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After Haiti: A conversation with John Perkins
Elizabeth Ferrari
When the earthquake struck Haiti last January, the first person I wanted to hear from was John Perkins. Several years before Naomi Klein coined the phrase “disaster capitalism”, John Perkins’ first person account Confessions of an Economic Hitman described very clearly how US economic interests set about exploiting crises in third world nations in order to gain control of them. I did finally get to speak to John in March, and our conversation ranged from Haiti to US policy in Latin America and the Caribbean, to a recent film that collates material from his books on this topic. Perkins, for readers not familiar with his work, is what is called in Hollywood a “hyphenate”. He doesn’t have one area of expertise that he can call on – he has several if not many of them and can speak to economics, to geopolitics, to culture clashes and compatibilities; in our brief conversation, he moved among these seamlessly, now describing the big picture, now zooming in on fine detail.
Palestinian Political Prisoners
by Stephen Lendman
The numbers vary but range at any time from over 7,000 to 12,000 or more. In April 2008, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel cited 11,000, including 345 children and 98 women. Over 1,000 suffered from chronic or other diseases. Around 150 were seriously ill from heart disease, cancer, and other diseases, and 195 or more Palestinians died or were killed in prison since 1967.
As of January 2009, Adalah said about "22,500 individuals were imprisoned or detained in Israeli prisons; around 70% (or 15,750 are) Arabs." Included are 9,735 Palestinians, nearly 80% classified as "security." Of these, 570 were administrative detainees, uncharged by order of an administrative official, not a judge.
SAMSON AND THE 2ND NAKBA - A SHORT STUDY OF THE JEWISH HERCULES
BY GILAD ATZMON
As much as many of us enjoyed watching the humiliation of Israel and PM Netanyahu in Washington this week, I am reluctant to suggest that the emerging crisis between America and Israel may also be a red light warning for all of us. The current crisis may lead to some devastating consequences as far as Palestine, Iran and the Middle East are concerned.
“Netanyahu and Obama are at a point of no return” claims Haaretz writer Akiva Eldar. “As far as President Barack Obama and his senior advisers are concerned, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to blame for nothing less than damaging the standing of the U.S. in the Middle East and the Muslim world.”
It may be possible that the Americans have started to gather that there is no partner for peace in Israel. America clearly has had to shun its ‘kosher ally’. The American military and political elite already admitted this week that Israel is a strategic burden on the U.S. Seemingly, the only people who genuinely believe in the American Israel strategic bond are AIPAC and its list of obedient ‘Sabbath Congressmen Goyim’. But unfortunately, this is just one side of the story.
US Democracy, Progressivism , and Brand Building
By Joaquin Posted by Michael Collins
Analysts for the political parties create segmentation labels like NASCAR Dads, progressivism, liberal, green, fiscal conservatism, etc for purposes having to do with the party's brand building and marketing campaigns. This process is very similar to that on which Corporate America spends so much time and money. An institution's brand and its knowledge of its customers are the Corporate family jewels. So it is with political parties.
It is important to understand that public labels of marketing segments are, in and of themselves, marketing messages; a kind of voice. It is unlikely that sophisticated political analysts segment their market with these terms; that is a statistical process that involves correlation of reactions to messages. The correlation around the messages enables the analysts to refine the party's voice to a particular segment. It is a sophisticated process that requires a solid knowledge of statistics and modern marketing techniques.
Are Zionists violating Norwegian sovereignty by terrorizing a Palestinian Norwegian citizen in Norway?
Salim Nazzal
Two months ago I wrote an article about the Zionist attempts to intimidate me. I made it clear in the article that if Zionists think they can stop me from writing about the Palestinian rights they will absolutely fail. I made it clear that the state of Israel will not scare me.
I will write and write and Iam ready to die any time for my principles, and ready to do anything and everything in my power to defend my rights as a Palestinian Norwegian writer to express my views through the media.
Getting into Massa's Drawers: Truly Creepy Details about the Congressman
by Greg Palast
For the two weeks before tickle-and-grope charges busted open on him, and before his resignation from Congress, our BBC Television investigations team was hunting for Representative Eric Massa.
We wanted to know what he had hidden in his drawers. Not his knickers, which have captivated America's peep-show media, but Massa's file drawers where he keeps his dirtier secrets.
Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about Massa's creepy little peccadilloes. But I care an awful lot about creeps that quietly backed him.
Massa plays himself as a two-fisted Progressive Democrat, telling the President to jam his fake health care bill where the Rahm don't shine, and he gave the Iraq war his middle finger. I mean, the guy was on Rachel Maddow.
In death row case, Supreme Court came through but Texas remains guilty
Mary Shaw
On March 24, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of execution for Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner. The stay will allow the Court more time to consider Skinner's civil rights claim that he is entitled to DNA testing which he believes will prove his innocence. The news came just one hour before Skinner was to be strapped to the gurney.
While this is certainly a relief, it does nothing to address the underlying fact that the authorities in Texas were ready and eager to execute Skinner without testing the available evidence. Apparently it's not important to them to be absolutely sure that they're killing the right guy.
Had the Supreme Court not intervened, Skinner would probably be dead now. And what if the DNA were later tested and proved that he was indeed innocent? We may be close to Easter, but there's no resurrecting an executed man.
The McCain-Lieberman Police State Act
by Stephen Lendman
If enacted, it will advance what this writer addressed in a December 2007 article titled, "Police State America - A Look Back and Ahead," covering numerous Bush administration laws, Executive Orders (EOs), National and Homeland Security Presidential Directives, edicts, and various illegal acts targeting designated domestic and foreign adversaries, dissent, civil liberties, human rights, and other democratic freedoms.
Straightaway post-9/11, George Bush signed a secret finding empowering the CIA to "Capture, Kill or Interrogate Al-Qaeda Leaders." He also authorized establishing a covert global gulag to detain and interrogate them without guidelines on proper treatment.
"Mommy, Mommy! Why Am I Fat?"
By David Kendall
Malnutrition comes in a delightful assortment of colorful flavors nowadays. But poverty and obesity are a correlation that Americans find hard to swallow.
"Genetics and family history can predict whether you will become obese but then so can your ZIP code," says Adam Drewnowski, world-renowned leader in innovative research approaches for the prevention and treatment of obesity, and Director of the Nutritional Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle. In December of 2003, Drewnowski said, "If poverty and obesity are truly linked, it will be a major challenge to stay poor and thin." [1]
WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO REPAY OUR DEBT TO HAITI
Victor Ramos - President, SOS International Discrimination
Alexander Petion
If liberty is priceless, we will never be able to repay our debt to Haiti. The support of that Caribbean nation for Latin-American emancipation cost her dearly. Almost as much as the price she has paid for her own very existence. A price much, much higher than the earthquake that has now devastated her.
Haiti has been punished and drowned in abject poverty - almost on purpose. And we were accomplices.
This year we celebrate the bicentennial of our independence, and it is important to realize that without the decisive support of the Republic of Haiti, that independence could have not been accomplished. Or at least, not at that time, or in that form.
When Jose de San Martin faced the advance of the Spanish royalists and the conspiracy from Buenos Aires; when Simon Bolivar flew to Jamaica after his defeat in the Venezuelan coasts; when the monarchy of the unscrupulous Fernando VII with its arsenal and army of veterans of the Napoleonic wars devastated Latin America with fire and blood, the luminous figure arose of Alexander Petion, President of Haiti.
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