03/13/12

Permalink Lorax 2-minute finale: 99% sing ‘Let it grow,’ 1%: ‘Let it die’

The Lorax movie shows a world much like the US today; governed by a plutocratic and vicious 1%. They secretly surveil, transfer rapacious wealth to themselves, purchase goons for protection, are openly cruel as they pretend to care, and keep the 99% literally “walled-in” to prevent public recognition of the 1%’s psychopathic destruction of the outside world.

The 99% in The Lorax are aware that something is wrong, but don’t know exactly what it is. They can’t see outside the wall, so they still accept their “leadership.” The 99% do their best to live in good cheer, but are concerned about visible destruction of their health and air quality.

The plot centers around a leader among the 99%, motivated by love, who is challenged to understand their society’s true history, and is entrusted with one literal seed. The seed is opportunity and choice for the 99% to reconnect to who they really are as beings living for 100% of Earth’s inhabitants’ success. The 1% viciously try to take the seed so the 99% will remain ignorant. Their violence only causes allies to aid the 99%’s leader. To the initial shock of the 99%, the growing leadership remove the 1%’s wall blocking the vista of the 1%’s destruction. [Video]

Kate Randall: Incomes of top 1 percent in US skyrocket in wake of recession


Permalink Yemen: US Drone Strikes Killed at Least 64

The Yemeni government continues to rewrite the story of the air strikes of the past several days, and is now saying they were conducted entirely by US drones, and that the US never gave them any notice of the strikes. - The strikes, which the Yemeni government says killed at least 64 people, centered around the Abyan Province, but also hit the Bayda Province. Officials termed everyone killed an “insurgent.” The US has declined to comment on any of the strikes, and has been largely silent on Yemen since early this month when they confirmed that US ground troops were attacked in Aden, an odd confirmation since the US had never announced sending ground troops to Yemen. So far Yemen’s government has purely provided informational statements, and while they contradict one another significantly it doesn’t seem that there’s any official anger at the attacks, meaning only human rights groups are criticizing the US.


Permalink Pakistan: US drone attack kills 7

At least seven people have been killed in a US assassination drone attack on Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border, Press TV reports. - The attack occurred on Tuesday when a US unmanned aerial vehicle pounded Sara Khwara in South Waziristan agency. Four others were also injured in the strike, the second such attack on Tuesday. At least nine people were killed earlier in the day when a US drone fired missiles at a vehicle in South Waziristan. The United States has deployed its terror drones to launch airstrikes inside Pakistan's tribal belt, despite repeated protests by government officials in Islamabad who have been demanding an end to the ‘violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty’. Washington claims its drone strikes target militants, although casualty figures clearly indicate that Pakistani civilians are the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned attacks.


Permalink Russia slams bid to mislead international community on Syria

The Russian Foreign Minister has condemned efforts by certain Western countries for a regime change in Syria by misleading the international community and manipulating the UN Security Council. - Addressing the United Nation Security Council during a meeting about the Middle East, Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that no conclusion can be achieved on Syria by misleading the international community, adding that a stable settlement can be achieved only through dialogue between the government and the opposition.

James Petras: The Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance’s War on a Sovereign State - There is clear and overwhelming evidence that the uprising to overthrow President Assad of Syria is a violent, power grab led by foreign-supported fighters who have killed and wounded thousands of Syrian soldiers, police and civilians, partisans of the government and its peaceful opposition.


Permalink Netanyahu Raises Prospect of Ground Invasion of Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is openly talking of expanding operations into a full scale ground invasion, and the Israeli military says it is “ready” to launch such an operation, the first of its kind since early 2009. - Meanwhile Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that rockets fired in retaliation to Israel’s attacks meant the Palestinians no longer would be allowed to have a territorially contiguous state, saying that the Palestinians “have condemned themselves to a separation that looks like it will continue for generations.”


Permalink Israel expands deadly air strikes on Gaza

Israel on Monday carried out air strikes on Gaza for the fourth successive day, bringing the Palestinian death toll to at least 22. More than 26 have been wounded, including several youths, since the attacks began last Friday.

