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Street Report from the G20
Bill Quigley
Snatch teams operating out of unmarked cars.
The G20 in Pittsburgh showed us how pitifully fearful our leaders have become. What no terrorist could do to us, our own leaders did.
Out of fear of the possibility of a terrorist attack, authorities militarize our towns, scare our people away, stop daily life and quash our constitutional rights.
For days, downtown Pittsburgh, home to the G20, was a turned into a militarized people-free ghost town. Sirens screamed day and night. Helicopters crisscrossed the skies. Gunboats sat in the rivers. The skies were defended by Air Force jets. Streets were barricaded by huge cement blocks and fencing. Bridges were closed with National Guard across the entrances. Public transportation was stopped downtown. Amtrak train service was suspended for days. In many areas, there were armed police every 100 feet. Businesses closed. Schools closed. Tens of thousands were unable to work.
When leaders fail
Sayed Dhansay
It has been just over three months since Israel unilaterally declared an end to operation Cast Lead and withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip following its 22 day onslaught there. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), a total of 1,434 people were killed in the operation, approximately 960 of them civilians. Of these, nearly 300 victims were children. This, in addition to the 5000 plus who were injured, and the growing number of deaths due to the ongoing siege.
Other reports have indicated that over 20,000 buildings have been partially or completely destroyed, leaving an estimated one sixth of Gaza ruined and entire neighbourhoods obliterated. The already overburdened and crumbling infrastructure of Gaza is now on the brink of total collapse, exacerbated by the refusal of Israeli and Egyptian authorities to allow construction materials into the besieged territory. --Shocking as these few figures may be, of much greater concern is the manner in which our political leaders responded to this catastrophe as it unfolded.
The U.S. Creeps Closer to a Police State
Shamus Cooke
When word first arrived that the G-20 would be meeting in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, activists began organizing protest demonstrations. Events like this are what freedom of speech is made for. What better occasion to protest than a meeting of the world’s 20 top leaders — most of them deservedly hated — where they will be imposing policy on billions of people worldwide?
The majority of protesters consisted of labor and community groups; they encountered an army of police…literally. The New York Times paints an intimidating picture:
“…the police were out in force, patrolling on bicycles, foot and horseback, by river and by air … protesters trying to march toward the convention center…encountered roaming squads of police officers carrying plastic shields and batons. The police fired a sound cannon (a new weapon) that emitted shrill beeps … then threw tear gas canisters that released clouds of white smoke and stun grenades that exploded with sharp flashes of light.” Rubber bullets were used in a separate incident.
Is the Middle East heading towards the eighth war?
Salim Nazzal
The result which the American envoy George Mitchell in the Middle East has come with was not unexpected by most Arab observers. In the view of the Arab thinker Klofis Maksoud the real aim of Netanyahu is to freeze peace and not settlements. The Israeli rejecting of a temporary freezing of settlements means one thing which Netanyahu emphasized it all the time, Israel will resume the policy of stealing Palestinian land in order to build more settlements for Jews on the land of the future Palestinian state. This obviously contradicts with the international community commitment which links between the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and peace.
Our species is waging war on nonhuman animals and the Earth…
By Jason Miller
“We are members of the most destructive culture ever to exist. Our assault on the natural world, on indigenous and other cultures, on women, on children, on all of us through the possibility of nuclear suicide and other means – all these are unprecedented in their magnitude and ferocity.” - Derrick Jensen
Jensen’s words resonate deeply with me. My allies and I are currently engaged in an intense battle with individuals who embody the destructiveness of our culture as they stubbornly insist upon assaulting a part of the natural world with a “magnitude and ferocity.” Some of the enforcers of our destructive dominant culture (the state and local officials in Johnson County Kansas) are preparing to massacre 300 graceful and innocent whitetail deer in a costly, bloody, unnecessary and insane “culling” of the herd in suburban, family-oriented Shawnee Mission Park. I am opposed to this moral abomination and intellectual idiocy with every fiber of my being. Toward that end, my allies and I are waging a sustained and formidable struggle to stop this impending slaughter.
Enough in Afghanistan!
Mary Shaw
October 7 will mark the eighth anniversary of George W. Bush's invasion of Afghanistan. And what have we accomplished there in those eight years? Nothing to be proud of, really.
Sure, we initially took out the Taliban, who were allegedly providing refuge to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. But that didn't last very long. Bush took his eye off the ball and let bin Laden get away in order to shift gears (and troops) and attack the unarmed nation of Iraq, which had posed no threat to us and which had nothing to do with 9/11.
Goldstone’s Report; A Different Look
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Goldstone’s report, incriminating Israel for war crimes, has been optimistically received by many as a sign of dismantling Israel’s impunity from legal actions for her war crimes and violations of international laws. Yet, at the same time, it is full of political booby-traps that Israel could use to indemnify herself and turn the blame onto Palestinians. Besides equating the Palestinian victims with the genocidal Israeli criminals, and denying them of their moral humanitarian right of self-defense, the report also grossly ignores historical events, distorts reality, and legalizes Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Let us remember, here, that the UN has illegally and immorally created and sponsored the terrorist state of Israel in Palestine; the heart of the Arab World. One should understand that the UN, with all its organizations, was established mainly by WWII victorious Western countries as a tool to serve their interests and to expand their authority on the expense of other weaker and poorer countries.
BRIGHT STAR SHINES / MOVIE REVIEW
Allen L Roland
Ben Whishaw, left, and Abbie Cornish in 'Bright
Star,' about English poet John Keats and his
love for Fanny Brawne
The Movie, Bright Star, not only shines but it illuminates a love so deep that it perfects both partners in their essential being ~ which is what all lovers seek but few have the courage to surrender to:
It was Teilhard de Chardin who wrote ~ "The only right love is between couples whose passion leads them both, one through the other, to a higher possession of their being ". And that is, in essence, the underlying deep love current of Academy Award winner Jane Campion's riveting romantic drama BRIGHT STAR ~ based on the three year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and his neighbor Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' untimely death at age 25.
Keats and Fanny are both literally consumed by a love or soul connection that is deeper than themselves ~ but both unconsciously use it to discover deeper aspects of themselves. Keats's poetry becomes alive and he explores a new depth of feeling, by surrendering to this love, as seen in his Last Sonnet ~
Israel's Ofra Settlement on Unauthorized Palestinian Land
by Stephen Lendman
Israel's 130 West Bank settlements are illegal under international law, including Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that states:
"Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."
In addition, various UN resolutions (including 446, 452 and 465) condemned Israel's settlement building by declaring they have "no legal validity" to exist. Yet they do and continue expanding in reckless disregard of the law.
Muslims Repulse Jewish Attempt to Storm Aqsa
By Khalid Amayreh
Worshipers repulsed an attempt by Jewish extremists to hold Talmudic rituals at al-Haram al-Sharif. (IOL photo)
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM -- Dozens of Palestinians were hurt, two seriously, on Sunday, September 27, when crack Israeli policemen attacked worshipers who had just repulsed an attempt by Jewish extremists to hold Talmudic rituals at al-Haram al-Sharif.
“When the zealots were repulsed rather peacefully, the police became very outraged,” Mahmoud Abu Atta, an eyewitness, told IslamOnline.net. “As many as 70 policemen attacked us indiscriminately, young and old, with full force, using rubber-coated bullets, truncheons, tear gas and even poisonous gas.”
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