https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
[tweetmeme source= “DandelionSalads” only_single=false]
AlJazeeraEnglish
February 19, 2010
The streets of Niamey, Niger’s capital city, are reported to be calm, a day after a military coup deposed the president.
The West African nations’ new military rulers have promised early elections and a return to democracy.
The takeover has been widely condemned by other African states.
Al Jazeera’s Owen Fay reports.
by Daniel N. White
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
February 21, 2010
Oil: A Concise Guide to the Most Important Product on Earth
Matthew Yeomans, New Press, 2005
Anyone who reads enough has run across plenty of examples, from their own experience, of book reviews that, when you read the book, show unmistakable evidence that the book reviewers never bothered to read any much of the book they reviewed. Writing for a living, a less than middle-class living for most all writers, that’s a shortcut that is understandable, if not excusable. I never had much truck with it, as it really is the acme of sloppy, lazy unprofessionalism, but I confess now right up front that I’m writing a review of this book without having bothered to read it. I’ve read maybe a half hour of it and I’ve had all I can take of its stupidity and I refuse to inflict any more of it on myself and please, please, dear readers, do yourselves a favor and don’t read it.
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
[tweetmeme source= “DandelionSalads” only_single=false]
by Michael Isikoff
Newsweek.com
February 19, 2010
The chief author of the Bush administration’s “torture memo” told Justice Department investigators that the president’s war-making authority was so broad that he had the constitutional power to order a village to be “massacred,” according to a report released Friday night by the Office of Professional Responsibility.
The views of former Justice lawyer John Yoo were deemed to be so extreme and out of step with legal precedents that they prompted the Justice Department’s internal watchdog office to conclude last year that he committed “intentional professional misconduct” when he advised the CIA it could proceed with waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques against Al Qaeda suspects.
[…]
h/t: CLG
by Michael Carmichael
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
PlanetaryMovement.org
February 21, 2010
[tweetmeme source= “DandelionSalads” only_single=false]
In yet another odd coincidence, Alan Grayson led a Congressional delegation that just happened to be in Niger at the time of the recent military coup last Thursday that deposed the legitimate elected government of the Uranium-rich nation.
The official story is that the members of Congress were focused on science, technology and humanitarian relief – at the very same time that the military coup was unfolding on the streets of the capital, Niamey.
This intriguing “coincidence” raises the question: Was this Congressional presence during a military coup another instance of a massive intelligence failure or something entirely different?
by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
February 21, 2010
John Pilger
Once again, Cindy still ♥s the Pacifica Network and will begin uploading her new half-hour format interview show to the Pacifica affiliate, starting with Venezuela’s Hugo Chaves on March 14th. However, today Cindy hosts famous and prolific Australian journalist John Pilger. John has a highly relevant and informative blog at www.johnpilger.com. Cindy and John have a deep and particularly insightful conversation, touching on Barack Obama’s actual rightwing orientation (contrasted with his characterization by the corporate media as a “socialist”), to the suppression of “forbidden” un-authorized viewpoints. Ya gotta hear this to get it.
***
Don’t Shoot the Messenger!
Back in the day, during time of war, messages were delivered by a person to the opposing camp. What a job to have, huh? Many times the messenger was killed after the message was delivered out of rage, revenge, or just because.
By Richard D. Vogel
Axisoflogic.com
Feb. 20, 2010
Editor’s Comment: With this article we would like to introduce the latest author to join our columnists at Axis of Logic, Richard D. Vogel. Richard is a political reporter who monitors the effects of neoliberal globalization on working people. We would also like to introduce a new Axis of Logic mission to build a civic revolution in the United States. Richard will be taking charge of this mission to build coalitions for real change within the heart of the empire. We want to enlist Axis of Logic readers to participate and support this new positive thrust by commenting on the articles and by sending us reports on the work you are doing in your communities to build a civic revolution in the United States. We encourage readers from other countries to share their strategies, experiences, and victories so we can all grow together.
Mountain and mine
AlJazeeraEnglish
February 21, 2010
People & Power investigates the Kondh peoples battle to save their god.
by David DeGraw
Amped Status
February 21, 2010
Although most of the Economic Elite live and operate inside the US, they are not concerned for our future. To them, the entire world is theirs and they work intimately with other elites throughout the world against the interests of the US public. Ever since the days of Henry Ford, the Economic Elite have needed a thriving US middle class to increase growth and profits, but now, in the global economy, they view the US middle class as obsolete. They increasingly look globally for profits and they would rather pay cheap labor in countries like China and India. On top of the millions of jobs they have already shipped overseas to increase profits at our expense, they are planning to ship an additional 25% of current US jobs overseas as well.
They now see us as the biggest obstacle to their continued consolidation of wealth and resources. This is why they have stepped up their attack on us.
If you want further proof of this, all one needs to do is study the Wall Street bailout. The entire bailout is strategically designed to eliminate the US middle class. Every time you hear the word “bailout,” you should think “coup d’état.”
[…]
from the archives:
The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the United States of America – Part I by David DeGraw
Part II: The Rise of the Economic Elite — Economic Elite Vs. The People by David DeGraw
Part III: Exposing Our Enemy – Meet the Economic Elite by David DeGraw
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
During the weekly protest in the Palestinian village of Bil’in, thousands of activists assembled to celebrate five years of non-violent resistance. This form of popular struggle has spread to many other Palestinian villages and areas in East Jerusalem. The protests are made to show opposition to the confiscation of roughly half of the village’s land by the Israeli Jewish-only settlement colony of Modi’in Illit. In 2007, after the village protested every Friday for almost 3 years, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the barrier does not serve a security purpose and ordered it rerouted. The Israeli army however, did not start to reroute the barrier until last week and informed the village that it will only return 364 (or 60%) of its 575 taken acres. During this week’s protest the army fired dozens of tear gas canisters, shock grenades, and sprayed the crowd with liquid smelling like sewer and feces.
Dandelion Salad 