Month: October 2010

excellent article by philip weiss.

seriously messed up. “In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption.” full article.

“Today, was the record worst day of my life, some kids at school stole some of my stuff that I got from people I really cared about, and that really pushed me over the top, next to being shoved into a wall, and my ribs being broken.” More here.

obama trying hard to appease racists at home: “The White House team which visited India last month ruled out Obama wearing the traditional scarf on his head. Indian officials were informally told that Obama wearing a headscarf to visit the Golden Temple may convey an image of him appearing to be a Muslim. This is one misinterpretation Obama’s advisors did not want at any cost, given the political sensitivities over this issue in the US.” Full article.

excellent three part lecture by dr wasfi on the war in iraq and its continuing horror.

Education, not incarceration: there are more African Americans under correctional control today, in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began, which is an interesting way to link your work today around the issue of prisons—the US has more prisoners than anywhere in the world… Watch more here.

Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the ICC. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Nevertheless the Accused have ordered and been responsible for the commission of ICC statutory crimes within the respective territories of many ICC member states, including several in Europe. Consequently, the ICC has jurisdiction to prosecute the Accused for their ICC statutory crimes. More here.

On October 18, 2010, when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke about her childhood and new book at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, she was confronted by five Bay Area activists who performed a citizens arrest for war crimes, lying the US into the invasion of Iraq and the murders of 5,000+ US soldiers and over 1 million Iraqi people. Disruptions occur throughout this 7.5 minute clip. Demand accountability.

is this for real??? soup > halal > ISNA > hamas > evil? full article here.

What really worries me is—I will say something very simple, almost commonsensical, that, you know, for me, I’m here always for censorship. Through democracy, tolerance, in an authentic sense, means that you simply cannot say certain things publicly. You are considered—you know, like if you say publicly an anti-Semitic, sexist joke, it’s unacceptable. Things which were unacceptable ten, fifteen years ago are now acceptable. And what I really am worried about is how the far right, what was twenty years ago the domain of the far right, is setting—even if they are a minority, they are setting the general agenda. Watch more here.

Noting that the United States spends over twice as much per capita on health care than other industrialized nations, it adds: “The observation that Americans are spending relatively more on health but living relatively shorter, less healthy lives has led some critics to allege that the US health care system is ‘uniquely inefficient.'” Full article.

didn’t know about this memorial in rochester. full article here.