MediaLens.org

Media Lens is our response to the unwillingness, or inability, of the mainstream media to tell the truth about the real causes and extent of many of the problems facing us, such as human rights abuses, poverty, pollution and climate change.

Blog.ZMag.com

ZNet is an enormous site with thousands of files.

Crimes Against Nature by Robert Kennedy Jr.

Published by the December 11, 2003 issue of Rolling Stone

"The best way to judge the effectiveness of a democracy is to measure how it allocates the goods of the land: Does the government protect the commonwealth on behalf of all the community members, or does it allow wealth and political clout to steal the commons from the people?

Today, George W. Bush and his court are treating our country as a grab bag for the robber barons, doling out the commons to large polluters. Last year, as the calamitous rollbacks multiplied, the corporate-owned TV networks devoted less than four percent of their news minutes to environmental stories. If they knew the truth, most Americans would share my fury that this president is allowing his corporate cronies to steal America from our children."

-

For more information on the Bush administration's environmental actions, see The Bush Record from NRDC, the Natural Resources Defense Council

Thoreau, Walden And Civil Disobedience, Penguin, 1986, p.379

"Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, and obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board."

-Henry David Thoreau

DCMediagirl.com

She's been a journalist for 13 years.

PatriotBoy.blogspot.com

An 11 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender.

HEAVEN ON EARTH: The Rise and Fall of Socialism

A Think Tank Special

Much of the history of the past 200 years revolved around a single idea. It was the vision that life could be lived in peace and brotherhood if only property were shared by all and distributed equally, eliminating the source of greed, envy, poverty and strife. This idea was called "socialism" and it was man's most ambitious attempt to supplant religion with a doctrine grounded on science rather than revelation.

It became the most popular political idea in history. Its provenance was European, but it spread to China and Africa, India and Latin America and even to that most tradition-bound of regions, the Middle East. While it never fully took root in America, its influence shaped the nation's political debate. At its crest in the 1970s, roughly 60 percent of the earth's population lived under governments that espoused socialism in one form or another. Then, suddenly, it all collapsed.

Because its goal proved so elusive, the socialist movement split and split again into diverse, sometimes murderously contradictory forms. There was Social Democracy, which insisted that only peaceful and democratic means could produce a harmonious commonwealth. There was Communism, which extolled the resolute use of force and dictatorship to propel mankind to a new way of life. There was Arab Socialism, African Socialism, and other Third World variants that sought to amalgamate western Social Democracy and eastern Communism. There was even fascism, which turned the socialist idea on its head by substituting the brotherhood of nation and race for the brotherhood of class. And there were those - from early American settlers, to the "flower children" of the 1960s, to Israeli Zionist kibbutzniks - who built their own socialist communities, hoping to transform the world by the force of example.

As an idea that changed the way people thought, socialism's success was spectacular. As a critique of capitalism that helped spawn modern social safety nets and welfare states, its success was appreciable. As a model for the development of post-colonial states, the socialist model proved disappointing, fostering economic stagnation among millions of the world's poorest people. And in its most violent forms, socialism was calamitous, claiming scores of millions of lives and helping to make the twentieth century the bloodiest ever.

Through profiles of the individuals that brought socialism to life, HEAVEN ON EARTH tells the story of how an idea arose, evolved, changed the world, and eventually fell.

Islamic Books Library

Love For All,

Hatred For None.

"NEWS CONSUMER"

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ABOUT THE WAR IN IRAQ, THE DOWNING STREET MEMO & IMPEACHMENT!!!

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND LET THEM KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

YOU CAN FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES CONTACT INFORMATION AT THE LINKS BELOW:

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

http://www.house.gov/

http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

******************************************************

Downing Street Memo

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

AfterDowningStreet.org

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

Posted by: "NEWS CONSUMER" at July 23, 2005 03:03 AM

Politics.com

"Among the hundreds of Web sites devoted to political news, several stand out...Politics.com, an avante-garde site..." San Francisco Chronicle

"Following the money has never been easier..." Judy Woodruff, CNN

Important Dates in the Women's Rights Movement

1777 Abigail Smith Adams, wife of the second president (John Adams) and mother of the sixth president (JohnQuincy Adams) writes that women "will not hold ourselves bound by any laws which we have no voice."

1784 Hannah Adams is first American woman to support herself by writing.

1819 Emma Hart Willard writes her "Plan for Improving Female Education," which although unsuccessful, defines the issue of women's education at that time.

1826 The first public high schools for girls open in New York and Boston.

1828 Former slave, abolitionist, and feminist Isabella van Wagener is freed and takes the name Sojourner Truth. She begins to preach against slavery throughout New York and New England.

1833 Oberlin College in Ohio, is the first co-educational college in the U.S.

1838 Mount Holyoke College is established in Massachussetts as first college for women.

1840 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, feminist, dress reformer, and editor, omits the word "obey" from her marriage vows.

1840 Lucretia Mott is one of several women delegates to attend the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London. As a woman, she is forced to sit in the gallery and cannot participate.

1848 The first Women's Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, NY.

1849 Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to receive a medical degree in U.S. Women doctors are permitted to legally practice medicine for the first time.

1850 Women are granted the right to own land in a state (Oregon). The Female (later Women's) Medical College is founded in Pennsylvania.

