2008, over 8,000 Japanese gathered in Tokyo for the Global Article Nine Conference to Abolish War where numerous international speakers endorsed a call to the parliaments of the world to adopt national equivalents of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. "
" A Just Foreign Policy, the Summer 2008 issue of YES! Magazine.
See more stories tagged with: war, oil, energy, conservation, just foreign policy
David Korten is co-founder and board chair of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes YES! Magazine. ""
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0) 1. 'The Non-Aggression Principle' Common Law Institute; Post Jun26,08 http://common-law.net/nap.html
: " Liberty is the state of freedom achieved when everyone abides by NAP. It's a fundamental right of all individual persons, not something granted by a government or constitution. Liberty is inherently ours by birthright, regardless of... Logic and necessity demand that we respect each other's rights, or else we revert to the law of the jungle. That is why NAP is the civilized version of:
Natural Law " ... ...
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0) 2. '20:20 Vision Aimed at Dismantling Nukes' Thalif Deen; Pub. Friday, June 27, 2008 by Inter Press Service: http://tinyurl.com/3txa6c
: "" UNITED NATIONS - When leaders of the world’s eight most industrialised nations — the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, known as the G8 — hold their annual summit meeting in Hokkaido next month, they are likely to reject a seemingly backhanded invitation: a visit to the Peace Memorial Museum in the city of Hiroshima. "
" As part of the ongoing campaign, mayors around the world will also be signing on to a “Cities Appeal” that will promote the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol.
And in line with the original vision of a Nuclear Weapons Convention being negotiated by 2010, the mayors will call for all negotiations envisioned in the Protocol to be completed by the 65th U.N. General Assembly sessions in 2010. ""
"" 1 Comment so far
1. rickway June 27th, 2008 12:20 pm
Until the leaders of the major nuclear weapons states open their eyes to the real human effects of these weapons, progress toward a safer nuclear weapons-free world will be stalled.
The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is circulating an Appeal to the Next US President, calling for US leadership for a nuclear weapons-free world.
You can read it and sign online at www.wagingpeace.org/appeal "" Just signed.
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0) 4. Magazine:-----------------------
"The Sunflower" Issue #132 (July 2008) Nuclear Age Peace Foundation: http://tinyurl.com/3mk8dx
: The Sunflower is a monthly e-newsletter providing educational information on nuclear weapons abolition and other issues relating to global security.
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1) War Syndromes:--------------------
1) 0. Warfare State Capitalism:------
1) 0-0-0. ' Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy' Murray N. Rothbard: http://tinyurl.com/2xuttf
J.P. Morgan
An Aggressive Asian Policy
Teddy Roosevelt and the "Lone Nut"
Morgan, Wilson and War
The Fortuitous Fed
The Round Table
The CFR
Rockefeller, Morgan, and War
The Guatemalan Coup
JFK and the Establishment
LBJ and the Power Elite
Henry A. Kissinger
The Trilateral Commission
""Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) was the author of Man, Economy, and State, Conceived in Liberty, What Has Government Done to Our Money, For a New Liberty, The Case Against the Fed, and many other books and articles. He was also the editor – with Lew Rockwell – of The Rothbard-Rockwell Report.""
""This first appeared in World Market Perspective (1984) and later as a monograph published by the Center for libertarian Studies (1995). Afterword By Justin Raimondo.
""
""Justin Raimondo, author of An Enemy of the State: the Life of Murray N. Rothbard and other books, is editor of Antiwar.com.""
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1) 0-0-1. "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives" Nick Turse Mar18,08: http://tinyurl.com/4zqqlt
: " From Publishers Weekly
In his exhaustively researched first book concerning the extent to which the "military industrial complex" has infiltrated the life of the average American, journalist Turse starts off by documenting how many times supposedly innocent consumer choices support major Pentagon contractors then covers similar ground in greater detail. Turse has up-to-date information on a previously well-covered subject and casts a wide net, including the movie industry, video gaming and military recruitment tactics in his analysis. Many of Turse's facts are purely economic, but some of them are astonishing. Who knew, for example, that in 2005, the Department of Defense spent $1.2 million on donuts in Kuwait? " ... ...
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1) 0-0-2. 'Of Moose and Pit Bulls' Fred Reed: Aug26,08: LewRockwell.com: http://tinyurl.com/5o4tks
Fred Reed is author of Nekkid in Austin: Drop Your Inner Child Down a Well and the just-published A Brass Pole in Bangkok: A Thing I Aspire to Be. Visit his blog.
: "" I wonder whether the United States hadn’t ought to re-ponder the place of the military in society and in the world. There is not the slightest chance that this will happen, but wondering has not yet been forbidden. It appears to me that bureaucratic clotting set in years back, and is now having its effect in spheres martial. A robust economy can afford frivolities that one in derobustion cannot. And that is where America is.
The US military is the military of World War II, but with better technology. The Navy still consists of carriers surrounded by ships intended to protect the carriers. The heart of the army is still armored and infantry divisions with artillery and close-air support. The Air Force too. All are designed to fight enemies like themselves. However, there are no enemies like themselves, and WWII forces do not well fight the enemies they do have, such as ragtag dispersed guerrillas, because they are not intended to fight them. "
" The illusion of omnipotence dies hard. The American military has been dominant for so long that neither it nor Americans can grasp that there are limits to its power. America now tries militarily to encircle Russia, Iran, and China, which increasingly looks like an aging pit bull trying to encircle a herd of moose. The Pentagon is planning for a war with China and talks of “Full Spectrum Dominance.” The current government in Washington wants to attack Iran and Pakistan, threatens Syria and Venezuela, and seems bent on igniting another Cold War with Russia (if one ignites cold wars). The Army is to be expanded.
Meanwhile China builds infrastructure. ""
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1) 0-0-3. 'Brain will be battlefield of future, warns US intelligence report' Ian Sample: guardian.co.uk: Aug13,08: http://tinyurl.com/6os3m3
: The human brain could become a battlefield in future wars, a new report predicts, including 'pharmacological land mines' and drones directed by mind control
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1) 0-1. 'The Five Secret Billion-Dollar Companies Sucking Obscene Amounts of Taxpayer Money' Nick Turse, Tomdispatch.com. Posted June 26, 2008: http://tinyurl.com/3zzy2z
: "" Meet the mystery defense contractors that are raking in billions in taxpayer dollars without notice. "
1. MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc.: Total DoD dollars in 2007: $3,360,739,032
2. DRS Technologies, Inc.: Total DoD dollars in 2007: $1,791,321,140
3. Harris Corporation: Total DoD dollars in 2007: $1,501,163,834
4. Navistar Defense: Total DoD dollars in 2007: $1,166,805,361
5. Evergreen International Airlines: Total DoD dollars in 2007: $1,105,610,723
" Nick Turse is the associate editor and research director of Tomdispatch.com. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Nation, the Village Voice, and regularly for Tomdispatch. ""
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1) 0-2. 'The War, Dems, MoveOn and The Uprising: An interview with David Sirota' http://tinyurl.com/5up2g4
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1) 0-3. "War on Terror":-------------
1) 0-3-1. 'The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America' Robert Scheer: Twelve, Jun27,08: http://tinyurl.com/6zfx25
""The huge "defense" spending going on in our name is irrational and costly, but there are powerful vested interests that want to keep it that way.""
: "" The following is an excerpt from Robert Scheer's new book, The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America (Twelve, 2008). "
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1) 0-3-1-1. 'Boston Tea Party, 2008' Robert Scheer: Oct1,08 by TruthDig.com: http://tinyurl.com/4l5udg
: "" How dare you throw that tea into Boston Harbor! Such is the anti-democratic arrogance of the fear-mongering pundits and politicians who tell us if we taxpayers don't instantly give the Wall Street banking bandits a $700-billion bailout, we are destroying America. Instead of applauding representatives from both parties who, for once, heeded the public rather than the fat cats, the established pundits blasted those who dared get out of line.
It was a time for some of the best commentators to fail and, as much as I hate to admit it, for Lou Dobbs, and even Newt Gingrich, to shine. Dobbs called it correctly: The sky is not falling, there is time for reasoned debate, and why isn't the public being listened to? Gingrich put it best when he said short-circuiting serious congressional oversight over an enormous transfer of taxpayer dollars to an industry is "un-American." " ...
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1) 0-3-2. 'VFP Calls for U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan and the Prosecution of Dick Cheney and George Bush for Crimes Against Humanity' Veterans For Peace, Sept11,08: CommonDreams.org: http://tinyurl.com/4m3slj
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1) 0-3-3. 'Liars and Lapdogs' Becky Akers: LewRockwell.com, Sep16,08: http://tinyurl.com/6adrst
Becky Akers [send her mail] writes primarily about the American Revolution.
: "" The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its sidekick the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) sustained a fatal blow last week – or one that would have been fatal if the federal government were trying to safeguard rather than subjugate us. A British jury returned its verdict in the "Liquid-Bomb Plot" on Monday, refusing to convict the eight defendants of terrorism. "
" As the Amerikan Empire continues to metastasize, the lines and allegiances will become starker. On the one side, the many who serve Leviathan and their winking, nodding, greedy, groveling accomplices.
On the other, the few who still own souls. ""
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1) 0-4. War Dangers:-----------------
1) 0-4-1. Georgia Crisis:------------
1) 0-4-1-1. ' Rice: Military power is "not the way to deal in the 21st century" ' Glenn Greenwald salon.com Aug.20,08 http://tinyurl.com/5krqzm
: "" It's hardly news that the U.S., like many countries, espouses standards that it routinely violates, but still, even in light of such routine hypocrisy, wouldn't you think that this, from Condoleezza Rice today, on an airplane to U.S. reporters while traveling to a NATO meeting, would be too brazen to utter:
Russia is a state that is unfortunately using the one tool that it has always used whenever it wishes to deliver a message and that's its military power. That's not the way to deal in the 21st century.
Whatever one's views are on the justifiability of each isolated instance, it's simply a fact that the U.S. invades, bombs, occupies, and interferes in the internal affairs of other countries far more than any other country on the planet. It's not even a close competition. "
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1) 0-4-1-2. 'The Georgia Crisis Turns Dangerous' Eric Margolis: LewRockwell.com, Sept2,08: http://tinyurl.com/5td294
""Eric Margolis [send him mail], contributing foreign editor for Sun National Media Canada, is the author of War at the Top of the World. See his website.""
: "" PARIS – Pipsqueak Georgia’s harebrained and disastrous attack on tiny South Ossetia has produced a full-blown crisis pitting the US and NATO against Russia. "
... ...
" Not only did the clumsy US attempt to expand its influence into Moscow’s backyard backfire badly, Washington’s childish, petulant response is as inflammatory as it is powerless. The Georgian crisis and empty threats against Russia have aroused strong nationalist passions in Russia, which sees itself increasingly isolated and surrounded by the US and NATO.
Nationalist hysteria, jingoism, and fevered rhetoric are coming from both sides. We saw such lunacy before: in August 1914, and September 1939. ""
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1) 0-4-2. Iraqi/Afghan Wars:---------
1) 0-4-2-1. 'While other top brass played press agents for the administration’s war, William Odom told the truth about Iraq—though few listened.' Ron Unz: The American Conservative Sept8,08 Issue: http://tinyurl.com/5g8osd
General Principles:
: "" Much as the capital loves ceremony, Washington won’t pause on Sept. 8 when Lt. Gen. William Odom is laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery. While he is worthy of his laurels, he did not court the favor of the Beltway political class. Instead, he disdained their blindness to history, their partisan fixations, their herd mentality. Brave men often stand alone. "
" As a serious scholar, Bill Odom knew his Thucydides. But the country he leaves behind does not. ""
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1) 0-4-2-2. ' Book Exposes Iraq Occupation Through US Soldiers' Eyes: "We Blew Her To Pieces" ' Dahr Jamail: CommonDreams.org, Pub Sep17,08 by Inter Press Service: http://tinyurl.com/3lvdhs
: "" MARFA, Texas - Aside from the Iraqi people, nobody knows what the U.S. military is doing in Iraq better than the soldiers themselves. A new book gives readers vivid and detailed accounts of the devastation the U.S. occupation has brought to Iraq, in the soldiers' own words.
"Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupation," published by Haymarket Books Tuesday, is a gut-wrenching, historic chronicle of what the U.S. military has done to Iraq, as well as its own soldiers.
Authored by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and journalist Aaron Glantz, the book is a reader for hearings that took place in Silver Spring, Maryland between Mar. 13-16, 2008 at the National Labour College.
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1) 1. Superpower Syndrome:-----------
1) 1-0. Western Empires:-------------
1) 1-0-0. Cold War:------------------
' Cold War Revisionism: Once Again the Major Historical Task' Dan Spielberg:
LewRockwell.com, Sep23,08: http://tinyurl.com/545tm8
: "" As the regime gears up to wage a new Cold War against Russia over its alleged "aggression" against the "democratic" (read: pro-U.S.) state of Georgia, it is time to remind ourselves once again that the first Cold War was a scam of epic proportions perpetrated by both the Democrats and the Republicans, for the sole purpose of providing an excuse for the worldwide expansion of Anglo-American imperialism and mercantilism. The idea that there was a Soviet threat to the U.S., indeed to the entire West-with-a-capital-W, was simply invented to "scare the hell out of the American people" as the sinister Senator Arthur Vandenberg advised President Harry Truman to do in 1947 in order to sell the Cold War, which brought to America crushing taxation and debt and the institution of peacetime military slavery, euphemistically called the "draft."
