Occupier/Occupied by Cindy Sheehan (+ action alert)

Note: made a correction in the day of the protest at the very end.  It’s Tues, not Wed Dec 30.  ~DS

Cindy Sheehan for Congress

by Cindy Sheehan
Dandelion Salad
featured writer
Cindy Sheehan for Congress
December 28, 2008

The right of a population to resist being occupied by a foreign country/military/corporation is a basic human right that has been enshrined in international law.

I recognize that the person who killed my son, Casey, in Iraq had every right to do so. I am not in any way happy about it, but if Casey’s commander-in-chief and vice commander-in-chief had not placed him (immorally AND illegally) in the country of Iraq to be a an occupier, then the Iraqi would not have killed him. George and Dick knowingly put Casey in harm’s way and I won’t rest until I see justice for Casey’s (and over one-million others) murder. That is also my right: redress for wrong and to see justice finally consummated.

How Can Anyone Believe There is ‘Progress’ in The Middle East? By Robert Fisk

Dandelion Salad

By Robert Fisk
ICH
Saturday, 27 December 2008 “The Independent”

A test of Obama’s gumption will come scarcely three months after his inauguration

If reporting is, as I suspect, a record of mankind’s folly, then the end of 2008 is proving my point.

Let’s kick off with the man who is not going to change the Middle East, Barack Obama, who last week, with infinite predictability, became Time’s “person of the year”. But buried in a long and immensely tedious interview inside the magazine, Obama devotes just one sentence to the Arab-Israeli conflict: “And seeing if we can build on some of the progress, at least in conversation, that’s been made around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be a priority.”

What is this man talking about? “Building on progress?” What progress? On the verge of another civil war between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, with Benjamin Netanyahu a contender for Israeli prime minister, with Israel’s monstrous wall and its Jewish colonies still taking more Arab land, and Palestinians still firing rockets at Sderot, and Obama thinks there’s “progress” to build on?

Sanctions Now – Upgrading Hell No! by Michael Warschawski

Dandelion Salad

Crossposted with permission from Jewish Peace News

Jewish Peace News
Dec. 24, 2008

The state of Israel is conducting a genocide campaign against the people of Gaza, says Warschawski as he apologizes to the late Tanya Reinhart, who saw the nature of the Israeli plans.

(For the record, Ilan Pappe saw the genocidal intent, and was criticized sharply too by many Israeli activists.)

Warschawski calls on caring European citizens to stand up and fight their leadership which has just recently upgraded its relations with Israel.

Racheli Gai

http://www.alternativenews.org/blogs/michael-warschawski/sanctions-now–upgrading-hell-no-20081202.html
December 2008

Sanctions Now – Upgrading Hell No!

Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center

“Gaza is burning”, writes French activist Liliane Cordova Kaczerginski, using the very words of a famous song of a Jewish village destroyed by the Nazis. Like sixty years ago, Gaza is burning and the world is silent, waiting for the outcome of a non-existent peace process. “A hostile entity” – this was the way the Israeli leadership defined, four years ago, a territory in which one and a half million civilians, women, the elderly and children, are trying to survive. As such, the Israeli state has the right, in fact the duty, to launch a war of annihilation.

The Danger of Right-Wing Populism By Shamus Cooke

Dandelion Salad

By Shamus Cooke
December 28, 2008 “Information Clearinghouse”

A strange trend is appearing in the political realm of the Left. Self-proclaimed political conservatives – many current or former members of the Republican Party – are being given considerable room in Left publications, for example in Counterpunch and BuzzFlash. At first it seemed accidental, with only sporadic occurrences. Now these “renegade” right-wingers enjoy ample room in spaces formally reserved for “lefties only.”

How is this to be explained?

If you ask a self-proclaimed progressive why he or she admires a particular conservative pundit, you’ll most likely receive a list of “progressive” positions:

Against the Iraq War
Against free-trade (especially NAFTA)
Against Globalization
Against the bank bailouts
Against the Federal Reserve
Against restrictions on civil liberties

Israeli jets ‘violate Lebanese airspace’

compiled by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
28 December 2008

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=79743&sectionid=351020203

Israeli jets ‘violate Lebanese airspace’

Press TV, 28 November 2008

Israeli warplanes have reportedly flown low over south Lebanon as the regime’s forces started their second day of attacks on Gaza Strip.

“At least five aircraft overflew the Bint Jbeil region (south of Beirut) and headed for the port town of Tyre” farther north, a Lebanese security official told AFP.

The security official said an Israeli MK-type reconnaissance aircraft flew over the south all night until dawn broke.

The move came as Hezbollah Leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to speak later on Sunday about the deadly Israeli air attacks on Gaza which killed 282 and wounded hundreds more.

