tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18263131972821611792024-02-08T08:06:45.878-08:00Noodle Brain Productions Views and News'all the young dudes, carry the news'Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-23941860752313943792012-03-03T21:12:00.001-08:002012-12-29T12:53:18.018-08:00Thursday, 01 March 2012 Oh what can it mean?"Virtually Speaking Tuesdays featured Dave Johnson and Natasha Chart, something I'd been looking forward to, but I'm not sure they took the full meaning of Stuart Zechman's point in his most recent Z-Files:<br />
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Z-Files, 02/28/2012 "Extremists"<br />
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I'm Stuart Zechman, and I've heard something that really disturbs me.<br />
<br />
I've heard that the Republican Party is now populated with wild extremists, right-wing lunatics who are completely divorced from reality, and so, like never before in American history, the GOP is now totally unreasonable and insane, and, if they get into power in Washington, the will enact the most dreadful, terrible, awful policy...ever.<br />
<br />
Have you been hearing this, lately, too?<br />
<br />
See, I thought that the Republican Party has always advocated the worst kind of policies and agenda.<br />
<br />
Since, like, as far back as the 1990s, I remember Republicans being in favor of all kinds of anti-Bill of Rights, pro-endless war, anti-New Deal and pro-big corporate monopoly proposals, and performing all of these crazy political hostage-taking maneuvers to try to get that horrifying agenda through the government.<br />
<br />
I vaguely --really vaguely-- remember way back when that Christian fundamentalist and televangelist fraud Pat Robertson actually ran for President as a Republican, I think that was in the 1980s, actually.<br />
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I remember, in the late 90s, when Congressman Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, was so freaking nuts that he actually staged a supposed "re-enactment" of how Hillary Clinton murdered a White House staffer named Vince Foster, by shooting a pumpkin in his back yard, and telling reporters to imagine that this was Foster's head. I remember when he said things like "If I could prove 10 percent of what I believe happened, he'd [Clinton] be gone. This guy's a scumbag. That's why I'm after him."<br />
<br />
Just to give you some idea of what I'm talking about, Dan Burton, I swear to you, once proclaimed in a 1995 House hearing on the War on Some Drugs, that<br />
<br />
"the US military "should place an aircraft carrier off the coast of Bolivia and crop dust the coca fields." It was later pointed out to him that a) Bolivia is landlocked and has no coast (Burton was chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee); b) the Bolivian coca fields (in the yungas and Amazon lowlands) are beyond the reach of any carrier-borne crop-duster, being separated from the nearest coastline (the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile) by the 20,000+ feet high peaks of the Andes; and c) F-18s cannot crop-dust." [Link]<br />
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I'm telling you, this is well-documented. The Republicans from the 1990s were like this. If you listened to talk radio, like I did, or had enough time on your hands to watch the Christian conservative religious broadcasters, like I did, you were more than likely to hear Hillary Clinton referred to as a secret lesbian murderess. I'm not kidding. They literally told people that Clinton was Satan. These guys made today's "War on Religious Freedom" hucksters look like college Democrats. It makes Romney's references to Obama as a "European-style socialist" look like an endorsement." <br />
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<b> more at link above! </b>Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-68218163607646696742012-02-02T09:02:00.000-08:002012-02-02T09:02:31.783-08:00Monsanto files patent for new invention: the pigGreenpeace researcher uncovers chilling patent plans<br />
On this page<br />
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Help us stop patents on life<br />
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Feature story - August 2, 2005<br />
It's official. Monsanto Corporation is out to own the world's food supply, the dangers of genetic engineering and reduced biodiversity notwithstanding, as they pig-headedly set about hog-tying farmers with their monopoly plans. We've discovered chilling new evidence of this in recent patents that seek to establish ownership rights over pigs and their offspring.<br />
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zoom<br />
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The Earth is flat, pigs were invented by Monsanto, and genetically modified organisms are safe. Right.<br />
<br />
In the crop department, Monsanto is well on their way to dictating what consumers will eat, what farmers will grow, and how much Monsanto will get paid for seeds. In some cases those seeds are designed not to reproduce sowable offspring. In others, a flock of lawyers stand ready to swoop down on farmers who illegally, or even unknowingly, end up with Monsanto's private property growing in their fields.<br />
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Oneway or another, Monsanto wants to make sure no food is grown that they don't own -- and the record shows they don't care if it's safe for the environment or not. Monsanto has aggressively set out to bulldoze environmental concerns about its genetically engineered (GE) seeds at every regulatory level.<br />
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So why stop in the field? Not content to own the pesticide and the herbicide and the crop, they've made a move on the barnyard by filing two patents which would make the corporate giant the sole owner of that famous Monsanto invention: the pig.<br />
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The Monsanto Pig (Patent pending)<br />
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The patent applications were published in February 2005 at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. A Greenpeace researcher who monitors patent applications, Christoph Then, uncovered the fact that Monsanto is seeking patents not only on methods of breeding, but on actual breeding herds of pigs as well as the offspring that result." <br />
