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North American Perimeter Security and the Militarization of the Northern Border
By Dana Gabriel
With the release of a U.S. Congressional report that found only a small fraction of the border with Canada was being adequately monitored, there is now more focus being placed on the northern border. As a result of increased scrutiny, there are efforts to militarize and expand surveillance on the Canada-U.S. border. The new found attention is also attributed to a proposed trade and security perimeter agreement between the two countries which promotes a shared approach to border management.
A report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in February of this year, found that a substantial portion of the northern border lacked any effective monitoring and surveillance. It concluded that only 32 of the 4,000-mile border was under operational control. The findings were largely based on failures to better coordinate border cooperation and information sharing among the various agencies. A Press Release by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security stated that according to the study, “the risk of terrorist activity across the northern border is higher than across the southern border because there are active Islamist extremist groups in Canada that are not in Mexico, it is easier to cross the northern border because it is twice as long as the southern border, and DHS has a fraction of the law enforcement officers and surveillance assets on the northern border than it has in the south.” It went on to say, “The border with Canada is also dotted with large population centers and criss-crossed by numerous highways and roads, making it harder to detect illegal activities amid the large volume of legitimate trade and travel between Canada and the U.S. that is so important to both countries.”
Questions We Should Be Asking
By Timothy V. Gatto
Many things are vying for our attention. Our fiscal health is in critical condition. Bernanke went on TV today and had a press conference. In back of him was the Department of the Federal Reserve flag as if the Federal Reserve was actually part of the Federal government instead of a private group of bankers that are allowed to print U.S. currency and loan it to the Federal government at interest.
I don’t want to shake anyone’s tree, but what’s with Bahrain? Isn’t that where we moor our 5th Fleet? Why are we supporting a monarchy that is arresting people, torturing them and then killing them? Besides turning a blind eye to what’s going on there we gave Saudi Arabia (a recipient of US military aid) a nod and a wink so they sent their army to fight the protestors (which aren’t fighting back, by the way) alongside the Bahrain Police and the Bahrain Defense Forces. (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/liberalpro.rss)
What really ticks me off is the lame stream media that hardly mentions what is happening in that country. Isn’t that enough proof to make some of you believe that our news is censored? Some that do report on the developments in Bahrain say it’s an ethnic struggle which is hogwash, both Sunni’s And Shia are protesting.
WHY I am a Citizen of Conscience for U.S. House of Representative for 2012
Eileen Fleming
Eileen Fleming at THE WALL in
Bethlehem, Photo by Meir Vanunu
[Florida]--I am looking for a District in Florida to represent in the US House of Representative, because I believe the well being of every resident in Florida is connected to the well being of every American.
The well being of every American is connected to the well being of every human being and every form of life on our planet.
One must not just act locally and think globally, for to whom much is given, much more is required:
Citizen of CONSCIENCE for House of Representatives 2012 - Video
In his manifesto from Birmingham Jail, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. directly challenged his "fellow clergymen."
I have taken a few liberties with King's masterpiece, added a few words of mine in bold and offer it as the seeds for:
GILAD ATZMON: TIME IS RIPE FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT
GILAD ATZMON
It is slightly embarrassing for me to admit that sometime Zionists are actually well ahead of our favourite intellectuals in understanding the depth of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It is not that they are more clever, they are just free to explore the conflict without being subject to the tyranny of ‘political correctness’, also being proud nationalist Jews- they do not need the approval of the Jewish left thought police.
I have recently come across a short Haaretz article by Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua*.
Yehoshua is a proud Zionist, He believes in the right of his people to dwell on Palestinian land. He is also convinced that the Jewish state is the true meaning of contemporary Jewish life. I guess that Yehoshua loves himself almost as much as I despise everything he stands for and yet, I have to confess, he seems to grasp the depth of the Israeli Palestinian conflict’s parameters slightly better than most solidarity activists I can think of.
So how’s the Food Patriot Act working out so far?
