[LAAMN] Empire As a Way of Life Course ~ Alliance For Global Justice's Online Activist School ~ Taught by SUNY Professor Emeritus John Marciano ~ The Five Week Course Runs from January 13th - February

2011-11-17 Thread Frank Dorrel 
Alliance For Global Justice's Online Activist School

  "Empire as a Way of Life"

 

Taught by SUNY Professor Emeritus John Marciano

 

The Five Week Course Runs from January 13th - February 17th.

 

This course is a critical analysis of the U.S. Empire and the imperialism
and militarism that are its lifeblood. Historian William Appleman Williams
asserts empire is "a way of life [that] defines the . character of a culture
and society." U.S. citizens believe they have a "manifest destiny" to impose
their political and economic policies upon others. 

 

For more information click here.   

 

SUNY Professor Emeritus John Marciano has been an activist, scholar and
teacher in the antiwar/social justice movement for more than four decades,
commencing as a graduate student at SUNY Buffalo where he was a founding
member of SDS at that campus. Since 2004, he has taught community courses
for adults in Santa Monica on Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United
States and Empire as a Way of Life, based on the work of William Appleman
Williams. Click here to register now!
 

 

Early Bird Discount for Online Courses!

 

The course is part of the Alliance for Global Justice's Online Activist
School. The five week course runs from Jan. 13 - Feb. 17. If you register
before Dec. 1, you will get a 20% discounted registration price of $200
(regular $250). Successful completion of the course will earn you an
official "Letter of Completion."  Our courses are designed to turn beginners
into activists, activists into organizers and to help seasoned organizers
develop new skills and areas of expertise. You will find our courses
invaluable at whatever level you are starting, so sign up today!

 

Other courses offered this term are:

 

Community Defense Media 101 (Policing the Police)
 

Strategic Research on US Militarism for Activist Campaigns
 

US Policy Towards Latin America: From Drug Wars to Banana Wars
 

 

For more information, click on the course title.

Alliance for Global Justice: http://AFGJ.org

John Marciano: johnmarci...@mac.com 



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[LAAMN] GOOD READ. The Stones Cry Out: The Power of the Occupation in the City Square

2011-11-17 Thread Romi Elnagar 
The Stones Cry Out: The Power of the Occupation in the City Square
Dan La Botz   November 4, 2011

 
And some of the Pharisees among the multitude said 
unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto 
them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones 
would immediately cry out. —Luke 19:39-40
 Where does the tremendous power of the occupation of city 
spaces, particularly the square, come from? The occupation of Tahrir 
Square in Cairo brought down the Mubarak dictatorship, the indignados in 
assembly in the plazas shook the Spanish authorities, and Occupy 
Wall Street and its offspring across the United States have frightened 
city and state governments setting off a wave of police repression and 
state violence. The pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 
Beijing in 1989 led the Chinese Communist Party to send in the army, 
killing hundreds, perhaps thousands. What is the threat and what is the 
power inherent in the occupation of city spaces? 
 After all, these are not the seizures of government buildings 
and banks, bridges and railroad stations that we associate with the coups 
d’état, Putsches and revolutions in Italy, Germany, and Russia of the 
nineteenth and 
twentieth centuries. These are not the factory occupations of the 1930s 
that in France and the United States paralyzed production and threatened the 
manufacture of profit. True enough: the recent occupations in Egypt were often 
preceded and accompanied by large strikes and other social 
protests. Granted: the occupation of the heart of a city wreaks havoc 
with administration and commerce, and affects the daily life of 
millions. Conceded: the mass media’s and the social media’s publicity of these 
events has projected them across the nation and around the world, a political 
leveraging that magnifies their impact. Yet any or all of 
these explanations—the accompanying strikes, the disruption of the big 
cities, and the media impact—fail to provide a compelling explanation 
for the power of the occupation. There is something more here, something deeper.
 We might find more convincing the idea that these occupations 
are symbolic acts that challenge the dominant economic ideology and 
delegitimize the state. By taking the city space, the challengers speak 
truth to power. The occupiers tug at the thread of economic and 
political authority, until at times it seems as if the whole cloth might simply 
unravel. The occupation appears as the suggestion of the great 
upheaval from below, as the token and the harbinger of social and 
political revolution. While only symbolic, the occupation suggests both a real 
struggle for power and an alternative society. 
 Yet, there is more than symbolism here. The occupation is a 
powerful myth and a social fact. The occupiers, the expectant public, 
and the threatened authorities all experience the occupation of city 
space as either an exhilarating manifestation of power, a gut-wrenching 
shaking of the routines of normal life, or as a menacing threat to the 
established order of wealth and political power. In the big cities, 
where the occupation takes on a mass character, students, professionals 
and workers occupy together; urban cosmopolitanism rubs elbows with 
plebeian radicalism. But through the day and especially at night, and 
more so at night in the smaller towns, the occupation has the character 
of a post-modern, urban millenarianism. 
 “We will not live this way anymore. We can live differently. We 
seek deliverance. We seek the better life.” People have gathered in the 
cities, their numbers relatively small compared to the size of the city 
as a whole, miniscule compared to the size of the nation—yet they shake 
the foundations of the state. Though their ostensible political aims are 
reformist, their belief that the system has failed and their desire for 
deliverance from it, give the movement a revolutionary character. The 
middle class and workers, the poor and the homeless join in the city 
space in an embrace of the movement’s egalitarianism. And what is more 
revolutionary than the idea of equality? The people stand together 
saying: “We are equal. Each has voice. We have a common voice. We have 
found our voice. We are showing a new way to live.” 
 We are witnessing something that goes beyond the symbolic, 
something that both threatens the deep foundations of our social 
structure and, equally important—no, more important— something that 
touches our deepest spiritual yearnings. The occupation is utopian in 
the best sense. Whatever its political program, its practice says: “We 
will no longer live in hatred and competition. We will live in love and 
community.” And, of course, that would mean turning everything upside 
down. That is why the occupation frightens and angers the bankers, the 
CEOs, the politicians and the generals. It says we no longer need your 
system. We need you no more. We might write of the

