AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water

AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water:

"'We came to see that the conflicts over water are really about fundamental questions of democracy itself: Who will make the decisions that affect our future, and who will be excluded?' they wrote in the book's preface. 'And if citizens no longer control their most basic resource, their water, do they really control anything at all?'As the effects of climate change are being felt around the world, including decreasing snowpacks and rainfall, water is quickly becoming the market's new holy grail.Mayor Gary Podesto, in his State of the City address to his constituents in 2003, sang the praises of privatization to his community, located in California's Central Valley. 'It's time that Stockton enter the 21st century in its delivery of services and think of our citizens as customers,' he said.And there is the crux of the issue -- privatization means transforming citizens into customers. Or, in other words, making people engaged in a democratic process into consumers looking to get the best deal.It is also means taking our most important resource and putting it at the whims of the market."

Christians Demand Bush be Impeached for Worshiping Satan

Christians Demand Bush be Impeached for Worshiping Satan

: "The United States is spending close to one billion dollars building an embassy in Iraq that is going to be as big if not bigger than Vatican City. How can Bush justify spending this money on an embassy when Baghdad is still in shambles and the Veteran's Administration in the United States is in complete disarray? It is clear that Bush does'ntt care about U.S. military personnel, or the Iraqi people. Instead, Bush is more concerned with building a new modern day version of Babylon as part of an effort to further the influence of his satanic New World Order masters. Bush and his New World Order masters believe that they themselves are living gods on earth and exempt from divine judgment.

The evidence is overwhelming. George W. Bush,s association with these secret societies coupled with his actions that have caused an untold amount of death and destruction is clear proof that he worships Satan. We are demanding that Bush and any other member of his administration that poses as a fake Christian and worships Satan in secret be removed from office immediately.

I couldn't make up stuff like this... nor could I agree more!

"

Infoshop News - Suspected anarchists burn cars outside Athens police station

Infoshop News - Suspected anarchists burn cars outside Athens police station:

"Suspected anarchist youths threw petrol bombs at cars parked outside a central Athens police station on Thursday, destroying 12 vehicles in the latest of a spate of arson attacks, officials said. Police said two patrol cars, four unmarked police cars and a police motorcycle were among the burnt vehicles. There were no injuries or arrests."

Iranian President Ahmadinejad DID NOT threaten to "wipe Israel off the map."

Representative Press:

"'I think that the Israeli government is a fabricated government and I have talked about the solution. The solution is democracy. We have said allow Palestinian people to participate in a free and fair referendum to express their views. What we are saying only serves the cause of durable peace. We want durable peace in that part of the world. A durable peace will only come about with once the views of the people are met.'"

ZNet |Ecology | Consume Like There's No Tomorrow

ZNet |Ecology | Consume Like There's No Tomorrow :

"The most basic task for stopping global warming is having a moral, ethical and spiritual revolution based on the belief that excessive crap is bad. Reduction of unnecessary production is the antithesis of what corporations are all about. However destructive it is for the planet, corporations must seek to convince people to consume more and more."

Joe Bageant: A Feral Dog Howls in Harvard Yard

Joe Bageant: A Feral Dog Howls in Harvard Yard

"But even when the last Toyota Prius is forever moldering in the globally warmed deserts of Minneapolis, we proles will not be totally unprofitable creatures. Yesterday I read a gem of an economic paper asserting that in the emerging information, amusement, service, and 'experience and attention economy,' it is vital that 'private business capture ownership and control of the public's knowledge and its attending rent streams.' Apparently it's not bad enough that we become a third rate gulag of impoverished nitwits. They are going to charge us for the privilege."

A Tiny Revolution: As Shocking As This Sounds, I Suspect Condoleezza Rice May Not Be 100% Honest

A Tiny Revolution: As Shocking As This Sounds, I Suspect Condoleezza Rice May Not Be 100% Honest: "A former top American diplomat says the US deliberately resisted calls for a immediate ceasefire during the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

Former ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the BBC that before any ceasefire Washington wanted Israel to eliminate Hezbollah's military capability.

