"In the Land of the Free" -- Story of the Angola 3

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http://youtu.be/8U5JMs0LvBo

The story of the Angola 3 has been documented in new film In The Land Of The Free. Join the fight against injustice; visit the Facebook for further information on ways to lend your support.

Seattle Hempfest 2011: Jim Page - Song for Leonard Peltier

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http://youtu.be/sPZq9ExjzNk

Katrina Victims Still Seek Justice -- Jordan Flaherty on Real News

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"Krystof from NO JUSTICE NO BART speaks to BART BOARD"

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http://youtu.be/snil8Ea9f9Y

Reminder: Vigil for a Free Palestine - End the Siege of Gaza- This Saturday at Westlake

Tweet Join us this Saturday to call for an end to the Israeli and Egyptian siege on Gaza. Also to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for Justice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEIbUoSSiV4

Saturday August 27

12:00 - 2:00pm
Westlake Plaza, 4th & Pine downtown Seattle
====================================

Amin Odeh
VoicesofPalestine.org

"Stand up for what is right, even if you are standing alone"

"This Is Not Peace" -- Oh My Gaza Blog

Tweet http://ohmygaza.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-is-not-peace.html

This is not the peace we expected for this little one. This is not the quiet stillness that we hoped and dreamed would someday be his reality. This is not the sweet serenity we envisioned when we thought about his future and his long term goals. This is not peace but a screaming death in a silent world.Peace surrounds him now. But it is the peace of death not life.

Peace accompanies him on his eternal journey, but it is a peace without family and friends. Peace of occupation has silenced his little ears and mind forever.

Peace. A small and unsophisticated word, yet a word so volatile it has held us hostage for 63 years and counting. A word so bitter in the mouth of the world that it would have us all terminated rather than allow us the dignity to enjoy its solitude and rest.

Peace is a state of being the whole world could achieve. Yet peace is often bartered at the political table by those in power over those who are weak. Peace it seems is a useful tool for controlling self interests. And peaceful people are often murdered as they stand in the way of corruption, occupation, lies.

Peace. A pregnant pause in between violence. Peace. The silence after war. Peace. To hear a human heart beat instead of hearing bombs drop. Peace. The cessation of cries of agony of the wounded, displaced, and dead. Peace. A right every human being deserves. Peace. A force of hope in the hand of one with true compassion. Peace. Restoration of dreams and hopes. Peace. Possibly the only invisible silent substance that the world has left in order to survive. Peace. Priceless.

Long Live Palestine.

"Welcome to Libya's 'Democracy'" -- Pepe Escobar

Tweet http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MH24Ak01.html

EXCERPT:

The top billing was R2P ("responsibility to protect"). From the beginning R2P, manned by France and Britain and backed by the US, magically turned into regime change. That led to the unsung stars in this production being Western and monarchical Arab "advisers", as in "contractors" or "mercenaries".

NATO started winning the war by launching Operation Siren at Iftar - the break of the Ramadan fast - last Saturday evening, Libya time. "Siren" was the codename for an invasion of Tripoli. That was NATO's final - and desperate - power play, after the chaotic "rebels" had gone nowhere after five months of fighting Gaddafi's forces.

Until then, NATO's plan A was to try to kill Gaddafi. What R2P cheerleaders - left and right - had dubbed "steady NATO attrition" boiled down to praying for three outcomes; Gaddafi killed, Gaddafi surrenders, Gaddafi flees.

Not that any of this prevented NATO bombs from falling in private homes, universities, hospitals or even close to the Foreign Ministry. Everything - and everyone - was a target.

"Siren" featured a colorful casting of "NATO rebels", Islamist fanatics, gullible embedded journalists, TV-friendly mobs, and Cyrenaica youth manipulated by opportunist Gaddafi regime defectors eyeing fat checks by oil giants Total and BP.

Carlos Latuff on the Flags of Libya

Tweet http://twitpic.com/69txkd

Pepe Escobar -- Libya is Iraq 2.0

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Carlos Latuff Immortalizes Flagman -- An Amazing and Unmistakable Message to Israel -- Get Out!

