What Would Socialism Be Like? by Leela Yellesetty (repost)

A must-read series all in one post.

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ by Leela Yellesetty SocialistWorker.org July 20, 2010 Part 1: A crying need for change At the Socialism 2010 conference in Oakland, Calif., SocialistWorker.org contributor Leela Yellesetty spoke on “What Would Socialism Be Like?” This three-part article is based on her talk. In the first part, she answers the time-worn charge that socialism wouldn’t work with this question–who can say that capitalism is worki … Read More

via Dandelion Salad

Michael Parenti: Lies, War, and Empire (2007; must-see) (repost)

Dandelion Salad

In case you missed this one, here it is again.

talkingsticktv
June 17, 2007

Parenti speaks about lies, dissent, and how we arrive at the truth of our situation and still retain our sanity. He raises the question whether the Iraq war was not a failure but a success for some parts of the empire – and why.”Lies, War, and Empire” given May 12, 2007 at Antioch University in Seattle.

The Morning Star: Disputing Iraq Body Count Figures by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at www.uruknet.info
29 August, 2010

The Editor,
The Morning Star

Your lead article (“The Deaths that Chilcot Forgot”, 28th August*) regarding the Iraq Body Count statistics on Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion, makes the point that “… the true figure is expected to be much higher.”

Blood, Oil & US Empire (repost)

Another repost for any who may have missed seeing this.

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ PHubb February 19, 2010 49 minutes Ashley Smith, Adaner Usmani, Glen Ford at the New England United Antiwar Conference. Filmed by Paul Hubbard on 1-30-10 at MIT, Boston MA. … Read More

via Dandelion Salad

The Iron Heel (1908) by Jack London (repost)

Dandelion Salad

Reposting The Iron Heel. It’s a must-read book, or you can listen to it via the link.

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/ Read it online: Jack London: The Iron Heel Table of Contents *** The Iron Heel per­formed by Matt Soar Audio­book ver­sion of The Iron Heel 1908 by Jack London. Foreward Chapters 1-25: The Iron Heel The Iron Heel (audio­book) writ­ten by J … Read More

via Dandelion Salad

US to Lebanon: Israel can completely destroy Lebanese Army within four hours

Propaganda Alert

compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
27 August 2010



1) US to Lebanon: Israel can completely destroy Lebanese Army within four hours (27 August 2010)

2) Lebanon’s president: The Lebanese army is called upon to stand in the face of the lurking Israeli enemy (1 August 2010)

from the archives:

Ramadan Force-Feeding, and Renewed Secrecy Surrounding Hunger Strikers in Guantánamo

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

Image via Wikipedia

In a disturbing report in the Miami Herald, the ever-vigilant Carol Rosenberg reports that an unknown number of hunger strikers at Guantánamo are being force-fed between dusk and dawn — a mixture of cruelty (force-feeding) and respect (for Ramadan) that is sadly typical of the surreal, otherworldly reality of Guantánamo, over eight and a half years after the prison first opened.

In a statement, Navy Cmdr. Bradley Fagan, a spokesman for the authorities at Guantánamo, explained, “Detainees who are fasting get their meals before dawn.” As Rosenberg described it, he “disclos[ed] only the hours of that day’s feeding “in observance of the Ramadan schedule” — before 5:26 a.m. and after 7:28 p.m, adding, “Please note that not all hunger strikers are enteral feeders.”

Omar Khadr’s Trial Postponed, Lawyer Leaves Gitmo

Dandelion Salad

Image via Wikipedia

www.therealnews.com

TheRealNews on Aug 26, 2010

Carol Rosenberg: Khadr confession ruled admissible by military judge

Carol Rosenberg is a senior journalist, currently with the McClatchy News Service. Rosenberg works at the Miami Herald, which has provided extensive coverage of the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.

Five Years and Still Drowning – The New Orleans CNN Would Never Show You by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
24 August, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

It’s been five years already. In New Orleans, more than half the original residents have not, cannot, return.

