More insight...

Baghdad Burning
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...

Friday, December 29, 2006

End of another year.
You know your country is in trouble when:

-The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.
-Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.
-The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.
-The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.
-An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'.
-Your country is purportedly 'selling' 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.
-For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it's going to cut back on providing that hour.
-Politicians who supported the war spend tv time debating whether it is 'sectarian bloodshed' or 'civil war'.
-People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks.

A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted.

2006 has been, decidedly, the worst year yet. No- really. The magnitude of this war and occupation is only now hitting the country full force. It's like having a big piece of hard, dry earth you are determined to break apart. You drive in the first stake in the form of an infrastructure damaged with missiles and the newest in arms technology, the first cracks begin to form. Several smaller stakes come in the form of politicians like Chalabi, Al Hakim, Talbani, Pachachi, Allawi and Maliki. The cracks slowly begin to multiply and stretch across the once solid piece of earth, reaching out towards its edges like so many skeletal hands. And you apply pressure. You surround it from all sides and push and pull. Slowly, but surely, it begins coming apart- a chip here, a chunk there.

That is Iraq right now. The Americans have done a fine job of working to break it apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced that that was the plan right from the start. There were too many blunders for them to actually have been, simply, blunders. The 'mistakes' were too catastrophic. The people the Bush administration chose to support and promote were openly and publicly terrible- from the conman and embezzler Chalabi, to the terrorist Jaffari, to the militia man Maliki. The decisions, like disbanding the Iraqi army, abolishing the original constitution, and allowing militias to take over Iraqi security were too damaging to be anything but intentional.

The question now is, but why? I really have been asking myself that these last few days. What does America possibly gain by damaging Iraq to this extent? I'm certain only raving idiots still believe this war and occupation were about WMD or an actual fear of Saddam.
Al Qaeda? That's laughable. Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.

This last year especially has been a turning point. Nearly every Iraqi has lost so much. So much. There's no way to describe the loss we've experienced with this war and occupation. There are no words to relay the feelings that come with the knowledge that daily almost 40 corpses are found in different states of decay and mutilation. There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi. Fear of things so out of ones hands, it borders on the ridiculous- like whether your name is 'too Sunni' or 'too Shia'. Fear of the larger things- like the Americans in the tank, the police patrolling your area in black bandanas and green banners, and the Iraqi soldiers wearing black masks at the checkpoint.

Again, I can't help but ask myself why this was all done? What was the point of breaking Iraq so that it was beyond repair? Iran seems to be the only gainer. Their presence in Iraq is so well-established, publicly criticizing a cleric or ayatollah verges on suicide. Has the situation gone so beyond America that it is now irretrievable? Or was this a part of the plan all along? My head aches just posing the questions.

What has me most puzzled right now is: why add fuel to the fire? Sunnis and moderate Shia are being chased out of the larger cities in the south and the capital. Baghdad is being torn apart with Shia leaving Sunni areas and Sunnis leaving Shia areas- some under threat and some in fear of attacks. People are being openly shot at check points or in drive by killings… Many colleges have stopped classes. Thousands of Iraqis no longer send their children to school- it's just not safe.

Why make things worse by insisting on Saddam's execution now? Who gains if they hang Saddam? Iran, naturally, but who else? There is a real fear that this execution will be the final blow that will shatter Iraq. Some Sunni and Shia tribes have threatened to arm their members against the Americans if Saddam is executed. Iraqis in general are watching closely to see what happens next, and quietly preparing for the worst.

This is because now, Saddam no longer represents himself or his regime. Through the constant insistence of American war propaganda, Saddam is now representative of all Sunni Arabs (never mind most of his government were Shia). The Americans, through their speeches and news articles and Iraqi Puppets, have made it very clear that they consider him to personify Sunni Arab resistance to the occupation. Basically, with this execution, what the Americans are saying is "Look- Sunni Arabs- this is your man, we all know this. We're hanging him- he symbolizes you." And make no mistake about it, this trial and verdict and execution are 100% American. Some of the actors were Iraqi enough, but the production, direction and montage was pure Hollywood (though low-budget, if you ask me).

That is, of course, why Talbani doesn't want to sign his death penalty- not because the mob man suddenly grew a conscience, but because he doesn't want to be the one who does the hanging- he won't be able to travel far away enough if he does that.

Maliki's government couldn't contain their glee. They announced the ratification of the execution order before the actual court did. A few nights ago, some American news program interviewed Maliki's bureau chief, Basim Al-Hassani who was speaking in accented American English about the upcoming execution like it was a carnival he'd be attending. He sat, looking sleazy and not a little bit ridiculous, his dialogue interspersed with 'gonna', 'gotta' and 'wanna'... Which happens, I suppose, when the only people you mix with are American soldiers.

My only conclusion is that the Americans want to withdraw from Iraq, but would like to leave behind a full-fledged civil war because it wouldn't look good if they withdraw and things actually begin to improve, would it?

Here we come to the end of 2006 and I am sad. Not simply sad for the state of the country, but for the state of our humanity, as Iraqis. We've all lost some of the compassion and civility that I felt made us special four years ago. I take myself as an example. Nearly four years ago, I cringed every time I heard about the death of an American soldier. They were occupiers, but they were humans also and the knowledge that they were being killed in my country gave me sleepless nights. Never mind they crossed oceans to attack the country, I actually felt for them.
Had I not chronicled those feelings of agitation in this very blog, I wouldn't believe them now.

Today, they simply represent numbers. 3000 Americans dead over nearly four years? Really? That's the number of dead Iraqis in less than a month. The Americans had families? Too bad. So do we. So do the corpses in the streets and the ones waiting for identification in the morgue.

Is the American soldier that died today in Anbar more important than a cousin I have who was shot last month on the night of his engagement to a woman he's wanted to marry for the last six years? I don't think so.

Just because Americans die in smaller numbers, it doesn't make them more significant, does it?

posted by river: river bend blog

track the Iraq reconstruction: Iraq Index

Panexa

Important information about a new drug: http://panexa.com/

real news...

at least there is still some real news left on tv:

The Water Problem:

Access to clean drinking water is critical for human survival and is an essential ingredient for improving the lives of those living in poverty in developing countries. And yet:
More than one billion people worldwide do not have access to clean water.
Water-related diseases are the leading cause of death in the world, taking the lives of 6,000 people a day, and are responsible for 80 percent of all sickness in the world.
40 billion hours are lost annually to hauling water, a chore primarily undertaken by women and girls.

All this can change. A life-changing and life-saving invention – the PlayPumpTM water system -- can provide easy access to clean drinking water, bring joy to children, and lead to improvements in health, education, gender equality, and economic development.
The PlayPump systems are innovative, sustainable, patented water pumps powered by children at play. Installed near schools, the PlayPump system doubles as a water pump and a merry-go-round for children.

The PlayPump also provides one of the only ways to reach rural and peri-urban communities with potentially live-saving public health messages. Learn more!

To donate any tax deductible amount, click here: PlayPumps International

anti-us propaganda...

this is what you get when you leave me in front of a stack of old magazines...

Rocket fuel in our food?

POLLUTION: American water supply and food contaminated by rocket fuel

Millions of Americans are regularly drinking water and eating foods and drink that have been contaminated by rocket fuel. It's coming from the country's 12,000 military bases, where fuel seepage is going unchecked, and has done so for years.

The water supply in 22 states is contaminated by perchlorate, the toxic chemical found in the fuel, while farms and dairy farms near the military bases are shipping contaminated produce across the States. A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) survey has found that 93 per cent of all lettuce and milk sold in the US is contaminated.

A new study prepared by the Environmental Working Group reveals that 2 million women who are iodine deficient are at special risk from the contamination. Perchlorate may cause a drop in their thyroid hormone levels, which is a risk factor in fetal development.

But it seems to be a pollutant that's affecting most people in the US. A study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in which urine samples were taken from 2,299 people around the country, discovered that everyone, with exception, had unacceptably high levels of perchlorate in their bodies.

It's a problem that's been known about for years, yet even now the military, supported by President Bush, are seeking exemption from any clean-up or control. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report back in 2002 that identified the military bases as the source of the pollution, and it's known that Lockheed Martin, the defence contractor, had been concealing documents about the contamination for some years.

Despite this, the Department of Defense and the Pentagon argue that the military should be exempt from any controls as it must be 'ready' for anti-terrorist activity, and the fuel is an essential part of that operation. A sympathetic President Bush put a gag order on the EPA in 2003, and prevented it from talking about perchlorate and its effect on human health.
Perhaps now, with the shift in political opinion, more will realise that the greatest threat comes from within.

(Sources: Environmental Working Group website; Organic Consumers Association website).

Plan B. send a message now!!!