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Seattle Stands Against Israel's Attacks on Palestinians in Gaza

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Almost a dozen folks came out on short notice to show their outrage with the U.S.-backed Israeli attack on the people of Gaza on August 18-19. Stop using our taxes to buy Israel's murder weapons!

SGCo Gaza still under attack! Join us for an emergency action this afternoon (Friday Aug 19) -- Seattle

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Gaza Under Attack -- Pictures
http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/gaza-under-attack-aug-19-2011-in-pictures/

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/08/201181893519247218.html

What: Emergency protest- freeway banner/action

Where: 45^th St. N.E (over I-5)

Date/Time: Today, 5:30- 7:00PM

I hope you can join us!

Amin Odeh
VoicesofPalestine.org

Theaacc.org

"Stand up for what is right, even if you are standing alone"

Angry Arab on The Attack on Israeli Military Target 8/19/11

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http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2011/08/attack-on-israeli-military-target.html

Now we will hear from Western Zionists. They will preach about the need for Palestinian to forswear violence altogether--an advice that Western governments never seem to follow. They only mean to impose it on the natives when they fight foreign occupation. Western Zionists will speak about civilian lives, although from what I read the attack yesterday was on military targets. But the US can no more preach to Palestinians a word about non-violence: not for its on-going war (and war crimes) in Iraq and Afghanistan: but also because its war has managed to kill hundreds of civilians every year in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Of course, the criminal state of Israel is not in a position to even preach to Nazis and fascists: the Zionist usurping entity will be treated in history as a footnote of criminality and war crimes. But the attack reveals a new environment in Eygpt: the State Security Apparatus has been almost dismantled, or its mission re-directed. Under Sadat and Mubarak, all state intelligence agencies were focused on protecting Israel from all directions. That has changed forever. Nobody now cares to watch who is planning what on Israel and its terrorists. I have no doubt that the very best resistance fighters in the Middle East are now roaming freely in Egypt. I don't want to make prediction but I can make one: Israelis and Zionists worldwide will be shedding more tears over Mubarak in months and years to come. I wish Zionists can read Arabic so that I can share with them Arab youths' excitement over the attack on Israel yesterday.

Benny Morris - Historian or Racist? (LSE 14 June 2011) [inminds.com]

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http://youtu.be/AA8EgcdjWZw

You have to watch this to see Benny Morris appalling racist statements!

"The Whole F**king Thing Is Coming Down" -- Punk Patriot

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http://youtu.be/y6i9OJ3SWLA

Al-Walaja 8-13- 2011 -- Israel Ripping People Apart from Their Land

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http://youtu.be/wfuDLnqscXQ

"Londoners March for Unity"

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http://youtu.be/kJluILMOFi8

AUDACITY OF HOPE - STAY HUMAN (b) by DAVID K SCHERMERHORN

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http://youtu.be/T79iaC9U_i0

The Moral Decay of Our Society is as Bad at the Top as the Bottom -- Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph

Tweet http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100100708/the-moral-decay-of-our-society-is-as-bad-at-the-top-as-the-bottom/

EXCERPT:

The same is true of the brilliant retailer Sir Philip Green. Sir Philip’s businesses could never survive but for Britain’s famous social and political stability, our transport system to shift his goods and our schools to educate his workers.

Yet Sir Philip, who a few years ago sent an extraordinary £1 billion dividend offshore, seems to have little intention of paying for much of this. Why does nobody get angry or hold him culpable? I know that he employs expensive tax lawyers and that everything he does is legal, but he surely faces ethical and moral questions just as much as does a young thug who breaks into one of Sir Philip’s shops and steals from it?

Our politicians – standing sanctimoniously on their hind legs in the Commons yesterday – are just as bad. They have shown themselves prepared to ignore common decency and, in some cases, to break the law. David Cameron is happy to have some of the worst offenders in his Cabinet. Take the example of Francis Maude, who is charged with tackling public sector waste – which trade unions say is a euphemism for waging war on low‑paid workers. Yet Mr Maude made tens of thousands of pounds by breaching the spirit, though not the law, surrounding MPs’ allowances.