1852 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton form the Women's NY Temperance Society.

1860-65 American Civil War

1866 The American Equal Rights Association is founded by Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, Martha Coffin Pelham Wright, and Ernestine Rose.

1868 The 14th Amendment denying women the right to vote is ratified. Women lawyers are licensed in U.S.

1869 The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) are formed.

1870 The 15th Amendment enfranchising black men is ratified.

1872 Susan B. Anthony is arrested for attempting to vote.

1874 The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is founded.

1878 For the first time, a Women's Suffrage Amendment is introduced to Congress.

1890 Wyoming is first state to allow women to vote. The NWSA and the AWSA reunite to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Women begin to wear knickerbockers instead of skirts for bicycle riding.

1903 The Women's Trade Union Leage of New York is formed to unionize working women. This group later becomes the nucleus for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU).

1913 5,000 suffragists march in Washington, D.C. for the women's rights movement.

1915 A petition with 500,000 signatures in support of women's suffrage amendment is given to President Woodrow Wilson.

1914-18 World War I

1920 The 19th Amendment is ratified, allowing women the right to vote in federal elections.

1923 Alice Paul and the National Women's Party first proposes the Equal Rights Amendment to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex. It has never been ratified.

1934 Florence Ellinwood Allen becomes first woman on US Court of Appeals.

1939-45 World War II

1961 Eleanor Roosevelt is appointed to chair the Commission on the Status of Women.

1966 The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded by Betty Goldstein Friedan.

1970 50,000 people march in New York City for the first Women's Strike for Equality.

1971 U.S. Supreme Court rule ends sex discrimination in hiring.

1972 U.S. Congress passes the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Equal Rights Amendment passes Congress but fails to be ratified.

1975 Ella Grasso is first woman Governor (CT) to be re-elected.

1977 3,000 women march in Washington, D.C. on Women's Equality Day to support the E.R.A.

1981 Sandra Day O'Connor becomes first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1997 Madeleine K. Albright becomes first woman U.S. Secretary of State.

PetroleumIran.com

Mission :

In a hectic world like ours, when having time and taking one’s time are luxuries many of us can seldom afford, and in an era where people are virtually drowning in information and yet actually starved for knowledge, the last thing anyone would want to do is visit the wrong website for the wrong reason , wasting this irreturnable precious commodity, i .e Time. But, the internet is long been touted as the information superhighway, presumably to offer the shortest possible cut to one's destination on this global data web. Bitterly ironic though, it now resembles a devious road dotted with cumbrous obstacles. And which simply passing through, requires deft navigational skills, not all readily have. In short, our mission is to facilitate your safe networthy passage when you're thinking of Iran & are interested about petroleum related issues. We guess that would be you. So, many thanks for choosing to drop by, at petroleumiran.com . We, however, assure that the time you spend with us, would be well-spent; and therefore trust you will not leave us empty-handed .

But we are an independent overseas-based entity, liaised in Iran and locally partnered with

Pars Terminal Co. Ltd., a private Iranian project-themed sales' technology and engineering services company. We are however, owned by Petropolis Enterprises Inc., an offshore registered legal establishment.

Vision :

Following over a decade of up-close interaction with the Iranian Petroleum industry at large, covering all sectors namely the National Iranian Oil Co.(NIOC), the National Iranian Gas Co.(NIGC),the National Petrochemical Co.(NPC) and their numerous offshoots, as well as the Iranian power-sector(IPDC/Tavanir)and their subsidiary power generation companies, interfacing techno-commercial data between local clientele and quite a few universally prestigious foreign manufacturers and suppliers, and in a bid to galvanize interest in transparent dissemination of information by home-grown entities, and in pursuit of incentivizing customized channels, harnessing one-to-one mindshare, scaling end-to-end markets, facilitating integrated supply-chain, benchmarking distributed interfaces, optimizing all-efficient business relationships and dove-tailing value-added glocal synergies, we take every pleasure in unleashing an innovative e-commerce platform for the Iranian Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Power industries. This is the vision pursued by & pervading throughout petroleumiran.com, which is in fact but an on-going, never-ending process in the making; certainly bound for expansion & improvement; as we continue servicing this vital sector of our collective source of energy .

As such, we hope that you may find, what you are looking for, is but a click away .

Welcome to the " portal of Persian oil " .

Tres Fiesta

What is the history of "third parties" in the United States?

In many countries around the world, there are several political parties, but in the United States there are only two that are consistently competitive in elections. Why is this the case?

*

Third Parties


All Other Parties
The links below are provided as a comprehensive view of third parties in the United States. The list was compiled with no consideration made to the political or moral positions of the parties. Some people may find certain political parties offensive. Others may be offended to have a Christian party listed on the same page as a Communist party. The purpose of this page is not to take any political stance or endorse any particular party. The purpose of this page is to demonstrate party views that are out of the mainstream. If a political party is missing, regardless of its views, please e-mail its web address for inclusion on this page.