After three years of delay, the FDA recently approved the emergency contraceptive Plan B for over-the-counter sales for women age 18 and older. We must ensure that all stores stock it. Take action and tell national pharmacy chains to adopt a written public policy about stocking Plan B in all their pharmacies. It's one of the best ways we can maximize this safe and effective form of birth control's full potential to prevent unintended pregnancy.

Click here to fill a quick email: Tell Pharmacy Chains to Carry Plan B

President Bush signed The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA, S.3880 ENR) into law today, Monday, November 27th. The AETA not only puts our constitution in jeopardy, it puts all of us who speak out against the status quo in jeopardy. Animal rights activists, civil rights activists, the media, entertainers and even the NRA are all in danger of being called "Terrorists."

The broad language in this bill creates a dangerous, slipperly slope that can be used to take away our first amendment rights and put innocent people in jail! The bill was fast-tracked through both the House and the Senate by the biomedical industries -- people who have everything to gain by silencing legitimate protests against their cruel animal abuse.

"LCA has been at the forefront of fighting and opposing the AETA on a national level. Former Congressman and lobbyist for LCA, Charlie Rose, has been working feverishly against the AETA," states LCA President Chris DeRose. "This is not over for LCA, this is just the beginning."

Fight the AETA Contact your Senate and House Representatives and let them know you oppose the AETA and their complacency during the passing of the bill.
Visit www.house.gov and www.senate.gov for contact information.

read the bill in full: Download or read it here

Lady Sovereign

Her keys are her bling.


Here is an awesome video/song by British hiphop queen, Lady Sovereign. I think she is an a shimmer of light and hope in the hiphop industry. she gives an honest view of the materialistic world we live in... someone who could appropriately inspire the kids... showing them that its better to be yourself, rather than to latch onto some prefabricated stereotype.

click here to see the video or if it doesnt automatically pop up in your media player thing, you can view it on the web:

click over here to see the video (because i am lacking the proper html skillz needed to put the video directly on our webpage. i cheated with "Sing" because they gave the codes to me...)

F.D.R.

"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country."

"Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists."

"We, and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees."

"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country."

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it comes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group."

"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth."

"Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self-reliant enough to be free."

"Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion."

"I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm." {I think this quote is great because it essentially negates our Capitalist society, in that the Native Americans were here first... -Professional Revolutionist #3}

"Books may be burned and cities sacked, but truth like the yearning for freedom, lives in the hearts of humble men and women."

"We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon."

more than bottled water...

Coke (Dasani), Pepsi (Aquafina) and Nestle(Poland Spring, Deer Park, Arrowhead and more) aggressively lobby against legislation that would require them to disclose complete water quality information. So what are they hiding? And what are you really drinking?

Send an email to the CEOs of these corporations demanding the truth be revealed:Corporate Accountability International

I believe bottled water is a scam to begin with...but if people are drinking something more toxic than tap water, they should be informed.

Ensure Freedom of Speech in Turkey

"As a songwriter, a musician, freedom of expression is not some abstract concept to me. It's my life. As a member of Amnesty International, I am given the tools I need to help ensure that no one is silenced for expressing their beliefs. I urge you to join me in signing this petition, to demand an end to Article 301."

- Serj Tankian of System of A Down and Axis of Justice

Turkey has limited free speech by prosecuting individuals of a wide range for peacefully expressing their dissenting opinion. Under Article 301 of Turkey’s Penal Code, Turkey has criminalized views that are deemed to have insulted Turkishness or the government. Article 301 is being arbitrarily used to harass and threaten people with imprisonment and is severe threat to freedom of expression. It must be abolished immediately. Send a letter to Prime Minister Erdogan immediately to express your concern: Sign the Petition

some small wins for animals

Michigan voters stepped up for mourning doves, crushing Proposal
3 on the ballot and restoring the 100-year tradition of protecting the state's official bird of peace from target shooting. The vote was 68 percent to 32 percent. The Humane Society of the United States spearheaded the effort to protect mourning doves, from garnering more than 1,000 endorsements to relentlessly canvassing the state in support of the issue. Michigan voters listened, and the gentle backyard songbird will remain safe from target shooters.

In Arizona, humane treatment of farm animals won the day when voters cast their ballot in favor of Proposition 204, which bans gestation crates for breeding pigs and veal crates for young calves. Agribusiness and other special interests spent $2.5 million to defeat Proposition 204. It is the second state in the nation to ban gestation crates and the first state to ban veal crates. The vote was 61 percent in favor and only 39 percent opposed.






[while the removal of crates is an achievement, I would rather have heard that Michigan passed a law banning veal all together. god damn bourgeoisie...stop eating babies!!!]

Pro-Choice Results

In Ohio, pro-choice Rep. Sherrod Brown defeated anti-choice Sen. Mike DeWine, who is one of the Senate's most anti-choice members.

In Missouri, pro-choice Claire McCaskill beat incumbent Sen. Jim Talent, who supports overturning Roe v. Wade.

In AZ-08, pro-choice Gabrielle Giffords defeated anti-choice Randy Graf.

In PA-07, pro-choice retired Admiral Joe Sestak defeated anti-choice Rep. Curt Weldon.



South Dakotans struck down the draconian abortion ban imposed by anti-choice politicians by a 10-point margin.

Californians struck down Proposition 85, which would have changed the state constitution to impose government-mandated parental notification for young women seeking abortion care, even if it jeopardized their safety.

Oregonians struck down Measure 43, which would have established mandatory parental notification with no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Sing!

The Dresden DollsSing

listen closely to Amanda's words of wisdom

Guy Fawkes Night BANNED

Isn't it ironic that now almost year after the movie "V for Vendetta" (which highlighted Guy Fawkes' plan and depicted a new hero who succeeded in destroying Parliament) people will not be "allowed" to celebrate the Fifth of November. Well, now instead of using fireworks, maybe someone will be pissed off enough to actually destroy some government property.

The Article:

FURY erupted today after Guy Fawkes night was banned by “politically correct” council chiefs and replaced by a Bengali folk tale.
Tower Hamlets Council in east London has chosen an “alternative theme” for fireworks night - traditionally based on the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
Instead council bosses have shelled out £75,000 on a fireworks display based on a Bengali tale called Emperor and the Tiger.
Sunday’s display at Hackney's Victoria Park is expected to attract 20,000 but there will no mention of the Guy Fawkes plot.
The move came under fire from George Galloway and campaigners.
Mr Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow said: "It beggars belief that this council should organise a Bonfire Night without a bonfire or a Guy."
John Midgley, spokesman for the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said the council's move would "explode in their faces".
He added: "There's a time and a place for everything and November 5 is for Bonfire Night. It's time for common sense and for people to tell bureaucrats that politically correct actions like these undermine our historic occasions and harm community relations."
Tower Hamlets' Bengali population of 65,000 make up about one third of the London borough.
But Bengalis dominate the council and its cabinet with 31 of the 51 councillors.
Tower Hamlets council insisted they were neither being politically correct nor forgetting the gunpowder plot.
A spokesman said: “Since introducing the themed events four years ago, visitor numbers have increased from 3,000 to a massive 23,000 people at last year's event. Let's judge the event by how much people enjoy themselves on the night."

Isn't it ironic that now almost year after the movie "V for Vendetta" (which highlighted Guy Fawks' plan and depicted a new hero who succeeded in destroying Parliment) people will not be "allowed" to celebrate the true Fifth of November.

Oaxaca update, plus video

for live footage click on the link below:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbirEB5D2NU&eurl
from "La Luchia: Paz, Justicia y Libertad"
Confrontations around Ciudad Universitario

Nancy Davies with Narco News says that the PFP has begun to invade the Autonomous Benito Juarez University of Oaxaca (a violation of Mexican law). La Jornada confirms that confrontations in the area around the University City neighborhood have injured at least three people, including a photographer from El Universal and a reporter from Radio Libre. The University rector is demanding that the PFP (Federal Preventative Police) withdraw from the area of the University.KeHuelga Radio in Mexico City is carrying Radio Universidad online. Listen for Spanish language updates from the South of Monster City (Ciudad Monstruo) according to Enemigo Comun.

They are asking for students to come defend University Radio and their university and to bring (large bottle) rockets and empty bottles and reporting that gas bombs are being dropped by PFP helicopters.

At 2:38 PM EDST are reporting that state and federal police are attacking barricades again around University City with the help of PFP helicopters. There is also a burning bus put up in defense of the University. They are also asking for Oaxacans who aren't near University City to go to the Zocalo to divide the police.

At 2:40 they announced a police retreat, but at 2:45 they said that they police trucks were returning and that there is a person suffering from a serious head trauma that urgently needs the help of a Red Cross Ambulance.

