Paul Craig Roberts: US should listen to Putin + Putin’s Speech

Dandelion Salad

RussiaToday

Washington should listen to anti-crisis measures proposed by Vladimir Putin, according to Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary of the U.S Treasury during the Reagan Administration.

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Putin speaks out at Davos’ opening

Higher Ground, by William Bowles

By William Bowles
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
30 January 2009

I am a third generation lefty, my parents and grandparents on both sides were lefties of one flavour or another, but I think I am the first one to actually write pretty much full time about events from left field.

Throughout my three-score and some on this planet it’s gone from bad to better to worse to downright disastrous, the process propelled by the insane ‘logic’ of capital.

Trying to chart the ebb and flow of it all is not easy, it’s complex and contradictory, just as we human beings are and sometimes I just get sick and tired of the whole damn thing and wonder why I even bother. There’s no money [in] it, exposure to an awful lot of grief, misery and injustice that I have absolutely no control over, so why do it?

The glib answer would be that somebody has to, but in fact nobody forced me to, the imperative comes from somewhere far deeper, triggered I suspect in my childhood and not just because I grew up surrounded by Reds.

I venture to guess that at the risk of going all Freudian, Jungian, Bethelheimian or whatever, the catalyst was the simple fact that I was different, that in turn forced me onto the ‘outside’ as it were, looking in.

Israel faces calls for Gaza war crimes probe + Turkish PM clashes with Israel

Dandelion Salad

AlJazeeraEnglish

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is seeking to punish Israel for alleged war crimes. He has called for an international investigation panel.

Al Jazeera has been out with Amnesty International investigators conducting house-to-house searches in Gaza and collecting all of the evidence, such as shrapnel fragments, that will aid in the investigation.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Awad reports.

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Turkish PM clashes with Israel

‘Iran and Syria trying to replace PLO’ + Thousands of al-Qaeda supporters active in Gaza

Updated: 1.31.09 added another story

Propaganda Alert

compiled by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
27 January, 2009

http://www.jpost.com/…

excerpts from: ‘Iran and Syria trying to replace PLO‘

by Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, 29 January 2009

The Palestinian Authority [PA] on Thursday accused Iran and Syria of encouraging Hamas and other radical groups to establish a new leadership that would challenge the [Palestine Liberation Organisation] PLO’s claim to be the “sole and legitimate” representative of the Palestinians. The PA is an organ of the PLO.

The PA fears that the potential new leadership, which would be headed by Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, would be recognized by several Islamic governments that are unhappy with President Mahmoud Abbas.

The PA is also worried because the idea of replacing the PLO is being backed by prominent Arab political analysts, newspaper editors and even veteran Fatah leader Farouk Kaddoumi.

[...]

Mashaal on Wednesday surprised the PA by announcing that the current circumstances require the Palestinians to start thinking about the creation of a new leadership that would represent all Palestinians.

The PLO was no longer the legitimate representative of the Palestinians “because of its role in deepening divisions among the Palestinians,” he said.

His declaration has won the backing of all the Damascus-based Palestinian groups, including Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command headed by Ahmed Jibril.

[...]

Hussein a-Sheikh, a senior Fatah operative in the West Bank, called for organizing protests against Mashaal’s comments.

“This is an Iranian-Syrian plot against the PLO,” he said.

[...]

A Fatah leaflet distributed in Nablus on Thursday lashed out at former MK [member of the Israeli parliament Knesset] Azmi Bishara for supporting the idea [...] The leaflet condemned all those who support Hamas as “mercenaries” working for Iran, Syria and Qatar.

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Updated

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3664480,00.html

excerpt from: Thousands of al-Qaeda supporters active in Gaza

by Ali Waked, Ynetnews, 31 January 2009

Thousands of global Jihad supporters, mostly concentrated in southern Gaza, are currently active in the Strip according to a Ynet inquiry with various Palestinian sources.

According to Ynet’s inquiry, the overwhelming majority of Qaeda supporters are in fact Hamas or Popular Resistance Commiittees (PRC) members who were unimipressed with Hamas’ decision to join the political establishment and run in the Palestinian elections. These members claimed that this prompted Hamas to abandon the path of Jihad, which they felt is the only way to liberate Palestinian lands from Israel’s control.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

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Mosaic News – 1/29/09: World News From The Middle East

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Mosaic News – 1/29/09: World News From The Middle East

Dandelion Salad

Warning

.