It is important for critics of current American foreign policy to better develop a detailed understanding of the true nature of the Cold War, in order to better debunk the anti-Russian war propaganda that is now emanating like a noxious gas from Washington. To this end I've compiled a list of books and articles that I have read, along with some comments on each, that all reveal the true nature of the Cold War. It is my hope that these works will help to debunk the current propaganda war which may just be the opening salvo of the next great world-historic "war" that will replace the current "War on Terror" once that hobbyhorse has been worn out. The list is as follows: "
1. Cold War Revisionism, the Major Historical Task
2. Myths of the Cold War, by Murray N. Rothbard
3. Why the Futile Crusade?, by Leonard P. Liggio
4. Revisionist Viewpoints: Essays in a Dissident Historical Tradition, by James J. Martin
5. Intervention and Revolution: America's Confrontation with Insurgent Movements Around the World, by Richard Barnet
6. The Chickens of the Interventionist Liberals Have Come Home to Roost, by Harry Elmer Barnes
7. West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir, by William Blum
8. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: A Critical Examination of the Foreign Policy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Its Aftermath, ed. by Harry Elmer Barnes
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1) 1-0-1. Ending Empire:--------------
1) 1-0-1-1. 'And None Dare Call It Treason' Patrick J. Buchanan: LewRockwell.com, Aug22,08: http://tinyurl.com/66eezk
: "" Who is Randy Scheunemann?
He is the principal foreign policy adviser to John McCain and potential successor to Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski as national security adviser to the president of the United States.
But Randy Scheunemann has another identity, another role.
He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man.
From January 2007 to March 2008, the McCain campaign paid Scheunemann $70,000 – pocket change compared to the $290,000 his Orion Strategies banked in those same 15 months from the Georgian regime of Mikheil Saakashvili.
What were Mikheil's marching orders to Tbilisi's man in Washington? Get Georgia a NATO war guarantee. Get America committed to fight Russia, if necessary, on behalf of Georgia.
Scheunemann came close to succeeding. "
... ...
" That is a recognition of, and a bowing to, reality – namely, that Russia's control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and occupation of a strip of Georgia cannot be a casus belli for the United States. We may deplore it, but it cannot justify war with Russia.
If that be true, and it transparently is, what are McCain, Barack Obama, Bush, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel doing committing the United States and Germany to bringing Georgia into NATO? For that would commit us to war for a cause we have already conceded, by our paralysis, does not justify a war.
Not only did Scheunemann's two-man lobbying firm receive $730,000 since 2001 to get Georgia a NATO war guarantee, he was paid by Romania and Latvia to do the same. And he succeeded.
Latvia, a tiny Baltic republic annexed by Joseph Stalin in June 1940 during his pact with Adolf Hitler, was set free at the end of the Cold War. Yet hundreds of thousands of Russians had been moved into Latvia by Stalin, and as Riga served as a base of the Baltic Sea fleet, many Russian naval officers retired there.
The children and grandchildren of these Russians are Latvian citizens. They are a cause of constant tension with ethnic Letts and of strife with Moscow, which has assumed the role of protector of Russians left behind in the "near abroad" when the Soviet Union broke apart.
Thanks to the lobbying of Scheunemann and friends, Latvia has been brought into NATO and given a U.S. war guarantee. If Russia intervenes to halt some nasty ethnic violence in Riga, the United States is committed to come in and drive the Russians out.
This is the situation in which the interventionists have placed our country: committed to go to war for countries and causes that do not justify war, against a Russia that is re-emerging as a great power only to find NATO squatting on her doorstep.
Scheunemann's résumé as a War Party apparatchik is lengthy. He signed the PNAC (Project for the New American Century) letter to President Clinton urging war on Iraq, four years before 9-11. He signed the PNAC ultimatum to Bush, nine days after 9-11, threatening him with political reprisal if he did not go to war against Iraq. He was executive director of the "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq," a propaganda front for Ahmad Chalabi and his pack of liars who deceived us into war.
Now Scheunemann is the neocon agent in place in McCain's camp.
The neocons got their war with Iraq. They are pushing for war on Iran. And they are now baiting the Russian Bear.
Is this what McCain has on offer? Endless war?
Why would McCain seek foreign policy counsel from the same discredited crowd that has all but destroyed the presidency of George Bush?
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence ... a free people ought to be constantly awake," Washington warned in his Farewell Address. Our Founding Father was warning against the Randy Scheunemanns among us, agents hired by foreign powers to deceive Americans into fighting their wars. And none dare call it treason. ""
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1) 1-0-1-1-1. 'Obama Might Pursue Criminal Charges Against Bush Administration:
Biden says criminal violations will be pursued' Elana Schor: Published on Thursday, Sept4,08 by The Guardian/UK: CommonDreams.org: http://tinyurl.com/62o6ae
: "" Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November. "
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1) 1-0-1-2. 'Obama's Cheney: Is there a curse on the office of the Vice President?' Justin Raimondo: Antiwar.com, Aug29,08: http://tinyurl.com/5tx9xj
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1) 1-0-1-3-1. 'Sarah Palin's Career Ends in Tragedy' Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.: Sept2,08: http://tinyurl.com/5kldu5
: "" The frenzied reaction of the middle class all over the country toward Sarah Palin has no real precedent that I can remember. Indeed, the reaction especially among women is completely understandable. She provides a much welcome cultural break from the chip-on-the-shoulder, grudge-against-the-world model of public women that have been held up to us for years, embodied in the belligerent and insufferable person of Hillary Clinton.
Sarah, on the other hand, is both beautiful and professionally accomplished, a wife and mother and a natural politician, both religious and secular, both feminine and fears no tasks such as hunting that are usually associated with men. She offers a different model of a woman who has excelled not through intimidation and aggressive demands for reparation, but through her own efforts, charms, and intelligence.
What's more, her political outlook has much to recommend it, from what we can gather so far. There is a libertarian impulse here. She has rejected the perks of public life in favor of common sense. She is friendly to business interests but unfriendly to special privileges. She has praised Ron Paul and rejected the party mentality of GOP regulars.
It strikes many people as a brilliant choice on McCain's part, and I would agree. Social conservatives have forgiven all of McCain's deviations. Many people who just last week didn't give a fig about whether he wins or loses have come around completely. She will, of course, be a huge focus of the campaign.
The claim against her that she lacks "experience" is one of the most bogus things out there. For starters, the history of VPs shows a long history of people with very little of what is called "experience" today. And contrary to what media pundits say, what is far more important than experience are the political values you hold.
The demand for experience seems to imply that somehow we are seeking social and global managers for public office, and that is manifestly what we do not want. In a truly liberal society, the job of a White House executive could be held by anyone or no one. "
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1) 1-0-1-3-2. 'Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice?' Daniel McCarthy: LewRockwell.com Sept3,08: http://tinyurl.com/5fp2c3
Neither Pat Buch, nor Dr. Ron Paul.
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1) 1-0-1-3-3. 'Palin and the Beltway Pundits' William L. Anderson: LewRockwell.com Sept3,08: http://tinyurl.com/6p7gog
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1) 1-0-1-3-4. ' Sarah Palin' Walter Block: LewRockwell.com, Sept7,08: http://tinyurl.com/6n3jsz
: "" No one who has anything nice to say about Ron Paul can be all bad. Sarah Palin has said nice things about Ron Paul (see here, here, here, here and here). Ergo, therefore, as a result, it cannot be denied, it logically follows, Sarah Palin cannot be all bad. That is, she cannot be all bad no matter what else she is guilty of (within reason of course.) "
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1) 1-1. S.p. Opponents:--------------
1) 1-1-1. Russia:--------------------
1) 1-1-1-0. 'Russo-Georgian Conflict Is Not All Russia’s Fault, But war could ignite further disputes in the region' Charles King: Aug11,08 by the Christian Science Monitor: CommonDreams.org: http://tinyurl.com/5wz924
"" Charles King is professor of international affairs in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is the author of “The Ghost of Freedom: A History of The Caucasus.” ""
: "" Washington - Following a series of provocative attacks in its secessionist region of South Ossetia late last week, Georgia launched an all-out attempt to reestablish control in the tiny enclave. Russia then intervened by dropping bombs on Georgia to protect the South Ossetians, halt the growing tide of refugees flooding into southern Russia, and aid its own peacekeepers there.
Now, the story goes, Russia has at last found a way of undermining Georgia’s Western aspirations, nipping the country’s budding democracy, and countering American influence across Eurasia. But this view of events is simplistic.
American and European diplomats, who have rushed to the region to try to stop the conflict, would do well to consider the broader effects of this latest round of Caucasus bloodletting - and to seek perspectives on the conflict beyond the story of embattled democracy and cynical comparisons with the Prague Spring of 1968.
Russia illegally attacked Georgia and imperiled a small and feeble neighbor. But by dispatching his own ill-prepared military to resolve a secessionist dispute by force, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has managed to lead his country down the path of a disastrous and ultimately self-defeating war. "
" But this is not a repeat of the Soviet Union’s aggressive behavior of the last century. So far at least, Russia’s aims have been clear: to oust Georgian forces from the territory of South Ossetia, one of two secessionist enclaves in Georgia, and to chasten a Saakashvili government that Russia perceives as hot-headed and unpredictable.
Regardless of the conflict’s origins, the West must continue to act diplomatically to push Georgia and Russia back to the pre-attacks status quo. The United States should make it clear that Saakashvili has seriously miscalculated the meaning of his partnership with Washington, and that Georgia and Russia must step back before they do irreparable damage to their relations with the US, NATO, and the European Union.
The attack on South Ossetia, along with Russia’s inexcusable reaction, have pushed both sides down the road toward all-out war - a war that could ignite a host of other territorial and ethnic disputes in the Caucasus as a whole.
The emerging narrative, echoing across editorial pages and on television news programs in the US, portrays Georgia as an embattled, pro-Western country struggling to secure its borders against a belligerent Russia. Since coming to power in a bloodless revolution in late 2003, Saakashvili has certainly steered a clear course toward the West.
The EU flag now flies alongside the Georgian one on major government buildings (even though Georgia is a long way from ever becoming a member of the EU). The Saakashvili government seeks Georgian membership in NATO, an aspiration strongly supported by the administration of George W. Bush. Oddly, before the conflict erupted on its own soil Georgia was the third-largest troop contributor in Iraq, a result of Saakashvili’s desire to show absolute commitment to the US and, in the process, gain needed military training and equipment for the small Georgian Army.
Russia must be condemned for its unsanctioned intervention. But the war began as an ill-considered move by Georgia to retake South Ossetia by force. Saakashvili’s larger goal was to lead his country into war as a form of calculated self-sacrifice, hoping that Russia’s predictable overreaction would convince the West of exactly the narrative that many commentators have now taken up.
But regardless of its origins, the upsurge in violence has illustrated the volatile and sometimes deadly politics of the Caucasus, the Texas-size swath of mountains, hills, and plains separating the Black Sea from the Caspian.
Like the Balkans in the 1990s, the central problems of this region are about the dark politics of ethnic revival and territorial struggle. The region is home to scores of brewing border disputes and dreams of nationalist homelands.
n addition to South Ossetia, the region of Abkhazia has also maintained de facto independence for more than a decade. Located along Georgia’s Black Sea coast, Abkhazia has called up volunteers to support the South Ossetian cause. Russia has now moved to aid the Abkhazians, who are concerned that Georgia’s actions in South Ossetia were a dress rehearsal for an attack on them.
Farther afield, other secessionist entities and recognized governments in neighboring countries - from Nagorno-Karabakh to Chechnya - are eyeing the situation. The outcome of the Russo-Georgian struggle will determine whether these other disputes move toward peace or once again produce the barbaric warfare and streams of refugees that defined the Caucasus more than a decade ago.
For Georgia, this war has been a disastrous miscalculation. South Ossetia and Abkhazia are now completely lost. It is almost impossible to imagine a scenario under which these places - home to perhaps 200,000 people - would ever consent to coming back into a Georgian state they perceive as an aggressor.
Armed volunteers have already been flooding into South Ossetia from other parts of the Caucasus to fight against Georgian forces and help finally “liberate” the Ossetians from the Georgian yoke.
Despite welcome efforts to end the fighting, the Russo-Georgian war has created yet another generation of young men in the Caucasus whose worldviews are defined by violence, revenge, and nationalist zeal. ""
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1) 1-1-1-1. 'Is Not Western Hypocrisy Astonishing?' Patrick J. Buchanan:
LewRockwell.com: Aug16,08: http://tinyurl.com/6pjdbc
""Patrick J. Buchanan [send him mail] is co-founder and editor of The American Conservative. He is also the author of seven books, including Where the Right Went Wrong, and A Republic Not An Empire. His latest book is Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War.""
: "" Mikheil Saakashvili's decision to use the opening of the Olympic Games to cover Georgia's invasion of its breakaway province of South Ossetia must rank in stupidity with Gamal Abdel-Nasser's decision to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships. "
" Vladimir Putin took the opportunity to kick the Georgian army out of Abkhazia, as well, to bomb Tbilisi and to seize Gori, birthplace of Stalin. "
" did we not authorize Israel to bomb Lebanon for 35 days in response to a border skirmish where several Israel soldiers were killed and two captured? Was that not many times more "disproportionate"?
