CIA Report: Israel Will Fall in 20 Years

 

14/03/2009 - Aljazeera

A study conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has cast doubt over Israel's survival beyond the next 20 years...The CIA report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region."

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The Great Divide

British academics Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett believe they've discovered the underlying cause of all modern society's ills: inequality. In their book, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, they explain how health and social problems follow a strikingly similar pattern, being closely correlated with income distribution (pdf). To spread the word, they've founded The Equality Trust

The Great Divide
Elizabeth the Thirteenth
Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:31:53 GMT

El Salvador Elects First Leftist President | CommonDreams.org

Another Latin American Country mover left.

A party led by former guerrillas unseats the conservative party that's governed for two decades. 'Thank you for choosing the path of hope and for overcoming fear,' says victorious Mauricio Funes.

El Salvador Elects First Leftist President | CommonDreams.org

Follow the flowcharts

Vizualizations and infographics to help you understand the financial crisis

Follow the flowcharts

Freeman Affair Puts Israel Lobby in Spotlight

 

Excerpt: Although the successful campaign to keep Amb. Charles "Chas" Freeman out of a top intelligence post marked a surface victory for the pro-Israel hardliners who opposed him, the long-term political implications of the Freeman affair appear far more ambiguous.

Freeman Affair Puts Israel Lobby in Spotlight
Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe

Zines!

 

The Zine Library has hundreds of zines in pdf format for your perusal. They are organized into categories ranging from the common political (anarchism, political prisoners & animal liberation) and identity based zines (indigenous, race & gender) to the more esoteric (anarchist history, primitivism & theory) as well as the useful (cooking, DIY & organizing manuals) and arty (art, comics & music). Now, zines are by their very nature hit and miss but there are some real treasures to be found. I recommend these three: [all links pdf] The Rebel's Dark Laughter - The Writings of Bruno Filippi, Barefoot in the Kitchen and Delivery from Below, Resistance from Above - Electricity and the Politics of Struggle in Tembisa, South Africa. Note: Many if not most zines are set up to be printed out and bound together in chapbooks. That requires a bit of going back and forth when reading in pdf-format, but they wouldn't be real zines if they were straightforward to read ;) Don't know what a zine is? A pretty good overview is provided by zine librarian Jenna Freedman in Zines Are Not Blogs: A Not Unbiased Analysis. [This site has been posted previously but was buried deep in the weeds of more inside]

Zines!
Kattullus
Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:35:23 GMT

The Anthology, notated.

 

"With this blog, I want to use the Folkways Anthology as a roadmap to explore American folk music and maybe other countries traditions along the way. I’ll use texts, images, music and videos gathered from my personal collection and from the net to make this work-in-progress enjoyable and educational the best I can." (via)

The Anthology, notated.
1f2frfbf
Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:15:25 GMT

Updating The Militarization And Annexation Of North America

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

 

By Stephen Lendman
The title refers to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), also known as the North American Union - formerly launched at a March 23, 2005 Waco, Texas meeting attended by George Bush, Mexicos President Vincente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. Its for a tri-national agreement, below the radar, for greater economic, political, and security integration with secret business and government working groups devising binding policies with no public knowledge or legislative debate

Updating The Militarization And Annexation Of North America
Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:37:53 GMT

Freeman Withdrawal Marks Victory for Israel Lobby

 

Excerpt: Amb. Chas Freeman withdrew from consideration for a top intelligence post in the Obama administration on Tuesday, following a vitriolic battle that pitted Republican lawmakers and pro-Israel hardliners opposed to his appointment against liberals and members of the intelligence and diplomatic communities who had come to his defense.

 

Freeman Withdrawal Marks Victory for Israel Lobby

A reply to Ignatieff on Israeli Apartheid Week

Image via Wikipedia

 

Michael Ignatieff, sometimes described as Canada's "Prime Minister in Waiting," is sometimes falsely accused of justifying torture. He is actually much more sophisticated. He is willing to consider torture, and thinks that people, like him, who are against torture should be honest with themselves that this might be a costly decision. He wrote in Prospect in April 2006.

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Obama and US commander discuss military intervention in Mexico

Obama and US commander discuss military intervention in Mexico: "Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen briefed President Barack Obama over the weekend on the so-called drug war in Mexico and the prospect of increased US military involvement in the conflict south of the border.

Mullen had just returned from a six-day tour of Latin America, which took him on his last and most important stop to Mexico City. There he held meetings with Mexico's secretary of national defense and other top military officials and discussed proposals for rushing increased US aid to Mexico under the auspices of Plan Merida, a three-year, $1.4 billion package designed to provide equipment, training and other assistance to the Mexican armed forces.

In a telephone press conference conducted as he returned from Mexico, Mullen said that the Pentagon was prepared to help the Mexican military employ the same tactics that US forces have applied in counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Downloads in All Major

 

Classical Music at the European Archive. Free and legal lossless downloads of out-of-copyright recordings. Formats include WAV, FLAC, MP3 & Ogg.

Downloads in All Major

Economist Ha-Joon Chang on "The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism"

 

The US government has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the US economy in the wake of the financial crisis. But what steps are being taken to address the crisis on a global scale? The worldwide financial crisis is forcing some to rethink the neoliberal policies widely blamed for the financial collapse. We speak with University of Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang, author of Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism.