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more at link above... this is so ridiculous and frankensteinian... we got to stop these psychotic mad men who have money. Fuck money. Prosecute for treason against human kind. And animal kind. Dumbfucks think they are God.Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-64290274600803501132012-02-02T08:54:00.000-08:002012-02-02T08:54:22.175-08:00Don Cornelius, the host of Soul Train. (another sad and costly suicide)"When the Saturday morning cartoons drifted from relevance, we always had Don Cornelius, the host of Soul Train. His voice had a resonance from another world. Soul Train was the American Bandstand for Soul Music. From humble beginnings on WCIU in Chicago to world domination, Soul Train remains an instantly recognizable touchstone for music that lives forever.<br />
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Staple Singers-Respect Yourself. Released the year that Soul Train debuted. Don’t miss Mavis at this year’s Chicago Blues Festival. There have been so many times that I’ve played songs on this list on the air and said, “As relevant today as the day it was released.”<br />
<br />
James Brown-It’s Too Funky In Here. Actually, not possible. The Godfather from 1979. Local music trivia: The Nicholas Tremulus Orchestra used to do a monster version of this in the ’80′s.<br />
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The Isley Brothers-Climbing the Ladder. You want to talk guitar solos? Share this with a friend who can handle the funk...."<br />
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View More Essential Soul Shots From Lin and videos at link aboveDavis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-89238342692853025292012-02-02T08:52:00.000-08:002012-02-02T08:52:07.091-08:00Pioneering Artist Mike Kelley Dies at 57:Gallerist:NY"Over four decades, through bands, writing and his art, Kelley altered the course of contemporary art<br />
<br />
By Dan Duray, Andrew Russeth and Michael H. Miller 2/01 1:29pm<br />
Tweet<br />
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Mike Kelley.<br />
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Mike Kelley, one of the most critically acclaimed artists of his generation, has died at the age of 57, at his home in South Pasadena, Calif. According to several sources close to the artist that Gallerist has spoken with, the cause of death was suicide.<br />
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The artist had recently been selected for the 2012 Whitney Biennial, an exhibition that he has participated in seven times in the past. He has had major one-person exhibitions at the Whitney Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Louvre, MUMOK, Vienna, and numerous other museums.<br />
<br />
> Click to see images of Kelley’s art.<br />
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A sergeant in the South Pasadena police department told Gallerist that officers responded to the apparent suicide following a 911 call made at 7:47 p.m. by a friend who had stopped by Kelley’s house to check up on him. The friend hadn’t heard from Kelley since Sunday and, unable to gain entry to the home, called the police. Kelley was pronounced dead on the scene. Though police records show no mention of a note, officers said the friend who called 911 mentioned that Kelley had been depressed following a September break-up.<br />
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Kelley’s work spanned numerous mediums and source materials, encompassing unorthodox objects from sculptures made of knitted stuffed animals (which provided the cover art for Sonic Youth’s 1992 Dirty album) to banners emblazoned with abrasive self-proclamations (“PANTS SHITTER & PROUD P.S. JERK-OFF TOO,” memorably) to large-scale installations inspired by the bottle city of Kandor, an object housed in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude in the comic books.<br />
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Kelley was born in 1954 in Detroit (he described himself as a “blue-collar anarchist”), and his childhood there provided material for many of his works. In 2010, he produced a sculpture modeled on his childhood home and carted it around the city on the back of a flatbed truck, for a special project with the city’s Museum of Contemporary Art.<br />
<br />
In 1974, he founded the band Destroy All Monsters with Cary Loren, Niagara (Loren’s then-girlfriend) and Jim Shaw. They made noisy, feedback-drenched music that was influenced by the other local bands at the time, The Stooges and the MC5. Destroy All Monsters was recently the subject of two retrospectives, at the Prism Gallery in Los Angeles and at the Boston University Art Gallery. Kelley left the band in 1976, to attend graduate school at CalArts."<br />
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more at above line... fascinating artist! Sad he committed suicide. We need more people like him to help us see the ambiguity that can see us free.Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-64342297526050168692012-01-27T18:06:00.000-08:002012-01-27T18:06:55.350-08:00Mitt Romney tweets that “more Americans have lost their jobs under Barack Obama than any president in modern history”With the perception swelling that he will be the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney has increasingly moved his attention away from his party rivals to President Barack Obama.<br />
<br />
On Jan. 16, 2012, Romney sent a tweet blasting Obama for his jobs record.<br />
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"More Americans have lost their jobs under Barack Obama than any president in modern history," Romney wrote.<br />
<br />
Several readers asked us to check it out.<br />
<br />
First, we should mention that there is no useful statistic for "Americans (who) have lost their jobs" during a given time period. The labor force is fluid, so people who lose their jobs often move quickly into another one. Instead, economists use the concept of net jobs gained or lost -- how many more (or fewer) people were employed on Date B than on Date A.<br />
<br />
When we asked the Romney campaign for backup material, they confirmed that they were talking about net jobs lost under a given president. So that’s the measure we used.<br />
<br />
We found that Obama is indeed the only president to have a net job loss if you count from inauguration day until the end of the presidency. But it’s not necessarily fair to credit or blame presidents for jobs created or lost during the first year on the job, since the president’s policies have not had time to take effect.<br />
<br />
Instead, if you start the count at one year into a president's term and end it one year -- a somewhat arbitrary method, but a defensible one -- it turns out that the Obama administration has presided over a net increase in jobs. So using this method, the premise of the Romney claim -- that the net jobs change for the nation as a whole under Obama was negative -- evaporates. In fact, using this method means that Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, becomes the only president to lose jobs on his watch.<br />
<br />
Let’s dig deeper into the numbers.<br />