Russia has invaded a sovereign country, railed Bush. But did not the United States bomb Serbia for 78 days and invade to force it to surrender a province, Kosovo, to which Serbia had a far greater historic claim than Georgia had to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, both of which prefer Moscow to Tbilisi? "
" When the Soviet Union broke into 15 nations, we celebrated. When Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo broke from Serbia, we rejoiced. Why, then, the indignation when two provinces, whose peoples are ethnically separate from Georgians and who fought for their independence, should succeed in breaking away?
Are secessions and the dissolution of nations laudable only when they advance the agenda of the neocons, many of whom viscerally detest Russia?
That Putin took the occasion of Saakashvili's provocative and stupid stunt to administer an extra dose of punishment is undeniable. But is not Russian anger understandable? For years the West has rubbed Russia's nose in her Cold War defeat and treated her like Weimar Germany.
When Moscow pulled the Red Army out of Europe, closed its bases in Cuba, dissolved the evil empire, let the Soviet Union break up into 15 states, and sought friendship and alliance with the United States, what did we do?
American carpetbaggers colluded with Muscovite Scalawags to loot the Russian nation. Breaking a pledge to Mikhail Gorbachev, we moved our military alliance into Eastern Europe, then onto Russia's doorstep. Six Warsaw Pact nations and three former republics of the Soviet Union are now NATO members.
Bush, Cheney and McCain have pushed to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. This would require the United States to go to war with Russia over Stalin's birthplace and who has sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula and Sebastopol, traditional home of Russia's Black Sea fleet. "
" The United States unilaterally abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty because our technology was superior, then planned to site anti-missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic to defend against Iranian missiles, though Iran has no ICBMs and no atomic bombs. A Russian counter-offer to have us together put an anti-missile system in Azerbaijan was rejected out of hand.
We built a Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey to cut Russia out. Then we helped dump over regimes friendly to Moscow with democratic "revolutions" in Ukraine and Georgia, and tried to repeat it in Belarus. "
" For a decade, some of us have warned about the folly of getting into Russia's space and getting into Russia's face. The chickens of democratic imperialism have now come home to roost – in Tbilisi. ""
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1) 1-1-1-2. 'Neocon Crybabies' Steven LaTulippe LewRockwell.com Aug18,08 http://tinyurl.com/5zo7t3
""Steven LaTulippe [send him mail] is a physician currently practicing in Ohio. He was an officer in the United States Air Force for 13 years.""
: "" Although the unfolding drama in the Caucasus has been a tragedy for its innocent victims, the response by America’s political and media elites has been an entertaining and delusional farce.
To recap events, the government of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia launched a surprise invasion of South Ossetia (an autonomous republic within Georgia that has been functionally independent since the break-up of the Soviet Union). On the night of August 8, the Georgian military – armed and trained by America and Israel – stormed through South Ossetia and overran the region’s putative capital city (leaving it a smoldering ruin). Thousands of Ossetian refugees poured northward to Russia, bringing harrowing tales of Georgian brutality. As the Georgian army swept through the countryside, they encountered groups of Russian peacekeepers, who had been stationed there years ago to monitor a previous ceasefire. Several of those Russian soldiers were killed by the advancing Georgian forces.
As anyone with a remote understanding of Russian history (and human nature) should have been able to predict, the Russians reacted rather badly. Before the Georgians could consolidate their "victory," the Russians unleashed a devastating counterattack.
All in all, the Russian operation was a fairly impressive combined arms campaign that involved tactical air support, armor, mechanized infantry, and naval assets. The Georgian air force was destroyed on the ground, and the Georgian navy was sunk or neutralized. Russian forces quickly retook all of South Ossetia and seized critical chokepoints along Georgia’s highway system, effectively cutting the nation into three parts.
The smoke had barely cleared when the Bush Administration, the neoconservative pundits, and our lapdog media started crying foul. Russian leader Vladimir Putin was, inevitably, likened to Adolf Hitler. Georgia was portrayed as an innocent victim of unprovoked aggression. The Ossetian victims were quickly relegated to the Orwellian memory hole.
Although I am not a fan of Vladimir Putin (he is certainly not a libertarian), it’s hard to garner much sympathy for the Georgians. The Russian counteroffensive merely gave the Georgians a stiff dose of precisely the same medicine they were planning to give to the Ossetians.
All in all, it was a humanitarian tragedy, but hardly a heartrending tale of Georgian victimhood.
But America long ago ceased to analyze events with anything remotely resembling an objective moral standard. Nowadays, the only yardsticks our imperial elites understand are power and self-interest.
Over the past seven years, the Bush Administration strove to "contain" Russia by establishing Georgia as a regional proxy. This was quickly followed by the now-familiar horror-show of Washington special interest groups. The petroleum lobby wanted to control a vital pipeline that transports Caspian oil to the Mediterranean. The military coveted Georgian territory for "lily-pad" bases. The arms industry saw Georgia as a lucrative market for its new geegaws and gizmos.
It was a wonderful little playground, and everything was going swimmingly until Putin came along and kicked over the apple cart.
But from all the whining in the media, you’d think it was the Russians who actually started the war.
The most telling example I’ve seen of neoconservative bellyaching was published by Leon Aron (a Russia scholar at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute) in the August 13 edition of USA Today. Most of his article consists of ad hominem attacks on Vladimir Putin and petty ethnic slurs against the Russian people, but the real meat of the piece involves Aron’s description of a newfound menace he calls "Putinism."
"Putinism" is, he claims, a dangerous crypto-fascist ideology that is engulfing contemporary Russia. In the article, Aron lists the main tenets of "Putinism," and, in the process, reveals more about himself and the American Enterprise Institute than he does anything about Russia or its leaders. "
... ...
" And let’s not forget some of the other memorable moments on the Bush II highlight reel.
Did Vladimir Putin suggest to his cronies that they should paint Russian warplanes with UN colors and buzz Georgian cities (thus providing a convenient casus belli if the Georgians should shoot one of them down)? Did Vladimir Putin sow fear among his people with stories of an imminent attack by fictitious, chemical-spraying drones?
Given recent history, the rest of the world must be watching Washington’s anti-Russian hissy fit with slack-jawed disbelief.
Although the reptilian nature of our ruling class long ago ceased to amaze me, there is one question that still piques my curiosity: When our elites write articles like this one in USA Today, are they aware of their hypocrisy? Are they totally deaf to the screams of their own irony, or are they coldly cognizant of their actions? "
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1) 1-1-1-3. 'Georgia and Kosovo: A Single Intertwined Crisis' George Friedman: Stratfor.com: Aug25,08: http://tinyurl.com/6ohfks
: "" The Russo-Georgian war was rooted in broad geopolitical processes. In large part it was simply the result of the cyclical reassertion of Russian power. The Russian empire — czarist and Soviet — expanded to its borders in the 17th and 19th centuries. It collapsed in 1992. The Western powers wanted to make the disintegration permanent. It was inevitable that Russia would, in due course, want to reassert its claims. That it happened in Georgia was simply the result of circumstance.
There is, however, another context within which to view this, the context of Russian perceptions of U.S. and European intentions and of U.S. and European perceptions of Russian capabilities. This context shaped the policies that led to the Russo-Georgian war. And those attitudes can only be understood if we trace the question of Kosovo, because the Russo-Georgian war was forged over the last decade over the Kosovo question. "
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1) 1-1-1-4. 'Does Bush Want War With Russia?' Patrick J. Buchanan: LewRockwell.com:
Aug26,08: http://tinyurl.com/5g7rbc
: " In March 1939, Britain pledged to declare war and fight Germany to the death to guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Poland. How did that one turn out for Britain and Poland?
Before we start down the road of isolating and encircling Russia with weak NATO allies, let us think through Gen. Petraeus' question in 2003 about Iraq, "Tell me, how does this thing end?"
But, then, these folks never seem to think anything through. ""
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1) 1-1-1-5. 'Warnings to Russia from Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham' Glenn Greenwald: Aug27,08: salon.com: http://tinyurl.com/6c4ghn
: "" John McCain's two most loyal supporters and most influential foreign policy advisers, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, have an Op-Ed in The Wall St. Journal today proclaiming that "Russia's invasion of Georgia represents the most serious challenge to this political order since Slobodan Milosevic unleashed the demons of ethnic nationalism in the Balkans." Just as their neoconservative comrade, Fred Hiatt, does in today's Washington Post, Lieberman and Graham demand that the U.S. expend vast resources and assert itself both militarily and politically in order to thwart the New Russian Menace ("This means reinvigorating NATO as a military alliance, not just a political one . . . The credibility of Article Five of the NATO Charter -- that an attack against one really can and will be treated as an attack against all -- needs to be bolstered. . . .The Georgian military should be given the antiaircraft and antiarmor systems necessary to deter any renewed Russian aggression").
The painful absurdity of hard-core warmongers who supported the invasion of Iraq (and, in Lieberman's case, advocating we do the same to Iran and Syria) parading around as defenders of the "political order" is too self-evident, and by now too common, to merit much comment. But this warning from the neoconservative duo about the folly of imperialistic Russian policies is really a sight to behold:
In the long run, a Russia that tries to define its greatness in terms of spheres of influence, client states and forced fealty to Moscow will fail -- impoverishing its citizens in the process. The question is only how long until Russia's leaders rediscover this lesson from their own history. "
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1) 1-1-1-6. 'Georgia Admits Dropping Cluster Bombs, says Rights Group' Mark Tran and agencies: Sept1,08 by The Guardian/UK: http://tinyurl.com/6gfcnm
""Human Rights Watch says it has letter acknowledging use of cluster bombs near Russian border tunnel""
: "" Georgia has admitted dropping cluster bombs during its attempt to regain control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia, a human rights group said today.
Human Rights Watch said it had received a letter from the Georgian defence ministry acknowledging the use of M85 cluster bombs near the Roki tunnel that connects South Ossetia with Russia.
Georgia launched its ill-fated campaign to retake South Ossetia last month, prompting Russia to invade Georgia and occupy Georgian territory. Human Rights Watch has accused Russia of using cluster bombs in populated areas in Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens. "
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1) 1-1-1-7. 'Marching Through Georgia' Wayne Rutland: LewRockwell.com, Sept1,08: http://tinyurl.com/5pj2gr
""WW Rutland [send him mail] is a retired Special Forces Warrant officer who spent 20 years in the US Army. He was in 11 dirty 3rd-world countries propping up their dictators. He jumped from airplanes 400 times and feels it every day. He lives in Tampa with his wife, guns, dogs and sailboats. He now writes science fiction books. You can visit his book blog and buy a book; he needs the beer money.""
: "" What is the difference between the two Georgias? In 1861 Georgia seceded from a union and after four years of bloodshed was forcibly pulled back into the union. It suffered almost 100 years of poverty as punishment. In 1992 the other Georgia seceded from a union and got away with it, but 2 little counties (provinces) seceded from Georgia. The counties were given passports and a militia was armed and trained by their big friends to the north (2nd amendment anyone?). After 17 years the governor (President) of Georgia decided to go and make them come back home. He invaded the breakaway redneck counties (provinces) with his new highly trained and equipped army uniformed in US Marine camouflage with desert boots, all of whom were combat vets (?) from Iraq. His rough and tough army rocketed and mortared the county seat (Provincial Capital) and killed hundreds of old people who were unable to run to the safety of their cousins to the north. His little army met a bunch of 15 to 50 year old militia men who stopped them cold! Then the big ol’ bad guys from the north came in and kicked him back out of the little redneck county (province). "
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1) 1-1-1-8. 'Iran Could Benefit from Georgia Crisis' Analysis by Jim Lobe | Posted Sept4,08: (Inter Press Service): PRA Right Web: rightweb.irc-online.org: http://tinyurl.com/5ej7rm
: "" Iran could emerge as a big winner, at least in the short term, from the rapidly escalating tensions between the United States and Russia over Moscow's intervention in Georgia, according to analysts in Washington, D.C.
Whatever waning chances remained of a U.S. military attack on Iran before President George W. Bush leaves office next January have all but vanished, given the still-uncertain outcome of the Georgia crisis, according to most of these observers.
Similarly, the likelihood has been sharply reduced that Moscow will cooperate with U.S. and European efforts to impose additional sanctions on Tehran through the U.N. Security Council—where Russia holds a veto—for not complying with the council's demands to halt its uranium enrichment program.
Not only has Washington's confrontation with its old superpower rival displaced Tehran at the top of the administration's and the U.S. media’s foreign policy agenda, but Tehran's geopolitical leverage—both as a potential partner for the West in containing Russia and as a potential ally of Moscow's in warding off Western pressure—has also risen sharply as an incidental result of the crisis.
"When the U.S. invaded Iraq, it didn't do so to improve Iran's power position in the region, but that was the result," noted Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University who served on the National Security Council staff of former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. " ...
... ...
" Michael Klare, author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy, told IPS he believes that Russia's unilateral resort to military action against Georgia may actually embolden Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the leader of the administration's hawks, who is traveling this week in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
"The question is whether Bush and Cheney will feel empowered to behave in a more belligerent fashion or not," he said.