[LAAMN] SEXUAL RIGHTS AND GENDER JUSTICE ON TAP FOR NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE

2011-11-17 Thread thandisizwe chimurenga 
*
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*



*November 18, 2011**
*



* U.S. Human Rights Network Holds National Conference in Los Angeles*



*Contacts:*

*Serena Garcia, 404.756.2680
*

*ser...@sistersong.net *

*Kali Akuno, 510.593.3956*

*kak...@ushrnetwork.org   *

*
*

*Group affirms that “sexual rights” are human rights*



*Atlanta**, **GA** – *The United States Human Rights Network (USHRN), an
Atlanta-based coalition of more than 300 organizations from around the
country, will hold its National Conference and Membership Meeting in Los
Angeles during “Human Rights Weekend,” Dec. 9-11, 2011, at the Radisson
Hotel at LAX, 6225 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles 90045.  As part of its
agenda the Network plans to provide space for critical discussions in the
areas of gender and sexuality via workshops coordinated through its Sexual
Rights and Gender Justice Working Group.



According to Serena Garcia, chair of the Working Group, among its many
purposes are to “meaningfully and consistently integrate sexual rights and
gender justice into the broader agenda of the domestic human rights
movement in the United States; to increase the membership and participation
of groups working on gender justice and sexual rights within the US Human
Rights Network;  and to develop the capacity of LGBT, reproductive justice,
sexual freedom, sex worker and other groups/activists to effectively use
human rights language, standards and strategies in their domestic advocacy
and organizing.”



Kali Akuno, the interim co-director of the Network, states that, “the work
of extending the notion of rights and protections for women and expanding
the notion of gender and sexuality is crucial, and its part of the ongoing
work to define who is human, who is deserving of human rights.”



“The US Human Rights Network sees this front of struggle as being one of
the primary fronts on the immediate horizon, which is why we're giving it
priority in our work,” Akuno said.  “We see it as requiring long-term,
systemic change, long-term cultural change, not just a few policy changes
here and there.”



Originally scheduled for its headquarters of Atlanta, the group decided in
August to move its biannual conference out of Georgia due to passage of
that state’s controversial anti-immigration bill, HB 87.  Similar to
Arizona’s SB 1070, HB 87 would criminalize Georgians who interact with
undocumented individuals; authorize police to demand “papers” demonstrating
citizenship or immigration status during routine encounters; and deny
individuals without specific identification access to state facilities and
services. The change of conference location is in support of a general
economic boycott of the state and in accordance with the organization’s
principles.





*The primary goal of the **United States** Human Rights Network is to
increase the visibility of the **US** human rights movement and link
U.S.-based human rights activists with the global human rights movement. **
**  **Some of the Network’s core Principles of Unity are: **Human Rights
are interdependent, inalienable and universal; they include Civil,
Political, Economic, Social, Cultural, Environmental and Sexual Rights; and
they are protected through building social movements. For more information
on the **US** Human Rights Network and its activities, please visit
www.ushrnetwork.org.*



*###*
*


*


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[LAAMN] Look at the mess.....

