How Chinese Military Hackers Took Over A Nuclear-Armed B52

The story sounded like a sequel to “Dr. Strangelove”. Leaked by the Pentagon's news service, Military Affairs to quell scuttlebutt racing through the ranks-and perhaps warn the world-a U.S. Air Force B-52 strategic bomber “mistakenly” loaded with six nuclear cruise missiles took off from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota on August 30, 2007 and flew for more than three hours over at least five states, before landing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

The mistake was so egregious, the National Command Authority comprising President George BU.S.h and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were quickly informed. The SecDef has since been assured that nuclear weapons “were part of a routine transfer between the two bases… at no time was the public in danger.”

Both statements are false.

In fact, nuclear weapons like these are carefully crated for shipment between bases, and placed inside the bomb bays or cargo compartments of transporting aircraft. In stunning contrast, this reporter has learned from two independent and highly placed sources that the six Advanced Cruise Missiles dangling from the B-52's fatigued and flexible wings were fully armed and ready to fire-except for a single fail/safe switch under the Command Pilot's control.

The quickly blacked out episode has prompted an Air Force investigation. Gates, whose official defense computer was hacked last June, necessitating the shutdown of the entire SecDef network, has ordered daily briefings on the Air Force inquiry. The Minot base commander, who might turn out to be the hero in this frightening affair, was relieved of his command.....

http://www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Command_Override.html

Germany: Staff of occupied bicycle factory take up production

Germany, FAU-IAA: Staff of occupied bicycle factory in the Thuringian
Nordhausen take up production in self-management
20 Sep 2007

Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union Fettstr. 23, 20357 Hamburg -
http://www.fau.org FAU-IAA Pressrelease ----- Hamburg/Nordhausen, 19th
of September in 2007:

Staff of occupied bicycle factory in the Thuringian Nordhausen take up
production in self-management again The 135 colleagues of the bicycle
factory Bike Systems GmbH in the Thuringian Nordhausen, who keep the
factory occupied since 10th of July 2007, decided to resume the
production of bicycles in self-management. For this aim 1,800 binding
orders on bicycles must be received till 2nd of October. So the
collegues are working together with the anarcho-syndicalist union FAU
(Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union -- Free Workers-Union), which
formed for this campaign the internetpage http://www.strike-bike.de.
Since more than two month the staff keep the factory in the south of
Harz Mountains in three shifts occupied. They want to prevent the
definite dismantling and sale of the factory. The file for bankruptcy
from 10th of august is against long odds: The factory is exploited and
ran down, the hall was emptied except for the coating line. The staff
receives unemployment compensation and hopes for a new concept and a new
investor.

The "Strike Bike" -- Solidarity-Bikes from Nordhausen

In the time of occupation and in the wake of discussions during the
visits of solidarity people, the colleagues of the factory developed the
idea to initially take up the production in self-management for a short
time. Because it's not the point to only prevent the evacuation of the
last machines and to wait for a new investor, the idea of an own
”Strike-Bike“ meet with more and more response. Now the opportunity
arises to show the ability to develop an own concept and to self-manage
production and distribution.

If it goes well to collect 1,800 advance orders for the bicycles
produced in self-direction, we spread solidary ideas and bolster the
colleagues in similar situations, not to let themselves easily being
restructured to zero. By whomsoever!

The staff gets assistancy by the solidary members of anarcho-syndicalist
union Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union (Free workers-union),
which will become active in whole germany to spread the knowledge of the
struggle of the bicycle-workers and to support the sale of the
"Strike-Bike."

More Informations can be received at: http://www.strike-bike.de
for background informations and history of the occupation
http://www.labournet.de/branchen/sonstige/fahrzeug/bikesystems.html

To get in contact with the staff and to take orders

»Bikes in Nordhausen e.V.«
c/o. Andrι Kegel,
Bruno-Kunze-Str. 39 - 99734 Nordhausen
Telefon: 03631 - 622 124 and 03631 - 403 591
Fax: 03631 - 622 170
eMail: fahrradwerk@gmx.de

For further informations about the campaign of the FAU-Strike
Bike-Solidaritygroup:
Spokesperson:
Folkert Mohrhof
- mobile 0179-4863252 and ...
respectively monday till friday from 10 am till 3 pm:
+49 40 - 20 90 68 96

 