Jim Lobe is the Washington bureau chief of the Inter Press Service and a contributor to PRA’s Right Web (http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org). His blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at www.ips.org/blog/jimlobe/. ""
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1) 1-1-1-9. 'Israeli Strategy After the Russo-Georgian War' George Friedman, Sept9,08: www.stratfor.com > http://tinyurl.com/6okgfg
: "" The Russo-Georgian war continues to resonate, and it is time to expand our view of it. The primary players in Georgia, apart from the Georgians, were the Russians and Americans. On the margins were the Europeans, providing advice and admonitions but carrying little weight. Another player, carrying out a murkier role, was Israel. Israeli advisers were present in Georgia alongside American advisers, and Israeli businessmen were doing business there. The Israelis had a degree of influence but were minor players compared to the Americans.
More interesting, perhaps, was the decision, publicly announced by the Israelis, to end weapons sales to Georgia the week before the Georgians attacked South Ossetia. Clearly the Israelis knew what was coming and wanted no part of it. Afterward, unlike the Americans, the Israelis did everything they could to placate the Russians, including having Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert travel to Moscow to offer reassurances. Whatever the Israelis were doing in Georgia, they did not want a confrontation with the Russians. "
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1) 1-1-2: China:---------------------
'U.S. Not Ready for Georgia-Style Computer Attacks' Patricia Resende: Aug15,08: NewsFactor.com: http://tinyurl.com/66u453
: Internet attacks like those in Georgia could wreak havoc in the U.S., security experts say. Planners have cited China and Russia as threats, and a Department of Defense report said China views cyber war as part of the first strike. Russian criminals have been tracked stealing millions from computer sites, and Web posts teach how to attack.
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1) 1-2. Superpower "Lapdogs":--------
1) 1-2-1. NATO:----------------------
1) 1-2-1-1. 'Quit the NATO Club' Ron Shirtz, LewRockwell.com, Sep16,08: http://tinyurl.com/59pxqg
: "" Following WWII, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Treaty (NATO), was established in 1949 for the collective defense – Wait, hold on a minute. Isn’t collective a term the Communists use? More on that later. Anyway, NATO was established for the purpose, as NATO’s first secretary General Lord Ismay summed up, "to keep the Russians out, the American’s in, and the Germans down." That the USSR posed a serious threat to the security of Western Europe, there was no question – That Europe wanted America to become point man for their defense against the USSR was merely a continuation of Churchill’s political machinations to draw an isolationist US into WWII and European politics. Add two world wars with Germany, and Europe gets an additional bonus by having the US stationed in bases in Germany to disabuse them of any ideas of having another go at conquering the continent.
Through the 1950’s up to the late 1980’s, NATO and the USSR stood glaring at each other across the Iron Curtain. Dreams of an epic armor battle at the Fulda Gap between the Warsaw Pact and NATO forces that would make the tank battle at Kursk look like a piker filled the heads of armchair wargamers and inspired books like Red Storm Rising. Then, gosh darn it, Gorbachev’s Glasnost herald a new era of open politics in Soviet Union. Some electrician named Lech Walesa was giving the Communist party in Poland fits with organized strikes. Suddenly in 1989, East Germany takes down the Iron Curtain. The cold war thaws into a hopeful spring. What was NATO going to do with all those tanks, planes, and troops? Worse, what were the generals going to do to keep their jobs? No enemies to fight, and the politicians were promising a peace dividend to citizens by closing military bases. The common quip of the Berliners in the last days of WWII of "Enjoy the war. The peace will be terrible" now seemed a reality for poor NATO. Without a combat command, military career advancement would come to a standstill. Without the need to maintain ongoing weapon superiority, the military industry would lay off employees. There goes the economy. Desperate, NATO takes a cue from the movie of Canadian Bacon, and becomes involved in the ethnic strife in Yugoslavia between the Croats and the Serbs to look useful and from being disbanded. It becomes the strong arm of the UN, enforcing that august body’s no-fly zone mandate, as well as the UN’s arms and economic sanctions. NATO continued by initiating air strikes in Bosnia, and deploying a peacekeeping force on the ground. NATO finds a use for its leftover cold war ordinance collecting dust by mounting an 11-week bombing campaign. NATO cleverly names the bombing sorties with various titles such as Operation Deliberate Force, so as to assure people that the bombs were not dropped by accident, or Operation Allied Force, in case someone doesn’t already know that NATO is a collective (there’s that Communist word again!) of various nations working together to enforce the peace by killing people. What is strange about the working relationship of NATO and UN is that the former resists attempts to by the latter to have the final word regarding its military actions. The UN would say, "Don’t bomb, we have things under control," and NATO would reply. "Yes we will bomb, just to make sure." I guess when you have one organization whose mission is to preserve peace, and another whose job is to break things to protect democracy, you are bound to have some philosophical differences. As the Good Book says, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." How any nation can belong to both organizations, and yet come to cross-proposes deciding if and who should be bombed, is beyond me. Sounds like one of them is unnecessary and is getting in the way of the other. Better yet, to be on the safe side, it might be best to get rid of both. But that’s just my opinion.
But local European ethnic conflicts were not enough to justify the overhead cost of a coalition as large as NATO. Fortunately, 9/11 happened just in the nick of time. In 2003 NATO was reorganized so as to take over the duties International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. "
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0) 3. Anti-War Activities:-----------
0) 3-0. 'Will the Last Superpower Recognize In Time What We Must Do to Save the Planet?'
0) 3-1. 'The Non-Aggression Principle'
0) 3-2. Nuclear Weapons:-----------
0) 3-2-1. '20:20 Vision Aimed at Dismantling Nukes'
0) 3-2-2. 'Nuclear Abolition by UK Alone Would Still Herald New Era' Peter Jones: Pub. July15,08 by Edmonton Journal: http://tinyurl.com/6r9hnw
: "" Since the dawn of the nuclear age, all countries have been officially committed to eliminating these weapons. Today, some of the most influential politicians and officials of the nuclear era are talking seriously about actually doing it. "
... ...
" This is perhaps the strongest argument the nuclear abolitionists have. In the case of the U.K., they can argue that even if it does not by itself end the nuclear weapons era, the impact of one of the original nuclear weapons states renouncing these weapons would so dramatically alter the prevailing paradigm that it must surely hasten that day.
And they no longer consist entirely of left-wing “peace” activists. They are joined by some of the most unabashedly “realist” of men who have spent a lifetime wielding nuclear weapons, and who now believe that the security of humanity requires that we eliminate them once and for all.
Peter Jones is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. He is a member of the Pugwash Council, the governing body of the international Pugwash movement, an NGO that works on behalf of disarmament. Pugwash was awarded a share of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for its work in this field.
© The Edmonton Journal 2008 ""
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0) 4. Anti-War Publications:-------
1) 1. 'The War, Dems, MoveOn and The Uprising: An interview with David Sirota' John Stauber: Pub. July13,08 by Center for Media and Democracy: http://tinyurl.com/5up2g4
: "" Sheldon Rampton and I could see it coming soon after the Democrats took control of the Congress in 2007. In March, 2007 we pointed out that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with the support of MoveOn, was advancing legislation that would fund the war in Iraq while giving Democrats PR cover, allowing them to posture against it while the bloody, brutal occupation of Iraq continues. We were attacked at the time by Democratic partisans, but unfortunately our analysis has proven correct and today the war in Iraq is as much of an interminable quagmire as it was when the Democrats took control of the House and Senate in January 2007.
Democratic political activist, columnist and author David Sirota has also strongly condemned this failure of the Democrats and “The Players,” DC’s professional partisan insiders such as MoveOn. On May 24, 2007 he wrote: “Today America watched a Democratic Party kick them square in the teeth - all in order to continue the most unpopular war in a generation at the request of the most unpopular president in a generation at a time polls show a larger percentage of the public thinks America is going in the wrong direction than ever recorded in polling history. … That will make May 24, 2007 a dark day generations to come will look back on - a day when Democrats in Washington not only continued a war they promised to end, but happily went on record declaring that they believe in their hearts that government’s role is to ignore the will of the American people.”
This month, more than a year later, the Democratic controlled Congress once again gave the Bush Administration funding to continue the Iraq war well into 2009. David Sirota now has a new book out: The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington. In it he expands on his criticism of the Democratic Party and its partisan, professional antiwar activists in the leadership of MoveOn.
Sirota writes in his new book (page 82), “The absence of a full-throated antiwar uprising is tragic at a time when the country appears more skeptical of knee-jerk militarism than ever before. … When this particular war does eventually end, both AAEI and MoveOn will undoubtedly claim that their narrow, ultra-partisan Beltway strategies were the key. They are, after all, experts at media promotion, and such a laughable yet easy-to-understand story line will be fairly simple to sell in the same era that has seen politicians and television pundits originally lie the country into the conflict. But what will be little discussed is the possibility that … their strategies prolonged the Iraq War at a time when Democrats had the constitutional power of the purse to stop it immediately.” Sirota concludes, “The Players may actually not mind the war continuing, because it preserves an effective political cudgel against Republicans. Actually ending the war, after all, means less fodder for the next television ad.”
I recently reached David Sirota via email in the middle of his grueling months-long book promotion tour. He was “exhausted and tired from the tour” and “hiding out” over the 4th of July weekend at the home of his in-laws in rural Indiana, but he responded quickly to my questions. "
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1) 2. 'The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America' Robert Scheer, Twelve. Posted June 27, 2008. http://tinyurl.com/3rgpf6
: "" The huge "defense" spending going on in our name is irrational and costly, but there are powerful vested interests that want to keep it that way.
The following is an excerpt from Robert Scheer's new book, The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America (Twelve, 2008). "
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" The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America" Robert Scheer: Powell's Books: http://tinyurl.com/6cpq2l
Synopses & Reviews
Amazon.com: Twelve (June 9, 2008) http://tinyurl.com/6597lc
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1) 3-5. Colony India:----------------
1) 3-5-0. 'Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age' Arthur Herman: Apr29,08: http://tinyurl.com/5e2yby
Amazon.com:
"" From Publishers Weekly:
Historian Herman (How the Scots Invented the Modern World) paints a forceful portrait of the emergence of the postcolonial era in the fateful contrast—and surprising affinities—between two historic figures on opposite sides of the struggle for Indian independence. Churchill and Gandhi, both elites in their respective milieus, began their careers with remarkably similar perspectives and trod intersecting paths across India, South Africa and England. They shared an obsession with physical courage (albeit channeled in different ways) that tied conceptions of masculinity to larger ideas of racial identity and moral superiority—and India loomed large in their triumphal careers, ultimately frustrating both men's idealism. While Herman's dual biography artfully depicts the personalities of the two men, he gives short shrift to the more complex forces of British imperial decline, Indian nationalism and the emergence of the postwar order (for example, Herman helpfully but also too neatly explains the dogged centrality of India and the British raj in Churchill's worldview as an act of filial loyalty to his beloved father) But the author also takes careful account of the constellation of modern and antimodern currents of late Victorian thought in situating these vastly influential figures in a fascinating narrative of their times. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review "
" “The rivalry between Winston Churchill and Mohandas Gandhi could hardly have been played for higher stakes. The future of British India hung upon the outcome of their 20-year struggle…. As one might expect from the author of To Rule the Waves, a fine history … Mr. Herman has researched Gandhi & Churchill meticulously and written it fluently.”—Wall Street Journal "
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1) 3-5-1. UK: 'Teutonophopbia' by Paul Gottfried: Jun23,08: http://tinyurl.com/3lo7zj
: "" Without wishing to talk to death certain issues raised by Churchill, Hitler and "The Unnecessary War," I have been noticing the obsession of Buchanan’s critics with German blame for World War One. This fixation has recently come up with particular force in one truly egregious article in Newsweek that global democratic atheist and part-time Teutonophobe Christopher Hitchens prepared in response to Pat’s blockbuster. " ... ...
" An even more vehement hatred for everything German, and particularly for Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm, can be found in that garrulous neocon mouthpiece Victor Davis Hanson. When Hanson is not beating up on the Spartans and Confederates, as substitutes for the Krauts, he is ranting against the "German aggressors" in World War One. The real acid test for neocon loyalty is not hating Hitler (after all, who could like this genocidal mass murderer?) but reading back Hitlerian traits into the German Second Empire and even earlier into German history. It is no secret why the neocons really idolize Churchill. " ... ...
... ...
" Buchanan has only uncovered the tip of the iceberg in pointing out the unpleasant sides of Winston Churchill’s career. Among his less attractive achievements was having actually discouraged the uprising against the Nazi government in July 1944 and similar initiatives before, because if they had succeeded, the Allies would not have been able to smash the Germans as thoroughly as they had wanted to. Recent scholarship by German historian Gerd Überschär and the British writer Brian Martin suggest that Churchill had a hand not only in blackening the German resistance, which he did in a speech before Parliament on August 2, 1944, but also in contributing to the deaths of resistance leaders. The success of an anti-Nazi coup would have damaged Churchill’s war aims, which included, beside the utter devastation of a defeated Germany, cashing in on the good will of Soviet Russia. Churchill went so far in his efforts to keep anti-Nazi German patriots, including moderate leftist like Julius Leber, from prevailing against Hitler that he leaked information about their identities and whereabouts to the Gestapo, with the help of the BBC and the Chief of Political Warfare John W. Wheeler-Bennett.