2011-11-17 Thread scotpeden 
toon of the day

http://www.creators.com/modules/thumb/thumb.php?img=editorial_cartoons/1/21471_image.gif&w=624





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[LAAMN] Mayors, police chiefs, talk strategy on protests

2011-11-17 Thread scotpeden 

A message from the Masters, obviously.


Why would they need strategy against the people they are suppose to govern
for, unless they work for someone other then us? Why aren't they doing
their strategy discussions with the Cities Maintenance and Sanitation
departments, if their issue is with sanitation?

I note that in a Representative Democracy the Government is suppose to
operate for the majority of the citizenry.

Is it not obvious that it is no longer a Representative Democracy when
from Federal to city level, OUR so called GOVERNMENT is talking strategy
AGAINST the 99%, and the police, at the behest of the Mayors of each city 
are the instigators of violence against those who have assembled for
peaceful protest. There is NO LAW in our constitution about how many of us
may assemble, where we can assemble, or if we ever have to disperse.

There are a few cities that do not have violent assaults by the police on
the citizenry, like in Seattle, where the government worked to handle
sanitation troubles amongst others and talked WITH the protestors in some
manner that was non violent, but the press never touts democracy working,
only fascism.

So, this makes it obvious, they operate for the 1%, more like the top.04%.

That leaves the question, who do you work for, the people of the USA, or
are you a willing supporter defender of the top .04%? If you think that is
an unusual question, think about it, your purchasing habits fund either
your local community or the top .04% of the wealthiest people in the
world, and only a few of them lives in the USA.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_19341771

Mayors, police chiefs talk strategy on protests
By NIGEL DUARA Associated Press
Posted: 11/15/2011 03:11:09 PM PST
Updated: 11/15/2011 03:19:23 PM PST

PORTLAND, Ore.—Don't set a midnight deadline to evict Occupy Wall Street
protesters—it will only give a crowd of demonstrators time to form. Don't
set ultimatums because it will encourage violent protesters to break it.
Fence off the parks after an eviction so protesters can't reoccupy it.

As concerns over safety and sanitation grew at the encampments over the
last month, officials from nearly 40 cities turned to each other on
conference calls, sharing what worked and what hasn't as they grappled
with the leaderless movement.







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[LAAMN] Egypt's Communist Party to Boycott Parliamentary Elections

2011-11-17 Thread Cort Greene 
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3139/egypts-communist-party-to-boycott-parliamentary-el

Egypt's Communist Party to Boycott Parliamentary
Elections
0
Nov
17 2011 by Ahram Online 
[image: Listen to this page using
ReadSpeaker]
 [image: [Members of Egyptian Communist Party in Tahrir Square. Image from
Wikimedia Commons]] [Members of Egyptian Communist Party in Tahrir Square.
Image from Wikimedia Commons]

*Party statement attributes its decision to the affect that the ruling
military council and Islamic forces have had on political and security
conditions in Egypt.*

The Egyptian Communist Party has announced they will be boycotting
parliamentary elections due on 28 November. The Communists Party is also
calling on other parties and political forces to do likewise, asking them
to prioritise the transitional period in order "to save the revolution."

The committtee said in a statment published earlier today that their stand
is a result of "the country's current state of ambiguity and confusion that
came as a result of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces [SCAF] and
Islamic currents wrongly prioritising during the transitional period."

They added that holding elections under the Emergency Law and amid the
current lack of security, and without a treason law to prevent members of
the former regime from running, will have catastrophic effects on the
revolution and the nation. They also warned that this "could lead to
incomplete elections, therefore leaving the country in a state of utter
chaos."

"Even if the elections are complete, they will most likely bring about a
parliament with a former regime and anti-revolutionary majority," read the
statment.

The committee added in its statment that the correct route for this
transitional period is for the interim government to be replaced with one
agreed upon by both revolutionary forces and the general public. This new
transitional government will be responsible for protecting citizens from
elements of chaos and coercement, ridding state institutions of
counter-revolutionary forces and elements of corruption, drafting a new
constitution, and organising parliamentary and presidential. These
responsibilities, says the Communist Party, should be met over a period of
six to eight months.

Candidate registration for Egypt’s parliamentary elections began Wednesday,
12 October. It will be the first general election for the People's Assembly
(the lower house of Parliament) since the 18-day uprising and the
subsequent ouster of president Hosni Mubarak on 11 February.

The registration window will be open for seven days from Wednesday, with
most political forces deciding to participate rather than boycott the
process.

