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Violence worsens in Bangkok's "Insurrection"

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Violence worsened on Monday (Dec. 2) between anti-government mobs using a hijacked bulldozer, fire engine, garbage truck and homemade explosives to attack police who responded for the first time with rubber bullets after the prime minister rejected the insurrectionists' demands to cancel Thailand's elections and submit to a dictatorial "people's council".

The Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban on Monday (Dec. 2) on charges of insurrection, punishable by life imprisonment or death under the Criminal Code's Section 113.

Insurrection under Section 113 includes anyone who "threatens to commit an act of violence" to "overthrow" the government or "seize the power."

Mr. Suthep responded on Monday (Dec. 2) night by taunting the police to "catch him" and said they should defect to his side or else his protesters would strip them of their uniforms.

"We will seize Bangkok's police headquarters" on Tuesday (Dec. 3), Mr. Suthep told his protesters occupying offices in a government complex.

Mr. Suthep said the military, by contrast, would not hurt protestors

Stop the blank check to Israel, stop funding human rights violations

December 10th was Human Rights Day. This day is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the importance of human rights in our increasingly interconnected world. Human Rights are basic freedoms to which all humans are entitled: the right to life, the freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law. But are these rights applied equally, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and other differences?

Last month I traveled on a two-week delegation to Palestine and Israel organized by Interfaith Peace-Builders. During my trip, I spoke with many individuals, both Israeli and Palestinian, and heard their personal stories. With every experience, my eyes were opened to the harsh reality of life in this region. I couldn’t help but feel outraged, knowing that the U.S. government is an ally that provides major funding to the Israeli government.

Bangkok crippled & government offices seized

BANGKOK, Thailand -- In the biggest anti-government street protest in years, tens of thousands of people crippled Bangkok on Monday (Nov. 25), storming and occupying the Finance Ministry and swarming around military, police and other buildings, demanding the elected prime minister resign.

"I invite protesters to stay here overnight at the Finance Ministry," tough-talking protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told supporters at the multi-story building.

"I urge other protesters to do the same and seize other government buildings and offices around the country," Mr. Suthep said.

"I have no intention to resign or dissolve the House," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters in response.

"The cabinet can still function, even though we are facing some difficulties. All sides have shown their political aims, now they must turn to face each other and talk, in order to find a peaceful way out for the country."

Police said the protesters occupying the Finance Ministry's Budget Bureau and Auditor General's Office would face prosecution.

The mob told officials in both buildings to get out, officials said.

What didn't kill Mandela made him stronger

Nelson Mandela's story, if told as a novel, would not be deemed possible in real life. Worse, we don't tell such stories in many of our novels.

A violent young rebel is imprisoned for decades but turns that imprisonment into the training he needs. He turns to negotiation, diplomacy, reconciliation. He negotiates free elections, and then wins them. He forestalls any counter-revolution by including former enemies in his victory. He becomes a symbol of the possibility for the sort of radical, lasting change of which violence has proved incapable. He credits the widespread movement in his country and around the world that changed cultures for the better while he was locked away. But millions of people look to the example of his personal interactions and decisions as having prevented a blood bath.

I Googled "Evil" and it took me to Google

Google may have been, unil now, the Obama of hip internet monopolies. No matter how many nations the President bombs, people still put Obama peace-sign stickers on their cars. No matter how many radical rightwing initiatives Google funds, people still think it's a "progressive corporation" -- How could it not be? It's making progress!

Google is funding Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the Federalist Society, the American Conservative Union, and the political arm of the Heritage Foundation.

And there's more really bad news: Google is funding ALEC, the powerful, secretive, and destructive lobbying force from which many companies concerned with their public images are fleeing. ALEC is in the news this week, holding its 40th annual meeting. Together with allies, RootsAction.org is applying as much pressure as we can. And it might just be that the tide is turning. Google just might have to start worrying about whether its users favor plutocratic plundering or not.

Return of the Golden Calf

’Tis the season to feel rage and heartache about the economy.

I feel hope as well, praise the Lord, thanks to Pope Francis and the alley behind my house, where nothing of value goes to waste.