Mr Bolton said an early ceasefire would have been 'dangerous and misguided'.

He said the US decided to join efforts to end the conflict only when it was clear Israel's campaign wasn't working...

Mr Bolton, a controversial and blunt-speaking figure, said he was 'damned proud of what we did' to prevent an early ceasefire."

...Someone wake me up when we start shunning psychopaths like Bolton, as opposed to giving them government positions and having news outlets seek their opinions.

Shorter Bolton: Lebanese citizens? Fuck 'em!

Fidel Castro: Biofuels and Global Hunger

In additional response to a comment by Rick on ethanol production I proudly post these observations by one of our favorite boogy men, Fidel!!!

I have to add, the days of unlimited, low cost, both economically and environmentally, fuel are numbered. Time to start riding a bike!


Fidel Castro: Biofuels and Global Hunger:

"The president urged Congress
to 'move expeditiously' on legislation the administration
recently proposed to require the use of 35 billion gallons of
alternative fuels by 2017 and seek higher fuel economy standards
for automobiles."

Today we know with accurate precision that one ton of corn can only render as an average 413 liters of ethanol (109 gallons), a figure that may vary according to the latter's density.

The average price of corn in US ports has reached 167 dollars per ton. The production of 35 billion gallons of ethanol requires 320 million tons of corn. According to FAO, US corn production in 2005 reached 280.2 million tons.

Even if the President is speaking about producing fuel out of switchgrass or wood chips, any person could understand that these phrases are far from realistic. Listen well: 35 billion gallons, 35 followed by nine zeros!

Let this formula be applied to the Third World countries, and the world will see how many hungry people on this planet will cease to consume corn. What is worse, let the poor countries receive some financing to produce ethanol from corn or any other foodstuff and very soon not a single tree will be left standing to protect humanity from climate change.

All countries of the world without exception, whether rich or poor, could save trillions of dollars in investments and fuel if they only replace all incandescent bulbs with fluorescent bulbs, which is what Cuba has done in all the residential areas of the country. This would be a palliative that will enable us to cope with climate change without killing the poor people in this planet with hunger.

...Therefore, despite the excellent technology designed by Brazil to produce alcohol, its use in Cuba to produce alcohol from sugarcane juice is nothing but a dream, the ravings of those who entertain such ideas. In our country, the land which would otherwise be devoted solely to the production of alcohol could be better used to produce foodstuffs for the people and protect the environment.

The Culling By D. Allan Kerr:Papa was a Rolling Stone's illegal substance

The Culling By D. Allan Kerr:

Papa was a Rolling Stone's illegal substance

:
God bless Keith Richards...

"In an interview published this week, the legendary guitarist and party mammal was asked to describe the strangest thing he ever snorted.

'My father,' he said."

The Blog | Tony Hendra: Can Hillary Be Bought? Never! Not For a Mere $26 Million! | The Huffington Post

The Blog | Tony Hendra: Can Hillary Be Bought? Never! Not For a Mere $26 Million! | The Huffington Post:

"'I'm going to be just as good as Republicans at sending the message to voters that our democracy is secondary to influence and any principle however hallowed is for sale. I'm going to be just as good as Republicans at getting voters young and old to lose faith in the electoral process - thus increasing the power of the backroom oligarchs with whom I intend to do business.

'In fact I'm just as good as Republicans at being Republican! But I'm also a Democrat! How can you lose? Vote for me - the best of both worlds!



"

Narco News: Out-Flanked: A New War on Terra Arrives with Bush-Lula Ethanol Deal

Narco News: Out-Flanked: A New War on Terra Arrives with Bush-Lula Ethanol Deal:

"Not only will both Brazil and the USA become kings of the new worldwide ethanol fuels industry, but the very company running everything will be the Miami Florida based Inter-American Ethanol Commission: The former Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, and now agri-business tycoon, Roberto Rodrigues, created this newly formed company just last December. Who are his two principle partners? Luis Alberto Moreno from Columbia and Jeb Bush!