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The numbers starting at inauguration day<br />
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As we noted, the numbers provided by the Romney campaign used jobs figures for the president’s first and last days in office. To replicate the campaign's math, we turned to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal agency that tracks employment figures going back decades. Due to BLS data constraints and Romney’s use of the term "modern" presidents, we limited our search to presidents from Harry Truman on.<br />
<br />
In previous fact checks, we’ve tried to adjust for the time each president has spent in office. But since the Romney tweet was clear about referring to total numbers of people who lost jobs, rather than the rate at which people were losing jobs under each president, we did not take that additional step for this item.<br />
<br />
We first calculated how many jobs were gained or lost during each president’s tenure on a net basis. We also tried to adjust for the size of the population by dividing the net job gain or loss by the nation’s estimated population during the president’s first year in office. (Comparing jobs gained or lost under Obama, when the U.S. population is more than 300 million, to the changes under Truman, when the population was below 140 million, is comparing apples and oranges.)<br />
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In this chart, the first number refers to the net jobs gained or lost during the president’s tenure starting at the very beginning of his term, and the second number refers to the net change in jobs as a percentage of the U.S. population. The presidents are listed in descending order by most jobs created:<br />
1. Bill Clinton + 22,744,000 +8.8 percent of population<br />
2. Ronald Reagan + 16,102,000 +7.0 percent of population<br />
3. Lyndon B. Johnson + 12,183,000 +6.3 percent of population<br />
4. Jimmy Carter + 10,339,000 +4.7 percent of population<br />
5. Richard Nixon + 9,181,000 +4.5 percent of population<br />
6. Harry Truman + 8,083,000 +5.8 percent of population<br />
7. John F. Kennedy + 3,538,000 +1.9 percent of population<br />
8. Dwight Eisenhower + 3,572,000 +2.2 percent of population<br />
9. George H.W. Bush + 2,592,000 +1.1 percent of population<br />
10. Gerald Ford + 2,073,000 +1.0 percent of population<br />
11. George W. Bush + 1,094,000 +0.4 percent of population<br />
12. Barack Obama - 1,663,000 -0.5 percent of population<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
So by this measure, Romney is right: Obama is the only president who saw a net job loss during his presidency. This means it’s reasonable for him to say that "more Americans have lost their jobs under Barack Obama than any president in modern history."<br />
<br />
But, as we noted, that’s not the only way to look at it.<br />
<br />
More at link above...Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-15976099312264754152012-01-27T17:22:00.000-08:002012-01-27T17:22:27.551-08:00Monsanto & Cancer Milk: FOX NEWS KILLS STORY & FIRES ReportersFOX NEWS Reporters (Reporters Steve Wilson & Jane Akre) uncover that most of the Milk in the USA and across some parts of the world is unfit to drink due to Monsanto Corporation's POSILAC®, which has been proven to be a cancer-causing growth hormone.(known in short as "BGH" "BST" or "rBGH" ), but they were fired for trying to tell people the truth. (Important note: After a long court battle, the Court dismissed the whistle blowers protection for the reporters because the Court stated that there was no law to force that the NEWS state the truth! Fact! Going on to say the NEWS was no different than other TV shows/reality shows!!) But the FDA has turned a blind eye once again! If you consumed or fed regular milk to your family today (8/21/08), there is more than a 90% chance that it was from a cow injected with BGH (Bovine somatotropin developed by using recombinant DNA technology). You could be killing or harming your child every time you pour them a glass of milk, the same as pouring them a glass of slow acting poison. Please take action to ensure our children's safety, for they can not protect themselves. What first alarmed farmers was the massive amount of PUS in the milk but Monsanto and the FDA still had no concerns by stating that the PUS was not harmful to be ingested by consumers! If you have little children, at least feed them certified BGH free Milk, Organic Milk or Organic/BGM free milk equivalent like Organic soy milk.<br />
Tags: fox news censored steve wilson jane cancer monsanto milk killsDavis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-4476393089356655372012-01-19T20:14:00.000-08:002012-01-19T20:14:23.257-08:00Kucinich Announces ‘Game Changing’ Constitutional Amendment to Publicly Finance Federal ElectionsCongressman Kucinich<br />
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Washington, Jan 19 -<br />
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On the eve of the second anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling known as Citizens United, which opened the floodgate of unlimited, shadowy corporate spending in public elections, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced H. J. Res. 100, a constitutional amendment to rescue American democracy from corporate money’s corrupting influence.<br />
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“Because of the decision by the Supreme Court majority in the Citizens United case, more money was spent on campaigns in the 2010 election than has ever been spent in a mid-term election.<br />
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“Because of the Citizens United case, more money will be spent in the 2012 elections than has ever been spent in an election in the history of our country.<br />
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“Because of the Citizens United case, American democracy has been put up on the auction block,” said Kucinich.<br />
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Read more: http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=275443Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-30645822996459020662012-01-14T22:25:00.000-08:002012-01-14T22:25:34.801-08:00" Can we toss around the idea that Congress has broken its oath by not collecting the people's revenueas that is their primary job? And, given the results of this dereliction of duty, why wouldn't this negligence be considered treasonous against the interest of the American people? And also, given that borrowing money with interest is not in the best interest when revenue can be collected by liens against property and cash, wouldn't it be prudent to discern if the members who brought this action to create debt instead of collect revenue, aren't actually shareholders of the Federal Reserve Board, collecting 6% income on our debt? Is anyone paying attention to these particular details? And can we not make a case and prosecute? And isn't death a likely sentence of treasonous acts against the best interest of the public? Where am I going wrong in this logic, if at all? "<br />
