This week:
1. Tar Sands Ducks
2. Olympic Baby Seal Beatings
3. Victoria’s Wild Fires
4. Capitol Climate Action
5. RNC Snitch behind Bars
6. Snow
7. The Fugees
8. Reply to All
9. Olympic Resistance
Day: February 22, 2009
Turkey prepares to assume a more significant role in Afghanistan
translated and abridged by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
22 February, 2009
1) Turkey prepares to assume a more significant role in Afghanistan
2) Turkey’s Foreign Minister (now President) Abdullah Gül’s speech at the FPA World Leadership Forum 2003
Sol, 17 February 2009 [1]
Editorial note: Turkey’s Defence Minister Vecdi Gönül attended the Informal meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Krakow on 19-20 February, which reviewed NATO’s ongoing operations and its transformation. This meeting was organised in preparation for NATO’s upcoming Strasbourg-Kehl Summit in April. Continue reading
Russia postpones Iran missile deal, with Gareth Porter
Russia Today TV reports Russia keeps missile sale on table as it holds cards in Afghanistan Pt.2
Scientists capture dramatic footage of Arctic glaciers melting in hours + video
By Jessica Salter
Telegraph
3:24PM GMT 20 Feb 2009 Continue reading
The Iraqi Muslims who convert to Christianity
A campaign of violence against Christians has seen thousands flee the country since 2003.
Many of those who remain have complained of intimidation and persecution.
But in some parts of Iraq, Muslims are now choosing to become Christians.
Al Jazeera’s Omar Al Saleh reports from Irbil in Northern Iraq.
A Historic Opportunity by Richard C. Cook
by Richard C. Cook
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
richardccook.com
February 22, 2009
Dear Friends:
I am writing to ask for your financial support in producing a series of six videos on the financial crisis and on my proposed solutions based on the principles of Dividend Economics and the “Cook Plan.” The “Cook Plan” involves the immediate payment of vouchers to individuals and families as an emergency basic income guarantee. The vouchers would then be deposited in a new series of community savings banks to capitalize low-cost lending for consumers, students, small business, local manufacturing, and family farming. I will be speaking on the “Cook Plan” at the 8th Congress of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network in New York this weekend.
As most of you know, I have been working on monetary reform since I served in the Jimmy Carter White House in 1979-81 on the staff of Esther Peterson, President Carter’s Special Assistant for Consumer Affairs. Later I worked for NASA, then spent 21 years in the U.S. Treasury Department in the field of public finance. I retired from the government in 2007. I was also an adviser to Dennis Kucinich in his two presidential campaigns and for the last two years have been publishing articles in print and on the internet on economics, monetary reform, space policy, and geopolitics. I also worked as an adviser to the American Monetary Institute and contributed to their draft monetary reform legislation, the American Monetary Act. In January 2007 I published Challenger Revealed on the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Recently I published a new book entitled We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform.
This week we saw headlines that even a few weeks ago seemed impossible: the U.S. government is considering nationalization of the largest U.S. banks. It may be that the grip the banks have held on the U.S. monetary system, our economy, and our government is weakening after nearly a century of monetary tyranny since the Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913. If there was ever an opportunity for those of us in the monetary reform movement to be heard it is now. This opportunity may never come again.
Those of you who have followed my writing over the last two years know that I have been in the forefront of those who have been calling for change. I have been a leading proponent of such ideas of the right of the government to spend money directly into existence, as was done with the Civil War Greenbacks, instead of having to borrow money from the private banking system. I have also spoken in favor of a National Dividend based on the productive values of our economy and a basic income guarantee for all citizens. The idea of a National Dividend grows from the concepts of Dividend Economics that I have begun to pioneer as a completely new way of approaching economic democracy.
I am currently in the process of working with several other people on producing a six-part series of videos that would be around two hours in length where I would explain my ideas to the American people and others around the world. This would be a professional production that would appear initially on YouTube and Google and would also be available for TV broadcast and on DVD.