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

linktv

Mosaic needs your help! Donate here: http://linktv.org/contribute

Headlines coming soon. Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.

more about “Mosaic News – 1/29/09: World News Fro…“, posted with vodpod

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Elections in Iraq

Gaza farmers devastated by war

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Tax Solution to Wretched Greed, by Joel S. Hirschhorn

by Joel S. Hirschhorn
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
www.foavc.org
January 30, 2009

By now most Americans have experienced extreme disgust upon hearing about the nearly $20 billion in bonuses given to people in New York City’s financial sector at the end of 2008. After sending the nation into the current economic black hole there is no way of comprehending the audacity of financial company executives in giving themselves and their colleagues shameful rewards for abysmal and disgraceful performance. Other than screaming and moaning about all this dishonorable behavior what should the Obama administration and Congress do?

Here is the solution that the overwhelming majority of Americans should demand: A law should be immediately passed that imposes a new special federal income tax of 99 percent on all income in excess of $500,000 annually for single taxpayers and $1 million for couples, starting for 2008 income. Call it a greed tax. Call it justice. Call it getting even for too many years of uncontrolled greed that has given the nation nothing but economic injustice and inequality, and given capitalism a very bad name. Call it a sensible way to raise federal revenues to help offset the cancerous national debt.

Considering that nearly all of the people who received the 2008 bonuses also received high salaries and even larger bonuses in previous years, and the many billions of dollars of federal dollars going into bailouts of companies, there should be no qualms about such a greed tax. For example, in the two previous years a total of about $70 billion in bonuses were received by these greedy financial sector elites.

Even outside the financial sector, executives also received obscene bonuses in 2008 despite terrible performance. The compensation research firm Equilar, for example, reports that the average performance-based bonuses for top executives, other than the chief executive, at 132 companies with revenues of more than $1 billion increased by 14 percent, to an average of $265,594, in the 2008 fiscal year, in addition to high salaries.

As just one of countless examples of greed, consider that the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Mark Hurd, received $42.5 million in 2008 pay. He had received over $20 million in signing inducements in 2005. During his tenure some 40,000 jobs have been eliminated at H-P. And consider this nice little perk: In 2008 the company also paid out about $181,000 for his business meals.

And then there is the case of Robert Rubin at Citigroup. During his nine years there the company lost over $65 billion. What did Rubin earn? He pocketed $126 million. What did he say when he left? “I bet there’s not a single year where I couldn’t have gone somewhere else and made more.”

Enough already. Drastic action is needed to achieve some justice. With all the attention on the Obama stimulus plan based on spending money the nation does not really have or can afford, it is appropriate to use this proposal to raise more revenues. Tax greed!

[Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn through www.delusionaldemocracy.com.]

see

Is It Time to Bail Out of the US? – Astonishing Incongruities By Paul Craig Roberts

Match This for Stupidity: Taxing a House of Cards, by Walter Brasch

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse 2

Joel S. Hirschhorn on Dandelion Salad

Food Safety after largest recall in FDA history + Salmonella outbreak forces major recall

Dandelion Salad

Updated: 2.02.09 added another story

Democracy Now!
1.29.09

Food Safety: Georgia Plant Knowingly Shipped Contaminated Peanuts; Study Links Corn Syrup to Toxic Mercury

We look at two stories on food safety. The FDA has issued one of the largest food recalls in history after eight people died of salmonella poisoning. A Georgia peanut plant knowingly shipped products contaminated with salmonella on a dozen occasions over the past two years. And a pair of new studies has revealed traces of toxic mercury can be found in many popular food items containing high-fructose corn syrup. The sweetener has become a widely used substitute for sugar in processed foods, including many items marketed toward children. [includes rush transcript]

Real Video Stream

Real Audio Stream

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via Democracy Now! | Food Safety: Georgia Plant Knowingly Shipped Contaminated Peanuts; Study Links Corn Syrup to Toxic Mercury.

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Updated

US: Nationwide salmonella outbreak forces major recall, plant closure

By Naomi Spencer
/www.wsws.org
2 February 2009

On January 30, the federal Food and Drug Administration announced it was opening a criminal investigation into food safety violations at a Georgia peanut plant responsible for a nationwide salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people and killed at least 8 since September. Over 100 children under the age of five are among those who have been made seriously ill by the contaminated food.

