Global
Despite what our leaders may profess, U.S. directed torture continues and efforts to obtain redress for victims and accountability from perpetrators are met with systematic obstruction. We know we cannot rely on government, at any level, to take the initiative for accountability.
But we must not be bystanders.
Six years have passed since the release of the gruesome photos of torture at Abu Ghraib, and it is well past the deadline President Obama set for closing the prison camps at Guantanamo. Yet this Administration has steadfastly refused to seek accountability for U.S.-sponsored torture—the murderous extent of which is still being revealed—and invokes the “state secrets” privilege to obstruct prosecution when torture victims, some released without charge, seek legal redress.
These issues are never easy to confront. They require us to break through our denial, take in the horror, and hold it in awareness while we organize for action.
But we must not be bystanders.
Six years have passed since the release of the gruesome photos of torture at Abu Ghraib, and it is well past the deadline President Obama set for closing the prison camps at Guantanamo. Yet this Administration has steadfastly refused to seek accountability for U.S.-sponsored torture—the murderous extent of which is still being revealed—and invokes the “state secrets” privilege to obstruct prosecution when torture victims, some released without charge, seek legal redress.
These issues are never easy to confront. They require us to break through our denial, take in the horror, and hold it in awareness while we organize for action.
Kenneth Ring’s writing on Palestine has already received just praise, as it is another in a series of recently published works that cry from the heart of Palestine.[1] And while I have read many other books on Palestine, “Letters from Palestine”, as with others that are set within a personal context, brings forth the undying hope and resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of severe hostility from Israel and a careless disregard from most of the western media and governments. What come through uniquely from this work is that of hope combined with youthfulness, that the Palestinian story will surely go on and on as long as there are Palestinians to relate it.
The injustices perpetrated by the Zionists of Israel, supported by the awkward and embarrassing sycophantic participation of the U.S. government (read also military and corporations), cannot endure forever. It is from these letters from Palestine that spring the message that the Palestinians will not grow old and die off and there will be no one left to remember that there was a Palestine. There is life, there is hope, there is memory.
The injustices perpetrated by the Zionists of Israel, supported by the awkward and embarrassing sycophantic participation of the U.S. government (read also military and corporations), cannot endure forever. It is from these letters from Palestine that spring the message that the Palestinians will not grow old and die off and there will be no one left to remember that there was a Palestine. There is life, there is hope, there is memory.
The peace movement has made significant progress in the United States since its low point of late 2008, and just about everything anyone in it has done has been a contribution. If everyone keeps doing what they're doing, and more of it, we might just end some wars, eventually. But I think some techniques are working better than others, and that pursuing the most strategic approaches would make victory likelier sooner and longer-lasting when it comes.
For the warfare state, it doesn’t get any better than 99 to 0.
Every living senator voted Wednesday to approve Gen. David Petraeus as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
Call it the unanimity of lemmings -- except the senators and their families aren’t the ones who’ll keep plunging into the sea.
No, the killing and suffering and dying will be left to others: American soldiers who, for the most part, had scant economic opportunities in civilian life. And Afghans trapped between terrible poverty and escalating violence.
The senatorial conformity, of course, won’t lack for rationales. It rarely does.
An easy default position is that the president has the right to select his top military officers. (Then why is Senate confirmation required?) Or: This is a pivotal time for the war in Afghanistan. (All the more reason for senators to take responsibility instead of serving as a rubber stamp for the White House.)
Every living senator voted Wednesday to approve Gen. David Petraeus as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
Call it the unanimity of lemmings -- except the senators and their families aren’t the ones who’ll keep plunging into the sea.
No, the killing and suffering and dying will be left to others: American soldiers who, for the most part, had scant economic opportunities in civilian life. And Afghans trapped between terrible poverty and escalating violence.
The senatorial conformity, of course, won’t lack for rationales. It rarely does.
An easy default position is that the president has the right to select his top military officers. (Then why is Senate confirmation required?) Or: This is a pivotal time for the war in Afghanistan. (All the more reason for senators to take responsibility instead of serving as a rubber stamp for the White House.)
When the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were first declared, they were met with a sense of promise. A decade later, despite all the official insistence that all is on track, it is increasingly clear that this approach to development was flawed from the onset.
For ten years, numerous committees, international and local organizations and independent researchers have tirelessly mulled over all sorts of indicators, numbers, charts and statistical data relating to extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, child mortality, and so on.
The conclusions derived from all the data weren’t necessarily grim. And the sincerity of the many men and women who have indefatigably worked to ensure that the eight international development goals – agreed to by all 192 UN member states and over 20 international organizations – were fully implemented, cannot in any way be discounted. They were the ones who brought the issue to the fore, and they continue to push forward with resolve and determination.
For ten years, numerous committees, international and local organizations and independent researchers have tirelessly mulled over all sorts of indicators, numbers, charts and statistical data relating to extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, child mortality, and so on.
The conclusions derived from all the data weren’t necessarily grim. And the sincerity of the many men and women who have indefatigably worked to ensure that the eight international development goals – agreed to by all 192 UN member states and over 20 international organizations – were fully implemented, cannot in any way be discounted. They were the ones who brought the issue to the fore, and they continue to push forward with resolve and determination.
