David Cameron at one time tried to portray himself as the true “heir to Blair”. When one considers the sheer raw courage that it must take to stand up against entrenched dictatorships, it takes a special ruthlessness to look at the quantity of tear gas canisters, sound grenades, rubber bullets and live ammunition rounds being used against them and simply see a commercial opportunity. In going ahead with the promotional tour of the Middle East ( Cameron takes arms firm chiefs on trade tour of Arab states , 22 February), he can take pride in having fully assumed that mantle. Qasim Salimi London • We should be proud of our prime minister. Potential customers in the Middle East have great need at present for guns, gas, personnel carriers and helicopters to maintain their lucrative positions that keep British banks well supplied with cash. Now if we could persuade demonstrators to take to the streets in Kuwait, perhaps it could be induced to increase its arms purchases from Britain – only a meagre £100m in the past eight years. Anthony Matthew Leicester • With the prime minister in Egypt to talk peace, while shepherding a team to promote arms sales, it looks like double standards. But it was ever thus. The reality may well be that he does not control what happens. Could big business be perhaps running government policy? Does it matter what colour the government is? Oliver Dowding Wincanton, Somerset • Gaddafi turns his armaments on “his own” people, and governments around the world condemn his actions. May we know which governments sold him those arms, and whether they now condemn him for using them as intended? John Merrigan East Molesey, Surrey • Faced with the inefficient procurement programme at the MoD, surely the government should follow its own policies and privatise the armed services? Lionel Burman Wirral , Merseyside • Given the glaring moral and political contradictions in David Cameron’s defence of selling arms to dictatorships, is this an opportunity for the Labour party to make a stand against the export of all arms to all dictatorships? Come on, Ed, do the right thing. Phil McNally Bolton • If only Cameron had taken a few funeral directors and coffin-makers to accompany the arms manufacturers, we would really have been able to show everyone Britain is “open for business”. Malcolm Rivers Isleworth, Middlesex Arms trade David Cameron Arab and Middle East protests Middle East Banks and building societies Egypt Kuwait guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Clearly Newt Gingrich has been preparing and rehearsing endlessly for this question , “You adamantly oppose gay rights… but you’ve also been married three times and admitted to having an affair with your current wife while you were still married to your second. As a successful politician who’s considering running for president, who would set the bar for moral conduct and be the voice of the American people, how do you reconcile this hypocritical interpretation of the religious values that you so vigorously defend?” This question was asked, eloquently and with “due respect,” by a college student, Isabel Friedman, who is President of the College Democrats at The University of Pennsylvania . I assume she framed the question carefully so as not to give Newt ammunition against her. For instance, she did not bring up that this extramarital affair with now-wife Callista Gingrich lasted over six years, and overlapped with the time he was pushing for the impeachment of Bill Clinton with a lot of pro-family values talk. She did not bring up a host of other skeletons in the Gingrich closet , or the fact that he resigned his office as House Speaker on ethics grounds. No one in the mainstream media EVER brings THAT up. Newt’s answer, nevertheless, is extremely rehearsed. “I’ve had a life which, on occasion, has had problems. I believe in a forgiving God, and the American people will have to decide whether that’s their primary concern. If the primary concern of the American people is my past, my candidacy would be irrelevant, if the primary concern of the American people is the future . . . that’s a debate I’ll be happy to have.” On the other hand, “The American People” can’t decide about the personal life of a candidate if David Gregory continues to have Newt on his show and never brings it up. And really, we’re all to the point with Gingrich (and his blatant and not occasional hypocrisy about sex) that his permanent seat on Meet the Gregory (h/t Daily Show) says more about David Gregory than it does about Newt Gingrich, the end.
