WOMEN..
funny how all major religions denigrate women..in one form or another.
almost as if it were their PRIMARY function..to institutionalize the hierarchy of MALE over FEMALE.
THIS is how our Arab ‘allies’ treat even the notion of emancipating women.
note: thats Egypt not Afghanistan..notice this..this is Mubarak not the Taliban.
but misogyny is ancient history.
is this arabia or arizona?
citx-dont get me started on GOLF!…40 acres for four people to play a NON-athletic sport?..FUCK golf!
A pop quiz: Who is the worst dictator in Africa?
a) Robert Mugabe
b) Robert Mugabe
c) Robert Mugabe
d) None of the above
The answer seems obvious.
Thanks to extensive coverage in the news media and abundant criticism by Western governments, everyone knows that Zimbabwe’s leader is trying to hang onto power by crushing his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who would roll to victory in the final round of elections on June 27
if his followers were not being killed, beaten, jailed, or harassed by state thugs.
Even President George W. Bush described Mugabe’s rule as a “nightmare.”
But Mugabe may not be Africa’s worst.
That prize arguably goes to Teodoro Obiang, the ruler of Equatorial Guinea whose life seems a parody of the dictator genre.
Years of violent apprenticeship in a genocidal regime led by a crazy uncle?
Check.
Power grab in a coup against the murderous uncle?
Check.
Execution of now-deposed uncle by firing squad?
Check.
Proclamation of self as “the liberator” of the nation?
Check.
Govern for decades in a way that prompts human rights groups to..
accuse your regime of murder, torture, and corruption? Check, check, and check.
Obiang, who seized power in 1979, had promised to be kinder and gentler than his predecessor, but in the 1990s, even the U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea received a death threat from a regime insider, the ambassador has said, and had to be evacuated.
Not long after that, offshore oil was discovered, but the first wave of revenues—about $700 million—was transferred into secret accounts under Obiang’s personal control.
The latest chapter, written in the last month, may be the least surprising, because Obiang’s ruling party won 99 of the 100 seats in legislative elections.
A government press release, hailing Obiang as the “Militant Brother Founding President of the PDGE,” carried the headline, “Democracy at Its Peak in Equatorial Guinea.”
True, Equatorial Guinea is a small country with a population of less than 1 million, its economy is expanding in an oil boom, and Obiang’s “victory” did not require the obvious and crude violence of Mugabe’s ongoing terror. But Obiang’s enforcers don’t need to club people on the streets.
His would-be opponents are too frightened to openly demonstrate against him.
His is the Switzerland of dictatorships—so effective at enforcing obedience that the spectacle of unrest is invisible.
To understand why we hear little about Obiang, you need to know that since oil was found in the country’s waters in the Gulf of Guinea, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil, Chevron, and other firms have invested more than $10 billion to extract the treasure, transforming Equatorial Guinea into the third-largest energy exporter in sub-Saharan Africa. But the first wave of revenues seemed to disappear—the people of Equatorial Guinea remained as poor, ill-housed, uneducated, and unhealthy as ever.
Rather than putting the money into a transparent government account and using the proceeds for social services, Obiang hoarded it in accounts he personally controlled at Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C.
An investigation by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency led to millions of dollars in money-laundering fines against Riggs, but Obiang was not charged.
In fact, things only got sweeter.
In 2006, he was invited to Washington and met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who called him a “good friend.”
It’s no secret why Rice is BFF with Obiang—he controls oil that Washington wants access to.
The stance is indefensible even on pragmatic grounds.
King Abdullah is a “good friend,” too,
but the Saudi monarch controls more than 260 billion barrels of oil;
the morals-for-oil transaction is plausible if it nets us a lot of gas, albeit at $4 a gallon.
Obiang controls 1.1 billion barrels of oil—a global pittance.
this is just shameless whoring..with the ‘blinkered’ press in full collusion.
and then you have THIS.
EXXON Mobil fourth quarter profits in 2007 alone..$11.7 Billion.
are you paying attention yet?
here’s one for the history books..
the Department of Defense here in the Good ‘Ole U.S of A.
was once upon a time called..
and SHOULD READ:
this is why semantics are important.
“Somebody needs to explain this to me: why is this getting all this (deserved) attention, when Husni Mubarak did the same to his opponent, Anwar Nur, who remains in jail for daring to run against Mubarak in the last election?”
