H.R. 347: The Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011 – The “anti-Occupy” law by Bruce Gagnon

by Bruce Gagnon
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Organizing Notes
March 4, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

A bill, the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011, passed on Feb 27 in the U.S. House of Representatives (by margin of 388-3) and has passed in the Senate (Unanimous Consent. A record of each senator’s position was not kept). The new law would make it a felony—a serious criminal offense punishable by lengthy terms of incarceration—to participate in many forms of protest associated with the Occupy Wall Street protests of last year.

The U.S. Strategy to Control Middle Eastern Oil by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
March 2, 2012

NOTE: The following is a research sample from The People’s Book Project. It is unedited and in draft format, but is intended as an excerpt of some of the research that is going into the book. This research sample is drawn from a recently written chapter on the history of American imperialism in the Middle East and North Africa. Please support The People’s Book Project by contributing a donation to The People’s Grant to reach the target goal of $1,600 to fund two major chapters in the book on a radical history of race and poverty.

BP Settlement Sells Out Victims by Greg Palast

Image via Wikipedia

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
Crossposted at TheMudflats
March 4, 2012

Deal buries evidence of oil company willful negligence

Following the Deepwater Horizon explosion, Greg Palast led a four-continent investigation of BP PLC for Britain’s television series Dispatches. From 1989-91, Palast directed the investigation of fraud charges in the Exxon Valdez grounding for Alaska Native villages.

No Public Education, No Democracy! by Simone Harris

Sent to DS from Shepherd Bliss

by Simone Harris
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
Feb. 28, 2012

Image by Plashing Vole via Flickr

I teach English at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California. I love my school, my amazing colleagues, and the kids who enter my classroom each year. But I hate what is happening to public education.

From the national to the local level, our public schools are under attack, and that means our students are under attack. This attack takes more than one form.

Syria: It is a Conspiracy by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
London, England
1 March 2012

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” (Walt Kelly, 1913-1973.)

It was political analyst Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, in November 2006, who wrote in detail(i) of US plans for the Middle East:

“The term ‘New Middle East’, was introduced to the world in June 2006, in Tel Aviv, by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (who was credited by the Western media for coining the term) in replacement of the older and more imposing term, the “Greater Middle East’ “.

How the Media got the Parchin Access Story Wrong by Gareth Porter

by Gareth Porter
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted at LobeLog.com
February 29, 2012

News media reported last week that Iran had flatly refused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to its Parchin military test facility, based on a statement to reporters by IAEA Deputy Director General, Herman Nackaerts, that “We could not get access”.

MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) as an ECB (European Central Bank) Alternative by Michael Hudson

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
February 27, 2012

2,181 Italians pack a Sports Arena to learn Modern Monetary Theory:
The Economy doesn’t Need to suffer Neoliberal Austerity

I have just returned from Rimini, Italy, where I experienced one of the most amazing spectacles of my academic life. Four of us associated with the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) were invited to lecture for three days on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and explain why Europe is in such monetary trouble today – and to show that there is an alternative, that the enforced austerity for the 99% and vast wealth grab by the 1% is not a force of nature.

Global Tamil Forum on the 19th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council

by Suren Surendiran
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://www.tamilsforum.com
3 March 2012

Issued for immediate release

PRESS STATEMENT
3 March 2012

A true international effort, with the backing of key regional Governments, will bring real accountability for war crimes and reconciliation between communities in the island of Sri Lanka.

The United Nations Human Rights Council which is in session in Geneva right now presents a great opportunity for the international community to address the issues of accountability, for the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed by both sides during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka.

Barack Obama’s AIPAC 2012 Speech + Transcript

Image by mar is sea Y via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Propaganda Alert!

AlJazeeraEnglish on Mar 4, 2012

US President Barack Obama has said he prefers to use diplomacy to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but he made clear that he will not “hesitate to use force” when necessary to defend the US and its interests.

New State Bank Bills Address Credit and Housing Crises by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
February 26, 2012

Seventeen states have now introduced bills for state-owned banks, and others are in the works.  Hawaii’s innovative state bank bill addresses the foreclosure mess.  County-owned banks are being proposed that would tackle the housing crisis by exercising the right of eminent domain on abandoned and foreclosed properties.  Arizona has a bill that would do this for homeowners who are current in their payments but underwater, allowing them to refinance at fair market value.

An Empire of Poverty: Race, Punishment, and Social Control by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
February 26, 2012

NOTE: The following is a brief sampling of some of the concepts, ideas, issues, and events that are to be thoroughly researched and written about in two chapters of The People’s Book Project which will be funded through The People’s Grant, of which the objective is to raise $1,600 from readers and supporters. If you find the information in the following sampling of interest, please donate to the People’s Book Project and help facilitate expanded research on these and other related subjects into constructing two significant chapters for the book. For a look at what other information will be included in these chapters, see the latest information on The People’s Grant.

Slavery and the Social Construction of Race

Exclusive: Nationalism separates us by Shawn S. Grandstaff

by Shawn S. Grandstaff
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
February 27, 2012

I believe the problem is it’s just very difficult for some people to grasp the concept that there is only one race and that is the human race. I think our battle with the powers that be which is in the hands of a few multinational corporations and banks would be much easier to overcome if we could just get over loving a nation more than loving people.

Impotence in the face of impunity? By William Bowles

by William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
29 February 2012

A fellow writer tells me that she feels overwhelmed by events and I feel the same way. An awful sense of deja vu that we have as much chance of stopping the march to total war as they had in the 1930s. Except that this time it will not be us citizens of Empire who are on the receiving end of Western industrial-scale murder and pillage. The world’s first colonial world war, with the haves pitted against the have-nots. As I have remarked before, without a non-capitalist alternative to not only reign in some of the ‘excesses’ of capitalism but also curtail its relentless expansion, the world is essentially defenceless.

“… on Earth as it is in Heaven” by Philip A. Farruggio

by Philip A. Farruggio
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Feb. 27, 2012

Image via Wikipedia

It matters not if there is the heaven as our religions describe it. Yet, there must be something more vital and more sustained than what we now exist in. Why? Well, look around you, and study history. All we find is that there have, it seems, always been those among us who wanted more and more. Whether wealth was determined by how much gold, silver, or whatever the precious material was that everyone sought after, there was always (sadly) the haves and the have nots.

U.S. Foreign Policy: Same as it ever was by Ed Ciaccio

by Ed Ciaccio
Dandelion Salad
Featured Writer
February 26, 2012

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

As the 2012 election draws near, this is what we should keep in mind:

1. Bush AND Obama are war criminals who have knowingly waged illegal wars of aggression in violation of the U.N. Charter, the Geneva Accords, and the Nuremberg Principles, all of which are part of U.S. law and the U.S. Constitution (which they swore to uphold) due to the Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2).