At 2:54 they repeated this call, and reported that paramilitaries were trying to plant weapons on the university campus.They also reported that two of the PFP trucks had been taken out of service, and they called Oaxacans to bring paint thinner to the lines (which can be used to ruin the electrical system of the trucks) and oil, filthy water, or paint to cover their windsheilds. Oaxacans are also urged to throw these liquids from the roofs onto federal forces.Police are reported to have been seen in the University City area wearing shirts with the logo of Chedraui, a large chain of Mexican supermarkets.

At 3:10 Baltimore time, Radio Universidad is asking doctors and other health professionals with the public hospitals of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) to call in and let everyone know if they are safe places for protesters to receive specialized treatment like surgery. According to the announcers, as late as yesterday the hospitals were safe and were trusted, but there is now reason for concern.Mexican version of CNN is reportedly saying the the PFP are not entering in University City.

At 3:18 EDST the police helicopters are throwing tear gas grenades at homes indiscriminately. A reporter for channel 40 spoke over the radio to say that she has not been kidnapped by Radio Universidad as some had thought. An El Universal reporter spoke to the announcers to say he has been giving the real information about what is happening, so that the Oaxacan people know he is working honestly.A PFP truck is said to be burning near the "Cinco señores" gas station, as the Radio Universidad Announcers asked listeners to detain a specific patrol car (whose number was announced) because it contains people who had been taken prisoner off of the street.At the Avenida Ferrocarril police are said to be withdrawing at 3:27 EDST. At "5 Señores" police are also said to be withdrawing as one of their trucks burn and as the helicopters throw tear gas "indiscriminately."A protest in Mexico City is marching down reforma to the PFP headquarters, threatening to blockade the buildings surroundings until the university in Oaxaca is no longer under attack.A local child is said to be having serious respiratory problems near University Radio, though an ambulance cannot be found.La Jornada is following today's events in Oaxaca closely. The PFP is telling the media that it will not enter the university campus, though the Radio Universidad is announcing that some already entered, cutting the chains on a gate in the are of the School of Sciences. The Minister of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación) has made an order for the PFP to withdraw, according to Radio Universidad. The Radio is telling protesters, who have the police surrounded, to open one lane for police to withdraw, to see if the order is for real or a bluff. Though another announcer is threatening to hold the police hostage until the political prisoners are freed.Police are withdrawing from Cinco Señores though helicopters continue to drop tear gas at 3:48 EDST.An APPO spokesperson is asking Oaxacans to allow PFP forces to withdraw from the city toward the airport, as per an announcement of a withdrawel by the Minister of Interior. Radio Universidad announcers ask repeatedly "what about our prisoners?"As the protesters at the barricade of Cinco Señores celebrate on air, the announcers put "Venceremos" on air and ask people to stay firm and remember that "this was just a battle, we still can't sing our victory songs until Ulises Ruiz leaves Oaxaca."Students from the front lines have been recounting the almost four hours of "resistance" that ended with a retreat by the Mexican (PFP) on Radio Universidad. Others are on the air to tell the names and the stories of the injured or those in police custody.Juan Trujillo is also publishing updates on Oaxaca from Mexico City thanks to Radio KeHuelga.

Brad Will's Killers

Amy Goodman reports on Democracy Now (as a result of research by El Milenio and Noticias de Oaxaca) the killers of New York journalist Bradley Will were not in custody as the Santa Lucia city coucil president, Manuel Feria of the PRI party (same party as the governor), had announced. John Gibler, who has also written for Left Turn, reports that the killers were still only blocks from the murder scene as late as yesterday.La Jornada says that two of the men filmed committing the murder (Amy Goodman referenced five suspected killers, but I am not sure the source of that) Abel Santiago Zárate, a local politician ("regidor") with the PRI party, and Orlando Manuel Aguilar Coello, Zarate's chief of security and also with the PRI, have been arrested and charged today. Presumably the El Milenio report pressured the Oaxacan PRI government to arrest the murderers.

Satanic Worshipping in Vatican Verified?
31 Oct 2006
By Greg Szymanski

A former high level member of the influential Monte Carlo P2 Lodge verified that satanic worshipping goes on in the catacombs of the Vatican.

Leo Zagami, who defected from the Illuminati in June, said he had personal knowledge of "Black Masses" were regularly being conducted in the Vatican for high level members of the European and American Illuminati in a decadent display of audacious Satanic power.

Zagami made his startling revelation Monday on Greg Szymanski's radio show, The Investigative Journal broadcast on the Genesis Communication Radio Network at http://www.gcnlive.com/.

"The Jesuits and the Vatican hierarchy are the master black magicians, controlling the many cult groups involved in the New World Order," said Zagami. "American people need to wake-up as the Vatican controls the U.S. government. The Bush family is a tool of the papacy. They are actually crooks and consider themselves pirates and that is the reason for the name Skull and Bones. These are sick criminals that need to be exposed and I am not afraid to do that since I was one of them at the top level in Monte Carlo.

"I am not a saint and they know that. They know who I am and if they come after me, they know I am a warrior and will fight back. These are evil men who have killed before and they will kill again.

"The likes of Georgio Balestrieri, who is the Vatican intermediary, knows all about how they put together 9/11, killing 3,000 people. The Jesuits and the Knights of Malta were, of course, behind it and they will do everything to hide their participation since they are all profiting from 9/11, as well.

"For example, Balestrieri now is the head of the New York Rotary Club, pushing cocaine and other drugs into America for drug lord, George H. Bush. This whole network of criminals needs to be exposed and America needs to realize the Vatican and the Jesuits are at the heart of it all.

"The United States is completely controlled and by 2010 it will be completely fascist. That is their plan. Then they want to rebuild Soloman's Temple in Jerusalem and contriol the world with one world religion and government. They say in Monte Carlo that the Illuminati will control America by the stick! What they want to do is bring down the cities by taking control of the electricity and the water and they say if you want these things back, you will have to submit to fascism."

Zagami, an influential Sicilian aristocrat with important and ancient Illuminati bloodlines, went public in America with his accusations several weeks ago when he started an English language web site. Since going public, he has appeared on The Investigative Journal twice, his only two American radio appearances since a black out exists in America on anything that sheds a negative light on the Vatican.

Zagami, who now lives in Norway for security reasons, said he also had inside and personal information that Hollywood star, Madonna, was working directly with higher-ups in the Italian Illuminati.

"I was supposed to work with her personally and I know for a fact she is being used and is instrumental in the Illuminati plans," said Zagami, who claims Jesuit control runs deep into top Hollywood and American political circles, saying the diabolical Jesuits leave no stone unturned in their Satanic quest to take over America.

During the two hour radio interview, Zagami presented an inside look at how high-lvel Freemasonry operates, citing Jesuit control at the top levels, uniting under one world wide banner dedicated to Satanic domination.

"They all work together, including Hugo Chavez who really is helping Bush's agenda by his theatrical performances," said Zagami, adding that Chavez is controlled by the Vatican and working with the New World Order as are all other leaders of the world's major government's and religions. "This is how they operate with the top layers working together for one purpose in what they think is the perfect cover-up.

"I had to leave the Illuminati after realizing their Satanic and evil deeds had gone too far and I will stop at nothing to continue revealing what they have planned."

It's a well known fact for Brothers of the Illuminati elite circles that the Ancient cult of Orcus is a demonic and evil cult dedicated to the sacrifice of children and other diabolical practices. But today nobody seems to mind if their President or the Head of the CIA, joins such a perverse and satanic cult within the Order of Death, all this in a prestigious place like Yale University.

That's because our society of TV slaves has been manipulated at every level by dangerous satanic intelligence units working for the illuminati in Mind Control activities to confuse us.

And even the sacrifice of children seems to be acceptable in this age of corrupt views, perversions and decadence, as long as it is kept out of the eyes of the public all this evil seems ok for these infidels of the so called elite.

All this is secretly promoted by the Vatican in Lodges like the Skull and Bones and many other sick places around the world, where these practices are done with Pope's blessings by many degenerate individuals hoping to gain power, including the Zionists who support all this with their gold and money.

Professor Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard a known Illuminati wrote about the United States and the American one dollar bill Illuminati connection :

"Not only were many founders of the United States Government Masons, but they received aid from a secret body existing in Europe, which helped them to establish this country for a peculiar and particular purpose known only to the initiated few."

Starbucks is The Devil

Each year, coffee companies rake in profit by the billions. Last year alone, Starbucks earned $5.8 billion in net revenues. Yet, for every cup of coffee Starbucks sells, poor farmers in coffee-growing countries like Ethiopia make about three cents.

Call on Starbucks to give farmers their fair share of coffee profits>>

Cheap overseas labor and production is nothing new for large corporations. But Starbucks claims to be different. Their website states: "Starbucks strongly believes in the importance of building mutually-beneficial relationships with coffee farmers and coffee communities with which we work."