Anwar Nur?
i cant reference this.
anybody?
there are certain key phrases that induce a form of ‘magickal’ spell..
when REPEATED enough times..
lets begin with…
the War in Iraq
SHOULD READ: The Occupation of Iraq
related we have…
Israeli Defense Force
SHOULD READ: Israeli Occupation Force
whoa..criticism of Israel…COMEDIC INTERLUDE!
and todays last example (dont worry MORE to come)…
Saudi Arabia
SHOULD READ: Arabia.
the Saudi Monarchy is THEE most venal,sexist,racist and toxic theocracy ON EARTH.
and the House of Saud which claims the entire country as its own DOES NOT represent
the PEOPLE who inhabit the region..any more than the Bush Junta represents the MAJORITY of Americans.
whats WORSE..we support these SUPPORTERS of terrorism WITHOUT QUESTION.
so..THINK before you SPEAK.
and…SAY what you MEAN.
you will be held accountable.
___________________________________________________________________
post inspired by the George Carlin line…”why do they call Palestinian commandos, ‘terrorists’?
…and Israeli terrorists, ‘commandos’?”
if you HAVE’NT bought that petroleum stock yet..call your broker
(sunscreen also recommended)
next step terra-formation!
citx…MUSTread™ for the internet generation: Kim Stanley Robinson’s RED MARS..GREEN MARS..BLUE MARS
and trample the 4th Amendment..bashing the U.S. Constitution should be declared the New American Pastime..
Shocking footage out of Cedar Rapids Iowa shows cops and government employee “strike teams” breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th amendment right that protects against unlawful search and seizure.
No warrant, no knock home invasions are being carried out on the flimsy pretext of “checking for structural damage” as cops harass and threaten with arrest people who refuse to have their homes ransacked by thugs in uniforms.
Cedar Rapids police chief Greg Graham promised residents over the weekend that “Law enforcement officers are not entering homes,” and that firefighters would only enter homes through unlocked doors and windows yet the video clearly shows locked houses being broken in to.
People who attempt to gain access to their home before it has been “cleared” by authorities are being apprehended, and those who attempt to drive around police checkpoints that have been set up in the affected areas are arrested at gunpoint.
“Each strike team consisted of six or seven people, including police, firefighters, utilities workers, and city employees,” reports the Iowa Gazette.
Angela Tague, a member of the STAR 1 search and rescue team from Ames, ran into any angry homeowner on E Avenue NW.
“He was saying ‘Where do you live?’ and ‘How would you like it if someone busted your door open?,” Tague said.
Police Officer Josh Bell later had a heated exchange with the man, and told him that if he didn’t go back inside his house and stop harassing the strike team, he would be escorted out of the area.
The man was visibly agitated about his broken door and pointed at Bell.
“It’s wrong,” the man said, over and over.
So people who are uncomfortable with jackbooted thugs breaking down their door without even knocking and express their distaste for it are to blame for “harassing the strike team”?
Respondents to the You Tube clip and the newspaper article expressed their outrage at the behavior of those in the video tasked with “helping” flood-stricken people yet doing nothing more than intimidating and invading their homes.
“You break down the door of my private residence and when I object you threaten to escort me off my own property. Fine example of police work. Did anyone think to knock first? Thomas Jefferson said that the main reason for citizens to be armed was to protect themselves from tyrannical government. If this isn’t tyranny then I don’t know what is. A man’s home is his castle,” states Steve Delaloye.
“A sad day for America when government thugs abuse the trust of the citizenry like this,” writes one.
“So these cops and fire fighters are part time structural engineers, or what?? What are they inspecting for in the structures? Gas and electric could be shut off at the source, and any spills are so diluted they wont catch fire. The police chief said no police would enter any homes, and what do you know, mr fat ass cop goes piling through the window thinking he’s T.J Hooker. Damn, this is just sad, sad , sad,” adds another.
One Iowa resident expresses her anger that authorities will not let her re-enter her home.
“I sit here with tears streaming down my face. I have been trying to be patient and await to enter my home. Now today, I am told there will be no re-entry’s until further notice. I cannot express how ****ing mad I am. I understand the houses can be unsafe. Just let me at least see my house, so that I can assess if it hit my top floor. I have pictures and memories on my top floor of my deceased mother, all I want to do is rescue those,” she writes.