I’m the kind of person who can’t throw anything away, but sometimes I have to anyway — an old microwave, a sewing machine that hasn’t been used in 20 years, a threadbare easy chair, tangled computer wires and other excruciating miscellany — and when I do, it’s usually gone within a day, if not an hour. When I can no longer find value in what I possess, others see it as a gift from the universe.

The alley economy flows though my Chicago neighborhood 24/7, a sort of gift economy that continually revitalizes one’s material possessions, in unnoticed defiance of the official, throwaway, money-profit-growth economy that has its claws around our world and is squeezing us to death. The alley economy is, in fact, part of a rudimentary social ecosystem, where forces collude for the common good and nothing is wasted.

Under the Global Shadow of Big Brother, Journalism Must Light Up the Political Sky

Every new revelation about the global reach of the National Security Agency underscores that the extremism of the surveillance state has reached gargantuan proportions. The Washington Post just reported that the NSA “is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world.” Documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden have forced top officials in Washington to admit the indefensible while defending it. One of the main obstacles to further expansion of their Orwellian empire is real journalism.

Real journalism is “subversive” of deception that can’t stand the light of day. This is a huge problem for the Obama administration and the many surveillance-state flunkies of both parties in Congress. What they want is fake journalism, deferring to government storylines and respectful of authority even when it is illegitimate.

Will Speaker John Boehner apologize for his latest lie?

This week, Boehner helped aggressively spread the story of a New York man unable to cover his toddler on his new family insurance plan through the Affordable Care Act.
Turns out that, despite coverage in the New York Post, the man's appearance on Fox, and Boehner's posts on his website and Twitter account, the man was simply mistaken—he'd typed the wrong number when listing his family members. "100% false," as a spokesman for New York's Department of Health said. "Of course, everyone is covered in the family policy."
This is just one of many mistaken, falsified, or debunked stories being spread since the rollout of the new health care exchanges. The difference this time? Boehner has yet to apologize, edit the post on his website, or even delete the tweet he posted. He's apparently standing by this story.

But it's one thing for the media to settle for bad journalism—it's another for the nation's most powerful lawmaker to go around perpetuating lies. Can you join other MoveOn members in publicly calling on Boehner to apologize?

Open our eyes

While catching up with one another over the challenges facing ordinary Afghans and Egyptians, Sherif Sameer and I talked about how ‘opening our eyes’ could go a long way to building a better world. We decided to co-write this piece, from Ismailia, Egypt and Kabul, Afghanistan.



Open Our Eyes in Egypt

The truth is there, clear and burning like a sun. We only need to open our eyes and take a look. ‘Our eyes’ means ‘our minds’. The mind is that big thing on top of our necks inside of our heads, and it has a function called ‘thinking’. Just last year, I was taken from my village in Egypt to spend some time in Spain, because I wrote a short story and won a prize. There, I noticed that I was walking around with a belief in the cleanliness and accuracy of everything. I was drinking tap water believing it was so pure and clean, eating food as if it was coming from heaven, even after I got diarrhoea and had to take medicine. I believed that the medicine will cure me like magic. I had faith in absolutes and that meant that my mind was dysfunctional.

And so the fracking cover up begins

A headline in the Saturday, November 30 Columbus Dispatch screamed: “Family’s well not tainted by driller.” The lead asserts that, “Natural gas that caught fire after it bubbled from a faucet in a Portage County house did not come from a nearby shale well, state officials have concluded.” The question is, can we trust these state officials?

The investigation conducted by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) needs to be closely examined. The ODNR is at best a “captured agency” which has been accused repeatedly of promoting the oil and gas industry and specifically fracking, the practice of horizontal drilling.

The freepress.org reported earlier this year that formal complaints were filed against ODNR employees for falsifying “production records on wells.” Reports were also made to the FBI that the ODNR was covering up 1200 gas wells that were on record without tax ID numbers in southern Ohio. By leaving out ID numbers, the wells’ ownership can often be hidden so public doesn’t know who is responsible for the pollution.

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