The cross-border violence has seen the heaviest exchange of fire since Israel’s assault on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09. The latest fighting started Friday when Israeli drones hit a car in Gaza city carrying Zohair al-Qaisi, secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and Mahmoud al-Hannani, his military escort. The air strike followed the firing of a few rockets by Gazan militants into southern Israel that caused neither injury nor damage. The Israeli military authorities justified their assassination of Qaisi and Hannani with the claim that Qaisi “was among the leaders who planned, funded and directed” the three cross-border attacks into Eilat from Egypt’s Sinai that killed eight Israelis and wounded 25 soldiers last August. The PRC has always denied any involvement in the attacks. Qaisi became the PRC leader after Israel killed his predecessor and five other PRC members in an aerial attack on Gaza following the Sinai incident in August.

In Gaza: Israel initiates bloodbath on Gaza… which continues 4 days later
PIC: An elderly man and his daughter killed in Israeli artillery shelling
Stephen Lendman: Israel's Rogue Killing Machine


Permalink Government: Christians have no right to wear cross at work

In a highly significant move, ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross. - It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work. A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph discloses that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so. The Government’s position received an angry response last night from prominent figures including Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. He accused ministers and the courts of “dictating” to Christians and said it was another example of Christianity becoming sidelined in official life.

Wayne Madsen's Comment: It is not the gays, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, or Buddhists who are pressuring Cameron on this issue, it is the group that Cameron and Clegg cater to every day of the week, a group that despises the sight of the crucifix.


Permalink US rejects Afghan trial in shooting spree

The Pentagon says the US military will prosecute the American soldier responsible for the killings of at least 17 Afghan civilians, rejecting calls for his trial to be held in Afghanistan. - Pentagon spokesman George Little on Monday rejected calls for the prosecutions of the American soldier "before the people of Afghanistan." Little [disingenously] said that investigations and the prosecutions of US service members were governed by "agreements in place with the [puppet] government of Afghanistan.”

US forces burned bodies of Afghans after massacre’
Moon of Alabama: Drunk Soldiers Have Fun By Murdering Afghan People
Russia Today: Several drunk troops behind bloodbath, laughed on shooting-spree, burned corpses’
ANSWER: Latest Afghanistan massacre will be remembered as tipping point in the war


Permalink British Teen Arrested for Anti-War Comments on Facebook

A British teenager will appear in court on charges of "racially aggravated offense" after posting Facebook comments about six British soldiers killed in Afghanistan last week. - In his Facebook comments Azhar Ahmed, 19, reportedly criticized the amount of attention the deaths of the six soldiers received as compared to the civilians losses Afghanistan has sustained in the NATO-led war. A police spokesperson said that the teen "didn't make his point very well and that is why he has landed himself in bother." Ahmed, who will appear before court on March 20, was detained last Friday and charged over the weekend. He has since been released on bail. The six British troops were killed last week after their Warrior armored vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan. Most of the soldiers were between 19 and 21 years of age. The incident is considered the biggest single loss of life for British forces since 2006.

People complain about the soldiers' death. What about the innocent families who have been brutally murdered ..... The women who have been raped .... Children who've been cut to pieces.... Their enemies were the Taliban. Not innocent harmless families.

Digital Journal: Teenager arrested for comments made on Facebook page - According to Sky News, Azhar Ahmed of Ravensthorpe (19) posted comments on his profile page, criticizing the level of attention British soldiers who died in a bomb blast received, compared to that received by Afghan civilians killed in the war.


Permalink E.F. Schumacher. A Voice for Wisdom in an Age of Folly

The economist E.F. Schumacher has served as a source of inspiration for many over the past half-century. His essential message is carried in two books published in the five years before he died, Small is Beautiful. A Study of Economics as if People Mattered (1973) and A Guide for the Perplexed (1977). His ideas continue to be explored, developed and disseminated by such groups as the Schumacher Society in the UK and the New Economics Institute in the US as well as numerous individuals and groups in both the developed and developing world.

This post offers both an audio presentation drawn from two lectures given by Schumacher in the 1970s and a review of some of his ideas as presented in Small is Beautiful.

E.F. Schumacher. A Voice for Wisdom in an Age of Folly can be streamed using the media player above. A CD quality mp3 file is also available for download here.