In reality, Starbucks rakes in premium profits that Ethiopian brand names command, while the farmers providing their supply have been left behind in poverty. With as many as 15 million Ethiopians dependent on coffee revenues, the Ethiopian government has asked Starbucks to sign a licensing agreement that will give Ethiopia trademark control over the names on its coffee. This will allow Ethiopia to determine an export price that ensures a larger share of profits for farmers, enabling them to feed their children, send them to school and pay for better healthcare.

Ask Starbucks to sign the agreement giving Ethiopia trademark control over its coffee, ensuring farmers get their fair share of coffee profits.

Go to: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/335760574?z00m=5975699&z00m=5975699&ltl=1162438406

"Fair Trade" [new poem]

I see
Just how easily
The capitalist economy
Steals my time
And all that defines
My free thinking mind.

It is an utter crime
To let this transpire
For a second more
It is time to close this door
And create a new space
Where I answer
To my own authority alone
And seek out the unknown.

Your rules will never confine me
I will always find a way
To reroute my course
Twist and turn
Through
Society’s view
Of how a life should be...
The roles a woman should play...

I know you are living for the day
When I bow down and relinquish my role
As the defiant soul.
But don’t worry,
I’ll give you my life
Before I trade my autonomy
For metal coins
I’ll give you my body
Before I trade my spirit
For false beliefs
And I’ll give you my breath
Long before I trade my word
For State censored suppression
and a life of conscious death.

Miami Activists Take Back the Land!

Fed up with broken government promises and stolen money, activists and residents took over the vacant publicly owned land on 62nd St. and NW 17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami. Miami police tried to evict us, but, having done our research in advance with lawyers, we had the law on our side.

We fed over 50 people and housed about 20. Today and through the week, we will continue to build our city. Our objective is not just to make a statement, it is to directly provide housing to poor Black people, to do for our community what the government and market are unwilling and uncapable of doing.

South Florida has suffered under a critical shortage of affordable housing. However, instead of creating more affordable housing, local government officials have been busy decreasing the number of affordable housing units, through bad public policy, such as the HOPE VI project, which destroyed 851 units of public housing, replacing it with 80 units; and the intentional vacancies in public housing. Following a series of media reports detailing practices of stealing from the poor to deliver to the rich, county officials have given virtually nothing to the community to compensate for the lost housing, stolen money or broken trust. The reality is this: far from providing a solution to the housing crisis, Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami officials are exacerbating the crisis.

Poor Black people in need of housing are suffering disproportionately and unnecessarily, just so that a few officials and developers can line their own pockets. Therefore, the Black community can no longer depend on the government to provide basic human services for us. Consequently, we must provide it ourselves. We must 'Take Back the Land' so that we can circumvent the problem and implement our own solution.

Zapatista corn grown at La Milpa Organica Farm joins “The Other Campaign”
Jessica Sanchez presents ears of red and black corn to Delegate Zero during the meetings of “The Other Campaign” with Mexicans from “the other side” on Oct. 19, 2006 in Tijuana, Baja California. This GMO- free, natural corn was grown from Zapatista corn seed at La Milpa Organica Farm in Escondido, CA as part of the international solidarity growing program of Mother Seeds in Resistance from the Lands of Chiapas. Ms. Sanchez, a long-term activist with Schools for Chiapas, symbolically presented these dramatic ears of corn to Sub commander Marcos with the goal of nurturing the resistance of the autonomous communities of Chiapas and of the central Mexican community of Atenco. Photo by Victor Camacho , La Jornada, Oct. 20, 2006

click here to order GMO-free Zapatista corn seeds!!!! http://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/english/get-involved/grow-zapatista-gmo-free-corn.html

Habeas Corpus (or lack thereof)

On October 17th 2006, Bush officially has suspended our right to Habeas Corpus. While this new law was initially focused on Guantanamo Bay, the final version takes away immigrants/non-citizens' rights to have a judge hear their case. Furthermore, people have also lost the right to go free if the government can not show a legal basis for holding them.

Even more disturbingly, according to David G. Savage, "The new law also defines this term broadly to include not just terrorists and fighters, but also people -- including American citizens -- who have 'materially supported hostilities against the United States.'"

I don't know where to begin contesting this...so for now I will just share the poem I wrote, immediately after hearing this news:

Frigid Fear
Liquid nitrogen
Courses through my veins.
Civil Rights abolished;
Only Martial Law remains.

Quiet footsteps.
Silent voices.
Nauseous thoughts.
Cold skin.
Faded memories
Of protesting political din.

Has freedom come to pass?
Will this new law
Now be our last?

yikes

To view the Jesus Camp video clip, please click on the website below. And prepared to be scared out of your mind.


www.jesuscampthemovie.com

Bush Given Authority To Sexually Torture American Children
By Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com September 29 2006

Slamming the final nail in the coffin of everything America used to stand for, the boot-licking U.S. Senate last night gave President Bush the legal authority to abduct and sexually mutilate American citizens and American children in the name of the war on terror.
There is nothing in the "detainee" legislation that protects American citizens from being kidnapped by their own government and tortured.

Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman states in the L.A. Times, "The compromise legislation....authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights."
Similarly, law Professor Marty Lederman explains: "this [subsection (ii) of the definition of 'unlawful enemy combatant'] means that if the Pentagon says you're an unlawful enemy combatant -- using whatever criteria they wish -- then as far as Congress, and U.S. law, is concerned, you are one, whether or not you have had any connection to 'hostilities' at all."
We have established that the bill allows the President to define American citizens as enemy combatants. Now let's take it one step further.

Before this article is dismissed as another extremist hyperbolic rant, please take a few minutes out of your day to check for yourself the claim that Bush now has not only the legal authority but the active blessings of his own advisors to torture American children. The backdrop of the Bush administration's push to obliterate the Geneva Conventions was encapsulated by John “torture” Yoo, professor of law at Berkeley, co-author of the PATRIOT Act, author of torture memos and White House advisor. During a December 1st debate in Chicago with Notre Dame professor and international human rights scholar Doug Cassel, John Yoo gave the green light for the scope of torture to legally include sexual torture of infants.

Cassel: If the president deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?
Yoo: No treaty.
Cassel: Also no law by Congress — that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo…
Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.
Click here for the audio.

So if the President thinks he needs to order children's penises to be put in vices, there is no law that can stop him and after last night's vote, the Senate and Congress, exemplified by sicko 16-year-old boy groomer Mark Foley (R-FL), has graciously provided Bush its full support for kids around the world to be molested in the name of stopping terror. Yoo's comments were made before the passage of the torture legislation last night. Up until that point Bush had merely cited his role as dictator-in-chief as carte-blanche excuse for ordering torture - now his regime have the audacity to openly put it in writing - going one step further than even the Nazis did. Again, for those who are still deluded into thinking the extent of the "pressure" is loud music and cold water being thrown over Johnny Jihad in Ragheadistan, consider for a moment the fact that your own Congress and President who, according to the Constitution, are mandated to serve you, have just legalized abducting your kids from your home and electric shocking their genitals.

Now that the criminals have declared themselves outside of the law does that mean we'll see Bush barbecuing babies on the White House lawn? Of course not, but the policy of torturing children in front of their parents has already been signed off on by the Pentagon and enacted under the Copper Green program and it happened at Abu Ghraib. Women who were arrested with their children were forced to watch their boys being sodomized with chemical glow sticks as the cameras rolled. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says that the U.S. government is still withholding the tapes because of the horror of the "soundtrack of the shrieking boys" and their mothers begging to be killed in favor of seeing their children raped and tortured. Your government has just lobbied for and Congress has passed legislation to discard the Geneva Conventions and mandate all this.

Pedophiles nationwide should rejoice - they can comfortably take a stroll down to the local swimming pool, grab whoever they like, drag them home, rape and torture them, and then in their defense cite the U.S. government as an example of how one should conduct themselves.

The bill also retroactively gives Bush, the Neo-Cons or any of their henchmen immunity from war crimes charges dating back to September 11. Ask yourself why they would be so careful to protect themselves from accusations of war crimes. Could that possibly be because they are knowingly committing war crimes?

The legislating of torture itself should be a criminal act. All laws that contradict the U.S. Constitution are null and void. It was once a law that black people were slaves. Only by engaging in civil disobedience and refusing to tolerate or acknowledge the laws of a criminal regime that has greased the skids for sexually torturing kids can we ever have a hope of returning America to its past glory.

what the HELL??

Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs


September 12, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.
The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.
"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."
The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.
Nonlethal weapons generally can weaken people if they are hit with the beam. Some of the weapons can emit short, intense energy pulses that also can be effective in disabling some electronic devices.
On another subject, Wynne said he expects to choose a new contractor for the next generation aerial refueling tankers by next summer. He said a draft request for bids will be put out next month, and there are two qualified bidders: the Boeing Co. and a team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the majority owner of European jet maker Airbus SAS.
The contract is expected to be worth at least $20 billion (€15.75 billion).
Chicago, Illinois-based Boeing lost the tanker deal in 2004 amid revelations that it had hired a top Air Force acquisitions official who had given the company preferential treatment.
Wynne also said the Air Force, which is already chopping 40,000 active duty, civilian and reserves jobs, is now struggling to find new ways to slash about $1.8 billion (€1.4 billion) from its budget to cover costs from the latest round of base closings.
He said he can't cut more people, and it would not be wise to take funding from military programs that are needed to protect the country. But he said he also incurs resistance when he tries to save money on operations and maintenance by retiring aging aircraft.
"We're finding out that those are, unfortunately, prized possessions of some congressional districts," said Wynne, adding that the Air Force will have to "take some appetite suppressant pills." He said he has asked employees to look for efficiencies in their offices.
The base closings initially were expected to create savings by reducing Air Force infrastructure by 24 percent.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

petition pesticides

Even if you are not a resident of New Paltz, you can sign this petition.
Come on kids, help us out and ban pesticides!


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/pesticide-freeNP/

Can you spell "Propaganda?" UPDATED 9/7

Lately I noticed many commercials running about 9/11. I figured the hype is partially due to the fact that it's been 5 years since it happened... but mostly, it's because of the upcoming elections for governor. The government/media is doing it's best to instill fear in our hearts, and to remind us why we need them. And we need them, of course, to protect us from all those terrorists. Meanwhile, not one of these programs reveal that the real terrorists, the ones responsible for the worst attack on US soil, lie within our own government.

Keep in mind, I only collected programs that have aired or will be aired in 2006.

1. Inside 9/11

2. After 9/11: Rebuilding Lives

3. Camp 9/11: Children of Hope

4. 9/11 Anniversary Special (doesn't that one sounds a little too happy?)

5. 9/11: A Day in Time

6. 9/11: The Day that Changed America

7. 9/11 Hijackers: Inside the Hamburg Cell

8. 9/11: Five Years Later

9. 9/11: Toxic Legacy

10. Beyond 9/11

11. Road to 9/11

12. Grounded on 9/11

13. Erie Remembers 9/11

14. Emme's 9/11 Special

15. The Path to 9/11

16. ESPN Classic Remembers 9/11

17. Brothers Lost: Stories of 9/11

18. The Secret History of 9/11 (the only program that could have some potential, but tvguide
failed to give a summary of which "secrets" this program depicts...)

19. Metal of Honor: Ironworkers of 9/11

20. Trapped in the Towers: Elevators of 9/11

21. Dust to Dust: Health Effects of 9/11

22. Post 9/11 Town Hall Meetings

23. Saint of 9/11 (UPDATE)

24. 9/11: The Falling Man (UPDATE)

25. WTC 9-11-01 Day of Disaster (UPDATE)

AND I forgot to mention the fucking feature films released in the past year:

1. Flight 93 (tv movie)

2. United 93

3. World Trade Center (thanks a lot Oliver Stone...)

4. The Great New Wonderful

No bombs in the Twin Towers...

The recentNew York Times article on 9/11 implies that controlled demolition of the Twin Towers would have been impossible, because no one could have snuck in all of the explosive equipment.

Many claim:
"I don't believe that the World Trade Center could have been destroyed by controlled demolition . . . how could they have possibly planted bombs without anyone seeing them?"


In fact, there were plenty of opportunities to plant bombs in the World Trade Center.
For example:

Bomb-sniffing dogs were inexplicably removed from the Twin Towers five days before 9-11

The Twin Towers had been evacuated a number of times in the weeks preceding 9/11

There was a power down in the Twin Towers on the weekend before 9/11, security cameras were shut down, and many workers ran around busily doing things unobserved.

And -- as an interesting coincidence -- a Bush-linked company ran security at the trade centers, thus giving it free reign to the buildings.

These are just a few of the known, public examples of opportunities to plant bombs. There were undoubtedly many additional opportunities available to skilled operatives."

In addition to these facts, demolition and building collapse experts have purportedly raised the possibility of "explosive tenants" -- i.e. tenants in the WorldTrade Centers who planted bombs in their own, rented space. For example, according to Webster Tarpley and others, Hugo Bachmann, professor emeritus of building dynamics and earthquake engineering at the world-famous Swiss Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich:
In the second scenario, an additional terrorist action would have caused the collapse of the buildings. In this way, according to Bachmann, buildings like the World Trade center can be destroyed without great logistical exertion. The article went on to say that Bachmann could imagine that the perpetrators had installed explosives on key supports in a lower floor before the attack. If the perpetrators had rented office space, then these explosivetenants could have calmly placed explosive charges on the vulnerable parts of the building without having anyone notice.

You Can't Even Grow Tomatoes Without Corps. Being Involved

Seeds That Commit Suicide
by F. William Engdahl
August 27, 2006
GlobalResearch.ca

The United States Government has been financing research on a genetic engineering technology which, when commercialized, will give its owners the power to control the food seed of entire nations or regions. The Government has been working quietly on this technology since 1983. Now, the little-known company that has been working in this genetic research with the Government’s US Department of Agriculture-- Delta & Pine Land-- is about to become part of the world’s largest supplier of patented genetically-modified seeds (GMO), Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri.
Relations between Monsanto, Delta & Pine Land and the USDA, on closer scrutiny, show the deep and dark side of the much-heralded genetic revolution in agriculture. It proves deep-held suspicions that the Gene Revolution is not about ‘solving the world hunger problem’ as its advocates claim. It’s about handing over control of the seeds for mankind’s basic food supply—rice, corn, soybeans, wheat, even fruit, vegetables and cotton—to privately owned corporations. Once the seeds and their use are patented and controlled by one or several private agribusiness multinationals, it will be they who can decide whether or not a particular customer—let’s say for argument, China or Brazil or India or Japan—whether they will or won’t get the patented seeds from Monsanto, or from one of its licensee GMO partners like Bayer Crop Sciences, Syngenta or DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred International.
While most of us don’t bother to reflect on where the corn in the box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes or the rice in a box of Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice come from, when we grab it from the supermarket shelf, they all must originate with seeds. Seeds can either be taken by a farmer from the previous season’ seeds, and planted to produce the next harvest. Or, seeds can be bought new each harvest season, from the companies which sell their seeds.
The advent of commercial GMO seeds in the early 1990’s allowed companies like Monsanto, DuPont or Dow Chemicals to go from supplying agriculture chemical herbicides like Roundup, to patenting genetically altered seeds for basic farm crops like corn, rice, soybeans or wheat. For almost a quarter century, since 1983, the US Government has quietly been working to perfect a genetically engineered technique whereby farmers would be forced to turn to their seed supplier each harvest to get new seeds. The seeds would only produce one harvest. After that the seeds from that harvest would commit ‘suicide’ and be unusable.
There has been much hue and cry, correctly so, that this process, patented ‘suicide’ seeds, officially termed GURTs (Genetic Use Restriction Technologies), is a threat to poor farmers in developing countries like India or Brazil, who traditionally save their own seeds for the next planting. In fact, GURTs, more popularly referred to as Terminator seeds for the brutal manner in which they kill off plant reproduction possibilities, is a threat to the food security as well of North America, Western Europe, Japan and anywhere Monsanto and its elite cartel of GMO agribusiness partners enters a market.

Please read more at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20060827&articleId=3082

Surgery = Sexy?

Here is a strange new trend in fashion ads- using images of graphic surgery to sell jewelry and clothes.

Can sheeps be gay? Your tax money is spent on finding this out!

Out of the Closet: ‘Gay Sheep’ Experiments Exposed

In addition to being blacklisted as one of PETA’s picks for the 10 Worst Laboratories for conducting crude and useless experiments on monkeys, Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) is now facing public condemnation from animal- and gay-rights advocates and scientific experts for its ill-conceived “gay sheep” experiments.

At the heart of these multi-million-dollar experiments, which are funded by taxpayers through the year 2008, is the goal of identifying a biological basis for homosexuality in sheep in an effort to “cure” homosexuality in humans. OHSU experimenter Charles Roselli is killing scores of sheep and cutting open the brains of rams he calls “male-oriented” (homosexual) in an attempt to find the hormonal mechanisms behind homosexual tendencies, so that they can subsequently be changed.

Roselli is also working with experimenter Frederick Stormshak of Oregon State University (OSU), who has surgically installed an estrogen implant in the bodies of rams in an effort “to restore tissue levels of estrogen comparable to those of heterosexual rams and affect sexual behavior accordingly.”

In a March 5, 2004, news release issued by OHSU, the university admitted that Roselli and Stormshak would “like to know whether sexual preferences can be altered by manipulating the prenatal hormone environment, for instance by using drugs to prevent the actions of androgen in the fetal sheep brain.”