Alaskan Independence Party Calls for another vote on Alaska's statehood.
All American Constitution Party Formed by a former Republican who wants "to return government to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights."
American Independent Party California affiliate of the Constitution Party.
Americanist Party Opposed to money and special interest groups in politics.
Communist Party U.S.A. Marxist-Leninist party for the working class.
Constitution Action Party Advocates "traditional values" and an end to the personal income tax.
Constitution Party Formerly known as the U.S. Taxpayers Party. Seeks to limit federal government according to the Constitution and based on Biblical law.
DC Statehood Party Self-determination for the citizens of Washington D.C.
Democratic Socialists of America Part of the worldwide Socialist International, "demanding democratic empowerment in the economy, in gender realtions and in culture."
Expansionist Party of the United States Believes in expanding the U.S. to eliminate international borders with the expectation that it will eliminate "human misery and environmental devastation."
Freedom Socialist Party A feminist socialist organization, advocating "a genuine workers' democracy."
Fusion Party of America In favor of eliminating the age restrictions on holding public office.
Grassroots Party of Minnesota Believes prohibition of drugs is a mistake like alcohol prohibition.
Green Party An association of parties which value "ecological wisdom," non-violence, and feminism, among other values.
Hui Kalai'aina Advocates Hawaiian sovereignty among other issues.
Humanist Party In favor of cooperativism to eliminate poverty.
International Socialist Organization In favor of revolution rather than reform.
Internet Party Promotes empowerment of the individual.
Ku Klux Klan Party For "white power."
Labor Party Believes in a constitutional right to a job.
Libertarian Party In favor of individual rights over the power of the state.
Light Party A New Age party seeking to unite all policial parties.
Multi-Capitalist Party Wants "capitalism for everyone" to achieve prosperity for all.
National Mini Convention Political Party A conservative party of the people.
National Patriot Party Seeking to unite all Americans "regardless of ideology." Connected with the Reform Party.
National Socialist White People's Party Formerly called the American Nazi Party.
Natural Law Party In favor of organic farming and "prevention-oriented government."
New Party Returning "power to the people."
New Union Party Socialist party based on Marx and Engels.
Pansexual Peace Party Wiccan based party supporting peace, freedom, and human sexuality.
Peace and Freedom Party Feminist and Socialist California party.
Progressive Labor Party An outspoken Communist party.
Prohibition Party For honest government and clean living.
Puritan Party Born-again Christian party
Royalist Party of America Wants U.S. to establish a constitutional monarchy.
Social Democrats Opposed to communism and fascism. Believes in individual rights.
Social Nationalist Party Opposed to abortion and affirmative action.
Socialist Party Believes in production based on public need rather than profitability.
United States Pacifist Party Opposed to the military tradition.
VAMPS Against Modern Political Systems Wants to fix a corrupt government.
We the People Party A "membership association" with ties to former California Governor Jerry Brown.
Workers Party Marxist-Leninist group with "pro-social agenda."
Workers World Party Opposed to capitalism.
World Socialist Party of the United States Wants to change social system of class relationships.

CommonCouragePress.com

By publishing books for social justice, Common Courage Press helps progressive ideas to find a place in our culture. The press provides a platform to spread these ideas to activists and ordinary citizens alike. It has sold a total of over one million copies since its founding in 1991, and its books have been translated and reprinted in 24 countries.

Skillfully edited, graphically striking, and popularly accessible, Common Courage books explore corporate power, ecology, race, gender, economics, health, welfare, and media politics, and U.S. policy from Central America to the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Its authors include Noam Chomsky (The New Military Humanism), Howard Zinn (The Future of History), Jean Bertrand Aristide (Eyes of the Heart), Jennifer Harbury (Bridge of Courage), Philip Berrigan (Fighting the Lamb's War), Norman Solomon (The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media), Judi Bari (Timber Wars), Sheldon Rampton & John Stauber (Toxic Sludge Is Good For You), Physicians for National Health Care co-founders David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler (Bleeding the Patient), Edward Said (The Pen and the Sword), Mike Males (The War on Youth), Peter Breggin (The War Against Children of Color), Phyllis Chesler (Patriarchy), and Paul Farmer (The Uses of Haiti).

These books and others have made a strong impact through major media coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Review of Books, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Journal of the American Medical Association, among other outlets. More important, the press has given a voice to people and organizations who might otherwise never have been heard, and inspired many who might otherwise have stayed silent.

Project Censored has repeatedly highlighted stories revealed in Common Courage books on their yearly list of the most censored published material. In 1999, they selected Karl Grossman's work exposing the likelihood that shuttle and other launches carrying plutonium-powered satellites could fall back to Earth, as featured in his book, The Wrong Stuff. In 1997, they selected two adaptations from Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton. They also chose Mike Hudson's work in The Nation, drawn from his Merchants of Misery.

Common Courage often publishes books that larger houses deem too controversial. Genetic engineering expose Against the Grain, for instance, was due to be published by a major publisher, until Monsanto wrote a threatening letter, and the original publisher pulled it. Common Courage then published the book, even though authors Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey warned the press about potential liability issues. A local paper asked co-editor Greg Bates if the press had liability insurance. "Yes, we do, as does every American," Bates replied. "It's called the First Amendment."

Against the Grain ended up helping activists working on politics of genetics. And Common Courage works closely with a wide array of activist citizens' groups:

Global Exchange co-founder Kevin Danaher has written three books for the press on the corporatization of the global economy.

