-
Sulong Anakbayan! Sulong Gabriela! (Taken with instagram)
-
here is my cover letter, as it currently stands.
i’m not sure why i’m not getting any responses
I wish I...
-
-
Mike Luckovich/Atlanta Journal-Constitution (05/19/2012)
-
Thousands march to confront NATO in Chicago, May 20, 2012.
Photos by Bryan G. Pfeifer
***GRAPHIC*** A MASSACRE SO HORRIBLE IT DEFIES ALL HUMANITY AND LOGIC. ASSAD’S THUGS BUTCHER A MOTHER AND HER FOUR CHILDREN. Hama: May 24, 2012 - The people of Hama first reported the abduction of the mother of the Al-Saleem Family and her four children two days ago by Assad’s forces. Today, the grisly scene of the collection of the bodies showed the utter barbarity and unmerciful way in which this family was murdered.
Assad’s forces committed this atrocity in order to spread sectarian hatred and fear through the community. Their goal is to enrage the locals into taking revenge. To start a civil war. What better way to do this than to abduct a mother and her children and slaughter them.
Butchered with knives. Where else in the world can this happen except for Syria? Why has the Arab world blamed this on some ‘conspiracy’? Why has the Western world forgotten about us?
Syria is dying and the world is watching Assad kill her.
The body of the little girl is revealed here. She too was not spared the brutal end.
Prayers for the dead family are offered on the spot with a burial afterwards.
Thanks @HamaEcho
The little girl in the video: Shahed Areeb Al Saleem
The boy in the video: Farouk Areeb Al Saleem
(via hurdcomet)
The Obama administration approved an additional $70 million for an Israeli missile defense program, also known as the “Iron Dome.”
…on top of the $200 million already set aside for Israel’s missile defense.
…..and on top of the $3 billion in U.S. military annual aid.
Meanwhile in the U.S., schools are being closed, student debt has surpassed $1 trillion this year, thousands of homes are being foreclosed, 50 million Americans still don’t have health insurance & the list goes on.
Instead, billions are going to Israel for weapons & tanks to terrorize Palestinians, destroy their homes, hospitals & schools, & imprison them without any formal charge.
(via occupyallstreets)
Kucinich: We have to believe peace is possible, US ‘sanction warfare’ makes real Iran war inevitable
War mentality has saturated Washington and arms merchants want to benefit, says Congressman (D) Dennis Kucinich. He opposes sanctions against Tehran that could lead to war, and is sure the US should forget about trying to conquer other countries.
![occupyallstreets:
CHART: Wages For Young Colleges Graduates Haven’t Grown In A Decade
According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, “between 2000 and 2011, the wages of young college graduates [aged 21-24] dropped 5.4 percent (1.6 percent for men and 8.5 percent for women),” after they grew 19 percent between 1995 and 2000.
As EPI noted, “young graduates who enter the labor market during periods of strength (e.g. 1995–2000) face much stronger wage prospects than young graduates who enter the labor market during periods of weakness (e.g. 2001 to the present).”
Source](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m471aynkNU1r4vpxio1_500.png)
CHART: Wages For Young Colleges Graduates Haven’t Grown In A Decade
According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, “between 2000 and 2011, the wages of young college graduates [aged 21-24] dropped 5.4 percent (1.6 percent for men and 8.5 percent for women),” after they grew 19 percent between 1995 and 2000.
As EPI noted, “young graduates who enter the labor market during periods of strength (e.g. 1995–2000) face much stronger wage prospects than young graduates who enter the labor market during periods of weakness (e.g. 2001 to the present).”
(via susie-c)
John Brennan will:
White House counterterror chief John Brennan has seized the lead in choosing which terrorists will be targeted for drone attacks or raids, establishing a new procedure for both military and CIA targets.
The effort concentrates power over the use of lethal U.S. force outside war zones within one small team at the White House.
The process, which is about a month old, means Brennan’s staff consults with the State Department and other agencies as to who should go on the target list, making the Pentagon’s role less relevant, according to two current and three former U.S. officials aware of the evolution in how the government goes after terrorists.
In describing Brennan’s arrangement to The Associated Press, the officials provided the first detailed description of the military’s previous review process that set a schedule for killing or capturing terror leaders around the Arab world and beyond. They spoke on condition of anonymity because U.S. officials are not allowed to publicly describe the classified targeting program.
[…]
Brennan’s effort gives him greater input earlier in the process, before making final recommendation to President Barack Obama. Officials outside the White House expressed concern that drawing more of the decision-making process to Brennan’s office could turn it into a pseudo military headquarters, entrusting the fate of al-Qaida targets to a small number of senior officials.
Under the new plan, Brennan’s staff compiles the potential target list and runs the names past agencies such as the State Department at a weekly White House meeting, the officials said.
Previously, targets were first discussed in meetings run by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen at the time, with Brennan being just one of the voices in the debate. Brennan ultimately would make the case to the president, but a larger number of officials would end up drawn into the discussion.
I’ll just add Brennan’s remarks from a few weeks ago:
US counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan admitted for the first time that US drones have killed civilians. ‘It is exceedingly rare, but it has happened,’ he said.”
