October 25, 2009 archive

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

Now with U.S. News.  54 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Baghdad bombs kill 132, government slams neighbors

By Saad Shalash and Waleed Ibrahim, Reuters

2 hrs 3 mins ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Two suicide bombs tore through Baghdad on Sunday, killing 132 people, wounding more than 500 and leaving mangled bodies and cars on the streets in one of Iraq’s deadliest days this year.

The two blasts shredded buildings and smoke billowed from the area near the Tigris River. The first bomb targeted the Justice Ministry and the second, minutes later, was aimed at the nearby provincial government building, police said.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office said that the bombs were meant to sow chaos in Iraq similar to attacks on August 19 against the finance and foreign ministries, and were aimed at stopping an election in January.

Black Newark Fights “Hollywood Mayor” For Water

Crossposted from Fire on the Mountain, where there are some cool grafix I had trouble crossposting…

Wednesday evening, October 21, hundreds of concerned citizens gathered to picket outside the Newark, NJ City Hall and moved the protest into the Council Chambers when the weekly City Council meeting began. Residents were indignant about illegal water terminations that had been going on for months in the city. The massive protest had been organized by a coalition of the People’s Organization for Progress,  the Newark United Tenants Association, the Newark Water Group, the New Black Panther Party, as well as other concerned community organizations and residents.

These water shut-offs were most surprising to tenants who rely on their landlords to pay the water bill. In a substantial number of cases, residents were up to date in rent (which, according to their lease agreements, includes heat and water) and didn’t event know that the landlord hadn’t paid the water bill. Likewise, many residents receiving Section-8 housing subsidies have no way of even knowing if their payments are up-to-date. Their caseworkers send paperwork that result in vouchers to landlords who then get money that the welfare recipient never sees. These transactions take place without any “client” involvement, supposedly protecting the money from being misspent. When these tenants have their water turned off, they are clearly blameless.

On Building an Ideological Left

What is a Left? What is the task of the Left? What does a Left do? And how does it do it?

For a long time now the Left has been forced to play defense. That is apparent most strongly in the Democratic Party the (very) nominal political branch of the Left. The story of Democratic politicians since FDR is a story of staving off the attempts of the Right to destroy the Left….and they have succeeded.

The Right has pushed their agenda of destroying the New Deal and returning to a Wild West economy and Foreign Policy so viciously and hard …and effectively as far as The Middle is concerned that it has taken everything the Left has just to stop them.

Forgotten in all of this are the Principles of the Left. Discarded in the name of defense has been the true advocacy of the Principles of the Left. But most especially, in the decades long defense of the Left…the vision of the Left has fallen by the roadside.

Who is articulating and disseminating a vision of what a True Left, a powerful Left, an effective Left would make the world into? Who is painting a picture of what a country of a world run by true leftist Principles would look like?

Where is that bold vision for Lefty’s to rally around?

NOT framed in terms of electoral politics or government policies per se, (those would grow out of the vision) not framed in opposition to the Right, or opposition to the current Centrist (which as we all know, is basically Right Wing due to that Overton Window thingee) government…

But a vision of the Left framed for the Left’s sake alone?

A statement of how the Left would approach “fixing” the world apart from and not in reference to today’s political battles…

…which at the very very best would get us back to a true Center position of compromising with the Right as equals…instead of on defense as we are now?

Where are the the solutions that the Left would implement to take on the REAL underlying problems that the world faces…not the political problems, but the problems that lie behind the politics.

Where for instance, is a vision of a world where Humans are more important than Corporations?

Where is the story of how an Ideological Left would change the world, if it could?

Where is the narrative of a world “run by” an Ideological Left?

Without a solid ideological base, without a vision to rally around, without something to fight FOR….can the Left ever rise above merely playing defense? Is there one out there?

And/or….how do we create one?

I get distracted by classes, and look what happens to the place.

Geez, I can’t leave you kids alone for even a minute, can I?

Happy Halloween Week . . .

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 As many of you know, I have this, uh, background with and in Japan.  I sort of talk about it here and there, but rarely shout about it.  I did a few weeks ago here, when I notified all that I’ve organized a group trip to Kyoto for this coming April and today, I’m doing it again by telling you about the new post/story I’ve put up on my blog, LetsJapan.Wordpress.Com

 It’s a spooky story of which I speak/blog, to wit Creepy Japan:  Happy Halloween Week:

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 For the unacquainted, you’ll get a little background, a taste, of the bizarre and spooky that goes way back in Japanese history (theater and art, too).  And, if you like, you can see some old and new Uncanny Things I’ve stumbled upon there.

 Enjoy.

 Mu . . .

 

Open Sunday Morning

Sunday Morning

9/11 Redux (Part 3)

Part 3 of Real News Network Paul Jay’s interview of former FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley about the leadup investigations to the September 11, 2001 WTC attacks.

Part 2 of the interview is here.

Part 1 of the interview is here.

Plato’s Cave-You’re In It

Long ago Plato wrote about a cave all the slaves had to live in.  It is the same situation today.  The establishment just does not want people to emerge from the cave.

From several witnesses NASA clearly knows that not only earth but the entire solar system is warming up.  The bottom of the Pacific Ocean is heating up.  The ice cores were indeed sampled for far more things than CO2.  Bacteria have been found inside nuclear reactors.  Unknown machines have been found in ancient ruins and they know about locations on the earth which swallow up both ships and planes without a trace.  How about the anciet city on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Bermuda.  You have been kept in the dark, the cave.

See David Wilcock at Project Camelot.org

Big false protest by media over the exclusion of Fox News?  Bullshit.  How about at least 33 years of blacklisted news topics?  www.projectcensored.org

No, US media, I am not a demented five year old sheeple.  I use your reports only to plan my life around the misery of the day you do bring.  The anti-New World Order sites are at least six months ahead of conventional news but even here none of them warned me about the swine vaccine coming in either nasal spray and mercury shots.  At least I don’t remember seeing it.  Here again finally obsolete American Pravda Press is beginning to cover “Illuminati” topics, Fox News only, the “villified” news network.

Just go to youtube and watch Fall of the Republic.

Does 2012 mean the end of the world?  No, it means the beginning.  We get to evolve into something even Rush Limbaugh will feel the love of and move on.  We get to be like X-men, all of us.  

The Kingdom of God lies within.

Look in the mirror, you are the messiah.

Breaking….

An archeological team, digging in Washington DC , has uncovered 10,000 year old bones and fossil remains of what is believed to be the first politician.

Politicians head up

Docudharma Times Sunday October 25




Sunday’s Headlines:

Swine Flu Is Widespread in 46 States as Vaccines Lag

Ever-Present Surveillance Rankles the British Public

Senate’s climate bill a bit more ambitious

White House confronts the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Radovan Karadzic enters the dock in last act of Balkan wars

The week the Iron Curtain began to be torn apart

Pakistani soldiers take Taliban stronghold

Japan, Australia ‘Test’ Asean With Economic Plans

UN inspectors arrive in Iran to visit secret nuclear plant

Logging in Kenya forest feeds deadly drought

Fleeing drought in the Horn of Africa

Saving Colombia’s Corporal Pablo from Farc: a father’s epic struggle

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

Attention!!!!!!

I love everyone.

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