Only a decade later, during the Cold War, did Churchill and Wheeler-Bennett, the author of many unflattering works about the Germans, discover the "heroism" of the doomed resistance fighters. These fallen German patriots had by then acquired value to the British government as symbols of the "good Germany," which it then needed to enlist in a struggle against the Soviets. Unfortunately Churchill had dealt with the "good Germans" very differently and in an unspeakably reprehensible way when they had tried to overthrow the Nazi government.
Not surprisingly, FDR likewise overflowed with jubilation in a letter to Eleanor, written from Hawaii, over the suppression of the German resistance. In Roosevelt’s judgment, because "things had not grown worse," as they would have for him if the Nazis had been removed, nothing could now stand in the way of a total German defeat. Note this expression of jubilation took place despite the fact that the British and Americans had maintained contacts with some of the would-be rebels against the Nazis since the 1930s. American spymaster Allen Dulles, who then headed the Office of Strategic Services, had actively encouraged the uprising before it was undertaken. The English and American heads of state knew better when they described the rebels as "Nazi dignitaries engaging in an internal conflict." This was the key phrase in Churchill’s mendacious remarks before Parliament in August, 1944, which, by the way, did not go unchallenged at the time.
Let me point out in closing that I find Churchill to be a figure of extraordinary parts, as an author, speaker, and inspiring war leader. But to describe him as merely "flawed" may be overly generous. His role from abetting the First World War down to his promotion of Operation Keelhaul, an act of truckling to the Soviets which resulted in the predictable murder of many thousands of refugees from Stalin, should cause us to hesitate about lavishing praise on this "democratic statesman." The detailed critical discussion of Churchill in The Costs of War by Ralph Raico, is well worth revisiting, although when I first encountered Ralph’s study, it seemed excessively harsh. Alas it is not. Needless to say, I would not expect the neocons and their liberal collaborators in obfuscation to take an honest look at the nasty, deceitful side of Churchill. These scribblers do have a thing about the Germans, and not just for the period of the Third Reich. And from my recent, unsettling peek at Newsweek, it seems that their hostility is widespread among our scribbling class.
June 23, 2008
Paul Gottfried [send him mail] is Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College and author of Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt, The Strange Death of Marxism, and Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right. ""
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1) 3-5-2. 'Winston Churchill: Secret conversations reveal views on Stalin and Gandhi' Telegraph.co.uk, Sep19,08: http://tinyurl.com/5ytbbo
: "" While researching his new book, Andrew Roberts discovered extraordinary secret documents recording every Cabinet conversation of our wartime prime minister. His views on 'jocular’ Stalin and 'bad man’ Gandhi force us to reassess history. "
" It is impossible to continue to argue, for example, that Franklin Roosevelt was merely naïve about the true nature of Stalinism during the Yalta Conference of February 1945, whereas Churchill was much more nuanced and doubtful. In fact Burgis records Churchill telling the first War Cabinet after his return from the Crimea that, 'Stalin I’m sure means well to the world and Poland. Stalin has offered the Polish people a free and more broadly based government to bring about an election; I cannot conceive any government has the right to be treated like that. Stalin about Poland said, 'Russia has committed many sins about Poland – pacts and partitions – it is not the intention of the Soviet Government to do such things but to make amends.’ Stalin had a very good feeling with the two Western democracies and wants to work quite easily with us. My hopes lie in a single man, he will not embark on bad adventures. Re: Greece – Stalin was jocular.’ Words that would have embarrassed Churchill deeply by the time of the Berlin airlift three years later were to stay hidden for six decades.
On 26 October 1942 the War Cabinet discussed the rumour that had appeared in the Press that Rudolf Hess had had 'friends in the War Cabinet’, who had persuaded him to make his dramatic flight to Britain in May 1941. In reply to calls from the South African premier Jan Smuts and Sir Stafford Cripps to publish everything the Government knew about the flight, Churchill said: 'Hess arrived, hot from Hitler’s entourage, and came to do great service for Germany at great risk. He wanted to be conducted to the King to say that we had no backing here and get a Government of the pro-Munich complexion installed. Hess was suffering from melancholia. We tried to make him talk. He gave us last chance for peace with Germany and the chance of joining Hitler’s crusade against Russia. But he never said a word about his Cabinet friends who he had come to see. He had once met the Duke of Hamilton.’
A minister then suggested that the Government should 'Make [the] records available’, to which Churchill’s answer was 'No’. As a result, conspiracy theories about the Hess flight therefore swirled around until the papers were finally released somewhat piecemeal half a century later in the 1990s.
On another occasion, Churchill told Smuts: 'You are responsible for all our troubles in India – you had Gandhi for years and did not do away with him.’ To which Smuts replied: 'When I put him in prison – three times – all Gandhi did was to make me a pair of bedroom slippers.’ When the Mahatma went on hunger strike during the war, Churchill told the Cabinet: 'Gandhi should not be released on the account of a mere threat of fasting. We should be rid of a bad man and an enemy of the Empire if he died.’ Grigg then said that Gandhi was getting glucose in his orange juice, and another cabinet minister said 'he had oil rubbed into him which was nutritious’, allowing Churchill to claim that 'it is apparently not a fast merely a change of diet.’ "
" Whether the question was of sparing Heinrich Himmler after the war, or using gas against Germany, or describing Poland as, 'These heroic people dogged by their maladroitness in political affairs for three hundred years’, or explaining why he never parachuted – 'I would break like an egg’ - Churchill always occupied centre stage. Suddenly literally hundreds of new Churchill quotes, anecdotes, apercus and jokes have appeared, courtesy of the diligent note-taking of a man few people had ever heard of before today.
Through Lawrence Burgis’ shorthand emerge fine and moving speeches that we never before knew that Churchill ever gave. On his return from Washington in January 1942, for example, having conferred with Franklin Roosevelt, the prime minister reported to the War Cabinet how 'the last thing the President said when he came to see me off was “To the bitter end, trust me.” We are suffering heavy blows but the United States is setting about the war with great vigour. They have jumped right into it. There is a sense of resolve to fight it on. They have tactical ideas of war, Hitler is the enemy, they will do what can re: Japan, but nothing will get in the way of defeating Hitler.’
* “Masters and Commanders” by Andrew Roberts will be published by Allen Lane, RRP £25. Available from Telegraph Books for £23 + £1.25 p&p. Call 0870 428 4112 or go to books.telegraph.co.uk. Andrew Roberts will be discussing his book at The National Army Museum on Tuesday 23rd September. ""
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1) 3-7. World War II:----------------
1) 3-7-4. 'The blood of Dresden' From The Sunday Times, TimesOnline, Jun1,08: http://tinyurl.com/59p283
""The author Kurt Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in Dresden during the allied bombing raids and was later forced to dig out bodies from the ruined city. In papers discovered by his son after his death last year, he provides a searing eyewitness account of the ‘obscene brutality’ that inspired his novel Slaughterhouse-Five""
: " World war two was fought for near-holy motives. But I stand convinced that the brand of justice in which we dealt, wholesale bombings of civilian populations, was blasphemous. That the enemy did it first has nothing to do with the moral problem. What I saw of our air war, as the European conflict neared an end, had the earmarks of being an irrational war for war’s sake. Soft citizens of the American democracy had learnt to kick a man below the belt and make the bastard scream.
The occupying Russians, when they discovered that we were Americans, embraced us and congratulated us on the complete desolation our planes had wrought. We accepted their congratulations with good grace and proper modesty, but I felt then as I feel now, that I would have given my life to save Dresden for the world’s generations to come. That is how everyone should feel about every city on earth.
© Kurt Vonnegut Jr Trust 2008
Extracted from Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut, with an introduction by Mark Vonnegut, is published by Jonathan Cape at £16.99. Copies can be ordered for £15.29, including postage, from The Sunday Times BooksFirst on 0870 165 8585 ""
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1) 4. 'Disaster Capitalism: State of Extortion' Naomi Klein: Jul3,08 by The Nation: http://tinyurl.com/5sjl3m
: " It’s been ten months since the publication of my book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, in which I argue that today’s preferred method of reshaping the world in the interest of multinational corporations is to systematically exploit the state of fear and disorientation that accompanies moments of great shock and crisis. With the globe being rocked by multiple shocks, this seems like a good time to see how and where the strategy is being applied.
And the disaster capitalists have been busy–from private firefighters already on the scene in Northern California’s wildfires, to land grabs in cyclone-hit Burma, to the housing bill making its way through Congress. The bill contains little in the way of affordable housing, shifts the burden of mortgage default to taxpayers and makes sure that the banks that made bad loans get some payouts. No wonder it is known in the hallways of Congress as “The Credit Suisse Plan,” after one of the banks that generously proposed it.
Iraq Disaster: We Broke It, We (Just) Bought It
But these cases of disaster capitalism are amateurish compared with what is unfolding at Iraq’s oil ministry. It started with no-bid service contracts announced for ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and Total (they have yet to be signed but are still on course). Paying multinationals for their technical expertise is not unusual. What is odd is that such contracts almost invariably go to oil service companies–not to the oil majors, whose work is exploring, producing and owning carbon wealth. As London-based oil expert Greg Muttitt points out, the contracts make sense only in the context of reports that the oil majors have insisted on the right of first refusal on subsequent contracts handed out to manage and produce Iraq’s oil fields. In other words, other companies will be free to bid on those future contracts, but these companies will win.
One week after the no-bid service deals were announced, the world caught its first glimpse of the real prize. After years of back-room arm-twisting, Iraq is officially flinging open six of its major oil fields, accounting for around half of its known reserves, to foreign investors. According to Iraq’s oil minister, the long-term contracts will be signed within a year. While ostensibly under control of the Iraq National Oil Company, foreign firms will keep 75 percent of the value of the contracts, leaving just 25 percent for their Iraqi partners.
That kind of ratio is unheard of in oil-rich Arab and Persian states, where achieving majority national control over oil was the defining victory of anticolonial struggles. According to Muttitt, the assumption until now was that foreign multinationals would be brought in to develop brand-new fields in Iraq–not to take over ones that are already in production and therefore require minimal technical support. “The policy was always to allocate these fields to the Iraq National Oil Company,” he told me. This is a total reversal of that policy, giving INOC a mere 25 percent instead of the planned 100 percent.
So what makes such lousy deals possible in Iraq, which has already suffered so much? Ironically, it is Iraq’s suffering–its never-ending crisis–that is the rationale for an arrangement that threatens to drain its treasury of its main source of revenue. The logic goes like this: Iraq’s oil industry needs foreign expertise because years of punishing sanctions starved it of new technology and the invasion and continuing violence degraded it further. And Iraq urgently needs to start producing more oil. Why? Again because of the war. The country is shattered, and the billions handed out in no-bid contracts to Western firms have failed to rebuild the country. And that’s where the new no-bid contracts come in: they will raise more money, but Iraq has become such a treacherous place that the oil majors must be induced to take the risk of investing. Thus the invasion of Iraq neatly creates the argument for its subsequent pillage.
Several of the architects of the Iraq War no longer even bother to deny that oil was a major motivator. On National Public Radio’s To the Point, Fadhil Chalabi, one of the primary Iraqi advisers to the Bush Administration in the lead-up to the invasion, recently described the war as “a strategic move on the part of the United States of America and the UK to have a military presence in the Gulf in order to secure [oil] supplies in the future.” Chalabi, who served as Iraq’s oil under secretary and met with the oil majors before the invasion, described this as “a primary objective.”
Invading countries to seize their natural resources is illegal under the Geneva Conventions. That means that the huge task of rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure–including its oil infrastructure–is the financial responsibility of Iraq’s invaders. They should be forced to pay reparations. (Recall that Saddam Hussein’s regime paid $9 billion to Kuwait in reparations for its 1990 invasion.) Instead, Iraq is being forced to sell 75 percent of its national patrimony to pay the bills for its own illegal invasion and occupation. "
" Privatizing Iraq’s oil, ensuring global dominance for genetically modified crops, lowering the last of the trade barriers and opening the last of the wildlife refuges… Not so long ago, those goals were pursued through polite trade agreements, under the benign pseudonym “globalization.” Now this discredited agenda is forced to ride on the backs of serial crises, selling itself as lifesaving medicine for a world in pain.
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and syndicated columnist and the author of the international and New York Times bestseller The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (September 2007); an earlier international best-seller, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies; and the collection Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate (2002). ""
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1) 5-0. A Century of War: Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt' John V. Denson; Ludwig von Mises Institute: Jul5,08: http://tinyurl.com/62vsjc
: "" Judge Denson has, in this excellent book, expertly solved a difficult problem. Wars are a principal means for the state to increase its power. The classic work on this theme by Robert Higgs, Crisis and Leviathan, will be well known to most readers of this journal; but Denson also calls attention in this connection to the important study of Bruce Porter, War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics (New York, 1994). "
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1) 5-0-1. Lincoln:--------------------
1) 5-0-1-1. 'The Call of the Tyrant' Thomas J. DiLorenzo: LewRockwell.com, Oct2,08: http://tinyurl.com/4alz9r
""Thomas J. DiLorenzo [send him mail] is professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland and the author of The Real Lincoln; Lincoln Unmasked: What You’re Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest Abe and How Capitalism Saved America. His latest book, Hamilton’s Curse, will be published on October 21.""
: " Soldiers were forced to watch these daily executions of their friends and comrades in the form of an official ceremony. "The condemned men marched out between the two ranks of the regiment, preceded by the musicians, playing a funeral march. The provost guard, as an escort, carried the coffin. The victim was conducted to the edge of the grave, which had already been dug. After the sentence was read, he was seated, blindfolded, and placed upon a board at the foot of the open coffin, into which he fell backwards when the firing squad had discharged its sad duty." The "method of execution" was "generally shooting [but] hanging seems to have been used occasionally."