Prison Legal News has made great use of The Celling of America.

Physicians for a National Health Plan used Bleeding the Patient to promote the need for universal health care; California consumer rights groups used Making a Killing in their fights against HMOs; and Dying for Growth and Women Poverty and AIDS helped raise awareness for Partners in Health.

The Center for Public Integrity produced and promoted Citizen Muckracking, as did the Center for Media and Democracy with Toxic Sludge Is Good For You and Mad Cow USA.

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting raised money by giving away the four books of Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen as a membership premium, along with Laura Flanders' Real Majority Media Minority.

When Marla Felcher wrote It's No Accident, about corporations' inadequate testing of baby products, Common Courage gave out free copies to the citizen's group Kids in Danger, so they could hand them out to sympathetic Congresspeople.

Paul Farmer's and Jean Bertrand Aristide's royalties go to help Haiti; and Jennifer Harbury's royalties from Bridge of Courage: Life Stories of the Guatemalan Companeros and Companeras, to Guatemalan efforts for justice. Harbury's Guatemalan husband, Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, was captured, tortured, and killed by the Guatemalan military. After publishing the book, the Common Courage editors helped publicize Harbury's struggles to find out what happened to her husband, including hunger strikes that triggered a US Congressional investigation and revealed the CIA's high-level involvement with the Guatemalan military.

Father Javier Giraldo, head of Colombia's Inter-Congregational Commission of Peace and Justice, risked his life to publish Colombia: The Genocidal Democracy. His book has become a core resource for the Colombia Support Network. Shortly after it was published, a woman who'd left Colombia telephoned Common Courage editor Greg Bates to describe how her friends had been rounded up by the Colombian military in a recent operation, and no one expected to hear from them again. She said that press, by publishing Giraldo's book, gave her hope to proceed onward.

As a handful of huge corporations control more and more of the flow of ideas, Common Courage offers an important way for alternative voices to be heard.

Volume 1: George Washington

A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS

BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON

A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

VOLUME I

1897

FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.


IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

APRIL 30, 1789.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:

Among the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled
me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was
transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present
month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can
never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had
chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with
an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years--a retreat
which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me
by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions
in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other
hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of
my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and
most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his
qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who
(inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the
duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of
his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver
is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just
appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All
I dare hope is that if, in executing this task, I have been too much
swayed by a grateful remembrance of former instances, or by an
affectionate sensibility to this transcendent proof of the confidence of
my fellow-citizens, and have thence too little consulted my incapacity
as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried cares before me,
my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead me, and its
consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality
in which they originated.

Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the
public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly
improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to
that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the
councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human
defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and
happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by
themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument
employed in its administration to execute with success the functions
allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of
every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your
sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at
large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore
the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those
of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the
character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by
some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just
accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil
deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from
which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which
most governments have been established without some return of pious
gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings
which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the
present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be
suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are
none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free
government can more auspiciously commence.

By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty
of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as
he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which
I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further
than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are
assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects
to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with
those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which
actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular
measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the
patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them.
In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on
one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party
animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought
to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on
another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the
pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence
of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win
the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.
I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love
for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly
established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature
an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and
advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous
policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we
ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can
never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order
and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation
of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model
of government are justly considered, perhaps, as _deeply_, as
_finally_, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the
American people.

Besides the ordinary objects submitted to your care, it will remain with
your judgment to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power
delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient
at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been
urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given
birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this
subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official
opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your
discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that
whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the
benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await
the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic
rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently
influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be
impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously
promoted.

To the foregoing observations I have one to add, which will be most
properly addressed to the House of Representatives. It concerns myself,
and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was first honored
with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve of an
arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated my
duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From
this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under
the impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to
myself any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably
included in a permanent provision for the executive department, and must
accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which
I am placed may during my continuance in it be limited to such actual
expenditures as the public good may be thought to require.

Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by
the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave;
but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human
Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor
the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect
tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity
on a form of government for the security of their union and the
advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally
_conspicuous_ in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and
the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.

*

Political Parties in the United States

Founded in 1997, Politics1 is published as a non-partisan public service to promote fully informed decision-making by the American electorate.

Know Your Choices! There are more than two parties in this country!

Ruckus.org

The Ruckus Society provides environmental, human rights, and social justice organizers with the tools, training, and support needed to achieve their goals.

Working with a broad range of communities, organizations, and movements - from high school students to professional organizations - Ruckus facilitates the sharing of information and expertise that strengthens the capacity to change our relationship with the environment and each other.

Additionally, the Ruckus Society is dedicated to fostering leadership of those most affected by the injustice and oppression we struggle against. Therefore, in all our initiatives, we aim to prioritize the voices and visions of youth, women, people of color, indigenous people and immigrants, poor and working class people, lesbian, gay, bisexual, gender queer, and transgendered people, and other historically marginalized communities. Ruckus has trained and assisted thousands of activists in the use of nonviolent direct action. We either bring activists to us or we go to them.

*Noam Chomsky*

The best way to defend civil liberties is to build a movement for social change with a positive programme that has a broad-based appeal, that encourages free and open discussion and offers a wide range of possibilities for work and action.