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More at link above...Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-3692395273337299672012-01-14T22:23:00.000-08:002012-01-14T22:23:57.351-08:00Jonathan Turley: Losing our libertiesJonathan Turley<br />
Friday, Jan 13, 2012<br />
Every year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture.<br />
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Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec. 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves?<br />
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While each new national security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. But they don’t operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. Americans often proclaim our nation as a symbol of freedom to the world while dismissing nations such as Cuba and China as categorically unfree. Yet, objectively, we may be only half right. Those countries do lack basic individual rights such as due process, placing them outside any reasonable definition of “free,” but the United States now has much more in common with such regimes than anyone may like to admit.<br />
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These countries also have constitutions that purport to guarantee freedoms and rights. But their governments have broad discretion in denying those rights and few real avenues for challenges by citizens — precisely the problem with the new laws in this country.<br />
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The list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11 puts us in rather troubling company.<br />
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More at link above... <br />
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jturley@law.gwu.edu<br />
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Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University.Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-19112345855634184172011-12-23T21:46:00.000-08:002011-12-23T21:46:49.173-08:00Noodle Brain Productions present the Integrity Tone Scale in 4 parts.Uploaded by msnoodlebrain on Dec 14, 2011<br />
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Noodle Brain Productions present the Integrity Tone Scale movie as produced in 2004-2005 Channel 29 Public Access San Francisco annual movie series. This movie brings to life the education module found at http://www.noodlebrain.com/nbpits.swf through on-street videos of San Francisco's professionals, students, activists, and tourists found from the Haight St to City College! This movie is in four parts and totals one hour in length. This movie is based on THE INTEGRITY TONE SCALE created by Vern Black and David B Goodstein back in 1978, which was offered in workshops to entrepreneurs. Want to get a review of your own integrity or understand how to get out of the PITS? Try this and enjoy the show. Credits for cast, music, and copyright information at end of movie.<br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/696m7OZj0Yw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pYYZAukGq4I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E4TWUAdhx1g?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Su8yOqnCkWw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-63634202203580443932011-12-19T19:55:00.000-08:002011-12-19T19:55:35.980-08:00Senate Votes To Let Military Detain Americans Indefinitely, White House Threatens VetoWASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Tuesday to keep a controversial provision to let the military detain terrorism suspects on U.S. soil and hold them indefinitely without trial -- prompting White House officials to reissue a veto threat.<br />
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The measure, part of the massive National Defense Authorization Act, was also opposed by civil libertarians on the left and right. But 16 Democrats and an independent joined with Republicans to defeat an amendment by Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) that would have killed the provision, voting it down with 61 against, and 37 for it.<br />
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"I'm very, very, concerned about having U.S. citizens sent to Guantanamo Bay for indefinite detention," said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), one of the Senate's most conservative members.<br />
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Paul's top complaint is that a terrorism suspect would get just one hearing where the military could assert that the person is a suspected terrorist -- and then they could be locked up for life, without ever formally being charged. The only safety valve is a waiver from the secretary of defense.<br />
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"It's not enough just to be alleged to be a terrorist," Paul said, echoing the views of the American Civil Liberties Union. "That's part of what due process is -- deciding, are you a terrorist? I think it's important that we not allow U.S. citizens to be taken."<br />
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Democrats who were also concerned about liberties compared the military policing of Americans to the detention of Americans in internment camps during World War II.<br />
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"Congress is essentially authorizing the indefinite imprisonment of American citizens, without charge," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who offered another amendment -- which has not yet gotten a vote -- that she said would correct the problem. "We are not a nation that locks up its citizens without charge."<br />
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more at link above.Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-5280885247524959192011-11-01T11:30:00.000-07:002011-11-01T11:30:08.166-07:0010 Ways to Stay Depression-FreeBy Catherine Winters, Special to Lifescript<br />
Reviewed By Edward C. Geehr, M.D.<br />
Published October 28, 2011<br />
<br />
"You finally beat depression. But even after the sadness lifts, your symptoms may return. So how can healthy habits like ditching the booze, getting more vitamin D or practicing yoga help? We talked to experts about the top 10 natural ways to manage moods. Plus, how much do you know about depression? Take our quiz to find out...<br />
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After months of battling depression, you’re feeling normal again. Your doctor or therapist has given you tools for staying positive, and you know the warning signs of a depressive episode so you can get help as soon as you sense them.<br />