Equally disturbing is the experimenters’ stated intention to apply their findings in sheep to humans. This is highlighted in Roselli’s application for public funding from the National Institutes of Health: “The [sheep] experiments proposed in this application will furnish important information that is needed to formulate and test novel hypotheses about the biological basis of sexual orientation in higher mammals including humans”. Roselli goes on to note in one of his published journal articles that “this research also has broader implications for understanding the development and control of sexual motivation and mate selection across mammalian species, including humans.”

This is not only a needless slaughter of animals and an ethically indefensible experiment, but has also been condemned by experts on scientific grounds. Dr. Malgosia Cegielski, a Portland-based clinical psychologist, calls Roselli’s gay-sheep experiment “frivolous” and “frightening.” She says: “I don’t see any clinical utility or human benefit with what he’s doing. … The gene expression and biological differences at a cellular level between [nonhuman] animals and humans is so huge. To draw conclusions between animal behavior [and] humans is a joke.”

What You Can Do
Please send polite letters to OSU and OHSU at the addresses shown below and ask that they immediately stop the needless use and slaughter of animals in these experiments and instead use taxpayers’ money for beneficial research that does not involve the use of animals or for funding a sexual diversity acceptance and tolerance initiative:

Dr. Ed Ray, President
Oregon State University
634 Kerr Administration Building
Corvallis, OR 97331-2128
ed.ray@oregonstate.edu

Joseph Robertson Jr., M.D., M.B.A., President-Elect
Oregon Health and Science University
3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Rd.
Portland, OR 97239-3098
Robertjo@ohsu.edu

Read the letters that PETA sent to OSU and OHSU.

To Be or Watch T.V.?

Instead of adopting Plato's teachings, Americans have allowed a depraved junta to seize control of the four most powerful brainwashing technologies in modern history: education, television, popular music, and movies. Through the insidious use of these instruments, American young people are programmed to value greed, egomania, money, power, fame, and cleverness in unscrupulousness, and are conditioned to crave and embody violence, ignorance, and chaos.

"The average person in the US watches about four hours of television each day. Over the course of a year, we see roughly twenty five thousand commercials, many of them produced by the world's highest-paid cognitive psychologists. And these heavily produced advertisements are not merely for products, but for a lifestyle based on a consumer mind-set. What they're doing, day in and day out, twenty-five thousand times a year, is hypnotizing us into seeing ourselves as consumers who want to be entertained rather than as citizens who want to be informed and engaged. We need to take back the airwaves as a sphere of mature conversation and dialogue about our common future."

"Experiments conducted by researcher Herbert Krugman reveal that, when a person watches television, brain activity switches from the left to the right hemisphere. The left hemisphere is the seat of logical thought. Here, information is broken down into its component parts and critically analyzed. The right brain, however, treats incoming data uncritically, processing information in wholes, leading to emotional, rather than logical, responses. The shift from left to right brain activity also causes the release of endorphins, the body's own natural opiates--thus, it is possible to become physically addicted to watching television, a hypothesis borne out by numerous studies which have shown that very few people are able to kick the television habit.
Peter Russell, "Dehypnosis - Breaking the Trance"

sick society

"It is no measure of health
to be well adjusted
To a profoundly sick society."

-Krishnamurti

"A healthy social life is found only,

when in the mirror of each soul

the whole community finds its reflection,

and when in the whole community

the virtue of each one is living."

-Rudolf Steiner

It's no different than what Fox News does to their reports!

FINALLY, some good news

Especially when their feelings concern having complete control over women's bodies!!!!

That's right. We did it! At 9:20 a.m. today, the FDA approved over-the-counter access to the "morning-after" pill. Thanks to the letters, petitions, and support from people like you, the FDA finally overcame the political pressure from the White House, Congress, and anti-choice lobbyists, and approved the morning-after pill for over-the-counter sales.

Medical experts and scientists at the FDA have asserted for years that the morning-after pill - which can prevent an unintended pregnancy if taken within 72 hours after sex - should be available without a prescription. It's safe, it's effective, and it's a commonsense way for women to prevent unintended pregnancy.

Thank you again for helping achieve this victory for women - your action does make a difference.

My best,

Nancy Keenan
President
NARAL Pro-Choice America

Once Again- Democracy For The Few (the filthy rich)

for all you ice-cream lovers

Is Ben & Jerry's serving up "Chocolate Chip Cruelty Dough"?









On its web site, the ice cream company known for its social conscience criticizes what it calls "giant, industrial farming operations," and it ends one of its commercials with the tag line, "Ben & Jerry's: Join our fight for small family farms."
But this week, after nearly a year of promises to The Humane Society of the United States that it would phase out battery-cage eggs in its ice cream, the company has taken a 180 degree turn and chosen to continue to buy eggs—perhaps 20 to 30 million of them a year—from factory farms that confine egg-laying hens in tiny battery cages so small the birds can't even spread their wings.

Tell Ben & Jerry's right now to stop supporting this cruelty! Please call Ben & Jerry's today at 802-846-1500 (between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST) and urge the company to keep its promises to stop supporting battery cage cruelty. You can also take action online: CLICK HERE TO SEND AN EMAIL

This is how it should be if we are going to continue

to take eggs from the hens. free range farms!!!!

50,000 angels killed in China

Officials in Southwest China ordered the extermination of more than 50,000 dogs in late July after three people died from rabies. Among the animals slaughtered were up to 4,000 dogs who—despite being immunized against rabies—were dragged into the street and strangled or clubbed to death in front of their families. These awful deaths illustrate the Chinese government's insensitivity to animals as well as its complete lack of planning. There are humane ways to prevent rabies outbreaks. Yet China has rejected our offers to help implement procedures—including a simple four-point plan—that would avoid such cruel killings. China has no animal welfare laws whatsoever. That's why millions of dogs and cats are strangled with wire nooses and beaten to death every year so that their fur can be turned into trim and trinkets for American and European consumers. China is the world's largest supplier of animal skin and fur—and it doesn't draw the line when it comes to domestic animals and family pets. The following are ways that you can help dogs and cats in China right now:

Contact the Chinese government and demand that it halt the further slaughter of dogs. Urge the Chinese government to enact a strict anti-cruelty law immediately.

Don't let this massacre go unnoticed. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or post the news on your favorite blog. Let the world know about China's recent and shocking mass murder of dogs and the need for a cruelty-to-animals law in the world's most populated country.
Don't buy or wear fur. China supplies more than half of all finished fur garments that are imported into the United States. Because dog and cat fur is so deliberately mislabeled, the bottom line is that if you're buying fur, there's no way to tell whose skin you're wearing. And all animal lives are precious.

Right now, China is listening to those who speak out for animals. After intense international pressure, the Chinese government has just halted its plan to give foreigners licenses to hunt wild and endangered animals. Adding your voice today to those demanding change in China could help millions of animals. Thank you for speaking out against cruelty and for standing up for animals everywhere.

Large Group Of Professors Question 9/11

9/11 conspiracy theorists energized
Five years later, purveyors claim academic momentum
Sunday, August 6, 2006
cnn.com

These men aren't uneducated junk scientists: Barrett will teach a class on Islam at the University of Wisconsin this fall, over the protests of more than 60 state legislators. Jones is a tenured physicist at Brigham Young University whose mainstream academic job has made him a hero to conspiracy theorists. Five years after the terrorist attacks, a community that believes widely discredited ideas about what happened on September 11, 2001, persists and even thrives. Members trade their ideas on the Internet and in self-published papers and in books. About 500 of them attended a recent conference in Chicago, Illinois. The movement claims to be drawing fresh energy and credibility from a recently formed group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth.

The organization says publicity over Barrett's case has helped boost membership to about 75 academics. They are a tiny minority of the 1 million part- and full-time faculty nationwide, and some have no university affiliation. But some are well educated, with degrees from elite universities such as Princeton and Stanford and jobs at schools including Rice, Indiana and the University of Texas. "Things are happening," said co-founder James Fetzer, a retired philosophy professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, who maintains, among other claims, that some of the hijackers are still alive. "We're going to continue to do this. Our role is to establish what really happened on 9/11."

What really happened, the national September 11 commission concluded after 1,200 interviews, was that hijackers crashed planes into the twin towers. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a government agency, filed 10,000 pages of reports that found fires caused by the crashing planes were more than sufficient to collapse the buildings. The scholars' group rejects those conclusions. Their Web site contends the government has been dishonest. It adds: the "World Trade Center was almost certainly brought down by controlled demolitions" and "the government not only permitted 9/11 to occur but may even have orchestrated these events to facilitate its political agenda." The standards and technology institute, and many mainstream scientists, won't debate conspiracy theorists, saying they don't want to lend them unwarranted credibility.