Even Professor Lonn herself was apparently deceived during her education by the myth of national unity. "It is hard for us today to realize," she wrote, "how much disunion and division of sentiment there was in the North during the war." ""
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1) 5-0-1-2. 'Vindicating Lincoln?' David Gordon: LewRockwell.com, Oct4,08: http://tinyurl.com/3g2t52
""Vindicating Lincoln: Defending the Politics of Our Greatest President. By Thomas L. Krannawitter. Roman & Littlefield, 2008. Xv + 355 pages.""
: the Mises Review, Edited and written by David Gordon, senior fellow of the Mises Institute and author of four books and thousands of essays: http://tinyurl.com/4v4wms
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1) 6. ' The Oddly Powerless 'Global Power Elite' ' Doug Henwood, Truthdig. Posted Jun28,08: http://tinyurl.com/6h3uhp
re we now ruled by an international elite that has left national borders far behind? Don't bother asking author David Rothkopf.
: "" Are we now ruled by an international elite that has left national borders far behind? It's a fashionable view across the political spectrum that enjoys special prominence every January, when the members of that alleged class hold their annual shareholders' meeting in Davos, Switzerland. David Rothkopf, the author of Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making, would strike the alleged from the previous sentence. To him, there's no doubt that this superclass exists and that it's running the show.
We've had a series of books in recent years that amount to little more than a pornography of wealth. But the connection of wealth to actual power is rarely explored. Sure, hedge fund managers can deploy billions, and CEOs can hire and fire thousands, but what is the relation of that narrow economic power to broader political, social and cultural power? "
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2) Life Health:----------------------
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2) 00. Starvation:-------------------
'World Food Crisis at Critical Juncture' Jeffrey Allen: Pub. One World.net, Oct17,08: www.commondreams.org http://tinyurl.com/5wjwtw
: "" MINNEAPOLIS - " ...
" The United Nations says another 75 million people were plunged into hunger and poverty in 2007 by a global food crisis that analysts have blamed on a disastrous confluence of events, including rising fuel costs, erratic weather patterns, and the widespread diversion of food crops for biofuels and escalating livestock production.
Nearly 1 billion people -- almost one out of every six people on Earth -- currently do not get enough to eat, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "
2) 0-0. Health from Self, Within:
2) 0-0-0. GMO: 'Is Your Picnic Filled With ‘Franken-Foods’?' Shawn Dell Joyce: Pub. July13,08 by The Times Herald-Record (New York): http://tinyurl.com/5vyvpl
: "" Some 200 million acres of the world’s farms grew biotech crops last year, with over 90 percent of those crops coming from genetically engineered seeds patented by U.S.-based Monsanto.0713 04 1
Scientists have taken genetic material from one organism (like a soil bacterium), along with an antibiotic resistant marker gene, and spliced both into a food crop (like corn) to create a genetically modified crop that resists specific diseases and pests.
There has been no long-term, independent testing on the effects of these “Franken-foods” on the ecosystem or human health.
In the early 1990’s when biotechs were being evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, several key FDA scientists warned that GE crops could cause negative health effects. These scientists were ignored and blanket approvals of GE crops were passed.
It would be difficult to avoid eating genetically modified organisms in our country because they are so pervasive in the food system and unlabeled in the grocery stores.
Part of the reason for this is biotech giants fought to keep GMO foods unlabeled.
Most recently, the growth hormones from GE organisms known as rBGH, which is given to cows to make them produce more milk, were banned in Europe and Canada after authorities learned about the health risks of drinking milk from cows treated with rBGH hormones.
American milk producers started labeling their milk “rBGH and rBST free.” Monsanto, which sells bovine growth hormones under the brand name Posilac, has successfully sued dairy producers to force them to stop labeling their milk.
In addition to most milk products, GMOs can be found in commercially farmed meats and processed foods on store shelves. In our country, 89 percent of all soy, 61 percent of all corn, and 75 percent of all canola are genetically altered.
Other foods, like commercially grown papaya, zucchini, tomatoes, several fish species, and food additives like enzymes, flavorings and processing agents, including the sweetener aspartame and rennet used to make hard cheeses, also contain GMOs, according to Greenpeace.
To complicate matters, GMOs move around in the ecosystem through pollen, wind and natural cross-fertilization. The Union of Concerned Scientists conducted two independent laboratory tests on non-GM seeds “representing a substantial proportion of the traditional seed supply” for corn, soy and oilseed.
The test found that at “the most conservative expression,” half the corn and soy were contaminated with GM genes, eight years after the modified varieties were first grown on a large scale in the U.S.
The reports states that “heedlessly allowing the contamination of traditional plant varieties with genetically engineered sequences amounts to a huge wager on our ability to understand a complicated technology that manipulates life at the most elemental level.”
* * *
What can you do to avoid GMO’s?
• Know how your food is grown by buying directly from local farmers.
• Support organic agriculture, and food producers who label their ingredients, particularly dairy farmers.
• Eat pastured meat raised on organic feed. The only way to ensure this is to buy from someone you know.
• Support farmers who are sued by biotech giants. Monsanto has set aside an annual budget of $10 million and a staff of 75 devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting more than 150 farmers for a total of more than $15 million.
• Demand labeling on all GMO-containing products.
Copyright © 2008 Hudson Valley Media Group ""
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2) 0-0-1. 'Tantra Psychology' http://tantrapsychology.learn.to/
Tantra redeems human beings and paves the way for their emancipation from the bondages of staticity.
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2) 0-0-2. 'The World United: Connecting People through Personal & Planetary Evolution' Aug24,08: http://www.theworldunited.org/aboutus.html
Optimize all aspects of health, inner growth and success: put them within your grasp
: The Inner Engineering approach is a modern antidote to stress, and presents simple yet powerful processes from yogic science to purify the body and mind while increasnig health and inner well being. Program components include guided meditations and transmission of the sacred Shambhavi Maha Mudra. When practiced on a regular basis, these tools have the potential to enhance one's experience of life in many realms.
In fostering understanding of their subtler realms, participants gain powerful tools to cope with the hectic pace of modern life and move into a new plane, new thresholds for living and working more subtly. Inner Engineering empowers participants to begin experiencing their lives to their fullest potential.
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2) 0-0-3. 'When the Cure Is Worse Than the Disease' Bill Sardi Aug25,08
LewRockwell.com http://tinyurl.com/4pvlgd
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2) 0-0-4. 'Avoid Flu Shots, Take Vitamin D Instead' Donald W. Miller, Jr., MD: LewRockwell.com, Oct3,08: http://tinyurl.com/48e7yn
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2) 0-1. 'The Fight to End Aging Gains Legitimacy, Funding' Alexis Madrigal Email Jun26,08 http://tinyurl.com/6ncn3p
: " After declaring, essentially out of nowhere, that he had a program to end the disease of aging, renegade biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey " ... ...
" This weekend, his organization, The Methuselah Foundation, is sponsoring its first U.S. conference on the emerging interdisciplinary field that de Grey has helped kick start. (Its first day, Friday, will be free and open to the public.) The conference, Aging: The Disease - The Cure - The Implications, held at UCLA, is an indication of how far de Grey has come in mainstreaming his ideas. "
" In research that will first be presented on Friday at the conference, Methuselah-funded scientists will demonstrate a proof-of-concept experiment for using bacterial enzymes to fight atherosclerosis, or the hardening of the arteries. That's an idea that de Grey has been pushing for years. "
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2) 0-1-1. 'Quantum dots improve effectiveness of gene silencer' KurzweilAI.net, June 24, 2008: http://tinyurl.com/57phw6
: "" University of Washington and Emory University researchers have used quantum dots (fluorescent balls of semiconductor material around six nanometers across) to improve how gene-silencing RNA (siRNA, small interfering RNA) is delivered into cells for diagnostic and therapeutic use (by blocking dangerous genes).
Quantum dot-siRNA complex distributed in a cell (University of Washington)
The quantum dots helped the siRNA cross the cellular wall and accumulate in the cellular fluid. The technique is 10 to 20 times more effective and 5 to 10 times less toxic than existing chemical methods for getting siRNA into cells.
RNA interference uses short pieces of RNA (siRNA) to disable production of a protein by silencing (deactivating) a stretch of genetic code. Research laboratories regularly use the technique to figure out what a particular gene does. In the body, RNA interference could be used to treat conditions ranging from breast cancer to deteriorating eyesight.
Quantum dots are not approved for human use, but the techniques may also apply to non-toxic iron-oxide particles.
University of Washington News Release
See Also Anticancer siRNA therapy advances, thanks to nanoparticles
Three Most Recent News Stories Related to Nanotech/Quantum
Tethered molecules act as light-driven reversible nanoswitches
PhysOrg.com, June 23, 2008
Perfecting a solar cell by adding imperfections
PhysOrg.com, June 16, 2008
Magnetic Genes
Technology Review, June 18, 2008
Three Most Recent News Stories Related to Biotech
New Discovery Proves 'Selfish Gene' Exists
ScienceDaily, June 22, 2008
Measles doesn't work in the way we thought
Nature News, June 20, 2008
Micromagnet 'RFID tags' enhance MRI images
KurzweilAI.net, June 19, 2008 ""
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2) 0-1-2. 'News: Measles doesn't work in the way we thought' Katharine Sanderson; nature news doi:10.1038 /news.2008.907: Pub. online 20 June 2008: http://tinyurl.com/3h2red
: "" Virus attacks the immune system, not the airways.
The infectious romp that the measles virus takes through the body doesn’t need to involve the airways, as was previously thought. Instead, the virus prefers to replicate in immune cells. This finding potentially paves the way for new and better cancer treatments that use a modified version of the measles virus to focus on the immune system.
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2) 0-1-3. 'How to deliver DNA into cells without triggering immune responses' urzweilAI.net, June 26, 2008: http://tinyurl.com/3ke9th
: "" University of Georgia researchers have used self-assembling small peptides (short chains of amino acids, which bind to genes and mimic proteins) packaged in a biocompatible polymer scaffold to deliver DNA into cells (for gene therapy) without triggering immune responses (such as allergies and anaphylactic shock).
Modified viruses are currently the most efficient vector (delivery package) for gene therapy, but they can cause serious complications if the immune system is triggered by the virus.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem News Release
See Also Nanoparticles Replace Toxic Virus Vectors for Gene Therapy
Three Most Recent News Stories Related to Biotech
How biological 'alchemy' can change a cell's destiny (article preview)
New Scientist, June 18, 2008
Viruses use microRNA to block the immune system
KurzweilAI.net, June 26, 2008
The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn't Just More -- More Is Different
Wired, June 23, 2008 ""
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2) 0-1-4. 'Viruses use microRNA to block the immune system' KurzweilAI.net, June 26, 2008: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem News Release: http://tinyurl.com/6nwnbt
: "" Hebrew University of Jerusalem Researchers have discovered that viruses use microRNAs (small RNA molecules that suppress gene expression) to block the human immune system, making it harder to fight the virus.
The discovery could lead to new antiviral therapies that target viral microRNA. Conversely, it could lead to new methods to suppress the immune system in autoimmune diseases and transplantations, by developing synthetic microRNAs that mimic natural viral microRNAs.
Three Most Recent News Stories Related to Biote
How biological 'alchemy' can change a cell's destiny (article preview)
New Scientist, June 18, 2008
How to deliver DNA into cells without triggering immune responses
KurzweilAI.net, June 26, 2008
The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn't Just More -- More Is Different
Wired, June 23, 2008 ""
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2) 0-1-5. 'Subtle nervous system abnormalities may predict risk of death in older individuals' KurzweilAI.net, June 24, 2008: http://tinyurl.com/3ou9ga
: "" University of Florence researchers and colleagues have found that subtle but clinically detectable neurological abnormalities such as reduced reflexes or unstable posture help predict the risk of death and stroke in otherwise healthy older adults--possibly a sign of early brain damage.
These results suggest that a standard neurological exam should become a routine part of healthcare for older adults, because the exam has a predictive value similar to biomarkers.
JAMA and Archives Journals News Release ""
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2) 0-1-6. 'Common drugs may combat ageing disease' July9,08: From New Scientist Print Ed.: http://tinyurl.com/6rbt9x
: "" TWO common drugs have reversed the effects in mice of progeria, a rare genetic disease that causes premature ageing. The drugs have few side effects, so might one day be used to treat children with the disease.
Progeria accelerates ageing from early childhood (above) and is usually fatal before puberty. There is currently no cure. It is caused by gene mutations that disrupt production of a protein called prelamin A, found inside the nuclei of cells. The damaged prelamin A binds to molecular fragments in the body called farnesyls, which in turn bind to the nuclear membrane, causing the build-up of protein that underlies the disease.
Statins, which are used to reduce cholesterol, and bisphosphonates, which curb osteoporosis, are known to reduce farnesyl levels, so Carlos López-Otín of the University of Oviedo, Spain, wondered if they could reverse progeria. When his team gave a blend of the two drugs to progeroid mice, it reduced ageing symptoms and they lived longer than controls (Nature Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/nm1786).
