Starts off a bit slowly, but picks up and gets very interesting about 20 mins in. ~ DS
November 09, 2008
A talk by Richard Grossman of the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD) on challenging corporate law and lore, given February 10, 2005.
Warning
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This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
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“Indian Interior Minister Admits Security Lapses in Mumbai,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Settlers Escalate Attacks in West Bank,” Palestine TV, Ramallah
“Mass Arrests by Abbas Forces,” Al Aqsa, Gaza
“Palestinian Inner Fighting Affects Pilgrims to Mecca,” Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
“England Works on a Security Pact with Iraq,” Dubai TV, UAE
“S. Korean Troops Withdraw from Irbil,” Al-Iraqiya TV, Iraq
“West Bank Stories,” Link TV, USA
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.
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Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Washington, Dec 2 , 2008
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today sent a letter urging Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ensure that Israel ends the blockade of Gaza. The letter was sent in support of the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay’s call for the immediate end of the blockade.
“Israel has a right to defend itself and its citizens. This includes taking action against Hamas for its abominable mortar attacks into southern Israel. However that action should not and cannot amount to collective punishment against the Palestinian people, prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva convention, as it does today,” wrote Kucinich in the letter.
The full text of the letter follows:
December 2, 2008
Dr. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520-0099
Dear Dr. Rice:
I am writing to urge you to ensure that Israel complies with international humanitarian law and end its blockade of Gaza. Last week, the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights, Navi Pillay, called for its immediate end. In response, Israel renewed the blockade and dismissed Ms. Pillay’s assessment for being “one-sided.” While there are many political considerations to be made in this volatile region, we can not tolerate the collective punishment of 1.5 million people. Moreover, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza undermines Israel’s political and security goals.
Israel has a right to defend itself and its citizens. This includes taking action against Hamas for its abominable mortar attacks into southern Israel. However that action should not and cannot amount to collective punishment against the Palestinian people, prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as it does today.
Israel’s debilitating blockade has halted the supply of UN food and medical aid to 750,000 Palestinians and forced Gaza’s sole power plant to shut down. Since its imposition the blockade has effectively resulted in the collapse of the economy and limited access to basic goods including wheat, flour, baby milk, rice, sanitized water, and other essential goods. It has also destroyed Gaza’s public service infrastructure. Due to Israel’s prohibition on the import of spare parts as well as its punitive restrictions on fuel and electricity, hospitals cannot operate lifesaving equipment and nearly 40-50 tons of sewage pours into the sea daily.
Such policies will not create the peace and security Israel so direly needs. Instead, children grades four through nine are demonstrating an 80 percent failure rate in schools. Those children that overcome their daunting circumstances and perform well in school, find that they have few job opportunities as adults. Consider that in June 2005, there were 3,900 factories in Gaza employing 35,000 people and today there are less than 195 left employing only 1,750 people. Consider also that the agriculture sector has been significantly hurt and nearly 40,000 workers who depend on cash crops no longer have an income. Today, 80 percent of Gazan families depend on humanitarian aid.
The Israeli government has made clear that it wants to avoid a humanitarian crisis, yet its continued blockade belies its best intentions. I recognize Israel’s decision to allow a limited number of trucks to enter Gaza on November 17th, but according to the High Commissioner, this is insufficient to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. Ms. Pillay asserts that “only a full lifting of the blockade followed by a strong humanitarian response will be adequate to relieve the massive humanitarian suffering evident in Gaza today.” Also of grave concern is the complete closure of Gaza to international media, an issue brought to light in a letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from executives from the Associated Press, BBC, Reuters, New York Times and CNN. The work of journalists is imperative in assessing and documenting the effects of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel has responded to Ms. Pillay’s calls by laying blame for the humanitarian crisis on Hamas. While the current crisis may be exacerbated, instigated, even perpetuated by Hamas, the responsibility for beginning and ending the humanitarian crisis is certainly not Hamas’s. Pursuant to the Fourth Geneva Conventions, as an occupying power, Israel is responsible for the safety and well-being of the Palestinian civilians living in Gaza. Moreover, only Israel has the ability to resume the flow of basic goods and humanitarian supplies into, and out of, the Gaza Strip.
The Administration has the responsibility and the authority to ensure that Israel comply with international humanitarian law and alleviate a humanitarian crisis that has beset the Gaza Strip. I urge you to call on Israel to lift its blockade for the sake of a viable solution and for the sake of Palestinians and Israelis who deserve to live in peace.
Sincerely,
/s/
Dennis J. Kucinich
Member of Congress
see
Activists try to break through Israel’s blockade of Gaza
New system has soldiers in virtual battleground killing terrorists from a distance
By William Bowles
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
6 December 2008
“Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones … All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.” — Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Up until this current crisis manifested itself, it was true to characterize a distinguishing feature of capitalism as the “Constant revolutionizing of production”, that is to say, the destruction and recreation of the means of production, new products created and new or existing markets exploited anew.
However, in a world where there is now global over-production and increasingly impoverished working classes unable to afford the products of their own labours, is it possible that this distinguishing feature has reached a dead-end? And if so, what are the implications? Will general war, as it has in the past, be the only ‘solution’ to this, the greatest crisis of the over-accumulation of capital in history?
Or has the capitalist system finally ran out of road? And if so, are we in a position to replace it with something else?