The cost of this project would be modest compared to the benefits of reaching a large audience in a short time. If you would be interested in making a cash contribution, I would be most grateful. Donations can be made through my website at www.richardccook.com. Just click on the “Donate” button at the top of the homepage. Those who donate will receive a PDF copy of the written script via email.
Whether you are able to donate or not, I thank you for your past support and wish you all the best for the future.
Sincerely,
Richard C. Cook
see
Bailout for the People: “The Cook Plan” by Richard C. Cook
Richard Cook: “It’s Time to Fix the Monetary System” by Mike Whitney
Open Letter to Dr. Joseph Stiglitz and Challenge to Debate By Richard C. Cook
The Economy Sucks and or Collapse 2
***
The Crisis of Credit Visualized
The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. This project was completed as part of my thesis work in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
For more on my broader thesis work exploring the use of new media to make sense of a increasingly complex world, visit jdjarvis.com.
The Anti Terrorism Act 2008 (UK)
Sylvia Earle: How to protect the oceans (must-see)
2.19.09
http://www.ted.com Legendary ocean researcher Sylvia Earle shares astonishing images of the ocean — and shocking stats about its rapid decline — as she makes her TED Prize wish: that we will join her in protecting the vital blue heart of the planet.
Black Sea: Pentagon’s Gateway to Three Continents and the Middle East by Rick Rozoff
Sent to DS by the author; thanks Rick.
by Rick Rozoff
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/37422
February 22, 2009
from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Sea_map.png
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Commons is a freely licensed media file repository.
The Black Sea region connects Europe with Asia and the Eurasian land mass to the Middle East through Turkey on its southern rim, which borders Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The northern Balkans lie on its western shores and the Caucasus on its eastern end, the latter a land bridge to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.
Ukraine, Russia and the strategic Sea of Azov are on its northern perimeter. Continue reading
An Impending Geopolitical Earthquake? by José Miguel Alonso Trabanco
by José Miguel Alonso Trabanco
Global Research, February 21, 2009
The financial and economic turmoil the world is currently experiencing will certainly have many serious consequences beyond those fields. Indeed, its geopolitical fallout could be far more serious than commonly acknowledged and it is an element that cannot be neglected by neither statesmen nor analysts.
Some scholars frequently hold that politics and economics are somehow separate. Such view is profoundly mistaken because politics and economics are strongly interlinked. Actually, political power and economic wealth cultivate one another. Likewise, economic trouble, more often than not, tends to lead to political trouble and the reverse is equally true.
Therefore, it is fairly reasonable to assert that this financial crisis will have a major impact on the international system’s balance of power. Some states (including Great Powers) could redefine their priorities. Other states are in a direr situation so they would have to make dramatic adjustments concerning their policies.
Bill Moyers Journal: Obama and Afghanistan
Bill Moyers Journal
February 20, 2009
Bill Moyers Essay
Bill Moyers reflects on President Obama’s recent announcement that he will send more troops to Afghanistan.
see
Ray McGovern: US attempt to trap the USSR in 1979 is at root of current situation in Afghanistan
US expands new detention centre
Ivan Eland: Afghanistan will see no stability
President Obama: Afghanistan IS Still Winnable
17,000 More U.S. Troops Being Sent To Afghanistan + Afghans fear more US air attacks
Bill Moyers Journal: Parker J. Palmer on Spiritual Wholeness as Economy Falls Apart
Bill Moyers Journal
February 20, 2009
Parker J. Palmer
Bill Moyers sits down with Parker J. Palmer, founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal, for a conversation about maintaining spiritual wholeness even as the economy and political order seem to come apart.
see
Bill Moyers Journal: Robert G. Kaiser on Money and Politics
Exclusive: Why should I pay somebody else’s mortgage? by The Other Katherine Harris
The Stimulus and The Confidence Game by Cameron Salisbury
Dandelion Salad 