BuzzTracker.org

Buzztracker is software that visualizes frequencies and relationships between locations in the Google world news directory.

Buzztracker tries to show you how interconnected the world is: big events in one area ripple to other areas across the globe. Connections between cities thousands of miles apart become apparent at a glance.

Buzztracker currently only tracks English-language news sources.

Tom Hayden Archives at HuffingtonPost.com

Strategy for Anti-War Movement

A Strategy for Ending the Iraq War

“When you’re in the middle of a conflict, you’re trying to find pillars of strength to lean on”. – US military officer, Iraq, May 19, 2005)

INTRODUCTION. In January 2005, a group of fifty peace activists from the Vietnam and Iraq eras issued a global appeal to end the war. The appeal proposed undermining the pillars of war (public opinion, funding, troop recruitment, international allies) and building the pillars of peace and justice (an independent anti-war movement linked to justice issues, a progressive Democratic opposition, soldiers and families against the war, a global network to stop the US empire). This is an update on implementation of the strategy - see one-page guide for organizers at end.

OVERVIEW. The tide is turning. Public support for the war is down, as are the President’s ratings. Anti-war Democrats are back. Military recruiting is hitting a wall. The US strategy of Iraqization is failing. National anti-war actions are scheduled for late September. The bad news is that the good news is so recent. For six long months, the media and the Democrats have given the President a free pass, and the anti-war movement has floundered.
The war is not over – we should remember that the Vietnam War continued for seven years after President Johnson was forced to resign.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION. Among friends and local activists, practice discussion of these multiple scenarios with plans for responding to each:

1. Status Quo/Quagmire. How do we expand local anti-war coalitions, and double membership of local groups, going into the 2006 elections?
2. Bush escalates (e.g. sends more troops, invades Syrian border, bombs Iran, resumes draft). In any of these cases, is more radical action called for? How will it impose a cost on Bush, how will it expand the movement?
3. Bush mimics Nixon, promises peace, withdraws 10,000 troops as Iraq adopts constitution and elects new government. Would this defuse the anti-war movement going into 2006? Or will we be in a mode to keep on the offense? How will we argue that the strategy will not bring peace?
4. What do you need to respond? In each scenario, what resources or adaptations does your local group need to respond?



Analysis of the current situation


On the battlefield: a sinking quagmire

It is risky to base an analysis on battlefield reports, especially given the Pentagon’s propaganda, the media’s limitations, and the general lack of information about the Iraqi insurgency. Anything is possible, but clearly a sense of panic has set in among Washington decision-makers since the installation of the new Iraqi client regime a few months ago. For example, Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel says the war is being lost (NYT, June 21). Baghdad is “effectively enemy territory, with an ability to strike at will, and to shake off the losses inflicted by American troops.” (NYT, January 20, 2005) US casualties from guerrilla bomb attacks have reached "new heights", with 700 attacks with improvised weapons killing 71 Americans during the past six weeks (NYT, June 22). Military analysts recognize that the US cannot hold the territory it occupies. The airport road remains a nightmare. These are the classic contradictions of an occupying power trying to prop up an unpopular regime against a nationalist-based resistance. The training and deployment of Iraqi counter-insurgency troops (Iraqization) has failed so far, with US commanders saying it will take several years. “American troops have been conducting nighttime patrols to make sure the Iraqis stay awake”, according to an unusually candid front-page NY Times article (June 19). Sen. Biden was informed privately that of 107 Iraqi battalions, only three were fully-operational (June 6).

Against all evidence, however, senior correspondents like the Times’ John Burns continue to see the war through the filters of previous conflicts. Burns calls the Syrian-Iraqi border a new “Ho Chi Minh Trail”, ignoring the fact that there is no North Vietnam, no China, no Soviet Union serving as a “rear base” for the insurgents, but inadvertently lending support to the argument that the US should send more troops to seal the border. More unfortunately, Burns has penned an opinion piece called “The Mystery of the Insurgency” (May 15) which says “counter-insurgency experts are baffled”. Sounding like Mr. Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darknesss, Burns cannot simply conclude that the US invasion itself is the cause of a fiery Iraqi nationalism, because that would imply that US withdrawal might lessen the violence.

Perhaps the most significant factor on the ground is the rise of an Iraqi movement calling for US withdrawal and ending the occupation. The peace movement should consider calling for US peace talks with the Iraqi peace movement.

In January of this year, a Brookings Institute report showed 82 percent of Sunnis and 69 percent of Shiites favored a “near-term US withdrawal” (NYT, Feb. 21, 2005). Just before the Iraqi elections, US intelligence warned that the winning faction would press for a withdrawal date. (NYT, Jan. 19, 2005). This was considered “grim” news and efforts were taken to squelch the peace sentiment. Next Harith al-Dari, a prominent Sunni cleric, along with the Muslim Scholars Association, called for a US withdrawal timetable, saying “We do not insist that the Americans withdraw at once, as long as they stay in their bases and cease to marginalize our political life.” (NYT, March 29, 2005)Then 100,000 Iraqi Shiites, the winners in the election, demonstrated on the streets of Baghdad calling for US withdrawal. (NYT, April 10). A few days later, the leader of a “hard-line” Sunni group “who says he has links with insurgent fighters” was rebuffed when he tried for weeks to open talks with American officials on behalf of the insurgents. (NYT, April 15, 2005). Last week 82 Iraqi members of the 285-member US-dominated parliament sent a letter calling for US withdrawal to Speaker Hajem Al-Hassani.(Journal of Turkish Weekly, June 19). “It is dangerous that the Iraqi government has asked the UN Security Council to prolong the stay of occupation forces without consulting representatives of the people who have a mandate for such a decision”, the letter said.