As we reported in 2005, Hurricane Katrina was exploited by the federal government and used as a martial law drill while victims were abused and treated like rats in a laboratory.
Door to door gun confiscations were ordered and cops ransacked homes and took weapons from multi-million dollar homes which were in the high and dry areas and completely unaffected by the hurricane. In some cases, residents were kicked out of their own homes for no reason.
Outrageous footage showed cops seizing handguns from the home of a grief-stricken old women as they assaulted and punched her in the face.
Where does the government think it derives the authority from to break into people’s homes whose lives have already been devastated by massive floods on the flimsiest of pretexts?
The 4th amendment states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Even if there was a legitimate reason to inspect homes, why on earth do they not even bother to knock on the door?
Cops immediately attempt to break in or climb through windows uninvited because this procedure is all about sending a message - when a crisis unfolds we are the bosses and you - the peasants - will yield to our tyranny.
Lawsuits need to be filed immediately by people in Iowa and elsewhere who have had cops invade their homes in complete violation of the 4th amendment and a pretext needs to be set that will put a stop to the government’s routine exploitation of natural disasters as an opportunity to impose martial law measures on needy victims that have already had their lives devastated.
With reports indicating that the Mississippi river is in danger of bursting its banks, the precedent that was set with Hurricane Katrina could be set to advance as government minions and jackbooted thugs across the country lick their lips at the prospect of kicking down more doors and harassing innocent people.
Contact the Iowa ACLU and demand they pressure the authorities to stop these illegal home invasions immediately.
while ‘nobody’ is watching.
related: bear in mind..nuclear weapons were FIRST developed by AMERICANS and NAZIS
and subsequently by NAZIS given immunity and asylum by AMERICANS..
and everyone else on the PLANET got them from US.
[whoops?]
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers consistently lists among his reasons for not holding impeachment hearings, his fear of the corporate media. But last week the corporate media exhibited its fear of impeachment. Only those voices in support of Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s articles of impeachment spoke. Others kept quiet. The network news shows avoided the topic, but the cable news shows gave us Keith Olbermann promoting impeachment on MSNBC, and Jack Cafferty on CNN saying things like:
“Congress continues to refuse to exercise its Constitutional responsibility, which is oversight of the executive branch of our government. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi long ago said ‘Impeachment is off the table.’ This is a joke. We have a president who has abused the power of his office over and over and over again. It’s what got the Democrats elected to the majority in Congress in 2006. Now it’s election time again, and every member of the House is up for reelection in November. The Democrats are no doubt worried what it will look like to many voters if they spend their time on impeachment. To hell with what’s right or wrong. What will it look like? . . . What does it mean when Congress refuses to even consider 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush?”
One thing it doesn’t mean, Chairman Conyers, is that Cafferty is any more on target in his acceptance of the notion that impeachment is electorally disadvantageous, than you are in your acceptance of the notion that a few corporate blowhards with their fat behinds planted on our public airwaves should have the power to control your every move.
Chairman? Chairman Conyers? You can stop cowering now. It’s safe to come out from under the table. Sure, there were a few grumpy and screaming voices out there, but mostly there was silence. The corporate media does not want to take on this issue and will not be able to handle its actual existence the way it handles the threat of impeachment proceedings. If impeachment hearings get underway, the corporate media will have to deal with the substance of the charges. It will be impossible to simply avoid the matter or treat it dismissively. You know the substance of the charges as well as anyone, but apparently you have not considered what all that information could accomplish.
Seriously, the best the Washington Post could come up with this week was certified ass Dana Milbank ranting about his fear of a President Cheney, which didn’t stop him from ranting about some other fear last year when Congressman Kucinich introduced articles to impeach Cheney. And, do you recall the year 2005, in which you sent the Post a letter in response to Milbank’s stupid and inaccuracy-packed report on your Downing Street Minutes hearings? You came out looking better than ever, and you did so by crawling out, standing up, and speaking. That might be worth trying again.
I know you want to blame Barack Obama for your cowardice, but Congressman Robert Wexler is part of his campaign and is out there publicly lobbying you to fulfill your oath of office. Can you explain any possible scenario in which John McCain has to answer questions about Bush’s impeachable offenses for months and is subsequently elected president? I don’t see any way that’s possible. You could guarantee victory in your piddly little beloved election by acting to preserve our democratic republic for future generations.