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Now’s the time to enjoy life – and to take better care of your physical and mental well-being. Depression is a lifelong, chronic condition, and it needs to be maintained like any other disease.<br />
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“You have to approach depression the same way you would diabetes. There’s a vigilance you have to maintain for a balanced life,” says Alan Manevitz, M.D., associate professor of clinical psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. <br />
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Besides medication or therapy, that means practicing healthy habits associated with better moods.<br />
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Healthy living is an important part of self-care, Manevitz says. For example, when you eat right, brain cells get appropriate nutrition so “the brain works at its maximum,” he explains. And exercise releases endorphins, brain chemicals that act as natural antidepressants.<br />
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Here are 10 lifestyle changes that can keep you feeling your best. " <br />
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(See link above for some great reminders of how to get out of a funk... )Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-85612846854499028682011-10-31T23:46:00.000-07:002011-10-31T23:46:54.029-07:0011 simple ways to support the occupy movement without sleeping in a parkPosted by lauren in "I am Lauren Leonardi" <br />
<br />
Since Occupy Wall Street began, a lot of people I know have expressed interest in my involvement. I’ve been making suggestions about how people can get involved on their own terms, and I thought it seemed time for a public overview.<br />
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This list includes actions large and small that just about anyone, anywhere, can do to support the movement.<br />
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I consider this list to be alive, and wide open and available for edits, additions and suggestions. So comment below, on Facebook, mention @Averse2Ennui on Twitter, or get in touch if you have ideas for the list.<br />
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See link above for the eleven items..Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-84258487231468925872011-10-24T09:48:00.000-07:002011-10-24T09:49:29.231-07:00Declaration of the Occupation of New York CityThis document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on September 29, 2011<br />
Translations: French, Slovak, Spanish, German, Italian<br />
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As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.<br />
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As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.<br />
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They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.<br />
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.<br />
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.<br />
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.<br />
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.<br />
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.<br />
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.<br />
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.<br />
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.<br />
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.<br />
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.<br />
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.<br />
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.<br />
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.<br />
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.<br />
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.<br />
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.<br />
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.<br />
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.<br />
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.<br />
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.<br />
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.<br />
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.*<br />
<br />
To the people of the world,<br />
<br />
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.<br />
<br />
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.<br />
<br />
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.<br />
<br />
Join us and make your voices heard!Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-89404879246617540952011-10-22T13:18:00.000-07:002011-10-22T13:18:07.170-07:00The New American Way of WarBy: David Dayen Saturday October 22, 2011 9:22 am <br />
<br />
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<br />
We don’t quite know how Moammar Gadhafi was killed. Photos and videos appear to show Gadhafi alive when he was found hiding in a drainage pipe by Libyan rebels, so the killing had to have taken place afterwards. He may have been shot shortly after capture, or he may have succumbed to previous wounds. The UN will investigate whether Gadhafi was executed, in violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions, after being taken into custody by Libyan forces. Eventually we’ll have a clear answer.<br />
<br />
But what we do know is that Gadhafi was traveling in a convoy out of Sirte, shortly after the city had been captured by the rebels, when a NATO airstrike stopped the convoy cold. And we know that the NATO attack on the convoy included a US Predator drone. NATO has since tried to back off of this, because they know the implication, that they chased down and prevented the convoy from escaping, in yet another example of how the humanitarian intervention mission drifted into a hunt for Libya’s former leader. Multiple bombing runs on the Presidential palace already proved this, but even at the very end, it was NATO facilitating the execution of Gadhafi.<br />
<br />
The involvement of the Predator drone means that drones played a role in all three of the recent foreign policy “successes” of the Obama Administration. A drone helped to stop the Gadhafi convoy in Libya; stealth drones were used in the raid on Osama bin Laden, as well as the surveillance of the Abbottabad compound; and of course, a drone strike killed American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki. More recently, another drone killed Awlaki’s 16 year-old son. You can not talk about US foreign policy without noting the central reliance on deadly unmanned flying robots. Seventeen years ago the Predator drone flew its first mission; now it’s the key tool in the American arsenal.<br />
<br />