And as the HuffingtonPost reported yesterday, the London Sunday Times is describing secret and "deniable" talks between American intelligence operatives and insurgent groups responsible for suicide bombings.

The only conclusion one can draw from these scattered reports is that the Bush Administration is threatened by any peace sentiment among Iraqis before the US somehow defeats the insurgents. This leaves an opportunity for anti-war critics to call for cease-fire talks (publicly and back-channel) in support of the Iraqi majority. Many guerrilla conflicts have been suspended when the guerrillas’ legitimate demands were recognized as part of a political process. Secretary of State Rice seeks “inclusiveness” by inviting fifteen token Sunnis to the table while the US military occupies their neighborhoods. Instead she must understand “inclusiveness” to mean the inclusion of the majority of Iraqis who will at least tolerate the insurgency until the US agrees to end the occupation.

The US may be missing an opportunity for back-channel talks about guarantees that the withdrawal will be peaceful, that oil supplies will be protected, and that Israel will not be attacked from Baghdad. No one can know – but Secretary Rumsfeld is proud of saying “we have no exit strategy, only a victory strategy.”(NYT, April 13, 2005) That’s what Americans in Saigon kept saying until they were jumping on helicopters from rooftops in 1975. The possibility cannot be discounted that the Green Zone will be attacked and overrun in an offensive like that in Saigon in January 1968. What then?


The US Military Recruitment Crisis Deepens

The single greatest achievement of the anti-war movement is the pressure on military recruitment as well as support for dissenting GIs. The previous generation of anti-war activists forced an end to the draft, which may be an obstacle too great for the President to surmount. That earlier generation has become the parents of this generation’s draft-age youth, a fact which deeply disturbs a Pentagon hoping to eradicate “the Vietnam Syndrome.”

“The Pentagon is especially vexed by a generation of more activist parents who have no qualms about projecting their own views onto their children.” (NYT, “Parents Emerging as Military Recruiters’ Big Obstacle”)

See also: on recruitment “death spiral”, NYT, May 13, 2005; “Army Recruiters Say They Feel Pressure To Bend the Rules”, NYT, May 3, 2005; “Army Recruiting More High School Dropouts to Meet Goals”, NYT, June 11, 2005. And then there’s this: at least 37 Army recruiters have gone AWOL since October 2002, NYT, Mar. 27, 2005)

The recruitment crisis is connected to a morale crisis on the battlefield itself. The first fragging (and killing) of American officers by an American soldier since the 2003 invasion was reported last week. (NYT, June 18)


“Coalition of the Willing” Weakens

You might not know it from the media, but the “coalition” having troops on the ground in Iraq has declined from 34 to 20 nations. The US’ two staunchest allies, Britain’s Blair and Italy’s Berlusconi, suffered politically in recent elections due to their pro-war stances. And the last paragraph of a New York Times article datelined Baghdad on March 13 reported that Ukraine was pulling out its 150 troops by October. It’s not just the “old Europe” that is opposed to sending troops, but America’s very own new allies inside the former Soviet Union.

Second to the US in troop commitments is not a government or country at all, but over 20,000 stateless mercenaries from former repressive armies in South Africa, El Salvador, Colombia, the US and the UK, all paid for by American taxpayers.(LAT, June 11, 2005).

“Coalition of the Willing” allies like Pakistan and Uzbekistan are increasingly in the news for torture and other human rights violations, drawing fire from concerned Congressmen who question whether the US trained those responsible for the recent massacre of hundreds in Uzbekistan, where terror suspects have been “rendered” by the US. (NYT, May 29, 2005)

Little noticed is that the US alliances in the war on terrorism are provoking violence elsewhere. For example, one thousand US troops are training African countries to combat terrorism to “get ahead of the power curve”, which has led to an Algerian attack killing 15 Mauritanians who were denounced as “agents of America in the region.” (June 10, 2005). The secret low-intensity warfare continues, provoking more anti-American hatred across the Islamic world.

Finally, Congress Wakes Up

The leadership of the Democratic Party – Reid, Pelosi, even Howard Dean – have been absolutely AWOL during the past six months, driving local Democrats and activists to despair and confusion. Thanks to local activists and Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), Democratic conventions in California, Wisconsin and Massachusetts, passed anti-war resolutions at their conventions. But the party line was to dissociate from the Iraq issue altogether, stranding a courageous handful like representatives Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee who offered a withdrawal resolution in late January.