Continue reading …Matthews Accuses Huckabee of Wanting to Commit Genocide in the West Bank, Says Limbaugh & Beck ‘Ethnically Disdain’ First Family
February 23, 2011 No Comment
Chris Matthews went off the deep end on Wednesday's Hardball as he accused conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck of demonstrating “ethnic disdain” for the First Family and even charged former Arkansas Governor and current Fox News host Mike Huckabee of wanting to ethnically cleanse Arabs from the West Bank. Right after a discussion about GOP contenders like John Thune and Chris Christie not entering the presidential race, Matthews told his GOP strategist guest Todd Harris “You are being left with the crazies now” like Mike Huckabee who Matthews charged wants to
Continue reading …Matthews Accuses Huckabee of Wanting to Commit Genocide, Says Limbaugh & Beck ‘Ethnically Disdain’ Obamas
February 23, 2011 No Comment
Chris Matthews went off the deep end on Wednesday's Hardball as he accused conservative talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck of demonstrating “ethnic disdain” for the First Family and even charged former Arkansas Governor and current Fox News host Mike Huckabee of wanting to ethnically cleanse Arabs from the West Bank. Right after a discussion about Republican contenders like John Thune and Chris Christie not entering the presidential race, Matthews told his GOP strategist guest Todd Harris “You are being left with the crazies now” like
Continue reading …Bernie Sanders: End Game for Wealthiest in America is the Destruction of Social Safety Nets and of the Middle Class
February 23, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Cenk Uygur asked Sen. Bernie Sanders how we mobilize workers on a national scale and not just in Wisconsin and a few other states where we’re seeing these protests. Bernie didn’t have a direct answer for Cenk but laid out what the stakes are if we don’t. SANDERS: What we have to understand is this is not just Wisconsin. This is part of the concerted attack on the middle class and working families of this country by the very wealthiest people in America, the Koch brothers and many others. And you’re also right in suggesting that if you look at the end game, what are you talking about? You’re talking about the end of Social Security, privatization of Social Security, massive cuts and privatization of Medicare, major cuts in Medicaid. You’re talking about over a period of time, the end of unemployment compensation, the end of the minimum wage or lowering the minimum wage. What these guys want is to return us to the 1920′s when working people had virtually no rights to organize or to earn a decent living. Bottom line today is the top 1% earn more income than the bottom 50%. The top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%. That gap between the very rich and everybody else is growing wider. And what the wealthiest people in the country are doing are using their resources to make the attack against the middle class even stronger. They want the destruction of the middle class and almost all wealth in this country to go to the people on top. Cenk and Bernie also discussed whether the Democratic Party has figured out that it might not be the best strategy for them to abandon their base and the union movement and the importance of the existence of unions which don’t only raise the wages and benefits for unionized workers, but everyone else as well. Unfortunately these bought and sold politicians don’t do the right thing until they’re pushed. The best thing we can do is take to the streets and remind all of them who they’re supposed to be representing. MoveOn is sponsoring rallies across the country Saturday for anyone that would like to participate.
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We’re witnessing that the old media can still be censored, but that the people are now always a step ahead of the tyrants In a play by the late Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous , a Mamluk (soldier of slave origin) named Jabir comes up with an ingenious idea to allow the minister send a message out of Baghdad undetected. The message was to be written on Jabir’s shaved head. He then waits for his hair to grow and successfully escapes the Caliph’s guards and delivers the message. Little did he know that a line added at the last minute to that message carried his death sentence. Luckily, we no longer need to go to such lengths to deliver a message; after three days’ mass protests in Egypt, then president Mubarak gave the orders to shut off off the internet in the country completely. Quickly, al-Jazeera became one of the last remaining reliable sources of information. Eventually, though, its broadcast was cut on Nilesat, its Cairo bureau closed , and its journalists repeatedly threatened and harassed . Shortly thereafter, ISPs raced to provide Egyptians with free dial-up connections, while Google and Twitter collaborated on creating speak2tweet , a service that would allow people to call in and record a message. Those recorded messages were then tweeted for the world to hear. Later, swarms of volunteers began transcribing and translating the recorded voice messages. Before Mubarak, former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had turned Tunisia into an enemy of the internet