Now if people really begin to consider all the strange goings on emanating out of Brasilia from the Lula administration and the history of ethanol bio-fuels in general, things begin to make a lot more sense. Why was nothing of any importance done to stem the human tide of Nordestinos heading south year after year? Why would Lula turn his back on his Leftist past and do nothing to reform the crushing grip the oligarchs still have on the Brazilian economy? Why was the PT systematically gutted with scandal after scandal? Why was Lula so eager to commit troops after the anti-Aristide Coup in Haiti? Why was Lula running around "liberating" oil markets from previously pariah regimes like Libya and later Angola? Don't forget that green and eco-friendly "Save the Amazon"campaign, either. Finally, what does the new ethanol bio-fuels pact between Brazil and the USA (Bush Family) really mean?"

I'll tell you what it really means, the bush dynasty will continue to have it's jack booted foot on our throats for the next hundred years unless we throw the f#*kers in jail. Keep reading...

The answers are that the newly displaced Nordestino populations will make excellent slave labor for the expected ethanol producing sugarcane fields and sugar processing mills. The oligarchs as usual will be running and profiting from the enterprise. The PT has been effectively neutralized to keep anyone from getting in the way. Haiti is where the processed sugarcane will be refined into the new E10 ethanol based fuels which can be readily consumed by the American auto owners soon to be weaned off of fossil fuels coming out of the Middle East and Venezuela for starters. Lula has been an active agent promoting Big Oil’s interest in emerging third world markets and petroleum fields.

The Brazilian Amazon looks like the perfect place to plant ever larger sugarcane crops for the soon to be exponentially growing worldwide ethanol demand. Brazil plans on doubling its ethanol production in five years to 30 billion liters. They’ll eventually have to quadruple this number once serious American ethanol consumption begins. In less than twenty years 300 billion liters are planned to be produced to feed other world markets such as China and India. Serious acreage is going to be needed to pull this off and take a big guess as to where this acreage can be found?

Finally, the Bush Family is re-diversifying its worldwide energy investments. Perhaps the sheiks of the Mid-East aren’t going to be such good close friends in the years to come? The Brazilian Oligarchs look much more interesting? Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. The Bush Family has recently bought massive amounts of real estate in nearby Paraguay’s Chaco Region: an excellent geographical area to reside if you’re also interested in other energy industries and markets such as natural gas and hydroelectric Power. In the North it’s Bolivia, to the South is Argentina, to the West are Chile and Peru and to the East is Brazil. Well done.

Lieberman: Let's Have A "War Tax" | The Huffington Post

Lieberman: Let's Have A "War Tax" | The Huffington Post: "How about a $100/barrel tax on imported oil? That would make the Persian Gulf irrelevent to the US national interest and we could bring the troops home.

Ford and GM could reinvent themselves as manufacturers of mass transit. Those who always knew they could work as well at home on their computer as in the office would get their chance. And the average family, freed from the necessity of paying $500 or more per month in car payments, gasoline, maintenance and insurance would fuel a massive run-up in the economy.
By: Paul on February 06, 2007 at 05:57pm Flag: [abusive]"

AxisofLogic/ Featured

"'Individuals, under the 21st century socialism, enjoy an absolute right of private property in their consumer goods, especially in their toothbrushes and underwear.'"

The Christmas Truce'- When Men Said No To War

"On Christmas Day, 1914, in the first year of World War I, German, British, and French soldiers disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with 'the enemy' along two-thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, 'Merry Christmas.' 'You no shoot, we no shoot.' Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Chrismas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.

A shudder ran through the high command on either side.
Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with
each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this
spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial.
By March, 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the
killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice
in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered."

