Wisconsin Police Union Announces Solidarity with Occupation of State House

“Police have just announced to the crowds inside the occupied State Capitol of Wisconsin: ‘We have been ordered by the legislature to kick you all out at 4:00 today. But we know what’s right from wrong. We will not be kicking anyone out, in fact, we will be sleeping here with you!’ Unreal.” [From the Understory]



I heard about this incredible turn of events from Les Visible's excellent article here.

Another forgotten hero

I was very touched by this man's tribute to his son, Furkan Dogan, a truly heroic and caring teen-aged American whose death by the hands of Israelis has been papered over and forgotten: A Father Speaks for His Son Who Was Killed by Israelis on The Mavi Marmara

Interesting facts for the conspiracy-minded

For those who believe (as I do) that HAARP can produce earthquakes, this article might raise eyebrows:

Earthquake Shakes Up Suez Canal as Iran Warships Approach

I was also surprised to hear that FEMA Deputy Administrator for Protection and National Preparedness, Tim Manning, just happened to be in Christchurch, New Zealand at the time a devastating quake struck directly underneath that country's second largest city.

Also heard that the "US diplomat" caught killing two men in Pakistan, turned out to be a CIA agent, and the guys he killed were ISI tailing him. According to this article, documents found on Davis’ person prove he was working on supplying a dirty bomb to the Taliban. Gee, that reminds me of this incident I commented on for my radio show back in '05.

Solidarity!

I love this story:
From Cairo to Madison, some pizza

Solidarity is what it takes to make a better world for all of us. Kudos for the Libyan pilots who refused to bomb their own people. Kudos for the Americans taking a stand for Libyan protesters.

United we stand, divided we fall.

Protester roughed up while Hilary Clinton talks about free speech

You gotta see this:



As Hillary Talks About Tolerating Free Expression, Police in Front of Her Brutalize Ray McGovern for Turning His Back

Stock up on food now

For the last 10 years I've been telling people to invest in something tangible, like gold or silver, because the value of the dollar is about to drop through the floor (If they had listened to me back then, they would have made six times their money). But you know, you can't eat gold or silver ... and things are getting to the point where you'd better start taking care of immediate needs, like what you would eat if suddenly the grocery store got cleaned out and the truckers went on strike because the price of gas went too high, etc... Also, in case you haven't noticed, the weather is getting very dodgy. Check out this link: http://www.mexidata.info/id2946.html

One of the things that are actually behind a lot of these protests in the Middle East is the fact that food is getting too expensive for people to eat anymore.

Speaking of protests in the Middle East, I thought this article worth noting:
The Egyptian People Can't Quit Now!

Of course the Egyptian people can't just sit on their laurels and expect things to get better until they have truly created their own government under civilian rule, and of course the American government (and the Israelis running them) are going to use whatever means necessary (and they have plenty of means, because they've been funding the Egyptian military for years) to engineer a favorable outcome for themselves, which often runs contrary to the best interests of the Egyptian people and true democracy. But I have faith in the Egyptians. They aren't stupid, and I can see by the way they conducted their protests they aren't easily diverted either. It will be fascinating to see how this all comes out.

In the meantime, here's an interesting video clip I found on What Really Happened:

Good Old US of A

[This is a post from "Lone Vet," a tireless activist who posts regularly on Portland Indymedia. Original here.]

Dead Iraqi Child, tell her you are just too busy.

Suppose you had a country that invades other countries because they think they may be in some danger. This strong country just happens to be the biggest arms dealer in the world, the runner up not even close. This country has over 800 military bases, (maybe as many as 1000) around the world and 0 foreign bases on its territory. This is a rich country that got its start by slaughtering the inhabitants and taking control of the vast lands. This country tortures its prisoners, jails more citizens per capita than any other nation. This country will lock up those who cry for peace but honor those who lie, cheat and try to destroy all its freedoms. This country makes millionaires out of scoundrels and liars and the press is bought and paid for. The leaders say that we must go to war but stay back in their air conditioned halls of government and watch as millions of poor people are murdered or injured beyond belief. This country is not Germany of the 1930s or the U.S.S.R. of the 60s; not even Italy of the 20s; this is the United States of America of 2011. My country! I did not serve in the US Navy for this!

The people of the United States approved the "State of the Union" address by Obama a few weeks ago by a margin of 92% to 8%--I was stunned. These are just words that have already been forgotten, what the hell is the matter with our progressives in this country?

