Commonsense 2010 By Timothy V. Gatto

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By Timothy V. Gatto
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
liberalpro.blogspot.com
May 25, 2010

I greatly admire the writing of Thomas Paine. I have always felt that he had covered just about all the bases when one considers what the real “commonsense” truth is in relation to the State and the People. There have been many others that have written the truth before and after Tom Paine, but nobody has put their ideas in such straightforward and succinct terms that almost anyone can understand.

Commonsense and The Age of Reason (which I believe should be required reading for all students) are still, if not more than relevant in these times of turmoil. Now, more than ever, the ridiculous notions of the evangelical Christians and their affiliation with the rabid right, along with the Islamic religion with its Koran and the Jews and the teachings of the Torah, have only managed to fuel the fires of a politically tense world. There are those that use religion to pursue their ethnocentric ideologies to provide a pretext in order to divide people that otherwise would have no animosity towards one another.

Who Needs Weapons of Mass Destruction? by Sean Fenley

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by Sean Fenley
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
The Anything and Everything
May 25, 2010

As Emma Goldman put it, “Ignorance is the most violent element in society.” But when you conjoin ignorance with a population willing to go to war at a pin drop, you’ve got violence to the nth degree squared. Combine a massively overinflated military budget, with a salesman in a flight jacket, and you’ve got a more than successful war making machine.

The uninformed and dis-informed American public, equals a weapon of mass destruction. If the United States didn’t have these virulent munitions; the U.S. government could still pursue all manner of sordid acts and deeds. It’s the ‘brilliance’ of keeping so many millions of people, so hunkered down, and so deeply in the dark. You don’t need thought police, when you’ve essentially got a moribund, and asleep at the wheel press.

The Unspoken Alliance: New Book Documents Arms, Nuclear and Diplomatic Ties Between Israel and Apartheid South Africa

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Democracy Now!
May 25, 2010

“The Unspoken Alliance”: New Book Documents Arms, Nuclear and Diplomatic Ties Between Israel and Apartheid South Africa

Israeli President Shimon Peres has denied reports he offered to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa when he was defense minister in the 1970s. On Sunday, the Guardian newspaper of London published top-secret South African documents revealing that a secret meeting between then-defense minister Shimon Peres and his South African counterpart, P.W. Botha, ended with an offer by Peres for the sale of warheads “in three sizes.” The documents were first uncovered by senior editor at Foreign Affairs Sasha Polakow-Suransky, author of the new book The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa. [includes rush transcript]

via “The Unspoken Alliance”: New Book Documents Arms, Nuclear and Diplomatic Ties Between Israel and Apartheid South Africa

Part II: “The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa.”

Below the surface of oil hemorrhage, Part 3 by Roxanne Amico

by Roxanne Amico
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Spirit Morph Studio
May 25, 2010

This is the 3rd installment in my collection of information about the oil gushing into the oceans from the Gulf of Mexico, a la BP. There are a total of 115 links here. (Sure hope it all fits into this here page!) There have been far more than this that I’ve read since the last installment. But these are the ones that I thought were most relevant, with the least amount of repetition, and the most complimentary.

Korean Stand-off: US Soft Power Play To Maintain Aggression Towards Iran By Finian Cunningham

by Finian Cunningham
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Finian.cunningham@gmail.com
25 May, 2010

Yes, the US has condemned North Korea over its alleged sinking of a South Korean warship in which 46 seamen were killed.

Yes, the US has announced that in response it will be launching naval exercises soon with its South Korean ally near the disputed coastal waters with North Korea.

And yes, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has said during her high-profile state visit this week to China that she will be discussing the issue of North Korea with Chinese leaders, the main supporters of the Stalinist regime of Kim Jong Il.

House Kills Plan to Close Guantánamo

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by Andy Worthington
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.andyworthington.co.uk
25 May, 2010

President Obama’s hopes of closing Guantánamo, which were already gravely wounded by his inability to meet his self-imposed deadline of a year for the prison’s closure, now appear to have been killed off by lawmakers in Congress.

Although the House Armed Services Committee was happy to authorize, by 59 votes to 0, a budget of over $700 billion for war ($567 billion for “defense spending” and $159 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq) for the fiscal year beginning in October, lawmakers unanimously saw through — and turned down — a fraction of this budget for what the administration had labeled a “transfer fund” — money intended to close Guantánamo and buy a new prison in Illinois for prisoners designated for trials or for indefinite detention without charge or trial.

CODEPINK goes naked in a protest against BP

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What is more indecent, our bodies or the horrific effects of our nation’s obsession with oil? – CODEPINK

The Naked Truth About Drill, Baby, Drill Protest

CODE PINK on May 24, 2010

The Simplicity of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Jeremy R. Hammond

by Jeremy R. Hammond
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Foreign Policy Journal
crossposted at Palestine Chronicle
25 May, 2010

Palestinian Loss of Land 1946 to 2005

Info-map orders: PIAG

There is a general perception that the reason the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has continued for so long is because it is extremely complex. Nothing could be further from the truth. Placed in historical context, understanding the root cause of the conflict is simple, and in doing so, the solution becomes apparent.

During the late 1800s, a movement known as Zionism arose to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, then a territory under the Ottoman Empire. As a result of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and Great Britain and France conspired to divide the territorial spoils of war between themselves. The British became the occupying power of Palestine. The League of Nations issued a mandate effectively recognizing Great Britain as such.