Amidst a grassroots uproar over funding for the military, the nuclear power industry has again forced $9 billion in loan guarantees onto an "emergency" war appropriations bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Citizen opposition helped delay a similar vote scheduled last month. Now green energy advocates are again asked to call Congress immediately.
The move comes as part of a larger push for federal funding for a "new generation" of reactors.
Because independent investors won’t fund them, the reactor industry has spent some $645 million in the last decade lobbying Congress and the White House for taxpayer money.
This $9 billion is for two new reactors proposed for the South Texas site, on the Gulf of Mexico, and another at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland.
Continued operations of the two reactors now at South Texas are threatened by oil gushing from BP’s Deepwater Horizon. Calvert Cliffs is just 40 miles from the nation’s capital.
Citizen opposition helped delay a similar vote scheduled last month. Now green energy advocates are again asked to call Congress immediately.
The move comes as part of a larger push for federal funding for a "new generation" of reactors.
Because independent investors won’t fund them, the reactor industry has spent some $645 million in the last decade lobbying Congress and the White House for taxpayer money.
This $9 billion is for two new reactors proposed for the South Texas site, on the Gulf of Mexico, and another at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland.
Continued operations of the two reactors now at South Texas are threatened by oil gushing from BP’s Deepwater Horizon. Calvert Cliffs is just 40 miles from the nation’s capital.
Today great progress was made to lessen the suffering of millions of farmed animals in Ohio - progress that is a direct result of the tireless effort of our volunteers and supporters.
For months, Mercy For Animals has been on the ground, in the streets, and behind-the-scenes working diligently to mobilize support and gather signatures as part of the Ohioans for Humane Farm's campaign to place an initiative on the November ballot that would phase out cruel factory farming practices in the state.
Just recently, once it became known that animal advocates had gathered enough signatures to put the initiative on the ballot, animal agriculture finally agreed to discuss meaningful reforms.!
And today, just hours before over 500,000 signatures were slated to be filed, a major animal protection agreement was reached - preventing costly and contentious campaigning.
Mere hours ago, a landmark settlement was reached between animal protection advocates, Gov. Ted Strickland, and the Ohio agribusiness lobby.
For months, Mercy For Animals has been on the ground, in the streets, and behind-the-scenes working diligently to mobilize support and gather signatures as part of the Ohioans for Humane Farm's campaign to place an initiative on the November ballot that would phase out cruel factory farming practices in the state.
Just recently, once it became known that animal advocates had gathered enough signatures to put the initiative on the ballot, animal agriculture finally agreed to discuss meaningful reforms.!
And today, just hours before over 500,000 signatures were slated to be filed, a major animal protection agreement was reached - preventing costly and contentious campaigning.
Mere hours ago, a landmark settlement was reached between animal protection advocates, Gov. Ted Strickland, and the Ohio agribusiness lobby.
General Petreaus is being confirmed today as the new commander of the war in Afghanistan. His confirmation hearing in Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, chaired by Senator Carl Levin, was noteworthy only because of the Senators’ refusal to ask critical questions about the 9-year-old war that has claimed the lives of over 1,000 soldiers and countless Afghans. The only debate in the hearing centered on whether there should be a timeline of July 2011 to begin the drawdown of US forces, or whether our commitment should be open-ended. Questioning the war itself, as the majority of Americans now do, was only done by the CODEPINK activists in the audience, who were constantly threatened with arrest as they held up signs saying “New General, Old Graveyard”, “Obama’s Vietnam” or simply “No More War!”
Leon Panetta is resorting to lies to justify war against Iran. This statement in particular is misleading on several levels:
"Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta told ABC's 'This Week' television program that the agency thinks Iran has enough low-enriched uranium now for two weapons, but that Tehran would have to further enrich the material first."
Notice, folks, I am NOT a magician, have nothing up my sleeves, have no espionage credentials, nothing except Wikipedia.
But I know this: that without highly-enriched uranium (i.e., 85% or greater U-235 content), it is not possible to have a nuclear weapon capable of missile delivery.
Remember "Fat Man" and "Little Boy," the Nagasaki and Hiroshima nuclear bombs? Fat Man weighed 10,200 lbs. - over 5 tons - and was so large that modifications had to be made to the largest bomber of the day in order to deliver it.
The same was true of Little Boy - which weighed 8,800 lbs. (4.4 tons).
"Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta told ABC's 'This Week' television program that the agency thinks Iran has enough low-enriched uranium now for two weapons, but that Tehran would have to further enrich the material first."
Notice, folks, I am NOT a magician, have nothing up my sleeves, have no espionage credentials, nothing except Wikipedia.
But I know this: that without highly-enriched uranium (i.e., 85% or greater U-235 content), it is not possible to have a nuclear weapon capable of missile delivery.
Remember "Fat Man" and "Little Boy," the Nagasaki and Hiroshima nuclear bombs? Fat Man weighed 10,200 lbs. - over 5 tons - and was so large that modifications had to be made to the largest bomber of the day in order to deliver it.
The same was true of Little Boy - which weighed 8,800 lbs. (4.4 tons).