Free Palestine Vigil, Westlake Park, Saturday, 8/13, Noon-2pm

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http://youtu.be/kEIbUoSSiV4

Saturday, August 8, 2011
Westlake Park, 4th & Pine, Seattle, Noon-2 pm

Timely Reprise of This Story: "Looking into the Background of the Execution of Oscar Grant"

Tweet http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/looking-into-the-background-of-the-execution-of-oscar-grant/

Nearly nine days after an obvious execution in front of hundreds of commuters, which was subsequently shown on local Bay Area television to hundreds of thousands of viewers, the perpetrator has not only not been questioned about the incident, he has also not even been charged with a crime by the district attorney’s office.

This seemed rather odd, but with a bit of quick research into the matter a likely explanation surfaced that makes everything fit into place.

The execution was very similar to that of the Brazilian immigrant, Carlos Mendes, that took place in the summer of 2005 in the London Tube. According to reports, Mendes was shot in the back of the head by a group of officers that had just been “psyched up” by special Israëli counter-terrorism training. The method is very basic: simply shoot to kill any dark-skinned guy whom you could imagine to possibly be a “terrorist” in the back, after he has been subdued, lest he possibly activate his [imaginary] bomb belt. During training this must be rehearsed so often to become purely instinctive, so as to preclude any rational assessments. If the wires dangling from his shirt or pocket happen to merely connect earpieces with an IPod, well, it’s preferable to determine this later after the suspect is already dead.

Where did this cop most likely get his brainwashing?

Check out this web page of an Israeli run SWAT and Counter-Terrorism training operation:

http://www.ims-security.com/government_training.htm

Here’s a news story that initially appeared at the UC Berkeley campus paper (but seems to have disappeared from its online archives), confirming BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police participation with IMS:

UC Berkeley:Israeli Expert Helps BART Conduct Counterterror Training
by Emma Guiterrez

As part of a four-day training session with an Israeli counterterrorism expert, the BART Police Department SWAT Team demonstrated how to take down a potential suicide bomber last week. BART police hired Aaron Cohen, founder and managing director of the Israeli Military Specialists, following increased concerns about public transportation becoming the target of terrorism after bomb attacks on public transit systems in Madrid and London in 2004 and 2005, respectively. (Daily Californian)

http://www.israelcampusbeat.org/ICB/Archive/20060312/CampusNews/

Here’s a puff-piece on the IMS training outfit:

http://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=847

Here’s a puff-piece about the kid from Beverly Hills who started the outfit:

Security—Israeli Style

Cohen, 26, likes to tell people he was “born and raised here, but grew up in Israel.” After graduating Beverly Hills High School in 1995, he went to Israel, volunteered for the IDF and was selected for counterterrorism work. He won’t give details of training or assignments, which adds to the mystique. He will say he spent three years undercover in the disputed territories, then he came home. …

The Israelis have a method: If you attack them, they not only fight back, they make sure you’re dead before they leave. Again, it adds to the mystique. A dramatic demonstration for our cameras? Yes, but at the same time, very impressive.

There is competition from larger established companies, but Cohen thinks he has an edge that comes with the “I” in the company name. He says it’s not about the money.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/community_briefs/article/security_israeli_style_20021011/

Additional research will show that this outfit is also much engaged in the Hollywood celebrity bodyguard scene.

In light of this, it seems understandable, that certain people are very keen to not have all this information come out. Imagine all the other police officers out there who have also already been subjected to these four-day brainwashing excursions, at taxpayer’s expensive, their mind imprinted with this perverse Zionist Paranoia mindset. These people don’t want to deal with the outrage that the general population might feel.

Conditions Worse at Rafah Since Egypt's Revolution

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http://youtu.be/Mq3NoahMRM4

"Rioting for 'Justice' in London" -- Al Jazeera

Tweet http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/08/2011891555226219.html

EXCERPT:

A tipping point

Tottenham, where Duggan was killed, is a Haringey neighbourhood which has among the highest unemployment rates in London - and a larger than average youth population. People of colour here have particularly felt the effects of deteriorating social services and targeted police harassment and violence, said author Richard Seymour.

