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A vortex of death and wealth

Whatever the strategic — and humanitarian — considerations behind NATO/U.S. intervention in Libya, a larger force utterly indifferent to both, and seldom sufficiently newsworthy to merit mention, unites tyrant and rescuer and keeps the world tangled in an endless cycle of hellish violence far beyond the scope of the conflict that generates it.

I’m talking about the global arms trade, for which wars large and small, whatever their cause, whatever their “legitimacy,” are necessities without which the goods would not move. They’re also more than that, but not the sort of thing we salute or honor with granite statuary.

“This” — the Libyan no fly zone — “is turning into the best shop window for competing aircraft for years. More even than in Iraq in 2003,” said Francis Tusa, editor of the UK-based newsletter Defense Analysis, quoted in a recent Reuters article by Tim Hepher. For instance, enforcement of the no fly zone pitted two European-made jet fighters, the Typhoon and the Rafale, against one another for world leaders to view, and France, Tusa pointed out, “is particularly desperate to sell the Rafale.”

Military Tribunal May Hide 9/11 Motives

The Obama administration’s decision to use a military tribunal rather than a federal criminal court to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others means the real motives behind the 9/11 attacks may remain obscure.

The Likud Lobby and their allied U.S. legislators can chalk up a significant victory for substantially shrinking any opportunity for the accused planners of 9/11 to tell their side of the story.

What? I sense some bristling. “Their side of the story?” Indeed! We’ve been told there is no “their side of the story.”

For years, President George W. Bush got away with offering up the risible explanation that they “hate our freedoms.” The stenographers of the White House press corps may have had to suppress smiles but silently swallowed the “they-hate-us-for-our-freedoms” rationale.

The only journalist I can recall stepping up and asking, in effect, “Come on; now really; it’s important; why do the really hate us” was the indomitable Helen Thomas.

CIA suicide after a life of God and guns

BANGKOK, Thailand -- William Young, a former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary commander who used Burmese and Lao tribesmen to kill Communists in Laos during the 1960s, died at home of a bullet to the head, reportedly clutching a crucifix alongside a gun, prompting speculation that he committed suicide. He was 76.

"Killing was part of the job", Mr. Young told Edward Loxton, who said he had interviewed Mr. Young extensively.

Mr. Young "became a top CIA Vietnam War-era hit-man in the jungles of Burma, Laos and Thailand," Mr. Loxton wrote on Monday (April 4) in The First Post, a British publication.

"Mr. Young was in poor health," said Susan Stevenson, the U.S. consul general in Thailand's northern town of Chiang Mai, where Mr. Young died on Friday (April 1).

Police said he died of a gunshot wound to the head, with a pistol next to his right hand while his left hand clutched a crucifix, according to news reports.

"In many ways, Mr. Young's exploits in this part of the world mirrored those of the U.S.," the American consul said in a statement dated Monday (April 4).

All out for April 9 at the Statehouse against SB5

Kicking off the campaign to repeal the anti-union, anti-community bill SB 5, recently signing into law by Gov. Kasich, a major DEMONSTRATION has been called at the Ohio Statehouse for SATURDAY, APRIL 9 (Noon-3). There will be music, speakers from the various coalition groups and a great time!

SB 5 will destroy hard-won bargaining rights for public workers in Ohio, as well as restrict worker's polical rights. SB 5 is an attempt to blame hard-working families for the economic crisis which was caused by the greed of Wall Street financiers and the wealthy! The April 9 demo is an answer from Ohio's working families and their supporters.

BE THERE! Let your friends, family, co-workers know about the rally & BE THERE!

The Branches of Birtherism

From the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers: Reconciliation of Civil Hearts: The ordinary voice of peace from Afghanistan

Salam, ‘aleikum! - - ???? ?????!
We welcome you and the possibility of peace to this forgotten but gorgeous place.
We thank you for your hearts of peace in joining us today.
We, the ordinary youth of Afghanistan, have a message of peace for you, for all the respected leaders of our disconnected world and in particular, for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner President Obama.

We are struggling because it seems that nowadays, the voice of war has its space and its rights; we wonder if the voice of peace has equal space and rights. We wish to raise our voice of peace to give it a chance, without fear or shame.

We are the youth of the mountains who do not represent any political or religious views except for those views which make us truly human, capable of acting in love and truth, in good times as well as in tragedy.

We are tired of war and we share with brothers and sisters everywhere a common aspiration to live in peace.

We face great problems indeed but we also have courage because the magnificent Afghan outdoors surrounds us and we have within us an even greater desire for creative, non-violent solutions.

Ohio GOP sends a stealth death notice to public college teachers unions

An obscure clause that was slipped into Ohio's infamous anti-union Senate Bill 5 may spell the end of collective bargaining for the state's public college teachers.
SB-5 was passed in the face of bitter controversy and mass public demonstrations at the state capitol in Columbus. It was signed into law Thursday, March 31, by Ohio's new extreme right-wing Governor John Kasich.

But little attention has been paid to the following clause on page 272, which reads:

“With respect to members of a faculty of a state institution of higher education, any faculty who, individually or through a faculty senate or like organization, participate in the governance of the institution, are involved in personnel decisions, selection or review of administrators, planning and use of physical resources, budget preparation, and determination of educational policies related to admissions, curriculum, subject matter, and methods of instruction and research are management level employees.”


Photograph by Bob Studzinski


Ohio Fight Back Drive announces at Town Hall meeting

On the same day that Ohio Governor Kasich signed the vicious anti-labor bill, SB 5, Ohio’s labor movement announced the formation of a huge coalition to put that legislation on the ballot in November, and defeat it! While Kasich was preparing to sign SB 5, a massive crowd of angry workers took over the legislative rooms, shutting those chambers down for business. For over an hour, chants of “Kill the Bill,” “This is what Democracy looks like,” & “Kasich—Get Out” echoed thru the legislative chambers.

Signing of the bill, if anything, has increased the anger and militancy of unionists in the state. Instead of pessimism, labor and allies were holding mass meeting across the state, calling for the bill’s defeat. A rousing town hall meeting at the IBEW hall, legislators and labor called for a fightback against SB 5.

Deconstructing nuclear experts

Since the Fukushima accident we have seen a stream of experts on radiation telling us not to worry, that the doses are too low, that the accident is nothing like Chernobyl and so forth. They appear on television and we read their articles in the newspapers and online. Fortunately the majority of the public don’t believe them. I myself have appeared on television and radio with these people; one example was Ian Fells of the University of Newcastle who, after telling us all on BBC News that the accident was nothing like Chernobyl (wrong), and the radiation levels of no consequence (wrong), that the main problem was that there was no electricity and that the lifts didn’t work. ” If you have been in a situation when the lifts don’t work, as I have” he burbled on, “you will know what I mean.” You can see this interview on youtube and decide for yourself.

Insanity dawn

As the Tomahawk missiles, our million dollar babies, rained down on Gadaffi’s army and who knows what else these past couple weeks, I couldn’t help but feel the clenched American fist protruding over global events again.

Yeah, we’re back, world. How tragic that bellicose Republicans, in their indiscriminate hatred of Obama, have had to excuse themselves from the celebration, but still, Libya ain’t Egypt, and America is in its groove again, unwavering in its commitment to freedom. No hedged bets, no sir, not this time, not when freedom’s prelude is bombs, invasion and war.

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