Category: politics

On April 29, 2010, a “Teach-In on Capitol Hill,” was held in Washington, D.C., dealing with the question of what the U.S. Congress must do to end the U.S. Wars and secure a peaceful Middle East. One of the five panelists at the event was Jeremy Scahill. He is an investigative reporter and the author of the best-selling book, “Blackwater:The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.” During Q&A, he addressed a query dealing with torture. Mr. Scahill said: “Torture is ongoing under the Obama adminstration…at Guantanamo and… around the world.” He described in detail one of the gruesome torture techniques still currently in use. Full article.

Peace activists can hasten an end to the U.S. war in Afghanistan by demanding a timetable for U.S. military withdrawal. A bill in the U.S. Congress introduced by Representatives McGovern and Jones, requires such a timetable. In the Senate, a similar bill has been introduced by Senator Feingold. Arguments in favor of a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan should include readiness to examine disturbing patterns of misinformation regarding U.S./NATO attacks against Afghan civilians. Full article.

“taking sides is very important right now. either you’re with the occupiers, or you’re with the occupied. end of discussion. NO cooperation with war crimes.” (nora barrows-friedman)

The western media will continue to reduce non-Westerners, for they have a vested interest in doing so, and it has become habitual. A first step in overcoming this would be to empower our own local and regional media, and to create rapports amongst them. We can only challenge the abhorrent narratives about us when we start to present our own truth and experience, and support others to do the same. More here.

Could the BP oil spill in the Gulf be a Katrina moment for Obama? Yesterday, he brought up the spill during a Rose Garden ceremony with school teachers, honoring the “National Teacher of the Year,” lamely joking: “I am sure there may be a few science teachers here who have been following this issue closely with their classes, and if you guys have any suggestions, please let us know.” [Obama and audience chuckle politely.] Meanwhile, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry was defending BP’s (thus far woefully unsuccessful) clean-up and containment efforts, saying: “BP, from Day 1, has attempted to be very responsive and be a very responsible spiller.” Really? BP is being a “responsible spiller” and Obama is joking about taking disaster management advice from grade school students and teachers, and all of this a mere month after he opened areas of the Atlantic coast, Gulf coast of Florida, and northern coast of Alaska to offshore drilling for the first time? (Ryan Hunt)

Read: Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time – NYTimes.com

Arizona was the only territory west of Texas to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy during the Civil War. A century later, it fought recognition of the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday. This week, an anti-immigrant bill was signed into law by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 empowers state and local law enforcement to stop, question and arrest whoever they suspect may not be in the state legally. The law is an open invitation to sweeping racial profiling and arbitrary detention. More here.

On Tuesday April 27, 2010, Fahad Hashmi took a government plea bargain. He pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy for allowing an acquaintance to store waterproof socks, ponchos and raincoats in his apartment. The government dropped the other 3 charges. Fahad made this decision after having served 3 long years in solitary confinement and one day after Judge Preska approved the government’s recent request for an anonymous jury with extra security measures. In addition to the use of secret evidence and indefinite solitary confinement in Fahad’s case, the move to have an anonymous jury raised already heightened concerns as to whether a fair trial was even possible. With sentencing to happen on June 7, Fahad faces a maximum of 15 years, as opposed to the 70 years he might have faced if he had been convicted on all 4 counts. With time already served (4 years total) and considerations for good behavior, Fahad could be out in less than 10 years. It is of note that on the eve of the trial the government was willing to shave 55 years off the potential sentence. Full article.

There are many reasons to favor modesty and even rapprochement between persons on both sides of the theism/atheism divide. First and most obviously, neither theists nor atheists can know whether God exists. When questions about ultimate reality are raised, we have left the field of secure knowledge for the terrain of searching intuition. All are engaged in the hard labor of interpreting experience. We may have a high degree of confidence that our reading of experience is well grounded, but no one is afforded the luxury of proof. Adopting a measure of confidence that correlates well with the degree of certainty possible within a given discipline is a pragmatic mark of prudence. Theology is not Euclidean geometry! Full article.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan affect every living American well beyond the impact of the flesh-and-blood conflicts we occasionally see on TV. The issue of who is still getting rich off those wars, how our society has been wired to blindly support a permanent state of war, and why we hear so little about these all-consuming matters, remain deeply pressing and of deadly importance. More here.

A War Crimes Tribunal as well as a War Crimes Commission were set up by renowned jurists. Documentary evidence of war crimes committed by Blair and Bush has been carefully compiled and collected since 2006. The prosecution is led by several of Malaysia’s most prominent lawyers. Dr Mahathir in a public statement “expressed disgust at the companies that had sponsored Blair’s visit here. ‘How can you sponsor and get advice from a liar? Do you also intend to lie in carrying out your business?’ he asked.” Rather than mingling with delegates to the venue, Blair was hiding in the VIP lounge of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, surrounded by British and Malaysian security personnel. Upon entering the main convention hall, Tony Blair was very close to being served with an indictment for war crimes. More here.

Since NAFTA went into effect, income in Mexico dropped, while millions of workers lost [their] jobs and farmers their land. If we do not change U.S. trade policy, millions of displaced people will continue to come, no matter how many walls we build. “People working without papers will be fired and even imprisoned under their proposal, and raids will increase. Vulnerability makes it harder for people to defend their rights, organize unions and raise wages. That keeps the price of immigrant labor low. Every worker will have to show a national ID card (an idea too extreme even for the Bush administration). This will not stop people from coming to the United States, but it will produce more immigration raids, firings and a much larger detention system.” More here.

Malachi Ritscher is a unique casualty of the Iraq war. He publicly burned himself to death, as a protest rather than pay taxes that would go to kill others in the Iraq War. He committed the most painful form of suicide in a public way to bring attention to the case for ending the war. This is from his “Mission Statement,” the internet suicide note he left, which the corporate press completely ignored. Thanks to the failings of this press to provide coverage and perspective, instead of just passing on propaganda, the war continues…

kudos to all those who protested in syracuse last sunday: About 30 people from the Rochester Against War organization were in Syracuse to take part in a rally protesting the use of military drones being controlled from Central New York. “We’re there to say we don’t want these drones to be remotely controlled from Syracuse. The local representative in Syracuse said this is a Jobs program, but we don’t think creating jobs in an economy like this should be at the expense of other peoples’ lives in other countries” said Brian Lenzo of Rochester Against War. More here.

the crazies hail from everywhere – not just the muslim world.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the family of a slain Marine to pay $16,510.80 in court costs to a congregation that organized an anti-gay protest during the Marine’s funeral. The congregation, which claims God is using soldiers’ deaths to punish America for “the sin of homosexuality,” plans to use some of that money to fund more demonstrations at soldiers’ funerals.

Seems like the only people being punished here are grieving family members of the dead soldiers.

“By the court making this decision, they’re not only telling me that they’re taking their side, but I have to pay them money to do this to more soldiers and their families,” Albert Snyder, whose son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, was killed in action in Iraq in 2006, told CNN.

The court’s order follows its ruling earlier this month in favor of the free speech and assembly rights of the protesters from Westboro Baptist Church, who waved signs saying “God hates the USA”, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and signs with anti-gay slurs at Snyder’s funeral in Maryland.

The Snyder family sued the congregation in 2007, claiming privacy invasion, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy. A jury awarded the family $2.9 million in compensatory damages plus $8 million in punitive damages, amounts later reduced to $5 million. The congregation appealed and earlier this month the 4th Circuit reversed the jury’s verdict. Full article.