*
[Developed in partnership between Jadaliyya and Ahram Online"]*
E-mail 
Print
[image:
Bookmark and 
Share]
 Recent Posts by Ahram Online

For all posts by Ahram Online, visit their *Personal
Page*
.

   - [image: [Members of Egyptian Communist Party in Tahrir Square. Image
   from Wikimedia Commons]] Liberals and Leftists Say Islamists Bribed Poor
   People with Meat to Get Votes Over
Eid


   - Final Court Decision: Mubarak's Party to Compete in Egypt's Coming
   
Elections

 Egypt Elections Watch: Use with
Caution
0
Nov
16 2011 by Jadaliyya Egypt Editors

[image: Listen to this page using
ReadSpeaker]
 [image: [Egypt's Elections Summary Chart. Image from unknown
archive]] [Egypt's
Elections Summary Chart. Image from unknown archive]

In a context in which emergency law, military trials of civilians, official
bans on workers strikes and demonstrations, state use of violence against
peaceful protesters, and frequent detention of political dissidents are all
prevalent,

[LAAMN] Fw: GP RELEASE Six Green mayors sign letter from over 100 mayors opposing Keystone XL pipeline

2011-11-17 Thread Romi Elnagar 



GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, November 17, 2011

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614,
mcla...@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starl...@gp.org


Six Green mayors sign on to letter from over 100 mayors opposing
Keystone XL tar sands pipeline

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on
energy policy http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-energy.php

• Green Party Election Results for November 2011
Green Party Watch
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2011/11/09/green-party-election-results-november-2011
Election Results Feed http://www.gp.org/elections/results-2011.php


WASHINGTON, DC -- Six Green mayors have signed on to a joint letter to
President Obama from more than 100 mayors expressing grave concerns
about the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

The mayors, representing communities across the US, voiced relief at
President Obama's decision to postpone the decision, as well as hope
that the permit for the pipeline will be rejected when it comes up for
review after the presidential election.

A summary of the letter, a link to the text, and a list of the mayors
can be found online here:
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/sclefkowitz/over_100_mayors_voice_concern.html

The Green mayors who signed the letter are Larry Bragman (Fairfax,
Calif.), Bruce Delgado (Marina, Calif.), David Doonan (Greenwich, NY),
Gayle McLaughlin (Richmond, Calif.), Jim Sullivan (Victory, NY), and
Jason West (New Paltz, NY).  (Mayor Bragman signed after the web site
was published.)

"The delay in the Keystone XL decision is a victory for all those who
protested and spoke out about the dangers of the pipeline," said David
Doonan.  "The small number of jobs created by the pipeline do not
justify the health risks of a pipeline carrying tar sands crude oil
from Canada to the Gulf.  We can create far more jobs through a
national public works program that includes conversion to safe, clean
energy technology.  Besides the Keystone XL pipeline, the Green Party
has called for a ban on hydrofracking, mountaintop removal mining, and
offshore oil drilling, all of which increase fossil fuel addiction and
represent serious public health risks."

Richmond, with a population of about 103,000, is the largest US city
with a Green mayor.  Mayor Gayle McLaughlin made news recently when
she enthusiastically welcomed Occupy protests to Richmond
(http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2011/11/09/one-bay-area-mayor-welcomes-occupy-protests-to-her-city).

Mayor Jason West made national news in 2003 when he solemnized
same-sex weddings as mayor in defiance of state law, drawing 19
misdemeanor counts (later dismissed) and a restraining order.
Same-sex marriage was legalized in New York in July, 2011.

See also:

Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks
National Resources Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/tarsandssafetyrisks.asp

"Beyond Fossil Fuels"
By Cecile Lawrence, PhD, JD, New York Green Party candidate for US
Senate in 2010
Green Papers, January 25, 2011
http://www.greenpapers.net/?p=58


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Ballot Access Page http://www.gp.org/ballotstatus
• Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• Video Page http://www.gp.org/video/index.php
• Green Papers http://www.greenpapers.net

Press conferences, forums, and other events at the Green Party's 2011
Annual National Meeting in Alfred, NY, broadcast and archived on the
Green Party's Livestream Channel
http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
• 2011 Annual National Meeting http://nygreenfest.org

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States (Summer 2011 issue now online)
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


~ END ~

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[LAAMN] Eve Ensler: Over It, Gail Collins: Something to Shoot For

2011-11-17 Thread Ed Pearl 
Hi.  Tune in to KPFK or other Pacifica stationss to get coverage of today's
nation-wide protest activities. Both of today's essays are among the issues
discussed not only at the occupations, but I don't know of any specific
action happening around them,  -Ed 
 
 From: Romi Elnagar
 
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=141308
  

Over It 

 
  Eve EnslerTony award winning
playwright, performer and activist 

  Eve Ensler

Huffington Post: 11/11/11 
 I am over rape. 