Previous attempts to prevent farnesylation by inhibiting the enzyme that attaches farnesyls to prelamin A proved disappointing. The researchers are now seeking permission for tests in humans to see whether statins and bisphosphonates can do a better job.
Genetics - Keep up with the pace in our continually updated special report.
Death - Delve deeper into the riddle of human mortality in our special report.
From issue 2663 of New Scientist magazine, 09 July 2008, page 17 ""
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2) 0-1-7. 'Red LEDs could make anti-ageing device' NewScientist.com news service, Oct28,08: New Scientist magazine, issue 2679, Oct28,08, page 21: http://tinyurl.com/5zd8rm
: "" Sunlight causes wrinkles, among other kinds of skin damage, but a different kind of light - specifically the red glow from LEDs - may help to smooth them out by altering the interactions between water and elastic proteins in the skin.
Andrei Sommer and Dan Zhu of the University of Ulm in Germany have been investigating how water molecules in the skin interact with different substances. They found that water molecules close to a hydrophobic, or "water-hating", substance formed a slippery crystalline layer, while those surrounding a hydrophilic, or water-loving, substance were glue-like. "
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2) 0-2. Medicine Technology:--------
2) 0-2-1. 'Smart contact lens feels the pressure of glaucoma' Colin Barras: NewScientist.com news service: http://tinyurl.com/5eptnz
: "" A contact lens with a built-in pressure sensor that could help monitor conditions such as glaucoma has been made by researchers in the US.
The device is the result of a new technique that can embed conducting circuits in the organic polymer traditionally used to make contact lenses.
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is an elastic, transparent and gas-permeable organic polymer that can be cast-moulded into a range simple shapes. It is widely used in everything from contact lenses to breast implants.
However, the process of cast moulding severely limits the kinds of structures that can be made with the material.
Masked marvel
Now, Hailin Cong and Tingrui Pan at the University of California, Davis, US, have come up with a simple method to produce PDMS components without the need for casting moulds. Their process can also make the material conduct electricity.
They added a chemical to a liquid PDMS solution which causes the mixture to set, or polymerise, when zapped with UV light.
Cong and Pan then exposed the mixture to UV light through a mask containing a circuit pattern. Only the areas hit by the light polymerise and any remaining liquid can be washed away, leaving an imprint of the circuit.
The technique can be used to create features just 10 micrometers in size.
Silver path
Cong and Pan have also developed a technique to give the polymer another property – electrical conductivity.
They did this by adding a solution of silver to the mix. The silver then becomes trapped in the material when it polymerises, creating a path along which electrons can pass.
Since the resistance of the path changes as the material is stretched, the modified PDMS is suitable for a range of microelectromechanical systems.
"This new way of manufacturing PDMS can significantly extend [its] use for biological sensing systems," says Pan.
Under pressure
One of the first devices that Cong and Pan have produced is a tiny pressure sensor, which they bent into the shape of a contact lens. Such a device could measure the stress on the cornea surface, and the fluid pressure within the eye to monitor glaucoma and ocular hypertension, Pan says.
"The eye always has a certain pressure, which is why the eyeball is a sphere," says Pan. In glaucoma patients, that pressure rises and changes the shape of the eye, which would deform the contact lens sensor. "The change in configuration will alter the resistance and give a different electrical reading," says Pan.
Their prototype (see image, top right) has an opaque sensor that would impair vision and so would be worn only briefly, but Cong and Pan are designing transparent equivalents that could be worn for long periods to give a continuous pressure read-out.
To read the data wirelessly, they would use a tiny RFID tag, they say.
Journal Reference: Advanced Functional Materials (DOI: 10.1002/adfm.200701437) ""
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2) 0-2-2: 'Nanotubes bring artificial photosynthesis a step nearer' Colin Barras: July11,08: NewScientist.com news service: http://tinyurl.com/6a2p52
: "" Carbon nanotubes are the crucial chemical ingredient that could make artificial photosynthesis possible, say a team of Chinese researchers. The team has found that nanotubes mimic an important step in photosynthesis that chemists have been unable to copy until now.
Artificial photosynthesis has the potential to efficiently produce hydrogen that could be used as a clean fuel for vehicles. It could also be used to mop up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Photosynthetic organisms use the energy from light to break down water into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen then reacts with carbon dioxide to help synthesise carbohydrates, the molecules organisms use to store energy.
Chemists have long tried in vain to reproduce the process, but one key step in particular has proven impossible to copy.
Visible photons can only contribute a limited amount of energy towards a chemical reaction. This energy is absorbed by electrons involved in the reaction. "
... ...
" 'Basic requirement'
They found that they could bond 120 PC molecules to a nanotube just 1 micrometer long, and that about 25% of the electrons donated from those PCs end up being stored in the nanotube.
"We decided to create this system initially simply to efficiently convert solar energy into electricity," says Zhang.
But he thinks the nanosystem could form a key component of an artificial photosynthesis model. The extra electrons stored in the nanotubes could be used to convert a chloroplast chemical called NADP into NADPH, which could then reduce carbon dioxide to carbohydrates.
James Barber at Imperial College London, UK, is an expert in photosynthesis. "A lot of people working in this area don't address a basic requirement – that you need to have multiple electrons in photosynthesis," he says. "I think these researchers are right to make this an issue."
Journal Reference: ChemPhysChem (DOI: 10.1002/cphc.200800191) ""
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2) 0-2-3. ' Helping the deaf to 'see sound' ' Aug13.08: BBC News: http://tinyurl.com/6bn383
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2) Medicine:-------------------------
2) 1. Brain:-------------------------
2) 1-1. 'Toxic Key To Alzheimer’s Disease Memory Loss Identified' ScienceDaily (June 27, 2008) Adapted from materials provided by University College Dublin, via AlphaGalileo: http://tinyurl.com/4op355
: "" Using new scientific techniques, scientists have unlocked the cascade of molecular events that lead to Alzheimer’s disease. The scientific findings, recently published in Nature Medicine, suggest a potential new target for the development of drug therapies to fight the irreversible and degenerative disease which affects some 29.8 million people worldwide. "
... ...
" Alzheimer's disease is marked by the build-up of plaques consisting of beta-amyloid protein fragments, as well as abnormal tangles of tau protein found inside brain cells. Early in the disease, Alzheimer's pathology is first observed in the hippocampus, the part of the brain important to memory, and gradually spreads to the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain.
The team of Irish and international researchers have identified that the accumulation of a particular protein (called amyloid ß-protein - Aß) in the brain initiates Alzheimer’s disease and that it directly alters the structure and function of brain cells. The findings place a significant emphasis on the development of new therapeutic strategies targeted at the reduction of the formation of Aß " ... ...
... ...
" “Our findings support the growing theory that Alzheimers’s disease memory deficits may result from loss of dendritic spines and that this process is mediated by amyloid ß–protein (Aß) oligomers, not monomer or plaque Aß as previously considered.” "
... ...
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2) 1-2. ' 'Cross fire' from the brain makes patients tremble ' July11,08 Physorg.com: Source: Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres: http://tinyurl.com/5zga7q
A typical symptom of Parkinson's disease is tremor in patients. A group of scientists, including Professor Peter Tass from Forschungszentrum Jülich have succeeded in demonstrating the mechanisms which cause the so-called tremor: neuron clusters in the depths of the brain drive the tremor. This discovery supports Tass' research activities aiming at developing a therapy for Parkinson's disease. A new deep brain pacemaker is to bring cells out of the diseased mode for good.
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2)1.6. 'Brain Structure Assists In Immune Response' http://tinyurl.com/BrainImmune
""ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2009) — For the first time, a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have imaged in real time the body’s immune response to a parasitic infection in the brain.""
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2) 2. 'Low Sperm Counts and Deformed Penises: The Chemical Industry Has a Hold on Your Reproductive Future' Joshua Zaffos, Colorado Springs Independent. Posted June 26, 2008: http://tinyurl.com/5z8vm8
From car seats to condoms, nasty compounds have invaded our lives. Hormones are going haywire, and our human future is at risk.
: "" I am half the man my father is.
This disturbing fortune came to me about five years ago, but not from an odd relative or a sadistic girlfriend. Instead, this dinner-table diagnosis came from Theo (short for Theodora) Colborn, an internationally known scientist who has helped develop the field of research exploring how chemical compounds interfere with the hormones that guide human development.
Known as endocrine disruption, chemicals found in computer screens and car seats, shower curtains and shampoo, plastic water bottles and prophylactics are skewing our odds against cancers and causing developmental delays and reproductive roadblocks, including declining sperm counts. "
... ... " Our Stolen Future, the book Colborn co-authored in 1996, first delivered this bad news to the general public.
More than a decade later, scientists are still conducting experiments and measuring results, from cramped basement labs at universities to expansive high-country lakes in the wilderness. " ... ...
... ...
" Global warning
During my conversation with CSU's Thomas Borch, I ask him to compare our understanding and acceptance of endocrine disruption with that of another subtle, global environmental epidemic: climate change. Borch says the analogy is apt, believing that the impacts of endocrine-disrupting chemicals we see today are comparable to the signs of global warming that people began to acknowledge in the 1990s. He recognizes this assessment might be conservative; some colleagues, Borch adds, would say the consequences of our society's chemical romance are already measurable and apparent, and they demand appropriate policy changes.
I started surfing through the evidence five years ago.
After first meeting Theo Colborn, I began spending time with her, asking lots of questions and reading whatever she handed me. I even worked for her for a short while, organizing files and sorting through research papers and reports.
Today, at 81, Colborn is sharp as a tack and president of TEDX, Inc., an acronym for The Endocrine Disruption Exchange that rhymes with a certain overnight-delivery company. The nonprofit research clearinghouse compiles and circulates peer-reviewed studies on low-dose chemical exposure, allows scientists to compare results, and helps the media and the public understand what we are doing to our planet and our bodies.
One day, while I was helping Colborn at her home, where a massive file cabinet piled high with draft studies and award plaques sits in her kitchen, she opened a drawer to find a report. Instead, she discovered a folder, filled with poetry. "Oh! You need to have this," she told me and pulled out a photocopy of a poem, which is frequently attributed to Goethe and closes with the oft-quoted couplet:
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."
The inspirational verse on mind over matter is intriguing, coming from Colborn. Backed by decades of research and exchanges with fellow scientists, she firmly believes chemicals amassing in our bodies may not only outweigh, but be diminishing, our minds' capabilities.
The words are a testimony to the ideal that if we are willing to inform ourselves and commit to intelligent decisions about our use of chemicals, it's not too late to affect change and avert a global crisis.
Begin it now.
See more stories tagged with: endocrine disruptors, fertility, toxic products, toxins, chemical industry, reproductive health
Joshua Zaffos writes from Fort Collins, Colorado. His work has appeared in High Country News, The Denver Post, Fly Fisherman and Orion. ""
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2) 3. Blood: ' Blood pressure 'link to dementia' ' July8,08 http://tinyurl.com/6epa65
: "" Controlling blood pressure from middle-age onwards may dramatically reduce the chances of developing dementia, researchers have said. "
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2) 4. Medical History:---------------
'Did the Romans destroy Europe's HIV resistance?' Matt Walker: Sept3,08: From New Scientist Print Edition: http://tinyurl.com/6xn3ff
: "" THE hand of history has a very long reach. It appears that the Roman Empire left a legacy that may still affect modern Europe - those living within its conquered lands are more susceptible to HIV. It could explain why a gene that confers resistance to HIV varies in frequency across the continent.
The gene in question codes for a protein receptor called CCR5. The HIV virus binds to this receptor before entering cells. One gene variant, called CCR5-Delta32, has 32 DNA base pairs missing and produces a receptor that HIV cannot bind to, which prevents the virus from entering the cells. People with this variant have some resistance to HIV infection and also take longer to develop AIDS.
Generally, only people in Europe and western Asia carry the variant, and it becomes less and less frequent as you move south. For example, more than 15 per cent of people in some areas of northern Europe carry CCR5-Delta32, compared with fewer than 4 per cent of Greeks (see map). It is not clear why this is so, since the HIV pandemic - which began in the early 1980s - is too recent to have influenced the distribution of the variant.
However, the changing frequency of the variant reflects the changing boundary of the Roman Empire from 500 BC to AD 500, says Eric Faure at the University of Provence in Marseille, France. When Faure and colleague Manuela Royer-Carenzi investigated possible links between Roman colonisation and the frequency of the CCR5-Delta32 variant in nearly 19,000 DNA samples from across Europe, they found that the gene variant seemed to dwindle in regions conquered by the Romans (Infection, Genetics and Evolution, DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2008.08.007). "
... ...
... " he reckons the Romans introduced a disease to which people carrying the CCR5-Delta32 variant were particularly susceptible. As the Romans moved north, this disease killed off people with the variant.
Faure notes that the Romans introduced cats and donkeys into Europe which may have carried pathogens that spread to humans.
What's more, the Romans inadvertently brought with them disease-carrying mosquitoes. Intriguingly, modern people with the CCR5-Delta32 variant are more susceptible to the mosquito-borne West Nile virus.
HIV and AIDS - Learn more about the worst pandemic in human history in our continuously updated special report.