Economist Ha-Joon Chang on "The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism"
mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:13:09 GMT

Can Humans Cause Earthquakes and Use Them As Weapons?

Once the topic of arcane science, defense research and conspiracy theories, wider questions emerge on the role humans played in recent earthquakes.

It is rumored that Chinese geologist Geng Qingguo, who reportedly predicted the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, had sent a letter to China's Premier Wen Jiabao predicting the same for Sichuan. Evidently, he had been talking about it for months, years depending on who you read, but to no avail.

Can Humans Cause Earthquakes and Use Them As Weapons? We'll Probably Find Out Soon Enough

Today in The Nation: Reimagining Socialism

Barbara Ehrenreich & Bill Fletcher Jr. The capitalists who have run things so far have forfeited all trust and respect. So what will we do now? A Nation Forum.

• Bill McKibben: Working Together
• Tariq Ali: Capitalism's Deadly Logic

Today in The Nation: Reimagining Socialism

The Iggy We Know

VANCOUVER–Confronted by his first international crisis as the newly-anointed leader of the Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff’s handling of Israel’s 22-day assault on Gaza marked a continuation of the current Liberal-Conservative consensus on Canadian foreign policy in the Middle East and Central Asia

The Iggy We Know

You Probably Have About 150 Real Friends [Social Networks]

 

That's according to anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who found that the average person has five "core" friends, 10 more in immediate circles, and two more acquaintance rings. How does this stack up to your Facebook count? [via]

 

You Probably Have About 150 Real Friends [Social Networks]

Avi Lewis: Canada needs Al Jazeera

 

Al Jazeera English is in the process of seeking Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approval to be carried on Canadian cable TV. It may be a difficult process for the broadcaster that was protested -- and eventually strongly restricted -- when it applied to the regulator in 2004 to broadcast its Arabic channel. Avi Lewis, a former CBC broadcaster who has been working for Al Jazeera English for the past year, describes his experiences with the network and tells rabble.ca's Jenn Watt why it is crucial that North America let Al Jazeera in.
rabble.ca: If you could give me some background on what you're doing with Al Jazeera English.

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America's Unwelcome Advances | Mostly Water

America's Unwelcome Advances

By Chalmers Johnson; Fri August 22, 2008 - Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/08/americas-unwelco...

Imperialism, meaning militarily stronger nations dominating and exploiting weaker ones, has been a prominent feature of the international system for several centuries, but it may be coming to an end. Overwhelming majorities in numerous countries now condemn it—with the possible exception of some observers who believe it promotes "stability" and some United States politicians who still vigorously debate the pros and cons of America's continuing military hegemony over much of the globe.

The Economist: the "least bad" way to deal with drug problem is to legalize them

 

The Economist says legalization is the least harmful drug policy. (But it won't happen, because the criminals don't want it, law enforcement doesn't want it, and the prison systems -- one of the few growth industries remaining in the Great Recession -- don't want it.)

Next week ministers from around the world gather in Vienna to set international drug policy for the next decade. Like first-world-war generals, many will claim that all that is needed is more of the same. In fact the war on drugs has been a disaster, creating failed states in the developing world even as addiction has flourished in the rich world. By any sensible measure, this 100-year struggle has been illiberal, murderous and pointless. That is why The Economist continues to believe that the least bad policy is to legalise drugs.

“Least bad” does

Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution

America's Fiscal Collapse

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, March 2, 2009

"Strong economic medicine" with a "human face"

“Promise amid peril.” The stated priorities of the Obama economic package are health, education, renewable energy, investment in infrastructure and transportation. "Quality education" is at the forefront. Obama has also promised to "make health care more affordable and accessible", for every American.

At first sight, the budget proposal has all the appearances of an expansionary program, a demand oriented "Second New Deal" geared towards creating employment, rebuilding shattered social programs and reviving the real economy.....

In actuality, what we are dealing with is the most drastic curtailment in public spending in American history, leading to social havoc and the potential impoverishment of millions of people.

America's Fiscal Collapse

Truthdig - Reports - It’s Obama’s War Now

By Chris Hedges

This is the text of a talk by Chris Hedges that will be read at anti-war gatherings to be held by The World Can’t Wait in New York’s Union Square, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Nashville, Louisville, Chicago and Berkeley on March 19 to protest the sixth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.

Barack Obama has shown that he is as capable of doublespeak as any other politician when he announced an end to the war in Iraq. Combat troops are to be pulled out of Iraq by August 2010, he said, but some 50,000 occupation troops will remain behind. Someone should let the Iraqis know the distinction.

Truthdig - Reports - It’s Obama’s War Now

"Make Bono Pay Tax"

 

By EAMONN McCANN - February 26, 2009

More than 40 years ago, the Beatles followed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to India in search of a spiritual haven. Three years ago, U2 followed him, in search of a tax haven...Cork-born British television super-star Graham Norton commented at the time: "People like Bono really annoy me. He goes to hell and back to avoid paying tax. He has a special accountant. He works out Irish tax loopholes. And then he's asking me to buy a well for an African village. Tarmac a road or pay for a school, you tight-wad!”

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El Salvador Poised to Become Next Latin American Country to Shift Leftward

 

If the FMLN wins, El Salvador will be joining an ever-growing group of left-leaning government's in Latin America.

El Salvador Poised to Become Next Latin American Country to Shift Leftward