"There's kids here who basically no one cares about, and nobody does anything for," said Seymour, a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics. "When the rioters themselves are asked, they will say that they are abused by police, harassed by them, and nobody's done a thing about it."

Seymour also explained that after many of the 333 deaths in police custody between 1998 and 2010 in Britain, "Large, peaceful protests in response [to the in-custody deaths] were more or less ignored" and not a single officer has been prosecuted.

As a result, Duggan's killing crossed a threshold for young people, angry with the systems that have left them behind, and tired of non-violent protest that goes without much response.

"I saw a whole load of kids, ranging from teenagers, and also grown-ups, in the streets. Most people seemed very happy, there were a lot of smiles in the streets, and a sense that people finally had control of something ... And then there were people who were extremely angry at police," said Klara, the Occupied London activist. "It's just surprising that something like this hasn't happened before now."

Meanwhile, a local shop owner told Al Jazeera: "I'm very shocked ... I'm so devastated. I don't know how to explain myself."

The chaotic situation has left many Londoners, and people around the world, wondering when the destruction will stop - and how the government will respond to the anger born out of alleged police racism, cuts to social services and unemployment.

The Truth About War - Who Are The Real Terrorists?

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http://youtu.be/3DOgWuGYGeo

Hossam El-Hamalawy Answers the Question: "What Is Social Justice"?

Tweet http://www.arabawy.org/2011/08/06/social-justice/

I asked my father when I was in primary school what “social justice” was. He answered, “Social justice is when you do not see anymore people throwing bread in the garbage, while others can’t find it.”

I never forgot those words…

"London Rhymes with Palestine"

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http://youtu.be/vcUjjgzR5gk

Great video. US supporters cannot purchase from the UK site but can get it from Amazon (thanks, David).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00532J6V4/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1310336080&sr=8-1

Plus the video was embedded in an article about LUSH cosmetics, which unlike Ahava, supports Palestine. Apparently there is a LUSH store in Westlake mall. Support it!

Article about LUSH: http://londonbds.org/2011/08/07/a-lush-life-for-all/

Irony is Dead: Panel to Stop "Atrocities" Based on Work of Madeleine Albright

Tweet President who uses torture, excuses torture, will not prosecute torture, uses drones to kill civilians, throws Granny and her whole family under the bus to get campaign contributions, is silent about Israel's murder of civilians in Palestine, has enacted a board to stop mass atrocities. Guess whose work it is based on?

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56752

The task force, which was co-chaired by former President Bill Clinton's Pentagon chief, William Cohen, and secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, called for, among other things, the creation of an inter-agency panel overseen by the National Security Council, incorporating guidance on preventing and responding to mass atrocities into U.S military doctrine, and building the capacity of international institutions to more effectively address these threats.

Madeleine Albright's Famous Quote About the Death of 500,000 Iraqi Children to Sate US Hunger for Fall of Sadam: "We Think the Price Is Worth It"

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1084

Fault Lines: The Top 1% -- Which Side Are the Democrats On?

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http://youtu.be/XdVODFombco

CODEPINK Tells Rep Berman it's time to Free Palestine!

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http://youtu.be/-C0XEA_4rFw

Great song! ;)

Indian Artists Boycott Show at Tel Aviv Art Museum in Solidarity with Palestine

Tweet http://electronicintifada.net/blog/nora/indian-artists-boycott-show-tel-aviv-art-museum

Indian artists, invited by the curators of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art to participate in an exhibition of work from India next Spring, have signed a public statement refusing the invitation in solidarity with the Palestinian-led call for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

In a statement published on the website for PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, the artists said they “refuse to legitimize the illegal racist and apartheid policies of the Israeli Government against the people of Palestine and to become a part of ‘Brand Israel.’”

The statement reads in full:

The first major show of Indian art, “Deconstructing India,” is planned for Spring 2012 in the new wing of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel.