Chairman Conyers, are you familiar with President Bush’s violations of the Posse Comitatus act? Here’s a law with a questionable origin that serves an absolutely essential purpose. Your congressional career, in contrast, had absolutely essential origins and now serves no clear purpose at all.
Benito Mussolini said “The function of a citizen and a soldier are inseparable.” The US Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Posse Comitatus Act all say otherwise. Are you on the side of fascism or the side of our ongoing revolution? Do you understand how clearly and appropriately fascism is an impeachable offense?
Please read this one article, from Kucinich’s collection of 35. Then please study the other 34.
Article XXIII
VIOLATION OF THE POSSE COMITATUS ACT
In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed”, has both personally and acting through his agents and subordinates, repeatedly and illegally established programs to appropriate the power of the military for use in law enforcement. Specifically, he has contravened U.S.C. Title 18. Section 1385, originally enacted in 1878, subsequently amended as “Use of Army and Air Force as Posse Comitatus” and commonly known as the Posse Comitatus Act.
The Act states:
“Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
The Posse Comitatus Act is designed to prevent the military from becoming a national police force.
The Declaration of Independence states as a specific grievance against the British that the King had “kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures,” had “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the civil power,” and had “quarter[ed] large bodies of armed troops among us . . . protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States.”
Despite the Posse Comitatus Act’s intent, and in contravention of the law, President Bush
a) has used military forces for law enforcement purposes on U.S. border patrol;
b) has established a program to use military personnel for surveillance and information on criminal activities;
c) is using military espionage equipment to collect intelligence information for law enforcement use on civilians within the United States; and
d) employs active duty military personnel in surveillance agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
In June 2006, President Bush ordered National Guard troops deployed to the border shared by Mexico with Arizona, Texas, and California. This deployment, which by 2007 reached a maximum of 6,000 troops, had orders to “conduct surveillance and operate detection equipment, work with border entry identification teams, analyze information, assist with communications and give administrative support to the Border Patrol” and concerned “…providing intelligence….inspecting cargo, and conducting surveillance.”
The Air Force’s “Eagle Eyes” program encourages Air Force military staff to gather evidence on American citizens. Eagle Eyes instructs Air Force personnel to engage in surveillance and then advises them to “alert local authorities,” asking military staff to surveil and gather evidence on public citizens. This contravenes DoD Directive 5525.5 “SUBJECT: DoD Cooperation with Civilian Law Enforcement” which limits such activities.
President Bush has implemented a program to use imagery from military satellites for domestic law enforcement through the National Applications Office.
President Bush has assigned numerous active duty military personnel to civilian institutions such as the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security, both of which have responsibilities for law enforcement and intelligence.
In addition, on May 9, 2007, President Bush released “National Security Presidential Directive/NSPD 51,” which effectively gives the president unchecked power to control the entire government and to define that government in time of an emergency, as well as the power to determine whether there is an emergency. The document also contains “classified Continuity Annexes.” In July 2007 and again in August 2007 Rep. Peter DeFazio, a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, sought access to the classified annexes. DeFazio and other leaders of the Homeland Security Committee, including Chairman Bennie Thompson, have been denied a review of the Continuity of Government classified annexes.
In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.
not to mention..war crimes warranting EXECUTION under international law
law..whats that?
most impressive moment in recent memory…
asking both John Kerry and George Walker Bush in 2004..what it meant..
that they were both members of the Skull and Bones secret society?
both declined any comment..beyond..”its secret”
funny how these guys DROP DEAD without warning.
Washington - As gasoline prices soar to new records, America’s president - and the two men who hope to succeed him - are offering only partial or long-term solutions and ignoring three steps that many experts say could bring some relief now.
Americans began this workweek by crossing a dismal threshold, paying a once-unthinkable nationwide record average of $4.02 per gallon Monday for unleaded gasoline, with the prospect of even higher prices in months ahead.
On Monday, President Bush said one answer is to increase oil drilling in Alaska and offshore. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s chief economic adviser renewed McCain’s call to suspend the 18.4 cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax. Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama called for a windfall profits tax on oil companies.
Independent experts, however, said that government could take at least three other steps that could force oil and gasoline prices down immediately. Neither Bush nor McCain nor Obama endorse any of them.
Perhaps the quickest action, the experts said, would be ordering curbs on financial speculation. Financial industry heavyweights have acknowledged in recent testimony before Congress that such speculation is driving oil prices higher.