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070921082139118

--
Dan Clore

News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

Iran Threats / Gaza Crisis

STEPHEN ZUNES, zunes@usfca.edu,
http://www.stephenzunes.org
    Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus, Zunes said:
"[Iranian] General [Mohammed] Alavi's comment regarding Iran's
contingency plans to attack Israel with air and missile raids was
explicitly in reference to how Iran would respond if attacked by Israeli
forces. Despite White House claims to the contrary, Iran was simply
re-stating the policy it has in common with most countries: if a foreign
power attacks your country, you defend yourself by attacking them as
well. Israel has certainly made clear its willingness to do so if
attacked by Iran. Why does Washington find this Iranian position so
surprising or provocative?"
    Zunes is a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco
and the author of "Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of
Terrorism."
    The U.K.-based Center for International Studies and Diplomacy has
recently released a paper regarding U.S. plans for a possible attack on
Iran titled "Considering a War with Iran."
http://www.cisd.soas.ac.uk/index.asp-Q-Page-E-disarmament-and-globalisation--27216738

SARA ROY, sroy@fas.harvard.edu, http://www.counterpunch.org/roy10042006.html
    The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the Israeli government
has decided that it "would disrupt electricity and fuel supplies" to
Gaza. The United Nations Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon, said Wednesday:
"Such a step would be contrary to Israel's obligations towards the
civilian population under international humanitarian and human rights
law." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/905693.html
Senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
Harvard University, Roy is author of "The Gaza Strip: The Political
Economy of De-Development" and "Failing Peace: Gaza and the
Palestinian-Israeli Conflict."
    Roy said: "It is false to say that Hamas controls Gaza and Fatah
controls the West Bank. ... Israel controls all borders and hence, the
economy, all demographic and commercial movement, water and airspace.
Despite its 'disengagement' Israel still occupies Gaza as it does the
West Bank, where Israeli settlements and their infrastructure, and the
separation wall are the primary expressions of Israeli domination. It is
the occupation -- which gave rise to Hamas -- that is conveniently
overlooked, indeed forgotten, by many observers in the U.S."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167.

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org

Fujimori to stand trial in Peru

SANTIAGO (AFP) - Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori lost a long
legal battle Friday as Chile's Supreme Court ordered his extradition to
Peru to face trial on corruption and human rights abuses.

The decision, which cannot be appealed, will send Fujimori back to his
home country after seven years in exile to stand trial over alleged
massacres and rampant graft during his 1990-2000 rule.

"We have awarded the extradition," announced judge Alberto Chaigneau,
adding the court's decision was based on the weight of one human rights
charge -- covering two separate massacres -- and six corruption charges.

In Peru, rights groups and relatives of victims of Fujimori's regime
hailed the ruling while the government promised a fair trial.

Human Rights Watch called the decision an unprecedented step forward
for international justice.

"This is the first time that a court has ordered the extradition of a
former head of state to be tried for gross human rights violations in
his home country," the US-based organization said in a statement.

"After years of evading justice, Fujimori will finally have to respond
to the charges and evidence against him in the country he used to run
like a mafia boss," said HRW's Americas director Jose Miguel Vivanco,
who was in Santiago for the announcement.

Under house arrest in Santiago since 2005, Fujimori, 69, fled Peru in
2000 to Japan amid a corruption scandal and resigned by fax from a
Tokyo hotel.

Once known as a master strategist, Fujimori appeared to have
miscalculated when he was detained in Chile in 2005 on his way to Peru
hoping to make a political comeback.
Instead of a triumphant return to Peru as a candidate, he will now be
coming back to stand trial on grave charges he backed death squads that
killed civilians, and misused public funds. He faces up to 30 years in
jail for the human rights charges and 10 for the accusations of
corruption.

As Chile prepared to transfer Fujimori later Friday by land and air,
Peru welcomed the ruling, pledging a fair legal process and dignified
treatment for the ex-president during his detention.

"The next step is to bring him to Lima and to offer guarantees of a
fair trial," Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Garcia Belaunde told CPN
radio.

He said the Chilean Supreme Court had carried out its work with
"responsibility, seriousness and independence."

Fujimori was officially notified of the court decision in Santiago and
his defense lawyer said he had accepted the ruling.

The ex-president said after the decision he had believed he would be
extradited on fewer charges, but said he would prove his innocence.

"According to my calculations there were four (charges for
extradition) ... but I am certain and secure in addressing the actions
of my government in this trial and will emerge with honor," Fujimori
said in a radio interview from the Santiago residence where he has been
under house arrest.

Lima has accused him of responsibility in the 1992 massacre by state
forces of nine students at La Cantuta University, and the 1991 killing
of 15 people in a neighborhood of Lima, blamed on a military death
squad.

The acts were carried out by the army's Colina Group squadron during
the Fujimori government's bloody campaign against the Maoist Shining
Path insurgency.

He also faces a range of corruption charges, including misusing 15
million dollars in public funds.

Peruvian Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo vowed his government would
not politicize the case and said Fujimori should be treated with
"equity and justice."

Anti-corruption prosecutor Carlos Briceno said the trial would take
three to four months but would not say precisely where Fujimori would
be held.

Chile's high court judges had reviewed the Fujimori case after a single
judge ruled in July in Fujimori's favor against the extradition.