through pervasive censorship and persecution of online activists and journalists. As protesters around the country demanded his removal, he then proceeded to censor more websites. Later, in a feeble attempt to appease the protesters, he promised reforms and proceeded to unblock the vast majority of previously blocked sites. But by then, it was too late. He fled to Saudi Arabia days later. Playing the same tune like a stuck record, now Libyan leader Gaddafi has taken Libya completely offline , making it the third country ever to do so, after Burma and Egypt. To me, it’s obvious that the aforementioned despots were operating out of a basic principle: the less people that know about what you’re doing, the more likely you’ll get away with it. Fortunately, today, that is simply not possible. With the omnipresence of telecoms, no matter how hard governments try to block information from leaking, the people will always be a step ahead, finding creative ways to get their messages, photos, videos, tweets and Facebook updates out to the world. Indeed, their collective voice cannot be blocked. Syria, in contrast, recently unblocked Facebook , YouTube, and Blogspot, as protests raged across the Arab world from Tunisia to Yemen. The unblocking came three days after calls for a “day of anger” in Syria on 5 February failed to bring anyone onto the streets. Media outlets close to the Syrian regime raced to proclaim that step as a token of the government’s trust in the people. They are completely oblivious of the fact that it’s the people who grant or revoke trust in the government, not the other way around. On Valentine’s Day, Syrian blogger Tal al-Mallouhi was sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly leaking info to a foreign country, namely the US. Furthermore, blogger Ahmad Abu al-Khair was arrested on 20 February and he remains incommunicado, and his whereabouts unknown. The message from Syrian government is unmistakable: keep quiet and you will be given the trust to go about your day. A reward of an Orwellian nature, I must say. If, however, you dare to speak up, you will be disappeared faster than you can say “freedom!” Google executive Wael Ghonim, arrested during the protests in Egypt, has been sharply critical of the Egyptian regime’s restrictions on the internet. His statement rings loud and clear : A government that’s afraid of Facebook and Twitter should govern a city in Farmville, not a country like Egypt. • Anas Qtiesh is speaking at The Morningside Post ‘s second annual conference, “Information Overload? Navigating the Age of Democratised Media” , at Columbia University, New York on Friday 25 February. More details via Facebook Egypt Syria Tunisia Arab and Middle East protests Middle East Digital media Social media Social networking Twitter Facebook Libya Muammar Gaddafi Internet Freedom of information Freedom of speech Censorship Al-Jazeera Anas Qtiesh guardian.co.uk
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Neil Katz at CBSNews.com has a new question: “Transgender surgery: should your company pay for it?” Those who would say “No” and
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enlarge As the pro-labor protests spread across the nation, right-wing frustration emerges in veiled Twitter threats and calls for counterprotesters to come bearing arms. Adam Weinstein at Mother Jones tells the tale: On Saturday night, when Mother Jones staffers tweeted a report that riot police might soon sweep demonstrators out of the Wisconsin capitol building—something that didn’t end up happening—one Twitter user sent out a chilling public response : “Use live ammunition.” From my own Twitter account, I confronted the user, JCCentCom . He tweeted back that the demonstrators were ” political enemies ” and ” thugs ” who were “physically threatening legally elected officials.” In response to such behavior, he said, “You’re damned right I advocate deadly force.” He later called me a ” typical leftist ,” adding, ” liberals hate police .” Only later did we realize that JCCentCom was a deputy attorney general for the state of Indiana. Um, wow. Read the whole post at Mojo for a sense of how over-the-top dangerous this guy’s remarks were, and how he stands behind them wholeheartedly. It’s been updated with a statement from the state attorney general’s office saying they’re reviewing his comments and will take ‘appropriate personnel action.’ According to IndyStar he’s been fired , which is worrisome, too. After all, this is a guy who clearly despises liberals with more than political passion. He thinks we ought to be shot with live ammunition for exercising our first amendment rights. I shudder to think what his next moves will be now that he’s free to ‘use live ammunition’ without fear of losing his job. From the Indiana Attorney General’s office : Today the Indiana Attorney General’s Office announced that Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Cox is no longer employed by this agency. The Indiana Attorney General’s Office conducted a thorough and expeditious review after “Mother Jones” magazine today published an article attributing private Twitter postings and private blog postings to Cox. Civility and courtesy toward all members of the public are very important to the Indiana Attorney General’s Office. We respect individuals’ First Amendment right to express their personal views on private online forums, but as public servants we are held by the public to a higher standard, and we should strive for civility. But Indiana isn’t the only state with “patriots”. In Atlanta, Freepers are calling for their members to attend the SEIU rallies planned for today with the “usual accoutrements”. As the AJC reports , they’re pretty specific while being non-specific: “Members of the various Tea Party, 9/12, and other freedom-oriented folks in the Atlanta area will be assembling in the vicinity of Georgia State Capitol this coming Wednesday afternoon at 4 pm. We’ll be providing balance to the ravings of the passengers aboard the SEIU Thugbus, which is scheduled to vomit forth its stooges at that same place and time. If you are within three hours drive of ATL, come join us. Dan and others from RTC will be there, with the usual accoutrements. As always, each participant is responsible for compliance with all applicable local laws. Rally point will be the corner of Trinity and Washington Streets in front of the Trinity United Methodist Church. Guide on the Gadsden flags. Rendezvous time no later than 3:45 pm local. There appears to be some regulations re armed protests on the Washington Street side of the Capitol, so attendees are requested to be flexible in your attire. We will attempt (but no promises) to get some additional clarity regarding the situation and post it here prior to the show. Take a stand. Welcome to the New Right Wing. These groups have existed forever, as David and John wrote about in their book , but I can’t recall a time where they’ve become as mainstream as they are now. If ever there was a reason to stand peacefully for people’s rights, that time is now.
Continue reading …The international community must get over the foolishness of the 2003 invasion, and take swift action against Gaddafi It gets worse and worse. Muammar Gaddafi has declared war on his people and the streets of Libya are flowing with blood. Yesterday I heard of people watching their own air force attack the suburbs of Tripoli, leaving roads filled with burned bodies. When they tried to recover the corpses of friends and relatives, they risked being shot by gangs of roaming mercenaries. It is like an apocalyptic Hollywood film. There are even rumours of systematic male rape in this elegant city of jacaranda trees and Italianate buildings. Who knows what is true and what is false, only that there is a whirlwind of terror amid a media blackout as the people of Libya try to overthrow the despot who has ruined their country these past 41 years. Just a fortnight ago I was in these cities – Benghazi, al-Bayda, Tripoli – talking to people preparing for their day of rage. Now in the east of the country victory is in sight, with the old flag flying in place of Gaddafi’s green pennant. But in the west, Gaddafi has vowed to fight to the death and is keeping his word in the most brutal manner possible. Can anything be done to expedite his
Continue reading …WI Police Union President: We Will "Absolutely" Carry Out Orders To Use Force
February 23, 2011 No CommentIn response to these rumors , last night at least a hundred firemen arrived at the Capitol to show solidarity and protect the protesters. Stay tuned for developments: Amid the largest protests Madison, Wisconsin has seen in decades, newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker last week issued a stark message to public labor unions occupying the capitol building: we have options, and using the National Guard against protesters is among them. Since then, a myriad of rumors have circulated through crowds gathered at the state capitol, united in protest of a bill that would strip public unions of their collective bargaining rights. One rumor, which had not yet come to pass, even suggested that like Egypt’s former dictator did in Tahrir Square, Gov. Walker may call in police to forcibly clear out the capitol. And according to a Wisconsin police union president, whether the police agree or disagree with their governor’s politics, they would “absolutely” carry out any order given to them … even if that order included using force against their fellow Americans gathered in peaceful protest. That’s the message from Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association (WLEA) executive board president Tracy Fuller, whose organization recently issued a statement condemning the governor’s attempt to strip public unions of their collective bargaining rights. Fuller is also a Wisconsin State Patrol inspector. “This bill has some provisions that make no sense, unless the basic intent is to bust unions,” he recently wrote, in a post found on the WLEA website. “One provision makes it illegal for public employers to collect dues for labor organizations. The employer can take deductions for the United Way, or other organizations, but they are prohibited from collecting union dues. “How does that repair the budget?” Fuller explained to Raw Story that he was speaking only for himself when he wrote of his regrets over the troopers’ endorsement. This detail was initially misreported by David Schuster, who claimed it was the Troopers Association itself that had come into a spot of buyer’s remorse over Walker.
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