By Rady Ananda
Another armed food raid – this time on a company that provides nutritional supplements primarily for autism spectrum disorders and Alzheimer's disease – another day under the Food Safety Modernization Act. As predicted, the FSMA is turning out to be a deliberate plan to wipe out small (under a million dollars a year in sales) and medium-sized (under $10 million a year) producers of natural, wholesome food and supplements. This is what happens when corporations run governments. [Image]
The concept of “food safety” in corpogov-speak is really just food fascism, according to Vandana Shiva:
“Risk Assessment in the hands of centralized corruptible agencies is no protection for consumers as the disease and health epidemic in the U.S. linked to over processed, industrial foods show. Even while the U.S. is at the epicenter of the food related public health crises, the U.S. government is trying to export its Food laws which deregulate the industry and over regulate ordinary citizens and small enterprise. This deregulation of the big and toxic and over regulation of the small and ecological is at the core of Food Fascism.” [emphasis added]
Israel's Lawless Arrest of Ahmad Qatamish
by Stephen Lendman
On April 21, the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association expressed grave concern about Qatamish's arrest:
"not only because (it's) motivated by his political opinions and beliefs and as such should be considered a case of arbitrary detention, but also because (he's) been (targeted by) Israeli authorities before on numerous occasions, notably" for long incarcerations without charge.
Cheney Was Right About One Thing: Deficits Don’t Matter
Ellen Brown
“Deficit terrorists” are gutting governments and forcing the privatization of public assets, all in the name of “deficit reduction.” But deficits aren’t actually a bad thing. In today’s monetary scheme, in which most money comes from debt, debt and deficits are actually necessary to have a stable money supply. The public debt is the people’s money.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney famously said, "Deficits don't matter." A staunch Republican, he was arguing against raising taxes on the rich; but today Republicans seem to have forgotten this maxim. They are bent on stripping social programs, privatizing public assets, and gutting unions, all in the name of "deficit reduction."
Lies, Damn Lies, and Misreporting about Gitmo Detainees
by Stephen Lendman
Post-9/11, The New York Times became the lead misreporting source about Guantanamo detainees, largely characterizing them as dangerous terrorists threatening US security.
For example, on July 25, 2007, (like its many other reports) William Glaberson headlined, "New US study calls Guantanamo captives dangerous," saying:
A new Pentagon study "argues that large numbers of detainees were a direct threat to United States forces, including Al Qaeda fighters, terrorism-training camp veterans and men who had experience with explosives, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades."
American Hellholes
by Michael T. Snyder
The U.S. economy is dying and we are heading for the next Great Depression. The talking heads in the mainstream media love to spin the economic numbers around and around and they love to make it sound like the economy is improving, but the truth is that it doesn't take a genius to see what is happening to the U.S. economic system. All over the nation many of our greatest cities are being slowly but surely transformed into post-apocalyptic wastelands.
All over the mid-Atlantic, all along the Gulf coast, all throughout the "rust belt" and all over the entire state of California cities that once had incredibly vibrant economies are being turned into rotting, post-industrial hellholes. In many U.S. cities, the "real" rate of unemployment is over 30 percent. There are some communities that will start depressing you almost the moment that you drive into them. It is almost as if all of the hope has been sucked right out of those communities. If you live in one of those American hellholes you know what I am talking about. Sadly, it is not just a few cities that are becoming hellholes. This is happening in the east, in the west, in the north and in the south. America is literally being transformed right in front of our eyes.
Capitalism and Class Struggle
James Petras
Introduction
The class struggle continues to play a central role in the process of capitalist accumulation, albeit it takes different forms depending on the socio-economic context. In order to map out the unfolding of the class struggle it is necessary to specify key concepts related to the (a) varied conditions and dominant sectors of capital in the global economy (b) nature of the class struggle (c) the principle protagonists of class struggles (d) character of the demands (e) mass struggles.
Capitalist accumulation is unfolding in a very uneven pattern with important consequences for the nature and intensity of the class struggle. Moreover, the particular responses by workers and especially the capitalist state to the general condition of the economy has shaped the degree to which class struggle intensifies and which of the two major “poles’ (capital or labor) has taken the offensive.
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