Born to Japanese emigrant parents, Fujimori spent five years in Japan
after fleeing Peru in 2000.

He had risen from obscurity as an little-known academic to capture the
presidency in 1990, defeating renowned writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who
was heavily favored in opinion polls.

A divisive figure, his tough crackdown against the Shining Path
insurgents won him loyal supporters but he was criticized for his
authoritarian style.

Japan, which confirmed Fujimori's citizenship, consistently refused
extradition requests from Lima before he flew unannounced to Chile in
2005 to launch another bid for Peru's presidency.

 

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/070921185925.3csvnrtp.html

Dehumanizing the Palestinians

By Ali Abunimah

The Israeli cabinet has voted to declare the occupied Gaza Strip a
"hostile entity," thus in its own eyes permitting itself to cut off
the already meagre supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel
that it allows the Strip's inmates to receive. The decision was
quickly given backing by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Israel is the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, despite having
removed its settlers in 2005 and transforming the area, home to 1.5
million mostly refugee Palestinians, into the world's largest
open-air prison which it besieges and fires into from the perimeter.
Under international law Israel is responsible for the well-being of
the people whose lives and land it rules.

There have been barely audible bleats of protest from the UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ("Such a step would be contrary to
Israel's obligations towards the civilian population under
international humanitarian and human rights law") and the European
Union ("The [European] Commission hopes that Israel will not find it
necessary to implement the measures for which the [cabinet]
decisions set the framework yesterday."

What? It hopes that Israel will not find it necessary to cut off
water supplies to 1.5 million people of whom half are children?

These statements serve only to underline that Israel operates in a
context where the "international community" has become inured to a
discourse of extermination of the Palestinian people -- political
and physical.

Yossi Alpher, for example, a former director of the Jaffee Center
for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University and once a special
adviser to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, argued coolly
this week that Israel should murder the democratically-elected
leaders who won the Palestinian legislative election in January 2006
-- calling for "decapitating the Hamas leadership, both military and
'civilian.'" True, he admitted, there would be a possible downside:
"Israel would again undoubtedly pay a price in terms of
international condemnation, particularly if innocent civilians were
killed," and because "Israel would presumably be targeting legally
elected Hamas officials who won a fair election." Nevertheless, such
condemnation would be quickly forgotten and, he argued, "this is a
mode of retaliation and deterrence whose effectiveness has been
proven," and thus, this is "an option worth reconsidering."

Alpher incited the murder of democratically-elected politicians not
in a fringe, right-wing journal, but in the European Union-funded
online newsletter Bitterlemons, which he co-founded along with
former Palestinian Authority minister Ghassan Khatib. What journal
would publish a call by a Palestinian -- or anyone else -- to murder
the Israeli prime minister? Alpher presumably does not worry that he
will be denied visas to travel to conferences in the European Union,
or will fail to receive invitations to American universities.
History tells us that he can feel confident he will suffer no
consequences. Indeed, in the current political climate, any attempt
to exclude Alpher might even be cast as an attack on academic
freedom!

Declarations that reduce Palestinians to bare biological life that
can be extinguished without any moral doubt are not isolated
exceptions. In May, as reported by The Jerusalem Post, Israel's
former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu issued a religious
ruling to the prime minister "that there was absolutely no moral
prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a
potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the
rocket launchings" (See "Top Israeli rabbis advocate genocide," The
Electronic Intifada, 31 May 2007). I could find no statement by any
prominent Israeli figure condemning Eliyahu's ruling.

And, in a September 6 blog posting, an advisor to leading US
Republican Presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani argued for
"shutting off utilities to the Palestinian Authority as well as a
host of other measures, such as permitting no transportation in the
PA of people or goods beyond basic necessities, implementing the
death penalty against murderers, and razing villages from which
attacks are launched." This, the advisor stated, would "impress
Palestinians with the Israeli will to survive, and so bring closer
their eventual acceptance of the Jewish state." (See: "Giuliani
Advisor: Raze Palestinian Villages," by Ken Silverstein, Harper's
Magazine, 14 September 2007) Giuliani faced no calls from other
candidates to dismiss the advisor for advocating ethno-religiously
motivated war crimes. Indeed the presence of such a person in his
campaign might even be an electoral asset.

The latest Israeli government declaration comes as Palestinians this
week marked the 25th anniversary of the massacres in Sabra and
Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, in which the Israeli occupation
army and political leadership were full participants. We can reflect
that Israel's dehumanization of Palestinians and other Arabs, its
near daily killing of children, destruction of communities and
racist apartheid against millions of people has been so normalized
that if those massacres occurred today Israel would not need to go
through the elaborate exercise of denying its culpability. Indeed,
the "international community" might barely notice.

[Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah is author of One
Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
(Metropolitan Books, 2006). ]

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9002.shtml

 

Angry activists confront Greenspan

WeAreChange Unmask Former Federal Reserve Chair's Role in Globalist
Takeover and Currency Assassination

Aaron Dykes

Activists angry at Alan Greenspan's recent deliberate attack on the
U.S. dollar -- which has already resulted in further devaluation and
asset seizure by foreign entities-- gathered at an event in New York
to confront the former Federal Reserve Chairman on his shameful
actions in contributing to a dollar collapse.

Members of WeAreChange.org were grabbed by police and forced out of
the building after criticizing Greenspan for "destroying the country."
Individuals who waited in line to ask Greenspan a question were told
that there were "no interviews" by event handlers, who then signaled
for police to take over.

Nate Evans was grabbed by more than four officers after criticizing
the "Federal" private bank Greenspan previously headed. Other
activists confronted Alan Greenspan as he left the event, giving him a
public shaming for acting on behalf of his globalist masters.

While the globalist-controlled mainstream media rewards economic
sabotage by portraying Greenspan and other financiers as economic
'saviors,' it is refreshing to know that many others are standing up
in defiance of deliberate devaluation.

Congressman Ron Paul ripped into current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke yesterday for intentionally weakening the dollar and
misleading the public when his sole function is supposed to be
maintaining the value of the dollar....

 

http://www.infowars.com/articles/economy/greenspan_confronted_by_activists_flees_from_angry_mob.htm

State Dept. vs. the Pentagon on Iraq

A disturbing bit of news in the New York Sun today: Eli Lake reports that the Sunni sheik who was assassinated Thursday was supposed to be in the United States last week, but his trip was delayed. The State Department says a problem with the paperwork held up the visa, but a military official told Lake that State Department officials deliberately sabotaged the trip....

.....I asked a former State Department official who currently works for the Pentagon if there was a danger that this sort of infighting could undermine Gen. Petraeus's strategy. He said that as long as Petraeus had the full support of the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, dissent at Foggy Bottom would likely remain limited to these sorts of petty squabbles. "[Crocker] isn’t doing one thing that hasn’t been approved by the Secretary of State," he said. "There are debates within the State Department, of course, but Condi Rice has made the decision and Ambassador Crocker is being a loyal soldier.

"Dissent within the State Department, particularly from a guy who doesn’t like the administration, who goes outside the policy and tries to put focus on himself, there’s nothing unusual about it," he said, adding that most career diplomats were Democrats. "If you don’t have dissent at the State Department, there’s probably a Democrat in office."

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTU2YzgxNTc3YzcwYjZhMDQ2NWQ0YzY2NjVmN2FiYjA=

Murdered Sunni Sheik Was Set To Visit U.S.

By ELI LAKE
Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Iraqi Sunni sheik credited with sparking the rebellion against Al Qaeda — and who was murdered Thursday — was scheduled to visit Washington last week, according to two American officials and an Iraqi politician close to the slain leader.

Yesterday, a State Department spokesman confirmed that Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi had applied for a visa to visit Washington. "We cleared him with absolutely no reservations, and the visa was being held up due to paperwork with the application and sponsor," the spokesman said.

Sheik Abdul Sattar, or as Iraqis called him, Abu Risha, was the leader of the Anbar Awakening, a political front that President Bush and General David Petraeus credit with driving Al Qaeda from its base in Anbar province this year. The late sheik was also emerging as a national Sunni politician who could provide Iraqis an alternative to the corrupted Sunni Tawafuq faction that started a boycott of the government in August. The Tawafuq bloc comprises three Sunni fundamentalist Muslim parties that have called for a withdrawal of American troops and supported violence against American troops. Some of the party's leadership has been implicated in acts of terrorism.

An American military official yesterday said the delay in Abu Risha's visa was in part political. This source pinned the decision to scuttle the trip on senior leaders at the State Department. However, the State Department spokesman yesterday dismissed the charge.

According to the military official, the State Department in particular is wary of following through too much on General David Petraeus's "bottom up" strategy. "There were howls of complaints when Abu Risha met with President Bush over Labor Day," this official said. "The truth of the matter is that the more we strengthen the tribes, the less cooperation we are going to get from the Sunnis in Baghdad."

Last week, the American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, pointed to ad hoc efforts from the government of Prime Minister al-Maliki to share oil revenue with the Sunni-dominated Anbar province in the absence of an oil law, one of the key political benchmarks for the Iraqi government that remains unfulfilled.

An independent Iraqi parliamentarian, Mithal al-Alusi, who was an ally of the Anbari sheik, yesterday confirmed that Abu Risha intended to travel to America with a delegation. Mr. Alusi said Abu Risha had intended to make the case to Congress last week for the same strategic patience counseled by General Petraeus.