“They don’t want no poor niggers back in – that’s the bottom line.”

And that’s Malik Rahim, Director of Common Ground, who led the survivors who rebuilt their homes in the teeth of official resistance in “The City That Care Forgot.”

You’ll meet Malik and the people that everyone forgot in Big Easy to Big Empty: the Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans, chosen this week as Moviefone’s top pick of Katrina documentaries.

Michel Chossudovsky: Death squads invade Iraq

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

RTAmerica | August 24, 2010

In Latin America El Salvadorian death squads were known for targeting clergy members, doctors, and others, similar to what is being said about Iraq. Michel Chossudovsky, the director of the Center for Research on Globalization in Canada argued that the death squad approach created in El Salvador in the early 1980’s to fight the liberation movement has been adopted by the US and employed in Iraq.

Despotism (1946) + Don’t Be a Sucker (1947) (must-see)

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image by RapidView via Flickr

popworld7 | March 20, 2007

Made by Encyclopedia Britannica Films in 1946. Not so far away as it seems. There are plenty of people who are very inclined towards submission to authoritarian ideas. If you want to know more go here to learn about it.

END:CIV: F*ck Patience

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image by Roberto Rizzato ►pix jockey◄ Facebook resident via Flickr

stimulator | August 23, 2010

submedia.tv

The final piece from END:CIV is both a reality check and a call to arms. Can we really expect the power structures to change their destructive ways by asking nicely? Do we have unlimited time to stop the destruction of the planet? The answer to both questions is no. If we are serious about defending the biosphere and abolishing the institutions responsible for the hyper exploitation of the land, we have to become a resistance movement and go beyond “feel good” symbolic actions.

Music by stig inge oy. and Omar Torres

Energy Sacrifice Zones by Rand Clifford

by Rand Clifford
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
August 23, 2010

The concept is an old one. The amount of human blood spilled over control of fossil energy deposits and associated transfer routes, in the 20th Century alone, probably rivals the amount of oil BP’s Macondo well has unleashed in the Gulf of Mexico so far. But in the 21st Century the concept has gained a popular name, and really hit its stride—all the way to perhaps relegating the entire life-support system of Earth as an energy sacrifice zone.

Who Actually Owns BP?

Another Swing and a Miss for Congress by Walter Brasch

by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
August 23, 2010

A federal grand jury last week indicted retired pitcher Roger Clemens on charges he lied to Congress.

In February 2008, Clemens, a seven time Cy Young winner, voluntarily met with a House committee and testified he didn’t knowingly use steroids or human growth hormones. The only evidence against Clemens appears to be the testimony of his former trainer, Brian McNamee, who claims to have injected Clemens with the drugs about 40 times between 1998 and 2001. Clemens says he was led to believe the injections were Vitamin B-12 and an anesthetic, Lidocaine, both legal under Major League Baseball guidelines. McNamee cut a deal with the Department of Justice to avoid prosecution. Clemens could be sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Probably half the country thinks Clemens took illegal drugs. Probably half the country thinks he didn’t take the drugs and was set up by his trainer. But that’s not the important issue.

How Has it Come to This? by Dahr Jamail

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

by Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld
t r u t h o u t (see photos by Erika Blumenfeld)
Sunday 22 August 2010

The scene is post-apocalyptic. Under a grey sky, two families play in the surf just off the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana. To get to the beach, we walk past a red, plastic barrier fence that until very recently was there to keep people away from the oil-soaked area. Now, there are a few openings that beach goers can use. The fence is left largely intact, I presume, for when they will need to close the beach again when the next invasion of BP’s oil occurs.

A father jokingly throws sand at his little boy who laughs while dodging it. This, against a background of oil rigs and platforms looming in the Gulf. In the foreground, littering the beach, are tar balls. We stroll through the area, eyeing even more tar balls that bob lazily underwater, amidst sand ripples in the shallows … they are in the same location where the father sits, grabbing handfuls of sand to toss near his son.