Gitmo is still open, DOD is considering pushing the withdrawal dates back in Iraq, we are still killing women and children in Afghanistan and now Pakistan. People are losing their homes at alarming rates, unemployment is at 9-26% depending on who you are and where you live. We are out of money in Oregon and will cut vital services to our schools and our most vulnerable citizens and say, "We just don't have the money."

The cost of our occupations and war for Portland is over 1.4 BILLION dollars, the cost for Oregon is over 9 BILLION dollars, yet not one politician has pointed this out during any budget discussions. We should have a counter in front of our City Hall telling people how much we are wasting supporting this corrupt empire; maybe people will begin to understand why we are going broke.

http://costofwar.com/en/

http://costofwar.com/en/state/OR/city/portland/

Peacemakers are being arrested or their files, computers and papers are being stolen by Obama's FBI and Portland is about to rejoin a taskforce that will be run by the FBI but cost us time and money.

link to www.allvoices.com

Demonstrations against the occupations have seen their numbers fall as the Obama Administration has done a number on the unions, national peace groups, and progressives in name only. (PINO) We only protest on Saturdays and we do beg the authorities for permission by requesting a permit---what a sad bunch of weenies we have become. We challenge no one, we pressure no one, we are losing our republic and all we are worried about is who got nominated for some award in the movie industry. We must do more--92% approve of what Obama had to say indeed!


For Justice,Peace and *Laughter,
Joe Walsh-Lone Vet
Individuals for Justice
Veterans Against Torture
Proud member of Oregon Progressive Party, http://progparty.org/

War is failure, occupation a disgrace!

"Funding these wars is killing our troops"
http://www.mfso.org/

* Why laughter?? Because without it I would have gone insane years ago.

Sen. ** harry reid must be replaced as Majority Leader, call me when you agree or just go away!

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.
Mohandas Gandhi

Thoreau may have also brooded over the reaction of Emerson, who criticized the imprisonment as pointless. According to some accounts, Emerson visited Thoreau in jail and asked, "Henry, what are you doing in there?" Thoreau replied, "Waldo, the question is what are you doing out there?"

What can we learn from the Egyptians?

The Egyptians did so many things right that American protesters in the past have been doing wrong.

They employed patience, perseverance, and wouldn't take anything less than real change for an answer. But, I think, most importantly, they went on strike. That's hitting the corruption where it hurts. Check out Les Visible's Globoctopus Tightens its Grip.

Kenny's sideshow listed some principles observed by Sun Tzu that helped the protesters bring down Pharaoh:

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.

We cannot enter into alliances until we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors.

-- Celebrate and then on to the next battle

"Draft dodger!"

Dick Cheney was also called a "war criminal" at the Conservative Political Action Committee, while Orwell's sheeple bleat out "USA! USA! USA!"

Americans have their priorities messed up

From the Daily Bail:

Total Cost Of Wars Exceeds $2.5 Trillion - No Worries! US Media 'Fluff' Numbing Nation, Robbing Next Generation

Civil Disobedience at Downing Street for 9/11 Justice: An Interview with Gareth Newnham

Gareth Newnham reports:

On Monday 31st January 2011, in solidarity with Jon Gold's action outside the White House, I took a ‘911 Truth’ sign to Downing Street – the British Prime Minister lives at No. 10 – and sat down outside the gates. Within seconds I was approached by a policeman carrying a machine gun who demanded I immediately move, a request with which I respectfully declined to comply with. After ten minutes I was approached by two Ministry of Defence policemen who issued the same request. We talked a little about 9/11. Moments later a police van pulled up and four police officers got out – I was also surprised to see a further four Ministry of Defence policeman approaching to see what was going on. After explaining that I was respectfully going to decline all further requests to move on I found myself being dragged from where I was sitting, put into the police van, and driven away to Charing Cross Police Station.

I was released later the next evening having been detained for 30 hours. I’m glad I took a good book!

Weird weather

I've been away from the computer for the last few days because of the storm ... I found this video interesting because I know as a former Geography major that residential areas tend to be *warmer* than outlying areas (you know, the urban heat island effect?) and this guy's radar was showing residential areas actually attracting snowstorms. Included in those residential areas was Beebe, Arkansas (remember the New Year's falling birds?). Anyway, just thought it was interesting.



Just a head's up for those who don't know: the Mubarak's appointed Vice President, Omar Suleiman, was the CIA's go-to guy on torture. They tortured a guy named al-Libi to "confess" a connection between al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and WMD's (which of course later turned out to be a lie). This confession was then used to justify the US invasion of Iraq, a war crime if ever there was one. So don't think everything will be all rosy if the Egyptians kick out Mubarak and leave this guy to run things in the interim.

http://aliran.com/4321.html