It used to be that America measured foreign policy successes differently than merely with a body count. We could instead judge the foreign policy record of the Obama Administration on diplomatic successes. On that front, with the departure this week of the special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, every single envoy placed in diplomatic hotspots around the world has left, with their missions unfinished in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, Sudan and North Korea. This change in personnel doesn’t necessarily mean that diplomacy has failed in all of these countries – in fact, there are meetings next week in Geneva with the North Koreans to try and restart negotiations on its nuclear program – but it means that there clearly haven’t been any breakthroughs.<br />
<br />
We could measure foreign policy success by the end of military deployments abroad. And here, with the announcement of a withdrawal of military forces in Iraq, it is true that deployments will be cut in half from the beginning of the Obama Administration by the end of the year.<br />
<br />
But that statistic needs some additional context. First, the Administration didn’t want a full withdrawal; they could not get the Iraqis to agree to an extended military presence with legal immunity for the soldiers that stayed. Josh Rogin avers that this was a bungled negotiation, though I would add that this is the second US President that the Iraqi leadership has outwitted and outlasted, getting them to agree to a resolution that they didn’t initially seek. I don’t know another country on Earth that has gotten the better of two consecutive US Presidents in this way. So maybe we should give some credit to the Iraqis for ending the war in Iraq.<br />
<br />
In addition, there’s the massive State Department footprint that will be in Baghdad, Irbil and Basra for the foreseeable future, including up to 5,000 private military contractors providing security. That’s not so much a drawdown as a uniform change, and a potential international incident waiting to happen.<br />
<br />
But it’s worth seeing this as a true end to something, and that’s the American way of war. In some sense, the Obama Administration has taken the Pentagon strategy of “transformation” put forth by Donald Rumsfeld to its logical conclusion. Rumsfeld sought a light footprint in warmaking, a small, agile force that could quickly move through regions with superior firepower. The innovation from Obama’s Administration has been to get rid of the footprint altogether. Instead of standing armies occupying foreign countries, the move is toward shadow wars, and unmanned flying robots, and special operations forces. That is the new American way of war. Here’s Charlie Pierce:<br />
<br />
Beyond that, there is something very chilly and soi-disant about the way we’re waging wars these days. It is good that there were no American boots on the ground in Libya, but there were American airplanes and American ordinance. It is good that we’re a bit more modest about our role in NATO. (Whether there still needs to be a NATO is another question entirely.) But the president persisted in his short address today on drawing a distinction between the Libyan people, for whom our ordinance was protection, and the Libyan opposition forces, as though all our firepower was dedicated to the first (and more noble) task and had little or nothing to do with the second. The way we protected the civilians was by lining up our military might on one side of a civil war. It does us no good to pretend otherwise, or to make the absurd distinction between our humanitarian ends and the violence means with which we attained them. We had enough of “freedom bombs” with the last guy, thanks.<br />
<br />
With two major and bloody exceptions, we fought our Cold War battles the way Rome did, through proxies at the edges of our “sphere of influence.” (One thing about the Cold War, it made for great turns of phrase. The Soviets had a “bloc.” We had a “sphere of influence.”) Now, we don’t even do that. Iraq and Afghanistan aside, we fight our wars by automation, hurling thunderbolts from beyond the horizon, like Jove. There’s something scarifying about that, especially when it’s aimed at an American citizen, and it kills his teenage son, and the people who threw the thunderbolts don’t even try to show us why these people had to die. For a long time, we had people who said that the reason we were sending the Army all over the world was because there wasn’t any draft. One of the most apt criticisms of the “war on terror” was that it was being conducted without engaging the entire country in the effort. Now, not only is the combat removed from the citizenry, it’s increasingly removed from soldiers. Some guy at a console in Kansas City is making war on Pakistan. That makes me nervous.<br />
<br />
Maybe one of the reasons why Republicans are so petulant and reluctant to offer credit to this President is that he’s unlocked the magic box for how to continue the belligerence of American foreign policy without the downside of having to send someone’s son or daughter into hazardous combat. Instead of spending $3 trillion on the Bush wars, the military spent $1 billion in Libya. Instead of presiding over the deaths of 5,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, no American died in Libya (how many Libyan died I fear we’ll never know). Instead of having to do the tedious work of getting authorization from Congress to fight wars abroad, the Administration just barreled forward, relying on dubious legal theories about what constitutes “hostilities.” It was fitting that, the same week that the 8-month conflict in Libya was coming to an end, a federal judge quietly threw out a lawsuit from members of Congress challenging the intervention in Libya as unconstitutional.<br />
<br />
This is the new American way of war. It is located in the executive branch, at the Pentagon, at the CIA, with new acronyms like JSOC and UAVs leading the way. Most Americans don’t know a whole lot about it. It’s a secretive shadow war fought in multiple areas all over the world. It’s fought with robot planes and covert operatives. It doesn’t have the burden of oversight or media spotlight or really anything, since it’s undeclared and excessively secretive.<br />
<br />
I agree with Pierce and others that this should be troubling, even when, as in Libya, it’s wrapped up in a language of humanitarian responsibility to protect. Maybe this has always been an element of American warmaking. But now it seems like the primary policy, that we will respond to a perceived threat by either sending in a secret group of commandos to take out individuals, or raining bombs over them from the sky using a plane with no pilot.<br />
<br />
It’s worth questioning how compatible this all is with democracy.<br />
comment on this39 Comments<br />