I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.

I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real
names without shame.

I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom
of speech or justifying it as a joke.

I am over people not understanding that rape is not a joke and I am over
being told I don't have a sense of humor, and women don't have a sense of
humor, when most women I know (and I know a lot) are really fucking funny.
We just don't think that uninvited penises up our anus, or our vagina is a
laugh riot.

I am over how long it seems to take anyone to ever respond to rape.

I am over Facebook taking weeks to take down rape pages.

I am over the hundreds of thousands of women in Congo still waiting for the
rapes to end and the rapists to be held accountable.

I am over the thousands of women in Bosnia, Burma, Pakistan, South Africa,
Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Afghanistan, Libya, you name a place, still
waiting for justice.

I am over rape happening in broad daylight.

I am over the 207 clinics in Ecuador supported by the government that are
capturing, raping, and torturing lesbians to make them straight.

I am over one in three women in the U.S military (Happy Veterans Day!)
getting raped by their so-called "comrades."

I am over the forces that deny women who have been raped the right to have
an abortion.

I am over the fact that after four women came forward with allegations that
Herman Cain groped them and grabbed them and humiliated them, he is still
running for the President of the United States.

And I'm over CNBC debate host Maria Bartiromo getting booed when she asked
him about it. She was booed, not Herman Cain.

Which reminds me, I am so over the students at Penn State who protested the
justice system instead of the alleged rapist pedophile of at least 8 boys,
or his boss Joe Paterno, who did nothing to protect those children after
knowing what was happening to them.

I am over rape victims becoming re-raped when they go public.

I am over starving Somalian women being raped at the Dadaab refugee camp in
Kenya, and I am over women getting raped at Occupy Wall Street and being
quiet about it because they were protecting a movement which is fighting to
end the pillaging and raping of the economy and the earth, as if the rape of
their bodies was something separate.

I am over women still being silent about rape, because they are made to
believe it's their fault or they did something to make it happen.

I am over violence against women not being a #1 international priority when
one out of three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime -- the
destruction and muting and undermining of women is the destruction of life
itself.

No women, no future, duh.

I am over this rape culture where the privileged with political and physical
and economic might, take what and who they want, when they want it, as much
as they want, any time they want it.

I am over the endless resurrection of the careers of rapists and sexual
exploiters -- film directors, world leaders, corporate executives, movie
stars, athletes -- while the lives of the women they violated are
permanently destroyed, often forcing them to live in social and emotional
exile.

I am over the passivity of good men. Where the hell are you?

You live with us, make love with us, father us, befriend us, brother us, get
nurtured and mothered and eternally supported by us, so why aren't you
standing with us? Why aren't you driven to the point of madness and action
by the rape and humiliation of us?

I am over years and years of being over rape.

And thinking about rape every day of my life since I was 5-years-old.

And getting sick from rape, and depressed from rape, and enraged by rape.

And reading my insanely crowded inbox of rape horror stories every hour of
every single day.

I am over being polite about rape. It's been too long now, we have been too
understanding.

We need to OCCUPYRAPE in every school, park, radio, TV station, household,
office, factory, refugee camp, military base, back room, night club,
alleyway, courtroom, UN office. We need people to truly try and imagine --
once and for all -- what it feels like to have your body invaded, your mind
splintered, your soul shattered. We need to let our rage and o

[LAAMN] Fwd: "Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail": Two Readings/Booksignings

2011-11-17 Thread johnaimani 


 Original Message 
Subject:"Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail": Two Readings/Booksignings
Date:   Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:32:18 -0800
From:   johnaimani 
Reply-To:   Imani 
Organization:   RAC-LA
To: rac...@lists.riseup.net, rac-lasupport...@lists.riseup.net



*Thursday, November 17, 7:30 PM *Redondo Beach**
Come on down to the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore as Gp, Ken Wisnia, Penny 
Mickelbury, John A Imani and Nathan Walpow talk up the new anthology he 
co-edited and contributed to, Send /My Love and a Molotov Cocktail!/ and 
other stuff --- 2810 Artesia Blvd., Redondo Beach (310) 542.6000.