Mr. Alusi also said that in August, Abu Risha said he hoped to be martyred, or made a shahid. "I met with him in August at Ibrahim Jaafari's house for dinner in Baghdad in the Green Zone, and he said to me, ‘I wish to have the honor to be a shahid before you.' From his understanding, I am a target for the terrorists, he is a target of the terrorists, so we were allies."

Mr. Alusi said the process for even Iraqi parliamentarians to receive a visa to travel to America is frustrating. "The visa issue in Baghdad is very terrible, it now takes weeks to get a visa even if you are a politician going back to the Iraqi governing council. If I ask for a visa, it takes at least three weeks until I have it, maybe more," he said.

Yesterday, the spokesman for Multinational Forces Iraq, Navy Rear Admiral Mark Fox, told reporters that coalition forces had tracked down a suspect in the assassination....

http://www.nysun.com/article/62864

 

Dan Rather : 'Somebody's got to take a stand..."

Dan Rather : 'Somebody's got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive... with government interference in news'

09/21/2007

Filed by Mike Aivaz and Muriel Kane

 

 

Former CBS anchor Dan Rather recently filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, saying they made him a "scapegoat" when he was fired for a September 2004 story on 60 Minutes about President Bush's unsatisfactory service in the Texas Air National Guard.

 

When Rather appeared on Larry King's program Thursday, King began by showing him a 2005 clip of himself saying, "I'm not a victim of anything except my own shortcomings."

But he added, "Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news."

"I've learned a good deal since that time," said Rather. "It's reported that Sumner Redstone [president of Viacom] ... was described as being enraged that the news division, this story, had cost Viacom and CBS in Washington, and he wanted Dan Rather and everybody connected with it out."

"They sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain, and in so doing, I think they undermined a lot at CBS News," he said.

Rather said he still believes the 60 Minutes report was correct. "[CBS] sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain," he stated, "and in so doing I think they undermined a lot at CBS News."

"Nobody to this day has shown that these documents were fraudulent," continued Rather, referring to the disputed memos featured in the 60 Minutes story. "Nobody has proved that they were fraudulent, much less a forgery. ... The truth of this story stands up to this day." Rather added that he believed somebody with subpoena power could get to the bottom of the matter pretty quickly.

The following video is from CNN's Larry King Live, broadcast on September 20, 2007....

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Dan_Rather_talks_about_Bush_AWOL_0921.html

 

Ingushetia is not Chechnya II...

...But Possibly Something Worse

 

Vienna, September 13 – Most commentators on the upsurge in violence in Ingushetia have suggested that this North Caucasus republic is set to become the next Chechnya. But two of the more thoughtful argue instead that Ingushetia is not Chechnya, with one of them suggesting that it represents something far more dangerous....

 

http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2007/09/window-on-eurasia-ingushetia-is-not.html

Vanessa Redgrave Combines Lifelong Devotion to Acting and Political Involvement in New HBO Film "The Fever"

Vanessa Redgrave in an excerpt from 'The Fever':

 

"The people who have a little determine a little, and the people who have a lot determine a lot, and the people who have nothing, determine nothing. And the workers obey the instructions of the money. Money tells some of them to grow rice and transport it to places where children are starving, and it tells others to sew costumes and repair violins. And each day there is an amazing moment before the day starts, before the market opens, before the bidding begins. There's a moment of confusion. The money is silent. It hasn't yet spoken. Its decisions are withheld, poised, perched"

 

...more

 

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/13/1514241

Progressive Civil Disobedience

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

Try to suppress your initial, gut reactions and let the following ideas sink in.

We tend to think of exercising power through the application of force or by strong overt action. Another, perhaps more Eastern, way of seeing power is through withholding something or through denial. For effective patriotic behavior today we must deny the corrupt political and economic system of what it wants from us – our participation. Through denial we can remove credibility and legitimacy and open opportunities for fundamental change that no exercise of traditional raw power can achieve. Populist power is the goal.

What the loose and fragmented progressive movement in this country needs is a broad strategy to actually accomplish something other than talking, writing and complaining. I propose the application of civil disobedience to fit our times and needs. We can learn from the pioneering thinking and actions of great revolutionaries.

From Henry David Thoreau we must learn that we do not have to physically fight the government if we think it no longer gives us a trustworthy representative democracy, but instead not support it in ways that give it legitimacy and empower it to serve the interests of political and economic elites rather than working- and middle-class Americans.

Mahatma Gandhi said "Civil disobedience is the inherent right of a citizen to be civil, implies discipline, thought, care, attention and sacrifice." This is asking a lot of Americans that to an incredible extent have become – actually have been conditioned and trained to become – disengaged from civic life and responsibility, and too consumed with materialistic consumption to fully comprehend the many ways their democracy and economic system no longer serve their interests. Their democracy has let them down, and they have let their democracy down. It gives little satisfaction to say that the public has gotten the government it deserves. A great many of us know that we have not gotten the government we deserve. But what are we to do?

From Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement we must learn that although great rhetoric is important in building public support, people must take concrete actions to reveal and oppose evil forces in our society. It seems impractical today, however, to expect large numbers of people to break laws and suffer the consequences of police brutality and imprisonment. Or to think that doing so is sufficient to overturn our corrupt political system. Such violent protest is more likely to hasten the path to a police state.

I propose two forms of civil disobedience that suit these times and the nature of the political and economic repressive forces that now reign supreme in America.

On the political front, no restoration of American democracy is possible until we break the stranglehold of the corrupt two-party duopoly. What I like to call the Democraps and Republicrooks have been irreversibly corrupted by money from corporate and other special interests, creating a MISrepresentative democracy that no longer serves public interests. By marginalizing third parties the range and quality of political discourse in our nation have been terribly eroded. Nor has our mainstream media performed its vital function to safeguard our democracy, because like the political system they too have been corrupted by corporate interests.

It has become rational for many thoughtful people to not vote at all, while many others have become lesser-evil voters out of desperation. Lesser-evil voting sustains the two-party duopoly and, at best, produces cosmetic change, while not touching underlying root problems. Only a tiny fraction of the electorate is committed to minor political parties, too few to create any competing party nationally and with very few exceptions even locally.

My first proposed act of progressive civil disobedience is for all Americans to NOT vote in any election for either Democraps or Republicrooks. You are likely among the many who vehemently hate the Bush regime. And so proposing that you NOT vote for Democraps this November will at first seem ludicrous. But with deeper reflection, you just may come to see that for obtaining major political change it would help to NOT vote for Democraps.

The goal is to sharply reduce the already low voter turnout figures in all elections, but especially presidential elections, to such low figures that the government visibly has little legitimacy as a representative democracy that is accountable to the will of the people. Legitimacy of the American government is rarely discussed, at least here in America. But it is exactly the loss of legitimacy worldwide that has risen in recent years. What we need to do is shove the legitimacy of our democracy off the cliff – and by doing so open our political arena to truly bold, new independent thinkers and leaders. To rescue and restore our currently sick democracy we must first de-legitimize it.

The objective of such non-voting civil disobedience is not to abdicate our responsibility, but take our civic responsibility to a higher level. We must exercise power by withholding our votes from a system that no longer deserves our votes. In this way we can demand and receive a host of political and policy reforms that reenergizes and restores our democracy. Most important are reforms to greatly balance or really offset the power of elected representatives with much greater participatory and direct democracy by we the sovereign people. Such reforms must also open up the political system to third parties and eliminate the corrupting influence of money from corporate and other special interests.

The best way to NOT waste your vote is to NOT vote for candidates from both major parties. Stop being enablers of a fraudulent government.

The second part of the strategy is on the economic front where class warfare is being waged. It is necessary to stop a number of destructive forces that manipulate the economy, penalizing the vast majority of Americans through their consumer spending while making the rich richer. Worsening economic inequality makes economic slaves out of working- and middle-class Americans. The system has been rigged by an alignment of political and economic elites and is rapidly creating a two-class system. The middle class is being attacked and steadily destroyed. The Upper Class through globalization, outsourcing, illegal immigration, union busting and other tactics is creating a large Lower Class of the working poor. The necessary progressive act of civil disobedience is the conversion of consumer spending power into political power.

This can be accomplished by motivating millions of Americans to suspend their discretionary spending for critical times to achieve specific political and economic concessions from the plutocratic Ruling Class. Many millions of successful Americans are incredibly discontent with our political and economic system and every week they collectively spend enormous sums of money on big and little things and activities that truly are unnecessary. Such discretionary spending has become habitual and addictive.

Some 70 percent of the American economy is driven by consumer spending that now works against the interests of non-wealthy Americans. We need national "buycotts" that require no formal membership in organizations, but merely voluntary spending reductions. They can be coordinated by widespread messages from many progressive groups, especially Internet sites. Sharp, sustained reductions in consumer spending can compel the Ruling Class to grant concessions. Even the rich want to maintain a vibrant economy to safeguard their wealth and living style. In reality, if American consumers use their inherent spending power they have the power to bring the entire global economic system down. The plutocracy knows this and that is why they always emphasize maintaining "consumer confidence." At critical times the power elites manipulate events to maintain consumer borrowing and spending, such as the recent steep cuts in gas prices and stock market highs. Fiscal and monetary policies are also used to maintain abundant borrowing and spending.

