Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
by Guadamour
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Dec. 23, 2010
Echoes inhabit the garden
plant syllables speak among themselves
The husk cherries enunciate
an incomprehensible Chinese dialect
The tomatoes grow fat and sweet
red and lazy
yawn at lesser plants
by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
December 23, 2010
Image via Wikipedia
[To properly understand this fable, one must know the Dickens’s story of Scrooge. Either read the novel, or watch the fine film”A Christmas Carol”. ]
It was Christmas season once again. If one is really still and perfectly quiet, looking up into the sky above, imagination makes way for an absolute reality… One that we seldom ever sense. Through the ceiling of powder blue (or gray, depending on where you live) up past any cloud cover or ozone layer, if our focus flows further into the outer spaces…. There it is! Some call it heaven, or nirvana, or the Central Sun…. Continue reading
Updated: Dec. 24, 2010; see Addendum at the very end.
By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
23 December, 2010
“By working primarily with media organizations from NATO countries, Wikileaks has chosen to submit its leaks to one single ‘worldview’, that of the West.” — Who’s Who at Wikileaks? By Julie Lévesque
Cyber-warfare – Cyber-Anarchy – Anarchists – Hackers
It’s all so predictable isn’t it and how quick the media was to brand the leaks as the opening shots of a ‘Cyber-War’, a designation that fed back into the government’s propaganda almost immediately. To paraphrase, the media really is the message not just the messenger.
by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
Stop NATO-Opposition to global militarism
December 23, 2010
On December 22 both houses of the U.S. Congress unanimously passed a bill authorizing $725 billion for next year’s Defense Department budget.
The bill, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, was approved by all 100 senators as required and by a voice vote in the House.
The House had approved the bill, now sent to President Barack Obama to sign into law, five days earlier in a 341-48 roll call, but needed to vote on it again after the Senate altered it in the interim.
by Peter B. Collins and Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
23 December, 2010
James Babb recounts the creation of the grassroots effort We Won’t Fly, and how he and cofounder George Donnelly, two regular dads, founded the group to oppose the full-body airport “porno”-scanners on grounds of privacy, ineffectiveness and health, and demand that the airlines make their maximum lobbying effort in support of customers’ rights and liberties. He discusses the ineffective and dangerous aspects of the TSA Security Theater as a top-down and lumbering bureaucracy, and the intimidation and humiliation of passengers for this false sense of security. Mr. Babb talks about the goal of his group, alternatives to flying, their next Opt Out project, and more!
by Ellen Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
December 23, 2010
“Doubtful it stood, as two spent swimmers that do cling together, and choke their art.”
–Shakespeare, “Macbeth”
The Greek bailout was supposed to be an isolated case, a test of the EU’s ability to quarantine an infected member, preventing it from spreading “debt contagion.”
But that was before Ireland failed. Ireland was the poster child for how to conduct a successful austerity program. Unlike the Greeks, who were considered profligate spendthrifts, the Irish did everything their creditors asked. The people sacrificed to pay for the excesses of their banks, but still the effort failed. Ireland was the second domino to fall to an IMF/EU bailout. On December 17, Moody’s Investors Service rewarded it for voting to accept the “rescue” package with a five-notch credit downgrade, from AA2 to BAA1, with warnings that further downgrades could follow.
