The West’s role in Haiti’s plight By Peter Hallward

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Posted with permission from: Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at http://links.org.au

By Peter Hallward
links.org.au
The Guardian
Jan 14, 2010

[An earlier version of this article first appeared in the British Guardian. This slightly updated version appears in Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with Peter Hallward’s permission.]

January 14, 2009 — If we are serious about assisting this devastated land we must stop trying to control and exploit it.

Any large city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti’s capital city on the afternoon of January 13, but it’s no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now looks like a war zone. Much of the devastation wreaked by this latest and most calamitous disaster to befall Haiti is best understood as another thoroughly manmade outcome of a long and ugly historical sequence.

David Mamet in Austin: A Story of Three Parts by Daniel N. White

by Daniel N. White
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
January 14, 2010

Part I

David Mamet is the University of Texas at Austin’s prize literary celebrity trophy case possession.  His papers are in the Harry Ransome Center, and he makes biannual or thereabouts visits to Austin and UT. UT’s president, William Powers, to his credit, periodically teaches a Freshman general studies course and uses Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner, book and movie, as a text.  Mamet’s big UT event this year was an on-stage conversation with UT’s president, with a Q&A session afterwards, held at the Student Union Theater, followed by a showing of The Spanish Prisoner.

The 350 seat theater was 100% full for this event.  About one third of the audience were UT students, but as is usually the case with serious literary/political events anywhere in Austin, the majority of the audience was silverhaired non-UT types, west Austin members of the socioeconomic upper strata and solid members of Austin’s dominant political class.  Probably a fairly high percentage of the regional over-50 intelligentsia was represented there.  As to where the 25-50 year old intelligentsia was, no telling–they never show up at anti war rallies and other political events, either.   Mamet was right entertaining on his end of the conversation–quick-witted, amusing, and quite open and unafraid of his opinionatedness.  Powers was fairly dull, and didn’t have anything to say original or interesting, like most professors I had at UT.

Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert + “The Sound of Screaming Is Constant”

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Democracy Now!
Jan. 14, 2010

Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again

Journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke in New York last night and addressed the crisis in Haiti: “We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy—which is part natural, part unnatural—must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.” [includes rush transcript]

via Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again

Guantánamo Guard and Ex-Prisoners Meet (via the BBC)

by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
14 January 2010

On Monday and Tuesday evenings, the BBC’s Newsnight ran an extraordinary two-part feature on Guantánamo, bringing former guard Brandon Neely over from the United States to meet — and apologize to — former prisoners Shafiq Rasul and Ruhal Ahmed, two of “The Tipton Three,” from the West Midlands, who were freed in March 2004 and whose story was later featured in “The Road to Guantánamo,” a powerful film about their experiences.

Brandon Neely served at Guantánamo in the first six months of the prison’s existence, between January and June 2002. He was then deployed to Iraq, but when the Army attempted to recall him from his Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR) status to active duty in May 2007, he ignored every letter and email, until the Army gave up, granting him an honorable discharge in June 2008.

Bilderbergs of the world unite! By William Bowles

By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Creative-i
January 14, 2010

“In Post-War Iraq, Use Military Forces to Secure Vital U.S. Interests, Not for Nation-Building” — The Heritage Foundation

And just in case you still haven’t got the point, the same Heritage Foundation document, dated 25 September, 2002 went on to tell us,

“Protect Iraq’s energy infrastructure against internal sabotage or foreign attack to return Iraq to global energy markets and ensure that U.S. and world energy markets have access to its resources.”[1]

Anything that says otherwise in the corporate or state press is just propaganda and/or lies. Period.

Oiling the cogs of capitalism

Phil McPhun of Doctors without Borders: Haiti earthquake briefing + Haiti’s history of hardship

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Donate:

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/news/allcontent.cfm?id=31

msfuk
January 14, 2010

Phil McPhun briefs on the situation on the ground in Haiti.

ACLU Requests Information On Predator Drone Program + US drone attack kills 12 in Pakistan

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ACLU
January 13, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212 549-2666; media@aclu.org

Asks For Data On “Targeted Killings” Of Suspected Terrorists And Civilian Casualties

NEW YORK – In a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed today, the American Civil Liberties Union asked the government to disclose the legal basis for its use of predator drones to conduct “targeted killings” overseas. In particular, the ACLU seeks to find out when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, and how the United States ensures compliance with international laws relating to extrajudicial killings.

Financial crisis inquiry begins + Causes of the 2008 Financial Collapse

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TheRealNews
January 13, 2010

Financial crisis inquiry begins

On Wednesday, January 13th, the CEOs of the United States’ four largest banks went under oath to answer questions about their role in the financial crisis of 2008. It marked the opening day of a new government inquiry into the causes of the financial crisis. The inquiry has the power to subpoena for information and recommend criminal investigations, but will it put these tools to work?

Thomas Ferguson is a political scientist and author who studies and writes on politics and economics, often within an historical perspective. He is a Political Science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is also a a contributing editor of The Nation. He is also the author of several books, the recent of which is Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political System

Kevin G. Hall, the former South America correspondent, is now the bureau’s national economics reporter. During his career he has reported from Mexico City, Saudi Arabia, Miami, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., for the Journal of Commerce and United Press International. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

Fighting extremists who will take away our freedom by Roland Michel Tremblay

By Roland Michel Tremblay
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
The Marginal
14 January 2010

I’m not talking about religious fanatics, extreme right republicans or conservatives, suicide bombers, who will destroy all that we stand for. There are other extremists we need to fight against. They are brainless, you could not hope to make them understand reason, they’re a real threat. There’s a need to fight these extremists fighting against cruelty for children, animals and the environment. They’ve crossed the line, they’ve gone too far, they’ve become huge bureaucracies, they’re totally out of their mind.

Dennis Kucinich: This Just Signals The FED That It’s Business As Usual!

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MoxNewsDotCom
January 13, 2010

http://MOXNews.com/
January 13, 2010 C-SPAN

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Federal Reserve on Dandelion Salad

Ansel Herz: The Destruction Is Everywhere You Go + Haiti earthquake: ‘100,000 may be dead’

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Democracy Now!
Jan. 13, 2010

“The Destruction Is Everywhere You Go”: Independent Journalist Ansel Herz in Port-Au-Prince

Democracy Now! spoke with independent journalist Ansel Herz earlier tonight from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Herz says more than 100,000 people may have died in the devastating earthquake. Tune into Democracy Now! on Thursday for full coverage. Herz was interviewed by Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke.

via “The Destruction Is Everywhere You Go”: Independent Journalist Ansel Herz in Port-Au-Prince