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In Praise of Hemp
Jim Prues
Photo of hemp, credit: Hendrike Creative Commons 2.5 license.
Hemp is the common name for cannabis, the first plant cultivated by humanity as we crept from being Neolithic to becoming Agrarian. Likely this was due to a few reasons. First, hemp is an extremely versatile plant, with leaves, seeds and stalks all capable of creating useful products. Second, it’s particularly easy to grow, needing little in the way of fertilizer or pest control. And finally, hemp is native to many parts of the world, particularly The Fertile Crescent, where some of the first agriculture happened early in our civilization.
Hemp use predates the Agrarian Age, as hemp fibers have been found in pottery in China and Taiwan dating to 7,000 years ago. The classical Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 480 BC) reported that the inhabitants of Scythia would often inhale the vapours of hemp smoke, both as ritual and for their own pleasurable recreation. So presumably the Scythians were the first recorded stoners.
Venezuela Votes
by Stephen Lendman
On September 26, Venezuelans again voted, the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (VSC - vicuk.org) saying to elect members to the 165-seat National Assembly. It happens every five years, and it's the 16th national election or referendum since Chavez's 1998 victory, taking office as President for first time on February 2, 1999.
Bolivarianism is always at stake, represented by his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). They were pitted against the opposition's Table for Democratic Unity (MUD), an alliance hoping to deny Chavez a two-thirds super-majority. It was PSUV's goal, campaign head Aristobulo Isrutiz saying pre-election:
LIVING ON THE EDGE OF POVERTY
Allen L Roland
Poverty in the U.S. today has many faces. For a homeless man on the streets of Los Angeles, it means not knowing where he will spend the night or where his next meal will come from. For a child in rural Alabama, it means going without breakfast and wearing tattered hand-me-down clothes. For millions of seniors, living from one social security check to the next, it means living on the edge of poverty.
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In 2009, 4 million people fell into poverty which brings the total to over 43 million. Nearly 44 million Americans ~ one in seven ~ lived last year in homes in which the income was below the poverty level ~ and it's getting worse.
Living on the edge of poverty is a far to common experience, particularly for seniors . In 2010, many seniors, including myself, are fed up with an Obama administration who evidently still feels that a top-down stimulus for Wall Street will eventually reach a down and out Main Street.
On Gaza and Chutzpah
Gilad Atzmon
The UN probe into the Israeli massacre in high seas concluded yesterday that Israeli forces violated international law and showed ‘incredible violence’ when they raided a flotilla attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. The UN fact finding mission also argues that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as ‘brutal and disproportionate.’
According to the UN probe, there is "clear evidence to support prosecutions" against Israel for "willfull killing" and “torture”.
One would expect that after a publication of such a harsh report, Israel would self reflect, repent and vow to change its attitude toward international law and humanism in general.
Big Brother terrorizes more activists
Mary Shaw
It's like McCarthyism all over again.
On September 24, FBI agents raided the homes of some anti-war activists in Chicago and Minneapolis on suspicion that they were providing material support to terrorism.
This follows only a few weeks after it was discovered that Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security had been spying on activist groups in the Keystone State.
The Chicago Tribune quotes one of the harassed activists in Minnesota as calling the searches "an outrageous fishing expedition."
Bombs over Khartoum
Savo Heleta
The notion of South Sudanese airplanes bombing Khartoum could make the regime of Omar al Bashir think twice before sending forces and planes to destroy the south and its population in the aftermath of the 2011 referendum on self-determination.
For decades, the people in South Sudan have suffered cruel attacks and ruthless terror at the hands of their northern countrymen. During this time, the world ignored Khartoum’s numerous genocidal campaigns and unthinkable discrimination and brutality. No one ever came to the rescue of the southerners.
On DADT repeal, 2 steps forward, 2 or 3 steps back
Mary Shaw
There have been some interesting developments lately for gay men and lesbians who bravely want to serve this nation in the military. Sadly, some of the developments were not encouraging.
On September 21, Senate Republicans blocked a defense bill that included a conditional repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy. Even though the repeal would have been dependent on the completion of a Defense Department study and subsequent certification that it would not harm military effectiveness, the Republicans wouldn't even let the bill come to the floor for a debate.
The measure had already passed in the House and in the Senate Armed Services Committee. But that apparently made no difference.
Reaction to Aafia Siddiqui's Sentencing
by Stephen Lendman
On September 23, the FBI headlined, "Aafia Siddiqui Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 86 Years for Attempting to Murder US Nationals in Afghanistan and Six Additional Crimes." More on its press release below.
No matter that she's completely innocent, and has been a US political prisoner since her March 30, 2003 abduction, incarceration, torture, prosecution, and conviction on bogus charges. Her case is one of America's most egregious examples of horrific abuse and injustice, climaxed by her virtual life sentence for an alleged crime she never committed.
Yet she was convicted for these claimed felonies:
A defense which deserves being called "holy"
Kourosh Ziabari
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Nixon
Almost 20 years have passed since the conclusion of 20th century's longest, most erosive war which was brutally imposed on the defenseless people of Iran by a belligerent and aggressive dictator who was finally pushed to death by the same people who had once persuaded, funded, aided and supported him in attacking and invading the new-born Iran of post-revolution days.
The expansionistic ambitions of the beloved puppet of the White House who was granted the honorary citizenship of Detroit as a reward for his unconditional subservience to the United States, transpired to be a deadly pandemic which claimed the lives of more than 400,000 innocent Iranians who witnessed the most breathtaking years the country had experienced contemporarily.
With the intention of revitalizing the forgotten pan-Arabist sentiments of the 1950s, confronting an emerging Shiite power in the Persian Gulf region and taking over some of the strategic parts of Iran including the Arab-speaking province of Khuzestan and the triple islands of Abu Musa, Lesser Tunb and Greater Tunb which were handed over to Iran 9 years earlier in a trilateral agreement between Iran, the protectorate of Ras Al-Khaimah and the representatives of British forces in the Persian Gulf, Saddam Hussein unilaterally nullified the 1975 Algiers Agreement in 1980 and attacked Iran.
Turkey : beware of the Israeli snake
by Khalid Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem
Martyrs of the Freedom Flotilla
It is crystal clear that Israel, the arrogant, fanatical and belligerent Jewish state is trying hard to undermine Turkey. Israel feels that its hegemony in the Middle East is being challenged by Turkish efforts to reassert the country's national interests by enhancing relations with Islamic neighbors and also by courageously opposing Israeli ethnic cleansing and other manifestly criminal policies against the Palestinians.
In recent days and weeks, Israel has been quite furious about the recent referendum in Turkey which granted the government additional powers to assert real democracy and prevent the recurrence of military coups.
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