Tags: Barack Obama, military, war machine, Libya, foreign policy, Moammar Gadhafi, diplomacy, Predator drones, CIA, covert operationsDavis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-66431567894560678702011-10-20T14:21:00.001-07:002011-10-20T14:21:15.340-07:00Warren Buffett's quotes about the debt ceiling and "Congressional Reform Act of 2011"The Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street have set something in motion, our voices should be added.<br />
<br />
Warren Buffett's quotes about the debt ceiling and "Congressional Reform Act of 2011"<br />
<br />
Clear and concise ...<br />
<br />
Please read to the end. Interesting and important to know.<br />
<br />
Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best<br />
quotes about the debt ceiling:<br />
<br />
"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law<br />
that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all<br />
sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. The 26th<br />
amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months<br />
& 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in<br />
1971...before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to<br />
the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the<br />
land...all because of public pressure.<br />
<br />
Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of<br />
twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do<br />
likewise.<br />
In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the<br />
message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.<br />
<br />
*Congressional Reform Act of 2011* (continued below) <br />
<br />
1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office<br />
and receives no pay when they are out of office.<br />
<br />
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All<br />
funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security<br />
system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system,<br />
and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for<br />
any other purpose.<br />
<br />
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans<br />
do.<br />
<br />
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay<br />
will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.<br />
<br />
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the<br />
same health care system as the American people.<br />
<br />
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American<br />
people.<br />
<br />
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective<br />
1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen<br />
made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor,<br />
not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours<br />
should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.<br />
<br />
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take<br />
three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is<br />
time.Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-59925904291972458232011-10-19T22:45:00.000-07:002011-10-19T22:45:03.615-07:00MIT economist: Wall Street created worst recession since WWIIMIT economics professor Simon Johnson said on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on Wednesday night that Wall Street “blew itself up,” which lead to the “most severe recession since World War II.” The former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund added that the enormous economic damage was “a direct consequence of what the biggest banks did and were allowed to get away with.”<br />
<br />
<b>Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, at link above. </b><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ms noodlebrain comments:<br />
<br />
I think we need to prosecute criminals for crimes. What do you think? Congress and Supreme Court Judges have been derelict in their duties and not obiding by their oath of office. They need to be ousted. ASAP. We need new leaders.Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-19867784162035901162011-10-16T19:32:00.000-07:002011-10-16T19:32:31.261-07:00First OFFICIAL Release from OCCUPY WALL STREET (User Submitted)Posted Sept. 30, 2011, 2:10 p.m. EST (16 days ago) by revg33k (Woodstock, IL)<br />
<br />
Source http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/kwk2d/first_official_release_from_occupy_wall_street/<br />
<br />
This was unanimously voted on by all members of Occupy Wall Street last night, around 8pm, Sept 29. It is our first official document for release. We have three more underway, that will likely be released in the upcoming days: 1) A declaration of demands. 2) Principles of Solidarity 3) Documentation on how to form your own Direct Democracy Occupation Group.<br />
<br />
This is a living document. you can receive an official press copy of the latest version by emailing c2anycga@gmail.com.<br />
<br />
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City<br />
<br />
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.<br />
<br />
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.<br />
<br />
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.<br />
<br />
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.<br />
<br />
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.<br />
<br />
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.<br />
<br />
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.<br />
<br />
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.<br />
<br />
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.<br />
<br />
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.<br />
<br />
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.<br />
<br />
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.<br />
<br />
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.<br />
<br />
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.<br />
<br />
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.<br />
<br />
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.<br />
<br />
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.<br />
<br />
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.<br />
<br />
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.<br />
<br />
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.<br />
<br />
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.<br />
<br />
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.<br />
<br />
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.<br />
<br />
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.<br />
<br />
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *<br />
<br />
To the people of the world,<br />
<br />
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.<br />
<br />
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.<br />
<br />
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.<br />
<br />