Merry Christmas everyone! And remember to give middle finger bird of peace to every general in every army in the world, in rememberance of the 75 million people killed by their decisions during two world wars.

The NarcoSphere || Authentic Journalism of the Masses

"'You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God. (Leviticus 19:34)"

Thomas Paine's Corner: Expanding Markets and Dying Oceans:

"It's time to wake up and smell the mythology. God has no will. God has no more of a plan than a tree has a financial portfolio. God does not say God bless you: Your life is not an eternal sneeze in need of a perpetual gesundheit. And there never was a character who rose from this sin-sullied earth and took up residence in the starry filament named Jesus Christ --who will love you no matter how big of an asshole you are: That's the job of your dog. "

The Blog | Gerald Bracey: Things Fall Apart: No Child Left Behind Self-Destructs | The Huffington Post

"These standardized tests do not and could never measure the creative and innovative brain of the american student, our secret weapon.
But others around the world recognize it, including Sim Wong Hoo, founder and CEO of Singapore-based Creative Technology (Singapore has those top test scores that NCLB chomps at the bit to achieve, check out TIMSS) when asked by Newsweek about the advantages to having his business located in Singapore, he answered, 'the advantage is we come from a very conscientious culture. You tell our people what to do, they'll follow the rules, they'll do it. The downside is they are not as creative. We fixed that by having a U.S.-based R&D team that's doing more advanced research.'

The United States is responsible for most of the creative technological advances we have seen last week, last year and the past 40 years (like the core innovations that spurred on the global digital revolution). Foreign brains in the US you say?? according to the US Department of Labor in 2004 only 9% of the professions related to science and technology were foreign-born. It shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that China is working toward a school system with more choices and flexibilty for its students, just like we have had since the 60's, please stop talking about the broken education system here."

Letting Citizens Make Legislation | NewAssignment.Net

"Citizens using the Internet to monitor their representatives and the legislation that they draft is nothing novel. But a new Sunlight Foundation project aimed at allowing citizen legislatures to collaboratively script their own legislation, challenging what representative democracy means, certainly is.
Past elections have proven that a candidate's willingness and ability to engage online communities can mean the difference between winning and losing an election. But with this project, The Sunlight Foundation, a funder of NewAssignment.Net, suggests that governance, not just election outcomes, can be changed as well.
Using the model of moreperfect.org, organizers have set up a wiki and divided the research project into four categories: identifying relevant, already-proposed legislation, gathering information and vetting news article about the legislation, suggesting legislative language or rules and suggesting amendments to existing bills.

"If this is a success, and we draft proposable legislation in this area, we can use this experiment to show lawmakers how they might do the same in the future share principles with their constituents, and work with them, instead of in secret, to turn those principals into laws" writes Zephyr Teachout, the Sunlight Foundation's national director."

Craigslist Meets the Capitalists

"Wendy Davis of MediaPost describes the presentation as a " culture clash of near-epic proportions." She recounts how UBS analyst Ben Schachter wanted to know how Craigslist plans to maximize revenue. "It doesn't," Mr. Buckmaster replied (perhaps wondering how Mr. Schachter could possibly not already know this). "That definitely is not part of the equation," he said, according to MediaPost. "It's not part of the goal."
"I think a lot of people are catching their breath right now," Mr. Schachter said in response.


Larry Dignan, writing on Between the Lines blog at ZDNet, called Mr. Buckmaster “delightfully communist,”
and described the audience as“confused capitalists wondering how a company can exist without the urge to maximize profits.”



I must have been a good boy this year 'cause I got an early christmas present!

Workers of the World Unite!

Henry Rollins Can Still Scream!!!

Henry Rollins


Since SheaNC has joined the video posting world I decided to join him. I call my first foray in to the brave new world...

" Yeah!... What He Said!" or... "I Wish I Had Said That!"

WARNING! Expletives abound so if you are in a room with small children or your Mom you might want to use headphones