All that changed last week. The doves have found their wings. Rep. John Conyers led important hearings on the Downing Street Memoranda which showed top Bush officials were “fixing the evidence to fit the policy.” Over one hundred Democrats, including Pelosi, signed Conyers’ letter demanding answers from the Administration. Five hundred thousand petitions were carried by Conyers and others to the White House. Maxine Waters led a rebellion against Pelosi behind closed doors which resulted in the formation of a fifty-member “Out of Iraq” caucus. Five House Republicans broke ranks from the Administration for the first time, including the South Carolina Congressman who once proposed renaming French fries “freedom fries”. The Congress voted to protect public libraries from the Patriot Act.

An emboldened anti-war movement plans national actions for September 26.

Move.on, which was AWOL for months, tending to follow opinion rather than lead, joined the Conyers effort to solicit petitions from its members. Win Without War, similarly dormant for months, scheduled meetings and press conferences enthusiastically. The United for Peace and Justice official working group on pressuring Congress will hold its first meeting next week.

The grass-roots anger directed at the party leadership was having an effect, as reported by many members after visiting their constituencies. Public opinion was running sixty percent in favor of partial or total withdrawal. Hundreds of Iraqis and Americans had been killed since the installation of the new Iraqi government. The Downing Street documents proved once again that the reasons for war were fabricated. The Abu Graeb scandals were destroying the reputation of the Pentagon. Bush was declining in the polls. And so the politicians decided to show up.

All cynicism aside, that is great news. The climate has changed, at least for now. The rank-and-file of the anti-movement have an opportunity to move Congress from fence-sitting to forward motion.

A major moral force all along has been the military families, who unswervingly insist on accountability from the Administration and will not quite whatever the ups and downs of the war’s course.

It has to be recognized strategically that ending the war will require a left-right alliance. Those in the centrist establishment tend to be blinded to reality by their power, which results in muddled analysis and rhetoric (an explanation for Senator Biden, Senator Kerry, or the New York Times editorial writers). For example, when the library amendment to the Patriot Act passed with 38 Republican votes, one House strategist complained of “the crazies on the left and the crazies on the right, meeting in the middle.”(Washington Post, June 16, 2005).

The anti-war groups now will confer on how to deepen grass-root organizing in selected congressional districts around withdrawal, ending taxes for torture, military recruiting, etc. A key issue will be the costs of the war, easily available on costsofwar.com on city, state, and federal levels. For example, the up-to-the-second total cost of the war now is $178, 136, 219, 056 (that actually was thirty minutes ago). That’s one billion dollars per week. These same funds could have purchased:

- nationally, health insurance for 46.4 million people, or Head Start enrollments for 27 million kids, or 8.6 million four-year college scholarships, or 3.5 million new elementary teachers, or seven years of fully-funded global anti-hunger efforts;
- the portion paid by Los Angeles taxpayers would fund 91, 851 four-year public university scholarships.

Carry those facts to the congressional district offices, PTA meetings and recruitment centers, and there will be effects. Some activists are discussing the construction of Iraq-style prison cages outside of congressional and/or recruitment offices – and leafleting passers-by from the inside. The tactical possibilities are endless.

Not only can the war’s end be hastened, but beyond the left-right alliance, the peace movement can contribute to the reconstruction of a locally-grounded new progressive movement conscious of the links between empire and domestic priorities. This would be a historical development of lasting importance. For example, out of the Vietnam experience came an American public suspicion of plans to police the world and executive secrecy that lasted beyond Watergate until human rights became an accepted principle of American policy. The same progressive momentum can be achieved through the ending of the Iraq war; in fact, it already has begun.

A Note of Caution

Unfortunately, the anti-war movement depends on the costly quagmire continuing in Iraq. Americans become frustrated at the sight of failure on television, failure coming home in coffins, failure of politicians to tell the truth. They are not against forcing a Saddam Hussein from power, even by questionable methods. They are not against using force and violence if they feel threatened or if the cause seems just. And by definition, they cannot oppose secret wars that go unreported on television.

Thus, Iraq is a moment of illumination that may not come again soon. It is on television as long as Americans are dying. It can also illuminate how power works in this country for this post-Vietnam generation.

So what will Karl Rove do?

He can escalate, de-escalate, or wait and see if the insurgency wears down and the Iraqis adopt a constitution and elect a government. It is no accident that the Administration’s current (public) blueprint ends in December, the beginning of the 2006 American election year. While Rove mulls the options, the peace movement should be undertaking an exercise in grass-roots scenario planning so that activists are prepared for any eventuality. (see proposal above).

For perspective, here are some facts from the Vietnam era, all drawn from historians George Herring and Chester Poch in 1968, The World Transformed.

After the Tet Offensive in January 1968, President Johnson dismissed the impact to reporters by joking that “there may have been a sargeant asleep with a beer in his hand and his zipper open, or a man in a jeep with a woman in his lap.” Privately, however, the Administration was going nuts. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs disclosed that an American defeat “was a very near thing”, that rural pacification efforts were destroyed, and that part of the countryside had fallen into enemy hands. The White House organized a “progress campaign” to target the media and public opinion with good news. For example, they deliberately under-estimated enemy combat strength by 120,000. By November 1967 fifty-one percent of the American people still believed the US was making progress. By January 1968, LBJ’s critics outnumbered supporters by 47 to 39 percent. But the combination of the presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy, Robert Kennedy, and the Tet Offensive resulted in the President sending Robert McNamara, the Wolfowitz of his era, off to the World Bank, and a few weeks later Johnson offered his resignation. But the war continued for seven more years, during which time a majority of its casualties were inflicted.