Ironically, few Americans understand that a relatively small number of consumers, roughly 5 to 10 million have the economic power to severely damage the American and global economy. Spending cutbacks could be become contagious. Leaving out the working poor with little discretionary spending, the amount of discretionary spending by millions of middle class Americans with ample disposable income is sufficient to threaten economic growth and the economy. A major reason is that there is a large "multiplier" associated with consumer spending, meaning that every dollar spent has a large ripple or cumulative impact through various sectors of the economy. One person's spending is another's (actually many others') income. The multiplier can range from four to six. For example, cut consumer spending by $250 billion and it can easily reduce the national GDP by $1 trillion. If the middle class does not soon use its consumer spending power, it will surely lose it as its discretionary income evaporates, because the war against will be won by the Upper Class.

Economic civil disobedience for the foreseeable future has much more power to change our nation for the better than the political act of non-voting. The goal of the economic strategy is to obtain enough reforms and improvements in the political system to restore the effectiveness of voting at some later time. Now, in our perverse society, dollars are more powerful agents of change than votes. In truth, as has been evident for many years, we cannot vote ourselves out of a corrupt, oppressive and delusional democracy that uses military and economic weapons of mass devastation on a global scale for the benefit of elites, while pretending to be the world's best democracy. The truth of all this defines the case for a populist Second American Revolution. We must motivate some millions of Americans that are so fed up with current conditions that they will eagerly join a loose network of American Insurgents for Democracy, not fighting with weapons in the streets, but by withholding their dollars from the economy.

Hundreds of public opinion polls in recent years have supplied all the evidence one could want to demonstrate the terrible state of American democracy, so awful and disgraceful that it is justifiably called delusional, because it no longer is what people think it is. Yet people keep out the pain of admitting that their democracy is no longer great, even though they have little confidence in politicians and their parties. The latest stark public appraisal of politicians was the New York Times/CBS poll conducted earlier this month. Among its findings was that 69 percent of people think that members of congress consider themselves above the law; 70 percent believe that most members of congress do not understand the needs and problems of people like them; and 36 percent believe that Republicrooks in congress are more corrupt than Democraps, 17 percent believe the reverse, and 27 percent think both are equally corrupt – adding up to 80 percent seeing a corrupt congress. You might expect such public opinion statistics of some blatantly faux foreign democracy, not the United States of America.

Another interesting reality is a statistic determined about the recent primary elections nationwide. The Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University found that just 15 percent of eligible voters went to the polls for primary elections. Just 15 percent!

Some people would be depressed by this figure. I see it very positively. Curtis Gans, the director of the study, concluded "People are becoming increasingly disaffected with both parties." Amen. But people are more than disaffected. They are mad as hell. Yet few see a way out of this national morass.

Our political elites and plutocrats can easily ignore low turnout for primaries. But contemplate how a really low turnout for general elections would be treated. Imagine a presidential election with a national turnout of say 20 or 25 percent. Such low eligible voter turnout would publicly de-legitimize our delusional democracy. How could any American president that had a majority of something like 15 percent or less of all eligible voters be viewed as legitimate? Our representative democracy would be seen worldwide as a sham. Many Americans would conclude "enough is enough."

More people must agree that there is nothing sacred about two-party rule. Bipartisanship is just a ploy to make the two-party conspiracy more palatable. Democraps and Republicrooks have a political partnership. Each needs the other to maintain the optical delusion that we have political choices, and that when one fails the people, the other will come to the rescue. We cannot vote our way to national renewal as long as we play according to their status quo rules. Our democracy is choking to death on bipartisan corruption. Only independent-minded Americans can apply a Heimlich maneuver to save it.

Divided, we empower the plutocracy with our money and our votes.

United, we can deliver a peaceful, disobedient and populist Second American Revolution by withholding our money and our votes. We have it in our power to make Thoreau, Gandhi, King and future generations proud of us.

What is true American patriotism today? Our sick democracy needs dissent through disobedience, not our votes, to become healthy.


Authors Website: www.delusionaldemocracy.com

Authors Bio: Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author of Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government (www.delusionaldemocracy.com). His current political writings have been greatly influenced by working as a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress and for the National Governors Association. He advocates a Second American Revolution, beginning with an Article V Convention to propose constitutional amendments.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joel_s___061014_progressive_civil_di.htm

Blackwater working again in Iraq

It was all just a glitch. Sorry...

 

The US security firm Blackwater has resumed limited operations in the Iraqi capital Baghdad four days after a deadly shootout involving the company.

The company provides security to all US state department employees in Iraq.

It had been ordered by the Iraqi government to halt operations while a joint US-Iraqi inquiry was held.

A US embassy spokeswoman said the decision to allow Blackwater to resume work had been taken in consultation with the Iraqi government.