After concluding a two-week investigation of the plant last week, the FDA issued an advisory to dispose of every product containing peanuts processed there within the past two years. The recall, one of the largest in US history, extends to over 430 different foods made with peanut products from the Blakely, Georgia facility run by Peanut Corporation of America. The recall has been extended to markets in Canada and Europe.

[...]

via US: Nationwide salmonella outbreak forces major recall, plant closure.

Like countless other food poisoning outbreaks in the past few years, the latest salmonella outbreak emphasizes the vulnerability of the country’s food supply and the toothless regulatory system charged with overseeing it. Public health, revealed time and again to be fundamentally incompatible with private profit, can only be ensured through public control of production, including organization of the food supply and its essential industry.

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Food on Dandelion Salad

Countdown: Rove Subpoenas + Rove’s Claim of Executive Privilege

Dandelion Salad

heathr456

Keith talks to Jerrold Nadler about Karl Rove’s claim of executive privilege and whether he will appear before Congress on Monday.

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Rachel Maddow Show: Michael Isikoff on Rove’s Claim of Executive Privilege

Rachel Maddow talks to Michael Isikoff about Karl Rove’s claim of Executive privilege and just before leaving office Bush sent Rove’s lawyer a letter saying that he was immune from any future subpoenas.

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Obama to Face Test on Executive Privilege After Rove Subpoenaed Again Over Attorney Firings, Siegelman Prosecution

Countdown: Wiretapping, Torture and Rove Subpoena + Ghost Detainees (updated)

Conyers Subpoenas Karl Rove: “It’s Time to Talk”

Neither The US Nor Israel Is A “Genuine Party To Peace” By Noam Chomsky

Dandelion Salad

By Noam Chomsky
January 28, 2009 “Information Clearinghouse“

Barack Obama is recognized to be a person of acute intelligence, a legal scholar, careful with his choice of words. He deserves to be taken seriously – both what he says, and what he omits. Particularly significant is his first substantive statement on foreign affairs, on January 22, at the State Department, when introducing George Mitchell to serve as his special envoy for Middle East peace.

Mitchell is to focus his attention on the Israel-Palestine problem, in the wake of the recent US-Israeli invasion of Gaza. During the murderous assault, Obama remained silent apart from a few platitudes, because, he said, there is only one president – a fact that did not silence him on many other issues. His campaign did, however, repeat his statement that “if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that.” He was referring to Israeli children, not the hundreds of Palestinian children being butchered by US arms, about whom he could not speak, because there was only one president.

On January 22, however, the one president was Barack Obama, so he could speak freely about these matters – avoiding, however, the attack on Gaza, which had, conveniently, been called off just before the inauguration.

The Audacity of Empire, by Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan for Congress

by Cindy Sheehan
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan for Congress
January 29, 2009

Webster’s Dictionary defines empire as: a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority; especially: one having an emperor as chief of state.

Even though most of us do not call our “chief of state” Emperor, the USA is most certainly an empire. We have all the trappings of empire (military parades, glorious coronation balls, an elite few ruling the empire) but the Oligarchs (rule by the few) call it a “democracy” so the plebes must buy into the myth that our nation is in any way democratic. Our military is used for spreading colonial capitalism all over the world. Even in the heyday of the Roman Empire, most conquered local governments retained some autonomy, unless, of course, the will of the people conflicted with the will of the Emperor.

Is there any bigger bureaucracy than the US government…that contains the US Military Industrial Complex? At this point, it is hard to distinguish the two behemoths…does the MIC control the government or is it the other way around? Does the government support the MIC, or has the MIC overtaken the government to insure that the bloody empire continues? Is there an evil synergistic relationship between the two that will destroy the planet before The Empire® collapses under its own gluttonous weight?

Is It Time to Bail Out of the US? – Astonishing Incongruities By Paul Craig Roberts

Dandelion Salad

We can’t afford to war anymore.  Mr. Roberts lays it out why we need a huge peace movement now, in my opinion.  ~ DS

By Paul Craig Roberts
January 28, 2009 “Information Clearinghouse“

California State Controller John Chiang announced on January 26 that California’s bills exceed its tax revenues and credit line and that the state is going to print its own money known as IOUs. The template is already designed.