  /Kenneth Wishnia with Gary Phillips, John A. Imani, Penny Mickelbury
  and Larry Fondation/

*Author Event*
We welcome the authors of The Fifth Servant and Send My Love and a 
Molotov Cocktail!: Stories of Crime, Love and Rebellion. Author panel 
will be reading and signing copies of both titles at 7:00 pm.
*Friday November 18, 2011 7:00 PM*

Pico-Westwood
Westside Pavilion, 10850 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064, 
310-475-3138

http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/74131131


-- 
JAI
RAC-LA

https://lists.riseup.net/www/admin/newplanet-newlives

http://revolutionaryautonomouscommunities.blogspot.com/

http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=JohnAImani


-- 
JAI
RAC-LA

https://lists.riseup.net/www/admin/newplanet-newlives

http://revolutionaryautonomouscommunities.blogspot.com/

http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=JohnAImani



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





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[LAAMN] "Israel's Advocate" to Leave White House for Pro-Israel Think Tank

2011-11-17 Thread Romi Elnagar 
"Israel's Advocate" to Leave White House for Pro-Israel Think Tank
Jim Lobe* 

WASHINGTON, 10 Nov  (IPS) - 
Dennis Ross, President Barack Obama's top Middle East aide who  has 
attracted criticism for his allegedly strong pro-Israel  sympathies, 
will leave his post at the end of this month, the  White House announced here 
Thursday.  

He will rejoin the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP),  
an Israel-centred think tank that was spun off in 1985 from the  
powerful lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee  
(AIPAC). Ross served as WINEP's counselor and a fellow during the  
George W. Bush administration from 2001 to 2009.

"An institution 
that believes sound policy lies at the intersection  of scholarship with
 statesmanship is especially proud that Dennis is  returning to his 
intellectual home," said WINEP's executive director  Dr. Robert Satloff.

Despite
 the generally hawkish views of WINEP's fellows and their  frequent 
criticism of Obama's approach to the Middle East, Ross said  in a 
statement that his departure from the White House was due to  family 
reasons. It offered no hint of major policy differences  between him and
 Obama or his colleagues on the National Security  Council.

"Obviously,
 there is still work to do but I promised my wife I would  return to 
government for only two years and we both agreed it is time  to act on 
my promise," added Ross.

"I am grateful to President Obama for 
having given me the opportunity  once again to work on a wide array of 
Middle Eastern issues and  challenges and to support his efforts to 
promote peace in the  region," he said.

But coming as it does as 
Republicans in the 2012 presidential primary  race and in Congress have 
been hammering away at what they have  characterised as Obama's 
"hostility" toward Israel and its prime  minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, 
Ross's departure could give them more  ammunition.

Because of 
Ross's unusually close ties to leaders in the Jewish  community and the 
Israel lobby, his presence in the White House has  acted as a shield 
against those attacks.

A former Soviet specialist who served in 
top Middle East positions  under former presidents George H.W. Bush and 
Bill Clinton, Ross was  initially brought into the Obama administration 
as the State  Department's special advisor for the Gulf and Southwest 
Asia, a post  he held from February to June 2009.

He then moved 
over to the White House where he has served as special  assistant to the
 president and senior director for the "Central  Region" at the National
 Security Council, making him the civilian  counterpart of the chief of 
the Pentagon's Central Command (CentCom),  covering a region stretching 
from Egypt to Afghanistan.

While adept at keeping a low profile, 
Ross has focused in particular  on U.S. policy toward Iran, about which 
he has long-held hawkish  views, and on Israel-Arab relations, 
especially the U.S.-led Israel- Palestinian "peace process" which 
appears to have reached a dead end  under his supervision.

Indeed,
 Palestinian leaders, who have often referred to Ross as  "Israel's 
lawyer", have refused to meet with him formally since  shortly after the
 resignation of Obama's first special envoy for the  Middle East, Sen. 
George Mitchell, last May.

Indeed, one senior U.S. diplomat, Amb.
 Daniel Kurtzer, who took part  in the Clinton-era negotiations, cited a
 number of anonymous  officials who were critical of Ross's mediation in
 the 1990s in his  book co-authored with Scott Lasensky, entitled 
"Negotiating Arab- Israeli Peace".

"The perception was always 
that Dennis started from the Israeli  bottom line, that he listened to 
what Israel wanted and then tried to  sell it to the Arabs," one Arab 
negotiator told them. "&He was never  looked at &as a trusted 
world figure or as an honest broker."

Similarly, Abraham Foxman, 
the long-time head of the strongly pro- Israel Anti-Defamation League, 
once referred to Ross as "the closest  thing you'll find to a melitz 
yosher, as far as Israel is concerned".  Melitz yosher is the ancient 
Hebrew word for "advocate".