The spokeswoman, Mirembe Nantongo, said Blackwater operations would be limited to essential missions only outside Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7006697.stm

Feds probe Blackwater weapons smuggling

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_go_co/us_blackwater_probe_8;_ylt=AgDaYxCSuHn7_RIHtdf89BQE1vAI

Frequent cell phone use may slow brain function

....Differences in brain activity, as measured in terms of quantitative results of electroencephalographic (EEG) studies and assessments of neuropsychological functions such as attention, memory, executive function and personality, were examined. Among the results: Frequent users scored higher on ratings as extroverts and were found to be less open-minded.

The study also found that frequent users are better able than others to focus their attention. That result could be due to a learning effect that comes from making phone calls in busy places where people have to focus on a phone call while filtering out background noise and other distractions, according to the researchers.

Despite this improved focus and the findings about personality, the frequent users showed more instances of slowed activity as measured by delta and theta EEG power, as well as a slowdown in a measurement called alpha peak frequency....

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9037378&intsrc=hm_list

Kite Runner rape scene 'threatens actor's life'

Morning Edition, September 20, 2007 · Khaled Hosseini's best-selling
novel Kite Runner opens as a film in November. But it is already
causing concern in Afghanistan and in Hollywood for its depiction of
ethnic tensions in Afghanistan and harsh portrayal of life under the
Taliban.
Listen at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
storyId=14556301

Kite Runner rape scene 'threatens actor's life'
Tuesday September 18, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The forthcoming adaptation of The Kite Runner, the Afghanistan-set
bestseller by Khaled Hosseini, has run into controversy over fears
that the life of one of its child actors may be in danger.
The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir and Hassan, one a privileged
Afghan youth, the other a poor servant boy, growing up in Kabul. Amir
eventually emigrates to the West but, throughout his life, is wracked
by guilt over his failure to intervene when Hassan was raped during
their childhood.

A filmed adaptation of the novel, helmed by Finding Neverland's Marc
Forster, wrapped earlier this year and will be released in November.
But the father of Ahmad Khan, the Afghan boy who portrays Hassan in
the film, fears that he and his son's life are threatened because
rape is a taboo subject in Afghanistan.
"They [the film-makers] said they would not film this part," Mr Ahmad
told BBC Radio. "Of course I am worried about it. My own people from
my own tribe will turn against me because of the story. They may cut
my throat, they may kill me, they may torture me, anything could
happen to me."

Other cast members have reportedly demanded the scene be cut. But the
film's producers say these fears are misplaced. "The scene contains
no nudity; it's rendered in a very impressionistic way," Rebecca
Yeldham, a producer, told the BBC. "It's also important in being
faithful to the story that there's no confusion that the attack in
the alley was a sexual violation.

"We're working with various organisations on the ground to advise us.
We don't believe that kids' lives are at risk," she said.

The film will not be released in Afghanistan, but only because there
is no suitable distribution network in the country. It will be
released in the US on November 2 and in the UK on Boxing Day.

Trailer at
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_vantage/thekiterunner/

SAFER to Denver Council: Let's Make a Deal!

Proponents of a marijuana reform initiative that would make adult pot use the city’s lowest law enforcement priority have offered the Denver council and mayor – who are none too happy that the initiative earned enough signatures to make it on the November ballot – a chance to get the damn thing off the ballot.

In an Aug. 23 press release, Mason Tvert, director of the marijuana reform group Safer Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation says that his organization would agree to nix the intiative if – and only if – the council and Mayor John Hickenlooper (owner of a local brewery) agree to a few – ahem – modest terms. First, SAFER wants the city leaders to officially “recognize” that adult marijuana use poses less harm to the user, and to the city, than does adult alcohol abuse. Second, based on that new awareness, SAFER is asking that the council “commit to exploring” what marijuana policy reforms the city can implement that reflect the fact that adult pot use poses less harm to user and city. And, third, SAFER is asking that the city impose a moratorium on all citations for possession of less than one ounce of pot by adults over 21 during the Democratic National Convention in August 2008.

If their conditions are met, Tvert says SAFER would be happy to yank the lowest-priority initiative from the upcoming ballot. Whether that’ll work is entirely unclear, though seemingly unlikely since the city hasn’t exactly embraced pot policy reforms – including a successful 2005 ballot initiative that directed the city to remove criminal penalties for private pot use by adults. Still, Tvert remains forever optimistic: “Every objective study ever conducted on marijuana has concluded that it is a far safer recreational drug than alcohol,” he said in a press statement. “We hope our city officials will consider the relative harms of these two substances, as well as the potentially dangerous effects of a policy that pushes adults toward the more harmful of the two [substances]” – that is, alcohol use. “The city has every right to stop arresting adults for possessing small amounts of marijuana, and we hope they will stand up for the voters who elected them and exercise that right.”

Jordan Smith, Fri Aug 24

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/News/?oid=oid:528637