But some worry the academic background of the group could do that anyway.
Members of the conspiracy community "practically worship the ground [Jones] walks on because he's seen as a scientist who is preaching to their side," said FR Greening, a Canadian chemist who has written several papers rebutting the science used by September 11 conspiracy theorists. "It's science, but it's politically motivated. It's science with an ax to grind, and therefore it's not really science." Faculty can express any opinion outside the classroom, said Roger Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors.
However, "with academic freedom comes academic responsibility. And that requires them to teach the truth of their discipline, and the truth does not include conspiracy theories, or flat Earth theories, or Holocaust denial theories." Members of the group don't consider themselves extremists. They simply believe the government's investigation was inadequate, and maintain that questioning widely held assumptions has been part of the job of scholars for centuries.
"Tenure gives you a secure position where you can engage in controversial issues," Fetzer said. "That's what you should be doing." But when asked what did happen in 2001, members often step outside the rigorous, data-based culture of the academy and defer to their own instincts.

Daniel Orr, a Princeton Ph.D. and widely published retired economics chair at the University of Illinois, said he knew instantly from watching the towers fall that they had been blown apart by explosives. He was reminded of watching an old housing project being destroyed in St. Louis, Missouri.

David Gabbard, an East Carolina education professor, acknowledges this isn't his field, but says "I'm smart enough to know ... that fire from airplanes can't melt steel."

Jones focuses on the relatively narrow question of whether molten metal present at the World Trade Center site after the attacks is evidence that a high-temperature incendiary called thermite, which can be used to weld or cut metal, was involved in the towers' destruction.
He concludes thermite was present, throwing the government's entire explanation into question and suggesting someone might have used explosives to bring down the towers.
"I have not run into many who have read my paper and said it's just all hogwash," Jones said.
Judy Wood, until recently an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Clemson University, has been cited by conspiracy theorists for her arguments the buildings could not have collapsed as quickly as they did unless explosives were used.
"If the U.S. government is lying about how the buildings came down, anything else they say cannot be believed," she said. "So why would they want to tell us an incorrect story if they weren't part of it?"
In fact, say Greening and other experts, the molten metal Jones cites was most likely aluminum from the planes, and any number of explanations are more likely than thermite.
And the National Institute of Standards and Technology's report describes how the buildings collapsed from the inside in a chain reaction once the floors began falling.
"We respect the opinions of others, but we just didn't see any evidence of what people are claiming," institute spokesman Michael Newman said.
Wisconsin officials say they do not endorse the views of Barrett, an adjunct, but after investigating concluded he would handle the material responsibly in the classroom.
That didn't mollify many state legislators.
"The general public from Maine to Oregon knows why the trade towers went down," said state Rep. Stephen Nass, a Republican. "It's not a matter of unpopular ideas; it's a matter of quality education and giving students their money's worth in the classroom."
In a July 20 letter obtained by The Associated Press in an open records request, Wisconsin Provost Patrick Farrell warned Barrett to tone down his publicity seeking, and said he would reconsider allowing Barrett to teach if he continued to identify himself with the university in his political messages.

BYU's physics department and engineering school have issued statements distancing themselves from Jones' work, but he says they have not interfered.
At Clemson, Wood did not receive tenure last year, but her former department chair, Imtiaz ul Haque, denies her accusation that it was at least partly because of her September 11 views.
"Are you blackballed for delving into this topic? Oh yes," Wood said. "And that is why there are so few who do. Most contracts have something to do with some government research lab. So what would that do to you? The consequences are too great for a career. But I made the choice that truth was more important."

"If we're in higher education to be trying to encourage critical thinking," Wood says, "why would we say 'believe this because everybody else does?'"
The Associated Press.

Aztec poets

I taught my fourth grade summer school kids about the Spanish conquistadors destroying the Aztecs' civilization and the supreme coincidence of the prediction that Quetzalcoalt would return to rejoin the Aztecs in 1519 (year that Cortes arrived). After this unit was complete, I asked them to write a poem from the point of view of an Aztec. It could be about anything they learned, ranging from the journey to settle in Tenochtitlan, the guidance and worship of their Creators, the Spanish killing them for their gold and land, etc. I recieved some pretty amazing answers, a few of which I would like to share (keep in mind, these children were the lowest of their grade level...but when presented with something interesting, they really focused. and many told me how much they like writing and being creative, i guess they don't this opportunity too often...)

I corrected their spelling so it would be easier for everyone else to read (i dont correct spelling on their papers, however, because I want the kids to focus on content rather than the english language and all its stupid and confusing rules).


The boy who wrote this poem is Mexican, but he had no idea about his heritage. He was extremely interested in the lessons. I was glad to make that connection with him.

"In the beautiful valley, or so I thought,
It was a wonderful day.
Until a man arrived that was a god, or so we thought.
His name was Cortes
And we gave him gold and food,
But it was not enough.
He killed all the Aztecs,
He was no Quetzalcoalt.
I will never forget what the Spanish did."

The following boy has A.D.D., rarely paid attention and often got into trouble for making inappropriate comments before thinking. But when I placed his assignment before him, I never so him so focused.

"Why, why must we perish?
Everybody is dying.
We are all going to be dead
If they keep this up.
Someone must put a stop to this.
But who?
We must hide
and build a city away from the Spanish.
Have all strong people in an army
and maybe we can put a stop to this,
and one day
We will live in peace and harmony."

Another boy with A.D.D., who managed to write more than one sentence for this poem:

"Why did we get attacked?
We didn't do anything wrong.
I don't know why they destroyed our city."

This following girl wrote the first half of the poem and stopped. but then she decided to continue and rewrite history. Truly amazing and beautiful...almost made me cry. (she had been very upset to learn what the conquistadors did to the Aztecs).

"My city is very nice.
The lake is blue
And the flowers are growing.
I had traveled on a canoe
And I saw a lot of gold.
Then I came back
And guess what I saw...

I saw Quetzalcoatl
and he came back!
Everyone was happy.
We had a party to celebrate
The coming back of Quetzalcoatl."

Principles of "New Activism"

The Principles of a New Activism are:

1. STILLNESS AS AN ACT OF POWER
The cultivation of a quiet mind is the most effective antidote to chaos.

A moment of stillness is a universal corrective, bringing all conditions of disharmony into immediate alignment with the peace of God. While manifestations of chaos may take time to flush out of the material realm, the introduction of stillness automatically interrupts the trajectory of chaos.

In meditation our only task is to "be still and know." As we simply sit in silence, knowing that God’s love embraces all living things, divine harmony becomes an operative principle in the world around us.

The deeper the stillness the deeper the level of sharing.

2. ENVISIONING AS AN ACT OF POWER
In the material realm, power is determined by material wealth; in the spiritual realm, power is determined by spiritual wealth.

In the 21st Century, wealth will be determined by consciousness and imagination. Whoever has the tools of consciousness will wield the greatest power on earth. In this sense, we will begin at last to experience the infinite abundance –equally attainable by all — which is our spiritual inheritance as human beings.

The New Activist does not ignore the powers of the material realm, but rather recognizes their value in helping to shape a better world. We seek to integrate the power of the world with the power of spirit, thus achieving a truly holistic sense of self. With the heart in charge, the intellect is not marginalized but uplifted to its highest potential.

Living in the modern world, it is a shift in thinking to withdraw our attachment to belief in the exclusive authority of external powers. From money, to business, to science, to medicine, to technology, to government, we are mesmerized by outer appearances, assigning to them all manner of authority that they do not inherently possess. We do so at the expense of our own remembrance that we, ourselves, wield greater power than does any external authority. We have been given the power to transform the world, through our capacity to change how we think about the world. There is no condition of outer substance that is not transformed by love.

Once a situation is taken to prayer, and seen meditatively as healed and whole, the spiritual activist can "consider it done." Our capacity to inwardly see a condition of peace invokes that condition through metaphysical power. When two or more are gathered in the perception of perfect possibility, and experience together the peace which such discernment bestows, the conditions of chaos simply and literally cannot remain.

For instance, if violence erupts in Jerusalem, the work of the New Activist is to inwardly see the potential for peace. Prayerful concentration on the possibility of peace, unhindered by attachment to material "facts," lifts the mind to its natural function as a worker of miracles. The purpose of the mind is that it be used, with God, to Co-create the conditions of peace on Earth. It is both our natural function, and our inherent power, to invoke the world that dwells beyond the veil of human illusion.

Beyond the veil, there are no enemies; there are only brothers and sisters. Beyond the veil, there is no conflict; there is only peace. Beyond the veil, there is no limit; there is only infinite possibility for good. To discern that reality for Israelis and Palestinians, at a time when their own perception is understandably clouded by the immediate conditions of worldly affairs, is both the greatest gift and the greatest power that can be wielded in that situation.