Mitchell, who was replaced by a 
career State Department official,  David Hale, reportedly left out of 
frustration over Obama's failure  to take a harder line toward 
Netanyahu's rejection of U.S. appeals to  extend a partial moratorium on
 Israeli settlement activity and take  other measures that would 
encourage Palestinian Authority (PA)  President Mahmoud Abbas to return 
to direct negotiations. Mitchell  considered Ross his main antagonist in
 internal policy debates,  according to a number of sources.

While
 Ross has long been critical of Israeli settlement expansion, he  
reportedly argued, as he did under Clinton, that exerting serious  
pressure on Israeli leaders would prove counterproductive.

According
 to various reports, he was privately critical of Obama's  demand in 
2009 that Israel halt all settlement activity in the  Occupie

[LAAMN] Overcomeing Contradictions: Do Governments Hate Their People? by Kathy Kelly and Hakim

2011-11-17 Thread Romi Elnagar 
Do Governments Hate Their People?
Overcoming Contradictions
by KATHY KELLY and HAKIM 
Adelaide, Australia.
At Tabor House Technical College, 21 young people sit in a semicircle looking 
curiously at Hakim and me. We’ve been invited 
to speak with them about the practice of justice.  Hakim, who has lived 
among Afghans for the past nine years, begins by describing how an 
Afghan youth, Zekerullah, would greet them.  “Salam,” he says to all. 
With his hand over his heart, Hakim makes eye contact with each student, and 
then nods in silent greeting. I smile, having watched Zekerullah do just this, 
whenever he entered a room. The students are interested.
“You can’t listen only to leaders,” Hakim tells them. “We must put our ears 
close to the hearts of ordinary people and listen to them.”  Hakim is often 
poetic, but he’s also a trained physician, 
prone toward assembling data and seeking careful diagnosis.
Rising early this morning, he prepared for today’s 
presentation by collecting statistics about government responses, in 
various parts of the world, to massive manifestations of public 
opinion.  As expected, the short survey showed that leaders aren’t 
listening well to ordinary people, that ‘national interests’ routinely 
overrule the people’s interests:
72% of Australians want their troops to 
be withdrawn from Afghanistan. But Prime Minister Julia Gillard insists 
that Australian troops will remain “till the end of the decade, at least.”
>63% of Americans oppose the Afghan war. But the US is about to sign a 
>US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement that will 
allow joint military bases in Afghanistan beyond 2024.
>80% of the Spanish population support the estimated 
6.5 to 8 million Spanish Indignados protesting unemployment. But the 
Spanish government has been repressing the protesters since their police 
cleared out Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid on 17th May 2011.
>89% of Chileans support the student protests for free public 
>education. But Chilean police used water cannons and tear gas to break up a 
>student march on October 6th 2011.
US National polls over October and November 2011 were mixed, with 
agreement/approval ratings for Occupy Wall Street varying 
from 59% to 22%, but, generally, approval was larger than disapproval.
Yesterday, New York police cleared out the protesters from Zuccotti Park in New 
York.
“Do governments hate their people?” Hakim asks, “Or do they simply treat their 
general public as stupid belligerents?”
He encourages students to recognize the wisdom 
ordinary people hold, offering as an example Afghan villagers who became his 
teachers. He thought he had come to assist people in the Afghan 
village because he had ‘knowledge’ to offer them. He instead found that 
they changed his life completely.  They taught him about love and 
community.
Then he shows us a video he filmed of Zekerullah answering questions posed by 
Hakim.  Zekerullah was 13 at the time the video was made.
“Zekerullah Jan,” Hakim asks, “What are you doing?”
“I am peeling potatoes, teacher,” Zekerullah responds.
“Is having work good?” asks Hakim.
“Yes it’s very good for people. Not having work is a disease.”
“In 2009,” says Hakim, “3 Afghan children were killed daily in war, children 
like yourself.”
“This is vulgar and bad news…bad because there’ll be 
less Afghans,” Zekerullah says. “The people of Afghanistan will no 
longer exist.”
Hakim tells Zekerullah that when Afghan children are 
killed, foreign and local leaders express their ‘regret.’  “Is their 
‘regret’ appropriate?” Hakim asks.
Zekerullah responds immediately. “No. Their regret 
seems to mean that however much the ‘regret,’ children will still be 
killed again, so their regret isn’t acceptable.”
Hakim asks a new question: “If your younger brother 
was killed by a bomb, and you were offered money in compensation, would 
you accept the money?”
Zekerullah says he wouldn’t accept it.  “Firstly,” he asks, “why was he killed?”
“Secondly,” he continues, “those responsible should 
be punished so they won’t infringe on the rights of other people. The 
monetary compensation shouldn’t be accepted as money doesn’t match up to the 
value of a person.”
“Zekerullah,” Hakim asks, “Is your life as valuable as the life of Obama’s 
daughter?”
“Her life is very good,” says Zekerullah, looking directly at the camera, 
“because she’s the child of a minister or king.”
“Aren’t you as valuable as Obama’s daughter?” asks Hakim.
“In terms of humanity,” Zekerullah replies, “both of us are human beings.”
“Zekerullah,” Hakim says, “Never forget that you are 
as valuable as every other child, whether in Afghanistan, America or 
Europe.”
Zekerullah stares at the potato he is peeling, nodding thoughtfully.
“Okay,” he then says, looking up at Hakim.
“And all of us love you,” Hakim adds.
Zekerullah smiles slowly. “Be alive and at peace, teacher,” he says.
One of the students comments about how hard it would 
be to lose your brother.  “These young people you know,” he ask