By Mike Whitney
December 05, 2008 “Information Clearinghouse”
“We are in the worst crisis since 1929 and we have no government. How can this be good?” Stephen Jarislowsky, chairman of Montreal money manager Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd.
compiled by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
6 December 2008
excerpts from ‘Israel willing to go it alone on Iran attack‘
by Tim Butcher, Daily Telegraph, 5 December 2008
Israel is drawing up plans for an attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure that does not require America’s support, it has been claimed.
…
Israeli officials have said it would be difficult, but not impossible, to launch a strike against Iran without clear support from America.
One option would be to use Israeli submarines firing cruise missiles from off the Iranian coast in the Gulf.
Another might be to use Israel’s close links with Turkey to persuade Ankara to allow Israeli attack aircraft, air refuelling jets and pilot rescue helicopters to use Turkish airstrips.
——————-
related item:
IDF preparing options for Iran strike
by Jaakov Katz, Jerusalem Post, 4 December 2008
——————–
from the archives:
excerpts from ‘Meeting the challenge: US policy toward Iranian nuclear development‘
by Senators Daniel Coats and Charles Robb, et al., Bipartisan Policy Center, September 2008
A deterrence strategy against Iran must also include enhanced access to military facilities in countries East, West, and North of Iran. This involves diplomacy with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, and possibly Pakistan to gain their approval to host the U.S. forces and support staff needed for military action. The United States has had access to some facilities in these countries for operations in Afghanistan, but Russian pressure has introduced interruptions and uncertainty in U.S. access; Uzbekistan cut of U.S. access to its air base in 2004. Pakistan is highly sensitive to any U.S. presence and is unlikely cooperate with the United States against Iran. Azerbaijanad the United States cooperate in Caspian Sea security, and Azerbaijan appears the most likely anchor of a northern containment strategy for Iran. Turkey is a NATO ally, but its leadership is unreliable, and its cooperation with Iran on energy projects and other issues will dissuade Ankara’s participation in U.S. military strategy against Iran. The bjctive would be to enable U.S. military as broad access as possible to Iran from all directions.
….
Israeli bombers cannot traverse Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and Iraq without detection and, perhaps, engagement. It is possible that Turkey would allow Israeli fighters to traverse its airspace, but because all of the fighters would need to enter Iran from the same direction, the pilots would be exposed. Regardless of how Israel might try to strike, it is likely that Iranian air defense will know that the Israelis are on their way before they reach Iranian airspace.
by Lo
December 6, 2008
“…all land masses are essentially islands on a planet dominated by water, and — perhaps most significantly — there is but one ocean.” page 282
Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas is guaranteed to heal one’s short attention span. Open it to any page and pour over the maps, diagrams, illustrations and photographs. Published by National Geographic, you know it’s a going to be informative and have the highest quality of photographs.
However it is more than an atlas, as it has the ocean’s past, present and future within its pages in countless articles throughout. Authors Sylvia A. Earle and Linda K. Glover traveled the world exploring the depths of the Earth’s oceans, the last frontier.
The ocean is the planet’s circulatory system, it is in harmony with the planet’s atmosphere which is also a fluid body. Within the body of our planetary ocean lies the bulk of our planet’s life forms.
Learning about the oceans of the world gives us a greater appreciation for all that it gives us in life. We will need to take better care of our oceans for our own survival and that of all the other animals and plants of the world.
This magnificent and comprehensive book belongs in the personal libraries of those with a genuine concern for our planet. Please consider purchasing this for your child or grandchild’s classroom or school library. It is a wonderful resource book to be shared.
purchase:
http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/product/1062/4452/114.html
or on Amazon.com
By Andy Worthington
December 05, 2008 “Information Clearinghouse”
In brighter times, before a fog of fear descended on the United States, and the discourse of decent men and women was coarsened by an acceptance of the use of torture as a “no-brainer,” it would have been inconceivable that an American could have been held for seven years without charge or trial on the US mainland, in a state of solitary confinement so debilitating that he is said to be suffering from “severe damage to his mental and emotional well-being, including hypersensitivity to external stimuli, manic behavior, difficulty concentrating and thinking, obsessional thinking, difficulties with impulse control, difficulty sleeping, difficulty keeping track of time, and agitation.”And yet, this is exactly what has happened in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri. A Qatari national — and legal US resident — al-Marri had studied computer science in Peoria, Illinois in the 1980s, had graduated in 1991, and had legally returned to the United States on September 10, 2001 to pursue post-graduate studies, bringing his family — his wife and five children — with him. Three months later, on December 12, 2001, he was arrested at his home by the FBI, and taken to the maximum security Special Housing Unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where he was held in solitary confinement as a material witness in the investigation into the 9/11 attacks.
Warning
.
This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Palestinians brace themselves for more attacks by extremist Israeli settlers. Will the Israeli government be able to contain the violence? And can Palestinians win in Israeli courts?
Answers to these questions and more on Link TV’s Mosaic Intelligence Report. Presented by Jamal Dajani.
For more info, visit at http://www.linktv.org/mir.
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see
Activists try to break through Israel’s blockade of Gaza
New system has soldiers in virtual battleground killing terrorists from a distance
November 27, 2008
The Israel Defense Forces has found a way to target Gaza Strip terrorists from kilometers away, with just three pushes of a button.
It may look like a video game, but it’s actually a new system called “The Seer Shoots,” which has entered operation in recent days on the Gaza Strip border.
Several of these domes were recently installed along the Israel-Gaza border. But you won’t find the shooter inside, but rather in a virtual battleground, operating a heavy machine gun from a kilometer away.
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Dandelion Salad 