Many throughout the world would be thinking about the violence in Jerusalem; even those with the best of intentions, however, are limited in their capacity to make peace, if the crux of their attention is focused on war. So it is that the New Activist, while not looking away from Jerusalem, looks toward it with new eyes. We look to the region, as does the traditional activist, but not with a mind that seeks to "fix it." We look through the eyes of a higher mind, lifting the veil of illusion by simply seeing beyond it.

When a critical mass of prayer and meditation is extended in the direction of peace, then the conditions of war will automatically be cast away from Earth.

3. INTERPERSONAL HEALING AS AN ACT OF POWER
The source of war lies in each of us, as does the source of peace. As we rid our own hearts of the spark of violence, we are fostering peace in the world.

Ultimately, we come to realize that there is no world outside us. All external reality is mere reflection of consciousness, and thus, in order to change the world, we must change our minds. The world is in the circle, as it is in every one of us.

Gathering together as New Activists, we find among us the roots of war. Someone may judge someone else; someone may not like someone else’s personality; someone may hold resentments regarding a particular situation. As we heal ourselves of our own judgments and subtle thoughts of conflict, we automatically affect the minds of those who perpetrate greater violence in the world.

The Peace Circle is a sacred circle. It holds the pain, as well as the possibility for transformation, of the world in which we live. We do not seek outside ourselves, but rather within, for the source of all darkness as well as the source of all light. The issue of concern becomes not the love withheld by someone else in a situation outside the circle, but rather the ways in which we ourselves might be contributing to the suffering of mankind.

For instance, if a couple attending the Peace Circle are having problems in their relationship, then the Circle holding their bond in prayer is a political act: healing between any two people literally helps to heal the world. When any two experience conflict, the universal condition of conflict is fueled. When any two experience forgiveness, that condition is universally ameliorated. Thus do the pursuits of personal growth and political healing intersect in spiritual activism. In a wider sense, it is the political work of the Circle to address the personal fears of its members.

According to Mahatma Gandhi, we must "be the change we want to see happen in the world." This explains one of his tenets of non-violence, that "the end is inherent in the means." An angry generation cannot create peace in the world. That we be peaceful, must be our personal effort as well as our political goal.

At the same time, it is difficult to achieve peace with our fellow human beings when we are not at peace within ourselves. So it is that the healing of our own fractured sense of self becomes a prerequisite of sorts, for the healing of our relationship with others and the world.

4. DEPTH OF INSIGHT AS AN ACT OF POWER
The most powerful axis of activism today is vertical rather than horizontal. The depth of a conversation is more important than how many people are involved in it.

A wise society holds its common experiences wisely, and in so doing, creates subtle and invisible sources of healing. The more meaningful the conversation a society holds with itself, the more meaningful its collective actions become.

The traditional activist is often tempted to facilitate a more shallow group discussion, in order to attract as many people as possible to it. More attention is paid to the numbers of people supporting a position, than to the genuine justice of the position itself. On a certain level this is reasonable, as a main role of the traditional activist is to achieve electoral gain. The New Activist, however, makes the attainment of a deep and loving understanding our highest priority.

It is not assumed that the quest for such spiritual understanding automatically leads to the attainment of political power. But, immediate political gain is not necessarily the goal of the New Activist. Rather, we place our faith in the power of truth over time, recognizing that positions supporting a freer, more compassionate human experience are literally backed by cosmic impulse. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

To make depth of insight our highest priority, is not to lack political focus. It is to draw a distinction between short-term political pursuits and long-term evolutionary issues. The spiritual activist seeks as deep a discussion of an issue as possible, exploring the psychological, spiritual, historical, mythological and philosophical issues. Love is the greatest power, but not necessarily immediately. Some of the most important political achievements in history were, when first articulated, considered outrageous and impossibly idealistic by the status quo of the time. Examples abound, from the abolitionist, women’s suffrage, labor and civil rights movements in the United States, to the end of apartheid in South Africa. Early in these movements, the argument would of course have been made that "No one will buy this," "It’s just a few of us against all of them," "We don’t have the money and they do," etc. The power of an unalterable truth, however, gives spiritual fuel to such efforts, providing invisible sources of aid throughout the political struggles which follow.

Depth of moral authority, as evidenced in political quests for social justice, freedom, etc., forms a field of conscious desire and intention which, if harnessed effectively, ultimately leads to political power. What begins with the conviction of usually a few charismatic personalities, ultimately spreads like positive contagion through the hearts of resonant souls.

The New Activist relies on the strength of higher awareness to create breakthrough and possibility in the material world, by strengthening the conviction, courage and personal eloquence of the activist. It is not our numbers, but our depth of insight, which transform events around us. The spiritual impulse toward what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., referred to as "the establishment of the beloved community," fuels every fundamental shift in the direction of higher good. Mental alignment with that impulse is the New Activist’s greatest power.

5. RADICAL GOOD WILL AS AN ACT OF POWER
Recognition and affirmation of the spiritual innocence in all human beings creates a field of possibility for the emergence of miracles.

In A Course in Miracles, it is written, "Miracles are everyone’s right, but purification is necessary first." The presence of fear-based thinking within our own minds is the primary block to the effectiveness of the New Activist.

It is tempting to think that a huge multinational corporation, aided by assets of billions of dollars, has more power to achieve its will on Earth than do we who merely live here. Once we recognize, however, that money is not as powerful as prayer, or imagination, or most importantly, love, then we begin to harness

the powers of the heart on behalf of planetary healing. The New Activist does not project negativity toward the corporation, its executives, or its shareholders, but rather surrounds them all in a field of positive intention, surrendering them to the spirit of one-ness in us all. We ask that they be blessed; we ask that their hearts and minds be lifted to divine right order; we ask that every action of every living thing promote the health of planet Earth and its inhabitants.

Any negative thoughts about the "powers that be," limit our capacity to affect their behavior. A Peace Circle is the place to safely surrender such thoughts to God, moving beyond our temptation to personally demonize those with whom we disagree, we actually become more powerful. We recognize our capacity to hold people accountable for their actions, without deviating from our love. It is our radical good will toward all of humanity that naturally works miracles. Some call such thinking naïve. What is naïve, in fact, is the thought that any amount of traditional politicking can stop the juggernaut of planetary devastation that is wreaked by market forces when no longer restrained by the dictates of conscience.

The New Activist uses prayer, meditation and forgiveness as tools for the creation of a world made right. Whoever wields the power of a loving mind wields a power that is greater than any on Earth, restoring conscience to its primary place in human affairs.

6. CREATING SACRED SPACE AS AN ACT OF POWER
The simple configuration of people gathered in a circle, sharing prayer and meditation and heartfelt conversation, casts a web of healing power affecting not only the members of the circle but the world at large.

Humans carry an ancient memory of the power of ritual. The creation of sacred space is not merely symbol but rather the actual harnessing of energy for the purpose of spiritual healing. Within a sacred circle, we are lifted past the limitations of personality which normally hold us back; greater wisdom, greater clarity, greater insight emerge. As the veils of the personality are lifted, so are the walls which divide us. No longer experiencing a false sense of separation from each other, our oneness in God becomes an experiential reality.

Within the sacred field of oneness, we experience the ultimate equality of souls. The level of our personal sharing reflects a deeper, more heartfelt truth, when the competitive, fear-based grasping of the ego is transcended. The benefit to our collective experience is obvious. Spiritual force fosters deeper honesty, creating a web of social intimacy among members of a group. When the heart becomes the basis for both speaking and listening, the individual’s personal expression becomes a more meaningful contribution to an emerging collective truth.

7. SPIRITUALLY CENTERED ACTION AS ACT OF POWER
The New Activist wields power by standing for what could be, as opposed to fighting what is. Making a stand for a new possibility, we attain the power to create it.

When asked whether meditation alone could save the world, His Holiness the Dalai Lama responded, "If we are to save the world, we must have a plan. But no plan will work unless we meditate."

It is the integration of the powers of spirit and matter which conjoin to form the New Activism. Ultimately the yin of personal development meets the yang of social activism, as the New Activist turns his or her attention to traditional political, social, or community efforts, but with a new dimension of spiritual and personal power.

For instance, at a political gathering the New Activist remembers to avoid the temptation to demonize one’s opponent; at an activist’s gathering, the New Activist has acquired the serenity to become the most eloquent and inspiring spokesperson for the group’s effort; working on a project, the New Activist silently meditates with others for a blessed outcome. The New Activist sets a standard for a level of positive, powerful, spiritually-motivated activism, thus making a maximal impact within any community.

Using the tools above, the New Activist has greater capacity to be an instrument of change. In service to a higher good, allowing a higher dimension of awareness to affect our personalities, we are thus in a position to effect the greatest good. New wine demands new bottles, new ends demand new means, and new ideas demand new hearts.