[LAAMN] Bill Maher's Comedy of Rage

2011-11-17 Thread bigraccoon 
Mad as Bill 
Wall Street is Occupied
Newsweek Magazine
November 21, 2011, page 40

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/11/13/bill-maher-s-comedy-of-rage.html





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[LAAMN] LA Solidarity Protest for Closing School of the Americas ~ Sunday November 20th, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM ~ At The Westwood Federal Building - Corner of Wilshire & Veteran

2011-11-17 Thread Frank Dorrel 
LA SOLIDARITY PROTEST SUPPORTING 
THE PROTESTERS AT SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS

www.soaw.org

 

Sunday November 20th  
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

 

Westwood Federal Building 
Corner of Wilshire & Veteran

For More Information Contact Jeff Neff:  jeffneffww...@gmail.com


Every year at this time, thousands of protesters gather in front of the
gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the School of the Americas
(SOA/WHINSEC). The School has been a place to train Latin American soldiers
torture and techniques in suppression the will of the people of Latin
America. 

The protesters come near the anniversary of the murder of 6 Jesuit priests
and their cook and her daughter in El Salvador  demanding that the school be
shut down. Each year a handful of protesters cross onto the grounds risking
arrest and a near guaranteed prison sentence of an average 6 months. 

Sadly, while tens of thousands join in the three day event of workshops and
protests, the mainstream media rarely, if ever, cover this story.

This is a call for activists in LA to show their solidarity with these
activists with calls for: 

Ending  the teaching and outsourcing torture

Ending militarism and the support of oppression and military interventions

Ending the hiring contractors and mercenaries

Please bring candles for a possible candlelight vigil.

This is a spontaneous demonstration. We have the right to be on the sidewalk
but no arrangements were made to be on the lawn, so be forewarned for those
who wish to bring materials.

For more information contact: Jeff Neff  jeffneffww...@gmail.com


Background on the School of the Americas:  www.soaw.org


The SOA/WHINSEC is a U.S. taxpayer-funded military training school for Latin
American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia. Since 1946, the
SOA/WHINSEC has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in
counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological
warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates
have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people.
Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers,
religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of
the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured,
raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced to flee by those
trained at the School of Assassins.

The school made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training
manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution.
Despite this shocking admission and hundreds of documented human rights
abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school, no independent
investigation into the training facility has ever taken place. SOA violence
continues in Mexico, where 1/3 of the original members of the Zetas drug
cartel were trained at the SOA, and where the U.S. is promoting military
solutions to the drug problem. SOA violence continues in Colombia, which has
sent more than 10,000 soldiers to train at the SOA, and where SOA graduates
are involved with extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights
violations. SOA violence continues in Honduras, where SOA graduates
overthrew the democratically elected government in 2009. SOA violence
continues in Guatemala, where SOA graduate Otto Pérez Molina just won the
presidential elections, and throughout the Americas. In October 2011, Time
Magazine published the article “Is It Time to Shutter the Americas' 'Coup
Academy'?:”
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2097124,00.html#ixzz1b9Rvmcbu 

At the same time, the private contractors contracted with the US to work in
Iraq have turned to Latin America to hire mercenaries, many of whom are
former paramilitary operatives and former officers quite possibly trained by
SOA/WHINSEC

https://nacla.org/news/outsourcing-iraq-war-mercenary-recruiters-turn-latin-
america



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