Pension funds, endowments and other big institutional investors are pumping big money into index funds linked to commodities, including oil, driving up demand - and prices. The popular Goldman Sachs Commodities Index attracted $260 billion in investment last year, compared to $13 billion five years earlier.
Complicating any effort to harness that, about 30 percent of the trading in crude oil is done in “dark areas” - markets in London and Dubai - that aren’t regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
President Bush could order the CFTC to regulate U.S. investments in those markets with a snap of his fingers, said Michael Greenberger, a law professor at the University of Maryland and a former director of trading for the CFTC.
“Essentially this could be ended this afternoon if the Bush administration had the stomach to do it,” he said. “Those abdications of responsibility and allowing these exchanges to trade in ‘dark’ markets … provides an environment for speculators to thrive.”
The CFTC is investigating the link between speculation and oil prices but hasn’t scheduled any action.
A second partial solution would be to boost the supply of oil available on the market by releasing as much as 1 million barrels a day of oil now held in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That step is being pushed by, among others, the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank run by several former Clinton administration officials.
Do that for 90 days - through the summer driving season when consumer demand for gasoline is highest - and the reserve would lose less than 15 percent of the oil held in case of national emergency.
“Put that on the market, and the price of oil will fall,” said Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow at the center.
It’s not entirely clear that U.S. refineries could handle all that extra oil, but it would signal to traders of oil contracts that the U.S. market is adequately supplied.
Finally, the Federal Reserve could act to boost the weak dollar, which has led oil producers to demand higher prices for oil, because oil generally is traded in dollars. Oil producers want higher prices to offset the cost of converting dollars into euros and other currencies that have grown stronger against the dollar.
The best way to bolster a currency is to boost interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has been reluctant to do that with America teetering on the brink of recession. The central bank in Europe, where growth is more robust, is poised to raise rates, however. That could weaken the dollar further, and drive oil prices even higher.
Senate Democrats on Tuesday will try to muster 60 votes to allow a vote on legislation that could significantly affect the oil industry and oil prices. The legislation would, among other things, instruct CFTC regulators to require investors to plunk down more of their own money if they want to speculate in oil markets.
Instead, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s chief economic adviser, told McClatchy that a “holiday from the 18.4 cent per gallon federal gasoline tax has lowered prices every time it’s been tried “and it is felt all through the economy.”
The idea of a gas-tax holiday has little traction in the Democratic Congress, however, and many economists oppose it as likely to spur consumption and make things worse.
Speaking in Raleigh, N.C., Obama on Monday repeated his call for a tax on high oil company profits to fund aid programs for the poorest Americans.
“I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills,” he said.
Longer term though, Obama said, the only answers are to increase use of alternative energy - solar, wind, biodiesel, clean-coal technology - and to increase fuel-mileage standards for vehicles and develop hybrid-electric cars, which will take time.
McCain’s longer-term answers turn more toward increasing production of oil from offshore and from oil-shale deposits in the mountain West.
citx-[laughter]
During an appearance at a Long Island bookstore last month, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was asked by a member of the audience why the United States has not been hit again since 9/11.
“I honestly don’t know,” Gingrich replied. “I would have expected another attack. I was very, very worried … when we had the sniper attacks, because the sniper attacks were psychologically so frightening. … I was amazed that the bad guys didn’t figure out how to send ten or twelve sniper teams.”
“This is … one of the great tragedies of the Bush administration,”
Gingrich continued. “The more successful they’ve been at intercepting and stopping bad guys, the less proof there is that we’re in danger. And therefore, the better they’ve done at making sure there isn’t an attack, the easier it is to say, ‘Well, there never was going to be an attack anyway.’ And it’s almost like…
they should every once in a while have allowed an attack to get through just to remind us.”
Gingrich then recommended splitting the FBI into a domestic crime unit, which would respect civil liberties, and a “small but very aggressive anti-terrorism agency” with “extraordinary ability to eavesdrop.”
“I think that your liberties in a domestic setting are paramount,” Gingrich explained. “I would rather risk crime than risk losing my civil liberties. But I would not rather risk a nuclear weapon. … I think the greatest danger to our liberty is..
to actually have the country end up in the kind of attack that would lead us to favor a dictatorship for security.”
This video is from C-SPAN 2, broadcast April 29, 2008. The full video can be viewed here.
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