And this from June of 2011:
[Brennan] added that in the last year, “there hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that we’ve been able to develop.”
Even though, at least 168 children were killed by drones already in the same year.
In other words, he’s a liar and propagandist. And the Obama Administration is putting him in “the lead” on deciding who the US can and should kill (with “exceptional proficiency” and “precision”, of course) without any oversight from congress or the judiciary. Just trust him.
(via mamitah)
Occupy Livestreamers Detained At Gunpoint By Twelve Chicago Police Cars
Occupy Wall Street livestreamers Tim Pool, Luke Rudkowski, and Jeoff Shively, along with two other friends, were driving back to their apartment around midnight on Satuirday, after a long day covering the anti-NATO protests in Chicago when they were suddenly surrounded by twelve police cars and told to come out with their hands raised.
“Get your hands up! Hands! Fuckin’ hands!” the officers yelled at them.
The police never explained why the men were being detained but handcuffed and interrogated them, searched their car, repeatedly slammed one of their computer hard drives against the car floor, and attempted to delete their footage of the incident before it could be archived at Ustream.
According to Firedoglake, Pool tweeted a couple of hours later that “the police were still following them on the police scanner around 2 am. They allegedly wanted the targeted journalists to announce where they were staying for the night so they could raid where the journalists were staying.”
A few hours after that, however, Pool posted at Facebook, “We are at a safe place.”
Firedoglake also recounts a similar incident involving other livestreamers and concludes, “In each of these instances, the police did not inform those detained why they were being detained. The police stopped them to find criminal activity that they could then use against the journalists to make arrests. And so far they have not been able to find any justification for arresting any of these people, but they have been able to briefly frighten and infuriate these journalists and also to impound a vehicle.”
(via xandauraxan)
The old trope of the bomb-throwing anarchist is back in the news, with a round-up in Ohio on May 1 and the three would-be NATO protesters arrested on Wednesday who are now charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism. While the impression that appears in the media is one of remnants of the Occupy movement verging toward violence, the driving forces behind these plots are the very agencies claiming to have foiled them.
The five activists arrested in Cleveland, Ohio, are facing multiple charges for conspiring and attempting to destroy the Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge on May Day to protest corporate rule. According to the FBI press statement released shortly after the May 1 arrests, FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen D. Anthony said “the individuals charged in this plot were intent on using violence to express their ideological views.” But that is only one side of the story.
The mainstream media and blog reports, both nationally and in Cleveland, have emphasized that the young activists were part of Occupy Cleveland and self-identified anarchists (here, here, and here). The men — Douglas L. Wright, 26, of Indianapolis; Brandon L. Baxter, 20, of nearby Lakewood; Connor C. Stevens, 20, of suburban Berea; and Joshua S. Stafford, 23, and Anthony Hayne, 35, both of Cleveland — were arrested and remain in jail after they attempted to detonate a false bomb that they had set, in conjunction with the FBI.
It’s an old script: Violence-prone anarchists devise a nefarious plan and, just before they can carry it out, law enforcement swoops in to save the day, catching them red-handed. But there’s another script being acted out here too, one much more sinister, complex, and morally and legally dubious: Agents of the state infiltrate an activist group and, through techniques of psychological manipulation, lead its most vulnerable members into a violent plan — for which explosives, detonators, contacts and case mysteriously become available — until SWAT teams and prosecutors suddenly arrive and haul the accomplices off to jail for the rest of their lives. In both cases, at the end of the story, officials congratulate each other for their bravery and bravado and the public breathes a sigh of relief as more of their civil liberties are stripped away. [read on]
(via hurdcomet)
Congressmen Seek To Lift Propaganda Ban
An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.
The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website.
The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns.
The bi-partisan amendment is sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State.
In a little noticed press release earlier in the week — buried beneath the other high-profile issues in the $642 billion defense bill, including indefinite detention and a prohibition on gay marriage at military installations — Thornberry warned that in the Internet age, the current law “ties the hands of America’s diplomatic officials, military, and others by inhibiting our ability to effectively communicate in a credible way.”
The bill’s supporters say the informational material used overseas to influence foreign audiences is too good to not use at home, and that new techniques are needed to help fight Al-Qaeda, a borderless enemy whose own propaganda reaches Americans online.
Critics of the bill say there are ways to keep America safe without turning the massive information operations apparatus within the federal government against American citizens.
“Clearly there are ways to modernize for the information age without wiping out the distinction between domestic and foreign audiences,” says Michael Shank, Vice President at the Institute for Economics and Peace in Washington D.C. “That Reps Adam Smith and Mac Thornberry want to roll back protections put in place by previously-serving Senators – who, in their wisdom, ensured limits to taxpayer–funded propaganda promulgated by the US government – is disconcerting and dangerous.”
(via xandauraxan)
“This was the scene on Montrose Avenue just moments ago before we arrived at Mayor 1%’s home, rallying to demand Healthcare NOT warfare! A large group is now meeting at Jackson & Lasalle to march to Daley Plaza in solidarity with the #NATO3, who are still in custody. Those marchers will converge with us for the Anticapitalista March at the Haymarket Monument, 175 N Desplaines, 630PM!”
https://www.facebook.com/OccupyChicago