Join us and make your voices heard!<br />
<br />
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.<br />
<br />
--------edit-------<br />
<br />
Also here is the Working list of goals: https://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-please-help-editadd-so-th/Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-68216420951758033122011-10-13T00:14:00.000-07:002011-10-13T00:14:24.517-07:00Robert Reich - 7 Lieshttp://youtu.be/mM5Ep9fS7Z0Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-43797956300475146722011-10-10T10:19:00.000-07:002011-10-10T10:19:06.307-07:00Economist Jeffrey Sachs at Occupy Wall StreetJeffrey D. Sachs<br />
<br />
Jeffrey D. Sachs is Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also Special Adviser to United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals.<br />
See more at link.Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-30120628097129993502011-10-09T10:36:00.000-07:002011-10-09T10:36:23.122-07:00Secret Sins of Kochs And... We Need More Drum CirclesThe Koch brothers have given more than $100 million to conservative politicians and right-wing front groups. But even after they were exposed for working with Iran-- in fact, funneling millions of dollars in Iranian cash to right-wing politicians in America-- nothing has moved any of the Republicans-- nor Koch-friendly Blue Dogs like John Barrow (GA), Dan Boren (OK), Mike Ross (AR) and Collin Peterson (MN)-- to return the money. Among the Kochs' biggest recipients of Iranian-tainted cash are House Members Eric Cantor (R-VA), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Paul Ryan (R-WI), Fred Upton (R-MI), Steve King (R-IA), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Frank Guinta (R-NH), Paul Broun (R-GA), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Senators Scott Brown (R-MA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), David Diapers Vitter (R-LA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Thune (R-SD), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Rand Paul (R-KY), Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Susan Collins (R-ME). But none of them have agreed to return a nickel. In his classic OccupyWallStreet column Thursday, Confronting the Malefactors, Krugman was surely including each and every one of them. more at link...Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-70742672131058936122011-10-09T10:05:00.000-07:002011-10-09T10:05:05.625-07:00Keith Olbermann Reads The Statement Released By The Wall Street Protesters - 2011-10-05http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/keith-olbermann-reads-the-statement-released-by-the-wall-street-protesters-2011-10-05-videoDavis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-65353540669123051142011-09-17T01:51:00.000-07:002011-09-17T01:51:00.557-07:00Hideous, loathsome troll Liz Cheney argues with O'Reilly over that greeted as liberators thingThe conversation then turned to Iraq. O'Reilly played the infamous footage of Cheney saying the U.S. would be "greeted as liberators." Liz Cheney said that this had, in fact, happened.<br />
<br />
"Here's why you're wrong," O'Reilly said. "We weren't greeted as liberators. We were greeted in a way that was tentative."<br />
<br />
"That's not true," Cheney said. "Yes it is," he replied. He asked her if she knew how many people were present when Saddam Hussein's statue was pulled down.<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
"I don't expect you and your father to agree with me, OK?" O'Reilly concluded. "But the blood and treasure that the United States spent in Iraq has now come back to our country in a very negative way."<br />
<br />
See Video at link above~Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-17554690444923473852011-09-17T01:31:00.000-07:002011-09-17T01:31:05.609-07:00Defending jobsSep 12th 2011, 13:37 by The Economist online<br />
<br />
Who are the world's biggest employers?<br />
<br />
ONE of the biggest headaches for policymakers in many rich countries has been how to create jobs during a period of fiscal austerity and anaemic growth. The private sector has been slow to generate jobs, and government-spending cuts usually end up cutting jobs. And governments employ a lot of people: in our chart of the ten biggest global employers, below, seven are government-run. America's defence department had 3.2m people on its payroll last year, equivalent to 1% of the country's population. China, the world's most populous nation and a big military spender, employs 2.3m people in its armed forces. And the number of people working for the National Health Service in England is equivalent to over 2.5% of the country's population. The three private companies are Walmart, McDonald's and Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, a subsidiary of which is Foxconn, a secretive electronics manufacturer. Go to link above for more...Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1826313197282161179.post-17724561786431428402011-09-17T01:29:00.000-07:002011-09-17T01:29:34.866-07:00he Muslim World Brings Forth a Counter-JihadPosted on Sep 15, 2011<br />
<br />
By Lee Smith<br />
<br />
“Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World”<br />
A book by Robin Wright<br />
<br />
With the Arab Spring still unfolding, former Washington Post reporter Robin Wright’s latest book puts the popular uprisings that have swept the Arabic-speaking Middle East from North Africa and the Levant to the Persian Gulf littoral in the context of a larger movement: counter-jihad. Muslims around the world, she writes, are “increasingly rejecting extremism. The many forms of militancy—from the venomous Sunni creed of al-Qaida to the punitive Shiite theocracy in Iran—have proven costly, unproductive and ultimately unappealing.”<br />
<br />
<br />
Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World<br />
By Robin Wright<br />
Simon & Schuster, 320 pages<br />
<br />
"In other words, Osama bin Laden’s efforts produced a result contrary to his intentions. After 9/11 dragged the United States into the Middle East in force, Muslims turned not toward extremism but moderation. According to Wright’s survey of the Muslim world, bin Laden’s message was dead long before the Navy SEALs brought him down in May. “Rock the Casbah,” then, is an introduction to the Muslim world 10 years after 9/11, and the author’s purpose is partly to illuminate and partly to instruct.<br />
<br />
From Wright’s perspective,Americans’ view of Muslims and Islam hasn’t caught up to the reality. In spite of developments in the Middle East and elsewhere in the Muslim world, she argues, the past decade here in the United States was “shaped largely by fear of everything from a global clash of civilizations to a new neighborhood mosque.” more at link... above.Davis Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05636079382754637500noreply@blogger.com1