Israeli flights over Lebanon are in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710, which in August 2006 ended the Israel-Hezbollah war.

see

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Chávez: Capitalists Have Manipulated the Message of Christ to Exploit the Poor

Dandelion Salad

By Venezolana de Televisión
ICH
The original article “Capitalistas han manipulado mensaje de Cristo para explotar a los pobres” appeared in the Web site of Venezolana de Television on 21 December 2008.  Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi
December 28, 2008

“The Kingdom of Heaven is not a kingdom or life in the clouds. Either it exists here or else it exists nowhere,” President Chávez issued a wake-up call during the last Sunday program of 2008. “It’s on earth, and that is why Christ came here and was born among the poor, in the manger.”

The head of state in Venezuela noted that the capitalist system throughout its history has distorted Jesus’s message to the poor about the Kingdom of Heaven, with the sole purpose of exploiting the impoverished majorities in favor of the minorities who enjoy the wealth of the world.

The cover for unjust detentions in Turkey: Al Qaeda

translated by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
28 December 2008

by Haksöz Haber (*), 27 December 2008

Editorial note:
It is interesting to note that the Turkish authorities launched the latest “Al Qaeda Operation” on December 16, six days before Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s official visit to Ankara where he met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul. Israeli bombardment of Gaza began four days after this visit.

22 individuals were arrested and brought to police headquarters following simultaneous home raids in numerous counties by the Anti-Terrorism Branch of Istanbul Police. According to information leaked to the media by the police, operations are ongoing and the number of arrested suspects will increase.

The seizure of numerous documents of the organization is presented to the media as news of great success. Curiously, these “documents” seized during the “Al-Qaeda operation” were nothing but CDs, books and magazines!

Over the last few years, more than a hundred people have been detained with the allegation that they were members of Al Qaeda. Almost all of them have been acquitted in court. Although the police’s attempt to cover up their unlawful practices by the use of “Al Qaeda charges” is well noted, it is unclear as to who will be held responsible for these grievances.

———————-

(*) link to the original item in Turkish: http://www.haksozhaber.net/news_detail.php?id=6069

A rising death toll + Take action to decry the attacks on Gaza

Dandelion Salad

From an email:

Jewish Voice for Peace

Please allow me to share with you our statement below about the headlines seen in papers across the world yesterday and today.

In sadness on this terrible day,

Cecilie Surasky
Jewish Voice for Peace
——————————————————————————–

December 28, 2008

Jewish Voice for Peace joins millions around the world, including the 1,000 Israelis who protested in the streets of Tel Aviv this weekend, in condemning ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. We call for an immediate end to attacks on all civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli.

Israel’s slow strangulation of Gaza through blockade has caused widespread suffering to the 1.5 million people of Gaza due to lack of food, electricity, water treatment supplies and medical equipment. It is a violation of humanitarian law and has been widely condemned around the world.

Obama should practise his golf swing + Lockerbie + Channel 4’s Iran propaganda

The following articles are from the “British war room”.

compiled by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
28 December 2008

1) Barack Obama should practise his golf swing while he has the chance

2) Lockerbie: was it Iran? Syria? All I know is, it wasn’t the man in prison

3) Channel 4’s Iran propaganda

4) Christmas message from Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is ‘sick’

5) Indulgence of Islam is harming society

——————–

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/

excerpt from:

Barack Obama should practise his golf swing while he has the chance

The economic meltdown is only one crisis awaiting the new president: Iran is still very dangerous, writes Con Coughlin.

by Coughlin, Daily Telegraph 27 December 2008

[…]

If 2008 is remembered as the year that Mr Obama announced his arrival on the world stage, 2009 will be the year when his ability to handle potentially catastrophic world crises is tested to the limit.

India and Pakistan: tension mounts

Dandelion Salad

RussiaToday

Pakistan and India are massing thousands of troops along their border. Confrontation between the two has intensified in the month since the devastating Mumbai attacks, which India blames on Pakistani extremists. World leaders have appealed for both nations to show restraint and calm.

Are recessions just a transfer of money, are stock market crashes artificially created? By Roland Michel Tremblay

By Roland Michel Tremblay
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
The Marginal
December 26, 2008
Originally published on OpEdNews July 25 2008

I took three classes in economics when I was in college. I realized then that it was just like mathematics: if you can easily learn everything by heart, you can get a perfect score of 100%. Yes, I excelled at economics, and yet, I was the only one who stated out loud that none of it made any sense, that I could not understand how it could all work. I think I was the only one still based in a world of reality and logic.

“How is capitalism to work,” I asked my teacher; “Why is there a recession every 10 years or so, and a big crash at least every century? What causes them?”

I never found a satisfying answer. And today, I wonder, are recessions just a transfer of money from many poor and rich alike to the billionaires controlling the markets? Are these recessions and stock market crashes artificially created? Dear me, what a thought! This thought could annihilate the world as we know it.

UN blasts Israel over Gaza massacre

Dandelion Salad

RussiaToday

The UN Security Council is holding a closed emergency session in New York to discuss the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Air strikes kill 225 in Gaza as Israel hits Hamas

Dandelion Salad

Replaced video as first one was removed by uploader.

cctvupload