Permalink Britain: Rebekah Brooks and husband arrested in hacking probe

Rebekah Brooks and her racehorse trainer husband are among six suspects arrested by detectives investigating phone hacking at News International, it has been widely reported today. - The former News International chief executive and Charlie Brooks were arrested at their Oxfordshire home on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, sources said. Police are searching several addresses after dawn raids also took place in London, Hampshire and Hertfordshire, Scotland Yard said. Ms Brooks, a former editor of The Sun, had been on bail after being questioned by detectives last summer.

Reuters: Rebekah Brooks arrested again: report
BBC: Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks arrested in Weeting probe


Permalink Britain: Hague to be sued for aiding US drone attacks in Pakistan

A rights group and a law firm are set to take legal action against British Foreign Secretary William Hague over his alleged the contribution of intelligence in assisting US assassination drone strikes in Pakistan. - The London-based charity Reprieve and the law firm Leigh Day & Co. confirmed on Monday that they will issue formal proceedings at the High Court on behalf of Noor Khan, a Pakistani man whose father was killed by a US strike. The law firm says it has credible evidence that Hague oversaw a policy of passing British intelligence to American forces planning attacks in Pakistan.


Permalink Autistic teen fatally shot by police in suburban Chicago home

Fifteen-year-old Stephon Watts was shot and killed in his home by Calumet City Police officers on February 1. In an attempt to contain and defuse public outrage at the young man’s death, media outlets have sought to downplay the child’s multiple mental illness diagnoses and emphasize police reports and protocols excusing Watts’s death. Stephon was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, at age nine. The young boy’s death is a result of the total breakdown of the most basic mental health services available to working families in many areas of the US. In budget-strapped states like Illinois, deep cuts have forced the closure of numerous mental health facilities, replacing mental health care with law enforcement, resulting in the criminalization of those in need of care.


Permalink NASA Mars Orbiter Catches Twister In Action

An afternoon whirlwind on Mars lofts a twisting column of dust more than half a mile (800 meters) high in an image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

HiRISE captured the image on Feb. 16, 2012, while the orbiter passed over the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. In the area observed, paths of many previous whirlwinds, or dust devils, are visible as streaks on the dusty surface. The active dust devil displays a delicate arc produced by a westerly breeze partway up its height. The dust plume is about 30 yards or meters in diameter. The image was taken during the time of Martian year when that planet is farthest from the sun. Just as on Earth, winds on Mars are powered by solar heating. Exposure to the sun's rays declines during this season, yet even now, dust devils act relentlessly to clean the surface of freshly deposited dust, a little at a time. Dust devils occur on Earth as well as on Mars. They are spinning columns of air, made visible by the dust they pull off the ground. Unlike a tornado, a dust devil typically forms on a clear day when the ground is heated by the sun, warming the air just above the ground. As heated air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler air above it, the air may begin to rotate, if conditions are just right.


Permalink Japan one year on: A journey through a world shaken to the core

First the earthquake, then the tsunami, and a nuclear crisis. But as David McNeill found, millions of people are still struggling with the hardest part of all: picking up the pieces. - It began with the huge quake that struck off the coast of the city of 71,000 at 2:46pm. Less than an hour later, Mr Sakurai was on the roof of the city office, squinting toward the sea about six miles away. "We could see this huge cloud of dust rising into the air from the Pacific. I asked someone, 'Is that a fire?' Then we realised it was the tsunami." Even as he spoke, the deluge was inundating homes, drowning old people and children alike, sometimes whole families. By evening, bodies were being brought to a makeshift morgue in a local college. [...] "I don't know if we will ever recover to what we were before 11 March but we are certainly improving," he says, pointing to the flashing red dosimeter outside, which reads 0.2 microsieverts. Last March the radiation was 10 times as high, a level that exceeded the government's annual guidelines of 1 millisievert. In response, the government controversially hiked the limit to 20 millisieverts, sparking protests. Many children have since reported low immunity and other health problems, though no one has proved a link to the nuclear plant. [...] The number of people who took their own lives in Japan spiked in the months following last year's devastating earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, new government figures show. For the fourteenth year in a row, more than 30,000 people committed suicide, according to the 2011 survey.


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