Instead of receiving their state tax refunds in dollars, California residents will receive IOUs. Student aid and payments to disabled and needy will also come in the form of IOUs. California is negotiating with banks to get them to accept the IOUs as deposits.

California is often identified as the world’s eighth largest economy, and it is broke.

A person might think that California’s plight would introduce some realism into Washington, DC, but it has not. President Obama is taking steps to intensify the war in Afghanistan and, perhaps, to expand it to Pakistan.

Mosaic News – 1/28/09: World News From The Middle East

Dandelion Salad

Warning

.

This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.

linktv

Mosaic needs your help! Donate here: http://linktv.org/contribute

“Israel’s Scorched Earth Policy in Gaza,” Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
“Gaza Children Play War Games,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“George Mitchell in Cairo,” Dubai TV, UAE
“George Mitchell in Israel,” IBA TV, Israel
“Ahmadinejad: US Must Apologize,” Press TV, Iran
“Concerns Over US Withdrawal,” Sumaria TV, Iraq
“Orphans Receive Gifts in Iraq,” Al-Iraqiya TV, Iraq
“Slow Down in Real Estate Market in UAE,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.

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Gaza farmers devastated by war

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Gaza Crisis Appeal

Elections in Iraq

Dandelion Salad

TheRealNews

More at http://therealnews.com/t/in…

Leila Fadel: Provincial elections could shift the power balance in Iraq as many Iraqis are disenchanted

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Neural Pathways, Belief and Power in Society

Dandelion Salad

DO WHAT YOU LOVE!

by Cornelius
blog post
http://www.corneilius.net/
1.29.09

Beliefs and Behaviour Patterns are Neural Pathways that have Become Hardened.

As the brain is growing and forming in the young child, with each new experience a new neural pathway is created, and as those experiences are repeated that pathway or sets of pathways get used repeatedly. Thus certain pathways will become ‘worn’ or ‘hardened’.

This is necessary, and is how, for example, learning to ride a bike gets to a point where one does not need to think about it. The thinking during repeated raining has formed enough of a pathway series to carry out all the various task required to maintain balance, note direction, read the ground and so on.

In this way the child learns and stores vital skills, such as control of her/his limbs, balance, co-ordination.

So we know that it takes about 10,000 hours of training to become fluent in say a musical instrument so that one is a virtuoso, or indeed any particular skill/talent that is then viewed, in our culture, as ‘pretty damn good’.

This applies to physical action as much as thought processes.

We know that children learn much quicker when their learning is self-directed, and that the enthusiasm of the child is a major factor in driving what they will learn.

Freedom Rider: Black America Surrenders

Dandelion Salad

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
blackagendareport.com
Wednesday, 28 January 2009

The disproportionately Black Washington Mall crowd, their coats covered with Obama buttons, “didn’t care what Obama did as president, they just wanted him to become president.” These to-the-bone “Obama lovers…don’t care that Obama pledged to use his political capital to change Social Security and Medicare, their only safety nets in an uncaring society.” Unconcerned about the impact of their champion’s specific policy positions, these legions of Black Obama followers happily and “loudly proclaimed themselves to be less important than one man’s career success.” Obama and his wife wowed the nation, and “just 72 hours after the new president took office, he started killing people” in Pakistan.

[...]

This woman is not alone in her twisted thinking. For the first time in history, black Americans have willingly become accessories to their government’s criminal activity and willingly developed amnesia about that history. Gone are the days when black Americans could be counted on to oppose wars of aggression abroad and wars against people here at home. Now that the president looks like them, he has carte blanche to do whatever he likes and he can expect nearly unanimous approval of any action he takes.

They don’t care that he is asking John McCain for advice or that he replaces Bush in defending illegal surveillance on Americans. They don’t care about people in Waziristan, or Afghanistan or Gaza. They don’t care that Obama pledged to use his political capital to change Social Security and Medicare, their only safety nets in an uncaring society.

[...]

via blackagendareport.com – Freedom Rider: Black America Surrenders.

h/t: Jodda

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

The Age Of Liberal Fascism, by Rocket Kirchner

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”

“Same as it ever was” Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

Biden vows more strikes inside Pakistan

Chomsky: No change coming with Obama

Obama Allows Air Strikes In Pakistan! 17 Killed + Obama ordered Waziristan airstrikes

Obama’s Torture Loopholes, by Prof. James Hill

Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case

Barack Obama on Dandelion Salad