How this could have happened is another story, having to do with divisions in the anti-war opposition and the machinations of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. History, in other words, could repeat itself in Iraq.

Hopefully this scenario is wrong, but it is important always to hope for the best and plan for the worst. #

ENDING THE IRAQ WAR, AN ORGANIZER’S GUIDE.

The strategy is to undermine the pillars that make the war possible, while building new pillars of peace and justice.

The Pillars of War

1. public opinion. Goal: to achieve a solid majority who believe the costs have outrun any benefits. Primary method: targeted education and outreach. Issues: casualties, budgetary cost, prison torture, contractor corruption, unilateralism, country becoming less safe.
2. Military recruitment. Goal: to limit the troops available to fight. Primary methods: increase pressure against military recruiters by parents and young people, support dissenting soldiers, oppose diversion of reserves and guard.
3. Congressional opposition. Goal: to increase bipartisan questioning of war and amendments to limit or end taxpayer funding. Primary methods: build anti-war coalitions in targeted congressional districts, demand hearings and accountability, pressure for withdrawal timetable and funding cuts. Issues: go to costsofwar.com for information on the war’s costs.
4. Left-Right Alliance. Goal: encourage Republican and “red state” opposition to while building up progressive anti-war forces among Democrats, independents and Greens. Primary methods: stress costs in blood, taxes and reputation, expose fabrications that led to American deaths, work closely with military families. For Democrats build grass-roots opposition through groups like Progressive Democats of America.
5. Coalition of Willing. Goal: reduce allied troops in Iraq, increase military isolation of US. Primary methods: publicly defend countries that pull troops, support global peace and justice movement pressure on UK, Italy, etc., condemn coalition with known human rights abusers like Uzbekistan, Pakistan.

The Pillars of Peace and Justice

• build a long-term anti-empire, pro-democracy movement as permanent force
• link peace with domestic budget cuts
• link with working class through counter-recruitment
• link with environment/consumer through energy conservation/renewables
• link with civil liberties through anti-torture, anti-Patriot Act
• link with spiritual community through anti-Christian extremism
• link with conservatives through economic and security costs

Iraq Research and Education Project
10536 Culver Blvd #H2
Culver City 90232

tom@tomhayden.com

Billmon.org

"Free Thinking in a Dirty Glass"

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The thousands of people on our Mother Earth who each day in so many different and wonderful ways are contributing to "Love In Action" inspires me and I am honored to join those multitudes of people who are dedicated to bringing about the change of heart necessary for our evolution to a higher consciousness.

Sharing a soul's link with all who promote and practice the ideals of Peace and Love, I strive to do my small part, heart to heart, encouraging the transformation which will lead to greater Peace and Love for everyone.

My special project is the production and distribution of Cosmic Cash/Dharma Dollars.

S.F.Heart is my labour of Love and I have dedicated it to my long lasting love affair with my city, San Francisco and her facts and fancies.

It is filled with the things most meaningful to me, peace, beauty, love, poetry, music, healing energy, esoteric studies as well as the happy memories of my hippie days.

This is my oasis away from the confusion and delusion of our general American Life. There are no billboards, no gadgets or the latest 'must have' items to purchase other than the books and posters that are offered here. It is my hope that the books and posters will inspire, educate and/or expand hearts and minds and at the same time help me support S.F.Heart..

It makes me very happy when others enjoy the time they spend here. My wish is that the people who visit will as I do, find something here that will sweeten their everyday lives.

peace and love, Nicole Savage

Pigs-In-Lipstick.co.uk

It is mounting, an ever increasing lurch from the American media to stop sugar coating news and performing sexual favours for the Bush Administration.

It has been slow in happening, even the American people are starting to feel the abject disillusionment for W like the rest of the world, as the Presidents detachment from what is really happening becomes ever more extreme and desperate.

The Presidents approval rating is the lowest since Nixon during Watergate.

http://www.pigs-in-lipstick.co.uk/images/checkmate_hge.jpg

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CrisisPictures.org

Crisis Pictures has taken on the job of buying and posting on the web that photo, as well as hundreds of other pictures of the humanitarian disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Africa, and elsewhere that would otherwise go unseen.

What does Crisis Pictures do?

We publish the pictures the mainstream media exclude, every day.

Crisis Pictures is a primary source. Most of the time, if we didn’t buy these pictures, they would not appear on the internet (or any other medium) at all.

Why do we do it?

Our simple message is, "this is happening and we must do something." Our service is a forum for conversation about what that "something" might be.

Crisis Pictures has just lost access to their image server because their financial resources can't keep up with the cost of bandwidth for their increasingly heavy traffic. All of Crisis Pictures' money comes from donations, and if we on the web don't reach into our pockets quickly a vital service will go down the tubes. And only the photos that Dubya and his minions want us to see will be telling the stories.

Go here to make a donation to Crisis Pictures. This magpie just did.

Via Across the Great Divide and The Sideshow.

Posted by magpie at 05:07 PM

DailyWarNews.blogspot.com

Today in Iraq

"There are some who, uh, feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: Bring 'em on. We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation. “ - George W. Bush, July 2, 2003.

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