From issue 2672 of New Scientist magazine, 03 September 2008, page ""
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2) 10. Whole Body:-------------------
2) 11. Body Appearance:--------------
2) 11-1. Body Measurements:----------
'How our body measurements affect who we are' London: The Independent,
Jan27,09 Tue: http://tinyurl.com/BodyMeasure
Top athletes have longer ring fingers – and women with larger hips have more intelligent children. Roger Dobson explains how the size and shape of body parts can speak volumes about our health, fertility, and even our personality traits
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3) Ecology:--------------------------
3) 0. Technology:--------------------
: 'Humanity's Meltdown' Mike Davis (Tom Dispatch); Posted: 2008/06/26; From: Source;
http://tinyurl.com/6bskyq
: "" We're officially entering a new geologic epoch, a period in which humanity may simply, and catastrophically, outrun history itself.
[For those who didn't happen to notice, perhaps because it wasn't exactly front-page news in most of the country, NASA's James Hansen, the man who first alerted Congress to the dangers of global warming 20 years ago, returned to testify before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming this week. This time around, he was essentially offering a final warning on the subject. Unless the U.S. begins to act soon, he pointed out, "it will become impractical to constrain atmospheric carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas produced in burning fossil fuels, to a level that prevents the climate system from passing tipping points that lead to disastrous climate changes that spiral dynamically out of humanity's control."
For the "elements of a 'perfect storm,' a global cataclysm" being assembled, he placed special blame on the "CEOs of fossil energy companies [who] know what they are doing and are aware of [the] long-term consequences of continued business as usual." He added that they should, in his opinion, "be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature… I anticipate testifying against relevant CEOs in future public trials." That's a novel thought in our nation's capital. Oh, and while he was at it, he probably should have thrown in George W., Dick C., and crew. What they haven't done (and what they've blocked from being done) over these last eight years may turn out to be their greatest crime of all. Talk about smoking guns... or is it melting ice?
And here's the sad thing, as with so much else in these last years, the only way global warming has gotten the slightest respect in Bush's Washington is as a national security issue. Big surprise. The Navy, for instance, was already holding a symposium entitled "Naval operations in an Ice-Free Arctic" in April 2001; now, it seems that by 2010, or 2015 at the latest, it may have its wish -- an iceless Arctic Ocean in the summer for the first time in perhaps one million years and a scramble for energy and mineral wealth at the poles. An office of the Pentagon, war-gaming climate change back in 2004, wrote up a hair-raising, spine-tingling end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it report on a future planet in eternal conflict amid every kind of weather disaster; and only this week, the U.S. Intelligence Community, the official 16 agencies gathering the stuff for the government, chimed in with a grim new report, "The National Security Implications of Global Climate Change Through 2030."
As "National Security and the Threat of Climate Change," a 2007 report from the military-allied research organization, the CNA Corporation, indicated, admirals and generals galore have been worrying about the subject for a while. Think, for instance, of those low-lying U.S. bases, like the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, that might just go under. Could climate change not only send millions fleeing from flooding or salinating lowlands, or out of areas of conflict over ever scarcer resources, but start the process of de-garrisoning the globe for the Pentagon? ("Climate change could compromise some of [our] bases…[T]he loss of some forward bases would require longer range lift and strike capabilities and would increase the military's energy needs.") It's enough to set a military-minded group to worrying.
Now, in a striking report from the front lines of science, Mike Davis, TomDispatch regular and author most recently of In Praise of Barbarians: Essays Against Empire, "welcomes" the new geologic era we're officially entering, a period in which humanity may simply, and catastrophically, outrun history itself. Tom]
1. Farewell to the Holocene "
2. Spontaneous Decarbonization? "
3. Fin-du-Monde Boom "
4. Can Markets Enfranchise the Poor? "
5. The North's Ecological Debt "
" n light of such studies, the current ruthless competition between energy and food markets, amplified by international speculation in commodities and agricultural land, is only a modest portent of the chaos that could soon grow exponentially from the convergence of resource depletion, intractable inequality, and climate change. The real danger is that human solidarity itself, like a West Antarctic ice shelf, will suddenly fracture and shatter into a thousand shards.
--Mike Davis is the author of In Praise of Barbarians: Essays against Empire (Haymarket Books, 2008) and Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb (Verso, 2007). He is currently working on a book about cities, poverty, and global change.
Copyright 2008 Mike Davis ""
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3) 0-1. 'Nanotubes bring artificial photosynthesis a step nearer' Colin Barras: July11,08 Scentist.com news service:
: "" Carbon nanotubes are the crucial chemical ingredient that could make artificial photosynthesis possible, say a team of Chinese researchers. The team has found that nanotubes mimic an important step in photosynthesis that chemists have been unable to copy until now.
Artificial photosynthesis has the potential to efficiently produce hydrogen that could be used as a clean fuel for vehicles. It could also be used to mop up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Photosynthetic organisms use the energy from light to break down water into oxygen and hydrogen. The hydrogen then reacts with carbon dioxide to help synthesise carbohydrates, the molecules organisms use to store energy.
Chemists have long tried in vain to reproduce the process, but one key step in particular has proven impossible to copy.
Visible photons can only contribute a limited amount of energy towards a chemical reaction. This energy is absorbed by electrons involved in the reaction. "
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3) Ecology:--------------------------
3) 1. Earth:-------------------------
: 'Ron Paul on Iran & Energy (C-SPAN 6/26)' http://tinyurl.com/6z44ry
3) 1-1. 'Earth Near Tipping Point, Climatologist Warns' Tim Harper; Pub. on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 by The Toronto Star: http://tinyurl.com/65g6yq
: "" WASHINGTON-James Hansen returned to Capitol Hill a hero yesterday, but certainly not a conquering hero.
The soft-spoken scientist, hailed as the “whistle-blower for the planet,” tried to quiet a standing ovation from environmentalists here with a typically blunt admonition.0624 06
“It is not a time to celebrate,” said Hansen, 20 years to the day since he became the first leading scientist to warn of the dangers of global warming before a congressional committee.
He returned not to bask in any adulation, but to warn that the Earth is nearing a tipping point, to call for a national carbon tax and to say that CEOs of energy companies may be guilty of crimes against humanity and nature. "
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3) 1. Earth:--------------------------
3) 1-2. 'Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near on Global Warming' James Hansen; Pub. on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 by The Huffington Post: http://tinyurl.com/5azhax
: "" [Monday] I testified to Congress about global warming, 20 years after my June 23, 1988 testimony, which alerted the public that global warming was underway. There are striking similarities between then and now, but one big difference.
Again a wide gap has developed between what is understood about global warming by the relevant scientific community and what is known by policymakers and the public. Now, as then, frank assessment of scientific data yields conclusions that are shocking to the body politic. Now, as then, I can assert that these conclusions have a certainty exceeding 99 percent.
The difference is that now we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed to defuse the global warming time bomb. The next president and Congress must define a course next year in which the United States exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present dangerous situation. "
" Democracy works, but sometimes churns slowly. Time is short. The 2008 election is critical for the planet. If Americans turn out to pasture the most brontosaurian congressmen, if Washington adapts to address climate change, our children and grandchildren can still hold great expectations.
Dr. James Hansen directs the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and is Adjunct Professor of Earth Sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Since the mid-1970s, Dr. Hansen has focused on studies and computer simulations of the Earth’s climate, for the purpose of understanding the human impact on global climate. He is best known for his testimony on climate change to Congress in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue. In recent years Dr. Hansen has drawn attention to the danger of passing climate tipping points, producing irreversible climate impacts that would yield a different planet from the one on which civilization developed. Dr. Hansen disputes the contention, of fossil fuel interests and governments that support them, that it is an almost god-given fact that all fossil fuels must be burned with their combustion products discharged into the atmosphere. Instead Dr. Hansen has outlined steps that are needed to stabilize climate, with a cleaner atmosphere and ocean, and he emphasizes the need for the public to influence government and industry policies.
Copyright © 2008 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. ""
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3) 1. Earth:-------------------------
3) 1-3. To Save Earth:---------------
3) 1-3-1. '10 Audacious Ideas to Save the Planet' By PopSci Staff Posted 06.13.2008 at 4:10 pm Popular Science, June 13, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/43mwhu
: "" To rescue the Earth, we need bold engineering ideas that go beyond simple recycling
Heavenly Power: Japan is building satellites that will convert solar energy into microwaves and beam them back to Earth. Photo by Paul Wootton
Making a dent in the climate crisis is going to take more than solar panels and recycled toilet paper. Scientists are finding ever more creative ways (pig pee! DIY tornadoes! mini nuclear reactors!) to clean up the Earth
Beaming Electricity from Space
The Vision Launch giant solar panels into orbit and send limitless clean energy back to Earth
The Plan By 2030, Japan hopes to pull its power from the heavens instead of from polluting coal plants. The idea is to send satellites into geostationary orbit above the equator, where they will unfurl 1.5-mile-long solar arrays and soak up the sun 24 hours a day. Transmitters mounted on the satellites would convert the solar energy into microwave energy and beam it down to terrestrial receiving stations. Equipped with massive antennas measuring two miles across, each station would produce one gigawatt of electricity—enough to power 500,000 homes. That’s twice as much as a typical coal-fired plant, and without any of the greenhouse emissions. "
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3) 1-3-2. 'UN Says Eat Less Meat To Curb Global Warming: Climate expert urges radical shift in diet' Juliette Jowit: Pub. Sept7,08 by The Guardian/UK: http://tinyurl.com/695xdw
: " Pachauri, who was re-elected the panel's chairman for a second six-year term last week, said diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems - including habitat destruction - associated with rearing cattle and other animals. It was relatively easy to change eating habits compared to changing means of transport, he said.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has estimated that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. These are generated during the production of animal feeds, for example, while ruminants, particularly cows, emit methane, which is 23 times more effective as a global warming agent than carbon dioxide. The agency has also warned that meat consumption is set to double by the middle of the century.
'In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,' said Pachauri. 'Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there,' said the Indian economist, who is a vegetarian. "
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3) 1-3-3. 'National Coal Day of Action in Over 50 Cities, Anti-Coal Movement on Rise:
Thousands to Protest Citi and Bank of America’s Coal Investments' CommonDreams.org, Nov13,08: http://tinyurl.com/6xt295
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3) 1. Earth:-------------------------
3) 1-4. 'Destroying African Agriculture' Walden Bello: Jun3,08: ed. John Feffer: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5271
: "" Biofuel production is certainly one of the culprits in the current global food crisis. But while the diversion of corn from food to biofuel feedstock has been a factor in food prices shooting up, the more primordial problem has been the conversion of economies that are largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers. Here the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) figure as much more important villains.
Whether in Latin America, Asia, or Africa, the story has been the same: the destabilization of peasant producers by a one-two punch of IMF-World Bank structural adjustment programs that gutted government investment in the countryside followed by the massive influx of subsidized U.S. and European Union agricultural imports after the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture pried open markets. "
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3) 1. Earth:------------------------
3) 1-5. 'GM: The Death Of Rice In India' Arun Shrivastava: Posted: July12,08, Mathaba.Net: From: Source: http://tinyurl.com/5f5799
Neither the Congress Party, nor BJP, nor CPM nor CPI, nor RSP, nor SP, nor Shiv Senanone has the guts or the political will to oppose the fraud of these multinational corporations. They have all been silenced.
: "" We will soon be eating genetically modified rice invented by seeds multinational corporations
Someone said, "Monsanto invented the pig.' Very soon we will learn, right here in India and Asia, that US and European seeds multinational corporations "invented" rice. And soon we shall be paying up front royalty to these companies for eating rice. Hold your breath; that situation is upon us.
I pose this question to you before you read further: What would you do to a company that claims it "invented rice" and wants its pound of flesh because you, Sirs and Madams, eat rice?
India is a rice country. Rice has been our staple for thousands of years. A French scientist had once said India has 200,000 varieties of rice. Other environmentalists say 100,000. Does it matter? In the traditional rice producing regions I found that the taste and shape of rice often differed from village to village. Not any more. Post green revolution, the varieties available in the market for commercial sowing has dropped to about fifty what must surely be called the greatest destruction of genetic diversity in any food crop anywhere in the world. "
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3) 2. America:-----------------------
3) 2-1. Cascadia: '...Cascadia Rising Tide and the Climate Convergence' Cascadia Rising Tide, Portland Independent Media Center: http://tinyurl.com/69kxdz
3) 2-2. CA: 'Governor Coordinates State Firefighting Effort with Local and Federal Partners' Jul2,08: http://www.calfires.com/
3) 2-3. 'State of Emergency for Central Valley Region's Severe Water Shortages' Jun12,08: http://gov.ca.gov/issue/disaster-preparedness/
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4) Other Areas:----------------------
4) 1. Mediterranean:
4) 1-1. Mediterranean Water:
'PAM: Water will influence future stability in the Mediterranean' from Mathaba: July7,08: http://tinyurl.com/5awh5t
: "" During the two day discussion, held in Cannes on the occasion of the 10th International Symposium on water, the debate focussed on the need for national parliaments of the PAM region to prioritize water resource management on their political agenda and recognize water as a resource of strategic importance.
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working on:
1) Formosan fine artist, Tsai Intang, and
2) Promotion of Taiwan's art worlds:
http://groups.google.com/group/bbcweb
3) ACdd, Armed Citizens direct democracy for world peace,
4) Pushing for a free/sovereign FF, Formosan Federation, starting from
5)NTHAN, North Taiwan Hakka Autonomous Nation, based in Hsinbu, NTHAN, FF, home of Tsai Intang:
http://tinyurl.com/FreeFormosa