We, the undersigned artists, who have been invited by the curators to participate in this show, have declined to exhibit our work, in solidarity with the International Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel called by Palestinian intellectuals and artists, and the India Campaign. The Boycott, inspired by the earlier successful international boycott against Apartheid South Africa, is a peaceful, non-violent Gandhian campaign, which is directed at mainstream institutions and not at individuals, to pressurize Israel to recognize the rights of the Palestine people.

The newly built Amir Wing of the Tel Aviv Museum designed by American architect Preston Scott Cohen is planned to be a showpiece for the discredited Israeli Government to increase its status and prestige internationally at a time when the country’s image is at its lowest ebb.

By declining to participate in this show, we refuse to legitimize the illegal racist and apartheid policies of the Israeli Government against the people of Palestine and to become a part of “Brand Israel.”

Signatures :

Nalini Malani

Anita Dube

Amar Kanwar

Sakshi Gupta

Pushpamala N

In solidarity with the Boycott:

Artists

Vivan Sundaram

Ayisha Abraham

Ram Rahman

Sharmila Samant

Sunil Gupta

Gauri Gill

Inder Salim

Vibha Galhotra

Vasudha Thozhur

Tushar Joag

Indrapramit Roy

Arunkumar HG

Shakuntala Kulkarni

Archana Hande

Monali Meher

Suresh Jayaram

Art Scholars

Geeta Kapoor

Ashish Rajadhyaksha

Chaitanya Sambrani

Kajri Jain

Nuzhat Kazmi

R. Nandakumar

Debt Ceiling Dumbshow; Lots of Posturing, No Solutions -- By ISMAEL HOSSEIN-ZADEH

Tweet http://www.counterpunch.org/zadeh07292011.html

EXCERPT:

Another major contributor to the rising debt and deficit has been the huge tax breaks granted giant corporations and the very affluent layers of the society. For example, according to Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), known for its accurate reports on taxation, the combined amount of taxes paid by the following 12 corporations for the 2008-2010 period was zero—no, it was less than zero! Collectively, they got $2.5 billion in refunds.

The 12 corporations were: Exxon Mobile, Wells Fargo, DuPont, American Electric Power, Boeing, FedEx, IBM, General Electric, Honeywell International, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, and Yahoo. CTJ reports that "from 2008 through 2010, these 12 companies reported $171 billion in pretax U.S. profits. But as a group, their federal income taxes were negative: –$2.5 billion." (It must be pointed out that although the total federal income taxes for the group of 12 as a whole was negative, 4 out of 12 paid some federal tax, but the little tax that those 4 paid was more than offset by the other 7 companies' not having paid any.)

This is an indication of how major US corporations pay—or avoid paying—their tax liabilities. The extremely rich and powerful interest groups have (since the late 1970s and early 1980s) deliberately used a combination of raising military spending and lowering their tax obligations in order to redistribute the national resources from the bottom up. As this combination leads to increases in debt and deficit, it then forces cuts on non-military public spending.

This represents a cynically clever strategy on the part of the ruling plutocracy that benefits from war, militarism, debt and deficit: instead of financing their wars and military adventures by paying taxes proportionate to their income, they give themselves tax breaks, finance their wars of choice through borrowing, and then turn around and lend money (unpaid taxes) to the government and earn interest. The wealthy have thus successfully converted their tax obligations to credit claims, that is, lending instead of paying taxes, which is in essence a disguised form of robbery.

It is obvious from this brief analysis that Washington's political dogs howling at the non-military public spending as the source of the escalating national debt and deficit are barking up the wrong tree. As long as the out-of-control spending on war and militarism is not contained, the multi-trillion dollar corporate welfare handouts (in the form of tax giveaways and costly rescue/bailout packages) are not curtailed, and the skyrocketing costs of health care are not restrained, the national debt and deficit are bound to continue their upward trend.

It is also obvious that the American people are lied to when they are told that all the wrangling that is going on in Washington over the debt ceiling is to reduce national debt. In reality, the national debt will continue to rise even if the corporate government takes a few trillion dollars out of it by further reducing the non-military public spending, that is, by further reducing the people's standard of living.